Author's Note: This chapter is probably the least likely to actually happen on the show (not that I actually think anything in my story will). It's just something that I've always wanted Rory's character to do, so I hope you like it.

Chapter Eight: Like Mother, Like Daughter

Rory stood outside of the Gilmores' large front door, her hand approaching the knob. She didn't want to go in. She was hoping desperately that her grandmother would be at some DAR function, or anything to get her out of the house. She stalled for a few moments longer, then finally brought herself to open the door. She walked into the house and didn't see anyone at first. The maid came over and greeted her, "Hello Miss Gilmore."

"Hi." Rory responded shyly. "Um, is my grandmother home?"

"Yes, she is. Mrs. Gilmore is upstairs." Rats "Would you like me to go get her for you?"

"Oh, no, thank you so much though."

The maid disappeared into the kitched and Rory instantly heard the familiar clanking of pots and pans. Something smelt good in the Gilmore house, but Rory couldn't focus on that. She tried her best to quietly sweep through the house and out the back door into the pool house. She was successful until she heard Emily shouting orders at the maid from upstairs. "Alert m e the second that Rory comes home or else I'll-" Emily appeared on the stairwell and noticed Rory lightly stepping across the living room rug, trying not to draw attention to herself.

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore!" Rory suddenly turned around at the sound of her grandmother's stern voice. "Where in God's name have you been?"

"Grandm-"

"NO! You don't get to talk. You listen to me, and you listen to me good." Emily stepped off the last step into the living room, pointing her finger visciously in Rory's face. "You said that you were going out and not to wait up. So I figure that means you'll be home a little past midnight and you're being a good little grandaugther and don't want to make your grandparents stay up waiting and waiting until you finally pop through that door. So do you know what I did?" Emily stopped, waiting for Rory's answer.

"No, Grandma, what did you do?"

"I went to bed. I went to bed at 12:30. I thought you were responsible enough to actually come home. But before I went to bed I set my alarm clock for 4:00 so that I could get up and check that you got in alright. So when my alarm went off, your grandfather and I went to check on you, just as planned. And do you know what I found in that pool house?" Emily's voice trailed off into something playfully creepy.

"Not me?"

"Damn right not you!"

"But Grandma I never said when I was going to be home."

"I don't give a damn! You are now my responsibility and I want you home at a reasonable time."

"I'm twenty years old! I can take care of myself."

"As long as you live in my house and as long as I'm paying your college tuition, you're my responsibility."

"You're not paying my tuition anymore!"

"I swear, Rory, you get more and more like your mother everyday. First you drop out of school, now you're not coming home at night!" Emily's face was a dark shade of red. "You're going to turn out a failure just like her! You won't graduate college, you won't have a husband."

Rory jumped out of the comfort of her grandmother's floral chair in the corner of the room at the sound of her mother being disgraced. "Excuse me? My mother is far from a failure! You're aren't half the woman that she is."

"I will NOT be spoken to like this in my own house."

"Well you know what Grandma? Too bad! You wanted a screaming match, here it is. You will not yell at me then quit once I actually have a response."

"Ror-"

"NO! Now you have to listen." Rory kicked off her shoes and threw her purse on the floor. She walked over to her grandmother and lowered the tone in her voice. "My mother is the best person I know. She is kind and compassionate. She loves me more than anything in the world and I love her right back. She is anything but a failure. She ran away from you because she felt strangled, you strangled her. For years, you and Grandpa have treated me like a princess, while my mother sat there, taking your low blows. I am unbelieveably greatful for the things that you and Grandpa have given me, but you need to realize something. Mom ran away because she couldn't take it anymore. All she ever heard for you was how this was all her fault, and how she single handedly ruined her future. You never give her any credit for raising me. You're always bragging to your friends about how you have such an angelic granddaughther, but every single flaw that I have is all her fault. Did you ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, I'm the way I am because of the way my mother raised me?" Rory paused, "No? Well that's too bad because that's exactly the case."

"My mother is not a screw up or a faliure or an inconsiderate woman or any of those horrible names that you insist on throwing at her. I would say that you should be proud of yourselves for raising such an amazing woman, but what I really think I should say is that you should be ashamed. Ashamed of the fact that you do everything in your power to try to dismantle her. You desperately want her to fail. And you take credit for me being successful in school. You say that I have 'the Gilmore gene'. But I bet that you never thought of it this way. Maybe I'm the way I am because my mother tried something new. She left your world of pearls and proper manners for something more her own. She's her own person and it drives you absolutely crazy. You know that she doesn't need you and so you take it upon yourselves to try and push her down just to show people that without you, your daughter is nothing. All for the sake of a name. It's disgusting."

Emily stood next to Rory, motionless and silent. She have never in her life been spoken to that way, and she didn't know how to react. She never expected this from Rory.

"Grandma," Rory started again, "I want you to know that I love you and Grandpa so much. And as I said before, I am beyond gratelful for all of the things you have done inorder for me to get a good education, the kind that I wanted. But my mother doesn't need all of this crap from you. She doesn't need you to constantly blame everything bad in the world on her. You may say that what I'm saying is ridiculous, but if I were able to play back any of the dispicable things that you've said to her over the years, you would most definetly be ashamed of yourself. She didn't want to come to you for money, but she did it for me. The second time? As you know, that was my call. She didn't have an easy life, and running away made it harder for her. But if she hadn't run away, she wouldn't have the wonderful life that she does now, and either would I. No matter how much you think that we live horrible lives, cutting coupons and making clothes, it doesn't matter. We are so happy. We have been for years." Rory's eyes began to fill with tears, "Now, we may be going through a tough time right now because of the decisions I made, but I know that everything's going to work out between us. I know that because she is my best friend in the world and I love her more than I've ever loved another person. Nothing is going to tear that bond that we have apart."

Emily started to sob, thinking about all of the things that Rory was saying.

"I know that you've always wanted your relationship with Mom to be close, and maybe it could have been." Rory was full on crying through her words now. "If you had just given her a chance, maybe things between you two wouldn't be so terrible. So I want you to think about everything that I'm telling you. And if you decide to shut me out like you did with her, then fine. I won't like it one bit, because I love you. But if you think that's how you want to handle it, fine. And if you do end up closing us out forever, then I'm sorry I ever had to deal with all of this. Watching you belittle my mother right in front of me for years. If you're going to kill our relationship because of my strong, strong opinion, then I don't think anything that we've gone through was worth it."

Rory bent down, got her shoes and purse, and stormed through the backyard into the pool house. She started to rip random things off the shelves and started to stuff them into the cardboard boxes that they were in less than twenty four hours ago. Her crying grew louder and she flung herself onto the bed. She started pulling at the blankets of the freshly made bed and just cried and cried. She'd made such a mess of things. All of the things she said to her grandmother made her think of how she'd messed things up with her mother. She really hoped that they would be able to rekindle their relationship. Cradle it back to the place that it was.

Why in the world did I tell my mother that I was quitting school? Why did I even want to quit school? Screw Mitchum! I don't care what he thinks. This was my dream. It still is my dream. So I get one bad opinion. He may be important in the journalistic world, but so what? Maybe he was wrong. Why didn't I just listen to my mother?

Rory's thoughts were beating her up inside. She kicked herself over and over for letting things get this way. She needed to get to her mother and try to make her understand that she was sorry beyond belief.

She walked over to her purse and picked up her cell phone. She dialed Luke's diner. As the phone rang, she whiped the running eye makeup from underneath her eyes.

"Hello?" she heard on the other line.

"Jess, good, I'm glad it's you."

"Hey, what's up?"

"I completely exploded on my grandmother."

"What! What did you say?"

Rory filled Jess in on everything that she'd said. He was impressed that she finally got up the nerve to actually say it all. She told him everything she realized and that she wanted to come see him before she said anything to Lorelai.

"No problem," Jess said in response. "Come pick me up and we'll drive around for a while. I'll be outside of the diner."

"Okay, thank you so much."

Rory picked up the framed picture of her and her mother that was on her night stand. She looked at it for a long while, then pulled it closely to her, hugging it. "It's gonna be fine."