A/N: Ok, the Gilmore Clan will appear in the next chapter. This one will be about the Huntzbergers' reaction.
Chapter 8: Meet the Parents
RRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!
The shrill ring of her cell phone pierced into Rory's sleep induced coma. She and Logan had talked late into the night, reacquainting themselves. Logan wanted to know everything possible about Ella and Rory delighted in telling him. His whole face lit up. He had finally gone home around 1:30 in the morning and Rory had dragged herself to bed. Now, someone was daring to wake her up.
"What?" she groaned into the phone.
"Hello, my charming offspring," a familiar voice chirped perkily into the phone.
"How many?" Rory asked.
"How many what, my darling daughter?"
"How many cups of coffee have you snuck while Luke wasn't looking?"
"Oh, only 8 or 9. How have you been? How is my gorgeous grandbaby?"
"We are both fine, Mom. How's Luke?"
"Grouchy, but wonderful. Your little brother misses you."
"Tell Nat I'll be down next weekend to see you guys. Ella and I have some stuff to do, or else we would come down today."
"Hmm…any men in your life I should know about?"
Rory thought for a moment. Telling her mom about Logan's sudden return was not something she wanted to do over the phone.
"Maybe," she said vaguely. "We'll talk about it next week at Grandma's."
"You're no fun. Uh oh, I gots to go, my hubby spotted me and I'm on my cell phone. Bye toots."
Rory laughed and dragged herself out of bed. Before her feet touched her floor, she heard Ella's happy giggles. She smiled and shrugged on her well worn terry cloth robe she kept in the chair by her bed. As her hand touched the handle, she heard a familiar deep, rich voice that was not her father's. Logan. Her smile widened as she opened the door. Logan was sitting on the floor with his back to the couch, reading a book to Ella and Gigi. Ella was sitting on his lap, her white-blonde hair tickling his chin, one of her dolls clutched under one arm. Gigi was curled up next to Logan, her head resting on his chest next to Ella's, his arm was looped around her small figure. From the sound of it, he was doing all the voices.
"What's going on in here?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out her eyes and yawning.
"Daddy read Mommy!" Ella informed her happily.
"Yea, Rory, Logan's reading to us. And he does the voices better than Lorelai!"
"Well, that's quite a compliment for you Mr. Huntzberger. What are you doing here this early though?" Rory asked, sitting down on the couch.
"Good morning to you too, Sleeping Beauty. Its not that early and I am here to spend time with my 3 favorite girls. We let you sleep in. Your dad had to go to work."
"Let me get dressed and we can go get these 2 monkeys breakfast."
"Great."
They spent all Sunday playing with the girls. Logan spoiled them shamefully, buying them presents, candy, anything they wanted.
"So what are you up to this week?" Logan asked as they walked back towards the apartment. Ella's head was lolling sleepily on Logan's shoulder. As she snuggled closer, he tightened his grip on her. He's turning out to be great with her.
"I've got a few stories to finish up at work, but other than that I'm free. On Friday, Ella and I have to drive down to my grandparents' house for dinner and then we're spending the weekend with Mom, Luke, and Nat. Why?"
"Just wondering. I sort of have to go to this thing on Wednesday for work, big social party and I was wondering if you would like to come."
"What about your parents? Won't they be curious as to why you've brought your ex-girlfriend from college who broke your heart 3 years ago?" Rory asked.
"Well, yes, but I don't care. I want you at this thing by my side. Besides, my parents will be too happy that I actually have a date, they won't care who it is," Logan replied.
"How're we going to tell them about Ella?"
"See that is another benefit of coming to this. We can tell them about Ella and they can't get too upset because all of Boston high society will be there."
"Sounds sneaky and underhanded, but it makes sense. I don't have anything I could wear to it though," Rory pointed out, grinning up at him.
"Leave that to me, Ace. Just have your hair done up and anything else that needs done, done," Logan said, confidently.
Wednesday night rolled around faster than Rory expected. Every day at 4:30, Logan would come up to Rory's little cubicle and bring her a cup of coffee. He would lounge against the carpet-fabriced partition while she gathered up her stuff and drank her coffee. He would drive with her to pick-up Ella and Gigi and then go home with them. He ate dinner with them and then he and Rory put Ella to bed together. Tuesday, he brought her a box and told her she couldn't open it until the next day. Wednesday, she picked up the girls alone, much to Ella's distaste.
"Mommy, where Daddy?" Ella demanded as she clung to Rory's leg.
"He's getting ready to go to a party. He and Mommy are going to hang out with grown ups tonight. Do you girls want to go home and help me get ready?"
Ella's mood brightened significantly after that. Rory went home and hopped in the shower. Gigi and Ella proceeded to play with her clothes and jewelry while she applied all the necessary make-up and styled her hair. Just as she put the bobby pin in place, the door bell rang.
"Girls, go and let Logan in. Tell him I'll be out in a few minutes," Rory told to the giggling little girls, who were still decked out in her clothes.
Rory smiled as she heard Logan talking to the girls. Turning to the bed, she opened the box that lay on it. In side was a sapphire blue, silk sheath dress with spaghetti straps and a modest sweetheart neckline. She grinned as she slid the dress onto her body. It fit like a glove. She was trying to zip it up when someone knocked on the door. Before she could respond, Logan came in.
"Can you help me with this?" she asked helplessly.
"Wow, Ace, you look…amazing," he said, zipping up the dress to cover up the tempting snow white skin. "But there's one thing missing."
"What?" Rory asked nervously.
"This," Logan said, reaching into his inside breast pocket and pulling out a long slender box.
"Logan, what's this?" she breathed, shooting him a questioning glance in the mirror.
"A present for you," he murmured as he opened the box and extracted its contents. Grinning like a little boy, he placed the sapphire and diamond heart-shaped pendant around her neck.
"Logan, its beautiful, but I can't accept this."
"Yes you can Ace. You can also accept these earrings that go with it," Logan informed her, holding out the matching baubles. Shaking her head in mock disbelief, Rory put the earrings on.
"Now how do I look?" she asked teasingly.
"You look absolutely exquisite," Logan replied huskily.
"You don't look too shabby yourself. It reminds me of my first experience with the LDB. Wait, there won't be any scaffolds there will there?"
"No, no scaffolds. Ready to go?"
"Yup, let's just say good night to Dad and the girls."
"Mommy, Daddy you look so pretty!" Ella breathed.
"Thank you, Princess Ella. Well, we must be off," Logan said sweeping Ella up in his arms. "Give us a kiss."
When Ella complied, he said "now Eskimo," and rubbed his nose to her small, slightly upturned one, "now Butterfly," brushing his golden eyelashes to hers.
"Good night, baby. Be good for Papa Chris," Rory admonished kissing her daughter's chubby cheek. "Don't wait up Dad."
Logan wrapped Rory's jacket around her and led her out to the waiting town car. A few minutes later they pulled up to the party. Logan escorted Rory inside with a protective arm wrapped around her slim waist.
Before they even checked their coats, Logan's parents had found them.
"Logan, darling," his mother gushed. "Who is your beautiful friend?"
"You remember Rory Gilmore, don't you Mother? She and I went out through most of our years at Yale," Logan said, flashing his mother a charming smile.
"Oh yes , yes of course. Forgive me Rory dear, I didn't recognize you for a moment. My, you certainly look gorgeous tonight. Doesn't she Mitchum?" she commented.
"Yes she does. I've seen your by-line in the Wall Street Journal. You're quite an accomplished young lady," Mitchum Huntzberger said genially.
"Well, I guess this is as good a time as any," Logan murmured to Rory. Doubtfully, she nodded.
"Good time for what, Logan?" his mother asked.
"Rory and I have something to tell you. You know the circumstances of why Rory and I broke up. Because of those circumstances, Rory felt it was best to keep something from me. Something important."
"What is it, son?" his father prompted.
"A month after we broke up, Rory found out she was pregnant. She had the baby, a beautiful little girl named Lorelai Elizabeth," Logan said bluntly.. "She's 2 now and as beautiful as her mother."
Rory steeled herself mentally during the silent moment.
"You're a father? Logan that's wonderful," Mitchum said proudly.
"We understand why you hid the child from Logan, my dear. We're so happy to know that we're grandparents," Mrs. Huntzberger said, beaming at her son as she embraced Rory.
"You must bring her around to see us," Mitchum insisted. "Now I know why you've been gone so much lately, Logan. This is wonderful news."
Rory and Logan stared at each other in disbelief. Logan's mother herded them into the main room and began introducing Rory to all of the people they came across. If telling the Huntzbergers was so easy, maybe telling the Gilmores would be easier.
A/N: Ok, kinda lame, I know, but since we've not actually met Logan's parents to date, I thought I'd make them nice and understanding parents. REVIEW PLEASE!!
