Summary: Rory just wanted a summer to escape her problems in Stars Hollow. Instead she got more than she bargained for... (Trory)

Spoilers: Anything up to and including I Can't Get Started (Season 2 finale)

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own any of the characters. They are the property of Dorothy Parker Drank Here productions and Amy Sherman-Palladino.

Author's Note: I know I haven't completed certain other stories, but I just reached a point where I have no idea where I want those stories to go. So yeah, in an attempt to restore some Trory faith in me, I decided to start up a new story where season 2 leaves off...

Chapter 2 - Under the Umbrella Tree

Tristan DuGrey let out a deep sigh as he checked the time on his watch for the millionth time that hour. He was bored.

Here he was, sitting poolside at the country club that resided near his parents' summer house, with nothing to do. He could take a swim, but that would be what, the third swim he's had in three hours?

He'd been at the country club since lunch, for the family meeting where he was welcomed back into the fold by his mother and his father, as well as his two older brothers and one younger sister. His parents thought that Tristan should be grateful. Grateful that they pulled him out of the horrible military school, and back into society. But Tristan didn't really care. He would've gladly spent a summer in North Carolina, just to be away from the "warm and comforting" summer home that Mr. and Mrs. DuGrey recently purchased and didn't plan on staying in. Instead, the summer home was to be left to their children while they jet-setted around the world, taking in exotic locales.

It's not that Tristan didn't want to spend time with his brothers and sister. It's just that he felt like he hardly knew them at all. So much had changed following the safe fiasco. So while his siblings decided to head back to the house, he stayed behind. And he was now bored out of his mind.

Absolutely nothing, rather no one, interesting came along the whole time Tristan was there. He decided that this summer he needed a summer fling. A complete one eighty from last summer's self-imposed exile, when he spent the summer glooming about Rory Gilmore.

Huh. It'd been quite awhile since he thought of her. He remembered the days when she was all that consumed his mind. She had always been a challenge to him. She didn't fall to her knees, or cave in like all the other girls. She fought against it. She drove him crazy. She made him completely infatuated with her.

But now he was over it. He accepted the fact that she could never love him. No one could. The bitter lifestyle he grew up in was just too much. Tristan remembered when he thought Rory could save him from the cruel world of Hartford society. That she would make him a better person. But military school made him realize that not only did he fit into the societal world, but he belonged to it. Nothing or no one could change him. It was simply too late.

Tristan snapped out of his thoughts, as reality came into focus. He stared across the pool, and at the gorgeous figure that stood underneath the umbrella shaped tree. Her back was to him, but Tristan had a great view of the assets she possessed. Tristan lowered his sunglasses, licked his lips, and prepared to make his whole summer more interesting.

Just as he was about to get out of the lounge chair, she turned around.

Life was just one cruel joke to Tristan DuGrey.

* * *

Rory could almost laugh. If it wasn't so terribly ironic, she would've laughed her ass off. She went to the Hamptons with Paris to get away from her problems, not to create new ones. But instead, she found herself staring across the pool and into Tristan DuGrey's blue eyes.

Their eyes immediately locked. Memories from their last encounter were still fresh in Rory's mind.

"So I might kiss you goodbye..."

She unconsciously licked her lips, as she remembered the one kiss they did share, way back on the piano bench.

"...but your boyfriend's watching."

They chalked it up to a bad night, both of them fresh from a recent break-up. He called her odd, she thanked him, he whispered back, and they kissed. For one quiet moment, she kissed him back, then she cried and ran away.

"Take care of yourself..."

Her eyes were brimmed with tears when he said this. Even though they hadn't always gotten along, their morning banters were somewhat comforting in the cold halls of Chilton.

"...Mary."

A smile. She hated that name. But she thought that it would be the last time she'd ever hear him call her that. Until today, that is.

"Mary," he said, his voice filling the silence.

Rory was so caught up in her thoughts, that she hadn't realized that Tristan had walked all the way around the pool, and was now standing beside her.

"Seven months in military school, and you've already forgotten my name?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'd never forget... Rory," he said softly.

Rory's mouth went dry, and shivers ran down her back. He looked good, she'd give him that. He was a bit more tan than the last time she saw him, and that tan somehow seemed to enhance his muscles and tight abs. His hair was a bit longer than she remembered, and stuck out at many different angles.

"I thought they would've made you shave your head at military school," she observed, breaking the silence.

"Well it's different when you have a father donating piles of money to the school so that you don't look bad for any family portraits," Tristan admitted.

"So since you didn't have to cut your hair, you decided to go all out and make it into a Chiapet?" Rory teased. Tristan let out a soft chuckle.

"Chiapet? That's a new one. Usually girls love to run their hands through this," he said pointing to his hair. "So what are you doing here in the Hamptons? I never would've figured you as a summer house type of gal."

"Paris and I were supposed to go to a conference in DC as student government reps from Chilton," Rory explained. "The conference was cancelled, Paris was mad, she invited me to spend the summer with her, so here I am."

"You're voluntarily spending the summer with Paris?" Tristan asked, raising an eyebrow. He let out a low whistle. "Things must have really changed after I left."

"I'll say," Rory said. "You might even call Paris and I *gasp* friends."

"So what else is new with you? Still seeing the bag boy?" Tristan asked, instantly regretting his question. The smile on Rory's face suddenly vanished, and instead she looked somewhat uncertain.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said softly.

Tristan took a closer look at her. He caught a glimpse of the locket she was wearing. Dean probably gave it to her. But she wasn't happy-go-lucky with Dean anymore. Tristan could tell. Something else was coming in between them.

"I know things haven't always been great between us," Tristan began. "But maybe this summer could change all that. How bout dinner tonight?" he asked.

"As in a date?" Rory asked as she looked up at him, her face still the paradigm of uncertainty. Tristan shook his head.

"Not a date," he confirmed. "Just two... acquaintances catching up." She still looked unsure, but Rory began nodding her head.

"See you tonight," she said with a small smile.

* * *

As Tristan began to walk away, he silently berated himself.

Rory had some strange affect on him. No matter how determined he was to prove to himself that he was over her, she changed his mind in a matter of seconds. And now they were going out for dinner... just as sort-of friends.

The summer just began to get more interesting for Tristan DuGrey.