Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own anything Gilmore Girls related.

*In chapter one I used a song from Disney's Enchanted called "Happy Working Song."

I hope you enjoy the story…

Everything Gets Better With Age

Chapter One

"Dad?"

"Yes, son?"

"Was there ever a girl that got away?"

333

"How we all enjoy letting loose with a little lala dum dum dum, while we're emptying the vacuum, its such fun to hum, a happy working song…"

Tristan Dugrey awoke unhappily early one Saturday morning to his youngest daughter, Aurora's singing of songs from her latest obsession, Disney's Enchanted. It is on days like today he wishes he could teach his children not to buy into (no pun intended) capitalist's wet dreams. His wife, Adrienne Barclay, who was Yale's Departmental head of Media Studies would have claimed he is far too critical of his children's taste in music, film, and fashions. He can't help that after growing up in high society their values have made him cynical. He made a vow (to himself) that he would never abandon his children the way his parents had abandoned and disappointed him.

He closes his eyes again; he sees his wife and daughter Aurora standing side-by-side in matching aprons mixing cookie dough and laughing quietly. But he brings himself back to reality when he realizes that it has been over four years since she has died. Died and left him with children he doesn't know how to handle. The youngest he can handle; she is still so naïve and innocent, and she is basically a blank slate on which he can project his feelings of society and the high life. However, Aurora's older brother and sisters who are rapidly becoming adults he has almost no control over anymore. They go out (no note. Reminds him of himself when he was younger) and they return home at ungodly hours of the morning.

He supposes, since he can't fall back to sleep that he should get up, fix her breakfast, and plop her in front of the early morning television cartoons before her brother, Nathan and sisters, Arabella and Blair are awoken by their sister's rendition of that Enchanted song and strangle her. But when he finally climbs out of bed, he finds Aurora attempting to climb up on a chair to reach the cabinet with the cereal. She just barely reaches it on her tiptoes and is frantically swatting at the door to get it to open. She leans too far forward and grabs the swinging door for stability. She loses her balance on the chair and falls backwards with a crash!

"Aurora! No!" Tristan yells with concern. He is a moment too late and watches in horror as she slams her shoulder, hard, on the kitchen floor. She begins to wail as he realizes she probably dislocated her shoulder. He yells for her sisters, "Arabella! Blair!"

The crash below woke the twins who promptly sat up straight, exchange looks, stretch and yawn, and then they race together to the foot of the stairs and yell at their dad. "What happened?"

When they reach the kitchen they see their little sister laying on her back, her right arm in this weird, contorted position and crying at the top of her lungs, while their father is desperately trying to reach the closest hospital's emergency room. Arabella sits with her sister and brushes her fingers through Aurora's hair and Blair takes over talking to the hospital once their father starts yelling about how incompetent the health care system is. Meanwhile, Arabella starts singing softly to Aurora to calm her down a little.

Another male voice suddenly breaks through in all the chaos. "What the hell happened?"

His sisters Arabella and Blair both stop what they are doing and stare at their older brother.

Blair places the phone to her chest and sneers, "Are you stupid, or just blind?"

Nathan didn't have much of a relationship with his twin sisters, however he and Aurora got along famously, much to his parents' surprise. He looks down at his injured sister and in a fluid movement picks her up and carries her out the door to his car. His father yells after him, "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Getting her to a hospital."

With that, everyone, still in wearing pajamas climbed into Nathan's monstrosity of an SUV. He ran several red lights, all of which his father also ignored, and they got to the nearest hospital in record time.

333

"Mom I'm going to be late! You can make coffee later!"

"Excuse me?" Rory looks up at her distraught daughter, Avery. "Did you just commit blasphemy?"

Avery just rolls her eyes.

"I still don't get how you are nothing like the Gilmores," Rory commented, more to herself than to anyone else. "Your grandmother, Lorelai, will be so disappointed."

"She'll love me anyways," Avery grins.

"Okay let's hurry before you'll be late," Rory smacks her daughter's butt playfully. "Off we go."

Just as she's about to roll into her parking space, a huge SUV makes a wide-angle turn and snags the spot.

"Shit," Rory sighs, narrowly missing hitting it.

Just as an older man and his children, one of whom was being carried, ran towards the hospital doors, Rory lets out her daughter.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you?"

Avery looks at her seriously, "What would it look like if I'm the only one of the candy stripers who shows up with her mother at her side? I would look like a loser. Now, I'll see you back here at four."

Avery kisses her mother goodbye and climbs out of the car.

Eight hours later…

As she pushes the cart along she sees on the list the name DUGREY and she thinks that she'll have to skip that room, until she peers in and to her surprise lying in the bed is a cute little girl and an older man, who looks like he could be her father.

"Hello," Avery says cheerfully. "My name is Avery and I have a special treat for you. Milk and cookies; yummy."

As she places the cookies and milk on her tray she tries to make small talk with the young girl.

"How old are you?"

"I'm six," she answers proudly.

"What happened?"

"I fell off a chair and disocat my shoulder."

"You dislocated your shoulder?" Avery comments. "Ouch."

"But my brother and sisters love me."

"I'm sure they do."

"They will be right back."

"That's fine."

"Can they have milk and cookies too?"

Avery smiles at her guiltily, "I'm sorry sweetie, but these are just for you."

Just then Aurora's brother and sisters barge into the room. Nathan takes one look at Avery and sneers, "Cute outfit."

Avery looks away and mumbles, "Thank you." She wishes that she could come up with something better, but since having a crush on him since sixth grade, he still turns her words into a puddle of mush. He hangs with the popular crowd (and has been dating since he could walk, it seems), while Avery, like her mother, prefers solitary activities like reading. She chose volunteering at the hospital as part of her community hours to graduate from Chilton.

Nathan looks at her again and says, "You're dismissed; you can go now."

His father had woken up a second before, and he yawns, "Don't listen to my son. Now apologize, Nathan."

Nathan looks at his sleepy father. "Kiss my ass."

"Don't use that language with me in front of your sisters," Tristan tells him angrily.

At that moment a disgruntled woman looking for her granddaughter interrupts them. She takes one look at Avery and sighs. "I've been looking everywhere for you. Your mother has to go to Iraq for a week so your staying with me."

Avery smiles and pushes her cart to one side. "Hi grandma."

"What? No hug?"

Avery looks over at Tristan who is smiling. She hugs her grandmother who says, "Hey! Watch the coffee!"

Grandma Gilmore looks over Avery's shoulder and notices that she is in someone's room. "Oh! I'm sorry," she whispers sheepishly.

Tristan smiles, ignoring the glares from his son, "It's okay. You remind me of someone I used to know."

They exchange pleasantries for a few minutes and then Lorelai looks over at her granddaughter and says, "Come on Miss Avery Gilmore-Huntzberger let's get a move on. It's movie night at the Gilmore's!"

Tristan's smile faded, "Excuse me, did you just say Gilmore? As in Rory Gilmore?"

Lorelai looks at him puzzled, "Rory's my daughter. Do you know her?"

Tristan replies without a beat, "From high school." He stands to shake Lorelai's hand, "I'm Tristan Dugrey."

Even though she thinks she should remember who this man is, she simply can't. "I've heard you're name before, but I can't remember why."

"I guess it could be because of the fights with bag—I mean Dean…"

"Rory's first boyfriend…" Lorelai whispers. "Oh! Now I remember you! You're bible boy!"

Tristan frowns, "Bible boy?"

His children also look upset because they don't understand his connection with the candy striper, Avery's, mother.

Lorelai helps him on, "You used to call her Mary, and you had quite a crush on her."

Tristan blushes, "Oh right. Yeah, that's true. But she was a bit oblivious."

Lorelai agrees, "My daughter lives in her own world sometimes. But, oh! I'm forgetting my manners. This is her eldest, Avery, and she has two younger children Aiden and Logan Jr."

Tristan takes Avery's hand, "It's nice to meet any daughter of Rory's. I'm sure you're just as smart as your mother."

Lorelai beams proudly, "She is."

Rory rushes into the room, "Sorry I'm late sweetie. I was caught in traffic."

She looks over at her mother, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question? I thought I was picking her up today. Aren't you supposed to be half way to Iraq?"

"Oh?" Rory smiles sheepishly, "That got canceled last minute. There's been some major bombings where I'm supposed to be staying and they don't want to risk it."

Rory, too, realizes they aren't alone. Lorelai says, "Rory do you remember…"

She is already staring at the blonde man who is staring back at her, "Tristan?"