Disclaimers: If I did own GG, would I really waste my time writing it in fanfic?

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Author's Note: So, this chapter was long over due… What's worst is that it has been written since July, with the three more chapters. My Beta had computer problems, then I had personal problems and unkindly bit her head off for reasons that now remain so silly to me that I won't mention them but we haven't talked since. The big drama was mostly happening in my life so I won't bore you, let's just say I was a mess. So, my birthday is in a couple of hours so this is my birthday gift to all of my readers who still read this story.

I intended to post the second chapter of Shadowed By a Doubt at the same time but unfortunately it'll be delayed as I'm lacking writing inspiration.

So a big Thank you goes to Arlene, for her constant patience even when I'm being a total ass or a big cry baby and to Jayde… just because.

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How To Break a Triangle of Tension
Chapter 10: 3AM

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Tristan lay in his bed cursing Rory for always taking two steps backward every time he finally managed to make one forward. He glanced at the clock and saw the red numbers informing him that it was a little past two and that he probably wouldn't get any sleep that night. He chuckled and muttered, "I bet she'll run back home as soon as she wakes up." Then, he clenched his jaw and fists, "Whatever, I'm tired of trying." His featured relaxed and he whispered bitterly in the quiet room using a sing song voice, "Good riddance Miss Gilmore." He closed his eyes in the hope of getting some sleep.

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Rory was watching TV or more exactly zapping through the channels. She was bored out of her mind. She couldn't believe the time spent to do crazy things with Tristan and Paris had broken the tension of their weird triangle. Tristan's plan had worked out so well that Paris was relaxed enough to leave her and Tristan alone. Why did Paris have to leave? Now, she was alone with a guy in a pool house that no one seemed to use except him. The worst was that it took all her willpower to tell him that since Paris had left, she would take the now unoccupied couch which was very uncomfortable to sleep on.

She craved the comfort of the soft double bed with a feathery comforter and nice fluffy pillow. Most importantly and she hated to admit it even to herself, she missed being in his arms, his rough hands gently exploring her body and making her feel… 'Don't go there Rory, you don't want to lose your virginity on a one night stand and have all of Chilton's population reminding you of it.' She groaned, this tension was getting impossible, and she had to get rid of her tricky mind who was begging her to go join him in bed and beg him to take her innocence away. But she didn't know where she stood anymore. This crazy week-end had started as a fun thing, Sure, in the previous two days, they had fun and she enjoyed being with him. But now, in the light of the new revelations that she had never thought possible, she had to decide what she wanted. She certainly didn't want to play his heart and she didn't know if she wanted to be in a relationship with him.

So, she did the only thing she knew best how to do in this kind of situation, she made a list to make her decide if she would be better to do her second best course of action, run away.

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Tristan awoke with a start as the pool house door was slammed. He looked at the clock, almost three. He whispered before closing his eyes again, "Goodbye Rory."

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Rory was sitting outside, her feet dangling in the pool as she re-read her list for the tenth time trying to get a decision out of it. So far, she knew that she had to escape this place but just wasn't ready to leave Tristan to change back to the one she disliked so much. It's not that she didn't like him, she did, a lot. Well, she liked what he was making her feel and he could make her laugh also, the bickering they shared at school was also very refreshing from the rest of the school's students. But she didn't know him at all. Before that night, she didn't even know he had a sister. And one of the reasons that she was still by the pool and not calling a cab to take her home was because in the back of her mind, she was hoping that he would come after her to convince her to stay. That door slamming had surely woken him up, but still he wasn't there. She stood up quietly as she made her decision with the perfect solution for everyone. Run away.

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She was standing by the bedroom door looking at Tristan sleeping, he was lying on his back, and one of his arms was behind his head with the other one resting on his stomach. She could see a little amount of blond air around his navel just below where his fingers rested. She smiled as she walked to the bed silently; she knew exactly how she would wake him up.

She silently crawled on the bed and sat on his stomach and pushed on his shoulders whispering, "Tristan, wake up."

Tristan opened his eyes to find Rory over him; he smirked and asked lazily, "What can I do for you Rory..." He glanced at the radio clock and his eyes glittered with mischief, "At three in the morning?"

Rory tried to look innocent as her hands started to move softly against his pectoral area, "I'm bored, I can't sleep. Get up and play with me."

It took him one movement to have her sitting between his legs and hold her against his body. His kissed Rory softly and murmured huskily, "Got the perfect idea on how to un-bore you and make you exhausted enough to sleep."

She gave him a small peck on the cheek and un-wrapped his arms from around her and leaned back on her elbows, smiling lazily, "I'm sure you do, but I already have an idea of what I want to do."

Tristan placed his hands on her hips and moved them slowly toward her inner tights, "Is it crazy?" She nodded as his fingers traced small circles moving slowly toward her intimate parts. She was just waiting for him to accept as the burning feeling inside her stomach increase with his every touch. "I'm in then. What is your brilliant idea?"

Rory moved out of the bed in an instant, to be able to keep a grasp on her wonderful solution, "We go on a road trip."

He blinked, "It's the middle of the night." He saw her walked out the door and asked, "Where do we go?"

Only her face came back in the room with a bright smile, "Where destiny takes us."

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Tristan started the engine and asked, "You know it's crazy right?" She smiled proudly at him and he added, "Where to?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Anywhere. Just go on the highway in the opposite direction of Stars Hollow."

He drove out of the driveway slowly with his lights out, "For how long?"

She started to play with the radio buttons, "Half an hour?"

Tristan reached the corner of the street and lit his car lights, "Then what?"

Rory laughed, "Do I have to plan everything?"

"I'm driving. Check the clock."

She smiled happily, "Okay, let's say that at a red light or a stop, if the minutes are odd we turn left and if it's even we turn right."

Tristan engaged his car in the highway, "Works for me."

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They were driving in silence when Rory whispered, "Take the next exit."

Tristan changed line to be ready to exit and said, "I'm bored. Why don't you tell me something?"

Rory shifted her position to be semi facing Tristan, "Why don't we play twenty questions? You have ten, I have ten."

He glanced at Rory and smirked, "Okay, but if your answer is unsatisfying, I ask a second question without it being counted."

She took a whinny voice, "Fine but I start."

He shook his head at the road, "I do, you chose the game, I begin." He came to a stop and asked, "Left or right?" She looked at the clock and said, "Left. Now my turn."

He didn't advance but looked offended, "That's not fair!"

She smiled innocently, "Why, was my answer unsatisfying?"

Tristan pushed on the gas pedal, "Fine, you want to play that way. Your turn."

She seemed to be thinking and asked, "Why do you hate your sister?"

He laughed, "I don't hate her, I just preferred her when she used to come crawling in my bed at night so I could take her nightmares away. Now, she only comes to me when she needs to brag in front of her friends to try and get more popularity." His voice became bitter, "I miss how it was, before."

She looked at him seriously, "Before what?"

Tristan came to a stop and said, "If I answer that, you loose one question." She nodded, "Before, I got shipped away, before she came into her puberty and everything of importance was replaced by guys. Before she started sneaking inside my room to try and pry into my life. I miss when she was telling me everything, when I was her everything." He glanced at the clock and said, "Now, my turn." He turned right and glanced at her, "Why did you and Dean break up the first and second time?"

She looked nostalgic while she answered, "The first time was because… it was silly really. The second was because ever since we got back together, he became over possessive and protective of me. It just got to me, I was coming back from school and I already had four messages from him. And Jess came into town, he was my friend and Dean wouldn't let me befriend him. He just got sick of me not calling back."

They reached another stop and Tristan looked at Rory and asked softly, "The reason for the first break up?"

She smiled teasingly, "That'll cost you another question."

He shook his head, "No, silly is unsatisfactory."

Rory looked out the window, "I couldn't say 'I love you' back."

He continued to drive as she kept looking out the window he saw her lower lip quiver and he grabbed her hand with his shifter's hand and asked softly, "Your turn."

She squeezed his hand back before he let it go again to shift the gear, "Why are you always playing the girls you date?"

Tristan knew this question could be tricky for him but it all depended on how she thought about him, "I've never been with a girl who would make me want to be with only her." He saw in his side vision Rory smile sadly as she shook her head and added, "…so far. But at the same time, that kind of girl would never look my way." She kept silent so he decided to sacrifice another question to lighten the mood, "How did you and your mom managed to become so close."

Rory smiled, "It's always been only me and her. She got pregnant at fifteen and got me at sixteen. My father wanted to marry her because it was expected but she didn't want to just settle. She wanted the big package deal and she didn't want to give me up and ruin his life at the same time as hers. So, it was me and her living at my grandparent's house until she turned eighteen. Then she ran away, we used to live in a shack behind the inn where she worked. We had a curtain to separate the bathroom from the living area. She bought us a house when I turned eleven and for the first time I got my first room. She's my best friend, I can talk with her, I can tell her everything."

Tristan turned left and asked, "Will you tell her about everything that happened this week-end?"

She bit her lip uncomfortably and answered vaguely, "Eventually." Then she looked at Tristan and asked, "What was your childhood like?"

Tristan turned left again and answered, "I used to spend a lot of time with my grandpa but I can't anymore, he retired and moved to Italy. Then Gab came along, she was an accident, my parents didn't want her. But I remember my first look at her, so small and tiny and looking like an angel. I was spending most of my time with her. Then she grew up and I was watching movies with her, trying to teach her to count and read. Then when she turned four or five, my parents started to fight, they had to show her to the world and didn't want to. They were talking about her as if she was an object, and screamed how much of a disgrace she was to the family for being there unwanted and to top it all, how it was shameful to be a girl."

Rory's mouth gapped open as Tristan turned right, "But that's horrible!"

He shrugged his shoulder, "It's ok, she had me."

She slapped his shoulder playfully, "Always the cocky one."

He laughed, "I'm just stating the facts. Where did you tell your mom you were staying this week-end?"

Rory blushed, "Nothing." Then she smiled innocently, "She left for a management convention last Wednesday. She'll be back sometime Sunday and I'll have to be there."

Tristan nodded, "Will she get mad at you?"

She laughed, "No, she'll probably throw me a party for finally acting like a teenager." Then her laugh stopped, "Then she'll ground me 'till I'm thirty because she wasn't there to witness it."

He chuckled, "What do you think she thinks you're doing right now?"

She studied the clock, "Probably that I'm fast asleep in bed after an exciting evening doing my laundry in my favorite PJ while watching old movies."

He came to a stop and looked at her straight in the eyes, "You can't be that boring!"

Rory slapped his shoulder again, "Hey, I never get the house to myself!"

He sat up straight and exclaimed, "Whatever you say to make you feel better."

Rory rested comfortably against the seat, "Tristan, why did you always try to get me out on a date?"

Tristan sighed, "Why did you always reject me?"

He stopped the car in front of the beach and asked, "Where do we go now?"

Rory's eyes opened wide and she said, "Why don't we stay here a little while and continue on talking?"

Tristan stopped the engine and unfastened his seat belt to face her, still waiting for her to answer. She looked down, "I guess I never took you seriously." She saw him about to argue and continued hurriedly, "It might have been the way you came up to me that first day with the innuendos, or the way you were always calling me Mary before I snapped in class."

He forced her face up to look into her eyes, "I apologized for that. You accepted them. We even got along for a while."

Rory smiled sadly and whispered, "But I thought that was just a trick to get me on a date." She looked away and said, "A lot has happened, you didn't give me many reasons to believe you were serious then." Then she paused, "But even if you had, I wouldn't have picked on it because my heart was with Dean."

Tristan looked away, defeated, "So, do you want to head back now? I could drop you off in Stars Hollow."

She shook her head and forced him to look at her, "You still don't get it right?" Then she blushed and became self-conscious of the next words that would escape her mouth, "This road trip is me giving you a chance to get us to know each other." She didn't miss the spark that flashed in his eyes, "And to the risk of you thinking I'm completely insane, I'd like to start with sharing my favorite moment in the world, an In-Between time."

He leaned over to kiss her softly and questioned, "in between?"

Rory smiled and began her explanations, "I've read in a fairy tale book when I was younger that magical things happen during the In-Between hour. Like fairies would show up and grant your wish or that you would be able to see special things like elves and dragons. I was young and I wanted to see a fairy but there was no place that stated when this In-Between hour occurred. So, I've tried multiple time spans to test that out; during the shift of the day, month or year. In between two different hours or the time I was born when I was officially a year older. But still I never found it. I even tried to stay awake for forty-eight hours straight but still, I managed to miss it."

Tristan raised an eyebrow and asked teasingly, "And how do you know we'll see it now?"

Rory smiled, "Because I now know when it happens, it's a different time each day and it's about to happen. But to really feel it, you'll have to put the top of the car down and be very quiet."

He pressed the button that would make the top retract. They could feel the wind blow softly in their hair and smell the salty water of the ocean. Then Rory whispered, "Open your eyes and listen carefully."

Tristan laughed at the weirdness or her last sentence but still looked at the dark sky; he heard the soft music of the waves in the background, the birds singing happily, the cars that drove on the street behind them. Then, as if on cue, the wind stopped, the birds became silent. Even the waves and the cars seemed to stop moving. Everything was still, quiet and stiff, then he heard the birds, chirping a melody together as the sky became a royal blue and the wind and wave circulation became normal again. That moment lasted only for about twenty seconds; he was amazed that she had found that moment and knew it would come.

He felt her moving and sitting on his laps, "I don't want to go home." She joined her lips with his.

Tristan closed his eyes, "Is that one of those In-Between moments?"

Rory closed her eyes, "Nope, you have me until Sunday afternoon. The In-Between was just the moment of silence and stillness that helps you thinks better. It's one of the only gasp in the day that everything goes quiet and still. That's what makes that moment magical, not the fairies or goblins."

Tristan held her close to him and kissed her neck gently, "It was special." Then he kissed her lips softly and asked, "I have you 'till Sunday?" She nodded, "How about breakfast and coffee then?"

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Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed.
Didi