AN: I know, poor Tristan...Rry just kind of snapped huh? Anyway, here's thenext chapter where see the regret phase. Keep reading!

photobooth romance: you're probably right. I was trying to think o something to put in there and I remembered one of my boyfriend muttering about my hair smelling like apple and pinapple juice. Granted I lived on the stuff at the time...actually he noticed a lot of littl things like that...hmm, maybe he was gay.

Diclaimer: I don't own GG

Rory slammed her door behind her and bit her lip, she would not cry, she wouldn't, not over him…never over him. She hadn't meant to tell him, Justin had asked her if she would and she'd shaken her head. She had thought she couldn't but he had made her so damn angry. She felt guilty, not for him…but for Liz. She had tarnished her memory - and very publicly at that - with her outburst.

"Are you okay?" Louise asked behind her, she had slipped in door unnoticed.

Rory's knuckles were white where she gripped the desk. Louise touched her shoulder.

"I don't really feel like being around people at the moment Louise"

The other girl nodded and Rory pulled on her jacket, she'd go for a walk.

She walked behind the main school building, it was getting dark, dinner would be served soon, they'd been working the library after school. She couldn't believe her outburst, the look on his face when he sunk to the floor…No! This isn't about him! She furiously kicked a tuft of grass and it flew up in the air. How had everything gone so wrong? In the beginning she'd been just another horrified by-stander, how had she become so inextricably tied up in all of this. It was her own fault she realised, she had signed up for it as soon as she had walked into Tristan's dorm room that day with Jay. She had drawn herself into it, nobody had asked her.

She was so lost to her thoughts that she had wandered towards the woods…Liz's woods. Would they always be thought of that way? In years to come would silly freshman girls tell the horrible story of Elizabeth Belmont, the society princess murdered by her boyfriend's friend? Would they sit cross-legged on their beds in the darkness and tell that she had been visiting her loving boyfriend and was attacked? That on clear nights you can still see her, wandering back from Debalar, always searching for her way home? Would they then all squeal when freshman boys tapped on their windowpane and decided that it was all an urban legend anyway? She shook her head. The woods were imposing, even without Rory's knowledge of what had happened there. She stood on the edge, staring into the thickness, a ragged piece of police tape still flapped from the original police line they had cordoned off around the body.

"This is a pretty morbid place to come and think" Rory jumped when she heard Finn behind her.

"Oh…hey…speak for yourself" He laughed cynically.

"I saw you…it's getting late and it's not safe out here, I'll walk you to dinner"

"I don't want to go," Rory said heavily and Finn put his arm around her.

"Love…I know you feel bad about what you said in the library. But no matter how confronting it may have been for him…I doubt any of it was really news for Tristan deep down"

Rory shrugged but let herself to be led to dinner.


She and Finn walked in together and made their way to the table the gang was at. Her eyes washed over Tristan but he was busy avoiding the collective gaze of the student body. Rory took a deep breath and sat down next to Madeline who was chipping away at the nail polish she'd applied that afternoon. Matt caught Rory's eye.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm fine," She replied with a finality that made it clear she didn't feel like talking.

The table was silent, it was eerie, they'd never been this quiet together before. Suddenly, as if waking up from a dream, Tristan looked straight at Rory. At first she didn't notice his gaze but eventually she looked up and met his eyes, she started, she'd seen them cold before, icy…but she's never seen them filled with hate. He stood up so quickly that he jolted the table.

"Shit" Madeline muttered as the table barged into her stomach.

Tristan didn't say anything, instead he just stormed off, ignoring the call of the teachers.

A couple of days ago she would have run after him, apologised, but he was the one who'd told her to stay out of his life. She looked up at Finn who avoided her gaze and they settled down to eat, still in silence.


Tristan was in the gym when Finn found him, killing himself on the treadmill.

"Personally, the punching bag would be my choice if I was as pissed as you are right now," Finn observed.

Tristan didn't say anything but held up his hands, his knuckles were flaming red.

"Oh…been there done that?" Finn asked.

Tristan nodded and kept jogging.

"I know you're pissed and you've got a reason to be…Rory could have chosen a more…discreet time to…"

"To what?" Tristan puffed, "Slander my girlfriend?"

Finn rolled his eyes.

"You love the drama don't you?"

Tristan glared at him.

"Come on Tristan…are you telling me that you never had doubts about Liz? Why did you freak out that night she was jut dancing with me Tristan?"

Tristan glared at him again.

"I'm warning you Morgan, you don't want to go down this line"

"What are you gonna do Tristan? Call me a bitch? Fuck man, Rry did nothing but stand by you"

"She knew!" he screamed back, finally jumping off the treadmill and landing unsteadily.

"You really believe that?" Finn asked, raising his eyebrow.

Tristan picked up his towel and stalked pt him to the showers.

"Go fuck yourself Finn" He called over his shoulder.

"With pleasure" Finn muttered under his breath.


Tristan tapped his foot and was about to leave when she burst through the door, her face flushed.

"Oh thank God! You're still here!" Liz said, smiling, reaching up to kiss his chin with a giggle.

"Where were you?" he asked darkly and she stepped back, confused.

"I…I was out…with friends"

"Oh yeah? Who?"

Liz held up her arms in self-defense.

"Hey mister, what's with the twenty-questions?" She asked with a laugh. "I'm here now," She reminded him as she closed the distance between them again and wrapped her arms around his waist, snuggling into his embrace. As he buried his face in her hair he smelt cologne, cologne that wasn't his.

Tristan's eyes snapped open…where had that memory come from? He'd been waiting for her at her house, they were going out to a movie…they had missed it needless to , funny, he'd never found out which "friends" she'd been out with.


Rory sat outside in the hall. It the first process of Jay's trial. Today they'd decide if he would be let out on bail. She had been excused from school but Louise's parents had refused to let her go. She sat between her parent's. Lorelai was nervously scraping her fingernails down the back of each hand, over and over until pink ridges formed. Rory reached out and took one of her hands in hers and Lorelai smiled down at her. Jay's lawyer, Mr. Crossman, appeared before them.

"It's time," He said to Christopher.

The small family made their way into the courtroom.

Rory didn't understand much of what was said. The prosecutor told the judge that because of the wealth behind him, Jay was a flight risk and given the violent nature of Liz's murder he should not be allowed around teenage girls, which he would be if we were returned home. It was Mr. Crossman who jumped up to remind the judge that a freeze had been enforced on Jay's bank accounts and that he would be home-schooled until the trial.

Rory watched her brother, his head was bent though the whole thing, his shoulders slumped. Don't give up, she thought, I do believe you and so does Louise. Slowly he turning his seat to stare at her and she smiled weakly. He didn't smile back but she saw the flicker in his eyes.

"Bail is posted at $320, 000" The judge ordered, letting his gavel fall. Lorelai jumped up and grasped Chris's arm.

"Get m baby home!" She commanded him.

It was two hours later that Rory was able to hold her twin for the first time since his arrest. He felt…different, harder. She held him to her until she felt him begin to soften again.

"I've missed you" She whispered.

He patted her hair until Lorelai pulled them apart for her own hug.


"He made bail!" Rory screamed as she jumped into the room. Louise had been sitting on her bed, picking at her fingernails an trying to watch TV. Now she jumped to her feet.

"How is he? Is he okay?"

Rory nodded, trying not to betray the doubt she felt.

"He made a video for you on his phone," Rory said, handing it to Louise. "So I'll just go busy myself while you watch it" She winked and left the room.

"Hey Lollie…" She smiled, he was standing outside somewhere, and he was alone. His long-ish dark-brown hair blew gently in the breeze. "I guess the kid's told you I'm out on bail…I wanted to make this for you because we won't be able to see each other, it's one of the conditions," Louise sniffed, "I wanted to explain to you why I wouldn't see you at the detention centre. I don't want you to be hurt by that but I just…I couldn't see you…not you. And I didn't want you to see me like that. I don't know how this will all work out but I want you to keep believing in me, and I want you and sis to take care of each other." She was watching through streaming tears now, "…I love you" She almost missed those words, they were whisper and he was no longer looking at the phone. When she looked up Rory stood in the doorway,

"Oh Louise," She whispered, crossing to hug her closest friend at the school.

Tristan watched Rory at breakfast the next morning, she was radiant. She and Louise had walked in looking happier than they had in weeks. Jay must have made bail. He was standing in line for coffee.

"Two please," He said when his turn came.

Rory and Louise made their way to the group's table and sat down, they had agreed to keep it quiet about Jay, the school would find out soon enough. He had gone home with their parent's the night before and Rory already missed him. She looked up when somebody set a coffee in front of her, Tristan had sat down opposite her. She looked at him questioningly but he was looking away, talking to a girl from History. She looked back down at the coffee and smiled gently.

AN: Hope you liked it, the first little sign of reconciliation there, but don't read too much into it. Tristan doesn't really know what he's doing and he may regret his "peace offering" later. Don't forget to R&R!