A/N: I hope you are all well in these times of global turbulence. Please keep yourself and your dear ones safe and healthy. I thank you for again for coming along for the ride of establishing this universe. Always happy to read your reviews and thoughts. I love them and I love you all.

A lot of stuff happened in the last chapter, things will start to become much clearer in the next few chapters. Their story arcs are coming tighter together.
Quick relevant recap: Rory started at Current in Oct 2008. Logan left to London at June 2008.
The planetarium scene is set in July 2012 and where we take off for this one...


July 2012

"There's a bed sheet rope at the bottom of my closest if you're looking for a way out." Logan's drowsy voice was muffled by the pillow over his head.

The vibration of his voice sent a shudder down her spine. Soon after their second rendezvous he had lulled to sleep, like he hadn't slept in days.

Logan Huntzberger was not a cuddler.

"I was not.." Rory hugged the sheet closer to her chest. Sneaking out had slipped in and out of her mind sporadically while dreamland possessed him. Her golden sandals laid by the door. Her skirt pooled, wrinkled, on the floor. God knows where her bra ended up. Or her panties.

Rory didn't trust she could orientate her way out of this huge mansion.

But her mind was more occupied with tracing back how she had ended up here.

In his childhood bed.

~x~

After the frantic groping antics under her namesake roof, Rory's brain was jumbled ball of cotton. A mix of ignited rush and inebriated lust. She nearly smacked him when he beamed her with a satisfied smoldering grin; "Aren't you glad I locked the doors?"

She jabbed the side of his ribs instead. Her head resting on a warm exposed patch of bare chest skin where his white linen shift came undone. Between the haste and the secrecy, they kept undressing to a minimum. Skirts came in handy Rory noted to herself.

They slipped out quietly, leaving the incriminating bottle of champagne behind. When his hand clasped on her wrist's pulse point, all thoughts of biding Emily and Richard goodbye flew out of the window.

Her grandmother could smell sin like her mother could smell snow.

"Where to?" His car keys glinted in the night. His question lingered in the New England summer air.

"Surprise me, Huntzberger." She found herself saying just to see the sparks fly in his eyes.

She never guessed what would follow is her tiptoeing barefoot after his pineapple socks on the cold marble floor of the Huntzberger mansion in Hartford. Because: "New York is too far away."

Or Dave Matthews Band's 'Crash' record on low and repeat while they made out like teenagers on his adolescence bed. Until they couldn't take it.

He didn't even try to undress her for the first hour, which she can't say for herself. His hand felts stronger than she remembered six months back. His shoulders, too, had the additional muscle to them. The secrets his dress shirt hid didn't measure to the one in his eyes.

She wanted them all.

~x~

"You were thinking it." He murmured shuffling around to lay on his side, the sheets rustling along with his motions. His hair stuck out disheveled in all directions.

His ability to read her mind was spooky.

"You can sneak out from the window at Honor's room, grab the balcony rail and climb down the tree."

How he could form a coherent thought just upon waking up? She wanted his superpowers.

"There are twelve secret ways to get out of this house. I can tell you all of them." He conspired hoarsely, his head resting on his arm, "Or we sleep and I'll take you home in the morning. I'm beat."

"Home is 2940 miles away."

Seattle. This will not exist in Seattle. And they both know it.

"So this is where it Logan Huntzberger first became a man?"

The soft bedding smelt fresh although the room looked permanently unoccupied. The walls were bare and impersonal. No personal items laid out on display. She doubted he spent much time here.

Maybe it has been renovated.

He lets out a laugh, "No, that happened three houses down."

"With Chelsea? How old were you?"

"Yes, she was my every first." He nods, his voice velvet-like as if revealing a secret, "Sixteen. You?"

"Dean. He was my first and third boyfriend." Rory pulled the sheet tighter to her body unconsciously hiding, "There's nothing to tell, it wasn't that special."

"First times are always special." Logan's hand played with her hair gently.

She envied him.

By far this was the strangest and most unexpected pillow talk she ever had.

"It was a mistake. He was married to someone else at the time."

As much as she resented Lorelai for ruining the afterglow with her judgmental preaching, in retrospect, she was right. It was the wrong way, the wrong time, possibly the wrong person.

Rory sometimes wondered if that was the life-changing-moment that set her lifepath the way it turned out.

Her mom also deemed Logan Huntzberger a bad idea. Maybe that was true. It didn't add up with how damn good it while it lasted. There was something about him. Something different. She couldn't pin-point what.

"What is with you and that?" He wondered but didn't press for an answer. His finger traced the invisible scar that Miranda Grant's diamond left on her cheek.

Dean was Dean. Jason was fun. She didn't know he was married when it started. She just liked the attention. She liked being chased.

She didn't want him to know that. Instead, she closed the remaining distance between them devouring his lips. His hand supported the back of her head while his mouth eased their lips into a long lazy kiss. Tuning down her enthusiasm;

"It hurts my ego to admit, but I really am beat."

Her hand traced lightly over his smooth jaw down to his collar bone watching his eyelashes turn heavy with sleep. One foot hooked over her ankle.

"Logan," Rory Gilmore just had to know, "Is there really a bed sheet rope in your closet?"

His lips lifted upward a little, "I guess you'll never know."

~w~

"I'll see you when I'll see you?" Logan's hand hovered far enough from her elbow to remain intimate but still not touching. A distance inflicted by the elder Gilmore driveway.

"I'll see you when I'll see you." Rory simply agreed.

She pulled out the key from her purse as he drove away. It contained the small camera her dad got her for Christmas. Rory realized she hadn't pulled it out in hours. Too caught up in the moment to step back and freeze it.

Maybe over-analyzing all the complications was unnecessary.

Rory decided she didn't give a fuck. In the end, this was actually simple.

"Was that Logan Huntzberger I saw leaving?" Richard Gilmore's face hid behind the economic section of the newspaper when she entered the dining room. Her grandmother had not joined yet.

Rory's eyes fell on the remains of red grapefruit laid out before him. Emily Gilmore kept a strict diet to control his blood pressure. Grapefruits were forbidden.

Rory remembered how thrilled Lorelai was to have scientific proof that fruits are bad for you.

"Grandma won't approve." She mentioned at the fruit.

Richard Gilmore flipped a page on the paper and pushed the plate closer to his granddaughter.

"Then it is best we don't tell your grandmother."

~w~


"You're in a good mood," Kate observed. She split the chocolate muffin into two and offering the bigger portion to Rory. Nicole has convinced Kate to join her no-sugar diet.

Kate was cheating. That's why they took their ten past ten coffee break outside.

"You straightened out things with your mom?"

Rory returned from the East Coast charged with some unexplained energy.

"No, she still thinks I'm a slut," Rory announced and pressed the hot beverage cup to her lips.

"She cares." Kate tried to offer another perspective.

"I doubt she'll ever speak to me again. I don't care what she thinks anymore." Rory ignored Kate's skeptical face. She didn't even try to make contact with Lorelai these days. "Do you think I should publish it?"

"That's what you planned to do." Kate shrugged, "But now, are you sure?"

"No. I mean…. You liked it. My dad said it was cool. Joel thinks it's 'interesting'." Rory air quoted, "Mom hated it."

"Joel?" Kate couldn't contain her surprise, "I thought that was off. Tour and all…"

"It's back on." Rory waved uncommitted, "I think."

"You think?"

"He was in town a few days ago. He stopped by." Rory dismissed the subject. There wasn't much to say. They agreed to see what happens when the tour is over in September.

"Considering the only reluctant supporters are the ones who have legitimate issues with the idea of your 'whoring ways'. Maybe you should run it by someone neutral."

"Like who?"

"This diet is so harsh." Kate took a bite out of the muffin moaning with pleasure, "I don't know. Maybe Ben?"

~w~


Rory clasped and unclasped her hands in her lap nervously. They were uncharacteristically sweaty.

Sitting in Ben's office was never nerve-wracking like it was today. Shiri has raised a questioning eyebrow at her when she closed the door after her. The rare times Ben's open-door policy was broken was when he and Logan huddled inside.

Rumor has it Logan was in London. He phoned Kate on conference earlier that day.

Rory busied her eyes looking around the office as he shuffled the manuscript pages around reading. Ben's office was less sterile than Logan's. A picture of his family decorated his desk. A leafy plant stood next to the green couch.

Why was the couch in his office if Logan was the one constantly sleeping on it?

"You want my honest opinion?" Ben fingers drummed on the sheet then smoothed over it.

Rory second-guessed herself. Ben's solemn expression didn't indicate anything and that was terrifying.

She nodded slowly. At least she'd know if to finally ax and bury it. What could he possibly have to say that was worse than what her toughest critic hadn't already said?

"I don't get it. Where's the funny?"

"The funny?" She repeated processing his words.

"Comics are supposed to be funny? Are they not?"

"Not necessarily." Rory hesitated pulling her skirt down nervously, "I don't think so…They graphically tell a story."

"The drawing is quite eye-catching. Glossy, quite photographic. You did that?"

"Thank you?" She nodded. Rory couldn't figure out whether he meant it a compliment.

"Um.." Ben hummed pushing his glass up to his nose, "I'm just a little lost on the concept. Explain that to me again. I'm thinking…" Ben sighed confused, "Who is the audience?"

People like her mother.

"I'm not sure… Kate likes it. It's… um… installments of navigating the search for love?" Rory stumbled on the words rubbing her wrist together, "From a personal perspective."

Rory didn't know why she hesitated in her pitch. Maybe because she didn't think of it like that until this very moment.

"A quest for love. Interesting." Ben stroked his chin, "Is this a gender bias thing? I don't get it because I'm a guy? Can I show this to Priscilla? She's a woman maybe that's… You know, it won't hurt running this with another trained eye."

Rory's face brightened up for the first time since she took a seat across his desk. Maybe this was going somewhere. Maybe it wasn't a total pile of shit.

"Any suggestions?"

"Hugo, maybe. You're still in touch with him?" Ben considered at loud, his eyes fixed on another sheet. "He's into the social state-of-mind stuff."

Rory cocked her head thoughtfully, Hugo could work. He was her only valid contact in media. Although it wasn't up his alley. "I could…"

"Logan." Ben interrupted her decisively, "You can't get a better intuition than Logan's."

Rory's face dropped, "Suggest someone else."

Ben's blinked at her response, a question passing his features, slowly catching on, "Is he in it?"

Rory bit her lip. Averting her eyes.

"Right." Ben's hand dropped the pages like a hot potato, "Let's take a walk. I don't want to discuss this here. Bring that thing with you."

~w~

Rory's heels tried to keep up with the tall man's strides. The soft drizzle of Seattle's summer rain made the sidewalks a bit slippery. The tiny drops of rain stained her suede shoes. Ben finally settled on a corner table in a coffee shop three blocks away from the office.

He still looked tense. A scrambled expression graced his face like he didn't know where to start. Rory's fingers rested protectively on the comics folder equally tense.

"Do you know why I hired you?" he finally asked once when the waitress took their order and left.

Rory tried to connect the dots between conversations.

"I wasn't even going to call you in for an interview. You had next to no experience relevant to what we were looking for. And Logan was..." Ben left it at that, "But Hugo sent you my way, and he's one of the most selective men I know."

Rory didn't know if it was meant as a compliment; "Thank you, I guess...?"

"Do you remember I asked you why you take photographs?" She nods, "You said something about the sense of the moment."

"Yes… Freezing happiness." Rory corrected.

The edges of Ben's serious mouth twitched momentarily into a hint of a smile. "You had that look in your eyes, hungry to re-invent yourself fresh. Breakaway from invisible cables."

Rory was caught off guard. She didn't know it showed.

"Logan has that look all the time." Ben glanced at her carefully, "I knew he would have hired on you on the spot."

The waitress returned with their coffee. Rory's steaming hot, Ben's iced.

"Yes, he does." Rory concurred confused, "What does it have to do with the comic…"

Ben took off his glasses, cleaning them with the edge of his shirt. His nervous tell.

"Current was my idea. Something I've always toyed with. It was my 'I-have-this-brilliant-idea-for-a start-up' topic at the pub after work. But I was never gonna go for it. I'm not a 'throw-caution-to-the-wind' kind of guy."

Understatement. Rory thought silently. She was even more confused but he looked far from finished.

"I just graduated from Columbia, I had tons of student loans. I was beyond happy to continue working for Mitchum Huntzberger under a well-established media conglomerate umbrella. Regular paycheck and all…"

Ben's brown eyes bore into her face, "Until I met Logan."

Rory shifted in her seat uncomfortably, "Umm Ben, that's nice, but what does this have to do with..."

"I don't know how he does it, he just … sniffs opportunities. Current wouldn't exist without Logan. He's the spirit behind it. He's the execution. He's a magnetic force."

Rory couldn't help but think how fitting the description was.

"And he sacrificed a lot to pull it all off the ground."

Rory tried to salvage where Ben was going with this.

"This isn't about the comics." Rory cast her eyes down to the steaming cup.

"No. Yes." Ben paused, "What I'm trying to say is that I get the attraction. Cursing with Logan is exciting. It gets you places you could never imagine. He's fearless and cocky as hell, and he doesn't apologize for it... because he usually gets what he wants."

Rory peered at her boss under lowered lashes. She was getting the impression he knew more than he cared to admit.

"He not the fuck around kind of guy he makes himself out to be," Ben stated swashing the ice cubes in his milk beverage.

Rory sneered skeptically. All evidence said differently.

"Bad choice of words." Ben tucked at his shirt collar uncomfortably, "Honestly? I don't want to know the details. I warned him against this infatuation. The whole legal aspect with Current just complicates things even more…."

"Logan and I are not… involved." Rory clarified. Logan was very clear on what he wanted and on what terms.

"He thinks he has it all figured out with this take on the world, Kawa-Banga dude, ready to jump attitude - but he really doesn't."

"Why are you telling me this?" Rory looked sadly at her cooling coffee.

"I like you, Rory. I don't want you to get hurt." Ben leaned forward, his voice down a notch like he was revealing something that he shouldn't, "He's in a weird funk right now. His life in New York looks nothing like the life he leads here. At some point, that's bound to catch up with him. He knows that, and you should keep that in mind too."

"Huntzberger obligations."

Rory wished she kept her associations concealed because Ben looked near panicked to hear her use the exact phrase. "What do you know about that?"

"I'm not a stranger to New England elite." She confessed uneasily, "Yale has a planetarium in my name."

"God, this is a lot worse than I initially thought," Ben muttered taking off his glasses. Rory watched her boss hold his nose between finger and thumb in frustration half talking to himself. "I was so off the mark, you're not another 'Bobbi', you're a 'Chelsea'."

"I'm Rory." Who the fuck was Bobbi?

"Look, no one knows better than me that taking a risk with Logan pays off." His expression looked pained, "Which just makes what I'm going to ask so unfair… I'm begging you not to take it."

"I… what?"

"Please, please, don't encourage him. He's already spiraling out on me." Ben finished his plea and pulled the comics folder from under her hands, "Now, let's see what we can do about that."

Rory blinked. She's been warned.

"I'd put it on Facebook to gauge reaction." Ben suggested, "See what audience it draws naturally before you try to push it further. Do you have a title for it?"

"Facebook?"

"How do they say?" Ben searched his brain, "If you post it - they will come."

"You mean: if you build it - they will come." Rory looked at him oddly. The paraphrase didn't sit well. Ben wasn't that into baseball, or one to quote inspiring lines from Kevin Costner's 'Field of Dreams' movie.

Logan was, though.

"He said that to me, and I'm saying that to you." Ben seemed to pick up on her intuition, "Because I'm flying blind here. Strategy is Logan's thing."

Rory could only nod. Yes. He gets off on that stuff.

"You might want to censor the names."

~w~


August 2012

"Did someone leave the coffee out or something? It tastes like shit." Rory pouted into the coffee she just spat.

Summer was in full effect and so was her AC inflicted cold. Nothing tasted the way it should. Even the coffee. Mostly the coffee. If a few days ago she couldn't smell things at all, now even the smell of Chinese from lunch made her queasy.

And Rory loved Chinese.

"The coffee is fine. It tastes exactly the same." Shiri took a seat across from her, "You have a cold. Eat a chocolate to cover the aftertaste."

Rory frowned at the office manager. She didn't want to eat chocolate. Especially not the Lindt ones by the coffee maker in the break room. The ones with Duty-Free sticker and Pound sterling price stamped on the back.

They had a different kind of aftertaste.

Plus, she knew where they came from and who brought them.

Rory struggled to completely shake that cold off. She found herself falling asleep on the couch for the third consecutive night before the late-night came on. She hoped to kick it off soon because she had two weddings this weekend.

"I told you, you need to eat more fruit." Nicole scolded, "Oranges, Strawberries, Kiwi. Brings up your Vitamin C."

Rory gave her pseudo-dietitian co-worker a frustrated look. That wasn't going to happen.

Working with a runny nose was just a nuisance.

It was the two days later that Rory started to suspect that maybe something was off.

Kate was devouring a whole chocolate muffin by herself. Rory was drinking water on their ten past ten coffee break. Under normal circumstances, she would be the one ravishing it herself. Under normal circumstances…

"I ate Nicole's apple," Rory blurted out panic written all over her face. "And I liked it."

"Apples are good for you plenty of antioxidants." Kate rolled her eyes, "Nicole will be so pleased to hear that you caved in. And so angry that you ate her lunch."

"I never eat apples!" Rory felt a wave of nausea taking over her. The apple's juices coming back up. She swallowed uncomfortably. "The only time a Gilmore willingly eats fruit is when…"

She didn't complete the sentence watching Kate's face adding up the points.

"First, let's calm down. Take a breath," Kate instructed calmly, "When did you have your last period?"

"June," Rory said in a small voice. "You don't think that I'm…" She couldn't even say the word.

"I don't know. I don't know," Kate tried to assure the panicked twenty-six years old, "It's a possibility, It doesn't mean… And if it does, you have options. Let's just take it one step of the time. There's a ton of options."

"Oh god. This is punishment." A jittery Rory jumped to her feet pacing, "This is god's way of retaliation. The Gilmore curse has been passed on to me. It happened to my mother, and now it has happened to me."

"What you talking about?"

"My mother gets pregnant at 16 because all she cares about is sticking it up to my grandmother by acting all rebellious. Here I am, nearly 26 - a decade older - I do one thing she doesn't approve of - and this happens. It's a curse. Like mother like daughter. A full circle."

"Rory stop being ridiculous. This isn't god's doing, you're not the mother of Jesus." Kate tried to tune down her amusement, "You just had a mishap. It's okay. It happens."

"I NEVER HAVE MISHAPS. I'm Miss Responsibility." Her hands quivered uncontrollably. She shook them furiously trying to regain control.

"Okay, so this is what going to happen." Kate grabbed her hands, "I'm going to tell Ben that we need to step out from the office for a little while. We'll Go to the pharmacy, buy a home test."

"Five. Five tests." Rory muttered.

"Or five. You'll take the test. I'll be there with you. Everything is going to be okay." Kate explained as if she was a child, "And after we'll be wiser, and can think what you want to do and how you're gonna tell Joel."

"Why would I tell Joel?" Rory's voice went a little high. What did this have to do with Joel?!

"Because it is Joel's, right?"

Rory's eyes boggled out, wide like saucers, as she gaped at Kate.

"I think I'm going to be sick."