Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls or Sarah McLachlan.

Full Of Grace
Chapter Three: The Path Of Thorns

---
I knew you wanted to tell me
In your voice there was something wrong
But if you would turn your face away from me
You cannot tell me you're so strong
Just let me ask of you one small thing
As we have shared so many tears
With fervour our dreams we planned a whole life long
Now are scattered on the wind...
---

Sitting alone in a brightly lit room, a young woman was curled up in a chair. Her brown hair hid her face as she read the heavy book in her lap. It would seem strange to anyone who didn't know the girl, why she was inside reading on such a beautiful day. What they might wander would be, what would a women as young as she find interesting in this book, 'A Mencken Chrestomathy'? No, those who didn't know her would find it odd. However, those who did know Brook-Lynn Gilmore wouldn't blink an eye.

In actuality, however, the young women who seemed to be so engrossed with the book in her lap, hadn't read a single word. She was mindlessly leafing through the pages. Waiting…

When the sharp knock sounded at the door, the girl knew her waiting was over. She rose from her chair, padding over to the door silently, her white robe flowing behind her. When she opened the door, the look on the face of the man she saw made her grin. "What happened?" she asked, trying to hold back her laughter.

"I ran into Paris," the man stated, walking past Brooke and into her common room. He placed a crisp white bag on her coffee table and sank down onto the couch. "And Doyle," he finished, rubbing at his eyes like he was trying to forget what he'd seen.

Brooke walked over and plopped down next to him. "Oh, and what about them?" she asked, innocently, twirling a strand of her hair around her finger, a little trick she'd learned from her mom.

The man turned to look at her, his disdain evident on his face. "He was wearing my clothes!" he told her, his voice raising a few octaves.

Brooke smiled, curbing her urge to break out into laughter. "Oh so that's why they looked so familiar," she pondered out loud.

"No wonder Ace," the man muttered, leaning his head back to rest it on the top of the couch.

Brooke finally couldn't stop it anymore and she burst out into giggles, holding onto her stomach. Her actions caused the man to raise his head and look at her with a pointed look, one brow raised. "I'm sorry," Brooke garbled, her voice slightly muffled from her laughs. "I promise I'll never let Doyle wear your clothes again," she said, jutting out her bottom lip in the way she knew he hated.

"You better not Ace, or I'll never buy you coffee again," he threatened, letting his palm rest on her thigh and rubbing it slowly, moving the hem of her robe up and down.

"Blasphemy!" Brooke cried, looking horrified at even the thought of no more coffee in the mornings and in-between classes.

He gave her a look that spoke volumes. "And you don't think letting Doyle wear my clothes isn't?" he asked.

She smiled at him innocently and pushed herself off the couch, leaning down to grab the bag. "I didn't think you'd mind," she told him sweetly, while taking out the cookie she'd asked for a biting into it.

"Oh, you didn't think I'd mind?" he repeated standing up also.

"Nope," Brooke said simply and was about to skip off into her room to get dressed when she felt a hand encase her wrist and stop her movements. She looked down at his hand and then up at his face. He was looking at with a mixture between a mischievous twinkle in his hazel eyes and a determined one. She knew both meant trouble.

"Are you sure?" he asked, him voice low and husky, making her breath catch in her throat. Brooke only nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. "Really?" he kept questioning her, slowly walking towards her but she kept backing up…or at least until her back hit the wall. "Cause I know the perfect way you could make it up to me," he breathed, letting go of her wrist but wrapping his arm around her waist instead and letting his other hand rest against the wall by her head, trapping her between him and the wall.

"What would that be?" Brooke asked her voice small. She hated how much she loved how he could send her into a tailspin with just his mere presence close to her. His body pressing against hers and his voice breathing against her ear and suddenly she was putty in his hands.

"This," he said and bent down curving an arm under her knees and the other around her back.

Brooke yelped as she was suddenly lifted into his arms. "Logan!" she yelled. "Put me down!" But her actions belied her words as her body snuggled itself closer to his and her arms wound around his neck. She giggled as he carried her into her room, her smile stretching far.

---

Rory stood nervously outside Brooke's dorm. She'd already knocked and was now waiting for her to answer it. As she shifted from foot to foot outside in the vestibule she realized that she probably should have given herself a few days to sort out her mixed-up feelings before coming to see her. She couldn't even decide how she felt.

Her thoughts were dashed when the door flew open and a guy was standing in front of her. Instinct didn't seem to be presenting herself with anything to say to him and so she just stared. She didn't know what had happened but she'd suddenly lost her ability to form words or maybe just lost her nerve. She didn't know how to react to his sudden appearance, she hadn't thought about someone other then Brooke answering the door.

From the guys body language she could tell he was confused and probably more then annoyed. But Rory's attention soon broke away from him as Brooke walked out of one of the rooms inside the dorm. She was pulling on a sweater over top of her t-shirt and was not aware of Rory just being metres away. If she had seen her then Rory knew things would have been different. Brooke would've been by her side in an instant.

Wouldn't she?

Her heart was beating wildly in her chest as she watched her and she thought it was going to jump up her throat. Rory wanted to go over to her but she couldn't move. She wanted nothing more then to say something, to talk to Brooke but she was frozen to the spot, paralysed by a not so sudden fear that she wouldn't be the same –that she wouldn't look at Rory like she used to.

Inhaling deeply, she tried to steady herself as she stood in the doorway, powerless against the nagging fears that she knew would turn out to be untrue. Brooke was her sister, her best friend and she loved her. Even though their last meeting had been anything but pleasant they were still sisters. But she was still terrified, her palms sweating and her body starting to tremble with nerves.

She felt a familiar feeling loom up inside her.

Part of her wanted to run away.

She was on the verge of panic, could feel it pushing down on her, trying hard to break her. She suddenly wanted to escape, she couldn't breathe as she watched her, her heart clenched and different, contradicting feelings spread through her like a tornado. She couldn't do this, couldn't deal with the possibility that Brooke wouldn't help her, that she would turn her back on her again, when Rory needed help more then anything.

Swallowing hard Rory was about to turn around and make a mad dash out of there when she saw Brooke raise her head. Brooke's whole body tensed, her shoulders becoming rigid as she walked forward a couple of steps.

There was only one direction Rory could run in now. And in one second flat she ran to Brooke. Flinging her arms around Brooke's neck, she squeezed her hard and felt relief course through her system when Brooke curved her arms around her back. Rory's whole body warmed, as tears threatened to fall from her lashes. She felt like she was flying and crashing down all at the same time.

"Rory?" Brooke mumbled into her shoulder and started to rub her back soothingly.

Rory pulled away form her embrace and her hands fluttered about herself, pulling at the hem of her shirt and at her hair, she suddenly felt bare under Brooke's steady gaze. She slowed her hands as she raised her eyes up to slowly meet hers and she relaxed further when she met the exact same electrifying blue ones she'd remembered. Except this time they were full of concern and an overwhelming amount of love.

"I'm sorry…" Rory said wringing her hands in front of her and furrowing her brows. "I'm sorry…I just," she paused again and this time back away a tiny bit. "I should have called or something," she mumbled lowly and was about to turn around but Brooke grabbed her hand, stopping her.

"You don't have to call," Brooke told her, her voice dripping with worry. She knew Rory inside and out and she knew she wasn't the kind of girl who ask's for help. But it looked to her now that that might be exactly what Rory was doing. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Logan, who had been leaning against the door, watching the seen unfold with nothing but confusion in his eyes, finally pushed himself up and started to walk over to Brooke. "Ahem," he said clearing his throat.

Brook looked surprised to see him there for a second before her eyes became clear. "Oh sorry!" she exclaimed. "Logan this is Rory, my sister," she told him, feeling a tad guilty for springing something like this one him so curtly but right now her main focus was on Rory, it had to be.

Logan was stunned, just staring at Brooke for a minute straight before he switched his gaze over to Rory. She quickly averted her eyes and backed away a bit, but Logan kept staring at her. He couldn't believe how much alike they looked; he couldn't believe he hadn't seen it at first. Their hair was the exact same coffee-colour, their skin porcelain white and their eyes a piercing blue.

"Sister?" he managed to get out, turning back to Brooke with a look that was shooting question after question straight at her.

Brooke blushed and looked away guilty for a second but then met his gaze straight on. "Logan, I'm sorry," she apologized and moved closer to him, grabbing his hand. "Listen I'll explain everything tomorrow, I promise. But I really need to talk to her right now," she said the last part glancing at Rory over her shoulder.

"Okay?" Logan asked rhetorically. He leaned down at kissed her quickly before walking over and picking up his jacket. He paused at the door and turned around. "It was nice to meet you," he said to Rory who smiled at him and then he turned and walked out the door.

The two girls stood together, both looking at each other, a silent conversation passing between them. They both remembered the last time they talked; they regretted how they'd lashed out at each other. But at the same time they couldn't apologize because Brooke still felt the same way and Rory hadn't changed. It was like this vicious circle between them, this rip tide they couldn't help but drown in before…but now they were going to fight it and would do it together.

"Are you okay?" Brooke asked, not knowing how to approach this.

Rory didn't answer her. How could she when truthfully, she didn't know herself? Some days she felt like she was walking down the straight and narrow path but others she would walk around completely lost. She did know one thing though and it was the reason she was here.

Fear.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Brooke asked, leading Rory over to the couch.

Rory sat down pulling up one foot and wrapping her arms around it and resting her chin on her knee. She took a deep breath and looked at Brooke. "Listen I don't want to get into detail…I just…" she stated, her voice cracking slightly as she continued. "I'm scaring myself."

Brooke instantly felt the urge to wrap Rory up in her arms, to protect her from the world even though she knew she didn't need protection. She needed someone to just listen to her and so Brooke held back and did just that, with only a little mild encouragement. "Rory you know I'm always here for you, no matter what," she said.

Rory smiled even through the tears that were starting to fall, unchecked down her cheeks. "That's why I came to you," she said, changing her position so she was sitting Indian style on the couch, facing Brooke completely. "I just want to be able to talk to someone and have them just listen…I knew you'd be the one who could do that," she said and Brooke nodded her along. "There's some really confusing and important things happening right now."

Brooke took that all in and suddenly her eyes widened and her heart started to pound. "You're not…"

"No!" Rory cut her off hurriedly. "I'm not pregnant and I don't have some kind of disease or anything," she told her, seeing Brooke visibly relax. Rory pushed at her hair, making it fall forward creating some sort of shield. "But I think I've finally realized how dangerous and lonely my life really is," she breathed out lowly, her tears falling faster and blurring her vision.

Brooke couldn't stop herself from reaching forward and laying her hand on Rory's knee, her action comforting. "Rory you have to get away from it. It's not enough just realizing it, you have to take charge and get yourself out of California. But you also need help, you can't do this alone," she told her, her voice gentle and loving.

Rory nodded and wiped at her tears. "I know. Again, that's why I came here. I'm really scaring myself Brooke…I'm scared about what I'm turning into, what my future is going to be like."

"Rory I know you inside and out. I know you're strong, you're a fighter and I know you can stop this," Brooke encouraged, hope coursing through her body Rory might finally be getting away from what she thought was the worst decision of her life.

"I want to," Rory declared. "I mean it just hit me one day, like a blow to the stomach. I don't want to be like this anymore." She cleared her throat, coughing a little and then continued. "I don't want to end up dead or alone," she said each word creating more tension in her body and more strain on her voice.

"You won't," Brooke told her, confident in that.

Rory still wasn't convinced thought as she looked at Brooke with a broken look. "Brooke…I don't…" she said. "What if I've waited to long?"

Brooke forced Rory to look up her when she lowered her head. Their eyes quickly met and Brooke looked at her with a 'no fuss' look. "You haven't," she said so determinedly that it made Rory really want to believe her.

Rory nodded her head, her mouth opening and closing for a bit before she let out a small sob. "Brooke I'm so scared," she cried.

"Hey, it's alright," Brooke whispered, taking Rory into her arms finally. She looked down at her sister who until now she'd always thought of as really strong. "It's gonna be okay," she promised and kissed her on the head, combing a hand through her hair.

---

Rory and Brooke had stayed, locked in an embrace on the couch for a long while. Both holding onto to each other and never wanting to let go. They hated being away from each other. But with Rory living in California and Brooke living in Connecticut it was really hard to see each other. Rory also never really got to see Lorelai a lot either.

You wouldn't think Lorelai and Rory would be that close, but they were. Even though Rory was what stopped Lorelai from getting back together with Chris, she never held ay sort of judgement or hatred towards Rory. It wasn't her fault at all.

Her and Lorelai had bonded really easily when they first met. Both were immature and childish and loved coffee. When they grew older and Rory started to realize how screwed up her parents really were, she and Lorelai bonded even more over that. Rory knew if she saw her more often, she would think of Lorelai as her mom. Both loved each other and were like a second family.

And so that was why Brooke had decided that Rory needed to come to Stars Hollow. The three of them could sit down and talk, which was what Rory really needed.

The drive to Stars Hollow was very uneventful, only because Rory was still sniffling in the passengers seat and Brooke was concentrating on driving and thinking up ways to get Rory away from California and the life she had there.

By the time they got to the crap shack Lorelai was waiting on the front porch. They'd called her before they left, making sure she'd be okay with them coming. To say Lorelai had been shocked when her daughter told her Rory was with her would be an understatement. She felt apprehensive about seeing Rory, after the big blowout the year before but she knew that if Brooke could do it then she could to.

"Hey Honey!" Lorelai called and walked over enveloping Brooke in a hug and taking her bag from her. Lorelai then turned around and saw Rory for the first time. Throughout the year that Lorelai hadn't seen Rory in, she'd grown up a lot. She could tell just by looking at her. But she seemed older then she was, like she'd had to grow up too fast, which Lorelai knew was true. But it was something in her eyes that made Lorelai drop the bag and hug Rory like a mother would her daughter. It was the pain in her eyes and the loneliness.

"How you doing?" she asked after they separated. Both knew the question wasn't as light as it sounded. It was the same question you ask someone after you haven't seen them in a while but Rory understood that it meant so much more in their situation.

"I'm fine. I mean, I'm not thinking puppy dogs and bunnies. And I'm pretty sure the hills aren't alive with the sound of music, but..." she trailed off a small smile on her lips.

Lorelai nodded, understanding what Rory meant and she bent down and picked up Brooke's bag and then locked her hands with each girl and walked towards the house. The three of them got installed on the couch, movies ready and an array of junk foods and candies out on the coffee table. Lorelai was just about to start the first movie when she suddenly turned to Rory and laid a hand on her knee. "There's a box of stuff you've left here over the years, it's up in the hall closet," she said, knowing that if she didn't get it out now she would forget all about it.

Rory nodded and they all started watching the movie. Although not for long because only a half an hour into to it they were all sitting on the floor in a triangle just talking and sharing stories about the past year.

Rory was thrilled to hear Lorelai and Luke finally getting together, even when she didn't live in Stars Hollow she knew they'd always loved each other. Brook and Lorelai were recounted with the many different adventures Rory had had in California and the rest of the time they talked about school, life in general and guys. But they all managed to skillfully avoid the subject of Rory's visit the year before and they all liked it that way, not wanting to dredge up painful memories.

---

Lorelai and Brooke had retired to the kitchen after the second movie was over. A minor still in the conversation had occurred and Lorelai hadn't let the opportunity to talk to Brooke alone pass her by and so she declared that they needed to make more coffee and had dragged her daughter into the kitchen with her.

They were now standing in the kitchen beside each other and Lorelai dived right into the conversation both knew couldn't be avoided. "You doing okay, Brooke?" she asked.

"Truth?" Brooke repeated and crinkled her nose. "I really don't know." She looked down, pulling at her shirt to busy her fingers as she tried to put her thoughts to words. "When Rory left, all I could think about was getting her to come back somehow. I just thought that if she could be around the people that loved her, everything would be okay."

"But?" Lorelai questioned, knowing Brooke had to get this off her chest.

Brooke let out a sigh and turned around, leaning her elbows on the counter and watched as Lorelai mimicked her position. They were both standing with their backs to the kitchen door and didn't see a figure appear there.

"Having Rory home, I-I thought it might make things easier for her but…I think it might make them worse."

Rory visibly shrunk at those words, it was like a physical blow and Rory took it hard. She turned around and ran up the stairs to the closet where Lorelai had said they'd put her stuff.

"I know that must sound bad…I love having Rory here, more then anything, but I can't have another fight with…I don't want to hurt her anymore…" Brooke said, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I don't want to push her away again…" she sobbed.

"Hey it's okay," Lorelai cooed and brought Brooke into her arms, combing her hair with her fingers. "It'll all work out."

Brooke stayed in her embrace for a minute, drawing strength from her mom, before she pulled back. She knew she must look like a mess and so she backed away and motioned over her shoulder. "I'm just gonna go wash up," she said quietly and started to walk to the bathroom.

"Oh Brooke!" Lorelai called, waiting until she had her daughters' attention. "That bathroom's going all wonky, you might wanna use the one upstairs," she told her, smiling reassuringly.

Brooke nodded and continued on to the stairs. She walked straight up and was about to turn towards the bathroom but Rory had the whole hallway blocked and she literally almost stepped on her. "What are you…" she stopped halfway through her sentence when she saw Rory was trying to fit all her stuff into a box. For someone who'd never lived here she did have an awful lot of stuff. "You're leaving?" she asked and Rory gave her a quick glance before she went back to her 'packing'. "I can't believe you! How can you just come back like this, crying and asking for help and then just pack up and leave?" Brooke asked, very upset.

"Come on Brooke, I'm doing everyone a favour," Rory muttered gloomily.

"A favour? Oh well thank you so much," Brooke said, heavy with the sarcasm. "I'm sure lucky to have a sister like you!"

Rory stood up, facing Brooke. "Why are you yelling at me?" she asked, holding her arms out wide. "I'm trying to do this, really I am," she sobbed.

"Really? Cause from over here, it looks a lot like giving up!" Brooke fired back al her emotions bubbling to the surface. Even though before she'd said she didn't want to fight, she knew know that that was exactly what they needed, to vent all their frustrations so they could finally get past this.

"If I leave…it'll make things a lot easier," Rory said calmly, though she felt anything but.

"For who exactly?" Brooke cried incredulously.

"For everyone," Rory told her.

Brooke brought a hand up to her forehead, pushing at her hair. "Oh well thanks a lot Rory! You know for letting 'everyone' have a choice in the matter," she exclaimed.

Rory sighed out and slowly collected herself for a minute. She met Brooke's blurry eyes and felt her own tears start to fall more rapidly. "Brooke, you don't know how sorry I am. You don't know how much I regret just getting up and leaving last year. But you had no idea what I was going through and you still don't. I tried to explain it to you but it's hard…"

"Well guess what Rory? That's called life! You get thrown fast balls and curve balls all the time...but you have to keep on swinging no matter what."

Rory dismissed the idea with a shake of her head. "I was never good at baseball…" she said, in other words saying she was never really good at life in general.

"That's because you don't try Rory," Brooke told her. "I get your first instinct to run, I have that to. But you need to just deal with it, you need to talk to somebody."

Rory threw her hands in the air, all semblance of a calm nature gone. "How could I talk to you when I know exactly what you're thinking?" she asked.

"I'm really the only one left rooting for you Rory. A lot of people were hurt when you left so if I were you I'd at least not push me away to. We need to talk, badly," Brooke told her.

Rory nodded her head. "I know, and I will apologize to everyone about what I did, how I did it. But Brooke I can't talk to anyone, I don't think I'm strong enough..."

"You are!" Brooke cut her off, her eyes wide. "I know you Rory! But that's not what I meant. I need to talk to you about me and all the things I went through this year," she exclaimed but didn't wait for Rory to say anything before she started back up again. "This year's been really hard for me Rory…I had all these different things going on. I was dating casually but now I'm in my fist serious relationship with him. I was fighting with my mom and my grandparents, and you weren't here…" she trailed off as she started to sob but managed to keep going, "…I really needed someone to talk to and I couldn't even get a hold of you. You're my sister Rory and one of my best friends."

"You have no idea how much I missed you. I wanted to call you every time I looked at a phone practically," she acknowledged.

"That doesn't matter," Brooke said despondently. "It doesn't erase the fact that you didn't."

Lorelai had heard the girls yelling at each other, but had decided to give them sometime. It was when she heard her daughter start to sob that she couldn't stop herself from going up there. She was first only thinking about a way to stop whatever they were fighting about but then she saw Rory packing all her stuff that thought flew out the window.

"What the hell is this?" she asked Rory, feeling anger and sadness invade her body. "Please Rory, tell me this is just some hilarious joke you've got planned out."

Rory shook her head and exhaled loudly through her tears, looking at Lorelai. "Please, don't both of you…Can you just…"

"No, I can't just!" Lorelai interrupted loudly. "Tell me what's going on here!" she demanded.

Brooke looked from Rory to her mom and then to the ground. "She's leaving…again," she said, her voice low and shaky.

"Brooke, I'm not leaving," Rory paused, very confused. "I don't know..."

"Well Rory you better figure it out soon! You can't just keep taking off whenever you feel like it!" Lorelai exploded, feeling her motherly instincts working in overdrive, even though Rory wasn't her daughter.

"I know that!" Rory said. "I'm not just leaving…I don't know what I'm doing," she said before rushing past both of them and down the stairs.

Lorelai and Brooke follow, right on her heels. She stops at the front door, and turns into the living room when Lorelai stops her with her outburst for a second. "You know this is making me have horrible flash backs to my own childhood," Rory falters only slightly but keeps walking. "Except there's only one difference," Lorelai said and grabbed Rory's arm, turning her around. "I wasn't running from the place I loved, the place I felt safe in."

"Lorelai, please stop…I can't," Rory implores.

"You know all about what I went through Rory, I told you all about it," Lorelai interrupts, madly. "So don't even think about telling me that you're leaving because this is hard. This is the place where your family is, your friends. This is your home Rory," Lorelai paused in her speech, inhaling. "I didn't have one when I left," she said soundly.

"I know that Lorelai, I do. I'm not trying to hurt you…" Rory explains. She knows she can't keep doing this, can't keep running away and lashing out at the people who love her.

Brooke suddenly cuts in her blue eyes holding a worried note to them but still overpowered by anger. "Rory I stood up for you when people talked and I fought on your side all this time. But I can't keep doing this. I mean, can you even imagine how hard this year's been? Can you imagine the months I went through after you left?" she interrupted. "Not knowing whether you had been stabbed or shot…"

"You can not dump this all on me Brooke!" Rory interrupted in turn, holding her hand out at the both of them. "I came to you, to the both of you. I thought you would understand and so I told you about everything…and you told me to leave. You didn't even try to understand it you just pushed me out the door."

"And I'm sorry about that, I am," Brooke let on. "But you didn't give either of us enough time. Rory, you can't just say something like that and expect people to just accept it and moved on."

Rory looked at Brooke like she had three heads. "I didn't expect you to!" she exclaimed. "Actually I thought you would be more sympathetic towards me."

Lorelai who had been silent for a while now cut in. "You chose how to live your life Rory," she said mater of factly. "I know you were put through a lot of hard times but you weren't some helpless victim."

Rory didn't know how to deal with all the emotions running through her and her cracking voice held testimony to that. "I know that, I'm not trying to justify my case or anything. I just can't deal with it right now, I thought I could but I can't.".

"I understand Rory. And I get that maybe you don't want to hear this but running away wasn't the answer then and it definitely isn't now," Lorelai told her, her words cutting deep.

"I screwed up. I know that," she cried out. "But you can't even begin to feel what I felt. You don't know the guilt I walked around with everyday."

"I'm sorry, you don't get to complain about that. You know why? Because you didn't try to talk to anyone about it!"

"I didn't because I knew I had to work out, whatever was going on, on my own," she tried to explain, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Oh well great decision genius. I see it really helped you out a lot," Lorelai huffed. "You can't just push things to the back of your mind, pretend they don't matter. They'll come right back to bite you in the ass, big time!" she told her smartly.

"I know what you're thinking Lorelai. But I could never have gone to you," she admitted. "What you said last year…Well let's just say it opened my eyes up to a lot of feelings I didn't know you felt towards me. "

Lorelai looked away for a second, remembering the awful things she'd said, they'd all said. "Look. I'm sorry about that okay but I didn't mean it," she told her softly and genuinely. "But you screwed up, I'd be the first to point it out to you. Still, that doesn't change the fact that I love you Rory. Like you were my own."

"Listen Rory it's okay to..." Brook started in.

"Brooke, please. I know you're only trying to help but I can't take this from you to," she sniveled, near the breaking point.

"Why not? You have to hear what she has to say," Lorelai said pointedly. "You've got to know that you owe her that, at the least."

"I know what I owe her but thanks for pointing it out to me," Rory lashed out.

"Both of you stop!" Brooke exploded and immediately Lorelai and Rory became quiet and looked at her, surprised by her outburst. "Don't you see what were doing?" she asked, and the others looked away guiltily. "We can't fight about this again. Rory, you came to me asking for help," Brooke told her, coming forward and clasping her hands in her own. "You said were scared, and I'm not going to let you take that back."

"I don't want to," Rory admitted lowly.

Brooke nodded slowly and took a deep breath before delving in. "Rory when you came to me last year and you told me that you'd been working as a hooker for a little while…" she had to pause for a minute to collect herself again. "I didn't understand. I didn't want to understand. All I could think of was how you were ruining your life, how you have so much more potential. Rory I couldn't stomach the thought of you doing something like that and I still can't," she admitted. "But you told me you're scared today and I'm hoping that means you've finally realized what you're doing isn't the answer, it isn't right."

Rory felt her eyes pool with tears during Brooke's speech and she nodded at the end. "I do," she said softly. "I always did. But I couldn't do anything else…I didn't have the money to pay rent or get food and I promised myself I would only do it once…" she sucked in a breath and tightened her grip on Brooke's hand. "It wasn't my first time but it felt like it. It hurt and I cried the whole way through it…but it didn't stop me from doing it again," she said, slowly walking over to the couch in the living room and sinking down onto it, pulling her legs up to her chest. "After a couple of times it's likes you sort of go numb, you just block out what you're doing. It didn't help that the girls I lived with were hookers to…they kept me in it, kept me going back. I don't blame them for it because it was my decision, I know that."

Brooke sat down next to Rory and rubbed her leg comfortably. "Rory it doesn't matter okay? That's all in the past," she told her straightforwardly. "You can move on, get your life back together. I'll help you do that, but you gotta promise me you won't go back to California."

Rory was silent for a moment, just thinking about what Brooke said. Could she really do it? Could she just leave everything behind and start over? Yes. She knew she could because there wasn't anything or anyone back in California that would stop her. She looked up at Brooke and smiled through her tears. "I do, promise. I want to start over," she said, amazed at how good it felt to say those words and actually mean them. "I'm sorry about how I left last year," she apologized finally.

"It's okay. I'll learn to live with your bailing instinct," Brooke told her. "I can forgive that easily. I'm going to really rise up and be the bigger person here," she finished, giving Rory a smug look.

"I see you're taking a liking to being the better person?" Rory asked, smiling.

"It's totally addictive!" Brooke exclaimed happily.

"Alright. I can deal with that but only for a bit," she said and leaned back into the couch.

Brooke laughed and held up her hand in mock surrender. "Don't worry I wont give you that much of a hard time." She paused, an evil smile turning her lips up. "Quitter!"

"Brooke!" Rory exclaimed, giving her a surprised look.

"I'm sorry!" Brooke smiled and giggled. "Whore!" she said jokingly.

Rory widened her eyes at her, but she knew Brooke was just teasing. "Whiner," she shot back.

"Bailer."

"Stiff."

"Delinquent."

"Nag."

Brooke scoffed, taking mock offense in that. "Loser."

"Butthead," Rory said smiling like a fool, and finally feeling 100 better.

"Freak."

---
In the terms of endearment
In the terms of the life that you love
In the terms of the years that pass you by
In the terms of the reasons why
---

Alright so I rewrote this, well the dialogue anyway. The plot of the fight in this chapter from Buffy (which I don't own by the way). A lot of people asked me about it the first time, but I changed the words so that they're my own. I'm sorry if some are still the same but I can honestly say that I deleted the dialogue and just wrote what I felt so that's not on purpose…

This gives you more background into who Rory's character is in this story and also ties in my inspiration from 'Pretty Woman'.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed, you guys are so awesome!

-Ella (Also very sorry about the lack of Finn in this chapter, but don't worry he'll be in the next one, where I can say Rory and Finn step up from their friendship:)