Disclaimer: Not mine, but it's fun to play.

Author's Note: This is for CineFille because it's long past time for me to write her a story. Thanks for being a great beta and friend and for those encouraging words that meant so much to a new writer. Enormous thanks to the betas: iheartbridges, JeSouhaite, and lulabo for all of their feedback and encouragement.

Jumping the Shark

Prologue – Early October, 2000

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Rory asked again.

"I'm sure. You don't need your mother tagging along."

"That's never stopped you before," Rory teased, which resulted in Lorelai sticking out her tongue at her. Rory grinned, then her expression softened and she added, "But seriously, we go to the movies together all the time. You should come."

"It's okay hon, I don't really feel like going out. You guys go. Have fun." She ushered Rory and Lane out the door, reminding them to eat lots of junk food, and trying to ignore the knowing and concerned look on Rory's face when she glanced back over her shoulder at her mom.

Lorelai closed the door, leaning back against it with a big sigh, relieved to be alone, relieved for the reprieve from pretending for Rory that everything was fine.

She padded into the kitchen, heading straight for the coffeemaker. The motions were automatic. She could make coffee practically in her sleep. Without thinking, she easily carried out the steps: filter, grounds, grounds-holder-thingy into machine…into the machine. Dammit! The holder stuck and in her impatience, she pushed harder and got it further stuck. Angrily she pulled at it and its sudden release caused coffee grounds to spill all over the counter and the floor.

Letting out a frustrated groan, Lorelai tossed the recalcitrant grounds-holder-thingy onto the counter and walked out of the kitchen, leaving the mess behind her.

She headed straight for the couch, curling herself up against the far arm. After a few too-long moments of silence, she reached for the TV remote and flicked it on, clicking through channels. She finally settled on a rerun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the idea of being invincible for a little while wildly appealing.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. In fact, it wasn't supposed to be at all.

She'd expected the disruption of routine, the adjustments she and Rory had needed to make - everything from where they ate to whom they mocked. Avoiding that kind of disruption had been the reason they'd started the list in the first place. But even knowing the changes couldn't be helped, she hated that they affected Rory.

She hadn't expected this feeling, this sense of being completely out of balance. She seemed unable to get a handle on her emotions. As time went on, it became even harder to hide all of this from Rory, and from Sookie.

She blamed the Chilton dad for being an attractive but disconcerting option. She blamed Al for being safe, but not at all appealing.

And in her darker moments, she blamed Rory for putting 'date' and 'Luke' in the same sentence to begin with.