Rory could still remember the day they moved into the house in Stars Hollow. Her mom had spent the last 7 years saving every single penny, cleaning a few houses and the local church on top of her job at the Inn and putting it all aside. And while she didn't have a great deal of contact with her parents in Hartford, every year for her birthday and Christmas she would get a nice, fat check from them (and one from Trix) that she tried to put straight into savings- some years it went towards other bills or necessities, but she was determined to get them out of the shed and into a real house.
So many nights they would sit outside of the shed, watching the swans on the water, catching fireflies, and dreaming about their some day house. They would look at magazines and pick out furniture and paint colors and imagine getting a dog or a cat- Rory was determined to have lavender walls in her own bedroom with daisies all over; Lorelai missed having a walk-in closet (hell, any closet).
They moved in on a hot day in August, borrowing the Groundskeeper's truck to move their pitiful belongings: a few boxes of clothes and bedding and books; some furniture they had cobbled together over the last 7 years; cast away kitchen stuff from Sookie with old dishes and dinged up pots and pans, which were perfectly fine, since neither of them really knew how to cook. Lorelai had been painstakingly sewing curtains in the evenings and had plans to make slipcovers for their ratty old couch to complement them.
They finished the move in less than 2 hours thanks to Mia, Sookie and a few others around town that offered to help. That night they ordered pizza and watched TV, amazed that they were in what felt like a palace to Rory- they were home.
And now, it was going to be Lane's.
With twins coming and Gigi, and Chris' need for a media room so that he and Lorelai could stop fighting over the TV in her living room- it was time for the Gilmore-Haydens to move on from 17423 Orchard Drive. They bought a beautiful house one street over from the Twickham House, on Pear. It was stunning- red shingles, a wrap around porch, tons of windows- and huge! As Rory walked through it for the first time she couldn't help but think about how the Crap Shack would fit in that house almost 4 times over. Of course she was a little jealous she didn't get to grow up in this house, with an actual library with a fireplace in it… But she wouldn't trade her memories of that house on Orchard for a thousand libraries.
She understood it, moving. Obviously there is only so much you can expand a house- especially if you have to go through Taylor for the permits, and she had been trying to prepare herself for months for the day it was no longer home. Of course, the very fact that the house was going to be the one Lane and Zach raised their kids in- that made her feel much better, she wouldn't have to say goodbye to it, not really. But she was still feeling emotional and trying not to cry as she walked through it, totally empty (Lane and Zach were going to paint before moving in next week).
As she walked from room to room, the sunlight filtering in, casting shadows- she remembered the moments in this house. She could close her eyes and be at one of her mom's insane birthday parties… or the first time they tried to paint the place and ended up having to spend weeks scraping the paint they spilled and splattered on the floor. She went to the front closet and looked at the markings that showed how she had grown over the years, tearing up as she felt the notches her mom had nicked every year of her life until she was 16 and finally told her mom to stop. She could remember the first few years, she would try to "cheat" by standing on the tips of her toes, wanting desperately to be taller- more grown up (she had been very short until middle school, when she shot up and became one of the taller girls in class through 7th grade).
"Wow, little Ace was so tiny!" She hadn't noticed he entered the house, caught up in her reverie, jumping a little at his voice. Then he was right there, behind her, and pulled her into his arms, against his chest, where he could rest his chin on her shoulder and look at the same thing she was. They stood quietly for a moment, he knew she was processing. After a few minutes he spoke:
"So, the new house is nice. Pretty convenient the Sargents are moving, I didn't think they'd be able to find something so perfect in the Hollow."
"Yeah, Mom was pretty relieved- although I think Dad was hoping there wouldn't be anything in town, apparently Taylor is starting to make him more than a bit crazy- he doesn't find the man quite as entertaining as he used to."
"Taylor? Annoying? And increasingly more so upon repeated and prolonged contact? I refuse to believe it." He was teasing her and she couldn't help but smile a little.
"I know, I know, this place is basically just an outpatient mental asylum, but it's where I'm from. It's home. And I know you don't really understand, but this place, this house- it's always going to be such a big part of me. Although, there are nights I still think back to when we lived in the potting shed and remember that fondly. I even remembered today how I cried when we moved from there to here."
"What?" She leaned back into him and sighed.
"Oh yeah, the night before we moved I cried myself to sleep, I was distraught to think we wouldn't live there anymore. You have to understand, the only place I could ever remember living was that shed and it was… it was magical. It was on the grounds of the old inn which were so beautiful. There were so many trees, weeping willows, especially. Mia says I used to sit underneath them and tell jokes all the time, trying to cheer them up." Well if that wasn't the most adorable thing Logan had ever heard…
"But it was also right there, you could look out at the pond and the footbridge- the swans swimming. Mom and I would have picnics with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Sometimes she would be sewing something, usually for me- she made a lot of my clothes until I was 7, it's what we could afford and it gave her something to do. I learned to read there and would spend hours outside with my giant stack of library books, listening to the birds. Or, on really cold nights I'd be in the lobby of the inn, reading near the fireplace in a giant wingback chair Mia had. Sometimes it was just too cold to sleep out in the shed so we'd stay at the inn if there was room, or at Mia's- she always had space for us when we needed." Rory was smiling because these were great memories for her, she'd never been ashamed of where she came from.
"Storms could be loud in the shed and I hated them so much, so if it was storming I'd crawl into bed with Mom- an old one from the inn that Mia gave us. It was backed against the wall and during the day it was our couch with lots of pillows and stuffed animals, like a daybed, you know? But, at night, when it was storming, I'd curl up in bed next to her and she'd hold me so close and make up stories about princesses and fairies. They were all silly and strange, I mean, it was Lorelai… But the point was for them to distract me from the rain and the thunder. And every once in a while, she'd sing to me. She has a gorgeous voice- did you know that? Loves to sing old Judy Garland songs." That was a surprise, especially since his Ace was practically tone deaf when she sang in the shower.
"It does sound magical." And it did. It was true, he didn't have anything like that growing up- he'd never wanted for a single thing in that giant mansion house he had lived in his entire house- so big that he could go days without ever seeing his mom or dad. He had Honor, but they had both been sent away to schools and camps from about the minute they could be, nothing about his childhood had been idyllic.
"Hey, this won't be where your mom lives anymore, but it will be where Lane lives, where she raises her boys, and that's pretty cool."
"I know. She even agreed to keep the Rory through the ages notches here, she'll compare them to Steve and Kwan."
"Well that's sweet. And they'll get to hear all the stories about how Aunt Rory grew up here."
"Well, not like Lane didn't too. Especially when it was Wheat Week at Mama Kim's; mom would order pizza those night with plenty extra for her. There was one night she was really upset- I had just started at Chilton and Mom was dating Max and Lane had a crush on a boy and did something really dumb, totally embarrassing herself. She didn't go home, she fled here and crashed in my room. I was snowed in at my Grandparents, but Mom was here for her as she poured out the story, then hid here, listening to The Cure ." She smiled at the memory, even one she hadn't been here for- but she loved that the house she grew up in was a sanctuary for others. But then, it was Logan's velvety voice that brought her back to the present.
"You know, I have some memories of this house too." She turned around to look at him.
"Yeah? Good ones?" She smiled up at him, one eyebrow arched, expecting he was going to get into that time he stayed here for the Spring Fling. She had to admit, that while the very cliche of sex in your childhood room had lost much of it's allure when she lost her virginity there to her married ex boyfriend and her mom practically walked in on them… but after that talk about factoring each other in and his commitment to her, and a few reminders of their salacious conversations the summer before, from right in that bed… well, that night she had literally needed to alter their position so she could scream into her pillow, because not screaming just wasn't an option.
"Mostly good…" He winked at her and ducked his head to hers, capturing her lips with his. She returned the kiss instantly, mentally reviewing choice moments of that night. He nipped at her bottom lip before moving to her earlobe.
"There was one night in particular here that I have been known to cast back to, when we're apart. Hell, those months we weren't together, it was basically on constant repeat for months." She swatted at him, but blushed a bit, thinking about him, using memories of them... ok, it was hot. "I swear to god, Ace, I don't think I've ever come so hard in my life as I did that second time that night; and while I don't know what inspired you to do that with your fingers," he bit her earlobe, not too hard, but enough to emphasize the word, "but it was one of the single hottest moments of my life. You lying there, beneath me, writhing, shoving your fist in your mouth to keep from shouting so loud Babette and Mory would have heard. I could feel you clenching around me as you came and I wanted to fall so badly, I really did and you were lost in your own world and flushed and sweating and gorgeous and then you… I didn't think I'd ever stop coming." He ghosted his lips down her neck, teasing her, nibbling alternating with feather light kisses. She felt like she was melting into him, he really was killing her.
As he began running his hand along her ass she moaned, feeling him hard, wanting him. Unfortunately,
"Shit." He pulled away instantly.
"What? Are you ok?" She looked up at him, pouty lips and scrunched eyes.
"No. I'm horny as hell and it's a ½ hour drive home."
"And do we have to wait to get home for any particular reason?"
"With the way I bruise these days, if we try to have sex on the hardwood floors here, it's going to look like you beat the crap out of me for the next two weeks and I really don't feel like explaining to my doctors and nurses and the social workers you know they would send in to speak with me, that I was an insane combination of horny, nostalgic and hormonal while saying goodbye to the door frame my mom used to record my height every year in my childhood home."
He sighed, she was right. Damn this cancer for stopping them from having insanely great sex in this house- one last time.
Almost a week later, as Rory interviewed some healthcare policy expert about the impact of pre-existing conditions on healthcare costs and insurance coverage for her blog, Logan found himself back in Stars Hollow. He had done some googling and was now wandering around the former site of the Independence Inn- a building that had never been properly demolished. In fact, it actually looked almost fine from one or two sides. It must be a disaster inside or else someone would have bought this property and fixed it up, right? Why hadn't Lorelai? Sure the Dragonfly was amazing, but this was at least twice, maybe three times the size!
But that wasn't really the purpose of his mission. He kept walking, towards the duck pond. There was a gravel path, starting to grow over and he took a left, going another 300 yards before he saw it. It was a bit bigger than maybe he had imagined it, but it was still so very tiny.
It looked like some local kids had found it and tried to turn it into a hang out, there were a few broken windows and the door hung open. He pushed his way inside, it smelled like someone had been smoking pot inside, which made sense- he and Finn and Colin would have loved a place like this to get high in high school. Come to think of it, they did have a place like this- a playhouse in Colin's yard. Jesus, Colin's playhouse from when he was a kid was almost the same size as this building; this building his Ace had lived in for 6 or 7 years.
He walked around, trying to take it in. The first thing he noticed was the claw foot tub and a toilet with a pink floral curtain around it. Jesus, they didn't even have a bathroom?
It clearly wasn't an apartment any longer, hadn't been in years- there were just shelves and benches and tools now, no furniture. There was no kitchen but there was a sink and a mini-fridge- but since Lorelai didn't cook and Rory rarely did, that made sense. He walked back outside and saw the trellis out front, climbing ivy and flowers all along the arch and up the side of the house. It faced the water and the white fence, he had to admit, it was a stunning location. He sat on the grass, overlooking the water- there was a bench out on the other side of the bridge, a beautiful spot with more flowers and greenery crawling everywhere.
Even after 5 years of knowing her, he'd never get over how different their lives had been. One of his earliest encounters with her had been at her grandparents, she was wearing a stunning cocktail dress, huge diamond earrings and a goddamned tiara- the idea that she had lived almost ⅓ of her life in a cold, barely insulated potting shed- no carpet, no bathroom… What had they done for heat? Space heaters? He remembered her saying something about really cold nights they could stay at the inn... What about in the summer if it was hot? He felt himself tear up as he thought about how strong she is- her and her crazy mom. He had been so afraid to break away from his dad and go out on his own. And sure, he had lost a lot of his own money, millions, in that terrible deal in his last days at HPG- but a poor millionaire was still worth at least a million dollars.
But Lorelai? She had left everything, taken a bus to this town and begged a total stranger to be a maid at a hotel for $8/hour and this shed. And now she owned an inn that was becoming famous around the country, and she had done that, while raising his Ace- all by herself.
And they both still talked about these days… the nights outside of this shed, the stories Lorelai would tell Rory in bed to try and calm her during a bad storm, a storm they were practically in the middle of, barely any protection? Hell, one hurricane, which did hit this area occasionally, and they'd be flattened and dead!
He had been crying for the last ten minutes or so, his heart broken for a 17-year-old Lorelai who felt so constricted by everything that she would run away from the Gilmores to come and live like this. He was devastated that this was where his Ace spent so many years, and didn't know not to be sad about her circumstances, instead she thought back on this time so fondly. He was gutted for the Gilmores at the thought of how they must have felt to know that their daughter and granddaughter were living like this. But, if he was being totally honest, he felt jealousy- that they had these years of peace and love and bonding, because he knew this was how they became the friends they are, where their special connection was formed. He knew it was because of this place that Rory fell in love with reading and writing, and he understood how perfectly Lorelai's love for his Ace always was, that she would do anything to protect her from Hartford, while taking care of her. And it made him wonder, what would his life have been like if he had lived anytime in a potting shed?