Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything up to Jews and Chinese Food is fair game. Past that, it's just where my mind takes over.
Teaser: When Rory and Logan's arrangement goes prematurely sour, his friends take it upon themselves to intervene. Sequel to Keeping it Casual
Story Title: Nothing A Good Friend Wouldn't Do
Chapter Title: The Peanut Gallery
AN: Sorry it took me so long to update. Time was non-existent the last two weeks, but now I'm back! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews from the last chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one!
"Paris," Rory sighed, almost relieved to have to deal with her outburst first. She could handle a Paris-tirade. It was more the parental and grandparental kind she was hoping to avoid too much of today.
"No, Rory. Seriously, this is just perfect. You and Biff can't decide who's prettier, and you go off to Fiji to decide, and now you guys are leaving everyone else in the lurch? Thanks a lot, I mean, what am I supposed to do next year? Find a new roommate? You know how much I hate people!"
Rory sighed, and looked to Logan. At Paris' rant, he sat back down, growing weary at the thought of hearing the girl's list of complaints. "We aren't going to live together to wreak havoc on your world, Paris."
"Then why, tell me that," Paris countered.
"I'll tell you why, this weasel put her up to it," Christopher chimed in.
"Chris, stop," Lorelai whispered in her most menacing under her breath tone.
"Oh, so you are encouraging her in this?" Emily turned to Lorelai.
"What? Okay, now I understand everyone's losing their minds here, but we need to round them up and regroup," Lorelai snapped at her mother and Chris.
"Why exactly are you doing this?" Mitchum's tone was unusually pleasant as he posed his inquiry.
"Okay, obviously I didn't stress the part about gathering the people that love us to celebrate our good news enough," Logan said loudly.
"What did you expect, mate, I mean, it is all a bit fast," Finn said from his seat next to him.
"Oh my God, you aren't," Emily stood up, staring directly at Rory before glaring at Logan.
"Mom, you will stop right now! They are in love, and they are moving in together, now drink your wine and shut up," Lorelai said.
"How are you okay with this? This isn't like Rory," Chris asked, looking at Lorelai, but pointing to the couple of honor.
"How would you know?"
All eyes moved to Logan, who now stood up again, glaring at Chris. All Gilmore women suffered from dropped jaws and an inability to speak. Even those who didn't know what a true feat that was sat in awe of the sight.
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing gives you the right to be so put out by this news," Logan informed the man.
"Nothing? I'm her father," he retorted.
"When it's convenient, sure, but think about this. She's happy; we're happy. Why can't you, her father, be happy about that?"
"There is no need for everyone to get so worked up, this isn't going to happen," Shira Huntzberger interjected.
"Can I say something?" Colin asked loudly, trying to drown out the nay-sayers.
"I wish you wouldn't," Emily shot him a look that clearly showed him that she hadn't forgotten his prior inquiry about Rory upon their arrival.
Logan let out a frustrated sigh and looked to his friend. "What?"
Colin cleared his throat and stood up, raising his glass as well. He smiled at the pair before looking out around the crowd.
"There have been a few of us in this room that were privileged enough to witness the struggle that was the inception of this relationship. I don't believe that the rest of you are grasping what an awesome feat you're bearing witness to today, in fact. So, allow us to enlighten you," he smiled as he spoke.
Rory looked from Colin to Logan, shock filling her expression. "What's he doing?" she whispered frantically into Logan's ear.
"I'm not sure, but go with it, Ace. I'll stop it if it gets out of hand."
"This isn't out of hand?" was her only retort, but both looked onto Colin and Finn, who now both stood in front of the gathered crowd.
"Col-Col is right," Finn announced, causing Stephanie, Lane, and Jill to snicker uncontrollably, despite the still unrivaled frustration on the older adults' faces. "These two have overcome incredible odds—their own pride and egos—to even get to the point where Logan here could call Gilmore his girlfriend without breaking into hives, and she could hear him say so much without strapping her track shoes on," he droned on. "We've put a lot of hard work, not to mention time that could have been spent on conquests of our own, into making them see that they were making us miserable with their insufferable moping after they called off their arrangement."
"Arrangement? What arrangement?" Emily spoke up.
"Uh, Emily, now isn't the time," Richard spoke up, eying Logan, and clearly understanding. Logan looked down, not wiling to make eye contact with the older gentleman.
"I am not going to sit here and listen to this," Chris shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as did Luke.
"I swear to God, Chris, if you don't stop," Lorelai threatened.
"Did you know she was off, having . . . arrangements with guys like this?"
"Finn and Colin, misguided as they sometimes are, have a point. These two were hopeless, until they finally got it," Jill stood next to Finn now, who nodded vigorously.
"See? A female agrees, that's endorsement," he acknowledged.
"Move this along, can we?" Logan asked under his breath. Stephanie stood as well, as if to add to the cause.
"They're good together, and they have asked us for our support. We all owe them that," she added.
"I still don't see why you have to move in together," Paris grumbled, knowing how miserable Rory had been during the limbo time of not seeing and getting back together with Logan.
"This is really what you want?"
Logan looked up, directly at his father. He nodded, and felt Rory take his hand under the table. The standing foursome smiled at the exchange and waited. Mitchum looked first to his wife, then to Lorelai. Lorelai bit her lip, and looked down, garnering more looks from Luke, who'd remained quiet all this time, Chris, and Emily as well.
"Then of course we'll celebrate this."
"You can't be serious!" Emily and Shira exclaimed at the same time. Their respective husbands put a hand to the women's forearms, in efforts to calm them, but to no avail.
"What are we supposed to tell people?" Shira asked her husband.
"This is not how things are done! If you want to live together, you get married!" Emily let her views be known.
"Mom, come on," Lorelai said softly.
"Just because you're living in sin doesn't mean that your daughter needs to follow in your unsuitable footsteps."
"Now, wait just a minute, Mom, first of all, I'm not living in sin, unless you think it's a sin that I live alone, because as soon as Rory here moves in with Logan, I will be."
"Really, Lorelai, no one asked for your opinion."
"Funny, I don't remember anyone asking for your opinion either, Mom."
"Okay, discussion time over," Rory stood up, not being able to take the in-fighting anymore. "It is perfectly clear to us who is willing to support our making decisions of our own free wills and who isn't. Grandma, Grandpa, I'm sure you might be disappointed at the sequence of which Logan and I are choosing to advance our relationship, but I thought you would be happy for me, for us. I love him, and we're being smart, and we want to be together, end of story. Mom, Dad," she looked for a moment at her father, who she felt angry with and sorry for at the same time after Logan's public chastising of him earlier, "I've always been able to count on you to support whatever I wanted, whether I asked for your opinions or not. Paris, you will survive this set-back to your living situation. Maybe you can get a single room, and get all the privacy from the world that you require. And you're always welcome to come and visit," she said, earning a tug on the leg of her pants, as Logan showed off his first sign of protest.
"Mr. and Mrs. Huntzberger, I'm sorry if you have problems with this. You've made no efforts to hide the fact that our growing closer concerns you. This is going to happen, and I hope that you can accept it."
She sat down, earning a round of applause from the younger members of the Peanut Gallery, sans Paris, and including Lorelai. The older members looked less agitated at any rate.
Luke cleared his throat, the only person other than Lane that had remained completely silent through the whole ordeal. He stood up, and raised his glass.
"To Rory and Logan," he offered.
Logan's friends stood as well, and were quickly joined by Lane, who pulled Paris up. Lorelai stood, slipping a grateful arm around Luke's waist. Chris stood, following Lorelai's lead. Mitchum and Richard stood, joined slowly by their wives. Rory smiled at Logan, and everyone clinked glasses in honor of the decision that had been made and was on the way to being accepted. Or so they hoped.
XXXX
The rest of the meal, once the waiters came back in—deciding that the yelling had died down long enough ago to consider it safe—went fairly well. Finn attempted his best to charm Emily over, shelling out compliments like they were coming from a machine gun, and by her third glass of wine, a smile danced across her face.
"Maybe you should take notes," Lorelai whispered playfully into Luke's ear. "He seems to have the hang of sweet-talking Emily Gilmore."
"So, pump three glasses of wine into her? I think I can remember that without taking notes."
"Just pull out your diner pen," she reached inside his jacket to feel for his inner pocket.
"There is no such thing as a diner pen."
"Ooh, maybe you should invent one, patent it, you could make trillions, and then we could get all high and mighty about how Logan isn't hoity-toity enough for us."
"I thought you were okay with this."
"I wasn't given any other choice. And it's not like she's moving into his crack den, I'm sure they found a lovely apartment with a doorman that will look at me with just as much disdain as my own mother offers me."
"You show your support in such bizarre ways."
"Speaking of which, that was a real stand-up thing you did a while ago."
"I did it for Rory."
"Yes, and Rory's mother is going to thank you, repeatedly, later."
Luke couldn't help the smile that spread over his face at her suggestive statement. "I suppose there's no stopping you," he said, causing her to laugh.
"Nope."
"Lor?"
Lorelai looked up to see Chris had gathered GiGi's things up, and was ready to leave. "Can I speak with you and Rory for a minute?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll get her," she said, shrugging to Luke and moving to pull Rory out to the front entrance to bid a goodbye to Chris. "Hey, kid, come with me."
Rory looked up to her mother, and nodded. "Okay," she put her hand on Logan's shoulder as she passed him, and he watched the women disappear.
"Where are we going?" Rory asked as Lorelai entangled their arms and headed through the main part of the restaurant. "Is this a bathroom thing?"
"Nope, your dad wanted to say goodbye, out front."
Rory stopped still in her tracks, causing Lorelai to skid to a stop as well. "What?"
"I just, feel bad. What Logan said, about Dad, and," Rory hedged.
"Chris is a big boy. He knows his mistakes. And I have to admit, I was actually sort of impressed with Logan."
"You were?"
"Your dad screwed up with you. It's not a secret, but it's not like he's made a giant effort to repair that mistake, either. Has he really ever tried to get to know you?"
"Well, no, not in the way that you do, but we talk."
"About?"
"School. GiGi."
"I'm just saying, Logan had a point, and obviously he's got some balls."
"Can we refrain from talking about my boyfriend's balls?" Rory blushed.
"Can we talk about my boyfriend's--," Lorelai smiled evilly as Rory cut her off.
"I'm officially going to toss you out into traffic when we get outside. Just a fair warning."
Lorelai nodded. "I still warrant warning. That's encouraging. Let's go, your dad's waiting."
Chris was shifting a sleeping GiGi onto his other shoulder when the two women emerged from the restaurant. He gave them a half smile and they stopped in front of the pair.
"Those are quite some friends you've got there," Chris said, looking at Rory.
She smiled. "Yeah, they're pretty good."
"I didn't realize you and Logan had a rocky start."
Rory shrugged. "We were just in different places. It took us a while to realize we're better together."
"Well, I'm sorry, for not supporting you right away," he looked down before smiling at Lorelai. "I've grown too accustomed to letting your mom fill that role too well."
"She's good at it," Rory acknowledged, tightening her grip around her mother.
"Why do I get the feeling that you two are buttering me up for something?" Lorelai mused.
"I need to get her to bed. Call me if you need help packing or unpacking or anything."
"I will. Thanks for coming," Rory moved to hug her father on the childless side of his torso. He nodded and walked off, leaving the Gilmore girls alone yet again, watching his back grow smaller.
"Another successful encounter."
"No bloodshed."
"Speaking of which, we should get back in there."
"Logan can hold his own," Rory said with full authority.
"'Cause he has balls," Lorelai giggled.
"You're impossible."
More giggling.
"And two."
"Two, like the number of his--," Lorelai began, only to be cut off by Rory again.
"I think we should get back in there. Logan and I need to work on our allowed visitors list."
"If Emily's on there, and I'm not, I'm never speaking to you again, and I'm writing you out of my will."
"At least Emily would never talk about Logan's balls."
"Aw, now, don't be so sure about that. I bet you ten bucks that with one more glass of wine, and a certain amount of coaxing by my beautiful Finn, and Logan's balls will be mentioned by the refined Emily."
"I so shouldn't be taking this bet," Rory cringed as she and Lorelai made their way back into the crowd.
