Tristan glanced around the diner impatiently. It was the next day, and he had come as moral support for Rory, who was nervous about seeing Jess again. Rory hadn't said a single logical thing in the last half hour or so, answering all his questions with 'huhs.' "Cinderella's my favorite movie."

"Huh. Really?" Rory's gaze was focused on the doorway, and Tristan wondered if she was even aware of his presence.

"Yeah. Those mice are hot."

"Huh."

Tristan rolled his eyes. "I mean, don't you just want to make out with the fat one? What's his name, Gus?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Tristan cleared his throat. "Rory." Snapping his fingers in front of Rory's face, he added, "Earth to Rory. Come in, Ror."

Rory blinked slowly, as if she were coming out of a trance. "What Tristan?"

"You're completely out of it. You pretty much just said you wanted to jump the mouse from Cinderella."

Rory grimaced, not meeting Tristan's gaze. "Well, I don't. Can you just forget I said it?"

Tristan nodded. "Sure. But what's up? Why are you so nervous about seeing the guy? You didn't even react this badly when you found out I'd be going to school with you."

"Yeah, but we didn't have the same problems that Jess and I had." Rory stopped suddenly; shooting Tristan a look that she hoped would make him avoid the subject.

He understood. "Well, okay, Rory. Just tell me one thing…he didn't do anything to hurt you, did he?"

"Not physically."

"Oh." It was Tristan's turn to grimace.

Even though the diner was packed to capacity for what was very likely the first time ever, Rory stood out. When Jess swung open the door to the diner, it was as if his Rory radar had gone on. She looked even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her, halfway through their senior years. Her hair had been cut, and it framed her face perfectly. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and Jess found it oddly comforting to realize she hadn't changed much at all. She wore a sapphire necklace that showed off the blue in her eyes.

As Jess took in the guy sitting across from her, his hand casually over hers, his eyes narrowed. This guy had probably given Rory the necklace. He'd never seen the guy before, but he looked like a socialite. Jess sighed. So Rory had already found a new guy, three months into the year.

As Jess walked towards Rory's table, his eyes met the guys. There was some kind of understanding in the guy's eyes, and Jess winced as the guy tightened his grasp on Rory's hand. Rory turned around to see Jess and her eyes widened. Quickly wiping the surprised look off her face, Rory stood, gesturing for Jess to join her.

"Hi, Jess." Rory smiled at him shakily, glancing from Jess to the guy and back. "Um, Luke told you what this is about, right?"

Jess nodded. "Yeah."

Rory let out a relieved sigh and she seemed to relax a bit. "Okay. Well, first of all, Jess, this is Tristan DuGrey. Tris, Jess Mariano."

'Tris?' A jealous voice in Jess's head repeated, 'she already has a pet name for the guy?' Jess snorted as the guy held out his hand to Jess, as if expecting Jess to shake it. "A socialite, right?"

An easy grin spread over the guy, Tristan's, face. "That's the way I was raised."

Jess nodded, pulling a loose chair over to the booth. He didn't feel comfortable sitting next to Rory or Tristan. "Uh, well, what did you want to ask me?" He directed the question at Rory.

Rory nodded, consulting a notebook. "Um, I guess I'll start off general. What's happened in the last year, Jess?"

Ten months, sixteen days. That was more accurate than a year. 'It's pathetic that I still count,' Jess thought to himself. "Uh, stuff."

"Can you be more specific? Like, college, jobs, friends, girlfriends…" Rory trailed off.

Girlfriends. Jess instantly felt guilty. "Yeah, I have a girlfriend. Her name's Azura Skye."

"Are you serious?" Tristan leaned forward in his seat, clearly intrigued.

Jess nodded. "Yeah. Her mom thought that if she had to grow up with a last name like Skye, her first name might as well be Azura."

Rory took this down, and Jess mentally cursed himself for being disappointed that Rory wasn't disappointed that he had a girlfriend. Rory cleared her throat. "Okay, what about school?"

Jess shrugged. "What about it?" When Rory glared at him, he answered, "I'm going to NYU."

"What's your major?"

"Communications."

Rory looked up at him strangely, and he knew she was caught in a memory.

****Flashback****

Jess stared at her. "You're gonna be an overseas correspondent?"

Rory nodded, "Yes, I am."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna crawl around in trenches and stand on top of buildings and have bombs going off in the background and some wars raging all around you?"

Rory was quiet for a minute. "What, you don't think I can do it?"

Jess shook his head quickly, not wanting to offend Rory. "No, I do. Just sounds a little too – ."

"A little what?" The words came out more defensive than Rory had meant them.

Jess shrugged. "Just sounds a little too rough for you."

Rory frowned. "Well, it's not a little too rough for me. I hope it's not a little too rough for me; I've been talking about this forever. I mean, I don't even know what I would do if – ."

Jess stifled a laugh. "Hey, I didn't mean to freak you out. I'm sorry. I'm sure you'll do it. You will, I promise. I'll help you practice, okay? Tomorrow, you'll stand in the middle of the street and I will drive straight at you screaming in a foreign language."

Rory's upper lip curved into a smile. "Well, you're gonna have to learn a foreign language first."

Jess mirrored her, smiling back. "Well, it's lucky I've got me a tutor, isn't it?"

****End Flashback****

Rory shook her head to clear it of the reverie. "Okay. Do you have a minor?"

"Photography."

"Interesting choice. Okay, what about a job?"

"I'm working at a New York wildlife magazine assembling possible templates, that kind of thing. You know, to pay for college."

"Impressive."

"How'd it go? Did you get a chance to talk to Jess?" Callie was sitting in Rory's desk chair backwards, her legs straddling the back.

Rory glanced at her friend from her seat on the floor. "I interviewed him. That's all."

"But you like him, right? So why aren't you going after him? I know you'd like to go out with him."

Rory raised an eyebrow. "I'm not interested in pursuing any relationship with him, unless you count this interviewer/interviewee thing we have to have going on."

Callie shrugged. "Your loss." Turning to Tristan, who was laying across Rory's bed, she added, "What's Jess like? Is he hot?"

Tristan flipped over to look at Callie. "Why are you asking me? I wouldn't find him hot. And as for what he's like, he didn't seem very friendly. Kind of monosyllabic."

Rory laughed. "All Danes men are like that."

"Danes?"

"Luke's family. Luke's monosyllabic too."

"T, I'm seriously worried about her." Callie looked up at Tristan seriously, voicing her concern about Rory now that Rory had left the room.

Tristan nodded. "I'm worried too. But if there's one thing I've learned about Rory, it's that she can take care of herself."

Callie sighed. "I know. It's just that whenever I even mention Jess, Rory's eyes get all cloudy."

"I noticed. She was so nervous today, I pretty much asked her if she wanted to jump a Cinderella character and she was like, 'Oh, uh, yeah, sure.'"

Callie laughed despite herself. "You really think she'll be okay?"

Tristan nodded. "It's Rory. She'll be fine."

"Mom, can I talk to you?"

Lorelai looked up to see Rory standing in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen. "Sure, sweetie. What's up?"

Rory paused. "Did you just call me sweetie?"

Lorelai nodded. "It seemed like one of those situations that called for it."

Rory would have laughed, but she wasn't calm enough to do so. "I don't know what to do, Mom. I'm so uncomfortable around Jess."

Lorelai sighed, walking into the living room and sitting down on the couch, gesturing for Rory to do the same. Rory did. "Ror, I don't really know what to say because you never told me what happened or why Jess left." She paused. "Do you want to tell me now?"

Rory shook her head, and then leaned against Lorelai, suddenly feeling weak. "God, Mom, this sucks."

"Hey, Callista, Tristan, can I talk to you two for a minute?" Lorelai stood in the doorway to the kitchen where the two were eating lunch.

Callie looked up. "Yeah, sure. Uh, call me Callie, though."

Lorelai nodded, sitting down at the table. "I just wanted to talk to you while Rory was in the shower." She paused, feeling as if she were breaking her daughter's confidence. "What do you guys know about Rory's relationship with Jess?"

Tristan frowned. "Nothing, really. Except she seems scared of him." His eyebrows scrunched together. "I thought you'd know. You and Rory are so clo-"

"No, no, I don't. Rory never told me. I think Lane might know."

"Lane?" Callie looked confused.

"She was Rory's best friend through high school."

Tristan and Callie stood on the doorstep to Kim's Antiques, waiting for someone to answer the door.

"Hello?" A short, graying Korean woman cracked the door open slightly, peering through.

"Hi. We're looking for Lane Kim. Is she here?" Tristan smiled what had often been referred to as his killer grin.

"You're not Korean." Mrs. Kim's eyes narrowed. "What do you want with my daughter?"

Tristan hid his surprise quickly. "Oh, we're friends of Rory Gilmore's. We just wanted to talk to Lane."

"Lorelai's letting a strange boy stay there? No wonder Rory turned out the way she did."

Tristan gulped. "Uh, no, not strange. High school classmate. And this is Callie. She's our friend."

Mrs. Kim took in Callie critically. "You look nice. Not Korean. But nice. Lane can talk to you. But not this hoodlum."

Lane stepped outside, glancing at the two teens. The blonde girl stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Callie, Rory Gilmore's roommate. Um, is there anywhere we can talk?"

Lane nodded. "Yeah, I guess so." She looked around for her mother nervously. "We can go to Luke's."

"Okay. Oh, and this is Tristan. Your mother said you aren't supposed to talk to him because he's a non-Korean hoodlum."

Tristan glared at Callie. "You're loving that, aren't you?"

Lane interrupted before Callie could answer. "Tristan? As in Chilton Tristan? Bible Boy? Antichrist?"

"Antichrist. That's a bit strong. What are you going to call me next? A hellion?" Tristan raised an eyebrow.

"It's possible. What have you done to Rory since I last saw her?"

"Okay, Lane, I guess the main reason we braved your mother is because Rory had a weird reaction. You know, since Jess is back in town."

"Jess is back? Why? I thought he'd left for good. I thought he'd leave Rory alone." Lane's voice became agitated. "Poor Rory."

Tristan caught Callie's gaze quickly. "Uh, do you know what happened between them?"

Lane nodded. "Yeah, but I'm not going to tell you guys. Sorry, but if Rory wants you to know, she'll tell you."

Tristan groaned. "You won't even give us a hint?"

Lane sighed. "No. But I will tell you this. Rory has every right to kill Jess. And if she does, the whole town will be happy."

Those words coming from Lane, who seemed the polar opposite of her mother, astounded Tristan. "Whoa, that's a strong opinion if I've ever heard one."

The Korean girl, probably only 5'2, didn't look like the kind of person who would say that. Lane nodded. "Jess deserves everything he gets."

"Well, if Jess turns up dead, you're sounding awfully incriminating." The three laughed. "Seriously, though, when did all this happen?"

"Halfway through senior year." Lane didn't expound; she just sat there, gazing into space as if she were caught in another world.