Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls

AN: Here it is, c'est fin. i always knew what I wanted the epilogue to be because I wanted to bring it back to the love that they had as a family more than anyone else. So please enjoy, it has been a pleasure to write this and I for one am sad that it is over, but I have other ideas in my head. Please enjoy, and thank you for all of the love while I've written this

Epilogue

"How did you do it?"

"How did I do what?" Rory smiled as she sat with her legs crossed on the black leather chair that her oldest son had in his living room. Her hair was pulled back into a low bun and she wore black slacks and a white silk top with long sleeves, a strand of pearls around her neck. She had travelled to Manhattan to see him, as any mother would when her son called to announce his divorce.

"When dad wanted a divorce," Eli ran a hand through his hair. His wife of five years had blindsided him by leaving with their two children two days earlier. She had rented her own apartment and suggested that he could have his first visit with them that weekend, and so Rory had found herself making the trek across the country to visit her son. Logan for his part had busied himself by visiting his sister first, but he would soon be there after Rory had a chance to talk to Eli. "How did you just accept it? How…how do you go from seeing your kids all the time to seeing them certain days of the month?"

Rory exhaled, it had been so long since her own divorce, of course Eli knew that. Eli also knew that it hadn't always been amicable, although she was thankful that she and Perry had figured it out quickly. "Eli, I didn't accept it," she admitted. "But no matter what was going on with your dad and I, I tried to hide it from you and your brothers. I tried to get him back," she admitted, "there was a period of time when we were separated when that was all I wanted. But it worked out. It took time, but dad and I figured it out. I married Logan, dad and had Amanda," Rory told him, referring to the longtime girlfriend that Perry had been with almost as long as she had been with Logan. "What did she say?" Rory asked, Eli and been vague on the phone, just asking her to come and saying that they were separated.

"She said that she wasn't happy. She hadn't been happy in a long time. It wasn't me…there was nothing I could do."

"Is she," Rory paused, she didn't want to cause him any more hurt, "is she seeing someone?"

"I didn't ask," Eli stood up. As he had gotten older his blonde hair had turned dark like Perry. He had tanned skin and a tall muscular build, he looked much more like his father than either of them had ever expected. "Sadie is only just a year old…"

"The kids will be fine," Rory promised him firmly. "You and your brothers are…"

"We were older."

"James and Luke were not that much older…" Rory sighed. "You guys need to figure out your own path…if you want to talk to her, tell her I'll watch the kids for a bit and you guys go talk," Rory suggested.

"Mom?" Eli sat back down on the seat he had just vacated and let out a long sigh. Rory nodded her head to encourage him to keep going. "Why did you keep me?" he asked quietly. It was a conversation they had never really had. Rory had always just told him that she loved him and that was all that mattered, but here, in his thirties, staring down the barrel of a separation and not seeing his kids…the idea of fighting for a child that wasn't biologically his own seemed like a superhuman effort.

"When you were younger," Rory smiled, the lines on her forehead showing, "I always told you it was just about love, and the same is true now. I loved you. You were my son in every way that mattered. Your mother, god bless her and may she rest in peace," Rory smiled at him. Sarah had died five years earlier from breast cancer and Rory felt like she had lost a sister at the time, "she wasn't equipped to be a full time mom when you were born, and your dad was always gone. So it really was you and I…the idea that because I had biological children you became any less my child is absurd. After you were born and your dad and I got serious…we were just a family."

"Do you regret it? I mean…you had a lot of kids."

"Well whether you were around or not I would have ended up with a lot of kids," Rory laughed as she thought of how her younger self wouldn't have believed she would have four boys with Perry and then to go on and have Sophie with Logan. "Why are you so caught up on this?"

"I just wonder how you could love me…so unconditionally…and my wife just left."

"Well, to state the obvious my dear," Rory smiled as the doorbell rang, she knew it was her husband and daughter, "they are two very different kinds of love. Now I will get the door if that is alright with you?" Eli nodded and Rory stood, she walked to the door and pulled it open to see her husband and youngest child standing in front of her, "how was Honor?"

"Honor was good," Logan leaned forward and kissed her cheek. His hair had greyed, it wasn't the dirty blonde colour it had been in his thirties and forties, as he reached his early sixties it was more of a yellow with some grey in it, but it certainly wasn't as thin as his fathers had become. "She says hi."

"E are you ok?" Sophie bounded past her mother and hugged her brother who was standing in his living room, waiting for his mother and stepfather to come inside.

"I'm fine," Eli assured his sister as she hugged him. He had always felt protective of her, and now that she was in her early twenties and finishing up her undergrad at Yale, that protective feeling had grown. "How are you? How is school?"

"School is fine," Sophie shrugged as she tucked her loose blonde curls behind her ears. She was all Huntzberger. She had the same complexion as her father, the same hair colour, she bore a striking resemblance to her aunt, but her eyes, her eyes were blue and looked just like her mother. "Glad that mom and dad came for a visit. They never come to town just to visit me," she glared at her parents. They had retired to Palo Alto, living in the same house that Logan had owned when they had gotten back together years earlier. It had of course been updated over the years, and they kept their house in Stars Hollow, but for some reason they felt tied to California after all the years. They spent about half of the year in California and the other half in Connecticut, oddly they found themselves in Stars Hollow during the winter months, making sure that the family was together over Christmas. Sophie lived in New Haven but would spend her summers in Stars Hollow. Luca had followed in Perry's footsteps and was playing professional hockey, much to Rory's dismay. She worried about him, the same way that she had worried about Perry when he was playing, but he was happy. He was engaged and planning a summer wedding, James had moved back to California and worked in the film industry. He was hoping to catch a break with his screenwriting but in the meantime worked as a camera operator on a television show, and Christopher had joined the family business. He worked at Huntzberger in marketing and communications. Eli had surprised no one when he also found himself in the family business. He had started out working for the publication that Rory owned but then found himself at Huntzberger. When Logan decided to retire, it was only when he was sure that Eli was ready and able to take over the day to day running of the company. To say that they were proud of their children was an understatement. There were moments in time where Rory and Logan had struggled. Times when five children and two businesses seemed like too much, and the storms seemed too hard to weather, but they had survived, and then they had thrived. "I asked dad if I could intern with you this summer."

"And what did I say?" Logan interrupted before his daughter could spin a story.

Sophie rolled her eyes and kept her attention on her brother, "he," she glared at her father briefly, "said that I had to ask you and also that he wouldn't pay for an apartment in the city even though he owns one, but that I should ask to crash with you."

"Something tells me I'll have a lot more space," Eli lamented, "but yes I will find something for you in the summer. Please know, you are expected to work and now throw around the Huntzberger name."

"This would've been easier if you were still working," Sophie joked and looked at her father who had taken a seat with his wife.

"I think Eli will go much easier on you than I ever would," Logan looked at the grown man who he had met on the pier years earlier, he remembered so well the moment where he had questioned if Eli was his child, he remembered getting to know them, he remembered the overwhelming sense of fear and responsibility as he began to think of them as his children. When they hurt, he hurt. "How are you doing?" Logan asked Eli softly. They had always gotten along. Of course there were the teenaged years which hadn't been easy on anyone. Eli had acted out, although Logan tried to remind Rory that it certainly could have been worse. He graduated from Yale like Rory had, he had wanted to work in publishing, he was a good brother. Even just a few years earlier, he had made sure to attend the party that Rory and Logan hosted for Sophie's senior prom, he was a good kid and he had grown into a good man. "How are you doing?"

Eli shrugged, he was getting sick of talking about it, but he supposed he had invited his parents so he had no one else to blame. "It's strange."

"I can imagine," Logan couldn't speak from experience. He had been married once, he had eventually considered him fortunate for having ended up with somewhat of a ready made family. "Give it a bit of time, and some space. Let her figure out if this is what she really wants."

"Can you go back? She's said what she wanted…so if she changes her mind…I just take her back?"

"Do you want to?" Logan asked cautiously, thinking back to how he had walked away from Rory when she didn't answer his proposal how he had wanted. "I proposed to your mom for the first time a very long time ago. I didn't give her the space to have what she needed in life and so we split up. In some ways, I wonder how much we lost…how many years, how many missed moments…in other ways, I look at you and your brothers and Sophie…and had mom and I gotten married fresh out of college, this all would've looked very different. My point is that maybe she needs time, maybe she made a rash decision…but don't close the door out of spite. If you're done, be done. No one could blame you. But if you love her, if you want to be with her…keep the door open. You also need to know that a family isn't about blood. I don't love Sophie more because we share DNA, sorry kid," he looked pointedly at his daughter. "I love you and your brothers for who you are. For who you made me be. So…if your family ends up looking a bit different than you had planned. Maybe you don't find your way back to each other, maybe you split up and have different lives with different people…be the man who will invite them to Christmas dinner so that no one misses out. If you have more kids, let them know the mother of their siblings…your dad has always been an amazing uncle to Soph, and I am forever thankful for that. We could have had this big, messy, angry situation…but we worked hard and we didn't…" Logan paused, it had been a while since he had to give Eli a dad speech, in fact, the last he remembered was at his own retirement party. "So maybe it doesn't look the way you thought it would when you were twenty five…that's life. Don't miss out on life because you're too proud."