A/N- Thanks for all of the reviews, guys! They really make me happy and make me want to write more, so keep RRing!
A/N 2- To all of you who are asking, as much as I love Jess and Rory together, I love Luke and Lorelai more. So when I have them get married early, Rory and Jess are going to be raised as cousins. So they won't be getting together. Cuz that's kind of creepy. I'm sorry. I think what I'm going to do instead is have him play the protective card. Cuz I thought that would be cute. As opposed to creepy.
A/N 3- Also, I really want to explore the Rory/ Ryan pairing. I thought they'd be really cute together. And I kinda like the idea of Lane and Seth. Just because. I think it'd be really cute, especially because of Dave.
A/N 4- I swear, last one. The first few chapters (before the Cohens move to Stars Hollow) are going to follow a broken format, following each family individually. Then, when the Cohens move to Connecticut, it'll be more blended.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, so don't sue. I just felt like amusing myself and those who also love these shows.
Zero to Twelve Months
When Rory was asleep, Lorelai was miserable. She couldn't take being alone in the cavernous "home" that she was a prisoner to. She had always found a slight solace in school, in reading particularly, and she missed that solace. Honestly, she did not miss her friends- they had all disappeared when she had become pregnant. Stupid materialistic jerks. Lorelai thought simply as she flipped through that week's People magazine for the seventh- or was it eighth- time. She hated daytime TV- she couldn't watch Soap Operas without mocking, and to mock, she needed a partner. She couldn't wait until Rory was older and could accompany her in her favorite pastime. In the simplest terms, Lorelai hated being alone.
-
In New York City, Kirsten Cohen felt the opposite of Lorelai. She and Sandy had named their second son Ryan Nicholas Cohen, and had loved the bond they felt with him and his brother. She had never felt more loved or appreciated in her life.
Kirsten loved when her boys were awake- they filled the apartment with energy, laughter, and noise. She especially loved the noise. As a child, she had grown up similarly to Lorelai- in a world where childlike behavior was prohibited. She enjoyed playing with the boys' toys and teasing them, getting a giggle or a smile out of her babies.
When the boys were asleep at the same time, however rare it was (It always seemed as though one boy was awake at all times, yet when it came time for feeding, they were both hungry. Kirsten would often complain about it, but secretly she reveled in the idea that her sons were working together, even if it was to make her and Sandy miserable.), Kirsten used the time to prepare for when the boys were awake, preparing bottles, doing the wash, even achieving a nap once in a while. She liked the downtime, but really, she felt happy when the boys were awake, filling her life with laughter once again.
-
When Rory was awake, everything was different for Lorelai. She was happy. She was laughing. She was smiling for the first time since the last time Rory had been awake. She would read to Rory. Sometimes it'd be books like Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger. Other times, she'd dress Rory in an all-pink outfit and sit and read to her from Cosmo Girl. She even loved feeding her. It was a bonding experience and she knew she felt a connection. Sometimes Rory would fall asleep in her arms. She savored the moment and carried the baby to her crib, staring at her, happy as ever, until the realization that she was alone again set in.
-
Sandy and Kirsten loved their bonding moments with their boys as well. Sandy had a habit of playing old records and blasting them throughout the apartment. Seth and Ryan, when they were old enough, loved to bounce to the music as Sandy encouraged them and Kirsten squealed with delight. Kirsten's method of bonding was reading to the boys every night before bed, even before they were old enough to appreciate it. She felt it helped their mental development, but more than anything, she loved the way they looked into her eyes as if there was nowhere else to look in the world.
-
It was the feeling of loneliness that prompted Lorelai into her father's office. She had remembered a conversation she'd had with her father when she was a little girl,
"Daddy? Why do you have so many videos in here?" She had asked, eyeing the large number of video cassettes sitting inside a cabinet she'd accidentally opened. As her father carelessly looked up from his newspaper, he answered thoughtlessly,
"Because someone gave them to me."
"All at one time?" Most parents would find this innocence adorable, but Richard found it a nuisance.
"No, Lorelai. I once told this man that I enjoyed movies. He then found it necessary to buy me five videos for every event that I held. I've never watched any of them." His apathy did not go unnoticed by the then-three-year-old, and she left the conversation at that.
She soon became engrossed in the movies, watching them whenever Rory was asleep. Before this, she'd never had much of an interest in movies, but with nothing else to do, she found herself eventually watching every movie in the cabinet; she even watched a few, such as "Airplane!", "The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking", and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", numerous times. But none of the happiness she felt from the movies rivaled the relief she felt when she heard Rory cry over the baby monitor.
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Seth and Ryan required similar methods of pacification to Lorelai. Kirsten marveled at how two people so small could have such different interests, even before they could speak.
Seth seemed to follow in his father's footsteps. He loved music- the Beatles were his favorite; he'd sit and laugh while bouncing to the music, and when the music was done, he'd cry until Kirsten turned it on again. He loved movies, also; he could've sat and watched movies all day if Kirsten hadn't been worried that it'd stunt his development. When he did watch movies, he loved anything with big, bright animation and lots of music- his favorite was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"- due to the animation, his parents assumed.
Ryan, however, was more content to just watch the world around him. He would sit in the highchair or in his bouncy seat and watch Kirsten move around the kitchen. His big blue eyes followed every step she made, occasionally looking over to see what Seth was doing. However, when he wasn't sitting and watching, he loved to play with balls. Soccer balls were his favorite, but he loved playing catch with Sandy- he could play for a half-hour sometimes. He would laugh and run in circles, occasionally hugging the ball to himself.
Both boys loved books. Kirsten and Sandy read to them constantly and were always buying them new books. Seth loved The Monster at the End of This Book while Ryan could listen to Goodnight, Moon for days on end. Sandy and Kirsten took turns, Sandy reading to Ryan while Kirsten read to Seth one night, while they would switch boys the next night so that each would have equal bonding experience with them.
And as they put Seth and Ryan in their cribs at night, Sandy and Kirsten watched them sleep, waiting for tomorrow to come, loving that they were theirs- and they were never going anywhere.
-
As Lorelai sat with Rory in Rory's bedroom, watching her daughter toddle and babble,
"Mama. Mama." Lorelai smiled at her daughter, blowing her a kiss that caused Rory to blow one back- her newest "trick". She sighed loudly- her mother had banished her and Rory to Rory's room after Rory had made a mess in the kitchen with the bowl of ice cream Lorelai had allowed her. Lorelai picked at the food in front of her, asking herself how she had wound up here. I know how. She answered herself. It wasn't sleeping with Chris. It wasn't refusing to get married. It wasn't having Rory... that was the best thing that's ever happened to me. She added quickly. It was letting them manipulate me. The minute I came back here with Rory, that's where I went wrong. Eleven months of watching my daughter grow up in the world that I don't want to be in. I don't want Rory to have this life... I don't want to have this life.
That was the moment. That was the moment where she realized that she needed to change her life... and save Rory from the horrors of growing up under Emily and Richard's roof.
She stood up, kissing Rory on the head and giving her a bottle and a toy to pacify her. It didn't matter, though. She was home alone.
She ran down the hall into her room. Pulling out a duffel bag and a suitcase, a big one that she knew her mother didn't approve of (It was missing the letters LV), and, inhaling deeply, she opened her top drawer, pulling out all of her T-shirts. Emily despised "those things". She then moved to drawer two- jeans and miniskirts that her mother hated. Drawer three- pajamas and underwear. Haphazardly, she threw them into the suitcase, stealing a glance at her closet- the closet filled with the clothes that she hated, or more specifically, the ones that her mother always wanted her to wear. Grinning to herself as she ran out the door into Rory's room, she teased the closet- You'll never be opened again.
Lorelai burst into Rory's room, frightening the toddler.
"Mama!" Rory cried, reaching for Lorelai. Lorelai obliged, lifting Rory and dancing with her a bit, knowing her time was running out before her parents came home. As Rory stopped crying, she put her down, gave her an Elmo doll that she loved, and turned to Rory's drawers.
She followed the same procedure with the baby's clothes as she had her own, throwing some diapers and wipes into the already somewhat-full diaper bag in the process. This should be enough for four days, Lorelai thought absently. Running into the bathroom to grab her toothbrush, make-up, and only the jewelry she'd made for herself (none of the expensive kind that her mother had bought her), she glanced at Rory's closet, glad that it would never have the chance to fill with clothes Rory hated.
When she had finished packing (Rory's toys and blankets went in a separate bag, along with two cups of juice and some snacks for the road), Lorelai finished the final step. Pulling out a notepad and a pen, she scribbled a note- it was done quickly but all that needed to be said was said.
Dear Emily and Richard,
We're gone. I've taken Rory and I've left. We don't belong here- it's crazy for you to think that we do. As much as I know that you love Rory, I know what I need to do for her, and staying here is not an option. We are fine. This is my choice. I'm an adult now- I have been since the day that stick turned pink. Please don't chase us. Please don't call the cops. This is what I need to do. I wish I could say I was sorry, but I can't, because I'm not. This is necessary for me and my daughter.
Respectfully yours,
Lorelai V. Gilmore.
And with that, she put Rory in her stroller and pushed her out of the house- to where, she had no idea.