Title: In Search of Restitution
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Yeah, right.
Author's Note: To Lee, because she named a thread after something I said (ooh, look, a rhyme!)
Chapter 3: Well, it sure beats "Sorry, I got pregnant over winter break."
The night was the calmest Rory had ever seen. Every window in the house was open as if to promote some sort of breeze, but nothing moved except a bead of sweat slowly trickling its way down her forehead. She couldn't sleep.
The fact that she hadn't slept in three days was probably not a good thing, but at that point it seemed Rory didn't even remember that it was important. She sat up on the matress Jimmy had set up for her in the living room and pulled her cell phone out of her bag. The number that should have been familiar under her fingertips came slowly. The pads of her fingers slipping from her own sweat.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
"Hello?"
Her mother's voice was groggy with sleep, and looking at her watch Rory realized it was 6 AM in Connecticut.
"Mom?"
"Rory?! Where are you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm in California."
"California?"
Even though the beach was blocks away Rory could hear the waves lapping against the shore. It sounded like the gentle kisses her mother would lay on her forehead every night before bed.
"Rory, you need to come home." Lorelai sounded worried, but Rory couldn't give in to it. She had lost too much in Stars Hollow to return right away.
"I can't."
"You can't? Rory, do you have any idea the kind of ruin you left behind? Dean's a mess, Lindsay showed up at the inn crying tonight, and Taylor organized a search party that encompasses about half the town."
"I'm not ready yet." Rory detached herself from the conversation as much as possible so as to keep from giving in.
"Where are you even staying?"
"With Jimmy and Sasha."
"Who are they, a couple of bums you met on the beach?"
"No. Jess's dad and his girlfriend."
Lorelai laughed a hollow laugh that Rory knew to mean something between anger and fear. "Well there's someone I trust with my daughter, a deadbeat dad and the woman who took him in."
"Hey!"
"Don't 'hey!' me. I'm sure they're nice people, but he hasn't exactly shown himself to be a responsible person in the past, why should I trust him now? I've never even met him."
"You took the words out of my mouth. You've never met him, you don't know who he is or what he's like."
"Is he anything like Jess?"
"Yes."
"Well, then you're proving my point."
Rory sighed, trying her hardest to keep from exploding. Her mother didn't know what this felt like. She had never lost herself so completely that she didn't know which way was up. Or, if she had, she had never needed a remedy for it that was this extreme.
Sometimes Rory wished she was more like Lorelai, the woman who always had a comeback, never forgot to breath, and was rarely too intimidated to give someone a piece of her mind. She knew life had not come easy for Lorelai, but it had never caused her to follow a phantom ex-boyfriend across the country. Right?
"What about Yale, Rory?"
Rory hadn't realized the lull in conversation until her mother pulled her back with the sharp tug of a fish hook question.
"It's summer."
"Well, how long do you expect to be out there?"
"I don't know."
"And if you're still there when the fall semester starts? What then? What are you going to tell them? 'Sorry, I won't be there this term, I got a bad case of run-across-the-country-itis'?"
Rory tried to fight off a biting remark, but failed. "Well, it sure beats 'sorry, I got pregnant over winter break.'"
Her mother's silence was proof she'd struck a chord. "Harsh."
Rory was tempted to hang up, but she knew it wouldn't prove anything, and so she continued. "What do you mean, Dean is a mess?"
"He showed up at the Dragonfly today asking where you were. He started cryig when I told him you were gone. have you ever seen him cry?"
Rory shook her head. She knew full well that Lorelai couldn't see her, but her silence was answer enough.
"He left Lindsay."
Rory still didn't say anything.
He'd left Lindsay for her. It wasn't really that surprising. Dean had always been threatened by others in Rory's life, but he had also always trusted her, and he knew that by sleeping with her he had claimed her for himself. Leaving Lindsay wasn't a risk anymore.
But she had surprised everyone (including herself) by leaving Stars Hollow.
"I have to go, Mom."
"I want an address, Rory, and a phone number. And an arrival date."
"What am I, a bread shipment?"
"Address, phone, date."
Rory hung up then heaving a great sigh and falling back against her pillow. She loved the feeling of sinking down into a mattress after a deep breath. It was like being swallowed whole by a sea of blankets. The salt water air left her hanging in an early morning stupor, the kind only reached by those willing to stay up till early morning. If she didn't know that the sun didn't come up at 4 AM in the summer she would have sworn she saw the first rays dancing across the windowsill.
When the first rays really were coming up Rory finally drifted off to sleep.
It was 11 AM when Lily started bouncing on Rory's feet.
"Get up, get up, get up!"
Groaning Rory cracked open her eyes, and immediately regretted it. The California sun was bright against them, seeping in through the thin skin of her eyelids so that even with them closed she couldn't escape it.
"Come on, you promised me you'd take me to the boardwalk."
Rory rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head.
"Rory!"
"Ugh! How are you this awake?"
Rory had been in Venice a week and a half, and already she was a part of the Mariano family (for they called themselves that, as Jimmy and Sasha were as good as married and Jimmy was as good as Lily's dad). Every time Rory thought about that she realized that a year before she didn't think she would ever see another Mariano again.
"Get up!"
"Fine."
Rolling off the mattress was the most painful part of the day, every day. A combination of coast switching, not sleepign for 3 days, and funny finals habits had led to a strange schedule. Sasha was nice about letting her sleep, and Jimmy got up before everyone to go open the Inferno each morning, but by 11 every day Lily gave into her need for company and woke Rory up.
"We're going to the boardwalk, right?" Lily asked as she followed Rory to the bathroom that held her toothbrush.
"Yup."
"And we're going to watch the skaters and read and get ice cream."
"Uh huh."
"And stop at the arcade."
"Yes."
"And you'll let me challenge you to Dance Dance Revolution."
"Sure."
"You're way more fun than Jess."
Rory smiled at the girl over her toothbrush. She had her hair pulled into pigtails, and she was wearing a pale yellow one piece with denim shorts.
"You're way more fun than Jess, too."
"Tell me more stories."
Rory spit into the sink and wiped her mouth before starting. "Well, one time I invited, or blackmailed him into coming, to dinner at my grandmother's house..."
The boardwalk was a sweltering, sticky haven for rollerbladers and kids on summer break. As Rory and Lily exited a used bookshop advertising a 46% off sale (which hinted back to Stars Hollow for Rory and left her feeling just a bit homesick) they were nearly run over by a super-skinny teen in a bikini headed for the non-fat gelato stand. When they entered the air-conditioned arcade (it's first breath of cold air sending goosebumps fleeing up their arms) they had to wait in line to play DDR (Rory lost to Lily due to her terrible coordination and complete lack of rhythm). At the ice cream shop Rory applied aloe vera to Lily's shoulders as she licked the strawberry cheesecake ice cream drizzling down her thumb. It was the way a boardwalk should be, full of sweaty, sunburned kids dragging their parents behind them, and sandy, tanned teens discussing the pros and cons of lipgloss as opposed to lipstick.
When they had finished their ice cream, burned it all of with DDR, and purchased three new used books each they settled down on a bench to read. Lily opened a loved copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (rereading, she'd told Rory, in preparation for the movie, which Rory had, the night before, promised to take her to), and Rory tucked herself into Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the title drawing her in, and the back cover promising a treat.
They stayed that way for nearly three hours (breaking occasionally to layer on more sunscreen or read each other a particularly funny or interesting passage. When they finally did return to the house they both had pink cheeks and paper cuts. Rory was worn out from the little girl's enthusiasm, but Lily was bouncing off the walls (no doubt a result of too much ice cream and not enough substance).
"What did you do to Rory?" Sasha asked as the two came in the front door.
"Nothing, I just entertained her for a day."
Rory managed to give Sasha a weak smile before collapsing on the couch. "I haven't been this tired since my mom and I had an all night brat pack marathon the night before we left for Europe."
"When did you go to Europe?" asked Lily as she handed Rory a pillow.
"Last summer. It was my graduation present."
"Was it fun?"
"It was great. We backpacked through France, Spain, England, Germany, Poland, Italy, Ireland. Everywhere. We stayed in hostels, and we visited all sorts of famous places. We found this great fondu restaurant in Paris where you have to climb on the table to get to your seat and everyone sits together. It's probably ridiculously unsanitary, but the food was fantastic. We went to Madam Tussauds in London and we saw her wax models of decapitated heads, and we visited the Louvre and the home Albert Einstein was born in and the Leaning Tower of Pisa."
Rory watched Lily's smile stretch across her face. She knew the little girl wanted to travel, she'd made that very clear, and just imagining the fantastic places Rory had seen was making her visibly shiver with excitement for the day she would.
"What was the best part?"
"It's completely cliche, but I loved looking out over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower. All the lights and sounds. It was stunning."
"I bet."
"Okay, ladies, dinner's ready," Jimmy called from the kitchen, and they headed in to eat.
Alright, well, it's not 5000 words, it's not even 2000, and Phantom Jess didn't show up like I promised, but the next chapter will be longer.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Yeah, right.
Author's Note: To Lee, because she named a thread after something I said (ooh, look, a rhyme!)
Chapter 3: Well, it sure beats "Sorry, I got pregnant over winter break."
The night was the calmest Rory had ever seen. Every window in the house was open as if to promote some sort of breeze, but nothing moved except a bead of sweat slowly trickling its way down her forehead. She couldn't sleep.
The fact that she hadn't slept in three days was probably not a good thing, but at that point it seemed Rory didn't even remember that it was important. She sat up on the matress Jimmy had set up for her in the living room and pulled her cell phone out of her bag. The number that should have been familiar under her fingertips came slowly. The pads of her fingers slipping from her own sweat.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
"Hello?"
Her mother's voice was groggy with sleep, and looking at her watch Rory realized it was 6 AM in Connecticut.
"Mom?"
"Rory?! Where are you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm in California."
"California?"
Even though the beach was blocks away Rory could hear the waves lapping against the shore. It sounded like the gentle kisses her mother would lay on her forehead every night before bed.
"Rory, you need to come home." Lorelai sounded worried, but Rory couldn't give in to it. She had lost too much in Stars Hollow to return right away.
"I can't."
"You can't? Rory, do you have any idea the kind of ruin you left behind? Dean's a mess, Lindsay showed up at the inn crying tonight, and Taylor organized a search party that encompasses about half the town."
"I'm not ready yet." Rory detached herself from the conversation as much as possible so as to keep from giving in.
"Where are you even staying?"
"With Jimmy and Sasha."
"Who are they, a couple of bums you met on the beach?"
"No. Jess's dad and his girlfriend."
Lorelai laughed a hollow laugh that Rory knew to mean something between anger and fear. "Well there's someone I trust with my daughter, a deadbeat dad and the woman who took him in."
"Hey!"
"Don't 'hey!' me. I'm sure they're nice people, but he hasn't exactly shown himself to be a responsible person in the past, why should I trust him now? I've never even met him."
"You took the words out of my mouth. You've never met him, you don't know who he is or what he's like."
"Is he anything like Jess?"
"Yes."
"Well, then you're proving my point."
Rory sighed, trying her hardest to keep from exploding. Her mother didn't know what this felt like. She had never lost herself so completely that she didn't know which way was up. Or, if she had, she had never needed a remedy for it that was this extreme.
Sometimes Rory wished she was more like Lorelai, the woman who always had a comeback, never forgot to breath, and was rarely too intimidated to give someone a piece of her mind. She knew life had not come easy for Lorelai, but it had never caused her to follow a phantom ex-boyfriend across the country. Right?
"What about Yale, Rory?"
Rory hadn't realized the lull in conversation until her mother pulled her back with the sharp tug of a fish hook question.
"It's summer."
"Well, how long do you expect to be out there?"
"I don't know."
"And if you're still there when the fall semester starts? What then? What are you going to tell them? 'Sorry, I won't be there this term, I got a bad case of run-across-the-country-itis'?"
Rory tried to fight off a biting remark, but failed. "Well, it sure beats 'sorry, I got pregnant over winter break.'"
Her mother's silence was proof she'd struck a chord. "Harsh."
Rory was tempted to hang up, but she knew it wouldn't prove anything, and so she continued. "What do you mean, Dean is a mess?"
"He showed up at the Dragonfly today asking where you were. He started cryig when I told him you were gone. have you ever seen him cry?"
Rory shook her head. She knew full well that Lorelai couldn't see her, but her silence was answer enough.
"He left Lindsay."
Rory still didn't say anything.
He'd left Lindsay for her. It wasn't really that surprising. Dean had always been threatened by others in Rory's life, but he had also always trusted her, and he knew that by sleeping with her he had claimed her for himself. Leaving Lindsay wasn't a risk anymore.
But she had surprised everyone (including herself) by leaving Stars Hollow.
"I have to go, Mom."
"I want an address, Rory, and a phone number. And an arrival date."
"What am I, a bread shipment?"
"Address, phone, date."
Rory hung up then heaving a great sigh and falling back against her pillow. She loved the feeling of sinking down into a mattress after a deep breath. It was like being swallowed whole by a sea of blankets. The salt water air left her hanging in an early morning stupor, the kind only reached by those willing to stay up till early morning. If she didn't know that the sun didn't come up at 4 AM in the summer she would have sworn she saw the first rays dancing across the windowsill.
When the first rays really were coming up Rory finally drifted off to sleep.
It was 11 AM when Lily started bouncing on Rory's feet.
"Get up, get up, get up!"
Groaning Rory cracked open her eyes, and immediately regretted it. The California sun was bright against them, seeping in through the thin skin of her eyelids so that even with them closed she couldn't escape it.
"Come on, you promised me you'd take me to the boardwalk."
Rory rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head.
"Rory!"
"Ugh! How are you this awake?"
Rory had been in Venice a week and a half, and already she was a part of the Mariano family (for they called themselves that, as Jimmy and Sasha were as good as married and Jimmy was as good as Lily's dad). Every time Rory thought about that she realized that a year before she didn't think she would ever see another Mariano again.
"Get up!"
"Fine."
Rolling off the mattress was the most painful part of the day, every day. A combination of coast switching, not sleepign for 3 days, and funny finals habits had led to a strange schedule. Sasha was nice about letting her sleep, and Jimmy got up before everyone to go open the Inferno each morning, but by 11 every day Lily gave into her need for company and woke Rory up.
"We're going to the boardwalk, right?" Lily asked as she followed Rory to the bathroom that held her toothbrush.
"Yup."
"And we're going to watch the skaters and read and get ice cream."
"Uh huh."
"And stop at the arcade."
"Yes."
"And you'll let me challenge you to Dance Dance Revolution."
"Sure."
"You're way more fun than Jess."
Rory smiled at the girl over her toothbrush. She had her hair pulled into pigtails, and she was wearing a pale yellow one piece with denim shorts.
"You're way more fun than Jess, too."
"Tell me more stories."
Rory spit into the sink and wiped her mouth before starting. "Well, one time I invited, or blackmailed him into coming, to dinner at my grandmother's house..."
The boardwalk was a sweltering, sticky haven for rollerbladers and kids on summer break. As Rory and Lily exited a used bookshop advertising a 46% off sale (which hinted back to Stars Hollow for Rory and left her feeling just a bit homesick) they were nearly run over by a super-skinny teen in a bikini headed for the non-fat gelato stand. When they entered the air-conditioned arcade (it's first breath of cold air sending goosebumps fleeing up their arms) they had to wait in line to play DDR (Rory lost to Lily due to her terrible coordination and complete lack of rhythm). At the ice cream shop Rory applied aloe vera to Lily's shoulders as she licked the strawberry cheesecake ice cream drizzling down her thumb. It was the way a boardwalk should be, full of sweaty, sunburned kids dragging their parents behind them, and sandy, tanned teens discussing the pros and cons of lipgloss as opposed to lipstick.
When they had finished their ice cream, burned it all of with DDR, and purchased three new used books each they settled down on a bench to read. Lily opened a loved copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (rereading, she'd told Rory, in preparation for the movie, which Rory had, the night before, promised to take her to), and Rory tucked herself into Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, the title drawing her in, and the back cover promising a treat.
They stayed that way for nearly three hours (breaking occasionally to layer on more sunscreen or read each other a particularly funny or interesting passage. When they finally did return to the house they both had pink cheeks and paper cuts. Rory was worn out from the little girl's enthusiasm, but Lily was bouncing off the walls (no doubt a result of too much ice cream and not enough substance).
"What did you do to Rory?" Sasha asked as the two came in the front door.
"Nothing, I just entertained her for a day."
Rory managed to give Sasha a weak smile before collapsing on the couch. "I haven't been this tired since my mom and I had an all night brat pack marathon the night before we left for Europe."
"When did you go to Europe?" asked Lily as she handed Rory a pillow.
"Last summer. It was my graduation present."
"Was it fun?"
"It was great. We backpacked through France, Spain, England, Germany, Poland, Italy, Ireland. Everywhere. We stayed in hostels, and we visited all sorts of famous places. We found this great fondu restaurant in Paris where you have to climb on the table to get to your seat and everyone sits together. It's probably ridiculously unsanitary, but the food was fantastic. We went to Madam Tussauds in London and we saw her wax models of decapitated heads, and we visited the Louvre and the home Albert Einstein was born in and the Leaning Tower of Pisa."
Rory watched Lily's smile stretch across her face. She knew the little girl wanted to travel, she'd made that very clear, and just imagining the fantastic places Rory had seen was making her visibly shiver with excitement for the day she would.
"What was the best part?"
"It's completely cliche, but I loved looking out over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower. All the lights and sounds. It was stunning."
"I bet."
"Okay, ladies, dinner's ready," Jimmy called from the kitchen, and they headed in to eat.
Alright, well, it's not 5000 words, it's not even 2000, and Phantom Jess didn't show up like I promised, but the next chapter will be longer.