Disclaimer: By now you know the drill.

Author's note: Don't worry, it's a Trory, remember?  It'll be all good.  Or will it?  Thanks for the reviews; they made my crappy day not so crappy!  And the distance from where Tristan started from and where he ended up isn't accurate.  So, sue me cause I am so not a map person.  LoL.  And, I'm sooooooooo sorry for the flipping year long wait.

I know I promised myself that I would never ask people this, cause it probably make someone not want to do it, but please review this if you read it.  Even if it's to say, "Nice." Or something like that would work.  Okay, sorry, go on with the story.

Jake sat on his bed at the Inn shocked for a few moments after Tristan left.  What did Tristan mean?  "'Don't call me for a few days, okay buddy?'"  What the hell did that stuff mean?  Jake got up from his spot and looked out the window.  Tristan's Explorer was pulling out of its spot in the parking lot.  He wondered why Tristan didn't have his other car, but then he remembered that Rory and Lorelai had it.  They were probably going joy riding right then, too.

Tristan let out a breath that he was holding ever since he left Jake's room.  He had just turned on the radio and was confused.  He didn't know where he was going, but he knew that he had to go somewhere.  He still had that primal instinct to run away from some of your problems.  He didn't have any really clear problems at the moment; it was murky.

DuGrey turned on the radio and pulled out of the Inn's parking lot.  He headed onto the nearest highway and went south.  After an hour of driving on deserted stretches of road, he knew where he was going.  Back to where this all started – North Carolina.

At the same time Tristan was heading back to his second home, Rory and her mother were indeed driving Tristan's Porsche.  They were momentarily interrupted when a cell phone started ring.  It was Lorelai's judging by the ring tone – a cow mooing.

"Hello?"  She picked up, not bothering to look at the caller id.

"Lorelai?"

The voice sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure.  "Jake?"

"Yeah," he answered.  "Look, just tell Rory if she asks that I was just calling to complain about Michel or something like that."

Lorelai started to worry.  He sounded as if he was really worried, and that made her worry.  Call it motherly instincts.  But somehow, she knew some back news was about to break.  "Okay, what did Michel do now?"

"Tristan just left."

"He what?"

"He left," Jake repeated.  "He told me not to call him for a couple days, and I'm going to respect his wishes."

Lorelai managed to grumble a response.  "I will too, I guess."

When she hung up, Rory immediately asked whom it was who called.  "Oh, it was just Jake calling to complain about Michel.  He wouldn't let Kristina use the Inn's phone because the one in her room wouldn't do long distance, and she had to call her family to let them know she was still alive."

"Oh, okay."  Rory went back to looking out of the window.

Lorelai almost breathed a sigh of relief when Rory answered.  She just prayed they wouldn't get on the topic of Tristan.  To avoid doing that, Lorelai started reaching for the car radio.  Hopefully a good song was playing.

But she was too slow.  Rory opened her mouth and started talking.  "So, I blew up at Tristan today, somewhat."  She confided.  "I don't know why.  I never thought I was the jealous type.  Everyone knows I got enough of that with Dean.  But apparently I am jealous, cause I got jealous over such a small thing.  I don't know why."

"I'm sure he's going to do that in the future, hon." Lorelai tried to keep it short.  She was heading back to Stars Hollow, so they could have a movie night.  Whether or not Rory needed it, Lorelai did.  She had dealt with her parents for far too long that night.

"Yeah, but I don't want him to be mad at me.  Or think I'm going to do that every time he talks to another woman."  Rory announced.  "He's been so patient, and so kind."

"Maybe it's cold feet or something."  Lorelai reasoned.  "Just a different version, of course."  She nodded, trying to convince herself more than Rory.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rory getting out her cell phone.  When she asked her daughter was doing, Rory replied, "Maybe I should call him or something.  I feel bad."

"No!"  The word came out a little more forcefully than Lorelai meant.  'Oh, I am so going to hell for this one,' she thought.  "I just mean they were having a guys night, right?  Well, maybe you should wait until tomorrow afternoon or something."

Twenty minutes after Rory agreed to wait to call Tristan, they arrived in Stars Hollow.  They were sitting in their living room of their house, having a movie night.  There was an array of junk food spread out on the table, most of which was chocolate.

"And the contenders for tonight are "Bend It Like Beckham," "Charlie's Angels II," and the greatest movie in the world, "Willy Wonka."  The older Gilmore held up each movie as she announced it.  "Bend It has great accents that we can mock, and Charlie's Angels must be seen because the hot surfer dude.  And of course, Willy Wonka is just needed."

Rory grinned.  "And the theme for tonight would be?"  She grabbed a bag of chocolate covered pretzels, and observed her mom put the tape in the VCR.

"Duh, it's female empowerment.  Well, except for Charlie."  Lorelai thought for a moment.  "He's just there cause he's mandatory for this night to happen."

Meanwhile, in Jersey City, Tristan was buying some clothes that would last him through the week.  He also wrote an email to Rory, explaining everything that was running through his head when he got in his car and left Connecticut.  By the time she would get it in the next couple days, he would be closer to North Carolina.

Without looking back, he left the twenty-four hour store and hopped into his car.  Turning on the radio, he drove off.  The songs that were playing didn't really interest him at the moment, so he decided to put in a CD to keep him going.

Tristan blindly picked out a CD and put it in the player without looking.  When he pushed play, he was surprised to hear John Mayer's voice pouring through the speakers.  'So that's where it was,' he thought about Rory.  She had been looking high and low for the CD for about a week.  Smiling, he turned to track ten on the "Room For Squares" album.  Rory swore that the song reminded her of him.

"Back to you

It always comes around

Back to you,"

He thought about it.  Lately everything came back to her, Rory, his fiancé, and the love of his life.  For the short time he had been listening to the radio, nearly every song related back to her in some shape or form.

"I tried to forget you

I tried to stay away

But it's too late,"

When they were dating, Rory said that after he left, she tried to forget him; brush him off as a bad memory from tenth and eleventh grade; just some boy who got under her skin.  But when he was in Chilton, she tried to stay away from him.  Of course that never worked, because Tristan always seemed to be where she was.  He always found her.  And she said that it was too late for all of that because she was not in love with him.

"Over you

I'm never over

Over you,"

Rory also had said that the day he left for military school was the day she knew that she wouldn't be able to forget him for a million years.  It was true, because she never really did get over him.  He wasn't a forgotten memory, he was a living one.

"Something about you

It's just the way you move

The way you move me,"

Tristan smiled at the lyrics.  He was starting to like this song.  Lorelai Leigh Gilmore definitely moved him.  She moved him just by being alive.  She had motivated him throughout his duration in North Carolina.  And when they met again, she had moved him to try harder in school while they were still at Yale.

"I'm so good at forgetting

And I quit every game I play

But forgive me, love

I can't turn and walk away

This way,"

Tristan saw that there were no other cars on the deserted highway.  He couldn't blame them, it was two am.  He was only still driving because he couldn't sleep.  Every time he closed his eyes, a picture of his Chilton days came into focus.  Until now, he had been so good at forgetting most of the stuff he did in North Carolina, and some of the stuff he did his junior year at Chilton.  He didn't really talk about it, much.  Sometimes he talked with Jake about the way it used to be, but not much.  But now that Tristan was heading back, he couldn't turn and walk away from the memories that were now flooding back to him.

"Back to you

It always comes around

Back to you,"

Tristan found it quite funny how throughout the song, most of his thoughts reflected on Rory Gilmore.  Yes, she was his fiancé, but she had acted different towards him tonight for no reason.  Was she changing her mind?  Did that give him a reason to be mad, just because she got mad?

"I walk with your shadow

I'm sleeping in my bed

With your silhouette,"

It was around three in the morning for both Tristan and Rory.  In Stars Hollow, Rory was just drifting off to sleep, feeling sort of wired without Tristan's arms around her.  Somewhere in Jersey City, New Jersey Tristan was checked into a hotel suite and lying on the bed, picturing Rory beside him- she usually was when he fell asleep.

"Should have smiled in that picture

It it's the last I'll see of you

It's the least you

Could not do,"

Tristan remembered when he was in North Carolina, the only picture he had of Rory was of Rory and him sitting at a lunch table.  He was smiling, and Rory was engrossed in a book, as usual.  The picture, taken by a friend at another table, showed a heated one-sided conversation.  'It was one of many,' he would think before putting it in his drawer in school.

"Leave the light on

I'll never give up on you,"

Rory had said it a million times, and she would say it over and over.  She would never give up on Tristan, no matter how unbelievably annoying his smirk got.

"Leave the light on

For me too,"

Tristan was slowly succumbing to the sleep that had overtaken him, with Rory on his mind.  Big surprise, there.  He didn't bother to turn the light off because somehow he wasn't able to get used to the fact that she wasn't there.

"Back to me,

I know it comes

Back to me,"

Rory faintly heard John Mayer playing on her stereo, which was on to help her sleep better.  All of a sudden, it came to her.  Her CD was in Tristan's car, from when she had borrowed it a week ago.  For some reason, it always came back to him.

"Doesn't it scare you

You will's not as strong

As it used to be,"

Tristan was falling asleep, semi conscious counting the number of times he gave into Rory.  No matter if it was coffee or seeing grandparents, he always gave into her.  It was because he was happy just being with her.  It just always came back to her.

Yet another annoying author's note: I have been playing "Back to You" over and over and over, so that's why it's in here.  Peace.