It was around 9 PM, and G had just helped put Finny to bed along with one of his storybooks, while Lorelai and Maya dealt with the babies. Lorelai, Luke and Leo had driven home just after, Luke having to work tomorrow, and Cathy was arriving in an hour to stay over, for backup in case Emma was fussy.
G had just climbed the stairs up to her sixth floor apartment, but somehow she didn't feel like going over the book she'd read two weeks ago for tomorrow's quiz, instead figuring she'd just wing it. She'd turned the electric heater on in her bedroom as the upstairs sometimes got a little chillier than the rest of the house, perhaps higher than needed, and now the room was almost too toasty, suffocatingly so.
"Ugh..," G groaned, and turned the heater down to the second lowest instead of the max.
She grabbed her coat and leaving the apartment door open she opened the door to the rooftop balcony, leaving the door open as well. She leaned against ledge the looked down over their courtyard, noting lights on in about half the houses, a few low landscape lights illuminating the vegetation as well. It was almost easy to get the wrong impression of the bustling city facing this way, but the illusion was soon shattered by some distant police sirens. She did love New York, it was anonymous but at the same time holding endless possibilities - it just made her feel a little lonely now that her friend Phlippa had gotten together with Zach, the guy in their class.
She'd already considered texting Brody at least a couple of times. He'd been nice, caring. Her initial excuse would've been just to apologize and say thank you for taking care of her that louzy evening, but the underlying reason was still the same - she wanted that attention that he could give her. It was like an addiction of sorts. She'd even made herself a fake Tinder account, hoping that simply swiping a little and getting a few matches or chatting with some guys would extinguish some of that thirst, but it really didn't, so she'd uninstalled it the same day - the matches being just too tempting, and too risky, to take on, not to mention illegal for another few weeks.
It was still a few days until her therapy session, in the context of which she wasn't even sure if she was going to admit to having these thoughts. It felt like failing before she'd really started the race. She just wanted to have a person - and while Philippa was fun, Finn was still the closest to what she craved - someone to talk to, text at night with that hint of added flirt even if it never actually got physical.
In that weak moment, she typed, "I bet Rory got the Color Factory idea from you, I remember you mentioning the place. Just wanted to say thanks," and sent the text over to Finn without being able to stop herself. It was innocent enough, wasn't it? Yet inside she still hoped she'd hear back from him. It was similar to an alcoholic taking a sip to tase.
It was then it hit her - it was clingy, unnecessary - and she didn't want to ruin whatever they had just restored - an understanding, acceptance.
Sending a 'sorry' seemed to just make it worse, as if admitting it was meant to be more than it was, and she couldn't take it back, noting him having seen it already.
Wanting to just put the thought aside as quickly as she could, she called her father, hoping he wasn't yet in his Monday morning row of meetings. They were due a phone call, and she figured it couldn't really hurt to invite him to her birthday, even if he didn't come. She didn't really have high hopes for that.
"Hey, kiddo! You caught me at a perfect time, just sitting here admiring the view from Hinokizaka," Christopher announced, feeling relieved that the place was nearly completely empty, the etiquette of speaking on the phone indoors in public not being the most lenient. They'd stayed at the same Ritz Carlton when Chrstopher had brought G along for a business trip once, and she'd spent her days discovering the city with one of the interns who'd been left to 'babysit' her.
"Hey, dad," she replied. God, how she hated him calling her 'kiddo'.
"So what do I owe this pleasure?" Christopher asked, having as soon as he'd picked up the phone gotten a few disapproving looks from one of the waiters on using his phone at the restaurant and was making his way to one of the noise canceling phone booths just outside in the hallway.
"Oh just.. Rory's throwing me a birthday party. It's taking place at this really cool place, like an alternative museum of some sort. It's supposed to be like color therapy or something. Nothing big, just a few friends and family," G shared.
"That's cool," Christopher reacted, the word 'therapy' catching his attention instead of the approaching birthday.
"I was actually thinking of asking, maybe you'd come?" G hesitated.
"Oh," he responded, having not really expected that. It wasn't that he didn't want to come to his daughter's birthday party, but it had just been years since she'd even wanted him to come anywhere. "I'll have to see if I can move some things around," he said, realistically - it would mean a lot of rescheduling, but since she'd asked he was willing to consider it. From that distance, however, coming for a few hours meant a couple of days go gap in his schedule.
"Hey, do you mind telling me why I'm paying 350 dollars each week to some company called Therapiva?" Chistopher inquired, friendlily, having half by accident noticed the consistent cost on his bank statement. He didn't mind G spending his money, but this was quite a large sum and regular, making him consider that perhaps her card had been copied or something.
"Oh…," G replied, having not thought that he'd notice. He'd hardly ever asked where his money was going, even if she'd shopped designer clothes or spent a day at a dayspa. "It's for therapy," she admitted, unsure how he'd take it.
Christopher knew that of course, one google search having given him that answer.
"Yeah, I've been dealing with some stuff," she admitted, feeling like she needed to say something more.
"Am I ever going to find out what that is?" he inquired, honestly feeling lost.
"It's kind of private," G replied. "But Rory knows, so… it's okay, I'm okay," she added.
"Okay, good," he exhaled, sounding doubtfult. This wasn't easy to hear, but frankly he couldn't really blame her - he had been distant and perhaps when it came to more private stuff, whatever private stuff teenage girls had, perhaps it was better that she spoke to Rory who actually might know what to say and how to help. Or maybe it was just a trend thing? Most of the people were in some form of therapy at some point in their life, right?
"So it's okay? The cost I mean?" G asked, hoping he wasn't mad.
"Absolutely, just like the dentist is," he assured. "Hey, and you can talk to me, if you want - you know that right?" he said, unsure whether it really sounded believable, but he patted himself on the back for at least offering.
"Thanks," G replied.
"I'm sorry, I got to go, my 10 o'clock just showed," Christopher then got distracted, seeing the stern Russian woman walk in. The woman had been half an hour late, giving him this opportunity to catch G's call. But the discussion had only really left a heavy feeling in his chest.
Finn was driving the last stretch home, having just crossed the Harlem river, when his phone beeped. The phone was connected to the car so the beep was a rather loud one, silencing the 'Restless Year' by Ezra Furman that had been playing from one of his more energetic playlists.
"Do you mind checking that for me?" Finn asked Charlie, wondering whether it was his assistant rescheduling his workweek or even Rory or Logan who might be texting him back to whom he'd sent a selfie of him, Charlie and Olivia after he'd found out Olivia knew them.
Charlie knew his pattern lock by now, Finn keeping his business and financials locked with his fingerprint, hence neither thought twice about this simple request.
When Charlie saw the message, or rather the sender, the excitement in her face that she'd had on the entire day about finally going to her new home, drained. For a brief moment she considered pretending it was some Facebook reminder, someone okay-ing something he'd suggested earlier with a simple 'like' or Rory or Logan replying, but she really didn't want to lie about something that would just come out later. She considered deleting the message, but that too would've been irrational.
"What?" Finn asked, looking at her, then steering his eyes back to the FDR Drive.
"It's G..," she said.
"And?" Finn asked, almost thinking it must've been something serious if she'd text him like this.
"Oh, she's just thanking you for the birthday venue, she guessed it was you," Charlie summarized, feeling a hint of bitterness, putting his phone back inside the handrest to her left.
"Right," Finn sighed.
For the next five minutes they drove in silence, Beth Ditto playing 'Fire' filling the quiet, Finn's head slightly nodding along with the song, not thinking much about the whole situation.
"Can you just not do this..." Charlie began, unsure what she was about to ask Finn exactly.
"Yeah?" Finn asked, taking right on E 23rd Street. For a moment he wondered, maybe him dancing while driving was finally beginning to bug her which would've been quite a surprise. He was naive enough to think the message had been an issue.
"Can you just not text with her like this - whatever it is - friendly, supportive, whatever… It's messy, it doesn't feel good. I don't want to be this person to say this but…," Charlie said with a sigh, sounding troubled. She hadn't scrolled up in their messaging history, she didn't want to know the details of what had been.
Finn felt a little bad - he was just sort of happy having cleared the air and hoped that at least they could be friends with G, even if not friends that hung out. But he did get it - late night texting had an undertone, even if G hadn't meant it like that.
"I haven't been doing that, I promise. And I don't intend to start," Finn assured, taking her hand and squeezed it assuringly. He then focused back on the road. While he might have under other circumstances felt differently, maybe even said a few things in G's defence, but as they were literally 5 minutes before moving Charlie in to his apartment - it just wasn't worth messing that moment up.
"Good," Charlie replied, a weak smile returning to her lips, and she looked outside the window at the city she was about to move into. It was going to be her neighbourhood, her got-to restaurants and cafes, the closest subway station - her new life.
Five minutes later they were rolling two large suitcases and a few smaller items into the elevator, having decided to leave the couple of boxes in the car for the next day. Finn's place didn't have a traditional doorman or a porter, it was rather the hi-tech type of place, scanning his retina and/or using his fingerprint, the door opening by acknowledging the presence of his phone. They'd get Charlie scanned the next day, but for a moment Charlie felt rather in awe of the entire place, hesitant to touch anything as if anticipating an alarm to go off.
"You'll get the hang of it," Finn tried to sooth her, seeing her observe the place like a world wonder. Besides the pool that had been one of Finn's main reasons for choosing this building, because he wasn't too good at keeping track of his keys, besides, in another life it had also been something to impress the ladies with.
As they reached upstairs Finn pushed his apartment door open and rolled the suitcases in ahead of them.
"Now - we're going to do this right," he said, determinedly and before Charlie had a chance to object lifted her off the floor and carried her over the threshold. This was no easy task - Finn wasn't that notorious for hitting the gym on a daily basis and Charlie wasn't in the category of the feather-light girls, but it was the thought that counted.
"You're going to hurt your back," Charlie yelped just before Finn put her down on the other side.
"Well we got to make a grand entrance, don't we?" Finn teased.
"You're something else Finn, you know that…?" Charlie said, her hands around his neck, and kissed him. It felt good to have arrived.
Rory arrived at JFK well past midnight, the time difference giving her the illusion that she'd flown all night. She frankly should've been more used to this, but she could only let out a wide yawn as she deboarded the plane. She'd slept the last strech of her flight, but more so she had kept thinking back to her time with Logan - how 36 hours if intensive self-care could do wonders. Things weren't perfect - there was still a lot to work on, so they'd keep their connection through the daily chores and work while at the same time balancing the kids, but she truly hoped they'd keep at it, the thought of Logan's more permanent return giving her hope.
She got out of the terminal - thankfully having not been searched this time - having ordered herself a transfer and looked for a sign that said 'Gilmore', using her maiden name not to draw too much attention. Having found the female chauffeur, she finally checked her phone with full attention, as the chauffeur led her to the car.
She'd half expected a few texts from her mother, that said how they'd gotten back to Stars Hollow alright, and how Cathy was with the kids. But what she hadn't expected was a message from her dad.
"Call me, it's about G," the message said.
Rory groaned, not really feeling like talking to him. But since she was up, and it was also a time when she'd be able to catch Christopher, she decided to return the call just to get it over with.
"Ror! Hi, I didn't expect to hear from you this soon," Christopher picked up, calculating in his head what time it must've been in New York.
"Hi, yeah - I just landed," she replied.
"Landed? Where are you?" he asked, having not known she was travelling.
"Just came from London, went to visit Logan for a couple of days," Rory explained.
"Ah..," he exhaled. "Did you have a good visit? Didn't miss the kids too much?" he asked, friendlily.
"Yeah, but I still missed them. Finny made me promise I'd be there first thing in the morning," Rory chuckled. "You wanted to talk to me about G?" she asked, not wanting to dwell too much on small talk.
"Right..," Christopher sighed. "I know she's in therapy, I saw the withdrawal and asked her about it but all I really got from her was that you know what it is about," he explained.
"Yeah, I know," she replied.
"Listen, I'm not sure whether the parent thing really applies on the other daughter's business with my older daughter, but it did get me worried about her," he said.
Rory knew well what he meant by 'parent thing', having discussed it with Lorelai on more than one occasion. There were no secrets between parents - at least when it came to Lorelai and Christopher when she'd been younger, but as Rory knew by now, there were way more secrets between Sherry and Christopher.
"She's getting help, she's a smart kid. All I can tell you is that her life is not in danger and it's not drugs or anything like that. But other than that - the 'parent thing' doesn't override the 'sister thing' even if I'm sort of doing the parenting here," Rory replied bluntly.
For Christopher her words certainly stung and he was almost about to argue that legally he was the parent here, but as he allowed it to sink in, he knew better than to argue with Rory. She was right.
"If you want to know what's up you've got to show up, be around, be her parent - then maybe she'll tell you," Rory added to his silence. "Or talk to the other actual parent," she added in a huff that came out a little stronger than intended.
"Did something happen in Paris?" Christopher asked in confusion.
"They had a fight, but for good reason - but that's all I'm at the liberty to say," Rory replied.
Christopher felt the first time in seven months like he'd been hit to the head with a blunt object - caught off guard. He'd had this impression that G had always wanted this independence, having acted like most teenagers who were embarrassed by their parents, but as she was apparently not fine, there were problems of which he knew nothing about, he couldn't help but to feel the very same guilt he'd felt when Rory was growing up. Though with Rory he'd always known that Lorelai was there doing the job of two parents, while he knew himself that Sherry certainly wasn't doing the same.
"Okay," he exhaled. "Can you keep me in the loop if there's anything I should know? Can we instate that parent thing?" he added hopefully.
"Dad, no…, she trusts me, I'm not going to undermine that. I finally feel like I have a sister, so does she... She needs to trust me so she wouldn't feel like she's all alone in the world," Rory argued. "I told you - if you want to know what she is doing and what she is feeling, then, I'm sorry, but you need to set your priorities straight," Rory added, in a stern tone. She was too tired for bullshit.
"Ror..," he began to plead, unsure what to add.
"I got to go," Rory said, wanting this conversation to end.
"Bye Ror," Christopher reluctantly said, ending the call.