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For the whole of the next day Rory was in a daze. He was her boyfriend again. Her boyfriend and she would oscillate between wanting to laugh in happiness and die of terror. It was a good kind of terror though, like when she had got the job for the Obama campaign and was leaving the comfort of home, though this was different still. Rory had never felt this way before.

On Tuesday night, after work, Rory picked up her cellphone and felt a rush of guilt, seeing that her mother had called again and she had missed the call. She had intended to call but the last two days had just gone by so fast that it was almost as though she wasn't there, going through the motions of work while she was lost in the thought of her new development in her life.

Rory called her mother's number and Lorelai answered almost instantly.

"Rory! Where have you been?"

"I'm sorry, Mom."

"Kid, I called you three times! What's going on?"

"I talked to Jess," Rory said and her mother asked,

"And?" in an anxious voice.

"And...it went well," Rory said, trying to gage her mother's reaction. "Actually, not the first time round – we argued – but he came over and we made up and we spent the day together yesterday and we want to be together again, so...we are. We're together."

"As in really together?" Lorelai echoed and Rory agreed,

"Really together. We spent the whole day together yesterday and talked and even though we know it's a little weird we want to try. You have to try, right?"

"Right," agreed Lorelai, sounding a little bemused, and then she asked, "The whole day together? What about work? Did you have a holiday?"

"An unintentional one," Rory said, her face flooding red. "My alarm didn't go off and I woke up really late and I called but they wouldn't let me explain and said they had it under control so Jess and I spent it together."

"You took the day off work?" Lorelai exclaimed. "The entire day?"

"I didn't plan on it, it just sort of happened."

"That's not like you, Rory."

"Neither was me taking a day off school and getting a bus to New York!"

"That was in high school," her mother said, after a pause and Rory wanted to cry. The conversation was going completely wrong and she stared at the record she had bought her which she had been so excited to surprise her with. Maybe Lorelai wouldn't even want it now.

"It was one day, Mom," Rory said in a wobbly voice. "I'm never going to do it again and it was an accident."

"I know," Lorelai said, sounding suddenly guilty. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be like Emily about it."

"It's okay," sniffled Rory.

"So...you're together," Lorelai said again and Rory said,

"Yeah, we are. He's my boyfriend again."

Lorelai didn't say anything and Rory felt her heart sink.

"You're not happy for me, are you?"

"What?" Lorelai said. "Of course I am."

"No, you're not, don't lie to me Mom."

"It's just a shock," Lorelai said awkwardlyy. "I'm happy it went well. I'm happy that you're happy."

"You're not happy that I'm happy I'm with him."

"Rory!"

"I have to go, Mom," Rory said, determined to end the conversation before she started crying. "I'm sorry I forgot to call earlier."

"Oh Rory, I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you," Rory said quickly. "I have to go, I have something in the microwave."

"Okay," Lorelai said doubtfully. "I'll call tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Bye Mom. Love you."

"Love you too," Lorelai started to say but she was cut off halfway.

After the phonecall Lorelai sat on the sofa for a long time, the phone still in her hand. She felt horrible and thought that she should call her daughter back, but what could she say? Rory was right, she wasn't honestly happy and Lorelai didn't see how calling and telling her that would help anything.

Lorelai eventually got up and wandered into the kitchen for some marshmallows. She poured some into a bowl and covered them with chocolate sauce and landed on watching a bad movie and falling into a sugar coma. She was just trying to decide between an eighties thriller involving kids getting superpowers at the mall and an early nineties flick where a group of teenager from Ohios decided to form a grunge band to save the town hall when the phone rang, just as she had stuffed five marshmallows into her mouth.

"Worwy?"

"No, it's not Worwy," came Christopher's chuckle. "Who's that?"

"Chris?" asked Lorelai, gulping down the last of the marshmallows and licking her fingers.

"Yep. Is this Lorelai or Worwawai?"

"Oh, very funny. I had about five marshmallows stuffed in my mouth."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"I was hoping you'd be Rory," Lorelai said sadly and Christopher said,

"You hope that whenever I call, I'm feeling very unloved."

"You have a knack for always calling at the worst moment."

"The worst moment? What happened?"

"Nothing," Lorelai sighed, holding the phone between her shoulder and head and going into the kitchen to wash her hands. "We just had a fight."

"A fight?"

"Not really a fight. It wasn't anything, really."

"It was a fight," Christopher said knowingly. "What happened?"

Lorelai was silent for a moment, drying her hands.

"Lor? You still there?"

"She's back with Jess," she said eventually. "She called to tell me."

"Jess? That guy? That jerk she was with?"

"Oh Chris, you never even met him."

"He had sex with my daughter, he's automatically a jerk, plus the stuff you told me didn't exactly paint him in the best light."

"No. Well, it was a long time ago, I guess."

"You don't sound over-enthused."

"Yeah, well, you wouldn't either if you walked in and saw him in bed with your daughter."

"What?" Chris exclaimed. "You never told me that! If I'd caught him having sex with our teenage daughter he wouldn't have made it out of the room alive!"

"Not then, Chris! Now! Last week!"

"Last week?" Chris echoed, confused. "Lor, I'm really lost here. When I last saw Rory she was yelling at me in a way that'd do you proud about how they were just friends and it was none of my business and now you're calling and saying they're back together and that you saw them have sex."

"They stopped being just friends pretty quickly," Lorelai said, going and sitting back down. "I don't know the play-by-play but she went over to his, they ended up making out and then by the end of the week they were sleeping together, something I can verify and desperately trying to scrub out of my mind."

"Wow," Chris said after a pause. "How did you end up seeing that?"

"I went up to New York to surprise Rory and that definitely worked. I still feel nauseas thinking about it."

"You know how they say that's one of those things you'll laugh about in ten years time?" Chris asked after a pause. "Somehow I think that's not going to happen in this case."

"You read my mind."

"So they're back together?" Chris asked eventually. "When did this happen?"

"The other day. She skipped work and spent the day with him."

"She what?" Christopher exclaimed in disbelief. "You're kidding. Our daughter, skipping work?"

"I'm as serious as Straub was when you told him you weren't going into his business."

"That isn't Rory."

"She skipped school to see him once," Lorelai said. "Got a bus all the way to Manhattan in her uniform just to see him."

"I can't imagine Rory doing that."

"He seems to bring it out in her."

"Great, so our kid's going to let her career go down the drain because of him?"

"No," Lorelai said honestly. "That's a little far. I really don't think she'll ever do this again and as much as I'm less than fond of the guy he's not going to try and get her to goof off all the time. He likes that she's smart. I remember that – for hours I'd see them just talk about books, the same book, all day and she'd come home happy because he'd written notes in the margins for her."

"You know, I still can't wrap my head around how we made a kid who likes learning for fun," Christopher said after a pause and Lorelai laughed.

"You and me both. Both of us at sixteen made her?"

"You were smart enough to go to Yale, Lor, I know you were."

"Maybe. I don't know. Even if the small thing of becoming a mom hadn't gotten in the way I don't know if I'd have had the dedication. It was more fun riding in your car than studying."

"Riding in my car? You were the one driving it!"

"Oh, that's right!" said Lorelai with a laugh, but then she fell sober. "And now I'm like my mom and worrying about my daughter's relationship."

"And you're not turning cartwheels about it?"

"Not even a handstand," Lorelai said. "Go on, say it, I know you want to."

"I do. I knew it. I knew you hated him. I knew that stuff about being cool about it being ten years ago was a ruse."

"It wasn't a ruse!" Lorelai protested. "I don't want it to be a ruse! I don't want to be like this!"

"Be like what?"

"The kind of mother who doesn't forgive a guy for what he did as a teenager and doesn't trust her daughter's decisions!"

"Lor. You just want to look after her."

"Rory can look after herself."

"But you're still her mother," Christopher said and Lorelai bit her lip. "And she's still your daughter, our daughter."

"I know," Lorelai sighed. "And Chris, when you see her again, don't freak out, okay? Don't be a protective father."

"Lorelai!"

"Don't be crazily protective," Lorelai clarified. "Don't tell her you want to kill Jess or something."

"Rory doesn't care what I think."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is. Why should she? I failed her as a father."

"Oh, Chris. That's not true."

"It is."

"Maybe before, but not now."

"Now's too late," Christopher said. "She's all grown up."

"It's never too late, Chris. Rory will always want you to be her dad."

"She doesn't seem to think so," Christopher said miserably. "I don't even know anything about the guy she's with and how could I? I missed out on that part of her life."

"Chris," Lorelai said. She didn't know what to say. "Don't do this. You can't fix the past."

"I still want to."

"I know," Lorelai said gently. "I know."

Neither of them said anything for a moment and then Christopher said,

"Look, I'd better go, I need to check Gigi's homework."

"And make sure she isn't listening in?" grinned Lorelai. "You're a good dad to her, Chris."

"I hope so."

"You are."

"I try to be. Call me if you want to talk about it."

"I will."

"And Lor? If you want someone to go and punch that punk's lights out I'm your man."

Lorelai burst out laughing.

"He doesn't even have to have done something, I'll punch him for fun."

"I might take you up on that. Goodnight, Christopher."

"Goodnight, Lorelai."