Chapter Seven: Morbid Cheers for Tycoons

The Yale Pub wasn't packed as Rory had expected it to be when she arrived to meet Finn. There wasn't any body touching body, no spilling drinks when someone needed to get by – it was mildly… well, deserted. Rory sighed, crossing her arms, a sign she wasn't all that comfortable with her surroundings as she glanced around the musty pub waiting to catch the eye of a certain Australian.

She bit her lip, and took a few steps further into the pub when a group of Freshman guys opened the door behind her and gave her a none to gentle shove forward.

"Rory, love?"

Rory turned to her right quickly, and smiled, "Hey."

"Come on, I want you to meet my mates." Finn wrapped his hand around her wrist gently, and pulled her into the depths of the shallow crowd towards the other side of the pub. "Rory, this is Logan—" he pointed to a blonde, "and Colin – Colin has a bit of a ruddy stick stuck up his ass, but he grows on you," and he pointed to a brunette nursing a beer.

"Hi," Rory said, smiling slightly, continuing to stand as Finn took a seat next to Colin, "I'm Rory…"

"They know, love. Sit."

Rory nodded, taking a seat in-between Finn and his friend Logan. "So…" she said, tapping her fingers on the table, "You all go to Yale?"

Logan nodded, "Juniors, you?"

"Sophomore," Rory replied, glancing around the pub slightly, "I don't remember seeing any of you last year."

"Well," Colin started, shaking his head slightly, "We all decided we needed a bit of time off."

"So we took Logan's dad's yacht and sunk it in Fiji." Finn summarized, causing a laugh to settle around the table.

Rory rose an eyebrow, and laughed, "So you're Logan Huntzberger, then?"

Logan nodded, "Unfortunately."

"Unfortunately? You're father is Mitchum Huntzberger! He's a newspaper industrialist! How can that be unfortunate?"

"It's not unfortunate, Rory," he said, taking a long sip of his drink, "I'm just saying its unfortunate that, that's my name."

"Uh huh.."

"Long story short, love," Finn started, placing his hand on her elbow, "Is that Logan doesn't want to take over the business."

"Understandable." Rory nodded, "I feel the same way."

"She's a Gilmore," Finn said to Colin and Logan, who had rose their eyebrows, and nodded, saluting Rory with their drinks.

"May all tycoons of every industry rot in hell!" Colin toasted, taking a deep gulp of his beer, "Kelly, be a dear and get another round of drinks!"

"I hear that," Rory said, smiling, and settling into a comfortable silence.

---&---

"Sookie, Sookie, Sookie!" Lorelai called, rushing into the Dragonfly Inn's kitchen, "Guess what!"

"What, what, what?" Sookie asked, closing the door to the stove, and tossing her rag onto her shoulder, before walking to the coffee maker, and turning it on.

"You need to guess!"

"Why?"

"Because!"

"I need to guess, because?"

"God, Sookie! Stop ruining the fun!"

"Uh, Taylor was abducted by aliens, and is now being forced to do the Macarena?"

"Good try, but no!" Lorelai squealed, tightening her grip on the piece of paper in her hands, "We can franchise!"

"Franchise what?"

"The Inn, Sookie! We can open more!"

"Why would we want to do that?"

"Why wouldn't we, Sookie? We'd be getting the Inn further out there – more income for us after we build. Sookie, we can put an Inn in every New England state."

"But we just opened this one less then a year ago."

"I know, Sook, but look at our Inn… We were voted the most successful new Inn in Connecticut! We have Better Homes and Gardens interviewing us next week – Sookie… we're making names for ourselves!"

"I don't know, Lorelai…" Sookie said slowly, frowning, and rubbing her stomach. "It's really soon, don't you think?"

"Yes," Lorelai agreed, but she sighed, placing the paper on the counter, "But don't you think it's worth it? We'd own a chain of Inns… Me and you, Sookie, just me and you."

"Alright," Sookie said, nodding, "Let's do it. Let's open a chain."

---&---

"Luke!" Lorelai called, letting the Diner door close behind her, "Luke!"

"What?" he asked, coming out from the kitchen, and resting his hands on the counter top as Lorelai came to stand before it.

"Coffee?" She asked, smiling slightly, and drumming her fingertips against the surface.

"This crap'll kill you, Lorelai," he grunted, grabbing a mug and placing it on the counter before he grabbed the coffee pot, and filled it to the brim. "I don't understand why you just won't drink a glass of juice, or maybe even water once in a while."

"Because water has no taste, and juice is just to healthy." Lorelai responded, swallowing a mouthful of hot coffee as she took a seat on one of the stools, "So anyway," she said, setting her cup down. "I have news. Big news."

"What?"

"I'm moving back."

"Back where?"

"To Stars Hollow.. I'm moving back."

"Oh," Luke said, smiling slightly, "Wow.. That's, that's great, Lorelai."

"And me and Sookie are franchising the Dragonfly." Lorelai grinned, clapping her hands together, "We're opening a Dragonfly in Lenox first."

"Lenox…?"

"Massachusetts – I guess it's famous for all the Inns, and this fall festival that goes on every-year."

"Fall festival?"

"Something to do with Shakespeare."

"Ah, I see." Luke said, wiping down the counter, "I've never been big on Shakespeare."

"Me either, but it's so cool, Luke. I'm gonna have an Inn in another Historic town that everyone knows about – for the most part, anyway. I'm excited, Luke… I can't believe I'm actually… I'm actually making a name for myself outside of the Insurance biz."

"I'm happy for you."

"Thanks, Luke.." Lorelai smiled, and glanced down at her empty mug, "More coffee?" she asked, meekly, smiling slightly.

Luke grunted, and poured her another cup of coffee before walking off, and leaving the coffee pot on the counter next to Lorelai. She grinned, and watched him with her eyes for a moment, before reaching over and stealing a donut from the tray.

---&---

He hated that he had allowed Rory Gilmore to get to his heart, worm her way inside, and then smash it into millions of tiny pieces with a perfectly polished baseball bat. She was his weakness, and she knew it. She had used it to her advantage, and had dumped him.

For what, well, that part he knew. But why had he, out of all the lucky bachelors, been the one to have his heart trampled on?

"Rory, pick up your damn fucking phone!" He hissed into his cell phone as he kept his eye on the stretch of pavement in front of him, "We need to talk. We're not fuckin' finished." He snapped his phone closed, pissed he'd only gotten her voice mail.

He looked down at his cell phone quickly, keeping one hand firmly planted on his steering wheel, as he looked for a number. Aha, he smirked inwardly, coming across the number he had wanted to come across. He pressed the call button and placed the phone up to his ear, holding it in place by tilting his head to the side, and scrunching his shoulder so he could place both hands back onto the steering wheel.

"Hello?"

"Paris," he said, quickly, "do you know where Rory is? She's not answering her phone," he asked, hoping Paris hadn't been fortunate enough to hear the news.

"She said something about going down to the Pub," Tristan heard Paris hush someone on her end of the phone, before she focused her attention back on him, "Why?"

"We need to talk, and she kept hanging up on me earlier."

"Didn't she just drive down earlier this morning? What happened?"

"We got into a fight. Thanks, though. Hopefully I'll see you soon."