Disclaimer: Don't own the Gilmore Girls. Poor college student, have no , don't sue.

Chapter 1: Get it Together, Gillmore

She sat there, on her couch, where she had been sitting for the past hour and a half. The phone was still in her hand, dialing finger poised for the task at hand but somehow, unable to carry it out. She sighed heavily and turned her eyes to the ceiling in an effort to blink away tears. She didn't want to cry again. She'd been crying all morning, and she wouldn't let herself breakdown now when she'd just gotten herself together. But she had to let him know, had to talk to him, to tell him that she was leaving, moving, relocating, however the hell she'd decide to word it. She just couldn't do it right now. Not like this.

She threw the phone down on the couch beside her and stood up, walked into the kitchen and grabbed for her keys but they weren't there. She looked around, lifting up scattered papers, even checking the fridge and stove guessing that she'd stowed them there in her catatonic state. She glanced at the back door and there they were, still wedged in the keyhole as they had been many times before, including when Luke had picked her up for one of their dates. He had griped and grumbled about it and let her know how unsafe it was. Those memories came flooding back to her as tears flowed down her cheeks. She put a hand to her mouth and slowly removed the keys from the door.

"Get it together, Lorelai" she berated herself as she wiped her face clean and headed back into the living room and out the front door.

She stepped into her Jeep and started the engine. She couldn't sit in her house anymore thinking about what she was going to say, and how she was going to tell him, and how he'd react, and how hard it was going to be to watch his reaction, knowing that he wasn't going to say what she longed to hear.

Lorelai headed for the inn, knowing full well that it was her day off and that Sookie would undoubtedly send her back home, or at least try to. She needed to do something. She had to keep busy and she knew that nothing but the inn could do that, even if it meant sending one of the housekeepers home and doing their rounds.

She pulled into the Dragonfly lot, shut off the engine and walked into the lobby to see Michel talking on the phone in his usual manner.

"Yes, we have one room open for the week of the 26th. No. No, we only have one. If we had had four I would have said four. We have one. No. One. How many times must I say that you incompetent swine? We have ONE room, no more. Not two, not three, just ONE! Oh you are hopeless" he said as he hung up the phone.

Lorelai halfway smiled for the first time today. She walked past the front desk as Michel was mumbling something along the lines of "Why am I surrounded by these uncultured imbeciles?"

She walked into the kitchen and saw Sookie instructing one of her workers on how to properly cook a 12 pound fish.

"No, Nathan, listen to me. You can NOT cook that fish in this oil! It's too hot! You heat the oil, by itself, on medium high just until it starts to smoke, no longer! Then put the fish in right away. Got it? Good. Now go do it."

Sookie turned to see Lorelai watching her intently. "Oh, hey hun, how you feeling? Need some coffee? You should sit down. Why are you here on your day off? Go home! Now. I mean it, listen to me you should be at home, watching old movies and eating ice cream and-" Lorelai cut her off "Sookie, it's alright. I just can't sit there by myself, with nothing to do anymore. I've watched every old movie I can think of and I'm pretty sure that I've bought every gallon, pint and spoonful of ice cream from Doose's and Taylor will murder me if I step foot into the frozen food section in the next millennia."

"So did you tell him then?"

"Of course I did. Then I went over to Patty's and told all of the little 7 year olds that Santa isn't real and the tooth fairy is their mother." she answered.

"Aw hunny. You've got to tell him eventually. The sooner the better. You know that." Sookie attempted to reassure her as she handed Lorelai a cup of coffee.

"I know. I know. And I will. Just there's this part of me that's thinking that it isn't such a good idea. I mean I'm already very close to the inn and it's not like Rory is a million miles away. I don't really have to move. The house is fine and Rory grew up there."

"It was your idea to leave. If you don't want to, then don't. You haven't signed anything yet, you don't have to move."

"But I should. He's just there, everywhere. I mean, he's not there, there. But everywhere I go, all I see is him. And it's not going to help anything. I'm turning into a crazy woman…a crazy woman. I started crying today when I read the paper because it had the movies that the Black, White, and Red theater was showing because he and I went there once. It's hard this time and I'm not good with the being hurt thing." Lorelai tried to explain all of this to Sookie, but she didn't think that she'd understand. "I'll be alright. I just need to talk to him. Let him know. It'll be okay." Sookie looked at her as if to say I know that you'll be okay eventually, but it'd be nice to have the old Lorelai back now. "I will be fine Sook. Go back to work. I'll talk to him."

With that, Lorelai turned and walked out of the kitchen sipping her coffee as she did. Yeah, she though, I'll be alright. I'll be just fine, that is after Rory turns into some crack whore and drops out of school.