Chapter Thirteen

Rory was the most comfortable she had ever been in her entire life. It felt like she was laying on a cloud, a warm and cozy cloud. She was so comfortable that she didn't want to get out of bed, but her phone was an arm's length away quietly chirping her wake up song. She wished that she could stay in the bed for a few more hours at least, but she had places to be. She'd promised to help her mom at the flower market, and it was some sort of well-known secret that, in order for you to actually be successful at the flower shop, you had to get there before the crack of dawn.

With an annoyed groan, Rory rolled out of bed and grabbed her phone. She quickly looked around for her clothes, strewn across the room, and headed into the bathroom to get changed and prepared for the day. Luckily, her mother had no idea what she'd worn yesterday, so there would be no walk of shame for her.

Satisfied with her appearance, Rory quickly pulled out her phone to check train times and, realising that if she wanted to make her appointment with her mom she'd have to rush, she headed out the door. However, before she let it close behind her, Rory took a second to glance one last time at the contently sleeping Logan. He looked so peaceful, and also incredibly attractive, in his current state and Rory had to fight the urge to crawl back into bed and wake him up.

With a final, determined breath, Rory let the door close and headed off into the morning.

The train was surprisingly quiet. Though, as Rory's sleep-fog addled brain slowly booted up with the coffee she was readily fueling it with, she realised that it probably wasn't that surprising. She was after all, leaving New York and heading for Connecticut. Everyone else who was on the train right now would be going in the opposite direction. Rory took another large sip of coffee, hoping that she could be a better functioning person by the time she met up with her mom.

Rory looked out the window and momentarily grumbled about the fact that she was up before the sun, but then brightened at the prospect of spending the day with her mother. Lorelai always made Rory feel better, not to mention that Lorelai was always the person that Rory turned to when she needed advice or was conflicted. Not that she was particularly conflicted or in need of advice at that moment.

Her life was definitely chaotic, and definitely not idyllic at that moment. She had an assignment at work that didn't seem to be progressing at all. Her secret, that she had carefully kept for the past ten years without raising any suspicion (or at least no one openly questioned her about it), was precariously close to being revealed to the last person she wanted to know it. Really, it was only her personal life that seemed easy and to be going her way.

She was enjoying her time with Logan. She wasn't fretting about how he saw her or where their relationship might be going. Logan was comfortable, someone she had once known extremely well and still felt like she knew fairly well. Being with him felt like slipping back into an idealized time in her past when things were easier, and she didn't have the same worries and stresses. Plus, it was just fun. At one point, Rory might have seen herself ending up with Logan, in rocking chairs on a porch as the image went. Now, however, she wasn't worried about the future; she was just having fun in the present.

No, she didn't need her mother's advice. She would be able to figure everything out. She was sure of it. With this decision, Rory relaxed into her seat on the train, downed mouthfuls of coffee, and watched the sun rise over the beautiful landscape out her window. Today, she thought, would be a good day.

Waking up next to Logan and then spending the morning shopping with her mother was the high point of her week. It was all downhill from there. She wasn't sure what she was expecting; good things usually didn't continue to happen. At best, after a few amazing, potentially life-altering events, life normally returned to monotony at best and terrible awfulness at worst. Rory landed somewhere in between.

She was back to her normal rhythm with her son, making sure he ate and got enough sleep. The was the part of her life that was more in the monotony realm than the terrible awfulness realm. Though Ricky had always been easy. He needed very little to make him happy (really a book and not a lot else), and mostly parenting him revolved around making sure his basic needs were met.

Where the terrible awfulness was rearing its ugly head was in her work. She hadn't found anything incriminating, or even remotely questionable in the minimal amount of digging she'd managed to do. Logan Enterprises was wrapped up tighter than a newborn baby. Aside from whatever leaks had spawned this story (and Rory was feeling more and more like there may not have been a leak in the first place), there was no negative information getting out about the company.

She'd gone to all her regular sources, insiders that had their ears and eyes open all the time, that knew every little secret and goings-on in every business. She'd gone snooping around the SCC to see if they had heard anything, and maybe even tried to suggest that they start. She'd even sent at least a hundred messages, emails, and texts to the source, that had sought her out she reminded herself. All of it resulted in a big pile of nothing. She'd gotten so frustrated that she even considered covertly asking Logan about it.

Initially, she thought she could use Logan as a sort of unaware informant. That she could prod him for information when he wasn't suspecting it and that maybe he would give away something that she could use in her story. Then she'd started dating him and all of those thoughts had gone out the window. She was going to keep her personal life and her work life separate. The Logan Huntzberger she was dating had nothing to do with the Huntzberger Enterprises she was investigating. It wasn't easy, but it was keeping her sane.

Except that it meant that while her romantic, personal life was flourishing, her work life was slowly dying. Maybe, though that wasn't a bad thing. Maybe she wasn't finding something because there was nothing to find. Her story would die, and she would have one less thing that she was keeping from Logan.

Then, there were things with her mother. The wedding planning itself was going quite well. Lorelai and Rory had quickly found an absolute beautiful combination of flowers that would make up the bouquets and other decorations. Sookie would be handling the menu and the cake; she would be making all the culinary decisions and even if Rory and Lorelai tried to persuade her otherwise, they would be unsuccessful at making their voices heard. So that was one less thing that Rory had to worry about.

What was really concerning Rory was whether or not her mother and grandmother would end up murdering each other before the wedding was able to happen. Rory essentially had to play the role of referee, keeping the peace between the two. Rory had to remind her grandmother that it was Lorelai's wedding and not Emily's. Her grandmother would not get the final say in the decision making process and when Lorelai made a choice that Emily wouldn't have, Rory had to remind her grandmother that it wasn't the older Gilmore woman's place to make a comment about it. And, Rory had to remind her mom that Emily Gilmore had missed so much of their lives that she know came across a little desperate, but it would be worse if Lorelai cut out her mother altogether. Emily would not take kindly to being left out and it would be a bigger headache.

So, Rory was forced to play the go-between and the peacekeeper to ensure that both the bride and the mother of the bride made it to wedding day.

It had all added up to a pretty terrible week and Rory spent most of her time counting down the days until the weekend. Logan had texted her on Wednesday, when she was with her mother and her grandmother, so she hadn't looked at it right away. He had told her to prepare for the weekend, to find someone to look after her son, and then given her instructions on what to wear. Those instructions involved a warm sweater, a scarf, and to pack some active wear. Rory had no idea what he had planned, but the mere idea of a romantic weekend made it possible for Rory to solider through her week.

"Thanks for doing this for me mom," Rory said as she passed over Ricky's things over to Lorelai. Rory knew that her mother was giving her an intense, questioning look, wondering where her daughter was going for the weekend and with whom, but Rory didn't meet her mother's stare and therefore didn't feel the full effects. Rory hadn't wanted to involve her mom; Lorelai had never been a big fan of Logan and had, in fact, been quite delighted when they had initially broken up. She really didn't want to have her mother's judgement about their current relationship and had tried to keep it from her mother. However, she hadn't been able to find anyone in New York willing and able to give up their weekend to look after Ricky and had been forced to turn to her mother.

"No problem. I love having Ricky come and visit and I get to spend an entire weekend with him. It will be a great time." Lorelai responded, still staring at her daughter. Rory, feeling her resolve begin to weaken and the urge to cave into her mother's desire strengthening, knew she had to leave quickly.

"Well, I have to get back to the city-" Rory began to speak, laying down her escape when she heard the sound of tires on her mother's gravel driveway. At first, she thought it was someone coming to visit Lorelai (though most people in Stars Hallow would have just walked), but the surprised look on her mother's face negated that. Slowly, and with an increasing dread, Rory turned around to see Logan Huntzberger's sleek town car driving up towards the pair.

'What is he doing here?' Rory shouted inside her head. She may have mentioned the fact, very offhandedly, that she would be dropping off her son at her mother's house before she could leave for the weekend, but she didn't think that Logan would show up there!

"So, this person that's taking you away for the weekend," Lorelai began, her tone not betraying anything. Rory knew that her mother knew who owned the car (the customized license plate was anything but subtle) but she didn't know what her mother thought of it. Her tone gave away no hint of whether or not she disapproved.

"It's just a fun, fling thing. Nothing serious," Rory began to explain, her speech hurried and a little slurred as a result. "And I'm keeping my story and my romantic life completely separate. Besides, I don't think there even is a story. I'm starting to think that this was all some cruel joke that Miranda came up with. She must have figured out that we used to date and did this to see me squirm or something."

"I just hope you remember what happened ten years ago," was all her mother said before turning back into the house. The phone had begun to ring, and Rory was also pretty sure that her mom didn't want to have to interact with Logan.

With her mother in the house, Rory turned back to the town car. It had come to a stop just inches behind the bumper of Lorelai's jeep. A man in a dapper outfit had gotten out of the driver's seat and made his way down the car and was in the process of opening up the back door. Rory couldn't help but roll her eyes at the whole show. She quickly jumped down the stairs and walked over to the car. She arrived just as Logan got out and he quickly swept her into a romantic kiss that left Rory's head spinning a little.

"I've missed you," he spoke, his voice low and husky. Rory felt her knees start to go weak and was internally grateful that Logan had his arm wrapped around her. Without it she was almost positive she would have become a puddle on the leaf strewn ground beneath her.

"You didn't have to come here. I hadn't exactly told my mom that I would be spending the weekend with you," Rory responded once she had regained control of her malfunctioning body parts. She tried to make her tone sound light and jokey, like it wasn't a big deal that he had basically outed her to her mother. She wasn't really upset; Lorelai would have found out eventually because Rory didn't keep things from her mother (her one large secret aside).

"No, mom. You don't need to do that!" Lorelai's loud, slightly panicky voice suddenly rang out from the house. Rory turned back, wondering what her grandmother had tried to do know that had her mother so distraught. She didn't have to wait too long, as once again the sound of tires on gravel filled the air.

'Oh no! Not Grandma too!' Rory thought. She momentarily wondered if she could get away with shoving Logan into the car and driving away before her grandmother's town car pulled all the way up, but she knew that wasn't a possibility. Not only would her mom know that she was seeing Logan Huntzberger again, but so would her grandmother.

Lorelai came rushing out of the house, phone clutched to her ear, and stood beside Logan and Rory, panic clearly written on her face. Rory smiled slightly apologetically at her mother. She hoped this whole Logan thing wouldn't throw too big of a wrench in the relationship between Lorelai and Emily. It had actually been quite cordial as of late; the wedding planning could have been so much worse than it was and both women were doing a commendable job of at least hearing out the other side before making their choice. Logan, and the potential secret-keeping that he implied, could implode all of that.

As Emily's car pulled to a stop and her window wound down, both Lorelai and Rory hurried over to greet the elder Gilmore girl.