One Less Mistake

Summary: What if Lorelai hadn't gotten pregnant until she was 20? What if she had agreed to marry Christopher when she did? AU.

Pairings: Rory/Dean, with Lor/Luke later on

Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB

AN: Topher, short for Christopher, is Lorelai and Chris' son. He's two years younger than Rory.

Fox24-thanks

Lorelai Hayden paced her study, and tried Chris' cell phone number again. How the hell could he have hired a construction crew to work on their house without even talking to her? To build a gazebo in their backyard. She didn't want a gazebo in the backyard. Why would Chris want the stupid gazebo. What was the point of a gazebo in your backyard anyways? Especially if you had to pay for it a year before your daughter went to Harvard, and three years before your son went to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. That's six years, and for two of them, they'd be paying double. And what was the point of a gazebo anyways? She hated gazebos.

"Mom? Dad?" Topher yelled from the enryway.

"In here!" Lorelai called angrily.

"Wow, Mom, why are you so mad?"

"Your father decided we need a gazebo, hired a construction crew, and paid for it! Without bothering to tell me! Why would he do something like that? Where are you going?" she demanded as he slipped out of the door.

"To get you coffee."

"Oh. Thank you. You're my favorite son."

"You say that to all your sons."

"Yes, but I only mean it with you."

"Hey, Toph, how do you feel about making me coffee to help me study." Rory yelled as she walked into the house.

"Okay, I'll make you some too." Topher groaned.

"Oh. Thank you. You're my favorite brother."

"You say that to all your brothers."

"Yes, but I only mean it with you."

"Nice try, the other Lorelai just said that to me. Did you rehearse it last night?"

"When would we have had time to rehearse it? Silly brother..." Rory started.

"Scripts are for kids." Lorelai finished.

"If you two keep being parrots, you don't get coffee." Toper shot at them.

"We're done now, promise." Lorelai said, making her eyes as big as she could.

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Dean pulled up at the big house. Just as big as he thought it would be. Don was standing by the house, waiting for him.

"Please say it's not just the two of us." Dean implored.

"Sorry, kid, it's just building a gazebo out back."

"By winter?"

"Unfortunately."

"Okay, let's get started."

"That's the spirit, kid." Don grinned toothily at Dean, and rang the bell. A very pretty woman holding a huge mug of coffee opened the door.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm Don, this is Dean. We were hired by a Christopher Hayden to build the gazebo in the backyard."

"Come on in. Kitchen's straight down the hall, take a left, eat anything you can find, drink anything you can find, but if you drink any of the coffee, make more. My daughter and I need all we can get. Girl with the halo, coffee and the book is Rory, senior at Chilton, top of her class. Boy with the halo, no coffee and science periodical is Topher, sophmore at Chilton, top of his class. I have a phone call to make." She said coldly, glaring at them until they went in.

"I don't think she likes us very much." Dean muttered as they walked into the kitchen. A boy with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and holding a confusing scientific-looking paper looked up.

"You're the construction guys? Don't take it personally. Dad didn't ask her about the gazebo, and she's mad at him."

"Coffee ready yet Toph?" Rory asked as she walked into the room, crashing into Dean. "Oh. Sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Who are you?"

"Dean Forrester."

"Oh. I'm Rory Hayden. Well, it's really Lorelai Hayden, but no one calls me that, because that's my mother's name. She named me herself, my dad was on a business trip, and she was sitting in the hospital thinking that men name boys after themselves all the time, so why shouldn't women. At least that's what she says, but I personally think that a lot of Demerol went into making that decision. I never talk this much."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Rory Lorelai Hayden."

"You too...Dean...Forrester."

AN: I know I stole a lot of this Rory/Lorelai dialogue from the show, or twisted a lot of the things they said, but that was on purpose.