A/N: I felt inspired to keep going.

Disclaimer: if the dialogue seems familiar, well it's taken from the show directly. Therefore, they belong to Amy Sherman.

Chapter 8

Many times, Rory faced this door. On the other side were presumably her grandparents. Usually, she had her mother distract her but tonight it was just her.

She took a deep breath and rang the bell.

"Rory, hello. Come In!" greeted Emily Gilmore.

"Hi, Grandma," Rory answered shortly. Few words as possible.

"Ah. We've missed you." her grandmother pulled her into a hug.

"It's only been a few weeks, Grandma," she responded stiffly.

"Give your coat to Eliza." Rory took off her coat to reveal one of her mother's dresses, which was very loose and flowy but hugged to accentuate. "That's an interesting outfit you have on."

"Laundry day," Rory said.

"Laundry day. Everything young people do sound fun to me." It took everything in Rory not to roll her eyes at this.

"No. it's pretty dreary."

"So come in, come in." Emily escorted her granddaughter to their sitting room as every other time. "Richard, Rory's here. Hurry down, and don't forget to bring the you-know-what"

I can do this. Just short, stoic remarks and dinner will be over.

"Forget you heard that."

"Consider it forgotten."

Then Emily continued to talk about their trip and their new camera until Richard's appearance. Rory barely used more than two syllabic words. When her grandpa appeared, Rory almost leapt into his arm.

"Grandpa, welcome home," exclaimed Rory gleefully.

"Well, thank you." Rory kissed her grandfather's cheek. "Look at this outfit. I like the colours."

"Thanks, it's borrowed," explained Rory.

"So, we have quite a bit to catch up on."

"I know, I wanna hear all about it." Rory went back to the couch followed by her grandfather. She faced more looking at him, barely looking at her grandmother's direction. For she knew this was going to be obvious to her grandmother soon enough.

"I'm sure your grandmother's caught you up somewhat." Her grandfather acknowledged he just joined the sitting room conversation.

Emily interjected. "I started to."

"With the dozens of postcards, she sent...you probably remember the trip better than I do."

"I still wanna hear your account," Rory said enthusiastically.

"Have her open the gift, Richard," suggested Emily.

Richard seemed to instantly remember. "Oh! Yes, please. Open it."

Rory noticed the gift bag that her grandfather had placed in between them. She lifted an old leather-bound book out. "Oh, my god. It's amazing."

"Leaves of Grass in Greek," stated Richard proudly. "Hundred years old. Some beautiful engravings."

"Now I have to learn Greek," stated Rory.

"Feel the leather." interjected her grandmother from across the table, which Rory ignored.

"Grandpa, thank you so much."

Richard deflected. "You can thank your grandmother. She helped pick it out."

Rory wished he hadn't done that because now she was obligated to say, "Thank you, Grandma." She did not look up at her.

From behind her, Eliza came back to announce, "Dinner is served, Mrs. Gilmore."

"Thank you, Eliza," acknowledged Emily. "You can flip through that a little later."

Annoyed, Rory responded with a simple "Okay."

Rory uncrossed her legs and slid the book back into the bag. "So, Grandpa, is it true that every restaurant in the Plaka has a view of the Acropolis?"

As they made their way to the dining room, he answered. "They like to think so, but we found this charming little taverna, Dionysus. The view was spectacular. And the ouzo certainly lived up to its name."

Once they were seated, the main course was rather quiet. And it wasn't till the dessert course was served that Emily started.

"So, where are all your Yale friends for Spring Break?"

Short and sweet, reminded Rory to herself.

"Uhm. Here and there."

"Did your friend Paris make interesting plans?"

"Not really."

"And how's the shortcake?"

"It's fine, thanks."

"I know this seems a bit basic, but Eliza found the first decent strawberries of the year. I'm so mad at California."

Her grandfather joined in. "Well, you'd think that rain would be good for crops. It's counterintuitive."

"Anyway, these strawberries are wonderful. Could you pass them to me, Rory?"

Rory knew it was childish, but she exaggeratedly didn't look at her grandmother as she held the dish of strawberries.

Then there was a brief moment of silence but it was broken by her grandfather's attempt at conversation.

"So, Rory, is everything all right with you this eventing?"

She looked at him. "I'm fine, Grandpa."

Then more silence, and she could see that her grandfather was being prompted. "You'd tell us if anything was bothering you?"

"Really, it's nothing."

"Seems as though there might be something on your mind."

"Not really." Rory did her best to sound nonchalantly casual.

"All right." Richard gave up.

An idea struck Rory and she knew she was playing with fire. "So, Grandpa, you hardly told me anything about your trip. How was the Archeological Museum?"

With that, Emily snapped. "Now, that's it."

"Emily," warned Ricard.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing," said Rory automatically.

"I asked you about that museum earlier and all you did was mumble something about hitting it."

"I should have been more expansive. I'm sorry."

"You've been pushing me away all evening."

"Emily, please," pleaded Richard.

"You ask your grandfather question after question, make polite chitchat about the roast duck with the maid, what's-her-name, tell her it's wonderful. "

"Because she made it, and her name is Eliza." Rory's temper was starting to rise.

"I told her to make the duck. You're enjoying duck because I requested duck."

"Well, it was a great duck, Grandma. Kudos on the duck." Her sarcasm took over, Rory knew it.

"This isn't you, this attitude of yours. This is your mother."

"Don't bring up Mom," warned Rory.

Richard's voice cut through their impending argument. "Look, both of you, let's try to calm down."

But Emily was determined. "Why are you acting this way?"

"Your memory can't be that short, Grandma."

"What does that mean?"

"Do we have to get into this?"

"You should walk out that door and come in again, start all over."

Reasonable Richard was still at it. "She doesn't need to do that, Emily."

"We have a contract."

"A contract?"

"We pay for Yale, you come to dinner every Friday night and you act pleasantly and decently."

"You're right, Grandma. We do have a contract, but it's to come to dinner. Period. There is no agreement on how vivacious or bubbly I have to be."

"You need to act like you."

"I am." Rory practically screamed it.

"This isn't you."

Rory was done with the dinner. "Look, Grandma, you know what you did."

"Rory, please sit down," begged her grandfather.

"I mean, what did you expect? Ten Acropolis postcards and I would forget the fact that you broke up Mom and Luke?"

She surely couldn't be this thick, Rory thought.

"Now, I respect our contract, and I will continue to come every Friday night and eat dinner with you, but I won't guarantee an attitude that will please you. Excuse me."

"You are certainly not excused. We're not through."

"We have had dessert; I'll skip the port. Good night," said Rory with some finality.

"Rory...," said Richard.

"Good night, Grandpa. I'll see you in a week."

With that, she collected her coat from the hallway closet and left. Only when she was out on road heading back to Stars Hallow, only then did Rory take her first big deep calming breath that night.

At that moment, Rory thought of Marty. She thought about calling him but she was not sure about the time difference and the out-of-the-blue notion that it would be appropriate so she spent the rest of the drive overanalyzing how and what she would text him. But as she pulled up to the driveway to her house, she chickened out because nothing seemed right and clever enough.

Her mother wasn't home, but she saw Sookie's car in the driveway. If they weren't there, Rory thought like her mother that she would be somewhere where they could get dessert at this late hour. Obviously, Luke's was out of the question which only left Weston's.

"Hello, ladies." Rory greeted them as she saw them at a table.

"Hi, kid. How'd you know we'd be here?"

"What do you mean? You're always here. Hey, Sookie."

"Hey egghead, you want some pie?" greeted Sookie.

"I never say no to pie."

As if Lorelai couldn't hold it in any longer. "So, how was dinner?"

"Loud."

"Meaning?" Lorelai's eyes lit up.

"There was yelling."

"Why, what happened?"

"I just got so mad. She was acting like nothing was wrong. Like it was totally normal that you weren't there, and I couldn't take it."

"I understand."

"I understand, too," said a groggy Sookie.

"You getting sleepy there, Sookie?"

"No, I'm fine. Just a little past my bedtime is all. Keep talking."

"I left during shortcake," Rory said bluntly.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Hey, Grandma did this. You didn't."

"I know. I just hate that you're fighting with them. "

"Don't worry about it."

Rory's mind was flashed to her disappointment on the way home thoughts of how to send a "hey how's it going" text to Mary. Therefore, she just sighed.

"She's sleeping." Rory saw that Sookie had fallen asleep in her chair.

"Yeah, well, we partied pretty hard tonight."

"Do we wake her up?"

"No, we'll wait a minute. "

"Mom, can you..." Rory indicated that she would like to have a private conversation.

"What?"

They shifted over a table, leaving Sookie alone at theirs.

"Is something wrong?" asked Lorelai. "Is it about Grandma?"

Rory straightened up.

"Do I have to ask 18 more of these?"

"You know how with Dean; things didn't exactly go the way I planned?"

"You mean with you and him getting together?"

"No, I mean... Yes, that, too. But I promised you that I would come to you and talk to you when I thought I was ready to. But I didn't because it all happened so fast and I didn't get a chance and then everything got so messed up, and then after, it was weird, the situation was weird. I didn't feel comfortable coming to talk to you about anything concerning us at all."

"You can always talk to me, even when it's weird," assured her mother.

"I know, I want to. I wanna go back to talking about everything, just like before Dean."

"I second that motion."

"So I thought I would come to talk to you now about Marty."

"Oh, okay."

"I want to tell you now, so you hear it from me, right when it's starting."

"Right when it's starting. Got it."

"So, the two of you are starting something, huh?"

"Yes." Rory blushed a little. "We have definitely started something. We watched movies and we went on a date. And he's an amazing kisser."

"Started. Gee, kid. Sounds like you've already started something." Rory noticed her mom smiling devilishly at her. Rory's cheeks warmed even more.

"I know, but he's so great. I mean, you've seen him. He's handsome and really smart. Smarter than me, I swear. And he's just so nice."

"Yes, he definitely seems great," Lorelai said with a big smile, at her daughter's description of Marty, the nice guy Rory likes.

Rory was still nervous about talking to her mom about this, "And we have a lot in common, which is good."

"Very good," affirmed her mother.

"Like old movies, exotic snacks and Yale, of course. And he's extremely well-read. I'm even learning about his background and his hometown in Chicago. And I know you got the impression of him as the Naked Guy, and I hope that didn't give you the wrong idea..."

"No, no, Rory, I don't care what kind of 'Naked Guy' impression I got, if you like him -"

"I do. I really like him."

"-And if he's treating you well."

"He is." Rory smiled through her blush. "I'm having fun. A lot of fun."

"Okay, well, if he's that important to you, I should probably, you know, meet him again under different circumstances. All clothed." Lorelai winked.

"Right."

"With everything all buttoned and zipped."

"Mom!" laughed Rory. "You will. I promise."

"Good. That's good."

"Anyhow, I just wanted you to know."

"Okay." exhaled Lorelai, "So, you're with the Naked Guy?"

"Mom!" Rory was pretty sure her face was as pink as her coat.

"Okay, so, good talk?"

"Yeah."

"Absolutely. Man, I feel like an occasion I should buy you a shot or something."

"How about a rum ball?"

"Two rum balls coming up."

As Lorelai got up to get rum balls, Rory sat there. A weight had been lifted by being open with her mom again about the status of what was going on with Marty. It was starting to feel like they were really rebuilding that bridge that she broke last year when the whole thing with Dean happened. This is going to be different. She wanted this to be different. To feel right.

Rory took out her phone and typed various sentences but then immediately deleted them because the phrases were either too generic, too cheesy, too formal, too casual or too romantic. She felt flustered, but she tried to have faith that she hoped she will think of something appropriate to text soon.

She put her phone away before her mother came back. Lorelei appeared with two rum balls which they clinked together as if they were shot glasses.

"I think we need to wake Sookie up. I'll walk her home and meet you at home."

Lorelai and Sookie strode out of the café, with the pregnant Sookie heavily leaning on her mom.

Rory was ready to get up too when she felt her phone buzz. She looked down.

'Thanks for the drive this morning. I hope you made it to your hometown safely. I finally got home. The ride was long, but the view was nice. Hope to talk to you soon -Marty.'

And with a smile, Rory walked home.