CHAPTER 2

"So mom, I am in a quandary," Rory confessed as she took another sip of her coffee.

"Spill," Lorelai ordered, talking impolitely with a full mouth.

"I know this is going to be strange but I would like dad to walk me down the aisle," Rory admitted.

Lorelai choked on a chewed morsel. Taking a swig out of her black java, she cleared her throat prior to responding.

"Christopher?" she asked. "I wouldn't find it strange that you'd want your dad to walk you down the aisle."

"I know you won't but it will be your wedding day, too," Rory pointed out.

Lorelai was flabbergasted. How could she have forgotten someone so crucial on a day she never thought would ever happen to her? The mere thought of having Christopher in the wedding would be awkward. Despite the numerous false starts and broken promises, Lorelai always thought that Christopher will be the one eventually standing next to her when she took her vows in front of a minister. The fact that he would be a spectator to the whole event made her sad.

"Mom?" Rory interrupted her thoughts. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah," Lorelai responded apologetically. "I just had to collect my thoughts."

"If it's going to be awkward…" Rory mentioned.

"No, it isn't," Lorelai squashed her daughter's vacillation. "Would you mind it I told him the news?"

Rory unconsciously rubbed the mug's mouth while she thought of her mother's suggestion. "Wouldn't dad think it strange that you're the one telling him I'm getting married?"

"I haven't quite told him that I'm getting married either," she acknowledged. "He's bound to find out that I'll be jumping the marital broom next to you."

"Oh boy," Rory sighed. "Don't tell me that you haven't told grams and gramps that you're getting married."

"If I said 'yes' would you buy it?" Lorelai inquired.

"You're hopeless," Rory groaned. She slammed her coffee cup on the table as she polished off the last of her coffee. "Make sure you tell them this week. You don't, I will do it for you and I won't sympathize with you when grandma will show up at your bachelorette party talking about tiaras and gloves all over again."

"Can we have a reenactment at the Queen Victoria's?" Lorelai asked, making light of Rory's consequential dare.

Rory just looked at her mother straight in the eye. "Just do it."

Lorelai watched her daughter leave through the door while Luke strutted toward her table slowly, holding a dishcloth on one hand, a coffee pot on the other.

"What ultimatum has she stipulated now?" he asked.

"Tell my parents we're getting married or else," Lorelai said.

A grunt emerged from Luke's lips. "That's a tall order."

"Thank you, peanut gallery. Wanna head up to the Addams Family Mansion to break the news?"

Luke flashed her a look that could kill. Sighing, he said, "Let me know when I need to get the suit out. I might as well be prepared to be put in a casket afterwards."

"That's why I'm marrying you. You're so romantic," Lorelai sweetly responded to his macabre comment.

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Christopher just laid Gigi down for the night. He loved this time during the weekends. It gave him time to collect his thoughts and take a breather from his hectic life.

He sighed as he poured himself a cup of coffee. The scent of the strong brew made his thoughts drift to Lorelai. How did she do it at the age of sixteen? A sad smile crept on his lips. It's been almost two years since he had a decent conversation with her. She had been his anchor since they bonded all those years ago. That was twenty-three years ago. Twenty- one of those, he had to remind himself that Lorelai had to live with a reminder of what could've happened between them. He strolled slowly to the living room where he stashed away a photo of the brunette Sherry always thought of as competition. He always thought his ex-wife was paranoid about her but as he traced Lorelai's face on the photo, maybe she was right after all.

"You are going to be the bane of my existence," Chris whispered to the photo like Lorelai could actually hear her. He looked up remembering one time Gigi caught him talking to the photograph. She proceeded to take the photo out once Chris laid the frame down. She started babbling to it and calling it "mommy". When Sherry decided to leave, the only maternal figure Gigi identified with was Lorelai. Gigi saw more of Lorelai than she ever did of Sherry. After his ex-wife's sudden demise and the big brouhaha at the elder Gilmore's renewal of vows, Gigi had been without a female role model other than her nameless, faceless nannies.

The jarring ring of the telephone snapped Chris back to the present. Striding purposefully towards the receiver, her answered it with a curt hello.

"Hey, lover boy. It's Trixie. Do you have time for a naughty phone call?" Lorelai purred on the other end.

Christopher's heart leapt at the sound of her voice. He had missed her and day-by-day, he fantasized about making an attempt to rekindle their long lost romance. "So by what fate am I graced to receive a phone call from an angel like you?"

"I know we haven't talked in a long time but I was going through my phone list and I came across your name and I thought it would be a blast to talk about our last rendezvous," Lorelai said in her seductive bedroom voice.

"I thought you forgot about me. You know, too much time had lapsed between us," Chris scolded, playing along with Lorelai's game.

"You know," she said throatily, "you could've called, too. Two people can play this game."

"I would love to but I have been preoccupied by a five year-old," he replied, taking a sip of his afternoon coffee.

"You go, Peewee Herman!" Lorelai exclaimed.

Chris let out a hearty laugh before responding. It was good to hear from her again. "So Trixie, what's your pleasure?" he asked seductively, trying to gauge his former flame's mood. "Last time we spoke you were in your bachelorette party."

Lorelai winced on the other end of the phone. "Oh you just know me so well!"

"Uh oh," Chris responded in tease. Somehow, Lorelai's statement didn't bode well with him. His stomach took a roller coaster dip, making him break into cold sweat and nausea.

"Please don't make it harder than it already is," Lorelai pleaded, changing back to her normal voice.

"Don't tell me that you're calling me at your bachelorette party," he moaned, closing his eyes. The thought that Lorelai is going through the whole process again is making him ill.

"It's only eight o'clock, ninny, in puritan New England, so no," she negated.

"That didn't stop you when you were going to marry… what's his name again? Max?" he tried to recall.

"Nothing gets past you, huh?" Lorelai started sulking.

"So what is it?" a moment of elation overwhelmed him.

"Your firstborn is getting married," Lorelai informed him, talking in the speed of an auctioneer on his fifth cup of coffee.

"What?" Chris yelled out almost spilling coffee all over him.

"You know, church bells ringing, bad toupee ministers, garter tossing, ugly bridesmaid dresses... You've heard of it before," Lorelai listed.

"I heard you well the first time around, Lorelai," he said, irritated. "When did this all happen? Why didn't she call me herself? I mean, did the guy even ask permission?" Chris could feel his face turn red from his anger.

"Slow down, Speedy," Lorelai tried to calm him down. She knew she was going to suffer Chris' wrath but she had to make him see reason.

"Tristin proposed to her on his thesis exhibition at Princeton. He's a nice guy, I swear," Lorelai placated him.

"Is this the same Tristin that used to bug her in high school?" Chris asked as he tried to control the frustration mounting within him.

"Yes, but he's outgrown the hair-pulling thing. He's learned that flipping the girl's skirts isn't gentlemanly and that calling her by her real name is more endearing than monikers," Lorelai said, crossing her fingers behind her back. She never told Chris about the "accident" Rory had in her sophomore year with Dean's baby and how Tristin dealt with the issue. "Please don't be upset with Rory. I told her I will break the news to you."

Chris was upset in so many levels that trying to listen to reason from Lorelai was sapping him of his energy.

"And yes, he did ask for her hand in marriage," Lorelai confirmed. All of a sudden, Lorelai felt sorry for Chris. She cheated him out of the opportunity to give Tristin and Rory his permission; a fatherly right that she should have taken more seriously in hindsight.

"That's good," he said noncommittal. "I guess I am bummed that she didn't tell me herself."

"I know and I'm sorry," Lorelai apologized. "I will make sure that she will tell you all the details the next time she calls."

Silence.

"She didn't know how you'd react especially after the big blowout," Lorelai continued on saying after the time lapsed without anyone talking.

Chris didn't have to go into detail with what Lorelai was talking about. After Sherry's death, Emily and Richard tried once more to have him and Lorelai together despite her current 'taken' status to one Luke Danes. Luke was someone he knew he couldn't compete with. Despite the rough exterior, he was more of a father and friend to Rory and Lorelai than he ever will be.

"You should tell her that no matter what happens between you and me, her relationship with me will never change," he tried to assuage her.

"She knows that," she retorted passively.

"So why do I feel you're holding back on something, Lor," he questioned her, feeling there was a 'but' somewhere in her statement.

"Because there is something else," Lorelai admitted.

"Oh boy. Do I have to shell out Gigi's college money for the shindig?" Chris tried to steer the conversation to something lighter. "Do I have to trade my Volvo in for a beat up grocery getter?"

"No, nothing that drastic," Lorelai chuckled. She was more nervous about what she was going to say next. "That's probably going to be the least of your worries."

"You'd like Gigi to be the flower girl," he hinted.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea," she stalled.

"So what is it, Lor? You and Rory are arguing whether or not she should be dressed in the wedding dress Stephanie Seymour wore in 'November Rain'?" he mocked.

"Heck no! That still would be my wedding dress," she guffawed.

"Then what is it?" he prodded.

"I'm getting married, too," she confessed.

Chris accidentally dropped the phone. He forgot to breathe to the point of almost passing out.