I year later
"Rory!" Luke called excitedly.
"What!" Rory called walking into the lounge room.
"Oh my god" she exclaimed rushing towards her little sister who was taking her very first steps.
"You did it Rosey!" she said, she held out her hands for her sister to walk towards her, she rushed towards Rory as fast as her little feet would carry her. Rory scooped her up in her arms, and kissed her on the check. The little girl smiled happily. Rory rocked her back and forth smiling proudly.
"You did it Rosey, you can walk" she said her baby talk making the little girl smile even more. Rory set her down on the ground again holding her hands up in the air, so she could stand.
"Can you walk to Daddy?" she said. Luke who was sitting on a chair not far away, held out his arms. The little girl waddled happily over to her Dad.
"Way! Hello Beautiful" he said picking up his little daughter, placing her on his lap. A huge, proud smile across his face. Rosey bounced happily up and down on his knee.
The doorbell rang.
Rory walked to answer it, smiling when she was the person on the other side.
"Hey" she said leaning up to give him a kiss.
"Hey baby" said Tristan leaning down to kiss his girlfriend. Rory and Tristan had been dating for about 10 months now, and Tristan and Luke got on surprisingly well.
"Guess what?" Rory said excitedly, as she and Tristan walked into the lounge room.
"What?" asked Tristan,
'Rosey took her first steps!" she exclaimed.
"Oh Wow" Tristan said, looking over at the girl.
"Well done Rosey" he said in baby talk.
He turned back to face Rory.
"So we better get going then" said Tristan
"Oh yep, ill just get my bag" she said rushing towards her room.
"So where are you guys going again?" asked Luke, picking up Rosey and walking in the direction of the kitchen.
"Were going to the movies, and Rory wont tell me what movie were seeing"
"Yeah it's a surprise" added in Rory as she came out of her room. She walked over to Luke and Rosey, giving each of them a kiss on the check.
"Cya later".
Luke sat down at the kitchen table, putting Rosey down on the floor. She immediately started crawling away in search of something to play with.
He was amazed at how she grew and changed everyday, always finding something new to brighten up his day with.
It had been along and tough year and without his girls he doubted he would have been able to get through it.
He missed Lorelai each and every moment of every day, but living and breathing and thinking and laughing became easier, though he thought it never would. He now also had the love back in his life again, love he never thought he could feel without Lorelai, the love he felt for his daughters.
Last year Christopher has tried to contact Rory again and had got quiet aggressive, a restraining order had to be taken out against him, and per Rory's request Luke adopted Rory as his own daughter.
He stood up to follow Rosey who had decided to crawl into her sister's room. Picking her up he looked around the room, the Harvard posters and memorabilia on the walls.
Rory was off to college so soon it would just be him and Rosey here, and that indeed was a strange feeling.
Luke's eyes fell on a picture on Rory's desk. It was a picture that had been taken at Christmas of Rory, Rosey and himself. Tristan had taken the photo. Luke was glad Rory had Tristan, initially he wouldn't have been the guy he would have chosen for Rory, but Tristan was a good guy and he looked after Rory and supported her and her dreams.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A couple of days later
Luke walked back into the house holding the mail, he flicked past the usual bills and such, and his eyes fell on an envelope addressed to Rory. He flipped it over to see the words Harvard printed on the back.
"Rory!" he shouted as he walked into the kitchen
"Yeah" she said appearing at her door.
Luke held the letter out in front of her, she grabbed it and stared at it.
"Harvard, its from Harvard" she said examining the envelope.
"Yes it is" said Luke, waiting for her to open it. He waited for a few minutes but Rory just stood there staring at the envelope.
"Rory?" he asked looking at her questioningly
"What if I didn't get in?" she asked her face panicked.
"Well open it and find out"
"I can't" she said and with that she rushed into her room and shut the door. A bemused Luke walked back towards the lounge room to read the rest of the mail.
Half an hour later Rory came out of her room, the envelope still in hand. She walked to the lounge room to find Luke sitting on the couch watching baseball. He switched it off as he saw her enter the room. She sat down at the end of the couch.
"Ok I'm going to open it now"
"Ok"
She ripped the top of the envelope open and pulled out a letter. Luke watched as her eyes read it. Her head looked up and she passed him the letter.
He looked at the first line.
'…Miss Gilmore it is our great pleasure to inform you that you've been accepted in Harvard…"
That was all Luke needed to read.
"Congratulations! You did it" he pulled her into a hug.
She smiled She had done it, she had made her dream, their dream come true.
He pulled back to look at her, surprised not to see a smile on her face.
"Are you happy about this?" He asked watching her
"Yeah…I' am…its just…" she looked down.
"Yeah I know," he said looking down, after a couple of seconds he looked back up at her.
"Your mum would be so proud of you" Rory smiled meekly at him.
"I'm going to Harvard" she said giving him an optimistic smile.
"Yeah you are" he said smiling back at her.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rory and Tristan lay on the grass under a huge oak tree. Rory's head resting on Tristan's chest, as they watched the town and the world walk by. Tristan fingers entwined with Rory's.
"Maybe I shouldn't go to college" said Rory out of the blue
"What?" asked Tristan sitting up slightly.
"Well Luke and Rosey I don't want to leave them here all by themselves, I love them and they've helped me so much I cant just…leave them" she said sitting up and looking at him. He considered this for a moment.
"This was your dream…you want to through it away?"
"No, but maybe I don't have to go to Harvard… I've been looking at schools that are closer and Yale is right..." Tristan cut in
"Yale?"
"Yeah well you know how Grandpa convinced me to send applications to heaps of schools, well I got into Yale as well"
"Wow Rory, how many Ivy League schools did you get into?" he asked jokingly.
"You could go to Yale…" he said looking at her
"Yeah. Hey you still haven't told me which schools you go into" she asked looking him. His eyes fell to the ground.
"Tristan?"
"I got waitlisted at Princeton and Yale"
"Oh baby" she touched his cheek.
"Its ok" he looked back up at her.
"Hey you might get into Yale and then we could go there together!" said Rory excitedly.
"Yeah I would love that" he leaned up and kissed her on the lips, she kissed him back with passion, they pulled back smiling at each other.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AN – I know this is not part of this chapter but on the anniversary of Lorelai's death the song I would put with it from Rory's point of view is 'A year ago today' by Delta Goodrem, I would post the lyrics but I'm not allowed to, but if you want to go and look them up or something. Delta rocks - go the Aussies!
Note – I live in Australia and our college system is probably totally different to Americans, so seeing as I know little to nothing about American schools etc, the college and high school years/holidays are a mix between Australian and American, basically I just made It up, so lets just say its all pretend and yeah :)
And as always please review, tell me what parts of the story you like etc and what parts I should continue with. Thanks. Luv Hayls
