A/N: Wow! I have no clue where this chapter came from, and it's longer than the rest, but I really wanted some initial Rory and Daniel interaction before introducing SG1 to Stars Hollow. So one more for Monday, then Stars Hollow next chapter!

Thanks you to crissy, Scottjunkie, orange-straw, Sea4Shoes, Innogen, gaul1, and malificus-lupus for reviewing last chapter. I'm loving them all!

Chapter 6

The stars shined under the light haze of lights of Hartford and as Daniel sat out on a bench outside on the Gilmore's back patio he wondered how many of those stars he had actually stepped foot on. He lost count after the first thirty. And there was nothing he would rather be doing, than going to other planets and learning about different cultures while learning more about Earth's own cultures. Daniel felt like his life was finally coming together. There were times he had felt so lost and confused after losing Sha're and then he died, then ascended, then descended and lost his memories and add everything else that happened this last year. Now he was starting to feel complete again, just like that perfect year on Abydos.

He looked into the house to see Sam talking to Lorelai that looked to be a very intense conversation with a lot of hand waving. Daniel was looking forward to tomorrow and spending the day with his cousin. He liked her fast talking banter, and the way she finds humour in everything. The many times she made her mother speechless at the dinner table were really quite funny, he also saw Jack refraining from joining in several times, and alone should go down in the history books.

Daniel turned his head when he felt a warm presence settle in beside him and saw Rory looking at him intently. "So…." Rory trailed off while continually staring.

"So…" Daniel repeated.

"You're not an axe murderer, con artist and/or serial killer underneath that mild mannered, 'I'm a good boy' look you got going, are you?" She asked.

"No."

"Huh. How about secret superhero? You got that Clark Kent thing going." Rory leaned in further, "Can you take off your glasses? I want to see if I can still recognize you when you do."

Daniel chuckled a bit and took off his glasses; one thing he knows with his new family is that they will never bore him. He looked over at the blurry shape, "How's that?"

"Hmmm, yup, I would still recognize you. Good to know." She took his glasses out of his hands and examined them, "Have you ever thought of getting a smaller pair? Maybe ones without rims, which would make your eyes really stand out."

"I thought about it, but I always seem to lose them or they get destroyed somehow. With this style I can buy them rather cheaply and in bulk." Daniel said while taking back his glasses and putting them back on.

"Ah, well with this family, all you have to do is ask and money will be given." Rory took in the scene in the parlour where her grandmother was laughing at something Jack said. "Grandma is so happy that you're here that she would give you want ever you want, no questions asked."

Daniel twisted in his seat so that he faced her, "Is that you're subtle way of asking if I'm only here for money?"

Rory turned so that she copied his pose, "Yeah, clever huh?"

Daniel sighed, "Look, I'm not here to hurt anyone or to mooch off of anyone. I'm here because since I was eight all I had was myself. I got used to it as much as anyone can but I always wanted family, I wanted parents that would be proud of the accomplishments I made, who would lay down the law if I got out of hand, parents who would be there if I needed someone." At this Rory looked into the parlour doors at her mother, "I tried to get that with a couple of foster families but after awhile I stopped trying and stopped hoping that I would.

I'm not looking for that now. But to have this connection to my father, this blood connection means more to me than anything and I would do nothing to take advantage of that or to mess this up."

Rory was silent for a moment then turned back to him and nodded, "Okay, I just needed to make sure that nothing would happen to my family. Even though things are a bit strained right now between some of us, I love them."

Daniel smiled at her, "I could tell and you're very lucky, they love back just as much." He looked back up at the stars, "So now that we have the obligatory threats out of the way, I would like to know a bit about my new cousin."

"Oh, um, you don't really want to know about me, I'm not that interesting. Not like you, your work sounds fascinating." Daniel brought his head down to see that Rory cheeks were a bit bright as she played with her fingers.

"I'm sure that's not true. Aren't you in college? Have a boyfriend? Hobbies? I promise that I will be fascinated in anything you tell me no matter how droll you might think it is."

Daniel waited for Rory to respond but after a minute of her opening and closing her mouth, he decided to help her out, "You know, I remember being twenty one. I just finished one of my PhD's and I was ready for my next one. I was asked by a former Professor of mine to accompany him to a dig in Egypt, I accepted of course, anything for Dr. Jordon and while I was there I found this most remarkable artefact with the strangest writing I had ever seen. I couldn't find this writing anywhere, not a book, another artefact, no where."

"What did you do?"

"Well, since there was no record whatsoever I thought that maybe it may pre-date written record and had it timedated."

Rory leaned forward, "And?"

"It was over ten thousand years old."

"But how is that possible?" She stood up and started pacing, bringing her thoughts in order, trying to think back at what she learnt of ancient history in high school, "There is no record of any type of civilization at that point in time."

Daniel nodded, "That's what I thought. So I went back throughout all my research from when I first started in all my digs, and went around a few new ones around Egypt, and after a lot of meticulous research I theorized that the Pyramids also predate the Pharaohs."

"Then how did they get there?" Rory asked, "Who built them?"

"That's what I didn't know, but I knew I was right about everything else. I was building more and more evidence, and so about twelve years ago I went public with a dissertation. Everyone warned me that this would destroy me and my career, everyone from my girlfriend at the time, to my best friend. The only one who believed in me was my Professor, Dr. Jordon." Rory stood there entranced in the story, and stepped forward a bit to make sure she heard every part. Daniel smiled; he always loved seeing people take in knowledge, striving to learn something new. "It's wonderful having someone like that, someone that no matter how much you screw up or no matter how much others wouldn't believe you, there will always be that person by your side." He caught Rory's eye before she looked inside again at her mother, "I think you have that with your mother."

Rory sighed and sat back down on the bench beside Daniel, drew her feet up and wrapped her arms around her legs, "Did Mom or Grandma tell you what happened?"

"I got the gist of it from your Grandmother, but not any details."

"That's because she doesn't know any of the details." She rested her chin on her knees and stared sightlessly into the house, "I think it all started when I moved out of Mom's, away from Stars Hollow to go to Yale and live at the dorms. I have always been with Mom, we are each other's best friends, we did everything together and moving away lessened the time we were together. But I thought it was time to cut the apron strings so to speak." She smiled, "I missed her so much the first day at the dorms that I called her in a panic, and ranted to her that it was all her fault, that I shouldn't feel so homesick, that I was a momma's girl. She raced back to Yale and organized the first dorm party because we ordered way too much food as we were rating all the fast food places around the area."

Daniel nodded sagely, "Very important for survival in college."

"That's what she said. She stayed with me the whole night. And I thought I was fine, I mean I was now in college, something that I had been dreaming about since I was five, but something seemed missing. Oh, I would go home every weekend, and talk to my mom every day, so I think I was adjusting in that area. But, still, something not there. I started to see a lot of my ex-boyfriend, Dean, who was married and I didn't stop seeing him. I think I wanted something from before Yale, and I latched onto Dean somehow." She exhaled a large breath; glad she could finally get this off her chest.

"The night my mother opened up her new inn for friends and family, I slept with him. Mom found out very quickly when I came out of my bedroom." Rory looked at Daniel with tears in her eyes, "I disappointed her so much that night. I think that was the night she found that I was growing up and I wasn't her little girl anymore, but more I was disappointed in myself that I became that other women, that I slept with a married man that I didn't really love anymore. I didn't even end it there."

She got up and started pacing the patio again, "I needed to get away for a bit, actually I did what I normally do when things get too heavy, I ran, so I took up my Grandmother's offer to see Europe with her that summer. I more or less made up with Mom over the phone and I got her to give a letter that I sent to her to Dean. His wife found it and that more or less was his marriage going up in smoke. After I came back I kept on seeing him, mostly because I felt guilty that I broke up his marriage and a partly because I didn't want to admit to myself that I did any sort of wrong doing." She looked at Daniel, "Stupid huh?"

He got up from the bench and walked over to Rory and put his hands on her shoulders and leaned into her so he could look into her eyes, "No not stupid. Human." Rory started to cry a little more and she burrowed her head into his chest while he wrapped his arms around her.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you all this when I couldn't even tell anyone else. I mean I came out here to threaten you, not to spill my guts out to you." Daniel smiled and rested his chin on her head.

"Ah, it's one of my special abilities. Just ask Jack, it baffles him that I can get just about anyone to open up to me. Him on more than one occasion."

Rory snorted and looked up, "It's the Clark Kent look. It's very underestimating."

"I'll remember that next time I need to interrogate anybody." They stood there a bit, Rory taking comfort in Daniel, while Daniel relished being the one giving comfort. He rubbed her back in a soothing gesture, "Want to tell me the rest?"

He felt Rory take a deep breath, and he guided her back to the bench, this time with Rory leaning into Daniel's chest and his arm around her shoulders. "When I started my sophomore year, I threw myself into my studies and the school paper to keep my mind busy and sub-consciously to have an excuse in case Dean called and he wanted to meet up. I met Logan while grabbing some coffee with a friend, and thought he was a jerk right away. I saw him again while putting some posters up for a friend and this time we argued, though he would say we debated. This time I thought he was a snobbish jerk. Found out later he was suppose to work at the Yale Daily News with me but I never saw him there until a couple days after that initial encounter.

"I got a lead on a really hot story about secret societies in college and one in particular caught my interest in which I found Logan's grandfather was a member of. So I approached him and I got one great story out of it and I also experienced great freedom of letting everything go and to just be young. And Logan helped me to do that. Actually, I think I always feel that way when I'm with Logan, and that was part of the reason that I felt so compelled to him. Another part was that he was and is one of the few people that can challenge me intellectually and emotionally. The only other person to do that is my mother."

She closed her eyes and told the rest to Daniel, "I started to immerge myself more into my grandparents and Logan's world of blue-blood society, which my mother didn't like since she took herself and me away from it when she was sixteen. But I liked it. Well not everything, but parts of it, and this is where Dean broke up with me when he saw that he could not be a part of this world. I was hurt at first but I got over it quickly. I actually felt lighter in spirit after he left, but more confused about my feeling for Logan and my place in the world. Am I meant to be in high society or the small town of Stars Hollow.

"That feeling was placed to the side as I pursued a casual relationship with Logan and I got it. Then I couldn't deal with being one of the many, so I went to break it off no matter how I felt since he told me he couldn't do committed relationships. Imagine my surprise when he told me he could be a boyfriend to me, the playboy of Yale was willing to be with only me. I was overjoyed, but then I met his family." She fell silent thinking about how she could continue this without being overly emotional.

Daniel shifted a bit, "What happened with his family?"

"Oh, his sister was quite nice. I liked her and she supports her brother in almost everything and he will do the same for her. It was his mother and grandfather. Told me that I wasn't suited for Logan, that I wanted a career and he needed a wife that would more or less stay home, have children and plan parties. They said I didn't have what it takes to be in that family." Rory snorted at that, "Like I wanted to be in that family after that. Logan got so angry, he more or less stormed off and we got out of the house as fast as we could.

"His father came to see me the next day, apologized for his family's behaviour and offered me an internship at one of his papers. I agreed though reluctantly. Logan thought it was a set up the whole time and didn't like that I accepted though he kept it mostly to himself. I needed it though. After all the confusion with Dean and then needing to know that I would be able to make it in the newspaper world proving to myself that I could do this, that I'm not a failure."

"Wait. Why did you feel as if you were a failure?" Daniel asked, trying to follow along. So far he had felt sadness for Rory and her mother, anger at Dean for making Rory feel guilty, sympathetic for Rory trying to find her place in the world and anger again at Logan's family.

Rory shrugged, "That's how I felt after Dean. Seems like none of my relationships have worked out and then at that time it seemed like I'm a failure for a future with Logan, so I pushed myself further in my academics and with the paper." She titled her head up to Daniel, "The bombshell dropped about two weeks later. Logan's father did a performance evaluation for me. I thought I was doing great, I wanted to see if I would be able to get a summer's job there but he told me that I didn't have what it takes to be a reporter." She paused, "I thought the floor gave out under me. I had been working to be a journalist since I was a kid in elementary school and in one sitting it felt as if it was taken away from me. Now it seemed not only was I a failure in relationships but now in my future life's work."

"So what did you do?"

She tightened the arm around her as she shivered in the night air, "I went to Logan who I was meeting anyway at the pier for his sister's engagement party. I felt angry and empty at the same time and I didn't care about anything at that point in time. I just needed to get away from anything and as I looked out to sea that's where I wanted to be. I wanted to knock people's hats off and take to the see."

Daniel smiled, "Moby Dick."

She nodded, "You know your classics. So…that night Logan and I borrowed a yacht and took to the sea."

"You borrowed a yacht?" He raised an eyebrow, "You mean you stole a yacht."

"Borrowed, stole. Po-tay-to, po-ta-to." Rory smiked, "All the same right?"

Daniel rolled his eyes, "You'll get along famously with Jack with that attitude." He shifted to get more feeling in his butt, "So I take you got caught."

"Oh yeah, and Mom was not impressed and I disappointed her yet again, though she came up with some great jokes about the whole thing. You should ask her about them some time."

"Believe me, I will now."

"I went back to Yale to finish my finals, and in my last exam, everything felt so pointless and confusing again. I didn't know what to do anymore and I needed time to find myself again. So when I had lunch with my mom that day, I told her that I was quitting Yale. She couldn't believe it at first, then she blamed it on Logan and then what Logan's dad said. Then she said that if I was quitting then I wasn't going to be living in her house. That hurt. I thought she of all people would understand and stick by me." She sniffled a bit and continued, "So I found alternate living arrangements, and ended up in the poolhouse here. We're still not really talking to each other. Then she got engaged and never told me. That was like a stab to the gut. Now the only person that isn't putting any pressure on me, that is there for me and who is letting me figure out things in my own time is Logan."

"I think I'm going to have to meet this Logan of yours."

Rory smiled at him, "That would be nice. I'm meeting up with him for lunch on Wednesday. You could come along."

Daniel nodded, "I'll see what I can do." He hugged her shoulders quickly, and then quickly turned his head to the side as he heard a sniffle. Rory caught his action and looked to see what got his attention.

Leaning against the side of the house was Lorelai, Rory paled, "How long have you been there?"

Lorelai's lip trembled as she opened her mouth, "When you said that Grandma doesn't have all the details yet."

Rory paled further. Daniel held onto her in case she felt faint, "That long?" she whispered.

Lorelai nodded and stepped toward them, "Oh, Rory. I'm so sorry! I'm a bad mother that I didn't see what you were going through, I was selfish. I wanted only for you to have what I didn't have. I didn't want you to screw up like I did."

"No! Mom," Rory leapt out of Daniel's arms and hurried towards her mother, "You're not a bad mother!"

"But I'm selfish. I wouldn't even listen to you and how you felt." She grabbed Rory in a big hug, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." Lorelai kept apologizing in between mother and daughter crying.

Daniel turned away from the scene as he felt a hand on his shoulder. Jack stood just behind him taking in the scene, "So another falls under the Daniel Jackson charm."

"You're just jealous that it never happens to you."

"Oh yeah, cause I want to make women cry." Jack pulled Daniel to the house. "Come on, I think you filled your quota for the day. You need to rest up for our excursion tomorrow and you can get the details of tonight from Lorelai tomorrow."

Daniel nodded and let Jack pull him with one last look at the reunion of two best friends.