Title: Whispered Existence

Authors: Summer and Joan

Dedication: To Katherine, because she is just so sweet, and she deserves it.

Authors' Note: Basically, Joan came up with the idea, Summer helped her elaborate on it and develop all the characters. She outlined it and basically wrote this chapter, lol. Joan was at her beach house! But you don't really care, do you?

Reviews are really great. If you don't review, we might send Ian after you. He does work for the FBI now, and he's a criminal. He won't mind doing our dirty work. Consider this a warning.

Summary: As Rory settles into life at Yale and a new relationship, a mystery man from her past threatens to upturn her delicately balanced life. AU.

Prologue: Whirlwind

Chapter Summary: As Rory meets her roommates, the door to her old life in Stars Hollow is gently closed.

Rating: R for adult material; swearing, implied sex

An outsider never would have been able to tell that these Friday night dinners had just commenced again. The situation was the same as it had been from Rory's sophomore year on, her mother sitting tense in her chair, responding bitterly to everything her grandmother said.

Emily glaring at her daughter, arms crossed against her chest, eyes narrowed. Words were exchanged, scowls were traded. If looks could kill…

Rory Gilmore sat quietly at her seat next to her mother, watching the exchange between the two older generations of Gilmore girls. She glanced at her grandfather quickly, smiling as she noticed that he, as usual, was almost completely oblivious to the hostility between mother and daughter.

Rory stared down at her plate uncomfortably as another round of insults began, twirling her mashed potatoes around on her plate, creating a whirling design of mashed potatoes mixed with peas. She'd never liked either anyway.

She still missed Jess. It'd been just over three months since he'd left, and she'd told him two and a half months ago she was over him. Within seconds of admitting she'd loved him. Slightly hypocritical, she knew. But it still hurt. The fast paced Europe trip had been a distraction, but when night fell, her mind had still drifted back to her sullen ex, her heart aching. It hurt, the way he'd left without saying a word. But that was what he did best. He'd left before, without any explanation. She'd had to track him down in New York to get one.

But Venice wasn't New York. Venice was 2,944 miles away. Yes, she'd checked. What were websites like MapQuest for if you couldn't check how far away your boyfriend lived? Rory couldn't get on a bus and head for Venice, like she had for new York. It was too far, too distant. Distant. Like she and Jess had become.

A particularly loud argument pulled Rory from her thoughts. She turned toward her mother, who'd pushed back her chair and stood up, hands on her hips.

"You aren't doing that, Mom. I won't allow you to. We don't need you to pay for anything else, we don't want anymore strings attached. We-"

"Lorelai, really," Emily said, her voice rising, "what strings are you talking about? Is it wrong to want to provide for my granddaughter, to make sure she lives in a nice house while she attends Yale?"

"Yes," Lorelai responded, "It is wrong. It's wrong when you're trying to take advantage of us, trying to put my daughter in a house that costs millions of dollars."

"Lorelai, think this through. She'd have roommates. Plus, the rent would not be millions," Emily reasoned, shaking her head. "Really, you overreact-"

"Rory will be fine living in campus, or in a cheap apartment nearby. She doesn't need to live in a million dollar old Victorian with a bunch of prissy, stuck up, rich kids. She'd be fine-"

"Now it's wrong that I want my granddaughter to have the best? I'd think that as her mother, you'd want the best for her as well, Lorelai. Silly me, though. If the best in any way has to do with me, it's not worth-"

Lorelai looked as if she'd been struck across her face. "I do want the best for Rory. But living in a house she can't afford isn't the best, Mom. It's-"

"Mom, calm down. Grandma, I'll be fine. I-"

"Rory, don't get involved." Lorelai held out a hand, her voice possessed a certain warning. "I don't want-"

"Rory has every right to be involved," Emily interrupted. "The matter is about her. Rory, wouldn't you like to live in a-"

Rory sighed. There wasn't any escaping these situations. She should've known that by now.

"Hon, you can't forget these fuzzy slippers."

Rory turned to her mother and smiled when she saw the three-year-old pig slippers, sparkling with sequins. "I don't need those. I have a perfectly good pair of slippers." She pulled a plain blue pair from the bag and held them up.

Lorelai frowned. "But those are so boring. Don't you want your roommates to look at you and be like, 'Whoa, she's exciting' instead of thinking you're boring?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "I doubt my roommates are going to judge me based on my slippers."

"You never know." Lorelai shrugged before throwing the slippers to Rory. "Just in case?"

"Mom, you've already made me add about a dozen 'just-in-case' things. I don't have any more room for 'just-in-case.'"

Lorelai sighed. "I know. It's just I want you to be prepared. You're leaving for college tomorrow."

"I know."

"You're leaving me tomorrow."

"I know."

Lorelai pouted. "You're going to get rich and famous and forget about me."

Rory smiled. "Well, duh. But I promise I'll try to mention you when I'm getting a Nobel Prize."

"Not funny."

"Geez, should the streets be this crowded at 10 in the morning? Why are people even out of bed at this time in August?" Lorelai asked, maneuvering Rory's Toyota Prius around a parked car.

"That one's not moving, Mom."

"I know. Well, what about all the other ones? What about the green one we almost crashed into?"

"Well there has to be a few cars on the road at any time. Otherwise it's just weird."

"Good point." Lorelai paused. "Did those directions say Chapel was off of Middleton?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I've been staying on the road but now the sign says we're on Ferry Street."

"I don't know. Try a little further." A moment later, Rory spoke up. "There! There to the left. It says Chapel Street."

"But the directions said it was off Middleton," Lorelai responded, taking the left.

"Middleton and Ferry must be the same," Rory responded, shrugging. It doesn't matter."

"We're looking for 242, right?"

"Yeah. Well, this is 13, so it has to be further down on the right."

"It's nice, Rory."

"Yeah." Rory glanced around the condo happily. It wasn't as huge as the old Victorian Emily had hoped she'd stay in, or as small as the apartment Lorelai thought she could afford. Her mother and her grandmother had come to a surprisingly good compromise.

"I'm just mad my mother's paying a portion of the rent."

"It's better than her paying the whole thing, Mom. And she was just trying to be helpful."

"No, she was trying to show me I'm not fit to be a mother, because I can't provide for you."

Rory rolled her eyes. "No she wasn't." She opened the refrigerator in the kitchen, grinning. "Whoa, look at this thing. It's huge. And organized. Did you know the inside of a fridge was supposed to be white?"

Lorelai laughed. "You're never going to survive here. What if they expect you to cook?"

"Then I'll do my best, and try not to burn the house down in the process." Rory paused. "I'm going to be fine, Mom."

"I know you will. I'm just worried. I didn't go to college, Rory, so I couldn't really prepare you for what to expect, and I feel bad about-"

"Don't, Mom," Rory interrupted. "It's going to be okay."

"And you promise you'll come home for weekends."

"Yep."

"And that you won't end up coming home pregnant, beat up, or high?"

"Yep."

Lorelai sighed. "Good. But I have to go now. I'll be half an hour late for a meeting about the Dragonfly as it is."

Rory nodded, giving her mother a quick kiss. "Good luck, Mom. Knock 'em dead."

"You too."

Rory was unpacking her suitcase when she first heard the voices. One male, one female, down the hall. Both were carefree and blithe; neither seemed to pose a threat.

Still, Rory wasn't sure what New Haven's crime rate was, and for all she knew, they were robbers. Grabbing her copy of David Copperfield, she quietly left her room, holding the book in front of her.

In the kitchen she found the owners of the voices. A boy and a girl, about her age, were leaning against the counter, chatting.

The boy glanced up when she entered. "You must be the other roommate," he said good-naturedly, glancing at the book in her hand. "David Copperfield? Quite the weapon."

"It is. It's over a thousand pages, and hitting someone over the head with it could definitely knock them out. I'm Rory Gilmore, by the way." She held out her hand.

The boy walked toward her and shook her hand, grinning. "I'm Gregg Stanley," he said.

Rory took in the boy. His eyes were a pale blue, and his hair was a disheveled brown. He was cute, Rory thought, and very gay. She'd known since the second she saw him. His openness and his gestures seemed to point that way, not to mention his great fashion sense. "Nice to meet you, Gregg." She turned to the girl. "And you too…"

The girl had flaxen blonde hair, the kind it seemed only models possessed. Straight and glossy, past her shoulders. Her eyes were also blue. "Alexandra Carlson," she said.

"Hi, Alexandra." Rory squeezed her hands together uncomfortably. The girl didn't say anything else; she just sat there, almost sizing Rory up.

Gregg cleared his throat, glancing between the two girls. "Um, okay. Rory, we were just about to sit down and watch TV. Would you like to-"

He was interrupted by the slamming of the condo door. A minute later, another girl entered, her hair pulled into a loose, messy bun, strands of bright red falling out. The girl had definitely gone for the shock effect when she'd had her hair highlighted. Throwing a hemp bag onto the kitchen table, she snarled as she saw Rory. "Just what I need," she said sarcastically, scowling.

Gregg greeted the girl, but she didn't respond. "And this is Jade Harrison," Gregg told Rory. "Apparently, she forgot her manners and couldn't figure out how to greet the newbie. I promise her bark's worse than her bite."

Rory met the girl's dark eyes, and somehow she doubted that. Jade Harrison wore torn wide leg jeans and a black tank top, and Rory couldn't help but think the girl would be trouble. "I'm Rory," she offered meekly, and Jade rolled her eyes in response. Right. The roommate situation wasn't going too well.

"What's with the book? So you're one of those types," Jade said, glancing down at Rory's tattered copy of David Copperfield. "Like you live in a fantasy world. I wonder what Yale's going to do to you."

Rory frowned. She wasn't sure whether or not Jade had meant that as an insult or not.