It was the day of the funeral; I was desperately trying to find something to wear. I had left most of my nicer clothes at my parent's and the ones I had brought were no longer fitting right. I finally gave up and just grabbed a black dress, when I first got it; it had been loose, now it was very tight around my stomach. Oh well, I thought, I have nothing better. I grabbed a black sweater to wear over it, hoping it would hide my stomach.
I heard someone walk in the door, I never bothered to lock it when I was home, I had my own security system downstairs named Luke.
"I'm in here!" I yelled, I poked my head out the door to see that it was Jake.
He came up behind me and put his hands around my waist, "It's not going to be a secret much longer, is it?"
I turned around to face him, and he kept his arms around me, "Is it really noticeable?"
"Not to most people, I just know what to look for," I breathed a sigh of relief and he leaned down to kiss me, "You're cute when you're worried."
I wrapped my arms around him to hold him in a hug, "Yeah well we'll see how cute it is when my parents notice."
He pulled me back at arms length and looked at me seriously, "Are you sure you're up to going?"
"I'm sure."
"And you're sure you don't need me to go with?"
"I'm sure Jake, I'll have Ty there to protect me and if you came my parents would just freak out at you. It wouldn't matter that a funeral was going on."
He pulled me back into a tight hug, "I know, I just want to make sure you're ok."
"I'm a big girl, I'll be fine. Now you need to be a big boy and go to work," I gave him a kiss, "I'll call you when I get back."
"Ok, I'm going," he gave me another quick kiss then left.
Not long after that Ty came to pick me up, we ended up getting to the funeral late so we snuck into the back and sat there. For the first time in over 6 weeks I saw my family, they were all sitting in the front row my parents, my sister Alyssa, her husband Matthew and their two kids Jimmy and Carrie. The funeral was wonderful, it showed just how great a woman Joan was.
After the funeral there was a dinner planned at my parent's house, and of course we were expected to come. We walked in the door and nobody seemed to notice, there were people everywhere. I had started to think of ways to avoid my parents all night when I felt a little tug on my skirt, I looked down to see my niece Carrie. I knelt down so I was eye level with her, "Hi Carrie."
"Hi Aunt Eleanor," she said in her little 3-year-old voice.
I was about to say more when Matthew walked up, "Sorry she got away from me."
I stood up and straightened my skirt, "It's ok, she wasn't causing any problems."
Matthew grabbed Carrie's hand and started to walk away, "Good to see you here," he said before walked away.
"Yeah, great to be here," I said to no one in particular. Already I was grumpy and we had just gotten here.
"Come on Gracie, let's get some food, that'll be good at least." I started to follow him; we had walked no more than 5 feet when we heard a voice behind us.
"Tyler. Eleanor."
We slowly turned around, "Hi Mom."
"Have you forgotten all your manners? You come late to the funeral then you don't even come greet the hostess before heading to the food."
"I'm sorry Mom, it was my fault Gracie was ready to go but I got to talking, you know how it goes."
"Tyler it's very noble to try and cover for Eleanor, I'm sure it wasn't your fault." She looked at me up and down, "And it seems it was her idea to get to the food, it looks like she has been enjoying lots of it lately."
I pulled my sweater tighter around me, "Great to see you too mom," I mumbled under my breath.
She shot me a glare before looking back at Ty, "Tyler there are some people here you need to meet, come along."
Ty shot a helpless glance in my direction and I mouthed, "I'll be fine," to him. I decided that after my mother's last comment to me I had better wait to get some food, I saw Alyssa and quickly turned a corner before she could see me and I nearly ran into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." I said to the lady, she looked familiar, I'm sure I was supposed to remember her name. My mother would be horrified if she knew I couldn't.
"That's quite alright," She paused, "Oh my, Eleanor?"
Shoot I was supposed to know her name. "That's me."
"You're looking well, we haven't seen you around much lately."
"Oh yeah, I've just been really busy. How is your," I took a wild guess, "daughter doing?"
Her face lit up in a smile; "She's doing wonderfully, thank you for asking, she owns an inn now."
"How wonderful, make sure to tell her I said hello." She said she would and I turned the corner again hoping to avoid more awkward conversations with her, I really had no idea who she was. Unfortunately it seemed there was an awkward conversation around every corner. I tried to dodge many of them, including Alyssa's I had left as soon as she started talking, she was scolding me for something and I just didn't want to hear it.
I sat down on a couch that was pushed towards a corner and closed my eyes, when yet another voice called out my name.
"Eleanor?"
Without evening opening my eyes I answered, "It's Grace dad, I want to be called Grace."
He sat down beside me; "Your given name is Eleanor, named after your-"
"I know the story dad, I don't need to hear it again."
"Very well, have you greeted the guests?"
Still with my eyes closed I answered him, "Yes dad."
He stood up, "Good then you can go." I opened my eyes to watch him walk away. Yep, that's my father. I looked around the room to see Ty being dragged by my mother from person to person, no doubt she was bragging about him to every person she saw.
I turned the other way when I heard somebody call, "Emily Gilmore!" Gilmore? I saw the lady I had run into earlier turn and greet the person. I started to put everything together in my mind, her last name is Gilmore and her daughter runs an inn? What are the chances? I decided to try and listen to their conversation.
There was lots of noise in the room so it was hard to make out the words, but I think I heard the words Lorelai and Rory. Emily's husband came over and joined the conversation, I think he just said Rory too, he started to pull a picture out of his wallet and I knew this was my chance. I got up and quickly walked by and glanced at the picture. It was Rory.
I got a drink and sat back down where I could watch them. Those were Lorelai's parents? They didn't seem that bad, then again neither did my parents. I had actually heard my mother telling someone all the wonderful things I had been doing, even though none of them were true and I hadn't talked to her in over a month. After watching Emily for awhile I decided that she kind of reminded me of Lorelai and I wondered if Lorelai would kill me for thinking that. I was so deep in thought that I almost didn't notice Ty sitting down next to me.
"What's on your mind there Gracie?"
I nodded my head towards Richard and Emily, "Do you know who those people are?"
He thought for a moment, "Um, I met them earlier tonight… they are the um, Gil- Gilmore's?"
"Have you ever seen their daughter?"
"Not really, she's never at any of the functions." He looked back at me, "Why are you asking me? You would know as well as I do."
"I think those are Lorelai's parents."
He stopped, "Yeah, that's right their daughters name is Lorelai. I think mom mentioned that Joan was in the DAR with Emily."
I just looked at him and shook my head, "This is too weird."
We were getting up and getting ready to go when my mother pulled me into a room, "What are you still doing here?"
I wasn't in the mood to take any of her crap, "Oh I'm sorry, was I just supposed to greet guests and leave? I was under the impression I was a guest at my aunts funeral."
"Do not take that tone with me, your father told you a long time ago to leave."
I just stopped and looked at her, she had to be kidding, but she wasn't. She kept yelling and I kept getting angrier I was getting dizzy again, the door opened and Ty walked in. "I was wondering where you went."
"Ty," I called weakly, he ran over and caught me before I fell and set me on a couch.
My mother just looked at me, "You are so dramatic." I tried to block her voice out and concentrate on calming myself, but I felt sick. I looked for a trashcan but I didn't make it and I threw up all over the floor and the couch I was sitting on. I couldn't tell what she was saying, but whatever it was Ty finally had enough of it. He started yelling loudly, but she just yelled back. I covered my ears and tried not to listen, I didn't want to hear what she was saying about me. Finally Ty stopped yelling, but she continued, he came over the couch and helped me up and we walked out of the room. We didn't stop walking, even with everyone turning and asking if I was ok, we kept going and didn't stop until Ty had me in the car.
We were almost home and Ty had been silent the whole time, I was partially grateful because my head was hurting again, but I was curious as to exactly what had happened. I tried asking him, but he didn't answer. After a moment he finally spoke, "I told her Gracie."
Still with my head leaned back on the headrest I turned towards him, "Told her what?"
"That you're pregnant."
I sat up quickly, "What!"
"I'm sorry, it just slipped out. She was just saying all these horrible things and I was just so angry." He was clenching the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.
I place a hand on his arm, "It's ok, she would've found out eventually."
He started laughing, "You know in the middle of all the yelling she actually tried telling me about some function we both were supposed to be at next week."
I had to laugh myself, "She really is nuts isn't she?"
"I'll say. I told her we wouldn't go, and that we wouldn't be coming to anything else either, that's when we left."
"How angry is she gonna be at you?"
"I don't know, most likely she'll just call and try and invite me again, now when I turn her down again that could break the running away to New York record." To beat the record was quite something, of course even that she turned around into something great that Ty did. In her eyes he could do no wrong, except help me out.
We got back to Luke's to find that it was already closed for the night and although I thought it was odd, I breathed a silent sigh of relief, I didn't want to have to explain to anyone why I had to be helped up the stairs. Ty got me into bed and then left but only with the promise that I was going to call Jake and he was going to come over and take care of me. I assured him that once Jake had heard I hadn't eaten yet he would be over within minutes, and he was.
A/N: Well there you go, those are the Bennett's. Pleasant people aren't they? Next chapter is Jake and Grace recovering from the evening when Lorelai calls with exciting news! Thanks for reading and please, please review!
