Author: Kathryn

Spoilers: Everything up to 'Run Away Little Boy'

Pairing: Rory and Tristan

Author's Note: Not a very original idea for a story.  Basically what happens is that Tristan tells his daughter the story of how he met Rory.  The first ten chapters are what happened in the episodes with Tristan in them.  Thanks to Gilmore-girls.net for the transcript.

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls does not belong to me.  If it did, things would be a lot different between Rory and Tristan.  Oh, the idea about Lori's essay was also borrowed from My Girl 2.

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"Dad?"

Tristan DuGrey raised his head from his newspaper and looked over at his sixteen-year-old daughter who had just entered his study.  "Yes, Lori?"

Lorelai 'Lori' DuGrey cleared her throat nervously before speaking again. She'd decided that before having this conversation with her father, she'd keep it together.  "Uh… today at Chilton we were given an assignment," she began.  She wanted to smack herself.  Nice one Lori, she thought.  Stating the obvious.  Yeah, you're looking really composed now.

"Hmm."  Tristan raised his eyebrows, urging his daughter to go on.

Lori took a deep breath and tried again.  "We're, uh, supposed to write an essay on a person we admire but we've never met."  She paused, debating whether or not to continue.  She quickly decided that she had to get this out.  "I decided to do it on… mom."

The silence was deafening.  Lori was starting to regret her decision.  I knew I shouldn't have told him, she thought angrily.  Why couldn't I just be normal and do an essay on a movie star?

"Lorelai DuGrey, I'm surprised at you.  I would have thought you had the decency not to hit on such a sensitive topic."  Tristan scowled angrily and hid his face behind his newspaper, wanting all thoughts of his late wife out of his head.

Lori was about to apologize when she realized she had no reason to.  Instead she got angry.  "No, I'm surprised at you!" she yelled.  "I have every right to know about her.  She was my mother.  I know you loved her and I know that it hurts you talk about her, but listen."  She paused to catch her breath before continuing.  "You have never told me a thing about her.  Everything I know about mom I've heard from Lorelai and mom's old friends, never from you."  Tears started to form in her eyes.  "I have lived my entire life without a mother and you act like I don't exist.  So don't give me this crap about me having no decency.  Take a look at the mirror when you say things like that."

Tristan stared hard at his daughter before lifting the paper back up towards his face.  "Go to your room, Lorelai," he said, an angry waver in his voice.  "I don't want to see you at the moment."

Lori stormed out of her father's study and up to her bedroom.  Once there, she'd realized what she'd done and buried her head in her hands.  "Oh no," she groaned.  She'd known her father wasn't very good in dealing with emotions and she'd gone in there and yelled at him about a very delicate subject.

A few hours later, she crawled into bed and settled with a book that would help her fall asleep.  After reading a few pages, a knock was heard.  Figuring it was one of the maids, Lori hopped out of bed and unlocked the door.  A look of surprise came over her face as she stared at the person on the other side of the threshold.  "Dad, what are you doing here?"

The elder DuGrey rubbed his hands together and sighed.  He opened his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind.  Instead, he looked at her attire and her unmade bed.  "Going to sleep so early?" he inquired.  "Today is Friday, isn't it?"

Lori rolled her eyes.  "Cut the crap, dad, what do you want?" she asked sharply.  She knew she should've apologized but she was still angry.

Her father sighed again.  "Can I come in, Lori?"

She moved aside and let him enter her room.  Lori flopped on her bed, while Tristan hovered uncomfortably near her leather couch.  "Sit down, dad," she told him.  "What did you want?"

Tristan lifted his dark cerulean eyes to meet Lori's clear, sapphire ones.  She looks so much like her mother, he thought wistfully.  Aside from her dark-blond hair, Lori looked like an exact replica of the sixteen-year-old Rory Gilmore.

"Dad?"  Lori's voice cut into his thoughts and he was jolted out of his reverie.

"Listen, dad," Lori started.  "About before, I'm sorry about what I said.  I didn't mean that you were a bad father, I just-"

Tristan shook his head.  "No, Lori, I'm sorry."  He chuckled slightly at the surprised look on his daughter's face.  "I shouldn't try to shut you out of my life."  He paused.  "I always promised to myself that I'd never become like my father.  I swore that I would never ignore my kids.  But when you're mom died, I didn't know how to act.  Rory was always there to guide me through the steps of parenting that I never experienced and I thought she always would be."  He stopped again and ran a hand through his hair.  "I hope you understand Lori that the reason I've raised you like I have is only because I was following my father.  I didn't have any other role model and I'm sorry."

Lori blinked at her father's confession.  "Dad, it wasn't your fault."

"I should've at least tried to make up for the fact that you didn't have a mother.  But I didn't and I hope you'll give me another chance to be a real father," Tristan finished off.

Lori bit her lip.  "Of course," she choked out.  "I love you dad."

Tristan smiled.  "I love you to Lori."

Most families would've shared a hug when they finished a heart-to-heart talk, Tristan mused.  But not the DuGrey's.  No, we are defiantly a unique family.  He started to get up from the couch when Lori spoke again.

"Dad, seeing as though we're 'bonding' now, I'd like you're help on my essay," Lori said.

Tristan headed over to his daughter's side and kissed her forehead.  "Sure," he agreed.  "I think I'm ready to talk about your mom.  What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Lori said eagerly.  "How you guys met, how you started dating, when you proposed… everything."  She watched as her father got a faraway look in his eyes.

"Well, it all started during my sophomore year at Chilton.  When I woke up that morning I thought that day would be like any other day.  I was wrong.  That was the day that Rory Gilmore entered my life…"