I know everyone was looking forward to the confrontation with Lorelai but this chapter needed to happen first. The confrontation was happen in the next chapter.

Chapter 7

"Hi Rory, I have missed you" Chris said as he entered the apartment with Emily and took his daughter in his arms.

"Hi dad" Rory said as she sunk into his embrace.

"Honey what is going on? I mean your grandmother called and said not to mention anything to your….Logan?" Chris said surprised as he looked up and saw Logan come out of the other room.

Rory looked over at Logan and smiled as she pulled out of her dad's embrace and walked towards Logan. Chris watched as his daughter linked hands with the boy that he had hoped would have been his son-in-law. He had liked Logan as a person, but more so, he liked Rory with Logan. He made her happy, she came out of her shell with him, he supported her dreams and he was so sure that she was going to say yes…..

They walked back over to Chris united…..

"Well then, I think I will leave you both to talk to your dad, I am going to go into and see if I can help you get some unpacking done" Emily said as she touched Rory lightly on the arm.

"So….I guess there are a few things you want to talk about" Chris said with a smile.

"I will be in the other room helping Emily, if I leave her to it herself she will probably color code the closet" he said with a smile as he leaned over and brushed his lips against hers. "Just come get me when you are ready" he added as he nodded at Chris and walked in to the bedroom to join Emily.

"Do you want something to drink? Coffee, water?" Rory asked suddenly nervous.

"I'm fine sweetheart, why don't we sit down, it seems you have some things to share".

Rory nodded and sat down with her dad.

"I am not sure where to start" Rory said with a laugh.

"Well why don't we start at this moment, I have one question and I think I know the answer….are you happy?"

"I am dad. I am so happy, for the first time in a long time I really can say I am".

"Well then if you are happy then I am happy and the rest….well I am sure the story will be interesting, but if the outcome is that you are happy well that is all that matters. So can I assume, you and Logan?"

Rory nodded…."I love him dad, I have always loved him".

"So did you at least video tape the ceremony?"

Rory looked at him surprised….

"The rings, kind of noticed them" he said with a laugh.

"We do have a video tape, but we do want to renew out vows again here once things are settled, there are so many people we want to share it with but….well we just, it was time dad, we needed to do it for ourselves".

"I understand, and I would love to see the video and well if you do have a renewal, I would be honored to be there to witness it".

" I would like that" Rory said smiling.

"So…how did it happen, I mean last thing I knew you were dating some guy named Pete you mom said?"

"Paul…yeah I was. I really don't know if it could even be considered dating, I mean we rarely saw each other, it….."

"So when did you meet up with Logan? Your mom never said anything and that is definitely a surprise, I mean, I know she always acted like she was happy for you but I always got the feeling that she never was too keen on the two of you together and then when you broke up, well she almost seemed happy".

"She didn't know dad. I never told her. You were right….she never was happy with me and Logan. Oh she acted ok with it for a while but she was happy that I said no to his proposal" Rory said and Chris saw a sadness in her daughters eyes.

"Ror….why did you say no?"

"The truth?"

Chris nodded. "They say the truth will set you free" he said with a chuckle.

"I was surprised. I still did not have a job lined up and I wasn't sure what direction I was going in and you know I don't do well without thinking things through and…"

"Ror….the truth. I get that you were scared and confused and worried about job prospects but I saw your face, for a brief moment when he took the ring out I saw the look in your eyes…and then you looked at him with this big smile and looked at the crowd and suddenly I saw something change. I never pushed you Rory, it was your decision but please….you can tell me anything, so why did you say no?"

Tears pooled up in her eyes…."When I was little dad, I always tried to figure out what I needed to do to make you stay. But you always left and I kept thinking if I just do the right thing then you would stay around and I would always have my dad….."

"Oh Rory, I am so sorry. I know that I can never make up for what I did, I am so sorry that I wasn't there for you".

"I know dad and we have talked about it and I am so happy to have you in my life now. I did not want to make you feel bad, I just needed to explain. You know mom and me, we were always so close, for so long we only had each other. She was my best friend. Growing up I thought it was so cool. You know it kind of sucks when you get older and suddenly you see things differently, things taken place right in the moment, but it also makes you see things that happened before differently. Do you up until I was like twelve I thought I was allergic to fruit?"

"Allergic to fruit?'

Rory nodded…."Gilmore girls don't at fruit. I guess I told my teacher that once and she took it to mean I was allergic to fruit. It wasn't until mom ate a piece of apple pie at a restaurant that I said mom, you can't eat that we're allergic and she laughed and said Rory we aren't allergic, we just don't like fruit unless it is in a pie of course. So I didn't like fruit, because not liking fruit made me like her and that made her happy".

"And you wanted to make her happy?"

"If she was happy then she wouldn't leave too" Rory whispered. "I did not realize it then, I just thought if mom did not like fruit neither did I. Mom was always happy when things went her way."

"Rory why did you want to be an overseas correspondent?"

"When I was little I used to make these newspapers called the Gilmore Paper, and I would write articles about our lives and give it to mom every Sunday, they even had cartoons. In school I liked to write and I told mom I thought it would be cool to be a newspaper writer. So suddenly we watched shows about news reporters, especially female reporters and mom talked about traveling around the world and suddenly it sounded really cool and yeah, it sounded like a really cool dream…."

"It was a good dream and it made you happy".

"But it wasn't the only dream I had….I mean I loved writing but you know what? If I got to travel that would have been great but if I had gotten an editor job in San Francisco I would have been happy" suddenly the tears started to fall.

"Do you know when I dated Dean mom always wanted us to have these group movie nights, Dean was cool about it but come on dad, who wants to watch a movie with their boyfriend and their mom? But he was ok with it so mom liked Dean. It was like she could control our relationship and we were too stupid to notice? But Jess, he did not want to spend time with my mom so guess what mom hated him. Trust he ended up being an ass but she hated our relationship from the beginning, before there even really was one. There was this look she would give me, it was the disappointment eyes….it was her weapon. She gave them to me when I went to Europe with Grandma, when I told her I was applying to other schools other than Harvard. Oh she had them when I told her I was going to Yale, in the end she relented to agree that it was an ok choice but do you know why?" she was almost yelling now.

Chris shook his head….

"Because even though Harvard was the plan, at least Yale meant I could come home every weekend. WHY DAD WOULD I WANT TO COMR HOME EVERY DAMN WEEKEND? I was in college, my time to become independent, of course I would come home to visit but wasn't college the time to explore, find yourself? She would give me speeches about I should get out, be social, but oh….come home for a movie marathon every weekend? Isn't that a contradiction? You know she hated Logan on sight, called him a trust fund limo boy. She hated him when we were in a causal relationship…guess what dad, that was my idea, but no it couldn't be my idea because I was not that kind of girl. Stealing the boat, my idea too but no that was Logan's fault. Dropping out…his fault too. Guess what dad, it wasn't Logan's fault. He also did not agree with me dropping out of Yale but guess what dad, he still supported me, he gave me the time to work everything out in my head. So did grandma and grandpa but mom? No, I went against her path for me, I made stupid decisions and she stopped talking to me? She disrespected her parents by yelling at them because instead of joining her in her tough love crusade, they ended up giving me the time to think things through as well. I went back to school for me, because of the support I was given to work but once I told mom, then the disappointment eyes disappeared and suddenly I was the perfect daughter again and do you know that she felt that it was her tough love that made me decide to go back….it wasn't her".

"Rory…."

"I said no to Logan because when I looked into the crowd I saw her face. I saw her eyes and when I asked her to help me make a decision, she told me she could not make the decision for me, she just told me to look at all of my options, my wide open options and the look in her eyes…..dad I gave up my happiness because when I looked into her eyes suddenly all my fears and confusion were compounded by the fact that I was a disappointment again. I loved him so much dad….my heart was breaking and my mom, my mom said I made the right choice, that when it was right I would not hesitate. She hugged me and told me I would be ok but she was happy, the same way I saw her disappointment I saw her happiness because I was following the rules, her daughter's heart was breaking but that was expendable so that the plan stayed on track and I would not end up becoming what she always hated a part of society."

Suddenly she started sobbing and Chris wrapped her up in his arms. The door from the bedroom opened and Logan came out with Emily. They were trying not to interfere but once Logan heard her sobbing….

Logan came and Chris watched as Rory fell into his arms. "I am so sorry Logan, I am so sorry that I said no, I am so sorry for what I did to you" she whispered as he just kissed her head telling her that it was not her fault, that it wasn't the right time but that they had their whole future ahead of them.

Finally when she had calmed down, drinking the tea that Emily made her she and Logan sat together, hands linked as they told Chris about how they met three years ago, their fears, their stupidity and how they decided they had wasted enough time. They shared with him that he would be a grandpa and then they dropped the bomb…..

Later that Evening

Chris sat in his house staring at a photo of Rory as a baby. He remembered seeing her in the hospital and looking at her and thinking she was so small, so beautiful and how the hell was he going to be a father. He wanted to be one, but he was 16. He wasn't stupid, he knew that they needed their parents help but Lorelai, she did not want anything to do with their parents plans. So when she told him that she would be ok, that he should go on to school and follow his path, his parents agreed. The Gilmores stated they would be taking care of the child so there was no reason for Chris's life to be ripped apart as well.

Except it was….walking away from his daughter hurt. His drifted through college, spent a year at his father's company to realize he hated it and decided to go out on his own. It wasn't like he wasn't already a disappointment.

The first time he showed up in Stars Hallow Lorelai looked at him almost as an afterthought. She wanted to know why he was there. He told her he wanted to see his daughter, she told him they were fine, that they did not need anything. They were fine on their own….so he ignored that fact that they were living in a potting shed and went on his merry way. She did not need him, his daughter did not need him, he was a disappointment.

He would visit from time to time, call to talk to her but his daughter would be so shy, so very shy around him and just when she would start to open up he was gone again. Lorelai did not like long visits and the distance between visits meant that it was a recurring cycle. As she got older she would seem happy to see him, but it never seemed that she needed to see him, she was fine without him, Lorelai was fine without him, actually seemed happier when he was gone, so why fight it.

It was a hard road to get close to Rory as she got older but it was a worthwhile fight. However as soon as they went up they went down. Each and every one of these episodes were in direct correlation to when he and Lorelai got closer. She was always his downfall. He had taken one look into the blue eyes of Lorelai Gilmore and he was gone. He was in love with her then, heck he was always in love with her, or the dream of her and what they could have been. It took many years to realize he would always love Lorelai as the mother of his daughter but the love of a 16 year old boy could not withstand the whirlwind that was Lorelai. She always wanted what she wanted, she never wanted to follow the rules, she would want something at one moment and then something else in the next. He wasn't strong enough to hold on….especially if she did not want him to hold on.

He really thought when they got married in France that they had finally found common ground, that they were finally on the same page….the truth was, Lorelai was caught up in a moment and Chris was caught up in the past.

Looking back now he can see that his weakness, the ease in running the other way, him allowing himself to believe that Lorelai was right that she and Rory were fine alone….he took the easy way out and that allowed his daughter to be hurt.

He was still reeling from what Rory told him. He always knew Lorelai did not fully approve of Logan but he had really thought she had gotten past her issues when she saw how much they loved each other. He still could not believe she had gone to Mitchum, she sabotaged her daughter's future to keep her from not following the path that Lorelai wanted for her. Then telling Logan she left with Jess and actually sending him after Rory? He still could not get over that information…..

What he wanted to do was head over to Stars Hallow and give Lorelai a piece of his mind. He wanted to find out what the hell was wrong with her? But instead he was sitting here in the dark, with a scotch in one hand as he thought of all the ways he had failed his daughter but he wouldn't now. He would stand by her now…..