AN: The plan is in action. Perhaps not as quick of a resolution as you'd like, but Trory lovers don't fear—it's coming.
"We had a fight," she sniffed, willing herself to automatically recompose her crumbling exterior as it fell—not to mention her interior. She felt as if someone had taken a razor blade to the inside of her skin, as if trying to slash their way out. Soon she'd fall to the floor in a pile of shards.
"We?" his hesitant question came.
"Tristan and I."
"Ah. The boyfriend."
"Yeah. Do you not want to hear about this?" she sniffled again.
She heard Logan give a sigh, and knowing him as she did, she could almost hear him formulating the exact response he wanted to give. He chose his words carefully most of the time, unless he was lost in the heat of a moment.
"I want us to be friends, no matter what that entails."
"Thanks."
"So, what were you fighting about?"
"My phone rang during our date," she said after taking a long breath. "It was my dad."
"Oh, shit."
"Yeah, so I ignored it, and he wouldn't let it go. He kept hounding me about who had called, wanting to know."
"Doesn't he know the deal with you and your dad?"
"He does now," she bit her lip. "Well, what I blurted out the short version at him after I realized what was going on."
"What was going on?" Logan asked, clearly not quite understanding the trouble.
"He thought it was you."
"Ah. I see."
"And he was mad, at the idea that you'd be calling."
"Sorry."
"Don't be. I told him you had called, and that we had decided to stay friends," she explained.
"I'm guessing he doesn't like that idea so much."
"Not exactly."
"Do you want me to talk to him?"
"No. God, no. I mean, I've dated enough guys to know they don't like their girlfriend's past boyfriends. But I'm with him, why isn't that enough for him to trust me?"
"Rory," he sighed. "What I did was stupid. Had I known there was a boyfriend, I probably wouldn't have done it," he paused, holding her full attention. "I missed you, I thought the door was still open. We've been through a lot, and I don't particularly like the fact that you moved on so effortlessly, but at the same time, I'm not going to be that guy. I want you to be happy."
"And I appreciate that. Tristan, however, wasn't buying the idea that you would step aside so graciously."
"Look, sometimes, guys do boneheaded things."
"You don't say. But was it necessary for him to ruin my 21st birthday? God, we were having the perfect night. We're supposed to go to Paris next weekend, now everything's ruined."
"Look, do you love him?"
The sound of he words coming from Logan's mouth was unreal to her. She'd heard him tell her he loved her, but she'd never thought of a scenario while they were together that would include him asking her if she loved someone else. But here he was, being the better man, and helping her be with Tristan. If that was even possible now.
"Yes."
"Then go to him. Explain in full sentences and calm tones about your father and why that's such a sore spot for you. Tell him I wish the two of you the best of luck because I've realized that I blew my one and only chance completely, and flash him those wide blue eyes that seem to work in hypnotizing grown men. You'll be nauseatingly happy in Paris before you know it."
"Thank you, Logan."
"You're welcome, Ace."
She hung up the phone and set it down on her bed. She stood up to look in the mirror, at the rumpled dress that wrinkled as she balled herself up on her bed, at the streaked mascara from the tears that had flowed fast and hot down her cheeks while she tried to reach her loved ones back in the States as the events of the night played over in her head. She pulled her dress off and slipped into a fresh one, and moved to the door so she could wash her face off before going off in search of Tristan.
XXXX
Upon emerging from the hall bathroom, she walked up to Dan, who was standing dead still in front of his door.
"Hey, have you seen Tristan?"
Dan looked to her, concern covering his face. "Have you?"
"I don't understand. What's wrong?"
"Did you two have a fight?"
"You could say that. I need to talk to him, have you seen him?"
"He had a suitcase with him, he just left. He looked like someone had died," Dan shook his head, as Rory's face paled in realization of his words.
"He had a suitcase?"
Dan nodded. "What happened?"
"Oh my God," she closed her eyes, feeling faint. She heard Tristan's words from earlier in the evening, telling her that her plane ticket was in his room. "Can you let me into his room?"
"No. No way, leave me out of this," Dan shook his head.
"Please. Something of mine is in there—you can go with me, I'll prove it to you," she swore.
Dan looked at her panicked face and her clearly worried stance. She looked like she might pass out, especially when he said Tristan had left with a packed suitcase. He had no idea where he'd gone, but he got the feeling she knew exactly where he'd gone and why.
"Fine. But it had better have your name on it, or be pink and frilly, or you aren't leaving the room with it," Dan muttered, going into his room and retrieving his master keys. He'd had to use them way more often over the course of this semester, and it was only half over at this point.
"So, what did you do?" he asked as he unlocked Tristan's door and they stepped inside. She bee-lined for his desk, and shrugged her shoulders.
"What makes you think I did something?"
"He looked miserable. If he was entirely to blame, he would have been more pissed off, angry with himself."
"We had a fight. End of story. Damnit, where is it?" she had rifled through a stack of papers, and scanned the rest of the contents that lay on top of his desk. She opened a drawer and began searching through there.
"What are you looking for? Where did he go?"
"He went to Paris. And I need to do the same thing," she said, shaking her head as she closed the drawer in frustration. "Damnit!"
Dan gave her a sympathetic look. "Try calling him."
She shook her head. "He'll have turned his phone off."
"Worth a shot," he offered.
"What am I going to do? He'll be gone all week, and now I have no way of going to him. I don't have the kind of money to jet off to Paris."
"I would lend you money, but I don't have it either. He bought you a ticket?"
She nodded and let out a sad laugh. "Yeah. He did. Looks like it went with him."
Dan put his arm around Rory, and she leaned into his shoulder. The tears came back, glassing her blue eyes before spilling their heavy contents out beyond her eyelids. "Can I buy you some coffee?"
She shook her head. "I just need to be alone."
"He'll be back in a week, right? A week's not so bad. You'll both see that the fight was stupid and make up."
"I need to talk to him now. I can't have him go all week thinking. . . I need to find him. I'm going to the airport. He has to be on standby, he wasn't supposed to go until tomorrow," she said, standing up straighter and wiping the tears away from her cheeks. She had a plan, and set out to execute it, leaving Dan to lock up.
XXXX
She sat impatiently in the back of the cab as it drove as fast as traffic would allow towards the airport. She cursed the throngs of cars blocking her path, and saying a silent prayer that he was caught in the same traffic. Her phone rang and she pulled it open immediately, hoping for the best.
"Tristan?"
"No, Hon, it's me. What's wrong, you sounded, well sound, horrible."
"Tristan and I had a fight about Logan, it's a long story. He left, and I'm on my way to try to find him at Heathrow."
"Did Logan pull something again?" Lorelai's voice broke with impatience and frustration. "I'll kill that kid, I swear!"
"No, Mom, he didn't. Dad called, and I wouldn't answer, and Tristan just assumed it was Logan. I had talked to Logan, so I told him that, and it just got ugly."
"Wait, Chris called and you didn't answer?"
"I'm still mad about the whole way he handled the wedding situation. He and I had just gotten on speaking terms again, and he pulled that, and I don't know. We just haven't had much contact since then."
"You mean you've been avoiding him."
"Yeah."
"Oh, kid. I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It's just that I haven't explained that situation to Tristan, and he doesn't get why I told Logan we could stay friends, and he completely overreacted," she rambled.
"Did you, by chance, as well?"
"I might have accused him of not trusting me."
"It's not you he doesn't trust," she hedged.
"I know. He told me that, but he doesn't even know Logan."
"Look at what he does know! Can you blame him?"
"He could give him a second chance," she pointed out.
"Not everyone is as forgiving as you are. You give people billions of chances."
"I'm not ready to talk to Dad again," she took her mother's meaning as two-fold.
"I'm not going to ask you to. You'll work that out on your own. I'm still not talking to him, either," she pointed out.
"We were supposed to go to Paris."
"And he's going alone?"
"He was going for the week, and he was supposed to have me join him next weekend, but he left after our fight. I'm going to try to catch him and explain," she filled her mother in on all the missing details.
"Good. I'm sure it'll all work out. He seems to be crazy about you."
"He was."
"Hey, don't take a defeatist attitude! It's not how your mother raised you."
"You're right. Speaking of raising children, how's my sibling?"
"Uh, growing eyes at the moment, I believe. Wait, yep, definitely corneas in development at the current moment."
"You're funny."
"So I've been told. You going to be okay?"
"I will if I can find him. I'm here. I'll talk to you later."
"Good luck, kid."
She hung up her phone, paid the driver, and took off into the mass of people that seemed to be hovering in and around the busy airport. She went to the information center and asked if there were any available seats on any flights to Paris. He had to be on one of them, and she had to start somewhere. The woman at the desk informed her there was one flight with a few extra seats available that would be leaving in two hours, and asked if she'd like to book the flight. She declined and asked if she could have a passenger paged and asked to come to the information desk to meet her. She asked the name of the passenger, and pressed the button to broadcast her voice over the whole of the sound system. Rory closed her eyes as his name was spoken with the thick British accent, and hoped he would come.
XXXX
Rory walked back into the dorm, and looked around for a moment. Everything seemed still, too quiet. She had waited in the airport by the woman who watched her with great curiosity from the other side of the counter, asking if she wanted her to try again until they both knew Tristan wasn't coming. She made her way up to her room, and pulled her keys out of her pocket to insert into the lock of her door. She noticed an envelope taped to the front of her door, with her name scrawled on the front. She opened the envelope and took out the folded paper inside. Plane tickets with her name of it fell out of the folds, and she gave a smile of disbelief as she read the note.
'Rory—
Found these upon greater inspection after you left. They were under his pillow, for whatever reason. It did have your name on it, after all. Hope it helps.
Dan'
She fingered the ticket, running her finger over the date she was to leave. Friday night, three hours after her last class let out. He'd timed everything perfectly. He'd taken her thoughts, feelings, and schedule into consideration. She'd jumped at him, accusing him out of frustration that was only partly meant for him. It was possible that she'd never felt so bad about anything in her entire life.
She'd talked this over with everyone except for him. She knew what she had to do. Her friends and family gave great advice, but he was the only one she wanted to talk it over with—she wanted to apologize and explain and feel his arms pull her in closer as he kisses her reassuringly. They'd both misunderstood the situation, and she hoped he would want to resolve it and move on as she did. Her stomach was in knots and her heart literally felt wrung out. This had to be resolved now. Armed with her plane ticket for the following Friday, she relocked her door and headed back out to the street. He'd been right—she shouldn't have left, and now she wasn't going to let him go without her either.
