so, well, A.J. has TWO mommies
Apr. 21st, 2006 02:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wizened_cynicBackground information: This fic is set in the universe where Alex and Lorelai switch places, and Alex has a baby at 16. I'd explain more, but it would take forever, so just read it. I'll answer questions later. The fic is narrated by Alex's daughter, A.J. Cabot, age 10, and it's Alex/Lorelai with overtones of Alex/Elliot and Elliot/Olivia. Fin, Munch, Casey, and even Liz Donnelly make guest appearances.
Ten Important Events in A.J. Cabot's Life
1.
She was born on May 9, 1985. Being born is probably the most important event in everybody's life, so it makes the list, even though A.J. does not actually remember being born.
*
2.
She does not remember being named either, because it happened a few hours after being born. Every year, when A.J. has her birthday, she gets a phone call from Lorelai, who is like a fairy godmother, only without the wings and power to turn pumpkins into horse-drawn carriages. Lorelai is the one who named A.J., and every year she calls and tells A.J. the story of how she got named.
It always starts with Lorelai explaining how she met A.J.'s mom by the vending machine in the hospital after A.J. was born. "So there I was, talking to the vending machine --- sometimes it's important to talk out your problems, A.J., unless you are taking tae kwan do lessons; then you can fight it out --- and your mom came and started looking at me like I was crazy."
"You are crazy," A.J.'s mother would shout into the phone, but she smiles with her whole body when she does, and A.J. wishes Lorelai would come visit them more often.
*
3.
She was just finishing preschool when her mother got into law school. They spent weeks waiting for the mailman to deliver the package from Columbia. They already had the package from NYU and Cornell, but Mom really, really wanted the package from Columbia.
"I like NYU," A.J. said. She was sitting on the fire escape and her feet were dangling between the rails. She could slide her sandals off but if they hit Kressler, who lived on the first floor and who Munch said was stealing their electricity, she would get in big trouble.
"No, we want Columbia," her mother said.
A.J. didn't ask why, but she knew this was very important, so she walked downstairs to the mailbox and yelled, "Get here soon, you stupid package!"
The next day, she was sitting on the fire escape again, waiting for Mom to come home from school (NYU, which A.J. liked, because she liked the Village, because there were interesting people in the Village, like the man who had a wooden leg and went around jangling a cup full of change and asking if A.J. had met Jesus, which she had not), and Kirk the mailman arrived and asked, "Which Alexandra Cabot are you?"
A.J. said, "The Alexandra Cabot who never gets any mail because I am five."
"In that case, I have something for your mother."
It was a fat package and A.J. sounded the words out loud. CO-LUM-BI-A U-NI-VER-SI-TY.
Her mother was going to be a lawyer.
*
4.
She was in the Christmas play in first grade. Lorelai promised to come and watch, and make her angel costume, but a few days after Thanksgiving, Lorelai called and said, "Guess what? I'm getting married!"
A.J.'s mom said, "WHAT?"
"I'm getting married, Alex! Aren't you happy for me?"
"Wait, wait, when did this happen?"
"Last night. Christopher proposed and I said yes. It was so romantic. I know you think Paris is clichéd and everything, but you won't believe the kind of stuff they sell in the flea markets here. I saw a whole set of human teeth for sale. Of course I didn't buy it, because, why would I? That's gross. The portions of food are way too small, but the cheese! Do I want me to go into detail about the cheese?"
"No, Lorelai, I want you to go into detail about your wedding."
"I know it's sudden, but it just feels so right, you know. We're going to Prague. It's the new Paris, apparently. You're invited. It's in two weeks."
"Wait," A.J. said, from where she was eavesdropping on their conversation on the other phone, "Lorelai, you're getting married? Does that mean you won't be coming to see my play?"
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry," Lorelai said. "But you know what? You can come to Prague and be my flower girl. You'll love it here. You'll steal the hearts of all those European boys, and you'll love the hotel, and you'll love Christopher."
Even though Lorelai sounded really excited, A.J. didn't believe her.
"So, what do you say?" Lorelai said. "When can you two get here?"
"We can't," Mom said. "I have school. I have a job. I have a kid. We can't just drop everything and go to your wedding."
A.J.'s mom was angry and sad when she hung up the phone, but she was trying not to seem like she was angry and sad, which made A.J. even more angry and sad. "I am glad," A.J. told her, "that we are not going to her stupid wedding. I do not want to be a stupid flower girl anyway. And I do not like Christopher. I wish Lorelai wasn't getting married. I wish Lorelai would come back and stay with us forever."
Her mother just sighed and rubbed the side of her head. "Lorelai's getting married. We should be happy for her."
"Well, I'm not," said A.J. "Are you?"
*
5.
A.J. didn't believe in the tooth fairy. She didn't believe in Santa or the Easter bunny either, because Munch told her the truth about them, and they were a conspiracy. A.J. knew her mother was the tooth fairy, and her mother knew she knew, but they both pretended they didn't know, because it was more fun that way.
A.J. lost four teeth before the tooth fairy forgot to show up. She let it pass the first time, but the tooth fairy missed her twice more and she got sick of waiting --- she wanted new stickers for her sticker book, geez --- so she said to Mom when Mom came home from work one night, "The tooth fairy forgot to visit me again."
Mom was annoyed. "Well, the tooth fairy is probably too busy studying for the Bar exam." Then she sighed and said, "Maybe the tooth fairy will visit later when she isn't so swamped with school."
"I am swamped with school," A.J. said.
"Your homework consists of adding single digit numbers."
"And I am very good at it." A.J. stuck her tongue out without even needing to open her mouth. That gap where her top teeth used to be sure was useful. "Fine, but I think I am going to be charging the tooth fairy interest."
Mom gave her a funny look and said, "Who have you been talking to? Munch?"
"Maybe."
A five-dollar bill showed up under A.J.'s pillow the next morning. It was more money than she ever had in her life, and she carried it around in her pocket for a week before she spent it on sourkeys and silver cola balls she scooped from those plastic buckets at the corner store. Her mother made her share them with Jess, who was Luke's nephew, even though A.J. hated Jess because he always stole her books.
But she did it to make her mother happy, because even though A.J. didn't believe in the tooth fairy, she believed in her mother.
*
6.
A couple of weeks before she turned eight, her grandpa got really, really sick. This was her mother's father, not her father's father, who was dead, and A.J. never knew him, so that was okay. A.J. knew her dad's mother --- he took her to visit Grams whenever he came home from the Marines -- and Grams was nice the way grandmothers usually were. She was fat and wore stretchy pants and smelled like fresh bread.
A.J. never met her mom's parents. Well, she did --- she lived with them when she was a baby --- but she didn't remember them at all, so it didn't count. She hadn't seen them since her mom took her to New York. All she knew was that her grandpa got a private investigator who watched A.J. and her mom, and reported back whatever he saw to her grandpa. Once, A.J.'s mother shouted at the private investigator, "Tell him that if he wants baby pictures, all he has to do is ask!"
Anyway, one night when they were watching Beverly Hills 90210, which was Casey's favorite show, the phone rang and it was A.J.'s grandma, calling to tell Mom that Grandpa was in the hospital. He had a heart attack and he might die, and Grandma thought he might like to see Mom before he did.
So A.J. went with her mom to Connecticut, and when they got to Greenwich, it was way past her bed time, but Mom didn't care. She told A.J. to do her homework in the waiting room, and to keep practicing her spelling words, because A.J. missed "February" on her last spelling test, and Mom got mad.
A.J. had finished learning all her spelling words and was watching Seinfeld, which she didn't think was very funny, when Grandma came in and said, "Hi."
A.J. said, "Hi."
Grandma said, "I'm your grandmother."
A.J. said, "I know."
Grandma started to cry into her hand and A.J. found a balled up kleenex in the pocket of her jeans and she gave it to her. It had pencil shavings stuck on it but Grandma didn't seem to mind. "How did you get here?" she asked, and A.J. said, "We took a bus."
Which was the wrong answer, because Grandma grabbed her and took her into a room where Mom was sitting beside a old man in bed, an old man with gray skin and tubes sticking out of him, and Grandma started screaming, "Alexandra, you took a bus here? You put your daughter on a bus? You can't take the bus! DRUG DEALERS TAKE THE BUS."
A.J.'s mom said, "Oh, for god's sake, Mother."
A.J.'s grandpa said, "Are you trying to give me another heart attack, Evelyn?"
A.J. said, "We used to live with a drug dealer. We still do. Except he's not a drug dealer anymore."
If her life had been a TV show like Full House, everyone would've thought that A.J. was funny and charming, and they would laugh and hug and give her chocolate and everything would turn out all right. But instead, her grandmother and grandfather and mother started yelling at each other, and on the way home A.J. slept in her mother's lap, even though her mother was annoyed that she'd told Grandpa and Grandma about Fin.
But they started speaking again, her mother and her grandparents. And that was the important thing.
*
7.
Lorelai came back the summer between second and third grade. She just showed up one morning while A.J. was watching cartoons and eating cereal straight from the box like her mom told her not to. A.J. was mad at her mom because Mom wouldn't let her get her ears pierced.
"You have your ears pierced," A.J. said, pointing.
"I have a law degree from Columbia," her mother said.
"It's not fair. Dad has a tattoo. Dad has two and you don't yell at him."
"I'm sure your Grams yelled at him when he got them," said Mom, and when A.J. asked her dad about it that weekend, her dad said yes, his mother wasn't very pleased about his tattoos either, and also that he would ground A.J. forever if she got a tattoo.
When Lorelai arrived, her skin tanned from being in the Caribbean, where she drank pina coladas and went swimming all day, she said, "Hey, kiddo, sorry I missed your birthday. I'll make up for it now. You can have anything you want."
"Really?" A.J. said.
"Cross my heart and hope to die." Lorelai crossed her heart, and A.J. took her to the mall, where they went to Claire's and had A.J.'s ears pierced.
"Oh, your mother will kill me," Lorelai said. "But those look great on you."
A.J.'s mother did not think the earrings looked great on her. In fact, A.J.'s mother took one look and, just as Lorelai predicted, tried to kill Lorelai. "Lorelai Gilmore," Mom screeched, "why do you keep teaching my daughter to undermine my authority?"
"She just wanted her ears pierced, Alex," Lorelai said. "I'm not teaching her to smoke, or drink, or get into cars with strange boys."
"Look, if you want to play mother to somebody, you and Christopher should go have your own child. Leave mine out of it."
"Christopher and I," Lorelai said, sinking deeper into the couch, "are over."
A.J.'s mom stared at her for a long time. "What happened?"
"He cheated on me." Lorelai shrugged and stuck her hand into the cereal box A.J. had left on the coffee table.
"While you were pregnant?" Mom's voice raised an octave. A.J. knew because she played piano, and sometimes she had to stretch her fingers to play the chords, and it hurt.
"What?" Lorelai looked confused. "Who said anything about being pregnant?"
"You did. Last time you called. You said you were eight weeks along."
"Oh." Lorelai munched a handful of Alpha Bits. "Oh, that. That was bull. I just made it up to piss you off."
A.J.'s mom didn't say anything. She looked tired.
That night all three of them slept in the same bed again, like they did that one summer a long time ago, before A.J. was able to remember. There was less room now, because A.J. wasn't a baby anymore, but they all fit.
The next morning, A.J.'s ears were red and oozing, and Mom said, "I told you so."
*
8.
She remembers the day her mother got the job at the DA's office. It was a Thursday, which meant Ms. Maddox's third grade class had art in the afternoon. They were making butterflies out of paper plates and pipe cleaners. A.J. liked to put lots of glitter on everything, because Lorelai said glitter made everything better, happier. Jess Mariano, who was a buttface, was taking the pipe cleaners and holding them between his teeth like they were fangs, and he was running around the room pretending to be Dracula.
"You are so immature," A.J. shouted when he nearly knocked her over.
"You're immature, Apple Juice Cabot," Jess shouted back.
"No one's laughing. No one thinks you're funny, butthead," shouted A.J., and Ms. Maddox was about to order them both to a Time Out when A.J.'s mom walked into the classroom.
"A.J." Mom was wearing her work clothes --- she articled at Benedict, Lee, and Morrison, but she didn't write articles, so A.J. didn't really know why it was called articling --- which meant she'd come straight from work. She was grinning like a pumpkin on Halloween, and A.J. knew what that meant.
"Mom! You got the job!" A.J. screamed, and ran toward her mother. She slung her arms around her mom's neck. "You got the job! You got the job!"
Someone said, "She's your mom? She looks like your sister."
"Hey, shut up, " said Jess, who was in love with A.J.'s mom and wanted to marry her. "Congratulations, Alex," he said, smiling. He was probably thinking of marrying A.J.'s mom again, so A.J. said to him, "My mom is going to be a prosecutor now, Jess Mariano, so if you steal my books again, SHE WILL PUT YOU IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR."
"Lethal injection," Mom whispered in her ear. "And stealing books isn't a capital offense."
Ms. Maddox heard and kicked them both out of the classroom. Mom decided A.J. could leave school early and celebrate, which was a surprise because Mom usually never let her miss school. A.J. had a hundred degree fever once and she still had to go to school.
"It's not like gluing construction paper together is going to be of any use to you in the future," Mom said, and helped A.J. pack her backpack.
They called Fin and Munch and Casey, and even Professor Cragen and Liz Donnelly, Mom's boss, and they had dinner at Tavern on the Green. That night A.J. tried to call Lorelai, but the number Lorelai gave them last time she visited was out of service, which meant they wouldn't be able to find Lorelai again until she suddenly showed up the next time.
Otherwise, it would have been a perfect day.
*
9.
A.J.'s father got married when she was nine. He told her at the penguin tank in Central Park, which was where they always went whenever he had something important to tell her. When A.J. was a baby, he was in training with the Marines, so he never got to see her until she was two, and the first time he met her, they went to the penguin tank at Central Park, so it became a tradition between the two of them.
"Cool," said A.J.
"I'm asking for your permission," Dad said. "If it makes you uncomfortable in any way . . ."
A.J. rolled her eyes. Grownups always said they'd ask for your permission, for your opinion, but when you gave it to them, they mostly ignored it and did whatever they wanted to do in the first place. She really didn't mind that her dad wanted to marry his girlfriend though. She liked Olivia. Olivia was a cop and had a gun and beat A.J.'s dad at Street Fighter, and always helped A.J. when she got stuck in the underwater levels in Super Mario Brothers.
Olivia was more interesting than Kathy, who was really kind of boring.
"Marry her, Dad," A.J. told him. "I think it'd be awesome."
Dad hugged her and took her to have dinner with Olivia, who hugged her and told her she didn't have to be a flower girl. Which was good, because A.J. was too old to be a flower girl, and because she looked like a cupcake when she dressed in white.
A.J. went home and told her mother the news. She expected Mom to be sad, maybe just a little, but Mom seemed happy. She was so happy that she called Dad and congratulated him, and when she saw A.J. slumped on the table, her face smeared with pencil from her handwriting practice book, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just thought, I don't know, maybe you wouldn't be so happy."
Mom said, puzzled, "Why wouldn't I be happy?"
"Because Dad's getting married. Doesn't that make you sad? You won't be able to get back together with him anymore."
And then A.J. realized that she wanted her mother to be sad, because she herself was sad. A little. When she was little she'd always imagined that someday, her parents would fall in love again, even though she knew it was never going to happen. She just wanted two parents, like everybody else, someone to play good cop and someone else to play bad cop.
A.J.'s mother was bad cop all the time.
Suddenly, A.J. missed Lorelai. She missed Lorelai so much her chest felt hollow and she wanted to call Lorelai and hear Lorelai's voice, except her number was still out of service, which made A.J. want to cry. A.J. loved her dad, but he wasn't Lorelai; she loved her mom, but she wasn't Lorelai, and she just really, really wanted Lorelai this very minute.
"I'm sorry," A.J.'s mom said quietly. She put her hand on A.J.'s back. "Your dad and I . . . it was a long time ago, A.J. We lead very different lives now. I don't think we'll ever get back together. I know you're rooting for us, but it's not going to happen, and we should be very glad that your father is happy with Olivia."
"I am," A.J. said, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "And I wasn't rooting for you and Dad, Mom. I was rooting for you and Lorelai."
*
10.
A.J. is woken up on the morning of her tenth birthday by somebody pounding on the door.
"A.J." comes Fin's sleepy voice. "It's for you, baby doll."
A.J. creeps out of bed, nearly stepping on her mom, and takes the phone from him.
"Hey, guess whose birthday it is?"
"Lorelai!" A.J. shouts, and for a minute she is so glad to hear Lorelai's voice she forgets to be mad at her. "You remembered!"
"When have I ever forgotten?"
"Wait." A.J. looks at the clock, which says 6:23. "It's not my birthday yet. I wasn't born till four in the afternoon."
"Well, it's past your birthday here, in Rome."
"Oh." A.J. tries not to be disappointed that Lorelai isn't going to show up for her birthday. She tries to be grateful that Lorelai remembered to call, but there was a part of her that had been so sure for the last few weeks, that Lorelai would surprise her.
She is turning ten. She's moving into the double digits. She deserves a surprise!
"So, ready for the story of how you became Alexandra Cabot, Junior?"
"Always."
"Many moons ago, on this very same day, only not in Rome . . . "
A.J.'s mom has her birthday three weeks later, and Lorelai doesn't call. Mom has two parties, one at work where they eat cake on paper napkins and talk about their cases, and one at Luke's, complete with a giant chocolate cake Sookie baked. A.J. spends the whole evening looking at the phone, hoping Lorelai would call, willing Lorelai to call, and she knows her mother is doing the same thing, even though Mom doesn't glance at the phone once.
Mom doesn't even like triple chocolate fudge; Lorelai does.
So Mom really thought Lorelai would show up.
Another couple of days pass, and nothing. Nothing nothing nothing and A.J. is mad, A.J. gets so mad, she says to Mom, "Oh, who needs her? We don't," and Mom agrees.
Then they hear the news: Lorelai disappeared in Thailand during a hurricane, and no one has been able to contact her since.
A.J. says, "What is she doing in Thailand? I thought she was in Rome!"
Her mother says, "Oh, Lorelai, if only you'd just stay in one place." She shakes her head and goes back to her paperwork, and A.J. is stunned.
"You're not going to go find her?" A.J. asks.
"What am I going to do, jump on the next plane to Thailand? I have work. The penalty phase of the Lawson case starts tomorrow."
"Aren't you worried?"
"Lorelai can take care of herself," Mom says, which is a total lie, and even A.J. knows it.
Neither of them sleep that night. They blame it on the heat.
A.J. follows her friend Lane to church on Sunday, and tries to plea-bargain with God. "Bring Lorelai back safely," she whispers in her head, her hands clasped together and her head bowed in prayer. "Please, God, if you bring Lorelai back, I'll clean my room, and stop talking back to Mom, and never get a tattoo, ever."
Either God really liked the deal, or he really didn't want A.J. to get a tattoo, because she and Mom come home that night after dinner at Luke's, and there she is, Lorelai, sitting on the front steps of their building, her chin on her knees. She has leaves stuck in her hair, and her suitcases are littered all over the yard.
"Hey," she says, "think I can come in and take a shower?"
"Lorelai!" A.J. rushes up to her and hugs her, hard, till she thinks Lorelai might break. "You're not dead!"
"I was almost eaten by a shark," Lorelai says gravely.
A.J. is still hugging Lorelai, but her mother just stands in the distance, staring at the both of them. For a minute A.J. wonders if her mom is still mad at Lorelai for missing her birthday, but Mom doesn't look mad. Mom doesn't look anything. You can't tell what she is thinking, which is the scariest thing ever, because she could end up hugging you or whapping you over the head, and you wouldn't know what to expect at all.
Lorelai leans over A.J.'s head for a moment and smiles at Mom. "I missed your birthday," she says. "I'm sorry. I tried to get back in time, but damn, tropical storms really get in the way and ---"
"Fuck you," Mom says.
Lorelai and A.J. gawk at her like the goldfish A.J. had for two weeks when she was five. A.J. has never heard her mom use the f-word, ever. Well, at least not in front of her.
"I appreciate the warm welcome," Lorelai says, and now Mom's expression changes from nothing to really mad.
"You can't keep doing this, Lorelai," she yells, using the voice she usually threatens criminals with. "You can't just walk in and out of our lives like this. You can't expect us to wait for you, and then not show up. Grow the fuck up, Lorelai. Get a real job. Stop spending your parents' money, since you hate them so much. Either you stay, or you leave. I'm tired of this shit."
Lorelai sits for a long time before she yells back, "You think I'm not tired of this shit, Alex? I'm just as fucking tired as you are, and if you'd only say it, then maybe I wouldn't have to get myself in a fucking goddamn hurricane just to prove a point. I'm tired too, Alex. I'm tired of saying goodbye."
Lorelai glares at Mom, and Mom glares at Lorelai, and A.J. says, "Okay, both of you, shut the fuck up."
"A.J.!" Mom and Lorelai yell in unison.
"What? It's okay when you say it, but not when I say it?"
Somehow this gets everybody quiet, so quiet that they can hear Kressler on the first floor washing his dishes and whistling. Finally, A.J.'s mom says, "You look like crap."
"Been through a hurricane, Alex. And then a seventeen hour flight. In coach."
"You want a shower or not?"
Lorelai smiles and rises onto her feet, and Mom pushes past her to open the front door. A.J. stays behind to pick up Lorelai's luggage, and when she looks up, she sees Lorelai with her arms around Mom, hugging Mom from behind. For the longest time, Mom doesn't move, just lets Lorelai hold her, and then finally, as if they had eyes on the backs of their heads, they notice A.J. watching, and Lorelai says, "Feeling left out?"
"A little," A.J. says, even though it's not entirely true, because she's perfectly content to just stand back and let them be, but Lorelai holds her hand out and tucks A.J. underneath her arm. A.J. breathes deep into the fabric of Lorelai's sweater, which smells like airplane and rain and something stale, and it stings her nose, but it's okay, A.J. thinks, because Lorelai's home, she's home. She's home.
This is what A.J. looks like, in case you were wondering.
1.
She was born on May 9, 1985. Being born is probably the most important event in everybody's life, so it makes the list, even though A.J. does not actually remember being born.
*
2.
She does not remember being named either, because it happened a few hours after being born. Every year, when A.J. has her birthday, she gets a phone call from Lorelai, who is like a fairy godmother, only without the wings and power to turn pumpkins into horse-drawn carriages. Lorelai is the one who named A.J., and every year she calls and tells A.J. the story of how she got named.
It always starts with Lorelai explaining how she met A.J.'s mom by the vending machine in the hospital after A.J. was born. "So there I was, talking to the vending machine --- sometimes it's important to talk out your problems, A.J., unless you are taking tae kwan do lessons; then you can fight it out --- and your mom came and started looking at me like I was crazy."
"You are crazy," A.J.'s mother would shout into the phone, but she smiles with her whole body when she does, and A.J. wishes Lorelai would come visit them more often.
*
3.
She was just finishing preschool when her mother got into law school. They spent weeks waiting for the mailman to deliver the package from Columbia. They already had the package from NYU and Cornell, but Mom really, really wanted the package from Columbia.
"I like NYU," A.J. said. She was sitting on the fire escape and her feet were dangling between the rails. She could slide her sandals off but if they hit Kressler, who lived on the first floor and who Munch said was stealing their electricity, she would get in big trouble.
"No, we want Columbia," her mother said.
A.J. didn't ask why, but she knew this was very important, so she walked downstairs to the mailbox and yelled, "Get here soon, you stupid package!"
The next day, she was sitting on the fire escape again, waiting for Mom to come home from school (NYU, which A.J. liked, because she liked the Village, because there were interesting people in the Village, like the man who had a wooden leg and went around jangling a cup full of change and asking if A.J. had met Jesus, which she had not), and Kirk the mailman arrived and asked, "Which Alexandra Cabot are you?"
A.J. said, "The Alexandra Cabot who never gets any mail because I am five."
"In that case, I have something for your mother."
It was a fat package and A.J. sounded the words out loud. CO-LUM-BI-A U-NI-VER-SI-TY.
Her mother was going to be a lawyer.
*
4.
She was in the Christmas play in first grade. Lorelai promised to come and watch, and make her angel costume, but a few days after Thanksgiving, Lorelai called and said, "Guess what? I'm getting married!"
A.J.'s mom said, "WHAT?"
"I'm getting married, Alex! Aren't you happy for me?"
"Wait, wait, when did this happen?"
"Last night. Christopher proposed and I said yes. It was so romantic. I know you think Paris is clichéd and everything, but you won't believe the kind of stuff they sell in the flea markets here. I saw a whole set of human teeth for sale. Of course I didn't buy it, because, why would I? That's gross. The portions of food are way too small, but the cheese! Do I want me to go into detail about the cheese?"
"No, Lorelai, I want you to go into detail about your wedding."
"I know it's sudden, but it just feels so right, you know. We're going to Prague. It's the new Paris, apparently. You're invited. It's in two weeks."
"Wait," A.J. said, from where she was eavesdropping on their conversation on the other phone, "Lorelai, you're getting married? Does that mean you won't be coming to see my play?"
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry," Lorelai said. "But you know what? You can come to Prague and be my flower girl. You'll love it here. You'll steal the hearts of all those European boys, and you'll love the hotel, and you'll love Christopher."
Even though Lorelai sounded really excited, A.J. didn't believe her.
"So, what do you say?" Lorelai said. "When can you two get here?"
"We can't," Mom said. "I have school. I have a job. I have a kid. We can't just drop everything and go to your wedding."
A.J.'s mom was angry and sad when she hung up the phone, but she was trying not to seem like she was angry and sad, which made A.J. even more angry and sad. "I am glad," A.J. told her, "that we are not going to her stupid wedding. I do not want to be a stupid flower girl anyway. And I do not like Christopher. I wish Lorelai wasn't getting married. I wish Lorelai would come back and stay with us forever."
Her mother just sighed and rubbed the side of her head. "Lorelai's getting married. We should be happy for her."
"Well, I'm not," said A.J. "Are you?"
*
5.
A.J. didn't believe in the tooth fairy. She didn't believe in Santa or the Easter bunny either, because Munch told her the truth about them, and they were a conspiracy. A.J. knew her mother was the tooth fairy, and her mother knew she knew, but they both pretended they didn't know, because it was more fun that way.
A.J. lost four teeth before the tooth fairy forgot to show up. She let it pass the first time, but the tooth fairy missed her twice more and she got sick of waiting --- she wanted new stickers for her sticker book, geez --- so she said to Mom when Mom came home from work one night, "The tooth fairy forgot to visit me again."
Mom was annoyed. "Well, the tooth fairy is probably too busy studying for the Bar exam." Then she sighed and said, "Maybe the tooth fairy will visit later when she isn't so swamped with school."
"I am swamped with school," A.J. said.
"Your homework consists of adding single digit numbers."
"And I am very good at it." A.J. stuck her tongue out without even needing to open her mouth. That gap where her top teeth used to be sure was useful. "Fine, but I think I am going to be charging the tooth fairy interest."
Mom gave her a funny look and said, "Who have you been talking to? Munch?"
"Maybe."
A five-dollar bill showed up under A.J.'s pillow the next morning. It was more money than she ever had in her life, and she carried it around in her pocket for a week before she spent it on sourkeys and silver cola balls she scooped from those plastic buckets at the corner store. Her mother made her share them with Jess, who was Luke's nephew, even though A.J. hated Jess because he always stole her books.
But she did it to make her mother happy, because even though A.J. didn't believe in the tooth fairy, she believed in her mother.
*
6.
A couple of weeks before she turned eight, her grandpa got really, really sick. This was her mother's father, not her father's father, who was dead, and A.J. never knew him, so that was okay. A.J. knew her dad's mother --- he took her to visit Grams whenever he came home from the Marines -- and Grams was nice the way grandmothers usually were. She was fat and wore stretchy pants and smelled like fresh bread.
A.J. never met her mom's parents. Well, she did --- she lived with them when she was a baby --- but she didn't remember them at all, so it didn't count. She hadn't seen them since her mom took her to New York. All she knew was that her grandpa got a private investigator who watched A.J. and her mom, and reported back whatever he saw to her grandpa. Once, A.J.'s mother shouted at the private investigator, "Tell him that if he wants baby pictures, all he has to do is ask!"
Anyway, one night when they were watching Beverly Hills 90210, which was Casey's favorite show, the phone rang and it was A.J.'s grandma, calling to tell Mom that Grandpa was in the hospital. He had a heart attack and he might die, and Grandma thought he might like to see Mom before he did.
So A.J. went with her mom to Connecticut, and when they got to Greenwich, it was way past her bed time, but Mom didn't care. She told A.J. to do her homework in the waiting room, and to keep practicing her spelling words, because A.J. missed "February" on her last spelling test, and Mom got mad.
A.J. had finished learning all her spelling words and was watching Seinfeld, which she didn't think was very funny, when Grandma came in and said, "Hi."
A.J. said, "Hi."
Grandma said, "I'm your grandmother."
A.J. said, "I know."
Grandma started to cry into her hand and A.J. found a balled up kleenex in the pocket of her jeans and she gave it to her. It had pencil shavings stuck on it but Grandma didn't seem to mind. "How did you get here?" she asked, and A.J. said, "We took a bus."
Which was the wrong answer, because Grandma grabbed her and took her into a room where Mom was sitting beside a old man in bed, an old man with gray skin and tubes sticking out of him, and Grandma started screaming, "Alexandra, you took a bus here? You put your daughter on a bus? You can't take the bus! DRUG DEALERS TAKE THE BUS."
A.J.'s mom said, "Oh, for god's sake, Mother."
A.J.'s grandpa said, "Are you trying to give me another heart attack, Evelyn?"
A.J. said, "We used to live with a drug dealer. We still do. Except he's not a drug dealer anymore."
If her life had been a TV show like Full House, everyone would've thought that A.J. was funny and charming, and they would laugh and hug and give her chocolate and everything would turn out all right. But instead, her grandmother and grandfather and mother started yelling at each other, and on the way home A.J. slept in her mother's lap, even though her mother was annoyed that she'd told Grandpa and Grandma about Fin.
But they started speaking again, her mother and her grandparents. And that was the important thing.
*
7.
Lorelai came back the summer between second and third grade. She just showed up one morning while A.J. was watching cartoons and eating cereal straight from the box like her mom told her not to. A.J. was mad at her mom because Mom wouldn't let her get her ears pierced.
"You have your ears pierced," A.J. said, pointing.
"I have a law degree from Columbia," her mother said.
"It's not fair. Dad has a tattoo. Dad has two and you don't yell at him."
"I'm sure your Grams yelled at him when he got them," said Mom, and when A.J. asked her dad about it that weekend, her dad said yes, his mother wasn't very pleased about his tattoos either, and also that he would ground A.J. forever if she got a tattoo.
When Lorelai arrived, her skin tanned from being in the Caribbean, where she drank pina coladas and went swimming all day, she said, "Hey, kiddo, sorry I missed your birthday. I'll make up for it now. You can have anything you want."
"Really?" A.J. said.
"Cross my heart and hope to die." Lorelai crossed her heart, and A.J. took her to the mall, where they went to Claire's and had A.J.'s ears pierced.
"Oh, your mother will kill me," Lorelai said. "But those look great on you."
A.J.'s mother did not think the earrings looked great on her. In fact, A.J.'s mother took one look and, just as Lorelai predicted, tried to kill Lorelai. "Lorelai Gilmore," Mom screeched, "why do you keep teaching my daughter to undermine my authority?"
"She just wanted her ears pierced, Alex," Lorelai said. "I'm not teaching her to smoke, or drink, or get into cars with strange boys."
"Look, if you want to play mother to somebody, you and Christopher should go have your own child. Leave mine out of it."
"Christopher and I," Lorelai said, sinking deeper into the couch, "are over."
A.J.'s mom stared at her for a long time. "What happened?"
"He cheated on me." Lorelai shrugged and stuck her hand into the cereal box A.J. had left on the coffee table.
"While you were pregnant?" Mom's voice raised an octave. A.J. knew because she played piano, and sometimes she had to stretch her fingers to play the chords, and it hurt.
"What?" Lorelai looked confused. "Who said anything about being pregnant?"
"You did. Last time you called. You said you were eight weeks along."
"Oh." Lorelai munched a handful of Alpha Bits. "Oh, that. That was bull. I just made it up to piss you off."
A.J.'s mom didn't say anything. She looked tired.
That night all three of them slept in the same bed again, like they did that one summer a long time ago, before A.J. was able to remember. There was less room now, because A.J. wasn't a baby anymore, but they all fit.
The next morning, A.J.'s ears were red and oozing, and Mom said, "I told you so."
*
8.
She remembers the day her mother got the job at the DA's office. It was a Thursday, which meant Ms. Maddox's third grade class had art in the afternoon. They were making butterflies out of paper plates and pipe cleaners. A.J. liked to put lots of glitter on everything, because Lorelai said glitter made everything better, happier. Jess Mariano, who was a buttface, was taking the pipe cleaners and holding them between his teeth like they were fangs, and he was running around the room pretending to be Dracula.
"You are so immature," A.J. shouted when he nearly knocked her over.
"You're immature, Apple Juice Cabot," Jess shouted back.
"No one's laughing. No one thinks you're funny, butthead," shouted A.J., and Ms. Maddox was about to order them both to a Time Out when A.J.'s mom walked into the classroom.
"A.J." Mom was wearing her work clothes --- she articled at Benedict, Lee, and Morrison, but she didn't write articles, so A.J. didn't really know why it was called articling --- which meant she'd come straight from work. She was grinning like a pumpkin on Halloween, and A.J. knew what that meant.
"Mom! You got the job!" A.J. screamed, and ran toward her mother. She slung her arms around her mom's neck. "You got the job! You got the job!"
Someone said, "She's your mom? She looks like your sister."
"Hey, shut up, " said Jess, who was in love with A.J.'s mom and wanted to marry her. "Congratulations, Alex," he said, smiling. He was probably thinking of marrying A.J.'s mom again, so A.J. said to him, "My mom is going to be a prosecutor now, Jess Mariano, so if you steal my books again, SHE WILL PUT YOU IN THE ELECTRIC CHAIR."
"Lethal injection," Mom whispered in her ear. "And stealing books isn't a capital offense."
Ms. Maddox heard and kicked them both out of the classroom. Mom decided A.J. could leave school early and celebrate, which was a surprise because Mom usually never let her miss school. A.J. had a hundred degree fever once and she still had to go to school.
"It's not like gluing construction paper together is going to be of any use to you in the future," Mom said, and helped A.J. pack her backpack.
They called Fin and Munch and Casey, and even Professor Cragen and Liz Donnelly, Mom's boss, and they had dinner at Tavern on the Green. That night A.J. tried to call Lorelai, but the number Lorelai gave them last time she visited was out of service, which meant they wouldn't be able to find Lorelai again until she suddenly showed up the next time.
Otherwise, it would have been a perfect day.
*
9.
A.J.'s father got married when she was nine. He told her at the penguin tank in Central Park, which was where they always went whenever he had something important to tell her. When A.J. was a baby, he was in training with the Marines, so he never got to see her until she was two, and the first time he met her, they went to the penguin tank at Central Park, so it became a tradition between the two of them.
"Cool," said A.J.
"I'm asking for your permission," Dad said. "If it makes you uncomfortable in any way . . ."
A.J. rolled her eyes. Grownups always said they'd ask for your permission, for your opinion, but when you gave it to them, they mostly ignored it and did whatever they wanted to do in the first place. She really didn't mind that her dad wanted to marry his girlfriend though. She liked Olivia. Olivia was a cop and had a gun and beat A.J.'s dad at Street Fighter, and always helped A.J. when she got stuck in the underwater levels in Super Mario Brothers.
Olivia was more interesting than Kathy, who was really kind of boring.
"Marry her, Dad," A.J. told him. "I think it'd be awesome."
Dad hugged her and took her to have dinner with Olivia, who hugged her and told her she didn't have to be a flower girl. Which was good, because A.J. was too old to be a flower girl, and because she looked like a cupcake when she dressed in white.
A.J. went home and told her mother the news. She expected Mom to be sad, maybe just a little, but Mom seemed happy. She was so happy that she called Dad and congratulated him, and when she saw A.J. slumped on the table, her face smeared with pencil from her handwriting practice book, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just thought, I don't know, maybe you wouldn't be so happy."
Mom said, puzzled, "Why wouldn't I be happy?"
"Because Dad's getting married. Doesn't that make you sad? You won't be able to get back together with him anymore."
And then A.J. realized that she wanted her mother to be sad, because she herself was sad. A little. When she was little she'd always imagined that someday, her parents would fall in love again, even though she knew it was never going to happen. She just wanted two parents, like everybody else, someone to play good cop and someone else to play bad cop.
A.J.'s mother was bad cop all the time.
Suddenly, A.J. missed Lorelai. She missed Lorelai so much her chest felt hollow and she wanted to call Lorelai and hear Lorelai's voice, except her number was still out of service, which made A.J. want to cry. A.J. loved her dad, but he wasn't Lorelai; she loved her mom, but she wasn't Lorelai, and she just really, really wanted Lorelai this very minute.
"I'm sorry," A.J.'s mom said quietly. She put her hand on A.J.'s back. "Your dad and I . . . it was a long time ago, A.J. We lead very different lives now. I don't think we'll ever get back together. I know you're rooting for us, but it's not going to happen, and we should be very glad that your father is happy with Olivia."
"I am," A.J. said, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "And I wasn't rooting for you and Dad, Mom. I was rooting for you and Lorelai."
*
10.
A.J. is woken up on the morning of her tenth birthday by somebody pounding on the door.
"A.J." comes Fin's sleepy voice. "It's for you, baby doll."
A.J. creeps out of bed, nearly stepping on her mom, and takes the phone from him.
"Hey, guess whose birthday it is?"
"Lorelai!" A.J. shouts, and for a minute she is so glad to hear Lorelai's voice she forgets to be mad at her. "You remembered!"
"When have I ever forgotten?"
"Wait." A.J. looks at the clock, which says 6:23. "It's not my birthday yet. I wasn't born till four in the afternoon."
"Well, it's past your birthday here, in Rome."
"Oh." A.J. tries not to be disappointed that Lorelai isn't going to show up for her birthday. She tries to be grateful that Lorelai remembered to call, but there was a part of her that had been so sure for the last few weeks, that Lorelai would surprise her.
She is turning ten. She's moving into the double digits. She deserves a surprise!
"So, ready for the story of how you became Alexandra Cabot, Junior?"
"Always."
"Many moons ago, on this very same day, only not in Rome . . . "
A.J.'s mom has her birthday three weeks later, and Lorelai doesn't call. Mom has two parties, one at work where they eat cake on paper napkins and talk about their cases, and one at Luke's, complete with a giant chocolate cake Sookie baked. A.J. spends the whole evening looking at the phone, hoping Lorelai would call, willing Lorelai to call, and she knows her mother is doing the same thing, even though Mom doesn't glance at the phone once.
Mom doesn't even like triple chocolate fudge; Lorelai does.
So Mom really thought Lorelai would show up.
Another couple of days pass, and nothing. Nothing nothing nothing and A.J. is mad, A.J. gets so mad, she says to Mom, "Oh, who needs her? We don't," and Mom agrees.
Then they hear the news: Lorelai disappeared in Thailand during a hurricane, and no one has been able to contact her since.
A.J. says, "What is she doing in Thailand? I thought she was in Rome!"
Her mother says, "Oh, Lorelai, if only you'd just stay in one place." She shakes her head and goes back to her paperwork, and A.J. is stunned.
"You're not going to go find her?" A.J. asks.
"What am I going to do, jump on the next plane to Thailand? I have work. The penalty phase of the Lawson case starts tomorrow."
"Aren't you worried?"
"Lorelai can take care of herself," Mom says, which is a total lie, and even A.J. knows it.
Neither of them sleep that night. They blame it on the heat.
A.J. follows her friend Lane to church on Sunday, and tries to plea-bargain with God. "Bring Lorelai back safely," she whispers in her head, her hands clasped together and her head bowed in prayer. "Please, God, if you bring Lorelai back, I'll clean my room, and stop talking back to Mom, and never get a tattoo, ever."
Either God really liked the deal, or he really didn't want A.J. to get a tattoo, because she and Mom come home that night after dinner at Luke's, and there she is, Lorelai, sitting on the front steps of their building, her chin on her knees. She has leaves stuck in her hair, and her suitcases are littered all over the yard.
"Hey," she says, "think I can come in and take a shower?"
"Lorelai!" A.J. rushes up to her and hugs her, hard, till she thinks Lorelai might break. "You're not dead!"
"I was almost eaten by a shark," Lorelai says gravely.
A.J. is still hugging Lorelai, but her mother just stands in the distance, staring at the both of them. For a minute A.J. wonders if her mom is still mad at Lorelai for missing her birthday, but Mom doesn't look mad. Mom doesn't look anything. You can't tell what she is thinking, which is the scariest thing ever, because she could end up hugging you or whapping you over the head, and you wouldn't know what to expect at all.
Lorelai leans over A.J.'s head for a moment and smiles at Mom. "I missed your birthday," she says. "I'm sorry. I tried to get back in time, but damn, tropical storms really get in the way and ---"
"Fuck you," Mom says.
Lorelai and A.J. gawk at her like the goldfish A.J. had for two weeks when she was five. A.J. has never heard her mom use the f-word, ever. Well, at least not in front of her.
"I appreciate the warm welcome," Lorelai says, and now Mom's expression changes from nothing to really mad.
"You can't keep doing this, Lorelai," she yells, using the voice she usually threatens criminals with. "You can't just walk in and out of our lives like this. You can't expect us to wait for you, and then not show up. Grow the fuck up, Lorelai. Get a real job. Stop spending your parents' money, since you hate them so much. Either you stay, or you leave. I'm tired of this shit."
Lorelai sits for a long time before she yells back, "You think I'm not tired of this shit, Alex? I'm just as fucking tired as you are, and if you'd only say it, then maybe I wouldn't have to get myself in a fucking goddamn hurricane just to prove a point. I'm tired too, Alex. I'm tired of saying goodbye."
Lorelai glares at Mom, and Mom glares at Lorelai, and A.J. says, "Okay, both of you, shut the fuck up."
"A.J.!" Mom and Lorelai yell in unison.
"What? It's okay when you say it, but not when I say it?"
Somehow this gets everybody quiet, so quiet that they can hear Kressler on the first floor washing his dishes and whistling. Finally, A.J.'s mom says, "You look like crap."
"Been through a hurricane, Alex. And then a seventeen hour flight. In coach."
"You want a shower or not?"
Lorelai smiles and rises onto her feet, and Mom pushes past her to open the front door. A.J. stays behind to pick up Lorelai's luggage, and when she looks up, she sees Lorelai with her arms around Mom, hugging Mom from behind. For the longest time, Mom doesn't move, just lets Lorelai hold her, and then finally, as if they had eyes on the backs of their heads, they notice A.J. watching, and Lorelai says, "Feeling left out?"
"A little," A.J. says, even though it's not entirely true, because she's perfectly content to just stand back and let them be, but Lorelai holds her hand out and tucks A.J. underneath her arm. A.J. breathes deep into the fabric of Lorelai's sweater, which smells like airplane and rain and something stale, and it stings her nose, but it's okay, A.J. thinks, because Lorelai's home, she's home. She's home.
This is what A.J. looks like, in case you were wondering.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 11:03 pm (UTC)Supportive comment: Faulkner sucks, anyway!
Snarky comment: Dude, speak for yourself.
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Date: 2006-04-21 11:05 pm (UTC)For someone who's never been here, you've got a pretty good grasp of it. Also, "which she had not." Hee.
"I am swamped with school," A.J. said.
"Your homework consists of adding single digit numbers."
"And I am very good at it."
Oh, this kid is SO much cooler than Rory. Why can't you write for this stupid show?
AND THAT CHILD IS SO LITTLE ALEX OH MY GOD. She looks like something Stephanie March would birth.
I'm glad you're not Faulkner. Faulkner was a boring old looney.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 11:14 pm (UTC)Why can't you write for this stupid show?
Because if I did, it'd never make it past the FCC.
I almost casted your Chloe, you know. But this kid is cuter, even if she can't act her way out of a paper bag. So, yeah, she WOULD be something SM would birth.
I've never read Faulkner, so I will take your word for it.
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Date: 2006-04-21 11:20 pm (UTC)Yeah, Chloe could definitely work.
Gonna go see little Lorelai in Silent Hill in about two minutes.
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Date: 2006-04-21 11:22 pm (UTC)The kid is Ryan Simpkins? I think you showed her picture to me, like, five years ago on AIM. I remember making fun of her name.
Have fun! I was just looking at screencaps of Little Lorelai in Dead Like Me.
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Date: 2006-04-22 12:31 am (UTC)Sold out. Eh well. My stupid period showed up right before we left so I'd rather be lying around whining about that right now. Owie.
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Date: 2006-04-22 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:01 am (UTC)(Thank you.)
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Date: 2006-04-22 03:03 am (UTC)*squishes you back*
Is it bad that A.J. has totally eaten my brain and I want to write a sequel where she asks Alex if Alex is "officially gay"?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 09:49 pm (UTC)Part I: Ways in Which Alex Almost Killed Her Daughter (Not Intentionally)
It's not an urban legend: A.J.'s mother dropped A.J. on her head when she was a baby ...
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 02:27 am (UTC)You fucking rock. That is all.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:06 am (UTC)I am so glad I friended you too, because now I have someone to be schizo with me.
but your writing is so good. All the time. And it is full of beautiful pictures and crazy gorgeous language and details that punch me in the gut.
Right back at you, HOR!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:13 am (UTC)I have been unable to write anything lately, including my papers for school, which I actually, you know, should be doing, so instead I am living vicariously through your crazy awesome fic. It is GREAT.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:25 am (UTC)Hey, now, remember DOORSEX? That was pretty fucking hot, yo. And I am sorry to hear about papers for school. They are vile and disgusting, and I will suffer with you in spirit.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:12 am (UTC)it has a bit of a sad tone to it, I wanted to slap L and tell her to get her frelling ass to NYC.
AJ is a combination of little A and L in your other fics, you should have called her AL.
how is school going, I am honestly contemplating of suing UBC. stupid stupid school.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:32 am (UTC)Yeah, Lorelai is a little bit fucked up without Rory to keep her grounded. But thankfully, there is Alex. A.J. is the bastard lovechild of Alex and Lorelai; Elliot basically just donated the sperm.
SCHOOL SUCKS. LOOK AT MY ICON. THAT IS ME. I HATE UBC. HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE. I HAVE AN EXAM ON TUESDAY. HATE.
Where exactly is Human Kinetics? I'll be in Scarfe for my exam. If you see an angry looking Chinese kid in braids, that would be me. Wait, this is UBC, which means HALF THE POPULATION is angry looking Chinese kids.
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Date: 2006-04-22 04:06 am (UTC)I love that AJ is so much like Lorelai, nature vs nurture :)
I just realised that I had the same pants little AJ has in your picture above. God bless Oshkosh jeans!
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Date: 2006-04-22 08:27 am (UTC)It took me forever to figure out where War Gym is, but I think I know now. The bigass building beside the place where you get your parking permit. The pool place, yeah.
Have you ever been to Buchanan? IT IS A DUMP. Block E constantly smells like urine. I wrote a RANT about bathroom faucets at UBC last year. I should show you.
There are no Asians in HK because they are all in Commerce or Science. Ugh. I hate overachieving Asians, because I am not one.
Everyone in North America seems to have worn Oshkosh jeans at some point in their childhood. I FEEL DEPRIVED NOW.
P.S. The chick in your icon was on Ellen. Did you see?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 08:39 pm (UTC)Even though Human Kinetics is Science, the Asians seem to be drawn to more lab-centric fields like chemistry etc.
I saw her on Ellen, and she was cute and gorgeous and funny and dorky and I want to have her as my attending working in a hospital or in my bed, and it is beyond my imagination why McDreamy even thought about leaving her for Meredith. As you can see I have a big ass crush on her.
yes, Mac user. Once and forever.
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Date: 2006-04-22 04:40 am (UTC)And I liked it.
Wow, that was amazingly well-done. Bravo. :)
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Date: 2006-04-22 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 08:44 pm (UTC)"asking if A.J. had met Jesus, which she had not"- love this line
"Lethal injection," Mom whispered in her ear. "And stealing books isn't a capital offense."- ditto- I love Alex teaching her kid about lethal injections.
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Date: 2006-04-22 09:26 pm (UTC)Lorelai smells like trees. Hmm ... the question is, what KIND of tree? Also, I don't know ANYTHING about Faulkner except I read somewhere once that he was writing and his daughter asked him to play with her and he said to her, "I'm WRITING, now, child. Do you think anyone ever cared about Shakespeare's daughter?"
So. Yes. I kind of like him just for saying that.
Thank you again. Hope you'll stick around!
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Date: 2006-04-23 04:49 am (UTC)*squishes you then gives you a little pet*
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Date: 2006-04-23 06:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 05:11 am (UTC)And I don't know that there's necessarily anything wrong with your Lorelai characterization, I just think you'll probably have to write some stuff from her POV if you don't want her coming off as an utter asshat.
Also, um, hello, do you even REALIZE how many times I've sat here wishing I could put the kind of imagery and poetry into my writing that you do in yours? ONLY APPROX. 59,873,204 TIMES. SERIOUSLY.
-Lo
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Date: 2006-04-23 06:05 pm (UTC)And also, SHUT UP, you can totally write imagery and poetry and I know BECAUSE I HAVE READ IT so, like, WHATEVER.
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Date: 2006-04-23 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 11:25 am (UTC)And Lorelai replying "I'm just as fucking tired as you are, and if you'd only say it, then maybe I wouldn't have to get myself in a fucking goddamn hurricane just to prove a point." Just...wow... Seriously. The one thing I didn't like was Olivia marrying Elliot. Just because I kind of hate Elliot and can only believe that pre-season 6 Olivia is very, very gay.
BEST LINE
You may say that you can't paint pictures with your words, but this definately painted a very sweet and vivid picture in my mind. Anyway, like someone mentioned before, Faulkner is a boring, pretentious man who wrote over-analysed literature. I like your writing much more.
This seriously just made my day. And so did some of the comments.
Ugh, bleedin' overachieving Asians kill me, because my dad expects me to be some mathematical and scientific genius and end up as an engineer or businesswoman or a doctor. And my mum says she'd be happy either way, but I do have to make up for my brother's idiocy. What may be worse than overachieving Asians are the parents of the overachieving Asians.
Such a heartbreaking, yet hopeful, ending. It makes my heart feel heavy and fluttery at the same time. One of your best works, for sure.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 06:25 pm (UTC)my dad expects me to be some mathematical and scientific genius and end up as an engineer or businesswoman or a doctor
My parents sort of gave up on me once I had to be checked into a psych facility. But I don't recommend that. My brother has to make up for my insanity now, except he's a complete idiot, so my family is too embarrassed to show its face around these places.
I'm really glad you liked this! Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-04-29 02:33 am (UTC)This is fucking brilliant and beautiful and all sorts of lovely; I'm only sorry that I didn't read it sooner. Very sorry. Deeply saddened. But I've read it now, which just totally made my evening. Now, I just desperately want more. I'm insatiable, what can I say?
Ah, the addiction returns...
PS: ::squish::
no subject
Date: 2006-04-29 03:34 am (UTC)Thank you so much! I am really, really glad you like this because, hey, I like it too! This is the one fic I think doesn't suck complete dick!
The only problem is that A.J. seems to have taken over my brain and now she wants HER OWN SERIES GODDAMIT and she's turning into Ramona Quimby. You know, if Ramona Quimby had two mommies.
FIGHT THE ADDICTION, WOMAN. You have papers to write and Europe to go to! (Also, you must send me a postcard, OR I WILL HEX YOU TO DEATH.)
*squishes back*
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Date: 2006-04-29 03:53 am (UTC)::Snort:: Maybe I would have liked Ramona more with two mommies! I don't know. But I do love A.J.
Where should I send the postcard? Star Hollows? The CrackFic Secret Castle of Alternate Universes?
See what you did? I was happy--so happy--because of Alex and Lorelei and AJ (and my very own tapeworm icon) and now you made me sad because PAPERS...ARGH.
FIGHT THE ADDICTION, WOMAN
I. Can't. Fight. It. Must. Read. More.
I have no willpower.
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Date: 2006-04-29 04:00 am (UTC)You should send it to my house because I never get any mail, and that makes me very sad. You know, except for those alumnae news from my high school which reminds me of what a failure I am. I haven't cured cancer, and I'm in my THIRD year of university. Woe.
Aw, I am so sorry about mentioning the papers. Now GO WRITE THEM OR I WON'T GIVE YOU ANY CRACK. NO CRACK FOR YOU. NO!
I am eating a very dry cantaloupe right now. It displeases me greatly.
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Date: 2006-05-02 04:42 am (UTC)YOU ARE ONE CRACKED OUT FREAK AND I LOVE YOU A LITTLE.
and dude. the munch KILLED me. interest on the tooth fairy! cue suspicious!alex: "have you been talking to munch?" hah! seriously, all these comments and no one has mentioned the munch. he ROCKS.
this fic is the best sort of crack. it's meth, in fact. which, i'll have you know, is definitely the most addictive drug out there. my abnormal professor informed us if we learned one thing in the class, it should be never to try meth, especially in the east village on cinco de mayo.
i imagine this is just as good. though i may have to test the theory.
(also, your writing is full of imagery. it's lovely.)
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Date: 2006-05-02 05:41 am (UTC)I LOVE MUNCH! Munch does not get enough love. him and fin are THE otp of svu, fuck that alex/olivia and elliot/olivia bullshit. oh, suddenly i want to show you the ficlet i had (and destroyed) of munch, lorelai, casey, and a.j. playing SCRABBLE and casey decides to use a CANADIAN SPELLING.
i am very impressed that you actually PAID attention to your abnormal prof. when i took abnormal psych last year, i slept though every single class. i blame the prof. i mean, the class is about mental disorders --- how the fuck can he managed to make it boring? yet he did. and i ended up with a C minus. good times.
(also. thank you so much! i am extremely thrilled that you liked my merchanise. that's what every drug dealer wants to hear)
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Date: 2006-11-14 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-14 06:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-14 01:20 pm (UTC)Do you think you're gonna do more? *hinthinthint* ^^
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Date: 2006-11-14 06:36 pm (UTC)Ahem.
For this series, I'm not sure. But I've got a bunch of other Alex/Lorelai stories (without baby) in my memories or on my website if you want to take a look.
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Date: 2006-11-14 09:33 pm (UTC)And ooh, yes, I will check it out!
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Date: 2012-12-20 02:14 pm (UTC)There's tons of Alex/Lorelai. It's pretty much the only fic I wrote from 2006 to 2011. My latest one is a fucking EPIC where Lorelai is a gingerbread cookie who comes to life and Alex falls in love with her.
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Date: 2012-12-21 09:08 am (UTC)Start with Claire. Claire is the original Alex/Lorelai universe. Everything else came after. yeah, I write a lot of weird AU crack, time traveling, fishkeeping, you name it, I've written it. Its not terribly organized though. Good luck.
About A.J., it was originally posted under a filter. I've put you in the filter so try refreshing the tags and see if you see other entries. Parts of it, including a bodyswitch one where A.J.!Alex switches place with Canon!Alex, are posted elsewhere in my other secret rambling journal, which I am too lazy to link you to as of right now.
The gingerbread cookie is under the tag called "cookie verse". Don't laugh at the shitty bookcover I made. I'm not YOU with graphics.
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