Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story.

Ok, so pretty much I wanted to write a fiction that was a little different and I was watching the episode with Mia and thought – how much fun would it be to write about their lives pre-the start of the show? So I started it. Starting with the night of Rory's birth and eventually, one day, will go all the way up to the application to Chilton.

The Way We Get By – Chapter One

"Lorelai? That's her name? Lorelai." She stammered in rage. "This is still a joke to you isn't it? You have a child."

"I like the name Lorelai." The girl responded absentmindedly as she stared through the glass.

"Well of course you do – it's your name. For goodness sake would you look at me when I'm speaking to you?" The woman tucked her normally impeccably groomed red hair behind her ear and continued her rant. "You are a mother now, and this girl needs a father. Christopher has asked you to marry him at least three times now. You're being irresponsible. The wedding will be a month from now. I will drag you to the ceremony if I must but I will not allow my grandchild to-"

The younger girl wasn't listening instead she pressed her fingers up against the glass and stared at the little pink bundle that was her daughter. Daughter, she thought, I'm a mother. The whole thing was surreal. She was supposed to be taking her SATs not giving birth. But Lorelai had always been happiest when she wasn't doing what she was 'supposed' to be doing. She prayed this wasn't going to be the exception.

She smiled softly, that little bundle of baby was by far the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. The brunette teenager pressed her forehead against the glass. Never breaking eye contact with the big blue eyes staring up at her. The baby gurgled slightly and clenched its fingers.

Her baby was finally a reality. It should have been a reality for her when the strip turned pink. Or when she spent hours in piercing pain delivering it. But it hadn't been until she held the little baby, which had been growing inside her for the better part of the year, did she really understand it; she was responsible for this amazing creature. The concept quite frankly scared the crap out of her. But along with that she was incredibly happy. She was excited. For the first time in her life she had a purpose beyond the socialite activities she rebelled so strongly against. She was guaranteed a life her parents hadn't planned every moment of.

"Lorelai!" she looked up slightly dazed, making it clear to her mother she wasn't listening. "I can't believe you! Honestly! Here I am talking about your future and how we're going to make it work and you aren't listening. You're impossible! Just impossible!"

"Can we please go soon?" Lorelai asked sincerely. "I really don't want to do this right now. I just want to go back to the house."

"What about your daughter? Are you just going to leave her here? You can't do that Lorelai – it doesn't work like that! We gave you the option of adoption and you didn't take it."

"Yes mom I meant leave my child that I just gave birth to, here. Abandon her. That is exactly what I meant." She spat angrily. "I meant let's go get Lorelai, check out and then go to the house. I don't want to be here any longer then is positively necessary."

"Fine. Let's go." Her mother snapped and pulled her purse even higher up on her shoulder.

"Thank you." Her voice was small as she rotated to the window again.

Lorelai sat next to the car seat gently stroking the little bit of hair her daughter had. Christopher sat on the other side of her; sleeping. The car was perfectly silent. Lorelai was able to hear every gurgle and sputter. She found it terrifying.

She couldn't stop wondering how this life was going to work, parenting her daughter while still being parented. The wedding plans were already being made for Christopher and her. A wedding she, incidentally, wanted no part of. Lorelai's parents planned on raising her daughter and continuing on with the controlling of her future. This was merely a detour in the raise a Gilmore Socialite plan. It was fixable. And if they were lucky, they would get a second shot with Lorelai number two. They would do everything right; she wouldn't turn out like their daughter.

Lorelai felt sick at the idea of trying to raise a kid at the Gilmore Mansion. She winced slightly at the idea of taking her daughter to fancy parties, dressing her in expensive dresses and planning out every detail of her future. She didn't want there to be pressures and expectations.

She looked out her window; her mother was clearly lost. They were now driving through a tiny town. One of those novel quirky Middle American towns filled with cheesy gift shops and silly festivals. Everything was safe and innocent. It was all very idealistic and sweet. That was where Lorelai wanted to raise her daughter, a place free of all stress and anxiety that came along with being a "Gilmore Child. "

"Gilmore Children" didn't get messy or bicker. They sat politely and quietly in the itchy dresses they were forced to wear. They didn't do chores or work. They were micromanaged by their mothers. They were hurt by best intentions. They were given everything to be the perfect child but heaven forbid they want a different life.

Lorelai didn't want to raise her daughter like that. The little bundle sniffled slightly. Smiling again in spite of herself, Lorelai realized this was the best possible thing that could have happened to her, she was going to raise her daughter in a small town and she was going to make a life for herself. She was going to do this her way.

Her head was spinning slightly. Just a couple months ago her biggest concern was that Sandy Miller had admitted to having a crush on Christopher. Lorelai had always been jealous of Sandy, great relationship with her mother, free to be whoever she wanted, drop dead gorgeous. Now she couldn't help but laugh at the memory. She was a mother now. She liked saying that in her head, "I'm a mother. I have a daughter." The girl who was angry with Sandy seemed so far away.

Of course she wasn't stupid; her subconscious was gnawing at her perfect fantasies with questions like "where are we going to live?" "How am I going to provide for us?" "What if I'm not ready?" but all of that was going to have to wait because right then all that mattered was Lorelai had a destiny she liked. No matter how realistic all the concerns were something in her gut told her that this was going to work out.

When the car finally pulled into the driveway everyone sat awkwardly for a moment. Christopher was slowly waking up and Emily was gripping the steering wheel tighter and tighter; attempt to strangle it. Richard had parted with them at the hospital due to an emergency at work, leaving her alone with her teenage daughter, her newly born granddaughter and the boy who impregnated her teenage daughter. She didn't trust herself with anything she could say at the moment. She was falling apart at the seams, desperately craving a cigarette, a nasty habit she had quit years ago, and she still had a DAR function to run in the morning.

"Lorelai?" Christopher mumbled, slowly coming out of his stupor. "Where are we?"

"My house." Lorelai answered distractedly, she was in the middle of carefully removing the baby from its car seat, trying very hard not to wake it.

"Oh. Right. My car."

Emily gripped the steering wheel tighter. Everything about this situation was grossly inappropriate. Chris shouldn't be so nonchalant about the birth of his daughter. Lorelai should care that Chris didn't care. Lorelai shouldn't be pregnant. What on earth had she done as a parent to deserve this humiliation? Had she not always provided with Lorelai with everything a child could possibly need?

"Chris, go home." Emily said voice shaking. "We'll see you in the morning."

"Right."

"Bye Christopher." Lorelai leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. She smiled weakly as he said his goodbyes. He forgot to say good bye to the second Lorelai, the baby that Lorelai the elder was holding, his daughter.

As he stepped out of the car Lorelai grabbed his sleeve. "Hey," she said quietly, "What about her?" Nodding down to the dozing baby in her lap. He mumbled a quick goodbye and bent over to kiss the baby on the head but "mistakenly" kissed Lorelai's thigh.

Lorelai glared. She knew he was trying to be cute but it wasn't funny. Not only was her mother in the front seat but he was completely avoiding Baby Lorelai. He wanted to get married soon and Lorelai wanted desperately to marry him, live happily ever after but she knew it wasn't going to work like that. Not now. It wouldn't be the life they envisioned when they talked about eloping. They had a daughter he could barely acknowledge, they would end up living in the pool house at the Gilmore Mansion and he would start working as an insurance salesmen not a Radio DJ. And for Christ's sake, they weren't even seniors in high school yet.

Holding Baby Lorelai carefully, Lorelai carried her inside mentally prepping herself for the week ahead. Her planning was cut short by the slam of the front door and a shrill scream. Lorelai stood at the bottom of the stairs trapped between baby sobbing hysterically because somebody woke it up and mother screaming hysterically because her life had been tail spinning for months now.

"Lorelai Gilmore! I honestly – I've held my tongue through this process. You're pregnancy, you're mood swings, you're late night phone calls to Christopher, you're hormones, you're leaving school – but so help me – what just happened in the car was not only inappropriate but crude and downright disgusting. In front of me! In front of the baby! You two take nothing seriously! Life is just sex and fun to you. It doesn't matter that you were holding a baby – you couldn't keep your hands off each other." She ranted as she rummaged through her pharmacy bag in search of the Newport Lights she had bought on the way to the hospital. "Disgusting, just disgusting."

"Are you kidding me?" Lorelai hissed, while bouncing her baby lightly. "First of all, you're making it worse then it was. All clothes were on, I was holding a baby and his hands were no where near my body, so all things considered it could have been much, much worse. Second of all, do you think I wanted him to kiss me instead of Baby Lorelai?"

Emily light a cigarette and started smoking it vigorously. This was the first time since Lorelai announced her pregnancy they were discussing it with out at chaperone. Someone to break it up and send them to their respective corners.

"Yes, I do." She coughed.

"Oh my god! Honestly Mom, do you have any idea how much it hurt to stand there looking at her through the glass with Christopher? He didn't get it. He just stared absently through the window. He asked me to marry him. He asked me if I wanted to go make out in the closet. He asked me what time it was. He could barely say a word about Baby Lorelai." She was trying to lull her daughter back to sleep but the fighting was preventing her from doing anything of the sort.

"And you're surprised? He's a teenage boy! He doesn't know the first thing about being a parent, and quite frankly I'm surprised you've gotten this far." She dropped the cigarette on the wood floor and stomped it out. To hell with manners and appearances; she needed another cigarette.

"Right. Lorelai can't do anything herself – she's completely incapable of succeeding at anything. It's not like you can talk anyways mom. You're not exactly a beacon for perfect parenting. Your only daughter got herself pregnant at sixteen!" The baby was hysterical and red faced now. Lorelai was simultaneously trying to get her to back to sleep and fight with her mother.

Emily lit another cigarette as she ran into the living room to grab something to drink. Something strong. "Lorelai Gilmore so help me god if you move. This conversation isn't anywhere near over."

She returned, vodka bottle in her hand, half burnt cigarette in the other, hair completely disheveled. You wouldn't recognize this woman as the same Emily Gilmore who planned DAR functions and fired maids for walking to quickly. She was a nervous wreck; years of frustration and anger were now manifesting themselves in her current behavior.

"So you blame me for pregnancy? I, by giving you the best of everything, forced you to get pregnant is that it Lorelai? This is my fault?"

"Mom, I don't know. I really, really don't know. It's three in the morning I have a hysterical baby that I only recently gave birth to. I don't blame you for my pregnancy – I just I don't know. I really don't know. It was just my life was always set out for me. I never had any choice. Every since I was little every detail of my life was planned it was just. It was strained. It was suffocating. I don't maybe I just needed to breathe." Lorelai practically whispered the words.

"Lorelai, go to your room. I can't deal with you tonight. We'll continue this in the morning after my DAR brunch." Emily rubbed her temple and waved her hand at Lorelai signaling for her to leave.

Closing the door behind her Lorelai entered her bedroom. She placed Baby Lorelai in her basinet. Baby Lorelai was still crying, but with less passion, now she was merely whimpering.

"We're gonna leave. Tomorrow. You and me, we're gonna find a place to live and I'm going to get a job and it's just going to be you and me." She rummaged through her closet for some suitcases. "I can't do this to you. I can't do this to me. It was tolerable before. I mean, I love my parents, I do. I don't want you to ever question that. I love them. But this just doesn't work. Me, you, them, Christopher."

Lorelai was now pulling out clothing out of drawers and throwing them onto the bed. "If this is going to work, and I want it to work so badly. It's got to be just you and me. Lorelai and Lorelai."

She laughed a little. "We're going to have to figure out a nickname for you. It's bad enough that the world now has two Lorelai Gilmores on the loose but talk about confusing. Lie, Lory, Lai, Lor, El, Ella?"

Baby Lorelai sniffled slightly.

"I'm boring you. That's cute. Baby Lorelai," the baby whimpered. "Ok, ok I'll figure out a better nickname. But I promise this will work. I promise, Ok?"

"Richard." Emily sobbed, "She's gone."

Emily held up the note and handed it to him,

"Dear Mom and Dad,

First of all – I love you. I know I've never been really good at showing it, but I do. I love you both. But this wasn't going to work. The animosity between us would have made this unbearable. I will call in a week to check in. Don't worry, Rory and I will be fine.

-Lorelai

P.S: Her name is Rory. I have no idea how I got to it but it works. I like it. She likes it. We like it."

"Richard, she's gone." She turned into her husband and cried. He wrapped his arms around her and tried his best to stay strong. This was a two way street, as much as they tried to pawn all the blame off on Lorelai he knew there must have been something they could have done differently. But it was too late for that now.

Thoughts, criticisms, etc? I'd really like to know what you think.