A/N: Look at you all being thrilled by the Literati, and yet there is a surprising amount of sympathy for Logan too! We can probably fix something up for the third wheel later on... In the meantime, thanks for all the love, folks.

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 25

Logan wasn't sure what he expected to find when he came home Monday morning. It had been easy enough to find somewhere to crash the last two nights, but now he just really needed the use of his own room, another change of clothes, that kind of thing. He headed into the place he called home after an early shift at the coffee house, with eyes and ears open and ready for whatever they saw and heard. For all he knew, Rory and Jess could've killed each other by now, or there was the other extreme that he wasn't sure he was ready for either.

"Be a man, Huntzberger," he muttered to himself as he headed for his room, thankfully the closest door to the entrance.

Still, he never quite made it in before the door across the living room opened and Rory stepped out.

"Logan, hey!" she said, smiling at the sight of him.

"Hey, yourself, Ace," he replied, more relieved than he should probably have been that she had emerged from her own bedroom and not Jess' instead. "Everything okay here?"

"More than okay," she promised him. "Um, I mean... Yeah, it's all okay."

She went from happy to awkward in nought-point-five seconds, and Logan knew why. She felt guilty and uncomfortable now that she and Jess had clearly made their peace, and potentially a whole lot more besides. Rory didn't love Logan the way she loved Jess, that much was painfully obvious, but she was the last person in the world that would ever want to hurt anybody, Logan knew that too.

As if summoned by the very thought, Jess stepped out of his room then, looking curiously between Rory and Logan.

"Hey," he greeted his friend after a few moments. "I thought I heard the door."

"You did," Logan confirmed. "So, I'm guessing I just entered the Love Shack, huh?"

"Not quite," said Rory, blushing furiously.

"Depends on your definition," added Jess, hands shoved in his pockets and looking almost as awkward as Rory.

Logan took pity on them and excused himself to his room, but that didn't really solve anything. Rory sighed heavily and ran both hands back through her hair.

"This is awful," she said, looking at Jess. "We can't live like this."

"I am not going back to how it was before," he told her definitely. "C'mon, Rory, you can't want that."

"I don't. Of course, I don't," she promised, moving toward him. "But we can't... It's wrong to flaunt this in front of him."

"I know that." Jess rolled his eyes, taking her two hands in both of his and entwining their fingers. "But I want to be able to flaunt it. I don't want to feel like I can't be within three feet of you because of Logan. I already lived like that too long."

"I know." Rory nodded. "Maybe I should move out."

"Maybe you shouldn't," said Logan, appearing behind her. "C'mon, Ace, nobody wants you to go. For one thing, it'd put my share of the rent back up, and that's not going to work for me," he told her with the usual patented Huntzberger smile, though this one didn't quite reach his eyes.

"We can't keep on hurting you," Rory insisted. "Neither of us wants that."

"I know, and you're not," he told her definitely, glancing to Jess to make sure he knew it too. "Do I love that it's all worked out between you two and I'm the third wheel? No, of course not, but I'll live, I promise."

There was a whole lot that Jess wanted to say right now, but he didn't have the words. He wasn't raised to say what he felt. He was barely raised at all so much as left to his own devices. If he had known better, it wouldn't have taken so long for him and Rory to get to this point. It was a given that Jess and Logan were as close as brothers, but they never said it. No talk of how much they meant to each other, which he supposed was normal with any guys, but right now it felt like something needed to be expressed.

"If I had a choice, man..." he said, his expression conveying everything he couldn't manage in words.

"I know." Logan nodded. "But you don't. I get it."

The problem was just how much he really did understand Jess' feelings. He could've been the guy for Rory. If the situation had been different, if she met Logan but not Jess, then the two of them might've been the happy couple in this scene instead. All the ifs and buts in the world didn't change what had actually happened. As much as nobody wanted to see anyone else hurt, there was simply no way out of it.

"You're really sure you don't want me to find someplace else to live?" Rory double-checked with Logan. "Because I can try."

"Ace, please," he urged her, rolling his eyes. "All I want is for you two to be happy. I don't think adding distance is going to achieve that."

"I agree, and thank you, but I want you to be happy too."

"And I am, or I will be," he tried to tell her. "If I'm real lucky then one day I'll be as happy as you two are right now, but for now I'll settle with being happy for you until something else comes along," he told her with a smile.

Still she didn't quite buy that he was genuinely happy, but maybe that was just too much to ask in the circumstances. Hopefully in time he would find another woman that he could care for who would care for him too, and he would be as happy as Jess and Rory. Maybe that was too much to hope for also, but that didn't stop Rory from wishing.

Logan excused himself to his room, saying he intended to stay there a while this time. He needed sleep, and he advised Rory that she probably needed to be headed out to work already. She countered that she actually didn't have to be in until later today since she worked some of Sunday, and for a moment it felt like it had before, the silly bickering and banter of room-mates.

"I'll see you later, man," said Jess as his friend disappeared into his room, raising a hand in mock-salute a moment before the door closed.

Rory looked at the man she could now call her boyfriend and saw how sad he looked. He hated to hurt Logan just as much as she did, even if he wasn't being quite so vocal about it. They really were like brothers, and it would always cause Rory pain to know she changed that relationship forever. Logan was putting on a brave face for now, so was Jess, but they both knew things could never be the same.

"What can I do to make it better?" she asked him sadly, immediately regretting the question when Jess looked at her with a smirk on his lips. "I didn't mean anything like that," she told him, blushing profusely.

Jess loved when she did that, it was too cute. Kissing her forehead, he pulled on her hand, moving quickly towards the kitchen. Rory frowned but followed him anyway, more out of momentum than design. As soon as they got to the door, Jess spun her around and all but pinned her to the counter, kissing her thoroughly.

"Furthest point in the apartment from Logan's room," he said when they parted.

"I thought that would be my room," Rory considered the moment the kiss-induced haze faded from her brain.

"Yeah, but there's really not room for two of us in there unless we get real creative," said Jess, not giving her a chance to comment on that before he moved on. "Right now, I'm just trying to ask you a question. Rory, you wanna go out on a date with me?"

"What?" she asked with laughter in her voice.

Jess rolled his eyes.

"It's a standard question with a yes or no answer," he told her. "Do you, or do you not, wanna go out on a date with me?"

"Well, yes, of course I do," she said at last. "I'm sorry, I just... Well, we live together already. This thing with us has been pretty unconventional so far."

"Hence the reason for a little conventionality," said Jess easily. "I thought you'd like the idea."

"Jess, I love the idea," she promised, realising perhaps a little too late how nervous he seemed to be about this. "What night did you have in mind?" she asked, putting her arms up around his neck and keeping him close.

"Friday or Saturday is traditional, but I know you work different days sometimes, and my shift patterns are going to be pretty crappy since I bailed for so long between Christmas and now. Neither of my bosses are too happy with me."

"We'll figure something out," Rory assured him. "But my answer still stands, for whatever night we pick in the end - yes, I would love to go out on a date with you, Jess Mariano."

The smile that brought to his face was brighter than the sun to Rory. She loved knowing she had caused it, and she loved Jess more than she ever thought possible. It felt good to realise it, and even better when he kissed her.

"I knew it!" Marnie exclaimed, slamming her hand on the table. "I knew it! Didn't I tell you this would happen! I bloody knew it!"

"Just a guess, but do you think maybe she knew it?" said Philip in full sarcasm mode.

All Rory could do was laugh.

"Well, I'm glad you guys knew just exactly what would happen, because I certainly didn't," she told them honestly. It's been kind of a mess for so long, I'm just glad we got it figured out in the end. I am so happy - beyond happy - being with Jess."

"That's plain enough to see," Philip confirmed. "You look like you slept with a hanger in your mouth last night."

"You don't know how tempted I am to make a lewd remark about how you actually probably slept last night." Marnie grinned. "But no, you probably didn't. I get the impression this Jess might just be a gentleman, and we already know that our Rory is no fan of the come and go approach," she said, giving due consideration to the situation at hand.

"I know what you think about me and my romantic ideals, Marnie." Rory rolled her eyes.

"No, I don't think you do, actually," she countered. "We're different people, Gilmore. So different, it's almost like we're seperate bloody species sometimes, but I understand you better than you think, and what's more, I respect you," she said, pointing a finger at a stunned Rory.

"You respect me?" she echoed. "For not sleeping with the guy I... the guy I'm with?" she said, realising that to admit she loved Jess would be a little too strange right now even if it was completely true.

"I respect you for knowing your own mind and sticking to your guns." Marnie nodded firmly. "Not many do that these days, darling, not when all those around them are doing something else. Takes balls, sweetheart. You get respect for that."

"Wow!" said Philip, looking almost as shocked as Rory did. "That's profound for her"

"Tell me about it."

"Honestly," Marnie sighed, rolling her eyes for good measure, "you two have no faith in me."

"But sweetheart, we're the only ones around here that'll put up with you," Philp reminded her, grinning form ear to ear.

She playfully swiped at him, but was prevented from really fighting back when her cell started ringing on the table.

"Oh, bugger!" she grumbled, checking the screen. "Gotta take this. Hello, Mum?" she said into the phone, moving away from the table. "No, it's a very bad line..."

Rory giggled at the faces Marnie was pulling as she walked away and then took a good long drink of her coffee. Still the wide smile remained on her lips.

"You're so happy," Philip noted, chin rested on his fist as she stared at her. "I feel like I should throw a parade."

"A parade?"

"It's practically the go-to celebration of my kind," said Philip, too seriously.

Rory laughed at that too, stopping abruptly when she heard Marnie from the hallway, yelling into her phone.

"Marnie doesn't get along with her mom?"

"Does Marnie really get along with anybody?"

Phillip defintely had a point on that, Rory knew.

"I can't imagine not being close to my mom," she said, shaking her head. "I called her within an hour of me and Jess figuring things out. I just had to tell her."

"And she was happy too?"

"Very happy. Apparently it was clear to her how me and Jess felt about each other as far back as Thanksgiving. How is it everybody knew we should be together but us?"

"Love is blind, sweetheart," her friend reminded her, and then with a heavy sigh; "In my case, it may also be paralysed."

"Aaw, poor Philip," Rory sympathised, her hand squeezing his arm. "If it's any help, I pitched you to my friend Levi, and he said he'd love to meet you next time he's in town."

"Really?" he checked, looking immediately more chipper. "Would I like him? Tell me everything!"

Rory giggled and got into deep conversation with Philip about Levi, before talk bounced back to her and Jess, and potential date locations and activities for when they went out. It was so nice to be so happy, to be amongst friends, to feel really good about life again. Rory was so looking forward to her first official date with Jess, but honestly, even though she knew she had inadvertently injured Logan, she felt pretty good about life in general right now. Everything was coming together at last.

To Be Continued...