All I Want

Simple or Complex

Hearing a light knock on her door, Rory sat up in bed. "Come in," She said clearing the sleep from the corner of her eyes while trying to hold back a threatening yawn.

With that invitation Lorelai opened the bedroom door and entered. "Morning sleepyhead."

"Morning. What time is it?" Rory asked.

"Still early 6:30 am," Lorelai said going over to sit on the bed beside her daughter.

"Is everything okay?" Rory asked clearly confused by her mother's early morning visit.

"Everything is fine. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after your little hospital adventure yesterday."

"Actually it just ended up being a minor sprain," Rory said pulling back the blanket that had been covering her bandaged ankle.

"Oh, well that's good, my mother and your school nurse left messages that made it sound like you'd experienced an end of world catastrophe level accident."

"Miss Gilmore please call me back immediately it is regarding your clumsy daughter - she has taken a major spill in the hallway and is going to be flown via helicopter to the nearest emergency room where surgery will most likely be needed," Lorelai said doing her best interpretation of Nurse Drake.

Rory laughed at her mother before answering.

"She didn't say any of that, you are being a drama queen as usual."

"Well no it was more like your kids hurt, get to school...but my version doesn't make you want to change the channel as much," Lorelai quipped.

"No, but I do want to change the subject," Rory interjected.

"Fair enough, what would you like to talk about this fine morning?" Lorelai asked.

"I would like to know why Dad was asleep on the couch when I got up to get a glass of water last night." Rory said.

Lorelai hesitated a second before answering. There was more than one reason he was there and she was hoping to get away with giving out as little info as possible.

"He came to see you...you weren't here, so we went out for some dinner and we had a few drinks. I did not think it would be safe for him to drive so I offered up Bertha for the night."

"Ok, but why was he here to see me?" Rory asked needed a more detailed explanation. Visits from her dad were rare and usually with a very specific goal in mind.

Clearly Lorelai wasn't going to get away with the stock answer she'd tried giving, she was going to have to come clean.

"He's here because I made him worry about you, and that is the truth."

Rory was touched that her dad would worry about her enough to come see her, but confused as well.

"Ok, what is he worried about exactly...cause I'm fine."

Lorelai took a deep breath. "He's worried about you and Tristan. He knows about boys like him and he wanted to come to Friday night dinner at the grandparents to protect you."

Suddenly everything was a lot clearer to Rory. Her mother was crazy and she was dragging her father into her psychotic behavior.

"Mom, this is nuts. I don't need dad to protect me."

"I don't think you have a choice sweetie...he's got dad rights and I can't stop him from exercising them as he sees fit."

"Well I can," Rory said throwing back her covers and getting out of bed. Slowly she hobbled towards the door, turning back to her mother just before exiting.