Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Gilmore Girls.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for reviewing. It's a great motivator, and I really appreciate your input.

Surprises with Blocks

At seven o'clock that evening, Tristan suggested that it was time to finish up.

"You're doing a lot better. I think we can wrap it up for today. What about you?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to go." Rory said.

"Just let me say good night to Alexa. She'll be asleep by the time I get home."

Tristan slowly opened the door to his sister's playroom to find Alexa playing with building blocks. When he saw that she had her back to him, he lightly tapped her on the back to scare her. Like Tristan expected, his little sister screamed, but when she saw that it was just her brother, she jumped into his awaiting arms and hit his shoulder. "Why did you do that?"

When Rory heard the scream, she started up the stairs to make sure everything was all right.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it." Rory heard as she came close to the room Tristan was in. "Did you have fun tonight?"

"I wish you could have played with me. Will you now?"

"I would, but I have to take Rory home."

"How about when you get home?"

"I don't think so. It's almost time for you to go to bed."

"Oh," Alexa said disappointedly, but then looked at Tristan with a gleam in her eye. "I like her," she said softly.

Tristan had the same gleam in his eye as he said, "I do too."

Rory stood in the hallway holding her breath after she heard Tristan and Alexa. 'You have to move now,' she said to herself, but instead of going downstairs, she walked into the playroom. The two siblings looked up at her with shock in their eyes. Rory pretended that she hadn't heard their conversation. "I'm sorry. It was just taking longer than I expected. I thought I would come and see what you were doing." Rory looked at Alexa's blocks. "Can I play?" she asked.

"Really?" asked Alexa, surprised.

"Yeah, I love building things. And of course, knocking them down is fun too."

Alexa giggled and turned to Tristan, "Will you play too?"

"Of course I will," and with that, Tristan dropped heavily onto the blue-carpeted floor. The three began to build a tall building then made a town rise up around it, Rory and Tristan stealing glances at each other the whole time.

When they were finished building a small city, the three of them stood to look at their work. Alexa, Tristan, and Rory glanced at each other, each with a mischievous sparkle in their eyes, and then they all began to knock their city over, laughing the whole time. They were interrupted when Alexa's nanny Teresa entered the room. "Tristan, you know better than to get her excited this close to bedtime," she said strictly.

"I'm sorry Teresa. It's just been so long since I've been able to spend time with her."

Teresa eyed Rory. "Then maybe you should choose her over your girlfriends," she said harshly, but quietly enough for only Tristan to hear.

Tristan's face began to get red with anger. He turned to Rory and said, "Would you mind staying with Alexa for a minute, I need to talk to Teresa."

"Okay. That's fine." Rory said, sensing that Tristan was trying to control his anger. She turned her attention back to Alexa.

Rory could hear Tristan arguing with the nanny, and she did her best to make sure that Alexa didn't know what was going on. She was thrown off when Alexa asked her, "Are you and Tristan going to become boyfriend and girlfriend."

Rory thought for a few seconds because she didn't want to upset Alexa, "I don't think so. We're just friends."

"If you're friends does that mean that you'll come back and play with me?"

"Of course," Rory said, hoping that she hadn't just lied to the precocious little girl. She felt that she would never be completely sure about anything that had to do with Tristan.

After a few minutes, Tristan and Teresa both came back into the playroom. Tristan picked up his sister and said, "I need to take Rory home, now."

"I want to come."

"I wish you could, but you need to get to sleep. It's getting late for you."

"Oh.." Alexa said sadly, as she hopped down from her brother's arms and ran to Rory to giver her a hug. "Bye, I'll see you soon." Then she walked to Teresa and the two went to get ready for bed.

"Why Mary, does that mean you're coming back?"

"Of course," Rory said, shocking Tristan at first. "I have to get that A in German." Then she walked past him and looked over her shoulder. "Come on, it's late."

Rory gave Tristan directions to her home as he drove. Tristan slammed on the brakes when Rory yelled out, "Stop!"

"What is it?"

"My mom, she's at Luke's."

"And what? You don't like Luke?"

"No, I love Luke. You can let me out here."

"Okay, I'll walk with you." Tristan said, stepping out of the car.

"Oh, that.."

Rory started to tell him that she didn't need him to walk with her, but he was already by her side, moving towards the diner.

When Luke heard the door to his diner open, he looked up to see Rory enter with a young man. He instantly said "Rory, would you talk some sense into your mother? She seems to think it would be a good idea to climb a mountain." Rory gave him a quizzical look, and he said, "without ropes."

"Mom?"

"What? It sounded fun to me. All sorts of people do it."

"Professionals Lorelai, and most of the time they do use ropes."

"Come on Ror, don't you think it sounds like a good idea. You and I could make it a mother daughter thing. We can camp out and everything once we make it to the top. When should we go?"

"Lorelai, no. You would kill yourself and Rory if you tried it."

"Fine. I won't climb any mountains, but that sure makes giving me coffee sound a lot better, doesn't it?"

Rory laughed, "Good job mom. I actually thought you meant it."

Luke brought Lorelai a cup of coffee, "She certainly is crazy enough to mean something like that." Then he turned to Rory and said, "Do you want anything Ror?"

"I'll take a burger, you want anything Tristan?"

Tristan began to answer, but he was interrupted by an enraged Lorelai, "This is decaf!"

"It's eight o'clock at night. You'll never get to sleep."

"Are you kidding me? I have myself trained. It wakes me up in the morning and puts me to sleep at night. Now get me some regular."

Luke groaned and mumbled, "fine," then looked at Tristan and said, "Sorry, did you want something?"

"I'll have a burger too, thanks."

"All right, two burgers."

Lorelai looked from Rory to Tristan, then said, "Looks like you both survived."

"For now." Rory replied.

"Excuse me?" Tristan asked.

"Oh, nothing. Mom, this is Tristan, Tris, my mom Lorelai."

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Gilmore."

"Did you not hear the girl? It's Lorelai. One, I don't like being associated to my mother like that, and two, I'm not married."

Tristan turned to Rory with a raised eyebrow. He had expected her to have two parents and a house with a picket fence. The picture perfect family. Luke appeared with their burgers, and Tristan watched as Rory tore into hers. When she saw him watching she said, "What? I haven't eaten all day." Tristan smirked and began to eat his own food.

When he was finished, Tristan said goodbye and left the Gilmore's to torment Luke.

Rory followed Tristan back outside to thank him for helping her. "Hey Tris?"

Tristan smirked at her shortening his name and looked back in her direction, "Yeah Mar?"

"Rory."

"Tristan."

Rory gave him a quizzical look before realizing that she had even abbreviated his name. "Oh, well, umm, I just wanted to say thanks for everything. You helped me out a lot. And.." Rory knew she was in for a snide remark, so she took a deep breath. "Could we get together again?" 'Bad choice of words Rory," she thought.

"Why Mary, I didn't think you would ever ask." Tristan smirked, "dinner?"

"You know perfectly well what I meant."

"Yeah, well, the rest of my week is full. Monday is usually a bad date night, how about then?"

Rory groaned inwardly, "Yeah, ok. Bye."

"Do we have to go?"

"Mom! Of course we have to go. We've gone over this before. We promised grandma and grandpa that if they paid for Chilton, we would have dinner with them every Friday night...Don't give me that look. Now come. Let's go!"

Lorelai looked at Rory innocently, "I can't find my keys."

"Then it's a good thing you put me in charge of the spare set. Ready?" Rory asked perkily.

Begrudgingly, Lorelai answered, "Yeah."

A little while later, Lorelai and Rory were standing in front of Emily Gilmore. "You're late."

"I thought you didn't serve dinner until seven."

"It doesn't, but we have to have time for drinks. Besides, we have guests."

"Oh, well then you don't need us."

"Mom!" Rory chided.

"Kidding." Lorelai looked over to her mother who had a deep frown on her face. "So, who's the guest? Not the Pope, I hope. Oh, that rhymes."

"Lorelai really. Is it so bad to ask for one night? Just one night of being civilized?"

"Yes."

"Oh, you're hopeless."

"It's not like I haven't tried to tell you."

"Just come and meet our guests."

When Richard Gilmore saw his daughter and grand-daughter walk into the room he stood up and said, "Rory, Lorelai. I'm so glad you're here."

"Yes, well we wouldn't want to miss drinks. Speaking of, can I have a vodka on the rocks?"

"Natalia, would you mind?"

"Of course sir. I'll have that right away."

"Rory, would you like something?"

When Rory realized she had been asked a question, she tried to respond, but her voice squeaked. Lorelai turned to her daughter but quickly focused her attention on what Rory was looking at. "Tristan, what a.. surprise."

"Hello Lorelai. MRory."

"You've already met?"

Rory was finally able to speak up, "We go to school together."