Hello Hello,
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the GREAT responses for chapter 13! Yay!
This chapter is the first part of the wedding/elopement. It's a lot of fluff, but I like it. I am a sucker for the romance. It was kind of hard to write all the different characters, I kind of forgot how many I "invited" to the wedding. Oops! Hope that turned out okay, let me know!
Anyway, not sure when I can update next, depends on the reviews. Kidding. Maybe Sunday or so. So, you know what to do: r&r.
Enjoy,
GilmoreGirl 19
Disclaimer: don't own gilmore girls, gordon ramsay, claridges, lumley castle or london!The private jet landed smoothly at London Heathrow International Airport at 5.15 p.m. London time. Logan led the way, with Gigi propped up on his hip, the group of sweat pant clad woman and men carrying the woman's carryon bags trailing behind, through the busy customs area.
In New York, they had gotten preferential treatment, but the London officials had been slightly less impressed by the Huntzburger name, and thus, the group had to stand in line just like the rest of the travelers.
"This line is the shortest, guys!" Logan yelled over his shoulder, "passports at the ready!" Then he directed his attention towards Gigi.
"This beats walking, right, Jean?" he questioned jokingly. He actually liked Gigi a lot, so he did not mind carrying her through the crowded airport.
Gigi buried her face in Logan neck, giggling. "This is funner!"
"More fun, Jean" Rory corrected gently, she couldn't help it. Correcting was in her journalistic blood.
She kissed Logan's cheek, "You walk too fast!" Rory whispered, slightly out of breath.
"I could have died from exhaustion, or lost you in the crowd! What way is that to treat your wife to be?" she said louder now, upping the fake dramatic undertone. Logan just rolled his eyes and smirked.
The group of fifteen cleared passport control and made their way out of the airport. A jet-black stretch limo was waiting for them. Lorelai, Chris, Luke, Sookie, Jackson, Finn, Colin, Stephanie, Paris, Lane, Honor, Josh, one by one climbed into the limo. The others were sitting waiting for Logan, Rory and Gigi.
"I want to sit with you" Gigi could be heard saying from outside the car.
"That's fine" Rory said as she entered the limo, making herself comfortable before she instructed Gigi to enter. Logan quickly followed, and buckled in Gigi, before asking if Rory was feeling alright, and kissing her lightly on the top of her head.
The rest of the group watched in silence at the little domestic scene that had just taken place.
"Wow," Lorelai said and let out a low whistle that was met by laughter from the rest.
"What?" Rory questioned innocently which was met by more laughter.
"Nothing, love" Finn said, still smiling like an idiot. "It was just like someone pressed the fast forward button to the "Rory and Logan show circa 2016"
Rory and Logan shot the group un-amused looks.
"Oh, enough with the look, Rory" Lane sighed dramatically, "It's cute – that's all we're saying"
Everyone else took on an expression of mock remorse and nodded in agreement as if to say, "don't be mad at us, you know it's true". Logan smirked; these people he considered family were really an eclectic, but fitting group. Rory stuck out her tong. Oh, how she loved all these people and their craziness.
Then, she directed her attention towards Logan. "So, where are we going?" she questioned slyly, hoping her would give her a little bit more information.
"I don't know, Ace" he shrugged, "James does," he said casually and pointed towards the front of the car, indicating that the driver clearly knew where they were supposed to go.
With that, the car started and drove off into the glorious city of London.
After about forty five minutes, the limo stopped in front of Claridges Hotel. Sookie was the first to notice where they were and let out a deafening squeal.
"Gordon Ramsay at Claridges! Oh my God! Here I am, in London, at THE Gordon Ramsay's restaurant! I wonder if he's really mean, like he is on TV. Oh, Jackson, give me my camera. I need a picture!" Sookie rambled excitedly.
The group burst out laughing – if Sookie was that excited to see a famous restaurant, how would she react actually getting to eat there.
Suddenly, the door opened. "Good evening, and welcome to Claridges" a proper British voice greeted them.
The group of fifteen made their way out of the limo and into the luxurious hotel. There a middle-aged woman met them. She had perfectly curled silver hair, gold colored half-moon glasses on a gold chain around her neck, and a cream-colored two-piece skirt set with matching cream-colored pumps. She held a large folder tightly in her arm. She introduced herself as Mrs. Weller, Claridges group-event coordinator.
"Mr. Huntzburger, Ms. Gilmore, pleasure to meet you after all this time," she beamed in her British accent. Logan and Lorelai made their way to the front of the group; the couple was standing with the rest of their guests in a half of circle around them. "Mrs. Weller!" Lorelai exclaimed, 'great to meet you to!" Lorelai shook her hand. Logan followed suit.
"Pleasure to meet you all, as well" Mrs. Weller sent a polite smile to the others. "Now, please follow me and we will get you comfortable for your stay with us."
She led the group into a conference room. There she gave each guest a folder with all the information needed for the trip. Mrs. Weller explained the services Claridges provided and talked about the amenities. She ended the little assembly by handing out the room keys.
"So, what floor are we on?" Rory asked Logan as she got up. "I'm in the Brook Pent house" he said putting the keycard in his pocket.
"Wait" Rory grabbed Logan's arm, forcing him to turn to her, "you're in the Brook Pent house?" she narrowed her eyes. "What about me?"
Just then, Honor sneaked up behind her, squealing, "Bridesmaids super suite!"
"Have fun, Ace" Logan smirked, kissing her cheek. "Don't forget to write your vows!"
"What?" Rory croaked. She was shocked; she needed time – she wanted her vows to be perfect. Logan was already walking towards the rest of the men.
"Logan!" she called after him. "How long do I have?" she tried, but he ignored her. He knew it would aggravate her, but he also wanted to keep her on her toes.
He and the guys walked off, to their pent house suite, the girls moved in the opposite direction, towards their temporary living quarters.
"He wants me to write my vows, like now!" Rory exclaimed. "I can't, I… I need time….," she started to ramble.
"Hon," Lorelai said kindly, "you are forgetting mommy planned this. I know everything," she laughed evilly. "Down to the color of Logan's boxers" she raised her eyebrows suggestively.
"Mom!" Rory yelled, covering her ears.
All the girls laughed as they made their way to their suite.
By now, it was eight p.m. and the girls decided that they would stay in for the night. They had entered the fancy suite, to find the luggage stowed, and a large table set up with all sorts of snacks, soft drinks for Rory and Gigi and champagne for the others. On a smaller table, an enormous bouquet of flowers was placed, and three dozen DVDs stacked next to it.
Stephanie was the first to notice and quickly made her way over to the flowers, and read the attached card aloud.
She cleared her throat as to get the girls attention.
"Ace, hope you aren't too bummed about not spending the night with me….but bachelor/bachelorette parties are tradition. Enjoy the movies. They are your favorites.
See you at breakfast!
I love you – Logan"
Stephanie giggled as she finished, and took a long swig of her champagne. Jet-lag and alcohol really did not mix that well. The other girls said "aw" or made smooching noises. Rory sighed and cocked her head to the side, "Really, ladies, grow up" was all she had to say.
"I'm starving. Where is the real food?" Paris said, sipping the complementary champagne.
'Ooh!" Sookie clapped her hands, "Maybe Gordon Ramsay does room-service!"
"Sookie" the girls sighed and collectively rolled their eyes.
"Let's get pizza!" Honor suggested
"No, Chinese" Lorelai countered
"I'm hungry" Paris said again.
"Do you think the guys will have a stripper?" Rory wondered
"I'm tired" Sookie said to no one in particular
"I want to shower" Stephanie replied
"What are we going to do tomorrow?" Lane asked
"Have you seen my Barbie?" Gigi asked as she yawned
Lorelai sighed; this nonsense babbling was not going to get them anywhere. Besides, she knew what they were going to do tomorrow, and a good night's sleep was important.
She whistled and the room quieted down. "I suggest we all get showered, and changed into our PJ's, order some room service…" she glanced at Sookie, "I'm sure Logan has planned to take us to Gordon Ramsay's thing, babe, and watch one episode of Friends." She held up the DVD case. "Sounds like a plan?"
The girls cheered at Lorelai's plan and toasted to a glorious evening.
The men entered their penthouse suite, to find that their bags had also been put away and they enjoyed the same spread of champagne, sodas and snacks.
"Well, I'm set" Colin said, balancing his plate of snacks and soda and installing himself on the couch.
"Me, too" Jackson mimicked Colin and sat down next to him. The rest of the boys did the same.
They lazily sat around, drinking and talking for a few hours. It was nice, since the men really did not know each other. Logan was worried it might be awkward between Christopher and Luke or that Josh would be the odd man out, but this little bonding session over food and sodas had really done them good. One by one, they took a shower, and went to bed.
The girls awoke to a loud knocking. "Go away!" Paris yelled sleepily, but the door opened anyway. Seven smartly dressed, bright-eyed men stood in the foyer. "We are here to pick you ladies up for breakfast." Finn said sweetly eyeing the complete mess in the room.
The guys had expected to find the women showered, dressed and hungry, instead he found Stephanie and Honor on one couch, sound asleep, across from them Sookie and Lorelai, Rory on the chaise lounge with a legal pad next to her. Gigi was sleeping in the fetus position in a big armchair. Lane was entangled in a thick comforter on the carpet, next to her another comforter and a pillow. The men assumed that this is where Paris had been sleeping. Scattered on the floor were soda cans, chocolate wrappers, champagne flutes, pizza boxes, an empty room service cart, an array of balled up yellow paper and four or five DVD boxes. It seems that the girls had a good first night of bachelorette partying.
Rory awoke and sat up. Her hair was messy and stuck out all over the place. Her eyes had dark rings around them – mascara stained and she was missing an earring. Subconsciously she touched the gold locket around her neck. She smiled.
'Morning to you too, Ace" Logan smirked, he loved how un-put together she looked in the morning.
She just groaned. How could he be so chipper in the morning?
The other girls started to wake up and all of them muttered, 'Coffee! I need coffee. Where's the coffee maker?"
Finn, Colin and Logan noticed Rory sitting there, getting paler and paler at each mention of her once beloved drink.
"Uh, ladies" Finn interrupted the hunt for coffee, "you are forgetting about the little one."
Honor sighed, "There is juice for Gigi!"
Finn coughed and cocked his head towards Rory. "Oh" she said flatly, and then all the girls joined her in a collective, sympathetic 'oh'.
Rory got up, walking quickly towards the bathroom. "It's okay – I just need to…uh" she turned quickly on her heal.
Rory returned from the bathroom, to find the guys picking up the suite and all the girls out on the balcony drinking coffee.
"We told them to take it out there" Josh said sympathetically. "Can't have you sick on your wedding week," he joked.
"Week, huh," Rory smiled slyly, happy to have received this tidbit of information.
"Josh" Logan warned playfully as he walked up to Rory from behind and placed his arms around her waist. He knew that Rory could suck information out of anyone. He knew Josh wasn't fully aware of Rory's powers. Logan gave Rory a small kiss on her cheek.
"I brushed my teeth, you know" Rory said flirtatiously.
"So?" Logan said, as if he hadn't picked up her obvious hint.
Rory took matters into her own hands and kissed him on the lips.
"Morning" she said as she pulled away.
"Quite a thingy you guys had going on here" Logan said. Rory turned her attention back towards the room and noticed all her legal pad balls.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "my vows!"
Logan smirked, he knew Rory would need a couple of tries to figure out the perfect vows. She sat down in the middle of the living room flattening out the papers again. She skimmed them as she did this, and smiled at some bits. She then placed them all in her reading book. "I'll just finish it later" she winked at Logan, who was curiously observing her.
He glanced down at his watch. "We've got to get going. Some of you girls can use our showers, if you need to" he offered, as Colin went to get the caffeine buzzed woman off the balcony.
Within a half hour, everyone was ready. It had been a total mad house, with seven adult woman showering, applying make-up and fixing their hair. Finn, Jackson and Christopher had gotten Gigi ready, since the woman had not really even bothered to wake her up.
After breakfast, Mrs. Weller met them again shortly, to guide them out the back way of the hotel where a large red English double-decker bus was waiting for them.
"Wow Logan!" Gigi screamed excitedly and ran up to him for hug. "Are we going on the bus?"
He smirked, as Finn, Colin, Stephanie, Honor, Lane and Sookie mimicked the little girls' question.
That day had been amazing. The gang visited all of London's most important tourist attractions. First, they had taken a whirl on the London Eye, to get a good view of the city. Then, they were off to Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, a river cruise on the Themes, and a number of museums. In the late afternoon, the guys went to a pub, since the girls wanted to go shopping. The men willingly handed over their credit cards to the women and told them to be back at the Half Moon Pub at 5 p.m.
The girls showed up only fifteen minutes late. Each of them had two full bags of souvenirs, clothes, make-up and in Rory's case a union jack "onesie" and books.
"Daddy!" Gigi ran up to her Dad and jumped up on his lap. "Aunt Lorelai got me these!" Gigi proceeded to open her bag, and pull out a British flag beaded necklace, Union Jack mod-style earring, red white and blue bangles bracelets, white sunglasses and a red, white, blue pinstriped headband.
Gigi showed each item to her father and the other men at the table and put them one. She was literally turning into a British Flag. Gigi was laughing happily, and Rory handed her another bag.
'And she got me this….,' she said and pulled a dress from the bag, "Lorelai says I can wear this to the wedding!" She carefully unfolded the dress. It was a short dress, with a glittery Union Jack. On the back, "Britain is brillz" was written in cursive sparkly script. "I love it!" Gigi squealed, as the rest of the group tried to hold back their laughter. Gigi played the part so well.
"Lor!" Chris scolded. He was clearly not amused. "What were you thinking? She can't wear that to the wedding. She can't wear that ever!" Lorelai smirked and waved the issue away, "Gigi knows I've got a much prettier dress for the wedding." She looked at Gigi, "Right G?" Gigi nodded.
"Just be lucky she didn't get the matching go-go boots," Sookie laughed. With that, Chris knew he was defeated, and that his little girl had a whole bag of red, white and blue accesories. After another round of drinks, the whole group left the pub in laughter.
"So," Rory said, linking her arm in Logans' as they climbed back in the bus, "What are my plans for tonight?"
He pretended he had to think about the answer. "I guess you'll just have to ask Lorelai. It's party night. Just make sure you are ready at 1 p.m tomorrow afternoon. We have a reservation at Ramsay's"
He whispered that last part to Rory. She kissed him on the lips softly. She loved that he was making this trip special for everyone, not just her.
"Hey, Ace," he said quietly, as he pulled back from the kiss. 'Wear your ring tonight, okay?" She smiled; happy he wanted her to wear the ring.
"Okay" she said, mock reluctantly, just to toy with him. She smiled coyly. "NO strippers!' she whispered. "I'll kill Finn. I'm assuming you like Finn more than a stripper, right?" she winked. He mimicked her earlier reluctant answer. 'Okay."
"Men!" Finn stood on a chair in the middle of the men's living quarters. He held up his whiskey tumbler, signaling he was beginning his speech.
"Tonight is a very important night, for it is tonight that our friend, comrade, and pal will know his last ever night as a singleton."
Finn paused dramatically, and took looked down at his drink.
"He is moving on, though, to a better life. He will be marrying the lovely Rory Gilmore – the one and only girl that tamed our boy."
The men let out small chuckles, though Logan didn't seemed bothered by Finn. It was the truth after all.
"Logan, you are whipped". Finn emphasized his point by making a fake whip sound. "We all know that you and the young Gilmore girl are made for each other, but before you embrace your husband role, and fatherhood - we men would like to give you a proper send off. Get up, mate!"
Logan got up, as Finn hopped off his chair, and Josh handed Logan a tumbler of whiskey. Jackson put a tiny party hat on Logan's head, while Luke, Colin and Christopher set up the poker table. Logan let out a loud laugh.
'Finn," he said somewhat shocked, "this is it? No wild party, no crazy stunts, just poker?"
"Mate!" Finn placed his hand over his heart, in mock hurt, "It's never just poker when one is with Finn!"
Logan knew his friend was right. The Australian boy never did anything just normal. It was always extravagant and over the top. Logan glanced down at the poker table and noticed it was not a poker game at all.
It was the game of Life, a custom-made version of the game of Life, but a board game nonetheless. Finn had changed the rules so that it was part drinking game, part truth or dare and oddly enough part karaoke. The guys had a blast, all they really needed was some booze, snacks and they would have had a good time, anyway.
The party really was Logan's idea of a perfect bachelor party. It sounded cheesy, but since he had been with Rory, he did not really want to go out, or have a stripper at his bachelor party.
"Ladies!" Lorelai exclaimed importantly as she stood up, "what do you think of this dress?" she held up a purple tunic dress she had bought today.
"It's cute!" Lane said, but Lorelai had already tossed it to the side.
'I'm kidding." She smiled, slightly nervously and started her speech.
"You all know that, that glorious piece of man meat a.k.a. Logan has arranged this trip so my baby girl could get married. It's the only way I would allow it,"
The girls laughed and Lorelai continued, "seriously, kid, we are all so happy for you. You really have trained him well!"
They laughed again.
"No, it's the real deal, here, hon. It's definitely early bird special, his&her towels kind of love." She smiled lovingly at her daughter.
"I'm happy you've found it. So, we are here to celebrate you last night of bachelorette-dom. When I planned this when you were a kid I always thought we'd go to Atlantic city, find a nice gigolo or twelve and get totally wasted, but that plan went down the drain the moment the stick turned blue," she glared at Rory in mock anger, but continued quickly.
"But, I've found a totally mom-to-be, let's keep it PG alternative," she said happily. She held up her champagne glass. "Rory, you are officially the luckiest girl in the world! We wish you a life full of love, laughter and happiness. Welcome to your last night as a single chick, and to celebrate, I say "beauty night", yes, "beauty night" ladies. Bring in the men!"
She held up her hands, as seven gorgeous masseurs walked in, together with a make-up specialist, though she went unnoticed. The girls screamed enthusiastically and started eyeing the delicious specimens that just walked.
Rory ran over to her Mom. "Mom! This is amazing!" she exclaimed, as she pulled her mother into a hug. "It's the closest thing to a Logan approved gigolo," Lorelai laughed.
The girls, including Gigi, made their way over to their massage table. Then they were scrubbed, peeled and plucked. The makeover woman gave them movie-star makeovers.
The hairstylist gave them each a fabulous up-do with matching tiaras and veils. There was girl talk, pizzas, movies, popcorn, make-up, soda, booze, and a karaoke machine. It was one giant grown up sleepover. In one word, Rory's bachelorette party was perfection.