Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or it's characters but occasionally borrow them to write about how I hope things are actually going in the wonderful Gilmore Girls universe.

A/N: Hi All! I've been away from FanFiction for a few years now but after watching (obsessing over) Gilmore Girls I felt compelled to write something. This story is set in a world that is after Year in the Life but without that final, famous life. Hope i'm doing this right and hope you find enjoyment in this first chapter!

His blonde wisps had aged, speckled with a hint of white and gray, he looked mature. Her eyes lingered on his figure, waiting for him to waltz over and take her to the back room but he was too in depth schmoozing the important figures who had greeted him. His Dad was amongst the group, showing off his suddenly successful son. The man who had already looked old in his youth now looked ancient. He walked with a cane to steady his aching body but heaven forbid he step down from his spot as lead asshole of everything. Logan holds him up, making him appear stronger and less fragile but despite, he looked so small in comparison to how he had years ago when he had told Rory she wasn't cut out for this.

Every time she waltzed into her fancy paper job or bumped elbows with someone far more important than him all she could think was, "In your face!" It was juvenile, clearly, some things you just never grow out of, but, in this room of professionals, socialites, editors, and creators she couldn't help but feel as though she was towering over the bitter and ruthless man.

She was shocked that her heart and her legs were so composed- after all, the one that got away stood so proudly in front of her. She wondered if the fiancé she had heard about was now a wife or if mini Logan's were running around a mansion somewhere. He had always kept that life private and after kissing him goodbye for the last time, she wouldn't be surprised if he had completely moved on. He was impulsive that way.

She had moved on in a general sense. Dates here, boyfriends there, even somebody who she had moved in with. She hadn't brought him with and she wonders if it's because subliminally she knew he would be here. It's not like she thought that now they were nearing forty they'd be able to make it work when they never had been able to in the past but she was hopeful in the same way her mother had been for so long when it came to Christopher.

"You've got to try these!" The towering brunette shoves a pastry of sorts in her face, "What are you looking at?" Her head turns, blue orbs focusing on the blonde, "Oh, I see!" She slinks down in the chair next to her daughter and sets the powdered puff on a napkin in front of her.

"He looks well, right?" Her eyes refuse to budge.

"He looks the same as always! Pretty, blonde, youthful…" She grabs a martini glass from in front of her and swishes the olives around, "So, is he married now?"

"What?"

"Is he married to that girl?"

"How do you know about that?"

"I saw it on The Facebook."

"The Facebook?"

"Yeah with the walls and the pictures!" Her face drops, "You didn't see The Facebook?"

"I don't tend to keep up…" She stares down, "Did she look beautiful, on The Facebook?"

"Not as beautiful as you!" Her mother attempts a sad, excuse for a cheer up, "Here, have a martini!"

"I don't want a martini…" She frowns, leans on her elbows, averts her eyes from the figure and averts her mind from his presence, "So, this should be over by 9 and I don't have to catch my flight until late tomorrow morning which gives us a lot of time!"

"Yes, it does give us lots of time and I have a feeling that a pizza will be in order after this snooze fest OO and then we can watch some crappy movie with a bad ending!"

"My hero!" Rory swoons, lightly touching her mother's arm.

"That's me, no questions about it!" Her eyes jolt, "Don't look now but pretty boy alert…" Her hand falls behind her daughter's chair protectively.

Rory straightens, smoothing her crimson chiffon. He's lingering in the crowd, smiling and nodding, grabbing a glass and fiddling with it. She's not even sure if he's coming for her which leads her to stare into the crowd harder, focus on the flashing PowerPoint screens. Don't make eye contact Rory. You can do it Rory. Her mind chants, her body heaves, she longs for twenty years ago when things were unsure but in a settled way and not this creepy, weird, lack of confidence and a whole excess of confusion type of thing. She liked it better when her eggs weren't on the brink of drying up and it wasn't frowned upon that she still lived in a studio apartment.

"Ace!" The voice finally hits her and it's as soothing as the day she had met him in the Yale hallway. He sounded mostly the same but with a smidge more of a gravel tone in his throat. It was rugged and kind of, really, hot.

"Logan…" She stands to greet him, her hand extends to shake his, "You remember my mom?"

"Lorelei, you look beautiful!" He nods in her direction, ignoring the questionable glance he receives.

"Do you want to walk?" He points to the outdoors where a few men are sharing a cigar and the occasional couple is pacing through the grounds. No time was ever wasted with Logan, his intentions always displayed under a façade of walks, gifts, and over the top moments but never with an abundance of small talk and awkward silence.

Her eyes turn to her mothers, "Um, sure, yeah, a walk would be good!" She slides her feet back into her heels, reminiscing of the morning she spent running shoeless through Stars Hollow after waking up with Dean in a dance studio. Apparently, nostalgia was ever present at a writing conference, "So, I didn't expect to see you here?"

"I didn't really expect to be here." His hands are shoved so deep in his pockets she couldn't catch a glimpse of his ring finger even if she tried, "I was in town on my own business and apparently my Father needed an escort- Mom is in a rehab center out west and Honor is on her yearly honeymoon!"

"Typical Honor!" God, what a lame response. She didn't know if that was typical. She hadn't spoken to Honor in years. The brief affair she had, had with Logan in the midst of there early 30's had never been disclosed to anyone especially family. For all Honor knew Rory was sooooo two decades ago.

"Yeah, I figure it's time to put the past behind us! He's getting older; I'm getting older." The two walk in sync through the grounds of what she believed to be the most beautiful country club she had ever stepped foot in. Throughout the perfectly cut sod and white flagged holes sat shrubs, flowers, perfectly shaped trees, and an occasional solar powered light. It reminded her of her grandfather and the first time the two of them had strolled through Richard's favorite club, the trees towering over her even more so than he did, "Your mom? She's good?"

He ripped her from her remembrance, "Yeah she's good!" Rory feels goosebumps creep on her arms but it wasn't from the chill of the wind. It was from that ugly ghost of the past rearing into her stomach, leaving new life of butterflies that bumped all around leaving her nauseous and light headed.

"Do you want my jacket?" He was so keen to notice details about her like that. Was she cold? Was she uncomfortable? Was she mad? He always knew instantly and instead of persisting that she was something he just offered a remedy to the solution. One of the thousands of ways that he different from the other atrocious men she had sifted through since forgetting him in the midst of a Yale graduation.

"Logan, what are we doing here because I know you didn't want to just see the grounds?" She turns to him, gripping her hands so tightly that her fingernails were leaving marks on her palm. She wanted his jacket on the floor of her bedroom. She wanted his jacket and his shirt and all thirty pairs of pants he owned hanging up in her closet. Yes, she wanted his jacket.

He gulps, "I didn't get married. I couldn't get married." He remembers the fateful morning, his fiancé in white at the foot of the most beautiful church Europe could offer. He had glanced at the scene and booked it for the airport, not caring how much the taxi cost and not caring that his belongings were stuck in an apartment somewhere. He'd buy new ones. He'd change his identity as long as it meant he didn't have to go through with the wedding that should never have been.

"What do you mean- you had everything set, she was going to move in?" She's flustered, "I don't understand where your lack of commitment continues to come from?" Why she suddenly felt so angry with his choice to NOT marry that exotic, smart, and beautiful woman was beside her. This was the news she had dreamed about as she laid awake next to her boyfriend at night. This was the news that she had been longing for since she had muttered those words no all those years ago.

He stops her, "Rory, I couldn't get married to her." His hand rests at her hip, neither of them noticing the fireworks exploding at her lower torso, "And you know damn well why!"

His voice is so powerful over the melodic cricket chirps and humming from the party inside of the club's ballroom. She pauses, knowing damn well why. She felt compelled to oppose, to tell him that it clearly wasn't meant to be since it hadn't been for all these years and who was he to swoop in at this random party that he wasn't even sure she'd be at just to say that he what, wanted to marry her?

She felt like her love story was more like her mother's each and every day. Bouncing between professors, entrepreneurs, sleeping in a home that she invited others in to but never let them fully nest. Maybe Logan was her Luke in the sense that they had to break up a dozen times to make it right that one single time.

"I want kids. I want a family. I want to move back to Stars Hollow and work from the various diners, do all my shopping at the market, bid on baskets at the square, hang out with my mom at the Inn. I don't want to keep attending flashy parties and fighting for articles over the Keurig. I want what you don't want." She had enforced a silent policy of space between the two of them, her body feet away from his as she refused eye contact. He noticed her opposition and the adorable flush in her cheeks that she got whenever she was passionate about something.

"I'd like that." He always talked with his hands and tonight was no different, his body inching towards here, hands reaching towards her.

"No, you wouldn't! That life is so bland- it's everything you wouldn't want!"

"All I want…" He pauses, "All I have ever WANTED is you Ace; you know that." His fingers reach towards his forehead and he runs them down his face slowly, "I came here tonight knowing you'd be here. I came here tonight with the full intention to ask you if you'd marry me."

"Logan, we haven't even dated in years- how do you know if you want to marry me?"

"Do you want to marry me?"

"Well-," She pauses, staring past him into the city lights. Her voice hushes to a whisper, "I don't know!"

"It's a yes or a no. Two options. We don't have to get married tomorrow, I'm not saying let's elope tonight! Unless you want too of course- but I'm saying I want to get married to you. I want to start a family with you." He's doing that thing where his brow crinkles and his lips purse. He was so angry, so wild eyed when he really felt something.

"Yes…" Her voice is barely above a whisper, "YES Logan, it's always been you but I can't just get engaged to you right here on this lawn in the midst of a random country club and random guests after not seeing you for years! I have a boyfriend and I have a life and I have a job and-,"

"So?" He raises an eyebrow, "Clearly you don't love him, your work, or your apartment- libraries come and go, have you tried a Kindle by chance? That can go anywhere!" He had eliminated the space she had worked hard to create, his arms embracing hers, leaving spots of warmth on her chilled arms, "So what is it Ace? Yes? Or, no?"

She bit her lower lip, rocking back and forth letting his arms get further around her own until his hands cusped her elbows and she felt like he was her own personal straight jacket. The tension was thicker than the smell of old money and arrogance that filled the city air but it felt right. Really right.

She relaxed herself, allowing a strand of hair to fall in her face, allowing her head to lean towards her chest. Her eyes lit up under the solar powered lights and her eye contact remained at the ground as she finalized.

"Ace?" He challenged.

She responded simply, "Logan, no."