Author's Note: I've never needed to visit a Family Planning Clinic or take the morning after pill, but I know a fair amount about contraception, so there shouldn't be any mistakes here. If you spot any, let me know.

*

The nurse had been very pleasant, and that made Rory feel guiltier than anything else had. Because she was underage, she spent some time getting what amounted to an interrogation on her sex life, but that might have been paranoia at work. She took the first pill in the office, and the nurse brought her to the front desk to pay.

Louise was waiting in the reception area, and jumped up when Rory returned. The woman named more money than Rory had, and Louise tossed a few bills on the counter.

Bright smiles ushered them out into the blinding sun, and warnings about the timing of the second pill drifted out as the door swung shut. The humidity had dropped.

"I'll pay you back."

Louise threw something that approached a grin at Rory. "Don't worry about it. Tristan'll get it." She pulled sunglasses from a pocket at her hip. "I must say, I expected better from him." An uncomfortably appraising look, broken by a laugh. "You got this really early, you know. You're lucky you didn't need an IUD, with Tristan."

The smile faded when she realised Rory didn't get the joke.

As they climbed into the car, Louise reached across and dropped a handful of free condoms on Rory's lap. Rory ignored them, staring out the window, embarrassed at her moodiness, but unable to help it. Louise fiddled with her sunroof, and the silence became awkward.

Finally, she sighed, and reached for the ignition. "You've always behaved better than I have. Don't drop your standards."

*

They hung around for a couple of hours, drifting around from place to place. All the locations were all isolated.

They didn't talk much, but Louise stopped for coffee without being asked. Rory thought for a second that Louise had been paying closer attention than she would have credited, but something was mumbled about her mother wanting her to quit.

The cup didn't look so innocuous in Louise's hands. Rory berated herself for being a hypocritical bitch; it seemed that Louise hadn't done anything but get a head start on her.

They ended up at a field overgrown with weeds and gnarled wooden limbs and brambles. Louise wandered to the edge of the greenery; Rory stayed slumped against the car door, although she didn't want to leave.

The wind picked up. It made strands of hair whip across Rory's face, and the long yellow grass rustle and dance. She watched Louise chain-smoke, and was glad that she wasn't talking, but somehow wished that she was.

*

The front door closed on that section of the day at four. Rory was exhausted, and looking forward to a brief respite from herself. Jess expected her at the diner at eight, but for right now, she could ignore everything.

Lorelai came out of the kitchen, doughnut in hand.

Rory felt a frozen moment of terror before she remembered that her mother had no idea where she'd spent the night. Probably. Yet.

"Where have you been?"

The relief shocked the truth out of her. Not that she could have come up with anything else. "I was with Louise."

"From Chilton?" Lorelai's eyebrows were doing something mildly disturbing. "I didn't think you liked her."

Deep breath. Brain-freeze, rather than bone. "She's Tristan's friend."

"He was there too?"

Yes. Rory never would have thought of that. "At first."

"Right." Lorelai licked a sticky red smudge from her finger. "Well of course it would have to be that, because he was here when I got home. Looking for you."

Breathe. Good. "Why are you home so early?" Out before she could think, and it would have been a bad idea to ask what Tristan had wanted.

"Melissa wanted to work overtime. I jumped at the chance. What did Tristan want?"

And yes, her mother knew something was going on between them. She just didn't know that it had ended. Or begun, whichever. Rory hadn't decided yet.

"I don't know. He didn't say?"

"No. He looked pretty, ah…." Speculative look, and Rory wished her mother wasn't so interested in her life. "What happened?"

Rory shook her head, tried to look blank, and made for the stairs.

"Hey!" Lorelai vaulted across the back of the couch and cornered her on the third step. "What is it? Did you kiss him? I mean, again?"

"Mom, just—" Rory scrambled backwards, tripping over her own feet. Lorelai followed.

"Rory, tell me what happened! Now!"

It was a lost cause. Rory made her eyes as wide and beseeching as was possible without looking ridiculous. She knew that this sometimes worked if the fear in her eyes was real. It meant that she'd have to tell her mother at least part of the truth later, though. "Nothing. I mean, I don't know yet. I haven't made up my mind."

Lorelai's grasp on Rory's sleeve tightened and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried again, squinting suspiciously. "All right. But make no mistake about it: I am hearing this later."

Rory nodded eagerly, and took the opportunity to slip away.

Her bed was warm and welcoming, and it was nice and restful with the quilt over her head. She tried not to think about the feel of another body beside her, and arms surrounding her, and how nice it would be to be even warmer. And how nice it would be to have him in her bed, how much more comfortable if they could stretch out and relax. And they had done that before, but it would be so different now, and God, she wished she didn't know what he slept in. Warm skin under her cheek, the cotton of her sheet far too rough, and she tried to remember what his skin felt like besides burning and wonderful. Wondered if he'd be awake, and what he'd be doing—

She rolled over onto her back, and reminded herself that she wasn't thinking those thoughts. Wasn't. She bit her lip, closed her eyes, and tried to pretend that his image wasn't emblazoned on her eyelids.

And she wanted peace, so eventually, she just pretended that Jess didn't exist.