As they walked through the door, the couple intertwined their fingers and entered the living room where they could hear Luke, Lorelai, and Rory. Veronica laid her head on Logan's shoulder as they approached, causing Lorelai and Rory to swoon. Luke's eyes remained on the screen as he tried to seem indifferent, but a small smile could be seen playing across his lips. Lorelai noticed and called him on it. "Luke! You big softie!"
Rory laughed as Luke buried his head in his hands. "No more coffee for you!" he threatened. Everyone in the room knew that it was an empty threat but Lorelai decided to play along and pushed her bottom lip out into a pout. "Fine, but when I die from coffee withdrawal, you'll feel pretty bad."
A silence fell over the room. Not one for silence, Lorelai broke it by asking, "So, Veronica, Logan, where you planning on going to college?"
"Stanford, if I hit the jackpot," Veronica answered.
All eyes turned to Logan who shrugged. "I always liked the idea of taking a year off, you know, seeing another country. But my fath – my family has always wanted me to go to an Ivy League, like Yale."
Identical dark looks flashed across Lorelai, Rory, and Luke's faces at the mention of Yale, similar to those that had crossed Veronica and Logan's when he had almost mentioned his father. "Yale, huh?" Lorelai asked. "Good school," she added, shooting Rory a look. Rory averted her gaze and stood up, abruptly excusing herself, claiming she was tired. Lorelai and Luke quickly followed suit, leaving a confused Veronica and Logan to set up pillows and sheets on the couch and floor.
-x-
Sometime that night – morning, whatever- Veronica rolled off the couch and onto Logan, who barely grunted in response. Rubbing her neck, Veronica wandered into the kitchen in search of something sweet. Lorelai was sitting at the table reading what looked like a newspaper. Veronica said, "Hey, Lorelai, can I…?" She gestured towards the cabinets. When Lorelai nodded her permission Veronica started to walk towards the cabinet but backpedaled when she saw the tears glistening on her cheeks. "Lorelai?" she asked tentatively. Lorelai sniffed, swiped at her eyes and tried to smile. Veronica sat down next to her and waited silently until Lorelai was ready to talk.
After a long minute, Lorelai smiled weakly. "I'm sorry. It's just…I found a copy of one of Rory's high school newspapers."
"Okay," Veronica said slowly, unsure of why that would cause Lorelai to react like this.
"She worked so hard to get where she was," Lorelai continued. "I mean, she studied her ass off all through high school and she got into Yale, dammit, Yale!"
Veronica nodded. "You can't get much better than that."
"No, you can't," Lorelai agreed, shaking her head for emphasis. "She was a journalism major, you know. Until Mitchum Huntzberger struck."
"Mitchum Huntzberger? What a name. He must hate his parents," Veronica remarked, eliciting a small smile from Lorelai. "What did he do to Rory?"
"He told her she didn't have what it takes to be a journalist. As if he can just tell those kinds of things after a few weeks. And the part that kills me is she believed him. She wanted it more than anything but she just let him shatter her dreams. My baby actually gave up, quit Yale. We only started talking again when she found out Luke and I got engaged. And even now our relationship is shaky at best." Lorelai's sobs started anew and Veronica reached up to stroke her hair. "I just…I remember when she was in high school and she would come home from newspaper meetings all excited about her new story. I think if she could just get excited about a story again, then maybe she would remember how much she loves writing."
Veronica thought for a second before her face lit up with excitement. "I think I might be able to help you there."
Lorelai lifted her head off Veronica shoulder and when Veronica saw the look of hope and trust on the woman's face, she began praying her plan worked.
-x-
Rory groggily swiped at her sleep blurred eyes and rolled over to glance at her clock. She groaned when she saw that it was only 4:00 in the morning. She buried her head under her pillow but it was too late. Her mind had kicked in and she knew it would be a while before she managed to fall asleep again. Rolling out of bed – literally – she stumbled into the kitchen and was startled to see Veronica seated at the table, engrossed in what looked like a copy of the Yale Daily News. "Veronica?" she asked, confused.
Veronica's head whipped up. "Oh, hey Rory. I was just reading this paper of yours. It's pretty good."
"Thanks," Rory said softly, avoiding Veronica's gaze.
"Actually," Veronica began slowly. "I was wondering if your paper does interviews."
Nodding, Rory told her, "Yeah, sometimes."
"Would they be interested in interviewing me?"
Rory was taken aback. She knew that Veronica had staunchly refused to answer any questions for the press or paparazzi. Why was she volunteering for this? "Yeah, actually, I think they would." She felt her stomach leap and for a moment thought she was going to be sick but then she realized it wasn't nausea she was feeling. It was excitement. But that feeling turned to disappointment when Veronica asked, "Would you mind giving me the number of a good reporter there?"
She wanted this story in the worst way. It surprised her how much she wanted it, how much she was aching to start asking questions but she held herself back. Biting her lip, she nodded and ducked into her room for a moment after murmuring something about getting Paris's number. In her room, she paced back and forth, trying to decide what to do. Reporting wasn't for her, Mitchum Huntzberger had made that extremely clear, but Rory couldn't deny that she wanted to write this story. Maybe just this once, she could give in, write one last story. Doyle would probably print it for her, even if she wasn't a Yale student anymore. And if he wouldn't, she would get Paris to make him. Nodding resolutely, Rory made her decision. When she finally emerged from her room, she was empty handed. "You know," she started. "I had an idea. Maybe I should just do the interview. I mean, we know each other so you know I won't ask you anything too hard if I can avoid it and I'm already here."
Veronica readily agreed. "Sure."
Rory smiled excitedly. "So when would you like to get started?"
"Does now work for you?"
"Yep, now's perfect." Rory grinned and ran back into her room for her tape recorder, pad, and pencil. Dashing back into the room, she switched on her tape recorder and began the interview. "So, Veronica, up until now, you've refused to answer a single question from the press. Why now?"
"No time like the present." Veronica let out a nervous laugh and continued, "Honestly, it really makes me angry that no remembers Lilly. I know what you're thinking, everybody remembers her. But you're wrong. They don't remember the real Lilly, only the Lilly that the media tells them about. Until a few months ago, Lilly was remembered as the little billionaire's daughter, pretty, popular, and all around perfect. And while she was popular and beautiful, that wasn't all there was to her. Now, she's remembered as the clichéd 'poor little rich girl' and a slut. That isn't the only side of her either. She was, to use her own words, fabulous. And she was one of the few people who could get away with saying that about herself."
-x-
Soft voices gradually drew Logan from his thankfully dreamless sleep. His eyes were immediately drawn to the couch that Veronica had been sleeping on. For a moment, as he tried to get his bearings, he was confused, wondering where Veronica was. Then Logan felt a dull pain on his chest and remembered her falling on top of him. Rapidly blinking to clear his sleep blurred eyes, he struggled into a sitting position and concentrated on the soft voices that had woken him. Lilly's name reached his ears and Logan was instantly alert, mind on the dream, vision, whatever it was, from earlier. He knew he hadn't really seen Lilly. Or at least, he told himself he hadn't, for the sake of his delicate sanity. It had, he convinced himself, been his subconscious's way of telling him that he needed to move on, not only for his own sake but for Veronica's as well because he loved her. It had lied to him, though, to make it easier for him to let Lilly go. While he appreciated his mind's effort, Logan knew that he had loved Lilly. Not the same way he loved Veronica, but love all the same. And he would always remember her, but that's all he could do. Lilly was dead and he had finally accepted it completely. Lilly was gone but Veronica was here, now, and he needed to be there for her and help her to gather the pieces of her life as she tried to mend them, just as he knew she would with him. They were a team, the two of them, and Logan wouldn't have it any other way.
-x-
Lorelai padded down the stairs for a glass of water but stopped short when she heard the familiar voices floating out from the kitchen. Rory and Veronica. Lorelai's heart leaped when she heard Rory's tone of voice. Rory sounded just like she had in high school, when she talked about the paper and her articles. She peeked around the corner and smiled softly. Maybe, just maybe, they could get back to where they used to be. Or at least close to it. Still smiling, Lorelai crept back up the stairs and crawled back into bed next to Luke who stirred as she settled in.
"Lorelai?" he asked groggily. "You all right?"
Lorelai's smile grew to a full fledged grin as she said, "Yeah, I think I am. Finally."
-x-
One week later
The reporters had finally cleared out of Stars Hollow, convinced that Logan and Veronica had returned to Neptune, thanks to the two decoys that had flown to California earlier that week. Rory had convinced her friends Stephanie and Logan to leave for the airport from the Gilmore house, disguised as Veronica and the other Logan, before flying out to Neptune. Oddly enough, it had worked and the couple was free to roam the town until the left later that day.
"Veronica!" Logan's impatient voice called to her.
"I told you, I'm coming!" Veronica yelled back, downing the rest of her coffee before following Lorelai out of the kitchen.
Logan rolled his eyes in mock anger as she approached and said with a smirk, "You know, you're even slower than Trina."
Veronica twisted her features in a look of hurt and replied. "No need to insult me!" Then with a mischievous grin she added playfully, "At least I didn't get arrested for having a bong in my locker."
Logan's smirk grew wider. "No, you went for the bigger stuff. Say, you got any more fake IDs?" He asked playfully.
"Snap, fresh out. Lamb and the boys had a blast with that one," Veronica quipped.
The two locked eyes and couldn't bear to hold in their laughter any longer. It felt good to just let loose and really laugh for the first time in a long while. The Gilmores had watched them with confused looks on their faces up until that point but when Veronica and Logan started laughing, they had exchanged looks of their own and joined in.
"We're off to Luke's!" Rory declared, linking arms with her mother and skipping out the door. Veronica and Logan followed suit and as they reached the road, Veronica started singing, "We're off to see the Wizard…" and was quickly joined by the other three.
The foursome were still singing loudly when they reached the town square which caused the pompous man that Veronica had met upon her arrival to come out and reprimand them. Or he tried to, anyway. Lorelai told him that if he didn't let them pass and get to their coffee, she would bring Luke to every single town function from then on. Taylor scurried back into the market and contented himself by shooting Lorelai dirty looks until she walked into Luke's and out of sight.
"Oh, Lukie, Lukie, Luuuke!" Lorelai sang out.
"Lemme guess, coffee?" Luke asked gruffly, filling a large cup and setting it on the counter for her.
Lorelai smiled. "You know me so well!"
All eyes were on the two teens from Neptune. "Why's everyone watching us?" Veronica whispered to Rory.
Rory grinned and told her. "You're new and you're semi-famous. Just be glad Miss Patty and Babette aren't here."
Lorelai leaned in. "Besides, they're probably wondering why you two are all lovey dovey now." She added in a stage whisper, referring to their run-in at the diner as she indicated towards their intertwined hands.
"Speaking of that…" Veronica began slowly, realizing that she hadn't seen a certain someone since then. Before she could finish, she was interrupted by a loud crash and Taylor's angry voice. She shut her eyes and whispered, "Weevil." After a moment, Veronica forced herself to look and saw a laughing Weevil tearing down the road, chased by an irate Taylor. Logan let out a whoop in spite of himself and called, "Go, Paco!" out the door. Weevil gave him the finger and kept on running.
Veronica just shook her head and said, "It's a good thing we're leaving this afternoon. At least in Neptune, people are used to Weevil. Sort of. I have get out of jail cards there, anyway."
"Hey," Luke told her, walking over to their table. "Anyone who can make Taylor that mad is welcome here any time." After a moment's pause he added, "As long as he stays away from my diner."
Logan glanced at his watch. "Ronnie, we gotta get going if we're gonna make our flight in time."
"What's the rush? We have plenty of time."
"But that lady keeps staring at me," Logan complained. The three girls looked over and saw Miss Patty taking a seat at the counter. She was indeed staring at Logan, but that wasn't what caught Veronica's eye. It was her own face on the cover of the magazine Miss Patty was holding. She strode over to the woman and asked in her sweetest voice, "Would you mind if I borrowed that for a few minutes?"
"Oh, no, of course not, sweetie," Miss Patty handed her the magazine and Veronica turned to go but Patty stopped her. "By the way, are you and the handsome young man over there dating?"
"Yes. Why?"
Patty waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, just wondering."
Veronica returned to the table shaking her head. She flipped through the magazine and gasped. "Rory, look!"
Rory grabbed the magazine and let out a squeal of excitement. It was her interview of Veronica. In People magazine! Logan (her Logan) had told her when he found out about the interview that he would pull some strings and try to get it published, but she never dreamed it would be in People magazine! Maybe journalism was for her after all. Her mother interrupted her thoughts with a surprising announcement that only cemented her decision. "Rory, Yale called this morning to ask if you were, in fact, coming back for the fall term." Lorelai's tone was light enough, but Rory knew she was asking if Rory was going to go through with taking a year off.
Rory smiled at her. "I guess I'll call them later and tell them that I am coming back."
Lorelai's eyes lit up and a grin spread across her face as she pulled Rory in a hug.
"Mom. Can't breathe. Dying bad." Rory gasped.
Veronica and Logan smiled at the mother and daughter. "You know, Logan, we should get going. I don't wanna miss our flight because when we get home we have to have a looong talk with Duncan about us."
Logan smiled grimly. "Can't wait."
– The End –
Thank you to everyone who reviewed this fic. It really meant a lot to me because this was a huge experiment on my part, trying to capture all those characters at once. I hope this chapter answered any questions you may have. Just a little FYI, I probably won't write another story for a while. School starts Thursday and cheerleading has started up so I'll be pretty busy til around March. Hopefully I get something up before then but I may not. Thanks again to everyone:
Simply Lily
humor my lips
BlondeNancyDrew
moondust0109
vmfan225
tvfan4ever86
Spuffy-Spike-91
Spikerules-22
nina3605
litgal
Michelle
eternalgorithm
heticangel
Flame31
csellers1215
pinkfish
Cora
