The bright city lights had always fascinated her ever since she was a child. She couldn't count the number of nights she would stare out her bedroom window looking at the lights. Now that she is older you are more likely to find her sitting on the roof of her building. She tends to look up now searching for the one star that can outshine the lights of New York City. It can take hours to find it, but when she does she always does the same thing. She closes her eyes and wishes for everything to go back to normal.

Normal is a funny word to use because things have been going downhill for so long that this is her new normal. Watching her grandparents walk up and down the hallway. They keep her from seeing her father now. According to them it is what he wants, but she finds it hard to believe. She thinks back to when he first got sick. She would sit in the room with him for hours reading him books or just talking. Back then he seemed like he was going to get better. After all someone as strong as him could survive anything … even the dreaded c word. Anymore through it just feels like she is counting days till the funeral.

"Miss. Hayden don't you think you should come back inside?" She heard the voice of her Nanny Rita coming from behind her. She didn't even bother turning around.

"I am fine." She replied coldly as she looked at the buildings around her. She wondered if there was someone in them that was more miserable than her. Doubtful though. She heard the door close again, but it didn't matter. Rita or no Rita she was alone. She was always alone. She could sit up here forever and none of them would miss her. Yet, a few hours later she walks back downstairs to the apartment. She never understood how something that took up three stories of a building could be called an apartment, but it was. She used to call it home, but the love was drained from it when her father got sick.

It was easy to slip into the kitchen unnoticed, but there sitting at the counter on one of the four bar stools sat a person that would change her life forever. The long brown hair and bright blue eyes, along with the same nose made her realize immediately who the woman sitting there was. "Lorelai what do I owe the pleasure to?" She asked bitterly as she grabbed a cup out of the cabinet and walked towards the coffee pot.

"You're not going to make this easy are you?" The older woman asked as she looked at the counter in front of her.

"I am so sorry that after sixteen years I am not ready for mother daughter bonding time." She replied as she looked at the woman in front of her. "You should have made this all so much easier by just keeping your legs crossed. Now excuse me I have to go find something better than do than sit here and talk to you." She said as she walked away.

"Rory!" She heard Lorelai call after her, but she didn't let it faze her. She walked down the hall and into her room. There were boxes and suitcases sitting there waiting for her. It didn't take long for her to realize what was happening.

"You can't do this to me." She said as she looked back at her grandmother who was standing in her doorway.

"It was your father's decision sweetheart." Her grandmother said as she looked at her granddaughter. "Lorelai has a room for you and she lives in a really charming town. I think you will like Connecticut." She said softly.

"I have no choice in this at all do I?" She asked as she looked out her window.

"It's better this way." That was all she heard before the door closed. She just sat down on her bed and looked at her coffee cup. Her father would be yelling at her that this crap is going to kill her one day. Thinking about him like that made her cry. Once she had shed every tear she could she found herself packing up her belongings. She couldn't fight this it would hurt her father too much if she did. So, she would just have to take the pain and count down the days till she was eighteen.

It was weird to look around an empty room as she sat on one of the boxes that she had packed. Since she was eight her walls had been covered with classic rock posters. She had to laugh when she uncovered the purple paint because she had honestly forgotten what color the wall was. "Wow, that is one bright purple." She heard Lorelai's voice say as she looked up to see her mother standing in the door way.

"Yeah, I don't know what caused me to pick that color." She replied as she looked at the floor.

"The truck is going to be here in a bit, but your father wants to talk to you." Lorelai added as she looked around the room. Rory just nodded as she got up. She walked right across the hall stopping in the doorway of her father's room. His door was usually closed, but then again he usually doesn't want to talk to her.

"There's my girl." He said as he smiled weakly at her. She just walked over to the chair that was sitting beside his bed. He had more color to him then the last time she saw him. Color was a good thing, right? She didn't know what a good sign was anymore or if there were still even good signs.

"Hi daddy." She said as she looked at him.

"You look like your mother more and more every day." He said as he looked at her. She hated that he was right. She didn't want to be anything like Lorelai Gilmore. Over the years her father had tried to explain to her that it wasn't all her fault. They were young things weren't meant to work out. Yet, it's hard not to hate your mother when you didn't have a mother around when you were growing up. Not that things were bad when it was just the two of them. Until her father got sick her life was perfect.

"I guess." She mumbled to him.

"I have a present for you." He said as he pulled a box out from under his pillow.

"Dad, you shouldn't have." She said as she took the box from him. She opened it up to a silver locket that housed a picture of him from the good years on one side and the other had his favorite picture of her. It was her in her first high school yearbook photo.

"This way I will be with you when you are in Connecticut." He said as she slipped it around her neck. "Now I want you to go give your mother hell, that's how you know you doing the whole teenager thing right." He said with a smile. A tear ran down her face as she hugged him tightly. Leaving him behind in New York was the hardest thing she would ever do in her life. He was her rock, her protector from the monsters and her best friend. She wasn't sure how she would be able to live without him. She felt like she needed to be there protecting him. How could she do anything to help him from three hours away? The answer was engaged on the locket around her neck, but she was too depressed to realize what he meant by choosing the lone word: LIVE.

A/N: I don't own Gilmore Girls. This ideal just wouldn't get out of my head until I wrote it down. So, tell me what you think.

-Sunflower