Tristin and Rory soon drove up to the outskirts of Stars Hollow. They encountered maybe ten agents from the Hartford field office. Tristin immediately went in search of the Special Agent in Charge for an update on the situation. Rory looked around her in wonder. It was so odd to see government officials milling around her quiet little town. The outside world had finally found a way to intrude.

Tristin made his way over to Rory's side. "Okay, here's the scoop. Mendoza is alone. He's been in his room at the inn for a few hours. We have no idea what he's up to, but he hasn't tried to contact anyone since he talked to your mother this morning. No one has tried to approach him. The SAC thought it would be better to give him a false sense of security until we arrived. Now they're coming up with a way to bring him in. We don't want a lot of gunfire. The inn is booked solid, so there's a lot of people around. We're going to set up surveillance around the inn, with cooperation from your mother. This way, if he so much as sneezes, we'll know about it. Sound good?"

"One question. What the hell is he doing? Why is he just kicking back in his hotel room instead of hunting me down?"

Tristin shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. There's definitely more to this than meets the eye. He's up to something. I just can't see what it is yet."

***

Mendoza checked his watch. They should be outside right now. Good. If his men could follow simple instructions, everything would work out fine. He couldn't have planned this better. The rooms on either side of him were occupied. There was no way any FBI would be chasing him in here. They would have to wait for him to leave. And he wouldn't be doing that until Miss Gilmore was walking out with him.

***

Hours later, there was still no progress. Mendoza was still in his room and all the FBI agents were still a safe distance away. Tristin sent Rory to her mother's house to get some rest. Two agents from the Hartford field office had graciously offered to put in some overtime and go with her for protection. He sought out the SAC to see if there had been any new developments.

"Agent St. John!"

"Yes, Agent Dugrey?"

"Any updates for me?"

"No. I feel like we're beating a dead horse here."

"When can we make a move on Mendoza? I don't like sitting here and waiting. He's got something up his sleeve."

"We've got to wait until Agents Walker and Steltz finish setting up the surveillance."

"Walker and Steltz aren't on surveillance. They just took Rory back to her mother's house."

"No, Speas and Smith, your agents, went with Gilmore."

"Speas and Smith are in DC! There's no way..."

Sudden realization set in on both agents' faces. "SHIT!"

Tristin immediately darted off. SAC St. John immediately sent a few of his agents as back up. The rest of the team stayed behind to keep an eye on Mendoza. There was no telling what he'd do know. Was this a distraction? Or was it a part of some bigger plan?

***

Tristin ran as if he had wings on his feet. He couldn't think of anything but getting to Rory. How could he have been so stupid? You dumbass, he cursed himself. How could he have been so careless? He entrusted Rory's safety to two strangers, who most likely were Mendoza's men. If anything happened to her...He kept running.

***

Rory and Lorelai sat on the couch in the living room. The two "FBI agents" paced back and forth on the carpet in front of them. Lorelai was scared out of her mind, but Rory was plain pissed. She had been running for days. She was tired and stressed. She spoke up.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it already. I'm sick of the cloak and dagger routine."

"Rory!" Lorelai hissed.

"We would, but we've got other plans for you at the moment. Besides, we're waiting for one more person."

***

The Gilmore house was finally in sight. Tristin barreled up the porch steps and knocked down the door. "Rory!" he called urgently. "Rory, where are you?" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the people assembled in the living room.

"Agent Dugrey, nice of you to join us. We can get started now."

Tristin started to pull his gun but was stopped. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Wouldn't want anything to happen to the lovely Miss Gilmore or her mother."

Tristin put his hands face up and slowly kneeled, dropping his gun on the floor in front of his feet.

"That's better. Now kick it over here."

Tristin grudgingly followed his instructions.

"Now take a seat."

Tristin sank down on the couch, next to Rory. "Don't worry," he whispered. "There's a team of FBI agents right behind me. They'll be here any second."

"Okay, now that our merry little party is complete. We really should be going."

"Where?" asked Lorelai.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere. Mike here is going stay and make sure that G-man doesn't try to be a hero. Got that, G-man? Try anything and Miss Gilmore ends up motherless."

"Leave my mother out of this. You want me, you have me. Let's just get this over with."

"Sorry, but you're in no position to negotiate. Besides, it's not up to me. Now let's go."

Mendoza's man held two pistols, one in each hand. Rory and Tristin were forced to walk back to the inn, with the butts of the pistols firmly stuck into their backs. Right outside the Gilmore house, the FBI agents were getting ready to enter the house. "Tell them to drop their weapons."

"No f'n way."

"Do it," he hissed, shoving the pistol harder into Rory's back. She let out a painful cry of surprise.

"Drop your weapons!" Tristin called.

The agents immediately lowered their guns.

"Lay on your stomachs with your hands behind your head!" Mendoza's man called. "If I say any of you following us, you'll be having a funeral for a fellow agent, as well as a federal witness."

They walked on without further incident until they reached the inn. SAC St. John immediately recognized that there was a hostage situation and let them pass through without any trouble. Somehow, the agents had cleared the inn during the day. They had been preparing to storm the inn when Tristin and Rory had shown up at gun point. Luckily, the surveillance equipment was still in tact; the agents outside the building could see everything that went on inside.

***

Mendoza's man led them straight to Mendoza. He had been awaiting their arrival since early that morning. He was more than ready for them now. "Tristin! Rory! Do you mind if I call you that? I feel as if we're old friends now." He smiled at them cordially.

"What the hell do you want?" Tristin asked warily.

"What do I want? I want a lot of things, Agent Dugrey. I want a mansion. On an island. Somewhere sunny and deserted. But most of all, I don't want to go to jail. So you can see my dilemma here. As long as Miss Gilmore here is able to testify against me, I won't get any of those things."

"You won't have to serve long," Tristin reasoned. "Just give us the name of your boss."

"Nice try. If I give up any information, I won't even make it to sentencing."

"We can offer you protection. You could be put into the Witness Protection Program."

"Ha! No offense, but judging from the piss poor job you did of keeping me away from Miss Gilmore, I wouldn't last a week."

"This was an entirely different situation," Tristin rambled on. Distract him, he thought to himself. He was desperately trying to think of a way to discreetly reach the gun he kept in a holster around his ankle. "I let my personal feelings get in the way of my job."

"Oh, I know all about it," Mendoza assured him. "Such a heartwarming story. Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl witnesses murder. Boy protects girl. But not well enough, I'm afraid. Girl dies."

"You don't know the half of it," Tristin scoffed.

"Is that so? Care to fill in the blanks?"

"Do you want to hear how it really happened?" asked Tristin, his voice cracking with emotion. "How about this: I've loved this girl since high school. She was the new girl, sweet, innocent, and extremely smart. The opposite of every other girl I had ever gone for. Well, I fall hard. So I do the only thing I know how to do. I try to sweep her off her feet. Well, that doesn't work, so I tease her instead. Endlessly. And then I find out she has a boyfriend. So I get worse. Then, finally, they break up. We kiss, slowly become friends. Then on the last day of school, he comes crawling back. And she falls for it. I feel like I've forgotten how to breathe. Two more years go by. I don't even approach her in school anymore. High school graduation was the last time I ever saw her, until last week. Suddenly, she's thrown back into my life. And I fall hard...again. But I can't even take the time to get to know her, or show her how I've changed, because I'm too busy protecting her from slimeballs like you."

"Well," Mendoza said, taken aback, "I believe that information was left out of her file. It's too bad that I'm going to kill her anyway."

Rory didn't hear a word Mendoza said. She was still stuck on: "He loves me?"