Chapter 129

December 22th, 2019

Rory was home alone. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been home all alone. Surely there had been times, a few hours there and there. But never overnight.

She'd watched Little Women, she'd also tried to read a little and catch up on her work homework. She'd even gone through and organized the Downloads folder on her computer. She'd done her nails and tried that new exfoliating avocado face mask. She'd already vacuumed the house too - the place hadn't been this spotless in months. But it wasn't even 9 PM yet.

She missed Em's giggles, that spark in her eyes, the way tiny hands touched her skin and the way she knew how Em had fallen asleep by the sound of her breathing change.

Rory never thought she'd miss the deep baritone of Jess' voice when he'd talked to Em in the evenings. She'd been dying to have him move out. But she did. Jess had moved out the day before yesterday, and today was the first night the two-year-old was staying over at Jess' new place in Stars Hollow. The end had been transitional - he'd stayed away at his place before, usually just because he needed to be there early or late for something, sometimes when relations had been a little more tense too. But he'd stayed sleeping on the couch downstairs for months now, not wanting the exit to be too harsh on Em.

It was her home now, wasn't it? Not hers and Jess's, but Em's and hers... all hers. But she couldn't help it - even her little one night fling with a visiting teacher a few days ago at the Christmas party hadn't really helped, it had been just that - brief induldgence in the physical pleasures. Inside she was lonely still and it was only enhanced by the emptiness of this house. Just a few days ago she'd dreamt of this, but now it was just lonely. Was this really what she'd wanted?

She nearly lept towards the phone when it rang, leaving the frozen cookie dough she'd just begun to open, desperate for something to occupy her mind with, on the kitchen counter.

"Yeah?" Rory answered, anxiously.

"She's a little fussy… I guess it's the new place and all," Jess said, sounding a little reluctant to be making the call. "I think talking to you might help," he added, and sighed. He'd had his thorns up for several months, thinking this was all ridiculous. While he realized things weren't perfect between them and had begun to accept that Rory and him were no longer the team a functional relationship should've been, he didn't particularly agree with the arrangement of shipping Em back and forth like some parcel. He was just sort of passive and strangely enough seemed to believe they should just stuck with it for Em's sake. Partially an excuse surely, partially unwilingness to admit defeat, unwillingness to compare himself to his father by being the one to move out. The situation wasn't the same, but he had his own issues, insecurities, to deal with. He was just mostly disappointed Rory hadn't wanted to give them a new try now that Jess was more local with the bookstore up and running. He'd been grumpy, but he'd kept it well hidden from Em, thankfully.

"Okay," Rory replied, not wanting her tone to reflect how glad she was to have gotten the call.

"Hey, Em, it's mommy - she wants to say goodnight," Rory heard Jess say, speaking to Em in a completely different tone than to her seconds ago. She could tell he loved Em a lot.

"Mommy?" Em asked, having that childish awe about her.

"Hey, baby," Rory replied, getting a little emotional, almost sniffling a little.

"Will you tell me a story, mommy?" Em begged in her sweetest of voices.

"Alright…," Rory began, taking a deep breath, and soon continued, "Once upon a time there was a little girl…"

Em still needed her, and she felt relieved to be able to be there for her even like this, from 30 miles away. Maybe this would work out somehow - she thought, this little goodnight call, which would certainly not be the last, giving her some hope.


February 14th, 2022

After the initial excitement of giving Em the lengthy tour of the house, now that the place also had all of their things in it, Em had spent the last hour of her day in her brand new bedroom. She'd been here before, but now it was all just so much more real to her.

Em was busy making sure all of her plush toys and dolls were well adjusted to the house, talking to them just as Rory had before, trying to assure her the house was their new home and that the place was safe. Rory thought it was freaking adorable, as she eavesdropped from her room, the doors being open, as she was finishing unpacking some of her clothes Logan hadn't gotten around to yet.

Logan had just gone out for a little walk with Loki, a new nighttime routine for him and for their new household too, I suppose. The puppy needed to burn off his energy or he'd be waking all of them up at 3-4 in the morning.

"It's time for bed," Rory announced, as she walked over to Em's room. She'd lost track of the time herself, realizing it was already a little past Em's bedtime. There were bathrooms between the two rooms, giving some extra privacy when noise was concerned, unless the doors were open, but the rooms were still close enough to enable casual shouts between them. The spare bedroom that they'd only painted in neutrals for now, whose purpose was known but not emphasized, was right across the hall, its door neatly closed.

Em complied with a slight yawn, all that excitement for one day clearly having been a lot for her, and headed to her bathroom to brush her teeth. Rory combed her daughter's shoulder length brown hair, knowing she loved it when she did that. And tonight was definitely one of those nights when she wanted to make her as comfortable as possible. She wanted her to feel loved, safe.

"So what did you do with daddy this weekend?" Rory asked, as they stood there in front of the mirror. Em was brushing her teeth, but she was known to find moments to chat anyways.

"We went to see Doula, it was her birthday," Em replied, making Rory feel a little guilty for not remembering. "Today we went skating with Lisa," Em added, and continued to brush her teeth.

"That must've been nice," Rory replied, feeling a little envious. She couldn't help thinking about what was the dangerously long amount of time for her daughter to spend with Lisa until she got used to her being around. Rory recalled her mother telling her once how it had been a big issue for Anna with April, how she'd worried that April would get used to her and would suffer a dragic loss when Luke and Lorelai broke up. By now as far as she knew they'd already had dinner together and now there was the skating. Rationally thinking it didn't seem like much, but considering the girl had spent a total of 5-6 days with Jess during these past few weeks, it was quite a lot.

"Do you like her? Is she nice?" Rory asked. She hadn't explained to Em that she had in fact met the women or knew her from school yet. But either way she was glad for Jess, feeling like a weight had lifted from her. She wanted Jess to move on. She wanted him to be happy.

"She likes books too," Em replied, and spit out the toothpaste and continued to rinse out her mouth. "She's okay," Em added, with an indifferent shrug.

It was what Rory wanted to hear too. She wanted her to like her, but not love her. At least not yet.

"So, what shall we read today?" Rory asked, as she'd finished, and took a seat on her daughter's new 'big girl' bed and leaned her back against the light pink headboard.

"I want to call daddy," Em said as she snuggled underneath her white but rainbow-patterned blanket.

That certainly caught Rory by surprise. Em had called her at bedtime a number of times when being over at Jess' but the other way around she'd only ever really wanted to do when Jess had been out of town for a longer period of time.

"Well, alright," Rory said, worrying inside whether this had something to do with the new house. Rory popped out of the room and walked over to her bedroom to retrieve her phone, returning soon enough the phone already by her ear.

It took several rings for Jess to pick up.

"Yeah?" Jess replied, sounding out of breath, which made Rory frown in confusion for a second. The weak feminine giggle in the background made his evening activities quite clear, however, and Rory felt a strange sense of satisfaction. It wasn't about wanting to harm Jess' relationship, it wasn't about being jealous - it was just that he'd interrupted her and Logan once too.

"Em, here, wants to talk to you," Rory said. "You're free to talk, not too busy?" she added, with a hint of teasing in her tone.

"Um… sure," he replied, clearing his throat. Rory could just picture him gathering himself on the other side of the line.

Em talked to Jess for a good ten minutes, mostly describing her new room to him and also requested Jess to make up a short story for her like she often requested from either of them when she didn't want to read a book before bedtime.

As the call finished, Rory gave Em a hug, and switched off the main light. Em was still at a age where she preferred to go asleep with a night light but wasn't really scared of the dark.

"Can you cuddle with me?" Em asked almost as Rory was about to leave.

Rory didn't want her to get used to this, it having once been something she'd already worked hard to wean her from. The morning cuddling was a little different, prolonging both of their sleep hence serving a much different purpose. But this night was different.

"Alright, just this once. Okay?" she exhaled, and climbed back into bed with her. She could hear Logan arriving home downstairs and closing the door behind them. It felt nice to know there was someone else in the house. She was no longer just the mom.

Em dozed off quickly enough, and Rory crept out of her bed like she hadn't done in years. But it was cute, and she was glad she'd made her this comfortable. She still considered it likely the girl might wake during the night, and aimed to keep her bedroom door just a little ajar during the night just to make sure she heard her.

Falling asleep in her new bed was strange too. It really was a new beginning, and it wasn't just her bed now either. And it was definitely not one with a shabby mattress but with the added bonus of snuggling up to Logan's side. Sleep came quickly after a long day.

Rory woke to the sound of her phone alarm, and dragged herself out of bed reluctantly. It was strange waking up in a new room, she had to admit. Logan was already up, and that really wasn't a big surprise, considering Loki wanted to go out pretty early.

After a quick trip to the bathroom, she made her way along the hallway to check on Em, but was surprised to find the bed empty.

"Em?" she asked, wondering perhaps the girl was in the bathroom. But there was no response. It was unusual for Em to be up and about earlier than her, and she had to admit that she was actually a little concerned - but surely she was just downstairs with Logan.

She saw Em the minute she reached the bottom of the stairs, sleeping on the living room couch on her stomach. It was Loki's designated area where she was in, which made Rory wonder even more how she'd ended up there, because that would've meant she would've had to open the safety gate all by herself. It wasn't that she couldn't open it - she could - it was just that Rory couldn't believe she hadn't heard her do it.

It was then the front door opened and Logan came in with Loki. He released Loki's leash just as the door closed behind them, and Loki quickly came to greet Rory too. He was growing fast.

"Morning," Logan said, and gave her a quick kiss.

"Hey," she replied, appreciating the coolness of his skin from the outside air. "What happened here?" Rory asked, pointing at the direction of her sleeping child.

"She was here, sleeping, when I came down," Logan replied with a shrug. "Loki was laying next to her, they looked cozy like that, I didn't want to wake her," he explained, and opened the safety gate, letting Loki in.

The puppy went straight for Em, nudging her cheek with his cool little nose, possibly licking her, and the girl began to stir.

"Hey, Em? It's time to wake," Rory said, as she moved closer to stroke her back.

"Umm…," the girl mumbled, sounding very much like her mother when woken earlier than she would've preferred.

"We got to get ready for school, Em," Rory encouraged. A new school week in a new house, new traditions, new routines... there was so much new to come.

"I'll get breakfast started," Logan suggested, reminding Rory once again how convenient this living together thing really was, and walked towards the kitchen.

"Eggs for me," Rory requested, smilingly. It was kind of nice having Logan work from home, knowing he'd have time to cook for them and take care of all of these little things around the house while she would be at work. It felt like such a relief to share some of these 'manager's' tasks.

"Em? What would you like?" Logan asked.

"Cereal, the frosty kind," Em replied, and stretched out her arms with a yawn.

"Half and half," Rory mouthed to Logan, telling him to mix it in with the less-sugary kind, knowing it was something Jess insisted on for their daughter. It was such a small thing to compromise on, and she had no problem following through on it.

"So, Em - what were you doing sleeping down here?" Rory asked, curiously.

"Loki was all alone, I wanted to keep him company," Em replied, Loki already climbing on her lap. She stroked his fur, already being well aquainted with him.

"Aw… I'm sure he was okay, he's used to sleeping on his own," Rory replied, though could probably guess the night had been a little scary for Loki too - new place, much further from Logan.

"I was alone too," Em added, humbly.

"You know you can always wake me if you feel like that, right?" Rory assured, "You always can," she added, wrapping her arm around Em.

The girl shrugged, not looking to sure.

"Well you can. And we'll have to see, maybe there's something we can do so both of you will be less alone," Rory suggested, already thinking of ways to get Loki to sleep upstairs. It'd be tricky - she knew it, the puppy having a tendency to chew on everything he could, leaving Em's plush toys in a vulnerable position, but surely there was something they could think up. But that was just one of the small details concerning this new living arrangement they'd need to figure out. But already now - Rory couldn't wait.