Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Tristan was sitting at his desk when his phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Did Rory have any plans to meet any friends today?"

"What? Logan, what the Hell…"

"Did Rory tell you about meeting anyone today?"

"Why are you calling me?"

"Because, I saw her in a coffee shop today with another guy. And they looked, well, they looked comfortable together."

"Why are you doing this? It isn't going to work."

"Look Tristan, I don't want to get involved in this, but if my girlfriend was with another guy, I'd want to know about it. I don't want you to get hurt. I've seen how you look at her."

"Logan…"

"Tristan, they kissed and she gave him her phone number." There was a long pause. "I wouldn't be doing this unless I thought there was cause for concern."

"Listen, don't call me anymore, don't call her anymore. This is none of your business." He hung up the phone. He then proceeded to call Rory.

"Hey!"

"Hi, how are you?" He asked politely, trying to mask his anger.

"I'm wonderful… and yourself?" She asked with a hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Just peachy."

"Oh no, what happened?" Rory knew the tone in his voice meant trouble.

"I just received a phone call from one Logan Huntzberger."

"Why?" The shock in her voice couldn't be disguised.

"It seems he wanted to tell me some information about your trip to the coffee shop this afternoon."

"What about it?"

"According to him, he saw you kissing a guy and then you gave him your phone number." There was silence on the other end.

"He was following me?" she said completely enraged.

"Mare, no part of that was 'No Tristan I didn't'."

"Well I'm impressed, his ability to twist a story is quite good I must admit. Must take after his father."

"Mary," Tristan said, his voice annoyed. "Did you or did you not…do what he said you did?"

"Oh sorry, I should clarify. I did, but it's not how it sounds. I ran into Jess, Luke's nephew. We caught up and then we kissed each other, on the cheek, and I gave him my phone number so he could keep in touch."

"That's all I wanted to know."

"You believed him?"

"No, I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I told him to leave us alone, but for some reason, I don't think that's going to happen."

"I'm sorry Tristan, I had no idea he would stoop this low. I won't be talking to him anymore."

"Just be careful and I'll talk to you when we get home."

"Ok, I love you."

"Love you too." When Tristan hung up the phone, he was pissed as hell. How dare he? At one point in their relationship, Logan and Tristan were close, much too close to do something like this. He was immediately worried about Rory. She had said that he was following her. He didn't like the sound of that. Although he knew that Logan would never do anything to hurt Rory physically, Tristan didn't want him stalking his girlfriend either.

OOOOO

Rory listened to the click of Tristan hanging up the phone before freaking out. In her fury she still managed to deftly dial her phone. Three rings and then finally an answer.

"Rory darling, where have you been all my life."

"Finn, let me talk to Logan."

"He's not here right now, he left his cell on my table. Can I take a message, better yet can I get a conversation? I haven't heard from you in awhile."

"Finn, I really need to talk to Logan."

"What's wrong love?" Rory sighed, exasperated with all the drama of her current situation.

"Logan."

"You don't want him back do you? I thought you and Tristan were getting along swimmingly."

"No. Not at all. Tristan and I are perfect as always."

"Good. Then what's Logan have to do with anything?"

"He's stalking me." Rory heard Finn choke. "Are you ok?"

"What do you mean he's stalking you?" He managed between all of his coughing.

"I mean, I walked out of my building today and I felt like someone was following me, but I figured I was just paranoid. Then it turns out that Logan has been following me all day. He called Tristan and insinuated that I was cheating on him. I don't know what to do about it. I'm almost worried about going back to my apartment. Oh God, what if he's waiting for me there? Finn, help."

"Logan is in New York City? He told me that he was going to run a few errands, not leave the bloody state."

"Well he did. And I don't know what to do. I called to yell at him, but got you instead."

"Do you want me to talk to him about it? Feel him out a little?"

" 'By the way, talked to Rory today, wanna explain why you are stalking your ex?' That's going to go over well."

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know, I can't imagine what Tristan's thinking right now."

"God, If my friend were stalking my girl I would have to seriously injure him."

"Were they really that close Finn? I never heard either one speak of the other. You'd think that they would have brought each other up."

"Um, I hate to break this to you love, but if I was in that situation, I wouldn't be talking about my relatives either." Rory laughed.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't. Finn, what would I do without you?"

"I have no idea."

"Thanks for listening, I'm gonna head home. I might call you if he's outside my apartment. Maybe you could call the cops if you heard my screams."

"Don't over-exaggerate. If he were to kill you, he would make sure you were silent first."

"Gee, thanks Finn."

"Anytime love, take care."

"You too. Bye." Talking to Finn did little to ease her tensions of leaving the building. She went straight from the doors of her office to a cab. I'm letting him win, she thought, berating herself for getting this worked up. Logan wasn't psycho. He had no reason to follow her. So why was he doing it?

OOOOO

Tristan entered the apartment in a hurry.

"Mary, you home?" She appeared around the corner with a smile on her face.

"I'm right here." He went over to her and gave her a tight hug. He held on to her for awhile and then finally let go. Rory noticed that something was different about his body language. He was acting protective, but in an unusually strong way. "Tris, you wanna tell me what's going on here?"

"I've got some bad news." He said with a sigh. Rory laughed.

"You mean besides finding out I'm cheating on you with my cousin?"

"You won't be laughing when I tell you this." He was dead serious and she stopped laughing.

"Ok, what is it?"

"I got a phone call today from my parents." Any news starting out with that sentence could go only one way, and it wasn't up.

"Oh God." She sat down on the couch.

"It seems we still haven't met properly. Your grandparents are expecting us for dinner on Friday night."

"Oh God." She said again as she put a pillow over her face. "I thought they had forgotten about it."

"Me too, but apparently the death of a family member only lengthens the proper amount of time before calling." He watched as she got up and ran to her phone. "Calling Lorelei?" He asked knowingly.

"Yep." Tristan sighed as he thought about the upcoming dinner. Not only would he have to deal with his parents, he would also have to come across as nothing less than perfect to the Gilmores. On a normal occasion he could definitely pull this off, but with his parents in the room? They were the only two people in the world that made him feel like he was a waste of perfectly good genes. This entire dinner was going to be a balancing act, and he knew it. He went to the fridge and got himself a beer. Maybe if he started now, he could have enough 'courage in a bottle' to make this thing work. He turned to watch Rory talking animatedly on the phone. She was talking Lorelei out of jumping into oncoming traffic. They had survived so much this past few months they had been together, why did he feel like they couldn't get through a single night with their relatives? Before he could open the bottle, Rory took it out of his hands and put it back in the fridge, all the while coming up with rare sicknesses and mapping out the 23, yes 23 ways out of the Gilmore house that Lorelei had found useful as a child. She placed a bottle of tequila in his empty, still outstretched hand.

"Today, we need something a little stronger." She whispered.

OOOOO

Friday rolled around far too quickly, Tristan thought as he stood outside the Gilmore's house. Rory was already inside because he had gotten held up at work a little later than expected. A convenient truth that made him love his job at the moment. As he was pulling every last second out of his excuse as possible, Lorelei walked up behind him.

"Enjoying the view?" she asked as she stood next to him.

"Not really." He deadpanned as she put her arm around his shoulder. "Does this feeling ever go away?"

"The constant fear, the disappointment, the failure?" She said laying out his options with a wave of her hand. "All of them, still in working order. And I'm not going to tell you how long I've been on this planet."

"I thought so." He said, still not moving. Lorelei turned to face him and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey. You are an amazing person who deserves everything that you've worked for. You turned out better than anyone I've ever met from Hartford society, including myself. If they can't see that, then they don't deserve to."

"If I don't make it out alive," he said half seriously.

"I'm taking your record collection." She finished for him. Lorelei grabbed his hand and led him to the door. "It's now or never." She said as she pushed the doorbell. Tristan took a deep breath.

"Now or never," he whispered to himself.