AN: I am so sorry it took so long, I am defiantly not one of the speedy updaters. Anyway I want ot thank my beta curlyk03. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Now on with the show!!


Chapter 3: Snooping Midday

Thud

"Crap," Ella muttered into the empty apartment as the box she was trying to get down from her mom's closet fell to the floor. "I hope there wasn't anything breakable in there," she said to herself.

Ella brought the box out to the living room and sat it on the coffee table. She sighed and sat on the couch, looking at the box that had the words "High School Stuff" written on it.

Ever since the talk about her dad with her mom two nights ago, the topic had been on her mind. So, the night after the talk, she went online and 'googled' him, but found nothing of great importance that she didn't already know.

Now she was stooping as low as to go through her mother's thing when she was at work. Ella thanked the gods when her mom got a call to go into work because of some crisis or another.

She was about to open the box when she heard the apartment door open. She quickly turned around while trying to hide the box with her body, when she saw the blonde hair of her best friend and neighbor.

"Give me a heart attack why don't you?! You know there is this thing called knocking. Ever heard of it?" Ella asked harshly

"Knocking you say?" the blonde paused in mock thought than shaking his head, "No I don't think I have ever heard of this thing in which you speak." He finishes in fake astonishment.

"What do you want Michael? I am kind of busy."

"With what?" Michael asks suspiciously. Michael, or Mike, Huntzberger was an exact replica of his father from the blond hair and chocolate brown eyes down to the playboy tendencies and ever present smirk. Logan and Michael lived in the large apartment across the hall from Rory and Ella.

Mike and Ella have known each other almost forever, Rory and Logan had met at Yale when Rory was a freshman and he was a senior. They crossed path in the newsroom and had become friends. Logan and his friends had adopted her into their group with very few questions about her pregnancy. The only questions they'd asked was when the baby was due and if it was a boy or a girl. Their friends Stephanie and Rosemary had helped Rory's mom throw a surprise baby shower. The group even went as far as to help her pick names. Even though they were almost five years older, they had become friends and thought of Rory as a younger sister.

So inevitably when Stephanie and Colin and Rosemary and Finn had their sons Nicholas and Jacob respectively, months after Ella had been born, she and the boys had become friends.

Mike was a different story; his mother was a one-night stand and didn't tell Logan that she was pregnant. One day after Nick and Jake were born, Logan found Mike on his doorstep with his birth certificate and a letter explaining that the women wanted nothing to do with Michael. Also in that letter were the papers that signed all rights of custody to Logan.

Growing up with single parents and not knowing the other is what made Ella and Mike closer to each other then any other person except their respective parents.

"Nothing of any interest," Ella said quickly

"Then why are you trying so hard to hide that box on the table?"

"I was you know…Damn it I got nothin'." Ella said defeated, having not been able to think of a good lie fast enough.

Mike laughed at his best friends antics, "You know here's a thought, the truth is always a good excuse."

"'The truth is always a good excuse?'" Ella looked at him unbelievably, "Ok, Mr. 'I-dented-my-dad's-car-and-told-him-someone-else-did'."

"Well, technically if someone hadn't put a tree where they did…Hey! You're trying to distract me."

"And it was working too," Ella said with sass.

There was a moment of silence between the two friends "So…" Mike ventured

Ella sighed. She was unsure if she should tell Mike about what she knew about her dad because she wasn't sure if he would ever know anything about his mom. It wasn't like he really wanted too, though. That was the difference between them. Her father didn't know of her existence and Ella had a feeling he truly loved Rory, while Mike's mother chose not to be in his life and was just going to use Logan for money.

"Two nights ago my mom told me about my dad." Ella finally said

"Whoa," Mike said in shock sitting down on the couch.

"Ya, I know," She answered slumping down next to him with another sigh.

"So, you know who he is?"

Ella nods her head, "Yup, his name is Tristan DuGrey. He and my mom went to high school together and he was shipped off to military school. They met up again right before they started college and well, they never kept in touch."

"So he doesn't know about you, then." Mike stated more than questioned. At Ella's confirmation he asked a question, "So what's with the box? I'm assuming it has something to do with the recent events?"

"Well you know what they say when you assume…" Ella quickly said

"But in this case I'm right so, answer," he shot back as quickly as she had.

"Fine, this is a box of my mom's high school stuff and I was going to see if there was anything about him in it or maybe a yearbook with his picture." She looked nervously at the box and then back at Michael, "Do you think I should?"

"I can't answer that, but if I were you I would." He replied looking at the box.

With determination Ella stood up with her best friend and reached toward the box but stopped "You do know that no one can know about this. This is between you and me, I don't even want Nicholas or Jake to know."

"I know," the other blonde replied easily.

Ella opened the box and looked inside. There were uniforms, a graduation hat, robe, and valedictorian sash at the top. Under that were some programs and certificates for different things such as an edition of the Franklin and a medieval looking dress.

"What was this for?" Michael asked as he pulled up a hat that clearly went with the dress and put it on his head.

She looked up quickly to him and than back at the box continuing to look through it. She answered, "I think that was from when my mom had this Romeo and Juliet project where my mom played Juliet and Tristan played Romeo." Mike nodded.

"Ah ha!" Ella announced, triumphantly holding up a large hard covered book.

"Jackpot," Mike grinned as he took the hat off his head.

Ella sat on the couch and Mike came and sat down close to see the book that she moved in between them and opened it. They opened up to the middle of the book where the class pictures were and saw a younger looking Rory Gilmore. Scanning the page they found what they were looking for, his picture. Ella traced the picture with her fingers. This is him, this is my dad she thought.

She moved her eyes over the rest of the page quickly and saw a picture of her parents sitting side by side smiling and laughing. Tristan looked at Rory with something akin to love and you could tell that Rory was completely oblivious to it. Under the picture was a caption saying: Tristan DuGrey and Rory Gilmore (the unofficial King of Chilton and his Mary)

Ella stared at the picture, probably the only picture of her parents together. She was completely overcome with emotion as she felt the tears form in her eyes. She looked at Michael and whispered to him, "He really loved her," at this declaration Mike brought Ella into his arms and let her rest on his shoulder.

A few minutes later Ella slowly pulled away and grabbed the yearbook, missing the feeling of her best friend's arms around her. She looked Michael straight in the eyes and stated determinedly, "I am going to find him."

Mike stood up and grabbed her hands in both of his and said just as determinedly, "And I am going to be there to help."

--Footsteps--

Tristan DuGrey stepped off the airplane and looked around. He sighed and thought bitterly. 'Home Sweet Home'. As he walked out of the airport, a voice came over the intercom announcing, "The flight from Hartford, Connecticut to San Francisco, California is now boarding."


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