Hope you enjoy this pretty dramatic chapter, I just wanted to say thank you for reading this and supporting this story. It's always really scary to put a story out there so any feedback has been so much appreciated. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Lorelai half walks half falls down the stairs. She's particularly tired this morning.
"Oh good, you're up!" says Luke, putting a frying pan in the sink. "Rory and Victoria just left for New York."
"Good." says Lorelai, yawning.
"I have to go into the diner but I will see you for marriage counselling at 1.30."
"It doesn't start until two." says Lorelai.
"I know but I want to be early, just in case."
Lorelai nods and surveys the kitchen. Rory's forgotten her coat. Hopefully she won't freeze without it. She feels Luke staring at her and looks up. "Are you Ok?"
"Lorelai, I just want you to know that... I really am sorry about everything before I was just... well I was just stupid. Insanely stupid. You know that I'm in this. I'm all in, I always am so if you want us to do this, we'll do it."
"I don't want us to, we need to. Both of us." says Lorelai.
"Right. You're right. I've cooked you breakfast, eggs, just how you like them." says Luke.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll see you later." says Luke, grabbing his coat.
"Hey Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you." says Lorelai.
Luke smiles and kisses Lorelai, wrapping his arms her. "I love you too, Lorelai Gilmore."
"So, you've driven through New York. Was it everything you thought it was going to be?" asks Rory.
"It's crazy!" says Victoria, breathless. "Are people always that angry here?"
"Oh they're not angry, they're just expressive."
"That one woman was expressively trying to kill us then."
"Yeah, well... that's New York." says Rory, surveying her little flat that they've just walked into. The thought of getting a bigger place scares Rory a little. She can hardly keep this place going without a kid in it. Recently, she's been thinking about her mom more and more. She managed to keep her job and her house and her daughter all running smoothly when she was only seventeen years old. She made it look easy, but it definitely would not have been.
"Wow!" says Victoria, standing on the couch to look out the window. "It's even more beautiful from up here!"
"Just wait until we get up the Empire State Building, you can see all of New York from there."
Victoria spins around and jumps down from the couch. She's excited and seems to Rory like a little girl again.
"I think I could live here." says Victoria. "Not here specifically but here in New York."
"Well, the advice is 'Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.'"
"And 'Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.' Mary Schmich, I know that quote." says Victoria, browsing through Rory's massive book collection, which takes up an entire wall.
"I have more under the bed." says Rory. "They didn't all fit in the apartment so a lot of them are still at mom's house."
Rory's about to offer to show her the rest of the books and offer to let her take some home if she wanted when she hears a key in the lock.
"Who's that?" asks Victoria.
"Uh.."
"Rory, I bought Dodger a new bed and I think you need to kill me now because I have definitely gone soft over this goddamn cat." says Jess. "Oh, Hi." he says when he sees Victoria. "Who are you?"
Victoria doesn't respond and squeezes her eyes tight shut. I know you, I know you.
"You said you were out of town this week." says Rory.
"Yeah well, plans change. And I wanted to surprise you, I knew you would be here and who's this? Who are you?"
Rory sits down on the couch with her head in her hands.
Victoria is still concentrating. I know you, I know your face from somewhere. From a photograph. 'That's Jess, Rory's boyfriend. You can't trust him' says dad's voice in her head. "Jess?" she asks, to make sure.
"Yeah."
"You don't know who I am, do you?"
Jess shrugs. "Sorry kid."
"My name's Victoria." says Victoria, piecing things together in her head. "Victoria Gilmore. I'm Rory's daughter." With that, Victoria leaves the apartment and runs out of the building and into New York. She's hoping Rory won't follow her, and she doesn't.
"Lorelai?" asks Victoria, when her grandma picks up the phone.
"Hey kid, I can't talk, I'm late for marriage counselling. Are you in New York?"
"Yeah, but..."
"I hope you're having a great time, but I gotta go."
"Lorelai wait, I need you to come get me. Jess showed up and he... please can you pick me up. From Rory's apartment. Please?"
"Sit tight, hun. I got it. I'm coming." says Lorelai, everything suddenly different, she abandons her plans and rushes to the car, grabbing her car keys and hanging up the phone on the way.
Victoria is quiet all the way home. She doesn't speak over dinner and then withdraws to her room. Luke and Lorelai don't push it either, the poor kid is having a rough time.
Victoria is lying on her bed with her arms wrapped around her, hugging herself. Lorelai watches this sad scene, leaning on the door frame of Victoria's room.
"Cramps?" she asks. Victoria shakes her head. "Broken heart?" she asks. Victoria shakes her head again. "Ah, because those are really my specialities."
"You know what's wrong." Victoria mumbles.
"I do. I was just checking." says Lorelai, sitting on the bed.
"Who else didn't Rory tell about me?"
"Honestly? I'm not completely sure. The whole family know, Rory's dad included. And the town know too. But other than that, I'm not sure."
"Why?"
"I don't know, babe."
"No, why did she give me up in the first place?" asks Victoria.
"I can't tell you that, it's not my place."
"Everyone says that." says Victoria.
"Everyone's right."
Lorelai pauses for a moment. Then after a minutes thought, she says:
"My cure for cramps is hot cocoa and hugs. My cure for broken heart is too much pizza and repeated viewings of Funny Girl. Maybe if we combine those too, it might help you a little?"
Victoria nods then hesitates.
"Rory's staying in New York tonight. To talk things out with Jess." Lorelai whispers, taking Victoria's hand. "Come on, I'll make cocoa, you go find Funny Girl."