Disclaimer: I have no rights to Gilmore Girls.

Chapter 4

Time flew and it was finally November 4. Rory, Blaze, Maggie and Julia were sitting at a long table with their laptops, cell phones, cameras and video cameras ready to go. They were facing a wall of TV screens and the press room was loud, chaotic and the mood was light. Rory updated her blogs hourly and her Twitter profile at least 4 times an hour.

At 11 p.m., Obama was projected as the winner and a cheer went up around the press room. Maggie opened a bottle of champagne and another reporter took a photo of the four of them toasting for Rory's blog.

They stayed in the press room until 3 a.m., working on their pieces for the next day's publications and then crashed in their hotel room.

Rory woke early and posted one last blog for the e-zine that had been her home for 19 months.

From me to you

November 5, 2008 10:02 a.m.

I want to thank all of you, my loyal readers, for giving me the opportunity to write for you and to share my life with you. Because of you, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I have been to some of the greatest cities in this country, seen some of the greatest sites and done some of the most amazing things. And I have been grateful to share it with you. As of 5 p.m. eastern time today, I will no longer be working for this e-zine. I will be taking a hiatus until after the first of the year to spend time with friends and family and get settled in New York City for the next chapter of my adventure. You can keep up with me at acereportergirl. I look forward to sharing anecdotes from my hometown and from my life with you from that platform.

Again, I want to thank you and wish you a fond farewell.

For the last time, this is Rory Gilmore with the e-zine, signing off. I am going home!

Rory left her hotel room in Chicago shortly after posting her last blog and headed home.

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A few days later, Rory and Logan were at Star's Hollow's annual Firelight Festival. It was a cold evening that smelled like snow and they were bundled up and sipping hot cocoa as the festival began.

"Many moons ago," Taylor Doose, town selectman, started, "in the very spot I am standing, two young lovers from different counties met…."

Rory looked at Logan while Taylor continued. Logan was intrigued by the story and Rory watched as he listened. He looked happy and content.

Logan glanced over at Rory and saw her staring at him. He turned to look at her. "Ace, stop watching me," he said putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her in to him.

Rory put an arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. She loved that he could appreciate the idiosyncrasies of her town. Then the annual hunt for a lighter to light the bonfire started.

Logan chuckled. "You were right, Ace. I doubted your story about them never having a lighter, but you called it." Logan pulled her in for a hug.

When Rory pulled away, she took a sip of cocoa and looked into Logan's laughing eyes. Rory was vaguely aware that a photo had been taken of them. She hoped it had been April, who Rory had hired to take photos of the event.

Logan took her hand and they started mingling. They talked briefly to Kirk and Lulu before Logan started looking confused. Seeing this, Rory made excuses and moved Logan on. They ran into Miss Patty who actually made Logan blush and Babette who decided Logan would have looked terrific hung from her annual Halloween gallows. They wandered past Sookie and Jackson who were arguing about squash and Mrs. Kim who was running the Hellfire booth.

"RORY!" They heard and turned around to see Lane running to them followed by Zack who was pushing a double stroller.

Logan took her cocoa and Rory ran forward to hug Lane. They laughed and cried and hugged for a long time. Rory pulled away and wiped tears from her eyes. Lane did the same and Rory made introductions.

"Lane, Zack, you remember Logan," Rory said taking her cocoa back. Logan extended a hand to Zack, who shook it and Lane gave him a quick hug.

Rory looked down at the stroller. "Oh, my, Lane, they are soooo big!"

"Steve is in the red coat, Kwan is in the blue," Zack explained.

Rory squatted in front of them. "You don't remember me, but I'm your Aunt Rory and this is my friend Logan." The babies laughed and waved their arms.

Lane picked up Kwan and handed him to Rory. She looked at Logan, "Do you want to hold Steve?"

"Of course," Logan said throwing his cup in the garbage can behind them.

Rory admired the way Logan looked with Steve in his arms and they played with the babies for a while until they started to get fussy. Lane put them back in the stroller and made their excuses. Rory promised to call Lane in a few days and Lane and Zack headed home.

Rory and Logan mingled with the townspeople a little longer before heading back to the Dragonfly Inn for the night.

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Rory felt her time in Stars Hollow flew by. She celebrated Thanksgiving at the Dragonfly with her mom, Luke, Logan, her grandparents, Sookie's family and Michel.

Logan felt the time Rory was in Stars Hollow dragged on. He couldn't wait until she moved to New York. He threw himself into his work during the week and would head to Hartford for Friday night dinners with the Gilmores and spend the weekends in Stars Hollow with Rory, Lorelei and Luke.

Finally December 1 arrived. Logan was going to put a half day in at the office and then head back to the apartment to greet Rory.

Rory was immediately impressed with the apartment building. The movers followed her up with several of her suitcases. She knocked on the door and Logan opened it looking like a kid on his birthday. He ushered them in and kissed Rory softly before instructing the movers on where the suitcases should go. A maid came out of the kitchen and took over that job and Logan showed Rory around their 3 bedroom apartment. It had a living room, dining room, kitchen, large pantry, den, library, a master suite, two guest suites and a half bath off of the main living areas.

Standing in the library, Rory looked around. "You really did just ask me to move in to fill up your shelves," Rory joked walking further into the room.

Logan smirked. "There was no one else I knew of in the world that had enough books to fill up this place. It was a natural choice."

She picked up the latest New York Times Best Seller. "And I see that your style has taken a turn for the worse."

Logan walked over to her and pulled her close for a kiss. "I didn't have my Ace to challenge me. My brain has started to turn to mush."

Rory put her hands on his chest and kissed him again. "I guess I should start unpacking."

"You are forgetting, Ace," Logan started before kissing her. "We are trust fund brats, we have a maid to do that for us."

Rory laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot." She looked around. "I still want to do it myself."

"I guessed that you would."

The movers walked in with a cart of boxes of books.

"Miss Gilmore," the older one said. "This was the last of it. If you could just sign this paper…"

"Of course," Rory said stepping over to him. "Thank you for everything."

Rory and Logan went into the bedroom and helped the maid, Greta, put away Rory's clothes and personal items. Then they all went into the library and started filling shelves. Every so often, Rory would stop and take a picture of Logan, or Logan would take a picture of Rory or Greta would take a picture of both of them. Rory needed those kinds of photos for her blog, which was fast becoming one of the highest read personal blogs in the country.

When they were done, Rory looked around the office. She pointed at the desk, "So I guess this is mine," she said with a smile.

Logan nodded and went over to his desk and took a picture frame out of the desk drawer. He walked over and set it down on her desk. It was a sterling silver frame with a photo of them after they jumped off the scaffolding at the Life and Death Brigade event.

"Its perfect," Rory said smiling. She looked at her watch. 5:00. "I'm hungry. Do you want to order in?"

They ordered a pizza and some Chinese food and changed into more comfortable clothes for the evening. Rory worked on her daily blog update until the food arrived. They sat at kitchen counter eating and chatting.

"Hey, Rory," Logan started, looking nervous.

"Yeah," Rory answered looking at him questioningly.

"I have to talk to you about something, but you have to PROMISE me you will just consider it."

"Ok…"

"Look, the past few board meetings have been a little crazy at work," Logan started looking at the egg rolls.

"Ok…"

"Well, some members of the board are questioning me about our relationship and are rather upset that we are serious, but you are not working for us."

"I haven't started another job yet."

"I know. But the board wants you, badly." Rory looked at him with a worried look. "Ace, seriously, I did not start this. The board members ambushed me at the last meeting."

Rory sighed. "Logan, I don't know."

"Ace, you have earned this."

Rory raised her eyebrows at him.

"Your blog during the campaign was one of the most highly read blogs. You averaged 100,000 hits a day on each of them. That's absolutely amazing. There are only about 20 blogs nationwide that have that high of a readership. Since the election, your personal blog about nothing in particular is getting 40-50,000 hits a day. Honestly," Logan said animatedly, "they want to profit off of you. Taking this would give you job security, resources, freedom and respect. You could travel with me when I have to travel, you would have more freedom to do the society things that we have to do, you could spend weeks in Stars Hollow, whenever you want."

Rory took a sip of wine. "Can I think about it?"

Logan smirked. "Of course."

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Christmas started off with Christmas Eve at the Huntzberger mansion. Shira and Elias were as persnickety as ever about Rory and how she was not good enough to marry into the family.

Mitchum had come around. He had seen what she could do being a member of the DAR while finishing school. He admired her reign over the Yale Daily News and had become an avid reader of her blogs. He also knew that the board of directors was urging her to take a position with them as a blog writer, which would afford her the time to be a society wife. He also knew that Rory had been partly responsible for Logan's finally growing up and that Logan was never going to settle for a trophy wife.

Mitchum did his best to reign in Shira and Elias, but Rory and Logan still felt slightly shanghaied when the left the mansion.

"Remind me to borrow Mom's rhinestone penis T-shirt next time we come over here so they won't actually belittle me as a person, just my wardrobe," Rory said leaning against a pillar.

Logan smirked at her. "On the bright side, you have won over my father."

"Woohoo," Rory said sarcastically, standing up straight and letting Logan lead her to the car.

The drove to Stars Hollow where they were going to spend Christmas morning. When they pulled up to the house, Rory sat in awe. Her mother had gone all out. White twinkling lights were tastefully draped along the gutters, porch railing and bushes. When they walked in though, they were greeted by the traditional Gilmore Christmas hoopla.

Logan admired the candy cane decorated tree in the foyer and then followed Rory into the kitchen where he was greeted with a marshmallow covered tree. He turned and looked back at the foyer and then saw the living room.

"How…" was all he could manage.

"I would guess 7," Rory said opening her bedroom door. "Eight…this is new," she said seeing the Rory covered tree in her room.

As they set their bags down, they heard the front door open and close.

"Rory?" They heard Lorelei call from the entry way. Lorelei stepped into the hall way and saw a dumbfounded Logan.

"He saw the eight trees, didn't he?" Lorelei said smiling.

"I don't think he was adequately prepared for this level of crazy," Rory said walking to her mom. "Hi!" she said before hugging her.

"Well who is," Luke said coming in the back door.

"Luke!" Rory said hugging him.

Logan snapped out of his gaze and walked over to Lorelei giving her a hug and then to Luke to shake his hand.

"Ok, Gilmore tradition #1," Lorelei said seriously. "Change into your Christmas pajamas and meet back in the kitchen for Gilmore tradition #2."

"You weren't kidding about the pajamas?" Logan said to Rory.

"Nope, yours are in your suitcase."

They all went to change and met back up a few minutes later.

Rory opened a pastry box on the counter and Lorelei opened a bag of sweetened popcorn.

"Gilmore tradition #2," Rory started.

"Is a contest to see who can go into a sugar coma first," Lorelei finished.

"Which coincides with Tradition #3 of watching The Grinch and It's a Wonderful Life," Rory said picking up the pastry box and moving into the living room.

Hours later after eating way too much and watching both movies, everyone went to bed. Around 6, Rory and Lorelei both woke up to play Santa and put the gifts out under the tree. Then they turned on a Christmas album to wake the guys up.

Logan and Luke came shuffling into the living room. Rory went up to Logan and kissed him.

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Ace."

They sat down to open their gifts. Rory got Logan a boxed set of the Office, several of the books he had been meaning to buy, a Nintendo Wii and games to go with it and a new set of luggage.

"Luggage, Ace?"

"It matches mine so we look like a couple on those business trips I'll be able to accompany you on now."

"You're taking it?" Logan said his eyes lighting up.

"I'm taking it!" Rory said beaming.

Logan got up and hugged her tightly. Lorelei and Luke smiled.

Lorelei had gotten Luke a new fishing rod, some tools to work on his boat, a new baseball cap and a baby rattle.

Luke was confused by the last gift. Logan looked at Rory and she nodded and kept filming. They could see the realization in his face and Lorelei jumped up and Luke stood up to hug her.

"Are you serious?" he asked.

Lorelei nodded and started crying. After a few more minutes, Rory turned off the camera and joined the hug. Lorelei motioned to Logan to join them and they had a true family moment. A first for Logan.

After the excitement simmered down, Rory opened her gifts. Diamond earrings, a $500 Barnes and Noble gift card, and plane tickets to Las Vegas for December 27.

"We're going to Las Vegas?" Rory said smiling. Logan nodded and Rory leaned over and kissed him.

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