Saviour from the Past

Chapter 6

"Hey Dad," Rory greeted her Dad as she answered her cell, while walking across the quad between classes.

"Hey kiddo, are you busy?" he asked, sounding apprehensive down the line.

"I'm just walking between classes, so I probably have ten minutes. What do you need?" she asked curiously.

"Well I was wondering if you would be free to come to Boston this weekend?"

"Do you need me to look after Gigi? I can probably make it work. Do you have a hot date?" she asked, leaning against the wall outside her next class.

"No, no it's nothing like that, although Gigi would love to see her big sister. It was actually my Mom, she wondered if you guys could try meeting up again. She would really like to clear the air."

"Ah," Rory said, all of a sudden the reason behind the apprehension in his tone became clear. "Why now? It's been almost five years since the last attempt."

"I'm not trying to excuse what happened then at all, but now that it's just her I think she is starting to re-evaluate her relationships, and she is, in my opinion, regretting how they handled everything with you. She just wants to meet you and see if you can start again. If not there is no pressure, but if you think that it's something you would be willing to do, we would both appreciate it a lot."

"I don't know, I will have to think about it."

"Of course, you make your list, decide what you would like to do. We thought Boston might work better than Hartford as it's more neutral ground. But even if you don't want to meet her, Gigi and I would still love a visit," Chris said honestly.

"Right, well it's time for my class, I will think about it overnight and give you a call tomorrow. Talk to you later, Bye."

"Bye Hon."

Rory hung up with a sigh, walking into her English Literature class hoping for a mindless class.

"Hey kiddo, thanks for doing this," Chris said, giving Rory a hug as she made her way into his townhouse. "Mom and Gigi are just in there," he gestured to the living room door.

"Okay, I can do this," Rory muttered to herself as she took a deep breath and put on her best DAR face, thinking it was better to maintain a society facade until she could see what Francine wanted or didn't want, as may be the case.

"Hey Mom, you remember-"

"Rory!" Gigi shouted, interrupting Chris as she ran to give her sister a hug.

"Hey, I missed you too Miss Gigi! Have you been having fun with Dad and Grandma?" Rory asked, crouching down to her sister's level.

"Yeah, tons of fun. We've been having tea parties!" Gigi exclaimed excitedly, in a manner that only preschoolers can get away with.

"That sounds like lots of fun. Can we have one later? But with coffee instead of tea?" Rory asked, watching as Gigi cocked her head to the side thinking of how coffee would change it before she answered affirmatively.

"Hello Rory," Francine Hayden said, rising from her seat on the couch.

"Mrs Hayden," Rory replied with a nod.

"Please feel free to call me Francine. I understand that you won't feel comfortable enough to call me Grandmother but maybe someday," Francine said sadly.

"Mom," Chris chided. "Rory have a seat, I just put on a fresh pot of coffee, I'm going to grab you a cup."

"Sure Dad," Rory said, sitting down on the remaining armchair. "So Francine, Dad told me you wanted to talk to me, he didn't tell me what it was about though."