Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters mentioned in this story.
And he was, and she liked the
changes, but she just couldn't bring herself to disappoint Dean.
She and Tristan carried on in secret at school, and in Stars
Hollow, she pretended like nothing was different. She didn't even
tell her mother.
But Dean knew.
"There's something wrong," he accused her one night,
sitting on her porch steps. "Did you and Jess-"
"No," she answered quickly. Too quickly.
"I knew it!" he exploded. "I knew I couldn't trust
you. You promised me that things would be fine now, and you
lied."
"No, Dean, it's not like that," she insisted.
"Not like what?" asked Tristan, who had approached them
suddenly.
"You? Where did you come from?" Dean asked, thoroughly
confused.
"My mother was born in 1952. She met my father at a social
function twenty years later. Not long after that-"
"Tris, don't," Rory sighed.
"'Tris?'" Dean repeated. "What kind of pansy-ass
nickname is that?"
"Dean, there's no need for-"
"So it wasn't Jess," he concluded.
"It's not-"
"I get it," he said quietly, and began to walk away.
"Dean, stop!" Rory pleaded, chasing after him. She
grabbed his arm, and he shook her off roughly-too roughly. He
turned toward her, like a possessed man. She stumbled backward.
Tristan intervened, inadvertently ending up on the wrong end of a
shove from Dean. He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture.
"Look, the lady's made her decision," Tristan began.
Dean stared at Rory, who stood with her arms folded, looking at
him anxiously.
"Yeah, I guess she has," he said, effectively conceding
defeat.
After he left, Rory began to cry, although she couldn't quite
explain why his departure had affected her so adversely.
It didn't matter. Tristan held her for as long as she needed him
to be there.