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: In Pursuit
The knocking grew louder as Lorelai attempted to disentangle herself from the blankets and various foodstuffs that had been weighting her down on the couch for the last two hours. Luke had a late night at the diner tonight, on this her night off, and she had settled in to watch AbFab on DVD as she awaited her midnight treat in the form of a weary boyfriend.
"I get it, you want me to open the door!" she called out as she shook the last of the blanket from her ankle, trying to flee the living room. At long last she was blanket-free and at the door.
"Oh. Hi," she said in a stunted way, frowning at the man on her doorstep.
"Hi. Is this okay?"
"Sure, sure, I was just," she bit her lip as she looked in toward her living room, "Hanging out. Do you like Funyons?"
Logan frowned now too, looking quite unsure as to what the woman was talking about.
"Don't worry, I have ranch dip if you need to drown out the flavor. They are high on the crunch factor, though. A very important quality in snack foods."
"Uh, sure," he said, figuring it might be a harmless segue into the living room. Lorelai closed the door behind him, and they moved into the living room scattered with the signs of her night in.
"Are you sure I'm not interrupting something?"
"Just the rotting of my brain and insides. Don't tell me Rory hasn't exposed you to an AbFab and Funyons night," she said disbelievingly.
"Can't say that she has."
"I have so much to teach you in the ways of the Gilmore," she wiggled her eyebrows at the younger man. "Sit, watch, learn."
He did sit, but his attention stayed on her and not on the television screen. Lorelai noted his expression and decided he probably hadn't really come all this way to eat crap and watch television, so getting to the point was probably best.
"Is Rory okay?"
He let out a breath and clasped his hands together in his lap. "That's what I was going to ask you."
"I don't understand. Aren't you two inseparable or something?"
"We were."
"Until the party?"
He nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "She wanted to be alone to think afterward, and she hasn't answered my calls since. She's left a couple of messages, when she knew I'd be in class, but other than that, nothing."
"Look, Logan, I shouldn't be getting involved in this," she began, shaking her head slightly.
"I understand," he said, nodding as he looked at his shoes.
"But I will."
He looked up to her face, filled with hope. "You will?"
"Listen. I was kidding about the ways of the Gilmore thing earlier, but honestly, we weren't a man-friendly household around here for many years. The only male role model Rory had was Luke. So, you know, she's good at translating English to grunts, but that's only really good in talking with any male in the Danes family and watching Home Improvement reruns. Your relationship, it's been intense, and that's not a bad thing, but for her, like for me, it's freaky. It's uncharted territory. You guys are going to be living together, but also there's the whole parents not approving thing. Rory's not good with disapproval. Not much she's ever done hasn't been held up as an example by everyone around her, in fact," she said, not wanting to go into specific details. Though she knew Rory probably confided things in Logan, she wasn't sure how much of the Dean debacle she'd told him about. It certainly wouldn't help matters to go into too much detail of that disaster.
"I understand that she wants everyone to be okay with this, but she said she was fine with it. She said she just needed some time to clear her head."
"What do you want me to tell you?"
He sank back against the couch cushions and stared blankly at the paused screen. Lorelai held out a bowl of what looked like dehydrated onion rings that he was wary of touching.
"They won't hurt you."
"Do you have any data to back that up?"
"Rory and I have eaten these for years, and look at us. Don't we look fine?" Lorelai widened her eyes for effect, and Logan held in a laugh. It was clear where Rory had learned all her tricks.
"I've seen Rory eat foods and food combinations that would be the downfall of the strongest men on the planet. I will take a soda or something."
"I'll be right back," she nodded, standing up to go retrieve her unplanned guest a beverage. She stared at the cordless phone that lay discarded on the kitchen table and thought of calling her daughter, but figured it probably wasn't the best idea. Perhaps Logan wouldn't want Rory to know he came here like this. Grabbing a cold can from the refrigerator, she headed back in where the DVD player had automatically restarted the episode, and Logan was laughing at the television.
"Your first AbFab viewing?"
"Something I should be ashamed of, I'm sure," he nodded, taking a drink of the soda.
"At least you know it," she shrugged. They watched for a few moments, seated side by side on the couch. Lorelai looked over at him one more time before turning the television off completely.
"Okay, look. I realize I told you to come over more, but Luke will be here in like two hours, and he might not like finding that I've replaced him with someone that drinks caffeine and watches AbFab willingly. It might make him nervous," she smiled devilishly.
"I didn't mean to end up here. I just didn't know what else to do," he paused, obviously caught up in his own thoughts. "Can I tell you something?"
She nodded, wondering what had been going on so far during this visit. "Yeah."
"You can't tell Rory," he impressed.
"Got it."
"I'm meeting our fathers for golf tomorrow," he swallowed, "And they're going to give me the hard court press."
"Meaning?"
"They want me to propose. It's almost certain I'll get my grandmother's engagement ring during drinks."
Lorelai nodded. It didn't surprise her; what she wanted to know was exactly how he and her daughter felt about this development. She wondered just how much she was going to find out from him during this visit.
"Bet that's not out of a box of Cracker Jacks, huh?"
"Not exactly."
"So, wow," she said, suddenly feeling the hit of the knowledge that her daughter could be engaged in the course of the next day.
"What would you think?"
Now her eyes were as wide as they could go, courtesy of shock. "It's hard to say, not having seen the ring and all," she joked.
"Lorelai, I don't want to piss you off, and I really don't want to scare her off."
"What are you saying, Logan? That you want this?"
"I just need to talk to her."
Lorelai nodded. "I can call her, get her over here," she offered.
"Can I call, from your phone? Maybe she'll answer that way?"
Lorelai smiled. "I shouldn't let you; she'll blame me, you realize this."
"It's for her own good. I didn't think mothers could get in the way of their child's own good."
"Well, it is in the handbook," she said in concession. "The phone's on the kitchen table. I'll stay in here, take your time."
"Thanks," he nodded and walked out of the room, leaving her to her Funyons.
XXXX
"Hey mom," came the voice he'd been attempting to contact for the better part of the last two days.
"Rory."
"Logan?"
"You got me."
"But this is," she paused. "Where are you?" she asked suspiciously.
"I'm, at your mother's."
"You're what? Why?"
"Rory, you wouldn't return my phone calls."
"I've called you back."
"Let's not get into that, shall we?"
"Okay, so tell me why you're in Stars Hollow."
"If I hadn't come here and called you, would you be talking to me?"
"I'm not avoiding you."
"I never said you were."
"You implied."
"Rory, come on."
"I've just been busy. Making plans, setting up meetings," she explained.
"Meetings?"
"I'm meeting Grandpa tomorrow morning. He was quite insistent that we meet early tomorrow morning."
"I need to see you," he demanded. "This isn't negotiable. I have to talk to you."
"Look, it's getting late, and I am meeting Grandpa early. Can't this wait until tomorrow?"
"I'm coming to your room."
"Logan," she began in protest.
"Don't think I can't get in. I have master keys like you wouldn't believe."
"Oh, I would," she came back. "Fine. Come over. But you aren't spending the night. I have to meet Grandpa at 7 a.m. sharp."
He hung up after she did, and looked around the kitchen for a moment. He looked into her room, taking a moment to really study it. It wasn't so different from her room at Yale, it definitely spoke of her. It was just younger, less lived in. He pictured her touches on their new apartment together. He was still standing in the doorframe when Lorelai came down the hall and stood behind him.
"Casing the joint?"
"She said I could come over."
"Then I'd go. We Gilmore women are notorious for changing our minds for no good reason," she teased him. "And we're always right."
"I knew those two," he assured her.
She had to smile at the fact that he said it like it didn't even faze him. "Hey, next time you come over, bring my daughter, would you?" she said as he reached the front door.
"I'll work on that," he agreed and then he was gone, leaving her to kill another hour and a half before she could curl up with Luke.
XXXX
Logan stood in front of yet another front door, waiting to be let in. He was actually starting to consider his knocking technique. A long series of hard, sharp raps. Developed over years of being used to knocking on doors of large houses, hoping the help could hear it, though tonight he'd been at much smaller homes, and not such an aggressive technique was needed. Perhaps that's why he was constantly facing such annoyed looking females tonight.
"What do you want?"
"Good evening Paris. I assume Rory is expecting me?"
"I don't think I should let you in. She's been in a funk, to which I attribute to you."
"I didn't put her in a funk. Perhaps it was your tirade at the gathering the other night?"
"Even if that's true, the blame still lies with you."
"Look, Paris, as much as I enjoy our talks, I need to speak with Rory. Are you going to let me in, or do I need to go around to her window?"
"Fine. But I have a security whistle I plan on deafening you with if I hear any signs of protest coming from her room."
"It's been enlightening as always, Paris," he said, moving past her finally and heading directly for Rory's door. He wasn't knocking this time. Closing the door quickly behind him, he rested against it, looking Rory dead in the eye.
She was already in bed, but her light was still on next to her on the nightstand. She remained silent, to which he took as his cue to begin.
"Care to tell me what I did? I'm fully prepared to apologize."
"What makes you think you did something?" she asked quietly.
"Other than your avoidance of my presence, your mother's looks of pity, and Paris' threats to my person?"
She had to smile. "Yeah."
"Talk to me," he said, moving to sit next to her on the bed.
"I just needed to think. About things."
"Be vaguer."
"This. Moving in. The prenuptial arrangement that the Hartford society set is hammering out as we speak."
"Oh, that," he teased, leaning in to kiss her.
"You're okay with all of this?" she asked, clearly harried.
"You're not?" his tone wasn't leading as to how he felt as he turned the question back to her.
"It's fast. I mean, apart from you and me," she sighed.
"But it's not. I want to know how you feel about you and me," he searched her eyes, and immediately she softened.
"You and me, that's what I'm sure of, but everything else," the worry seeped back into her voice by the end of her sentence.
"Screw everything else."
"Logan, be serious."
"What does anything else matter?"
"Because it does."
"You're afraid of what everyone else thinks, but Rory, this is our lives, not theirs. You still want to move in with me?"
"Of course!"
"Then you can't shut me out for two days!"
"I'm sorry," she said in frustration, her hands thrown up in the air.
"What is the meeting about tomorrow morning?" he continued rapidly.
"I don't know."
"He didn't say anything?"
"No."
"But what do you think it's about?"
"I don't know!"
"He's your grandfather, you have to know."
"I didn't grow up in their house; I don't know what early morning meetings mean!"
Logan leaned back against the headboard, hoping Paris wasn't pressing her ear to Rory's door, whistle at the ready.
"It won't change our moving in together, whatever it is," she said quietly.
He looked up at her suddenly, his eyes trained on hers. "Good," he said, moving to kiss her again. This time he was much more successful as she kissed him back. He moved in closer, further in toward her despite the blanket barrier between their bodies. "Good," he whispered again.
"Can you stay?" she barely spoke the words, she more vibrated her question against his neck.
"Yeah."
"Even though I'm going to kick you out early?"
"I'm all yours," he assured her, sliding his legs under her blankets and resituating them so that he was cradling her against him while she closed her eyes.
"I can't believe you went to see my mother," she giggled after a moment of comfortable silence.
"I'm so never going to be able to live this down."
"What did she make you do?"
"What? Nothing," he lied.
"Come on, spill. If you don't tell me she will, and that will be much worse," she warned him.
"AbFab and Funyons."
More giggling. "Are you sure you still want to move in with me?"
"Abso-freaking-lutely."
