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

Rory woke up in a strange bed, in a strange apartment, in strange clothes, which were, granted, a lot more comfortable than the last thing she remembered wearing, to loud insistant knocking and a throbbing headache. She looked around, trying to figure out where she could possibly be. Dean was sleeping on the floor, with only a blanket and a pillow. He gave up his bed for me, she thought. "I love you." she whispered, barely more than a breath. She couldn't risk having him hear her. The knocking continued, and Dean didn't wake up. He took care of her, the least she could do was answer his door, and let him sleep for a couple more minutes. She stood up, ignoring the way the world spun, and made her way over to the door.

"Whoa, Dean got lucky last night." an unfamiliar jeering voice laughed. She winced and pressed one hand to her head. "Sorry." he whispered, still laughing at her.

"Who are you?" she moaned.

"Jess Mariano. I'm a friend of Dean's. He was supposed to meet me last night before you pulled him away." he was still laughing.

"He's sleeping."

"I'll come back later, then." how was he still laughing? Or was it just that his voice sounded like laughing? She needed to lie down.

When Rory woke up again, it was to the smell of pancakes. "Dean?" she called.

"Yeah. I made you pancakes. Well, I drove to Luke's, and he made you pancakes, I just brought them back and put them in the microwave, because it's a twenty minute drive."

"Ohhh, hangover food. Wait, you drove forty minutes to get me pancakes?"

"Luke makes the best pancakes." he saw the look on her face. "Plus, I wanted to see him."

"He's the one who's like your dad?"

"Yup. And Jess' uncle."

"Oh, Jess came by earlier. I answered the door, and he laughed at me, and you were sleeping, so I made him go away. Sorry." Dean laughed.

"It's okay. He called me. And he was laughing at me, not you."

"Oh. Why?"

"He thought you were some random girl I picked up at the club. And I've never done that in my life."

"Oh." she tried not to let him see her smiling. Not that she had thought he would do something like that. He saw.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Okay."

"Why did you go to that club?"

"Deal with Madeline and Louise. If I went, and let them dress me up, they could never try to drag me to one of those places again, and they had to stop bothering me about this guy who likes me."

"And why did you get drunk?"

"Because Louise was going to dance with you."

"What?"

"She was going to go dance with you. And I didn't want her to."

"I wouldn't have dance with her anyways."

"Do you even know who she is?"

"Exactly. So why did you assume I would? And why did you care?"

"Louise always gets the guys she wants. And then she always hurts them." Rory lied. Well, Louise always did get guys, then hurt them. But that wasn't why she kept her away from Dean.

"Oh."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Okay."

"Why did you do so much for me?"

"Because...because I care about you. A lot. I know I shouldn't, but I do."

"Why shouldn't you?" she asked, letting down her guard a bit, letting him see she cared about him too. He just looked at her. She put down the plate and ran out of the dorm.

"Rory!" he yelled. She just ran.