CHAPTER TEN ~ THE AFTERMATH

Emily faltered briefly, and then recovered with a smooth lie, "She's nearly done, Shira. She has less than twenty hours to finish."

Emily hoped her reply seemed plausible, for in reality she had no idea what she was talking about. Rory hadn't told her anything. Nor, presumably, had Rory told Richard anything, because Richard would have passed it along to her. Emily was enraged that her daughter and granddaughter had kept this secret, but she would have to deal with that later. In the meantime, she could not let Shira win.

Emily was delighted to see the malevolent smile wiped off of Shira's face.

"Ah, I see," Shira muttered. "Well, that is very impressive."

"Rory is a very impressive young woman," Emily rejoined. "It was nice talking to you, Shira, but I'd best be going now." With that, Emily hurried over to her husband's side. She knew that it wouldn't do to go storming out, because Shira was sure to be watching. She had to pretend that nothing was wrong, and that she cared about Richard's company's latest acquisition. But Emily Gilmore was a proper society wife; masking her emotions was something she'd been doing for decades.

In the privacy of the car, Emily explained the situation to Richard. He, too, was infuriated, and they both decided that this matter could not wait any longer than it already had. They were going to confront Rory about it tonight.

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, you have some explaining to do!" shouted Emily. A very bewildered Rory stood in front of her, in pajamas, having been about to go to bed before her grandparents arrived at her apartment.

"Grandma, what is this about?" Rory asked, trying to remain calm. "What's going on?"

"Your grandfather and I were at a DAR function tonight, and we talked to Shira Huntzberger. Do you know what she told us?" shouted Emily. Rory's confusion cleared at once—there was only one thing Shira could have told Emily that would have made Emily so angry.

"Grandma, Grandpa, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed tearfully. "I was upset, I was stupid, and I'll never do it again!"

Then something occurred to Emily. "What did you do, anyway?" Shira had not mentioned that.

"Oh-um, I stole a yacht." Rory hung her head.

Emily looked horrified. "That's ridiculous! What on earth could have made you so upset as to steal a yacht?"

"Emily, please calm down," interjected Richard. "It's very late at night. Allow Rory to explain herself."

"Thanks Grandpa," murmured Rory gratefully. Clearing her throat, she began, "Well, anyway, you remember how I went to Logan's house for dinner last spring? And his grandfather kept talking about how I was unsuitable to marry the Huntzberger heir because I want a career?" Richard and Emily nodded.

"Turns out that Mitchum felt bad about how his dad had treated me. About a week later, he came to see me in the newsroom, and he offered me an internship. It was at the Stamford Eagle-Gazette, a paper his company had just bought. He usually spends a couple of weeks at a newly-acquired paper, bringing them up to HPG standards and whatnot, and so he said I could shadow him those two weeks, to see how a real newspaper works. At the end of it, he told me that he didn't think I had 'it,' didn't think I had what it takes to be a real journalist. He said I could be a good secretary." Richard opened his mouth to interrupt, but Rory plowed on.

"And I… well… I overreacted. I skipped your dinner and went to meet Logan at his sister's engagement party, wanting to do something drastic. As I said, I was upset. I remembered that line from Moby Dick, when the narrator says that when he finds himself growing grim about the mouth and wanting to knock people's hats off, he takes to the sea. Since we were, conveniently, already at a marina, I came up with the idea of stealing a yacht. Logan went along with it, after I explained the Moby Dick idea.

"Barely fifteen minutes later, the Coast Guard caught up with us, and arrested us. I spent a few hours in the jail in Bridgeport, before Mom came and bailed me out. My court date was about ten days later, and the judge was harsh. She talked about how she was sick and tired of rich kids like me treating the world like their personal playground, and sentenced me to three hundred hours. I hated it at first, but I'm okay now. I've done 285, and should be able to finish up the last fifteen before school starts."

"Were you ever planning to tell us?" Emily interrupted, seemingly unable to control herself any longer.

"I'm sorry," Rory said. "I really was. But I've been so busy this summer, between doing the hours and helping Mom and Luke plan for the wedding… and every time I saw you I just chickened out. I didn't want you to be angry. That plan clearly didn't work, but oh well."

"Rory, we're not angry anymore," Richard hurried to say. "We're just surprised. We do wish we could have heard this from you, though, not from Shira Huntzberger at a DAR event." Rory cringed.

"I'm sorry about that, too," she said regretfully. "I know that can't have been fun."

"It wasn't," muttered Emily.

"I'm sorry," Rory repeated. "I'm glad you're not angry. I never want to disappoint you again. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing, Rory, for heaven's sake. After all we went through with your mother… well, she never did get arrested, but she did give me plenty of grey hairs. As long as nobody else knows about it, it's all right," said Emily.

"Nobody else does, I promise," Rory repeated. Richard folded his granddaughter into a hug.

"I suppose we'll let you sleep now," he said.

"Just out of curiosity, why did Shira choose to tell you now?" asked Rory tentatively. Emily looked abashed and wouldn't say anything.

"Well, she was being rude about Luke," Richard recounted instead. "That made your grandmother angry, and she decided Shira ought to be reminded of her background. What was it you called her, Em?" He was grinning.

"A two-bit gold digger, fresh off the bus from Hicksville," confessed Emily.

"Grandma, you didn't!" Rory exclaimed, grinning too. But the grin was wiped off her face with Richard's next words.

"Shira was, of course, humiliated, and told us about the yacht incident, presumably as revenge for Emily's tirade."

"Oh."

"But everything turned out all right. I have to admit, I rather liked hearing your grandmother tell off Shira. And now there's no secrets between us, which is certainly for the best."

"Thanks, Grandpa," Rory said, grateful that her disgrace had been easily forgiven.

"We'll see you Friday."

"Of course, Grandma."

And then they left, as suddenly as they had come. Rory was left standing in the middle of her living room, staring at the door long after it closed. She didn't feel like going to sleep just yet. So she called her mother.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked frantically. "It's late, what's wrong?"

"Grandma and Grandpa were just here," Rory explained. "They found out about the yacht."

"And they were mad," Lorelai stated.

"Steam coming out of their ears, at first," Rory joked. "But that was mostly because of how they found out, I think. I hope. Shira Huntzberger told them."

"When?"

"They were at some DAR thing tonight. Apparently, Shira was being rude about Luke, and Grandma yelled at her, and Shira revealed the yacht incident as revenge."

"Ouch. Are they still at your apartment?"

"No, they just left. But I explained it to them, and I think everything's forgiven now."

"I'm sure it is. Your grandparents think you're an angel, Rory, you know that. They'll forgive you anything."

"You think?"

"Well, I wouldn't test that extensively," Lorelai hastened to add. "But you know, college kids are practically required to do stupid things now and again. It's okay. You'll never do it again, will you?"

"Definitely not."

"Then there's no reason to worry." Neither Gilmore girl said anything for a few moments. Then Lorelai broke the companionable silence, asking,

"Did your grandmother tell you what she said to Shira?"

"Yes."

"Ooh, what was it?"

"You'll have to ask her. It's much better coming from her. It's really funny."

"That's incentive enough to go to Friday night dinner, I suppose."