Chapter 11

"Just one second, baby boy. I need to get the duct tape off first. Be patient", Logan told his son patiently while the boy stood on his toes, trying to get a glimpse of what was in the large brown box that had arrived per Fed-Ex while he'd taken a mean and boring nap.

He was still a little tired, having been woken up by the mail man standing in the hallway and talking loudly to his Daddy and he didn't like what he heard now. He was no baby and he surely didn't want to be patient, so he stomped his foot and grumbled: "No! I don't wanna be 'atient and I'm not a baby!"

Daddy was just taking forever in his attempts to carefully open the box with the big kitchen scissors. Logan stopped what he was doing, placed the scissors on the table beside the box and turned to give his boy a stern look.

"Excuse me?" he asked, placing both his hands on his hips. "Did you just tell Daddy no?"

That had it's desired effect, as Milo immediately shook his head and cried: "No, Daddy, I'm sorry! I'll be a good boy!"

Logan nodded, instantly softening his expression. "Good to hear. I don't want to have to tell you again, because next time you tell Daddy no, you know what's going to happen."

Milo groaned but nodded. "Yes, Daddy. Sorry."

"That's my boy. Now wait a minute."

Logan gave him one last pointed look, then turned around again and got back to his task of opening the box. When Milo was sure his Daddy's attention was completely on the box, he stuck out his tongue.

Fortunately for him, Logan didn't see it and he smiled to himself.

"What's inside, Daddy?" the little boy jumped onto one of the chairs at the table and peeked into the box, almost bouncing with excitement.

Logan chuckled and emptied the box, placing a large box of The Hobbit LEGOs in front of his son, who squealed happily and immediately started to look at the pictures on the package.

"Is that for me?" he asked excitedly while Logan put away the box in which it came and looked at the note attached to the LEGO package. "Who gave it to me, Daddy?"

"It seems as though Mommy has deemed it a good idea to send her favourite little boy a present, so he's not so sad about her being away anymore", Logan explained, watching the little boy bouncing in his seat and he couldn't help sighing.

That could only mean one thing - he decided to let his suspicions be confirmed first, though.

He took out his mobile and told his son: "Let's call Mommy and tell her thank you, shall we? I'm sure she's free at the moment, having lunch or something."

Milo nodded eagerly, already making grabbing motions at Logan's phone.

"Yes! Call Mommy! And then we play with my LEGO, Daddy", he whooped and Logan didn't even bother to tell him to use his inside voice. He knew how excited the little boy was about the present and about talking to his Mommy.

"Alright, but first, you'll have to go and put your pants back on", Logan told his son, softly patting his bare tights. "Otherwise you'll get cold and end up with a cough or a sore throat."

Milo didn't really care about his state of clothes, it had been Daddy who told him to shed the pants in the first place, claiming that he'd be more comfortable that way during his nap. Adults! Constantly changing their minds about everything.

"Come on, go", Logan ordered when the little boy wouldn't let go of his new toy and kept shooting Logan defiant glances. "Or do you need help with that?"

Logan knew how much the child loved to be all independent, even though he tended to need help with dressing right after a bath or with his PJs in the evenings. Milo's eyes widened at the thought of Daddy helping him redress, he didn't need the help! He was a big boy and he was going to prove it to Daddy right away.

He hopped up, running over to where Daddy had put his neatly folded pants and socks earlier, putting everything on. "No calling Mommy without me, though, Daddy!", he cried anxiously, hurrying with his socks and ending up getting stuck.

"Daaaaaddy, help, please!"

Logan chuckled, pocketed his phone again and went over to him, tickling his feet a little while helping him.

"There, jumpy. Now, are we all set to call Mommy? We'll have to hurry up a little so we can catch her before she has to work again", he explained, glancing at the living room clock.

"But I got to do it, please! Mommy will be happy when she hears it's me on the phone", Milo pleaded and Logan nodded, handing him over the phone when it dialled.

"The happiest", he agreed, watching with amusement as the little boy clutched the phone with both his hands and waited until his mother finally picked up.

Milo was bouncing with excitement - the days with Daddy had been so action-packed that he hadn't really had time to think about how much he missed his Mommy, but he did.

Now that he was calling her, he wished more than anything that she could just be here, playing the new LEGOs with him.

"Hey, darling" Rory greeted, using her usual pet name for her husband.

"Mommy?" Milo asked tentatively, suddenly feeling a bit shy. Logan moved up to sit beside him on the sofa and reached out to ruffle his hair, then, reaching around him and taking the phone from him, he put it on speaker before Milo could complain.

Then he held it up for the two of them.

"Is that my little monkey I hear?" Rory asked, sounding happy and surprised at getting to talk to her son.

"Yes! Hi, Mommy!" Milo cried excitedly.

"Hi there, sweetie!" Rory cried, mimicking her son's tone of voice.

"We're both here, honey. How are you doing?" Logan smiled, putting an arm around Milo's shoulder, hugging him.

"Good, now that I get to speak with my favourite boys. How are you both?"

"Very good, Daddy plays with me lots and lots! And he made spaghetti with meatballs for me for dinner yesterday. And I played with the bathtub crayons I got from Uncle Josh, the ones Jas and Gideon picked out", Milo told her, happily chatting away.

Logan grinned. It was almost funny how much Milo looked up to his two older cousins Jasper and Gideon, his sister Honor's boys. The oldest, Jasper, was ten and the younger one, Gideon, was seven, which made them "cool" in Milo's eyes and that again meant that Milo practically hero-worshipped the ground the two of them walked. Most of the time, the boys were great playmates for the younger boy and made huge efforts to include him into their schemes, but sometimes, that exactly could get downright frustrating. Milo would fight tooth and nail to get what his cousins had or would argue with his parents about not-so-nice choice words the older boys used around him and he felt compelled to repeat.

Or Jas and Gideon would make him their "watchman", someone who had to watch out during a prank or something else naughty if any adults were approaching.

"That sounds all wonderful, sweetie. I'm glad that you're having fun with Daddy. Are you being a good boy, too?"

Milo looked up at Daddy and chewed on his lip a little, Logan gave him a wink and answered for him: "He's being very good for me. A great helper with chopping vegetables for the spaghetti sauce and no complaining about nap time. Can you imagine?"

Logan used a teasing tone and tapped Milo on the nose, who giggled, relieved.

Logan had already texted his wife about the day before and decided not to bring it up again now, since the time for phone calls with his Mommy was already very limited for the little boy and he felt that it didn't need to be cut short by talking about his wrongdoings from the day before. Rory herself was often working odd hours while being on a biz travel.

"No way!", Rory cried, laughing. "I'm glad to hear it, Milo. And I'm very proud of you for being Daddy's little helper. You're growing up so quickly! You're probably almost as tall as Daddy already, I assume?"

Logan snickered.

"Yeah! I'm gonna be even taller than Daddy", Milo agreed and smiled broadly at the phone, then he got serious.

"Mommy, when are you coming home? I really miss you. Daddy misses you, too. Lots!"

"And I miss you both, too, believe me. I'm working as fast as I can, so I can get back home again soon."

"Milo, what do you say to Mommy for sending you LEGOs?", Logan asked his son when he looked like he wanted to whine about what his mother had told him.

"Thank you, Mommy, it's the bestest!", his eyes lit up, as if he had completely forgotten about his toy.

"You're very welcome, sweetie. I'm glad you like it", Rory replied.

"Can we play it together when you get back home? I wanna build it with you!"

"Of course, monkey. Can you be my good boy for Daddy in the meantime? Play LEGO with him and keep him company in the big bed at night, maybe?"

"That would help me very much", Logan told Milo, smiling at him when he looked up at his Daddy for confirmation.

"Okay, Mommy. But only if Daddy doesn't snore", he answered after some thought.

"Why, you little...", Logan growled, reaching out with his free hand and clutching the little boys right foot, tickling it. Milo burst into laughter.

"Mommy, come home and heeeelp! Daddy's being a tickle-monster!", he shrieked.

"Hey, darling, please leave my favourite monkey alone", Rory admonished in her no-nonsense-voice and Logan stopped and Milo sighed happily. He loved when Daddy did that and he loved when they were fooling around.

"So when are you coming back, defending Mr. Cheeky here and making sure that Daddy knows his rightful place?", Logan asked jokingly.

They heard Rory rummaging around in the background, it sounded as if she was getting up and moving.

"Milo, could you please give Mommy and Daddy a minute to talk about boring adult stuff?", Rory asked instead and Logan could hear that she'd lost her playful tone.

Milo immediately started to protest, not wanting to stop talking to his Mommy already, so Logan tried a different approach.

"How about you go and set up the new LEGOs while Mommy and Daddy talk. I'll be with you shortly, okay?", Logan suggested, giving his shoulder a light squeeze.

Milo nodded obediently. "Okay, Daddy. Goodbye Mommy, love you! And don't forget to come home soon, because I want you to play with me and read lots of stories to me. You're better at scary voices than Daddy, but he does the funny voices better. I need you both again for my stories!"

"And I love you, darling boy. We'll talk on the phone later again when it's time for bed, alright? Can't wait to do all those things with you, especially the bedtime stories."

"Okay, bye!", Milo called, already on his way over to the table, thinking about what he wanted to play with his new LEGOs first.

Logan watched his son stroll over to the table and ever so carefully ripping the package open and pulling out the little magazine that came along with it.

"He sounds happy", Rory stated, clearly indicating that she'd been thinking the exact opposite.

"He is, don't worry", Logan answered, a little hurt. Rory immediately picked up on it, knowing her husband all too well.

"Sorry, darling, I wasn't indicating that you weren't doing a fantastic job with him. You're a brilliant father and you handled yesterday and everything else wonderfully. I couldn't have handled it better myself. I'd probably have caved watching him pout, even before he'd gotten a chance to steal those biscuits", Rory said and Logan had to stiffle a laugh.

"Pushover", Logan commented, popping the "p" at the beginning of the word.

"Shut up, before I'm telling Milo where my secret stash of chocolate bars is", Rory threatened, good-naturedly.

"Please don't, he's already way too hyper for my special taste", Logan pleaded. "What did you want to talk about that wasn't meant for little ears?"

"Well, I have good and bad news", Rory began, hesitating. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

"The bad news, but do it quickly, like ripping off a band-aid", Logan told her, in a panicky voice that made Rory laugh.

"You're not as funny as you think you are, blonde boy", Rory replied sarcastically. "Anyway, the bad news is that it's going to be another week before I get back. There, as quickly and painless as ripping off a band-aid."

"Painless, she says!", Logan groaned, rubbing his forehead with his free hand, then casting a quick glance at Milo who was still engrossed in the LEGO magazine.

"Another week? How come?", he asked.

"My boss is a jerk", Rory answered curtly. "He postponed two of the interviews we have to do for the next issue and didn't even bother to ask us if it'd be okay with us. Sometimes I wish Doyle would grow a pair and apply for Richman's job. He'd be so much better at this, I swear!"

Logan smiled. "Paris wouldn't have any of it, honey. And neither would Sybil or Valerie. They would eat him alive if he tried to apply for a job that made him be even busier!"

Rory laughed openly. "That's true."

Paris and Doyle had married one year prior to Logan's and Rory's wedding when Paris found out she was pregnant with twin girls.

"So you won't be here until...?", Logan prodded, calculating his options and eyeing his little boy still. Today was Wednesday, so that meant a little more than a week of staying at home. He'd have to take another few days leave, which wasn't really a problem. The real problem were his on call days - a weekend, nonetheless - where he had to keep his mobile phone and beeper with him at all times in case of an emergency - those days were mandatory and he'd have to do countless calls to find another doctor that was willing to jump in for him. Before he could point that out, Rory spoke again, answering his earlier question and the one he had meant to ask next.

"Thursday in a week, tops. Do you think you'll be fine by yourselves until then? I can always arrange a playdate at my Mom's if you think that you need a break."

"That actually sounds like a good idea for Saturday and Sunday, because I'm going to have to be on call on those days, remember?", Logan replied, getting up and going over to the secretary where he liked to keep his diary. He checked the dates and nodded to himself.

"Yep, if you could ask Lorelai and Luke for this weekend, that would be brilliant. Do you think they'll agree?"

"Of course. Mom's been bugging me to bring her favourite grandson over for two weeks now, she'll be positively over the moon. And you know Luke, he'll love to have another man in the house other than Paul Anka for a day or two. I could even arrange for Milo to spend the night, what do you think?"

"I think I'll have to ask Milo if he'd like to", Logan answered honestly. He didn't really like the sound of it, but if his son liked the idea, he'd comply of course. He knew how fond Lorelai and Luke were of Milo and how much the little boy loved to spend time with his grandparents.

"Aww, my poor hubby", Rory crooned, laughing. "Don't worry, you get to spend the rest of the week with your little man."

Logan sighed dramatically, then went over to Milo, who was now busily ripping open the various plastic packages and getting everything out. He placed a hand on top of the blond head and smiled at the little boy when he looked up for a second, then got back, happily chatting along with the little LEGO figures, making them walk and talk.

"Daddy, can you play with me now?", Milo stopped what he was doing and turned his best puppy-look at his father. Logan grinned.

"Alright, love, I'm sure we're going to be fine. I'm going to talk to our favourite little boy about it, but now I have to hang up, said little boy is getting restless", Logan said finally. The last few days had been rather stressful and sometimes hard, but he had enjoyed spending time with his son and was actually okay with continuing like that a little longer, although he missed Rory.

"I know you two will. I'll call again when the monkey has to go to bed", Rory said. "Give him a kiss from me, darling. Talk again later, okay?"

"Of course, honey. Have a good day."

"I love you, Logan."

"Love you, too, Ace. And before I forget..", Logan responded thoughtfully. "What was the good news? You said you had good and bad news to tell me."

Rory giggled. "Oh, that was just my way of sugarcoating the bad news, I'm afraid."

"I'm hanging up now", Logan deadpanned, laughing. "I cannot help but think that you're enjoying this, if maybe just a little."

"Well, I do think that it's brilliant that you get to be the stay-at-home guy for a while, but I'm missing you and the little one nonetheless. I hope you know that", she replied, earnestly.

"I do. And I can't wait to have you back."

"Soon, my darling. Give my monkey a kiss and enjoy your day."

"You, too."

Then, he hung up.

Logan put his phone away, then leaned down and gave Milo a kiss on the cheek.

"That's from Mommy", he told him, smiling. Then, he kissed the other cheek as well and sat beside his son.

"And the other one?", Milo looked up from his handiwork and frowned thoughtfully at his Daddy.

"That one was from me, for being such a good boy and doing as you're told earlier, when Mommy and Daddy asked you to give them a minute to talk. Thank you for that, little one."

"No problem, Daddy", Milo replied casually and shrugged. Logan smirked, then he grabbed one of the LEGO packages and gazed at the instructions.

"Well, which one do you want to build first? The Inn of the Prancing Pony or Bag's End?", Logan pointed at the pictures and Milo shook his head.

"I want to build that one!", he showed his Daddy a picture of a fighting scene in the forest, with spiders and dwarves in the middle of LEGO webs and trees.

Logan mock-shuddered. "Are you sure? I don't like spiders."

"Pleeeease, Daddy?", Milo begged, bouncing a little in his chair.

"Alright. You're getting awfully good at this, my boy", Logan sighed. "Let's see. Where do we need to start? How about I put together the hill with the trees and webs and you put together the dwarves' bodies? You'll have to keep an eye on the instruction sheet, so you know which body belongs to which dwarf. You can't have Kili with Fili's head!"

Milo started to giggle at that, not really knowing what his Daddy meant, but he liked having Daddy here with him, eager to play and construct LEGO scenes.

They started their work and when they were almost done, Logan looked up and over at his little boy, who had his little tongue between his lips, concentrating hard on the task at hand.

"Look, Daddy! I made the one with the black hair and beard. What's his name?", he enquired, showing his Daddy the little figure.

"Thorin Oakenshield", Logan replied, once again wondering how easily those names came to him. It had been over five years since he had last read Tolkien's books, but he still remembered how much he admired those stories. "He's a very brave dwarf and King under the Mountain. The king of the dwarves."

Milo's eyes widened and he turned the little dwarf around in his hands, handling it as if it was made of pure gold. Logan smiled at him.

"Is he a good fighter?"

"Very good. He fought many battles so he and his people could get the Lonely Mountain back. That's where the dwarves used to live, before a dragon called Smaug came and stole their home from them."

Milo gaped at the toy.

"Did they win in the end? They did, Daddy, didn't they?", he put the little figure back on the table, got down from the chair and moved closer to Logan, who immediately pulled him into his lap. That was better. He was a little afraid of dragons.

"Of course, little man. Dwarves are very brave. And they had friends who helped them win their home back. Like elves and even men, fighting against mean creatures called Orks and evil sorcerers."

When he felt Milo shrink back a little, he added: "But don't worry. Like I said, they won in the end and the mean creatures had to flee."

"That's good. I don't like those... Orks."

"They're quite ugly, too", Logan agreed, then he suggested: "If you want, we can read the books as bedtime stories. But they don't have any pictures in it."

"No pictures?"

"No, none. They're rather for older kids, like your cousin Jasper."

"I want to, Daddy! Can we? If Jas gets to read it, I want to read it, too!", Milo replied fiercely and Logan had to stiffle a laugh.

"Alright, I'll have to go and get it from my office, then. We can read it tonight. Would you like that?"

Milo nodded eagerly. "I want to know everything about the good dwarves and the mean orks. And the.. elves?"

Logan nodded, then chucked his chin gently and kissed his temple. "I'm sure you'll enjoy the stories, even though there are no pictures."

Then he remembered the talk he had had with Rory earlier. "Milo, I need to talk to you about something...", Milo turned in his lap so he could look him in the eye and frowned.

"I didn't do anything naughty, Daddy!"

Logan couldn't help rolling his eyes. "You didn't, huh?", he said, narrowing his eyes at him playfully.

Milo's eyes widened. "No! I swear!"

Logan took pity on the little boy then and gave him another brief hug. "I know that you didn't. What made you think that you did?"

"Dunno. When you want to 'talk', you get mad sometimes."

Logan scoffed slightly and gave his son a smirk.

"Don't worry, I'm not mad, not in the slightest. It's actually something you might like that I want to talk about", he said. "How would you like to spend a few days at your Granny Lorelai's and Grandpa Luke's house?"

Milo's face broke into a wide smile. "Yes! I love to go to Granny's and Grandpa's! Granny has the coolest games and..."

"I know", Logan responded, happy to see his son's excitement. "Mommy is going to spend another few days at work, so Daddy will look after you and stay at home with you for a little longer. But Daddy has to go to work this weekend for two days as well, so you'll get to spend those days at your grandparent's place. How does that sound?"

Milo's smile faltered a little when Logan mentioned that Rory would be gone for another couple of days, but he regained his confidence quickly at the prospect of getting to spend time in Stars Hollow with his grandparents. He loved to visit there.

They had a beautiful old house, a little smaller than where him and his parents lived, but it had an equally big garden and he enjoyed visiting the little town - also, they had a puppy called Paul Anka, which was probably one of the best things, as Milo absolutely adored the little mongrel. And whenever he stayed at his grandparent's house, he got to sleep in his Mommy's old bedroom, play with her old toys and Granny would give him her undivided attention, not to mention that he got to eat junk food along with Granny and he was even allowed to help Grandpa Luke with his newest project in the garden den.

"When will Mommy come home, then?", he asked, a little miffed. That was the only thing he wasn't really happy about.

Logan hugged him to his chest and explained: "In a few days. Don't worry, she'll be back before you know it. I'm going to be here with you and you'll get to visit your grandparents for two whole days. I'm sure you'll have a brilliant time until Mommy gets back."

When Milo didn't respond, he ruffled his hair and gave him another kiss.

"Are you sad, Milo?", he asked, concerned.

Milo wanted to nod, but he thought better of it. He didn't like that his Mommy was gone for so long, but he liked having his Daddy here and he was already looking forward to spending two whole days with Granny and Grandpa.

So he sighed, then looked up at his Daddy with a smile.

"It's okay, Daddy. Mommy will come back. And I like having you here all the time and I like going over to Granny's. Can I sleep there, too?"

"That's my brave boy", Logan stated proudly. "And yes, you may, as long as it's okay with Granny and Grandpa. But I'm almost sure that it is."

He smiled at his son.

"I love you, little one."

"Love you, too, Daddy!", Milo responded without hesitation and hugged his Daddy.

"Now, enough of this mish-mush. We need to concentrate on the Mirkwood scene now or else the spiders are going to win the fight!", Logan joked smirking and Milo's eyes widened for the second time.

"No, they won't! Let's build, Daddy, so's they don't win!"

Then both Huntzberger men started again to put together the LEGO scene.