Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: This chapter is a little more racy, I'm not changing the rating, but you have been warned.
Tristan had wanted to follow Rory home. He figured that she would need some help functioning after staying up all night. Not everyone was as adept at randomly shifting sleeping schedules as he was, he had argued. She parked in the underground parking and got out of her car. Reaching into the back seat, she pulled out her purse and pushed the box containing her old Chilton uniform, a left over from her mother's visit before the reunion, further underneath the seat. That was the last thing she needed Tristan to see. He pulled up next to her and she smiled gratefully, but the sleep deprivation was apparent in her eyes.
"You're almost home." He said.
"I know. Come on, let's go. I'll let you tuck me in." She said, leaning on him. She led him upstairs and unlocked her door. "Home." She cried as she fell onto an overstuffed chair.
"I see a 'Carry me Tristan?' in my future." He said as he sat down across from her.
"You know me so well."
"It's okay, I know how rough hospital visits can be."
"It isn't any easier when you're on the other side?" She asked.
"I don't know. I think it's worse. When I was dealing with my dad's cancer, I felt even more helpless because I know all the tricks to the trade. I knew the faces the doctors give when the news is bad, I knew the treatment, but there wasn't anything I could do."
"What did he have?"
"Colon cancer. He found out and four months later he was dead." Tristan said with a surprising calm.
"That's horrible. Weren't you in Baltimore at the time?" He nodded.
"I came up occasionally. More when things got bad towards the end." She could hear the ice forming in his voice. She got up and sat next to him on the couch.
"I can't imagine what that must have been like. If anything happened to my mother…" She didn't finish.
"It wasn't the same thing." He said, clearly shutting down.
"You didn't have a good relationship, did you?" She asked. He didn't say anything. She ran a hand across his back.
"It was what it was." He said. "I didn't feel upset, or incredibly sad when it happened. In fact, I may have even thought once or twice that the son of a bitch had it coming." He said coldly.
"That's not true."
"I never said it was." He ran his hand over his head. "Let's not talk about this, please?" She nodded.
"Okay," She kissed his temple. "Come on. Carry me to bed?" She asked, her long eyelashes batting over her big blue eyes. He couldn't help but smile.
"The things I do for you."
"You're my superhero." She whispered.
"Stop it." He requested.
"Why?" She said. "It's true."
"It is not. And there's no way that I can live up to it."
"You already have."
"I don't want to disappoint you." He said honestly as he brushed the hair out of her face.
"Impossible." She said. "Plus, I can still think it." She teased with a sleepy smile. He didn't say anything, simply picked her up and carried her down the hall to her bedroom.
"There you go." He said as he laid her down.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He kissed her before starting to walk away.
"Tristan?" Her small voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Yeah baby?"
"Will you stay?" He couldn't say no to her, even if he wanted to. "I don't want to be alone tonight."
"Yeah. If you want." She nodded. He took off his shirt and climbed into bed next to her. She just smiled. "Don't say it." He said without ever making eye contact. She kissed his chest and laid her head down on his shoulder.
OOOOO
'I love this,' he thought the next morning when he woke up with her head on his chest. He kissed the top of her head and shifted out from underneath her.
"No, don't go." She begged.
"I'll be right back." She reached out to him but he was already on his way to the bathroom. When he returned, she was sitting up and on the phone with her mother.
"How's your mom?" He asked when she had hung up.
"She's good. They said she can leave this afternoon."
"Great." He said, sliding back into bed.
"Thank you for staying last night." She said.
"Of course."
"Would you like to grab some breakfast before I go pick up Mom?"
"Sure. I'll tell you what, let me grab a shower and then I'll make you breakfast."
"With what?" She asked, guiltily.
"Have you no food?" He asked, already knowing the answer. She just pulled the comforter over her head.
"Just because I can cook doesn't mean that I do!" was her muffled defense.
"Okay, we'll go out." He said, finding her under her hiding place.
"Yay!" She emerged again.
"Can I at least change my clothes before we pick up your mother?" Rory smiled.
"Yes, I'm not ready to subject you to that kind of torture quite yet."
OOOOO
Tristan, Rory and Lorelei were driving back to Stars Hollow later that afternoon. Tristan turned around to talk to Lorelei, who was in the back seat.
"So, you're saying that you didn't actually sneak out via the drainpipe?" He asked.
"No, that was a last resort kind of thing, on the rare occasion that I was locked in my room. I much preferred the basement window, although climbing through in a skirt was always interesting." She remembered.
"I was always a fan of the balcony to tree to car parked down the street move myself."
"Oh, no. Balconies were a completely different memory." She said with a dirty smile.
"No, we are not discussing my conception in this car. I will pull over." Rory warned from the front seat. Tristan and Lorelei both smiled at her reaction. It was really nice having her boyfriend and her mother get along. It had never happened before, but to be quite honest, it sort of freaked Rory out a little that they did get along so well. When they were together, she had the feeling that she was outnumbered, and between their two minds, she didn't want to be outnumbered. Pulling into her driveway, she took Lorelei and Tristan grabbed their stuff and followed them into the house.
"Lorelei, sweetie, you're home!" Babette called from her front porch.
"You two go inside, I'll take care of it." Rory said with a wink.
"Rory! How's your mom doin' sugar?"
"Truthfully, she's doing great, she's just a little tired from all of the medication." Rory played her role as caring daughter to a tee.
"Pain pills will do that. I just saw this episode of 20/20 where these folks got addicted to…Maury? What was that drug we just saw on the TV?" She screamed into the house. When she got no answer, she shrugged. "Well, they were bad news."
"I'm sure that everyone is going to want to drop in and check on her, but if you could spread word around town to wait, at least for a while…I don't want anyone disturbing her rest."
"Sure thing, doll. I completely understand. Tell her to feel better."
"Oh, I will. Thanks Babette." Rory said as she walked back over to her house.
OOOOO
"Where do you want me to set this stuff?" Tristan asked as Lorelei laid down on the couch.
"Um, let me see." He turned around to face her. "Big bag can go on the kitchen table, purse can go by the phone and, what is that?" Lorelei asked pointing to a box he was holding.
"I figured it was yours, it was in the backseat with the rest of the stuff." Tristan said. It was then that Lorelei recognized the package.
"That's Rory's." She said, unable to mask her reaction.
"What is it?" He was curious.
"Actually, it technically could be a present for you, so I'm going to go with…don't open it."
"A present for me?" He asked.
"Yeah, you wouldn't want to ruin the surprise." Just then, Rory came through the front door. Lorelei took the box and shoved it under the coffee table.
"Okay, I took care of the people who would be over all the time visiting you. Although, now you might have to worry about people thinking you're addicted to drugs…" She looked at both of them. "What did you do?"
"Nothing." They both said.
"Right." She drew out the word as she scanned each of their faces. "Wanna try again?" Tristan had no problem telling lies, but he had no idea why they were telling this one, so he figured he would let Lorelei lead.
"Well, I... and he…" She was struggling. "Damn the medication screwing with my brain. Tristan found that package I gave you in the backseat of your car and I figured you didn't want him to open it, so I took it and put it under the coffee table." Lorelei confessed. Rory's eyes fell on the package and she blushed a little. Now Tristan was very interested in what was in the box.
"Okay." She said as she walked over and picked it up. Heading into the kitchen, Tristan followed her.
"What's in the box Mary?" He teased her.
"It has nothing to do with you if that's what you are worried about." She said as she turned around to face him.
"Your mother said it was a present for me."
"It's not." She said.
"Then why can't I open it?"
"Because." She really needed to work on her comebacks. He pulled her close.
"What's in the box, Mary?" He repeated, this time his breath was warm on her ear, causing the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end.
"Why don't you use your X-ray vision to find out?" She teased, but her voice was tinted with seductive undertones. He was seriously considering giving up on the questions and just kissing the Hell out of her when the phone rang, completely destroying any chance for either opportunity.
"I got it." Lorelei said from the next room.
"I'm going to find out eventually." He promised as he let her out of his grasp.
"Maybe." She said. "What are you doing tonight?"
"I'm on duty til two, why?"
"Come over to my place when you get off." She said. "And I'll show you what's in my box." She left him hanging on every word as she walked into the living room to say goodbye to her mother.
OOOOO
Tristan was tired, but strangely excited as he arrived at Rory's doorstep that night. His imagination was going wild with all of the things he thought might be in store for him. As he knocked, he was surprised to find Rory answering the door in her pajamas. And her hair was straight, he hadn't seen her wear her hair straight since they were kids.
"Hi," He said, surprised.
"Don't look at me like that. Just because you are going to stay up all night doesn't mean that the rest of us have to." She smiled. "How was work?"
"What's in the box?" He said, changing the subject. She just smiled and curled her finger.
"Follow me." She led him down the hall to her bedroom. She pointed to the bed, where the mystery box was waiting. "It's all yours." Suddenly, he was a little nervous. Shaking off the feeling he reached for the box. Pulling off the lid, he was shocked by what he saw.
"Oh my God." He said as he pulled out a cardigan sweater and ran his hand over the logo. Reaching back into the box he emerged with her plaid skirt, a white button down shirt, and a tie.
"Is it what you were expecting?" She asked. He looked up at her and found that while he had been opening the box, she had been undressing. Standing before him in a matching black bikini set, she took the white shirt from off of the bed and began putting it on.
"Not at all." He said. "It's better." He watched as she put each article of clothing on, and when she was done, she took a step back.
"Oh, head band." She said as she walked over to the dresser and put it on. The last piece of the puzzle was in place. Standing before him was the sixteen year old Mary that he had first fallen in love with. "Well, what do you think?" She asked, giving him a twirl.
"I'm…wow." He said as he sat down on the bed. "It's like looking at a ghost." He said, unable to wrap his mind around it. "A really, really sexy ghost." He said as she walked towards him.
"I will never understand it, nothing about this attire says 'Sexy' to me." Tristan smiled and helped her out.
"The way the skirt clings to your hips, but hangs just a little too short on your legs." He pointed out as he held onto her hip with one hand and ran his finger in between the hem of her skirt and her skin with the other. "It moves up just a little when you walk." He removed the already loose tie and used it to pull her closer towards him and she sat down on his right knee. "The white blouse is practically transparent." He said as he unbuttoned the first few buttons. "So it's a tease already, but when you show just a little skin…" He pushed the fabric back and kissed her collarbone. "It makes it that much worse." She felt herself getting pulled into the mystique. "And when you're as turned on as I am," He whispered. "it's easy to tell." He ran a thumb across her hardened nipple, and despite the layers still covering it, she let out a shiver. "Plus, there is a lot of easy access without actually getting undressed, so having sex in school without getting caught is a lot easier." He smirked.
"Well," she said, completely brain dead. "When you put it like that…"