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Rory got into Hartford just before noon. She made her way to where she and Logan had arranged to meet and he was already sitting in the coffee shop, stirring a spoon around his cappuccino without drinking it. Rory stared at him for a moment, before he looked up, almost ready to turn away and drive back but she knew it was cowardly so she took a deep breath and walked up to his table.

"Hi."

Logan looked up, dropping the spoon which made a clink against his cup.

"Hi," he said, standing up and pulling out the chair for her. "Thanks for coming."

"What do you want?" Rory asked bluntly, not acknowledging the chair. "What do you have to say to me?"

Logan looked at her, hesitated and then said,

"Could you sit down?"

Rory glared at him but sat down, trying not to betray how nervous she felt. Logan didn't try to hide his anxiety and let out a breath of relief.

"Aren't you going to get a coffee?" he asked and Rory shook her head. "Oh, that's crazy," he said and he called the waiter.

"The finest coffee you have for this lady here," he said to him before turning and grinning at Rory, who refused to smile. "I know you need some caffeine."

"Look, let's just cut to the chase," Rory said, not wanting to admit she was grateful for the drink. "I didn't drive all the way out here for a fancy coffee. Tell me what's going on so I can go home."

"I guess I wanted to explain some things," Logan said awkwardly and Rory snapped,

"What, like how you talked with Grandma behind my back about ambushing me at dinner?"

Logan opened his mouth, closed it and as he hesitated the waiter brought the coffee over, in the largest cup Rory had ever seen, filled with a dark kind of cream.

"It's a coffee cream," Logan told her. "I don't know how you've survived without it."

Rory stared at it before shaking herself and snapping,

"Logan, forget about the drink, okay? What is it you have to make an excuse for this time?"

"I'm not trying to make an excuse," Logan said desperately. "Maybe you think it is but would you hear me out?"

Rory was ready to snap back but there was a look of pleading in his eye so she said quietly,

"Talk," and sat back in her seat.

Logan hesitated and then shook his head.

"I don't know where to start."

Rory folded her arms and stared at him and Logan sighed.

"Okay. First off, I guess, is that I didn't marry Candace as a joke."

"Did you love her?"

"Not really," Logan admitted. "I kind of fooled myself into thinking that I did for a while and I thought if we got married that would fix all the fights we had but I found out I didn't love her pretty quickly. I'd always known underneath."

"That's too bad, Logan," Rory said sarcastically. "You got married too quickly and then started sleeping around to make yourself feel better?"

Logan ignored her and said,

"I really wished you'd come."

"Why?" Rory asked. "So I'd say you shouldn't marry her or something?"

"Maybe," Logan said honestly. "Really, I wanted it to hurt you. I'm not proud of that but I wanted you to see me get married and feel hurt."

Rory didn't know what to say for a moment and just stared at him.

"You got married to get back at me?"

"I did want to be with Candace," Logan said quickly. "But I guess part of me wanted to hurt you."

"Well, this has been charming," Rory said, shaking her head and standing up. "A real pleasure Logan, and I'm glad I got to hear you explain."

She turned to go and Logan grabbed her hand.

"Don't go!"

"Leave me alone!" Rory snapped, shaking his hand away and marching out. She had only got outside the door when Logan was at her elbow, panting and saying,

"Don't leave, I haven't finished."

"What else is there to say?" Rory cried. "I get to hear more about how you decided to hurt me? What do you want me to say, Logan? Am I supposed to be sorry, are you saying it's my fault you got married because if I'd said yes you wouldn't have married someone else, cheated on her and had a child?"

"Don't talk about that," Logan said sharply. "That should never have happened."

"But it has happened!" Rory exclaimed. "You have a kid!"

Logan didn't say anything. Rory looked at him and asked quietly,

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"What does that matter?" Logan asked with a bitter laugh and Rory said,

"I don't know, I just want to know," with a strange urge to cry.

Logan took a deep breath and leant against the wall.

"It's a boy."

Rory closed her eyes and leant against the wall as well, feeling like someone was pressing against her chest.

"A boy," she gasped. "You have a son."

"I don't have a son," Logan said angrily. "I didn't even know he existed until a few months ago."

"But he does," Rory said, opening her eyes and staring at him. "What's his name?"

"Jason," Logan said in a tight voice. "His name is Jason and he's two, are you happy?"

"You have a little boy," Rory said, suddenly unable to look at him. "Don't you want to see him?"

"No, I don't want to see him!" Logan shouted suddenly. "I didn't even know he'd been born! I gave Lisa money, tons of it, to do whatever she wanted. I said she could do whatever she wanted, have it or not have it as long as she never told anyone and never saw me again. That was more than two years ago and then suddenly she shows up on my doorstep with this kid, right with Candace there, saying he's mine and she's broke! She promised me she'd never come back! She promised never to tell me what happened, never to tell anyone she was even pregnant and then there was this kid crying in the middle of the floor and Candace was screaming and kicking me out!"

"You deserved it!" Rory said sharply. "How could you just forget about it? Didn't you ever wonder, ever think that you might have a daughter or son out there?"

"Sometimes," Logan said honestly. "But not that much. I thought she'd never come back to my life so there wasn't any point wondering."

Neither of them said anything for a moment and Rory looked at him.

"She's back in your life now," she said, refusing to let it go. "And so's he."

"Hopefully not," Logan said bluntly. "I paid her double what I did last time."

"So that's it?" Rory demanded. "Just forget Jason exists? You're his dad!"

"Rory, shut up!" Logan exploded. "Just shut up! You know nothing! You think it's so easy, don't you?"

"Acknowledging he's your kid? Yeah, I'd say that was easy!"

"It's not that easy!" Logan yelled. "You don't get it, I'm doing this for him! I'm staying out of his life for him!"

Rory stared at him, lost.

"What?" she asked, completely at a loss and Logan snapped,

"He's better off without me as a father. He's better off without any of the Huntzbergers in his life."

"But you're his dad," Rory said insistently and Logan laughed at her and shook his head.

"You remember my dad, don't you? How could you forget? He's screwed me up my entire life, messed me up my entire life, made me feel bad about every single thing, it's not good enough or it's good but it isn't brilliant and every single failure is an example of what a loser son I am. I'll be a loser as a father."

"You wouldn't have to be like that," Rory said after a pause and Logan snapped,

"I can't say I hold great hopes on my father potential and besides, forget me. My dad's still there, he's part of everything I do and he's going to ruin that kid's life. Not only was he born out of wedlock, not only to an affair, but he's half-Mexican and whilst my family will rush to deny it my dad's uncomfortable with anyone south of the border."

Rory was silent and then finally said,

"You're giving up, Logan. You don't have to be part of that. Mom didn't stay in that world when she had me, she knew it was bad and she left, it was as simple as that."

"Well, it's not as simple as that!" Logan snapped furiously. "You think I can just walk away from it all?"

"Yes, if you really wanted to!"

"I don't really want to!" Logan shouted. "I don't want to lose all my money, everything I have, my house, my life for a kid I didn't know existed until practically the other day! And besides, even if I did, do you think it wouldn't come back to him? Some day it would. Mitchum Huntzberger will find a way to screw with this kid like he always does and..." Logan paused and stared at her. "My world is poisonous, Rory. I'm not going to do that to that kid. I'm not going to make him grow up feeling like a failure his entire life like I did, and it says a lot that I felt that way when I was born the right way – imagine how he's going to feel? He's happy with Lisa, he's happy without me, without any of that hanging over him."

Rory was silent and Logan added,

"You think it's the same with your mom, it's not. Your family's wealthy but they're not sickeningly rich, they're not part of this dog and pony show and your grandparents are decent people. They never shunned you, did they? They never told your mom she wasn't their daughter anymore? Mine would and they'd do a ton of worse stuff besides."

He took and released a deep breath, sounding like was ready to cry and Rory looked at him.

"Maybe it isn't easy," she conceded. "But what were you expecting with me? Say your crazy dream comes true, say I end up being with you instead. I can't forget about this child. He's part of your life if you like it or not and I'm always going to remember. I won't play pretend, Logan, I can't."

Logan didn't say anything and Rory said,

"What were you expecting to happen on Friday? You thought I would see you and just jump into your arms?"

"I thought I would charm you a little first," Logan said but Rory didn't smile and he walked around to face her.

"Come on, Ace," he said softly. "We had something, didn't we? You loved me, I know you did and look, you can do whatever you want with your life, you know you can and I never meant to say you couldn't. Can't we just give it a try?"

"No, Logan," Rory said angrily. "We really can't."

"Is this because of this guy?" Logan asked. "Forget him, he's not good enough for you. Is he just going to lie on your couch all day writing while you go out and work?"

"You're not good enough for me," Rory said furiously. "And sometimes I don't think I'm good enough for him."

"You can't be serious."

"It's not all about money, Logan!" Rory exclaimed. "It's more than that, love is so much more than that. He doesn't lie around all day, he's creating and the fact that you think writing is a waste of time says something about you I really dislike."

"I don't think writing is a waste of time," Logan said. "But it has to get you somewhere."

"You mean it has to make you money," Rory said and he fell silent. "It always comes back to that with you, doesn't it?"

He looked away and Rory said quietly,

"I love him and nothing will change that."

"You loved me, didn't you?" Logan asked, refusing to let her look away. "What makes him different? When did you decide to stop loving me?"

"I didn't decide, it just happened."

"How?" Logan demanded. "Why? You don't just wake up one day and stop loving someone!"

"I didn't!" Rory exclaimed. "I didn't wake up one day and stop loving you, it just started to happen. I can't explain it, Logan, but I stopped loving you a long time ago. I'm older now."

"You're not that much older!" Logan snapped. "And you went out with that guy when you were a kid, when you were in high school! What, is it because he's the first guy you had sex with or something? Does he seem more special that way?"

"Please, Logan," Rory snapped and Logan ignored her and insisted,

"What makes him so different?"

"I feel like myself around him," Rory said, after a pause and Logan yelled,

"What the hell does that mean, Rory? He makes you feel seventeen again, is that it?"

"No, that's not it!"

"So what is it? What can he give you that I can't?"

"It's not about what he can give me," Rory said and Logan stared at her, looking utterly at a loss.

"Why do you love him?" he asked eventually. "Why do you still love him and not me?"

"You wouldn't understand, Logan."

"Try me," Logan challenged. "Because I can't see a thing."

Rory looked at him and started thinking of Jess and a smile playing across her lips.

"It's the way he looks at me," she said in a sudden, dreamy voice. "It's the way he makes me think, the things he asks me, how he never lets me settle for less. It's the way he thinks of me reading, writes notes in the margins, how he makes me want to keep driving and wants to get icecream in cones."

Logan stared at her and echoed,

"Icecream in cones? You're right, I don't get it."

"It's a story I never told you," Rory said. "And it's probably the greatest and the smallest part of all."

Logan just stared and shook his head and Rory sighed.

"He makes me see things another way," she said, ignoring Logan's frown. "He's always asking what I think, why I see things the way I do and he cares, he wants to know and he'll never agree for the sake of it or let me do so either. Logan, I think if I hadn't seen Jess that time I might never have gone back to Yale."

"Not this, Rory!" Logan shouted suddenly. "Not this stupid Yale thing again!"

"Oh, it's stupid?" Rory flared up. "The fact that I nearly quit my school, compromised my whole future is stupid?"

"I didn't say that was stupid, it's the fact that you can't let it go!"

"It mattered, Logan! Jess saw that! He could see how dumb I was being and he was the only one besides Mom who bothered to tell me! Everyone else was just mollycoddling me, letting me just settle for the DAR and Jess was the one who asked me what was going on with me, why I was giving up which is more than I can say for you."

"Here we go again!" Logan snapped. "It's all my fault that you quit Yale, isn't it? It was your choice, your decision and I supported you and now I'm the bad guy? I'm the bad guy because I wanted you to be happy?"

"But I wasn't happy!" Rory exclaimed furiously. "You knew I wasn't! I know it was my own decision to quit and no one else's but you never asked me why other than when I said I was leaving, you never asked me to think about what I was doing and what I was losing or told me to go back. Sometimes...sometimes it felt like you liked it."

"What? That's crazy, Rory, that's insane."

"Is it really so crazy?" Rory asked coldly. "You'd come to see me after Yale and you'd ask how my day was, and I'd tell you all about the DAR and helping set up a function and you'd say how great it was that I lived with my grandparents now, how I was getting all this free time and then we'd just go and party, every night. We never talked about it, did we? You'd come home and forget about study and we'd just go and drink or something."

"You liked being in the DAR. It was something new for you and it was good for you."

"Good for me? How was it good for me?"

"You had fun and you met new people and –"

"I had fun? That was what was good for me? Wasting time arranging tea parties and luncheons and wearing frilly dresses?"

"Life's more than study, Rory, you know that."

"Yes, I know that," Rory snapped. "But I wasn't doing anything worthwhile – I wasn't doing anything at all. I wasn't thinking, I was falling behind and I was turning into a miniature version of my grandmother."

"Rory, come on."

"No, you come on," Rory retorted. "Don't patronise me. You asked what Jess can give me – that's what he gave me. He stopped me from becoming that, he stopped me from losing my mind. He woke me up."

"Woke you up from what?"

"Woke me up from that funk!" Rory shouted. "From that awful time in my life where I gave up on everything, let everything go and stayed with you even when you cheated on me!"

"Cheated on you? I thought we'd split up!"

"Oh, that's an excuse," Rory said furiously. "I should have ended it then. It had finished then, I think. I went to see him, you know. After you did that to me I went to see him in Philadelphia and I kissed him."

"You what?" Logan yelled. "You lied to me!"

"I didn't lie to you! I wanted to do more than that but I still loved you, then, and I didn't want to hurt you!"

"So you're telling me to hurt me now?"

"Not to hurt you," Rory said. "To be honest with you. I should have been honest then. I should have been brave then. I was starting to lose you."

"Starting to lose me?"

"I don't think I loved you the same way then," Rory said honestly. "I did love you but not as much as I did and I wanted to kiss Jess and I think, if I'd really loved you like I had, I wouldn't have."

"So why'd you come back?"

"Because I did love you," Rory sad, looking at him. "Because I was scared and because I was still running."

"Running from what?" Logan asked, genuinely confused and Rory said simply,

"Life."

Logan stared at her and Rory added, in a more gentle tone,

"I think you're running as well."

"Look who's being patronising now!" Logan snapped. "You think all my problems will be fixed if I quit my life and see my son?"

"No, I don't, but I think you should face them."

"I am facing them, it's just not in a way you like."

Rory paused and shook her head.

"If you think," she said finally. "That me being with you again and us forgetting about it is a solution then you're running. Your marriage just ended, Logan. Your marriage has ended and you found out you have a child and your instinct is to come to me rather than work it out."

"Yeah, because I still love you," Logan said truthfully. "I never stopped loving you and my marriage was a sham."

Rory looked at him sadly and suddenly could only feel pity.

"I don't love you, Logan," she said honestly. "I can't be with you again."

"Can't you try?" he asked, taking her hands. "I know that if you tried –"

"Logan, stop."

"We were good together, Rory," Logan begged. "We had fun, didn't we? We loved each other."

"I loved you," Rory agreed. "But I wasn't happy."

"Yes, you were!" Logan contradicted angrily, making her look at him. "I know you were, Rory! We had fun, doing those stunts and going to those parties and just being together!"

"I was happy some of the time," Rory said cautiously. "And I did have fun but not all the time. I was so unhappy when I dropped out of Yale and you couldn't see it. I was in a bad place."

"You never told me."

"I shouldn't have had to."

"You didn't seem unhappy," Logan said angrily. "You talk about those parties and luncheons like it was such a terrible thing but you slotted in pretty well there, you saved some of those events, you loved it. Everyone adored you."

"Maybe," Rory said. "But I think I was becoming someone I didn't like."

"Like who?" Logan shouted. "Like me? Like someone with money?"

"Not just that, Logan! Like someone who just sits around and wastes money, like someone who doesn't do anything with their mind, someone who can't step outside their bubble! I wasn't reading, Logan! I'd stopped thinking about books!"

She stared at him desperately but Logan simply stared back, not understanding what she was meant.

"So what?" he asked, honestly confused and Rory shook her hands away from his and turned away.

"That guy reads literature, so what?" he demanded, walking around to face her again. "I can give you more."

"I need more than a Birken bag, Logan," Rory said sadly. "I need more than that."

"So I'll give you more than that!" Logan exclaimed. "I'll give you three times whatever that guy can!"

"Forget about Jess!" Rory shouted. "This isn't about Jess, Logan, this is about me! I don't love you anymore and I'd stopped loving you years ago. It was over between us long before he came back into my life and no amount of money or promises or presents is going to change that! I'm not your doll anymore!"

He stared at her, looking like he'd been slapped. Rory took a deep breath, trying not to back down and look away and Logan said pleadingly,

"But Rory –"

"Here's what's going to happen," Rory said in a sudden, fierce voice. "You're going to delete my number from your phone and you're not going to contact me again. You're not going to call me, text me, email me or get in touch with me at all and you are never, ever going to collude with my grandparents and secretly arrange to meet me ever again, are we clear? If you ever do that again I will do a lot more than just storm out."

"Rory –"

"Delete my number," Rory said in a dangerous voice and, cowed, Logan took his phone out and removed it, showing her the proof.

"You know I could easily get it again," he couldn't help saying.

"You could, but you won't," Rory said simply and he nodded.

"I just wanted to try, Rory," Logan said suddenly, a sound of wistfulness in his voice. "Can you blame me for trying?"

"No, I don't blame you," Rory said, looking at him sadly. "But I blame the way you went about it. You should have told me you'd be there."

"You used to like a surprise," Logan said defensively and Rory shrugged.

For a few moments neither said anything. Rory stared up at the sky, where clouds looked suddenly heavy, pregnant with rain and felt that the air seemed cooler on her cheek. She suddenly felt that she was a thousand miles away, looking down on herself and was only broken from her reverie when Logan said curiously,

"You seem different."

"So do you," Rory said. "Maybe we both are or maybe we don't know each other now. It wouldn't work, Logan, if I left with you."

He looked at her, a tear in his eye and said in a broken voice,

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"I don't know what you're supposed to do now," Rory said quietly. "That's for you to figure out but it's not being with me."

He didn't say anything and Rory said sadly,

"We're not alright, are we?"

"No, we're not," Logan said frankly. "I don't think this is fair."

"I can't fix that, Logan," Rory said, after a pause. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"I know you can't," Logan said, closing his eyes. "Rory, you say it wasn't about him but I knew when he came, that time. I could tell from the way you looked at each other that you wanted him and not me and hell, you went and made out with him a second later. It was him from the start."

Rory paused for a moment and then said,

"No, it wasn't that, Logan. He made me look at myself. He made me think about what was happening to me, about what was going on with me. It wasn't him."

"I don't believe you," Logan said bluntly and Rory said helplessly,

"I can't tell you anything else. We aren't right for each other, Logan. If we were we'd never had cheated on each other and you know it shouldn't matter if we'd broken up or not. You know that if we'd really been right for each other we would never have wanted to."

He shook his head and said,

"I loved you."

"I know you did," Rory said gently. "But it doesn't change things."

Logan nodded and finally looked up at her.

"Thanks for coming, Ace."

"That's alright," Rory said, not feeling anger at the use of her old nickname. "I'm kind of thankful too, in a way."

"How?"

"I think it helped me, somehow," Rory said honestly and he laughed sadly.

"At least it helped one of us. I'm going to get out of here. Don't worry, you won't hear from me again."

"Where are you going?" Rory couldn't help asking and he groaned.

"To my luxury apartment which feels worse than if it were filled with roaches. I should be moving out soon, after I get back from Germany."

Rory nodded and he half-lifted his hand, as though to touch her cheek but then dropped it.

"See you, Ace."

He started to walk away, his head down and Rory suddenly shouted,

"Logan!"

He stopped to turn and Rory ran up to see him.

"Your dad doesn't have to control what you do," she said, making her look at him. "I know he doesn't, you're better than that. You don't have to give up."

"I wish I could believe it," Logan said miserably. "I wish I was stronger. Goodbye, Rory."

"Goodbye, Logan," Rory said sadly, watching him leave. "Goodbye."

The rain began to fall and as Rory got into her car and started to drive she wished she'd remembered to tell him they had had something special a long time ago.