Chapter Thirty Five: Ask Your Boyfriend

"He's going to have you arrested for kidnapping?"

Lorelai sighed. "That's what it says. It says that I have twenty four hours to produce Tristin or I'm going to jail."

Luke looked at her for a second before walking back to the kitchen. "Caesar I'm taking a break." He then walked back out to the diner to see Lorelai pouring herself another cup of coffee. "Let's go talk upstairs."

"Is there coffee upstairs?"

"No."

"Can I bring the pot?"

"Yes." Luke said sighing

Lorelai followed Luke upstairs and when they got there Jess was sitting on the couch watching TV. "Hey Jess."

"Lorelai."

"Can I ask you a question?" Lorelai said

"Um... sure I guess so." Jess said

"Do you like Jake?"

"Rory's boyfriend?"

"He's not really her boyfriend I don't think..."

"No he is."

"Ok fine. Rory's boyfriend. Yes. Do you like him?"

"No. Why?"

"Just curious." Lorelai said

"Why don't you go downstairs and help Caesar for a few minutes." Luke suggested

"Do I have to?" Jess asked

"Yes."

Jess nodded and walked out of the door. Luke looked over at Lorelai. "So Tristin's father is back and he wants his son."

"Yes."

"And you don't want to send him back?"

"It's not me. It's Tristin. He really doesn't want to go home."

"But you knew that would happen." Luke reminded

"I know. But Luke he really didn't want to go home." Lorelai said

"Lorelai you know that you have to send him home right? I mean you can't go to jail for this. You have a kid too. Rory has to be your priority."

"I know. But asking Tristin to leave was the hardest thing I've ever done."

"I'm sure he understands, I mean you showed him the document right?"

"Yeah. And he does. He knows that Rory has to come first and that he has to go. He just looked so sad. And I can't get a hold of Rory and I want to kill that stupid Jake kid." Lorelai rambled

"Jake? What does that little twerp have to do with anything?"

"He's the one that called Tristin's father and told him where Tristin was."

"Why would he do that?"

"Isn't that obvious? He views Tristin as competition for Rory and what better way to eliminate the competition that to move it out of her house." Lorelai said disgusted

Luke nodded remembering this morning when Tristin had came in and wanted Rory out of the diner. "Tristin knows that Jake was the one that called his dad doesn't he?"

"Yeah why?"

"Well this morning he left and then less than an hour later he came back and he asked me to get Rory upstairs so he could talk to Jake. I didn't know what it was about but I agreed because I like Tristin..."

"And you don't like Jake."

"Right."

"Well what happened?"

"I don't know it was all so hushed. His voice was never loud enough to hear. I looked over a few times and could see that Tristin was resisting the urge to hit him."

"Well after that Jake made it a point to get Rory out of Stars Hollow for the day which I agreed to because at the time I didn't know that I was going to be forced to give Tristin back to a neglecting family and thought that I would give Tristin and myself some time to cool off before we had to see Jake again..."

"Which was smart." Luke added

"But I didn't know that Rory didn't have her cell phone and I don't know Jake's number, although I guess in retrospect I could have always asked Greg Dugrey he'd probably have his informant's number..." Lorelai rambled anger emanating from her voice

Luke walked over to her and held her by the top of her arms. "Lore. Calm down. There is absolutely nothing you can about this. You have to let it go." He felt Lorelai's body weaken beneath his touch and knew that she had calmed down enough to let her go

"I know. I know Luke. But that kid is me. He feels the same way I did growing up and I hate to see him going through that. He acts out to get attention from a family who would happily ignore him and let him do as he pleases as long as he upholds the family name and doesn't get into too much trouble. I know how he feels and how he thinks and I can't just let him go back to that."

"There's nothing that you can do about it though. He's not your son. You can't keep him against his parent's will, no matter what he wants."

xxxxxx

Tristin was packing up the books on his bookshelf when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in." he called out

He turned around and saw Jess standing there with a bag. "Luke sent this for you." Jess said sitting the bag down on his desk

Tristin nodded. "Thanks."

Jess turned and started to walk out the door only to stop half way there.

"Something I can do for you Jess?" Tristin asked never looking up from his books but noticing that Jess hadn't left yet

"Are you really leaving?" Jess said his voice sounding slightly hopeful

"I don't have a choice. I'm not willing to risk Lorelai and Rory for my own happiness. I guess the Dugrey selfishness skipped a generation. They mean too much to me for them to get hurt in the crossfire."

"Especially Rory right?" Jess said bitterly

"Right." Tristin said. He stopped picking up books and stood still looking straight at Jess and then added, "What does it matter anyway? You dislike me just as much as Dean does, and for the same reason. Jake too. You all think that I'm a threat to what you want with Rory. It's pathetic neither Dean or Jake have enough self confidence and common sense to know that Rory doesn't or wouldn't cheat, and you can't realize that she'll never look at you as anything but a friend. So you all verbally assault me..."

"I never said a word to you that could be considered verbal abuse." Jess said defensively

"No, you're right. It's the way you talk to me as if I'm beneath you."

"Because you have never talked to anyone like that, Mr. Society." Jess said harshly

"Only Dean and Duncan and that's because they are beneath me. Anyone that can say the things the say about Rory or speak to her the way they do is beneath me." Tristin said

Jess looked as if he wanted to say something but didn't.

"Is that all, because if it is I should really get back to what I was doing." Tristin said resuming his book packing as Jess walked out of the room.

xxxxxx

Rory walked into the house after having an extremely long day perusing music and book stores in Hartford. She walked into the kitchen to get herself a drink where she saw Lorelai drinking a cup of coffee. Rory walked over to the coffee pot, which was now empty and started a new pot of coffee. While waiting for it to finish she looked over at her mother who looked slightly dazed and decided to steal a sip of her mom's coffee. Lorelai didn't notice that Rory had her coffee until she heard Rory coughing. "My lord Mom what's in this?"

"Booze." Lorelai said plainly and unemotionally

"Why?"

"Because."

"Killer reason Mom." Rory said pouring herself a cup of fresh coffee and one for Lorelai. "Here drink this."

"Ok." Lorelai said before adding alcohol to the new cup of coffee.

Rory rolled her eyes. "Bad day?"

"Yeah. How was yours?"

"Fine. I think we went into every bookstore and music store in Hartford today."

"Get anything?"

"Lots of books, a few CD's." Rory said

"Have fun?"

"Yeah." Rory said smiling and nodding

"Good. I've got some stuff to do." Lorelai said walking towards the living room. "Oh yeah Ror I forgot to tell you something." Lorelai added

"Does it have anything to do with Luke?" Rory asked curiously remembering that she had seen Luke's truck in the driveway when Jake had dropped her off

"No. You aren't allowed to see Jake anymore. He's not welcome here and he's not welcome at Luke's." Lorelai said before walking upstairs.

Rory looked at her mom confused and headed up the stairs after Lorelai. She had planned to go in there and argue until she found out what was wrong, but once she got up the stairs she saw her mom go into Tristin's room and then saw boxes everywhere. She walked into his room, not even knocking. "What is going on here!" she yelled

Tristin's head popped out of the closet. "Ever heard of knocking Mary?"

"No. What are you doing? Why are you packing?" Rory demanded

"I'm going home." Tristin said coolly

"What! No you're not!" Rory yelled

"Yes. I am."

"No you're not."

"YES Mary I am." Tristin repeated

"No." Rory said angrily

"Mary I can't make it any simpler here. I am going home. You don't have a say in the matter. Now kindly move so your mom and I can carry these boxes down to Luke's truck." Tristin said sounding just as angry as Rory did

Rory moved and watched her mom and Tristin carry boxes down to the car. After all the boxes had been transported to Luke's truck Tristin came back in the house and called Luke while Lorelai went into the kitchen. When he got off the phone he followed Lorelai into the kitchen. She sat down in the living room trying to hear the conversation that Lorelai and Tristin were having but it wasn't working. It was obvious that something had happened and she wanted to know. She heard Luke's voice from the kitchen and decided that she was going to go in there and demand an answer. "Why are you leaving?" she demanded of Tristin, "Did I do something that you're angry about it?"

"No Mary. It has nothing to do with you directly." Tristin said his anger softening when he saw tears in her eyes

"The why are you leaving!" she demanded again.

"As your boyfriend." Tristin said before muttering "Let's go" to Luke and the both of them headed out the door.

Rory looked back at Lorelai who was crying. "Mom?"

"Not now Ror." Lorelai said before walking upstairs and slamming the door behind her

AN: I'm sorry you guys... I had to get him out of the house...Read and Review