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"Oh my God." Rory was suddenly finding it very hard to breathe. She was just about to speak when Tristan walked into the room. From the look on his face, he had seen the paper already. "Tristan, please, let me explain!" She cried. "This isn't true!" She said, slamming the paper down on the desk.
"Well, it seems pretty black and white, Ror. Especially when it's printed in the New York Times." He said in a voice that was a little too serious. Suddenly realizing that he was teasing her. She hit him as hard as she could.
"It's not funny!" At her shocked reaction, he couldn't help but laugh, and wince, as he rubbed his arm.
"Not even a little? I mean, it is my Mary they are talking about." He said as he tried to wrap an arm around her.
"No!" She shrugged him off. "Do you know how many people read this?" She told him as she collapsed on the closest chair. "If my boss reads this, which he will, I could get fired." Realizing that she was actually concerned about the matter, Tristan got serious.
"Ror, it's Page Six, he's not going to take it seriously. Any one who has met you knows what caliber of a person you are. No one who knows you is going believe this garbage."
"You don't know that!" She said, reaching for her cell phone. She went out back and Tristan fought the urge to follow her. He looked at Lorelei, who saw his muscles tense as she left the room.
"She'll be fine." She said. "I think. Just let her spaz out a little."
"I hope so." He sighed.
"Hey, are you okay?" Lorelei asked. "You know that this is completely false right?" Tristan laughed.
"Yeah." The thought of Rory cheating on anyone was hysterical in his mind. "Nothing about Rory is scandalous." Lorelei just gave him a look and smiled. He clearly didn't realize what he had just said.
"So then what's with the face?" She was intruding, but that was in her job description as mother. It came with the territory.
"Things were finally getting good, you know?" He shook his head. "We've had a rough couple of weeks and things were finally settling back down."
"They'll settle again."
"You think so?"
"I know so. Rory's just cares about things like this. It's probably my fault. Her very existence was scandalous. I think that's part of the reason she tries so hard to be good, besides the fact that she's brilliant of course." She added with a grin.
OOOOO
"Okay, I think I've finally gotten everything sorted out." Rory said as she emerged nearly an hour after she had left.
"Good, you need to sit down and eat some of these." Tristan said as he loaded up her plate with eggs and pancakes. "I don't know what she does, but damn…" He went back to concentrating on getting her food.
"Thanks but no thanks, but I'm not hungry anymore." She said. Tristan looked at her like she was crazy. He looked at the food in his hand and again at her.
"We both know that isn't true." He said. "So talk."
"My editor is calling for a retraction of the story, and Levrett's people are too but the damage has been done. I'm going to be known as 'That girl' for a really long time."
"Hey, first of all, there is no reason for you to be known at all. People most likely won't recognize you from the photo, there is no name linked with it, and once people read your story they will know that you were just doing your job. Besides, there will be a new story out in a few days and people will completely forget about this one." A smile broke out on her face for the first time that day. "What?"
"Superhero" was all she said. He didn't bother correcting her when she called him that anymore, he just changed the subject.
"Now eat, even if you aren't hungry, this is Sookie's food we're talking about."
"Yes sir." She said with a smile.
OOOOO
"How are you doing?" Lorelei asked Rory later when they were alone. She needed to talk to her daughter one on one and sending Tristan to the market for movie supplies seemed like a perfect way to get the two away from each other.
"Good. I just needed the time to realize that it really wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was."
"Tristan seemed to think it was downright unbelievable." Rory nodded. "You haven't told Tristan about Dean, have you?" Her mother voice was kicking in again for the second time that day.
"Why do you ask?"
"He basically said that the idea of you cheating on anyone was ridiculous."
"Well it is! I would never do that to Tristan. Besides, he knows that Dean and I dated in college. He also knows that I lost my virginity to him."
"Does he know that Dean was married at the time?" She asked. Rory didn't say anything. "Rory! You have to tell him. When people see this article, your history with Dean is going to come up, especially in this town."
"No I don't. He knows the important stuff."
"This IS the important stuff."
"I don't want to hurt him."
"You don't want to ruin his perfect image of you. I get it, Ror. But what if he finds out later from somebody else? What is that going to do to him?"
"Mom, he loves me, unconditionally. I know that."
"Then he should know all the conditions. If he loves you as much as he seems to, there will be no problems telling him."
OOOOO
Tristan picked up a variety of junk food for movie night, and was heading for the counter when he heard his name. He stopped and listened, although pretending to be reading labels.
"She wouldn't do that to Tristan!" Miss Patty defended Rory.
"Well you know how the whole thing with Dean played out." Babette whispered harshly.
"Yeah, but Rory was the other woman in that triangle. Dean had to do all the lying to his wife. She wouldn't lie to her boyfriend like that, especially someone like him. He's good for her."
"You didn't believe it the first time she had an affair, why would you believe it the second time?"
"I refuse to believe it. After all these years, to have another affair. She's a smart girl. She would have learned her lesson."
Tristan couldn't move. Rory was the other woman? He couldn't wrap his mind around that thought so he shoved it aside. They were suggesting that Rory had had an affair with Dean. They were more than suggesting, it sounded pretty certain that they had. Walking slowly towards the counter, Miss Patty inhaled sharply at the sight of seeing Tristan. He glanced over, much better at lying than most people.
"Hey, how are you two?"
"Honey, how are you?" Miss Patty asked. "We saw the paper this morning."
"Oh, that nonsense? Rory was writing an article for the paper. Some papparrazi took a photo and assumed they were dating. Rory's pretty upset about it, but apparently the paper is going to retract it with an apology, so hopefully it won't be spun too out of control."
"So she's taking it pretty hard?"
"No, she was just shocked. It's hard for her to imagine anyone writing a story with no facts, but that's why she's so good at what she does." He smiled.
"Will you tell her that we are sorting out the mess?" Babette said.
"I know she'd appreciate it. See you around." He picked up his bag and left the store.
OOOOO
"I'm sorry I freaked out this morning." Rory said as they strolled around Stars Hollow.
"I think it was an legitimate reaction." Tristan said, surprised she was apologizing. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I want to explain it." She said, unable to know where to start. "I never really told you about what happened with my relationship with Dean." Taking a deep breath, he knew that this was going to be relevant.
"No. In fact, the only thing I know is that you broke up with him before we kissed at Madelyn's party, got back together with him in a very dramatic scene in front of Chilton, and apparently broke up again in front of the LDB?" Rory looked at the ground before wrapping her arm in his and settling into his shoulder.
"Yes, another very dramatic scene." She sighed. "Let me fill in the details." She explained the loneliness she felt at the end of her freshman year at Yale, about Dean getting married and the way she felt nostalgic for better times. She explained the test run of the Inn and the actions that ensued after it.
"Hmm." Tristan muttered.
"So when people in this town read that article, whether it's true or not, it's going to bring up the fact that I have done it before. When you said this morning that people who truly knew me would know that I would never…" She stopped, ashamed of herself all over again. "No one is going to be surprised or shocked. No one is going to think that I'm the angel with the halo above my head. They are going to think it's true." She wasn't liking his silence. "Say something. Are you upset?" He stopped and sighed. What was he supposed to say in this situation?
"No." He shook his head.
"What are you thinking?" She asked as she stood in front of him, her big blue eyes racing across his face, desperate to know his thoughts.
"Honestly?" She nodded. "I didn't think you had it in you." He said, watching a car drive by. "I mean, I get it, but you seem so…safe. I didn't think you would like dangerous sex." She started walking again, aware at how well he was handling this situation. "In fact," He said, surprised by his own reaction. "It's kind of hot to think of you doing the whole lunch hour hotel thing. Maybe in the back seat of a car in the woods…" She blushed as Tristan hit the nail right on the head.
"It's not as sexy as it sounds." She assured him.
"Well it is if you're doing it properly." He smirked, extremely confident in the fact that he could please her in ways that Dean couldn't. Rory was pretty confident in that thought too.
"How would you know?" She wanted to know if he had done this before too. It wouldn't surprise her, but she hoped he hadn't.
"I've never been the other man, that I know of," he added for insurance. "But the only kind of good sex you can have in high school is illicit sex." He said. "A lot of good Daddy's girls snuck out of their windows to meet me."
"And did you make it worth their while?" She wanted to know. Tristan just smiled.
"Wanna find out?"
"Yes please." She smiled, wondering what he could possibly come up with on the spot like this.
"Alright." He replied before continuing their walk.
"Wait, where are we going?"
"You can't plan illicit sex." Tristan explained. "It has to be a surprise." He kept walking, leaving his stunned girlfriend behind him.
A/N: The next chapter will be rated M. It will be purely fluff, and not important to the story line so you can skip it if it bothers you. Just a pre-warning