NO LONGER:

TITLE: No Longer

PAIRING: L/L, J/P, 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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Life After Death:

By the time they all ran out of things to say, it was well past midnight. Tori yawned as her eyes started to droop more then they already were.

'Alright, we should probably get going.' Rory said starting to get up. Tristan was on the couch next to Dana, and Tori were leaning on Rory on the loveseat. Tori and Dana groaned.

'Mom, it's too late to go home!' Tori whined.

'Yea can we just stay here tonight?' Dana agreed. Rory looked to Tristan for help. He shrugged but spoke when Rory gave him a look.

'You should do what your mom says, but you're welcome to stay here tonight.' The girls looked to Rory pleading silently.

'Fine.' She said giving up.

'Rory you can stay too. I'll sleep on the couch.'

'No it's okay, I'll sleep with Dana and Tori.' Rory said. He nodded and led them upstairs. Tori and Dana went ahead. Rory and Tristan stopped in the middle of the hallway out of earshot of their daughter's.

'Thank you.' Rory said. He smiled and patted her arm then turned and walked into his room. She went into the girl's room and lied down. About an hour and a half later, Tristan woke up. He was surprised he was actually able to sleep with his daughter's and ex-wife right across the hall. He put on a t-shirt and padded out of his room and down the stairs. He saw a figure on the sofa sitting up. The small light was in showing it was Rory.

'Hey.' He said. She turned around.

'Hey.'

'Couldn't sleep?'

'Nope.'

'Yea me neither.' He said. She patted next to her on the sofa. He sat. They were quiet for a while deep in thought when Rory spoke.

'So what was your first impression of Tori?'

'My daughter.' He said smiling. She laughed quietly.

'Well I can definitely tell why.' She said.

'You did good Rory, you really did.'

'No I didn't. I let Dana down. She's 15, she almost grown up and most likely at a time in he life when she needs me.'

'I won't deny that you hurt her, but you did fine.'

'How can you say that? I refused to let them see you! They didn't get all those negative thoughts about you on their own!'

'Then why'd you do it?'

'I was mad, hurt, desperate.' A pause. 'I loved you and I missed you to much.' She lifted her head and allowed him to see the tears that had started to fall down her cheeks.

'Oh Rory.' He said pulling her into a hug.

'When you asked me mid July to see them last year, I freaked.' She said biting her lip.

'And that's when you started your freaky business trips.' Tristan said as it all dawned on him.

'Same as this year.' She added. He hugged her tighter. Her crying subsided and she pulled away slightly.

'We should try and get some sleep.' Rory said yawning. He nodded but neither made a motion of moving. He smiled and took the blanket off the floor and covered him and Rory. She snuggled down into the sofa and moved up against Tristan's body. He gently wrapped his arm around her waist and held her. They stayed that way for the rest of the night.

The sun came through the windows waking Rory up. It was 8 am and she needed to movie quickly so she wouldn't be late for work. She straightened her clothes and left a note. She kissed both girls on the forehead before coming to a still slumbering Tristan. She watched him sleep for a while before she brought her hand gently to his cheek.

'What are you doing to me?' she whispered to his sleeping figure. She let her hand drop and leaned forward placing a gentle kiss on his lips before getting up and leaving for work. About a half hour later, Tristan woke up. He saw Rory's note.

Tristan-

I had to go to work. The girls are still sleeping upstairs, and they are welcome to stay if you let them. I'll call later today.

-Rory

He walked upstairs and found the girls sitting up and talking. There were tears in Tori's eyes. He knocked softly on the doorframe and came into the room. They both looked up and watched as he sat down on the end.

'Everything okay?' he asked concerned.

'Yea.' Tory said but Dana shook her head.

'Okay, Dana, what's wrong?'

'Well we were talking about Beth.'

'That was your friend, right?' he asked Tori. She silently nodded.

'Look I know you may not trust me yet, but it's okay to miss her.'

'I just wish the sadness would go away and she'd be here.'

'I didn't know Beth but I'm sure she was an amazing girl.'

'She was' she said quietly. Dana frowned and put her arm around Tori.

'So what's up with you and mom? Dana asked changing the subject.

'What do you mean?' he asked suspiciously.

'Now that you've been talking and stuff.'

'Would you mind, I guess, clarifying a little more?'

'Are you and mom going to get back together?'

'I don't know.' He said truthfully.

'Huh?' Tori questioned.

'Although your mom and I talked earlier this summer, this is the first time we've seen each other in over 5 years. Things are different now.'

'How?' Tori asked. Tristan took a deep breath.

'Well your mom and I are different people. When I was with her back when she was pregnant with Dana, there was a big possibility that we'd get remarried. Bu we didn't stay together so now everything's different.' He said.

'Oh.' Tori said still not understanding it completely.

'You girls wanna get some breakfast or something?'

'I'm not hungry.' Tori said. Tristan sighed. It was the same as before. She was living off sugary drinks…according to the camp; she hadn't actually eaten anything but drinks for four days. By now she hadn't in about 5 1/2 days. He knew she was scared. The funeral was the next day and she had already pleaded not to go.

'Hey Dana, can you give us a minute?' he said and she nodded and left shutting the door. He took a deep and met her eyes.

'I've always known I was a father, but up until yesterday, I didn't know that you were my daughter too.' She nodded.

'I've never had the chance to actually be a dad so if I screw this up, I'm sorry.'

'You couldn't screw up anymore than me.'

'Why do you say that?' her tears had started again.

'Beth wouldn't be dead if I hadn't of gone to that freaking camp.' She said sounding completely defeated.

'I'm going to tell you something no one else knows, and I need you to keep it to yourself okay?'

'Kay.' She said wiping away the tears.

'As I told you yesterday, my friend Matt died when I was 14. Not many knew that we were really good friends. One time we even took my pocketknife and cut the inside's of our thumbs and mixed our blood together. We had been friends since we were I think 6, maybe 5, so when I went over to his house to tell him about my latest date, his mom answered the door. I noticed her eyes were red but I didn't know why. When she answered the door, she started to cry. She brought me inside and left me in her family room. She returned with an envelope and told me to go home and open it. When I got home I looked at the envelope. It had my name written on the outside in his handwriting.' He took a deep breath. He still had trouble with it. Tori shifted on the bed and continued to listen intently. He took another breath.

'When I opened it, there was a letter, 2 pictures, and 3 baseball cards. He had the only three baseball cards I didn't have. I always pretended to take them or joked about having stolen them. The two pictures were taken about 4 months before. One was of me that he had taken to blackmail me with and the other one was of us both when we were in a skateboard competition. We won. When I saw the stuff, I was confused. It was almost like he was no longer around. That's when I decided to read the letter. If I'd of known what it said, I probably wouldn't have read it.'

'What did it say?' she asked cautiously. He took a moment then started to speak.

'Over the years it's been forgotten, so I'll have to show you it.' He got up and returned with a small box. He opened it up and took out the old envelope. He carefully emptied it, letting Tori see that everything that was originally in it was still there. He handed her a letter. She started to read.

Tristan-

By the time you read this, I'll probably have gone through with it. If I haven't, I don't want you to stop me. Since I can imagine the confused look on your face, I'll explain. You know after my father died, I changed. I was doing drugs, drinking alcohol, snorting, smoking, drinking, swallowing, injecting, etc. Any way of getting the drugs in me, I did. I never thanked you for dragging my into the drug rehab. I almost fucked up my life and you were the only one who didn't abandon me. As you also know, I pulled through, and I've been clean up until now—but I'll get to that. The baseball cards are the one's you've always begged me for. I have no use for them, so I want you to have them. I have no way nor would I want to actually blackmail you so I gave you that "good" photo, and the other one my mom never got copied so I got one for you. I have the copy and I gave you the original. Now the hard part. I'll tell you what I did (if I've already done it). I did it. I didn't overdose; I didn't use a bad mix or even drugs at all. I used water. Yea, I know…water? You were the one reason, the only reason I wanted to live, and I knew if I was ever going to get through this stage was to be with my father. I'm gonna miss you so much Tristan, that I need to tell you that in no way did I ever want to hurt you. You were always the strong one, the smart one, practically my big brother which makes me even more upset. I hope your date with Shari was good :wink, wink: Take care of yourself Tristan and remember, one girl will always love you for you. She'll be your soul mate and you'll have a beautiful family. I wish I could've seen it.

-Matt

Tori looked up from the letter to see Tristan looking down.

'How'd you know he drowned himself?' she asked.

'I was the one who knew he committed suicide. His mom thought he ran away, and she never went into his bathroom. When I went over to tell his mom about the note, I had gone into his bathroom and saw him fully clothed in a bathtub full of water, dead. His mom saw Matt when she came running when she heard the bang on the floor from me passing out.'

'Oh my god.' She said covering her mouth.

'But I went to his funeral and you wanna know why?' she shrugged.

'I don't know.'

'Well I went because I personally needed to know that everything was perfect, and the fact that I refused to let them know about his death unless I was allowed to make the only speech. I went because he was the person who made me see life the way it was. Not always happy. I needed him to know that no matter what, I would always care about him.'

'I should go to her funeral.' She said painfully.

'And if you want, I'll be right there with you.'

'Will you?'

'Of course.' He told her sincerely.

'Life goes on.' She said quietly.

'But you will never forget those you love, no matter what you think.' He added. She smiled and got up taking his hand.

'Can we get some breakfast? She asked. He rose.

'I'm right behind you.'

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I'm really proud of this chapter. Yes, it's depressing but I really like it! Reviews PWEASE:0) Thanks, Kiki