Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls; if I did things would be horribly different. Please don't sue me, the only thing I have, that you might actually want, is season 6 of Gilmore Girls on DVD :P But please don't sue me for that one. Everything you recognize is not mine.
A/N: This is my first GG fan fiction, I've written a lot of ER ones, so I'm not unfamiliar with writing. I'm a teeny tiny bit unreliable with updates, which is why I've already written up until chapter 4 of this story, which will mean that if you review there won't be very long in between updates. Please review, it's the only thing that keeps me on my toes, writing. This will eventually be a Rogan with mentions on JavaJunkie :)
Laerke xxxx
1. Dresses, Phone calls and Hugs
5 years. 5 years had gone by, and it was still absolutely impossible for her to get him out of her head. He had no right to haunt her memories like this, she was over him, past it, and she was better than this. Better than wallowing in self-pity 5 years after a break up, she was strong, independent. She didn't need him, didn't need anyone or anything. Maybe except for coffee.
'Ah, the elixir of life.' She thought as she walked past a coffee cart. Buying a large coffee she continued down the street. Passing small shops she went on without looking at them, she'd seen it all before.
First, when she moved to New York, everything had been exciting and new. She had been starting a new life, and she had enjoyed exploring the new parts of the town, getting to know it properly. But now, now New York was dull and grey. It was the same pattern everyday there was no variety.
She was used to the funny things that happened daily in Stars Hollow, Kirks funny business, Ms. Patty and Babette gossiping and her mom's quirky personality. God, did she miss her mom. Because of her work, Rory rarely did anything besides writing articles, and when she wasn't writing.. Well, she was either sleeping or eating.
Pulling out her cell phone; she quickly dialled an all too known number. Hearing it being picked up in the other end, she smiled at the greeting she received.
"Hello, you are speaking to the manager of the crack shack. Press one if you are my very hot coffee supplying husband; press two if you are my bookworm'ish, but very loveable daughter; press 3 if you are my mom, and in that case I am not home; press 4 if-"
"2" Rory cut off her mom.
"Oh, hello my bookworm'ish, but very loveable daughter." Her mother quoted herself. "How are things in the Big Apple?"
"Things in the Big Apple are splendid." Rory replied dryly.
"That bad, huh?" Her mom asked, knowing her too well.
"I suppose.." Rory answered tiredly. "Listen, mom, can I come home this weekend? I have it off anyways, and I thought that we could have a Gilmore movie night?"
"Argh! You were always the smart one, weren't you?" Her mother chuckled lightly. "I'll take care of the arrangements, just remember, I wanna hear all about what's been bugging you." The last part was a command, and Rory grinned into the phone. Her mom always had a way of getting it how she wanted it.
"Your words are my command" Rory said jokingly. "See you tomorrow." She added as an after thought.
"Take care sweets"
"Will do." Hanging up Rory put her phone back into her purse.
Feeling slightly better at the prospect of hanging out with her mother, Rory threw the now empty cup of coffee into a nearby trashcan. Walking the last couple of blocks towards the building, in which she worked, she managed to consume yet another coffee.
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"Hello, Haley." Rory said, greeting her co-worker. "Did the research I gave you, help your article?" She asked as she settled down at her desk, opposite from Haley's.
"Yeah, thanks! You're a total life saver Rory!" Haley replied cheerily and send her a bright smile.
Attempting to smile back, Rory inwardly thanked all the fake smiles she'd had to muster, at her grandmother's parties. "Well, your welcome."
She turned on her computer and went through her mail, once she was done checking it she opened the article she'd been working on and started to type.
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"I'm going out for some re-search," She announced to her boss' secretary. "Could you tell Mr. Parker?"
The secretary nodded at her and smiled. "Of course Ms. Gilmore."
"Thank you, I'll be back by 12.30." Rory said and gathered the necessary equipment that was needed.
Getting into a taxi Rory went through her bag, making sure that everything was there. She was just going to the public library, to look up some old paper articles on her subject, and then at 11.00 she'd be interviewing an important source in her story.
She worked for a small, but very popular newspaper in New York; it was independent, and not a part of any major publishing companies. The economy had been going slightly down the hill for the past couple of months, but so far Rory couldn't see why it wouldn't change for the better again.
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Her life here was dull. After Yale she'd lost contact with almost all of her friends from there, only keeping contact with Paris and Doyle, who were now married with a son, and another on the way. She knew for a fact that Colin and Steph were engaged, and that Finn had finally settled down exclusively with Rosemary. But they hadn't talked since graduation. After her and Logan's split Colin and Finn had taken Logan's side, because despite how much they liked Rory, Logan was their best friend. Steph and Rosemary had tried to keep contact with both Rory and Logan, but eventually they had to give up on Rory, to be able to keep their own relationships with Colin and Finn.
Sure, she missed them, there didn't go a day by where she didn't regret her actions and how she reacted, not a day where she didn't miss Finn and his accent, or Colin and his comments. Not a day went by where she didn't miss her talk with Steph, or shopping trips with Rosemary. Not a day went by where she didn't miss him.
She hadn't meant what she said all those years ago, she really hadn't. But it was too late to take it back, she doubted that she'd ever see him again, so it annoyed the crap out of her, that she couldn't just let it go. After all he'd probably forgotten about her years ago. She'd just been another chapter of his life, it was over and now it was time to move onto the next chapter, or at least that was how she assumed he was thinking.
Lane, however, she'd never lost contact too. Quite frankly, Rory didn't even think she could have, even if she wanted to. A year after she got married to Zack she gave birth to their first-born baby, a beautiful boy named Cody. They'd had a hard time balancing tour life as rock stars with Cody at first, but had eventually worked it out. Hep Alien had gotten a record deal shortly after Lane gave birth to Cody, and had now made 2 albums and was working on the third. They were incredibly popular among teenagers and college students, and with their song they encouraged people to do the right thing. It was like each of their songs were a story in it self, and each story taught the listener an important lesson in life. While still sounding incredibly cool, of course.
As the taxi stopped, Rory was forced to leave memory lane and pay the cabdriver. She walked into the library, and quickly buried all of her thoughts in the back of her mind, and started re-searching.
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Walking out of the elevator, Rory pulled out her now finished article from her purse. She been able to finish it on her laptop after interviewing her source, and printed it out on her way towards her boss' office.
As she walked towards the secretaries desk, she couldn't help but smile as she realized that Haley finally had pulled herself together, and gone and talked to Mark. It was no secret to Rory that Haley had had a smaller crush on him for months, and she was truly happy for her friend.
"Is Mr. Parker free?" Rory asked, directing her words at the secretary. As the secretary nodded, Rory knocked on her boss' door.
"Come on in." She heard his deep voice call on her.
Opening the door Rory gave a small smile before closing it behind her. "I have the article you assigned me done."
Nodding he held out his hand for her to place it in. As she did he skimmed over it and nodded again. "Very impressive work, as always, Ms. Gilmore."
"Thank you," was all Rory said. It wasn't unknown for Mr. Parker to give compliments, it happened rarely often, but when you got one, you should still take it with open arms.
"You can take the rest of the day off, enjoy your free weekend. I'll see you on Monday."
Nodding she thanked him again, and went to get her bag. She placed a couple of things from her desk in it, and headed for the elevator. Once she was out on the street her cell rang once again. Picking it up she heard her mothers voice before she even had time to say anything.
"Emily Gilmore has done it again!"
"Done what again, mom?" Rory asked, slightly tired.
"She has hijacked the two of us into the social circle of Hartford, ruined out Friday which we so convenient had gotten off from Friday night dinner, and ruined, most important of all the above, our movie night!" The annoyance, and not to mention dislike for her mother, was clear in the way her mother spoke.
"What?" Rory asked, slightly shocked.
"We, my darling daughter, are going to a Harvard get together, held by my mother, where we, my darling daughter, am expected to mingle because we, my darling daughter, are Gilmore's, and thereby hosting the party."
"No way!"
"Yes way, which leads me to my greeting: Emily Gilmore has done it again!"
"But no, we were supposed to have this weekend together, we haven't been together in two months!" Rory exclaimed.
"Don't even get me started on that! Listen, honey, I tried to get us out of it, I really did! But apparently it would look very bad if we weren't there, and who am I to cause shame over the Gilmore name?" Her mother asked sarcastically. "Anyways, the deal's sealed. There's no way of getting out of it."
"Okay, I guess if you put it that way." Rory sighed. "Hey, wait. We still have the rest of the weekend. We'll got to this stupid thing, mock their dresses and latest affairs behind their back, then we'll both go back to Stars Hollow, have dinner at Luke's since the food will clearly be un-eatable, and have the movie night on Saturday night instead."
"Wee! I knew there was a reason that you were my favourite daughter!" Her mother exclaimed happily.
"Mom, I'm your only daughter!" Rory pointed out.
"Young lady, haven't I taught you to take the compliments you can get?" Her mother teased.
"I'm hanging up now, mom. Bye!"
"Bye sweets."
"Love you."
"Love you too!" Shutting her phone she smiled slightly. Expect her mother to make her feel better.
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Going trough her wardrobe for something to wear for the party, Rory ended up with nothing. Her dresses were getting old and had been worn far too many times for Emily Gilmore's liking. As it only was 13.30 she still had plenty of time to get ready, so she decided to go and shop for a new dress to wear.
Due to the fact that her car was still in the shop Rory decided to just walk, it was a nice day after all. However, what she saw as she neared the shop, nearly gave her a heart attack. There, right outside the shop, stood Finn and Rosemary, scanning the streets clearly looking for someone. She kept her head down, hoping that they didn't notice her, she didn't want them to recognize her, it would just lead to either a very uncomfortable situation, or her getting talked trash about. She didn't expect either one of the to talk down to her, but Finn was Logan's best friend, and despite the fact that he loved Rory dearly as a sister, he was far too loyal towards Logan. And Rosemary, despite her close relationship with Rory, would never risk to loose Finn over something as silly as that, she loved him far too much.
As though Rosemary and Finn wasn't enough, she noticed Colin and Steph walking towards them. They'd clearly arranged a meeting, seeing as they hugged and exchanged greetings. As the group moved into the dress store Rory debated her options. She could either find another shop to buy her dress in, and ignore the fact that this was the best shop in New York, or face her fear by going in there, and pray they didn't notice her.
She decided on the later and made her way towards the door, quickly checking that they were in no position to notice her. As long as she just found a couple of dresses quickly and slipped into one of the changing rooms she could stay in there and try on her dresses until they were gone again.
She hurried towards a rack of clothes. Grabbing different dresses, only checking that the size matched she went into the changing room without even looking at the dresses.
Sighing, she figured that it had gone pretty well, she hadn't gotten a glimpse of them, and odds were that they hadn't noticed her either.
Looking at the first dress it was a nice, but slightly boring cocktail dress. Trying it on she found it extremely nice; it was black with a V-cut neck, that didn't show off too much cleavage. The skirt in it had two layers, with a slightly "puffy" look to it. Generally the dress was very nice, but it was boring, and not quite the look she was aiming for.
The second dress was a pink strapless one, which literally made her look like a wannabe brunette Barbie doll. Quickly putting it away she reached for the next one, this one was a golden colour, it was strapless, and sat tight to her upper body, however, around her waist a ribbon was carefully placed, marking the point where the dress freely fell to around her knees. It was that sort of dress she would have worn when she was 21, but now, she was 28, and she was an adult, which meant that she had to dress as an adult. At least while she was at these things. The dress however made her skin glow like gold, and seemed to give her hair more life. The ribbon around her waist was an ice blue colour, bringing out her eyes. She decided to buy it anyways, not to wear for tonight, but for another Friday night dinner, or a party with her mom, that didn't require her to dress up too any sort of expectations.
The last dress was a black halter neck dress; it was made of satin and gave a pretty glow. It's looked pretty boring just hanging there, but once Rory slipped it on she knew it was the one. It was v-cut and the cut went down to just below her breasts, showing off plenty of cleavage. The dress sat tight until it reached her hips where it casually fell down, hugging each and every one of her curves. The dress stopped just below her knees, showing off plenty of legs, but the biggest shock came as she turned around, the dress was completely back less, exposing the pale skin of her back. The back of the dress was bare until just above her ass, where it sat tight around her hips before falling down. The dress was completely black, making her skin look even paler, her pale skin made her hair seem so much browner, and with the right jewellery, which she knew lay in her jewellery box, her eyes would be brought out as well. It was elegant and sexy, without being slutty.
As she was about to slip it off her phone rang once again. Fumbling with her purse she finally managed to answer it.
"Hello?" She asked automatically.
"Hey Ror," the person in the other end said.
"Oh, hey Jess."
"Hey, look, I just wanted to ask if you were going to your mothers this weekend? You mentioned something about it and Sarah and I was sorta wondering if you'd be there.." He trailed off, not knowing what to say.
Rory chuckled slightly at Jess' obvious nervousness. "Yes, Jess, I'm going to my mother's, you and Sarah have the place complete for yourself." She smiled into the phone, she was happy that Jess finally had found someone he wanted to share his life with.
"Okay, good. I'll see you later, Ror.. Are you coming home before going to your mothers?"
"Yeah, we have a society function we need to attend to, so I'm out shopping for a dress now.. I'll be back to change and get ready, but besides that the apartment will be yours to do whatever you want."
"Ok, I'll see you Ror.. Say hi to Luke and Lorelai for me, will ya?"
"Of course.." Hanging up Rory slipped off her dress, and changed into her own clothes. She let the two dresses that she wasn't buying hang in the changing room, while grabbing the other two.
She'd completely forgotten that Steph, Colin, Finn and Rosemary were in the shop as well, until she literally bumped into Rosemary, due to the fact the neither was looking where they walked
"Oh, god. I'm so sorr-" Rory started, but stopped mid-word, as she noticed who she bumped into.
"Rory?!" Rosemary asked, too shocked to actually believe that it was her.
"Hey Rose, have you found anyth-" Steph asked, but cut herself off, like Rory had, as she noticed the identity off the other girl. The three girls didn't say anything, just stood there, in shock and silence.
"Steph, Rose?" Colin and Finn called, not knowing whom the girls had run into.
"We're here.." Steph said, slightly hesitating. She seemed to come over the shock faster than Rosemary and Rory.
As Finn and Colin came into view they both stopped abruptly, as they noticed Rory. Rory felt as a dear caught in the headlights, she had four people starring at her, and it was making her awfully self-conscious.
She looked at all of them at turn. Rosemary looked like she was slowly coming over seeing Rory, and nonetheless bumping into her, Steph was wearing a slightly nervous smile, as though she was afraid what Rory's reaction would be. Finn starred at her, most likely not believing what was starring him in the face, and Colin was wearing a serious expression, as though he was going through the pro's and con's of seeing her again. And herself, she was pretty sure she just looked shocked, and probably slightly uncomfortable, because that was how she felt.
Unable to take the silence anymore Rory led out a sigh, and opened her mouth to speak, only to nearly be knocked over as Steph threw her hands around her neck and gave her a tight hug. Not long after Rosemary joined, and hugged Rory as well. Slightly taken aback Rory couldn't hug them back, due to her hands being occupied by her purse and dresses. Finally the two girls led go of her, and the serious expression on Colin's face, along with the disbelieving one on Finn's was replaced by small smiles.
Finally gaining the courage to speak, Rory bit her lip before speaking. "Hey.." The word lingered in the air, slowly being sucked in by both parties.
Please review, any questions or concerns or ideas for improvement is welcomed. Review, it would make my day, even if it were just to say update. The more reviews I get, the quicker I'll update ;P
