Lorelai sighed as she locked the door to the apartment. So much of Joan's belongings were still around. Lorelai couldn't bare the thought of removing anything of her mother's, but at the same time having all of her mother's belonging around kept Lorelai even more upset.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to box some of this stuff up." Lorelai said to herself. "There's no point in living in the past."
Lorelai sat down on the couch. She had already made sure Rory was sleeping well and comfortably, she had done the housework, and sent out checks for all the bills, and it was only 9:30. Here she was, a sixteen year old girl sitting alone on a Saturday night. A sudden thought of Christopher ran through her head. She bet he was out with some girl at this very moment living it up and enjoying his responsibility and worry free life. It didn't seem fair. Chris was just as liable for what happened as Lorelai was. Lorelai certainly couldn't have gotten pregnant on her own. Even though she believed it was better for Chris to stay away from Rory, she couldn't help but feel he was getting such a better deal. Knowing Chris, he probably didn't even tell his parents he had a kid here in Stars Hollow. He got away scot-free.
Lorelai's eyes began to tear up as she thought back to all that had happened over the last few years. Losing Emily, then Richard remarrying that horrible woman and her son, and now she had lost Joan. She was living in an apartment she couldn't possibly afford, had a three week old baby asleep in her bedroom, and where was Christopher? What had Christopher lost? For the first time in a long time, Lorelai felt sorry for herself. Tears slowly made their way down Lorelai's pale face. She couldn't help but wonder why must everything be so hard. Her pity party came to a screeching halt as Rory squealed from her cradle. Lorelai quickly rushed to the baby's side.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Lorelai asked as she picked the baby up from her bed. "Did you have a bad dream? Are you hungry? Need a new diaper? Gosh, this will all be so much easier when you can tell me what's wrong." Lorelai began to rock Rory gently in her arms, trying desperately to sooth her. "I guess you have much more to cry about than I do." Lorelai replied. "You have to depend on someone else to know what to do to make you feel better. You can't just tell me what's wrong or fix it yourself. You're so much more helpless than I am. I should be taking control of things and making things better for myself. I mean, who else is going to if I don't? My mother is gone…" Lorelai paused for a moment noticing that Rory was beginning to fall back asleep. "I can promise you one thing, Rory, I'll always make things better for you. I'll never leave you to fix something by yourself." Lorelai placed the baby back inside the cradle. She turned off the light, and decided to call it a night herself.
The next day Lorelai was ready to start "making things better" she waited till she was sure Luke was on break, then she and Rory headed down to Taylor's market.
"Hey!" Luke smiled happy to see his two favorite girls. He peeked through the blanket at Rory.
"Hi, Rory." He whispered softly. "I've got great news. Taylor told me today you can start Monday."
" That is great news. Luke… I've been thinking a lot the last few days." Lorelai said. "And well, I'd like to move in with you… if you still want me to."
"Of course I do." Luke replied. "We can start moving this evening, as soon as I get off work."
"It doesn't have to be a rush." Lorelai added. "I still have three weeks in the apartment."
"I don't want you two there alone another night." Luke said as he placed his hand on Lorelai's face. "I'll bring my truck over after my shift and I'll start loading stuff up for you. Go home and start packing." Luke smiled. He turned and stepped back into Taylor's.
"See, Rory…" Lorelai spoke to the baby in her arms. "I told you he would insist on starting tonight." She smiled.
Lorelai turned and headed back down the street.
"Lorelai!" A voice called from behind her. "Lorelai!" Lorelai turned and saw Sookie running up the sidewalk. "Lorelai, thank God it's you!"
"Hey, Sookie!" Lorelai greeted.
"I've been meaning to stop by, but I've been so tied up with semester exams. And I almost stopped by yesterday but I thought maybe it was too soon and that you'd call me or stop by to see me when you were ready…." Sookie's rambling quickly ended as she spotted the baby in Lorelai's arms. "Oh!" She shrieked. "Lorelai, she's beautiful."
Lorelai smiled. "Do you want to hold her?"
"Oh, can I?" Sookie asked. Lorelai handed Rory to Sookie. "What did you name her?"
Lorelai laughed a little. "Lorelai Leigh, but I call her Rory."
Sookie smiled. "I'd expect something like that from you. How have you been? I'm sorry I haven't seen you since the funereal." Sookie's sad expression was true and sincere.
"I've been good." Lorelai replied. "And it's okay, I understand. I've been pretty busy these last couple of weeks."
Sookie glanced back down at Rory. "I've been waiting forever to see you." Sookie smiled. She looked back up at Lorelai. "I was surprised you didn't bring her with you to the funereal."
"It kind of seemed wrong to start her life off with a death. I just didn't want the first thing she'd ever attend to be her grandmother's funereal." Lorelai replied. "Dr. Herbert let her stay in the hospital an extra day."
Sookie handed Rory back to Lorelai. "Are you coming back to school next semester?"
Lorelai cleared her throat. "I don't know yet… maybe. We'll see how things go."
"I hope you do. I miss you so much." Sookie smiled. "I wish I could see you more. Christmas break is coming up soon and if you want I'll come over every day and stay with you."
"It's okay, I'll be fine." Lorelai paused for a moment. "I'll be staying with Luke for a while, so I won't be alone."
Sookie's draw dropped. "You're staying with who?"
"Oh, come on, Sookie, don't act so surprised." Lorelai replied. "We've been friends for months now."
"Friends yes, but I didn't know you two were together."
"Well, we're not exactly." Lorelai answered. "I mean, like, he never officially asked me out or anything. There isn't like a certain date that we decided we'd start going out or celebrate monthly… it just kind of became this unspoken agreement."
"So, you are dating?"
Lorelai shook her head. "I don't know, Sookie. It's complicated."
"It's okay, you don't have to explain anything." Sookie replied. "Are you letting him help you raise Rory?"
Lorelai hesitated to answer. "Kind of, I guess. He's not like pretending to be her father or anything, but he plays with her and feeds her and the other day I talked him into changing her diaper." She smiled.
"That's so wonderful of him. He sure has changed since high school."
"Yeah…well, we both have." Lorelai added. "I hate to run, Sook, but I have a lot of stuff to do."
"Hey, I understand. If you need help with anything just let me know."
"I will. Bye." Lorelai turned and continued walking down the street.
Later that evening, Lorelai had boxed up nearly all of Joan's belongings which didn't make too much sense considering it was her and Rory that were moving. Still, it was somewhat of a relief to remove all of her things from sight. She began to pack up some of her own things when she heard Luke's truck pull into the driveway. She loved the sound of his truck. Every time she heard it, she felt safe and content.
The door to the apartment slowly opened. "Hey." He greeted as he closed the door behind him. "It's getting pretty cold out there. It may snow tonight."
"I love snow." Lorelai smiled. "I hope it comes a blizzard for Christmas." She tossed some shoes into a box.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far." Luke replied. "Are these boxes ready to go?" he pointed at all the boxes of Joan's belongings.
"Actually…" Lorelai began. "Those are all of mom's things."
"Oh." Luke quickly answered. "Sorry."
"No, it's okay. I plan on bringing most of it with me to your house. The rest of it I'll take to the goodwill. She always took stuff there that she didn't need anymore."
"Okay, well, I can load it up as well and we can drop it off on the way to my house."
"Sure, that sounds great." Lorelai turned and walked back into her bedroom. "Luke's here." She smiled as she gazed down at Rory. "I hope he doesn't mind waiting a couple of more hours till I finish loading up some more of our stuff." There were several seconds of silence. "Of course he won't mind, he's Luke."
Luke stuck his head through the bedroom doorway. "Hey, Lorelai, which boxes are for the goodwill?"
"All the goodwill stuff is marked with a G." Lorelai replied.
"I see." Luke answered. "I thought maybe the G stood for something else… like Gilmore."
"No." Lorelai smirked. "It stands for goodwill."
"Alright… cool…" Luke nodded. "I'll be ready for some more boxes in just a few minutes then."