DISCLAIMER: I own neither the show nor the characters of the Gilmore Girls.
Just the messed up way in which I am portraying them.
Friday came too quickly. Rory hit her snooze several times, in denial that it could actually have come so quickly. Thursday had been interesting in and of itself. Rory had come to the bookstore after work for coffee, only to find Chris in there talking with Jess. Actually talking with him, no weird 'I want to duel you in the street' stand off, no raised voices or weirdness. Except on her part. She hadn't had the chance to ask either of them what that was about, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. But right now, she had other things on her mind. Dinner, with the 'family'. Hitting the snooze button again, she turned her alarm off as her racing mind had woken her up fully by now.
She got into the shower and let the water wash over her. She had been standing under the hot stream of water for some time. She lost track of the time, and she was only snapped back to reality when the water got cooler against her skin. Turning up the heat, she quickly finished up and got dressed. Coming down the stairs, Lorelai was shoving books into her bag on her way towards the door.
"Morning."
"There you are! Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, just a little tired. I'll be fine next week."
"Tonight's going to be weird, huh?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"You're sure?"
"It'll be fine. And if it's not, we'll shoe shop all weekend to cheer ourselves up, I promise."
Lorelai smiled at her mom. "I'll see you after school."
"Right. Have a good day, sweetie."
Lorelai disappeared through the front door, and Rory had to remind herself she needed to get to work. She was never this unfocused. There were just too many thoughts swirling around in her head. She went into the kitchen and poured the remnants of the coffee in the coffee pot into her favorite mug. Downing it in one gulp, she pulled her hair back into a bun quickly and grabbed her purse before she left for work.
She went about her normal routine at work without a thought. Working was always good to clear her mind of any personal problems. Her logical mind kicked in, as it always did, and there was no confusion, there were just tasks to be delegated and completed. Things to be checked off a list. She loved lists. So concise, so workable. They kept her sane, she thought sometimes.
It was halfway through her workday when someone walked in that disrupted her routine. The clock went from ticking the seconds away rhythmically to spasmodically flipping back and forth, forward and backward seconds at a time, as if order had never truly been set in the universe. Or perhaps they were just in tune with her stomach, which was turning cartwheels. Her immediate reaction was to check the thermostat, but as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she saw it was just her face violently flushing.
"I had a couple of questions. If this is a bad time, I can come back."
"No, no, it's fine. What did you need?"
"Well, I know you said I had some play with the length of my column, but how much were you talking?"
"Well, I'd say aim for 1500 words. You can go as little as 1000, but never go over 2500. Unless you trust me with full creative license."
"Right. Also, are you okay?"
"Fine, fine. Why?"
"You look feverish," he informed her, sounding concerned.
"Funny. I feel fine," she lied.
"Okay. Whatever you say."
"Is that all?"
"I guess so."
"Jess."
"You don't want to know what Chris and I were talking about yesterday?" he finally said.
"Jess, this is our place of work. It's hardly the place for personal gossip."
"Rory," he started, softening his voice.
"I mean it," her voice hard.
"Fine. Fine. Have it your way, ma'am. Permission to leave?"
"Jess," she sighed.
"I'll have the article for you as soon as I can."
With that, he turned and left. She called her secretary in and told her to hold all calls that weren't dire emergencies. Then she put her head down on her desk and waited for the clocks to regulate themselves again.
Waiting for Chris to arrive so they could all ride to Hartford together, Lorelai twirled a stray curl around one finger. Rory came up beside her, biting her lip. They looked at each other, noticing they were showing their highly wired nerves and immediately stopped.
"So, how was school?"
"Fine. Tristan wants to meet up after dinner. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. Fine," she said absently.
"Thanks."
Chris coming through the door broke the silence. He didn't look much better then they did. His tie was loosened around his neck, and Rory moved to straighten it and pulled it properly tight.
"Thanks. It's just going to be loose in five minutes."
"Not if your mother gets her hands around your neck," Rory pointed out.
"Do me a favor, don't leave me alone in a room with them, okay?"
"Right. Vice versa?"
"Deal."
Lorelai looked at her parents. "Who's going to help me out?"
"Who don't you want to talk to?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Can we just go now?"
"Right. We don't want to be late. Think of the bloodbath," Chris half- joked.
They piled into Rory's car, and made the trek to Hartford. Rory wished every week that it would take longer, but it always too 27 minutes. Annoyingly accurate, even in traffic sometimes. It was like that house had some sort of evil force field that drew in the happiness so it could suck the life out of people. Her mind flitted to the third Harry Potter book as to make a literary analogy, but sadly her impending doom wouldn't let her linger there and take her mind to a better place.
They stood in front of the door, and looked at each other.
"Ready?"
"No. You?"
"Nope. Let's go."
They really weren't helping Lorelai's ability to deal with this. From what she'd heard, her paternal grandparents were cold and cruel. Mainly she heard this from her mother, but she'd seen how much her father, their own son, was dreading this night. Was this all because of her? She could almost feel the house swallow her as she walked into the house behind her parents and handed her coat off to the maid.
Walking into the sitting room, Richard warmly greeted Christopher. Emily poured drinks for everyone and Lorelai sat down next to Rory. Chris took the girls' drinks and handed them off before grabbing his own and sitting on the other side of Lorelai.
"So, Chris, tell us what you're here for."
"I actually got a job offer in Boston."
"You, what?" Rory asked in shock.
"That's wonderful!" Emily exclaimed.
"What kind of job is this?"
"It's a consulting firm. It's actually a new branch of the firm I was working at in Berkeley, and they're sending me out to head up one of the departments. It's a big leap of faith in me, and a lot more money."
Rory just stared at him in awe. Why had he not told her about this earlier? True, they hadn't had a lot of good quality talking time, but that wasn't her fault. That was his, for being so incessant about pushing the issue of them getting together.
"Dad, that's great!"
"Thanks, sweetie."
He hadn't told her either? That was just weird. They'd spent almost all week together. This night was just going to be one big ball of fun. They were just getting to Rory when the doorbell rang. Richard and Emily jumped up in Rory's mid-sentence to man their stations.
"And it's time to ignore Rory," she deadpanned.
"They're just excited."
"And you're helping that," she bit back.
"I was going to tell you."
"When? You've been here a week!"
"Mom, Dad, can we do this later? I'm feeling the warm fuzzies between you and all, but seriously, it's probably better if you two can stick together for two hours. Can we do that, please?" Lorelai pleaded.
Rory looked at her daughter, then to Chris. They both looked slightly ashamed of themselves. "Yeah, sorry," they both muttered.
The Haden's came into the sitting room, followed by an ecstatic looking Emily, which Rory noted and filed away to punish her for somehow later on. Looking back at Chris one last time, he gave her an encouraging if not fake smile and they stood, pulling Lorelai up by either arm with them.
"Christopher! How nice to see you!" Francine said sweetly, hugging her son before straightening his tie. He looked as if he were about to say something, but bit his lip in response.
"Rory, Christopher, hello," Strobe said, nodding at them before sitting in a chair across from the duvet that the three were sitting on.
"My, my, is this the girl?" Francine asked.
"No, Mom, it's just some kid we picked up on the roadside."
"Christopher!"
"Yes, this is Lorelai," Rory interjected.
"Well, we haven't seen you since you were just a baby!"
"That's not because of our doing," Rory muttered.
"What was that?" Strobe asked.
"Nothing, it was nothing. What can we get you two to drink?" Emily said loudly, moving to the drink table.
"So, Strobe, I was just talking to Christopher here about his new position," Richard said.
"Right, you've gotten yourself a real job. That's a nice change."
"Gee thanks, Dad."
"And, Rory, what was it you were doing?"
"I run the Stars Hollow Gazette."
"Can't say I've ever read that," Francine stated, taking her drink from Emily.
"Rory does an excellent job, she's the editor-in-chief now."
"And what about you, young lady?"
Lorelai looked up from her soda, realizing her grandfather must be addressing her.
"Lorelai is an excellent student, takes after her parents that way," Richard beamed.
"My, yes, she does do very well in school," Emily added.
"Can't she talk for herself?"
"Of course I can," she piped up.
"Then, tell me. What are your plans for the future?"
"I'm going to Harvard."
"Well, that's a tall order. What do you plan on doing after Harvard?"
"I'm going to study business, and I'm not sure what I want to do after that."
"Well, we'll just see how those plans go. We all know those don't tend to get followed through on."
"That's enough, Dad."
"Don't start with me, young man."
"Dad, so I didn't go to Princeton! It's not the end of the world!"
"You two just threw your futures away!"
"We did not!" Rory stood up next to Christopher, yelling as loud as the two of them.
"Now you want to jump in? You, who threw all hope of rectifying this situation, by running off, not living up to the consequences of the choices you'd made. You two should have been married!"
"Let's not do this again!" Emily requested. Francine had her head in her hands, not wanting to deal with this now, as she hadn't wanted to deal with it sixteen years earlier.
"Yes, let's just calm down and act like reasonable adults," Richard suggested.
"I refuse to sit around and pretend that what these two did wasn't childish and wrong. Nothing has gone right, nothing!"
"We would have been miserable! Don't you understand that?" Rory exclaimed.
"You would have had respectable lives!"
"We have respectable lives! WE have great lives. Just because we don't go to stuffy country clubs and throw away our multitudes of money on things that don't matter doesn't make us less happy. In fact, we're probably happier than you've ever been!" Rory blurted out at Strobe.
"I've never been talked to in such a way. We're leaving!"
"Yes, I think that's an excellent idea," Richard stood, ready to escort them out.
Rory looked around, to see that Lorelai had slipped out of the room while she was having the screaming match. Emily noticed too, as she saw Rory looking about.
"Where on earth did Lorelai get to?"
"She's fine, Mom."
"Should I go look for her?"
"No, she probably just called Tristan. She was meeting him tonight."
Strobe laughed. "That's just great. You let her run around with boys at her age, she'll end up just like you did!"
"Get out. Now," Richard's voice was low and angry. It frightened Rory, who had never heard her father use that tone before. He and Strobe stared at the other for a moment, before Strobe turned and headed to the door.
"Come on, Francine."
"I'm sorry, I really am," she quietly stated as she followed her husband's footsteps. He stormed out the front door, her quickly on his heels. Lorelai, who was waiting outside in the driveway, heard the door slam and quickly hid in the bushes. She wasn't about to have a run in with them, not after what she had heard inside. She waited until they had pulled away in their car before slowly walking down to the edge of the driveway to await Tristan's arrival.
Inside, all four adults slumped into chairs. No one spoke for a moment, and neither Rory nor Chris wanted to go first.
"I can't believe you, Rory," Emily finally started.
"What did I do?" she asked, flabbergasted.
"Letting that girl run off with some boy, especially tonight!"
"Mom, he's her boyfriend. They're smart, and they are innocently dating."
"How can you know that for sure?"
"Because I talk to my kid. I listen to my kid, and I know that she's fine."
"Is she having sex?"
"Emily!" Richard exclaimed.
"No, she knows her child so well. Tell me."
"No," Rory growled.
"I think it's time to leave," Chris nudged Rory.
"That's right, run off again," Emily said, haughtily.
Rory started to say something, looking like she was either going to cry or rip her mother's head off, but Chris just took her arm and steered her towards the front door.
Once they got outside, he looked over at her. "Shouldn't we have at least checked to see if Lor was in the house? We shouldn't leave her stranded here of all places," he said guiltily.
"She's fine. I'm sure she just left and called Tristan. I told her it was fine. Besides, my parents like her, so she's fine either way. I promise you that."
Chris nodded, and opened her door for her. She handed him her keys, smiling gratefully at him. She was in no mood to drive. She was in no mood to do anything. She closed her eyes, grateful for once to have someone to just take care of her and let her just be. Time passed, and though her anger stayed, it lessened to the point where the things she was dying to scream back at her mother weren't running over and over in her head like a spinning wheel.
"Can I tell you something?" his voice rang out in the quiet car.
"That depends."
"Can I tell you something without you being mad?"
She let out a half-hearted laugh. "Now, you're just pushing your luck."
"I know you saw Jess and I talking yesterday."
"That I did. You looked like you were playing nice, so I let it go."
"He does seem to care for you," Chris said softly.
"He's a good friend."
"And he's good to Lorelai."
"When she's being somewhat normal," Rory smiled.
"I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time about him earlier, I really do love you, you know."
"I know. I love you too, Chris, it's just... we can't be together. It won't ever be right."
"I know. We just have to both move on with our lives. And if you want to do it with Jess, then I'm okay with that."
"If I, ... what?"
"You and Jess aren't dating?"
"God, no! I told you that."
"Rory you were out with him for five hours having dinner!"
"It was business. I was reviewing an article and talking to him about the position," she explained.
"You were really happy afterwards."
"I hired a really talented new columnist. Those are hard to find."
"Rory," Chris sighed.
"Just, drop it, okay?"
"Fine. Just one more thing, okay?"
"Fine," she sighed.
"Since I'm going to be in Boston now, permanently, is it okay if Lorelai comes up to visit sometimes, on weekends?"
"As long as she wants to, of course. You don't need my permission to see your daughter."
"But I'd like your approval."
Rory smiled. "You have always had that."
He stopped the car outside the Inn. "You okay to drive now?"
"I think I can manage it now," she said softly. "So, how much longer are you staying?"
"I'm heading out tomorrow morning."
"Come by for breakfast, say goodbye to Lorelai," Rory offered.
"I'd like that. Night, Ror," he smiled.
Smiling back, she restarted the car and pulled slowly away, but she didn't turn towards home. Her watch said she had ten minutes left to get coffee. Parking right outside the café, she saw the lights still on, and hurried up to the door. Trying it once, she found it would not budge. Checking her watch again, she saw she still had five minutes. Knocking loudly, she continued to try the door again.
Moments later, an agitated Jess appeared. He unlocked the door to open it slightly.
"We're closed."
"Jess, come on, it's me, and I need coffee."
"Rory, this is a business, and right now it's closed."
He closed the door, leaving her standing there gaping at him. What was going on here? Jess always let her in, even if he was closed. She would read and drink coffee while he cleaned up. She liked the punk music he blared while he was closing. Not taking this lying down, she banged on the door again. The door flung open again, and he stared at her, his expression unreadable.
"Jess."
"What do you want?"
"Coffee?"
"Fine."
He let the door close, but didn't lock it before walking away from her. Exhaling forcefully, she opened the door and followed him in.
"At least hit he lights if you are going to be in here."
She obliged and sat at the counter, as she awaited her coffee. He poured a cup, and sat it in front of her. "It might be cold."
"That's fine."
He gave her a strange look, due to the apathy in her voice, but continued to countdown his register.
"So, where's Luke?"
"He had some track meet, in Woodbury. The weren't supposed to be back 'til ten or so."
"That's nice, he found something to be a part of."
"Yeah, I guess."
"I wasn't much of a joiner in high school," she mused.
"Huh."
"I was on the paper, go figure, but nothing other than that. I was going to try out for the student council, but then I got pregnant. I guessed they would frown on me representing my fellow classmates," she rambled.
"Rory," he started.
"Yeah?"
"What do you want?"
"I told you, coffee."
"You aren't sitting her rambling about pregnant student council members in order to drink my cold coffee."
"I had a rough night."
"I see."
"I had dinner with my parents, Christopher, and his parents. And Lorelai before she took off with Tristan."
"Could we not talk about this?"
"What is your problem?"
"My problem? What was with you earlier in your office?"
"Is that why you're pissed? God, Jess, I was trying to work, and I was having enough trouble concentrating without you talking about Chris!"
"So, we're friends when it's convenient for you, is that it?"
"No!"
"Cause I was just going to tell you that he was going to back off, from what he said to me, and you didn't need to be so freaked out about him. I was going to try to be your friend, but you made it clear that you didn't want that."
"I--,"
"You know what, maybe we aren't friends. Maybe I was mistaken."
"It's just that after the dinner the other night," she started, closing her eyes in order to look for the strength to admit this to him. In fact, she hadn't realized htat she was going to say this until she opened her mouth and it fell out. Well, partially, anyhow. He started in again when she didn't continue.
"The business dinner?"
"Yes."
"What about it?"
"I just thought that, you know, that there was something, ..." she trailed off again.
"You should leave."
"Wh-what?" she said, surprised. Not that this was going well, but he wanted her to leave, now?
"I have to get up early tomorrow, so just, go home."
She looked at him, noting the change in his expression. He had been unreadable, but now he looked pained. The tension in his face was evident, and he looked like he was restraining himself from something. Nodding silently she put down the money she owed him for the coffee and left without a word. Staring at the door for a minute, he remained motionless until she had pulled away from the curb. He turned the music up deafeningly loud and continued to close the store.
Friday came too quickly. Rory hit her snooze several times, in denial that it could actually have come so quickly. Thursday had been interesting in and of itself. Rory had come to the bookstore after work for coffee, only to find Chris in there talking with Jess. Actually talking with him, no weird 'I want to duel you in the street' stand off, no raised voices or weirdness. Except on her part. She hadn't had the chance to ask either of them what that was about, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. But right now, she had other things on her mind. Dinner, with the 'family'. Hitting the snooze button again, she turned her alarm off as her racing mind had woken her up fully by now.
She got into the shower and let the water wash over her. She had been standing under the hot stream of water for some time. She lost track of the time, and she was only snapped back to reality when the water got cooler against her skin. Turning up the heat, she quickly finished up and got dressed. Coming down the stairs, Lorelai was shoving books into her bag on her way towards the door.
"Morning."
"There you are! Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, just a little tired. I'll be fine next week."
"Tonight's going to be weird, huh?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"You're sure?"
"It'll be fine. And if it's not, we'll shoe shop all weekend to cheer ourselves up, I promise."
Lorelai smiled at her mom. "I'll see you after school."
"Right. Have a good day, sweetie."
Lorelai disappeared through the front door, and Rory had to remind herself she needed to get to work. She was never this unfocused. There were just too many thoughts swirling around in her head. She went into the kitchen and poured the remnants of the coffee in the coffee pot into her favorite mug. Downing it in one gulp, she pulled her hair back into a bun quickly and grabbed her purse before she left for work.
She went about her normal routine at work without a thought. Working was always good to clear her mind of any personal problems. Her logical mind kicked in, as it always did, and there was no confusion, there were just tasks to be delegated and completed. Things to be checked off a list. She loved lists. So concise, so workable. They kept her sane, she thought sometimes.
It was halfway through her workday when someone walked in that disrupted her routine. The clock went from ticking the seconds away rhythmically to spasmodically flipping back and forth, forward and backward seconds at a time, as if order had never truly been set in the universe. Or perhaps they were just in tune with her stomach, which was turning cartwheels. Her immediate reaction was to check the thermostat, but as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she saw it was just her face violently flushing.
"I had a couple of questions. If this is a bad time, I can come back."
"No, no, it's fine. What did you need?"
"Well, I know you said I had some play with the length of my column, but how much were you talking?"
"Well, I'd say aim for 1500 words. You can go as little as 1000, but never go over 2500. Unless you trust me with full creative license."
"Right. Also, are you okay?"
"Fine, fine. Why?"
"You look feverish," he informed her, sounding concerned.
"Funny. I feel fine," she lied.
"Okay. Whatever you say."
"Is that all?"
"I guess so."
"Jess."
"You don't want to know what Chris and I were talking about yesterday?" he finally said.
"Jess, this is our place of work. It's hardly the place for personal gossip."
"Rory," he started, softening his voice.
"I mean it," her voice hard.
"Fine. Fine. Have it your way, ma'am. Permission to leave?"
"Jess," she sighed.
"I'll have the article for you as soon as I can."
With that, he turned and left. She called her secretary in and told her to hold all calls that weren't dire emergencies. Then she put her head down on her desk and waited for the clocks to regulate themselves again.
Waiting for Chris to arrive so they could all ride to Hartford together, Lorelai twirled a stray curl around one finger. Rory came up beside her, biting her lip. They looked at each other, noticing they were showing their highly wired nerves and immediately stopped.
"So, how was school?"
"Fine. Tristan wants to meet up after dinner. Is that okay?"
"Yeah. Fine," she said absently.
"Thanks."
Chris coming through the door broke the silence. He didn't look much better then they did. His tie was loosened around his neck, and Rory moved to straighten it and pulled it properly tight.
"Thanks. It's just going to be loose in five minutes."
"Not if your mother gets her hands around your neck," Rory pointed out.
"Do me a favor, don't leave me alone in a room with them, okay?"
"Right. Vice versa?"
"Deal."
Lorelai looked at her parents. "Who's going to help me out?"
"Who don't you want to talk to?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Can we just go now?"
"Right. We don't want to be late. Think of the bloodbath," Chris half- joked.
They piled into Rory's car, and made the trek to Hartford. Rory wished every week that it would take longer, but it always too 27 minutes. Annoyingly accurate, even in traffic sometimes. It was like that house had some sort of evil force field that drew in the happiness so it could suck the life out of people. Her mind flitted to the third Harry Potter book as to make a literary analogy, but sadly her impending doom wouldn't let her linger there and take her mind to a better place.
They stood in front of the door, and looked at each other.
"Ready?"
"No. You?"
"Nope. Let's go."
They really weren't helping Lorelai's ability to deal with this. From what she'd heard, her paternal grandparents were cold and cruel. Mainly she heard this from her mother, but she'd seen how much her father, their own son, was dreading this night. Was this all because of her? She could almost feel the house swallow her as she walked into the house behind her parents and handed her coat off to the maid.
Walking into the sitting room, Richard warmly greeted Christopher. Emily poured drinks for everyone and Lorelai sat down next to Rory. Chris took the girls' drinks and handed them off before grabbing his own and sitting on the other side of Lorelai.
"So, Chris, tell us what you're here for."
"I actually got a job offer in Boston."
"You, what?" Rory asked in shock.
"That's wonderful!" Emily exclaimed.
"What kind of job is this?"
"It's a consulting firm. It's actually a new branch of the firm I was working at in Berkeley, and they're sending me out to head up one of the departments. It's a big leap of faith in me, and a lot more money."
Rory just stared at him in awe. Why had he not told her about this earlier? True, they hadn't had a lot of good quality talking time, but that wasn't her fault. That was his, for being so incessant about pushing the issue of them getting together.
"Dad, that's great!"
"Thanks, sweetie."
He hadn't told her either? That was just weird. They'd spent almost all week together. This night was just going to be one big ball of fun. They were just getting to Rory when the doorbell rang. Richard and Emily jumped up in Rory's mid-sentence to man their stations.
"And it's time to ignore Rory," she deadpanned.
"They're just excited."
"And you're helping that," she bit back.
"I was going to tell you."
"When? You've been here a week!"
"Mom, Dad, can we do this later? I'm feeling the warm fuzzies between you and all, but seriously, it's probably better if you two can stick together for two hours. Can we do that, please?" Lorelai pleaded.
Rory looked at her daughter, then to Chris. They both looked slightly ashamed of themselves. "Yeah, sorry," they both muttered.
The Haden's came into the sitting room, followed by an ecstatic looking Emily, which Rory noted and filed away to punish her for somehow later on. Looking back at Chris one last time, he gave her an encouraging if not fake smile and they stood, pulling Lorelai up by either arm with them.
"Christopher! How nice to see you!" Francine said sweetly, hugging her son before straightening his tie. He looked as if he were about to say something, but bit his lip in response.
"Rory, Christopher, hello," Strobe said, nodding at them before sitting in a chair across from the duvet that the three were sitting on.
"My, my, is this the girl?" Francine asked.
"No, Mom, it's just some kid we picked up on the roadside."
"Christopher!"
"Yes, this is Lorelai," Rory interjected.
"Well, we haven't seen you since you were just a baby!"
"That's not because of our doing," Rory muttered.
"What was that?" Strobe asked.
"Nothing, it was nothing. What can we get you two to drink?" Emily said loudly, moving to the drink table.
"So, Strobe, I was just talking to Christopher here about his new position," Richard said.
"Right, you've gotten yourself a real job. That's a nice change."
"Gee thanks, Dad."
"And, Rory, what was it you were doing?"
"I run the Stars Hollow Gazette."
"Can't say I've ever read that," Francine stated, taking her drink from Emily.
"Rory does an excellent job, she's the editor-in-chief now."
"And what about you, young lady?"
Lorelai looked up from her soda, realizing her grandfather must be addressing her.
"Lorelai is an excellent student, takes after her parents that way," Richard beamed.
"My, yes, she does do very well in school," Emily added.
"Can't she talk for herself?"
"Of course I can," she piped up.
"Then, tell me. What are your plans for the future?"
"I'm going to Harvard."
"Well, that's a tall order. What do you plan on doing after Harvard?"
"I'm going to study business, and I'm not sure what I want to do after that."
"Well, we'll just see how those plans go. We all know those don't tend to get followed through on."
"That's enough, Dad."
"Don't start with me, young man."
"Dad, so I didn't go to Princeton! It's not the end of the world!"
"You two just threw your futures away!"
"We did not!" Rory stood up next to Christopher, yelling as loud as the two of them.
"Now you want to jump in? You, who threw all hope of rectifying this situation, by running off, not living up to the consequences of the choices you'd made. You two should have been married!"
"Let's not do this again!" Emily requested. Francine had her head in her hands, not wanting to deal with this now, as she hadn't wanted to deal with it sixteen years earlier.
"Yes, let's just calm down and act like reasonable adults," Richard suggested.
"I refuse to sit around and pretend that what these two did wasn't childish and wrong. Nothing has gone right, nothing!"
"We would have been miserable! Don't you understand that?" Rory exclaimed.
"You would have had respectable lives!"
"We have respectable lives! WE have great lives. Just because we don't go to stuffy country clubs and throw away our multitudes of money on things that don't matter doesn't make us less happy. In fact, we're probably happier than you've ever been!" Rory blurted out at Strobe.
"I've never been talked to in such a way. We're leaving!"
"Yes, I think that's an excellent idea," Richard stood, ready to escort them out.
Rory looked around, to see that Lorelai had slipped out of the room while she was having the screaming match. Emily noticed too, as she saw Rory looking about.
"Where on earth did Lorelai get to?"
"She's fine, Mom."
"Should I go look for her?"
"No, she probably just called Tristan. She was meeting him tonight."
Strobe laughed. "That's just great. You let her run around with boys at her age, she'll end up just like you did!"
"Get out. Now," Richard's voice was low and angry. It frightened Rory, who had never heard her father use that tone before. He and Strobe stared at the other for a moment, before Strobe turned and headed to the door.
"Come on, Francine."
"I'm sorry, I really am," she quietly stated as she followed her husband's footsteps. He stormed out the front door, her quickly on his heels. Lorelai, who was waiting outside in the driveway, heard the door slam and quickly hid in the bushes. She wasn't about to have a run in with them, not after what she had heard inside. She waited until they had pulled away in their car before slowly walking down to the edge of the driveway to await Tristan's arrival.
Inside, all four adults slumped into chairs. No one spoke for a moment, and neither Rory nor Chris wanted to go first.
"I can't believe you, Rory," Emily finally started.
"What did I do?" she asked, flabbergasted.
"Letting that girl run off with some boy, especially tonight!"
"Mom, he's her boyfriend. They're smart, and they are innocently dating."
"How can you know that for sure?"
"Because I talk to my kid. I listen to my kid, and I know that she's fine."
"Is she having sex?"
"Emily!" Richard exclaimed.
"No, she knows her child so well. Tell me."
"No," Rory growled.
"I think it's time to leave," Chris nudged Rory.
"That's right, run off again," Emily said, haughtily.
Rory started to say something, looking like she was either going to cry or rip her mother's head off, but Chris just took her arm and steered her towards the front door.
Once they got outside, he looked over at her. "Shouldn't we have at least checked to see if Lor was in the house? We shouldn't leave her stranded here of all places," he said guiltily.
"She's fine. I'm sure she just left and called Tristan. I told her it was fine. Besides, my parents like her, so she's fine either way. I promise you that."
Chris nodded, and opened her door for her. She handed him her keys, smiling gratefully at him. She was in no mood to drive. She was in no mood to do anything. She closed her eyes, grateful for once to have someone to just take care of her and let her just be. Time passed, and though her anger stayed, it lessened to the point where the things she was dying to scream back at her mother weren't running over and over in her head like a spinning wheel.
"Can I tell you something?" his voice rang out in the quiet car.
"That depends."
"Can I tell you something without you being mad?"
She let out a half-hearted laugh. "Now, you're just pushing your luck."
"I know you saw Jess and I talking yesterday."
"That I did. You looked like you were playing nice, so I let it go."
"He does seem to care for you," Chris said softly.
"He's a good friend."
"And he's good to Lorelai."
"When she's being somewhat normal," Rory smiled.
"I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time about him earlier, I really do love you, you know."
"I know. I love you too, Chris, it's just... we can't be together. It won't ever be right."
"I know. We just have to both move on with our lives. And if you want to do it with Jess, then I'm okay with that."
"If I, ... what?"
"You and Jess aren't dating?"
"God, no! I told you that."
"Rory you were out with him for five hours having dinner!"
"It was business. I was reviewing an article and talking to him about the position," she explained.
"You were really happy afterwards."
"I hired a really talented new columnist. Those are hard to find."
"Rory," Chris sighed.
"Just, drop it, okay?"
"Fine. Just one more thing, okay?"
"Fine," she sighed.
"Since I'm going to be in Boston now, permanently, is it okay if Lorelai comes up to visit sometimes, on weekends?"
"As long as she wants to, of course. You don't need my permission to see your daughter."
"But I'd like your approval."
Rory smiled. "You have always had that."
He stopped the car outside the Inn. "You okay to drive now?"
"I think I can manage it now," she said softly. "So, how much longer are you staying?"
"I'm heading out tomorrow morning."
"Come by for breakfast, say goodbye to Lorelai," Rory offered.
"I'd like that. Night, Ror," he smiled.
Smiling back, she restarted the car and pulled slowly away, but she didn't turn towards home. Her watch said she had ten minutes left to get coffee. Parking right outside the café, she saw the lights still on, and hurried up to the door. Trying it once, she found it would not budge. Checking her watch again, she saw she still had five minutes. Knocking loudly, she continued to try the door again.
Moments later, an agitated Jess appeared. He unlocked the door to open it slightly.
"We're closed."
"Jess, come on, it's me, and I need coffee."
"Rory, this is a business, and right now it's closed."
He closed the door, leaving her standing there gaping at him. What was going on here? Jess always let her in, even if he was closed. She would read and drink coffee while he cleaned up. She liked the punk music he blared while he was closing. Not taking this lying down, she banged on the door again. The door flung open again, and he stared at her, his expression unreadable.
"Jess."
"What do you want?"
"Coffee?"
"Fine."
He let the door close, but didn't lock it before walking away from her. Exhaling forcefully, she opened the door and followed him in.
"At least hit he lights if you are going to be in here."
She obliged and sat at the counter, as she awaited her coffee. He poured a cup, and sat it in front of her. "It might be cold."
"That's fine."
He gave her a strange look, due to the apathy in her voice, but continued to countdown his register.
"So, where's Luke?"
"He had some track meet, in Woodbury. The weren't supposed to be back 'til ten or so."
"That's nice, he found something to be a part of."
"Yeah, I guess."
"I wasn't much of a joiner in high school," she mused.
"Huh."
"I was on the paper, go figure, but nothing other than that. I was going to try out for the student council, but then I got pregnant. I guessed they would frown on me representing my fellow classmates," she rambled.
"Rory," he started.
"Yeah?"
"What do you want?"
"I told you, coffee."
"You aren't sitting her rambling about pregnant student council members in order to drink my cold coffee."
"I had a rough night."
"I see."
"I had dinner with my parents, Christopher, and his parents. And Lorelai before she took off with Tristan."
"Could we not talk about this?"
"What is your problem?"
"My problem? What was with you earlier in your office?"
"Is that why you're pissed? God, Jess, I was trying to work, and I was having enough trouble concentrating without you talking about Chris!"
"So, we're friends when it's convenient for you, is that it?"
"No!"
"Cause I was just going to tell you that he was going to back off, from what he said to me, and you didn't need to be so freaked out about him. I was going to try to be your friend, but you made it clear that you didn't want that."
"I--,"
"You know what, maybe we aren't friends. Maybe I was mistaken."
"It's just that after the dinner the other night," she started, closing her eyes in order to look for the strength to admit this to him. In fact, she hadn't realized htat she was going to say this until she opened her mouth and it fell out. Well, partially, anyhow. He started in again when she didn't continue.
"The business dinner?"
"Yes."
"What about it?"
"I just thought that, you know, that there was something, ..." she trailed off again.
"You should leave."
"Wh-what?" she said, surprised. Not that this was going well, but he wanted her to leave, now?
"I have to get up early tomorrow, so just, go home."
She looked at him, noting the change in his expression. He had been unreadable, but now he looked pained. The tension in his face was evident, and he looked like he was restraining himself from something. Nodding silently she put down the money she owed him for the coffee and left without a word. Staring at the door for a minute, he remained motionless until she had pulled away from the curb. He turned the music up deafeningly loud and continued to close the store.