The World's Best Decaf
A/N: Wow, I'm so happy that my writer's block is gone for now. Okay, so this doesn't come directly after Winning and Losing, but it at least answers the question. I couldn't actually write out the conversation, it was way too angst-y and I felt as if I was being way too dramatic. This is a few months before The Perfect Name. Alright, so, as always, please review, and read on!
"Mom!"
Lorelai couldn't help but grin at the way her daughter's face lit up when she saw her. "Hey, sweets."
Luke ran past Rory, calling, "Oma!"
Rory could only shake her head. She still couldn't believe that her mother had decided to 'go Dutch' when deciding what her grandchildren should call her. Whenever Rory's society friends saw Lorelai, they'd comment, "Why, Rory, I didn't know you had Dutch heritage!" leaving Rory to smile and nod. She hadn't found it funny when she was eight months pregnant and her mother had chuckled, "Go Dutch, get it?" and she didn't find it funny, still.
"Hey, baby boy, you're getting so big," Lorelai greeted her grandson.
"Hey, Lorelai," Logan said with a smile, appearing behind Rory with Lory perched on his hip.
"Oma!" the two-year-old exclaimed, reaching out to Lorelai.
Lorelai pulled her into a hug. "Hey, sweetie! Hey, Logan."
"Mom, where's Em?" Rory asked, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.
Lorelai waved aside the comment. "She's coming. She just had to get something from the car."
Emma stumbled into the door at that moment lugging a huge gift bag. "Rory!"
Rory hugged her tightly. "Hey, cutie. What's in the bag?"
"The world's best decaf coffee," the out-of-breath eight-year-old reported.
"A gift from me to you," Lorelai said grandly, tickling Lory. "No need to sing my praises honey, I already know." She planted a kiss on Rory's temple and turned to Logan. "What do you boys have planned for today?"
"Daddy's taking me out of the yacht!" Lucas told her before Logan could reply.
"Wow, sounds fun," Lorelai said, sounding appropriately amazed. "Legally, I hope?" she couldn't resist adding as she looked at her son-in-law.
"Mom!" Rory snapped defensively.
"Ace-"
"Chill, baby, I was just joking," Loreali said gently.
"Everything's within the law, Lorelai, I promise," Logan told her with a smile. "You ready to go, kiddo?"
"Let's go, let's go!" Lucas was practically bouncing up and down with excitement.
"Have fun," Rory said softly, giving Logan a quick kiss. She leaned down to kiss the crown of Lucas' head. "You have a good time, okay? I love you."
"Love you, too, Mommy, bye!" he called, running off. Logan said goodbye to them all and they were off.
Rory closed the door after them. "Em, sweetie, can I get you to bring that bag into the kitchen?"
"This is the world's best decaf,' Lorelai promised her daughter. "It's what I drank when I was pregnant with Em. Well, most of the time, anyway."
Rory smiled and took Lory from her mother. "Thanks, Mom. I think I'm okay so far. I'm kind of thinking of it as a break from coffee, and it's kind of nice."
"I'm sorry- what? A break? A nice break?" She sighed. "I've failed as a mother."
Rory rolled her eyes. "I'm going to make a cup. You want some?"
"I'm going to pretend that you didn't find it necessary to ask. Hey, Emmy, why don't you take Lory to the living room and play?"
"Yeah!"
"Call if you need anything, kiddo," Rory called after them. She turned back to Lorelai. "So, now that you've very subtlety gotten me alone, what's up?"
"Hey, is it so wrong that I want some time with my daughter? I haven't seen you in a good month."
"I know, I'm sorry. It's just been a little crazy here."
"Of course. With the baby and everything. I understand." She bit her lip. "Let's sit, okay?"
Rory shrugged and gave her mom an odd look. "Sure."
Lorelai drummed her nails on the table. They hit the table one after the other in a businesslike pattern.
"Manicure?" Rory asked, smirking.
Lorelai smiled, almost uneasily. "Yeah. Listen, babe…everything's okay, right? With you? And Logan?"
Rory examined her own nails. "Yeah, everything's fine."
"Okay. I was just…I haven't seen you in a while and I didn't know exactly what was going on. I just wanted to see…are you sure?"
"Mom, we're fine. I mean…we're having a baby."
Lorelai sighed. That's what she'd been worried about. "I know you're having a baby, sweetheart. But are you okay?"
She wasn't entirely surprised to see tears in Rory's eyes when her daughter looked up again. "I think that I'm counting on this baby to make everything better."
Lorelai sighed again. She squeezed Rory's hand. "Babe, you know better than that."
Rory pulled her hand away and wiped at her tears angrily. "I know. I can't…I hate myself for it. But…" she sniffed, "I really want to believe that everything's okay."
"Honey, you never told me…what happened to make you guys…get back together."
"We said sorry," Rory shrugged. "I couldn't take it anymore, Mom."
"Sweetie," Lorelai said lovingly, "I know that you love him. I know that. But I worry about you, sometimes. Are you really convinced that everything's okay between the two of you?"
"It can't…not be. It has to be," her daughter insisted.
"That's my stubborn streak coming out in you," Lorelai sighed.
Rory wiped her eyes again as the coffeemaker signalled that it was done. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. We're fine."
"Rory, listen to me! I'm not trying to convince you to hate him. I'm not trying to convince you to leave him. I just want to know if everything's really alright."
Her daughter spun around. "Do you remember when we were separated? Do you remember how sad Lucas was? Do you remember how hard that was on the kids?"
"Rory. No matter what happens, your kids will be fine."
"They need him. Especially Lucas. They need their dad."
"I know, sweetie. And just because…those kids wouldn't be without a father."
"Mom, you don't understand! He cheated on me, do you know that? Apparently, in his world, separation automatically gives him the right to sleep with some slut! Always! And you know what else?" She slammed a mug onto the counter. "I can't be mad at him. I love him! No matter what the fuck he does, I look in his eyes and I just…" she shrugged. Her shoulders were trembling. "I don't just love him. I'm so in love with him."
"He cheated on you?" Lorelai asked quietly.
"Once. Just once. Two days after I took the kids. He was drunk. Of course."
"Angel, I'm so sorry…"
"Don't. Please, just don't. It's not really…well, it's kind of my fault, isn't it?"
To Rory, this brings her back to a conversation with Jess. But it brings Lorelai back to Dean. "Rory, you did not force him to cheat. He…"
"He's sorry. I know how sorry he is. He loves me, too."
"But then why would he do that? You were just as much of an emotional train wreck as he was. You didn't even look at another guy."
"Mom, you just don't get it."
Lorelai finally got fed up. "No, I don't! I don't get how you can sit here, in the house, right now! I don't understand how you can be pregnant with his kid right now! I don't understand why you would take him back after that!"
"And I wouldn't expect you to," Rory said softly, handing her mother a cup of coffee.
"Can you try to explain it to me?" Lorelai requested, matching Rory's tone.
Rory bit her lip. "He told me, Mom. He didn't try to hide it. He just came out and told me. He regrets it. He's sorry. But what's done is done, and we…we're having another kid. He's so excited, and it's so…it's almost like nothing ever happened."
"Rory, sweets, I just…" Lorelai sighed. "Something did happen."
"I know. I think about it everyday. We both could have handled everything better. I'm not exactly faultless here."
"Rory." It was clear from Lorelai's tone that she was thinking, What the hell did you do wrong?
Rory stirred some sugar into her coffee. "Mom, everything feels so right now. I'm happy. Lucas and Lory are happy, Logan's happy. He missed us," she added softly. "I can tell." She shook her head. "You just can't understand, Mom. It's different for you and Luke. You're both independent people. But Logan and I…we need each other equally."
Lorelai frowned. "Okay, honey. It's your marriage."
Rory nodded, glad to arrive at the end of the conversation.
The door opened and a voice called, "Ace?"
Rory's face lit up. "Hey, you're back!"
"Yeah, it's pouring out there."
"And we missed you!" Lucas' chipper voice inputted.
"Very much," was Logan's quieter reply, clearly only meant for Rory's ears.
Their conversation faded as they moved further away from the kitchen, but Lorelai stayed sitting at the kitchen table, thinking of how Rory's face had brightened. When she walked into a room, that was usually the reaction she got from her daughter. She and Rory had one of the strongest bonds around, and she saw that reflected in her daughter's eyes each time they saw each other. She had never seen Rory's eyes gleam that same way for another person before. "Okay, babe," she said quietly to the empty room. "It's your marriage."
A/N: I know, I know. Please don't kill me. I really surprised myself when I was writing this. I actually was not planning on having Logan cheat on Rory, but this, as all my fics do, just wrote itself. Review, review, review…