AN: It's been a little crazy—it's finals week. So, with one down and one to go—here's my break from studying.

The sun shone brightly around her, warming her bare shoulders and arms. Big Ben stretched overhead, just behind her. Though the large clock was what she'd come to focus on, it wasn't the case at the moment. Right now it was just a spot on the face of the earth, somewhere else she couldn't escape her life.

"Rory, please, consider what you're doing."

His hands moved to her sun-freckled shoulders, as his urgency to be the only thing in her world grew.

"I have considered it, Logan. Do you think this was easy for me?"

She tried to avert her eyes from him, but he seemed to be everywhere, encompassing her.

"I'll move here, I'll take the semester off."

"My being here has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me; I love you!"

"No, you don't," she protested, pushing her palms into his chest as hard as she could, but he continued to hold steadily onto her.

"Yes, I do," the sincerity made her freeze and look up only to find Tristan's blue eyes staring deeply into her own.

"But, I," she fumbled as his hands slid down her back, moving lightly until they came to rest just above her hips.

"Why don't you want me?" he questioned her, hope and confusion filling his voice.

Her cell phone began to ring, and she desperately wished it would stop. He looked down sadly towards her pocket that she'd shoved it into.

"I have to get that," she began to defend the action she dreaded.

"Why won't you just give this a chance? He doesn't make you happy. If he did, you wouldn't be here with me," the familiar frustration of his tone made her heart ache.

RING, RING!

She sat up suddenly, her hand reaching out quickly and instinctively for her cell phone on her nightstand. Her legs were tangled in the top sheet and locks of damp hair clung to her neck and forehead. She tried to calm her erratic breathing before she answered.

"Hello?"

"You've got to stop leaving this state! Every time you do, I start having bizarro-land, Anne Heche in Fresno kind of dreams!"

"Mom?"

"I'm losing my mind, luckily it's only when I sleep, so I'm going to have to stop sleeping. That's it. I'll stop—or take really quick catnaps during the day, you know, so I'm not actually out long enough to dream."

"That sounds like an excellent plan."

"You have to come back. Mommy's psyche needs you," she complained.

"Or you could just tell me about your dream," she suggested, getting up to retrieve a bottle of water. Perhaps hearing her mother's unsettling dream would help her forget her own.

"Okay, I was at the Inn, behind the desk, and Luke comes rushing in," her voice assumed the story-telling tone.

"I've never seen Luke rush," Rory mused.

"You've never seen Luke do a lot of things," she hinted.

"Ew, okay, you know what, I can hang up and leave you to your freaky dreams," she warned.

"Okay, okay. Fine. Anyway, he came rushing up to me and tells me that my house burned down. Something about Taylor mandating that all stoves be evaluated for efficiency, and when they lit the pilot light, it caught fire, and the whole house burned down."

"Wow, we really need a better fire department in town," Rory interjected.

"I'm not finished."

"I didn't think you were."

"What, that isn't weird enough?"

"Our stove might blow up if expected to work efficiently. It's sort of testy that way."

"That's true. But that wasn't the weird part anyway. The weird part was, Luke was excited. Very excited. Through the roof excited."

"About your house burning down? Why?"

"Because, that meant he could have me move in with him. To the teeny, tiny office apartment."

"Yeah, 'cause that would happen," Rory scoffed.

"I know, and I was telling him this, and all of a sudden we're yelling at each other about Costco trips and socks in the oven," she rambled for a moment then took a breath. "Then, he broke up with me, and I had to sleep in the gazebo."

"That would never happen—someone else would take you in. Like Babette," she insisted.

"Rory!"

"You aren't going to break up again. You aren't going to have to live in Luke's teeny, tiny apartment. Though I would suggest never going to Costco together," she wrinkled her nose at the thought.

"This isn't funny!"

"Mom, it's early, and you aren't the only one having weird dreams."

"You're having weird dreams, too?"

"Wait, what time is it there?"

"Four in the morning."

"Are you at home?"

"Not exactly."

"Where are you?"

"In the diner."

"At four in the morning?"

"Well, I stayed at Luke's and I didn't want him to hear me freaking out, so I came down here!"

"Okay, Mom, obviously your dream was telling you that you are afraid of moving in with Luke because you've never had to do that, live with someone else."

"Yeah, but did my house have to burn down?" she sniffed.

"Look, if you're so concerned about it, talk to Luke. He'll make you feel better."

"But, he's a boy. I'm not sure I can live with a boy."

"Maybe he doesn't want that, either."

Rory heard the silence over the line. The absence of a comeback worried her.

"Mom?"

"What if he doesn't?" she sounded really upset now. Not just freaked, but terrified.

"Mom, calm down. This is Luke. He'd do anything to make you happy, as long as you can make up your mind about what that is."

"Yeah. You're right. How are you always right?"

"I have experience in your dream-world."

"I should be helping you, too. Want to tell me your dream?"

"No. Mine was, nothing. I barely remember it," she lied.

"Was it about Logan?"

Rory bit her lip, not wanting to admit it. She'd called the relationship off; she wasn't supposed to be letting him slip into her mind, even unconsciously. Besides, had the dream really been about Logan? It certainly didn't seem like at the end, and that just confused her even more. She'd had a good time with Tristan last night, but it was clear that neither of them wanted anything more than friendship. They were just old friends.

"Sort of."

"Oh, honey. This must be rough on you. Have you talked to him yet?"

"No. Not yet. Listen, I need to go, I'm meeting a friend for coffee. And you should get back to bed before Luke wakes up."

"Yeah. I'll talk to you later?"

"Definitely. Night, Mom."

"Morning, honey," she giggled, and then the sound of the dial tone hit Rory's ear. She closed her phone and looked around her room. She'd sat back on top of the covers as she listened to her mother and drank her water. It was late morning, and she figured Tristan would be there to collect her sometime soon. She needed to get ready. Going back to sleep didn't sound very appealing now at any rate.

XXXX

She opened the door while he was still knocking. She opened the door, holding all her belongings, obviously ready to walk out the door.

"Wow, I take it you're ready to go?"

"You know what they say, always be prepared."

"I didn't know you were a Boy Scout," he smiled.

"Hey, where's my coffee?" she eyed him carefully.

"Uh, about that," he frowned.

"Tristan, you promised me coffee," she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I just got up, and I figured we could get it on the way out to sightsee," he said quickly.

"Oh. Well, I suppose I can let it slide, this once. It's dangerous to promise coffee and not deliver upon said promise."

"I'll remember that for the future. Now, if we stand here in the doorway much longer, it'll be considered rude for you not to invite me in."

"No, I'm ready. Let's go get coffee," she insisted, and he stepped back a half a step to let her move out and shut the door behind her. She was fumbling with her key, trying to lock the door when Dan's voice boomed out as he greeted them, making her jump. Tristan rested his hands on her waist, to steady her, and she heard him let out a soft chuckle.

"Sorry, did I scare you?"

"No, no, I just—I'm sort of jumpy."

"Right. Well, I was just going to invite you guys to an intramural soccer game later today."

"Oh, I don't play sports," she shook her head.

"What about you?" Dan asked Tristan.

"I played soccer for a few years. What time is the game?"

"Not 'til six. See you there?"

"Uh, sure. Why not?" he shrugged, turning to Rory. "You wanna come cheer me on?" he practically purred.

"I don't cheer."

"Guess it's just me, then," he smiled at Dan.

"Cool. Have fun, kids," he moved on from the pair and headed to post a flier on the hall bulletin board.

"So, not a team player?" Tristan asked as they moved to the stairwell.

"I've found my participation in team sports to be bad for potential teammates' health."

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a side-long glance.

"It's true! I'm a klutz, completely uncoordinated!"

"Maybe if someone taught you, you'd be better. It just takes some practice," he assured her.

"Well, getting all sweaty has never really appealed to me," she added, as if to explain that she wasn't going to cave on the sports participation decision.

He stopped in mid-stride, looking at her. "Well, I am sorry to hear that," he said trying to dodge her open hand as she moved to smack him.

"That's not what I meant!"

"Hey, you're the one that said it," he rationalized.

She said nothing, just continued to walk. He was right—she had said it, but it'd been him to make a dirty double-entendre out of it. She walked along in silence, knowing he was looking at her. She could feel his amused gaze.

"What?" she asked, not being able to take it any longer.

"Nothing. I was just wondering if a large coffee will bring you out of this self-righteous funk."

Her mouth dropped open. "You did not just say that!"

His glee nearly leaped off his face. He couldn't contain it in his facial features. "Gonna need some whipped cream, too?"

"I hate you," she said finally, not wanting to admit defeat. It'd been a long time since she'd had a sparring partner, other than Logan. So few people could spar with her, taking her on both childishly and intellectually.

"Well, as long as we're clear about that," he nodded, steering them into a coffee shop.

XXXX

"You know, we don't have to do all the touristy things," she said finally. They'd seen Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and now Big Ben. "I've seen all this kind of stuff."

"Well, any good tour guide would make sure you saw all these things. They are worth seeing more than once," he pointed out.

"True, she said, taking the last drink of her large caramel latte. It was the best part, as all the caramel syrup tended to sink to the bottom, leaving the sugary sweetness coating her lips as she pulled the cup away from her mouth. She licked her lips slowly, savoring the taste.

He was openly watching her. He'd never seen anything so innocently erotic in his whole life. He couldn't move—he couldn't even blink. She was killing him and she didn't even know it.

"Tristan, you okay?"

"I, uh, yeah. I'm good," he cleared his throat, and put his hands on her shoulders to steady himself. And he couldn't just watch her do that and not touch her. He figured it was safer to touch her shoulders than to push her up against the stone wall behind her and kiss her, sampling the remains of her coffee for himself. "So, lunch?"

His face was determined, and he looked into her eyes. Suddenly, her cell phone rang in her pocket. Her brow furrowed, and she looked down at her phone.

"Ohmygod," she said under her breath. She backed up away from his reach.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. I have to get this, it might be Mom," she said.

"Yeah, sure. Take your time. I'll just roam around," he said, turning away from her and meandering off into a crowd of people. She didn't need to look at the caller ID. She knew it wasn't Lorelai. This was too much of a coincidence.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ace."

"Logan, you shouldn't be calling."

"You haven't called me back. You got my message?"

"I did, I've just been busy."

"So, let me come to you," he said.

"No, you can't come out here. Do you understand me?"

"Rory, you can't just walk away from this. It's not going to go away just because you're studying in London."

"Well, if that's true, then you can wait until I get back."

"That's four months."

"Yes, it is."

"I can't go four months without seeing you, without touching you."

"Logan, don't do this," her voice was pleading.

"You really want me to stay away?"

"I need to think, and have this experience."

She heard him let out a long breath. "Being with me doesn't mean giving up stuff like that," he told her.

"I know you want to believe that," she sighed.

"You just need time," he argued.

"Then give it to me, please," she said, closing her eyes.

"Okay. You've got it." His tone wasn't angry, it was accepting.

She waited for him to say something else, but he didn't. For the second time that day, she heard the dial tone in her ear, and she snapped her phone shut. Tristan was wandering back towards her, having seen her get off the phone.

"Hey, your Mom?"

"Uh, no. Not my Mom."

He noted her closed-off tone, and decided to let it drop.

"Still hungry?"

"Uh, not really."

"You okay?" he asked, putting his hand on her arm, brushing his thumb over the skin lightly.

"I'm fine. Fine. Where to next?" she asked, trying to focus on the current moment. Trying to forget Logan's voice, and Tristan's eyes from her dream. It was too uncanny, the events of the day so far.

"Did you ever get to Greenwich Park?"

"No."

"Ah, well, then that is where we're off to next," he said as they headed off towards their next destination. He kept checking on her in their silence, wondering if her exterior was going to break. He wasn't sure who this guy was that she was obviously thinking of, but there was one thing he was sure of. He was the guy that was going to take her mind off whoever it was.