Well, this is it. The very end of the story. Thanks for all the comments and I hope that you all have enjoyed it as much as I have. Once again, thanks to Cira for all her help!

EPILOGUE

It's hard to believe that I will be seventy-five years old this fall. It's even harder to believe that my husband is nearing eighty. We both feel so young at heart, as contrite as it may sound. I sometimes look in the mirror and I'm surprised to see my reflection. I bet all women my age say that, but sometimes I can actually forget that I've been alive this long. Every time that I open the front door and find my daughter there my heart literally skips a beat. She is a fifty-four year-old woman. My daughter could be a member of the AARP. She hates to be reminded of that, but it's true.

The past fifteen years have gone by so quickly. I now have three grandchildren. We, of course, have our oldest, Rory. She's almost thirty-nine years old. I still think of her as the fifteen-year-old girl that sat at my dinner table on Friday nights. Yet she isn't a little girl any more. She's the mother of a little girl now. I thought it was a bit silly when she announced that she was going to follow tradition and also name her daughter Lorelai, but I now think that it's rather fitting.

"Grandma ... Grandpa," Rory announced, looking from Emily's place next to her on the couch to where her grandfather was sitting in a nearby chair. "I want to give you guys something, but you have to open the boxes at the same time…"

Emily nodded, looking across the table at her husband who also nodded in agreement.

Taking the box from her granddaughter, Emily waited until Richard had his also. Slowly and carefully untying the bow, she lifted the lid. Inside was a framed photo. It only took her a second to understand the meaning of the framed ultrasound. You couldn't see anything in it but Emily's face lit up.

"I'm having a baby," Rory announced, looking from her grandmother to her grandfather. Her smile was so bright that it was almost blinding.

"A great-grandchild," Richard mused, too shocked to say anything else. His gaze traveled over to that of his wife, a smile upon his lips.

"A great-grandchild," Emily repeated, looking down at the photo in her hands.

My other two grandchildren are much younger than Rory. They're eleven and nine. The eleven-year-old, Lucas, is the spitting image of his father. He even wears the baseball cap, which I always make him remove when he comes into our home. My youngest granddaughter looks even more like her mother than Rory. She has very dark hair and pale skin. She's extremely tall and thin. At nine-years-old she is a force to be reckoned with. I must admit that sometimes it makes me smile on the inside to see her exasperate Lorelai. It's a small victory for all those times that Lorelai defied me just for the sake of defying me.

"Grandma," Laura whined, running into the living room where her grandmother and some friends were gathered.

"Lucas told me that I can't play in Grandpa's study because he's playing in there but Grandpa told me I can play in there whenever I want." She stopped at her grandmother's side, out of breath from running.

Emily turned to look at her granddaughter. Sometimes she swore that the girl was Lorelai.

"Tell your brother that I said you can both play in there," Emily soothed, tucking an errant strand of hair behind the girl's ear.

"Thanks, Grandma," Laura smiled, bending forward to kiss her Grandmother's cheek and hug her quickly.

"Lucas!" she screamed, "Grandma said …"

Emily turned to her friends, laughing as she heard Laura running down the hall, yelling out to her brother.

They still live in Star's Hollow, just not in the same house. The renovations finished when Lorelai and Luke finally married. The house was big enough for the two of them and even for the addition of Lucas. Yet when Lorelai learned she was pregnant for the third time the house was clearly too small for two adults and two children. It's funny how things work out. The house that Richard and I had planned on buying Lorelai and Luke when they were engaged the first time sold just a few months before their second engagement. Yet it went up for sale again just as Lorelai announced her second pregnancy. I didn't think that Luke would let us buy it for them, but we worked out an arrangement. They bought the house and as a belated wedding present we paid for all the renovations that were needed to fix the house.

"So, what do you think?" Lorelai asked, standing in the front yard.

"Very nice," Richard smiled. "Quaint," he added, looking over the design of the house.

"Let's go inside," Emily suggested, looking up at the arches and the shape of the roof.

Lorelai glanced at Luke, winking as she walked past him. "I hope you like what your decorator did. We kind of had to tone down her style to make the house more like home for us …" she stated, leading them up the front stairs and reaching for the doorknob.

Pushing the door open, she stepped back so that first her mother and then her father could enter. Luke slid his arm around Lorelai's waist, giving her a small squeeze as they walked inside.

Emily smiled, her head titled up as she looked at the ceiling and then scanned the room. "You did a lovely job, Lorelai. It truly looks like a home." She turned to look at her daughter who was grinning playfully at her husband.

Lorelai looked in her mother's direction. "Thanks for everything, Mom," she smiled.

"We'll make an appointment to talk about insurance next week?" Richard asked.

"You're retired now, Dad …" He looked at her pointedly. "Yes, Dad, we'll make an appointment first thing Monday morning."

Richard nodded. "It is a lovely house, Lorelai."

"Do you want to see the upstairs?" Lorelai asked, moving out of Luke's embrace and towards the staircase. Her facial features lit up as she began to explain the architectural style of the upstairs living space to her mother.

Luke looked towards Richard, the two of them trailing behind their wives. "We really appreciate everything you guys have done," Luke stated, reaching out to shake Richard's hand.

I wouldn't say that Luke and I have a "good" relationship. We don't really spend that much time alone together. However, he's my son-in-law and the father of two of my grandchildren. I've learned to accept him as part of the family. He still owns the diner. Lorelai and Sookie still own the Inn. That's why it's so hard to believe that fifteen years have gone by. It seems as if nothing has changed.

"Lorelai, we've had this discussion before," Emily sighed.

"I'm sorry, but how can the plural of cul-de-sac be culs-de-sac?"

"It just is, Mom," Rory argued.

"It sounds stupid," Laura interjected.

"Do you even know what a cul-de-sac is?" Lucas asked in a mocking tone of voice.

"Shut up," Laura spat.

"Hey!" Lorelai snapped. "Don't talk to your brother like that."

Laura frowned, poking her piece of meat hard enough that the fork clinked against the plate and everyone looked up.

"Ha," Lucas huffed.

Lorelai's head shot up again as she glared at her son. Laura looked down at her plate, trying to hide her smile over her brother's silent scolding.

Well, one thing has changed. Lorelai and I have managed to come to an understanding. Our relationship is still nothing like hers and Rory's, but we don't fight as much as we used to. I think we've finally forgiven each other. She has given me the chance to be part of my grandchildren's lives, from the beginning this time. That's a gift that I will always cherish. For my part, I've learned to hold my tongue. I've learned to keep my thoughts to myself sometimes. If I feel the urge to tell her that she is doing something wrong or that she's just being ridiculous, I rarely express the sentiment. I must admit that it isn't always easy, but I remind myself that my daughter has accomplished quite a bit without my help. She's done very well for herself. So perhaps she doesn't always need my suggestions, even if they are from my heart.

"Lorelai," Emily smiled, opening the front door. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by."

"Well, come in," Emily stated, moving out of the doorway. "Where are the kids?"

"Laura is at softball practice and Lucas is with his father."

"That's nice. You need a day to yourself sometimes." Emily closed the door, following her daughter to the living room.

"Yep," Lorelai smiled, turning around to face her mother. "Are you hungry, Mom? There's apparently some new place around the corner that serves a fabulous lunch…"

Emily had to stop the confused look that was about to spread across her face. This still felt new, her daughter dropping by the house for no reason. It still felt strange and unfamiliar. Yet it felt good too. It felt like the way things were supposed to be.

I look across the dinner table at my husband. We have to extend the table on Fridays to fit the family. There are now nine of us. We don't have dinner together every Friday, but at least once a month. As I sit around the table with my family I always remember the first dinner that we had when Rory was fifteen. That was twenty-two years ago. It still feels like yesterday – only this time I know that dinner won't end with a fight.