"Rory, what do you want for dinner?"

"Huh?" I replied, lifting my head from my book.

"Dinner. What do you want?" My dad asked again.

"Oh. Whatever is fine." I returned my eyes to the book in my hands. I heard him let out an audible sigh. I was curled up on the couch with a blanket and Howl. I had crossed out all of Jess's notes in the margins.

I had been with my dad for three weeks. I hadn't spoken to either of my moms or Jess or Luke. Lorelai had tried calling many times but I had ignored them all. Because nobody was fair with me and now I would be unfair with them.

"Ror, I love you. But you can't keep this up." My dad said before taking a seat beside me on the couch.

I closed the book and narrowed my eyes at him. "I can and I will. I will avoid them forever."

"That's not ganna work. You need to talk to them."

I groaned and shut my eyes. "My entire world got flipped upside down and you want me to play nice?"

He smiled at me slightly. "Yes. Because you're Rory Gilmore. And that's what you do. You play nice."

His words reminded me of my last conversation with Jess. How he had told me that I wasn't acting like myself. How the Rory he knew would never respond in such a selfish way. He was right. I was being selfish. I just didn't know how to handle this. I didn't know what to make of the mess my life had ever so suddenly become.

"Ror, I didn't let you live here forever. I said you could come stay with me for a couple weeks until things cooled down and things have cooled down. Now you have to go be my girl and be forgiving and understanding and accepting and trust me, they will do the same towards you."

"I don't want to." I whispered.

He cupped my cheek gently. "You forgave me, even though I lied to you too. Even though I cheated on my wife and slept with her sister and ruined everything. If you can forgive me, certainly, you can forgive the other people who love you and care for you."

Again, he was right. I had to forgive them. Hiding out with my dad wasn't going to work for the rest of my life. I had to accept it. Lorelai was my real mother. Everyone and their child seemed to know about it except for me. My dad had cheated on my mother, Jen. Jen was not my real mother.

These things, I had to accept. These people, I had to forgive.

I laid my head on his shoulder then. He kissed my forehead. I stayed that way for the remainder of the evening, trying to find the courage to do the things I needed to do. To be the girl everyone said I was, the girl I knew I was deep down inside. The kind of girl to accept her life and move on. I was a Gilmore, after all. And Gilmore's are fighters.

A day later, I called my mother, Jen. She cried and I cried and in the end, I realized she was truly doing what was best for me. And I realized how much she must've of loved me. She was willing to take in the baby her husband and sister had made together. She was willing to raise this baby as her own, to not resent the baby, but protect it. My mother may have been a lot of things, but a bad mother, bad person even, wasn't one of them.

A day after that, I was on my way back to Stars Hollow. I had to finish off the year there anyways with my mom in Paris. Walking up that front porch was terrifying. I was no longer entering as my aunt's niece, but my real mother's daughter. My mother who was so much like me that it was almost terrifying.

I knocked on the door tentatively. After a few knocks, it opened. Lorelai stood with her hair pulled back in a messy bun and tired, sad eyes. She was a wreck. She probably had been since I moved in with my dad. It just took one look. One, sad look from her to realize that I wasn't the only one hurting, that I wasn't the only one in pain. And like a tidal wave crashing against rocks by the shore, I crashed into her arms. She held me tight and we cried together. We cried for all the lies that had separated us, all the wasted years, all the pain that had leaked its way into our lives. We cried and cried until there weren't any tears left to cry.

"I loved you, Rory. You know that." She said softly, some time later at the dinner table. We each had a cup of coffee in our hands.

I nodded slowly. "Why didn't you keep me?"

She sighed and licked her lips nervously. "I loved Chris. So much. But I knew he wasn't going to stay with me. And he wasn't going to stay with Jennifer. So I knew I would be on my own. And I didn't have a job. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have a single thing figured out. And I knew that if I couldn't be the mother you deserved, that somebody else could. And I trusted Jen. I did. She wouldn't even look at me when she took you from me at the hospital. She wouldn't even look at me because she was so betrayed. And I deserved it."

I took a sip of my coffee. "Things would've been so different if I grew up here."

She smiled. "You had the better life with Jen. You did."

"She did the best she could."

"We both love you. So much, kid."

I smiled over at her. "I know. And I forgive you. It will still take some time getting used to but, I will eventually be okay with it all."

Lorelai stood up and kissed my head of hair. "I love you."

And to that, I replied something that surprised us both. "I love you too, mom."

Letters. I left him a trail of letters. The first one, I had Luke sit on his bead. This letter led to the second one, which was down in the diner. The third was hidden in the gazebo. The fourth, on my porch. The fifth and final letter? It led to the bridge.

I waited at the edge, looking out towards the water. It was a few hours before I heard him come up behind me.

"I hate games."

I smirked and turned around before standing up. "I know."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "What are you doing here, Rory?"

"Making things right."

To this, he only nodded.

"Are you upset with me?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Not really. I... I don't even care, Rory. About our fight. I wasn't even mad at you. I was mad at the fact that you were mad over something so dumb. And I realize it wasn't' dumb to you but... I would give anything to have two mothers. And there you were, complaining about it."

I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest "I'm sorry for that."

He met my eyes then and held my gaze. He spoke his next words with such gentleness. "You're going to be alright."

I smiled at him. "And us?"

He smirked. "Like I said before, I'm not done with you yet, Cali."

I giggled and launched into arms. He lifted me off the ground and spun me around. When he set me back down on my feet, his lips crashed into mine with urgency. I pulled him tighter to me, remembering his taste and smell and the feel of his hands on my hips. And just like that, my crashing world was coming back together, piece by piece.

A/N: I know its SOOO short, but I need to save some other stuff for the next chapter! We still need to deal with Lorelai and Luke! I'm sorry I didn't update for years but I am back and will update again frequently! Party hard! Review, if anyone is still with me that is!