Thank you for all your reviews! :) Here's the next chapter.

Chapter 7

Rory was coming up to her last week at school before the Christmas holidays and she had something on her mind. She went into the living room where she found her mom working on some paperwork.

"Where's Katie and LJ?" Rory asked.

"At the diner." Lorelai smiled looking up at her. "They like helping out."

Rory smiled. "Yeah I remember helping out there when I was younger. It was fun." She said. "Don't you need to go to the inn today?" She asked.

"I'll probably pop in later but I'm taking the morning to get all these sorted." Lorelai said.

Rory hesitated before sitting down next to her mom. "Can I ask you something?"

Lorelai glanced at her daughter and stopped what she was doing to face her. "Sure." She said.

"Did you ever...did your school ever have formals when you were there?" Rory asked.

"Some yeah." Lorelai nodded.

"Did you go?" She asked.

Lorelai snorted. "Do you think Emily Gilmore would allow me not to go?" She joked.

Rory smirked a little. "I guess not. Was it any good?" She asked.

"It was alright." Lorelai shrugged. "There was dancing and good food. I went with a small group of friends." She said. She looked at her daughter who was obviously thinking about something. "Why?"

"There's a formal at Chilton on Wednesday." Rory admitted. "I don't know whether to go or not. It's not like I have many friends at the school to go with."

"What about Jess?" Lorelai asked.

Rory snorted. "You really think Jess would want to go to a formal?"

Lorelai smirked. "Ok good point. What about Tristan? Isn't he going?" She asked.

Rory shrugged. "I don't know. I feel like it probably wouldn't be his thing." She said.

"Is this why you're hesitant? Because you're nervous about asking him?" Lorelai said suddenly understanding.

"It's just we haven't been dating for that long. I don't even know if we're exclusive yet. We haven't defined ourselves as boyfriend and girlfriend yet." Rory said.

"Rory come on, you really don't think he won't want to go?" Lorelai said. "Because if he knows you want to go, I'm pretty sure he will say yes."

"You think so?" Rory asked looking up at her.

"I do. Now you won't know if you don't ask." Lorelai smiled. "Hey I'll even make you a dress."

"Really?" Rory smiled.

"Sure! It'll be fun!" Lorelai grinned.

"Thanks mom." Rory smiled and gave her a hug.


The following day, Rory went to school and saw Tristan at the lockers. She took a deep breath and went over to him. "Hey.."

"Hey Mary!" Tristan smiled.

"I...uh...need to ask you something." Rory said.

"Ok but first I need to ask you something." Tristan said pulling two tickets out from his pocket. "I bought these this morning. Will you be my date to the dance?"

Rory was surprised that he had beaten her to it. "Uh...uh...yeah. Yeah I will." She said.

"Good." Tristan smiled. "What was it you wanted to ask me?"

"It doesn't matter." Rory said. "I just...I wasn't sure if you'd even want to go." She admitted.

"It should be a laugh." Tristan shrugged. "Plus I get to go and spend time with you."

Rory blushed. "Well how can I refuse that?" She smirked.

"Although I may have let slip to Paris I was going to you." Tristan admitted.

"Great..." Rory muttered.

"I didn't mean to. It just came out." He said apologetically.

Rory sighed. "It's fine. I guess it was going to come out anyway. Especially if she sees us at the dance together anyway."

"True." Tristan said. "Look, don't let her get you down ok?"

Rory nodded.


Wednesday soon came and Rory was trying on her blue dress her mom had made for her. "What do you think?" She grinned, twirling around in it.

Lorelai smiled. "Beautiful." She said.

"Pretty!" Katie grinned.

"Thanks sis!" Rory grinned.

Luke then came home at that moment.

"Hey hon! What do you think?" Lorelai smiled gesturing towards Rory.

Luke looked over at Rory and smiled. "You look beautiful." He said softly.

"Thanks dad." Rory smiled.

"Here, I brought some food. Go share it out between you." He said handing Rory the bag.

"Cool!" Rory grinned. "Come on you two." She smiled at her siblings who happily followed her into the kitchen.

"Don't get any down your dress!" Lorelai called.

"I won't!" Rory called back.

Lorelai smiled up at Luke. "She looks great, doesn't she?"

Luke had to smile. "You did a great job with the dress." He agreed.

"But..." Lorelai rolled her eyes knowing her husband was holding something back.

"Is it wise to let her go with Tristan? We don't even know him that well." He said.

"Luke, it's a formal. It's sort of expected to go with a guy. Plus Rory really likes Tristan and she's really excited about this." Lorelai said. She sighed when she saw his frown. She placed a hand on his arm. "She'll be fine. She'll have fun." She assured him.

The doorbell then rang.

"Oh that's Tristan!" Rory said emerging from the kitchen and rushing to the door.

Lorelai glanced at Luke. "Be nice." She warned.

"Fine..." He grunted.

Rory then appeared in the living room with Tristan. "We're ready to go." She smiled.

"Good. Well have fun you two." Lorelai smiled. "Be back by 12 ok?"

Rory nodded. "We will." She promised. "Bye mom!" She smiled giving her a hug. She then gave Luke a hug as well. "Bye dad."

"Bye." He said. They were about to leave when Luke spoke up again. "Hey." He said.

They turned round. "Yeah?" Rory said.

Luke focused on Tristan. "You take care of her ok?"

"Of course." Tristan nodded.

Luke nodded and watched them leave.

"They'll be fine." Lorelai assured him again.

Luke sighed. "He better look after her." He said.

"He will." Lorelai said.


However, later that evening at the formal, Tristan found Rory sat at one of tables after an ugly confrontation with Paris. "Don't listen to Paris." He sighed sitting down next to her. "She's just jealous."

Rory sighed. "I just don't get why she hates me that much. I haven't done anything to her."

"Don't let her ruin the night for you." Tristan said.

Rory just shrugged, looking down at the table.

Tristan sighed. "Look, let's have one more dance yeah? And then we can leave. We can grab a coffee before going back to yours." He suggested.

Rory looked up at him. "I don't know..."

"Come on. We can kiss in the middle of the dance floor and prove to Paris she can't break us." He joked.

Rory smiled a little at that.

"Come on. Please." Tristan said.

Rory nodded. "Ok."

Tristan smiled and took hold of her hand and led her to the dance floor as a slow song started. He started leading her round in a sort of slow waltz. He spotted Paris glaring at them from the side. He looked back at Rory. "Hey Mary, have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?" He said.

Rory blushed a little. "Tristan..."

Tristan leaned forward and kissed her gently. "You look beautiful." He said softly.

Rory smiled as he pulled away from the kiss. "Thanks for trying to cheering me up. You've been great tonight." She said.

As the song finished, they went and got their jackets and then left, heading back to Stars Hollow. They wandered across the square with some coffee.

"What time is it?" Rory asked.

Tristan looked at his watch. "11." He said.

"We have some time. Should we sit for a bit?" She asked gesturing to the gazebo.

"Sure." Tristan said.

They went and sat down on the bench in the gazebo and drank their coffees. Rory glanced at Tristan. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." He said.

"Are we...I mean...are you...are you my boyfriend? Like can I call you my boyfriend? Because I know we haven't really discussed it but I mean we're dating, well we're sort of dating aren't we?" She looked up at him to find him chuckling. "What?"

"You're cute when you ramble." He smirked.

"I'm trying to be serious here!" She exclaimed playfully hitting him on the shoulder.

"Sorry." Tristan smirked. "Well do you think we're boyfriend and girlfriend?" He asked.

"Well...I think so. It feels like we are yeah." She said.

"Well then I guess we are." He smiled.

Rory looked up at him. "Do you want us to be?"

"Would I be here if I didn't?" Tristan pointed out.

Rory smiled a little. "I guess not."

"Then you've answered your own question." He said.

Rory smiled and leant her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for tonight. I did enjoy it. Most of it anyway." She said softly.

"Good." He smiled.


Rory opened her eyes and was confused as to where she was. She looked around and saw Tristan with his eyes closed next to her. They were still in the gazebo. She suddenly panicked noticing that it was much lighter. She glanced at Tristan's watch and her eyes widened when it read 6:30am. "No!" She exclaimed, getting up quickly, waking Tristan up as she did. "No, no, no!" She exclaimed.

"What?" Tristan said.

"We fell asleep!" Rory exclaimed. "It's 6:30! Oh god, this can't be happening!"

Tristan was surprised as he glanced at his watch and then at Rory's panicked face. "Look, it will be fine. I'll come with you to explain. We just fell asleep. It was an accident." He said.

"No! You can't come with me!" Rory exclaimed.

"What?" Tristan said taken aback.

"Please Tristan. You can't come back with me. I don't want you anywhere near my dad right now. He's going to be so angry and I don't want him to take it out on you. Please!" Rory exclaimed.

"But..."

"No please Tristan! Just go home! I'll see you at school." Rory said and then she ran off in the direction of her house, knowing she had messed up big.

She arrived at the house and before she even opened the door she could hear the raised voices of her parents. She cringed knowing this was going to be bad. She took a deep breath before opening the door quietly. She shut it behind her and she heard her parents go quiet.

"Rory?" She heard her mom's concerned voiced.

Rory took a deep breath and walked slowly into the living room. "Hi..." She said quietly.

"Hi? That's all you can say? Where were you? We've been worried sick!" Luke said angrily.

"I'm sorry! I...we left the formal early so we got some coffee when we got here and sat in the gazebo for a bit. We...we must have fallen asleep because the next thing I remember was waking up to daylight..." She said quietly.

"You fell asleep with him?" Luke said angrily.

"Nothing happened!" Rory said quickly. "I swear! We sat down and had coffee and then we must have just fallen asleep...Nothing happened!"

"You're not seeing him again. Ever!" Luke said angrily.

"You can't do that!" Rory exclaimed. "He didn't do anything wrong! He wanted to come and explain with him but I told him not to! Nothing happened!"

"I can do that. I'm your dad and I have the right to protect you from guys like Tristan!" He said.

"You don't need to protect me from Tristan!" Rory shouted. "Nothing happened!"

"I don't care! You're not seeing him anymore and you're grounded!" Luke shouted.

"Hey!" Lorelai suddenly intercepted.

"What?" Luke and Rory said at the same time.

"Little ears." She said gesturing to the stairs where Katie and LJ were standing sleepily.

They fell quiet as Lorelai went over to them. "Hey you two. Why don't you go back upstairs? I'll be up in a minute."

"Why are you all shouting?" Katie asked.

"It's nothing for you to worry about. We're just having a little discussion with Rory." Lorelai said.

"It doesn't sound little." Katie said quietly, looking over to her sister and dad who were glaring at each other.

"I promise you everything will be ok. Take your brother upstairs ok? I'll be upstairs in a minute." Lorelai said softly.

Katie nodded slowly and disappeared back upstairs with LJ.

Lorelai sighed and looked back at her husband and daughter. "Are we going to talk about this calmly?"

"I stand by what I've said. She's not seeing Tristan anymore." Luke said.

"You can't do that!" Rory exclaimed.

"Yes I can! I'm your dad!" Luke said firmly.

"Well you're a rubbish one! I hate you!" Rory shouted and ran to her room and slammed her door.

"Well that's not what I mean when I said let's talk about this calmly." Lorelai said.

"Well I'm not calm! She was out all night with him! How are you so calm about this?" He exclaimed.

"I'm not! Trust me, I'm not. But someone has to be." She said, sighing, sitting down on the couch.

"She's not seeing him again. I mean it." Luke said joining her.

"You can't do that." Lorelai sighed.

"Why not?" Luke said stubbornly.

"Because even if we forbid them to see each other, they will find a way. Trust me. Do you really want them sneaking around behind our backs?" She said.

Luke sighed and put his head in his hands. "I just...she stayed out all night." He said.

"I know. And you're right. I'd say we have a right to ground her for a bit but she can't stay grounded forever and you know that. Plus you forget Rory and Tristan go to the same school. We can't monitor her every move." Lorelai said.

Luke sighed. "She said she hated me. She's never said that before." He said quietly.

"She didn't mean it." Lorelai reassured him. "She was angry. You both were."

"I just...I know she said nothing happened but..."

"I know." Lorelai assured him. "But we have to take her word for it."

"I'm still thinking of ways to detach Tristan's head from his body." Luke muttered.

Lorelai had to smirk at that. "Well I would expect nothing less from you." She said. She then sighed. "I know you probably won't want to hear this but I do think he's a good kid. And Rory really seems to like him. She wouldn't go out with a jerk, would she?"

"I don't really want to talk about him right now. I can't." He said.

"Ok." Lorelai said. "Why don't you go and check on Katie and LJ then? Make sure they're ok." She said.

Luke nodded. "Yeah ok." He said getting up.

Lorelai placed her hand on his arm. "We'll get through this ok?"

Luke just nodded and then disappeared upstairs.


The next few days went by quickly but there was still a tense atmosphere in the Danes household. Rory was barely speaking to Luke and Luke was refusing to take the first move. Lorelai had decided to take the kids over to see Katherine for a few hours at the weekend to get them away from the frosty atmosphere at the house. Jess was there too and she knew the kids loved Jess. Luke insisted on staying at the house as Rory was there and he didn't want to leave her alone.

"So how's everything at the house?" Katherine asked sympathetically having heard what had happened.

Lorelai sighed. "Bad." She admitted. "Luke and Rory aren't talking and I can't seem to get either of them to make the first move." She said.

"Was the argument really that bad?" Katherine asked.

Lorelai nodded. "They both said things. They were both so angry." She sighed. "I mean, I was angry too but I know deep down that nothing happened. Rory wouldn't lie about something like that. But Luke's still intent on hating Tristan. Trust me, I'm not exactly his number one fan but he's intent on hating him and Rory's insistent on defending him. I honestly don't know what to do to make it better." She admitted.

"It'll blow over." Katherine assured her. "Give it time."

"I know but how much time? It's Christmas soon and I don't want it tainted by all of this. I wanted it to be a great day." She said.

"It will be. And if the two of them act immaturely, I'll knock their heads together." Katherine joked.

Lorelai smirked at that. She then sighed. "I've never seen them fight before..."

"Yeah it is a rarity." Katherine agreed. "But this was bound to happen when boys were going to start getting involved." She said. "Luke was always going to be overprotective."

"Yeah I know." Lorelai said. "He was just getting his head round it as well and then this happened."

Just then her cell rang.

"It's like he knows we're talking about him." Lorelai joked seeing the caller ID. "Hey hon." She answered.

"Hey..." Luke said.

"Is everything ok? You sound weird." Lorelai said, causing Katherine to look up.

"Um...your mother just called." He said.

"Oh please don't say she's heard about what happened with Rory." She groaned.

"No...uh...no nothing about that." He said. He hesitated before speaking again. "Lorelai, it's your dad." He said softly.

Lorelai's heart dropped. "What about him?"

"He collapsed. I don't really know the full story but apparently he collapsed at this dinner they were having. They're at the hospital now and he's having tests done." He said.

Lorelai didn't know what to say. Sure, she didn't have the most normal relationship with her dad like most people but ever since he came back into her life, she had grown closer to him and she would never want something like this to happen to him.

"Lorelai?" Luke said bringing her out of her daze. "Do you want to go to the hospital? I can drive." He said softly.

"Uh...yeah. Yeah I want to go." Lorelai said quietly.

"Ok. Leave the kids with mom and meet me back here." He said.

"Ok." She said. She then spoke again. "Luke, tell Rory."

"What?" Luke said.

"Please Luke. You know how close they are. Tell Rory." Lorelai said. "She deserves to know."

Luke sighed but knew she was right. "Yeah ok."

"Thank you." She said. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Ok." Luke said hanging up.

Lorelai got up and grabbed her jacket. "Katherine, can you watch the kids for a couple of hours?" She asked.

"Of course. Is everything ok?" Katherine asked concerned.

"It's my...uh...dad." She said. "He's collapsed. I don't know what's happened but they're at the hospital."

"Oh Lorelai, I'm so sorry." Katherine said softly. "Of course I will watch the kids. Keep me updated yeah?" She said.

Lorelai nodded and gave her a small smile. "Thanks." She said.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Luke hesitated outside Rory's room. He could hear her talking on the phone. He knocked on the door and opened it. Rory turned to him. "Is that Tristan?" He asked.

"You can't keep me from talking to him." She scowled.

"Look, this isn't about that ok? But I need you to hang up." He said.

"Why? You can't stop me from talking to him." Rory said stubbornly.

"Please Rory. I know you hate me right now but this isn't about Tristan. We have to go to the hospital. Your Grandpa collapsed." He said.

"Wait, what?" Rory said her tone completely changing. She went back to her phone. "Tristan, I'll ring you back...Yeah ok...Bye." She said hanging up. She turned back to her dad. "Grandpa's in hospital?" She asked quietly.

Luke sighed. "Yeah. Your Grandma just rang. I don't know the full story but your mom's on her way over and then we're going to go to the hospital. Would you like to come?" He asked, his tone much softer than earlier.

Rory just nodded. "Yeah." She said quietly.

"Ok. Well go get your jacket and then we'll go." He said.


About 45 minutes later, the three of them were sat in the waiting room. Lorelai glanced across at Luke who was sat next to her and then at Rory who was sat a few chairs apart from Luke. She sighed. "Please just talk to her." Lorelai said quietly to Luke.

Luke looked at her.

"Please. For me." She said quietly. "I'm worried enough as it is without worrying about you two getting into a shouting match again. Please."

Luke sighed but Lorelai was relieved to see him get up and go and sit next to Rory. Luke glanced at her. "You ok?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Rory said.

Luke sighed. He knew Rory and Richard were close. "Do you remember when we were sat in here waiting for your other Grandpa to have tests done?" He asked quietly.

Rory glanced at him surprised by the subject change. "Kind of." She said quietly.

"Well we were sat exactly like this and you must have noticed how quiet I was because you took hold of my hand and told me so earnestly that Grandpa Will was going to be ok." He said quietly. He glanced across at her and took hold of hand. "So now it's my turn to return the favour." He said. "He's going to be fine." He said softly.

Rory fought back tears. "I don't want him to..." She started.

"He won't. He'll be fine." Luke reassured her.

Rory looked up at him. "I've missed you dad." She said quietly. "I hate fighting with you." She sniffed.

"Yeah not so keen on it myself." He said giving her a small smile.

"I'm sorry." Rory said quietly.

"It's ok." Luke sighed.

"No it's not." Rory shook her head. "I said some things to you. Things I didn't mean." She sniffed. "You're not a rubbish dad. You're the opposite actually. I just...I was angry." She said quietly.

"It's ok." Luke said quietly.

"I don't hate you." Rory sniffed, finally giving in and snuggling into her dad who in return put his arm round her. "I'm so sorry dad."

"Apology accepted." Luke said softly giving her a kiss on the head. "Look, it's going to take some time for me to get over this Tristan thing. But it was wrong of me to tell you that you couldn't see him. And I know nothing happened." He said quietly.

Rory glanced up at him. "Really?"

"I trust you kid. And if you say nothing happened, nothing happened. But you and Tristan, it's going to take me some time so just bear with me ok?" He said.

Rory nodded. "I love you dad."

"Right back at you." Luke said softly. He felt someone sit down on his other side and he saw that Lorelai had moved down the seats and had sat down next to him.

She leant her head on his shoulder. "Thank you." She said quietly.

Luke put his arms round both of them and held them close. "He's going to be fine." He assured them both.

Just then Emily appeared, looking ragged and utterly exhausted. She collapsed in a chair opposite them. "It was angina. He's going to be fine." She said raspily.

Everyone let out a breath of relief. "He's really going to be ok?" Rory asked quietly.

Emily gave her granddaughter a soft smile. "Yeah. I heard the doctor say it himself. Your Grandpa has to exercise more and watch what he eats a bit better but he's going to be fine." She said obviously relieved.

"Can we see him?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, that's why I came out. He's a bit groggy and sleepy so the doctor recommended that we all see him now before he gets some rest." She said.

Rory got up out the seat. "Lead the way." She said.

Emily smiled and got up. She glanced at Lorelai. "Are you coming?" She asked.

"Just give me one minute." Lorelai said quietly.

Emily nodded and went off with Rory.

Luke stood up, ready to go. He glanced at Lorelai who was still sat down. "Are you ok?" He asked.

Lorelai nodded. "I just...he's ok..." She said her voice cracking.

"Hey, come here..." He said pulling her up and into his embrace.

Lorelai finally let her defences down and cried into her husband's shoulder. "I'm sorry...it's just..." She sniffed.

"It's ok." He said completely understanding the way she felt, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"I just needed a minute." She said pulling away slightly. "I had to be strong for Rory." She said quietly.

Luke nodded in understanding. "Come on, let's go and see him." He said softly.

"Thank you. For being here. I couldn't have done this without you." She said quietly.

"I'm always here. I'm not going anywhere." He assured her.

Lorelai gave him a small smile and wiped away her tears. "Ok I'm ready." She said.

"You sure?" He asked softly.

Lorelai nodded. "Let's go." She said.

Luke nodded and took hold of her hand as they disappeared off down the corridor that Emily and Rory had gone down a moment earlier.

So I hope you liked it! :) The next chapter will be Christmas Day! Please keep your reviews coming as I love reading them and they really do motivate me so thank you! :)