Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gilmore Girls, actors, characters, plots, etc, that would be the wonderful people at WB. Although if I did, I'm pretty sure they'd be some big changes coughChadcough. Anyway if you do feel inclined to sue me, some people have strange urges and we must accept them for who they are, I'm currently flat broke so all you will get is a used textbook, on organic chemistry.
AN: Thank you to everyone for your condolences about granddad, he was pretty old and getting sick a lot so it was kind of a release for him. Unfortunately because he lived overseas and because of the busy Christmas rush, only my mum could get a flight out to the funeral. But we're all okay now, he had a long, happy life and would have wanted us to be happy too.
Thshali: You're so sweet! Thanks for reviewing.
FairyGirl07: I can't tell you who the father is yet! That would take all the surprise out of it… maybe there is no father! She is after all a Mary… That was a joke, no matter how lame, I hope it doesn't offend anyone.
Rockrose: Another cliff hanger, I'm sorry, but here's a quick update as an apology. My grandfather was pretty old and so I guess his time had come. A funny story is, someone had told him years ago that the best years in his life will be after he turns 90, he was 89 when he died!
Bethany Inc: I think we'd all like to wear his t-shirt! Thanks for reading.
Finnlover: More Tristan, scroll down. I thought, such a smooth guy should have his less-smooth moments!
Zetaphi7: Scroll down and find out what Rory will say. Thanks for reading.
Emily: Thanks! Granddad was very sick about six months ago and he was ready to go, so everyone in the family was relieved for him. The only sad thing is for us is that we will in different countries, so my mum (his daughter) wasn't with him when he died.
Rish: Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Oo Haley Scott oO: Thank you for your beautiful words. And just because English isn't your first language, don't be afraid to write, that's how people get better, right? Years of writing, reading and speaking English is how we get to where we are.
GGluvr1987: More Tristan coming right up! Thanks for reading.
LoVe23: Thanks for reviewing especially since it (the computer?) was being difficult!
To all my lovely readers and reviewers, season's greetings and here's a little present… Chapter 10- Previously on Gilmore Girls: Shades of Grey…
…He had always been able to charm the pants off anything. He could get the most conservative of fathers to, not only allow him to date the precious daughters, but also leave with recommendations of restaurants. The most uptight of mothers would set him up with their daughters, with just a winning smile. Women would swoon with just one look. He always knew exactly what to say to get extensions from the most hard-nosed of professors. It was in his genes, it was his talent, and at exactly that moment, it failed him.
"You're wearing my t-shirt," he blurted out…
--
Shit, Tristan thought, what on earth was wrong with him? Real smooth Du Gray, you've probably given her a heart attack.
Rory, thankfully not having a heart attack, blinked confusedly back at him. She was wearing the Stanford t-shirt. She had discovered it was the most comfortable t-shirt she owned.
"Huh?" Rory replied, "No, this is not your t-shirt. This can't be your t-shirt because if this is your t-shirt, that means I slept with you in New York and I couldn't have slept with you in New York because – Oh God, I slept with Tristan Du Gray in New York!"
"You make that sound like a bad thing," Tristan grumbled to himself, but Rory heard him anyway and she could detect hurt in his tone.
"It is a bad thing because I'm pregnant!" Rory exclaimed, "Oh God, I didn't mean to say that, at least not like that. Oh God, I'm pregnant! I can't be pregnant, I've got school and finals and – "
At this point Rory was working herself up into such a frenzy that Tristan decided to interrupt.
"I know," he said calmly, gently pulling Rory to the sofa.
"Good for you," Rory replied sarcastically, but relented, sitting down on the sofa.
"No, I mean I knew you were pregnant."
"What are you psychic?"
"No, but close," Tristan replied with a half-smile, "Paris told me. That's why I'm here."
"Paris told you? I can't trust that girl with anything."
"Don't blame her –"
"No, you're right, I can't blame her, but why are you here?"
"I wanted to see if you're alright."
"Peachy."
"You don't have to be sarcastic about it," Tristan replied with a sigh.
"Look, this is really not good timing for me."
She looked at Tristan, expecting him to push her for information, but he said nothing. Instead, Tristan sat opposite her, his face completely open and for some reason Rory felt compelled to talk to him.
"I break up with my boyfriend and then I find out that I'm pregnant and then you turn up. It's a lot to deal with."
"You just broke up with your boyfriend?"
"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Rory asked, getting defensive.
"No… he wouldn't happen to be Logan Huntzberger, would he?"
"Yes, why?" Rory asked warily.
The last thing she needed was for Tristan to announce that her and Logan were childhood best friends or related or something.
"Nothing. Lorelai mentioned something earlier…"
"Can we talk about something else?" Rory asked, suddenly wanting to change topics.
"Okay," Tristan responded slowly, "What do you want to talk about?"
"You go to Stanford?"
"Yes, I do. Hence the shirt, which I might add, you are still wearing."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Rory gasped standing up, "I'll go change out of it."
"No, that's fine," Tristan replied, pulling her back to the sofa, "You can keep it."
"Uh thanks, I guess."
"So you're at Yale, sharing a suite with Paris, studying journalism…"
"Yeah. How do you know so much?" Rory asked surprised.
"Paris likes to talk a lot."
"That she does," Rory replied, sounding annoyed again, "What are you doing here, Tristan?"
"I told you, I wanted to see if you're okay. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I guess. So are you're not going to tell me to get an abortion or marry you or something?"
"You are your own person, I can't tell you what to do or not," Tristan replied, with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
"Oh, okay."
An awkward silence fell over the pair.
"Why do you want to get an abortion or marry you?" Tristan asked after a moment.
"No, I – I don't even know if you're the father," answered Rory softly, it was embarrassing to say it out loud.
"Paris said something to that effect."
"She talks too much."
"That she does," Tristan nodded, "So I guess you need to talk to your ex-boyfriend, then?"
"Yeah, I just don't know how."
"If you want my advice, the sooner you tell him, the better. If you wait too long, he might find out through rumours, which can be nasty and mostly false."
"You've changed," Rory commented, looking at him thoughtfully.
"I should hope so," Tristan smiled, "The last time you saw me, I mean before that time, we were in high school, what as that, four, no five years ago."
"Do you remember much of that night in New York."
"I remember more than enough. What about you?"
"I remember waking up alone."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Tristan replied with a slight wince, "Had an early flight."
"That's okay, it was a one-night-stand."
"No longer much of a 'Mary', huh?" Tristan asked, jokingly.
"Haven't been in a long time," Rory smiled sadly.
She was starting collect too many regrets.
"Are you staying in Hartford?" she asked, once more changing the subject.
"Yeah, at my grandfather's house. I don't have any classes this week, so I'll be around, if you maybe want to talk or something," he finished awkwardly.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you around."
"Right, it's getting late, I should get going," Tristan said.
They stood up, facing each other, unsure of what to do next. Tristan staring at Rory, Rory staring at her feet.
"Well, I'll go then," he said after a minute.
"Sure," Rory replied automatically, "It was nice seeing you."
"Yeah," Tristan answered, looking at her strangely, "It was nice seeing you too."
Rory followed him to the door, showing him out. She watched him walk to his car and get in. Part of her wanted him to come back. She had liked the fact her hadn't pushed her. It had been a while since anyone had just let her be.
--
"So did you and Tristan catch up?" Lorelai asked, returning from the emergency at the inn.
"Yeah," Rory replied, vaguely, not ready to tell her mother about their one-night-stand in, "He'll be in Hartford for this week so I might see him again."
"Ok," Lorelai replied, she found herself more trusting of Tristan than any other of Rory's male friends.
"Everything alright with Sookie?"
"Yeah, just a minor mishap. She twisted her ankle, but she'll be fine."
"Good thing she doesn't cook with her feet," Rory offered up the start of a joke.
"Damn, is that what I was doing wrong?" Lorelai joked back, their first joke in a long time.
"No, Gilmore's just can't cook, no matter what we use, not unless it involves picking the phone up and calling for take-away."
"Too true…"
A comfortable silence fell and Lorelai revelled in the feeling of having her daughter back.
"Do you want to go to Luke's for dinner?" Lorelai asked.
"Sure," Rory replied and for the first time in what had seemed like an eternity, the two women smiled at each other.
--
Paris, Lorelai and Tristan had all said the same thing, tell Logan. But it was easy for them to say that, though Rory, they weren't the ones who had to actually tell Logan.
"Hi , Logan, how have you been? I'm pregnant," Rory stated, "No too abrupt. Logan, can I talk to you for a minute, in private? No, 'in private' sounds bitchy. Logan there's something I need to tell you…"
"The more you practice, the more worked up you are going to get," Paris interrupted Rory, watching her practice her speech.
"Not helping, Paris. I need constructive criticism not slash-and-burn of all my self-confidence."
"Just go to his dorm and tell it like it is. If he's any kind of a man, he'll take it how ever you give it to him."
"What happened to bullet-points-on-note-cards-to-a-date-Paris? I liked that that Paris better. This new model, Paris-in-touch-with-with-her-true-feelings just doesn't work for me."
"How's Tristan?" Paris abruptly changed the subject, she had been dying to ask all morning.
"Real subtle there, Paris."
"Well, how is he?"
"He's fine. Actually, he's in Hartford this week, staying at his grandfather's house."
"Now that's a real jolly family," Paris commented sarcastically.
"What do you mean?" Rory asked, looking at her with interest.
"Tristan has an older half-brother, same mother, different fathers, his name's Charlie. He's in his early thirty's, lawyer, works for Tristan's father, William Du Gray, who with his second wife, Cecilia, have a daughter, Tristan's half-sister, Arabelle. Arabelle's probably the pick of the bunch. She's fifteen, I think, and at Chilton.
Tristan is actually Arabelle's legal guardian, he and his grandfather raise her. William's always away on business trips and Cecilia spends her time getting manicures and pedicures and eating cucumber sandwiches at the country club. Tristan's mother, Lillian moved to Paris after the divorce and hasn't been heard of since Tristan was four. Don't ever ask Tristan about Lillian, he hates her, for years he used to claim Cecilia was his mother, not that she's particularly maternal."
"Wow, I had no idea," Rory murmured when Paris finished.
"Of course you didn't. William Du Gray is obsessed with family image and keeping up appearances. That's why he hired his ex-wife's son to work for him, wouldn't want anyone to think there is any conflict in that family."
"Why are you telling me this."
"Because everyone should know the truth especially you."
"Thanks Paris."
"You're welcome," Paris replied, slightly smug.
"But I'm still going to kill you for telling Tristan that I'm pregnant."
"What? So you would have to practice a speech for him too?" Paris scoffed, "You can barely tell Logan, who happens to be your ex, while you barely know Tristan."
Rory sighed heavily, she really didn't want to talk to Logan, at least not yet.
"Couldn't you tell Logan for me?" she almost begged, only half joking.
"No, you made your bed, you can be the one to lie in it," Paris replied, before considering what she had said, "Pun intended."
--
It took another hour, three cups of coffee and two more lectures from Paris before Rory finally worked up the courage to talk to Logan. She hoped to find him alone in his suite but she knew that was probably asking for too much.
"Hey Finn," she greeted Logan's friend, when he answered the door.
"Rory!" he exclaimed, "Hi. Um, what are you doing here?"
"Is Logan around? I need to talk to him."
"Yeah he is actually," Finn answered, eyeing her strangely, "Come in."
"Thanks," Rory replied as Finn opened the door further to let her in.
Empty pizza boxes and beer bottles littered the suite. Two boys Rory didn't recognise were playing a car racing game on the X-box.
"Sorry about the mess," Finn smiled apologetically, "Logan's in his room."
She nodded her acknowledgment, heading straight for Logan's door, trying to calm her nerves.
"And Rory?" Finn called, just as she was about to knock on the door.
"Yeah?" she asked, turning around.
"I'll be out here if you need me."
She smiled gratefully before taking a deep breath and knocking in the door. She heard a muffled thud , followed by a groan and curses.
"Come in," came Logan's voice through the door.
Taking another deep breath, Rory slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.
"Logan," she began.
"Rory," he returned curtly, "Hope you're not back for round two because this really isn't a good time. I've got a major assessment task to finish preparing for and not to mention I have a date tonight with someone a little more flexible."
"I didn't come here to fight," Rory began wearily, her heart broke a little more hearing that Logan had moved on so quickly.
"Then what do you want? You better not be looking for another roll in the bed because, sweetheart, I've got to tell you, you ain't worth my time."
Rory gasped at his harshness. He had a right to be angry, but this was out of line.
"Believe me, I would rather not have sex than get in bed with you again, but that doesn't change why I'm here."
"I thought you didn't want to argue?" he sneered.
"I don't," she retorted, before sighing heavily, this was not going to plan, "Logan, the reason why I came here today was to tell you that I'm pregnant."
"No!" Logan exclaimed, his face becoming red with anger, "You are not pregnant."
"Whether you believe me or not, it doesn't change the fact that I am pregnant."
"We were safe," Logan responded, trying to contain his anger, "Are you sure? Those home test kits aren't one hundred percent accurate."
"Logan, I went to the doctor. I am pregnant, almost six weeks. That puts it to the night we first had sex."
Only a year earlier, to talk so frankly about sex would have been unheard of for Rory. The mere mention of it would have made her blush, but it was too late for cowering behind euphemisms. This was the real world and someone had tipped a bucket of ice-water over her.
"So what are you going to do?" Logan asked finally.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Rory replied, suddenly exhausted.
"Well you're going to have to come up with something quickly because in 8 months you're going to pop out a screaming, wet little human."
"Gee thanks for the support."
"Or you could have an abortion."
"I don't know if I could do that."
"Dad's not going to happy. This is going to ruin everything. If you want to keep it, we're going to have get married soon or people will work what's going on. Oh God, who have you told already? You'll have to tell them to keep it quiet."
"God Logan, can you think of something other than saving face?" Rory finally exploded, "Like, maybe how this us effecting me?"
"I am thinking about how this will effect you," Logan shouted back, "This baby will effect your dreams, your career too."
"You know what Logan? I cam here out of some weird obligation to tell you that I'm pregnant. I don't need you to tell me about how this is going to effect your life because, take a good look, you're not the one who's pregnant. The only thing that could have been worse is if you had given me a lecture on safe sex."
"That can be arranged."
"I won't be sticking around for it."
And with that Rory stormed out of the room. She strode passed the two boys who had been playing X-box, gaping in her wake. She paused in front of Finn.
"I take it you overhead?" she remarked seeing his stunned expression.
"Rory –" he began.
"Just, don't tell anyone, at least not yet," she interrupted him, one hand raised to stop him saying whatever he was about to say.
"Sure," he said softly, his concern for her obvious in his eyes, "Not a soul."
--
AN: That is my last update for this year. I hope you will all have a happy and safe holiday season. See you in the New Year!