Disclaimer: Amy Sherman Palladino and her genius are solely responsible for Gilmore Girls. I have written on what I feel should have happened.
Until death, do us part?
Synopsis
When Tristan's father announced that Tristan would be attending military school his grandmother in desperation to protect the Dugrey social prestige called in a favor from Emily Gilmore. Which will concern Rory, how will Lorelai react…? How far will Rory go to please her grandparents…. and what happened in Lorelai's past for her to have made the choices she did.
CHAPTER 1
1. THE LORELAI'S REACTION
Rory got up and ran from the formal sitting room. The room was filled with people she did not care about, and she didn't care how rude she was being by just bolting from the room. After what felt like an eternity of trying to digest the information that the elders of the room just kept nonchalantly spitting out, it was obvious how clearly their minds on her and some Hartford socialite's destiny were made up. She spent what felt like hours distinguishing between reality and fantasy. Was this a dream?
She ran through the dining room to the kitchen. Then, trying to figure out her way out to hide from this just to keep herself safe, she vaguely remembered her mother telling her last year the escape routes from the Gilmore mansion.
She heard footsteps; Rory could not take the scolding from her grandmother, not now. She could not even comprehend the blow she felt without Emily trying to reason with her to do as she says. Rory ran down the hall and then turned left, but she hesitated for a moment too long.
"Honey." It was Lorelai with a look on her face of understanding and blinding rage. Rory started shaking. Lorelai enveloped her daughter in her arms, so mad at herself for letting this happen.
She should have guessed the terms of getting involved with her parents were her daughter's future and happiness. All those times Lorelai said she and Rory would do anything to get into Harvard. The elder Gilmores' pride was hurt when Rory started refusing her grandparents 'suggestions' and 'gifts' in her life, when she chose Stars hollow over the Hartford society. Because of them, she elected to choose Yale over her Harvard dream. However, it was not enough for them to have a granddaughter in the Ivy Leagues, attending Richard's Alma Mater.
Emily could not understand why this proposal was so difficult for them to accept; they should have been embracing her with glee. At least this way, the damage Lorelai inflicted on the family name could be reversed with Rory. Rory picked up where Lorelai's future stopped and the Gilmores saw this as a perfect situation. It was well known that before he left for military school, every Hartford society princess lusted after the most handsome, most debonair young man out in society. The Gilmores were surprised at the offer when it was initially presented, but they knew that Prudence Hounslow did not joke with anything. Every move she made was calculated and so well thought out she would have been extremely useful to the CIA.
The Gilmores knew that Rory was a good catch and that people would be knocking down their door for her to marry their sons. However, the problem was that her mother's influence on her was too great and although Rory had agreed to Yale, it was only because Lorelei had encouraged her.
In addition, due to the fact that Rory lived away from the social circuit of Hartford, she was not seen. Yes, she went to Chilton, but that was not enough and she hardly socialized at the academy. This way, she would be engaged early, so that she would not have juvenile delinquents or grocery store workers vying for her attention. This was the way to deal with it in the Hartford society manner.
"TRISTIAN JANLEN DUGREY! GET BACK HERE WHEN I'M TALKING WITH YOU YOUNG MAN!!"
Tristan stormed from the room and then proceeded to run as far as he could from his family. He thought by attending military school, his family would be happy and not go and arrange a bimbo bride for him.
He had been away for the last couple of years and was going to start Columbia in the fall. He had gained early admission to study law. He only got the interview because a classmate at the academy had connections to some of the professors who set him up with an interview, although his mother kept boasting about it as if she had anything to do with it. His mother, if he could even call her that, spent most of her time drinking herself into a stupor or attending the society functions that his grandmother had instructed her to attend. His mother was someone who prioritized the DAR functions over Tristan and his three sisters.
"They are both so dense'" he heard his younger sister Charlotte or as she was known amongst her siblings as 'Charlie' muttering to him. She had come after him, but Tristan just wanted to keep moving getting himself further away. "This doesn't mean anything we'll fix it I promise Tris." As he got further away from her, he could still hear the discussion from the formal lounge where his sisters and grandmother were arguing. His grandmother trying to reason with his two older sisters. His oldest sister Odette, or 'Odie,' was beside herself. She was a corporate lawyer and his inspiration for his chosen career path. He could hear his grandmother arguing her position from where he stood.
"Tristan is exceptionally bright. I mean, if what you say is correct, Lydia, he gained early admission to Colombia University. I believe he is more than ready to embrace this opportunity." Tristan's second oldest sister Harriet, 'Harry,' had resumed protesting about how young he was. He had graduated last week and this was his first day back in Hartford. "It's unfair to just put something this big on his shoulders". His Mother Started in next. She rarely spoke; she was usually off too busy with her own affairs to be bothered with her children. "He has been shut off from the Hartford society for too long. He's been forgotten. He had such a rapport with the many of the young woman in high society and those women have moved on. Most are already engaged to his peers who were not afraid to strike whilst the iron was hot. It is too late; his reputation is scarred now". Everybody paused whenever she spoke. They always went quiet because it really didn't happen that often. His grandmother went on trying to reason with his sisters.
His mother, Lydia, still acted like she was grateful to his grandparents for allowing her a place in there prestigious family, that she let everyone else run the show and run her and her kid's lives. She was still an unwed mother to them. She knew the only reasons she was there was because she was a perfect stereotype of bimbo bride who stood the way they treated her because she had gotten pregnant by Tristan's father Robert Dugrey, who was always on long 'business trips.' However, she still had Dugrey as her last name and that counted for everything to her.
The family they came from still amazed Tristan and his sisters. If it was not for his family's loyal staff of house cleaners and butlers, he and his sisters never would have survived and achieved the level of normality they had. His legs stopped; he could not walk any more because he'd walked into a dead end hallway. He hated his grandparents' home; it was cold and big he always got lost. He doubted anybody would find him, except Charlie, and two minutes later Charlie rounded to corner to see Tristan. He didn't acknowledge her presence; he was too busy staring out the window trying to take in all that his grandmother had thrust upon him.
His stomach felt like it had been dragged across the floor when he left the room. Part of him wanted to stay in the formal lounge area to hear how his sister was going to get him out of this. However, he knew it was grim. She had the same look when his father sent him away to North Carolina he drew up a contract with Tristan's mother that night that Tristan would be disowned from the family if he dropped out of military school. In addition, his sisters would lose their college funding if they supported him after dropping out of military school. All he could do was sink to the floor, numb.
When he was forced to succumb to his parents' plans, they had put up a fight. He was going to be a Hartford society man whether he liked it or not. These society girls usually had powerful fathers who knew how to cripple a man. They would find his weakness; it was how they did business.
Charlie sat with him until her phone went off. She talked on the phone while Tristan laid his head on her shoulder for comfort. After a while, his brother-in-law, Paul, husband to his oldest sister Odie, pulled him up off the floor. He and Charlie half dragged him out the back kitchen door, and into Paul's SUV.
Paul opened his mouth to say something, but he could not find the words. He just closed the door and waited for Odie and Harry to join them. They would let their mother find her own way home. For now, Tristan wanted to just get his things and got back to his dorm in North Carolina, but he had graduated two weeks ago and lingered there as long as he could.
They sat in the silence of the car until there was a dramatic burst of the front doors. Odie stormed out, shouting behind her, "This is not over, yet. You are not God and cannot command power like this. We will not back down. This goes against the human rights act." Odie jumped into the driver's seat and put the key into the ignition. Then, she turned the car on and drove down the driveway.
Their grandmother was scolding, "Odette I will not be spoken to like that. And my Good Gracious, Harriet, are you afraid that you will starve to death?". Harriet brushed past her grandmother, arms stacked with Tupperware from the kitchen. As she climbed in to the SUV, which paused at the gates for her, she justified herself to the group, "You gotta admit the old broad knows food."
This made Tristan chuckle. He often thought growing up that Harriet was like a male role model, an older brother and father figure all rolled up into one. She played more of a father figure to him, at times teaching him how to fight and when he disrespected girls, well the decent girls, which was rare, but still, that was the old Tristan.
He smiled briefly. He knew he could count on them to make light of the situation. Their mother, snottily walking to the out the front door, stopped short when she saw that her daughter was going to drive off without her. It hurt her sometimes how much her children resented her. However, her mother-in-law had allowed her this lifestyle of wealth and privileged. She turned and barked at the nearest maid to call her a driver. This was not the first time they had disregarded her.
Back in Stars Hollow, both the Lorelais sat on the floor of Rory's room, leaning against her bed. Lorelai was trying to think of how to get out of the position she was in. Somehow, there was a clause when she signed Rory's tuition over to Emily.
Nevertheless, all she could think of was how this was all her fault. She let Rory bring Dean to Friday night dinners
In addition, Jess had come too. Why didn't she encourage her to bring Lane? And all those times she talked to Emily about Rory's boyfriends. She scared Emily. She reminded her that she was not in a place to influence Rory's romantic life. Therefore, Emily did what she does best. She got what she wanted. She now had Rory promised to some Hartford socialite.