A/N- I admit it, I'm a romantic, and I want everyone to have a happy ending. So here's Dean's story. This story begins during About A Boy with Jess's visit to Dean. If you haven't read my Post Series Canon based stories, you may want to start at the beginning with How Did I Get Here. In fact, stop now. Go read them first!

Disclaimer- Gilmore Girls and the characters associated with the show are not mine.

Chapter One: Planning

Dean was walking around the dilapidated old house with his clipboard, jotting down notes about possible repairs, when he heard a voice through the open window.

"Mommy, mommy! Wake up! There's a giant outside."

"Shhh Veronica, mommy isn't feeling so hot right now," Shane said, voice tired and weak. This last chemo treatment seemed to hit her harder than the previous ones. Normally, after day two, she was able to function. Not today. Today she wished she would have asked her mom to stay longer.

"But mommy! He's huge and he's in the back yard," Veronica whined. Dean figured he better move around to the front before Shane called the police on him.

"In the back yard?" Shane asked, dragging herself out of bed and through the house, hearing the knock on the front door. Fighting down the nausea, Shane stepped out onto her porch to see Dean. The bright sun combined with the dizziness overwhelmed her and she swayed on her feet before falling forward in a faint. Dean leapt to grab her and the clatter of the clipboard was the only sound as he fought to balance himself and her slack body on the steps. Muttering under his breath, he managed to leverage her up and into his arms. Standing on the porch he had two thoughts. What was he supposed to do with her now, and how was it possible she weighed so little?

"Veronica? Is that your name? Is there somewhere I can lay your mom down?" Dean asked the little girl, as Shane began to stir.

"She's sick, so she should be in bed. That's what my grandma always says when Kat stays home from school. Are you a giant?" the little girl asked, skipping circles around Dean as he walked into the house and placed Shane on the couch, smoothing her hair out of her eyes.

"Veronica, go watch a movie in your room, okay? It's quiet time now," Shane said, turning on her side, embarrassed by the idea of Dean Forrester being in her house, let alone crouched in front of her ratty couch. Veronica skipped off to her room and after watching her for a second, Dean turned to Shane.

"I'm the giant. In the backyard, I mean. I was making notes," he said, trying not to stare at her. He'd forgotten her eyes. He used to sneak glances in high school, because they changed color all the time. If she had on blue, they looked blue. Black, they looked grey. They even went purple sometimes. Today, they were grey. Not the normal clear grey, but cloudy.

"Why were you making notes in the back yard?" she asked, wishing he'd stop staring at her. She was a mess, from her lanky unwashed thinning hair, to her pajamas. Hell, she probably smelt like vomit.

Dean stood, and walked to the window. He wasn't sure how to answer, how she'd feel about what they were doing. He wouldn't want to be in her position. "I'm a contractor, and my tax guy said I need more deductions next year. Jess suggested I check out your place. This is a Colonial right? Early 1800's?"

"Yeah, I wanted to renovate it, but I doubt that'll happen now. It'll probably fall down around me," Shane said. "Jess and Rory are good people. I never thought you'd talk to them. Not that you're not a good person. I didn't mean it like that. Just, isn't it awkward? Rumor has it, you never got over Rory and you hated Jess," Shane said, wishing she could take her foot out of her mouth. Dean looked like someone had kicked his puppy for a second before smiling.

"That's not true. Well, part of it anyway. I got over Rory a long time ago. I've had a couple of relationships since then which mattered more to me than the one I had with her. Jess, well. Yeah. I hated him in high school, and I'm not sure I like him now, but he's trying. So I will too. It was weird though, because he was asking me to check out his ex-girlfriend's house. Definitely weird. What would you do with it?" Dean asked. Shane looked confused as she attempted to sit up. "Careful now, not too fast," Dean said, moving to her side, and steadying her, helping her swing her legs down off the couch.

"Thanks. What would I do with what?" Leaning back against the couch Shane prayed the nausea would pass. Looking around the room, she spotted the garbage can. "Can you hand me that? I might get sick," she said, almost in tears. Three more treatments, she didn't know if she could do them. This was too hard. Taking the can from him, she wrapped her arms around it and held on.

"The house, what would you do with the house? Did you plan to sell it after renovating it?" Dean was at a loss. He didn't know what he could do to help her, and it was obvious she was sick. Really sick. She held onto the garbage can like it was a teddy bear. "Can I get you anything? Is there medicine you can take? Water? Anything?" he asked, brushing his hair out of his eyes again. Shane watched him, slightly amused by how uncomfortable he was.

"I wasn't going to sell, wanted it to be nice for my girls. I don't think I could keep anything down right now. God. My girls will be home from school soon, I need to get up. They're going to be hungry."

"How old are they? What will they want to eat? I can get something," Dean said, happy at the idea of doing something, anything.

"Kat is six, she's finishing first grade. Bianca is in kindergarten, and Veronica is three. If you really don't mind, there's carrots and celery already cut up. It's just a matter of squeezing some ranch dressing out into little bowls for them to dip. God, I'm so tired. I can't pay you. For any work. I'm barely paying the bills," Shane said, trying to sound forceful. Dean laughed.

"You paying me would defeat the whole tax deduction issue. Seriously though, while the girls get their snacks, can I look around your house? I've always wanted to try my hand at a restoration. Not a remodel. I don't want to change it, I want to restore it."

"Aren't you too busy? And I don't think I could handle everything in an upheaval right now. I don't have anywhere to go, so we couldn't move out."

"Well, the beauty of restoration, is you don't do it all at once. Like your staircase, it will take me a long time to fix it. The broken spindles will have to be replaced, the wood shaped using a lathe, and then set into place. All of it will have to be hand sanded and refinished. Other than the day it's refinished, it will always be usable. There's work to be done outside too, which I should do while it's nice, but the safety issues inside, I want to take care of soon."

"Okay, if you want to, you can. Who am I to refuse help, but Dean, one rule. If you start a job, you have to complete it. I don't want you to start the steps and never finish them. My ex was real good at never finishing anything, I have a room upstairs which will prove it to you." Shane said.

"I promise. Hey, are these your girls walking up? Introduce me, and I'll get them their snacks. You rest." Dean said, glad she was going to let him help her, and happy to be working on a house with potential. It made a nice change from the gut it all and rebuild mentality of the majority of the jobs his crew worked on.

"Hey mom? I found this on the steps, are you okay?" Kat asked, coming in and throwing her backpack on the floor by the door. Shane sighed.

"Kat, where does your backpack go? This is Dean, it's his clipboard and he's going to get your snack for you today. He's also going to check out the house and do some work on it for us. So he'll be here a lot. But I want you to stay out of his way, and keep your sisters away when he's working. Now, show Dean where the bowls are, okay?" Shane replied as she watched Kat turn shy in front of Dean. A quick nod of her head, and she was grabbing her backpack and running it to her room leaving Bianca with no-one to hide behind.

"Bianca, say hi to Dean, get Veronica and go sit in the kitchen okay?" Bianca scurried down the hall. "They'll get used to you soon enough," Shane said, fighting to keep her eyes open. Dean watched her eyelashes flutter against her cheeks. She was exhausted, and he was keeping her awake.

"I'll get the kids their snacks and check out the rest of the house. You get some rest," he said heading into the kitchen.

Walking into the living room after doing a thorough inspection of the house, the floors in the girl's rooms weren't savable, Dean wasn't surprised to find Shane sound asleep. Veronica was sitting on the floor in the kitchen playing with a plastic tea party set and a couple of dolls. Kat and Bianca were at the table with Kat trying to read a story out loud.

"Hey guys, your mom's asleep. What time do you eat dinner?" Dean asked. Bianca looked down at the paper she was coloring, avoiding his eyes.

"We eat at six, do chores till seven, quiet time till eight and then bed. We get up at six to get ready for school," Kat replied. Dean checked his watch and saw it was almost six. He didn't want to wake Shane, she looked like she could use the rest.

"Why don't I order pizza so your mom can sleep a while longer."

"I wish she'd wake up, I don't know what this word is," Kat said. Dean hung up the phone and moved around to Kat's side of the table.

"Why don't you show me where you're stuck."