A/N- I know it's been an age, but I finally got round to updating! Thanks for all of the reviews, it really makes my day when the little emails that tell me someone's followed/favourited/reviewed come in. As an apology for not updating, this chapter begins with something a little more fun.

Some of the dialogue at the beginning has been take from the episode.

Chapter 9- But I'm a Gilmore

'Tristan, I—'

Rory's words were cut off by his mouth fusing to hers as he leant over her, resting his weight on his arms which were placed either side of her, not quite touching her sides but close enough for her to feel the heat radiating off them. He kissed her with such intensity that she could barely breathe, let alone think. All she was aware of was the contact between their bodies, and the overwhelming feelings he elicited within her. Eagerly, she arched against him and kissed back, parting her lips to allow him entrance as he sucked on them gently. Suddenly, his arms had moved from their place, and instead his hands were pinning hers down next to her head on her pillow. He deepened the kiss, causing her to be pressed down into the mattress, and she couldn't help but let out a whimper at the feeling of Tristan's leg now positioned between hers.

There was something that felt so dangerous about them being together in her childhood home, her bookshelves filled with her precious books and her stuffed animals sitting on the chair across from her single bed. It was funny in a way, for him to be there after all this time. But she was jolted from her train of thought as he broke his lips from hers, and began placing delicate kisses all down her neck and onto her collarbone, moving the neck of her pyjama top to allow more exposed skin, and slowly, she felt her wrists be released as he moved his to her waist, pushing up her shirt a little. Her hands went to his blonde and tousled hair as he lifted her up ever so slightly so that her stomach met his lips as he continued his ministrations, his blue eyes gazing over the expanse of skin beneath him. She watched him, the muscles on his tanned back quivering as he focussed on the task at hand. He really was beautiful. Her breathing became even shallower as he travelled the distance back up to her mouth with his lips, hovering over her breast for a moment longer. She realised her shirt was missing, yet she had no recollection of him ever unbuttoning it. She laughed to herself; like Tristan would ever have the patience to deal with pyjamas with buttons.

All at once, his lips were back on hers and he was kissing her roughly, demandingly, causing her to moan at the contact. But that feeling was nothing compared to the jolt of electricity through her core when he once again lifter her hips off the bed so that she could feel his arousal. Her eyes widened involuntarily as he began to grind against her. 'Tristan,' she said breathily, 'I need,' she continued, breathing heavily. 'Tristan,' her breaths grew more rapid, her voice more high pitched. 'Tristan!'

And all at once she opened her eyes. Where was she? It took a second for her senses to come back to her, for her to realise that whatever she'd just experienced had all been in her head. Light was streaming through the window and she wondered if she had forgotten to close the curtains the night before. She stared at the ceiling for another moment before attempting to sit up, only to fall straight back down onto the bed at the strength of her headache. Squinting, she looked around, and realised she was in her dorm, still dressed in her old Chilton uniform that she'd been wearing as a costume last night. She tried to remember exactly how she'd gotten home, and exactly how much she'd had to drink, but deciding it wasn't worth trying to puzzle it out when she'd just woken up, she groaned, pushed herself up out of bed and stumbled out into the middle room.

'Paris,' she whined, 'Why'd you let me sleep in—' She stopped abruptly. 'Hey, did you get tacos?' she puzzled, frowning. 'Cause nobody but my mom ever buys me tacos…'

'Surprise!' Lorelai exclaimed, popping up from behind the counter of the kitchenette.

Rory cringed. 'Oh, too loud, too loud.'

'How are ya feeling? Good? Terrific! I got tacos. I got soft tacos, I got fries, curly, straight, and spicy—'

Lorelai's torrent of words was cut off by Paris. 'Are you serious? I asked you to come help me, not do a taco run!'

'Trust me, this is the best hangover food on the East Coast. Coffee will be up in a minute, so grab some water and start hydrating!' she continued.

'I have never felt so gross in my life.' Rory said, shaking her head.

'That's my little college girl!' came Lorelai's perky reply.

Rory slumped down on the couch and peered into one of the bags that were spread out on the coffee table. 'Tito's was open this early?'

'It was for me.' Lorelai said with a wink.

'The power you have over fast-food owners is astonishing.' She pulled a taco out of a bag. 'You want one?' she asked Paris.

'Not in a million years.'

Rory bit into her taco. 'By the way, thanks for leaving me in these clothes all night. I'm pretty sure I've got the Chilton crest emblazoned on my hip.' she said with her mouth full.

'Well it wasn't like I was going to undress you! Besides, I did try to take off the blazer.' Paris exclaimed indignantly. 'And I forced you to get back in bed! If it was up to you, you'd still be asleep on the bathroom floor.'

'Supposedly you used your foot to stop her.' Lorelai added.

Finishing her taco, Rory stood up and promptly brought her hand to her head, before looking around the room in a confused haze, trying to remember where she had left her bag.

'What are you looking for?' Lorelai asked.

'My purse.'

Lorelai smiled teasingly. 'I believe it's in your room.'

'Room?' She had no recollection of even bringing her purse home, much less leaving her it in there. She'd assumed that in her drunked haze she'd flung it on the couch or something.

'It's that way.' Lorelai pointed in the direction of her room, still teasing her a little.

'Right.' Rory headed to her door, trailed by Lorelai, leaving Paris staring at the bags of food deciding whether or not to try a taco.

Rory surveyed the room, and frowned when she still couldn't see the bag. 'Where is it?' she asked, a little embarrassed that she couldn't see it.

Lorelai walked over to the desk and checked to see if it was on the chair. 'I just assumed Tristan would've put it in here when he brought you back.'

'Wait, what?'

Lorelai tried to stop herself from smirking. 'Didn't Paris tell you? Tristan pulled a real Knight in Shining Armour, rescuing you from the evil George and restoring you to your safe bed.'

Rory sat down on the unmade bed. 'Oh, you're getting a real kick out of this, aren't you?' she fumed, glaring at her mother.

Lorelai laughed. 'What can I say? I always knew Bible Boy would make a come back!'

'Yeah, well he couldn't have stayed at military school forever, unfortunately.' she replied, still glaring.

'Come on, I thought you two were on good terms when he left, and anyway, he did a nice thing bringing you home.' Lorelai said, still smiling as she tried to scold her daughter.

Rory sighed and laid backwards on the bed. 'Yeah Mom, I know.'

'Goodie! Cause if I heard correctly, there were definitely a few 'Oh, Tristan!'s and 'Tristan, I want you!'s coming from this room 10 minutes ago.' Lorelai replied, smiling evilly. 'Are you gonna tell me what that was about?'

'I don't know what you are talking about.' Rory muttered. Did Paris hear too?

As if she read her mind, Lorelai calmed her fears. 'Don't worry, Paris was making a call outside. She missed out on the fun.' she said, still smirking.

Rory didn't say anything. In fact, all she wanted at that moment was for a sinkhole to open up underneath her, or anything else to get out of this conversation.

'Aw, I'm not trying to be mean, I just can't help it if I think it's hilarious that after all those years of denying everything to do with Tristan, you can't even stop thinking about him!' Lorelai said, her voice getting higher and louder until she finished with a huge exclamation, before bursting into laughter.

'It's not funny!' Rory said indignantly.

Lorelai stifled her giggles for a second, just to squeeze out 'Oh, but it is!' in a singsong voice as she waltzed out of the room, leaving Rory groaning and covering her eyes.


She took a deep breath as she knocked at the door of Logan's dorm. She wasn't nervous exactly, her headache was too bad to allow that, but a little antsy as she waited for him to answer. Her mom had gone home around 10, and it had taken her all morning to muster up the courage to fight her headache and get out of bed, thus she had plenty of time to recall the events of the night before. She remembered the beginning of the party, dancing with Tristan, Logan's jealous freak-out, then him and Whitney, but after that the rest was a bit of a blur. She figured that's when she started drinking. There was something about a guy that she danced with for a while, but she couldn't remember what happened with that. She couldn't even remember if he was cute, much less what his name was. God, she hoped she hadn't embarrassed herself.

She heard him coming and jammed her hands in her pockets just as he came to the door.

'Well, this is a surprise.' he said, smiling as he saw her.

She didn't smile back. 'Can I come in?'

'Uh, sure,' he replied, looking a little confused. 'You wanna sit down?'

'Nope. Got to stay vertical.' she joked, but without a smile he didn't really get it. She could tell as he looked at her strangely, trying to figure out what was going on. 'What?'

'You have like a hand imprint on your face.' he said, chuckling to himself and taking a step forward.

But before he could kiss her, she got it out. 'I can't do this anymore, Logan.'

'Do what?' he asked, still leaning a little closer, pretending not to understand.

She looked up, exasperated. 'This casual-dating thing. I don't like it, it's not who I am, and I don't wanna make it who I am.'

Logan walked over to the couch, breaking eye contact. 'Woah, hold on here. Where's this coming from?'

Something about the way he had no idea what this was about made her start to worry that maybe she was being ridiculous. After all, what had he really done? 'It's coming from me, the ravishing creature standing in front of you.' she replied in an attempt to lighten the mood.

'We talked about this.' His face was suddenly serious.

'I know.'

'I didn't make you do this.'

'I know.' she said again, a little more forcefully.

'I don't understand, I thought everything was going so well.' he said faster. Rory thought she could hear a hint of panic in his voice.

She frowned. 'What are you talking about? We haven't been on a date in two weeks, yet every time I see you you're with a different girl! I don't enjoy being third choice, Logan.' she said, a little more harshly than she'd intended.

'I was busy, and I thought you wouldn't want to go to Finn's party!'

'Yeah, whatever.' She rolled her eyes. 'You know what? It doesn't matter, you're not my boyfriend. You don't owe me any explanations.' she continued, trying to sound cooler than she felt. 'I just don't want to be one of the many anymore.' she said, shrugging.

'Oh, Rory, come on.'

She could tell he was about to say more, but his roommate interrupted them. 'Hey Logan, Cassandra's on the phone.'

'Cassandra?' Rory echoed, her eyebrows raised.

Logan just looked at his feet.

'This is exactly what I can't deal with, Logan! I like you and I like spending time with you, but I can't do it like this anymore. Let's just be friends.'

'Rory, I can't be friends with you!'

She sighed. 'Fine.'

'Fine, what?!'

'Fine, we won't be friends then.' she said, turning on her heel and storming out of his dorm.

She marched back to her own dorm, her frown deepening with every step. How dare he act like he didn't know what was going on, like he didn't know that it hurt her. He knew exactly what he was going when they were skiing, she couldn't forget those little digs at her and how he'd done nothing but dote on Charlie that whole trip. And then Charlie was replaced with Whitney, and now Cassandra! She couldn't keep up!

She felt a tear slide down her cheek as she realised what she'd done. Fine, they wouldn't be friends, she'd said. So they wouldn't be. But it was slowly dawning on her that all of her new friends were Logan's friends. They were all one group, one she could only be in or out of. So if she and Logan weren't going to be friends, what about her and Steph. What about Finn?

What about Tristan? Sure, he was friends with Paris, but she couldn't help but notice the frosty relationship they had right now. So was he off limits too? After all, Logan basically his brother. Her heart sunk at the thought of not seeing him anymore, just after they'd reconnected. She hadn't even realised how much she liked him, until this moment. Her mid wandered back to her dream. She still didn't know what that was about, especially considering that she and Tristan were nothing more than friends. She sighed uneasily, but decided it didn't mean anything. It was probably nothing more than the fact that she was drunk mixed with the fact that they had been dancing. It couldn't be more than that, she thought as she suppressed the memory of that particular dance, when his hands had pressed her against him and his breath had been tickling her ear.


Rory was curled up on the couch in her dorm, watching A Room With a View and wishing her mother was there so that they could swoon over Julian Sands. It had been three days since her talk with Logan, and she hadn't left her dorm except for class. Paris was driving her nuts.

Even though she wasn't surprised, a small part of her had expected one of her friends to stop by, see how she was doing. At least Steph. But nobody showed. They were probably just giving her space, as by now Logan would've told them they'd broken up. Or they would've guessed. At least, Steph would have.

She tried hard not to be upset. It was just that she thought she had found someone who understood her as well as Lane did, but someone who's dorm was just down the hall. How hard would it have been just to stop by? But by that logic, she could've gone over to Steph's, which she didn't.

She blinked a few times and tried to focus on the movie, anything to stop the thoughts that were swirling around in her head.

Suddenly, her door was thrown open. 'Love!' Finn exclaimed, running inside.

He swept her into a suffocating hug as she stood up to meet him, before stepping back to admire her I Love Lucy pyjamas. 'You know, I am quite the fan of those.' he said.

Rory smiled and sat back down on the couch, patting the cushion next to her. 'What are you doing here?' She crossed her legs and turned around so that she was facing him.

'Well, Kitten, I just thought as nobody'd seen you in while, it might be worth checking up on you.' he said sweetly.

'Thanks,' she said, touched by the thought. It was nice to know they were thinking about her after all. 'But you didn't have to, I mean I'm alright here with my movies and my ice cream…' she trailed off, pointing at the empty tub on the coffee table. But then she saw Finn's expression of pity. 'Oh no. Don't you start. I am not wallowing.'

'Then why haven't you called anyone? Why haven't you met us at lunch? It sure seems to me like you're wallowing.'

It was funny how much thicker his accent sounded when he spoke quietly.

'My guess is that you broke up with Logan. Am I right?' he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Rory leant back against the arm of the couch. 'First of all, we didn't break up considering we were never really together in the first place. But yeah, I did tell him we were done. Honestly, I'm not that upset. Just relieved.' she finished with a small smile.

Finn still looked confused. 'Okay, but if you aren't wallowing and you aren't sad, then why are you avoiding us?'

She looked away, then explained in a small voice, 'He said we couldn't be friends. So, I'm only friends with you through him, so I guess that means I can't be friends with any of you.'

'That's ridiculous!'

'No, it isn't.' she said, cutting him off as he took a breath, about to say more. 'You were friends with him first. So was Steph.'

Finn stood up. 'You aren't being fair!' he whined. 'It's not our fault that Logan doesn't wanna be friends with you anymore! You know, this whole time Steph thought she'd done something wrong, that you were mad at her, but really, you just sacrificed her to appease Logan!' he said melodramatically. Even so, Rory couldn't help but feel a little bad at the thought of Steph thinking that his was about her.

Finn continued. 'Unless you just don't want to see Logan… is that it?'

'No! I don't care about Logan anymore! I'm over it! I just thought that it wouldn't really be fair of me to keep hanging around him if he said he doesn't want to be friends!'

Finn sat back down, his outburst over. 'It sounds like his declaration of no friendship hurt your feelings, Love.'

Rory scoffed. 'Since when did you become a psychologist?'

'I don't know.' he replied, deep in thought. 'It doesn't matter, though.' he continued perking up. 'Because we're going to the pub tonight, and you're coming with me.'

She debated arguing with him some more, as she knew that the evening would be nothing but awkward, but decided that it wasn't worth it. 'Fine. But don't expect me to socialise. And you're paying for my drinks.'

Finn laughed. 'Sure, kitten. I'll see you later!' he called as he made his way back out of the dorm, almost tripping on the rug.

As soon as she heard her door close, she let out a groan. What had she gotten herself into?


She was going to kill Finn.

Rory glared down at her almost empty Irish coffee. She wished it was just plain coffee, but if she was going to deal with Logan for a whole night, she was going to need some alcohol in her system.

She glanced down at her watch. It read nine forty-five.

They were supposed to meet at nine, although she'd been late anyway since it took her a little longer than she expected to find her phone, but they still hadn't shown up. She finished her drink in one big gulp and considered ordering another, but she was just too annoyed. She probably wouldn't be staying long enough to finish another one.

She hadn't wanted to, but she'd come. And she'd waited a half hour, and still they were't here. No call, no nothing. Angrily, she resumed giving the empty coffee mug the death stare.

Her self-pity was broken by someone sitting down next to her, but she didn't bother to look up. She didn't want to talk to anyone.

'Mary, do you want a new drink to glare at, cause that can be arranged…'

It was Tristan. She turned her head to face him, and raised an eyebrow at the smirk that covered his face. 'I don't know what you think is so funny.' She directed her glare towards him instead of the coffee cup.

'Watching you try to make that burst into flames is relatively amusing.' he replied, his smirk growing by the minute. His eyes danced as he watched her, waiting for her response. It amazed her how he could completely disregard her angry tone.

She narrowed her eyes. 'You'd think it would've by now. I've been waiting forty-five minutes.' That wasn't entirely true, but there wasn't any harm in a little exaggeration.

His eyes softened and she could tell he felt bad. 'We spent a while trying to convince Juliet and Rosemary to come. God knows why.' he said, smiling a little as he shook his head.

'You don't like them?' she asked, intrigued.

'No, I do,' he answered, cocking his head to one side. 'Sometimes they're just a little…loud.' He looked over to where the others were gathered, at the pool table, as if they'd heard him. Then he leaned closer. 'I'm sure they're better one on one.' he whispered with a wink.

'Tristan!' she exclaimed, shocked at his innuendo. 'I don't know why I'm surprised.' She watched as the traces of another smirk appeared on his face.

He didn't answer her but instead got signalled to the bartender to get him a drink. 'You want anything?' he asked.

She nodded, but before she could reply he'd ordered her a rum and coke. 'You didn't have to do that, you know. I can speak for myself.' she said, her voice annoyed but she had a feeling the teasing look in her eyes gave her away.

'Oh I know.' he chuckled. 'Apart from Paris, you talk more than anyone else.' he teased back.

'What's up with you and Paris anyway? She seems kind of mad at you.' Rory stated.

He groaned. 'Who knows. With Paris there's always something.'

He'd hit the nail right on the head with that one. She even seemed mad that he'd brought her home last night. 'Thanks for making sure I got home alright. It was nice of you.' she said earnestly.

'It wasn't a big deal.' he said, brushing off her compliment. He stared uncomfortably down at his beer.

'Seriously though, I've had some recollection of a guy and—'

'George.' Tristan cut her off. She couldn't tell if there was a hint of frustration in his tone.

'Yeah, George. Anyway, if it wasn't for you I may have not woken up in my own bed.' she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Tristan sighed. 'Rory, I already told you, it wasn't a big deal. Don't worry about it.' He gulped his beer, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to make eye contact.

She wasn't really sure what was going on. 'Okay, okay! I get it. No biggie.' she said, smiling and touching his forearm to make sure he knew she wasn't going to push it. He jerked back from her touch, as if she'd electric shocked him.

She turned back to her drink once again. Realising he'd offended her, he tried to break the silence. 'Steph's over there, I know she's dying to see you.' He paused, waiting for her to respond. 'I'm just gonna get some air. I'll be right back.' he said, tilting his head to get her to look him in the eye.

Before she knew it, he was already by the door. Leaving her drink abandoned at the bar, she followed him. 'Tristan, wait!'

He was standing in front of the building, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth as he focussed on trying to get his lighter to work. 'What was that?' she questioned.

He didn't look up. 'What was what?' he mumbled around the cigarette. He was frowning subconsciously at the lighter as it once again failed to make a flame.

'That not-so-subtle exit.' She just wanted to grab the lighter out of his hand, since it obviously wasn't going to work anytime soon. He didn't answer her immediately, instead still messing around with he lighter. Finally, he managed to get a flame and touched it to the end of his cigarette. Ignoring her question, he took a deep breath before blowing a little smoke to his side, careful not to get it in Rory's face.

She decided to drop it. 'Those things'll kill you, you know.'

He raised an eyebrow, amused. 'State the obvious, Mary.' As if to prove his point, he took another huge breath, this time letting a little of the smoke sit inbetween them.

God, he was so annoying. He was still smirking at her, like she was being serious. And that nickname. But she didn't let her annoyance show through. Instead, she smiled sweetly and leant closer to him. 'Can I try?' she asked, but didn't wait for him to answer and took the cigarette from between his lips.

He registered what she'd done with a look of surprise, watching as she delicately placed it between her own. The end was a little damp from being in his mouth yet for some reason, she wasn't disgusted. In fact, her heart beat a little faster at the thought. She breathed in but held the smoke in her mouth, the bitter taste sitting on her tongue, before turning away like Tristan had to breathe it out again. She held it between her fingers, her arm bent, pointing away from them and just looked at him for a moment, daring him to say something.

She should've known he wouldn't let her get away with that. 'No, no, no, Mary. You're doing it all wrong.' he said, his voice low and quiet, his ever-present smirk growing wider by the second. He took a step forward and gently touched his hand to her wrist. Now she understood why he'd jerked away from her touch earlier, the jolt running all down her arm almost made her do the same. He guided her hand and the cigarette back up to her mouth and used his other hand to cup her cheek. She felt her lips part in preparation but knew she hadn't meant to. There was something about Tristan that made her do things that she wasn't even aware of.

'Now, inhale. Into your lungs.' His voice was even lower, even quieter, and his eyes had darkened significantly. She took a deep breath, never breaking eye contact with him. He took another step forward, still not removing his hand from her cheek. She noticed that his smirk had disappeared. The hand that had been resting underneath her wrist made its way to her chin, brushed down her neck and ran down her arm, finally settling in her other hand where he lifted it up and interlocked their fingers.

Again, she turned to the side and breathed out, holding the cigarette away from them, but she looked back at him again. His eyes were closed. He was so close to her, his lips just millimetres from her own and it took all her willpower not to bridge the gap and kiss him. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and they locked with hers, so big in front of her as she looked up at him. She felt her own eyes widen a little as he began to lean down. She closed them tightly and subconsciously strained upward on her tip toes.

But he never made contact. Instead, he snatched the cigarette from her fingers and returned it to its rightful place between his lips. He didn't even need a hand to hold it up. She was stunned, but tried not to let it show. Laughing, she shook her head. 'Possessive, as always.' she commented.

He shrugged. 'I like to make sure people know what's mine.' he said, throwing in a wink. He sat down on the bench next to them and motioned for her to the same. She gave in and positioned herself next to him, pretending not to notice as he made himself comfortable with an arm flung across the back, almost like he had put it around her. 'So, are you gonna tell me where you've been the last few days?'

Rory sighed. Of course he wanted to talk about it. 'Well, I broke things off with Logan and—'

'Logan?' he interrupted. She could see the shock on his face. 'You and Logan were dating?'

He was obviously confused. 'No, we weren't dating. We were just in a…' She paused, trying to think of the word. 'A thing.'

He shook his head, disbelieving. 'A thing?' he repeated, his mocking tone annoying her.

She sighed. 'Yes, a thing. But I didn't like the thing since he was always flaunting the other girls in front of me. So I broke it off.'

She could see him puzzling it out in front of her as he did furrowed his brow. 'So that's why he was death staring us last night.' he stated, his tone not matching his joking words.

Rory nodded.

'And that's why Steph asked me to come to Stowe. He was the guy?' His voice was calm but she could hear something seeping through his voice. Was it anger?

She nodded again. For some reason, she felt like she couldn't look at him.

He shook his head in disbelief and leant back again, taking a drag from his cigarette.

They sat in silence for a minute. Her heart was still beating fast from their closeness a moment before, and now combined with his surprise with Logan? She needed a minute to figure everything out.

She thought he'd known about Logan. How else would Steph have been able to convince him to come? Besides, how could he have missed it? It wasn't like she and Logan had been subtle. She felt herself slowly look over at him next to her. His legs were spread out in front of him, his head flung back as he looked up at the sky, occasionally looking down to smoke his cigarette. It was almost gone by now.

Out of the blue, he turned to her. 'Look, Rory, why don't you go back inside. I know Steph's dying to see you.' he said, smiling a little but not really succeeding in convincing her.

She hesitated, taken aback. 'Okay… are you coming?' She stood up and gestured to the door of the pub.

He thought for a moment, before shaking his head. 'Nah, I'm gonna head back. The nicotine rush will wear off any minute now.'

'Oh.' She hoped she hadn't sounded too disappointed. She searched for something to say. 'Um…'

He got up to stand in front of her. 'Aw, Mary, don't be sad. I know you just can't get enough of me.' he teased, his smirk returning to his face.

She rolled her eyes. 'I think I'll survive.'

He chuckled. 'Nice to know where I stand in the world!' Smiling, he leant over to her and brushed his lips across her cheek. Her breath hitched in her throat.

'I'll see you tomorrow.' he said quietly, not breaking eye contact, and then walked away down the street to where his car was parked.

She brought her hand to her cheek where he'd kissed her as she watched his retreating form get farther and farther away, and hoped her breathing would return to normal. And as he disappeared from sight, she wondered why his words didn't sound like a question.


'Night, Rory!' Steph called from down the hall as she jammed the keys into the lock on her door.

'Night!' Rory shouted back, and was about to do the same when Paris flung open the door.

'Shut up!' she hissed. 'You'll wake up the whole building!' she exclaimed as she grabbed Rory's hand and dragged her inside.

'Okay, okay, sorry Paris!' Rory laughed.

Paris narrowed her eyes. 'Are you drunk?'

Rory thought for a moment. Sure she'd had a few drinks, but she felt fine. 'No, I'm alright.' She and Steph had spent the rest of the night together, laughing and joking and talking, and not for the first time, she wondered how she'd gotten so lucky as to find Steph. They hadn't had to talk about Logan, and she figured Finn had told her everything she needed to know. If she was hurt that Rory hadn't told her, she didn't show it, and Rory had had more fun that night than she'd had in a while.

She had just turned out her light and settled on her pillow when she heard her phone ring. Quickly she jumped out of bed, rummaged around her purse and answered it without reading the caller ID in hopes that she would avoid Paris' wrath. Any noises late at night seemed to piss her off.

'Rory! Rory!'

It was Steph, and judging from her loud and high-pitched squeal she was excited about something. 'What?' she asked groggily.

'Tristan and Logan had a fight!'

She sat up, shocked. 'What?!'

'They had a fight! Well, it was more of Tristan beating Logan up. You wouldn't happen to know what that was about, would you?' Steph enquired innocently, but Rory knew that she was fully aware of what was going on.

She ignored her question. 'How do you know?'

'I was just looking for Colin so I stopped by Logan's dorm and of course, I never knock, so I walked straight in on them.'

'Colin, huh?' Rory teased, hoping it would divert some attention away from her.

'Yeah, whatever. So, isn't it romantic?!'

'Huh?'

'You know, Tristan finding out that Logan was the guy I called him about, I mean I'm assuming that's what happened, and then avenging your honor?! I won't lie though, I'm surprised it took him this long to figure it out. Actually, I didn't even mean to not tell him, I thought it was obvious. Apparently not! Men, am I right?'

'Are you sure that's the reason?' She still wasn't convinced.

She heard Steph sigh into the phone. 'Fine, I may have eavesdropped at the door first. But yes, you are definitely the reason. Any hints on why Tristan would do that for you? Hm?'

Rory swallowed. 'No, I mean, we're friends now, but I can't imagine him doing that.'

That was a lie. Of course she could imagine Tristan doing that. She'd seen him try at the Chilton winter formal, and she imagined military school had improved those skills.

'You seem to be making quite the impression.' Steph joked. 'First Logan, then Finn, now Tristan. I should watch my back before you go after Colin!'

Rory frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'Don't worry, I just meant you've settled in well. You're pretty much a fully-fledged member of the group!' she said, her tone nothing but happy and excited.

She smiled. 'It's nice to finally have a group.'

'I'm happy we're friends.' Steph replied, making Rory's smile grow.

'Yeah, me too.' she replied.

'Night, Rory.' Steph said, hanging up before Rory could reply.

She threw her phone on the side table and rolled over, snuggling into her blankets and closing her eyes. And right as she was drifting off to sleep, she had a faint memory from the night of Finn's party.

It was Tristan, tucking her in, untying her shoes. It must've been from when he brought her home. He headed over to the door, but turned back before he reached it and came and stood next to the bed. 'Night, Mary.' he whispered, and leant over her to give her a small kiss on the head.

She smiled to herself, and curled up in her bed.

'Night, Mary' he had said.