Rory had woken early that morning, leaving Logan in bed with a soft kiss and Honor a small note saying thanks for dinner. She had a one-year-old's birthday party to get ready for. As she arrived in Hartford, her eyes a little bloodshot and with just a tall cup of coffee grumbling in her belly, she noticed an unfamiliar car standing by the driveway of her house. Not thinking much of it at the time she pulled up at the door, hurrying in to change her clothes and wrap Leah's presents before driving to Finn's parents' place. Lorelai was bringing the cake, and Zoe was in charge of the catering.
To her surprise as she stumbled back out of her house to her car, she was faced with a surprising question.
"Rory Gilmore, what is it like to date Logan Huntzberger?" a man in a dark hoodie asked, before taking her picture. She was caught off guard. Things like this didn't happen in Hartford, did they? Not in her driveway.
"It's private property, please leave," she said, sounding agitated but without much force in her voice.
"Is Logan Huntzberger the father of your daughter?" the man continued, shocking Rory to the bone. Not only was this a lie, but a rumor like that would seriously hurt Finn and accuse publicly Logan and herself for cheating on Odette, which though technically true, did not need to come public. What she wanted to know was how on earth did they even know about her daughter.
She threw her bags at the back of her car, dismissing that question with an angry "No!", before slamming the driver's door shut after her and pulling off. As she drove off, she dialled Logan.
"There was this guy asking all these questions in my driveway," she spoke, slightly out of breath.
"F***," he muttered, "I hoped they wouldn't go that far," he added.
"They're asking whether you are Leah's father," she stated, sounding desperate.
"I'm going to call the family PR guy, this is getting out of hand. Rory, take a deep breath, go to Leah's party and just don't comment on anything - keep 'no comment' as the standard reply, okay? Tell the others the same thing just in case," he instructed before hanging up.
Rory was glad to see Zoe's long driveway, that house certainly was private, located far away from the street. Like a pleasant hide-away.
"Hi everyone," she greeted stepping through the doors, sounding a little flustered.
"Hi Rory," Zoe greeted.
"Finn's upstairs getting Leah ready," Eleanor explained.
"I'll just go check," she said, not feeling fully comfortable to hang out with Finn's family alone just yet. They all knew how she had hurt him.
"Finn, Leah, it's me," she called walking down the hallway to find Finn walking out of the bedroom with Leah in his hands wearing a light purple tulle skirt over her sleeveless onesie with a big pink number 1 on it.
"You look amazing," she said excitedly, giving her a kiss while she was in Finn's arms.
"Listen Finn, I need to talk to you," she said, grabbing his arm before he continued downstairs.
"What's the matter, Rory?" he asked.
"The press thing is getting worse. Today there was this guy at the house asking about whether Logan is her father. It totally threw me off. Logan is already talking to his PR guy, but it seems to be getting out of hand. I am scared to go back there with her frankly," she explained briefly.
Finn's face turned pale. Not only was that question inherently insulting, Leah was her pride and joy, but she was one of the few things in his life he could take full pride in. But more than anything he wanted to protect them. His mind raced thinking what he could do, coming up with nothing useful - angry words, gates or hiding her wouldn't really have helped in the long run.
"It's going to be okay," he assured, putting his free hand around her shoulder.
Lorelai and Luke arrived minutes later, Luke carrying 9'' by 11'' strawberry frosting cake.
"You know there are a couple of cars out front, some guys with cameras," Lorelai said, coming over to say 'hi' to Leah.
"Not here too," Rory gasped.
"Apparently Rory's now a person of interest," Finn stated plainly, adding, "No comment is the standard answer." He continued to fill in everybody else, while Rory sat down on the couch with Leah on her lap trying to focus on her instead of what was going on.
Lorelai sat besides her, while Luke attended the cake in the kitchen.
"You okay, honey?" she asked.
"Not really, this just creeped me out. They were at our driveway this morning asking questions, rumorous and misleading questions," she explained, worriedly.
"Well luckily nobody really takes what they write seriously," she replied, tickling Leah's soft bare legs.
"I never thought it'd get this bad," she sighed, realizing that this might just be the beginning.
As she continued playing with Leah and the others were setting up the food, Lorelai pulled up her phone to see what they were writing, without showing it to Rory. She had enough on her mind. She quickly found their pictures from London and from what appeared to be last night. Scrolling lower there was even a picture of her with Leah in her stroller walking in Hartford. Apparently this had been going on longer than she had known about it. The headlines varied from the generic 'Who has Logan Huntzberger taken a fancy in?' to "Is this the secret love child of Logan Huntzberger that ruined his marriage?". She didn't want to continue reading and closed the browser, she also knew she didn't want Rory reading those.
The guest enjoyed their food and they all sang Leah 'Happy birthday' when the pink strawberry cake was brought to the table with a single candle that Rory and Finn helped her blow off, smiling at each other, feeling proud.
Leah roamed the floor, demonstrating her walking to a cheering bunch of adults, between her pile of toys - a pink stroller with a matching doll, a stacking toy and a fancy wooden activity table, stood out as her favourites. Playing with her daughter enabled her to forget for the time being what was going on outside. She'd left her phone in her purse intentionally, not wanting to know what the outside world was saying. She only went to get it after Lorelai told her it had been buzzing non-stop.
Logan had called 8 times by then. She quickly looked through her messages, getting to the gist that he was making a written statement trying to reply to some of their questions, hoping it would scatter their curiosity about her. Rory texted him back, "Okay, do what needs to be done," without wanting to think more about it, before returning to her giggling daughter. Finn could see the worry in her face as she returned, he wished he could do something to make it easier for her.
As guests began to leave, and she knew Leah would soon need to sleep, she hesitated. Getting back in her car and taking her to the house where who knew what waited, just didn't seem like a good idea. She considered driving to Stars Hollow, but nothing would stop them from following her.
"Finn," she finally said, adding, "Do you think Leah and I could come and stay at your place today, the guy just freaked me out and I am not sure I want to go back there alone."
"Sure, of course," he offered.
Rory hid in the back seat of Finn's Volvo SUV, that luckily had tinted windows, with her daughter in the car seat, hoping she would go unnoticed as she left her car at Zoe's.
They drove off together with Lorelai and Luke, taking different roads. The coast seemed clear, they hoped it'd stay that way.
Rory hadn't been to Finn's old apartment in a while. He hadn't truly bothered with updates and the place was as if stuck in time, if it wasn't for Leah's bed in the corner of the bedroom and a box of toys on the floor.
"Thanks for letting me crash," she said, taking a seat on the couch. Leah had fallen asleep in the car and he'd carried her to her bed, luckily she hadn't woken.
"Of course, it's no problem. Frankly I am glad to pull you out of that craziness if I can help it," he replied.
Rory looked at her phone, only to realize she didn't want to know what was going on.
"Anything from Logan?" he asked.
"Tons, but I just don't have the energy," she said, putting her head between her knees for a moment.
"Want a drink?" Finn asked.
Rory nodded, adding, "the stronger the better."
Finn returned with a bottle of his favourite single malt and two heavy glasses, pouring both of them a drink.
Rory felt tired, it had been a long and eventful day, to put it nicely, somehow she'd never pictured her life alongside Logan would be like this. She'd expected her picture taken at the Christmas Gala but not like this, not lies being portrayed as the truth.
"Rory, I've got to ask," Finn began after he finished his drink. "Is there any way that you could see us having any future together?" he asked hesitantly. They had felt like a family that day, the two of them working perfectly as a team, he'd even forgotten for a brief time she wasn't with him.
"Finn, I haven't stopped being with you, you will always be in my life, you are Leah's father. And for being you, I will continue loving you," she said trying to be gentle with him.
"But it is not enough," he finished her thought.
"I know it hurts, Finn. And for that I am sorry. If I could make myself feel differently I probably would. Things would be so much easier," she replied, wiping a single teardrop from her cheek. She stood to look at Leah. The time of her birth, 10.42 PM, was approaching.
"Can you believe it, it's been a year already, Finn," she sighed, gesturing to him to join her.
"We made that incredible human being, didn't we," he said, leaning to the doorway, while standing next to her.
Rory leaned into him, reaching her arms around his waist and burrowing her face onto his chest. He recalled the night Rory had told her about her pregnancy. He'd just held her that night. And he did so now too. He made sure she was safe, that she felt safe.