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: That's Amore
"Okay boys, let's go," Lorelai said briskly as she opened the door to the diner. "And don't look at each other and have silent conversations with your eyes, it's creepy. Just grab your stuff and let's go."
"We can't go back yet," Colin protested.
"Logan is breaking up with my daughter, how long does that take? 'It's over.' Hmm, that was what, two seconds? You two need to get back to take him home, and I need to get back to comfort my daughter. I am not negotiating here. Move!"
"Logan's breaking up with Rory?" Luke asked, as he moved around the counter to step up to Lorelai's side. "After he put her through all the moving in together crap? I'll kill him! I knew that kid was no good," he shook his head and rubbed his temples.
"He's not breaking up with her!" Finn groaned. "And besides, you haven't taught us how to play this bagel hockey. It might come in handy at some point in the future. I bore easily," he informed him.
"What do you mean, he's not breaking up with her?" Lorelai asked, ignoring the rest of Finn's comments.
"Why would he break up with her? He loves her," Colin agreed.
"Oh, yeah, he loves her so much that he informed my father and his father that he had no intentions of marrying her?" she shot back. "Are you going to deny that?"
"She's way too young to get married," Luke broke in.
Lorelai waved her hand at Luke, to motion that it didn't matter. "I think it's time the boys and I had a chat," she said, pointing to the door. "We'll play a little game. I ask questions. If I like what I hear, I stay put. If I don't like what I hear, I take a few steps toward home. Wanna play?" she held the door open to show them that they had little choice in the matter.
Colin and Finn, defeated, moved to join this disgruntled mother of their friend's girlfriend. "Huntz owes us," Finn muttered under his breath.
"Oh yeah. We're way beyond that," Colin agreed, walking past the glaring man in flannel and following the woman that evidently could see past all the scowling and lumberjack apparel. He shuddered at the thought. Lorelai stopped short by the gazebo in the center of town, which was still aglow with twinkle lights from the last town festival. Colin held in a Frank Capra reference and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Okay, Ms. Gilmore," he nodded.
"It's Lorelai," she corrected. "Now, do you know for sure that Logan isn't breaking up with Rory?"
"He didn't tell us point blank in those exact terms, no," Finn admitted.
Lorelai took three steps away from the gazebo in the direction of her house.
"Is it true about the offering of the family engagement ring?"
Colin nodded, and she took three more steps. "But he told us not long ago that if he did ask her to marry him, he wouldn't want to use that ring anyhow," he said quickly.
Lorelai narrowed her eyes, but stayed put.
"Aren't you going to take three steps back toward us?" Finn asked.
"My game, my rules," she crossed her arms over her chest defiantly.
"Look. You obviously think that Logan is breaking up with her. We don't. None of us know the whole story. So maybe we could make this interesting instead of arguing about it," Colin offered.
Lorelai's arms didn't uncross. "You want to bet on the future of your best friend's relationship?"
"Colin would bet on his mother's chances of survival on her deathbed."
"Which mother?" Colin cocked his head toward Finn.
"Take your pick," Finn rolled his eyes.
"Okay, you guys are way more screwed up than I thought you were. I mean, first with the painted fingernails, and now this," Lorelai held up Finn's hand as proof. He just gave her a pleased grin.
"I say, if we're right, you support their relationship no matter what—including getting Emily to lay off of the society obligation crap and wedding planning frenzy," Colin announced.
"That's all we want?" Finn now leaned into Colin. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure."
Now Lorelai looked impressed. "Fine. If I'm right, you keep Logan away from Rory, until he graduates. No contact at all. If you walk into a room or restaurant or party and you see Rory there, you will turn him around and not let her have to see him."
Colin and Finn looked at each other in consideration. "Done," Finn nodded.
"Good. Now, shall we go back and check on them?"
"We can't just barge in there," Colin winced.
"Oh, don't worry. It's my house, I know all the best vantage points from which to spy," she winked and linked arms with the boys—one on each side—and headed slowly toward home.
XXXX
Logan's forehead wrinkled in consideration. "A few conditions?"
Rory nodded and squeezed his hand in reassurance. "First, should I say yes, this would have to be a long engagement."
"A long engagement," he repeated as he stared into her thoughtful eyes.
She nodded vigorously. "I mean, I still have two years of college left, and being married is a lot of work. It's a big commitment, but so is school. I want to be able to put my all into both," she reasoned.
He nodded, waiting for her to continue. "Okay, got anything else?"
"Yeah. I want to work. After, I mean. I don't want to become some society housewife that you only see on weekends at the Cape and nights of black-tie fundraisers."
"Anything you say, Ace," he winked. "Is that all?"
She shook her head. "This one's sort of hard. But it's important to me."
"What?" his facial muscles had softened, and now he squeezed her hand, trying to let her know that he was going to say yes to anything she wanted. He knew her intentions were focused on them, and no way would anything she asked would be unreasonable.
"When we're ready to get married, I want us to elope."
He stared at her in shock. There was no hand squeeze, there was no smiling—there wasn't even any blinking. He was kneeling in front of her, ring in one hand, hers in the other, and she'd done the impossible. She'd stunned Logan Huntzberger.
"Logan?"
"Rory, as much as I love the idea of just whisking you away like that, we can't ignore—I mean, it'll be one thing to get everyone okay with the waiting two years thing, but then to exclude them from the wedding," he gritted his teeth as the ideas dueled in his mind.
"We can let them throw a big party when we get back, for them. But I want to do this for us," she stroked his cheek with a soft hand. "We have to keep this about us."
He sat quietly for nearly a half a minute, trying to think about this logically, but all he could focus on was her eyes. Her hope and love-filled eyes. She wanted to say yes. And she wanted this. He let go of her hand and gently removed the ring from its nest. Singling out her left ring finger, he placed the ring over her nail.
"Rory Gilmore, you have a deal," he said before sliding it all the way on. Beaming, she pulled him against her in a triumphant kiss. Laughing, he pulled her toward him, and she complied easily, pushing him down on his back until it met the floor.
XXXX
"Now, if you stand here and look at a thirty-five degree angle, you can see perfectly into—oh my God! Is she attacking him?" Lorelai exclaimed, causing both boys to rush in front of her to get a look.
"You know how when you watch the Discovery Channel and it looks like some weird species of bugs are trying to eat each other, and then the narrator comes on to tell you that this is how this particular species mates?" Colin grimaced.
"Oh—EW!" Lorelai pushed them aside to head for her front door.
"I wouldn't do that, Love!" Finn called out as the boys scrambled after her.
"Rory!" Lorelai called out as she moved quickly into the front room, to find her daughter still lying on top of Logan—but thankfully to find both were fully dressed and no one was bloody, bruised, or bitten.
"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, a little too jubilantly.
"Well, at least he doesn't break his promises," Lorelai muttered. The other two men had caught up with her, and both were beaming at the couple as they took in the scene.
"Nice, Logan. You couldn't at least get her to a room with locks?" Finn asked.
Rory and Logan got to their knees and he helped her the rest of the way to her feet. Logan cleared this throat. "I realize I probably should have talked to you about this first, well, I mean, more than that day when I came over here alone. I mean, you never really even answered if it was okay with you, but," he glanced at Rory, who couldn't contain the smile that was covering her face. "I've just asked Rory to marry me."
Lorelai looked to her daughter for confirmation, which she got with a vigorous nod and the presentation of the ring Logan had chosen on his mind-clearing mission.
"So, I take it you said yes," Lorelai half-laughed, half-began to cry.
"I said yes," she said and stepped forward to hug her mother.
"Aww," the boys hugged each other in mock happiness, causing Logan to roll his eyes.
"Thanks for your support, guys," he glared at them.
"We've been very supportive, mate," Finn said, stepping forward to inspect the jewel on Rory's finger. He nodded and hmm-ed in approval before picking her whole hand up and bringing it to his lips.
"Darling, we are glad that you were the one to bring down the mighty skirt-chaser. You have our word that from here on out, we'll make sure that he holds up his end of the bargain."
Rory giggled and pulled Finn in for a hug. "You always have," she kissed his cheek.
Lorelai approached Logan and smiled. He smiled back. "So, how's this for not making it worse?"
"Not bad. Not bad at all. Of course, this means you've made the society set very happy with this little question you've asked."
"Oh, don't worry, we've taken care of the disruption of their plans," he smirked.
Lorelai didn't want to know quite yet. She didn't want to have the knowledge of how much she was going to hear from Emily about the proper way to plan a wedding or how Rory just wouldn't listen to reason and why that was her fault. She just pulled Logan in for a hug. "Welcome to the family."
XXXX
He strolled up to the door with flowers in one hand and a large box in the other. He knocked quickly, hoping that someone would be decent enough to be able to get the door soon. By this time on a Friday night, sometimes Paris and Doyle were in states that warranted them being sealed into her room for the good of everyone involved. Too many times had he or Rory been witness to their emerging from Paris' room in very troublesome and varied states of dress.
Thankfully a fully dressed, if a bit put-out looking, Paris answered the door. "What do you want?"
"Avon lady," he smiled.
"Look, Rory told me to tell you to turn around and slink back in your hole."
He drew back in surprise. What had he done? This whole week, they'd been blissfully happy and practically reclusive. He'd even been good about giving her pre-finals preparation study time. He hadn't even embarrassed her, which tended to make her fly off the handle a bit, though Finn had . . . .
"She isn't mad about that! She knows I had nothing to do with Finn getting up on the dining hall table and singing 'That's Amore!'"
Paris rolled her eyes and tucked her lips together to avert a smile. It had been pretty funny. Even Rory had laughed, despite her severe blushing, as the boy made a total fool out of himself in celebration of his friends' good news.
"No, in fact she's not. I just love messing with your head," she said, opening the door to let him in. "I like to watch you break a sweat," she admitted and shrugged her shoulders.
"Hands off, Geller, he's mine," Rory smiled as she came out of her room. "Just think, in two weeks, no more roommates," she kissed him hello. "Those for me?" she said, smelling the flowers in his right hand.
"Actually, they were to for Paris. I was hoping to bribe her into leaving us the run of the suite tonight."
"What! I called the suite four days ago!" she huffed.
"You're right, Par, it is fun to see you break a sweat," he smirked. Rory swatted at him and laughed at her friend.
"Five minutes, Paris, and we'll be out of here."
Giving Logan one more mistrustful look, she spun on one heel and retreated to her room.
"Seriously, what are the flowers for? You've snagged me, I'm wooed. I thought the flowers would stop," she teased.
"They're for you, but not from me," he offered them out to her.
"Not from you? Oh no! You've found out about my secret admirer!" she clasped them to her chest in mock horror.
"They're from my father," he informed her. "For, and I quote, 'making an honest man out of me,'" he mused.
"He did not say that!"
"He did. How was dinner?"
Rory's face grew more somber. "Oh, it was okay."
"Okay?" he questioned her, following her into her room to get any last minute necessity items.
"Yeah, you know. We had drinks, dinner, these weird puff pastry things that my grandmother raved about but sort of tasted like--," she rambled, but he caught hold of her elbow and swung her back toward him.
"Rory?"
"There was a bit of hysterical screaming. And Grandma got freaked out, too," she smiled.
"They were mad?"
"Actually, Grandpa was more shocked than mad. He really thought that you weren't going to go through with this, the way you just left," she bit her lip, not wanting to relive the insanity it had created. "Grandma almost fainted with pleasure, and then I told them about the stipulations."
He cringed. "Should I be assuming an alias and getting a fake passport?"
"Grandpa thought it was a great idea—the waiting. He wants me to finish school. Grandma, she, well, let's say I thought the maid was going to have to shoot tranquilizer darts at her to get her to calm down."
"So, better than you expected?"
"Totally. What'd your mom say?"
"She didn't. But I think she did go through three packs of Marlboros during the main course."
Rory giggled and stepped in closer to him, breathing in his scent. She rested her head against his shoulder, and he stroked her back in silence. After a few moments, she began to giggle.
"What?"
"I just—I can't believe we did it. It's all official, after everything," she pulled back to look at him in appreciation.
"Speaking of which," he let go of her to pick up the large box that he'd thrown onto her bed. "Also for you."
"That looks suspiciously familiar," she said, untying the bow that held the two halves of the box securely together. She lifted the top off, and held up a ball gown from amid the tissue paper. She looked to Logan skeptically.
"Yeah, so I've agreed to something on our behalf," he flashed her a winning smile.
"What?"
"Well, my friends mentioned that they'd gone to extraordinary lengths to get us to this point," his smile softened. "And they said we owed them."
"Owed them what?" she raised an eyebrow.
"They wanted to throw us an engagement party."
Her eyes widened. "What?"
"Just friends, no family. It's an excuse to reward them for their behavior and get together. They even invited Lane," he sweetened the pot.
"In other words this has been planned and I have choice in the matter?" she grinned.
"Come on, Gilmore, I'm in a dress and waiting out here! Stop primping or sucking face or whatever you're doing and let's go!" came a hassled voice from the common room.
"They invited Paris?" she whispered, more than surprised.
"Hey, she's your friend," he smiled and kissed her before she consented to getting ready for this party that their friends had planned in their honor. She was sure with his friends at the helm and her friends thrown into the mix, it was sure to be an odd and interesting evening.
AN: Okay. So, there it is. Two more chapters to go. One at the engagement party and an epilogue for good measure. Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, and the party will be up as soon as I get it in a nice little package.
