TITLE: No Longer

PAIRING: L/L, L/D, R?

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, just this story and the made up stuff about this show…such as Tristan Dugrey this late in the show or them getting married.

SUMMARY: Tristan divorces Rory, but fate disagrees.

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A Betting Pool:

The bells on the door jingled as Rory and Tristan walked into Luke's together.

'Hey mom.' Rory said taking a seat. Tristan took a seat to the left of Rory. Lorelai was on Rory's right.

'Hi sweetie. Tristan, Rory didn't run away from you today?'

'I told my mom I kept running from you.' Rory explained.

'Ahh. No, she didn't. In fact every time I've seen her since Sunday she hasn't run away from me.' He said. They hadn't told Lorelai there intentions yet, and nobody knew except for Rory and Tristan that he knew she was pregnant. They decided to see how far they could push people before they broke down and told him.

'Huh. So how's everything?' Lorelai asked Rory although Tristan knew exactly what she meant.

'Good.'

'That's good. So Tristan how's the practice?'

'Good. Getting boring. All the suits are stupid and they're all the same. I'm thinking of starting my own practice. I want to deal with everything now. I have a few buddies who would do it with me though, so I'm really looking into it right now.'

'Oh.'

'Tris, doesn't your father have a business?'

'Yea, but he's not close to retiring.'

'Oh.' Both girls were quiet.

'Hey Rory, Tristan. What can I get for you?'

'I'll have a coffee.' Tristan said.

'Make that two.' Rory included.

'No.'

'Yes.'

'Oh Luke just give her coffee.' Lorelai said.

'Crap! I gotta go. Big, big meeting! Will be killed by Michel if I don't leave now!' Lorelai shouted jumping up and waving goodbye.

'SO! Luke, how bout that coffee?' Rory reminded him.

'No.'

'Luke, why can't she have coffee?' Tristan asked.

'Because she's umm, well it's not good for you to drink so much coffee.'

'But you've always given it to her anyways.' He said. He looked for Rory to help.

'Tristan knows. He wanted to see how far he could get people to go before they told them.' Rory said.

'So you know…' Luke said facing Tristan.

'Yup, found out Sunday.'

'How'd you find out? Is Rory showing that much?'

'She's showing but. No, she called me and told me to meet her at Starbucks. We took a walk and she told me.'

'Ha Lorelai.' Luke muttered.

'What?' Rory asked.

'Your mother made a betting pool of when Tristan would find out. She made me get into it, and I win.'

'Who else is in this "betting pool"?' Rory asked.

'Oh, umm Jess, your mom, me—unwillingly and for no money, Lane, your dad, ummm, I don't know who else. Why?'

'Wait, my dad knows?'

'Yea.'

'MOM!' Rory gritted through her teeth.

'Thanks you Luke.' Rory said before standing up and dragging Rory with him. They arrived at the Dragonfly and Lorelai was still setting up. She was the only one in the room. Rory took Tristan's hand and brought him into the room and shut the door.

'Mom?'

'Oh hey. The meetings gonna start soon so….'

'Wait, you made a betting pool on me?'

'Yea, but it was nothing.'

'Dad knows.'

'Wait—how?'

'Luke told me.'

'Oh.'

'Yea, don't mean to get mad, but this was my business! MINE, and when I told you you could tell Luke I meant LUKE! I wanted to tell dad! We were planning this special get together and I was gonna tell him!'

'Oh I'm so sorry! I just thought you weren't gonna tell him.'

'I forgive you for that but a betting pool?'

'It was just for fun.'

'Fun? You think it's "fun" to bet on when I was going to tell Tristan? What I tell Tristan and when is strictly between the two of us! Not you, not Lane, not Jess, not anyone besides me and Tristan! And that means you too, not even you!'

'Rory I didn't—'

'No, you didn't. You didn't think, you didn't know I would care this much, you even ASKED Tristan why we got divorced! Knowing you, you probably gave him some kinda bull like I was your daughter therefore it was your business. Well guess what…' Rory stopped and wiped away the falling tears. Tristan squeezed her hand reassuringly.

'It's not your business, and you lost the bet.'

'What?'

'You guessed that I wouldn't tell him until he realized I was pregnant and than he would confront me, well Luke won.' Rory said before walking out. Tristan drove back to their house. They walked to the couch and plopped down on it. Rory scooted to Tristan and he brought her close to him. He allowed her to cry herself to sleep and then Tristan closed his eyes and sleep came over him too. They both woke up when they heard knocking.

'I'll get it. It's probably my mom.' Rory said going to the door and seeing Jess standing there.

'Jess?' she asked.

'Hey. How are you doing?'

'Doing? Why would you enter a betting pool?'

'A betting pool?'

'Yea, Luke said you entered a betting pool.'

'I did? When?' he asked purely confused.

'I don't know. You betted when I was going to tell Tristan.'

'I never betted. I told Lorelai that I didn't and she insisted that I tell her when I thought you were so I told her what I thought.'

'What did you say?'

'I told her that you would tell him when you were ready too and not before.'

'That's the best bet yet.' Rory said seriously.

'She entered me in a betting pool huh…'

'Yup, don't worry I already blew up at her.'

'Oh god. So have you told him yet?'

'Yep, I told him last Sunday.'

'So he's known for about what, five days?'

'Yep, just about.' Se said.

'Okay, well I just wanted to get that one book you told me about.'

'Oh, right. Lemme get it for you.' She said shutting the door after Jess. She ran to the study.

'Tristan!' she called.

'What?'

'Jess is here!'

'Kay.' He said and Jess heard footsteps before Tristan appeared.

'Hey Jess.'

'So you know you're gonna be a daddy.'

'I do. Ya know Rory was crying because of the betting pool?'

'Oh god. Lorelai must have out me in there anyway. I know Luke would never purposely enter it because he thinks that it's stupid.'

'Yea, she'll be okay. She's been really moody this week. She has her next doctor's appointment in about a week.'

'That should be fun.'

'Yea. Lane was in the pool too. I don't even wanna know what happens with that.'

'Yea, that's a bad one.' Jess agreed.

'That friendship could be put on hold.'

'What could be put on hold?' Rory asked carrying a book and handing it to Jess.

'Oh a book I was telling Jess about at the library.'

'Oh which one?' she asked Tristan.

'Umm, "A Painted House" by John Grisham.' Tristan said thinking of the first book at the top of his head.

'Oh, I've never read that book. I read "The Runaway Jury" and "The Rainmaker". I thought they were good. Let me know what you think.' Jess nodded. He wasn't a fan of mystery.

'So, I just wanted to run an idea by you.' Rory continued to Jess.

'Okay.'

'What would you think if I wrote a book about my life?'

'Well although your life may be interesting, I don't think it would sell because everything in your life has happened a lot more than once I'm sure.'

'Even me being pregnant?'

'Pregnant—yea nobody has ever gotten pregnant before, how you got pregnant or rather who, no offense Tristan, that's more unusual but I guarantee you're not the first.'

'Hmm. What about a random life?' Rory asked.

'Ahh yes, I can see the title now, "Growing up Juju." The reviews would be stellar!' Jess said sarcastically.

'HEY! Juju was a good doll! She helped me with homework, and she's traveled quite a bit!'

'Have you traveled quite a bit—well when you were four?'

'No….'

'So neither has Juju.'

'Wait, is Juju that rag doll with a missing eye and stuffing missing from one of the feet?' Tristan asked.

'That's the one.' Jess said.

'Yea, but it's been to China!'

'How do you know this?' Tristan asked.

'It says on a tag, "Made in China".' Jess and Tristan just sighed,

'I need a grapefruit.' Rory said randomly and walked to the kitchen.

'Has she been that random all week?' Jess asked.

'Yea.' Tristan said shrugging his shoulders.

'Hey you wanna go out a grab a drink or something?' Jess asked looking at his watch.

'Sure, lemme go tell Rory.' Tristan disappeared and then came back.

'Let's go.' Tristan said.

:BAR:

Tristan and Jess sat at two seats at the bar. They ordered two beers and it was given to them promptly.

'So you ready to be a dad?' Jess started.

'Now? God no, but hopefully the baby is really close to being on time so I have enough time to prepare myself.'

'Your actually gonna do this?'

'I wouldn't let Rory do this on her own, I mean this is something we really tried for. Ally wasn't a hard baby, but she still requires a lot of attention.'

'That's true. So how are you doing the custody thing?' Jess asked.

'We haven't even gotten there yet. We're living together now though. We think it'll be easier on the baby if we're used to living together.'

'Wait, you two are together…under the same roof?' Jess asked eyes wide.

'Yup, it was Rory's idea.'

'Well at least Ally will have a cousin.'

'Yea, is Ally excited?'

'She's still not quite sure what a cousin is. She'll understand better later on.'

'You know sometimes I wish me and Rory never got divorced, I mean we did the whole thing wrong.'

'Tell Rory that—when she's a little more normal. She does need you, Tristan. Even if she wasn't pregnant with your child she'd still need you.'

'It still feels right though. Like when she told me, we were stopped at a bench and I was so shocked. Then I pulled her into a hug and it still felt so right. It even felt right when we ditched her birthday party together and had sex.'

'You both got it bad.' Jess said laughing.

'I know, it's a problem.' Tristan said smirking.

'So I never really heard about the divorce. How did that go?'

'I don't know. She kept giving me the divorce papers and eventually I signed them and gave them back to Rory. I'm guessing she took care of it.'

'Didn't you give her access to your bank accounts?'

'Yea, and I never took that away from her. She doesn't need money though. We were both very lucky with our fortunes.'

'I'll say. I wouldn't mind having a sixteenth of what you and Rory have combined!'

'You can have it.'

'Aww, that's so sweet of you.'

'Hey handsome.' A very busty red head said sliding into the stool next to Tristan. (Sorry red heads, but most blondes are actually really smart and intelligent, of course red heads are probably too, it's just, well trying to give blondes a better name.)

'Hi.' He said to her and then turned back to Jess who watched them.

'My name's Kitty, but I'm like a tiger in bed.'

'Really? I'm Tristan, and thanks for the info.' He said sarcastically. A blonde was watching the red head and Tristan. She made her way over.

'Sorry, I'm late babe, but traffic was unbelievable!' she said ordering a drink, and taking Tristan's hand in hers and pushing the red head away. Tristan was confused.

'Huh.' He said giving her a strange look.

'Oh, hi. I'm Liz, please stop drooling over my fiancé and go find some one who's interested.' Liz said to the jealous red head. The red head huffed and walked away cursing. When she was out of sight, Liz took her hand back and got up.

'Wait!' Tristan called to the blonde.

'Yea?' she turned around.

'Who are you?' he asked.

'The name's Jill, Jill Gold. I manage this lovely place.'

'Tristan Dugrey, and this is a good friend, Jess Mariano.'

'Nice to meet you.' She shook both of their hands.

'Thanks, for that.'

'Sure no, problem. After watching this place everyday for your whole life, it gets obvious those who wanna get a one night stand and those who don't.'

'Oh.'

'Yea, and if don't mind me not flirting I actually am married.'

'Oh that's all right. I'm not looking.'

'Kay, have a good afternoon.' She said and then disappeared into the back.

'She seems really nice.' Jess said.

'You're married.'

'And all I said was, "she looks nice".' He said quoting himself.

'Okay.'

'Come on finish up. I challenge you to a game of pool.' Jess said getting up.

'Oh you are SO on!'

I'll try and update soon!