A/N: as always, the Palladinos own everything and I won nothing. except the characters I make up, but really, that's not much is it?

6.Hours.

As he returned to his room at the end of a long day, Tristan still couldn't believe that just a few hours ago he had seen Rory Gilmore. Had spoken with, and even laughed with, Rory Gilmore. Was it real? He had been so busy for the rest of the day that the interlude felt unreal, almost out of time. But it wasn't, he had actually come to terms with Rory, was on the way to becoming friends with her. He smiled to himself, as he turned the key and walked into the apartment he shared. Friends with Rory Gilmore- this was going to be a good semester!

"Hey DuGrey," his roommate Alex called, "you up for the 'welcome back to hell' parties tonight? Lots of lovely ladies…" Alex had been Tristan's roommate since freshman year, but the two were very different. Tristan had to laugh at how their differences manifested- Alex was a real ladies man, with girls hanging all over him (both because of his dark good looks and his almost unbelievable charm), but he never kept any of them around for more than a week or two. Even so, they rarely got mad and certainly didn't speak ill of him, because he still seemed to have an unlimited supply. Tristan, on the other hand, ignored most of the girls who threw themselves at him, dating only the few who showed real intellect—and invariably getting dumped a few months later amid accusations that he was 'emotionally unavailable!' and 'not ready for real intimacy!'. How the mighty King of Chilton had fallen!

" 'Welcome back to hell'?" Tristan didn't go out that much any more. Having to work for his spending money meant he picked and chose, going only to things that promised to be interesting—and before today, that promised no Rory. But that was no longer a concern, and parties around campus at the start of the quarter were free anyway. "Sure, why not." Maybe he would even run into Rory, get another chance to talk to her. "Where to?"

Alex blinked, a little surprised that it had been so easy, and then grinned. "My man! I knew you'd come out of your shell eventually! So, are we still avoiding the circle on our outings? Because there is what promises to be a truly amazing party scheduled by some guys I know, but your Mary might be there… Did I mention truly amazing?"

"Sure! Let's do it!" Tristan said, slightly startled at how much Rory had influenced his life even without actually being part of it. "I'm not avoiding anyone any more—and I'll tell you about it later if you want, but for now, let's celebrate!"

"Great! Let me just call Finn and get the details!" Alex wandered into his room, clearly thrilled that Tristan was relaxed enough to have a real night out. Tristan hadn't asked for a specific roommate when the time came, but his father had been horrified at the thought of a DuGrey living with just anyone, and had arranged for him to live with Alex—without asking him. Tristan had been horrified when he found out, assuming that any society guy his father would have chosen would be impossible to live with and an ass to boot. But Alex had turned out to be all right- while his family was rich, they were also the kind of people who thought their kids should grow up normal. They had helped with his homework, gone to his soccer games, given him chores to earn spending money, and been involved in his life in a way Tristan would have given anything for. They were good friends by now, and Alex knew almost all of Tristan's secrets- except for Rory's identity. Tristan had just said that there was someone he needed to avoid in the society circle, Mary, and Alex had helped him stay out of it.

But, other than the fact that it annoyed his father, there was no reason to stay out anymore—and he was ready for a good party! He could drink a little, dance a little, maybe even flirt with some girls. She didn't hate him!

"OK man, we're good to go! It's a theme party, you know the drill. George Lucas, any character from his movies. Let's run and get costumes- we've got three hours or so!" Alex grabbed his coat, obviously already planning a costume in his head. "and on the way, you can tell me what happened today. You look—happier—than I've ever seen you. You win the lottery and escape your father's tyranny forever?"

"Nah." Tristan sighed as he put his coat back on. "Wouldn't that be great! But this might be even better. I ran into Mary today."

"Mary! I though she was mythological! Or invisible, since I've never met a Mary, and I DO hang out in the circle. What happened to change her from one to be feared to one who makes you smile like that? You didn't…?" he winked knowingly.

"NO! God, you are such a jerk sometimes, you know that!" Tristan said half jokingly and half serious. No matter that she wasn't a Mary anymore, she was still his Mary and no one was going to talk about her like that. "we just…talked. It was … good. We cleared some stuff up."

"Wow. Cryptic much? Are you going to actually tell me what went on with you guys, or am I going to have to learn it from the mysterious Mary when I finally meet her?" Alex prodded. He had known about Mary almost from the first day he met Tristan, had known that she was the lost love with whom things had ended badly, and had been hoping that she would eventually turn up. She was such a raw wound to his roommate (one of many unfortunately), and Alex was sure that Mary was the reason Tristan kept getting dumped—he was 'emotionally unavailable' because he was pining after her instead of thinking about his girlfriends. But with no clues to go on other than a first name, eye color (blue, apparently), and an affiliation with Hartford society, he hadn't been able to do anything about it.

"Whatever. Like you tell me all about your conversations with girls." Tristan joked. "No wait, I don't want to hear about those. 'Oh Alex,'" he continued in a falsetto, batting his eyelashes, " 'you're so very handsome. And rich. Can you ever love me?' 'Why no,'" he began laughing as Alex gave him a dirty look. He continued speaking through his laughter in a deeper voice, as 'Alex', "'I'm too handsome and rich to love one woman. But I can make you feel wonderful until I am forced to share the wealth of my handsomeness among the population.' Yeah, I think I can give that a miss, thanks." He grinned as Alex took a swat at him.

"Seriously man! You hide from this girl for two and a half years, run into her once, and all is forgotten? I don't know what went down between you all to begin with, but that must have been a hell of a conversation!"

Tristan looked at him for a moment. "You understand this is just between us, right?" he said quietly. "I—just—it's very personal."

"Of course, man. Have I ever told your secrets? Especially to the society set—I could have found out from them about Mary way before this if I wanted to, but I knew you wouldn't like it." Tristan shook his head. He should have known Alex would consider that, he was always trying to fix things. For a rich kid, he spent an awful lot of time making sure his friends were happy—which was probably why the girls kept coming back.

"You wouldn't have found her." he said. "Her name's not Mary."

"Um. What? You've been using a code name for her! Man, who is she, Chelsea Clinton or some sultan's daughter or something?" Alex began to laugh. "Well, that makes sense- you got sent to military school because it was that or the secret service kicking your ass! I like it."

"No you reject! Mary was her nickname. My nickname for her, really. She never liked it much, but it was the only thing that we had that was just the two of us." Tristan looked momentarily sad. "I was madly in love with her, but I've told you what I was like in high school. She was smart. Very smart, and so sweet and even innocent…but she had a temper." Tristan smiled, remember the flash of her eyes when she had yelled at him.

"Ah. So she hated your guts?" Alex said sympathetically. It was still difficult for him to imagine the Tristan he knew, honest, studious, kind, as a world class jerk.

"Hate is such a strong word…but yeah. I drove her crazy, teasing her, taunting her, picking fights with her boyfriend—and then they broke up. I was so psyched, I could finally get her. So I got tickets to see a group she liked, and I told her we were going."

"You—told her? Oh, you were dumb!" Alex shook his head. "I mean, I've never met the girl, but I can't imagine that going over well. Asking is really the way to go about these things, you know."

Tristan rolled his eyes. "Yeah. 'Well' is the opposite of how it went over. She flat out refused to even consider going with me. We were arguing about it when the boyfriend came to Chilton to get her back…and she told him she hated me. Shouted it, actually, in the courtyard. Not my finest day." He shook his head and looked down, concentrating on his feet. "That's when the real downward spiral began, when I heard that. She was the last person I spoke to from Chilton. We were in a play for class- Romeo and Juliet. I was Romeo…" He looked up at Alex.

"And she was Juliet." Alex completed the thought. "and you had to kiss, and the boyfriend got mad, and you wanted her to want you or to defend you but she didn't…"

"So I broke into Bowman's dad's safe."

"Not your best decision ever."

"It's worked out well enough in the end…but I just couldn't stand the thought of-- of running into her and seeing her hate me. Or seeing her not remember me. I've never been sure which would be worse. So I made sure to keep away." Tristan shook his head.

"But you ran into her today. And it seems to have gone well?"

"Well. It was better than I could have dreamed, actually. She was really happy to see me. She said she'd worried about me when I left, which is more than I deserved, and … that she never hated me." Tristan laughed. "All that time I drove myself crazy over a thing she said to calm someone else down, that she didn't mean anyone to hear—that she didn't mean. It was such a relief. If she never hated me, maybe I wasn't that bad. Maybe I deserved someone like her." He smiled brilliantly. "we're going to be friends."

" 'Friends'? That's all you want? This girl has been on your mind for six years now! Aren't you going to ask her out?" Alex was shocked. While Tristan didn't date often, when he had decided he wanted a girl, he had gone after her right away. He had never tried to 'be friends' first.

"I don't know that she's willing to forget the old me quite that quickly," Tristan said ruefully. "I was fairly difficult for her. Besides—oh crap." Tristan looked shocked for a moment, and then laughed. "—I can't. Besides the fact that I'm pretty sure I was never her type, I am absolutely, positively forbidden from asking her out for the next fifteen weeks." He laughed at Alex's shock, and at the situation. "Because the reason I ran into her? Is that she's taking Arabic."

"Crap! And you can't date one of your students… damn, man! And it would be so much fun to finally get to play the 'do you really want a good grade?' game with someone for real, too!"

"Alex!" Tristan yelled, and then was struck dumb by the vivid mental pictures of himself and Rory playing sex games. 'I'd do anything to get an A on this test Tristan.' 'Anything?' 'Anything you want.' "uhh…. Shut up."

Alex laughed and turned to him. "Costume shop, here we are. Got any ideas yet?"

"I dunno… I guess Han Solo. Everyone likes Han Solo. Or, no—Indiana Jones. A man with a whip is always sexy." Tristan grinned.

"Mary won't know what hit her. That is- is she going to be there?"

Tristan looked uncertain. Rory had always had those Friday night dinner things. But he didn't know her schedule anymore, those might have been a high school thing. "I don't know. Maybe. We'll see." And if not, he would count the hours until he saw her again.

"Are you ever going to tell me her name?" Alex prodded.

"Maybe in a couple of hours."