A/N: The title is a response to the Frozen song, Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

When Dylan entered the house, he heard Lorelai call out, "Which one walked in?"

"Child Number Three," Dylan replied, trying to find the source of his mother's voice. He was sure that it was from the bathroom.

"Oh," Lorelai replied. "Hey, I need you to do something for me."

And that was how Dylan found himself going to the Market.

When he walked in, Doose looked at him like he saw a ghost, before his face got all red.

"Relax, Taylor. I'm here to get something for my mom. And I don't even think you want to deal with her when she's on her period," Dylan replied.

Doose just allowed Dylan to walk by, because he'd rather not get yelled at by Lorelai for not allowing Dylan in to buy feminine products.

He pretty much knew his mother and his sisters' cycles. Lorelai gets hers, then the next week Rory has hers, and then the next week Christy has hers.

Christy's usually lasts two to three days, but that was because the first day was awful for her because of the cramps and diarrhea. Apparently the tissue comes out all at once for her.

So, he grabbed some packages of pads, and went on over to the candy aisle.

Dean was there, stocking up the candy. He seemed surprised to see Dylan, "Hey. You know, this is the first time I saw you ever step foot in the Market."

"Yeah, I'm banned for life," Dylan replied. "Doose only let me in because it's an emergency."

Caroline had told Dylan that she didn't like Dean, so Dylan didn't like Dean in return. It was friendship solidarity after all.

"Oh," Dean said, looking down at what was in the basket Dylan was holding. He grimaced, "Ah. I see. Having problems figuring out what chocolate to get?"

"My mom's taste changes every month," Dylan explained. "Ever saw someone throwing wood into a wood chipper? Yeah, that was my mom last month with Kit Kats a week out from her period."

Dean seemed stunned, probably because he never saw a guy openly talk about that stuff. Then again, this guy was raised by women. No wonder he didn't cringe at the word.

A man seemed to look over at them and scoffed at the items in Dylan's basket. The man's wife – or girlfriend looked at him.

"Have fun being exiled to the couch because you thought your masculinity was threatened by the mere thought of buying your wife pads or tampons," Dylan told him.

"Yeah, why can't you buy me tampons when I ask you too?" the woman asked her husband or boyfriend. "Or chocolate like what that kid's doing for his mother?"

Dylan looked at the chocolate and decided to grab some Lindt chocolate for Lorelai. He grabbed some Cadbury chocolate and Caramello for Rory. He looked at Dean, "Rory either likes Caramellos or regular Cadbury."

"I'll keep that in mind," Dean replied. 

"But these are for me," Dylan told him.

There had been a town meeting that Dylan elected to not go to because at this point he might as well claim that he was dating his bed considering how often he was sleeping in it.

Of course, he slept through whatever message Mr. Medina had left on the answering machine.

It was going to snow though, which meant standing in a snowstorm for coffee and doughnuts. 

But now, he was just tired as he walked to the bus stop with Rory and Lane. Rory, however, was looking through a text book while Lane talked, "I just can't believe it. I mean, I've known him since the sixth grade, but suddenly he's different. He's not gangly anymore. You remember how gangly he was?"

"I remember," Dylan replied. He was pretty sure Rich Bloomenfeld was one of his first crushes. He was also sure that he freaked Rich out too.

"I'm sorry, what?" asked Rory.

Lane seemed hurt, "You're not listening to me."

"I am," Rory said. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't find my bookmark." She moved her bookmark up higher in the textbook, "Okay, go ahead."

"Okay." Lane started, "Here are the problems facing the whole Bloomenfeld-Kim situation..."

"Ditch the hyphenation," Dylan told Lane.

"Agreed," Rory said. "It would be a pain."

"Two, he's my band partner," Lane continued. "Romance would be completely awkward. Three, he's never even looked at me like I'm a girl or something resembling one." They sat down on the bench together. Dylan looked at Lane.

Honestly, it would've been so much easier if he crushed on Lane. Yeah, it'll be cliché, having a crush on his sister's best friend, but at least it would've been easier.

"Four," Lane listed. "There's no way I could convince my parents he was Korean. But I can't help it, I'm obsessed. Did I tell you about his hair?"

"It's on his head, right?" joked Rory.

"Hi," Dean said, poking his head in between Rory and Dylan.

Dylan almost punched him in the face, but Rory grabbed his fist before it connected with Dean's face.

"Hi," Rory greeted Dean. She looked at Dylan's wrist, "How'd did you get that cut your wrist?"

Dylan shook Rory's hand off his fist and shrugged in response.

"Lane," Dean greeted.

"Dean," Lane said.

"Nice hat," Dean told Lane as he squeezed himself in between Rory and Dylan.

"Thanks for getting in between me and my triplet," Dylan told Dean sarcastically.

Dean ignored that in favor of handing Rory a book, "Here."

Rory took it, "Oh, how'd you like it?"

"Well, I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," Dean retorted.

"What the actual fuck?" asked Dylan, looking at Dean for that comment.

"It was just a joke," Dean told him, quickly, not wanting to incite the wrath of a pissed off brother.

"I knew you would like Jane Austen," Rory said smugly. She looked at Lane, "Lane; Dean likes Jane Austen."

"Fascinating," Dylan deadpanned.

"Yeah, who would've thought," Lane said, glumly, because Rory wasn't focusing on her boy trouble.

"I told him he would," Rory said. "But he's all 'forget Jane Austen, you have to read Hunter Thompson.'

Dean responded to Rory, so Dylan got up to go over to stand next to Lane, "Have you tried to talk to Rich?"

"I want to, but I don't know how to even start," Lane said.

"Does he still wear the Star Trek t-shirt?" asked Dylan, trying to ignore his sister and her boyfriend making out.

Lane nodded in agreement, because Dylan grimaced at the sight/sound. "Yeah, he does."

"Try to talk to him about Star Trek," Dylan told Lane.

Christy came up to them and also grimaced at the sight of her sister and Dean kissing. "Talk to who about Star Trek?"

"Rich Bloomenfeld," Lane told her.

Christy said, "Oh, that dweeb that I punched in the face because he tripped Dylan in the cafeteria?"

Dylan didn't appreciate the reminder.

"Yeah," Lane replied.

"You should mention the Star Trek books," Christy told Lane. "Kayla told me that she spotted some in the bookstore."

"Okay," Lane replied. "I gotta go. I'm gonna be late for homeroom and I have the perfect attendance certificate in my sights."

"Good luck with Rich and your perfect attendance certificate," Dylan told Lane.

"See you later," Rory told Lane.

"Yeah," Lane said, still not sounding quite as happy. "See ya." She took off.

At some point, it started snowing during class.

Dylan learned that the ugly ass saddle shoes that the girls wore weren't exactly made for walking in the snow when Rory accidentally brought him down with her when she tripped. Dylan grabbed onto the nearest person – Christy – and brought her down with them.

Dugray, who witnessed the domino effect, laughed as he walked by them. After Dylan managed to get himself standing, he helped his sisters up. 

They went outside together where it was still snowing.

Dylan looked up at the sky, snow falling into his face. Gray.

That's how he felt. Gray.

Caroline bumped her shoulder into his, "What's up, Buttercup?"

"Gray," Dylan said.

"Gray?" asked Caroline, confused.

"That's how I feel," Dylan told her.

"I think that's called depression," Caroline told him.

Dylan refused to believe he had depression. He looked at Caroline, "That's not it."

"Sorry," Caroline replied, looking at him, clearly knowing better. She looked at Dylan, "You know, you're really pretty."

Dylan had to step back before Caroline did something that he knew she would end up regretting, "Right."

"Dylan!" yelled Christy.

Dylan looked over to see that she and Rory were waving at him from a car that he was sure that Emily sent out for them. "Bye."

"Yeah, bye," Caroline said. 

Dylan went over to the car where his sisters were in.

"For a moment there, it looked like she was going to kiss you," Rory said. "Why didn't you let her?"

"I hate PDA," Dylan muttered, even though he really had no clue if he did. The only experience he had was with Cole and that wasn't even a relationship, especially since he called him by the wrong name. Then there was that girl who really loved scratching his neck with her fingernails that felt like claws and that wasn't really a relationship either.

It kind of sucked because he couldn't kiss his own fake girlfriend.

Christy started, "Hey, Dylan?"

"What?" asked Dylan.

"Are you sure you and Caroline are actually dating?" asked Christy. "Because it seems like you're friends rather than a couple."

"Yeah," agreed Rory. "It's a bit weird."

"No," admitted Dylan. "We are not. People spread that rumor about us making out so Caroline thought 'might as well say we're a couple' for some reason."

"Makes no sense," Christy pointed out.

"I know," replied Dylan.

After getting to Emily and Richard's, Christy yelled, "Get down, Mr. President!" and proceeded to tackle Dylan straight into the snow.

That was a game that they used to play in elementary/middle school. In some way, Dylan figured that the game was what unlocked his self-harming nature, but he knew that it was because his emotions started spinning out of control and the self-harming was because he needed to control something because he couldn't get his emotions under control.

So, he shoved Christy off of him and scooped up snow to dump in her face. She was laughing, so no harm done as they managed to get inside, both wet from melting snow.

"They're outside playing in the snow," Rory was saying on the phone. She looked over at them, "They just walked in. I'll tell them."

"Tell us what?" asked Christy.

"Mom says that you're both nuts for playing in the snow without proper clothing and that it reminds her of when we were younger," Rory said.

"Ooh, let me talk to her," Christy said, reaching for the phone.

Christy and Rory started getting in a playful slap fight over the phone.

Dylan just watched, because somehow he was the third wheel with his own sisters.

Emily had Christy get dressed in some clothes from Lorelai's closet and Dylan was forced to wear something from Richard's closet just to avoid getting sick from the wet uniforms. Emily was happy to send off the uniforms to get cleaned.

Rory and Christy snickered at what Dylan wore, so he was happy to stomp on their feet underneath the table.

The worst part was doing homework at the dinner table, because it didn't mean that Dylan couldn't cry while doing his homework like he usually did while in his room.

So, while he did his homework, Emily talked on the phone, "Well, I just don't understand why you waited so late to call..." A pause, "Are you sure?" Another pause. "Fine." Another pause, "All right, yes, goodbye." She hung up the phone, "Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do now."

Richard asked, "What's the problem, Emily?"

"The problem is that apparently Florence cannot get here because of the storm," Emily told him.

"Florence?" asked Richard.

"Our cook," Emily told him.

"Ah," replied Richard. "Well, we'll just have to go out then."

Dylan tried to figure out the logistics of where everyone would sit, if they had someone driving them. He could stay behind, if there was a driver.

"Oh, please, Richard, pay attention," Emily said. "We can't go out. It's miserable out there."

And I'm miserable inside, Dylan thought.

"Well, we'll figure something out then," Richard said.

"What?" asked Emily, "What will we figure out?"

Richard started, "Well, I don't know, but..."

"I hate the damn snow," Emily stated.

"Emily, calm down," Richard said.

Dylan grimaced at Richard telling Emily to calm down. He knew that women hate being told to 'calm down.' Richard was lucky that Emily didn't toss his ass into the Atlantic at being told to 'calm down'.

"This is a serious problem," Emily said to Richard. "These Friday dinners are the only proper food that those children eat all week."

Dylan looked at his sisters. Lorelai wasn't starving them or anything.

Richard called to them, "Christy, Dylan, Rory, are any of you in any way malnourished or in need of some international relief organization to recruit a celebrity to raise money on your accounts?"

Dlyan looked at his sisters, "I think we're good."

"They're good, Emily," Richard told Emily.

"Your sense of humor rears its ugly head at the oddest of times, Richard," Emily told him.

"Emily, I am not the mastermind behind some great scheme to spoil your dinner plans and I don't care to be treated as such," Richard replied.

Rory gave her siblings a pointed look and motioned with her head, so that meant they had to get up and go over into the living room.

"So you're fine with having no dinner tonight, is that it?" asked Emily.

"I certainly am not," Richard replied.

"Hey, how about we check the fridge?" Rory said, "I'm sure there's something in there we could whip up."

Emily seemed confused at the phrase, "'Whip up?'

"Yeah, come on," Rory said as they headed for the kitchen. Emily and Richard stayed put.

Christy looked over her shoulder at them, "Come on. I'm sure it'll be fun."

"Well, come on, Mr. We'll Figure It Out," Emily said to Richard to get him moving.

Emily and Richard followed after them into the kitchen.

Christy opened the fridge to peer inside, while Rory tried to shove Christy's head away to look as well. Dylan used his slight height advantage (5'8) to peer over their heads while Emily and Richard came over to look as well.

The fridge looked well stocked with beef, poultry, and fish it seemed like.

"Nothing," Emily said.

"Not a blessed thing," Richard said.

"Nothing?" asked Dylan, confused. Where were they kidding?

"Ooh, a frozen pizza," Christy said, taking a box.

"Frozen pizza?" asked Dylan, confused. Did Emily and Richard even know what pizza looked like?

Rory asked, "Why am I hearing an echo?"

"Echo?" asked Dylan, smirking a little.

Rory nudged him, "Stop it."

Emily and Richard however seemed a little amused by their antics, before Emily remembered, "How in the world did that frozen pizza get in there?"

"Maybe you bought it and forgot about it," Rory pointed out.

"I have never bought frozen pizza," Emily said. "It must belong to Anna."

Dylan was confused, "Anna?" Rory nudged Dylan again for being an echo.

"The maid," Richard told him.

"Yes," Emily replied.

"Ah, got one," Richard stated.

What does that mean? Dylan thought.

Rory took the pizza book out of Christy's hands and walked away. Like usual, her two siblings followed after her.

"What are you three doing?" asked Emily.

"We're going to worship the pizza by dancing naked around it," replied Christy with a grin. "Rory's the high priestess."

Emily gave them a look, because clearly they got their sense of humor from Lorelai.

Rory smacked Christy upside the head, "I'm gonna make the pizza."

"Oh, Rory, you're not serious," Emily said.

"That hardly looks like dinner," Richard added as Rory looked over the instructions.

"I agree," Emily said "Rory, that's food you eat at a carnival. Or in a Turkish prison."

"I promise you're gonna love it," Rory said.

Emily started, "But—"

"Listen," Rory cut in. "Just leave it up to me, Christy, and Dylan. Christy can make some chicken noodle soup and Dylan can make some cookies for dessert."

Dylan was confused, "I am?"

"I am?" asked Christy, equally confused. Sure, Christy took that Intro To Foods class at Stars Hollow High, but that was because she didn't want to go out into the world not knowing how to make anything, because Lorelai decided to raise them on Luke and Sookie's food.

"You guys go back into the living room and I'll call you when dinner is ready," Rory told Emily and Richard.

The grandparents started to leave.

"Hey, Grandma?" asked Rory.

"Yes?" asked Emily.

"What are the odds of you knowing where some cookie sheets and pots would be?" asked Rory.

"I'd say very slim," Richard told Rory.

"Never mind," Rory said. "We'll find them."

Emily looked at Richard, "Very slim? Thank you for that."

The two headed back to the living room while Dylan looked through cupboards for some cookie sheets and a pot.

Rory and Christy found ingredients for the soup and cookies that Dylan was supposed to make.

After finding what they needed, Christy pulled her hair back into a ponytail using an elastic that was around her wrist, "Let's get down to business."

"To defeat the huns," Rory couldn't help but add.

Dylan continued, "Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?" He looked at his sisters.

"You're the saddest bunch I ever met," Christy continued.

"But you bet when we're through," Rory continued.

"Mister, I'll make a man out of you," Dylan finished, feeling a bit better than he had in months.

They started laughing together.

However Emily and Richard were just smiling at each other, because the laughter seemed to brighten up the house a bit.

While the food was being made, Rory and Christy took off to look around the house. Dylan chose to continue doing his homework while finally letting some tears fall, because that was what he normally did. Then the cell phone started playing Wait and Bleed by Slipknot because Dylan paid actual money for the song to be a ringtone.

He never actually thought it was going to sound like Corey Taylor was singing into a toilet bowl.

He looked at the ID: Home. Did Lorelai want to talk to one of his sisters? He wiped away the tears and answered the call, "Hello?"

"Dylan, can you please put Rory on?" asked Lane.

"Lane?" asked Dylan, confused.

"Yes, can you please put Rory on? I need to talk to her," Lane said.

Dylan said, "Okay. I'll go find her." He went to the living room. Not there. He went upstairs, looking in the rooms.

"Just make sure Dylan doesn't see it," he heard Christy say from what he assumed was Lorelai's room.

Dylan was honestly sickened at the thought, but also curious, "Don't show me what?"

Rory said, "I found a photo of Mom and Dad." She clearly remembered all the shouting and screaming Dylan had shown towards the man.

"Ugh," Dylan said, disgusted at the thought. "Oh, here, Rory." He held the cell phone to Rory. "Lane called from the home phone."

Rory took the phone from him, "Hello?" She paused, "Lane?" She paused, "I'm at my grandparents. What are you doing at my house?"

Christy and Dylan stepped outside to give Rory and Lane some privacy to talk.

While Lane and Rory talked, Dylan managed to overhear Rory say, "Why would you touch Rich Bloomenfield's hair?"

Dylan actually admired the guts that Lane had to even touch Rich's hair. He was so proud of Lane.

After a moment, Rory was saying, "Lane? Are you there?"

Emily came up to them, "There you are."

"I think the phones went dead," Rory stated, leaving Lorelai's room to hand over Dylan's cell phone. Dylan looked at it.

"It's probably just this horrible storm," Emily said. "One of you must come downstairs immediately."

"What's wrong?" asked Rory.

"The stove is buzzing," Emily stated.

"That's the timer," Christy pointed.

"I know it's the time, Christy," Emily told her. "What I don't know is where it's located or how to turn it off."

"But I really need to call Lane back," Rory said.

"There's nothing you can do now. The phones will come back on eventually. Now, please, one of you come downstairs and help me stop the buzzing," Emily said.

Rory started, "But—"

"Oh, Emily for heaven's sake! Get down here!" yelled Richard.

"Okay, let's go," Rory said.

They headed downstairs.

"On the bright side, at least I still can play Snake," Dylan said, grinning. 

Dylan helped out distributing the soup because it felt weird having his sisters do it, like he was telling them that their place was to be in the kitchen. It was something that his mom ingrained in him. It's not his place to tell a woman what to do or wear or whatever; like he should defend women, not tear them down or hurt them and that no means no, yes means yes, and that silence is not consent. He didn't even know what 'consent' meant at seven, but now he knew what Lorelai meant and what she was talking about.

Once everyone was seated, and had gotten some soup and pizza, Rory took a slice and took a bite out of it.

Richard held his plate up, looking at his slice of pizza and went, "Hmm," at it because apparently he didn't know what to do with it.

Rory said, "You wanna eat it before it gets cold."

Emily cut herself a piece of the pizza before taking a bite and making a face.

"So, do you like it?" asked Christy, confused.

Emily held up a finger and said, "Not cold!"

Richard also had taken a forkful of pizza to eat, "Mm, it's quite tasty." To his wife, he said, "Emily, we should have this more often."

Emily looked as if Richard started lecturing her on the dangers of wearing underwear to bed, "What?"

"Perhaps instead of that horrible salmon that keeps showing up," Richard continued.

"That salmon is a fine delicacy," Emily told Richard, picking up her wine glass to take a drink.

"Mm, potato, po-tah-to," Richard replied.

"Try it again, Grandma," Rory told Emily. "It's probably cooler now."

"No, thank you, I'm fine," Emily told her.

"You know what? It's really good if you add some extra Parmesan to it," Rory said, grabbing the Parmesan and a cheese grater to go grate Parmesan cheese on Emily's pizza. "This is Mom's special trick."

"It's not hers exclusively," Dylan said. He knew that other people added parmesan cheese to their pizza.

"Frozen pizza is a staple at our house. Mom's become a major doctoring genius," Rory continued. "She'll put anything on it."

"Anything," Christy added using emphasis.

It reminded Dylan of how Mai said that her mom would throw anything at Mai because they were Asian and apparently that's a thing. Once, Mai's mom threw cooked noodles at Mai or a box of goldfish crackers.

"Yeah, one time Sookie and Jack came and brought us some foie gras and Mom stuck it on a pizza," Rory explained, continuing to drown her grandmother's pizza with cheese.

Emily perked up at the thought, "How was it?"

"The pizza tasted better after taking the foie gras off," Dylan said, watching as Richard looked over at them, clearly interested in the cheese.

Rory finally finished up with the cheese, "Okay, that's good." She went and sat down, "Try it. Please."

Emily made a face as she picked up her utensils.

"You know, you can pick up the slice of pizza," Christy told Emily.

Emily made a face, "Well, all right." She set her utensils down, "Here goes nothing." She picked up the slice of pizza and took a bite. "Mmm! That's wonderful!"

"See?" asked Rory, delighted.

"One of you three, pass me that cheese," Emily said.

The triplets reached for the cheese and the grater at the same time, bumping hands.

Emily and Richard seemed amused by them synchronizing with each other.

Christy smacked their hands, winning, so she passed the cheese and grater to Emily who took it and went over to Richard to grate cheese on his pizza.

"Trust me, it makes all the difference," Emily told Richard.

"I'll be right back," Rory said, getting up to go get something.

She returned with a book of some kind, "Christy and I found this is Mom's room."

"What's that?" asked Emily, setting aside the pizza.

"Pictures," Rory said.

Emily said, "Oh, my goodness. I haven't seen that in years."

"Oh my gosh," Richard said in a low tone.

Richard put on some glass as Emily flipped the book open. She turned to the page to a rather large baby photo.

"Ah, look at this," Emily said.

"That's one fluffy white dress," Rory said.

"There were twelve petticoats underneath it," Emily explained. "We got it in London, remember, Richard?"

"Mm," Richard replied.

"Hard to believe you got her into twelve petticoats," Dylan said.

"Yeah, she did put up a good fight," Richard remembered.

"She looks like a little princess," Rory said.

"Her head does look a little big, though," Christy pointed out.

"Yes, well, if memory serves, I believe about two minutes after that picture was taken, her highness dumped a glass of grape juice all over it," Emily recalled. She turned another page.

"Look, Emily, it's Hopie," Richard said, tapping at the picture.

"Who's Hopie?" asked Dylan.

"My younger sister," Emily told him.

"Has she ever been here when we were here?" asked Rory, "I don't remember her." She looked at Dylan, "Do you remember her?"

Dylan had to think about it, "I don't think so."

"Oh, she lives in Paris," Richard replied. "Our great ex-patriot."

Emily looked at the picture, "Oh, my, Hopie, look at you. I haven't seen her in such a long time."

Dylan looked at his sisters, trying to imagine living a life where he hadn't seen them in who knows how long. He couldn't picture it.

Even Rory and Christy were looking at each other and at Dylan, as if trying to imagine a life without them in years. They both grimaced, as if they couldn't picture it either.

"Maybe we should take a trip this year," Richard stated.

"That would be nice," Emily said.

"Maybe the triplets could go with us," Richard stated.

"We'll start packing tomorrow," Rory said. She turned the page, stopping on a page of Emily and Richard's wedding photo, "Oh, is that you guys?"

"Yes, it is," Richard said.

"That is our wedding picture," Emily added.

"It's an amazing dress," Rory told Emily.

"It should've been," Emily replied. "My mother had three seamstresses working around the clock making it."

"Do you still have it?" asked Rory.

"It's upstairs packed away somewhere," Emily said. "I'll save it for you and Christy if you like."

"Oh, Emily, Rory and Christy's too young to be thinking about things like that," Richard said.

"Oh, Richard, please," Emily replied. "Every young girl thinks about her wedding. I know I did. I knew from the time I was twelve that I wanted lilies and orchids with a silvery bow wrapped around them for my bouquet."

"Very pretty," Christy commented.

"You also knew that you wanted to marry Errol Flynn," Richard told Emily.

Dylan was confused because his grandmother had a thing for the statutory rapist?

"Really?" asked Christy, incredulous. "She had a thing for Robin Hood?"

"Also the pirate guy?" asked Rory.

"I did not have a thing for the pirate guy or Robin Hood," Emily stated.

"She was mad about him," Richard told his grandkids. "She even tried to get me to grow one of those little mustaches."

"Oh, wow," Dylan replied.

"Yeah, you're kidding," Rory added.

"Richard, stop," Emily admonished.

"No, Grandpa, please tell us more," Christy added, grinning widely.

"She wanted me to swing from a chandelier," Richard added.

"Oh, now you're just being silly," Emily replied.

"Luckily I was on the fencing team in college or I would've married Pennilyn Lott by now," Richard replied. Emily didn't look happy with the name for some reason. "Or Lucinda Lester."

"Actually, Lucinda Lester looked a lot like Errol Flynn," Emily said. "I should've married her, it would've been very modern of me."

Dylan pointed at a picture of a man that looked to be in his early twenties, "Who's that?"

Rory leaned close to get a look, "Huh. He looks like Dylan."

"He does not look like me," Dylan replied, heated. The man in the picture was way more attractive than him anyway.

Emily looked a bit away, "Oh, that's my younger brother, Mikey."

"Where does he live?" asked Rory, curious.

"He doesn't," Emily stated.

Dylan was confused, "What?"

"He had these mood swings," Emily said. "When we were teens, he had mood swings and most months, it'll be hard to get him out of bed some days." She sounded choked up, "The day after Christmas, when he was twenty-two, he—"

"Emily," Richard started, knowing that his grandkids didn't need to hear that story.

"Would anyone like some coffee?" asked Emily, trying to get away from the topic of her late brother.

"What happened to him?" asked Christy. It sounded like he died, but how?

Rory turned the page to show a picture of Lorelai in a dress, "Wow."

"Yeah, Mom is really gorgeous here," Christy agreed.

"Yes, she does," Emily said, trying to move onto happier topics.

"What was the occasion?" asked Rory.

"You know, Emily, I'll take you up on that coffee offer," Richard said.

"That was her debutante gown for her coming out party," Emily replied.

"Hard to picture Mom being a debutante," Dylan stated.

"She wasn't," Richard stated.

She wasn't a debutante, considering her pregnancy. He knew that his mere existence created a blemish on the Gilmore and Hayden name. It wasn't a surprise that Richard and Emily saw Rory and Christy as a redemption. They probably saw Dylan as the mini version of Christopher, destined to follow in Christopher's by impregnating some girl and becoming a deadbeat as well. Hell, even Lorelai thought that lowly of him.

Rory deflated, realization dawning on her, "Oh."

"Yes, well, things happen, don't they?" asked Emily, closing the photo album.

"If you'll excuse me, I have some business calls to make," Richard stated, tossing his napkin on to the table.

"I'll go get that coffee," Emily said, getting up to go make coffee. She and Richard left the dining room. 

Dylan looked at the picture of Lorelai in her debutante dress. He couldn't even imagine raising three kids...alone...in a potting shed while working as a cleaning servant at just seventeen. Hell, it was hard to imagine having a kid with some girl and not even bothering to step up to help take care of his kid.

Granted, he could never really picture himself having sex because sex actually repulsed him and looked disgusting and even sounded gross, but still...

But honestly, who would even love him with his arms looking the way they did? Who would even love him the way he was when he couldn't even love himself?

Lance drove Dylan and his sisters home in the morning.

When they got to the door, Lorelai opened it, making them jump back, "Hi."

"Hi," Rory greeted. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Lorelai replied. "What's up with you three?"

"It's up dog," Dylan replied automatically.

"What up dog?" asked Lorelai, confused.

"Nothing," Dylan replied. "What's up with you since it seems like you want to tell us something?"

"Boy, you're so smart," Lorelai said. "Right, okay, here we go...I've got a boy in the house."

"Who?" asked Christy, confused.

"You what?" asked Rory.

"Nothing happened, I swear," Lorelai said. "He slept the whole night on the couch. And you know him."

"We do?" asked Rory.

"And you like him," Lorelai continued. "I don't know if that's relevant, I just thought that I would throw that in there."

She allowed them to come into the house to stand in front of the couch, where Mr. Medina was sleeping.

Rory whispered, "It's Mr. Medina."

"I know," Lorelai whispered back.

"Maybe you should invite my history teacher, Mr. Mathias, to come over?" Dylan said, "I think he's looking for young single moms."

"I would like to see what Mr. Mathias looks like first," Lorelai replied.

"Our English teacher is on the couch," Rory whispered, ignoring Dylan's comment.

"It was the snow," Lorelai defended herself. "You know how I get; it's like catnip. I was walking, he was there, his car was broken—"

"I think Christy's mind is broken," Dylan stated, looking at Christy, who was silent and staring at Mr. Medina in horror. That was how Dylan felt every time he looked in the mirror.

"We had fiesta burgers. It was the snow," Lorelai continued. "Come on, say something. Especially you Christy."

Rory went to the kitchen and the others followed her.

"Come on, you three." Lorelai asked, "How do you feel?"

"I don't know," said Rory.

"You honestly want me to answer that?" asked Dylan.

"Take a guess," Lorelai said. "Angry, frustrated, nauseous?"

"Confused," Christy finally said.

"Weird," Rory said. "I feel weird. Has he been here all night?"

"Pretty much," Lorelai said.

"Oh, my god," Rory said. "Did he go into the bathroom? Christy and I have stuff hanging in there!"

Dylan pictured Mr. Medina opening the bathroom door and turning on the light, only to stare on in horror, with the Psycho scare-chord playing, at the sight of Christy's matching lingerie hanging on the shower rod and started snickering.

"It's not funny," hissed Rory. "He probably saw your boxers on the floor because you miss the laundry basket."

"Hey, you three knew that I was gonna date him, right?" Lorelai said, "This isn't a total surprise."

"Yes, I knew you were gonna date," Rory said. "I just didn't expect for him to be here...at our house...in the morning."

"I know," Lorelai said.

"I don't remember ever there being a man in our house," Rory continued.

"Am I not a man?" asked Dylan, confused.

"You barely count as a person," Christy joked.

"Hey, hey, none of that," Lorelai cut in.

Dylan shrugged, "I guess I'm one of the girls, considering that I'm outnumbered here."

"And I kind of broke the rules," Lorelai added.

Rory said, "God, why is this so weird for me?"

"Because Mom never brings home the guys she dates," Christy pointed out.

"I thought it was because our English is on our couch, making the pillows go out of shape," Dylan tried.

Rory asked, "Do you love him?"

"I, uh...we had one date," Lorelai said. "It was a great date, World Series level. But it was just a date. I promised myself a long time ago that I was gonna keep all this stuff separate from you three, and I want you to know that that still stands, okay? This was a one-time thing. I'm not gonna start just bringing guys home. This is not a trend."

"You can, you know," Rory pointed out.

"What?" asked Lorelai.

"Bring guys home," Rory clarified. "I mean, if you like someone you should feel comfortable doing that."

"I appreciate that," Lorelai said.

"And he should know what kind of freak show your son is once he meets me," Dylan added.

"Your self-deprecating knows no bounds," Lorelai told Dylan.

Dylan faked a smile and headed on upstairs.