AN: This is a sequel to Piece by Piece, and therefore a big AU at this point since Rory has been raised by 2 parents, but starts where the pilot episode starts, with Rory's acceptance to Chilton. And obviously, if you haven't read Piece by Piece, go and read it first. Also, I'm going to be making Rory less self-centred and more focused.

Luke POV

She burst into the diner, instantly rummaging behind the counter. I watched her, wondering what she was up to this time; last time she burst in here like that, she was up to no good.

"Lorelai?" I semi-asked and semi-warned; I didn't quite have the patience for her bits this morning.

She ignored the warning, "You had a letter opener back here, where is it?"

"Why didn't you open it at home?" I questioned, completely confused, "And it's upstairs."

She waved the letter in my face as she aimed for the staircase. It had the Chilton logo, and we had agreed to open and read it together. I nodded at her, knowing she was waiting for my confirmation. She vanished and was back a second later, with the envelope already open and pulling out the letter.

She read it out to me, bouncing on the spot like a five-year-old.

"'Dear Mr and Mrs Gilmore-Danes, we are happy to inform you that we have a vacancy at Chilton Preparatory starting immediately. Due to your daughter's excellent credentials and your enthusiastic pursuit of her enrolment, we would be happy to accept her as soon as the first semester's tuition has been received.'" She flung herself into my arms excitedly, "Our baby is going to Chilton!"

"Our baby is going to Chilton," I kissed her, overcome with happiness, "She's coming here to work after school, I'll wait for you to get back to tell her."

"Okay, I've got to go. Love you."

I get a phone call 10 minutes before I expect Rory, and as I expect, it's Lorelai, "We have a problem."

Not quite what I expected, "What is it?"

"We can either afford the enrolment fee or the semester's tuition, but not both. And she's supposed to start on Monday. And she'd have to drop the journalism and writing classes at the local college."

I think for a minute, "How do you feel about your parents right now? They keep trying to pay for those classes."

I heard her stomp her foot and could hear the pout in her voice, "I don't wanna!"

"You know, you do a remarkable impression of a 5-year-old on a daily basis," I teased, "Look, you're in Hartford tomorrow for your business class, go and see them. You know full well that they wouldn't say no. And it means she wouldn't lose anything. She'd only gain."

"I hate you."

I rolled my eyes, "No, you don't. She's here, see you soon."

I turned to my daughter and served her coffee, knowing she worked better if she had a caffeine dose before starting, "How was your day?"

"Good," She told me, "Was that Mom on the phone?"

I decided not to tell Rory that we had something to tell her since she'd be rendered useless for the next 3 hours if I did that, and she'd harass me, making me pretty useless too, so I nodded and said, "Yep, she's finishing early tonight."

"Okay," She said, draining the coffee much like her mother would and then standing up and started to work.

She worked with me twice a week, with her mother twice a week, and took two extra classes a week in Hartford. She also tried to write an article a week, even if she didn't publish it in the Stars Hollow Gazette, and did all of this on top of her normal schoolwork and while being at the top of her class. To me, it was pretty incredible and the scar that she now wore proudly was a constant reminder of how far she had come since that day when she was 10.

The three hours passed fast, settling into a good routine with the constant lull of customers. I hadn't even realised the time until Lorelai came in, clutching a black shopping bag. She came up to me and begged me for coffee, making me want to say no. However, I kept my mouth shut, too happy to care. I kissed her softly, poured the cup (using the personal mug that I kept set aside for Lorelai) and left her to go and sit down.

"Ror," I said to her as she walked past, "Finish what you're doing and go sit with your mom. You're done for today."

She looked up at the clock and noticed that her shift wasn't done, "You're up to something; it's the only time you let me finish early so I can build a work ethic or something like that."

I raised an eyebrow at her, and she chuckled. She finished what she was doing and I sat down with Lorelai, wanting to be there. When Rory approached the table, Lorelai pulled out a plaid skirt and showed it to Rory.

"I'm going to be in a Britany Spears video?" She asked, half-serious. She never knew with Lorelai.

"You're going to Chilton!" She said, standing and gathering Rory in her arms.

"Really? Dad?" She looked at me, wanting confirmation.

I nodded and stood up, wrapping my arms around her, "You got in, kid. I'm so proud of you."

She stood back, the biggest smile on her face, "I have to go and tell Lane!"

She was almost out the door before she came back and flung her arms back around Lorelai, "I love you."

"I love you," Lorelai repeated softly, hugging her back. And then Rory was out the door and running across the road to Lane's house.

"What do you think?" Rory asked, spinning in a circle to show off her skirt. It was loose around her waist and was a bit long.

"You look smart," I said as Lorelai stood up.

"Can I hem it?" She requested, and Rory rolled her eyes. They negotiated for a moment and then Lorelai got the pins out, kneeling down and starting to give Rory an idea, "Go and have a look in the mirror, let me know what you think."

"Okay," She said, running off.

Lorelai turned to look at the photos we had, "She's so grown up."

I stood up and wrapped an arm around her. She was looking at a photo from when Rory was a toddler, and I ignored the little twinge of jealousy I felt, "She's still got a lot of growing to do."

Lorelai nodded and rested her head on my shoulder, "I wish she'd slow down."

Me too, I thought.

"We are now having weekly Friday night dinners with my parents, you don't have to come every week because of the diner, and Rory is talking about not going to Chilton," Lorelai told me the next evening, the frustration seeping through, "Will you be home soon? I need you to knock some sense into her."

I chuckled, "I'll close early, I'll be home in 20?"

I started closing up as they left in stony silence, and I watched as they crossed the road. They stopped at Patty's and then Rory started rushing off, like she was trying to escape from her mother.

I rushed home, and walked in as Lorelai shouted, "Cause if you're gonna throw your life away, he'd better have a motorcycle!"

Oh.

"So this is about a boy?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"I don't know. She's talking about money and the long bus ride and that it's 'bad timing'. I believe the boy is the bad timing," She shook her head.

"Let me speak to her," I said, kissing her softly. I walked over and knocked on her door before walking in, "Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"I don't want to go to Chilton," She forcefully told me, "I'm going to sleep."

I ignored her and sat down on the edge of her bed, "You have been working so hard for this. Not only do you attend college-level classes off your own back, but you write for a real paper while staying at the top of your class. While all of this should be enough to get you into Harvard, this will give you a well-deserved boost to set you above the rest. And if you let this opportunity go by, you will regret it. That's a promise."

"I don't want to talk about this," She muttered, not even looking at me. I sighed.

"You will be going to Chilton, whether you like it or not, because you will regret it later. Remember the time you refused to go camping and then was upset that I didn't drag you kicking and screaming?"

She remained silent, but she did relax a bit. I knew I wasn't going to get any more out of her, so I kissed her forehead and bid her goodnight before joining Lorelai in the living room.

"She's inherited her stubbornness from you," I told Lorelai, "She said she's going to sleep, but I'll check in on her later."

Lorelai nodded, "Thanks for trying."

The girls came into the diner at 9 the next evening, and they were on good terms. But I could see that Lorelai was worried about something.

"I'm going to talk to your father for a minute, don't touch my coffee."

She walked up to me and made a few sounds before actually speaking, "Where do I start?"

I kissed her, "At the beginning."

"Okay, so it's tense because it's been 6 months since we stopped the monthly dinners because they tried to get Rory to meet with Christopher's parents. And we make it all the way to dinner without an argument, but then Dad brings up Christopher," She explains, "He said that Chris' parole is up in about a month and he's doing well for himself as an ex-convict. But do you know what this means? He could come and see her and I wouldn't be able to call the police, and he can try for parental rights, and there's no way I can let that happen."

"Breathe," I told her as she got worked up, the panic evident.

"I went into the kitchen to cool down and Mom came in and told me I was over-reacting. Oh, and they called him her father; can you believe that? I thought they were over that. I mean, they were overjoyed when you adopted her. What, did they only accept that because Christopher was in prison? I wouldn't put it past them but that's not how it works, and you should have seen Rory's face when Dad said about his parole, she was terrified. Mom said she's 80% sure he won't hurt her again, but that's not good enough. Oh, and somehow, we got onto the subject of money so now Rory knows that they're paying for Chilton, but I think she's more distracted by the Christopher thing. I feel sick."

I gathered her up in my arms, holding her for a moment. I ignored the sick feeling in my own stomach and focused on Lorelai. Her breathing had slowed, and when she stepped back, she looked better.

"Look," I started, "We will take it as it comes. We will look into how we can protect her better and how to prevent him from getting his hands on her, but for now, just focus on getting her settled at Chilton."

She nodded, "Okay. I think I'm going to take her home, I'm exhausted and I have a feeling we're going to be having nightmares tonight."

Rory's nightmares originally started after Christopher's trial but other than when she got letters from him, they had mostly gone. When he got out, we had managed to get a restraining order but that would run out with his parole, which was the problem, and we made a point to keep any updates far away from Rory so she didn't get upset and set back any of her progress.

"Alright."

I walked over to Rory, and I then realised she was paler than usual. I kissed her forehead and told her to go home, that I'd be there soon. Lorelai drained her coffee, kissed me and left.

AN: First chapter back, done! I promise this story will not follow along with every episode, this was just to get me set off, and while I will be adding in events from the show, this story will not follow the show like that. Rory's main boyfriend at this time will end up being Tristan (because he's basically a blank slate and I can do what I like with him), but it will take a lot to get to that point.