Rating: R, just to be on the safe side.
Disclaimer: No way, no how, no hell does anything remotely close to Gilmore Girls belong to me.
Since English isn't my first language there is going to be some typos and grammar mistakes.
I'm sorry for the long wait since the last update but I started at the university and well it has been busier than I thought but here comes the last chapter of this story and I hope some people still read this.
The Chronicles Of…
Epilogue
General
A year later Shane and Rory are standing at the Case Mountain, where Rory just finished telling him about the stunt she pulled with the help of Paris and Jess the day of Tristan's funeral all those years ago and Shane has a hard time grasping the whole idea.
"So let me get this straight. There is four people myself included that know that my father's ash isn't laying three feet under at the cemetery but are really here?"
"Yes, but I don't know exactly where the ash is"
"What? How is that possible?"
"Well it isn't exactly like I buried it I let the wind take it"
"From where?"
"Right where we are standing"
"Why did you do it?"
"Because all his life or at least as long as I knew him your father wanted out of this life, he wanted to be free to be himself and not just the Dugrey boy, so I couldn't let him spend his eternity in the family tomb ok!"
"You really did love him didn't you?"
"With whole my heart"
"We can go if this is too hard for you"
"No. You know why I've waited to take you here and tell you all of this for so long?"
Shane shakes his head.
"To make sure I would have enough strength to deal with all the emotions I knew it would bring up."
"And you are now?"
"Yeah. I'm not saying I don't feel tempted to hide behind the bottle again cuz I do but I won't ever take that road again, which brings me to the other reason I took you here now"
"Which is?"
"I was kind of hoping this could be a new beginning for us"
"Huh?"
"I think it's time to let go of the past. I'll always love your dad but it's time to stop hurting that he isn't here and take comfort in the memory that he once was, you know to give life another shoot."
"Yeah I know the feeling"
"I would also like another chance with you"
"It's too late for you to suddenly wanna play mom. I'm twenty years old and I don't need or want that anymore. Whatever illusion I had of having a family disappeared a long time ago about the same time when I was forced to grow up and take care of both of us. I'm not a lost kind anymore and I won't ever let myself be that vulnerable again"
"Look my past record aside I'm not stupid Shane. I know I blew any chance at being you mom years ago but I would like to be a part of your life whatever way you can let me maybe even as friends and someday maybe you can find in it in you to call me mom."
"Mom is just word and I can call you that cuz you're my mom, who I love despite everything that happened but I need time to let you in the same way as I did pre-Hartford. I mean intellectual I know you have changed it will just take some time for my heart to catch up with that and the past year all my energy has been on staying sober, so let's just take it one step at the time ok?"
"That's fine with me; you really are your father's son ya know. His biggest fear was being vulnerable too because of the way he was brought up and I hate the fact that I ended up doing the same thing to you as his parents did to him."
"You see that is the problem right there I don't have any memories of him, for crying out load the guy died when I was what 5 hours and you haven't exactly been helpful on that department. I think this is one of the first times you voluntarily mentioned him in my entire life."
"I know and that is one of the things I wanna change. I want us to be able to talk about your dad without the tears and the angst that normally accompany that subject. I realize I didn't handle the situation as I should have from the start but I promise you from now on we will talk about him and I'll tell everything I know, which unfortunately just covers from high school and onwards."
"Ok so I can ask you anything and you will answer"
"If I can yes"
"Why haven't my grandparents on his side ever taken contact with me?"
"Wow you getting right in there with the hard ones. Ok here it goes, not many people knows this cuz the Dugreys did put up the loving parents act at his funeral but they actually disowned him when he choose to be with us. Apparently I wasn't good enough for him. In fact he was on his was back from them when he got into the accident"
"That's why my last name is Gilmore?"
"No, Tristan wanted you to be named Gilmore, probably cuz he knew what that would mean to me and that he wasn't exactly proud to be a Dugrey"
"So basically dad's parents are as bad as grandma's"
"Pretty much yeah, but they do know more about your dad than I do so if you want I can try to make contact with them"
"No, if they haven't cared about me by now I don't want anything to do with them"
"Talk about being born into a crazy world huh?"
"Yeah Hartford is pretty fucked up"
"In hindsight I guess we should have tried to solve stuff like that before you were born…but things are the way they are. Wait a minute I could call Paris, she knew your father all his life and probably knows all his dirty secrets besides it would be cool to met Jess again"
"Slow down there mom" Shane stops to give a little crooked smile at the irony of his use of the word "I'll start with what you know and who is Jess?"
"Jess is Paris's husband and my ex-boyfriend from High School"
"But I thought you were with dad in High School?"
"Oh I was"
"But then how…oh forget it I don't wanna know"
After that they just stand there in silence letting the feeling of content fill them, have the sun in their faces and in Shane's case a cigarette in his mouth.
Shane or rather Shane's stomach is the one breaking the silence.
"I guess that's our cue for leaving", Rory laughs
"Naw, I'm fine mom, we can stay longer"
"It's ok. We better get going anyway cuz I'm meeting my mom to go over some wedding plans at Luke's and I better not be late this time considering what happened last"
"Yeah I thought Luke was going to kill her"
"I think he was close, she was really driving him crazy"
"Crazier"
"Good point but still I better be there"
"Mmm, I still can't believe grandpa proposed"
"I'm more surprised that mom said yes this time"
"This time?" Shane asks with his eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, he kind of proposed back when they were 16 and just had me but mom didn't want him to be with her out of obligation, which it in all honestly would have been, so she said no and let him free to follow his plans. Although basically every time when dad came to visit me while growing up they ended up in the sack, it was first when we were in California they got their act together and here we are. What can I say? I guess fucked up relationships runs in the family"
"I guess so"
"I haven't really asked you how you feel about all this"
"Well I'm thorned. On the one hand I don't have the best relationship with grandpa mainly cuz of his shitty attitude towards me in the beginning but on the other hand it is getting better all the time and he does make grandma, who I love, very happy. I guess in the end all that matters it that they are happy together besides with some work I think things are going to be fine with between us too"
"When did you get so smart?"
"I've always been, I just hid it real good"
Right then Shane's stomach chooses to grumble again.
"Right leaving it's"
Shane almost immediately turns around and starts walking to the car while Rory stays, closes her eyes and let the wind sweep through her hair just like the last time she was here.
"Good Bye Tristan, I'll never forget"
Just as Rory utters those words a sense of closure missing from twenty years ago washes over her and somehow she knows that no matter how rough the road ahead of her and Shane will be they will make it and they are home at last. Smiling she turns around and starts walking toward the unknown, feeling hopeful for the first time since the return to Hartford.
The End
Let me know what you thought.