ch 18

Lorelai looked at Rory in shock. "I can't believe you just did that!" she snapped.

Paris looked awestruck. "I've never seen anyone talk to Michael DuGrey that way."

Rory shrugged but remained silent.

"You do realize that Emily is never going to let me live this one down don't you?"

Again Rory shrugged.

"Say something!" Lorelai snapped.

Rory took a deep breath before saying anything. "Is she trying to make me hate her?" she snapped pointing back towards the house.

Lorelai was about to answer her when Emily stormed out the front door and over to them. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, you will go right back in there and apologize to Michael DuGrey."

Rory looked at Paris for a moment before Paris went back inside. "Why would you do that? Why would you think that after dinner last week I would want to meet Tristan's parents? Why?" Rory screamed at her grandmother.

"Rory..."

"I hate those people. They treat their son like garbage. They don't have the slightest idea how to be decent people. And you thought it would be a good idea to introduce me to them! Why?!"

"I thought youmight want to..."

"No! You didn't think she might want to anything!" Lorelai snapped. "You did what you always do. Try to ruin things. I had just gotten her back and you had to go and pull this! You pulled this last week when I asked you not to say anything to her and you had to deliberately ignore me! And what happened? She ran away!"

"Lorelai..."

Lorelai looked over at Rory. "Rory get in the car," she said forcefully before turning back to Emily. "Don't expect us here next Friday evening."

"We had an agreement." Emily snapped furiously.

"We never agreed that I would allow you to subject my daughter to your friends and your problems." Lorelai snapped angrily. "You have no right to expect her to civil when you purposely cause her pain."

"She humiliated me at my own party."

"You humiliated her. How do you think she feels right now?! You saw her last week. You saw how she reacted to just the mention of Tristan! You heard her insult his parents at dinner last week Mother, why would you do this? Why would you introduce her to them? Why would you throw them in her face like that?"

Emily opened her mouth but closed it again finding no words.

"That's what I thought. Good night mother." Lorelai snapped before heading off in the same direction Rory had gone.

xxxxxx

Monday came quickly and Rory was sure that thanks to Summer, Chilton would be talking about her and her encounter with the Dugrey's so she was surprised when no one mentioned it. It appeared that someone had been smiling down on her because it seemed that Summer hadn't heard it or about it. She had been expecting Summer, she hadn't been expecting Duncan and Bowman standing at her locker. She moved slowly towards it not sure why she felt so nervous. "Can I help you with something?" she asked when she finally got to her locker.

"Hey Mary." Duncan said snidely.

"Duncan." Rory replied icily

"Tell me something Mary." Bowman began.

"What's that Bowman?" Rory asked annoyed.

"How does it feel knowing you're the reason the Dugrey's sent Tristan to Switzerland?" Bowman finished smiling widely at Rory.

Rory opened her mouth but found herself speechless. She opened her mouth again this time finding words. "Excuse me?" she snapped.

Bowman smiled glad that his attempt to ruffle her had worked. "I remember that night clearly..."

"So do I. You were the moron who thought it would be funny to break into your dad's safe. If anyone's responsible I'd say it was you." she said icily.

"The only reason Tristan went through with it was because he was so pissed off at you." Duncan added in Bowman's defense.
Rory found herself speechless again.

"Mary's got nothing to say?" Bowman snapped.

"Guess not." Duncan added, "It's a pity. Remember that day she claimed a deer hit her car and she missed that test in Medina's class?"

"Yeah. What about it?" Bowman asked

"Well, if I remember correctly, Mary's sexy when she's all fired up." Duncan said smirking while reaching out slowly as if to touch her.

Later on she would swear that her hand acted on its own volition because she honestly can't remember telling her brain to tell her hand to slap him across the face. In fact, it wasn't until Duncan took a step towards her angrily that she realized she had hit him.

"You bitch." he glared, "Who do you think you are?"

"Someone who'd prefer you not leering at her." came a voice from behind the two boys.

Rory had been too busy thinking about what they had said to notice Max walk up behind them but she had been glad to see him because Duncan looked like he was going to hit her back. She saw Max's hand on Duncan and realized that Max must have been what stopped Duncan from taking more than one step towards her.

Max glared at Duncan and Bowman. "I'd like to see you both in the headmaster's office, wait for me there." he snapped at them.

"For what?" Duncan snapped. "She slapped me!"

"Well, we'll start with harassment and then move on to sexual harassment. Then, we can add on the use of profanity on school grounds. Now move it." When neither made an attempt to move he yelled "Now!!"

Once Duncan and Bowman were gone he turned back to Rory. "Are you alright?" he asked concerned.

Rory nodded. "Am I in trouble?" she asked softly already sure she knew the answer

Max sighed. "Maybe. You did hit him. It's not really up to me. You know that." he said sadly.

Rory frowned. "I'm going to the headmaster's office with you aren't I?" she said tiredly.

Max frowned "I'm afraid so kiddo."

Rory put her books back in her locker. "Great."
xxxxxx

Paris had been settling into her English class when one of Summer's lackeys burst into the room beaming.

"Who else saw Mary totally bitch slap Duncan?" She asked smiling widely.

"What?!" Paris said loudly.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Duncan, Bowman, and Mary were having some kind of conversation, I was too far away to hear it, but it apparently turned ugly cause she totally slapped him right across the face. Serves him right the little toad."

"Yeah, but she's lucky Mr. Medina stepped in when he did because Duncan looked like he was going to hit her back. He actually took a step toward her with his fists clenched," another girl said.

"Did you hear what they were fighting about?" Paris asked.

"Well... yeah. But I'm surprised at you Gellar, you aren't normally one for gossip."

"Then you should know I'm not kidding around here. What were they talking about?"

The girl rolled her eyes." What do you think? What else does Mary fight about? I'll give you one guess."

"Tristan." Paris replied

"Wow you really are smart." the girl said boredly

xxxxxx

Max dreaded the call he had to make. He had assured Headmaster Charleston that he'd handle Rory when something requiring his attention had came up. Duncan and Bowman's parents had came to pick up their newly suspended sons about five minutes ago and Rory was still sitting in his classroom crying. He sighed sadly when Lorelai answered the phone. "Lorelai, Hi."

"Max?" she asked confused.

"Yeah. Um... listen I need you to come up to the school and take Rory home." he said quickly.

"Why? What happened? Is she ok?" Lorelai demanded.
"Let's talk about it when you get here, okay?" he said calmly.

"Max!"

"She's physically fine, Lorelai. I'll tell you the rest when you get here." Max said reassuringly.

"I'll be right there." Lorelai said.

When Lorelai showed up no more than fifteen minutes later, Max was sure she broke every speeding law ever written in the books. "Where's Rory?" she asked breathlessly implying that she had been running.

"She's fine. She's in my classroom. Let's talk here first, and then I'll take you to her." He said leading her into the teacher's lounge.

"What's going on Max?"

Max took a deep breath. "I did everything I could to help her, but Rory got herself suspended."

"Excuse me?" Lorelai snapped. "Rory was suspended? For how long?"

"A week. But I'm going to personally ensure she doesn't get behind her on her school work..."

"Max you don't honestly think I care about her school work right now do you? What happened?"

Max sighed. "She hit another student."

"She hit someone?" Lorelai asked shocked.

"She was provoked..."

"Was it Summer?"

Max shook his head. "Duncan Raymonds."

"Duncan? As in a guy?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes. He and Bowman Edwards were also suspended. The two of them for two weeks."

"You said she was provoked?"

Max frowned at tried to push down the blood boiling feeling he had experienced when the altercation occurred. "I walked up behind Mr. Raymonds just as he made a suggestive comment to Rory..."

"Suggestive like sexual?" Lorelai asked rage sparkling in her eyes.
"Yes. I was about to open my mouth to say something to him when Rory slapped him hard across the face." He said pausing to regain his composure. "He stepped towards her and I grabbed him before he could get to her because I honestly think he was going to hit her back."

"So this jerk sexually harasses my daughter and she gets suspended?"

Max sighed. "Lorelai, Charleston has been overlooking a lot of things when it comes to Rory this year. Screaming matches in the hallway, cutting classes, a physical fight was the last straw. I managed to talk him down from two weeks to one. She got lucky."

Lorelai sighed and laid her head down on the table they had sat down at. "I don't know what to do anymore Max."

"She'll get through this..." Max said softly, "She just needs some time..."

"She's had plenty of time. She's had months. I can't keep watching her suffer." Lorelai said, tears forming in her eyes, "I've done everything I could think of. I even talked to Paris. I think if she could just talk to Tristan..."

"Can she do that?"

"Talk to Tristan?" she asked. When he nodded she shook her head. "Not unless someone finds him."

"Last I heard he was in Switzerland." Max said helpfully.

Lorelai shook her head. "He's in a military school in North Carolina."

"Oh." Max said surprised.

"Yeah. Only problem is she has no idea which one. Apparently there's quite a few there."

Max sighed. "Yeah there is. You really think talking to Tristan will help?"

"I think it's the only thing I haven't tried yet." Lorelai admitted.

Max nodded. "I have a few contacts in the military school system. Let me see what I can dig up."

Lorelai looked at him like a he was a bottle of water and she was dying of thirst. "You think you can find him?"

Max nodded. "I'll do my best. I told you I'd do anything to help her. You know how much Rory means to me Lorelai."
Lorelai nodded. "Thank you Max." she said before throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

xxxxxx

By the time Thursday rolled around, Lorelai thought Rory couldn't possibly contain any more tears. She had cried herself to sleep Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. It was breaking Lorelai's heart to see Rory like this. She couldn't get Rory to talk to her about what had happened in that hallway, all Rory kept telling her was that Tristan being sent away was her fault. And no matter how many times Lorelai assured her that she was wrong, that Tristan getting sent away was Tristan's fault, Rory still maintained it was hers.

She had never thought she'd be so glad to see Paris Gellar Thursday evening. She had pulled her aside the second she walked in the door and told her that Rory was blaming herself, and Paris nodded at the information even though she was confused as to why anything could have been Rory's fault. After she assured Lorelai that she'd take care of it, she handed Rory's books and assignments to Lorelai she left with the promise of being back the next day to study for a Calculus test.

Lorelai had sat in the living room trying to block out everything. It must have worked cause she didn't even hear the phone ring until it was too late and the answering machine had picked up. Lorelai, It's Max. So listen, I have that number we talked about. Give me a call.

Lorelai immediately dialed Max back, who handed over the number without hesitation. Lorelai scribbled it down and thanked him profusely before hanging up. She smiled widely, grabbed up Rory's assignments, and walked towards Rory's room. Taking a deep breath she opened the door. "Hey kiddo." she said softly.

Rory looked up from her book. "Hey."

Lorelai walked over and sat on Rory's bed. "Okay…so Paris stopped by with some of your school work. She said she'd be back tomorrow to study for a calculus test."

"Okay."

"And there's one other thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"Mom..." Rory said trying to cut her off.

"This should get you some answers," she said handing Rory a piece of paper.

Rory looked at the paper for a long moment before finally realizing what the scrap of paper said. She let out a breath she wasn't aware she had sucked in. "Is this..."
"A number to reach Tristan at?" she asked smiling. "Why yes, I do believe it is."