Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Gilmore Girls or the lives of Rory, Finn, Colin, Emily and Richard, etc. who belong to Amy Sherman-Paladino and the CW. I also do not own the name "The Rogue" which belongs to Tamora Peirce. I hope that I have run out of things that do not belong to me. Enjoy the chapter!

"Finnegan Rothschild! Finnegan Rothschild! Mr. Rothschild, I do hope that this is not one of your silly tricks!" It was the first day of school; roll call and the handing out of planners and other supplies hat were given to the various students by the school. Deciding that it would be best for her friend not to be reported by the teacher as late, Rory raised her hand. 'Yes Ms. Gilmore?" "Finn's in the hospital. He won't be coming to school for a while..." "Thank you very much for this information Ms. Gilmore, can you take his supplies to him or should I give them to Mr. McRae?" "I think I'll take them, ma'am" "Alright then Rory. Here is his planner and books, not that he'll ever use them," surprisingly, the teacher winked at her before turning back to her list of students. Rory waited until Ms. Varbell had turned away until she turned her head around to look for Colin. Once she saw him, she hurried towards him so that no one else would see the tears that were forming in her eyes. Colin wrapped his arms around Rory and kept her close 'It'll all be alright Ror, I'm sure of it. He'll be fine.' he whispered it in her ear. Unfortunately for the duo, the girls around them heard what Colin was saying and looked at each other, wondering what was going on between Finn and Rory. "Maybe she's pregnant with his child…", "Maybe he's got some sort of cancer…", "Maybe she's with Colin and because, as we all know, Finn was in love with Rory he got himself drunk and then in a car accident or something…". Rumors were flying every where around the boarding school.

During lunch that day, Rory and Colin sat in the corner of the cafeteria, trying to keep out of the spotlight of the room. It seemed that their efforts weren't working tough as almost everyone in the small room was looking at them, either in glances or just plain staring. Both Colin and Rory were starting to become a little bit uncomfortable being under the microscope of their peers. They stood up and headed towards the headmasters office, which just happened to be down the hall. Rory hesitantly reached up and knocked on the door. 'Come in!' yelled a voice from inside. Colin opened the door and wrapped his other arm around Rory's waist, slightly pushing her farther into the room. "Ms. Gilmore, Mr. McRae I assume that you are enjoying your first day back," Headmaster Wilcox smiled warmly at the two teens. "Of course sir," Colin out on one of his most charming smile, he was usually the one to speak to the authority since he was one of the most convincing voices the trio, or any one as a matter of fact, had ever seen. Rory did the acting for the group; she helped to prove the point of what they wanted which usually pushed the person into sympathy or whatever was needed. Finn for the most part did both of these parts, his accomplice in acting was obviously Rory. The two were able to act out almost anything which was one of the reasons people thought they were so in love, even if it was just an act. One of the reasons this "snapshot", which is what Colin and Finn called it when they were planning, worked was because Rory and Finn were so close and the other was because they had such different personalities… "There is one thing though headmaster Wilcox. Rory and I are having difficulties concentrating without Finn around; it's really hard to go through the day with everyone asking us questions." Rory started to cry softly into Colin's shoulder; the sad part was that both Colin and Rory herself knew that those tears weren't from acting. "It's tearing Rory up to have to talk about it," Colin said this in a whisper while rubbing circles on the said girls back. "Is there any reason that you are coming to me about this Mr. McRae?" The man that was sitting behind the desk had a look of pure sympathy and concern on his face. "Yes sir. Rory was saying that one of the things that she was really having a hard time with was the fact that she isn't seeing him at lunch which made me think that maybe you would be able to let us go and visit him during the Zuberg lunch break. We would be back before classes would start and both Rory and I could catch him up with what we were learning the first half of the morning." Colin let his request sink in while Rory looked at the headmaster with large, watery eyes. "I think that we would be able to come to an agreement with this Mr. McRae and Ms. Gilmore," the headmaster smiled at the two. 'At least he's nicer than Headmaster Charleston…' Rory and Colin both thought. "You would really do that sir?" "Yes Ms. Gilmore I would and will do that. I will set up a car to take you to and from the hospital. Be sure to be back before class starts though." Rory gave him a bright smile, "Yes sir, I'll make sure that both of us make our classes before the last bell rings." The man laughed. "Off you go then! I shall see you two later."

As they walked slowly into the polished and 'way too sanitary for your own liking' room, Rory and Colin saw that Finn was propped up against a couple of pillows and was watching an infomercial that happened to be playing on the room television. There was a bandage wrapped around his torso, concealing the bullet and other wounds that were covering the muscular area of his body. Finn's body was particularly muscular due to the fact that he, like Colin and Rory, worked out every day just to be able to keep up with each other and the fitness needed to be 'one of the gang'. "Hey sweetheart, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Finn said it in a light whisper that probably wouldn't have been heard by the untrained ear. Rory crawled into the bed with Finn and tried to cuddle into his side without hurting him. The Crown sat on his shoulder, today it could be seen in all its glory, the symbol of fire, passion and devotion. "Rory traced the intricate lines with her pale and thin fingers, "What are we going to do about this?" She said it calmly but her voice wavered, showing her true feelings to her comrades. Finn rested his head on her shoulder and sighed. "Well, I guess we just take it a step at a time. Try to keep to ourselves as much as possible and get good grades. We probably should also try to not act suspicious." "Where's that gonna get us Colin? Were gonna be in this same fuckin' rut. You should forget about me and just move on, I'm too much of a liability now that I'm hurt." "Shut it Finn, you wrong. We need you. More specifically, I need you. I can't live without you; you should know that by now." "You put that down in writing and I'll believe you." "I'll get you a mirror; you already have that note attached to you." Rory poked the small tattoo that was inside the crown. "το αντίδοτό μου σε όλα τα δηλητήρια, my antidote to all poisons. I wrote it myself right there," Rory jabbed the spot. She stared at him for a minute before hopping off the bed and walking out of the room. Colin sighed after Rory left, knowing where she was going and what she was going to do. "So…..Here are all of your books, the Headmaster had us bring them to you." Finn smiled at his friend, "Thanks, mate. I'm sure the teachers were royally pissed that I wasn't at school today." "Yeah, sure. I'm going to go and find her before she does something really stupid like the last time, that ok with you?" "Just find her before things turn out for the worst. I hate seeing her like that. Too pale for my liking." Although he had been trying to crack a joke, neither of them smiled as Colin quickly left the room to find their Princess. After he had left, Finn brought his hand up to right under his shoulder blade and slowly traced the words he knew were there. She wrote a personal message under both of their Crowns after she had finished them. Both Colin, Logan and him had written something on each spike of hers. What had Logan's said? Only she would know, Logan was too dead to tell the rest of them.

AN: Alrighty, this chapter, as you can tell, was altered and added and stretched and changed to what mood was in my mind. I decided to add a little bit of Logan into the story. I am hoping to update both A is for Ace and this story soon and hope that people will review. VERY special thanks to Curley-Q who seems to be my only reviewer for this story... :) well, to those who are reading this and are either reluctant or shy to press the purple button that is diagonal from this, please do. I don't need a whole lot of what you think. Jus tenough to know that this story is appreciated. Too much rambling going on in this AN. I leave you be now. Aurevoir for now.