Rory was beginning to regret coming back to campus for the weekend. After the weekly Friday night dinner had degenerated into bickering and single syllable replies that reflected the residual tension from the catastrophic cocktail party she had thought, naively, that getting back to campus and throwing herself into midterm studying would be the right distraction.
Rory did not consider studying to be a group activity. By halfway through Saturday afternoon she was beginning to feel like she was in the middle of a cocktail hour at the library. Apparently some of the usually sane inhabitants had spent too much time sniffing old book fumes. She was sure she didn't have a sign on her head that said free advice when she left the dorm earlier but everyone here seemed to see it nonetheless.
She figured that she really ought to start tapping those scarlet shoes together and escape from Oz as soon as possible in case it was contagious.
There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...unless of course your married ex-ex-ex-boyfriend still lived there. She wasn't really sure that was the correct number of exes and it was a little cumbersome to repeat so she decide that he could be referred to as the ex cubed in perpetuity.
After 3 hours of inane conversation, wailing freshmen and gnashing teeth she bit the bullet and headed for home. It was the lesser of two evils.
She let out a sigh of relief when she pulled her car up to the front of Luke's Diner and breathed in the heady smell of grease and coffee.... home sweet home.
She paused for a minute in front of the picture windows when she saw her mom leaning across the counter with a silly grin on her face obviously flirting with the blushing Luke who was half embarrassed but clearly enjoying himself. It was so great to finally see her mom happy, truly happy, surrounded by the carefree, childlike joy that made Lorelei Gilmore the magnetic woman she was.
She felt a little pang; she only hoped that someday she would find that kind of feeling. Neither Jess nor Dean had turned out to be the person who could give her that but she figured she would find it eventually.
She turned toward the door and ran smack into the ex cubed...speak of the devil and he will appear.
He looked as shocked at the meeting as she was. She had known it was inevitable she just hadn't expected it quite this soon.
"Hi Dean." She said hesitantly "How are you."
He smiled awkwardly "I'm okay, been busy with work, Taylor is already stocking his holiday supplies." He paused "I've been talking to Lindsay again."
Rory tried to picture him with Lindsay again and it didn't hurt nearly as much as it once had. "That's good Dean, I'm happy that you are working on things with her."
A bouncing Korean girl popped out of the diner just in the knick of time and broke the awkward silence that stretched between them. "Rory, I didn't know you were coming this weekend. How are you? It seems like we haven't talked in ages, I didn't even get to tell you about my mother cursing Zach with hell demons."
Lane thrust her arm through Rory's "Hi Dean. Sorry to interrupt, its just I haven't seen our girl in so long." She beamed at Rory.
Dean cleared his throat awkwardly "Uh, yeah, well I've gotta go anyway, Tom needs me out at the inn to fix a stair tread. Bye Rory, Lane I'm sure I will see you around."
Lane watched him leave with a bewildered look on her face before turning back to her friend. "Okay, that was awkward. Did I miss something?"
Rory had been so busy lately that she hadn't gotten a chance to tell Lane about the whole mess with Dean and Logan and the wife auction.
She sighed and turned towards the diner. "Its a long story, I need sustenance to make it through, lets get some coffee and fries and I'll start at the beginning."
----
It was the penultimate plan.
After Colin and Finn got over the shock of his shower epiphany and his plan for setting out with them in tow to conquer unknown lands they decided it was best just to go along with the plot.
It was hard to argue logically with a lunatic. Besides they figured Logan was always good for a vicarious adventure and it never failed to be amusing from the peanut gallery.
The beauty of the plan was its subtlety. Why charge in with the armed brigades when you could ambush the target and come away with half the casualties? Logan smiled as he picked up his phone to set the plan in motion.
Rory got back to campus late on Sunday and organized all her notes before setting her alarm for 7 am figuring that she could squeeze in one last quick review before her 8 am exam.
She woke abruptly out of a sound sleep the next morning and glancing at the clock she realized that it was only 6:45, her alarm hadn't gone off yet. Still disoriented she tried to place what had woken her. Suddenly she noticed a flashing light that periodically illuminated her room. It appeared to be coming from the direction of the window.
Rolling to face the window she was jolted out of the remaining haze of sleep by the sight that greeted her. Across the expanse of her window was written in twinkling white Christmas lights FORGIVE ME. She stared bemused at this bizarre displayed until she heard a knock on the door of the suite.
Before she could extract herself from the warm bed she heard Paris' shrill voice. "Rory, the boat wrecker is here."
She groaned as she slid her feet into her slippers, what now? She shuffled out to the main room pulling on her robe as she went.
Paris looking like she was dressed for a DAR meeting at 6:45 am sent her a glare and gestured to the open door where Rory could see a grinning Logan.
"Maybe you should let Don Juan over there know about your sleeping habits so I don't have to be your butler at this time of morning."
"I see you have your happy face on already this morning Gellar." she quipped back, there was a reaosn they usually didn't exchange words in the morning.
"Just get rid of the WASP Gilmore, I've got studying to do and I have no patience for cutesy stuff." She stomped past her into her room and slammed the door with a resounding thud.
Logan gave Rory a questioning look "Your roommate I take it. Lovely girl, sort of Lizzie Bordenesque, gives new meaning to the term battle axe."
Rory considered Logan with a less than friendly expression on her face. She raked him with a hard unforgiving stare "I see you lived." Her tone implied that this was not a pleasant turn of events.
He had never anticipated that she would give in without a fight so he smoothly ignored the well aimed barb "Why Ace, I've missed you too, and your concern is touching but as you can see I have indeed recovered from my little bout of infirmity."
"Too bad for the rest of us. I just hope idiocy isn't catching." She said as she crossed her arms, not giving an inch.
"Touché. Ace." He put on his most sympathetic face "I take it you aren't at your best before caffeine, although I must compliment you one your charming ensemble this morning"
Rory looked down at her plaid flannel pants, pink bunny slippers and bright purple robe and gave an inelegant snort. "Luckily there is no one here that I care to impress with my fashionable wardrobe choices. What do you want beer boy?"
Logan couldn't help a chuckle "Ah, I see the pleasantries have ended. Well, on to business then. I take it you received the first part of my message.' He glanced at her face but held in a smile at her even stare "I have come in person bearing offerings of peace."
With a flourish he knelt in front of the door and presented a box tied with red ribbon and two cups of coffee.
She could see through the bow that the box held a new coffee maker.... damn him for knowing her weaknesses. Well, he wouldn't win this easily.
"Let me get this straight, you think that you can buy my forgiveness?"
He smiled sheepishly but she knew it was all an act "Can't hurt to try, just consider this a down payment."
She almost laughed but managed a straight face when she remembered Marty's story. "It is unethical to bribe the press."
Turning smartly she slammed the door in his smirking face.
She had taken two steps when she reconsidered her actions, she opened the door to his still smiling face and grabbed the two cups of coffee, when he cocked his eyebrow at her she simply stated "Its also unethical to let innocent cups of coffee be put to death just because of guilt by association" she gave him a smirk of her own and slammed the door in his face again.
She rolled her shoulders in victory. That had felt damn good, nothing like a good verbal battle to start the morning off right. She took a long sip of the liquid heaven and sighed. She would have to give him credit for good taste in coffee.
Strike 1 for Huntzberger. Logan blinked at the wood paneled door as he considered the exchange. No doubt he had lost the skirmish but damn the battle was going to be fun. He got up, brushed off his knees and walked away humming the theme to Mission Impossible.
----
Midterms week was drawing to an end when Rory wearily dragged herself into the newspaper office. She had one last paper to turn in and a test left that afternoon and then she figured she would drop into a coma like state for at least a 48-hour period. She just needed to retrieve a book she had left in her desk and she would be on her way.
She stopped dead in her tracks in front of her desk and thought there was a fair to good chance that she was hallucinating the figure currently sitting with his feet up on HER desk.
She simply did not have the patience for more of his shenanigans right now. She had been awakened every morning this week by his coffee deliveries. Fortunately he had gotten smarter after the first day and sent a variety of messengers in his place. The funniest one had been Tuesday when she had found Finn lying prostrate on the ground outside the door, complete with dark sunglasses and a note pinned to his chest that said 'Don't kill the messenger.' She had to give him points for originality on that one.
She tried to remain unmoved by his ingratiating charm, crossing her arms she looked pointedly at her desk and then across the room at his. "Perhaps your 'infirmity' managed to scramble a bit more grey matter than was healthy because you seem to have ended up at the wrong desk. An honest mistake I am sure but I would really appreciate it if you would try to isolate your footprints to your own computer monitor, seeing as it does nothing but collect dust anyway. "
He gave her a lazy look as if he had all day for this conversation, "Having a bad day Ace?"
This was getting old fast and the minutes were ticking towards her last exam. She tapped her foot in irritation "Thanks to you Huntzberger it may have just reached an all time high. Care to go for the record or are can we call this round and be done with this little sparring contest?"
He clucked his tongue in reproach "Now Ace, what kind of thing is that to say to your most important source, and here I thought we were partners."
"Give it up Logan, that ship has sailed." Fed up with his nonsense she bent down and angrily pushed his leg aside to extract the book from her desk drawer.
His hand on her arm stopped her before she could rise to her feet. "I don't think so Ace, we still have plenty of distance to cover."
Her eyes locked with his for a heartbeat and she felt a little flutter in her chest.
Doyle broke the moment when he came charging past the desk waving a stack of messages in his hand chasing after a terrified looking first year.
She pulled her hand away and stood. She waited until the desk was safely between them to look back at him. "Since they don't give a diploma for being a smart ass I suggest you stop wasting your time and find something better to do than irritate me."
He watched her back as it vanished out the door. "I'm working on it Ace."
