Disclaimer: They are not mine. I own nothing but my ideas.

Some Enchanted Evening

Rory looked around in amazement. The ballroom had no walls, only pane glass windows divided almost invisibly with thin white support beams, the ballroom looked out into a massive tropical garden covered in twinkle lights. Even with all the A-list event exposure Rory had had with the LDB nothing ever prepared her for the first wave of awe that always occurred upon entrance to such a grand event.

Tristan whirled her around the room, making the usual perfunctory introductions. The entire time, Tristan kept his arm firmly planted on Rory's waist and not without difficulty kept his hand from wandering. The affect was immediate and lasting, Rory needn't have put blush on as Tristan's close attention kept the blood in her cheeks. Tristan however was oblivious to this affect on her, actually he thought that even with the air-conditioning Rory's dress was a tad too heavy for the tropics. He never considered that he could have such an effect on her without any effort.

Rory felt very much like the little princess going to the ball. She had a handsome prince escort, a gorgeous dress, exotic local what more could a girl want. Tonight was going to be magical. Nothing could go wrong.

Until…

Someone exiting the ballroom to take a private walk in the gardens caused a quick waft of tropical air to blow past Rory, nothing particularly special about draft, except the scent carried past her. Rory inhaled deeply, the rich preppy cologne immediately evoking a warm fuzzy feeling in the deep recesses of her stomach. Logan's cologne. With eyes closed, she didn't notice Tristan's attention fall back on her. On the back of her eyelids, she could see images float across, the sweater and leather jacket she would lean against while walking outside with Logan on a cold day to warm her nose. The tanned silky expanse of chest and soothing heartbeat lullaby she slept on, safe and secure…but as always, memory is a two sided coin, the memory of heartbreak, the memory of being alone, the thought that something was wrong with her.

It's the Gilmore's fate, to have heartache, heartbreak, to have those that we love leave us. Mom left Grandma and Grandpa, Dad left Mom, Dean, Jess, Logan left me… Rory stopped herself before the runaway train of negative thoughts could pull her from the previous joy and amusement of the evening.

The energy and precision to control and rein in her thoughts had come back somewhat in the past few days. She was still vulnerable, but the removal of worry about running into Logan around campus and the diversions Tristan planned had help her start to rebuild, but to even stop her negative thoughts at the moment drained her.

Tristan wordlessly watched as Rory's personality collapsed, not in pain and agony, he would have recognized the after effects that had surrounded their first Yalie encounter. Rory collapsed from exhaustion. His support of her increased, the arm around her waist tightened and his far arm reached in front to lead her by the hand. With a wordless nod towards Finn indicating the gardens, Tristan took Rory outside. Rory was physically fine, but the mental exertion of controlling her virulent thoughts had taken a lot out of her. She complacently let Tristan lead her, even moving to bury her face in the crook of his shoulder, deeply inhaling Tristan's sharper more poignant scent in an attempt to starve the fuel the memories had fed on.

As they walked past the waiters on their way outside, Tristan leaned over and whispered to an attendant to bring as many mosquito coils as possible to the koi pond and to leave them in an effective perimeter around a stone bench. Tristan lead Rory to the bench raking his mind for every bit of information he had about her, how to support her without invading her space. The koi were the best he could do at such a late hour, he just hoped they would give her a fraction of the peace her beloved Japanese Garden did at home.

As they reached the bench, Tristan sat first, while Rory remained standing and stared at her feet. He was amazed, Rory could, without changing a single physical thing about herself go from beautiful, to gorgeous and sexy, to enchanting, back to a child. A revelation hit him. If he was to be successful and convince this enigma to stay by his side, he would have to appeal all aspects of her nature. The child needed the love and affection and be a strong male role model, the refined and literati aspect needed stimulation and challenge, while the constrained proper society girl needed a balance between order and propriety, with spontaneity. The answer was so simple, Tristan finally understood why it had eluded men for so long. Girls think too much, and they jump to conclusions too often, the always want what they do not have, and therefore are confused when making choices leading them to be the temperamental confusing contradictions that men deal with.

As Rory finally peeled her gaze from the dull pavement, Tristan noticed how vulnerability made Rory appear as naïve as she had in high school. In a voice so tiny he had actually pieced her request together by reading her lips, she said "Tristan, can I….may….I… sit on your lap? Please?"

The request was so tentative and unsure Tristan felt it pull at his heart demanding attention. "Mary, you never have to ask." With that Tristan opened his arms and Rory sat sideways across his lap. She finally let herself go and Tristan simply held her for what he thought was the shortest half hour in his life.

"Thank you." Again the tiny voice, so soft it could be mistaken for the wind through the trees broke the silence that had become so comfortable between the couple.

"You're welcome." Tristan decided to wing it and let Rory lead this interaction.

"Why are you so nice to me?" Rory sat up a little and instead of talking into his shoulder while gazing off across the pond she looked at his face. It had been so long since she had been held by a strong male. As a child she could wheedle gruff affection from Luke, while being crushed at her attempts at affection with her father. As a teen, there had been Dean, Jess, Logan. For the past year there had been no one. It was not appropriate in her mind to hug friends, somehow with all her male friends having either girlfriends or interests, it wasn't appropriate to turn to them for affection of the physical nature.

"Because you deserve to be treated that way." Tristan replied as if it was the most natural answer.

"Why did you take me here?" she continued.

"Here as in Singapore, or here as in the garden…well I took you away from Yale cause you seemed to be doing horribly there, you needed a change of scenery and company. The garden because I thought you were about to faint for a moment in there, besides…" Tristan continued while bringing his hand to cup her cheek. "The view is more lovely out here with the little lights than being stifled in that ballroom."

When the evidence doesn't match the hypothesis Rory knew she may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Wasn't it Sir Karl Popper who said, just because scientists have only ever encountered white swans it doesn't mean all swans are white? One can never fully prove a hypothesis to be true whereas it would only take one discovery to disprove it. Just because all the men in Rory's life had been jerks, doesn't mean all are. Look at how many it took her mom to go through before she found Luke? Where would the world be if everyone simply accepted the knowledge they gained through experience as law? Special Relativity would never had replaced aspects of Newtonian physics, Light would never be considered both a wave and a particle, the world would not make sense.

Rory decided, that she would take the chance, the chance she knew she now needed to make her world make sense.

"Tristan," Rory's voice though still weak held a note of determination. "I need you to tell me truthfully like you promised, I am not a conquest, a notch in your belt or headboard."

Tristan understood the gravity of her request and worded his response carefully. "Once upon a time, many years ago, I can't tell you whether you were a conquest or not."

At this Rory's face fell, and a tear leaked out the side. "Oh…" she started.

Tristan's grip around her tightened as he moved to wipe away the offending tear with the pad of his thumb. "Now, you are not. I haven't entertained a conquest in years. I escort many girls attempting to land me to events that I am obligated to attend, but I never pay them more attention than the perfunctory introductions, one dance and a drink. With you, I've spent more time stressed out over your condition and happiness than anything else. I told you on the plane. I'm in this for the future. If I ever get you to agree to be my girlfriend, I promise it would be exclusive for the duration and if I had my way it ends with two Dugreys and death do us part."

At this admission, Rory rested her head against Tristan's shoulder, her breath tickling his ear and neck. "Then I think there's some things I need to share. I want to share as much as I can, but some of it is confusing, I don't quite understand me…but I'll tell you what I know."

As she moved off Tristan's lap so he could be more comfortable during her sharing time, Rory caught the last refrain of "Moon River" playing as the doors opened once more to let another couple seeking privacy escaped from the ballroom. With the doors closing behind the defectors, the music faded. Rory felt that definitively this night, she would place her history where it belonged and move forward with the reformed ladies man beside her. Whether her history would stay in the past where she wanted it was another question, but she felt that Tristan would know exactly what she needed to put it back if it acted up again.

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A/N: My lab class today got cancelled so I got off early. YAY! My good mood was very conducive to writing and I felt inspired. Next chapter (or two) will be Rory telling Tristan her past, her insecurities and essentially laying it out on the line for Tristan. We all know what he's going to do with her heart . How long the chapters are completely depend on the "Rory" in my head, how much she wants to share and how much detail she wants to put in.

LoVe23: I would show you what all the chapters look like, but in all honesty, they're not written down in some notebook or even drafted on paper or computer. I find if I do that…I never actually get around to writing, it will stay in the planning stages for ages. So, I have a general idea of what I want them to do, I aim for the characters to reach each point, but the path there…totally up to the story and it's flow.

For example, I had planned when I sat down to write this chapter today for Rory to blow up and really attack Tristan, but when they got to the party, they had other plans and instead of an angry aggressive Rory, we've got the side of Rory that ends up with a hangover and a tile print on her cheek.

To my dear readers and reviewers, I hope you have an amazing weekend.