Title:
Another Round
Chapter 1
Authors: This is a combined effort of
two Fanfiction writers, myself, DarkAngl2025 and
swimchic2.
A/N: This is the first time either of us has written in
a very long time, school, work, and life are mainly to blame for
this. We appreciate any comments, questions, or suggestions you may
have. And just so you know we truly plan to update this at least
once a week (especially on the weekends) perhaps more frequently if
we have the time and energy. Thanks to all of you who are reading
this.
Pairings: Rory/Logan, Rory/Jess
Spoilers: Through the
November 9th episode.
The Story begins outside the bar as Jess is getting ready to leave
Previously
on Gilmore Girls...
"Rory I know you better than anyone,
what's going on with you?" Jess asked as he stood outside the
bar staring at Rory as if she had grown a third head. "Why are
you with that guy? Why aren't you in school? This isn't you!"
Jess immediately saw Rory's face drop and felt bad. "Look, we'll
catch up in a few weeks, maybe." He said quietly. Jess starts to
walk off and then turns back, "oh...Happy Birthday." And
with that last comment and a grin he walks off leaving Rory standing
there alone.
Rory stands there, her arms pulled tightly to her chest, staring in the direction that Jess had gone off in. This is insane. What the hell...? Jess... She's stunned. She's absolutely stunned. She wonders how Jess, Jess who dropped out of high school, has managed to pull his life together. Now she's the one who has dropped out, given up, has turned into a horrible person. He's right, this is not me... She turns and walks back towards the bar, ready, or somewhat ready, to try and fix her life.
Logan was still sitting at the table, enjoying his third scotch, or was it his fourth, he couldn't remember, and frankly he didn't care. Who was this little punk who thought that he could just waltz right in there and move in on Rory, no sir, no one does that to a Huntzberger...Huntzberger, jeez, what I wouldn't give to not have to deal with that legacy right now. Logan thought as he watched Rory come back into the bar. "Rory." he said, standing, "I didn't know what you wanted to drink." he stated, staring at her.
Rory looked away and sighed. "It's a good thing that the only thing that matters is what you're drinking." She gave him a moment, to let that sink in, before continuing, although she knew that it wouldn't really sink in, not even if he was sober. "God, Logan, you were such a jerk! What is your problem!"
"He comes here and is all..." he gestures obscurely around Rory, "and you dated him before. He's such a punk anyway," Logan said going off into his own little world, "and doesn't have any balls either because he didn't even take a pop at me. I was hoping he'd take a pop at me. And his stupid retort, well he is a writer...they are sensitive after all."
I'm proud of him, because he didn't take a 'pop' at you. The old, bad-boy Jess would have. But he's different, he's changed. He wrote a book for crying out loud! An intelligent book. Logan couldn't write a good book, like that, even if his daddy held his hand! Rory stared off into space, then looked up, as he started droning on about getting another drink. "You. Are. An. asshole," She said slowly, emphasizing each word. She started to say, 'You don't treat people like that', but then realized that she'd be a hypocrite to say it, and stopped herself. "Honestly!"
"I am not," Logan whined as he searched the bar. He pointed over to a table in the corner, "see, that's the folk singer, I bought them a round of drinks to make up for last time." Logan said slurring his words. He turned back to Rory like a puppy waiting for praise after being smacked on the snout.
"Logan!... Ah! I can't handle this! I can't deal with this! I've become a horrible, bitchy, stupid, slutty version of myself, that I had promised myself I would NEVER be. I don't talk to my mother, I dropped out of YALE, I live with my grandparents and I'm in the DAR!" She exclaimed, as she threw her head back, and her hands in the air, in exasperation. She needed someone to support her, now. She did not need to have to babysit him.
"No, Logan. No! I don't want to go with you. I don't want to talk to you right now, especially not when you're like this." Rory said, as she tried to pull away from him, which only made him hold on tighter. "Logan, I am not going with you!" She yelled, and slapped at his hand to free her own.
She walked behind him, and pulled his arm, to turn him around to her. "Logan. Take a taxi home, please. Don't drive like this," she said, feeling a sharp pang of guilt. This is me, you know that. His words echoed in her head. She did know that...she did. "Please."
Logan spun around and looked at Rory, he didn't want to argue, but he didn't necessarily want to stand around and be treated like a child, "I will, if you share a cab." he said trying to muster a smile.
"I..." She trailed off. I wonder how stupid I am for considering running after Jess? He's probably not out there anyways...and with my luck I would turn the corner and get mugged. She started to nod. "Okay."
"Great," Logan said as he put his arm around her shoulder and began walking them toward the door, "so let's go out there and grab a cab, and get home." he said somewhat suggestively, as they made their way out the door.
Home. At that very moment she realized that she had to get away from her grandparents house. That was not her home. "Um. Irregardless of everything going on with us, and whatnot... could we stop at my grandparents house, so I could...pick up..." She glanced at him before continuing, "everything...?" She had no idea what she was going to do, about them, and Jess and all of that. But she knew that it would be alot to think about. And all she knew then was that she liked having Logan... even if it was just in means of having someone there.
Logan looked at her a bit confused by this sudden change of attitude, "Maybe I should cut back on the drinking," he muttered. "Okay, we'll drop you off first." he said as he began waving wildly in the direction of the cabs that the tavern apparently had on call every night.
"No, no. I don't want to be dropped off. I would prefer a momentary stop, and then a go, again." She nodded to herself. "I definitely don't want to stop. I want out." That didn't make sense. She looked at him, to see if he followed or not.
"Oh," Logan's eyes lit up, "you want to spend another night at Paris's house dontcha?" he winked at her and kissed her on the cheek.
She put her arm around him and shivered. "Paris and I are becoming the best of friends these days," she said as they approached the cab.
Logan took off his jacket and wrapped it around Rory's shoulders, "I thought you were mad at me." he whispered in her ear as he opened the cab door. And then a strange look crossed his face. "Wait, why are we taking a cab?" he asked her, puzzled.
"I am," she said firmly, and then laughed. "We were taking a cab because you're too gone to drive, but I guess since I'm coming too, that I can drive us, cause it would be stupid to leave your car here."
"Sounds like a plan, Ace," Logan said as he handed the cab driver a ten and closed the door, "We won't be need the ride after all," he said as they walked off toward his silver Porsche. Logan opened up the driver door for Rory and let her in then went around and got in. "If you want to crash the car to piss of my dad or because you're mad at me, that's fine, just don't kill us in the process," he said as he eased his seat into a more reclined position.
She just looked at him. "Yeah, like I would really crash someone's car. Even if they had plenty of money to buy every student at Yale a new car, I still wouldn't do it." She told him, not sure if he was joking or not, but being blatantly serious, annoyed by how much money he has.
"I'm not sure everyone at Yale, maybe just all the upperclassmen," Logan said glancing over at her, "y'know we should call Finn and see if he ever made it home the other night, after they escaped...er...ran off." He said changing the subject.
She started the car and drove down the road, heading in the direction of her grandparents. She chose to ignore his stupidity, and would have kept on driving in silence, had it not been for a sudden object darting in her way, causing her to slam on the brakes and shriek. "Oh my God!" She clenched the wheel as a familiar face lit up, thanks to the headlights.
"Jesus!" Logan yelled as he sat upright. "I was only kidding about crashing the car, Ace." he looked out, "what the...?"
Jess stood there, staring at the car. "Do you think you own the road?" he yelled at it, not realizing Rory was driving. "What the hell is the matter with you, can't you see a person walking here?"
He turned and started to walk off, staying much closer to the grass this time.
"Jess..." She whispered. She moved the car forward a bit, and then stopped again, and rolled down the passenger window. "Jess!" She yelled. "You don't have a car?" Should I ask him for a ride? Would Logan kill me if I did? ... Would Jess kill me if I did? She looked over at Logan, and grabbed his hand. "Play nice, please," she whispered to him.
Logan glared at the window but didn't say anything.
"Rory?" he said confused, and then recovering, "Yes, of course I have a car, how else do you think I followed you here?" he pointed out. "I'm just...taking a walk." He paused and caught eyes with her then looked over at Logan, "looks like you two should be getting back, I'll see you around maybe." and he faced the ground and started walking again.
"Oh," She said simply, and tightened her grip on Logan's hand. She mentally begged him to just keep his mouth shut, for once. "Well, watch out for oncoming traffic," She told him, wondering if she could possibly sound any more stupid.
Jess glanced up at her, "yeah, and avoid people, they might decide to jump out in front of that car. Big law suits and all."
Logan who had been silent for this interaction couldn't keep silent any longer. "Oh, so was that your plan? Get hit by my car, so you could afford to keep up the scribbling of yours?" he asked in his most arrogant slurred voice. "Maybe write about the injustices of the rich getting everything and running over people in their way?" he asked being both figurative and literal. Logan grinned to himself. I think I sound rather intelligent for being slightly inebriated.
Rory dropped Logan's hand. "Jess..." She started, but saw that he was walking away already. She pulled the car forward a bit, and glanced over at Logan, who had shut his eyes and had put his head back. "Jess!" She yelled, and waited for him to glance over at her, so she could mouth the words, 'I'm sorry'.
Jess gave the car a sideways glance but didn't look up all the way. Logan took this opportunity to open up his mouth yet again, "C'mon, let's just go. He clearly wants nothing to do with us, or you, and isn't man enough to fight back, or even give me a good tongue lashing." Logan said to Rory, making sure he was speaking loud enough for Jess to hear.
Jess tensed but didn't say anything in response. "Good night Rory." he said concisely as he kept walking, hoping she would drive away with that moron.
Rory sighed. "Bye, Jess." She pulled away from the curb and drove off, feeling like an idiot, once again, and wondering what to say to Logan. "Why couldn't you just... not say anything? Why couldn't you do that for me?" She asked a few blocks later.
Jess stared at the car partly wishing she hadn't driven away. Clearly she had things to deal with, without him messing them up again. Shake it off, he thought to himself as he continued carrying his empty gas can to the station he saw a few blocks down the road, Why am I always saying goodbye to her? He cringed at that thought.
Logan turned toward her, "you can't be serious? You rather spend your night in a stuffed up room with him, talking about some fifth grade writing assignment?"
"Logan. Do you know him? Do you know him at all?" She paused. "No. No you don't. So until you know him, quit bad mouthing him for godsakes!" She yelled. "Can we just quit talking about him? Take a nap or something." She turned the car onto a new road, headed for her grandparents. "Gosh. Do you want me to just stay at my grandparents again?"
"I can't freaking believe this, you're sitting in my car defending some guy, some guy you used to date." Logan was yelling by now. "Maybe you should stay at your grandparents tonight," he said turning to face the window. "or for maybe quite a while."
"And I can't believe that you're...what...jealous enough to be worried about it?" She looked over, and became quiet. A few minutes passed in silence. Weird, uncomfortable silence. "Do you really want me to stay at my grandparents?" She finally asked, quietly.
Logan seemed to be a bit lost in the first part of what she said but decided that a response was needed for the second part. "I don't know, stay, go, run around naked, whatever makes you happy. I don't know how to do this part, especially not now. I just wanted a quiet evening with you after that trip to Oklamahoma...Oklahommm...Oclakoma, whatever the hell it is. Plus you know I'm worried about the business but instead you want me to just...deal with all these other insignificant details right now. I can't do it Rory."
"Good to know you consider me insignificant." She replied tartly, choosing to ignore the part about wanting to spend a quiet evening with her. She thought it was funny how he had nothing to say about the jealousy. "The choice is all yours..."
"You're not." Logan said, he felt like pounding his head against a wall, he rubbed his face and tried to concentrate, "he's insignificant and being nice is insignificant. I'm the same guy I've always been, tonight has just been a bunch of bad circumstances. You do what you want Rory, I'm not trying to tell you what to do." he said pointedly, referencing her constant commanding of him over the course of the evening.
She sighed, for what seemed like the twentieth time that night. She really wondered if he had always been this guy. They pulled up in front of her grandparents house. "I have to make some changes, Logan, I can't be living here, anymore, it's ridiculous, I can't stay another night. I really can't..." She took a deep breath. "I'll sleep on the couch, if you want."
"I'll help you pack," he said as he opened up his door and went around to open hers. Once he got her door open he hugged her. "I'm sorry, you know this stuff makes me crazy." he said as he took her hand and started walking toward the front door.
She unlocked the door, and tiptoed in. "We have to be reallyreally quiet," She whispered, "No talking, and you have to tiptoe." They started up the stairs, one by one. When they were almost near the top, she stopped him and pointed to a step. "That one squeaks, you've got to skip it." She giggled watching him tip toe to one side of the stairs, and inching his way up, careful to skip the one she pointed out. They finally made it to her room, and she quickly shut the door, and put the pillow in front of the gap, per usual.
He looked around the room. "I like what you've done with the place." he picked up one of the thicker books that was sitting on the nightstand and started to flip through it when he dropped it on his foot, producing both a loud THUD and a yelp!
