Dean unlocked the door to the apartment that he and Lindsay shared. He stepped inside first and held the door open for Rory. Dean noticed right away how uncomfortable she was being there.
"Are you sure Lindsay won't come home? I mean this could get really bad." Rory asked worried.
"Yeah I'm sure, I asked her not to. So if she does then whatever happens is her fault."
Dean walked into the hallway area and opened the closet door. Rory began to look around the apartment familiarizing herself with her surroundings while Dean tried to find what he was looking for. He had lived here for a little over half a year and she hadn't once stepped foot inside the house. It was the first time she actually got to see how Dean and Lindsay lived as a married couple and it wasn't at all what she had expected. Never would she have imagined Dean living in such a cramped space, as long as she had known him he lived in a huge house with his family and every time she went to this house she felt welcomed and at home herself, but not here. Everything seemed dark and cold. It was then that she noticed the picture sitting on the table next to the door. As she held the picture in her hand she noticed a difference in Dean's smile, it was forced and posed. Thinking back to last night before they both fell asleep she remembered the smile she saw on his face, she began to smile to herself realizing that she truly did make him happy.
"I don't need to take that." Dean said quietly behind her causing her to jump. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you, I found my bags. Most of my stuff is upstairs."
"Okay." She sat the picture back down on the table before following Dean upstairs.
As they walked up the stairs Rory noticed more pictures on the wall of Dean and Lindsay, as well as pictures of people that she hadn't recognized.
"Are these Lindsay's relatives?" She asked not really knowing why she asked. Honestly she didn't care what the answer was.
"Yeah most of them, some are her friends. She kept all of the pictures of us up in case her parents came to visit. Maybe she will actually take them down now. Can you get the door, mine is the second room on the left." Dean asked having his hands full.
Rory opened the door revealing a room that somewhat reminded her of the old Dean but there was still something missing. "You have your own room?"
"Yeah, didn't I mention that?" Dean asked setting all of the bags on the bed.
"I don't think so; you just said you stayed with your parents a lot."
"Rory, I wanted to tell you about all of this before but I was scared. I thought if you knew what was really happening it would scare you away. I really enjoyed your company and I didn't want to lose that, I thought that if you knew about my failing marriage that…"
"Dean no matter what happens between us we will always be friends. You can tell me anything I'm not going to run away."
"I told you I was getting married and the next real conversation I had with you came just two months ago." Dean said in his defense.
"Well that's because I still loved you and I didn't want you to get married."
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"I did." Rory's voice was now at the highest level it had gotten to since coming inside the apartment.
"No you didn't."
"Yes I did, I told you that getting married was crazy and that you should go to school first and you just yelled at me about Jess."
"No, I mean why didn't you tell me that you still loved me?"
"Well what good would that have done? You had just told me that you were getting married and you seemed so happy. Even if I would have told you that then, you didn't feel the same way about me, it wouldn't have mattered."
"It would have mattered…I did feel the same way about you. I was just in denial about it; I wanted to be happy again. Seeing you with Jess made me feel sick. If you had told me how you felt I wouldn't have gone through with it, as a matter of fact, I would have broken things off with Lindsay that day."
Rory walked over to Dean and wrapped her arms around him tight. "I'm sorry, I should have told you how I really felt. I thought about it several times but I was scared. You remember that day I bumped into you outside of Lane's…the day before your wedding?"
"Yeah…" Dean said smiling as he recalled the reunion.
"I was trying so hard to avoid you that day. When I saw you I wanted to beg you not to go through with it but I knew it wasn't my place to say that. And then there was your wedding, I cried you know, when I saw you come out of the church together."
"You were there? I didn't even see you."
"Well that was the idea. I didn't want you to see, they weren't happy tears."
"I can't believe that all this time we have both felt this way about each other and neither of us had the courage to say anything." Dean noticed a single tear slip from Rory's eye. He quickly reached to catch it with his thumb. "I'm sorry Rory, I shouldn't have asked you to come here like this, let's get out of here."
"But your stuff, you have to pack."
"I can do this later; most of my stuff is already at my parents place anyway. Come on let's go, I hear there's a fancy lunch planned today at the inn that we can attend. And I think we owe Miss Patty some details if we are going to hold up to our end of the bargain."
Rory finally smiled and took Dean's hand as he led the way.
A/N: Eventually I'm going to start posting chapters on my myspace page before posting them here, I'm hoping to get more input on the story that way. So if you have a myspace—friend me. My display name is NarcoGilmore or you can access the page by going to my profile on the fanfiction site. I'm also going to be posting story ideas soon and letting people vote on which they think should come next.
