3 - Telling the parents
"Are you ready?" Rory asked, as she and Lorelai stood outside the Gilmore house.
"If I say no, can we leave?" Lorelai tried, only getting a glare from Rory. "Fine, but I'm not ringing the doorbell."
"No problem." Rory reached out and pressed the doorbell.
"Jeez, give a girl a minute, will you?" Lorelai complained, but Rory just ignored her.
"Yes?" A tall, blonde girl opened the door.
"Hi, we're here for dinner, they're expecting us." Rory said, and the maid stepped aside to let them into the house.
"This way, please." She said.
"You are going to tell them, right?" Rory whispered as the maid led them into the living room where Emily was waiting for them.
"Yes, mother." Lorelai replied in a hushed voice, not wanting Emily to hear her.
It was now mid August, and Rory had spent the past month trying to convince her mother that she needed to tell Emily and Richard about the baby. Lorelai had so far been able to use the excuse that she didn't want to jinx anything, since it was considered bad luck to talk about a pregnancy during the first three months. The fact that Emily and Richard had spent the past couple of months in Europe had also helped her case. But now, those months had passed without any problems, and the Gilmores were back from Europe.
Since people were bound to start noticing in a not too distant future, Lorelai had finally agreed that it was time to tell the parents. That didn't mean that she was looking forward to it, though, something that Rory was painfully aware of after the thirty minute drive from Stars Hollow.
"Lorelai, Rory, it's good to see the two of you." Emily said as they entered the living room.
"Hi, Grandma, how was Europe?" Rory asked, giving her grandmother a hug.
"Europe was wonderful, as always." Emily replied, walking over to the drink cart. "What can I get you girls?" She asked pouring herself a glass of whine.
"Just a coke for me, Grandma." Rory said. She didn't think it would matter if she was fifteen or thirty five, the thought of drinking alcohol in front of her grandparents was just too weird.
"And you, Lorelai?" Emily handed Rory her coke.
"I'll have the same, thanks." Lorelai said, getting a strange look from Emily, but she apparently decided to let it go.
"So, Rory, how is the internship going?" Emily asked, handing Lorelai her soda and sitting down on the sofa opposite from Lorelai and Rory.
"It's really good, Grandma. I'm having so much fun and learning a lot." Rory replied.
"And Lorelai, how are things at the inn?" Emily turned her attention to Lorelai.
"They're great, mom. Listen, where's dad?" There was no way she was doing this twice.
"He had some important call from Japan or somewhere." Emily replied in an irritated voice. "Richard!" She then called in the direction of his study. "Are you joining us any time today?"
"I'm here, Emily, no need to yell." Richard said, entering the living room. "Lorelai, Rory, it's good to see you."
"Hey, Grandpa." Rory said, standing up to give her grandfather a hug. "Did you have fun in Europe?"
"Oh, yes, it was wonderful." Richard replied. "Your grandmother has a whole album of photos. I'm sure she'd love to show you."
"Hey dad." Lorelai piped up from the sofa.
"Lorelai, how are you?" Richard said, sitting down next to Emily.
"Well, actually..."
"Now?" Rory cut her off in a low voice.
"Now is as good a time as any, don't you think?" Lorelai replied in a whisper.
"Shouldn't you at least wait until after dinner?" Rory asked.
"I just want to get this over with." Lorelai explained, giving Rory a pleading look.
"Fine, but if we have to leave you're paying for dinner."
"Don't I always?" Lorelai gave her parents a smile. "Sorry about that."
"You know, it's very impolite to whisper." Emily complained.
"I'm sorry, Grandma, it was my fault." Rory offered, and Lorelai gave her a grateful look. "Anyway, mom has something she wants to tell you." Both Emily and Richard turned their attention to Lorelai.
"OK, I might as well just say it." She started. "But before I do, I just want to say that if you can't support me in my decision or if you in any way disrespect it – and that includes lectures, disappointed comments and everything else like that – then I will have no choice but to cut you out of my life. And believe me, I'm serious."
"Now, Lorelai, don't be so overdramatic." Richard interjected. "Of course we don't want that."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Lorelai said under her breath before continuing. "OK, now that that's over with..." She took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."
Both Emily and Richard stared at her for a few moments, and then Emily was the first to speak.
"You're pregnant?" She said, her voice emptied of any emotions.
Lorelai only nodded, waiting for the lecture she knew would come. But Emily didn't say anything else.
"Well, that's wonderful news." Richard said, surprising the three women in the room.
"It... it is?" Lorelai said, dumbfounded.
"Isn't it?" Richard replied.
"Well... I guess... yeah." Lorelai finally managed, still in shock from her father's words. He was actually happy about it?
"This calls for champage." Richard announced standing up. "Non alcoholic for you, of course." He added, giving Lorelai a stern look. "Liesel, three glasses of champagne and one sparkling water." He called in the direction of the kitchen and then sat down again. Emily was still staring in front of her, lost in space.
"Mom? You OK?" Lorelai snapped her fingers in front of Emily's face.
"What? Oh, I'm fine." She replied, coming out of her daze.
"Well..." Lorelai said, dragging the word out.
"I don't know what you want from me?" Emily refused to meet Lorelai eyes.
"I just want a hint here, happy, furious, anything." Lorelai insisted. Emily was silent for a moment, apparently thinking of something to say that didn't sound too condescending.
"If this is what you want, then I guess I am happy for you." She finally came up with, and Lorelai decided to believe her, at least for the moment. She knew Emily was not too happy with the situation, but she also knew that she would come around, and maybe that was all she could ask for at the moment.
"Ah, champagne." Richard said, standing up and taking two of the glasses that the maid had carried into the living room on a silver tray. He handed them to Emily and Rory and then took the remaining two glasses.
"This one is the sparkling water, sir." The maid said, indicating the glass in his left hand. Richard nodded and handed the glass to Lorelai before raising his own.
"To a new member of the Gilmore family." He said, smiling at his daughter and granddaughter. "May he or she be as smart as their big sister."
"I'll drink to that." Rory agreed, taking a sip of her champagne, before frowning. "Right, I don't like champagne."
Emily raised the glass to her lips and dranksome of the liquid, but didn't say anything. Luckily for her, they were saved by the maid a moment later.
"Dinner is served in the dining room." She announced before leaving the room.
"Shall we?" Richard said, offering Rory his arm.
"We shall." Rory accepted, and Richard led her into the dining room, leaving Lorelai and Emily in the living room.
"So, mom, tell me what you really think." Lorelai said, her voice dry.
"I'm not going to lie and say that I'm happythat you've decided to have another child by yourself." Emily admitted. "But I trust you to make the right decision, it is your life after all."
"Thanks, mom." Lorelai said, knowing it was the most she'd get out of her mother that evening.
"I'm guessing the father is that diner owner of yours?" Emily assumed.
"His name is Luke, mom, and yes." Lorelai replied.
"I thought he was out of the picture?"
"He is." Lorelai replied, studying her shoes intently.
"Does he even know about this?" Emily asked.
"No, he doesn't." Lorelai admitted.
"You don't think that maybe you should tell him?"
"Jeez, mom, I hadn't thought about that!" Lorelai said sarcastically.
"There's no need to take that tone with me." Emily replied, frowning.
"Sorry, mom, it's just..." Lorelai sighed. "I don't know where Luke is. He left town about a month ago, and I haven't been able to reach him."
"He's left town?" Emily asked, as if she thought she'd misheard.
"Yes, mom, does that make you happy? He's out of our lives." Lorelai said, raising her voice and shooting Emily a pained look before walking out of the living room.
"Of course it doesn't." Emily replied quietly, but Lorelai was already out of earshot.
xxxxx
"The chicken was delicious, Grandma." Rory said an hour later, as the maid cleared their plates off the table.
"I'm glad you liked it, it's a recipe I picked up in Paris." Emily replied.
"Yeah, the chicken was great, mom." Lorelai agreed. "So, what's for desert?"
"Lorelai, you just had three helpings of chicken, aren't you full yet?" Richard asked in an amazed voice.
"Dad, how many times have we had dinner together in the past thirty eight years?" Lorelai said. "Haven't you realized by now that it takes a lot of food for me to even be in the vicinity of full. Plus, I'm eating for two now." She patted her stomach.
"Considering how much you normally eat, that should end well." Emily commented.
"Jeez, thanks mom." Lorelai said sarcastically.
"Didn't the doctor tell you to watch what you're eating?" Richard asked. "You have seen a doctor, right?"
"Of course I have, dad." Lorelai replied. "And all she said was no caffeine and cut own on the sugar, which I am."
"Can you imagine mom without coffee for six more months?" Rory said, giving Richard a fake look of horror.
"And the moodswings." He added, and they both started laughing.
"I just love entertaining you two." Lorelai said dryly.
"Sorry, mom." Rory said, holding back another laugh.
"Oh, you will be, when I send you out for weird food in the middle of the night." Lorelai threatened.
"You wouldn't!"
"Oh I would, and I will." Lorelai promised, enjoying the now truly horrified look on her daughter's face.
"But... but... I'll be at Yale!" Rory exclaimed, grateful to have found a loophole.
"So? Yale isn't that far away." Lorelai shrugged. "You're wishing you'd picked Harvard now, aren't you?" Rory was about to reply, but was interrupted by her cell phone. Checking the caller ID she gave her grandmother an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, it's Logan, is it OK if I take it?" She said, and Emily nodded.
"Of course, you take your time." She said, and Rory happily jumped up from her chair and left the room.
"How come Rory can answer her phone during dinner, and the minute my phone rings I get a lecture?" Lorelai asked.
"Logan is all the way over in England and I'm sure he's very busy with work, those two have to take every opportunity they get to talk to each other." Emily replied. "Thank you." She added to the maid who had just served desert.
"It's, like, two a.m. in England." Lorelai argued.
"Just eat your desert, Lorelai."
xxxxx
"Hello?" Rory answered the phone.
"Hey, Ace, hope I'm not interrupting anything." Logan's voice came over the line.
"Just Friday night dinner, so nothing important." Rory replied. "You actually saved me from mom."
"What's Lorelai up to now?"
"She was just telling me how I'd have to get up in the middle of the night to get whatever crazy food she wants at the moment." Rory explained. Logan knew about Lorelai's pregnancy, since Rory had needed someone to vent her insecure feelings about the situationto every now and then.
"It's just until you go back to school in a few weeks." Logan tried to cheer her up.
"Oh, no, I tried that too." Rory said. "She says she'll call me even then, since Yale isn't that far from home."
"She's just pulling your leg." Logan said, laughing a little.
"Man, I hope so." Rory replied. "So, enough talk about my mother, how is everything on the other side of the Atlantic?"
"Everything's good, just got back from another board meeting." Logan said.
"At two in the morning? On a Friday night?" Rory asked.
"I tell you, I didn't think these meetings could get any worse, but try listening to a guy going on and on about how many readers the paper has lost over the past month after being up for nineteen hours straight."
"Poor baby." Rory said in a childish tone.
"I'm not complaining too much though." Logan said, and Rory scoffed. "What? I don't, do I?"
"Oh, of course not." Rory said in a sarcastic voice.
"OK, I'm sorry. But I actually called with some good news." Logan revealed.
"I like the sound of that." Rory replied.
"What are you doing in about four months?" Logan asked.
"Probably living on coffee to get through finals." Rory reasoned.
"OK, but after finals."
"I'm spending Christmas with mom in the Hollow, why?" Rory could feel her heart starting to beat a little faster. Was he saying what she hoped he was?
"Well, how about I join you?" Logan suggested.
"You want to spend Christmas with my mother?" Rory asked in astonishment.
"If it means I get to spend it with you, yeah." Logan replied.
"That's so sweet." Rory gushed. "And I would love to spend Christmas with you. I'll have to run it by mom, but I don't think she'll have any objections."
"Good, then it's settled." Logan concluded. "Now, I'm flying in on the fifteenth, but I have to spend a couple of days with the Addams first, so how about I pick you up after your finals are done and we head out to Stars Hollow together?"
"That sounds great." Rory agreed. "And I think it's rude to call your family 'the Addams'."
"I would never do it to their faces."
"Oh, sure."
"Now, I've gotta get some sleep or I won't be able to function tomorrow." Logan said. "Talk to you on Sunday?"
"Talk to you then." Rory hung up the phone and went back into the dining room.
"What did Loooogan want?" Lorelai asked.
"He just told me he'd be home for Christmas." Rory replied, ignoring the silly voice her mother had used.
"Isn't that romantic? I could just die!" Lorelai's comment earned her a glare from Emily. "What?"
"Sometimes I wonder who the child in your family is." Emily said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah yeah." Lorelai replied, checking her watch. "Hey, hurry up to finish desert, we have to go."
"It's only eight thirty." Emily objected.
"I have to stop by the inn to check on a couple of things, there's a big wedding tomorrow." Lorelai explained, and Emily raised an eyebrow. "What? It's true! Rory, tell her."
"Really, Grandma, there is a wedding tomorrow, and Sookie would completely freak out if we didn't check to make sure everything has arrived. It's the only way mom could convince her to take the evening off, otherwise she'd have slept in the kitchen." Rory confirmed, finishing the last of her chocolate cake.
"Oh, fine. You can leave." Emily obliged.
"Thanks, mom." Lorelai said, standing up.
"I'll see you next week." Emily said, walking towards the stairs. "Goodnight."
"Night, Grandma." Rory replied.
Richard escorted Lorelai and Rory into the foyer.
"Rory, why don't you go start the car, I want to speak to your mother for a moment." He told Rory, who gave Lorelai a questioning look. Lorelai nodded that it was OK.
"OK, night Grandpa." Rory gave Richard a hug before leaving and closing the door behind her. A moment later they heard the car start.
"What is it, dad?" Lorelai asked.
"Your mother will come around." He said, giving her a small smile.
"I know, I get it. I just sprung this on you without any warning, I get that she was... surprised." Lorelai decided to go with.
"Emily will always be Emily, but I know she'll love this child as much as she does Rory." Richard assured his daughter. "It'll just take her some time getting used to the idea. And I will talk to her."
"Thanks, dad." Lorelai said. "For at least pretending to be happy for me. You did a good job."
"I am most certainly not pretending." Richard said, sounding a little offended. "I think it will be nice with another child around. And though it may not be under the best circumstances, this child will not want for anything as long as I am around." He pulled out a check book from his pocket. "Now, I know your house is rather small, and there's no bedroom except yours and Rory's, so you should consider having an extension built."
"I already have, but it's pretty expensive." Lorelai admitted.
"I am writing you a blank check." Richard said, scribbling on the check book. "You get in contact with a good contractor and fill in the amount he asks for. And if there's anything else that you need, you call me." He handed Lorelai the check.
"Dad, I can't take this." She objected, trying to give the check back.
"You most certainly can." He insisted. "I... overheard your talk with your mother earlier and I understand that Luke is not in the picture."
"No, he's not." Lorelai confirmed. "But I can do this, I don't need your help."
"I know you don't, you never did." He gave her a pleading look. "Please, let me do this."
Lorelai's expression softened as she realized her father really wanted to help her, and not for any selfish reasons.
"OK." She put the check in her purse. "Thanks, dad." She reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"You're welcome."
"Bye." Lorelai closed the door behind her and got in the passenger seat of the jeep.
"What did he want?" Rory asked, pulling out of the driveway.
"He gave me a check." Lorelai said, still amazed by her dad's words.
"A check?"
"Yeah. He told me to get a contractor on building an extension, and to fill out the amount I needed." Lorelai pulled the check from her purse and showed it to Rory.
"A blank check? Wow." Rory commented.
"Yeah, wow." Lorelai agreed.
"The Gilmore's never cease to amaze you." Rory said, and Lorelai nodded.
They drove in silence for a little while before Rory spoke again.
"So, two down, three to go, huh?" Lorelai groaned in response.
"Don't remind me!"
xxxxx
Emily was watching through a narrow opening in the curtains as Lorelai and Rory drove away. Letting the curtain slide closed, she turned around as her husband came into the living room.
"You could have at least tried to sound happy for her." Richard chided.
"She completely surprised us, what did she expect?" Emily asked. "Not everyone is as good an actor as you, Richard."
"Is it that hard for everyone to believe that I might actually be happy to have another grandchild?" Richard shook his head. "We have another chance now, Emily, to see this child grow up, be a part of his or her life, in a way we never got to do with Rory." He gave her a pleading look. "Please, try not to ruin this."
Emily stood rooted to the spot as Richard left the salon, his words running through her mind. Did he really think that she would intentionally do something to cause Lorelai to remove herself from their lives? But why wouldn't he, it was mainly her fault that it had happened twenty-two years earlier.
Sighing, she looked out the window in the direction of where Lorelai's car had disappeared, and she made a decision. No matter what it took, she would do things the right way this time. She would respect Lorelai's decision and be happy for her. Feeling a smile form on her face, she realized it wasn't going to be too hard. She was already excited about the new grandchild.