Three Ex Boyfriends Part III - Young Engineers Convention

A/N: I do not own anything. Copyrights remain with their respective owners.

Thank You Gilmoregirls1197 and JJsMommy27 for reviewing. Hope you all love this chapter too. Only 2 more to go after this one.

Rory Gilmore stood in front of a booth at the American Young Engineers Convention, notepad in hand and her boyfriend's business card tucked away safely in her purse. Tristin had gone off to the bathroom and she was waiting for him to return, before proceeding on to the next stall. Tristin himself was just on this one assignment on behalf of his brother Lucas who was at home nursing a sick wife and child. For an important convention such as this, a Dugray was required to attend, to show their goodwill towards the young engineers who would hopefully be future leading engineers and inventors.

He was lucky that she had been between major articles for the newspaper and could afford the couple of days away from her job at International News to accompany him to the American Young Engineers Convention. Usually, his secretary, Martha, an efficient middle aged woman would accompany him on his business trips as his note-take and assistant but she had unfortunately had a slip on the Subway and had badly twisted her ankle, thus requiring bed rest and Tristin couldn't find anyone else that he cared to take on such short notice, so here she was on a working holiday with her boyfriend.

As she waited, she looked around at the stalls that were close by. At one stall, she saw two young men, in front of a car battery, apparently from what she could read, it was supposed to be more efficient and environmentally friendly. One of the men over at that stall looked up, and his eyes met Rory's. Rory thought that the man looked familiar, somehow from her past she guessed, but since she had started full time work, she had met many people.

Suddenly, she heard the man call out her name. She waved back and then, as she looked closer at the man who had called out she remembered, her first boyfriend, her first love, it was Dean Forrester. "Dean," she greeted, as she thought to herself, boy, this brings back the memories. She was definitely way over him now, "How are you." she asked, "I mean I'm doing fine, so how are you." She continued to ramble away for half a minute before Dean got a word in edgewise.

"I'm fine," he replied, "just wanted to know what you are doing at the convention. Engineering's not really your thing."

"Oh," she said, "I'm actually working, just filling in for my boyfriend's secretary who sprained her ankle. All very last minute." God, she hoped that Dean was way over her too. She thought she saw a look pass over Dean's face as he processed her answer. She smiled, weakly, it was a bit awkward, she had moved on from him, but didn't know if he'd moved on from her too.

Suddenly, they were both interrupted. Tristin came back and wrapped his arms around Rory's waist, "thanks for waiting, Ror," he said as be brought his gaze up to the stall in front of him. Lucas, his oldest brother had called him to scout the Convention for possible investments, especially in new technology. He couldn't make it, as Serena had a doctor's appointment that weekend. Lucas had said he hoped that it was good news with the gynaecologist. From his quick perusal he seemed to like the idea. Rory, ever picking up on her boyfriend's mannerisms, handed him a business card from her purse as she was holding his business cards for him.

Inwardly, Rory was quite nervous. This could have disaster all written over it. Tristin and Dean had hated each other as teenagers, but she knew that Tristin had matured since his teenage years but sometimes his old self still showed through. Dean, she hadn't seen in a few years. She really didn't want them to revert to their teenage years. She had been stuck between them once, and she didn't fancy being stuck playing peacemaker between them again.

Dean looked downwards at the business card that had been proffered by Rory, it said, Tristin Dugray, Executive Vice President, Dugray Global Industries. Somehow, that name sounded familiar to Dean. He studied Tristin's face, searching his memory for where he had seen the face before.

Tristin looked over this booth at the Convention, intently studying the invention that stood in front of him. After he had finished a scan over the idea and the invention, he turned to Dean, questions in mind. He looked at the young man, about his age, with a brown moustache and beard, and floppy hair of the same colour. The man was also a bit taller than he was. TJ thought that he looked somewhat familiar but he offered his hand out to shake the other's standard business practice for what looked like a possible investment for DGI. He asked, "Mr ..." he realised that he didn't know what the other man's name was.

"Dean Forrester," he heard the reply. He searched his memory for where that name came from. It sounded familiar but he couldn't pick out from where.

Seeing that her boyfriend and her ex were both starting to remember how they known each other before, Rory sighed "Dean's an ex of mine," she said. She'd rather be upfront about it than try to hide. That was when Tristin remembered, who Dean was, the bag boy back from Stars Hollow, Rory's first boyfriend when he was still a young obnoxious teenager. "Bag boy," Tristin quipped, in a quiet voice, before he could stop himself. He swore under his breath as he saw Dean's eyes change in recognition. Rory's eyes widened in horror, hoping that a scene would not take place in public.

Dean saw the man standing with Rory and as he remembered, the snotty, rich teenage brat that he had dubbed the 'Accountant', who had tried to ruin his and Rory's relationship at the time. The brat who had tried to make a scene at Rory's school dance at Chilton, had taunted him when they had done that Romeo and Juliet play. The boy who he knew had a thing for Rory even at sixteen, the boy that Rory had said she had hated. Now, standing in front of him though, was a man, a man who could possibly take Sam and his start-up company and idea and make it into reality.

Tristin realised what he had said and quickly stuck out his hand and began to apologise for his bad quip. The three of them were now adults, not teenagers and any recriminations would be done in private, not in the Convention itself, where it was important to remain professional. Of course, Tristin felt like he had won, after all he now had Rory. And Rory hadn't been overly descriptive about her past relationships after he had left for Cedar Pines. Talking about their pasts wasn't something that they really focused on, though every so often they ran into a big part of their past, it was at that time they would talk.

Rory breathed a sigh of relief as there was no bust-up between Dean and Tristin, at least in public. She heard Tristin say that DGI was interested and that he'd be in contact and send over someone to set up another meeting.

As they left the trade fair, and returned to their shared hotel room, Rory and Tristin shared a coffee. Tristin turned around to Rory as he handed her a cup of steaming coffee. "Wow," he said, "fancy meeting your first bag-boy boyfriend again. He seems to have made a good start for himself thought. Definitely liked his start-up idea."

Rory replied, "I haven't seen him for a few years now. Not since he last broke up with me when I was a sophomore at Yale."

Tristin answered, "you never told me what happened with Dean after I left for military school."

"Actually," Rory said, "Jess happened."

"You mean your step-dad's nephew?" Tristin asked. He had met Lorelai and Luke when they had visited Stars Hollow, and they had talked about her family, and how Luke had played the role of surrogate father for her. And of course, she had mentioned her step-cousin who was a published novelist and who owned a book store in Philadelphia who had almost caused such a big fuss at Luke and Lorelai's wedding.

"Yeah," Rory answered, "Jess and I both shared a passion for literature and we connected in a way that Dean and I couldn't. I ended up kissing him when I was still with Dean. We broke up. I dated Jess for a while and then he left with no explanation." She took a gulp of her coffee. "that's not the end though."

As she caught her breath after inhaling the coffee she continued, "During my first year at Yale, I was actually failing a course and when the Professor suggested that I drop the course, I went into panic mode. I was stressed. Dean meanwhile, had gotten married out of high school to a girl named Lindsay. But he was unhappy in his marriage, I was having a hard time at Yale. One thing led to another and we slept together, we tried to reconcile and our perfect High School world. The recriminations of course, when my mother found out. She sent me off to Europe with Emily for the summer. Once I calmed down, I realised that I had made a mistake..."

"And then..." Tristin asked.

"I sent him a letter through my mother. Lindsay found it in his jacket pocket. Suddenly, I wasn't the town princess, I was the woman who had broken up someone else's marriage."

"That must have been rough," Tristin said.

"It was, half the town hated me, but I was selfish. I wanted that safe feeling back, so Dean and I continued to try to be together but our lives eventually were just too far apart. I was at Yale, he was working to make ends meet. Emily threw a party for me, a Yale male party, and I totally forgot about Dean. When he showed up, we broke up, we knew there was just too much distance between us."

"Well, I don't plan on ever letting you go," Tristin replied, as he gave her a sweet, tender but passionate kiss. As she returned his kiss, Rory knew that Tristin would be the one that would always be with her and that she would always want to be with him

A/N: Please read and reviews are very much appreciated. I'm new to this fandom so any help on characterization and facts and tidbits is very much appreciated.