A/N: Thanks for your patience guys, it took me awhile to battle through some writers' block but I did it and the story has been updated. Finally! If you want I have another story up that you can read, it's a one part TRORY it's called "Time Changes". Anyways,

On with the story…

Disclaimer Don't you think if I owned the Gilmore Girls that we poor, poor Aussies would still be getting our new episodes of the Gilmore Girls, instead of just getting season 1 on pay TV! Plus Milo and Tristan would not have left, ever! Simple as that. But never fear, I am saving up all my shiny pennies to buy them from ASP, and I am proud to say that after 6 months of very intensive saving I now have a total of 50 cents, Yay me!!

Rating: PG

The Clearing

Part Seven- Ideas

Tristan sat at his desk physically working, but with his mind off elsewhere.

He had been in New York for a little over three weeks, and he had spent a further two on holiday down in Florida before he started his job at Polack and Sons.

In the time that he had been back he'd thought of her constantly. What was she doing? Was she happy? Was she dating again? Thoughts that plagued his mind incessantly and prevented him form getting anything really accomplished.

Ever since Rory had ran away from the clearing when he told her that he was leaving he'd thought that she would come back, that she would realise what a monumental mistake she was making in not going with him and that she would move to Paris with him.

He'd often thought of the life they'd have together in Paris. When he saw families playing he'd picture the parents as Rory and himself. Whenever he'd try something new he'd wondered what it would have been like if Rory was standing right next to him trying it too, or teasing him mercilessly.

It was sick and twisted. He knew that, but Rory Gilmore was not something you just got over. God knows he'd tried countless times. And in the process had hurt one of the greatest girls he had ever known deeply.

"I'm sick, I need help. You know things would be so much easier if I had never walked into the wrong dorm room, if I had just gone to Princeton instead. But no… I had to go stupid Yale. Of all the dorm rooms…"

Maybe he'd try to contact her. One day, but not now. He'd heard that she was no longer in Boston, but that she had stayed on the East Coast. Their Grandparents were good friends, so he had, at recent social gatherings, overheard tiny snippets of their conversations. But he wouldn't ask about her and they would mention her in front of him.

Nope, Tristan DuGrey was going to move on. No more pining for the past. Hanging onto something that ended long ago. He was going to become a new man and really get over her. For real this time.

"Ok, tonight I'm going out. I'll call Tom and we can go clubbing or something. Try and meet somebody and show a genuine interest. Then I'll ask for her number and I will actually call her for a change. No more wimping out or hiding from the world! I am back with a vengeance!"

Tristan kept planning his evening when his intercom buzzed and his secretary, Michelle's nasally voice filled his head.

"Mr DuGrey, Your supervisor Mr Johnstone is on line one and your Mother is on line two. Which call would you like to take?"

Tristan thought for a moment. He could either talk to his boss and risk the possibility for getting roasted for something that he hadn't done.

Tristan sighed and buzzed the intercom back, pausing for a minute to make his final decision, after realising that he couldn't make one he spoke up.

"Michelle, You know what, I'm feeling adventurous, why don't you surprise me. You just pick a line and put them through and tell the other person I'm out to lunch or a meeting or something. And I'm going to tell you again, call me Tristan. Calling me Mr. DuGrey makes me sound like my father."

There! That definitely took the pressure of Tristan to make the decision, a task that he was not fond of. He held the phone to his ear waiting for the connection, shortly a shrill voice came through the phone

"Tristan, Dahling! How has my darling boy been? I haven't talked to you in weeks, have you been busy, perhaps finding a wife to produce a suitable heir to the DuGrey empire?"

He cringed at his mother, didn't she realise she sounded foolish when she spoke like that? It was times like this that he wished his mother was more like Lorelai, cool, calm and casual. Well ok, maybe not calm so much as completely wild. As much as he loved his mother he could never understand her need to act so pushy and so above everybody else. It was something that he didn't like about her and had in fact said to her on one very drunken occasion.

Tristan sighed, noting to himself that it was becoming something of a habit these days.

"Hello mother, yes I have been looking for a suitable wife, and there may be quite a few DuGrey heir popping out in the next nine months. I've taken to just picking up random girls and telling that if they sleep with me they'll become rich, I think the last one was in fact a petite little hooker I picked up on Broadway." Tristan then turned is voice sickly sweet, "How are things with you on this fine day?"

He couldn't help being touchy and smarmy to his family. It was a tendency developed back when he was a teen. They would delve into his private life and he would get irate with them because he didn't want them to find out something. Only now, it was something that came as naturally as breathing, even when he wasn't hiding something.

Tristan mother wouldn't have her son speaking like this to him so she took in a breath and prepared to lecture him, something that she did when she did not approve with his behaviour, which was often.

"Tristan Janlan DuGrey, I don't care how you speak to your friends or anyone else for that matter, but I am you mother and I will be treated with some respect! Now, because of your behaviour just now I expect you to be in Harford next Saturday for the 20th birthday for your cousin, Elisa. There will be all your old Chilton friends there; in fact I think that Paris is flying in from California for it, and that darling friend of yours from Yale, what was her name? Oh, you know the grand daughter of Richard and Emily Gilmore. Rory! Yes, Rory will be there also. I do believe that she is also in New York, have you seen her at all, maybe you could travel to Hartford together and re-acquaint yourselves. Now she would be somebody suitable for you to marry. She is well established, comes from old money and is very beautiful, however I think that she is in a relationship…"

Patricia DuGrey kept on talking about Rory and the party he was to attend in a week or so. But Tristan had paled and stopped paying complete attention after his mother had informed him that "The darling friend from Yale", Rory, would be there and that she was now living in New York.

He had not told his parents of the nature of his relationship with Rory. He did this purely out of concern of interference in the relationship. As far as they knew he was just good friends with Rory, that they had gone to Chilton together and had met up again in college.

Every so often he would pick up bits and pieces of what his mother was saying. But at the words "however I think that she is in a relationship…" Tristan felt like a knife had been run through him, then twisted a couple of times for good measure.

"She couldn't have a boyfriend, could she? If I haven't moved on how could she possibly have? This isn't right. I have to talk to her, find out what's going on… Just not now."

"Tristan? Tristan, are you still there, sweetie?" Mrs DuGreys' voice squawked through the phone, immediately shaking Tristan out of his reverie.

"Yes mother I'm still here. What were you saying?"

"I was saying how grand the party will be and how good it would be if you came to catch up with all your old friends, will you be attending?"

Would Rory be there? Yes.

Would this provide the perfect situation to see her again? Yes.

Would he be calm and charming? Probably

Would he be ready to see her again? Most definitely not

"Yes mother, I will be in attendance. What time should I be there?"

Mrs DuGrey gave Tristan the details, wished him the best and hung up; afterward Tristan sat back in his chair and thought about the party ahead. He knew it was a terrible idea, yet somehow he couldn't say no.

You guys know the deal, R/R! Thanx!

Rach xoxo