Rory and Stephanie had some rather deep conversations that first night in their cabin. The LDB had planned evening activities, but to Logan and Colin's displeasure, neither Rory nor Stephanie had showed up at any of them. It was nice for the both of them to be able to share secrets with another girl they could trust, and as much as they differed from each other, it turned out that they had a lot in common too.

"I'm just scared, Rory." Stephanie mumbled as she swallowed another spoonful of delicious chocolate ice cream. She was now tired of crying after wallowing for a good 2 hours. Rory's wallowing tactics agreed with Stephanie, especially the ice cream part. Both of them felt slightly sick though after two cartons of Caramel Sutra.

"I'm scared that I'm going to regret committing myself to Colin later. I love him, I do, but I always feel like running." With that, she tossed the empty carton in, err, well, near the trash can, basketball style.

"I know what you mean, sort of." Rory said and gave the small blond a hug. "I have this ridiculous pattern of running away too. I ran after all my first kisses with guys. Stupid, huh?"

"Well, not as stupid as not wanting to commit to your boyfriend who has been good to you for more than 7 years. I mean, I can't even imagine being with someone else. I don't think I want to."

"I know a little about how difficult committed teenage relationships are first hand," Rory said and she felt that she could trust her little adulterous adventure to Stephanie. Her ice cream carton followed Stephanie's and landed on the other side of the trashcan as she said as calmly as she could: "I broke up my ex-boyfriends marriage." Stephanie looked a little shocked at this revelation coming from innocent and seemingly prudish Rory, but not as disgusted as Rory had feared it would make people feel about her.

She willed herself to continue, she just had to get it out in the open, right now. "He said their marriage wasn't working, we slept together. I didn't even love him; I was just looking for comfort. When they got a divorce, I felt guilty enough to try and start a relationship, but that blew up in our faces."

"Oh my god, Rory, was he the guy who broke up with you at the party?" Stephanie asked wide-eyed.

"Yes, that's him." Rory spoke softly, "I think you should really work for your relationship Steph. You and Colin love each other so much. That should be enough to want to make it work. Don't be like me, don't run. And don't be like Dean. Don't let other people get between you and Colin. Trust is a great good. Once you lose trust in people it's really hard to make yourself trust again."

Stephanie gave Rory a big hug. "I don't want to be scared anymore. No more running."

"Neither do I, neither do I." Rory whispered.

She didn't sleep very well that night. Fleeting images of her ex-boyfriends and her moments of loneliness of the past year haunted her dreams. The only times she felt warm and comfortable was when she dreamt of Logan, but even that scared her. He was so different, from another world, how was that ever going to work. She woke up after a particularly vehement dream about her and Logan. She had had sexual dreams before, but now that she wasn't actually a virgin anymore they had changed character a little. It all felt so real, and it scared her. Logan didn't like her, she knew that, and she also knew now that she was falling hard for him. Not just in a physical way either. She had other kinds of dreams about them together too, dreams of a future. Logan had slowly but steadily teased his way deep into her heart and Rory was desperate to get him out of there again. Losing her heart equalled trouble she reminded herself. Boys and men weren't to be trusted; none of them had ever shown themselves to be trustworthy to her. But what about what she'd said to Stephanie? I don't want to be afraid anymore. Rory was afraid that would be easier said than done, though.

The day activities turned out to be very LDB-like indeed: completely ridiculous, dangerous, luxurious, and over the top exciting. They had skied off-slope—Rory had been unwillingly picked up by Finn and put on his back, he was stronger than she'd thought, and so she'd been piggy back skiing off slope with them. She wasn't as scared as she had expected to be. This LDB thing was starting to agree with her more and more. The guys hadn't been lying when they had been talking of the greatness of the Snow-Fest 2004. The LDB seemed to have the whole mountain to itself. In every corner there was some kind of extreme snow sport to be done. It dazzled Rory to see all this and she didn't exactly feel like risking her life so she mostly stood, watched, and laughed at people falling on their arses.

The slopes were lit by torches that glowed in the early dusk. Just as Rory was wondering where Logan had been all day, she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw his trademark smirk. Speak of the devil…

"You're not getting a lot of action standing around here, Ace."

"Well, maybe I don't want too much action." She hesitantly said, avoiding his eyes. Rory was unsure of what tone to take as she was still a little shell-shocked by the implications of her realisations last night, and also a little angry with him, not to mention jealous, for being with Alicia.

Logan saw the doubt on her face and he decided to plunge right in. "Why don't you come with me Ace, I've got just the activity for you." Rory felt a million sparks as he softly placed a hand on her shoulder, turned her in the other direction and took her hand, leading the way.

"But…"

"Ahh ahh ahh Ace, no buts, this isn't dangerous, maybe a little fast for you, yes, but totally safe. I saw how you enjoyed Finn's piggy back ride, so you'll certainly enjoy this."

"Where have you been all day? How come you saw me?" Rory asked.

Enter jealous Rory, Logan thought. It could be a good sign for him, if he could nip it in the bud that is. Luckily he had nothing to hide from her.

"I…"

"Wait, don't answer that." Rory interrupted him. She'd second guessed herself and could've just sunk into a great gaping hole in the ground for not realising the obvious. Of course he'd been with Alicia, doing who knows what in that cabin all day.

Logan saw the sudden angry and disappointed look on her face and had to correct her mistaken assumption quickly.

"The fact is, I was on the slopes all day. I was on video and photo duty; no one wants to do that so we drew straws and I was the unlucky one this time." Actually, that was the normal procedure. This year Logan had volunteered, to the amazement of many and to the great displeasure of a certain short blonde girl. "I've been video taping and photographing all day… now that it's getting darker I can finally enjoy myself a little." He said with an earnest face, "I got a nice shot of you and Finn skiing." He laughed, he had actually taken a lot of pictures of Rory, just not too many to avoid any creepy stalker vibes.

"Oh…" Rory was lost for words. And she suddenly felt a whole lot warmer, especially since Logan was still holding her hand and their body heat was now connecting through their gloves. He hadn't been with Alicia. She could hardly suppress a wide grin.

They didn't speak much during the ride in the ski-lift and the ensuing short walk to another mountain slope. Rory didn't feel as uncomfortable in the silence as she had been with other boys. Their still holding hands and Logan absently stroking her hand with his thumb might have had a lot to do with that.

Logan was beside himself with anguish by now. They were walking so comfortably together in silence, she hadn't let go of his hand and he couldn't stop from gently rubbing her hand with little strokes. He realised all the more how much he wanted this girl. Not just as a physical toy, but for who she was. Rory Gilmore, ravishing mystery, beautiful beyond comprehension, intelligent, quick, and unfortunately not interested in him. He was falling for her more and more by the second. It felt so good to be close to her, but Logan kept thinking back to the last time he had fallen for a girl this hard. And more importantly, about the heartbreak after she had ditched him for his older brother.

"Logan, where are we going?" Rory softly spoke. He looked very absent minded and slightly worried. She was afraid they might have gotten lost and that Logan was getting them even more lost by walking on and on and on…

"Relax Ace." Luckily he could still put on the cocky mask he thought. Thank heavens for acting classes. "We're almost there." Logan knew these slopes by heart and didn't have to think about where he was going. Many a childhood holiday had been spent here, and he and his brothers would scavenge all of the mountainsides to their mother's great distress. He knew they were close to the place he wanted to take her and just then he saw the small rental shed only a few hundred yards away.

"Here we are Ace. Just wait here a sec while I get our sled!" Logan was smiling like a little boy on Christmas morning, but Rory felt a little concerned.

"Our sled?" She called out to him, "Logan, this doesn't look like a LDB slope, where are we?'

A.N.: Thanks for the encouraging reviews! A few more chapters to go. Next chapters will be what you've all been waiting for!

Next on No More Running:
She could barely get out, "Logan, what's that?" before they crashed right into the heaps of drifted snow.