They sat in the living room facing eachother. The air was charged and no one had spoken since their arrival. Between them sat a coffe table, odorned by the telephone. Tristan stared at the phone, and Rory stared at Tristan. His face was pale, and she could have sworn that if they could, his eyes would have bored holes into the plastic phone by now.

The electricity in the room was unnerving, and the tension could have been cut with a knife. Rory tried to look supportive rather than worried. Tristan didn't need to hear her own fears when he was so busy struggling with his own. Neither of them wanted him to leave again. Suddenly Tristan looked up at Rory.

"I won't do it, okay? He ca't make me. If he tries to send me back I'll run away."

"Okay, Tris," Rory said softly. She knew he was only preparing for the difficult call he would inevitable have to make.

They went back to silence.

She could see the emotions leak through his firmly held mask. He was worried, and he was nervous, yes, but those feelings only passed through his eyes momentarily. Mostly he was angry, and sad. Rory understood alienation from one's father, but this took it to the extreme. At least she could talk to Christopher, and they enjoyed eachother's company, as rare as they shared it.

The pair were shocked from their tense reverie when the phone rang. Both of them jumped, and stared at it. While contemplating the consequences of making a call, the thought of someone calling them seemed impossible. It rang again, and Tristan smiled sheepishly. Rory started to laugh, and soon both of them were giggling helplessly at the persistant rings of the phone. Finally, Rory mustered the self control to answer it.

"Hello, is Rudolfo there?" The voice said, and Rory fell into another fit of laughter. Tristan took the phone.

"Hello? Oh. Sorry, wrong number." he hung up and looked up at her.

"Okay, here goes." He dialed the number, and after several minutes of struggling with the international operator, he was put through.

"Hello?" a man's voice came through the line. Tristan cleared his throat and ran his hads through his hair.

"Hi, Dad." there was a long pause.

"Tristan do you know how I found out?" his father asked. Tristan said nothing.

"I got a bill, notifying me that although you were not continuing your education there, the academy required that I pay the bill until the end of the month." Tristan opened his mouth, but then closed it.

"Tristan you will return to Redding within the week or I will be forced to take stronger actions."

"No, Dad, I wont." Tristan finally spoke up. "If you send me there, you can be ure I will be gone again within the week. And this time I wont call you." Threats. He knew this would never work, so he tried logic. "Father regardless of the situation of your location, I need to finish my education at Chilton if I want any chance of going to an Ivy league school."

Mr. DuGrey was very quiet. Tristan could almost see him stroking his beard in thought, and held his tongue. He already knew an emotional appeal wouldn't help his cause, so he just sat there. Rory reached across the coffee table and took his hand.

"Tristan this fantasy of yours is simply not an option. I will be home for the annual new years function in a couple days. We will talk then." The line went dead, but Tristan held the phone to his ear until he heard the dial tone sound again.

"He's coming." Tristan whispered, passing a hand over his eyes. Rory tried to supress it, but her mother's voice chanelled right through her. She wrinkled her nose.

"That's what she said." his eyes widened and an incredulous smile lit up his face. She stepped over the table and sprawled out on top of him. He kissed her.

"You know Mary, I think I've changed you." He smirked.

"Pshah," she scoffed, "Y...I--hmm." He laughed and kissed her again, graciously accepting the victory.

"Oh come on, I'll take you to Lukes."

-

The diner was packed. People filed in and out of the door, and Rory and Tristan were immediately pressed by the thong of busy people.

"That is it!" they heard Luke shout. "Everyone who wants a foot up their ass, stay! Anyone else, get out of my restaurant!" Taylor walked up to the counter.

"Luke, we discussed this. The FLSH needs to meet somewhere. You really should consider joining it, being as you agreed to host the meeting."

"The who?--I did no such thing!" Luke objected indignantly.

"You did, you signed a notice."

"I would have signed anything to get you to leave! You smelled like bathroom cleaner, it was scaring away my customers."

"That was Eau de mistique." Taylor replied, as if it was obvious.

"Out!" Luke thundered, pointing a finger at the door. The crowd slowly filed out fo the diner, among outrages whispers of rudeness. "Rory, hi!" Luke said, once the people parted and he finally spotted her. He set down a steaming cup without any prompting, and Tristan grinned. Rory's addiction was infamous.

"Hello, Tristan," Luke politely acknowledged Rory's boyfriend. Luke hadn't been able to find anything wrong with this kid yet, but he was sure on the look out. If there was some flaw, some discrepancy, he would find it. He was still trying to decide what to think about the whole military school situation. He still hadn't found an excuse not to like the blond boy, but he would. No one was good enough to date Rory.

"Hello, Luke," Tristan said, slapping a five on the table to pay for Rory's coffee. Rory took a happy sip.

"I thought you were going to talk her out of that." Luke grunted at Tristan, indicating Rory and her large mug.

"Hey," Tristan said defensively, "You gave it to her."

"Only because of what Lorelai threatened this morning if I didn't. It involved--never mind. You're too young." Tristan shuddered at what Rory's mom moght have said. Somethings were better off left as secrets. Rory signed in contentment, and turned to look at Tristan, standing behind her. It was this action which led her to her next discovery.

"Finn!" He was sitting at a table across from a red haired girl, sharng a cup of coffee.

"Dimples!" he greeted her, and she walked over. "Hey Trister," he added to Tristan. Tristan nodded.

"So, who's your friend?" He smiled at the girl before responding.

"Not just a friend, love, this is Molly. She stole my heart, so I decided to take her out this fine arvo, and show her the charms of the life she already knew." The girl looked familiar, but Rory couldn't place her.

"Rory Gilmore, right? We were in the same history class when you went to Stars Hollow High. Realization washed over Rory and she shook the girls hand.

"Oh yeah, We had Silverman. Aweful." Molly smiled and Rory and Tristan were about to join the pair, but were rudely interrupted.

"Well, I see you've all met." I sulky voice sounded behind the group, accomompanied by the sound of the diner door slamming shut. Dean walked up to the group, and they all had different reactions.

Tristan unconsiously put his arm around Rory's waist. Well, not that unconsiously. She, however, didn't seem tonotice his action, as she was too busy looking at the floor. She still felt guilty about breaking things off sometimes, even though she knew it wasn't justified.

Finn's brow curved in confusion, and somehow, sarcasm. He was sizing up this new human in his sights, and was rather smug about the results. He was, however, a little bit sullen when Molly stood up.

"Hey, Dean," she smiled, and went over to give him a kiss. Finn's eyes narrowed. Now that he'd seen 'the boyfriend,' he knew he could never pursue matters with Molly. He supressed a sigh of disa;pointment. If he had to go down, he would go down with pride an--oh, they were still talking,

"Hi Dean," Rory said in response to his greeting. Her voice was quiet, and she looked at him after a moment of silence. He looked the same as he'd always had, though now it didn't fill her with any wort of emotion; he was just a guy. She felt Tristan's harm tighten slightly around her waist. Dean saw too, becuase he nodded to him.

"Gatsby,"

"Bag boy," Tristan replied, trying not to enjoy too much, the sight of Dean's nostrils flaring in anger. He turned to Finn.

"Who are you?" he asked bluntly, and Finn fixed him with a cold glare.

"My friends call me Finn." he suggested, but Dean didn't take the hint.

"Yeah? And what do I call you?"

"You don't." Finn retorted waspishly. "I don't generally consort with wackers, and you seem to bejust thelair sort. It's not like I was pashing Molls here, so why don't you just say hooloo, you bloody froot loop." No one had any idea what he'd just said, but it certainly made Finn feel a whole lot better. Dean just grunted and left.

"Come on, Molly." he said, not looking back. Molly shrugged.

"It was really nice to meet you guys." she said, and soon she was out of sight as well.

"Ex bo?" Finn asked Rory, and she nodded. Finn's face however, brightened in a grin from ear to ear. "Nice choice." she shot him a look, but he ignored it and leaned back in his seat, still smiling.

Lot's of things, lots and lot's of things.

No spoilers though, and I suppose I own the Molly character. So, things happened, sort of progressed, and we'll see what happens. I wish I knew how to spell Kapeesh.

So I went to Yale model congress this weekend (the reason for my shameful lack of updates) becuase I am a dork and love it, and the other worldly level of the guys in college have inspired me to get into one.

Thus I will now leave and write more essays.

Or I'll download more music. I ighly recomend the thermals. An endless supply? GREAT song.

Asta