Saying goodbye to Logan at the airport that morning had been much harder than Rory could ever have imagined. They'd said goodbye to each other many times over the past year but now it felt different somehow. Before there had been no expectations but now that they were trying to make a proper go of things, well it all just seemed that little bit harder and Rory felt that without Logan a piece of her was missing. She had managed to hold off the tears long enough to wave off Logan through the security gates, the last thing she wanted to do was make him feel bad about having to go or worry about her, but as soon as she got back into the safety and privacy of her own car, she completely lost control of her emotions and the tears just spilled out of her. Wiping them away, she cursed herself and the stupid pregnancy hormones, knowing that everything was magnified at the moment, but she was still not quite sure how she was going to do this on her own.

Rory was feeling a little lost as she drove away from the airport so she decided to go back to Stars Hollow for a few hours to see her mom, she just needed someone to talk to. When she arrived in the town, Lorelai was busy working at the Dragonfly Inn but Rory knew that her mom wouldn't mind her stopping by, she never did.

"Hey, kid! This is a nice surprise, are you okay?" Lorelai looked up from the front desk as Rory walked into the Inn. She could see from her daughter's eyes that she had been crying.

"Yeah. No. Oh, I'm okay I guess, just a little bit out of sorts. I've just dropped Logan off at the airport, he's gone back to London." Rory said sadly.

"Oh, I'm sorry hun, that must suck." Lorelai gave her daughter a pitying look.

Rory smiled a little. "Yeah it does suck, so I just thought that maybe I'd hang around here for a couple of hours if that's okay? I don't really want to go home just yet."

"Of course you can, stay as long as you like," Lorelai said as she put her arm around her daughter. "You know that there's always inventory to do – those soaps don't count themselves…" she winked.

"Gee, thanks, mom. That's all I am, I'm just free labor to you aren't I?' Rory laughed.

"How about I pay you in dessert? Sookie made the world's most amazing cheesecake yesterday, wanna sit and gossip for a bit?" Lorelai smiled.

"Always" Rory smiled back as she followed her mom into the dining room with they sat with two big plates of dessert.

"So he's gone back to London huh?" Lorelai asked as she shovelled a forkful of Rocky Road cheesecake into her mouth.

"Yeah," Rory said as she purposefully stabbed at her cheesecake with a fork.

"Is he…coming back? Or…" Lorelai paused. She didn't really know realistically what the other options were for the couple, so she sat back and waited for Rory to jump in and answer the question.

Rory shook her head. "No, well obviously he'll be back at some point but right now I'm not too sure when that is going to be."

Lorelai looked at her daughter carefully. "So, I'm really sorry to ask this Rory but how exactly is this all going to work? I mean, you're together now? But he lives 4,000 miles away?"

"Yes, we're together and things are really good, well they have been for the past few days, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Rory admitted. She hated letting her mom know that there was no plan or that they hadn't yet worked out what they were going to do about their situation.

"So you're going to do the long-distance thing again?" Lorelai said as she pushed another large forkful of cheesecake into her mouth.

"There's no other real option right now. Logan's life is in London." Rory said simply.

"But what about when the baby arrives? How are you going to do this together if you're thousands of miles apart?" Lorelai pressed on at the risk of upsetting her daughter further.

"Mom…" Rory bit her lip. She didn't have the answers. She didn't know how it was going to work or even IF it was going to work but she needed to believe that it would.

"I'm not being obtuse and I'm just pointing out the obvious Rory. It's going to be pretty hard for you, living in Manhattan with a baby, on your own…" Lorelai paused.

"Well we haven't got everything figured out yet"" Rory shrugged "but there's still plenty of time before the baby is due and until then we'll just do what we have to do, he'll fly back here sometimes, I can go there…"

"Sure" Lorelai smiled "I'm sure you'll work it all out," she said, not feeling very certain of that fact. "And the annulment? How's that going?"

"Ugh, you don't even want to know about that." Rory shook her head "It turns out that we can't go for the annulment which means we have to get divorced but the advantage of that is we won't have to go to court."

"Well, that sounds better?" Lorelai said.

"Yeah, I guess so, but if it were annulled it would just be like it never happened now I'll be a divorcee." Rory pulled her face.

"That's what happens when you drink too much tequila kid" Lorelai winked.

Rory laughed "Yeah I guess so, consider it a lesson learned. I'll never get married for a bet ever again."

"Doesn't it feel a bit weird though that you're getting divorced?! I can't quite wrap my head around it!" Lorelai laughed.

"Yeah, it's a bit strange but it is what it is." Rory said "As you can imagine, Mitchum went into lower earth orbit when he found out. "

Lorelai looked at her "Why? I mean, given the history you have with that family I can hazard a few guesses but…"

"No pre-nup," Rory said matter of factly.

"Ouch" Lorelai pulled a face. "I bet that hurt him."

"Yeah, Mitchum thinks I am going to go to court and take them for millions" Rory rolled her eyes "because obviously, I've only ever been interested in Logan for his money…"

'Ugh, that family" Lorelai said "Whoops, no offence, little one…" she said leaning down to talk to Rory's tummy. "…hopefully you'll turn out to be more Gilmore than Huntzberger" she winked at Rory.

As the days passed and started to turn into weeks, Rory found that despite her initial worries, the separation from Logan became a little easier to tolerate than she had feared. She was pretty busy at work which kept her distracted through the day and they had fallen into an easy routine of catching up with each other at the same time every evening, working out that if Rory called Logan when she got in from work, she could catch him just before he was going to bed.

These daily calls were important for Logan. He had discovered that it was all too easy to feel disconnected when there was an ocean between you. This wasn't new to them, they'd done the transatlantic long distance thing when Rory was still in college but things felt different now and a couple of weeks had gone by since they were together and Logan was really missing Rory and her growing bump. He had so far managed to avoid his father who had by now broken the news to the rest of the family. Shira, as could have been predicted, had completely freaked out and retreated to a spa while Honor had called her brother to congratulate him, in her own way.

"Hey bro!" she said breezily as he answered his phone at his desk.

"Hey Honor, long time no speak"

"Clearly! As I seem to have missed out on two of the biggest events of your entire life!" Honor said.

Logan groaned "Sorry Honor, it's been a weird time…I should have told you but, well things are still getting worked out right now. I assume you heard the news from Herr Huntzberger?"

"Indeed. It caused quite the stir I can tell you" Honor said.

To call it a 'stir' was quite an understatement in truth. It had caused a full-blown row at the dinner table between her parents, the likes of which she'd never witnessed before but she wasn't about to tell Logan that now.

"I'm sure it did" Logan sighed as he rubbed his face with his hand. "Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not" Honor admitted.

Logan dreaded to think what had been said about Rory and he was just glad that neither of them had been there to witness it. He was sure there was more to come in the future but for now, all was quiet.

"What are you doing Logan?" Honor asked.

"What do you mean?" Logan said, slightly confused.

Honor sighed. "This thing with Rory…do you really know what you're getting yourself into?"

"Honor…" Logan started. He knew where the conversation was headed.

"No Logan, let me say what I want to say and you can do what you want with it but I need to get it out, okay?" she pleased.

"Fine," he said as he sank back in his chair.

"She broke your heart, Logan. You laid yourself out for her and she walked away from you. Now, I know perhaps there were extenuating circumstances around that but we all know how long it took for you to get over that. I can't bear the thought of seeing you go through that again" Honor said.

Logan listened to his sister. "I appreciate the concern Honor but things are good. We're both older now, we want the same things…There's no reason for anyone to get hurt."

"But you live on different continents, Logan! Last time Rory wouldn't even move across the country with you!" Honor said exasperatedly.

"You know that it was about more than moving to California, Honor. That's not why we broke up" Logan said.

"Maybe not, but, I just want you to be careful okay? It's not that I don't like Rory because I really do and I think when things are going well for the both of you, then she's really good for you but when things are bad…" Honor trailed off.

It was the truth, she really did like Rory but Honor had seen first-hand the impact of their breakup after Logan had proposed to her. It had been the worst thing he'd ever gone through, losing the love of his life, and she'd had to try and help him pick up the pieces. It had broken her own heart to watch her usually confident and self-assured brother fall apart and there was no way she wanted to see that happen again.

"Okay, I'll be careful" Logan smiled, Honor had always been over-protective of him and he knew the things she said to him weren't from a place of malice but from love. "Thanks for the big sis talk" he joked.

"Anytime" she laughed. "Anyway, congratulations on the baby. If you're happy and this is what you want then I guess that's all that really matters. You'll be great parents" she smiled.

Rory had also used the time she had to fill in family members and friends of her news – not only that she was having a baby but also to let them know that they shouldn't be too surprised when they read about her forthcoming divorce from the babies father. Some of her friends found the whole thing quite amusing but it was safe to say her grandparents were less amused by the whole saga, although they were very much looking forward to becoming great-grandparents and despite everything, they had always thought that Logan was the perfect match for Rory.

"So, let me get this right, Rory. You are telling us that you 'drunkenly' married Logan Huntzberger in Las Vegas of all places, you're now getting a divorce but you're having a baby? And all this while he was engaged to someone else?" Emily said scornfully.

"That's about the crux of it" Rory grimaced "Except, Logan wasn't engaged to Odette grandma, that was pretty much a rumor."

"Ha!" Emily scoffed "And that makes it a whole lot better does it? Regardless of the status of their relationship, you were both dishonest."

"I know," Rory said as she looked down at the floor.

"Now Emily, what is done is done," Richard said, "I think we should concentrate on the fact that Rory and Logan make a wonderful couple, we've always thought that, and they're bringing a new baby into the world. This is good news!"

Emily shot Richard a look but her face mellowed as Rory handed over the picture from her scan.

"Oh, Rory. A new baby is such a blessing" she smiled as she looked at the picture. "It's not the ideal situation of course," Emily said as she looked at her granddaughter "but que sera and if you're happy then who are we to interfere."

"Thanks, grandma, thanks, grandpa" Rory smiled at her grandparents. She had expected her grandparents to be a little disappointed in her but she'd hoped that they'd come around to see the joy in the situation.

"Just imagine Emily, a little baby with his blonde hair and her blue eyes" Richard smiled at his wife.

A/N: And here endeth the second chapter of the day! Just one point to note, a couple of people have mentioned Odette - I just wanted to clarify that Logan ended things with her at the beginning of Chapter 18.