AN: Thanks for your reviews: Alenor, Andra-ggfan, Juzzy88, Lizzy likes the hot guy, Storygirl21, That Don't Make me a Bad Guy. I'm working on making you all happy, but now that I think about it, that may not be posible. Hopefully none of you will hate me.

DISCLAIMER: I own nada.

"In the early stages of our relationship, I tried avoiding Doose's, because I didn't want to give Dean a chance to ask me out. Especially after what happened with Tristan at the party, I didn't want to take any chances. But then my mom invited Logan over for dinner, and asked me to go and pick up the food from Al's."

Logan volunteered to come along with Rory for the walk. "Use me as your pack horse." He instructed as they left the house.

"I can carry this stuff on my own, you know. You don't need to help me."

"I'm sure you can. But I didn't really want to be left alone with your mother. I'm not quite ready for the inquisition yet."

"Oh, so that's your only motivation? And here I thought you wanted to spend time with me."

"That's a motivating factor in just about everything I do, it just goes without saying. But another incentive is that I'm not good with parents. I'm just glad that your dad isn't around, that would be even worse." With one look at Rory, Logan realised his mistake. Her dad was a no go subject. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

She nodded with a tight smile. "I know. It's fine. I have Luke to terrify the boys in my life, anyway. Maybe by the time I get married, I'll have an actual father. Something to look forward to right?"

"When you get married?" Logan repeated slowly. "Well, that ought to give your mom some time to find you a dad."

"Well, obviously it's not something I'm thinking about right now." She replied, trying to put him at ease. As soon s she'd said the 'm' word, Logan looked like he had a gun pointed at his head. "It just gives her a long time frame to find the perfect man. Or for Christopher to grow a pair." Rory clamped her mouth shut. She had never said anything like that about her father before. Sure, she had thought some not-so-nice things about him, but never had she verbalised them. Logan chose that moment to change the subject.

"Aren't we getting Chinese?" he asked as they stopped out the front of Al's.

"Yeah, Al has the best egg fu yung in Stars Hollow."

"Ok, but this is a pancake place. Are you sure we're at the right address?"

"Trust me. Al started out making pancakes years ago, then he decided to switch to international cuisine, but since he already had like a thousand napkins printed up, and he liked the sign, he never bothered to change the name."

"Ah." Satisfied with Rory's explanation, Logan held the door open for her to enter the restaurant. Rory waved to a couple of people inside as they made their way to the counter.

"Hey Tommy, I'm here to pick up the order my mom called in." She announced speaking to a boy about her age.

"Sure Rory. One sec." He disappeared into the kitchen as Rory whispered to Logan to just ignore all the people staring at him. He wasn't intimidated by them, but he didn't find it quite as funny as Tristan.

"Rory?" she turned at the sound of Dean's voice, a smile painted on her lips as she reached for Logan's hand.

"Hi Dean." Logan glanced at her quickly. She wasn't big on the PDA, she had explained that she was a private person and that it just wasn't her thing. This being her first relationship, she was still trying to work out how she was supposed to act, she had added.

"Picking up dinner for you and your mom?" he asked, sparing a look in Logan's direction.

"Yeah. And my... boyfriend." She added hesitantly.

"Oh. Right. Well," he was handed his order and Rory could see his face flood with relief. "I have to get this stuff home. My mom only allows take-out once a month and my little sister will kill me if I don't bring her the egg rolls." He explained as Logan accepted Rory's order.

"Yeah. We should be going too." Logan replied, handing a bag to Rory as he draped his free arm around her shoulders. "Good to meet you man." He added, as the three of them headed to the door.

"Y-yeah." Dean stuttered and then started in one direction as Rory and Logan went in the other, walking along the quiet streets back to her house.

"So... Boyfriend?" Logan questioned once they were alone and Rory hadn't spoken in awhile.

"I'm sorry. I know that was probably something we should have talked about, but I just wanted to make it clear to Dean that I wasn't interested, you know? And what better way to do that, than to tell him that I'm taken?"

"No, no. That's fine. I was just thinking how your mom's definitely going to want to have that chat now. Me being her daughter's first boyfriend and all." He added with a grin.

"I'm sorry." Rory repeated. "I'll tell her to be nice."

"And that is how 'we' got rid of 'Frankenstein'." Rory explained, causing Lo to laugh out loud.

"Nice. So is he really gone now?" She asked, grinning.

"Not completely. You girls have met him actually. Dean Forrester, he run's Doose's market now. I heard that he wanted to be a contractor at one stage, but he's still at the market where he got his first job in town."

"The manager of Doose's was your stalker?" Em asked. Rory looked to her oldest daughter and shook her head. She wished Lo wouldn't teach her sister everything she learned from her grandmother.

"He wasn't a stalker. He just had a harmless crush. But he got over that in no time after he met my boyfriend."

"That sounds so wrong." Lo muttered under her breathe, hiding a grin.

"Oh!" Rory swatted her with a magazine. "You know what I mean."

Rory watched Tristan walk down the hallway with his new friends, Duncan and Bowman.

After they had talked about not spending as much time together, he had pretty much dropped out of her life altogether.

If it weren't for the classes they shared, Rory was pretty sure she wouldn't see him at all. But even that wasn't a guarantee as Tristan had been absent from school often since falling in with his two newest companions.

"I know exactly what you're thinking in that pretty little head of yours Love," Finn announced as he followed her gaze to their friend down the hall.

"That's a scary thought." She replied, looking at him with a smile. Finn had been kind of like a go between since 'the incident'. She was thrilled to still have at least that much contact with Tristan. "Tell me, oh wise one, what am I thinking?"

"Well, aside from how devilishly handsome your exotic friend is," he replied with a big grin that reminded her of a time when she had wanted to hit both him and Tristan for that exact facial expression, "you're thinking that those two imbeciles are just about the last people on the planet that he should be hanging around with. You're thinking that Logan, Colin and I look pretty good in comparison, even with some of the stupid things we've done together in the past, because we weren't dumb enough to get caught out as many times as Dumb and Dumber have. And you're also thinking that you want to tell your unky Finn what happened to break the two of you up."

"I was not thinking that last part. Nice work on the rest of your mind reading though." Rory praised him, watching as the three boys disappeared out a side door.

"Come on Rory! It's not fair." Finn whined. "I was totally cool, driving you home from that party and not asking any questions, coz I figured you'd tell me later. But it's been weeks and both of you have stayed completely silent on the subject. You've gotta give me something here."

"Finn it was nothing really. It's not important." She knew that even though she said those words he wouldn't give up.

"That is a blatant lie, and a pretty pathetic one at that. I mean, you could at least tell me he made a pass at your mother or something. Tell me something plausible."

"You would believe that Tristan made a pass at my mother?" Rory asked incredulously.

"Actually no, he'd believe that I did that." Finn replied, after a moment of thought.

"You've never even met her." Rory protested. "What makes you think she's your type? And I mean, aside from the fact that she's female and has control of all her facilities?"

"Well, I saw a couple of pictures around your grandparent's house when I was there for your birthday," he replied, causing Rory to groan at the memory. "And I've got a pretty good imagination even without those. So I can pretty much just picture you, add a few years and presto, we have Lorelai Gilmore, MIL-"

"Don't finish that acronym, I beg of you." Rory squeezed her eyes shut trying to erase the memory of what she knew Finn had been about to say, but it was too late. She could hear it loud and clear in her mind.

"Stop trying to distract me Gilmore. I want an explanation for why Joey and Dawson aren't speaking this week." Finn pressed as they entered the cafeteria. At least Tristan was only cutting out on lunch, and not classes. For now anyway, Rory thought to herself.

"I'll have to remember you said that, so I can mock you for it later." Rory replied, finally resigning herself to her fate. She would have to tell Finn at least part of what had happened, but she would leave most of it up to Tristan, let him choose if he wanted his friends to know what had really occurred. "Ok well, you know that Tristan had been drinking?"

"Do I ever. I was drinking with him to begin with, but then it got to the point where it was more than even I could handle and I had to take a breather."

"Well he didn't. And when I found him on the balcony we talked for a bit and I told him I wanted him to come to my place and get cleaned up a before he went home. But Tristan didn't want to and when I tried to leave to find Logan... he kissed me."

"Ah, now I understand it all."

"You knew?" Rory asked, certain that the expression on Finn's face was one of true understanding, he wasn't just trying to stop her explanation, he really didn't need it.

"Of course I knew. I just didn't think he was going to go through with anything. Not since your 'I want to be friends' speech. Then you met Logan and I was positive that Tris was just going to bury whatever it was he was feeling. I figured he was doing alright with it. But I should have been paying better attention. I'm sorry Love."

"I'm fine. I just wish that I had seen it coming as well. Hopefully we can get back what we had though. I just need to give him some time. But I wish that didn't translate into him spending every minute with those two." Rory added. Finn nodded.

"I'll have a chat to him. See if there's anything I can do to remedy that." Rory smiled at him. He really was a different person to who she had originally thought.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, thinking of something that had been bugging her for over a month, as they made their way to a table, tray's in hand.

"Boxers." Finn replied matter-of-factly, smirking.

"What?" she was genuinely confused by his response.

"You weren't going to ask if I prefer boxers or briefs?"

"No." Rory laughed. At least he made an effort to make her feel the way she had with Tristan. That was comforting. "I was going to ask why you were so... distant the day I met Logan. You wouldn't look at me; you barely spoke the whole time. I guess I just want to know what you were thinking." Finn sighed as he thought back on the day. "Was it me?" Rory continued, once again concerned of the impression she had made. "Did I do something to annoy you?"

"No Rory. It wasn't you. I just... They're my mates and I'd do just about anything for them. There was a time when we were practically inseparable. But when Logan and Colin came home, and I saw you, Lane and Tristan, I just thought, 'here we go again. Logan's going to be at it once more.' I didn't want to be there when you met him. I didn't want you to meet him at all, because I thought he would just use you for his fun, and move on to the next girl. But Col saw Tristan and then I couldn't stop it."

"He's not using me though." Rory replied uncertainly. At least, she hoped he wasn't.

"I know. And I'm very glad about it. But it didn't occur to me at the time that he would have changed. This is the first time I can remember that he's actually been serious about a girl. In a way, I think you might even be his first girlfriend." Finn added, smiling at the thought.

"You're kidding." As he shook his head, Rory laughed, at least she and Logan had one thing in common. "What about you?"

"Well, you can't be my girlfriend. Not while you're dating Logan anyway."

"No, I mean, have you had girlfriends? Or do you just randomly date? Coz, I know Tristan and Summer were together for a couple of weeks, but I have no idea if that was, like, exclusive. We never really talked about her."

"No." Finn answered simply, confusing Rory.

"No?" she asked. "Could you elaborate?"

"No I haven't had a girlfriend. And no they weren't exclusive. Tristan's never had a girlfriend either, as far as I know."

"Wow. I never thought I'd beat the two of you at something. I figured I'd be the last person I knew to do just about everything." Rory mused, talking more to herself then Finn.

"Well you know, if you ever need a hand reaching certain other milestones before, say, I don't know, Paris, give me a call. I'd be happy to help you out." Finn replied. Rory panicked for just a second. But then as she ran his comment through her mind, scanning for any indications that she should be suspicious, she found nothing and relaxed. This was not going to be a repeat of what had happened with Tristan. Surely, that wouldn't ever happen again.

"Thanks." She replied, trying for nonchalance, and wishing that people would stop saying such confusing things to her. "I'll keep that in mind."

"That's it." Rory announced. Standing up off the couch as the front door closed and her husband appeared in the doorway of the living room.

"That's it?" Emma asked confused.

"How can that be it?" Lo demanded. "You didn't tell us anything!"

"That's it for now, because as you can see," Rory replied, wrapping an arm around her husband. "Your father is home and it's time to get ready for dinner with grandma. Come on, you don't want us to be late do you?" she asked, as they got up looking at her as if she had taken away their coffee, at least that's how Lo looked at her. Em was still not allowed the nectar of the Goddesses.

"You know, we could afford to be late just this once." He replied, playing devil's advocate. "Lorelai never manages to have anything ready when she says she will."

"Yeah, I'm with dad. Can we keep going for a little while?" Lo added, giving her father a big smile.

"Please Mommy?" Rory looked at the two pleading faces and grimaced. She was just like her mother when it came to the 'Rory face' which she could see double of right now. It was very difficult to say no to.

"Alright, just a little more." She relented. Taking her seat again as the other three made themselves comfortable once again.

Within four weeks, Rory would be attending another Chilton dance. Her junior prom and Logan's senior prom at Andale were right around the corner.

It amazed her how many dances her school put on, in the short time she'd been there, there had been the winter formal, three fundraising socials, and now the two proms, to finish out the year. And she hadn't even been there for a full school year yet.

Logan would be graduating after the prom, and then heading off to Yale. He'd always said that when he finished high school, it would take a miracle for him to be accepted anywhere other than a community college. But Rory knew that he was smarter than that, and plus, being the son of a Yale alumnus had to have some bearing on whether or not he would receive the quality of education to which his family was accustomed.

She'd been right. Mitchum had pulled all sorts of strings in order to have his son accepted to his Alma mater, but in the end, it had all worked out and Logan would be starting school in New Haven come fall semester.

Two proms meant dress shopping, which both Rory and Lorelai were very excited about, but before the dance, was the annual bid-a-basket festival.

Rory always loved the tradition of making up a basket for someone to bid on, and spending an afternoon with them. When she was younger, she and her bidder would join her mom and whoever had bought her basket for lunch, and every year, Lorelai managed to gain something out of the day, whether it be a car service or to have a chore around the house, that she didn't want to do, done for her.

Logan wouldn't be able to buy Rory's basket though, because his father had organised yet another tour of the Yale campus. Since securing his son a place at the Ivy League school, Mitchum had been dragging him to New Haven every chance he got to show him things he'd seen many times before, and would most likely see a lot more of.

Rory didn't mind though. She always had a good time and didn't really mind who bought the lunch she would pack As long as it wasn't Kirk. She was still trying to forget the year she'd dined with him.

At the festival, while Rory watched Lane's cousin buy her basket, as a decoy for another secret date with Henry, she was oblivious to the three men preparing to bid for her mom's basket. Or, for that matter, the three there to bid for her own.

When it came time for Rory's she waited excited to see how the bidding war would turn out. To her surprise Tristan was the first to raise his hand and offer the amount of money Taylor had asked for. Moments later Jess was putting forward more money, and then she laughed to herself as Finn stepped forward when fifteen dollars was proposed.

Finn's presence wasn't too much of a surprise, she'd been telling him about the festival for the last few weeks, but he hadn't told her he would be there. Tristan hadn't spoken to her much since returning to school from a suspension. And Jess had never even been to a town meeting. So their attendance at this event had her completely floored.

As the three boys continued to up the price of her tiny basket, Rory was torn over who she wanted to win the privilege of lunch with her. On one hand, she enjoyed spending time with Finn, and one more meal with him would be a pleasure. However, the chance to have a real conversation with Tristan after all the time they had spent apart was something she would definitely not pass up, given the chance. But Jess... She wasn't mad at him anymore. Just confused. He hadn't been very nice when she'd told him she was dating Logan, and they hadn't had much contact since then, besides her giving him her order for a meal. But maybe if she could get him alone... And now I have three hands, she thought.

She stopped, realising she was getting ahead of herself. Tristan and Finn both probably had a lot more money than Jess, and so he would most likely be knocked out of the competition soon. Besides, he was probably just bored and wanted to stir up a little trouble.

"Do I hear fifty dollars?" Taylor asked, and Rory waited to see who would answer first. Fifty was usually the cut off point with these things.

"Sixty." Jess replied, his jaw set. He looked very determined.

"Sixty-five," Finn added, smirking as he caught Rory's eye.

"Seventy-five," Tristan grinned at his friend, before turning back as Taylor gaped at the three boys.

"Are you gentlemen seeing the size of this thing?" he asked, but neither boy seemed to mind.

"What is going on with those boys?" Lorelai asked, appearing next to her, accompanied with Sookie.

"They looove you." Sookie added in a sing-song voice. Rory winced.

"Ninety." Jess hadn't even waited for the next amount to be raised; he just put forward his bid.

"Am I hearing this correctly?" Taylor asked. "Ninety dollars?" he glanced at the two other boys. They shared a look and then each shrugged. "Okay, we've got ninety going once, ninety dollars going twice... sold to the nice young hoodlum in the back for ninety dollars."

"Wow." Sookie looked riveted by what had just unfolded, but Rory couldn't figure it out. Jess barely spoke to her, and he'd just out-bid two of her friends, totally over paying for her crappy little basket in order to spend an afternoon with her. What was that about?

"I guess that's my cue." She said, watching as Jess took his basket from the stage, while Finn and Tristan made their way over to her.

"Hey Tristan. Long time no see." Lorelai announced, enveloping the boy in a hug.

"Hey Lorelai, how've you been?"

"Well, you know; severely depressed. Without the hot young stud around my house to make me feel desirable, I just don't know what to do with myself." She replied, giving the blonde a dazzling smile.

"What, Logan hasn't been lusting after you?"

"No. It's the weirdest thing; he only has eyes for Rory. I can't figure it out." Lorelai shrugged and he laughed.

"Well, you know Love, I'd be more than happy to come over and give you dreamy looks all day long." Finn spoke up before Tristan had a chance to reply.

"You must be Finn." Was all Lorelai said to him. "You really didn't exaggerate Rory."

"I told you there was no need. Finn doesn't require embellishments." Rory replied, spying Jess hanging back, a few feet away. "Now, I want to find out what the two of you are doing here, but right now I have someone I need to go see. So, try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone, ok?" She added, before heading over to the boy holding her basket. "Ninety dollars? You couldn't just ask me to talk while I was in the diner?"

"I thought it would mean more to you if I did it the same way I did last time." Jess replied as they began to walk away from the festivities. "But, if I knew how much you were worth, I might have gone with the cheaper option."

"Last time?" Rory asked. She looked around and realised where he had led her. "I hope you've got a new speech prepared, because I don't appreciate recycled apologies." Rory explained, sitting on the bridge.

"I just don't.. I don't like guys like that."

"Guys like Logan?" Rory asked, trying to understand him.

"Yeah. Him, and those two other clowns from the auction."

"Finn and Tristan are friends of mine, Logan is my boyfriend. And I've gotta say, you aren't that great at making amends." Jess just looked at her for a moment before Rory continued. "You know, generally when you say sorry, you have to actually utter the words 'I'm sorry.' And insulting my friends really won't win you any brownie points."

"You really like them?" Jess asked, Rory nodded. "And this boyfriend, he's important?"

"He is to me." She replied, trying to work out where he was going with his line of questioning.

"Then in that case, I'm sorry. Again."

"Well, I guess I can forgive you again. Are you hungry?" she asked, pointing to the basket he had placed beside him.

"Starved." He opened the picnic basket and laughed. "You got this from Luke's?" he asked, indicating the burgers and fries inside.

"Well, I can't cook and I didn't want to poison anybody,"

"That's fair enough." He replied, removing the food and handing her a burger. "So where is the boyfriend today? Shouldn't he have been there to outbid me? Or was that why your friends were there, to rescue you from Kirk?"

"He's in New Haven. College tour." She explained. "His dad really wants him to get excited about next year, but all these excursions are doing is making Logan realise how much he'd like to forget about college."

"He doesn't want to go?" Jess sounded surprised.

"No. I can't figure it out though. I've wanted to go to Harvard since I was a kid, but for just about the same amount of time, he's been against the idea."

"I'd love to take his place. But there's no way that'll ever happen."

"You're smart. I'm sure you could-"

"If I had a time machine and went back so I actually attended all of my classes, and then I robbed a bank so I could pay for the tuition, then sure, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, I'm sure they'd all be begging me to go. But since neither of those things are going to happen, I guess, I'll be one of those people that never amounts to anything. That's what everyone's expecting of me anyway."

"That's not true."

"We've had this conversation once before. Remember? China, guarding daughters? No one thinks anything good about me. But it doesn't matter."

"So... Time for a subject change." Rory announced after swallowing her food. "What did you think of The Fountainhead?" She asked, picking one of her favourite books.

"I've yet to make it through the political ramblings of Rand."

"She's a genius. No one could write a forty page monologue like she could." Rory argued.

"That may be true, but she's also a nut."

"Ok, fine. Who do you like?" Rory asked. Jess was silent for a moment and Rory glanced up at him, but he looked away.

"Hemingway." He eventually replied.

"Are you serious?" Rory demanded, she couldn't stand the man.

"We basically spent the afternoon arguing about authors and then I went home to spend some time with my friends before calling my boyfriend." Rory concluded, looking at the clock. "And we are officially late. Up, we've gotta get ready." She ordered as Lo moved off the couch running everything she'd been told through her head.

She knew exactly which one of the boys in her mother's story was her father.

AN: And I'm sure you all know too. But I'm going to be really mean and not say a word until Rory actually says his name next chapter. God, you hate me don't you? Anyways, thanks for reading. Rveiew!