Gilmore Girls: Precious Ties

Chapter 13: Dinner With Dad

Christopher leaned back in his leather desk chair and sipped his first coffee of the morning. It was always a time that brought Lorelai to the forefront of his thoughts and of course his beautiful Rory. Glancing at his calendar, he realised that he hadn't heard from Rory since she visited his office before her mother's wedding.

It wasn't unusual for weeks to pass by before they communicated but something made him decide to make time for his eldest daughter before the big family "Early Christmas" party, as he knew that there wouldn't be much time for a proper catch up at such an event. He didn't know much about this trip to Australia that Rory was making either, so he decided to send a text message:

Hey Rory,
Would you be free to have dinner with me tonight in Hartford?
Dad x

Rory was working on her book when her phone lit up with Christopher's message. She had a chuckle as she had just been writing about him!

Dad,
What a coincidence - I was just writing about you! Yes I am free tonight - that would be great.

Ok I'll pick you up at 7 - How does Italian sound? Carbone's is good or would you just prefer the Capital Grille?

Surprise me Dad - I love them both.  Ok see you at 7 x

Rory's morning sickness had started to abate and the thought of the delicious desserts from either of those restaurants made her mouth water!

"This baby is bound to have a sweet tooth," Rory thought to herself. "Oh baby.....crap! I will have to tell dad about the baby! ....Well I guess I have to ....sooner rather than later. I guess it's really not fair that he is the last to know about things."

Rory continued her typing, pausing every so often as her mind wandered back to the conversation she had with her father when she first found out she was pregnant. At the time, she had been trying to think whether she had to tell Logan about the baby and thought her dad might help her. Disguising her motives with telling him she just needed to know for the book she was writing had certainly been helpful. In fact, it had been quite a revealing chat —her dad admitting 'he was stupid at the time, but he loved her mom'.

She found it particularly poignant when he recounted how the young Lorelai had 'done what she wanted' —Christopher wasn't consulted. Rory remembered how she put the responsibility back on her father by saying that 'he let her do it'.

She really hadn't thought about his feelings because her parents were just 16 at the time and she had decided that a fair comparison could not be made with the situation she found herself in but as she reflected, she did feel sorry for him. Rory imagined the 16 year old guys who were her peers at Chilton and shook her head at the thought of any of them being remotely ready to take on a parenting role!

The thing that stuck in Rory's mind was that he called her mother a 'force of nature, much like yourself —in control of everything....uncontrollable'. A pang of unexpected sadness overcame her as she recalled how her father had said 'he couldn't come close to competing with that so...he didn't'.

Rory thought about the great dad he had evolved into with Gigi. Sure he had issues at the start but he didn't give up and her sister was a testimony to his dedicated parenting! Without really realising it, Rory admitted to herself that after having being an only child for so many years, she was kind of jealous of the relationship her little sister had with their father.

"I can't believe I haven't admitted that before!" She said aloud.

Turning away from her laptop, Rory walked toward her window. Looking out at the dreary December day, she noticed that the tree outside her window was almost bare, except for three leaves which hung tenuously, being swayed by a slight winter breeze. She couldn't help thinking what her life might have been like if her dad had insisted he be there...then two would have been three....but she would never know.