A/N: I don't own GG.

Amazing Not Running Gilmores

Colin slowly lowered the camera from his eye. He'd been following his instructions from Master Huntzberger, taking pictures of the jump, when he saw the kiss. It was as if he felt the world slow down, and then speed up so quickly that no one noticed. Just as quickly as the kiss happened, it ended and Logan was standing in the same spot watching Rory run away from him as fast as her legs could carry her. "Damn it, Gilmore."

"That wasn't part of the event," Stephanie deadpanned.

Absently, Colin cast a glance to his left, unsure of when Stephanie had appeared next to him. Of course, she'd want to see the group jump, and collect her winnings. Never again would Colin bet against Rory Gilmore. She always did the opposite of what he expected her to do, and he needed to not lose his trust fund to Stephanie and Finn.

"Grab him, Colin," Stephanie commanded when noticed Logan's edgy posture. "Don't let him go after her."

Colin gave her a confused glance, but knowing the determined set of her lovely face, hurried his way to Logan. He saw Finn beeline for Logan, hopefully between the two of them, they'd come up with something useful to say. He doubted it, though.

Reality crashed down on Logan with such force that he nearly fell to the ground. Mere seconds ago Rory Gilmore had kissed him…then she'd dashed off. He moved to follow after her, to figure out what was going on in that pretty, but sometimes neurotic, head of hers. His movements were blocked by both Colin and Finn. At the moment, he did not want to deal with either of his, hopefully, well-meaning friends.

"Let her go," Finn told him, gently.

Logan looked up, shocked by the genuine concern in his friend's voice. This girl sure had a strange effect on all of them; she had Finn using complete, insightful sentences. He wanted to find Rory, to talk to her, to…well, continue that incredibly short, but earth shattering kiss. Amazingly, he knew why she ran…at least, he had a pretty good guess. They'd decided to be friends…friends didn't go around kissing each other – at least not like they'd done just moments ago. She should run; he was not ready for a steady relationship. Any time they spent around each other would undoubtedly complicate matters further. He shook his head angrily.

"But she kissed me!" Logan blurted his thought aloud.

Colin and Finn both shared a look. It would appear that their commitment-phobic friend was having a crisis of the heart.

Stephanie took off after Rory once she knew the boys had Logan under control. Maybe none of this was their business, maybe Rory and Logan should be left to sort out their own life, but maybe she just didn't care about any of that. Formulating a plan in her mind, Stephanie veered off her original plan of going straight to Rory and went in search of Rosemary instead. She was hoping Rosemary would be willing to leave early with them, and, really, she needed Rosemary's car since she and Rory had ridden up with the boys.

"Hey Rosemary?" Stephanie called through the girl's tent.

"Hey Steph. The boys do something moronic again?"

Stephanie smiled. "Yes and no. I kinda need your help."

Rosemary came out of her tent. "You sound serious. What happened?"

Quickly, and with few, but important details, Stephanie filled Rosemary in on the Logan and Rory situation.

"Of course I'll leave early. Finn won't have a change to try wooing me this afternoon, which is always a nice break," Rosemary assured Stephanie.

"Great! I'll go and find Rory and we'll meet you at the car?"

Rosemary nodded and went back into her tent to finish packing.

As she suspected, Stephanie found Rory in her tent, packing. There was a rigidity to her movements that betrayed her conflicted emotions. A smile tugged the sides of her mouth as she heard Rory mutter to herself. Clearly, Rory had no interest in keeping the clothing from the weekend. Both garments were neatly packed away in their boxes and she was once again wearing her own clothing.

"Going somewhere?" Stephanie asked.

Startled, Rory jumped as she turned to face the intruder. "I called a cab. I should get back to Yale. Get a start on the article. I have a lot of notes to go through…including a section to write without any 'e's'."

"Forget the cab. Rosemary and I are leaving early, too. Ride with us."

Rory really wanted to be alone, but in the short amount of time she'd spent with Stephanie she knew she'd waste her breath arguing with her about the cab. Resigned to not having any processing time, she slung her messenger back around her shoulder and nodded to her new friend.

Several hours, and one, hot shower later, Rory was alone in her room. Paris was off challenging some poor religious leader to a game of "defend your faith". Fortunately, for her, the two girls had been content to discuss Finn's fascination with redheads, and Rosemary's continued attempts to throw him off her scent. It wasn't that she was avoiding talking about her fateful kiss with Logan, it was more that she didn't know what to say about it yet. She hadn't even called her mom…she could barely process the details of the morning within her own head, and until she'd figured things out for herself, she didn't want anyone else's input. Stephanie and Rosemary had dropped her at her door, leaving her with each of their numbers and eliciting a promise from her that she'd call them if she needed to vent, or talk, or just get out for a bit.

A knock on her door drew her attention from the book she'd been unsuccessfully trying to focus on for the past hour. She'd given up on trying to write her article when she realized she'd repetitively typed "I kissed Logan" for half a page without realizing it. Thinking – or fearing – it was Logan, she considered just ignoring it, but knew that was pointless – they'd face each other eventually. She made her way to the door, not liking the way her heart hammered in her chest. No one was outside; she leaned out of the doorway and looked down the hall. No one. She hung her head; the surreal-ness of her weekend was making her have A Beautiful Mind level moments. It was then she noticed the pile on her doorstep. Waiting for her in a neat pile was her large white dress box with a gorilla mask, a bottle of champagne, her camera and a note sitting on top. She quickly carried the items into her room, placed them on the bed – she simply stared at them for several minutes, hoping this was simply a further manifestation of her Russell Crowe experience. So many emotions and memories snaked through her system that she couldn't make any sense of the situation.

She reached out to grab the letter, but quickly snatched her hand back to her body. Nervously, her eyes darted around her room. Unsure of what she was worried about, she reached over and closed the blinds on her window. She knew it was perhaps a bit much to be this worried about…what exactly? Logan lurking outside her window? She didn't even know it was him; it could have been Colin, or Finn, or even Stephanie. An almost hysterical giggle bubbled from her when she realized how overboard crazy she was acting. Logan had truly thrown her into a tizzy. Before she could convince herself to leave the note and the pile forgotten on her bed, and simply sleep on the floor for the rest of the…year, she reached for the letter. She unfolded the letter carefully, once more looking behind her to ensure the window blinds were still closed.

"This adventure's on you, Ace."

Unbidden a smile crept across her face as she pictured the smirk on Logan's face as he wrote the telegraph length missive to her. Carefully, she laid the letter down on the bed and reached for the camera. She absently clicked through the images, remembering various events of the previous evening. Her heartbeat became erratic once more when she saw the pictures of her and Logan on the tower, the two of them hand-in-hand gliding toward the ground, and –

She turned her face away from the camera. The note suddenly took on a new meaning in her mind. Hesitantly, she looked back at the camera. There were another nine photos, based on the counter in the corner of the preview window. Who took ten photos of her and Logan kissing? She hadn't realized the kiss had lasted long enough for there to be ten photos. Did Logan keep copies of the photos for himself? Who else had seen the photos? Did she care? Yes, she didn't want a whole bunch of people seeing the photos. She allowed herself to look at the photos again. As she did, she could feel the imprint of his lips on hers and the scent of him as he'd held her close.

"I know I can't handle not being your friend."

"What are you willing to endure to have Logan in your life?"

"Just because he can't be your boyfriend doesn't mean he doesn't want to be your boyfriend."

"Moment of truth, Ace."

Rory shook her head. Of course she was old enough to know that relationships were not always simple, and straightforward, but she was hoping for something that didn't resemble a bad episode of Passions. The truth was, she wanted to be Logan's girlfriend. She wanted him to not just want to be her boyfriend, as Finn had suggested he did, but to actually be her boyfriend. Judging by the photos someone had taken, neither one of them were going to be successful as "just friends".

With nothing fully decided on the Logan situation, Rory decided to gather her things and write her article. After all, that was the ultimate goal for the weekend. She was a journalist first, and a…confused college coed second. She stopped by the coffee cart on her way to the paper and couldn't help but remember the time Logan had insisted on buying her a coffee because he doubted her bartering skills. Coffee in hand, she made her way to the, fortunately, empty newsroom. Settling herself in at her desk, she watched the cursor blink at her while she thought of an appropriate way to begin her article.

"Did you get your inside story?" Doyle asked Rory.

Startled by the sudden presence at her desk, Rory's head shot up a bit too quickly and the room spun for a moment before returning to its normal, stationary position.

"Doyle, would you mind wearing a bell if you're going to just sneak up on your reporters? It keeps us from dying of shock. Dead reporters mean no more articles for you."

"You're crabby. Does that mean your article was a bust?" Doyle asked.

"No, I'm crabby because you're hovering. Ben Bradley never hovered. I got my inside story."

"Who's you're source?"

"Anonymous."

"Fine, and Logan?"

Rory choked on the coffee she'd been drinking. "W-what?"

"Did you meet up with Logan and get him to write anything for me?"

"I spoke with him, yes. He told me he'd write you something…happy?"

"Yes."

"Go away, Doyle."

"I expect a copy of your article on my desk by Monday."

"Well, since it's still Saturday, I think I've got time."

"Good."

Rory rolled her eyes. She hadn't really secured a concrete date from Logan for the articles he would write for the paper, and she kinda figured he was writing them because she asked him to…and after this morning's events, she wasn't too sure he'd still be interested in doing her any favors. Silently, she cursed Doyle and his Godfather ways. He shouldn't be able to abuse his power like this. Editors were meant to support their journalists, not blackmail them.

An idea came to her mind. Granted, a bad idea. But it was an idea none the less, and she needed an idea desperately. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone.

"Stephanie? It's Rory. I need a favor."

Twenty minutes later, Rory sat alone at the Pub, a pile of folders next to her. Nervously, or out of habit, depending on one's point of view, Rory tugged on the ends of her sweater. She'd been waiting for too long because as usual she'd shown up too early.

"Hey, Ace."

At the sound of his voice, her head instantly shot up to see him. Her eyes widened momentarily, before returning to their normal size. She wondered if she'd ever become used to him sneaking up on her.

"We're going to get you a bell," she told him.

Logan smiled at her. He was still confused, but he showed up…and that counted, right?

"Doyle cornered me in the newsroom today," Rory began in a business tone.

"Okay."

"He wants an article from you, and I want Doyle to quit pestering me to get you to write an article. I have notes – " she gestured to the folders, "from an article I did earlier that might help you with the economic stability piece Doyle assigned to you."

"Economic stability piece? You called me, invited me to the Pub just to give me an assignment from Doyle?" Logan asked.

Rory bit her lip. "No. Not just to give you the assignment. I know that I kissed you even after we decided to be friends and I'm not sure what that means, but I'm not going to be one of many or just a girl that you kiss occasionally. So, here."

Logan looked at the piece of paper she held out to him. Part of him didn't want to take the letter; he knew things between them had shifted, but he didn't want to know the extent of that shift quite yet…or ever.

"Rory?"

"Just take the letter, Logan."

As soon as he'd taken the letter from her hands, she dashed out of the Pub. Logan stared at the door for a long moment before staring at the letter in his hands. Colin and Finn had corralled him after Rory'd dashed off and convinced him to let her come to him. They told him the same thing she did…since she'd kissed him, it was on her to confront him about their new – situation. He considered pursuing the mountains of notes she'd left for him and ignoring the letter, but decided against that course of action because he desperately wanted to know what she had decided to tell him. With that decision made, he opened the letter.

"Logan, you said you couldn't handle not being my friend, well apparently

I cannot handle just being your friend. I shouldn't have kissed you, but

I did, and I'm not sorry about it…well, I mean I am because the timing was

not good, but the kiss was amazing. I think that you maybe want to by my

boyfriend, but can't. Here's what I've decided. I can't handle not being your

girlfriend. I'm not willing to endure longing and waiting for you to want me, and

only me, just so I can be around you. I want to give you every millisecond of my

time, but it's exclusive; it's commitment. I'm not walking away, or giving you an

ultimatum. I'm simply expressing my feelings, clearing things up the best way

I know how. This is your moment of truth." ~ Ace

Merry Christmas everyone! Or whatever winter season holiday you celebrate! This chapter was a long time coming...I think my muse went on vacation, but I hope it still works for everyone! I'm sure you will have thoughts, so please share them with me.