Sugar and Spice: The More Things Change
By Misha

Chapter Twenty Four: Family Approval

"I have you all weekend, right?" Lorelai demanded on Friday night when Rory and Christa met her at Emily and Richard's.

Richard was actually out of town, so they were only having dinner with Emily that night. In some way that was a relief, because the two dinners were a headache. The last time they were there, Richard had served them appetizers and Emily had gotten upset. It was something everything week.

The three of them had all arrived around the same time, though in separate cars, and Lorelai wanted to take the opportunity to try and demand some time with her girls. She had barely seen them since school started.

"I'm around all weekend." Rory promised her.

"And you?" Lorelai asked Christa suspiciously.

"I'm yours tomorrow night and Sunday morning." Christa told her. "I have to stop by Colin's dad's tonight, he's having a cocktail party and I promised Colin I'd make an appearance, then I want to spend some time tomorrow with Straub and Francine."

Lorelai figured it would be petty to argue with Christa's need to spend time with her dying grandfather. Though she was a little annoyed that Colin was taking up Christa's time in Hartford, didn't he get enough of her time?

"Sleep over Saturday?" She asked, pushing her annoyance aside. "Movies and lots of junk food?"

"Sounds great." Christa told her. "I have to be in Hartford Sunday afternoon though, because it's Halloween and I'm taking Gigi trick-or-treating."

Lorelai smiled. "I'm sure she'll love that."

She knew Christa had taken the news of Gigi's arrival hard, but now that she was here, she adored her little sister. It was sad that Rory didn't have the same bond with her, but then Rory didn't have the same bond with Christopher that Christa did. He was Rory's father, but he was Christa's dad.

"I had fun with our costumes." Christa told her mother. "Though I couldn't convince Colin to match my theme."

"He's going with you?" Lorelai asked. It seemed like Christa and Colin were never apart, even when Christa was having family time, apparently he was included.

"He has little sisters," Christa explained, "so he's taking them too. Or at least I hope he is, he still hasn't told me whether his dad said it was ok."

"What are you going as?" Rory asked curiously as they started heading towards the doorstep.

"Pebbles and Wilma Flintstone." Christa said with a grin. "I thought it was adorable, but Colin refuses to go as Fred. I think he's afraid to ever be seen in anything but a button down shirt."

"I'd pay money to see Colin dressed up as Fred Flintstone." Lorelai commented as she rang the doorbell.

The maid opened the door and let them in, showing them to the living room where Emily waited.

"Christa, I'm so glad you could join us," Emily said and then she frowned, "Why did you ruin your hair?"

Christa grinned. "I felt like a change. It's nice to see you too Grandmother."

Emily softened. "I am very glad to see you, it's been too long." She looked genuinely concerned. "I understand that you're spending a lot of time with Straub these days, how is he doing?"

Christa looked pained. "Not well. It won't be long."

Emily gave Christa's hand a soft squeeze. Lorelai knew her mother wasn't a very touchy feely person, so the gesture said a lot. "When… Just give us a call and we'll be there."

"Thank you." Christa said softly. "I'm sure Francine would appreciate it as well."

Lorelai knew her mother was still on decent terms with Christopher's parents, despite everything and she was glad. She wasn't sure the reception she'd get from Francine, when the inevitable happened, so she was glad that her parents would be there to support Christa. And she would need support. Whatever issues Lorelai had had with the man, he'd been there for Christa these last few years and Lorelai knew her daughter would miss him deeply.

They had drinks, since Richard was away and their time didn't have to be split, and shared some mindless chatter. Then dinner was served.

Emily asked the girls lots of questions about their getaway the previous weekend. They both gave evasive answers and Rory changed the subject to the Yale Daily News. Lorelai was curious about their weekend adventure as well. Rory had given an evasive answer, saying it was for a story and she was sworn to secrecy and Christa had just refused to answer any questions and Lorelai had learnt not to press her younger daughter. Because most of the time she really did not want to know.

Halfway through dinner, a phone rang.

"Lorelai!" Emily scolded.

"It's not mine." Lorelai said with a frown. Why did she always get blamed?

"It's mine." Christa said apologetically. She checked the ID. "Do you mind if I take this?"

"Go ahead." Emily told her.

Christa stood up and exited the room, but Lorelai could hear her answer. "Hey baby, yeah we're still eating dinner."

Ah, so it was Colin. Lorelai was starting to like Colin more, but it irritated her that he wasn't respecting family time.

"It sounds like she's talking to a boy," Emily observed, "does she have a boyfriend?"

Lorelai just shrugged. "How would I know?"

"You're her mother," Emily responded, she turned to Rory, "well, does she have a boyfriend?"

Rory just shrugged as well. "You'll have to ask Christa."

"Ask Christa what?" Christa asked, coming back in the room.

"If you have a boyfriend." Emily said, getting straight to the punch.

Christa smiled as she took her seat. "Actually, yes, I do. I'm seeing Colin again. He's the one that called, we're going out tonight and he wanted to know what time to pick me up."

Emily's face lit up. "Colin McCrae? He's such a nice boy. I'm glad to hear that you guys are dating again. So you have plans tonight?"

"His father is throwing a cocktail party." Christa explained. "Colin will be picking me up at Straub and Francine's and he wanted to know what time I'd be ready."

Emily looked delighted. "Well, you can skip dessert if you want. I'm sure you have to change and I don't want to hold you up. It's wonderful that a girl your age has an active social life." With the right partner, was the unspoken part of that sentence.

It didn't surprise Lorelai that her mother was thrilled to hear about Colin and Christa. After all, Colin was the boy they had picked out for her years ago. He was exactly the kind of husband that the Gilmores, and presumably the Haydens, wanted for their granddaughters and Christa, at least, was happy to oblige. Lorelai knew that wasn't fair, Christa genuinely loved Colin and not because he fit certain criteria. However, it hadn't escaped Lorelai's notice that her daughter only got involved with a certain type of guy—wealthy, connected and bored.

Emily turned to Rory. "What about you? Are you seeing anyone?"

Say no. Lorelai willed her daughter secretly, knowing how her mother would react.

Rory looked uncomfortable. "Sort of."

"Sort of?" Emily demanded.

"Well, yes." Rory answered after a moment. "Do you remember Dean?"

Emily's expression lost its previous warmth. "The boy who made you the car? Did you break up?"

"We got back together." Rory said with a shrug. "It's… It's not really serious yet. We have some stuff to work out, but we are seeing each other."

"I see." Emily commented. She turned back to Christa. "So tell me all about Colin? How was his year away?"

Rory seemed relieved that the questions were over, but Lorelai knew her mother well enough to know that it wasn't over. Emily might be done for now, but if she wasn't pleased about Rory and Dean, and Lorelai was sure that she wasn't, then she would definitely do something about it, but what?

"Christine!" Andrew McCrae greeted warmly, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "You look lovely as always."

"Sorry I'm late." She apologized. "I had dinner with my grandmother tonight. Emily sends her regards by the way."

"Send mine back." He told her. "How is she doing? I was sorry to hear about her and Richard, they seemed like such an infallible couple."

"She's doing okay." Christa answered, really not wanting to talk about her grandparents' relationship.

Luckily Andrew just nodded. "We'll have to catch up later," he said, catching someone's wave from a distance, "I have to go make the rounds." He turned to Colin. "You should do the same, introduce Christine to some people, I'm sure they'd love to meet her."

With that he disappeared into the crowd.

"How much socializing do we have to do?" Christa asked Colin as soon his dad was out of ear shot.

"We'll mingle a bit and then we can disappear for about an hour or so and come back, mingle some more and call it a night." Colin promised her.

"Your sister is waving at us." Christa commented. "Are you all here?" Colin had five half-sisters by his father and, except for the twins, they all had different mothers. Only Andrew McCrae's 6th marriage, to the vacuous Natalie, had failed to provide off-spring. However, Colin was the only male and thus, the heir apparent.

"No," Colin told her, taking her hand as they made the way through the crowd towards his older sister. "Only Ginny and I. Rachel's away at Bryn Mawr. Kate's mother is actually about to become someone else's problem and she is off doing bridesmaid duty. That leaves the terrors and they're too young to be dragged out, lucky things."

"They're not terrors." Christa defended. She was actually crazy about Molly and Melissa, Colin's 8 year old sisters. "Speaking of the twins, did you ask your dad about Halloween?"

She wanted to take Gigi trick or treating and thought it would be fun if Colin and the twins came as well. She'd convinced Colin to ask his dad and see if it was possible.

"Yeah, Dad actually has them that week and he says its fine," Colin told her, "gives the nanny some time off." He shook his head. "I can't believe you want to go trick or treating."

"We have little siblings, it's a gift." Christa told him. "I love Halloween and I love watching kids in costume."

There were a couple parties happening that weekend, but since Colin had been summoned home and Christa wanted to trick or treat with her sister, they'd decided to skip them. Instead, Colin was putting in appearances with both his parents, Christa was doing the family rounds and then they were taking the little girls trick or treating on Sunday.

"I guess it could be fun," Colin allowed as they reached his older sister.

"Christa, how nice to see you again." Virginia, or Ginny as she was fondly known, greeted, giving Christa a quick hug. "It's been too long!"

Almost a year. Christa had had one lunch with Ginny when Colin was away, but it was too weird and painful, so she'd put off doing it again. Which had been a bit of a shame, because she really liked her. Actually, Christa liked all of Colin's sisters. 24 year-old Virginia, 18 year-old Rachel, 14 year-old Katherine and the twins, though she hadn't actually spent much time with Rachel. She was the least social of the McCrae siblings.

"Things got busy," Christa said apologetically.

"It's ok," Ginny assured her, "I know how it is, but I expect to see a lot more of you in the future." Ginny narrowed her eyes at Colin. "After all, hopefully someone won't be stupid for a second time."

Colin rolled his eyes and Christa bit back a laugh. She wondered how hard a time he had gotten from his family after they broke up. Later on, when they had fulfilled their social obligation and were hiding in Colin's room, she brought it up.

"Did your family give you a hard time after we broke up?" She asked, leaning back in his arms.

They had to go back and be presentable, so they were only doing some light fooling around. Nothing that would destroy her hair and make-up. At that moment, they were just sitting on his bed and she was in his lap, his arms around her, and her head was resting against his chest.

"Oh yeah," he answered, "I heard about it from almost everyone. My father let me know that I was never going to do better than you and that you would make me the perfect wife and that only an idiot wouldn't be able to see that. Ginny shared his sentiments. Kate wailed that now I was going to marry someone absolutely awful and she was going to be stuck with a sister-in-law who was as bad as our stepmother's and the twins were devastated."

Christa noticed that he'd left Rachel out of the equation, but she didn't mention it. "I visited the twins a couple times," she told him. "I saw them right before Christmas and on their birthday."

"They mentioned it," Colin told her, "it was really nice of you."

Christa shrugged. "They're sweet girls. Which is why I'm excited to take them trick-or-treating."

Colin kissed her head. "I love you."

Christa turned to look at him. "I love you too."

She really did. She and Colin had their ups and downs, but they had found something solid and it was really special. She wanted the same thing for Rory. She'd seen the look on Rory's face when she talked about Dean and that wasn't what she wanted for her sister. She had nothing against Dean personally, but he wasn't the right guy for Rory, not anymore, and she hated seeing her sister in this weird limbo. Rory deserved to find the kind of happiness that Christa had. Christa wanted to help her sister, she just wasn't sure how.