Disclaimer: They're not mine, ya dig it?
A/N: So…mixed reactions to the last chapter. Some people weren't too sure about some of the people's reactions to the letter. I'm really glad to get all sorts of reviews, good and bad. I have to say that, seeing as nothing even remotely like this has ever happened on Gilmore girls for real, it is kind of difficult to decide how they would react. I believe I am being true to the characters, but if you disagree please tell me so I can take it into consideration.
There will probably only be a couple more chapters. Now that everything's out in the open there isn't a whole lot more to deal with.
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Chapter 10: Picking up the pieces.
Lorelai reached out her hand and placed it gingerly on her mother's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "It wasn't your fault," she repeated a little louder, pulling her mother into an awkward hug.
Emily pushed her away after a second, wiped at her eyes, shook her head and said, "We should discuss this some other time. Rory's here now, and it's not appropriate."
"Right," Lorelai said, stepping back. "So…we should probably go back in there."
"You go ahead. The maid forgot to put salt on the table; I'm going to grab some."
Lorelai walked back into the dining room, leaving Emily to compose herself.
--
The door shut behind them, and Lorelai and Rory were left standing, side by side on the steps. Rory focused her eyes on a spot on the ground and pushed her lips together.
"So…quite the night," Lorelai started.
"How mad are you?"
"Well, let's see. You left Saturday morning without saying anything, you didn't call all week, and oh yeah, you told my parents! So I'd say I'm a little bit east of boiling rage, but still well west of furious."
"Well I'm sorry," Rory said flatly.
"That was convincing."
"It's just that…"
"Just that what?"
"They needed to know!"
"Yes, I agree, I needed to tell them."
"And you were going to?"
"Yes!"
"Mom, it took you two years to tell me. Me! You tell me everything. How long do you think it would have taken you to tell them?"
"A while, probably, but that's not the point here. You have no right to go over my head like that. You are my daughter, not the other way around. What I tell my parents and when is none of your business!"
"But it's my life that you're talking about here, mine! For twenty-two years my life has come between you and grandma. My birth, my upbringing, my education, even my boyfriends have come between you two. According to Grandma, I am your big screw up. You got pregnant with me, you ran away with me, you let me date men she doesn't approve of, and now suddenly I have the proof that she is wrong, that you didn't screw up like she thought you did, I'm not your fault, and I think maybe, just maybe, this could help. Well I'm sorry for thinking that. I'm sorry that that man raped you and I'm sorry I was ever born!" And with that, Rory stomped off towards her car, not caring one bit that she sounded like an immature teenager.
"Rory, wait!" Lorelai ran after her, grabbing hold of her sleeve near her elbow and spinning her so that they were face to face. There were tears running down Rory's cheeks, which she quickly brushed away with her free sleeve, refusing to look her mom in the eye. "Is that what you think?" Lorelai asked. "That somehow all of the stuff between my parents and me is your fault?"
"Well…I guess, yeah, I used to. But then I found out that no, it wasn't my fault. It was that, that man's fault and I, well, I don't know where I fit at all. I don't even know who I am."
"Oh, Rory." The heartbreak in Lorelai's heart was obvious. She pulled her daughter close, drawing her face to her shoulder so that her sweater would absorb Rory's tears. Too emotionally exhausted even to stand, they sunk down together to the driveway, resting back against Rory's car. Lorelai cradled her daughter's head, kissing her hair and stroking her arms and her back, whispering against her scalp, "You are my daughter. I love you. Don't ever question that."
Rory sniffed. "Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"When you look at me, do you see him?"
"Oh, no. I see a beautiful angel, my heart and my soul, the love of my life, my best friend and my daughter, but never him. You and I are so much alike, I think you might actually be my clone, meaning you don't have any of his DNA at all."
Rory sniffed a chuckle. Then she swallowed hard and asked difficulty, "If I wanted to know all, um, the whole story, like everything that happened that night, if I wanted to know that, would you tell me?"
"Do you?"
"I don't know. But if I did, someday?"
"Maybe. That would be hard. So ask me again when someday comes."
"Okay."
Lorelai shifted so that she and Rory were sitting next to each other, with her arm around her daughter's shoulder and her hand on her knee. "Come back to the hollow with me tonight. Let's spend the weekend together. We'll rent movies and eat junk food and talk all night if you want. Oh, and you can meet April, I mean you already met her but you can meet her again if you want. She's staying with Luke for the weekend and he asked me to have lunch with them tomorrow. You can come too, it will be fun. She's going to be your stepsister soon. Come on. I'll drive, you can leave your car here and I'll bring you back this far on Monday morning."
Rory smiled. "Sounds good."
--
Lorelai and Rory walked into the diner the next day at 12:00. They had been up until 3:00 that morning watching movies and talking about just about everything except the topic at hand, mutually agreeing that enough had been said for the time being, and both knowing that the issue was still a long way from resolved. April was sitting at the counter next to Kirk, who was listening intently as she discussed the metabolic consequences of the Atkins diet.
"Then the citric acid cycle, or the Krebs cycle, you can call it either one, quits working and instead of getting ATP you get a lot of keto acids built up in your blood, which not only make your breath stink and can cause you to fail a breathalyzer test, but also change your blood pH, leading to a metabolic acidosis that can lead to hyperventilation, kidney failure, and electrolyte imbalances."
Kirk turned to Luke and said, "Okay, so I don't understand most of what she just said, but I think I need a piece of bread."
"Coming right up," Luke assured him without actually looking in his direction. Hearing the bell above the door, he looked up to see Lorelai and Rory enter and smiled, looking Lorelai in the eye and trying to get some sort of feel for how everything was going. She gave him a little bit of a half-smile.
"Hi, Rory, Lorelai, nice to see you again," April said, turning in her stool to face them.
"Hi, April," Rory replied.
"April, Rory, why don't you two go upstairs and set the table? Your mom can help me bring the food up."
"Okay. Hey Rory, did you know that the Atkins diet can actually lower your IQ?" They started up the stairs.
Luke turned his attention to Lorelai, who was standing at the counter. "Our food is almost done. So…are you okay?" Lorelai only sighed. "Caesar, you're in charge," Luke called, taking Lorelai's hand and leading her back to the store room. He shut the door behind them. "So, how was dinner last night?" he asked.
"Rory told my parents. Not last night, earlier this week, but I found out last night."
"Oh," was all Luke could think to say.
"We talked about it afterwards, and I know why she did it and I have forgiven her, but…they know. And that's weird."
"How'd they take it?"
"My dad didn't say anything, not a surprise, and my mom cried. She was really mad at me for not telling her right away when it happened. But she also seemed…sorry. I mean, that's what I've always wanted her to feel, but it didn't seem normal. We didn't really talk about it…she had an emotional break down that lasted two minutes and that was it. It was as if nothing had happened. That's the thing I hate about my family. We never talk. We just let things stew inside until there's so much there that we explode all over each other. Then we start all over again. I'm afraid to go back there. I never know what to expect. For all I know they'll have forgotten all about it by next week, or they'll freeze me out. Who knows, maybe they will have hired some Dr. Phil type expert to come have me analyzed."
Luke smiled. "Hey now, don't rack too much on those Dr. Phil types. It was one of their books that brought the two of us together."
"Ug, don't remind me." Lorelai smiled back. "I suppose we should get up there or our kids are going to think that we're doing something dirty."
"We wouldn't want that now, would we?" Luke asked, reaching around and grabbing her butt, slipping his hands into her back pockets and pulling her up to him for a quick kiss.
"Definitely not," she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and repeating the kiss, making it a last a little longer than the first. They separated reluctantly, exiting the store room and collecting their food before heading up the stairs.
--
After lunch Luke and April were washing dishes and putting food away.
"Do you think Rory will like the book I lent her?" April asked.
"I'm sure she'll love it."
"So…Luke?"
"Yeah?"
"What's going on with Lorelai?"
"What do you mean?"
"She seems kind of sad. Does she really want me to be in your wedding? Because you don't have to put me in it. I'm perfectly fine just helping with flower arrangements or putting the little mints in the bags to put by each plate. I like mints."
"No, April, she's thrilled to have you in the wedding. She really likes you."
"Good. I like her too."
"Lorelai is just having a rough couple of days, that's all."
"Okay. So it has nothing to do with me?"
"No. I promise." Luke lifted another plate out of the sink and started to wipe it down. April found a lid for one of the Tupperware containers. After a few moments, Luke cleared his throat. "Hey, April, if something…not good ever happened…you know, to you, you would tell me, right? Or at least your mom, right?"
"Like…what?"
"I don't know, just…something bad. Something bad that you might not want to tell people. You know you can tell me those things, right?"
"Is this about the A minus I got on that test in math? I'm surprised Mom told you that, it wasn't that big of a deal. I already told her that I had enough extra credit to more than make up for the points I missed."
"No, I'm not talking about a test. I mean something…something really bad. Like, with a guy. If it ever happened, would you tell someone?"
"You mean sex? I'm only thirteen."
Luke had, unfortunately, chosen that moment to take a drink from a glass of water. He coughed and spit a bit of water out his nose when he heard her say the word "sex." He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt and answered quickly, "No! I mean...yes, if you, in many years, decide to do…um…that, yes, you should talk to your mom first. But I mean, if someone, anyone ever tried…ever…um…hurt you. You would tell someone, right?"
"Where is this coming from?"
"Oh, you know, it was in a movie that I happened to catch part of yesterday and I just started thinking and…I'm sorry. This is weird."
"No, it's okay. I've never really thought about that, but yeah I would tell someone."
"Good." Luke smiled. "So tell me more about this book that you lent Rory, because I know that next time you two see each other you will be talking about it constantly, and I want to know enough to at least be able to keep up with the conversation."
"Well, it's about this guy…"
--
Lorelai was walking out of the market, carrying a large paper bag filled with supplies for the Lorelai and Rory 'not talking about it' movie night take two when her cell phone rang. Setting the bag down on a park bench and fishing her phone out of her pocket, she flipped it open without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"
"What are you doing tomorrow?" Her mother's unmistakable voice asked with no introduction whatsoever.
"Let's see, tomorrow is Sunday, the day of God and rest, so I was planning on having myself sedated and thrown in the alley behind the church."
"So you're not busy for lunch?" Emily ignored her daughter's humor entirely, something she had become very good at.
"Uh…"
"Good. I'll be at your house at 12:30."
"Um…no! No…I can't…I have to…um…I'm having surgery…I'm getting a new brain…and a new body…Rory needs me to…" Damn, Gilmore! Where are your weaseling skills?
"I'll see you at 12:30." Click.
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A/N In a desperate attempt to get more reviews I am promising to reply to EVERY review that I get for this chapter. That's right, you could be the proud recipient of a signed e-mail, from this world-famous (almost) author! Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, review today!
