2. Breakfast with the Sharks

Sunlight warmed her cheek but it was rather the hand that run tenderly over her back that woke her up the next morning. It hadn't been easy to fall asleep, her mind replaying last night's scene over and over again, but eventually, exhaustion had claimed her and dragged her into a restless sleep with disturbing dreams. Opening her eyes, she checked the time. Huh. Almost nine in the morning. A lot later than she had anticipated. Rolling onto her back, she saw Logan sitting beside her, one leg tucked under, the other dangling over the edge of the king-sized bed.

It wasn't the fact that he was fully clothed as much as the tenseness in his face and irritation in his eyes that told her that he was well aware of the new arrival. Seeing her attention on him, he sighed, mustering an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Ace."

For a moment, she debated whether to let him know that she already knew perfectly what he was talking about or play dumb. Dumb it was. "Hmm?"

Kissing her temple, he sighed again. "We're not alone anymore. My parents showed up sometime last night."

"Oh." Involuntarily, she drew the cover higher. Shira was here, too? Great. Wait… and the rotten bastard still had done what he had done? Jerk. Growing aware of Logan's eyes on her, she hurriedly pushed that thought away and slapped his thigh. "Told you there was someone."

"And I solemnly swear that next time, I will listen to you and go check out anything you want with no regard to my own life," he replied with a short laugh. "But for now, we're expected to have breakfast with them."

Her heart sank. Breakfast with them? Sitting at the same table with him?

"I know, I know," Logan sighed once more, obviously having no trouble reading her reluctance at that prospect. "And I'm really sorry. They weren't supposed to come here, and on Valentine's! I have no idea what had gotten into them. The house is always empty around this time, so I haven't bothered to warn the family that we'll be here this weekend. Obviously, I should have." He shook his head, glaring at the door, before looking back at her. "And if you want to, we can pack up our things and leave afterwards but there's no getting out of breakfast. I talked to them though, made them promise to behave so you don't have to be afraid that the sharks will tear you again like last time."

Needless to say, she would have instinctively said yes and begged him to leave as soon as possible. Too bad that that would be pretty obvious. Besides, that would feel like running and ever since the DAR fundraiser party, she had sworn to herself that she would never again run from Mitchum fucking Huntzberger, let alone be intimidated by him. So it was her turn to sigh. "If you're willing to stay, that's okay. I can take it."

She hoped. Damn, she had to. She deeply loved Logan. Very much so. And that would not change anytime soon and nobody could change that, not even his stupid family. Not to mention that if her heart was right with its whispers about him being the one, she had to find a way to deal with the Huntzbergers. Face Mitchum. Assholes or not, if she ever had children with Logan, she wanted them to have both sets of grandparents. She knew only too well how it felt to be hated by one set of grandparents for being who she was or rather for who her mother was. She was not allowing the same fate happen to her own children. Not if she could help it. And she could, right now, right here, by going out there and be a perfect lady her grandparents would be proud of and show those high and mighty nouveau riche from what wood she was carved out. She was a Gilmore, damn it, with ancestors who had come over in the Mayflower and with well-documented bloodlines that could be traced to those who aided in achieving the independence of the United States, a true daughter of the American Revolution, for those who cared. So she had no reason whatsoever to be ashamed of anything but she should hold her head high and be respected by the likes of the Huntzbergers.

Logan's eyes narrowed a bit as if he read some of her thoughts, but he still looked skeptical. "You sure?"

He bet she was! Nodding, she threw back the covers. "How much time do I have?"

He got off the bed, looking mighty sheepishly all of a sudden. "Uh… breakfast is being served right now?"

"What? Logan!" she screeched and went into action, dashing over to their bathroom.

He spread his fingers. "You looked like you needed the sleep so I let you sleep in… and I kind of forgot the time."

Checking herself in the mirror, she sighed. Without taking a shower, there was hardly anything she could do about her tousled bed hair, sleepy eyes and, especially, the reek of sex. Ugh. In record time, she had brushed her teeth and then hurriedly washed herself with a washcloth that was disgustingly cold. Whirling past Logan, she went for her bag, searching for any respectable clothes. Naturally, nothing satisfied her. She had packed for a weekend with her boyfriend, not expecting to leave the house much and, surely, not anticipating his parents to be here.

"Ace, relax," Logan said, coming up behind her to take the shirt she had been looking at critically out of her hands. "You are beautiful and whatever you wear will be perfectly fine. They know we're here to relax and not for some fancy cocktail party. And they know that we sure hadn't expected any company. I swear, they are here also to relax and not to be stylish or be impressive. So just put on whatever you like."

"Easy for you to say. They're not your boyfriend's parents who hate you already anyway," she muttered under her breath but did grab the next t-shirt and her jeans to slip into. After finishing, she glared at him. "You better have coffee ready for me out there."

With a smirk, he opened the door and bowed. "A whole pot only for you."


"What a lovely surprise to run into you kids. But really, Logan, you should have told us that you and Rory would be here. Otherwise, I would never have dreamed of talking Mitchum into spending the weekend here on the island," Shira chastised Logan, taking a tiny bit of the croissant, her false smile steadily in place.

"I didn't think it necessary, Mom," Logan sighed. "It never even occurred to me that I'll find you and Dad here, this weekend. I gave only Honor a head's up, in case she and Josh wanted to come out here. Next time, I'll tell you."

"Not that your neglect is any surprise, but I'd like to know what you're doing here at all. I think I remember that I have specifically sent you to London for this weekend," Mitchum spoke up, the first time he said anything in the fifteen long minutes since they had all sat down for breakfast.

Feeling Logan tensing beside her, Rory saw him shooting a dark, angry look at his father. "And I told you the trip has to wait until after Valentine's."

Mitchum's eyes hardened. "I fail to see where you have any say so in such matters. You go when and where I tell you to. In the real, hardworking world there are no such things as Valentine's and you better get used to that. In six months time you'll be working with those people. It is time that you get your head around that and prepare yourself properly. So I expect you in London by tomorrow evening the latest."

Seeing her boyfriend ready to explode, Rory quickly grabbed his hand under the table, squeezing it. Taking a deep breath, she saw him relax somewhat, much to her relief. "Had you bothered to hear me out you'd know that I can't go to London because I have a presentation Monday afternoon and a Tuesday morning test that will be about twenty-five percent of my grade. So either I go like you ordered me and probably flunk out on two of my classes, risking my graduation, or I'll stay and actually do what I'm actually supposed to do which is go to classes."

Points for Logan, Rory thought gleefully as Mitchum's only response to that was a glowering glare.

"You two, always straight to business," Shira interrupted the tense moment, turning to Rory. "Isn't that terrible, my dear?"

"Yes indeed," Rory agreed, showing Shira her best socialite smile that was as fake as hers. "How did you manage to pry your husband away for a whole weekend?" she asked, truly curious.

Shira's smile chilled just a notch. "I'm sure it was the same way you convinced my son to take you here this weekend. Isn't it nice to have a man at your beck and call who owns several estates, making it almost impossible to choose where to go? As for Mitchum, I thought it would do him good to be away from all the stress for a couple of days," she replied, for a moment a nasty look flickering over her face that was gone as soon as it had come. "And Emily and Richard are well?"

Feeling her blood boil at this blunt hint that she was only being interested in Logan's money and insinuation that she could talk him into spending his money on her, Rory was ready to make her mom proud and make a really rude comment. This time it was Logan who squeezed her hand, calming her somewhat. Okay. Okay. No Lorelai channeling. But she would be damned if she didn't give Shira a little taste of Emily. Probably would work more effectively anyway. With a cool smile she draped the napkin over her lap, took a sip on her third cup of coffee and only then bothered to answer Shira whose smile had come slightly strained in the meantime. "Why yes, thank you for asking. Grandpa whisked Grandma away for the entire week, to Paris and London. They spent their wedding night in Paris and ever since then, he always takes her there for Valentine's, same hotel, same room. Forty years and he's still such a romantic, never letting anything come in the way of their tradition. So sweet, isn't it?" she asked, noticing with satisfaction as Shira shot her own husband a baleful glare and Mitchum just avoiding that look at all costs. Taking another sip, she let her words sink a little deeper while she grabbed herself a bagel and gingerly sliced it. "From Paris they go to London, checking up on the family properties, visiting relatives and friends. Ever since Gran died, Grandpa visits London several times a year. People keep telling him to sell at least some of the properties, but he refuses to. I kind of get it, who'd want to sell property that has been in the family for hundreds of years? Besides, it feels good to know that your roots in the old country are still there, tying you to such an impressive history, don't you think so too? Oh..." She stopped, flashing them an innocent look from under her eyelashes as if she remembered only now that they hardly knew of such a feeling.

"Yes, I'm sure," Shira agreed between her teeth.

Not that she was finished yet. "For my part, I can't wait to see the Gilmore estate. Grandpa suggested that Logan and I must go visit it for spring break as well as meet some of the family. Only the most immediate members, of course. Spring is the ideal time, right in-between their social engagements. Though, I think Grandma mentioned one event we'd be right in time to attend, something like a royal spring ball or something, wasn't it, Logan?"

Beside her, Logan rumbled with silent laughter but he managed to nod seriously. "Yes, something like that. Royal something for sure."

"Yes, exactly. We're inclined to take them up on the offer but I'm not sure yet if Logan can make it." She glanced at Mitchum, not bothering to mask her irritation with that man this time. "With all the sudden and many business trips, it had been quite difficult to plan anything ahead."

Shira who had lost more and more color since hearing the word 'royal' and whose jaw had definitely dropped ever since then, sat up eagerly. "Don't be ridiculous, of course, Logan can go with you. What a lovely idea... for Richard and Emily to extend such a wonderful invitation. Mitchum would never dream of denying you two a little vacation after all the hard work at Yale and at the group, right, Darling?"

"That would be wonderful," Rory added, her eyes meeting Mitchum's ice-cold eyes, glaring quite furiously at him. Silently, she challenged him to deny them this promise, having no idea where her sudden boldness had come from but she warmly welcomed it.

The invitation was real. And while Logan and she never had had any intentions of going to that party, they had discussed going to London and the family estate. Like Shira had said, with all the schoolwork and the paper, the business trips Mitchum dragged Logan to and also the preparation for Honor's wedding in a few weeks, going away for Spring break sounded like a great idea. But Logan hadn't been too enthusiastic about his chances of getting away from Mitchum and just having witnessed their brief conversation, Rory could see why he had been so hesitant to make any promises. Now though... She hadn't planned on bringing any of this up, but while being on a roll, she had suddenly seen this way to ensure Logan the free time with his parents' blessing and had gone for it, even if it meant that they now probably had to attend that stupid ball. She couldn't care less if she was distantly related to the Royal Family that should give her the theoretical right to participate on some very exclusive event, but people like Shira cared a great deal about such things and hey, if that got her an undisturbed week with her boyfriend, while also and most importantly, establishing once more that there was no need for her to go gold-digging even if she were such a person, why not use it?

Mitchum didn't look happy but much to her elation, he did make a concession after all. "I guess it can be arranged." Then though, her triumph faded some when he continued, staring right back at her, some of that snotty arrogance back in full force. "I planned on sending him to London for the break anyway, so his taking some time off to head for the country should be no problem."

Taking time off?

Before she could say anything to protest though, it was Shira who frowned at him. "Really, Mitchum, sometimes you are impossible. Of course Logan can't attend such a prestigious event between business meetings. I am sure you can do without him for a week."

His eyes slanted over to his wife and his jaw jumped. "We'll see," he said tersely, putting an effective end to their conversation.

Having finished spreading shmear on her bagel, Rory leaned back in her chair and bit into it with quite some gleeful pleasure. He may not want to talk about it any more but she trusted Shira to nag him with this several times per day until he would finally give his consent. Logan's amused smile as they exchanged a brief look confirmed her suspicion.

"We miss you dearly at the DAR, Rory. It's been ages since you've attended a meeting. The fundraiser party for the Everglades is coming up. We could really use your help. You did manage to raise an amazing amount of donations for our troops and we hate not having you this time to help again. What do you think?" Shira took the hint, changing the topic.

Shit.

Suspecting where this was heading to, she quickly thought of the best way to get out of this without losing any of the leverage she had just gained.

"Mom, Rory has the school paper to run and she still needs to keep up with her really busy school schedule. Plus there are all the wedding stuff Honor keeps dropping on us. Ace is good, but even she can't do everything all at once," Logan answered for her, a slight warning in his voice.

"I'm afraid that's true," Rory immediately picked up from there. "I planned on going to the monthly meeting though, of course. And I already reserved my seat at my family's table. Wouldn't miss that fundraiser in the world."

Not that she had had much choice in the matter. Just like every year, her grandparents had been frantic to fill up their table and because such events were often on a Friday night, sometimes her presence was requested. Miraculously, she had managed to keep Logan out of it, not that he was out of the woods completely. She was pretty sure that they were still saving a seat for him. In the worst case scenario, a jacket would have to hold up for him again, she thought, amused.

"Oh, but you and Logan absolutely have to come sit at our table, my dear."

Her eyes widening, Rory looked at Logan, having no idea how to answer that. Now that was a problem she hadn't anticipated. Who would have thought that a little mention of blue blood would turn her from persona non grata to 'my dear' so fast?

"Actually, I'm not sure I can even make it to the party," Logan though answered calmly, without blinking. "Even if I do, Richard and Emily have been first to offer us their table. We can sit with you next time."

Neither Shira nor Mitchum looked too pleased at that answer. Not wanting to be caught in another tense discussion, Rory was the one to change the topic this time. "I am so excited about Honor's wedding. It truly looks as if her wedding is going to be the event of the year."

And she really was. While she could do very well without a big, fancy wedding like this one was going to be, Logan's sister was so over the moon about it; she kind of got all of them warped into the elated craziness. Honor had invited her along to most of her planning events and she had made an effort to go to as many of them as possible. Not just because she really liked Honor and wanted to get to know better the only member of the whole Huntzberger clan Logan truly loved, but because no matter how big and grand Shira was making this wedding, in the end, Honor was a young woman crazy in love with her fiancé and she could not wait to marry him. After her mother's two disastrous wedding attempts, especially the planning for the wedding with Luke, Rory was really happy for the opportunity to help Honor in planning her wedding that was definitely going to happen and a wedding that would truly be beautiful simply because Josh and Honor really loved each other and wanted this to happen.

Her face immediately lightening up, Shira nodded. "Oh yes, I am certain Honor will have a wedding people will remember with awe for a long time to come. It is pure chaos though. I'm glad when it will be finally over and some normalcy will return into our lives. That is, until the next wedding comes around, right, Honey?" She winked at Logan, causing him to choke slightly on the piece of grapefruit he had in his mouth. Seemingly oblivious to that, his mother continued. "I must say I do regret though that we decided so hastily on the location. Being here reminds me of how beautiful this place is, especially in summertime. I can't help but wish we had waited for summer to have the wedding here, after all." She laughed and fondly said, "I remember how Honor and Logan used to play wedding day at that beautiful bay a bit up north. You two always came back, insisting on having your real wedding here, one day. A lovely idea even today. But maybe, we still can have that. Don't you think weddings here would be charming, Rory dear?"

Logan was still busy sputtering on his grapefruit and Rory too felt her last bite of bagel sitting heavily in her throat, but she managed to swallow it eventually. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it would be beautiful." She hesitated, not sure if there was anything she could say that wasn't going to make things worse. Logan and her were used to having Richard and Emily constantly dropping hints about a wedding, but Shira? Boy oh boy, if she had known that all she had to do to get on their good side was to declare herself a member of the extended Royal Family, she would have let this slip ages ago. Perhaps. To have one party set on having them married by the end of Yale was bad enough. "It would have to be a small wedding though, otherwise, it would be a logistic nightmare to have all those people come here and arrange comfortable accommodations for everyone."

She had no doubt that should she and Logan ever make it to the altar, both their families would insist on some really big, big wedding and she hoped her comment was going to stop Shira from already planning their Vineyard wedding. Though to be honest, a Vineyard wedding would truly be beautiful, something she could very well see.

"True, true," Shira agreed with a small frown and Rory could practically see her wheels turning.

"Yeah well, as nice as this is, Rory and I have some plans for today and we should get going," Logan quickly interrupted, with a nervous, almost apprehensive glance at his scheming mother, pushing his chair back to stand up.

Emptying her last cup of coffee, Rory nodded. "Yeah, we should. Shira, Mitchum, thank you for breakfast."

"Oh sure. Have a nice day you two. And Logan, try to keep out of trouble for once," Shira said with a warning look towards her son that had Rory tensing, once again having a nasty comment on the tip of her tongue she could only barely hold back.

Unbelievable! Couldn't they even once be nice and not constantly criticize or admonish their own son?

She was the first to admit that Logan had his faults, hardly being perfect. And of course she was also aware that he had quite a past. Still, weren't parents also supposed to encourage and praise their child at least sometimes? Couldn't they see how much Logan had matured this past year, making an effort in both school and the paper?

Logan though just rolled his eyes, apparently not thinking twice about this last comment. "I'll do my best," he replied dryly, taking Rory's hand to lead them back to their room.

And that was the worst of it all, that Logan didn't expect anything else from them, so used to it that it didn't even hurt him anymore. Most of the time at least.

"You okay?"

Looking up, she found Logan's eyes searching hers questioningly.

"Yeah," she reassured him. Knowing he wouldn't like her train of thought at all, she forced her gloomy thoughts away and mustered an amused smile. "So, little Logie-boy loved to play bride and groom, huh?"

Smirking, he held up his free hand. "Now wait a minute. I most certainly deny having any pleasure in Honor beating and blackmailing me into silly girly games. But if you're four years old and your sister who was three years older and a head taller, threatened to tear apart your GI Joe if you do not play along, what choice does a poor little guy have then, I ask you?"

Laughing, she nodded. "Uh-huh. I think I know what I'll talk about next time I meet Honor, see what she has to say about it."

He threw her a dark look that only resulted in her making a mental note to really ask Honor about these games. "So… and what do these many plans we have for today entail?" she curiously wanted to know.

Scowling, Logan shrugged. "My only plan was to stay in and keep you naked and satisfied but somehow, I don't see this working well with my parents all over the place. So I'm open for any suggestions. I'll just head to the gym for an hour, get rid of at least some of the sexual frustration I'm feeling right now. You could..."

"Excellent idea. I'll come with you," Rory was quick to decide. It was one thing to put up being with Mitchum and Shira in the confines of their vacation home with Logan there but to be all alone with them? No way in hell. Not after what had happened last night. She strongly suspected Shira had had a lot more in her cup of tea than just tea so chances were good she'd soon be taking a nap and that would leave her alone with Mitchum again... No, definitely not.

"To the gym?" Logan asked skeptically, giving her a disbelieving frown.

She had to admit, he had reason to be dubious. "Yes, why not? You're not the only one suffering from sexual frustration, you know? I'm not happy either to have to change those excellent plans you had for us."

"Uh-huh." Didn't look like Logan bought it, but he shrugged in the end. "By all means, then let's go to the gym. Do you have any sweats with you or do you need to borrow some of mine?" Then he grinned. "'cause that's what you wear in those places, you know? With a nice pair of sneakers, preferably ones that have never seen the outside. And you'll need to bring Lysol wipes to clean the sweat off the machines. And you should fix your hair in a ponytail. Wouldn't want all that hair to get in the way or you might fall onto the precious machines. They don't like that much. And no jokes about others training there. Or about the food and drinks they sell there. And under no circumstances make fun of the equipment, the gym in general or the people who frequent such establishments."

"Ass," was her only answer to his lecture and his laughter followed her into the bathroom where she went to get herself ready to go to the gym.

Ugh.

Another good reason to hate one Mitchum Huntzberger.


TBC!

(Author's Note: Two down, two to go. Hope you had fun reading this one. I sure had writing it. Enjoy!)