A young woman driving alone late at night, starring a couple of moody truckies and a very friendly and helpful stranger.
It's set roughly 10 years after season 7. Rory and Tristan are getting married however it's mostly a Rory/Jess story with only a mention of Tristan.
Rory was feeling tired and stiff after putting in extra overtime at the publishing company she worked for, and was dreaming of a nice hot soak in the bathtub with a steamy cup of coffee as soon as she got home. The extra money would come in very handy with her and Tristan's wedding day only six weeks away and all the unexpected little extras were starting to mount up as the big day grew closer and closer.
As she drove, the dashboard clock showed it was 1:25 am, and her thoughts turned to Tristan, out on his trawler, "Mary" (he named the boat after Rory, he told her that while he was away the boat would remind him of the Mary he had waiting for him at home) If the wind stayed down, he could expect to land a five or six ton haul of fish for the night, he had made some really good hauls this season, only another four payments to go and the boat would be paid for.
The road was quiet, and she was still twenty kilometres away from home, there wasn't much on the radio, so Rory turned up the C.B. she could hear a couple of truckies chatting on their way back out of town, they were bragging about how good and reliable their trucks were to one another. It was then that she remembered that her father had suggested she bring her car over so he could replace the points, (whatever they were), that were well overdue, maybe next week, but she didn't really have time this week though.
There was often a bit of foul language on the C.B. and she wasn't all that keen on listening to it, but both her Grandfather and Tristan insisted that she leave it on if she was driving late at night. Listening was one thing, but no way would she ever talk into one. Her Grandfather had been a senior Coach Captain with Greyhound Coaches on the Inter-Capitol Express Services for many years.
As she turned onto the local Motorway that by-passed town, Rory thought she felt the motor falter slightly, and then come good again, she guessed it was just tiredness. Just after she passed the first off-ramp, the motor coughed and died, as she coasted onto the shoulder, she noticed that the fuel gauge showed over half full, so that wasn't the problem.
Not being mechanically minded, Rory was at a loss as to what could be the fault, she looked around but there wasn't a house in sight. Then she remembered that the area was all old "open-cut" coal mine workings, and the nearest phone box was near the school four kilometres away.
The time showed it was only 1:45 am, Rory could hear the truckies voices getting fainter and realised that they had passed her going the other way as she turned onto the motorway, the speakers slowly went quiet.