"Being in a desert with no food or water... Uh, Standing in the middle of a room full of people, completely naked. Being on trial for witchcraft. Being tarred and feathered... Being eaten alive really slowly by a turtle..."
Izzy stood between her sister and mother, looking very confused. "Come on, Mom, let's stop playing the 'Things I'd Rather Be Doing Besides This' game and just get it over with," Rory said, exasperated. She reached out and rang the doorbell after 5 minutes of stalling.
The most recent maid of the Gilmore house answered the door.
"Hi," Lorelai said. "We're the daughter and granddaughter...s"
The maid took their coats and Emily met them in the hallway and said, "Lorelai, you're five minutes late." When she saw Izzy, she looked from Rory to Lorelai and then said, "The table is only set for four people. I didn't know you were bringing a guest."
Lorelai rolled her eyes while Rory looked at the floor. Izzy just stood there once again, not really knowing what was going on. "Mom, can we sit down and get some drinks or are we going to eat dinner in the hallway?"
"Well, come on then," Emily said, ushering them into the sitting room. "Are you going to tell me who our guest is?"
Lorelai picked up Izzy and sat down on the couch next to Rory, placing her on her own lap. "Well, Mom... Can we wait for Dad to come in here before I tell you that?"
"Nonsense, Lorelai, just tell me who she is. Or would she like to tell me herself?" Emily said, looking at Isabelle and smiling in a way that almost scared her.
"I'm Isabelle," she said shyly. "But you can call me Izzy if you want."
"Well, hello there, Isabelle."
Just then, Richard walked into the living room, joining the four girls. "Hello everyone."
"Hi, Grandpa," Rory said, standing to give him a hug.
"Hello, Rory. And who's this?" Richard asked, now noticing their new guest.
"I'm Isabelle," she said a bit more confidently this time.
"Well, hello Isabelle."
"Hi."
"Lorelai was just about to tell us to whom this Isabelle belongs and why she is joining us tonight. Weren't you, Lorelai?"
"Oh, I guess I was..." she trailed of.
"Well?" Emily said, getting impatient.
Lorelai looked at Izzy and smiled. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and said "She's my daughter."
For a while, Emily and Richard were silent. Lorelai could sense that things were about to get very loud, very quickly. "Rory," Lorelai said, "take Izzy up to my room." Without a word, Rory picked Izzy up and took her upstairs.
"What's going on?" Isabelle asked Rory once the door to their mother's bedroom clicked shut behind them.
"You remember how Grandma and Grandpa didn't know about you, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Well, they're really mad at Mom because she didn't tell them."
"Why?"
Rory sighed, wondering how she could explain this to her three year old sister. "You know how it's not nice to lie, right?"
"Right."
"Well, this is kinda like lying to them. Since she didn't tell them to begin with, and all."
"Oh. Are they gonna like me?"
"Iz, they already love you. It's the way they found out about you that they don't like."
"Ok... Why do they hate Mommy so much?"
Rory sighed. She was going to have to tell her everything. Everything she could handle, at least. She sat Izzy down on the bed and walked over to her mother's dresser and pulled out a photo album. She walked back over and sat next to her sister and opened the album onto both of their laps.
"What's this?" Isabelle asked.
"This is a photo album from when Mom was my age."
"Why is her tummy so round?"
"You know how when Mommies are going to have a baby, their tummies get really big?"
"Yeah."
"Well, in this picture, Mom is going to have me soon."
"Really? Cool!"
"Cool now that we're looking back on it, but not so cool back then."
"Why not?"
"Well, people usually wait to have babies til they're older, like about 25, I guess. But mom and my dad didn't wait. They didn't mean for it to happen, but it did. And it made Grandma and Grandpa really mad at her. They thought she'd ruined her life and theirs."
"But she didn't."
"No, she didn't, but Grandma and Grandpa have a hard time seeing that... They don't hate Mom, Iz, they just don't agree with her a lot of times. And because of that, they don't get along very well."
"Oh. Will they ever get along?"
"I don't know, Iz. I just don't know."
Meanwhile, Lorelai was down stairs, battling it out with her parents. After they got over their utter disbelief in the whole situation, Richard sat there mostly silent, while Emily did the yelling.
"You did it again, Lorelai, you did it again! You shut us out again! Tell me, tell me why you didn't tell us that you had another daughter. Why do you always hide things from us? What did we do to deserve the way you treat us?"
"Mom! Will you just shut up? Let me talk! You and Dad aren't the only ones who didn't know about Izzy. Rory and I were the only one's that new about her. We didn't tell anybody!"
"That's still not an excuse!" Emily bellowed. "We're your parents. We deserve to know important things that go on in your life," she continued.
"Oh yeah? What would you have said if I told you that I got pregnant by a man I met on vacation and barely knew? That it was completely physical between me and him? Huh?"
Emily gasped. "Lorelai, do not say such things in this house."
"Well, it's the truth and you wanted the truth, so there it is. I got pregnant. We stayed on vacation to have the baby there. David loved her so he wanted to keep her. As hard as it was, I let him."
"Do you think that makes it all better? That just because you abandoned her to live with her father that you didn't have to tell us? You robbed us of Rory's early years, and now you've robbed us of Isabelle's." Emily said.
"I didn't abandon her, Mom!" Lorelai said defending herself. "You have no idea how hard it was for me to leave her behind!"
"I imagine it felt a hell of a lot like when you left your father and I."
"No, actually, not at all. When I left here, I did it because you were suffocating me. It was the best thing I ever did, leaving here," Lorelai hissed.
Emily was taken aback by her last comment. "Get out."
"Gladly," Lorelai said, storming up the stairs to get her daughters.
As Lorelai reached the door to her bedroom, she opened it slowly and peeked inside. There, laying on the bed, was Rory with a sleeping Isabelle on top of her. She went in and sat down on the bed gently so she wouldn't wake Izzy up.
"How'd it go?" Rory asked.
"Pretty bad kid, pretty bad. Let's go home." Lorelai answered.
Lorelai took Izzy from Rory so she could stand up. Lorelai walked ahead of Rory as they went down the steps and out the front door. Before Rory walked out the door, she looked behind her at her grandparents in the sitting room and shook her head sadly.
Tbc.
So? What did you think? This is the first chapter done by yours truly AND jonsie2128, or Doogie as she is more affectionately known. From now on, this story is a dual effort!
Coming up: Lorelai goes to Luke's for a bit of comfort after the big blow up.
Review!
