Just a timeline shot here: this is when Jess is 16, Rory just turned 14 in October, and this is set in December.

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She knew the morning routine like the back of her hand. Like always, she set the table with three bowls, spoons, and cups. Setting the two different cereal boxes in the middle of the table, she reached in the fridge to grab the gallon of milk. Pulling it out and seeing that there wasn't enough for all three of them to have cereal, she set the carton on the table and turned around to pull out the pan to make her a small thing of oatmeal.

Coughing a little as she reached up to grab the canister of oatmeal, she thought it was probably better anyway that she not have the dairy from the milk which would only create more problems later on. The last time she had milk with her cereal, she coughed so much more than she usually did, and, from what she read online, the dairy just added to congestion and it was recommended that someone with a cold avoid dairy. So she would eat oatmeal anyway.

She heard footsteps behind her and then someone slide into the chair. Neither one of her children were really morning people, so she didn't even bother to turn around but just said a cheerful, "Good morning" to which Jess responded with a mumble of something she couldn't understand. Filling the pan with a little water, she flipped the burner on the stove and grabbed one of the oranges from the fruit bowl to cut for the three of them while she waited for the water to boil.

"How was work, Mom?" Jess asked, as he poured the granola into his bowl. "By the way, we're out of cereal after this, just so you know." He stood up and went to throw the box away in the trashcan that was under the sink.

She had covered it up as much as possible. The bruised eye was a little bit hard, but she had gotten that. It was the split lip that was going to cause her problems with the kids because that was much harder to hide.

"Mom!" Jess exclaimed as he looked up at her face. His brown eyes were wide and his mouth fell open for a second before he asked, "What happened?"

This almost hurt worse than the beating had last night. She knew she deserved it. She knew that she hadn't fulfilled her end of the bargain – giving the man a nice time in the limo – that was all she was asked to do. But instead she had given him ammunition to yell at Oscar and talk shit about the business that Oscar was running. So, of course that had been the recourse. She hadn't done what had been promised to the customer. So the beating, although the pain was still there in her mind, had been brought on by herself.

But the pain on Jess' face was the hardest things to see. Because he had seen her bruised before. Not on her face – but Chris had more than once left marks on her arms and legs when he was drunk and angry. So this child knew what pain on his mother looked like. But she hated to see him like that.

Of course, at the moment Jess had looked at her in surprise, Rory had walked into the kitchen, and also looked up and saw her mother's face. "What the hell?"

Always the mother no matter what the situation, Lorelai corrected her daughter. "Rory. Please don't cuss." She tired so much with Rory's mouth – nothing ever seemed to get through to that girl.

Rory sat down hard in her chair, facing Lorelai, and again asked, "Well, I mean, what the heaven happened to your face?"

Ignoring her daughter's smart remark, Lorelai took a deep breath. She had already rehearsed the lie she would tell to protect her children from worry. "Two guys at the bar got drunk and started fighting." Waving her hands to signal the passage of time, she said, "One thing led to another, and when we were trying to get them out of the bar, the one drunk dude mistook me for the other fat drunk dude, which, come on," She gestured to her body, "…is a little insulting, if you ask me." Trying to keep the situation light, she then said, "Long story short, I have a little bit of a bruised face that should be one another guy's face, but I think I may be able to get him to pay me for the damage."

Rory just smiled a little, saying, "What's it feel like, Mom, getting mistaken for a fat, drunk guy?" She reached for the cereal, and then said, "Jess, really? You left me with the raisin bran?"

"You can have mine if you want it." Jess said, his attention not having left Lorelai's face since he had seen the bruises.

He knew she was lying to him. But she couldn't. She would not talk about this with him. No. Not now. And probably, not ever. After what happened the night before? No.

He reached forward to touch her lip, concern on his face, but Lorelai turned her attention back to the now boiling water and added in the oatmeal, stirring. Letting the steam rise and cloud her face, she was thankful when she saw him turn and go back to the table. Right now, she couldn't handle him being worried about her. She had to be strong right now. Because there were some decisions that were coming up that she had to make that she knew weren't going to fly with almost everyone in her life.

Spooning the liquid into the bowl sitting next to her, she grabbed the orange slices and brought them to the table. Skillful at changing the subject, she said, "So, it's your last day of school for the year! Are you excited?"

Jess just nodded, studying his face from where he sat across the table.

Rory, on the other hand, was more vocal and said, "God, I am so ready to be done with this semester." Then she looked at Lorelai nervously. "You're not sending us to Grandma and Grandpa's again next summer, are you?"

She just couldn't lie to her kids twice in the space of five minutes. So she walked around the truth. "I'm not sure yet what we're going to do this summer."

The response from her daughter was a loud huff and an eye roll before she said, "Oh, great. Yet another summer spent in a small town with stupid people who know everyone's business and can't take a joke."

Jess jumped in, "Rory, I don't think toilet papering the gazebo the night before the summer festival was exactly their view of a joke."

Lorelai's mouth fell open at this new revelation. "What?" She exclaimed, "You did what?"

"Oh, please." She said through a mouth full of cereal, "It was just a few rolls."

Lorelai looked at Jess, who shook his head and said, "You used almost fifty rolls, Rory."

She really hoped that Rory hadn't turned the town against them before they even moved there. Blowing on her oatmeal before she took a bite, she asked Jess, "Did you like staying with your grandparents?" She set the bite in her mouth and tried to swallow, but a coughing attack hit her, causing her to grab her napkin and cover her mouth.

Her entire body shook, sending pain from last night and from the prolonged coughing, and she gasped for breath when she was finished, folding her napkin and setting it in her lap. She wouldn't look.

But before Jess had a chance to answer, Rory pushed away from the table, and stood up to her feet, eyes blazing with anger at something that Lorelai had said. "So you ARE going to send us back there!"

Lorelai tried to tell her daughter that it wasn't that way at all. But Rory wouldn't let her as she continued on her tirade. "I thought that now we were old enough to stay by ourselves." Stomping her foot like a toddler not getting her way, she yelled, "I won't go. You can't make me."

Lorelai opened her mouth to correct her daughter. To even try and explain. But another coughing fit overtook her, and she reached for Rory's napkin to cover her mouth as she sat there, body shaking as she coughed, throat burning, eyes watering, trying just to take a breath again.

As that happened, Rory reached down, grabbed her backpack, and was halfway out the door when Lorelai squeaked out, "Rory…" But her voice choked as she finished coughing, giving Rory the chance to walk completely out the door and slam it hard.

Setting her elbows on the table, still holding her hand over her mouth as she coughed, she gestured to Jess and to the door. He looked at her confused, and when she caught her breath enough, she said, "Go walk to school with your sister."

"Mom, I don't …"

She knew he was going to finish that statement with "want to leave you" and she just couldn't talk with him about what happened. Swallowing against her raw throat, she whispered, "I don't want her walking alone." Taking a sip of water, she then said in a normal tone, "Please, Jess. Just go with her."

Grudgingly, he got up from the table, grabbed his book bag and walked out of the door, but not before saying, "I want to talk with you later."

Nodding her head, anything just to get him out of the door, she was so thankful to see that door closed as she started coughing again. This time, she didn't cover her mouth with a napkin to hide how sick she really was from the kids. Instead she coughed like she was sure a lung was going to fly out of her mouth. But the only thing that hit her hand that was over her mouth was blood. Dark, red, blood. She could feel it not only on her hand, but dribbling out of her mouth as she tried her hardest to stop. The taste of copper in her mouth wasn't an abnormal taste now, not after having this for almost three weeks.

Once her body decided that she got to keep her lungs, no matter how hard they were trying to destroy her, she managed to take another sip of water, which helped her throat not feel like barbed wire was lining it. Setting the glass down, she knew she should be more startled at the blood on the rim from where her mouth had just been. And she knew that the handprint of blood on the outside of the glass should have shocked her.

But the only thing right now that was shocking her was that she was still alive. That this bleeding in her lungs – this coughing hadn't killed her. Just from the sheer amount of blood she was losing each time she coughed – that was enough to scare her. But also, after coughing blood all over the customer last night, she was surprised that she was still alive after what he had done to her.

Lorelai reasoned to herself as she reached for her cell phone in the pocket of her robe – she reasoned that if she was still alive, she had to try and stay that way. She had to get away from this place that was trying to kill her. And she had only one alternative.

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"Hello?" Camille answered, surprised to have seen that it was Lorelai calling her. At seven thirty in the morning. Of course she had been up, fixing breakfast, but just to hear from Lorelai this early wasn't normal.

She had always loved hearing Lorelai's voice. It was sweet and kind, although she couldn't remember a time when the young woman hadn't sounded tired. But there was always a goodness about Lorelai's voice.

But as she listened to Lorelai's voice, she knew that something was wrong. Not just because of the tone of her voice, or the words she was saying, but because she sounded so sick.

"Camille. I hope I didn't wake you…"

"You didn't. I've been up for a while" Unable to get the sound of the girl's voice out of her head, she asked, "Lorelai, are you feeling alright? You sound…"

"I've got a cold. One that keeps hanging on." Camille realized Lorelai was almost whispering. "I think I've just about lost my voice."

Camille knew the answer when she asked it, but she had to know. "Have you seen a doctor?" She knew times for the girl were tough, with raising two teenagers and being a single mom. So, of course, the first thing to go would be Lorelai's health.

"I haven't yet."

"Lorelai…" She cautioned, "You have to take care of yourself." She knew this woman gave up so much for her children. Although Camille loved her grandchildren, this woman had come into their lives and she loved her just as much. She was like a second daughter to them. And to hear her sound so tired and sick – it was hard for Camille too.

She heard Lorelai take a deep breath and said, "Well, that's what I have to talk to you about."