Title: Chances and Choices
Author:  Megan Reilly
Rating: PG
Summary: It's better to take a chance and have it turn out bad than spend your whole life wondering what might have been.
Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino, the WB, etc.
Archiving statement: OK for Mystic's archive. Other archives, NO. Please do not archive this story without my permission.

Lorelai looked at the flannel shirt which lay, carefully folded, on top of her dresser, ready to be returned to its rightful owner. Except she wasn't quite as ready to let it go. Not quite yet.

"Rory, come on!" she called as she walked down the stairs. "I'm driving you to school."

"I can take the bus," Rory said. She was sitting in the living room, paging through one of her school books, her oxfords up on the coffee table. She didn't look up.

"I said I'm driving you. Come on, let's go," Lorelai ordered, standing in the middle of the room with keys in hand, waiting for Rory to close the book and jam it into her already stuffed backpack.

"What about breakfast?" Rory asked innocently, still not looking up from her obviously fascinating studies.

"We'll grab something on the way," Lorelai said.

That's when Rory looked up. "You can't avoid him forever."

"Who's avoiding?" Lorelai asked, too casually. She hated to do it, because it felt like she was lying to Rory, the one person in the world she would never lie to. "I don't want you to be late. And I have the feeling Headmaster Charleston's going to want to talk to both of us."

"Wouldn't want to be late for that," Rory muttered, finally closing the book and putting it away. But she didn't get up. "Mom, we should talk about this."

"There's not really anything to talk about."

"What were you and Luke doing in the storeroom?" Rory asked.

"Probably the same thing you and Jess were doing at the Mark Twain house," Lorelai replied.

"I've never kissed Jess," Rory said quietly, and for some reason it felt like a big admission.

Lorelai sat down on the couch opposite her. "How do you feel about that?"

Rory shrugged, looking away.

"What about Dean?" Lorelai asked. Rory still didn't say anything, still didn't meet her eyes. "It's okay if you break up with Dean, you know," Lorelai said. "You're still so young and --"

"What's being young got to do with anything?" Rory demanded.

"I just meant -" Lorelai backtracked, knowing she'd said the wrong thing.

"My feelings are just as real as yours. Age doesn't have anything to do with that," Rory said.

"I know that, sweetie," Lorelai said. "It's just that I know you haven't really done this before, and that's hard."

"But I have broken up with Dean before," Rory said softly.

"Are you going to break up with him again?" Lorelai asked, in just as soft a tone. Almost holding her breath for the answer.

Rory shrugged her shoulders. "You don't want me to."

"I want you to be happy, Rory. That's the only thing I've ever wanted," Lorelai told her.

"Why does it have to be so hard?" Rory asked, picking at invisible lint on her plaid skirt.

"I don't know, babe," Lorelai admitted. "I sure as hell don't have it figured out."

"What are you going to do about Luke?" Rory asked, looking up.

Her daughter's intense scrutiny made Lorelai feel as though the tables had turned. "I don't know," she said honestly.

"Luke's a really good man," Rory offered helpfully.

Lorelai nodded, then sighed. "I know," she said. "I know." She opened her mouth to ask Rory what she thought she should do, but when she looked up, Rory had gotten to her feet and put her backpack on. She was ready to go to school now, so the question never got asked. "Maybe you should take the bus today," Lorelai said.

Rory nodded, and started toward the door. But she looked back before she got there, and her path circled back to Lorelai, who she put her arms around and hugged, hard. Lorelai couldn't help smiling, and Rory smiled back. "Have a good day, Mom," Rory said, and then headed out, letting the front door bang closed behind her.

Lorelai took a deep breath and left the house.

Jess was perched on the back of the bus bench when Rory got there several minutes before the bus was expected. She hesitated. Her first instinct was to avoid him. But she turned her head and saw Lorelai going into the diner. Rory straightened her shoulders and continued along her path to the bus bench.

"You were responsible for shutting them in the stockroom last night," Rory said.

"Who?" Jess asked, but he was smiling. Rory raised her eyebrows at him, and his smile faded. He slid down to sit next to her on the bus bench. "Some people need a shove in the right direction."

"Who appointed you to do the shoving?" Rory asked. As she waited for an answer, Jess just stared back at her with clear eyes. "What?" she demanded, and knew instantly that she shouldn't have, because the look in his eyes changed. He moved in to press his lips against hers. They only made contact for a single second, before Rory drew back, jumping to her feet. "The bus is here."

She got up and joined the line of riders, fumbling for her bus pass. When she looked back, Jess had disappeared from the bench. But beyond that, on the lawn on the high school, she saw Dean. Their eyes met and she knew he'd seen the entire thing. He shook his head slightly and turned away, to go into the school as the first bell sounded. Rory put her head down and got on the bus.

Lorelai walked up to the counter. The diner was fairly busy, and there were no counter seats available, so she just stood. It took a few moments for Luke to look in her direction. "Coffee to go?" she requested.

He leaned against the counter. "It's danish day," he pointed out.

"Just the coffee, Luke," Lorelai said.

He started to say something -- perhaps to point out that danish day was her favorite and that she should have a pastry, too -- but stopped, and instead poured coffee into a paper cup and stuck a plastic lid on top. Lorelai reached for it before he'd finished with the lid, and their fingers brushed. He withdrew his hand immediately.

"Sorry," she said.

"Lorelai, about yesterday --" Luke began, but when he met her eyes, he stopped.

She nodded. "About yesterday."

"Don't feel like you have to --"

"I don't," Lorelai said.

Luke nodded. "Good." Another moment passed between them.

"Anyway, I was walking past the movie theater and noticed they've got some weird foreign double feature playing tonight," Lorelai said quickly. "So I was thinking --"

Luke frowned. "Are you asking me out?"

"Not quite. Let me finish," Lorelai requested, then took a deep breath and picked up where she'd left off. "So I was thinking that you probably
hate foreign films and I only like to go if I can make fun of them, which drives Rory crazy, because she's a strange alien child who likes foreign films, so maybe I could let her know about it and give her some money for some popcorn and an extra ticket so she wouldn't have to go alone, and you and I could watch a real movie. At my house."

"What constitutes a real movie?" Luke asked, as though it was what his decision would be based on.

"Rambo? Titanic? Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?"

Luke's eyebrows rose, but the grin that had been forming finally broke out. "Titanic?" he asked, as though it was unfathomable.

"It was just a thought." Lorelai diverted her attention to making sure the lid was firmly on her coffee cup before she picked it up.

"That sounds nice," Luke said.

Lorelai looked up, slightly surprised, because she'd been convinced he was going to say no after all that. "Nice," she repeated.

Luke nodded. "What time?"

"Eight?" Lorelai suggested.

"I'll get Cesar to watch the diner," Luke offered.

"Eight it is," Lorelai said. Wishing her feet would begin to carry her toward the door, but she just kept standing there. "Bring Red Vines."
That must have been what her feet had been waiting for. She flashed him a grin and sipped her coffee on her way to the door. Her smile still hadn't faded even as she rounded the corner, well on her way to work.

This was going to work out okay.

Maybe even better than okay. Although that remained to be seen.