Paris immediately knew what she was seeing and turned around to Dean Forester. Before she could take two steps toward him, Dean Winchester stopped her.
"Whoa there, little girl; you aren't making any more of a scene than you already have. He's no more guilty than Sam here is."
"Who are you?" Paris demanded angrily. "And don't call me little girl. I'm 16 and my name is Paris!"
"I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam. We're the sons of the man Lorelai hired to investigate what happened."
"Oh, okay, what have you found out so far?"
"I… uh"
"How long have you been here?"
"A day and a half."
"I see. So in a day and a half all you've learned is 'I… uh'?" She turned around to Rory and Dean. "When these buffoons fail to find anything out, let me know. My father keeps a private investigator on retainer to keep an eye on his mistresses. He's pretty good; he catches them every time."
Dean was starting to really like this girl. Too bad she was jail bait… "Listen, Little Girl, what makes you think you have the right to know anything we've found out?"
"Because I'm smarter than you and I can grasp concepts you can't."
Dean reared back at that. He raised his eyebrows at the girl in front of him. "I oughta take you up on that –"
"Dean" Sam interjected.
Without taking his eyes off the girl, Dean raised his hand in acknowledgement. He leaned over Paris and pointed to Sam. "See that boy over there?"
She nodded.
"He's smarter than you and Rory put together. He'll be right here helping us figure out all the hard clues."
"Dean" Sam interjected again.
Dean looked at Dean and Rory, "Goodnight guys." He turned to Paris and gave her a dangerous smile, "Goodnight Little Girl. I'll see ya upstairs Sam." He walked away.
Sam looked at Paris and smiled, but it wasn't a pleasant one. "He likes you because you tried to protect Rory, but don't insult his intelligence again. He's not pleasant when he gets really pissed. In two years, though…" He turned to Rory and Dean. "Goodnight guys, I'll see you tomorrow."
Paris turned to Rory and Dean. "What did he mean, 'In two years'?" They just shrugged, although Dean was smiling a bit.
Dean put his arm around Rory, "Come on, the car's running."
Paris stopped them, "Rory, if you need anything…"
Rory looked at her. Somehow she knew the right story would circulate at Chilton now, "Thanks, Paris"
Rory was quiet on the way home from the inn. She knew that telling her mom would cause a lot of problems and she just couldn't face it.
"I'm gonna tell Mom, Dean."
"I know."
"But I can't face it tonight."
Dean sighed, "I know." He reached over and took her hand. "But you need to tell her soon. She may figure it out on her own and that won't be pretty."
"None of this is pretty."
GGSPNGGSPN
The next morning, Max Medina was scheduled to arrive at 9 o'clock. Rory and Lorelai were up early for different reasons. Lorelai was looking forward to seeing the man and Rory was looking forward to getting back to a schedule for her education. She hadn't slept well the night before, though, so even though she was happy about Mr. Medina's visit, she was tired and a little distracted.
Max noticed how preoccupied Rory was, but he put it down to the fact that she was pregnant. He gave her the assignments she had missed and talked to her about one of the books he had assigned the class before she left. They had a good discussion and when he left, Rory moved to the kitchen table to start her work.
Lorelai, who had left them alone while he was there, followed him out of the house to talk to him.
"So, Rory is looking okay. Is she?" Max was genuinely fond of Rory and wanted to know she would be fine. "And you, are you okay?"
Lorelai nodded, "She has good days and bad; me too."
"Yeah, well I guess that's normal."
Lorelai tried to smile and scoffed a little bit, "There's nothing normal about this."
He sighed, "No, probably not. What did the police say?"
Lorelai ran her hands through her hair. "By the time we knew something had actually happened, there was no evidence. Because of that, Rory asked not to involve them. She didn't want Dean blamed. She didn't want the scrutiny, either."
Max looked at her strangely, "She didn't know anything had happened?"
"No, she was positive. We had a fight that morning and she practically screamed it at me. Why?"
Max realized that perhaps he'd said more than he should, "Oh, no reason." He turned to go to his car.
Lorelai was looking at his face and read his expression. It was shouting 'uh oh' at her. "Wait a minute! Why did you ask?"
Max was standing my his car and looked at the ground, "Nothing Lorelai, it's –"
"Oh, it's something…" Lorelai walked up to him. "Look, if you know something, you have to tell me!" Max looked around to avoid eye contact with her, but she grabbed his arm. "Please! What is it?"
Finally he relented, "Look, Lorelai, do you remember how you felt after your first time?"
She looked at him in shock. This was way more personal than they had ever gotten. It seemed a bit early in their relationship to discuss… "I felt elated, nervous, a little disappointed, 'cause it hurt…" The light dawned and Lorelai's face shut down. "She knew."
Max knew he had caused a mountain of trouble and he was reluctant to leave it right then. "Lorelai…" He reached for her arms.
Lorelai shrugged him off and raised her hands. "She lied to me."
Max tried again to take her arms. "I don't know Rory as well as you, but I know she isn't a liar. There was a reason. You need to ask her for her reason!"
"I can't think! I trusted her and she lied to me! And now she's pregnant! If she had told me the truth, I would have taken her to a doctor and this could have been prevented."
"Lorelai…"
Lorelai looked at the man before her. At that moment she hated him and everyone else in the world. The one person she trusted implicitly had lied to her.
Without speaking, she turned and walked back into the house.
She knew she was too angry to talk to Rory, but didn't want to wait either. She walked into the kitchen.
She stood behind a chair across from her daughter, "You know, it's dawned on me that we haven't talked about something…"
Rory looked at her, she could see there was something major on her mother's mind, but couldn't guess what it was. "I think we've covered everything."
"Well no, there's one thing we haven't talked about. It's a really big deal…" She sat down in a chair. "Of course, you were robbed and this magical time in a girl's life was turned into something ugly for you."
"Mom, what are you talking about?"
"Your first time with a man."
"Oh… I don't really want to talk about that." Rory was starting to regret not telling Lorelai, because she had a feeling Lorelai knew.
Ignoring that, Lorelai continued, "I remember my first time. It was with your dad…"
Rory felt alarm, "Mom! I really don't want to hear about it!"
Continuing to ignore Rory, Lorelai went on, "Of course, it wasn't the best time I'd ever had, despite the care Christopher took; it still hurt." Lorelai looked her daughter in the eye. "I was sore for days."
Rory looked at her books on the table in front of her. "Mom…"
"You knew." Lorelai accused. "You knew and you lied to me."
"Mom…" Rory tried to start explaining.
Lorelai interrupted, "You knew and you looked me in the eye and flat out said nothing happened. You wouldn't let me take you to a doctor. If you had gone to a doctor, we could have prevented this pregnancy! You wouldn't be 16 and pregnant and your whole future wouldn't be in complete jeopardy!"
Rory was getting mad, too. "And what would have happened to Dean? You know you would have had him arrested! Or at least tried to! It would have destroyed him! An accusation of rape would have followed him around forever! And if you hadn't done it, Richard and Emily would have! And you know it!
"You were protecting Dean?"
"Yes!" Rory had tears in her eyes, but she was fighting them. "I looked at myself as I ran home. I was not hurting anywhere else! My clothes were intact! I knew in my mind that Dean was not at fault! I couldn't remember, but I had a strong impression that Dean was. not. guilty!
"Then I got home and I overheard the argument you and Grandma had. She was telling you I would get pregnant, that I would disappoint you the way you disappointed her. I just couldn't tell you. I didn't want to disappoint you."
Rory took a deep breath, trying to fight the sobs that were coming.
"So I checked the calendar, confirmed that my period was due to start in about 3 days and I took a shower and washed away any evidence that anything had happened. But my period didn't come. I was freaking out and telling myself that nerves and fear had stopped it that month. Then I waited again and the next month, nothing. And I knew. Despite the fact that I shouldn't have conceived, I did.
Lorelai looked at her daughter. "I need some time." She got up and walked away.
Rory abandoned her attempts to work and left the house. She needed to talk to Lane and stop her from having any sort of fight with her mother. As she was walking to her friend's house, she was aware that people were staring at her and whispering. She just kept her head down and ignored everyone.
As she approached Lane's house, she could see that the antiques store was open for customers. She went into the house and called Lane's name. Mrs. Kim popped out from behind a large cupboard and immediately moved toward her.
"You will leave!"
Rory just stared at her. "What?"
"You will leave, now!"
"What? Why?" The tears Rory had fought back before were making a comeback.
"You will not talk to Lane. Ever again."
Rory realized that Mrs. Kim was seriously kicking her out. Since she had decided not to let Lane argue with her mother, she just nodded. She turned around and walked out of the store.
She tried to fight the tears, but they were coming down anyway. She didn't see where she was going until she realized that she was standing in front of Doose's Market. She could see Dean in the store working, stocking the shelves. She turned and walked away. Since she didn't know where she was going, she just walked. Without paying much attention, she found herself at the inn. She walked in and moved over to the stairs and went up to the Winchester's suite.
