Chapter 1

(Set in Run Away Little Boy right before Tristan leaves)

"I'd kiss you but your boyfriend's watching" Tristan sadly confesses.

Rory looks at him with pleading eyes and whispers gently "Goodbye Tristan, I really will miss you." "Bye Mary", Tristan hesitates before saying, "I mean Rory."

At the sound of Tristan calling her by her given name, Rory smiles slightly. The last second before his father yells for him to come, he leans in and gives Rory the hug she was hoping she would get before she said goodbye to Tristan forever. As he walks away, "Tristan wait!" Rory cried.

"Roryyyyyy… try not to make this harder than it already is." he pleads. Rory looks at him with her tear-filled eyes and sadly says, "I… I think I'm in love with you." "Well I love you too my Mary." Tristan whispers.

He takes hold of her hands and looks straight into her ocean blue eyes as he says "Well than that settles it. I'm refusing to leave. I'm almost seventeen and I should be able to make that decision myself. I don't care what I have to do, I am NOT leaving you now." Rory starts to ramble as she always does when she is flustered. "But what about the safe with Duncan and Bowman, and the police, and your parents, and military…"

At this point, Tristan cuts her off with the most wonderful, sweet, gentle kiss she has ever experienced.

Dean sees the whole exchange occur and the kiss was the last straw. He storms over to Tristan and prepares to punch him in the jaw. As he pulls back his fist to hit him, Rory tries to talk some sense into her soon-to-be ex. "Dean, I'm so sorry but I can't be with you anymore. You were the most amazing first boyfriend I could EVER wish for, and the times we've had together I will always cherish. But I won't and can't string you along any further. In case you didn't hear any of my previous conversation with Tristan, I love him, and we want to be together."

Dean sighs and looks at Rory in a way that she can tell he isn't mad. "I understand Rory. I've had a sneaking suspicion that this would happen ever since I came to Chilton the day we got back together. Even though I do believe you didn't know how you felt about him, I could tell from then on that something had changed." Rory smiled because she knew that that day was when she realized that Tristan was special to her, but she pushed that thought away for a while until she could confront Dean about it.

"I know it sounds cliché but I NEVER want to hurt you and I hope we can still be friends?" Dean grins, "I don't think I'll ever stop loving you but I'll take what I can get, even if that just means a best friend."

Dean and Rory share a hug before he walks back to Sookie, Lorelai, and Lane. Mr. DuGrey had since walked over to Tristan to try and get him out to the car. They started arguing and Tristan calmly says "Dad, I want to propose something to you."

"No! You are going to miss your plane if you continue trying to distract me with your nonsense." His father says very quietly, trying not to cause a spectacle.

"Please father? Just hear me out."

"Alright Tristan, if it will get you on that plane in a half hour, you've got 2 minutes."

"Thank you Dad, that's all I need."

" 1 minute 46 seconds."

" Okay, so I've met this girl, I know what you're thinking, but being deprived of hot girls is not my reason for refusing to go to military school. So anyway, this girl is Rory Gilmore."

At this point, his father interrupts, "You mean grand-daughter of Emily and Richard Gilmore?" "Yup, that's the one!"

"Alright, get on with your story."

"Okay so Rory has always acted like she hates me, even though I've loved her since the day I met her. We had a Shakespeare assignment to perform one act of Romeo and Juliet tonight. It was the death scene and I was playing Romeo to her Juliet. As I was saying goodbye to her before the show, she told me she finally realized that she loves me. This might be my only chance to be with her and you'll be taking that away if you send me to military school in North Carolina."

Rory starts to cry and looks at Mr. DuGrey with pleading puppy-dog eyes. His father pinches his nose in frustration and looks at the crying young girl one more time before compromising with him, "Well, I guess if you stop the criminal activity with Duncan and Bowman and stay on your toes we can work out a way for you to stay. But that does NOT mean slacking off and reverting back to your old ways. I've heard that Ms. Gilmore here is a very ambitious student and very intelligent as well. Maybe her good habits will start to rub off on you."

Both Rory and Tristan put on a grin from ear-to-ear. Tristan picks Rory up off the ground and spins her around until they both get dizzy.

Tristan explodes "Did you hear that!? I'm staying, for good!" Rory replies with, "Yes! And I've never been happier!" Still being Tristan, he can't wait to ask Rory "So, are you free Friday?", since he hadn't had a non-date Friday since he was twelve.

"Well I have the weekly dinner with the grandparents but you could always come with us if you want, and we could go out for ice cream and a movie or something after."

"That sounds great! I can't wait to meet the famous Gilmores." He confesses.

She sarcastically remarks, "Oh yeah, they're famous alright, just ask my mother."

***Next, Lorelai, Rory and Tristan go for Friday night dinner at the elder Gilmore's house and Lorelai gets flashbacks of the first dinner Chris had with her parents.***