A/N: As always, I own nothing! It is all the Palladino's, darn them!

"Hi Tristan," she finally said, relieved that their laughter had broken the tension "it's so good to see you. It's been a long time. I'm not trying to win points with the TA or anything, but would you maybe like to grab a cup of coffee and catch up?"

"I…" Why is he hesitating? Why does it seem like he's avoiding me? "Sure. Coffee. Sounds…great." He half smiled, but his eyes were worried.

They walked to one of the nearby cafes, both deep in their own thoughts, neither feeling the need to make conversation. They placed their orders without speaking to each other, and sat down at a small table. Tristan stared into his coffee while Rory took a sip of her drink, trying to wrap her mind around the situation. Tristan was here. At Yale. And he had been for a while, which meant he had probably read her articles, probably knew she was here, but he hadn't looked her up. Had possibly even told Paris not to tell her he was here. What did it mean?

"So," she broke the silence, "how are you?" There were a million things to say, but he was so uncomfortable, it was the only option.

"Fine." He laughed sourly, his eyes flicking up to look at her and then returning to his coffee. "Fine, I'm- well." He didn't seem inclined to say anything else, and Rory was finally starting to get angry.

"Well you don't seem fine. The Tristan I remember could make eye contact when he was talking to people—could in fact talk to people, not just grunt monosyllables. Or are you just mad at me? I don't think I did anything to make you hate me, but that's the vibe I'm getting here, and let me tell you, it's going to be an awkward class if I have to contest every grade you give me!"

"I…I'm not the one who hates someone here." He responded after a moment, looking at her sadly.

"What!"

"You—I heard you tell your boyfriend that day—you hated me." He laughed sadly. "I guess I can't blame you, I was a jerk, but—it really upset me. The girl I liked hated me."

"Oh Tristan!" she whispered. "I never hated you. You got on my nerves yes, but you challenged me. I was too young to realize how much I enjoyed our sparring matches, I thought relationships should be perfect, with no disagreements and no debates." She looked away for a moment, and then looked him in the eyes and leaned forward to make sure he heard her. "Dean gave me that, and I thought I wanted it. But he was threatened by the fact that you could give me things he couldn't, things he could see I needed even before I did, and I told him something he could understand. I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry." She watched his expression go through shock to understanding and then happiness, and smiled hopefully at him. "Do you think we could maybe start over?"

"Yeah!" he exhaled sharply in relief as the tension went out of his body, and began to grin. "So, how have you been—Mary?" he smirked, and this was the Tristan she remembered, charming and teasing.

"I had forgotten that! My first nickname. You really shouldn't be calling me Mary anymore though." She looked troubled for a moment, and then shook her head and smiled. "I've been well enough! It's been a busy few years."

He shouldn't call her Mary anymore? He knew he shouldn't be startled, it had been years after all, but he had somehow thought that she would still be exactly the same, waiting for him. She still had that air of innocence around her, but now that she mentioned it she did move differently- like someone who knew about their own body and what they liked to do with it. It only made her more attractive to him. He couldn't let himself fall for Rory again. "I read your things in the paper. You're good—but then you know that!" he grinned. "I was surprised to find you here. I thought Harvard was the goal, and the whole country knows that you got in and Paris didn't. It was a fabulous broadcast, by the way!"

"Oh god- you watched that? That was possibly one of the most embarrassing experiences in my entire life! And mom taped it and kept putting it in the VCR 'accidentally' for months afterward, so I saw it over and over and over…" She rolled her eyes as he laughed at the image. "Harvard turned out not to be the place for me—it didn't have everything I wanted and it was much too far away from home."

"Wow. It's still so hard to imagine people who actually want to go home! But it's…nice. Old fashioned." He grinned at her, elated that they were having a normal conversation. That shrink had been right, he should have done this years ago.

Remembering what Paris had said about his family, she let that slide. "And what about you? I thought you were destined for Princeton. My life is obviously a matter of public record, but you've been living under the radar- spill!"

"Well, when I graduated from military school, I realized that my parents had to pay for college, no matter where I went. I was a Dugrey, and as such I had to go to college. I had been accepted to some great schools, so for them to refuse to pay just because I didn't go to Princeton would cause too much comment." He smiled and shook his head. "It took me a while, but I finally learned how to manipulate the system. I actually sat down and made a pro/con list, and Yale won out—the only real con was being so close to Hartford! They do show their displeasure by paying only my bare expenses, so I have to TA or find jobs for spending money, but I would rather do that than let them tell me what to do."

She looked troubled again, and asked hesitantly, "How was it? Military school I mean. I was really worried when you left that it would be all beatings and 'you can't handle the truth' and gruel for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I didn't know who to ask to make sure you were all right."

She actually thought about me when I left! Tristan was elated. "It was actually a pretty decent place. They made me go to therapy, plus the normal military school get-up-at-five-and-go-running, call-everyone-sir thing. I'm a lot less messed up than I was, although with my family, it's a constant struggle!" Rory looked relieved. "It's nice to know someone worried when I left. I didn't even hear from Paris. Which is hardly surprising given the timing of my departure, I guess."

"That's right—oh, I will never forgive you for that! You're just lucky she managed to 'die' just before the kiss, or I might have hunted you down." Rory wrinkled her nose, laughing. "She made a much less convincing Romeo than you did. Although I've always wondered why she just happened to have a period wig with her…" She shook her head and giggled. "That way lies madness!"

"I would have loved to have seen it!" Tristan commented. Should he? Yes, he would say it "I would have loved even more to—" just then Rory's cell phone went off.

"Oh crap! I'm going to be late!" She jumped up. "Paris has gone crazy with power being editor, I need to keep the peace—and get to the staff meeting! I've got to run, but we should do this again. I'll see you in class anyway, teach." She grinned and dashed out of the café before Tristan could say more than "Yeah, of course, sometime soon—"

He stared after her retreating figure. Rory Gilmore, in his class. And she didn't hate him. This could be fun.