Disclaimer: This is an original story based upon the characters of Gilmore Girls. No profit will be made from this story and no copyright infringment is intended.
Author's Note: Sorry again to be so late in updating. I had some deadlines I had to meet. Thank you for all the feedback for the last chapter. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the next installment.
"Okay, we have your fig newtons, twizzlers, twinkies, cookie dough, peanut butter, oreos, and rootbeer, and you are going to way 900 pounds by the time I get back from work," Luke shook his head in disgust as he piled the junk around Lorelai who was lying on the living room couch with her leg propped up on four pillows.
"Thank you," Lorelai said smiling up at him.
His heart fluttered at that smile, as it always had since the day he had met her. How had he gone so long without seeing that smile? "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" he asked, and leaned down to kiss her. She reached up and brushed a hand over his cheek.
"I don't know, I think I might need another one of those," she smiled playfully.
He leaned into her again, and this time the kiss was deeper. "Are you sure you are going to be okay?" he asked again.
"I'll be fine," she said. "I have junk, I have TV, I have phone, I'm good."
"Unbelieveable," Luke muttered.
Lorelai reached up and took his hand, "Honey, I'll be fine, you're a phone call away, Sookie is a phone call away, Babette is next door, I'll be just fine."
"And if you need her..." Luke said, twirling the phone in his hand.
Lorelai shook her head, "She's mad at me."
"If you called her and told her you needed her, she'd be over here in a second."
She looked up at him and shook her head again, "No...she wouldn't, and even if she did she'd be pouting the whole time, giving me the guilt trip for what I said. No thank you."
"Alright," he said, handing Lorelai her cellphone. "Call me if you need me."
"Yes sir," she said smiling and blew him a kiss as he walked out the door.
There was only one other time the house had been this quiet. It was when she had come home from taking Rory to the airport. She had kept the television on for three days so she wouldn't have to deal with the quiet. As soon as Luke left it was like the sound in the room was sucked out. She turned the television on and The Price is Right was on. She grabbed a notepad so she could play along like she did when she was a teenager. During the days of morning sickness, she could beat them every time at the yodeling mountain climber game and won the showcase nearly every time. Bob Barker was getting kissed by the first contestant when it started. It was an itch, a terrible itch that started in her toe and then slowly inched its way up her leg. It felt like a million spiders were inching up her leg. She sat up and tried to scratch and her chest heaved in pain. It felt like the side of her chest was one big bruise. She cried out in pain and then sat back, her leg still itching terribly. She looked around for something to be able to reach her leg and not bend while doing it and saw a hanger on the floor by the stairs. She slowly made her way off the couch, trying to keep her leg up in the air and stay on her back. She sucked in a deep breath as she made to the floor and then slinked across the floor, trying to get to the hanger. She made it about to inches before a screaming pain shot through her back and she cried out in pain again. She made her way back to the couch and then lifted herself back on the couch. She lay back on her pillow, breathing heavily, and then the phone rang. She reached over and looked at the caller ID--Rory.
"Hey Sweets!" she said, praying to all the gods she could think of that the pain she felt couldn't be heard in her voice.
"Hey Mom! I have a few minutes between meetings, just wanted to say hi."
"Hi kid, I miss you! Have you taken over the world yet?"
"Not quite, hey are you okay? I called you at the inn and Sookie said you weren't there. She sounded weird."
"I'm fine, a little touch of the flu."
"A little touch of the flu? You've been spending too much time around Grandma."
"Oh don't be ridiculous," she said in an aristocratic accent.
"What's with Grandma anyway, she called me like a billion times the other night and then when I called her back it was to ask me if I'd come home for the DAR thing in August."
"You know your grandmother, DAR is life or death to her."
There was a long pause after that and Lorelai's face started to get red, like it always did when she lied to her kid.
"Is your face turning red?" Rory asked.
"No," Lorelai countered.
"It is, I can hear it."
"You can hear red?"
"Mom, are you sure everything is okay?"
"Honey, I'm fine. I promise. Grandma is fine too."
"Did you two have a fight?"
Well, that wasn't really a lie.
"Yeah, Hon we did. I'm sorry I should have told you. Grandma was probably calling you that night to give you her part of the story." She heard voices in the backround and someone shout, "We gotta go!"
"Mom, I've got to go. Talk to her okay?"
"Yeah sweets I will okay? Go be amazing."
"Will do," she said making kissing noises in the phone. "I love you."
Lorelai felt herself start to cry but swallowed it in a hurry. "I love you too Babe," she said and hung up the phone. She looked around the big room and even with the sound of the Price is Right wheel whirring around, it still seemed so quiet.
She tried to sleep during Regis and Kelly but the itch had now made it's way up the other leg and it was pure torture. She lay back on her pillow, trying to think of anything else but the itch. Bunnies--bunnies were happy! She thought of big white fluffy cottontail bunnies hopping along in a field of daisies. They had pink eyes, just like Murray...Mom, birthday...angry..."Have a nice birthday, have a nice life, I'm going to bed." Okay...she thought to herself, think of something else. Kittens...kittens were nice and soft, Rory had a kitten when she was five years old, she named it Squeakers. Squeakers was gray with green eyes, she could think of Squeakers. Mia...Mia had given Squeakers to Rory for her birthday. "Mia, was like a mother to you," her friend had said at the wedding and her mother had flinched in pain. Try again, think of something happy. Blue skies--blue skies with beautiful white clouds--no, that was one of the songs her mother had sang to her when she was a child. Roses--beautiful pink full roses--they reminded her of DAR teas. She cursed in frustration and then picked up the phone. She was about to dial when she pushed the off button. She had been home for two days now, and her mother hadn't called once. She wished her mother didn't take everything so personally. Why should she be the one to call? After all, didn't she have the right to decide how she was going to spend her recovery time? She put the phone down and then lay back against her pillow. It was her mom's fault for pushing, for butting in and she had no intention of apologizing. If her mother wanted to call, she would call. She was probably to busy doing whatever it was she did anyway.
"Emily, you've been watering that geranium for at least three minutes, you're going to drown it," Richard remarked as he poked his head around from his newspaper.
"And how would you know that?" Emily said, pulling up the watering can and ending the downpour on the drenched geranium. She knew she had been staring off into space and was embaressed that she had been caught.
"Have you talked to Lore...?"
"I've been thinking Richard, we should redo this patio. We haven't had it redone for two years. This deck needs staining again."
"I'm sure she'd..."Richard started again.
"And this patio furniture. It's terrible Richard. We need all new patio furniture," She turned her back to him, "And trees--what if we ripped out the birch trees and put in a few oak trees. Oak trees are beautiful. We could plant some ferns and..." she felt Richard's arm slip around her. She stopped talking and bit her lower lip. He tenderly kissed her forehead and she leaned into him.
"Emmy," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her, "It's alright to worry about her."
She put her hands over Richard's for a moment and then broke out of his embrace. "Wicker," she said. "Three white wicker couches right over there," she said, briskly walking away.
Singing in the Rain came on at noon, and the itch had finally started to go away. Lorelai snuggled into the couch and watched the movie. She started to get tired and found herself nodding off. Her eyes wandered over to the side of the television where her newly restored dollhouse stood. Somewhere between sleep and awake, she heard her mother's voice calling her.
"Lorelai, Lorelai come down here," her mom was calling her from downstairs.
"What?" she shouted back.
"Just come here!"
She started down the stairs and then paused as she saw her father standing next to her mother, grinning.
"Daddy!" she shouted. He had been gone to Spain for a month. He held out his arms and she jumped into them. "I missed you! I missed you so much!"
He tenderly kissed her cheek, " I missed you too Sweetheart,"
"Lorelai, I ordered something for you in New York City and Daddy brought it home for me," her mother said excitedly, but the little girl only had eyes for her father. "Daddy, I played my piano piece for Mrs. Morgan today and she gave me two gold stars and Mrs Bridger put my poem on the bulletin board! Mary Jane said she wanted to be my best friend. Her and me are going to get matching rings at the store."
"She and I," her mother said sharply. "For Heaven's sake Lorelai."
The grammar correction went unheeded and she kept babbling on news to her father as she hadn't heard her mother at all.
"That's wonderful Sweetheart, but I think your mother has something to show you."
She turned towards her mother and for the first time she saw a tall glass case behind her. She jumped down from Dad's lap and went to investigate further. Her mother stepped away and there in the glass case was a doll house, a large beautiful house with three stories and a chimney. She walked around to the other side and there were large rooms filled with beautiful furniture. There was a living room with a Victorian sofa, minituare pictures on the walls, and a grand piano. There was a kitchen with a little stove, and a dining room with a hutch filled with tiny china dishes. The upstairs had bedrooms with curtains in the windows and wallpaper on the walls, including a nursery with a bassinet.
"Is that mine?" she asked.
"All for you Angel," her mother said.
"But, it's not my birthday and it's not Christmas," Lorelai said.
'"This is just a special present for my girl,"
She had careened into her mother, almost knocking her over, "Thank you Mommy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't wait to play with it."
"Oh, Angel this house isn't for playing with, the glass has to stay on, This is a collector's item!" she said excitedly as if she expected Lorelai to be ecstatic about that fact."
"But..." the six year old girl said as she looked at the doll house and then sighed. "Okay Mommy."
The special day came a month later, after the dollhouse had been placed in her bedroom on display. Her daddy had left on another business trip and she missed him terribly. She lay in her bed that night, staring up at the ceiling and hating two things with all of her little heart. She hated Mr. Stiles, the man that took her daddy away and she hated the simf-phony board, whatever it was, that had taken her mommy away every night that week and left her with Miranda. Miranda had warts, and slurped when she drank her coffee, and called her "Dahling," She dreamed that night that she was lost and couldn't find her way home. She had woke up crying and went down the hall to her mother's room.
"What's the matter Baby?" her mother asked, looking up from her book she was reading in bed.
"I had a bad dream," she said and her mother held out her arms for her. She ran and climbed into bed with her, and laid against her. Her mother caressed her hair and held her. She had woken up the next morning in her mother's arms, her mother smiling down on her. She snuggled up to her and her mother held her tighter.
"Guess what," her mother whispered, reaching up and caressing her hair.
"What?" she asked.
"I think we should do something today just you and me. Would you like that?" she said and the little girl's eyes lit up.
"What can we do?" she asked with delight.
"What do you want to do?" her mother asked, brushing her finger down the girl's nose.
"Can we play with my doll house?"
"And who is this? What's her name?" her mother asked, taking the smaller girl doll out of the bedroom.
"That's Missy," Lorelai said, "She's ten years old and her favorite color is pink."
"Oh alright, It's nice to meet you Missy," she said she placed her on a chair at the table and took a china plate from the hutch. "I think Missy wants some breakfast. Where is the maid?"
"Here she is," Lorelai said, walking the little doll in the maid's outfit into the kitchen. "But she needs warts."
"Lorelai," her mother said disapprovingly but smothering a smile.
"The baby's crying," Lorelai said making crying sounds.
"Oh," her mother said picking up the mother doll and walking it up the stairs, "Just a minute, Mommy's here," she said picking the little baby out of the cradle and placing it in the mother doll's arms. "Never saw the sun shining so bright, never saw things, going so right. Oh Blue days, all of them gone long gone, nothing but blue skies from now on."
"She's all better now, she's sleeping," Lorelai said.
"Okay," Emily said as she lay the baby back in the cradle.
"No! I don't want to!" Lorelai said in a high pitched voice as she picked up another girl doll and began jumping the doll up and down.
"Alright, you don't want to what?" the mother doll said.
"I don't want to wear the lace dress to the tea party next week. I don't want to!"
"I see, well I happen to think that dress is very pretty for a young lady."
"I don't want to be a young lady!"
"But that's exactly what you are, Mommy's little lady," the mother doll said and the real mommy then turned to her girl and smoothed her hair away from her forehead. "Mommy's little lady," she whispered and Lorelai snuggled up to her. "I love you Mommy," Lorelai whispered.
"I love you too Angel." They sat like that for a moment and then Lorelai broke the silence.
"I still don't want to wear the lace dress next week." she said.
"Too bad," her mother countered without skipping a beat.
Lorelai didn't know if she had been awake or dreaming but she realized she was smiling at the pleasant memory. There were many dollhouse days after that, when her father was out of town, or when she was home sick from school. One Christmas her mother had come home with a large sack from the doll store down town and they had spent hours decorating the little house for Christmas with tiny strings of lights, tiny stockings at the fireplace, a Christmas tree with little christmas balls, and even a wreath made of real pine branches. Sometimes a new piece of furniture, a new bedspread for a doll's bed, or a new set of litle dishes found their way under her pillow or in the bathtub in the morning. That dollhouse became their connection, the one piece of her mother that had belonged only to her. Over time, as she grew up and the chasm between them deepened, "Dollhouse days," became forgotten memories lost in the bitterness and anger that had been a part of them for so long. The night she had left, she had dressed the baby and although she didn't have much time before her parents came home from the cocktail party to change clothes and go to the symphony fundraiser, she had sat on the floor and looked at her dollhouse, drawing her knees up to her chest. She remembered that moment so clearly, because for just a moment, she wished more than anything that she could be a little girl again. It only lasted a moment though because she knew she was not a little girl and was never going to be again. She reached over and picked up her baby and then taking one last look around the room, walked out the door. She was halfway down the hall when she turned back. She walked into the room and took the baby doll out of it's little crib. She put in her pocket and then continued towards her future.
Lorelai sighed and twisted her fingers. It was too late, it just was. It was too late for anything but civility. There would always be Friday night dinners, there would always be holidays, but it would never be like it was before. Her mother would never really be able to let go of the past, of the fact that things didn't turn out the way that they should have. Her mother would never be able to forgive her. She lay back against her pillow and out of habit stretched out her legs. An electrifying pain shot through her body and she cried out in agony. To her great suprise, she suddenly heard pounding on the door, and heard Kirk's voice.
"Lorelai! Lorelai are you alright in there? I've been standing guard outside your door and heard shouting." he said turning the locked doorknob back and forth.
"Yes Kirk, I'm fine," she said, biting her cheek against the tears stinging in her eyes. But her unsolicited guard couldn't hear her.
"Lorelai, I'm going to break down the door in three seconds and then I will come in administer mouth to mouth recesitation...that is if you are past out."
"Kirk! You knock down that door, I'll kill you!" she cried out, doubling over in pain. The ripping pain shot through her back and she cried out in pain again.
"I'm coming in!" Kirk shouted and suddenly there was a terrible noise as the door and Kirk came crashing down together.
"Kirk?...Are you alive? Are you breathing?" Lorelai asked laying back on her pillow and swallowing a pain killer.
Kirk groaned, "I think I've broken at least three fingers," he said.
"Do you need me to call 911?" Lorelai asked.
Kirk stood up slowly and put his hand against his back. "No," he moaned as he made his way out of the newly created hole in the wall, "One of the EMT's is Lulu's old boyfriend. Whenever I'm around him I get viciously hostile. "
"Kirk?" Lorelai called. "Kirk don't leave you need help...Kirk?"
"Your door is lying on the ground," came the voice of a woman she could never remember visiting her house. "This lets in flys and dirt and unwanted boys," Mrs. Kim stated with distain.
"Mrs. Kim?" Lorelai said in disbelief. She had known this woman for almost twenty years and she picked now to come visiting?
"Yes, of course it's Mrs. Kim," she stated in a no-nonsense voice. "I would have knocked but you have no door."
"Yes, um...please come in."
Mrs Kim walked in carrying a pot of something steaming and that smelled like stale dirty socks. "Lorelai," she said. "My daughter thinks highly of you and though I have never quite understood that, I am grateful that you have been friend to Lane and so I bring this traditional Korean soup made with pork rinds, soy cheese, ginseng, and lots of barley. This is especially good for the digestive system," she said with pride.
"Wow," Lorelai said, putting on her best poker face. "That's very thoughtful of you."
"Here, you try some, best when it's hot," Mrs. Kim said smiling and as Lorelai could count on one hand the number of times she remembered Mrs. Kim smiling at her, she knew she had to take a bite. She drew the spoon to her mouth and swallowed slowly and painfully, but with a smile.
"That's...amazing," she said.
"Good," Mrs. Kim said with pride, "Eat, eat more, you need your strength.
The woman stayed for the entire bowl. She couldn't believe it. She just sat there, watching her with pride as she ate each awful bite. It felt like the time when she was five and her mother had found out she was wrapping brocolli in her napkin and tossing it in the garden after dinner. For months her mother sat there at the table and watched her as she chewed every bite of the grass tasting veggie.
"Well, Mrs. Kim...this was so nice of you, thank you so much. I'm just getting a little tired so I guess I'm going to get some sleep now." Lorelai said after the last bite was gone.
"Alright then, you sleep and I will bring you more soup at dinner. Good for the digestive system, you know, I made a triple batch! Should last you at least two weeks!" she said in triumph and moved to leave.
"Get door fixed, this lets in unwanted boys."
"Well, considering it was an unwanted boy who knocked it down the first place..." she said as Mrs. Kim walked out but she didn't hear her.
Mrs. Kim had been gone five minutes when it started. It was like anything she had ever experienced. Suddenly, it was like her blatter was going to explode. It was physically painful. She tried to get up, but immediately yelped in pain. She grabbed the phone, starting to rock back and forth.
"Hello?" Babette answered.
"Babette, good, I was wondering if you could do me a favor," she said, biting her cheek and rocking back and forth.
"Sure Sweetie, anything for you, my goodness you scared us all to death."
"Well, I really need to go to the bathroom and I can't get there by myself..."
"Oh Sweetie-doll! I'll be right there," she said and then hung up the phone.
"Maury!" Lorelai heard her screech as she ran across the lawn, "I'll be right back Lorelai needs to go potty!"
Lorelai buried her face in the blankets as Babette came running in, "Okay, doll I'm here, oopsie daisy," she said as she helped Lorelai to her feet. The pain was unbelievable. She felt tears stinging in her eyes but she was not going to cry in front of Babette.
"Just cross your knees Sugar if you feel it coming on, that's what I had to do the time when I was in Nice and I had to be like a banshee--you know I never understood that phrase, "pee like a banshee," have you ever seen a banshee actually pee? I mean, where did that saying come from anyway?"
"You're the first one I've ever heard it from Babette," Lorelai said, feeling like her bladder weighed 50 pounds.
"Here, you go doll," she said helping her into the bathroom. "I'll be right outside." She breathed a sigh of relief, and from outside the door, Babette shouted, "Wow! You really had to go didn't you Sweetie. It's like Niagra Falls in there!"
Babette helped Lorelai back to the couch and then patted her on the head, "I'm glad you're okay Sweetie."
"Thanks Babette," Lorelai said smiling.
"I guess I better go, Call me if you need anything more," she said as she walked outside. "What did you do to your door?" she asked. "Maybe I outta have Maury come fix it for ya."
"Thanks Babette," Lorelai said, "Maybe later, I'm just a little tired right now."
"Okay doll," she said blowing her a kiss. "Maury!" she shouted, "I'm coming home. My goodness it was like Niagra Falls over here!"
That was the last straw. She picked up the phone, dialed the number and waited. With each ring she got more and more impatient. Finally, her father picked up the phone and she yelled something into the phone that she had not said in over thirty years.
"Is that Lorelai?" Emily said on the first ring, "Answer it Richard and if it's Lorelai, tell her I'm not here."
"Why?" Richard asked, "Maybe she's calling to apologize."
Emily rolled her eyes, "No, Richard I meant Lorelai Gilmore, our daughter, if it's our daughter than tell her I'm not here."
"Alright dear," he said he started to pick up the phone.
"No wait," she said, "Is it Lorelai?"
He looked at the caller ID. "Yes Dear, it's Lorelai."
"You talk to her,"she said quickly.
Ring...
"Yes Dear," he responded.
Ring...
"But ask her how she is."
"Yes Dear."
Ring...
"No let me talk to her,"
"Yes Dear."
Ring...
"No you do it. You talk to her."
"Hello?" Richard said rolling his eyes at his wife.
"I want my mother!" came the shout on the other end.
Emily was out the door.