Title: Point of Breaking – Chapter Two

Author: Emily Carter (/tucker529)

Words: 2,695

Time-line: Fifth season and on: alternate universe

Episodes: Set during A Messenger, Nothing More and beyond

Pairing: Finn Rothschild/Rory Gilmore (PDLD)

Summary: After a summer in Europe with her grandmother, Rory Gilmore still doesn't have her head on straight, so when Finn Rothschild walks into her life and captures her attention, she's not sure what to do. Especially when men from her past begin to appear, demanding another chance in fixing the mistakes that were made.

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Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I likely do not own. Although I do on occasion toy with storylines and characters, I will give credit where credit is due.

Michaelover101 has contributed ideas throughout this story, and many others, but has not done any direct writing for it.

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Four Days Later – Yale University

Finn Rothschild ran his fingers through his hair that was lightly curling in the humidity of the late August air, enjoying the feeling of walking through Yale's campus without the pressure of classes, due dates, or, surprisingly, society events. He watched for a moment as two girls came from the corner of his eye and approached the three males, a slight smile spreading on his face when the girl's faces lit up at Logan's last name, something that frequently happened at Yale now; after all, the Huntzburgers were well known enough in the upper class society that most at Yale were from, but add on top of that Logan's growing reputation with the women on campus… well, it was just asking for trouble. Lucky for Colin McCrae and Finn, the two of them had learned early on the keep their escapades, at least when it came to women, under wraps, Colin more so because of his infatuation with Stephanie Merdock though.

Finn let out a laugh and lightly hit Colin on the shoulder, "Grab me a coffee with yours, mate. Gotta have a jolt if you two are planning on dragging me to the pub again tonight with all this jetlag."

"Us two? Since when are we the ones that drag you to the pub, Finn? As I recall, you pulled Logan away from a date last night and me away from one the night before so we could go and get plastered at the pub."

"Oh yes… I do suppose that you're right. Now, to the coffee!" Finn said, a smirk on his face as he watched his friend roll his eyes and walk over towards the coffee cart, right into a couple holding coffees and casually chatting with each other, a slightly shocked expression on the man's face appearing when he was bumped.

"Oh, sorry," the male said, his eyes scanning Colin for a moment before a slight glare formed, barely noticeable.

"No, seriously, you couldn't see me there?" Colin said, causing Logan to glance over at Finn with a concerned look on his face, Finn quickly walking over with a grin on his face in an effort to defuse the situation.

"Not everyone's staring at you, Colin," he quickly said, swinging his arm over his friend's shoulders, enjoying the groan that escaped Colin's mouth with the added weight.

Finn glanced at the couple in front of him, just in time to see the brunette's head shoot up at the sound of his voice, a slight expression of surprise coming over his face at the woman in front of him, a genuine smile forming on his lips when their eyes connected and her breath suddenly became shallow. Finn took a moment to break their eye contact and slowly scan her body, enjoying the light blush that formed on her face at the realization of what he was doing. "Miss Gilmore, fancy seeing you here," he quickly said with a teasing tone, his grin widening at the confused look on her companion's face. "I don't believe that I properly introduced myself when we met earlier. Finn Rothschild," he said, taking his arm off of Colin's shoulder and stepping closer to her, holding his hand out to shake hers.

Rory tentatively reached out her hand, Finn watching her pause for a split second before laying her hand in his, gently shaking it and then removing it, her eyes scanning his face for a moment before speaking. "I'd be a little more comfortable if you'd be willing to call me Rory."

"Finn, how do you know her?" Logan suddenly asked, his eyes lingering on Rory's hips and breasts for an obvious moment, causing a glare to come from the girl in question.

Shrugging, Finn replied quickly, his eyes flicking over to his blonde friend, "Well, Logan, you see, when I had to leave our little boating trip a bit earlier than everyone else, I did have to take a plane to get back here. I met her on that plane, with a rather interesting meet cute." He paused for a moment and then looked over back at Rory, "Would you like to join us at the pub for a drink, love? Your friend…"

"Marty," he said, jumping into the conversation. "I've bartended for some of Logan's parties last year, remember?"

"He made some kick-ass margaritas," Logan suddenly blurted out, a look of realization on his face.

Finn quickly looked over at his friend, throwing an incredulous look onto his face before turning back to Rory. "So, you up to figuring out if you can out drink me, kitten?"

Colin snorted behind him and shook his head, "As if…"

Rory looked at Colin with a stunned, slightly insulted look on her face before she focused her attention back to Finn. "You're on Mr. Rothschild," Rory said, a small smile forming on her face before she focused her attention on Marty. "You might not want to join in on this spectacle, it may not be my most shining of moments."

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Four hours later and seven Irish coffees later, heavy on the Irish, the group was beginning to wonder whether or not Finn would succeed in this little venture that they'd gotten themselves into; Rory, on the other hand, was wondering whether she even had a chance to win from the beginning. Despite the trip to Europe with her mother, which had resulted in Lorelai giving Rory many lessons on drinking men under the table when they underestimated the women, she was beginning to feel the effects of the drinks, whereas it appeared as though Finn wasn't. Closing her eyes for a moment, she thought about how proud her dearest mother would be at this moment, opting to drink rather than get ready for the start of classes. Smiling, she opened her eyes, and was startled to see two clear green eyes peering over at her from across the small table, the laughter of the pub barely filtering through both of their thoughts.

"We should start in on the shots, love. After all, what is drinking without lots of shots?" a smirking Finn piped in while some of the others stood around chattering with each other.

Apprehensively, Rory nodded in agreement, closing her eyes for a moment, trying to block out the events of the beginning of summer and focus on the moment and on her future, a future that may involve the continued presence of the Australian standing at the bar, smiling over at her as the bartender gathered shot glasses and what looked like tequila. A tear slid down Rory's face and she quickly wiped it away as Finn walked back to the table with a tray.

"You ready, Miss Gilmore?" he said in a teasing tone.

Rory pasted a happy look on her face and quickly retorted, "Only if you think that you have a chance of beating me."

Nodding, Finn quickly flipped over six shot glasses and set two in front of each of them, pouring the lightly-tinted amber liquid into the glasses before setting it down and picking one of them up, saluting Rory quickly before throwing it back. Smirking, he set it back on the tray upside down and looked at Rory, his eyes following her movements as she peeled her olive colored jacket off, revealing the strip of skin between her breasts, lightly peppered with freckles, any cleavage cleverly covered by the white silk of the top. She quietly giggled as she watched Finn's eyes run up and down her torso quickly at first, then slowing down as it occurred to him that she wasn't going to slide her jacket back on before he had had a chance to implant the memory into his head.

Rory took the opportunity of his distraction to throw back a shot and quickly grab the other one and felt the liquid slide down her throat as she enjoyed the slow burning, the heat that quickly spread through her body. When her eyes leveled with the green ones that had previously been admiring her chest and waist, she noticed that they were clouded with something other than alcohol, something that resembled admiration, surprise, and, possibly, a bit of lust. Slowly raising the second shot glass, she kept her eyes on his, quickly throwing the shot back and taking a bite of the lime that had been set in front of her, the sudden sourness causing her to break eye contact and squeeze her eyes shut.

Ignoring the pleasant twisting in her stomach, something that she hadn't felt since before Jess had left Star's Hollow, she handed Finn the third of his set of shot glasses, taking the moment of his distraction to admire the tan arms that were left uncovered, slowly appreciating the broad shoulders and prominent jaw that was lightly sprinkled with short hairs, something that she hadn't noticed previously. Grabbing her shot glass, she handed the bottle of tequila over to Colin who was standing annoyingly close to her, hovering at the table waiting for the two to finish with the bottle.

Suddenly Finn's laugh cut through her thoughts, she slowly followed his gaze to see Colin now standing in front of a girl with long blonde hair that was in tightly done curls, Rory thought her name was Stephanie, attempting to get her to drink with him, or maybe it was to come home with him. "Colin has been going after Steph for ages, love, it's always entertaining to see him drunk and her turning him down all night long."

"Oh," she quietly stated, glancing up on the wall to find that it had been hours since she had last even thought of checking the clock. She shook her head for a moment, focusing her eyes to see if she had seen the time wrong, her mouth dropping open slightly when she realized that she hadn't. "Finn, I have to go, my roommate should be moved in by now, and I haven't seen her all summer…"

"Let me walk you then," he quickly said when she moved to stand up. "You've probably had more than you've had in while."

Rory slightly nodded in the affirmative, agreeing with Finn before taking the hands that he offered to help her step off the stool and onto solid ground, enjoying the feeling of his rough hands gently holding her own. She paused for a moment, attempting to steady herself enough to let go of his hands, failing quickly before throwing a helpless look at Finn, and she suddenly felt one of his arms wrap around her waist and steady her, his chest partially pressing up against her back and shoulder, causing her to feel the muscles beneath his shirt. Keeping his arm there, the two of them quietly maneuvered around the crowded pub, both of them silently shifting closer towards each other as they reached the heavily traffic of the front door.

"Rory? Are you okay?" Finn's voice whispered in her ear while they walked out the door.

She quickly nodded, feeling her head spin when she did, and the feeling in her stomach returning once again that night at the feeling of his warm breath sneaking its way around her ear and down her neck, his cologne engulfing her senses, the sweet, slightly spiced smell causing a smile to form on her face, the light draft of alcohol just under the delicious smell. Silently, she breathed his scent in, trying to memorize this moment to relive it later, in detail, with her mother once she had woken up and gained some hangover food. "Why are you taking care of me, Finn?" Rory heard her voice suddenly blurt out unexpectedly.

Rory watched as his head snapped up and then his eyes wondered over what he could see of her figure for a moment before he answered, his voice hesitant, "You left your family to travel to Europe with your grandmother; which, unless you had grown up with her, no college-aged student would do. But you're a Gilmore, which means that you come from high society, but also means that I should have seen out at all of those society parties the past few years, yet I haven't. That means that you live with your mother, Lorelai, I think her name is. It also proves that you didn't live with your grandparents, so you were running away from something this summer, the only question, kitten, is what."

Quickly biting her tongue, she prevented herself from speaking, knowing that anything she said about the situation that she'd gotten herself into with Dean would ruin whatever impression Finn had managed to get from her. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought about that night with Dean, shuddering for a moment before she slipped out of Finn's grasp, her feet getting tangled in each other. Finn quickly gripped her waist, pulling her up against him, their chests coming flush against each other's, his grip quietly tightening around her as she unwittingly allowed herself to lean into him.

"You don't think that you can trust me, do you?"

Rory silently nodded, lightly struggling against his grasp, which he silently loosened, keeping his hands close to her waist as she stepped backwards, creating a distance between the two of them as she allowed their eyes to lock, noticing that the emotions which had previously been present had been pushed out and overcome by one that had made his eyes darken in a way that she had rarely seen in any guy she'd been remotely involved with, and had her slightly leery of digging deeper to figure out exactly what it was. "I need to check on Paris," she managed to push out, her voice strained.

Finn nodded and held onto her shoulders for a moment, a questioning tone in his gaze before he knelt down, pulled her up and started to carry her. A look of surprise took over her facial expressions before she gave in and rested her head on his chest, silently allowing him to carry her in the direction of her dorm. Taking the time that was given to her, she allowed herself for the first time to consider what she'd done, something that she'd avoided almost to the point of denial. Suddenly, Rory felt tears quickly build up in her eyes and start to spill over with the relationship that she's slept with a married man. A married man that hadn't even been willing to leave his wife after she'd given him her virginity, something that she had been saving for someone truly special to her.

Feeling the fabric underneath her chin begin to dampen, she bit her lip as hard as she could, her shoulders tensing as she tried to keep herself from crying anymore; if she did, Finn would notice, if he hadn't already. Rory closed her eyes, squeezing the last of her tears out and moving to wipe them off when she felt his arms tighten around her form, dropping a kiss on top of her head before he started whispering unintelligible things into her hair as he carried her further around Yale.

In her attempt to stop crying and prevent Finn from finding out how messed up she was, she had managed to ruin it and show him. She heard someone sobbing, quietly at first, but getting louder as it went on before she realized that the person that was sobbing was, in fact, her. At this point, she was gasping out how sorry she was before Finn placed a small kiss on her forehead, telling her not to worry about it, that it was going to be fine. Slowly feeling herself being lowered, her legs and ass colliding with his legs as he sat down on a bench, Finn's arms tightening around her shoulders and waist, Rory curling up into him.

She grasped his shirt and buried her face into his chest, continuing to hold her tight to his body. Slowly, she felt herself low down to only a whimper before she drifted off to sleep in Finn's arms, slowly breathing in the comforting scent of his cologne and laundry detergent.

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A/N: I would like to apologize profusely for any mistakes that might be in this chapter. In an effort to take the advice of my mother and primary care physician, I decided to go and leave the house and visit the library and my favorite bookstore (ever), and therefore ended up writing the majority of this chapter from scratch, as well as without any prompts from the series and episodes that I pulled from. And, trust me, I know I probably made some glaring errors. Eventually, I'll go through and fix the mistakes, but for now, I feel this is good enough to post.

And trust me, be thankful for that, considering the fact that this human, me, the author of this story, is a glaring perfectionist, which is half the reason why it takes months for a new chapter to be put on the site.

Other than that, I wanted to lay the groundwork for the next chapter or two, which is going to put Rory and Lorelai's relationship a little off kilter, and be able to push it just enough that those issues that they kinda just brushed off at the end of summer when she came home, are shoved right back to the surface. I'm really not willing to say much more than that, although I will tell you that I'm keeping this under wraps more than probably anything else that I've written; Kass, aka Michaelover101, doesn't even know what I have planned, or that I was even going to redo this chapter, and not just rewrite it. It's a weird feeling for me to be completely on my own with something, no one to bounce story ideas off of, but it's definitely an adventure that I know I'm prepared to take. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and enjoy the rest of the story.

Thank you to ScaryChick, Cadalinda, LauraDora101, miss eliza, ruthiexxx, bassbrat, and gank2 who added this story to their alerts.

Special thanks to Scott23 who added the story to his favorites and his alerts. :-)