Okay, here's another chapter, not 24 hours after I posted the last. I, for one, am impressed! =c) Alrighty… I could've kept going the way I'd been going and done episode by episode, but I don't have time, so here's the typical old, crappy, let's-skip-a-few-months-and-summarise tactic. Sorry, but as I said, I'm working on a very tight schedule here. Chapter 10's all but finished, and chapter 11 will be the last one, so here's hoping there are still some people out there reading this thing!

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CHAPTER 9: Again, but not quite…

A few months later, Lorelai was sitting in her kitchen, quietly contemplating life's most important questions: What is the meaning of life? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Who was hotter – Brad Pitt or Colin Farrell?

Lorelai hadn't really interfered with what had happened around her over the past few months, but she had saved herself a bit of stress here and there. She hadn't dated Paul-the-kid-from-her-business-class, saving herself the humiliation. She'd asked her mother to co-sign the loan to fix her house, making it seem like Lorelai's idea and attempting to give her the upper hand – unsuccessfully, which was pretty much what Lorelai expected of Emily Gilmore. And she'd been more civil to Jess. She still got angry at him from time to time, but she tried harder to be nice to him, if not for her own peace of mind, for Rory and Luke's. She knew that Jess would eventually become a half-decent kid, and she was having to remind herself of this so often it had become somewhat of a mantra. The one thing that made her whole "Back to the Future" saga worthwhile was Luke. She had been able to silently observe him, figuring out what he thought of her, what she thought about what he thought of her and what she thought of him. It had been a tough couple of months – too much thinking.

Something else had happened. She wasn't sure when it had happened, or how, but at some stage, she'd stopped loving Christopher. She still loved him – he was the reason she had Rory – but she was no longer in love with him. It was because she knew what was going to happen. She knew that they just weren't meant to be together and she had forced herself to stop wanting to be with him. Then one day she had realised that she no longer had to force herself to do anything.

Just as Lorelai was deciding that Colin was far hotter – he had the whole accent thing, after all – there was a knock at the door.

"Oh, hey Luke," Lorelai said, opening the door and gesturing for him to come inside.

"Hey…" Luke replied, coming inside.

"What's up?"

"Uh, can I talk to Rory?"

Lorelai's eyes widened ever so slightly. Crap. She'd almost forgotten about this.

"Ah, yeah, sure. She's in her room."

Luke looked at Lorelai with an expression that said 'do I go in?'

"Go in, go in," she reassured him, knocking on the door. "Rory, honey, you've got a visitor!"

Rory came to the door dressed in her Chilton uniform, but had taken off her shoes. When she saw Luke standing there, she looked quizzically at him for a split second, then smiled and said "Ah, come in."

As Rory and Luke talked, Lorelai tried her best not to freak out. 'He'll be a good kid, you can stop this, he'll be a good kid, you can stop it from happening again,' she thought to herself over and over.

When Luke had left, Lorelai went into Rory's room and sat on the blanket box at the end of her bed, where Luke had been sitting just a few minutes before. The box was still slightly warm.

"So, what did Luke want?" she asked nonchalantly, already knowing the answer.

"He wants me to tutor Jess. Just for a little while…" Rory shrugged.

"Okay… and you wanna do this?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, Luke obviously needs my help and I figure we owe him about thirty thousand favours, so…" she trailed off again.

Lorelai couldn't disagree with Rory's logic. "Okay, hon. As long as you think you've got the time." Lorelai stood up and lightly tapped her palms on her thighs.

"Yeah, I do. It's okay, Mom, really." Rory smiled at Lorelai, trying to reassure her.

"Okay, sweetie," Lorelai replied, starting to walk out of Rory's room. "Oh, hey, can I borrow your car for a bit? The Jeep's low on gas and I, ah, just figure, y'know, you've got a car… a car with gas!"

Rory looked at Lorelai carefully. "If you're trying to test me, it won't work. No, you can't borrow my car cos 'No one's allowed to drive it but me'," she recited.

Lorelai smiled broadly. "Good!" she replied, and left the room.

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That night, Lorelai was at home by herself, preparing to watch Kirk's movie. He had once again given it to her to show at the town movie night, and although she'd promised Rory she wouldn't watch it without her, she figured that technically she had already watched it with Rory… sort of… and besides, she couldn't resist watching Kirk's movie again – it was just too freaky. Kinda like a train wreck – I can't look away, Loreali thought to herself. She was just about to press play when the phone rang.

"Hello?" Loreali answered the phone in her usual, chirpy voice.


"Mom?" The concerned tone in Rory's voice on the other end of the line caused Lorelai to freeze with fear. Memories came flooding back of the car wreck and the broken arm and her fight with Luke…

"Rory, what is it? Are you okay, honey? What is it? Mommy's freaking out here!"

Lorelai could hear Rory quietly crying on the other end of the phone. "Mom, I'm alright, but… Mom, I got in an accident."

"You let Jess drive the car, Rory? I told you not to…"


Before Lorelai could end her sentence, Rory interrupted her. "No, Mom, Jess wasn't driving, I was… and… and Jess got hurt and… and…" she started crying again.

Lorelai was at first filled with relief – Rory wasn't hurt. But then she realised that everything had changed. Jess was hurt, and she didn't know how badly.


"Rory, honey, what's wrong with Jess?" Lorelai was suddenly panicked. If something had happened to him, it was entirely her fault.

"We're at the hospital," Rory tried to hold back the tears. "The doctors haven't told me anything. I think he's okay, but… I… I think his leg's broken, Mom…" Rory started crying again "and it's all my fault…"

"Rory, honey, it was an accident…" Lorelai stopped herself mid sentence. It was an accident. Rory would never ever do anything stupid or crazy or irresponsible on purpose. And last time, last time Jess was driving and… it was an accident then too… Loreali suddenly felt unbelievably guilty.

"Rory," Lorelai choked back tears, "Honey, have you called Luke? Has anyone called him?"

"No, I don't think so… Mom, can you call him? I don't think I could…" Rory sounded so small and fragile over the phone.

"Sure, sweetie. I'll talk to him. It's okay, honey. It was an accident." Lorelai's last sentence rang through her ears over and over as she drove towards the diner.

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Again, thanks to Len. And please, guys, REVIEW! I love to get reviews! They make my day that much better! Thanks, and just remember, only 2 chapters to go after this one…