Sugar and Spice: Everything Changes
By Misha

Disclaimer in Chapter One.

A.N- It's funny, because when I started writing Sugar and Spice, I actually planned on Tristan/Christa being the dominant pairing. Colin was just supposed to be a brief appearance, a nod to the later series. But then my muse told me that no, this was Colin and Christa's story, not Tristan and Christa's and so I completely changed directions. I'm not sure how I would have handled Tristan's exit if I had stuck to my original plans, but because I didn't, it's easy to keep it close to the original and just tweak it a little. This is Tristan's official exit, but it's not the last we will see of him in the S&S universe, I promise.

Chapter Fifty: Goodbye Romeo

"Are we sure this is Shakespeare?" Sookie asked later while they watched Act 2, which was being interpreted as Caveman.

Lorelai smiled. She wasn't sure it was Shakespeare, but it was entertaining. She, Sookie, Dean, Christa and Lane had all come to watch the performance.

"Now I know why Paris wouldn't let them deviate," Christa commented, "this is an amazing train wreck."

Christa seemed to have put her fight with Rory behind her, which Lorelai was glad about, though she was a bit pre-occupied, probably over whatever was going on with Tristan.

"What's with all the grunting?" Dean asked.

"Marcus Johnson can't speak in full sentences, so they had to figure out a way to accommodate him." Christa joked. "He's Mercutio."

"His grunts are the most on point." Lane acknowledged.

Just then Rory showed up. "Hey."

"Oh, hey." Dean said with a smile.

"Oh, honey, you look like a princess!" Sookie exclaimed. "Doesn't she look like a princess?"

"She looks beautiful." Dean said, unable to tear his eyes away from Rory. Lorelai smiled at his devotion to her daughter. Dean was the perfect first boyfriend: loyal, adoring and safe. She cast a look at her other daughter, who was scanning the auditorium with a frown, and repressed a sigh. If only Christa had similar taste. It would mean Lorelai worried a lot less.

"Mom made the dress." Rory said with a blush.

"Not to mention the girl inside it." Lorelai joked, causing both twins to roll their eyes.

"Gross." Christa said with a grin. She looked at Lane. "Act III is about to start."

"Oh!" Lane said and stood up. "Henry's act!"

"That is the weirdest relationship." Christa commented and then turned to Rory. "I hate to say it, but Paris may have been really smart by making you do a classic interpretation. You would have to be an absolute disaster to be the worst performance of the night. I mean so far we have cavemen and a 1960s love-in. I think you guys are pretty much guaranteed success."

"If we have a Romeo." Rory pointed out.

"No sign of Tristan?" Lorelai asked, noticing the worried frown on Christa's face.

"No." Rory told him, she looked at Christa. "What did he say to you?"

"Not much." Christa said quietly. "Just that some stuff went down and that his parents were trying to figure out the next step. I assumed he would have called you guys, though."

Dean scoffed. "He doesn't strike me as the most considerate guy."

Both Christa and Rory glared at him. Rory sighed. "Paris is flagging me down, I'm guessing she's noticed our missing Romeo and panicking. I should go deal with her."

"I'll go too." Christa offered, standing up. "Deflect some of her anger."

Lorelai watched them go and then turned to Dean. "Rory was never interested in Tristan."

He sighed. "I know, but I still don't like him and I think he's bad news. What does Christa see him in?"

Lorelai exchanged a look with Sookie. "Christa's an enigma." She said, but all the while thinking that her daughter liked the fact that he was bad news. Her daughter liked to walk on the wild side and she seemed to be attracted to the beautiful, rebellious boys who did the same thing.


"He's not here." Paris complained to Rory, "I can't find him anywhere and I called his home, his cell and three girls I know he was seeing." She turned to Christa. "I don't suppose you know where he is?"

"Last I heard, at home under house arrest." Christa told her. "He got in some trouble last night."

Paris closed her eyes. "Of course he did. He has been nothing but trouble this year. We are going to fail."

"We're not going to fail." Rory assured her.

Christa wanted to point out that Madeline and Louise, who were nowhere to be seen, were the ones who should be freaking out since a failure, and Christa doubted that they would actually fail, would be much worse for them than Chilton's top two students. However, she knew that wouldn't go over-well, so she kept her mouth shut. For once.

Paris ignored her. "Do you think Harvard accepts people who fail Shakespeare, because I am pretty sure they don't." She threw up her hands. "I knew he was going to do this, but no one wanted to listen to me. It was all, "Tristan's hot, he should be Romeo."

"What about Brad?" Rory asked logically.

"Brad transferred schools." Paris said and Christa couldn't hold back a laughter, which caused Paris to glare at her. "You think this is funny? Of course you do, because life is a big joke to you."

"I'm not the one who terrorized someone so badly they switched schools," Christa responded, "so yeah, I think it's funny."

She was saved from whatever response Paris was going to make by the appearance of Tristan. She was surprised, she really hadn't thought he'd be able to make it.

"Where have you been?" Paris demanded. "Why aren't you in costume? We're on in 10 minutes."

"I can't." Tristan told her. "My dad pulled me out of school."

So he had been right, he was done at Chilton.

Paris stomped away.

"If she ever sees me again, she'll stab me." Tristan joked weakly. There was silence between the three of them for a moment.

"I'm going to go make sure she doesn't kill someone," Rory commented before disappearing as well, leaving Christa and Tristan alone.

"So you've been pulled out of Chilton?" She asked softly.

"Yeah. I'm going to military school in North Carolina." He told her with a shrug. "My dad's insisting. That's what they were fighting about last night."

Christa had managed to sneak in and out of his place without his parents seeing her, but she had noticed that the lights at the main house had still been on when she'd left, even though it had been almost 4 a.m. So it probably had been a long night.

"I'm sorry." Christa said softly.

"I deserve it." Tristan told her. "I screwed up. I do that a lot. And my dad is right, I can't stay here. My reputation at this school is shot. I need a fresh start and I think I need to be away from him."

Christa just nodded. "Take care of yourself." She said after a moment.

"I will." Tristan promised her. He put his hand under her chin. "Thank you." He said softly. "For last night and for everything."

He leaned down and kissed her. It was a sweet kiss, full of longing and a little regret. Because it was also a definite goodbye. After a moment, they broke the kiss and just looked at each other, though Tristan's arm remained around her.

"Tristan!" Mr. Dugrey shouted from down the hall.

"I need to go." He told her, letting her go. "For the record, I still prefer spice to sugar."

Christa smiled despite the tears in her eyes and watched him walk down the hallway, wondering if she would ever see him again.


"So did you and Paris kiss for real?" Dean teased Rory when the play was done and they were sitting at Luke's.

"A lady never kisses and tells." Rory commented. She wasn't sure how she felt about Paris stepping in for Romeo, but Paris was right, someone had to do it and they had pulled off the play, hopefully with a decent mark.

She looked at her sister who was playing with her fries instead of eating them. She didn't know what had been said between Tristan and Christa, but it had obviously affected her sister.

"Can you excuse us for a moment?" She asked Dean. Her mom and Sookie were at the counter talking to Luke. He nodded and got up. She turned to Christa. "So Tristan is leaving Chilton?"

"Military school." Her sister told her. "Rory, I know you don't—"

"No, I don't understand," Rory said cutting her off, "But I shouldn't have jumped on you. It's your life, not mine and it's obvious you really care about Tristan."

"I do." Christa said softly. "A lot."

"I'm sorry he's gone," Rory offered.

"Me too." Christa said quietly. "But I hope he finds what he needs."

Rory nodded just as Dean, her mom and Sookie joined them and the conversation turned back to Romeo and Juliet, as they discussed the various interpretations.

Rory participated in the discussion, but kept looking at her sister. She still wasn't sure she understood Christa's decision to sleep with Tristan and she didn't think her sister placed enough value on sex or relationships, but… She couldn't deny her sister did care about Tristan and maybe for Christa, caring was enough, even if it wasn't for Rory.

Rory resolved to try and keep her thoughts to herself from now on because she didn't want to push Christa away. It hurt that Christa didn't confide in her and judging Christa would only make that worse, so she needed to try and remember that she and Christa were very different and that Christa needed to live her own life, for better or worse.