A few weeks had passed by since Rory and Logan had made things official and so far, things were going as well as either of them could have hoped. Logan was busy throwing himself into life at HPG while Rory was still attending Yale. Between them, they made a great team when it came to juggling the childcare along with Marta.

Rory was finding grad school and all the studying that came with a monumental effort and she was counting down the days to when it would all be over. She had been sat in the library at Yale all day and yet she felt like she had achieved nothing. Finally, by 6 pm she decided to throw in the towel and head home. She slammed her books shut and packed everything up before heading back to her car.

When she arrived back at their house, she opened the front door and dropped her bags next to it. She went into the living room to find Logan lying on the sofa with Lily watching a movie. She noticed that Lily, who was snuggling up to her daddy, was all bathed and ready for bed.

Logan looked up at her "Had a good day?" He could see from her face that things perhaps hadn't gone as well as she would have liked today.

"Not really," Rory said throwing herself down onto the sofa. "I don't see the point. I just feel like giving up. "

"Come on Ace, you're nearly at the finish line," he said as he rubbed her feet that she had placed on her lap.

"Yeah, I know" She sighed. "Anyway, let's not talk about it, I'm fed up of it all. I'm starving, what shall we do about dinner?"

"Dinner is all ready and on the stove. We've just got to get Lily into bed and then we'll eat. I just kept her up as I thought you might want to say goodnight to her." Logan said as Lily climbed off his lap and went to play with some toys on the floor.

Rory looked at Logan and she thought about how grateful she was that he was there to support her. It was the one real thing that she had missed when she was living alone with Lily – having someone there to come home to, someone you could talk to and someone who took care of everything when you were dead on your feet. She opened her mouth to say something but instead of words coming out, she let out a giant sob and immediately burst into tears.

Logan looked at her alarmed "Hey!" he said as he sat up to put his arm around her. "What's all this about? What's the matter?"

Rory brushed some of her tears away. "Sorry Logan, I'm just exhausted and am so lucky that I have you here. I couldn't do any of this without you."

"That's rubbish, you're one of the most capable people I know. Plus, you were doing it all before I came along. Where is all this coming from?"

"This" Rory threw her arms in the air "All of this. You made us a home even when I couldn't give you a definitive decision about us. You make me dinner when I am tired. You take care of Lily, you take such good care of her" she sniffed. "It's more than I ever expected of you. It's so much more than I deserve after the way I treated you." She added quietly.

"Ssh," he said as he wiped tears off her face. "This is crazy talk."

Rory shook her head. "You didn't have to do any of it."

"I do it because you're my family and I love you," Logan said.

"Logan, I love you too. I really do. I want you to know that."

"I do know that," he said as he kissed the top of her head.

"God, I'm sorry, what a mess I am. I'm just so emotional right now." Rory said wiping the last of her tears on her sleeve.

"Hey, Ace, why don't you go see your mom for a night? Leave Lily here with me and go have a Gilmore movie night with Lorelai. I think you could use some time out."

Rory smiled weakly "Are you going to put me on the naughty step too?"

"Only if you're very lucky" he winked. "Look, I'm going to take Lily up, why I don't I run you a bath so that you can have a soak before dinner?"

"See! This is what I mean!" Rory said with a smile. "Stop being so nice!"

Once he had got Lily into bed and Rory was upstairs relaxing in the tub, Logan took the opportunity to make a call to Lorelai to let her know that he was packing Rory off in her direction for some R&R. Lorelai was grateful for the call and assured Logan that she would look after Rory and help her relax for the night.

The next afternoon Rory made the short trip to Stars Hollow to see her mom. She felt a little bad, as she didn't want Logan to think she was abandoning him but it had been his idea and he had insisted that she go and have a break from everything, including all the studying and she was really grateful.

Rory knew that a night with her mom would be just the tonic she needed. She had a lot on her mind recently with the studying, thinking about her future career options and turning down the interview at The Washington Post. When she had originally applied for the job, Logan was really only just on the scene but once things had started to develop with him, she knew that it would no longer be an option for her. While Rory knew deep down that it was the right thing to do, she still couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It felt like another setback on the road to the career that she had always wanted and had worked so hard towards. When she pulled up outside the house in Stars Hollow Lorelai was waiting on the porch for her.

"Expecting someone?" Rory asked.

"You my dear daughter!" Lorelai said with her arms outstretched.

Rory raised her eyebrows. "Premonition?"

"Logan," Lorelai said with a grimace.

"He called you!" Rory said exasperatedly.

"Last night" Lorelai wrinkled her nose. "Come on baby girl," she said as she ushered her into the house.

"I can't believe Logan called you." Rory shook her head.

"Don't be mad kid, he was worried about you," Lorelai said with a small smile. 'That boy really cares about you."

While she didn't ever want to see her daughter in any sort of distress Lorelai was secretly happy that Logan had called her to speak to her. It gave her all sorts of hope for the future and confidence that they were all working towards a shared goal.

"What's going on Rory?" Lorelai asked.

"Nothing really, I think that I just had a big overreaction to severe mental exhaustion," Rory said "I have no real reason to feel upset about anything" she shrugged.

Lorelai tilted her head to look at her daughter. "Things are okay with Logan?"

"Things are great with Logan. I think that might be part of the problem." Rory said looking down at the ground.

"It's a problem because…" Lorelai paused to encourage her daughter on.

"He's just so good to me. He does everything I need him to do, without me even having to ask him. He's so thoughtful all the time and he's just amazing with Lily." Rory rambled on as she started to get a bit teary. "I don't know, I am just struggling a bit at the moment. He's been wonderful and I still feel so guilty that I kept everything from him so long. I can't understand how he can just let it go."

"Because he loves you kiddo. And I think you're being way too harsh on yourself. You apologized for all of that and he's forgiven you. If he can do that don't you think it's time you forgave yourself?"

"Yeah maybe you're right" she sighed.

"Hey, where is all this coming from Ror?" Lorelai squeezed Rory's hand.

"Things are feeling pretty serious with Logan again, we've talked about a future together. I'm just nervous. Everything seems too good to be true and I feel like something will come along and screw everything up or he'll change his mind."

"I don't think he's going anywhere kiddo" Lorelai laughed.

Rory looked up at her mom. "I turned down a job interview a few weeks ago, in Washington. I was disappointed but we've talked about a future so there is no way that I could ever entertain moving away now, I could never take Lily away from him…and I guess I feel like my choices are limited which is something I so badly wanted to avoid."

"You're only thinking about Lily. What about you Rory? What do you want? The way I see it is if you want to be together, as a family, you're going to have to make sacrifices, both of you, and yes, that might mean having to rethink your career choices but it doesn't have to be all or nothing."

Later, Rory and Lorelai sat on the sofa watching a movie and eating their own weight in Chinese food. Rory's mind really hadn't been on the movie at all, but rather on the talk she'd had with Lorelai earlier that day. All of a sudden she jumped up, startling Lorelai.

"Jeez, Rory!" Lorelai said, "You scared the life out of me, what are you doing?"

"I've got to go," she said as she grabbed her bag "I need to talk to Logan."

"But…" Lorelai said confused.

"I'll call you later," Rory said as she ran out of the door.

By the time she got back to Hartford it was late. The house was in total darkness so Rory crept in quietly. She made her way up the stairs and carefully opened the door to Lily's room. She slowly walked over to the chair by the side of the bed and sat down, watching her daughter sleeping soundly.

As she looked at Lily lying in the bed, the complete mirror image of Logan, she thought about how this little girl had completely turned her life upside down.

When Logan had proposed to her at her graduation Rory had turned him down because she had wanted to keep her options open. She had felt that if she said yes, she would be held back in her career and the choices available to her would be limited.

What she didn't know at that time was that fate had already stepped in.

The moment she found out that she was pregnant, all those wide-open possibilities were snatched out from underneath her and all of a sudden she was left with no chance of a career in the near future – and no Logan.

Rory had been a bit blindsided by the pregnancy but once her baby was in her arms she had realised that perhaps it wasn't the worst thing in the world, and all the things that had seemed so important to her when she had said no to Logan just didn't exist in the same way anymore. It was no longer just about her.

All of a sudden, sitting there in the darkness, Rory had what can only be described as a real moment of clarity. She knew what she needed to do.

Rory stood up and kissed her sleeping daughter on the head and walked to the bedroom to find Logan. When she got there she found him fast asleep in their bad. She walked over and sat down carefully on the edge of the bed next to him and took a deep breath before gently shaking him a couple of times to wake him up.

It took a moment for a sleepy Logan to realize what was going on.

"Rory, what are you doing here? Is it something wrong?" he said as she sat up a bit and leant back on his arms.

Rory shook her head silently before kissing him softly on the lips.

"Everything is right, so right," she said before continuing. "Logan, will you marry me?" Rory whispered as he pressed her forehead against his.

Logan pulled away quickly "What?!" he said in shock.

"Marry me Logan" she repeated.