Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls.

(Very important author's note at the end!)

Oh and there's some...colourful language in this chapter! Just to warn any younger readers!

He'd be a Fool Not To

Rory came to, a gentle breeze blowing across her body, gooseflesh peppering her bare arms. She could feel something gliding through her hair, cool digits caressing the back of her neck. Rory sighed in pleasure, caught up in the feel but it was suddenly cut short when a freezing cold cloth was laid over her forehead. She furrowed her brows, a hiss fleeing her lips and her hand shot up to wipe at the drops of water that were running down the side of her face, tickling her.

"Rory?" a familiar concerned voice made itself known and Rory instantly opened her eyes.

She blinked a couple times, feeling like she'd come out of an endless sleep, squinting from the bright rays of the sun, sitting high in the sky. Her forehead wrinkled, lips forming a thin line as she tried to remember what had happened.

"Rory?" Tristin's voice called out again and Rory felt what she'd now deemed as his hand pull from her hair. He shifted out from behind her and she pushed herself up onto her elbows. "You scared me, Mare," he admitted and Rory felt her lips widening in a smile.

She pushed herself up further, sitting cross legged and reached forward, her palm laying flat against his jaw. She titled her head to the side, her lips quirking into a half smile. "Sorry," she whispered, feeling herself getting lost in his amazing blue eyes.

Tristin shook his head, a look covering his face that Rory couldn't determine. Then he leaned forward, one hand wrapping around the curve of her neck and the other pressing into the small of her back. He pulled her to him, a frantic edge to his actions and Rory gasped as his lips captured hers, kissing her fiercely and stealing her breath from her.

Rory could only clutch at his shirt, letting him take control and submitting completely. She exhaled loudly when he pulled away, staying close to her, his breath hot against her face and his eyes boring into hers.

"What happened Rory?" he asked, his face softening and pulling away only slightly.

Rory narrowed her eyes in confusion for a moment, her head swimming from his bruising kiss. She thought back to what happened earlier at school and suddenly she was attacked by the memory.

His haunting angered eyes…

His hands digging into her skin, bruising her arms and her neck…

His scathing words and the fear he'd made rise up inside her…

Tears started to build in her eyes, her body shaking with their intensity. She shook her head, her hair falling in front of her face, shielding her from Tristin. She didn't want to tell him what happened; she knew he would be furious, she knew he would want to kill Gary.

"Rory?"

Rory slowly let her eyes meet his and she watched as his widened before he wrapped his arms around her body, bringing her into his embrace. Tristin easily lifted her up from the bench she was sitting on and sat down with her cradled in his lap.

He ran his hand through her hair, kissing her forehead and whispering soothing and comforting words into her ear. His grip on her tightened as his concern grew. He needed to know what had happened to her. Something had made her cry…someone had made his Mary cry…

Tristin gritted his teeth through the anger flooding his body. He vowed to himself that he wouldn't lose control yet, not until he knew what happened to shaken girl in his arms.

He'd never felt so much fear as he did when he saw her fall in the hallway earlier. Her eyes had connected with his, seconds passed; he could remember the relief painted on her face. He'd been about to go to her when all of a sudden her legs gave way.

He'd been at her side in an instant, picking her up and cradling her to his chest. He'd been running on autopilot, trying to remember everything he could from First Aid. Deryk had been talking to him but Tristin would never be able to tell you what he said, his attention had been focussed solely on Rory.

Tristin looked down at the girl in his arms, tears still falling from her eyes, his heart breaking with every new one. He tilted her chin up, kissing away her tears, trying in vain to calm her down. He needed her to tell him what happened.

"Tris…" her voice called to him and he let himself feel relieved for a short moment. At least she was talking again, that had to be a good sign. "…he tried to….I was so scared…"

His entire body tensed at that one sentence she managed to choke out. He tried to… His blood was boiling, anger and rage fuelling his body, making his fists curl inwards, his teeth gnaw together, and his nostrils flare.

"Who Rory?" he asked her, trying his hardest to maintain a gentle voice. He didn't want to upset her further. "What did he do?"

Rory shook her head and wrapped her fingers around his shirt, pulling herself further into his embrace. She was slowly calming down, her tears stopping and her heart rate slowing. Just being in Tristin's arms was helping; he made her feel so safe, like nothing bad could ever happen.

"Please…tell me, Mary," Tristin pleaded, kissing her on the crown of her head. He looked up and happened to see Deryk coming closer, hovering about five feet away. Tristin shook his head minutely, letting him know he hadn't figured out what had happened yet.

Rory gulped and squeezed her eyes shut. "He kept saying he wanted me…that it was…his turn," she managed to tell him and when she heard him curse under his breath she pulled away, looking into his fiery eyes. "He insulted my mom…kept saying I was going to follow in her footsteps…"

Tristin had to close his eyes and count to ten in his head to curb his anger. He'd never before had this insane urge to maim someone before but whoever said these things to Rory, he wanted them six feet under.

"Who?" It was the only thing he could concentrate on.

Rory looked into his eyes, scared of the deadly glint shining in them. She knew he would go ballistic once she told him; it scared her to know that she almost wanted him to. Gary was an asshole, but she managed to look past how much he disgusted her and had terrified her. She knew violence wasn't the right way to solve this, but Rory wasn't naïve enough to think Tristin wouldn't hurt him.

She stared straight into his angry blue eyes and sighed. "Gary," she told him finally, her voice almost inaudible.

Tristin swore he saw red the minute that name left her lips. He tried to check his anger; he bit through his tongue, blood spurting into his mouth. Tristin growled and stood up, picking Rory up and standing her up beside him, calling over to Deryk in one fluid motion.

"Who?" Deryk asked immediately and Rory could see the irritation and anger in him also, and she was beyond surprised at that.

Tristin sneered, "Gary."

Rory watched in horror as Tristin turned to the school and then whispered something to Deryk, his voice so low, so lethal it sent shivers down her spine. He turned to her for a split second, his once blue eyes now black with rage and then started off towards the school.

"Tristin! No!" she screamed after him, the only though running through her head was what if he got hurt? She went to run after him but Deryk caught hold of her arm, restraining her. She shot him a black look and noticed how apologetic he seemed.

"You can't let him do this!" she told him, yanking restlessly on her arm, looking back and forth between him and the school, Tristin having disappeared inside the front doors. "What if gets hurt?"

Deryk shook his head. "Dugrey can take care of himself, you shouldn't worry."

Rory frowned, glaring at him some more. She took another step forward, his hand slipping from its grip around her palm to her wrist. She once again tugged on her arm, hoping it would slip again but his other hand came up and wrapped around her wrist too.

"Just let him do this," Deryk told her, surprised at how strong Rory really was as he had to tightened his grip on her arm again. "He needs to do this….you can't stop…"

"Oww!" Rory yelped in earnest when he slipped his hand further up her arm, his fingers digging painfully into the purple bruise marring her skin. Pain shot into her arm, making her remember the feeling of Gary's fingers tightening around her.

Deryk snapped his attention to her as she cried out, ripping his hand away from her arm in a split second. He looked down at her arm, the sleeve of her shirt was pushed up from his hand and he could see the bruises littering her skin.

Rory gave him a watery glare but wasted no time before she was off running, shoes slamming against the stone walkway up to the school. She had no clue what she was doing but she knew she needed to get to Tristin, before he did something that got himself hurt or expelled from school.

- - -

Tristin knew where to find him.

He wasted no time in the halls, pushing his way through the crowds of people, angrily shoving them to the side. Whispers started flooding the halls, mostly everyone stopping to take note of his determined stride and the anger coming off of him in waves.

But Tristin paid them no attention as he walked to Gary's locker. It was right near his, all the lockers of Chilton's finest were in the same place. Tristin sneered as he thought there was no way Gary would ever step foot near there after today.

He sparingly thought it was odd that he wasn't rushing to him, wasn't tearing through the halls like a man possessed. He was just walking, his footsteps echoing through the rapidly quieting halls. He felt like he was stalking his prey, his body deadly calm…he knew he was going to win.

Then he saw Gary, leaning back against his locker, guys surrounding him as he laughed through telling them some story.

His eyes narrowed and his jaw ticked away. He quickened his feet, putting less and less space between him and Gary, making sure everyone could see that he was coming and that he was pissed.

"Dugrey," the man in question stated and Tristin took a second to bask in the notch of fear in Gary's voice before he was moving closer to him.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" he asked him, his face within inches of the smaller guys, breath coming out in hot, short pants as he tried to control himself from pounding the guy. "You think you can make a pass at my girlfriend without me knowing?"

Gary shook under Tristin's hateful gaze. "I wasn't trying to…I just thought…"

Tristin slammed his fist into the metal locker inches from Gary's head. "What? You just thought you'd take your turn?" he scoffed, his lips twisting into a wicked smirk. "You could never just leave her alone could you? Now you're going to pay," he threatened him.

"No! Seriously, man, I was just kidding around…" Gary choked out. "I swear!"

"Not with my girlfriend!" Tristin told him and backed away slightly, running a hand through his hair. "You don't fucking talk to Rory! You don't touch her again…you get every single thought of her out of your head or I swear I will kill you."

Gary nodded his head, to shaken in fear to do anything else. Tristin smirked and turned around the tiniest bit, just enough to hear the sigh of relief come from behind him. He fisted his hand again and quickly made his way back to Gary, whose books fell to the ground as Tristin advanced…

- - -

Rory hurriedly ran through the halls. She swallowed her nerves when she thought of how empty they were, definitely not right, as it was now just after the lunch bell. She had no clue where Tristin would have gone and so she was going to make her way to the cafeteria when she heard a commotion.

Her head snapped towards the area of Tristin's locker and she wrung her hands anxiously as she quickened her pace. Her fears rang true though when she saw the crowd of students in the hallway and Rory bit her bottom lip. She couldn't see through the crowd and so she quickly started to push her way through, made easier when people realized it was her and they parted like the red sea.

Just as she got to the front of the crowd she heard the thunderous sound of four hundred page textbooks hitting the ground and when she finally brought her gaze to the scene before her she saw Tristin was heading on a collision course with Gary.

Gary didn't have time to brace himself before Tristin landed the first punch, swearing at him as he did so. Gary's back slammed into the locker, his groan ringing out in the school as he doubled over. Tristin easily kicked him to the floor, pinning Gary down and started to hit him repeatedly.

Rory felt sick at the sight of them fighting. Gary pushed Tristin back by shoving a hand under his jaw and levelled a punch at him catching him around the nose. As Tristin drew his arm back to hit Gary again Rory rushed forward, yelling out Tristin's name, her voice desperate. Tristin looked up at her with anger and disbelief.

"Rory," he breathed out, his heart pounding in his chest and his fist still aimed at Gary's bleeding face. "What are you doing here?"

Rory frowned and rushed over to his side. She grabbed onto his arm, pulling with all her might and in Tristin's state of disbelief she managed to get him off of Gary and onto his feet. The minute he was standing Gary jumped up and rushed off in the opposite direction, but Tristin's focus was only on Rory.

"Why the hell would you do that?" she asked him, concern lacing her voice as her hand flitted around him, making sure he wasn't seriously hurt.

Tristin seemed to break out of his daze and swore out loud when he noticed that Gary had run off. "Rory, he fucking attacked you…I had to…" he was cut off by her finger brushing against his lips.

"I'm fine Tristin," she assured him and when she saw he was about to protest she quickly cut him off. "I was just in shock over what happened; I've never been in that kind of situation."

"He's a bastard Rory, I couldn't let him get away with that," he argued but then his face softened and he brought a hand to her chin, caressing her skin with his thumb. "I couldn't let him get away with hurting you."

"And you didn't," she said, shuffling closer to him. "But please let it go, Tris. I don't want you fighting for me," she exclaimed.

He smiled cockily and wrapped his free arm around her waist, pulling her closer so her body bumped into his. "I'll always fight for you, Mary," he whispered.

Rory blushed and then looked up into his eyes seriously. "So you'll let it go, now?" she asked him. "Promise?"

Tristin sighed, closing his eyes and trying to push all the anger out of his body. It wasn't that hard when he was holding Rory in his arms though, he would do anything to make her happy.

"I promise I won't fight him anymore," he told her, skilfully evading her real plea. There was no way in hell he was going to let the whole thing blow over, but there were ways other than violence to make Gary pay.

"Tristin…" Rory sighed worriedly, seeing the wicked spark in his eyes.

He laughed slightly. "Don't worry about it, Rory," he reassured her and then leaned down and quickly brushed his lips against hers. "I promise I'll never let anything happen to you again," he told her, making her cheeks flush pink again.

Rory smiled into his eyes. "I know," she said and then brought his lips down to hers again before she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugging him to her tightly.

Rory closed her eyes, sighing contentedly as she pressed her lips to his neck. She'd come to depend on Tristin so much in such a small time. He meant the world to her but she'd always wanted it to be perfect. She'd had a vision of perfection when it came to true love. Being with Tristin had taught her that while love is always perfect, people surely aren't. And she was now willing to take the good with the bad, just as long as that meant he would hold her forever, in his arms.

- - -

The End

- - -

A/N: OH MY GOD! I can't believe I've finished this story! My second one finished. I hope this chapter lived up to it; I tried to make it balanced between the mushy ending and Tristin getting revenge on Gary! Hope I did well.

Anyway, I didn't put my author's note up before the chapter, because after the huge wait for it I thought you'd probably just want to read it right away. But! The reason I haven't updated this was because I was in an accident when I went grocery shopping with my parents.

When we got back to the car I opened the automatic sliding door on our van and went to step in but my mom called over to me about something and I stopped. My dad was closing the trunk of the car and we have a button on his key chain that locks the trunk but instead of pressing it he pressed the button that closes the sliding door. Let me just say that getting your hand caught in a car door really hurts!

I ended up breaking one finger and spraining the other one pretty badly. So I was restricted to not using my hand for a week and a half so that they could start to heal properly, also the cast made it kind of impossible to do anything anyway…

But I was finally able to focus back on my stories! (My sister typed this up for me, except this note which I'm using my left hand for, so I'm sorry for any mistakes)

Wow this is a long note…I hope to get my sister to write out some chapters for my other stories because I'm actually going on vacation this coming Friday for two weeks. It's going to suck though because I won't have a computer and I can't even swim in the ocean because of my stupid cast thing!

Anyway I'm complaining too much. I just wanted to let everyone know why I haven't updated and why it might me a while before I do. We get back on Agust 21, just to let you know.

I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this but if you are thank you! And thanks to everyone who stuck with this story, you guys are amazing and I love you all! Thanks so much!

Hugs and Kisses,
-Ella