AN: As usual, I don't own it.

In my insomnia last night I figured out a plan for this story, so there will probably a total of six chapters, assuming I don't get too wordy.

This chapter is from the Huntzbergers Point of View

It had been three days since that awful dinner and Shira was still on pins and needles waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The morning after the dinner, she woke up terrified. She spent the entire morning jumping at every sound expecting Emily Gilmore or Francine Hayden to either call her and rip her a new one, or show up at the house and do the same. She cancelled all of her appointments claiming the flu so she wouldn't be caught out in public unaware. All morning she expected it, but it never came.

She spent that afternoon trying to figure out where things stood. She knew Logan was furious with her, and wouldn't speak to her at all, but that wasn't really anything new, ever since his teenage years everything she tried to do was wrong in his eyes, and he spent more time not speaking to her than he did speaking to her. She knew Honor was more upset that her engagement announcement was overshadowed, but she'd get over it quickly. Elias had no room to be upset, he started the whole thing, but he still avoided her, most likely waiting to find out the ramifications of her actions. She had no clue how Mitchum felt, he was a mystery to her. He had been furious last night, but before they went to bed, he had apologized. She figured he was just waiting it out, and when the other shoe dropped, then he'd have an opinion on the matter.

She thought back over the matter and tried to figure out how she'd come to the conclusion she did about Rory Gilmore. She made mental list of all of the things she knew about Rory before dinner started.
She was Emily and Richard's only granddaughter.
Her mother was Lorelai, Emily and Richard's only daughter.
Lorelai was several years younger than Shira was.
Lorelai had never been married.
Right after Rory was born Lorelai dropped out of Hartford Society.
Lorelai didn't speak to Richard and Emily for years.

To her, all of those things pointed to Lorelai hating society and having an affair with a member of the household staff to piss her parents off. That's what Shira would have done in that position.

But if that wasn't the case, then why did Straub and Francine act like Rory was a complete stranger when they arrived?

Since it was mid afternoon and she still hadn't heard anything from Emily or Francine, she began to feel like maybe there wouldn't ever be a call. She decided to do a little discreet digging and see if she could find out the rest of the story. Rory was dating her son after all, she had a right to know what kind of girl he was dating.

Half a dozen well placed calls later, and she thought she'd pieced together the rest of the story. The Haydens wanted the kids to marry, and Lorelai refused. They blamed her, and thus Rory, for ruining Christopher's life. While Richard and Emily eventually made up with Lorelai, the Haydens never did. The Haydens and the Gilmores no longer socialized with each other.

Looking at the situation objectively, Shira actually thought that Lorelai Gilmore was incredibly brave. She gave up comfort and security to find happiness, not many society people would do that. And with a guy like Christopher Hayden ready to marry her, she would never have had to work a day in her life. While Shira wouldn't trade lives with the woman, she admired her for not getting married just because she was pregnant. But then again, maybe if Lorelai grew up the way Shira did, she would have done it differently. She didn't like to admit it, but she knew that most of the Hartford Elite thought she used her pregnancy with Honor to trap Mitchum into marrying her. While it was true that she was pregnant when they got married, she and Mitchum really did love each other.

The second morning after the dinner, Shira woke up a little more relaxed. She still jumped at the sound of the phone, half expecting it to be Francine, and half worried that it would be a member of the DAR calling to ask for the inside scoop. Again, no calls came. Honor finally called her, and she was no longer mad, she was to eager to start wedding planning. With the exception of asking her mother if she got the taste of foot out of her mouth, she let the whole incident drop.

Now she was annoyed that she'd cancelled her appointments with the flu, and wished she'd used something easier to get over like food poisoning or an allergy attack so she could at least go out and it wouldn't cause suspicions if she were seen.

The third morning after the dinner, Shira began to grow more anxious again. She still hadn't heard a word from Emily or Francine, or any of the girls in the DAR, but she noticed that Mitchum had grown increasingly stressed out as well. He was like her barometer for normalcy. If he felt that something wasn't right, then it probably wasn't. And he had yet to reassure her and tell her that everything would be okay, or that she needn't worry anymore.

She smoked her fourth cigarette of the day and tried to figure out what, if anything, was coming. Maybe since Straub and Francine never acknowledged Rory, and Francine and Emily never spoke the whole incident would be forgotten. No one outside of those present at the table would ever need to know about it. She smiled and scrubbed out her cigarette, momentarily feeling like everything could go back to normal. Then she reexamined the situation. She realized that she was being incredibly naïve. She instantly lit a new cigarette and remembered that the Haydens were far too proud to let such an insult drop all together.

Would this insecure feeling ever go away?

By the third day after that dreaded dinner arrived Mitchum Huntzberger was seriously pissed off, if there were going to be repercussions, he wanted to know what they were.

The first morning he went to his office expecting some sort of repercussion. A curt email from Straub or potentially Richard. Mitchum could understand that feathers had been ruffled, but he also could easily separate business from personal. He found lots of his employees fell into this mistake. They didn't learn early enough that you could respect a person professionally and not like them personally, or in turn, that you may like a person on a personal level but never ever want to do business with them. When he hadn't heard from Straub by noon he decided that the judge may need some time to cool down. The deal could wait a day or two, no big deal.

He sat at his desk reflecting on the situation in a tumble of emotions. Part of him was angry at Logan for putting them in the situation. Unlike Shira, Mitchum wasn't blind to his son's reputation, he knew that for the last five years Logan had basically screwed anything in a skirt. Mitchum was fine with that, Logan had to get it out of his system so he could eventually settle down with a proper society wife, preferably one of Shira's choosing, and take over HPG. He was angry that Logan screwed up the plan. But part of him swelled with pride at the sight of his son thundering away at his mother and grandfather, protecting this girl from his family. He remembered the first time he took Shira home to meet his parents, and having an extremely similar conversation with Elias and Anne, his mother.

He was also irritated at his father. He knew the old man was losing it, but he didn't realize he was that far gone. He couldn't believe his father had the audacity to tell Logan that Rory was the kind of girl that you sleep with, not the kind you marry, in front on Rory. That was completely inappropriate, in any society.

Lastly he thought of his wife. He didn't know how to feel towards her at the moment. He knew how badly she wanted to be the one to pick Logan's future wife, but really to insult the girl to her face! He wanted to blame the alcohol, but again, she was the one who chose to consume so much of it. She was mortified and apologetic, of course, but he decided to delay his feelings until the repercussions appeared. What was the point of being mad about something that yet to cause problems?

The second day after the dinner Mitchum had almost forgotten what had happened. He was busy at work as usual, and didn't have the extra time to worry about what was potentially coming at him. He would have forgotten completely had he not tried to call Logan about something else, but having his son put him straight to voicemail all day long was enough to trigger his memory.

"Logan," he finally started a voicemail after his sixth call. "I know you're upset, but that doesn't mean you can neglect your duties to this family. You need to call me back as soon as possible." He slammed down the phone and bellowed for his assistant. "Bethany, I can I get a cup of coffee in here. And have I had any calls from Straub Hayden?"

A few moments later she showed up in his office with a fresh cup of coffee. "I'm sorry sir, no calls from Mr. Hayden."

"It's Judge Hayden," he automatically corrected.

"Of course sir, no calls from Judge Hayden either." She left his office before he could say anything else.

What the hell was Straub playing at? They had business together, he couldn't just ignore it!

The third morning had Mitchum dying to get out of the house. Shira was jumping at every little noise, and Elias seemed to have forgotten about the whole debacle and was now riding Mitchum's case as to why he hadn't called Straub about the deal.

"Mitchum, you can't let some thing so petty get in the way of this deal. Call Hayden and hammer out the details," Elias told him over breakfast.

"Dad, you insulted his granddaughter! To his face! You know if someone ever insulted Logan or Honor in front of you you'd never let them hear the end of it. I'm giving the Judge a day or two to calm down."

"If you haven't had any trouble yet, I'm sure everything is fine. Maybe he forgot!"

"You want to talk to him so badly, you call him," Mitchum snapped. "Wait, you'll just make it worse, don't do anything."

He abandoned his half finished coffee and headed to the office.

By the end of the day though, he found himself in his father's line of thinking. He asked Bethany to track down the judge's home phone number and decided to take matters into his own hands.

He waited impatiently as the phone rang. "Hayden residence," the maid answered.

"Yes, may I speak to Straub please," Mitchum asked politely.

"I'm sorry, Judge Hayden isn't home yet, can I take a message and have him return your call?" she asked.

"Yes, please have him call Mitchum Huntzberger. He has my number."

"Very well sir."

He hung up the phone and began to wait again.

AN: The next chapter with be Straub and Francine – I just wanted to show Shira and Mitchum twisting in the wind for a bit.

I hope you like it and I look forward to hearing your opinions on it either way.

Thanks for reading – S