Chapter Fifty-Three
Logan peels himself up off the edge of the bathtub with a groan, fighting against an extremely painful throbbing in his head. He catches a glimpse of a single, designer pump resting on its side and his gaze follows it towards a panty hoe covered foot, flecked with vomit, up to a rumpled blouse, and comes to a stop at the sight of Gwen propped up against the wall, her head cocked to the side as she dozes.
"Gwen?" He chokes out. His mouth feels like the Sahara.
She jerks awake, blinking in confusion at her surroundings.
"What are you doing here?" He asks, his voice gravelly. "Is Nessa okay?"
She shifts uncomfortably, rolling her stiff neck. "She's fine. She's at home with Honor."
He breathes a sigh of relief, still feeling slightly drunk. "Why are you here?"
She doesn't sugarcoat it, but then again, she never does. "You need to come home, Logan."
His head throbs again. "Gwen…"
She moves closer, sitting on her knees. "I'm sorry I snapped at you that day. I didn't mean it."
"I know." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry too. Things are seriously fucked up right now."
"You need to come home," she repeats. "There are people who can help you but you have to come home."
"I can't come home."
"Logan, please."
He shakes his head and immediately regrets the stabbing pain it gives him. "If I come home they'll throw me in jail."
"But—"
He leans forward, grasping her hands. "Let's just go," he pleads. "Take the baby and run. We'll go somewhere with no extradition treaty—Dubai, do you like Dubai?"
She pulls her hands out of his grasp. "I'm not moving to Dubai, Logan. And neither are you. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life moving from country to country trying to avoid extradition? If you run now, you won't ever be able to come home."
His mouth twists with pain. "I might spend the rest of my life in jail."
She picks up one of his hands, holding it firmly between hers. "We'll find you a lawyer, we'll fight the charges and I will stand with you, whatever they throw at us. But you have to come home."
"Why are you doing this, Gwen? I'm a shitty husband and a terrible father."
"Because I believe you can be better." She reaches over, cupping his face. "You can do the right thing."
He takes her wrist, keeping her palm against his cheek. "Do you love me?"
"What?"
"You heard me. Do you love me?"
She blinks rapidly, trying to process his words. "Why does it matter?"
"It matters because you're here. You could've sent Honor. I know Colin even tried to get Rory to come. So why you?"
She swallows. "You're my husband. You're the father of my child and I made a vow to stand by you. Our marriage is probably not going to make it, Logan and if it doesn't, I need to know I tried and I stood by the decision I made, as reckless as it might've been."
"You wish we hadn't gotten married?" He lets out sadly. He doesn't know why he's surprised. Why shouldn't she wish that? It's not like he's ever given her a reason not to.
"We should've waited," she sighs. "We got married for the wrong reasons."
"What were the right reasons, Gwen?"
"I don't know," she says softly, her eyes downcast. "I think we both caved to the pressure from our parents."
He takes her hand away from his cheek, running his thumb along her palm. "I'm sorry."
"Just come home. Spend your daughter's first Christmas with her."
He sighs. "There's no fighting these charges, Gwen."
"You won't know unless you try."
"You really want to be married to a potential felon?"
She shakes her head. "I don't care about that, Logan. If Mitchum made you do something…if he coerced you…you can fight that. You could turn state's evidence—there's plea bargains, probably other things as well. You have options. Call your lawyer."
"I'm pretty sure my phone is tapped. Not that it matters, Colin threw it into the Seine."
"Logan—"
"My head is killing me," he groans. "Can we talk about this later?"
Her mouth twists into a stern line. "Fine," she articulates evenly. "You need a shower," she suggests, getting up.
Logan glances down at the vomit filled bathtub and resists the urge to throw up again at the sight of it.
"I told them to send a maid up first thing," Gwen explains. "There's showers in Colin and Finn's rooms, right?"
He runs a hand through his hair. "Yeah."
"Great. I need to um…" She looks down at her breasts. "Pump," she finishes.
He nods. "Take Colin's bathroom. It's probably cleaner. Second door on the left."
"Thank you." She slips out of the bathroom and into the main suite.
Finn is passed out just inside the doorway wearing a bright green Speedo, an askew bridal tiara falling off his head while a blonde slumbers next to him wrapped in pink boa.
Logan stumbles in behind her and nudges Finn with the edge of his foot.
Without even opening his eyes, Finn grabs it with surprisingly sharp reflexes, leaving Logan standing like an idiot on one foot.
Gwen stifles a laugh, grabs her bag of supplies, and ducks into Colin's bathroom. She knows there's a long road ahead but already it feels like something has shifted.
"Ro-ry," Jess chimes.
"Go away," she mumbles into her pillow.
He sits on the edge of the bed, his fingers dancing down her arm, tracing soft patterns. "It's after eight."
"Great." She rolls over, pulling the covers over her head. "Wake me up in an hour."
"You're chipper this morning."
"And you're channeling Snow White. Come back to bed," she pleads, reaching behind her to tug his hand.
"Can't. I promised Luke I'd help him work on his truck."
She rolls over onto her back, peering up at him. "What's wrong with Ernest?"
"Ernest?"
"It's a misogynistic truck," she grumbles. She blinks at him sleepily. "You should either come back to bed or kiss me goodbye so I can go back to sleep."
"I don't know if I should kiss you after that insult to Ernest. He'd probably call my masculinity into question."
Rory rolls over again, burrowing herself back into her pillows. "Fine, I hope you and Ernest are very happy together." She mumbles something about grease and power tools he can't quite make out.
He leans over, propping himself on one elbow to pluck the covers away from her face. "Rory."
She opens her eyes, her lips forming into a brilliant smile.
His nose brushes against hers as he captures her lips. Her hands, still under the covers, wrap around him, pulling him closer. "You sure you have to leave?" She asks breathless when they break apart.
He nods, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Go back to sleep. I'll see you for lunch."
Downstairs, he peeks his head through the curtain, assessing whether the diner is safe to enter. He finds it moderately busy but it's mostly tourists and free of Taylor, at least for the moment. Lane is darting around the room, taking orders while Lorelai sits perched at the counter, a cup of coffee at her elbow and a slew of papers spread in front of her. She keeps muttering to herself, punching numbers into a calculator with a frustrated look on her face.
She looks up with interest as Jess slinks behind the counter and grabs himself a mug, filling it with coffee.
"Lorelai." He acknowledges her gaze drily.
She gives him a slow nod. "Holden."
"Is that the best you can do?"
"It's early, my accountant quit, and I need at least another cup of coffee and a donut before I really hit my stride."
"Of course."
Jess leans against the counter, sipping his coffee and trying to decide if maybe the Gilmore's are on to something with their notion that Luke's coffee is better.
Lorelai watches him in silence for a moment.
"Rory's still asleep," he offers.
"I didn't ask."
"I figured you were about to."
"More or less." She cocks her head, watching him. "Luke's waiting for you at the house."
"Glad we established everyone's whereabouts then," Jess drawls. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Lorelai purses her lips. "I did something kind of crazy last week," she admits conspiratorially.
"You finally get those Backstreet Boys tickets?"
"You know I thought about it," she quips, "but Hanson was offering a much better deal. Apparently they play in theme parks now."
"I thought they retired."
"Nope."
"Well I guess it would be a real tragedy if the world were deprived of the privilege of 'MMMbop' live," he quips.
She holds out her mug and he grabs the coffee pot, filling her up without comment. A small smile flits across her face at his gesture, Jess has his flaws but she has to admit, the fact he can keep up, even at eight in the morning, is a definite plus.
"Actually, I read your book."
He puts the coffee pot back in its holder with a clang. "Why?"
"Well for starters Rory won't shut up about it and your cousin, your actual cousin that is—"
"Nice save," he interjects with a roll of his eyes.
"—she picked up Luke's copy and started reading it," Lorelai finishes. "I figured I should probably vet it before her mother found out."
"It's not too graphic…." He trails off remembering something. "Except the profanity."
"Yeah Luke wasn't very thrilled she was reading it," Lorelai concurs, "But I showed him what's on MTV these days and he caved."
"You made him watch MTV?" He chortles, more entertained by this notion than by the concept of actually watching MTV. "How long did he make it?"
"About three minutes," she says over the rim of her cup. "He might've lasted longer if it was Punk'd or something but The Real World: Denver was on."
Jess winces.
"You know, I kind of liked it," she adds.
"The Real World?"
"God no," she sputters. "Your book."
He arches an eyebrow. "You know you don't have to make ploys to get me to give you more coffee right?"
"I've noticed. I really did like it."
"Thanks."
They lapse into an awkward silence.
"I should go." Jess puts his mug down. "Since Luke is waiting and all that."
The phone stars to ring and Lane bustles out of the kitchen, her hands loaded with plates.
"Jess?" She asks. "Could you?"
He reaches over, grabbing the phone. "Luke's," he barks.
"Jess?" Luke asks.
"Yeah who is this?" He replies sarcastically.
Luke, unfortunately, does not pick up on this. "It's me…Luke."
"Huh. No kidding."
"Don't be a smartass. Listen, I need you to bring my socket wrench. I left it upstairs when I was working on something the other day and I need it for the—"
"Where is it?" Jess cuts in.
"I think it's either in the bathroom, in one of the drawers by the bed or by the couch. I'm not sure."
"Wow, that's helpful."
"You stayed there all night, you didn't notice a socket wrench?"
"Believe it or not, no."
"Well it's definitely somewhere up there."
"Rory's still asleep," Jess protests.
"So look quietly."
"Fine." He groans. "I'll see you in a bit."
"You're already late," Luke points out. "We said eight."
"Well Rory held me up arguing about Hemingway."
"How'd she do that if she's still asleep?"
Jess rolls his eyes. "I'll see you in twenty minutes."
"Make it ten."
He hangs up the phone, wishing he'd at least attempted to talk Rory into spending a nice relaxing, family free holiday in Philly. Even if there was no way in hell she'd ever have gone for that, the thought is worth relishing.
He grabs a to-go cup and fills it for Rory as a peace offering in case he wakes her up, reaching over to top off Lorelai's coffee while he's at it.
"Leave the pot." She requests, grabbing her coffee without looking up from her notes.
"Sure thing, Aunt Lorelai." He sets the pot down next to her.
She chokes on her sip, making a sour, horrified expression. "I'll give you anything in the world if you promise to never call me that again."
"Really? Anything?"
She coughs again, her hand going to her throat. "I regret my word choice. Change the water bottle while you're at the house, would you?"
"Don't you have a husband to do that?"
"Yes, but that's a specially designated 'Rory's boyfriend' chore so you're up."
"Oh c'mon."
"Dean changed the water bottle," she informs him with all seriousness. "Logan changed the water bottle, it's past your turn."
"There is no way in hell Logan changed the water bottle."
"He did, once. So I repeat, you're up."
"Nope." He picks up the coffee he filled for Rory. "But thanks for asking," he calls over his shoulder.
"Punk," Lorelai mumbles under her breath before turning her attention back to her work.
Jess opens the door to the apartment, hearing the shower running. He opens the bathroom door, poking his head inside. "You're awake."
Rory's head emerges from around the shower curtain. "I got hungry. Did you become some sort of truck fixing prodigy?"
"I haven't made it over there yet actually. Luke wants his socket wrench, have you seen it?"
"No," she bats her eyes teasingly. "But you could in here and come help me look."
"God, that's tempting."
She grins wickedly but it's undercut by an enormous growl from her stomach.
"I think you need sustenance," Jess says with a laugh. "And Luke's gonna kill me if I'm not there in ten minutes."
"Fine." She pouts. Her head disappears and he goes over to the sink, rummaging in the cabinet underneath for the socket wrench.
The water shuts off and he hears Rory get out of the shower and grab a towel. He gets up, unable to find the wrench, and moves so she can get to her toothbrush.
"Your mom is downstairs chugging coffee by the way," he tells her, leaning in the doorway.
"That is wholly unsurprising."
"She's on this tangent about how I need to change the water bottle."
"Again?" Rory switches the toothbrush to the other side of her mouth and continues brushing. "I'll talk to her. She's just doing the boyfriend posturing thing."
"Posturing thing?"
"You know how she gets, especially with you." She spits into the sink and rinses off her toothbrush. "Just don't cave in or you'll be doing it for the rest of your life."
"The rest of my life, huh?"
She stops in front of him in the doorway, staring for a moment like a deer caught in the headlights. Her face suddenly softens. "I am kind of liking this whole partial co-habitation thing."
"Huh, me too." He trails a hand across her shoulder, brushing aside strands of wet hair.
"Maybe we should talk about making it less partial after I graduate." She leans into him, brushing her lips across his neck.
"Let's," he agrees. "Can we do it while you're not wearing a towel? It's very distracting."
"I could take it off if you want," she says in his ear. Her hand dances down his chest and under his shirt, coming to rest over his heart.
He swallows. "I really do have to find the socket wrench."
Rory suddenly bursts out laughing, holding on to his shoulders to keep from falling over.
"What?"
"That sounds…like a euphemism…" She gasps out between laughs. "For…"
He watches her puzzled. "I get it, Ror. It's not that funny."
"It is," she chokes out.
He takes her by the shoulders steering her into the kitchen. "Okay you clearly need to eat." He hands her the coffee he brought up. "Here. Have some coffee, get dressed and have Caesar make you an omelet or something."
"Fine," she answers. Still chuckling she walks over to the closet, shaking her head. "You have to find the socket wrench…"
"Mom." Rory greets her mother ten minutes later, leaning over to peck her cheek before she plops down in the stool next to her mother.
"Daughter," she greets. "How was the City of Cousinly Love?"
"You've been saving that one, haven't you?"
"Just a little." She eyes her daughter, noting the color in her cheeks. "Are you sick? You look flushed."
Rory picks up her mother's mug, sipping some of her coffee. "I was laughing really hard," she explains. "You're still working on the tax stuff?"
"I can't believe Herv just up and quit on me. I mean I respect that he wanted to follow his true calling to move to Vermont and sell maple flavored popcorn, but he could've at least put this crap in order first." She holds up a piece of paper. "Like what this hell is this?"
Rory takes it from her, giving it a cursory reading. "It's an 11-C form."
"Okay, what's that?"
Rory shrugs, handing it back to her. "I have no idea. Find a new accountant."
"Ugggh! I need coffee." Lorelai gives the empty pot a sad look and glances around the diner for Lane, who is taking orders across the room. "Where's Jess?"
"Upstairs looking for the socket wrench," Rory answers, biting back a chortle.
"I so don't want to know why that's funny. How is it that no one's around to give me coffee when I need them to?"
"Here's an idea, how about you make your own coffee?"
Lorelai pouts and pulls the lid off the donut case, lifting one out for herself and another for Rory. "You want me to make my own coffee and do my own accounting?"
"Haven't you heard? Women can have it all now."
Lane ducks behind the counter picks up the empty coffee pot, putting it back in the croft to make a new one. "This is why Luke doesn't let us leave you the pot," she comments drily.
"I need more," Lorelai begs, holding up a handful of receipts. "I'm going to turn into that accountant in Office Space that mumbles about his stapler."
"You are freakishly possessive about your post-its," Rory points out.
"Oh, you wanna go? Miss-I-Color-Code-My-Sock-Drawer and won't let anyone touch my pens?"
"Correction, I don't let you touch my pens. Because you lose them."
"They're pens."
"I have a system."
Lane leans her elbows on the counter, watching them like she's observing a tennis match. "You guys want pancakes?"
"And eggs," Rory proclaims.
"And coffee!" Lorelai contributes.
"And maybe a muffin too," Rory adds.
"You want a partridge in a pear tree with that?" Lane says with a laugh.
"If it comes with the coffee then yes," Lorelai chirps.
"It'll be ready in a minute."
Lorelai cocks her head, looking at Lane with a smile. "Yep. You're officially my favorite person today."
"I aim to please. By the way, Celia called last night."
"She did?" Rory pipes excitedly. "I didn't get a chance to talk to her too much but I left her your number."
"Whatever you said seemed to work. She's going to come out here after Christmas and we're going to do an official audition."
"Lane that's amazing!"
"I know. I'm so excited. This could really be it for us, you know?"
"And Celia is…" Lorelai asks.
"Jess's roommate's girlfriend," Rory clarifies. "She's a phenomenal singer and she needs a band."
"Ah, you're going to be famous after all. You're still going to introduce me to Bono right?"
"Right after I dye my hair purple again and sit in on a set with Sonic Youth." She grabs the now full coffee pot and fills Lorelai's cup.
"As long as we have our priorities in order."
"Speaking of which, I'll go put your orders in."
"I'll be your groupie if you leave the pot," Lorelai calls after her.
Lane smirks and sets it on the counter. "Don't tell Luke," she warns.
Lorelai grins like the Cheshire cat and makes an expression like she's zipping her lips.
"So I finally read Jess's book," she comments to Rory, blowing on her coffee.
"Wow, you really are procrastinating this accounting thing, aren't you?"
"And let me tell you, it's working. I actually looked in the kitchen cabinets yesterday. Did we always have pie tins?"
Rory shakes her head. "They must be Luke's."
"Anyways," Lorelai continues. "You know what I found really interesting about Jess's book?"
"His use of ekphrasis?"
"Bless you?"
"It's a form of symbolism where the author alludes to a work of art to convey meaning. Dostoyevsky used it a lot."
"Uh-huh. You know how Mommy hates it when you're smarter than her."
Rory smiles proudly. "I just think it's really good. I've read it several times and I'm still impressed."
"And not at all biased."
"I'm just calling it like I see it. Did you like it?"
"I did mostly. Actually what I found interesting was this one character. Something about her was incredibly familiar…I just can't figure out who she reminds me of."
Rory's expression remains even. She picks up her coffee and sips it nonchalantly.
"Babette?" She throws out.
"No…"
"Gypsy?"
"No…"
"Must be Lane then."
Lorelai shakes her head with amusement. "Yeah it's funny, I don't remember Lane ever wearing cherry Chapstick and running around with Huck Finn."
"Oh c'mon."
"I can't possibly think of who it could be..."
She rolls her eyes. "You need therapy."
"Oh wait. This girl used to live in my house wore cherry Chapstick all the time, what was her name…Roberta…Roxanna…"
"Would you drop it already?" Rory finally caves. "It's fiction. It's not me."
"HA!"
"I hate you so much right now," Rory groans sulkily.
"You're his Daisy," her mother teases, reaching over to pinch her cheek.
Rory ducks out of her grasp, scowling. "I don't think you realize how unflattering that comparison is. I mean have you read The Great Gatsby?"
"I did, but I think I was pregnant with you at the time."
"Read it again," her daughter advises.
"I'm just working with what I've got. You even own a string of pearls," she chortles.
"So do you," Rory points out.
"Mean," her mother gasps with indignation.
"You started it."
"Okay, this is getting ugly. Let's be friends again."
"Agreed."
She holds out her pinky and they link them cheerfully.
"Daisy," Lorelai mumbles under her breath.
Rory aims a playful kick at her chair.
Author's Notes:
Hi everyone, how are we doing? Sorry to be chugging along so slowly but I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. More Star's Hollow Christmas and Logan and Gwen to come.
I've been drafting a prequel to this that sort of explores what exactly happened with Logan and Gwen and Rory, not sure when it will be up though.
Also, you may have noticed, I have changed the secondary couple from Lorelai and Luke to Logan/OC. Funnily enough, Gwen is actually a named character in 'Bridesmaid's Revisited' but of course a character that obscure isn't on the options list. I hope that doesn't bother anyone, as much as I love Luke and Lorelai, I don't feel this story is really reflective of their relationship.
Please do drop me a line and let me know how you're all doing, I love hearing from you.
Thanks so much for reading!
