Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls
A/N: Thank you for the reviews. Please check your PMs, I do try to respond to some of the reviews when I can :) Glad to know you are enjoying the chapter length. I swear this story is giving me high highs and low lows, I think I have a plan to end it, and then I think "maybe not"...I do think I have a plan for the epilogue? So that is something...
Chapter Twenty Two
"So that is why Sarah recognized you?" Rory laughed as they caught up on the events of the morning while driving back to Stars Hollow.
Logan nodded, he had never put two and two together. Sure, now that he knew, the resemblance was clear, but he had never paid much attention to her back then, and Honor didn't talk about her much after high school, so it wasn't as though she was top of mind. "I guess, obviously…" he paused, "neither of us left much of an impression. We might've met twice, I just remember that birthday party. Honor threw a fit because Mom and Dad only bought her one BMW and not the two she wanted…a convertible and a sedan."
"Well of course, a black and a white I would imagine…to match her outfits?"
Logan laughed as they drove, thankful they had gotten a driver for the previous evening, "are you going to tell them?" he looked at her ring.
Rory felt her face flush ever so slightly, "I was hoping we could…if you don't have to get back to your parents right away?"
"I've got a couple of hours to kill…if you don't mind, I will talk to my Dad privately."
Rory nodded, "somehow I don't think Mitchum will be our biggest hurdle."
"So you didn't like any of the places?" Logan chose to ignore the suggestion about his Mother. He knew that his Dad would handle her, remind her of her place in all of this and she would simmer down. Sure, she and Rory would never be shopping buddies, but that was fine by him.
Rory shrugged her shoulders, "I mean, I loved them, they were all stunning. High end everything, top of the line everything…but they all just felt so…" she paused to consider her choice of words. "My place in Encino, it just feels more like home I guess, and it's not that I want to be in Encino, but I want a home that makes us feel that way."
"We will find something," Logan assured her, thinking about the other option that Steve had mentioned, he had assured them he would forward them an e-mail soon to review. They drove in mostly silence for the remainder of the return to Stars Hollow. Logan had told the driver to take a couple of hours and return before 4pm to take him back to Hartford, which gave him two hours with Rory and her family. A few minutes outside of Stars Hollow, Logan's cellphone pinged to indicate an incoming e-mail and he smiled as he opened it up and saw what Steve had proposed. It was perfect. It was what they needed, maybe not what they thought they would be doing, but it as perfect. "Before we go in," Logan watched the town come into view, "Steve sent this," he handed her the phone, "I know it isn't what we planned but…"
"You would…" Rory smiled at him as she read through the e-mail, "really?"
"Is that what you want?" Logan asked her, she nodded her head and her eyes filled with tears. "Ace, why didn't you just say so?"
"I didn't," Rory paused and sniffled, "I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't even know it was what I wanted, I was just figuring out what I didn't want…"
"How to tell me? You can tell me anything and I swear to you, whether it be giving you a kidney, or building you a house, I would do anything."
"You really think we can do this?" Rory asked, she didn't want to get too attached to the idea until he was sure. "Do you have to talk to your Dad?"
"Rory, my Dad is on his way out. I can telecommute, I can fly in every couple of days, planes, trains, automobiles…if you want to live here, we will live here." He was suddenly glad that when he had gotten in touch with Steve he had told him where they both came from in order to give him an idea of what kind of places to look for. "So this piece of land is 50 acres, it is pretty big. We can build a house, whatever the kids want…it is like a ten minute drive to your Mom from the looks of it…if this is what you want Rory…"
She nodded her head, "this is what I want. This is everything that I want." Rory hadn't given much thought to one day being able to live near her Mom again, she had always assumed she might be able to consider it after Perry retired, but when Logan came into the picture and his base was in Palo Alto, and then Manhattan, she had decided not to get invested in the idea that her children would be close to their grandmother, or that she would be with her Mom and Luke as they got older.
Logan took his phone back from Rory and began typing an e-mail, "then we'll do it. You just need to talk with Perry about custody but I don't think that he will have a problem with Stars Hollow versus Manhattan."
Make the offer he e-mailed back quickly, it was ironic in so many ways, the house would be a fraction of the price of the places in Manhattan, even with the best of the best and enough space for all of them, but it was exactly what Rory wanted, and all that Logan wanted was to know that every day he was coming home to her.
xxx
Rory was surprised to find the crap shack empty. She quickly texted Perry to let him know that she was home and he explained that they were having lunch with her Mother and Sarah at the Dragonfly and would be home soon. While they waited, Rory was thankful for a moment to relax, Steve had sent them paperwork to sign and they had made the offer on the nearby piece of land and he expected they would hear back soon. Lorelai and decorated for Christmas, the tree was up, lights were up, Sookie had brought over enough baked treats that if you didn't know Lorelai you might almost think she baked them herself. There was a small layer of snow on the ground and for the moment, everything was perfect.
"I'm going to grab something to eat," Rory moved towards the kitchen, "want anything?"
"We just ate two hours ago Ace," Logan laughed.
"So that was a yes or a no?" Rory winked, "Luke keeps healthy food here now, partially for himself, partially for the illusion that my mom doesn't exist solely on pop tarts, coffee and takeout…"
"I'll pass," he smiled as he heard her rummaging in the fridge, returning a moment later with a bowl of yogurt topped with fruit. "You feelin alright, Ace?" he looked at the perfectly healthy snack in her hands.
"I feel fine," Rory furrowed her brow, "I eat way better now than I used to…you've seen my boys…they eat real food."
"I mean yes it is a more balanced diet than what you lived off of in college, but still too many pop tarts for my liking…and the people who make the food pyramid."
"I think the food pyramid is gone," Rory shot back, "saw it on an episode of The Good Wife, some sort of dairy and corn issue."
"Well if Eli Gold says," Logan laughed. "How do you want to tell them?"
"All at once," Rory responded quickly as she took a spoonful of yogurt, "the boys will be happy. I will talk to Perry privately."
"And your Mom?"
"My Mom will…she will be happy," Rory assured him, thinking back on the last conversation she had with Lorelai, "she knows you have grown up…and she finally admitted that maybe she stunted me a little bit."
"What about the crappy diet, did she admit to that too?" Logan laughed when Rory shot him a glance, "I'll take what I can get, this is me surrendering."
They waited about twenty minutes before they heard the kids laughing on their way to the porch and Lorelai coming up behind them, muttering something about her love/hate relationship with snow.
I don't know why Grandpa didn't put salt down on the walkway…
I'm sorry I didn't think to salt every possible route you could one day take and instead thought maybe just once you could wear weather appropriate shoes so you didn't hang onto me like a monkey the entire walk here!
Both Rory and Logan smiled as they all came in, Rory walked to greet them and help to remove the somewhat wet winter jackets and boots from the boys and Logan stood quietly behind her, staying out of the way but still available to help. "No Perry?" Rory asked.
Lorelai shook her head, "figured you would want some time with them, and also I hear these two monsters," she pointed to Christopher and James "partied hard last night so I would imagine he is taking a nap before he comes over later."
"Guys you promised to be good for Dad," Rory looked to her youngest boys.
"I was, but Chris kicked me," James countered.
"He was sleeping," Eli rolled his eyes and embraced Rory, "I missed you."
Rory hugged him close, her left hand tangled in his hair, "I missed you boys too."
Lorelai smiled, she had noticed. She had known from the moment that she walked in the door. The room was different, the energy was different, which was something she never thought she would say. So she waited for Eli and the boys to greet Logan and she walked to her daughter and pulled her into an embrace, "I love you kid," she whispered in her ear.
Rory knew, she knew as soon as she was wrapped in Lorelai's arms that the secret was out. No matter what happened between Rory and Lorelai, they were always connected in a way that most people wouldn't have been able to understand. "I love you too, Mom," she whispered and sniffled a little bit before turning to the kids, Logan and Luke. "Boys, Mommy has some news, so I want you to all sit down…Mom, I know you think you know but…just sit."
Rory never felt quite as adult as when she sat her four children on a couch and she sat in front of them, this time on an ottoman that Lorelai had purchased a few years prior, but it was much more comfortable than the previous coffee table. Logan sat beside her and waited for Rory to speak, he could see that she was nervous and that the boys were anxiously awaiting her next move, "You guys have been through so much," she smiled at each of them as she spoke, "I know that when we moved to California that was a big transition because we were so much farther from your family and your friends, but you have all done so well, and I am so proud to be your Mom," Rory paused and tried not to cry, Logan placed a hand protectively on her lower back. "When Dad and I split up, I was so worried. I worried about what would happen if you weren't with me all the time, or that you would be upset that Dad and I weren't together, or that we would miss out on things…you all know it hasn't been easy all of the time, but your Dad and I have come so far, and we have so much love for each other and for you four."
"Mom is something wrong?" Luca finally interrupted her monologue.
Rory shook her head, "no honey. This is good news..I hope." She took another deep breath, "you guys don't know all about how Logan and I knew each other before, but we were very close for a long time and then we weren't, but…we love each other so much, and most importantly, Logan loves you boys. So yesterday…or maybe this morning, I'm not actually clear on the exact time," she laughed and looked at Logan who was smiling at her, "Logan asked me to marry him, and I said yes." Rory paused to gauge the reaction and it was as she expected. Eli had a smile growing that would take over his entire face, James and Christopher were happy, and Luca was somewhere between happiness and confusion. "What do you guys think about that?"
"Weren't we already going to live with Logan?" Luca broke the silence, Rory and Logan both nodded to confirm his statement and Rory pointedly moved her hand so they could all see the enormous engagement ring on her finger. "So what is the difference?"
"Can I?" Logan looked to Rory before he began answering the question, she nodded to encourage him. "You're not wrong," he began, "we are going to live together in a few months, and being married or not doesn't change how we feel about each other, or how I feel about you boys, but this just makes it…it makes it more official. More permanent…" he paused again, "when you get older, like your Mom and I are, sometimes you want something permanent to show everyone how much you love each other. In this case, I would tattoo it on my forehead how much you boys and your Mom mean to me, but Mom says I can't, and I think it would look pretty funny in meetings if I did that, so we thought getting married would be the next best thing." Logan paused again, the little boys seemed happy, but truth be told, they were young enough that they didn't really understand, they didn't remember when Perry and Rory were together or when they had split, so it wasn't a worry for them that it could happen again. "What do you guys think, Luc? Eli?"
Eli shrugged his shoulders, he wanted Rory to be happy, he liked Logan, "does it change…the other stuff?" he looked to Rory, clearly referring to the custody situation.
Rory shook her head immediately, "No, this doesn't change anything with you being with me," she assured him.
"We're doing this as a family," Logan tried to assure the boy, "and that is all of us."
Eli nodded and looked at Luca who was clearly thinking about something. He bit his lip and his brow was furrowed, the spitting image of Rory when she was making a decision, "can you decide you don't want to be married anymore? Mom and Dad didn't want to be married anymore…"
Rory sighed, they were taking it well, they were asking normal questions, they were young kids who didn't understand adult relationships. Rory and Perry had always told the boys that you couldn't fall out of love, and then by all accounts they did, and so the narrative had changed, you can't fall out of love with your children, and also that love changes, Mommy and Daddy love each other…but differently. "Do you boys trust me?" Rory asked, she received four nodding heads in response, "When you are older I will explain why, and you will understand better because you will have wives or girlfriends or partners of your own…but I just need you to trust me, that I know that this is right and Logan is going to be a bonus-Dad to you guys and we are going to be together forever. So … for now if you can just trust me on that, I would really love that."
"I know that no one asked my opinion," Lorelai interrupted the moment, "but I think this is pretty darn amazing. I mean, not as amazing as the fact that I managed to walk home from the inn, in heels, and did not fall on my butt once, despite Grandpa reminding me that I could. But I don't think I have ever heard better news than this…except maybe when you four monkeys were born."
"I think we should celebrate," Luke agreed, relieved to know that the woman he had helped raise was happy, "how does everyone feel about some hot chocolate? Extra marshmallows, of course."
"I thought marshmallows were bad for you?" Luca looked at him.
"We're celebrating, don't question it!" Lorelai winked before she walked to Rory and Logan, "Seriously though, you two…I am very happy for you." She turned her eyes to Logan who had stood up and she hugged him, she whispered just loudly enough for Rory to hear as well, "I'm proud of you, you grew up."
"That means a lot," Logan smiled at his future mother-in-law, "thank you for always wanting what was best for her."
"Well, I haven't always," Lorelai winked, lightening the mood, "I really wanted her to become a U2 groupie and we could travel the world with Bono, but she said it wasn't the right time."
"I hadn't even started Yale," Rory laughed at the memory of stalking Bono in Ireland.
"So…yes, Logan, you are right, I have bestowed upon her not only her beautiful blue eyes, gorgeous hair, wonderful skin, love of books, caffeine and shoes…but there might have been a few moments where what I thought was best wasn't actually what was best," she told him with a remorseful smile. He understood the meaning, she was apologizing for all those years ago, for not being able to separate Logan from his family and the world that he came from. As she had said to her daughter, maybe had she been a better example of balance between the world she came from and Stars Hollow, Rory would have been better equipped to handle her relationship with Logan back then.
"So after the hot chocolate," Logan looked to Rory, "I have to go…"
"Leaving so soon? We get real crazy though, we'll have hot chocolate and then we eat cookies, pop tarts, cheese puffs…Sook brings over all sorts of food."
Logan appreciated the invitation, and Rory appreciated that her Mom was making an effort, "I would love to stay but I have some…family commitments, discussions I would like to get out of the way, if you know what I mean."
Lorelai nodded, she was certainly familiar with trying to manage her own parents to try to preserve the ramifications on the people she loved, "will we see you tomorrow?" she asked optimistically, "you just got engaged, I feel like you should be spending Christmas together."
Logan chuckled at how forward she was, not that he ever expected anything less, "I will be around in the afternoon. Hopefully in enough time to enjoy some of this famous Christmas dinner that Sookie makes?"
xxx
Logan said his goodbyes to Rory and her kids, she was going to tell Perry the news that evening after the kids were in bed. Perry was spending the night and to say that it sounded like things were going to be chaotic would be an understatement. Luca, James and Christopher would sleep in Rory's old room, the bed, a trundle and an inflatable mattress on the floor would do the trick. Eli would sleep on an air mattress in the upstairs bedroom with Luke and Lorelai, and Perry and Rory would each sleep on inflatable mattresses in the living room. Logan would have offered for them to stay elsewhere, but this wasn't about comfort, this was about tradition and being together. He sat in the back of the limousine reading some e-mails as they pulled up the driveway to the Huntzberger Estate. It used to be intimidating, there was a time that those walls, the enormity of it all was too much for him to handle, but as he had gotten older and grown up, he had realized that it didn't scare him anymore. He would spend the night sleeping in his childhood bedroom and he was thankful that Honor and her family would be spending the night as well. He quickly walked in the door and to the living room where only his father was waiting and reading a newspaper. "Merry Christmas."
"I wasn't sure we would see you here today," Mitchum admitted as he stood up and shook Logan's hand. "Merry Christmas. Are we expecting Ms. Gilmore?"
Logan shook his head, "she is with her kids, like she said the other day." Logan paused, "can we go to your office and talk privately?"
"Why don't I get us a drink and we can do that, I will meet you there," Mitchum agreed. "Scotch alright?" he asked, Logan nodded his head in response as Mitchum knew he would.
Logan walked down the long hallway and into the office, it was a lot like the office that Richard Gilmore had, wood walls, dim lighting, first edition books lined the shelves. Logan sat down in an armchair that he had long thought was incredibly uncomfortable and waited the moment or two until his father joined him and handed him a glass of scotch. "I proposed to Rory."
Mitchum raised an eyebrow, he was surprised that Logan had just come out with it, "I expected that would be coming. I'm surprised to hear that it has happened already, but if I'm being forthcoming, I was made aware of the fact that you had your grandmothers ring removed from the safe just before Thanksgiving."
Logan rolled his eyes and shook his head, big brother was always watching in the Huntzberger family. "Well, Grandma left the ring to me, so…"
"It is yours to do with as you please now that your Grandfather is gone, you can use it freely."
"Dad I want to know that I have your support?" Logan told him firmly, "I don't need your support," he clarified. "I don't need your money, and I don't need to stay with HPG…so if I don't have your support, if my wife and her children don't feel the love pulsing off of you…I will be gone. I don't want underhanded comments from Mom about her having kids, or who I may or may not have dated during our time apart. All Mom has to do is behave, be polite, be nice to the kids, engage in basic pleasantries like a normal fucking human being. I know it will be hard because she isn't a normal human being, but she will have to figure it out. The second that Rory or her children don't feel welcome around you guys, we are gone. LHM is gone, I am gone from the company and I will take everything I brought in with me. Do you understand?" Logan tossed back his scotch as he finished.
"I will talk to your mother. Ms Gilmore and her children are welcome in our home…I do hope that you will make some effort with that sooner rather than later."
"Her kids are going to Canada for a bit with their Dad, but I will see about the four of us having dinner…once I have heard from Mom that she can act like a normal human."
"Does your sister know?"
Logan shook his head, "I was planning to tell her tonight."
"I would like to talk to your mother with you," Mitchum stood up, "so why don't we go get this taken care of." He walked out of his office and back to the room they had come from, evidently Shira had entered sometime after they had left.
Logan filled his glass with another scotch and he glanced at his watch. Honor would be arriving any moment, and he really didn't want this to drag on much longer. The Huntzberger family may not have been warm and fuzzy, but it was still Christmas and he wanted his nephews to enjoy it. "Merry Christmas Mom," Logan bent down to greet his mother once his drink was full, "you look lovely."
Shira's lips formed a thin line, he assumed it was an attempt at a smile, "so glad you could make it."
"I have only ever missed Christmas the year that Dad shipped me away to London, not sure why you are acting surprised."
"Enough," Mitchum warned both of them. "Shira, our son has proposed to Rory Gilmore, she has accepted his proposal and we are going to be supportive of this."
"Are we?" Shira chuckled and took a sip of her white wine. "Is that what you are declaring Mitchum? That I must behave appropriately?"
"Shira, our son is nearly forty years old, he doesn't need our permission, he doesn't need our support and he doesn't need our money. Logan can leave this house and never return if he so chooses, so let me ask you…do you want the next time you see our son to be at a funeral? Mine perhaps? Or maybe Aunt Lisa, she is in poor health…or maybe we can just happen to cross paths at the club and engage in awkward pleasantries with each other a couple of times a year. Is that what you want? Our grandsons to never have another family photo again? Do you want Huntzberger Publishing to become obsolete because Logan Huntzberger Media has eclipsed it in size and scope? If you don't worry about your children, or your grandchildren…maybe you worry about maintaining this lifestyle to which you are accustomed. We need Logan," he paused and looked at his son who was very clearly surprised by the candid nature of the discussion, "Logan and his bride to be do not need us."