Lorelai closed the door behind Luke. She sighed and turned back to face her daughter.
"Rory, I wanted to wait till you were older, but…" Lorelai paused.
"But what?" Rory asked impatiently.
"Remember the day that I went to talk to Trix's lawyer?"
"Yeah."
Lorelai gazed down at the floor. "Well, he… he told me something that's kind of a hard to believe." Lorelai's eyes rose back to Rory. "Trix loved you very much, sweetie. So much in fact, she's left her entire estate to you."
Rory's face froze. "Entire estate?"
"House… cars… property… money." Lorelai walked over beside her daughter. "You're supposed to inherit it all when you turn 21."
"Why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?" Rory asked calmly.
"I wanted to wait till you were ready. I didn't see a point in placing such a heavy weight on your shoulders until an appropriate time."
"How did he find out… Jess…. How could he possibly know this?"
"I have no idea." Lorelai honestly replied.
"You should have told me… I should've already known. I mean, kids at school found out before I did."
"Maybe, I should have." Lorelai nodded her head. "Maybe not. It doesn't matter now…"
"I'm so tired of all of this." Rory replied as she sat down in a chair. "Everyone is always in everybody's business… Jess has screwed things up so much, that I'm tired of being mad at him… I can't even put forth an effort to be more mad."
"Jess has a lot of problems, Rory. He's never had a good home life. He doesn't understand the family thing."
"Well, he could try using some common human decency every now and then. Everything is just a mess… I hate bad beginnings."
Lorelai sat down beside Rory. "Well, I'm sorry to tell you that this is only the beginning of your bad beginnings. Life is full of them."
"How optimistic of you." Rory remarked.
"Realistic is a better term." Lorelai countered. "Believe me, there are thousands of good beginnings too. You have to take the bad with the good… bitter with the sweet… rain with the shine."
"I get it."
"Not now, I'm on a roll…. Ups with the downs… Smiles with the frowns…"
"Mom."
"Okay… stopping."
"I'm not mad at you for not telling me… I just… I wish I'd known is all."
Lorelai smiled. "Well, In a way, I'm glad you know now."
"So, anything else I should know about before it pops up unexpectedly?" Rory asked.
"We're for good for now."
"Okay… So… I think I'm gonna find Dean… try explaining all of this to him. I hope he cares enough to listen."
"I think that's a good idea. I'll try explaining to Luke… although, I'm sure he'd prefer to just go own as if nothing happened at all."
"Do you think he'll come down hard on Jess?"
Lorelai pondered for a moment. "You know, this time… yeah. I think Jess is in some pretty hot water."
"You know…" Rory began. "It's ironic… He's done all these bad things and things that have caused me problems, and yet I..." She stopped.
"You what?"
"I kind of understand."
"Insightful..." Lorelai commented.
"It just kind of hit me." Rory replied. "All he really wants is someone nice and smart and funny… someone who doesn't have a lot of problems like he does. Someone to balance him out. It's not his fault that he thought I could be that someone."
"You know, sweetie, under any other circumstances, I would say you were right, but Jess has to realize that you two are part of the same family. He can't have those feelings..."
"I'm sure if Jess could get rid of the feelings he would…"
"How do you know he's even tried?" Lorelai asked. "How do you know he's not still holding on, hoping that one day you'll feel the same?"
"I already told him, I'd never feel that way. It's impossible. It'd never happen." Rory stood from her chair. "You almost have to admire it though…"
"Admire what?"
"His tenacity…" Rory inhaled. "I'm going to find Dean now. I'll see you this evening."