A/N: The face-claim to Mei Lynch is Anna Cathcart:

There was another excruciating Friday Night Dinner, but this time, it was painful because they were waiting for Richard to arrive, which meant that they couldn't eat. Richard was with his new (actually antique) car.

"Mom," Lorelai tried.

"No," Emily replied.

"We're starving," Lorelai said, speaking for her and Rory.

"We're waiting for your father," Emily told her.

"It's gonna get cold," Lorelai said.

"We are waiting for your father," Emily repeated.

"We've been waiting forever," Lorelai whined.

"We have not been waiting forever," Emily told her.

"Forever," Lorelai said. "Godot was just here. He said, 'I ain't waiting for Richard,' grabbed a roll and left. It's been forever."

"When we gather as a family, we eat as a family. We don't eat in shifts – you know that and Richard certainly knows that," Emily explained.

Rory asked, "When did he get that antique car anyhow?"

"A couple of horrible weeks ago," Emily answered.

Lorelai asked, "What happened to the oil painting hobby of his?"

"Ah, you know your father. When he couldn't foresee rivaling Cezanne, he lost interest so he bought that car," Emily explained. She realized that Lorelai was eating something from her purse, "Lorelai!"

Lorelai spat out the candy she had tried to eat, "Mom, it's not dinner. It's just my private stash."

"It's eating and we're not eating," Emily stated firmly.

"You know, you're bound by the rules of the Geneva Convention, Mother, just like everyone else," Lorelai said. Richard walked in wearing mechanics coveralls. "Hey, no one told me it was casual Friday."

"Hello everyone," Richard greeted. "You haven't started?"

"Of course we haven't started, we were waiting for you," Emily told him. "I thought you were almost done."

"Well, I was but this car has a mind of its own," Richard said. "As I turned to leave it began spraying some sort of green solution at me."

"Yuck," Rory said.

So like Christine, but the car probably would've murdered Richard instead of spraying green stuff at him.

"Yuck indeed," Richard said. "Well, go on, start."

"Ooh," Lorelai said.

"No sense in waiting for me," Richard added.

Lorelai said, "Coolness!" She stabbed what looked like a potato with her fork.

Thea got some salad.

"Stop!" ordered Emily.

They stopped in their tracks.

"Gomer said!" replied Lorelai.

"We are waiting for you, Richard," Emily told him. "In thirty-five years, I have never ever started a dinner without you—"

"You have so," Thea cut in. "When he had that early flight and you were in a rush, so we started without him, and then Mother here told you that she was engaged which was useless since you knew. We had salad."

"Ha!" Lorelai said, clearly glad Thea had caught her in a lie.

Richard took off and Emily seemed to glower, because she knew that Thea was right.

"All right, fine," Emily replied.

Lorelai wasted no time digging in.

School was going relatively fine – a little too fine. Although in English class, Thea noticed movement from the corner of her eye and turned to see a guy taking what looked like a KFC biscuit out of his jacket pocket.

He looked at it, kissed it, took a bite, and then put it back in his jacket pocket. Thea looked away quickly in an attempt to not look like some weirdo staring at him.

So, during lunch, Thea told them about the biscuit guy.

"It was probably the guy that talked to me who once took out a head of lettuce out of his backpack and started eating it," Lane said. She was looking over some kind of test results. She groaned and set it aside, "This is the second time that I got told that I should work in sales."

"I wouldn't take those career aptitude tests seriously," Sage told her. "I got told that I should try out for the NBA. I'm too short for basketball."

Aiden looked at him, "You hate basketball. My dad tried to talk to you about a game that was on and you proceeded to sit on the chair looking like the life had just got sucked out of you." 

"Yeah, my soul is probably floating somewhere along with Aiden's after he read The Secret History," Sage replied.

"Yeah, I wouldn't put too much stock in those tests," Todd agreed. "I was told to be a politician." He laughed, "Me? Go into politics? Ha!"

"Don't listen to what an online test tells you to do," Jess told Lane. He was reading Philadelphia Fire by John Edgar Wideman. Georgia had said to him, "Do you always read books by white people?" So Jess had decided to broaden his horizons and Georgia had handed him the book when he agreed to start reading books by people of color.

After school was out, Sage headed for the Inn because his mom's wedding invites were going to come in, Aiden went to the bookstore, Jess and Libby went to the diner, Todd and Georgia went to do whatever together, so Thea went to the bakery.

She was setting out some raspberry white chocolate bars in a display case when an Asian girl, maybe a couple years older than Thea, walked in.

Thea blinked as the girl looked around the bakery and went back to finishing her task and once that was done, she straightened up and jumped when she realized that the girl had moved to the counter.

"Oh, god!" exclaimed Thea, startled.

"I prefer Mei actually," the girl joked. "I'm so sorry for startling you."

"It's okay," Thea replied. "We all need a good scare sometimes." Lane came in, looking irritated and holding a paper. To Mei, she said, "Take a look around." She looked at Lane, "What's up?"

"I know the others told me not to dwell, but I had to take the career aptitude two more times and I got sales," Lane said. "Sales! Four different times!"

Mei looked at Lane, "You shouldn't really dwell on those results. It told me that I should be a NASCAR racer."

Thea nodded, "Here, Lane, have a raspberry white chocolate bar." She took a small paper bag and stuck the bar in it using some tongs.

"Thanks," Lane said and looked out the window, "Oh, I see Rory."

"Bye, Lane," Thea called after her as Lane took off. She looked at Mei. "I'm sorry. How may I help you?"

"Oh, I'm actually looking for someone," Mei said. "I mean, I know their name and their address, but I didn't exactly want to show up at their house looking like some kind of weirdo."

"Understandable," Thea stated. "Maybe I can help?"

Mei took a folded piece of paper out of her purse and unfolded it, "Do you know the people that live at this address?"

Thea looked at the address and froze.

Why did this woman have Sage's address?

"I'm sorry," Mei said, looking terrified. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"Why do you have my boyfriend's address?" asked Thea.

Mei looked extremely excited at that, "I have a half-brother?"

Thea wasn't sure what shocked her more: this strange woman having her boyfriend's address or the fact that she was claiming that Sage was her-brother?

Mei seemed to understand, "Okay, I understand you're totally confused, but hear me out. I was looking for something in my dad's office when he wasn't there, when I noticed that he was in the middle of writing a check. So I looked at it, and saw he was writing out a child support check to someone named Sage St. James in a town called Stars Hollow in Connecticut. I wrote down the address and name and I asked him about it, because I couldn't possibly have a half-sibling out in the world because he's all 'family first' but he never mentioned having another kid. So I asked him and he got really mad and told me to drop it. I wanted to write a letter, but I figured that my half-sibling wouldn't believe me, so I thought maybe showing up in person might help. I have some pictures of our shared dad so I thought their mom might recognize him and confirm it. And here I am." 

To be fair, Sage always thought that he was a mistake and his biological dad had another family somewhere. And here was living proof that his biological dad had another family.

Sage might refuse and have nothing to do with anything his 'biological father related', but Thea knew he would beat himself up over 'what-ifs' and eventually cave in.

And his half-sister was here wanting to get to know him which is more than what his biological father ever did for him, besides sign a name on a check. Family first and toss his grave mistake out of the picture out of shame.

"Okay, I know he's not home, but I know where's at," Thea said.

Thea led Mei to the Independence Inn because Sookie was there so Sookie can agree or disagree on the man who impregnated her almost eighteen years ago.

They went to the kitchen area.

Mei seemed confused, "Are we even allowed back here?"

"My mother is the executive of the inn," Thea explained. That sounded fake, even to her, especially with how much bitterness she used when saying 'mother'. Mei clearly noticed, but chose not to point it out because she was there for Sage, not to be a therapist to Thea. "No one cares that I can go in there."

She and Mei walked in the kitchen, although Mei seemed a little terrified, maybe at getting caught, or terrified at the thought of her half-brother rejecting her.

Sage spotted Thea and smiled. He went over to her and then noticed Mei. "Who's she?"

"I'm Mei," she said. "Your half-sister."

Sage looked at Thea confused, like he was asking if she was pulling some prank on him.

Sookie came over to them, "What's going on?"

Sage still seemed confused, "She says she's my half-sister."

Mei took out a picture to show it to them. It had a man, a woman, and an infant in it, but

Thea can see the resemblance of the man in Sage. There was no doubt about it, it was his biological father.

Even Sookie confirmed that the man was Sage's biological father.

Sage and Mei ended up taking off together to try and get to know each other a bit better. According to Sage, they had gone to Luke's, and Luke had gotten a little weird, demanding to know 'who is this woman', 'why are you with her', and 'does Thea know about this?'. 

Sage had to clarify that Mei was his new half-sister, Mei showed him a photo of her dad, and Luke apologized for making an ass out of himself because he saw the resemblance.

Rory was busy talking about what happened with Richard at Chilton since she had a group project and invited Richard to it. He had demanded for Rory's project to have a recount. It must've been nice, having someone do that for you. Thea couldn't relate.

"It was awful," Rory was saying as they walked to the front door. "He looked so upset. His face was turning red and he was practically shaking."

Lorelai asked, "Hey, did you notice when he gets mad, he gets taller?"

"Mom," Rory started.

Lorelai continued with her bit, "I don't know how he does it, but he actually grows."

"Stop," Rory pleaded.

"The day I told him I was pregnant, twenty-four feet tall," Lorelai said. "It freaked the birds."

"Hey, I'm upset here," Rory told her.

"Honey, you did nothing wrong," Lorelai told her. "You went to your grandfather, who you greatly admire and actually like hanging out with, to ask for his help and advice. That's lovely and thoughtful." She rang the doorbell.

"At least he cared enough to demand a recount since he thought you were wronged," Thea added. To be honest, the locker first aid kit was a stupid idea.

"Please help me out tonight – no mention of work or Chilton or school or retirement," Rory told him.

"Nothing but politics and religion, got it," Lorelai said.

Emily opened the door, "Hello girls."

"Hi Mom," Lorelai greeted.

"Hi Grandma," Rory greeted as well.

Thea didn't say anything.

"Come in, come in," Emily said. They walked in, "Dinner's almost ready." She called out, "Richard, the girls are here! Richard?" She walked off towards the living room, explaining, "He came home today, didn't say a word, stomped off to his study, slammed the door, and he's been holed up in there ever since."

"Really?" asked Rory.

"I can't even get him to answer me," Emily said.

"Well, are you sure he's still in there?" asked Lorelai.

"Of course he's still in there," Emily said. "The door's right there. I would've seen if he came out."

"Sorry," Lorelai told her.

"Not everyone leaves this house by climbing out the window and jumping into a waiting hot rod," Emily told her.

"Maybe someone should go talk to him," Rory said.

"I don't know what to do," Emily replied. "What on earth happened today?"

"Things didn't go very well at the business fair," Rory explained.

"What happened?" asked Emily.

"It was terrible – the tenth graders staged a hostile takeover of the eleventh graders," Lorelai joked.

Thea immediately thought of the 'mini-scale riot' at Stars Hollow High and rubbed her neck.

Even Rory glared at Lorelai for that reminder before giving the real reason, "Our project didn't win and Grandpa took it badly."

Emily said, "Well, I am at my wit's end if that man is going to fall apart over a high school project."

Lorelai told her, "It's just a weird time for him, Mom."

Rory said, "I feel so awful."

Lorelai suggested, "Maybe he should go talk to somebody."

Emily said, "Like whom?"

Lorelai suggested, "Like a psychiatrist?"

Emily seemed offended at the thought, "What?"

Lorelai explained her reasoning, "Well, maybe it would help."

Emily said, "We do not go to psychiatrists."

Thea thought that it kind of seemed like they all needed to see a psychiatrist.

Lorelai said, "Mom, there's nothing wrong with getting help."

Emily said, "Lorelai Gilmore, are you seriously suggesting that your father go to a complete stranger and talk about his personal life?"

"Lots of people swear by it," Lorelai defended.

"Yes, disturbed people, deviants, people with multiple personalities who see things and hear dogs talking to them and roam the streets talking to themselves and licking parking meters," Emily stated.

That sounded very specific. Thea wondered if Emily had an encounter with someone.

"Mom," Lorelai started.

"Next thing you know, you'll be suggesting I go to a psychiatrist," Emily told Lorelai.

"Too many comebacks – I cannot pick," Lorelai stated.

It sounded like a door closed.

Emily turned to call out, "Richard? Is that you?" She got up.

"Of course it's me," Richard said, coming in buttoning his blazer. "Oh, Rory, Thea, you're both here, wonderful. Hello Lorelai."

"Hey," greeted Lorelai.

"Well, I am starving," Richard said. "What's for dinner?"

Emily seemed confused? "What's for dinner? What do you mean, what's for dinner?"

Richard led them to the kitchen, while replying, "Well, I thought the question was relatively clear, but I'd be glad to rephrase it for you. Eh, what sort of food products will appear on various plates this evening?"

Emily said, "Richard Gilmore, you come home in a huff and you lock yourself in that study all afternoon—"

"Well, I had a lot of thinking to do, a lot of thinking," Richard interrupted. To Rory, he said, "I owe that to you young lady."

"I'm sorry," Rory replied.

"You should certainly not be sorry," Richard told her, taking a bread roll.

Emily said, "Richard, what – put that roll down and explain yourself!"

Richard explained, "This whole week, this whole experience with Rory and the locker first aid kit – that is a damn good idea, by the way, no matter what those yarnheads at that school of yours say. Anyway, this whole week made me realize something – I don't want to be retired."

Thea guessed that made her a yarnhead then, because the locker first aid kit was a stupid idea.

Emily was shocked, "You what?"

"I don't like it," Richard admitted. "I hate it, as a matter of fact."

Lorelai started, "But Dad—"

"It's boring," Richard continued, "I have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. And frankly, I am tired of trying to find something to fill up my time."

"So, what are your plans then?" asked Thea.

"I am going to work," Richard said.

Emily asked, "Are you thinking about asking for your job back?"

"Oh, god no!" Richard said. "No no no no no no. I have decided to go into business for myself."

Thea was sure that you needed experience for that.

"Wow," replied Lorelai.

"What?" asked Emily.

"Cool," Rory said.

"Nice," Thea said to be supportive.

"It is cool, isn't it?" asked Richard.

Emily asked, "But what are you going to do?"

"Well, I'm not sure yet," Richard said. "Perhaps I'll consult, maybe take on a partner, maybe I'll even teach."

"What?" asked Lorelai.

"Well, you don't have to say it like that," Richard told her.

"Sorry," Lorelai said, "What?"

"I think thirty-five years of experience will qualify me to teach a course or two at that local business college of yours," Richard said.

Teaching a business and working for insurance were two different things, Thea figured. He shouldn't exactly qualify for teaching a business.

"Oh my god," Lorelai said. "It's Who's the Boss, the later years."

"Richard, are you serious about this?" asked Emily.

"As a heart attack," Richard replied.

Emily started, "But, but—"

"I haven't felt this good in a very long time, Emily," Richard interrupted. To Rory, he said, "I have the buzz and I owe it all to you."

Rory said, "Glad to be of service."

Emily stated, "He's going to teach."

"Or consult," Lorelai added.

"Or consult," Emily replied.

Lorelai said, "So licking a parking meter is just around the corner."