Title: Always You
Chapter 12: Shopping For Nicknames
Picks up where the last one left off. You know, at the bottom of the page, there's this little purple button labeled 'go.' I love that button, and it's feeling very neglected. If you could press it and review, even anonymously, both the button and I would love you forever. Thank you.
~~~~
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Lorelai groaned and rolled over. Chris poked her sleepily.
"Either turn that stupid thing off or get up."
"I don't wanna get up." Lorelai muttered back.
"Then don't."
"Oh, but I have to! Stupid Mom."
"You're the one who set the clock for six thirty."
Lorelai groaned loudly. "Can I throw the clock against the wall?"
"Always."
"Okay." Lorelai happily lifted her arm from under the covers and inched it closer to the clock. She found it, picked it up in one hand, and heaved it at the wall. It fell from her fingers and bounced a few feet, but continued beeping. Lorelai groaned again and reached...but the clock was too far, so she rolled out of bed and clicked it off.
"And now I'm up. I hate you, Chris."
"And now it feels like a normal day." Chris rolled over and turned away from Lorelai, who threw various clothes from the floor at him. He smiled and made kissy noises in her direction. She picked up another shirt and almost threw it at him, but really looked at it and decided she wanted to wear it. After changing into the shirt and slipping into her jeans, she searched through the huge mess of clothes on the floor and picked up a shirt she didn't like wearing much. She balled it up, aimed, and threw it at Chris. It hit him directly on the head and she held her arms up in victory, walked out the door, and started down the stairs. She walked into the kitchen, turned the coffee maker on, and sank into a seat at the table. She laid her head on her arms and sighed. It was early. Very early. Ridiculously early. Very, very, very, ridiculously early.
There was a sudden blast of beeping and then a noise that sounded like a drawer shutting--and it was coming from Rory's room. Lorelai was suddenly hit with an idea, and she stood up from the table with a mischievous look on her face. She made her way across the kitchen and paused outside Rory's door. All was silent. Lorelai slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Rory was facing the other way, practically fast asleep. A cord was coming out of Rory's bedside table where her alarm clock had been shoved. Lorelai grinned and crept silently to Rory's bed. She paused, counted to three, and jumped.
"Ahh!"
"Morning, sleepyhead. It's seven. Get up!"
"Oh, it's seven," Rory groaned.
"You're the one who mentioned shopping for the wedding to my mother!"
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that."
"You'll be sorrier in an hour and a half. Get up, get dressed." Lorelai patted Rory's leg. Rory groaned.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to. I'm dressed. You get dressed, we'll run over to Luke's, eat, then leave by eight."
"Why do we have to leave by eight?"
"Because I know my mother, and if we leave at eight-thirty and there's a tiny bit of traffic and we're late by a second, she'll start getting on us and be on us all day long. So my way, we leave at eight, get there when we get there, sit outside until two till, and then we'll ring the doorbell and be right on time."
"Boy, you've really thought this out." Rory turned back around to face her mother, dressed and ready to go.
"Yeah, well, after enough yelling and disappointment, you try to do whatever you can to keep it at bay."
"Yeah." Rory ran her brush through her hair one last time. "Ready to go?"
"Uh! Uh!" Lorelai pretended to struggle to get up.
"Need help?" Rory held a hand out.
"Wait, before I get up, can you help me button my jeans?"
"Mom!"
"What? Your baby sister is growing. She's now about the size of my pinky--huge, huh?"
"Sure feels it," Rory groaned, pulling the zipper on Lorelai's jeans as hard as she could. "You know it's a girl?"
"No," Lorelai sighed.
"Don't sigh! Breathe in!"
"Sorry. I just hope it's a girl. Actually, I have this gut feeling it's a boy."
"A boy would be okay. I don't think it's gonna work." Rory sighed and flopped onto her bed next to her mother.
"Yeah, okay. Boys are yucky! I don't want a boy."
"Boys aren't yucky. You like Dad, right?"
"Mmm, yeah. I like your dad a lot." Lorelai smiled.
"Eww. Please don't embellish. But my point is that not all boys are bad."
"I bet you don't think Jess is bad."
"No, I don't think Jess is bad."
"Speaking of Jess and Luke and coffee, let's go now." Lorelai struggled to pull herself up.
"Okay, let's go." Rory got up and held out a hand for her mother, who gladly took it.
~~~~
"Mom, just because you can't button your jeans does not mean you should pig out."
"That's not why I'm pigging out! I'm pigging out cause I'm pregnant."
"Yes, but the baby's only the size of your pinky, you said so yourself."
"Oh, shush and keep driving."
Rory turned back to the road as Lorelai pulled the last muffin out of the bag from Luke's.
"Anyway, I'm still mad at you about the whole Emily thing."
"Hey, I'm doing it too."
"I know. But you're really only going so you can pick out the bridesmaid dresses."
"And to get you maternity clothes so I don't have to struggle to zip your jeans every morning."
"You know, I've already gone up at least a size. That sucks."
"I'm sure it does." Rory turned the steering wheel of the Jeep and coasted the car to a stop in the Gilmores' driveway. Both girls sighed, simultaneously, dreading the next few hours.
"Well, this is it." Lorelai voiced.
"Yup."
"Final hour."
"D-day."
"Horrible defeat."
"And we're almost late."
"God, she even managed to make us late!"
"That might have been you with your hour long order."
"No, I think Emily somehow managed to make us late."
"Whatever, let's just go."
"Yeah."
Both girls rolled out of the Jeep and slowly made their way to the door. Seconds before they reached it, Emily burst through, hauling a huge bag and slipping on her sunglasses.
"Come, come, girls, we're almost late!" Emily made a shooing motion and herded the girls to her car.
"What about the Jeep, can we go in the Jeep?" Lorelai asked desperately.
"That hunk of junk? No, we're going in a nice family sized sedan. We're almost late! Get in the car!"
Lorelai obligingly sat in the front seat, while Rory quickly sat in the back. Emily sat in the driver's seat and then looked oddly at Lor.
"What?" she asked, self-consciously pausing in putting on her seatbelt. Emily just shook her head.
"Get out of the front seat! It's much too dangerous for you to be sitting there with the air bag."
"What?"
"I will not allow you to put my second grandchild in harm's way! Get in the back seat with Rory."
"But--"
"Oh, just do it, Lorelai."
"Okay, whatever." Lorelai got out of the front seat and sat next to Rory in the back. As Emily nodded and started the car, Lorelai leaned over to Rory and whispered, "The massacre has already started, and it's too late to back out now!"
Rory nodded solemnly.
~~~~
"Now--" Emily turned around quickly, but no one was behind her. "Where is that girl? Oh, it's so hard to get good help these days."
"That is such a cliche," Lorelai muttered to Rory as Emily stormed away from the girls to find the clerk who had been helping them.
"Well, Grandma really thinks that good help is hard to find."
"Yeah, but she didn't have to add 'these days.' According to her, good help has always been hard to find. As a matter of fact, she's never found good help."
"Good point." Rory turned back to the row of bridesmaid dresses and pulled a long blue one out. "Whaddya think?" she asked, holding the dress against her body.
"Hmm. Pretty. Very blue."
"Okay, that's a no," Rory sighed, sliding the hanger back on the rack. "Mom, you need to make up your mind about what you want."
"Well...what does it matter? You're the person it should really matter to."
"But it's your wedding!"
"Uh, duh."
Rory sighed again. "Okay, just tell me a few definites."
"Sure, whatever."
"Okay, first of all, when's the wedding?"
"After the baby's born. Sometime in winter, so there can be snow."
"I thought you wanted to get married in the town square."
"I do," Lorelai nodded emphatically.
"But it might be snowing in the winter...and it's definitely going to be cold."
"I like the snow."
"I do, too, but not everyone does."
"Well, then, I just won't invite them to the wedding. What do you think of this one?" Lorelai held up a frilly tan dress. Rory pulled a face, and Lorelai reflected it.
"What are you going to do if someone important doesn't want to stand outside in the snow? Like, say, for instance...me."
Lorelai gasped dramatically. "Bite your tongue!"
"I didn't say I hated snow, per se, I just don't wanna stand out in it for twenty minutes. And--"
But Lorelai wasn't paying any attention to Rory. "My own daughter has deserted me!" Lorelai grabbed a poor, unsuspecting woman walking to the dressing rooms. "My own daughter has just declared that she hates snow! My own daughter! Oh, woe!" On the last word, Lorelai let go of the woman, who shot a worried look to Rory and ran off.
"Mom!" Rory hissed. "That was Mrs. Grant!"
"Who?" Lorelai asked, still slightly in her 'o-woe-is-me' attitude but curious as always.
"Louise's mom! You know, of Madeline and Louise?"
"Ooh. Do you think she recognized me?"
"I hope not."
"You know what, she'll probably gossip to Louise, and describe you to her, and Louise'll figure out it's you, and the Louise will tell Madeline and Paris, and Paris'll gossip to everyone at Chilton, and your entire reputation will be ruined. Harvard'll probably throw your application directly in the trash, because you're the girl with the crazy mom." Lorelai nodded seriously. Rory sighed in defeat.
"Okay, fine, I overreacted. But that won't happen anyway, because Paris wouldn't gossip about me without getting the real story first. After all, she has her journalistic integrity to uphold."
"Well then, she'll just call you immediately and demand details."
Both girls looked expectantly at Rory's purse, but it remained silent.
"Let's just shop for wedding dresses."
"Okay," Rory agreed, and they both turned back to the row of dresses. After a few minutes, Emily came stalking up.
"We're leaving," she proclaimed.
"Oh, what'd you do now?" Lorelai asked.
"It's nothing I did, Lorelai, but thank you for that vote of confidence."
"No, I was just--"
"We are leaving," Emily interrupted, "because all of the people in this boutique are absolute idiots, and there is no way I am letting my daughter's wedding, the first wedding I've ever had a chance to plan, be handled by idiots!" Emily turned and started walking out of the store.
As they were following her mother out of the store, Lorelai turned to Rory and whispered, "Like I've had twenty weddings."
~~~~
"How's it look?" Emily asked impatiently.
Lorelai unhappily walked out of the dressing room, wearing a white fluffy shirt with a high empire waist. Rory buried her face in her hands so as to hide her laughing, and Emily giddily clapped her hands.
"Oh, I love it!"
"I don't. I don't want fluffy shirts, I want jeans and glittery shirts, and some of those fun 'bun in the oven' shirts."
"A bun in the oven shirt? But that's so tacky."
"Yes! Exactly! No offense, Mom, but we have radically different tastes."
"I've noticed," Emily agreed wryly.
"Yeah, so stop forcing me to do things I don't want to do! I don't want you to plan my wedding. You can take a part in it, but it's my wedding, my pregnancy...not yours."
Emily nodded. "Okay. Well, I guess I'll just see you Friday. Excuse me for wanting to spend more than two hours a week with my daughter and granddaughter. Goodbye." She picked up her coat and left. Rory stared after her and then stood up and walked over to her mother, still looking after Emily.
"Mom! Now you made Grandma feel bad." Rory turned to her mother and took in her appearance. She tried to keep a straight face, but it was incredibly hard, and she burst into giggles before too long.
~~~~
"I'm never going shopping with my mother again!" Lorelai proclaimed, flopping by Chris' side on their couch later that afternoon.
"Bad day?" Chris asked. Lorelai groaned and buried her face into his side, so Chris looked at Rory, who nodded.
"But we did get some clothes," Rory said happily, holding a few of the multiple bags filled with clothes up for Chris to see. He nodded.
"So, Mom, I'm gonna drop these bags in your room, and then I'm leaving to see Jess."
Lorelai perked up. "Ooooh, she's going to see Je-es!" she said sing-song.
"Glad to see you're feeling better." Rory said.
"Oh, I always feel better when I get to tease you! Rory and Jess, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Lorelai sang as Rory quickly retreated to her room. She settled back into Christopher, satisfied, but Christopher really wasn't.
"That relationship worries me."
"Why?" Lorelai asked, her mind not really on it.
"Because he's me and you rolled up into one. I mean, how long have they known each other, a few months?"
"A year."
"Still, they can't know each other that well."
"I think they know each other pretty well."
"He's just like me and you. All in one neat little package."
"Yes, I agree, but still, she's not like either of us at that age. Not even the tiniest little bit. She's probably more responsible and mature than I'll ever be."
"That's true."
"Yeah. So I wouldn't worry about it much."
"Okay, I guess I won't."
"Good." Lorelai resettled herself against Chris and pulled his arms around her. She picked up a magazine and began reading while he continued staring off into space, thinking. After a while, Rory stepped out of her room, dressed in a slightly nicer shirt, her hair fixed nicely, and just a touch of make-up. She practically hopped across the living room to her parents.
"Bye!" she said, kissing first her father, then her mother, on the forehead. "Bye, little one," she kissed Lorelai's stomach. "I'll be back by eleven," she proclaimed, straightening up.
"Have fun, sweetie," Lorelai answered.
"Can do."
"And if you can, bring Mommy back a few of Luke's muffins."
"Of course," Rory laughed. Then she waved, said 'bye' one last time, and exited the house. The house grew quiet, with only the noises of clocks ticking and breathing.
"He calls her Ror," Chris voiced his final worrying thought, thinking back to when he was fifteen, sixteen, and the final sign of how much he cared for Lor was his nickname for her. After the nickname came Rory. Lorelai knew all this, and the magazine was lowered ever so slightly as the same thought hit both parents at the same time.
Chapter 12: Shopping For Nicknames
Picks up where the last one left off. You know, at the bottom of the page, there's this little purple button labeled 'go.' I love that button, and it's feeling very neglected. If you could press it and review, even anonymously, both the button and I would love you forever. Thank you.
~~~~
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Lorelai groaned and rolled over. Chris poked her sleepily.
"Either turn that stupid thing off or get up."
"I don't wanna get up." Lorelai muttered back.
"Then don't."
"Oh, but I have to! Stupid Mom."
"You're the one who set the clock for six thirty."
Lorelai groaned loudly. "Can I throw the clock against the wall?"
"Always."
"Okay." Lorelai happily lifted her arm from under the covers and inched it closer to the clock. She found it, picked it up in one hand, and heaved it at the wall. It fell from her fingers and bounced a few feet, but continued beeping. Lorelai groaned again and reached...but the clock was too far, so she rolled out of bed and clicked it off.
"And now I'm up. I hate you, Chris."
"And now it feels like a normal day." Chris rolled over and turned away from Lorelai, who threw various clothes from the floor at him. He smiled and made kissy noises in her direction. She picked up another shirt and almost threw it at him, but really looked at it and decided she wanted to wear it. After changing into the shirt and slipping into her jeans, she searched through the huge mess of clothes on the floor and picked up a shirt she didn't like wearing much. She balled it up, aimed, and threw it at Chris. It hit him directly on the head and she held her arms up in victory, walked out the door, and started down the stairs. She walked into the kitchen, turned the coffee maker on, and sank into a seat at the table. She laid her head on her arms and sighed. It was early. Very early. Ridiculously early. Very, very, very, ridiculously early.
There was a sudden blast of beeping and then a noise that sounded like a drawer shutting--and it was coming from Rory's room. Lorelai was suddenly hit with an idea, and she stood up from the table with a mischievous look on her face. She made her way across the kitchen and paused outside Rory's door. All was silent. Lorelai slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. Rory was facing the other way, practically fast asleep. A cord was coming out of Rory's bedside table where her alarm clock had been shoved. Lorelai grinned and crept silently to Rory's bed. She paused, counted to three, and jumped.
"Ahh!"
"Morning, sleepyhead. It's seven. Get up!"
"Oh, it's seven," Rory groaned.
"You're the one who mentioned shopping for the wedding to my mother!"
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that."
"You'll be sorrier in an hour and a half. Get up, get dressed." Lorelai patted Rory's leg. Rory groaned.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to. I'm dressed. You get dressed, we'll run over to Luke's, eat, then leave by eight."
"Why do we have to leave by eight?"
"Because I know my mother, and if we leave at eight-thirty and there's a tiny bit of traffic and we're late by a second, she'll start getting on us and be on us all day long. So my way, we leave at eight, get there when we get there, sit outside until two till, and then we'll ring the doorbell and be right on time."
"Boy, you've really thought this out." Rory turned back around to face her mother, dressed and ready to go.
"Yeah, well, after enough yelling and disappointment, you try to do whatever you can to keep it at bay."
"Yeah." Rory ran her brush through her hair one last time. "Ready to go?"
"Uh! Uh!" Lorelai pretended to struggle to get up.
"Need help?" Rory held a hand out.
"Wait, before I get up, can you help me button my jeans?"
"Mom!"
"What? Your baby sister is growing. She's now about the size of my pinky--huge, huh?"
"Sure feels it," Rory groaned, pulling the zipper on Lorelai's jeans as hard as she could. "You know it's a girl?"
"No," Lorelai sighed.
"Don't sigh! Breathe in!"
"Sorry. I just hope it's a girl. Actually, I have this gut feeling it's a boy."
"A boy would be okay. I don't think it's gonna work." Rory sighed and flopped onto her bed next to her mother.
"Yeah, okay. Boys are yucky! I don't want a boy."
"Boys aren't yucky. You like Dad, right?"
"Mmm, yeah. I like your dad a lot." Lorelai smiled.
"Eww. Please don't embellish. But my point is that not all boys are bad."
"I bet you don't think Jess is bad."
"No, I don't think Jess is bad."
"Speaking of Jess and Luke and coffee, let's go now." Lorelai struggled to pull herself up.
"Okay, let's go." Rory got up and held out a hand for her mother, who gladly took it.
~~~~
"Mom, just because you can't button your jeans does not mean you should pig out."
"That's not why I'm pigging out! I'm pigging out cause I'm pregnant."
"Yes, but the baby's only the size of your pinky, you said so yourself."
"Oh, shush and keep driving."
Rory turned back to the road as Lorelai pulled the last muffin out of the bag from Luke's.
"Anyway, I'm still mad at you about the whole Emily thing."
"Hey, I'm doing it too."
"I know. But you're really only going so you can pick out the bridesmaid dresses."
"And to get you maternity clothes so I don't have to struggle to zip your jeans every morning."
"You know, I've already gone up at least a size. That sucks."
"I'm sure it does." Rory turned the steering wheel of the Jeep and coasted the car to a stop in the Gilmores' driveway. Both girls sighed, simultaneously, dreading the next few hours.
"Well, this is it." Lorelai voiced.
"Yup."
"Final hour."
"D-day."
"Horrible defeat."
"And we're almost late."
"God, she even managed to make us late!"
"That might have been you with your hour long order."
"No, I think Emily somehow managed to make us late."
"Whatever, let's just go."
"Yeah."
Both girls rolled out of the Jeep and slowly made their way to the door. Seconds before they reached it, Emily burst through, hauling a huge bag and slipping on her sunglasses.
"Come, come, girls, we're almost late!" Emily made a shooing motion and herded the girls to her car.
"What about the Jeep, can we go in the Jeep?" Lorelai asked desperately.
"That hunk of junk? No, we're going in a nice family sized sedan. We're almost late! Get in the car!"
Lorelai obligingly sat in the front seat, while Rory quickly sat in the back. Emily sat in the driver's seat and then looked oddly at Lor.
"What?" she asked, self-consciously pausing in putting on her seatbelt. Emily just shook her head.
"Get out of the front seat! It's much too dangerous for you to be sitting there with the air bag."
"What?"
"I will not allow you to put my second grandchild in harm's way! Get in the back seat with Rory."
"But--"
"Oh, just do it, Lorelai."
"Okay, whatever." Lorelai got out of the front seat and sat next to Rory in the back. As Emily nodded and started the car, Lorelai leaned over to Rory and whispered, "The massacre has already started, and it's too late to back out now!"
Rory nodded solemnly.
~~~~
"Now--" Emily turned around quickly, but no one was behind her. "Where is that girl? Oh, it's so hard to get good help these days."
"That is such a cliche," Lorelai muttered to Rory as Emily stormed away from the girls to find the clerk who had been helping them.
"Well, Grandma really thinks that good help is hard to find."
"Yeah, but she didn't have to add 'these days.' According to her, good help has always been hard to find. As a matter of fact, she's never found good help."
"Good point." Rory turned back to the row of bridesmaid dresses and pulled a long blue one out. "Whaddya think?" she asked, holding the dress against her body.
"Hmm. Pretty. Very blue."
"Okay, that's a no," Rory sighed, sliding the hanger back on the rack. "Mom, you need to make up your mind about what you want."
"Well...what does it matter? You're the person it should really matter to."
"But it's your wedding!"
"Uh, duh."
Rory sighed again. "Okay, just tell me a few definites."
"Sure, whatever."
"Okay, first of all, when's the wedding?"
"After the baby's born. Sometime in winter, so there can be snow."
"I thought you wanted to get married in the town square."
"I do," Lorelai nodded emphatically.
"But it might be snowing in the winter...and it's definitely going to be cold."
"I like the snow."
"I do, too, but not everyone does."
"Well, then, I just won't invite them to the wedding. What do you think of this one?" Lorelai held up a frilly tan dress. Rory pulled a face, and Lorelai reflected it.
"What are you going to do if someone important doesn't want to stand outside in the snow? Like, say, for instance...me."
Lorelai gasped dramatically. "Bite your tongue!"
"I didn't say I hated snow, per se, I just don't wanna stand out in it for twenty minutes. And--"
But Lorelai wasn't paying any attention to Rory. "My own daughter has deserted me!" Lorelai grabbed a poor, unsuspecting woman walking to the dressing rooms. "My own daughter has just declared that she hates snow! My own daughter! Oh, woe!" On the last word, Lorelai let go of the woman, who shot a worried look to Rory and ran off.
"Mom!" Rory hissed. "That was Mrs. Grant!"
"Who?" Lorelai asked, still slightly in her 'o-woe-is-me' attitude but curious as always.
"Louise's mom! You know, of Madeline and Louise?"
"Ooh. Do you think she recognized me?"
"I hope not."
"You know what, she'll probably gossip to Louise, and describe you to her, and Louise'll figure out it's you, and the Louise will tell Madeline and Paris, and Paris'll gossip to everyone at Chilton, and your entire reputation will be ruined. Harvard'll probably throw your application directly in the trash, because you're the girl with the crazy mom." Lorelai nodded seriously. Rory sighed in defeat.
"Okay, fine, I overreacted. But that won't happen anyway, because Paris wouldn't gossip about me without getting the real story first. After all, she has her journalistic integrity to uphold."
"Well then, she'll just call you immediately and demand details."
Both girls looked expectantly at Rory's purse, but it remained silent.
"Let's just shop for wedding dresses."
"Okay," Rory agreed, and they both turned back to the row of dresses. After a few minutes, Emily came stalking up.
"We're leaving," she proclaimed.
"Oh, what'd you do now?" Lorelai asked.
"It's nothing I did, Lorelai, but thank you for that vote of confidence."
"No, I was just--"
"We are leaving," Emily interrupted, "because all of the people in this boutique are absolute idiots, and there is no way I am letting my daughter's wedding, the first wedding I've ever had a chance to plan, be handled by idiots!" Emily turned and started walking out of the store.
As they were following her mother out of the store, Lorelai turned to Rory and whispered, "Like I've had twenty weddings."
~~~~
"How's it look?" Emily asked impatiently.
Lorelai unhappily walked out of the dressing room, wearing a white fluffy shirt with a high empire waist. Rory buried her face in her hands so as to hide her laughing, and Emily giddily clapped her hands.
"Oh, I love it!"
"I don't. I don't want fluffy shirts, I want jeans and glittery shirts, and some of those fun 'bun in the oven' shirts."
"A bun in the oven shirt? But that's so tacky."
"Yes! Exactly! No offense, Mom, but we have radically different tastes."
"I've noticed," Emily agreed wryly.
"Yeah, so stop forcing me to do things I don't want to do! I don't want you to plan my wedding. You can take a part in it, but it's my wedding, my pregnancy...not yours."
Emily nodded. "Okay. Well, I guess I'll just see you Friday. Excuse me for wanting to spend more than two hours a week with my daughter and granddaughter. Goodbye." She picked up her coat and left. Rory stared after her and then stood up and walked over to her mother, still looking after Emily.
"Mom! Now you made Grandma feel bad." Rory turned to her mother and took in her appearance. She tried to keep a straight face, but it was incredibly hard, and she burst into giggles before too long.
~~~~
"I'm never going shopping with my mother again!" Lorelai proclaimed, flopping by Chris' side on their couch later that afternoon.
"Bad day?" Chris asked. Lorelai groaned and buried her face into his side, so Chris looked at Rory, who nodded.
"But we did get some clothes," Rory said happily, holding a few of the multiple bags filled with clothes up for Chris to see. He nodded.
"So, Mom, I'm gonna drop these bags in your room, and then I'm leaving to see Jess."
Lorelai perked up. "Ooooh, she's going to see Je-es!" she said sing-song.
"Glad to see you're feeling better." Rory said.
"Oh, I always feel better when I get to tease you! Rory and Jess, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Lorelai sang as Rory quickly retreated to her room. She settled back into Christopher, satisfied, but Christopher really wasn't.
"That relationship worries me."
"Why?" Lorelai asked, her mind not really on it.
"Because he's me and you rolled up into one. I mean, how long have they known each other, a few months?"
"A year."
"Still, they can't know each other that well."
"I think they know each other pretty well."
"He's just like me and you. All in one neat little package."
"Yes, I agree, but still, she's not like either of us at that age. Not even the tiniest little bit. She's probably more responsible and mature than I'll ever be."
"That's true."
"Yeah. So I wouldn't worry about it much."
"Okay, I guess I won't."
"Good." Lorelai resettled herself against Chris and pulled his arms around her. She picked up a magazine and began reading while he continued staring off into space, thinking. After a while, Rory stepped out of her room, dressed in a slightly nicer shirt, her hair fixed nicely, and just a touch of make-up. She practically hopped across the living room to her parents.
"Bye!" she said, kissing first her father, then her mother, on the forehead. "Bye, little one," she kissed Lorelai's stomach. "I'll be back by eleven," she proclaimed, straightening up.
"Have fun, sweetie," Lorelai answered.
"Can do."
"And if you can, bring Mommy back a few of Luke's muffins."
"Of course," Rory laughed. Then she waved, said 'bye' one last time, and exited the house. The house grew quiet, with only the noises of clocks ticking and breathing.
"He calls her Ror," Chris voiced his final worrying thought, thinking back to when he was fifteen, sixteen, and the final sign of how much he cared for Lor was his nickname for her. After the nickname came Rory. Lorelai knew all this, and the magazine was lowered ever so slightly as the same thought hit both parents at the same time.