AN: Wow, I didn't expect to have much free time this week, since my sister changed her plans and didn't go to Straddie, but she was at a friend's place yesterday, and most of today so that helped. And this one was just easy. Which is actually starting to scare me, does anyone know why I keep doing stuff with the dead-beat dad's and not so fabulous mothers? Cause, I mean, my family is not like that, sure I don't live wth my mum, but it's not at all like this. I don't know where it's coming from. Oh well, just another thing we can ponder in therapy when I finally get around to going. Ummm, anywho, on with the chapter.

The title is... Yeah, I don't know why I decided to do all song titles, (damn One Tree Hill..!) but anyways, this is what I found to name it. Enjoy.

It was nice, living with this boy that she liked. Even though it had been Luke's idea to begin with, he was clearly regretting it now, and had begun watching them like a hawk. That made Rory happy too; she loved the idea of having a father-ish figure, especially after the dismal failure that was her own flesh and blood.

She was out on the couch, reading while the two males in the apartment were dozing in their beds. When Jess had first arrived at the apartment after his mother's departure, he and Rory had both relinquished all rights to the bed room. "It was his first," she said, "so he should have it." "But it's hers now," he'd replied, "I don't mind taking the couch." When they couldn't seem to agree, Rory had suggested something along the lines of sharing, but that had turned both men into sputtering, blushing, nervous wrecks, so she told them she was only kidding and the couch would be fine.

The first time Liz had seen them together, she looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. She'd even said to Luke that she'd changed her mind and wanted Jess to come with her. But he promised that nothing would happen and she finally relented again to leave her son behind. Rory had a feeling it was only because of Mrs. Kim – the woman may not have liked Liz, or Jess, but she was still able to instill fear in the hearts of just about anyone she spoke to, and Jess had spoken to her enough times to be a good, rule-following boy-wonder.

Now as she lay on the couch, listening to both males in the apartment as they snored, Rory dropped the book to the floor and reached under one of the couch cushions to remove a slip of paper.

After spending an entire week in utter shock over the whole 'I want to see my kid!' thing, and then another where she completely ignored any attempts to speak about her father, and spent as much time as she could, being happy over the whole Jess kissage thing, Rory finally pulled out a phone book and started calling motels in the area. Three days of 'Hi, I was hoping you could help me-' and 'I'm sorry, we can't give out our guest's information without their consent,' she hit pay dirt. It turned out that the girl on the phones at the Franklin hotel in Litchfield was new, and not aware of that policy.

Holding the paper with his room number, and the address of his lodging, Rory played with the corner. She been twisting it between her fingers for two nights now, still unsure if she really wanted to use the information that the very helpful and dense Brenda had supplied her with.

Christopher's room was paid up till Friday, and check-out was eleven am, which gave her three more days to make a decision, but that didn't do anything to ease her mind. Deadlines were not a friendly thing in Rory's mind, their name alone made them sound threatening and awful.

"I will decide tomorrow." She told herself, before replacing the paper under the cushion and rolling onto her side.

Lorelai was pacing.

It was a quarter to one in the morning, and she had to be at work in about nine hours, but she couldn't sleep, and she hadn't been able to for an entire fortnight.

Christopher had shown up at the diner, told Luke he wanted to speak to Rory and been ordered to leave.

As soon as Lorelai had heard that she'd been ready to drop the phone and run the distance to Stars Hollow. And Gilmores didn't run. Luke seemed to sense that impulse though, and had been quick to assure her that he wasn't going to let anything happen to Rory. And that included her father, for all intents and purposes, spoiling the progress she had made.

So Lorelai had stayed put, she'd gone to work, moved robotically through her daily tasks, and then come home to pace, day after day, she hadn't been able to stop moving, because she knew that if she did, then the urge to go to Rory would take over.

"But why shouldn't it?" she asked herself now, pausing for just a second. "I'm her mother; mothers are supposed to lift cars off their newborn babies, why can't I go be by her side now?"

Her decision made, Lorelai snatched up her wallet and keys and left the full cold cup of coffee on the table before walking out the door. She hadn't seen Christopher since about her fourth month of pregnancy, and had no desire to ever do so again, but this wasn't about her. It was about Rory, and whether or not she was willing to admit it, this girl needed her mother at the moment. So Lorelai began the walk to the subway, she'd spend all night on the train if need be, but she had to go.

There was no talking her out of that.

Rory had applied her biggest smile as she came towards the reception desk at the Franklin, ready to recite the story she'd come up with about how she was meeting her uncle for coffee before he left town, done with his business. But as luck would have it, the girl sitting there was even better than the low-wattage Brenda, she was so bored, she didn't even bother to look up from her magazine and listen, just waved Rory on, telling her to go right up.

But she wasn't sure she could do that; half way up the stairs, she froze.

There was a very small window of opportunity here, in which she could change her mind and forget about all of this, and it was about to slam shut.

"Can I help you?" a man asked as he came down the stairs, carrying a basket of laundry. Rory almost laughed at that, the idea of a male maid, but she couldn't, not really. She was too preoccupied.

"Um, no. I'm fine, I'm just meeting… I should be getting up there." She replied, before taking off, up the stairs. As she read the numbers, and realized she was getting closer, Rory could feel her pulse quicken, her palms begin to sweat. She still had no idea what she was going to do when she found him; all she'd been concentrating on was getting passed reception. The rest would come later, or so she had hoped. Either that or the two of them were just going to stand, staring at one another, until one of them bolted.

Finally standing in front of the door to room 23, Rory lifted her hand to knock. Towards the door. She thought. Move your hand. Move it, Rory Gilmore move your hand. Knock!

And then she heard him calling out. "I'm good thanks." She knocked again, not sure where her voice had gone. "I don't need any towels." After a third knock, the door opened, to reveal a slightly aggravated man, in jeans and a t-shirt. "I said I don't need- Rory. What are you doing here?"

Rory opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Chris stood watching her for a moment, and she could tell he was doing the same thing she was. The last time she'd seen him, she hadn't bothered to look at him too closely, to examine him for any similarities, because the last time she'd seen him, he was just a customer and therefore, she had no reason to believe that he would have any.

But now she looked him over carefully, wanting to take everything in, because there was a chance she would never have this opportunity again. Rory had always known that she looked a lot like her mother, the hair, the skin, the eyes; they were all passed down directly from Lorelai. Her appetite came from her too. Her appetite to learn and read however apparently came from Richard Gilmore. This man standing in front of her didn't appear to have anything she had. If they had passed on the street, they probably never would have noticed one another.

"Di- did you want to come in?" Chris asked now. Christopher? Dad? I don't know what I'm supposed to call this guy.

"Sure." Rory replied, before slipping passed him into the room. It was small, and a little musty, but pretty neat. All of his things were piled up under the window, his bed was made too; it looked as if he was ready to go now.

"So, you… ah, did you talk to-"

"Why are you here?" Rory demanded, turning on him as he shuffled his feet, nervously. She was over being nervous, her voice had returned and she was back to pissed off.

"I wanted to-"

"See me? Yeah, I caught that much through the window. Why now? How did you even know where to find me?"

"I spoke to my mom about a month ago; your grandmother, she told me that she'd gotten a call from Emily and that you were in Stars Hollow. I thought, maybe you'd want to see me."

"Really?" Rory asked, incredulous. "You thought I'd want to see you? What exactly were you expecting to find when you showed up? Me to still be the baby you left behind? Oh no, I'm sorry. Fetus. Because that's what I was, right? A fetus. The last time you were in Stars Hollow, I probably didn't even have ears!"

"No, I know, I… I shouldn't have done it this way, but I just thought that… a lot of time has passed, things have changed a lot since I was last in this area, and…"

"We don't have any money. None of us, and I'm pretty sure, that the last thing Mom wants is to get back with you, so if you're looking to get into contact with her you can just-"

"I don't want any money from you, and I know that. Your mom and me… I know I screwed up, really bad. That's not the reason that I came here."

"So why? Tell me why you suddenly decided that now was the perfect time to waltz back into my life."

"I'm sorry." Rory had to strain her ears to hear his response, but it was too quiet.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I wish I could go back and change what I did, but I can't. Can you at least tell me… Have you had a good life?"

"I'm happy. Or, at least on the way to happy, things are good for me, and I suggest that unless you want your head broken, you do as Luke told you and stay away from me and mom from now on, ok? I won't be coming back here again."

Rory turned and headed for the door. When she got outside, she had to hold onto the side of the building to support her while she took a few deep breaths. Once she felt strong enough to move again, she started to walk along the street, back to the bus stop to wait for transport back to town.

Lorelai walked inside and marched to the desk. She was determined to do this, to make sure he didn't try getting to her kid again.

"Hi, my ex is staying here, and he owes me about a billion years of child support, so I need you to forget your stupid privacy polic-"

"Lor?" she slowly turned towards the voice and did a double take. The last time she had seen Christopher, he'd been just a boy, a little over sixteen. He used to take pride in his appearance, looking just as good in an old t-shirt and jeans as he did in his Chilton uniform.

But obviously, seventeen years of guilt had taken its toll on him; as he stood at the bottom of the stairs, a duffle bag in hand, he looked much older than she knew him to be.

"What, you weren't going to stop by, say hello?" she asked, walking over to him. He put his bag down, rubbed his face wearily.

"I… thought it was best that I didn't."

"So, you just woke up and thought, 'hey, who haven't I seen in, ever? I should visit my daughter.' Well, I've got news for you Christopher, she doesn't need you. She did, years ago, but you weren't there, so I did the best I could on my own. But now she needs nothing from you, so you should just get out of here. Now."

"I already got the speech from your boyfriend, so-"

"My who?"

"Tell Luke that she came to me, alright? She tracked me down and came here all on her own. I didn't ask her to find me."

"Luke… I don't… Rory was here?"

"This morning, she didn't stay long. She told me in no uncertain terms that you want nothing to do with me. And I get it, ok? I'll just fade back into the woodwork and you can continue on with your life."

Lorelai studied him a little longer, while his words settled in her mind. "You didn't ask her to find you? Well she didn't ask for you to come looking for her either. But, you know, if you'd come to me first, maybe we could have worked something out. But you went about this all wrong."

"I'm sure if I were to come knock on your door, Luke would have a thing or two to say about it."

"What are you- Luke and I are not together." Lorelai replied, finally catching onto what he was saying.

"No? So why did my mother tell me you and Rory are living with him? You got termites or something?"

"Not that it's any of your business, Christopher, but Rory is living with Luke. I'm still in New York."

"Nice hologram," he muttered.

"I needed help!" Lorelai yelled, throwing her hands up. "Since the glorified sperm donor responsible for my kid's existence wasn't around, I went to the only father Rory's ever known."

Chris winced and Lorelai felt a tingly sensation. He deserved everything he got for walking out. "So, you guys were…"

"Fourteen years ago, yeah. But then, I guess some of my abandonment issues started to flare up and I left him before he could leave us. I- why am I even telling you this?"

"To torture me?" he attempted to joke, but neither of them laughed.

"You earned it babe."

"I know, and I'm-"

"Don't apologize again. I'm passed needing to hear that from you. Just go and don't bother her again, alright?"

"That was the plan."

"Good." Lorelai turned to leave, but Chris called her back.

"I know you don't need to hear it, but could you tell Rory that… I wish I could have known her, and I'll always regret what I did."

Lorelai didn't speak she just gave a small nod and kept walking.

Rory and Jess both sat at the kitchen table up in the apartment as Luke stood in front of them. He'd said he wanted to talk, that it was about time they laid down some ground rules, so the two of them sat, obediently waiting for him to begin.

"Ok, so here's the deal; while you're living here, you're my responsibility. Meaning I'll be held accountable for anything that happens to either of you in that time. So this is what I'm proposing, well, no, not proposing… decreeing, yeah, that sounds good."

"Can we please get the portion of this conversation where you make a fraction of sense?" Rory asked, watching Luke, amused as she reached across the table to hold Jess' hand.

"There will be none of that."

"What?" Rory looked over at Jess as he pulled his hand away. "Are you for real?"

"No hand holding in the apartment, not when you're alone. The door will remain open at all times you will sit on separate pieces of furniture, always."

"I think he's flipped out," Rory commented to Jess who just gave a small smile. He would have liked to laugh, but he respected Luke a lot, and didn't want to offend him.

"When you are downstairs, keep in mind that that is a public space where people come to eat. They do not need to see the two of you canoodling while they try to swallow their food."

"Canoodling?"

"You are both my employees, and I pay you to work, not make moon eyes at one another. If that's what you want to do with your breaks, then, go right ahead, but while you're on the clock, you will be focused. Got it?"

"I'm sorry, but who says canoodling?"

"You're grades will not slip, either of you, and if they do, then we'll have to make a few changes around here. Am I making myself clear?"

"Seriously, Luke-"

"Have you heard a word that I said?" Luke asked, fixing the two teens with a stern look.

"We heard canoodling," Jess replied, grinning. Luke just glared. "Yes, we were listening, we get it, alright? You can relax now."

"I can't relax now. I can't relax ever, not while I have the two of you to deal with."

"I promise that we'll be good, Uncle Luke. So, can we go now?"

"Yeah, get out of here." The two of them stood up and as soon as they were through the door, Rory grabbed Jess' hand again. Luke opened his mouth to say something, but then realized that he had only prohibited hand-holding in the apartment. So he stayed silent as they started down the stairs.

"Well, I'd say that you two have moved passed just working together," a voice announced as Rory and Jess came through the curtain. "You ready to tell me about it yet?" Lorelai asked.

"Mom! What… what's going on?" Rory asked, throwing her arms around her mother, forgetting herself for a moment. They'd been getting along well, but as Rory stepped back, she tried to work out if they were up to the hugging stage yet. There should be some sort of hand book for estranged mothers and daughters, she thought to herself.

"Well, considering all the crazy you've had here lately, I figured it was probably a good time for me to come, see if there's anything you need."

"Hi Lorelai."

"Hey Jess. So what's happening here?" she asked, indicating their joined hands. Rory hadn't even noticed that she had reached for Jess again. "You gonna dish, or do I have to force it out of you?" the teens looked at one another and Jess nodded.

"I'll let you guys talk." He replied before walking away.

"Am I ever going to get any girl talk out of you people?"

"Well, considering Jess' lack of being a girl, I doubt it, but, um, maybe I can-"

"Rory, you go. We'll be ok here for a bit." Luke announced, coming over to stand beside her. "Lorelai,"

"Luke, how's it going?" she asked smiling at him. He smiled too, and Rory couldn't help noticing how much more at ease they were than the last time they'd seen each other.

"Ah, well. Good, yeah. You?"

"Not too bad."

"That's good."

"Yeah, it's all great, but, if we could get going?" Rory asked and the two adults looked at her. "I could even be coerced into a little girl talk,"

"Sorry, you know how I can't resist that. I'll see you later though, ok?"

"Sure."

"What was that?" they both asked as they reached the street.

"What?" Lorelai replied, glancing over at her daughter. "With Luke? That was… nothing, just, us trying a little harder at being grown ups. But what about you? How are you doing with that whole visit from your dad?"

"I thought you wanted to talk about boys." Rory answered, looking away.

"Well, in my mind, he is still a boy. But if you'd prefer, we could talk about Jess, whatever you want. I'm here for you, a shoulder to cry on, or to hear your rambles about the pretty boy that likes you. I don't mind."

"I went to see him," Rory finally said as they reached a bench and sat down.

"Christopher."

"Yeah. I found out where he was staying and… I don't know why I did it, but I went and he was there. I told him I didn't want to see him again, and that he shouldn't try to find you. Luke did the same when he was here."

"Me too." Lorelai replied and Rory looked at her wide-eyed. "Hey, I didn't want to be left out of all the drama. He gave me a message for you."

"I don't want to hear it."

"Not even-"

"I don't need anything from him, not his apologies, or explanations. He's no one to me, so it doesn't mean anything."

"Ok, that's fair enough. So," she added after a moment of silence. "Subject change?"

"Sure,"

"What's it like living with a boy you like kissing?" Lorelai asked with a grin and Rory blushed. That was a new thing for her, it never happened in New York, but she didn't mind so much.

"Well, Luke's gone all totalitarian on us. Just gave us a huge list of rules, but I like it." Rory leaned back into the bench and started talking. Finally she and her mom were in a place where they could talk to one another about things. It was about time.

So, yeah, birthday, 4 days away, which means that, (even though I said this before) there probably won't be too much time for writing, my mum's coming back tomorrow, and then stuff is (hopefully) gonna get crazy with fun. But like I said last time, I'll try to squeeze a little scribble time in. Please review.