TITLE: Ten Years Time
SUMMERY: "Ten years ago, we ran. But now, we've made it home."
DISCLAIMER: You don't really think I own it - any of it - do you!?
A/N: I don't know if this has already been done before because I usually write for JavaJunkie, but this idea hit me one night when I was lying on my bed listening to the One Dollar Short song Ten Years. I don't own that, either. And I'm sorry if you've already read something like this. Let me know and I'll stop writing.
I know I said the next story would be the next part of the We're All Good series, but I've been suffering from severe writers block. I blame my boyfriend, who keeps occupying my time... Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one, and I'll get back on the bandwagon A.S.A.P.
Cheers, Jess.
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"Where will you be this time next year?
Where will you be in ten years time?"
Ten Years - One Dollar Short
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Chapter 1
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Lorelai could hear the party going on downstairs, and it didn't matter how many times her mother sent the maid up, she wasn't shifting from her position on her bed.
She was comfy, damn it, and Rory was finally asleep.
Lorelai looked at the perfect little baby sleeping in the bassinette. She always wanted Rory to sleep in the bed with her, but Emily always yelled at her if she found them there. She hated the control her mother had over her. She was never allowed to figure things out on her own. She always seemed to hover over Lorelai's shoulder, telling her how she should change Rory, dress Rory, feed Rory.
All she wanted to do was leave. All she'd ever wanted to do was leave. But she wasn't even seventeen yet. And she had a kid. What person in their right mind would take in a seventeen-year-old girl with a baby? She'd be back in this house before she could even think "freedom".
She cast another look over the sleeping baby and sighed. "One day, sweetie, one day. We'll leave and never come back. We'll run as far and as fast as we can without even a quick glance over our shoulders. We'll do it all on our own - just you and me. We don't need their help. We're young, and smart, and I learnt a long time ago how to get people to do things for me. It might be tough, but we'll pull through. Just you and me, honey. The Gilmore Girls, taking over the world one coffee pot at a time."
As she spoke, Rory started to stir. She was a good baby. A quiet baby. She hardly ever screamed or fussed. Lorelai knew her daughter would have a gentle soul and a beautiful personality.
They were going to be best friends first, mother and daughter second. Or third. Or as far down the list as they could make it. She didn't want the same smothering relationship she shared with her mother. She wanted open and honest. She wanted laughs and craziness.
She really wanted something to eat.
And, judging by the soft whimpers coming from the bassinette to her left, so did Rory.
After she had fed and burped her, she laid the little girl on the bed and played with her toes. She loved a happy gurgling noise Rory made when she pretended to munch on her feet. She was so caught up in her daughter she almost didn't hear the knock on her door.
"Yeah?" she called, not taking her attention off her baby girl.
"Hey, Lore." came a soft voice.
She looked up. "Chris?"
He nodded and stepped into the room, quietly pushing the door shut behind him.
"Wow." he breathed, looking down at his daughter lying on the bed.
Her big blue eyes were fixed on him.
"Chris, what-?" started Lorelai.
His gaze shifted. "I just got back from school."
Lorelai nodded. She remembered being told that Christopher had been sent all the way to California not long after she dropped out. "How is it?"
He shrugged. "School's school. I'd rather be here, but, luckily, I graduate in June."
Lorelai lowered her eyes and nodded. She would have been graduating right along side him. But she wasn't going to get her High School Diploma. At least, not at the age she should have.
They slipped into an awkward silence. Lorelai had stopped playing with Rory and was now holding her close, gently rocking from side to side. Chris stood at the foot of the bed, his hands in his trouser pockets, eyes fixed on the back of Rory's head, a small smile on his lips.
"Do you want to hold her?" Lorelai asked quietly, not looking up at him.
"What?" he replied, shocked.
"Do you wanna hold her?" she repeated. "I mean, the last time would have been the night she was born, right? That was over two months ago. You don't have to, but I just thought, cause you don't get to see her very often, you might…"
Chris nodded and moved to sit next to her. He removed his jacket and tossed it on the bed behind them, an apple tart falling out.
He saw Lorelai's eyes widen. "There's three more in there. Don't tell Emily I stole them."
Lorelai nodded and smiled softly. "Thanks. You ready to take her?" she asked.
Chris nodded briefly, his eyes glued to Rory's.
Lorelai placed her in his arms. "Say hello to your daddy, Princess."
Rory made a gurgling sound, waved her arms and kicked her legs. Lorelai laughed lightly. "Well, that was quite a welcome."
Chris nodded slightly. "God, Lore. She's so beautiful. And she looks so much like you."
Lorelai took a bite of the tart and shrugged, letting Chris' backhanded compliment roll of her. "She has my eyes and nose, but that's it. Her lips and chin are all you."
They elapsed into silence again, both content with watching their daughter.
"How long are you here for?" Lorelai finally asked quietly.
Chris shrugged. "'Til Straub and Francine are ready to leave."
Lorelai nodded. "Yeah, I get that. But I meant Hartford. How long 'til you go back to school?"
"Couple of weeks. My flight's the second of January. Maybe, while I'm here, I can, you know, hang out. Spend time with you, and Rory. Maybe we can figure something out?"
Lorelai hesitated before nodded. She knew he was being sincere, but he was still so immature. She'd overheard her parents talking about all the trouble he was getting into at school. All the detentions he had. How he had been suspended, and then expelled, from the first school he'd been at.
How the second one kicked him out after only a month because he went to the Spring Fling drunk.
How he was on tenterhooks at the third school, after being busted smoking in his dorm room twice. Once more and he was on to his forth school in less than a year.
And, she was afraid that if he hung around, he'd ask her to marry him again. And then she'd say 'no' again. And then he'd leave without a goodbye.
Again.
"Maybe." she replied quietly.
Emily watched the scene from Lorelai's bedroom door. She smiled at the picture-perfect family before her and silently prayed that Christopher would pull himself together, at least enough for Lorelai to want to give him a chance. She backed and pulled the door shut with a soft 'click'
One day, she thought, one day…
