Title: Always You
Chapter 9: Haunted Leg
A/N: I'm going to do a 'Previously, on Gilmore Girls,' little thing; it's basically just to say what was in the former episode that I wasn't able to work into the chapter. It's just like it is on the show, little snippets of stuff that happened before. I might do it in every episode, but I dunno.
Also, I really have no idea whether or not I should continue with the Dean/Rory/Jess thing as they have it on the show, or if her parent's relationship will affect her other relationships. I do know, however, that it will eventually be a Rory/Jess, just like the show. If anyone has any wonderful ideas, if you could e-mail me at sami57peace2u@hotmail.com I would greatly appreciate it....or you could just e-mail me. I love getting e-mail!
~~~~
Previously, on Gilmore Girls:
Lorelai and Christopher are in the Volvo in front of Luke's returning from their wonderful dinner.
Lorelai: I'm just gonna get some coffee and then go for a walk. Can you take the car home?
Chris nods.
Lorelai walks up to Luke behind the counter.
Luke: We're closed.
Lorelai: I know.
Lorelai: Emily could never change, not for anything.
Luke: You're getting married?
Lorelai: Maybe.
Luke: You said, "the first time I was pregnant." Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
Luke: Come again, Mimi.
Lorelai: Thanks, I will. Seems like a very nice place.
Rory and Lorelai are sitting on the couch in their living room.
Rory: Yeah, there's still a Dean.
Christopher and Lorelai are laying in bed, Chris' arms wrapped around Lorelai. He's asleep, she's awake, and she's looking at her left hand and the ring.
~~~~
Lorelai stretched out on her couch a Saturday two weeks after the disastrous Friday dinner. She arranged the cushions around her head and picked up a nearby People magazine. She sighed contentedly, when suddenly, as if someone had stuffed a huge wad of dust up her nose, she let loose with a huge sneeze.
"Bless you," Christopher, walking down the stairs, said.
"Ugh, I hate having a cold."
Christopher sat on the couch next to Lorelai. "I know you do."
"I mean, it's bad enough being sick, but anyone can have a cold."
Rory entered from her room. "And that means you're not special."
"Exactly. I'd like to have a good illness, something different, impressive. Just once I'd like to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'm not feeling so hot, my leg is haunted.'"
"I'm guessing you're all out of TheraFlu." Chris said.
"Yeah. And coffee."
"All right. We'll be right back." Chris kissed Lorelai on the forehead.
"Bye, Mom. We'll bring back some soup."
"Chicken Noodle."
Rory nodded.
"Uh, why aren't you kissing me goodbye?"
"Because I don't wanna get sick."
"Your dad risked it."
"Yeah, and he can't come crying to me in a week when he's sneezing his eyes out."
"Ewww."
"I know. See you later, Mom."
"Bye, Lor."
"Bye, Chris. Bye, Monk!" Lorelai called as they walked out of the house. Seconds before the door shut, Lorelai could hear Rory shouting, "Finally, I'm Tony Shalhoub, not Scary Spice!" Lorelai smiled and settled back into the cushions.
~~~~
Rory and Chris walked up to the diner at Luke's.
"You know what you want?" Luke asked.
"No," Rory answered.
"Oh, come on, you get the same thing every time you come in here," Chris protested, his stomach growling almost audibly.
"Exactly. Today I want to try something different."
"Take your time." Luke walked off, and Rory continued staring at the menu. Chris looked around the diner and noticed a familiar, slutty-looking blonde coming through the door. She walked up to Jess, who was leaning against the other side of the counter, reading a book.
"Hey." she proclaimed, standing directly in front of him. Chris got the distinct feeling that she would have stood in front of the book if she could, but she was slightly intimidated by it. Jess looked up.
"Hey," he said, absolutely no expression showing. No smile or anything. He kissed Shane for a minute, and then she parted and looked at him impatiently.
"So?" she asked, tapping her foot.
"One sec," he returned to his book.
"Jess." she protested, even more impatient.
"Relax." He closed his book and turned toward his uncle. "I'm out." Back to his girlfriend. "Let's go."
She smiled. "Okay." They walked out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, a conversation in ten words or less," Rory muttered into the menu. Chris hadn't even realized she'd seen the conversation.
"A true meeting of the minds." Chris agreed dryly. Then Dean walked up to the counter.
"Hey, so don't hate me, but I already had breakfast."
"See? Nice full sentences." Rory smiled and kissed Dean.
"What?" he asked, confused. It wasn't often he was praised for having full sentences.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Chris smiled.
~~~~
The following Monday, Chris and Rory forced Lorelai to get up, get dressed, and Rory walked her to the Inn. After making sure Sookie knew that Lorelai was supposed to stay at work all day, Rory left to spend her day with Lane, who had been forced into her room for the last remaining days before her senior year. Rory was the only person allowed to visit Lane, besides Reverend Melmin.
"Sookie, I wanna go home!" Lorelai whined as she walked into the kitchen.
"No." Sookie continued running around, cooking.
"Yes."
"Nope."
"Ugh, fine. Oh, by the way, the Lasano's, party of five, want a vegetarian menu. Hey, I wonder if they're gonna bring Lacey Chabert?"
"I thought you said you weren't going to let vegetarians in here anymore." Sookie stopped what she was doing.
"No, you said you weren't gonna let vegetarians in here anymore."
"But I'm making my baked stuffed pork chops for tonight!"
"Not for the Lasanos." Lorelai said as Michel walked into the kitchen.
"There is someone here to see you."
"Who?"
"The one who works at every store in town and made my skin break out last week."
"Ah, Kirk's here!" Lorelai exclaimed to Sookie as she followed Michel out of the kitchen.
"Lorelai." Kirk walked up to her as soon as she walked into the lobby."
"Hey, Kirk. What can I do ya for?"
"Oh, I have a delivery for Sookie." Kirk held out a package to Lorelai. She took it.
"Anything good?"
"No, just some wedding photos."
"Oh, great! Well, I'll take 'em to her. Right now, I promise. You can go."
"No, that won't be necessary."
"Uh...why not?"
"Lorelai, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Oh, sure, because what we're doing now doesn't resemble that at all."
"What?"
"Nothing. Never mind. You wanna sit?" Lorelai gestured to a couch in the middle of the lobby, and Kirk sat down and breathed deeply a few times.
"Uh, listen Lorelai, we've known each other for a good amount of time. Our, uh, paths have crossed socially and professionally a number of times, all with relatively pleasant results, and, well, I was wondering, if you would maybe, like to, kinda, sorta, have dinner, at some time, with me?"
"Dinner." Lorelai stated simply, letting it sink in.
"In two weeks."
"Two weeks?"
"I heard you have a cold, and I can't have a cold, because it would probably give Mother some rare disease that would cause me to stay home for weeks and weeks at a time, and I figure two weeks is enough time for the virus to work its way out of your system. And I know you're 'involved' with someone--" Kirk used air quotes. "But I've noticed that you usually split after a few months, with the exception of the teacher, but you did split after a number of months, and I'm giving you two weeks to break up with your 'boyfriend' and get completely well." Again, with the air quotes. Lorelai stared, trying to let it all sink in.
"Uh, you don't have to answer right away. As a matter of fact, take your time." Kirk stood up and tried to leave. Lorelai called out.
"Kirk, wait. I can't go out with you."
"Sure you don't want to take a few more days to think it over?"
"I'm sorry, but the guy I'm involved with now? Is the father of my daughter."
"But...you split up with him before."
"But now we're in the same place, and I think it could really work. And--I'm pregnant."
"Oh. Okay." Kirk turned and ran out the door. Lorelai watched him go, and then mentally hit herself. She'd just told Kirk she was pregnant. That was stupid.
~~~~
A week later, Rory was sleeping peacefully. Somewhere in the back of her mind someone said, "It's your first day of your last year of high school. GET UP!!!!" But luckily, that voice was very, very, soft, so Rory continued sleeping. Lorelai, however, shocked that her wonderful idea of shouting at her daughter had not worked, was sitting in Rory's armchair, watching her sleep. Chris walked in momentarily, handed Lorelai a cup of coffee, kissed her on the forehead, and headed off for an early meeting at work. Lorelai stared at Rory for a little while longer, and when she couldn't stand it, she tried tickling Rory's feet. It didn't work.
"The girl could sleep through a train ramming past her bed." Lorelai muttered, sitting back in the chair. Then she got an idea, and when Rory woke up thirty minutes later, Lorelai was still in Rory's armchair, all dressed and ready for work, a big smile on her face.
"How long have you been sitting there?" Rory asked as her eyes opened and landed on her crazy mother staring at her.
"Not long. An hour...and a half."
"Why?" Rory asked, sitting up.
"Because."
"Cause why?"
"Because today is the last first day of high school you're ever gonna have."
"You're insane." Rory climbed out of bed and started for the kitchen.
"I'm not insane, I'm just sentimental, and you're grown."
"I'm not grown," Rory protested.
"Yes, you are, you're all grown up and soon you'll be going off into the world."
"Not yet." Rory started making herself some coffee.
"But soon. And after you spread those wings and fly away, I won't have a chance to give you this." And Lorelai handed her daughter a bill.
~~~~
Twenty or so minutes later, Lorelai and Rory were walking through town, headed for Luke's, for their annual first day of school breakfast. Well, it could hardly be called an annual breakfast. It was really more like a daily thing.
So twenty minutes later the girls were walking towards Luke's for their daily breakfast ritual. They were busy talking, so neither girl noticed the town whispering and pointing at them. It became painfully obvious, though, when they walked into Luke's and the entire crowd went silent. The girls glanced around themselves at the strangely silent crowd.
"Did we just walk into a Charlie Chaplin movie?" Lorelai whispered to Rory. Rory shook her head.
"No campy piano music. Did we remember to wear pants this morning?"
Lorelai glanced over their clothes. "Uh, yeah. I wonder what's going on?"
"I dunno. Let's ask Luke, maybe he'll know," Rory suggested as they walked up to the counter.
"Oh, Luke, cause he's always a fountain of town knowledge."
Nevertheless, the girls made it to the counter, and Luke walked over with his order pad out.
"What can I get ya?"
"Uh, coffee." Lorelai said.
"Pancakes." Rory added.
"And some bacon."
"Ooh, and scrambled eggs."
"No, fried eggs. And some strawberries.
"Okay, coming right up." Luke flipped the cover of his order pad back.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you know why they're so quiet?" Lorelai whispered.
"Uh, yeah, somehow they found out you were pregnant. I didn't tell anyone, I swear."
"I know. I told Kirk yesterday."
"What? Why the hell would you do that?" Luke asked.
"Oh, cause he asked her out." Rory laughed.
"Stop!"
"I'm sorry, it's just...it's Kirk!" Rory burst into laughter. Even Luke let loose a few chuckles.
"What?" he asked in response to Lorelai's look. "It is pretty funny."
"Yeah, whatever. Just get me some coffee."
~~~~
Later that day, Rory was standing next to Christopher in the hallway at Chilton, looking at her watch. Lorelai ran up.
"Time, time, time?"
"3:01." Rory proclaimed.
"Ah, no fair, ah man, stupid traffic lights. Even Christopher got here before me!"
"'S okay, doesn't start till 3:15."
"But I so tried to...you lied to me."
"Did I?" Rory feigned innocence.
"You said it was at three, and it's at three-fifteen."
"Well, I guess I did." Rory shrugged at Chris. "Who knew?"
"Don't feel too bad, Lor, she told me 2:45."
"And what time'd you get here?"
"Two fifty-five."
"Yeah, well, that I understand. I was only a minute late for my deadline--you were ten minutes late."
"I got caught up."
"You work, like, a second away from here. How are you late?"
Rory was sworn in as student body vice president that afternoon, with her mother, father, and grandmother in the audience. Later, Emily asked to go to lunch with Lorelai one afternoon, perhaps at Luke's Diner that Lorelai seemed to like so much. She reluctantly went, and was subjected to an afternoon of her mother trying to plan Lorelai's upcoming nuptials with Christopher. Emily suggested sooner, rather than later, so she wouldn't be showing. Lorelai protested that she'd be showing in mere weeks, and not much was settled. Rory's first week as VP went off with only a few hitches, and the town of Stars Hollow eventually stopped whispering behind Lorelai's back and actually walking up to her and stating their opinions. Before long, it was Friday once again, and mother, father, and daughter arrived at house of grandmother and grandfather, only grandfather was away on business. Emily spent the first half hour gushing over wedding plans, and as they were all settling down to dinner, the subject of invitations arose.
"Obviously you don't wish for the type of invitations I showed you before." Emily said.
"The type of invitations for the wedding planned without the consent of the bride or groom? No, I don't."
"But it wasn't planned entirely without consent."
"If you consented, it doesn't matter, Mom. You weren't going to be the one getting married."
"Actually, Lorelai, I was talking about Christopher."
"What?"
"Yes, Christopher consented. He was fully supportive of the entire idea."
"What?" Lorelai asked more sharply, turning away from her mother and towards Chris. He meekly nodded.
"Yeah, I knew about it."
"Oh, my God! I can't believe this."
"But, I ended up not going through with it, cause you were so against it."
"You planned my wedding without me?"
"Yeah."
"Why the hell would you do that?"
"It seemed like a good idea. We could live together, our baby could have a normal life, normal mom and dad."
"Were you not where I was seventeen years ago? Because I remember hating my life, I didn't care that my parents were together."
"But we could have been happy."
"No, there's no way we could have been happy. We were too young...we would have been miserable. Think about it, do you really think that if you'd gotten married at seventeen you'd be where you are now? That'd be like if Rory got married and pregnant now. Which you are not doing, by the way," Lorelai pointed a finger at her daughter, who nodded.
"Well, I mean, life would have been different." Chris said slowly.
"Yeah, way different! You'd be working either for my dad or yours, at a job you would hate, I wouldn't be working at all. I'd probably be a member of D.A.R. and spend my weekdays sitting around with my friends, drinking booze and trying to plan the best way to ruin my daughter's life."
"I don't appreciate that, Lorelai," Emily spoke up.
"Well, I don't appreciate this. God, I can't believe you were planning my life--our lives--without us! We wouldn't have been the only ones affected, Chris, Rory would be affected too."
"You don't think I know that? You don't think I thought about that? We didn't go through with it, did we? No, we didn't. And that's one of the reasons. I just wanted us to be happy." Chris reached for Lorelai's hands. She pulled away from him and stood up, throwing her napkin on the table.
"You know what? I don't want to look at you right now. Either one of you," Lorelai added, looking at her mother. "I'm going to call a cab, and my daughter and I are going home."
"She's my daughter, too."
"I know. Rory?"
All three of the adults looked at the teenage girl. She shrunk slightly under their gaze, and then slowly stood up, depositing her napkin near her plate.
"Sorry. Bye." Rory kissed her father, and then her grandmother, on the cheek, and followed her mother out of the house.
~~~~
"Fun evening," Rory commented as the taxi dropped them off in Stars Hollow.
"Just charming. I haven't had that much fun since labor."
"Ba-dum-dum."
"But seriously, ladies and gentlemen, is this thing on?"
"I can't believe he did that."
"I can't believe I never knew."
"I'm starving."
"Really? Could it be cause dinner sucked?"
"Could be."
"Let's do mac and cheese!"
"And tator tots."
"And those little pizza rolls, cause how else are you gonna stick a pizza in a toaster?"
"Exactly!"
"Okay, let's be organized--make it fast, make it snappy, and if there's any impulse buying, make it chocolate."
"Aye, aye, cap'n."
"Careful, Scotty might beam you up." Lorelai and Rory, who had been walking through their entire conversation, stopped in front of Doose's and turned to go in.
"Yoo-hoo, Lorelai, baby doll!" Babette called from down the street.
"Oh, great." Lorelai groaned. "Go on in," she gestured towards the market.
"Are you sure?"
"Hey, if I can't handle a little gossip and interrogation, what the hell am I doing in Stars Hollow, right?"
"Right. Good luck." Rory turned and walked into the market, leaving her mother alone to deal with the blonde gossiper from hell. She searched for the objects on their mental list, and had found most of them when she turned down an aisle for her impulse buying and spotted Jess.
"Doing a little shopping?"
"Yes. Excuse me." Rory walked past Jess into the aisle.
"Why the cold shoulder?"
"No cold shoulder, I just have a pregnant lady outside who's really impatient when it comes to chocolate."
"How was Washington?" Jess asked, refusing to let Rory shop and forget he was there.
"Fine."
"Do anything interesting?"
"Nope."
"Okay."
Rory waited a few seconds, until she couldn't stand it anymore. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Jess asked, turning back around to face her again.
"Anything interesting happen? This summer, I mean."
"Nope. Biggest news is that Lorelai Gilmore has a relationship that lasted longer than two months. There's an entire pool as to when they're splitting up. My bet's October eighth."
"My birthday?"
"That's your birthday? Huh. What a coincidence."
"She's pregnant, you know."
"Obviously didn't stop him before."
Rory let out a puff of air and turned around, focusing on a bag of Hershey's Hugs.
"Her name's Shane," Jess said after a while, softer than he'd been talking.
"As in 'come back'?"
"Yup."
"Well, that's great. Really. It's great. Really great."
"So I've heard."
"Well, it is."
"Are you upset about something?"
"No....Yes." Rory turned to face Jess again.
"What?" he asked after a minute. Rory just shook her head, never taking her eyes from his. She walked one step closer, and then another, and then another, and then she was kissing him, for the second time. And it felt just as good, and just as wonderful as it had before. Suddenly she realized what she was doing, and detached herself.
"Oh, dear God." And she turned and bolted.
Chapter 9: Haunted Leg
A/N: I'm going to do a 'Previously, on Gilmore Girls,' little thing; it's basically just to say what was in the former episode that I wasn't able to work into the chapter. It's just like it is on the show, little snippets of stuff that happened before. I might do it in every episode, but I dunno.
Also, I really have no idea whether or not I should continue with the Dean/Rory/Jess thing as they have it on the show, or if her parent's relationship will affect her other relationships. I do know, however, that it will eventually be a Rory/Jess, just like the show. If anyone has any wonderful ideas, if you could e-mail me at sami57peace2u@hotmail.com I would greatly appreciate it....or you could just e-mail me. I love getting e-mail!
~~~~
Previously, on Gilmore Girls:
Lorelai and Christopher are in the Volvo in front of Luke's returning from their wonderful dinner.
Lorelai: I'm just gonna get some coffee and then go for a walk. Can you take the car home?
Chris nods.
Lorelai walks up to Luke behind the counter.
Luke: We're closed.
Lorelai: I know.
Lorelai: Emily could never change, not for anything.
Luke: You're getting married?
Lorelai: Maybe.
Luke: You said, "the first time I was pregnant." Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
Luke: Come again, Mimi.
Lorelai: Thanks, I will. Seems like a very nice place.
Rory and Lorelai are sitting on the couch in their living room.
Rory: Yeah, there's still a Dean.
Christopher and Lorelai are laying in bed, Chris' arms wrapped around Lorelai. He's asleep, she's awake, and she's looking at her left hand and the ring.
~~~~
Lorelai stretched out on her couch a Saturday two weeks after the disastrous Friday dinner. She arranged the cushions around her head and picked up a nearby People magazine. She sighed contentedly, when suddenly, as if someone had stuffed a huge wad of dust up her nose, she let loose with a huge sneeze.
"Bless you," Christopher, walking down the stairs, said.
"Ugh, I hate having a cold."
Christopher sat on the couch next to Lorelai. "I know you do."
"I mean, it's bad enough being sick, but anyone can have a cold."
Rory entered from her room. "And that means you're not special."
"Exactly. I'd like to have a good illness, something different, impressive. Just once I'd like to be able to say, 'Yeah, I'm not feeling so hot, my leg is haunted.'"
"I'm guessing you're all out of TheraFlu." Chris said.
"Yeah. And coffee."
"All right. We'll be right back." Chris kissed Lorelai on the forehead.
"Bye, Mom. We'll bring back some soup."
"Chicken Noodle."
Rory nodded.
"Uh, why aren't you kissing me goodbye?"
"Because I don't wanna get sick."
"Your dad risked it."
"Yeah, and he can't come crying to me in a week when he's sneezing his eyes out."
"Ewww."
"I know. See you later, Mom."
"Bye, Lor."
"Bye, Chris. Bye, Monk!" Lorelai called as they walked out of the house. Seconds before the door shut, Lorelai could hear Rory shouting, "Finally, I'm Tony Shalhoub, not Scary Spice!" Lorelai smiled and settled back into the cushions.
~~~~
Rory and Chris walked up to the diner at Luke's.
"You know what you want?" Luke asked.
"No," Rory answered.
"Oh, come on, you get the same thing every time you come in here," Chris protested, his stomach growling almost audibly.
"Exactly. Today I want to try something different."
"Take your time." Luke walked off, and Rory continued staring at the menu. Chris looked around the diner and noticed a familiar, slutty-looking blonde coming through the door. She walked up to Jess, who was leaning against the other side of the counter, reading a book.
"Hey." she proclaimed, standing directly in front of him. Chris got the distinct feeling that she would have stood in front of the book if she could, but she was slightly intimidated by it. Jess looked up.
"Hey," he said, absolutely no expression showing. No smile or anything. He kissed Shane for a minute, and then she parted and looked at him impatiently.
"So?" she asked, tapping her foot.
"One sec," he returned to his book.
"Jess." she protested, even more impatient.
"Relax." He closed his book and turned toward his uncle. "I'm out." Back to his girlfriend. "Let's go."
She smiled. "Okay." They walked out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, a conversation in ten words or less," Rory muttered into the menu. Chris hadn't even realized she'd seen the conversation.
"A true meeting of the minds." Chris agreed dryly. Then Dean walked up to the counter.
"Hey, so don't hate me, but I already had breakfast."
"See? Nice full sentences." Rory smiled and kissed Dean.
"What?" he asked, confused. It wasn't often he was praised for having full sentences.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Chris smiled.
~~~~
The following Monday, Chris and Rory forced Lorelai to get up, get dressed, and Rory walked her to the Inn. After making sure Sookie knew that Lorelai was supposed to stay at work all day, Rory left to spend her day with Lane, who had been forced into her room for the last remaining days before her senior year. Rory was the only person allowed to visit Lane, besides Reverend Melmin.
"Sookie, I wanna go home!" Lorelai whined as she walked into the kitchen.
"No." Sookie continued running around, cooking.
"Yes."
"Nope."
"Ugh, fine. Oh, by the way, the Lasano's, party of five, want a vegetarian menu. Hey, I wonder if they're gonna bring Lacey Chabert?"
"I thought you said you weren't going to let vegetarians in here anymore." Sookie stopped what she was doing.
"No, you said you weren't gonna let vegetarians in here anymore."
"But I'm making my baked stuffed pork chops for tonight!"
"Not for the Lasanos." Lorelai said as Michel walked into the kitchen.
"There is someone here to see you."
"Who?"
"The one who works at every store in town and made my skin break out last week."
"Ah, Kirk's here!" Lorelai exclaimed to Sookie as she followed Michel out of the kitchen.
"Lorelai." Kirk walked up to her as soon as she walked into the lobby."
"Hey, Kirk. What can I do ya for?"
"Oh, I have a delivery for Sookie." Kirk held out a package to Lorelai. She took it.
"Anything good?"
"No, just some wedding photos."
"Oh, great! Well, I'll take 'em to her. Right now, I promise. You can go."
"No, that won't be necessary."
"Uh...why not?"
"Lorelai, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"Oh, sure, because what we're doing now doesn't resemble that at all."
"What?"
"Nothing. Never mind. You wanna sit?" Lorelai gestured to a couch in the middle of the lobby, and Kirk sat down and breathed deeply a few times.
"Uh, listen Lorelai, we've known each other for a good amount of time. Our, uh, paths have crossed socially and professionally a number of times, all with relatively pleasant results, and, well, I was wondering, if you would maybe, like to, kinda, sorta, have dinner, at some time, with me?"
"Dinner." Lorelai stated simply, letting it sink in.
"In two weeks."
"Two weeks?"
"I heard you have a cold, and I can't have a cold, because it would probably give Mother some rare disease that would cause me to stay home for weeks and weeks at a time, and I figure two weeks is enough time for the virus to work its way out of your system. And I know you're 'involved' with someone--" Kirk used air quotes. "But I've noticed that you usually split after a few months, with the exception of the teacher, but you did split after a number of months, and I'm giving you two weeks to break up with your 'boyfriend' and get completely well." Again, with the air quotes. Lorelai stared, trying to let it all sink in.
"Uh, you don't have to answer right away. As a matter of fact, take your time." Kirk stood up and tried to leave. Lorelai called out.
"Kirk, wait. I can't go out with you."
"Sure you don't want to take a few more days to think it over?"
"I'm sorry, but the guy I'm involved with now? Is the father of my daughter."
"But...you split up with him before."
"But now we're in the same place, and I think it could really work. And--I'm pregnant."
"Oh. Okay." Kirk turned and ran out the door. Lorelai watched him go, and then mentally hit herself. She'd just told Kirk she was pregnant. That was stupid.
~~~~
A week later, Rory was sleeping peacefully. Somewhere in the back of her mind someone said, "It's your first day of your last year of high school. GET UP!!!!" But luckily, that voice was very, very, soft, so Rory continued sleeping. Lorelai, however, shocked that her wonderful idea of shouting at her daughter had not worked, was sitting in Rory's armchair, watching her sleep. Chris walked in momentarily, handed Lorelai a cup of coffee, kissed her on the forehead, and headed off for an early meeting at work. Lorelai stared at Rory for a little while longer, and when she couldn't stand it, she tried tickling Rory's feet. It didn't work.
"The girl could sleep through a train ramming past her bed." Lorelai muttered, sitting back in the chair. Then she got an idea, and when Rory woke up thirty minutes later, Lorelai was still in Rory's armchair, all dressed and ready for work, a big smile on her face.
"How long have you been sitting there?" Rory asked as her eyes opened and landed on her crazy mother staring at her.
"Not long. An hour...and a half."
"Why?" Rory asked, sitting up.
"Because."
"Cause why?"
"Because today is the last first day of high school you're ever gonna have."
"You're insane." Rory climbed out of bed and started for the kitchen.
"I'm not insane, I'm just sentimental, and you're grown."
"I'm not grown," Rory protested.
"Yes, you are, you're all grown up and soon you'll be going off into the world."
"Not yet." Rory started making herself some coffee.
"But soon. And after you spread those wings and fly away, I won't have a chance to give you this." And Lorelai handed her daughter a bill.
~~~~
Twenty or so minutes later, Lorelai and Rory were walking through town, headed for Luke's, for their annual first day of school breakfast. Well, it could hardly be called an annual breakfast. It was really more like a daily thing.
So twenty minutes later the girls were walking towards Luke's for their daily breakfast ritual. They were busy talking, so neither girl noticed the town whispering and pointing at them. It became painfully obvious, though, when they walked into Luke's and the entire crowd went silent. The girls glanced around themselves at the strangely silent crowd.
"Did we just walk into a Charlie Chaplin movie?" Lorelai whispered to Rory. Rory shook her head.
"No campy piano music. Did we remember to wear pants this morning?"
Lorelai glanced over their clothes. "Uh, yeah. I wonder what's going on?"
"I dunno. Let's ask Luke, maybe he'll know," Rory suggested as they walked up to the counter.
"Oh, Luke, cause he's always a fountain of town knowledge."
Nevertheless, the girls made it to the counter, and Luke walked over with his order pad out.
"What can I get ya?"
"Uh, coffee." Lorelai said.
"Pancakes." Rory added.
"And some bacon."
"Ooh, and scrambled eggs."
"No, fried eggs. And some strawberries.
"Okay, coming right up." Luke flipped the cover of his order pad back.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you know why they're so quiet?" Lorelai whispered.
"Uh, yeah, somehow they found out you were pregnant. I didn't tell anyone, I swear."
"I know. I told Kirk yesterday."
"What? Why the hell would you do that?" Luke asked.
"Oh, cause he asked her out." Rory laughed.
"Stop!"
"I'm sorry, it's just...it's Kirk!" Rory burst into laughter. Even Luke let loose a few chuckles.
"What?" he asked in response to Lorelai's look. "It is pretty funny."
"Yeah, whatever. Just get me some coffee."
~~~~
Later that day, Rory was standing next to Christopher in the hallway at Chilton, looking at her watch. Lorelai ran up.
"Time, time, time?"
"3:01." Rory proclaimed.
"Ah, no fair, ah man, stupid traffic lights. Even Christopher got here before me!"
"'S okay, doesn't start till 3:15."
"But I so tried to...you lied to me."
"Did I?" Rory feigned innocence.
"You said it was at three, and it's at three-fifteen."
"Well, I guess I did." Rory shrugged at Chris. "Who knew?"
"Don't feel too bad, Lor, she told me 2:45."
"And what time'd you get here?"
"Two fifty-five."
"Yeah, well, that I understand. I was only a minute late for my deadline--you were ten minutes late."
"I got caught up."
"You work, like, a second away from here. How are you late?"
Rory was sworn in as student body vice president that afternoon, with her mother, father, and grandmother in the audience. Later, Emily asked to go to lunch with Lorelai one afternoon, perhaps at Luke's Diner that Lorelai seemed to like so much. She reluctantly went, and was subjected to an afternoon of her mother trying to plan Lorelai's upcoming nuptials with Christopher. Emily suggested sooner, rather than later, so she wouldn't be showing. Lorelai protested that she'd be showing in mere weeks, and not much was settled. Rory's first week as VP went off with only a few hitches, and the town of Stars Hollow eventually stopped whispering behind Lorelai's back and actually walking up to her and stating their opinions. Before long, it was Friday once again, and mother, father, and daughter arrived at house of grandmother and grandfather, only grandfather was away on business. Emily spent the first half hour gushing over wedding plans, and as they were all settling down to dinner, the subject of invitations arose.
"Obviously you don't wish for the type of invitations I showed you before." Emily said.
"The type of invitations for the wedding planned without the consent of the bride or groom? No, I don't."
"But it wasn't planned entirely without consent."
"If you consented, it doesn't matter, Mom. You weren't going to be the one getting married."
"Actually, Lorelai, I was talking about Christopher."
"What?"
"Yes, Christopher consented. He was fully supportive of the entire idea."
"What?" Lorelai asked more sharply, turning away from her mother and towards Chris. He meekly nodded.
"Yeah, I knew about it."
"Oh, my God! I can't believe this."
"But, I ended up not going through with it, cause you were so against it."
"You planned my wedding without me?"
"Yeah."
"Why the hell would you do that?"
"It seemed like a good idea. We could live together, our baby could have a normal life, normal mom and dad."
"Were you not where I was seventeen years ago? Because I remember hating my life, I didn't care that my parents were together."
"But we could have been happy."
"No, there's no way we could have been happy. We were too young...we would have been miserable. Think about it, do you really think that if you'd gotten married at seventeen you'd be where you are now? That'd be like if Rory got married and pregnant now. Which you are not doing, by the way," Lorelai pointed a finger at her daughter, who nodded.
"Well, I mean, life would have been different." Chris said slowly.
"Yeah, way different! You'd be working either for my dad or yours, at a job you would hate, I wouldn't be working at all. I'd probably be a member of D.A.R. and spend my weekdays sitting around with my friends, drinking booze and trying to plan the best way to ruin my daughter's life."
"I don't appreciate that, Lorelai," Emily spoke up.
"Well, I don't appreciate this. God, I can't believe you were planning my life--our lives--without us! We wouldn't have been the only ones affected, Chris, Rory would be affected too."
"You don't think I know that? You don't think I thought about that? We didn't go through with it, did we? No, we didn't. And that's one of the reasons. I just wanted us to be happy." Chris reached for Lorelai's hands. She pulled away from him and stood up, throwing her napkin on the table.
"You know what? I don't want to look at you right now. Either one of you," Lorelai added, looking at her mother. "I'm going to call a cab, and my daughter and I are going home."
"She's my daughter, too."
"I know. Rory?"
All three of the adults looked at the teenage girl. She shrunk slightly under their gaze, and then slowly stood up, depositing her napkin near her plate.
"Sorry. Bye." Rory kissed her father, and then her grandmother, on the cheek, and followed her mother out of the house.
~~~~
"Fun evening," Rory commented as the taxi dropped them off in Stars Hollow.
"Just charming. I haven't had that much fun since labor."
"Ba-dum-dum."
"But seriously, ladies and gentlemen, is this thing on?"
"I can't believe he did that."
"I can't believe I never knew."
"I'm starving."
"Really? Could it be cause dinner sucked?"
"Could be."
"Let's do mac and cheese!"
"And tator tots."
"And those little pizza rolls, cause how else are you gonna stick a pizza in a toaster?"
"Exactly!"
"Okay, let's be organized--make it fast, make it snappy, and if there's any impulse buying, make it chocolate."
"Aye, aye, cap'n."
"Careful, Scotty might beam you up." Lorelai and Rory, who had been walking through their entire conversation, stopped in front of Doose's and turned to go in.
"Yoo-hoo, Lorelai, baby doll!" Babette called from down the street.
"Oh, great." Lorelai groaned. "Go on in," she gestured towards the market.
"Are you sure?"
"Hey, if I can't handle a little gossip and interrogation, what the hell am I doing in Stars Hollow, right?"
"Right. Good luck." Rory turned and walked into the market, leaving her mother alone to deal with the blonde gossiper from hell. She searched for the objects on their mental list, and had found most of them when she turned down an aisle for her impulse buying and spotted Jess.
"Doing a little shopping?"
"Yes. Excuse me." Rory walked past Jess into the aisle.
"Why the cold shoulder?"
"No cold shoulder, I just have a pregnant lady outside who's really impatient when it comes to chocolate."
"How was Washington?" Jess asked, refusing to let Rory shop and forget he was there.
"Fine."
"Do anything interesting?"
"Nope."
"Okay."
Rory waited a few seconds, until she couldn't stand it anymore. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Jess asked, turning back around to face her again.
"Anything interesting happen? This summer, I mean."
"Nope. Biggest news is that Lorelai Gilmore has a relationship that lasted longer than two months. There's an entire pool as to when they're splitting up. My bet's October eighth."
"My birthday?"
"That's your birthday? Huh. What a coincidence."
"She's pregnant, you know."
"Obviously didn't stop him before."
Rory let out a puff of air and turned around, focusing on a bag of Hershey's Hugs.
"Her name's Shane," Jess said after a while, softer than he'd been talking.
"As in 'come back'?"
"Yup."
"Well, that's great. Really. It's great. Really great."
"So I've heard."
"Well, it is."
"Are you upset about something?"
"No....Yes." Rory turned to face Jess again.
"What?" he asked after a minute. Rory just shook her head, never taking her eyes from his. She walked one step closer, and then another, and then another, and then she was kissing him, for the second time. And it felt just as good, and just as wonderful as it had before. Suddenly she realized what she was doing, and detached herself.
"Oh, dear God." And she turned and bolted.