AN: I'm glad everyone liked the last chapter, I wanted to throw a little twist – c'mon you can't expect a perfect ride for them.

The wedding was only three days away and Rory still wasn't up to helping very much. Everything dealing with love was only bringing her further down. Jess was there for her whenever he needed and so were Luke and Lorelai although they were very busy.

"Luke, the chuppah."

"What?"

"I still have the chuppah; that you built when I was going to marry Max. We should use it for our wedding."

"Lor, I built that when you were going to marry someone else!"

"But you built it for me because you cared about me."

"I loved you."

"And I love you."

The two shared a passionate kiss in the privacy of the Gilmore's backyard knowing Rory wasn't going to be around. They were so happy together that they couldn't wait for the wedding to be over so they could officially be each other's. Emily had even warmed up to the idea of Luke when she saw her daughter happier than she'd ever been. When Luke was with Nicole or even Rachel, none of these feelings existed…same for Lorelai with Max, Alex…Christopher.

Paris and Tristan sat in the living room of the Gellar estate trying to figure out why Tristan was so upset. Rory had just ignored him and wouldn't answer a single phone call from him or Paris. The two were completely confused especially about the rose.

"Who left her that rose? Paris, god dammit, I can't take this anymore."

"Tristan, calm down."

"Calm down? How the fuck can I calm down at a time like this, I love her. I swore to myself I'd never fall in love, even in high school she got to me!"

Tristan's yelling finally ceased when he decided to lie down on the couch and his pain finally lulled him to sleep. Paris took that opportunity to call Rory, maybe this time she'd listen.

"Hello?" Jess answered the phone.

"Jess, it's Paris, can I talk to Rory?"

"I don't think she's really up for it."

"Can you please ask her…tell her it's important."

"Does this have anything to do with Tristan?"

"Why?"

"If it does I'm going to hang up the phone right now."

"Jess, don't…plea-" Jess hung up the phone before Paris was even able to finish her sentence. The last thing Rory needed to hear about at this point was Tristan, the heartache was killing her and romance filled the air of their house.

Later on that same day Jess and Rory were walking to Luke's when they saw a familiar car drive by. Both tried to ignore it, but the tears in Rory's eyes said everything. She wasn't ready to face him; he made her feel so inadequate. Jess simply put his arm around Rory to comfort her and led her into the diner. With a single look at Rory, Luke gave her a big cup of coffee. He wasn't sure exactly what happened – but knew that it had to do with Tristan.

When Tristan left Paris's house something made him drive towards Stars Hollow. He didn't even realize where he was going until he got there and saw Rory walking with Jess. They'd become close, but he didn't realize it was close enough for Jess to have his arm around Rory. The jealousy was starting to take over so Tristan circles the town a couple of times only to be stared at by everyone then headed back to Hartford.

The drive home seemed to take longer than usual; then again he didn't want to go home. Tristan wanted to be with Rory, to hold her again and find out what he did and how he could get her back. There had to be something that was bothering her; something that made her run off and not want to talk to him. Everything had been so perfect then mere hours later his entire world fell apart.

That night Rory couldn't sleep, she found herself just staring at the ceiling, crying. Why did he come here, she thought, why does he want to talk to me? Jess heard sobs from his room so he went to see what was wrong with Rory. It was almost as if she didn't notice him come in the room, she made no acknowledgements. He couldn't stand seeing her like that; whether or not he'd accepted being just friends didn't change how much he loved her. He wanted to kill Tristan; there was no reason to hurt Rory like that.

"Ror…" She didn't answer, just continued to look at the ceiling. Jess moved over to her bed and sat down next to her. She looked up at him then found herself in his arms crying. It was too much to take; Tristan was just making things so much worse.

"I should've listened to my instincts, Jess. I was a game to him all along."

"Don't blame yourself, Rory," he responded, stroking her hair.

"There are so many people who love you…you have your mom, Luke, Lane…me."

She looked at him and saw the same look as she saw in Tristan the night he said he loved her. It was a look she no longer trusted because it had betrayed her. Jess ran out of ideas because talking to Rory didn't seem to work very well. She just cried in his arms until she fell asleep. Jess didn't want to leave so he just stayed there to comfort Rory as she wept in her sleep.

The next morning Lorelai walked in to find Jess asleep in Rory's room. She walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder; she didn't want to wake Rory.

"What happened?" she whispered.

"I heard her crying; she blames herself for trusting him. I want to help her, Lorelai."

"Give me some time with her when she wakes up."

Lorelai was warming up to Jess especially since he was living with her and the person that her daughter confided in. Jess was no longer the bad boy that stole and broke Rory's heart; instead he was the one helping to patch it up. He wasn't fighting anyone for her affections and Rory truly cared about him. Lorelai would never do anything to hurt her daughter and disliking Jess would be one of those things. Not only would it hurt Rory, it would hurt the other person she loved most…Luke. Luke and Jess had become so close that Lorelai knew that if she didn't warm up to Jess, it would kill him.

Rory woke up in tears after a dream about Tristan coming back to her. Lorelai heard the tears and quickly ran to her daughter's side; no questions were asked, she just held her and let her cry. After a few minutes, Rory realized she was sick of being the damsel in distress and she was just going to get over Tristan; he wasn't worth her tears.

Later on that day Rory was home alone while everyone else was finalizing things for the wedding the next day. She was remembering the past few nights when Lorelai had been sneaking on her wedding dress and that made her realize the wedding was really going to happen. Everything was the way it wasn't the day before her wedding to Max. Rory's thoughts were interrupted by the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's been a while."

"Yeah, I'm sorry…I just haven't been up for talking."

"You left the dorm so quickly, what happened?" Paris was concerned as well as curious about what went along with the rose.

"There was a note from Tristan. He won his little game."

"Rory, are you sure?"

"It was his handwriting, Paris."

Paris was left speechless as Rory told her that she had to go. Tristan didn't mention anything about a note, but he was too upset to really say anything. Someone had been trying to break up Tristan and Rory and Paris had a pretty good idea of who it was.

Lorelai was at the Dragonfly in the kitchen where Sookie was trying to kick her out.

"I can't cook for your wedding with you here."

"Yes you can, Sookie, I've had everything you've ever made."

"But the menu is a surprise."

"Usually the bride picks out the menu, ya know."

"I don't care…go," Luke walks in to find the two arguing, "Luke, take her out of here."

He gladly obliges and walks his fiancée out of the kitchen and towards the honeymoon suite.

"So…show me where we're going to be staying after this little wedding of ours."

Lorelai led him to the room where she'd put her parents during the test room and shows him all the features of the room.

"Luke, are you sure leaving Rory and Jess in the house alone is a good idea?"

"They're friends; it's nothing to worry about. It seems like she needs him lately."

"I know, but…" Lorelai's words were stopped when Luke pulled her closer to him and in for a kiss. The kiss slowly became more passionate until the two found themselves on the bed. Luke unbuttoned Lorelai's shirt and began to slowly kiss the nape of her neck and lower to her breasts. The two were getting very caught up in the moment when the door opened.

"Lorelai…oh my God, I didn't need to see that," it was Michel looking for Lorelai for business matters.

"Michel! Umm…what do you need?"

"Never mind, I must be going now."

He left the room, but the moment had been ruined for Luke and Lorelai. Luke took Lorelai's hand and led her back to the main building of the inn.

Tristan arrived back at the DuGrey mansion and went straight up to his room to figure out how to get Rory back. When he got there, he saw that there was someone in his bed. As he moved closer the person lifted her head…it was Taryn.

"I thought you might need some comforting," was all she had to say.

Tristan looked at her; it was the first time she'd been around since he and Rory first got together.

"How did you know?"

"Noah told me…your little Mary broke up with you. Maybe you need more of a woman," she said seductively.

Tristan remembered the many phone calls with Noah in the past month and all Noah could talk about was how Tristan just needed to get Rory in bed. He wondered what Taryn knew and why she was in his bed.

"Taryn, I'm not in the mood."

"You're Tristan DuGrey, and Tristan DuGrey is always in the mood for sex."

"I'm not the person you knew – I'm the Tristan DuGrey who fell in love."

Taryn wasn't going to give up; Tristan was going to be hers.