"Rory? Rory?"

Rory rubbed her eyes, the whole room fuzzy. As things started to sharpen she realized she was on the floor, Honor standing over her looking perplexed.

"Rory are you ok?"

Rory sat up. "Did I?"

"You fainted." honor said helping her up. "which pretty much confirms that that's Logan's daughter."

Rory walked over to her desk and sat down. She took a big swig of her coffee, swishing it around, trying to think of what to say. "Yes, she's Logan's daughter."

"She's five. . . that was 2017? That's right after he and Odette got engaged. . ."

Rory groaned at the mention of Odette.

Honor continued to ramble. "I can't believe he would keep something like this! Oh my god did he pay you off? How much hush money did he offer you? I joke that he's acting more and more like dad the older he gets but this takes the cake. I. . ."

"He doesn't know." Rory said softly

Honor's eyes widened, big as two dinner plates. "Excuse me?"

"Logan doesn't know. I . . . I never told him."

"LOGAN DOESN'T KNOW?" Honor snapped.

"I . . . I didn't want to hurt him." Rory stuttered meekly.

Honor rolled her eyes. "Depriving him of his very own child wouldn't hurt him?"

"He was with Odette. They were engaged. . ." Rory fumbled with her words. "If I had told him. . . His whole world would have imploded."

Neither of them spoke for a minute, until Honor sighed, breaking the silence. "How did this even happen?"

Rory put her head in her hands. "We had this stupid Vegas arrangement. We were together when we were together, and not when we weren't."

"He gave you an all or nothing marriage proposal but agreed to a Vegas arrangement?" She rubbed her temples. "Man, I wish I still smoked. I could really use a cigarette."

The air was so brittle, it could snap. The only sound was the subtle "click click click" of Honor's heels as she paced back and forth. Rory had stood up from her chair, but remained quiet, after all what else was there to say?

Honor walked over to the bulletin board, unpinning the photo of Orie. "Logan lives in the states now. He moved to New York about two years ago."

Rory lifted her head from his hands. "New York?" Two hours. Logan was only two hours away from them, for almost half of Orie's life. The pit of guilt in Rory's stomach grew deeper.

"He took over for my dad when the doctors made him finally step down after his heart attack."

Rory was reeling. She had googled Logan obsessively after Orie's birth, but had slowly weaned herself off until it was like Logan never existed. That coupled with her grandma in Nantucket and no longer in the loop of the DAR gossip, the Huntzbergers happenings had completely fallen off her radar. "Is your dad. . . is Mitchum ok?"

"He's fine. He had a mild heart attack. He swore off red meat for about a month, retired, and took up clay pottery for 'Stress relief'. I think the stress relief was more Amy, the pottery instructor, but whatever." Honor grabbed a pen from Rory's desk. "Do you have a post-it?"

Rory grabbed a pink pad from her desk and handed it to Honor. Honor double checked her phone and scribbled something down. She stabbed the post-it onto Rory's desk. "This is Logan's address. He'll be home tomorrow night, Fridays are his poker night. Everyone should be gone by ten."

"Won't Odette be there?" Rory asked, her stomach churned. The thought of facing Logan was nausea inducing enough, but the thought of facing Logan and Odette together? Not just Odette, but Odette Huntzberger. That was unfathomable.

"You didn't hear?" Honor asked, her eyebrow arched inquisitively.

Rory shook her head, her interest instantly piqued.

"Logan called it off right after Thanksgiving in 2016. Of course my mother had already bought her Mother of the Groom gown. She wore it to Christmas dinner. It was so dramatic, in true Shira fashion."

Rory couldn't believe what she was hearing. Thanksgiving 2016 was roughly a month after the Life and Death brigades one last hoorah. A month after Orie was conceived. Rory shook off the little bit of hope that had started to build inside her. Surely it had had nothing to do with her, they were officially broken up for good by then.

"I. . . I. . . I can't just show up at his doorstep all hey you have a kid."

Honor shrugged. "You can and you will."

...

"Grandma!" Orie called, running into Lorelai's house, throwing her bag down in the entryway.

Lorelai smoothed down Orie's wiry blonde pigtails. "Hey kiddo! Are you excited to be staying at Grandma's tonight?"

"Where's Grumps?" Orie asked, peering into the kitchen.

Luke appeared in the doorway, sighing softly. "I'm right here Orie." He glanced at Lorelai. "I thought you said she would outgrow calling me that?"

Lorelai shrugged. "She's a Gilmore, she's stubborn."

"Lorelai Larisa I told you I needed help with your stuff!." Rory said, huffing into the house, her arms full.

"Moving back in?" Lorelai asked.

Rory dropped everything to the floor, with a loud clatter. "She packs to spend the night like you do hiking."

Lorelai groaned. "That reminds me I need to email Tracey back."

"Thanks for watching her on such short notice."

"No problem! Especially so you can scope out a new story in the Big Apple. Super exciting that you've decided to write again."

"It's just a small freelance piece." Rory fibbed. "I doubt anyone will even bite at it."

Lorelai shooed her with her hand. "Nonsense! Some super big, super secret story

unearthed by THE Rory Gilmore? Absolutely riveting. Are you sure you can't tell me anything about it?"

Rory shook her head. "Nope. Top secret."

"because there is no story." Rory thought to herself.

Lorelai pouted. "Guess I'll just have to read it in the New Yorker.. . . or the Post. . . or. . . ."

"Ok, I need to get going." Rory had been on edge since her meeting with Honor. She hadn't slept more than ten minutes at a time, her mind replaying all the different ways that Logan would tell her that he hated her. She hadn't even had a cup of coffee today, her heart already beating at a wildly accelerated pace.

Lorelai hugged Rory. "Don't you worry about us. We're going to watch the Wizard of Oz, and Luke's going to make snickerdoodles. . ."

"No I'm not!" Luke called from the kitchen.

"Yes you are!" Lorelai shouted back. She crouched down, face to face with Orie. "Tell Grumps you want snickerdoodles."

"Lorelai" Luke huffed, coming up behind her.

Rory laughed. "You married her."

"Don't remind me." Luke placed his hand on Rory's shoulder. "Be safe? New York is no Stars Hollow. Watch your surroundings, don't leave your drink unattended, you know stuff like that ok?"

"It's only overnight." Rory giggled.

"Yeah. . . ok. . . um. . . well.. . .Orie do you want to go start on the snickerdoodles?"

"Yay Snickerdoodles!" Orie cheered.

Rory forced a nervous laugh. She leaned down and kissed Orie on the head. "Love you."

"Love you too mommy."

…

The brownstone loomed in front of Rory, even more splendid and extravagant than it had looked on Google maps. Even in the rain, Rory could tell that the 19th century Upper East Side townhouse was absolutely breathtaking. Two French doors framed in wood loomed at the top of the staircase, wrought iron banisters on either side. The house was historically beautiful and so. . . un-Logan. Rory double checked the address, written on the now crumbled post-it in Honor's loopy cursive writing. She swallowed hard, and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Here goes nothing." she said out loud as she ascended the staircase. She rang the doorbell, her heart beating wildly in her ears.

A cold chill flooded Rory's body as the door opened.

"Ace?" Logan said, his voice a low, husky whisper. His stubble was a little bit thicker, his hair a bit shorter, but he still looked almost exactly as he did at the bed and breakfast all those years ago. He was barefoot, clad in a white tee shirt and a pair of gray sweatpants that sent Rory's mind racing to places it had no right to venture off to.

"Logan."

A look of puzzlement crossed his face. "I gotta say, this is unexpected."

"Can we talk?" she squeaked, straining to get the words out.

Logan opened the door, gesturing for her to come in. "Come in, get out of the rain."

Rory stepped inside , instantly in awe. The elegant marble vestibule led to an adjacent sitting parlor, a gas fireplace anchored in the corner. The outside was uncharacteristic of Logan, but the inside was one hundred percent him. He motioned toward the cream couches sitting in the middle of a room. "Have a seat. Can I interest you in a drink?"

She shook her head. "No, I just need to talk to you."

Logan sat down across from her. "This sounds pretty important."

Rory crumbled and uncrumpled the post-it in her hand. "It is. . .I . . .There's. .. . it. . . no easy way to say. . . but. . . I. . ."

"Are you ok?" Logan asked.

Rory nodded, feeling the tears already beading up in the corner of her eye. "Logan there's . . . something I need. . . .." She couldn't do it anymore, she broke down into a heap of sobs.

Logan jumped up instantly concerned. He reflexively wrapped his arm around her. "Hey, what's going on? Tell me please? "

Rory wanted nothing more than to sink into his embrace, to let her tears spill out on his chest but she knew she couldn't. She shrugged his arm off, standing up. She walked over to the bar cart, picked up the whisky and poured herself a tumbler. She turned the bottom towards the sky, and chugged it.

"Ace, you're scaring me" Logan said, obviously concerned.

"Logan, you. . . we have a daughter."

Logan laughed. "Are you drunk? Did Colin and Finn put you up to this?"

Big, fat tears rolled down Rory's face. "Logan, I'm serious."

He shook his head, trying to process the surprising information. "What are you saying?"

"A few weeks after we said goodbye, I found out I was pregnant."

He took in the deep crease of her brown the down-curve of her lips. She was telling the truth. He felt his jaw tense, his fist clench. "You had a baby? . . . My baby?"

Rory nodded solemnly. "Her name is Lorelai. We call her Orie."

He drew in a breath, his breathing ragged and shallow. To him, the room was spinning. "You kept her from me?"

"I wanted to tell you. . . but we had already said goodbye, that perfect goodbye. You were getting married to Odette, and we were. . . I made a choice. . ."

"IT WASN'T YOUR CHOICE TO MAKE!" Logan exploded.

Rory wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She wished for nothing more than to go back in time, and change her mind. "I'm sorry Logan. I'm so sorry. I thought I made the right decision. . ."

"Why would giving me no decision, ever be the right decision?" Logan jeered, a deep scowl painted across his face.

He paced back and forth for a minute, before walking over to the bar cart and pouring himself a drink. "A daughter. I have a daughter. You know, I always dreamed that I would have a daughter with you. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the only girl in the world that I could ever love more than you."

Rory's heart broke, the pain that she had caused Logan very present on his face. "You would have thrown away everything to be with me. I couldn't let that happen. . . I. . ."

"You know Rory, for someone who claims to love me, you try to keep me away from you an awful lot."

Rory felt her stomach roll. This was going even worse than she had thought it would. "It's not that. . . it's.. ."

Logan held up his hand. "Save your excuses."

He threw back the last of his drink, his eyes unable to even look at Rory. "Why are you telling me now?"

"I ran into Honor. Orie is practically your twin. She knew right away."

Logan sat down on the cream couch, placing a hand on top of his head. "You were never going to tell me."

Rory froze, unsure of what to say.

He glared at her for a moment "Were you? Were you ever going to tell me? Were you just going to raise her, let me live out my life never knowing she existed?"

Rory shook her head, tears rolling down her cheek quietly. "That was the plan."

"Great, exactly what I needed. Another great dynastic plan for my life. . ." Logan sent his glass sailing across the room. It collided with the wall and shattered upon impact.

Rory jumped, startled by the violent outburst.

Logan glanced at the shattered glass, scattered in a million pieces all over the floor, much like his heart. "I think you need to leave."

"Logan no. . . I. . . we can't leave it like this. Please let's talk."

Logan walked to the front door, opening it wide. "I said leave."