AN: This chapter is dedicated to the amazing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who fought tirelessly until her dying day for equality for all. She fought for all the women represented by Rory who, 60 years ago could barely dream of having careers. For all the women, still, who face harassment and discrimination in their lives and their work places. She fought for equality for people of all colors and ethnicities. She fought for the equality and divinity of every human being. RBG is a true American hero and icon. It would be better if this was a Hanukkah chapter, but RBG also fought for all religions. I would say "May her memory be a blessing," but it already is.

"They're so big!" Lane looked around from the coffee maker she'd just turned on to see Rory gazing down at the two boys in their crib.

"You should see them when they're awake," Lane replied with a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "They're positively larger than life." Raising twins was hard work, and she hadn't planned on being a mother at this stage in her life, but as exhausting as they were, she loved her sons.

"I bet," Rory concurred. "I just can't get over how much they've grown."

"Time flies," Lane replied. She could see that Rory felt badly about not being around more. It was true that the friends had barely spoken in the last year, but Lane didn't hold it against her. They were the kind of friends that, no matter how long it had been since you'd spoken, it was like no time had passed at all. They'd both been busy with their lives; no hard feelings.

"So, how's…everyone?" Rory asked, taking a seat at the kitchen island.

Lane gave her friend a knowing look as she poured her a cup of coffee. She knew what Rory was really asking. She wanted to know about her mother, Lorelai. While Rory and Lane had the kind of relationship that could go right back to normal, things wouldn't be so easy for Rory and Lorelai. They'd shared a freakishly close bond for as long as Lane had known them. And the distance that had grown between them since Rory had moved to New York had clearly taken a toll on both the mother and daughter. "Everyone's…good."

"Really?" Rory asked warily.

"Well…" Lane shrugged. "She misses you," she admitted.

"She does?" Rory asked, perking up.

"I mean, she hasn't specifically said so," Lane continued, "but I can tell. The other week at the Dinner I saw her try to have a conversation with Taylor about the Holly Madison, Hugh Heffner split."

"Well come on," Rory replied indignantly, throwing her hands up in the air, "there's clearly something fishy going on there. I mean, she still lives in the Playboy mansion."

"Taylor gave her a lecture on the importance of family values," Lane continued.

"Taylor is a 60-year-old, childless bachelor who owns a candy store," Rory scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Hey" Lane replied brightly, pointing a finger for emphasis, "That's what your Mom told him." The two women really were so much alike.

There was silence for a second, then Rory's shoulders slumped. "They were good together," she sighed.

"Your Mom and Taylor?" Lane asked in confusion.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Hugh and Holly."

Lane's eyebrows raised disbelievingly. "The 28-year-old fame seeking model and the 82-year-old, billionaire Lothario were good together?"

"Hey, just because she's young and career motivated and he's older and successful doesn't mean they can't have real feelings for each other."

Lane started at her. "He has two other live-in girlfriends," she reminded her friend.

"Well, okay, true. But creepy polygamy thing aside, I think they really cared about each other. And older men can have a certain…appeal"

Lane chuckled "Well, I hear there's an opening at the Playboy Mansion if that's how you feel," she joked.

Rory was silent for a moment as she gnawed at her bottom lip. "What if it was?" she asked, her eyes trained on her nervously fidgeting fingers.

Lane's face scrunched up in confusion at the strange question. "Do you have a thing for Hugh Heffner?" she joked, trying to break the sudden tension, "Because, I mean I have a bit of a crush on Mick Jagger so you know, who am I to…"

"No! I'm not…" Rory inhaled deeply, her expression serious. "I'm seeing someone," she finally admitted.

Lane's eyes widened in excitement, temporarily forgetting the prior conversation. "Ooh! Yay! That's amazing news. Tell me all about him. And spare no details. Married life is great and all, but I miss the excitement of a new relationship."

"It's not that new," Rory admitted.

"Oh." Lane replied, her face falling. Sure, they'd been kind of out of touch, but she thought she'd at least have heard if Rory was seeing someone seriously. "Well, we've both been busy. I get it," she replied, trying to push away her disappointment at the knowledge that Rory hadn't confided in her.

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you it's just…" Rory trailed off.

"Just?"

Rory sighed. "Just that I didn't want people to think of me as Holly Madison."

"Soooo…" Lane started, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. They used to be able to read each other easily, but now she was thoroughly confused by her childhood friend. "You're already dating Hugh Heffner?" Lane asked, half in jest although a part of her was seriously starting to wonder.

Rory rolled her eyes. "No, I'm dating Mitchum Huntzberger."

Lane's gaze drifted up to the ceiling as she tried to place the name. And then it came to her. "Mitchum Huntzberger…Isn't that the name of…"

"The CEO of the company I work for," Rory finished for her

"Oh," Lane replied, not at all sure what else to say. Rory was having an affair with her boss. How long had it been going on for? Was it serious?

"We decided to keep it quiet at first, you know? We just wanted to be able to figure out what we were without all the judgement."

"And what are you?"

Rory grimaced. "That's the thing. I know we care about each other. I know what I want us to be. I'm just not so sure what we are. Because as hard as I try, I can't seem to figure out how we get there. And things lately have been—kind of rocky."

"Rocky how?" Lane asked cautiously. She didn't like this; she didn't like it at all. An affair with the boss? One Rory hadn't told people about—hadn't told her about? Did Lorelai know? She was guessing not. But Rory was smart, and independent, and capable. She wouldn't let herself get drawn into something unsavory—right?

Rory sighed and buried her face in her hands, shaking her head back and forth.

Lane's spidey-sense was really tingling now. She placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "It's okay. You can tell me anything, I'm here for you," she assured Rory.

"Hissonmovedback," she mumbled into her hands.

"What?" Lane asked, unable to decipher Rory's words.

Rory slowly picked her head up. "His son moved back to New York," she clarified.

"Oh," Lane replied. "So what? He doesn't approve of the relationship?" she asked, somewhat relieved. She had been expecting the worst. A disapproving family sucked, but it wasn't the end of the world.

"Well, he doesn't entirely know, but no, I think it's safe to say he doesn't approve."

Lane's brow wrinkled in confusion. "If he doesn't know, how can he disapprove? And how is it causing problems in your relationship?"

"He doesn't know I'm dating his father, but he knows I'm dating someone."

Now Lane was really baffled. Rory's boyfriend's son had a problem with her dating someone—not with his father dating someone? "I don't get it. Why does this son care about your relationship status?"

Rory got up and started pacing, her eyes avoiding Lane. "Well," Rory sighed, wringing her hands together. "He might have a slight crush on me."

"Oh. Well, I mean," Lane started awkwardly, "I can see why that might be weird, but most teenage boys will crush on anything with boobs. I'm sure it'll pass."

Rory stopped her pacing and finally looked at Lane. "He's not a teenager," she admitted, her face scrunching up guiltily.

Lane blinked twice. "How old is he?" she asked, not at all sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Twenty-six" Rory grimaced.

Lane tried to keep her face impassive. Her friend was dating a man with a fully-grown son. She'd gathered from his job that he was old, but she'd figured the Hugh Heffner talk was hyperbole. Just how old was this man? Plus, she had the sense there was more to it with the son then just a one-sided crush.

"So this son and you …" she prodded.

"Are friends!" Rory replied a little too adamantly, then deflated suddenly. "I mean, we were, but…

Lane was afraid she knew where this was going. "But what?" she asked.

"But…I don't know, it's complicated." Rory slumped back down in her seat

"Is it?" Lane asked pointedly. She had a feeling it wasn't as complicated as Rory made it seem.

"Yes. Mitchum and Logan don't have a good relationship—at all. So he's not exactly thrilled with me hanging out with him. Plus, Mitchum and I have kept our relationship a secret for a reason. An affair with the boss could have serious ramifications on my career. And me and Logan being buddy, buddy at the office isn't much better…"

"And you like him."

"What?"

"Logan...you like him," Lane replied matter-of-factly.

"What? No…I mean, maybe there was an attraction at first, but I'm with Mitch."

"Listen, I'm your friend, you know that right?" Lane asked. Rory nodded. "And whatever you do, I will support you." Rory nodded again. "But you realize this is…weird, right?"

"Yes," Rory's hands gestured wildly, "but I didn't plan for it to happen."

"And what exactly happened?"

Rory darted her eyes uncomfortably around the room.

"Rory…"

"Fine, we may have kissed a couple times, but that was eons ago. I told him I was in a relationship and that we couldn't be anything but friends. And he was fine with that."

"And you were fine with that?"

"Of course."

"But you're not friends anymore."

Rory shook her head. "No."

"Why not?"

"I told you, there were issues with work, and Mitch, and…"

"And you like him."

"Stop saying that!" Rory cried.

"Rory," Lane prodded, "you can't control who you're attracted to. There's no shame in that. But this problem isn't going to go away by ignoring it, you have to choose."

"I did! I chose Mitchum."

"With all due respect, it doesn't sound like you did."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, you're here, coming clean about this after who knows how long, and it's clearly not because you're ready to live happily ever after with him. And you're still talking about Logan."

"Because we were friends. And I became friends with his other friends too. And it just sucks that I had to give that up."

"And that's all it was—friendship?"

"What else could it be, Lane? It's not like I can be all 'Hey Logan, let's give dating a try. Oh, but just so you know, I used to have a sexual relationship with the father you despise.'"

"True," Lane nodded in acknowledgement. "In the wise words of Pheobe Buffet, 'do you really want to be in a relationship where you can say ''that's not how your Dad used to do it?'" Both girls cringed.

"So you see, it doesn't even matter how I feel about Logan. I ended it."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean your feelings went away. And it doesn't mean you have to stay with Mitchum."

"But I love him," Rory replied, though her voice didn't sound like that of someone in love. It sounded…defeated.

"Are you sure?"

Rory shrugged. "It's complicated," she said again. This time Lane believed her.

"Well, break ups usually are—and that's when they're not with your boss."

"No, it's not that. It's just…I invested a lot into this relationship."

"You mean you gave up a lot?" Lane asked. Like her friends and her family.

"I made compromises. Relationships are compromise, you know that."

"No, Rory, they're not. Not the good ones anyway. I didn't compromise myself for Zach or the kids. It's not me and them, it's us. It's like—it's like the relationship is its own entity; we came together and created something new. I changed, yeah, but I didn't compromise. Not where it matters. And you shouldn't either."

"I don't want to, it's just…" Rory sighed.

Lane nodded in understanding. "I just want you to be happy." She couldn't force Rory to see what was there. And maybe she was wrong about all of it anyway. A ten-minute conversation could hardly tell her everything she needed to know about a long-term relationship. But whatever was going on, the important thing was that she be there for her friend, no matter what she chose.

"I know."

"Don't ever not speak to me again," Lane ordered.

Rory gave a wistful smile. "Promise."

Home; the place where she'd grown up. This was the place where she'd slept, and ate PopTarts, and watched movie marathons. The place where she'd celebrated getting into Harvard and wallowed over bad break-ups. The place where her mother was; the mother who had always been like a best friend to her.

Rory stood on the front porch, her suitcase by her side, shifting nervously side to side. It was exactly the same as she remembered; from the chip in the blue paint to the slightly warped molding around the front door. So why did everything feel so different? Why couldn't she just open the door and walk in like she had every day of her childhood?

But she knew why. It wasn't because the house was different. It was because she was. New York had changed her, and she wasn't quite so sure it was for the better. She missed the girl who used to live in this house. But that wasn't her anymore, so instead of turning the knob and opening the door, she lifted her finger to ring the bell.

She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting anxiously. She heard the squeak of the hinges as the door swung open, followed by silence. She finally opened her eyes to the sight of her mother, head cocked to the side with a confused look on her face.

"Umm, hi…" she finally said with an awkward wave. Lorelai responded by tilting her head in the other direction and continuing to stare. "Can…I come in?"

"I don't know, can you?" Lorelai asked, suspicion in her voice.

"Ummm…" she didn't know what to say to that, so she just grabbed her suitcase and walked cautiously into the foyer.

"Oh, phew," Lorelai let out a sigh of relief, wiping her hand over her forehead dramatically. "You can. That's a big relief."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I mean, I don't hear from you—my own daughter, fruit of my loins, for months and then when you finally do show up, it's after dark and you're ringing the bell and asking for permission to enter. I needed to make sure you weren't vampirized or something."

"I believe the technical term is sired." Rory corrected her mother with a small smile, starting to feel a little more at ease as she made her way into the living room.

"Ahh well, you are the one who's seen all seven seasons of Buffy 83 times so I guess you would know. But the point is, you crossed the threshold without an invitation so you're clearly not a creature of the night. Although that doesn't rule out alien or poltergeist or shapeshifter…." Lorelai ticked off the possible Rory-shaped facsimiles that could be standing in front of her, on her fingers one by one.

"Don't forget demonic possession," Rory offered, setting her bag off to the side.

"Ahh, good point!" Lorelai agreed. "Turn your head to the side." Rory obliged, twisting her head back and forth. "Good, no freaky-deaky, 360-degree, spinny thing. Which is a relief because I don't think Reverend Skinner performs exorcisms."

Rory laughed. Lorelai smiled. "It's good to have you home, Kid," she pulled her daughter in for a hug.

"It's good to be home," she agreed.

"Okay, so here's the plan…" Lorelai slid her napkin off to the side between her and Rory and went rummaging in her purse to find a pen. "Ah-ha!" She triumphantly held up a pen with a Frosty the Snowman cap.

"Ooh, a plan. I like plans," Rory nodded excitedly.

"I know, I made it special for you, my darling daughter."

"How sweet." Rory took a sip of her candy cane coffee.

"So anyway," Lorelai said, uncapping the pen "We've already got our cookies," Lorelai stated, nodding her head at the Westin's bag to her side, "so when we leave here, we need to stop by Doose's for the frosting ingredients." She scribbled Doose's on the napkin.

"And the green and red M&Ms for our cereal in the morning," Rory reminded her.

"Well of course. So anyway, we can head home after that and start putting up the tree." She made a drawing of a tree fit for a seven-year-old and wrote 11-1 next to it.

"I still can't believe you didn't do that already."

"Well, you know me. Lorelai Procrastinator Gilmore, that's my name." Lorelai smiled brightly but Rory had caught the brief fall of her mother's features. She knew in that moment that Lorelai had avoided putting up the tree because Rory hadn't been there to help her with it. But her mother didn't want to dwell on it and either did she.

"Gee that's funny, I always thought your middle name was Victoria."

"Only according to the birth certificate," Lorelai shrugged. "Personally, I prefer my rapper name, Lil' Malomar.

"Nice choice."

"I thought so. But moving on, after the tree we can hang the stockings. Luke's closing the Diner at 3, so by the time we finish with our popcorn-cranberry garlands, he should be back to help us with the frosting." Stockings 1-1:30 and garland 1:30-3 made it on the list.

"Pft," Rory dismissed with a wave of her hand. "We don't need Luke for frosting. I've been making that frosting since I was 5 and I haven't died of salmonella yet."

"Yeah, but Luke has this recipe for a peppermint mocha frosting that is to die for."

"But Luke doesn't let me lick the mixer blades. Also, I don't think reindeer can have chocolate. They're like dogs that way."

Their banter was interrupted when the door to Westin's opened and Kirk walked in dressed in tattered, old-timey clothes and a cane.

"Oh, did I forget to mention the town is having a Dicken's Festival for Christmas this year?" Lorelai asked.

"I think it may have slipped your mind."

"I'm Tiny Tim," Kirk announced.

"Of course you are," Rory nodded.

"I wanted to be Pip, because Lulu is Estella, but I already had the Tiny Tim costume."

Rory looked at her mother. "I really don't want to know why he had a Tiny Tim costume just sitting around," she whispered.

"You and me both, Kid."

"Well, you make a very convincing Tiny Tim, Kirk," Rory placated. "I assume we'll be seeing you at the festival tonight?" She turned to her mother.

"I was getting there," Lorelai assured her. "Luke is making a traditional holiday dinner, ham and all, for us for Christmas Eve since I wasn't able to get us out of your Grandparent's Christmas party tomorrow. But yes, after dinner we'll be heading down to the festival."

Rory sighed at the mention of her grandparent's Christmas party. She had mixed feelings about seeing them. She did miss them. They could be difficult, but they were family, and they'd always been so supportive of her goals. But then again, they were also friends with Mitchum. They were bound to ask her about work and would probably want to know how Mitchum was treating her. How would she answer a direct question about him without telling them the truth? And there was no way they could find out the truth.

That was also the reason she hadn't said anything to Lorelai yet. She'd made the decision after speaking to Lane that she was going to tell her. It had felt good to be able to really talk to Lane again. And she wanted that back with her mother; she needed it. She knew Lorelai wouldn't take it well though. Not at first. And the last thing she needed was for her mother to tell Richard and Emily, or for them to be fighting at the Christmas party and have to explain it. So she'd decided…she would tell her tomorrow, after the party.

"Earth to Rory," Lorelai called.

"What?"

"I lost you for a minute there. Was I wrong about the whole alien thing last night? Were you communing with the mothership?"

Rory chuckled. "Sorry," she said. "Just a little tired. It's been a long week." She took a big gulp from her mug. "We should definitely get some of this candy cane coffee to go."

"Definitely," Lorelai agreed. "Copious amounts of coffee today, and then, we drink eggnog." Rory nodded. She was definitely going to need that eggnog if she was going to get through tomorrow.

AN: So there you have it; part 1 or 2 of the Stars Hollow trip. For some reason writing Lane doesn't come naturally to me as you might have noticed I hardly have her in any of my stories. But I thought Rory needed her here. And it took me a while, but ultimately I'm happy with their chat. What did you think? Did Lane go too easy on her? How will the grandparent's Christmas party go? Will Rory follow through on her plan to tell Lorelai after? How will her mother take it? Will Rory break-up with Mitchum? And will Logan ever find out? If so, what will he do? So many questions to be answered. Let me know what you think.