Very short chapter, I apologize, but it just seemed a good place to end it. Well, you'll understand the 'it' when you get down there. This fic is slowly winding down, just two or three more chapters to go (and I actually know what's gonna happen)! Most likely, just two more chapters. Then off like The Flash to my next project, whatever that will be!
(Back to serious) Thanks to:
Rusty Bedsprings: You are my new hero. Totally and completely. I love you to death (well not actual death because let's face it, if you really liked someone you'd probably want them to stick around and well not die, so that whole concept of loving someone to death is a little messed up). Hope this was soon enough for you, babe! Thanks agian for all of your wonderful reviews.
Epona9009: I agree with you. I wanted Digger to go die in a hole. And I don't wish that fate on many people. And I hadn't thought of the Alex calling senario. I might have to stick that in there, if you don't mind. I can credit it to you, if you want, but I really like that idea. I just kept sticking him in there for another reason why Lorelai and Luke couldn't get together. Thanks for the reivew.
Muffin Is Injured: Dang you can rant! I'm jealous! I thought I was a top notch ranter, but I'm nothing compared to you! Teach me, Yoda! lol. Thanks for the review. You always make me laugh.
Another round of thanks go out to:Beautifulbutterfly, ForsakenGoddess,Potostfbeyeluvr, Karahbella, Izzpuppy, Bloomin Daisy, orangesherbert7,LittleGGlover, Yrag, LukeNlorelaifan, Once Upon a Whim, Miss-Lionesse, ProFfesSeR, Pokey, Rita, Kyizi, and last but not least, Sucker4Soccer. You guys are so awesome. I wish I could respond to every single one of your reviews, but, alas, I am lazy. Don't take that the wrong way, I love you all. Some of your guys are regular reviewers, and that hasn't gone unnoticed. You'll definitely get a little note at the end of this, promise! lol.
"Survival of the fittest is the law of nature. We deceive or we are deceived. Thus, we flourish or perish. Nothing good ever happened to me when I trusted others. That is the lesson."
(Faye, Cowboy Bebop)
Rory just stared blankly at the curtain. Her mind was a complete mess. Not to say that she had been thinking very clearly over the past two days, but she was pretty sure she'd gotten a pretty decent hold on it this morning. Apparently, she was wrong.
Things she could have said or always wanted to ask kept coming to mind. Questions like was she ever going to see Lorelai again, or just questions she could have asked Lorelai in general were also popping up. Then things like why did her parents hold such a grudge against her birth mom. Why she hadn't been allowed to see her, or talk to her, or even read her letters. Things that she should be entitled to know.
Somewhere, in the middle of the chaos, she heard Lane ask, "You okay?"
Rory just shrugged, "I don't know," she answered honestly. "Besides feeling like this weeks headline news, I really just don't know who's side to take."
Lane nodded, "She seemed nice." Lane commented, trying to keep the conversation going. "And she looked a lot like you."
Rory turned back to face Lane, smiling faintly, "She did, didn't she?"
"And from what I could see she shares your coffee addiction."
"Probably where I got it from."
Lane just nodded, and stayed quiet, having sufficiently run out of small talk at the moment (besides the traditional, 'so just look at this beautiful weather we're having' comments).
From upstairs you could start to hear the beginning, muffled sounds of an argument. Every head in the diner was turned upward, waiting, just waiting for either party to get angry enough for their voice to carry through the ceiling. This was Stars Hallow after all. Without gossip, what would they have for entertainment?
"I asked you one thing!" Lorelai's voice came through loud and clear, causing every single person to stop what they were doing and crane their necks up a little higher. Miss Patty was already pulling out her phone in the corner, just in case.
"What are you talking about?" Seth yelled back at her, "What 'one thing'?"
"I asked you to name my kid Lorelai! So that she could have this little, teeny, tiny, piece of me, and you promised you would! But you named her Rory! And you didn't even give her my letters! You cut her off completely from me!"
Rory felt her stomach drop onto the floor. And she had the sinking feeling she wouldn't be getting it back any time soon.
Lane grabbed her friend's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I'm here," she whispered into Rory's ear.
Rory squeezed Lane's hand back, her non-verbal way of telling Lane that hadn't left the building just yet. Although, verbal communication wasn't exactly something that was coming very easily at the moment.
"She already has one mother!" The argument continued upstairs between Seth and Lorelai. Apparently Luke was just there to referee.
"Well if Heather can have two mommies, then I think Rory can deal with the fact that she as two different non-lesbian moms!"
"There was a reason we got rid of your letters! Didn't you get the picture! We didn't want you in our lives! She doesn't need you!"
"She came to me! She wanted to talk to me!"
"Which is a point we still haven't agreed on yet! You took her out of school in the middle of the day without our permission! And Luke! Luke you just let that happen!"
Luke's muffled voice could barely be heard in the diner. They could hear sounds, but none of them could be formulated into words. Then, the unthinkable happened. And the term unthinkable is being used in the sense that the person that committed the following act must not have thunk, yes, thunk, a single thought before execution.
The actions seemed to unravel in slow motion. First Kirk dropped his hamburger, an even more confused look on his face then usual. Then he stretched his neck out, just a little further, so that he looked similar to a giraffe, but that's not the point. He got that gleam in his eye. The 'I'm so confused I have to ask' gleam.
Jackson, who was sitting next to him, noticed this particular gleam, and dropped his sandwich, and opened his mouth in surprise. He shook his head vigorously, and made a lunge for the pint-sized town weirdo, but nothing could have prevented Kirk.
"What?" He shouted up the stairs, just as Jackson's body came in contact with his on, and tackling him in the ground.
Everyone shot their heads from Kirk back to the upstairs, waiting for any sort of sign that what had just happened didn't carry upstairs.
"What was that?" Lorelai's voice was heard first.
More muffled noises, followed by footsteps and a door slam.
Everyone else in the diner managed to give Kirk a dirty look, one that inspired fear of what was to come in the future, before returning to usual diner activities, acting like nothing had happened. The kind of look that made people want to stay in wide open, highly populated (witnesses were always a good thing to have around) spaces, only in the daylight hours.
Jackson jumped up off of Kirk in a flash, "Don't you ever insult Sookie's cooking again, Kirk!" He yelled angrily, trying to cover up what had just happened.
Kirk muffled something in response, but remained on the floor.
The curtain flew open, reveling a very angry looking Luke, followed by even angrier (which was hard to imagine, but in this case possible) Lorelai and Seth.
"What else didn't you tell me!" Rory screamed at them, tears running down her pale cheeks. The entire diner fell silent for the third time within two days time, "Was my father some kind of Prince of some far away country! What else did you deem unfit to tell me, dad!" She jumped out of her seat, pulling Lane up with her by extension.
Lane squeezed her hand again, "Rory, calm down," she tired, "Let's just go back to my house and talk this over, okay?"
Rory jerked her hand away, "I don't want to talk this over! I want answers! Did this entire town know that I was named Lorelai after my birth mom? Did they know that she tried to contact me, and you wouldn't let her, dad? Does everyone else know everything except for me! Huh?"
"Rory," Seth tried softly, his anger taken completely away, "Don't do this. We were going to tell you, really, we were."
"But somehow it just never came up!" Rory shouted back at him, "How am I supposed to believe that! You never wanted me to meet her! You always told me that she had never once tried to contact me, when you knew very well that she did!"
"Rory," Luke tired this time.
"Don't, Luke," she warned, "I don't want to hear it! I'm upset and I don't give a damn who knows, all right!" She yelled before breaking into another fit of tears.
Lorelai pushed past both Luke and Seth angrily, and ran over to Rory. "Hey, kiddo," she whispered to Rory as she grabbed the girl in her arms. "Shh, it's okay," she rocked Rory's shaking body back and forth, "Just cry it out, okay?"
"Hey! What are you doing!" Seth complained from across the room.
Lorelai shot him a glare, "I'm doing what nobody else had enough sense to do, alright? The girl's upset, and she's got a damn good reason to be."
"You're not her mother anymore."
"And I don't have to be to give her a hug," Lorelai shot back just as harshly.
Seth stomped over to Rory and Lorelai, "Come on, Rory. We're going."
"Jesus! Hasn't the girl been through enough yet!" Lorelai shot back, "Just give her a minute, okay!"
"No," Rory mumbled out from Lorelai's shoulder, "Just go away, Dad."
Suddenly the room felt a lot colder. The air a lot thicker.
Although, the biggest change was in Seth's demeanor. In a flash he went from angry 'you're going to get a big lecture when we get home' to, well, hurt, surprised, shocked, any of those adjectives probably wouldn't even scratched the surface of what he looked like. Perhaps, the best way to put it, was that he looked like a man that had just had his heart ripped out, stomped on, and then used as a soccer ball by David Beckham, but was somehow still alive.
"All, all right then," he breathed out, "If that's what you want," his words were heavy, his eyes glazed over, but he did his best to hide them. He turned and walked the rest of the distance to the doorway stiffly, just trying to keep it together long enough for him to go someplace private. He opened the door way, the bell shattering the thick silence that had engulfed the diner, "I love you, Ror," he said right before walking out the door and back out into the street.
And it was in that moment, that look on his face, that Lorelai Gilmore began to understand his reasoning.
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