Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story.
Real quick – this isn't an anti-Christopher fic. I, while not fond of him (at all), am trying to create as real a picture of the Lorelais' first 16 years as possible and Christopher, whether we like it or not was part of that. Clearly he was never a great father and we all know from the episode in season 3 where Lorelai and Rory help out with helping deliver Sherry's baby he wasn't exactly ideal at Rory's birth either. But all that aside – he was part of their early life, so Christopher will show up again. I just want to make that clear because I don't want to let anyone down when he shows up again later. So, on that mildly depressing note… on to the story.
The Way We Get By – Chapter Two
"I need a job. Any job. I will take any job. Any job at all. I don't care. You could have me scrub toilets with a toothbrush and I would be happy. I need a job."
"Hello? I'm Mia." The woman extended her hand. Lorelai adjusted how she was holding Rory and shook it.
"I'm Lorelai." She smiled. "And this is my daughter Rory."
If Mia was taken aback by this she didn't let it show. She merely ushered Lorelai inside a staff room, ignoring the bags that were very ineffectively hidden behind the counter. Signaling for Lorelai to take a seat, Mia sat down.
"So, Lorelai, how old are you?"
"Sixteen." Lorelai stated matter of factly.
"And Rory is you're daughter?"
"Yes ma'am." Lorelai again was solid.
"What brings you to the Independence Inn?" Mia asked politely.
"Do you want a cute short story with a punch line or the actual one?" Lorelai cocked her head to side, daring Mia a little. It was a double edged sword, this habit of challenging people. She learned it from her mother and sometimes it was the appropriate method of communicating, keeping people off guard, staying in control of the conversation. Sometimes though, especially in situations with strangers, it caused people to dislike her.
Lucky for Lorelai it fascinated Mia. "Tell me the actual one and then I'll decide whether or not I want to hear the fictional one."
"Alright," Lorelai smiled brightly, "So clearly – I'm a teenage mother. I have no job. A little bit of money. I emptied my savings account. I have a total of a thousand two hundred and thirteen dollars. Which isn't nothing, but I mean I have this baby to provide for as well as myself. And not just for a couple of weeks – I need to keep us afloat.
I need her to be able to grow up normally. Now you're probably thinking, 'Where are you're parents in this situation?' They are currently in Hartford. They are rich. Very, very rich. But that's part of the problem, they use that money to manipulate people. By people right now I mean me. I have a kid. I have to provide for her. I need to be in charge of this. Not them. I don't want that life."
"I see." Mia said a little dumbstruck by Lorelai's honesty.
"So," Lorelai finished breathlessly "That's why I'm here. I need to start a new life."
"We need a maid." Mia offered shortly. "The hours can be flexible."
"Oh my god, are you serious?" Lorelai's face lit up instantly. "I mean I have zero experience."
"Are you trying to talk me out of this?" Mia laughed slightly.
"No, no. I'm just – I don't want to – I, oh my god thank you." Lorelai gushed. Lorelai was a lucky, lucky girl and she knew it. Mia could tell by the look on Lorelai's face that she hadn't expected such luck but was not going to turn such good fortune down. Mia couldn't help but take a liking to this clearly confident and sweet girl; but it was clear Lorelai was so far in over her head she couldn't see the surface.
"Do you have any rooms available right now? I mean, I know, I'm completely putting you on the spot again but I need a place to stay for a couple of days while I look for a place and I have some money and since you know its right here so I don't have to walk and oh god a car." She continued rambling senselessly until her brain was able to catch up to her mouth. She sat silently for a second before talking again, "Wow this is life, huh?"
Mia laughed wholeheartedly this time. "This is life."
"Right, Ok, Deep breath Lorelai." She took a deep breath and regained her composure. "Alright so, um, now what?"
"Now I will show you around the inn, briefly give you a run down of you're job and then we'll talk about room and board." Mia got up and started to walk out of the room when she turned suddenly. "Do you want me to hold, Rory? You arms look like they could use a break."
"Uh," Nobody other than Lorelai had held Rory yet, this was awkward handing her daughter over to a complete stranger. A very nice stranger. Who had offered to give her a job despite the fact she had no prior experience in any field. "Yeah, Just, careful?"
"I promise." Lorelai handed Rory over carefully to Mia. "Where did the name Rory come from? It's rather unusual." Lorelai followed Mia up the stairs.
"Well, actually her name is Lorelai. But that got confusing fast, Lorelai and Lorelai. It wasn't going to work. But last night when I couldn't sleep because oh my god – I don't know if you have kids but it's scary as shi- anything"
Lorelai tried to quickly correct her teenage vocabulary into something much more appropriate. Everything in Mia softened at this, strange as it was the fact that Lorelai tried to correct her youthful word choice reminded me exactly how young she was. Lorelai wasn't done being a kid yet but her she was ready and willing to jump headfirst into the adult world of jobs, kids, and independence. The odds may have been stacked mile high against Lorelai but they either didn't phase her or she was to young to even know they existed, she wanted this to work and in her mind that meant it was going to work. Mia admired that.
"…To spend the night worrying. I kept checking her breathing. She would cry and need a diaper change or was hungry but it didn't bother me because I knew she was alive. But anyways the point is I wasn't sleeping. And during my not sleeping I just kept saying Lorelai over and over again, it eventually mutated into Rory and I liked and she responded well to Rory so… that's how that happened."
"You sure like to talk don't you?" Mia smiled.
"Oh god, I'm sorry, I'm rambling, I don't mean to. I just get going and you know it's just really hard to stop." Lorelai started quickly and ending with the hesitation of someone who doesn't exactly understand what they're defending until they're almost through defending it.
"It's endearing." Mia turned and looked the teenage girl who was following close behind her. She looked her mind had yet to catch up to her exhausted body. Mia got the sense that this girl would not allow herself to rest until she had one of the many major problems she was facing at least, temporarily, solved.
The rest of the afternoon Lorelai spent tailing Mia around learning everything she needed to know about the inn. She was trying to absorb every detail. She wanted to make sure Mia never had to regret the decision of hiring her. She was going to be the best maid the Independence Inn had ever had.
When the day finally ended Mia handed baby Rory over to Lorelai, "Why don't you come spend the night at my place? We're fully booked and it will give us a chance to get to know each other a little better."
"Mia," Lorelai choked a little, she hadn't expected this and there was no reason or explanation for why this woman was being so impossibly nice to her, "I can't impose myself on you like that. You've already been so fabulous to me."
"I invited you; it's not imposing if I invited you."
Lorelai suddenly found it very difficult to talk; all her energy had been drained from her at that second. 24 hours worth of stress and emotions, she had no will to fight Mia's offer. "Alright, thank you, again."
"It's really no problem dear, come with me."
And with that they left.
They drove through the small town of Stars Hollow and Lorelai soaked up the sights. A somewhat obscurely placed gazebo, an eclectic mix of shops and markets, small houses with yards scattered with toys, exactly the dream town Lorelai had in mind when she left Hartford.
"How old is Rory?" Mia asked softly, acknowledging Lorelai's apparent exhaustion.
Lorelai stammered a bit, "Almost two days." Sensing Mia's astonishment and confusion she continued. "She was, is, impossibly healthy and problem free. No complications or anything?"
Again Lorelai's age was thrown in Mia's face by the most peculiar thing. Lorelai had just phrased a definitive statement as a question. She was asking permission or forgiveness, making sure it was ok. Something most girls grow out of with age. It seemed odd to compare this young, naïve girl with the confident, attentive young woman she had shown around the inn. It was even stranger that they were in fact the same person.
When Lorelai had finally calmed down and stopped rambling she was surprisingly professional and devoted. She attentively listened as Mia explained what her job would entail. Politely interrupting to ask questions when necessary, she was so focused it was hard to believe that she was being instructed on how to clean a toilet not how to run a small business. Whether she came by this intensity naturally or it was the instincts of a mother who had to provide for her child, Mia didn't know.
"So Lorelai, if you don't mind me asking, where is her father?"
"Um, well," Lorelai vocalized her thoughts as they hit her, "You know its funny because I didn't really think about him as I was packing up to leave. It just seemed like it was an issue or a factor, he just wasn't in the equation. I mean I ran away from the marriage I was probably going to be forced into with him by my parents – but I didn't run away from him" Lorelai paused.
"It should bother me more than it does." Lorelai said, Mia turned and looked at her slightly confused. "The fact that he isn't in the equation. That he doesn't have any grasp on the reality of the situation."
"What do you mean?" Mia asked sensing Lorelai wanted to share this. It was clear by the open endness of her former remark and by the eagerness with which she said it.
"I mean he thought us getting married now, at sixteen was going to make all the problems go away. That if we got married everything was going to be easy. But it wasn't, it was just going to create a whole new set of problems. More problems, not less.
I would just become a puppet with which my parents and his parents could raise my daughter; I wouldn't be the free-spirited Lorelai he loves. The Chris I fell in love with would become, my dad or his dad and we would fall apart. It's not like we were going to work forever anyways I mean, we're 16, first love. My parents didn't even like Chris up until he started to push the marriage thing and now its all 'Chris is so smart and so mature.' Well until that incident in the car last night. But at this point I'm pretty sure they prefer Chris to me." Lorelai laughed forcibly, it was a hollow, sad laugh.
Mia was surprised by the insight Lorelai had in the matter. She had expected that the boy had run off scared, forcing Lorelai to run because she didn't get along with her parents. Mia had invited the girl back to her house in hopes of talking her back into going home; but the more she discovered the details the less that seemed like the right thing.
"I don't want you to think I'm some stupid kid who has no idea what she's doing." Lorelai declared, startling Mia. "This wasn't some spur of the moment thing; I had been planning this since my sixth month. I just didn't expect to run so soon, and I didn't even know about Stars Hollow till last night when my mother got lost. It just seemed like fate was intervening and saying 'Lorelai, the time, the place, everything is right.' I know this isn't going to be a fairy tale. I'm not stupid. If I had wanted the easy life I would have stayed at the Gilmore Mansion. I can't go back now; I can't give up and give in. I can't need them now. I have to prove to them that there is another way to live. I have to make sure Rory doesn't make the same mistakes."
Lorelai was talking to herself now. She was explaining it to herself. Justifying it. She was trying to make herself feel better but it was hard to cheer yourself up when hot tears roll down your face.
"And I don't want Rory to think she was just a mistake." Lorelai sniffled looking at the baby in her arms. "Because she's not. Who knows where I would be now if I didn't get pregnant. I mean, sex, drugs, booze, I wasn't exactly an angel. I wanted choice in my life. I never wanted to go to Yale but for some reason it was always assumed I was going to Yale. After I went to Yale I would be marrying a Yale alumni and would become a housewife. I would join the DAR and host parties. That was my life. So you want to know what I did to get out of it? I slept with Christopher and a bunch of boys before him. I snuck out the window and went to parties. Drugs, booze, Chris and I had our fair share of car crashes, hangovers, mornings of waking up and having no clue where we were. I didn't want that life either. It was just the polar opposite of what I was going to have. When I finally calmed down about being pregnant I realized this gave me the opportunity to live any life I wanted."
She was sobbing hysterically now. Confessing her sins to a stranger and more importantly her daughter, it didn't matter that Rory didn't understand a single thing that Lorelai was saying but that she was saying it. She was going to do this differently then her mother. She was going to share this life with Rory; they were going to find their place together. Rory's literal birth was Lorelai's rebirth. She was Lorelai's second chance at finding a life outside the Gilmore Mansion.
"Everything will be ok." Mia assured Lorelai, and she was going to do everything within her power to make sure it would be.
This is definitely a lot different then writing a shipper fic so I'm curious to know how people feel about it.