a/n: thanks for all the reviews. and once again, i will apologize for the last one being so short. but i tried to make this one long to make up for it. sorry!
Disclaimer: I don't own gg or the characters. Only my darling little nurse Sandra.
Chapter 12: A Little Stranger
"Lorelai, go check on your daughter. She's been upstairs for ten minutes!"
"Rory's a big girl Mom. She can find her way back downstairs. I'm sure she's not lost."
"Lorelai, go!"
With one longing look at her chicken, Lorelai got up and went to the stairs to find Rory. Tristan sat at his spot, pushing his chicken around his plate. Over the past two months he had spent every Friday night dinner with the Gilmore's. Usually he enjoyed the way Emily and Lorelai bickered, but today he was too worried about Rory to have fun. She had excused herself almost ten minutes ago to use the restroom. But Tristan knew she was up there throwing up again. It had been two weeks since their night of 'wallowing,' and she hadn't gotten any better. When Rory hadn't gotten better after a day or so, Tristan figured she just had a stomach bug. But it had been two whole weeks without improvement. He wished he were the one who went to check on her.
Things between Rory and Lorelai hadn't gotten any better over the two weeks. She knew that the relationship between 'Bob' and Rory was over, but that didn't change the fact that she hated how much time Rory spent with Tristan.
"RORY! COME DOWN AND FINISH DINNER!" Lorelai yelled from the base of the staircase. Tristan watched Emily cringe. Lorelai came back in and sat down.
"That was completely unnecessary Lorelai," Emily said, cutting her chicken. "I could have done that myself. I asked you to go upstairs and find Rory, not walk five steps and yell like a heathen."
"My chicken is getting cold. I'm not going to go up there and spend half an hour looking for her. She obviously doesn't want to come back down. She probably climbed out my window like I used to do."
"I doubt that," Emily says. "Rory has more manners than you. I don't know how she managed to come by them since you obviously didn't teach them to her."
Tristan couldn't help but let out a snicker. Lorelai sent him a death glare. His heart sank. Another black mark on his name.
"She obviously has less manners than you think or she would've been back down here already," Lorelai pouted.
"Rory's not being rude, she's sick," Tristan defended quickly.
"Rory's sick?" Emily asked. "I didn't know that. She should've stayed home and rested."
Lorelai was looking at Tristan. "Sick? For how long?"
"A couple of weeks."
Lorelai stared past Tristan, thinking, calculating. "I wonder why she didn't tell me."
"It's no big deal," he said quickly. "Probably just a touch of the flu. It's flu season."
"Flu season is in the winter," Emily said.
"The flu isn't strictly seasonal," he answered. "It's all year long."
"Sorry about that," Rory said, coming back into the dining room. She was wearing a forced smile as she walked back to her seat next to Tristan. She pulled out her chair but hesitated to sit. She looked around at all the faces watching her expectantly. "Actually, can I talk to Tristan for a second?"
"It can't wait?" Emily asked.
"I'm sorry Grandma, but no."
"Go, go. Your mother and I will just sit here and argue as usual."
"You really won't be missing anything. I'll make a remark about the new maid, and then I'll compliment the chicken. She'll then accuse me of lying about the chicken and being rude…"Lorelai joked as the two walked out towards the back door. Though she was joking, Rory couldn't help but see the knowing look Lorelai was giving her.
They stepped outside into the back patio. Rory sat down on the garden wall and Tristan joined her after closing the French doors.
"Are you okay? You were up there for a long time."
Rory shook her head and sighed.
"Ror, you should really go to the doctor and get checked out. You've been sick for weeks. It has to be something more than the flu."
"It is."
"Did you already go to the doctor?"
She shook her head again and turned towards him. She sighed deeply. "Tris, there's a very real possibility that I might be pregnant."
Her words took a few seconds to take meaning in Tristan's mind. Once they did, a sense of panic spread throughout him.
"You said you were safe."
"We were. But you know, you can't always depend on that all the time. Things can go wrong."
He stood up and started pacing. "Have you told him? Is he going to take responsibility, help raise the child?"
"Tristan! Will you calm down and sit? No, I haven't told him. You're the first person I've told. I don't even know for sure yet. I haven't even bought a pregnancy test. But it makes sense. I've been throwing up so much in the past few weeks and I haven't had my… well, I just know. While I was upstairs I made a doctor's appointment for Monday morning."
"Can I come with you?"
She looked at his anxious face. "Tristan, you don't have to."
"Please. You need someone to be there with you for when the news comes. Unless you're going to go with Lorelai."
Rory shook her head. "I'll tell her when I know for sure. But I don't think I can sit in the doctor's office and listen to her lecturing. Its nerve racking enough without her there. I'll handle the lecture better if I'm at my own home."
Tristan reached out and took her hand in his. "Please let me come Mare, you shouldn't go alone."
"Thank you," she whispered. She leaned her head against his shoulder, grateful to be sharing the burden of her secret with him.
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He accompanied her to the doctors, only to wait in the waiting room for over an hour while they performed tests on her. Then she finally emerged with only the announcement that the doctor would be in touch with the results in the next several days.
They had thought Saturday and Sunday had been hard to get through, just two days of anxious waiting. Harder still was the wait from Monday afternoon until Thursday morning when they finally heard from Dr. Carey.
Tristan was sitting in Rory's living room when her cell phone rang. Rory was in the bathroom, vomiting again. She yelled at him to answer it.
"This is Sandra from Dr. Carey's office," a woman said when he answered the phone. "Is Rory Gilmore available?"
"No she's not, can I take a message?"
"With whom am I speaking?" the nurse asked.
"Tristan Dugrey."
"What relation are you to Miss Gilmore?"
"She's my fiancée," he answered without thinking.
"Well then, congratulations Mr. Dugrey. You're going to be a daddy!"
a/n: did you catch that? We all knew that rory was pregnant, but Tristan is going to be a daddy? Hmmm, I wonder how that will work. Well actually I know, and the only way I'll tell you is if you review. Doesn't that purple button look so tempting?
