Lorelai POV

Three weeks later, Luke, Rory and myself were in the car driving to Boston. She had wanted both of us to go with her, so Luke had nervously left his diner in Liz's hands.

We were trying to keep it upbeat, but she had retreated into herself, napping on and off for the journey. We met my parents at the hotel that evening and while Luke took Rory to the room since she was exhausted, I stopped to talk.

"Thank you for being here," I said, "I know I didn't ask you to come, but I'm glad you're here. Rory needs all of us to get through this, especially since they want both me and Luke to testify as well."

"What do you two have to offer?" My mother asked.

"I never told you this, but he hit me once. Only once... he punched me in the stomach, and twenty-four hours later, I found out I was pregnant with Rory. And since Luke collected her in Boston, they want to ask him about that," I was getting better about telling people what he did, and I had warned Rory about that. She had decided she wanted to be in the courtroom at all times if they'd allow it and I wanted her to be prepared about what I had to say.

"Why didn't you tell us? We wouldn't have tried to force you to marry him," My father assured, and I chuckled humourlessly, not sure if I believed him.

"I was ashamed, and I wasn't sure how you'd react. And anyway, the pregnancy was a bigger deal than a punch."

"Hmm," My mother didn't sound convinced but said no more on the matter, "We're going to go up to our room. We'll see you tomorrow in the courtroom?"

I nodded silently and watched them walk away before heading to the bar for a very quick drink before going up to my own room.

That morning, we all headed to court. Rory was wearing a nice dress and I had done her hair in a way that showed her scar without being totally obvious. I held her hand tightly in mine, afraid to let her go.

When we got there, we waited patiently outside before we were allowed to go in. Rory was first up on the witness stand, so she had been taken away by the lawyer, much to my annoyance.

When we were brought into the court, I sat down with Dad and Luke either side of me, and while my hand had practically been glued to Luke's the entire time, Dad put his hand over my free one, squeezing comfortingly. I looked up at him and smiled sadly, "Thank you, Dad."

He nodded and then focused on the front, where Christopher had just been brought in. I stuffed down my anger as I felt both Dad and Luke stiffen beside me, their anger radiating. Christopher looked over at us briefly, no emotion on his face.

The judge then came in and sat down at her seat. She read out the charges, and then asked Chris how he pleaded; not guilty. Opening statements were then made, with Christopher's lawyer insisting that it was an accident and not assault, and with our lawyer insisting it was assault. And then Rory was brought in. Rory had focused on us, much like we had told her to, and was pretending Christopher wasn't there.

Because of her age, she wasn't asked to take the oath, and our lawyer jumped straight in.

"Who is Christopher Hayden to you?" The lawyer asked.

"My biological father."

"What was your relationship with him before this happened?"

Rory thought for a moment, "Almost non-existent."

"Can you expand on that a bit?"

"He would call almost every week, make plans and never show. He might show once every six months, but that's pushing it," Rory explained, and it was the truth.

The lawyer looked over at Christopher for a moment, "And can you tell us what happened on the 18th of April this year?"

Rory went into detail, explaining everything from how she turned off my alarm so I wouldn't wake up (I knew it) to her going to bed that night.

"And you needed surgery as a result of those injuries?"

"Yes," She agreed, the nervousness slightly seeping in.

Our lawyer picked up several pieces of paper, "I would like to submit this into evidence."

She passed the papers around, and even from a distance, we could see both Christopher and his lawyer turning several shades of purple.

"Do you know what that is?" She asked Rory, and Rory nodded.

"Pictures from the CCTV cameras."

The lawyer nodded, "That's right. And what does it show?"

"Christopher pushing me to the ground."

"No further questions, your honour." Our lawyer said, turning around and walking back to her seat. She smiled at us, giving us hope.

Christopher's lawyer stood up and approached the stand, "You have a gap in your memory, correct?"

"Yes, sir," She said, nodding.

"So, you could have tripped?" He said, "I mean, you're 10 years old. You're probably clumsy and you probably fell when he let your arm go."

Dad scowled, "He's already playing dirty."

"Objection, that's speculation!" Our lawyer said in a loud and clear voice.

"Sustained," The judge said, glaring at Christopher and his lawyer.

The lawyer rolled his eyes, "No further questions."

"We're going to take a short break, be back here in 15 minutes," The judge headed for the judge's chambers and beckoned for the lawyers to follow. We emptied out, with Rory running into my waiting arms.

"You did so well," I said, hugging her as hard as possible, "I'm so proud of you."

"It was scary, but I did it," She said, looking between me and Luke, "I hope I never have to see him again after today."

I hope so too, I thought.

Our lawyer came up to us before we headed back in, "No one else needs to testify. A decision has already been made."

I held Rory's hand a little tighter as we went in, and I sat her between me and Mom. I needed Luke on my other side but I needed to hold Rory, so I sat in the middle. By the seems of it, Mom had the same idea, and she laughed a little bit.

We rose as the Judge came in, and were seated again.

"I have looked at the evidence, listened to Rory's testimony and I have made a decision. Christopher Hayden, you are guilty on all charges. You will be sentenced to 5 years in prison and you have lost all parental rights to Lorelai Leigh Gilmore."

My vision blurred as I looked down at Rory. I blinked to clear my eyes, the tears dripping down my face, and saw that she was crying, too. I gathered her up in my arms, holding her close as she sobbed. She calmed down quickly and we watched as Christopher was walked out of the courtroom, glaring at us like we were the ones who had committed the crime.

And we smiled at him.

AN: I know this chapter sucked but it'll do. The next chapter takes place 6 months after this and goes toward tying this story up as there are only two chapters left, which is shocking.

Also, I have just completed the sequel, and while I did get a bit bored towards the end and therefore didn't covers things that I wanted to cover, I still love it very much. I am also thinking of writing a bunch of little one-shots to highlight Rory and Luke's relationship, working from the list of things Christopher didn't do as that didn't get covered very much in either story. Let me know how you'd feel about that, they would be combined into one story, obviously but will likely be written as separate things, including scenes that just didn't make the cut but I never got rid of.