Okay, I'll be spelling Christopher and his parents' last name as Haden, now, since I've recently found out that that's what the DVD booklet says :)

Also, it'll be a few chapters until Logan and the rest of LDB crew comes in. A lot of people have asked about it.

And, FYI, Rory will be a badass [pardon my French :)]. She won't take all of the crap from Lorelai or Dean, or anyone else like she did in the show.

AND, [so sorry this is so long!] Rory and Dean are currently broken up. It didn't really make sense [their break-up] how I wrote it in the first one, so we'll just pretend that their anniversary has already come and Dean broke up with her. There will be some Dean, so don't worry :) And she and Tristan didn't kiss at the party!

Thanks so much for all of the reviews :) You all inspire me to write more.

Rory was nervously pushing her food around her plate. She had never been more nervous in her life than in the presence of Straub and Francine Haden, otherwise known as her grandparents. They were two people who had ignored her for her entire life, never bothering to spend time with her, or even meet her. Her foot began tapping without her even realizing it, a rare reminder of the ADHD she had been diagnosed when she was younger. Her father offered her a small smile from beside her, but it did nothing to calm her nerves as her grandparents chatted about some gala they had all attended the past weekend.

Before long, however, the chatter wound down and the plates were cleared. Even with her stomach churning with nervousness, Rory had managed to put down at least half of her plate. Unfortunately, she was now even more uncomfortable with the silence as Straub and Francine studied her. She shot a look at Emily, who smiled softly at her as the maid sat coffee in front of them all. That gave her enough courage to look up with an almost bored look, though she was anything but.

Suddenly, Straub slammed a fist on the table angrily. He looked furious and he was glaring straight at Lorelai, who stared back with defiance. Rory jumped out of her chair so startled that she would have fallen out of it if her father hadn't caught her just in time. He looked surprised, but his eyes were narrowed as though he knew what his father was up to, but couldn't figure it all out yet. Emily, Richard and Francine appeared nearly as startled as Rory, though they were infinitely more curious, as Straub rarely lost his cool about anything. He had a reputation of being a calm and calculating man.

"How much longer will this go on, Lorelai?" Straub asked angrily. His eyes flashed dangerously and his thin face was quickly turning red with anger. "Will you never tell anyone about it? They all deserve to know."

"It's not your business as to what they should know or shouldn't, Straub," Lorelai said coolly, ignoring the questioning looks she got from Rory and her parents. "It's in the past, and it has been for a long time."

"And what happens when they begin asking questions? There is an awful large gap in the story that you tell everyone," Straub said scornfully.

"You have no right -" Lorelai began to shout, raising her voice before her father cut her off in a demanding voice.

"What is going on?" Richard demanded. His eyes were flashing and he now looked as angry as Straub that he thought Lorelai was keeping something from them.

"Would you like to own up to your actions, Lorelai?" Straub asked with a sneer. Lorelai glared back at him hatefully.

Rory chanced a look at her father, and noticed that he looked slightly pale and was watching the argument intently, as if he knew everything that was going on, and wanted it to quickly be over. She looked at the end of the table, and saw that Emily and Francine looked completely shocked and confused, though Francine did seem like she knew more than Emily did.

"I haven't done anything wrong," Lorelai insisted, shooting a pleading glance at Christopher, who stood up to join his father and Richard.

"I'm not going to help you, Lore," Chris said quietly. Her face took on a look of incredulousness. "I wasn't allowed to see my daughter for thirteen years, so I don't think that I owe you anything."

"What do you mean, you weren't allowed to see Rory?" Emily screeched, standing up with the rest of the table. Francine stayed seated with Rory and Lorelai.

"He means just what he said, Emily!" Straub shouted furiously. "Lorelai insisted that he stay away, or she was going to take legal action so that he wouldn't be allowed to see Rory ever. She was angry at us, and took it out on him and Rory."

"Lorelai, what have you done?" Richard asked angrily, though his voice was controlled, making it all the more frightening. Rory's eyes were wide as she looked all around the table of people who had seemed to forget about her sitting there.

"They hated me, Dad!" Lorelai shouted, trying to justify her actions. "They told me that I ruined Christopher's future by having Rory. They didn't even want to be in her life!"

"That is a lie, and you know it," Francine said finally, in the calmest voice Rory had heard that night. All eyes swiveled to her, sitting next to the standing form of her husband and Emily. "We were forbidden from ever contacting Rory or attempting to see her. You didn't want her to know that society existed, which is why you kept her away from Emily and Richard, and Christopher. You had that thought in your head that she was going to do what you did and run away from home to the other world. You didn't want anything to go wrong with your perfect plan that you decided for Rory's life. You chose Harvard from the moment she was born so that she wouldn't be a legacy at Yale or Princeton. You didn't allow her to attend Chilton until she was sixteen, and you refuse to let her have a car. You're controlling her life so that she doesn't do what you did."

Lorelai was literally shaking in anger. Rory couldn't believe the words that she was hearing, and apparently, neither could Emily. She had her head in her hands and was shaking it back and forth. There wasn't a calm face all around the table.

"I was lucky that I even found you after you ran away, Lore," Christopher said finally, his voice controlled. "If you hadn't talked about moving to a small town that you drove through on your way to Hartford, we wouldn't be here right now because I'd have never found you. That day, you told me that if I ever wanted to see Rory again, that I would stay away until you called me to come. You never called. I had a relationship with my daughter by seeing her at Christmas parties and weekly phone calls, prearranged by you. The only reason I came this time was because I was sick of it. I wanted to see her without your interference."

"Is it true, Mom?" Rory asked quietly. All eyes swiveled to her, as if they had just noticed her there. She felt her dad put a hand on her shoulder as she glanced at her mother.

Lorelai looked at her, as if she thought Rory was supposed to take her side on the whole matter automatically. "Rory, I was protecting you," she told her. "This isn't the world you want to be in. You wouldn't fit in here."

"Just because you didn't fit in, doesn't mean that I won't!" Rory shouted suddenly. She was furious that her mother thought she couldn't decide for herself. Rory had always believed that Lorelai taught her how to be independent, but now she realized that she was keeping her from it. "Why would you think that I need you to decide everything for me? I'm seventeen years old and I can decide for myself. I like this world. I like the society parties and the charity organizations and the opportunities I can't get in the other world. I love Grandma and Grandpa. I love Dad. I love Grandmother and Grandfather. I love Gran. Why wouldn't I want to do some of the things that they did? And another thing, I want to go to Yale! How could you not remember me dancing around Grandpa's study with his diploma during Christmas parties when you wanted to escape? I wanted to go to Yale just like him, and I still do!"

Christopher was swelling with pride as his daughter gave her mother the exact same withering stare that his mother used. Francine and Straub were grinning, despite the tone of the conversation, and Richard and Emily were completely shocked, though Richard was also swelling with pride, as Rory had sounded much like his mother when she shouted at Lorelai.

"Rory, you don't know what you're saying," Lorelai said quietly. "Once you're in this world, there's no getting out of it."

"Well maybe I'll just get pregnant so that I can run away," Rory said quietly before taking off up the stairs.

"The only reason you had her was so that you could run away?" Emily screeched once Rory was out of the room. She looked more furious than anyone else in the room had.

Lorelai looked slightly guilty for a moment. "It was the only way," she muttered.

"Get out," Richard said, barely holding in his repressed anger. "Get out of this house, right now, Lorelai."

Lorelai nodded with her head bowed. "I'll go get Rory," she said.

"No," Christopher said. Lorelai looked at him incredulously. "She's my daughter, too, Lore. She can stay with me tonight."

"Chris, you don't even live in Hartford," Lorelai protested immediately.

"Mom and Dad gave me a house," Chris said, nodding in their direction. "She'll come home when she's ready, Lorelai. Just give her space."

Lorelai nodded and left. Christopher looked around the table at all of the exhausted adults and motioned for the waitress to get them all more wine.

Okay, I changed a lot, because sooooo many people were complaining about Lorelai being evil. That was not my intention in the first story. I think the new way works much better.

Also, I won't move things as fast as I did in the first story. I think it was shoddy and too cluttered to understand some things clearly.

Hope you liked the update.

REVIEW PLEASE :)

Allison