Chapter 5 - Roses are red, violets are blue, forever, never and Mary too.

"Have a good day" said Luke as he dropped Rory off outside the mansion that was Chilton. He had insisted on taking her, he wanted to make sure she was ok.

"Cya later" she said stepping out of the car. She waved to her little sister who was sitting in her car seat in the back.

Here she was back again, here for her final year at Chilton. She crossed the courtyard and entered the huge building in search of her new locker.

"Hey Mary" Rory spun around as she heard the dreaded and familiar voice of Tristan Dugrey.

"What are you doing here?" she asked confused. Wasn't Tristan supposed to still be in military school?

"I'm back. Did you miss me?" he asked, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

Rory quickly recovered from the shock of seeing Tristan again.

"No" she slammed her locker shut and walked off in the opposite direction. Tristan watched her, still smiling widely. Oh it was good to be back.

I can't believe he's back! Him of all people! Argh he is just about the last person I wanted to see at the moment!

She walked into her 1st period English Literature class, neglecting to check what teacher she would have this year, she was surprised when she saw Max Medina standing at the front of the classroom. It wasn't to be totally unexpected, he was an English Literature teacher, and she was taking English Literature. He smiled politely at her as she crossed the room taking a seat near the window. More people arrived and the class soon started.

"Hello class. My name is Mr Medina. I have taught many of you before…" he continued, saying all the usual sort of things teachers say to a new class at the start of the year. Rory wondered if he knew, or if he even cared. She buried those thoughts, she didn't want his sympathy, he might have once almost been her stepfather but he was still her teacher, and she didn't want him feeling sorry for her.

Her mind wondered all day, in all of her classes, not paying attention to anything. The knowledge she had once welcome so much no longer seemed…important or relevant. She was jolted out of her thoughts as she walked into last period science, hearing the familiar voice of Tristan Dugrey. Rory made her way to the opposite side of the room, avoiding his gaze.

"Class, we will be starting a project today, that is due on Friday. You will be working in pairs…" the teacher drowned on about the project. Rory tunned out, only listening in again when she was assigning partners. "Gellar, Williams" "Gilmore, Dugrey". Rory's head shot up at the sound of her and Tristan's last names in the same sentence. She was about protest but was cut off as the teacher started to talk again. She sunk back into her chair. Today was not a good day.

Not for the first time today Rory was confronted at her locker by Tristan Dugrey. She attempted to ignore him, pulling books out of her locker.

"So we should meet up" he said leaning against the locker next to hers.

"What?" she said turning to him

"Well the projects due on Friday, so we should probably work on it" he said his hands in his pockets.

"Oh yeah" she said realising he was right.

She continued taking books out of her locker and putting them into her bag.

"So do you want to meet up after school on Wednesday?" he asked tentatively.

She turned to him, taking him it fully. His face seemed to have matured a little since his time away at military school.

"Wednesdays fine. Where do you want to do it? … I mean do the project" Rory stuttered slightly, embarrassed. Tristan chuckled slightly.

"Well my house isn't exactly the greatest place to be right now" he said looking down.

"So my place then", he nodded.

"Cya later Mary" he walked away with a smirk on his face.

That afternoon Rory walked out of school, grateful the day was over. She was surprised when she saw her grandfather standing out in the car park waiting for her. She rushed towards him, hugging him tight.

"Whoa" he said a little overcome, but he soon smiled at the girl's affection.

"I'm happy to see you too" he said still hugging her.

Richard and Rory spent the afternoon together, discussing books and school and anything. Rory felt happy for the first time in a long time, silently thanking her grandfather for not bringing up her mum, it was something she just didn't want to talk about.

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It was Luke's first day looking after Rosey by himself, it had gone fairly well. She was currently asleep and Luke was tiding up the lounge room a bit. Cleaning had been kind of neglected, and it was becoming difficult to get to the couch from the front door, which is never a good sign. As he put the couch cushions back on, his noticed some shopping bags that had been shoved until a table. He got up and walked over to them, pulling them out he realised they were the bags he had been given at the hospital. The bags with Lorelai's shopping in, from before the accident. He took the bags over to the couch and sat down. In the first one was a little pink dress, obviously bought for Rosey. Lorelai had always said she knew the baby was going to be a girl, women's intuition or something. In the 2nd bag was a purple top, Lorelai had bought for herself. But in the last bag, the smallest of all, was a tiny blue box. Luke lifted it out carefully, examining. He slowly opened it, inside was a ring, a small silver band. He took out the ring, engraved of the inside were the words.

I love you. Luke and Lorelai Forever.

Those last words 'forever' burned in his brain. There was no more forever, forever had gone the minute that car crashed and her pulse went dead. He threw the ring and the box back in the bag, and collected the bags shoving them deep into the cupboard in the hall. It couldn't look at them, he couldn't think about her. It made him crazy, sad and angry all at the same time, knowing he was never going to see her again. Never. You think Forever sounds like a long time, Never sounds like an eternity.

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"I'm home!" Rory called as she entered the house that night, her spirits being lifted after spending the afternoon with her Grandfather. She walked into the lounge room and found Luke fast asleep on the couch. Smiling to herself she picked up a blanket of the end of the couch laying it over him. She heard her sister crying and went to the nursery to check on her. Her crying stoped as soon as she saw Rory, who walked over and picked up her little sister. She took her sister to her room, laying her down at the top of the bed, surrounding with pillows. She rummaged around under her bed until she found what she was looking for. It was an old photo album, she cuddled up next to her little sister who sat contently sucking on her dummy. Rory opened the album on the first page was a picture of herself when she was five.

"See there Rosey that's me when I was 5" She turned the page, and there was a picture of her and her mum. Rory faltered a bit, but soon continued.

"And that is a picture of me and your mum, Lorelai the 1st, well actually Lorelai 2nd. You are Lorelai the 4th " she said smiling down at her sister.

" And here is picture of Luke, or Daddy as you would call him and Mum" Rory chuckled at the thought of someone calling Luke, Daddy.

"Now heres a picture of Mum with you inside of her, you see her tummy sticking out, that's you inside" she said playfully poking Rosey's stomach, who then for the 1st time let out a little baby smile.

"You smiled!" she exclaimed. Rory put down the album and gave her a hug.

"She smiled" she said, that little baby's smile making her feel happy.