A/N: And without further ado, the final installment.
July 14, 2016
"Wow, she's getting so big!" Lane exclaimed. Rory was video chatting her friend and had her now five-year-old on her lap, but Lori got bored and had just run off to play.
"I know, it's crazy how time flies. I can't believe Steve and Kwan are going into fourth grade!"
"Yeah, but they like school, I mean, when Mommy is the teacher and you're learning in between sound checks, that's a lot more fun than Stars Hollow High."
Hep Alien put out an album two years ago that actually charted on the Billboard Top 100, so they were currently touring up and down the California coast. Lane and Zack liked to take the kids with them when they could. The boys were already fairly talented musicians; Steve was taking after Lane and mastering the drums and Kwan was more like Zack in wanting to play guitar. And they far preferred being on the road with their mom and dad, because if they weren't, they were home with their grandmother who was a stickler about homework, gave them gross foods to eat, and generally scolded them on their waning knowledge of the Seventh Day Adventist faith.
"Is Ethan there? I want to see those cute chubby cheeks!" Lane said.
Rory and Logan's son Ethan, now three, came along while they were living in London. When Lori turned two, Logan was still trying to manage expanding his business abroad, and the constant traveling kept him away from his family too often. They decided to move to London for a year; Rory was able to continue in her international news editor position while abroad, but they cut their stay short when they found out Rory was pregnant again, so their son would be born in the States. They named him Ethan Elias Huntzberger, keeping the "E" to honor Emily, and giving him Logan's middle name.
"He's playing with his sister so no chance of getting him to come say hi, but next week, I promise!"
Lane and Rory said goodbye and ended their weekly video call. Rory went to the kitchen to finish setting up for the barbecue she and Logan were hosting.
"How's Lane?" Logan asked.
"She's good. We gotta get out there for a concert one of these days."
Logan thought for a minute. "I'm due to check in with Colin soon, we could make a week out of it," he suggested.
"That'd be nice, I think the kids would love California. I'd love to see Colin and Steph, we haven't seen them since Finn's wedding."
Logan smiled. "I'll talk to Finn and Rosaline, maybe they can join us."
They had all gone to Australia last year for Finn and Rosaline's wedding. Logan regularly corresponded with Colin about eHPG but it wasn't the same as being in the same room as his best friends. Work and kids kept them all pretty busy, but Logan did make a point to check in with all three of them together at least once a month via video calling.
Logan was at the sink washing off the grill utensils. He looked out the window facing the street. Stars Hollow was busy on this summer day with its usual activity and bustle. Dean and his wife, Amy, passed by the Huntzberger home as they rounded the cul-de-sac, on a walk with their son Caleb who was being fussed over in his stroller. Dean didn't notice Logan's wave, or he would have returned it. He was far too captivated with his son, which Logan understood. He had been, too, with Ethan.
Logan turned off the water. "Okay, I'm heading out to start the grill, send Luke my way when they get here."
There was a knock on the back door.
"Hellooo?" Lorelai called from outside the door.
Rory opened it to find Will and Richie each clinging to a part of Lorelai's body.
"Hey my little monkeys! Lori is out front if you want to go play with her," Rory said to her step-brothers. Will and Richie jumped off of Lorelai and ran to give Rory a hug, then they bounded off to find Lori. The twins and Lori being only five months apart gave them essentially built in play-mates for life, even if Lori was technically older than her uncles.
"Hey hon," Lorelai said, coming into the kitchen and sitting at the island. "What are we drinking?"
Rory laughed and pointed to a pitcher of spiked iced tea and lemonade.
Lorelai promptly poured herself a glass. "Did you hear from Grandma?"
"No, I thought she didn't have cell reception on the boat."
"Oh well she managed to call to tell me she was having an absolutely wonderful time sailing the Mediterranean and thought she might live on a cruise ship forever. I told her not to tease."
Rory handed her mother a jar of olives to refill the bowl Lorelai had just finished. "I don't remember you sounding this bitter when you were the international traveler and came to stay with us in London for two weeks. At least she's keeping busy and having fun."
"Yeah with Honor and Shira. Who would have thought that friendship would ever repair itself?"
Rory shrugged. "There's a lot to bond over when you have grandchildren and great-grandchildren to talk about. How's Sookie?"
"Ugh, another one in Europe. Her and Jackson left the kids with his family and are off taking cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu for two weeks."
"We must be doing it wrong, Mom," Rory joked. "But I'm sure whatever she learns on top of her very obvious talent will only benefit the inns."
Luke came through the still-open back door. "Okay, I have the hotdogs and hamburgers, plus the buns to go with them. I only had condiments in industrial size, so you're on your own for ketchup and mustard. The two veggie burgers are for me and Richie."
"Logan's out front watching the kids and starting the grill," Rory said, pointing with the paring knife she was using to cut up the vegetables for the crudité platter Logan insisted they have.
Luke brought his stash out to Logan. He was pleased that at least one of his sons had a preference for eating healthy—one out of two wasn't bad.
"No, do not touch the schedule!" Paris was yelling into her cellphone when she entered Rory and Logan's house. "What part of 'Deputy Chief Resident' don't you understand? You have no real power. I'll be back in a couple of hours." She ended the call. "People are so stupid," Paris remarked to Rory. "Oh thank god, I'm starving," she said, taking a piece of cheese from the plate Rory had been using to prep the cheese slices for the cheeseburgers. Rory gave her a look.
"What?" Paris exclaimed her mouth full. "I'm on call, so I'm not drinking."
"Trouble in paradise, Ms. Chief Resident?" Rory asked.
Paris did her interning and was doing her residency in Hartford. She had just been made Chief Resident. "I leave for my day off and all hell breaks loose. Jesus," she said, violently tearing into a carrot stick.
Doyle walked through the door carrying their daughter, Sophie, who was clinging to her father's shoulder.
Paris turned to him. "I thought she was going to play with Ethan? That's all she talked about on the way over."
Sophie and Ethan were the same age.
Doyle shrugged. "They did but then she said she just wanted to come in here and read."
Paris sighed, but rummaged through her bag for one of the books she had brought. "You know socialization is just as important as intellect, Doyle, we really need to encourage her to play with other kids her age."
"Paris…" Doyle warned, suggesting they had had this argument many times.
"I know, I know, she's only three, she'll grow out of it, yaddy yaddy yada, I get it." She gave the book to Sophie who ran into the living room, climbed up on the couch, and happily entertained herself.
Doyle gave his wife a kiss. "I can go sit with her, I have to get my draft to my editor by three anyway," Doyle said. Paris mouthed a 'thank you' to her husband. His schedule was much more flexible than hers, and though he still wrote for the Courant, he was essentially a stay-at-home dad given how often his job allowed him to work from home.
Rory raised an eyebrow. "She can read? She's only three!"
Paris looked at Rory, confused. "Ethan can't read? Come on, you're two Ivy League graduates, it's not like it's that impossible for a three-year-old to read, especially with your pedigree. Even if Huntzberger did just barely graduate."
Rory rolled her eyes and took the cheese out to Logan and Luke.
Luke was just closing the top of the grill to let everything cook a little longer. Logan was taking a break, watching all the kids playing on the lawn.
"Need anything else, Luke?"
"Nope, I think we're good, food should be ready in twenty. Oh wait," he said, taking his phone out of his pocket. He scrolled through his texting conversations. "I almost forgot, Jess told me to tell you that he has your proofs ready and you'll have them by Monday. Whatever that means."
Rory smiled. "Thanks, I'll call him about it tomorrow." When Ethan was born and she was out on maternity leave, Rory started writing a novel. She worked on it sporadically after that, since she was still working at the paper, but when she finally had a finished draft, she sent it to Jess for his thoughts. He served as her editor, and would have published the book himself, but his publishing company proved to be a little too small to handle the demand there wound up being in the industry for a book by Rory Gilmore-Huntzberger. It was slated for publication in six months. She had promised him full rights to publish the sequel if she wrote one.
Rory went to find Logan; he was lounging on a lawn chair, watching Lori and Ethan and the rest of the kids play from behind his glinting Aviators. Logan couldn't help but smile as Lori walked over to her brother in her trotting way and handed him a dandelion she had picked, only to watch Ethan take it and put it in his mouth. Richie and Will joined in, starting a game of tag with Lori. Ethan tried to run after them.
Rory approached Logan from behind and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Happy anniversary," she whispered into his ear.
Logan grinned. "You know I didn't forget, Ace. Your present is coming later."
"I know," she said. "Not as big a deal as the big 1-0, but we're still commemorating nine years of marriage." She sat on his lap.
Logan surveyed the landscape in front of him, his children, their family, all gathered together. "Ror," Logan whispered into her ear.
"Hmm?" she said, distracted, enthralled by the scene of her children.
"You don't regret it, do you?"
Rory turned to him. "Regret what?"
"This. Us. Our life."
She twisted on her perch to look at him squarely in the eyes. "Logan. How could I regret this? We have such a beautiful life together—a beautiful home, beautiful children. It's not always sunshine and roses, but who wants a perfect life? I'd much rather have a messy one. Besides, it was always you."
He looked quizzically at her. "How do you know?" he asked, truly wondering if this was everything she had pictured it would be.
Rory had resumed watching her son and daughter in fascination. What she said next came almost as a distracted side comment, almost too obvious to bear repeating. "It was always you for me, Logan. It was always Luke for my mom. No matter how long the Lorelais spent denying what our hearts were telling us, you were the ones that made us happy. The L's had it. The L's have it. And they always will."
A/N: Where do I even start my last author's note? It is unbelievable to have finally finished a story that has taken me eight years to write. And I couldn't have done it without all of my loyal readers, commenting and encouraging me along the way. My goal with this story has been two-fold: One, to make up for the lack of closure we never got due to Gilmore Girls' Palladino-less seventh season and abrupt end; and two, to show that my favorite pairing, but undoubtedly the least-liked of Rory's boyfriends on the show, could be more than he was made out to be. I tried so hard to stay true to both Logan and Rory's characters, to make their relationship feel real and ring true, while hopefully also driving home that Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote him into the series for a reason. We can't say we like everything she does, and then just not like Logan. I think the seventh season gave him a bad rap, and I hope The L's showed you a different perspective on him, or healed your broken Rogan hearts the way it has mine. I wanted to finish this cathartic writing before the revival, because it was exactly that—a coping tool to deal with the loss of a phenomenal series of television and a body of writing. With the revival, hopefully we get the closure we need, even if the events don't play out exactly the way they have in my imagination. I will always have The L's to come back to, and who knows? Maybe in the coming years the inspiration will strike, and there will be some one-shots within The L's universe. I have one in the pipeline already. I don't generally take story ideas because if it didn't come from my own imagination, I would have a hard time finding the passion and drive to write it as well as I could. The reason I was able to keep The L's going for so long is because it was, to me, truly how the events should have happened. Without that grounding belief, I don't think I could write another fanfic in the Gilmore Girls fandom. That said, I will take your wish lists of what one-shots you would like to see of events hinted at by The L's itself. And suggestions for revisions to the summary, which I'm not sure adequately captures the story. But then again it got all of you to read it. Anyway, until then, I hope it has been happy reading. Sincerely, Readwriter3.
