Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the Gilmore Girls, I'm just using the characters for my own enjoyment. I'm also shamelessly borrowing from Anne Sebold.
Rating: This story is rated PG-13 for mild swearing, allusions to suicide, and sexual situations. Please don't read it if you aren't comfortable with the subject matter. Thanks!

- - - - - - - - - -

Chapter 4 - Getting Homework in Your Afterlife

- - - - - - - - - -

The day of Rory's funeral dawned crisp, cold, and gray as the sun rose above the trees of Stars Hollow. The leaves rustled in the wind, and the world became a nearly silent paradise.

Lorelai hadn't slept in the five days it took for the autopsy and funeral arrangements, and so she sat at the kitchen table reflecting on the whirlwind that had proved to be the week.

Once the initial shock had faded from discovering the body itself, Lorelai rose and calmly proceeded to call the police. Within ten minutes, an ambulance and two police cars had arrived on her driveway, along with half of the town. She had taken a deep breath for courage before unlocking her door and walking outside to greet them.

Unconscious of her own appearance, it seemed that everyone noticed that her clothes were stained from chest to knee with blood, except for her. Bringing a shaky hand up to brush the hair out of her face, she showed the EMT's where to find Rory's body.

Standing at a distance, watching them lift her to a gurney, Lorelai felt cold. She didn't notice the riot which was going on outside the window, and the gossip circle which had started. Miss Patty and Babette were strangely silent among this, but stood close to one another for support and warmth. The house was police taped off, and Lorelai never realized that the only person who'd gotten through was Luke, in a mad hysteria to comfort her.

As emergency personnel lifted Rory up, locked the wheels of the gurney holding the body bag, and wheeled her out of the house, Lorelai collapsed in shock, unfeeling to the arms which caught her and had held her close for a week.

And so began the autopsy report. Signs of struggle after the blade was inflicted; uncertain whether only party involved; ruled a suicide.

The funeral was surprisingly easy to arrange. The whole town took care of the flowers, Lorelai simply told the priest that they needed the church, and told Luke she needed to buy a casket. That Saturday, they drove into Hartford to the same place where she'd bought the caskets in which her parents were buried. Spending no time looking for frills and lace, she picked a simple black casket with a white satin lining, ignoring Luke's protests that he would pay for it.

And now here she was, having lost her parents and daughter all in the same year. Lorelai wasn't too sure that this was such a great track record, but straightened her skirt, grabbed her purse, and walked out the door.

She'd arrived at the church an hour early, and the hearse was just unloading Rory's casket. The bearers placed her gently on the altar, and Lorelai just sat in the last pew, in shock. As the men left, she carefully stood and looked down the aisle to where Rory lie. She took a few cautious steps toward her daughter, before becoming resolute and moving forward toward the casket.

Climbing the steps to the altar, she took out the card that she'd written to her daughter, along with a picture of the two of them when Rory was five. Placing the items gently amongst the flower arrangement that covered the top of the casket, Lorelai kissed her palm before touching it to the head of the casket and walking out of the church.

The service passed with no great events, many spoke of Rory, and it seemed that the whole town had turned out to pay their respects. Lorelai simply stood in the back, offering no greeting to anyone, and no protest to any of the events.

Few accompanied Rory and Lorelai to her burial place in Hartford, alongside her grandparents in the family plot, but those in attendance included Luke, Sookie, Jackson, and Chris. Surprisingly her father had come to make his final amends to the daughter he'd never truly known. Lorelai felt no compassion for the loss he was feeling.

The priest droned on the cliché, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…' and Lorelai felt herself drifting away, remembering all the fun that she and Rory had shared; all of the times when they were best friends.

She was jolted back to reality as the casket was being dropped into the earth, and her friends were tossing flowers into the grave to follow Rory. Lorelai felt one lone tear slip down her cheek, and the wind blowing across her legs as she gently walked to the edge, peered down, and said, "Goodbye, sweetheart. I love you…"

- - - - - - - - - -

Up in… the in-between… where Rory was currently residing, she wiped tears away from her eyes at the words she was hearing as she watched her funeral.

"I'll always remember," Miss Patty began with a laugh, "the spunk and character Rory brought to my five-year-old ballet class. That girl sure couldn't dance, but she sure as hell made up for it in her attitude."

"I remember when Rory would sit outside our house, pretending a tree stump she'd found was a fairy ring," Babette followed.

All the reminiscences followed the same suit, each remembering the carefree days of Rory's youth, her intelligence, her charisma, but none seemed to mention any event of the last year in her life. Her attention waned a little, and she allowed her eyes to wander to the other people sitting in the congregation. She saw Lane, Zach, and Mama Kim all sitting in the third pew, none crying, but Rory wasn't too surprised after the way she'd treated Lane the past year. In the fifth pew she saw Gypsy, and a few other people from the Independence Inn.

Unconsciously, Rory eyes were also scanning for someone else. He wasn't there. He wasn't there. Rory 'hrrmmffed' to herself, folded her arms, and pulled back away from the black whole of present day like a toddler, before stomping her foot.

"Trouble in paradise?" Cady asked. She'd finally consented to give Rory her true name, or rather, that which was her name on Earth.

"Heh. If you could call it that," Rory quipped back. "He's not there. He's not at the funeral."

"Doesn't surprise me a bit," she responded. Cady had already known Rory's dating history, but she'd had Rory tell her about it all the same, and seemed to offer some consolation for the character that her ex-boyfriend was.

"What do you mean?" Rory asked.

Cady took a long drag of her cigarette before answering. "Well, I mean, look at his track record. He doesn't have a great history of commitment and emotion."

"You know, smoking kills," Rory said quietly to herself.

Cady glanced over at her before sitting up from the bench in the gazebo, and smiling at her, said, "Well, it's lucky I'm dead then, isn't it?" before putting out her cigarette in between her fingers.

"Listen, Rory," Cady began. "I'll give you the secret of getting into the big white place a little earlier." Putting her arm around Rory's shoulders, she continued, "It's about getting out all of the urges you'll ever have to see what happened on Earth, and what will, or is happening on Earth. Think of every little thing you'll ever want to see happen to all the people that you can think of, and you'll be set. You'll have the visions. But beware; you can't stay here too long, or begin to think of this as your home, or you'll be stuck here forever. Got it?"

"Yah, I got it," Rory grumbled in reply, before averting her gaze back to the hole which was the present. She saw her coffin being laid into the ground, and felt a chill that went down her spine that had nothing to do with temperature.

"You know, it's creeping watching yourself being buried," Rory said, almost to herself.

"Try watching what they did in the Egyptian times," Cady replied with a shudder.

"Is that how long you've been here?" Rory asked.

"I've been everywhere for all eternity," she answered.

"Oh, right. Sorry, dumb question."

"No, it's alright. It's going to take time to get used to thinking of me being a 'higher being', and not just some pal you hang out with. But that's a lot further down your path. We need to focus on the present, here and now."

Cady began walking toward the entryway of the gazebo before turning to Rory and saying, "I'll be back at 3 pm tomorrow. Have that list done," and with a wave over her shoulder, Cady disappeared.

With a sigh, Rory reclined on the bench. 'Great,' she thought to herself, 'I'm even getting homework in my afterlife.'

Pulling herself upright, Rory trudged down the steps and into Luke's Diner. Picking a spot in the front, by the window, she thought about how and where she'd get a piece of paper and a pen, when they just appeared in front of her on the table, ready for use.

Uncapping the pen, she carefully printed at the top: "People to find out the future of…"

Grammatically incorrect, but who cares? If this is afterlife homework, it didn't require the amount of effort that she usually put into her work. And so she began her list.

"Number one," she said aloud, writing down the corresponding number. "Mom. Number two, Luke. Number three, Dad. Number four, Lane. Number five…" Hmmm… "Paris," she wrote, going out on a limb. "Number six, Sookie and Jackson. Number seven…" She didn't want to really find out about him really? See him with other girls. See how he'd be living a wonderful life, while she was… dead.

"Number seven," she continued with a shaky hand. "Jess."