Finding Rory

Chapter 67: Family Bonding

Tristan and Rory walked back into the beach house with the puppies and found Luke, Lorelai, Chandler and Michelle in the sun room talking over beers for the men and wine for the ladies. Everyone looked relaxed and like they were enjoying themselves, and Rory breathed a sigh of relief. She'd been a bit anxious about how her mom would react to Chandler and Michelle, given that they're from society.

"There you two are! Bring those grandpuppies over here; we haven't gotten to meet them yet," Michelle said when she saw Tristan and Rory. They brought the puppies over to where Lorelai and Michelle were sitting on the couch and their moms immediately scooped the puppies up and began fawning over them.

"If you two are that bad with puppies, I don't know that I want to see you with the grandchildren," Chandler teased good naturedly.

"They'll be crazy," Luke agreed.

"I just hope they give us some grandbabies. She's made it into her thirties without getting pregnant, but I'd like to hear the pitter patter of little feet again soon," Lorelai hinted.

"Ooh, yes! Can't you just see their babies - they'll be gorgeous!" Michelle added.

"Hello, we're right here, and we can hear every word you're saying," Rory said with a laugh.

"Of course you can, Sweets. There wouldn't be much point in hinting around about wanting some new little Gilmore-Dugrey babies if you weren't here to hear us," Lorelai pointed out.

"Alright, that's enough baby talk," Tristan insisted. He could tell that Rory wasn't comfortable with the discussion, and they'd agreed not to let anyone know that they weren't using birth control anymore. They didn't want any pressure or expectations about how long it would take them to get pregnant. "Now, I'm hungry. What's the plan for lunch, Mom?" Tristan asked.

"Some things never change, do they?" Michelle said with a laugh. "I thought we could all go down to Ocean Park and go to Little Galapago's - it's this great seafood place."

"That sounds perfect. Let's go," Tristan replied.

They put the puppies in the kennel and then walked to the front door.

"Would you prefer to walk or drive to the restaurant?" Michelle asked as they all walked out of the house.

"Walk," said Tristan and Rory, just as Lorelai answered with a resounding "Drive!"

"You kids can walk, and I'll take Luke and Lorelai on the scenic drive to the restaurant," Chandler said with a laugh.

Tristan and Rory took off walking down the beach hand-in-hand, and the others loaded into Michelle and Chandler's SUV.

"This area is just so beautiful," Lorelai said. "Thank you so much for having us out this weekend."

"We're so happy to meet you both. We're all going to be family soon," Michelle replied. "This is one of our favorite places. We bought it shortly after Tristan went to military school. We realized that we needed to make some changes in our family if we wanted to have a chance at happiness. We bought this house and started spending time here, away from all of the pressures of society and business. We both quit traveling so much and made family a priority. It broke my heart when Tristan went to military school, but that situation was good for all of us," she admitted.

"You've raised a good man; I'll be proud to call him my son-in-law," Luke told Chandler.

"Thank you. We're certainly delighted to add Rory to our family; we couldn't have chosen better ourselves," replied Chandler.

"I hate to bring this up, but I can't help but be curious. How are you related to Logan?" Lorelai asked just as they pulled up to the restaurant.

"Let's go ahead and go in and order our drinks and then we'll continue this conversation," Chandler said. He and Luke helped the ladies out of the car and they walked into the restaurant and were quickly seated. They ordered drinks and then Michelle looked to Chandler and then Luke and Lorelai.

"Logan's father, Mitchum, is my twin brother. We lead very different lives, though. To be frank, we rarely see the Huntzbergers because of our differences of opinion. Tristan told us what happened when Logan brought Rory home, and we want to assure you that we love your daughter," Michelle told Luke and Lorelai.

"We were hoping that you might be able to help us understand Rory's history with Logan a bit better, just so we know what to expect from his family when they find out about Tristan and Rory," Chandler added.

Lorelai took a deep breath and considered her words. "Logan and Rory have a complicated history. They started seeing each other casually her sophomore year of college, and when she went to tell him she couldn't do it anymore he decided he would commit to being her boyfriend. When they were good, they were very good. Unfortunately, when they were bad, it was awful. He cheated on her and broke up with her through Honor, but they somehow worked through it. He asked her to marry him the night before her graduation, but she told him that she couldn't then. He told her that it had to be all or nothing, and they broke up. From what I understand, they ran into each other in Hamburg about three years ago and began seeing each other again. To the best of my knowledge, it wasn't serious. She broke it off with Logan shortly before she and Tristan started dating," Lorelai explained.

"That's pretty much what we had gathered from what Tristan told us. Thank you for sharing it with us," Chandler said.

"Do you think the Huntzbergers are going to make things difficult for Tristan and Rory when they find out?" Lorelai asked, not really sure that she wanted to know the answer.

"I think there's a very good chance that they will cause issues; it's important that we're all a united front and support them," Michelle answered as Tristan and Rory walked into the restaurant.