Chapter 19: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Panic rising in her heart, Rory rushed to her room where Logan was

sitting on the bed.

"Logan, Ella's gone! Someone's taken her," Rory exclaimed, unshed tears

and panic strangling her voice.

"I know, I just read the letter who ever did this left," Logan replied

grimly, handing her the piece of paper he clutched. With shaking hands,

Rory took the letter from him. Immediately, she recognized the

scrawling handwriting.

"It's Dean," Rory whispered in disbelief. "Dean stole my baby girl!"

"Why would he steal our daughter?" Logan asked.

"I don't know. All I know is he wants me to come to the place where he

first told me he loved me, alone, tomorrow after dark," Rory replied.

"Logan, I'm scared."

"Why are you scared, baby?" Logan asked, wrapping his arms around her

and pulling her to him. Rory snuggled her head into his shoulder before

answering through soft sobs.

"My baby girl is out there with a man who could want anything. Dean

jealous is scary. I can only pray he won't do anything to hurt her.

Logan, I want my baby!"

"I know, Ace. I know. It'll be ok. This time tomorrow, Ella will be

sound asleep in her bed, looking like the little angel she is, with no

harm done," Logan soothed, rubbing gentle circles around her back.

"Should we call your parents, mom and Luke, the grandparents, or your

siblings? Should we wake Dad up? Should we call the police? What do we

do, Logan?"

"Let me handle it, Ace. My dad's got some powerful friends. We'll get

to the bottom of this."

&&&&&&&&

Logan made all the necessary calls, and by 9 in the morning, he and his

father's friends in the FBI had worked out a plan. Everyone was

worried, but they were all stoic. Rory sat numbly on the couch, talking

a little to Elizabeth who had rushed to the apartment as soon as she

had heard, smiling indulgently at Finn and Colin as they tried to keep

spirits up, talking to her mom and Lane on the phone and rereading the

note. Finally Logan came in from the kitchen where he'd been talking to

the agents and came over to her. He squatted down in front of her and

took her hands in his before speaking.

"Ok, Ace, here's the plan. You're going to go to the junkyard tomorrow

and meet Dean. I'll be hiding somewhere near the entrance with Finn and

Colin, Nelson and Cash will be with in hearing distance. You'll go in

and talk to Dean. If he gets a bit rough, or anything like that, Finn,

Colin and I will come in. Once we've got Ella, Nelson and Cash will

arrest Dean. Are you ok with that?"

"Anything to get my baby back, Logan. When do we leave?"

"That's my girl," Logan said, smiling as much as he could, relieved he

hadn't had to cajole her into this at all.

&&&&&&&&

The lights on the fence of the junkyard cast the same eerie light on

the piles of old, rusting machinery in had nearly 8 years before. Rory

moved hesitantly through the opening in the gate and began searching

for signs of Dean and her daughter. She didn't have to look long.

"Good, you've followed my instructions," a deep voice murmured from

behind her as she walked through the main aisle through the wreckage.

Startled, she whipped around.

"Dean!" she exclaimed. "Where's my daughter?"

"She's right there," Dean said, pointing to the clearing at the end of

the aisle. Rory looked to where he indicated and saw Ella gagged and

tied sitting on a barrel in the clearing. Upon seeing her mother, she

began to wiggle around.

"What do you want from me, Dean? What will it take for you to let Ella

go?"

Dean chuckled hollowly, reaching out and roughly pulling Rory to him.

"It's simple, Rory. I've always known that you should have been mine.

Ella should have been my daughter. You should have been my wife, and now

you will be."

"Are you crazy, let me go!" Rory cried, struggling against him.

"Let her go, farm boy!" Logan's voiced boomed from behind them. Dean

turned to see Logan, Finn, and Colin storming towards them. He quickly

turned Rory so that her back was to him and his arm was around her

neck. With his other hand he pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at

Logan's heart.

"Stop right there, Huntzberger!" he ordered.

"Why are you doing this, Forrester? What do you want with Rory and our

daughter?"

"Well it was like I was just telling Rory here. She and Ella should

have been mine from the beginning and now they will be. First Jess

stole Rory, and then just when I had gotten her back and things were

going good with us, you stole her."

"She chose Jess over you and then you dumped her, quite embarrassingly I

might add, and 3 months later, she chose me. After that, she chose to

have my baby, our daughter, hers and mine. Why do you want them?"

"You think you're a real wise guy don't you? Well, then here are your

options Rory. You and Ella can stay with me and Logan lives, or you and

Ella can go free, but Huntzberger dies," Dean snarled, his voice

sounding a bit crazed.

"Dean, why are you doing this? I love Logan. Ella adores Logan. Logan

loves us both. Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to cause us

pain?"

"Because you've caused me pain!" Dean exclaimed.

"It's ok, Ace. If he needs to hurt someone, let it be me. You and Ella

will be better off with out me, rather than with him. Mom and Dad will

look after you guys and Ella won't want for anything. Just let her know

her daddy loved her more than anything," Logan said stoically.

"No, Logan. Dean, how has a 2 year old little girl caused you pain? How

have I done anything to purposefully cause you pain? How has Logan

caused you pain? You once said you loved me, if you still love me at

all, let us go! " Rory pleaded.

Dean sat there, his gaze darting between Logan and his silent friends,

Rory, and Ella. After what seemed like an eternity, he lowered the gun.

"Go! Just go! If you love him more than me, go!" Dean yelled, pushing

Rory so hard she stumbled into Logan's arms. As soon as he let go of

Rory, Agents Nelson and Cash appeared behind him and started reading

him his rights. After clinging to Logan for a moment, Rory dashed over

to her daughter, Logan close on her heels. He whipped out his pocket

knife and sawed off the ropes binding his daughter. With a cry of joy,

Ella tossed herself into her father's arms as soon as her bonds were

cut.

"Daddy! Mommy! I was so scawededed!" she exclaimed through sobs. "I

missed you and I wanted to see you and the mean man said I couldn't and

I twied not to cwy and I didn't. I don't evew want to weave you again"

"Don't worry, baby, you'll never have to until you want to. We're so

sorry this happened to you," Logan said huskily, tears in his chocolate

eyes as he and Rory hugged their daughter. Finn and Colin came over to

them after a couple of minutes.

"Logan, you're mum and Rory's just called from the house. Everyone's

waiting to welcome the princess back," Finn said.

"Ok," Logan said, his voice a bit stronger as he stood up, Ella still

clasped tightly in one arm, the other around Rory's shoulders.

&&&&&&&&

"God, I never realized how much Ella meant to me until today. I mean I

knew she was my whole world, but I didn't realize what it would feel

like to lose her, what it would feel like to almost lose you. I never

want to go through that again," Rory murmured as she and Logan curled

up on Lorelai's couch bed with Ella asleep between them, much later

that night after the family rejoicing over the return of the sweet

little 2 year old ray of sunshine.

"When I saw him whip out that gun, my heart skipped a beat. I never

knew 2 people could ever mean so much to me, but you and Ella have

become my…everything, Ace. I hope I never have to have that feeling

again. It just re-enforces how much I love you two and that this

wedding is going to be the best thing in the world for us and our

daughter."

A/N: Kinda cheesy ending, but I've satisfied my need for conflict.

PLEASE REVIEW! I won't be able to update for a few days, but as soon as

I'm back from New York I'll have a new chappie.