Disclaimer: They are not mine. I own nothing more than my ideas. If I did…do you think I'd spend my free time entertaining you all?

Dénouement?

To Rory's amazement they didn't even bother with a car to get to dinner. Tristan simply exited the apartment, offered his arm to Rory and proceeded into the now empty and dark Singapore Botanical Gardens conveniently located nearby. As they approached the darkened pathway, Rory paused for a moment and glanced up at the man who currently supported her both physically and now asked her allow him to support her emotionally. Rory could feel the change in the air. The unasked question of trust. Trust in Tristan to take care of her walking into the complete oppressing tropical rainforest darkness that the botanical gardens presented. Looking at him, the pro-con list was short. By a land slide, Tristan won in his favour.

With apprehension, Tristan slowed as the approached the entrance, waiting and holding his baited breath, waiting for Rory to protest the uncomfortable situation, claiming dangerous things that go bump in the night, or at least to joke about exactly how safe her virtue would be in an isolated situation with Tristan. Instead she surprised both herself and Tristan by wrapping her gauzy shawl tighter around her shoulders to ward off the prickly feeling of ghostly fingers she got at night.

Looking up at Tristan she whispered. "In omnia paratus."

Tristan only responded by clutching her hand tighter and as he heard Rory take a deep breath and they stepped into the complete darkness of the path, a motion sensor triggered and instead of being bathed in the shadows, Rory found herself in a sparkling wonderland not unlike the one at the party they had attended a few nights past.

As Rory gasped and twirled and twirled, giggling like a child again, Tristan could only beam at his job well done. He had borrowed the lights from the country club and pulled some strings to get them to set up the world famous orchid gardens with the sparkly lights and to stay open after hours. Until that moment he had been worried that his actions may have been compared to Logan's in her mind. He wanted desperately to separate her memories of him with her memories of Logan however with the precious little information he had to go on, this was the best he could come up with. Extravagant, yes, but it wasn't a sight meant for the world to see. No one would have to know about this date if Rory didn't want it. However much he wanted to be with Rory, for her to give him a chance, he didn't have the patience, nor the time, nor courage enough to stand by her if she didn't let him in soon. A person can only stand so much. Tristan had reasoned, it was the cowards way out, but its easier to be happy that the person you love is happy with someone else the farther you are from them. But for the moment things were looking up.

As Tristan seated them, he realized that he hadn't spoken a single word to Rory since they had left the room, yet that didn't seem to be a problem with them. Communication without words, and when there was nothing to say the silence was as comfortable as an old sweater.

Rory was simply taking her situation in, to be honest, in the last few days she had thought about Logan. She had compared the two boys, correction, a boy and a man, and there was no comparison. She did know however, that when she did think about Logan, there was simply a passing pang of regret that things didn't work out. No longer did she have full blown panic attacks of repressed feelings when he entered her mind. She felt at peace.

Throughout the dinner, they chatted about their lives after Chilton. However, unlike before, there was less of a focus on Tristan's past, and more on Rory's. Stars Hollow and it's cast of characters posing as small town potatoes, each with their unknown unbelievable quirks. Kirk and his unbelievable wealth and lack of business morals, Miss Patty and her unending quest for the next husband, Babette, the cool cats, Morey and the gnomes, Michel and his strange pseudo-French-ness… Rory simply rambled on and on. Eventually she got through thorough synopses of Dean, Jess and even Logan. As she spoke and spoke of her past and he listened as attentively as men during the first hockey game of the season, she realized as beneficial as what Tristan did for her was, it was time to go home.

Come what may, she's give Tristan this night, even if she was wrong and his intentions were the same as in high school. He deserved at least that much for what he'd done.

As she redirected the conversation back at Tristan, she found she wanted to share her world with him. This chameleon fit so well in with her, he just may survive the culture shock that was her home.

After dinner as Tristan pulled her close and slow danced with her to unheard music, Rory gathered unneeded courage to make her request known before his magic hands rubbing small circles on the small of her back lulled her into Doris Day female complacency.

From afar the couple looked like the perfect couple, the type that statistically shouldn't exist. As Rory whispered into Tristan's ear, his face broke into the most beautiful smirk then a smile. He picked Rory up by her waist and spun her around.

His answer was, "it may take a while to get there, but Mary, I thought you'd never ask."

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

A/N: Muahahahaha. I'll tell you right off the bat…its not the question you'll likely think it is. But maybe it is…I'd like to know what you all think. Please review and thank you for reading. As to the "life is crazy" please elaborate…WELL…you've opened a can of worms…but since you asked so nicely. I've had a miserable week of midterms, projects going wrong…my photomicrographs of tissues…I worked forever to take the 35mm pictures I wanted…and when I developed….there was nothing there. I loaded the film in the camera wrong. I spilled a known carcinogen staining dye on my lab coat, and I lost my starbucks card…even though it only had 5 bucks on it…its still 5 bucks…one latte and a muffin. Plus, it was a pretty card too…the one with the silhouette couple dancing on it. Traffic was miserable and even though I left 15 minutes earlier to get to school on time for a midterm, I got to school 20 minutes later that I usually do because it seems like everyone has forgotten how to drive in the rain.

But BONUS! Over 200 reviews. You all are great. Amazing. I alway read stories with tonnes of reviews that were above average...and I thought, I could do better...I think I'm well on my way to developing my fiction skills.