A/N: Thanks for the feedback on the previous 'episode' and for the ideas for future one-shots too :) This one ties in directly to 'Paris & Rory's Prep School Reunion', though it focuses on Tori. I had the idea when writing that other fic and wasn't sure how to go about writing/posting it. This series seemed like just the right place for it and it was fun to really explore the Rory-Tori mother-daughter dynamic :)

Afterglow - 24th April 2023

Something was different. Rory saw it the first moment she laid eyes on Tori this morning, but until they were alone, she was not going to ask about it. She had a feeling she knew exactly what had happened last night, and that was why she waited until Jess went out, taking Jack with him, before she confronted her daughter. Even then, it wasn't so much a confrontation as making idle conversation. This situation did not need to be any more awkward than it already was.

"So, you had fun last night? At your friend's house?"

"Yeah. It was fun. Good fun. Fun was most definitely had."

Tori's answer was muttered and fast, perhaps a little too wordy also. Though the Gilmore girls (of which Tori was considered a part despite never bearing the name) had always been known for their fast talking and way with words, this wasn't the same thing. Tori was nervous, about to get seriously evasive, and that only confirmed what Rory already suspected.

"I'd expect nothing less," she said then, turning from the book shelf she had been reorganising to face her daughter on the couch. "You always do have fun at Dax's house."

Tori was caught unawares by the comment. She ought to have known her parents were smart enough to figure it out, but she just presumed they wouldn't try to, that they wouldn't be looking for a lie to catch her in. Not that she had lied, exactly, she had just been a little vague and non-specific about where she was staying last night. Her parents trusted her enough not to double-check details now she was almost sixteen. Maybe that made them foolish, especially since Tori took epic advantage last night. She only hoped her mom wasn't as mad as she probably ought to be about this.

"I didn't mean to lie," she said fast. "Not that I did lie exactly, unless you count it as a lie by omission, which I guess it kind of was-"

"Tori," her mom cut in fast, "I'm not mad. I probably should be, but I'm not."

"You're not?" Tori checked. "Oh, okay. You're not. Well, that's cool."

She was shaking and felt stupid about it. Running her hands back through her hair she took a breath and tried to be calm and reasonable. After all, Mom was being calm and reasonable, not mad apparently. Everything was good. Everything last night had been so good too. No need to worry, except for one thing.

"I knew if I asked you probably wouldn't let me stay over there," she went on to say, "especially Dad, and I get it, I do. I mean, we're teenagers and we love each other. You guys were in the same boat once, and hey, Jack was kind of a surprise, right?"

"Yes, he was," Rory agreed, smiling in spite of herself as she joined her daughter on the couch. "Which is why I hope you and Dax took the proper precautions last night?"

"Oh God!" Tori covered her face with her hands as she felt herself turning beet red. "I'm so stupid!"

Rory's eyes went ridiculously wide. She actually stopped breathing for a while until she reminded herself what a vital function it was. This could not be happening.

"Tori, honey, don't do this to Mommy," she begged of her, pulling on her arm until at least one hand fell away from her face. "You didn't...? You used something, didn't you?"

Tori looked at her mother and saw the panic in her face. She replayed their brief conversation in her head and realised her mistake.

"Yes!" she gasped out, shaking her head at the same time and confusing the situation even further. "No, I mean, yes. We used something. Two somethings actually, because... We did," she said eventually, knowing she was still blushing profusely and not being able to do a thing about it.

Rory sighed the biggest sigh of relief Tori ever saw or heard in her life, and honestly, she couldn't blame her mom for that one.

"I'm sorry. When I said I was stupid, I didn't mean it like that," she apologised.

"That's okay." Rory nodded, deciding not to berate her already panicked daughter for almost giving her a heart attack, at least that was what it had felt like for a second there. "But if that wasn't the stupid part...? Sweetheart, what's wrong?" she asked then, watching tears fill Tori's eyes.

"Me," she said, sniffing hard, dragging the back of her hand across her damp cheeks. "I'm wrong. I didn't... I lied to you. I was keeping things from you, and... and I said I never would. I always swore I wasn't going to be that girl, the one that snuck out of the house at night and kept secrets from her parents, but I did. I did."

"Tori, honey," Rory sighed, reaching out to push her hair from her face. "Is that all this is about?"

"Isn't it enough?"

"I didn't mean it that way. I just... Are any of these tears over Dax? Over what you two did? Because if they are, you can tell me."

When Tori suddenly burst into noisy sobs, Rory didn't know what to think. She did what any good mother would do in that situation, she pulled her baby girl into her arms and held on tight until the tears finally subsided. It took a while, but when at last Tori could speak again, she seemed ready to confess everything, perhaps even more than Rory was really ready to hear, but it was better than secrets and lies, she supposed.

"It was my idea," Tori began, curled into the couch cushions with her head in her mother's lap and face turned away. "Me and Dax, well, we've gotten close before. Close to... to really close, but it never really happened. I knew he probably wanted to, but the whole age thing made him nervous. He sees me as a woman, that's not the problem, it's that the law doesn't. Technically, if we were together, well, it'd be wrong, illegal, and it made him nervous. I know we only have a few more months to wait but I remembered what you said to me before, about knowing when the time was right and being sure you're ready. When you told me about your first time and how you screwed it up, I didn't... I knew I had to be really, really sure, and then I suddenly realised, I just was.

"I couldn't be more sure about anything than I am about Dax. I just love him, and I know that sounds crazy, and people say that you can't be in love at fifteen, but tell it to Juliet Capulet... or even you. When you met Dad, you guys were barely seventeen and he said he always knew you were the love of his life, from the first second. "Anyway, when you and Dad started seriously planning your trip to the reunion, I started to think about me and Dax, how this would be the perfect opportunity for us. His parents would be at the reunion too, there would be no-one to know about it. Arranging to stay over there was no problem, they have a gazillion rooms in that house. Even Dax didn't know what I was planning.

"It wasn't all stupid like a cheesy movie. I didn't go to the store and buy ridiculous underwear that isn't me, or light candles and put rose petals everywhere. I just... When things got serious, I didn't stop. I guess I made it pretty clear I didn't want him to stop either, but he did."

Rory wasn't sure what to think when she heard those words. Tori already admitted that she and Dax did have sex last night, didn't she? Now after all she heard, Rory wasn't absolutely certain those words were ever spoken. She opened her mouth to check, but never got the chance as her daughter continued after barely a pause.

"He said we couldn't, that it wouldn't be right. I told him it was fine, that nobody had to know about it but us, and if we wanted to then it was okay. It was weird. I always thought it was the girl who was supposed to be nervous. I guess on some level I figured he had more experience than I did, but he doesn't. He didn't. He looked genuinely scared and... and then I felt like a real bitch for putting pressure on him. I mean, if a guy is the big bad wolf for pushing a girl into sex, then a girl can't be that great for doing the same thing to a guy. I guess maybe it's just less common that way around maybe?

"Anyway, we agreed to just wind the DVD back and watch the rest of the movie. Dax had his arm around me still and it was fine. I guess I felt a little dissed but it wasn't like he wanted anybody else instead of me, he just wasn't ready. You can't be mad at someone for that, right?

"So, we watched the movie, ate some pizza, and then we wanted to work on some music for a while. Usually we'd be in the piano room for that, but Dax couldn't find the copy of the recordings we made the last time and we went up to his room to download them off the computer.

"I've been in his room before, it was no big deal, and after we talked and decided nothing was going to happen, I didn't even feel weird sitting on his bed or anything. He was getting the files from his computer, I was staring at the posters on the ceiling and I realised one was falling down so I got up to fix it. Dax got up from his desk, the chair hit the bed pretty hard and I lost my balance. It was kind of like those stupid movies where the girl falls from a step ladder and the guy catches her and they kiss, except it was a lot less graceful and probably would've been painful if it hadn't been a bed we landed on.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure what happened after that. One minute we're just lying there, laughing at how dumb we both were, and then... then he was kissing me, and... more than kissing me. I guess he needed to be the guy, to be in control, to feel okay with it, and that was fine with me."

Her voice got quieter, her hand covering a not small part of her face by the time she was done talking. Rory guessed Tori was blushing again and was pretty sure she was doing the same by now. Her baby girl was a woman, in ways perhaps a mother didn't need to know about, and yet Rory had to be glad that Tori told her the truth. It was less scary this way, even if it was a little awkward.

"So, he was nice to you?" she checked.

"Very nice," Tori mumbled. "It was... great."

Rory didn't need to know any more than those facts. That this guy was nice to her daughter and made it okay, and that they took the appropriate precautions. Well, actually, there was one other thing she just had to ask.

"So, that's all great, but I'm missing the part where you were stupid," she realised aloud. "You were safe and you... you had a good time. Why are you stupid?"

Tori sat up abruptly, tears in her eyes again.

"Because I lied to you, or I hid things anyway. I'm suppose to be grown up enough to do what I did with Dax, but I was such a tupid kid about it. You would never have behaved like that, keeping things from Grandma Lorelai."

"Oh, honey!" Rory shook her head. "As close as me and your grandma are, and have always been, I was not great at talking to her about this stuff. You know what my first time was like and how much my mom did not approve, and as for your father... Grandma Lorelai was not in any way happy about me being with Jess, either time, in any way!" she said definitely. "I'm not saying I'm happy that you kept secrets and effectively lied to me and your dad, but I'm not... I understand," she admitted at last. "I get that this is a weird topic to get into with your mother, and that you thought maybe I'd be mad or whatever, but I do understand, Tori. You can talk to me, and I will always try to be as understanding as possible, because I love you. I love you so much, and no matter how much you grow up and no matter what you do, you will always be my little girl."

She smiled when she said it but there were tears in her eyes too. Tori was pretty sure she was looking much the same as she moved to hug her mother.

"I love you too, Mom," she promised her. "Thanks for not being mad at me or judging or whatever. I didn't really think you would, I just... I don't know. It seems so stupid that I felt ready to take a step like that and then I made such a mess of it. Not just lying to you, but trying to pressure Dax, and then... Well, when I left to come home, it was... different. It felt different, after that."

"It is different, honey," Rory told her, a hand to her face. "Hopefully it's a good different, but sex always changes things."

"I get that." Tori nodded. "And it's not like I think Dax will stop loving me now or anything. I know it's not like that with us. I guess I didn't expect to feel like this. So... overwhelmed? I'm happy, I swear, I'm just..."

"Overwhelmed," Rory echoed. "I think you'll be just fine, Tori," her mother promised with a smile, "but if you ever need to talk about anything, you know I am always here. Even if it's embarrassing or seems like a weird question or whatever, I promise it's okay to talk to me. I want you to, if you want to," she clarified.

"You're the best, Mom." Tori grinned wide, wrapping her arms around her mother one more time. "But seriously, we don't have to tell Dad about this, right? 'Cause I really, really don't want Dax to die this young."

At that, all Rory could do was laugh.