AN: So, life has been, uh, hectic. But this chappy is a bit longer. Enjoy.
Rory was beginning to feel like she was permanently attached to her phone. Between researching her next paper at the library and being at the BBC offices for her internship, she hadn't been back at the dorm for more than four hours to sleep in the last two days. She hadn't seen Tristan, but she had found five minutes here and there to call him to say she'd stop by to pass out as soon as she could. She'd been trying to call her mother repeatedly, to no avail. She'd left messages at the house, the inn, her cell, even at the diner. It was affecting her concentration, the not knowing about her mother's limbo situation, but she kept downing the sub par coffee that was in constant need of warming in the interns' closet of a room and kept on working.
When she finally made it back to the dorm, she was in desperate need of two things—real food and a long nap. She unlocked her door, dumped her bag on the floor and looked at her bed. It looked so inviting, so warm, so perfect. It was practically screaming her name, and she decided that evidently sleep was more important than food. She kicked off her shoes, and decided to go all out, and began the quick search for the most comfortable sweats and tank top she owned. She pulled off her professional garb, stiff and constricting, and sighed in relief at the freedom of just her undergarment-clad body. She caught glance of herself in the mirror and stopped to consider the vision that was reflected back at her. Not bad. She turned around, trying not to see the flaws that generally jumped out at her. She tried to see what these men in her life told her she was. She was a woman that had been proposed to. That had a second man there waiting to catch her when she ran away from such frightening things. She stared into her own eyes, now wishing it was Tristan's she was looking into. She pulled her robe off the hook in her closet and pulled it around her, moving her weary legs down the hall and knocking at his door, hoping he'd be in.
"You're back," came his voice from behind her. She spun around to see him also clad in a robe, his hair wet from a very recent shower.
She offered a smile. "I'm back. I was going to take a nap. You interested?"
He smiled. "I think that could be arranged. Your place or mine?"
"Here's good."
He nodded and unlocked his door, letting her in. She moved immediately to his bed, shedding her robe in favor of the warmth of his soft sheets. He laughed.
"You're in no mood for foreplay then?"
"Sleep," she murmured, burrowing her head into his pillow. He slid in next to her, his body still warm from his hot shower. She curled up into him, and he slipped his arms around her.
"I can't wait to get back to the States," he said into her hair.
"Back to the cutest girls in the world?" she teased.
"Back to my bed in my apartment, it's so much bigger than this."
"What size?" she asked without realizing the implications of their conversation.
"Queen."
"Huh."
"What?"
"Nothing, I just pictured you as a King-sized guy."
"Why, thank you, Ms. Gilmore," he smirked, looking down at her as she lazily propped her chin on his chest to look at him.
"That's not what I meant," she chastised him, but in all reality, she couldn't deny him that association either. "I just meant you're used to the best of everything, right?"
He looked into her eyes, his tone turning serious. "I am now."
She smiled. "I must be really tired. You're not this sappy."
"My room isn't big enough."
"Huh?"
"For the King-sized bed. I had to get a Queen."
"Oh. Right."
She lay her head back down on his chest, feeling the sweet relief of oncoming sleep flush over her as her eyes closed.
"Exhausted?"
"Mmmm," she agreed.
"Too exhausted for everything?"
"Sleep now. When I wake up, we can do whatever you want," she promised in her altered state.
"I'm holding you to that," he whispered in her ear, and ran his hand over her back underneath the sheets. He could feel her breath even out, but he wasn't tired. He took the opportunity to feel her in his arms. He traced her skin, coming to a roadblock of the sheer fabric of her bra halfway down her back. He fingered the clasp, not unlatching it, simply running his fingers over it, learning it for later dismantling. He felt each vertebra in succession down her back, each stacked neatly atop the next, until he came to the hollow in the small of her back. He placed an open palm there, just above where her bikini underwear began. The warmth created between them was making him sleepy, and finally her even breath and warm body lulled him to sleep as well.
XXXX
She opened her eyes never having felt more refreshed in her whole life. Her stomach rumbled, causing her to remember her other basic need upon arriving back home. She wondered what time it was, and what kind of food options were even open to her at this point. First, she'd have to extract herself from Tristan's steadfast grasp. He'd evidently fallen asleep sometime after she did, and was still slumbering beside her.
She smiled softly, as her eyes began to clearly focus on his face. She leaned up a little, tracing first his jaw line before gaining confidence in not waking him, and outlining his lips with her index finger. Running it now over his bottom lip, she watched in wonder as the skin sank under her touch only to rise up again immediately; full, pink, and kissable.
Almost unable to stop herself, so mesmerized as she was with him, she leaned up to brush her lips tentatively against his. He moved his lips instinctively against hers after a moment, not quite awake yet, but becoming that way quickly. He held her against him as she shifted upward to achieve a better angle.
"'m I dreamin'?" he asked, his voice almost incoherent with sleep.
"No," she breathed, as his kisses became more responsive, bordering on taking control. She kept her motions as soft and unobtrusive as possible, but he was fast making that impossible.
"Good," he said, opening his eyes to meet her gaze. She'd slid up his body, reminding him that he was naked. She equaled his fervor, and he laced his hands in her hair so as to slow the pace of this foreplay. He'd not seen her in the last couple of days, since the stress of the weekend. He wanted to draw this out as long as possible.
"Mmmm, hey. Hey," she said, biting her lip as she pulled up from his torso. "I'm hungry," she informed him regretfully.
"So'm I," he managed.
"No, I seriously haven't eaten in almost a day," she continued, despite his lips' attachment to the hollow above her collarbone.
"I have one thing to offer you," he said between kisses. "High in protein, very in with this low-carb craze," he smirked against her skin.
"Tristan," she whined.
"Hey, you promised if I let you sleep, we could do whatever I wanted. I want to do this," he reminded, kissing her hard, as he pressed his needful body into hers. Her mind went blank, and she was suddenly unaware of her growling stomach. The sound was overtaken by the blood that seemed to be pounding in her ears, and the feeling unmatched to that of the tension and ache that pooled in her lower abdomen.
"I guess," she breathed, "That wouldn't be," another breath, "Such a bad idea."
"That's my girl," he said, moving over her properly, making her forget all other basic needs she could ever have. After all, who needed food, shelter, or water when they could experience this?
XXXX
"Did we talk about the size of your bed?"
He looked up from his burger, wiping the mayonnaise away from the corner of his mouth where it had congregated. He wasn't sure why the British seemed to insist on putting this condiment on everything, but it was something he'd gotten used to.
"When? Earlier?"
"Yeah? I seem to remember something about a King-sized bed."
"We did talk about that. I see your memory is selective, however. My bed at home is a Queen."
She nodded, not so covertly taking one of his fries. She'd demolished hers in seconds, and had started to 'sneak' his one by one as they worked on their burgers. They'd slept for over four hours, making it nearly 11pm by the time they managed to get dressed and out of the dorm. Luckily, they'd found an all-night diner, and were able to satisfy all their needs tonight. She thought to herself the only thing that would improve Luke's was if he stayed open all night. That led her to again worry about her mother, and she pulled out her phone, looking down into her lap to see that she had no missed calls, no messages.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Expecting a call?" his tone was off, but he said nothing else.
She looked up at him, wondering if he thought she was looking to see if Logan had called her. Needless to say, she hadn't heard from him since the weekend, and she had no plans to.
"Mom, she's, well—she might be pregnant. I've been trying to get a hold of her, but no answer yet."
"Your mom might be pregnant?" he asked, completely shocked. "Is that, possible?"
She realized that most people her age didn't have mothers young enough to get pregnant. She took a drink of her soda and nodded. "Yeah. She's still in her 30s. Barely, but she says she's going to hang on to her youth as long as possible."
"And having kids will help that? My parents always said it made them feel older," he smirked.
"Maybe you drove them crazy. I was a perfect child," she sat up straighter.
"You have some soot on that halo, there," he rolled his eyes.
She stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, last I talked to her, she hadn't taken the test. And now, it's like she's joined the Witness Protection Program."
"Weird."
"Yeah."
"So, is that okay, I mean, if she is?"
Rory shrugged. "I think so. I mean, Luke, her boyfriend, he wants to marry her. I can't really see him with a small child, but I'm sure he'd be a good dad. He was always good to me, growing up."
"What about your dad?"
She looked down again, and slid her phone into her lap. "He wasn't around much. He has another kid now, she's keeping him pretty busy."
He frowned, realizing she'd never really talked about her dad. Her mother and Luke, sure. Her grandparents. Her friends. But never her dad. He figured he shouldn't press the issue, after all, she could talk about it if she wanted. He surely didn't want to talk about his folks in detail, and she respected that.
"So, I heard from my grandfather. He's stopping by on his way back to Hartford. He wants to meet you."
"He does?"
Tristan nodded. "He'll be here Friday. I thought we could meet at the cottage. The old man's grown pretty tired of London, he prefers the quiet and boring," he smirked.
"Sure. So, you told him about us?"
"Yeah. Is that a problem?"
"No, I just, after what happened last weekend, I just wondered."
"What?"
"I just want you to know, I didn't want him to come like he did—and what he did," she bit her lip.
"Rory, it's okay. I mean, you said you broke up with him. I guess I can't blame him for giving it another shot."
"It's just, when you said you were nobody to me, I," she felt the tears welling up, but she willed them back.
"I was upset, I didn't mean," he started softly.
"It's not true."
"I know. I didn't mean it, either."
"Good," she smiled, relieved.
"So, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah."
"Have you thought about what's going to happen, when we go home?"
"In December?"
"Yeah."
"Sort of. Not a lot, I mean, I tend to stay pretty focused on what's right in front of me, but yeah. I mean, not just the talk about beds, but you're in Boston, and I'm in New Haven, and do you even want anything to continue, and," she paused, more to take a breath than anything else. He reached out to put his hand on hers, and she caught his gaze, unable to continue her rant. She saw it wasn't necessary.
"Well, I'd say barring any more ex-boyfriends showing up and proposing—and your accepting said proposals, of course—that I would very much like this to continue upon our going back home. In fact, I might have to insist upon it."
"Really?"
"But that's just my opinion," he hinted.
"And I concur."
"Good. Now, my next question—do you have any other ex-boyfriends that like to pop into your life and cause major upheaval like the one I've encountered already?"
She wrinkled her nose, and thought of the men that have done such things. Dean and her first time. Jess and his sudden and altering epiphanies. "Sort of. All of them."
"Oh, wonderful," he shot back sardonically.
"Don't worry. I think most of them have it out of their systems."
"Now, that's comforting."
"But I'd have the same reaction to any of them as I had to Logan."
"Telling them no?"
"Wishing they were you."
He looked at her, unable to say anything in return. He could barely believe this girl would have ever said such things to him. She used to push him away, keeping him in place with unmatched verbal jabs. And while she still got a few in every now and then, she could floor him with her unmatched sweetness and sincerity.
"You ready to get back? It's time for bed again."
"Yeah, you're right. I have to go to class tomorrow, but the good news is, I don't have to be at the office until next week again."
"Good to hear. You've been going non-stop. I'll pay the check."
"I'm going to try Mom again. I'll meet you outside," she said, moving to kiss his cheek as she brushed past him. He trailed his hand down her side as she continued past, and turned to pay the check, sporting a wistful smile as he could still smell her light perfume on his clothes.
XXXX
"Hello?"
"Where have you been!"
"Oh, just around. What's up?"
"What's up? What's up! I can't even, there are no words! I could fly over there, just to kill you!"
"What is the matter?"
"If I'd called you from thousands of miles away with the news that I might be pregnant, and then you couldn't reach me for days, what would you do?"
"I just bought a test. There's nothing to tell."
"You just bought it?"
"I had to get to Hartford. And not just anywhere in Hartford, the seedy area, where none of my mother's spies could accidentally happen upon me."
"What seedy area of Hartford?"
"Every big city has a seedy area. Just beyond the railroad tracks."
"You're insane."
"I'm sitting in the bathroom, staring at a home pregnancy test box. You might be right."
"So, you're taking it now?"
"I was about to."
"Oh. Wow."
"Yeah."
"So, you were unavailable for days because?"
"I was avoiding, everything. I've been at work for two days straight."
"Me too."
"Avoiding Tristan? I thought you guys were okay after the Logan thing."
"We are. I had to be at work, I just was sort of relieved not to talk about it again. But we did, tonight, and it's definitely good. We're even starting to talk about later on."
"Later on?"
"When we get back home. And his grandfather is coming this weekend, and wants to meet me."
"Wow. Serious."
"Says the woman that might be pregnant."
"I should take it, huh?"
"Bite the bullet."
"As long as I don't kill the rabbit."
"So, you want it to be negative?"
"I just, didn't want to do the unplanned thing again. I mean, don't get me wrong. However I got you, I'm glad it happened. But trust me when I say that it leads to a lot of grey areas and uncertainty. I just thought that the next time around I could be married and know for a fact that the guy wanted to be with me because of me, not because he felt he had to."
"Luke loves you. He has a ring."
"Which he still has in his drawer."
"Details."
"Yeah, well, still. I don't think it would bad, just unplanned."
"Right."
"So, I should go, do this."
"Call me, the second you know."
"The box says 2 minutes. Call me in five if you haven't heard from me."
"Promise."
They hung up, and both sat motionless for the better part of the next two minutes, contemplating the future of their family. Rory pictured herself having to commute both to Boston and home on revolving intervals, to see her new sibling and to see Tristan enough. Lorelai pictured trying to tell Luke, how he'd react, how he'd be with an infant. Though on separate continents, they might as well have been in the same room as their thoughts. At least, they would have preferred to be. Rory checked her watch for the fifth time, and upon hitting the three minute mark, she picked up her phone again and dialed.
"It's positive," came her mother's immediate response.
