A/N: Sorry this took so long to update. I just got distracted and life happened. So here is the next chapter.
Chapter 3: It frightens me to think of what I'd like to do to you.
When Lorelai pulled up in front of the Gilmore mansion the only thing lacking was the anxiety and misgivings that plagued dinner with her parents for so long. The sight of Rory's car in the drive indicated that Chris was already here. The sight of Francene's silver jag beside her parents also informed Lorelai of the obvious. She glanced into the rear view mirror at the two worn out five year olds in the back seat and she recalled the incentive to change the status quo amongst the Gilmores. If there was one thing that Lorelai Victoria Gilmore was fiercely passionate about, it was her only daughter, Rory. And when her daughter carried on with panic attacks and hysterical crying fits during her own pregnancy, something that Rory should have been happy about but was too racked with feelings of abandonment and being a disappointment to her family, Lorelai decided it was time to take drastic measures. Loerlai did the impossible for Rory. She strong-armed the whole family into going into family counseling. She use the threat of a rift between Rory and Richard and Emily to blackmail her parents into it. She used emotional blackmail into getting Chris involved who in turn convinced Francene into joining the unpleasant fun. It had taken five sessions to get everyone to start talking, ten for the arguing to stop. Five more to get blame out of the way and fifteen more to learn how to actually listen to one another and many more for them to get over all of their issues from the past twenty-three years and become what they should have been all along. A family. It was something Lorelai had longed for during her childhood and it was a new era in the Gilmore/Hayden family. They were a united front and a force to be reckoned with should the inevitable happen and they would have to go up against the Huntzbergers. If there was one thing that the Gilmores had in their possession, it was the trump card to all. It was the Gilmores who possessed the very thing the Huntzbergers valued. The heir to their fortune and company and there wasn't a fighting chance in hell that they would allow Mitchum and Elias to do to Nickolas what they did to Logan. Rory had shared many details about how that much pressure had affected Logan and what she believed to be the negative aspects of that pressure was and she adamantly voiced her determination to shield her son from being subjected to what his father had been subjected to.
To his credit, Christopher stood impassively in Rory's corner on that subject. He knew first hand how that kind of pressure became negative influence. In the day he became a grandfather, Chris finally became a man with enough balls to do what he should have done all along. Be there for Rory 100% and support her. He even threatened to cut his own mother off from everything if she didn't make nice with his daughter. Francene was incensed at her son's ultimatum for weeks but once she realized just how incredible Rory was, she came to adore her as much as Richard and Emily did. Christoper's actions in those days had managed to finally impress Luke enough for the two men to make amends enough to make friends. The day Lorelai and Luke finally made it to the alter, with Christopher in attendance as a groomsman, Rory was given not just a real dad but two fathers. Rory and April's relationship became closer than step-sisters, they considered themselves to be real sisters and when Rory gave April a recommendation for Yale, she referred to April as her sister, period. Even Gigi adored April, asking to call April her sister too and in complete worship of her own sister, she had a wall in her bedroom dedicated to Yale.
Rory stepped out of the Jeep and moved the seat forward and reached in to unbuckle Nora from her booster seat. He daughter was sound asleep, and she was careful not to disturb her as she pulled her out of the car. When she shifted Nora in her arms, she briefly stirred enough to wrap her arms around Rory's neck and snuggled closer and that was all the movement she made before her breathing evened out again. Nickolas unhooked himself and climbed out of the Jeep, the book tucked firmly under his arm as he hopped out of the jeep, tucking his small hand into Rory's as they crossed the driveway and stepped up to the front door which swung open instantly by Emily.
"Well, come on, everyone is here," she said with a smile, stepping aside to allow them entrance. "How was the park?"
"With the sedative, Nora was a wonderful, quiet child," Rory quipped. "I expect her to be fully back to herself tomorrow."
"Did Nickolas enjoy it?"
"I did, Grams. Ten kids came and signed Nora's mummy arm, and Gemma pushed me on the swing, and I played in the sand and made a huge sand castle."
"I think I'm going to take Nora upstairs so she can sleep," Rory said, looking at her grandmother.
"Yes, that's fine," Emily told her.
That was when Chris turned the corner and Nickolas spotted him. "G-Pa!" Nickolas yelled rushing over to tackle into his grandfather.
"Whoa there, Buddy!" Chris chuckled, returning the hug, his eyes watching his daughter as she ascended the stairs with Nora in her arms. He gave his grandson his full attention and squatted down to be eye level with the five-year old and fished around in his pocket. "Hey, Nickol, I was at Martha's Vineyard this weekend and I stumbled onto something when I took a walk on the beach that I thought you might like," he said and dropped a small shark tooth in the middle of Nickolas' palm.
Nickolas eyed the treasure, his blue eyes shining in excitement. "Wow! A real shark tooth!" he said.
Chris smiled at Nickolas's delight at the find. There was a special kind of enjoyment in making his grandchildren happy with something so simple and small. They were much like Rory when she was their age and he feared letting them down in the way he had let Rory down so many times. "I bet you five whole dollars if you can identify its origin by next week," he encouraged.
"Okay!" Nickolas said excitedly, a look of great determination in his eyes.
"Why don't you go into the sitting room and see what Nanna has for you," Chris suggested.
"Okay," Nickolas agreed as he hurried into the sitting room.
Chris stood up to face Emily and Lorelai.
"You make them really happy, Chris," Lorelai told him.
"I hope so," Chris said putting his hands in his pockets.
"Listen, we need to talk to Rory about Logan," Lorelai told them.
"Oh boy," Chris exhaled a breath. "Do we have to gang up on her?" he asked.
"Chris..." Lorelai left off what she had to say, not really needing to say it.
"Alright," he relented, throwing up his hands, "What's the strategy?"
Lorelai put an arm around Emily's. "Well, Mom, I was thinking you could start the conversation."
"I assume that you tried your own conversation and failed before coming to me," Emily stated.
"Well, if anyone can get the ball rolling, then it's you, Mom," Lorelai pointed out.
"I'm sure I can think of something. Is Luke going to be joining us tonight?"
Lorelai shook her head, "It's parent's night at Yale. And if we are ganging up on Rory, it would be best to do it on a night that he's not here, you know how he gets about Rory, even if I were to support such a course of action, he still sees her as the little eight-year-old girl that first entered his diner."
"How is April adjusting to university life?"
"She's doing good, as well as Rory did, I think. Hopefully she won't meet a boy who makes her so completely crazy that she doesn't talk to us for three months and drops out of school."
"Let's hope," Emily said, her voice strained. "At least if she does, it won't be a Huntzberger, though I hear that Gillian McCrea is going to be a Freshman there this year."
"Colin's little sister?" Rory asked as she came down the stairs.
"I believe so, yes," Emily agreed. "How is Nora?"
"She's still out. I'm just hoping that she doesn't wake up at four this morning, and be running around like a maniac."
"Well, with consideration to the fact that the kids are probably hungry, dinner is going to be early tonight," Emily said. "Do you want to get Nora up to eat?"
"I think I'll just let her sleep, she's not going to starve, and I'll make sure that there is a good breakfast for them tomorrow, not just cereal."
"I like cereal," Nickolas protested.
"I know, sweetie, and I also know that's mostly because you can fix it yourself. But don't you think eggs and bacon and toast tomorrow would be good?"
"I guess," he agreed. "Can I have cereal, too?"
"Sure," she relented. Placated, he went back to his book. "Put the book down, it's time for dinner."
"Aw, Mommy, no."
"Come on, you have to eat. Books are not food."
He left the book on the table in the living room, because taking it to the table would be too much of a temptation. He and Gigi sat at the end of the table between Rory and Chris, and Lorelai, Francine, Emily and Richard sat at the other end of the table. Her parents were seated across from each other, which was probably safest, though perhaps not as it put Emily right next to her daughter.
"I saw Logan Huntzberger when I was at the DAR meeting last week, Francine. I had heard that he was coming back to town, but I hadn't heard when," Emily said as she sat down with the last salad plate. She was, without explanation, doing the service for the dinner.
"Really? He has been gone forever," Francine answered the comment.
"He was having lunch with Honor Preston," Emily said, "And she wasn't looking particularly well."
"That is sad, I'm sorry to hear."
"No one has seen their mother in a year, maybe more. No one really knows why."
"She has stage four lung cancer, Logan told me today," Rory said.
"She probably doesn't want that to be public knowledge. She has always been a very proud woman," Francine said, shaking her head. The conversation lulled as they ate and contemplated Shira Huntzberger's demise.
It was after Emily brought out the main course that conversation picked up again. "Aren't you friends with Honor, Rory?" Emily asked her.
"Yes, we go out occasionally."
"And she didn't tell you about her mother?"
"I don't really ask after her family, I'm sure you understand."
"Well, yes. I do, after the way that they've treated you, all of them."
"Logan actually is a fairly decent person, Grandma," Rory argued.
"Not if he won't return your phone calls for six years," Emily argued. "That boy is as arrogant as his father, a Huntzberger through and through."
"The fact that he is a Huntzberger is irreverent, Emily," Francine interrupted placidly. "Straub had always had a few choice words about that boy over the years."
"Remind me why I didn't kill the little weasel when I walked in on him pawing Rory," Chris muttered.
"He's not so little anymore, Chris, Logan is a big weasel now," Lorelai told him.
"Lorelai..." Emily warned.
"Christopher and Francine are right, Emily. That boy seduced Rory and left her stranded!" Richard stated.
"Logan didn't seduce me!" Rory said, exasperated, and not for the first time.
"I wouldn't say that in public, Dear," Francene warned, her eyes sharp. "People still talk about how Shria Huntzberger claimed that you seduced her precious boy from his appointed path," she reminded her granddaughter.
"That is because in the world according to Shira, Logan can do nothing wrong," Emily stated. "That woman chooses to wear rose-tinted glasses to every little thing her son does. Logan is never to blame, everyone else is," she stated, jabbing her fork into the lamb on her plate.
"He's her son, he has every right to look at him with however much adoration she wants to. God knows he probably needed someone to do so with Mitchum and Elias as a father and a grandfather," Lorelai reasoned.
Emily looked at her daughter shrewdly. "I simply cannot believe that you are defending that woman after how she treated Rory," she stated.
"I'm not defending Shira, Mom. I'd like to punch her but since she is dying, I don't have it in me to kick an injured dog. All I'm saying is that when you live in the Ice King's Palace, it is okay to shower that much love onto a person if you are the only one doing so."
"The first opportunity I get, I'm punching that pompous jackass who goes by the name Mitchum, and this time I know what he looks like so there won't be any mistakes," Christoper stated.
"Christopher!" Francene scolded. "I will not tolerate any display of violence."
"You're not punching Mitchum, Dad," Rory commanded, looking at her father.
"Listen to you're daughter, Christopher, she obvious has some sense," Francene told him.
Rory made sure that the kids were eating their vegetables before looking back to her father. "There are more effective ways to deal with Mitchum Huntzberger than resorting to violence and still have the same feeling of satisfaction," she added.
"Rory!" Emily said aghast.
Richard perked up at this. "Well, you've got my attention, Rory, please, continue," he said.
"Richard! Do not encourage this," Emily warned.
"I agree with Dad, let the Godmother speak," Lorelai spoke up, using her imitation godfather accent.
"It's quite simple, really. All you have to have is something that he wants, and not be willing to part with it."
"It would have to be something quite rare, and special then," Richard said. "The man has more money than he knows what to do with."
"Something money can't buy. But I can't think of any thing that I would dangle in front of Mitchum Huntzberger without thinking that he might cause it harm," she said, and the slight emphasis that she gave to the word thing gave a dawning admiration to Chris.
"I see," he said. "I do think I see."
"Well, I don't see," Emily said.
"This, Grandma," Rory said, waving her fork. "If he saw how we are, how we live, even the fact that Dad has a good relationship with, you know," her eyes darted to Nickolas, who seemed oblivious.
"He doesn't have a good relationship with his son, why would he care if he had a good relationship with his grandkids?" Emily asked.
"Because, he doesn't have any relationship with them," Rory said. "And thinking about having the kind of influence that he would get as an adored grandparent would drive him just the slightest bit up the wall."
"You aren't advocating this, are you?" Richard asked.
"Not really, not until certain events come to pass."
"It seems inevitable that it will be soon," Lorelai said.
"Yes," Rory admitted with a grimace. "I'm just not sure when. He's so infuriatingly smug most of the time, I just want to do something to wipe the smile off his face."
"This bit of news would do it, I think," Chris said. "I think it took me weeks to get over it when I was faced with similar news."
"It's not really something you get over, Dear," Francine said to him. "It changes you forever, and it changes your life forever."
"Does anyone want desert?" Emily asked, as most everyone seemed to be finished with their plates.
Even Gigi and Nick were full, at least right that moment. "Why don't you kids run along to the playroom?" Emily asked, and the adults started to adjourn to the sitting room.
Emily picked up her plates and took them to the kitchen, and Rory and Lorelai followed suit, each taking additional plates that her other guests had been using. "I fired the maid today," she explained, "She kept eying the good silver with her shady eyes..."
"Shady eyes, Mom? was she eying the silver with sunglasses?" Lorelai asked. "Oooh, I know, she was wearing a pair of those Kanye West sunglasses that look like little plastic blinds for the eyes..."
Emly gave her a look. "Honestly, the things that come out of your mouth," she said with a frown. "I was going to call the agency and get a new maid sent, but then the school called, and I had to go shopping, and I didn't get to it today. I suppose that I will have to wait until the morning."
"It's okay, Grandma, we can help clean up," Rory said, and she was summarily shooed out of the way by one of the cooks. Emily didn't usually have a problem keeping cooks, but they mostly ignored her and spoke Spanish. It was the people who had to interact with other members of the household she had a problem keeping. Maybe it was the way that she fretted about everything, but she was almost never satisfied with a maid longer than a week.
"I think if we just get everything in here, it will magically wash itself," Lorelai quipped.
"That isn't exactly how it happens, Lorelai," Emily said.
"It was a joke, Mom," Lorelai said with a roll of her eyes.
"When we go back out there can we talk about something other than Logan, please?" Rory begged as they gathered the last of the dishes and took them into the kitchen.
"If we must," Emily said. "But you know that we are right."
"That doesn't mean that I want to talk about it, especially in front of the kids."
Rory listened to the goings on in the other room for any sound other than Tom and Jerry from the TV. She knew that Nora wasn't really watching it but rather pouting. Rory spent the better part of the morning doing battle with a five year old over school but in the end she had won. Convinced that her daughter needed to take it easy and resting had Rory keeping her home today. The irrational, overprotective mom side had won out over her rational side in making this decision. Rory didn't want to blame the school for Nora's fall but irrationally she did with a whole list of reasons for her daughter's fall; the bottom line being negligence. That train of thought was over and gone once it reached the end. The real bottom line; Nora is her father's daughter and a team of doctors with tranquilizers wouldn't be able to stop her from doing something dangerous and reckless. Rory was releieved that Nora only a broke arm as opposed to internal bleeding, a collapsed lung, six broken ribs, a broken ankle, torn cartilage in both knees and a concussion and that she wasn't base jumping from the very top of that tree. What worried Rory the most was the prospects of Nora following Logan's footsteps into the most dangerous stunts of the Life and Death Brigade.
Her fingers trailed along the barely-cracked-open cookbook she had dug out of a box in the hall closet. A basic international cuisine for breakfast cookbook, only ever used a few times in the past. But despite that, there were little notes here and there in the recipe margins in Logan's handwriting. They had bought this cookbook together after she moved into the apartment in New Haven, just before Honor's wedding. It was an idea she had to go along with the whole playing house concept. After reading the first three recipes Rory decided it was way too complicated and set it aside which half annoyed, half amused Logan. Rory could still hear his half teasing lecture on why buy a cookbook when she had no intention to use it.
Flipping a crisp page, Rory chewed on her bottom lip in concentration. She reached for the phone and dialed the familiar number she'd had memorized since she was eight without looking away from the page.
"Luke's Diner."
"Hey, how do you fold an egg?"
"Rory?"
"I figured that since you were the cooking expert in the family then you could tell me."
"Please tell me you are no where near a stove."
"I'm making Nora breakfast," Rory told him innocently.
"Step away from the stove!" the caution Luke threw behind those words made her smile.
"I haven't walked up to the stove since it caught on fire an hour ago. I took it as a sign that the stove wasn't in the mood for crepes," Rory told him seriously.
"Don't do anything, I'll be there ASAP. God, you're worse than your mother, at least she doesn't try to touch the stove," Luke told her.
"Thank you, Luke!" Rory said cheerily before hanging up. She flipped the cookbook closed and stuffed it down in the bottom of the junk drawer and dusted her hands off. She rounded the counter and left the kitchen, stopping in the doorway to the living room to see that she was right. Nora was still pouting. She sighed as she walked over and squatted in front of her. "I get it, you're mad. I would be mad too if I were in your position." No response. "I'm only doing this because I love you, Sweets. I was so scared after you're school called me to tell me you had fallen out of a tree and they brought to the hospital. A million and one things ran through my mind," she told her.
"I'm alive," Nora told her, giving her the same sour look Rory had seen Logan give Mitchum several times and she hung her head with a sigh.
"Yes and I want to ensure that you stay this way so you will have to forgive me for being a little overprotective from time to time," she told her daughter. "How's this, I'll take you to the park for lunch and you can run around there if you promise me something," she bargained.
"Promise what?" Nora asked curiously.
"That you won't base jump off of a cliff in Costa Rica, ever," Rory said.
"What is base jumping?" Nora asked.
"Jumping off of something really tall for no logical reason," Rory told her.
"I won't do that, I could die!" Nora stated.
"So do you promise to never base jump off a cliff in Costa Rica?" Rory asked.
Nora nodded. "I promise, Mommy," she said.
Rory kissed her forehead. "Thank you so much, Sweets," she said, the weight of many things behind her voice.
Logan hadn't heard anything from Rory when he went into work the next morning. She wasn't there, and that worried him. Something had to have been awfully wrong for her to get that concerned that quickly. Julie showed up though, and Rory's car had disappeared overnight, so perhaps it wasn't completely terrible. He stopped by Julie's office, and she looked up, giving him the briefest of smiles. "Hey, so I was wondering what happened at lunch."
"I'm under orders not to discuss it with you. Since I don't like you, I don't want to talk to you at all, so, really, not that hard, and unnecessary to tell me. Rory should be in this afternoon, if you want to discuss it with someone," Julie said as she took some article folders off her desk and started to distribute them to several reporters. After she did that, she went into Rory's office, found more article folders, and passed those out to a different group of reporters.
Logan followed her, but he couldn't think of anything to say to get her to talk to him, and she was ignoring him as though he didn't even exist in her world. Perhaps he didn't. Her world was reporters, and her boss was Rory. He didn't have to exist for her. But he had hoped to have made a better impression on her than he obviously had. So he tried very hard to focus on the reason that he was here, and that was getting to know the inner workings of the Stamford Eagle Gazette.
Rory walked into the office after lunch, having taken care of her daughter for the morning. Nora had insisted that she wanted to go back to school straight away, but Rory wasn't completely sure about the idea. She'd relented, finally, dropping Nora off just before she normally had lunch at school, and then heading in to work.
Logan was behind her almost instantly. "Where have you been?" he whispered into her ear. She whirled on him and backed up a couple of steps to put some distance between them.
"I was taking care of a family emergency," she said calmly.
Logan followed her as she walked into her office. "What kind of family emergency? You didn't tell me when you left, and you have been gone all afternoon yesterday, and all morning this morning."
"It turned out to be nothing really serious," she said. "And I'd like to get started on my work, Julie can keep up some when I'm not here, but it's not an ideal situation."
"If it wasn't serious, why were you still gone this morning?" he questioned her, laying out some documents that Julie had given him to have her approve.
She started looking over Julie's notes and approving and disapproving as she saw fit, "I needed some time to deal with a couple of things. Everything is fine now, and if Julie didn't think that she could handle things, I would have came in."
"Julie doesn't like me," he commented as he sat on the edge of her desk, watching her work.
"And this surprises you?"
"I don't know. What did you tell her about me?"
"Absolutely nothing. She's formed her own opinions about you based on her own experiences. You are not the end-all, be-all of life. I answered a couple of yes and no questions about you. She already had the ideas as to what her opinions were before she came to me, and why do you care what Julie thinks of you?"
"You two are close, and I trust your opinion of people, so I want to get to know her better, which won't happen as long as she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you, she just doesn't like you. She isn't going to get any more emotionally invested in you than mild dislike."
"What about you?"
She finished the document she was looking at, and sat back, looking at him, considering. "I don't know what I feel about you right now, Logan, but it's not really that important."
"I find it important."
"If you are going to be my boss then this is an inappropriate conversation for us to be having. I'm not your girlfriend anymore, and I'm not anything to you. We haven't spoken in over six years, so I'm not even sure we're still friends. And you are in a position of authority over me, so anything that you want in that vein you should consider very carefully because it could easily turn into sexual harassment, and if it does, don't think I won't make the claim because you're you."
"Okay, Ace, you've made your point. Nothing you say about whatever relationship we have is going to have any effect on your job, your position or your authority here at this paper. I don't want you to think that. I was just wondering where I stood."
"It's not something where I can just pick up where I left off with you, Logan, and I don't want to. I have moved on with my life, and you aren't in it anymore, and that was your choice."
"I want to make this right between us, Ace. I didn't understand what I was doing, walking away like that."
"Then you should have done something about it before your father dragged you back to Hartford," she said, standing up too quickly and stumbling forward-right into his arms.
"If I hadn't wanted to come back, I wouldn't have," he said as he righted her, then pulled her closer, doing what he'd wanted to do from the moment he had seen her again, and he kissed her.
She hesitated, but then she responded to his touch, to his lips. He slid off the desk, not breaking the kiss, pressing her back, toward the wall, finally coming up for breath as he had her caged. "Logan," she breathed, and before she could tell him no again, he pressed his lips against hers, running his hands down her back. It was a moment before she was back into it, and he slid his hand across her waist, and under the back of her blouse, and he could feel her hands against his chest, hesitating, maybe wanting to push him away, maybe wanting to take this further, but there, at the pinnacle of doubt and hesitation, he knew what buttons to push to make her start down the path back to him, but only if he handled it just right, and he was, if he was honest with himself, out of practice.
He pulled back just a little, and she balled her hands into his shirt, pulling him closer again, before breaking off the kiss. "Logan, we can't, you're my boss now, and..." she closed her eyes as she trailed off. "This isn't going to work, Logan, no matter how hard you try. It's over, and it's been over for six years."
"I know you still have feelings for me, so it's only over if you want it to be. We can rekindle the flames, and it can work this time, Rory. I know what it's like to live without you, and I'd much rather have you than to be away from you again."
"So, it's just that simple for you? It's not that simple for me."
"It can be," he said and he pressed his lips against hers again. It was like old times, and he knew that with a little more time, he could get her to agree to anything, and he would do the same, just if she would come back to him, that was all he wanted, and the door to her office opened.
It was Julie, who simply arched an eyebrow, and asked, "These are done?" picking up a pile of edits from their usual place. Rory nodded, escaping from within reach of Logan. "I'll be back in ten minutes for the rest of them," she said in a disapproving tone.
Rory sat back down at her desk, and reached for the pile of pages she needed to edit. Logan sighed, leaning back against the wall. "Alright then," he said, straightening his suit, adjusting his tie and then running his hand through his hair.
"I would go check myself in the bathroom before I went anywhere else if I were you," she said, glancing up at him.
"Thanks," he said dryly, recognizing that the moment had passed, at least for now.
Logan walked into the men's room, and there was a young, very blond man primping at the mirror. He looked in the mirror, ignoring the other man. His shirt was slightly wrinkled from Rory balling it in her fists as he'd kissed her, and he had a slight smear of lipstick on his face, but he was otherwise unrumpled.
"Looks like you've been having fun," the man said.
He snorted a laugh and shook his head. "A day in the life is never complete."
"So, who is she?"
He laughed outright. "No. A gentleman never kisses and tells."
"Come on, man, there hasn't been any good juicy gossip in this place in ages."
"It's not going to be from me," Logan said with a frown, and ignored further comments from the man until he left, and he made certain that he was once again presentable.
Kate Douglas was not always the biggest gossip in the room, but she always knew where to find the dirt on people. And she'd been itching to get some on the absolutely hunkalicious Logan Huntzberger.
"Kate," squealed Ted, one of the perpetual interns that no one had ever made leave or promoted beyond a fetch-and-carry job. Every office needed its serfs, they just went by different names at different times and places. The man was so gay that she wasn't sure that he didn't sweat rainbows on hot days.
"What?" she said, dragging him into her office and closing the door.
"I just saw the most wretchedly gossip-worthy thing."
"Which was?" she asked, feigning boredom, but she was actually intensely interested. The bored look usually got her the juicy bits faster.
"I just left the bathroom and guess who was in there?"
"I can't imagine," she said dryly. "I just hope whoever it was was male."
"He was that," he said, and then paused dramatically. "Logan Huntzberger."
"The significance of this still eludes me."
"He was wiping away lipstick and his suit was very mussed."
"Really?" she said, leaning further back and tapping the pen in her hands to her lips. "What color?"
"Office pink," he said, disappointed. At least half the office wore muted nearly indistinguishably different shades of pink that were 'suitable' for daytime wear.
"How terribly fortuitous for whoever it was he was having fun with. How far do you think it went?"
"Considering the state of his shirt, pretty far. You can still see the wrinkles even with his suit jacket closed if you know what you are looking for."
"Alright. Go find out who might have been gone for long enough for something interesting to have happened," she ordered him. He complied, and Kate pulled up the list of employees.
Logan pulled up in his parents driveway around the time that dinner was ending and sat behind the wheel for a long time, gathering up the courage to actually get out and enter the house. He had prolonged this visit for long enough. The sight of his father's Jag in the driveway in front of him indicated that he was home early. Honor said that he left the office earlier than usual lately but Logan hadn't noticed until now. Breathing in deeply, he opened his car door and stepped out. There were several ways in and out of the huge mansion occupied by four generations of Huntzbergers. His mother hated it when he would just walk in unannounced but this was one time that he was sure she wouldn't mind.
Intent on avoiding Mitchum and Elias, Logan headed around back to the kitchen entrance, walking through the garden gate and making sure to wipe the dirt off of his shoes before walking in. The cook and the maid looked up at his entrance, surprised to see him. He used to sneak in through this door in his youth after drag racing at three AM so that he wouldn't be noticed. Luckily, Maria and Anthony didn't say anything and went back to their work. Logan took that as a good sign and headed up the servant stairs and once he hit the third floor he nearly ran into his father who didn't look surprised to see him coming up the way he did.
"Well, someone new, have we met?" Mitchum said.
"Jack Daniels, ten days sober, got lost, thought this was my house," Logan offered up off the top of his head. Sometimes it was good to have a routine.
"If you're looking for your mother, she's in the blue room," Mitchum told him before continuing down the hall.
Logan squared his shoulders and shrugged out of his jacket and slung it over his arm as he walked down the hall, stopping at the door to the blue room, hesitating before knocking. "Mom?" he called through the door. No answer, but he didn't really need one. Opening the door slightly, he peeked inside, spotting his mother sitting up in bed, an open book in her lap and a glass of tea in her hand. He stepped inside and set his jacket over the back of a chair. The lights were on dim and the soft sounds of Paul Simon played in muted tones. Shira Huntzberger looked different than he remembered her. A silk scarf covered her head and she was thinner than he had ever seen her, the silk robe she wore too big for her now. She looked up and spotted him, her face beaming in happiness at seeing him.
"Logan!" Shira cried. She closed her book and set it aside along with her drink. "Come, sit with me," she requested and patted the spot on the bed beside her.
Logan smiled as he slipped his shoes off before doing as asked. He remembered doing this often when he was little when his father was working late. As he stretched his legs out in front of him, Shira put her arms around him. "This is a pleasant surprise," she said, rubbing his arm briefly and giving his a quick squeeze.
"What were you reading?" Logan asked, reaching for the discarded book. "Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin," he read off the cover. "Sooo, how are Miss Bennet and Mr. Darcy doing?" he asked.
"I haven't read this in such a long time," Shira told him and she fingered the worn cover.
"Yeah, me neither," Logan agreed.
Shira looked at him. "Do you remember when I told you to read this as punishment?" she asked.
Logan smiled. "Only to find the punishment backfired," he remembered.
Shira smiled. "I knew then that you were special," she told him.
They used to have a close relationship, Logan recalled. His mother had always been the least of the three evils and the only one to have ever shown any affection. Logan's relationship with his mother only started to become strained when he became a teenager and she started trying to set him up with society girls of her picking and then hit rock bottom the night he brought Rory over for dinner. Logan never quite forgave Shira for the way she had treated his Ace that night. But all that didn't seem too important at the moment. He took his mother's hand in his own, interlocking their fingers, and kissed her knuckles. He realized for the first time how sick she was by how frail she had become and the guilt settled in. "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," he told her.
Shira smoothed back his hair and kissed his forehead. "I know," she told him. "But you're here now, that's what counts." She looked him over shrewdly. "But you may want to get a hair cut soon," she noted as she looked at his longer-than-usual hair.
"I'll make an appointment tomorrow," Logan told her.
"Good," Shira said as she looked him over. "You're tanner than you were when I last saw you. Please tell me that you haven't taken up surfing and that wretched surfer's philosophy," she fretted.
"I can't say that it never crossed my mind," Logan said evasively.
"I expected that," Shira stated indulgently. She plastered a smile on her face, refusing to think about their time apart. "Tell me all about Palo Alto," She implored as she settled back against the headboard.
Logan put an arm around his mother and settled back himself as he started to tell her everything, deciding to paint a well detailed picture for her.
Logan spent four hours reminiscing and watching old movies with his mother just as they used to do when he was off from school, their nine year rift unacknowledged. Logan was loath to bring up their time apart and preferred to act like nothing happened between them to cause a rift. If he was honest with himself, he missed the mother/son bond they had once shared. Unlike many society child/parent relationships, there was actual love and affection between Logan and Shira who never failed to let him know that she loved him or that he was a much-wanted son. It wasn't easy for him to foolishly think she would be happy for him to have found someone worth committing to when he and Rory became an item. Instead, Shira never stopped to show her disapproval or even bothered to try to accept Rory as a part of his life. Going against Mitchum and Elias to be happy was easy but going against his mother was the hardest thing he had to do and when Shira forced him to choose between his family and Rory, he didn't hesitate to choose Rory, but it didn't stop him from one last ditch effort to appeal to his mother for her support just days before he proposed. He didn't realize that the woman he fought so hard against his family for would say no.
All of that was in the past and once faced with his mother's illness, everything else seemed so trivial. That didn't mean he was over it, not in the least. Just being around Rory was intoxicating and even as he sat with his mother he could completely focus on her; thoughts of Rory crept up every so often. In the last four hours he kept thinking that if only Shira and Rory were locked in a room together at least six years ago until they made nice, they might have found that they had lots in common.
As he entered his apartment building, Logan had to shake these thoughts off. They didn't matter. His mother and Rory no longer needed to get along. There hadn't been a him and Rory in six years now, and his mother was dying. The last part struck him as he stepped onto the elevator. It was painfully evident that his mother would be dead by the next year and he didn't know how to deal with that.
The sound of clicking heals on the marble floor brought Logan out of his thoughts as a brunette wearing a party dress ran across the lobby. "Hold the elevator!" she called.
Out of courtesy, Logan held the doors open for her as she hopped inside, placing a hand over her heart, breathing deeply. "Oh, thank you! I'm dying to get out of these heels and waiting for the elevator would just prolong the experience," she gushed in one single breath.
"No problem," Logan told her.
"Are you new to the building?" she asked.
"Uh yeah, just moved in last week," Logan told her.
"I thought so! You're the guy with the suit of armor, aren't you?" she didn't wait for an answer. "I'm Marla, 11D," she introduced herself.
"Logan, 12D," He told her.
Marla's eyes widened in a doe-eyed expression. "Right on top of me, how's that for good luck," she said with a smile.
Logan made the mistake in meeting her eyes, noting their light blue color and a different pair of blue eyes came to mind. "I'd say thats very lucky," he replied.
"You know, you have this Mr. Rochester feel about you," Marla stated, stepping closer to him.
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Are you just throwing classic literature references out there or have you actually read Jane Eye?" he asked.
"I wrote my theses on it in my women's studies class in collage," Marla told him.
"And what did you think of it?" he asked.
"That Jane Eyre was ahead of her time and yet greatly under appreciated," Marla told him in a breathless voice.
Two hours later, Logan laid in bed, staring up a the ceiling. Beside him, Marla rolled over, a cigarette between her fingers. "Do you mind?" she asked.
He actually did mind but said instead, "I have an early business meeting tomorrow, so it might be best if you didn't stay the night."
"Oh, well, I don't want to keep you," she said, rolling out of bed, in search for her clothes. "We should do this again sometime when you don't have an early meeting."
"Sure," Logan replied out of instinct as he sat up. "Would you mind leaving one?" he asked, gesturing towards the cigarette in her hand. He hadn't smoked anything other than a cigar since he was sixteen, but for some reason he had a rather strong craving for a cigarette.
"Sure thing," Marla told him after redressing, leaving behind one cigarette on the nightstand. Once he was sure she had left, he grabbed the cigarette, and opened his nightstand drawer, pulling out the gold lighter he kept inside out of habit. Under the lighter was a framed picture and he pulled it out, setting it down on the nightstand next him him. The happy couple inside the frame mocked him as he lit the cigarette up and took a drag. He really needed to figure out a way to get over her and to stop thinking of her as a possibility. The kiss from earlier in the day only served him as a setback in whatever bizarre recovery he had going for him. Maybe he should stop thinking of her as the woman he was still in love with and start thinking of her as just another employee.
Logan pulled up to the Eagle Gazzette on Friday. Rory wanted a strictly professional relationship with him now, and he could do that. He had no trouble doing that. She was just another employee. Another employee who had ripped his heart out and handed it to him. Maybe there was a part of him that had hoped she had waited, but that didn't seem like it had been the case. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh but the day before just opened up a can of worms for him. Why he had to kiss her and why she had to push him away when it was clear that she wanted the same thing was really bugging him. But he could keep things professional. Couldn't he? Just because she was his world for so long and was beautiful, sharp, and carried this air about her that he couldn't pinpoint and God it would be a challenge to crack through her walls again...no, he needed to stop his train of thought and keep things professional. He could do that, no problem. Except keeping things casual didn't work and look where that lead him. There was no reason why that should work again, but...
The internal debate was going to be the death of him. Logan proceeded to halt all thoughts on that train so that he could keep things professional. He just had to stop thinking about her as the ex-girlfriend. He hadn't yet figured out how to get over it and start thinking of her as an employee. God knew that he didn't need any office drama surrounding him like the rest of the family held in abundance.
Stepping out of his car and locking it with the remote, he leaned up against the side of the car and pulled out the pack of cigarettes he had impulsively picked up while getting gas, opened up the pack and pulled one out. Shoving the pack inside his suit jacket, he grabbed his lighter and lit up, dimly remembering the gobs of nicotine gum he had swallowed and the the patches he wore to quit years ago. He used to pride himself on being the only one in his family to be successful at kicking the habit and his mother's lung cancer wasn't enough for him to stick to it.
Shira had used stress to excuse her smoking and Honor didn't bother using an excuse. One selling point, would be the annoyed expression on Mitchum's face if he could see him at this moment. Taking a long drag, Logan spotted Julie crossing the garage and nodded at her, somewhat satisfied by her frown of disapproval and offered her one of his trademark charming smiles after exhaling. This seemed to annoy her further as she briskly entered the building. Logan laughed as he took one more drag before discarding the butt of the cigarette on the parking garage floor, pushing away from his car to cross the garage and enter the building. It was Friday, and he'd ordered another catered lunch, and hopefully Rory would not go back on her agreement to discuss what his father wanted from the paper this morning. He'd finally pinned her down on a time late Thursday, but he wasn't hopeful. She had avoided him since he'd gotten home a couple of weeks before that.
It was nearly nine, but Rory was already at her desk, evaluating something. He leaned against the door frame, uncertain of his welcome. "When do you want to talk about the paper?"
"Give me a few minutes, and then we can talk, you can have a seat if you want," she said, gesturing to the chairs in front of her desk and going back to the papers in front of her. She was just finishing the last page when Julie walked in. Rory sighed as she put the page on top of the stack, and handed them to Julie silently, and she walked out without a word.
Logan barely paid Julie any mind, not bothering to look at her as she came in and out. Rory noticed this and sat forward at her desk, her clasped hands atop it. "What can I do for you?" she asked.
"Just some routine stuff for me to report back to the office. Once I have that I can get out of your hair," Logan told her. "How are the sales going?"
"Sales are within their parameters, 102% of projections, subscriptions are up 20%, you know the usual," Rory told him.
"Any changes within the last three years?" he asked.
There was something off in his tone and overall manner, Rory decided but she decided to pay it no mind. "Nothing besides an increase of 40% two years ago and a reduction of retractions," she told him and expected some kind of positive response from him but none was forthcoming.
Instead he nodded. "Good," he said.
Rory stared at him. "Logan, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine," he said. "How about the demographics?" he asked.
Rory wasn't convinced, something was definitely up. "The readers are mostly middle-aged business people or retirees. We're working on appealing to the younger generation, though there are a number of people who log on daily to the paper's website," she told him.
"I think appealing to the younger generation is a company-wide problem. I'm working on a plan to correct that," Logan told her.
"Logan, are you sure nothing is up?" Rory asked.
"I'm not here to talk about anything personal. This is a business setting, let's keep things strictly business," Logan told her.
His words seemed to strike a chord with her. "You didn't have a problem with personal in the business setting yesterday when you kissed me in this office," she reminded him.
"That was unprofessional of me and I apologize," Logan told her.
"You are unbelievable," Rory laughed. "Same old Logan Huntzberger as always isn't it," she continued, taking things badly. "I have to wonder just how many other women you mixed business with personal since you've been hovering around Daddy's papers...you know what, I don't want to know," she said and stood up. "I have somewhere to be and I'd like you not to be in my office when I get back," she told him as she grabbed her purse and brushed past him. On her way out she passed one of the interns, Ted? But she couldn't decide.
"You're serious?" Kate asked, completely aghast. "I thought he was probably doing that little blond bimbo from sales, Erica, or whatever her name is."
"I swear I heard it with my own ears," Ted said, placing his hand over his heart. "He was kissing Rory Gilmore in her office yesterday. She was the one that said that, not him."
"What else?"
"She, well, implied that he's been sleeping his way through the other papers," Ted informed her, and they heard someone clear their throat behind them.
Both Ted and Kate turned around to see none other than the main object of their gossip standing behind them with an unreadable expression on his face. Kate was the first to recover and plastered a smile to her face. "Mr. Huntzberger..." she began but Logan merely held up a hand.
"I expect a gossip columnist to have nothing better to do with his or her time than to gossip," he said.
Kate frowned at the implication but before she could get a word in he continued.
"I suppose you want me to set the record straight then," Logan said and by this time they had gained the attention of several members of the staff. He looked around then. "This should be heard by everyone so I'll say it only once. Most of you were here when HPG bought the paper nine years ago so you know that nine years ago my father gave your editor an internship here. At the time both Miss Gilmore and I attended Yale together and were on the Yale Daily News staff. at the time we had started dating and were together for three years before parting amicably." he looked at Ted and Kate as he continued. "Our former relationship will not be affecting our working relationship so if any of you are hoping for some inter-office drama then you will be disappointed."
"You are a god and I will worship at your alter for many cups of coffee to come, giving thanks for this precious cup of black gold," Rory rambled off to her regular coffee guy, Mark, who, used to her obsession with coffee, wisely let her rambling slide.
"For my best customer, it's always half off," Mark told her.
"Oh bless you!" Rory gushed and took a sip of the elixir of life, and breathed it in. "Almost as good as Luke's," she said.
Mark didn't comment, knowing better as he added the cup to her tab. From what he knew of her, Luke's meant home, and there was nothing like home, and he would never be able to compete.
Rory turned to her friend, Lane, then who had her own cup already and was waiting for her. "Ready?" she asked.
"How did you find time off for this outing?" Lane asked.
"Vacation hours. I'm only putting a half day today and besides, the less time around Logan the better," Rory told her as they walked out of the coffee house and began strolling down the street lined with shops.
"He's still hovering around the paper?" Lane asked.
"Yup. Sunday is his last day," Rory said, not bothering to hide her annoyance.
"So, have you told him yet?" Lane asked.
"Oh, God, not you too," Rory groaned.
"I didn't say anything!" Lane said in her own defense. It was true, Lane never pushed her on anything, only offering to listen and help her figure out what she wanted.
Rory sighed. "I'm sorry, but it seems like everyone I talk to is pressuring me to have 'the talk'," she apologized, using air quotes.
"You're going to have to eventually, what is stopping you?" Lane reasoned.
Rory was silent for a moment as she sipped her coffee. She sighed. "Part of me knows that he has a right to know about Nora and Nickolas, but, there is this voice reminding me of the four-hundred unanswered phone calls, voice mails, emails, and text messages begging him to call me and there is that time I was in California and I went to see him in person, only to see that he had clearly moved on with the typical-playboy-Huntzberger-pluck-of-the-many. There is a part of me that wants to be spiteful and not tell him, rationalizing that if he didn't want to know back then then he won't care now," she finally said.
"That's understandable," Lane told her supportively.
"Is it?" Rory asked uncertainly.
"Sure it is!" Lane told her. "He broke your heart and left you of take care of two kids even if he doesn't know about them. It's understandable that you would feel this way," she said.
"Try telling that to my family," Rory told her. "Argg!" she groaned. "But it's way more than that," she said and turned to her friend. "This week has been one roller coaster after another," she said as they walked into a store. "He hasn't changed in the least, you know and half the time I just want to hit him and then..."
"And then what?" Lane asked as they browsed a clothing rack.
"And then he smiles," Rory sighed. "You know that smile, the mischievous, charming, devil-may-care smile that is crafted to make you weak at the knees just by looking at it," she said.
"Oh, I know that smile," Lane agreed.
"And then I want to hit him again," Rory finished.
"Sounds like you have your hands full," Lane commented and held up a shirt. "What do you think about this?" she asked.
"Oh, it's you!" Rory told her.
Lane smiled and held the shirt up to herself and looked down and back at herself. "You think?" she asked.
"Definitely," Rory said. "You should get it," she said as she looked through the racks.
"So what event prompted this out-of-the blue shopping date?" Lane asked as they each selected a few items before they started towards the fitting rooms.
Rory sighed before answering. "We kissed," she said as they entered side by side fitting stalls. "Well, no, he kissed me," she corrected.
"Whoa, that's big," Lane stated.
"And then he tried to talk me into picking up where we left off as he kissed me," she finished.
"What did you say?" Lane asked.
"What do you think I said? I told him that it isn't in the realm of possibility," she told her.
"It sounds like he wants you back and I can't say that I blame him," Lane told her.
"Well that isn't going to happen, especially not after today," Rory told her shortly.
"Uh oh," Lane said. "What happened?" she asked.
"He comes in with this attitude and when I asked him about it he said that he doesn't want to talk about anything personal and wants to keep things business. Then I reminded him of the kiss and he said and I quote 'That was unprofessional of me and I apologize'," Rory told her, mimicking Logan's voice. "Is he serious!" she ranted.
"Ugg, what is wrong with guys? You don't give them what they want and they pull the passive-aggressive crap on you," she said as they exited the fitting room with the selections before walking up to the register to pay for them.
"What did Zack do now?" Rory asked as they payed and grabbed their bags.
"He wants another baby," Lane told her.
"And you don't?" Rory asked.
"I have my hands full with Steve and Kwan as well as the band stuff. We've finally gotten on track now that they're in school. Adding another baby will only push things further back," Lane reasoned. "Besides in order to have one we would have to disrupt our monthly schedule for sex," she added.
"Keeping the sex on a schedule to avoid getting pregnant, why didn't I think of that...oh right, because Logan wouldn't let me," Rory mocked.
"Hey, don't mock. I keep track of my cycle to know which days are my body's prime days for conceiving. Birth control isn't fool proof, you should know that, which is why the schedule works," Lane told her.
"Whatever works for you is fine," Rory told her.
"Oh did I tell you? Momma wants me to home school the kids. She even has a list of Seventh Day Adventists tutors lined up for me to choose from and she interviewed them and gave footnotes on the list for them. She says that as children of rock stars, they could be exposed to all kinds of bad things and this is the best way to take care of that," Lane told her.
"She's really taking the grandma thing to the extreme, isn't she," Rory commented.
"She wants to keep the boys from becoming dirty and untrustworthy for Korean mothers," Lane told her. "I told her that my kids will be fine and I'll raise them however I see fit," she finished.
"And what did she say to that?" Rory asked.
Lane waved a hand. "Oh you know what she usually does," she said dismissively.
"Ah, well, look on the bright side. She's mellowed out over the years," Rory reminded her.
"Yeah," Lane agreed as they walked into a store catering to children. "How's Nora doing? I heard she broke her arm," she asked.
"She's calling her cast her mummy arm and doesn't seem to be bothered at all," Rory told her as she browsed the sticker collection for the mentioned cast.
"That's a good thing," Lane said.
"Is it?" Rory asked absently.
"Absolutely!" Lane told her. "Nora always seems to bounce back instantly from everything. It shows that she has excellent preservation skills. That says you're doing a good job as a mother. I looks at all those helicopter moms out there and the overprotective ones all telling us that we're bad mothers because we don't hover around and we let our kids make their own mistakes and pick themselves up and I can't help but wonder where their kids will be in twenty years but then I look at yours and mine and I know that they'll be okay, you know," she finished.
Rory laughed. "Well we did turn out fine," she agreed. "Lunch?" she asked as she noticed the time.
"Something deep fried I beg of you," Lane said.
"Is there anything else?" Rory asked seriously before they laughed together. There were many things in a lifelong friendship that would never change.
Rory came back from lunch to find the staff scurrying about. When she stopped one of the staff to ask what was going on she was met with "Huntzberger."
Frowning, Rory pushed further on that. "What is Logan doing to have you guys running around like chickens with your heads cut off?" she asked.
"This past week he seemed so laid back and willing to lets us do our thing without any problem but today it's like a new side was unleashed. He's barking orders left and right," Lucile Velazquez said. "I better get these to the Patel," and with that she was off.
Rory watched her go before continuing on to her office. On her way there she came across a scene with Logan giving out orders to a rather scared looking Ted who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. It seemed that Logan's mood wasn't only directed at her today. She was debating on whether she should intervene when Julie appeared at her side.
"Insufferable, tyrannical, egotistic..." Julie ranted before calming herself. "The cat is out of the bag," she informed her.
Rory turned to Julie then. "What?" she asked, confused.
"Intern Ted overheard a conversation between you and Mr. Killjoy today and ran straight to Kate Douglas for some juicy gossip. The whole office is buzzing, by the way,"Julie informed her.
"What is being said?" Rory asked distantly.
"What do you think?" Julie retorted. "That your former relationship with the owner's son landed you the gig, so to speak, which is less than if Kate was able to spread her theories. Your ex interrupted Kate and Ted's gossip and decided to set the record straight publicly which actually sprouted what is currently being said and thus making his mood go south."
And there went the good mood she walked in with. Rory was furious at the insinuation that she only became editor because she used to date Logan rather than earning the job on her own merits. As Ted scurried away she made eye contact with Logan. Seeing a familiar recognition slide onto his face, she turned away and walked into her office with Julie beside her. She silently counted down in her head as she walked through the door and sat down behind her desk.
Julie had laid down a stack of articles on her desk just as the door opened with Logan walking in. Rory didn't even look up, diving right into the first article.
"Rory..."
"The printer called while you were out and said they couldn't print the next issue because of technical difficulties," Julie informed her as she too ignored Logan's presence.
"Rory..."
"Then we have to find another printer, we have to get that issue out," Rory told her.
"I've made several calls, they're all saying they're booked up," Julie told her.
"Rory..." This time he was in front of her with his hand covering the article she was editing on her desk so she couldn't ignore him.
"Make some more calls, there has to be one with an open slot," Rory said, looking at Julie.
"I'll get on it," Julie said, brushing past Logan on her way out.
Rory jabbed the tip of her pen into Logan's hand faster than he could move it out of the way.
"Ow! What the hell was that for?" Logan snapped.
"Go away, Logan," Rory ordered.
"Ah...no," he told her.
Rory frowned. "What do you want?" she demanded irritably, finally looking at him.
Logan silently fumbled for an answer in his mind.
Rory set her pen down and looked him in the eye, crossing her arms in front of her. "You came in here to say something so I suggest that you spit it out," she told him.
"Is this how it's going to be between us now?" Logan asked, voicing his own thoughts from the past week.
"I don't know what you mean," Rory told him feigning indifference.
"This animosity between us. It didn't used to exist. We used to be..."
"Used to be what, Logan?" Rory asked.
Logan sighed and rand a hand through his hair. "I don't know," he admitted. "I don't know if there is a word to describe what was between us."
Rory closed her eyes momentarily. "Obviously it wasn't as great as we once thought," she said and turned back to the papers on her desk.
Logan stared at her, that one sentence striking a chord with him. "What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.
"What I said was pretty self-explanatory, Logan," Rory told him.
"Not to me it wasn't," he pointed out.
"Well I don't know how much clearer I could have been other than to say that if what we had six years ago was so great then it might not have been so easy for you to get over," Rory told him.
"Easy to get over?" Logan sputtered. "You think..." He took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry if my presence here has upset you, but shouldn't there be some civility here between us?" he asked.
Rory considered this. "Civility?" she mulled. "And that's all?" she asked. "No secret ploys to try to sweep me off my feet or to get back together?"
"Civility to start with at least," Logan agreed and thought it over, "And maybe we could become friends," he suggested.
Rory gave him a look before responding. "I remember you telling me that you didn't want to be friends," she reminded him.
"I take it back then."
"You can't take it back, Logan. You made that final," Rory told him.
"How did I make that final?" Logan challenged.
"See, we can't even have a conversation without it turning into an argument," Rory pointed out.
"You're making it an argument," he pointed out. At her pointed look, he tried a different tactic. Okay, how about we start out small then," he proposed, "Or we could start over..."
"And how do you propose that we start over?" Rory asked, her eyebrow raised skeptically.
Logan shrugged his shoulders and stared through the office window. "How you you think we start over?" he asked softly.
"I don't know, Logan, but you gave me no choice six years ago, and now I have no incentive to give you one," she said, turning her attention back to her work.
"We could go out for coffee, that is still something that you do, isn't it?" he asked, looking back at her, away from the window.
"No, Logan. There's nothing in this but pain. It's best not to start," she said without looking up.
He sighed. "You don't know that."
"I do. You have spent six years showing me that it's your way or no way, and if you do that again..." she trailed off, her pen going still for a second, then she shook herself, going back to where she'd left off.
"But things are different now. I'm different. You're different," he said as he walked up to her desk.
She sighed, looking up at him. "But what's between us isn't different, it can't be."
"Are you seeing someone else then?" he asked, jealousy suddenly flaring slightly.
"No, Logan, I..." she was torn about telling him something, but if she was really single, then he saw his opening.
"Go out to dinner with me," Logan blurted out.
"What?..No!" Rory snapped.
"Why not?" Logan demanded, looking at her, his body language telling him she was afraid, far more afraid than he thought reasonable. He wasn't that scary. And anger, at the idea that they could just pick up where they'd left off, probably.
"Because I already told you that isn't going to happen!" Rory snapped at him.
"You haven't given any real reason why not," Logan argued.
"I don't need a reason. It didn't work before and that hasn't changed just because you magically show back up and want it to."
"As I remember it, things were working just fine," he countered.
Rory gave him a calculating look. "You know what? I just realized something. There only reason you keep pursuing this is because I refuse to say yes and its a challenge for you because you're not used to being turned down," she accused pointedly.
"That is just presumptive and insulting," Logan snapped.
Rory crossed her arms a looked at him disgruntledly. "Then tell me what else it could be?" she challenged and held up a hand when he started to speak. "And please, don't say that you still love me because there is no way I'll believe that one," she interrupted.
Logan narrowed his eyes. "Since when did you become so bitter?" he asked instead.
She gave him a semi-startled look. "I am not bitter!" she snapped.
"You're not?" he asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically.
"I'm not," she reaffirmed, not bothering to looking up at him.
Logan crossed his arms and leaned against the desk, giving her an intent look. "See this is a perfect example for why I avoid getting into a relationship, it makes things way too messy."
Rory's eyes narrowed. "Does that mean that you think the whole three years we were together was a mistake?"
Logan gave her an assessing look and shrugged. "You tell me," he said nonchalantly, gauging her reaction.
Rory didn't say anything, she just gave him an incredulous look. Her first reaction had been hurt by his response before anger set it. A mistake? "You, Logan Huntzberger, are a class A, arrogant, self-serving, jackass!" she snapped.
Logan noted once again that angry worked for her as her eyes narrowed and their normally azure hue took on a sharper cobalt hue and her features became sharper, like a feline ready to pounce. To him, it was only one step closer to the sexiest he had seen her. The only thought he could come up with was that he wanted to see her eyes change to a sapphire hue as he remembered when she was turned on. So he kissed her, interrupting her rant, pulled her closer and at first she responded but as his hands traveled south, Rory pulled away from him and Logan barely had time to prepare before her palm collided with the side of his face.
His cheek stung from the impact, turning back to look at her, he was speechless from shock. It wasn't the first time a woman had slapped him but it was the first time that Rory had done so, and he couldn't have seen it coming from a mile away. But it wasn't anger that he saw reflected in her eyes but pain. She turned from him abruptly, gathering her purse, cloak and the bag she had brought in, walking towards the door. Panicked, Logan knew that they couldn't leave it like this and reached out to grasp her arm. "Rory..." he tried to start but she refused to even look at him.
"Let go of me!" she snapped, pulling her arm from and walking out the door, determined not to let him or anyone else see how much his words had hurt her.
-
The parking garage offered the briefest reprieve from the storm inside her office. The sound of her heels echoed off of the concrete and she briskly walked to her car, giving the Porsche parked in her spot a heated glare before she reached her car and stepped in, throwing her purse and everything she had taken with her out of the office into the back seat unceremoniously. She inserted the key into the ignition and gripped the steering wheel with her shaking hands.
How dare he do this to her. How dare he come waltzing back, thinking that the six years of nothing changed nothing between them, that it didn't stand in the way of them starting all over again and then when he didn't get his way, get pissy about it, treating her like an insubordinate nobody! Rory was angry and she had every right to be. He left! He decided that he didn't want anything to do with her. He said all or nothing and left and now he wanted her back? Logan did not get to change his mind after the past six years.
Being in the same room as Logan made Rory feel things she had long forgotten. It didn't matter that that an almost undeniable electric force still drew them together. It didn't matter that being in his arms, that the kiss they shared felt like home. Rory would never forget that he walked away from her. She would never be able to forget how he seemed to just not love her enough to answer the phone even when she begged him to call her in voicemail. He had left her completely broken and what was more was that he didn't just leave her. Even if Rory could learn to forgive Logan, she wouldn't, couldn't trust him with her heart again. And she was terrified of trusting him with her babies' hearts. She refused to allow her children to ever feel the pain of disappointment and making excuse after excuse for a father they desperately needed to love them enough to put them first. She never once wanted her children to feel like they weren't enough. If that meant prolonging telling Logan about them, then so be it.
The stress from the last four days finally got to Rory as she rested her forehead against the steering wheel, feeling like crying for the first time in a very long time. Why was it that Logan could do this to her? Bring her up and down with little effort? She couldn't let him continue to do this. She needed a plan, a backup plan. Raising her head, she knew her only option to keep Logan at arm's length. She had to prove to him that she has moved on, that she didn't need him nor want him around. And there really was no other way around that than make the phone call she had avoided.
John James Frost was a society man, a second son, and a writer, like his ancestor, Robert Frost. She and Jack had struck up a friendship where he hinted at a deeper interest every time she saw him. The biggest selling point for Jack was that he wasn't Logan. That was something she was looking for at the moment. After fishing for her phone, Rory dialed the appropriate number, reaching voicemail. "Hey, Jack, it's Rory Gilmore. I was wondering if your offer for drinks and a dinner was still on the table because I would like very much to accept," she said into the phone before hanging up and dropping her phone in the passenger seat before pulling out of the parking space with more speed than she intended and when she backed into another car. She looked to see that it was Logan's Porsche, and judging by the look on Logan's face as he stood by the elevator, she knew that it was bad. Unfortunately she didn't have the energy to get into it again with Logan or else she would have exchanged insurance information. Instead, she just drove off out of the garage.