Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, but I wish I were genius enough to. All credit goes to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Author's Note: This is a post season 5 finale story. I'm sure a million people are writing about what they hope will happen on the first episode of the 6th season, but I don't think anyone has hopes like mine. Enjoy.

Chapter One: Love In The Time Of Gilmore

Rory sat on the side of her new bed in her grandparents' pool house. She couldn't concentrate on anything. Not unpacking her clothes, not alphabetizing her hundreds of books, not finding a solution to all of the vulgar things that had happened that day. Her hair hung in her face, covering the gentle tears that were running down her flushed cheeks. She knew in her heart that discontinuing her education at Yale was the right thing to do. She really needed the time off, but what she needed more was for her mother to understand that.

'You don't got it.' Mitchum Huntzberger's words rung in her head over and over again. Journalism was her thing. It's all she's ever wanted to do with her life. It's what she's worked for since she was a small child. She'd always aced any essays she had to write, she was a beloved journalist on the paper for Chilton and Yale. So why did it seem like everything was suddenly working against her? Her life was so well structured. She had everything under control. Her mother was always there when times got tough. Now she wasn't. Her life felt like it was being dismantled piece by piece. First school, now her mother. She didn't know how long it would be before Logan was out of the picture, but hopefully it wasn't going to be soon.

Hold it together Rory!, she thought, trying to calm herself down. Her grandparents were there, she had them to console her. Though she knew deep down that it wasn't the same. No one on the face of the earth had ever compared to her mother, her best friend. Now her best friend was gone, and she never felt more alone.

Rory rose from the bed and tried to focus on getting her things out of the ratty cardboard boxes that we sprawled all over the floor of the pool house. She stumbled across the box that had framed pictures all wrapped up neatly in tissue paper. There was one of her and Logan at a party, one of her and Lane at one of the famous Kim weddings years ago, one of her and her grandparents, Emily and Richard both smiling, but looking uncomfortably stiff. The other six frames were filled with pictures of Rory and Lorelai. Every picture was them both honestly smiling. Never a false, put-on smirk just to satisfy the photographer. Real smiles. Rory had forgotten what it felt like to smile like that, to be so happy like that, and that made her long for her mother even more.

She placed eight of the nine framed pictures on the mantle over the fire place, and on random shelves on the book case. She placed one picture, her favorite one, on the side table next to her bed. It was a photograph of Rory and Lorelai that was candidly snapped by someone in town. It was of one of their annual snow walks. Lorelai was wearing a black peacoat, a long multi-colored scarf, and a black hat with white snowflakes sewn on. Rory had made her that scarf when she was in her first year of high school as a Christmas gift. She remembered her face when she'd unwrapped it on Christmas morning. Her face lit up with happiness and her eyes widened, taking the colors of it in. It could have been the ugliest scarf in the world, but her mother would have worn it anyway, because she loved her, and she'd do anything to make her happy. Rory wondered if she'd lost that. If they'd lost that. Their perfect relationship.

The picture was in a silver frame that said 'FAMILY' in large sparkly pink letters on the bottom. Families go through hard times, right? We're a family. A small one nonetheless, but still a family. We'll get through it, Rory thought to herself. "We'll get through it. We have to get through it." She said outloud, as if hearing the words would make it all the more likely. Rory put down the frame and walked away from the table, out the door, and into the Gilmore's backyard.

The warm air of spring swept over her face, blowing her hair away from her eyes. She walked slowly along the patio, hearing the scruffing of her boots against the warm concrete. The bickering coming from her grandparents inside the house made her long for Stars Hollow. The streets would be quiet now, it was late. Just a walk by the town square would satisfy her homesickness. She vowed that she wouldn't dare walk by her house because she knew the second she saw the familiar front door, she'd go inside crying to her mother, which she would later on regret.

Rory walked into the house, interrupted the small argument her grandparents were having, and said "Grandma, I'm going out for a while. Don't wait up."