Summary: What would have happened if Tristin had never left?

Coupling Rory/Tristin

Disclaimer: I do not under any circumstances own anything that is affiliated with the Gilmore Girls' world. We have Amy Sherman- Palladino, her wonderful husband, and Dorothy Parker Drank Here Productions to thank for it all.

A/N: Ok, for the sake of the story let's pretend that everything went down the way it did in Run Away Little Boy except Tristin doesn't break into Bowman's dad's safe and shows up (but still late) to be Romeo.

Chapter One: Decomposing Lips

"Paris calm down, I'm sure he'll be here any minute now." Rory said trying to reassure Paris and herself at the same time, "He knows how important this is to you. He's not going to let you down, if for no other reason than he's mildly scared of you in pursuit for the all mighty A+."

"Don't try to sweet talk me Gilmore. You and I both know that Tristin isn't concerned with how important this is to me. He proved that at the rehearsals all week." Paris said vehemently while pacing back and forth in front of Rory.

"He really only blew off one or two. Plus I know he knows the lines, I think he's just messing with you Paris. And please stop pacing! You're making me dizzy." When Rory realized that her reassurances were having little to no effect over Paris at all, she looked at her watch. She realized that Tristin still had a good ten or fifteen minutes to get there before their scene started. She turned around and added, "I'll go look for him. Maybe he's out in the audience or something."

"Right Gilmore you go do that. Call him again. Tell him that I'm going to kill him if he's not here in time!" Paris yelled before stalking off

'Right, that's the motivation he needs, to be threatened with death, Rory thought to herself. The idea of having to go back out to the audience made Rory cringe as she realized that Dean had her cell phone and in order to call Tristin she'd have to go and get it from him. That's just what I need. Dean freaking out because I have all of Tristin's numbers saved in my phone, and I'm actually going to use them, Rory thought to herself as she walked over to her mom. "Hey mom, you haven't seen Tristin out here anywhere have you?" Rory asked averting her eyes away from Dean's gaze.

"No hun. I sure haven't. Shouldn't Romeo be back there with you getting into all that Elizabethan time period clothing that your slave driver otherwise known as Paris forced me to spend hours making last week?" Lorelai said not noticing the tense look on Dean's face.

"Well technically he should be but he's not and the slave driver is freaking out backstage. If he's not here in ten minutes I think she's going to make me kiss like twenty people to see who can replace him." Rory said causing Lorelai to burst out laughing

"That's not really funny." Dean said his voice completely devoid of any happiness.

"I was just kidding Dean. Can I have my phone please." Rory said looking him in the eye

"Yeah, here. Who are you calling?"

"I have to find Tristin before Paris has an aneurysm." Rory said while looking at Dean as if he was insane.

Just then Paris came darting from backstage. "Did you find him?" she yelled to Rory.

"No, I'm going to try his cell phone first." Rory told her. She stood there looking at her mom while she dialed the number she had memorized last year right after their kiss at Madeline's party. She had debated whether or not to call him all weekend then and had actually hung up whent he maid answered several times.

"You know the number by heart?" Dean said jealousy dripping from his voice. Rory just nodded and walked away so that she could hear the phone.

"Be jealous later Lover Boy, right now we have to find him." Paris said her voice lacking any emotion whatsoever.

"Why can't you call him?" Dean asked Paris

"Well for one, I don't know his number off the top of my head like Rory. Secondly he doesn't respond to me very well. But Rory…"

"He does anything she asks. Because he has a thing for her." Dean said filling in the pause Paris left open.

Rory could hear the conversation going on between Paris and Dean. The second she heard the tone of Dean's voice she knew that she would have to do some serious damage control later on with Dean. 'This is Tristin. I'm not here. Leave a message. Bye.' Rory sighed when the voice mail picked up. "Tristin this is Rory. I'm trying to find you! Paris is having a nervous breakdown and if you aren't here soon I'm going to end up either dead or kissing Brad. Please get here or call me or something. Bye." Great. This is just great. Rory thought to herself while looking at the time on her cell. Tristin had exactly five minutes to get here before they had to find a replacement fast. "He didn't answer Paris. Should I try his house?" Rory asked her after she walked back over to them.

"Yeah. If he's still there he can get here in ten minutes. I'm going to go force someone else's scene to switch times with us." Paris said, "And start prepping Bad. If he's not here in ten minutes Brad is our new Romeo." and then she walked away

"I am not kissing Brad! Damn it Tristin!" Rory said. She hadn't meant to say it out loud but soon realized that she had after Dean's head whipped around to look at her.

"So you'd rather kiss Tristin?" Dean said questioningly

"I don't have time for this Dean. I have to call Tristin's house." Rory said and then dialed her cell again.

"Another number you know off the top of your head. God Rory just how often do you call the accountant?" Dean said anger apparent in his voice causing Lorelai's head to pop up and lock eyes with Rory.

Lorelai could see Rory's eyes pleading with her for help. "Now is not the time Dean. Is it ringing Ror?" Lorelai said

Rory just nodded her head and listened to the phone ring. The phone was answered on the fourth ring. "Dugrey residence."

Thank God. "Hello this is Rory Gilmore. I'm a friend of Tristin's. Is he there by any chance?"

"Oh Ms. Gilmore I believe he left here with his parents about fifteen minutes ago."

"Do you have a number in which I can reach him at? He isn't answering his cell phone. It's really important."

"I suppose I could give you his father's cell phone number. If it's really important."

"I assure you it's extremely important. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't."

"Ok, well.. do you have a pen?"

"Mom, pen now…" Rory said to her mother who promptly handed her a pen and held out her hand for Rory to write on. "Ok, I have one now."

"It's 7-4-5-2-9-8-1."

"Thank you so much. You are a life saver."

"You're welcome Ms. Gilmore."

Rory hung up the phone as Paris walked up. "I bought us fifteen more minutes. Find him?"

"I know he's in the car with his father. Who I am about to call." Rory said while dialing the number on her mothers hand.

"Dugrey."

"Mr. Dugrey? This is Rory Gilmore I'm a friend of Tristin's. I was wondering if he was there with you. I tried calling his cell but I just keeping the voice mail and the maid at your house gave me this number. It's really important."

"Yes he's right here Ms. Gilmore. Hold on a second." There was a pause and Rory could hear a muffled it's for you before he handed the phone to Tristin. "Rory?"

"WHERE IN THE HELL ARE YOU TRISTIN?" Rory yelled into the phone.

"I swear to you I'll be there in two minutes. There was this really big accident on the way over there and we were delayed. I'm so sorry. I just checked my voice mail and was about to call you. Tell Paris I'm sorry."

"He says he'll be here in two minutes. There was an accident or something." She watched Paris roll her eyes."He says he's sorry." Rory told Paris. She heard Paris mumble something that sounded like yeah right I bet he's sorry, before turning her attention back to Tristin. "Where are you now?"

"Let me call you back."

"No… damn it Tristin." Rory said but it was too late. He had already hung up on her. She was about to call him back when her phone rang. "Hello."

"I told you I was going to call you back." Tristin said. He had just walked into the auditorium and was looking at Rory across the room.

"Where are you?" Rory said walking away from Dean and her mom

"In Chilton." He saw her walk away from her mom and who he guessed was the bag boy.

"It's about time."

"You're annoyed with me." Tristin stated. It wasn't a question. He could tell she was angry. He knew she was going to be angry but there was really nothing he could do about it. He had tried to call her but her phone was off. He started walking towards her.

"I'm not annoyed with you. Paris is annoyed with you and she's taking it out on me."

"Well I'm sorry. I tried to call you to tell you I was going to be late, but your phone was off and so was Paris'." Tristin said doing his best to defend himself.

"I know you are. And I know it was off. I turned it off when I handed it to Dean earlier. I gotta get off the phone though. Dean is shooting me funny looks."

Tristin tensed at the mention of Dean. He really didn't like that guy one bit. When Rory had come to him earlier in the week trying to get him to open up and talk to her he had hoped that maybe she was rethinking where he stood. But now hearing her bring him up he knew that probably wasn't the case. She was just being a nice person and thought that she could maybe help him through whatever it was that made him turn to guys like Bowman. "Ok, bye." He told her. He watched her walk back over to Dean and turn her phone off. She handed it to Dean and he put it in his pocket. Tristin walked up behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Hey Mary. You didn't think I'd miss our big kissing scene did you? Or that I'd let Brad have the honor of kissing you?" he said smiling cockily at Dean.

Rory looked at her mom who was trying to stifle the laughter that Rory could see clearly on her face. Then she turned towards Dean who looked like he wanted to kill Tristin. Realizing that Tristin's arm was still around her shoulder she jerks out of his touch and looked at him. "I'm dead. There is no big kissing scene. There's you kissing my decomposing lips." She turned back around and kissed Dean on the cheek said a quick goodbye and grabbed Tristin and pulled him backstage.

AN: Ok, this is the first installment. I'm still not officially sure where this story is headed but read and review anyway. For those of you awaiting an update on my other story The Best Laid Plans I have no idea when you should expect an update. I am having serious complications with that story and decided to take a break and start this one. Sorry…