1 He stood by the door, staring out the window. Waiting for Lorelai and Luke to come and give him the letter. He had already arranged to swap cars with his neighbor. They would never recognize this car as his, so they would never notice him following them. He hated Lorelai so much right then. She had called, told him Rory was missing, she thought she knew where she was, but he couldn't come see her, because she was running away from him. He didn't believe that. Rory would never run away from him. Maybe she'd been kidnaped, and one condition of the ransom was that he couldn't help, although why anyone would do that was beyond him. Possibly the LDB as some joke on him. He had thought it over at least 5 times before Lorelai's jeep pulled up. She walked up and rang the bell. "I'm sorry, Logan. I wish you could come, but you can't." He nodded silently. Those words cemented his kidnaping theory. He took the envelope, watched them pull out, and snuck to the car. He followed them North as discreetly as he could.
He slipped into the Cheshire Cat just in time to hear Lorelai say, "Rory Gilmore. Lorelai Gilmore. Dean Forester. I don't know what it would be under. Maybe they used an alias. She's about 5' 7" brown hair and blue eyes. He's about 6' 2" brown hair and brown eyes."
"Yes, Rory Gilmore, room 3."
"Oh, good, so no alias. Thank you so much!" He followed her and Luke up the stairs. Dean Forester. Her ex. She was kidnaped by her ex. That made sense, too, maybe more than a LDB prank. He saw them bang on the door, he saw it swing open, revealing Rory and Dean. Lorelai hugged Rory, sobbing into her hair, pulling her closer, Dean and Luke smiling at them. They walked into the room, starting to close it behind them. Seeing his chance evaporating, he dove, and managed to stick his foot in the door, kicking it open.
"Mom! You brought him!" Rory yelled.
"I did not bring him! I told him he couldn't come with us, and I looked for his car the whole way! I don't know how he got here!"
"Well, if you looked for my car the whole way, then it's very good I traded with a neighbor for the weekend." He says smugly. He outsmarted her mother. He turns to Rory, the reason he came. "It's okay," he tells her, "you can come home with me now, you don't have to worry about that silly superstition thing." He feels her wrench out of his grasp.
"No!" She says sharply, her word cutting like a knife, but he doesn't feel the pain. He knows it's only a show to keep that Dean punk from hurting her.
"What do you want? Money? A job?" He turns to Dean. "Anything you want, you can have it, but Rory's coming back with me."
"If she wants to." He responds easily, holding out his hand, and pulling Rory in towards him when she takes it.
"What does he have on you, Ace?" He asks desperately, grabbing at straws. "Whatever it is, I'll forgive you for it. I'll still love you, just come back with me!"
"How dare you?" he can feel her rage although the words are barely more than a whisper. "How dare you come in here and accuse Dean of anything? I asked him to come away with me, not the other way around! He didn't even think about making me do anything I didn't want to!"
"Whatever you want from me Rory, whatever you want, I'll give it to you."