AN: omg, this was so difficult to write. Took me a couple of whole re-writes hence the lateness of the post. And this is just their morning until lunch. More Rogan coming in the following days.
Tell met what you think! I originally considered adding a lot more angst to this, but decided against it. I wonder if the transition from them feeling stuck to this seemed too good to be true.
Logan was standing at Heathrow Arrivals, watching people pour out of the baggage claim area. It was a familiar position to be in for him, though the last time he'd done it had been in Portland under not much sadder circumstances. This time the mood was expectant, a little apprehensive perhaps, nervous but hopeful.
A seniors excursion of somesort, a family with 6-kids - one of them having a temper tantrum in his stroller, businessmen arriving home - as most didn't go anywhere new on a Saturday morning, a cellist carrying her instrument on her back, some blokes who looked very hungover, more kids, newlyweds - probably - pretty much everyone else was arriving. But as the time was getting kind of late, Logan having usually a pretty good estimation of how long it took to pass through those halls, he was becoming increasingly worried about Rory's whereabouts and he glanced at his watch and at the terminal clock for the twentieth time. He felt like texting her and asking where she was, but he knew Rory rarely looked at her phone on her way from the plane to the arrivals, always wanting to be quick by knowing the best routes and having nothing unnecessary in her hand. She knew Heathrow and she knew how to travel efficiently.
When he finally saw a familiar face, he could quite place what was up - she looked nervous, definitely less confident that he was used to seeing her, and was that blushing? - he pondered for a split second. But instead of inquiring into any of it he was soon overcome by other much urgent matters, seeing her face lit up like it always did - oh, how glad he was to recognize those eyes in a crowd. The next moment Rory hastily made her way around the railings and just wordlessly crashed into him, as if having found water in a desert. They held each other for what seemed like several minutes. No words, no passionate kisses - just the closest things that felt like home far away from home.
Logan's kiss to her temple woke Rory from their moment.
"Everything okay?" Logan asked, moving a strand of loose hair behind her ear while observing her.
"Uh-uh," Rory replied, not wanting to talk about it. Logan could tell there was something, but it didn't seem to be anything urgent - at the very least she seemed to just want to get out there.
So he let it be - most importantly she was here, even if he had her just for a couple of days this time. Most couples probably wouldn't have bothered, knowing the other was coming home in a week or so. But they'd both felt it - like a final thread of a lifeline, which they needed to make stronger together and not to waste time.
Logan led her to the car, where the driver took Rory's luggage, there really wasn't much - she was used to travelling light.
Inside the car, he looked over her - the morning light making her presence more real. "I'm really glad you came," Logan said, squeezing her hand.
"Just wait until you see how ridiculously expensive those last minute tickets were," Rory commented, feeling a little uncomfortable under his gaze. She knew Logan didn't care, and she was trying no to not care either, but she was feeling so unsure of herself in a lot of ways so she just needed to say something.
"Relax," Logan said, noting her nervousness, and applied pressure to the valley point on her hand, gently massaging it, hoping the tension was just because of a tiresome flight.
"I'm trying to," Rory smiled weakly.
Rory was truly happy she was there, but her journey there hadn't been an easy one. First she'd had to leave the kids, trying to say her goodbyes in the midst of two of them crying for other reasons at that point which basically meant she hadn't said proper goodbyes to them - her heart wrenched at the thought of them. She hadn't gotten as much sleep on the plane as she'd hoped, having gotten the last vacant seat closest to the galley which also meant she was in the midst of attendants rushing past her through the night. She was forgiving - they were just doing their job - and prepared with proper noise cancelling headphones and a sleep mask, but she had definitely hoped to be more refreshed than she was, looking as best as she could off the plane and she just didn't feel it. And then of course when she'd landed… - that just made her want to burrow all the way to China.
"Here," Logan said, fishing out a small thermos of coffee and a box of scones. He wasn't born yesterday.
"Thanks," Rory replied, taking a hasty sip of the coffee, that was a little too hot, but infinitely better than the coffee on the plane.
"I tried upgrading my room, but we're stuck with the Executive. Busy weekend apparently," Logan commented, as their driver took the M4 East.
"It's fine," Rory replied, feeling like Logan was nervous too. When had she ever cared about which room she was in?
Rory pretended she wanted to shut her eyes, knowing that it'd probably be a good 40 minutes, hoping that once she opened them she'd feel like herself again, that the awkwardness would just vanish and she wouldn't feel like every word she said felt so heavy, so decisive. Thankfully, she could feel Logan's hand on hers and it did make her feel a little better - she wasn't alone in this.
With very few comments throughout the ride, mostly something about what was happening in the city during the weekend or what he'd thought they could do if they wanted to go out somewhere, Rory commented a little on what she'd missed about London. Nevertheless, as the conversation was still tip-toeing around everything else but them, they finally made it to the Grosvenor Square. Rory realized she'd never really asked why he chose to stay here instead of Savoy, Rosewood or the Dorchester that had been his hotels of choice years ago. Sure, back in the day he'd usually had his own apartment to stay in which Rory knew he always preferred over a hotel, but that hadn't always been the case.
"I know it's silly for me to ask this now - but why this hotel?" Rory asked just as they were getting out of the car.
Logan looked at her curiously, his eyebrow crooked, clearly a little surprised by that question. "So you can buy 16k plane tickets and fly to see me," Logan shot back with a smirk, deciding not to take this too seriously, having already checked over their recent expenses.
Rory looked at him sideways, knowing he was just teasing her.
"Because a) you've taught me to live more humbly - and I really don't need the Savoy if I'm just sleeping there, and b)...," he began, but continued to whisper into her hair as he kissed it, "the room looks a little like our bedroom back home."
Rory could sense something starting to melt - and she followed Logan, who right now was waiting for her at the entrance so she'd join him. He'd already taken her bags - it was just one piece luggage and her Rosey special edition handbag, so he really didn't want to bother the porter with something so trivial that he could easily roll into the elevator himself.
"Welcome Mrs. Hunzberger. Your room is ready, Mr. Huntzberger," Lex said, as they passed the reception table, Logan's hand gently at the small of her back.
"Thanks, Lex" he nodded in passing towards the concierge. He'd had the room cleaned that morning, and set a firm 'do not disturb' on the room for the entire weekend. It wasn't that they were going to stay in the entire weekend, but he wanted the option of feeling like they didn't answer to anyone else's schedule.
Rory couldn't help but to feel a little like she was there to have sex with her husband. Her mother thought that, the concierge probably thought that too, and not only…
"Huh, I get what you mean," Rory looked over the room as the door snapped closed behind them, the buzz of the electronic lock securing it. The room did have a homey feel to it - sophisticated, but not over the top - simple light colors, familiar fabrics, though still a lot more like a hotel room than home.
Rory could still sense some awkwardness between them, and she could sense Logan observing her while trying to appear like he was just giving her a moment to settle in, browsing something on his phone. Rory took a quick shower, and returned to pick out her clothes while wearing one of the hotel robes. She unzipped her hard case swiftly, but then did something odd, and even Logan, who'd watched her from the corner of her eye, caught her move. She hid a ziplock bag of something underneath her sweater that she'd just had on when she'd arrived from the airport.
Logan wasn't quite sure what he'd seen - at least he struggled to believe that that was what he'd really seen.
"Was that what I thought it was?" he asked, curiously, rising from his seat and walked over to her, placing his hand gently around her.
"Well, what did you think you saw?" Rory asked, sounding a little annoyed. There was that blush again. She was never too good at hiding when she felt embarrassed, little blotches of red appearing on her cheeks. She pulled on a pari of fresh panties and swiftly put on a bra and tanktop.
"Come on, show me," he begged, feeling curious.
"See for yourself," Rory suggested with a low groan, unable to stay and face him, and went to dry her hair.
The blow dryer hid the low but approving chuckle Logan let out pretty well, but Rory could sense it. As her hair was finally dry, she found Logan leaning against the desk next to her suitcase. Rory tried to continue unpacking her dresses and hanging them up as if nothing had happened, but she could tell Logan wanted to talk about the contents of her suitcase.
"Don't laugh," Rory demanded, noting Logan exhibiting a smug grin.
"I'm not, I'm sorry… if I made you feel like I did," he apologized, struggling to control his facial expression.
"We're supposed to try something new, I don't even know…I was in a hurry so I ordered some stuff. I don't even know if… God, I feel so embarrassed - I got searched at customs. We don't even have to mention these again," Rory blurted, making sure the bag was hidden under several more layers of clothing demonstratively.
"You got searched!? Why didn't you tell me?" Logan exclaimed, not believing his ears. Hardly anyone got searched these days, unless one of the sniffer dogs noticed something. This also meant that she'd probably checked her bag - now her being late was beginning to make a lot more sense.
"Can we just not - not right now..," Rory begged, still all red in her face.
"It's fine you know - you don't have to be embarrassed about this - not with me. Whether we try or like these or not - who cares?" Logan shrugged, explaining it calmly. "I love that you did this - you got us something new," he added, staying optimistic.
Rory put on a sideways smile, that was shaded by her frown - she still didn't feel that great about the whole thing. She was taking a chance, doing something she normally didn't do, stepping out of her comfort zone.
"Alright - I can see you need to warm up a little, we need to be warmed up," Logan exhaled, rising from the leaning position he'd taken earlier. They felt rusty - and jumping into deeply intimate things like that had to wait.
He kissed her temple once again, simply wanting to feel her.
"So unless you have some other plan I suggest we go and take walk around the city, grab some lunch and in the meanwhile we can cross something else off this list," Logan suggested. It wasn't very organic, going by a list like this, but he knew that he too needed to make an effort. The last thing he needed to do was somehow make the list sound stupid or silly - if these were the things she thought they needed to work on to make them more solid, get reacquainted, he wasn't goint to argue. He wanted to feel like a team again.
Logan didn't want this weekend to be about only discussing their problems - he wanted it to mostly be about moving forward.
"Thank you," Rory said, kissing her husband on the lips then. It begun as a fairly dry kiss, which gathered some momentum as both added some tongue - but it was more about testing the waters than letting it lead anywhere else right now. Rory was incredibly grateful for Logan not making fun of her - it would've been so easy to do.
Rory wasn't gullible enough to assume that Logan took the list very seriously, but she was thankful for him putting up a brave face and humoring her. After all she'd always been the one to make the lists and he was the one not to follow them.
It was an hour later or so, as the two were walking through Hyde park, having just been to 'say hi', as Rory put it, to Logan's old apartment, but the building had now been wrapped in scaffolding. The place had been as good as new a few years ago, so it did make them ponder what could've gone so wrong in that time, but they just had walked off with a shrug. It was the past.
"Okay, next question - Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?" Rory asked, they'd been doing the 36 questions that were meant to connect people, or perhaps even make them fall in love. The negative of this was that every second question was something they could already answer about the other, the positive was, however, that the rest of the questions weren't actually that bad - even to Logan's surprise.
"I have to go by statistics - heart disease," Logan replied.
"But you're in good health, you eat well, exercise," Rory wanted to argue. When someone mentioned someone with heart disease Logan really wasn't the man one would picture having it.
"My blood pressure has been a little high on occasion," Logan admitted, tucking his hands into his jeans' pockets. They'd done London the casually this time - taking the subway and dressing at their most casual - neither felt like being waited on hand and foot or treated as anyone important. They just wanted to blend into the crowd.
"Logan - you never told me that!" Rory scolded him. She knew he'd been to his physical, but having been so occupied with her kids, she'd perhaps settled too soon for his answer of 'fine'.
"On occasion - no reason for concern, Dr. Holland said nothing about me needing medication," Logan defended himself.
"Fine," Rory grumbled. "Hmm.. I honestly don't know," Rory pondered. The women in her family all had good health, which in her mother's case was quite a wonder.
"Lets just take the next question," Logan suggested, not wanting to imagine it. "Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common," he said, with a chuckle. "Well this ought to be easy," he added, unsure if they should skip it.
"Well-read, music taste, favorite city," Rory listed. There really was no question.
"Appreciation for good food, we both realize we're not perfect, drive to work for the sake of achieving something more than money," Logan listed in response.
"Were you disappointed that I didn't go back to work?" Rory asked for a change.
"It's hard to say - I was surprised. But after that I went through a bunch of different emotions to be honest. For a minute I almost thought that this was what I preferred - so you'd be with the kids, so you'd have your focus with us as if that would make you less likely to find something you loved as much elsewhere, but I know this was ridiculous. Just my own insecurity speaking...," Logan replied. He didn't feel like he could go too deep into this in publicly, unsure how he'd keep it together. He'd had some dark moments with this topic.
"I wouldn't go anywhere, you know," Rory assured, hesitantly. She still worried about him.
"The rational part of me knows that," Logan replied.
"Because I will go and work at some point, I'll do something - we'll see what, but I can't just be a housewife. Right now I feel I just need to give it a longer try than I did with Finny," Rory said. "On some days I feel like I have four kids..," Rory sighed, suddenly recalling that she hadn't heard back from Finn about G.
"G's a handful, I bet," Logan replied, knowing just barely what it was like with her.
"Oh, you have no idea. But honestly it's not really her fault...," Rory replied and pulled out her phone to text Finn. "I asked Finn to think of a place for her birthday - sweet 17 got to be a little special, she totally deserves it," Rory commented.
Logan really didn't know all the details, and he also knew that some of these details were quite personal hence he didn't really inquire into it. If Rory felt like - she had his ear and shoulder though.
"Okay, my turn - If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?" Rory read out from the file they both had open on their phones and kept glancing at. "We could almost make this a little bit more fun and answer for each other," Rory suggested, raising her eyebrow.
"Sure - have a father that wasn't as absent. Not necessarily an intact family but just his stability," Logan replied.
"And correct! Hmm… well I could go along the same lines that actually have parents that were present and affectionate, but I'll go with something simpler so we wouldn't go too grim. I bet you'd like to have all those birthday parties," Rory replied.
"It's too bad we never had that mega-party that you were planning for me your last year of college," Logan recalled.
Rory sighed, and clinged to his arm, as they walked. She didn't really want to recall that, it hadn't been their best of times. But it did once again remind her that they'd been through a lot of stuff together, and despite all odds, they were still here.
Rory's messenger pinged and the message from Finn said, "already taken care of - Jan 31st 6 PM, Color Factory."
She shot back a quick, "thanks," with a heart emoji.
"If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality of ability, what would it be?" Logan read out, as they continued to walk along Piccadilly towards Soho, hoping to find a nice relaxed place for lunch.
"Maybe clone myself?" Rory laughed.
Logan chuckled and he really couldn't blame. "I'll come and be your substitute clone soon enough," he assured. "I guess I would like to feel a little bit more confident - I mean I am, but just - I wish I felt a little stronger against the things I cannot directly affect. Like protecting you and the kids from harm - I cannot do anything if someone gets sick or if there's some natural disaster," Logan explained.
"And that's why you want the place in New Hartford so you'd feel like you've done what's in your power?" Rory asked, having read the theory behind this. Putting it like that, the idea was actually pretty sweet, even if the place still didn't feel like something she would choose.
"Kind of. It's not just that - it's a project, a hobby, I guess. I haven't had that in a while. And honestly I don't know - maybe in 6 months I'll just say it was a waste of money and time, but I think it doesn't hurt to try," Logan discussed.
"And I have nothing against you having a hobby," Rory replied. "It's just that when you sent me out there - it was a bit of a shock. Without knowing what you meant - I started picturing it as some kind of a new Herr and Frau Huntzberger mansion - that's the feeling I got from it. You know - isolated, having a full staff," Rory said and continued to describe what exactly she'd seen there. Somehow, if a place was that isolated and had an estate that large, it had a almost castle-like feel to it, which she wasn't sure she could handle, or rather handle the comments of her mother on it. Her mother had gringed visibly at both of their homes they'd had by now, and was going to have some comments if they got this place. Rory knew that not doing something just because of her mother wasn't the smartest thing - so she wasn't going to let that influence what she agreed to do. But still - that knowing lingered somewhere in the back of her head and did influence how she felt about it.
"What is your most treasured memory?" Rory asked, as they took a seat at an Indian restaurant on Berwick Street some time later. Their nose filled with a wonderful aroma of spices, which was perfect after a chilly walk across town. Logan often humoured her, knowing her how much she loved the stuff, or at least he used to, when they frequented restaurants before they became parents. Logan himself was not a huge fan, but he had dishes he liked and see no problem in letting her get her wish.
"Besides the kids?" Logan asked, knowing that for probably both of them their births were hard to beat.
"Yes," Rory replied, pouring herself a glass of water from the jug that had been brought to the table even before they ordered, and took a sip, feeling parched.
"Being kissed by a Gilmore girl," Logan said.
Rory almost spit her drink back into her glass at his choice of words.
"You sound too much like my father saying that," she laughed.
Logan raised his eyebrows at her, demanding some explanation.
"You know, he actually said those words to me - 'Who could not like being kissed by a Gilmore girl?' like half an hour before I got up the courage to talk to you that night," Rory recalled, making an impression of her dad.
"So I have your father to thank for kissing me?" Logan grinned, finding it ironic considering he'd been the one to object an hour later.
"That would be correct," Rory replied, and turned her attention to the waitress who'd come to take their order. She hadn't really paid enough attention to the menu, but knowing more or less what she generally liked she quickly ordered herself Beef momo and Lollypop chicken, while Logan got himself lamb chops with a stone flower masala rub and black bean dust. It was one of those places who was playful with the names of their dishes.
"But it can't seriously be your most treasured memory - it was just a kiss," Rory struggled to believe it. She was pretty sure he was simply trying to sweet-talk her. Not that she minded of course - but it was a little too fluffy for her.
"Not just a kiss, a very good kiss. But fine - I guess it's hard to choose just one. The wedding of course, or rather you showing up at my London kitchen the night I asked you to marry me, getting our first home, bringing the kids home… I don't know," Logan listed, promising to keep thinking of it.
"Okay, what about one that doesn't involve me," Rory smirked. She appreciated the flattery, under these conditions she wanted something deeper than flattery.
"Sailing with Colin and Finn perhaps - I know most people will just tell you that we were just drunk the whole time, but that's not the case. Being on the sea is a great place to really understand who your friends are. We had this day and half in the Pacific when we were stuck in a doldrum - but we just told stories to each other and hung out. It was probably the most fun I've had with them, and we barely drank anything alcoholic at all," Logan recalled.
"I never knew that," Rory noted. It was interesting - there were still depths to the person she knew so well, there were still things to discover, and it was only lunch-time.