Chapter One: The Accident
Trix
Lorelai Gilmore held Lorelai Gilmore's hand as Lorelai Gilmore took her last breath.
Beside her she heard sobbing begin. Not from the little girl, holding her hand, but from her son.
It was understandable perhaps as he had just lost his daughter. Less than two days after losing his wife as well.
It was, Lorelai thought, a particularly unpleasant way to end the year. Even if it was only the 27th of December.
She had come as quickly as she could to Hartford after Richard had called her distraught in the very early hours of Boxing Day in London.
It had been a scheme by Emily to try and mend fences with the second Lorelai apparently.
(So very typical of Emily)
Invite Christopher Hayden for a meal on Christmas Day so that the youngest Lorelai could have both parents at Christmas dinner. Possibly even bring the two parents back together if things went well.
An argument had inevitably occurred and both women had stormed out of the house, arguing, with young Christopher attempting to act as peacemaker.
What happened next would have been farcical had it not ended so tragically.
Her granddaughter had gotten into one of her parent's cars to drive around and calm down (having taken the keys from their bowl). A stubborn Emily had entered the passenger seat and refused to move, arguing that she had the right, as it was in fact her car and not Lorelai's. Christopher Hayden had jumped in to ensure that her granddaughter didn't end up killing her mother, and herself, while driving recklessly.
At least that was what Richard had thought occurred as he watched baffled, through the window, while the youngest Gilmore hugged him and asked what the other three were doing.
The car had driven off and that was the last time that Richard had seen his wife or Christopher Hayden alive.
It had been a drunk driver on the wrong side of the road that had caused it. (Christmas cheer taken to the extreme). Emily and Christopher had been killed instantly while Lorelai had been critically injured. She had been brought to hospital unconscious and had not woken up.
She never would now.
As her granddaughter flat lined the doctors burst in. They began desperate attempts to resuscitate.
All in vain.
The confused little girl holding Lorelai's hand squeezed it tighter.
Lorelai Leigh Gilmore still hadn't said a word to her since she'd arrived.
Lorelai's heart went out to her great-granddaughter. She had lost her own mother young to tuberculosis in 1926. Her proud father coping with his grief by being determined to make his only surviving child a worthy heir to his branch of the Gilmores.
He had succeeded of course. Then again she was healthy. Never ill. As father had said:
"Gilmores don't get sick."
She tried to forget her older brother (dead to Spanish flu) and her younger sister (dead to the tuberculosis that had also killed their mother).
"True Gilmores didn't get sick" she had reassured herself over the years.
True Gilmores were useful and self-reliant. Her father had taught her that. Even as The Depression had begun and then raged on for years.
Gilmores triumphed over adversity.
When she had married Charles the amount that she had brought to the marriage was significant. In fact it was more than he brought (even if his line of Gilmores had the better social standing at the time). She'd always had a talent for investing and had grown the family fortune significantly until Charles had passed shortly before their 30th anniversary.
Even "The Dick", who was Elias Huntzberger, would admit she had significant talent in managing the family money.
The older Lorelai could see the differences in the case of her young great granddaughter though. .
The poor little girl was undergoing a somewhat dissimilar scenario to the one that had dominated Lorelai's younger years.
It was better in some ways. The loss of her siblings still pained her and thankfully the younger Lorelai would never suffer that heartache, the survivors guilt, of being the last child left of a parent.
It was perhaps the only positive of the situation.
Lorelai had been nine when her mother had died. The little girl next to her had only turned six mere weeks before and was now experiencing the same tragedy.
Only worse, because the girl had lost her father as well (absent though he may have been). Emily was also dead but from what Richard had told her over the years the two hadn't been very close due to the second Lorelai's intervention.
A small mercy.
Nevertheless the legacy of the whole Gilmore family now rested on a little girl's shoulders. There would be no additional children from her granddaughter and Richard was unlikely to produce an heir either.
Lorelai mused more.
The fact was the legacy of Straub's branch of The Hayden's was in even direr straits. Lorelai the third was never going to keep the Hayden or Gilmore name when she married. Lorelai almost chuckled at the thought of Straub flailing.
If Elias was a dick then Straub was an ass. He'd proved that the past few days.
The Hayden's had not visited Lorelai Victoria Gilmore before she passed away. This, the eldest Lorelai felt, was both rude and exceptionally idiotic of them. They might not have liked her granddaughter, she had after all derailed their son's future, but the fact was that the only living remainder of him was in the form of his daughter. That meant they should at least attempt to get involved.
"What do I do Trix?" Her son asked, in a voice that was laced with despair.
Lorelai Leigh Gilmore didn't say anything but looked up at her great grandmother nonetheless, an expectant expression on her face, also waiting for an answer.
"Well it's late so I think you should take Lorelai home." The elder Lorelai stated firmly.
"It's Rory" A quiet voice said firmly. "Mom..." A tiny sob for a moment. "Everyone... They all call me Rory."
They had been the first words the girl had said, other than a murmured goodbye to her mother at her deathbed (On Lorelai's insistence and against her sons foolishly hopeful pleas it wouldn't be necessary), since the young girl had heard about the accident.
Not a big step forward. The elder Lorelai thought. But hopefully it was a start.
Rory
Mia had an old dog that hung around the Inn.
A golden retriever that didn't walk much and mostly just slept.
He was called Spot.
Rory liked the old dog though and Rory think Spot liked her too.
She had talked to Spot, hugged Spot, and on one memorable occasion, before Sookie had stopped her, shared lunch with Spot.
Spot was fun.
Then one day Spot wasn't there anymore. It was when she had just started kindergarten a few weeks ago and she had drawn a picture to show Spot when she came home. Lane had liked it a lot and Rory was excited to show Spot because she knew he'd love it too.
Only Spot wasn't there to see it.
That was when her Mom had sat her down and told her about "Death". Mom had explained that Spot was in heaven and she'd see him again one day, but not anytime soon, because you didn't come back from dying.
Ever.
Never ever.
Rory wasn't stupid.
Grandpa was crying, a lot, and she hadn't seen her Dad, or Grandma, since they'd driven away on Christmas day. Grandpa wouldn't say it to her directly but Rory knew.
Mom had looked super-duper sick in the hospital and when the old lady, Grandpa's mom who he called Trix, said to say goodbye to her Mom, Rory knew that her Mom was dying.
Rory had no idea what was going to happen to her.
Trix had been talking to the doctors and seemed to be bossing them around a bit.
Grandpa just looked sad. She and Grandpa had left the hospital shortly after the doctors came in when Trix had told him to take her home.
Where was home?
She hoped Grandpa wanted her.
Now they were in the car now driving back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The drive felt longer than the drive on the way there. Or the bus trip from Stars Hollow.
"What's going to happen now Grandpa?" Rory asked quietly.
"I'm not sure yet but Trix will know." Richard replied to his granddaughter with a confidence he didn't really feel.
"You're not going to send me away are you Grandpa." Rory asked panicked. Grandpa loved her. Rory knew that! But what if? What if…. He didn't love her enough to keep her!
She couldn't go back to the inn. Not now Mom wasn't working there anymore!
Mom wasn't there anymore…
Mom wasn't there anymore and she never would be again. Anywhere. Dad was never around a lot but she loved him as well. Even Grandma, who she only saw on Christmas and at Easter, was gone.
Rory started to cry then.
What was going to happen to her?
Richard
Rory wouldn't stop crying. Frankly Richard couldn't blame her.
His wife, his daughter, even the smiling scoundrel son of his former friend who got his daughter pregnant. All of them were dead.
Christopher and his Lorelai had both been twenty-two. They should have just been finishing university, maybe thinking about an engagement, at worst planning an elopement without parental permission. Instead they were dead.
Emily had been forty-eight. They'd just had their 25th wedding anniversary. Decades more of married life should have been ahead of them. Instead he'd ended up a widower even earlier than his mother had been made a widow.
He had tried comforting Rory and saying that of course he wouldn't send her away. There was a bedroom for her to stay in, the one she'd been sleeping in the past couple of days, it was hers forever if she'd like, and no one was ever going to send her anywhere she didn't want to go.
He never would, never could, send her away. Not this little girl. The last surviving bit of his own little girl and wife.
Rory had nodded and seemed to calm down on that front. There was no more fear of abandonment.
It was a small mercy.
The tears didn't stop however and Richard realised that, although he hadn't said the D word directly, his bright, intelligent, granddaughter had realised what had happened.
Richard wanted to punch any primped up child psychologist who said young children didn't fully understand the concept of death this early in life. Looking at his granddaughter, sobbing quietly in the back of the car, he knew that Rory certainly did.
He still had to break the news officially though.
They had finally arrived at the house. His home with Emily and his daughter.
Now without Emily for the first time he could ever remember.
Now without his daughter and not just temporarily, as Emily had still hoped, but forever.
Richard opened the back of the car and took his granddaughter out of the car seat. He remembered when Emily had bought the top of the range children's seat some time ago.
"One day, very soon Richard, she'll see sense!" Emily had said triumphantly (Rory had just turned four). "And when she does Rory will use this car seat and we'll all be a proper family again."
The car seat had seen its first use at the end of Christmas Day when the first call from the hospital came.
The family trips envisaged by Emily were unlikely from the start. Richard had known that in his heart at the time of the seats purchase (Though he never would have said so to Emily)
Those family trips were impossible now.
Richard and Rory walked up to the house and he opened the door.
Ten minutes later, and with cocoa in hand, they were sat in the lounge. Richard racked his brain on how to broach the topic he, so very much, dreaded. Even though he knew the little girl drinking cocoa while quietly crying was already aware.
"Rory do you know about Death?" Richard said gently.
"Yeah." Rory said through her tears. The tears stopped for a moment. A long moment. "Mommy told me about it." The little girl paused. "When Spot died."
"Spot?" Richard asked curious despite himself.
"Mia's dog" Rory said definitively. As though this explained things neatly as opposed to raising more questions.
"What did Mommy say?" Richard questioned softly.
"That Spot…" Rory sniffed loudly. "Spot was in heaven and I wouldn't see him again for a really, really, really, long time."
"Well Rory…" Richard began.
"They're dead. Grandma…Daddy…" Rory paused for what seemed like an eternity. "Mommy." She sobbed briefly "They're dead and they're not coming back." Rory continued eyes welling up with tears again. "Ever again."
"Never ever."
Floods of tears began falling more. Not just from Rory.
"I wish they could come back Rory. I really wish they could." Richard said as tears ran down his own cheeks. "But they can't".
Richard hugged his granddaughter closely and eventually the little girl cried herself asleep in his arms.
As he gently carried the sleeping kindergartner up to bed, he wondered himself what the future held for them.