A/N Hi I'm back again. The Muse struck strongly today so I bust out another chapter- Please Read and Review…. Just an FYI this chapter will be angsty- Rory/Lorelai Blowup 2.0….. Let me know what you think!
Chapter 8
Lorelai had debated for hours that morning about going to the ceremony, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing- watching her child graduate with honors from college. She missed the proposal, then she alienated her daughter by not having the right response to her engagement. However, Lorelai didn't like the woman Rory had become but she knew that she would eventually come back with the right incentive. Eventually, Rory would know she was right about everything and come back to Stars Hollow, just like she had done before. It would hurt for a while but eventually, she would come around all she had to do was wait.
Rory was looking for her mother, every brunette woman that came within meters of her was being scanned. Mitchum and Honor were there, they congratulated her, she stuck a smile on her face for the photos but as the day went on she got more and more upset at her mother's apparent lack of caring and absence. After multiple rounds of photos and forced chit-chat with her extended family, she and Logan left the grounds of Yale. as she got into the car she broke down and once again Logan was comforting her. Still, in the car park, he pushed his seat as far back as it would go and pulled Rory across the console into his lap where against his shoulder she cried her eyes out. Her dream day, her graduation from college was wrecked by her mother- a woman who for years she had considered her best friend. Logan couldn't do anything but hold her as she cried.
Richard had watched Rory put a brave face on her pain for hours. He was so disappointed in his daughter if Mitchum Huntzberger could swallow his pride enough to come over and give what seemed like heartfelt congratulations to his granddaughter, pose for photos, and smile, what had he done so wrong that his daughter would hurt Rory this way. Emily was livid as well, commenting that Rory had mentioned that she had originally wanted her official engagement party in Stars Hollow, but that Lorelai couldn't see past her hatred of 'Society', something that she had never actually been a part of as Richard noted mentally on numerous previous occasions. When he approached where Logan had parked his car next to Richard's he noted the couple in the driver's seat, the way that Rory was curled on her fiance's lap. He smiled, those two reminded him of himself and Emily. Hopefully, they will make it, he thought to himself.
Two hours later Rory and Logan were finishing packing up the apartment that she shared with Paris. They delivered her things to the Gilmore's Poolhouse for storage until their official move to New York the next month. 'Ace...how are you holding up?' Logan's question was more of a check-in. He didn't really need to ask, it was in her body language that she was in pain. Rory looked straight at him 'I'm….hurt and angry and all I want to do is scream at her. She hurt me today. That she didn't come hurt more than when she got engaged to Luke and didn't tell me, than when she married my Dad and told me as an afterthought. I'm angry Logan. So freaking angry.' He pulled her into a hug 'what do you need Ace' she looked him dead in the eye 'I need to speak to her' nodding his reply was simple 'let's go then'.
Thirty minutes later they were approaching the hamlet that for twenty-two years Rory Gilmore had called home. They went to the Crapshack first but Lorelai's Jeep was missing from the driveway. They then went to the center of town where Rory noticed that there was a town meeting going on. Her mother must be there. Logan parked the car in front of the dance studio and grabbed Rory's hand as she mounted the wooden steps and opened the sliding barn-style door.
Luke Danes was not the most civil-minded person, he hated the town festivals and decorating for them, but it was part of the charm of his town and quite often he found the meetings that Taylor Doose held to be utterly hilarious, not today though. Today had been a kind of character assassination on a girl that up until this week had been the undisputed town princess. Lindsey Forester had begun a campaign with her mother Theresa Lister, stating that Rory was a homewrecking slut having slept with Lindsay's then-husband Dean several years before and that her actions had led to the breakdown of her marriage. What surprised Luke about the entire exchange wasn't that any of this had happened, it was that Lorelai was saying nothing in support of her absent daughter. It was obvious that Rory's apparent snub in her engagement announcement had caused a lot of anger in the small town, there were discussions that Rory must be in some kind of trouble, maybe she had a drug or alcohol problem that was so obviously caused by Jess and later exacerbated by Logan. Questions were asked if it were possible that she was pregnant, hence the 'quickie' engagement. Luke was just about to jump into the discussion on whether or not to ban Rory from entering Stars Hollow businesses when the barn door opened revealing Rory and Logan, holding hands and looking angrier than Luke had ever seen her in his entire life.
There was a beat of silence then Lindsay 'oh look if it isn't the girl we've all been talking about. The homewrecking slut. Maybe I should return the favor and seduce your man' Rory didn't respond at first she looked around and apparently ignored Lindsay when she, looking straight at her mother responded with 'Mom we need to talk. Can we go home and do this in private?' when Lorelai responded with 'as long as you stay with Logan with that ring on your finger there is no way that you are listening to me. You broke the plan, Rory. You announced your engagement and there was no mention of your hometown. You are not the girl that I raised. I'm not the only one that you have hurt with your actions.' There were murmurs of assent from the crowd and Luke saw how Rory steeled herself, looked at Logan who squeezed her hand and she then approached the Podium that was at the front of the room. 'Ok, you want to do this in front of the whole town. Let's do this here. They're just going to ask for details anyway.'
Rory took a deep breath. 'Ok, Stars Hollow you seem to be under the impression that you have a say in my life and my mother seems to be perpetuating that so… Mom, you didn't come to my graduation. It was today. I am so freaking angry at that but whatever. I'll come back to you. Lindsay, ok yes I made a mistake when I was 19 sleeping with Dean but I wasn't the only one who made that choice. He told me that you were over, that your marriage wasn't working and I was young and immature and I fell for it. He told me he loved me. I'm sorry that you were hurt, and for the record, I trust Logan 100% so if you feel the need to 'seduce my man' go ahead and try, he'll shoot you down. Ok, so the engagement announcement in the Hartford Courant. Yes, this town was not mentioned, I did not write that announcement, my grandparents, on both sides did, however, I was hoping to have my engagement party here. My grandmothers and I have already discussed it. I wanted a carnival-themed party and thought that the town square would be a good location. My father-in-law-to-be has suggested having one of his magazines or newspapers cover it, showcasing the local businesses, etc. that would be national coverage potentially but if I'm not welcome...forget about it.' Taylor blanched as did several other business owners.
The town stayed silent as Rory continued 'Mom...you are acting like a victim but please explain what I have done apart from fall for a guy who is crazy about me and wants to support my dreams. You lied to me for years, telling me that my grandparents were awful people who were so controlling. You tell me that my father didn't want me, not in those words but by preventing him from access in my early years, by choosing to let us live in a shed with no toilet and no running water and no heat, did any of you know that? You took me Mom from a family that wanted nothing but to support my dreams, your dreams, and demanding that you did it completely on your own with no support. You've spun this story that your parents were awful, that the Haydens were so awful for wanting you to finish high school and to let me have both parents in my life. Let's not forget Mom that you from the age of sixteen have controlled what the Gilmores' told me. Grandpa and Dad sat me down, I know that the money for the house came from what was supposed to be your education fund when you were twenty-five. We moved a month after your twenty-fifth birthday if I remember correctly. You say that you never needed Grandma and Grandpa but whenever you needed anything, a house, my education, heck when you married Dad Grandma planned your wedding reception, they basically wrote you a blank cheque. Also, I now know just what Trix left me in her will- what you hid from me. But I could forgive all that, what I'm struggling to understand is that you are cutting me out of your life again because I choose something for myself. I do something you don't like and I get cut off emotionally. You ruined today for me, by not coming and sticking a smile on your face.'
Rory was almost crying, 'today was our dream Mom- I graduated from Yale University with honors. Mitchum showed up and smiled but you couldn't because I chose to say yes when the man I love and want a future with asked me to marry him. You can't be happy for me like I was when you got engaged to Max- my highschool English teacher, who you practically left at the altar? Or your engagement to Luke, the one solid male figure that you let in my life, who you gave an ultimatum to and then decided to sleep with my father, breaking his heart and the town's in the process? Or the piece-de-resistance Dad, who after twenty years of getting my hopes up and then breaking my heart, you marry and then two months later separate from. Do you have any idea what that did to me?' She shook her head, 'I'm sorry that you don't get your happy ending before me, but you had your chance, numerous chances, I love Logan. I choose every day to wake up next to him and love him. I've made some mistakes, both of us have, but I know that I would never be truly happy without him, I could have the jet setting career that you want me to have come home only on holidays, but that wouldn't make you happy either, heck when I was in college an hour away you wanted me home every weekend and threw a fit if I didn't do what you wanted.' Logan's arm wrapped around her waist. 'Do you have any response? Lindsay? Taylor? Mom? I didn't think so'
She made to leave the podium when Taylor stopped her 'Rory….' she looked at the Town Selectman 'you're an idiot Taylor, your bread and butter industry is tourism, one google search would tell you who would have visited for our engagement party. People with enough money to buy this town twice over and still have millions in the bank. But you decided that because my mother said my fiance was a bad guy, he was, you believed her, I get that my previous boyfriends weren't perfect choices in your view but come on. Dean, who I dated on and off for a total of three years has been a loyal employee of yours since he was sixteen. You obviously trust him, despite the whole cheating on his wife thing. Ok, Jess was a 'bad boy' but you judged him without knowing him. Did a single one of you attempt to welcome Jess to town? Did you know why Luke was asked to take him in, what he went through when he was a young kid? Sorry, Liz, I know that you were young and had a lot going on. Behind that, 'bad boy' exterior was an emotionally scarred kid. If you repeat that to him I will deny it. Read his book if you don't believe me, it's amazing. I have an excuse for poor judgment; both relationships originally took place when I was sixteen- seventeen years old. I was young I needed to make mistakes, so that when I found Logan I knew what I had. But you and this town obviously don't want my kind of what was it, Lindsay? 'Homewrecking slut?' here, that's ok. I'll find another venue, I'll find another home. Luke, you'll get your invitations in the mail.'
She went to leave again when Lorelai spoke up 'oh so you just walk away now. You diminish my reputation in front of the entire town and don't even acknowledge me when you go to leave. You say that he supports your dreams. What about your dream to work at the New York Times, be a foreign correspondent? He seems so supportive of you, dragging you to the West Coast because he screwed up and lost millions of dollars in a bad business deal. You'll never get a job for your talent, you'll end up as some kind of Stepford wife whilst he's screwing his secretary at the office. The Grandparents you so admire wanted to control me so much that they wanted to marry me off to the guy who got me pregnant. I couldn't breathe in that house Rory, I was such a disappointment to them. I was sixteen Rory and they wanted me to get married. I got you out of there to give you choices, opportunities I never got. I found a good job, I worked hard, harder than you have ever had to, to put a roof over your head. Was it ideal?, no, but I did what I had to do! I built us life here with no help…' Rory interrupted at that, 'but you had help Mom! You had an inheritance of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.' There was a gasp as the town now knew how much Lorelai had lied. 'That money that was supposed to be for your education, but Grandpa offered it to you as an attempt at building a kind of olive branch, didn't he? Grandma and Grandpa wanted to see me more and they thought if they gave you money they would get that.' Rory looked at her mother's reaction and suddenly a lot made more sense. 'Straub and Francine wanted Dad to sue you for custody and visitation, didn't they? That's why you left when I was fourteen months old. It wasn't suffocating at your parents' house until you were refusing to let him see me, and you couldn't control his parental rights so you ran, and when they found you a few months later you threatened to disappear completely if they didn't leave you alone with me. So we lived in that freezing shack rather than the house or pool house so that you could have full control of my life and control me eventually. Wow, Mom, you are more manipulative to the people around you than Emily Gilmore will ever be.'
Lorelai had tensed up at the mention of the custody agreement she had reached with the Gilmores and Haydens when Rory was a baby. Rory was completely right about everything, she couldn't even be angry at her parents because it was obvious that no one had told Rory any of this. She looked around at some of the angry faces around her, men and women who had to work for every penny they had. The sanctuary of her small town was crumbling. So she did what she did best when she couldn't control a situation. She ran.
A/N So….What do you think? Enough drama? Please leave reviews. I love responding to them. If you have an FFN account please use it when you review so that I can respond directly otherwise, guest reviewers I'll try to mention any positive responses in the A/Ns.
