Title: Taking a header or staying the course

Author: Joy

A/N: Thank you guys so much for all the reviews. I felt so welcomed back to the community. I am taking a breather from writing my Harry Potter epic (no one laugh). I needed something new to work on for a bit...so here I am. I have another ROGAN story mainly written but its not ready and I have an idea for a third which I don't think will come to fruition since Harry Potter fans are slightly demanding...but what can I say, I'm one too.

PLEASE READ: No one panic but you won't get to see Rory and Logan together this chapter. I'm not talking everything made up kind of together...I mean physically in the same space type of together. As I said before – NO ONE PANIC.

Chapter 2: Staying the course

Lorelai did not like her sleep disturbed. Everyone knew this. Sleep was something to be savored...like coffee. However her sleep was disturbed when a small gremlin in the form of her only daughter was creeping around downstairs.

"What's going on?" she asked plainly. Rory turned and Lorelai could see the dried tears on her face. "Oh baby what happened and who do I need to kill."

Rory shook her head, "Don't worry mama. I brought this on myself. I just need a little time at home...away from Yale."

"Do we need ice cream?" Lorelai asked.

"Tomorrow...tonight I just want to sleep."

"No talking now?"

"Not yet," the younger Gilmore said. "All of it tomorrow...Goodnight, mom."

"Night sweets.

Rory's arrival in the middle of the night was something for her mother to worry over. Rory may not have been ready to talk about it but Lorelai was fairly certain it had something to do with limo boy.

In the wee hours of the morning the Gilmore's home phone rang annoyingly. "What?" Lorelai snapped. "It is seven in the morning, I didn't get much sleep and I have not had coffee."

"Sorry Lorelai...its Luke."

She sat straight up in bed, "Hey...Hey...What's going on?"

"The boy Rory was making out with at your parents wedding thing is wandering on foot, mind you, around town. In fact...he just got off a bus."

"You are kidding."

"No...I wish I were. The only thing his presence could possibly mean is..."

Lorelai smiled, "He loves Rory."

"I was going to say he was going to try to buy our town, but yours works too." Luke paused, "Well... um... that's it. I thought you should know."

"Thanks... Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"I miss you...I miss us. I miss talking."

"So do I Lore."

Lorelai sighed, "What can we do?"

Luke thought, "You could come by and we could talk...plan an attack strategy for the socialite in our midst."

"I'll be there soon. Don't put him in a headlock."

Logan wandered around Star's Hollow...just walking...taking in the atmosphere. Rory had been wrong; he did own a couple pairs of jeans, he just chose not to wear them. However jeans and the bus seemed the most appropriate things to do considering.

Logan had never gone back to sleep. He just thought for a long while, walked around campus not wanting to back to his dorm. Eventually he made a very important phone call. He called his dad.

Most people had parents that slept regular hours but Mitchum Huntzberger was not one of them. It had been a long time since they had actually talked about anything that truly mattered. Mitchum, despite popular belief, really only wanted Logan to do something...other than make his old man live in fear of the day he knocked some strumpet up. He pushed writing because it was his business and his son actually wrote very well. Things had been strained since the Figi incident; after that Mitchum had written Logan off as a screw up with only himself to blame for spoiling the kid.

Logan had not been entirely sure where to begin...he also didn't know his father's general attitude toward Lorelai. This was ultimately important due to the closeness of Rory and her mother. The cruces of the conversation was as follows... 'Dad you know how you want me to settle down? Well I found the perfect girl but she doesn't want to be high society.' He could still hear his father laugh, "I knew Lorelai's daughter would be the one to catch you." After that the conversation had gone pretty smoothly. Rory was a woman of substance with a good name and good breading but at the same time was very much her own person. Mitchum was far and away more interested in his son's suggestion of actual employment than anything else.

So now Logan looked around the town that had raised the girl he was in love with and saw the charm and comfort it afforded. People moved about eyeing him quizzically before a rather round Latino woman came up to him, "You look a bit lost. Are you lost?"

"Not really...I'm just trying to get a feel for the town," he responded pleasantly.

"And what brings you here?" the woman asked with an odd look in her eyes.

Logan smiled, "My girlfriend actually. She was raised here. I wanted to try to understand her background a little."

Now the woman looked beyond curious, "And your girlfriend is?"

"Rory Gilmore."

Elation and recognition filled her face. "Yale boy," she murmured. "I am Miss Patty. I teach dance in town...Aren't you a handsome one? Then again Rory always dated handsome boys."

Logan was beginning to find the whole conversation rather disturbing.

Sensing his discomfort Miss Patty stated, "Now if you want to understand Rory I suggest you walk right through those doors."

"Why is that?" Logan asked.

"Because," she smiled, "her mother is at the counter feeding her caffeine addiction and her surrogate father runs the place."

"Thank you Miss Patty."

"Anytime...I didn't catch your name."

"Logan...Logan Huntzberger."

"It was a pleasure."

Logan walked into Luke's diner no worse for wear and sat next to Lorelai. "Ms. Gilmore?"

Lorelai and Luke both looked at him like he nuts. "Call me that again and I will convince my daughter to withdraw kissing privileges from you... By the way what did you do in the middle of the night that would cause my daughter to flee from school?"

"I basically said I didn't want to have a causal relationship anymore."

"So why are you here?" Luke snipped.

Logan shook his head, "No, I mean I want a commitment... all strings attached... relationship. Rory however saw her future as being swallowed into New Haven society and decided to flee...in the middle of the night."

Lorelai thought it over, "Thus being why there is no limo in the near vicinity, you took the bus, and you are experimenting with denim."

Logan shrugged, "I never wanted to be my dad...but now I have a reason to not allow myself to get sucked into it... I think my father is wanting to put Rory up for Sainthood."

"Why?" Luke asked skeptically.

"Because I told him I wanted to do less free loading."

Lorelai smiled, "She's worth it and the effort."

"I know... I just have to hope to convince her that I am."

Lorelai looked to Luke who rolled his eyes handing over a large cup of coffee and chocolate muffin. "Thanks kid, you are keeping me in caffeine."

"I am?"

"Don't worry about the complexities of the home town situations just yet... It's still very early in the morning. Luke...who should we start with?"

"Have him meet Kirk or Taylor if that doesn't send him running then follow it up with Miss Patty or Babette."

Logan smiled, "I have already met Miss Patty."

"Did she pinch your butt?" Lorelai asked out of left field.

"No. Was she supposed to?" he asked in confusion.

Lorelai shrugged, "She is in the habit...Did you lay claim to Rory somewhere in your conversation?"

"Yes...I called her my girlfriend."

"Then there is the reason."

Logan looked at Lorelai then Luke to see if she was kidding.

"Don't ask kid. I learned a long time ago, we are a very weird little group...Even our transplants are nuts," Luke stated pointing at Lorelai.

"But that's part of my charm."

"It also the part that brought you here away from...them," he said gesturing at Logan.

Lorelai gave him a look of disapproval. Luke rolled his eyes and turned to Logan. "I don't particularly care for your kind. I am always insulted or demeaned, and yet I keep going back because I love her," he pointed at Lorelai. "Please excuse my disgruntled attitude and general annoyance with your company. So far you haven't done anything to make me hate you, yet your presence only alerts me to the fact that I will have yet another reason to have to deal with your kind...Its very disconcerting."

Lorelai looked rather overwhelmed by the sentiments expressed but remained quiet.

Logan however just looked curiously confused, "You basically were Rory's dad weren't you?" Now both Lorelai and Luke were looking at him like he was nuts. He shrugged, "I'm just saying the cultural references abound from the lovely lady to my right...yet deadpan delivery of factual yet caustic remarks seems to be all you."

"You have obviously not seen Emily Gilmore in a state," Lorelai commented.

Logan smiled, "But she wasn't around enough for that to be where Rory picked it up from." This statement left Lorelai and Luke a bit stunned. It seemed the concept while accepted was previously unacknowledged.

To shift the focus a bit Logan said, "Hey, can I get some coffee myself?"

Luke rolled his eyes, "This is not good." Logan looked at him confused. "If you actually stick this out I will go from supplying two coffee addicts to three... Ya know what before passing judgment on this I say he has to sit through a Gilmore movie night."

"Will you be joining us Luke?" Logan asked on instinct hoping for some male solidarity even if the guy disliked him.

"Yeah Luke," Lorelai said softly, "Are you joining us?"

Luke held her eyes, "I wouldn't miss it."

Logan had a vague notion that something was up but he didn't know enough details to quite pick up on everything, but neither party were set to kill him or try to marry Rory off so it was fine with him.

Logan spent the next hour walking around with Lorelai, seeing where Rory grew up, hearing stories of a childhood he envied. He heard about Rory's dance lessons, lack of musical talent but excellent musical taste, and the strange traditions of the town like the basket bidding thing and the re-enactment troop. Logan met Mrs. Kim, Taylor, Kirk, Miss Patty again, Babette and Morey. They stopped in and saw Sookie, Jackson and Davie. Logan had never actually held a person in baby form before so it was a bit intimidating.

However as much as he knew Lorelai was enjoying watching him squirm, Logan knew she was trying to let him see that appearances were things for other people. This town was a very weird, very real, very homey community and by making this effort he was accepted into their midst...so there was still hope.

TBC...

A/N: Next chapter Rory and Logan will finish their talk.

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