Wow. I woke up the next morning (or rather later that morning, I posted a like 2 AM...don't mind me and my noctournal habits) and I already had a good ten to twelve reviews in my mailbox. And more just kept comming. I couldn't believe it. You guys are just so awesome!
BeautifulButterfly: To your chapter four comment--I'm glad you're picking up on that fact (that Lorelai isn't strong because she never had to be when she was younger). This idea was taken from (I'm pretty sure) a season three episode where her and Luke were talking about the Inn and whether or not she should venture into owning her own Inn. And she was scared, and wasn't sure if she should do it, and Luke pointed out all the stuff she did in the past, but she argued that was because she had to do those thing and owning her own inn was something she did not have to do. Thank-you for the reivews. You're awesome.
Once Upon a Whim: I'm glad I caught you. I am a java junkie kind of gal, but I haven't decided whether or not I want to include a major java junkie part in it. I will probably just stick with the hints and undertones for this story, but look out for java junkie-ness my next one! I'm glad you liked the way I did end up taking the mother/daughter interaction, it was the best way I could think of that would make sense for their characters. Thank-you for the review. Sweet name, by the way.
Britt: Mr. Foo-Foo head came to me on a whim. I'm glad someone else understands and finds my rather odd sense of humor to be funny. I'm mature, really, I promise! Thanks for the review.
Kyizi: I'm glad you decided to read my fic. I know what you mean though about the almost not reading certain fics then ending up reading them and loving them. I do that at least ten times a month and end up finding some of the most amazing fics out there. And, don't take this the wrong way, but I'm so glad I almost made you cry! (Wow. That could be taken really wrong out of context...lol). People are really taking to this fic, which is such a relief because I wasn't sure how open this part of the site was to AU-ish fics (which are my speciality). But I'm glad I decided to post it.
To your chp. 5 review, I was really trying hard to make sure their thoughts and dialouge mimicked the same sort of random pattern that is shown in the show. Thank-you for the reviews. Next time I'll warn you if you might possibly need kleenex by your side.
Pokey: Thank-you. This is really one of my first (I have one other in-progess and a oneshot-ish thing) gilmore girls fic, and I wasn't sure if I had gotten the characters right. But thank-you so much. You're my hero!
Amelia: Yay! I'm phenomenal! Thank-you! You're the awesome-est.
Ozluv04: I'm glad I could get you intrested, and I hope I don't let you down. Thanks for the review.
Ely: Thanks for catching that and for the road map. I'll have to go back and fix that soon.
Epona: Thank-you for both of your reviews. I'm glad you're liking all the different aspects of my fic.
Also thank-yous go out to: Estick, Phoebe4u, LukeNLorelaifan, ProfesSer, Mrs. Scott Patterson, Rusty Bedsprings, Katie, Rita LaTasse, Pofostfbeyeluvr, Bloomin Dasiy, NeRdSaReAwEsOmE, and Jewel88. Some for you for both chapter four and five!
Alright, now that I've finished that (oh god that was a lot of responding to do!), on with the chapter that you were probably tricked into thinking was very, very long. lol. I'll shut up now.
"Mort is trying to write but nothing comes to him, he looks at his dog, Chico I'm open to suggestions"
(Mort, Secret Window)
Rory bounded into the house a good twenty minutes late, and landed straight into her parents worried, verging on angry depending on the reasoning, looks. She slipped off her backpack and set it down next to the door and then walked the rest of the way into the living room where her parents both sat.
"Giving you the benefit of the doubt here gets harder and harder every time you're later, Ror," her father reasoned, taking off his jet black glasses and beginning to clean them.
Rory shifted her weight nervously, he always cleaned his glasses when he was about to punish her or just have another one of his 'serious discussions' with her. Neither of which was for up for tonight. "I'm sorry guys, just, well," she was trying to find the best way to phrase things, "A lot of stuff happened today."
"Rory, that still doesn't change the fact that you came home nearly twenty minutes late," her mother complained, "It's not that we mind, it's not like you came home at like one in the morning, it's the fact that you didn't even bother to call like you usually do, sweetie."
"I was at Lane's, sorry. I just needed a impartial ear to help me figure some stuff out."
"You know we're always here, honey," her mother cooed, "You can tell us anything."
Rory cringed slightly. Somehow she figured that her parents didn't want to hear this, among other things. Parents were best kept in the dark. For best results they should be lied to constantly and only let into the light for special occasions, like weddings. Your wedding, or weddings depending on the situation or just your celebrity-like tendencies, will always be good time to let your parents see you do something like drink alcoholic beverages.
"Rory?" Her father jarred her from her own thoughts again. She really could be the leader of the Space Cadets. "Something on your mind?"
She looked to and from both of her parents, mentally debating if she should mention the meeting or if she should risk someone else, generally Babette or Miss Patty, bringing the meeting up to her parents. Maybe she should just ease them into it, sorta ask a bunch of generic questions then drop the bomb.
"Rory?" He repeated.
"Yeah, I was just thinking today, y'know, about my, y'know, my birth mom." It wasn't a complete lie, she had been thinking about her birth mom today. She just left out the details of the extent of the thinking.
"Rory," her mother sighed, "We've been through this."
"I know, I know, but don't you think it's important that I at least know something about her. You guys spent time with her, you could let me in on a little something!"
"She was young. Sixteen or seventeen, I think," her mother said shortly.
"I already knew that. That's what you always tell me when I ask you anything about her."
"Why the sudden interest," her father interjected before her mother could jump in with another argument of why she shouldn't know anything about her birth mother.
"What?" Rory tried to play it cool, "There's no sudden intrest. There's always been interest. Just something happened today that made me think about her. And I was all like 'you know what, mom and dad haven't really told me much about her, maybe I should try again and this time they'll tell me'. Not sudden in the least bit."
"Listen, Rory," her mother butt in this time, "What's important is that we are your parents. I don't know why you have this crazy idea that this woman, who by the way has never tired to contact you once, is so terribly important to you. Just drop it, alright?"
"I met her today!" Rory spat out, "That's why the interest sparked again, dad! I met, and when I say met, I mean that loosely, it was more like I saw, my birth mom and I yelled and the whole town saw it, so that will probably be a topic of discussion at the next town meeting, so yeah, there you go, that's the truth."
"Rory," her father's tone was threatening, "I don't want you to speak to that woman, you hear me? She's bad news and I don't want you around her."
"She's my mother," Rory whispered her last defense out, "Shouldn't I be able to get to know my real family?"
"This is your real family," he said shortly, "And this is your mother," he pointed at Allison sitting across the room, "I don't want to hear anymore of this nonsense, you hear me?"
Rory rolled her yes, "Yeah," she walked back towards the door and picked up her backpack, before storming upstairs to her room. She didn't know who she was more mad at now, or even what reason she was mad for.
"Don't you want dinner?" Her mother shouted after her.
"Not hungry!" Rory shouted back before walking into her room and slamming the door behind her.
While Lane's advice sounded good at the time, somehow both girls had forgotten to factor in her parents' personalities and anti-tendencies towards Rory's birth mom. And she still hadn't figured out where she stood on the whole issue. On one hand it was her birth mom, and it was her roots. But on the other, was the fact that the woman didn't seem to want anything to do with her, and that was hard to overlook.
With a heavy sigh, she let her body fall down onto her small bed, letting the massive amounts of pillows fall around her fail body. She reached out towards her nightstand, and prepared to call upon her last ally in the decision front.
Her hand fumbled for a few minutes, trying to remember exactly where she had left the phone, then finally she left the cold, hard plastic underneath her fingertips. She grasped the hot pink phone, and pulled it back towards her body, refusing to sit up. This was not a sitting moment. This was, if there ever was , with the minor exception of physical exercise, a laying down moment.
She punched in the familiar number quickly, and brought the phone up to her ear.
"Be home, come on," she mumbled softly to herself as the dull ringing continued, "You gotta be home."
He picked up, "Hello?"
"Dean?" Rory asked, making sure somebody else didn't pick up his phone or something. It was always embarrassing when some other member of the family picked up and you start ranting or make some stupid inside joke before you realize that it's not the person you thought it was.
"Yea, Rory is that you?"
"Yea, you busy?"
"No, why?"
"I really need to talk to you, you mind letting me rant on you?"
"Rant away."
Rory smiled faintly. He was always like that. Always so amazing. "I met her."
"Met who?"
"My mom. My birth mom that is. Apparently I already have a mother that's good enough, and not to say that she isn't and that I don't love her or something, because I do, and she's a great mom, it's just she's not the lady I popped out of!"
"Interesting way to phrase it. Don't think I would have ever picked those words to describe birth, but, sorry for interrupting your rant, continue."
"And I don't know what to do? I mean, should I try and contact her again? I mean, we totally met by accident. Complete accident. You see, she was drinking coffee and Luke, according to Lane, but this is in no way a proven fact, was flirting with her, and I just walked in. And as soon as she turned around. As soon as I saw her, I knew it. I knew she had to be my mother. And I didn't know what to think, I mean should I have hugged or something? Isn't that what they do in the movies?"
"Yea, I guess, so," Dean answered.
"I just, don't know what to think. Maybe I handled it all wrong. Maybe my parents are right. Maybe the movies are right! I don't know!"
"Rory," Dean interrupted again, "You know I can't answer this for you."
She felt her heart sink a little, "I kinda figured that."
"But whatever you did, however you handled it, I'm sure it was the right way to do it. Because that's how you felt, right? I may be going out on the limb here, but Hollywood doesn't exactly follow the rules of real life too well, now does it?"
"I guess not. I just," she sighed, "I just want to know stuff. And my parents won't tell me anything except for the fact that she was young when she had me."
"Maybe it's best not knowing."
"Yeah, maybe." Rory sighed softly, "But what if I see her again? What if she's actually staying here and I see her again? Should I run in the other direction, jump into a trash basket, pretend I'm a tree or some other form of shrubbery, go and hug her, yell at her some more?"
"Well, while I approve of the acting like shrubbery idea, I think you should do whatever comes natural to you. I can't make this decision for you, and neither can your parents, or Lane, or even Kirk who is apparently trying to be a physic now. He tired to read my palm on the way home from work tonight."
"What happened to the finding missing things business, not going so well?"
"Oh, no, no, he say's that's going fine. Found Timmy's lost GI Joe action figure this afternoon, was quite proud of it, too. He's just decided that fourteen billion jobs isn't enough and wanted to add one more."
Rory smiled faintly, "Good to know Kirk's still being Kirk."
"So, you good?"
"I hope so. And you know what, I may never even see her again. She might have just been passing through, we get a lot of those people, y'know. And I'll never have to see her again, so all this worrying will be for naught. Sort of a Much Ado About Nothing kind of thought pattern."
"Wasn't that play about love and stuff?"
"Yeah, but we're going with the title, work with me here. I'm no good at references when I'm ranting like this."
"Well, I'm glad we've got that settled. Now, what do you think about going out tomorrow night? You up for some shrubbery re-enacting fun?"
"Ooh, ooh, I call tree!"
"No, I wanted to be the tree!"
Rory laughed softly, "I'm never gonna live that comment down, am I?"
"Remember how long those fish jokes went on for after the fishing experiment of '99?"
"Oh god."
"Well, probably longer then that."
"You're cruel."
"Yea, just for the halibut."
If I have any JAG fans out there (I still can't believe it ended! Now what will I do on Friday nights?), you'll probably recogize the 'just for the halibut' line borrowed from the second to last episode. But it was just so cute, I had to add it in there!
And for those of you who, like me, are non-fish people, a halibut is a type of fish. Don't ask me what type because I don't know. Go ask one of your fish friends. Not actual fish though, they won't be much help.
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