AN: Apologizing in advance for a short chapter. I'm half back in my work mode now, so this means a lot less time to write. Will do my best.
The place was a mess - pillows at the foot of the bed, blankets criss-crosse on and off the bed, her clutch hung from the tablelamp, their clothes somewhere between the door and the bed. They did close the door, right? Rory was hit with a momentary panic, and lifted her head way too quickly, getting a sharp pain in her skull that had before felt just like a mild throbbing. Don't make any sudden movements - she cautioned herself. The saliva in her mouth felt sticky - oh god, how she wished she had a straw that reached all the way to the minibar for a bottle of water right now - the thought.
"Logan?" Rory mumbled, unsure where her husband was, her vision only really registering the front of the room, but not quite seeing the head of the bed or the entrance: her luggage, the couch, the minibar, and her dress which seemed to be stuck between the minibar door. Poor Yumi - she grieved to herself. She wasn't sure if she dared to move just yet.
"You alright there, Ace?" Logan asked, as he walked out the bathroom, a towel around his hips, looking like he'd freshly showered. He smelled of his trademark shaving cream, leaving him with a hint of that 1805 cologne that she loved on him.
"I'm too old for this," Rory groaned and pulled the edge of a blanket over her head, having apparently slept with her head in the foot of the bed. She hadn't had a clue where or how Logan had slept, considering she was taking up most of the bed right now.
"Hey - you got a hall pass, don't beat yourself up for it," Logan said, and bent down to get her a bottle of water, placing the cool glass bottle onto her neck, making her moan, but she was too out of it to react to the shock of the cold.
It was only then Rory realized she wasn't wearing anything, suddenly feeling very naked. It was not like they hadn't lounged around nude time and time again, but she had to admit that she hadn't really done that since the twins, and especially in broad daylight as it seemed to be outside by now.
"Yeah, but we're losing a day," Rory complained, and pulled a blanket over the middle part of her body, self consciousness taking charge. She propped herself up to her elbow, her head beginning to throb more again as she moved. She put her head back on the... Logan's shirt?
"But we gained a night," Logan tried to stay positive.
"Where did we go after Lexington?" Rory asked in confusion, desperately trying to recall the whole night but was just getting glimpses of drinks, dancing, music, streets of London and laughter. Darts? - Why was she recalling darts?
"O2 Academy and Flight Club. And I believe there may have been some burlesque…," Logan explained, and opened the water bottle for Rory, seeing her attempts being awfully slow in that department.
They'd essentially gone on a tour of their favourite places back in the day and Rory had found her new favourite cocktail, the Sazerac - at least that was what she'd thought last night.
Rory took a sip of water - she needed to do this slowly. Suddenly a memory of the black feather boa that had landed around her neck in the midst of one of the lovely ladies with the swirling nipple tassle popped into her mind, making her sigh and chuckle internally.
"I'll get you an ibuprofen," Logan suggested, and popped back into the bathroom to get it.
"Thank you," Rory called after him. "How come you're not hungover?" Rory inquired, not quite following.
"I didn't mix my alcohol," Logan grinned.
"Remind me that next time," Rory said, and swallowed the pill with a sip of water. At least everything seemed to be staying down rather than coming up.
"Sure," Logan chuckled, having reminded her that several times last night. "Are you up for some breakfast?" he asked, already heading for the phone to call downstairs.
"I think so," Rory replied. Maybe food will help? - she thought, and pulled herself to sit, the blanket still tightly around her and looked for her phone, which thankfully seemed to be charging on the bed stand. You can put your phone to charge but you leave your dress betwen the door of minibar? - Rory scolded herself.
Logan picked up her dress and placed it onto the table, not having to be asked.
She was shocked awake from her incredible night as she read Jess' text. "Oh fuck," she muttered, Logan glancing back at her as he was finishing up their order.
"The kids okay?" Logan asked, as he hung up.
"Yeah, it's Celeste - her mother died. Her heart," Rory explained, her voice going grim. Jess had already texted last night, and now with the time difference it seemed barely an appropriate time to call. "I should probably wait an hour or so before I call," she replied, and texted Jess to tell her when Celeste was up. But she did feel guilty for not having noticed the text last night.
"Fuck, that sucks," Logan commented, and took a seat next to Rory.
"Should I head back there?" she pondered. She felt like Celeste probably needed her shoulder, but she really didn't want to leave Logan just yet.
"If you want, you can - but it's only really like 6 hours until your flight, if you'd go now you'd get there late at night, and it's not much you'd be able to do much when it's night anyways," Logan rationalized, thinking practically. It wasn't like neither could really do much about it - Celeste's mother was dead and Jess was with her.
"Don't do the math," Rory said, groaning at the deadline of their visit. But Logan's suggestion did make sense.
"Then do the math that'll be home on Friday," Logan assured, having already bought his ticket before Rory woke, while appreciating the view of her naked, carefree, and sleeping wife, taking up most of the bed.
"I feel like I should be doing something," Rory said, Celeste still in her mind, and snuggled into Logan's chest, as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"And you will. She'll be fine," Logan said, speaking from experience. It was probably him that understood Celeste's loss the best, truth be told - as everyone always compared the loss to a loss of their own or at least to the same relationship in their own experience. If anyone had had a complex relationship with his mother it was Logan. And what Logan knew better than Rory at that point was that Celeste was probably going to recover a lot more easily from something that never really existed than from something that could've been.
"It's too early," Lorelai groaned, as the baby monitor lit up. With a groan she pulled herself up, realizing then she was alone in Rory's guest bedroom, and that Luke was probably already downstairs making breakfast, having decided already yesterday to help Maya out in the kitchen rather than with the babies.
Boy - how the decision not to have a surrogate baby had turned out to be the right one. The two of them were really not cut out for it - Lorelai had contemplated time and time again since that decision. Now they had a kid, not a baby - no jam hands to speak of, and when Lorelai got a craving to sniff some baby's hair - there were at least two available, but preferably not at 8 AM which it was at the moment.
She could already hear Maya speaking in a sweet tone to at least one of the twins over the baby monitor, but as Lorelai had offered, she knew she needed to drag herself down two floors as well and help out. She pulled a robe on top of her pajamas and stepped into her slippers and without looking into the mirror, pressed the elevator button to head down.
"Good morning," Maya reflected across the bathroom door.
"Good morning," Lorelai said, as she reached the nursery floor, and went to get Leigh, who was just waking, stretching out her arms as she got there. Emma was already getting changed, and as this allowed her to simply held Leigh for a moment, Finny also pattered from the adjacent room to hug his grandmother.
"Is mommy coming today?" Finn asked, clearly already missing Rory.
"She'll be here before you wake up in the morning, but I'm sure she'll call you soon," Lorelai assured.
Within those moments a nasty smell took over the room, both Lorelai and Finny squinting their noses.
"No!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Leigh - you're not seriously saying you did that?" she exclaimed again, making her eyes wide. "She's so little but smells so bad," she chuckled, entertaining Finny as well with her theatrical facial impressions and headed for the bathroom to change her, seeing Maya was already taking Emma downstairs for her breakfast.
"Finny, you want to go potty like a big boy this morning?" Lorelai asked, and surprisingly enough he did. At least he made an effort even if nothing came. They actually had a kid sized toilet put into in that bathroom next to the big one.
"Good boy," she praised him, and went to look for his day-clothes, with Leigh on her hip, already changed. Lorelai had never really gotten the point of changing the twins out of their nighttime onesies, however, knowing they'd just as well make any item of clothing dirty during their breakfast. With Rory, baby clothes were always baby clothes - it didn really matter if one slept into them or played with them, especially in her world when she'd had to make clean clothes out of her own band t-shirts on more than one occasion.
Lorelai heard footsteps coming down the stairs, knowing it was probably G, at least the clinking of the shoes made it much more likely to be her than mostly Converse-wearing Leo.
"Hey, how's everything - am I needed here?" G asked as she opened the door to the bedroom floor. She'd just showered, her hair still wet, and was wearing a pair leggings and her dad's Boston sweatshirt as the upstairs got a little chilly sometimes.
"Nothing urgent, but if you can take these two down for breakfast, that would be great," Lorelai replied, with a yawn, indicating in a mime-like gesture that she wanted to head upstairs to shower if possible. She did note the Boston sweatshirt which she recognized to be Christophers, and for a moment she wondered whether having G wear it around the house was an issue for Rory, who'd never really had that kind of relationship with her father. Though, then again, she didn't really know what 'that' kind of a relationship was.
"Sure," G replied as if it was no big deal and took Leigh from her arms, placed her on her hip and took Finny's hand with her other hand and pressed the elevator button with her elbow.
Lorelai couldn't really be more surprised, having not really spent much time with G under the same roof since G was 4. She recalled warning Rory about taking in a spoiled teenager, and sure, she was privileged, no doubt about that, but she was actually quite helpful, definitely showing some fine nanny skills if her first ten Ivy league career options failed.
"Hey, I guess you talk to your dad a lot? How's he doing?" Lorelai decided to ask, delaying heading up the stairs for a minute. She'd been meaning to ask, but in the presence of Luke, she hadn't quite dared to. She was a little sad that their friendship had been ruined by what had happened, and she knew better than to call him up herself, but she was curious to whether he was happy - just like one wondered what a long lost friend was up to.
"Not much, every couple of weeks or so," G replied. "Last time was Tuesday, I think…," she recalled. The time difference was making their calls quite difficult and the other thing was that G always felt like she was just giving him a report of her school life, controlling well what she spoke about, while getting very little back from Christopher himself. What was he going to say - explain how he negotiated another great deal with Sumitomo? The Japan talk had ended after the first couple of calls, and besides G knew Japan - she'd been there, so there wasn't much he could surprise her with.
"You miss him?" she asked. She did worry about her. For a brief moment in time she would've almost been her stepdaughter. She did care even if she didn't always understand her.
"A little, I guess," G replied, having not really thought of it like that.
"Well you should tell him. He's not really good at picking up on stuff like that, as far as I remember. Ask him to come to your birthday or something," Lorelai suggested, casually, not wanting to impose her suggestion on her. She hoped the suggestion wouldn't be a source of dissapointment though, if he didn't come.
"Maybe," G shrugged, and stepped into the elevator that had just arrived, with the kids.