A/N: A sequel of sorts to my fic Gilmore Beginnings. I own absolutely nothing except for some books and movies. Please don't sue me.
"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Rory, Happy Birthday to you!" Lorelai and Mia clapped their hands wildly as Rory grinned up at them from in front of her cake. She looked back at the flickering candle and waved at it. Lorelai leaned over and blew lightly, and the flame disappeared. Mia and Lorelai cheered as Rory studied the candle seriously, searching for the light that had been there moments before.
Lorelai placed a slice of the cake in front of Rory and turned to Mia.
"Unbelievable," she said as Rory attacked the cake with gusto. "No word from Christopher. None at all. He knows where we are, he's been here, he's called, and he doesn't call on her birthday."
"Will you see your parents today?"
"Yeah, they're coming over later. But I still can't believe Christopher hasn't…"
"Excuse me, Mia," said Tyler, the concierge, as he walked into the office. "There's someone here to see you, Lorelai."
Lorelai looked at Mia, wide-eyed, and picked Rory up. Rory squealed in protest, frosting covering her small face, but Lorelai carried her out into the lobby. Sure enough, there he was, dark eyes sparkling and dangerous smile flashing.
"Christopher," Lorelai breathed.
Rory had poked her right hand into her mouth, and she sucked at the frosting-covered fingers while staring at Christopher with wide eyes.
"Hey, Lore. Rory! There's my little birthday girl!" He walked towards her and held out his hands as if he was going to take her into his arms. Rory shrank back into her mother's embrace, eyeing Christopher distrustfully.
"It's been awhile," Lorelai said conversationally. "She doesn't recognize you." She turned to Rory. "This is Daddy, Rory."
"Dada?" Rory asked.
"Yeah, Dada," Christopher said, moving closer. "Don't you recognize my voice? Come on, let me hold you." He reached out and took her gently from Lorelai, and Rory continued to study him. Christopher grinned into her cake-covered face. "She takes after you too much, Lore."
Lorelai crossed her arms. "Well, you aren't around enough for her to take after you."
Christopher frowned. "I try, Lore, I really do. After school lets out, I'll be able to come and stay for awhile."
Rory looked between her parents with a worried expression on her face.
"I hope your Mommy and Daddy will let you. Or have they grounded you for procreating?"
"Cut it out," Christopher said through gritted teeth. "You're upsetting Rory."
"I'm upsetting Rory!" Lorelai exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I'm upsetting Rory? You are the person who doesn't bother to come and…" She took a deep breath. "Know what? Forget it." She turned and stormed away, arms waving in the air as she muttered furiously to herself.
Christopher held Rory up and looked into her eyes. "Hey, beautiful girl," he said softly. "Let's go hang out, whaddaya say?"
Lorelai burst into the kitchen, grumbling under her breath. She paced in front of the sink, and then grabbed a brush and began scrubbing the dishes in the sink with intense concentration. She didn't even notice that someone had approached her, and when that person cleared his throat to get her attention, she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Hey, sorry," the unfamiliar boy said with a grin. "Didn't mean to scare you. Ya know, if you keep scrubbing that way there won't be any pans left."
Lorelai laughed weakly and dropped the brush into the water. "Sorry about that. I'm sort of a nervous cleaner."
"Makes my job easier," he answered, leaning against the sink.
"I've never seen you around before," Lorelai said. "You must be new, because I'm in here a lot."
"My name's Kyle. Jason's my uncle, and I've started helping him out to earn some extra cash after school." He looked her up and down appreciatively, and Lorelai blushed and smiled. "I haven't seen you around, either. Are you a senior, or…"
"Actually I don't go to school," Lorelai explained. "I just work here for Mia."
"Really? So have you graduated or something?"
"Lore!" came Christopher's panicked voice. "Your daughter just puked all over my leather jacket!"
Lorelai rolled her eyes at Kyle. "I have to go," she said. "I'll see you around?"
"Uh, yeah," Kyle said slowly. "Your – daughter?"
"Yeah, my daughter Rory. She's a year old today."
"Right. Well, I have to get home anyway, so I'll – just – go."
Lorelai raised one eyebrow. "Whatever." And she left to rescue Christopher from their child's expert marksmanship.
She laughed when she saw Christopher, holding Rory out at arm's length, his expensive jacket decorated with half-digested cake.
"That's my girl!" she said, taking Rory away and wiping her face with her spitcloth. "Christopher, just go into a bathroom and rinse it off with a washcloth."
"I'm gonna smell like digestive fluids all day," he grumbled as he gingerly shrugged the coat off his shoulders.
"Dada!" Rory called, waving a chubby hand after him. He broke into a reluctant grin and waved back as he walked down the hall to find an empty room with a bathroom.
"Gamma!" Rory cried when her grandparents walked into the dining room, where she, Lorelai, and Christopher were waiting. She toddled up to her grandmother and held her arms in the air.
Emily smiled and scooped the little girl into her arms. "Happy Birthday, Rory," she said. "Have you been a good girl?"
Rory nodded vigorously. "Good girl."
Emily looked up at her daughter and Christopher and her smile faded. Richard caught sight of the boy at the same time, and his eyes narrowed as his hands tightened into fists.
Christopher cleared his throat nervously. "Hello, Mrs. Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore." He didn't dare look Richard in the face.
"Christopher," Emily said coolly. She might have said more, but she was distracted by Rory, who was hanging over her shoulder in her effort to reach her grandfather.
"Gampa!" she demanded, her tiny fingers brushing the sleeve of his coat. His expression softened as he looked away from Christopher and focused on the baby reaching for him. He unceremoniously pulled her out of Emily's arms and hugged her gently.
"When did you arrive, Christopher?" Emily asked, pulling out a chair next to her daughter.
"About two hours ago," he answered nervously. "Lore told me where this place was so I could come see Rory today, and, well, here I am."
"Yes, here you are," Richard said brusquely. "And how often do you bother to be here, young man?"
Christopher blanched. "Well, uh, I come as often as I can, sir. After school, you know."
"And after school? What do you plan to do?"
"Well, I'll be able to come and see Lorelai and Rory a lot, but other than that I'll probably just try and get a job."
"And at some point, I'm sure, you'll be solvent enough to support your family?"
"Dad…" Lorelai said warningly.
"Well…I guess…if that's what Lore wants…"
"It's not," Lorelai insisted, standing up abruptly.
"Lorelai," Emily said through thin lips, "Christopher is willing to do the right thing and marry you, and you're simply being stubborn."
"Mom, Christopher has the chance to do something. I don't want to keep him from that. Sure, I expect him to be able to pay child support and I want him to visit as often as he can. But I don't want to marry him!"
"When you get pregnant, you get married," Emily said tightly. "He can see it, but you apparently cannot."
"He doesn't want to get married any more than I do. We'd be tied down, and we're too young for that. He'll never admit it, but he doesn't want to marry me!"
"Um, I'm standing right here!" Christopher said indignantly.
"You've done quite enough here, boy," Richard snapped.
"I'm not a boy," Christopher said through gritted teeth.
Rory, who had been watching the scene from her grandfather's arms with increasing confusion, screwed up her little face and began to cry. Lorelai marched over to her father and took her daughter away from Richard.
"You've made her cry!" she said, sounding close to tears herself. "On her birthday! I wanted you all to celebrate with us, but if you're always going to do this, I never want to see you again!" She turned and ran out of the room.
"I didn't mean for that to happen, Lore," Christopher said quietly from the doorway of the potting shed.
"It wasn't you," Lorelai said, stroking Rory's hair as she slept. "It was them. It's always them. They couldn't even just enjoy her birthday."
"They just want what they think is best for us."
"So did the Montagues and the Capulets, and didn't everything just turn out great for them?"
Christopher grinned and walked over to her, rubbing her shoulders. "We'll turn out better."
"Of course we will," Lorelai answered, leaning into the massage. "We've got Rory."