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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Our Daughter's:

When they went to talk to Dana and Tori about this "new" relationship, they were both ecstatic. Neither of them had seen their mother so happy before. The four of them had talked many times after that of what this would mean, what would change, what wouldn't etc. It was August 17th, and Rory was having a small annual party. Dana and Tori were blowing up balloons while Rory brought out bottles of soda with Kyle trailing behind her with the ice. Soon guest's started to arrive. A few of Dana's friends had showed up and they were getting soda as Tori ran to the brown-haired young man that had just entered the yard.

'Tori!' he said happily bending down to hug her.

'Aaron you came!' she beamed.

'Of course I did.' He said laughing. She took his hand and dragged him to Rory.

'Mom!' Rory turned around and smiled.

'Aaron.' She said hugging her younger brother.

'Hey how are you?'

'I'm good.'

'I'll be right back.' Tori said running off.

'Yea? I heard from mom that my niece's dad came back.'

'Yea, he did. We're actually together now.'

'Really? And mom knows about this?' he asked surprised.

'Yes Aaron!' Rory smiled as she watched Tristan walked outside with Tori holding a bag full of items he promised to bring.

'So you're happy then?' he asked concerned.

'I'm happier than I have been in a long time.' She admitted to him.

'That's great Ror. Really, you deserve it.' He said patting her on the arm.

'Thanks, and you? Any lucky girls?'

'Actually I haven't told mom yet so keep it on the DL, but I was hanging out with this girl named Kyra, about a week ago. We seemed to connect so after this I'm going out with her somewhere.' Rory smiled and hugged her brother.

'Hello Mary.' Rory turned and saw Tristan walking up to them. He gave her a quick kiss and then stared at the young man in front of him. Aaron stared back.

'Uhh are you guys okay?' Rory asked confused.

'Oh my god.' Tristan said.

'What's going on?' Rory demanded.

'I—uhh Dana. You Dana—and Tori's uncle.' He said suddenly.

'Rory is that…?' Aaron asked shocked. No wonder the guy looked so familiar.

'Yup. Aaron, meet Tristan Dugrey, Tristan meet Aaron Gilmore-Danes.' They shook hands awkwardly. They were interrupted by loud laughs. The three turned and saw Dana and her friends laughing, and then saw a younger girl run.

'Excuse me.' Tristan said and went after the girl. He stopped her and a quieter area of the yard.

'Tori.' He said. She turned around. His jaw opened when he saw her eyes puffy and red. He sat on the grass and motioned for her to do so also.

'You wanna tell me what happened?' he asked. She shrugged.

'It still hurts…' he said for her. She nodded and wiped away the falling tears.

'And with Dana's friends being here, it's even worse?' she nodded again.

'You're good.' She commented.

'I've been there. I remember the first few months being hard—really hard but it gets easier, I promise.'

'Mom has this shindig every year. Every year she comes.' She explained a little.

'I don't know if your mom ever told you this, but Gilmore's have a history of prestige, strength, and warm hearts. Your other half is Dugrey blood. Dugrey's have a history of strength, stubbornness, and prestige. You've got a hell of a combination there. If a Gilmore can do it, so can a Dugrey and vice versa. You will make it through this but I'm not going to lie to you. I sometimes still feel sadness but I can't let it take over my life. Matt wanted so much for me and Beth wants that for you too. She'd want you to have fun.' She nodded and stood up with him. He gave her a comforting hug.

'Thanks…dad.' She said sincerely.

'Anytime sweetie.' She smiled and walked her over to Rory and Aaron. Rory looked at Tori and immediately gave her a hug. She mouthed "thank you" to Tristan. Aaron watched this whole thing happen. If only Rory and Tristan were married they'd look like an actually family.

'Tori, are you okay?' Aaron asked.

'Yea.' She nodded and walked away.

'Beth?' Rory asked. Tristan nodded.

'Her friend—Beth committed suicide about a month ago.' Tristan explained.

'Oh wow.' Aaron breathed. Rory wrapped her arms around Tristan and hugged him. He wrapped her one arm around her holding her to him.

'That must be difficult.' Aaron said.

'Yea.' They two nodded.

'I'm going to go talk to Kyle.' Aaron said and walked away.

'Thank you…again.' Rory said. He kissed her hair.

'No problem.'

'Guess what?' she asked suddenly sounding excited.

'What?'

'I love you.' She smiled.

'Is that so? Well, I just happen to love you too.' He said kissing her softly. She kissed him back and broke the kiss.

'Hey Tristan?' she asked sounding serious.

'Yea?'

'Can we talk alone later?'

'Yea, is everything okay?' he asked worried.

'Yea everything's fine.' She reassured him.

'Sure, we can talk when everyone leaves.' She smiled and kissed him again before dragging him to come meet some people.

ONE AND A HALF HOURS LATER

Almost everyone had left and just a few people were still there cleaning up. Tristan came back from bringing a big bag of trash to the end of the driveway.

'Hey Rory, you wanna talk now?'

'Yea let's go inside.' Once inside, Rory lead him to the small study/library and shut the door.

'I uhh I wanted to talk about us.'

'Okay…?' Tristan persuaded her.

'I-uhh I live in Connecticut during the school year. You live down here year round.' Tristan knew what she talking about. The inevitable discussion about the distance.

'Well…I'll come with you.' He said.

'What? Your whole life is down here!'

'You're not, the girls aren't. I'd say that my life is wherever you and the girls are.'

'What about the stuff you have down here?'

'There are more then enough law firms in Hartford, and plenty of places to live.'

'So you'd just pick up and leave just for us?'

'Yea, pretty much.' He said. She smiled.

'This conversation was much easier then I thought it would be.' Rory smiled and Tristan laughed slightly.

'Is that it?' Tristan asked.

'Yea, but I'm not sure if I agree with you finding your own place.'

'Oh?'

'Yea, come live with me.'

'Whoa, isn't that a little quick?' she shrugged.

'I don't know, Rory. I'll tell you what, at the end of the month we'll revisit this moving thing, okay?' she smiled and agreed.

'So uhh when did you see Aaron? I mean the last time you saw him was when he was about six I guess.'

'Dana—before I knew who she was exactly, I re-met him. He said I seemed familiar and vice versa.'

'Ahh okay.' She nodded understanding.

'So uh whatever happened to Jess and Paris?' Tristan asked.

'They're alive.'

'No I mean, I lost touch with over the years. I was just wondering how they were doing.'

'They're good. Ali supposedly has a pretty serious boyfriend. Jess is in the midst of writing his third book and Paris opened her own medical practice about five years ago. She's doing very well.'

'Wow, I missed a lot.'

'Yea, you did.' She said sadly but patted his arm.

'And Luke and your mom?'

'Mom's mom—still running the Dragonfly, Luke still has his diner and you just saw Aaron.'

'They didn't have anymore kids?' he asked curious.

'Uhh…actually when Aaron was I think eight, mom had another baby boy.'

'Really?'

'Yea, but umm, due to complications, he didn't make it.'

'How old?'

'Nine days, but he was 2 1/2 months premature.'

'Oh wow. I'm sorry.'

'Yea we all are, but they've moved on.'

'Whom else haven't I talked to in forever?'

'Me.' He frowned slightly and pulled her into a hug.

'Come on, let's go find our daughter's.' Tristan said taking her hand.

'Our daughter's.' Rory repeated smiling and walked out with him in search for their daughter's.

E

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Thank you all SOO much for your feedback! I understand that my slowness in getting these chapters out is annoying and I'm greatly sorry for that, but I'm really trying! If you didn't get a chance to vote for what you want to happen later on in the story, you can still do so!

(Taken from Chapter 31)

To my amazing loyal reviewers:

I am reaching out ALL of you once again. I would like to know how you want this story to not necessarily end, but in which direction I should take it, which would happen to lead up to the end. I've listed some possibilities below, and I'd like you to tell me which I should/shouldn't do. If you think of more ideas tell me! I'm open to everything, although I can't promise I'll use it! Also I may use many ideas and combined them. Please let me know your thoughts!

1. Something goes wrong – a character dies perhaps (not on purpose – like an accident)

2. Rory and Tristan get married again

3. Rory gets pregnant…again (could be Tristan's child, or look at next idea for other branch of this topic)

4. Someone cheats on someone (not necessarily Rory/Tristan – Rory could get pregnant from some one else while cheating)

5. Rory and Tristan drift apart

6. Tristan moves in with Rory, Dana, and Tori

7. An event happens that brings Rory/Tristan closer or apart

So some of these I don't want to do (like the cheating option), but I'm going to leave it all up to you guys. Remember, you can give me more options! The future of this story lies in your hands (wow, that sounds kinda strange…lol)