AN: Just a quick note for the SMK fans, the Francine appearing in this chapter is Francine Hayden of GG, not Francine Desmond of SMK.
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By the time Amanda settled everything on the home front, Lee had made their travel arrangements with Billy and each had gone to their separate homes to pack, the couple had just enough time for a quick fast food lunch before hitting the road. They chatted for awhile about how to approach the wayward teen once they got to Stars Hollow, but then Lee noticed that Amanda had gone eerily quiet as she perused the case files again.
"Everything okay over there?" he questioned, his brow furrowed in concern. It wasn't like her not to be babbling about something unless she had something really serious on her mind.
She glanced over at him and gave him a half-smile. "Yeah, I was just...just thinking."
"You care to share any of those thoughts?" he asked. "We did say we were going to use this time to work on getting to know each other better, didn't we?"
"Well, I was thinking about what you said to Emily when she made the crack about me being a single mom; you know how you said my circumstances were different?"
"And?" he gently probed.
She let out a little sigh. "It was really sweet of you to defend my honor the way you did, but honestly, when I think about it. It really wasn't that different."
"How do you figure? You were older and married," he argued.
"No, I wasn't," she corrected him. "Well, older, yes, but not that much older than Lorelai is now. I was not quite twenty-two and I had just graduated from UVA when I found out that I was expecting Phillip and I wasn't married at the time."
Lee's eyes widened in surprise and he gaped at her open-mouthed. "You weren't?"
She shot him a slightly perturbed look. "Watch the road," she admonished him lightly. "And no, I wasn't. I thought you knew that. I thought that's why you were asking me all those questions about my divorce a few months ago when Joe first came back to D.C. I thought you'd done the math and figured out that Phillip was born only six months into our marriage and that that was why Joe started law school a semester later than he should have."
"Huh." He shook his head. "No, I honestly never made the connection."
"Well, I was thinking, what if I'd made a different choice in those days? I mean, Joe and I had already sort of talked about getting married and having a family down the road, but we planned for it to be after he finished law school, not before he ever started so that we'd be more financially sound when we had kids."
"Hmm...Do you think maybe that's why he got the itch to travel so much? He felt tied down before he was ready?"
"The thought certainly has crossed my mind a few times over the years," she confessed with a grim tight-lipped expression. "Now more than ever with this case we're on, especially with the way Emily talked about how adamant Lorelai was that she wasn't going to marry Christopher. While Emily seems...I don't know...a bit high-strung, I can't help remembering what she said, 'When you get pregnant, you get married' because that was pretty much my thinking when I married Joe; that it was just the right thing to do. But what if I hadn't? What if I'd decided to go it alone like Lorelai? While it's still somewhat frowned upon, it was during the height of the sexual revolution when I got pregnant, so it wouldn't have been all that shocking for me to decide to be a single mom to my baby. What if-"
"I think the big difference there is that you had loving, supportive parents to back you up," Lee interrupted her ramble. "I mean, look at just today and how your mom has no problem looking after Phillip and Jamie for you while you're gone and how many times has she stepped in like that when you and I have been out of town...or just plain in hot water where you couldn't get home to the kids?"
"Yes, but she always assumes I'm having some crazy, clandestine love affair when I don't come home as planned," she reminded him with a laugh.
He grinned at her and reached for her hand. "Who knows? After this weekend, maybe you will be," he teased. "We are sharing a room, after all."
"We'll just have to see what happens on that front," she replied with a flirtatious smile as she squeezed his hand. "My mother would certainly be thrilled by it."
"Which brings me back to my point; your mother supports whatever decisions you make in your life. Sure, she may not always approve and may ask you a lot of probing questions, but still...she always supports you. I get the impression that Lorelai never had that. As for the other part, knowing you the way I do, I just can't see you making another choice. Besides, you ended up being a single mom anyway, so what difference would it really have made? Joe still left to do his own thing like it seems this Hayden kid is."
"Hmmm..." She turned her attention back to the file, her thoughts in a whirl.
"What?"
"What you just said...about Christopher Hayden and what you said in the office about him. Maybe he did lie to the police about knowing where she was."
He cast another sideways glance at her and could almost see the wheels turning in her head. "Oh no," he groaned. "I know that look. You wanna' stop in Hartford, don't you?"
"Well, I'm thinking...Lorelai doesn't know us, so we may not be able to talk her into contacting her parents, but she does know him."
"In more ways than one," Lee jibed.
"Would you behave?" She rolled her eyes and continued with her thoughts, "What I was thinking was that even if he was honest with the police and really doesn't know where she is, maybe he'd like to. After all, Rory is his daughter too and maybe...I don't know...maybe he'd like to see her and maybe he would be able to convince Lorelai to talk to her parents better than we could. He did want to marry her, didn't he?"
"Or maybe he didn't really want to marry her and like you said, it was the right thing to do so he only asked her out of obligation. I mean, the kid was sixteen too just like Lorelai. Do you honestly think that if Joe wasn't ready to be a husband and father at twenty-two that this kid was ready at age sixteen?"
"But don't you think it's worth at least checking into?"
"Not really," he sighed. "But obviously you do, so I guess we're stopping in Hartford."
She beamed at him. "Thank you."
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Standing outside the Hayden estate, Lee let out a low whistle while Amanda stated, "This place looks more like a mausoleum than a house."
Lee reached for her hand. "Are you still sure you want to do this?"
She squeezed his hand in return. She had to admit that it did look a bit daunting, but when had that ever stopped them during an investigation? With a firm nod she replied confidently, "Absolutely. I mean, who knows? Maybe Christopher is the reason she ran away, not her parents. The more we know before we see her, the better off we'll be."
"Okay," he replied skeptically. He released her hand and rang the doorbell. "But I can bet with people like this, we won't get to talk to more than a maid or a butler."
To his surprise, the door was opened by Christopher himself. When he saw Lee holding up his Agency badge, he sputtered, "Uh….uh…hi." He glanced nervously behind him and in a hushed tone, inquired, "You're here about Lorelai, aren't you?"
"Christopher, Dear, who is it?" Francine Hayden's voice sounded from the foyer. "And why are you answering the door? Why didn't you let the maid get it?"
"The maid's busy serving dinner, Mom," Chris answered with a shrug.
"Well, who has the bad taste to visit during dinner hours?" She yanked the door all the way open and looked Lee and Amanda up and down.
Despite the sneer on the other woman's face, Amanda greeted her pleasantly. "Hello, Mrs. Hayden. I'm Amanda King and this is Lee Stetson. We're investigating-"
"Oh, I can imagine what you're investigating," Mrs. Hayden interrupted, "That girl." She made a sour face.
"Mom," Chris groaned at her tone.
"We already told the police and the investigators who were here two weeks ago that we don't know anything about Lorelai, but if you ask me, it's just as well. I told Emily she should have just sent her to one of those places….you know…" She dropped her tone to just above a whisper, "…for girls like that."
"No, I'm afraid I don't know," Amanda replied sharply. "I was under the impression that Christopher and Lorelai were in this together and that there was talk of marriage at one point."
"All talk and only on Emily's side. She wanted my poor boy to grow up way too fast."
"What the hell is going on out here," Straub bellowed as he stomped from the dining room to the foyer. When he reached his destination, he demanded, "Who are you people?"
Lee started again to introduce them, but Chris interrupted, "They're looking for Lorelai."
"You listen to me," Straub began in a huff. "We already told you people we don't know anything more and it's not our fault that the Gilmores can't keep track of their trampy daughter."
Amanda bit back a retort and smiled again. "You may not, but we were hoping that Christopher might know a little more since they were involved once; not only that, but we might actually have figured out where she is and we thought that maybe Christopher would want to know since she does have his child with her."
"If it even is his child. You know how girls like her are. They'll blame any guy around when-"
"Dad, stop!" Chris protested weakly. "Rory is mine!" He turned his attention to Lee and Amanda. "You say you might know where they are?" he questioned with a hopeful note in his voice.
Straub gave Christopher a stern, scolding look. "I say good riddance. Now my son can still have a normal life and put this nasty affair behind him."
"Dad, I-"
"Christopher, go eat your dinner and let the adults handle this," the boy's father barked.
"But isn't he an adult?" Amanda interjected. "He is eighteen, isn't he? I mean, if he wants to see his child, why-"
"Who the hell are you to tell me how to deal with my son?" Straub barked at her.
"Dad, she is your granddaughter…" Chris began, but was silenced by a murderous look from his father.
"Christopher, I said go. I'll deal with this."
"Yes, Sir," the young man replied and hurried away from his father's withering gaze.
"But Straub, Christopher does have a point," Francine countered, a weepy edge in her tone. "She is our-"
"Francine, I'm dealing with this and don't you start your damned crying again."
Francine cowered under her husband's stern glare and his admonishing tone and merely sniffled.
"As for you two, don't come around here again. That girl has been nothing but trouble since this whole travesty began and-"
"Travesty?" Amanda interrupted. "Excuse me, but I know this must have come as a surprise to you since Christopher and Lorelai are so young, but a child is never a travesty."
"Do you know how hard it's been?" Francine chimed in. "How embarrassing it's been to face all our friends now that they…they know? And with Emily Gilmore parading that baby around at her Christmas party as if she were proud of it."
"Well, of course she would be," Amanda replied, trying to remain hopeful despite the attitude coming from the Haydens. "The children may have made a mistake, but that's no reason she or you, for that matter, shouldn't enjoy your granddaughter."
"Why the hell should we? The Gilmore girl has ruined our son for the rest of his life."
"How do you figure when he's not taking on a bit of responsibility for his child?" Lee huffed, his temper flaring at their dismissal of their son's part in the whole thing. He'd seen Amanda struggle as a single mother for three years now and that was with her ex-husband paying child support. He could only imagine how hard it must be for Lorelai being alone with a baby.
"It's like my wife said, it's been a nightmare facing our friends, my colleagues, my clients…"
"But there is a baby to consider-"Amanda began, but was cut off again.
"I've said what I had to say on the subject…and so have you," Straub stated adamantly to his wife before turning his attention back to Lee and Amanda. "If you or your people disturb my household again, I'll be talking to my attorney. This is bordering on harassment. Good day." He slammed the door leaving Lee and Amanda staring at one another in stunned silence.