Author: Summer
Title: Drain the Glass
Rating: PG-13, for now
Chapter Title: What a Day
Summary: When Rory Gilmore's broke, she's desperate enough to do anything- even be the nanny to the family of her roommate. But it's the blonde boy she runs into there that makes the story interesting…
Chapter Summary: An office emergency… a car accident
Disclaimer: Don't own Gilmore Girls, obviously. Um, own Jordan and the rest of the Danvers, as well as Sinclair, Amelie, Corina, and Julianna. Also don't own Procol Harum's One Eye on the Future, One Eye on the Past. Nor do I own The Beatle's Good Morning, Good Morning. Basically, I own nothing except my mind's eye. Yes, scary thought. ;)
Author's Note: To Joan, Katherine, and Mary-Kate. Sigh. Without you guys, I wouldn't have anything to do.
Feedback is always appreciated. You guys know me well enough to know I'd never hold back a chapter over it… err, with the exception of Loz and Joan, lol, but it does make an author more enthused. Plus, I'm the kind of person who will comment on good feedback in an author's note, maybe pimp a fic.
Going to work don't want to go feeling low down / Heading for home you start to roam then you're in town / Everybody knows there's nothing doing / Everything is closed it's like a ruin
Tristan set the telephone back in its cradle, glancing into the waiting room, where Joan was trying to calm a desperate man.
He covered his mouth to stifle a laugh as he entered the room and heard what Joan was saying.
"Sir," Joan said, "we don't offer paternity tests here. We don't have that kind of resource just lying around. Plus, I really don't think now is the time…" She glanced helplessly toward the woman in the chair near the door.
Tristan's eyes widened. This guy was insane. He walked quickly over to the man, pushing Joan behind him. "Sir, I could arrange for a test to be administered as early as next week. But for now…" He trailed off, gesturing to the woman, now squeezing Joan's hand as she struggled to steady her breathing.
"She promised she'd find out who the goddamned father is before the freakin' baby's born. She's a goddamned slut; why are you siding with her? She's just a freakin' whore."
Joan cleared her throat as the woman whimpered. "Um, Tristan… she needs to go to the hospital now."
Tristan grimaced. "Yeah, I noticed."
The man rubbed the top of his head. "Whatever, the whore's not my problem anymore."
Tristan watched in awe as the man stormed from the office.
"Thanks for you help, Joan. I don't know what I would've done tonight if you didn't stay late."
Tristan's Porsche was parked in the Hartford Hospital parking lot. They'd checked the woman in and stayed a few minutes before leaving.
Joan shrugged. "It was a team effort," she said modestly, glancing down at her lap. "You had the car." She froze, bringing her wrist to her face. "It's past 7."
"Yeah?" Tristan frowned.
"My bus leaves at 7," Joan started, swearing under her breath.
Tristan shrugged, turning the key in the ignition. "So? I'll give you a ride home. It's the least I can do. Where do you live?"
"Main Street. But if it's too far out of your way…"
"It's fine. I have to stop and get ice cream on the way though, so you'll be a little bit later than you normally would…"
"That's fine," Joan said, relaxing in her seat and pulling the safety belt across her body.
"I broke up with him. He was an asshole. Not my type at all. You know the type, Ames. All me all the time. And when he wasn't talking about himself, he was talking about his car." Allison Rousseau crinkled her nose. "And it wasn't even that nice."
Amelie glanced at her younger sister as she opened the door to Allison's car. "Ally, how do you always manage to pick that kind of guy?"
Allison shrugged. "Not everyone has your luck, Ames. You met Mr. Right on your first try."
Amelie smiled, pulling her hand up to study her engagement ring. It had belonged to her great-grandmother and had been passed down along the female line of Rousseaus. when Tristan had gone to Amelie's parents to tell them he was planning to propose, Julianna had insisted on the ring. "I know," Amelie said, her eyes brightening.
"Sometimes I swear I have a sign that says, 'If you're an asshole, I'm your girl.'" Allison sighed, backing the car out of a parking space in the shopping center parking lot.
A jolt sent Amelie reeling forward, and she braced herself against the dashboard. "What the…?"
Allison groaned, unbuckling her seatbelt. "This is what you call being rear ended." She stepped out of the car, shaking her head.
Amelie followed. A tall man about their age stepped out from the driver's seat of a Toyota Camry, wincing. "I'm sorry about that," he said, running a hand over a dent on the back of his car.
Allison sighed, looking at the back of her BMW. The right side had been crush. "It's okay," she said. "I'll just call AAA and-"
"I think we should exchange information," Amelie said quickly. She and her other sisters had always teased Allison for not having any common sense when she was younger, but this took the cake.
"Right," the man said, pulling an insurance card from his wallet. "My insurance is going to be raised so much for this." He paused. "Since I was at fault, is there any way you could contact me and I'll pay you directly, instead of getting the cops and the RMV involved?"
Amelie wasn't sure what to say. Allison was just as at-fault as the man, but she was wary of the man. Even if his insurance was raised, she doubted it would be more than it would cost to repair the car. "Okay," she said hesitantly.
He smiled, handing Amelie his insurance card. "By the way, I'm Max. Max Roberts."
Amelie nodded, copying down his information as Allison fished around in her purse for her insurance card.
"I'm Allison Rousseau," Allison said, handing Max her card. "And this is my sister, Amelie."
Max nodded, quickly jotting down Amelie's information and handing back the card. He took his card back and looked at Amelie. "Would you like me to stay while you wait for the tow truck?"
Amelie was about to respond they'd be fine on their own when Allison spoke up. "Yes, please. It would make us feel much safer knowing there's a man with us."
Amelie glanced from her sister to Max. He was attractive, with short dark hair and hazel eyes. Good skin, a nice body. Amelie rolled her eyes. Allison was hitting on the guy who'd just totaled her car.
It was a little after 8 when Tristan got home. He stumbled in the front door, a suitcase in one hand and balancing five soft serve ice creams in the other.
Rory took the tray and set it on the dining room table. "The girls were asking for you," she said, spreading the treats over the table. "What happened?"
"I figured they would be. Mandy and Corina's are the chocolates and mine and Emilie's are vanilla. I wasn't sure which you liked, so I got you on of those swirl things. Half and half." He avoided the other half of her statement.
"Thanks. That was nice of you." Rory paused, grinning. "Chocolate."
"Ah, a chocolate girl. Amelie could never decide which kind she wanted. So I-" Tristan was cut off as Emilie barreled into the room, throwing her arms around Tristan's legs.
"Hi! Did you bring home my dessert?" Emilie pouted.
Tristan grinned, scooping the little blonde off the floor. "Yep. Rory just set them out on the table."
Normandy came down a minute later, holding the cordless. "Tristan…" she started, looking more pale than usual. "It's Amelie. She got into a car accident."
Tristan froze, setting Emilie on the ground. He covered the distance to Normandy in two strides, taking the phone and disappearing from the room.
Nearly an hour later, Tristan was still on the phone. Rory glanced across the table at his ice cream, now melted and starting to leak.
Corina noticed. She stood up, grabbing the shallow bowl and disappeared into the kitchen. A moment later, she reappeared with a washcloth. As she scrubbed, she told Rory, "I hope everything's okay. He'd die if anything happened to Amelie."
Rory nodded. "Me too. I think everything will be okay, though. If she was really hurt, he probably wouldn't still be on the phone."
Corina stood up again. "You make a good point, Rory."
Rory glanced at her watch. "I'm going to go check on the girls. It's almost time for them to get ready for bed anyway."
Rory found Normandy and Emilie on the balcony off the drawing room. The two were sitting on a swinging chair, Normandy's arm supporting Emilie.
Rory sat down on a stone bench opposite them.
Emilie looked up at Rory's arrival. Sitting up straighter, she leaned forward and asked, "Have you talked to Tristan? Is she okay?"
Rory shook her head. "Not yet, Emilie. But I'm sure she's fine." Rory smiled as Emilie walked over and sat on her lap.
"How can you know that?" Normandy asked hesitantly.
"Well, think of it this way. If it was serious, Tristan would've left to go see her. He wouldn't just sit on the phone talking." Rory repeated what she'd said to Corina.
Normandy paused, mulling this over. "I suppose you're right," she said slowly.
Rory nodded, pulling Emilie into a standing position as she got up. "I'm figuring you girls won't be able to sleep until you know what's going on, and that's okay. But could you at least get your pajamas on and brush your teeth…"
Normandy nodded, standing up herself. "Okay. Our homework's already finished so…" She trailed off, grabbing Emilie's hand and leading her off the balcony.
Rory watched as Normandy and Emilie left the drawing room and continued down the hall to Emilie's room.
Another hour passed before Rory decided she should try to figure out what was going on.
Tristan was sitting at a desk in the library. "She's okay," he said as Rory entered the room from behind him.
Rory froze, surprised he'd known she was in the room. "Good," she recovered, walking over to him. "Do you want to be alone or…"
"Sit down," he said, shrugging. "It doesn't matter."
Rory pulled a chair over so she was sitting opposite him. "What happened?"
"Did the girls go to sleep?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard her question.
"No. They're in their PJs and everything, but I told them someone would tell them what was going on… What is going on?" She tried again.
"Amelie went shopping. When they were going to pull out of the parking lot, Ally-that's Amelie's sister- her car got rear ended. I guess the guy was an asshole, freaked Amelie out. he asked her not to file a report and she agreed since Ally was at fault too… and I've seen her drive. She's probably somewhere around Step 30 on her insurance plan as it is… now Amelie's freaking out."
"Oh." Rory paused. "But her and her sister are okay, right?"
"Yeah. I'll go tell my sisters and put them to bed. You probably have stuff to get done, anyway. I'm sorry for getting in late and everything."
Rory remembered her Journalism work. "Yeah, I do. But it's okay." She smiled. "Just try not to let it happen again."
Tristan smiled. "Okay, I'll try."
Everyone you see is half asleep / And you're on your own, you're in the street / Good morning, good morning