A/N: I'm not going to spend time giving excuses on why its been so long, I can only apologise so much to you all. This chapter's been a long time coming, but I hope you enjoy it, and I'll have a longer AN at the bottom.

Recap:

"Umm, okay." Dean said, "Speaking of people we know, who's that rich blonde guy I keep seeing you with?"

Rory frowned, knowing that he knew exactly who Logan was, especially with the way gossip travelled in Stars Hollow. Before she could answer though she felt someone else come up beside her.

"Hey Ace, who's this?"

"Logan." Rory said in surprise, turning in her chair to see the familiar blonde stood behind her, smiling down at her with a slight frown on his face.

"You miss me?" he asked with a smirk, bending down to kiss her, placing his hand lightly on the back of her chair.

"Always." she replied shakily, as she pecked him on the lips and then turned back to look at Dean with wide eyes. His were narrowed as he looked towards her and Logan, but it was the glint in his eye that scared Rory.

"Logan Huntzburger." Logan said, leaning just to the side of Rory and extending his hand to Dean. His tone was perfectly polite, but Rory could see the slight tension in his stance, and she knew him well enough to tell that his behaviour wasn't what it seemed.

"Dean Forester." Dean replied, shaking Logan's hand, but there was a worrying smirk across his face and his grip on Logan's hand seemed too firm. "Rory's told you about me?" he stated more than asked, his tone expectant.

Rory felt her stomach drop as Logan tensed even more beside her. She saw his grip on the chair tighten, his knuckles almost turning white, and she knew he was remembering who Dean was.

She laid a hand fearfully on his arm, trying to stop the situation from escalating.

"I don't know," Logan said slowly, but Rory could hear the anger and sarcasm in his voice and could sense the trouble brewing. "Your names not ringing any bells."

"Right," Dean murmured, and Rory could tell he didn't believe him. "Well we were just catching up again." Dean said, leaning back in his chair in a possessive gesture, reaching his arm over so that his hand was resting on the back of Paris's chair. To say she didn't look pleased was an understatement. She scowled at him and shifted over to the edge of her seat, glancing between the two guys and Rory with a look of pitying disgust. "It was so good seeing each other the other day, and we didn't really have a proper chance to...reacquaint ourselves, you know?" His smirk widened as he saw Logan's expression, and neither Logan nor Rory missed the possessive nature in which he was talking about her.

"The other day?" Logan asked her, turning to look at her with a hardened look, but she could just make out the hurt in his eyes.

"She didn't tell you?" Dean said, feigning surprise, his eyes glinting some more. "Oh..." he said, still acting "Are you two going out?" He looked between the two of them as if he had only just noticed "I'm sorry man, I had no idea, Rory never said."

Logan looked at her. "Ace?" he asked slowly.

"I ran in to him at the market before school the other day." She said hurriedly, leaning towards him with a pleading look "Dean works there. And I did tell him I was seeing someone." She said, shooting Dean a dirty look, as he was still sprawled about on one of the chairs.

"I don't remember you ever mentioning that." Dean said, smirking maliciously.

"Well I'm sorry if you can't understand what the word 'unavailable' means." She snapped at him, her voice getting slightly desperate as she turned to look at Logan. "I was going to tell you, I swear."

"So why didn't you Rory?" He asked, his voice hard, and Rory flinched slightly at the use of her real name.

"I just..." she scrambled to find the right words "I was going to, and then there wasn't time before school, and then we had such a good time the other night, I didn't want to ruin things by telling you."

"Telling me what?" Logan said "Why would it ruin our night if was just a perfectly innocent conversation? Unless something else happened?"

"Nothing did!"Rory said desperately, standing up to maintain eye contact with him. "I swear. It wasn't even worth mentioning!"

"So what's he doing here now?"

"He just came over and sat down, Paris and I were working and he just invited himself. You can ask her!"

All eyes turned to the uptight blonde, who was still sat on the edge of her seat, her back perfectly straight.

"Don't look at me." She said, shaking her head "I'm not getting involved in this pathetic soap opera like situation. I have more important things to be doing, like the project we're supposed to be working on." She looked pointedly at Rory.

"Just give me a second." Rory sighed in annoyance, turning her eyes back to the blonde that was far more important to her at this moment in time. "Logan please!" She said, taking hold of his hand, "Dean is ancient history, nothing happened or ever will. It just wasn't important enough to even mention, trust me!"

Logan just looked at her, his eyes travelling over her face and trying to assess the situation. Just when she thought he was understanding and was about to nod, Dean spoke again.

"Yeah, Logan," he said, leaning forward in his chair, his brown hair falling slightly in her place "Rory doesn't like it when people don't trust her."

"I know her, don't you tell me what she wants!" Logan snapped, taking a step towards Dean in the cramped space.

"Or you'll do what?" Dean snarled, getting to his own feet. He was a good few inches taller than Logan, but still had the awkward stoop to him and Rory had seen Logan in more than enough fights to know that he could handle himself. She wasn't sure who would win in a fight, and she didn't want to. Dean may be from the past, but a part of her still cared about him, she didn't want to see either one of them hurt because of her.

Logan shook his head and started to move towards Dean even more, starting to say something when a familiar figure appeared to Rory's left.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luke said, stepping up beside the two guys and placing his hands in between them. "What the hell is going on over here? This is a diner, not some backstreet bar! If you wanna fight, take it outside, and preferably away from my business! Cool it down!"

"I was just talking. He in interrupted us." Dean said, glaring at Logan, his body still tensed and ready for a fight.

"Interrupted you harassing my girlfriend." Logan smirked himself, "I'm pretty sure your presence wasn't wanted around here, Bag Boy."

Dean's partly amused expression changed to one of complete anger at the nickname that Tristan used to give him, and Rory was furious with Logan for stooping to the level that he used to. "You better shut up before I get really angry."

Logan laughed. "What happens then huh? You going to hit me with you sweeping brush?"

"I'll kill you." Dean said taking a closer step towards the blonde, his face contorting into rage at Logan's smirking face.

"Stop it!" Rory cried, throwing her hands in between both of them "Stop it now!"

The two of them barely spared her a glance as they squared up to each other and Rory really began to panic.

"Alright, alright!" Luke said, dropping his notepad and pen on the table and throwing his hands in the air. "Enough all of you, you two can both get out of my diner right now!" he said, gesturing to the two guys, "I don't care what you do then, go and fight in front of Doose's and annoy Taylor, just get out of here!"

"I'm so sorry Luke." Rory said, looking apologetically at the diner owner and grabbing hold of Logan's arm and wrapping her fingers around the leather of his jacket. "Just go Dean. I don't want to see you again, you've ruined my morning and messed things up enough, just go."

Dean looked down at Rory's resolute expression and finally seemed to get that it was a lost cause, at that time anyway, she was still stood beside the rich blonde.

"You better watch your back." He snapped, tearing his eyes away from Rory to glare at Logan again.

"And why is that?" Another voice said from Rory's other side, and the familiar Australian figure of Finn appeared.

"Oh geez." Luke sighed exasperatedly, putting his hand on his head with a sigh, "Whatever. One of you, I don't care which one, just get out of here, and let everyone go back to their normal lives."

Dean looked between Logan and Finn warily, not liking the odds even more now there was another player added to the game, and Finn was still suffering from a hangover, which Rory knew from experience made him even more temperamental.

"Whatever." He snapped, starting to back towards the door of the diner, his icy gaze flitting between Logan and Finn warily, "I'll see you soon Rory." He said, glancing at her and nodding.

"You can stay away from her" Logan snapped angrily, but Dean just turned away and walked out the diner.

There was a silence when the door banged shut, and no one out of the small group moved, no one seeming to know what to do or say. Rory glanced timidly over at Logan, but he was still staring out of the window at the last place Dean had been in view, and she flitted her eyes over to the other two members of the group. Paris had blank expression on her face, as she watched curiously what she was sure was about to unfold, while Finn was watching Rory and Logan with a strangely astute look on his face.

"We should get on with the project Paris." Rory started, wanting to break the silence, her voice wavering slightly, "We don't have that much time..."

"Rory, I need a word." Logan stated his voice hard and she winced at the use of her real name.

"Outside." She murmured, glancing around at the towns people gathered in the diner who weren't even trying to hide the fact that they had been listening to the whole thing. The last thing she wanted was anyone nosing into anymore of her business, the last scene had been bad enough, and she knew it would be all over town in a matter of minutes.

Logan nodded stiffly, his back and shoulders tense as he walked out of the diner door without looking at her. Rory swallowed nervously, and glanced over at Paris, who had an expression that looked oddly like sympathy. That was wrong, Paris didn't do sympathy, did she really think what had just happened had been so bad?

Feeling a horrible pain in the pit of her stomach, Rory followed Logan's footsteps out the door.

The second she stepped out there her hair blew slightly across her face from the light breeze, while she squinted against the bright sunlight. Logan was stood just outside the door waiting for her, his blonde hair almost golden in the bright light.

"Why didn't you mention anything Ace?" he asked quietly, and Rory could see the hurt in his eyes for the first time when he looked at her, the emotion he kept locked away under the cocky demeanour coming out.

"I didn't want to ruin things." She said, he voice wobbly as she took a step closer to him. "It was nothing, just a tiny conversation. I know I should have told you, but it didn't even seem worth mentioning. I'm sorry." She murmured, taking his hand and trying to entwine their fingers.

He let her, but his hand was still heavy and pretty unresponsive in her grasp. "I promise you," she said softly, trying to meet his eyes, "He means absolutely nothing to me anymore."

Logan sighed, looking up at the sky and pinching the bridge of his nose with the hand that wasn't in hers.

"I know I'm new to this whole relationship thing Ace, but you've got to work with me here. We're supposed to tell each other things right? That's how this whole trust thing works. And if we can't trust each other then what have we got?"

"I trust do you!" Rory said, gripping his hand tighter "And I want you to trust me."

"Then we've got to talk to each other Rory. How would you feel if someone told you tomorrow that I'd been messaging a girl that I'd been sleeping with? Someone that I'd been with for a while?"

She nodded, she did see his point. She was constantly paranoid about all of the other girls Logan had been with, and she knew how she'd react if she had found out from the girl herself. She just never thought that it would be the opposite way round.

"I'm sorry," she started "I swear I'll tell you next time, I just didn't think. Can we just get past this?"

Logan nodded, meeting her eyes the for the first time. "Yeah." He said, linking their hands properly "I just never factored other guys into the situation. I mean, with your track record that you've told me about there was nothing to bother about. But now there's Dean, Tristan..."

"Nothing ever happened with Tristan." Rory said, shaking her head vigorously, "I promise you that, and nothing ever will."

"I know." Logan said, "I do trust you Ace, maybe I was overreacting a bit, I'm not used to feeling jealous over other guys." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, leaning his forehead against hers, and Rory leaned in to him, as the familiar and comforting smell of his cologne washed over her senses.

"What have you done to me Lorelai Gilmore." He said smiling lightly, "You've turned my world upside down."

"You act like you've not done the same to me." She answered staring into his chocolate eyes.

He laughed lightly, pulling her into a hug as she giggled. "You promise me there's nothing else you haven't told me, about now or in the past? I don't want any more surprises."

Rory paused slightly, her mind flashing back to a night so long ago, but she shook it off. That wasn't going to come up, it would only cause trouble, more than the scene before ever could. the horribly nervousness in the pit of her stomach, "Nothing else."

"Good." Logan murmured. "Come on, I'll by you an ice cream, see if we can show as much affection as possible to keep that cardigan wearing mayor of yours uncomfortable.

Rory laughed and leaned into him as his arm wrapped around her shoulders and he began to guide her down the street, shaking off the feeling from a few moments before.

"I'm telling you." Steph said seriously, "Lancôme mascara is better than Clinique any day. It makes your lashes have more volume and length; Clinique's just do one or the other."

"But Clinique's have moisturising properties, which make your own lashes so much flutterier in the long run." Finn answered equally as seriously, waving his right hand around for extra emphasis.

"Oh dear God." Colin muttered, putting his head in his hands while Rory watched on with an amused smirk.

They were sat in the cafeteria in the middle of Chilton the next Friday lunch time, minus Logan who was in a mentor meeting with teacher. It had been rough week of classes, with teachers setting beginning of term tests to set targets for the rest of the year. College applications were due soon, and Rory was pushed to the limit.

"I'm the expert here Finn." Steph said insistently, "And I'm telling you, Lancôme and better."

"They are not."

"They are too. Rory tell him!" the blonde said, and all eyes turned two Rory, who just shrugged.

"Leave me out of this." She said "I don't use either of them."

"But if you did you'd use Clinique right." Finn said, nodding at her.

"I'm sure they're both equally worth getting." She replied trying to keep the peace.

".."

"How about we just put an end to this ridiculous conversation." Colin interrupted them all, "Jesus Finn, you're supposed to be a man."

"Are you questioning my masculinity?" Finn replied indigently, "I'll have you know a guy can know how to look good too. After all, it's how I get all the ladies." Finn winked at a passing brunette who giggles slightly.

"Sure you do." Colin muttered, shaking his head.

Rory laughed, looking around at her friends. It all looked so normal right now, but underneath it all she was lagging under the strain. Things were still tense with her and her Mom, and with her Dad out of the country on a business trip, there was no one around to keep the peace.

There was also the matter of the one thing that she hadn't told Logan, and being sat around the one it concerned every day, she was becoming more and more worried about it coming out. She knew that Logan could sense that she was worrying about something, and was getting more and more agitated when she wouldn't tell him what was wrong. It was a snowballing effect that was going to come to a crash sooner or later, and Rory was dreading it.

"Have you finished that presentation I sent to you?" A voice sounded behind her, and every pair of eyes on the table to see that straight backed blonde girl stood there.

"Yeah Paris." Rory said, smiling slightly at the other girl. "I've got it saved on a memory stick ready for the lesson."

"What did you think of the second slide? I wasn't sure if it was too much, or if it would have the right effect..."

"No, I thought it worked." Rory said, nodding as she recalled it "I Think it's going to be good."

"Of course it's going to be good, we're both in the top percent of the class, and it's going to be more than good."

Rory smiled back, more warmly than she ever thought would be possible with Paris. While working together for the past week the two had formed some sort of common ground, with similar future aspirations making them a good team. Rory wasn't the only one that had changed over the past year, the other girl was coming in to her won to and while Rory could come back with comments with as much bite, Paris's were becoming fewer and more far between.

She wouldn't exactly call them friends by a long shot, but they weren't enemies any more either.

"Well aren't you two sure of yourselves." Colin muttered, annoyed that he had been partnered with Finn on the project, their surnames being next to each other, and he was dreading what was sure to be a hilarious presentation. For everyone else at least, for Colin, it would most likely him getting angry at Finn, while Finn made a fool out of them both.

"We have the right to be, we worked on it. That is, when we're not out or hangover." Paris replied curtly, throwing Rory a look.

Rory made a noise that was a cross between a laugh and a sigh. Just like that the other Paris was back.

"What mascara do you use Love?" Finn asked, interrupting the conversation quickly.

Paris just looked at him while Colin groaned, "Not this again." He muttered, shaking his head.

"He's just trying to find someone who agrees with him because he knows I'm right." Steph commented calmly, shaking her blonde hair out behind her and shooting Finn a pointed look.

"I am not." Finn said indignantly, "Come on Love, with those luscious lashes of yours, you most use Clinique right? Definitely not Lancôme?"

Paris's face didn't change; she just looked over the four of them with a look of slight contempt. "As much as I love a good debate, I don't plan on wasting my skills on a topic choice as frivolous as this. But if we were debating," she looked pointedly at Finn "Cheap flattery would get you know where, especially from a guy who where's sunglasses indoors."

"Feisty, I like it." Finn replied, wiggling his eyebrows, "I do like a women in charge."

Paris looked repulsed as she looked at the Australian sprawled out and opened her mouth to retort.

"How about we go to History?" Rory quickly interrupted before a fight could break out, between debatably the two craziest people in the school it was not likely to end well.

Paris closed her mouth and nodded, shooting one last dirty look at the table. Rory said a quick goodbye and left the cafeteria with the blonde.

"Your friends are crazy." She muttered, "it's a wonder you kept any sanity after spending time with them.

Rory laughed. "You get used to it after a while." She said "Besides, crazy people make life more fun."

"I'll take your word for it." Paris replied as they walked through the door to the classroom. No one else had arrived yet, and Paris sat down at a desk at the front, while Rory walked to one behind her.

"Ah, Miss Gilmore, just the person." The teacher said as she walked into the room "While your up could you go and collect some books for my fifth period class from one of the store cupboards in by one of the English rooms? There's some in everyone, we've still got a couple of minutes before the bell."

Rory inwardly groaned, but nodded as she turned back around heading back out the door.

The bell rang just as she reached the cupboard, and she sighed. Great, that meant that she would miss the first few minutes of class and have to catch up, which always took longer.

She opened the door to the cupboard and walked inside, her eye on the wall as she searched for the light switch. The door swung shut behind her as the room was flooded with bright light form the dusty bulb above her head.

"Well, Well Mary, fancy seeing you here."

Rory spun as she heard the voice, coming face to face with the one person she had been avoiding like the plague all week.

"Great." She snapped, "Just what I need right now." She glared at him as her eyes scanned the shelves looking for the books she needed.

"Aw, Mary you wound me." Tristan said smirking, placing his hand on his heat in a mock act. "You're not even the slightest bit pleased to see me?"

"Oh no, I'm ecstatic." She snapped, "All of our other encounters have only made me more eager to be in your presence."

"You said it not me." Tristan said, grinning.

Rory scoffed. "What are you doing in here anyway? Shouldn't you be in class right now?"

"I was engaged in other... activities." He replied, grinning lecherously as he leered at her, taking a step closer. "I was letting the lady leave first, when you came in."

"Ugh." Rory muttered, "I should have known. That really is all you ever think about isn't it?"

"Let me tell you one thing Mary, if it's not all you think about, then he's not doing it right." He moved even closer to her, his smirk growing as anger flared up in her eyes.

"God, you're insufferable." Rory snapped, determined not to let his remarks get a rise out of her, that was what he wanted "Do you use your words to compensate to what's lacking in other areas?" She snapped, going for a low blow in an attempt to get him to leave her alone.

To her surprise, he just laughed. "Trust me Mary, I'm not lacking in any sense of the word. I'm not the King of Chilton for nothing."

"Funny, I though Logan was inheriting that title."

A first sign of anger showed in the blondes eyes. "My title is more than secure, I'm more than happy to prove that to you." He said moving closer as she hurriedly backed away.

"Get over yourself." She snapped furiously, "I'll get the books from the other cupboard, missing lessons is better than spending anymore time in here."

"Afraid to be alone with me?" he taunted, his smirk coming back.

"As if." She scoffed, pulling on the door handle to get the door open.

The door didn't budge.

"Arg." She snapped furiously, yanking on the handle hard, and to her horror, it came off in her hand, the door not coming with it.

They both paused for a moment, staring at the brass handle in Rory's hand.

"No..." she whimpered, looking from it to the door, as if it would magically reattach itself.

Tristan chuckled from behind her and she turned. He was now leaning against one of the shelves, watching her closely. "Looks like you're stuck with me Mare."

"You stay over there." She said, holding her hand up in traffic light motion.

"Afraid you won't be able to keep you hands off me?"

Rory shook her head with an angry expression. "You really are the limit."

He just shook his head. "You know, you go on about how much better Huntzburger is than me, but we're really not that different."

She scoffed."You're kidding right?"

"We were raised in the social circles, have the same kind of money, and from what I hear from his reputation, he wasn't exactly committed before he met you."

"He's nothing like you. He wasn't half as bad as you are, he's sweet and funny, and he doesn't just see every girls as a piece of ass. We can talk about anything."

"And you do do that then?"

"Of course, we're in a relationship, that's what it is."

"Funny, I thought it was just sex with the same person, rather than a bunch of different people."

"Well you would think that, that just sums you up entirely." She snapped.

Tristan only smirked back, "So I take it you've told him about us?"

"Us?" Rory blinked, "There is no 'us' Tristan, there never has been."

"Oh come on Mare, don't tell me you don't remember? You, me, a piano bench, Madeline's party..."

Rory looked at him. This was what she had been worried about. It had been so long ago, and Logan hated Tristan so much that she had never wanted to tell him. But with Tristan bringing it up now...

"That was nothing." She stated.

"So you've told him about it."

There was silence.

Tristan smirked. "I'll take that as a no."

"It wasn't worth it, it was nothing. " She repeated.

"Nothing." Tristan smirked, "You know, I don't see you crying when you kiss him or Bag Boy. Does that mean our kiss was more meaningful?"

"More horrific." Rory replied, quickly. "In case you've never noticed Tristan, but it's not normal for a girl to cry in a kiss. Well, not for most people anyway, maybe your abilities aren't as good as you thought."

He brushed off the comment. "Alright then, well how about this; if the kiss was so meaningless, why have you not told him about it?"

"It's not been the right time." She snapped, knowing that she needed to keep him at bay to stop him from telling Logan before she did.

"Trouble in Paradise?"

"We're fine." She glared.

"Ouch, touchy. You know where all this anger is coming from right? Sexual frustration. And judging by the display the other night, it's definitely been a while."

Rory scoffed. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure I do." He said, pushing himself away from the wall. "You said it yourself, I spend a lot of time with girls and I know sex. I can see the signs and you displaying them baby."

"Don't call me baby."

"So you're not denying it then? Don't worry, I can help." He was still moving forward and she backed away from him until her back hit the wall.

"I wouldn't take your help if you were the last man on earth."

"Keep telling yourself that, but you know deep down what you want." He leered at her as his body pressed against hers, his lips leaning down to nibble at her earlobe.

"Get off me Tristan." She hissed, pushing at her shoulders, despite the good feeling his movements were making her feel.

"You don't want me to tell Logan about the kiss right?" he murmured, placing his lips upon her neck and sucking gently.

Something snapped inside Rory, and she shoved him off her.

"How dare you!" she yelled at him, "Are you blackmailing me?" Tristan only smirked, "It's your choice Mare."

"Like I said before, I would sleep with you if you were the last man on earth. I'll tell Logan myself if I have to."

Tristan opened his mouth to reply when movement on the other side of the door sounded, and it suddenly swung open.

"Rory, Tristan." Mr Medina said in surprise, looking at between the two of them, and at their slightly rumpled appearances.

"Oh thank God." Rory said relieved as she rushed out the door "I was getting some books for history when the handle broke."

She turned as Tristan came out behind her, but he was smirking at someone over her shoulder.

Rory glanced around to see Colin, Finn and Logan coming round the corner. Before Rory could say anything Tristan spoke.

"Don't worry, nothing happened." He said, "It's after your first fight you need to watch out, that's when she kissed me before." With a last smirk at Rory, he waltzed off down the corridor, not looking back.

A/N: Well, that's chapter 18 at long last. I hope you enjoyed it, and it was worth waiting for. I can't tell you how many times I sat down to write but had no idea what to put. However, I seem to have gotten over my writers block, and have a plan for the next chapters. I am determined to get this story done VERY soon. The next chapter will have far more drama, and it shouldn't be long to the end of the story.

Thank you so much to all of you who have stuck with me over the years, it has been actual years now, and I really appreciate you all still reading. It was the reviews and alerts that I'm still receiving now that pushed me to write this chapter, and I hope the end of the story meets you expectations.

Thanks again, and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! Please review to let me know what you think!

Sophie xx