New Beginnings

Act 5 ch 4

"So Dickie high tails it to his office and e-mails me within seconds" Richard sits in the Yale cafeteria with his granddaughters.

"Dickie's the other you at your office, right?" Victoria asks him. "Well, there's no other me" Richard replied.

"You know what I meant, Grandpa" Victoria says. "Dickie and I share some duties. We lunch occasionally, socialize a bit" Richard explains. "But he would cut my throat in a heartbeat, as I would his" he insists.

"It's like Rikers Island, except everyone drives a Jag" Rory jokes.

"Well, Dickie made a mistake. He e-mailed me, thinking that I wouldn't read it for days, but I read it the minute he sent it" Richard tells them. "He figured my weekend starts at lunch on Fridays, as so many others do-error followed by error" he continues.

"That man needs to reread his Sun Tzu" Victoria comments. "Anyway, that's why I am missing Friday Night dinner. Dickie and I are going to be in the Chicago office" Richard finishes. "Well, send me a postcard" Rory replies.

"I'm traveling much less, but I don't miss it. Thirty years ago, any chance I had to travel, I jumped at, but now... I'm talking a lot, aren't I?" Richard stops himself.

"No. I mean, yes" Victoria admits. "But it's good" she insists.

"I don't want to be tiresome" Richard says. "Grandpa, you could never tire us. This is fun" Rory assured him. "Good. My valet isn't much of a conversationalist" Richard replies.

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"I'll get it, Sara" Emily says as the doorbell rings.

"Hi, Mom" Lorelai walks in. "Hi, mom" Victoria repeats her as she walks up behind Emily.

"Woah, spooky" Lorelai gasps. "Come in, come in" Emily rushes her. "I'm sorry I'm late. Traffic was bad" Lorelai explains.

"Some moron coming out of Stars Hollow decided to go the speed limit, which is-ooh! What the hell is that?" she stops herself when she sees a large metal boxlike structure stands in the center of the room.

"Grandma got a panic room, like Jodie Foster" Victoria says, Emily having already shown it to her. "I have no idea what that means" Emily says about the Jodie Foster comment.

"That's very small. It's more like an anxiety room" Lorelai says. It's for one person" Emily tells her. "Huh?" Lorelai asks.

"You could maybe squeeze two in" Emily says as Lorelai approaches the large object and begins fussing with it, opening the door and looking inside.

"And when those two are done panicking, the next couple of panickers get a turn?" Lorelai asks. "It's primarily for me" Emily replies.

"Why the foyer?" Victoria asks. "It was supposed to go upstairs, but the boors who delivered it claimed they weren't told about the stairs, so they didn't have the right equipment" Emily answers. "Hey, let's test it out. I'm gonna get you" Lorelai raises her hands like claws.

"Oh, my God" Victoria laughs.

"You better get in there, 'cause I'm a bad guy. Baah" Lorelai keeps going. "Stop it" Emily tells her.

"I'm menacing. Panic, damn it" Lorelai says. "Come on" she keeps going. "There's nothing funny about this" Emily says as the doorbell rings.

"Oh! Get in, quick" Lorelai tells her.

"Quick" Lorelai says. "Stop it" Emily walks to the door to open it.

Rory kisses Emily's cheek and enters. "Hi, Grandma. So-hey, what's that?" she notices the panic room. Victoria stands next to the heavy structure like a car show model.