A/N: I don't own GG.

Winning Blindfold Games with Fear

Rory spent the rest of the week assuring Doyle that he would get an article from both herself and Logan before the end of the year. On Thursday, Rory sat at her desk listening to a rambling message from her mother about ways to get out of dinner with her parents. The best one included being run over by a bus being driven by a member of the DAR where her injuries were severe enough to prevent her from coming to dinner, but not so severe that months of therapy and dozens of reconstructive surgeries would cure her. She smiled at her mom's craziness and looked over her shoulder. The book she needed for her Russian poets class was on the floor near the window, or at least it should be…she examined the area near the window, no book. There was however, a manila envelope attached to the inside of her window; the envelope wasn't there five minutes ago.

"How did someone get it attached to the inside of my window?" Rory asked her empty room.

With a shake of her head, she pulled the envelope from the window and poured out the contents. A sheet of paper and a black, silk blindfold landed on her bed. Ignoring the blindfold for the moment, she turned the piece of paper over, and decided to read it aloud, the whole magically appearing envelopes had her a little spooked.

"'Be in your vestibule at four tomorrow. Blindfolded. The LDB.'"

She rubbed the blindfold between her fingers and reread the telegraph length note from the LDB.

"Vestibule?" she asked aloud. "Clearly Colin wrote this letter, too."

She shook her head. It amazed her that she knew the boys as well as she did given the short amount of time they'd known each other. The part she was bothered by was Logan's lack of participation in the day's weird series of events. He was the one she'd gone to for help on the article, then they'd argued, nearly kissed and been interrupted by the blonde. One would think he would want to discuss their current situation. At least, she assumed there was a situation; it wouldn't make sense for him to ignore her if there was no situation. Ignoring equaled situation. Maybe she was projecting; she thought there was something to talk about, maybe he didn't. It would make sense since he was Don Juan and accustomed to these sorts of situations. Didn't the not talking make the next meeting, which was inevitable since she was going on the insane mystery trip at which she would see Logan.

At three-forty-five on Friday, Rory stood in her "vestibule" wearing the silk blindfold. To say she felt ridiculous would be a gross understatement. It was good that Yale was a fairly safe campus; free from the crack-head body snatchers her mother had warned her about…a lot. Rory maintained that the warning was a product of Lorelai's learning that Rory would be missing dinner, not out of any sort of parental concern. Lorelai and Luke would be forced to suffer through a Gilmore Friday Night Dinner alone.

"Ready, Ace?" Logan asked as he yanked her forward.

She knew the question was rhetorical, but couldn't let the opportunity pass. "Colin's messenger fees too expensive now, Logan?"

Her glacial tone caused Logan to wince. Colin had conditionally agreed to Rory becoming a member of the LDB; the condition had been Logan giving Rory space. This worked out well for him because, well, he wasn't avoiding her; nothing that manly. He was hiding from her.

"Just thought I'd handle this one personally, Ace," Logan replied. Really though, he'd demanded…he didn't want anyone else leading Rory around when she was blindfolded. Again, he chose to ignore his unusual, possessive feelings; everyone else gave his feelings about Rory too much thought, so he considered himself free to ignore them.

"Is the blindfold necessary? I know you, and Colin, and Finn already…including how you three look," Rory pointed out.

"The location is secret," Logan said, smirking.

"We're still at Yale; I've seen it, too."

Logan didn't respond, but he did smile. He knew she hated surprises, which was the real reason for the blindfold. Since she was going to be inducted as a member, another surprise, the location could be revealed to her. Logan helped Rory into the backseat of the black SUV.

"Hit it," Logan announced, overly loud.

"Ah! Not so loud!" Finn protested.

Logan smirked. Some things in life were too precious to pass up, and making Finn regret the copious amounts of alcohol from the night before was one of those things.

"Is the blindfold secure?" Colin asked, attempting to keep his voice stoic. "Our…anonymity's crucial, Logan…crucial."

Logan groaned inwardly; Colin thought the whole super, secret location was absurd, and he was going to ruin the fun. "Secure and in place, Colin."

From the front seat, Finn groaned. The arguing was too loud, he was too sober, and Logan was too…blond.

"What's wrong with Finn?" Rory asked, eager to have someone see the blindfold was silly.

"Great job with the blindfold there, Huntzberger," Colin complained. He winked at Logan, and smiled when he saw Logan's scowl.

"My ears still work, Colin. I know your voices," Rory explained.

Not entirely sure what they were talking about, but not caring at the same time, Finn decided to join the conversation. "Why did we have to leave at this ungodly hour?"

"It's four in the afternoon," Rory informed Finn.

Logan leaned in close and whispered in Rory's ear. "He's got a thing about the sun."

Rory felt a surge of warmth sweep through her body as his velvety voice caressed her. She then felt angry. He had no right to make her feel anything. Plus, she didn't like him.

"It's too bright," Finn explained, as if it would make sense to everyone.

"I'm really glad he's not wearing a gorilla mask," Rory joked.

"She can see!" Colin exclaimed.

"No, I can't. I have excellent hearing, and no one's voices are muffled," Rory said slowly.

"She's sharp," a female voice, Rory didn't recognize announced.

"Who's the girl? And Colin, it's a female voice," Rory asked.

"I've been told we've met. I have no memory of this…or most of that night," the mystery girl continued.

"Oh, you're the one with the gorilla mask. I now feel like the girl in the paining in Heart of Darkness," Rory told the group.

"During daylight hours, people normally call me Stephanie," the girl told Rory.

"I'd say it was nice to see you, but clearly that would be a lie," Rory deadpanned.

"I'm sure there will be at least five minutes of sobriety where you can imprint my face in your brain," Stephanie said.

"I look forward to it. I have excellent imprinting skills."

Logan chuckled; he had a feeling Rory and Stephanie would get along, which was good for the two of them and potentially bad for everyone else.

When Rory felt Logan leaned into her again, she stiffened in an attempt to avoid feeling anything other than arctic.

"This outing is overnight," Logan whispered.

"Overnight?" Rory choked.

Without thinking through his actions, Logan reached up and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I might have forgotten to tell you."

Rory didn't look at him; she knew if she turned her face their faces would be mere centimeters from each other. The last time their faces were that close near badness occurred. And the circles he was idly drawing on her shoulder with his fingers were driving her crazy, but she knew reacting would also end badly.

"Oh, must have slipped your mind," Rory told him, hoping she sounded causal.

He leaned as close to her ear as he could without touching her. "That doesn't screw up anything for you, does it?"

The husky tenor of his voice melted her insides. "No," she responded. She silently congratulated herself for managing to get those two letters out without dying on the spot.

"No?" Logan asked. He loved the affect he was having on her, and there was something about the blindfold and the flush on her face that made him sad and simultaneously thankful there were other people in the SUV.

"No," Rory told him more assuredly than before.

"Hmm," Logan mused aloud. "Loose schedule. Good."

"Quit smirking, Logan," Rory chastised.

"You might be right about that blindfold, Colin," Logan said.

"No," Colin began, "I agree with Reporter Girl. Even an actually blind man could hear your smirk."

"We like our schedules loose," Finn pronounced. "Like our women."

"Finn, no woman is ever that loose," Stephanie said. She liked Rory and appreciated how she could integrate herself into the boy's conversation. It would be nice to have a fully functioning female to spend time with at these adrenaline junky events.

"My god it's early," Finn whined.

"Well Finn, the sun will set, and you can be rejuvenated by the moon," Rory informed him. "Were you bitten by a werewolf as a child?"

"It's nothing that classic, Rory," Colin answered for Finn. "He simply has a distinctly nonexistent relationship with any daytime activities."

"Except driving to mysterious, unknown locations," Rory added.

"You're the only one who is unaware of our final destination," Logan told Rory.

"Thanks for that, by the way," Rory retorted.

Logan leaned his head closer to Rory's, "You have a one adventure per lifetime quota, Ace?"

Rory turned her face to glare at him, but realized that she was blindfolded and the whole glare concept would be lost in him. She also became instantly aware of the non-space between her face and Logan's face. She could feel the heat of his body and his breath on her face, even through the blindfold. The urge to kiss him overwhelmed her for a moment, but she quickly repressed the desire.

"I'm glaring at you, but you can't see it because you had to abduct me, blindfold me and withhold our destination from me," Rory told Logan.

He wanted to answer her; his brain was transmitting several appropriate and socially acceptable responses to his mouth, but his mouth was fixated on her lips. She'd turned to face him and his heart had stopped for a moment, and now he thought it was imitating Lars Ulrich's original audition. He wanted to kiss her, and there was something about her not seeing the potential kiss coming that nearly overpowered him. Instead of doing something irreversible, Logan simply maneuvered his face so that he could whisper into her ear.

"I didn't abduct you."

"Yes, you did," Rory breathed, suddenly feeling very warm and thinking the SUV was amazingly small.

"No abduction took place, Ace," Logan argued.

"How is this not an abduction?"

"You received a note telling you to come to a public location at a specific time," Logan began. "And you chose to wait in said location where I led you to the vehicle."

"Blindfolded."

"The blindfold makes it an abduction?" Logan asked.

"Yes."

"How revisionist of you," Logan retorted.

Ignoring him, Rory turned her head away. At least, she assumed it was away; the blindfold was making her sense of direction a bit skewed, but since her face was aligned with her body, she was fairly certain she was facing forward. Which was an improved position because she was not facing Logan, because facing Logan in the suddenly clown car sized SUV was bad.

"Rory," Stephanie began, "I can't believe you agreed to this weekend."

"Really?" Rory asked, eagerly. It was a great relief to have a distraction from Logan and his nearness, and his Logan-ness.

"Oh yeah," Stephanie continued eagerly. "These three have the whole Evel Knievel thing going. It's more like a competition."

"Does the winner get gold-plated crutches?"

"And a lifetime supply of painkillers."

"Demerol?"

"Percocet."

"Surely they jest," Colin interjected. "We do not need pain killers."

"Of course, we endure our pain like men," Logan agreed.

"How could I forget you endure injuries the medieval way. Simply place a piece of leather between your teeth and remind you not to bite off your tongue," Rory quipped.

"We'll even get you one of those little wooden boxes with the crank, like they use in Knight's Tale," Stephanie added.

"You lot are comedians," Finn added.

"He speaks!" Rory announced.

"You wound me, love. The sun has finally gone to its hellish prison, allowing me to once more be my overly charming, devilishly handsome self," Finn told her.

"So your looks and charm are subject to the sway of the moon?" Rory asked.

"Absolutely."

"How sure are you about the werewolf thing, Colin?"

"Damn it, Gilmore," Colin groused.

"Really going to love having you around," Stephanie said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Shut up," Colin mumbled.

And there you have it, the beginning of the LDB event! Hope you enjoyed the car banter; my version of what the show didn't let us see.