14 May 2006

Betrayed!

Chapter One

Rory watched the elevator doors close. Logan was leaving her; leaving for London. And she had no idea when she would see him again. It could be weeks, or months.

She stood in the doorway, waiting, hoping those doors would open again and he would be there.

For two, maybe three minutes she waited, but in her heart she knew he wouldn't be coming back.

She knew that he SHOULDN'T come back.

Mitchum Huntzburger was right – Logan had to get away from Colin and Finn. He had to get away from the Life and Death Brigade. He had to grow up. And that meant leaving her.

Rory slowly walked back to their bed. Now it was her bed, cold and unwelcoming, but hers and hers -- alone.

She curled up with her arms around Logan's pillow, inhaling the scent of him. She wanted to fall asleep with his smell surrounding her, but she couldn't. The longer she lay there the wider awake she was.

And then a thought came to her -- why couldn't she fly to London? There was nothing keeping her here. She had no classes. The Yale Daily News was on summer hiatus. Her job at the Stanford Eagle-Gazette was only one day a week, and they could easily do without her for a week, or two, or more.

"Dad is always asking me if there is something he can do for me," she said to the room. "He'd gladly pay for the trip to London. It's too bad the SST isn't in service anymore. With his money he could probably charter one just for ME."

She laughed out loud.

"Wouldn't it be funny if I beat Logan there and was waiting for him when landed?"

Hurriedly, Rory got dressed and rushed out to her car. She would go to his house and ask him. She could have called, but seeing her in person, and seeing how desperate she was, he could NOT refuse her.

When Rory pulled up in front of her dad's house, she was surprised to see her mom's Jeep parked there.

"Is someone sick? Maybe she's babysitting Gigi. Very odd she didn't call me."

Rory rang the doorbell and after a few seconds the nanny opened the door.

"Hi. I'm Rory, Christopher's daughter."

"Yes, I know. Your dad's still in bed. He may be sleeping."

"That's okay. I can wait until he gets up. I see my mom's car is parked out front. I can talk to her while I'm waiting."

"Well, come in," the nanny said, sounding a little anxious. "I'll check. He may be awake."

Rory followed her into the living room and sat on the large over-stuffed sofa. Lorelai's purse was on the coffee table.

"Where's Mom? Is she with Gigi?" Rory asked as the nanny left her, without answering.

The nanny gently tapped on Christopher's bedroom door.

"Excuse me, I hate to disturb you, but your daughter is here. She wants to see you."

"What!" Christopher exclaimed, his voice muffled through the door. "Rory's here? Now?"

"Yes sir, she is. And she asked about her mother. She knows she's here."

"Tell her I'll be right out. Don't say anything about Lorelai. Offer her some coffee and tell her I'll only be a minute or two."

"Yes, sir."

Lorelai turned over to watch Christopher as he quickly got dressed.

"I guess I should get dressed too," she said. "What are you going to tell her . . . about why I'm here?"

"I don't know. I'll think of something. We could always tell her the truth – that you came over last night needing to talk, and things got out of hand, and we . . . "

"NO! She does NOT need to know that! Tell her something, anything, but not that!"

"Okay, if that's what you want. I'll . . . I'll think of something."

Christopher walked out of the bedroom to face Rory, but before he could open his mouth, she asked, "Why is mom here so early? Is she in with Gigi? Is she sick or something?"

"Did you get any coffee?" he asked, avoiding the questions. "Because, let me tell you, Nanny makes a mean cuppa Joe."

Christopher turned his back on Rory to go to the kitchen, leaving her perplexed, but with a growing sense of dread and foreboding; something was NOT right.

"Hey, kid," Lorelai said as she entered the living room, coming from the direction of Christopher's bedroom. "What are you doing here so early?"

"Maybe I should ask you the same thing. You didn't just get here, did you? There's nothing wrong with Gigi. You've been here all night, haven't you?"

"What's with the questions?"

"What's withthe evasions? Have you been here all night, or haven't you?"

"Okay. Yes. I've been here. Luke and I had fight and I needed someone to talk to, that's all."

"In Dad's bedroom? You had to talk in Dad's bedroom?"

"Rory, it's not what you think."

"And what am I thinking? That you had a fight with the man you're engaged to, the man you're going to marry, and then youcome hereand have sex --with Dad?"

"Rory – "

"NO! I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear one single, solitary, LOUSY excuse you have for cheating on Luke -- for betraying the man you say you love! I DON'T want to hear it!"

Before Lorelai could say anything else, Rory stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

"That certainly went well," Christopher said as he came from the kitchen.

"Shut up, Christopher, just SHUT UP!"

"Hey! I'm not the bad guy here. We both did this, you AND me."

"I have to go. I have to talk to Rory."

"That's it? You come here, hurting and needing to talk to someone, and when your daughter discovers her mother isn't so perfect, you run off like I'm some kind of ogre? That's not fair, Lorelai, not fair at all."

"You got me drunk! I came here just to talk and you . . . ."

"Whoa! Back up here a minute! I offered you beer, or gin, or vodka. But no, you HAD to have tequila. You know what tequila does to you. I told you you didn't need to be drinking tequila. But you're the one who got it out of the cabinet, and you're the one who started pouring shots, for both of us. So don't jump on ME for what happened! You're just as much to blame as I am!"

Lorelai was starting to hyperventilate. She had to get out of the house. She had to talk to Rory, to explain.

Without another word, Lorelai left the house much like Rory, slamming the door behind her.

She hoped that maybe Rory was waiting for her, but her car was gone. Lorelai got into her Jeep and after a few seconds of heavy breathing, took out her cell phone and punched in Rory's number.

Rory started to ignore her phone's ringing, but it might be Logan. She looked at the screen. When she saw it was her mother, she turned it off.

After several rings, Rory's phone went to voice mail.

"Rory, it's me. We have to talk. I HAVE to explain to you what happened. Well, you know WHAT happened, but I have to explain why. It's so complicated, I can't get into it over the phone. I'll be at home. Please, please, come home. Let's talk, okay? Just come . . . ."

Lorelai couldn't finish the message. Her voice broke as the tears began to fall. She slowly put her forehead against the steering wheel.

Never in her life had she felt so dishonest, so dirty.

"My god," she softly said between the sobs. "What have I done?"

TBC