The group had continued catching up early into the morning, which was why when Rory woke up in the morning she found the bed empty. Rory usually would get up early naturally so that she could get the children ready for school or just to spend time with them but being pregnant and staying up late meant that she was extra tired. She figured Logan must have gotten up with them today so that she could stay in bed late. She would have to find a way to thank her husband.
Rory got dressed, knowing that the protocol at her grandparents was more formal than at their home. She headed downstairs and heard some laughter coming from her grandmother and the children.
"Good Morning everyone!" Rory greeted them as she walked into the living room. It was past breakfast so she figured the kids would be outside or in the playroom that Emily had made for them but instead they were gathered around Emily on the couch in the living room.
"Mornin' Mommy!" Both children exclaimed while Emily smiled and greeted Rory, "Good Morning, Rory. I hope you slept well."
"Yes, I did. I forgot how comfortable the beds are here and unfortunately with the staying up late and the pregnancy, I seem to be more tired." Rory explained.
"Oh nonsense. You deserve some rest. You have had several very exhausting days, I can imagine. Your grandfather has gone to sleep for a bit but he should be up in an hour for lunch."
Rory nodded before looking at what had the children so intrigued. "What are you doing down here that was causing all of you to be laughing so much?"
"Mommy! We are looking at pictures of grandma and grandpa and grandma was telling us funny stories!" Will exclaimed. He loved spending time with his great grandparents.
"Look! Grandma and Grandpa look so different! This was when they got married like you and daddy! Doesn't she look like a princess? I want to be a princess." Emmy explained excitedly.
"She does look like a princess and you will too one day." Rory replied as she looked at the pictures that Emily was showing them. It seemed that Emily had shown them the picture at the altar as well as their first dance. Rory couldn't help but smile at those photos.
"Come join us. We can show them some of your childhood pictures?" Emily suggested hoping it wasn't a sore topic seeing as Rory and Lorelai were estranged.
"Sure but first I wanted to find Logan." Rory said with a questioning tone.
"Oh, of course. He stepped outside to take a phone call but he should be back soon. That was about fifteen minutes ago." Emily responded just as Logan was walking in the door.
"Speak of the devil" Rory smiled.
"Were you talking about me? I must be so popular!" Logan teased before giving Rory a quick kiss.
"I was wondering where you were." Rory smiled.
"How'd you sleep? I know you must have been tired." Logan asked concerned.
Ever since Rory had gotten pregnant again, Logan had become overprotective which seemed to be a trait he possessed every time she got pregnant. He was normally protective over her but now he also worried about her sleep, eating habits, work habits, etc.
"I slept great! Don't worry so much, you'll get wrinkles." Rory chastised playfully.
"Me? Never. I don't get wrinkles and if I do there is always Botox. It's very popular, you know." Logan teased.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you would look terrible with botox." Rory teased him back. "Now come join me while I get some tea." Rory pleaded.
"Lead the way… Emily, will you be alright watching them for a while longer?" Logan asked before heading off with Rory.
"Of course. We have so many photos to look through." Emily sent them off before starting her stories again.
Once in the kitchen, Rory turned to properly kiss Logan. Her pregnancy hormones were making her insatiable and Logan did not mind at all. He loved this side of Rory. She only seemed to show it when she was pregnant but she was very commanding and he loved letting her take charge.
"I missed you in bed this morning." Rory smiled.
"I can tell. If I knew that this would have been the wake up call I would have let Emily take care of Will and Emmy." Logan leaned back in to kiss Rory again.
Before they could get too far, they heard the doorbell ring. Rory immediately pulled back with a look of worry in her eyes.
"I'll go get the door. Tell Emily to take the children outside and go wit her." Logan directed.
"No. I'm staying inside with you. I'll send Will and Emmy outside with Emily but I'm staying."
They ran into Emily in the foyer and told her to take the children outside. Emily didn't want to leave Logan and Rory to face whoever was on the other side but she knew they needed to confront whoever it was, so she complied while Rory went to the living room to wait.
It seemed that confrontations were inevitable and they didn't believe that their friends were behind the door again. Logan and Rory were sure that news of their arrival had been spread all through Hartford by now and it was only a matter of time before they had to face those they had left behind.
Logan steeled himself for a confrontation as he went to answer the door, taking a deep breath before opening.
As the people came into view, Logan had hoped he had been wrong but he knew he wouldn't be.
"Hello mother, father."
"Logan" Mitchum responded briskly.
"Hello Logan." Shira said in her society voice.
Logan knew that this confrontation would come but he was concerned for Rory's wellbeing and he hoped it wouldn't be too stressful. She was still fairly early in her pregnancy and the last thing they wanted was to put too much stress on the baby. Logan opened the door further to let them in and then once he shut the door, he began walking to the living room, expecting them to follow.
Once they were all in the living room, Rory stood up next to him as they faced off the Huntzbergers.
"So the rumors are true." Mitchum stated.
"And what would those rumors be?" Logan asked curious to how they were going to approach this.
"That you and Rory are together and have two children." Mitchum answered, as Shira just watched not saying anything, which was unusual for her.
"Well as you can see by Rory's presence here, we are together." Logan said not wanting to bring their children into the conversation.
"What about the children? Do we have grandchildren? The ladies at the DAR were talking about how they saw you two with two small children at the hospital." Shira finally spoke.
"We do have two children." Rory confirmed speaking to the Huntzbergers for the first time.
"How old are they?" Shira asked curiously.
"Five and two years old." Logan answered trying to give away as little information as possible.
"Besides being curious about my children, why are you two here?" Logan finally asked.
"Well, we heard you were in town and we wanted to meet our grandchildren." Shira spoke first.
Logan looked at his father for his answer.
Mitchum took a deep breath before responding, "Of course, we would come. This is the first time you have been back in what? 7 years? Do you really think you can come to town without us knowing and leave again without speaking or seeing us? You have some explaining to do and we want to know where the hell you've been." Mitchum exclaimed while progressively getting angrier.
Rory and Logan knew this conversation was inevitable but they really dreaded it.
"Fine. Let's sit down at least. And no yelling." Logan said waiting for the nods of agreement, which shortly followed.
Neither party spoke for a few moments before Shira asked, "So are you two married?"
"Yes." Logan answered.
"For how long?"
"About seven years." Rory answered while holding Logan's hand hoping to give both of them some comfort.
Shira nodded unsure of how to proceed. Knowing that she had been left out of her sons life and her grandchildren's life hurt more than she was willing to admit. She knew Logan never really liked being a Huntzberger but she figured when he had disappeared that he had left to live somewhere remote where he was partying his life away. She never figured in all these years that he had been married and raising a family.
"And what do you do for work?" Mitchum asked trying to maintain his temper.
"We both work in the newspaper industry." Rory answered.
"Doing what?"
"Rory is a reporter for a media outlet and I am the CFO of that media outlet." Logan responded guardedly.
"What media company? I haven't seen your name or heard anything about you in the past seven years and you know we have our European division." Mitchum questioned wondering how his son had managed to escape him when he held such a prominent position such as CFO.
"It's a company run by a friend of mine, Hugo Gray. You might have heard of him. We don't tend to do business with the Huntzberger company."
"Of course, I have heard of him. We have been looking into trying to acquire his company… Still your name has never shown up."
"That's because we use different names at work." Logan explained simply.
"And what are they?" Mitchum prodded.
Rory looked at Logan, getting approval, before responding. "We decided to meld out last names. So Logan goes by Logan Huntzmore and I go by my middle name Leigh Huntzmore."
"Huntzmore… Of course. How could I have missed it." Mitchum scolded himself.
Logan felt proud that he had been able to avoid even his father finding them even though they were in plain sight.
They sat there in silence for several moments, neither knowing what to say. Shira and Mitchum sat processing the information they had just learned while Rory and Logan waited for them to continue on with the interrogation.
Finally after what felt like an eternity, Mitchum spoke, "How long are you in town?"
"We're not sure. We want to make sure Richard is doing well before we leave." Logan answered.
"And where do you currently live?"
Rory and Logan looked at each other knowing this would reveal their whole lives and if Mitchum wanted, he could have them followed.
"I'm not going to have you followed. I just want to know where you have been living." Mitchum spoke as if he had been reading their thoughts.
Logan steadied himself by taking a deep breath before revealing, "We live in Hamburg."
Mitchum simply nodded while continuing to process.
Shira on the other hand had processed and was unsure how to proceed.
"Can we see our grandchildren?" Shira prodded.
Rory and Logan shared a look. They had discussed what they would say but this situation was turning out to be bizarre for the both of them.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea Mom. As of right now, we have no idea what your true intentions are by coming here and we are trying to protect our children. Until we know your intentions and that you respect both Rory and myself, we aren't comfortable introducing you to our children. We haven't seen you two in seven years and the last time Rory did see you, you treated her horribly. When we got married we agreed to protect and fight for each other and unless you can accept Rory and respect her, we don't have anything further to talk about regarding our children." Logan explained calmly although passionately.
Logan saw that Mitchum was about to protest but before he could Rory spoke, "Look we appreciate that you want to get to know our children but we don't want people in their lives who don't support us. We've already had to cut my mother out of our lives and consequently our kids lives because of the things she tried to do to destroy our relationship and manipulate me. If you want a relationship with our children then you need to stay out of our relationship and support us. We won't tolerate neither manipulation nor sabotage. We want our children to know their grandparents but only if those grandparents are loving and supportive."
Logan looked at his wife proudly. To see her defend their family again made him love her even more.
Logan looked at his parents questioningly, "So What's it going to be?"
A/N: I'm sorry I have been gone for so long but my muse left and I really had to try and write this chapter but I did it! What do you think they will say to this ultimatum? Will it just be more drama or will Shira and Mitchum come around? Leave me comments and let me know what you think!