Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter of my story. I especially want to take the time to thank everyone that reviewed! You are all simply amazing! You seriously overwhelmed me with your positive response to just the first chapter! I am way beyond flattered! YOU ROCK! I really hope I don't disappoint you all!

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own Gilmore Girls or anything related to it.

Detour

Chapter 2: Reduced Speed Limit

The sun was just rising over the San Francisco Bay Area when he pulled into the parking lot of his office building. After he had dropped Colin and Finn off at San Francisco International Airport for their return flight to New York City, he had decided to make his way to work and take advantage of the quiet and solitude of the early morning hours. He had a lot of work to catch up on.

He parked his Porsche and grabbed his brown leather messenger style briefcase off the front seat before opening the door and exiting the car. He pressed the lock button on the key fob and waited to hear the locks click and the beeping of the alarm system activating before he started walking toward the front doors of the office building.

When he arrived at the front doors, he dug his security badge out of his right hand pants pocket and swiped it over the access pad. He paused, waiting for the light on the pad to turn green and then opened the door. He strolled through the deserted reception area making his way to the stairs instead of waiting for the elevators. He hurriedly climbed the stairs to the third floor and burst through the fire door into the silent hallway. His office was at the end of the long corridor.

He entered his still dark office, turning the lamp on his desk on as he passed. He walked around to his side of the desk, dropping his briefcase on the console table behind it as he went. He unbuttoned his suit coat before taking a seat in his leather office chair and settling in. He hit the power button on his computer, waiting impatiently for it to boot up.

As he waited, the early morning silence of his office was broken by the ringing of his Blackberry. He pulled the phone out his pants pocket and glanced at the caller ID. He grinned.

"Honor!" He greeted when he answered the phone.

"Hey, little brother!" She sounded way too perky for this early in the morning. Of course, she was on the East Coast where the time was three hours ahead of San Francisco, and this was his sister – she was always perky.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this very early morning call?" He asked as he reclined in his chair. Phone calls with Honor always took awhile. He could at least be somewhat comfortable.

"No specific reason." She said airily.

He rolled his eyes. He knew his sister enjoyed talking to him, but her calls always had some underlying reason – whether it was to relay a message from his mother or father, to harass him about coming home, or even to drop less than subtle hints about Rory. Three years later and she still hadn't given up on reconciliation. Even though he insisted it was never going to happen. "Really?" He asked doubtfully.

"Well, okay, I talked to dad." She said sheepishly. "Or maybe I should say he talked to me…about you."

Logan groaned. "And what did daddy dearest have to say?"

"I thought you and dad were on better terms these days?" She asked confused.

"We are, but I'm sure what you are about to tell me is about one of our father's attempts to bring me back into the fold and "take up" my destiny, as he so likes to put it."

"Would that be so bad?" He could tell she was frustrated. "You and I both know Logan Huntzberger, that Huntzberger Publishing Group is where you belong. It's in your blood! You love journalism! You're probably better at it than the great Mitchum Huntzberger will ever be. Don't deny it either!"

"I won't. I'm not." He emphasized. "But I'm not ready to come back, especially not on any terms he has to offer right now. It's why I walked away in the first place."

"You haven't even heard what he had to say."

"Honor, I don't need to hear. I don't want to hear! It's not going to change anything."

"Fine." She huffed. "If he asks, at least tell him I tried."

He smiled. "If he asks, which I doubt he will, I will tell him you tried."

"So, when are you coming home again?" Honor never dwelled on subjects long.

"Not for awhile."

"Logan!" She exclaimed.

"Honor!"

"We haven't seen you in ages!"

"I was home at Thanksgiving and Christmas."

"Christmas was six months ago Logan. I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! Ethan is no longer in newborn clothing! He can hold his own bottle now! He's going to be crawling any day! He misses his uncle!" She was exasperated with him, but he couldn't quite help grinning at the happiness in her voice.

He sighed. Maybe he could make a quick trip home soon. "Ethan must be getting so big."

"Yeah, he is. You should check your e-mail. I sent you some pictures." He leaned forward in his chair, moving the mouse of his computer. The screen saver disappeared. He logged into his e-mail, searching briefly for the e-mail she had sent him. He found it at the top and clicked it open.

He laughed. "Nice t-shirt and so true." She had dressed him in a t-shirt he had found online and had sent to her a few weeks ago. It was green and had yellow lettering that read "If You Think I'm Good Lookin' You Should See My Uncle".

"Your ego astounds me." She deadpanned.

He chuckled. "He's going to be a heartbreaker."

"Just like his uncle."

"I'll teach him everything I know." He smirked.

"You're going to corrupt my kid."

"Someone's gotta do it."

"I guess better you than someone else." She sighed dramatically.

"How's Josh?" He asked changing the subject. Honor could talk for hours about Ethan if he'd let her.

"He's great. He's actually out loading up the car right now."

"Loading up the car for what?"

"Oh, we're taking a trip to the Vineyard this weekend. Ethan's first time. You wouldn't believe how much stuff you have to bring for a seven month old. He has more stuff than me and you know how much I pack! I got him the cutest little swimming trunks. I'll take lots of pictures and send them to you."

He listened to her ramble and felt a small pang of longing. "You sound really happy, Honor."

She sighed in contentment. "I do, don't I? I am happy. Really happy. What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you happy?"

He hesitated before answering. "Sure."

"A mute person sounds more convincing than you."

"I am. Happy that is." He protested.

"Liar." She sighed. "Logan, I want you to be happy. Rory made you happy. I know you miss her. I'm sure you two could work things out. You two are perfect for each other. Have you talked to her?"

"Oh, look at the time. Gotta run. I have work to do." He was not going to rise to Honor's bait. He was not going to answer her question; it would only encourage her. And he did not want to go down that road.

"It's 6:45 in the morning there, Logan!" She scoffed.

"And I have lots of work to catch up on. Colin and Finn just left this morning."

"Speaking of Colin and Finn, aren't they friends with Rory? Maybe they—," She didn't like to give up.

"Honor!" He said sharply. "That's enough. I'm not going to talk about this with you."

She harrumphed. "Fine, if you insist."

"I do." He loved his sister dearly, but sometimes she just didn't know when to quit.

"I just want what's best for you Logan."

"I know. I promise, I'm good." He glanced at his watch. He really needed to get off the phone if he was going to get any work done before others got into the office. "Hey, I really do need to work. And I bet Josh could use some help with the massive amounts of baby things you need to bring with you to the Vineyard."

She laughed heartily. "Oh Logan, I'm a woman. I leave the heavy lifting for you strapping young men."

"Right. How could I forget?" He grinned. "Have fun this weekend and I can't wait to see all the pictures. My nephew is rather photogenic. He got that from his uncle too."

"He gets that from his mother!" She said indignantly. "Anyway, we'll have a great time. I'll tell you all about it next week. I'll let you get to work now. I love you, little brother."

"Love you too, sis. Bye."

"Bye!" She said breezily and then the line went dead.

He threw his phone onto his desk; it made a loud clattering noise as it skidded across the surface and halted just before the opposite edge. He wearily leaned forward in his chair. Placing his elbows on his desk he dropped his head onto his left hand and dragged his right hand through his all ready artfully mussed hair.

Are you happy? Honor's question reverberated in his head. He hadn't really ever taken the time to think about it, at least not since he had left everything he'd ever known. And now that Honor had posed the question, he wasn't sure he could qualify himself as happy. Three years ago, before Rory had turned down his marriage proposal and he had walked away from her, he would have unequivocally said yes. But now, he wasn't sure.

He missed the East Coast. He had lived and worked in San Francisco for the last three years, but it had never felt like home. He wondered if what San Francisco had represented for him initially – the beginning of the rest of his life with Rory and freedom from his father – had prevented him from truly embracing everything it had to offer. Or perhaps he just wasn't a West Coaster. Sure he had the whole golden tan, blonde hair, laid back attitude thing going on, but if he really thought about it he had never really adapted completely to the West Coast mentality.

He missed the newspaper business. He was successful at his job with the internet company, but he couldn't deny that it didn't inspire in him the same passion and excitement as the world of journalism did. Honor was right. As much as he had tried to deny it, had tried to run away from it, he knew it was where he belonged. He had an innate ability for it and as his father had constantly reminded him, it was his birthright. But he hadn't wanted it on his father's terms and he wasn't sure how to make his way back to it without giving into his father. And as a Huntzberger, there was certainly no way he could ever work for anyone else in the business.

He missed his family. He had always been extremely close to his sister, Honor. And until Rory, she had been the only person in his life to love and support him unconditionally. She encouraged him, she picked him up when he was down, she helped get him out of his numerous scrapes, and she told him when he was being an idiot. He counted on her and she counted on him. His small family had extended slightly when Honor married Josh and with the addition of their son Ethan to the fold. He was a doting uncle. Unfortunately he didn't see them very often, but Honor kept him updated with plenty of e-mails and phone calls.

Sometimes, he even missed his father. It amazed him that it had taken him walking away from Huntzberger Publishing Group, denying his preordained destiny, for his father to grow to respect him as both a business man and his son. His father had shown up at his office in San Francisco several months after his arrival asking to go to lunch. Logan had been weary, but had grudgingly accepted the invitation, curious as to what could possibly bring his father across the country to him. The beginning of the lunch had been strained and then his father had flabbergasted him by blurting out he was proud of him. Logan had been so surprised he had choked on the sip of scotch he had taken. Apparently, that had broken the ice because both he and his father had laughed. Their relationship was still far from perfect, but at least they had one that wasn't based on mutual loathing and disappointment.

He missed Colin and Finn. He hadn't really made any close friends in San Francisco. He had a few co-workers that he would on occasion go out with, but the relationships were mostly superficial. Colin and Finn were like brothers to him and their lack of presence in his daily life was deeply felt. Of course, it had been him who packed up and put a whole country between them, so he had no one to blame but himself. And now they both lived and worked in New York City together and were friends with Rory.

At first when Colin and Finn had approached him about their relationship with Rory, he had been hurt, angry, and maybe a little jealous. But Colin and Finn hadn't really asked his permission whether they could be friends or not. They had told him out of courtesy and respect for their oldest friend that was what they were going to do and he in the long run had appreciated their honesty with him. He knew deep down that Colin and Finn were still loyal to him and always would be, but it had certainly stung a bit in the beginning and maybe it still did. They were close and he was well aware of it. And she got to spend far more time with them than he did. As much as he may have wanted to at one point, he couldn't begrudge any of them that relationship. It was far too important to all of them.

And God help him, he missed Rory. After she had turned down his marriage proposal, he had packed up and moved to San Francisco and thrown himself into work. He spent over a year working eighty plus hours a week all in an effort to forget her. It hadn't worked. He tried dating, but no one held his interest for long. He couldn't even use mindless sex to forget. Sex just wasn't the same with someone you didn't love and he had learned his lesson the hard way with the bridesmaid incident years ago. He refused to go down that path again.

Rory had represented to him everything he never thought he would have – love, a family, home – and he found that he couldn't settle for anything less. And as much as his sister insisted they were perfect for each other and could work things out, he just didn't foresee that ever happening. He imagined he might never find what he had with Rory ever again, although that pained him to admit. She had opened up so many doors and possibilities to him, shown him a different side of life, a side of life he had lost along with her.

He hazarded his sister had been right when she called him on his lie. He wasn't happy and he wasn't sure there was anything he could do about it.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly, glancing at his watch. It was a just after four in the afternoon. He had been working non-stop all day; he hadn't even taken time out for lunch. And unfortunately, he still had hours of work in front of him. First though, he needed to prepare for his meeting in a few minutes.

He was gathering some notes he needed, when he was interrupted by the buzzing of the intercom on his office phone. "Logan?"

"Yes, Abigail." Abigail Smith was his secretary. She had been with him since he started his job in San Francisco and they had a great relationship. She was middle-aged, married, and a mother of two who couldn't help but try to mother him as well.

"I have your father on the phone." She said tentatively.

Logan groaned internally. He really didn't have time for his father right now. "Tell him I'm in a meeting, Abigail." It was almost the truth. He had one shortly.

"I did. He said it's urgent and demanded that I interrupt you." He could hear the frustration in her voice and could easily imagine his father's commanding nature.

He sighed. He might as well just deal with whatever his father needed now or he'd never hear the end of it. "Put him through."

He didn't want to argue with his father, but he needed to be firm enough with him to actually make him realize he was busy and he couldn't just interrupt him at his pleasure. He was his son, not his employee, at least not anymore. He took a deep breath before he picked up the ringing phone.

"Huntzberger."

"Logan, son." His father greeted.

"Dad, I'm in the middle of a meeting. What do you need?" He winced slightly at his harsh tone of voice. So, maybe he could act like less of an ass.

"Logan…" His father's voice sounded pained. Logan stiffened in his chair, his back ramrod straight.

He knew his father was having some heart problems his doctor was worried about. "Dad, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Concern laced his voice.

"I'm fine, Logan." He didn't sound all that convincing.

"Is everything all right with mom?" He queried. He wasn't close to his mother at all, in fact their relationship was downright frosty right now, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be worried if something was wrong with her.

"Your mother's fine." His father sounded gruff, almost as if he was choking back tears, but that couldn't be. His father never cried.

"Then what's going on dad?" If his father was so upset about it, maybe he didn't want to know.

"Logan," He hesitated, "It's your sister."

"What?!" He had just spoken with Honor that morning. She seemed fine then.

"Honor and Josh were on their way to Martha's Vineyard for a long weekend."

"Yeah, I know that." He didn't understand.

"It was raining. The roads were slippery…There was an accident, Logan."

His chest hurt. "Is she okay?"

"Son, they didn't make it."

"They didn't make it to the Vineyard?" He prayed that is what his father meant. He needed that to be what his father meant.

"No, well yes, they didn't make it to the Vineyard, but that's not what I meant." Mitchum paused, not wanting to voice what he knew his son feared hearing. He took a deep breath. "Josh died on impact. They found Honor alive, but…they tried to save her, but there was just too much internal bleeding."

"Oh God." He squeezed his eyes shut, tears involuntarily leaking out. It sounded like a freight train was rushing through his head. His eyes snapped back open, anger surging through him. "How could this happen? This isn't fair! Why Honor? And Josh? And oh God….Ethan? What about Ethan? He was supposed to be with them. Is he…." He couldn't finish.

Mitchum didn't have answers to all his questions; he wished he did. He had never heard his son so distraught. His job as a father was to comfort his only remaining child, but he wasn't sure how he'd be able to do that when he was grieving for his daughter. "Ethan was in the car, but his car seat protected him from the brunt of the impact. He has a few scratches and bruises, but he should be okay. The hospital is keeping him overnight for observation."

Logan breathed out a fleeting sigh of relief. Moments later he felt the anguish wash over him again, threatening to overwhelm him. He needed to focus on something other than the immense pain. He couldn't allow it to overwhelm him. "I'll have my secretary book me the first flight home I can get. I need to clear my schedule. I—,"

"Logan, STOP! For just a moment."

"I can't, dad. I need to do something. Anything! I can't just sit here." He got up from his chair and started pacing.

"Son, I all ready have the private jet at the closest airstrip waiting for you. One of my executives is out there on business, so the jet was there. Just go there. Have your secretary clear your schedule. That's what she's there for."

"Okay, I can do that." At least he hoped so. Maybe he'd take a taxi. He wasn't sure he was capable of driving right now. Or maybe he needed to drive so he had something to focus on other than his aching heart.

"Logan, I'm sorry." His father said gruffly.

"Yeah…yeah." He whispered. He didn't know what to say or think, "Yeah, me too…"

"I'll see you in a few hours." His father gritted out and then abruptly hung up the phone.

"Bye." Logan choked out at the dial tone ringing in his ear.

He set the phone down gently in its cradle, staring unblinkingly at the windows in front of him, and then in fit of rage swept the phone off his desk and watched it smash into pieces against the wall.

He could barely breathe.

Author's Note II: Please, please don't kill me! I know this is really depressing right now, but it's necessary for the plot of my story. I promise I'm not killing off minor characters just for the hell of it. I also promise that eventually this story will be happy; it's just going to take a bit to get there. I've set a goal of posting a chapter once a week, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep that up. It's looking good right now though. Also, I'm going to leave the rating T for right now, but in a few chapters I'm probably going to have to raise the rating to M. Just a fair warning.

I hope I didn't offend anybody with my West Coast comments. I've never been there, so I have no first hand knowledge. I've always wanted to go though. I've heard it's awesome! I was just using a general stereotype to my advantage.

Next chapter might find Logan and Rory in the same space! Isn't that exciting?!

Oh, and reviews/constructive criticism are much appreciated!