Disclaimer: I own nada, except for the little girl you'll read about (hopefully).
A/N: Sometimes when I have writers-block (and right now I have HUGE writers-block for my stories), I have a sparkling moment of fluff and need to write it down. Most of the time it's just crap and nobody ever will see it, but this time I felt so strongly about it, that I had to send it to my fabulous beta Kassandra (Thank you for the cheerleading, hon!) and she told me to upload it. So, if you like the story and if you like it so much that you even comment it (I would love to read reviews, I'm addicted to them.) please don't forget to say "Thank you, Kassandra, for convincing Tina to upload the story." ;) One last thing: The story's slightly AU and based on an universe I created. But you don't need to know the story to understand this stand-alone. Nough said, on with the show. Hope you enjoy! Reviews are love! :D
Best, Tina
Monsters
She put the t-shirts back into the drawer and sighed. It probably was drawer number 1000 she had opened, searched in and closed again. Why couldn't she find those damn earrings? They had to be somewhere. Anywhere. She really needed to find them. Emily surely wanted her to wear them tomorrow because it was her grandfathers last Christmas present. Rory didn't want hours and hours of discussion with her grandmother so she was going to wear those damn earrings. If she found them at some point.
"Jess?"
No answer. It seemed he couldn't hear her. She tried once more, but again there was no answer.
"God, damn it!" She nearly never cursed (cursing was her husband's profession), but right now she was angry with herself for misplacing the jewelry. The poor high-heel lying in front of her had to learn that the hard way. Rory placed one hand on top of her head and tried again (for the millionth time now) to remember where she put those damn earrings or had last seen them.
"Mommy?" The small voice sounded terrified and Rory jerked around sharply.
There she stood her little girl in the flannel bunny jammies she got from Luke and Lorelai for her last birthday. In her hands she held Mr. Doose, the old, worn out, stuffed elephant which she had inherited from her uncle just a few days ago, because he no longer needed it. He was ten, so now he was a man. A man was capable of falling asleep without a stuffed animal in his arms.
"Sweetheart, why are you up at this time? You should have been asleep for quite a while now? Did something happen?" Only a moment later Rory knelt in front of her daughter and spread her arms so the girl was able to burrow into her shoulder. Rory already had an idea where this was coming from.
"Mommy? There's a monster in my closet," the child answered while throwing her little arms around her mother's neck.
"Oh, there's a monster in your closet? Should I come with you and look if it's gone?" Alexis simply nodded. Rory smiled, picked the girl up into her arms and they returned together to the child's room. It was already the third time this week that her kid had thought that a monster was sitting in her closet. Tomorrow she had to have a talk with her son and what he was allowed to tell his little sister.
"Mommy?" Again the small voice right beside her and again Rory jerked out of her thoughts.
"Yes, honey?"
"You said the bad d-word. Are you mad with Daddy?" Rory nearly started to laugh hearing the cute naivety of her daughter, but she repressed the urge immediately.
"I'm very sorry, Lex", she answered quickly, "I shouldn't have said the bad d-word. And no, I'm not mad with Daddy. It's just … I misplaced something very precious and that made me really angry. But I really shouldn't have said the bad d-word, angry or not." She smiled and put the girl down on the floor, before she walked over to the closet and opened its door.
A clothes rail with pants and dresses, on the side – embedded in the wall – a shelf full of shirts, underwear, socks, sweaters and all other kind of clothes, on the board just above the shelf were some boxes full of childhood memories, on the floor a few pairs of shoes, two piles of various children-books, in one corner a pair of skating shoes, in the other corner two dolls dusting away because their owner never played with them, and right in front of them a drawing set, including wax crayons and a drawing book. No monster. As far as Rory could tell. She opened the door wider to make it possible for Alexis to look into the closet herself.
"You see, baby? No monster." She smiled at the girl, who nodded happily.
"But please, Mommy, lock the closet door anyway, ok?" Alexis crawled on her bed and under the covers.
"Of course, honey." Simultaneously she turned the key in the lock, waited for the click and heard the child sigh happily afterwards.
Rory walked over to her daughter, tucked her in, bent over and kissed her on the forehead, before she walked over to the door. Just as she wanted to turn off the light, once again the voice of her little girl caught her attention: "Good night, Mommy!"
"Good night, sweetheart. Sleep tight." After finally turning off the light, she closed the door behind her and walked back to her own bedroom which she shared with her husband.
"Hey, Baby," he greeted her when she stepped through the door. Jess had just taken his shirt off when she came into the room.
"Where have you been? I called you a few minutes ago, but you didn't answer," she asked and sat down on the bed, an exhausted sigh on her lips.
"Phil from the office called. He needed some more information about the new case we got today. I probably just didn't hear you. By the way, Vivian says hi and we're invited over for dinner on Tuesday," he explained while making himself comfortable on his side of the bed.
"Lex thought that there was a monster in her closet again. It's the third time this week. I don't know where she got the idea, but I think tomorrow I'll have to have a serious talk with Josh. He's probably behind it."
The woman sighed and started to massage her temples with her fingertips. Minutes passed with silence, then she felt his hands on her shoulders and he started to rub her neck. His legs were suddenly right next to her and she sat with her back against his chest. A small smile appeared on her features, but it disappeared nearly as quickly.
"What's wrong, Ror? For more than three days you've been in such a sour mood. Has anything happened?" He was whispering in her ear, before gently pressing a kiss on it. She turned around in his arms, so now her legs were on either side of him, her upper body pressed against his chest and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I totally don't wanna go to this stupid dinner tomorrow night. Besides, I've somehow misplaced those damn earrings that Grandpa gave me last Christmas and which Emily certainly expects me to wear. No idea where those things are. I've been looking everywhere throughout the house, got it all upside down, but they are nowhere to be found." The sigh which escaped her lungs was nearly heartbreaking, but nonetheless a smile appeared only moments later and she turned slightly to press a kiss on his forehead.
"Whatever. It will work out somehow. I'll wear some other jewelry, and just take the wrath of Emily Gilmore with my head held high. At least Mom will have a quiet evening." Towards the end she even giggled a little.
It took her a few seconds until she finally registered that she was pressed on the mattress, her husband's body over her and his mouth on hers.
"Come 'ere, baby," he once again whispered, his lips brushing lightly over hers, "let me get you a little distracted." The laughter he heard was the first really carefree one in the last two days and – as bad as he felt about it – he simply had to interrupt it again with a kiss.
It was between laughter and moans and giggles and exactly the moment when Rory tried to free Jess from his sweatpants, when a voice coming from the direction of the door interrupted them and made them jump apart like two teenagers: "Mommy? Daddy? There's a monster in my closet. Again."
The two adults exchanged a quick look before Jess rolled over to his side of the bed with a sigh. Rory finally lifted the covers and thus gave her daughter the sign that tonight she was allowed to hide out in her parents' room. As fast as her little feet could possibly move, Alexis – with Mr. Doose the elephant, in her arms – scurried over, climbed into bed (of course in between her parents) and immediately snuggled into the arms of her mother.
A short time later she was sound asleep, with Rory lightly stroking her back.
Jess turned over to the bedside table and switched off the lamp. Then he leaned over to his wife and kissed her, always watching out not to interrupt his daughters sleep.
"But tomorrow, baby," he grinned in the dark, Rory could almost feel his smirk, "tomorrow I will distract you properly."
For a few seconds Rory's soft giggles filled the room. She told him she loved him and he chuckled and told her that right now he would love to ravish her, before being more serious and saying that he loved her too. He felt her foot slipping between his feet and his hand came to rest in her hair, then they closed their eyes and fell asleep, smiling.
FIN