Title: Strangers

Summary: Sequel to "Just Family".

Disclaimer: I happen to own a few gorgeous posters of Chad.

A/N: Okay so this is the big sequel I wanted to write a long time ago but didn't have the time for. I'm gonna try to make this worth the wait, so I hope all the people who've read Just Family will read & review this too!

Rory Gilmore, 25 years old, stared at the crackling fire. For some time now she had started to relive the past whenever she was left alone long enough. She remembered her so called brother Tristan, the way she had been torn away from her love and the people she had considered her parents for so long. She remembered feeling sad at first, when he hadn't replied to her letters, and angry later on. How dared he? He was the one who had persuaded her to give everything up. He was the one who had made her believe that there was a chance for them, that what they were doing wasn't morally wrong. He had made her believe that their love was real and worth holding on to.

And he had been the one to leave her alone. Alone with her thoughts, her memories, her pain. Without someone to talk to, without friends or a family. Lorelai and Chris had stopped visiting her because for a while all she could talk about was him. That the love she felt was real and that it wasn't wrong what they had done and could they please please listen to her? But they couldn't. They wouldn't. They thought it was wrong and the whole world agreed with them.

So in the end she had picked up the pieces on her own, fighting for respect she thought she deserved. She had finished school, went to college and now had a place and a job of her own. She was completely independent. She didn't need anybody.

But someone did need her. Someone who was now sleeping in his little bed, safely tucked under the sheets. Someone whom she had given a kiss on his forehead, smiling because even after everything that had happened something good had come out of it. She had a son. A beautiful son. But no matter how much she tried to deny it, he was the spitting image of his father. From his blonde tousled hair to his blue eyes and smirk, everything reminded her of him.

Fortunately, where she was living now, nobody knew. Nobody would look at her son and know that he was the product of something that was still considered immoral and gross, even though in reality it really really wasn't. At least that's what she was telling herself.

And now she was at a turningpoint in her life. She had to make a decision. Would she go back and face the family she had broken with? Would she go to the funeral of her grandfather, Janlan DuGrey, and risk the chance of seeing her fosterparents? Of seeing Tristan? And would she bring her son? Would she let them look at her treasure and see the look of disgust on their faces when they realized?

Thinking back of that time, how beautiful and perfect the surroundings had been, she couldn't regret it even if she tried. It had been too perfect. It had been everything she ever dreamed of and more. And even though now her feelings for him had turned into hatred, she was thankful for what he had given her. A son. Someone to share her life with so she didn't feel so empty inside anymore. Someone that she watched growing up with pride. Someone who snuggled close to her in the evening and called her mommy and kissed her on the cheek with that softness that still made her feel like crying.

She straightened the paper she had rippled up in her hands and looked at it once again.

You are cordially invited to the funeral of Janlan Gregory DuGrey, at september 12th.

She had grimaced at the word cordially, knowing that Jeanette had probably written the invitation out of decency, and that she half hoped Rory wouldn't show up.

And why should she? Would it be worth all the humiliation, the loathing looks, just to say goodbye to her grandfather? Even though it had been her favourite grandfather all her life, would it outweigh the unwelcome feeling she would get upon seeing the people she once was close to?

Then she remembered why she had to go. Even if it meant enduring the looks, the whispers, people avoiding her. She had to see him. Just one more time. She had to look him in the eye and feel inside that it was really over. She had to hear the reason why he had never written her back.

Review please!