Disclaimer: I own nothing

Tristan took a shower and watched some TV. It was the first time he and Rory had been really been apart since they had met each other again. He was going insane. This is what it's going to be like in North Carolina for a month. He groaned and threw a pillow over his head. Just then his cell phone rang. He looked at the ID and smiled.

"Hello." He said with a grin he couldn't contain.

"So I'm in the bathtub, all alone." She said

"Yeah?" He said immediately hard.

"Mmhm, Mom and Luke went out for the night."

"Is the water hot?" he asked as he got more comfortable on the bed.

"Steaming." She said with a smile. "It's making me all hot and bothered."

"What are you doing in the bathtub?" He wanted to touch her.

"Well, I'm thinking of you." She said teasingly.

"Yeah?"

"Mmhm," she said slowly, as if moaning.

"Do you know what I would do if I were there?" he asked, wanting to make her crazy as well.

"Describe it to me." She said in a voice that only emphasized her need for him. As he went into detail, she began to follow his instructions. He saw her hand slip under the water and her eyes close.

Tristan jolted awake. He hit the snooze button and groaned into his pillow. Yep, she was going to be the death of him.

Rory came knocking on his door 45 minutes later.

"Hey," he said as kissed her.

"Hey yourself. Come on breakfast is waiting downstairs!" She grabbed his hand and drug him to the door. Sookie had a huge stack of pancakes waiting for them.

"Rory!" she said as she hugged her tightly.

"Hey Sookie!" she replied happily. "Sookie, this is Tristan. Tristan, Sookie." He smiled and shook her hand.

"Come here, the foods all ready for you." Lorelei walked in with a steaming mug of coffee as they sat down and started eating.

"Oh my God," Tristan said in surprise. "You weren't kidding. Sookie these are amazing!"

"I know," she said with a smile. Lorelei leaned over her daughter's shoulder and whispered in her ear.

"Does he make those noises for you?" Rory slapped her mother and kept eating.

"So, what are we doing today?" Rory asked as she quickly changed the subject.

"I don't know. What sounds good?" He asked, mouth full of pancakes.

"Well, I could give you a tour of the town. We could go to Hartford. Whatever."

"I'm assuming the tour takes about 15 minutes on foot?" He said teasingly.

"Actually, we timed it at 7." She smiled back.

"That sounds like fun." Lorelei choked on her coffee.

"Problems?" Rory asked as she looked up.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" She looked white as a sheet. "Now" Rory and Tristan looked at each other and she got up.

"Ok, You're scaring me." Rory asked with fear in her eyes.

"Well, I wasn't going to tell you this, but I have a feeling you are going to find out sooner or later. And especially now that Tristan's here with you." Lorelei took a deep breath. "Dean and Lindsey, they moved back to town."

"Ok. And?"

"What. That's it?" She asked.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it? It's not like we are going to go over and get caught up on old times. If they see each other, they see each other."

"Oh my God."

"What?"

"You want to flaunt! You want Dean to see Tristan and get incredibly uncomfortable!"

"No. I just want to be able to show my boyfriend around my hometown without people freaking out about anything and everything that could happen."

"Ok, that's fair. But I want you to know that I warned you."

"Ok." Rory said as she turned around and rolled her eyes.

"Everything ok?" Tristan asked suspiciously as they came back into the room.

"Never better. Come on." Rory said smiling and taking his hand.

"So what was that really about?" Tristan asked now that they were alone.

"Nothing, just my crazy mother." Rory smiled.

"You would tell me right? If something was up?" Tristan looked at her and she stopped to look directly in his eyes.

"Of course I would." She put her hand in his. He smiled and kept walking.

"So where are we headed?" He asked wanting to know exactly what was going on.

"Well I thought I would show you my first home. It's my favorite place in the town."

"Sounds good to me." They walked down to the Independence Inn. She took him in the back and pulled out her keys.

"What are you doing?" He asked her.

"This is it." She said smiling. He looked at the shed and he looked at her.

"You're shitting me." She laughed at his face.

"No I'm not shitting you. Come on," she pulled open the door. Tristan looked around at the one room shed. This was definitely once a house. His own private bathroom was bigger than this entire place.

"This was the bedroom, and this was the bathroom. Mom put a curtain around it so it looked like a separate room. And this was the kitchen, we had a table here." She motioned to the area to her right.

"Wow. You really do love this place don't you?" He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Yeah. It's amazing. My mom, she never let on that anything was wrong. To her, this was the best place in the entire world. And I'm sure after living with my grandparents it was." Tristan nodded in agreement. "But she had to be so scared. I think about it a lot, how much she must have gone through and never told me. How strong she was."

"If anyone could do it, it would be Lorelei."

"Yeah." Rory smiled.

"Come on, I want to see the entire town." Tristan said as he kissed the top of her head. They walked around for awhile longer. "Hey Rory?"

"Yeah?" she said as she turned around to face him.

"Remember that night I left? When I told you I'd kiss you and you had said that you wanted me to, even if Dean was watching."

"Yeah. Why?" He leaned in and gave her the best kiss she had ever had. While her head was still spinning, he whispered in her ear.

"He saw that one." She looked up at him and giggled. She turned around and glanced to Dean, who was standing on the corner looking really confused. "Should we say hi?" He asked, holding her hand a little tighter.

"What do you think?" She asked him, knowing what the answer would be.

"I think it's only polite." She rolled her eyes. They strolled up to him holding hands.

"Hey Dean." Rory said as if it were nothing.

"Hi Rory."

"How are you? I heard you moved back to town."

"Yeah, you don't realize how much you miss it until you leave."

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Oh, God where are my manners. Dean, you remember Tristan, we went to Chilton together."

"Nice to see you again." Tristan offered his hand. Dean took it reluctantly.

"Yeah, you too. So have you two kept in touch this whole time?"

"Yeah, we have." Tristan said before Rory could say anything.

"Well I should be going, but it was nice seeing you again." Dean said as he walked away. As soon as he was out of hearing range, Rory slapped him.

"You are terrible." She said with a giggle.

"Oh, like he didn't have that coming? I do feel bad for him though."

"Yeah, he'll never have what we have." She said as she looked at him walking away.