Author: Nat

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: I'm Australian and because we're so far behind I don't think it applies… besides, it's mostly AU anyways.

Pairing: Rory/Tristan

Standard disclaimer applies

A/N: Thanks of course to Surya and Sus for their betaing efforts. Any mistakes are mine. Thanks to those who are sticking with this story, even after the last depressing part. I'm slowly working up to funny. Hopefully.

Sorry to those of you who are a little confused with linking the chapters together… but there really is no time line for this fic, it's flicking back and forth through time… just like how it goes in a diary.

Enjoy!

- The Life and Times of an Unwelcome Third Wheel -

Rory and Lorelai had a fight.

It was huge enough that she stayed in Hartford. She had never stayed at our house before. She always stuck to her curfew, she went home no matter how tired she was, no matter how many times Dad or Tristan insisted she was more than welcome to a guest room. Whether she drove or Tristan had to drive because she was too tired, she always went home. The one exception was the night she had caught a cab and gone to stay at her grandparents because both her and Tristan had been too tired to drive to Stars Hollow.

But the night that Rory stayed Tristan tried to convince her to go home. And I knew then that the fight was about him.

Its not that Lorelai didn't like Tristan, she did, but she in no way trusted him.

I knew it grated on Rory, the whole trust issue, she thought that Lorelai should trust her, no matter who her boyfriend was I guess.

They very rarely fought about anything. Argued about where to eat or what movie to watch sure, but they never fought. But more and more Rory would show up at our house upset over something Lorelai had said or done. She and Tristan would go into his bedroom and close the door behind them.

Sometimes I could hear yelling, sometimes laughter. And she always came out and left before her curfew.

After the fight, it was a Friday, she came around to our house after school when Tristan was away.

I let her in as usual, but she didn't leave in time to make curfew as usual.

She stayed.

**

"Rory?" Jordan opened the door and took a step back. Rory knew she was a mess, but she didn't think she looked that bad. Surely red eyes weren't that scary.

"Tristan home yet?"

"Uh, no. Did you want to wait?" Rory nodded and stepped through the large door as Jordan stepped back to let her pass. "You want something to eat or drink?"

"Coffee?" Jordan smirked.

"Sure. You want to wait in the games room? I'll tell Donna to bring it up there."

Rory nodded and walked slowly up the stairs. She let herself into the room where the large screen TV was playing Dragonball Z and sunk into a window seat overlooking the back gardens. Jordan came in and slumped in front of the TV, not even batting an eyelid when the maid brought in Rory's coffee. An hour later his DVD had finished and Rory was asleep leaning against the window.

"Rory?" She woke to Jordan lightly shaking her shoulder. "You want me to call Tristan?"

She nodded and stretched. "Yeah. I'm gonna go lie down."

Jordan nodded and grabbed the phone as Rory left, walking down the hall to Tristan's bedroom. His bed was unmade, the covers thrown half off the bed, half on the floor. She kicked off her shoes and lay on his bed, pulling the covers over herself. She hated fighting with Lorelai and it didn't happen very often, but lately it was all they seemed to do.

She buried her face into Tristan's pillow, breathing in the comforting smell of him waiting for him to come to her.

She was just starting to drift off to sleep again when he came bounding through the door.

"You okay Mary?"

Rory felt her eyes tear up again and shook her head.

Tristan crawled onto the bed next to her and pulled her to him, tangling their arms and legs around each other and held her as she sobbed waiting until she calmed down.

"What happened?"

"We had another fight. A huge fight." Rory rolled her head into his hand that was smoothing her hair.

"About me?"

"No. Yes. Kind of, but not." She felt him tense beside her.

"What was it about then?"

"Sex." Tristan nodded. "It started off about you and sex and then it morphed into this big thing about her not trusting us and how I was going to screw everything up and become exactly what my grandmother-"

"Ror." Tristan cut off her mad babbling. "Start at the beginning. What happened?"

"She found the condoms." He nodded.

"But she knew we were having sex. She took you to the doctor to get your prescription for the pill herself."

She shrugged. "I think she was in denial. She didn't think we were but the half empty box of condoms-"

"Confirmed it."

"Yeah."

Tristan pulled her hands away from his shirt where her fingers had been balling the material up then smoothing it out again. Holding them against his chest he gave her forehead a light kiss. "Then what happened?"

"She lost it. Started yelling about how I was going to get pregnant and screw up my future and it was all your fault and then I started to yell back."

Tristan lifted a brow in surprise, usually Rory let everything bad Lorelai said about Tristan roll off her. He nodded at her to continue.

"I just got so angry at her, at all her double standards. She was having sex at fourteen you know. I wait until I'm seventeen, I wait until I'm in love, I make sure I'm safe. But she just goes on about how I'm going to live down to all grandma's expectations." Rory sniffed and buried her face in Tristan's chest for a moment before she pulled away to continue. "It's just, she cut me off from this huge part of life. Something I could have had a long time ago if she hadn't been spouting all her paranoia at me."

"What do you mean?"

"I ignored guys until I was fifteen. Then when I do notice them, one kiss and I run away scared. Because all my life all I've ever heard were the bad things. About teenage pregnancy and diseases, I heard the only person you can rely on is yourself, that guys just aren't trustworthy. She never told me how nice it was to just spend hours kissing, just because it felt nice to lie next to the person you're with and feel their lips on yours. She never told me that there's intimacy in laughing in the dark. She never told me about intimacy at all. She never told me that sex could be a good thing. That it could put a smile on my face that would last for days. All this crap from her about it and she can't even be in the same house as my dad without having sex with him!"

"Mary." Rory moved her head to meet Tristan's eyes.

Tristan's hand had moved under her shirt and rested comfortably on the dip of her waist. Rory moved her hand to his neck. "Just this you know, skin to skin contact? It feels good, it's comforting. But I never learned that from her. I had to wait for you, you of all people."

"Ror." He gave her a look.

"I know, I'm sorry. But you know what I mean! We were hardly what anyone would call friends to start with Tristan. She's my best friend, she's supposed to tell me everything. The good and the bad, I just spewed this all out at her. I was so angry. I called her heartless you know?" Rory's voice was strained and harsh as the argument ran through her mind again.

"Mary, you didn't mean it. Why don't I take you home and you can apologise?"

Rory sat up and turned her back to him. "But I did mean it Tristan. She said some awful things to me and I said some awful things back. I'm not going to apologise. Not today. I think we need a bit of a break, from each other."

He sat up and pulled her into his lap. "You're going to have to go home eventually."

"Not tonight, not yet."

He nodded. "Later then."

Rory nodded and leaned in against him, ducking her head under his chin letting him hold her.

**

Tristan asked her if she wanted him to take her home, or to her grandparents and for the first time she refused saying she wanted to stay here.

They argued about it in whispers.

But she stayed.

She stayed the whole weekend and didn't leave until Sunday afternoon. I know Tristan called Lorelai to let her know that she was ok because I over heard them.

He was going on about how he was just trying to do the right thing by Rory and she must have said something particularly nasty back to him because his face closed up and got that cold look that Dad got when he was really pissed off.

It was cool having Rory stay the weekend. She wore my clothes all weekend and made Tristan let me tag along when they went to the movies. She helped me do my homework and came to my soccer game to cheer me on.

We lost by a pathetic 14 goals and she took me to get ice cream.

Dad said it was like rewarding a puppy that had done a shit on the carpet, though in much nicer terms. Rory said it was just a game and that she just really liked ice cream.

It was always great to watch Dad and Rory argue, and it was even more fun to watch Tristan mope when she ignored him in favour of Dad or me.

Of course, she had to go home eventually and when she did, she didn't come back for weeks.