New Beginnings

Act 4 ch 6

Rory pulls up to her mother's house with her sister in the passenger seat.

"Hey" Rory says getting out of the car. "Hi" Lorelai replies sitting in the dirt.

"What are you doing?" Victoria asks as she struggles to get out of the car. "Well, I'm gardening" Lorelai answers. "What are you doing?" Victoria repeats as Rory tries to help her.

"I got it" Victoria tells her sister.

"I'm gardening" Lorelai repeats. "What is she doing?" Victoria turns to her sister.

"Why don't you come over here and see honey, since you seem so confused" Lorelai says. "Oh, my god. She's gardening" Rory says walking over to her to see she is in fact gardening. "Yeah. Hello" Lorelai stands.

"I am gardening" she tells her daughters.

"Why?" Victoria asks confused. "Because Babette bought me a bag of bulbs" Lorelai answers.

"Why would she do that?" Rory asks. "She thought that cultivating new life would help distract me from my current emptiness and sense of loss" Lorelai explains. "Huh, well that's weirdly sweet of her" Victoria says.

"Yes, it was. Anyhow, I forgot about the bulbs til Babette brought them up this morning so I dug them out of the garage" Lorelai sticks the bag of bulbs in Rory's face.

"Ew" Rory grabs them. "Where they've developed some sort of mold" Lorelai finishes.

"This is the planet of the mold" Rory opens the bag. "Come help me" Lorelai says. "Well I can't get on the floor right now, but you two have fun with that" Victoria goes inside.

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Victoria's laying in her childhood bedroom hugging a pillow when there's a knock on the bedroom door.

"Come in" she says. "Hey, sweetheart" Lorelai walks in and sits on the foot of the bed.

"You doing any better?" she asks. "Not really" Victoria admits. "Honey" Lorelai rubs her daughters arm.

"They don't know her, everyone at Yale's just saying she was some drunk idiot. She was sober, I wouldn't have let her drive if she was drunk I wouldn't do that" Victoria says.

"I know" Lorelai nods. "It was the storm, it was that stupid storm. I could barely even see out the window" Victoria complains.

"Do you want to stay home a few days?" Lorelai offers. "No, no I can't hide. This is Yale, I just have to push through" Victoria insists. "Okay, you'll call me if you need anything though right?" Lorelai asks.

"Always" Victoria answers.

Lorelai smiles and kisses her daughter on the forehead before leaving the room. Once Victoria hears the door close she pulls a flask out from under her pillow and takes a sip.

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Only a few days pass and the girls are already back at the Gilmore house.

"Hey, what are you doing home?" Lorelai asks shocked to see them. "Well, it seems that if you leave your laundry in the machine for even two minutes after it stops, some incredibly impatient person will come and take your nice clean clothes out and dump them" Victoria answers.

"Where?" Lorelai asks. "Anywhere. The floor, the top of another dirty washing machine" Victoria lists. "My Belle and Sebastian t-shirt was in the garbage. So now, on top of a massive amount of reading and studying, I get to rewash my formerly perfect clean clothes" Rory complains.

"Well, that's just wrong. I think you should quit school in protest" Lorelai tells them.

"Okay, if you say so" Victoria says as Rory reaches for a slice of pizza from the coffee table. "Oh, no, wait. That's not ours" Lorelai stops her.