Author's Note: Should be two more chapters. Hopefully I'll be done in the next week or two.
*
Lorelai was fidgeting. Luke was busy at the other side of the diner, and she had nobody to harass. She glanced around again, and then pouted at Rory.
"Do something!"
"Do what?"
"I don't know. Entertain me."
"With what, the ketchup?"
"Ketchup is funny. All ketchupy and gloopy and — red."
"I can't wait until school starts again."
"So you'll hear real words?"
"That too. I want to get back to work."
"I don't know where you get these things."
"It just feels like I'm killing time."
"That's the point. You have time to kill."
"To waste. It's boring now."
Lorelai gasped. "Do not speak ill of the holiday. The holiday is holy."
"I feel like I'm just waiting for things to happen. I want them to happen now. I want to make them happen."
"Oh, you have so much to learn. I still have so much knowledge to impart. I feel wise."
"I'm sitting around doing nothing."
"I wish I had a camera. Not that it would do any good, because a picture wouldn't capture the hilarity of your words. Huh. I thought I'd taught you to avoid work as much as possible. You know, with the take-out always."
"Fires scare me."
"And you haven't been doing nothing. You've been doing whatever it is you do with Jess, ready to tell me?"
"No."
"Darn. And you've made a lot of money, and seen Lane a lot, and you're friends with Tristan again. How is that nothing?"
Luke was looking over, plates of food cooling in his hands. Rory would have loved to think he was staring at her mother.
*
When Lorelai burst into the house, Rory was holed up in her bedroom, ignoring Jess' calls. The scream was ear-splitting.
"Rory!"
"What?"
"Where are you?"
Rory hurried to meet her, and wished she hadn't when she was immediately made the recipient of a wild-eyed glare.
"I cannot believe you."
"What did I do?"
"I can't believe you'd do this to me."
"Mom?" Rory hadn't done anything to her.
"I can't believe you had sex with Tristan!"
Oh. That. "Well, I—"
"I can't believe you had sex and didn't tell me! I can't believe I had to hear it—"
"He had no right to tell you!" Jess, maybe. Lorelai, no. "It's one thing if he wants to look after Jess, but he has no right to interfere—"
"Luke?" His name didn't usually sound like that. "Luke knew?"
"Yes, Luke knew. You didn't know Luke knew?"
"No! Luke didn't tell me. My mother told me! I had to hear it from my mother, Rory. Luke knew too?"
"Not on purpose! I didn't tell him. He just found out."
Lorelai threw herself onto the couch, arms crossing angrily across her chest. Her hair was windblown, her clothes dishevelled; she'd obviously dropped whatever she'd been doing and come running.
"You didn't have to leave in the middle of the day."
"She just came into the Inn and started talking about this, about you, Rory, and I didn't have the faintest idea about any of it." Briefly animated, she quickly faded back to sullenness. "I just don't know why I had to hear about this from her. Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you trust me with this?"
"Mom, I did. I didn't not trust you. I just didn't want to tell you because— I didn't want you to know."
"What?"
"I didn't want you to know that I'd do that. That I had."
"What did you think I'd do?"
"Nothing. It wasn't that I thought you'd react badly, I just thought you'd be upset."
"Upset. Well, you've managed that now." Lorelai determinedly ignored Rory, as she ignored the water in her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
A minute ticked by. Rory watched her mother; Lorelai picked at the hem of her skirt. There was nothing more Rory could do, but that didn't make it easier, make her regret it any less.
"Don't do it again."
"I won't."
"I mean it, Rory. I can't learn about something like this from my mother, that can't happen. Why on earth you told her I don't know, but I can't deal with it. She was so—" A short pause, while Lorelai fought down her feelings about the Emily one-upmanship. "So. What happened?"
"What—"
"With Tristan. I know you had sex with Tristan. I'm assuming — well, I'm hoping — there's a little more to it than that."
"Not—really. I wanted to have sex; I had sex. I didn't mean to, though. Well, I sort of did, but I didn't mean to hurt Jess."
"You still did."
"No, I didn't. Because he doesn't know."
"He'll have to know. Rory, unless you really, really regret it, and I don't think you do, you have to tell him. You can't stay with him just because you feel guilty."
"Uh, I know. I'm breaking up with him."
"You're what? Why does—I know nothing. Nothing. And it's all your fault."
"Sorry. I decided earlier this week. I have four days left."
"With Jess?"
"Yes. I'm trying to hint at it, but I don't know if it's working. Is it?"
"I don't think so. I thought you were cheating on him with your textbooks, not Tristan."
Rory tensed. She'd been pushing that to the back of her mind, and hadn't wanted to be reminded of it. Lorelai caught the negative vibrations, shifting uneasily.
"Anyway, I'm breaking up with him in the next few days. So he won't have to know."
"I think you should tell him anyway."
"Why?"
"It would give him a bad impression of you, but I think it would be better than starting again with a lie. You'll be friends with him, but what happens if he finds out later? Honesty is the best policy here."
Rory shook her head. "No. No way. I can't tell him that I've betrayed him like that. What he'd think of me, and how much it would hurt him, and why would I— No. It would be a bad idea."
"You don't need a skeleton in your closet. If you've decided that you don't want Jess anymore then you can clear everything up right now, and work on things from there."
"I can't. There's no point trying to convince me, because I can't."
"Fine."
Rory shot an annoyed glance at her mother. "I mean it."
"Do you hear me arguing?"
"I don't have to hear you to know you're doing it."
"So what happened after you had sex?"
"You're not going to ask how it happened?"
"Why bother? We're moving on now."
"Well, I thought I should stay with Jess."
"Ooh, bad idea."
"So it seems."
"And what did you say to Tristan?"
"That I wanted to be friends."
"Double bad idea."
"Yeah. Worse, because before that, I'd been telling him I was going to break up with Jess."
"You know, I told myself I wasn't going to be judgy at all, but I just have to get this straight: Not only did you betray Jess by messing around with Tristan, you betrayed Tristan by messing around with Jess."
"I didn't betray Tristan."
"Yeah you did. How do you let these things happen? Not that I can talk. But don't even think about blaming it on me."
Rory slid down until her head was on her mother's lap. "Rambling."
"Yeah. True though."
"Maybe."
"Definitely. And Tristan's still friends with you?"
"Yeah." Lorelai's fingers were stroking through Rory's hair; Rory was getting sleepy. "We're getting back together. Or, together. No back."
"Okay, how did that happen? You have the most incredible luck."
Rory hadn't thought about it like that. She yawned. "People are nice to me."
"Try not to screw it up this time."
"I'll do that."