Summary: After the last four words, Lorelai takes a deep breath, gulps some champagne, and responds. A response to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Spoilers abound.

The Last Four Words

By Potterworm

"Mom?"

"Yeah."

"I'm pregnant."

Lorelai's head whips towards her in shock, and her mouth goes wide open. She feels herself count to ten, then twenty, then thirty. Then, she takes a swig of champagne.

"Mom?" Rory says again. "Say something."

Lorelai is looking at her daughter, her lovely, 32-year old daughter, and she can't help it – she sees her mother and her father and her cotillion dress that didn't fit, and her life that didn't fit into theirs. She hears her parents yelling at her, and Christopher's parents hating her, and everything falling apart. She sees a potting shed, and working as a maid instead of going to Vassar, and she sees her daughter pregnant at 32 – not 16. She breathes in and out and says:

"Congratulations, kid." Lorelai realizes as she says it that she – at least sort of – means it.

"Congratulations?!" Rory says, and her mouth drops open. "I'm pregnant with my ex-boyfriend from college's baby. My ex-boyfriend who is getting married in a few months. And you say congratulations? Have you been possessed?"

Lorelai looks at her daughter – really looks at her – and gives her a hug. "You're going to be a great mother." That one, she really means.

They sit in the gazebo in silence for a bit, and then Rory babbles out her panic to Lorelai. It will be a long time before they talk about this moment again, but months from now, while Rory's ankles are swollen, she'll ask, "Weren't you disappointed? Weren't you angry? Why did you congratulate me?"

Lorelai will say, "When I was pregnant with you, it was the scariest experience of my life, and not a single person congratulated me on you – not once. I promised myself that if you ever had a kid, it'd be the first thing I said to you. The very first thing."

Author's Note: That revival man. What a trip.