Chapter 6- My Trophy, My Escape

Rory looks up at Tristan with an innocent hopeful face. "We just have dessert left. You don't mind, do you Tristan?" It's not like they're going to leave anyway.

"Yeah, you don't mind Tristan?" Finn challenges.

Tristan expressionlessly leans back, "No, of course not." You don't scare me Aussie-boy. I don't care how much you support the 'golden couple'; I'm here now.

Apparently this is the answer Finn was looking for since he practically jumps out his seat waving his arms around. "Great! Waitress drinks please."

Colin shakes his head, "Tsk, tsk. Ruining your streak."

Finn scoffs. "We found her, our parts are over, I no longer need to have control over my mental faculties."

Colin shrugs and raises his glass, "Cheers."

With that Colin and Finn lean back and watch the drama unfold.

Logan finally finds his way to the table and takes a seat practically on top of Rory. "Ace! There you are. I've been looking for you all over. You're one good hider." Yup, yup, very good. Because you're the best. And I love you. Wait, no, not that word again.

"Logan, what are you talking about?" She questions with a look mixed with curiosity, amusement, and disgust.

Logan completely ignoring Rory, continues, "Of course that's understandable, what with the date you're on with the bartender. Don't worry, your prince has come to save you." He reaches for her hand as he starts to rise. Come with me and we'll ride off into the sunset, just you and me and happily ever after. "Come, Fair Maiden, leave the pathetic little…"

"Logan!" Rory screams in astonishment. "Stop it. You have no idea what you're talking about. And what does Marty have anything to do with anything? I'm here with Tristan, if you'd take a minute to actually look around." At something other than the Barbie.

Tristan offers his hands across the table with the perfect amount of sarcasm. "Huntz, nice to see you again. It's been a while." I'm the competition. Are you ready?

"DuGrey? What is going on? Ace, you can't possibly tolerate this jerk." He's not Marty. Or Jess, I never thought I'd rather see you with Jess. He's just like me; except there's no way he can treat you like I do. You mean too much to me.

"But she can tolerate you? Oh, please." Tristan scoffs. You keep her at a distance. Away from you, away from every other guy, but I won't abide by those pretenses. No, I'm here to show you that Mary, in all her glory, deserves so much more than you and me, combined.

"You're not worthy of her. You're not worthy to go on a date with her. You aren't worthy to even look at her. You were never worthy to have anything of mine." I don't want to see your sad face after you realize it yet again.

"According to Mary, she's not yours." Tristan states calmly. Which means she's available to be mine. She will be mine. "So I don't see how your argument holds. I mean, if you won't even give up your other bimbos looking at daddy's millions for her, then you aren't worthy."

"And you would?" Logan challenges defensively.

Tristan looks straight into Logan's eyes. "Of course I would."

Logan pushes back his chair. "Then let's go."

"Go?"

"Come on, stand up. Let's see what you have."

Rory looks at Logan and then Tristan in shock. "Logan!"

Tristan chuckles slightly. "You seriously want to fight me?"

"Yes, right here, right now. Winner gets Rory."

The person in question is trying to get Logan to sit down and shut up. "Logan!"

"She's not a trophy." She has too much power over all of us to be a trophy. She's far too good for us to be considered a trophy.

"And yet here we are fighting for her." Logan states. Not that it's a fight really, I'll obviously win.

Rory abruptly stands, startling Finn and Colin out of their amused states. "That's it." She grabs Logan by his ear and turns towards Tristan. "Tristan, I am so sorry, we'll finish up some other time. Finn, Colin, wipe those smirks off your faces and get the car." Why do you do this? Do you think my emotions are that fun to play with? I'm not allowed near any male that hasn't met your approval and is under your control? No offense to Colin or Finn. I get to be yours without ever being yours?

Logan tries to protest but is stopped by Rory's glare.

"Yes, ma'am." Colin says, ducking his head as he leaves.

"Yes, Love."

Tristan motions for the check. "I'll call you after class. It's been a pleasure Mare." With this he starts to get up and reach for her hand, as if to kiss it again and show his debonair ways, unsuccessfully. Logan: 0. Tristan: 1.

Rory refuses to speak to Logan the entire trip back to his place, giving him a death glare every time he opens his mouth. Rory declines Colin's offer to be dropped off at her dorm. After he and Finn follow Rory and Logan into the common room they decide it would be safer to turn back around and head to the Pub.

Once they leave, Rory calmly walks up to Logan and grabs both of his shoulders, looking at him straight in the eye. When he starts to lean down for a kiss she pushes him onto the couch and begins pacing.

"Logan! What were you thinking?" She raises her hand to stop his input. "Don't answer that. You self-centered, egotistical, narcissistic, frat-boy, low-life, hedonistic, butt-faced miscreant. You had no right to interfere like that. To start a fight? With Tristan? No, Logan. You can't just do that. You and I both know there are no strings here. Sure, I may have been willing to add them for months now, but I have never pushed you into doing it. I see you on your countless number of dates with your numerous other girls, always wondering why you chose her over me for that night, and if she'll be the one to finally take you away from me. But I have NEVER pushed you into committing." She pauses and looks at him. "You know what? I can't handle this right now. You're too drunk. Go to bed, have some water, take some aspirin. Tomorrow you better be ready to deal with this, a hangover will not work as an excuse." Rory concludes as she slams the door behind her, leaving a dazed Logan staring. And if you're lucky I won't want to physically harm you anymore.

The next morning Rory woke up with a crick in her neck. When she moved to stretch out she realized that she was restricted. She wasn't alone. What? No. Ugh. Well, at least I'm in my room. At least it looks like my room. Books, computer, chair, shoes, yep, all accounted for. So who could possibly in my bed? Logan wouldn't be stupid enough to crawl in after last night. I hope? She feels the person next to her stir a little. No, not Logan, definitely not Logan. She turns to get a view of the person's face only to be blinded by dark hair. Hair? Mom!

"Mom!"

"No, sleep. Too early." Lorelai mumbles as she pulls the pillow over her head.

"What are you doing here? At Yale. In my bed. Please don't say you are mixing me up with Luke, because really, you need help if that's the case." Rory says while grabbing the pillow away.

"Quiet, child. All I know is that I got a call in the middle of the night from a drunken little birdie who said I would want to be here in the morning. So, to ensure that I would in fact see you in the morning I came over right away."

"Paris let you in?"

"No, she's not even here. And you are surprisingly a heavy sleeper."

"So how did you get in? I know I haven't given you a key." Unless you learned how to pick the lock, even the one put in especially for Paris's paranoia.

"Climbed in the window, Silly. You've mentioned that you sometimes leave it open for Limo Boy so I figured I had a shot."

Rory just rolls her eyes. "How smart. Now will you please roll over so I can get us some coffee?"

"Go. I need some more sleep anyway."

Surprisingly there was no line when Rory arrived at the kiosk.

"Cute pants." Nate says as he starts to fill her usual.

Rory stares at him blankly before glancing down at her pink pajamas with cute yellow ducks and coffee mugs. "Oh, yeah, thanks." She says, amused.

"Rough night?"

"You could say that." She nods, grateful when he hands her the first cup.

"Did Decaf try anything? Because I will hunt him down if I have to."

Rory just shakes her head. One night of guys fighting over me, that's all it takes. No one thinks I can do anything on my own.

"Logan?"

Rory just stares back at him.

"Okay, so you don't want to talk about it now. That's okay. We'll have the entire ride into New York next week. You can tell me then. Is this going to be all?"

"No, double it."

"Double it? Does someone have something hiding out in her bedroom?"

"You could say that." Rory nods with a small smile, still a little dazed, thinking over what happened last night and what's going to happen because of it. What do I tell her? Everything I guess. Why did Finn have to call her so immediately? Need time to think.

Nate hands over the cups and waves Rory away. When she starts walking he calls out. "Give Lorelai my best."

"Will do." Rory calls back, not at all surprised that he knew she was there.

"Coffee!"

"It better be."

"Here you go."

"Oh, how is Nate doing? I haven't been around during his shifts lately."

"Just fine, he says 'hi.' We're heading to Lane's gig next week if you wanted to join."

"Maybe, we'll see." Lorelai says as she grabs her coffee. "So, will you please tell Mommy why she got a phone call last night saying her baby girl would need assistance in the morning?"

"It was nothing, really. Finn just thought I would react more to the situation than I actually did."

"Why do you think it was Finn?"

"Was it?"

"Well yes…"

"That's why."

"Then what was the situation? Let me see if I agree with him."

"As you know, I had a date last night."

"Not with Logan." Lorelai adds with barely suppressed disdain.

"Not with Logan." Rory echoes. I don't want to hear any more of my nonexclusive relationship, or your hatred of the Limo Boys. Okay, scratch that, your hatred of Logan. "Anyway, I was having a really great time with Tristan when Logan came, obviously by the persuasion of Finn and Colin."

"How long?"

"Hundred-fifty."

Lorelai nods. "Respectable. You made sure transportation was required?"

"Of course. Well Logan was already completely drunk, he had had a meeting with Mitchum. Then he starts going on about hiding and Marty and then acted like he was saving me from some horrible disaster. He even called me 'Fair Maiden.'" Rory starts with exasperation. "Then after I made him see I was with Tristan he started getting all possessive and I was half expecting him to challenge a duel. He did however challenge him to a fight. Something about 'winner gets Rory,' and 'she's not a trophy.' It just got too much for me and I dragged Logan out of there, Finn and Colin took us to his place and I started yelling. Just as I was getting into it I realized he was too drunk to comprehend what was going on and left. I suspect Finn, who had departed for the Pub by that time, sensed it was coming and called for you an hour or two later, giving me time to fully berate Logan. I don't even know what I'm going to say."

"I don't know what you should say, Kid. I really don't know. I want to say you should just give up on Logan, but I know you don't want to hear it." Lorelai says, concern obvious on her face.

"You're right I don't. I'm sick of everyone else acting like they know best." Rory states.

"Well then I say we don't talk about it. At least for today, it won't do you any good. But soon you will have to face the realities of this. You're going to have to choose. You're going to have to be the bad guy. How about we head to Stars Hollow? We can get Luke to make us whatever you want and have a girls' day. Get you away from here."

Rory nods. "Okay, let's go."

A/N: I didn't like how this chapter was so I had to make a few edits, nothing major.

Okay, thank you so much for the reviews, as usual. If you don't review, please do. I need at least two morefor you to see the next chapter. See,I'm not even greedy, just two. But more is always appreciated.

Shout-outs:

Sea4Shoes, LoVe23 (thank you for reading everything), cosmopolitan, finnlover, fireXglory, brown-eyed-beauty87, softly descending, paulanka1, IcEaNgEl998, Andi411, yourlastkiss, Emily, jalna, Holy Cross Baby, tabatha, riotgirllina, nemo14000, RORYandTRISTANforever, misslove852, sugary sweet and sour, rue, Crystal Moon Magic, Jersey Jay, demersal, Lifeisconfusing