This was the finale straw. I had taken too much last night. My daughter got up and left and there was nothing I could do about it. For goodness sakes she was my daughter not my mother's. If I want my daughter to come home she better come home. I got into my car and drove to my mother's house. She wasn't going to hold my daughter ransom I was getting her back and today. When I got to my mom's house she was sitting on the porch with two cups of coffee beside her. I guess she was expecting me to come. I got out of my car and slammed my door to let her know that I was not happy with what was going on.
"Mom inside now!" I stormed past her and into the house.
I could hear her sigh and follow me inside. My guess was that Luke had left early that morning because he was no where to be found. I turned to find my mother behind me.
"Rory my answer is the same as it was last night, she is not going with you until there is a court order mandating her to go."
"That is not your choice. She is my daughter and I am here to bring her home. I don't care if you or Logan don't like it you can take that up with me, now where is she?" I had not seen her around since I entered the house. Maybe my mom had sent her away this morning expecting me but Ali would not be one to willingly go.
"She is not here." My mother was avoiding the question.
"I know that but where is she?" I asked more directly.
"She stayed at Adian's house last night."
"You let her stay at her boyfriend's house? Are you insane? You think I am a bad parent? I am not the one who lets a teenage girl spend the night at her boyfriend's house..."
"His dad was there..."
"His dad was that guy."
"Rory she didn't ask I told her to stay there."
"Great."
"You know what I don't need this from you."
"I know you don't because apparently it doesn't matter what I want for my own daughter you are just going to do whatever the hell you want."
"RORY!"
"Don't Rory me. Brooke won't sleep without Ali there, Ashton won't go near Dave, my house is falling apart. I want my daughter home!"
"I won't allow it"
"You are not her mother. You do not get to decide what is right or what she is doing. I get to do that. I gave birth to her so I get to decide what she does,not you, not Logan, not my grandparents, just me. I get to decide what my daughter does not you."
"You are thinking about what is best for you, not what is best for her..."
"What is best for me is what is best for her. Are you not listening to me? Our home, Ali's home, is falling apart without her there. We need her at home and I am taking her home so deal with it."
"Rory I am not just going to 'Deal with it' I am not letting her go with you."
"What is with this you letting me? You may be my mother but I am way over eighteen and she is my daughter..."
"I know that she is your daughter but she is my granddaughter and when you are being a horrible mother I get to call you on it and well..."
"So you think that I am a terrible mother? Is that what you are saying?"
"Yes." Her answer was short but it stung.
"I'm leaving. I will be back at five to get Ali make sure she is ready." I turned and walked back to my car. I wasn't going to leave without Ali, not today. I got in my car and drove into Hartford, i didn't dare face the town's people of Star's Hallow.
I woke up around ten. Adian let me borrow some sweats before I went to bed. They were a little big but they were really comfortable. I got up and went into the bathroom. I could not wait until I was able to use my arm again. I had an appointment in two weeks to check the progress of my arm and I was hoping for a good review, until then I was stuck with tape and a sling. I brushed my hair with a brush he had left for me and brushed my teeth with a new tooth brush that was laid out.
Adian was sitting on the bed when I walked back out into the room.
"Good morning sunshine." Adian got up and kissed me.
"I could get used to this wake up call." I put my one arm around his waist.
"I'm sure you could but I promised your grandmother that I would have you home by eleven so lets get moving."
"Wait how did you make that promise?"
"I guess she called you this morning and I saw her name on the caller ID and I picked up so she wouldn't worry."
"Thanks. Did I leave my phone..."
"In the kitchen."
"Oh, so should I get dressed?"
"Unless you really like that green dress you don't have to. All I am doing is dropping you off at your house so I don't think you need to change."
"True. Okay let me grab my dress and we can go."
I grabbed the green dress that was hanging on the closet door and I followed Adian back out to his car. He opened my door again and I got in. I wondered if he was always going to do that for me. He got in and we drove back to Star's Hallow. When we got there my grandmother was sitting on the porch crying. I thanked Adian grabbed my dress and ran to her.
When she saw me she wiped the tears away and tried to hide the fact that she had been crying.
"Grandma what is wrong?" I sat down next to her and gave her the best hug I could.
"Nothing..."
"G-mom!" I pulled away and looked her in the eyes. She let out a small chuckle.
"Your mom wants you to go home."
"Did you tell her I can't?"
"I didn't have the heart to tell her."
"You have to. She still doesn't want to believe me. She needs to know that we have concrete proof that he did..."
"Ali I already took you away from her I can't tell her that she can't forbid a rape test. Rory is a Gilmore which means she can't be pushed into believing something. The harder you push her towards something the faster she tries to run away. You and I are the same way."
"She needs to know."
"We can't Ali..."
"Do you want her to find out about it when she goes to court? If she is fighting so hard to get me back what makes you think she won't go to court?"
"Ali if we tell her trying to force her to believe what is going on she is going to think we faked the test. It will do nothing for us to tell her, all we can do is keep you away from Dave."
"What about Brooke and Ashton?"
"I'm not sure. They go to school during the day and Dave works most nights. They usually go somewhere over the weekend so they are rarely home alone with Dave."
"When do you think she is going to let go and allow herself to believe me?"
"I was just asking myself the same question. I know she wants to believe you but I think she can't believe that she let it happen to you. I think that is what the problem is. Ali do you hate her?"
I was shocked by my grandmother's question. I mean I wish I could be mad at her, it would make it easier, but I wasn't mad. She honestly didn't know what was going on and when I told her she stopped taking trips and had me going to my dad's more often although she verbally said she didn't believe me.
"I can't hate her."
"I want to promise you that she will come around and when she does she is going to be very upset with herself. She is probably going to doubt your love..."
"I know. I won't let her though. In a strange way she did all she could for me."
My grandmother gave me a hug and we sat on the porch in silence for a while. It was three in the afternoon when Luke came by with food. We were still sitting on the porch. I had dozed off and my grandmother took the opportunity to paint my nails pink.
"Grandma!"
"What? Your nails needed a little color and I like pink."
"Not when I was sleeping."
"Oh come on you would never let me paint them if you were awake."
"You think?"
"Will you two stop arguing and get inside so we can eat? I only took off for an hour."
"Aye Aye captain Luke!" My grandmother teased.
We all went inside to eat but not before my mother pulled into the driveway. Luke tried to usher me inside but I wouldn't let him.
"Ali get inside." My grandmother warned.
"No. This is not your fight grandma."
"Ali!"
"No." I walked past her to my mother's car.
She got out and closed the door. She was leaning against the car when I got there. My grandparents were standing on the porch watching what was going on.
"Ali do you have your bags?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I am not going with you."
"Ali, it's not a choice..."
"But it is mom. This is my life not yours. I know you don't want to believe me and I am fine with that, but I will not let you drag me back into that house. This is my choice whether or not you want to believe it."
"Ali..." She sounded hurt.
"It's over mom." I turned back towards the house and started to walk away. My mom didn't bother to follow me.
I heard her car door open and then close again. I was almost back to the porch when I felt her hand on my shoulder.
"Dave will be out of town tomorrow, please come over."
I turned to face her. If I could have I would have crossed my arms in front of my chest. There were tears streaming down her face.
"No." I turned and finished walking into the house.
My grandfather followed me into the house, my grandmother was the one who stood on the porch torn between me and her daughter. She said something to my mother and then came inside. I didn't want to talk to anyone so I slipped out the back door and ran to the Inn. I was out of breath when I reached the barn. It was only then that I realized that I was still wearing the sweats that Adian gave me. I didn't care I got a stable hand to saddle up Adagio and help me on. I was on a trail when I heard a horse galloping up behind me. To my surprise it was my grandmother on another horse from the Inn.
"Ali wait up." I stopped Adagio and waited for her to catch up.
"What do you want?"
"I just want to talk."
"And I don't."
"Ali."
"What?"
"Why did you say no?"
"I said no because if I was to go over there for one night she would think that there was a chance for me to stay and it will never happen as long as Dave would be returning. I did not want to put her through that, I couldn't put myself through that." I let the reins loose on Adagio and he started to walk.
M grandmother let her horse do the same and we rode in silence for a while.
"So you weren't trying to hurt her?"
"No. I would never do that."
"You know your mother won't see it that way."
"Maybe she will see why I did it."
"She was angry Ali."
"I know but there was nothing I could do to stop that, she was going to be angry no matter what happened."
"Oh Ali how did your mom raise such a great daughter?"
"Probably the same way you did. A lot of coffee but no regrets. In other words I don't know."
"Yeah kid. So riding?"
"Sookie recommended it yesterday. It kills time if anything."
"You know you just can't steal the horses from the Inn every time you want to kill some time."
"I know but it's not like I can do anything else."
"I understand. You and Adagio seem to be getting along well."
"He was just the first horse I could get yesterday but I think we've bonded." I patted Adagio's neck.
"So what do you want to do with the rest of your Saturday?"
"Just ride."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it calms me down."
"Okay then lets ride." She kicked her horse and it started to gallop away. I did the sam with Adagio and followed her.
they spent the rest of the day riding and when they got back to the house Logan was waiting on the porch.
"Hey I'm going to go inside why don't you go see what he wants."
"Okay." I left her and walked to my dad.
"Hey Ali." He got up to greet me.
"Hey, not to sound rude but why are you here?"
"Well you have a birthday in a month and well your party planners have requested a meeting with you. Get dressed you have dinner plans."
"I will be right out." I ran into the house and pulled out a royal blue knee length dress.
I quickly slipped into the dress and grabbed a pair of shoes and then ran into the kitchen.
"Grandma I have to go."
"Okay be safe."
"What that's it? No where are you going? Be back by ten, nothing?"
"Fine where are you going?"
"You don't care do you?"
"He's your dad and he already asked."
"I will see you later."
"Bye Ali."
"Bye."
I ran onto the porch and he grabbed my shoes.
"Do you want to put these on before we get to the car?"
"Sure." I sat down on the steps and slipped on the silver heels.
Then we got up and walked to the car. I took a deep breath and prepared for the longest meeting of my life.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter. Like I said there are only a few more chapters before Rory finds out. I know she seems a little out of character for Rory but it will change once she finds out. I hope you liked Lorelai in this chapter, i liked writing her. Anyway please REVIEW! Thanks
-Katie
