TITLE: No Longer

PAIRING: R/T, L/L, J/P

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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Difficulty Packing:

'Girls!' Rory called having just returned home to Tristan's house to talk to the two. They came down the stairs sulking, Dana even more so.

'Yup?' Tori asked plopping down on the sofa curling her feet underneath her.

'While your dad I guess gets off his important call, I wanted to talk to you about your father and I.'

'Okay…?' Dana said.

'What would you say if your father moved in with us once we got back to Hartford.'

'Uhh…yay?' Tori asked confused.

'What are you talking about mom?' Dana asked also in confusion.

'Uhh well, your dad hasn't said yes yet, but I just wanted to know how you felt about it.'

'I think that'd be cool.' Dana shrugged.

'Tori?'

'Are you and dad gonna get married?' she asked quietly.

'Umm…'

'I want you too. I see how he makes you feel and you to him, and it makes me happy.' Rory smiled.

'Honey, I don't know yet. We want to take this one step at a time.'

'Okay, well I think you should do it—have dad movie in…if he agrees.'

'Okay. So tell me how this...accident happened?' she asked referring to Dana's wrist. By the time Dana finished her story Tristan was off the phone.

'Shouldn't you guys get going?' he asked looking at the time.

'Yea. We'll see you tomorrow?' Rory asked standing up.

'Of course.' He said kissing her lips softly. She smiled up at him and ushered the girls up.

'Bye dad.' Tori said hugging him.

'I'll see you later sweetie.'

'Bye.' Dana said hugging him too.

'I'll see you tomorrow.' Dana hadn't called Tristan "dad" yet, officially. She was still working on it, while for Tori it had some immediately. The three left.

FIVE DAYS LATER—MID AFTERNOON (2:30)

'Anybody home?' Tristan called stepping through the door to Rory's house. He got his answer when he saw a laundry basket fly down the stairs and then saw Tori quickly pick it up and run to the laundry room with it. He walked upstairs and into Rory's room seeing her look through her drawers.

'Looking for something in particular? Like sexy lingerie?' he asked.

'Yea, my red G-string.' She said sarcastically.

'Mary, I didn't know you were into the whole sex appeal thing.' He said smirking.

'Well I couldn't avoid it…I was married to you, wasn't I?' she asked smiling and pulling a pair of drawstring pants from her drawer.

'This is true.' He said walking over to her and stopping right in front of her.

'I missed you.' He said.

'You saw me not even 10 hours ago.' She said laughing quietly.

'So? I still missed you. Plus you never gave me a hello kiss.' He said pouting. She rolled her eyes and kissed him quickly.

'What kind of kiss was that? Did you learn nothing while being married to me?' she rolled her eyes and gave him a sweet lingering kiss. He smiled and brought his lips back onto hers pulling her into his arms. She smiled against his lips and kissed back with more force as she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her. He pulled back slightly staring into her eyes. Rory could feel Tristan's breath on her face. She once again closed the gap between their lips. They broke apart smiling.

'So uhh I've been thinking a lot about this moving in thing.' He started.

'Oh?'

'Yea, and I've decided that if it's okay with the girls, I'll take you up on the offer.'

'Offer?' Rory asked playing dumb.

'Yea, you wanted me to move in with you. I've decided that I'd really like that—if we did that, or I did that.' Her big smile became even bigger when she heard this. She leaned forward so their lips touched, and a jolt of electricity was sent through both of them. The kiss was a magical one, the best either had had, it was full of passion, longing, it told everything that the other wanted to say. After a long time they broke apart and they both smiled, Tristan laced his fingers between Rory's.

'Do you need help with anything?' he asked softly.

'Well…if you're gonna move in, then don't you think you should start packing yourself?' Rory pointed out.

'I've started to already, I've already packed any sheets and towels, except for the stuff I'm using now. I'm in the midst of doing my eatery supplies, and I have all my clothes except for three pairs of pants, two pairs of shoes, and six shirts packed.'

'Uh wow. How the hell are you so efficient?' she asked impressed.

'Genes.' I bet Tori is a quick packer.'

'Always the first one done.' Rory admitted.

'Exactly. So…now I'll help you.' Tristan said clearing out all of her dresser drawers and making eat piles on the bed. Rory began to put the not needed clothes in a box.

'Uh…how often do you pack?' he asked.

'A family rents this house to us each summer. We bring clothes, pictures, food, etc. Takes about a day and a half to unpack or like now, packed.'

'That's not too bad.' He said shrugging. He took a picture of her nightstand and wrapped it in tissue paper. He picked up another one and looked at it carefully.

'Where'd you get this?' Tristan asked. It was picture of them 15 years ago on their wedding day, but he had never seen it before.

'Paris actually found a whole roll of film about a year after our divorce.'

'I like this picture.' He said wrapping it carefully. Rory stopped what she was doing and sat on the bed.

'Do you think we'll ever be as happy as we were when we first got married?' she asked hoping. He looked at her strangely. He moved a pile of clothes and sat down next to her.

'I don't know Rory. No one knows, not even the powerful Lorelai Gilmore.'

'I haven't thought about being in a relationship for a long time. I don't need answers now, I just…I don't know.' She sighed.

'You just want to know if you're on a worth while path in your life instead of one that will lead to sadness? You want comfort in knowing a part of your future?' he asked.

'Wow, I forget how well you knew me.' She breathed.

'Yea, but even I, Mr. Spontaneity, wants that comfort too. I haven't had a date in 4 year, 231 days, 15 hours, and 17 minutes.' He said.

'What?'

'Yea I made that up, but it's been almost five years I guess.' They were quiet for a while.

'What's your last vivid memory of me?' Rory asked.

'Umm probably the most vivid is that time at the Chilton reunion—the reason why we have Tori, but the last one that I really remember is when I saw you unconscious after the accident.'

'What about it?'

'You hadn't been making any progress and I asked you to make or give some kind of sign that you could hear me I guess.'

'And what happened?' she asked connecting it to something else.

'You're a, your heart stopped.' He said quietly. She covered her mouth in shock.

'I had a dream. I felt lonely. I felt myself get weaker and weaker, but I felt like I needed to reach for something…but I couldn't. I just let go. The next thing I remember is feeling refreshed and…strangely, happy.' She recalled. He listened surprised.

'We've never had this type of conversation before.' Tristan realized.

'No, we haven't. It's nice to have someone to talk to again.'

'Ditto.'

'But it feels slightly different.'

'How so?'

'Like it'll work this time…fate…I don't know.'

'Good ole' fate.' Tristan laughed.

'If I wouldn't have gotten into that accident, we wouldn't be in this position today.'

'That's true. If I would've waited till I got back to my house to take Advil 11 years ago, Tori wouldn't be here.'

'Strange.' Rory said thinking.

'Thinking hard?'

'Ehh, just about the whole fiasco with Dana's pregnancy.'

'Ahh yes, some of the most confusing months of my life.'

'Any part in particular?'

'The months when you were in rehab, everyone kept the secret, let me know that they had a secret, but didn't budge on telling me what it was. Or when you ran away everytime you saw me…you know the confusing stuff you all put me through!'

'Sorry.' Rory said cringing.

'Uh huh…course you are.' Tristan said laughing.

'Mom?' they looked at the door to see Tori standing there.

'Yea?'

'The only thing left for me to pack are my pictures and you said you had a special box for them.'

'Yea, just wrap them. I'll bring the box in, in a minute.'

'Kay.' Tori said walking away. Rory turned back to Tristan.

'Help me more?' Rory asked standing up.

'Sure' he said continuing with his previous task. Rory returned to packing her clothes.

'So Rory where do you live now?'

'Well that's another thing. Almost all of our stuff is in storage. The house I had before wasn't great so I'm in the process of finding a new one. We have to be out of the house by October 24th. I figured we'd find something by then.'

'Hopefully, if not there's always hotels.'

'Tristan.' She said smiling slightly.

'What is it with you and hotels? Geez.' He said smiling wide.

'You know I've never liked them. Can't explain why.'

'Yea, the first time we had sex was in a hotel.'

'Indeed it was.'

'Maybe we could even get the same room.' He smirked.

'Uhh no. I don't know, maybe they remind me of how bad the sex was.' She said teasing.

'Hey! I take personal offense to that!' he said placing his hand over his chest.

'Well you should.' She said giving him her own smirk.

'Speaking of this topic, we never did find out why you didn't get pregnant, did we?' Rory was silent for a moment. Her smile faded.

'Nope.' She said sadly.

'You ever wonder what would've happened?' he asked.

'For what?' Dana asked appearing in the doorway.

'Nothing important, what's up?' Rory asked standing up.

'I'm having trouble with some of the packing.' She said pointing to her cast clad arm. Tristan nodded and left the room with Dana. Rory thought about Tristan had just said. She wasn't sure if it was the entirety of the conversation or bits and pieces that sent her into deep thought. All she knew was that her head was now swarming again with things she hadn't thought about since the day she told Tristan she was pregnant.

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AGAIN IF YOU DIDN'T VOTE GO TO EITHER CH. 32 OR 33 AND VOTE! That's chapter thirty-four. I really hoped you liked this chapter. As always, please review. Thanks, Kiki.