Lorelei "Rory" Gilmore had never known her mother. After being abandoned to her grandparents at the age of 2, 16-year-old Rory still wistfully wondered about the woman who had brought her into the world. There were whispers of course, some of the upstairs maids had been around when wild Lorelei Gilmore had lived in the house, and so of course Rory had heard all the stories. She hadn't told her grandmother of course, and so whenever a question did slip out about the elusive Lorelei, she pretended to not know anything about the circumstances of her birth. This arrangement worked perfectly until the day when our story begins.
"Grandma?" Rory called, slamming the door behind her with her backpack, and attempting to walk without dropping all of her things on the floor. She blushed slightly- thinking about the horrible incident that had happened that morning in the hallway with Tristan DuGrey. What a jerk he was!
"Glad to see you've at least got some of my character traits." A voice said from behind her, and Rory nearly jumped a foot. She dropped her things all over the floor, and crouched down immediately to pick them up. Slowly she turned around and looked into a pair of eyes that matched her own.
"W-who are you?" Rory asked breathlessly, knowing without being told that this was she. The elusive Lorelei. The woman smiled, and tucked a lock of long black hair behind her ear. "M-mom?" The whisper slipped out so quickly Rory didn't know where it came from. An instant later she was hugging the woman with all her might, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Well if I'd that I would have gotten this kind of homecoming, I would have come back sooner." She replied, returning the hug awkwardly. Rory loosened her grip only to look up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks. This was how Emily found them a few minutes later, when she came to see what had taken Rory so long.
"Nice to see you haven't changed your locks in 14 years, Mom." Lorelei quipped, loosening her arms on Rory, but only enough to guide the silently stunned girl to the settee in the living room. Rory looked up only once, and blinked back down to her hands folded in her lap. Emily had aged 10 years in the 5 minutes since she'd walked in on them.
"L-Lorelei." There was no malice or dripping cynicism coming from her, only shock, and Lorelei stifled a snort. Emily only started at her daughter for a moment, any words she'd had prepared for this moment, gone. "You're back permanently, I assume?" She asked, swallowing twice, and avoiding looking directly at Lorelei. Her errant daughter smiled back brightly, and patted Rory on the shoulders.
"I came to get Rory, and then I'll be out of your life forever. Quick, easy, painless. You won't even have my butt imprints on this couch." Emily nearly dropped the glass of Perrier she had poured herself.
"T-take Rory?" She stammered, looking at the girls on the couch, marveling in shock at how together they looked, despite this being their first meeting in 14 years. "You cannot take Rory, Lorelei." She said in her normal voice, attempting to get some leverage in the conversation. "She has school. She has college to think about. You cannot just uproot her. Maybe some weekends, but she has voice, and dance, and piano lessons, along with Italian and Greek lessons every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'm sorry." Emily looked proud of her answer, and it looked as though Lorelei might consent, but she burst out laughing.
"Mom, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. I'm taking my kid. Because she is my kid." Emily felt herself losing control, losing balance, and she grabbed the back of the couch for support, her mind spinning.
"Lorelei, be reasonable now. You left Rory in our care. We have done the best we possibly we could have. You cannot just come back now, 14 years later, and expect the two of you to gallop away into the sunset." Lorelei looked down at her daughter, who was looking in between the two women like a deer caught in headlights. Emily's eyes caught onto hers, and forced her to keep them there. "Rory," Emily pleaded. "Do you really want to go with this woman?" She scoffed, hoping against hope that neither of the two could detect the fear on her voice, Rory bit her lip, and Emily was almost certain she had her. There was no question that she loved her daughter, but this little girl, this pure and simple angelic child could not leave. She was their last hope at greatness.
"It wouldn't be for long, Grandma," Rory was saying, and the words cut through Emily's reverie like a knife. "Just for a little while, so I could get to know Mom. And then I would come back. Just like normal. If mom has a place near here, I wouldn't even have to miss any classes. And even if I do, I haven't missed any before, and I'm sure Paris or Louise could take notes for me." Emily was losing her grip on the couch. Rory could not leave. Lorelei would only break her heart, and she would never be the same. Lorelei affectionately squeezed her daughter's shoulders.
"I do have a place around here as a matter of fact, babes. It's in a town called Star's Hollow." Oh no, Emily thought, praying with every fiber in her being that Lorelei would not tell her daughter how long she had been living there. Rory's brow furrowed.
"Star's Hollow? Why does that seem familiar?" Rory was asking as Emily lost her balance completely and fainted dead on the floor.
"Grandma? Grandma?" Emily opened her eyes to Rory's beautiful baby blues, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Rory I had the most terrible dream," Emily said sitting up, with her hand on her chest. She let out a small, lady like laugh and then noticed the small mountain of luggage in front of the door. "Rory…" She said, her voice and hands shaking. "Rory, what are those?" The room was spinning again, and the spinning only increased when her only daughter entered the room at Rory's anguished cry.
"Mom she's shaking again!"