Stephanie Lancaster whipped her silver Jeep Grand Cherokee into Rory's driveway and then hurriedly parked it behind Rory's Range Rover. There was a look of determination written on her face as she got out with the car still running suggesting that she didn't think she was going to be in there too long. She was wearing a pink sweater, a pair of tight fitting jeans, and Pink New Balances which could mean only one thing; she was in the mood to shop. She took the stairs to Rory's front doors two at a time not even having to look down. It was as if she had made this trip a thousand times. Without even knocking or ringing the doorbell Stephanie opened the door and walked inside. It took her less than minute to get up the stairs to Rory's room. She considered allowing Rory to open the door herself but decided against it knowing that Rory probably wouldn't even both answering it. She opened the door and walked inside to see that Rory must have been bundled under the covers. There was no head to be seen. She slowly walked to where it looked as if Rory's head was and bent down to wake her. She pulled the cover back and whispered "It's time to wake up Rory." She almost screamed and jumped out of her shoes when she realized that she wasn't talking to Rory but rather a groggy but amused looking Logan.
Logan had been laying there quietly dozing when he heard the door to Rory's room open. He knew that it had to be Stephanie because of the way her shoes squeaked as she walked across the room and by the way he heard her whip her car into the driveway like it was nobody's business. He concluded that she was wearing her shopping sneakers. It had taken him only a second to decide that it would be funny to just lay here and let her freak herself out by not saying anything. "She's in the shower. She said that she knew you'd be here early." He flashed her his dazzling and somewhat famous smile.
"I can't believe it. I knew that you two would get back together but to think that you guys would be so comfortable with one another again was in my opinion a long shot. I knew she still loved you. Logan I want you to know that if I ever become poor you better get my ass out of the poor house because I was always your biggest supporter when it came to you getting back together again." Stephanie said now sitting next to him on the bed.
"Don't worry I'll never allow you to be in financial ruin. So what's with the can do attitude?"
Stephanie scoffed at his joke. "If you must know I have to go book the venue today and the florist. Rory is coming with me because my fiancé won't." You could tell that she was miffed at Colin by the way she called him her fiancé. She only referred to him in such a distanced manner when she was mad at him. "He informed me this morning that he was going to hang out with you and Finn today but that if I wanted we could all meet for lunch at the club and then get in a few rounds of golf.
"It'll all be good and you don't want Colin there anyway he'll start talking finances and you get bored and hostile and everything will be a big bust. We'll meet for lunch. Play some golf. It'll feel like the good ole days." He said and then squeezed her hand slightly.
Rory walked out of her bathroom wearing an outfit very similar to Stephanie's. She smiled at the fact that Stephanie was here. She knew that she had made plans to go with her this morning. "Ready to go?" she asked as she grabbed her purse and a few other things from off of her dresser.
"Of course I've been waiting on you this whole time. I must say though I was with charming company so I can't complain." Stephanie winked at Logan and then went to stand over by the door. "I'll just wait for you downstairs."
Rory sauntered over to where Logan was sitting. "I wish I could stay and read the paper with you." She gave him a small kiss on the forehead. "You going to be okay?"
"Yeah I'm going to hop in your shower and then head over to Colin's. Stephanie said he wanted to spend the morning hanging out and then we'll all meet for lunch at the club. I hope you've been practicing your swing because I feel a butt whipping coming on." Logan gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Go and help Stephanie with everything. She seems really overwhelmed."
Rory gave him another kiss but this one was much more passionate than the first two little pecks. Then she left. As soon as she stepped out the door she saw that Stephanie had in fact just stepped outside instead of gone downstairs like first promised.
As soon as they got into the car Stephanie started to bombard Rory with an endless supply of questions. So many in fact that Rory was having a difficult time keeping up with her. "Slow down Stephanie. Ask one question at a time."
"Sorry it's just well this is so big Rory. I mean like huge! Like it's as big as the baby that would come out if you mixed Godzilla and King Kong together." Stephanie shrugged at the where the hell did you get an expression like that from look Rory was shooting her and then went back to talking. "Okay so what changed about everything? I mean okay last night I saw that you two were back on friend terms and a little more than that at IHOP but nothing to this degree."
Rory looked out the window for a moment while she collected her thoughts. "Last night when I got back from everything my dad was sitting in the kitchen looking through this old photo album. I sat down with him and we started talking. For the first time in our lives my father and I had this really deep heart to heart about everything. He made a point that I refused for so long to believe even though deep down I knew it was true."
"Which was?" Stephanie pressed as she took a left hand turn.
"Logan didn't leave to hurt me. He left to stay sane. I understood it finally because it's why I went to Stars Hollow. I needed to keep everything emotionally in order. For so long I thought I was okay. My dad made me see that I wasn't because I needed Logan to be okay. So I was looking through this album with him when I realized in almost all of the pictures he was there. It was like I didn't really have a childhood memory that didn't include him. Still I wasn't going to admit that to anyone until my dad told me to call Logan." Rory smiled and then started to laugh at the memory. "So I was in the kitchen and I called him and it turns out he'd been in my room the whole time. So he came downstairs and for the first time we had this talk that was real and it was emotional and it was what we needed. That night we slept together in our pajamas perv."
Stephanie shrugged. "God Rory I'm so happy. I just I feel like everything is back to the way it should be. So where do you go from here?"
Rory sighed. "I have no idea. I mean I guess we go back out now. Um other than that I don't know. I guess we just fall in love again."
"It seems to me you already have." Stephanie didn't say anything else though because they were at their destination. It was time for her to be all business. There was no way they were going to try to screw her on this venue.
Logan parked his car in front of Colin's townhouse and sighed. He suddenly felt really old. It dawned on him that Stephanie and Colin were getting married. That he was back with Rory which meant that it would be their time soon. All of a sudden everything was just put into perspective. He got out of the car and took a deep breath. Time to face adulthood.
Finn threw open the door as soon as Logan reached the last step. "Gosh mate what took you so long? We thought you were doggin' out on us and headed back to Stanford!" Finn laughed as he pushed Logan into the large space.
From the moment Logan walked in he realized that this was definitely Stephanie's taste. "Colin when did you turn into such a nancy?"
Finn laughed. "See mate I'm not the only one who thinks this is a total chick's apartment!" Finn clapped Logan on the back. "You don't know how good it is to have someone else who thinks that Stephanie is totally killing our friend's mojo."
Colin suddenly appeared from the back part of the house with a glass of orange juice in his right hand. "Mojo? I thought we stopped saying that like three years ago. I mean come on Finn. You have to admit that Anchorman was more funny that Austin Powers."
"Bollocks mojo will always be a cool word to say."
Colin threw his hands up in the air. "Okay the deal is today is a day to focus on Logan and the wedding. No fighting over the better movie or the better sport or the better guy to play the next James Bond."
Logan laughed. "It sounds as if nothings changed."
Colin shrugged. "No nothings changed except for Rory."
"I know. We had this really long talk last night and I came to two conclusions. I destroyed her when I left last time and that I am the luckiest bastard alive. Last night when I saw her with Dean I thought it all over. I was sure of it. I mean come on he's safe and everything Rory has ever been. I was this jerk who'd left her for my own selfish reason. Still she chose me. I mean it was like this moment of pure shock and elation when she told him to leave."
"So where do you go from here?" Colin asked quietly. In the entire time he'd been with Stephanie things had always been simple. They dated. They fell in love. They moved in together. Finn moved in with them as if he was their child. Colin proposed. Stephanie said yes. They started to plan the wedding. Sometimes he wondered if it wouldn't have been better to have a relationship that wasn't so easy. He thought about the love that Rory and Logan shared and was envious. In his opinion they're the quintessential couple. They struggle to survive when they're together by struggle even more when they're apart. The day Logan left Colin had never seen Rory more bitter at the world. Last night was the first time in three years that he'd seen the Rory he'd gone to high school with. It was refreshing to know that she was still here.
Logan smiled. "I think I'm going to propose, but you can't say anything. See I didn't give her my gift last night because I thought that I would do sort of scavenger hunt for her. Leave clues in all of these specials places like the spot where we first kissed---" Logan started to explain but was cut off by Finn.
"Balcony!" Finn shouted out.
Logan laughed. "Yeah her balcony and then the very last spot is who know the spot where we first made love."
"God you're too over the top for your own good. I mean come on could you show me up anymore than you already are?" Colin joked. "Stephanie is never going to let me hear the end of this."
"God you both are nancies." Finn joked. "To Logan's big gesture." Finn said as he raised his own glass to toast the plan.
Logan smiled and tipped his glass. He'd made the decision to propose last night as he lay there with her in his arms. He couldn't imagine not being with her all of the time. Half of his reason probably was the fact that he was tired of sneaking around but for the most part it was that he loved her. He loved her more than anything that he'd ever had a chance to love in his entire life. He needed her to survive. She was like air for him. When she wasn't there he felt like this wasn't getting enough.
Colin smiled. "We'll do it tonight seeing as Rory and Stephanie are supposed to go to Amanda Foster's baby shower tonight."
"Uh don't say baby shower say party. You know when you say things that pertain to people being adults it makes me feel too old to breath." Finn joked.