A/N: Ok first trigger warning very brief mention of suicide nothing serious, just wanted to be polite and mention it. This is an angsty chapter so if you like that great if not buckle up. I'm trying to get back into writing everyday it will probably go horribly, but if you're reading anything else I write I'll try to have another update for them soon.
Chapter Four: New and not so improved Friday Night Dinner
-()-
The first 'new and improved Friday night dinner' was beginning to be a tense affair. the Hanovers sat stiffly on a loveseat sipping their wine Rory and Susanna were chatting, pointedly ignoring the tenseness of the adults. Emily watch her grandchildren react and felt a Pang of guilt at keeping them apart but she swallowed it down and focus on their conversation, they were comparing various novels during the regency era. After a few minutes of tense polite conversation about the weather everyone heard Jonathan Hanover at whisper to his wife, " I still don't understand why we changed it to Friday night why couldn't they change it to Thursdays?"
Lorelai looked at the man raising her daughter sharply, "Because I have to get up early on Fridays to prepare for the weekend arrivals at my inn. Also you kidnapped my daughter so I automatically win every argument."
Jonathan squared his shoulders and his jaw, he glared at Lorelei and said, "This martyrdom will only last you so long."
"Oh we'll see," Lorelai said baring her teeth, "now Susanna, if she still wants, is coming home with me tonight, so we can go to my bachelorette party tomorrow, and I will deposit her back into your loving bosoms Sunday afternoon, deal."
"No we want her back sunday morning we have church,"
"I don't want to go this week," Susanna commented, causing everyone to look at her.
"Nonsense of course you're going," Alice said sitting up straighter and looking at her daughter. Lorelai was struck by the similarities between Alice and her own mother at that moment, and she sucked in a deep breath and held back her thoughts on this matter, she needed this to work.
"Please mom I won't be eternally damned if i miss one Sunday," The teen said hoping it would work. She usually slept through church anyway, but she didn't want to already be tired when she went.
"Fine, but you'll go on Wednesday."
"Fine," Susanna said with a sigh, she really hated church.
Then the seven people fell into a slight awkward silence before Emily's latest victim came into the room and announced that dinner was ready. They all stood up and went into the dining room. Lorelai and Rory sit together with their backs to the window. The Hanovers settled across from them with Susanna in between them. The awkward silence was becoming stifling to Lorelai, she said, "So what do you girls want to do tonight after dinner."
The twins looked at one another for a moment before Rory spoke up, "I don't know mom what if we just watched some movies."
"That sounds great, Susanna?" she asked desperately wanting her other daughter to be comfortable at the house lovingly dubbed as the 'Crapshack'.
"Uh sure that sounds good." Susanna said taking a bite of potato, and returning Lorelai's bright smile with a small one of her own.
"Where is this party anyway Lorelai," EMily asked, trying to make conversation, even though she already knew where they were going, Michel had called and invited her.
"She's taking them to a drag club can you honestly believe it Emily," Alice said sending Lorelai a pointed look. Lorelai simply sat up straighter and gave a thin smile. The teenagers looked at one another and braced themselves for whatever comment was about to fly out of their mother's mouth.
Richard noticed his daughter's familiar hard stare and decided to intervene before this dinner gave him indigestion due to the stress, "Well the girls are responsible, and there is nothing wrong with homosexuality, I mean take Oscar Wilde and Virginia Wolfe some of the greatest literary and artistic minds came from homosexuals. Even my broker likes to wear the occasional frill and he just made me a very sound investment," he finished throwing a smirk to Rory, who beamed back at him, remembering that day at the club a turning point in her relationship with her grandparents. Lorelai was looking at Susanna during her father's speech and noticed the emotions that flitted across her face changed from anxiety to something akin to gratitude. She filed those looks away for later.
Jonathan rolled his eyes and growled at his wife, "We should have just taken both of these girls then I wouldn't have to sit here and listen to this."
"Dad"; "Jon" Alice and Susanna admonished simultaneously.
Lorelai dropped her fork, and grabbed Rory's hand in as gentle a vice grip as she could manage, "Was that ever an option?" she hissed at Emily, who turned to her daughter with grave honesty.
"No I swear it Lorelai," she reached out to her daughter who recoiled from the older woman and turned to Alice, "How'd you pick huh, what'd you do flip a coin. If you couldn't have both how could you choose between them I wouldn't have been able to."
"When Emily found out you were in Labor Emily called us," Alice began to explain, but her husband interrupted, "Alice we don't owe her an explanation."
"Like hell you don't. I want to know how. Did. you. choose."
"She's right Jon we do owe her this much. We got to the hospital and waited. When you had finished delivering and had fallen asleep; she came and got me, and I looked at you for the first time, wiggly and pink and I just knew that you were mine," Alice said looking at her daughter with tears in her eyes. Placing a hand on hers and squeezing tightly.
"But she wasn't yours to have, or yours to give away mom," Lorelai choked out, "I'm sorry but you had no right to do this to me to us. Do you realize if I'd have lost both of them, if you had told me they were both dead the grief would have been crushing mom, I would have probably killed myself."
Tears streaming down all the women's faces. Each twin was trying to comfort their respective mothers. Emily watched this all, and feeling a little sick to her stomach. She then took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and dried her eyes. She'd cry later in the dark with Richard their to hold her.
"You were sixteen, and scared. I barely thought you could handle raising Rory by yourself much less two tiny babies, so I made a decision."
Lorelai stood up and pulled Rory with her, "It was not yours to make mom. Susanna would you still like to come home with us? I'll understand if you don't, and I'll still be there if you want to bridge gaps."
Susanna was crying, for a great many reasons, "I-" she looked at the woman who gave birth to her to the woman who was raising her, and back, "I'm sorry mom, but I still want them to be apart of my life. I love you though you will always be my mom, and I'll be home Sunday," she stood up, and placed a kiss on her mom's forehead, before following after her biological mother and sister.
-()-
A/N: Ok this is short and I know I keep saying it will be the bachelorette party will be next, but I mean it this time. I just love the dynamic of 'Friday Night Dinners' so I had to include this, plus I needed to flesh out the Hanovers slightly. Let me know what you think and please review.
