Family Ties

Chapter 3:Family Talk

Just to avoid confusion, the story takes place after „Bridesmaids revisited". The last two scenes however didn't take place so Rory is "homeless" at the moment.

"Rory, Sweetie what's up?" Lorelai rushes to her daughter and takes her in her arms.

"I went to Honors wedding, with Logan, and it was terrible." Rory sobbs. "He slept with about every of Honor's bridesmaids while we were apart, it was all Ross-Rachel, hardcore!"

I don't know what Ross-Rachel shall mean but I feel terribly sorry for my granddaughter. Seems that Logan takes after his father after all. Rory notices me now, looking over Lorelai's shoulder.

"Grandma" she exclaims, surprised. "I didn't know you were here. Am I disturbing anything?"

Before I can say anything, Lorelai chimes in.

"No, hon, you're not disturbing, Grandma came because she had to tell me something sad" She explains.

"Sad? Is something wrong with you? Or with Grandpa?" Rory asks, worried. It feels good to see that she still cares.

"No, we're fine.I came to tell your mother, that , that my sister and her family died in an accident.Yesterday." I tell her.

"Oh Grandma I'm so sorry." Rory moves to embrace me and I willingly take her in my arms, relieved to have her there again, relieved to be embraced by someone I love. "Thank you, Rory." I say and pat her back.

Rory lets go of me but keeps her hands on my arms. "An accident you say. With a car?" I nod. "And her family, I mean who was that? Was she married, did she have children?" She asks. Right, she doesn't know the first thing about Hopie.

"Yes, she was married and had a son. He and his fiancee were also in the car, along with her and husband. It seems there was bad weather and the car crashed into another and fell off a bridge or something like that. I didn't understand everything, the policeman spoke very fast. I only know Hope was the only one who survived the original accident and was brought to the hospital, where she died later on." Probably because of a broken heart, I think to myself. If she woke up and someone had told her her husband and child had died...a cold shiver ran down my back just thinking of a situation like that. I certainly wouldn't wanna have lived anymore after such news. It's hard for me to tell Rory about the accident but somehow it also helps me comprehending what happened.

Lorelai comes from the kitchen with three cups of coffee. I thankfully smile at her when she hands me mine. Then I turn to look at my granddaughter again.

"Now Rory, tell us your worries. What did that stupid Logan guy do?" Lorelai and Rory look at me, doubtful. Well, I may not be known for "girl talk" within my family but I know how to do it, for sure. Hope and I did that a lot when we were younger.

"I'm home!" I shout and throw my bag into a corner of our living room. I go into the kitchen, open the fridge and take out a soda. My sister comes out of the bathroom. "Hey, Em, wow, you seem to be in a good mood." Hopie remarks. I throw her an un-nerved look.

"He just won't commit!"I say, upset.

"Richard?" she stupidly asks.

"No, Hope, Santa Clause. Of course Richard!" She just looks at me pointedly."I'm sorry, but how can you even ask? We met for lunch today and he said he wants to meet me tomorrow before I drive off with the girls and I once again asked him about the holidays and his plans and he changed the topic. Again. I'm really beginning to ask myself what this shall lead to. Maybe he just doesn't want to see me anymore. Maybe he went back to his stupid girlfriend after all. His mommy sure wanted him to do so. " I rant.

"Oh come on, Emily, he loves you, he adores you. Just the way he looks at you says it all. Maybe he wants to surprise you with something."Hopie tries to cheer me up. She can be so darling.

"Well I'd wish you were right. But I don't dare to believe that anymore. Well, what happened in your life today?" I change the topic.

"Mom called. Again."My face fells. Can this day get any worse?

"What did she say. Oh wait, let me guess. You better come home soon and disappear out of my influence range or I'll infect you with my devillish depravity. As if it wasn't her fault that you ran after me."

"Um, actually, it was something else. She told me Tom came home yesterday. She said he was very sorry for leaving and wants to do everything better from now on. They send him back to Harvard. I don't know what they did to bribe him, Emily, but it seems he fell for it. And then she put Dad on the phone. He told me that now, since they have to afford Thomas' Harvard education again,our parents can't pay for our college and appartment anymore. So either we come home soon or we better look for a job."

Huh. I'm surprised. Cause this day could get actually worse.

After Rory told us all about what happened (or at least what she thinks she can let me know, I don't know what she tells her mother later on) Lorelai and I try to cheer her up and it feels good, not having to think about Hope or what happened. As we are in the process of choosing a film for tonight, the telephone rings.

"Hello," Lorelai answers it."Oh, hi dad. Yes she was a good girl and came here." She says, smiling at me. I roll my eyes though I secretly enjoy this overprotective side of him. Lorelai hands me the phone.

"Hello." I just say.

"Hello my dear. Are you alright?" He really sounds very worried and I wonder how I must have sounded when I had told him that Hope died.

"I'm fine, Richard. Lorelai takes care of me very well." I look at her and she smiles at me. There is a lot of smiling between us today.

"She better does, Emily. I don't have much time, the, uh, the conference will continue in a few moments. I'll call you in the morning, ok?" He really sounds hectic suddenly and while I'm a bit disappointed, I understand that he has to go back.

"Can I just talk to Lorelai once more?" Richard asks me.

We say goodbye and I hand the phone to Lorelai again. Why does he want to talk to her? Well probably he just wants to make sure that I really really am and will be fine.

We finally agree on watching "High Society" and the film really cheers us up. I've always loved Grace Kelly.

Then we ready ourselves to go to bed. Rory obviously had a fight with that Paris girl as well so she has to sleep here too. I again offer to drive home and sleep there but Rory insists on sleeping on the couch. So I say goodnight to Lorelai and Rory and go to Rory's room.
As soon as I made myself comfortable in the bed and am about to turn the light off, there is soft knock on the door.

"Yes?"

"Hey grandma, can I come in?" Rory peeks inside and asks.

"Well this is your room, isn't it." I answer with a smile. "Of course you can come in."

She slowly comes in, closing the door after her and then awkwardly stands in the room, fidgeting with her hands.

I wait for her to begin, but she doesn't.

"Rory."I softly prod.

"Yes, um Grandma, I just, I..."She finally looks me in the eys and continues."I just wanted to tell you, I'm sorry for what happened, I really am."

I can see she is honest, more honest than she was before but still I know there is more.

"See, when I realized Logan's family didn't like me and when Mitchum Huntzberger told me I wasn't good enough to be a journalist, I was so confused and angry and then Mom wouldn't support me on this and I didn't know what to do so I ran away, to you, but I shouldn't have, I should have worked this out. And then I really got angry at myself and I turned this anger into anger against you. I blamed you for what was going wrong in my life and then it seemed you suddenly wanted to control me and what I was doing. I didn't want to hurt you, grandma, neither by leaving nor by taking money from dad, I was just so confused and I didn't want to fight with mom and I didn't want you to fight with mom because of me, so I ran away again but again I should have stayed and talked with you."

"Yes you should." I say quietly and Rory nods. "But I am sorry too, Rory. We should have listened to your mother, we should have talked some sense into you. I don't know if you would have listened to us at the time but we should have tried. Instead we pretended to know you better than your mother does and took you in.

And then I felt you drifting away, Rory, away from me and it's a terrible feeling, I've felt this way before but still I made the same mistake and decided to control you a bit more. I was wrong but still I didn't expect you, you of all people Rory, to leave this way without a note, without talking."

"I know Grandma, I'm sorry." She says and I can see tears in her eyes."But please forgive me because I don't want things to be this awkward between us."

"Rory, Sweetie, I've already forgiven you." I assure her and she moves into my waiting arms. There are tears stinging in my eyes as well and I hold her to me very tight.

"You smell so good." She says with tear-strained voice.

"Really? Like what?" I ask, not sounding better.

"Like my grandmother." She says and I smile.

"I've never received a better compliment." I tell her. We move out of our embrace and I stroke her cheeks putting some loosened hair strains behind her ears. "But Rory, you have to promise me one more thing."

She nods and looks at me expectantly.

"Apologize to your grandfather as well. He loves you so much and he's so proud of you, Rory. All this hurt him alot."

"Of course, I will, Grandma." She assures me."I love him very much too. And you as well."

I smile at her, grateful.

"And I love you, Rory.And now go to sleep, we all have had an exhausting day."

"Ok, good night, Grandma."

"Good night, Sweetie."

She kisses my cheek and leaves.

I have a lot of trouble calming down from the day, and as I finally am about to fall asleep, I suddenly hear a noise. The backdoor is opened and there are steps. I sit up in bed. Can't Lorelai just once lock her doors? Maybe it's Luke, after all. Maybe he has decided to sleep here, I try to calm myself down. Then the door to my room opens. My heart stops and I don't dare to breathe. Then I can see who it is.

"Richard!" I exclaim, totally surprised.

"Hello my dear." He wispers and sets his traveling bag on the floor. Then he comes to me and kisses me softly on the lips.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I ask him, still shocked that he's here. Shocked in a positive way, of course.

"I didn't want to leave you alone after what happened, Emily, so I delegated a bit and here I am." He says, sitting down on the bed I am lying on.

"But I wasn't alone, Richard, Lorelai is here and Rory as well!" I chide him.

"Well, fine I didn't want you to be without me then. I may be a bit pompous but I thought you needed me." He confesses and I can see what he is talking about. After Lorelai left, it always was just the two of us. We're such a good couple, such a good team that it's difficult to believe that one of us could live without the other.And we can't. I can't live without him. We tried, once, after all and failed miserably because both of us were terribly miserable without the other.

"And I do need you, Darling." I tell him and take his face in my hands. Suddenly it occurs to me why Lorelai left the backdoor open. Well, she probably leaves it always open but I want to believe she just did so tonight, otherwise I'll have a hard time sleeping in the coming months, knowing my daughter sleeps in such danger.

"Does Lorelai know you were coming?" I ask him, suspiciously.

"Yes she does." He smiles.

"And did she tell you, where you'd sleep? We don't fit in this bed together, Richard, it's even narrow for one person." I gesture at Rory's bed I'm lying on.

"Oh come on, we'll manage. We did that before, you know." He grins.

"Yes, I remember quite vividly, but back then we were in our early twenties and even then it wasn't comfortable."

Richard's already changing into his pj's. He then lies down and takes me very close to him, or better, on top of him.

"I always found it very comfortable, my dear Emily." He says softly and I must admit that I'm not disliking it all too much myself.

"So, how are you?" Richard asks and then it all comes to back to me. The guilt, the sadness, the memories and the shock of having lost my little sister so suddenly.

Tears spring to my eyes and I know that I can finally begin to cry. Richard is here and I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm home and I can allow myself to show weakness. No one beside him has seen me cry in the last 42 years, I even wonder if anyone has ever seen my cry except him. He strokes my back and takes my left hand which lies on his chest in his right. We entwine our fingers and I cry myself to sleep, listening to the sound of his steady heartbeat.

I really have to thank Lorelai for leaving the backdoor open.

Coming up: Flying to France