I love this story. I loved it as an idea in my head. I loved it while I was writing it. I love it as I reread it and edit chapter by chapter. And I have to admit... I love that all of you really like - and even love - it too! Thank you to all of you for reading. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to comment/review. Just - thank you.
Christmas is coming - 8 days! - and I'm insanely busy but here I am with another new chapter. Enjoy!
As ever, I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of it's various parts, nor do I seek reimbursement or compensation for this story I've written using the Gilmore Girl world as a foundation.
Chapter 13: Just A Little Missing Detail
Rory reclined in their bed listening to the distant sound of Logan showering. He'd arrived home a few hours earlier to discover Rory, Lorelai and Emily in the kitchen with Rory's laptop looking at baby furniture online. Lorelai and Emily had been indulging in a glass of wine, while Rory sipped a cup of tea. The trio of Gilmore's had finished the house tour and decided to try and get an idea for the style of furniture they needed to find when they went out shopping the next day. Lorelai had greeted Logan civilly, which was honestly no more than he'd expected, but Emily had startled him with a warm hug and gracious exclamation of happiness to have him back in their lives. In the end, Logan had ended up taking the three women out to dinner and had been entertained by both Emily's tales of life in Nantucket, and Lorelai's stories of Stars Hollow craziness.
They'd gotten back to the house late and both Emily and Lorelai had headed straight up to their rooms for the night. Logan and Rory had more slowly followed them upstairs and ensconced themselves in their own room. Rory had changed immediately for bed and was just finished her nightly routine at her sink when Logan had come into the bathroom.
"We haven't had a chance to talk tonight," he'd commented as he hung a towel by the shower. "Don't go to sleep before I get out there. I want to hear how things went when your mom and Emily got here."
So, she waited and spent the time thinking about the afternoon and evening with her family. She'd actually been surprised by her mother. Lorelai was clearly still hesitant about Rory's changing situation, but she'd been much more open to things since she'd arrived. Rory wasn't sure what it was that seemed to have cause a shift in her thinking. She was just going to be grateful for that shift.
Then there was the book proposal to think about. When she'd begun writing she'd intended for it to be a single book. The more she'd managed to get out, the clearer it had seemed to her she would need to split the story up. She'd been basically planning to do one book for her Chilton years and release a second book for her Yale years depending on how the first one did.
But seven books? Could she dissect those seven years and write enough to justify each year having its own book? Did she have that much to say? Could she make up enough to fill the space, while also holding to the integrity of the story she wished to tell?
She wasn't sure.
"So," Logan said coming into the room, still rubbing at his hair to dry it. "I heard plenty about what they thought of the house while we were at dinner. Emily was certainly chatty and definitely likes what we've done so far. But I couldn't really get a feel for your mom."
"You and me both." Rory commented. "She was still sort of standoffish when her and grandma got here. Somewhere between taking Grandma up the elevator to her room and finishing the tour of the house, she seemed to thaw a bit."
"I noticed that." Logan agreed. "She held herself back when I first got back tonight, but I thought she was being almost warm toward me by the time we were home after dinner."
Rory smirked at him and teased. "That may have had something to do with the wine."
"Maybe," Logan laughed a little and climbed into the bed beside her. He turned off all the lights except one over the fireplace. The two of them shifted around until she lay curled up against him with her head on his chest, his arm circling her shoulders.
"I think she was surprised that this whole place feels like a home. I don't think she expected it could feel like anything but a show place, similar to Grandma and Grandpa's house in Hartford. She commented on all the little things we've added to the rooms - from lots of pillows on the beds and those big comfy chairs in the rooms upstairs, to the art in the bathrooms. Which she says is clever and fun by the way." Rory told him as he continuously ran his fingers through her hair.
"I honestly sort of expected her to avoid me at all cost while she was here, after the way things went down when she showed up last time." Logan said.
Rory poked him in the ribs. "I still can't believe you told my mother all those things we talked about in therapy."
"I said I was sorry, and I am," Logan replied, apologizing yet again. "I shouldn't have done it and I shouldn't have let her make me lose control of my temper enough to share details that weren't mine to share. I knew that's what she was trying to do, and I let her walk me right into it. I'm pretty mad at myself about it to be honest."
"Good, I'm mad at you too." Rory told him. "But I'm more mad at mom than at you. She had no right to come here like that in the first place. I still don't really understand what her endgame was. I mean, I can't imagine she actually thought she'd be able to convince you to stop me from moving in here, so I don't get it. Whatever the aim, the only thing she really managed was to drive us even further apart."
"I don't know either, not really. But I know she wanted me to understand that whatever may be between you and I, to her mind, she was always going to be the most important person in your life." Logan said.
"You know what, I don't want to talk about this anymore." Rory said suddenly. "I actually got news about my book today."
He jolted slightly under her head. "You did?" He asked and Rory sighed at the clear interest in his voice.
"Yeah, Alayna called in the middle of the house tour." Rory explained. "I left mom and Grandma in the nursery and they ended up eavesdropping on the conversation when they followed me to my office."
"Really?"
Rory nodded against him. "Uh huh. They now know the story is being fictionalized."
"How'd they take the news about that?" He wondered.
"Really well, actually. You know I wasn't sure what they'd think about me writing a novel but they both seemed to like the idea." Rory told him. "But that's not the really interesting part."
"No?" He intoned with rising curiosity.
"No." She agreed. "Alayna was calling because she'd had a meeting with Penguin. Well, with others too, but Penguin was the one she called about."
He shifted enough, and she shifted too, so he could look her in eye. Something in her expression caused a smile to grow on his face. "And?"
"You're very monosyllabic tonight." She commented with a slight frown, teasing him with the delay.
"And?" He asked again while he gently poked and tickled at her ribs.
"And," she laughed. "They want the story."
"I told you!" Logan exclaimed and lowered his head to catch her lips, simultaneously pulling her up to meet him.
"But—" she interrupted and lifted a finger to his lips to halt their descent.
He waited a moment, then impatient with her delay, asked the obvious question. "But what?"
She searched his eyes a moment, still delaying the rest of her explanation, then relented with a sigh. "But they want me to change things. Or I guess 'add more,' would be more accurate. I told you I figured I'd have to split the story into the Chilton years and the Yale years. They want me to do more than that. They want me to do it year by year, a book for each, and make it in to a seven-book series."
"That's, wow. Seven books?" He repeated and though it was spoken as a question, Rory realized immediately that he wasn't actually seeking a response. He repeated it one more time in an effort to allow the idea to sink in. "Seven books!"
"Seven." Rory echoed and he heard worry in her tone.
"You don't think you could do it?" He asked incredulously. He hadn't read everything she'd written yet. He'd read many of the early chapters that had already been through a round of editing.
"I don't know," she admitted honestly. "I'd basically have to go back to the drawing board. I'd have to separate what I've already got into their various years. I'd have to reconsider adding in some of the scenes I'd deliberately left out before. I'd have to restructure the story arcs. Each book, each year would have to have its own story, while also fitting into one that spans the entire series, and even better if there were mini arcs that encompass multiple books. It'll be a lot more work, in the planning of it and the writing. I can't even imagine how long it would take me to complete seven books worth of writing."
Logan shook his head. "You seem to know exactly what you need to do to make it work. But you're looking at the story like a journalist who doesn't publish until the story's complete. A book, especially a book series would different, Ace. Of course, you'd have to do all the planning beforehand. You'd need to know where you were going with each book, where each'd start and finish. You'd need to have a solid grasp on which leads to string along from one to the next, or the next. But it's not as if you'd be attempting to publish all seven books in one shot. You'd go year by year. Writing, editing, polishing, promoting."
"Doesn't it seem like a really big commitment on something that may flop?" Rory asked insecurely.
He studied her for a long minute. "Do you want to tell the story?"
"Yes," she replied immediately, no hesitation in her tone.
"Then whether you do it one, or two, or seven books, you just tell the story. There is always going to be a risk that it won't be as widely popular as hoped. But that risk is mostly on the publisher. Alayna would have given them your sample chapters Ace," he told her. "They've made the offer based on what they've seen of the story and of your writing style. They're not walking in to anything blindly and they know the market. So they also wouldn't have made the offer if they didn't believe they could sell it."
"You think I should do it." Rory assessed.
"I think," Logan said, speaking carefully and considering his words. "If you look over what you've got, and you spend some time fiddling with your outlines, considering what more from your real life could be put in and what more you'd need to fictionally develop. And you seriously assess whether stretching the years into a seven-book span is feasible from the standpoint of the story itself. If it is, Ace, if it is possible, I think you'd be crazy not to do it."
"So, you think I should do it." She repeated and smile teasing the corner of her lips.
He chuckled somewhat breathlessly. "I think you should do it. But it doesn't matter what I think. Rory, you're the only one who can decide whether you should or shouldn't do this. It's your story."
"I know," Rory admitted. "I guess I just want to know whether you think I should. It's a massive undertaking. Much more consuming of both time and energy than what I was originally intending. It'd be a commitment of years, Logan. And with the baby? How will I manage raising our child and being accountable to the demands of writing, and editors, and deadlines, publishers and promoters, and everything else this would ask of me?"
"Hey," he stopped her nervous ramble with a quick kiss. "Your mom raised you alone, while she was still basically a child herself, and she worked full-time. You won't be alone. I'll be here and I have just as much responsibility to ensure that we're doing a good job with our kid as you do. Furthermore, if, and I stress the 'if', we needed help occasionally, we can hire someone to help out."
"I don't want to hire a nanny." Rory said definitively.
"And I don't think we'd ever actually need one full-time." Logan said agreeing with her. "But it wouldn't be a bad thing to find and have someone that we can call on, as needed, to help out. Maybe you've got a deadline approaching and you need a few uninterrupted hours a day to work. Maybe we've got functions which will keep us out all evening and we can't or won't take our child with us. Maybe we want to go on a date and have a few hours of privacy."
"You're talking about a babysitter." She frowned.
Logan shrugged. "I guess, but I think 'babysitter' is a very casual, very informal way of describing someone we'd essentially be trusting our child's wellbeing to. You could say 'caregiver' but that just brings to my mind old people and end-of-life care."
"Which brings us right back around to having a nanny." Rory pointed out.
"Someone we interview, and vet. We'd be trusting them with our child Rory, whether for a couple hours here and there, or a few hours every day." Logan said seriously. "I'd want to know everything we could about them. I'd also prefer if we got along with and liked them as a person too."
"Do you really think we need to hire a nanny, or babysitter, or caregiver, or whatever you want to call them?" Rory asked. "Mom never had babysitters for me. I mean, once in a while I'd hang out with Mia or with Sookie, but even that was pretty rare."
"Your mother did an amazing job raising you in what I'm sure, whether she'd admit to it or not, were difficult circumstances. You're an amazing person." Logan said, again using that very careful tone. "But I think a big part of the reason she wanted to control everything about your life so much, was because she didn't really have a life of her own to focus on. You were it. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Trust me, having the opposite - parents that have little interest in what you do, little interaction with you from day to day, and little desire for anything more - that's damaging too, in more ways than one."
"I know that Logan, which is why I'm not sure having a nanny is a good idea." Rory interjected.
"But I have to believe there's a happy medium between those two extremes. And I think you can agree with me on that." Logan said.
"It would be ridiculous to hire a full-time nanny." Rory finally, eventually said softly. Logan released a soft sigh he could only call relief, as he identified the thoughtful tone in her voice. She was thinking, considering both sides of argument. "But you're right that there will be times and functions when having someone we know and trust to watch the baby would be smart. I guess you could compare it, sort of, to hiring a cleaning service to come in once a week to clean the house."
Logan snorted a laugh because that was another ongoing argument they'd been having. "It is comparable. But I still say we should hire someone to come in a couple times a week. The place is too large to deal with in one day, unless there's a whole team of cleaners, and it would also be nice if we could have them prepare us a meal on the days they were here. You're still barely capable of putting together a meal and I don't want to have to do it every night."
"We live in the city that never sleeps," Rory laughed. "There are a multitude of takeout places open 24 hours a day."
"That's true and I'm sure we'll still have more than our fair share takeout meals. But takeout palls after a while, and home cooked meals are better." Logan told her.
"Depends on the meal." Rory groused.
He laughed again. "I'm not suggesting we'd have them make us seven course cordon bleu meals. Just homemade. Fancy food palls even quicker than takeout. Trust me."
"I know," she complained teasingly.
"The maid, or housekeeper, or whatever, would only need to be around a few days a week. And not even all day. But I really do think having someone to keep up on cleaning and laundry, and some cooking, would be a good idea. Especially once the baby's here." Logan informed her.
Rory frowned in thought. "I have to think about this Logan. It just seems a little silly to pay someone to clean the house, or cook us food, or watch the baby, when I'll be here everyday and could do it myself."
"If you were sitting here doing nothing, I would agree." Logan told her. "But it's not as if you'd be twiddling your thumbs and drinking Mai Tai's at two in the afternoon. You'll be working, Ace. It's perfectly reasonable for working parents to have help with the housework or with their children. And that's true whether you're a member of high society or of the blue-collar working class."
"It just seems so very different from the way I grew up." Rory admitted. "I'm not saying no, to the housekeeper or the nanny. But I need to think about it some more."
"That's all I ask." Logan agreed. "Did I distract you sufficiently from your worry about the books?"
Rory burst out laughing. "Is that what you were doing?"
"Did it work?" He wondered chuckling along with her.
"I guess it did." She told him and settled down once again, shifting and adjusting her position so she'd be able to try and sleep.
"I'm going to have to think about that more too." She said several minutes later. Her voice had quickly taken on the weighty tones of sleep and Logan could tell she was very close to succumbing to its lure. "I'll call Jess tomorrow and see what he thinks of the idea from his standpoint."
Logan stiffened against her suddenly, but she was too far gone to notice and barely a minute later had fallen peacefully to sleep. Meanwhile, Logan was suddenly very awake. He'd had a long day and even just moments ago had been feeling the heaviness of his own exhaustion. His hours at the office had been busy with meetings and team updates. Added to that, his afternoon had screeched to a temporary, brain-pounding halt when his mother had shown up at the office. They'd argued for nearly half an hour, if you could really call her non-stop disparaging commentary on his life arguing, until his father had come into his office and put a stop to it. Another twenty minutes of discussion had been required before Mitchum had escorted Shira out of his office and he could get back to the work on his desk. Then once he'd arrived home, there'd been Rory's mother and grandmother to entertain.
He'd been ready to drop into his bed halfway through dinner.
Now he lay beside Rory and his mind was roiling. 'Why the Hell did she need to call Jess?'
The question had to wait nearly a week before he could ask it. Though Lorelai and Emily had originally planned to leave Sunday afternoon, when Honor, Josh, and their kids suddenly showed up before lunchtime, the elder Gilmore ladies had decided to stick around a little longer. Honor insisted — in the slightly high-handed, yet somehow genteel way she'd developed over the past decade. She exclaimed over how long it had been since she'd seen Emily ("at least five years, Emily!"), and she positively gushed to Lorelai about how she'd always longed to meet her. And of course, the pièce de résistance of her entire persuasion was when she remarked, quite simply, how they were all basically one family now and should certainly get to know one another better.
In the end, the pieces of the two sides of their family spent the whole day together. Logan and Josh had been sent out to gather a variety of foods for their lunch, and for dinner they had ordered Chinese food. There was another obvious softening in Lorelai as the day had progressed and before his sister's family left, he'd noticed Lorelai discretely take Honor aside for a few private words and exchanging of phone numbers.
Due to the lateness of the hour by that point, Lorelai and Emily had been unable to leave that day as planned. Then when the final few items for the nursery had arrived first thing Monday morning, Emily had delayed her departure yet another day to help Rory finish up the nursery - Lorelai having been unable to stay as she had an afternoon meeting with her accountant at The Dragonfly. That evening Emily and the younger couple enjoyed a quiet simple meal at the house. They spoke on a variety of topics and Emily asked them a number of questions about the baby: gender preferences, name possibilities, and their plans for working after the birth to name a few. Logan had to take a call from London after dinner, leaving Rory and Emily to their own conversation, and by the time he'd wrapped things up, Rory was already asleep in their bed.
And so it was the following night, once he'd arrived home from work, that he finally had a chance to question Rory on the comment she'd made about Jess. He found her sitting on the rooftop deck, drinking a glass of iced tea and enjoying the days last rays of warmth from the sun. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and sat in the chair opposite her.
"Did you have a good day?" He asked as he tipped his own head back and enjoyed some of that heat for himself.
Rory smiled at him. "I did actually." She admitted. "Grandma and Mom were good about giving me a bit of time each day to work, but it was really nice to be able to devote most of my time today to the book."
"Did you hear anything more from Alayna?" He wondered aloud.
"Not yet," Rory replied. "I did have that email first thing yesterday morning, letting me know that with my acceptance, Penguin wants to move forward with the deal. She said it'd be a couple days. I should probably find a contract lawyer for when we get to that point. I'm sure Alayna will work to get the best deal possible for me but I'm know it's probably still smart to have it gone over to make sure."
"I was going to suggest it," Logan murmured and opened his eyes to turn and look at her. "Colin mentioned it when we had lunch yesterday too and gave me a couple names for you."
"Awww." She hummed happily.
"Yeah, he sends congratulations by the way. Said he'd take us out to dinner next week one night to celebrate." Logan informed her.
She laughed quietly. "I'll email him tomorrow to tell him thank you and find out when will work best for him. And I'll look into those names."
"Good," he said with a small nod and relaxed even more into the chair. A few moments later he refocused on her and finally asked the question that'd been on his mind since the week before. "Rory, why did you say you needed to call Jess about the book deal?"
"What?" Rory asked him and glanced in his direction, a frown of confusion on her face. "When did I say that?"
Now he frowned. "As you were falling asleep last Wednesday, you muttered something about giving Jess a call to see what he thought about it."
"Jess is the one who suggested I write the book in the first place." She told him and shifted around in her seat, searching for a more comfortable position. As she did, her hand fell to her stomach and rubbed there slightly, a little grimace crossing her expression. When she settled again, she focused back on him and noticed the look of surprise on his face. "Didn't I tell you that?"
"No, no," Logan said firmly. "You definitely didn't tell me that."
"Oh, well, yeah. He'd come to the Hollow to help his mom and stepdad with something and he visited me at the Gazette office. I was complaining to him about all the things in my life that seemed like impossible obstacles and how I felt like a huge failure. He basically told me to suck it up, and to switch things up. And suggested I try to write about something I was truly passionate about." Rory explained simply, calmly. "When it became obvious that I couldn't do it as non-fiction, he was the one who convinced me to write it as a novel instead."
"But that was months ago Rory, before you even came to London to tell me about the baby." Logan commented, still confused.
She leaned back slightly, alerted by something in his tone that the topic was far from idle. "Jess is editing it for me. Well, he and one of the Truncheon editors. Jess doesn't normally do much of the editing himself."
"Since when?" He asked sharply.
"What do you mean, since when?" Rory wondered.
"How long have you been working with him? Hanging out with him?" Logan demanded.
Rory chuckled humorously. "Jess and Andrea have been editing the book since November."
"Has he been here?" Logan asked pointedly, gesturing vaguely to indicate the house.
"Logan, what—" Rory started, then suddenly paused and studied his face. "You're jealous. After all these years?"
He glanced away and clenched his jaw. For several long moments Rory was sure that he wouldn't answer. Eventually he sighed, rubbed his hand hard over his face a few times and turned back to her. "The last time we were around him at the same time, we ended up fighting in the middle of a bar and breaking up. Not all too long after that, you went to see him with the intention of cheating on me because you were pissed about Honor's bridesmaids. I just want to be sure that if he's around, he's not going to be a problem. For us."
"Logan," she murmured his name and reached across the table for his hand. He grasped it and held on tight. "Jess has become one of my very good friends and that's just something you're going to have to come to terms with. He is going to be in our lives. He's related to us - he is Luke's nephew, you know."
"I remember he's Luke's nephew. I also remember that you once loved him." Logan pointed out.
"I did. Once. I never loved him anywhere near as much as I've always loved you." She told him. "And, to be completely honest, he actually pushed hard for me to give you another real chance. To give us another chance. He's given me a lot of really good advice about mom, about us. He isn't going to cause you and me any problems."
He snorted in disbelief but searched her face to determine her sincerity. "That sounds a little far-fetched."
"Really, he's been rooting for you all along. In his way." She said, a slight smile curling the very corner of her lips.
Logan sighed again. "You're sure? I'm not an insecure guy anymore Rory. Except where it comes to you sometimes, it seems."
"I'm sure Logan. I'm sure about you and me, and I'm sure that Jess wants nothing, romantically, to do with me anymore." Rory promised.
"I love you, Ace," he told her seriously and squeezed her hand again. "I want us to work, to be together and to be a family, more than I've ever wanted anything else in my life."
"I want that too, Logan," Rory promised again and then gasped sharply, her free hand flying to her stomach. "Oh!"
"What?" Logan demanded, getting quickly to his feet and coming to kneel right beside her chair. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." She told him fervently and shifted her hand to his wrist, leading his hand to rest on her stomach near her other hand. "I think our son or daughter was just putting in their own two cents on the topic."
Below their joined hands, they felt the repeated bumps and kicks coming from inside her womb. "I think they're in agreement with us then."
"I'd say so," Rory agreed and huffed out a laugh as the kicks continued, even more strongly, for another couple minutes. They stayed like that the whole time, Logan kneeling and leaning against her leg, both his hands splayed wide on her stomach with hers covering him. Once, he leaned down and kissed the rounded surface, whispering a couple words to the child inside. When the movement slowed, then ceased, Logan eventually climbed to his feet and pulled Rory to hers. He picked up her empty glass and turned her to the door back in to the house.
"So what do you feel like having for dinner?" He asked her. "Should be order in or do you want me to cook something?"
"Pizza," she declared quickly. "Baby definitely wants pizza for dinner tonight."
"Baby wants?" Logan asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh! And Wor WonTon Soup from that Vietnamese place a couple blocks away."
Logan shook his head, but he knew, just as she did, that pizza and wonton soup was precisely what they'd end up having for dinner.
There you have it... and wasn't it nice to have an entire chapter with just Logan and Rory? I guess it felt like time. I hope you enjoyed it.
Are you ready for the holidays? I'm no where near ready. Absolutely no where near it and just 8 days to go! Insanity, that's going to be my state for the foreseeable future.
Till next time - Happy Reading!