Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters, settings, and some dialogue are property of the creators of Gilmore Girls, and this story is not intended to make money. I own nothing except the plot and creative control of this fanfiction.

"Rory, lovely to see you. Your grandmother's in the living room with Loralie, and the McCrae's," greeted Richard Gilmore warmly.

"Thanks grandpa," Rory said cheerily as he took her coat. "The McCrae's?"

"Yes, the McCrae's. Did Emily forget to tell you we had guests coming?" he replied slyly knowing that she hadn't forgotten, but had chosen not to say.

Rory inwardly groaned when she notice something was up. First of all, her grandmother always greeted guests at the door. Secondly, her grandfather looked smug and slightly suspicious. And, thirdly they always told her when they were inviting others to dinner, unless of course they were scheming.

As the two walked into the living room, Rory realized what was going on. As did the brunette haired boy sitting on the couch across from Emily, and Loralie.

The older man sitting next to the brunette one suddenly spoke breaking the awkward silence, "You must be the famous Rory we've heard so much about."

Rory was about to answer when her grandmother quickly cut in, "Yes, this is our Rory, we're so proud of her. She just loves to read. Don't you love to read Colin?"

"Actually yes, I just finished reading, 'Anna Karenina'," answered the younger brunette on the couch.

"Oh that's great! Rory, isn't that great?" Emily asked.

"Yes, suicide is just great, grandma," Rory said somewhat sarcastically earning a snicker from Colin.

"D-d-dinners r-ready Miss. G-gilmore," said a frightened maid, as she walked in.

"Now really Euglena, there's no need to stutter. We don't bite," Emily snapped in a very menacing tone, before turning towards her guests, "Well she's fired."

Everyone exited the living room, and headed for the dining room. When Loralie tried to sit beside her daughter Emily yanked her away and said, "Colin, why don't you sit next to Rory."

"It would be my pleasure," he said while plastering on his best society smile.

After Loralie sat down, she winked at Rory from across the table, and said, "We should tornado proof the house."

"How would we do that? Make holes for the tips?" Rory asked slightly amused

"Dirty," Loralie said.

A totally unprepared Colin had been taking a sip of water at the time, and accidentally spit it out from shock.

"Loralie! We have guests" Emily chastised.

"Oy, with the poodles already," Loralie quoted from an earlier conversation.

Rory started to laugh, getting both the girls a glare.

Richard decided to change the subject, "So Rory, how is school going."

"It's going great grandpa. I just submitted an article today."

"Did, you two know that you both go to Yale?" Mrs. McCrae directed towards Rory, and Colin.

"No, I guess we just run in different circles," answered Colin, trying to send the message to his mother, that they weren't a good match.

"Oh, I completely get that, you know Colin, your father and I went also went to Yale, and we didn't run into each other until our last year."

Colin was starting to get annoyed, "Yes, well I'm sure you were lucky enough to find each other under completely random circumstances."

"I'm sure that's a great story, Mrs. McCrae. Would you mind telling it?" Rory asked sweetly trying to get the attention off Colin and her.

"Not, at all dear, but please call me Carrey- It was a warm spring day, and I decided to go read a book under my favourite tree, the one near Berkeley. Suddenly this great big guy falls on me. I shot my head up, and saw these three guys. Two of them were standing laughing, and the third was blushing profusely. He quickly regained his composure, jumped up, and apologized, before introducing himself. He asked to buy me a coffee, and I quickly agreed, mostly because I love coffee, but partly because he was kind of cute. Over the next year we started dating, and fell madly in love," she turned to face her husband. "Later on I found out that the reason he fell on top of me was because he said I was cute, so his friends pushed him at me."

"That's so romantic," Rory commented.

"So are lobsters. Did you know they mate for life?" Loralie asked. "Speaking of mating rituals, mom do you mind if I speak to you in the hall for a second?"

"Would you please excuse us for a second?" Emily asked on her way out to the hall with Loralie.

After they were around the corner Loralie started tearing into her mother, "How could you? Your granddaughter came to dinner to see her grandparents, because for some reason she doesn't want to disappoint you, and you're pretty much auctioning her off to the highest bidder!"

"Don't be ridiculous, we invited some friends over for dinner. And would it really be so bad if she ended up with Colin. At least I can trust him not to get her pregnant!"

"Rory is not me. She will not make the same mistakes unless she is forced into the life I was being forced into. She needs to be allowed to make her own mistakes."

"We let you make your own mistakes, and look how well that turned out. Your engaged to a dinnerowner, and will never have the life your suppose to have. Now we're being rude, so we are going to go back in that room, and you're going to let them find out what they have in common."

"No mom I'm not. I'm going to go in that room and get Rory so we can go home. Don't call."

"Loralie stop. You can go home right now, but Rory is staying. We're still paying for Yale, and as long as we are she is going to stay for Friday night dinners. If you stay you are going to be civil and stop interrupting, but if you go, don't come back until you apologize."

Emily quickly put an end to the argument by walking back into the room. Loralie followed in a huff. Everyone at the table looked extremely uncomfortable having just heard every word.

"So…um… the weather has been quite warm lately," Rory tried to get the conversation going again.

"I heard it's suppose to rain on Tuesday," added Colin.

"Okay, enough with the non-sense. Emily, Richard I think it's time to explain to the kids why we called them together," Mr. McCrae said.

"I thought we agreed we would wait until after dinner," Richard stated.

"Yes, well the kids aren't exactly in a heated debate and no one seems to be eating."

"Fine, fine, shall we retire back to the living room then? I'll just grab the papers, and then we can explain. Emily would you mind getting drinks?" Richard left before his questions were answered making it futile to argue.

"Mom," Loralie said in a menacing voice.

"Don't start," Emily whispered fiercely.

When Richard arrived, and everyone had drinks Mrs. McCrae started to speak, "Colin, Rory, you're both aware that you are the sole heirs to the Gilmore and McCrae fortunes, and you both know that there are some conditions to your inheritance, yes?"

"Yes," they both answered in sync.

"There is one condition that you aren't aware of," Mr. McCrae jumped in.

"Rory, because we were still your mother's legal guardians when she gave birth to you, we were legally responsible for you for the next year as well. During that period of time we signed some documents for your well-being, one of which the McCrae's also signed," Richard continued.

Finale Emily got to the point, "What we're trying to say is that you and Colin have been arranged to be married since birth. We are scheduling the wedding for the first available date after your graduation this year."

Rory couldn't believe this was happening. This all seemed so surreal. Married. The word even sounded strange now. Colin seemed nice enough, but that didn't mean she could spend her life with him. She didn't know him. Heck, even her grandparents didn't know him, they only knew his parents. For all they knew he could be some sexist alcoholic pig. Not to mention the fact that being a wife would severely limit her journalistic options. She couldn't just take off for a year to go overseas if Colin had to stay and take over his father's law firm. Oh no! Everyone's looking at us. I can't even think straight, how am I going to speak?

This was just like his parents. Even though he had never given them reason not to trust his judgment, they had to go and make this huge decision for him. Well, that is they never had reason to not trust his judgment before he started rebelling against them leading his life for him. But marriage, that's big, that's too big. This time they're going too far. I can't marry a girl I don't even know; I thought they outlawed that in Connecticut. Besides, what about her? She seems nice enough, but that means she doesn't deserve this. It would almost be better if she was some gold-digging society whore. But, based on the way she's been acting tonight I doubt it. Great they're staring. Well here goes nothing…