Disclaimer.  See previous chapters.

Author's Note.  This is the end, it has been a great ride, but this new chapter is the last one to this story.  Please enjoy! For this chapter I took the creative liberty of designing the garden where everything is going to take place.

Minus Dean 11

Tristan was amazed.  He had never worked so hard to try to get the girl, and when he did, he didn't even notice that he had her until he lost her.  Nevertheless, he was going to get her back.  He wasn't going to let it all go so easily.  What had he been thinking that night when he left?

He remembered the way it had felt having her in his arms.  He remembered how it felt when he kissed her, and that unbelievable feeling when she nodded and smiled… that had been the most beautiful moment that night. 

He had been so out of it.  The fact that he had lost his grandfather hours before that had been so hard on him.  He thought that he might not recover.  Then, when he needed her the most, she was there for him.  She took care of him and protected him.  She had laid everything out for him.  He didn't have to think about anything, she had taken care of everything herself… for him.  If there had been any doubt on him of his feelings towards her that would've confirmed any suspicions.  But he had already figured out how he felt about her… but the fact that she had taken care of him in such a way, just confirmed what he had been unsure of, that he loved her.

And that night, after everyone had left and they were in the kitchen discussing when to leave… that comfort he felt around her (and that he knew she also felt) when he approached her and told her if she was ready to leave; that had been one of the most important moments of their relationship, in his mind.  To him it meant that things had moved on, that the friendship was stronger than ever because of the feelings towards each other.

He remembered that after he kissed her and drove out of her driveway, he thanked his grandfather for putting a good word for him up there.  He knew that his grandfather had had something to do with that.

Then, the inevitable happened.  He doubted himself and his actions.  He thought about how he had been so forward.  How she might think that he was taking advantage of his situation and the hand that she had held out for him.  He knew that if he didn't do some damage control, there was no telling what could happen.  He wasn't ready to loose her.  So he decided (for himself, and for her) that he would apologize and make it out to be something that happened and that wouldn't repeat itself again.

Why had he been so stupid? He should have gone with the obvious.  Talk to her.  Be upfront about it.  Measure up to the man he had been raised to be and discuss things in a mature manner. 

However, this was Rory Gilmore, with Rory, things were more like 'think about what you would normally do, and do the exact opposite', and he would stand a better chance with her.

But he was going to rectify his actions.  There was no way he was going to let go of one of the best things that had happened to him.  And Lorelai was going to help him with that.  She had experience.  She was going to help him set everything up at the inn, and with Rory.  She had warned him, though.

"If you screw it up with my little girl, I promise that I will hunt you down with a blunt knife and cut your limbs with it," she had said when they were setting everything up over the phone.

He wasn't going to be able to go thru with it that night, since it was a Friday.  And Friday had always been 'Friday night dinner' at the grandparents and it was respected.  But Saturday night, was going to be his night.  It was going to be the night he would get Rory, finally.  Saturday night was going to be their night.  It was going to mark the beginning of something beautiful for the both of them. 

He just hoped that she would show.

~*~

Saturday finally came.  It took it long enough, at least in Tristan's opinion.  But then again he was anxious, so it probably didn't count anyways.  He arrived early at the inn, and met with both Lorelai and Sookie to go over some more details for that night.

They decided on the menu, the decorations, the setting, the service, the music.  They were just tuning up some details, to assure him that everything was going to turn out all right.

By the end of the gathering, Tristan left the Inn to get ready and wait for the time when he was finally going to let his feelings flow freely… as cheesy as it may sound.

~*~

"Rory, honey!! I know you're there.  Pick up the phone; I have a huge favor to ask you… I'll wait." Came Lorelai's voice from the machine, and started to do the Jeopardy music that she always had found so amusing.

In the meantime, Rory was turning cushions on the sofa, and moving magazines until she finally found the elusive phone. "Mom?"

"Wow! It took you really long this time."

"Yeah, well you see: somehow, and I don't know how that happened, the phone was on its cradle.  Now here I am, turning half the living room up side down trying to find it in its usual place, and he was in the place it should be the whole time.  Talk about freaky, huh?"

"Well, anything can happen in the Gilmore house o' supernatural, even the phone being in its place… So, what are you doing?"

"Oh, not much you know, the usual… how about you?"

"You see…"

"Uh, I never like your 'you see' stories… what happened?"

"You see, somehow we had a small problem here at the inn that is keeping me engaged here, to put it nicely, because I can think of many cursing phrases that could be use to replace that one.  But anyway, here we are with this emergency and I can't go home for tonight, so I was wondering if you were so kind as to bring me a suitcase, with all the essentials, and the not so essential, things so that I can spend the night here…"

"Oh, what happened?"

"An emergency… were you not paying attention to me"

"But there can be different types of emergencies, I am just asking you to elaborate on yours."

"It's one of a kind, so I would like to keep the surprise factor if you don't mind…"

"Oh, no… sure, I'll take you a suitcase with your stuff… anything in particular?"

"Nope, just pick, fold, and stuff it in there…"

"I'll see in a few minutes then… bye"

"I'll be here, with my emergency… bye"

~*~

Rory came into the Inn with her mother's suitcase in tow.  When she arrived at the front desk Michel, being the rude French man that he is, pointed out that Lorelai had a room at the Inn where she was going to stay and to take her bags herself because the bellhop was busy and he simply didn't want to help her.  And with that, he gave her the key to the room and Rory went on her way.  Lorelai was nowhere to be found.

When she came into the room, she saw a rose on the bed, with a little envelope with her name on it.  She placed the suitcase next to the bed and proceeded to take the envelope.  It just read 'Go to the garden'.  She took the lilac rose and took a deep breath, inhaling the natural sweetness of it.

She walked out of the room and went in direction to the garden.  The garden was a huge extension of ground; green wherever a person would place their eyes.  Luke had always complained about it because he thought that they used 'the same green painting' people use in golf courses in order to keep the green even, which were 'extremely toxic'.  There were trees everywhere and different kinds of flowers and roses that gave color to it.  In the middle of the garden, there was the pool that had a bridge.  The bridge was a small wooden one that crossed over the pool.  The pool was small, and was no more than three or four feet deep, and it always remained lit.  On a clear night, if a person stood on the bridge over the pool they were able to look at the most beautiful star constellations known to men.

As she was coming out to the garden, she noticed that the path towards the pool had small candles inside small paper bags that lit the way towards the bridge and beyond it.  At the beginning of the path, she almost stepped on a second lilac rose, and another small envelope.  The card inside it read 'Follow the light' and so she did.

She walked toward the bridge and saw that the surface of the pool was full with lilac rose petals, and she could smell the sweetness of them.  When she continued her way across the bridge, she saw Tristan standing at the end, surrounded by candles that she noticed, when she was on top of the bridge, that were heart-shaped.  He was wearing jeans, a blue sweater, tan shoes, and belt… and yet she had never seen him look more handsome than that day.

"So you are behind this whole thing, huh?" she said, from the same spot where she had been admiring the petals.

"Guilty"

"Everything's beautiful, Tristan.  But what…"

"Would you mind finishing your way towards here?"

She smiled.  For a moment, she forgot that she was mad at him, and that she was trying to regain her ignorance (if such a thing was possible… but she was starting to doubt it).  But when she remembered what she was trying to do, she made her smile disappear.

"Actually I do.  Would you mind telling me what this is all about? I have to go back to something at home…"

"Rory, I know you're mad at me, just give me a chance to explain myself.  And if after that you decide that you still want to be mad at me, I will never bother you again."

She just sighed and took small steps to where he was standing.  When she stepped out of the bridge, he handed her a single lilac rose that he had been hiding behind his back, just like the ones he had been leaving all over the Inn. 

"Thanks…" she said as she took the flower in her hand and held it together with the other two she had gathered.

He tried to reach for her hand, but she took it back.  "Listen Rory, I'm really sorry for what happened… I…"

"Tristan, look, you already apologized for what happened so there's no need to keep dragging that into a conversation.  If you are doing this to try and make me feel better, I'm sorry to say that you are wasting both your time and mine."

"Mary, I never knew you had it in you to…"

"Tristan, really, is there a point to all of this because I really need to get going."

"So you are not going to make it easy for me…"

"Easy for you? What is that supposed to mean?"

"I am trying to apologize for…"

"And I already told you that you already did that, so there is no point on keep doing it…"

"Would you just let me finish? God! Why is it so hard to talk to you sometimes?"

She just shot him a withering glare.

He took a deep breath and continued.  "Listen, I made a mistake… a big mistake.  And it's not what you think.  I told you I was sorry for kissing you, but I'm not.  That is the farthest thing from what I feel."

"Wow! This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" she said while she rolled her eyes.

"You have a habit for interrupting people"

"You are not people, you are you… I might have a habit of interrupting you, but I don't interrupt people… it's rude!"

"Then think of me as people and…"

"Some stretch of the imagination…"

"I am trying to have a conversation with you."

"You are having a monologue… if you include the other person it is a conversation, but if you don't let her talk, then it's called a monologue."

"You are just full of wit tonight, aren't you?"

"As much as any other day.  Let me tell you something, there was a moment that I thought that when you were being extremely nice, I found you tolerable… I don't know what I was thinking."

"Okay… I deserve all I'm getting.  All I'm asking is a chance to explain myself, I'm not asking for much from you, am I?"

She gave a defeated shrug.  "You're right.  Go on, I'm listening."

"Rory it has never been a secret that I have feelings for you, has it? I always insisted on us going out, even as our friendship progressed I kept asking you to go with out with me.  Although, as our friendship grew you looked at it under a different light.  You thought of them as suggestions of things we should do as friends"

"Yeah, but we are… were… are friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, but that is not all I want from you Rory.  I want more.  I need more.  I need you.  I need Rory the woman, not the friend.  Or I thought I did."

"And we're back to where we started."

"No.  Pay attention here.  As we became closer as friends, it came to my attention that I wanted you whole.  Not just the woman but also the friend.  I wanted both.  I came to see, that I needed both.  That's what made you so wonderful and different from all the girls.  I knew there was something different, but I realized it from getting to know you.  What made you different from the other girls came from within.  You were not empty, you were not devoid of emotion, and you were not just a pretty face.  You had all I never knew I wanted until I met you."

After he finished this, he saw that here defenses were coming down.  That all he had hoped for was happening.  So he decided to continue.  He tried to get a hold of her hand, so he ran his hand over the length of the arm until he reached it.  And this time she didn't take it away from him.  He linked his hand to hers and stepped closer to where she was standing, and then he placed both their hands linked together in the middle of his chest.

"And that kiss!!" He said with a smile, and she blushed.  "Oh my God, that kiss had been all I had wanted for so long.  I was always so afraid of you rejecting me, slapping me across the face, and telling what a jerk I was, and that you had been right all along or something like that.  So I kept waiting and waiting for the right time to do it."

"You still didn't get the timing right." She said, and they both smiled.

"I know.  And that scared me, even more.  I thought that you might see it as if I had taken advantage of my situation or something.  But I knew that chances like those, being so close to you, didn't present themselves often.  And I should know since I pretty much hang around you every waking moment."  They both chuckled.

"Yeah, it's a little annoying at times," she told him, and he gave her hand a little squeeze, "but I can live with that." At this, he took a deep breath.

"I didn't want to take advantage of my pain or anything like that, Rory."

"I know you didn't." she said, looking at him in the eye.

"I wanted to clear that up.  If anything, I know that that moment had something to do with a little set up from him.  Apparently he stills thinks I can't do everything yet."

"So he humbles you?"

"He always did."

"So, um, why did…"

"I apologized? Oh, you will love this.  You see, I thought that you would want to deny what happened.  Made it look as something that shouldn't have happened at all.  That it had been something that you would feel sorry that happened, because of whatever reason you thought it was accurate.  And I couldn't take any more pain.  I like to keep my pain in small doses, and after what I had been thru that weekend… well I didn't want to go thru any more sad experiences.  So I told you what I thought you wanted to listen."

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"Yes, it would have been simple… but it would have been so predictable, don't you think?"

"Tristan, I'm serious.  You should've asked me how I felt.  It takes two persons to kiss.  Didn't I get a say in what happened between us? As in you and me."

"Did you know what you wanted at that moment?"

"Well no…"

"You see."

"But we could've figured it out together.  Did you know how you felt at that moment?"

"Well no…"

"You see," she said, imitating him.

"Yes, but I did have a better idea about it.  You on the other hand…"

"What makes you think that I didn't have feelings for you?" she asked simply, and he took a step closer to her.

"Did you?"

"It might have taken me longer to get there, but yes.  I did.  I do.  That's why it hurts me so much the fact that you would think that you were the only one entitled to decide for the both of us."

"Well I thought that…"

"That's your problem DuGrey, you think too much"

"Yeah, I must have picked it up from who I'm hanging out with."

"I was told once, that I should have a better screening process for my friends.  I should advice you the same."

"Who advised you such a moronic thing?"

"It's not important now."

"So it was Harris then, huh?" he said and didn't wait for an answer, "Oh, did I tell you that he left with my date at the dance?"

"That would have been fun to watch…," she told him, smiling.

They didn't notice the moment when both his hands were holding hers against his chest, or the moment when they had gotten so close together that there was no more space between them.  Still they continued their conversation.

"Tristan, listen.  I obviously don't have as much experience, like you do, in the whole dating thing; but I figure, that we need to have better communication if we are going to make anything work."

"So, what exactly is that we are going to make work?" He asked grinning.

"I don't know; you were the one with the whole speech prepared.  I figured that you had something prepared if such a question should arise."

"I want to be with you, and not share you with anyone," he told her.

"I want to be with you, and only you."

His smile was wide.  "I never thought I'd hear you say that."

"In all fairness, I never thought that I would say it to you either.  But it's nice."

"The thought of not having you was killing me.  I honestly thought that I had screwed everything up."

"You almost did.  We almost did.  I think I am also to blame, a little bit."

"Oh, thanks!" he said, with a smile, as he rolled his eyes in the same way she did.

"Love is sharing," she said with a smile.

"I knew you'd come around eventually" he teased her "Mary.  I am after all, Tristan DuGrey."

"Yeah, but I am the eternal optimist and hope that you'll overcome that." She joked back.

"So, um, would you mind if I kiss you now?" he asked her as he placed one of their linked hands under her chin to lift it up.

"At this moment, that is all I'm waiting for," she said, and he smiled and leaned in.

He slowly bent down to place a small kiss on her lips, lingering a little too long to tease her.  But apparently, she knew him now, and she smiled, so he unlinked their hands and cupped her face.  She placed her hands on his back and started to run them lightly, up and down his back.

He then started to deepen the kiss as he ran his arm down the side of her body and placed it in the small of her back, lightly.  She lifted her right hand and placed it behind his neck and started to play with his hair, as they started getting closer together.

Now it was his turn to smile, and she finally parted her lips letting him in, and the kiss was even more beautiful that the first one.  She was completely lost in him.  He was draining all that emotion that he had been so fond of.  And she didn't feel afraid.  She was giving all of herself in that kiss.

He was taking all that she gave him.  The way she touched him, and just let herself go and feel whatever he was showing her to feel.  She was open, and he loved that.  She let him show to her the way he felt, because he knew she understood that he couldn't express it with words… and she was right.

With another movement, he changed the position of his left arm around her waist and took the remaining step to her, but he had to separate his legs a little because they were standing so close together.  And this time, even without him doing anything, she wrapped her arms around him.  And he knew that everything had changed… and so did she.

~*~

Finally, they broke their kiss.  "You're all swollen…," he said, not really knowing what was the proper thing to say at that moment (which he was surprised that it could happen such a thing… to him) was.

"That was all your doing…"

"I've never been prouder of my work…"

"You're all swollen." She repeated his own words.

"That was all your doing," he continued with a small smile.

"I didn't know I could do that kind of work," she said, smiling.

"That was a mighty fine job you just did." He said placing another small kiss on her lips.

"Thank you sir" she said, blushing furiously.

"You blush so easily… I noticed that the first day you came to Chilton."

"Well this kind of intimacy is one that I have never experienced." She said, blushing even more, if possible.

"It's okay.  I like that a lot."

"Tristan?" she said as she placed her head on his chest and he kept his arms around her.

"Mm-hmm"

"Is there a reason why we are still standing in the middle of the cold?"

"Nope.  I just don't want to move.  I risk not being able to hold you again like this." He said as he placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm just making sure."

"Tristan?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"I'm cold."

"So my arms around you are doing nothing?" he teased her.

"Oh, no.  Their doing plenty, but try as they might there is just so much they can cover and I'm really, really cold."

"Yeah, I'm cold too.  And besides, this evening is not over."

Her head snapped up.  "It's not?" she asked.

"Well I had many ways to persuade you.  So the next one was food, and if that didn't work, Lorelai would let me lock you up in the Inn, with me, until you said you forgive me."

"So, there's food?" she asked him.

"Yep."

"In there?"

"Yep."

"So, why are we still standing here?  Let's go." She said, and he smiled.  She placed a quick kiss on his lips, and said, "thank you so much for everything you did to make this happen."

"Well, it took you really long to notice the great guy I am." He teased.

"But I've never been more glad of taking so long." She told him and took him by the hand and led him to the inside dining room at the Inn.

As they started to walk, she asked, "So, my mom was in on this too, huh?"

"Yeah, she's one great allied."

"So, she is not staying at the Inn then, is she?"

"Nope.  It was part of the plan."

"I'm glad."

"Rory…" he said as he stopped them midway.

"Yeah?"

"I love you," he said as he pulled her closer.

She ran the palm of her hand along the side of his face, and as he had done many times before, he closed his eyes.  "I love you too."

~ THE END ~

Author's Note.  So this is it.  What do you think? I really hoped you liked it.  I can tell you that I really enjoyed writing it.  I had so much fun with it! Thank you so much for your support, it meant so much to me.  In all honesty, it would have taken me longer if I hadn't injured my foot, but after all I'm glad it happened.  Please let me know what you think.

So again, thank you so much for everything.  You are the best!!!

- Mary