"Rory! Rory come back!" Lorelai pleaded with her daughter. Rory turned around. Black lines were running down her face from where her mascara had run. Her expression was a mixture of sadness and anger.

"Why? Why should I come back? So you can explain. Well go ahead, make my day."

"Look Rory I did not want you to find out like this."

"Oh so that's what you're sorry about that I found out like this. Or are you sorry that I found out at all?"

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you…"

"See I'm not sorry about that. I don't really seem to think that that conversation would have gone well."

"I was going to tell you, but I knew that you would react like this."

"What am I supposed to do, just take it?"

"No Rory, sweetie," Lorelai walked towards Rory, her arms held out. "I just want you to…"

"Don't!" Rory pulled back.

"I want you to let me explain." Lorelai stared down her daughter.

"Fine," Rory agreed and then walked to the porch, sitting down on the front steps. Rory crossed her arms as Lorelai sat down beside her.

"That night when your father came over, Logan was there looking for you. And he, in a sense, saved me. He stopped your father from doing anything that would really hurt me. And I guess in a way that's what started this whole thing. The next day, he came to me asking for advice about his relationship."

"And I bet you were more than willing to give your take on that."

"It wasn't like that at all. Don't keep attacking me!"

"Don't keep attacking you? Do you even know what you did to me? I loved Logan, I thought we might spend the rest of our lives together and now this."

"See that's exactly it Rory. Think about what you said. You loved Logan. You don't anymore. Even I can see that. And the whole thing with the teaching aid. Clearly there's more to that story than you're letting on if you made such a big deal about it."

"So now it's my fault. I pushed my boyfriend away. I told Logan what happened!"

"If that's all that happened why did you make such a big deal about it?" Lorelai gave Rory a pointed look and finally Rory broke.

"Fine. You want to know what happened? Fine! I kissed him. I kissed Sean Harris. But that's all that happened, nothing more. And neither of us thought anything about it. We realized that it was a mistake as soon as it happened."

"Don't you see Rory, your relationship was already on the rocks before I even came into the picture."

"But it wasn't my fault, it was Logan's. He was too busy fooling around."

"But you were doing the same thing. You cheated too."

"It meant nothing!" Lorelai held her hand up to stop Rory.

"You cheated, that's all that matters. So when Logan came to me for advice I gave it to him. I told him that if he wasn't happy that I don't think he should continue with that relationship. And then he kissed me."

"He kissed you or you kissed him?"

"He kissed me. And I tried to stop it, but I just couldn't help myself…"

"Tried real hard didn't you?" Rory mumbled sardonically.

"Yes Rory I did. But I'm only human. I can't resist everything. So the two of us began to date. I wanted to tell you, but I never got the chance. And I'm truly sorry about that."

"It doesn't matter mom. You stole my boyfriend!"

"You can't take anything that doesn't want to be taken."

"Don't get all deep on my now!"

"Well what do you want me to say Rory? Your relationship was over, so I just did what I wanted to. Don't you want me to be happy?" Lorelai looked at her daughter and for a moment she thought she saw pity on Rory's face, but then Rory broke eye contact as she stood up.

"Not like this." Lorelai stood up too, but Rory walked to her car.

"Rory, what do you want me to do?" Lorelai was practically pleading with her now.

"You know what, do whatever the hell you want, just don't come crying to me when he breaks your heart." And with these words Rory slammed her car door and sped away. After a few minutes Lorelai turned and trudged slowly into her house.

"Is Rory gone?" Logan asked Lorelai. All she could do was nod. "Did you guys get in a fight?" Lorelai nodded again. "I'm so sorry." Logan walked to Lorelai and put his arms around her. Lorelai began to cry so Logan helped her to the couch. There they sat, Logan rocking a sobbing Lorelai back and forth.

Finally, Lorelai's sobs slowed enough that she could talk. "She said she kissed him."

"Who?"

"Sean Harris. She kissed him. Your hunch was right, there was more to it."

"So that makes this right."

"No it doesn't. She's my daughter Logan."

"But she gave us her consent."

"'Do whatever the hell you want'? I hardly think that's consent."

"But you're the mom. You don't need permission to do anything."

"But I don't think…" Logan pressed his finger to her lips.

"Rory will come around. Don't worry about it." And then he kissed her. She pulled back and he put his arm around her.

"So do you want to watch the rest of the movie?"

"Sure." Lorelai smiled and pressed play before settling back in Logan's arms.

Without tearing her eyes from the screen Lorelai continued the conversation from before. "Don't you even feel the least bit, guilty for this?" Lorelai pointed to the two of them.

"What can I say, I'm an impenitent person. It's part of the reason you like me so much."

"And here I was thinking it was because of that gorgeous smile." Lorelai turned to Logan. He smiled and then kissed her.

"Now shh I want to know what happens." Lorelai shook her head and then looked back at the screen, not really watching the movie. All she could think about was Rory.

Meanwhile, Rory was speeding down the highway, headed back to the hospital to talk to Lane. Halfway there she did a dangerous U-turn as she realized that she couldn't talk to Lane. Lane had two newborn sons to deal with; she couldn't be burdened with troubles in Rory's love life right now. Rory pressed her foot down a little harder on the gas. This was something she had gotten from her mother, angry speeding. Rory shook her head, trying to get her mother out of her head. She couldn't think about her right now. Not when the wounds were so fresh. But Rory needed to talk to someone. For a brief moment she considered going to her grandparents' house, but then she realized that they were hardly the people to talk to about this and besides they would already be in bed. The road ahead of Rory began to blur, so she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. She needed to get off the road and she knew that, but first she had to figure out where to go. Suddenly, she remembered someone that she hadn't thought about.

Rory threw her keys down on the table by the door and walked to the bedroom door. "Paris," she called softly as she knocked. There was no answer. "Paris I know you already went to bed and I promise that I will play a thousand games of Boggle with you if you'll just let me come in and talk to you." There was still no answer. Rory tried the knob, it was open. The door swung in with a creak. The room was in total darkness. Rory stumbled blindly to where she thought the bed was, but ended up banging her knee on something that made a loud clang as it hit the floor. Rory cursed. "Ok Paris you are not sleeping through all this." Rory walked back to the door and flipped on the light. To her disappointment the bed was empty. Her roommate was not there. Rory walked back out into the entrance of the apartment. Only then did she notice a small white sheet of paper set on the table. Hurriedly, she picked it up.

Doyle tripped at salsa dancing. Had to take him to the emergency room. Don't know when I'll be home. I told you that you should have come with me.

-Paris

Rory crumpled up the paper and tossed it into the trash can. The one person she thought she could count on talking to was now occupied. Not knowing what she was planning on doing, Rory grabbed her purse and keys and went back outside.

The campus was nice at this time of night. No one was around except the occasional drunken fraternity brother. The only sound was the whistle of the wind through the trees. It was dark except for the light from the moon. Every classroom window twinkled with stars. Rory stumbled around, trying to think of who she should go to. The unfortunate thing was that Rory did not have that many friends. Of her two really good friends one had a steady, needy boyfriend whom she was constantly with and the other now had a family. The only other true friend Rory had ever had was Lorelai. Rory shuddered as she thought about her mother. Now she was truly alone in the world, no friends, no boyfriend, not even a mother. The tears fell from her eyes. Rory sat down on the nearest bench and let her tears fall. The song "Heaven Forbid" came to mind. That pretty much summed up Rory's life right now. Now all she had to do was "hold on tight and wait for tomorrow. She'll be all right." As if on cue a shadow fell over Rory. Immediately, she grabbed for her purse, prepared to pull out the Mace and defend herself. Tonight was definitely not her night.

"Are you ok?" someone asked her. She looked up because she recognized that voice. It was a voice she hadn't heard in a while, but it couldn't have come at a better time.