Disclaimer: I have this very lively dream that I own them, but then I wake up, and the thing I'm really hugging is my pillow…

Sorry is a Bitch

It had been a week. She hadn't heard from him in a week. She had been to a terrible Friday-night-dinner; her grandparents had been questioning her about Logan, till she had to go to the bathroom to stop herself from crying. She had believed Paris when she said that Finn would come back, but now she wasn't too sure.

After the dinner she went with her mom back to Stars Hollow to wallow. Her mom was the expert in wallowing, and Rory always felt better after a weekend back home. She came home Sunday night feeling as good as could be expected, and tried opening the door without putting down any of the loads of clean laundry she was carrying. She had her eyes closed as she entered the common room.

"I'm home. Please don't be doing unspeakable things on the couch."

She heard Paris get up from her desk chair and move into the common room.

"Wouldn't you already be aware by now if we were," she noticed Rory's closed eyes and glared at her when she opened them "Guess not."

They bumped down on the couch and Paris turned on CNN. Without saying anything they just sat there for a while, in a comfortable silence, till Paris finally opened her mouth.

"Not to pry…"

"How come people always say that right before they do pry?" Rory interrupted in mock wonder. Paris just ignored her and continued the sentence.

"…but have you heard from him yet?"

Rory's face fell as soon as the words were out, and Paris didn't need to wait for her answer. It was obvious that a Rory hadn't heard from a certain Australian, and that she wasn't feeling too fine with it.

"No," Rory's words came out in a slight stutter "So, do you still think he just needs time?"

Paris smiled at her.

"I think he's had his time," she said looking secretive "since he was here looking for you just a couple of hours ago."

Rory starred at her for a minute without saying anything.

"He was here?" she asked, her voice trembling with disbelief "and you don't tell me till now?" she sounded a bit mad.

Paris looked at her smiling even wider.

"He said he would come by again, later tonight. I think I scarred him a bit…"

"You tend to do that." Rory muttered, but again Paris just ignored her interruption.

"…because I told him I wasn't interested in picking you up from the floor once more, so if he pulled that number again he'd better do it in Stars Hollow, so your mom could pick you up, and the rest of the town could do the whole tar and feathers-thing."

She could see that Rory wasn't mad anymore; she was trying to hold in the laughter from imagining Finn being chased down main-street by most of the town, Luke in front of them all hollering "I'LL KILL YOU!" She couldn't hold in a giggle. Paris looked at her like she was crazy.

"Thanks Paris," Rory stood up and gave her friend a hug "you're the best."

She went to her room, while she was humming the starting tune from Willy Wonka´, and Paris shook her head, sometimes she wasn't sure if Rory was mentally sound.

As she entered her room the first thing Rory did was collapse on top of her bed, she suddenly didn't know if she really wanted Finn to come. He had hurt her badly by walking out like he did, and she didn't want to forgive too much like she used to. She picked up her sell, and called 1 on her speed-dial.

"Rainy Weather Attitudes Inc. We have attitudes for all kinds of rainy weather, how may we serve you?" her mother's voice sounded gloomy.

"Let me guess, your optimistic attitude couldn't keep the rain away anymore?"

"My daughter is a genius!" she chimed, each word dripping with sarcasm.

"Wow, thanks mum." she overlooked the sarcasm completely.

"Hmm, she is also far too happy compared to her mood the last week, something happened?" she ended the teasing, and became serious, or at least as serious as her mother ever could be. "What is it Rory, tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"I would if I could get a word in," she tried to hold in her giggles at her mother's plea.

"Okay, I'll restrain myself."

Rory paused for a minute, till she could literally feel her mom's impatience.

"Finn was here."

She heard Lorelai suck air in through her teeth.

"Hunky Aussie-boy was there? When? Is he there now?"

"Yes, he was here. When? About an hour ago, or something like that. And no, if he was still here, would I use past tense?"

"Well no, because my girl is a genius."

"Nice save." now it was Rory's turn to be sarcastic "Anyway, Paris said that he would come back, so what do I do?"

"You know, sometimes I'm not sure that I really raised you, how can you ask stuff like that?" Lorelai's voice was pitched up a few nods at this statement.

"I'm sure I should know stuff like this, right?"

"Hell yeah! Well never mind, you want this guy right?" Rory nodded at this obviously rhetorical question, and Lorelai continued as if she had seen it "So, the first thing you do is make sure you look great. And when he comes…"

Lorelai's break expanded beyond artistic, and Rory got impatient.

"Yes?"

"You know what babe," Lorelai sounded less overexcited than before, and much more serious "You'll know what to do when he gets there, just do as your gut tells you. Don't use any of my tricks, if it's right you won't need them."

Rory smiled. Lorelai always knew exactly what to say, and this was the only thing she could have said to relax her daughter.

"I love you mum, you know that?"

"I know," the conversation seemed to have become a bit too emotional for Lorelai's taste, and she immediately returned to the previous lighter mode "So, about those attitudes we have for sale…"

"Here we go…" Rory breathed

"…I think that you will find the Raining gloomy, but yet gorgeously wet´ to be just the right one for patching things up with your man. I promise you won't be sorry, I always use that one, and it never fails."

"Hanging up now," Rory said loudly through Lorelai's ramblings.

"Okay babe. Let me know how it went."

Rory hung up the phone, and got up from the bed. She went to study her face in the mirror for the first time in a week, and realized that she looked terrible. She hadn't slept well, and you could see it from the bags under her eyes. She sneered at her reflection, and took a towel from a pile on her chair, maybe a bath would help.

As she stood under the shower, she could almost feel the bags under her eyes being flushed away, along with every sad thought she had had the last week. She pictured all her worries being drowned in the drain under her feet. As the water fell on her it muffled the sound of Finn knocking on the front door, and she didn't hear Paris letting him in either, instead she occupied herself by singing the Barenaked Ladies song 'Enid' very loudly, and out of key while washing her hair.

As he sat on her bed listening to her tries in the art of carrying a tune, Finn couldn't help but smile. She was certainly something else, and he had missed her the last week, he hadn't even managed to drink her of his mind, and you couldn't accuse him off not having tried. He hadn't felt this bad for years, and like he always did, he had tried drinking away his sorrows. Finally Colin had enough, and sat him down for a serious talk.

"You know what scares me the most? The fact that you don't drag some stupid blonde with you home every night!" he had shouted "At least if you did that, I would know that it wouldn't take too long till you were back to normal."

"What ever that is." Finn had whispered under his, very whiskey smelling, breath.

"Shut the fuck up!" Colin never talked like that, and Finn had looked at him astonished. "You are my best fucking friend, and I don't want you to drink yourself to death, just because you're to big a chicken to apologize to the girl." Colin expounded.

Colin's words had gotten stuck in his mind, and he kept hearing them over and over. He didn't want to drink himself to death either, but the picture of her surprised and hurt face had roamed his every thought, and he knew no other way to get rid of it.

In the bathroom Rory finished getting dressed in pajama pants and a tank top, now having moved on to singing a medley of The Sundays songs. She heard loud knocking on the door.

"Would you shut up in there Gilmore, you could drive a perfectly sane person to pull a D-fens Forrester by whining like that."

Rory sniggered, and continued her singing, which earned her a frustrated scream from Paris. Rory danced through the door to her room, and immediately saw Finn sitting on her bed. She stopped dead in her tracks, and just stood there, waiting for him to say something.

"I err…" he stuttered "I'm so sorry."

He held something up in front of her, a tray of four coffee cups, and a bag from her favorite bakery.

"I brought peace offerings, its cherry Danish, that's your favorite right? I was hoping we could talk."

He looked just as terrible as she had done before her shower, his eyes were red and baggy, and he looked like he hadn't slept for days. And suddenly as she stood there looking at him she understood, that he had only flipped out to protect himself.

"It wasn't even because of me, was it?" she said it quietly while sitting down next to him.

"No," he looked at his own feet while answering her "That was just an excuse."

None of them spoke for a while, and then Finn handed her a cup of coffee.

"You must be the luckiest man alive," she said after taking a sip of her coffee.

He gave her a perplexed look, and she grinned.

"I decided to leave it up to the quality of the coffee weather or not I would forgive you."

He smiled at her for the first time since she had entered the room.

"And…?"

"Like I said you must be the luckiest man alive." she leaned in and kissed him lightly on the mouth "It's almost as good as Luke's."

He looked at her with a big smile before he captured her lips in his again. He knew that was the biggest compliment coffee could get from her.

AN - To those of you who don't know, D-fens Forrester is Michael Douglas' character in the movie 'Falling down'.