Who would've ever thought it? Rory Gilmore without some kind of male companionship after two and a half years of being in the dating world, who was looked upon as supposedly the only girl worth fighting for in all of Stars Hollow, Connecticut?

As that Ripley guy would say, believe it or not. Rory was now a single girl.

It all started a couple days before. Paris had been over at the diner an awful lot lately preparing with Rory for a tough test in Advanced Literature on the best books of all time over 1,500 pages. The texts were so heavy that every student in that class was reduced to dragging their backpacks on the ground towards their cars, trucks or buses. So naturally with all this reading material, Rory quickly lost interest in being around Jess, there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Paris though, being the opportunist she is, had already read all the books months, even years before, and was using them as doorstops for the time being at Gellar Manor. Knowing all the material meant that she was free to spend most of her hours with Jess. The spark that had turned into heat only months before for Rory and Jess was now flickering out and fading fast, and pretty soon it was obvious that the spark burned much brighter for Paris and Jess than it would for Rory again. All those feelings they had before they got together? Just a lot of tension and other things that are usually caused when a 'wild child' moves into town.

Strangely, Rory wasn't as jealous of Paris getting closer to him as she was with Shane. Thing was, the relationship the heiress and the Brooklynite were slowly building was loosening up Paris more, and she was more relaxed in Stars Hollow than she had ever been back in Hartford. Their innocent debates soon became laced with sarcasm, then biting jabs, and finally, very hidden entendres that only the walnut-eyed blonde and the tough boy knew. And Rory found that she'd never catch up to Paris at all.

That, and when Paris became a part-time waitress on weekends for Luke, it was obvious. Paris and Jess were just made for each other. She was headed for Harvard in the fall, him for nearby Boston College. The day Rory let Jess Mariano go, she heard the first fruition of a plan for the two to share a row house in the Back Bay of Beantown when they went to college in the fall.

She had to let go, there was no point in keeping the fire of her relationship going when it was obvious that it had fizzled out a few weeks ago.

Then there was Louise and Dean. On a dare from Rory after she tired of the stockboy sulking around after losing her, the blonde decided to ask him to go with her to the Winter Formal near Christmastime. This time, things went a lot more smoothly than they did two years before. Although Rory attended with Jess, Paris got most of the dances because Rory was dead tired due to having a final two days before, and was studying heavily. Jess kept a wide berth from Dean, however it really wasn't needed since the guy with the penchant for building cars and keeping the soccer hair in-style was making wide eyes towards Louise.

The dance went fine, and the whole group was in total shock when Louise asked Dean on a date for a second time. And then a third. A fourth. Even a fifth. After about January 10th and date #17, everyone had lost count and figured Louise was finally deciding to play for keeps. Sure she was still her innuendo-laced self, but she was more composed and blushed many times when she'd described what Dean and her did the night before that didn't involve sex, usually some kind of cute romantic gesture. She was even thinking about becoming a Girl Scoutmistress for Clara's troupe, she loved the girl like a sister. Yes, Louise Grant, actually wearing the color green any day of the year, fashion police be damned. Rory never knew that the blonde had a thing for the picket-fence lifestyle.

It seemed like everyone around Rory was finding love in all the right places, all hooked up and blissful, skipping down the lane towards the lake. Hell, even Luke was bringing back the monosyllabolic-man routine in order to woo his fair Lorelai once again now that the threat of Rory and Jess marrying was nothing but a mirage.

It did seem like everyone was finding love. All except a certain dark-haired Germanic goddess.

Madeline Lynn was still dating a boy every week and dumping them as if they were paper towels. She'd use them for awhile, clean up whatever stupid mess that they made (nothing sexual though, Madeline was done doling out the nookie as if it was a TV Guide 'collector's' cover), and tossed them back into the Chilton dating pool. Her longest relationship in the last year had been with Davis MacBrien, a boy she had met at the therapist's office she went to every week. They had been going out for a month until a couple days ago, when he noticed Madeline not wanting any more from him, so he started eyeing a foreign exchange student from one of those Eastern Bloc countries that ended with '-ania'. Madeline quickly used the opportunity to break up with him and move on. She didn't do it because of anything Davis did, however.

Madeline decided that it was time to face facts. She was in love with Rory Gilmore.

For you see, in that therapist's office, was a woman who knew the real Madeline Shannon Lynn. The Madeline who wanted a relationship for love, nurturing and caring, and who wanted a loyal person she could trust to be with her for the rest of her life. A relationship with another girl, just like her.

Dr. Justinger was the only one who knew that Madeline was so deep in the closet she couldn't find her way out and admit she had lesbian tendencies. All the way back in July of last year, Madeline had admitted to her therapist that she didn't think she was a normal girl. Despite Paris and Louise's hate for Rory, Madeline couldn't bring herself to finding anything to hate about Rory.

She even confessed the day of the PJ Harvey fiasco when she was told to avoid Rory like the plague, that every step she took away from the brunette, and every bitter word she spat out broke her heart in the worst way possible. By the time bedtime had rolled around, Madeline's face was wet with tears as she wrote a journal entry where she admitted her love for Rory. From that day forward, she was bound to look her best for Rory, and hope for an opening when Dean eventually broke up with her.

So she put the façade of an easy ditz in front of her for the next year and a half. Going out with guys who would love to go out with her, yet not establishing a permanent relationship with them wouldn't arouse any suspicion that she was head over heels for Rory. Even with Louise, a much more made-up and monied girl always at her side, Madeline couldn't bring herself to love anyone but Rory.

She was even more bound and determined to have Rory all to herself after she found out she broke up with Dean, and was going out with Jess. Knowing Paris had a small interest in the boy, she decided whenever Jess picked up Rory at school to talk up the academic beauty as much as she could. She'd mention the Gellar's wealth, Paris' high IQ, her likes and dislikes and as many other things as she could about Paris to Jess. She was a one-woman Paris/Jess booster club, and she found out as much about Jess as she could from Dean and Rory so she could come to Paris and twist those facts around so that Jess seemed to be the only guy good enough for central Connecticut's #1 student.

Soon, she noticed Jess drifting more towards Paris when he came to pick up Rory, and they all rode back to Stars Hollow to work on various school projects like the Franklin and student government. And she started noticing Rory in the back seat more often, as Paris and Jess talked about some rare book they'd come upon in a visit to a Hartford bookstore.

She still didn't know whether Rory had decided to let him go yet though a few days before, as she started planning yet another one of her famous parties, which filled Lynn House with the who's who of Chilton and Hillside Academy, though she wasn't much for the whole rivalry between the two prep schools, so she invited all who could fit into the mansion just north of Manchester. This time though she decided to make the party more intimate than usual, so that it would only fill one floor of the house instead of the usual two.

Madeline was going to need that floor empty if her dreams of making Rory Gilmore hers were to come true. She just needed to find a decoy guy whom she was sure was going to drift from her and into the arms of Chilton's sluttier clique in the snap of a finger. So she asked Brent Talbot, who was known for treating girls more like objects than human beings to go with her. She figured that she could get two birds killed with one stone, the humiliation of Brent in front of 300 other people and admitting to the one girl she loved her true feelings.

The scene was now set for a night of confrontation and admissions at Lynn House. As Madeline awoke Saturday, March 9th, she prayed to God that everything would go according to all of her plans. Seeing Paris and Jess together yesterday, she remembered her wide smile at the completion of Operation Hookup, and the realization that there were no more impediments to convincing Rory. It's go time, she thought confidently as she put aside a hanging picture frame, revealing a wall-mounted safe. She twisted the dial left and right, and as she heard the click, pulled down on the knob holding the safe closed, and opened it up, revealing all the various things and mementos she didn't want stolen. She reached inside, and felt for a VHS tape. Finding it, she took it out of the safe, and looked it over, reading the label aloud.

"Security Camera 12, March 2nd 2001, Music Room," she said to herself, remembering what the contents within contained, a secret she would go to her grave with. She had seen Rory and Tristan's kiss on that tape in their moment of need, and sensing a scandal if it got out somehow, had stolen the tape from under her father's nose and decided that it was better off not seen nor ever heard from again, except when she needed a fix of wondering how Rory kissed. Tonight in her bedroom, no matter if Rory was in love with her or not, she was going to smash the tape on her knee, then take the reels, break them apart in front of Rory, take a very powerful magnet and pass it over a few times, thoroughly obliterating any trace of the contents. She'd then throw the damaged evidence of Rory's kiss into the trash, never to be seen by any eyes but hers.

Madeline looked at the tape one more time, and with her device to distract Rory into her room ready to go, put it back in the safe, not wanting one of the servants stumble upon it and use it as blackmail for her and Rory. She then started her preparations for the party, which would have no alcohol. Madeline had always thrown alcohol-free bashes despite how 'cool' alcohol was. She always had exotic juices and sodas on-hand at the parties, which were just as flavorful as wine and beer, so alcohol was never an issue when it came to her parties.

Now came the pressing issue of what to wear. Last time she had a party her hair was in some kind of weird Japanese-type bun, and some people bowed and sarcastically called her a china doll each time she went past them. This time she was dressing for one girl, and she had to make her outfit look beautiful for Rory. Digging deep in her closet, she came upon a simple black dress, which went down to mid-shin and would be tight on her beautiful figure.

Taking off her pajamas, she slid into the dress, and reached behind, zipping the dress up in the back. It was a little loose, but not much since she hadn't put on a bra yet, it would be tight in the bodice once she put on lingerie. She spun around in the three-way mirror in a corner of the room, watching as the bottom of the garment spun around her legs as the top half remained still against her bosom.

Whoa Madeline, looking good, she thought, taking a good look at herself. Amazingly, the dress seemed to be made just for her. The neck was low-cut behind and in front, and displayed her unblemished back, giving a nice transition between her curly short black hair on top, and the rayon dress below. All that was needed in her case was a few more curls, a little foundation, and some lip gloss, and she'd become the girl of Rory's dreams. And maybe a little smoky eyeshadow to add a mysterious lust to this whole plan. Satisfied she was going to be a drop-dead party hostess tonight, she took off the dress, hung it back up in the closet, and threw on some regular loungewear. Being a party hostess was tough work, especially when you didn't have the servants helping you as much as they usually did.

She also still had Brent to deal with before she could even fathom trying to convince Rory to fall for her, so after lunch she practiced her 'broken-hearted breakup' routine in the music room, raising and lowering her voice as she tried to find the perfect treble that would tug at her small-town crush's heartstrings.

"Why Brent, how could you do that to me you snake?" she said overwrought, trying to channel Kathleen Hepburn. "You know I was planning on following you to the ends of the earth, even to college..." she stopped. "Shit, too Felicity-like, I don't wanna come off that desperate, the sucker could believe it and block my plan!"

Madeline tried again with another voice, this time with that of the innocent or naïve girl. "I thought I knew how to love Talbot, but I guess you didn't think I could when I caught you in that closet with that hussy Pam Cleaves. sniff How could I be so dumb to fall in love with a boy like you...hmm, maybe if I combined the Hepburn and the naïve girl, that would work."

One more time she tried to find her voice, and this time she got it on the money. "Perfect Maddy!" she exclaimed to herself with a snaggletooth smile. The last signs of a party taking shape, Madeline found nothing to do and escaped back up to her room, and popped in a CDR Paris had burned of Rory's assisted suicide debates, which she had managed to swipe out of Paris' CD case at school when she wasn't looking. She made a copy of her own and returned it a day later, so that she'd have a completely legal copy of Rory's soothing voice talking about the pros of having a guy help you kill yourself. She lay in her bed, reading back in her journal one of her many entries about how she felt about Rory, as the hour-long recording looped three times, and Rory made the same points over and over again. Madeline didn't care though. Her lover's voice was filling the room, and she could die happy if Lorelai Leigh Gilmore was the last person who spoke to her, even indirectly.

But she could die on cloud nine with a smile on her face if those pouty lips Rory had kissed her. That second possibility seemed to become more of a distinct possibility as Madeline's wall clock slowly made its way through the hours to eight o'clock and the beginning of the party.

"If you do not hear from me again this week Journal, assume that I'm too light off my feet to consider an entry until my senses recover," she wrote as she completed her journal entry for the day. Hopefully it was all to come true, tonight.

* * * * *

Lynn House, 8:30 pm.

The bash was now in full swing, and students from miles around Hartford were flocking to the little cul-de-sac to take part in Madeline's party. Everyone was there talking, mingling, and of course in a few rooms, fooling around with each other as the DJ played loud music which pounded through the 120 year-old dwelling. It was the last one that was to be held here before Madeline left for the University of New Haven or Vassar in the fall.

Her college choice was riding on this party. If she managed to make a good case to Rory for falling in love with her, a UNH student would be romancing a Yalie, and they wouldn't be too far away from each other at all, they might even be able to get a house in the city. If she didn't though, she would be joining Louise in Poughkeepsie, and hope her heart could take the pain of that rejection.

So far, the party was pretty dull. Paris and Jess had stopped by, but after about 15 minutes of being unable to tolerate the horrid pop music the DJ was playing and the awful company they were keeping, the two decided that perhaps their previous plan of attending a poetry slam in Hartford was more their taste. They left with Madeline's blessing, she really wasn't having fun at the party yet either as she kept an eye out on the front door and her true love. Thirty minutes and she's still not here, did she run into some traffic on the way up? She was truly worried about Rory, and when she made out the invitations made it clear that she really wanted Rory to be there.

Brent had hung onto her for awhile according to plan, but she had to lure him back fifteen minutes later after he wandered off. Madeline had to find just the right time to make small talk with Rory, and which would give Brent that chance to screw himself over for the rest of his Chilton life. She kept nervously looking at her watch, as the crowd started to pick up volume. She danced nervously with Brent during a slow song, and as 8:45 rolled around, felt her heart pitter-patter faster in her chest. Damn it Rory, quit it, you're going to be here for me soon, get the hell over here! She wanted to run up to the bathroom and cry, her princess wasn't going to come tonight because of a cruel, cruel fate of some kind. Maybe Tristan had crashed into her on the way to the party, and they were already planning out their future wedding. She shook her head at that inconceivable thought, and wished that all of this was a dream, that Rory was to get there soon, despite how lame this whole affair was turning out.

"Brent," she said shakily, "I'll be right back, I have to...touch up a little, just stay here please." Before the boy could speak, Madeline had blended in with the crowd in the ballroom, and shoved her way into the empty kitchen.

Once in the room, she walked towards the refrigerator, and found a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon right in front of her eyes. She wasn't a big drinker but still had the occasional beer or wine here and there. She took the can out, opened up the pop top, and rested her head against the door of the refrigerator as she drowned her sorrows with the amber ale, swallowing it roughly and feeling the alcohol go down her throat with a bit of fire. With no one to see her, she was able let her tears fall unfettered, as she hummed a song about loving a girl to herself. Sophie B. Hawkins' refrain of 'Damn, I wish I was your lover' spun through the black-haired beauty's mind as she thought about why Rory would be avoiding the party. Certainly it wasn't seeing her exes happy with other women, nor was it she was disinterested in the whole thing. The last time she was at a party like this, it was to drown her sorrows after breaking up with Dean, so this has to be the best place to wallow...

It was then she heard a loud knock on the kitchen door leading outside.

"Who is it?" she yelled across the room, not wanting to venture near just in case it was a burglar wanting to take the party hostage.

The voice of reason in Madeline's life responded. "It's Rory."

At the sound of her melodic voice, Madeline's frown turned upside down, and she silently thanked God that Rory got to her house safe. She set the Pabst can on the kitchen island, and with a skip in her step was quickly at the door. She unlocked it, and opened it for Rory.

"Hey," she said as Rory walked in. "Why the use of the back door for the party tonight, trying to surprise us Ror?"

Rory shrugged. "Well Paris and Jess have been acting like a couple of lovebirds, I can see how everyone would think I was a bit too lovey-dovey with him and Dean, I just didn't want to run into them on my way in, I get enough of them at Luke's." She rolled her eyes, yet kept a bright smile. "Then Dean and Louise are doing the same thing, but I really didn't want to be confronted by Louise to buy some more thin mints and other Girl Scout cookies. I swear she's been teaching that troop of Clara's more hardsell techniques than a used car salesman, pretty soon I think one of them will ask if I want the extended warranty and optional moonroof."

Madeline laughed back, remembering she bought $50 of Girl Scout cookies so that her best friend wouldn't bug her the rest of the month for not supporting such a 'pillar of the community'. "I completely understand then, those four are making us two just feel so weird." She looked over Rory, admiring the way she looked in her sheepskin coat. "Can I take your jacket, I can hang it in the coatroom."

"Sure."

"Oh, and you didn't have to worry about Jess and Paris tonight, they weren't too into this party and left about a half-hour ago. I think Dean and Louise are hermetically sealed back in the library in Stars Hollow as she tries to cement her slot at Vassar. As for Lane and Dave, not here because they have to help Mrs. Kim at the Tofu Bake-Off Contest out at Mohegan Sun."

Rory smiled back, and laughed nervously. "Phew, those six have had so many PDA's I'm amazed that Taylor hasn't hosed them all off in the town square yet, I can't go anywhere these days without running into someone kissing." She unzipped her jacket, and let Madeline take it off her shoulders.

"You OK Ror?" Madeline asked with concern. She knew in all truthfulness that Rory still had a little bitterness that the boys weren't flocking to her for once. She took off the jacket, and waited for the younger Gilmore to spin around and face her again.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, sighing as she turned back around. "I have a book so I should be comfortable reading in one of the chairs you set up in the ballroom."

It was at that moment Madeline found herself distracted by what Rory was wearing and her beauty. My God, she looks like a princess, she thought as her eyes wandered up and down Rory's form. She was wearing a floral print dress which went down to her knees, and if it weren't for the conservative back and print in a burgundy color, her dress would be a dead ringer for Madeline's. Her hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and she wore a spare amount of eyeshadow, but just enough that it drew the charcoal-haired girl's gaze to her beautiful blue eyes. Madeline could feel herself swoon as she pictured herself ahead of time initiating a kiss with the brunette.

"Rory," she gasped out. "God, you look so beautiful tonight."

Rory smiled back widely, genuinely touched by Madeline's compliment. "Thank you Madeline, you're looking quite fetching yourself."

If Madeline wasn't swooning enough by then, she now had a genuine colony of butterflies swimming in her stomach, and she couldn't help but blush at Rory's praise. "Gee, thanks girl." Her pearly white teeth were fully showing, and she wanted to get Rory out on the dance floor as soon as possible. "Come on, I'll hang this thing in the coatroom and you go get yourself comfy somewhere, I'll join you in a moment."

"Okay Made--"

Madeline stopped her for a moment. "Please Ror, Paris and Louise aren't here right now, shorten my name all you want. I prefer Mads or Maddy, either works." The better to keep that mouth nice and wet from syllables left unsaid the dirty portion of her mind chimed in.

"Alrighty Mads, lead the way. Are you still drinking that beer?" she asked, pointing at the half-full can of Pabst.

"Umm, I was just sipping on it, why, you want it, thirsty?" Why the heck would she want a can of beer?

"I haven't had coffee since this afternoon, and I'm a little thirsty, that's all."

"I can make you coffee before we leave, I know you live by the stuff," Madeline said as she handed the can to Rory, who took a little gulp of the beer.

"Thanks but no thanks Maddy, I just need to whet my whistle, and I'm awake enough. Don't worry, I'll just finish your beer, I don't want anymore than this."

Madeline felt relieved, the last thing she wanted to do is take advantage of an inebriated Rory. At least if we drank the same amount we'd still know the consequences equally, she thought as Rory sipped the beverage slowly. They both walked out together into the main hall and towards the coatroom, Rory wanting to make sure that she knew where her coat was placed at the end of the night.

And it was then that part one of "The Plan" decided to play itself out. As Madeline opened the coatroom door, she noticed some resistance as she twisted the knob. Knowing that the door had been replaced only a few months before, there was absolutely no way the door could get stuck. She tugged at it again, and once again met the same resistance, and at the same time heard some whispers inside.

"What's wrong?" Rory asked.

"I don't know, this door should open," Madeline said, aggravated. "Damn it if somebody's in there make yourselves known right now! If you're gonna makeout you must do it within the parameters I set for this party, and that means in the ballroom in front of everybody else!"

She heard no response, and decided to try another strategy, as her fruitless opening of the door continued, Rory looking on at a rare moment of Madeline becoming pissed off.

"If you're rolling around in those coats you better clean up after yourselves, I'm not paying the dry cleaning bill for someone just because your blowjob went awry and you ended up with a Lewinsky redux on a $5,000 mink stole!" She heard Rory giggle at her one-liner.

"You're not helping Ror," she said sarcastically. "The alcohol just goes straight to your brain, doesn't it?" Rory shrugged and smiled back at her.

Just then, Rory had an idea. "Hey, try luring them out with alcohol, it just might work," she whispered to Madeline, pointing at the can of beer in her hand.

Madeline's eyes widened, and she was in awe at how clever Rory was. "Aha, thank you Rory, nothing like the lure of spirits to get them out." She hesitated, and set the trap, knocking on the door.

"Hey you two, I'll give you the keys to Daddy's liquor cabinet if you come out of there right now, there's even some of that $200 Courvoisier in it, you'll both be nice and buzzed!" Rory, you clever devil you, she thought. The door opened up after a minute, and out came Brent and Eleanor Spiner from Hillside, looking worse for the wear and their clothes disheveled.

Even with the plan in her mind, Madeline was in shock of how Brent had gotten himself into such hot water. He gave Madeline a puppy-dog look as Eleanor looked on at the scene, disgusted that she was played so thoroughly. Rory just gaped at the scene, and immediately came to the understanding that the boy was Madeline's date.

"Maddy, I can explain..."

His pre-emptive move at an outburst failed miserably, as he felt Madeline slapping him quite hard. She wasn't acting this time, she was seriously inflamed. "Goddamn it all Brent, you could've let me know before you reverted back to your old ways you snake!"

"Ellie was the one who seduced me," the cheater spit out, much to the chagrin of the girl standing next to him. It wasn't a moment before he received another slap from Eleanor and four inches of red stiletto heel right on his big toe.

"Screw you Talbot! You said you had just gotten done breaking up with her and was on me like a mouse staring at a choice cut of cheddar!" She sighted Rory's beer can, and swiped it right out of her hand. "Mind if I use this on him in a very horrible way honey?" the red-haired siren asked.

"Do what you have to do, I have no part in this whole situation," she said back as Eleanor splashed the rest of the beer onto Brent's face and expensive sweater.

"Aww, looks like Brent can't drive his Porsche home tonight, the officer's gonna stop you otherwise," Eleanor shot back. "By the way, I don't think you'll need this anymore." And with that, he got the sharp business end of a $400 high heel right in the sweet spot of his family jewels. She laughed menacingly, and left, leaving the boy cringing on the floor, curled up in the fetal position.

"Hold on Ror, I need to talk to you in my room for a little bit, do you mind?" Madeline asked Rory as they watched the boy cry like a baby.

"Oh, sure Maddy, I'll go on up while you take care of him." She smiled at Madeline, and walked towards the staircase as Madeline gave Brent grief for his moment of weakness. She didn't know why, but in the back of her mind she was finding this determined, pissed off, and clever Madeline kind of sexy. Shaking her head at the thought of falling in love with another girl, she started climbing the stairs.

"So Brent, ever going to cheat on anyone again?" Madeline said forebodingly.

"N-n-n...no," the boy in pain eeked out as he rose up and prepared for the long trip to his car in the ultimate pain the male sex can have.

"Oh that's right, you can't cheat when your dick is black and blue." Madeline decided to use her cheery tone on him, and put on the fakest smile she could muster. "Well Brent, I had so much fun on this date, a lot of fun, so much I don't want it to stop. But like all good things this must come to an end. I wish you luck in finding a sleazebag skank that you can relate to, and hope you're very happy together." She shoved him down one more time to make his trip back outside just that so much harder. "Buh-bye Brent, see you never again, don't call, don't pass go, and I wouldn't even give you the time of day if you walked past me in the hall."

The boy gaped in shock as he got one last look at Madeline's backside as she climbed up the stairs and joined Rory, and they walked towards her room. He then cringed as another shot of pain headed up his body, and the couple guys he still had as friends helped him out of the hallway. "Come on Talby, I hear the choir's lookin' for a soprano," one of the lunkheads joked as they all left the party with their tails between their legs. Brent just looked down at the ground, he had been put in his place and his days of using girls were long over, the ice that was sure to pile up soon on his nether regions to numb the pain was going to prove it.

* * * * *

As Madeline went up the stairs to meet Rory in her room, the confidence she had shown when she helped kick Brent's butt with Eleanor was fading when she realized some obvious things would be apparent to Rory the moment she walked in the room. Not the tape, locked tightly in the safe, but the little things she kept, like her journal and a scrapbook she kept of Rory's accomplishments and articles. And the senior picture she had been given was the only photograph she kept displayed in her room, the small wallet-sized card usually stood right next to her alarm clock on her nightstand, but whenever someone would come into the room she'd hide it in a drawer. She gulped, and suddenly the worst reactions Rory could have to her being gay were floating in her mind, everything from the girl putting a wall around Madeline to never talk to her again, and one thought which made Madeline shudder where Rory beat in her face. She's not going to be that way Maddy, she's not the type of girl to get into a physical fight, she thought as she walked into her room, Rory sitting on her bed reading Great Expectations.

She steeled herself up and tried to build up her confidence again, this was the time to act on her feelings. There was no backing out now, Rory needed a friend, and she needed someone who loved her for who she was, and Madeline was bound and determined to be that girl for her.

Rory looked up from her book and put it back in her evening bag as she looked up at Madeline. "Hey, you've got a nice room here, not at all what I expected."

"What did you expect it to look like?" Madeline quizzed as she sat on the bed next to Rory, taking off her tight confining shoes. If it was up to her she would've gone barefoot downstairs.

"I don't know, I expected something big with a lot of teen magazine posters, all neat and tidy from the maid and some kind of nutty rainbow mural on one of the walls." Rory said this as her eyes wandered over to a big pile of clothes gathering in the corner.

"That would be more like Louise's room, as for me I'm more laid back and casual. The reason I don't have posters on the walls of the guys is because their eyes creep me out when I try to fall asleep." Madeline wasn't ready to admit she admired the female celebrities in secret more than guys, thus the lack of Brad Pitt taped on the ceiling. "The room design wasn't mine, I used to have another room in the house that was more me back when I was 13, but then my big brother Ryan moved out when he went back home to college in Seattle, and Daddy decided that my room would be perfect for a home office. I moved out and into this room, and we didn't redecorate and redo this room since I was sleeping over at Louise's a lot, so it became a low priority."

She sighed. "Eventually when we got the encouragement to redo, I felt at home in here, I loved the striped wallpaper and purple carpeting too much to change it. I didn't want to change my bed frame, and since I go to Chilton there wasn't time to go Trading Spaces in here and totally redo it all. I'll only be here for a few more months, so soon I'll be moving all this up to mothballs on the third floor, and my mother can install that dream sauna of hers."

"You're not originally from Hartford?"

"No, I was born in Mercer Island, it's just across Lake Washington from Seattle, beautiful town, and the skyline view from our house was to die for. My dad works at Safeco in management, and we have a lot of Lynns back in Washington state. Daddy got a promotion though, so he had to move all of us to Hartford, which I learned was the insurance capital of the US once I got here. I was in public school for the longest time 'till about eighth grade, when Dad thought I had a lot of book smarts. I got into Chilton right away since he handles some policies for the school, I met Louise, Paris, and the rest is history."

Rory crossed her legs, and wanted to hear more about Madeline's family. "So who's still back in Seattle?"

"Well, there's my Grammy Lynn, she's a riot and spoils me rotten when I come back for my birthday and Christmas, she's 74 but is just a blast to be with. I did cross-country back in freshman year, but I had trouble catching up to her when we did a fun race once, I crossed our finish line a half-hour after she got across out of breath." She smiled wistfully as she recalled her grandmother. "She's won the senior division of the Seattle Triathlon once, where you have to bike the hills in the city, swim across Lake Washington then come back to Seattle and run through some rugged terrain in the parks. I still remember that day, I was so proud of my grammy! Then my birth mother is there, she tried to work it out with my dad for years but it didn't work, they separated on very good terms. I feel so unique here in Chilton since I have parents who're separated but get along well. My little sister Melanie is out there too, she's looks a little like me, you notice we have a little theme where we must have something that matches up with Lynn in our names. I'm Lynn-Lynn I, she's Lynn-Lynn II, my mother is weird in that regard, but she's cool."

"In Hartford, I mentioned my father and my stepmother Dorothy, although she married my dad when I was 14 we're kind of like me and Louise are, we get along awesomely, and she has the coolest fashion sense. She's the reason I want to go to school one day and learn how to be a fashion designer, I dream of moving to LA or New York when I'm 26 and opening a little boutique where I can sell my creations. As a matter of fact she made the dress I'm wearing, my favorite pastime is heading up to Windsor with her during the weekend and going fabric and rhinestone-crazy with her at Hancock's and Michaels, somehow that woman has managed to keep a pair of jeans I had when I was nine alive with inspiration. She didn't hand it down to Melanie, but instead created a case for my portable phone and Pocket PC, and a purse I use sometimes when I hit the clubs with Lou, you'd love to meet her. I guess you could say in a little way that her and Lorelai came off the same tree and are lucky to be so crafty with the fabric. God I still remember how you looked in that dress at Winter Formal 2000, I was amazed when you said it was made by your mother, it just fit you so well..."

Madeline decided to stop there because her secret was sure to spill out if she went further than that. She remembered that her jealousy of Dean having Rory started that night, and how she really wanted to share a dance with the new girl. Her feelings didn't at all approach romantic until around the time of the Bangles concert, but it was one of those milestones she looked back on as the start of her infatuation with Rory Gilmore.

She got back on track and continued to talk about nothing in particular with Rory, the original reason for the admission and the destruction of the videotape placed on the backburner so the two could get to know each other a little more. They were both amazed that despite two years of fake animosity played up by Paris and Louise, that they could find so much common ground to share. Even with Madeline's middling grades, Rory was amazed at how much the raven-haired girl in front of her shared interests, as Madeline went on and on about her off-the-beaten path camping trips to such places as Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, Acadia up in Maine, and the summer Madeline spent roughing it with her family on Isle Royale north of Michigan's upper peninsula back in seventh grade. Where before Rory's evaluation of Madeline was of a boy-crazy girl who had two brain sections, guys and makeup advice, she now thought of Madeline Lynn as a girl who had been everywhere she wished she could be, and seen all that she could only see on the old-time posters pasted to her walls. It amazed her that even through the bi-coastal life she lived, with two separate families and how she had been typecast as easy and ditzy in Chilton, Madeline came through it all with flying colors and a wide smile that never faded. Madeline went through a bunch of pictures she took when she was touring the International Peace garden on the US/Canada border, and Rory loved each one she took, the girl had a great eye for photography. It was like she was getting to know the Madeline no one really knew, except for those in her family.

As they looked at a picture of Madeline doing the splits across the 49th parallel and they laughed, Madeline's hand brushed across Rory's, and the girl felt a shock go through her system as she suddenly pictured the girl hovering above her as they lay down on the bed. She tried to brush it off as just a fluke, but when they touched again she couldn't deny the image of being nervous around Madeline because somewhere inside her mind was another personality begging to be let out. Of a Rory who was about to blossom into another person had Chilton not asked her to come, and Dean came into the picture, then later Jess. Her fondest memory of Dean, serving him a Jell-O surprise with Cool-Whip in a Donna Reed dress became mutated, and suddenly her mind was projecting the image of her twirling around in that pink frock to an equally housewife-looking Madeline. It was like Donna Reed and June Cleaver were secretly having a torrid sapphic affair beneath the eyes of their families, and Rory just couldn't shake the image out of her system.

It only became overloaded when Madeline bent down to take an old yearbook out from beneath her bed, and Rory had a nice glance down Madeline's dress of her small but perfect breasts, held in place by a bra decorated with a pink ribbon pattern. She would always be drawn to Madeline when they were changing for gym, which was the only class the two shared all alone without Paris or Louise. Her curves, flat stomach and thin legs always caused Rory to steal a glance at the girl just before they went out and played whatever grueling game the staff decided to engage the students in. For the weirdest reason, Rory thought staring at Madeline in her tight grey Chilton gym shirt, with matching blue shorts up to mid-thigh was the thing she always looked forward to in class. When Madeline would jump to make a volley, do track and field, or tip up a basketball, Rory would strain to get a peek of Madeline's elusive belly-button, which was small yet so enamoring to her. And the sight of Madeline back in her Chilton uniform while they changed back for class, skirt awkwardly hanging off her waist and the shirt buttoned down three or four buttons, and her raven-black hair soaked with a mixture of sweat and hot water from the shower made for such a beautiful girl. They both had never seen each other naked though, with them both always making sure that they both got the two single stalls that enabled privacy in the locker room. Rory was too self-conscious of her body to have it ogled by girls she didn't know, while Madeline did it for safety reasons. She was afraid if she walked in on Rory showering her actions couldn't be controlled, which went all the way up to giving Rory a nice soap-up in several areas.

No, don't think of her that way Rory, you're just confused about things after Jess broke up with you. Now is not the time to fall in love, especially with a girl like Madeline. She tried to think rationally about her sudden interest in Madeline, but attributed it to other things. Maybe you should've had her made you that coffee, you're thinking about her in a way that isn't appropriate. She started a chant when Madeline's bare feet, toenails painted in a dark blue tone, brushed up against her shin accidentally. Madeline is just a friend, Madeline is just a friend, Madeline is just a friend...

She was able to clear her mind when Madeline decided to clear out the party downstairs. The noise below was getting to Madeline, and she decided it was in her best interest to end it early so that she could be with Rory without some stray partygoer walking upstairs and interrupting her plans. With Madeline downstairs, Rory decided to explore her room further.

She found Madeline's journal sitting on the nightstand, along with the picture she had given to her. She found it really cute and smiled, but decided against reading the journal, whatever thoughts the girl had, she deserved her privacy. Bored with her book, she wanted some music, and decided to turn on the CD boombox and see which disk was spinning in the player.

However Madeline rarely listened to anything on her CD player besides the CDR of Rory's debate, and when she turned it on, wondered why she was hearing her voice inside of the girl's radio. I guess she has aspirations of debating when she goes to college, she tried to reassure herself, but after opening the CD door out of curiosity, she found Madeline had titled the disc with a Sharpie marker. Instead of the rudimentary name that was given by Paris to the recording of "February 23rd Mock Debate", she found a drawing of an orchid and the title "An Angel's Voice" on the label side.

Holy crap! Rory thought with a panic, what if she...has feelings for me? It's too soon, and I like guys, I know I do. Her eyes were quickly drawn to Madeline's scrapbook of her, and she read through it a little, paging through until she came to a picture of her and Madeline sneaking in a conversation together during Rebuilding Together. Beneath was the caption of "Me and Rory, I'd be her foreman anyday." A heart was drawn around the picture, and Rory tried to take it all in. All the sudden she felt dizzy and her ears started to ring. She remembered the line of assurance when Madeline decided to go to that party with the strangers she met at the Bangles concert, that she would be back by the end of the concert. The pain she felt building in her gut when Madeline hadn't arrived back yet, the worry that the boys had made the girl yet another one of their naïve conquests, and that she would never see Madeline, her messy tendrils of hair, and her bright smile ever again, and those dark eyes that were so expressive. She remembered how relieved she was that the girl was alright, and felt sorry that the girl who just wanted a fun time went along with Louise and wandered out of the Pastorelli Theatre with her.

But most of all she remembered the small touch they had shared before the beginning of Eternal Flame, and the silent whispering that Madeline wanted to be Rory's friend forever. In that one night, she had not only elicited feelings of worry and hurt at Madeline abandoning her, but of a girl who wanted nothing more but her friendship. Her mind flashed all of the times that the girl had made conversation with her, even though her and the other members of the Chilton Three were treating her as if she was a pariah. Rory saw a flash of hurt in Madeline's eyes the day she didn't want the biology notes, as if she was saying I really do want them Rory, but I can't because the other girls hate you. I hate it, but I have to follow them anyways, I don't really mean you any harm.

All Madeline had wanted was a friend outside the circles she'd been associating with for years, and those two girls she followed like a lemming had prevented her from breaking off of them and befriending her. But what was in front of her eyes was different than the aspirations of a friendship Madeline had been showing she wanted. The picture on the nightstand, the scrapbook, the disc with her voice on it. Dare she try to read an entry from Madeline's personal journal and confirm the inevitable conclusion that Madeline was harboring a secret crush for the Gilmore girl?

But she goes out with guys damn it, how the hell would she have the time to be into me? Rory's mind was a tailspin as she paced the room, looking at the book on the nightstand, tempting her to read it. She kept trying to convince herself that this was all in her head, that maybe Paris was just being sarcastic with one of her disc titles and written it on the CDR, that the scrapbook was just a collection of the friendship Madeline hoped to share with Rory, and her little picture on the nightstand was just a way she kept close to her friends.

It didn't add up to friendship though. No matter how she twisted the numbers, the solution Rory came up with led to love, a strong love that somehow, Madeline had been keeping deep within her for the last two years. And now sitting down on the bed, the 18-year-old wondered if all along, it had been God's plan to have her date a couple guys that she just didn't feel sparks with, and that she had hidden lesbian tendencies that were begging to come out in the sight of this girl who had been on the periphery of her life.

Rory decided to ask straight-on to Madeline when she came back up the real reason she was invited up here. And if this strange theory didn't hold water and was all in her head, so be it, Madeline deserved to be her friend.

But if it was all true, Rory didn't have anything to guide her, Lorelai wasn't going to be any help at all when it came to this newly blooming sexual confusion. She didn't know if the town would tolerate it, or if Chilton would think she was an anomaly and try to throw her and Madeline out. And most importantly, if these feelings for Madeline were stronger than she ever had imagined, would she be in over her head?

For the first time, Lorelai Leigh Gilmore was truly alone when it came to making a decision for her life. Whatever happened from here on out, she was going to have to wing it, and although that thought made her skittish, at the same time she felt like she was finally attacking a problem head-on, and playing with the fire.

No backing down now Rory, no running away from this. You must face Madeline and ask if she's in love with you. She was psyched, and just in time, as Madeline walked up the stairs, and headed back towards her room.

In the end they might be Mary and Rhoda. But a growing roar in her head was thinking that Xena and Gabrielle might be a good way to describe her and Madeline. Whatever the case, the next few minutes were critical to her life as she lived it.

* * * * *

Madeline's heart was beating a mile a minute as she walked back upstairs, holding a cup and saucer filled to the brim with the Colombian goodness that was Rory's fuel, a nice dark roast she was sure the girl would love with a hint of hazelnut and mint. The downstairs rooms were a little bit messy from the remains of the party, but nothing that the servants and cleaning crew she called couldn't take care of in over an hour.

For Madeline Lynn, it was crunch time, and this cup of joe was her last-ditch attempt to convince Rory she wanted her, bad. Once she was back in her bedroom, it would be just her, Rory, and time. The moments of Rory's life she remembered well flashed before her eyes. The kiss between Rory and Dean she was an eyewitness too at the end of sophomore year. The fruitless convincing she tried to have Rory pass along to Paris for her gossip column idea. The almost-kiss Rory and Paris had in the Shakespeare scene, and how she secretly wished Paris had joined Tristan, Duncan and Bowman on the safe-crack so she could be Rory's Romeo from that night on.

And the moment she first laid eyes on the brunette her first day at Chilton. It maybe a really lame line, but she did have me from hello, Jerry Maguire be damned, was one of her last thoughts as her hand tentatively twisted the knob.

Here's to optimism and hope. She raised the coffee in the air for a mock toast to an invisible party, and opened the door, walking in on Rory laying on her bed. She put on her high-watt smile, and decided to join the girl on the mattress.

"Hey Rory, I made you some coffee." Rory, still trying to recover her bearings, got up, and took the cup from Madeline gingerly. She tried to avoid touching any part of the other girl's hand, in fear that the shock that was sure to come would overwhelm her and send them both to the burn center.

"Um, Thank you Mads," she managed to get out before her speech failed her. Thirsty again, she brought the lip of the mug to her lips and slurped the stimulating drink slowly, as she inhaled the scent of the ground result of a coffee that cost $15 a pound to buy. The first hint of hazelnut, followed by the cooling mint hit her taste buds, and they joined in the ever-growing chorus that a relationship with Madeline would be a wonderful thing to have.

"Mmmm, my goodness, Madeline. That is heaven in a cup," she said in a breathy voice, as she savored each and every bit of taste she could usher out of the small sip. "It's too bad I can't take that home, it must cost a small portion to buy that stuff."

"Actually..." Madeline said, hinting towards beneath her pillow. "Look under there once, what you find is what you keep, compliments of me. I think you'll be in coffee nirvana for the next few weeks, just as long as you lock it up from Lorelai." She laughed at her little joke at the expense of the elder Gilmore.

Rory lifted up the pillow, and was immediately touched to find three one pound bags of the unique blend. And now it was looking more and more likely to her, that Madeline's intentions were more than that of a friendly nature.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, beaming as she put the coffee cup down on a table, and drew Madeline into a hug.

"Your welcome Ror," Madeline said into Rory's shoulder, while at the same time she took this close contact as a very good sign.The breathed in the scent of her true love, a mix of coffee, light perfume and shampoo, and a scent all Rory's own, if asked there could be no way she could describe it, except it was Rory. She felt Rory's hands against her bared back, and a warm feeling spread throughout her body, as if this was right. It was as if the two fit into each other so perfectly, Madeline's head balanced on Rory's should just so, and it was a beautiful moment for both of them.

And it was Rory's moment of truth. Somehow, she had fallen for Madeline, and now with the coffee in her system, she couldn't deny it anymore. It wasn't caffeine induced paranoia at all. The tightness of Madeline against her bosom, and the girl's hands twining into her ponytail made it clear. She wanted this, a relationship with Madeline. She'd figure out how to love another woman through trial and error, and she didn't feel like she could ever regret falling for Madeline.

As soon as the hug started though, it had ended in only fifteen seconds. It just seemed like an eternity to the both of them. Now it was fess-up time for Madeline, as Rory decided to ask the important question.

"Why am I up here in the first place Madeline?"

With nary a word after that, Madeline rose up and let go of Rory, walking over to the obscured wall safe, taking the picture off, and taking the tape out. She walked by her computer desk, and took her giant magnet out of the drawer, showing Rory the tape.

"You remember this?" she said with a straight face. This was not a time to joke. She handed the tape to Rory, who read the label aloud, then realized what Madeline had.

"A tape of me and Tristan kissing in your music room? I was recorded doing that?" She was truly in shock.

Madeline sat back down on the bed. "Yes, I saw it all when I reviewed the security footage for that party, and believe me, if it would've gotten into the wrong hands everyone would've been calling you the Magdalene the rest of the year. However, since I was trying to be your friend, I figured not putting it out was the best thing possible. Hand me the tape again, I have to do something in front of you."

"What is that?" Rory was now worried that this whole thing was a charade, as she handed the tape back over.

"Destroy the only known copy of this kiss so it never sees the light of day ever again. This has been in the safe for two years and has never left this room, and I was waiting for the best moment to tell you about this and to show you I want to be your best friend. If you think I have any blackmail intentions, despite my gossip front, I have none. No matter what happens from this moment now, I will destroy the tape in your premise."

She moved closer again to Rory, and her face was hovering inches from the girl's brilliant blue eyes. "The only reason I have for keeping the tape for so long is for another purpose, which I will divulge in moments." She waved the magnet all around the cassette, slowly passing it over and over the reels to make sure all footage was unsalvageable. She moved back, targeted the weak spot of the cassette, and with quick haste, smashed the tape hard against her knee. It only took moments for it to shatter into two pieces, revealing the guts of the magnetic tape. She yanked the reels out in front of Rory, and hammered the two pieces with her shoe and the magnet, damaging the tape beyond repair, and taking some frustration out on it too. Sweat beaded on her forehead as the clear plastic protecting the reel was broken apart, and she clawed at the fragile tape to finish off the job, Rory looking on in awe as the proof of her one indiscretion with Dean the first time was destroyed, and forever. Madeline threw the tape into the trash can, and at that moment, Rory can only look at Madeline as her savior in Chilton. She could've used that tape to destroy her, demoralize her, ruin her reputation.

Instead she kept it for herself, and had no plans for it except for one thing. But what was that one purpose she was talking about? If only Rory could read minds, she'd know why Madeline was making such a production out of this all. She would learn the answer to that soon enough though, because patience was a virtue.

The disposal of the tape complete, Madeline had finally come to her ultimate zero hour. Gathering every ounce of courage she could muster, she remembered Dr. Justinger's words from their last session. Just be honest with her, don't lead her on, don't bullshit her. Just state your feelings, let her react, and hope for the best, the good doctor had told her.

It was now time for Madeline to have her first peek outside the closet. She walked slowly to Rory, who was biting her lip with concern, and awaiting the conformation of what clues Madeline had left around her room.

Sitting down close to Rory on her right side, she lay her hand down on her thigh, and took Rory's left hand into hers. Two years of pining was coming down to this one moment in time, and she couldn't chicken out now.

Rory managed to find a voice, albeit one shaky and full of wonder. "So, the other thing you wanted to tell me about Madeline?"

Madeline nodded, but hadn't found her voice yet as she started talking. "I first met you two and a half years ago Rory, you were a young girl from a small town, while I was a rich girl who never knew the worst in life. At first, my attitude was snobbish towards you, and I wanted nothing to do with you. However, being in academic competition with Paris, I had no choice, and I had to associate with you."

"You were just an innocent, or what we call in Chilton fresh meat. Me and Louise were supposed to wear you down, tire you out, unnerve you so much Stars Hollow High suddenly started to seem challenging once again. I was bound and determined to do anything to get you out of our school, even though I was blind to the real you."

Madeline sounded much more mature than usual to Rory, usually the flashcard mentality was the only way to go in order to tell the girl something. But people change you, and Rory was in her own small way contributing to the maturation of Madeline Lynn. She continued.

"For the first three months, you were nothing but a pain to all three of us, no way was I going to attempt to get along with you. Louise had brainwashed me into thinking you were nothing but competition, while Paris made me muster up the worst venom I could find within my mind, I never knew I could hate so much until you came to Chilton."

Madeline looked down at her lap, as her voice steadied, and she came upon the part she had rehearsed verbatim many times alone as she planned this all out. "But then the Winter Formal came around, and the night you walked into the ballroom wearing that dress, suddenly there was this voice inside of me saying that you meant no harm. And when I saw you in that blue dress, shoulders bared and hair tressed up into something that was just indescribable, I lost my resolve to hate you, and I just couldn't bring myself to ever think a horrible thought about you again. And deep within my soul, there was this funny light feeling that rose up inside when we faced each other. It was the feeling I'd get when I came upon a cute guy, and as I fell asleep in the bed of my date, I tried to brush it off as a fluke, something that was never going to happen again."

"More and more we met at school, until eventually we were eating lunch across from each other. By the time March had rolled around and I was about to invite you to the party after we attended that Bangles concert, the highlight of my day became sitting across from you, and us just talking. I loved learning about your world Rory, it was so different from mine, and about your amazing m other and childhood. I mean I felt that even with the extra zeroes in my bank account, I could relate to you much more than I ever could Louise and Paris. Not that they aren't bad friends, but they were raised as members of the Hartford elite, while I came in mid-stream, just like you did in sophomore year."

"And then in May when all that crap with Tristan and PJ Harvey was going down, I remember rooting for you two to get together since I saw the kiss on the videotape. I was hoping it would come true, but there was something gathering inside of me. Everytime you walked past me, and when I watched that kiss all over again, I felt a pang of something I just couldn't describe at first, but it felt like that light feeling I had when I saw you at the Formal. It all came to a head the day Paris told you off and Louise decided to call you Typhoid Mary. I knew you had the biology notes for me, but they told me that I should reject them because Paris was pissed at you over your 'acceptance' of the concert tickets from Tristan. In study hall, I had it out with those two, and told them they were overreacting, and that they should perhaps ask you first if you were going out with him. Instead, they told me to shut up, reject the biology notes or else lose their friendship. Being blind at the time, I was more concerned about my popularity than about the way I came off to you, so I followed along with it anyways."

She was now on the verge of tears, and she blinked her eyes several times to try and stop the saline from falling. "As it got time for the notes exchange, I looked at myself alone in the mirror in the girl's bathroom, and it was then all of the last few months had caught up with me. The longing stares, the desperate attempts to befriend you, the deep regret I felt when your mother, who had trusted us to stay with you the night of the concert, bitched me out in the car because I made a dumb decision to follow two guys I never knew to some really lame party in a tenement, and that I only did it because of the old credo, 'Madeline and Louise, partners in crime'. Until that moment, I was confused about how I felt about you Rory. But looking into that mirror, my face filled with pain for what I was about to do, spurn you, I came to that realization that I had been to chicken to face, that I loved you, and much more than I would as a friend."

As Rory looked at the girl sitting close to her, confessing everything including her constant bugging her despite the insistence of Louise and Paris that she shouldn't be friends with her, and that she had to go out with guys because that was what was expected of her by everyone else. She never even thought of her family's opinion, only those of her peers, and it had almost killed the girl's friendly nature. Being forced to keep her sexual orientation hidden behind a façade for so long had changed the Madeline Rory had seen since she met her into another girl altogether. This wasn't the girl who talked about boys and fashion as if they were the only two things she could ever know. This was a girl Rory was suddenly picturing in her arms, soothing the sexual and romantic tension out of. Rory only ever wished for the best to happen to Madeline in the end, and now she was thinking if she was the best thing to come into Madeline's life, that maybe it was meant to be in the end.

Maybe Dean and Jess were just a fluke, she thought as Madeline described some of her toughest sessions with Dr. Justinger. Maybe it's fate that I'm supposed to fall for Madeline so fast. Those two relationships, they were slow burns that built up to a fire that was quickly extinguished when we finally did something about it. She looked into Madeline's dark eyes, and could see the fire in them. Perhaps this time, she should just jump into it all, and consider the consequences later. A relationship was never supposed to be like a chess game, moves being made slowly and tentatively so that every move didn't cause a shakeup. It was supposed to be the love of another person, combining with another to create something truly and totally amazing, and end up as something totally unexpected.

Whatever Lorelai was going to say, along with her grandparents, this wasn't about pleasing them. She had done that all her life, done what was expected, and done her best to go through the motions. As Madeline took her hand into hers, she had poured out her soul to Rory, and knew that either one of two things was going to happen. One, Rory would reciprocate, or the other, she'd say she was straight and they'd go from there.

Madeline made one last impassioned plea to her dream girl.

"Look Ror, I know I'm not the smartest girl you've ever met, and I'm certainly no Dean or Jess. But I've been on the sidelines for the longest time, hoping you'd come to your senses and see the real me. However, if I say nothing, nothing will happen. So a couple weeks ago I decided to take the advice of a literary character you may not think of as romantic at all. She even has her own TV show, and I was not going to tell you this. But dammit Rory, I have to be honest with you, the catalyst of this whole thing was The Magic School Bus."

She heard Rory laugh a little and blush. "A cartoon, you mean Miss Frizzle caused you to let your feelings out in the open?"

She nodded her head. "Yeah, it does sound a little silly, but what she told me seemed to apply to this situation perfectly." She took Rory by the shoulders and the other girl complied, as they got comfortable laying down on the bed, Madeline atop of her. The charcoal-haired girl wrapped her arms around Rory at the waist, and spoke in the most lustful tone the small-town girl had ever heard in her life. The omnipresent smile was still there, through it all.

"Miss Frizzle's advice is to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy. Now I'm taking a major risk here in admitting my feelings for you Rory, but who gives a damn? If you do or don't respond, it won't be the end of my life." Her hand moved up Rory's back, and she started undoing the rubber band holding her ponytail in place. "And we're both inexperienced, getting into the first lesbian relationship we've both had, we're sure to do things wrong. But the only way we can learn about each other's quirks is through trial and error, and if that means I pinch your butt a little too hard, we'll laugh, move on and go from there."

Rory's hair now free from the rubber band, and Madeline's full lips only mere centimeters from hers, Rory prepared for what should be an interesting spin on that last piece of advice from a children's book, as the girl's stubby fingers tangled in her long locks. "I've had indecent thoughts of you Rory Gilmore, very dirty ones that I'm not ready to tell you about quite yet. I've had dreams of you making love to me in this same bed, and in the shower at school, I've wanted to take you as you sit in a sauna, a towel around your beautiful form, sweat all over that beautiful body of yours. I've had thoughts of my tongue inside your slit as we fucked each other senseless in the library, on a study table, and you later doing the same to me. These fingers of mine, playing with your hair have been deep inside of me, against my clit, as my anguished cries of your beautiful name echoed throughout this room. I want to love you in every way possible Rory, if you'll just let me. I'm taking this chance, making mistakes, and wanting to get messy with you because Lorelai Leigh, I can't think of myself falling for anyone again but you. I love you, baby." She whispered out the last word as she lost her speech, and had exhausted every thought she had. Her world was either going to spin fast or get crushed in the next few moments.

Rory's mind was trying to make heads and tails of Madeline's lustful fantasies of her, she had just admitted a small sampler of them. Neither Dean, nor Jess had the guts to admit that they thought of her while they masturbated. She had experimented with self-pleasuring herself a few times, but didn't feel comfortable because she felt like the only one in Stars Hollow who would be doing it, her self-consciousness had gotten in the way of giving herself any pleasure away from her boyfriend. But now she felt aroused just from Madeline's licentious words. The closeness of Madeline in relation to her, and the feeling of the other girl's heartbeat steadily beating with hers, made Rory realize that Madeline wasn't innocent, and she wasn't either. God, I want her so bad, she thought as she swore she could feel Madeline move closer to her, both her top and her bottom fitting in perfectly with the girl. She shut her eyes, and pictured Madeline in the nude, a pipe dream only a day before. Against her body, Rory had already memorized every place the beautiful woman above her curved, and every crevice, including that elusive belly button. She was ready to give in to another girl, and there was no turning back now.

"Kiss me Madeline," she gasped out, and within that small second, the other girl's dream had come true. Before she touched Rory's lips to her, she pinched her hand, and feeling a prick of pain, learned that her dream of having Rory submit to her was about to come true.

She reached over for a dimmer remote laying on the nightstand, and the room became darker, as Madeline's creamy white skin contrasted to that of her lover's. She wrapped her arms around Rory, and at first touched her lips tentatively to hers, waiting for Rory's silent permission to advance further. Several quick kisses, filled with fire, along the perimeter of her lips and on each of her cheeks, overtook Rory as she decided that this wasn't just boy meets girl, boy kisses girl. This was pure, unadulterated passion with a pinch of lust. She brought Madeline so close to her that there was hardly any room to breathe, and the cotton of her dress became but a thin layer, how she wanted to actually feel what Madeline had been dreaming about her.

Their breasts rubbing up against each other, the two girls were now pushing each other for more, but surprisingly Rory was the one pushing for a deep and soulful French kiss. Fuck, she wants to feel the burn! Madeline thought as Rory's tongue rubbed roughly against her teeth, whatever she had stirred in the girl, she was thankful to be the one to cause it. None of her dreams could ever compare as she allowed access to her mouth, the taste of the mint/hazelnut brew blending with Madeline's tropical gum that she had been chewing earlier. To both of them, the taste of anything else in the world paled compared to their own unique flavor.

They kissed long and hard, so much so they had to stop for a minute to recover their breath, sharing each other's air had caused them to become dizzy. Rory's blue eyes looked into Madeline's determined dark hazel windows to the world. They wanted more of each other, and nothing was going to stop them now.

Their hands and arms, before tentatively staying in the safe spot around each of their waists, were moving up and down in tandem, Rory's hand against Madeline's rear, while Madeline got the permission to bring her grip around Rory's bra line. She moved her loving kisses down to the girl's chin and neck, kissing at them like she knew how she ticked. Experience was a good thing with guys, but now it was really coming in handy when it came to making out with another woman. Somehow she had found all of Rory's spots that would cause her to gasp, and the sound of her moaning was something she was sure to memorize and want to get an audioclip of if she could, that way if they were ever separated, she'd have something true to remember her by.

The dresses the two young women wore, before perfectly flat, were now wrinkled up, some of the fabric gripped by a fist. Rory moved Madeline's dress up inch by inch, looking down at each piece of creamy skin that was exposed on her legs. She couldn't wait to see how aroused Madeline had been at being so close to her, against her leg as they initiated the kiss she felt how wet Madeline was. God, I did that to her, I gave Madeline that arousal. She knew she was getting in over her head, but there was no denying it, she wanted Madeline so bad that it hurt.

Madeline started at unzipping Rory's dress in the back, which wasn't easy when Rory had finally gotten her dress above waist level, exposing her from the abdomen down, her panties soaked with her juices. She felt Rory's fingers run along the bottom of her ribcage, and circle around her stomach. She knew that the thing Rory wanted to look at and stimulate the most was her belly-button, the two had an unvocalized sense of their pleasure points. As Rory's finger brushed against the ridge of the chasm of her button, she bit her lip and tried to stop herself from having to send Rory home in an old pair of sweats, the last thing she wanted to do right now was rip her dress.

"Holy fuck Rory!" she cried out, hyperventilating as she exposed her new girlfriend's shoulders. She set aside the blue bra strap on the right side and kissed her shoulder slowly, driving Rory insane. At the same time she started a chant in her mind to not have an orgasm in front of Rory just yet. She wanted to stop it before it got any further, their wandering hands were making their way to each of their now hypersensitive breasts. Madeline wanted Rory's first orgasm with her to be special, it was too soon to take that step from a couple making out with each other and learning, to just having all-out sex into the night. Grudgingly, she separated from Rory slowly, wanting to feel her girlfriend for as long as she possibly could.

"Sorry honey, we're just not ready to go further yet. Maybe in a few weeks, or maybe in a few months. But for now, just being close to you is enough for me." She pushed her dress back down her body, and Rory held back a swoon.

She had expected Madeline after initiating the kiss to try to take her virginity tonight, and have an all-out passionate fuck with her. But instead, she had been surprised at Madeline's selfless deed to let her wait until the perfect moment. In truth, she had made the right decision. Coming home to Lorelai, and telling her that not only had she become a lesbian, but lost her virginity just wouldn't have been special in any way. Being patient and having Madeline wait until she was ready, that was the best that Madeline could do. They were still just in the experimental stages of their young relationship, and they still had so much to discover about each other.

Rory calmed down as her body returned to normal, she had almost fully given herself to Madeline, but wouldn't have regretted it if she did. Dean and Jess didn't know how to please her at all, but Madeline? It was more than just the physical things that got to her. The way Madeline soothed the girl as she came out, and just how all-around nice she'd been for the last year before she decided to take action on her feelings. She zipped her dress back up, and had Madeline brush her hair as she got ready to leave.

They talked some more about their home lives, and how they were going to reveal this relationship to everyone. It wasn't going to be easy, but both Madeline and Rory were committed to making this work.

"So the kiss," Madeline questioned. "Did I do it right, was it weird or uncomfortable? Did you think of backing out of it?"

"No, it was...perfect Maddy, and actually I pretty much knew you were going to confess, the CDR of my debates on loop pretty much confirmed that."

"Was I that obvious?"

"The whole scrapbook and my picture the only one in your room made me put two and two together," she said smiling.

"Ahh, so you were playing along the rest of the way and figuring out your feelings."

"Yeah, I got enough time to sort out that just maybe this was fate that we were bound to be together Maddy."

"That's cool." Madeline took Rory's hands and helped her out of the chair. "There Ror, Lorelai won't be suspicious that we got in some almost-nookie tonight." She had restored Rory's makeup as much as she possibly could with the beauty supplies she had on-hand. "Tell me one more thing though, once you leave here are you gonna pull a Georgie Porgie and cry like you did with Tristan?" She had a mischievous glint in her eye, and Rory jokingly punched her girlfriend on the arm.

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" Rory rolled her eyes. "But don't worry Mads, the only way I might've cried tonight is if you would've brought me to the brink, I'm going to get you back for that someday."

They walked out of Madeline's room hand in hand, and started down the stairs. "Touché my fair Rory, $5 you go home and start thinking those dirty thoughts I placed inside of your head, you were eating that stuff right up."

She stayed strangely silent for a moment, and started blushing as Madeline helped her with her coat. "Well, let's see here, you admit that you have feelings for me and that you want me to be your lover. And then you go into a little detail about wanting me to get some extra credit in the showers of the girl's locker room. And if that wasn't enough, we both take an innocent first kiss and almost tear each other's clothes off, but then you stop us just before I was able to get a nice peek of your breasts."

She leaned in and gave Madeline a quick little kiss. "I think that you Madeline are going to cause me to have to deal with a very riled-up libido in my bedroom when I get home, and I just may be doing it for a couple of hours."

Madeline smiled back at her girlfriend and reciprocated with another small kiss. "And as soon as the Jeep has fallen out of my sight, I'm going to lock the door behind me, take off all of my clothes, and drink the remainder of the coffee you left up there as I imagine you on top, naked as a jaybird and swearing like a sailor as I suck on your neck and imagine your hands doing something besides writing for once." She winked, causing Rory to go hysterical.

"God Maddy, I love this, it's not all 'hi, how are you, let's suck face' with us, I can even have you do all those feminine things that Jess was afraid to do for me, like have you go out on a tampon run!"

"Oh, me too, but I better stop before you decide that an hour is way too long to wait before you finish what I started with you girl." She opened the door for Rory, and they looked around, making sure no one was outside to interrupt their goodbyes.

"Thanks for inviting me Madeline, not only did I get to see a guy get what he deserved, but your wishes finally came true. Poor Brent though, he should've known that you don't mess with you."

"Well he was a decoy, I had no interest in him anyways. But it was fun to see him walk out of here wanting his mommy." They both laughed one last time.

And then they looked into each other's eyes, and the conversation was toned down.

"So, Monday I'll see you again." Madeline said to Rory softly.

"Yep, Monday we'll be at school, and let's just say gym class is going to be very interesting."

"They better be doing a close contact sport like field hockey, you know that I like playing rough," Madeline said with a wink. Rory was just about all laughed out with all of her entendres.

"Oh Maddy, Maddy, you and being close, I have another fantasy to add on for tonight."

"Well," she said, shifting her feet, "I guess this is goodbye for now baby, thanks for giving me a chance Ror. After all this time I can truly say that I've fallen in love with someone, I love you Rory."

"And I can grow to love you Madeline, I think I'm starting on that track." She looked at Madeline one more time, and couldn't help herself. "One more kiss for the road, please?" Rory gave her the best pout she could.

"Of course Ror," Madeline answered, taking the girl into her arms one more time and kissing Rory like her life depended on it. Rory pushed her towards the frame of the door, and she felt her head bump into it as their tongues touched once again. This time though, the kiss was much more loving and kind, and they held each other's hands as the liplock continued. After a minute they stopped, and it was time for Madeline to let go.

"Goodnight, my angel," she whispered as Rory walked away from her slowly, still clasping her hands. "We'll meet again on Monday."

"Well I'll be seeing you in my dreams tonight," the brunette shot back, looking angelic as the distance became too great and she had to let go. "But I'll see you Monday morning Madeline, until then, sleep well." Smiling, she left the house and walked to the Jeep backwards, looking at Madeline the whole time. She got in, started the engine, and with the memories of the night spinning in her mind, went around the front drive one last time, waving to Madeline before she left the grounds of Lynn House.

"I will, you do that too my love," she mouthed as she backed into the house. As Rory disappeared out of sight, she shut the door, lay back against it, and sighed, feeling like she was on cloud 18, she was on a double high from being able to express her feelings, and take the tentative steps of a relationship with Rory. She shut her eyes and hummed a tune, as the last three hours spun through her mind. She knew by Monday she and Rory would have to start hiding her love, as her parents were getting back from a weekend visit to Seattle and the scrutiny of the gossip mill of Chilton. But that was a matter for another day, for right now Madeline was in love, and no one could ruin the afterglow of her admission to Rory.

And now she had an image of Rory making out with her to spice up her fantasies. Soon, I hope we can turn those fantasies into reality, she thought as she climbed the stairs and prepared for the longest and most restful sleep of her life, after she pleasured herself like she could never imagine.

Rory had nothing stopping her from heading into bed and taking care of the itch Madeline had aggravated, since Lorelai had decided to stay out late with Luke. None of the boys in her life had ever caused her to come so hard during her experimentation, but just the thought of Madeline's body compressed against her caused that crying she had promised Madeline she would do, and quite loudly at that. Putting on her nightgown, with the cool March air flowing through the window open but a crack, she thanked her lucky stars that she found a girl with a much a lust for life as Madeline did.

They both said their goodnights at the same time, and their dreams were filled with not smutty images, but them just being close together and totally in love. Everything had gone right somehow, and now both Madeline and Rory were not alone anymore, for they had each other, fully and totally.

Monday was only a few hours away, and Rory had more than an education to look forward to when she arrived at the front doors of Chilton at 7:45am. She had a girl she could share her secrets and love with, and that was all she ever wanted.

"I love you Madeline," she said into the air as she fell asleep. She didn't even need to think about it at all this time, it was the complete truth. And she was going to tell Madeline that, and soon.

To be continued...