Disclaimer: ... Nothing... stifles a sob... belongs to me. All credit to the lovely, talented mind of creator AS-P... applause...
Author's Note:
Just a heads up: there are spoilers in this for last week's episode, I Get A Sidekick Out of You. Nothing really big, but something sorta big at the same time. :) Sorry. Some of the dialogue came from the show (credit to the AS-P), but not much. Also, I sorta edited it to include Dean since this is a Narco fic.
Chapter 18
The next couple weeks passed by rather quickly. Luke went out of town to chaperone April's class field trip into Philadelphia. He was nervous as all, and so was Ceasar once he realized that Luke was leaving him in charge of the diner. Lane and Zach had their wedding, and Rory was the Maid of Honor. There was a bit of controversy because Lane's grandmother was coming over from Korea to see her only granddaughter get married, and she was a strict Korean, striking fear and anxiety even into Mrs. Kim's heart. Of course, to top things off, Lorelai was forced to bring a date, and her only option once Michel decided to go to a Celine Dion concert instead, was to invite Christopher.
Of course, that left Rory and Dean in an awkward position. Christopher still didn't know that Rory had broken up with Logan or gotten back together with Dean, or that they were having a baby, and she wasn't even sure what his whole take on Dean was. She knew he liked Logan, probably due to the fact that he saw so much of himself in Logan. And she figured he could like Dean, if they left out the bits about marriage, divorce, affair, and newfound pregnancy.
"You've got to tell him, kiddo," Lorelai pointed out.
Rory sent her a frown. "And why is that?"
"For starters, you're beginning to show. And although Chris hasn't raised you or been around you long enough to recognize you're unusual Gilmore eating habits, I'm sure he knows that we Gilmores can eat a whale and not gain a pound," Lorelai remarked. "Second, you can't just wait for him to become pals with Dean until you mention the baby. Lord knows that might take a while, and then you'd be left to explain why your baby is already a year old."
"Sometimes I despise you," Rory commented in a humorous tone.
"Lore! Rory!"
Both Gilmore girls turned around to see the familiar face of Christopher Haden approaching them. He had on a big smile and had cleaned up rather nicely seeing as he hadn't planned on coming to a wedding.
"Christopher," Lorelai said as they embraced in a hug.
Rory was next in line for a hug and greeted, "Hey Dad."
Christopher stood back and yanked at the collar of his suit-jacket. "How do I look?" he asked, turning to Lorelai.
"Like a man," Lorelai said with a grin, looking towards Mrs. Kim who had just come out of Lane's house.
"Excuse me?" Christopher asked, sending Rory a confused, yet amused look.
Rory waved her hand dismally and patted Christopher on the shoulder. "I'm going to go check on Lane," she replied.
"There's something different about her," Christopher said, watching her go.
"You have no idea," Lorelai mumbled, grabbing his arm and pulling towards the front door.
All in all, the ceremony in the Kim's house lasted a good twenty minutes. It was a Buddhist wedding to appease Lane's grandmother, and as soon as it was finished, the grandmother left to return to Korea. After her departure there was an unusual foot race of the wedding patrons to the church since there were 62 Koreans and only 58 seats - time for the Seventh Day Adventist wedding to appease Lane's mother. Lorelai and Christopher ran into Sookie and Jackson on the way.
"What do you see? Do you see anything open?" Lorelai asked, eyes darting around the chaotic wedding hall.
"We'll take two and two! Two and two is fine," Sookie replied.
"We can find four together," Lorelai objected.
"I don't think we can," Sookie remarked.
Ignoring the pushing and shoving as people made a dash for open seats, Lorelai led the other three up to the second row. She stopped and smiled at the man sitting with two seats on either side of him. "Hey Dean," she greeted.
"Oh, hey Lorelai," Dean said, turning his face away from his phone to look up at her. "Sookie, Jackson," he said with a nod.
"Are you saving all these seats?" Jackson asked.
"Not really," Dean replied, and Sookie and Jackson made their way past him while Lorelai and Christopher took up the two seats by the aisle. "I forgot Rory was Maid of Honor, so I saved two for you and her, then I remembered Michel - where is he by the way?"
"Long story involving Celine Dion and how he's getting a demotion when he gets back," Lorelai sighed, calming down after the run. She turned to Dean and looked him up and down. "How long have you been here?"
He smirked. "Rory told me to get here early for a seat."
Lorelai nodded and noticed Christopher listening to their conversation. Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink in color for forgetting to introduce the two, and she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Christopher, this is Dean Forrester. Dean, this is Christopher Haden, Rory's father."
Christopher and Dean both shook hands.
"We've met before, haven't we?" Chris asked.
Dean nodded. "Yeah, a while ago."
"Rory's back to dating Dean, Christopher," Lorelai explained.
"Really?" Chris asked, eyebrows raised. It wasn't at all a surprised tone, just one that said 'and you'd be introducing me to him as Rory's father for what reason other than that?' He leaned in close to Lorelai and asked, "What happened to Logan? Rory hasn't said anything to me."
Lorelai felt Dean tense beside her and knew instantly that he'd heard Christopher. She waved her hand to signal silence from Christopher as the wedding started. The entire crowd stood as Lane was coming down the aisle.
"You know, she's the first one of Rory's friends to be getting married," Lorelai whispered to Christopher.
"You know, Rory may be next," Christopher replied.
The words struck a cord in Lorelai, without Christopher realizing just how true those words could be, and she turned to glance at Dean on her other side. He noticed her gaze and offered an unknowing smile, and Lorelai returned it. The thought of Rory getting married was somewhat life shattering. It would send Lorelai a whole new curve ball to life. Slowly but surely, her daughter was growing into a woman who wouldn't be her daughter anymore. Nope, Rory Gilmore would be a mother, a wife… not a Rory Gilmore. Perhaps a Rory Forrester. The name stung Lorelai's mind, and another realization hit her. Rory could possibly get married before she ever did. How would that be for town gossip? Single mother of twenty-one years is swindled and beaten to tying the knot by her sixteen year younger daughter.
Christopher nudged her in the knee, noticing that she had zoned out. Even Dean and Sookie were sending her worried glances. She offered up a fake smile of reassurance and went back to the vows that were being exchanged. Eternal promises never to be broken or detracted from. Lorelai slowly questioned whether or not she was ready to make such a promise.
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The reception was a wild one, especially with Lorelai's drunken speech to the bride and groom… and the entire town. Rory, Dean, and Christopher had finally decided to end the madness when she confessed that she wasn't getting married on June 3rd anymore. Rory was worried about it, but Christopher assured her Lorelai wouldn't remember any of it later considering she'd been knocked up with eight tequila shots.
Christopher carried Lorelai home and dropped her off on the couch. Rory went ahead to the kitchen to make coffee, and Dean slipped into Rory's room to change, which was his room, too, now. However, Christopher didn't know that, and was surprised when he saw Dean come out in sweats and a T-shirt. He raised his brow in question, but said nothing as Rory came back with a glass of water and two aspirin.
It was at that moment that Lorelai decided to mumble something incoherently about June 3rd yet again, and all three sets of eyes watched her drop her face back into the pillow which Christopher had tried too painfully to keep away due to the resulting pillow face in the morning. Christopher sighed and picked Lorelai up in his arms. "I'm going to take her up to her bed, okay?" he replied, heading towards the stairs.
"Alright," Rory said. She watched Dean head back toward their room, yawning tiredly. "Just come and get us if you need anything, okay?" Rory said, turning back to face Christopher.
"Us? You mean, Dean's staying over tonight?"
Rory snorted. "Dad, I'm a big girl now."
"Yeah, but now? I mean, tonight, with everything that's happened already?" Chris asked, looking down at the sleeping Lorelai in his arms and then averting his eyes back to Rory.
Rory let out a sigh. She knew that the question would have arisen sooner or later; Lorelai had been right. Rory had just hoped it would have been later rather than sooner. "After you put her down, come back down here so we can talk."
"Uh-oh, is this about the cherry bomb in the girls' bathroom? Because I didn't do it; Mark did," Christopher joked, noting the serious tone his daughter had. This couldn't be anything good if Rory was sounding so adult like with that single sentence.
"No, it's not about the cherry bomb," Rory replied with a smile. "And who exactly is Mark?"
"I don't know. Doesn't Mark just sound like a name for a serial cherry bomber?"
"Not really."
"Oh, well," Chris replied, and Lorelai mumbled something about the Yummy bartenders. He shifted her weight in his arms and said to Rory, "I'll just put her in bed and be right down."
"This oughta be fun," Dean said, watching him go.
Rory turned around, a little shocked he'd come back out from their bedroom. She offered a smile, and he mirrored it.
"I thought you were going to bed?" she asked.
"And what ever gave you that idea?" he inquired, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him.
Rory shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Perhaps that you were yawning and half asleep walking back there a couple seconds ago."
"I can't sleep without you by my side," he replied softly, leaning down to gently kiss her on the lips.
She began to fall into the kiss when she heard the door to her mother's room shut, and she pulled away quickly. Dean looked a little sad at the prospect of losing the perks that would have followed that kiss. She sent him a 'not now while my father is here and I still have to tell him he's going to be a grandpa' look.
"Do you want me to stay and tell him with you?"
"No," Rory said, shaking her head. "My relationship with him tends to be choppy as it is. We had a falling out about a year ago, and he's been making it up lately, and things are getting back to being normal between us. I just… I need to be the one that tells him. I don't know how he'll take it. At least with my grandparents we had an inkling."
"An inkling?" Dean echoed with a smirk.
"Oh be quiet and go to bed," Rory said with a grin, pushing him back towards the kitchen. "I'll be in there as soon as I can. And then the fun can start."
"Ooh, I can't wait," Dean commented with mock enthusiasm and a genuine grin, and Rory watched him enter their room and shut the door behind him.
She turned around to see her father standing at the bottom of the stairs, an amused smile on his features. She was a little surprised, realizing he'd just witnessed the end portion of her and Dean's conversation, but smiled nervously all the same. This was going to be a fun night.
AN: I thought I'd treat you guys to a new chapter to go with the new episode tonight. Although this shouldn't really count as a new chapter seeing as it's just filler for the next chapter. I was meaning to post this with the next chapter, which I have done already, but I still need to edit it. Maybe I'll post it tonight after Gilmore Girls; if not, then it'll be up tomorrow morning.
ANN: I've been a naughty fanfic writer... shakes head in disappointment ... I totally forgot to enable anonymous reviews, and I. Am. Sorry. I hope all of you who don't have an account or don't want to log in to leave a review b/c you're busy or what not, leave me a review now that I've fixed that feature. Pretty please? With sprinkles and whipped cream on top? LoL.
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