Author's note & disclaimer: 'Legally Blonde' belongs to Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Amanda Brown et al. While I have read the source novel, this piece is based on the film. No profit is being made from this and I promise to return the characters relatively unscathed. This will eventually be a three-part fic, please read and review. Thanks.

One: Elle

The rules of hair care are simple and finite. Any Cosmo girl would have known!

Her earlier words were still echoing in her head as Elle Woods unlocked the door of her dorm room. The door had hardly closed behind her before she had collapsed on the bed and started to scream into the pillow.  Her ecstatic squealing lasted only until she realised that her makeup would be rubbing off on the Egyptian cotton pillowcase. Being possibly the happiest you'd ever been in your life was no excuse for smudged mascara and smeared lipstick.

Looking around the room for her purse, Elle caught Bruiser's eye. He was sitting patiently at her feet, waiting to be picked up and placed in his rightful spot on the bed. She bent over and scooped him up.

"I did it, Bruiser! I won Brooke's case! Can you believe it?" she exclaimed, hugging him tightly until he growled his displeasure at being squeezed a little too hard. Elle quickly set him down. "Sorry, sweetie, but it's so exciting!" The dog cocked his head to one side, as if trying to understand exactly why she was so excited. "You didn't like the courtroom, Bruiser?" He yapped. "That's too bad, because I guess we'll be spending a lot of time there in future!"

Smiling at the very thought, Elle spotted her purse and reached into it for her compact. She flipped it open and examined herself critically. The damage wasn't too bad, but there was still room for improvement. She had reapplied her lip gloss and was fixing the areas where her mascara had run when the enormity of what she had done hit her and Elle found herself staring blankly at her reflection.

Suddenly she found she wasn't sure who the person staring back at her was. Sure, she was still a Cosmo girl, aware of all the latest fashion trends and how to exercise your way to a bikini-body, but suddenly she was so much more too. Law school had opened her eyes to the real world, and the real Elle. She knew now that she could do anything she wanted and be anyone she wanted. Though Elle knew she'd done most of it herself, she had to admit that some of the credit was owed elsewhere.

Some of it was due to Paulette, who'd practically suffocated her when she'd hugged her in the courtroom. She supposed Warner had been involved in some way too, if only in bringing her to Harvard in the first place and then making her determined to succeed. Vivian had helped, and so had David. Her professors had definitely played a big part – there was no way Elle was going to acknowledge Callahan's help after what he'd tried to do, but Stromwell had come through for her. And then there was Emmett.

Emmett.

Elle realised with a pang that she hadn't even had the chance to speak to him after the verdict, to thank him for letting her try. Everything had been so crazy, what with everyone trying to get to her and congratulate her.  He'd taken her hand when she returned to Brooke's side after Chutney's outburst, and thought he hadn't said a word his smile had told her everything she needed to know about how proud he was. She'd glimpsed him once more and only for a brief moment after that, over Serena and Margot's heads as they jumped up and down and squealed in excitement in front of her. He had been slipping out of the courtroom, unnoticed by anyone but her, and as she'd caught his eye he'd raised his hand in farewell and smiled at her. She'd barely had time to smile back before Paulette had engulfed her again.

"Bruiser, what am I going to do?" she sighed. She snapped her compact shut and let herself fall backwards so that she was lying on the bed. "I think that maybe I'm in love with him and…well…I have no idea what to do." She shook her head at the absurdity of that thought. "And I'm the girl who's read every Cosmopolitan article ever written on the subject of dating and men."

Elle looked at her pet in the hope of finding the answer in his eyes, but was rewarded instead with a small snore. She sat up, giggling.

"How can you sleep at a time like this?" she chided affectionately and then grew thoughtful once more.

The problem was Emmett was nothing like all the other guys she'd dated. They had been boys masquerading as men, Warner especially, while Emmett was a fully-fledged grown-up. He knew exactly what he wanted and where he was going in life. He was strong, and his quiet support of her need to help Brooke had made her feel independent but also protected. When she'd been about to leave, he'd asked her to stay. In court, he had stood beside her against Callahan despite the risks to his own career and reputation. As Elle thought about everything Emmett had done for her she felt a fluttering of excitement in her stomach. Surely he must care about her, to be willing to put everything he'd worked for on the line like that?

And yet she found she couldn't think of one shred of evidence to support the fact that he thought of her as more than a promising student. His behaviour towards her had been courteous and friendly ever since their meeting after Elle's disastrous class with Stromwell, but never had there been a hint of anything more. She'd told him to call her if he was ever in California, but he'd given her no indication whether he would have accepted the offer, either at face value or for what it really was; a tentative suggestion that something more than friendship was within their reach. She thought she'd detected a depth of feeling in his one-word request for her to remain in Boston, but maybe she'd been mistaken. After all, he hadn't put up much of a fight as she walked away. Maybe he didn't care about her that way at all.

It was with great effort that Elle made herself stop frowning at the thought that Emmett wasn't interested. Frowning caused wrinkles in later life and besides, he had to care about her. He just had to. In California everyone had cared about her, and she didn't see why Massachusetts should be any different. Elle Woods was special.

Wasn't she?

Yes. But she was different, too.

The realisation of just how much she'd changed hit Elle like a lightning bolt. With her previous crushes she'd have thought nothing of putting on her cutest pink outfit and flirting with her target non-stop. She would have consulted with Margot and Serena over every little detail of her strategy to catch his attention. The whole thing would have been planned like a military campaign, the 'bend-and-snap' routine perfectly executed, and the boy of her dreams wouldn't have stood a chance. But somehow Elle didn't think the same tactics would impress Emmett, and more importantly she didn't want him to be interested because of the way she looked. She wanted him to be impressed by her mind, but at Harvard smart girls were everywhere and if it weren't for her predilection for pink, Elle doubted she would stand out at all.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Elle exclaimed suddenly, shaking off the feeling of dread that had begun to creep over her. "Being on the East Coast is no excuse for moping!"

She jumped to her feet and marched over to her full-length mirror. Hands on hips, she addressed her reflection sternly.

"Now, you are more than blonde hair and big boobs. When you want something, you go after it. That's how you ended up here in this first place! So go on over there and make sure that butthead Emmett Richmond knows what he'd be missing out on!"

Elle paused for a moment and then nodded to herself.

"Good," she said, satisfied there would be no arguing back. Elle Woods could be a tough opponent, but both of her seemed to be in total agreement.

Snatching up her purse, Elle left Bruiser snoozing in her room and strode determinedly down the hall towards her destiny.

Her sudden surge of courage carried her all the way to Callahan's office and she was in the elevator before she faltered. She didn't even know if Emmett was there, and she had no idea where he would be if he wasn't. And she definitely did not want to run into Callahan right now.

"Ooh, I bet he's mad," she murmured to herself. "But he should never have tried to come on to me. I mean, what was he thinking? Like, I'd ever date someone that old!" She shuddered at the thought. While she was pleased she'd won Brooke's case for her, she definitely did not approve of her taste in men. Tall, dark-haired men with chocolate brown eyes were much more Elle's style.

Luckily, when she arrived at the right floor there was no-one around and Elle was able to walk unchallenged to Emmett's small office. The door was open and when she saw that he was sitting with his back to her she stopped, tempted to leave before he saw her. However, the sound of her Prada heels on the marble floor had already attracted his attention and before Elle could move Emmett had swung his chair around to face her.