A/N: This chapter was re-edited to make it the official ending. The rest of the chapters were deleted as I hated leaving an abandoned story. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing

"Mr. DuGray, you have a phone call." His secretary pointed to his phone which, sure enough, had a light flashing on line two.

"Tristan DuGray." He said as he pushed the speaker phone button and continued working.

"Tristan, it's your grandmother." Claire said. "I have a favor to ask of you." Tristan instantly set down his work and gave the phone call his full attention. His grandparents had never asked for anything, despite the fact that Tristan would do anything for them.

"Anything." He said, shocked by her request.

"Will you come up here this weekend and have lunch with me, just you and me, one on one?"

"Why, is something wrong?" Tristan asked, getting worried by this strange behavior.

"No dear, I've just been talking to your grandfather and I feel like there is some things that we need to discuss."

"You're freaking me out a little, Grandma." Tristan said.

"I promise that it's nothing to be worried about, just me being my typical meddling self." Tristan smiled.

"What time do you want me to be there?" He asked as he started reaching for his planner.

OOOOO

Tristan had, admittedly, sped all the way to Hartford from the city. His stomach was in knots and he had no idea why the concept of this dinner was freaking him out so much. It was just lunch with his Grandma, Lord knows they had done it a thousand times before. But this level of secrecy was new, as was the request to meet alone. He pulled into the driveway and got out of his car, not bothering to knock on the door.

"Grandma?" He yelled into the foyer.

"What did I tell you about yelling when you enter the house?" Claire said as she appeared to greet her grandson. "Hello." She said as she gave him a hug. "How was your drive?"

"Quick." Tristan said honestly as he followed her into the dining room.

"We're having grilled fish for lunch, is that suitable?" Claire asked as Tristan pulled out a chair for her. She sat down.

"Of course." Tristan said as he sat down across from her.

"Alright, so I suppose you are wondering why you are here?" Claire said with a small smile.

"Yes. Not that seeing you isn't great, but I get the feeling that there is more at play here than a simple lunch." Tristan said, eyeing his grandmother for clues.

"I wanted to talk to you about Rory." Tristan's stomach lurched against ribcage.

"What about her?" He said, looking concerned.

"She told me about what had happened the day I gave her my necklace." Tristan nodded. "Did you two talk about it?"

"We agreed to wait to discuss it further until she felt more comfortable with the situation." Tristan said, as their food was placed in front of each of them. He realized that he was talking about the situation in as neutral and vague terms as he could muster. It was easier that way.

"What do you know about Logan?" Claire asked. "You were still in school when they were together, so you weren't here for the fallout of the relationship."

"Um," He faltered a bit. The truth was, he didn't know that much. They hadn't discussed him since their brief encounter in London. "I saw him when we went to London together. We met on the sidewalk. She told me about their relationship and how they had been engaged and they had mutually decided to go their separate ways." Actually, it had been Logan who had first told him about the engagement. Rory had removed all the details from their story entirely.

"It was quite the scandal. You can imagine what the gossip mill was like around here, but I'll fill you in. Back when Lorelei became pregnant, it was the biggest scandal this town had ever seen. Everyone knew exactly how much potential that girl had and Richard and Emily were, up until that point, the greatest couple Hartford had. Everyone considered them to be shining examples of morality. The shame from that incident alone was enough to permanently scar their reputation in this town. Soon, Mitchum Huntzberger had made a name for himself and he was the new up and coming person in society. Logan was known as being a typical society child, so you can imagine what it was like to hear that Rory, who was going to redeem the Gilmores' reputation, and Logan, who had nearly destroyed Mitchum's, were together at Yale. However, this seemed to work for the couple until Rory dropped out of Yale…" Tristan choked on his drink.

"I'm sorry, did you just say when Rory dropped out of Yale?" Claire stared at Tristan, surprised by his surprise.

"She didn't tell you?" Claire clarified.

"No, this is the first I'm hearing about it. Why and when did she drop out of Yale?" Tristan said, shock reverberating throughout his entire body.

"Mitchum told her, in an overt attempt to make her a more suitable wife for Logan, that she didn't have what it took to be in journalism and basically fired her from her internship as his aide. And in response, she decided that she was going to take some time off from Yale to decide what it was she wanted to do with her life." Claire could see her grandson's hands turning white as he gripped his silverware so she continued. "She only missed a semester, but it nearly destroyed her relationship with her mother, who knew exactly what was going on. Richard and Emily took Rory in for that semester and she became everything that the Huntzbergers had hoped she would be. She even joined the DAR." Claire chuckled. Tristan didn't find it as amusing. "And, in the process, she realized that she had made a horrible mistake. It was good for her to learn what she was getting into, in a strange way, it might have been better to find out earlier than later. But once again, here was a Gilmore girl who was destined for greatness, being led astray by a trouble-making boy." Claire sighed. "And when they broke off their engagement, well, it was the talk of the town." Tristan couldn't believe it. Rory? His strong, beautiful, independent Mary, had dropped out of Yale to pretend to be a Hartford housewife? It went against everything he knew about her. Why hadn't she told him this in London? Or since, for that matter?

"This is more than just her having cold feet about commitment." He said allowed, finally understanding why she was so scared to give up part of her life for someone else.

"When Janlan told me your side of the story, I knew that something was not right. You would never be angry at her for her hesitancy if you knew the whole story. The girl is tired of being considered a scandal, and no one can blame her for that. Especially not you." Claire said, reminding him of his high school years.

"I can't believe she didn't tell me any of this." Tristan said aloud. "We talked about it, we fought about it, we made up, and she never said a word." But as he thought back, he remembered her words. I'm scared because I love you so much and I could easily throw my life and all my plans away just to be with you.He thought about what she had told him about Logan while they were sitting in that café in London."And that's just the Reader's Digest version." She had smiled. She had edited the story in her own perfectly written, natural way and he had left it at that without so much as another thought. Suddenly, it all made sense, the guilt over her job, the need for her to choose him over work, her fear about losing her path in life, her comment at the café. It was like the missing puzzle piece the described every piece of her behavior over the last week.

"Oh my God." Tristan said, standing up from the table. "Grandma, I have to go." And without another word, he was gone.

OOOOO

"Rory?" Tristan yelled as he stormed into their apartment. He saw her small frame jump up from the other side of the couch. She had been laying with her laptop on her stomach and now the device had been tossed to the end of the couch.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Rory asked as she removed the headphones from her ears.

"I just had lunch with my grandma in Hartford." He told her as he took off his coat and threw it on the nearest chair. "She told me what happened with you at school." Rory looked at him, confused for a brief second before the shame hit her features. "Why didn't you tell me you dropped out of Yale?" She stood up, not wanting to talk about the topic. "If I had known the whole story, I would have never…"

"What?" Rory asked. "You would have never what?"

"I wouldn't have gotten upset. I would have understood where you were coming from." Tristan said. "I would currently feel terrible for the way I reacted the other day." Rory scrunched her face up at him and turned away. "Instead, I'm trying really hard not to be completely pissed off at you for keeping this from me." He said. "For making me feel like this was somehow my fault for loving you too much. I've been nothing but one hundred percent honest with you. You had no reason to lie to me!"

"You're right. I shouldn't have lied to you." She said as she stood up. "I'll get my stuff." Tristan was dumbfounded.

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Aren't you breaking up with me?"

"Why would I do that?" He asked her. She didn't look at him. He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. "Rory, look at me. Why would you think that?"

"Men always suck you into their world, get you to do whatever they want, and then when they are finished with you…" She slapped her hands together. "Out the door. And since we're standing in your apartment, you can't leave, so I'm forced to do it for you." Tristan just continued staring at her like she was completely cracked. "God, I know how irrational it sounds, but..." She said, unable to finish her thought.

"Why would you think that I'm going to leave?" Tristan asked, once he finally found the frame of mind to put a sentence together. "Two days ago we were fighting because I wanted to marry you."

"You say that now, Tristan. They all said that now. Don't you understand that? No one actually means it and it's only a matter of time before you realize it too."

"Who is 'they'?" Tristan asked quietly.

"Do you want a chronological list or alphabetical?" She asked him. "Jess left without even saying goodbye. Dean had the courtesy to stick around long enough to take my virginity before leaving. Logan went off to London. And you," she pointed an accusatory finger at her boyfriend, "you went to military school!" She said. "So yes, maybe I'm crazy, but I've heard every single thing that you've told me before, and no one actually meant it or if they did, they didn't stand beside it."

"Do you think that I've had great and honest people in my life? Of course not. But you don't use them as an excuse for your own fear. That's bullshit." Rory was shocked out how quickly he reacted to her statement. "If you're scared, you deal with it and move on. You're surrounded by great men in your life: Luke, your grandfather, my grandfather for that matter!" He stood directly in front of her. "And you've got me." He said, more confidently than he probably should have. "You may have heard it before, but I'm not going anywhere. Ever. I told you, if this relationship ends, it's going to be because you wanted it to." He said as he pointed his finger in return at her and looked her square in the eye. "Now," he said more calmly, "While I'm grateful to finally understand where you are coming from, I'm still mad at you for hiding all of this from me and I need some time to think." He turned around and left Rory standing there, all by herself. "And you better be here when I get back." He said before slamming the door.

OOOOO

Tristan came into their bedroom that night after spending the entire afternoon at his office. Rory was already lying in bed, reading a book, and she knew that he had waited to appear until she was supposed to be asleep. She never took her eyes off the book in front of her, but her attention was completely on him. He got undressed and slipped into bed next to her without saying a word. She glanced once at his back, which was turned rather coldly to her, before starting her apology.

"I'm sorry." She said reluctantly, still refusing to look up from her book. "You were right. I should have told you about Yale." She turned the page of her book and kept pretending to read. "I didn't want to tell you in London because it was so soon. I thought that when we got more serious, I would tell you." She paused to turn a page again. "And then I saw Natalie." She looked over at Tristan's back again and noticed that this time, his shoulders were tense. "I knew from the moment I saw you look at her that you could never love her, if only because she represented everything that you were running away from. I saw so much of the old me in her. I was afraid that if you saw that other side of me, the Hartford side, that you might not like what you saw." Rory admitted. "And now that you know everything, you won't look at me at all, so maybe I should have been less concerned with the bad looks and just been grateful I had your attention in the first place." She tried to tease, but the hurt in her voice was apparent. "I just, I want you to know that I love you." Tristan had to fight the urge to roll over and comfort her, to tell her that he was sorry too and that she was forgiven. Instead, he remained stubborn and spoke without turning over to look at her.

"Just get some sleep. We'll talk about it later." It wasn't forgiveness and it wasn't a cold shoulder. It was a dismissal of the topic. She would take what she could get.

OOOOO

When Tristan woke up the next morning, he realized that his arm had betrayed him in the middle of the night and flung itself over Rory's waist, pulling her close. He was thankful that he was always the first one to wake up as he brought himself back over to his side of the bed. He stared at the ceiling for a second before planning his next move. Rory's apology the night before had been a good one, and he knew that she meant it, but he wasn't ready to say his piece yet. He wasn't a writer. He needed time to think about how he felt, and he certainly needed time to plan what he was going to say. He had tried to write some of it down yesterday at his office, scribbling notes, desperate to organize his racing mind. The fact that she had expected him to throw her out onto the street had completely thrown him. How could she think that he would break up with her like that? He felt her stir and he glanced over to see if she was awake. She was.

"Good morning." He said, analyzing her sleepy features. She nodded and glanced at the clock. She swung her legs over her side of the bed and stretched. She usually needed a cup of coffee, a shower and another cup of coffee to fully wake up in the morning, but today it was worse. She hadn't slept at all the night before until Tristan had put his arm around her, probably a subconscious attempt on his part to get her to stop restlessly turning.

"Do you want some coffee?" She asked him.

"Sure." He said. She went to the kitchen and poured them each a cup. She took a deep breath before turning around to bring it back to the bedroom. She was surprised to find that Tristan had followed her and was standing directly behind her.

"Can we talk?" Tristan asked as she handed him his cup.

"Of course." She said, sitting down at the table.

"Okay." He said, wondering where to start. "When my grandmother told me that you had dropped out of Yale, I was shocked. I thought that I knew everything about you, but on the drive back, I realized that I'm the only person that missed the last, and apparently most important, years of your life. So if there's something you haven't told me, everyone else will know. I hate that thought. I don't want to be the only one who doesn't know what happened in my own girlfriend's life. Especially because, after learning that one missing piece of information, all of your behavior finally made sense. I got to see your soul, completely, for the first time. I don't know why you wouldn't trust me with all of the information. Did I do anything to make you doubt me or the way that I feel about you?" He asked.

"No." She said sadly. He stared at his mug for a second.

"I'm an all or nothing kind of guy. It's just the way I've always been, so for you to leave out parts of your story, it makes me feel like we're not on the same page. And I know why you are so freaked out about marriage and leaving your job, it makes sense after all you've been through. I don't need a marriage license or a ring, those things aren't important. But I do need to know that you are in this thing with me one hundred percent, good and bad. I can't accept anything less than that. I thought that I could, but after what I learned…"

"Yes." She cut him off. His eyes shot up to meet hers, surprised by her instant reaction. "I'm in." He stared at her, wanting her to be sure.

"Are you saying that because it's what I want to hear?" He asked. Rory shook her head and reached for his hand.

"Last night, I had a dream about your house." She said. Tristan's eyes explored her own as he stared at her. "It was beautiful, just like the pictures. We were standing in the kitchen. We were happy even though we were just going through the motions of our life." She paused. "I knew that you had changed the moment you showed me the drawings of that house. You were open, candid, and honest. I'm so sorry that I wasn't the same. There is no excuse." She sighed. "But I have always loved you with all that I have. And now I know that I want to keep doing it for the rest of my life. If you'll let me." She added.

"You dreamt about my house?" Tristan asked. She nodded. "So did I." He said.

"No way." She said, not believing him. He nodded, his freaked out expression turning into a small smile.

"We had a golden retriever." Rory took a second to adjust to this thought.

"We did?" Tristan nodded. "I've always wanted a dog. What was his name?" He chuckled.

"I don't remember."

"We should get one!"

"They aren't allowed in the building." He smiled.

"Aw, that's too bad. We'll just have to wait until the house is done." She said. Tristan stared at her, surprised by her comment.

"I guess so." He said with a smile. His hand interlocked with hers across the table.

"Come here and kiss me." Rory commanded as she leaned across the table.

"Yes ma'am." Tristan smirked as he followed her lead.