Author's Note: As of now, this is complete. I may revise it in the future, but then again, I may not. Thanks to everybody who's ever had a kind word for this story.

*

Three days later, Lorelai was sitting on Chris' front steps again, waiting for him to return. Her nerve vanished after a while, but she couldn't bring herself to get up and leave. She couldn't do that; it seemed a decision far more final than this one.

She'd been there an hour when his car pulled into the driveway. It was still an awful car, with mysterious noises and non-functioning air-conditioning. She wondered if he had anything to drink. Preferably alcoholic, but water would do, in a pinch.

He climbed out of the car, squinting at her. "Hey." Hoisting the rucksack that had been inhabiting the passenger seat over his shoulder, he started towards her. "What are you doing here?"

"Wanted to see you."

"Well I guessed that. Why?"

She took a shallow breath, had to take another to keep breathing, and pushed her sticky hair off her forehead.

She meant to say something about forgetting, but what came out was, "Do you remember when I first came to Stars Hollow?"

The bag slid down his arm, thudded to the ground, and he sat down beside her. "I remember when you left Hartford."

"I was so scared. So young, somewhere I didn't know, with no friends. I'd never been alone before. But I was more afraid of staying. Do you think I did the right thing?"

"I don't know. I don't know what would have happened. Maybe. It's pointless to wonder."

"I'm not— I wasn't going to marry you. And I'm still not."

"You know, I got that."

"But I'm not running away."

He was still as the air after she said it, and it would be worse than this in Florida, wouldn't it?

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, oh."

His eyes were travelling over her face, trying to gauge her, and she had to smile, because he'd always been so terrible at that.

"Good. Don't think this means I'm being nice to your parents, though."

"Would I think that?"

"Or going to Florida. I've been there, and it's nothing major. I had a trip to Europe planned this summer, and—"

He cut her off with a kiss. And before she stopped thinking, she remembered that new places weren't that bad after all. They'd find one.