Part 34: Following Tradition:
"Mom?"
"Hey babe."
"Mom!" Rory said as she launched herself into Lorelai's arms. Lorelai laughed, but lost her footing as she grabbed Rory and went tumbling onto the pub floor, Rory going with her. They sat up, sat crossed legged on the floor facing each other and laughed.
"How much have you had to drink tonight, young lady?" Lorelai teased.
"None, but you got to admit it was fun."
"It certainly topped off the Hartford Airport fall of 2003." Lorelai laughed.
"Well, at least you didn't get in trouble with the government this time."
"Nope, but the campus security might have my picture."
"Of course they do." Rory laughed.
"I come bearing gifts."
"It is my birthday."
"Well, of course, I know that which means presents are a must. So I raided the Yale gift shop." She said grabbing the bags off to the side and showing them to Rory who laughed as she looked in the bags.
"Yale sweatshirt, Yale mugs, Yale cup cozy."
"They're new." Lorelai said pointing to the cozy.
"And the Yale male calendar." Rory said with a laugh. "Thanks, mom."
"Your real present is somewhere in that mountain over there." Lorelai told her making Rory smile.
"Up we go." She said as she started to get up. She helped up her mother and then hugged her. "Thanks for coming, mom."
"I couldn't miss my baby's twenty first birthday party, could I?"
"Course not, but you didn't call."
"I didn't think you'd want me to."
"Blasphemy!"
"Well, I have learned the errors of my ways." Lorelai said dramatically.
"Good." Rory said as she started to pull back, but Lorelai hugged her once again.
"Logan called." She whispered. "He told me that you were upset and told me about the party. You might want to thank him."
"I will." Rory pulled back and smiled before going over to Lane.
"Twenty one." Lane said as they hugged. "I feel young."
"You're twenty; you turn twenty one in four months! Plus Finn is making drinks; chances are he'll give you a drink."
"Happy birthday, Rory." Lane said with a laugh.
"Thanks, Lane." Rory turned to Luke and hugged him.
"Luke, you old softie."
"You mom told me about it, thought I'd come and celebrate with you guys."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Luke." Rory said. She turned to Finn, Logan and Steph who were watching them.
"You guys remember Logan. This is Steph, and Finn." She introduced. "Steph, Finn, this is my best friend Lane, and my future stepfather Luke."
"Nice to meet you." Steph and Finn said with a smile.
"Come on." Lorelai said. "Let's go find a table." They excused themselves and went to go find an empty table. Lorelai came back with a smile. "Rory, if you still want to follow tradition, gather your friends and meet us at that table."
"Okay, mom." Rory said with a laugh. Lorelai smiled and went to the table.
"Hey Finn, why don't you take a break and go over to the table, take Steph, find Colin, Evie and Paris, and meet me and Logan there."
"You sure, love? I mean the drinks can't make themselves."
"I think it'll be fine."
Finn shrugged, grabbed Steph's hand and went in the search for their three friends.
"I'm guessing you wanted to talk to me?"
"You guessed right." She looked over at him and smiled. "Thank you."
"For what, Ace?"
"For calling my mom, getting her here. For having her follow tradition. Thank you."
"Hey, you're the birthday girl, so you deserve everything right."
"Right."
"Now come on, I'm dying to hear the story."
Rory laughed as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her to the table.
"Happy birthday, little girl." Lorelai said as they walked up. Rory smiled.
"Hey." She said sitting down next to her mother. Evie, Finn, Colin, Steph, Paris, Logan, Luke and Lane were all sitting at their table, which also included Seth and Robert, who had wished her a happy birthday on the way in.
"I can't believe how fast you're growing up. Twenty one."
"Really feels slow." Rory said, the conversation was always the same, every year.
"Trust me, it's fast. So what do you think of your life so far?"
"I think it's pretty good."
"Any complaints?"
The marriage popped into Rory's mind, but she pushed the thought to the back of her head and smiled. "I'd like the whole humidity thing to go away"
"All right, I'll start working on that."
"So do I look older?" Rory asked. Everyone at the table smiled at the pair, lost in the world, in their tradition.
"Oh yeah. You walk into Denny's before five, you've got yourself a discount."
"Good deal."
"So you know what I think?"
"What?"
"I think you are a great, cool kid and the best friend a girl could have."
"Right back at ya."
"And it's hard to believe that at exactly 4:03 am, many moons ago I was lying in a hospital bed…"
"Oh boy, here we go." Rory said with a roll of her eyes even though she loved the story
"Only I had huge, fat stomach and big, fat ankles, and I was swearing like a sailor."
"On leave." Rory finished.
"On leave, right! And there I was..."
"In labor."
"And while some have called it the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite."
This caused the table to roar with laughter. Rory just smiled.
"I wonder if the Waltons ever did this."
"And I was screaming and swearing and being surrounded as I was by a hundred prominent doctors, I just assumed there was an actual use for the cup of ice chips they gave me."
"There wasn't." Rory said
"But pelting the nurse sure was fun."
Rory smiled. "I love you, mom."
"Shh. I'm getting to the part where he sees your head. So there I was..." Rory just smiled and listened to the rest of the story.
"Okay, this one is from me and Colin." Steph said, she was holding a DVD recorder camera and filming Rory opening her presents.
"It's big." Rory stated.
"It's a good present, imagine my surprise when Colin saw the present I had gotten you. Threw it in the garbage and came back two hours later with this. He chose this and let me say, it's good."
"Okay." Rory said with a laugh as she started opening the wrapping paper. "Oh, it's hard."
"Dirty." Came from Lorelai, the room bursting in laughter.
"Oh my… No!" Rory said turning to Colin and Steph.
"The Jane Austin collection. All first editions." Colin said with a nod. "I saw them and, well… thought of you."
"Aww." The room chorused.
"So when you saw shampoo you thought of me?" Steph asked.
"No, it's not….God, I hate getting presents." Colin muttered.
"Thank you so much, Colin, Steph. It's… wow."
"Well, then I take all the credit for it." Steph said half hugging Rory, the camera still in her hand. Then Rory hugged Colin.
"Thanks." She put the books along with all her other opened presents.
"Well, that concludes the presents except, of course, mine." Lorelai said handing over a box. "Don't open the box too much." She whispered as she handed it to Rory. Rory frowned, but opened putting the wrapping paper away, then very carefully peeked in the box, gasped and shut the box again with a blush.
"Like it?"
"Very funny." Rory said.
"Oh, you love it." Lorelai said. "Plus at one point or another you're going to wear it."
"Of course I am." Rory said as she blushed a deeper red and hid the box under some other ones.
"What is it?" Logan asked Steph, Steph just smiled.
"My take it's some sexy lingerie. But you'd have to ask Rory."
"Rather not." He said stepping back.
"Wait, mine, mine!" Finn said pulling out a box from under one of the tables and handing it to Rory. Rory smiled as she opened the box and laughed when she saw what was inside. The box itself was filled with coffee beans and buried in between the coffee beans were hundreds of Starbucks Gift Cards.
"Couldn't you get just one gift card, Finn?"
"They said they couldn't make the gift card to the amount I gave them." He said with a shrug. Rory's eyes widened.
"How much, Finn?"
"I will just say that you are getting free coffee for the next two years."
"He's good." Lorelai said.
"Oh my... You're getting an altar!" She said hugging him.
"I'll get you a good picture of me, love." She laughed as she put the lid back in the box and put it with the rest.
"And that's the last of them." Steph said. "Unless..." she looked pointedly at Logan who shook his head. She rolled her eyes.
"Well, in that case let's drink!" Finn said as he headed back to the bar to get started. Logan watched as everyone spread out and Rory was at the table of presents smiling. He walked over and stood next to her.
"Hey."
She turned and smiled at him. "Hey."
"Can we take a walk?"
"Where?"
"Just around, I swear I'll bring you back."
She laughed and nodded, "Sure, just let me get my coat."
"I'll meet you outside."
He walked out of the pub and into the chilly fall air and took a deep breath of the fresh air. He heard the door open and close and heard her walk over to him.
"Hey." She said.
"Hey," he said. They started walking. "So you having fun?"
"Most fun I've had in a while. I want to thank you again for calling my mom. We might not have the relationship we had, but it's getting there thanks to you."
"I just made the call, Ace, you guys are doing all the work."
"You made us take that first step. So thanks."
"You're welcome."
"So was there a reason you brought me out into the cold and away from the warmness of the pub and the alcohol?"
"You are starting to think like Finn."
"Scary thought." She said with a shudder.
"There is a reason though. I just didn't want to do it in there."
"Oh, intrigue. What is it?"
"I wanted to give you your birthday present."
"Oh Logan, you didn't have to get me anything."
"It's your birthday, you're my fiancée, it's sort of in the rule book plus I was walking around the stores with Colin when he saw the books the other day and I saw this and I liked it." He put his hand in the inside jacket pocket and took out a small thin red box.
"I seriously had no idea what to get you. I mean I know you like books, coffee and food as well as movies, but it seemed like everyone was going to get you that. And when I saw this, well… it just seemed to fit."
He handed Rory the box and she bit her lip as she carefully took the thin red ribbon and pocketed it. She opened the box and frowned. Inside was a small silver heart, above it it said Redeem for. Then the heart said No Questions Asked. There was a small note at the bottom and she read it. No matter what you did in the past, I love and forgive you, No questions asked though the word love had been crossed out. She had to smile.
"This is…"
"I crossed out the word love… seemed too.."
"Out there."
"Right, just know that at any point you want to talk to me about something and you think I'll judge you for it. Just hand it to me."
Rory smiled and hugged him. "Thank you."
"Just know I'm here, Ace, I'll never judge you, token or no token."
"Thank you." She repeated.
"You're welcome." She stepped back and looked at the heart.
"It's perfect, Logan, really it is."
"I'm glad you think so."
She smiled at him and he smiled back. She leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the lips. "Thank you." She blushed, turned around and walked back to the pub. He all of a sudden felt like a high school boy when his crush had finally paid attention to him.
He just smirked and walked back to the pub. He walked in and went over to Colin and Robert who were talking and noticed her at the bar talking with Finn as he pointed to different bottles. He watched her laugh and point to one and saw Finn grin. She fit in.
AN: Definitely shorter than the last. LOL. But it just fit that end that way. If you guys haven't realized there's a reason he gave her that little silver heart. That actually is an actual heart. It's very cute and I saw it at Hallmark when I was getting my Colin heart for my bracelet (That's right, I have a GG bracelet with hearts that have Tristan, Logan and Colin on it so far) and well, I saw the little red box and the thing was perfect and I knew what I wanted to do.
So I hoped you enjoyed!
Next chapter on Sunday!
Kassandra