Title: Fall in London

Disclaimer: None of it's mine! I'm just playing here.

Note: Major "A Year in the Life" spoilers abound. Read at your own risk!

~L.i.L.~

Rory smiled with satisfaction as she read over the article yet again. A colorful picture of Lorelai and Luke at their wedding graced the front page of the town's local newspaper; they both looked so happy. It would be her last issue of the Stars Hollow Gazette, for now at least. Her mom was right; with a baby on the way and her book to finish, Rory had plenty to be getting on with.

"Miss? Would you like me to take that out of your way?" Rory glanced up at the flight attendant, who was gesturing to the folded newspaper.

"No, thanks," she replied, before peering out of the window to see the early morning lights of London winking up at her. No phone call, no note – she had taken a few days to think it through but by the time the ink was dry on the special wedding issue of the Gazette, she knew what she had to do.

Rory closed her eyes and remembered how her mother had taken off on a roadtrip on the eve of her wedding to Max, how the same woman had eloped with Christopher in Paris and impulsively proposed to Luke not once, but twice. That type of passion was just what Rory needed right now – not the meaningless, drawn out relationship with Paul or even her "Vegas-style" affair with Logan. She had told him years ago that she was a relationship girl: how had she gotten so lost that she forgot that all-important truth along the way?

She sucked in a breath as the plane wheels tentatively kissed the pavement and they cruised down the runway, closer to London and closer to him. Rory thought with a pang about Logan's fiancée and bit down her overwhelming anxiety that she was breaking all sorts of rules. She hadn't become the mother figure of the Life and Death Brigade for nothing – maybe their philosophy on life really did hold true and rules were meant to be broken.

Rory tucked her manuscript back into her bag and prepared to walk off the plane. She cupped her stomach again; it would still be weeks before she would start to show but somehow, she could already feel her daughter – she just knew it would be a daughter – in there. She raised her chin and looked firmly forward. She had her fledgling book under her arm and her new child in her belly; whatever Logan decided, she finally had her future firmly in front of her and she couldn't wait to dive in.

~L.i.L~

Logan took a sip from the steaming coffee that the barista had just brought him and tried to dull the loud voice in his head that was screaming at him to go back to his apartment, to ask for Odette to forgive the momentary indiscretion and still marry him after all. Yet, as he stared at his laptop screen, comparing the different flights to Connecticut, he knew he had finally, finally done the right thing.

For years, he had allowed his father to guide his future – it was "all for the Huntzberger dynasty," right? But no more. His Rory had been there for years, whenever he wanted her. It was safe, comfortable; he could follow his father's wishes and still have his true love by his side several times a year. He could have his cake and eat it too, as it were. He always did love Vegas.

But then, Rory had pulled out of the system. Logan had tried to lie, to tell himself that the mechanic little life he led would still run smoothly despite her withdrawal, but in fact he had been miserable since that morning in New Hampshire. Finally, probably too late, that misery had driven him here, broken up with his family-selected-and-approved fiancée, nursing a wicked hangover, and wondering if it was too late for him and Rory.

A draft of cool air hit the back of his neck and Logan turned to see that someone had just entered the small café. Someone beautiful, someone he never would have dreamed of seeing at that perfect moment, standing just a yard away…

"Ace?" he said, rising to his feet. "You should have called, I would have had a car waiting for you at the airport."

~L.i.L.~

"Hi, Logan," she said, quietly. She had hoped he would be here, at their favorite café. She had found it over a decade ago, on one of her first trips to visit him in London, before she had even graduated Yale. "It was a bit spur-of-the moment, you see, no time to call ahead…"

"Oh, well, of course," he said. He sounded uncharacteristically nervous, Rory noticed, and his honey brown eyes seemed to be avoiding meeting her own blue ones. "Please, sit, let me buy you a coffee," he gestured to the empty chair at his table and brushed past her to speak to the barista at the counter. Suddenly, Rory wondered if she had made a huge mistake.

When he sat down in the chair facing hers and placed a steaming mug of coffee before her, however, it was hard to feel that there was anything wrong about crossing an ocean to see this man that she loved so much.

"Rory –" he started.

"Logan –" she began simultaneously, then blushed as they interrupted one another.

"Ladies first," he smirked, eyes twinkling. She had always loved that smile.

"I don't know how to say what I've come to say," she hesitated, studying his handsome features. "I suppose that's why I got on a plane rather than picking up the phone…"

There was a small pause and then Logan chuckled and nudged his laptop so that Rory could see the screen, which was showing a series of flight listings to Connecticut, all leaving later that same day. "You know, Ace," he drawled, "you're not the only one who has felt a bit at a loss for words lately. I've missed you, you know."

"I didn't come here to give you an ultimatum, Logan – I meant what I said back at that inn, that I understood why you want to marry Odette. I just – I just can't do it anymore – but that's not what I came for…"

"Rory, stop," he insisted fervently, reaching out to grasp her fingertips with one hand, while the other rose to carefully stroke a lock of hair from her face. "I said ladies first but I can't keep it in anymore; I wanted to fly to see you tonight because I just had to tell you – I can't do it anymore either. I've left Odette and my family can be damned – I need you, Ace."

Rory's world reeled. It was unreal; it was too good to be true. Just months ago she was utterly lost, out of leads, with no idea of what her future would be. And now – now she was looking at the possibility of having everything she could have ever wanted.

"Logan?" she said breathily.

"Yeah, Ace?"

"I'm pregnant."

The words had barely fallen from her lips before she was caught up in his embrace and the faint smell of his familiar cologne.

"Rory?" she heard his husky voice in her ear.

"Yeah?"

"Will you marry me?"

Rory captured his mouth in a kiss and then gripped his chin firmly, gazing into his rich caramel eyes. "I've never wanted anything more."

~THE END~

Author's note: Ta-da! A quick little response to the end of the revival series, because I was left wanting. It's an unedited and very quickly done little one-off, but I hope you still enjoyed it! Leave a review and let me know what you think as well as how you're feeling about the revival (and its ending) – I'm still reeling!