Sugar and Spice
By Misha
Disclaimer and Notes in Part One.
Chapter Two: Parent Talk
"You let her pierce her navel?" Lorelai asked Christopher when they were alone. The girls were in Rory's room. Rory was studying, Christa was alternating between bothering her and reading a magazine.
Christopher shrugged. "She wanted it. I didn't see the harm."
"Just don't let her pierce her face." Lorelai told him. "I'd hate to have to not associate with my own daughter."
"Done." Christopher agreed with a laugh. "Think your mom would like it?"
Lorelai laughed imagining the look on Emily's face. "Oh... Tempting." She was quiet. "She looks good, Chris."
"She's a good kid." Christopher told her. "And so's Rory, you're doing an amazing job with her."
"It's odd watching them together." Lorelai admitted. "Remember when they were babies? They were exactly the same, yet now..."
"Yeah." Christopher said, shaking his head. "Maybe it's us, our different approaches."
They definitely did have different approaches. Lorelai had taken Rory away from her parents world, sheltering her in Stars Hollow, while Chris had raised Christa in the center of it, leaning on his parents for support far more than Lorelai would ever have been comfortable with. However, while she didn't always approve of his methods, she couldn't fault the results, Christa was great.
"Maybe." Lorelai agreed. "Or maybe it's just them."
"Does Rory ever scare you?" Christopher asked her.
"All the time." Lorelai confided. "Sometimes I'll look at her and it hits me that I'm raising a teenager, but mostly she's been pretty good. Christa?"
"Has her moments." Christopher confessed. "But a lot of the time, I wonder who's raising who."
"I feel that way with Rory." Lorelai said with a smile. "Maybe they aren't as different as we thought."
"Is this when I mention the tattoo?" Christopher asked.
Lorelai shot him a look. "She has a tattoo?"
"A small one." Christopher told her. "On her ankle. She thought it would be cool."
"Chris, we're their parents, we're not supposed to let them do something just because it would be 'cool'." Lorelai scolded, feeling as she always did with Chris that it was one step forward and two steps back.
"What's the harm?" Christopher asked.
"Other than the fact that she'll have to live with it for the rest of her life?" Lorelai asked her. "Chris, she's sixteen."
"You trying saying no to her." Christopher challenged. "It's hard, Lor, especially when it's something she really, really wants."
"Oh, I bet." Lorelai told him. "Rory's the same way."
"I wanted to talk to you about that." Christopher told her.
"About what?" Lorelai asked.
"Rory." He said. "I handled it badly, Lor, I've dropped the ball there a lot of times."
"Yes, you have." Lorelai agreed. Christopher was an absent parent to Rory, if best, one of the reasons Lorelai worried about Christa so much. In fact, one of the reasons Christopher actually talked to Rory on a weekly basis was that Lorelai called Christa every other day and arranged for Christopher and Rory to chat during one of those phone calls.
"You've done such a great job." He told her. "With Rory and with Christa, being there for her. She never feels like you're neglecting her or like she's really missing out on having a mother. She knows that whatever she needs, she can't count on you. Rory hasn't been as lucky, has she?"
"No, she hasn't." Lorelai told him.
"I want to be there for her more." Christopher told her. "I look at Christa and I realize that I'm missing out on all the same things with Rory and I want to change that."
Lorelai looked at him, wondering if she could believe him. It sounded nice, but then it always did.
"I don't know how much your dad has told you but I'm on the verge of kind of a big success, it's for real this time." He told her. "I've got a company with an actual cash flow, I've got employees, I've got an accountant for God's sake. He wears a tie and says words like 'fiduciary' and 'ironically'. I mean it's for real this time Lor."
Lorelai looked at him. "I'd love to believe that, Christopher." But she'd heard it all before.
Christopher sighed. "Why does your dad have more faith in me than you do?"
"Because, I've known you since I was six, Chris." Lorelai told him. "I have two children with you and yeah, you've done a pretty good job with Christa, piercings and tattoos aside, but you're still that guy who crashed his Porsche two hours after his parents gave it to him for his 16th birthday."
"And you were the girl in the Pinky Tuscadero t-shirt sitting right next to me." He countered.
Lorelai smiled slightly. "That was a long time ago, Chris. Nowadays that's more likely to be our daughter."
"She does have that in her, doesn't she?" Christopher asked, shaking his head. "How did Rory miss out?"
"I'm not sure." Lorelai told him. "She's always been my mini-adult."
It was true. Rory had been born responsible, while Christa... Christa was definitely a teenager.
She sighed. "So, you're life's back on track, I think that's great." She told him. "I just want to know how it involves me."
"I haven't been around for Rory, like I have for Christa, and I regret that." Christopher told her. "I'd like to change that, be around a bit more. Be a real part of Rory's life."
"That option's always been there." Lorelai told him slowly. "You rarely used it."
"I know." Christopher told her. "I can think of so many excuses, that I had my hands full with Christa, but that's just an excuse, because you always made time for Christa while you raised Rory. You were a fantastic mother to them both. So, I'm not going to make excuses, all I'm going to say is that I want to use it now. I want to make up for everything. Is that ok?"
"Of course it is." Lorelai told him. "You're her father, Chris."
That was the truth. Whatever doubts she had about Christopher, he was Rory's father, and she wasn't going to interfere with that. No matter how much she might want to.
