Chapter 2: Second Hiroshima

"Damn… I thought you would perhaps come to another conclusion," Rory said darkly and threw herself onto the only chair in the room. Of course, it only had been a slim hope – but hope nonetheless.

Like the hope that all this was just one big, clever prank of Logan's. He had the access after all. And Heaven knew that he loved to play tricks on her. Perhaps, somehow, his twisted mind had gotten the idea that this way he could win her back, like he had thought that the prank that he had played on her last year during a class would get her attention. But she only had to take one look at his shocked face and it was obvious that this was surprising news for him as it was for her. And even though she would have been furious with him – she almost wished that it had indeed been just a prank on his part. Though, if she was totally honest with herself, she had known all along that Logan wouldn't go that far in his jokes, marriage-talk was more her resort.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. That meant it was really true. She was married to Logan Huntzberger!

Shit.

"Perhaps it's a canard?" she hopefully asked.

Logan, having taken another look at the paper, threw her a dark look. "Too bad it's not April Fool's Day." He paused and there was suddenly a strange look in his eyes. "This," he held up the newspaper, "isn't by chance any one of your pranks?" he asked with some mistrust.

Fury fueling her already overloaded body, Rory jumped up. "Excuse me? My prank? Why the hell should I come up with such a harebrained scenario? If at all, this would had to be one of your sick jokes with which you'll try to win me back! Let's not forget that I have in no way any means of getting such an article printed in the Times… unlike a certain someone here… and I don't want anything to do with you anymore so I certainly won't go about telling the entire world that we're married!"

Angrily, Logan shook his head and threw the paper onto Finn's bed. "Oh, babe, believe me, if I'd wanted to try to get back together with you I wouldn't pull something like that. I learned my lesson the last time. God, how can you even think that I would do something like that?" Frustrated, he ran his hand over his head, making his hair look even messier.

Making him look even sexier. God, she had always loved the way he looked when he had just gotten out of bed. NO! No… she couldn't afford such thoughts. They were over and that was just how it should be.

"No, forget that!"

Puzzled, Rory looked up, for a moment fearing that she had thought out loud. Wrong.

"You always are ready to jump to the worst conclusion about me. That's nothing new after all," Logan bitterly said, glaring at her.

"If you hadn't had proven me right in my assumptions time and time again I wouldn't need to!" Rory threw back, her eyes narrowing. "And the few times I did trust you to do the right thing, guess what, I got disappointed."

"Well excuse me but not everyone can be as perfect as you, Ms. Ideal, who can't do anything wrong!" Logan snapped, his glare not less smoldering than hers.

"I am not perfect!" protested Rory. "And obviously I do make mistakes; otherwise, I would never have let you talk me into this relationship! Hell, apparently we're married so if that isn't the biggest mistake of them all I don't want to know what you'd see as a mistake!" She stopped, remembering his words from before. "Oh, wait, I get it. Pregnant, huh? Kind of get that if I ignore the fact that I'd never get pregnant by an irresponsible spoiled little rich brat like you!"

Something flashed in his hazel eyes that looked a lot like pain. But no. That couldn't be. Logan wouldn't let himself get hurt by something like that. He wouldn't let some words get to him. That was the biggest problem with Logan after all: he was an emotional cripple and in turn had no qualms of going after and hurting other people. Just as he had hurt her. And she had believed that it was different with her – that he would start to let himself feel enough for them to stay together. She had been so wrong.

"You wouldn't be the first woman to try it," he told her coldly.

There it was: another stab straight into her heart – or what was left of it. Why did he have so much power over her to hurt her so badly time and time again? Oh, yeah, she loved him. Had loved him, she reminded herself, not that it was helping anything. His words still hurt. God, she couldn't do this.

"Go to hell, you fucking asshole," she calmly said and made her way past him to the door.

"No! Rory, please, wait. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I know you'd never… I'm sorry," Logan pleaded, making her stop and look down onto the dark green rug covering Finn's floor.

She bit her lip. Sorry? How many times had she heard that now? Too many times. "Sorry isn't good enough anymore, Logan. But then, how could you possibly ever understand this?" she whispered.

"I…" Logan stopped and next she could hear him take a deep breath. "Fuck," he muttered.

Shaking her head, Rory made her way towards the door again.

"Don't go, Rory, please. We need to talk about this… marriage. Figure this whole mess out." Logan once again stopped her.

Her head snapped back around to glare him. "Nah, really? Puh, I wonder why else I would come here to hunt you down?" she sarcastically commented.

Logan took another deep breath. "Let's just try to talk calmly and be civilized about it, okay? I'm sorry." He cringed and sighed. "And I know you heard that before, but I truly am. It's just… you don't wake up everyday to learn that you're married because some fruitcake had some deranged and delusional opinions about fake weddings."

No, at least he was right with that. She could understand how news like that could throw off someone a little. She sure had been thrown off as well when she had read that article and not just a little. "All right," she said after a moment.

With a relieved look, Logan nodded and went back to the bed to take the paper into his hands again. Sighing, he shook his head. "First, we need to get all the facts, check how accurate this article is. Perhaps they exaggerated a bit. Wouldn't be the first time. Or this guy tricked them and sold them a bogus story. Wouldn't be the first time, either."

Rory nodded, getting her hopes up again. All of a sudden, she felt a lot calmer, now that Logan was acting grown up for a change. He could have that affect on her: calm her down, give her reassurance and strength just with his mere presence. If he'd just… no. It wouldn't serve anything to go back there, nothing but more pain and more hurt. And she couldn't take it anymore.

"And then we need to see how legal this is. I mean, even if he really is a lay magistrate as it says here, or even if he has authority to perform marriages, he still deceived us," Logan continued and then looked at Rory with a frown. "Speaking of legality, we still would have had to sign a marriage license application and other documents to make it official, wouldn't we?"

Sadly, Rory shook her head. Of course he didn't remember. He had been pretty drunk by then. Not that she had been much better. But heck, they had been in Vegas to party, not to have a serious, boring time. And then he was a guy. Of course guys wouldn't remember such details about a wedding, especially a fake one. She, on the other hand, remembered it as if it had happened only yesterday – not almost four months ago.

"Sign? Come on Finn, we never had to sign anything before!" an annoyed Logan protested, not being too happy that they had been singled out by Finn to be the couple who were to get married in the fake wedding Finn wanted. Now he even wanted them to fake the paperwork? That was ridiculous! It was a fake wedding! "First you take us to the Marriage License Bureau offices to get an application form for a marriage license to fill out and sign just to make it more real..."

"The priest insisted on that!" Finn defended himself, rolling his eyes. "To make it look really real! And why have you got your panties in such a twist. It's not like anything of that is real. The priest gave me the name of the guy who we fake wedding people can go to for fun."

Logan ignored him. "...then we have this never ending ceremony and now you want us to sign more documents? Really, Finn, this is just going too far. And crazy!"

"The priest says it's more realistic that way. And I can only agree with him. I want it to be like it is authentic as it can get and what's a wedding without the paperwork?" Finn answered nonchalantly. "So be a good little couple and just sign the thing so we can get on with the party! Colin and I will be your witnesses. I think two are enough." He looked at the form in his hand and nodded. "Yep, two are more than enough. For real weddings, one is enough actually, but as we being both your best friends it can't hurt if we both sign. Here!" He ordered, holding out the paper and a pen out to Logan.

Shaking his head, Logan exchanged a look with Rory. They both knew that Finn wouldn't give it up. What could it hurt after all? She nodded, motioning him to get it over with. With a sigh, Logan signed and gave it to Rory, who quickly scribbled her own name beside his and then gave it back to Finn. With a satisfied grin he bounced off to get Colin's signature.

"True, but you forgot that Finn made us complete and sign some paperwork in his need to make it as authentic as possible," she reminded him impatiently. How could he have forgotten that?

For a moment, Logan stared at her, until his eyes narrowed and he let out a series of curses that Rory was sure she'd need to remember to later tell them to her mother.

Oh, God! Her mom! How was she supposed to tell this to Lorelai?

"I'm going to kill him!" Logan hissed with gritted teeth.

"Huh?" Rory asked, still too caught up in the unpleasant prospect of telling her mother about this mess. Lorelai would never let her live this down.

"Finn!" Logan screamed and raced out of the bedroom in a blur.

Finally connecting the dots, Rory's eyes went wide and she rushed after him, hoping that Finn had gone out to find himself a party and a redhead. Otherwise, it could get very ugly.


"Wait, wait, wait! Let me get this straight!" Finn exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the estranged couple in front of him. "You two are married?" he asked, failing miserably at suppressing his laughter.

'I should have killed him!' Logan thought darkly. He should never have let Colin and Rory talk him out of it. It was his entire fault after all: Finn had been the one with the idea to go to Vegas for his 'And a half' party. It had been Finn who had insisted on having a fake wedding and it had been also Finn who had insisted that Logan and Rory had to be the unfortunate couple who had to get married. It had been Finn who had booked the so-called fake priest who had a misguided agenda and it had been Finn who had wanted them to even sign documents. In short: everything was Finn's fault!

"Oh, that's splendid! Here I thought you two idiots would never see the light!" Finn grinned from ear to ear. "And now it turns out that you two lovebirds are already married for more than three months!"

"Finn! This isn't funny!" Rory hissed, elbowing him.

Hard, as Logan noticed with satisfaction. Not that it was good enough. He wasn't dead yet.

"Oh, come on, love! You've got to admit that it's pretty funny! Beginning with the thought that Logan here is an old married man! It's just hilarious!" Finn protested, still grinning. His grin diminished a little though when he saw the murder in Logan's eyes. "But then I see, of course, that this has its downside as well… Like no more fun parties! Married people can't have any fun at parties anymore. Uff!" he groaned and looked hurt at Rory. "Hey!"

"One more word, Finn, and I swear you will have no fun ever again!" Rory threatened in a low voice. "Or do I need to remind you that I am running on no coffee at the moment?!"

"Okay, okay. Jeez, no need to get so aggressive. Logan, buddy, what kind of a husband are you? I thought you made an oath to always take care of her? Get your wife some coffee for Heaven's sake before she gets any scarier!" Finn quipped and quickly jumped up to get away from Rory's vicious elbow.

First, he'd let Ace castrate him. Then he'd cuff him in the middle of the sauna over at the gay club. Then he'd come and get what was left of him and kill him, making Aussie burgers out of the remains which he would feed to Yorkshire terriers. Finn hated those nasty little dogs. Oh, yeah, that was what he'd do. And, no one would ever blame him for this.

Wait? Had Ace just said that she was running on no coffee? How could that be possible? By now she had to have at least six cups in her system and with news such as this he would have expected at least the double amount.

"No coffee?" he asked with a frown. Was she sick? She didn't look so great after all, he noticed once again, worried.

Rory glanced at him before her eyes darted away towards the window. She shrugged. "I don't feel like drinking coffee much lately," she muttered.

Unbelieving, Logan stared at her and he wasn't the only one. Rory Gilmore not feeling like drinking coffee? It was unthinkable. "Are you okay?" Logan asked, now really worried, involuntarily taking some steps towards her, only realizing it when he saw her tensing. His heart cringing, he stopped.

"What does it matter anyway? I think we have bigger problems at hand," she said with a glare at Logan and then turned to Colin. "Colin? What do you think? How can we get out of this ridiculous situation?"

Colin shook his head. "I'm only a student here, Rory, but to tell you the truth, I think it's not at all out of question that this marriage is legal. Yeah, you only agreed to a fake wedding but in the end you agreed and exchanged your vows. And of course you completed and signed the application for the marriage license and signed the certificate. As did Finn and I. That will be the biggest problem. It's too bad we don't have the copy of that marriage certificate." He looked at Logan and Rory. "You do not have it, do you?"

Rory and Logan both shook their head.

Finn, who had himself snatched up a ball and was playing with it threw it into the basket. "I have it," he mentioned casually.

Three pairs of surprised eyes turned onto him. "What?" Finn asked with a frown, noticing their stares.

"You have it? Why do you have it? And why the hell didn't you say so before?!" Logan demanded to know, gritting his teeth. And once he had fed the remains of Finn to the yorkies he would scoop up all the shit and use it on azaleas – Finn hated them as well. Always said they gave him the creeps.

"That guy," he nodded towards the newspaper in Colin's hand, "he sent it to me after a week or so. At first I found it a bit strange but then I figured he thought I wanted the souvenir. And I have the copy of the license as well, remember, I asked for it, before at the office." The others still staring at him incredulously, he shrugged, holding up his hands. "Hey, down boys. Didn't think it was important so I forgot about it."

"Where is it now?" Colin asked.

"I think it's somewhere in my room," Finn said with a shrug.

"What are you waiting for? Go get it!" Logan impatiently ordered, pointing to Finn's room.

"Hey! No need to go all colonel on me!" Finn protested, throwing Logan an annoyed look.

"Finn…" Logan started lowly, but got interrupted by Rory who leaned back to briefly touch Finn's hand. "Please, Finn?" she asked, turning her Bambi eyes on him.

Not even Finn was resistant to those eyes. He smiled down at Ace. "Anything for you, love," he said and then, with a sneaking look over to Logan, he leaned down to whisper into Rory's ears but loud enough for Logan to hear though. "Just make sure your husband won't get wind of it. I'm afraid my dueling pistols are at the gunsmith's at the moment."

"Finn!" Logan shouted and made a step towards him. Before he'd let Rory castrate him, he'd tie him down and shave his head.

With a laugh, Finn vanished into his room. Rory looked after him and shook her head, smiling. "He'll never change, huh?" she asked as she turned to face Logan and Colin again.

Logan said nothing. No, Finn would never change. He wondered if Rory had missed him: he knew after all how much she liked his Australian friend. And Colin. Ace had been the only girl who had ever bothered to become friends with his friends as well, but in hindsight, that perhaps was for the best. Though he had always loved the way Rory could interact with them and how she had become part of the group, he also had seen the downside of it now. He wasn't the only one who missed Rory since their break-up.

"Fat chance there," Colin chuckled. "So, Rory, how's it going with the re-enrollment here?"

Rory made a face. "Badly. I've missed so much and I'm so far behind I'm having trouble catching up with the rest of the students. And Paris, still mad at me for dropping out, makes life even harder by giving me the stupidest articles at the paper – but of course she sees to it that I have tons of research to do for each and every one."

"There are a few guys I know in some of your classes. I'm sure they'd be happy to lend you their notes," Colin mentioned and glanced at Logan. "And you know, Rory, we three had a few of your classes last year so we could help you a bit as well. I'm pretty sure I still have my notes."

Rory beamed over at him. "That would be great, Colin!" Her eyes slid over to Logan and her face fell a little again. "But then I don't think… Well I'm sure there will be others…"

"Go ahead, Ace. I wouldn't mind," Logan said with a sigh. Did she really believe that he wouldn't want his friends to help her? Hell, did she really know him that little? "After all, I know how important your studies are to you." Or had been at least. Until his father had come along and did a number on her – that bastard.

"Oh… uh… thanks," Rory quietly said, not looking at Logan or Colin.

"You know, Logan had most of your classes, I think. He could probably help you the most," Colin gently said, his eyes darting from Logan to Rory.

Logan glared at him while Rory stiffened. "I prefer to get help from someone who actually went to his classes, thank you." She looked pointedly at Logan. "Or, duh, even cares about his graduation."

Anger racing through his veins, Logan opened his mouth to give her a piece of his mind – but then he closed it again and shook his head. It wouldn't matter anyway. She had her opinion set and no matter what he said or did he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise. And to be honest, that was his fault, at least partly. He had never let her close enough to see all of him because he had been too scared she would hate what she'd see then and leave him. So he had been careful to only let her see the best sides of him – and sometimes the worst, though that had been rather involuntarily. But never the normal, boring, every day side of him. Perhaps that had been his biggest fault. And in the end, she had left him anyway. Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair. "God, I need a drink," he muttered.

"Of course you do," Rory sarcastically commented.

"Stop it, Rory! I'm not in the mood for another lecture. This hadn't been the best of mornings so far and you may have stopped drinking coffee but I need something strong now," Logan snapped while he went over to the house bar and poured himself a scotch. It didn't help much either when a little voice whispered to him that this actually was the best morning he had had since their break-up – simply because Rory was here – even if she was acting at times like a true bitch.

"I need one as well," Colin threw in, glancing at Rory.

"Make that three," Finn ordered as he came out of his room, waving two sheets of paper.

In a second, Rory had jumped up and raced over to Finn, ripping the documents out of his hands. While she read through it she moved over to Colin. After a moment, she handed it to him, glancing at Logan with a minute shake of her head. Didn't look as if there was good news. With one gulp, he emptied his glass, making a grimace at the bitter taste of the alcohol. But he still gave himself a refill before he proceeded to make the drinks for Colin and Finn. He brought one glass over to Finn who had thrown himself back onto the couch and then passed a pacing Rory to go sit down beside Colin, silently putting their glasses in front of them. Briefly, he glanced at the certified copy of the marriage certificate in Colin's hand and his eyes fell on his and Rory's signature. It was the first time he saw it, paired like that. He had been the first to put his name under it and that was also the last time he had seen this thing. Strangely, he felt his heart flutter at the sight of their signatures that apparently had made them husband and wife. Tearing his eyes away from it he leaned forward to take a big sip from his drink.

Slowly, Colin let his hands sink down. "Well?" Rory immediately wanted to know, halting in front of them.

Colin looked up at her then over at Logan and shook his head. "It looks legal to me. I think you should contact your lawyers."

Just what he had feared. Logan sighed and nodded.

"Great! Just great! You!" Rory pointed at Logan. "Fix this!"

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Why me? It's not as if I'm an expert in getting out of a marriage," he remarked, not caring at all about the heavy sarcasm.

"No, just an expert in ditching girls wherever you walk and breath," Rory threw back and went over to the door. "I have classes and can't afford not to go. Besides, you're the one here accustomed to having daddy's lawyers get you out of this or that mess. So make them work for their money again. Colin, Finn, thanks. It's been nice to see you again." Not waiting for an answer, Rory left, the door banging shut after her.

"The joys of marriage," Finn commented dryly and glanced at Logan. "Man oh man, you've got yourself a feisty one there. Bet you will have your hands full with her."

With two more gulps, Logan emptied his glass and then stared at the empty bottom of it. "Cut it out, Finn. We're not together anymore and this whole mess won't change that either."

"Well," Finn said and sat up to face Logan. "If you ask me, which you will do, of course, I happen to think otherwise. You love that girl; you want her back. Okay, let me tell you something here, mate: you can't get any closer to her than being married to her."

"That's bullshit. We're not really married. Nor will we stay that way as we'll get an annulment as soon as it's clear that that will be necessary in order to get this marriage over with," Logan pointed out. "Not to mention that Rory…"

"Is hurting pretty badly right now, not making her the most pleasant and nicest girl to be around with at the moment." Finn completed Logan's sentence with his own words. "But, in the way she's hurting and reacting to all this marriage business, it also gets clear that she still loves you, no matter what she tries to convince herself of." He stood up and stretched. "You just need to show her that this break-up is killing you and then of course make sure that she understands that you truly love her and would rather die than to hurt her again. And die you will and believe me, mate, I personally will dispose of your sorry body once Rory, her mom, her family, Paris and her other friends are finished with you," he warned with a serious look in his eyes. "But, to show her all that, you need to be at least in the same room with her. Now, if I'm not terribly wrong, which I'm not, you two will have to be together quite often in order to straighten this out, leaving your girl no chance to avoid and shun you like she has done the past couple of months. Do the math yourself. I have an appointment with my hair stylist now." Finn picked up his jacket from a chair and left, leaving Logan staring after him, open-mouthed.

Only Finn would believe that this loony plan would work.

"You okay?" Colin quietly asked.

Logan glanced at him, seeing the pitiful eyes that watched him closely and got up from the couch. He was sick of seeing those looks. And he was sick of hearing this question.

"I'm married, Colin, what do you think?" He angrily answered, now starting to pace impatiently himself. "Married to my ex who happens to hate me."

"Sorry," Colin sighed. "But you know," he said after a moment of silence. "She doesn't hate you. She's angry, yes. But she doesn't hate you."

Both Finn and Colin knew Rory pretty well. But it was Logan who had been closest to her and knew her the best and that expression she had in her eyes whenever she yelled at him had been hate. It couldn't be anything but hate. "Whatever. I need to call the tight-ties."

With a headshake, Colin let it go and then nodded.

Logan was moving over to the phone when he suddenly stopped dead in his track. Oh, no.

Fuck!

"What?" Colin asked, having noticed the way all color had left his friend's face.

Slowly, Logan turned to him, pretty sure that Colin would be able to see the white in his eyes. "As soon as I call them they'll contact my father. Then Dad will know about this marriage. Then Mom." He shuddered. "Then my grandfather."

Colin's eyes widened also as he stared at Logan. "Shit," he muttered.

Logan nodded darkly. Exactly. This would be ugly. No, scratch that. It would be a second Hiroshima.


TBC!