Everlasting Cloud

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. I own whatever isn't actually in Gilmore Girls unless specified.

Summary: Rory is about 26, works for the Boston Globe. Lorelai and Luke are married. Everything happened in the show so far plus a bit more. If it's important I'll tell you.

glamourgirl33

princetongirl

Callista Wolfwood

MarieCherry: So your cousin has heard a monkey with an accent speak in French? Lol, I love your long comments/reviews. Reviews are never boring, at least to me. I hope you like some of the lines in this chapter too, I was laughing as I wrote it. Lol.

riotgirllina

KarahBella

SonnyCarlyJasonCourtney

Spreeaholic1

-Campanology101-: Sure, anytime!

Sea4Shoes

Ali

rish

Tonje: He's doing the rest of his internship in England and then he can transfer hospitals. So he's not going to Boston…at least not yet. :0)

Kylie1403: Oh yea, I'm sure there are!

LoVe23: You better love it! You're my beta. :0) LOL. It would be pretty sad if you didn't like this story. Lol. Thank you by the way for making it sound prettier. Haha, hope your room is clean now! That reminds me that I have to do mine…again. Oops. :0)

FairyGirl07: There will be some definite giant steps forward in the future so don't let the one step forward two steps backward discourage you. :0)

piper-h-99

Please enjoy, and thank you!

Chapter Twelve: Beep………beep……beep…beep…beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…beep…..bee

"No!" Rory groaned as she slapped her alarm clock and turned it off mid 'beep'. She let out a satisfied sigh when it was silent once again. She rubbed her eyes and sat up in her bed, realizing that she wasn't in Stars Hollow anymore. She frowned as she thought about yesterday. It was her first day back, after two weeks, and throughout the day, people had been giving her their condolences. There were flowers everywhere. Most of them had wilted from being there since the day of the accident, but there were still some fresh ones. Her first hour being back was spent cleaning out her office. Out of the 7 bouquets she had gotten, only 2 were remaining. Sighing once more, she decided she should get up if she wanted to get to work on time. She kicked the covers down and realized that she was only wearing underwear. She had started to take off her clothes the previous night to take a shower, but instead of lying down for just a minute, she had fallen asleep. She frowned as she got off her bed and walked to the shower. In the middle of her getting dressed, she heard a knock on the door. She groaned and pulled a robe around her and looked through the peephole.

"Hey Winnie." Rory said opening the door.

"Hey, I see you're running a little late." She said looking at her nice pants and white fluffy robe. Rory nodded and trudged to the kitchen.

"I was going to take a shower last night but I fell asleep." Rory explained as she poured coffee for the both of them. Winnie nodded and leaned against the counter.

"So can I see this picture now?" She asked, smiling. Rory had promised Winnie that when she came to Rory's place the next time, she would show her a picture of Tristan. Rory nodded as she laughed at her friend's lack of subtlety.

"Smooth! Yea, gimme a minute to get dressed and I'll be right out." She said and placed her empty mug down and returned 5 minutes later. She looked through her suitcase, which was still full of stuff, and pulled out a piece of taped cardboard. She took the tape off, and carefully took out the pictures from in between the cardboard. She glanced at each one briefly, before handing them to Winnie. As Winnie reached for them, her cell phone rang. She sighed in resignation, and put them down before answering her phone. Rory laughed quietly. Winnie hated when people called her in the morning. If you weren't dying or bleeding, you'd pay. Rory watched Winnie's face contort before making a gagging noise. Not more than a minute later, she hung up, and rolled her eyes.

"I'll have to check those pictures out later. Right now, Sven is having a Sven—attack." Rory laughed and grabbed her stuff before following Winnie out. Sven was their boss at the newspaper. He could be pretty strict, and spoke in an accent that made him sound even more uptight, but deep down, he was a really amazing guy. Unfortunately, for all the women who had drowned in his good looks, he was married and had a son. The two women walked out of the apartment and got into Rory's car. Since they lived in the city, Winnie walked the short distance from her apartment and took a ride with Rory everyday. Rory started the car and pulled out of the apartment garage. Once they got to the main road, they started to chat.

"So how is everything?" Winnie asked.

"It's okay. Tristan and I are sort of still together, and I called him yesterday and he said he missed me, but I dunno. I guess I'm still sort of mixed up about the whole long distance thing. You know?" She said, glancing over at Winnie. Her friend nodded in understanding.

"Totally, but if it's not right, you'll fix it. No one ever completely lost someone over a long distance relationship." Winnie said knowingly. Rory just nodded. It seemed to be the overall consensus. They drove for a few minutes in silence.

"So how's Rob?" Rory asked.

"Pretty good." She said quietly.

"Don't hold back now! Tell me what you really think." Rory said, laughing as she shook her head.

"It's just that…I think well…ya know…and I'm not sure if I should tell him." She said nervously, fidgeting in her seat. When they had stopped at a red light, Rory looked at her friend, eyebrow raised.

"Umm first of all…No. I don't know. Second, he loves you. I'm sure anything you have to tell him, he'll love." Rory said shrugging, trying to figure out why her friend looked so unsure of herself.

"I think I might be pregnant." She said so softly that Rory almost missed it. Rory gasped in shock.

"Oh my god! That's awesome Winnie!" Rory said smiling widely. She noticed that Winnie still had a slight frown on her face. "Winnie, this is great news. What's wrong?" She prompted.

"I don't know. I mean we've been married for a few years, and we're not too young to have kids, I'm just not sure if Rob is ready to have them." she rambled. Rory shook her head smiling.

"Just talk to him tonight, okay? I'm sure everything will be fine, and if it's not, well who needs men anyways?" She joked, trying to break her friend's sullen mood.

"Yea, I guess." Winnie responded, a small smile appearing on her face.

"So you know what that means?" Rory asked smiling even wider. Winnie, just looked at her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I get to be an aunt!" Winnie laughed and smiled.

"Of course! And of course you'll be the godmother." She said flashing Rory a genuinely happy smile.

"Aunt Rory. I like it." Rory said testing it out. They both laughed as the rest of the car ride was filled with laughter and giggles about the upcoming baby.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"My brain hurts." Rory mumbled as her head hit the desk.

"Enough Gilmore! You've been out for the past two months! I need articles from you!" Sven snapped.

"You do realize it was two weeks. Right?" Rory grumbled, giving him a pointed look.

"Two months, two weeks, what's the difference?" He responded, waving his hand around. "Either way, I wasn't getting articles! Now stop complaining about your well-rested brain hurting and get to work! Not all of us can just say, 'whoops I've got a wedding to attend, tata' and just leave! Work!" Sven ordered before stalking out of Rory's office. She groaned, but let her head rest on the desk anyway.

"Hey Rory, I've got the notes for that report on the department store hoax, you should…" Mark Utelle said walking into Rory's office, but stopped short at the site of Rory's head buried in her arms. "Uhh, Rory?" he tried.

"Speak now or forever hold your peace." She lifted her head and waited a second, "Okay, you can go now." She said and then plopped her head back down.

"Didn't I just hear Sven yelling at you?" He asked amused. She lifted her head and kept it up.

"Right now Sven could kiss my ass. My brain hurts." She deadpanned.

"Rough vacation?" he asked frowning and sat in the chair in front of her desk. Mark and Rory were friendly at the office, and Mark was a lot like Jess in the way that they both loved to read and could hold stimulating conversations.

"Yea, my grandfather passed away and I've got a boyfriend now that I really shouldn't but I love him too much." Rory supplied, while burying her head in her arms once again.

"Already?" He asked somewhat shocked at her revelation. It was a lot to take in all at once. It now made sense why she seemed so emotionally drained.

She looked up, and contemplated, what to tell him. "I've known him since high school and we went to college together. We actually hadn't seen each other in a few years, and I ran into him when I went back home."

Mark smiled in understanding. "Ahh okay. And I am sorry about your grandfather Rory. I know how much he meant to you." He finished sympathetically.

"Yea, thanks. Actually it was both of my grandparents. Drunk driver hit them." She said as she looked down at her desk.

"Oh man, I am so sorry." Rory shrugged.

"So how was the office while I was away?" She said quickly changing the subject.

"Ehh boring. I had no one to get coffee with." He said smiling. Rory rolled her eyes.

"I bet there was still coffee left in the pot at the end of the day." She retorted.

"Almost half full!" He exclaimed.

"No." Rory gasped and leaned forward eyes narrowing in outrage. "And what happened to the coffee? Who drank it?" She asked accusingly.

"I'm afraid it was thrown away…I know! It was horrible!" He said in the same disbelieving tone as hers. Both were broken from their rant when they heard someone clear their throat.

"Somehow I think this is a bad time." Winnie said stepping into Rory's office. They both turned to look at her.

"It's alright. We were just discussing how the coffee pot wasn't empty at the end of the day and then threw away the coffee." She replied waving her hand around.

"Oh yea, I witnessed that too. I'm sorry, both of you, really." She said seriously. They both nodded and accepted her sympathies. Winnie smiled in amusement.

"I'll just leave you two alone." Winnie said shaking her head, as she left the room. The relationship Mark and Rory had was well known throughout the office. It was completely normal to see one in the other's office, either discussing books or some other random topic.

"I still can't believe they threw away the coffee." Rory said, resuming her conversation with Mark.

"Yea, it was pretty depressing." Mark agreed in all seriousness. "Well I should get back to work, I just wanted to drop off the notes for that department store thing." He said, getting up and heading for the door. Rory nodded and picked up the files he had put on her desk.

"Thanks Mark." She said flipping through them.

"Sure." He sent her a smile before walking out the door. Moments later, Winnie walked in with a knowing smile on her face.

"You know, if I wasn't already married, I'd totally go after him. I mean have you looked at that boy?" Winnie asked in a whisper. Rory laughed at her friend's antics. Mark was around 5'9'', shaggy light brown hair, hazel eyes, fair skin, and a camera tattooed on the inside of his left forearm. His reason for it? He wasn't sure, but he thought it was, 'Pretty Wicked'.

"Yea, Mark isn't unfortunate, but you do know he has a girlfriend, right?" Rory said, giving her an amused look.

"Oh right, what's her name? Pamela Anderson?" Winnie asked, bitterly.

Rory laughed, "Are you talking about Lesley? They've been broken up for over a year now! He's going out with this girl named Laura."

"And are her attributes gi-normous as well?" She asked, her voice dripping with false innocence.

"Winnie! And no, they're pretty average. She's actually really pretty." Rory said rolling her eyes. Winnie smiled.

"So I just heard some gossip." She said trying to be nonchalant. Rory raised her eyebrows.

"Pray tell." Rory responded, taking the bait.

"Well you know how they fired that lady who dealt with the shopping articles and the trends?" Rory nodded, "Well apparently they've just hired a new one and she starts next Monday. She better not be a ditz." Winnie finished in irritation.

"I hate new people. I'm sorry but our cult is closed!" Rory responded, with the same agitation. Winnie nodded in agreement.

"Gilmore!" The two women jumped at the voice. It was Sven.

"I'm working! Winnie was just helping me gather my thoughts on the new medical facility going up around the corner." Rory said, quickly reading a headline off a nearby newspaper.

"So you're starting more than one story?" He asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion

"Yes, sir." Rory nodded.

"Good, I expect to see that next Friday." Sven said and left. Rory groaned.

"That was not supposed to happen." She said, plopping her head on her desk once again.

Winnie laughed, "Coffee break?" She suggested.

"Yes, please." Rory sighed and they both got up to get some coffee.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

It was the next night and Rory was making herself some popcorn. She hadn't talked to Tristan since Monday and it was starting to get to her. She'd called him several times, and left a bunch of messages, but he was really busy and hadn't had a chance to call back. She put in a DVD and sat on her couch as the menu came up. She stared at the 'Play Movie' option for a few minutes and jumped when her phone rang.

"Hello?" Rory answered not bothering to check the caller ID.

"I'm so sorry! I've just been so busy lately, and every time I've picked up the damn phone to call you I've been interrupted and I finally have a chance to talk to you, and I want to know everything." He said rushed.

"You want to take a breather there?" She said smiling and happy that he had finally called. "I'd like to talk to you and if you pass out from lack of oxygen and hit your head…well that would sort of interfere with us talking." She heard him take a breath.

"How are you?" He said, as he exhaled.

"Fine. My boss is being a real ass about me making up my work, but it'll get done and then he can go bother someone else. Luckily there's this new person coming in, so it'll give him someone else to direct his line of fire at. You know, keep me in the shadow for a short time." She said, as she relaxed into the sofa.

"Bosses suck. Even working under my uncle sucks most of the time, but you'll get through it. I have faith in you." He said encouragingly.

"Thanks." She said smiling at his sweetness. "So how are you?"

"Eh so-so. I miss you." He said softly.

"I miss you too." Rory said biting her lip. She heard him take a hesitant breath.

"Tristan, is everything okay?" She said concerned.

"I'm not sure." He said hesitantly.

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" She said, as she sat up, worried about what he was about to tell her.

He took another breath before explaining. "The head of the medical program picks a few students every year from my program to study for a while abroad. I was one of the ones picked, and it means that I have a chance to study in England for a short period of time."

"Oh my god, Tristan that's amazing!" She said excitedly.

"I know, and it's a great opportunity, but it would mean that I would be gone for six months." He said hesitantly. And just like that, all excitement was gone.

"When do you have to let them know by?" She said in a soft voice. She knew this was a huge deal for Tristan, and she was very happy for him. But it was already hard just having him a couple hundred miles away, let alone having him in another country.

"Saturday, and I would be leaving in two weeks. The tickets were already pre-purchased. They always select 8 people for each group." He explained, listening for her reaction. Rory remained silent, letting the information sink in.

"I don't even know if I want to do it." Tristan added.

"Don't be stupid, of course you want to do it. This is an amazing opportunity! I mean, who wouldn't want to do it? Even I want to do it and the only thing I know about medicine is that when you've got a cut you put that whitish creamy stuff on it and then put a band-aid on it." She said, knowing that he was trying to make things easier for them.

"So you'd be okay with me going?" He asked hopefully.

"I guess." Rory said sadly.

"There'd be no way I'd go without seeing you first though, so if you're free this weekend, maybe you could pen me in?" He said reassuring her that there was nothing more he'd rather do than be with her. She smiled widely at his efforts.

"Of course I could." She replied happily.

"Good." He said, letting out the breath he'd been holding in.

"Wait, isn't your birthday Saturday?" She asked, as she got up to look at her calendar.

"Yea, but don't worry about it." He said dismissively.

"Nonsense! We have to! Forget about coming up here, I'll go down there; I don't want you to drive! At least not on your birthday." She said excitedly.

"Are you sure?" He said, surprised at how important this seemed to be for her.

"Of course. I'll drive in Saturday morning and leave Sunday afternoon. It's no problem, in fact I want to." Rory said smiling at the fact that she would be able to see him soon again.

"Okay, well either way I'm seeing you this weekend, no ifs, ands, or buts." He said, happy at the sudden turn of events.

"You do have a nice butt." Rory said smiling widely. Tristan smirked at her words.

"Why thank you Miss. Gilmore. I believe that was a compliment I just heard." He said smugly.

"It was. Savor it now, cause chances are there won't be any more for a while." She said with mock arrogance.

"Oh trust me babe, I'm savoring it all right." He said huskily, causing Rory to blush.

"Listen, I have to go, okay?" Tristan said on a sadder note.

"Okay." She replied, her tone matching his.

"I'm sorry, but I'll talk to you later and if not then I'll see you Saturday." He said trying to appease her.

"Okay." She said sounding a little happier, at the reminder that she would see him in a few days.

"I love you sweetie, have a good night." He said sweetly.

"Love you too." Rory said smiling as they both hung up their phones. Rory sighed and directed her attention back to the TV. She pressed play and sat back to watch as the movie started.

AN: Sorry this took so long to get out to you all! I got writer's block and let it sit for a few days and now I'm back! You can also see that I'm answering question at the beginning of each chapter since it makes more sense to see the answers to your questions before you read the next chapter than after. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Reviewed? Thanks, Kiki.

POLLLLL! AND IT'S IMPORTANT!

Rory and Tristan have a nearby meeting and during that time, they will most likely have sex. My question to all of you, is whether or not you'd like me to actually write out the detailed sex scene's (and change the rating to M), or to keep it at the current rating, and use some graphics that imply what's happening but isn't full blown this is what is happening. So vote!

Change the rating to M? (Very graphic sex scene)

Or keep it the way it is? (Not so graphic sex scene)

Thanks!