Rory cautiously padded upstairs to her mother's bedroom. It was much darker up here than it was downstairs. Lorelai had kept the shades drawn for the past week, ensuring that the room was constantly cast in a gloomy pall. Rory could only imagine how the ambiance could help her mother's already forlorn personality. She crossed the room and lifted the straw colored blinds, allowing the sunlight to shine stubbornly through the gauzy white curtains and onto an obstinate Lorelai.

"Rory," she groaned, "Come on, pull the shades back down."

"I don't think so, Mom," she called cheerily, "You've been in the dark long enough. It's time you saw the sun."

"No," she retorted petulantly as she shoved her head under the covers.

"Anyway," she said in a business-like town as she arranged the sunflowers next to her mother's bed, "I have some messages for you, so I thought you'd like to hear them."

"You thought wrong," she groaned again.

"Grandma called," she paused for a moment to allow for yet another groan to escape from beneath the pillow situated on top of Lorelai's head, "She wanted to give you another chance to take her up on her offer to hire a home-care nurse to come and help us out here."

"Next!" she called from underneath the pillows. She had been rejecting that request since the very moment it was announced that she could go home.

"Grandpa called as well." She noticed that Lorelai had begun to poke her head out from underneath the pillow in curiosity. "It turns out that Grandma was just recently arrested for Driving While Intoxicated, and while she most certainly was not intoxicated, he imagined that the thought would make you laugh."

Rory was relieved to see a slight smile lift her mother's face for the first time in months. "Yeah," she said amusedly, "Now that is funny."

"Sookie called. Remember the Haddelstats? They stayed at our house when the Independence Inn caught fire, remember? Well, they are staying at the Dragonfly and wanted to say hi, so 'hi'. And Luke called…" She instantly noticed her mother's bright face cloud over and darken. "He just wanted to check on you. I think he's feeling a little lonely. April is staying with a friend while Anna is out in New Mexico taking care of her mom."

She had said too much, and she knew it. She had thought it would be a good idea for Luke to call every now and then, so it didn't seem as if he were getting his information elsewhere. Perhaps it had been her mention of April and Anna that had sent Lorelai over the edge. Rory noticed the stubborn set of her jaw and how her eyes clouded over with melancholy obscurity. There was also a trace of- was that fear? Why?

"Mom," she said softly, "I really think it's time you stop shutting yourself up like this. You need to see other people."

"I'm sorry, are we breaking up?" Lorelai asked.

The hint of humor in her mother's voice lifted Rory's spirits. "Ha ha," she replied. "Listen, I know you don't feel like it, but I don't think it's good for you push away the people you love. The town loves you so much, Mom, and they want to see you and support you in this. And don't forget Luke- it's killing him to stay away from you like this. He's not doing so well, Mom. Lane says…"

Lorelai interrupted, "Rory, stop."

But Rory had already gathered up momentum. The emotions that had been building and festering had now been loosed upon her mother like a dam that had broken. The torrent of frustration, anger, and feeling of abandonment that had spent weeks welling up within her had finally broken through the walls and were now washing away every distraction in her path. "No!" she cried. "I'm not going to stop! Why are you doing this to him? Why are you pushing him away? Why won't you talk to me? We used to be so close, Mom, what happened? Why did you do this to yourself?"

"I told you, there was a pair of skinny jeans on sale at the mall. They were just so cute and I though Mary Kate's method was the fastest way to get them," she replied hysterically.

Lorelai's meager attempt at diffusing the situation with humor was no match for Rory's cataclysmic outburst. "Come on, Mom! I'm not four anymore! I know that skinny jeans is not the answer."

"Well, it's the only answer you're going to get," she retorted, this time with more venom in her voice. "I don't want to talk about this, Rory. And shouldn't you be starting school soon? Why aren't you starting to move your stuff back into Logan's apartment?"

"Come on, Mom. You know I can't go back to school with you like this."

Lorelai cut her off before she could say any more, "I'll be fine, Rory. You go back to school. You're already behind from the semester you took off last year."

"You know I can't leave you like this. You can barely even sit up on your own, let alone get out of bed. You refuse to see hardly anyone, and even when you do, your sullen attitude scares everyone away."

Lorelai gripped the sheets in frustration. "I'm the mom! I make the rules! When I tell you to do something, you should do it. Why can't I be left alone? I don't need to be babysat like I'm a toddler!"

"That may have been true before you decided to kill yourself when you broke up with your boyfriend. It's obvious that we have to watch your every move since it's apparent that you have nothing else to live for!"

"How can you say that? Of course I have other things to live for! I still have Luke as a friend. I have you and Paul Anka!" she cried as she patted the dog lying next to her.

"Well, none of that seemed to make a difference the first time around, and you're starting to do it again. You know, you keep forgetting your part in the whole ultimatum confrontation. You were getting close to him, you wanted to marry him, and when things started going wrong, you didn't say a word! You waited until the very last second and expected him to run off with you that very second or you were going to leave him. We all know it wasn't just about you getting hurt, it was your own way of bolting without making it look like you were running away from him. If you had really wanted the situation resolved, you would have told him how you felt, you would have warned him that he was in danger of losing you and at least given him a couple of days to figure out how to handle it."

Rory had been pacing throughout this speech, gesticulating wildly. Paul Anka had watched her walk back and forth, moving his head in time with her pacing. He had just begun to feel a little queasy when she had stopped. Turning her heated gaze toward Lorelai, Rory pointed an accusatory finger in her mother's direction and continued.

"And now you're doing the same thing to him again. You're getting too close to him. You love him too much. So what do you do? Instead of marrying him like any normal person in the world, you decide to break up with him. And I'm not enough for you to live for, Mom. I wasn't enough the first time around. You just decided that you'd leave, and never mind how your daughter felt."

Lorelai inhaled sharply. So this was the explanation for Rory's behavior these past two weeks. Her frozen heart melted at the sight of her beloved daughter in tears before her. She held out her arms and allowed Rory to climb into them like she did when she was still small and living in the potting shed at the Independence Inn.

"Rory, honey, I didn't know that was how you felt. You know that you're more than enough of a reason for me to stick around, don't you? I was just wallowing, you know how it is, and I took it a little too far. I didn't mean for it to get this bad." Lorelai felt that omitting the details that she had given Luke would be best. Despite what her daughter said, she was still young, and didn't need to know the gory details of her mother's failures. "And then I sort of lost my mind- I drove myself insane. I wasn't myself." She let a shudder run through her as the memory of her cutting up Luke's to-go cups flashed across her mind. "I love you so much, Sweets, and I'm not going anywhere. That reigning Lorelai cape and crown is still mine for the time being. Don't worry about me, and go to school."

Rory sniffled and looked innocently up into her mother's still sallow face. This was the moment. Either she conceded now by making her terms known or she would never have this chance again. She pulled herself off the bed and stood beside it, taking in a deep breath for reassurance.

"All right, you win. I'll go back to school. On one condition: Luke has to come over and take care of you in my place."

She quickly turned and exited the room before her mother could get in another word.