Time After Time - A Gilmore Girls Fanfic #1

Chapter 1

"What?" Lorelai's mouth hung open, her eyes fixed on her daughter. As she sat on the steps of the gazebo that morning, trying to process the news that was just dropped on her lap, she couldn't help but still see her daughter as a little girl. Rory was thirty-two years old now; why then did Lorelai feel as if her daughter was way too young to be having sex, let alone getting pregnant? "With who?" she asked, her head whipping around.

"That's... not important right now," Rory said, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

"Not important? Are you kidding?" Lorelai found herself on her feet, looking down on her daughter. "Knowing who knocked you up is pretty damn important. Almost as important as finding out what the hell the Backstreet Boys mean when they sing they want it that way. What do they really want? And in what way? Also, why are they still called Boys? You're in your forties. You're men!"

"Mom, sit down," Rory said, tugging on her dress. "You're drawing attention."

Lorelai sank back down on the steps, her chest tight, feeling as if clouds were casting a pall on her otherwise happy day. "Rory..." she began but her throat tightened up and she couldn't say more. "How?"

Rory looked down at her lap, where her hands were wringing together. "It just happened. I definitely wasn't planning on it."

"I didn't want this for you," Lorelai said softly. "I thought we'd done enough to make sure you didn't turn out like me."

When Rory looked up, her eyes were glittering with unshed tears. "I know. But, as it turns out, the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree."

Lorelai reached over and grasped Rory's hand. Her daughter was trembling—or was that her? "Oh, honey," she said with a sigh.

Rory stood up. "But you don't have to worry. I've already started making plans." She nodded, ever the optimist. "I've got it under control. I'll figure it out."

"No, kid," Lorelai said, rising to her feet. She wrapped an arm around Rory's shoulder and pulled her close. "We'll figure this out."

"But—"

"I'm here, Rory."

Rory stopped, nodded. "Thanks, Mom." In that moment, she looked and sounded all but fifteen, and it just about broke Lorelai's heart.

Then Lorelai gasped, her blue eyes going wide in an effort to add levity to the moment. "It's not the Wookie, is it?"

~

"Mom, don't tell Luke," Rory said as they walked up the porch steps to the blue Victorian house. "Not yet."

Her mother's eyebrows drew together. "Honey, you know keeping secrets is how Luke and I broke up in the first place. Remember the whole April thing?"

"I don't mean forever forever. I just mean for a little while."

"Until when? I think he'll notice when you outgrow your jeans and start borrowing his." She sighed. "Rory, it's bad luck to start a marriage with a secret as huge as this. Soon the secret will grow and grow, probably at the same rate as your belly."

Rory touched a hand to her stomach. "I know," she said in a small voice. "I just need to figure out how to tell the father first."

Mother and daughter were quiet and efficient as they showered and dressed for the faux wedding that was to take place in the town square. The real wedding had taken place earlier, when Lorelai and Luke had decided to elope at midnight. This second ceremony was for the rest of Stars Hollow, for the townspeople who had been invested in the relationship between the diner owner and inn owner since the beginning.