A Suit and Tie Type Thing, GG, PG, Chapter 6
Title: A Suit and Tie Type Thing, Chapter 6
Author: Piratelf
Rating: PG
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Gen, Het, Narco, JavaJunkie
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gilmore Girls Characters. No money will be made from this work. I'm really not worth suing, honestly.
Beta: Nadnewraid
Xposted to: deanfest_2007, gg_fic, narcoleptics
Author's Notes: In Forgiveness and Stuff, there is a lady at the Gilmores' Christmas party named Gigi ("Take this drink to Gigi") and that is who I would have really liked to be the person in this chapter with the fountain problem. But, since the Palladinos re-used the name Gigi for Christopher and Sherry's daughter, I thought it would be confusing. I was then going to use the other lady at the party, Holland Prescott, but she was too nice. So I used Natalie from Eight O'Clock at the Oasis ("There she is, The Cobra.") and gave her the last name Prescott. In case you were wondering, which you weren't. In further unrelated trivia, the Palladinos also used the names Randy and Barbara twice. They are two relatives of Luke's who won't come to his Uncle Louie's funeral because they don’t wanna miss their brat kid’s rugby semifinal, and they're Dean's parents' names in his wedding announcement. I always thought it would be kinda funny if they turned out to be the same people.
Summary: Christmas dinner with the Gilmores.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
The foursome did rejoin the party. Luke stayed close to Lorelai, who had perfected the art of seeming to mingle without getting involved in meaningless chit-chat. Dean, however, committed himself to staying with Rory, which meant that he was subjected to tons of meaningless chit-chat, as well as at least nine 're-introductions' to people he supposedly met at his wedding. Most of whom couldn't remember his name. He smiled, nodded and shook a lot of hands far less calloused than his own.
Once the circuit of the room was done, Dean was sure the worst of the night was over. After this just good food, with which he could keep his mouth busy, thereby completely excluding himself from the table conversation, after dinner drinks and then out the door.
Once again, not lucky. Half way through the main course, Natalie Prescott, one of Emily's friends, piped up.
"Dean, Emily tells me you're in construction, yes?"
So unlucky in fact, that he didn't even happen to have a mouthful of food right at that moment, which he could have used to buy himself two seconds to maybe think of something to say other than the truth. Because somehow, he just knew this wasn't the beginning of a good conversation. "Yes."
"Oh, we're having construction done on our summer house and it's a complete nightmare!"
"Natalie, tell him all the trouble you've had," Emily encouraged her.
"Well, I want a fountain between the two trees in the back." Natalie began.
"Oh that would be lovely!" One of the other ladies commented. Dean hadn't quite caught her name but it was something like Gigi, or Bibi or Mimi, some kind of repeating syllable. There were various other appreciative murmurs around the table.
"I know!" Natalie acknowledged their approval. "But this idiot contractor is coming up with reason after reason that I can't have it there! First he says it'll kill the trees, their roots or something, and I said, well lay the pipes BETWEEN the roots! Then he wanted to put it in behind the trees, but so far behind them that it would be about four feet from the back gate, so people walking in would practically run smack into it! And then he says the drainage is wrong, something about a slope or something. And I said, well level the slope off, or build it up, or whatever it needs! Then he suggests that I put the fountain in the left west corner! Well how unsymmetrical is that?! Then I'd have to get two fountains, and that would take up far too much space! And then he brings up something about ground water and a closed system, and not contaminating something, and I finally realized, I don't need to be fighting with this man. HE is working for ME! So . . ." she took a dramatic pause and looked around the table, making sure she had everyone's attention, "I stopped paying!"
"Good for you!" Richard gave the table a light blow with his fist.
Natalie drank in the praise. "The first week, he didn't say anything. And neither did I. Then the second week he mentioned something about the bank having a problem with receiving the check or something, and I just said. 'Oh? Hmm, how strange'. Then the third week, he finally got the backbone to ask me about it, and I told him, 'I am not paying you another cent until I get my fountain EXACTLY where I want it!' And he pulled out all of his papers and charts and reports again, and I just repeated that until I get my fountain, exactly where I want it, no more money!"
More cheers of acclaim from the table.
"And he says he'll sue me for breach of contract!" she continued, outraged. "Well, I told him I'd counter sue!"
"So, where do things stand now?" Emily asked.
"Well, I still don't have a fountain, and they are still working on the house, but I haven't paid them for six weeks! I think I can wait a lot longer than they can," she gave everyone a self-satisfied grin.
Dean couldn't eat another bite. He was in fact having trouble holding down what he'd already eaten. 'This is why people have happy places,' he thought. 'Where is my happy place? The basketball court? The salvage lot? The garage? The workshop? The bedroom? The bedroom -'
"Dean?" Richard interrupted his thoughts.
"Excuse me?" he answered.
"Natalie asked you what you thought of her situation with her contractor," he told him smugly.
Dean turned from Richard to Natalie and, probably due to his inability to find his happy place, said exactly what he thought of Natalie's situation with her contractor. "I think it's nauseating. I'm absolutely sickened. I have no idea why you would think that your contractor cares in the slightest where you put your fountain. Although I'm sure by now he probably has a few suggestions. He is trying to keep you from killing your trees, ruining your fountain or poisoning the groundwater. But you don't care about that do you? No, because you want your fountain just exactly where you want it! In complete disregard of botany, geology or basic common sense! Because of course you know much more about his job than he does. Now, if he would put the fountain there, and any or all of the previous three things happen, you'll sue him anyway. So he can't win. And now you've stopped paying him. Which means he can't pay his crew. And though you no doubt couldn't care less, you should at least be informed that, though you could probably live for three years without any new influx of money, many of those workers live check to check. And it's been over a month now. That means they have bills going unpaid: electricity, mortgages, car payments. But who cares whether or not they can feed their kids so long as you get the satisfaction of 'out-waiting' your own contractor, right?! What kind of a person would do that? This is not a game, this is a person's livelihood! I mean what the hell is wrong with you?"
Natalie, whose face had started out wearing a self-satisfied smile, was now gasping in horror and clutching her pearls. There were similar expressions of outrage on the other faces around the table. Excepting Luke, who looked like he wished he'd said it, Lorelai, who was trying to keep from laughing at all the disgruntled rich people and Rory, whose face was a complete blank.
"YOUNG MAN!" Richard gave the table a much harder blow than before and stood so he could stare down at Dean and try to make him feel small. It was an old reliable from Richard's bag of tricks. "You will not come into my house, eat at my table and insult my guests! This is an affront to our hospitality and an assault on our friend! You are a lowbred, uneducated, ill-mannered hooligan! Leave and do not come back! You are no longer welcome in this house!"
Dean, who stood as soon as Richard did, because two can play the I'm taller than you game, especially when they're both 6'4", looked levelly at his grandfather-in-law. "As if I ever was. Not that that's a problem for me. But it is for Rory, and for that you should be ashamed." He leaned down to his wife and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry. I'll see you at home." Then he turned from the table.
"NO!" Rory grabbed Dean's arm and stood up. "No, I'm going with you. I don't want to spend another minute in this house!"
Lorelai tapped Luke's knee under the table, and they followed the kids out, without saying goodbye. The four of them got their coats from the closet and walked out to their cars, in silence.
And that was all the silence Lorelai could take. "Hey, you know, I'm still kinda hungry, you guys wanna come over? We have tons of junk food that I have hidden from Luke, and we could get pizza or something?"
"That sounds good," Rory nodded. Dean was standing with his hands in his pockets and his head down, staring at the tires on his car. He didn't respond. She put her hand on his cheek. "Dean?" He shook his head. Rory turned back to Luke and Lorelai, "I think we'll just go home."
"No," Dean took her hand in his. "You go."
"No, Dean, I'm not really hungry."
"It's not about -," Dean sighed. "Look, I don't wanna talk right now, and you have to talk, so go to your Mom's and talk and I'll see you later."
"Baby, I don't want you to be alone."
"I want to be alone right now."
"Dean, I'm so sorry! I should never have pushed -"
Dean stopped her, "No, Rory, I can't, okay? I just can't do this right now. Please. I don't - I don't have the energy to even start to get into this, all right? Tonight is just too - too much has happened tonight, okay? Please, just go with them."
Rory bit her lip, "Okay." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. "Are you good to drive?"
"Yeah," he nodded at Luke and Lorelai and got into his truck. Rory walked over to Luke and Lorelai.
"Is he okay?" Luke asked her.
"I don't know," Rory sighed and got into the backseat of Lorelai's jeep. The other two took their places in the front seat and Luke waited for Dean to pull out, then followed him toward Stars Hollow.
After Luke had been driving for about ten minutes, Rory began speaking, as if she'd never stopped. "He gets this way sometimes. Well, when he's upset, I mean. He doesn't just randomly decide he doesn't want to talk to anyone, or be around anyone. I mean he's not an intermittent mute hermit or anything. It's just that I think maybe some things are just too much for him and he has to, I don't know, retreat. Shore up the walls. I mean he'll argue and fight and yell with most things, but then other things, hurtful things, there's just silence. He doesn't like other people around when he's sad. Or even for other people to know that he's sad. Are all guys like that, Luke?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Except for the crybabies and the sissies and the Mama's boys."
Lorelai turned around in her seat. "Hon, Dean'll be okay. He just needs a little time and a little space and he'll bounce back, good as new."
"I did this," Rory told her. "I did this to him."
"No, Rory, you didn't," Lorelai assured her. "Richard and Emily did. Mostly Richard."
"No, Mom, it was me. He knew exactly what would happen, but no, I wouldn't listen to him, and I wouldn't let it drop, and I pushed him and pushed him and pushed him and when that didn't work, I made Luke push him. I just wouldn't be happy until I got him in that house so Grandpa could eviscerate him! I hurt him, Mom! I hurt Dean just as much as if I'd said those things myself! I'm a horrible person!"
"You are not a horrible person!" Lorelai insisted.
"I am! And I'm a really really horrible wife! How could I do this to him? He is such a good husband! He is so good to me, and to you, and he's done everything he could to make things better with Luke! Why wasn't that enough for me?"
"Hey," Luke spoke up. "What do you mean 'make things better with Luke'? What was bad with Luke?"
"Luke, you know what she means," Lorelai said.
"No, I don't."
"You know how you've never liked Dean very much," Rory said.
"I've liked Dean."
"Lu-uke!" both Gilmore's said in disbelief.
"What?"
"What about 'That kid is trouble! I knew it from the first minute I saw him'?" Lorelai did her best Luke impression.
"Or the time you practically wrestled him to the ground to keep him from coming into the diner?" Rory asked.
"And don't even try to tell me you've forgotten 'the Bop-It incident'!" Lorelai shook her finger in his face.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, maybe it took me a little while to warm up to him being with Rory," Luke said irritably.
"Well, anyway, after we got engaged, I asked Dean if he would put the past behind him and try his best to make some sort of peace with you. Maybe even try and be friends, or at least something close to it, since after all, we were gonna be seeing a lot of you. And Dean said he would, and he did. And it wasn't easy, mister! In the very beginning, sometimes he would talk to you and you would completely ignore him!"
"I have a partial hearing loss in one ear," Luke claimed.
The Gilmore girls laughed at him.
Chapter 7
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Author: Piratelf
Rating: PG
Fandom: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Gen, Het, Narco, JavaJunkie
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gilmore Girls Characters. No money will be made from this work. I'm really not worth suing, honestly.
Beta: Nadnewraid
Xposted to: deanfest_2007, gg_fic, narcoleptics
Author's Notes: In Forgiveness and Stuff, there is a lady at the Gilmores' Christmas party named Gigi ("Take this drink to Gigi") and that is who I would have really liked to be the person in this chapter with the fountain problem. But, since the Palladinos re-used the name Gigi for Christopher and Sherry's daughter, I thought it would be confusing. I was then going to use the other lady at the party, Holland Prescott, but she was too nice. So I used Natalie from Eight O'Clock at the Oasis ("There she is, The Cobra.") and gave her the last name Prescott. In case you were wondering, which you weren't. In further unrelated trivia, the Palladinos also used the names Randy and Barbara twice. They are two relatives of Luke's who won't come to his Uncle Louie's funeral because they don’t wanna miss their brat kid’s rugby semifinal, and they're Dean's parents' names in his wedding announcement. I always thought it would be kinda funny if they turned out to be the same people.
Summary: Christmas dinner with the Gilmores.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
The foursome did rejoin the party. Luke stayed close to Lorelai, who had perfected the art of seeming to mingle without getting involved in meaningless chit-chat. Dean, however, committed himself to staying with Rory, which meant that he was subjected to tons of meaningless chit-chat, as well as at least nine 're-introductions' to people he supposedly met at his wedding. Most of whom couldn't remember his name. He smiled, nodded and shook a lot of hands far less calloused than his own.
Once the circuit of the room was done, Dean was sure the worst of the night was over. After this just good food, with which he could keep his mouth busy, thereby completely excluding himself from the table conversation, after dinner drinks and then out the door.
Once again, not lucky. Half way through the main course, Natalie Prescott, one of Emily's friends, piped up.
"Dean, Emily tells me you're in construction, yes?"
So unlucky in fact, that he didn't even happen to have a mouthful of food right at that moment, which he could have used to buy himself two seconds to maybe think of something to say other than the truth. Because somehow, he just knew this wasn't the beginning of a good conversation. "Yes."
"Oh, we're having construction done on our summer house and it's a complete nightmare!"
"Natalie, tell him all the trouble you've had," Emily encouraged her.
"Well, I want a fountain between the two trees in the back." Natalie began.
"Oh that would be lovely!" One of the other ladies commented. Dean hadn't quite caught her name but it was something like Gigi, or Bibi or Mimi, some kind of repeating syllable. There were various other appreciative murmurs around the table.
"I know!" Natalie acknowledged their approval. "But this idiot contractor is coming up with reason after reason that I can't have it there! First he says it'll kill the trees, their roots or something, and I said, well lay the pipes BETWEEN the roots! Then he wanted to put it in behind the trees, but so far behind them that it would be about four feet from the back gate, so people walking in would practically run smack into it! And then he says the drainage is wrong, something about a slope or something. And I said, well level the slope off, or build it up, or whatever it needs! Then he suggests that I put the fountain in the left west corner! Well how unsymmetrical is that?! Then I'd have to get two fountains, and that would take up far too much space! And then he brings up something about ground water and a closed system, and not contaminating something, and I finally realized, I don't need to be fighting with this man. HE is working for ME! So . . ." she took a dramatic pause and looked around the table, making sure she had everyone's attention, "I stopped paying!"
"Good for you!" Richard gave the table a light blow with his fist.
Natalie drank in the praise. "The first week, he didn't say anything. And neither did I. Then the second week he mentioned something about the bank having a problem with receiving the check or something, and I just said. 'Oh? Hmm, how strange'. Then the third week, he finally got the backbone to ask me about it, and I told him, 'I am not paying you another cent until I get my fountain EXACTLY where I want it!' And he pulled out all of his papers and charts and reports again, and I just repeated that until I get my fountain, exactly where I want it, no more money!"
More cheers of acclaim from the table.
"And he says he'll sue me for breach of contract!" she continued, outraged. "Well, I told him I'd counter sue!"
"So, where do things stand now?" Emily asked.
"Well, I still don't have a fountain, and they are still working on the house, but I haven't paid them for six weeks! I think I can wait a lot longer than they can," she gave everyone a self-satisfied grin.
Dean couldn't eat another bite. He was in fact having trouble holding down what he'd already eaten. 'This is why people have happy places,' he thought. 'Where is my happy place? The basketball court? The salvage lot? The garage? The workshop? The bedroom? The bedroom -'
"Dean?" Richard interrupted his thoughts.
"Excuse me?" he answered.
"Natalie asked you what you thought of her situation with her contractor," he told him smugly.
Dean turned from Richard to Natalie and, probably due to his inability to find his happy place, said exactly what he thought of Natalie's situation with her contractor. "I think it's nauseating. I'm absolutely sickened. I have no idea why you would think that your contractor cares in the slightest where you put your fountain. Although I'm sure by now he probably has a few suggestions. He is trying to keep you from killing your trees, ruining your fountain or poisoning the groundwater. But you don't care about that do you? No, because you want your fountain just exactly where you want it! In complete disregard of botany, geology or basic common sense! Because of course you know much more about his job than he does. Now, if he would put the fountain there, and any or all of the previous three things happen, you'll sue him anyway. So he can't win. And now you've stopped paying him. Which means he can't pay his crew. And though you no doubt couldn't care less, you should at least be informed that, though you could probably live for three years without any new influx of money, many of those workers live check to check. And it's been over a month now. That means they have bills going unpaid: electricity, mortgages, car payments. But who cares whether or not they can feed their kids so long as you get the satisfaction of 'out-waiting' your own contractor, right?! What kind of a person would do that? This is not a game, this is a person's livelihood! I mean what the hell is wrong with you?"
Natalie, whose face had started out wearing a self-satisfied smile, was now gasping in horror and clutching her pearls. There were similar expressions of outrage on the other faces around the table. Excepting Luke, who looked like he wished he'd said it, Lorelai, who was trying to keep from laughing at all the disgruntled rich people and Rory, whose face was a complete blank.
"YOUNG MAN!" Richard gave the table a much harder blow than before and stood so he could stare down at Dean and try to make him feel small. It was an old reliable from Richard's bag of tricks. "You will not come into my house, eat at my table and insult my guests! This is an affront to our hospitality and an assault on our friend! You are a lowbred, uneducated, ill-mannered hooligan! Leave and do not come back! You are no longer welcome in this house!"
Dean, who stood as soon as Richard did, because two can play the I'm taller than you game, especially when they're both 6'4", looked levelly at his grandfather-in-law. "As if I ever was. Not that that's a problem for me. But it is for Rory, and for that you should be ashamed." He leaned down to his wife and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry. I'll see you at home." Then he turned from the table.
"NO!" Rory grabbed Dean's arm and stood up. "No, I'm going with you. I don't want to spend another minute in this house!"
Lorelai tapped Luke's knee under the table, and they followed the kids out, without saying goodbye. The four of them got their coats from the closet and walked out to their cars, in silence.
And that was all the silence Lorelai could take. "Hey, you know, I'm still kinda hungry, you guys wanna come over? We have tons of junk food that I have hidden from Luke, and we could get pizza or something?"
"That sounds good," Rory nodded. Dean was standing with his hands in his pockets and his head down, staring at the tires on his car. He didn't respond. She put her hand on his cheek. "Dean?" He shook his head. Rory turned back to Luke and Lorelai, "I think we'll just go home."
"No," Dean took her hand in his. "You go."
"No, Dean, I'm not really hungry."
"It's not about -," Dean sighed. "Look, I don't wanna talk right now, and you have to talk, so go to your Mom's and talk and I'll see you later."
"Baby, I don't want you to be alone."
"I want to be alone right now."
"Dean, I'm so sorry! I should never have pushed -"
Dean stopped her, "No, Rory, I can't, okay? I just can't do this right now. Please. I don't - I don't have the energy to even start to get into this, all right? Tonight is just too - too much has happened tonight, okay? Please, just go with them."
Rory bit her lip, "Okay." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. "Are you good to drive?"
"Yeah," he nodded at Luke and Lorelai and got into his truck. Rory walked over to Luke and Lorelai.
"Is he okay?" Luke asked her.
"I don't know," Rory sighed and got into the backseat of Lorelai's jeep. The other two took their places in the front seat and Luke waited for Dean to pull out, then followed him toward Stars Hollow.
After Luke had been driving for about ten minutes, Rory began speaking, as if she'd never stopped. "He gets this way sometimes. Well, when he's upset, I mean. He doesn't just randomly decide he doesn't want to talk to anyone, or be around anyone. I mean he's not an intermittent mute hermit or anything. It's just that I think maybe some things are just too much for him and he has to, I don't know, retreat. Shore up the walls. I mean he'll argue and fight and yell with most things, but then other things, hurtful things, there's just silence. He doesn't like other people around when he's sad. Or even for other people to know that he's sad. Are all guys like that, Luke?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Except for the crybabies and the sissies and the Mama's boys."
Lorelai turned around in her seat. "Hon, Dean'll be okay. He just needs a little time and a little space and he'll bounce back, good as new."
"I did this," Rory told her. "I did this to him."
"No, Rory, you didn't," Lorelai assured her. "Richard and Emily did. Mostly Richard."
"No, Mom, it was me. He knew exactly what would happen, but no, I wouldn't listen to him, and I wouldn't let it drop, and I pushed him and pushed him and pushed him and when that didn't work, I made Luke push him. I just wouldn't be happy until I got him in that house so Grandpa could eviscerate him! I hurt him, Mom! I hurt Dean just as much as if I'd said those things myself! I'm a horrible person!"
"You are not a horrible person!" Lorelai insisted.
"I am! And I'm a really really horrible wife! How could I do this to him? He is such a good husband! He is so good to me, and to you, and he's done everything he could to make things better with Luke! Why wasn't that enough for me?"
"Hey," Luke spoke up. "What do you mean 'make things better with Luke'? What was bad with Luke?"
"Luke, you know what she means," Lorelai said.
"No, I don't."
"You know how you've never liked Dean very much," Rory said.
"I've liked Dean."
"Lu-uke!" both Gilmore's said in disbelief.
"What?"
"What about 'That kid is trouble! I knew it from the first minute I saw him'?" Lorelai did her best Luke impression.
"Or the time you practically wrestled him to the ground to keep him from coming into the diner?" Rory asked.
"And don't even try to tell me you've forgotten 'the Bop-It incident'!" Lorelai shook her finger in his face.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, maybe it took me a little while to warm up to him being with Rory," Luke said irritably.
"Well, anyway, after we got engaged, I asked Dean if he would put the past behind him and try his best to make some sort of peace with you. Maybe even try and be friends, or at least something close to it, since after all, we were gonna be seeing a lot of you. And Dean said he would, and he did. And it wasn't easy, mister! In the very beginning, sometimes he would talk to you and you would completely ignore him!"
"I have a partial hearing loss in one ear," Luke claimed.
The Gilmore girls laughed at him.
Chapter 7
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