The Reigning Huntzberger
A/N: I'm glad everyone still seems to be enjoying the story, so please keep reviewing, I love feedback of all sorts! I didn't realise at the time the uproar I was going to cause with Logan having his arm around a blonde in the newpaper picture. The sort of semi-cliffhanger wasn't supposed to be 'Oh no, is Logan cheating on Rory?' it was just supposed to be about the article in general. So sorry for that and that it took me so long to update...and that despite that nothing happens in this chapter. Anyway, on we go!
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Chapter 4: We Got Us A Luke's Coffee Virgin!
Logan scanned through the article in front of him; to say this was not good was quite the understatement. The article outlined some of Logan's less reputable acts, his numerous arrests for a variety of offences, his love for alcohol fueled parties and most pedominantly his womanising. Frowning as he read through the article, he finally looked up and tuned into the conversation that was happening around him. Apparently while Logan had been wrapped up in reading the newspaper piece, Elias had been ranting to the rest of the family while paraphrasing the article. When the first words Logan actually heard were "dope den," he tuned out again and looked back at the picture. He let out a groan as he realised what had caused this phrase to come from his grandfather's lips. Behind him and the blonde, you could easily make out a group of guys sitting at a table with a bong in the middle. Upon closer inspection Logan recognised one of the guys as Robert, 'Wow, I really do hate that guy,' Logan realised. He then cringed when he noticed the the caption under the picutre which read, 'College buffoon becomes newspaper tycoon.' They were not even going to use decent writers to ruin him.
"Logan are you alright?" Rory's voice brought him fully out of his trance this time, "You look kind of pale."
"Water," croaked Logan, "Can someone please get me some water."
"Martha!" hollered Shira. "We need some water!"
Rory lifted the paper from in front of Logan and scanned through the article for herself, sure that Elias must have been exaggerating. "This is bad," said Rory, passing the paper to Shira as she realised that for once Elias had not done any embellishing, there was no need.
"You haven't even so much as set a foot inside one of Mitchum's offices yet and you have already started running the company into the ground!" yelled Elias.
"Hey, back off!" said Rory firmly.
"You can't talk to me like that!" said Elias indignantly. "What are you even still doing here?"
"Apparently I'm defending your grandson," said Rory. "You just need to calm down so we can all take time to proccess this, rationally assess the situation and then decide on the best course of action."
"Who do you think you are?" asked Elias, clearly outraged. "You are not even a member of this family, you can't tell me what to do."
"Excuse me," said Shira, getting up suddenly and heading out of the room.
"Sit down grandpa," said Honor, recognising that things were beginning to get out of control. "And mom get back in here!"
"Just a minute!" said Shira, popping her head around the corner.
"Just this once stress smoke in here," said Honor. "We'll pretend we don't know about it and I'll share an ashtray with you 'cause God knows I could do with one. Besides, Rory's right, we need to talk about this."
Shira slowly came back into the room, hesitantly puffing on her cigarette while the maid poured Logan some water which he gulped down. Everyone at the table watched him, waiting for him to say or do something. He looked around at them; his mother was nervously smoking, Elias was glaring at him, Honor looked wary, Josh looked uncomfortable and Rory . . . "Oh my God Rory," said Logan, snapping out of it. "That picture, it's old, it was taken last summer before we were together, hell before I even met you! I'm not entrely sure though, I don't have a vivid recollection of that particular night, or even that particular blonde and I. . ."
"Logan stop," said Rory, seeing how distressed he already was, "It's OK, I believe you."
Logan gave a sigh of relief and flashed her a grateful smile.
"Logan it is exaclty these sort of nights and women that you have no recollection of that have landed us in this situation," said Elias.
"'Us?" asked Logan. "I don't exactly remember your name being slandered in the paper grandpa."
"It's not slander when it is all true," retorted Elias.
For once Logan had no comeback, Elias was right, it was all true, there was nothing they could do legally to get the paper to print a retraction though he did personally feel that the author of the photograph's tagline should be hunted down and shot. "So what can we do about this?" asked Logan, feeling horribly out of his depth.
"Maybe if you had attended more meetings or actually went to any of your classes you might know," said Elias snidely.
"Elias, you're not helping," commented Shira, burning her way down to the end of the cigarette before fumbling to lift another out of the packet. "I can't believe any reporter would be so cruel to do this, we only buried Mitchum yesterday!"
"That's the press for you," said Josh.
"It's The Hartford Tribune, they write so much crap they are practically a tabloid masquerading as a decent paper. They consider themselves our competition mom," said Logan. "They are probably jumping at the chance to discredit me and the entire Huntzberger Publishing Group. This is the paper who devoted several column inches to the boat sinking incident."
"I never knew you were so news worthy," remarked Rory.
"Well when the son of a newspaper magnet spends his teenage and college years building an inappropriate reputation for himself, rival newspapers like their readers to know about it," said Elias. "When that son takes over and becomes the head of the company well he goes from being in the odd column to a full page article."
"Grandpa you need to sit down," said Honor.
"Well which article would you prefer to read?" asked Elias. "The tributes to the memory of Mitchum with details of yesterday's service like the ones that are currently featuring in our papers or the exposé on the new head of Huntzberger publishing?"
"Well we'll just get one of our papers to write something that contradicts this article," said Logan. "You know talking about how the family are dealing with it, how I'm jumping into things to assure we maintain the same level of journalism to honour dad's memory, that sort of thing."
"And how exactly are you 'jumping in'?" asked Elias.
"I guess I'm just going to follow the plans that dad already had laid out for me for the upcoming year. I'm going to spend a lot of my summer learning the ropes, getting a feel for the business," Logan told him, a reluctant expression oh his face. "While working on graduating from Yale, I'll keep working at the part time, appointing someone else to fill in when I'm not there. Once I have my degree I will start work full time and try to carry on."
"That sounds like a good plan," said Rory, squeezing his hand encouragingly. It was only beginning to sink in how much repsonsibility had landed on Logan's shoulders. After spending his entire life shirking off duties and responsibilty he was finally going to have to do all the things he had avoided for so long and she felt sorry for him.
Elias merely grunted before leaving the dining room. "Well aren't we glad we decided to come over for a nice peaceful breakfast," said Honor, breaking the tension.
"Yep, another happy Huntzberger family meal," said Logan, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I'm going to call some of dad's people about this, see if there is any other sort of damage control they can do."
"Sweetheart," said Shira. "They are your people now."
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Rory was hunched over her books in her dorm, frantically trying to cram in some revision before her last final. With the hecticness of the past few weeks she had been left with very little time and as it was, she was finding it very difficult to concentrate. Her mind kept drifting and she kept questioning if this is what she wanted out of life, to work towards being a foreign correspondent and doing that work was proving to be very difficult with Mitchum Huntzberger's words swirling around in her ears. She knew it was stupid to let one person's opinion effect her like this, when everyone else had made a point of telling her that he was wrong but she could not help it, he had gotten to her. She still planned to try and find an internship at another paper over the summer but not being able to keep her focus was making her wonder if this was the right thing to do. Her lack of revision was interrupted by a knock on the door.
She got up to answer it, smiling in surprise when she saw Logan on the other side. "Hey Ace," he said, kissing her before walking further into her suite.
"Aren't you supposed to be in New York?" asked Rory, closing the door behind him.
"You sure know how to make a guy feel welcome," said Logan.
"You know I'm happy to see you," she said, "I'm just a little surprised seeing as I thought you were currently on a plane."
"I had to get a later flight so that I could pop by, drop in an assignment and see you of course," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Not complaining," said Rory, kissing him.
"Good to know," smiled Logan. "So do you remember that article that was in the Tribune last week?"
"The one outlining all your dirty deeds?"
"That's the one," said Logan. "Well our 'damage control' kind of backfired."
"What do you mean?" asked Rory, worried.
"Well my PR guy, yes apparently I have the need for one, thought it would be a good idea to try and set them straight by saying I was a responsible, hard working young man in a serious relationship, ready to take on everything that was expected of me... thank you, by the way, for holding back the snort that no one else bothered to refrain from," said Logan, noticing the amused smile on her face. "Well The Tribune responded with this." Logan braced himself as he pulled a newspaper out of his backpack, turning to the relevant page.
Rory's eyes widened in realisation, "That's us!" she exclaimed in horror as she saw a picture of her and Logan that was taken during the press conference she had went with him to, concerning Mitchum's passing.
"Yep," said Logan, a note of apology in his tone as he winced, waiting for more shrieks of horror.
"In the paper," Rory continued. "Why is there a picture of us in the paper?"
"Well apparently, you are cleverly planned publicity stunt to try and pretend that I am the sensible, settled man that Ron the PR guy now claims I am, after all you had no place at that conference."
"That's peposterous!" complained Rory. "I was there to support you!"
"That's what Ron is telling them, he's busy squashing this as we speak." said Logan.
Rory brought the paper closer to her face and began reading aloud, "New CEO of Huntzberger Publishing, twenty two year old Logan Huntzberger seems to have added another girl to his long and varied list of conquests. However this time, the 'lucky lady' seems to have a suspiciously untarnished reputation. The antithesis of the type of women Logan usually has on his arm, twenty year old Lorelai Gilmore, granddaughter of the prestigious Hartford Gilmores who are high up in the insurance business, is a journalist major at Yale.
I can't help but wonder if this relationship is nothing other than a ploy to convince everyone that he is the "responsible, young man" that his publicist insists he is. Unless it is a mere coincidence that just when Logan has to settle down, he finds a girl that his family would approve of and who would be the perfect newspaper man's wife."
Having read this at an alarming rate, Rory finally stopped to take a breath to allow her to rant further on the matter. "'The perfect newspaper man's wife'? What on earth are they talking about? Besides your family hates me, they should do their research! What so I come from a good family, I go to a good school, I've never been arrested and I'm not some blonde slut so obviously our relationship is a scam?"
"Pretty much," said Logan with a sigh.
"Well what kind of wacked logic is that!"
"It isn't logical," said Logan, "It's insanity. They must have had some extra space and no last minute stories about a heroric rescue of a cat from a tree."
"Well I don't see why they had to print this complete and utter nonsense," said Rory, looking back at the article. "Oh my God do I see a Tom and Katie reference coming up?"
"OK I think it's time I take that back now," said Logan, snatching the paper our of her hands before quickly putting it securely away in his backpack. "Again I repeat try not to worry, I just thought you should see it in case someone else mentioned it to your first. So are we good?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Rory assured him.
"Good 'cause I've got that plane to catch." He leant down and kissed her before heading for the door.
"Call me tonight?"
"Sure thing, later Ace," he said, as he left and Rory closed the door behind him. What a morning.
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Lorelai and Luke were enjoying a quiet Saturday night in watching movies at Lorelai's. They had already watched Willy Wonka and were about to move on to Beverly Hills Cop.
"So where's Rory tonight? Out with Logan?" asked Luke as Lorelai put the video into the machine.
"No, Logan is in New York at the moment," said Lorelai. "Rory is with Lane, saying their goodbyes before Hep Alien go on tour."
"Must be nice having her home again," said Luke.
"Yeah, it is," said Lorelai. "It's her first real summer home from college. I mean last year she was in Europe with Emily and I know that she will be busy with Logan and trying to get a summer internship but it still gives me this comforting feeling to know that she's basically mine for the next two months. We're finally getting round to having Cop Rock marathon!"
"That must be very exciting for you both," said Luke, with a complete lack of understanding. "So how are things between her and Logan, is he treating her alright?"
"If you consider inpromtu trips to Martha's Vineyard or New York or anywhere else with an airport, expensive presents and being wined and dined 'alright' then yes he is," said Lorelai.
"That's not what I meant," said Luke. "It's one thing owning a limitless platinum card it's another to be able to be a proper boyfriend. I just want to know whether or not I am going to have to pummel this kid anytime soon cause I'd like to get some training in first in case he has bodyguards on standby or something. Not that it would probably stop me, I mean if he hurts Rory it is going to take more than a few armed guards to stop me from kicking his ass." Luke squirmed uncomfortably as he noticed that Lorelai was suddenly gazing at him with a knowing smile on her face. "What?" he finally asked.
"Luke will you marry me?"
Luke felt the colour drain from his face, had she just asked what he had thought? He had better be sure. "What?"
"Luke, will you marry me?" she repeated again.
Nope, he had definitely heard it right. Was she joking? That could be it. Like the time he had proposed just to get her to shut up, after all he had been babbling for a bit. Though hadn't Lorelai expressed her love of his rants on various occassions? His heart started pounding even harder when her words sunk in and he realised that it was not a joke. He looked at her hard, noteing the twinkle of promise in her eyes and the hopeful smile on her mouth as she waited patiently for an answer. "Yes." Lorelai's smile grew even wider. "Of course I'll marry you." They shared a passionate kiss before wrapping their arms around each other in a tight embrace, both savouring the moment they had both been dreaming about for a long time.
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Rory sat on the living room sofa, in a pretty green dress, happily clicking away on her laptop. "Mom are you almost ready? Logan is going to be here any moment!" she yelled, noticing the time.
"Any moment but not this moment?" came Lorelai's voice from upstairs causing Rory to roll her eyes. They were all supposed to be going out to dinner to celebrate Luke and Lorelai's engagement but as always Lorelai had been unable to decide on an outfit, changing several times before choosing only five minutes previously, meaning she would have to do her hair and make up in record time. Knowing it would be another while yet before Lorelai made an appearance, Rory went back to typing up her resumé to send off to various papers she was hoping would consider giving her a summer internship. She felt that she had something to accomplish this summer so that when she returned to Yale in the fall she would know exactly what she was doing. Hearing a knock on the door, she put the laptop onto the coffee table and went to answer it. When Rory opened the door to find Logan standing on the otherside with an apologetic look on his face and this latest copy of The Tribune in his hands, Rory's face fell.
"What do you want first, good news or bad news?" Logan asked, walking into the house as Rory closed the door behind him.
"Good."
"Well they don't think our relationship is a sham anymore," said Logan, nodding his head positively.
"That's something," said Rory, determined to cling to this no matter what Logan told her next. "And the bad?"
"They think we are married."
"WHAT!"
"Apparently we eloped within the last month, an act of rebellion on my behalf just to piss off my father."
"Where the hell did they get that idea?" asked Rory.
"Some inside source from the hospital supposedly," said Logan. "They liked this new angle and went with it."
Rory frowned at this and chewed nervously on her lip, "The hospital?"
"Yeah, apparently someone who worked there told them you were my wife. Honestly the things people will do for money!" said Logan, with a look of disgust on his face.
Rory's face fell, "Uh Logan?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't be mad," she started, an apologetic look on her face. "But when Josh called me to say your dad had died he told me the only way I was going to get into the hospital was if I was family, so when I got to the front desk I said I was Rory Gilmore-Huntzberger, Mitchum's daughter in law."
"You did what?" asked Logan, a confused look on his face. "Are you saying they actually had a reliable source on this?"
"Sort of," said Rory, squirming. "I am so, so sorry Logan, I didn't think anything of it at the time."
"It's OK," said Logan quietly. "Ron is in full squash mode anyway."
"I'm sorry," said Rory, feeling bad.
"No worries Ace," Logan smiled at her. "You took it better than I thought anyway."
"That's because I caused it," she said glumly.
"Hey this isn't your fault," Logan assured her, gently lifting her head with the tips of his fingers. "It's these sleazeball reporters who refuse to give me a break."
"Ugh, journalists!" moaned Rory. "I hate that we are newspaper people and can't complain about them without being hypocritical. I hate being hypocritical!"
Logan grinned, "I know Ace, I remember when you refused to let me talk when we were watching Casablanca but then kept chatting to me throughout it so you didn't let yourself read before you went to bed as punishment."
"Did I just hear 'bed' and 'punishment' in the same sentance 'cause if so I think it calls for a 'dirty!'" said Lorelai coming down the stairs with a wicked grin on her face. "Hi Logan."
"Hey Lorelai, you are looking lovely this evening," he said.
"I know but isn't nice to hear it every once in a while from the young blooded! OK so Luke got caught up at the diner longer than expected so we are going to walk around and go from there," said Lorelai, looking for her purse. "Which means that you will get a partial walking tour of Stars Hollow and get to taste Luke's famous coffee."
"That sounds great, Rory has been writing odes about his coffee for months I think it is about time I get to see for myself," said Logan.
"Oh you do no just see Luke's coffee," Rory corrected him. "You hold it and you smell it and you savour it as you feel its precious ingredients gently flow into your mouth as the taste enrichens your tastebuds and the caffine works its way into your bloodstream and makes you feel alive!"
"Yeah, I remember the haiku," teased Logan.
"Let's go," said Rory, rolling her eyes as they headed for the door.
As they walked along the streets of Stars Hollow, Logan looked around him, trying to take everything in. He had heard so much about this little hamlet town where Rory grew up and he was enjoying finally getting to see it. "Oh oh incoming," Rory said to him as she spotted Babette and Miss Patty approaching them, with a determined look in their eyes.
"You are not getting through this one alive pretty boy," Lorelai warned him. Logan gave her a strange look as she turned around to the two women and greeted them with a smile. "Hi Patty, hi Babette."
"Lorelai, Rory, aren't you going to introduce us to this handsome young man?" asked Miss Patty, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously.
Obviously not sensing the danger he was in, Logan turned on his most charming smile and offered out his hand, shaking them in turn, "Logan Huntzberger, at your service."
"Oh my, my, my!" giggled Miss Patty, fanning herself, "Aren't you quite the gentleman."
"Most of the time," said Logan, with a wink.
"Rory sugar, where'd you find this one?" asked Babette.
"Logan goes to Yale with me," smiled Rory, exchanging a nervous look with Lorelai.
"Ooh, fancy!" said Babette. "I should have guessed by those trousers, Patty look at his trousers don't they just scream 'Ivy League'?"
"If pants could scream then yes they would," said Lorelai, deciding to set plan 'Save Logan' into operation. "Sorry ladies we have to get going."
"Surely not right now," protested Miss Patty with a pout.
"Yes unfortunately, we have dinner reservations," said Rory, with an apologetic look on her face. "We only have time to go pick up Luke and then we have to go."
"Well you had better come back soon!" Babette warned him.
"As if I could ever go too long without seeing you lovely ladies again, it was great to meet you!" said Logan, as he walked off with Rory and Lorelai. "You are going to regret that," said Lorelai.
"What do you mean?" asked Logan, his eyes suddenly widening in shock, "Rory please tell me that was you who just pinched my ass."
"Sorry."
"Walk faster," said Logan, as behind him Miss Patty scampered back to Babette and Lorelai and Rory grinned at each other, amused. They entered the diner and Rory and Logan took a seat while Lorelai went up the stairs to see Luke. "Hey it's only me, hoping to catch a glimpse of you naked!" she chirped, with an optimistic expression on her face as she walked into Luke's apartment, frowning when she saw Luke fully dressed, tying his shoe laces.
"Sorry to disappoint," said Luke standing up.
"There's always later," Lorelai reminded him cheerfully. "So you ready to go? Rory and Logan are waiting downstairs. She's introducing him to the holy grail that is your coffee."
"Converting people to my coffee is part of you guys' mantra."
"You shouldn't complain it's good for business," Lorelai chastised him playfully.
"Ok I'm ready to go. Wait is he wearing a tie?" asked Luke, frowning suddenly.
"That Logan kid, is he wearing a tie?" Luke asked again.
"Um...yeah," said Lorelai.
"Dammit!" complained Luke, going over to his chest of drawers and starting to rummage through it. "Blasted rich kids with their ties."
"Luke just because Logan is wearing a tie does not mean you have to," said Lorelai, as Luke produced a tie from his drawer.
"Yes it does! He would probably be horrified if he saw that I planned to go out to a fancy restaurant without a tie."
"I doubt that, besides it's our engagement celebration, you don't have to wear a tie if you don't want to," Lorelai assured him.
"No it's on now, let's go," said Luke, grabbing his jacket.
"Luke, be nice," said Lorelai, as they headed down the stairs.
"What do you mean, I'm always nice," Luke insisted.
"Well I know that," said Lorelai, "But I want to make sure that by the end of the night Logan will also know that. I just didn't want this to turn into another Pippi incident seeing as we are going to a fancy pansy restaurant which I'm sure would frown upon something as obnoxious as a Bopit which by the way did not fit into my purse, I know, I tried."
"This won't be another Pippi incident," Luke promised. "So long as he keeps his hands to himself."
Lorelai sighed as they entered the main part of the diner where Logan and Rory were, happily sipping mugs of coffee. "OK, OK," she heard Logan say as they approached them. "This coffee rocks, you were right, I will never tease you about your utter devotion to it again because you are the queen of everything."
"At last, sufficient validation of my character," smiled Rory.
"So I take it you are a convert?" asked Lorelai.
"I plan on spending obscene amounts of money on having the stuff shipped out to me over the summer," said Logan.
"See, we are good for business," Lorelai told Luke who was standing awkwardly beside the table.
"So Logan this is Luke, Luke this is Logan," said Rory, jumping in to try and break the moment of awkward silence.
"Nice to meet you," said Logan, shaking Luke's hand.
"We've met before," said Luke gruffly.
Logan grimaced. "Yes it is safe to say I remember with startling accuracy, you were after all fighting for the chance to be the first one to kill me. I was just being polite and hoping that by some miracle you had forgotten our last encounter."
"So let's hit the road, shall we?" said Rory quickly, eager to move on.
"Yes lets!" said Lorelai holding the door open.
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"I hate that he paid."
"Luke..."
"'No guys don't worry . . .it's your engagment we are celebrating . . . I've got it covered' He sickens me," ranted Luke as he got into bed.
"It was a nice thing for him to do," said Lorelai, positioning the pillows to her liking.
"He was sucking up to us Lorelai, trying to win us over flashing his money about."
"There was no money, he used his credit card, beside if sucking up is going to result in me getting some Tiffany diamond earrings you aren't going to hear me complaining."
"He was being nice," said Lorelai, smiling at how worked up Luke had gotten himself. "I mean yes he probably wants to make a good impression, I'm his girlfriend's mother and we kind of got off on the wrong foot and you are pretty intimidating. I thought he did good."
Luke sighed. "He is kind of funny."
"Now was that so hard?" asked Lorelai, with a patronising smile.
"Though I still think he was trying to hard."
"Goodnight Luke."
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A/N2: Again sorry for the delay and the pointless chapter and the really crap way for Luke and Lorelai to get engaged. I just wanted them to and was too unimaginative to do it any other way. I also apologise for the whole article thing being implausible, I just had it as one of the minor plot whatevers for this chapterand it was only when I read over it I realised how ridiculous it is but I don't want to keep you lot waiting any longer than I already have so to reach a point; sorry and thank you for reading.