AN: Thanks for the great response from the last chapter! I'm not really happy with how this chapter turned out but whatever. Only 2 more left (no including this one)! I know that the chapter title has nothing to do with the chapter but I've recently become obsessed with Panic At the Disco haha. Thanks for reading!


It was big news the next morning when Tristan Dugrey and Rory Hayden walked in together arm in arm, reunited. Everyone had known that the two of them had disappeared from the party on Friday night, but other than that no one had imparted any further knowledge on their whereabouts. It hadn't really come as a surprise to anyone who knew the couple which was suddenly the majority of the student body.

Rory piled books into her locker trying to ignore Tristan who was leaning against the locker next to hers and smirking.

"Come on, you know you want to."

"Nope I don't."

"Yes you do."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Ahh, a perfect example of the fine education that Chilton provides their students with," Logan said, interrupting their debate.

"He's being a jerk," Rory defended herself, jerking a thumb in Tristan's direction and pouting.

Tristan laughed. "Am not."

"Are too!"

Logan rolled his eyes. "Is this some kind of foreplay for you guys? 'Cause if it is, I'm leaving."

"Don't worry, I'm leaving anyway," Rory picked up her books and flounced down the hall, aware that half of the students were now gossiping about the fact that she didn't kiss Tristan good-bye.

"What was that all about?" Logan turned to Tristan who was still leaning against the locking, smirking.

He sighed at the question. "I have to run an errand and I was going to do it now instead of after school, provided I could get Rory to skip the day with me but she won't."

"Rory's missing an opportunity to skip school? That's unheard of!"

Tristan laughed, knowing that this was true. "I know but apparently she has a test and the school has already called home a couple times about her lack of attendance in her classes and so she feels like she has to go."

Logan nodded. "Makes sense." He paused, considering his options. "I'll tell you what, I have terrible classes today; I'll go with you."

"You want to hang out with me? You hate me."

Logan sighed. "I don't hate you; I just don't like the guys that Rory dates because I don't trust them not to hurt her." He brightened. "But you've already hurt her and redeemed yourself to her so I can learn to like you. Beside if you do hurt her again; it's easier to know some details before I make your life miserable."

"That's some twisted logic but sure I'll take it."

They turned down the hall, walking towards the front doors on the way to the parking lot.

"So I heard that you once painted all the windows in your school black…"

Rory walked into her house later that day, kind of confused. She hadn't seen her best friend or her boyfriend since before school started that morning and no one had known where they had gone. After trying both their cell phones and discovering that they were off, she gave up and decided to concentrate on school, which was a first for her.

After putting down her backpack, she flopped down on her couch, turning on the TV and flipping through the channels. Finally landing on some mundane talk show, she picked up the phone and dialed the number to reach her voicemail. Finding that she had one new message, she pushed the button to play it and discovered that it was just the sound of someone hanging up. She growled frustrated and bored and threw herself back down on the couch preparing for a boring night.

"Rory?"

It was almost two hours later and Rory was now lying upside down on her couch watching the TV.

"Hey daddy!" She said cheerfully, sitting back up straight and feeling slightly dizzy from staying upside down for that long.

Chris crossed him arms and smiled, raising an eyebrow. "I can see that you had a productive afternoon."

"Well I learned what to do if I ever find out that my fiancé's really a girl who has been sleeping with my best friend's sister's cousin's husband's ex-best friend."

Chris looked at her nervously. "Did you learn what to do when your mother and her new family are coming to dinner tonight?"

Rory immediately snapped to attention, looking at her father with horror in her eyes. "They're coming here for dinner tonight?"

He nodded.

"What?" She stood up in anger. "You invited them over for dinner? I can't believe you!"

"She wants to spend time with you Rory."

"She should've spent time with me when I was growing up; not seventeen years later!"

"I thought that you were thinking about going over there to meet Rebecca. I thought that I was doing you a favor by having them meeting on your own turf."

"Well, you weren't!"

Chris took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"That's right you weren't!"

"Can we just try to make this work? If you're too uncomfortable, you can fake that you have a test tomorrow or something."

Rory sighed. "I guess."

He smiled slightly. "Okay well they'll be here in about an hour."

"An hour? Wow short enough notice dad," she said sarcastically, making her way out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Chris called after her.

"To get ready for my night in hell!" She yelled back, halfway up the stairs.

As soon as she arrived at her room she flipped open her cell phone and was frantically dialing. So immersed in her anger, it took her multiple tries before she got the number right.

"Hey you've reached Tristan. I'm busy, you know the drill."

The beep sounded and Rory started talking. "Tristan Dugrey, where the hell have you been? I swear to god if you want our relationship to continue you will come to my house as soon as you get this message! I don't give a fuck as to what you're doing just get over here!"

She sighed as she pressed end and realized that she would actually have to go through with the dinner. Walking over to her closet she looked through all of her clothes trying to find something that screamed 'I'm having a reunion dinner with my absentee mother and her new family.' She found nothing. Finally setting on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt, she walked into her bathroom to do her make-up. When she was completely finished getting ready, she flopped down on her bed, wrinkling her shirt in the process.

Her eyes closed, her body completely relaxed, she immediately tensed up when the doorbell rang and she could hear her dad walking towards the door to answer it. Suddenly she wasn't ready for this, suddenly she didn't want to go through with it and she wondered whether she could make a quick escape. Sighing, she resolved herself to her fate and, conjuring up courage that she didn't know existed, she stood up and made her way out of the room and down the stairs.

"Hi," she called when she reached the bottom of the stairs, causing the people congregated in the hall way to turn and look at her. She smiled at Devin and Rebecca but ignored looking at either Lorelai or her husband.

"Hi," Lorelai replied, her voice sounding strangled. Her husband put a hand on her arm reassuringly.

"I don't think you guys have been introduced, have you?" Chris jumped in, looking awkwardly at the group around him. "Rory this is Charlie, Lorelai's husband and Rebecca, their daughter. You know Lorelai and Devin."

"It's nice to meet you guys." Rory smiled sweetly at her step-brother and half-sister. "Yeah, it's good to see you again Devin." She turned to face Lorelai. "I'm sorry; I don't remember ever meeting you." Lorelai visibly flinched at Rory's words.

"Rory!" Chris was appalled. He had known that Rory had strong feelings about Lorelai's absence but he hadn't thought that she would be so blunt about it.

"Yes daddy?" She knew that she was being a spoiled brat but at the moment she didn't care.

Chris shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said to Lorelai making Rory scowl. Her mother didn't deserve any apologies.

Lorelai shook her head. "Don't be."

There was an awkward silence for a moment and Rory took the time to look over the Martin family. They looked perfect; like a real family and she felt her heart clench, wondering for the first time in years what life would have been like if her mother had stuck around. For a moment she went back to what she was like when she was younger, feeling vulnerable and she hated it. Any thoughts of going through this ordeal in a civilized manner were thrown out the window.

"So, Rory, I hear you go to school with Devin?" Charlie asked, looking intensely at Rory, who stared right back.

"Yes Devin does go to school with me."

Charlie nodded. Everyone looked around uncomfortably, not looking each other in the eye except for Rebecca who stared at Rory curiously from behind her father's legs.

"Dinner should be here soon; I ordered it almost half an hour ago." Almost as soon as Chris had stopped speaking the door bell rang.

"I'll get it!" Rory said, already making her way towards the door eager to escape the situation that she currently found herself in.

Opening the door and grabbing the money from the hall table, she was surprised to be met with Logan's and Tristan's faces instead of the delivery boy.

"Hey!" She said, leaning forward to give Tristan a kiss. "What are you guys doing here, together?"

"We hung out today and then Tristan checked his voicemail and you sounded desperate and so we headed over here immediately."

"So what's up?" Tristan's eyes were concerned. "Anything wrong?"

"Rory! Have you got the food yet?" Chris shouted from the other room.

"No!" She called back, before turning back to her new favorite people on the planet and smiling and lowering her voice. "My mom's here with her new family for dinner." Logan and Tristan both looked sympathetic as she continued. "Can you guys stay and run interference, please?" She widened her eyes pathetically and jutted out her lower lip.

The boys exchanged looks. "Yeah, of course we'll do it," Tristan said, putting his arms around his girlfriend's waist.

"And we'll think of something to get us out of here early," Logan chimed in. Rory beamed, thankful that she had these great guys in her life.

"I knew I kept the two of you around for a reason."

She grabbed both of their hands, dragging them into the other room where her family was still standing looking at each other uneasily. Everybody looked up as Rory walked back in pulling the two boys behind her.

"Look who showed up!" Her voice was overly bright, her smile a little too relieved but nobody commented on it.

"Hey Logan, Tristan," Chris greeted, not entirely surprised that the boys had just happened to show up.

"Hey Chris."

"What's up?"

Chris laughed. "Not much Logan." He looked at the Martin family. "This is Rory's best friend Logan and her boyfriend Tristan. Boys this is Rory's mother Lorelai, her husband Charlie, his son Devin and their daughter Rebecca."

"Nice to meet you," the boys said in unison, looking at each other bewildered after they did so.

"Wow, you guys spend one day together and already you're thinking alike," Rory commented sarcastically as Tristan slid an arm around her waist.

Logan nodded to Devin. "Good to see you again, been awhile."

Devin just looked at him. "You haven't been in class for the last couple of days and so that would explain the whole not seeing each other thing."

Chris laughed patting Logan on the shoulder. "Always a troublemaker aren't you Huntzberger? Corrupting my poor innocent daughter."

He snorted in response. "Your daughter has never been poor and I'm not even going to comment on the innocent factor. And besides if anyone is corrupting your daughter it's him," he said, jerking a thumb towards Tristan who was rubbing his thumb against Rory's waist.

"Who me?" He looked up innocently, prompting awkward laughter from the surrounding group of people.

The doorbell rang and Logan started towards the door, waving away what Chris was about to say. "Don't worry Chris; I know where you keep your takeout money supply."

"Actually I was about to tell you how nice it was that you offered to pay for dinner."

Ten minutes later everybody was seated around the dining room table, picking at their food.

"So how old are you Rebecca?" Rory asked kindly, looking down at her shy half-sister.

"We call her Becky and she's four," Lorelai said proudly, smoothing back her daughter's fine hair.

"Was I asking you?" Rory asked snidely.

"Rory," Chris groaned exasperated. He should have known that this dinner wasn't a good idea that everything wouldn't work out to be fine.

Charlie threw down his fork. "What is your problem?" He asked, looking at Rory. "My wife has been nothing but kind to you and in no way does she deserve to be treated like this."

Rory also slammed down her fork. "Excuse me? She doesn't deserve to be treated like this? She abandoned me! She left and then suddenly seventeen years she wants to be part of my life? It doesn't work that way!" She slid her chair back and stood up abruptly. "I'm not hungry anymore."

She ran out of the room and the occupants of the dining room could hear her door slamming.

"So how about that global economy, eh?" Logan commented after a minute of silence, receiving annoyed looks in response.

"I'll go check on her," Tristan said, placing his knife and fork calmly on his plate and standing up. Chris nodded his approval looking apologetically at the Martins.

"I'm sorry for Rory, really." He shook his head. "I don't know what's gotten into her lately."

Logan snorted. "C'mon," he said in response to the looks he was receiving. "You know exactly what has gotten into her lately." He started ticking off things with his fingers. "Her and her boyfriend broke up, only getting back together a couple days ago, you and her stopped talking for almost a month and she's almost failing all of her classes because she's been distracted." Casually wiping his mouth, he threw down his napkin and stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check on Rory."

He arrived at Rory's bedroom to see Rory with her head nestled against Tristan's chest. Taking in the scene in front of him, he realized that maybe he wouldn't be Rory's only protector from now on and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Clearing his throat to get their attention, he smiled. "You guys want to get out of here?"

It was late when Rory stumbled into her room trying to find her way in the dark. She didn't bother turning on the lights even after she had closed the door, wanting the darkness surrounding her as she did what she felt she had to do. She flipped open her phone and dialed the number that was written on the piece of paper in front of her. It went straight to voicemail which is what she had intended.

"Hey, you've reached Lorelai Martin. I'm busy at the moment but I'll get back to you if you leave a message."

The beep sounded and Rory took a deep breath. "Hi Lorelai, it's Rory. You're probably sleeping right now considering it's" she snuck a look at her clock "2:37 and most sane people are in bed right now." She paused, trying to find the words. "I just wanted to say that I understand why you left and that I know that you felt like you had to." Her words started to jumble together, caught up in emotion. "And I don't hate you for it; I can't no matter how hard I've tried." Taking another deep breath she continued. "But we're never going to be okay; we're never going to get along. Somewhere along the way we've become totally different people who have nothing in common except for blood and I think that's the way it'll stay." Tears were streaming down her face as she finished, choking on a sob. "You have a beautiful family Lorelai."

She hung up the phone and leaned against her bed. It might have been the coward's way out but somehow it had felt right. She sat there for hours, silently crying, comforted in the anonymity of the darkness and at the end of it all, she felt better, as if everything was going to be okay.

Almost a month later, everything was going great for Rory. She and Tristan were going great, Logan and Tristan had begun to get along and she was doing better in her classes. Devin pretty much ignored her now, but she was sure that it was all for the best. Lorelai hadn't contacted her after her message but she had expected that she wouldn't. Her life seemed to be perfect and so of course something needed to happen to mess with it a little.

Rory walked into her home, going directly for the living room and froze in shock at the door. The boxes that had remained in the back of closets for the last couple months had now been taken out and strewn around the room.

"Dad!" She yelled, dropping her backpack on the floor.

"Hey kiddo," he said coming through the door behind her.

"What's all this?" Her voice was strangled as she gestured towards the boxes lying on the floor.

Chris took a deep breath. "I got this amazing job opportunity. It would be career suicide if I decided not to take it. So I took it."

"Where is it?" Her voice was calm but inside she was filled with turmoil.

"Vancouver."

"As in Vancouver Washington?"

"Nope, we're moving to Vancouver Canada."

"You're moving me to another country?"

"It's a great opportunity," Chris insisted again, as he always did.

Rory was in complete disbelief. She couldn't believe that her dad was moving her to a different country. They had spent six months in London when she was ten but somehow it seemed like it was a bigger deal now. Her mind could only form one question and so she asked, "When do we leave?"

"We have to be there by next Friday."

"That's in five days!"

"I know I know that it's short notice but I have to take it; I have to." Chris' voice was desperate, trying to get Rory to understand.

Rory nodded. "Okay," she whispered, trying to figure out why she was so surprised by the move. For years she had been used to moving at a moment's notice, packing up her life and moving on. It was normal, it was routine but now it felt like it was the worse possible thing to happen to her. "I'll go start packing."