The story starts at LD&T, done my way. It's a Trory, because, well, CMM is so damn hot.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, including the song Liar (it takes one to know one) by Taking Back Sunday in which the title was taken from.

Hope you like it :D

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"Very nice Max, but we're not eight..." Lorelai smirked while walking across the street to Miss Patty's. The girls let Max walk in front of them.

"What ya got?" Asked the elder Lorelai in a hushed tone.

"Grape. Yours?' Rory eagerly replied.

"Red."

"Trade ya!"

"Yessss!" Max laughed inwardly at their antics, but loved it none the less.

The three walked in as the crowd was exploding due to Taylor's craziness. "All those in favor?" he announced. No one moved a muscle, other than those whom were late.

"Aww shucks, it already started!" Lorelai groaned looking around for seats.

"All those opposed?" The entire room raised their hands, and after seeing this, Lorelai did too, much to Taylor's disgust. They found seats together in the third row.

The town troubadour stepped up and was pleading his case to Taylor to be the only troubadour of Stars Hallow. He was not getting any leniency from Taylor. "This is a money making scheme, why else would he be doing it?"

Rory had enough decided to step up and give it a shot herself. "Because sometimes you have something you need to say, but you can't because the words won't come out, or you get scared, or you feel stupid. So if you could write a song, and sing it, then you could say what you need to say, and it would be beautiful, and people would listen and you wouldn't make a complete idiot out of yourself, but not all of us can be songwriters so some of us will never be able to say what we're thinking, or what we want other people to know what we're thinking, so we'll never get the chance to make things right again. Ever."

The entire room was silent, staring at Rory, including Dean. She noticed and her mind went into overdrive. 'Oh no! I can't believe I said all of that out loud. In front of everyone, no less. At least he wasn't here to witness it. But Dean was! He must think I'm talking about him; Clara must have told him that I stopped by the house. Those two things together make me look desperate! Damn it, Gilmore, how am I going to get myself out of this one? He's looking at me like he thinks we have another shot… Now the whole town is going to assume I'm still hung up on Dean and want him back. When that's the farthest from the truth… Aww crap. I should bring it back to the troubadour.' "So give this guy a license."

The room, while still in shock, applauded Rory. Taylor seeing this as their approval of the man, "I don't want to waste anymore time on this and I make this … mystique guy the official town troubadour. And no other troubadour may you serve his territory, meaning.. this other guy."

After this, the meeting broke up and everyone went their separate ways home. Well, except Dean. Rory noticed he was slow to get up and was staring intently at her, so she quickly told her mom and Max to take their time and she'd meet them at home later tonight and brushed past everyone to get out as fast as possible. Once out the doors, ran across the lawn as fast as she could home, and Dean just watched her go with a confused look on his face. 'After that I thought I'd walk her home and we'd pick up right where we left off. I mean she loves me now, she said so in her speech. I even sent Clara home with Mrs. Mooney. I guess I'll just surprise her tomorrow.'

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Grateful he didn't follow her home, Rory striped and went straight into the shower, her special place to relax and stop her mind from reaching insanity. She washed away his stares and the hopefulness she saw in his eyes when she dared look. The only eyes she wanted to think about were icy blue, along with his tousled blonde hair, tanned skin, and athletic physique that she knew he had from all the times he'd pushed up against her or caused them to bump into each other in the hallway. Once she started picturing him shirtless with his pecs and abs so well defined, Rory, being the Mary she truly is snapped her eyes open and scolded herself for thinking about him in such a way. 'What am I doing! I can't stand him, always picking on me and making crude remarks. Some of which you wouldn't mind trying out with him. No way! No way, Gilmore.' With that Rory turned off the shower and quickly went to bed before her mom could come home and question her about the speech. Rory wasn't ready to explain herself quite yet.

Lorelai was disappointed to find her daughter fast asleep when she got home, but understood that she must be under a lot of stress, both from school and her outburst that night not realizing how closely they were connected, and let her sleep. 'I'll just get her in the morning,' Lorelai thought before she and Max headed up to bed.

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Rory had different plans. She was up and ready to leave her house at six in the morning, with an overnight bag packed to stay at her grandparents for a few days. She couldn't face her mother, or the town, or Dean, until it all blew over and another juicy piece of gossip was swirling around the small town. Rory left a note explaining her plans and told Lorelai not to worry and that she'd call later that night. Rory left the house without making a sound and headed to Luke's to get as much coffee as he'd give her before the 6:20 bus rolled into town.

"Rory! What are you doing here so early? You do know its 6:05, right? Your mother didn't play with all your clocks again did she? I really need to have a talk with her, she's making you miss sleep! Sleep that you need so your brain can recuperate! I'm going to call her right now! You just go upstairs and sleep a little and I'll come get you in an hour." Luke ranted practically pushing her up the stairs into his apartment.

"No no no, Luke! I'm up this early on my own. I wanted to get out before anyone saw me and asked me questions about last night..." Rory explained with an embarrassed expression and the blush to match. "I'm not looking forward to that.." she trailed off again.

"Say no more." Luke understood. "What would you like for breakfast. Anything you want. And as much coffee as necessary."

With that last statement Rory couldn't stop herself from capturing Luke in an affectionate hug. "You're the best, Luke. And I'll have a cherry Danish now and a cup of coffee, and then another Danish to go, along with 4 to-go cups." She added with a smirk. Luke shook his head as he walked away and poured her her first cup. "And could you pack me a lunch? I have a feeling I'm going to need some of your food as my day goes on."

Rory was Luke's only customer that early in the morning, so they talked and she explained to him what she meant with her speech. Well, somewhat. "It had nothing to do with Dean. But I understand how people could get confused because I haven't told ANYONE, not even Lane or my mother, about Tristan and how he could possibly be more than the annoying kid that won't give up. But that's one of the things I really like about him, and I'm dreading the day he finally does throw in the towel… I don't want to give up what we have going on, but I also don't want to change things and then have it end badly. You know what I mean?" Rory looked up at him searching for a reaction on his face.

'Oh I know exactly what you mean, kid.' "Yeah, but if you don't try, you'll always regret it…" 'I know I am.' Luke added in his head. "Rory! Its 6:19, you better get out there before you miss the bus and have to face the nutcases around here!" Luke informed while giving her her to-go coffees and Danish, and slipping her lunch into her big yellow backpack. She gave him a quick thanks and started to walk out, then turned around with scared look on her face. "Don't worry, Rory, your secret is safe with me. Just don't want too long to do something about T."

"THANKS LUKE!" Rory yelled while jogging to the bus stop and boarded the bus just as Lorelai was opening her daughter's door to wake her up for the day. When she found no daughter in the house, Lorelai started to panic just as the phone rang. "Rory?!"

"Nah, Lorelai. Its Luke. I just wanted to let you know that Rory just left, and she's fine, and she's going to school early today. She didn't want to face the crowds this morning and their non stop questions that were bound to be directed at her. I fed her, gave her coffee, as well as a packed lunch, and watched her get onto the bus headed towards Hartford." Lorelai finally let go to the breath she was holding as Luke finished what he was explaining. "She told me she left you a note on Larry, whatever that means, in case you came looking for her." Lorelai walked over to the coffee maker the girls lovingly named Larry last Christmas, and read the short note from her daughter. Once Luke heard her soft sobs, he hung up the phone and got to the Gilmore house in less than two minutes. "She's alright..." he cooed, stroking her hair and letting her cry on his shoulder. "We talked and I think she's going to be just fine. She's just a little confused and needs to figure things out on her own," Luke said trying to calm Lorelai down.

"But why didn't she come to me? I'm supposed to be her best friend. Why does she want to go to them?" Lorelai cried, not caring what the answer was.

But Luke tried anyways. "Because they don't know what we do. They don't know the situation and they can't press her on it. They will never guess what its really about. They didn't hear the speech, they don't know what caused her to say it, they don't know anything about any of it, except possibly her break up with Dean in the first place. She just needs to get away from the vultures here, and work through it. On her own. With a little advise when asked for it."

"When'd you become so good at this?" Lorelai looked up at her friend with new eyes, eyes that saw more than just the grumpy Luke that fed her every day. She saw potential.

"I always was. You just never needed it. And she never opened up to me like she did this morning." He saw her eyes perk up with his last statement and quickly added, "but I can't tell you any of that. I promised." Luke gave her one last squeeze and walked out the front door walking past Dean on the front lawn. "She's not in there," Luke said nonchalantly and kept on his way. Rory didn't want Dean. She knew it, Luke knew it, and pretty soon he would too.

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So whatcha think :/