Aki- I'm back! I proofread this before my trip, but I'm too lazy to proofread it now again, so sorry for any mistakes.
More mothers and daughters and best friends
Even though Rory knew her daughter was safe at her mother's she couldn't more want to drive there in the middle of the night to get her. She tried to too, but Jess stopped her…twice.
She didn't know why, but Rory was just filled with overwhelming need to see Amber. Not to yell at her or punish her, but to just see with her own eyes to know she was alright. To give her a hug and just talk to her like they hadn't done in a long time. She managed, barely, to make it through the night.
Rory knocked on the door to her mother's house early the next morning before unlocking the door herself and entering to find her tired mother half-way down the stairs in her pajamas.
"Rory, what are you doing here?" Lorelai asked, slowly making her way down the rest of the staircase.
"Where's Amber?" asked Rory without answering he mother.
"Probably asleep," retorted Lorelai, "Like any decant person should he at this time in the morning."
"In her room then," said Rory, starting up the stairs.
"Rory! Wait!" Lorelai called, chasing after her daughter finally catching her by the sleeve outside the room Amber slept in during her visits to Stars Hollow.
"Mom! I need to talk to her."
"No, you need to calm down. Amber is probably still asleep, well not now that we are yelling outside her door, but most definitely still upset. She doesn't need you to scold her right now."
"I'm not here to yell at her!" Rory protested.
"Then why are you here?" Lorelai asked more calmly.
Rory inhaled an uneasy deep breath to still herself before answering her mother. "Because… something went really wrong last night with Amber and I don't even know what. And she came here! She didn't come home…," said Rory upset and almost in tears. "Because of me. She didn't come home because of me. Because she can't talk to me! Our fight or whatever it is has gone too far when she has to runaway to deal with her problems and can't even face talking with her mother."
Lorelai looked at her daughter in a new sort of respect, a different understanding. They had bonded as best friends. They had bonded as mother and daughter. But for the first time they saw eye to eye as one mother to another.
"I know exactly how you feel," Lorelai whispered before nodding towards the door. "Go talk to your daughter."
Rory looked back at her mother and nodded, knowing to that their relationship had suddenly changed.
Rory opened the bedroom door to reveal Amber sitting on her bed, looking straight at her.
"Did you hear all that?" Rory asked with a faint grin, softly shutting the door behind her.
Amber shrugged her shoulders noncommittally, "Bits and pieces."
Rory sat down next to her daughter and sighed. "Amber, I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at you for not coming home last night. I'm not mad at you for going out with Devon again. I'm not mad at you for coming home late. I'm not even mad at you for what you said-,"
"Mom-,"
But Rory cut her daughter off, "I'm just upset that you couldn't talk to me about your problems, when you're hurt. We need to talk kid, even when we're fighting. Remember, we're best friends first, mother and daughter second."
"Mom, we're not Lorelai and Rory. We're Rory and Amber." Amber looked down at her lap to avoid her mother's gaze and as to will herself to continue, daring herself to say what she was thinking.
She looked back up at her mother, looking about ready to cry. "That's the problem. We are friends always. We're mother and daughter…never."
"Th- That's not true," stuttered Rory, surprised by Amber's comment.
"Yes, it is," said Amber avidly. "I might have found you seven years ago, but I'm still waiting for you to be my mother." Rory stared at Amber in a new sort of way, like she had never seen her before.
Amber continued in almost sobbing words though she blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. "I need you to be my mother when I come home late. You need to my mother when I get mad at you. You need to be my mother when I say hurtful things and break the rules and make mistakes. You need to be her when things go bad at school and with friends and boyfriend… Because I already have friends to comfort be how friends should, but what I need most is a mom to comfort me how moms do,"
Amber paused and looked Rory in the eye, now both were close to tears, "And, maybe most importantly you need to be, I want you to be, my mom in the good times too."
Rory looked at her daughter and knew she was right. She knew that her late appearance in Amber's life made her act like a friend rather than a mother. Rory thought about Lorelai and their relationship and the friendship they shared. For a long time Rory deceived herself into thinking that it was them being best friends that held them together for so long, but she was wrong. Too many times had she forgotten the possibly even more important part, the mother part. Amber needed a mother so much, especially as a teenage girl growing up in a scary world.
Rory suddenly embraced her daughter, "I'm so sorry, Amber."
Amber buried her face on her mother's shoulder and cried. "You don't have to be, Mom. It's not your fault. It's not. I never asked you…"
Rory sniffed, holding her children tight. "You shouldn't have had to.
"I'm the one who should be sorry," sobbed Amber, "For saying those things…I love you so much, Mom."
Rory let out a laughing sob, "You too, kid. You have no idea…"