Chapter Three: The Truth

"So, listen, nothing about your dad and Victoria to your grandparents, ok?" Lorelai said, standing in front of her parents' house.

Rory looked at her. "You want me to lie to Grandma and Grandpa?"

"I want you to keep information from them," Lorelai corrected.

"Ok," Rory reluctantly agreed.

Lorelai rang the doorbell and Emily answered the door. "Hello, Lorelai, Rory," Emily greeted them, holding the door open. "Come in."

"Hi, Mom," Lorelai replied.

"Hi, Grandma," Rory said.

"So, we want to hear all about your first week at Chilton," Emily said excitedly as she led them into the living room.

"Uh," Rory stalled with a glance at her mom.

"Rory had to pick a sport to play," Lorelai said, helping her daughter out. "She's bowling."

"Bowling?" Richard repeated, surprised.

"Well, the choices were basketball, lacrosse, swimming, track, golf-" Rory began.

"Golf, now that's a sport," Richard commented.

"We tried to get Lorelai to golf. Of course, she didn't do anything we wanted her to do. We still have her old clubs here," Emily remembered.

"She's bowling, Mom," Lorelai said, already seeing where this was going.

"Your grandfather is a golf player," Emily continued, completely ignoring Lorelai. "He could teach you to play."

Lorelai stared at Emily and then took a sip of the martini her father had handed her. Was Emily deaf?

"Your father was on the golf team when he was in high school," Richard informed Rory. "Good golfer, your father."

"She's bowling," Lorelai repeated, frustrated and annoyed.

"Why don't we let Rory decide?" Emily said in a condescending tone.

"She did decide. This was Rory's decision," Lorelai said. She felt like banging her head against a wall.

"I'm not really the athletic type," Rory chimed in.

"You get that from your mother," Emily told Rory. "It's a shame you didn't get your father's athletic ability."

Lorelai looked at Emily. "What athletic ability?"

"Christopher was on the golf team, Lorelai," Emily said.

"Yeah, when he was in high school," Lorelai said slowly, knowing Christopher had only joined the golf team because he wanted to leave campus and goof off on the golf course and get credit for it.

"Speaking of Christopher," Emily said, "his business is doing very well."

"What do you know about his business?" Lorelai asked, frowning.

"He called us a month ago when he got back in town," Emily said in a matter of fact tone.

"You knew he was back in town?" Lorelai said, staring at Emily in disbelief.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Emily said.

"Mom, did you know Victoria's going to Chilton?" Lorelai asked, narrowing her eyes at Emily.

"Well, of course we knew," Emily told her. "Christopher talks to us more than you do."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lorelai said, obviously upset.

"I assumed you knew," Emily said. "She's your daughter, Lorelai."

"But she lives with Christopher. You know that," Lorelai pointed out.

"And that means you know nothing about her life? You never talk to Christopher?" Emily inquired.

"Yes, that's exactly what it means," Lorelai told her.

"It's bad enough you don't talk to your daughter, but to not even ask Christopher how she is…" Emily said critically.

Lorelai took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. "Mom, Rory and I had dinner with Christopher and Victoria this week."

Emily looked surprised. "You did? I think that's wonderful. Isn't that wonderful, Richard? You should bring them to dinner next week. Your father and I would love to see her."

"I don't know, Mom," Lorelai said.

Emily looked at Lorelai. "Why not?"

"I've only had dinner with Victoria once. I want to get to know her first," Lorelai explained.

"Well, at the rate you're going, it will be another sixteen years before that happens," Emily said.

Lorelai sighed. "It's not going to be sixteen years."

"I hope not," Emily said pointedly.

"It's not," Lorelai insisted.

"We'll see," Emily said with a patronizing smile.

"Do you know where Christopher's working?" Lorelai asked.

"I thought you had dinner with him this week," Emily said.

"I did. We didn't talk about work," Lorelai said, really struggling to be patient.

"He's working as a consultant for a tech company," Richard told her.

"Great." Lorelai smiled, finally getting somewhere. "What's it called?"


"Lorelai," Christopher said, surprised to see Lorelai standing in the doorway of his office on Monday afternoon.

"Christopher," Lorelai said. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, come in," Christopher said, and Lorelai walked in, shutting the door behind her. "What are you doing here? How'd you know where here is?"

"My parents," Lorelai replied.

"Your parents, huh? You must've really wanted to talk to me," Christopher commented, knowing exactly how much she hated talking to her parents.

"I did," Lorelai confirmed, sitting down across from him. "I want to talk to you about Rory and Victoria."

"What about them?" Christopher wondered guardedly.

"What exactly did you tell Victoria about me?" Lorelai asked.

Christopher looked at her warily. "I told you, she didn't know about you until the other day-"

"Well, you must've said something because she seems to think I left," Lorelai said bitterly.

"You did," Christopher accused.

"You. I left you. I wanted to take her with me," Lorelai refreshed his memory. "So, what, you just told her I left? That's it. No background information?"

Christopher sighed. "I told her that we were gonna get married and you called off the wedding and left town."

Lorelai looked at him. "You have to tell her the truth—the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

"Fine," Christopher said. He knew he was wrong to tell Victoria only part of what happened. It wasn't fair to Lorelai or Victoria.

"Ok, now that that's settled, how long are you here?" Lorelai asked.

"What?" Christopher said.

"How long are you here?" Lorelai repeated with an edge to her voice.

"I don't know," Christopher said, avoiding her gaze.

"How many times have you moved? And I'm sorry, but a few is not one of the choices," Lorelai said pointedly.

"Is it multiple choice? True false? I never was very good in school," Christopher joked, trying to avoid the question.

Lorelai shot him a look. "Christopher."

"Well, let's see, Jersey, Hartford, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Berkeley, Hartford," Christopher said, counting off cities on his fingers. "Six. I've moved six times. Do I get a gold star?"

"Christopher," Lorelai said slowly, "you have a daughter. Two actually."

"I know," Christopher said, slightly annoyed.

"Parenting is hard work. It's coming home at the same time to the same place every day. It's being dependable," Lorelai said.

"So I'm the immature one? I'm the irresponsible one? I was the one who was willing to get married when you got pregnant. I wanted to be a family," Christopher reminded her.

"You don't know what a family is," Lorelai said.

"Victoria and I, we're a family," Christopher told her.

"Oh, when she's not living with your parents, you mean?" Lorelai said pointedly.

"Rory's a great kid. You did a good job with her. You raised her all by yourself. You're you and I'm not. I couldn't do it by myself. I needed help," Christopher said. "I'm still her father! She's still my daughter. She's fine. She's happy."

"Good. I'm glad," Lorelai said. "Look, I want to get to know her and I can't do that if you're gonna move again."

"Ok, so what do you want, a copy of my lease?" Christopher said.

"That's just it," Lorelai said. "You're leasing an apartment. You don't have a house. You don't even have a car. There's nothing keeping you here. You're gonna come and go as you please and that's fine, but what about Rory?"

"I want to be a part of her life, be a pal she can depend on," Christopher told her sincerely.

"Well, the door to Rory is open to you. Don't make me regret this," Lorelai warned.

"I won't," Christopher promised.


Rory walked out of Chilton and saw her mom waiting for her. She hurried over to the Jeep and got in the passenger seat. "Mom! What are you doing here?"

"I was in town so I decided to pick you up," Lorleai told her.

"Wait, why were you in Hartford?" Rory asked.

"Well, I was talking to your dad," Lorelai replied.

"You were? Why?" Rory asked, worried. She wanted to get to know her dad. She didn't want to go back to the arrangement they had before.

"He wants to be part of your life," Lorelai told her.

"Good," Rory said with a smile. She looked at her mom. "That's good, right?"

"I think so," Lorelai said as she got in the line of cars trying to get out of the parking lot. She glanced out the window and saw a girl and boy making out in front of the school. Her eyes widened when the girl pulled away from the boy. "Is that Victoria?"

Rory followed her mom's gaze. "Yep."

"Who's the boy?" Lorelai asked. She hadn't had to deal with boys with Rory.

Rory hadn't ever really acted interested in boys. Well, she didn't want to go Chilton because of the new boy at Stars Hollow High, but that only lasted a day. Nothing ever happened with him.

Even if Rory had a boyfriend, Lorelai couldn't really picture her making out in front of school, whereas Victoria obviously didn't have the same inhibitions.

Lorelai didn't like the way the boy was handling her daughter. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist with his hands resting on her lower back, a little too low if you asked her.

"Why don't you ask Victoria?" Rory suggested, not wanting to tell her mom about her sister's…whatever Tristan was.

"I'm asking you," Lorelai said with a smile. She looked at Rory. "Who's the boy?"

Rory sighed. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"

"Nope," Lorelai said.

"Fine. It's Tristan," Rory told her reluctantly.

Lorelai gasped, knowing how Tristan treated Rory. "No!"

"Yes," Rory muttered.

"Oh no. I'm sorry, hon," Lorelai said, looking at Rory sympathetically.


"Tor, I need to talk to you," Christopher said from the couch, where he was waiting for Victoria when she got home from school.

He was never home this early. "What's wrong?" Victoria asked, dropping her backpack on the floor by the door.

"Nothing's wrong," Christopher told her. "I just need to talk to you."

"Ok, so talk," Victoria said, walking over to the couch warily.

"I talked to your mom today," Christopher said.

"You talked to Lorelai…about me?" Victoria said with a frown. "She doesn't want to do dinner tomorrow, does she?"

"No," Christopher said quickly, not wanting Victoria to think that. His daughter thought Lorelai was going to leave her again. He'd really screwed up. "I screwed up."

"What did you do?" Victoria looked at him nervously.

"Your mom left me," Christopher began.

"I know," Victoria said quietly.

"She left me," Christopher said. "Not you. It had nothing to do with you. She wanted to take you and Rory with her."

Victoria frowned. That was new information. "What?"

Christopher looked at her. "She never, ever wanted to leave you."

"Then what happened?" Victoria asked.

"She wanted to take you and Rory and leave. I said no, she couldn't take my kids away from me. We had a big fight about it," Christopher remembered.

"Who won?" Victoria wondered.

"No one," Christopher said. "She took Rory and I kept you."

"Whose idea was that?" Victoria asked.

"We both thought it was best," Christopher answered honestly. "We couldn't share custody. We couldn't make it work. It was too hard."

"Your dad's a lawyer and you got your custody agreement from the Parent Trap?" Victoria said. "How did that work anyway? I mean, did you flip a coin? Heads, Rory, tails, Victoria?"

"Actually we let you guys pick," Christopher told her.

Victoria stared at him. "Weren't we, like, two?"

"We put you guys in the middle of the room and went to opposite sides of the room," Christopher explained, and Victoria gave him a weird look. "It was your mom's idea," Christopher told her in his defense. "You came to me." Christopher had been worried that both of the girls would go to Lorelai. They knew Lorelai better.

When Lorelai put Rory down in the middle of the room, Rory cried and followed her.

Victoria however had enjoyed her freedom, even then. She had gone straight for the expensive crystal candy dish on the coffee table in Emily's living room, and, when Lorelai told her no, she'd gone to Christopher.

"I did?" Victoria said.

Christopher smiled and nodded. "Yeah." His smile faded and he looked at her. "Do you wish you'd gone with your mom?"

There were times when she'd missed having a mom, but most of the time Victoria was happy with her dad. She loved him.

"No, Dad," Victoria assured him with a reassuring smile.

"I love you, kid," Christopher said, relieved.

"I love you, too," Victoria told him.