AN: I am terribly sorry for the delay. This chapter has been mostly written all week but life has been busy and chaotic. I'm in a work course which is blah. Anyway, thank you all for the love and encouragement. Please enjoy! Read, review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls

Chapter Eleven

It was Friday and Rory rubbed her temples as she sat at her desk. This was exhausting. As much as she wanted to be upset with her daughter, she knew she couldn't be. She had to accept that Emma was having a tough time with this and give her the grace she needed to get through that…what she didn't appreciate was her ex husband casually calling her to say that Emma wanted to spend her weekend in Stars Hollow or Hartford and telling her that he was driving Emma to Connecticut after school and Rory could simply meet them there. "Parker!" Rory shouted, she hadn't meant for it to come out as a shout of course but somehow it still did and her assistant came in the door, "sorry, please, sit…we…we should talk."

"Everything ok?" Parker asked as he sat down. He had sensed for a few weeks that things had been … different with Rory. Some things had been simpler and she seemed lighter but there were also moments that Rory seemed to be more stressed out than he had ever seen her before and it had nothing to do with her job. "Anything I can do?"

Rory smiled. Parker was by far the best employee she could ask for. Ok, maybe he wasn't exactly her employee, but they worked closely together and she couldn't imagine not working closely with him. "I wanted to start by saying how much I value you as an employee…and as a friend," she began, "I really…I couldn't have navigated all of this without you and I know that hasn't always been easy on you…my…stuff…" She was being intentionally vague of course. Rory suspected that Parker knew about her and Logan but she had never asked if he knew.

"Right…" Parker looked at her with confusion. He felt like this was quickly becoming a "it's me, not you" type conversation and he wasn't really sure where to take that. Could he be fired without Human Resources being involved? "I have enjoyed working for you too…I hope to continue…"

"I know, I just never…" Rory paused for a moment, "wait…where would you be going? Are you quitting?"

Parker shook his head, "no, I'm not quitting…but you…well you made it sound like maybe I wasn't going to have a choice…"

"Parker I'm not firing you…and I don't even think I could if I wanted to…but I don't want to. Oh my god! How could you think that?" Rory exclaimed, "Parker…I…no, sorry…that is awkward and I'm…I need to step back here. Start again. Can I start again?"

"Sure?"

"Ok," Rory exhaled. "Parker," she looked directly at him, "you are not getting fired. So there…that is out of the way. But…I just…I wanted to talk to you about the state of my personal life because…well…I'm sure you've noticed the calls and the appointments…and things are…changing for me."

"Ok…"

"Dean and I have split up," Rory told him calmly, "so I know I told you I was staying in Stars Hollow…but I'm actually staying in the city now, so the commute issue is…resolved."

"So you're…in the city," Parker repeated. "I…"

"I'm sure that you have suspected this for a long time…I mean…I know that I probably thought I was being discrete, but…Logan and I are in a relationship and I am staying with him."

"You and Logan…as in Huntzberger?"

"Yes," Rory nodded. "I'm sorry if…if I made you feel uncomfortable with…if I put you in any bad situations or if I made you lie or do…I'm just sorry." Rory paused, she knew she needed to apologize to him but it still felt uncomfortable. "Things will…level out for me…personally I mean. And professionally…well…I will probably need to take some personal time to…well, to take care of my divorce and custody…so I'll be…a bit flakey."

"Flakey is not a word I would use to describe you," Parker told her, he wasn't quite smiling but he genuinely had no idea how he was supposed to react to the news. "And you are…"

"Happy," Rory nodded, "Emma is…struggling…but we'll figure it out."

"Does anyone know? I mean…you and…the boss?"

Rory chuckled a bit. The boss. She knew the comments would come…she knew it was in jest when it came from Parker, but she knew that when it got out, and it would get out soon…it would soon be water cooler fodder, hell, the comings and goings of Logan Huntzberger could be tabloid fodder. "Here? Not really…I mean…not officially. You know…and…we haven't exactly told anyone else…"

"Well I feel honoured," Parker smiled. "I mean…it'll be weird when my boss and her boss both come to my wedding…"

xxx

"You know," Rory spoke into the Bluetooth in her car. Emma was with Emily and Rory was driving to Hartford. She could see the way Logan deflated as she explained that Emma wasn't ready for an overnight with him…with them. She had met…or re-met his children a couple days earlier at dinner and they had been warm. They had been receptive. Lily had thought that sharing a room with Emma sounded promising and Logan had agreed to re-decorate the larger of the two other bedrooms that already had two twin beds, the kids at the very least had seemed excited about the prospect of getting to know her…and then there was Emma. Emma wasn't even willing to talk to Rory but instead had her father text to say that she was going to be dropped off in Hartford instead. "You don't really get to choose where she goes. She doesn't get to choose where she goes. We have a temporary agreement around custody and it doesn't involve me driving to see my kid at my grandparents house like I'm a crack head who needs supervised visits."

"She doesn't want to spend a weekend with your boyfriend," Dean challenged. He was back in Farmingdale already and he felt no need to sugarcoat things for Rory without Emma around. "I did what I thought was best for her."

Rory had to fight not to roll her eyes as she pulled into the courtyard of her grandparents Hartford mansion, "look Dean. I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. You don't choose where my visits happen. Emma is not the adult in the situation, she doesn't get to choose and if she had called and talked to me, I would have come up with an alternative that didn't involve me driving to Hartford and staying here for the weekend." She hung up the phone before he could say anything else. Before he could object to whatever it was he took issue with. Rory inhaled. She wasn't happy. She wasn't happy that Emma didn't want to meet Logan, but she could deal with that. However, had Emma, or her father called her before making the decision to take her to Hartford and involve her grandmother in this, she would have happily booked them two nights at a hotel to have a fun girls weekend. Instead as Rory grabbed her suitcase from the trunk of her BMW, she couldn't help but worry about what was happening inside those doors. That was her fault though…she had barely acknowledged her divorce to her grandmother, she certainly hadn't acknowledged that not only was she getting a divorce, she had in fact left her husband and moved in with her boss…oh but not just her boss. She had moved in with the son of a family friend who had also just left his wife…she could hear her grandmother now and frankly she was not in the mood for it. Knocking on the door she waited for a moment until the maid, one she had seen before but not in a while smiled and ushered her in.

"Mrs Gilmore says you'll be staying upstairs, I'll take your suitcase?"

Rory exhaled. Of course they couldn't even have the privacy of the pool house for thew weekend. She knew of course what her grandmother would say. 'On such late notice the pool house wasn't ready so I just got your rooms ready in the main house. It'll be such a fun girls weekend!', although Rory knew she wasn't actually mad at her, she was mad at Dean for not giving her the respect of talking to her first. "Thank you," Rory nodded. "Are they in the living room?"

The maid shook her head, "no, the den. Miss Emily is showing Mrs Gilmore some videos."

"Of course," Rory smiled. She enjoyed watching how Emily and Emma interacted. She made her way through the house and to the den, she leaned agains the doorframe for a moment and smiled as she saw the two of them watching a video of Emma's most recent swimming practice. "Sorry to interrupt," Rory announced herself after a moment.

"Oh you're here?" Emily stood up to greet her.

"Of course I'm here, where else would I be?" Rory laughed as she hugged her grandmother.

Emily rolled her eyes, "well Dean just called and asked if it was alright for him to bring Emma. He said it was your weekend but Emma didn't want to be in Manhattan so she wanted to come here and of course I said yes, but he didn't clarify if you were coming and then you didn't call," she added pointedly, "so I just had to make assumptions about what was going on. I had the maid prepare a room. Obviously when I wasn't sure if it was going to be just Emma, I couldn't have a young child sleeping in the pool house."

"Well of course not," Rory smiled. "Sorry for the misunderstanding." Rory looked at her daughter, "I didn't know about this until a couple of hours ago…and I think on that note, Em and I have some things we should probably discuss…"

"I'm showing my swim meet…"

"You can finish after. I'm sure you don't mind if I just go talk to Em in the kitchen for a minute, do you Grandma?" Rory smiled at her grandmother.

"Well actually, not in the kitchen. They are preparing dinner. Emma asked for lasagna, so it will be ready soon, but go into the study of course."

Rory smiled. She loved that study. She loved feeling close to her grandpa, and she knew just how he would feel about the situation. He would have been disappointed about the divorce, but he would've been proud of her. Proud of all that she had accomplished in her career and proud of her for not staying in a relationship she wasn't happy in. He would not be happy that she was letting her daughter call the shots, and he would want Rory to step up as a parent, all things that Rory knew herself even if she didn't want to fight with the child that she only saw part time at this point. "Come on Em," Rory told her, "now."

The two walked in silence through the house and to the study. Rory walked in first and perched herself against the desk as Emma took a seat in a chair, Rory noticed her shoulders hunched over and the sadness on her face as she stared at her lap. Rory hated that she was responsible for this pain…but she also wasn't sure she would take it all back even if she could.

"Em," Rory exhaled. "Why didn't you tell me you didn't want to stay in Manhattan?"

Emma exhaled and looked at her mother, "you didn't notice that I wasn't super interested in it? she asked sarcastically. "That I wasn't jumping for joy at the idea of meeting your new boyfriend?"

Rory knew that Emma hadn't been particularly excited about the prospect, but Emma had never actually voiced any displeasure about it to her. "And Em if you had just talked to me," she told her calmly, "I would have told you that we could make another plan. We could've gotten a hotel for the weekend and just hung out…" Rory exhaled and saw Emma look up at her, her eyes fluttering a bit and also full of tears. "I know this is hard on you," Rory told her honestly, "my parents were…well, complicated, but you have to give me some credit here. I am still your mom."

"You're never around." Emma stated it simply. As thought that was the only thing that mattered. As though Rory was simply flitting through life on a whim and carelessly club hopping instead of focusing on her daughter. After all, when you're twelve it is just that simple. If you aren't there, you're choosing not to be there. She didn't understand that Rory wasn't running around living her best life. Sure she was with Logan, but she was still working late hours, she was still at the office first thing in the morning…the only difference is that she wasn't miserable and she wasn't coming home to Dean.

"Em, my work schedule hasn't gotten easier just because Dad and I aren't together. The reason…" she sighed, "the reason that you are with Dad most of the time right now is that because of your school and my work…it makes the most sense. But you don't get to dictate how our time together is spent. You don't get to tell Dad you won't do things…I know it is weird and hard, but I am still the one who gets to make decisions."

"Dad didn't mind driving me," Emma mumbled.

Rory once again took a deep breath, trying to keep herself calm. "This isn't about whether or not we mind doing something," she purposely said we in an effort to present a united front with her ex-husband. "I want to spend time with you not with you and Grandma…"

"So are you saying we have to leave?"

Rory laughed, "no babe, I'm not saying we have to leave. I'm saying that in the future, don't try to pull this because it won't work. If I'm supposed to pick you up, I will pick you up and we will do whatever it is we are doing. I want you to meet Logan …but I also understand if you're not ready."

Emma nodded slowly. "I thought we could sleep in the pool house…"

"Grandma doesn't normally have it ready unless she knows someone is coming, so this was a surprise." Rory explained, "are we understood though? No more messing with the plans? You just need to talk to me…and if you want me to be around more…I can try to come for dinner another night a week, but kid…I'm not moving back to Farmingdale."

Emma stood up, "I guess it could be fun to hang out in Manhattan," she shrugged.

"It could be fun," Rory smirked as the two walked out of the study and found Emily in the living room. "Sorry Grandma," she smiled.

"Everything all settled between you two?" Emily asked as she folded her hands in her lap. Emma nodded her response and took a seat beside her great grandmother, "well I'm glad to hear it."

"Grandma dinner smells amazing. I don't think I remember having lasagna…"

"Well we never had it often, but Miss Emma said she loved it…"

"She does," Rory smiled.

"And Mom can't make it," Emma joked.

"I can make it," Rory countered, she was glad that Emma was at least behaving for the sake of her great grandmother, "I just don't make it well."

"Sookie makes it the best."

"Well Sookie is very talented," Emily agreed. "But why don't we head to the dining room then?"

xxx

Rory could hear laughter as she swung the door to the apartment open. She put her overnight bag against the wall and shrugged off her black Canada Goose parka and the boots she had worn to traipse through the slush when she and Emma went shopping in Hartford that morning. They had enjoyed themselves for the most part. What Rory appreciated most is that it had been a normal interaction with her daughter. Sure there were tense moments but that was because Emma was 12 and thought she knew everything, not the fact that Rory and Dean had split up. Rory had bought her some new clothes and some new books, and Rory had bought herself some new stationary items. Something about the lined notebooks and cute multicoloured pens had drawn her in and she suddenly felt like she was 17 shopping for school supplies again.

"Ace?" Logan called, "that you?"

"It is," Rory walked to the kitchen and smiled as she saw Lily and Noah sitting perched at the island. "Hey, sorry to interrupt."

"No interruption," Logan shrugged, "right guys?"

"Dad made chicken," Lily made a face. "I wanted tacos."

Rory smiled as she entered the space. Sure they had only had dinner together once but his kids had seemed…welcoming towards her. "Did you have a good weekend?" Rory asked to everyone at once but also no one in particular as she opened the fridge and grabbed herself a Coke.

Logan waited for his kids to respond, smiling as he saw that Lily was giggling looking at her brother, "oh go on, tell her."

"Dad burnt the pancakes."

"How do you burn pancakes?" Rory smirked. She may not have been a gourmet chef, but she was confident in her ability to make pancakes at the very least.

"Your kids distract you while you're cooking them and they burn…I would hardly call this my worst cooking related offence," Logan smirked. He was a good cook, but there had been more than one occasion where distraction had led to near disaster, whether the distraction be from his children of from Finn depending on the situation.

"Right, like the lamb chop incident when you wouldn't listen when Grandpa told you they were on fire," Lily giggled and then froze. "I mean…"

"Lil, it is fine to tell that story," Logan assured her as Lily looked from her father to his girlfriend. "A couple of years ago we were spending the holidays in Florida with Abigail's parents, and I may have had one too many drinks," Logan smirked.

"One too many?" Noah interjected and received a glare from his father. Noah thought he knew and understood everything when it came to drinking, he was officially a teenager now after all. The reality was that Logan had consumed a couple of drinks over an extended period of time, the reason the meat had flared up was because of the temperature his uncle had turned the barbecue to, but that had become a joke Logan was at the butt of ever since.

"And," Lily began to giggle, "Grandpa told him that the lamb chops were on fire and Dad just laughed but the lamb chops were on fire."

"The plus side of that trip is that your grandparents were convinced I couldn't cook so they never asked me to again," Logan smiled at the memory. "You know," he inhaled somewhat cautiously, not because he didn't think what he was going to say next was true, but because it was still a weird statement to be making in front of Rory. "Just because Mom and I aren't together…we can still talk about stuff that happened when I was with Mom. It's not… I just want you guys to feel safe when you're here, and that includes talking about Mom, or things that happened before."

Rory nodded her head and smiled. Once again wishing that Emma was there and that she and Dean were mature enough to coparent like Abigail and Logan seemed to be. "And if you ever need some space to talk about things with your Dad…just say the word and I can make myself scarce."

"Did you eat dinner?" Lily asked. "You can have a taco…"

"I'm alright, thank you though." Rory sipped her Coke. "I'm actually just going to go unpack my bag and call my daughter."

"Is she…Emma…is she going to come sometime?"

"I hope so," Rory nodded, "this is just a bit of an adjustment for her. I know it is for you guys too, but…she is having a hard time."

"My friend Kaitlyn, she never sees her Dad because she doesn't want to. Her Mom says as long as he is still with a trollop," Lily was clearly repeating what she had been told, "she doesn't have to go."

Logan cringed but also enjoyed watching the confusion and amusement wash over Rory. "Well that sounds like a predicament," Rory laughed, "hopefully in a few weeks you guys can see her. I understand you are going away on your next visit. Your Dad said you are going on his business trip?" Logan had of course invited her along on his trip to Los Angeles but Rory had declined, she thought it would be best for her and Emma to have some time to themselves and also for Logan and his kids to enjoy themselves.

Both kids nodded eagerly and Logan looked at his watch, "guys I hate to break up the party, but you need to finish up and we need to get downstairs. Car is going to be here to take you to Mom," Logan explained. Rory excused herself to the bedroom as Logan spoke, she rolled her suitcase with her to unpack from the weekend as he continued. "Are you sure you don't want me to drive with you?"

"Why would we need you to drive with us?" Noah made a face.

"Because you are children and I am your parent…"

"We've been doing this ride by ourselves since we were little," Lily countered, that wasn't the truth though, they had been doing the drive by themselves for a couple of years, before that it was with a nanny or one of their parents, and even though they'd done it by themselves for a couple of years, it wasn't frequent. Abigail and Logan had discussed however that it didn't make sense for either of them to accompany the kids to and from the city. Some days Logan would pick them up, and that would be the case on his weekly dinners, and if he could get off work early enough for his pickups, but the return trip would be with a chauffeur.

"Well I'm just trying to tell you that if you want me to come with you, I can. I'm not saying I have to."

"Will Mom be home when we get home?"

Logan nodded his head, "she told me earlier she will be." They had both agreed that the kids wouldn't arrive to an empty house. An adult would be there to receive them, whether it was a family member or a friend, neither of them liked the idea of the kids arriving home at night to an empty house. Both kids shrugged and finished their meals. They brought their plates to the sink and went to say goodbye to Rory who told them she was looking forward to their next visit. "I'm going to walk them out?" Logan hovered in the bedroom for a moment.

"I'm going to call Em." Rory waited until Logan had left the room to dial the number. She waited as it rang a few times and tried not to let her disappointment come through at the sound of the voice on the other end.

"Hello?" Dean answered, he almost sounded happy, until he heard who was on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, I just…I wanted to say goodnight to Emma."

"She left her phone down here," Dean explained his reason for answering the cellphone.

"Well could you take the phone to her…or ask her to come down?" Rory asked.

"Sure," Dean agreed abruptly. "I…are you going to be at the thing with your lawyer this week?"

"I plan to be," Rory told him, they were having a meeting to negotiate some of the particulars of the proposed divorce settlement because Dean wasn't being particularly helpful with the process. He didn't like what was proposed, but he also wasn't willing to propose something else. Rory knew this would all take time, but she needed to have an idea of the financial implications in order to move forward with her life in some ways.

"Me too."

"I expected as much," Rory paused for a moment, "are you going to get Emma?" She asked finally.

"Sure," Dean paused again, "Em, Mom is on the phone." There was a muffled response in the background before she heard Dean speak again, "she's on her way."

Rory waited and then heard the sound of the phone shuffling before the sound of her daughter filled her ears, "hey mom. Did I take something of yours or something?"

Rory laughed, "no Em, I just wanted to check in. I know this weekend wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I had fun with you. Shopping was nice."

"I did too."

"So I wanted to mention…the next weekend we're together, it's just going to be the two of us. Logan is going to be in California. Do you think that you would like to stay here with me?" Rory asked cautiously.

"It'd just be us?" Emma repeated.

"Yes, and before…" Rory paused, she didn't want to ruin a good thing, but she also didn't want Emma to get any outlandish expectations from what happened to be a coincidence, "Logan will be back for the next visit and I would like you to consider meeting him in some capacity."

"You said I can share a room?" Emma recalled the previous conversations about the new living arrangements.

"For now," Rory told her, "there are two twin beds in the room and you can pick some bedding out that you want. But we are hoping that once things settle down we can find a place that is big enough for everyone to have more space of their own so you won't have to share a room for long," Rory explained it the same way that Logan had explained it to her when they had discussed it.

"Hold on," Emma told her, Rory could hear shuffling in the background and she assumed that was the sound of Emma going upstairs, this was confirmed by the sound of Emma shutting her door. "So…you think you'll get another house?"

"We think we'll buy another place in Manhattan, yes," Rory told her, although she had told her daughter all of these things previously.

"So…this is for real?" Emma asked quietly.

"Yes babe, this is for real," Rory assured her. She supposed this was normal. After all, it had been a chaotic few weeks of getting used to the new situation and there has been an overload of information thrown at the child.

"I guess I could meet him…"

"Maybe we can have dinner the three of us?" Rory suggested.

"Can you pick me up from swim practice on Thursday?" Emma asked.

"Sure babe, I'll talk to Dad about it, but we can pick you up and have dinner with you and then go home, ok?"

"I love you Mom."

"I love you too kiddo," Rory felt her heart swell as she hung up the phone. Sure they had gotten along over the course of the weekend but this was a moment where Rory truly felt some acceptance from her daughter over the situation. She wouldn't dilute herself into thinking that everything would be sunshine and rainbows from here, but it was something.

Rory finished putting her laundry away and left the suitcase tucked in the corner. She had learned the previous Wednesday when she casually mentioned to Logan needing her suitcase that he simply asked his housekeeper to grab these things. That was going to be a challenge, especially because the housekeeper so far had seemed like the Polkaroo, Rory had yet to lay eyes on the woman. She walked to the living room and smiled when she saw Logan sitting on the couch focusing too much on his phone which Rory could only assume meant he was responding to work e-mails. "So," Rory exhaled as she flopped down on the couch beside him and playfully took his phone from his hands, pressing the button to lock it before tossing it on the couch just out of reach, "you might get a call from HR this week…"

"Oh?" Logan laughed, "sexually harassing someone are we?"

Rory smiled and kissed him gently, "only you," she assured him. "But when I was telling Parker about things last week," she thought back to the conversation which she hadn't been able to relay to Logan in the days since it happened, in fact they hadn't spoken much in order to allow each of them to have quality time with their kids. "He just…he got confused and for a second thought I was firing him…"

"You told him…"

"Well I was telling him about the change in my situation with Dean and how you and I are together," Rory explained, "that was ok, right? I mean…I trust Parker. I haven't told anyone else other than my parents and Grandma and Lane already knew. But…I haven't been shouting it in the lunchroom or something."

"You can shout it," Logan shrugged. "I'll take out a billboard or a full page ad if you want," he admitted. "I just wouldn't have though to tell my assistant," he admitted.

"Parker is a good guy."

"I know he is."

"We're close."

"I know you are."

"You don't care, do you?" Rory laughed.

"Not even a little bit."

"Can we watch a movie?" Rory smiled and Logan nodded as he put an arm around her and pulled her close. She and Dean always watched what he wanted to watch. She watched UFC fights, she watched everything in the Marvel Universe, but it was rare that she got to pick her own movies anymore, especially not a foreign film or something with subtitles. "I've been wanting to watch Grey Gardens again…"

"Anything you want Ace."