A/N: HI! I know, I know, I left this story dead for so long. I just… wasn't in the mood, to make it short.

All my apologies… hope you still enjoy it.

Oh, and it's not been beta-read at all for the mere reason I don't have a beta anymore. So deal with it. and yeah, it's not very long, but it's sort of a transitional chapter, to let you know i havent given up.

Chapter 11 :

Tristan lazily rolled on his side when he felt a poke. He buried his head under the dirty pile of blankets that he was using as a pillow and groaned. Ria and Alex giggled and he felt his little sister jump on him. He silently winced.

"Merry Christmas! Get up! Get up immediately!" she was squealing and tickling him. The boy rolled again and made her fall next to him. He was about to gratefully welcome slumber again when she bit his shoulder.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

He finally got up under Ria's stern glare and Alex's amused stare. The cold air of the hangar made him jump into a spare sweater and jacket and the group headed for breakfast. Liam was already there, chewing on something that probably looked like Golden Grahams once.

Tristan and Ria had come back to the hangar only a couple of days ago. But to them, it felt like they had always belonged there. Ria nearly had no pressure now and her brother was glad for that. He himself, kept a bit quiet, because he didn't know the others and he didn't know how the street tribe used to work. But he was getting accustomed to it and the only thing he really regretted was that he was being trained to steal.

The day before he had stolen a thick jacket and a cap for Ria and during the night , a small group of them had broken into a convenient store. People were too busy shopping for Christmas to pay attention to the kids with their hoods drawn over their faces. Tristan had spotted Louise with her parents and felt a tinge of regret. She represented everything that he had left behind.

Ria stole Liam's plate and finished his breakfast, oblivious to his complaints. Alex was smirking at her brother, as per usual. Everybody knew that the blonde little girl already had everybody wrapped around her finger. She was quite a sight among the dirt, with her shiny hair and her laughing face and everybody had quickly warmed up to her.

Christmas day, New Year's Eve. It passed smoothly. The blizzard was roaring and the snow was making it exhausting to walk around to find food but the mood was still cheery. Tristan dragged his spoon across his nearly empty soup plate and laughed at Alex who was licking her plate. She stuck out her tongue at him and he smiled, trying to ignore the firing pain in his lungs. He wouldn't let that shoot him down.

The days passed. Winter break came to an end and the search team in the Gilmores' kitchen had found no trace of the Dugrey kids and they had become quite desperate. Dean kept saying they had to call the cops. Lorelei, as someone who experienced running away, thought it was the last thing they should do. Rory would just watch outside the window and wish things hadn't turned out that way.

"Hi everybody! I brought food for you all. Thought you could be a bit hungry with all this stress."

Sookie's presence brought a new little light in the room and her constant cheeriness was warming them up a bit. Tomorrow, school was starting again. Rory was dreading going back to Chilton and not seeing Tristan there, leaning against her locker with his trademark smirk and his little innuendos. She missed their banter more than she wanted to casually admit.

She looked around the kitchen. Paris was heartily chewing on a brownie. Lorelei was trying to build a tower by piling them up and constantly failing.

"Sookie, I already told you a million times, your brownies need to be more square and balanced. They're not the right shape. It looks like a drunk built this tower," Lorelei whined.

"Nah, it just looks like Lorelei tried to play with my brownies instead of being respectful and eating them without questioning their building qualities"

The brownie tower fell once more and Lorelei started to pout while poking the brownies and calling them names. She decided to baptise them all Michel. Michel the first till Michel the sixth to be precise. She then lined them up and executed them one by one, putting chocolate around her lips as she did so.

Paris' pov

Here we are. Chilton. Same old buildings, same old uniforms, same old lockers and same old people running down the halls to go to the gym like it was announced in the intercom. Only, there's a face missing in this crowd and I grow more worried everyday. I walk alongside Rory and the gym is already crowded when we get there. The headmaster stands on some of those gym wooden torture things that I hate, so that people see him. A very elegant man is standing next to him but my fists suddenly clench as I recognize who it is.

If I had a gun, I'd shoot him, right here on the spot. The prince of ice himself.

Rory looks at me in wonder but it doesn't take her long to realize who the man is. There, standing perfectly still and perfect looking is Charles Dugrey.

As the last ones enter the gym, the headmaster silences the crowd. I look to the floor. I don't want to look at him. I don't want my face to betray me.

He starts to speak in a soft, melodious voice. Polite, strong, fascinating. No wonder he fools everyone. I wish I could scream "that guy is an alcoholic asshole who abuses his children!" but who would even dare believe me? I take a deep breath and try to block out his voice in vain.

"Good morning, I'm Charles Dugrey, Tristan's father for those who know him. Two weeks ago, not long before Christmas, I'm afraid my son and his sister disappeared. Whether they ran away for some foolish reason or got kidnapped, I do not know but if any of you has information, I'd be forever grateful. I'm extremely worried about my children. The police have been alerted already but I thought maybe you could help. This is very important. Please."

I put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from throwing up at the fake care in his voice. But I cant. I turn and start to run, shoving people out of my way. I can hear muffled cries and protests and Rory's heels as she tries to keep with me and keeps apologizing to the people I hit.

I run and run. Till I collapse in the hall, next to my locker. My lip trembles as I try not to cry but I don't think I'm very good at that. Paris who's supposedly a cold and heartless bitch keeps breaking down. I'm an idiot.

I hear Rory opening my locker and grabbing my stuff but I'm in daze. She puts my coat around my shoulders and I vaguely register we're walking towards the school entrance. I've never missed school in my whole life and my feet have trouble deliberately leaving the place.

"Come on, I'm bringing you back to Stars Hollow. I don't think it's any good to stay here."

Dean's pov

I yawn as I watch Lorelei still trying to make brownie towers. The school is closed because some pipes blew up and it's so freaking cold in there that I wouldn't touch anything with bare skin. I tried to call Samantha to hang out and put my mind off things but it seems she lost all interest in me. Said she was going to the library. I didn't know the square's bench with Bryan counted as library work.

And Lorelei has the day off. So here I am, spending my time watching a psycho woman sticking out her tongue in concentration and clapping her hands hysterically every brownie she manages to pile up. I suddenly hear well known voices in the hall. Rory and Paris. Hmm. Weird. Neither of them are the style to skip school. Maybe their pipes blew up too.

I get up to go meet them, thanking God for the escape provided. Rory runs to her room to drop her bag and change from her melting snow soaked uniform but Paris is just sitting on the stairs, staring in space.

"Paris, are you alright?"

"He came. That bastard dared come to Chilton and ask for help to find Tristan. It's the first time I wish I could kill someone. Like truly kill someone," she whispers.

She takes off her jacket with trembling hands and I kinda guess that she's going to cry imminently. I silently sit on the step next to her. There's nothing I can really say so I just wrap my arms around her and hug her tight, expecting her to pull away. But she doesn't.

So we just sit there, not making any sound. I can hear Lorelei insulting her brownies in the kitchen and Rory on the phone to Michel, trying to explain to him what "day off" means in a way that he can comprehend.

My mind briefly flies to Samantha, probably still half doing Bryan on the bench. I can just imagine miss Patty passing by now and starting to ramble about how obscene this is. Or Kirk watching them with that "I'll never get this" look. But it quickly comes back. I'm on the Gilmores' steps with a funny, sensitive and smart girl. So yeah… screw Samantha.

review... please? it'd cheer me up. points to lavender button