fearlessfan: (Sam and Meg - AD)
fearlessfan ([personal profile] fearlessfan) wrote2007-07-19 01:55 am
Entry tags:

FIClet: Piece by Piece (Gilmore Girls, Lorelai)

Title: Piece by Piece
Fandom: Gilmore Girls, Lorelai
Spoilers: None beyond the general premise of the show.
Rating: PG
Summary: Lorelai picks up fragments of a future and hands them to her daughter piece by piece.
Length: 493 words.




Piece by Piece

Lorelai picks up fragments of a future and hands them to her daughter piece by piece. She finds the best parts of herself and passes them along, sometimes without even trying; her daughter’s eyes stay the same clear blue they were the day she was born, Lorelai’s own favorite feature having found its way and taken hold in Rory’s face.

Other things require more effort. She buys her daughter a Harvard sweatshirt with tips found under ashtrays when other kids her age are buying ones for themselves with money their parents earned. Lorelai picks up the smallest one the store carries, holds it against her daughter’s sleeping still frame in the stroller beside her and finds it still too big by half, and decides that Rory will grow into it. She pays the slouched-over clerk, who stares at her curiously, with crumpled up small bills pulled out of the pocket of her jeans, jeans that are finally feeling comfortable again, only a tiny bit of her stomach spilling over the top.

Lorelai buys tiny pink sneakers instead of shiny patent leather shoes, and laughs when her daughter pulls her sundress over her head while playing in their favorite secret secluded place on the inn’s estate, exposing her pale belly and hastily fastened diapers for all the world to see. She watches her daughter walk, run, explore, and almost never tells Rory to stay where she can see her; Lorelai just follows along behind her, a few steps back, watching her go.

Lorelai knows her daughter will be brilliant, since she's already the greatest kid in the world. She tells Rory this often. Rory loves the sound of her mother’s voice, and it’s sometimes the only way she can get her daughter to fall asleep. She never sings, only talks, sometimes sharing her insights on life, sometimes telling stories not about princesses and farm creatures but about mean old businessmen who grab at sassy young hotel maids and then forget to leave a tip after their three-week stays.

Lorelai knows her daughter will be brilliant, but still she decides to help it along. She pilfers books from the lost and found box under the hotel desk, borrows some books so many times from the library that eventually the librarian tells her not to bring them back, that they’ve got new editions and were going to throw the old ones away anyway. Lorelai thinks maybe the woman’s lying but doesn’t challenge it, just smiles and thanks her.

It feels a little bit awkward. She's still getting used to being on the receiving end of charity. Getting used to a lot of things, really; cleaning up other people's messes, counting change, making dinner. It's worth it, though, for the girl sitting on her hip. Lorelai shifts her arm a bit and Rory settles in against her, reaches her little hand up to rest on Lorelai's shoulder. It's worth it all for that.

.end.

[identity profile] moireach.livejournal.com 2007-07-19 02:31 pm (UTC)(link)
;aosijd;faoijdf;aoifjd;a Seeing you + GG made me shocked and psyched, and then it turns out to be THIS, teenage Lorelai with the baby which is my VERY FAVORITE THING to think about on the show and which nobody ever writes about!

Love the image of the two of them in the grass with Rory's pink shoes and diapers, Lorelai getting used to charity and hard work, how much of a kid she still is herself.

her daughter’s eyes stay the same clear blue they were the day she was born

I love how you give this fic such a great tone that this -- that she'd have a *daughter*, that her eyes are be blue seems so astonishing and perfect.

I LOVE GILMORE GIRLS AND THIS. PLS WRITE MORE. THE END.
ext_872: eye with red flower petals as eyelashes (it's a tough job)

[identity profile] bossymarmalade.livejournal.com 2007-07-20 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't like babies one bit and this still gave me a hitch in the throat. Because you write it in such a simple, lovely, straightforward way that sounds everything like Lorelai's wistful, determined teenage self; all of these little events that have carefully measured importance, because Lorelai knows they'll be significant when Rory's grown and brilliant and beautiful.

I'm absolutely enchanted at how vivid a picture you paint with just this short piece and these precious tiny images. Thank you for posting it!

[identity profile] fromchaos311.livejournal.com 2007-07-24 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
This was great! Its absolutely perfect & exactly what I would think of Lorelai as a teen mother.

How did I never read this?

[identity profile] oceanmaine.livejournal.com 2007-12-15 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude,
How did I miss this? It is full of fabulousness. LOVE IT!

[identity profile] callmesandy.livejournal.com 2008-07-27 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I really enjoyed this!!