Ok so its been a looong time. I know. There are no excuses I just haven't felt like typing it up. Maybe I haven't wanted to part with this story since it's almost done. I have really enjoyed writing this story and there's only one last chapter left.

I hope you all like and please review. Your reviews make my heart happy and maybe it will give me the motivation to get the last chapter out to you faster.

O

Twenty-five

Just the Beginning

LOGAN HUNTZBERGER: Wish me luck…I think I'm going to need it today

There are some places that you can go to and know it will probably never change. Stars Hallow seemed like one of those places. Not that it was stuck in some type of time warp or something but you could just tell that it would always retain its small town chart, the community of people would always be close and know everything about eachother and what was going on and it would probably always look the same. It had been a long time since I had set foot in this small town but it felt like I had never left.

I had pulled up in front of her childhood home just after the lunch hour. There was a moment of panic when I remembered Rory telling me that Lorelai had married Luke and it occurred to me that she might not be living here anymore but then I spotted Lorelai's familiar jeep in the driveway.

I sat outside of the house in my car for a long while just sitting there and thinking. If she was inside and knew I was here then she was obviously waiting for me to make the first move. After I had talked to Colin, Finn, Ellie, and Honor again we came up with a similar but alternate plan for me to go to Stars Hallow and woo Rory back. This all sounded like an excellent idea at 4 a.m. when we were all drunk and sleep deprived but now sitting in front of her mother's house in the glare of the early afternoon sun it didn't seem quite so brilliant anymore.

The front door suddenly opened and I sat up in anticipation and Lorelai stepped out and waved at me to come over before sitting down on the porch steps with two cups of coffee. Not exactly the Lorelai I was expecting but this should be interesting.

I sighed and got out of my car and walked over to her. When she didn't say anything I just sat next to her and she handed me the other cup of coffee. We sat there in silence for awhile just drinking our coffee in silence.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to get out of that car."

"Eventually." I said, "Just trying to find the courage."

"Courage huh? She's not that scary at least not as scary as me and she's not actually here right now." Lorelai said and I just gape at her.

"But she said..."

"Relax she's just at her grandparents for lunch. They insisted she come over right away when they found out she was here." she said before turning to look me straight in the eye. "They've really missed her. We've all really missed her."

"So have I." I say looking right back at her and she nods her head in understanding.

"I judged you unfairly back then, before I knew you. I never really got the chance to know you. I knew your last name, where you came from, and I'm pretty sure I probably only really paid attention to the bad things that Rory told me about you and even though I told you that I would be ok if Rory wanted to marry you, I don't think I really would have been." she said looking from the ground to me. "I was relieved when she said no and I was happy when you just walked away because you proved every bad thing I thought about you."

She sighed and put her cup down next to her and brought her knees up and played with the hem on her jeans. "I've been wrong about everything, you, Rory, what's best for her." She said then looked at me again. "Even as a little girl I always knew I was never going to fit in with Hartford Society. It always felt too constricting and as much as I hate to say this, getting pregnant was my easy out. Sure it was an accident, but there was probably little part of me that hoped something would happen so I could make my escape and it did."

"You could have just left after graduation or when you turned 18." I stated.

"Yes but that wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic and well you know us Gilmore's, we love drama and I needed a scandal so I had an excuse to not come back." She said. "I made a point of making sure that Rory's life was completely different than the world I grew up in which wasn't hard since we didn't have any money. I wanted her to know that things shouldn't be handed to you on a silver platter, that sometimes you work really hard and get barely anything in return and that people should be treated equally and with kindness and inadvertently I taught her to hate money and people who were privileged and came from the world I left."

As she spoke I just listened and looked at her. She seemed sincere but seriously why was she telling me this?

"But you know Rory, that girl she needed more. She loved to read, she was so smart and we dreamed of Harvard. We made all of these plans for her future, her bright wonderful future. I was determined that my girl's dreams were going to come true, but the world I provided for her wasn't enough, so I...we reentered the world, society, that I had left so long ago and while it was still painstakingly clear that I would never fit in, Rory, well she did. She was somehow able to blend the two worlds together so perfectly."

She looked in my direction again and smiled. "You remind me of Christopher a little you know. You have that same mischievous glint in your eye and you're both generous and devilishly handsome." she said and we both laughed. "And you came from the world that I hated and I saw how well the two of you fit together. I was afraid that you were changing Rory but the fact is Rory could live in both worlds just fine and any change that was happening was just because she was growing up and I…well I needed to let her find her own way and unfortunately she just happened to fall for a society brat. No offense."

"None taken." I respond smiling slightly.

"I was afraid for a number of reasons but mainly because I was afraid that Rory would want that world, the one that I was so desperate to leave, more than the one that I had created for her." she admitted. "I was also afraid because I knew even early on that you were the one that was going to take her away from me forever and I didn't know how to share her with someone else."

"Oh."

We sat there in silence for awhile before I finally brought my eyes up and looked at Lorelai. "So you don't hate me?"

"No." she said shaking her head, "Do you hate me?"

"No of course not. In fact I've always admired you because you were able to get out and survive, you managed to raise Rory to be smart and kind and funny. I definitely don't hate you Lorelai. How could I possibly hate the woman that gave me and the rest of the world Rory Gilmore." I say smiling and she smiles back, "So what now?"

"Well I'm guessing you're here to win back the affections of my stubbornly beautiful daughter."

"That was kind of the plan but she of course is not here." I say and she looks at her watch, "Hmm...she should have been back by now."

Then as if on cue a phone started ringing faintly and Lorelai reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, "Lorelai's treasure palace, mistress Lorelai speaking." she says putting in on speaker and I try not to laugh out loud.

"Really Lorelai must you answer the phone like that, it's obscene." Emily said loudly and I have to cover my mouth to hide the chuckle that has escaped.

"What's up mom?"

"Well I just noticed that Rory left her Blackberry here. So obviously I can't call her to tell her."

"I'll let her know when she gets back."

"She's not back yet but she left over two hours ago. I forgot I had an appointment right after lunch that I couldn't cancel and she left with me. She should have been home by now." Emily says and Lorelai and I look at eachother.

"I'm sure she just stopped somewhere. Maybe she's at Lane's catching up."

"What if she's not? What if she's lost and she can't make a call because she forgot her Blackberry." Emily says worriedly.

"Mom she's a grown woman not a five year old. I'm sure she's just catching up with some old friends." Lorelai says, "I'll make sure she picks up her Blackberry later ok. Bye mom."

She ends the call and I look at her. "Do you really think she's with Lane?"

"No Lane is at Disneyworld right now with her family, I just said that to get off the phone." Lorelai says then looks at me, "You don't think she went ahead and went to New York already to see you do you?"

"I uh...I don't think so. She would say good-bye first at least." I say then something pops into my mind. "But I do think I know where she would go if she was still trying to figure things out."

I quickly stand up and turn to face Lorelai who stands up as well. "Thank you Lorelai for the explanation, but the fact is, it wasn't necessary. I know how much you love your daughter and you have every right to want to protect her. I've hurt her so much in the past that you're in your rights to hate me, but I promise you that while I won't always say or do the right things, I will never stop trying to make her happy and love her for as long as she'll have me because I know that once a Gilmore girl loves you, you have to hold on tight because they're a rare and special breed and worth the fight." I say and she just nods.

I turn around and walk back to my car and pull the door open.

"Logan."

I look up and Lorelai is smiling at me, "Thanks for proving me wrong."

Maybe it was being back in my childhood home, seeing old friends, walking around Stars Hallow, seeing my grandparents again. I don't know what it was but the sense of nostalgia was so strong around me. After having lunch with my grandparents, I was about to leave when I thought about the pool house. It had been where I knew that I was in love with Logan. I walked around to the back of the house and entered the pool house. It looked exactly the same, sunny curtains and pink and white couch. It still amazed me how at one of the darkest and lowest periods of my life I was still able to fall in love. Only I could manage that.

After I got in my car I found myself driving in the completely opposite direction of Stars Hallow and before I knew it I was on the Yale campus. The campus was virtually empty except for a few students who didn't go home for spring break.

Thoughts of a different spring break years ago spent holed up in my dorm room with Logan entered my mind and smiled involuntarily. That was definitely the best spring break I had ever had.

I started wandering around the campus aimlessly walking by the library, various classrooms, the Yale Daily News offices, Rich Man's Shoe. From the distance I could even see the top of the building where Logan and I had lived. I may have told Logan that I loved him while we were at the pool house but the fact was this campus was like a giant blueprint of our relationship. I could tell you which dark corners Logan would pull me into for a kiss, where he stood waiting for me to come out of class. Yale was our safe happy place where our love blossomed and grew. I hadn't realized until now how much I missed it, how much I missed us.

I thought about what Finn said the other day about girls hating me for cutting in line. The line to get to Logan, how ridiculous was that? I truly didn't know about any of it. I truly was happily oblivious back then.

But times had changed; we weren't in that safe little happy bubble anymore. Happily oblivious to all of the people who wanted to bring us down. Yale couldn't protect us anymore, Logan couldn't even send Colin and Finn out to bypass girls anymore who hated me. My relationship with Logan was now everyone's business whether I liked it or not.

But he was worth it wasn't he? Even back then when I thought about my future I always thought about him in it. The last five years without him have been difficult. I have never thought of myself as someone who needs a guy, but I've needed Logan. It's not that I needed him to survive or anything because obviously without him I've managed to do very well professionally, but my heart has needed him. Simply it belongs to him. The last five days, let alone the last five years have proven that.

I love him. I've always known that. So then what the hell do I still need to think about? No pro/con list in the world can tell me that I wasn't meant to be with Logan Huntzberger.

I sighed and looked around me having been completely lost in my thoughts when I noticed I was near Branford. As I kept walking I noticed a coffee cart just outside of the Branford building. That's weird. Why would there be a coffee cart here in the middle of spring break. There's no one here. Odd but works for me.

As I neared I saw someone in a hat behind the cart. "Hi can I have a large caramel machiato?" I said as I looked into my purse to pull out my wallet and my phone so I could call my mom and tell her that I was headed to New York right now to see Logan.

"That's $4.50." he said and I handed him the money without looking up distracted by the fact that my Blackberry was missing. "Crap I must have left it at Grandma and Grandpa's." I say out loud continuing to rifle through my purse.

"Here you go." he says after a couple of minutes.

"Thanks." I say absentmindedly grabbing for the cup. I start to walk away but then I notice the cup is empty. "Hey there's nothing in here!" I exclaim looking at the guy behind the counter of the coffee cart and I gasp when I'm met with a pair of very familiar warm amused chocolate brown eyes.

"You've got to watch your tone there Ace. It's starting to sound a bit like Judy Dench and I'd hate to hear that you've been accused of talking and treating people like they're beneath you now."

"Logan?" I say trying to find the worlds as he looks at me amused. "What are you doing here and where is my coffee?"

As she approached I began to get nervous. What if she was mad that I was here and doing another grand gesture. Maybe I could just get Adam back here to serve the coffee instead before she gets...oh crap too late.

"Can I have a one large caramel macchiato?" she asked without looking up and digging through her purse.

"That's $4.50." I said trying to disguise my voice slightly but not entirely sure why. I mean I was doing this so she would know it was me right? She handed me the money without looking up. Interesting. I went ahead and made the coffee like Adam had taught me, glancing at her every so often to see if she noticed me but she wasn't paying any attention because she was still digging through her purse.

"Crap. I must have left it at Grandma and Grandpa's." she said frustrated.

I suddenly got an idea in my head since she didn't look up once while she stood in front of me. "Here you go." I said placing an empty cup in front of her."

"Thanks." she said as she grabbed the cup blindly before starting to walk away. "Hey there's nothing in here!" she exclaimed as she turned back and glared at me, but her face soon changed to one of surprise and a gasp escaped her lips as realization dawned on her.

"You've got to watch your tone there Ace. It's starting to sound a bit like Judy Dench and I'd hate to hear that you've been accused of talking and treating people like they're beneath you now." I said smirking.

"Logan?" she questions, "What are you doing here and where is my coffee?"

I can't help but chuckle at her comment and I shake my head, "Relax Ace its right here." I say coming around from the coffee cart to stand in front of her and I hand her the cup of coffee I had made just for her. "One large caramel machiato."

She smiles up at me before taking a large sip. "Mmm that's good. I didn't know you could make one of these." she says as she takes another sip.

"I didn't, I learned just a half hour ago just for you."

She looks surprised then smiles and then looks around me at the counter. "Looking for something there Ace?"

"Just looking for the tip jar so I can give you a fat tip."

"Well that's good because who knew that Spring Break was such a bad time to have a coffee cart on campus." I tease and she just smiles back at me. "But I can think of a better tip from you I'd prefer."

Her smile grows and she leans in and gives me the softest kiss on the lips. "Hi." she says softly.

"Hi."

We stand there like that for a moment and I know that I should say something but right now I'm tired and the girl I love is right in front of me.

"So you know you never answered my first question." she says, "Because I doubt you're here to sell coffee to the greater Yale population since as you said its Spring Break."

I sigh and look into her expectant blue eyes. "I was at your mom's house when she got a call from Emily saying that you had left your Blackberry there and that you had been missing for awhile so I don't know. I just thought if you were thinking you'd come here."

"You were in Stars Hallow, presumably talking to my mom?"

"Yes."

"And that was ok?"

"Of course." I say smiling.

"Well that's interesting because I was just...I was looking for my cell so I could call her and tell her that I was planning on heading up to New York to see you now." she said smiling softly.

"You were planning on going to New York to see me today?" I ask, "But I thought you were planning on coming later in the week."

"That was the plan but I was here just walking around and well it just hit me and I just had to see you and talk to you as soon as possible." she explained before leading to a nearby bench. "I...I was stupid Logan. I was stupid to tell you that I needed time to figure it out. Well that's not entirely true because if I didn't have that time then I wouldn't have figured this out and then that could have been a complete disaster."

"Rory." I say playfully covering her mouth. "You're rambling Ace."

"Oh right. Sorry." she says sheepishly before taking my hand in hers again. "It was stupid of me to ask for time because no amount of time - minutes, hours, days, months, years can change the fact that that I love you and I always will."

My heart was beaming at her words but there was a part of me that was still hesitant to just jump in. "What does that mean exactly Rory because well I already knew you loved me so..."

"It means..." she says smiling softly, "That I want to be with you. I want to be with you. I want to be your girlfriend. I want to talk to you and argue with you, kiss you, make love to you. I want it all with you Logan. I have lived my life without you Logan Huntzberger and maybe on the outside I'm still able to function without you but my heart, well my heart doesn't function correctly without you."

I tip my head forward until my forehead is touching hers. "Neither does mine Ace." I whisper. We're silent for a moment just staying there like that with our foreheads touching before I start chuckling.

"What are you laughing at Huntzberger."

"Nothing, just thinking that we've got some serious cheese going on here."

She laughs as she pulls away slightly to get a look at me. "Hey I happen to like cheese just as long as it's not smelly."

"Then I guess we're going to have to keep your cheese pleasing." I say grinning like a fool. "So seeing as you don't have a reason to go to New York anymore, you're not in any hurry to get back to Stars Hallow are you?"

"No definitely not, but are you sure you don't want to go back to New York. There's a lot more privacy there, meaning my mom and the entire town of Stars Hallow with its prying eyes and ears isn't there." she said trying to convince me.

"Why Ace do you have something in mind that would require privacy?" I tease pulling her into my lap.

"Maybe," she says smiling, "I've just missed you and well I want to be alone with you."

"Well if privacy is what you crave, there happen to be many hotels in the general vicinity of the campus that don't require the hour and half drive to New York, but I uh think I have a closer place in mind that give us the same amount of privacy."

"Really? It doesn't involve breaking into one of our old dorm rooms does it?"

"Nope, but you're getting warmer." I say as I gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Adam." I yell out suddenly.

"Who's Adam?" she asks and like clockwork a tall red headed guy starts walking towards us.

"Rory this is Adam, the owner of this coffee cart."

"Yup best spring break I've ever had." Adam says smiling.

"Well it's not quite the best spring break I've ever had, but I have a feeling it may just get there." I say before I turn and start pulling Ace away.

"Logan where are we going? We better not be breaking into anyone's dorm room because who knows when they last washed their sheets." she exclaims as I drag her along.

"Your mind sure is going to some dirty places Ace." I tease.

"Logan."

I stop and turn to her. "I assure you that I am not taking you to break into someone's room. I'm not really into catching some type of disease from someone else's dirty linens either." I say kissing her nose. "Now can you please hush and let me lead you. If you keep talking we'll never get there."

"Fine." she says, "but it better be good."

We walk for a bit until we're at the edge of campus and I can see her eyes get wide. "Logan this is our old apartment building."

"Yes it is. Care to take a peek at the old place." I say smiling continuing to pull her.

"Logan we can't just go up there. Someone probably lives there." she says trying to pull me back.

"Ace didn't I already tell you that I wasn't going to break into one of our old places. Just trust me ok?"

She seems to be hearing me for the first time and looks past me at the building, "What are you up to Logan Huntzberger."

My only response is to laugh at her suspicion, "Come on Ace."

As we enter the building the doorman looks up and smiles at us. "Hello Mr. Huntzberger. Ms. Gilmore it's a pleasure to see you again."

"Hello Jack." I say and Rory just looks between me and Jack surprised. "Um hello Jack it's nice to see you again too."

As we get into the familiar elevator Rory just stares at me. "Is there something you would like to say Ace?" I say after we pass five floors.

"Jack wasn't surprised to see us. Actually no wait, he wasn't surprised to see you, but he was surprised to see me. Why is that?"

"You know you're too much of a reporter for your own good." I say as we step off the elevator.

"I thought you loved that about me." she says giving me her Bambi eyes.

"I do so you can put the eyes away." I say pulling out my key and I see the surprise in her eyes even further. "But sometimes you just have to go with it."

I unlock the door and move aside for her to go first. She gives me a suspicious look as she passes me and I just shake my head.

"Oh my God Logan, this is...this is our apartment exactly how it was when we lived here." she says as she walks around. "How...how is this possible?"

"Well I kind of just kept renewing the lease and then a couple of years ago I bought the place." I say shrugging.

"But why? You were in California!"

"I don't know. We were over but I couldn't quite let it go and after I moved back East it became a good place to stay when I had to visit my parents." I explain.

"So all of this stuff has just been here in the old apartment? Henry is here!" she says incredulously walking towards Henry.

"Well if you remember correctly even though you decided to move out, I still had a few more months left on the lease for this place and if you hadn't noticed, I didn't exactly bring very many of my things to the apartment in New York so the place pretty much jus sat here with neither of living in exactly how we left it." I started to explain. "And when we broke up, well I don't know I just decided to renew the least for another year. I didn't bring any of this stuff to California with me because well the vibe there is just different and I was trying to get over you and as masochistic as it sounds, knowing the apartment we shared was as it was really helped. I don't know how to explain it because it sounds like it should have done just the opposite, but helped and I just kept renewing the lease until I finally bought it when I moved back."

She didn't say anything for a moment and just seemed to take it all in, "It's odd and slightly disturbing, but I think I get it. That rocket you gave me, it has gone with me everywhere." she said. "I knew I was supposed to be trying to get over you, but it was this reminder that I don't know, you were real, we were real."

"Yeah that's it. I just needed to know that it wasn't just all in my head that once upon a time, love actually existed in my life." I say and we just look at eachother from across the room.

"So do you come here a lot?" she asks.

"No, just when I've been summoned by my parents to visit, I end up staying here. I think Finn uses it more than I do."

She laughs, "You let Finn stay here. I hope you burn the sheets afterwards."

"Definitely."

"So do you think you're going to keep this place?"

"I don't know. What do you think?"

She looked at me and smiled before walking towards me. When she reached me she wrapped her arms around my neck, "As much as I love this place I think that after tonight you won't be needing this place anymore because we're real."

She pulled my head down and kissed me. It started out slow but then my hands found themselves in her hair and she pulled me closer and a moan escaped from deep inside her throat. It was my undoing. Before I knew it we were moving towards the bed, discarding clothes as we moved along. As she laid on the bed in just her bra and panties, her hair cascading over her shoulder and her blue eyes dark with passion, I couldn't help but think thank God that I was getting another chance at being with this woman and I vowed that I wouldn't let her go again.

Hours later we lay together on our old bed, my head on Logan's chest. It was soothing to hear his heartbeat and feel his even breathing. It made it feel more real. It the last few years I haven't been very big on the post cuddling, probably because it always made it more real that the person I had been with wasn't Logan.

Ugh. Ok not a good thing to think about the other guys I've been with.

I look around and it's starting to get dark, none of the lights in the apartment are on, but I can still make things out. Everything looks like it's the same as when we had lived here and it would be easy to fall back and attempt to be those people we were that had lived here before but if I looked closer, it was missing books and other nick nacks that had been here. Nostalgia was fine but I didn't want to live in the past anymore. If we were really going to make this relationship work then we had to move forward as the Logan and Rory of today.

"Hey what are you thinking about over there?" Logan asks breaking the silence.

"I was thinking that we really need to let this place go." I said then lifted my head off his chest to look at him. "I don't want who we were in the past to loom over us. We have to move forward as the people we are today."

"I agree. I don't want to keep this place. I just...I don't know it never felt like just mine to give up."

"You do realize that we were broken up for five years. Were you planning on keeping this place forever Logan?"

"Well no, I would've gotten rid of it eventually, but I don't know. I always had a glimmer of hope about us." he said and I gave him a look which made him chuckle. "Unfounded I know, but I wasn't ready to close that door yet."

"You're completely sappy, you know that don't you."

"Hey one of us has to be." He says and I hit him in the chest. I get a few hits in before he catches my arm and pulls me close to him laughing and laying a kiss on my lips.

"So should we talk about this?" he says after he pulls away and looks down at me seriously.

"Talk about what exactly?" I ask coyly but he must take it differently because a frown appears on his face.

"Come on Rory. We can't do this again. I can can't keep doing this back and forth. The are we or aren't we." he says trying to get up but I put my hand on his arm.

"Logan I'm sorry that wasn't my intention with that comment." I say trying to get him to stop. "It was just my attempt at being cute and apparently I failed miserably."

"You're always cute." he says as he puts his arms back around me. "I guess I'm just slightly over sensitive about all of this. I love you but I don't know how much more of this push and pull I can take."

"Well as far as I'm concerned I'm done with all of that. I'm here to stay for as long as you'll have me." I say smiling slightly. "No more running. No more hiding."

"No more running. No more hiding." he repeats.

"Yeah." I say reaching for his hands and playing with his fingers. "So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well if I'm going to stop running and hiding as girly as this sounds, well I'm going to need some reassurances too mister."

He chuckles slightly and smiles and reaches out and tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Well I would think that my actions would speak louder than words, but since the lady requires words..." he says before I silence him by putting his hand over his mouth.

"I don't require words. It's just well...we were always good at the actions I think it's just nice to hear it too."

"I agree." he said taking my hand in his again "and the actions I was speaking of wasn't what we just did it was about what I've done."

"What do you mean?"

"Well you may have made the first move by sending me that friend request on Facebook, but after that I changed my schedule to make sure I could go to that correspondence dinner, made sure we were a the same table, lied to you about working at your paper, and make it actually happen. I left when you asked me to and I came running to see you now, got you a coffee cart again." he explained as I looked at him in awe. "My actions lately and probably always have been because I love you. That I want to be with you."

"Well when you put it that way." I say and he smiles and kisses my forehead.

"But to make no mistake about how I feel about you let me say it in words." he says softly, "You Rory Gilmore have my heart. No amount of time or distance can change that. I fell in love with you seven years ago and well no one can take your place. You are irreplaceable and one day I plan on making you my wife and this time I will wait until you are ready, until you say yes, even if it takes another 5 years or fifty because I will wait, but don't worry I'm not going to ask you now. We Ace have all the time in the world."

"Well that may not be true. The world is supposed to end at the end of this year." I tease.

"The world is going to end huh? So what does that mean?" he asks looking at me, "Are you ready to be Mrs. Huntzberger?"

"No not quite but I can tell you that you won't have to wait 50 years or even 5 years for me to be ready but I do know that one day I want to be your wife."

"Well that's good to know Ace." he says before kissing me.

"So what happens now? You're in Chicago, I'm in New York. We do long distance for awhile. Switch weekends to see eachother. We're buying the Post-Daily so I can probably find a reason to work from Chicago more." he rambles before I cut him off with my fingers again.

"You haven't spoken to Mitchum yet have you?"

"No why, did something happen?"

"Well let's just say maybe you should give up your job with HPG and hand into over to your father because he can be much more convincing that you."

"Wait does that mean you're taking the job with the New York Times?" he asks surprised.

"Well we haven't hammered out the details and I haven't given my official yes but yeah I think I'm going to take it. How could I not it's my dream." I say smiling.

"Oh my God Ace this is so great!" he says pulling me into a hug.

"Well don't get too excited yet. I still need to meet with the editors and I'm not sure if it's the only thing that I want to do."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I'm not sure I just want to stay in print journalism. I got quite a few from the cable news networks and from the producer of the Today Show. I've actually been thinking about this for awhile, since I've done some interviews for a few of my pieces. I got offers then but I was never sure, but I don't know the idea of it now seems pretty good and then the producer of the Today Show keeps calling and says she's really interested."

"Wow. I think you should go for it Ace and if you take the job at the Times they'll introduce you as Rory Gilmore, columnist for the New York Times."

"I know I've thought about that and it sounds unbelievable." I say giddily.

We both smile and look at eachother happily. "So no long distance?"

"Just for a little while until I get everything situated job wise." I said.

"So you actually said yes to my dad and not to me." he said incredulously.

"What can I say?" I said laughing, "Your dad is just better at recruiting talent than you are."

"I don't know about that. Just my girlfriend apparently."

"Say it again."

"What?" he asks looking at me.

"Your girlfriend." I say smiling.

He pulls me close smiling, "my girlfriend." he kisses my forehead, "my girlfriend," kisses my chin, "my girlfriend," he kisses my cheeks, "my girlfriends," he takes a moment to look into my eyes before kissing me deeply and as he lays me down into the bed he murmers 'my girlfriend' again.