New Beginnings

Winter pt 2

"Who the hell is Paul?" Tristan asks sitting at a table across from his son while his wife stands leaning against a wall.

"Rory's boyfriend, you've met him" Jamie tells him. "I don't think I have" Tristan disagrees.

"You have, we all went fishing together" Jamie insists. "Are you sure? I really don't remember that" Tristan asks him. "Me either, but Paul says it happened" Jamie says.

"And you believe him?" Tristan asks.

"Sure" Jamie shrugs. "Okay" Tristan sighs.

"So, Paul exists, what else is going on?" he asks his son. "We're going to grandma's after we leave here" Jamie mentions. "Ah, so that's why your mom's wearing a dress" Tristan says looking over at Victoria who's typing on her phone

"Hello?" Victoria answers when her phone rings.

"Hey, can you give me a ride to dinner tonight? Gypsy said there's pretty much no chance of my car being ready" Lorelai asks. "I can't, I'm actually already in Hartford. I can give you a ride home though if you need" Victoria tells her.

"What are you doing already in Hartford?" Lorelai asks confused. "Tristan" is all Victoria says. "Oh right, I totally forgot that was today. How's it going?" Lorelai asks her.

"Same as usual. He and Jamie are doing all the talking, I'm keeping my distance" Victoria replies.

"When's the last time you talked to him alone? You know about grown up stuff, without Jamie at the table" Lorelai asks. "You know the last time" Victoria sighs.

*Flashback to several months ago*

"He was my dad, Tori" Tristan says sitting across from his wife.

"Oh please, you hated him" she scoffs shaking her head. "So what? What was I supposed to do?" Tristan asks.

"Tell the truth! Speak up when you found out, not cover for him" Victoria yells. "And run his name through the mud?" Tristan asks her. "He's dead! He spent decades running a company off of shady deals, and left that company to you, knowing that you'd be the one left to tie up his loose ends" Victoria tells him.

"You owe him nothing. He's gone, we're here, I'm here, your son is sitting out there waiting for me, because I'm the only one us allowed to leave here with him" she keeps going.

"Don't bring Jamie into this" Tristan says. "Why not? It's affecting him" Victoria replies.

"I did this for him, to protect our family name" Tristan insists. "That name's tainted now anyway! Even with you trying to cover it up, people found out anyway" Victoria reminds him. "You got locked away, your family's company got sold, my own business is under investigation right now, we had to sell our house, move back to Stars Hollow, Jamie had to transfer schools, leave all his friends, thank god we have separate bank accounts because they completely drained yours, Logan had to pay for your lawyer-" she lets it all out.

"And what a good lawyer that was, made me plea guilty and I still got thrown in here for nine months" Tristan cuts her off.

"It would have been nine years if he let you plea not guilty like you wanted to" Victoria says stressing the word years. "What's your plan for when you get out? No one's gonna hire you" she asks.

"I'll figure it out" Tristan replies. "And there it is. Always just trusting that you'll be able to figure it out, you can never just be honest with me" Victoria says. "You know, if you had just come to me in the first place and told me what was going on, maybe we could've found a way out of this. But no, I had to find out online when a whistleblower went to the press" she adds.