One Less Mistake

Summary: What if Lorelai hadn't gotten pregnant until she was 20? What if she had agreed to marry Christopher when she did? AU.

Pairings: Rory/Dean, Lor/Chris

Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB

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Rory walked into the diner. She was going to do this. "Luke?" she asked. "Is my mother here?"

"No, you might want to check the Independence Inn," he replied.

"Why?"

"Because she works there."

"How long has she worked there?" Rory asked. After she had checked her mother's old office, she had assumed that Lorelai was sick. She had never even considered the possibility that she had quit her job, and started a new one.

"She started a couple days after she got here."

"Okay," she turned and walked away.

"Rory?" Luke called as she got to the door. "How's Dean?" she smiled slightly.

"He's good. He misses you, and Jess, but he's good."

"Good. And your father?"

"A wreck after he had to send Mom away again, but he'll be okay, eventually," she said as she walked out the door and into the street.

"What do you mean, again?" Luke called out after her, but she was gone. Had Lorelai tried to go back to Christopher?

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"Dad?" Topher asked. Chris was sick, so hehadn't gone in to work that day. "I brought you tea."

"Since when do we have tea in the house?" Chris asked, but they both knew the answer. There had been tea in the house since Lorelai left. "I miss her, Topher," he replied to the unspoken question, "every day since she left, I missed her. Then I told her to go. Why did I do that? I don't even know."

"You were scared. You wanted Mom back so much, it seemed too good to be true, so you assumed it wasn't true."

"Have you always been this insightful?"

"I was so mad at her," he ignored his father's question, "I forced myself to hate her. For over a month, I made myself hate my own mother, one of the two people you're supposed to love unconditionally. Maybe you don't need to love her unconditionally, but you love her enough that you shouldn't make yourself hate her."

"I could never even try to hate her."

"I wish I felt that way when she left. Right before she went, when she was on the stairs, I glared at her, and I told her to get out, without saying anything. I drove her out, because I thought I could hate her."

"It's not your fault."

"Yes, it is. I tried to blame Dean, because he was there, and he was so close to Luke. I blamed Luke, and I blamed Mom, but it's not any of their faults. It's mine. She would have stayed if she thought I wanted her to."

"And it's my fault, for fighting with her, and not trying to talk things out. And it's Rory's fault, for not begging her to stay, because if Rory had asked, Lor would have. And it's Dean's fault for introducing her to Luke."

"You blame them?"

"No. But I'm willing to bet they blame themselves. It's no one's fault. We all know that, but we all blame ourselves anyways. Am I right, about you at least?"

"I guess," he agreed reluctantly, "but, Dad, if you had it to do over again, would you do it differently?"

"Of course."

"How much of it?"

"I would have fought for her right after she met Luke. I wouldn't have asked her to leave when you brought her home that night. If she'd left anyways, I would have talked to her, and heard her side of the story when she came back."

"You would have given her another chance?"

"I wish to god that I had."

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After a week of wearing sneakers with gel pads to work because her feet still hurt from walking the five and a half miles from the Gilmore house to the Haden house, Lorelai could finally wear heels to work again. Her heart hadn't healed quite as quickly. She had been avoiding Luke while she tried to find the words to tell him what had happened, and that she didn't love him. She had a feeling she'd be avoiding him for a pretty long time. She poured herself a cup of coffee as Sookie came into the kitchen. "Lorelai, you're not wearing sneakers anymore," she teased.

"No, I'm not."

"So, how are things with Luke?"

"Same as they've been since I almost killed myself walking back to Christopher."

"Oh, you didn't almost kill yourself."

"You try walking over five miles in very fancy high heels on very icy snow."

"I still don't believe that there was that much snow in Hartford. All the snow on the sidewalks here melted in that one day warm spell."

"That's because Taylor makes everyone shovel the sidewalks. There was a thin enough layer to melt. In Hartford, no one bothers, so the snow half-melted, and then refroze, making it very, very slippery, especially in the heels that you wear to a wedding."

"Okay, you win there. But enough about that, this is probably the third time we've talked about this. When are you going to talk to Luke?"

"I don't know. What am I supposed to say to him? 'Oh, hey, thanks for letting me crash here, but I'm actually in love with Christopher. I have been all along, I just wanted an adventure, something really exciting, like an affair, and you were right there.'"

"You could try that."

"Sookie!"

"What? It's exactly how you're feeling. Quick and to the point."

"But I can't say that to him!"

"Why not?"

"It's mean."

"But true."

"Which makes it meaner. I need to think of something that I can actually say."

"Add an 'I love you' in there somewhere."

"That's lying."

"Then how about 'I care about you?'"

"Sounds too fake."

"Ladies, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but Lorelai, you're offspring is here. And she's sitting in my chair and eating my low-fat cheese." Michel said as he walked in. "Go stop her."

"If it's my 'offspring' then all you have to do to save your cheese is mention that it's low-fat."

"You do it. She's your daughter."

"Fine," she said, walking out. She was scared. What if Rory hated her?

"What are you doing behind the desk?" Lorelai asked in shock. It was very unlike Rory to do something that she obviously shouldn't do.

"I wanted to annoy the concierge."

"Yeah, well you're eating his low-fat cheese." Rory's face contorted, and she spat her mouthful out into a tissue.

"It was sitting out in the dish where people put the little thing of mints with a sign that says 'take one.'"

"Yes, but honey, this is cheese."

"Well, in a town where someone is thick enough to believe that a chalk outline means there was a murder, maybe they give away cheese instead of mints."

"You knew about the chalk outline?"

"I did it."

"What?"

"Well, it was Dean's idea."

"That boy's a bad influence on you."

"I wanted to murder Grandma, then I wanted to cause some actual damage, but Dean managed to convince me that the chalk outline would be enough."

"Like I said, that boy's a bad influence on you."

"How did you get home from Grandma's that night?" Rory asked, guilt apparent on her face.

"I walked."

"To Stars Hollow? I'm so sorry."

"No, babe, home."

"You asked Dad to bring you back to Luke, Mom? How could you do that?"

"No...I...I asked him to take me back. I told him I still loved him, and I wanted another chance. Well, actually, he overheard me tell Topher that I still loved him, he didn't even give me a chance to tell him."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I should've expected that. I just had this crazy idea that I could just go talk to him, and make everything better."

"Then why are you back with Luke."

"Because I care about him. I don't love him, not in the way I love your father, but he helped me. He's a good guy."

"So Dean's told me."

"I don't want to be the girl to butcher his heart."

"That's why you need to tell him. The longer you wait, the worse it will be."

"I know. I will. Rory..."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. For everything I did to you."

"It's okay," she stood up and hugged her mother. Rory and Lorelai Haden were best friends again.

"Oh, and, I was looking through the book."

"What book?"

"This book," Lorelai said, indicating the large book on the desk, where all the reservations were recorded.

"That's nice."

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Random."

"Not random at all. Is there anything you want to share?"

"Should there be?"

"About the contents of this book."

"What are you talking about?"

"At least tell me you were safe," Lorelai said, abandoning all pretenses.

"We weren't."

"What!"

"We never had sex, so we never had a chance to be."

"Okay, not nice, my heart's going about five times as fast as it's supposed to. Can you tell right before you have a heart attack? Because I was about to have one. I would've, too, if you'd waited one second longer to tell me that."

"Sorry."

"That wasn't funny."

"Oh, come on, it was a little funny."

"Not funny at all."

"Never do it again."

"Fine. You suck."

"I do not!"

"You tease me."

"I don't tell you I slept with a guy, and we weren't safe just to see your reaction."

"You've done equally terrifying things."

"Trust me babe, the only thing that could have made that more terrifying is if you'd added 'and I'm pregnant' to that sentence."

"The only thing that would make it more terrifying for you, you mean. Remember when I was five, and you told me that Grandma was the wolf from 'Little Red Riding Hood?'"

"You totally believed me."

"I cried every time I saw her for a year and a half."

"You were a stupid little kid."

"And then, there was the time when you made me sit through an entire day of horror movies. I couldn't sleep for two weeks."

"Honey, you were ten."

"I couldn't sleep for two weeks. I failed a test. I couldn't concentrate in school, and I never did my homework."

"Your dad got so mad at me."

"You deserved it."

"I did nothing!"

"Except terrorize your daughter."

"Exactly, I did nothing.