Aki- Wow, I was shocked at the amount of response I got from last chapter only one day after it was updated. A lot of reviewers did not hide their enthusiasm, which made me smile as I read them. Anyway the scene in this chapter between Lorelai and Luke was inspired from one reviewer's (lesslover123) questioning on why Lorelai wasn't mad at Rory in the last chapter for lying to her and stuff. The scene explains it and I think it turned out well too.

Chapter 13

Rory didn't second think herself the whole drive to New York. She knew she was doing the right thing. The hard thing, yes, the thing with consequences, yes, the painful thing, yes, but the right thing, the thing she should have done along time ago. Actually, Rory shouldn't have had to do this at all, she never should have left to start with.

That thought haunted her everyday. Her mistake. Not the one night stand part or the getting pregnant part, but the leaving part. She regretted it everyday…

Rory checked the address written on a scrape of paper again as she entered the correct area of New York City. She was nervous, she wouldn't deny it. She didn't know what she was going to say. She didn't know what she was going to do. She just knew that she was going...

Line

"Hey, Lorelai," greeted Luke as she entered the diner during supper time, "Rory coming?"

"Oh, no, Rory won't be joining me here for diner," answered Lorelai.

"Why? Is she sick?" pondered Luke worriedly.

"Not sick, she's just probably," Lorelai paused to check her watch, "in New York right about now."

"New York?" asked Luke, eyebrows raised in questioning.

"New York."

"Why is Rory in New York?"

"To see Jess and Amber," Lorelai answered as though it were the easiest thing in the world to guess.

"Why?"

"Because Amber's Rory's daughter."

Luke was taken back for a moment, but he did not question it. It was like he knew.

"Wow, that's…wow."

"Yeah I know," said Lorelai grimly, having felt the same as Luke was feeling now. The shock. The surprise. The speechlessness. The disbelief but the knowledge that it was true. It hit Lorelai after Rory had driven off.

"So how are you holding up?" asked Luke, knowing how confused his wife must be feeling.

Lorelai shrugged, "So-so… I just don't know if I should be angry."

Luke nodded in acknowledgement of her statement, understanding of her feelings, and reassurance to keep going.

"I should be. She has lied to me and kept this horrible secret from me as a mother and a best friend. I should be hating her for doing that right now, yet…" Lorelai trailed off.

"Yet…?" prodded Luke, pouring Lorelai some coffee.

"Yet it didn't matter then. When I was helping her pack and wishing her good luck as she left. It paled in comparison to what she had to do. I mean, she needed to go to New York, she had to, and it's a good thing." Lorelai sighed and sipped her coffee.

"I know."

"But," said Lorelai shaking her head, "This is gonna' sound incredibly selfish and crazy, when Rory comes back and she has good results up there… I won't be able to be mad at her. It's like I lose my chance."

"She'll apologize," insisted Luke, "Then you won't half to mad anymore, or at all."

"How do you know, though?"

"She will. We know Rory, she will."

"I don't know if I know her anymore," exclaimed Lorelai in almost hysterics, a little too loud, catching the attention of several customers. She quieted herself before continuing, "She abandoned her daughter. That is not the person I raised her to be."

"She made a mistake," Luke retorted calmly, "People make mistakes." At first Luke wasn't sure why he was defending Rory when Lorelai knew better than anyone Rory. He could barely believe Rory had a daughter, with Jess of all people, and then left her at birth. He was comforting Lorelai though. She needed it more than him, the reassurance that things would turn out okay.

"But not Rory," insisted an upset Lorelai.

Luke took his wife's soft hand and into his rough one and looked her in the eye, "Even Rory makes mistakes, give her a chance to fix this one."

Lorelai stared into her husband's eyes and her inner turmoil was put to rest. He was right and she knew it.

"She will," Lorelai agreed, before looking out the window at the falling snow and repeating, "She will."

Line

Rory stood in front of the apartment complex, one duffle bag thrown over her shoulder. She started at the panel that labeled the apartments and their inhabitants next to buttons. She was going to have to buzz in. Buzz into Jess so he could unlock the door.

Rory pushed the button next to his name and waited for a moment. Nothing. She pressed it again, this time holding it longer. Still nothing. She pressed in a few times in a row, agitated.

This time a voice came through in the intercom, "Geez, give me moment here." It was Jess pissed off at to the currently unknown person that was buzzing him.

"Who is this?" his angry tone asked.

Rory pressed the button next to the intercom and spoke into the speaker, "It's Rory."

Silence. Then, "Sorry, who?"

Rory rolled her eyes before repeating clearly, "It's Rory ."

"Sorry, I miss heard you again. Who?"

"Oh, come on! It's cold. Let me in Jess."

There was a moment of silence and then there was an annoying buzz and Rory pulled the door open and ran inside, exclaiming, "Yes!" under her breath as she did so.

Line

Jess was surprised when he heard Rory's voice through the intercom. He wasn't expecting her, at least not so soon. He didn't know what to say to her, what to do around her. He already had to see once today to give her the letter, and he had planned out what to say the whole time he drove down to Connecticut.

Before he had anytime to prepare there was a knock on the apartment door. There was nothing for him to do then just grin and bare it, except without the grinning part. He went over to the door, unlocked it and pulled it open to reveal none other than Rory.

"Hey," she said, somewhat timidly, the excitement of receiving entry lost in the anxiousness of the moment.

"Hey," he replied emotionlessly before bluntly asking, "What are you doing here?"

Rory was not unprepared for this question though, in fact having expected it, so she pulled the note Amber had written to her out of her pocket, which she did several times that day as she reread it, and handed it wordlessly to Jess.

Jess took it unquestioningly and read over it swiftly, his eyes flawlessly flicking across the page as he read his daughter's handwriting like it was his own.

"Well," he commented as he finished, handing the piece of paper back to Rory, "She's more forgiving then I would have been."

"Why thank you," replied Rory, bitterly sarcastic.

"Amber's not here," said Jess after the two stood in silence for a moment.

"What?"

"She's at a friend's," Jess explained.

"Well, when will she be back?"

"…Tomorrow."

"What!"
"She's staying the night."

Rory huffed to herself, coming to New York to see Amber was just getting harder and harder, "I guess I'd better find hotel or something, it's getting dark."

Jess then said something he regretted the moment the words left his mouth, "You can stay here."

Rory was taken back slightly. "Really?" she asked hopefully.

This was Jess's moment. He could take it back. He could find some reason she couldn't. He could become violently and suddenly ill and remove her from his presence, but the miniscule, barely existent, innerly hidden gentleman took hold, "Really."

Roy bit the inside of her mouth before answering slowly, "Okay." She was obviously wary about it. So was Jess. Neither wanted to face the prospect of a night alone with each other. The situation was far too familiar.

"You can crash on the couch," insisted Jess, nodding towards the inside of the apartment.

"That's fine," said Rory.

Jess stepped back from the door and then said to Rory, "You'll have to start by coming in."

"Oh, yeah," stuttered Rory. She grown quite comfortable in Jess's doorway and had half a mind to ask whether she could just sleep there. She didn't know if she dared venture farther in. It meant entering a life she was supposed to be a part of from the beginning, but wasn't. It was like entering a stranger's house that you were supposed to live in. But she had to enter. For one, every second longer she stood in limbo at the doorway the more Jess stared at her like she was an idiot. Second, Rory knew that if she didn't enter and backed up instead, she would run back to Star's Hollow on foot.

Rory took a few tentative steps into the apartment living room. It was spacious and surprisingly well-kept and clean.

She jumped slightly when Jess slammed the door behind her. He brushed past her.

"Okay, grand tour. Couch," he said pointing to the off white couch against the wall. "My room, Amber's room," he said indicating to the tow closed doors against the far wall. "Bathroom," Jess said turning around to point to a door nearer to the apartment door. "And kitchen," finished Jess, signifying a room that was partially separated from the living room by part of a wall, "And that's it."

"That's it," nodded Rory.

"Well, that and…" Jess went over to a curtain and pulled it back to reveal a large sliding glass door that lead to a balcony and a great view of a lit up cityscape, "This. Welcome to New York Rory Gilmore."