Chapter 7: Calendar Girl, December Through March

A/N: Little snippets of time during Lorelai and Katie's first year in Stars Hollow. The song won't match up in the rhymes 'cause it doesn't follow the calendar year. Some of the months will be very short.

Warning: I don't know; maybe language and innuendo somewhere along the way.

Thanks to my betas: zigpal and ktweaver.

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

(December) You're the present 'neath my Christmas tree…

Christmas came as almost a surprise to Lorelai. Sure, she saw the decorations all over the place, but somehow the idea of the actual holiday slipped past her mind. Guess it wasn't all that much of a shock considering everything that had been going on the past couple months.

A small part of her missed being back at the mansion, but she knew deep in her heart it was more the familiar traditions it stirred up than the sense of happiness that she never felt. And with this being her and Katie's first Christmas away, the loneliness threatened to choke her.

She had forgotten there were people here that weren't willing to let that happen to her. Mia, Sookie – and even Luke and Steve – were determined to make this a happy day for her. Using the excuse that the Inn was fairly quiet, Mia decided to have a small Christmas party, surprising the young mother at the end of her shift Christmas Eve.

Apparently Sookie was of the same mind that Luke and Lorelai would be good together because she started plotting how to trick them into a relationship – or at least physical contact. She secretly hung a sprig of mistletoe over the area in front of the fireplace. Then she maneuvered Luke into going over there to check on a loose nail or something, followed by asking Lorelai to bring him a cup of hot cider.

As soon as the two were in place, Sookie screeched to the room that they were under the mistletoe together and had to kiss. Embarrassed, Luke tried to get away with kissing Katie – who was in her mother's arm – instead. Even Mia piped up that he cheated by not laying one on Lorelai. Sighing resignedly, he looked down at the young mother, only to find her returning his gaze with her own mixed shy/smirking expression. He quickly leaned down and gave her a chaste peck on the lips – much to the enjoyment of the crowd in the room.

Before he could pull away, Lorelai put down the cider and grabbed his hand, giving it a friendly squeeze to show she was okay with it. Luke squeezed back and gave her a half-smile to say thanks.

(January) You start the year off fine…

Lorelai was excited.

She was about to attend her first town meeting with Sookie and Luke. Mia was staying home with Katie; she claimed because she didn't think the baby would enjoy the meeting, but Sookie whispered that the real reason was so Mia wouldn't have to watch Taylor make demands from the stage. The guy wasn't even an elected official, but had to stick his nose into everything.

Sookie said Taylor was what made the meetings fun to watch though. Yeah, they had to deal with important town issues, but some of the things Taylor insisted were 'serious' issues were funny as all get-out. Like the time he thought all the houses on a given street should be painted the same color and the street names changed to match that color. Meaning, Red Street would all be painted red. He thought color-coding the town would make things easier to find and provide an interesting draw for tourists.

That's the sort of thing Lorelai was hoping to see at this town meeting. Thankfully, Taylor didn't disappoint. Sure, it wasn't as colorful – pardon the pun – as the street issue, but the signs he wanted posted all around the town pond/swimming hole, warning people of the dangers of swimming without a lifeguard was amusing. Doubly so, seeing as how it was January and the pond was frozen over. He just said that it would take time to come up with ideas, present them and vote on a winner. Then there was the issue of funding whatever the winning idea happened to be. Taylor actually thought that less than six months was cutting it close!

Somehow, he convinced the town selectman to hold an 'emergency' town meeting the following week to present ideas. Luke said it had something to do with the fact the town selectman was Taylor's father. It was likely that the elder Doose was preparing his son to take over the reins so he could retire to Arizona. The day-to-day store operations were already being handled by Taylor. All that was left was the political stuff.

A week later…

As soon as the introductory comments were made, and Taylor opened the floor to suggestions, Lorelai stood up, holding a large bag. When she got to the podium, she pulled a sign – which was 2' by 3' in size – out and held it up for the townspeople to see. On the left side, she painted a yellow diamond with the word 'WARNING' painted inside in black. On the right – again in black – were the lines 'NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY' with 'SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK' underneath.

She explained that she made ten signs; two for each end of the pond and three for each side. That way, they could be posted far enough apart not to crowd each other, but close enough that somebody couldn't claim they didn't see them. As for the cost, she used scrap wood from the inn, along with some stencils and paint from the hardware store. Mia was willing to donate the cost of the materials and Lorelai donated the labor, so there was no cost to the town if they were satisfied with this solution.

Upset that he didn't get to control the sign campaign, Taylor immediately complained that she couldn't be sure the signs were effective. Lorelai replied that they were the same wording, lettering and size as the signs in different country clubs she visited all over the East Coast.

Smirking to himself, Luke stood up and suggested that they put it to a vote. A few minutes later, the signs were voted in almost unanimously by the townspeople. As soon as the ground thawed enough in the spring, Luke would put the signs on posts and set them in place around the pond.

(February) You're my little valentine…

Valentine's Day turned out to be a big deal in the Gilmore shed. Not because of the crass commercial holiday that infected the town – Luke's words, although Lorelai semi-agreed with him. It was an important day because Katie said her first word.

In spite of Luke's harsh words about the holiday, Sookie came over to the shed to watch sappy romantic movies with Lorelai and Katie. First there was 'An Affair to Remember', then 'Sabrina', and finally, 'Casablanca'. Lorelai and Sookie were shooting quotes back and forth after the movies, and when Lorelai said, "Play it once, Sam", Katie started chirping, "'am, 'am, 'am" and pointing to the TV screen.

Astounded, Lorelai rewound the the tape to the scene and pressed play. As soon as Ingrid Bergman's character said the lines, Katie giggled and said, "'am, 'am, 'am."

Torn between joy that her daughter said her first word, and hurt that it wasn't 'mama', Lorelai started laughing. If nothing else, this proved they were mother and daughter; they had the same taste in movies.

(March) I'm gonna march you down the aisle…

Although she wasn't assassinated, Lorelai felt a little like Caesar when she ended up in court on March 15th. She really needed to 'beware the Ides of March' this year. At the end of February, her parents found her and were trying to force her and Katie into going back to their home. Or at the very least, marry Christopher – which would probably result in them living with either his parents or hers until they turned 18.

Fortunately, she had Mia on her side. Mia, who had foreseen something like this being possible, and had started the process of getting Lorelai emancipated. As soon as the teen mother came to Stars Hollow, Mia looked up the requirements of what was needed to declare a child emancipated from his or her parents. Then she made sure that Lorelai fulfilled all of them.

Still, it was up to a judge to decide her fate, and the Gilmores had money and power on their side. Neither side knew much about the judge presiding over this case, however, since she was an new appointment to the bench. Lorelai hoped that since the judge was female, she'd be supportive of a woman taking charge of her life.

Judge Kardon heard the testimonies from both sides, and saw that not only did Lorelai have a home, job, bank account and budget, she was also studying to get her GED so she could take college courses in order to provide for herself and her daughter. On the Gilmores' side, they kept referring to the baby as a 'youthful mistake' by their daughter and the child's father. It was that attitude which reinforced the judge's decision to grant Lorelai her emancipation. In her opinion, Lorelai was behaving more responsibly in this matter than her parents were.

On top of that, upon finding out about Christopher's complete lack of concern about the child he helped to create, the judge went a step beyond and gave Lorelai temporary full custody of their daughter, ordering him to pay $500/month child support. Her decision was based on the fact that if Lorelai could supply that much towards their child, he certainly could since he didn't have to worry about caring for her in addition to working. Each year, there would be a 10% increase, with wage checks every five years. That was to ensure that if he suddenly began earning substantially more than Lorelai, the child support payments would reflect his increased responsibility to his daughter.

He had the opportunity to challenge this decision within 60 days, but if he wanted to get custody, he'd have to prove Lorelai was an unfit mother – which she clearly was not at that point in time.

A/N: The judge from Lorelai's hearing was the same one who sentenced Rory to 300 hours of community service after she stole the yacht. I figured she would be more sympathetic to somebody taking responsibility for their 'youthful indescretions' than the parents who want to sweep it under the rug.

A/N: Next…April through July.