Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls

AN: I have decided to throw out my plans of ending this and I'm just going to keep writing it until it no longer makes me happy. So that does mean updates will become a bit less frequent but I'm still hoping I can manage a few a week. As always, read, review, enjoy.

Chapter Twenty Three

"Mitchum I don't think we have raised a man who would turn his back on his family completely," Shira observed, "even if his bride isn't exactly one of my top choices for the role."

"Jesus Mom, do you even hear yourself? Choices? For the role? This isn't a movie, this isn't a game, this isn't the fucking DAR," Logan was fuming. "You are right, I'm not an absolute piece of garbage so I would probably provide you a comfortable allowance if Dad is correct…and to be clear, he is correct, without LHM, Huntzberger Publishing will not be around to pass on as a legacy to your Grandchildren. But to be very clear, the reason I am not a piece of trash who would watch you suffer is because of the Gilmore family. It has nothing to do with you. You did not raise me at all. Those people, that wonderful family who was kind to me, who encouraged me and supported my relationship…they taught me how to be a decent man. I am a decent man because of Richard and Emily Gilmore, because of Lorelai and that backwoods science experiment of a town that she took Rory to, and ever since the day I walked away from her all those years ago, I have been a better man for Rory. So Dad is right, you make your choice, but do not believe that you are in any way responsible for who I am as a person today. Honor and I being decent people has nothing to do with you."

She took a moment to process what he had said, both of them really, her husband and her son. "Will she be taking the Huntzberger name?" Shira asked calmly.

"Maybe I'll take Gilmore," Logan spat back, "who the hell knows." Logan could swear he could see his father trying to suppress laughter but chose to ignore it. "Do you need more time to think about it or do you have an answer? If the answer is no, I would rather go now so I can spend Christmas Eve with my family."

"Did you ask with the same ring from the last time?"

Logan paused and waited a moment before shaking his head, "No, I used the ring Grandma left me."

Shira nodded, she knew that it had been Sophie Huntzberger's wish that Logan would give the ring to his future wife, but only after Elias died would he access it. It was another reminder, a reminder of how much her own mother in law had disapproved of her. A cocktail waitress from New Jersey who Sophie Huntzberger viewed merely as a social climbing tramp willing to do anything to get her claws into Mitchum. In the beginning, Shira would fight her tooth and nail about how wrong she was, how she loved Mitchum, but as time went on and both women got older, Shira supposed she may have been right all along. Shira was happy to spend money and vacation, enjoy the Huntzberger name, ignore the other women and the dalliances they all knew Mitchum had. But any love or passion that had existed with her and Mitchum wore off as quickly as the chardonnay fuelled buzz that Shira lived with day in and day out. "Will you be having children of your own?"

Logan nodded, he knew Shira well enough to know that this was her answer. She was saying she would try, "I hope so, but we haven't made any plans. I hope you will get to know her kids." he added. It wasn't lost on him that his mother would not be overly impressed that Rory was wearing the ring that his Grandmother had worn throughout her marriage, the ring that Sophie Huntzberger had specifically not wanted Shira to get her hands on. There was a stipulation in her will, if Logan did not believe he would have a use for the ring, it would go to Honor, but it would never be given to Shira.

"I suppose I will contact Ms. Gilmore to arrange a dinner…would your sister and Josh provide a suitable buffer?"

Logan exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, "I will talk to Rory and get back to you with some dates," he nodded. "I don't imagine it is a bother to you, but I will be leaving after breakfast tomorrow, I would like to spend some time with Rory and her family."

Mitchum nodded his head in acknowledgment, "I believe that your sister will be leaving around the same time to go and see her in-laws. Your Mother and I will have dinner here ourselves."

xxx

Rory and Perry were sitting on the front porch, each wrapped in a blanket of their own, Rory with a glass of wine and Perry with a beer. The kids were asleep, they had put out all of the Santa gifts, the cookies were partially eaten, Rory had spoken to Logan on the phone and been given an update on his parents. She had to admit, she wasn't surprised. Mitchum was a smart man, they may not have seen eye to eye on much of anything…ever, but he knew when to call and when to fold. He understood calculated risks. Shira however surprised her. Rory had expected Logan to tell her that Shira had thrown a fit and declare that Rory simply could not be Mrs Huntzberger. She was relieved though, Logan had explained that while she wasn't exactly thrilled with the news, Shira was hoping to enjoy an adult relationship with Rory, and would be happy to meet the kids in due time.

"So, you wanna talk about that rock on your finger?" Perry interrupted her thoughts. He had noticed it the second that he walked in the door but chose to ignore it until Rory brought it up, or they could speak privately.

Rory smiled and exhaled, she didn't bother to look at him because she knew by the sound of his voice that she would see a tinge of sadness in his eyes and she didn't want to worry about how Perry felt about it. "He asked, I said yes," Rory told him matter of factly, but also kindly. "He said he spoke to you about it first?"

"He is a good guy," Perry admitted, "I don't know that I would have the balls to talk to the ex-husband before I proposed."

"He was talking to you because you are their Dad, he wasn't looking for permission about asking me, he was wanting to be respectful of you because of them," Rory clarified.

"Cold?" Perry asked, he had noticed her shiver a bit and she nodded. He pulled her legs up and put them on his lap, surrounding them in his blanket. He knew from years of marriage that her feet were always colder than the rest of her body. "I'm happy for you Ror."

"Thank you Perry," Rory smiled, appreciating the warmth of the additional blanket on her legs. "How are you? This has been a weird few weeks…and this whole…being here…it is also weird."

"I go back and forth," he admitted, "one day I'm glad that we are figuring it out, and I think all of us getting out of LA is probably a good thing. Everything seemed to go wrong once we found ourselves in that weird fishbowl? Don't you think?"

"Perry, things were weird in LA because you were in a relationship with two women for part of it…by my estimation you broke up with her just before we looked for houses. So…maybe? Maybe LA was weird for us, and I am looking forward to moving back, but…we can't place blame for what went wrong on a place or a thing, you went wrong. You cheated. You wanted to divorce…" she paused again, "We're good Per, we're happy. The kids are happy, maybe you and Logan can go golfing once a year or something…but don't get caught up in what could have been because if it hadn't gone wrong then, it would have gone wrong eventually." Rory spoke softly, kindly. She had never admitted that before. She didn't know it all along, she hadn't gotten married thinking it would lead to divorce. She hadn't given birth to three children assuming that one day they would be shuttled between houses with their older brother. But with hindsight, she knew. The writing was on the wall, the high highs and intense passion followed by the lowest of lows…she and Perry were good for each other for a time, but they were not meant for each other.

"You don't think we would have lasted?"

"I think that if I had seen Logan on that pier on our anniversary trip with you instead of with Eli, we probably would have found ourselves having this same conversation one day…maybe not now, maybe in a year or two."

"It was always him?" Perry asked her.

She paused to think and take a sip of her wine. "It was always him," she nodded, "I didn't realize it. I loved you Perry, I loved our life, I love our boys, and honestly, I still love you dearly as a friend and as the father of my children…"

"But you love him more."

"I love him more."

"Do you remember the last Christmas we were together? Before all of this?" Perry smiled, it seemed like forever ago now.

"The Christmas before last…no, the year before that," Rory nodded, "the last one we spent in Manhattan before we moved."

"Perry I need the silver marker to write the Santa cards!" Rory giggled as she sat on the floor of their Upper East Side apartment with wrapping paper all around her.

"Come on Ror, come to bed," Perry laughed, she was done wrapping and all that was left was putting ribbon and gift tags on the gifts that were coming from Santa Claus, "Eli will barely know the difference, Luca will definitely not know, and the twins will have no freakin clue."

"But I will know," Rory looked up at him with puppy dog eyes and a pouty lip.

"You are going to be the death of me. White or red?" he asked. "How can I help?"

"White please," Rory laughed as she saw her silver marker across the floor and grabbed it. She smiled as Perry returned with a glass of white wine and a beer for himself, plunking himself down beside her and giving her a sweet, lingering kiss. "You wanna help wrap?"

"I'm hoping that if I sit here and offer, I will get good husband brownie points, and that you won't actually put me to work," Perry winked, "And also that you will work faster because you won't be able to resist my charm."

"If you stop kissing me," Rory laughed as she put her free hand on his cheek, gently stroking the stubble on his face, "I will work faster, and the faster Mrs. Claus works, the sooner she gets to join you in bed."

"Promise or a threat?"

"Whatever you need it to be," Rory gave him one final kiss, "now go finish cleaning the kitchen and take a bite out of the cookies and carrots."

"I'm glad we were happy," Rory admitted as she shook her head and smiled at him, "I'm glad that even though I was blissfully unaware that you were an adulterous man whore, we got along, we still had fun…I know it wasn't perfect and I was too obsessed with being the perfect Pinterest Mom, but we didn't spend years fighting and hating each other."

"I've never hated you Rory."

"There is one more thing," Rory exhaled, she knew she had to bring up Stars Hollow sooner rather than later, "about the move."

"You have another lover I have to meet? Will I like him more than I like Logan? That guy is hard to compete with."

Rory laughed and playfully shoved Perry's shoulder, "no, but we found a piece of land we want to build on."

"In Manhattan? That exists?"

Rory shook her head, swirling her wine glass in front of her, "it is in Stars Hollow…well…the outskirts of Stars Hollow."

"You want to move home?"

"It would barely be any different for you to get to them from Buffalo," she told him, "I just…I want to be close to my Mom."

Perry shrugged, "we'll draw up new documents in the New Year, but Rory, that is fine. I hope you know, I don't intend to make your life more difficult. I want you to be happy."

"Thank you Perry," Rory smiled. She was relieved, relieved that she didn't have to worry, relieved that she could move forward. Everything was out in the open. Custody was settled, paternity was settled, her future…it was looking a lot more clear. "Did I tell you I saw Steve?"

"Campbell?"

Rory nodded, glad to have changed the subject from the past. "He is an old friend I guess so Logan uses him as a realtor in town."

"Steve is a real estate agent?"

"Do you really pay that little attention?" Rory laughed.

"I mean, he is the brother of my ex-whatever-you-want-to-call-Sarah-baby-mama…"

"Steve has always been an amazing Uncle to the boys," Rory countered.

"As long as he and Sarah weren't feuding about whatever."

"Yes because Sarah is always the most calm and rational person?"

"Noted," Perry chuckled and took another sip of his beer, "how is he?"

"Good," Rory told him, "he looks good, seems happy…wants to see the boys…"

"Tell him to call."

"I will call him, you men can't be trusted."

"I always call them when I say I will," Perry countered, it was a sensitive subject for him, Rory knew that. Perry was not a perfect husband, nor was he a perfect Dad, but when he told his boys he would call, he called. He never missed something unless it was for hockey.

"I know you do," Rory smiled reassuringly, "it wasn't meant to be a dig."

"I guess…it can just be hard to compete with you," he admitted.

"Compete?"

"You are always the Mom who bakes for the bake sale, you adopt a family through school for Christmas, you show up to the dumb PTA things…and I am the guy who left."

"Stop worrying," Rory swung her legs off of his and stood up, it was time to end the evening, the boys would be up early and they had a full day ahead of them. "It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you. What matters is your family, your children, your friends, the people who love you. So what if some PTA Mom thinks you suck at baking? You do suck at baking and it doesn't matter, it doesn't change that you have four kids who love you…"

xxx

The Christmas Eve and Christmas morning celebrations at the Huntzberger mansion had been strained to say the least. Shira had managed to keep her opinions to herself, Honor and Josh were thrilled and his nephews, Joshua and Michael were happy at the idea of having more kids to play with, they found dinner with their maternal grandparents boring because there were no other playmates, at their paternal grandparents they had hoards of cousins to play with. By the time Logan got in the car to head to Stars Hollow, he was exhausted, and also relieved that he was done with his parents for a few days. He knew they would have to do dinner, as a peace offering of sorts from their side of things, but he was looking forward to them spending some time together. They would be flying back to California and spending 7 uninterrupted days in Palo Alto.

Rory knew that Logan would be re-joining them at some point on Christmas day, but she did not know exactly when, and Logan was glad to be arriving in town slightly earlier than expected. As his car pulled up at The Dragonfly, he hoped that she was in the kitchen sneaking coffee or something so that he would be able to surprise her. After his driver gave him his suitcase, Logan walked in the front door and was relieved that the only person in sight was Eli who was reading in the front room. Logan smiled and put a finger to his lips in an effort to keep his secret and Eli nodded towards the kitchen where Logan could hear the noise of the other three children and a few adults as well. This is it, Logan thought to himself as he leaned against the doorframe to the kitchen and watched the chaos, in the few seconds he observed before being noticed by Rory he figured that Lorelai was promising her grandkids copious amounts of sugar, and Rory was trying to keep the debauchery to a minimum. "Hi," Logan smiled as Rory walked around the island towards him.

"Hi yourself," she embraced him, her head finding a place in the crook of his neck. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Logan kissed her head and used his hand to smooth her back. "Am I too early?"

"I thought you weren't coming until closer dinner?" Rory admitted, "Thankfully Sookie cooked enough for at least thirty people despite there not being thirty people eating with us tonight," she glared pointedly at Sookie.

"Look, you didn't tell me if he is a sweet potato man, or is he a stuffing man? What if he was a vegan and you never let me know?"

"You don't think I would have mentioned that Logan had become a vegan since you last saw him?" Rory laughed, she had turned her back towards him and his arms were settled lovingly around her waist, his chin on her shoulder.

"Well, people change…I don't know what you kids are doing anymore! Davey was eatin' potatoes one day and the next, no potatoes! Who doesn't eat a potato?"

"I can assure you Sookie, I will eat just about anything, and I happen to love potato."