AN: This girl is on fiiiiiiiiiiire! Ok, eventually I will crash but for now just enjoy the muse running through me. There will be an a/n at the bottom of this but thank you for the reviews and the love. Please read, review, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls

Chapter Seven - You Jump, I Jump, Jack

"What did you say though? Really Logan? What did you say? That you want me? What the hell am I supposed to do with that? You accuse me of saying no, you throw it in my face and make it seem like I chose not being with you. But I didn't. I said not right now. I wasn't ready. We were so fucking young!" Rory shouted back at him. "So sure, I will be the bad guy for saying no, but you take responsibility for being the one to end it. For deciding if you couldn't have exactly what you wanted, you wouldn't have it at all!"

"We made the long distance thing work for Nathan…if at any point you had wanted more I would have jumped at it, you kept saying I didn't have to be involved, that nothing had to change between us. What was I supposed to do? Beg you?" Logan thought back to when Rory had been pregnant with Nathan.

"You never asked. I was too afraid of getting hurt, and you never asked. You never came out and told me you wanted to make it work. So forgive me if I didn't want you watch you walk away. If my expectations of you were so low after everything with my dad over the years, I wanted to be sure that you couldn't disappoint me, Nathan and I couldn't get hurt," she told him, continuing quickly before he could interject, "and yes. My expectations for you weren't the highest in terms of being a dad, but you exceeded every dream I ever could have had. You are the most amazing father to him, and I haven't wanted to screw that up. I haven't wanted to ruin you being the father that you are by muddying the waters with you and I."

"I'm not your dad Ace, you and I…we aren't Lorelai and Christopher. We were two adults who loved each other. They were two horny teenagers who weren't meant to know what their future held because they were sixteen," Logan retorted, he was sick of being compared to a man who had been a deadbeat father, and sick of Rory being compared to a woman who ran away from real life one night and never looked back. They were neither of those people, "and then what…when we were doing….whatever the hell it was we did before London?"

"Do you remember when you went to London the first time?" Rory smiled, for the first time since they sat down she felt happy, content thinking back on the memory. "I threw you the party before you left?"

Logan nodded, "and I asked you to tell me not to get on the plane."

"And I couldn't do that," Rory admitted. "I wanted to see you take on the world so badly, I couldn't be what held you back. If you had a girlfriend and a baby to come back to every night, it would have meant you couldn't do what you needed to do with work…I couldn't be the reason for that…I didn't want you to resent me, to resent Nathan."

"I would never have resented either of you for that," Logan told her softly. "But you're not wrong."

Rory laughed softly, "sorry what was that?"

"You're right," Logan knew she would call him out on that, "it was my choice to walk away…but Rory, can you blame me? I thought that if I had you, I could do anything, and then it was like you said you didn't need me the same way…"

"You never needed me," Rory told him, "look at what you did…look around. This house…your job…that is all your hard work."

"But I still had you. You were always there…" Logan paused, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I gave you that ultimatum. I'm sorry that I never said I wanted something different, and I'm sorry that I married someone else."

Rory felt tears in her eyes. She hadn't realized that she needed him to say it. Not the part about marrying Odette. That didn't bother her, Odette was a good woman, but she needed him to acknowledge that the ultimatum was unfair, that sure, she said no, but making her choose wasn't fair either. "I have always wanted you to be happy," Rory told him, "I have wanted you to thrive and be successful and be the best version of yourself, and I want you to know that I am proud of you."

Logan felt his lip perking up on the left side in his trademark smirk, "so where does that leave us now? We've forgiven the sins of the past on some levels…we probably need to talk about it a lot more…but…what do we want to do. Moving forward…"

"We can't fail at this," Rory told him, she felt like she was in high school talking to her classmates about a group project, "there is more at stake here than you and I. We can't fail and have this screw up Nathan…my parents…I always knew about the back and forth…we've kept him out of that, but if we're going to…what are we going to do? I still don't even know that we're talking about the same thing. We're talking in circles."

Logan swallowed the lump in his throat. This. This was the moment they had both been avoiding for years saying what they wanted from each other, knowing that once it was out in the open, they couldn't just say it, they couldn't unring the bell. "I guess I'll go first," he inhaled and Rory nodded. "I want to be with you. I want to hold your hand, I want Nathan to see us together. I want to be that weird couple with matching masks because 2020 is such a fucking shit show, but I want to do it with you. I want to go to bed you and wake up with you. I want you to come to bed in my old Yale t-shirts. I want you. I want to be with you. So there it is…out on the table…how about you?"

"Logan we can't just jump into things," Rory told him, she knew it was pointless, the man had spent his life jumping first and looking second. In Omnia Paratus, it had been his motto for as long as she had known him. "We can't go back and forth…"

"I don't want to go back and forth. I want you. We can't date. Dating is for getting to know each other. I know you. I know every inch of you, and I know how badly you want to run to the office and get a pen and paper to make a pro con list. So maybe we're skipping a few steps, but since when do we do things the proper way? I can promise you right here, and right now, for the rest of my life I will want to be with you. So the question Ace, is what do you want?"

"Logan we can't just make a rash decision because we're being impulsive and having this come to Jesus moment."

"I think you had your come to Jesus moment the other night," Logan licked his lips and smiled. "What do you want Ace? If it's not being with me, fine, just say it. Put me out of my misery… we will figure things out, we'll still be friends. But I don't want to waste any more of this life not being with the person I love, especially when I think she loves me back. These past few months have taught us nothing if not life is short and we don't know what is going to happen tomorrow."

Rory smiled, he sounded like he did when he had taken her to the Life and Death Brigade event all those years again, "people can live a hundred years without ever really living for a minute…"

"You climb up here with me it's one less minute you haven't lived," Logan finished for her.

"You swear I won't regret this?"

"Have you ever regretted anything when it came to us?" Logan asked her honestly.

"I regret the boat stealing thing," Rory admitted with a laugh.

"Ok, well other than the felony…"

Rory shook her head and stood up slowly and stretched her hand out to him. Logan gladly took it and let her pull his body towards her, she dropped his hand and ran her fingers up his arms and his neck, eventually settling with her palms on his neck and her thumbs gently stroking the stubble on his cheeks. "I wouldn't change a thing," she admitted. "And Logan Elias Huntzberger I am madly in love with you, and while I can't promise it will always be easy…especially if we're going to remain locked in a house together for the foreseeable future, but I promise we can figure it out."

"No more wide open spaces?"

"This is all the space I need," Rory assured him.

He smiled as he looked at her. It was a conversation that he had imagined hundreds of times over the past decade, sometimes he had envisioned it on a beach on Hawaii, or at his penthouse in Manhattan, maybe a beach in the Bahamas, but it was always her. This time though it wasn't a dream, and she was saying it back. "So I guess I should kiss you then?"

"Unless you have something better to do," Rory ran her thumb across his lip.

"I mean, there is some work I should probably be doing," Logan grinned, the way he did when he thought he was being funny. Usually it was reserved for when he'd enjoyed a few too many drinks, or when his friends were visiting, it was what he did when he felt completely comfortable in a situation.

"Shut up and kiss me."

"So demanding," Logan brought his lips down to hers gently. It took more self restraint than he would care to admit to not pick her up and carry her upstairs, but he didn't want that. He wanted to just be with her. They pulled apart after a moment and Logan rested his forehead against hers, their breathing was in sync with their chests rising and falling together as his hands held her hips. "So, what next?"

"We should probably drink the wine?" Rory smiled at him, "and we could watch a movie? Or read? Or have a fire? Or go to bed?"

"Grab a book," Logan told her, not releasing the hold he had on her hips, "I'm going to change so I can be as comfortable as you," he looked at her outfit.

"Ok," Rory stood where her feet were planted.

"Ok," Logan didn't move either, the stupid grin remaining on his face. "I love you," he told her, "in all of that…the talking, the declaration…I love you."

"I love you too," Rory kissed him quickly, "now go."

"No you go," Logan challenged her.

"You're a child."

Logan dropped his hands and stepped away slowly, smiling as he exited towards the front of the house and made his way up the stairs. "You know," he shouted, "change of plans, bring the wine."

Rory laughed but agreed, grabbing their wine glasses she walked up the stairs, she could hear him in his closet as she put their wine glasses on the bedside table and then went back to her room where she could get changed from her daytime comfy clothes to her evening comfy clothes, a habit she had become increasingly dependent on as the pandemic wore on. Tonight though, although it was no different than any other day in that she was searching for her loungewear for the evening, she very deliberately pulled out an old tattered Yale t-shirt that she had kept from their time together. She didn't wear it often, but she always kept it close. She peeled off her duster and tank top, dropping them into the laundry hamper and pulling on the t-shirt before she went into the closet and searched for a pair of black lace Simone Perele boyshorts that she figured were sexy enough without losing the comfort she was going for. She grabbed her reading glasses and a copy of Bob Iger's autobiography that she had been reading and turned off her light before returning to Logan's room. She smiled as she saw that he was already in bed with his laptop on his lap and the light on his bedside table was on. "Working, really? I thought you were joking." Rory walked into the room and put the book down before pulling back the white duvet and climbing in.

"I never joke about work," Logan smiled at her as she looked over his shoulder at the screen and saw the spreadsheets and tables he was looking at, "just a few more minutes." Rory laughed and opened her book, if there was one thing she knew it was that separating work and home hadn't been his strong suit in his twenties, and he hadn't gotten much better at it once he was running the company. She got a few pages in when she heard the laptop click shut and she was pleasantly surprised when she felt the mattress shift and felt Logan put an arm around her waist and pull her close. "Nice shirt," he told her with a smile.

"Thought you'd like it."

"So…what do you want to tell that son of ours?" Logan asked. There were plenty of other things he knew they could be doing at that moment, but he wanted to make sure they were both on the same page before they consummated anything.

"That is what you want to talk about?" Rory laughed as she put her head on his chest and closed her eyes. They hadn't done this. For as many times as they had managed to have a quickie over the last couple of months, they really hadn't just been with each other. That was her doing. She had made excuses to leave. Excuses for why spending the night in the same bed was a bad idea, or excuses for why they shouldn't snuggle up on the couch together long after Nathan had gone to bed. She had kept him at arms length, just like she had through most of the last decade, but that was over now. They had both decided. They had both said what needed to be said to move forward.

"Well, honestly there is plenty of other stuff I would prefer to be doing right now. Most of which involve that shirt on the ground but maybe the panties can stay on, I only caught a quick peak but I think I'll like them," Logan told her, he was rubbing circles on her back now. "But I think that we need to have a plan. Tomorrow you are going to Stars Hollow, and then he's back on Monday, and we probably need a plan…"

Rory licked her lips and nodded her head, he couldn't really see her but he could feel the movement against her chest. "So we just tell him we're together?"

"I mean, isn't that what most kids want when they have parents who aren't together?" Logan asked her.

"He mentioned it a while back…the other kids and their parents…I mean…I don't think he's been pining for us, but I think he might've wondered why we couldn't be together when we get along so well…"

"That would make two of us," Logan laughed and Rory looked up to shoot him a glare.

"You two can't gang up on me and make me bad cop all the time," she told him.

"So we're going to tell him we're together…and you are going to move your stuff into my room…?" he suggested cautiously.

"Almost as romantic as the first time you asked me to move in," Rory laughed as she considered his suggestion. She wasn't sure what the harm was, they were already living together, Nathan was old enough that he didn't need either of them at night, and it wasn't as though he was going to be walking in unannounced. Nathan had fine with it when Mark had moved in, so she couldn't imagine he would have a problem with a change in sleeping arrangements. "You'll have to make some room in the closet for my sweatpant collection…"

"I will do it right now if you're saying yes."

"And I want the right side of the bathroom."

"Yes dear," Logan laughed.

"Are you just saying yes so you get what you want?" Rory smirked.

"Yes dear."

xxx

Rory took her seat and placed her purse on the ground beside her, scanning the other people at the park she saw a few familiar faces and more than a few high school aged kids who clearly were using the park bubbles as an opportunity to go on a Taylor approved date. Taylor, ever the entrepreneur had used the opportunity to offer mobile ordering for the Soda Shoppe, and you could call in an order to Luke's for lunch, or order a pre-made alternative from Doose's which again, you could order online or phone in for a delivery option. Rory had called in an order to Luke's and in a brief moment of normalcy had chatted with her step father about how he was enjoying being in town. He admitted casually that some time away from Lorelai and Emily was necessary, certainly Rory could appreciate that, but also that it was hard to be away from them during such a strange time. Unsurprisingly, Stars Hollow, under the watchful eye of Taylor had remained Covid-19 free, and he intended to keep it that way. Temperature checks on your way into town were required although Rory and Logan had discussed over breakfast how they weren't exactly sure that was legal. She smiled as she saw her lifelong best friend walking towards her with a little skip in her step. It wasn't lost on Rory that no matter how much time had passed, Lane never seemed to age. She still looked the same as she had when they were kids, at least that was how Rory felt when she saw her friend. She was sure if she looked at photos side by side she would notice more differences. As Lane reached her designated bubble, which as Taylor pointed out when you booked them were actually twelve feet apart, not the recommended six. Each bubble had six feet between the centre point and the edge. Lane sat down and smiled broadly which Rory could see because her mask moved up with her cheeks. "I've missed you," was the first thing Rory could manage as she saw her best friend for the first time in almost six months.

"I don't think we've ever gone this long without seeing each other," Lane admitted. "I mean…even when my parents sent me to Korea and I didn't know how long I would be gone for…this pandemic has been longer than that trip."

"And you were so sure that trip would last forever," Rory laughed at the memory, it seemed like a lifetime ago, and in many ways it was.

"So how was your night? Did you and Logan sort yourselves out?"

"Well," Rory paused. She knew her best friend would be thrilled with the news, and probably even more thrilled because she would feel like she could take credit for giving Rory the shove she needed, "you could say that."

"I could…I'm going to need more than that, and between the mask and the sunglasses, it is really hard to read you. I would need Lorelai Gilmore super powers to see through you."

"Logan and I are together. We…there was some yelling last night, and some tears, and some honesty that maybe we've needed to have for a while. But…maybe you were right. Maybe we are just two people who love each other who were too stubborn to say it."

"And maybe that poor boy has been waiting for you…"

"Oh poor boy my ass," Rory shot back, "we talked about it all. Me saying no, him giving me an ultimatum, why things didn't change when I was pregnant…we were up all night between the talking and the sex and the plans…"

"What are the plans?" Lane asked, "we'll get back to the juicy stuff after."

Rory laughed, "well, we're going to be together. You know, dating is kind of useless when you've known each other as long as we have, so we're just…together. I'm going to move my stuff into his room, and I guess… we're together now. Whatever that means."

"You guys are going steady?" Lane giggled.

"I mean, don't hold your breath for a promise ring," Rory joked, "but yeah."

"And you'll tell Nathan?"

"We'll tell Nathan when he gets home. We kind of agreed that this has to work, for Nathan I mean. If we weren't prepared to make it work, we couldn't do it."

"You make it sound like you joined a cult."

Rory laughed, "you know what I mean though. We can't jerk him around. If we say we're together, we're together."

"You guys are great parents, you love each other, you both like the same books and music and movies, you like the same types of food, you both tolerate each others weird family, and you have literally spent almost fifteen years telling me how great he is in bed. What more could you want?"

"So good in bed," Rory laughed.

"So how was it? I mean, I know you guys have been doing the nasty for a while, but was it…I don't know…different?"

Rory thought back to all of the times that she and Lane had discussed these things over the years, remembering when Lane had returned from her honeymoon in horror, when she and Logan had done long distance the first time. She and Lane had been through everything together. Kids, relationships, life. "I don't think it was different per say."

"Oh come on, I'm an old married woman, give me something here Rory!"

"Lane!" Rory laughed and looked around to see if anyone could hear them.

"No one is listening, and I need it. I need it," Lane laughed.

Rory rolled her eyes, "Logan is just…he's attentive. Don't get me wrong, he gets his, but he is different."

"I'm going to need more than that," Lane told her. "I've been having sex," she lowered her voice a little bit, "with the same man for a long time…"

"You make it sound like I'm out sleeping with anyone who walks by me. In the last four years I have slept with three men, and in the last decade that number is four. I have a kid, I've been raising a kid, so other than my occasional dalliances with Logan, and a couple of long term relationships…you remember them…some of these men you thought of fondly…there hasn't been a revolving door of men at casa Rory."

"When did you become such a prude," Lane smirked. "Did he do the thing?"

"He did the thing with his tongue," Rory smiled, her sex life with Logan when they were at Yale had been adventurous mostly at Logan's insistence, Rory obviously had less experience, she still had less experience by comparison, but there was no use in denying that if she could only have sex with one person for the rest of her life, it would be Logan Huntzberger. "I told you though," Rory thought back to previous conversations with Lane about her sex life, "you guys just need to find what works for you. It just so happens that the thing with his tongue is what works for us…you guys need to find what works for you."

"Not all of us live in mansions with sex dungeons," Lane joked about the creative locations Rory and Logan had been hooking up in.

"I don't have a mansion or a sex dungeon. Logan has a house, and it has a basement, not a sex dungeon."

"Didn't you two just agree to all eternity or something? Not to mention I'm now going to need to make quite an exhaustive list of places not to sit in that house when we're allowed near each other again," Lane rolled her eyes. "You're really not going to give me more to go off of? Throw a girl a bone…"

"I'm not, not until you deal with the issues here, which is you being unwilling to tell your husband that you want more than he is currently giving you. You gave me shit not twenty four hours ago for not telling Logan how I felt. I told him how I felt. Now you tell Zach that you aren't satisfied in bed and then I will tell you all of Logan's secrets."

"Fine," Lane huffed and leaned back in her chair for a moment, "but you're happy? You think it'll stick this time?"

Rory nodded and her smile grew under her mask, "I think it's going to stick this time."

xxx

"Honey," Rory called as she walked in the front door, "I'm home, and I thought of something I wanted now that we're together," she shouted as she walked in, she could hear noises coming from upstairs and something smelled delicious in the kitchen. She decided to follow the noise and laughed as she walked into Logan's normally completely organized closet, "what in the hell is going on in here?" she smiled.

"I'm making space," Logan told her. "We still have to carry it all upstairs again," he referred to the third level of the house that was above the garage and included a bedroom, living space, bathroom and enormous cedar lined closet and stored seasonal clothing, suitcases and some of the sports equipment he owned, "but this half," he gestured to the three sections of the closet he had cleared out for her, "is yours."

"My very own half," Rory walked to him and kissed him, "and to think I used to just have drawers."

"You can have whatever you want," Logan hugged her, "chances you wanna help me carry this upstairs?" he laughed.

"Nope," Rory smirked as she pulled away, "but I will move my things over from the other room."

"Well I'll take that I suppose," Logan agreed. "Need any help?"

"I think I can handle it," Rory stepped back and leaned against the doorframe.

"How was lunch? Lane doing ok?" Logan asked as he continued pulling items off the hanging bar and hanging them onto a rolling rack he planned to move to the base of the stairs to go up to the storage closet.

"She's good," Rory nodded as she watched him, as he looked through his meticulously pressed dress sh its and other office attire, "she's happy about you and I."

"That makes two of us," Logan interrupted and looked over his shoulder to give Rory a grin.

"Three of us," Rory laughed, "although I do have some concerns."

Logan threw his head back over his shoulder and saw that she was trying not to giggle, "what do you want?"

"Can I park in the garage?" Rory asked. There were three garage bays at the house, one for his Range Rover, one for his Porsche and one was mostly empty but stored a few things.

"I'll put the Range in the driveway for now," Logan agreed, "you can put the Jeep in that spot, and then I will make some calls about having a shed built to store the stuff so I can put my car back in."

"My very own garage spot," Rory fluttered her eyelashes, "what ever will I do?"

"Not have an excuse for leaving shit in your car anymore?" Logan laughed. "Anything else you really want now that you figure you can get anything out of me?"

Rory smiled, there was a time in their relationship that she was was uncomfortable with how much Logan would give to her, or do for her, but as she got older and the more she understood Logan, she realized that it was his love language. Giving was Logan Huntbzerger's love language. "Think you can make sure cookie dough ice cream is on the list?"

"You're an easy girl to impress."

"Did you just call me easy?"

"In the best way possible."

Rory rolled her eyes, "I'm going to start moving things now. And now that we're dating or whatever you want to call it," she shouted as she walked, "I'm going to need a proper place for me to work. You can't hog the office."

"I'll call my decorator to put some designs together for the space above the garage. You can have the bedroom up there and flip it into an office."

Rory smiled as she went into her own closet and grabbed a handful of items. She probably could've left most of her stuff in here, even if it was simply a spare bedroom, it still had an enormous closet with more than enough room given that having lived in Brooklyn for as long as she had, she didn't keep things she didn't need and she didn't keep excess anything. She walked with her hangers back into the master bedroom and hung the items in the first cubby, she would organize it later. Logan had gone to make a trip upstairs and Rory couldn't help but feel excited about what was to come, what their future could hold. A few trips later on both of their parts and they were done. Rory would organize over the next few days, but her things were all out of the guest room and moved into her side of the room, her glasses were on the bedside table, her charger plugged in, her slippers on the floor beside the bed.

"I started making dinner a while ago," Logan told her when they were done.

"I thought I smelled something," Rory smiled.

"I'll go check on it, give me twenty?"

"Why can't I come?" Rory pouted.

"Maybe I have a surprise for you?"

"Surprise dinner?"

"A surprise."

"Tell me."

"Be patient," Logan laughed. "Why don't you go upstairs and think about things you might want in your office…"

"But what about the surprise?"

"Fifteen minutes Ace," Logan told her, "please?"

"Ten?"

"Fifteen."

"Fine," Rory walked over and kissed him, "should I be fancy Rory or schleppy Rory for this mysterious surprise?"

"Why don't you surprise me?"

Rory laughed and watched as Logan walked out of the bedroom. She didn't really care what her office setup would be so she decided that she would instead go out of her way to do something special for Logan. She grabbed a pair of dark skinny jeans and tugged them on, removing her bra she put on a white silk cami she had ordered a few weeks earlier, and paired it with a pair of black patent Jimmy Choo pumps. The pumps were typically saved for special occasions or business meetings, but she figured this occasion was as special as any. Rory freshened up her makeup and then decided that after twelve minutes she could go down. "Ready or not, here I come," Rory called as she made her way to the kitchen and smiled seeing Logan working dutifully at the island.

"You're stunning," Logan's eyes peered up from the task he was completing and a wicked smile crossed his lips. "I should have three more minutes, but I would say the interruption is worth it."

Rory walked around the island and perched herself onto the counter beside where he was working on dinner, she was surprised by the grace with which she did so, and any doubts she had about where she and Logan stood went away the moment he looked at her and gave her a smile, "I figured," she told him as he put down the knife and pushed the cutting board he was using out of the way, "this is might be the last night for a while of just the two of us," she smiled as his lips went to her shoulder, she figured between the shoes and the exposed shoulders, he would be putty in her hands, "we should make the most of it."

AN2: Ok so I do want to be clear...Rory and Logan will need to see a counsellor/therapist to work past some of their issues. All is not simply solved because they've decided to give it a go, however those sessions will probably happen outside the writing of this story and they will simply be mentioned in the story itself. The next chapter will be a continuation of this weekend.