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, Lor/Chris
Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB
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Dean watched the clock. Did the second hand always move so slowly? Anna wouldn't be there for another hour. He actually wouldn't mind spending time with April after the previous night, but he needed to go see Rory. "There's still an hour," April said.
"It's not that I want to get rid of you, you know," he said.
"I know. You just need to talk to her."
"Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm really not all here this morning."
"We can do something together some other time. Jess is taking care of the diner, I'll just go down and tell my mom that he was watching me."
"You don't mind doing that?"
"Not at all."
"It can be really hard to get things through to him."
"I can try. I guess you're like my brother now. I can put up with a jerk of a cousin for my brother." He smiled at her, and although it didn't reach his eyes, she knew that he was touched.
"I'll talk to him before I go."
"No. Talk to him when you get back, and I'll try while you're gone. Go make things better."
"Thank you."
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Rory lay on the couch, watching all the sad movies in the house with a huge tub of ice cream in her lap, the floor around her littered with used tissues. She made no move when the doorbell rang, although she was the closest to the door. Chris went to get it, looking sadly at her. She could feel him wishing there was something he could do to make her feel better. He had sat with her for half an hour, and let her cry, and so had Topher. She smiled weakly at him, trying to tell him that she was okay. She could tell he didn't believe her, but the doorbell rang again, and he had to go get it. Logan walked in, and looked at her. "Did you and Dean break up?" he asked. If her senses weren't blurry from crying, she might have noticed the way his apologetic frown didn't spread to his eyes, and the slight note of excitement in his voice, but she didn't notice, and she merely shook her head.
"At least, I don't think so," she whispered, and started to cry again. He walked across the room to her, and held her in his arms, letting her cry into her shoulder. Chris, who had noticed Logan's excitement, stood where he was, arms crossed over his chest and glared at Logan until the doorbell rang again. The frosty look didn't fade from his face until he saw who was at the door this time.
Rory let Logan hold her while she cried. She probably would have let Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden hold her had they offered. Oblivious of Christopher's return, Logan pulled back, and kissed Rory gently on the mouth. Her eyes flew open in shock, and she pushed him as hard as she could. "What the hell was that for? Even if Dean and I aren't together anymore, that doesn't mean I want you!" she yelled, and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. She gasped, shocked. She'd never hit anyone before in her life. Logan turned away from her, his gaze landing on two pairs of men's shoes. He followed the legs up to their faces, and grimaced. Rory, confused, looked to see what he was staring at. Christopher and Dean were standing there, their faces unreadable. Logan quickly fled from the house, and Chris stormed after him, after checking to make sure Rory was alright.
Rory stared into Dean's eyes. If he had come to her house, he couldn't be that mad at her. Or maybe he wanted to break up with her. Her eyes filled with tears again at the thought of that. "I'm sorry," he said, "I shouldn't have said I didn't trust you."
"Well, looks like your mistrust was justified," she said softly, wiping at her lips as if she could rub off the skin that Logan had touched. His mouth curved up slightly. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I'm so sorry. I never thought that you were using me."
"I know." He stood across the room from where she was sitting for a minute, then he walked across the room and turned off the TV. "You thought we broke up?"
"I didn't know," she whispered. "We never fought before. Does that mean that we don't work anymore?" She started to cry at the prospect. He chuckled wryly.
"Couples fight, Ror," he said, and knelt by the couch, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Fighting is a part of a relationship. I actually can't believe we didn't get in any fights for the first six months of our relationship."
"Really?"
"Don't your parents ever fight?"
"They used to, all the time."
"Well, there you go."
"They haven't fought at all since Mom got back, though."
"They will. Maybe not for a while, but like I said, fighting is a part of every relationship. Sometimes it's even one of the best parts."
"How is it one of the best parts of a relationship? It seems like the worst."
"It is, in some ways. But you get a lot of feelings out in the open, and if you keep them all bottled up, you'll never be able to confront them. They'll just keep building up until you resent the other person if you don't get them out."
"I guess that is good."
"But the best part of fighting is that fights usually result in making up."
"Right," Rory said uncertainly. Making up sounded good, but not good enough to even begin to make up for the pain of the fight. She stared at him, waiting for him to clarify. He smiled, and leaned his forehead against hers, and lifted up his chin until their noses were touching. He stayed like that for a couple seconds, and she waited to see what he would do next. He tilted his head to the side a little, before leaning in the rest of the way, kissing her more passionately than she knew it was possible to kiss.