Chapter 7




Tristan walked towards his cousin slowly, holding his finger to his lips, signaling for his Aunt and Uncle to be silent. A slow, teasing smile spread across his lips before he laid his hands over her eyes and grinned at her surprised squeal.

"Tristan!" She cried, laughing loudly. He grinned, spinning her around and catching her as she threw her arms around his shoulders.

"Hey there, kiddo. You having fun?" He asked, balancing her small frame on his hip. She smiled at him and nodded.

"Oh yeah! Tristan, Tristan, look." Juliet said, grabbing Tristan's cheeks with her small hands and forcing his head down. "That's my friend, Elly. Elly, this is Tristan. He's my cousin. He lives in a big house and he has this really neat car, maybe he'll give you a ride sometime. Isn't he cute? All the girls call him a hottie when we're out, and he-"

"Thanks, Juliet, I think she gets it." Tristan laughed and put Juliet down, reaching his hand out to the small girl, who's big blue eyes were glued on him. "How are you?" He asked, placing a charming, welcoming smile on his face. The girl smiled brightly and slipped her small hand into his, barely grasping his and he shook it gently.

"Are you having fun too? Is Juliet being nice to you?" He grinned, the girl blushed and smiled, nodding her head, her blonde hair bouncing around her face.

"Tristan, Tristan!" A small hand grasped his shirt, yanking on it forcefully. Tristan turned to Juliet, gently prying her small fingers away from his shirt and smiled at her.

"What?"

Juliet smiled and pointed over to a both in the far corner. "They have all these neat games, and at that one, you go around in a circle and when they stop the music, you win a cake!" She cried enthusiastically. Tristan pursed out his lips and raised his eyebrows, nodding in approval.

"Oh yeah?" He asked.

His Aunt chuckled beside him, and pulled on Juliet's pony tail gently. "It's a tad more complicated than that." She smiled at her nephew before reaching down and handing Juliet a few tickets. "Baby, why don't you take Elly and go over to that game a play for a moment, okay?"

Juliet took the tickets gladly, and ran as fast as she could to the game her mother had pointed out for her, Elly right on her trail. Tristan watched her for a moment, making sure she got there safely and that the man running the game had her full attention before turning his attention back to his Aunt and Uncle, who were both looking at him, smiling.

He smiled nervously and shoved his hands in his pockets, "What?" He laughed nervously.

His Aunts smile broadened, and she let out a small chuckle before wrapping her arm around Tristan's shoulder and hugging her to him. "You know how happy you are that you're spending time with Juliet? At first, we weren't quite sure what to do with you, but you just seem to fit in now." She laid her head on his shoulder for a moment before giving him a final squeeze.

Tristan smiled softly and looked over at his Uncle for a moment. "I don't think I quite understand. I'm not following."

His Uncle laughed loudly, and slapped a hand down on Tristan's shoulder, almost shoving Tristan forward onto his face. "You're nothing like your father, you know? I pray you don't take that the wrong way, but you're not at all." He laughed loudly again, and Tristan wondered if there was a place his uncle could have managed to get alcohol at this fair.

"Still not following, Uncle Harry." Tristan smirked. His Uncle nodded his head slowly for a minute, as if rolling something over in his mind a time or two.

"What I mean to say, Tristan, is that I'm glad you've become a part of our family. I love your mother dearly, you know, but she's not quite the same since she married your father, and when you were born I was very worried about you. For the first 16 years of your life I was worried about you!" He laughed again and hugged Tristan to his chest, and Tristan managed to smile at all the people who looked over at them nervously.

"Uncle Harry are you drunk?" Tristan laughed, rubbing his ribs.

His Uncle smiled proudly at him and shook his head, "I was completely afraid you'd turn out to be like your father. You know me, I usually don't speak ill of your parents but frankly, they're not that best at being a parent. I was worried you'd turn out to be cold Tristan, and you were for a while, and whatever changed you, is a blessing."

Tristan starred at his Uncle, unable to say anything. His Uncle meant well, and it wasn't as if Harry had hurt Tristan or said anything wrong, but Tristan knew exactly what had changed him, and the memory wasn't a fond one.

He just nodded to his Uncle, did his best to put on a brave face and slapped him on the shoulders a few times "Thanks, Uncle Harry."

"We do love you, Tristan, and Juliet loves you as well. I've never seen her quiet as happy as she is when she's with you." Hermione said, smiling at Tristan.

Tristan smiled, a truly happy smile. "I love you guys too. I'm not quite sure about Uncle Harry, though..." Tristan laughed as Harry gave him a look of playful warning and smiled broadly, Aunt Hermione laughing.

"Harry and I are going to get something to eat that isn't cake. I swear I've already put 5 or 6 of those damn home made cakes into the back of our car. Will you watch over Juliet and Elly for us? It'll only be a little while. We'll be back as soon as we can, I promise." And without needed an answer, Tristan's Aunt looped her arms through her husbands and made their way through the crowd. Tristan smiled after the pair, amazing at how much different they were from his parents, and turned on his heel, making his way towards his little cousin and her friend.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory pushed her way through the crowd, doing her best to smile at all the people who waved and stopped her, without rolling her eyes in frustration. All she wanted to do was to get to her mother, and cling to her for the rest of the night.

The last thing she expected was to have that dream again, and with Tristan only a few inches away from her, closed up in a very small car, her body begging for her to get warmth anywhere she could. The mere thought of being that close to him again made her body shiver uncontrollably, and when he left her at his car a few moments ago, the way he acted around her, she knew he was mad at her for what she had done to him this afternoon, and frankly she was mad at herself for handling it so poorly, but it was Tristan! That's how they handled things with each other. They bickered, they fought, they said things they didn't mean, and they were always fine. Well, they were usually fine. There were a few moments were Rory walked away hurt, but never did she expect Tristan to ever be in her shoes like that.

And what gave him the right to just put his arms around her like that? Granted it didn't help that for 10 minutes she completely allowed it, and that's what scared her.

Her dream was slowly coming true. Small, broken piece by piece.

She could see him from where she was standing, where she promised to meet her mother. He was with a small girl, no older than 6, and laughing. His cheeks were slightly pinked by the cold, and the air could be seen leaving his mouth as he laughed.


*Make them laugh, it comes so easy
When you get to the part
Where you're breaking my heart [breaking my heart]*


Another small girl approached him, holding up a small trinket of some sort, and Tristan smiled broadly, the little girl giggling. There were many sides of Tristan, and in the time she'd know him she'd seen plenty of them, but she had a feeling there were so many more buried underneath, and this was another one. She'd never seen him with little kids before, and before she could help herself, a small smile spread across her chilled lips as she watched him play with the two small children, grabbing both their hands and walking towards another booth. She'd never thought of Tristan as someone who would be good with kids, but she had been wrong about Tristan a lot.

"Rory!" A voice called out from behind her, and before she could turn around, her mother popped up in front of her, grinning. Her nose wrinkled up slightly as she smiled, it reaching all the way up to her eyes "Isn't this great? It's better than last year, I have to say. Then again, last year half the booths caught on fire, but that was Taylor's fault, as usual." She took a breath and looked over her daughter, her smile still as broad as usual. "So, where ya been?"

Rory smiled at her Mom and shrugged her shoulders. "Around."

Her Mom wrapped her arm around her shoulders and pulled Rory to her, grinning up at the night sky. "Around, huh? Around where?" Her mother pressed.

"Around Hartford."

"Ohh, OK, we're playing that game. All right. Around where in Hartford?" Her mother smiled, enjoying the fact that she was getting under her daughters skin.

"Around the North side of Hartford."

"Hmm, well, did you happen to stop by anyone's house? Paris, maybe?"

"Nope, I didn't stop at anyone's house."

"Ah, well, did anyone pick you up?"

Rory looked over at her mother and raised an eyebrow. "No..."

"Oh, hmm, well, tell me, daughter of mine who lies so horribly I'm wondering if she's my daughter at all, where is my jeep?" Lorelai asked, flicking her eyes over to her daughter who's face had fallen slightly.

"I didn't mean too..."

"Didn't mean too, what?"

Rory took a deep breath and pulled her mothers arm off her shoulder, turning to face her. "Well, see, I was driving home from Hartford when this deer ran out in front of me again, and it was limping so I thought it was hurt, so I pulled over thinking maybe I could find it-"

"Thinking you could maybe help this deer? Would this be before it ran away from you, or after it kicked your head off?"

Ignoring her mothers interruptions, Rory continued, "-but of course, I couldn't find it because it was dark and when I got back into the car and turned it on, it wouldn't turn on. So since I didn't have the cell phone-"

"Which I told you to take, by the way."

"-I had no way to contact anyone so I just sat in the jeep and waiting for someone to pass me, but this really freaky drunk guy passed me and after he threw something at me, I knew hitching a ride on that road would be pointless-"

"At least that's one smart thing you've done tonight."

"-I decided to walk-"

"And I take it back."

"-So I started walking and I was freezing cold and I kept hearing this behind me! So, I don't really know why but when I saw this car come up behind me I ran into the woods-"

"You were thinking wood chopper, weren't you? Yeah, me too."

"- and I hid in this bush and my knees got completely wet and muddy but then I heard a voice-"

"A good voice?"

"A good voice. It was Tristan. And to make a long story short-"

"Too late."

"He gave me a blanket and a ride here and your car is still back on the road. I'm sorry."

Lorelai grinned at her daughter and wrapped her arm around her again. "I'll have Luke give me a ride tomorrow morning, we'll go get it. I'm just glad you're safe, and that Tristan was there to find you."

Rory smiled faintly at her mother and nodded. "Strangely enough, so am I. I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't come along. I'd probably be walking along the road, picking up small pieces of my frozen fingers."

Lorelai crinkled up her nose and shook her head. "Weird as that is, I can see it happening."

"Ditto."

"Hungry?"

"Starving!"

"Good, lets get some food. They've got some really great little mini pizza's over-"

"Oh no." Rory moaned, her shoulders stiffening.

"What?" Lorelai asked, doing her best to look in the direction of Rory's gaze. "What?"

"Look." Rory pointed, and Lorelai followed her finger to a booth over across the yard.

Tristan stood, the two little girls behind him, smirking at what looked to be a very, very upset Dean.

"Oh, the parties started!" Lorelai cried, as Rory stomped her way over to where the two boys were standing.

"The fun is about to start. Ladies and Gentlemen if you'll just step this way..."