Title: The Day You Come
Author: cgb (luberluber@yahoo.com.au)
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Keywords: Future tense, Luke/ Lorelai
Rating: G - just like the show!
Disclaimer: Sherman Palladino is the gal here. And what a "good" gal she is.
Acknowledgments: Written for my own challenge! Yay! Title stolen from
Powderfinger - "The Day You Come"

For Shaye and Anna-moonbar

*

There is this: knowing that day will come.

On this day Rory's bus will not return at the end of the day, as it has
always done - as it still does.

On this day she will let her go - as she knew she would. On this day she
will not follow - as she always thought she would.

On this day she will drive herself home from the bus stop without stopping.
She will go home alone and close the door on an empty house. She will find
herself in a room without light and she will look at the curtains and wonder
how she ever bought herself a shade of beige that resembled her mother's
carpet.

She will make plans. She will spend her day being busy (she is always
busy!), being productive, being the kind of person that gets things done,
proving over and over again that she can keep a household.

She won't remember, won't let herself remember that it isn't necessary now.

She'll find herself like this - falling back on habit, doing what comes
easily. She'll tell herself these are all good things.

She won't go out at night. She won't answer the phone, won't hear it ring.
She will watch the television making shadows on the beige curtains that she
can no longer stand. She'll find beer and left over pizza in the fridge and
she'll drink and eat and wish she could drink more although she'll tell
herself she doesn't need to.

She will tell herself that she doesn't need to think about it. She will tell
herself all the right things: that she is okay, that she is better than okay
- that she is happy.

She won't be able to sit still so she will tell herself she is tired. She
will tell herself it's been a long day. She will tell herself she needs a
long shower and an early night.

Later, she will try to sleep. She will lie awake in her bed watching the red
numbers on her bedside clock and listening for a sound, any sound that isn't
the sound of her heartbeat and its unrelenting rhythm.

She will hear the creak of the beams in the roof that shift when the wind
blows hard and she will take comfort in this and the sound of leaves
scraping the drainpipe.

She will listen as she watches the numbers change - 15, 16, 17, 18... 45,
46, 47, 48.

And then she will know what he knows: that on this night, at the end of this
day, she won't sleep.

She will find her shoes and her coat and her car keys and she will be
outside with the wind, pulling the hair out of her eyes and missing her
footing on the driveway.

She will drive. She will miss the stop sign before the town square and she
will take the corners too fast. She will remind herself to watch road and
she will tell herself to slow down. She won't listen but she'll keep telling
herself like a mantra until she stops.

She will stop at the diner. She will pound on his door and she'll call out
his name and she won't have to wait because he will be expecting her.

Because he knows: that this day will come.

And on this day, she will too.


Fin

 

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