Colin would have loved to be able to say that he had even an inkling of what he was doing but the truth of the matter was that he was pretty much flying blind. The dance of intrique, the intricate footwork of romance, the dos and don'ts of that mysterious thing called seduction had never been his strong suit. Not entirely his fault, after all he'd been in love with the same damn girl since he was eight and his pickup lines hadn't improved much since then. Oh, he had dated other girls and even had a night of passion now and again, he wasn't a eunuch after all, but they hadn't meant a thing to him other than a distraction or a decoy so that Stephanie didn't guess his real feelings for her.
No, it had always been Stephanie since that fateful day on the playground when he had first caught sight of those bouncing golden curls, those half feral eyes and that pixies face so full or life that it made him ache to be that free, that wild. He feared very much that it would always be Stephanie even if she sliced his heart from his chest and left him bleeding on the ground. Logan was right about that, he had no pride left when it came to Stephanie...only need.
Yet it had thrilled something in his blood to see that little flash of jealousy in her eyes when he had so innocently spoken to Alice about their common interest in hobbits and wizards. It had sparked an idea that had seemed outlandish but not impossible, so he'd run with it. It scared him, tempting the beast this way, tempting the fates maybe but he almost enjoyed the reckless sense of daring that came hot on the heels of that fear. For once, he, Colin Bradshaw, always the slow, methodical pack horse behind the prancing show ponies was taking the lead, seizing control, making the game his own rather than just playing by some unwritten but seemingly indelible rules laid out by the girl he loved.
He was going for broke...and as he was tapped on the shoulder and spun with a surprisingly strong hand towards a clearly outraged Stephanie he began to hope that perhaps it had been just the gamble that was needed to finally win him the prize he had sought for so long.
He breathed deep chanting to himself 'control Bradshaw, stay in control, make her play her hand first.' The calm of his voice surprised even him as he arched an eyebrow in question "Hey Steph, everything okay? Did you need something?"
The tone appeared to be having it's desired effect as he watched her eyes darken to cobalt that reminded him of the midnight sky before a storm, a sure sign that she was way beyond pissed. This newfound power was surprisingly exhilarating.
She took a step towards him brining her scant inches from his face "We need to talk Bradshaw."
He couldn't help himself, the devil had taken over...maybe this was the way a gambler felt when he won the jackpot, "Can't it wait Steph, we're kind of in the middle of a dance here."
He thought perhaps he had poked the angry lion one too many times. The look in her eyes was terrifying to behold and he swallowed a little just before she grabbed him by the tie and yanked hard enough to have him face to face with her and gasping for breath. Her voice left no doubt as to the horrors that would be visited upon him should he refuses her demands "Now. We are going to talk NOW."
She spun with his tie still firm in her grip and came face to face with Alice who looked none too pleased about this development and despite her slighter stature and less fiery nature looked ready for a good cat fight. Her hands were on her hips as she face Stephanie and narrowed her eyes "You should leave him be, he can do what ever he wants."
Stephanie let out a gust of air behind her teeth that came out sounding rather like the hiss and rattle of a snake...a deadly snake that would a soon bite you as warn you, her voice was close to a snarl "Out of my way pixie princess or I'll be happy to toss you into the pit after that ridiculous ring of yours."
The pixie princess sputtered and Colin's eyes darted wildly from one girl to another, if he had know it would be this exhilarating to see Stephanie fight for him he would have taken this chance a long time ago. The women eyed each other for a long suspenseful pause and he feared very much that there might be bloodshed.
Luckily they were interrupted by the most unlikely of saviors as Finn came sailing in and gaily took Alice by the hand "There you are my elfin queen, I've been just dying for another dance in your heavenly arms."
Alice looked at him in surprise and then back at Colin and seemed about to speak but Finn was quick to intercept the act as he grasped her hand and twirled her away and into the crowd. He shot one glance back at Stephanie and Colin still frozen in position and gave Colin a less than subtle signal that said what the hell are you waiting for mate...follow her.
Stephanie all but dragged him from the room nearly tripping over people in their way and stopped just on the other side of the threshold to push him up against the wall. She still had a death grip on his tie and he was beginning to feel a little afraid for his safety, worried that maybe he had pushed her just a tad too far off that ledge of sanity when she let go with a sudden unclenching of her fist. She left him there, slumped against the wall. She put her hands on her hips and began to pace and he wisely remained silent as watched her, back and forth, back and forth until she came to an abrupt stop in front of him.
Her words were angry; frustrated "What the hell is this Colin?"
He wasn't sure what part of this she really wanted to talk about so he played it safe "A wedding?"
She drilled him with her eyes and they narrowed to slits as he watched "Don't be an imbecilic ass Colin, you know that's not what I meant."
"Okay, then what did you mean?" his voice was even, reasonable and this seemed to ruffle her feathers even further.
The answer came through clenched teeth "I mean why did you come with me and then spend the entire night dancing with someone else's date."
Ah, the trickiest of questions, how to give just enough but not too much. Colin carefully schooled his features to matter of fact "You said we were just coming as friends, that you were here to find a new conquest. I asked you but you didn't want to dance with me so I didn't think you would mind if I kept Alice company. I am sorry if I misunderstood."
She didn't like that bit of turn about one bit and hated even more the fact that he was absolutely right, that she had not an inch of solid ground to stand on as he quoted back her words in regards to this evening nearly verbatim. She seethed "Well, I changed my mind."
"Really? About what?" His eyebrows arched and she almost believed that he was only mildly curious in her response.
"About tonight you dolt...about us, okay, there I said it." She flung her hands up and paced away from him again before coming back to stand in front of him. He hadn't moved and his face now was immobile, nearly blank, calm and serene, an expression that almost had her backing away from this cliff she stood on.
His tone didn't budge an inch in its calm questioning, "I'm sorry, you're going to have to be more specific. I wasn't aware there was an 'us' to discuss."
She tried the narrowed eye glare again, always a good fall back but tonight it just bounced off him, he was immovable and she couldn't tell what he was thinking. The always-transparent Colin had somehow found himself an impenetrable shield. The only thing she could read in the stubborn set of his jaw, the unreadable eyes, the negligent shrug was that he was waiting and he was determined. She felt the first trickle of fear seep past the barrier that she had erected out of indignation and anger.
She considered for a moment that term...us...did she want to be an us with Colin, one of her best friends, and one of the few people who knew her weaknesses and her darkest secrets. The person who time and again had been the one to help her put her life back together when it was in pieces.
Could she risk losing that? Could she risk trying to be something more and losing what they had. Could she risk her heart? What would happen if she turned around and walked away, pretended that this moment had never happened? Could they be what they had been mere hours ago?
She looked into his eyes and the steady gaze that met hers told her the answer to all those questions. Sweet, kind, patient Colin was done waiting. If she walked away so would he and he wouldn't go back, not to three hours ago or yesterday or last year. It was one of those decisions in life that she couldn't hide from any longer.
She rolled her shoulders like a prizefighter readying for a bout and then straightened, as she looked him in the eye "What if said I wanted there to be an us to discuss?"
If she had hoped for a revelation she didn't get it, he was holding his cards close on this one "Do you?"
It took all her courage but she forced the syllable from her lips "Yes."
If she was looking for mercy she wasn't getting that either "What does that mean?"
Now the irritation was resurfacing "You know what it means."
He shook his head slowly always keeping his eyes on her face, his heart was beating a mile a minute and his palms were sweating but he felt good, felt like he had hit his stride, that this was the race he had been training for all his life and he wasn't about to sprint and hit the wall too soon and risk losing in the end. "No Stephanie. I don't know what that means to you and this is one time that I will only accept a crystal clear definition."
She huffed and fidgeted and paced a tight circle before she faced him and shook her head slightly at how he had outmaneuvered her, the consummate player beaten by a rookie off the bench. Beginner's luck she supposed. Either that or it was the guts to play with everything and not be afraid to lose. She smiled slightly and her tone was wry "You're going to make me say it aren't' you?"
He smiled but it was still only a quirking of the lips, not time to celebrate yet until they had passed this brink, they'd been too close too many times for him to believe just yet "I think I've earned it."
The last of her guard walls fell away at his implacable tone, he was right about that one, dead right, and no one deserved it more. " Yeah, I guess you have. Here goes then; I want to be with you Colin, just you, no one else."
His heart wanted to leap for joy but he only quirked an eyebrow at her holding his position against the wall, arms crossed "You think that's enough to get you off the hook?"
She laughed, a real laugh this time and it was music to his ears "No, I guess not, but maybe this will."
She moved as quick as lightening and he barely had time to register the motion before she wrapped his tie around her hand again and pulled him into her, her lips smashing into his with all the pent up frustration, anger and unspoken emotion that had been years in the making. He was stunned for an instant, swamped by elation and then ceased to think all together. His hands fisted in her hair and dragged her closer and he spun her in one motion until she was pinned against the wall and he could take his fill of her. Everything about her drove him wild, to the brink of insanity and he thought he could never get enough of her to fill that yawning need inside of him. She moaned a little and the sound was more powerful than any aphrodisiac.
It was probably a good thing that an alarm went off just then and pulled them from their altered reality, Colin couldn't be entirely sure that they wouldn't have just ripped each others clothes off right there in the hallway if that timely bell hadn't sounded.
Their lips fell away but he couldn't quite muster the energy to move his head much further than her shoulder. She looked up at the ceiling still gasping for breath, held in place by his weight against her, feeling his heart beating through their combined clothing. She had heard tales of those kisses, the ones that rocked your world on it's foundation and had thought she'd had a few mind erasers in her day but this, well this made them seem like some knock off imitation of art.
His breath was hot against her ear as he finally spoke, his voice throaty and gruff "That was cheating."
She laughed...she couldn't help it, the joy, the freedom, the exhilaration combined to make her lose what little control that she had left and wrap her arms around him in a hug as his head finally came up and his dancing eyes, now open to her and full of love met hers. She felt content and her glib tongue said the only thing that lay on it, the only words she could say in the moment. "I love you Colin Bradshaw."
He was overwhelmed, soaring like a kite far above the land of mere mortals, he hadn't known, hadn't expected this, at least not yet. It was all that he had hoped for and it left him speechless.
She saw it in his eyes, the blank shock that said that even as her friend, her confidante he hadn't known, hadn't seen this, the darkest secret that hid in the corner of her heart. His eyes warmed until they blazed and his mouth dropped to hers again in a hard passionate kiss before he pulled back and looked her in the eye. "I've waited a long time to hear you say that."
She smiled knowing the truth of that statement; the reality was she had held those words hostage for almost as long as he had waited for them. "I know." She shrugged then "Better late then never though, right?"
He grinned and it was a gorgeous thing to behold "Right." He slowly pulled back from her suddenly becoming aware of exactly where they were. He coughed a little uncomfortably "Uh, so, what now? I'd love to continue this, but maybe someplace without an audience."
She laughed and pulled herself away from the wall and linked her hand with his in a gesture that had them both smiling "There will be lots of time for that later. Now, I say we break the news to the peanut gallery."
He sighed a bit dramatically "I guess we have to sooner or later."
Rory looked wildly at Logan whose shirt was unbuttoned and pushed halfway down his arms. That was bad enough without even thinking about her own state of undress. She felt the passion of a moment before drain from her body to be replaced by horror and the mantra in her head went a bit like 'Oh bollix, damn bloody, stupid hormones.'
She looked up at the man who was her biological father with her cheeks stained red and the first thought was of deflection, a good distraction, that's what she needed now, she'd pay a heavy ransom in coffee for Finn or Stephanie or even a cheerleader's outfit right now.
In lieu of that she'd figure she'd go with a classic...the best defense was a good offense "What are you doing here?" she thought she did an admirably job of sounding in control when she felt anything but.
Christopher was completely at a loss for words on the current predicament and automatically responded with an explanation "I was just trying to find the bath..." suddenly the situation caught up with him "Wait just a minute here, I think I'm the one that should be asking what YOU are doing here." He pointed at Logan "And who the hell are you?" now he was advancing in raging father mode.
Logan still felt a few steps behind in their newest encounter with the Gilmore clan but he was all too familiar with raging father mode and couldn't miss the signs. His eyes widened as he back up a step putting up his hands as if to ward off a blow "Uh, sir, I can explain." Then in an action unprecedented in his dealings with distraught damsels and raging fathers Rory grabbed his arm and pushed him back, stepping in front of him to face her father head on. Apparently she didn't need rescuing just now.
Her voice came out sharp and a near octave above it's normal range but she pulled it off as she advanced on the stunned man in front of her "He's my boyfriend and I am nineteen years old and what we are doing is none of your business." She took a sniff of him "Maybe you should go back to the bar, from the smell of your breath I'd say you'll have no trouble finding that."
It was an impossible coincidence but then bad luck seemed to be on their side tonight as Lorelai strode past in the hall way, perhaps in search of the water closet as well and did an abrupt dead stop and a double take when she recognized two voices coming from an open door, one of which was her daughter who had been conspicuously missing for the past twenty minutes and was now speaking in a voice that was climbing every closer to soprano and the other, if she was not mistaken, was Christopher. She was certain that at some point in the hallway she had stepped into some strange Star gate and been transported to an alternate reality.
She barged into the room and her eyes widened as they met the pleading eyes of one Logan Huntzberger currently being held back by one arm by her angry daughter who had her other finger pointed at her father's face. This was a stance that was not at all normal for the usually peaceable Rory Gilmore and it made Lorelai quickly take stock of the situation. Logan's jacket was missing and his shirt was only covering his lower arms and hanging by it's tails from his waist band leaving his top half covered by nothing but a rather askew tie, hanging like a last lonely ornament on a denuded Christmas tree. Rory didn't look far behind in the disrobing game with her shirt pulled out of her pants and half unbuttoned and her hair trailing chaotically from it's once neat style.
Lorelai could picture in her mind perhaps with a bit too much clarity than was absolutely necessary exactly what scene Christopher must have blundered upon and she nearly laughed aloud at how positions had become so reversed in the blink of an eye. It was like one of those teen movies about the parent and the child switching bodies and having to live in each other's bodies for a day.
She dared not count the number of times that she and the man who was doing a very good impression of her own father and trying to pummel their daughter's half naked boyfriend had nearly been caught in picture perfect reconstructions of this tableau. The irony of it was too perfect to ignore. The sins of the father come back to haunt the child. Frankly she had less of a problem with Logan and what he might have been doing with her daughter than the fact that Christopher was standing in this room at all.
She advanced across the room and finally caught Rory's eye after a helpful tug from Logan to get her attention. Rory turned with a look of obvious relief "Mom, can you please just get him out of here."
Christopher finally registered her presence and turned with a surprised look "Lorelai? What are you doing here?"
Lorelai gave him a disbelieving look "I'm sorry, you must be reading the wrong script, I believe that's my line." She looked back at Rory and then pointed to Christopher "I'm assuming he is the him you are referring to?"
Rory's tone left no doubt as to her meaning "Yes, him. He's drunk and he's totally misinterpreting the situation and he threatened to punch Logan." Rory crossed her arms carrying off the haughty quite well even half dressed, Lorelai figured she had gotten that from her, the whole grace under pressure thing, Christopher had always cracked like an egg under even the slightest force. It might seem a little twisted but she suddenly felt a swell of pride in her daughter.
Christopher jumped in to plead his defense to Lorelai "I can't believe that you would be saying that if you had walked in on what I did. Where were you when they were in here ripping off each other's clothes?"
Rory leapt into the fray again "Excuse me dad" the tone was sarcastic and the emphasis pointed "but you have no idea what you just walked in on and I'll go ahead and be redundant and say, it's none of your business."
Lorelai stopped her daughter with a hand "Rory, you and Logan go get tidied up, leave this to me, the last thing we need is your grandparent's happening upon this scene. You can do what ever you want, somewhere else, but not here, not at their wedding, they would never forgive either of us if they found out and frankly my list of sins is already too long to take this one on."
Christopher's voice rose as he pointed at them and spoke to Lorelai "You are condoning this behavior? "
Logan almost felt sorry for the poor guy when he saw Lorelai's eyes harden to steel and she rounded on him "I'm sorry. You think that you get a vote in this democracy?" her tone was incredulous.
Christopher sputtered, obviously too far gone to back down while he had the chance "I'm her father, so yes, I think I get to have a vote."
"Eeeeh" Lorelai made a buzzer noise rather like the nasty tone one might hear when giving the wrong answer on a game show, "I'm sorry Christopher, wrong answer, care to choose a new category? Maybe deadbeat dads for 100?"
He stiffened, clearly not one to back down from even the most foolish of suicide missions, "That was uncalled for Lorelai."
Logan saw in that moment, watching her parent's go toe to toe exactly where Rory had gotten that core of steel that hid under her soft exterior. Clearly her parents were not the kind of people you wanted to take on without a last will and testament in the hands of your lawyer and a good suit of armor. A friend named Tiny who used to be in the WWF wouldn't hurt either.
Lorelai shook her head with a little resignation "I'll admit that was below the belt but if you think that after all these years I'm going to start listening to your advice on parenting then you should be committed. I raised my kid to be strong and independent and smarter than the two of us and I trust her judgment. That's a lot more than I can say for you."
Lorelai waved to Rory to get a move on and continued to advance on Christopher until he was backed up into a chair.
Rory nodded and grabbed for their scattered clothes before pushing Logan towards a door on the opposite side of the room, he didn't need much urging. Rory turned at the door and saw her mother's eyes go weary as she took Christopher by the shoulders and shoved him down into a chair, her tone was resigned but not kind. "Sit down Christopher before you fall down and make an even bigger ass out of yourself."
Outside the door in an empty hallway the pair of scrambled to right their disheveled clothing and only slumped against the wall to draw a breath when all items were in their rightful place. Thank God any other wandering partygoers hadn't found them. Rory put a hand to her forehead to ward of the picture of what had just transpired. She didn't know whether to shout or cry or laugh.
"So, that's your dad?" Logan's tone was dry.
Rory's head came up and her cheeks were looking a bit in the vicinity of scarlet. "Yeah, not exactly the great first impression I hoped for."
Logan waved a hand at her "Oh, I'm sure he won't remember much after the heat of the moment is past."
She smiled helplessly at that "No, I meant him."
"Ah."
She grabbed at his hand and turned towards him "Look Logan, about that scene in there...I'm so sorry... about all of it, I don't know what got into me." She slumped back into position and put her face back in her hands "See, this is exactly why I don't do spontaneity...I suck at it. I wouldn't blame you at all if you wanted to run as far and as fast as you could to get away from this madhouse I call a life."
Logan rolled off the wall to face her and forcibly pulled the hands from her flaming cheeks "Hey, now wait just a minute here, I think I have to insulted by that ...remember me, daredevil, living life on the edge, In Omnia Paratus...ring any bells? Look Ace, if I wasn't the adventurous sort do you think I would be here with you at all? It takes some guts to take you on, not to mention the Peyton Place cast you call a family and that loony bin town of yours. It is a venture not for the faint of heart." He just laughed at her attempt to swat him with the hand that he was still holding by the wrist and he couldn't help teasing that smile back on to her lips "I mean honestly, I think if you looked up drama in that fancy dictionary of yours I bet you'd find Gilmore listed under the examples. I used to think my life was wild and wacky but a boat sinking and a few sundry misdemeanors pale in comparison to your story."
His teasing smile was contagious and she felt it spreading to her own lips, melting away the embarrassment and making her laugh. Suddenly she wrenched her arms free and threw them around his neck as she gave him an enthusiastic kiss, her tone when she pulled away matched his mocking remark "Better tread carefully Huntzberger, I wouldn't want to have to rip your shirt off again to shut you up."
He smirked "It was one of the more creative and effective methods I've experienced I'll give you that." He kissed her again still on that light note and then pulled back. He sobered slightly and his hand rose to automatically to tuck an errant lock of hair behind her ear "In all seriousness Ace, I won't go into the ugly details but I've had my share of run ins with angry parents ...although I have to say your mom was a cooler cucumber than I've seen."
Rory nodded with a slight smile "She is one of a kind."
"As I was saying, all those angry parents, I figure they're just doing their job, I might do the same thing if it were my little girl. Trust me on this though, if your penchant for lugging books around, your proclivity for odd music, your collection of oddball friends and your personal need to argue with nearly everything I say hasn't driven me away then I hardly think a few rather uninspired threats from your dad are going to do the job."
Rory looked at him for a moment and saw that beneath the light words he was completely sincere, she accepted his comment with a nod and went back to the lighter tone. "Well, in my dad's defense he hasn't had much practice."
Logan laughed, "I'll try not to give him reason to make me his guinea pig then."
She nodded "Probably wise."
"Now about the other matter."
"Other matter?"
"You know the part before your father so rudely interrupted."
"Oh, right, that." The rosy pink was back and he watched it flood her cheeks with fascination. For a girl who had all but ripped the shirt from his shoulders she sure did embarrass easily. He found it sort of endearing.
"I just want you to know that I have every intention of finishing what we started in there. Just not here... later, when there are no grandparent's or parents or drunken friends...just you and me and a door with a lock."
"I appreciate the generous offer."
"Probably a matter of survival more than anything else, denial of pleasure and delay of gratification has never been my strong suit and I'm quite sure I'll never sleep again without seeing the entirety of the picture revealed...one tantalizing glimpse of you is no where near enough." He shivered dramatically and they laughed together before their lips met.
She got lost in his eyes, in the heated kiss that pinned her to the wall and her voice was throaty when she spoke "Good, denial of pleasure isn't exactly on the top of my to do list right now either. I'm glad you want to continue where we left off. I was just starting to like you." Logan grinned at this understatement as she smoothed his tie down his chest with a stroke that left that little ball of heat hovering in his belly "If you ran now I'd just have to chase you and you know the rules...a..."
He finished the sentence with a grin "... Gilmore girl never runs. So, I've been told and far be it for me to be the reason you are disowned."
She beamed up at him and patted him on the cheek "You're a quick study, I like that in a man."
He took her palm and kissed the center of it "I've taken a crash course in Gilmore."
He linked their hands as she pushed herself off the wall "I guess we should rejoin the fray...see how much damage and mental destruction Finn has wrought."
"Lead on my warrior."
They were pleasantly surprised to see the ballroom still intact, the band still playing and the majority of the guests still standing when they re-entered the ballroom.
Finn appeared to be doing a serenade, thankfully sans microphone, to his elf queen who seemed now quite smitten with the prince/ hobbit. Colin and Stephanie were nowhere to be seen and Emily and Richard appeared to be holding court at their table. Apparently no catastrophes had occurred in their absence.
Luke stopped them as they neared their table and his expression was a bit abstracted as he touched Rory on the arm "Have you seen your mom Rory? That scary Marilyn character was looking for you both for some pictures or something."
Rory nodded but she wasn't paying much attention to the words since her eyes had just then picked out the shapes of Colin and Stephanie outside the glass windows of the ballroom clearly in the midst of a deep conversation. She answered somewhat absently "Sure, I just saw here, she was down that hallway...second or third door down, I can't remember which." She didn't really want to mention the fact that she didn't remember the particulars of the location because at the time of her own entrance her brain had been swimming with lust.
" I'll just go find her then,"
Rory nodded distractedly as he strode away "Okay, we'll be here."
She nudged Logan and pointed at the window "Look, there's Steph and Colin...looks like they are finally talking."
Logan smiled "Yeah...it's about time."
They plopped down in their chairs and surveyed the scene before them. Rory put her chin on her hand and watched a few dancers spin by to the lazy strains of a foxtrot "Looks like the party is starting to wind down a bit." She looked over at Logan "I'm glad you came."
Logan smiled and trailed a finger down her cheek "Hey what can I say, I'm a cheap date, open bar, free food, good company and I'm yours."
She leaned forward "Well gee, when you make me an offer like that, how could a girl refuse." She had only just touched her lips to his when it hit her. She reared back and all happy thoughts skittered out of her brain like a stampede of lemmings. She shoved her chair back with a loud scrape and scrambled to her feet with her hand to her mouth in horror "Oh my god!"
Logan, completely mystified by this sudden mood shift, quickly stood up next to her with his forehead wrinkled into a frown and his voice laced with concern "What...what's wrong?"
She just pointed and rambled somewhat unintelligibly "Luke...mom, I sent him and she was with dad." She moaned and put her head in her hands "god, how could I be so stupid."
Logan was lost but he tried to follow the snippets of information "I don't get it...your mom and dad are together, so what?"
She shook her head miserably "You don't understand, my mom and dad, they have a history and then there was the thing with baby when Sheri left and the lunch at the Inn..."
"Baby, what baby, you?"
"No." she shook her head in frustration "Not me...Gigi, my sister...oh never mind, I don't have time to explain, I've got to stop him." She turned on her heel and raced down the hallway after Luke as he stood there feeling a little cross-eyed and confused all over again. It never failed; just when he thought he had a handle on her crazy life she threw him another curve ball. He dropped back into his chair and called the waitress over for a refill of his champagne. Best to wait this one out.
