Final Answers
By: ZLizabeth
DONE AT LAST!
Author's Note: Wow. Last chapter. Last chance to review. PLEASE DO! And another thing: I did not want to make this to much of an L/L, and so please don't attack with comments on that. Don't kill me. I just wanted to give a bit more flavoring to Lorelai's life in Stars Hollow after Rory left since I did do Lane's. And I know it's pathetic L/L writing, but bear with me, please. I am afraid I do not have the definite... passion... for L/L that I have for R/J. Not that I don't want Luke and Lorelai together. It's just I REALLY am a Literati, and I would not be that concerned if Lorelai does end up marrying Christopher (though I do hope she doesn't start things up with Max again. Did NOT like him).
Lane Kim ran a finger down the list of guests. The name under maid of honor had been hastily scribbled as "Lorelai Gilmore."
"Lane, why are you still awake?" Pete groaned, coming down into the kitchen and seeing his fiancé staring at their wedding plans under the dim light of a single lamp, "we're getting married in a week! You can't be staying up this late every night! You'll be falling asleep as you walk down the aisle!"
"This is important!" she said wearily, "I think..." she hesitated and looked up at Pete, as if she needed an answer from him on whatever was plaguing her.
"What is it?" he asked, sitting down next to her.
She stood up and began opening the cupboard doors, standing on her toes to search inside, "have you seen my blue address book? That old one from when I was seventeen with the picture of Eminem on the front?"
"Uh..." he opened up their freezer and pulled out something, "this one?"
She snatched it out of his fingers and brushed off ice, not at all caring about it's unusual location. She thumbed through it until she found the number.
Sitting down at the table, she took their phone and began to dial rapidly. Pete placed a hand on her shoulder, "what is it, Lane?"
"I just..." she smiled as the phone began to ring, "I think that I have the wrong Lorelai Gilmore as my maid of honor."
To say the least, her dear Pete was confused, "You don't want Lorelai Gilmore? But she's so..."
"She's just..." her voice faded off as the rings continued. To many rings. What if this wasn't her number any more? The tears returned to her eyes as she saw her best friend standing next to her fiancé, small and forcing a smile. Taking the cellphone Lorelai held out, "so I can talk to you anytime. It has to be on constantly..." Rory had just nodded, but taken it.
"But you said that she was like your other mother while you were growing up?" Pete was still blabbing. Poor guy never liked it when Lane went into one of her strange Gilmoresque periods of time - not answering questions, doing things that are seemingly out of nowhere, leaving sentences unfinished......
"Yes. But her daughter..." she had begun to answer but...
A voice came through on the other end. The same childish light voice that she hadn't heard since the day a few years ago at the bus stop, "Hello?"
Lane breathed out, "hi. Rory?"
Lorelai entered the diner with the most unusual craving for coffee.
"LUKE!" she called.
He didn't appear at the door. She entered anyway and sat at the counter, drumming her fingers until he almost fell down the stairs, rubbing his eyes.
He went to make coffee and didn't talk until she had downed her first mug, "why so late, Lorelai? Why always so late?"
"I think I've figured out why I like coffee so much," was her answer.
"Why?" he asked, yawning.
"Whenever I want coffee, something wonderful is happening somewhere in the world. Someone is intensely happy and that makes me want coffee. It's a great burden I carry, Luke. You just have to support the happy people in the world. Are you so selfish that you don't want them to be happy - even if it is at an odd hour?"
"That is one of the most unoriginal excuses you have ever come up with for wanting coffee."
"Well it's late," she said in defense of herself as he poured her more, "my brilliant mind has not begun it's brilliant thinking yet," she watched him for a moment, "Jess visited me the other day."
Luke's eyes snapped open, "what?"
"He borrowed my jeep."
"To...?"
"See Rory."
She never mentioned Rory. Luke's voice softened, "oh. Did you tell him..."
"About Dean? No."
"Ah."
"Ah is right. Now he's going to be miserable and in my carelessness and misery I have made another miserable!"
"You're miserable?"
She looked up at him, "aren't you?"
"Pretty much. Rory made you Lorelai. I think the absence of Lorelai is what's making me miserable."
She smiled at him and gave a snorted laugh into her coffee, "well, I'll admit that there was something that kept me from jumping off a bridge," he looked at her, "Luke..." she paused for a moment and studied the man who she had known for quite a long time that she loved. He loved her too. The man that kept from ever being in a real relationship except for the strange one she had with him. The relationship they had that was so strange yet perfect. She finished, "...'s coffee."
"I'm touched," silence, "I actually miss that kid."
"Suddenly opening the Rory door is opening lots of other doors?"
"You get to talk about your daughter, I get to talk about my nephew."
"Shall we cry together over our lost little kidlets?"
"I just wish..." obviously this conversation was not something Luke found easy, "I wish that... he liked me more," he shrugged, "but I don't care. I didn't love him like you loved Rory."
"Is that your final answer?" she asked.
"No," he admitted.
"He liked you, Luke."
"Sure."
She sighed, "I'm not going to continue this, since you're just fishing for sympathy."
"Lorelai, you know how you always felt you had something in Rory that was always there for you to love and loved you back, even when things weren't exactly jumping on top of tables and tap-dancing?" she bit her lip and nodded. That she missed.
"The unconditional love."
"Yea. I just felt like when I had a family member... someone younger... I might be able to have that someone who does love you and who you can love back because you care about them so much. And I fought for it so hard, but I guess I didn't do it right."
"He loved you, Luke. But Rory's a girl. Girls are allowed to love that. Bad boys aren't."
"There were a few times - when we were arguing - that I was actually scared of how much he understood me. I thought maybe that meant something. And when we stopped being mad, I just felt so happy that I had that tiny little fraction of love back in my life. And this sounds so wrong and I am never going to talk when I am half-asleep ever again."
"I love you, Luke."
She had always wondered what his reaction to that would be. But what he did now most definitely shocked her the most.
He smiled.
And then he opened his mouth to say it back but she interrupted, not sure how ready she was to hear it from him, "coffee! coffee! I think that two people in this world are very happy right now! I need coffee!"
He refilled the mug, "I wonder who they are."
Jess and Rory's eyes hadn't moved for what seemed like hours. She wanted to stay exactly as she was for a very long time more. This was different then anything. It was like sitting with her mother on the couch, not doing anything but basking in the other's presence. She had never done this with anyone else before. She hadn't thought it possible.
She wondered what would happen if she kissed him. Was she allowed to kiss him? Was this moment trying to tell her that the love between her and Jess should be the love of a brother and a sister. For with her mom she felt the sweet bonds of sisterhood... she wanted her head to shut up. She didn't care about what was right and wrong. She'd spent to much time in her life debating what the next move would be. She was content now to be with him - not watch or stare or smile at like she would with someone else, just *be* with - in a small diner in the middle of nowhere.
Her hand was still on top of his. The diner's radiator wasn't working, it seemed, and the only warmth she felt was the air in-between their hands. She didn't mind the cold as long as she had that precious oxegon hovering between her fingers and his.
And then her phone rang.
The sound made her jump slightly in her seat. It was coming from the small bag that she always carried - it usually just had the book that she slipped in when she woke up. It had no book now - just the little cellphone that her mother had given her... God knows how long ago. It was always on, but it had never rung before. She'd never even used it before. She'd forgotten a while ago that it was even there. She had notes on her mirror at home to charge it again, but it was only then that she remembered it.
Jess had raised an eyebrow. A "if you had a cellphone we could've called for help when we were lost" look was being directed at her. But it wasn't smug. It was more of - relief? That she hadn't realized, because then they wouldn't have come here and...
She grabbed the phone - ringing madly to the tune of "These Lazy Hazy Crazy Days". She gave a hollow laugh. So her mom had been trying to send her a message when she went away, trying to remind of her of that nightmarish festival, trying to make her realize something, or at least rethink her engagement to Bag Boy. To late for that. She pushed it against her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Rory?"
The voice was so familiar and it killed Rory that she couldn't remember it. She knew she should remember it. She didn't speak for a moment, and the door finally opened, and the memories flowed out.
"L-Lane?"
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hello."
"Hello..."
What was there to say? How are you? The friendship between the two girls had been strong - and then yanked away once Rory got on the bus to the airport.
A tear escaped her eye. Her voice left her and Jess reached across and wrapped his fingers around the phone. Her grip fell away and he spoke - the obvious concern for Rory in his voice - in her place.
"Hello Lane." The two elves had stopped their caroling to eavesdrop on their customers.
The surprised voice of the woman in Stars Hollow echoed throughout the silent diner, "who is *this*?"
"Guess."
"Jess?"
"Yes," Lane didn't speak. Rory wasn't looking in any particular direction. Her eyes stared ahead, unfocused and brimming with tears, at a plastic santa. He tried to end the dear reunion so that he could talk to her, "why did you call?"
"Well... I was... um..." the other voice in place of Rory's had obviously confused her, "wondering if Rory would like to be my maid of honor?"
"You're getting married?"
"Yea."
Rory snapped out of her trance. All she had been thinking about was how she had forgotten Lane's voice. And now Lane was married and she hadn't hear about it. She had told Lane about her first kiss and they had squealed together - but now she was married - a bit more important than first kiss - and she didn't know about it.
"When?" he was asking.
"Next Sunday."
"When should we be there?"
Rory looked up at him. There was the we again. She managed a smile.
"If you could be here in... about... two days?"
"Sure, we'll be there," he said quickly, "g-"
"Okay..." the disappointment in her voice made his worry for Rory dim for a second.
"Look, Lane, Rory's just not... feeling well. She'll call you tomorrow and you two can have your ya ya's."
"all right," that satisfied her, "goodbye Jess."
"Bye."
He handed the phone to Rory and she looked up. He looked at her. She didn't take the phone. To much looking. He wanted to talk to her but still, Rory and Jess just looked at each other. Forgiveness wasn't necessary right now. The precious air had flown away way Rory's hand had flown from Jess to her bag. The hardest thing, it seemed, was to start a conversation.
"So, where are we going to go from here?" Jess ignored the question at first. She had said we. Like it's natural. Like we exists now.
"I don't know," he quickly tried to cover up the pure lameness of that, "Stars Hollow?"
Rory caught her breath, "I don't know if I want to. I haven't been there in so long and I don't know how my mother would react to seeing me without Dean and I haven't spoken to anyone there in awhile and I'm afraid that she won't love me anymore," that came out fast.
He almost laughed. The idea of the two Gilmore's not being the most linked creatures on the earth, the idea of Lorelai not being as protective and loving as a lioness, the idea of Rory actually being able to escape their strange mother/daughter bond... that was lost on him. But Rory was actually crying - again.
She was crying and it tore him apart. His body had been scattered along the road from Salsville to Holiday 24/7 with her guilt-wrenching, soul-tearing tears.
But in a way her tears comforted him. It meant that he could jump through that open window and actually be able to hold her.
And that's what he did, "Rory, Lane wants you to be her maid of honor. I think that you should go. This means a lot to Lane."
Of course, just as she had turned to cry into his jacket, her cellphone rang again.
Honestly, it didn't shake him in the least. Fate had been against the idea of him and Rory for a long time. But who said Fate knew anything about anyone?
Rory leaned against him as she spoke. He pulled her close and smiled out into the woods, and at all the stupid hollow plastic Santa's with beanbag stomachs. Rory was his at this perfect perfect moment. And no matter how much destiny and the all-powerful forces of the universe tried to rip her away, he was going to hold on.
"Hello..." Rory's expression turned from that delicate, tired half-smile that had appeared when she let herself fall away from her "old life" into a mix of delight and shock,
"Lane?"
"Yes, it's me again. Rory, I miss you so much and you are NOT going to get away with not talking to me for a whole day! And where are you? And how are things? And why did Jess answer the phone? And why..."
He kissed the top of her head. And she tilted her face up and smiled. So it was Lane and two diner owners who had to maintain respectful silence for a minute while Rory and Jess had their third yet most official kiss.
The divorce of Rory Gilmore and Dean Hart [a/n: NAME PLEASE!] went quietly. Rory only had to see Dean once or twice, and every time she refused to let Jess stand behind her. She said it would be like rubbing it in that she had left him and that he wasn't good enough and that she thought Jess was better. For, she had told Jess, even though he was a strong factor in their third breakup, there were many other reasons that she and Dean were never going to work. And she was not going to flaunt all of them in his face.
Rory returned to Stars Hollow on the arm of one of the only deliliquent's the small town had ever known. It remained unchanged. Lane's was the perfect wedding. And the reunion of the Gilmore's was - to sum it up while leaving out many screams and laughs and tears - heartwarming. The most perfect Disney scene to end a movie.
Except that was not the end.
*~*~*~
For the story I have told you, oh reader that will never be, is mainly about me. Though I'll admit that I can never hope to be as important in Rory's life as Lorelai, I am quite a prominent figure. The loud whispers that had been centered around the relationship of the two town bookworms had been on hold for five years. Once Rory was seen standing next to me, it was if we'd never left. The blood of the gossip topic began circulating and Rory was left to smile at me sideways.
Thank God the Stars Hollow Folk had some respect. The Bag Boy subject was not mentioned in front of Rory, save for some midnight talks between the mother and daughter (on which I did not eavesdrop, but simply know of because... well, it's really none of your business).
I visited Luke a day after Lane's wedding. I'll admit mine were not the most honorable intentions - I needed a place to sleep and I was basically going to beg it from him. But he offered it to me almost right away. I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought. Or maybe it's just some family thing. I haven't had to much of a family and I guess I wasn't sure exactly what the strange relationship Luke and I had could be defined as. Normal? Abnormal? I find it doesn't matter. We are both fine with it.
I loved Rory about a day into knowing her. And I love her more today. Thank God (again) that no one will ever read this, as it would not be good for my aging heart if I knew such junk from me was loose in the general public.
I see her every day. Every day I am the one who gets to brush her hair out of her face and kiss her.
But still I end every night by Writing To Rory, while she sleeps about two feet away from my desk.
THE END
***Okay, you must review! Even though it is short and bad and rushed, I still would love to hear it! PLEASE!
Oh, and did you notice for all the kisses she was STILL with Dean? I wonder if that's how it's going to be in the upcoming episodes... another "thing" with Jess while she's still with Dean. Okay, so I know, I read the spoilers. But maybe you don't so I won't wreck it! And that is a real question I had before I read the spoilers! May be true, may not be...
Oh, and please review!
By: ZLizabeth
DONE AT LAST!
Author's Note: Wow. Last chapter. Last chance to review. PLEASE DO! And another thing: I did not want to make this to much of an L/L, and so please don't attack with comments on that. Don't kill me. I just wanted to give a bit more flavoring to Lorelai's life in Stars Hollow after Rory left since I did do Lane's. And I know it's pathetic L/L writing, but bear with me, please. I am afraid I do not have the definite... passion... for L/L that I have for R/J. Not that I don't want Luke and Lorelai together. It's just I REALLY am a Literati, and I would not be that concerned if Lorelai does end up marrying Christopher (though I do hope she doesn't start things up with Max again. Did NOT like him).
Lane Kim ran a finger down the list of guests. The name under maid of honor had been hastily scribbled as "Lorelai Gilmore."
"Lane, why are you still awake?" Pete groaned, coming down into the kitchen and seeing his fiancé staring at their wedding plans under the dim light of a single lamp, "we're getting married in a week! You can't be staying up this late every night! You'll be falling asleep as you walk down the aisle!"
"This is important!" she said wearily, "I think..." she hesitated and looked up at Pete, as if she needed an answer from him on whatever was plaguing her.
"What is it?" he asked, sitting down next to her.
She stood up and began opening the cupboard doors, standing on her toes to search inside, "have you seen my blue address book? That old one from when I was seventeen with the picture of Eminem on the front?"
"Uh..." he opened up their freezer and pulled out something, "this one?"
She snatched it out of his fingers and brushed off ice, not at all caring about it's unusual location. She thumbed through it until she found the number.
Sitting down at the table, she took their phone and began to dial rapidly. Pete placed a hand on her shoulder, "what is it, Lane?"
"I just..." she smiled as the phone began to ring, "I think that I have the wrong Lorelai Gilmore as my maid of honor."
To say the least, her dear Pete was confused, "You don't want Lorelai Gilmore? But she's so..."
"She's just..." her voice faded off as the rings continued. To many rings. What if this wasn't her number any more? The tears returned to her eyes as she saw her best friend standing next to her fiancé, small and forcing a smile. Taking the cellphone Lorelai held out, "so I can talk to you anytime. It has to be on constantly..." Rory had just nodded, but taken it.
"But you said that she was like your other mother while you were growing up?" Pete was still blabbing. Poor guy never liked it when Lane went into one of her strange Gilmoresque periods of time - not answering questions, doing things that are seemingly out of nowhere, leaving sentences unfinished......
"Yes. But her daughter..." she had begun to answer but...
A voice came through on the other end. The same childish light voice that she hadn't heard since the day a few years ago at the bus stop, "Hello?"
Lane breathed out, "hi. Rory?"
Lorelai entered the diner with the most unusual craving for coffee.
"LUKE!" she called.
He didn't appear at the door. She entered anyway and sat at the counter, drumming her fingers until he almost fell down the stairs, rubbing his eyes.
He went to make coffee and didn't talk until she had downed her first mug, "why so late, Lorelai? Why always so late?"
"I think I've figured out why I like coffee so much," was her answer.
"Why?" he asked, yawning.
"Whenever I want coffee, something wonderful is happening somewhere in the world. Someone is intensely happy and that makes me want coffee. It's a great burden I carry, Luke. You just have to support the happy people in the world. Are you so selfish that you don't want them to be happy - even if it is at an odd hour?"
"That is one of the most unoriginal excuses you have ever come up with for wanting coffee."
"Well it's late," she said in defense of herself as he poured her more, "my brilliant mind has not begun it's brilliant thinking yet," she watched him for a moment, "Jess visited me the other day."
Luke's eyes snapped open, "what?"
"He borrowed my jeep."
"To...?"
"See Rory."
She never mentioned Rory. Luke's voice softened, "oh. Did you tell him..."
"About Dean? No."
"Ah."
"Ah is right. Now he's going to be miserable and in my carelessness and misery I have made another miserable!"
"You're miserable?"
She looked up at him, "aren't you?"
"Pretty much. Rory made you Lorelai. I think the absence of Lorelai is what's making me miserable."
She smiled at him and gave a snorted laugh into her coffee, "well, I'll admit that there was something that kept me from jumping off a bridge," he looked at her, "Luke..." she paused for a moment and studied the man who she had known for quite a long time that she loved. He loved her too. The man that kept from ever being in a real relationship except for the strange one she had with him. The relationship they had that was so strange yet perfect. She finished, "...'s coffee."
"I'm touched," silence, "I actually miss that kid."
"Suddenly opening the Rory door is opening lots of other doors?"
"You get to talk about your daughter, I get to talk about my nephew."
"Shall we cry together over our lost little kidlets?"
"I just wish..." obviously this conversation was not something Luke found easy, "I wish that... he liked me more," he shrugged, "but I don't care. I didn't love him like you loved Rory."
"Is that your final answer?" she asked.
"No," he admitted.
"He liked you, Luke."
"Sure."
She sighed, "I'm not going to continue this, since you're just fishing for sympathy."
"Lorelai, you know how you always felt you had something in Rory that was always there for you to love and loved you back, even when things weren't exactly jumping on top of tables and tap-dancing?" she bit her lip and nodded. That she missed.
"The unconditional love."
"Yea. I just felt like when I had a family member... someone younger... I might be able to have that someone who does love you and who you can love back because you care about them so much. And I fought for it so hard, but I guess I didn't do it right."
"He loved you, Luke. But Rory's a girl. Girls are allowed to love that. Bad boys aren't."
"There were a few times - when we were arguing - that I was actually scared of how much he understood me. I thought maybe that meant something. And when we stopped being mad, I just felt so happy that I had that tiny little fraction of love back in my life. And this sounds so wrong and I am never going to talk when I am half-asleep ever again."
"I love you, Luke."
She had always wondered what his reaction to that would be. But what he did now most definitely shocked her the most.
He smiled.
And then he opened his mouth to say it back but she interrupted, not sure how ready she was to hear it from him, "coffee! coffee! I think that two people in this world are very happy right now! I need coffee!"
He refilled the mug, "I wonder who they are."
Jess and Rory's eyes hadn't moved for what seemed like hours. She wanted to stay exactly as she was for a very long time more. This was different then anything. It was like sitting with her mother on the couch, not doing anything but basking in the other's presence. She had never done this with anyone else before. She hadn't thought it possible.
She wondered what would happen if she kissed him. Was she allowed to kiss him? Was this moment trying to tell her that the love between her and Jess should be the love of a brother and a sister. For with her mom she felt the sweet bonds of sisterhood... she wanted her head to shut up. She didn't care about what was right and wrong. She'd spent to much time in her life debating what the next move would be. She was content now to be with him - not watch or stare or smile at like she would with someone else, just *be* with - in a small diner in the middle of nowhere.
Her hand was still on top of his. The diner's radiator wasn't working, it seemed, and the only warmth she felt was the air in-between their hands. She didn't mind the cold as long as she had that precious oxegon hovering between her fingers and his.
And then her phone rang.
The sound made her jump slightly in her seat. It was coming from the small bag that she always carried - it usually just had the book that she slipped in when she woke up. It had no book now - just the little cellphone that her mother had given her... God knows how long ago. It was always on, but it had never rung before. She'd never even used it before. She'd forgotten a while ago that it was even there. She had notes on her mirror at home to charge it again, but it was only then that she remembered it.
Jess had raised an eyebrow. A "if you had a cellphone we could've called for help when we were lost" look was being directed at her. But it wasn't smug. It was more of - relief? That she hadn't realized, because then they wouldn't have come here and...
She grabbed the phone - ringing madly to the tune of "These Lazy Hazy Crazy Days". She gave a hollow laugh. So her mom had been trying to send her a message when she went away, trying to remind of her of that nightmarish festival, trying to make her realize something, or at least rethink her engagement to Bag Boy. To late for that. She pushed it against her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Rory?"
The voice was so familiar and it killed Rory that she couldn't remember it. She knew she should remember it. She didn't speak for a moment, and the door finally opened, and the memories flowed out.
"L-Lane?"
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hello."
"Hello..."
What was there to say? How are you? The friendship between the two girls had been strong - and then yanked away once Rory got on the bus to the airport.
A tear escaped her eye. Her voice left her and Jess reached across and wrapped his fingers around the phone. Her grip fell away and he spoke - the obvious concern for Rory in his voice - in her place.
"Hello Lane." The two elves had stopped their caroling to eavesdrop on their customers.
The surprised voice of the woman in Stars Hollow echoed throughout the silent diner, "who is *this*?"
"Guess."
"Jess?"
"Yes," Lane didn't speak. Rory wasn't looking in any particular direction. Her eyes stared ahead, unfocused and brimming with tears, at a plastic santa. He tried to end the dear reunion so that he could talk to her, "why did you call?"
"Well... I was... um..." the other voice in place of Rory's had obviously confused her, "wondering if Rory would like to be my maid of honor?"
"You're getting married?"
"Yea."
Rory snapped out of her trance. All she had been thinking about was how she had forgotten Lane's voice. And now Lane was married and she hadn't hear about it. She had told Lane about her first kiss and they had squealed together - but now she was married - a bit more important than first kiss - and she didn't know about it.
"When?" he was asking.
"Next Sunday."
"When should we be there?"
Rory looked up at him. There was the we again. She managed a smile.
"If you could be here in... about... two days?"
"Sure, we'll be there," he said quickly, "g-"
"Okay..." the disappointment in her voice made his worry for Rory dim for a second.
"Look, Lane, Rory's just not... feeling well. She'll call you tomorrow and you two can have your ya ya's."
"all right," that satisfied her, "goodbye Jess."
"Bye."
He handed the phone to Rory and she looked up. He looked at her. She didn't take the phone. To much looking. He wanted to talk to her but still, Rory and Jess just looked at each other. Forgiveness wasn't necessary right now. The precious air had flown away way Rory's hand had flown from Jess to her bag. The hardest thing, it seemed, was to start a conversation.
"So, where are we going to go from here?" Jess ignored the question at first. She had said we. Like it's natural. Like we exists now.
"I don't know," he quickly tried to cover up the pure lameness of that, "Stars Hollow?"
Rory caught her breath, "I don't know if I want to. I haven't been there in so long and I don't know how my mother would react to seeing me without Dean and I haven't spoken to anyone there in awhile and I'm afraid that she won't love me anymore," that came out fast.
He almost laughed. The idea of the two Gilmore's not being the most linked creatures on the earth, the idea of Lorelai not being as protective and loving as a lioness, the idea of Rory actually being able to escape their strange mother/daughter bond... that was lost on him. But Rory was actually crying - again.
She was crying and it tore him apart. His body had been scattered along the road from Salsville to Holiday 24/7 with her guilt-wrenching, soul-tearing tears.
But in a way her tears comforted him. It meant that he could jump through that open window and actually be able to hold her.
And that's what he did, "Rory, Lane wants you to be her maid of honor. I think that you should go. This means a lot to Lane."
Of course, just as she had turned to cry into his jacket, her cellphone rang again.
Honestly, it didn't shake him in the least. Fate had been against the idea of him and Rory for a long time. But who said Fate knew anything about anyone?
Rory leaned against him as she spoke. He pulled her close and smiled out into the woods, and at all the stupid hollow plastic Santa's with beanbag stomachs. Rory was his at this perfect perfect moment. And no matter how much destiny and the all-powerful forces of the universe tried to rip her away, he was going to hold on.
"Hello..." Rory's expression turned from that delicate, tired half-smile that had appeared when she let herself fall away from her "old life" into a mix of delight and shock,
"Lane?"
"Yes, it's me again. Rory, I miss you so much and you are NOT going to get away with not talking to me for a whole day! And where are you? And how are things? And why did Jess answer the phone? And why..."
He kissed the top of her head. And she tilted her face up and smiled. So it was Lane and two diner owners who had to maintain respectful silence for a minute while Rory and Jess had their third yet most official kiss.
The divorce of Rory Gilmore and Dean Hart [a/n: NAME PLEASE!] went quietly. Rory only had to see Dean once or twice, and every time she refused to let Jess stand behind her. She said it would be like rubbing it in that she had left him and that he wasn't good enough and that she thought Jess was better. For, she had told Jess, even though he was a strong factor in their third breakup, there were many other reasons that she and Dean were never going to work. And she was not going to flaunt all of them in his face.
Rory returned to Stars Hollow on the arm of one of the only deliliquent's the small town had ever known. It remained unchanged. Lane's was the perfect wedding. And the reunion of the Gilmore's was - to sum it up while leaving out many screams and laughs and tears - heartwarming. The most perfect Disney scene to end a movie.
Except that was not the end.
*~*~*~
For the story I have told you, oh reader that will never be, is mainly about me. Though I'll admit that I can never hope to be as important in Rory's life as Lorelai, I am quite a prominent figure. The loud whispers that had been centered around the relationship of the two town bookworms had been on hold for five years. Once Rory was seen standing next to me, it was if we'd never left. The blood of the gossip topic began circulating and Rory was left to smile at me sideways.
Thank God the Stars Hollow Folk had some respect. The Bag Boy subject was not mentioned in front of Rory, save for some midnight talks between the mother and daughter (on which I did not eavesdrop, but simply know of because... well, it's really none of your business).
I visited Luke a day after Lane's wedding. I'll admit mine were not the most honorable intentions - I needed a place to sleep and I was basically going to beg it from him. But he offered it to me almost right away. I guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought. Or maybe it's just some family thing. I haven't had to much of a family and I guess I wasn't sure exactly what the strange relationship Luke and I had could be defined as. Normal? Abnormal? I find it doesn't matter. We are both fine with it.
I loved Rory about a day into knowing her. And I love her more today. Thank God (again) that no one will ever read this, as it would not be good for my aging heart if I knew such junk from me was loose in the general public.
I see her every day. Every day I am the one who gets to brush her hair out of her face and kiss her.
But still I end every night by Writing To Rory, while she sleeps about two feet away from my desk.
THE END
***Okay, you must review! Even though it is short and bad and rushed, I still would love to hear it! PLEASE!
Oh, and did you notice for all the kisses she was STILL with Dean? I wonder if that's how it's going to be in the upcoming episodes... another "thing" with Jess while she's still with Dean. Okay, so I know, I read the spoilers. But maybe you don't so I won't wreck it! And that is a real question I had before I read the spoilers! May be true, may not be...
Oh, and please review!