The Enchanting Forester
CHAPTER FOUR

Genre: Drama
Pairings: Dean/Louise
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Louise, Paris, Rory, Dean, Madeline, and all other recognizable "Gilmore Girls" characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino, Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions, and the WB. There is no profit from the copyrighted characters or infringement intended.

When Dean and Louise reached her family's estate, she instructed the booth attendant at the gate to call ahead to the butler to deliver a "Louise Late Night Special" for two to the corporate guest house.

Dean almost shrugged and suppressed the urge to laugh. To him, a "Louise Late Night Special" sounded like a midnight visit from a call girl. He just had to know what she was talking about and went ahead and asked.

"Louise, what on earth is a 'Louise Late Night Special'? If you ask me, that sounds more than a little risqué."

"Well, trust me, handsome, anything risqué we'll be participating in won't involve my butler. I'm more sophisticated than most girls my age, but I definitely don't swing that way. A 'Louise Late Night Special' for two is a fast way of letting our butler, Nelson, know that I want two Panini style sandwiches made on sour dough bread with granny smith apple slices, white Vermont cheddar and maple style bacon, along with two bowls of creamy tomato soup and fresh basil. I usually don't eat anything after 9:00 at night, but when I do, it's always that kind of sandwich and soup and never anything else, so I've just shortened it to the "Louise Late Night Special" to make it easier for Nelson. Otherwise, I'd have to sit there and relay all that through the gate attendant like we were at a McDonald's drive-in window and I'm in a rather big hurry to get to the house to be alone with you if you know what I mean," Louise commented to Dean seductively.

Dean couldn't even wait to get to the guest house to make his move, he immediately pulled his Ford Explorer over to the edge of the cobblestone drive and put the vehicle in park, then grabbed Louise, kissing her with a feverish passion. As he felt Louise's warm and soft pillowly lips against his, he realized how much fuller and seductive her lips were compared to Rory's. Louise let out a series of low moans while they were kissing, which only heightened his desire. They kissed for another ten minutes and then Louise gently reminded him that Nelson would be waiting for them at the guest house and that they'd also be more comfortable kissing there than they would in his vehicle.

Dean put the Explorer in drive and proceeded to the guest house. Louise informed him to make a right at the parking lot and to follow the road for about another half mile. When he arrived at the guest house and saw how gigantic it was, he was stunned. He'd envisioned the corporate guest house would be about the size of the pool house at Rory's grandparents. Instead, he beheld a three story, colonial revival style house, replete with Corinthian style columns, and French glass doors on the upper floors that opened out to individual, rounded terraces.

Louise explained the house had five corporate guest rooms, two kitchens, a small conference room, a theater that could seat a couple of dozen people and a veranda with a pool and a Jacuzzi in the back of the house. Guests could also walk around to the back, press an intercom button and one of the security guards would come around and pick them up and take them out to the golf course or the horse stables on the property, if they so chose.

Dean had always been very impressed with the Twickham house in Stars Hollow, but not even that big, beautiful home could rival the grandeur of this house.

The guest house also had a full basement, but that was off limits to any of the corporate guests. While Louise never visited the house when her father used the house to entertain his clients, she'd had it fixed for herself like a private apartment and also kept a certain amount of clothing in the basement on hand so that she didn't have to travel back and forth to her house when she was hanging out there.

About the time they entered the house, Nelson arrived with the tray of food. He'd also brought along some bottled waters, diet sodas and some organic grape and apple juices for them to drink with their "snack." Louise thanked Nelson for the food and gave him a flirtatious wink, which was really her way of telling him to get lost. Nelson smiled knowingly and was on his way.

Dean caught the silent exchange between the two of them and hoped Louise wasn't too much into the habit of privately entertaining guys at this house.

Louise stared hungrily at the food, but realized she was not about to let herself drip tomato soup or melted cheese on a $3,000 Oscar de la Renta dress, so she told Dean to make himself comfortable while she went down to the basement to get changed.

She emerged about ten minutes later, wearing a pair of black, skin tight, cotton Capri pants, a black stretch, skinny strap camisole top and a pair of adorable black, crushed velvet ballet slippers.

Dean had known Louise was delectable before, but now he could see every trace of curves that outlined her voluptuous body. He also adored how tiny she was, half of him wanted to make wild passionate love to her that very second, the other half of him wanted to pick her up and put her protectively in a dolly carriage because she looked so delicate. He found Louise's mixture of daintiness and sensuality to be a very alluring combination.

They both quickly gulped down their food and then Louise said, "I think we'd be more comfortable in the parlor," and led him immediately out of the kitchen and onto a plush, cranberry-colored, velour sofa in the parlor. Dean put Louise in his lap and they sank into the sofa and started kissing again.

Louise reveled in feeling Dean's tall, muscular frame pressed up against her body and his warm, huge hands expertly caressing her supple flesh and she didn't want him to leave too soon. After they'd made out for a few more minutes, Louise looked up at him with her scintillating espresso eyes and murmured, "You know, you could spend the night here at the guest house if you'd like."

Dean gulped, he was definitely turned on by Louise, but had no intentions of disrespecting her by violating her body on their first date, even if that was the treatment she was used to getting from the spoiled Richie Richs she normally went out with.

"Uh, Louise…I appreciate the offer, but it's probably not even a good idea for me to be here alone with you on our first date, let alone for us to spend the night together. I want this thing to last and not turn into a sleazy quickie that'll end things between us before it ever even starts."

"Trust me, I have no intention of losing you by giving in too quickly. I just thought it might be a little late for you to drive back to Stars Hollow. By the way… for your information, the guys who try to take things too far with me on a first date never get another chance to try it. Congratulations, Paul Bunyan, you've just earned the right to have a second date with me."

Dean laughed at her comment and hugged her body tightly to his own and then kissed her affectionately on the cheek. Her brand of dry wit and ultra confidence was a breath of fresh air compared to all the other girls he'd ever dated, including, and maybe especially, Rory. Louise had an intriguing air of mystery about her that made him want to find out what made her tick.

"Okay, Thumbelina," he responded teasingly, getting her back for the Paul Bunyan nickname she'd tagged him with, "we both know we desire each other in a big way, but I guess we both also agree that we should take this thing slowly. Before I fall too hard for you, though, I just gotta know a couple of things…"

"Such as," Louise asked suspiciously, as she cocked her eyebrow quizzically.

"Such as…are you dating any other guys right now, Louise? I'm not trying to pressure you or anything, it's just that I've always been a one woman kind of guy and I won't stop seeing you if you say you are. But I gotta warn you, if you want to keeping seeing other guys, I'll probably have to stop seeing you once I find a woman who only wants to –"

"Dean, you need to give a girl a chance to answer. I'm not a nun or anything, I do have a few guys I date casually so I can maintain an active social life, but I don't have anything serious going on with any of them. If you really want to be with me exclusively, then I won't see them anymore. Simple – end of story. What's the next thing that's bothering you?" she asked bluntly and impatiently.

"Well…believe it or not that was actually the easy question. You may want to end things after I ask you this question, but after what Rory put me through, I don't want to take any more chances of getting in too deep with a woman only to find out I've just been wasting my time so I'm just going to get this over now…Louise, where do you see this going between us?" Dean asked hesitantly, dreading her answer. "I'm actually afraid we can only go so far because of your enormous wealth. When I first started going out with Rory, she stupidly dragged me over to her grandparents' house and they treated me like garbage and told me I had no business being with their granddaughter because I'd committed the unpardonable sin of being born into a mere middle class family."

"Big surprise…" Louise responded sarcastically.

"I see…so basically you're saying your parents would have the same reaction to you dating me?"

"No, I'm not saying my parents would have the same reaction to me dating you…what I'm saying is that I'm not surprised that is the way Richard and Emily Gilmore reacted to Rory dating you. Living in the world that you do, there's something you don't understand about people like the Gilmores."

"Oh, no…I think I understand people like the Gilmores very well," Dean replied skeptically.

"Nope, not as much as you think you, Dean. You see, you perceive the Gilmores as very rich people because of the way you grew up. You've never had a chance to see how the other half truly lives. The truth is that the Gilmores are more like upper middle class and barely wealthy when you compare them to the way people live in my world. The reason they acted like such pigs when you were at their house is because they know they'll never have the kind of prosperity my family and other truly affluent families in New England have. That's why they put down people less fortunate than them every chance they get. Plus, I'm sure they never got over the shame of that whole 'our daughter is sixteen and pregnant' incident that went down with Rory's mother, so that probably made them even more asinine than they already were."

"Okay…well, that makes sense and is very interesting, but I don't see how that means your parents are going to feel any differently about me than they did."

"Dean, you don't get it at all…my parents are totally secure in their social standing. Granted, they wouldn't want me dating the garbage man or marrying someone working the fryer at a fast food restaurant, but they don't need to validate their self worth through my boyfriends. In other words, my father only wants his little princess to be happy. He would have never dared to treat you like that idiot Richard Gilmore did. It just so happens that I have a very fat trust fund coming my way, courtesy of my grandfather, when I turn 25, so he knows if he pisses me off like that, I can just tell him to go to hell and take my money and run when the time comes."

"Yes, Louise, but aren't you going to eventually want a man as wealthy as your father later on?"

"I don't need any man to support me, Dean. I already have a guaranteed position with my father's corporation that'll pay me a substantial amount of money after I graduate from college. Of course…if we do end up being together by then, I'll expect you to be doing something with yourself, I'm too beautiful to need a gigolo either," she said teasingly, tilting her head back as she gave a deep, sultry laugh and her butter blonde hair poured down her back and across her bare shoulders.

Dean couldn't resist playing with Louise's silky, golden hair and that led to another wild kiss between them before he finally told her that he needed to get home.

"Good night, Paul Bunyan," Louise said as she grabbed Dean and pulled him into her tighter so she could savor the moment and fantasize about him all night long.

As they slowly released their embrace, Dean touched Louise affectionately on the cheek and said, "Good night, Thumbelina," and reluctantly turned to leave. He knew he was going to miss her terribly and couldn't wait to see her again. "I'll call you tomorrow, honey," he promised.

As Dean climbed back into his Explorer and started driving back to Stars Hollow, he felt much better about going out with Louise. Of course, it would take an awful lot for him to trust a woman completely after the number Rory had done on him. She'd paraded around like a virgin queen, pretending to have a pure and caring heart. In reality, she'd used her façade of innocence to manipulate people into doing her bidding. It was a shame, really, because her mother, Lorelai, actually did have a considerate heart that cared about people, especially for people who she knew cared about her, too. He concluded that Rory was probably a lot more like her grandparents than she was her mother, even if she didn't realize it yet.

Dean lived up to his promise and called Louise the next morning and quickly secured a date for the following weekend. He suggested they catch the Metro North train to go into Manhattan the following Saturday, to see "Hairspray." His parents were more than a little concerned that he was taking a girl he barely knew out for a night on Broadway. Both of them knew it wouldn't be a cheap evening and after the way Rory used him, they figured he was probably setting himself up for more of the same.

When Louise got back to school on Monday, she quietly started informing various student groups about what a backstabber Rory Gilmore was and that she couldn't be trusted. She'd already told Madeline and Paris via the telephone what had happened at the dance over the weekend and when she got to school, she went around telling all the other power players at Chilton to spread the word. The first power player was Francie, the leader of the Puffs, then she went on to tell others on the Franklin newspaper, the debate team, the student council and team captains of various sports clubs on campus. By noon, on Monday, word had spread like wildfire that Rory was to be regarded as a leper for the rest of her time at Chilton.

At first, Rory was oblivious to the universal cold shoulder she was getting at her school. When Paris refused to speak to her during her morning classes, she'd just chalked it up to her moodiness and when Madeline refused to speak to her during her early afternoon class, she figured she was just doing that to please Paris and that it was just a short lived silent treatment, which was okay with her because it gave her a chance to catch up on reading her novel during lunch.

She still hadn't figured out that she'd become the outcast of Chilton until the third day, when Headmaster Charleston had noticed and had her summoned to his office to discuss the matter.

Rory was so used to Luke, Jess, Lane, Sookie, her mother and her grandparents constantly fawning over her and telling her how great she was, she figured Headmaster Charleston had probably wanted to see her to tell her what a magnificent student she was and give her an approving pat on the head.

She almost went into shock as Headmaster Charleston asked her to take a seat and began to speak.

"Miss Gilmore, it has come to my attention that you are reverting back to your antisocial ways that we spoke about when you first began to attend Chilton. I have to say, I find this latest development quite disturbing."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Headmaster Charleston. I-I've become much more outgoing since then," Rory stammered in disbelief. "You're holding my file. If you actually take a look at it, you'll see that I'm on the Franklin paper, I'm a member of the debate team, as well as the Vice President of the Student Body. I don't know how much more extracurricular activity I can handle and still maintain my stellar GPA."

"Uh…yes," Headmaster Charleston replied in a deadpan voice as he moved his reading glasses down from the top of his forehead and quickly glanced through the manila folder containing Rory's information. "But it has come to my attention that no one on this campus has interacted with you in the last three days except myself and your instructors. We assume you are at fault and simply cannot allow a person lacking in social skills to remain a part of our student body. Chilton has a reputation of excellence we are obliged to maintain in order to remain competitive in the academic world of finer college preparatory schools in the Northeast."

"But this isn't fair, Headmaster Charleston," Rory protested, "I have no idea where any of this is suddenly coming from. Yeah, Paris hasn't spoken to me in three days and so naturally neither would Louise or Madeline, that's the way they work. I'm sure it'll all blow over soon."

"You mean to tell me in all the time you've been at Chilton, you've only managed to strike up acquaintances with three of our students?"

"Well, yeah… I uh, thought that was plenty of people considering the demands of our academic load here," Rory responded helplessly as she stared into the Headmaster's steely, unsympathetic, gray eyes.

"Ms. Gilmore, the most I can do for you now is to inform you that you have thirty days to rectify the situation. If, I find you have not been able to establish any sort of communications with the students here on campus in thirty days, you will be asked to leave Chilton. Furthermore, if you have your grandparents or your mother contact me on your behalf to reconsider this thirty day policy, your relationship with Chilton will be severed immediately. You may return to your class now. See my secretary on the way out and she will issue you a tardy note for your next class instructor," Headmaster Charleston informed her coldly, pointing at his office door.

Rory got up and mumbled weakly, "Thank you, Headmaster Charleston," and started for the door. She now had an inkling of what it felt like to be employed as a maid by Emily Gilmore, having been so expertly demeaned and debased by the Headmaster for no apparent good reason.

Rory collected the tardy excuse from the secretary and tearfully headed towards her locker. It dawned on her that the Headmaster was right, it wasn't just Paris and her clique that'd been freezing her out, no one had acknowledged her presence since she'd come to school on Monday. She finally realized was getting her comeuppance for the flippant way she'd acted towards Louise at the Stars Hollow High dance.

She'd stupidly let her guard down at the dance, forgetting that Stars Hollow really wasn't her territory anymore and forgot about the major power that Louise wielded and her parents' bank account wielded at Chilton. She knew was going to have some major sucking up to do over the next thirty days.

TO BE CONTINUED…