Wow. Keep those amazing reviews comming, you guys are the best! A note though, a lot of people asked about Rory's parents in that they might be a little too controlling. This was intentional. You guys have to remember that this is Lorelai's dream, and she is going to imagine parents that are opposite, more tradtional, and possibly worse (in her eyes) for Rory. And before people start asking me about this, I do know that Paris never went to Stars Hallow High. But again, Lorelai's dream. Paris has been present in Lorelai and Rory's life since high school, so it makes sense that in Lorelai's dream Paris might appear.
Anyways, none of that was meant to be taken harshly. I like to clear things like that up, because apparently I come off bad some of the times when I'm writing this stuff.
Phoebe4u: You don't get JAG? That's so sad! It's one of my all time favorite TV shows! Anyways, thanks for the review.
OzLuv04: Thank-you. I've been wanting to do the quotes thing for quite sometime now, because I think it really adds a little something extra to the chapters and to the fic in total. So, I ran all around the internet finding random quote sites and finding different themes and put them all together in one huge word document under different headings (ex: family, love, etc). I'm glad people are liking them as much as I do.
Kyizi: It's the whole nature vs. nurture debate thing again. Like how Lane, dispite all the things her mother taught her and how she was brought up, turned into a completely different person then what her mother had envisioned her to be because that is who Lane is. Rory is always going to be Rory, no matter how much a person tires to supress it, and that's what I'm trying to show. Thank-you for the review, and I'm glad you found my shubbery joke amusing.
Potostfbeyeluvr: Dang that's a hard name to spell. And yea, I'm keeping Dean nice. This is taking place right when the show started, which I know doesn't make sense for Dean to be there in the show verse, but just go with the whole dream thing agian. But, in the begining, before Jess turned him into jealous pycho-man, he was just this really great guy which is how I'm gonna display him.
Elizabeth-Intheblue: Ah! I'm so glad to finally find another JAG fan! What about that ending? That was cruel. It totally fit with the show, and was a good way to end it, but still! Mean, mean, mean! I just hadn't realized this was it's last year! Why didn't anyone tell me! And then the week before they were all like 'and the finial episode...' and I was like "What now! Slow down there, partner!"
Anyways, I'm ranting. Thanks for the review.
Harmmac82: Yay! Another JAG fan! Well, the last seasonis awesome, per usual, and enjoy!I just might have to move to Sweden and watchit all over again. Thanks for the reivew.
Once Upon a Whim: I promise. Luke and Lorelai action in my next fic. Who knows? I might even bump it up to an M (is it M now? They've totally lost me with this new rating system...it used to be so easy!). Glad you're enjoying the fic, and hope this does your vision Lorelai's craziness justice. Thanks for the reivew.
Also thank-you's go out to: Pokey, Estick, Luken'Lorelaifan, ProFfesSer, Jewel88, Daphnetjuh, Epona9009, Rusty Bedsprings, Beautiful Butterfly, and Yrag.
"Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
(Casablanca)
The mini bar was another thing she had to add to her fare-weather friends list. That and Long Island Ice Teas. They always seemed like such a good idea at the time, then BAM! Hangover city, population: Lorelai.
And she was supposed to give a speech! And those kids were relentless! Such high and squeaky voices! Damn puberty! Didn't Lucifer hear that she would be giving a speech today and already had a massive hangover and to hold off on the fun and games until she left! Or perhaps slide her a "get over your hangover free" card. Either one sounded good at the moment!
And all she wanted was another cup of that heavenly coffee from that diner. Luke or Duke or something diner. But she couldn't go back there! Not after that scene! Hell, she was surprised she hadn't been chased out of town by an angry mob with pitchforks and torches.
But then again, she had always had a flair for the dramatics. Maybe they'd just settle for chasing her out of town, the whole pitchfork and torches thing was way over used.
"Would you like anything else?"
Lorelai jerked her mind back into focus. It was that annoying parent again. Deb or Debbie, she couldn't remember which one to call her. But she was there, it was hard to miss all of that blonde hair, but somehow Lorelai had managed to block her out for a few seconds while she continued her mental rant.
"Ah," she looked down at her empty coffee cup, "Can I get another cup of coffee?" She had to focus, hangover or no hangover. She had to give that stupid speech in a couple of minutes, students were already starting to file into their seats as she just sat like an idiot in a rather uncomfortable chair at the front of the class.
"Sure thing, Ms. Gilmore," she smiled brightly as she took the coffee cup straight out of Lorelai's hand. "You know, I still can't thank-you enough for doing this!"
"Oh, it's no big deal," Lorelai tried to sound casual, "The paper does these things a lot."
"But this will help the kids so much, y'know. They're about to start in on their junior year, and that's the year that really counts, remember?"
"Oh yea, I remember my junior year," she practically sang out. How could she forget the year of fat ankles and odd stares? The year of giant parental clashes and labor. The year she pelted nurses with pointless ice chips.
Deb/Debbie, she really had to learn this woman's name, laughed musically, "I just love looking back on my high school days so much! They were so much fun!"
"Yea, fun," Lorelai tried to sound excited, but some how her voice fell flat.
"Anyways, back on topic here! The students will really appreciate your guidance and advice," she paused for a moment, and looked around them, "Just watch out for one girl. Blonde. Front row. Exact middle seat. Named Paris. She's quite the firecracker, let me tell you!"
"Hey, thanks for that," Lorelai looked back to her still empty coffee cup being held captive in the woman's hands, "Hey, how about you just show me where the coffee is, I'm gonna need an IV of it anyways, so that might just be easier."
Deb/Debbie, why could she not remember that, smiled and laughed again, "Oh, you! You're our guest. I'll go and get you your coffee!"
"Oh," Lorelai tried not to sound disappointed, "Yea, thanks for that."
"Anyways," she pointed at the clock, "It's almost time for class. How about you just wait until after the speech, that way you can go and get some coffee from this diner across the street. Great place. Amazing coffee. And the owner isn't too shabby to look at either," she added with a wink.
"Oh, yea, that place," Lorelai tried to sound indifferent, but her insides were screaming 'coffee!' at the sound of the diner again, "I think I saw it on the way in yesterday."
Before Deb/Debbie could continue to taunt Lorelai's stomach with the promise of amazing coffee, the bell went off, followed by the stamped of students into the classroom, filling up every seat. Lorelai's eyes wandered over each of the students as the teacher went on to introduce her and so on. Then her eyes fell on one girl. She felt her heart stop.
It was her daughter. Lucifer, it seemed, hadn't quite finished his fun with her quite yet. Next would come a parade of her ex's, followed by Emily and Richard dearest.
They both stared at each other, both looking with the same fear combined with that same hint of sadness in their eyes.
"Lorelai Gilmore!"
Clapping.
Lorelai jerked her head away from staring contest and back towards the teacher, whats-her-name. She had been introduced to the teacher as well as Deb/Debbie. But the pounding in her head took priority to learning other's names.
Lorelai forced on a rather weak-looking smile, as she stood up from her chair and walked over to the front of the classroom.
"Alright, Ms. Gilmore, they're all yours!" The teacher smiled broadly, before turning and walking back to sit behind her desk menacingly.
"Right, erm, yeah, hi everyone," Lorelai made out awkwardly, "I'm Lorelai Gilmore. I work for the New York Times. Good newspaper. You should all read it sometime. Good journalism stuff."
A hand shot up in the front, center. She was supposed to remember something about that girl. Something. Eh, it probably didn't matter.
"Wow, questions already," Lorelai mused, "Sure go ahead. Ask away."
"You must be pretty successful at your job, correct?" The girl spat out in a very straight to the point, I don't want any bull, I could make Barbara Walters cry sort of way.
"Well, yes, I've done pretty well for myself."
"And as a woman," she continued her line of questioning, "Did you or do you ever feel as though you are not appreciated in the workforce as much as you're male co-workers?"
"No, no, never anything like that. There was this one girl though,"
"That's a nice Mean Girl's story, I'm sure. But I'm sure I speak for the entire class when I say that we've all seen it," she cut her off, "How long did it take you before you caught you break and landed a job working for the New York Times?"
Lorelai thought about it for a moment, counting back the years in her mind, "Well, I worked for an obscure paper just outside of the city that mainly delt in reviewing the Broadway productions for a couple of years until someone at the times read some of my articles and found them amusing, handed them to a higher up, and well, here I am!"
She nodded, "How long did it take to get the job at your first newspaper?"
"I got it just out of college. You see, a lot of these obscure papers read the college papers to see what new talent is out there, so most journalists are picked up right of college."
"Interesting," the girl stopped talking. Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief, the girl was like an interrogator. And not you're nice cop interrogator, your bad cop from some third world country with a fascist dictator kind of interrogator.
"Do you have any regrets?" The girl finally spat out again.
Lorelai jerked her head forwards in surprise. It was like the girl was reading her mind or something. "Do I what?"
"Do you have any regrets? Did you not do something that now you wished you had done, or did you do something that you now wish you hadn't done?"
"I, umm," Lorelai found her eyes falling back onto Rory in the back corner. She was doing her best to disappear, but how could a kid of Lorelai's disappear? It's scientifically impossible. She licked her lips nervously.
"Don't make me get a dictionary out," the girl threatened.
"Yea," Lorelai breathed out, her eyes locked on Rory, "Yea I can think of something."
Rory let up a small smile, and Lorelai returned the easy-to-miss grin with a small nod of her head.
"Yo!" Paris snapped her fingers twice, "I'm over here! Hi, remember me?"
Lorelai jerked her head back towards the girl in the front, "Oh, yes, sorry, did you have any other questions?"
"Paris, maybe you should let other people ask some questions," the teacher warned. But it didn't matter to Lorelai. She wasn't really listening too intently anymore. And she couldn't get that goofy smile off her face.
Her kid smiled at her. Her kid didn't hate her. She still had a chance. She could still fix this.
An hour and several questions from center, front row girl, who Lorelai could still not remember the name of, and the bell finally rang, drawing her speech making to a close. Not that she had made much of a speech. She had issues tearing her eyes, or her mind for that matter, away from Rory. Deb or Debbie would probably have something to say about this, but frankly, she didn't give a damn.
"Well, that was," Deb/Debbie started talking, and ranting on about something, but Lorelai's eyes were trained on Rory who stood just a couple of feet in front of her, glancing down at her feet nervously.
Lorelai held up her finger, "Just a second there, Deb," she took a guess on the name. She walked over to Rory in a trance, unable to take her eyes off of her little girl, Deb/Debbie's words just completely ignored.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," Rory blurted out, "I just didn't know how to, well, how to, I donno react to you I guess."
"Well, you had a mighty fine reaction, let me tell you," Lorelai forced a joke, but it fell flat. Both girls looked at each other nervously, one opening their mouth, then finding nothing to say, shutting it. Then the other would do exactly the same thing just a few seconds later.
"Sorry again," Rory repeated, breaking the silence, "I shouldn't have yelled."
Lorelai shook her head, "No, no, it's okay. Hey, if our roles were reversed, I would have yelled too."
Rory nodded, "So," she breathed out nervously, "Did you mean it? What you said, I mean?"
"About regrets?"
Rory nodded, "Yea, do you regret it?"
Lorelai nodded, "Yea, of course I do."
Rory smiled faintly, "Do you wanna," she pointed over her shoulder, "Get some coffee or something? Luke has amazing coffee, did you try it yesterday? It's like an addicts dream that stuff."
Lorelai smiled, "Well that clears up any doubt that you are not my child," she teased.
"What?"
Lorelai pointed to herself, "Coffee junkie. Can't live without the stuff. If it came in IV's, I would walk around with one of those little IV holder things."
"So you wanna go?" Rory put on her backpack, and sort of half-turned towards the door.
"Now?"
She nodded, "Yea, why not?"
"Well, don't you have school?"
Rory shrugged, "It's okay. I'm at least two chapters ahead of everyone in this school already, I'm not missing much. And besides, this is more important."
"Two chapters?" Lorelai repeated, half-laughing, half-shocked "Dang, I knew you'd probably have brains, but I never imagined this!"
"Not my fault people around me are stupid," Rory laughed.
"Miss Gilmore!" Deb/Debbie shouted, her voice finally reregistering inside of both of the girl's heads. "You can't just take a student out of school with you!"
Lorelai shrugged, "I'm not taking you, am I?"
Rory shook her head, "Nope, as far as I see it, I'm skipping and you just happen to be going to the same place I am."
Lorelai smiled again, still unable to rip her eyes away from her daughter. "I can't believe I listened to my parents," she mumbled out loud.
"Alright then, Luke's it is," Rory announced as they both walked out of the classroom, ignoring the calls of both the teacher and Deb/Debbie.
And as Lorelai walked out of that classroom, her daughter at her side, for the first time in her life, she felt content. Before she always wanted something else. A new coffee maker. A new apartment. A promotion. A steady guy that loved her. None of these things had ever filled the void.
But something as simple as a sixteen year old girl, with the same blue eyes as she, filled the spot within seconds.
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