Time After Time - A Gilmore Girls Fanfic #1

Chapter 5

Rory couldn't park in the Gilmore's driveway, couldn't even get her mother's Jeep past the gates. Instead, she parked out on the street and walked to the house, a sense of dread snaking up her spine as she passed by a moving truck. Men in white shirts moved around, carrying boxes and heavy, dark furniture.

"Grandma?" she called at the door. She walked in, narrowly avoiding a man carrying a gilded floor lamp, and ventured further inside, finding the place all but empty. The sitting room where she'd shared many a drink with her family was bare, the settees and the bar cart were gone. Even the giant portrait of her grandfather beside the mantle was gone.

The dining room, too, had been emptied out. Where the Gilmores had spent many a Friday night eating and fighting was now just an empty room devoid of character or life. There was nothing left.

The bare space brought tears to her eyes. At that moment she could relate to that room, emptied out and lifeless.

"Oh, Rory, there you are!"

She turned around and came to face with her grandmother, the indomitable Emily Gilmore. "I didn't know you had already sold the house," Rory said.

Emily frowned. "Closing was over three weeks ago. Your mother didn't tell you? I emailed her about it," she said. "Nevertheless, I'm glad you're here. Come with me please."

Their steps echoed as they made their way through the house toward Richard Gilmore's office. Emily opened the door to reveal an untouched room and Rory stepped inside, blinking back tears. She had been prepared to see an empty space, but to have everything still in its rightful place was almost too much. So she kept her back turned to her grandmother, hoping to hide the beginning of a mini breakdown.

"I wanted you to look around and take whatever you'd like before the room is packed up," Emily said.

"Where will you put the rest?" Rory finally managed to ask. She swiped at the tear tracks on her cheeks before turning around.

Emily walked over to the built-in shelves and ran her fingers along a shelf with a wistful smile on her face. "I'm keeping those with sentimental value, like the cigar humidor I gave him for his birthday." Her chin trembled, the first crack in her otherwise calm and collected armor. "And I'm donating the rest to a charity."

Rory nodded as she turned in place, her gaze floating around the room. It seemed impossible to decide what to keep and what to discard of her grandfather's things.

"How about this?" Emily asked, picking up an antique brass compass from the bookshelf and carrying it across the room.

A breath escaped Rory's lips when Emily placed the compass on her open palm.

"He so loved this thing. It was passed down to him from his father, and his father before that. A relic from the Civil War, I believe."

Rory turned the object over, admiring the intricate embossing on the lid that had been rubbed smooth in some places. "Grandma, I couldn't. This should be in a museum somewhere."

Emily shook her head. "Don't be silly. It needs to stay in the family. Who better to keep it than Richard's favorite grandchild?"

"Only grandchild," Rory said with a small smile that Emily returned.

"Favorite nonetheless."

Rory couldn't take her eyes off the compass, couldn't get over the feeling that it was a gift sent to her at the time she needed it most. She wondered if maybe her grandfather really was watching over her shoulder, trying to guide her back onto the right path.

"And the desk. I can arrange to have it delivered to Stars Hollow," Emily said. "And all of his books, of course."

Rory found it hard to catch her breath, her bag seemingly weighing a hundred pounds on her shoulder. "I don't know if we have room at mom and Luke's."