Work Text:
Rory catches Poppy and Douglas sneaking out the front door at seven in the morning on a Saturday. Strictly speaking, he doesn’t exactly catch them so much as they catch him: when they round the corner, he’s managed to clamber up onto the counter and finally reach the jar of M&Ms that Poppy hid behind a stack of plates. He whips around, caught in the act, fully prepared to come up with a trademark Rory Banks Excuse—Poppy doesn’t know that he knows where the M&Ms are, after all, so technically all he’s doing wrong is climbing on Douglas’s expensive counter—when a few things occur to him in succession:
- Neither Poppy nor Douglas are early risers. It’s deeply unusual for Poppy to be out of bed unless she absolutely has to, and—though he refuses to admit it—Douglas won’t get out of bed if he has the opportunity to relax in it with Poppy. Rory has, in fact, teased him about this on a few separate occasions, to which Douglas responds by doing his Panicked Grumpy Bear impression that he does whenever Rory is unequivocally right. (Which is always. Rory is always right.) This is the entire reason that Rory is out of bed in the first place; he knew they would be asleep. At least, he thought they would.
- Neither Poppy nor Douglas look perplexed by his presence in the kitchen at seven in the morning on a Saturday. They don’t look mad at him, either. They actually both kind of look like they’ve been caught standing on the counter in an effort to pilfer M&Ms from a secret snack stash.
- Poppy is wearing her best perfume, the bright red lipstick she only wears when she’s feeling spicy, and a little white-and-yellow floral number with matching strappy heels. Poppy never wears white-and-yellow floral numbers. Poppy only ever wears bright colors.
- Douglas is wearing the most horrible white suit that Rory has ever seen. It should be burned.
No one in the room seems to know how to approach the situation, and no one seems willing to break the silence. Rory decides that this one’s on him, because clearly Poppy and Douglas have both gone some kind of crazy. “Going out?” he says as sweetly as he can manage, trying to look the picture of innocence even though the cupboard door is open behind him.
Poppy and Douglas exchange a Look. Then Poppy says, “You know what, Rory, I’ll give you a freebie. You don’t ask what we’re doing, we don’t ask what you’re doing. How’s that?”
Wide-eyed, Rory adds a crucial bit of information to the list:
- Poppy is giving him a freebie. Poppy never gives him a freebie unless there’s something she really wants to hide from him. And given that the last time she was handing out freebies was when she and Douglas were secretly dating—
“Are you two getting married?” Rory gasps. It’s more an impulsive thought than a genuine guess, but to his absolute shock, Poppy and Douglas exchange a horrified look. “Are you?” Rory demands again.
Poppy gives Douglas this look. Then she says, “Seven AM on a Saturday, you said. The kids definitely won’t be up, you said. Who’s up at seven AM on a Saturday, you said? My son, apparently, and he’s stealing my M&Ms.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that your child is taking a leaf out of Angie’s book?” says Douglas indignantly. “Normally it’s her I’m on the lookout for. Those M&Ms are mine, incidentally—”
“I thought you only eat Raisinets!”
“I’m branching out,” says Douglas.
“Hi,” says Rory, politely raising his hand. “Excuse me? I posed a question and it still hasn’t been answered.”
Poppy takes a long breath. Turning towards Rory, she says, “Rory, honey, Douglas and I came to the mutual decision that we don’t really want to make a big deal out of our getting married.”
“Not Make A Big Deal?” says Rory very loudly. “How Can You Possibly Not Make A Big Deal?!?!?!”
“What’s all the ruckus about?” says Emma, sticking her head in. She has grease smudges all over her heavy-duty coveralls. “And why are Dad and Poppy all dressed up? Does this mean we can go into their bedroom and fix the stuck drawer?”
“Are you already up?” says Poppy disbelievingly.
“We do general repairs and in-home maintenance on Saturday mornings,” Amy informs her, strolling into the kitchen to wipe her greasy hands on a dish towel. “You’d be surprised at how many things break in this house over the course of the week.”
“I blame Tony,” says Emma.
“EMMA AND AMY,” Rory announces, delighted at the opportunity to break such scandalous news as dramatically as possible, “OUR PARENTS ARE GETTING—”
“Married,” Emma finishes. “We know.”
Poppy and Douglas exchange another Look. “You know?” says Poppy. “We didn’t tell anyone!”
“Dad needs to get better at hiding things,” says Amy. “We found the ring months ago.”
“Months?” Poppy’s eyes snap up to Douglas, and she has this big, sappy smile that once again reaffirms Rory’s approval of his mom dating (and now MARRYING!!!) Douglas Fogerty. Anyone who can make Poppy Banks smile Like That is an absolute keeper. “You said it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing!”
“It was!” says Douglas, but he doesn’t sound very convincing. “I-I saw the ring back in April, and I bought it on an impulse, and then I…impulsively proposed a few months later. Over dinner. At the Winebrary.”
“Mm hmm,” says Poppy, still smiling, and tucks her arm into his.
Rory, meanwhile, is very distracted by the newest revelation. “You knew!” he gasps, pointing at Emma and Amy. “You knew and you didn’t tell me!”
“Get with the program, Banks,” says Amy.
“You have to pay attention to learn anything about a Fogerty,” says Emma.
“And you were going to just let them elope?” Rory persists. “But what about a wedding? With cake? And music? And haute couture!”
Poppy and Douglas exchange a third look, but this one doesn’t really have a capital L to it. Moving forward, Poppy lifts Rory down off the counter, holding him in her arms for just a second like he’s a single-digit toddler or something. (He doesn’t mind it too much.) “Sweetie,” she says gently, “what you’re talking about isn’t something that we want. The whole big-wedding shebang might have been something that appealed to me when I was marrying your dad, but tastes change.” She gives Douglas this little smile that Rory doesn’t one hundred percent understand. “People change.”
“Marriage is more of a symbolic gesture,” Douglas adds. “We didn’t want to turn it into a big party—we wanted to get married, come back, and throw a little brunch where we broke the news.”
Rory chews on his lip. Then he says, “Can we come?”
Poppy blinks. “What?”
“We-ell,” says Rory, “I don’t exactly agree with your reasoning, but I can support it if it’s what really makes you happy. If you want us to be happy, though, I think you should let us be there?” It comes out sounding plaintive instead of authoritative, but there’s no time to worry about that now. Though Rory Banks would never admit weakness…he really, really wants to see how big his mom smiles when she’s marrying somebody for keeps. “If you two are getting married, it means we’ll be a family, and that’s—”
“Oh, come on!” says Emma suddenly. “Don’t ruin our Saturday, Rory! This is repair time and we’re already a family, so why don’t you just let them sign the papers and let us get back to fixing the shower?”
“That’s all marriage is, you know,” Amy informs Rory. “A contract. Same as the ones we draw up with Dad to negotiate our pay for fixing the shower.”
“You’re doing what?” says Douglas. “It wasn’t broken!”
“And now it’s even less broken,” Amy counters.
Rory, however, is caught a little off guard. “Already a family,” he repeats.
“Don’t get all sappy on us,” says Emma, pulling a face at him. “And don’t make them make us stop our scheduled repairs.”
“No, I think Rory has a point,” says Poppy, and gives Douglas this soft little smile. “Even if all of us are already a weird little family, we should still be all together on a day like this.”
“Oh, dear God no,” says Douglas. “Poppy, please don’t do this. This is what I was talking about, Poppy, if you bring one kid in that means we bring everyone in—” But he’s already shepherding the protesting twins towards their bedroom, because what Poppy Banks wants, Poppy Banks gets. This is yet another reason why Rory approves of Douglas.
“I am not changing!” Amy informs him.
“No one’s asking you to,” Poppy replies smoothly. “Maybe just wash your hands a little, though?”
Amy and Emma look shocked and delighted. “We get to go to a wedding in our work clothes?” says Emma, does a little fist pump, and all but races towards the bathroom.
“When you say all together—” Rory begins.
Poppy smiles.
“Okay, everyone stand together! No, more together, more centered—Emma, keep away from your dad’s suit, okay?” Will is bouncing around like a chipmunk as he tries to get everyone into frame. “We don’t want grease on that. Not on a day like this!” He sounds close to tears. “Not on a momentous, historic, deeply romantic—”
“Settle down, Cooper,” says Angie through a mouthful of cheeseburger. She’s still in her sweatpants, and Graham is in pajamas, a bathrobe, and an oversized hoodie that he borrowed from Miggy to prevent wind chill. Saturdays start late at the D’Amato household. “Poppy said this is a casual thing.”
“Poppy wouldn’t have invited all of us if it was a casual thing!” Will shoots back.
“Dad, please calm down,” says Sophie, but she already sounds resigned to the fact that he absolutely won’t.
“Look at his little baby tux!” Miggy is showing Jack off to Douglas, who is looking longingly over at Poppy with the clearly-readable expression of How Long Will This Picture Take; I Want To Be Married Already. “Got it from Homily. She had a bunch of them on hand for this experimental art project she was doing. I think it’s actually meant for an oversized teddy bear, but—”
“Am I underdressed?” Graham asks Sophie. “Or are you overdressed? The dress code for this wedding is very confusing.”
“I always have formal attire on hand,” says Sophie. “Period dramas have given me a deep understanding of the need for a speedy wardrobe change.”
“A girl after my own heart,” says Rory warmly. He’s the host of this little shindig, after all. “Will, is the camera set up?”
Will is openly sobbing into Angie’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I think I should have seen this coming,” says Poppy to Douglas. “Rory?”
“On it!” sings out Rory, and weaves through his family to hit the timer on Will’s phone. “Will, get it together, the camera’s gonna go off in thirty seconds. Emma, no grease on the white suit until after the reception; we want the pictures to look good but the suit to never see the light of day after this occasion because it is horrible. Graham, you’re underdressed. Sophie, you’re overdressed. Poppy, you look great in your dress.”
“That’s my baby,” says Poppy, her voice brimming over with pride. “Class president through and through.”
Rory positions himself in between Poppy and Douglas, the latter having entirely ignored Rory’s very sound advice in favor of bringing his daughters in close. Rory can already see the grease stains on Douglas’s suit (ugh, to both the stains and the suit), but Douglas doesn’t seem to mind. Douglas looks happier than Rory’s ever seen him, actually; his smile isn’t hiding behind a scowl that doesn’t fool anybody. It’s radiating out, like he can’t even pretend to be upset today.
Poppy looks happy too, but—Poppy always looks happy lately, so this doesn’t feel as important right now. What does feel important is the way Douglas’s free hand lands on Rory’s shoulder, tugging him carefully into the very middle of the picture, because he knows Rory wants to be the center of attention, because it is what Rory deserves, because Rory is a star who has orchestrated this entire untraditional affair.
“Say Fogerty-Banks!” Poppy sings out, laughing and clear, and Rory sees that his mom’s hands are on Emma’s and Amy’s shoulders, and he likes that.
“Fogerty-Banks!” everyone shouts (except Will, who is still crying), and then the picture disperses into laughter and hugs and Douglas ruffling Rory’s hair. Rory can’t wait for the wedding.
It’s not exactly like all the movies Rory’s watched. Poppy and Douglas don’t have any special vows—Poppy’s vows in particular are pretty lackluster, at least in Rory’s opinion. She just looks Douglas straight in the eye, right after he’s stumbled through all the having-and-holding, and says very frankly, “I…feelings.” And for some reason Douglas starts laughing at that, this big happy belly laugh that doesn’t sound like Douglas at all, and he swoops her up into a kiss even though the judge-looking guy didn’t say they could kiss yet.
Rory doesn’t get romance. “Did you get that?” he whispers to Emma and Amy. “I didn’t get that.”
But Emma and Amy are watching their happier-than-ever dad with starry eyes and big smiles. And Rory definitely gets that.