"I Shouldn't Have"

"My mom called today from California." were the first words that Rory had spoken after a long silence. She seemed withdrawn today, so Logan just let her be.

"Oh, ya, did she say when they're coming home?" he asked

"Tomorrow, so this is our last day like this." Rory responded sadly

"Ya, mine return tomorrow too, and don't your Grandparents come home the next day?" asked Logan.

"Ya, they do." was her only reply

Rory and Logan had decided to each tell their own family that they are now an "us", each in their own time. This would be the first time the couple would be apart; the first time Rory would go to sleep and not have Logan hogging the covers next to her and fall asleep with that stupid, cocky, charming grin spread across his face. The first time Logan would wake up without her there smiling at him, and waiting for him to go fetch her some coffee.

Near the end of the week, the Gilmores and the Huntzbergers had scheduled a formal meeting to discuss some things. Rory and Logan would have to pretend like nothing had changed over the last few months, pretend like neither one was attached, pretend like nothing was going on between them, pretend like they felt nothing for the other. Things would be different now; they wouldn't see each other every day, and when they did see each other he couldn't hold her, kiss her, make her his. It would be tricky being that all of Yale, not to mention Stars Hallow, knows about them.

Lorelai and Luke arrive home to an awaiting Rory

"Honk, honk"

Rory runs out to welcome home her mom and Luke when she hears Lorelai's unmistakable honk.

"Welcome Home you two!" she exclaims.

"Hi sweets, I missed ya, brought ya some presents."

"Hi Luke, how was California?"

"Hi Rory, California was great, but I'm glad to be home." said Luke as he hugged Rory hello.

The trio ordered pizza and planned a night full of catching up, and watching movies.

"Mia's great, she sends her love and wants us to come back as soon as we can and bring you next time." said Lorelai as she finished her stories about her trip.

"So, how've you been, what have you been doing all this time without mommy, bet it was boring?" asked Lorelai

"Oh, it was." stated Rory trying to humor her mother. trying not to divulge what had been happening in her life over the past eight months.

"Nothing much; just school, lots of papers and reading, spending lots of time with friends and getting used to living on my own with Lane and Paris." continued Rory trying not to divulge what had been happening in her life over the past eight months.

"So, mom, don't forget we have that meeting with Grandma, Grandpa and the Huntzbergers on Thursday." reminded Rory

"Uhh" said Lorelai disgusted and making a face.

"I fortunately blocked that out this entire time."

"Speaking of Logan, have you seen him recently?" questioned Lorelai

"Ya, sure, I mean we go to the same school, I see him around and we've hung out a few times."

"You've hung out?" inquired a curious, confused and concerned Lorelai.

"Well, we are friends and we have some of the same friends, just because we happen to be married doesn't mean we can't still be friends, right?" explained Rory nervously.

"Wow!" was all that Lorelai could say.

"Wow, what?" asked both Rory and Luke.

"Married, you've never said the word married and you and Logan or you and anybody before."

"Well, we are married, to help Grandpa, but otherwise we're friends."

"Yes, you are friends and that's right married just until Grandpa can get his business back on its feet and than you two will have this ridiculous thing annulled."

"Right, annulled, listen mom, I have to get going, I have some more reading to do and I promised Lane and Paris that I wouldn't be home late." said Rory. She got up as fast as she could; she worried that if she stayed another minute longer than she would never be able to hide her feelings from her mother.

During the days leading up to the Gilmore-Huntzberger meeting Rory kept her distance from her mother, she felt that it was safer that way. Instead she kept her focus on school; fortunately for her at this time her professors had given her plenty to do. And in her off time she spent time in the apartment just hanging out with her two best friends, not talking about Logan.

It wasn't until the day of the meeting at his parents' house when she saw him again. The second they spotted each other their hearts flew up into their chests and started beating really fast. They were able to steal a couple of minutes away in private to share some kisses and words of encouragement.

"Hi baby, I've missed you so much, thought I would die without you." said Logan as he pulled his beloved wife into a closet and began smothering her with kisses.

"I've missed you to, but we need to talk, later on, after this, we need to have a talk, we'll meet back at Yale."

The meeting went fine, and the two could show no signs of affection towards one another, after the other night Lorelai was already suspicious and felt that there was something off with her daughter. The two families had come to a decision that this plan would soon be over, soon Rory and Logan's marriage would end, be null and void.

When the meeting was over Rory went to say goodbye to her mother and Grandparents before heading to Yale to meet with Logan.

"Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, I have to get going back to school, I see you all at Friday night dinner tomorrow."

As Rory turned to leave Lorelai grabbed her by the arm.

"Hon, you ok, cause you look kind of pale, you working too hard?" questioned a concerned Lorelai.

"No, mom, I'm fine, I've just been busy, and haven't been sleeping very well." explained Rory.

And truth was that she hadn't been feeling well; she felt queasy, but she explained it away to herself as just working too hard or being worried about the entire situation.

Later on the day at Yale

"Hi hon, come on in, I already got some coffee waiting for ya." said Logan smiling as he ushered his wife into his dorm.

"I don't want any coffee Logan, we need to talk." said Rory as she stepped in and put her hand to her head feeling a migraine coming on.

"What's the matter, you ok?" he asked concerned, but at the same time trying to put the moves on her.

"Stop it Logan, really we need to talk!" yelled Rory as she brushed his hands off of her and stepped away.

"Alright, you want to sit down and tell me what this is all about?" asked Logan who had been very surprised and a little hurt by Rory's reaction.

"I shouldn't have done this, we shouldn't have done this!" she said.

"We shouldn't have done what, I need a little bit longer sentence there baby." he answered.

"We shouldn't have strayed from the plan, we shouldn't have gotten involved, and we shouldn't feel anything for each other."

"What?" screamed a now confused and very upset Logan.

"We can't do this." she shot back.

"We need to go back to the way things were supposed to be; us just being married to save my Grandpa's company and then in a month our marriage will be over." she said.

"You don't mean that Rory."

"Yes, I do, I really do." she said.

"But what about our plan to tell our families?" Logan asked

"Are you worried about what they'll say?"

"I'll go with you, right now, we can put an end to this charade and tell our parents what's really in our hearts, tell them that we are going to stay together."

"No!"

"Why can't you understand, we have to go back to the way things were before this whole mess got started, to being nothing to each other, we can't be together." said Rory shocking Logan.

"No, Rory, I can't, I won't, I love you and I know that you love me too, I know that you do. Otherwise we wouldn't have spent the last six months like this together and we wouldn't have devised a plan to stay together." he pleaded, almost to the brink of tears.

"No, Logan, I need you to forget about me, soon our marriage will be over; the prenup we signed won't matter, we can go back to the way our lives were before and you can forget about me." she begged.

At that moment Logan found the prenup that they had signed a year ago and tore it up letting the pieces of paper crumble to the ground beneath him.

"To hell with the prenup, to hell with the plan, all I want, all I need is you, how can you ask me to forget about you Rory, how can you ask me to leave you, be without you, pretend like the past eight months never happened?"

"Don't pretend like they were nothing; like we're nothing, we are everything together and than some."

"You are my life, my wife, my partner, my lover, my best friend, the one I want to fall asleep next to every night, and wake up with every morning."

"You're the one I want to work with, travel with, live with, make love with, spend my life with, have babies with and die with." said Logan, taking both of their hands and twisting their hands together revealing their wedding rings and the engagement ring that he had bought her.

"In omnia paratus Ace"

"I know you're scared, but together we are ready for anything."

With that Rory broke away, and wouldn't look at him again.

But then she faced him, took his face in her hands and kissed him goodbye and took off the ruby engagement ring that he had given her and placed it in his hand. She quietly said "I will love you forever, forget me not." and ran out the door leaving behind a devastated Logan.