Chapter 2

"So you're with Logan now?" Lorelai asked, cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder as she struggled to feed Paul Anka.

"For now," Rory confirmed. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to bail on our dinner plans tonight. I told Logan that I'd stay for as long as he needs."

"Don't worry about it Daughter of Mine, my First Born, my Heart. I mean, skipping out on dinner with me, the woman who gave you life for a boy, well, I guess I've raised you well. I couldn't be prouder."

"I can come home," Rory said automatically and Lorelai felt like banging her head against the wall. She loved her daughter, she really did, but since the engagement had been called off she had given new meaning to the word overbearing.

"I'm totally kidding," Lorelai assured her quickly. "I think I'm hanging out with Sookie this afternoon anyhow, I can spend more time with her this way, so it works out well." You're not lying to her if technically Sookie did ask you to spend the afternoon with her. "You stay where you are, Logan needs you right now." And I need you off my back.

"Oh, that sounds fun!" Lorelai rolled her eyes at the relief in Rory's voice. "Well, I need to get going. Logan and Josh are about to leave and I told them I'd sit with Honor for a while. I'll give you a call later though, okay?"

"All right. Tell Logan I'm sorry. Take care, Kid." Lorelai threw her phone onto the sofa, gave Paul Anka a pat on the head and made her way back upstairs. She crawled back into her bed, pulling the blankets up over her head and closing her eyes. She hadn't slept at all the night before, or the night before that, or the night before that even, all she wanted was to fall into the deepest slumber she could. She didn't have to be at the Inn, and Rory was busy, so she found no reason as to why she shouldn't spend the day in bed. Of course, for the last month, she'd been using any excuse in the book to spend days in bed, but this time she truly felt validated.

From upstairs behind her closed bedroom door she could still hear her cell phone ringing. The faint strains of an The Offspring song from 1994 told her everything she needed to know. She made no move to get to the phone. She didn't want to speak to Christopher, no matter how many times he tried calling her a day.

She didn't want to talk to Luke either, and he called just as much, if not more than Christopher did. He was harder to avoid, also, seeing as how they lived so close to each other. After what happened she didn't know what to say to him. She couldn't explain it to herself, how could she be expected to explain it to him? And poor Rory, she was just along for the ride, not pushing Lorelai to talk about anything, but still just as clueless as to what was really going on and what she could do to help.

"Gah!" she cried out as the house phone started ringing next to her. Sneaky bastards, they know I don't have caller ID and would have to answer the phone.

"Yeah well, I'm sneakier than you!" she cried out to no one in particular as the answering machine picked up. "Hah!" she crowed triumphantly.

"Lorelai, this is your mother." Emily's voice rang loud and clear over the machine and Lorelai burrowed further under her blankets. "Lorelai, answer the phone." Lorelai gave the phone a particularly rude hand gesture. Emily sighed audibly. "Very well, I suppose you aren't home after all. I'm sure you've already heard about Mitchum Huntzberger but in case you hadn't I just wanted to let you know about the wake tomorrow evening. Your father and I expect you to join us in paying our respects to the family. Please be at the house by seven. Oh, and Christopher will be joining us as well."

The last thing Lorelai wanted was to do was smile her way through a wake for her daughter's sort-of-boyfriend's asshat of a father, and the only thing that could make it worse was Christopher joining them. She made a mental note to thank her mother later.

Lorelai's head poked out from underneath her purple comforter and her gaze landed on the brown paper bag that sat on the top of her dresser. The stupid brown paper bag who's contents she had driven all the way to Litchfield for. No one knew her there, she avoided the gossip that way.

She flung the covers from her body and padded over to the dresser. After staring at it as though it might explode, Lorelai opened the bag and pulled out the threatening purple and white box.

She had to admit, it was pretty damn funny. Over the years she had given Rory countless lectures on birth control and safe sex and yet she was the one standing here holding a pregnancy test in her hands. She felt sixteen again only this time her problem was infinitely worse.

Lorelai didn't need a test to confirm what she already knew in her heart. She needed a test that could tell her who she should be calling Daddy.

"Logan!" Elias's voice bellowed from outside his bedroom door as he pounded his fist against the heavy oak. "What the hell is going on? Where have you been hiding and why is Camilla telling me that that girlfriend of yours is running around this house making decisions that were left up to you? I swear to God, Logan, if that's the case, I'm going to—"

Logan jerked the door open before anymore could be said. "Good morning to you too, Grandfather."

"Is this true?" Elias demanded, looking around the room. "Where is she? Camilla tells me that she's here."

"She's in the shower," Logan said calmly. "And yes, she's been handling some of the preparations for tomorrow."

"Logan!" Both heads snapped towards the doorway to see Shira standing there, the picture perfect vision of a grieving widow, in her black suit and pearls. "Don't tell me you have that girl making arrangements."

"She wouldn't have had to if you weren't being so dramatic." Logan shook his head in disgust. He had the headache from hell, courtesy of the considerable amount of alcohol Colin and Finn had poured down his throat the night before and the last thing he wanted to deal with right now were the two people standing in his bedroom. "Neither of you have any right to do any complaining here, seeing as how both of you have been too busy doing God knows what else. You should be thanking Rory for stepping in, and not ridiculing her."

"My God Logan, I can still smell the alcohol on you," Shira commented as she walked further into the room, her face twisting into a disapproving scowl.

"And I can see the bottle of pills still in your hand."

"Enough!" The three Huntzberger's turned back to the door to see Rory standing there with two cups of coffee. "I don't care if you want to hear this or not, but now is not the time for bickering, especially with each other. Look at yourselves, Mitchum's been gone for just a few days and to stand here and look at the three of you, I wouldn't be able to tell." She strode into the room and picked up a manila folder off of the desk. "Here." She handed it to Shira. "Everything you need is right here. Contrary to what you've heard, I really haven't done all that much planning, I've mostly taken down names of people willing to help and accepted condolences on behalf of the family. Josh is the one who has actually been doing most of the brunt work, and Shira, if you're up to it, I suggest you go find him as he is planning on meeting with the funeral director early this afternoon."

"Is something going on here that I don't know about?" Elias demanded. "What makes you think you can be making calls on what should be family decisions when you're not part of the family to begin with?" His eyes swiveled to Logan. "Unless I'm mistaken, there's no ring on her finger, meaning she's not a part of this family."

Rory flinched visibly at the words and Logan stepped part of the way in front of her, shielding her from Elias. "Stop!" he ordered. "I'm going to say this once and you're both going to listen. Rory is here because I asked her to be. She's handling things because I asked her to. None us were in any shape at all yesterday to do anything and Rory stepped in knowing full well how you would react. For as long as she's here, you both will treat her with the respect that she, my girlfriend, deserves."

"Your father—"

"My father is not here." He pushed them both out of the room and closed the door on his mother's stricken face, locking it soundly.

"Logan—"

He held up his hand, cutting her off. "I'm sorry Rory. Regardless of the circumstances, they don't need to be treating you like that." He sat down on the edge of the bed and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm surprised you're still here," he admitted.

"Me too," she said honestly. She had stayed awake for the better part of the night, debating on what she should do even though she knew the answer before she would admit it. She would set aside their differences for long enough to get Logan through the funeral and maybe, once things had settled down, they would be able to take the steps in the right direction to rebuild their relationship.

For now though, he needed her, and she wasn't going to turn her back on him.

Rory sat down next to him on the bed and handed him one of the cups of coffee. She began to protest when he reached underneath the bed and retrieved a bottle of whiskey. "Logan no, you need to stay sober today."

"It's not for me." He smoothly poured a healthy amount of the alcohol into her own cup. "You'll need it," he said with a wink. She opened her mouth to protest again but thought better of it and instead raised the mug to her lips.

"That's my girl," Logan said with a smile. She shuddered as the bitter liquid slide down her throat but she smiled back at him. Truth be told, she missed hearing him call her his girl, and it was nice to hear it again. "So tell me, Ace," he said as she took another sip. "What do I need to do first today?"

The ride to the Huntzberger's was already enough to make Lorelai wish for a drink but then again, a drink was what got her into this mess in the first place. Christopher had been trying to engage her in conversation since they had left the Gilmore's and she had done her best to limit her answers to one or two words each. If either Richard or Emily noticed the tension, they didn't show it, but Emily was shooting Lorelai the occasional concerned glance every couple of minutes.

"Well be in in just one second," Christopher told Richard and Emily as he grabbed Lorelai's elbow and held on tight.

"I really need to get to Rory," Lorelai muttered, trying to pull her arm free from his gasp.

Christopher held tight. "Rory's fine. We need to talk," he demanded, pulling her down a lighted pathway.

"This is hardly the time and the place to—Damn it Christopher, you're hurting me!" Lorelai yanked her arm away finally only to have him push her down onto a bench.

"How about we act like adults, Lor." He sat down next to her. "Or rather, how about you act like an adult? We need to talk about what happened."

"No we don't," she said stubbornly. "We both know what happened. It's the same thing that happens anytime we're together with a bottle of tequila. We did something stupid, Chris. We made a mistake. They really need to put our faces on the Cuervo bottle to keep others from making our mistakes."

"Why does it have to be a mistake, Lorelai?" Christopher asked. "Because it didn't feel like a mistake this time."

She stared at him incredulously. "You're kidding, right? Please, for the love of God, tell me you're kidding. If you think me sleeping with you because I'm upset that I just broke up with my fiancé qualifies as the right thing, then you must still be drunk from that night. No Christopher, sleeping with you is always a mistake and last month was no different!" She rose from the bench and stalked off towards the house, her heels clicking angrily against the paving stones as she walked away.

"I need to get out of here."

Rory nearly jumped out of her skin, not from the voice, but from how the breath that tickled her ear. She wasn't used to being in such close proximity to Logan anymore. She turned around and offered him a sympathetic smile. "We can't leave," she pointed out. They were only forty-five minutes into the wake and already, the house was full of people.

"But we can take a break," Logan pleaded. "Come on, Rory, take a walk with me." He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the house to the backyard. Rory knew where they were going, they had spent enough time in the gardens behind the house for her to know the way. She couldn't help but smile as he immediately loosened his tie and discarded his jacket the second they were out of the house.

"How are you holding up?" she asked as they walked. "You seem to be doing okay today."

"I am," he said with a nod. "Well, as okay as I can be, I guess," he added reluctantly.

"Has it even begun to sink in yet?" she questioned. In the last few days she had feared Logan hadn't really dealt with anything, but was merely going through the motions of getting through the days.

"No," he admitted, confirming her fears quicker than she had anticipated him to. "I mean, I know he's gone, but I still don't know what all that means. It's like he's on one of his business trips right now, you know?" He sighed. "I don't want to talk about my father right now."

"Sure," she agreed easily. "We'll talk about anything you want." She looked up at him and was shocked at the familiar gleam in his eyes. "Logan, no!"

"Anything I want," he reminded her, stepping closer and putting his left hand on her hip. His fingers edged just beneath her sweater to rest on her hipbone.

"We can't!" she hissed, trying to back away. He held firm to her waist and stepped even closer, bringing his other hand to press against the small of her back, forcing her even closer to him.

"We can," he assured her. "I've missed you, Rory. You can't tell me you haven't missed me." He leaned forward and brushed his lips over her eyes, each of her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, stopping short of her lips. "I know you've missed me," he whispered, pressing his forehead to hers. "Tell me you missed me."

It was true, she had missed Logan, but she was pretty sure this was all types of inappropriate and not just because they were at a wake for his father. She was still unsure of their relationship and it would be wrong to ignore everything from the last few months and give in to this one moment.

"I've missed you," she admitted breathlessly as his mouth descended on hers and his fingers dug into her sides. His kiss was full of an intensity she hadn't felt before and she felt her resolve beginning to slip away as he tightened his grip around her and walked her backwards slowly until she collided with the thick trunk of a tree.

This was wrong, this was oh-so-very wrong. Even as her conscience screamed at her, Rory was throwing herself into this kiss with Logan and her own hands were forcing the buttons of his dress shirt open as his fell from her waist, one inching farther up under her sweater while the other slid her skirt higher up her thigh.

"Logan…" she tried to protest but as he buried his face in the crook of her neck and his mouth found the spot on her collarbone that he clearly hadn't forgotten about, she forgot what she was going to say.

Yes, this was definitely wrong, but Rory didn't care anymore. Thick bark scraped against her back as Logan pressed her deeper into the tree, but she couldn't feel it. All she knew was that it had been a month since she had been with Logan, almost as long since she had wanted to be with him, and for as wrong as it was, it felt awfully right.

It was only after, as they were straightening their clothing and Logan was plucking twigs out of her hair that all of her common sense came rushing back. How could she have done this? How could she have had sex with Logan when he was dealing with Mitchum's death and not thinking clearly? How could she let herself lose her head like that? She wasn't even sure she still wanted to continue her relationship with Logan and if she decided not to, was this considered anything more than pity?

"Hey." He brought her out of her thoughts gently, as he fixed the hem of her sweater over her skirt and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him and he smiled at her. "It's okay." She could tell by the look in his eye that he saw the worry in hers and he was doing his best to assuage it. He leaned in and kissed her again and she couldn't help but smile into him.

"We should get back," she said softly, buttoning his shit back up and straightening his tie. He picked up his jacket from the ground and they started back towards the main house.

Along the way, they could hear voices arguing and to Rory, the voices sounded vaguely familiar. As they came to a clearing between the house and the gardens, she spied both of her parents seated on a bench and they were indeed arguing. Lorelai was talking animatedly, her hands flying all over the place and her voice floated above the din of everything else just clear enough for them to hear.

"No Christopher, sleeping with you is always a mistake and last month was no different!'

Rory stood rooted to the ground, unsure of what she had just heard. The look on Logan's face told her she heard correctly but she still couldn't comprehend. They watched as Christopher waited a few moments before standing up and walking towards the house.

Logan steered Rory in the opposite direction of the house. She had taken care of him the last couple of days, it was the very least he could to take care of her now. Logan swept her into the guesthouse before they were spotted by either Lorelai or Christopher.

"I don't get it." Rory's fingers twisted into the hemline of her sweater as she paced back and forth in the middle of the room. "I mean, we heard them right, didn't we? My mom slept with my dad?" It sounded ludicrous, even to her own ears.

"That's what it sounded like," Logan said, sitting down and pulling her down next to him. "You didn't have any idea?"

"Is this the face of someone who had an idea?" Rory shook her head. "I knew something was wrong, I knew that there was more to calling off the engagement but I didn't…" her voice trailed off as her eyes widened alarmingly. "What about Luke, Logan? Do you think he knows? Do you think they broke up because of this?" She turned to Logan. "I told him to stay away from her, I told him not to ruin my mom's life. I don't understand, why would she…"

"Maybe you should wait until you hear what your mom says," Logan suggested before her voice could pitch any higher. "Find out what the whole story is before you jump to conclusions and blame your dad."

"You think my mom is the one who did this? That she went to him? No, Logan! She was engaged to Luke, she loves Luke, she knows better than to turn to my dad like that! No." Rory shook her head vehemently. "He did this, I don't know how, but this is all my dad's fault."

"Okay, okay," Logan backtracked quickly. "But I still think you need to talk to your mom before you make any rash decisions concerning your dad, all right?"

"I guess." Rory looked down at her hands. "But what do I do? Do I let her know that we overheard them? Wait for her to tell me? What if she doesn't tell me? Do I just go on pretending I know nothing about this?"

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you that whatever it is you decide, I'll go along with it. Whatever you want Rory, I'm right beside you."

She found herself nodding but his words did little to make her feel any better about the situation. Looking down at her hands she was unable to look into his eyes as she realized for the first time that she didn't quite believe him. Their relationship was unstable at best right now and part of her felt that perhaps he was only returning the favor. Being there for her because she was there for him right now. What would happen after the funeral? What if she couldn't be there? What if he decided he didn't want to? Her parents' issues weren't anything new to her, but each time their lives tangled it became more difficult to deal with and if she found herself not wanting to deal with them this time around why would he? Not to mention, she realized, that soon enough he would be back on a plane to London and she would be right back where she was a week ago. Alone.

"Ace?"

His voice tore her out of her thoughts and she snapped her head up, forcing a small smile onto her face. Now was not the time for her to unleash these problems on him. "Thank you," she said softly, placing her hand on his knee and squeezing gently. She used his leg to pull herself up reluctantly and straightened her skirt again. "We should get back inside. People will be looking for you and well, now my family is in there too."

She nodded. "Thanks." Reluctantly she stood up and straightened her skirt again. "We should get back inside. People will be looking for you and well, now my family is in there too."

Logan rose to his own feet and reached a hand out to her. "I hold your hand, you hold mine?"

She smiled gingerly and took the proffered hand. "That's an uncharacteristic thing to hear you say," she remarked as they headed back towards the main house. She kept her eyes looking ahead, afraid that if she looked into his eyes her fears would be confirmed, that he was just going through the motions as she was. Playing the loyal boyfriend to her devoted girlfriend.

"It's an uncharacteristic week," he returned as they stepped inside. Rory couldn't agree more.

"I'll get you a drink," he said once they were back in the living room among everyone else. He went in one direction and Rory headed towards her family.

"There you are." Lorelai smiled as she approached them. "I've been looking all over for you. Where's Logan?"

"He's getting a drink. We were outside for a bit, he needed to clear his head." Rory stood awkwardly next to her mother and tried not to stare at her father.

"Clear his head, huh?" Lorelai's eyebrow quirked as she plucked a stray bit of leaf out of Rory's hair. "How's he doing?" Neither Gilmore girl paid any attention as Christopher turned to speak with an old colleague and they drifted a few steps away from him.

Rory shrugged as they both turned to watch Logan, who was caught up in conversation with his grandfather and some other men. "He's okay I guess. He hasn't had time to really comprehend what this all means so he's sort of still in denial about everything that's happened. He hasn't really said anything about Mitchum other than 'he's dead.' I don't think he wants to deal with it at all," she added pointedly.

"He'll deal when he's ready," Lorelai said as she placed a hand on Rory's arm. Rory could only hope the said could be same for her mother.