Beach
By: Alyson Tierney
Disclaimer: I do not own Lorelai Gilmore, Rory Gilmore, or any related Gilmore Girls characters or places mentioned. Those all belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB network. I also do not own Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Tara Maclay, Angel, or any related Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel characters or places mentioned. They belong to Joss Whedon and the WB and UPN networks. After this long paragraph it should be obvious that I am simply borrowing such characters for entertainment reasons, so don't sue.
Author's Note: This is a short four-chapter story that came to me one day as I was thinking about my two favorite shows and was thinking "Hey, how cool would it be to combine them?" Basically, this takes place after season 5 of Gilmore Girls, and two years after the demise of Sunnydale. There is a pair of lesbians in this story, so if that isn't your thing, please leave the page now. Thank you to Ang1 and Gilmore-Buffy-Fan13 for reviewing, and thank you to everyone else for reading. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Three
The familiar Jeep pulled into an empty space near Rory's Prius and Willow's family's minivan. Buffy's sharp hearing heard the car first and she looked up, "Is that your mom?" she asked Rory.
Rory looked up and the huge grin that spread across her face completely gave the answer away. She jumped up, almost knocking over part of the castle she, Dawn, and Buffy were in the process of building. As Lorelai exited the Jeep, she smiled as she saw her daughter sprinting across the sand towards her. She barely had time to put her beach bag down before Rory threw herself at her mother. The embrace was comforting and fierce at the same time, as mother and daughter clutched each other like a lifeline.
Tears were streaming down Rory's cheeks as she pulled back and looked into her mother's blue eyes. Lorelai smiled faintly and reached out to wipe away the tears, "Hey. No tears. It's okay." Lorelai soothed, running her thumbs across Rory's face, wiping the tear tracks away.
"I feel so guilty. I hurt you so bad." Rory let her emotions loose now that she was with her mom. The tears flowed freely, like she'd held them pent up in the storm gates for the last month.
"Hey, hearts mend, especially when they get to spend days at the beach. It's not like I didn't hurt your feelings when I said you couldn't come home if you weren't going to college." Lorelai said, smiling through foggy eyes.
Rory sniffled, "I'm so, so sorry."
Lorelai took one of Rory's hands in hers, "I know you are. I'm sorry, too. We'll talk, okay? We're going to have a long, long talk, and I'll listen and keep an open mind."
Rory nodded, "Okay."
Lorelai tossed the beach bag back into the Jeep and engaged the door lock, and then led her daughter across the sand to a walking path that snaked its way down the beach, in the opposite direction of where Rory had been playing. Rory let her eyes fall on Buffy and Dawn, and Buffy smiled and mouthed to her 'We'll be here.' Rory was glad she'd found friends when she didn't seem to have any, and even happier that they'd encouraged her to call her mom.
Lorelai caught her daughter's glance and smiled, "Are those your friends?"
Rory nodded as she felt pavement under her feet, and stopped to slip her sandals back on, "Yeah. That's Buffy and Dawn, they're sisters. Willow's the one I met first, Tara's her wife, Angel is Buffy's fiancée, and Xander has been Buffy and Willow's best friend for a long time."
"I'll have to thank Willow for having you call me. I wanted to call you, but was worrying about letting you have your space and intruding when you didn't want me to." Lorelai said, slipping an arm around her daughter's waist, as they walked slowly down the sidewalk. The Atlantic Ocean and a small slice of sand lined one side of the path, while the other side slowly sloped upwards into a rocky bluff.
"I wanted to call you too, I was just afraid you wouldn't want to talk to me after how I treated you." Rory admitted, smiling as she heard Willow's squeal of happiness in the water behind her.
"I would have talked to you. No matter how upset or angry I am, I'll still talk to you if you need to." Lorelai said, her face twisted into a concerned pout.
Rory smiled, "That's good to know."
The Gilmore women walked for a few moments in silence, before they approached a bench along the walking path. Lorelai sat down, and Rory followed. Mother and daughter sat and watched the waves wash up among the rocks and sand, until Lorelai finally spoke, "Do you want to talk about it now?"
Rory nodded, and looked towards her newfound friends. They were about 100 yards away now, but Rory could still tell which figure was who. She seemed to be gathering her thoughts, "I got scared, I guess."
Lorelai pursed her lips and slowly nodded her head like she understood, "Hey, I understand being scared. When you're getting ready to go out into the world, or are forced to look at a dramatically changing future, it's understandable to get terrified. I was terrified when I had you."
Rory almost looked shocked, "You were? From what I hear, you were completely nonchalant about the whole thing."
Lorelai chuckled, "Yeah, I kept up that pretense. I was scared, though. I worried that I was going to fail as a parent. Worried that you would hate me someday because I couldn't give you the life my parents gave me."
"I could never hate you." Rory said, her voice close to a whisper.
"I know that now." Lorelai said, giving Rory her best 'duh' look, and then grinning, "My point is that it's completely normal to get scared when thinking about the big future looming, but if you run away from it you might miss out on some great things. I never would have met Sookie or Luke if we hadn't moved. You wouldn't have gotten to meet Lane or any of your boyfriends."
"That is true." Rory smiled, her brows wrinkled as she contemplated what her mom said.
"It's instinctual to run away, especially if someone tells you to." Lorelai added.
"I know it was stupid to listen to Mr. Huntzberger. I'd just been having doubts for a long time, and that was sort of the final straw, you know?" Rory said, her stomach beginning to ache as she remembered her downward spiral last month.
"I know. I'm in complete understanding here. A month gives you time to think and process things. I shouldn't have told you to not come home. It made me feel like a bad mother for saying that, I felt like one of those mothers on TV." Lorelai looked upset and Rory's heart immediately reached out to her mom's.
"It probably gave me a push in the right direction, though. I think I'm going to go back to college." Rory said, gauging her mother's reaction.
Lorelai's face broke into a brilliant smile, "That's great, honey. Don't go back just to make me happy, though."
Rory shook her head, "I'm not. I'm going back because I realized I don't want to do any of the jobs Grandma and Grandpa found for me. I'm going to need to finish my journalism major if I want any jobs in the writing field. I don't have to be a field reporter. I could write for a newspaper or magazine or I could work for a publications office or something."
"That sounds potentially fun." Lorelai agreed, "Do you need any help re-registering at Yale?"
Rory grinned, "You'd help me?"
"I could do the Dean of Admissions to get you back in." Lorelai offered.
Rory groaned, "Mom! First off, she is a woman, second, she is straight and married, and thirdly, you have a boyfriend."
Lorelai hesitated, "About that…"
Rory's eyes widened, "Oh, you didn't!"
"Didn't what?" Lorelai asked, not sure what her daughter meant.
"Why did you break up? Was it me?" Rory looked horrified.
"Honey, we didn't break up," Lorelai hesitated, but Rory's pleading eyes begged her to go on, "We're engaged."
To Be Continued…
