Disclaimer: still don't own them. . . .well except the twins, they are coming from my brain onto the paper
A/N: I hope you enjoy! I am starting on the next chapter now, but my vacation from work is over tomorrow, so I won't be able to update as often. I should still be able to do a chapter every day or so though. Let me know what you think and if there is anything you would like to see, I will see if I can work it in :D so without further ado, here is Chapter 10!
Chapter 10
Shira hung up with Emily and walked out to the patio to smoke a cigarette. She could hardly believe the news she had just learned; Logan and Rory were having twins and Logan had absolutely no idea.
She had not been a fan of the relationship in the beginning, despite Rory having the proper names, she had not grown up in society and she didn't understand how everything worked. That had changed when Rory had taken time off of Yale and joined the DAR; she saw how sophisticated she was and how easily she fit into the society scene. After that, she was very supportive of the relationship and had been very pleased when Logan told her he was going to propose at Rory's graduation party.
She had been just as shocked as everyone else when Rory had turned down his proposal, and she had been livid with him when he had given that girl an ultimatum and then walked away. She had never really been a fan of Odette, while she was a suitable match as far as society standards go, there had been something about her that had never set well with Shira; that dislike was confirmed when Mitchum came home and told her about Logan catching her with another man in his bed. She wasn't sure how they did things in France, but in American Society, you at least waited until after you had produced the next generation and were able to get on birth control before you even considered having an affair; you definitely didn't have an affair before you were even married!
She still wasn't completely sure that she believed Emily's assurance that nothing had happened between Rory and Logan before he called off his engagement, Mitchum had told her about the time he saw the two of them together in London, but it was the story that they would all have to stick to if this was going to work; she also knew that Logan and Rory could have no idea that it was her and Emily behind them running into one another. She picked up her cell phone and called her husband. " Mitchum darling, we have a situation."
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Rory pulled up to the inn that her company had made her a reservation at. "You have got to be kidding me." She said out loud to herself. Of all the places they could have made reservations for her; this is the one that her company chose? Obviously they had no idea the significance of this place, why would they? It was just the universe laughing at her. She got out of her SUV and made her way to the check-in counter; the almost 3 hour drive wasn't bad, but one of the babies decided at that moment to make her bladder their punching bag and she had to go to the bathroom something fierce. Despite only being just shy of 6 months, with two babies in there, she looked much larger and had already started to waddle a bit when she walked. She made her way up the stairs as quick as she could and bee-lined it for the bathroom, the woman at the counter giving her a knowing look and smiling at her when she made her way to the counter to check-in.
"Good afternoon, I'm Rory Gilmore, I should have a reservation for two nights." She smiled at the lady at the front desk and idly rubbed her large round belly. "And could I please get some extra pillows?" she added as an afterthought. It was getting harder and harder to get comfortable at night and she seemed to have to put pillows all around her and sleep halfway sitting up in order to be comfortable enough to fall asleep, then just as she would drift off, one of them would kick her bladder and she would have to go to the bathroom, just to come out and start the process all over again. It was really quite exhausting, but she also loved it, she loved feeling her babies moving around inside her belly, she loved how she could feel their tiny little personalities already and could picture what they were going to look like. She still got sad from time to time and wished Logan was there to experience it too, but she was also too scared and nervous to really try and find him. She had looked for him on Facebook, but he always was changing his name on there and she had deleted him as well as Colin and Finn when she ended things, so she had not been able to find him, he had never gotten into Twitter or Instagram so she had hit a dead end.
"Of course sweetheart, I remember those days." The receptionist's voice shook her from her internal musings, "How far along are you?" she asked her sweetly and stared with a gentle smile at Rory's swollen belly.
"I'm 23 weeks tomorrow, with twins!" Rory went ahead and got that tidbit out of the way, otherwise she knew the next question would be 'oh my! You're so big for 23 weeks, are you having twins?'; she had answered that question enough in the last few weeks that she learned to lead with it. It was crazy to her how many people wanted to touch her stomach, or felt it was completely okay to remark about how large she was; it was a different world being pregnant, she got unsolicited advice and tips from basically every woman she had a conversation with that had children of their own. Some of it was nice, but most of it she just let go in one ear and out the other with a sweet smile and gentle nod of agreement.
"Oh! How wonderful, I am sure you and your husband are thrilled."
And there it was, the second statement that she had gotten used to hearing, people automatically assumed she was married, which is not an unreasonable assumption, I mean she was a woman in her 30's and pregnant, why wouldn't they think that she was married. "Very excited, and very nervous about all the work ahead of me! Although several people have told me it is better to start off with twins since you have no idea what it is like to only have one, this will be my normal." She had already learned to not correct people, then she would have to get into the details of why she wasn't married and that was just too much to go into with a total stranger; so she just talked around it, never saying she was married but also never denying it.
"Well best of luck to you, and I hope you enjoy your stay. We came under new ownership about 6 months ago, he has mainly stayed out of the day-to-day operations, but he did make some upgrades to the rooms, including brand new mattresses on every bed. I will make sure that those extra pillows get up to you, and I am just a phone call away if you need anything else." She handed Rory the key to her room and she relaxed when she saw it was not the same room that she and Logan had stayed in when she came here 6 months ago.
She made her way up the stairs to her room and was glad to see it was close to the top of the stairs. Once she got inside, she fired up her laptop and started going over the information on the property she was here to set up a policy on. It was a small newspaper not far away in West Lebanon called the Valley News; when it came in to the firm they instantly thought of her since she had a background in journalism, although she wasn't sure how that would really be an advantage in this situation. She got out her phone and dialed the number of the Editor of the paper, Mr. Schuler, to confirm their meeting for the following day. She wanted to meet at the paper so she could get a look at the building and the property and had proposed a working lunch in order to go over the policy at Yama, an Asian restaurant that had some great reviews on Yelp. She quickly got a reply confirming their meeting for the next morning at 9 and he agreed with the positive reviews of Yama; with her plans set for the next day and her extra pillows already delivered, she decided to take a relaxing bath and then get to bed early since she knew she was going to be up a lot tonight, one of the twins had camped out on her bladder and no matter how much she tried, she couldn't get them to move. She got up and washed her face and brushed her teeth while waiting for the bathtub to fill and added some amazing vanilla scented bath wash that came complimentary with the room. As she laid back and closed her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks, being in this place was so full of memories and she wished things were different. She said a silent prayer to the universe that this would all work out and then tried to force the sadness from her mind.
The next morning she woke up surprisingly rested, the bed was so comfortable and she had slept better than she had in weeks, she still had gotten up at least 10 times to go to the bathroom, but she was able to fall back to sleep quickly. She got up without having to hit snooze on her alarm and got ready for her meeting. She was so glad that A Pea in the Pod had so many great business options for maternity wear; today she decided to go with her grey pinstripe suit with a form fitting red shirt under the jacket. She loved how this shirt made her stomach look; it had some rouching on the side and really accentuated her very large baby bump. She slipped on some black ballet flats since she had given up on wearing heels, it just wasn't worth the pain, did a quick check of her makeup and headed out the door for her morning meeting at the Valley News.
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Logan was settling into his role at the Valley News well, it was a paper with great bones and he had very few minor but vital changes to make and then he was quite sure that it would be very successful. He planned to keep the editor as well as most of the staff in place, but there were a few adjustments with some of the younger journalists that he was going to put into motion. The paper just wasn't large enough for the number of people they had on staff; however, HPG had a reputation to maintain so he would offer any of the staff that he didn't plan on keeping at the Valley News a position at another HPG holding and pay for their moving expenses. Mr. Benjamin Schuler was a solid editor and he had no doubt that once he made the adjustments that Logan was proposing he would be able to turn the paper back around.
Logan had gotten a call from his father a few days before saying that he was going to be setting up a meeting with the insurance company he uses for all other HPG assets stating that his review of the current insurance policy was unsatisfactory and needed to be switched over as soon as possible. Logan had reviewed the current policy and didn't see any real issues with it, but in the last 8 years working with his father, he had learned to pick and choose his battles and this just wasn't one that was worth fighting. He had advised Ben to call the insurance company and set up a meeting to get a new policy drafted up; he planned on being present at the meeting but he felt that Ben should take the lead on setting up the meeting so that the editor would feel like he was still in charge and in control of what was happening at his newspaper.
Ben had texted him last night and confirmed that the company was sending an analyst out and they had a meeting the following morning at 9 am at the paper followed by a working lunch at Yama to review the proposed policy.
Logan walked into the paper at 7:30 am ready to start the day, he liked to get in earlier than most people so that he could sit back and observe how things run, who shows up early, who shows up right on time, and who shows up late; he also liked the silence of the office first thing in the morning, it allowed him to get his day together, set a schedule and re-write his task list for the day in his notebook, removing any completed tasks from the day before. This morning he was making sure everything was ready for the 9 am appointment with the Insurance analyst; he had the assistants make sure there was coffee, water, and pastries in the conference room, he had one of the senior reporters standing by to give a tour of the spaces, and he had a driver arranged to take them to Yama around 11:30.
He looked at his watch, it was 8:30, he made his way to Ben's office so that they could discuss their morning meeting; there were just certain topics you avoided while talking to an insurance man and he wanted to make sure that nothing would be said that could raise their premiums.
At 8:45, Ben's assistant came in and told him that the insurance analyst had arrived and was waiting for them in the conference room. The two got up and made their way down the hall; when they walked into the room she had her back to him, but he knew right away who it was. "Ace? Is that you?" He saw her jump when he spoke and when she turned around all the air left his lungs as he took in her very large stomach that was very obviously from being pregnant and not because her metabolism had finally caught up to her and her crazy eating habits.
All the blood left her face and her stomach flew into her throat when she heard his voice, she had felt him as soon as he walked into the room and when she heard him call her by her old nickname it was confirmed; she did the only thing she could, she turned around and responded "Good Morning Logan, I didn't know you were back in the states, I guess that explains why your phone was disconnected when I tried to call you a few months ago."