Chapter 3: What's This I Find?

Several months passed. Lorelai was given a proper funeral. The house on Maple Street was sold; Luke put some of the revenue into a bank account, as part of a college fund for Rory. The rest he used to help pay for Rory's tuition at Chilton.

Rory was very grateful, and even though Luke did not ask it of her, she began working at the Diner in return. So it was one morning, as Rory was manning the counter while Luke was on break. The diner owner now came in followed by several of his excited neighbors; the young Danes was waving a piece of paper around excitedly. Luke approached the counter.

"Rory..." He paused, trying to collect himself. "How would you like it if I adopted you?"

"Adopt me?" Rory gasped. Her eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Luke!" She flung herself into his arms.

Luke laughed. "I'll take that as a yes. I have the papers right here! All we have to do is sign." Luke affixed his name to the document, and Rory followed. Their Stars Hollow neighbors burst into applause as father and daughter now hugged. Kirk volunteered to run the paper down to the town courthouse so that Luke could get back to work, and this he did upon Luke's acquiescence. Moments after Kirk left, two men suddenly rushed into the diner. Rory froze when she saw the one man in the leather jacket: it was Christopher Hayden, her biological father. She had only visited him once several years before, but she still recognized him. Upon seeing his daughter, Christopher beckoned her to him and Rory went to him as if pulled by a magnet.

"You're here! At last! I've come to take you home!" Chris said, drinking in the sight of her even as Rory shook her head in partial fear and partial disbelief. "Rory - tell your friends it's time to go away! This life - it ends; you're safe with me today!"

Luke now jumped in. "This girl is mine -"

"Yours?" Chris spun around.

"Now -"

"You?! Who are you?!" Both men demanded of each other. Greaser punk and diner owner made to leap at each other, but Rory got between them. "Stop!" she begged.

"Who is this man?" Chris demanded.

"Get out of here!" Luke bellowed, even as Chris grabbed Rory's arm again.

"You have no right to be here!" Rory told her father, now remembering the new reality she and Luke shared. "I'm not a prize you can claim! I haven't seen you since I was thirteen! The woman I am now is not the same!"

"Your grandparents ordered me to take care of you if anything happened to your mom! You must have known I would come back for you! Why didn't you wait?"

"Mom hadn't spoken to her parents since you went Pacific-side!" Rory told him. "Any wishes they had died when she died!"

Enraged, Chris suddenly drew a gun from his jacket, as did the second man - his friend - who had come with him. Screams split the diner as Luke drew his own gun. Even as she hit the deck, Rory stared. She had not known how Luke always kept himself armed - an old habit from his Army days. Though he always made sure to keep the equipment locked away in a safe when not in use.

Biological father and adoptive father now faced off.

"Leave this man behind!" Chris ordered his daughter. Rory stood defiantly, blocking Chris's aim at Luke.

"Go on -"

"Rory!" Luke screamed, switching his sights to the young Hayden's accomplice.

" - and shoot!" Rory goaded Chris. "I will not change my mind!" She had made her decision. She had a new father, and she would honor her mother's final wishes.

"You are still mine!" Chris screeched.

"Not anymore!" Rory begged.

"You're mine until we die! Stars Hollow... is DOOMED! And so is your G.I.!" Chris had found Rory only after asking around the town, in the process being directed to Luke and learning of his past.

"GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" Luke roared.

"You broke your grandfather's word!" Chris spat at Rory. "This is your curse!" And thus cursing everyone in the diner, Chris stormed out with his friend, even as Luke kept his gun trained on them.

"Rory!" Luke pushed her back, taunting the fleeing men into fighting. "Come on! Come on!" But they were gone.

Rory buried herself into Luke's flannel shirt, and he hugged her back. "It's all right," he soothed. "You're safe now."

A/N: More Miss Saigon parallels! This is, of course, based on the confrontation between Christopher Scott and Thuy. Some of the dialogue is even the same. Thuy and Chris Hayden both have similar emotional personalities, as they both lose their shit when faced with new information, and turn into whiny little bitches.