Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or any music, movies, places or people mentioned or quoted.
A/N: Thank you all again for the reviews. They make my day each time I see a new one!
Chapter Seven
'You are cordially invited to the 26th Birthday celebration of Lorelai Hayden to be held at the Grand Ballroom in The Hartford Country Club. Friday, the eighth of October, two thousand and ten, at seven o'clock. Black tie.' Shira Huntzberger had been beside herself with excitement when she received the invitation. She had never been invited to one of the Hayden functions. The Haydens were such an influential family and though the Huntzbergers were also, Hayden functions were normally very intimate and only for the bluest blood. Not even everyone in the DAR was included on Francine's past lists. What she wouldn't give for Logan to meet and marry this Lorelai girl. If only she hadn't insisted he see that Fallon girl again once he finally got rid of that little gold-digger Rory Gilmore. Maybe he would reconsider his relationship with Sarah Fallon if this Lorelai Hayden was available. She decided to call Logan and insist that he come to the party.
And that is how on October 8th Logan found himself walking through the doors of the Hartford Country Club with Sarah Fallon hanging on his arm. He had no idea why he was here except that his mother had called and insisted that he attend a Hartford function; and since he had rejoined his father's company last year he had no choice but to attend. He didn't even know who or what was being celebrated. 'At least there will be an open bar,' he thought.
Tristan was at the bar with Finn and Caitlin getting drinks for Rory and himself before she was to be presented to the society members and the invited press. Caitlin was attending with Finn and as a member of the press. She would be writing the story for the New York Times. It was actually already written except for the details of the night. She had interviewed Rory and Tristan earlier and would be the only member of the press to get an exclusive interview.
Logan approached the bar and saw Finn talking to Tristan DuGrey. Logan and Tristan had only met a few times at society parties in high school and didn't get along the best because they always had been chasing after similar, and sometimes the same, girls. Logan approached Finn and sneered at him, "I didn't think I would have to see your back-stabbing face here. I thought you would be in New York with her. If you're here, she is too, isn't she?" Logan looked around trying to find Rory. He nodded at Tristan, "DuGrey."
Tristan set his society face and acknowledged him, "Huntzberger." He turned away from Logan and said, "Finn, I'm being summoned, I'm going to go deliver this drink. I'll see you later." He walked across the room and through a door leading to a dressing room where Emily had disappeared to after catching Tristan's glance.
Logan finally noticed Caitlin; he leered at her and smirked. "So, you must be Finn's flavor of the week. Still chasing after the redheads I see. Logan Huntzberger. And you are?"
Caitlin plastered a sweet smile on her face and replied, "Caitlin Kelly and we have been together for a year and a half." Recognition crossed Logan's face, "You work for the Times, I've read some of your articles; they are really good. Tell me, what do you know about R. G. Hayden, any relation to the Hartford Haydens? Hayden's writing is incredible; my father and I have been trying to get in contact to lure Hayden away from the Times. We can't find any information though, we don't even know if Hayden is a man or a woman."
It took everything inside Caitlin not to burst out laughing. She raised her head high and said with innocence, "I'm not sure what I can tell you. The Times has a lot of employees and I can't say I that even know everyone in my department. Though I am sure you will eventually find out something about Hayden if you dig hard enough."
"Why are you here tonight Logan? You're not going to win her back; and judging by the engagement ring on her finger," he nodded toward Sarah Fallon, "you shouldn't even be looking for Rory."
"Who is Rory?" Sarah asked. Finn rolled his eyes.
Logan ignored Sarah and answered Finn, "I'm here because my mother insisted I be here. I'm not looking for Rory; though you might want to keep her away from me because you are right, I am taken and I wouldn't want her to get her hopes up that I will take her back. What is going on here tonight anyway?"
"You're in for a treat tonight mate." Finn shook his head and led Caitlin away from a confused Logan and an oblivious Sarah.
"Logan, get over here, rumor has it there are going to be some big announcements in the next few minutes. Oh, you brought Sarah." Shira crinkled her nose and walked away.
Emily and Richard came out of the dressing room and walked out onto the stage as Logan approached his parents. "Oh great, I finally get invited to a Hayden party and I have to listen to Emily Gilmore speak. Why would Francine Hayden allow her to ruin the night? I thought that Francine was going to introduce her granddaughter and make some announcement; but no, Emily always has to be the center of attention." Shira said bitingly.
"Logan, I saw you speaking with Caitlin Kelly just now. You need to find out if she knows R. G. Hayden. Hello Sarah, welcome to the family. I must say you are an improvement over Rory. She had very little talent or connections and was definitely not as worthy of marrying into our family as you are," Mitchum said bluntly.
"Who is Rory?" Sarah asked.
Logan ignored Sarah again and said, "I already asked her dad. She didn't seem to know anything about R. G. Hayden; but she's dating Finn so you know she can't be smart. She can write well, but maybe it is a Rain Man-like talent."
Emily approached the microphone and the crowd quieted quickly. "I know you are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the birthday girl, but Richard and I wanted to make an announcement regarding our granddaughter, Rory Gilmore, first."
"Who is Rory?" Sarah whispered to Logan. "Shh," he said leaning forward a bit to hear the information about Rory.
"We are proud to announce that our granddaughter, as of today, is the sole heiress to the fortune left by Charles and Lorelai Gilmore. We know there will be questions; but please, wait until after Francine Hayden has made her announcement. Thank you."
"The Gilmore fortune, like that is much. Now she will probably be able to pay off her student loans to her grandparents. Emily once told me that they lent the money to the little gold-digger, Rory, for Yale. I guess they will finally get it back. Maybe she will have some left to get an apartment since she can't find a good job," Shira said snidely as everyone in the room began talking about the Gilmore's revelation. Mitchum laughed and Logan looked around hoping to find Rory.
Francine approached the microphone and again the crowd quieted. "That is wonderful news Emily and Richard, congratulations to Rory. Now I have some similar news. My uncle, William Harkness, recently passed away. I am sure many of you in attendance tonight recognize that name, especially those of you with connections to Yale. I am proud to announce my granddaughter as the heiress of the Harkness fortune tonight. She is a Yale Alumna, class of 2007."
"Logan, why didn't you bring her home as your girlfriend instead of Rory? That would have been a respectable girl for you. No offence Sarah," Shira finished unconvincingly.
"Who is Rory?" Sarah said getting a bit agitated.
'Oh crap, we missed inducting the Harkness legacy into the LDB? And she is part Hayden? That is not going to be good once this news is discovered by the LDB alumni board. And how did I miss someone with those connections; she should have been in my group of friends; I should have dated her," Logan thought. 'Unless she was ugly,' he added as an afterthought.
"In a moment I would like to introduce to you, my granddaughter, and the birthday girl, Lorelai Hayden. She will be giving a statement to the press in attendance tonight, as well as to all of our friends gathered together to share this occasion with us." The crowd began looking around for the guest of honor. Francine continued, "Escorted by her fiancé, Tristan DuGrey, I present to you, Lorelai Leigh Gilmore Hayden, also known as Rory Gilmore."
The crowd gasped and broke into applause as they realized that the two heiresses announced tonight were in fact the same person.
"Is this the same Rory you were talking about before?" Sarah asked as Logan, Mitchum and Shira paled.
"Dad, R. G. Hayden. Rory Gilmore Hayden. Shit!" Logan exclaimed.
A spotlight focused on the doorway where Rory and Tristan appeared. Rory wore a navy blue chiffon evening gown with a fitted twisted bodice and a star cutout back from which a short train flowed. Tristan was dressed to match in his black tuxedo and navy blue cummerbund. They looked absolutely perfect together as they entered the ballroom and walked to the stage, Rory holding onto Tristan's bent left elbow, her left hand placed lightly on top of her right displaying her engagement ring.
Rory kissed Tristan a bit longer and deeper than normally appropriate for society; but it helped calm her nerves and showed everyone in attendance that they were really in love. After the kiss Rory approached the microphone and Tristan stood to her side and slightly behind her.
"Good evening. Thank you for coming tonight to celebrate my 26th birthday. I am guessing that none of you expected the evening to be so full of revelations. I would like to thank my Grandmothers, Francine and Emily, and my Grandfather, Richard, for hosting this momentous occasion. I am sure that there are many questions, especially from the press in attendance, and I will do my best to answer them," Rory said with poise.
Rory's lawyer opened the floor to questions. "Miss Hayden, when did you learn of your inheritances?"
"I learned of the Gilmore inheritance on the evening of September 10th and the Harkness inheritance on the afternoon of September 11th. It was an extremely surprising weekend."
"Miss Hayden, when did you and Mr. DuGrey become engaged?"
"Tristan proposed the afternoon of September 10th, before we attended dinner at the Gilmore residence."
"Miss Hayden, Mr. DuGrey, did either of you know anything of the inheritances before that weekend?"
"No, we did not. I hope you are not insinuating that Tristan only proposed to me because of my inheritances." Rory replied to this reporter with a steely edge to her voice.
"I have loved Rory since I was 16 years old and whether or not she has money does not matter to me. I have my own inheritance to provide for me and for us," Tristan clarified.
"When will you be getting married?"
"We will be married on Saturday, December 18th."
"Miss Hayden, how much have you have inherited?" one bold reporter asked.
"I'll bet it wasn't that much; at least not from the Gilmore's. She may have a better sum as the Harkness heiress, but really, how much could that be? If it was significant we would have known Francine was a Harkness and William Harkness would have been one of the prominent members of society. I haven't even heard that name, except in history books. The only reason this is getting any attention is because the Gilmores and Haydens want to be noticed. I was right the first time I said that Rory Gilmore wasn't good enough for our family," Shira said confidently.
'She looks gorgeous. She also looks happy. How the hell did she ever get together with DuGrey? Finn! He did it! I really hate him now!' Logan was seething internally.
None of the Huntzbergers noticed Tristan's parents, Michael and Natalie DuGrey, standing behind them as they shared their opinions not so discretely. The DuGreys had spent a lot of time getting to know Rory in the past couple of months and loved that she would soon be their daughter-in-law. They knew of Rory's past experiences with the Huntzberger family and were curious as to how the Huntzbergers would react to the evening's news. They wanted to protect the interests of their family but never imagined that they would get quite as much information as they did. Michael decided he would have to schedule a meeting with Richard and his father to discuss everything he had heard.
Rory's lawyer stepped in to answer the reporter's question. "Including all properties, stock, bonds and money, as the Gilmore heiress she inherited 18 billion dollars and as the Harkness heiress she inherited 30 billion dollars."
As most of the crowd gasped, Shira Huntzberger fainted.
Pushing through the crowd of paparazzi gathered outside of Luke's late Saturday morning, Lindsay Lister walked inside to pick up her ex-husband, now boyfriend's lunch.
Lindsay and her family had moved away from Stars Hollow after she and Dean had divorced and she had only moved back a few weeks ago after Dean had convinced her that he had changed. Except for a bit of old gossip, she hadn't kept up to date on what had happened in Stars Hollow and since she had been back she hadn't even heard the name Gilmore. She had really hoped it meant that the Gilmores had finally moved somewhere else.
Then she noticed the home wrecker, Rory Gilmore sitting at a table in the far corner with her mother and two blond men. Dean had assured her that everything with Rory was a mistake and wouldn't happen again; but she still didn't trust Rory.
"Hey Luke, do you have any linked sausages?" Lorelai yelled.
Luke rolled his eyes and handed Lindsay her order and headed over to their table with coffee.
'What are all of those people doing here, oh I wonder if someone famous is coming to town and they're going to eat at Luke's?' Lindsay wondered. She took one more look at Rory before she left with Dean's lunch. 'I wish I could sit around Luke's all day waiting for someone famous. It's not like Rory Gilmore has a life. I heard she got arrested and now can't even find a job. I used to envy her; now I almost pity her. It will probably be the highlight of her year to see someone famous,' thought Lindsay as she walked through the crowd again.
Lindsay didn't pay much attention to the paparazzi but a few things caught her attention. "…heiress to two multi-billion dollar fortunes." "…and a Hayden too." "…Harkness heiress." "… and she's engaged to the DuGrey heir." "I heard her ring has an eight carat center stone." Lindsay's curiosity was peaked and she rushed to the newsstand hoping to find a newspaper with some information.
It wasn't hard to find out the reason Star's Hollow was crawling with paparazzi. The cover of every newspaper and tabloid had similar headlines. Lindsay picked one up and read, 'Lorelai Leigh Gilmore Hayden, 26, Announces Engagement to Tristan DuGrey and Reveals She is Double Heiress to 48 Billion dollars.' The headlines were followed by pictures of Rory and Tristan the previous night. Most showed the engagement ring and the love the two shared. "Why does she always get everything?" Lindsay screamed and stormed off to find Dean without paying for the newspaper in her hand.
Rory didn't even notice Lindsay when she was in the diner. She and Lorelai were trying to figure out a way to leave the diner without going through the paparazzi.
"Oh, I got it. We go upstairs and climb out the window. We walk along the ledge until we get to the drainpipe. Then we climb up it until we get to the roof. Then we walk along the roof until we get to the end of the building. We tie something to the roof and lower ourselves down behind the building and run off toward the house keeping to the shadows," Lorelai suggested.
"But what would we tie together that would be strong enough to hold our weight as we lower ourselves to the ground?" Rory asked somewhat seriously.
Lorelai thought to herself for a minute before she yelled, "Hey Luke, do you have any linked sausages?"
Luke came over to their table and refilled their coffees. "Why would you want linked sausages? You never ate them before, you always have bacon."
"It's not for eating silly. We are going to tie them to the roof and lower ourselves down behind the building so we can avoid the stalkers out there." Lorelai said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Why don't you just go out the back door?"
"There's a back door? Rory, did you know that there's a door in the back? Why have you kept this door a secret from us? There have been many times that we could have used it to escape from people we didn't want to see. Hmmm, we must consider this back door idea." Lorelai turned to Rory and asked, "What do you think of this new development?"
"I think it is just crazy enough to work. They may be expecting us to try something like climbing out the window; but they most likely will not expect us to leave through a back door, especially one that we didn't even know existed until just now. Plus, isn't it in the Gilmore Girl's rule book somewhere that we don't climb up drainpipes? Down yes, but up? Tell us more about this secret door Luke," Rory exclaimed excitedly.
"Okay, that's enough coffee for you two. After those cups are empty I'm not giving you anymore. Just let me know when you want to leave and I will show you how to escape. If you're lucky, maybe you can convince Kirk to cause a distraction," Luke said as he walked back to the counter.
"Oh Kiiiirrrk. Can you come here lover boy?" Lorelai sang.
"We're not together. I have a girlfriend. Really Christopher, I have a girlfriend. There is nothing going on between me and Lorelai," Kirk said panicked.
Christopher laughed and said, "I know Kirk. I'm not worried, but we do need your help with something."
"Kirk, we need you to walk out the door, strip down and go running through the crowd of paparazzi singing as loudly as you can, 'They're coming to take me away, ha ha, They're coming to take me away, ho ho, he he, ha ha, to the funny farm, where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats and they're coming to take me away ha ha,' while we sneak out the back," said Lorelai.
"I won't sing Napoleon XIV's 'They're Coming to Take Me Away' and strip down for free. But I will do it if Lulu and I can stay at the Dragonfly this weekend. Mother still won't let Lulu stay past 9 at night."
"It's a deal Kirk. Give us 3 minutes to get our things together and to get Luke's attention. Once you get outside, we will leave."
Four minutes later, they slowly opened the door and looked around; they saw no one and Lorelai said, "Just crazy enough to work."
They stuck to the shadows and cut through yards until the approached the Hayden house. They went in their own back door to avoid the paparazzi who were gathered in the front.
A/N: Asking questions like 'Will so and so ever appear or will this happen' really helps me to form new ideas. Thank you for suggestions and keep them coming. I am working on a few suggestions so far; but it might be an extra couple of days before the next update because I am stuck on where exactly I want to take this story so…please help!
Chapter 7's survey. Please click review and type the letter that applies to you! Thank you!
A) The image of Shira fainting brought a smile to my face.
B) Aww, poor Huntzbergers, I feel sorry for them. They aren't mean; they are just misunderstood.
C) Because of this story I have lost all faith in Gilmore Girls FanFiction.
D) (Feel free to add your own comment)
