Sorry for the delay, my last semester is in full swing now and that's what happens. Right now, there are only going to be a couple chapters left (but that might change). Stories often seem to go downhill after the tension and waiting is over, and Rory and Logan are together. And I don't want to lose sight of what it was originally about. So, if you've read but never reviewed, please leave me a note sometime before the end letting me know what you think. I'd appreciate it:)

"What do you say, you up for a little Frisbee?" Logan asked, swinging into her cubicle on Wednesday.

"Now?" she asked skeptically.

"I've got lunch," he said, holding up a small basket, and she smiled.

"You're crazy."

"Well, thank you very much. Now, shut that thing off, and let's go."

OoOoOo

She always like these five dollar dates because they had nothing to do with impressing each other. They only meant that they liked spending time together. Hand-in-hand they walked across the park as dark gray clouds gathered above them.

"My luck it's gong to rain," Rory said, looking up.

"No, it's supposed to go way around us."

"Where'd you hear that?"

"On the weather forecast."

"And you believe the weatherman?"

He looked at her incredulously. "You don't?"

"No, but I'm thinking I'd better start paying more attention to him, or I won't be able to talk you out of anything."

They sat down on the lush grass, and he dug into the basket. Her feet still hurt from working all day Saturday so she reached down, loosened both buckles, and pulled her shoes off. She curled her toes into the soft grass. It was all she now asked from life. He handed her a sandwich, which she took, and then she turned and laid her head on his though.

"This is nice," she said, looking up at him.

"It's too bad we can't do this everyday."

"Do what? Play hooky?" he asked with a challenge in his voice.

"Yeah." She shifted on his leg.

"The Rory Gilmore I know never plays hooky."

"I don't seem like the type who does a lot of things," she said matter-of-factly.

He smiled at that. "So, what are we doing this weekend?"

"I don't know." She munched on her sandwich. "I kind of wanted to go see a movie."

"What's playing?"

She shrugged. "I'll look it up."

"That'd be…"

At that moment, a thunderclap cracked above them, and his gaze broke from hers and snapped up to the heavens. "Oh, no." He scrambled to his feet, trying to help her up and grab everything off the grass simultaneously.

"So much for the weatherman!" she squealed as the sky opened up, dropping one continuous sheet of rain on top of them in the span of seconds.

He grabbed everything and her hand and made a break for it.

"My shoes!" she said, breaking free from his grasp and running back.

"I've got them," he called, standing out in the open and getting more soaked by the second. "Come on!"

With her hand stretched out to his, she ran through the downpour, and once at his side they stumbled across the grass. Screaming and laughing they ran, her feet sinking into the soft earth with every step.

Her hair plastered to both sides of her face, and the chill of the rainwater slithered down her back. "It's so cold!"

"Here, here," he said, fumbling with the keys and trying to hand her the stuff so he could open the door.

"Don't drop my sandwich!"

"You got it?" Without waiting for an answer, he let go, turned, and unlocked the car. The rain continued to come down ever when she had jumped into the car and slammed the door. Waves of giggles washed over her as he bounded into his side, jumped in, and slammed his door.

"What was it you were saying about this storm going around us?" she asked, laughing at his soaked state.

"It did," he said with a laugh. "It went here." He turned to her and ran the back of his finger down one side of her face. "And here." His hand shifted and ran its way down the other side of her face as she melted into his touch. "See, it went right around us."

And slowly he leaned in to her. His fingers traced their way through the spirals of curls dripping down the sides of her face as every point of her body strained to get closer to his. The heat in his touch traveled down her arms, and she glanced at him only once more before the magnet of his lips pressed her to him.

There was no running, no escaping from the request of his kiss, and she dissolved into his arms as they came together. All her body wanted to do was stay right there forever.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered as his kisses traced their way away from her lips to the sides of her neck. "So beautiful."

When the heat of his kisses traced their way back up to her lips and then departed altogether, she floated for a few more precious moments before she opened her eyes and found his almond brown ones gazing back at her.

"How did I almost miss this?" he asked, searching her eyes for an answer that she didn't have.

Never, in all her dreams, had life been this breathtakingly amazing. "Brian was right."

Logan's face contorted in confusion. "About what?"

Softly Rory smiled. "He told me, sometimes good is standing in the way of great."

The edges of Logan's lips turned up in a smile. "And what did he mean by that?"

"This." Tenderly she leaned into him again, thankful that she had dared to reach out for great.

OoOoOoO

By the time they made it back to the office, still dripping wet and unbelievably late, the knowledge that nothing and no one could ever come between them had been cemented as surely as the rocks of her mother's walk now were.

Oblivious to the stares, they waked hand-in-hand down the cubicles to their offices. Her shoes were in her hand rather than on her feet, but she didn't care. Even the chill of drying rainwater seeping through her wasn't enough to put out the warmth that had been left by his kiss.

"So I'll see you after work?" Logan asked with the barest hint of a smile.

"I'm looking forward to it," she said, cocking her head to the side teasingly.

"Me too," he said, and then reluctantly their hands parted.

She felt the chill the instant his hand left hers, but pushing that down below the image of his smile, she floated to her desk. Once in her chair she took a deep breath, and then she exhaled slowly. The most perfect day of her life, and the best part was, it was only the beginning. The beginning of something she was looking forward to enjoying for a very, very long time.

OoOoOo

"I need to talk to you," Elliot said seriously as he poked his head into Logan's cubicle at five 'til five.

"Oh, okay," Logan said, his forehead furrowing in concern. "Have a seat."

"No, we better do this in my office," Elliot said.

Fear jumped into Logan's throat as he stood from his desk and followed Elliot out in to the hall where he met up with a very concerned looking Rory. A silent conversation passed between them.

"What's going on?" Logan's gaze asked her.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not good."

He set his jaw. "Whatever it is, we'll get through it. Don't worry."

But he knew she was worried. Very, very worried.

"Have a seat," Elliot said, closing the door behind them.

Carefully Rory sat down, and then Logan slipped past her leg and took his seat. They watched Elliot step around his desk, sit, and fold his hands onto the desk, each movement eating seconds and grating its way over Logan's raw nerves.

"Now, you both know I think the world of you," Elliot finally said slowly, "and that makes this that much harder." He exhaled and shook his head. "I want you to know I've suspected something for quite some time now, but I can't overlook this thing anymore."

"This thing…?" Logan started, and then cleared his throat. "What thing?"

"The two of you," Elliot said, watching his hand between them palm up. "The policy manual strictly forbids interoffice romances of any kind. Now, I've tried to look the other way, but people are starting to talk, and well, I'm afraid my hands are tied."

"Tied? What does that mean exactly?" Logan asked, shifting in his seat and wishing his shoes wouldn't squish so much. It was like they were determined not to let him lie his way out of this.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to make a decision. Either you end things now, which to tell the truth, I don't really see happening, or one of you is going to have to go."

"But that can't be it," Logan said incredulously. "Just like that? Isn't there some other option?"

Elliot's gaze dropped to his desktop. "Yeah, I could fire both of you right now."

The phrase shoved Logan back into his seat, and he glanced at Rory who was white as flour. Despite the death pall hanging over them, he reached across the expanse between their chairs and took her hand.

"When do you need to know?" Logan asked, focusing his attention on Elliot.

"I can give you to the end of the week, but I need your decision by Monday."

Hand-in-hand if only to keep both of them standing, they walked out of Elliot's office.

"I'm really sorry about this," Elliot said, but all his apologies changed nothing, and they all knew it.

Watching her every step, Logan walked by her side down to heir offices, where she stepped over to her desk just as he had seen her do a hundred-million times before. She never met his gaze when she sat down, and the drying hair ringing her face was only a testament to the fact that come Monday one or the other of them wouldn't be here.

"You want to go home?" Logan asked her.

"No," she said, her voice barely a whisper, " I've got to finish up this article."

"Can't it wait 'til tomorrow?"

"No, I really need to get it finished."

He glanced at her wall, knowing how much he was going to miss that wall no matter what happened. "Okay. Well, I'll wait for you then. Let me know when you're ready."

She nodded although no sound came out of her mouth. All he wanted to do was sweep her out of that chair and carry her away to somewhere with no regulations and no asinine rules. With a small shake of his head, he stepped out of her cubicle and escaped to his own.

OoOo

Donuts were her first thought when his presence evaporated from in front of her. She would miss the donuts and coffee the most, not because of them, but because he wouldn't sit in that chair across her desk, and then reaching in to grab one, look up and say, "Do you mind?"

No, she didn't mind. She had never minded. Never once in five years. His presence across her desk was a given, a permanent fixture to ingrained that the thought of him not being there twisted her heart into a tight knot.

Slowly her hand went to the stack of notes sitting at her elbow, but for all the rationalization of her brain, she couldn't focus on them. She couldn't focus on anything. Not one thing other than the empty chair across the desk, staring back at her – telling her that once again someone she loved was leaving. Only this time she was sure her heart would never recover.

OoOoO

By six-thirty he was getting worried about her. It had been too long since he'd heard any noise from her side of the wall. With three clicks of the mouse, his computer shut down, and he stood and grabbed his jacket. He walked the four steps to her cubicle and ducked inside.

"You ready?" he asked, but when she looked up, he saw the tears in her eyes. Quickly he made the decision for her. "Come on. We're going home."

He reached across her and shut her computer down before taking her hand and pulling her up from the chair. Together they walked to the elevators, both trying not to count the number of times they had left like this. The elevator dinged, and they got on. She hadn't so much as glanced at him since Elliot's ultimatum, and his heart didn't' like that at all.

Everything – every last sacrifice would be worth it if on the other side of this mess she was still with him. They walked through the atrium and to the parking garage.

"You going to be okay to drive?" he asked softly, and she nodded vaguely. "Okay, I'll meet you at your place."

She nodded again although he couldn't really be sure any information was actually making its way to her brain.

"I'll meet you there."

Like a zombie, she crawled into her car and fired the engine. He breathed a sigh of resignation and turned to his own. In minutes they were at her apartment, and the concern in his chest increased when he saw her. On way or the other he had to remember that she was the most important thing in this whole illogical mess.

Wordlessly they climbed the steps to her apartment. She unlocked the door and walked in, leaving it swinging. With a shake of his head he followed her in even as she disappeared down the hallway.

"Are we going to talk about this?" he called after her. "Ace?" The door to her room closed, and he sighed. He stood in the middle of her living room, waiting, knowing that sooner or later she had to talk him.

When the door to her room finally opened again, she trekked back through the living room to the kitchen.

"You want something?" she asked, sounding strangely normal.

"Yeah, I want you to talk to me." He followed her into the kitchen. "I really think we need to talk about this."

"Why?"

"Why? Because we have to decide what to do."

"Between what? Bad, worse, and so horrible I don't even want to think about it?"

"In exactly what order are you putting our options into those categories?"

"I quit, you quit, we quit each other."

"Okay, well, at least we agree on that," he said, sitting down at her table.

"So you think I should quit?"

"No," he said slowly, "actually I think I should."

An indelible look of pain scratched its way across her face. "I don't want you to quit."

"And I don't want to quit." He stood from the chair, stepped over to her, and put his hands on her shoulders. "But more than that, I don't want to lose you." And then he folded her into his chest.

"I don't want to think about going to work without you there," she said, and the tears were obvious in every word.

"Yeah, but it's not like you won't see me. I'm sure eventually I'll have to ask you out to some loud, uninhabitable night club or something."

She hit his chest with her hand. "This isn't funny."

"No, but it's for real."

"What are you going to do? Where are you going to work?"

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head honestly. "I really don't know."

OoOoOoo

Logan was sitting at his own table mapping out his options over a bowl of Cheerios when the front door closed.

"Have I got the best news ever," Brian said practically skipping into the room, but with one look at Logan, he stopped. "Who died?"

"My job," Logan said, crunching his way through the Cheerios.

"You got fired?"

"I got run ruled."

"Huh?"

"The rules 'specifically forbid interoffice relationships,'" Logan said sarcastically.

"Oh, man." Brian sat down heavily in the chair. "Are you serious?"

Logan nodded.

"How's Rory?"

"Worse."

"So, she got canned too?"

"No, if I leave, they won't fire her. That's the only good thing although I'm not sure she's all that happy about it."

"I can imagine."

"I'm going job hunting Monday. I'll start with the A's and work my way through the phonebook. Surely somebody has some work for an unemployed Yale graduate."

Slowly Brian sat forward and laid his chin in his hands as he stared at Logan. "I might know of something – if you're interested."

"What?" Logan asked, holding his spoon in the air skeptically.

"Well, I'm kind of looking for a partner."

The spoon dropped back to the side of the bowl. "A partner?"

"Yeah, somebody to help with the work and the books and the designs." A small smile started on Brian's face. "You wouldn't happen to know anybody who might be interested, would you?"

"Are you…? You're kidding."

"Nope, I had three more calls today. Lorelai must be the most connected woman on the face of the earth."

Suddenly Logan jumped from his chair and ran for the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Brian asked in confusion.

"I've got to make a phone call."

OoOoOo

Rory was happy for him, for them. She really, really, honestly was. Logan would be much happier outside of the stifling office, and Brian's business needed all the help it could get, but for all the rationalizations of her mind, her heart simply couldn't be happy. It wanted Logan, next door to her cubicle, where he belonged – permanently.

When she awake the next morning, every bone her body ached, and she wasn't sure if it was from the chill of the day before or from the chill that had taken up residence in her heart. She showered, dressed for work, and put on her make-up. It wasn't until she saturated the air with Eternity that her heart lifted if only lightly.

Once at work she sat down at her desk and splayed her fingers across it. She already felt the mission piece across the desk from her.

"Good morning," Logan said happily as he stepped into her office, donuts in hand and a smile on his face.

"Morning," she said, not nearly as enthusiastically.

He set the donuts on her desk and sat down, before pointing at the bag. "Do you mind?"

Slowly she shook her head as tears flooded her eyes. He was mid-reach when he saw the look on her face. Without bothering with the donut, he stood and crossed to the other side of her desk. Gently he knelt beside her and took her in his arms.

"It's going to be okay. I promise."

Her tears wound down her face and onto his jacket.

"Hey, hey," he said, tenderly pulling her backward and leveling his gaze at her. "Maybe this is for the best."

She shook her head in utter desolation. "How can it be for the best?"

He smiled softly. "Well, you know, sometimes good is standing in the way of great."

"I don't want to be here without you."

For a long moment, he just looked at her. "I know." His eyes closed as he folded her into his embrace. "But you're with me regardless. One hundred percent. Logistics is just a detail." He wanted to hold her and never let her go, but work called. Two more days, and this reality would be no more. "I'd better let you get to work, or we might both be out on the street."

She nodded, and when he let her go, it looked like a small gust of wind might blow her over.

"I'll be back for lunch."

"I'll be here."

OoOoOo

Rory had thought of this moment so many times in her life that she ought to have had it memorized by now, but in all her dreams witting here under the canopy of trees, his arm wrapped securely around her shoulders, it had never felt like this before.

"We've got five orders including your mom's, and we should finish hers this weekend easy," Logan said as though this moment would really go on forever.

Her head nodded, but she heard precious little of what he was saying.

"Brian's got this deal work out with his uncle so that we can lease the equipment on a daily or weekly basis until next year at least. I've worked up some figure on it, and we out to be able to start buying some of our own equipment by June, and it's a good thing there are two of us to design, it's going to take it if the order keep coming in like they are."

She just listened; they didn't need her input.

"And during the week I'm going to concentrate on mowing and taking orders, then after hours and on the weekends, Brian's going to come in and help with the actual landscaping."

He sounded so excited, it almost broke her heart.

"Brian's taking all kinds of pictures, so we can show customers when we get these five orders filled, but hopefully we won't have to sell too much. Brian says in this work, you do a good job and the references will come."

His speech wound to a stop, and he arched his neck to look at her. "I'm boring you."

"No," she said honestly. "I want to hear about it."

Then his arm tightened on her shoulders. "It's really going to be all right. I promise."

"I know." But her heart didn't believe one, solitary word of it. Monday she would be here by herself, and not one part of that was all right.

OoOo

At four-thirty on Friday, Rory was buried in a stack of printouts, wishing her heartbeats would quit ticking off the seconds until it was time for him to leave.

"Hey Ace," Logan said, slapping the side of the wall, and just underneath the cheerfulness, she heard the sadness.

"Hello, you." When she looked up, something insider her said she should imprint this image on her brain for Monday and for the rest of her life. "What's up?"

"Well, I just thought I'd come by and give you these." Slowly he bent to the floor behind him, picked something up, and stepped into her office. With a hesitant smile, he set two packages on her desk.

She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "What's this?"

"A going away present."

"I'm not going anywhere."

But when their gazes met, his said, "Yeah, but I am." He slipped into the chair across from her desk, folded his hands in front of him, and watched expectantly. "Open them."

Looking at him skeptically, she pulled the tape off one of the boxes. It snapped up, and carefully she slid the ribbon off. His gaze never left her face as the paper dropped away from the box. She opened it and reached inside.

"Logan," she whispered as she pulled out a clear crystal vase with tiny gold vines and leaves growing up the sides of it. "It's beautiful."

"Open the other one," he said, smiling as though his heart was about to burst.

Quickly she tore into the wrapping paper on the second one, and came face-to-face with the exact same box. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tore it open, reached inside, and pulled out the first vase's identical twin.

"Two of them?" she asked, setting them side-by-side on her desk and then looking at him questioningly.

"I couldn't decide where you would need one more, here or at home." He shrugged. "So, I got you one for both places."

Happy tears leaped into her eyes. "I don't believe you. Thank you so much."

And the fact that she was talking about more than the vases didn't have to be articulated.

OoOo

When he stepped back into her office fifteen minutes later, Rory's gaze went immediately to the box under his arm. Five years and it had come to this.

"You ready?" he asked.

She smiled bravely. "I guess."

And together, box and vase in hand, they walked to the elevators knowing life from this point on would never be the same.