Chapter 7: Hiding

Logan was used to having things go his way. People could easily be bought with his money, or terrified by his Dad. However, as Logan sat at his computer, completely and totally exhausted, he wondered if those two things could actually help in this

situation. He found multiple inns in the local Hartford area and the surrounding small towns, but it was going to take a lot of effort to find Rory. She was able to hide everything from him for months, so she could probably hide herself quite well in

Connecticut. Logan sighed as he got up and rubbed his eyes, scanning his darkened room, his eyes rested on his favourite photograph of Rory and himself. It was taken on his and Rory's 6th birthday. The Huntzberger and Gilmore families had travelled

to Barbados. The picture was candid, probably take by Lorelai. Logan and Rory were sitting on the beach together looking the sunset, sharing birthday cake, smiling at each other. At that time Rory was happy, Logan mused, and for what was probably

the thousandth time, he wished that she had told him what was going on. Walking back to his computer, Logan realized that it was 4am; this "find possible hotels where Rory could be" mission was taking longer than originally planned. He exhaled the

breath he was holding in, shut the computer down, jumped into bed, and fell asleep.

Rory awoke the next morning feeling shockingly rested. Perhaps it was the quiet feel of the inn, or the comforting thought of not being caught by her parents. Regardless, Rory was feeling decent. She made her way to the shower, got dressed in simple

jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, placed her possessions into her purse and left the room. She walked down the stairs, nodding at Michel, before promptly running into someone. "I'm so sorry," the voice apologized, "I'm sort of accident-prone, chop off

some fingers, burn my arms, scrape my face, kind of thing." Rory silently wondered to herself how someone could rant as much as her mother; truthfully, she didn't think it was possible. Brushing off her jeans, she came face-to-face with a slightly

overweight woman, with her hair in pigtails. "I'm Sookie, the head chef of the Independence Inn. You must be Rory, or Leigh? We're not completely sure." Rory shook her hand, "Well, I generally go by my middle name Leigh. It's confusing because Rory is

my nickname to my first name." Sookie nodded in understanding. "Well it's breakfast time, and good thing that I ran into you. Would you like some food?" the chef asked. "What's that supposed to mean?" Rory questioned angrily. "Well nothing," Sookie

began, her smile faltering, "I just thought that you'd be hungry after travelling all day and checking in late." Rory was trapped. She couldn't just say no to breakfast, she had a feeling that Sookie would closely watch her eating habits if she did. "Sure,

breakfast sounds great." Rory answered a few seconds later, privately thinking that she would have to purge it later.

A couple of hours later, Rory was wandering aimlessly around the town. She had seen all of the shops around the town square and had probably met the entire population of the town as well. They seemed nice enough, a little too pushy perhaps, but

nice enough. Rory had slipped up a few times in her introductions, forgetting to call herself Leigh, but no one seemed to notice. She had now found the gazebo in the town square and quietly sat down, hoping to have a bit of a rest. Her eyes shot open

in panic moments later when she realized that she hadn't bothered to call Chilton to fake an illness to get out of school. Whipping out her cell phone and forcing her voice to become raspy, she dialled the number. "Chilton Academy, Margaret speaking.

How may I assist you today?" Rory strategically coughed, "Hi, this is Rory Gilmore." "Oh yes, Miss Gilmore. Your father called yesterday evening to inform us of your mononucleosis. We are terribly sorry that you'll be away from school for the next few

weeks. All of your coursework shall be faxed to your home as per your father's request. Would you like to discuss something specific?" Margaret questioned. "Um… no thank you, that'll be alright ma'am." Rory stuttered as she hung up the phone. Who the

hell had called her in sick? Rory thought, as she twirled the phone in her hands. The phone had become a silver blur once the idea hit her: Colin. He was the only one of the group who could pull off believable impressions of their parents. Rory silently

thanked her friend and sat back down on the bench. She must have fallen asleep because the sun was setting and someone was shaking her awake. Rory groggily rose and being unsteady in her gait, fell forward. "Are you ok?" a male voice asked her.

"Yeah, I'm ok. I just fell asleep on the gazebo and you woke me up and being half-asleep, I fell forward." Rory explained as she looked up. The guy was tall, almost 6 feet; he had brown hair and brown eyes and a nice smile. "I'm Dean." He stated. "I'm

Leigh." Rory said, as she shook his hand, a blush spreading through her cheeks.

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Hey everyone! Sorry for the long wait, I was handing out job applications, dealing with friends and family, etc. Thank you all for your reviews! Also, please don't worry, this will be a ROGAN, I just thought that throwing Dean into the mix couldn't hurt

ha-ha.