AN: Um… Where have all the Sophie's gone? It's a pretty dismal time for R/L shippers. I mean, there have been more Trory fic lately and lets be honest… it's not even a canon ship. So follows the next installment of B+H, I was going to wait another few days but the situation on sucks so much that I'm caving. I hope you enjoy it, finally some Logan/Rory interaction.
Incase you haven't noticed, every chapter is named after one of my favorite songs. A cookie for the person who can tell me the band who sings this chapters namesake.
Also I have a question. Does anybody know why the R/L ship is named 'Sophie'?
Anyway, hope you enjoy.
He grinned at her as she hovered at the entrance of the room, the smile reaching up to crinkle the corners of his dark eyes. Rory smiled softly back at him, nervously nibbling on her bottom lip as she waited for the silence to be broken.
They both waited motionlessly for the stalemate to shatter and under semi-lowered lashes she studied him, reveling in his animation. He was still awfully pale, a deathly, off pallor that still scared her despite the fact he was awake; dark circles had tattooed themselves under his eyes and he had lost weight from his trim body he couldn't afford to loose. He looked like crap, in a word, but if nothing else he was definitely alive. Already Rory could see the colour begin to return to his lips and under layers of fatigue and pain a familiar twinkle had returned in his eyes.
"Hey…" Logan began tentatively, and with little surprise Rory recognized actual nervousness in his movements. "You're here."
"Yep."
"And this isn't some nice morphine induced hallucination?"
Rory giggled, her laughter high and shrill. "Nope. I'm the genuine article."
"Always." There was an awkward pause as Logan's eyes followed the space between her and his bed. "Are you just going to stand there? I don't bite you know."
Rory stepped forward quickly, pulling one of the tacky hospital chairs next to the bed. She slumped in it with a soft moan of relief.
"Hospitals suck."
"I am so there with you Ace."
Her eyes lingered a moment too long on the wires and machines they had attached him to, and when her own blue eyes slid to meet his dark ones Rory flushed in embarrassment. Logan's gaze darted away, and his own embarrassment colored his cheeks. Rory stared at him, unsure of how to act. The sheepishness in his posture, his shame as he glanced at the things tying him to his bed, weak, alone, Rory had a feeling she was seeing Logan Huntzberger in a rare moment of actual vulnerability. She did a mental step back and smiled at him softly.
"So?" Her lips twisted into a smirk. "Fallen off any good cliffs lately?"
Logan reached for Rory's hand, and pressed it against his chest. Amongst his slightly-too weak-for-comfort grip she felt his heart beat. His own mouth twisted into a half smile.
"Rory…" Rory swallowed, uncomfortable with the thick tension between them. Gently she pulled herself out of his grip, folding her hands in her lap. "I-I'm sorry about all this."
"It's not your fault."
He grimaced at her theatrically.
"It was."
"Yeah." She admitted coyly. "Maybe a little."
He looked at her intently, and Rory shook off the feeling he was studying her for a reaction, or perhaps waiting for her to say more. She knew that he wanted her to bring up the obvious, and she also knew he probably didn't want to bring it up himself. Rory reached absently for her temples, the beginning of a headache still lingered there and was easier to deal with then the big, fat elephant in the room.
She opened her mouth but he cut her off.
"I didn't expect you to be here."
Rory swallowed audibly and shifted so that she had furthered herself from him. She ducked her head sheepishly, unwilling to let Logan see the hurt which had gathered in her eyes. She knew that she was probably misinterpreting his words, but they still felt like a slap in the face.
"Colin rang."
"I'm not sorry you're here Ace. Just surprised."
She looked up at him cautiously, trying to scope out his thoughts by the smooth features of his expression. Rory cursed Logan's uncanny ability to hide his emotions; he may as well have been made of marble. She shrugged with feigned apathy.
"It wasn't a big deal."
"It must have been a little bit of a deal. I mean you had to come all the way to Manhattan."
"You're right." She commented dryly. "I'm heaven bound. An angel. A dove. Worship me unworthy mortal."
Logan made a face and poked her childishly in the rib. He cackled loudly when she pouted at him prettily.
"You think you're so cute don't you."
"I am undeniably adorable, yes."
He grinned obnoxiously at her, and Rory felt her stomach flip flop at the affection in her ex boyfriends gaze. She suddenly felt very warm.
"It's good to see you Ace."
Even if it only lasted a minute, Rory thought that this moment that she spent staring into Logan's eyes, clouded with some ineffable emotion, might have been a perfect one. She wanted to lean forward and close the gap between them, press her lips against his and taste him again. Instead she smiled shyly and slipped her hand back into his.
"I know. Me too."
Logan squeezed her hand and Rory leaned against the bed, her hair brushing against his knuckles. She traced circles, stars and love hearts on the metal frame of the bed, her eyes averted from his. They sat there silently, hands entwined, each alone in their thoughts.
Logan was first to break the comfortable silence.
"So where are my better halves? They send me off a cliff and don't even bother to wake me up when I land. Typical."
Rory brought her hand to her forehand with a smack, in the process ripping it from Logan's. She groaned.
"Damn it. I told them I'd ring."
She pushed herself from her chair and clambered to her clutch, pulling out her cell.
"I mean I was so caught up in you waking up and I didn't want you to be alone, so it completely slipped my mind. And of course I haven't seen the idiots since this morning, when Finn gave me coffee and raced off to his, and I quote, 'class'."
Logan raised his eyebrow in disbelief.
"Uh… Finn? Class?"
"I know!" Rory waved her phone in the air in emphasis. "Does not compute with any previous information I have on Finn and Colin either. But no, off they go on the day their best-est buddy falls off a cliff. But I have to ring them right? Because they rang me when…"
She trailed off as her eyes fell on Logan's amused expression, and slowly her manic phone hand lowered itself to her side.
"You don't have to call them." He told her gently. She shook her head sheepishly and shrugged.
"I know, but I'm gonna anyway."
She exhaled wearily and slumped back into her chair, her phone abandoned in her lap. Logan raised his hand nervously; tentatively he pushed a strand of hair from her face.
"You look tired." He said. Rory rubbed her temples tiredly and nodded.
"It's been a long forty eight hours."
For the first time in the last twelve hours of madness, Rory registered her physical state. She was beyond tired, beyond exhausted, for the past two days she had given everything she had to looking after her loved ones. She'd been damage control for her mother, Logan, Lane, her father, Colin and Finn and she could feel the evidence in her stiff, weighted limbs. She was still dressed in the dress she had worn to Lane's wedding; her coat and shoes had been abandoned outside. The make up that had been painstakingly applied before the wedding was smudged and dripping, smudged mascara framing red eyes as a tribute to her tears. Her lips had been bitten raw in the wait for Logan to gain consciousness, her hair ruffled from her hands running through it in agitation.
She was a mess. The sum of hours of family, fear, love, hate, alcohol and hospital waiting rooms. Suddenly Rory wished she had thought to run a brush through her hair before being the first thing Logan woke up to.
"I'm sorry." She said apologetically. "I-I came straight from Lane's wedding so I know I'm a bit of a mess."
Logan's eyebrows shot up towards his hairline.
"Are you apologizing? Really?"
"Yes."
"Stop it." Logan tucked the wayward hair behind Rory's ear and smiled at her gently.
"You look beautiful."
Rory twisted her face into a mask of obvious disbelief.
"Well I guess every Frankenstein needs his Bride, right?"
Logan laughed, and Rory smiled softly. Her heart had fluttered at her accidental use of them in a couple, despite the fact it had been so trivial. He sobered as he focused on her, his brown eyes hardening seriously as her took her wrist.
"Ace, you should book into a hotel or something. I'll be fine. You on the other hand look like you're going to drop dead with exhaustion. You're no good to me in a hospital bed Ace."
"Bu-"
"I'll be fine!"
"I-"
"Fine!"
Rory poked her tongue out at him.
"I'll just stay until Colin and Finn return. Then I'll scoot into the nearest travel lodge that I can find." She bargained. Logan opened his mouth but she shut him down with a glare and the boy slumped resignedly. "I promise!"
"Fine, but no complaining when they turn up."
Rory's face hardened in irritation and Logan smirked at her.
"And you're calling them now."
"Aw." She pouted. "Won't you miss me?"
"Horribly." He drawled, yet even Rory saw the truth in his eyes. "Call them Ace. Don't make me drag my sorry ass out of this bed and make you."
She grinned and held up her phone obligingly. "I wouldn't want that."
He was quiet as she dutifully punched in Colin's number, and Rory shifted nervously as the fragile compromise of the room stretched and bended under another uncomfortable silence. She wondered briefly if she ever would be completely at ease around him, perhaps they just weren't meant to have that kind of relationship. Of course that raised the question over what kind of relationship they actually did have… Colin's voice pulled her violently from her musings.
"Hel-God damn it! Finn!"
Logan snickered softly as Colin's voice traveled from Rory's cell; Rory clumsily covered her own snort with a hasty cough.
"Right turn! Right turn!"
There was a muffled growl, a screech of tyres and Rory sighed impatiently.
"Right, sorry. Hey Rory."
"Hey Colin. Bad time?"
"Life is pretty much a bad time when I choose to get into a moving vehicle with Finn. Do you need something?"
Rory rolled her eyes at Logan and he smirked at his friend's obnoxiousness.
"Yes actually." She snapped, glaring at the fidgeting blonde. "Logan's woken up. Where the hell are you?"
"Oh!" Colin perked up. "The Huntz awakes."
"He does."
"And you've… talked to him. He's ok and everything."
Rory glance wearily at Logan, who smile gently and nodded.
"Yeah, I've talked to him and he's fine."
There was a long, pregnant pause and Rory wondered if Colin was waiting for her to say more.
"I mean…" She continued clumsily. "His lung collapsed and he's got some pretty ugly-"
"Was it a good talk?" Colin asked suddenly. Rory did a literal double take and looked at her phone in bemusement.
"Huh?"
"The talk." Colin strung out slowly. "Was it good? Did you guys talk about… good things?"
Rory frowned, unsure how to answer.
"It was… fine."
"Fine? Fine as in…"
Rory's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "As in fine. What's this about?"
"Ask her if he kissed her!"
Rory's frown deepened as she heard Finn in the background. She felt heat rise to her face as she caught Logan's eye.
"Did he-"
"No!"
"I'm just asking."
"Don't!"
There was another pause and Rory strained to hear the muffled voices on the other end.
"Can you just give us a moment, Rory?"
Rory glared heatedly at Logan, who was obviously struggling to withhold his laughter. She pressed the phone against her chest.
"I can't believe you sucked me into this conversation." She hissed. Logan simply smiled and indicated for her to put the phone back on her ear.
"Rory?"
"Yes, Colin?" Rory replied through grit teeth.
"We'll be there soon."
Rory exhaled in relief. "How soon?"
"Fifteen minutes. We're just entering Manhattan now."
"Good." She growled. "Thank all that is holy. Can I hang up now?"
She had never been so happy to hear a dial tone in her life.
--
True to their word Colin and Finn burst through the door fifteen minutes later. Rory and Logan looked up with identical exasperation as Finn all but fell through the threshold and threw himself at Logan's bed.
"My friend!" He cried. "My son! My darling!"
Rory jumped out of the way as Finn threw his arms around Logan's head. Safely landing far from reaching distance, she chuckled heartily as Logan squeaked with indignation.
"Finn! Head!"
"Oh…" Finn released Logan and grimaced sheepishly. "Sorry Mate."
"I'm sure."
On the other side of the room, Colin apparently judged it safe to join the fray and dumped his load of bags into Rory's hands.
"For you." He told her absently, already in the motions of greeting his friend. Rory rolled her eyes.
"For me?"
Realizing that getting any kind of reaction from Colin in the near future was futile, Rory exhaled heavily and retreated to a chair in the far corner of the room, content to watch the three boys happily reacquaint themselves. She felt her own features soften as she watched Logan's light up, revived liveliness in his banter and a strong spark of life in his dark eyes.
"…You made Pat McCormick look like an amateur. I mean even with the blood and the screaming and the incoherent babbling I still give you a ten for sheer flair!"
"…And of course those nasty
nurses…"
"Wouldn't sleep with you?"
"Inconceivable! I ask you!
Nether the less they would not release a single crumb of
information."
"We had a plan though…"
There was strong overpowering relief flooding through her veins now, but also to her shame something akin to envy. She wondered if people had seen the same spark of life in Logan's eyes when he had talked with her, the same buzz of youth when he had kissed her or touched her. She felt herself tethered to the scene in front of her, beckoned like a moth to the flame of friendship and love. More then anything, she felt herself being drawn back to Logan.
She coughed loudly and dragged herself from her reverie. In an attempt to distract her wandering mind, Rory looked again at the bags Colin had dumped in her arms. She frowned in bemusement as she recognized her own beat up carry all, which lay amongst a river of what looked like Wal-Mart bags.
"Colin?" She asked, and the boy glanced over from his friend long enough to respond.
"Yes Rory?"
"What's all this?"
Finn and Colin exchanged gleeful glances and grinned at her sheepishly.
"Well, we where at Yale anyway so we stopped by your dorm…"
"Your roommate is a peach by the way. Is she single? Nursing hell things in her belly?"
Rory glared at them both. "Why did you go to my dorm?"
Rory felt Finn's eye roam up and down her body with wiry appraisal. "No offense Love, but I don't think the clothes you're wearing are gonna hold up much longer."
Rory looked down at her stained dress and flushed.
"I-"
"…And we weren't sure how long you'd be staying." Colin continued hurriedly, shooting an ugly look at Finn. "So we picked up enough clothes for… a week?"
Rory was suddenly hyper aware of three sets of eyes studying her for an answer. Nervously her gaze flickered across the room until it met with Logan's. His eyebrow inched up questioningly, and in that moment Rory vowed not to give him an answer.
"Thanks." She croaked finally, feigning indifference towards the sudden tension in the room. "So what's in the other bags?"
Colin picked up one of the plastic bags and passed it to her with a grin.
"We remembered your infamous appetite and thought maybe once you're done gagging on the hospital stuff you'd like some actual food."
"Ooh" Rory squealed, poking her nose into the bag inquisitively. "Thank you!"
Logan frowned and craned his neck, trying to get a better look at the bag.
"Do I get food?"
"No." Rory snapped hugging the bag close to her. "Get your own food."
Colin snatched up one of the smaller bags with a grin and offered it to Logan.
"We did pick you up a little something."
With a flourish and a wicked smile, Colin slowly drew a bottle of bourbon from the plastic bag. The three boys all turned to Rory as her jaw dropped and she gaped at them.
"Um, No?" She spat, grabbing the bottle from Colin's hands.
"Hey…" Logan pouted, his faux disappointment hiding his laughter. "I didn't take your stuff. Be fair Gilmore."
"No!" Rory waved her finger at them vehemently. "No. No. No. No. Bad boys!" She turned on Colin, who took a step back with fear in his eyes. "What the hell are you thinking?"
"It was a joke." Colin told her weakly. "It's just ice tea."
Rory's eyes widened and she turned to Logan and Finn who where chortling wickedly. She rolled her eyes at them both.
"Anyway…" Colin continued, hurrying to direct the conversation into safer areas. "I actually did bring some stuff for Logan that's on the approved Rory list."
He dumped the contents of the bag in his hands into Logan's lap. Rory craned curiously as she watched a trove of DVD's and a personal DVD player tumbled out. Also among the goodies, she noticed, was a copy of Fight Club, a Playboy magazine, a packet of Red Vines and a Game-boy with it's own entourage of games. Logan pulled out the magazine and looked at Colin wirily, his eyebrow raised in bemusement.
"That was Finn's idea." Colin told him dryly. "I told him to forget it, but…"
Finn clapped Logan on the shoulder heartily. Rory stiffened slightly as she saw Logan wince.
"Thank me later, Mate."
"Oh don't worry, I will." Logan told him calmly, a twisted smile across his face, "Don't you worry about that."
Rory laughed aloud, and Logan turned to her suddenly, his smile straightening seriously into a straight line.
"And you!" He announced
severely. "Don't think I forgot about your promise little Miss
Death-Warmed-Over
She gazed at him with wide eyed innocence.
"What promise?"
Logan glared at her.
"You need sleep. You need food. You need to get out of this hospital for more then five minutes."
Despite her first instincts to stay as close as humanly possible to Logan, Rory could already feel unconsciousness threatening to pull her away. As if in response to Logan's accusing Rory fought back a yawn.
"Fine." She told him reluctantly. "Fine! I'm going! Watch me walk out the door."
She still had to find somewhere to stay, Rory realized with a badly disguised groan. Suddenly the urge to just crash down in a soft bed was overwhelming and Rory fought back another wave of fatigue as she contemplated searching New York for suitable accommodation. Then with another unpleasant dip of her stomach she contemplated what this trip would do to her finances.
She reached for her bags wearily, and addressed the room with a small wave and a tired smile.
"See you boys tomorrow then."
She turned to leave but Colin stopped her, expectantly clearing his throat.
"Rory? You forgot the key."
She frowned, her mind blank.
"The key?"
Colin reached into his coat "Don't worry. The room, it has a lock."
"Oh." Rory said breathlessly, surprised by Colin and Finn's thoughtfulness. "Thanks, but you…"
"It's a four bedroom suite anyway." Finn interjected blithely. "So it's not like you denying us will make any less of a dent in our trust funds."
Rory rolled her eyes, but reached out and accepted the keys to the suite.
"Thank you." She repeated sincerely. "I'll pay you back I sw-"
"Ace!" Logan interrupted her impatiently. "Can you just accept this gift and move your keister. Sleep! Eat! Refrain from dropping dead!"
Rory would have been offended at his dismissal of her, had she not seen the mirth and concern dancing in his eyes. She reached for his hand, gripping it for a second before letting it fall limply out of her hold. She smiled.
"Be well." She told him seriously, dimly aware of Finn and Colin's eyes on her back, but hyper aware of those linked with her own cerulean ones.
"I will be." He promised. "And you… you'll be back?"
Rory heard the soft desperation behind his bravado; the soft, thick trickle of fear or yearning amongst his assurance.
"Until you don't want me to." She told him softly, patting him on the shoulder.
She felt his smile on her back like warm sunlight as she left the room. Rory smiled too as she strolled down the sterile, off white corridors of the hospital, leaving the building with a new sense of hope, renewed happiness that had not existed when she had entered.
--
The bed Colin and Finn had brought for her was the most softest and most compelling Rory had ever fallen into, especially after fifty hours of catnaps and coffee. The Plaza, of course, was beautiful, yet in her fatigue Rory hardly noticed it. She dumped her bags haphazardly in her room, which segregated from a common room or living area that would be able to swallow her Stars Hollow home, and fell into the bed with a moan of relief.
And yet sleep refused to come, despite how heavy her eyelids where. Instead she lay with her eyes closed in a foreign bed, in full consciousness.
He haunted her. Logan with all his Huntzberger glory and destiny, it hadn't saved him from looking so vulnerable in that bed, so… lifeless. Being rich and important, young and seemingly immortal hadn't stopped him from being inevitably so completely the opposite. Him being in that bed, the man who had taught her how to jump into life, had broken her heart and scared her to her bones; and the worst, scariest thing was that she knew all those feelings didn't come from their history. No, if Rory was going to be completely honest she knew that those old feelings where returning with a vengeance. In matter of fact, if anything, her heart proved the old proverb true; absence really had made the heart fonder. As she had sat by his bedside, waiting for him to breathe on his own, open his eyes, smile; it had been all Rory could do not to kneel by Logan's bed and pray. Beg someone anyone, beg Logan, beg fate to bring him back to her for their second chance.
Yet even as she had battled those impulses she had still been unsure. It was one thing for Rory to love Logan, quite another for her to act on that impulse again. She wouldn't forget the pain of being burnt by him, being dismissed with out thought. She was of course hesitant by nature, a thinker, a debater, a procrastinator, she wasn't the girl who followed her heart, not when he mind served her so well, and Logan was… well Logan was something else entirely, a paradox and an antithesis of her world, the poster child of a world in which she didn't (or perhaps refused) to belong.
Rory didn't know if she could trust Logan with her heart again, she wasn't sure if she was willing to take that step.
Yet, as the minutes lengthened and the arms of the clock ticked away, Rory felt her heartbeat slow and sleep impend. As the world simplified to basic human instinct and Rory balanced on the ledge above sleep, it was hard not to imagine his arms around her, his voice beckoning her home. As sleep finally claimed her, she didn't remember him walking away, but fell into her deep sleep with his name on her lips, and the memory of his body against hers pressing painfully against her heart.
