Disclaimer: Still only own Ben. . . .and the unborn twins. . . sort of. . . the rest sadly do not belong to me

A/N: I have so much more that is sloshing around up in my brain about how their first meeting will go; this is the beginning of it because I don't know if I will finish the rest tonight. Please enjoy though, and as always, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!

Chapter 12

Before she could say anything, Logan answered for the both of them. "We met at Yale in 2003 and she hated me at first, but I eventually grew on her and we dated for 3 years until she graduated; then we went our separate ways but our paths crossed a few years ago and it has been on and off since then, the last time I saw her was, what? Six months ago?"

She gave him credit, he was never one to dance around a subject or mince his words. The look on Ben's face was quite priceless as he put the pieces together and realized that Rory was obviously pregnant with Logan's children and that Logan was just learning about it today.

"Oh. I see." Ben replied not really sure where to go with the conversation. "So I am guessing that this really WAS a surprise for the two of you to run into one another here huh? I guess the universe has a sense of humor." That served to cut the tension in the car and the three of them were able to move on to some less heavy topics.

Lunch was successful and Rory was able to draw up a reasonable insurance policy and was actually able to drop their premium by a few hundred dollars. The three of them were able to make easy conversation and she thoroughly enjoyed the company of the editor. Once the business portion of the lunch was over, she and Ben chatted a bit about her career as a journalist and how it had stalled out, thus the reason she was working at an insurance company. Before she knew it, they were back in the car and heading back to the paper; as always after she ate, the twins were all over her stomach, kicking and punching and stretching. At one point she swore they were having a soccer match in there and she let out a sigh as one of them once again kicked her bladder and almost made her pee her pants. These were the things that people didn't really tell you about being pregnant and she was learning as she went. Logan saw her discomfort and asked her if everything was ok.

"Yeah, we just have two little soccer players that seem to think my bladder is the soccer ball." After she said it, she realized that she had just said 'we' as in her and Logan, she just confirmed for him that he was the dad, in the back of a limo, with some guy she had just met that afternoon sitting across from her… well this was awkward.

"Can I feel?" he asked tentatively, not sure how she would react, but really wanting to be able to feel what she did.

"You can try, they like to be stubborn and stop moving as soon as anyone puts their hand on my stomach. Grandma has tried several times, and has yet to feel them kick." She grabbed his hand and put it where one of the babies was playing the drums on her kidneys. "Let's see if they cooperate." As soon as he put his hand on her stomach, both babies started kicking and punching, it was amazing. She looked at him and his eyes were so wide and he just got that huge smile on his face that he had when he was truly happy.

"That is so amazing Ace!" He didn't want to move his hands; feeling his babies move around inside of her stomach was the single most amazing thing he had ever experienced. He looked into her face and just smiled; this felt right and he felt so happy. The past few years had been a mess, but this, THIS was his future and he knew that tonight at dinner he had to make it very clear to her that he did not intend to go anywhere; in fact, he intended to finally marry her and be a family, something that he had been wanting for the last decade.

The two of them were so lost in their own world that they had completely forgotten the Ben was in the car. He just sat across from the two of them and smiled, not wanting to ruin the moment for them. This certainly was not what he had expected today when he was planning out a meeting to go over a new insurance policy, in fact he was pretty sure that this was the most exciting insurance policy meeting he had ever had.

The car pulled up in front of the Valley News and they both crashed back into reality; Rory blushed when she realized what an intimate moment Ben had witnessed between her and Logan, but couldn't quite find it in her to really care that much. Frank came around and opened the door, Logan got out first and then helped Rory out of the car, which was obviously very uncomfortable for her, and then Ben followed behind the two. Rory turned to Ben and exchanged pleasantries and she told him that she would have the new policy e-mailed over the next day for his final review. Ben thanked her again and then headed inside, making himself scarce so Logan and Rory could have an obviously much-needed conversation. He still couldn't believe that he had witnessed such an amazing reunion that day; he was a romantic at heart, something that his wife loved to pick at him about, and seeing the obvious love between those two had warmed his heart so completely. He pulled out his phone and called his wife, just to tell her how much he loved her, then headed back inside and got back to work; although he had a feeling that Logan Huntzberger would not be joining him for the rest of the day.

Logan and Rory just stood there and looked at one another. Neither knew what to say, neither knew how to react to the situation they were in. Logan spoke first. "Do you want to come back to my house? I think it would be better to talk about all of this there than at a restaurant."

He gave her that look, that look he always gave her that felt like it pierced her soul, like her mind and heart and soul were wide open to him. She could do little more than nod, and then she finally found her voice. "Yea, I think that would be a good idea." She said barely above a whisper; then she cleared her throat "I know you have Frank here, but I have my car. Do you want me to follow you, or do you just want to drive me over?" She wasn't sure how to approach this situation; he obviously wasn't upset at her for not telling him; although in her defense, she could honestly say that she had tried but his phone was turned off and she had no idea he had moved only 3 hours away, also he could have called her at any point in time to let her know the engagement was off, to let her know that they had a real shot, but she had told him no, she had said goodbye, a final goodbye, told him that they were done, over, no more, even though she hadn't meant a word of it. Her internal rant probably would have continued indefinitely if he hadn't spoken at that moment.

"I can drive you over to my house, Frank could use an early day." With that he walked over and told Frank that he wouldn't need him for the rest of the day and arranged for him to pick him up the next morning since his car was at the paper. Rory didn't need to know that he had only had Frank for the afternoon; he didn't want to leave her side. He walked back over to where she was standing, her legs a little bit wider than normal and one hand on her lower back while the other idly rubbed her stomach; he was overcome by her beauty and his breath caught in his throat. She continued to be the most beautiful woman he had ever met in his life and now she was carrying his children. He felt terrible that he hadn't been there for the first six months of her pregnancy. That was something they should have experienced together; she never should have had to do it alone. He kicked himself for all the times that he started to call her and didn't, it hadn't even occurred to him that she would be trying to call him on a cell that he turned off as soon as he moved back to the states. He walked up to her and put his hands on either side of her stomach and looked down into her eyes; he saw a glint of tears and he hated to see her cry. With one hand he reached up and wiped the tear off of her face and leaned in and kissed her cheek where it had once been laying. "Please don't cry Rory, you know it kills me when you cry."

She looked up into his eyes and was overcome by the love she saw in them; despite everything that had happened since the day that she turned down his proposal, she knew he still loved her and she still loved him. "Don't worry, they are tears of happiness. I am just so glad to see you Logan. I have hated doing this alone, I have wished you were here every second of every day." A few more tears made their way down her cheeks and he gently wiped them away with his thumb, cupping her jaw in his hand. She knew that they needed to break the mood, after all they were standing in front of a newspaper building in the middle of the afternoon; this was hardly the place for this. "So," she cleared her throat "I am parked right over there, are you ready to go?"

Her statement served its purpose and the mood was broken, but the contact between them was not. With his arm still around her, they started walking over to the parking lot. "Which one is yours?" he asked, expecting to see her old Prius.

She got out her keys and unlocked her SUV, the headlights blinking to indicate which one it was. "This one right here." She smiled at him; she could see the look of disbelief on his face as he took in her SUV that had cost her close to $100K; she knew he never expected her to be driving something like this and she could only imagine the look on his face when she told him that she had moved into the Gilmore mansion as well. "I had to get something safe and family friendly for the twins. My Grandma helped me pick this one out while we were on FaceTime and we were both 'building' cars on the Internet. When I went to the dealership and saw it, I fell in love with it instantly and just had to have it. What do you think?" she asked him, feigning ignorance at just how out of character it was for her to 1. FaceTiming and making big decisions with her grandmother and 2. spending this much money on a vehicle.

"I think it is a beautiful vehicle Ace, if I were picking out a car for you, this is exactly what I would have picked." Then he looked at her and gave her that smirk of his that always made her weak in the knees. "I also think we have a lot of catching up to do; seems like a lot of life changes have happened in the last 6 months."

"You don't know the half of it mister!" she responded. He walked around to the passenger side and opened her door for her. It was so much easier for her to get up into the SUV than it had been to get in the car earlier, but he still helped her and she didn't complain. This felt good. It felt really really good.