AN: When I started writing Take a Breath again, I said I was going to concentrate on one story at a time. Well, so much for that. Here's a little WT update for you all. And to any new readers. Welcome and thanks for giving me a shot.

"I'm gonna go put this stuff in the washer," Rory told Lorelai.

Lane had just whisked out of the Gilmore house with a couple of slices of pizza, leaving Rory to the main reason she had come home for the weekend—laundry. Doing laundry at the dorms was an exercise in futility. Anything left in the machine for more than two minutes after the cycle ended was removed and left in a heap on top of the machines.

Rory picked up her basket but Lorelai stopped her.

"Wait, wait." She grabbed for Rory's arm, feeling left out that she was taking a backseat to an appliance. "Have some pizza and tell Mama all about your day."

"Okay," Rory shrugged putting her basket back down again. She'd already done her laundry once that day, round two could wait a bit. "Oh, yesterday Janet woke up to find that Paris had chaired her in her room." Rory started; talking about the drama going on between Paris and one of their other roommates, Janet.

"Oh, nice," Lorelai said, sitting on the couch. She grabbed a slice of pizza and handed it to her daughter.

"And then, later, when Janet had climbed out the window, she retaliated by gluing shut the opening of Paris' glue gun."

"Wow, she went for the crafts."

"This war is getting totally out of hand," Rory cried dramatically. "This morning Paris turned off my alarm because Janet woke her up. I almost missed breakfast. I ran down to the dining hall in my pajamas and bunny slippers, and of course I ran into Marty."

"Naked guy?"

"It was totally humiliating." Marty had outright admitted that her embarrassing ensemble was the reason he approached her. He compared her in her pajamas and bunny slippers to him being passed out naked in the hallway.

"Humiliating 'cause naked guy's hot?" Lorelai prodded.

"It was humiliating because I had terrycloth rabbits on my feet."

"So naked guy's not hot?" Rory got up, moving the conversation to the kitchen. Lorelai followed her.

"Naked guy is Marty, and it's not like that. He's sweet."

"Ah," Lorelai sighed in understanding. "Sweet means bad butt."

"Sweet does not mean bad butt. Sweet means sweet."

"Poor naked guy. He should've left his clothes on."

Rory handed her mother a plate for the pizza while simultaneously rolling her eyes. "Okay, you have got to stop talking about naked guy. I just met Marty."

"Fine, then let's talk about Logan." Lorelai moved on to the next topic she could annoy her daughter with. "How's the groveling going? You think you're going to give him a second chance? Is that why you're not interested in Naked Guy?"

Rory opened the refrigerator with a huff, grabbing a couple bottles of water out and passing one to her relentless mother.

"I've seen him a little…" With flowers, donuts, an entire coffee cart… "But I'm doing a pretty good job of avoiding him. And no—I'm not getting back together with Logan." Did he really think he could just pop back up after leaving the way he did and then schmooze his way back into her life? He'd made his choice. He chose his Jack Kerouac adventure over her.

"Why not? He did come back early from his trip for you."

"He did not come back for me. He came back because he sunk his father's yacht and then got bored of Fiji. Logan has the attention span of a goldfish. If I decided to give him another chance we'd probably be back together for a week before he decided he wants to move to Paris and become a mime."

"Ouch! So you have no feelings for him at all anymore?"

"No," Rory insisted, but Lorelai noted the way Rory averted eye contact when she answered.

Lorelai wasn't sure she wanted to encourage anything on that front. She had stopped hating Limo boy and his friends, but her daughter had been more upset by that breakup then she had been by ending things with Dean or Jess and she and Logan had only technically been together for less than a week. Lorelai wasn't sure Rory was wrong about Logan getting bored easily, and she'd hate to see Rory that hurt again. She figured it was best to change the subject.

"So if you're not still hung up on Logan and you're not interested in naked guy's bad butt, then is there anyone else on the horizon?"

"Nope."

"No? How about a professor-someone older, wiser, with brown cords and whiskey breath?"

"Oh, well, yeah. There's one of those," Rory replied flatly.

"Come on, Rory."

Rory relented. She had to give her mother something. "Well, this guy asked me to go try this restaurant this weekend, but it was a totally casual thing."

They made their way back into the living room and set their plates up on the coffee table. "So what'd you tell him?"

"That I was busy."

"You don't like him?"

"No, I like him fine. I mean, he's smart, and he takes my side in the debates, and he's decent to look at."

"So, why'd you say no? Too many clothes? Too few yachts?"

"I don't know. He. . .he carries a bottle of water around with him all the time. That's just weird."

"Right. Hydration. Very creepy." As far as excuses went, that one was pretty lame.

"And he's preppy, and I don't really like preppy. Plus, he's gonna go study in Barcelona next year.

"So?"

"So it's a waste of time. It can't go anywhere."

"It could go to dinner, maybe a movie," Lorelai suggested.

"You remember the last time I started seeing someone who was leaving the country?

"Oh hon," Lorelai replied sympathetically. "This is not the same. It's just a date, and you know what to expect up front."

"What's the point of a date if it's not going to lead to anything?"

"The point is to get out of your dorm room and away from El Chapo and the Energizer Bunny. The point is to have fun and meet new people and expand your horizons…"

Rory was getting tired of this conversation, and it wasn't like Lorelai was an expert on the subject anyhow. "If dating is so great, when was the last time you did it?"

"I date!"

Rory gave her mother a pointed stare.

"Fine, I may not be the world's best dater, but I do it, and so should you. I mean, you're in college. What else is there to do in college but date?"

Rory stood up unceremoniously. "I'm gonna go wash my clothes now."

"Wait," Lorelai called as her daughter walked away, laundry basket in hand. "Was that it? Is this conversation over? Sorry, did I win?"

The phone rang a few times while Stephanie finished her sentence. She was engrossed in the world of Virginia Woolfe for her Feminist Literature course. She was sitting on Colin's bed while he studied at his desk across the room.

"Hello," she replied absently, answering the phone without bothering to check the caller ID.

"Help!"

Stephanie sat up, shocked to hear the voice on the other end of the line. "Rory?"

"Help, I need help!"

"Where are you, are you okay?" She looked over her shoulder at Colin who was suddenly much more interested in his girlfriend's conversation than in the textbook he was studying for his Moral Foundations of Politics class.

"I'm in my room. You need to come over right now," Rory pleaded hysterically.

"Are you hurt? Do I need to call 911?"

"What? No. I don't need the police, I need you—the fashion police."

"Oh!" Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief was very quickly upgraded to excitement. Rory was calling. Rory was calling and asking for fashion advice. The freeze out was over. She hadn't realized how important Rory's friendship had become to her over the last year until she lost it. Whatever was going on or not going on between Rory and Logan this time, she was going to stay out of it—just so long as she got her friend back. "I'll be right there."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Rory gushed before hanging up the phone.

"What's going on? Is everything alright?" Colin asked.

"Just a little clothing emergency," Stephanie replied with a big smile on her face.

"You seem awfully happy about that."

"She called!"

Oh my god, what had she done? She'd called Stephanie! She wasn't thinking. She had just started freaking out and the next thing she knew she was dialing her old friend's number and that was bad.

It wasn't that she was still mad at Stephanie; she was a little, but she was getting past it. No, the problem was what she had called Stephanie for. After Rory's little chat with Lorelai the week before, she realized her Mom was right. Rory needed to start dating.

She hadn't really told Lorelai the truth when she asked if Rory was completely over Logan. It was hard to be completely over someone who kept showing up and trying to worm his way back into her heart. But she wanted to be over him. She meant what she said about not trusting him not to change his mind. She couldn't take being hurt like that again. So she needed to date. Dating would help her move on.

And so she found herself standing in front of her closet trying to pick out an outfit to wear on her date with Trevor; the boy who had asked her out the previous week. She had let him know that she was open to going out to dinner after all, and the date had been set.

But Rory had never been on a first date before. She had no idea what to wear. She must have tried on eight different outfits and now the entire contents of her closet were strewn on the floor. Paris and Janet were too busy fighting to be of any help, and her other roommate, Tanya's, only advice was to run in place to give herself a nice musk. Rory really had no desire to have a musk.

Now Stephanie was on her way over to help Rory get dressed for her date. A date not with Logan. Would Steph be mad? Would she try to push Rory and Logan back together again? Would she tell Logan?

Oh god, what if she told Logan? Logan did not need to know she was going on a date with someone else.

There was a knock at the door. Rory took a deep breath to try to calm herself and went to let her visitor in.

Stephanie immediately flung herself at Rory, wrapping her arms around her friend in a vice-like grip. "I'm so glad you called!"

Rory stepped backwards, away from Stephanie's hug and into her room. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called. It was a mistake."

"No! Don't say that. We're friends. Please say we're friends again."

"We're friends," Rory tentatively agreed. "But I still shouldn't have called."

"What? Why not? You said you need fashion advice and I am a fashion advice guru. What are we getting you dressed for?"

Rory looked away guiltily.

"Rory?"

"A date," she mumbled, failing to make eye contact with her friend.

Steph froze for a moment, trying to process the information. "Oh." She should have been expecting that. An 18 year old girl in desperate need of fashion advice? The situation screamed date. Well, it was fine. Rory had called for Stephanie's help and help her she would. "Well, where are you going?"

Rory's eyes narrowed suspiciously. It was too easy. "That's it? That's all you're going to say?"

"I'm Switzerland, Rory. I should have stayed out of it last time and this time I'm going to."

Rory was skeptical. Her friend was a buttinsky by nature. "I know it won't be easy but I swear," Steph promised, holding her hand to her heart.

"You can't tell Logan."

"Obviously."

"Or Colin…" Stephanie made a face. "What?"

"Well, I was with him when you called so he already knows I'm here."

"Steph…" Rory whined.

"I won't tell him anything, I promise, but he's a smart guy, Rory. It won't take a big leap to figure out why you needed fashion advice."

"He's going to tell Logan."

Stephanie nodded her head in agreement. "Probably."

"This is bad," Rory said, sinking back down on her bed.

"Why?"

"Why?" Rory repeated incredulously.

"Why is it bad? Why do you care if Logan knows you're moving on?" This Switzerland thing was hard. Stephanie was failing already. She knew why Rory didn't want Logan to know—because Rory still cared about him.

Rory sighed, slumping her shoulders. She had been asking herself that question from the moment she'd hung up the phone with Stephanie. So what if Logan knew? He was a big boy, he could handle it. And maybe if he saw her dating someone else he would get the message and stop with the wooing. Besides, there was nothing she could do about it now.

Rory grabbed a couple of the items laying on her bed. "Corduroy skirt or skinny jeans?" she asked.

Logan adjusted his messenger bag over his shoulder as he reached for the room key. "We are not going to bike the Bolivian Death Road, Finn," he replied to his friend with a chuckle.

"Why not?"

"Well, for starters, you're rarely sober enough to keep a stationary bike upright." Hundreds of people had lost their lives cycling down that mountain. Logan would be worried if Finn had any capacity for follow through.

"Are you saying I can't do it?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying.."

"Colin, tell Logan I can…"

"You can't" Colin looked up from the text book on his lap as his friends entered the common room.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Unless you were going to say you could drink two full bottles of scotch without needing your stomach pumped, I stand by my answer."

"Where's Stephanie?" Logan plopped down in one of the chairs flanking the coffee table.

Colin looked up at Logan, then quickly looked away. "Out."

"I thought you two were spending the day together."

"Yeah, mate, you gave us the whole 'I have to spend time with my girlfriend' shtick when you ditched us this afternoon. I'm wounded." Finn took a seat on the couch, uncomfortably close to Colin and slung an arm over his shoulder.

"We were, but something came up." Colin flicked Finn's arm away. "She'll be back in a little bit."

"Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Colin replied.

Logan looked at his friend curiously. He was avoiding eye contact and giving vague responses. Something was up.

"You're hiding something?"

"What? No I'm not."

"Ooh, a secret? Tell Finny all about it?"

"There's no secret."

"Then you won't mind telling us where Steph ran off to."

Colin really didn't want to get in the middle of this. He sighed, reluctantly accepting that he was going to have to fess up.

"She's with Rory."

"What?" Logan sat up, suddenly at full attention.

"Rory called a little while ago in a panic…"

"Is she okay?" Logan cut off, his heart rate starting to tick up.

"She's fine. She need fashion advice or something."

Logan signed with relief, feeling his heart rate return to normal. His Ace was okay. And this was a good development. If Rory was letting Stephanie back in, that meant there was an opening for him too. Only…

"What did she need fashion advice for?"

"I don't know, she's a girl," Colin rolled his eyes.

"She's Rory. Not really an obsess about your outfit type."

"Maybe she's got a date," Finn replied flipply.

That was exactly what Logan was worried about…

"How's Reporter Girl?" Finn asked without looking away from the TV. The three boys were sitting in their common room playing Grand Theft Auto when Stephanie returned.

She sighed. She knew this was coming. She had thought about going the avoidance route and skipping out on her dinner plans with Colin for the night, but she knew she was going to have to face this eventually. Besides, she'd left a bunch of books behind in his room when she went to go see Rory and she needed them to study for her exam next week.

"Yeah, how is Rory?" Logan asked pointedly

"She's fine," she replied, keeping her response short and vague.

"All ready for her date?" Logan feigned disinterest.

Stephanie shot a glaring look to her boyfriend.

"What?" Colin asked. "What'd I do?"

"Who said she was on a date?" Stephanie asked in her best innocent voice, turning back to her blond friend.

"So she's not? Hmm. Okay," Logan replied, playing it cool. "Well, what did you guys talk about?"

"No!"

"Japanese Noh theater? Interesting topic. I can't say I'm well informed on the subject myself."

"No, I'm not going to be your Rory spy. I just fixed our relationship, I can't be worrying about yours."

"Hey, it's good that you two are working things out. I'm happy for you," Logan replied honestly. He was happy. For selfish reasons as well as non-selfish ones. Their friendship was good for both of them and he wanted them to be happy. And if it meant a little insight on Rory for him, all the better.

Stephanie turned to her boyfriend. "I'm just gonna go grab my stuff, then we can head to dinner."

"Sounds good," Colin replied, as his avatar dodged another bullet.

Stephanie walked towards Colin's room but stopped in the doorway. "Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"She's starting to move on, but I don't think it's too late. Just…keep trying." Stephanie was a terrible Switzerland.

Logan watched his friend walk away with a smile on his face. He had no intention of giving up and there was one sure fire place he was bound into run into his Ace. His father would be thrilled. The Yale Daily News had better prepare because Logan Huntzberger was back.