Rory gather up her worn duffle back and battered suitcase and exited the bus. Here she was back in Stars Hollow.

When had it all gone wrong? Rory wondered as she trudged towards her mother's home.

The first sign something was wrong was when Sookie had gone insane. One day she'd snapped, turning on Lorelai, complaining that she was doing all the work of running the Inn while Lorelai, "was out running around town all day doing absolutely nothing". Even worse, Sookie hired a shark of a lawyer and forced Lorelai to sell her share of the Inn, leaving Sookie as sole proprietor. It would have served her right if the Inn had failed, but surprisingly, the business had thrived. The restaurant had even been featured on the Food Network as one of New England's finest eateries.

It was bizarre that her mother hadn't been offered a comparable position at another Stars Hollow business. However, everywhere she went, the townspeople would make some excuse about not needing help. One proprietor had even said that he "couldn't afford to drive the customers away". Neither Lorelai or Rory understand that sentiment. Didn't everyone want to hear lots and lots of high-speed chatter and obscure pop references?

Unable to afford the mortgage, Lorelai had been forced to sell her house and was forced to move to a 'manufactured housing estate' located next to the railroad tracks. In retrospect, perhaps the extended trip to Europe and numerous shopping sprees hadn't been the best use of Sookie's money.

It was a shame that Richard had hired Sookie's lawyer, hidden all his assets, divorced Emily, and married a gold digger, leaving Emily virtually penniless. Even worse, he told Lorelai, "You're forty years old, I put Rory through Yale; the bank of Gilmore is closed". No more money coming in from that quarter. It had been a real come down for Emily, moving from Gilmore Manor to Lorelai's broken down trailer.

She passed the former site of Luke's diner, now a Mooby's Golden Calf franchise. Rory still didn't know why Luke had suddenly broken off his engagement to Lorelai and sold the diner to a burger chain, who promptly hired Kirk to be the manager. Sure, Luke had apparently complained that he had gotten, "Sick of Lorelai's BS", but that was impossible. Lorelai was quirky and charming, not rude, self-centered and annoying.

It was so unfair that after only one hour working the register, Lorelai had been banished to the back, just because a few customers had complained about "annoying yip-yap", and "blathering on and on about some stupid old movie". It was outrageous treatment. They were Gilmores! She thought about stopping in to visit her mother, but the last time she had, her mother's boss had bitched both of them out. Rory bridled at the memory. How dare Kirk have had a problem with her showing up unannounced, going into the food prep area, and having a nice, long, heart-to-heart with her own mother? How dare he tell Lorelai to, "get your ass in gear and start making burgers, we've got hungry customers out there".

As she made her way through the sleet, a panel truck ran through a giant puddle of slush and soaked Rory. She glared angrily at the truck, noting the Forester Construction logo. Shaking the worst of the cold, grimy liquid, Rory seethed with anger.

Years earlier, after her breakup with Logan, she had tried to re-kindle her romance with Dean, figuring that he'd make a good standby until a better prospect turned up. His reaction had stunned her.

"You strung me along for two years, broke up my marriage and then dumped me! Why the hell would I EVER want anything to do with you again?" Dean had yelled. Rory had stammered adorably, given him her best 'cute' look, but to no avail. He selfishly refused to be her boyfriend. Even worse, as she slunk away, she could have sworn she had heard him mutter something about how he must have been crazy to have spent so much time obsessed with a girl who looked like a bobble-head doll.

Could he really have become disenchanted with her? No, that wasn't possible. It was obvious that poor Dean had fallen under the malign influence of some skank. His attitude certainly wasn't the result of anything she'd done to him.

Thinking of ex-boyfriends, Rory remembered the last time she'd seen Jess. After the Dean debacle, she went back to Philadelphia to find her former boyfriend. The bookstore had a sign reading, "Closed for Good – Blame Amazon"; his apartment was occupied by a family of Somali refugees. In desperation, she looked him up on Amazon; his book was ranked #27,800 with terrible reviews. "Easy to skim" being the best one. Rory had given up on finding him, when outside the train station; she'd spotted a filthy, ragged bum wearing a hipster fedora ranting about how he was smarter than anyone else. It was Jess! Rory had made her way quickly into the station and mentally checked him off her list.

Making her way down the icy sidewalk, Rory pondered her real problem. How was she supposed to tell her mother that she had been fired again? At least Lorelai hadn't known that she hadn't worked in the newspaper field since late 2007. The newspaper business had taken a nosedive in the last few years and there were no openings in that field.

When print journalism didn't work out, Rory had naturally turned to TV news. After all, you can't be the next Christiane Amanpour without TV experience. She hadn't even gotten to the point of auditioning. As soon as she opened her mouth, the personnel at all the major networks, cable stations and Channel 52 winced at the sound of her voice. The worst was the Channel 52 news director who told her that, "no way in hell will anybody take you seriously, girlie. You sound like an eight year old and you look like a bobble-head doll". Rory was furious at the unwarranted criticism. If there had been a yacht nearby, she would have stolen it.

After a breakdown, she had reluctantly conceded defeat and decided to grace the business world with her vast talents. Rory had naturally expected to get a top paying job at a Fortune 500 corporation.

It was puzzling, even though she was a Gilmore, she kept getting turned down. It was almost as if hiring managers couldn't see her obvious superiority. For some reason, they kept harping on unimportant things such as her lack of experience, not possessing relevant skills, and her college major. Surely a journalism degree from Yale qualified her for an executive position in an investment bank, import/export firm, or stockbrokerage.

Rory didn't like to remember the next few months, applying for job after job, sometimes getting hired as a seasonal store clerk or working temp jobs. The worst was the job holding the spinning sign at a real estate open house. Rory didn't understand why those jobs never worked out. You'd think managers would want to get advice on how to run their businesses from a Yalie, but no, time and time again, she'd been unfairly dismissed.

After yet another breakdown, she'd managed to land a nearly-full time gig as a stock clerk at a dollar store. Naturally, she had kept this from her mother. It was tiring making up stories of her highly-paid job, and coming up with excuses why she couldn't help Lorelai out financially.

That had lasted until last week when she'd seen a news item about Logan Huntzberger's engagement to a Greek shipping heiress. Okay, so maybe having a screaming meltdown in the candy aisle wasn't exactly the most mature reaction to hearing about her former beau's upcoming wedding, but that was no reason to fire her. Had they no sympathy?

Worse yet, not one of her co-workers had believed her when she told them that Logan had once proposed to her. "Girl, ain't no way no rich dude ever asked you to marry him," one had said, sneering at her. "Why ain't you married him? He's rich" another had asked. They didn't understand the reasons she'd turned down the son of a billionaire. To be honest, neither did Rory. It's not as if the world abounds in young, handsome, extremely wealthy, men who want to marry the illegitimate daughter of a hotel maid. Rory had to admit she'd really screwed the pooch on that one.

She'd come home to find an eviction notice on her door. The landlord, that crass bastard, was immune to the Gilmore Girl charm. He actually expected to be paid in money every month.

So here she was, back in Stars Hollow, with nothing to look forward too other than the prospect of sleeping on her mother's sofa. Maybe Kirk would give her a job at Mooby's.

Fin