Chapter 2: It Was You

[Rory]

Rory woke up the next morning and got dressed and made some coffee. Images of last night were flashing in her brain. Instead of feeling heart broken and depressed, she felt only anger.

She couldn't believe that not only had Noah lied to her and slept with someone behind her back, but that he didn't feel guilty about it at all. And to say that to pay for everything was her job literally made her see red.

Noah only married Rory so he could mooch off her. In fact, while they were dating, Rory always paid for the checks when they went to dinner, but she never saw it because she was too in love. At least I thought I was, Rory thought.

"Hey, kiddo," Lorelai said. "You want to talk about it?"

"I guess so," Rory said, sitting down at the table. "So, I'm coming home from work and I walk inside and I hear laughing. I walk in and Noah is in bed with this woman who was wearing my robe."

"The blue terrycloth robe that we bought in Europe?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes!"

"Oh, my god!"

"I know!"

"So, did he apologize over and over? Was he begging for forgiveness?"

"No! He just told me I was being rude!"

"Bastard!"

"And then we got into a fight and then I walked out."

"Good job."

"Thank you."

"How do you feel about all this?"

Rory never pondered that before. Now that she thought about it, she was glad to be away from that moocher.

"Upset, but relieved," Rory said. "I mean, I thought he loved me, but once I get that divorce, I never have to see or support him again."

"Honey," Lorelai said. "No offense, but if you are upset, your not really showing it."

"Hey, if we had a gun in the drawer and we were on the set of Chicago I would've shot them both."

"And had been in jail singing 'The Cell Block Tango.'"

"But, since Noah and I graduated, I have been completely miserable. I want to start my life over and forget I ever met Noah."

"That's a good attitude. You have been miserable. And I am glad that your not upset about it."

"I am upset about it, but I'm trying to be optimistic."

"So, how long are you going to stay here for?"

"Until I find a place. Do you mind?"

"No, not at all."

"By the way, I'm moving my stuff out today, so I can't come to work."

"Again, that's okay."

Rory gave her mother a peck on the cheek and grabbed a jacket and headed out the door. She wanted to get her stuff out of that apartment ASAP and she wanted to start now. She had to go to Luke's to persuade him to give her his truck.

"Bye, Mom," She said. "See you later."

"Bye," Lorelai said.

When Rory opened the front door, she ran into Dean who was standing with his fist in mid-air.

[Dean]

"Um, I was just about to knock," Dean said.

"Well, you don't have to so you could put your fist down," Rory joked.

Dean lowered his fist.

"I just.....you know.........came by to see if you were okay," Dean said. "You looked pretty out of shape last night."

"I'm fine," Rory said. "Thanks for checking up. I have to move my stuff out today.........Hey, wait a minute. Do you still have the truck?"

"Yeah," Dean answered.

"You think you could let me use it?" Rory asked.

Dean had a weird thing about his truck. He felt weird about someone else driving his truck, but he really wanted to help Rory out. Especially, after the way he saw her last night and he hadn't seen her in a while.

"Uh, sure," Dean said. "Do you want an extra moving man? Meaning, 'do you want my help?'"

"That'll be great," Rory said.

"I'll go get the truck," Dean said.

Dean returned five minutes later with the truck and a half hour later, they were outside a brick apartment building. Again, the car ride was silent and awkward. He didn't know what to say to her after they had sex. They agreed never to see each other again, but he broke that code and he didn't know what to do. By the time they were there, Rory was already out of the truck and walking towards the building with empty cardboard boxes by the time Dean had turned off the ignition.

"You coming?" Rory called over her shoulder.

"I'll be right there," Dean said, getting out of the car.

[Rory]

Rory didn't think she'd have enough guts to go inside the house, but surprisingly, she had no problem with it. The image of Noah in another woman's arms didn't bug her as much. It was the things that he said to her that really burned her up. She almost felt sorry for the woman. He would end up mooching off her, too.

"So, where do you want to start?" Dean asked, following her inside the apartment.

"The bedroom," Rory said. "If you here a lot of ecstatic moaning, then take the garden hose and spray the couple making those noises."

"Could the garden hose actually reach up here?" Dean asked.

"I never tried," Rory said. "But, I would make it reach up here."

Rory opened the closet and immediately emptied out it's contents. On the floor in the closet, was the blue robe. Rory suddenly felt disgusted. She couldn't take this now. Not after another woman had been wearing nothing under it.

"Are you packing that?" Dean asked.

"No," Rory responded.

Rory wanted to talk to Dean about it, but she couldn't. At least not now. She wanted to stay focused until her possessions were out of the apartment.

There was fifteen minutes of silence as Rory and Dean packed up all of Rory's possessions in the bedroom. More silence followed as they packed up her bathroom stuff. It was awkward. Really, really, awkward. Rory did miss Dean after they had decided not to see each other. She thought about him a lot. Until I met Noah, Rory thought.

"So, you take the living room and I'll take the kitchen," Rory said.

"Okay," Dean said.

"And all those books," Rory said, pointing at the bookcase. "The only book that's not mine is the Tom Arnold biography and the Archie Comics."

"Wow," Dean joked. "All books except one are yours."

"Funny boy," Rory responded.

Dean immediately went to work on the books, while Rory went into the kitchen and packed up all the silverware and the coffeemaker. After the joke that Dean made, Rory felt some of the awkwardness slip.

"I've been so caught up in my own problems I forgot to ask about you," Rory said. "How's the missus? I mean, are you still with her?"

"We actually followed through with the divorce," Dean said from the other room.

Rory was so shocked she stumbled over the packed boxes on the kitchen floor. Dean had said four years ago that it was over and Rory convinced him to give it another shot. No one told her that they followed through. Was it because of her? Did Lindsay know?

"What was that?" Dean asked.

"I tripped, but I'm okay," Rory answered. "When did you guys get divorced?"

"A week after we.......you know," Dean said.

"Did she find out?" Rory asked.

"About what?"

"About the stupid thing we did."

"What stupid thing?"

"The thing we did four years ago."

"Oh........yeah, she did."

Rory froze where she was. She never thought that Dean would tell her. Horrible images ran through Rory's head. Screaming, punching, and Lindsay plotting to kill Rory.

"How did she take it?" Rory asked.

"Not good," Dean said. "But, not as bad as Kathy Bates in Misery."

"What happened?"

"She slapped me, then she screamed at me. Then we both cried and then we signed the papers and she went to her parents for a while."

"I'm sorry," Rory said.

"It's okay," Dean said.

An awkward moment of silence passed.

"Hey, I'm done with the books, what else do you want me to pack?" Dean asked.

Rory leaned over the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room.

"Move on to movies," Rory said. "Once, again. All mine. Noah never really watched anything except the sports movies and ESPN."

"And porn," Dean said, taking a box off the shelf.

"What?" Rory ran over to Dean.

"This is a porno movie," Dean said, showing her the box.

Rory grabbed the box from Dean and she saw a nude couple locked in passionate embrace on the cover.

"That sick, sick, sicko!" Rory exclaimed, shoving the tape back on the shelf. "Everything except Sea Biscuit, The Legend of Bagger Pants, the three Air Buds, The Mighty Ducks, and all the stupid pornography movies is mine."

Rory went back to the kitchen and finished packing. When Rory packed the last of her boxes, she saw Dean staring at a picture of her and Noah on their wedding day.

"Is this him?" Dean asked, pointing at the picture.

"Yeah," Rory said.

"I know him," Dean said. "He was Lindsay's friend from some summer camp they went to. They always talked every day. He visited sometimes."

"You're kidding," Rory said.

"No, I'm not," Dean said.

Rory notice Dean's grip on the picture frame tighten on the picture frame until his knuckles turned white.

"I think we're done here," Rory said. "Everything else are little sports figurines."

"You're not taking any furniture?" Dean asked.

"No," answered Rory. "I don't need it and if I do, I'm going to Ikea and not the Salvation Army where we got the furniture."

[Dean]

Dean and Rory walked into a small coffee shop that looked like a living room. People were talking quietly. Dean had never been here before, but according to Rory, it was her favorite place to eat and get coffee in Hartford. It was like a sophisticated version of Luke's, except Rory preferred Luke's.

"This is my table," Rory said, sitting down at a table by the window with green velvet armchairs. "It's my favorite. I like looking out the window and watching the action going on outside."

"Action?" Dean asked, sitting down across from her.

"People walking," Rory said. "I guess I just like watching other people being that when I come here, I'm usually alone."

"I'm sorry," Dean said.

"It's okay," Rory said. "It's nice to have company for a change."

After giving their orders to the waitress, they sat in silence for a while.

"So, when did you marry Noah?" Dean asked.

Rory sighed.

"A year ago during Christmas break," Rory answered. "He was nice to me and he proposed and I was too in love to notice that there was a jerk hidden under the Matt Damon clone."

"Good reference."

"He's not that cute. Anyways, once we graduated I ended up working at the inn with my mother paying all the bills while he sat at home doing nothing or going out. We were always fighting about one thing."

"You should've just left him right there."

"I know. I wanted to, but I couldn't. He would always send me on guilt trips so I would think twice about leaving."

"What brought your departure last night?"

"Last night I caught him with another woman, which you already know."

"Noah's a jackass."

"No kidding."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay."

"I could've done something about it. I know he's a moocher. If I had known you were dating him, let alone marrying him, I would've warned you."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have believed you. Besides, we weren't suposed to talk to each other."

Dean sighed and took a swig of his water. He couldn't believe that someone took advantage of Rory. He knew Noah was the kind of person who took advantage of people, but he never thought that Rory would be one of them. He should've put Rory on a pedestal and worshipped her or something, Dean thought.

"I'm completely disgusted," Dean said. "And I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Rory said. "At least you and I have another thing in common besides music interests."

"What's that?" Dean asked.

"Failed marriages."

"Lot's of people have failed marriages."

"Maybe we can start a club."

"And have a big screen TV."

"And a huge refrigerator to keep all the junk food in."

A few hours later, Dean drove Rory back to her mom's house and helped her unload her stuff. It was amazing how some of the awkwardness melted away over lunch.

"So, are there any little Deans?" Rory asked.

"'Little Deans?'" Dean repeated.

"Kids."

"No."

"Oh."

"Are there any little Rorys?"

"Nope."

Rory put a box in her old room and sighed and sat down on the bed.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked.

"I'm not sorry that I'm getting a divorce," Rory said. "I just thought he was nice, you know? I thought I loved him. He was nice when I met him and really sweet. And he wouldn't make me do anything I didn't want to do until I was ready to move up a level. Oh, god! I can't believe I fell for that!"

Dean sat down on the bed next to her. For some reason, it bothered him when she talked about that stuff. He didn't know why, but it did. But, he wanted to be here for her and that meant hearing about her ex.

"You want hug?" Dean asked.

"That'll be great," Rory sighed.

Rory rested her head against Dean's chest and he gave her a quick hug so it wouldn't be weird for either one of them.

"I guess not all guys can be nice and not moochers like you," Rory said.

Dean chuckled at the compliment.

"Not all of them are," Dean said. "But, I'm not the only one. You'll see."

"I hope so," Rory said. "But, then again you're one of a kind."

There was another awkward moment of silence. Maybe I should go, Dean thought.

"I don't mean to kick you out, but I'm really tired," Rory said. "I was too angry to sleep last night."

That was his cue.

"Okay," Dean said. "I can let myself out."

"No, I'll walk you to the door," Rory said, getting up. "Thanks for helping me out today."

"No problem," Dean said, opening the front door. "Listen, if you need anything, let me know."

"Thanks Dean," Rory said. "I'm really glad I ran into you last night even if you still have that Dudley Moore haircut."

Dean chuckled. At least her sense of humor wasn't robbed.

"I thought you liked it," Dean said. "You said it was a 10."

"No, I do like it," Rory said. "It really Bedazzled me."

Dean chuckled again.

"I'll see you later," Rory said.

"Yeah, later," Dean said.

Dean got in his car and drove out of the driveway. Rory was a sweet girl who wouldn't even hurt a fly and his ex-wife's friend took advantage of her. He wanted to drive into Hartford and beat Noah's brains out, but he decided against it. It wasn't really his problem.

The best he could do was be there for Rory and be the friend that she needed. This was going to be one of the toughest parts of her life. He had already gone through the whole divorce thing. He could really help her through this, despite their past.

Suddenly, a huge thought struck him which he never really dwelled on until now. They weren't supposed to see or speak to each other anymore. He broke the agreement that they made four years ago. All he could hope was that there wouldn't be a bad ending.

"It was you

who showed me I got a friend in you

I always knew

that you'd be right here for me

and it was you

who stuck with me

when the skies were blue

and it was you

who stood by my side

It was you" – Ashley Ballard

To Be Continued.......

A/N: I was suffering from writer's block so that's why it sucks. Chapter 3 is coming soon.