Chapter 122

February 6th, 2022

Rory's back ached a little. Jst like it did on most mornings when she woke up on the less than premium mattress Logan had at the apartment. She turned her side and stretched herself out, hoping to sleep a little while longer, but seeing a scene out of context - Em sleeping besides her in Logan's bed instead of the muscular and tattoo-covered back that she was used to seeing as an instant back-ache remedy in this particular bed - that caused her eyes to open fully and adjust. Em was still fast asleep, still having a little bit of that cute baby fat in her cheeks but Rory could she looked already older. It made her sigh to herself that her daughter was growing up so fast.

While she had changed the sheets, Rory had kept Logan's pillow and took full advantage of it by digging her nose deep into it, getting a whiff of his scent. The trail of softs steps, Loki's claws agains the hard floor surfacein the kitchen, in the adjacent room that were followed by weak sounding whining pulled her out of that fantasy of Logan.

Loki was up.

Rory got up as quietly as she could and since it was early enough she figured it was better not to wake Em.

She pulled on her jeans and stepped over the safety gate like she'd learned to do with Em's gate back at home when she was little, having experienced one time too many how opening the gate was enough noise to wake her daughter at the most inconvenient moment. Loki was already wagging his tail around her excitedly and licking her toes, craving her attention.

"Come on, let's get you outside," she whispered, realizing just then that there had been little point in speaking.

She didn't bother with socks, just slipping her feet into her shoes, and pulled on her jacket, before attaching Loki's leash onto his collar. She'd nearly forgotten the keys, and she sighed of relief that she'd thought to grab them last minute, the scenario of locking herself out of the apartment already running a chill over her spine.

She regretted not having looked outside though as yesterday's brisk 25 degree weather had changed into something warmer but also slushier. There was a piercing chilly wind along with the sleet. She pulled her shoulders up and covered her head with her coat hood, and let the dog do his business as swiftly as possible. But naturally, with a curious puppy like that - it was never just the five minutes, each puddle and scent providing endless entertainment.

Rory couldn't wait to get back into the warmth of the room and preferably stay in for the whole day. The thought of ordering in donuts and snuggling up in front of the TV with Em, reading or simply playing with Loki until Logan got back sounded like a lovely idea right then.

It was a desperate wail of her daughter that shocked her though the second she opened up the apartment door with the key.

"I'm here Em, just took Loki out for a bathroom break," Rory said loudly, as she closed the door behind her and quickly stepped out of her shoes, not bothering to even take off Loki's leash nor her own coat.

The girl sitting up in bed, by the looks of things having woken from a bad dream to find herself in an empty bed with no-one in sight or something similar. Rory remembered dreams like that, having had a few scary ones herself after reading 'Trouble at Timpetill' once.

Rory's coat was covered in water droplets but she jumped onto the bed as quickly as she could to wrap her daughter in her arms, getting her a little wet in the process.

The girl continued to cry, almost as if out of inertia, not knowing how to stop.

"It's okay, I'm here now," Rory soothed Em, stroking her back.

"I woke up and you were gone," Em managed after several minutes of holding her.

"I know, I'm sorry… Loki needed to go out. I tried to be quick, but you know how he is…," Rory tried to calm her. It was working a little, and the fact that Rory had left the safety gate open now as she'd rushed through and Loki had trailed in after her and climbed with his wet and dirty paws onto the bed certainly helped. Even the puppy was trying to sooth Em, though not really understanding why she was upset.

The sobs wore off, but Em still clung onto Rory, one of her hands little by little beginning to play with Loki.

"How about we order some donuts for breakfast?" Rory suggested, and did that while sitting right there. This moment made her think of a lot of things besides scaring her kid like that. She didn't really have a lot of experience in leaving Em alone like that, except to go into the backyard at her house to take out the trash or something quick like that. Em didn't even know how to use the phone to call someone, adding another thing to her list of things she'd need to teach her soon. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about leaving a note - after all the girl could read. She felt guilty, and above all like a bad parent, whilst understanding that she hadn't really done it on purpose. Still she knew she'd spend the day getting her kid everything she craved and making sure her day was full of hugs and warmth.

Things did calm down. Coffee for her and hot cocoa for Em helped, as did the assortment of donuts - powdered jelly, chocolate frosted sprinkle, boston cream and red velvet. They spent the day reading, binge watching Emily's Wonder Lab. Mostly Em sat on Rory's lap, Roy cuddling, making only casual trips outside to the front lawn to take Loki out but always together.

It was sometime past two when Rory's phone rang. She was hopeful it'd be Logan, perhaps announcing how far he was, but it was his sister instead.

"Honor, hey," Rory picked up.

"Hey, Rory," Honor answered. "Listen, I just got off the phone with that dear brother of mine," she added.

"Oh yeah?" she inquired curiously.

"It turns out that while he is in the Vineyard packing away my photos and books that I had no idea existed, he also spilled that you are not being too active on the wedding planning front. And I have no ideaif he has a clue about these things or not, but he made it sound like you don't have a wedding dress," Honor said, and Rory knew in an instant exactly where this was going.

"So just tell me when you have an opening in your schedule and I'll make you an appointment - Kleinfeld, Grace Loves Lace, Lovely Bride, RK Bridal - whichever you want. I'm sure I can even convince them to make it a Saturday if that's what it takes," Honor suggested, and went on about how long it took for her wedding dress to be made. They were already late as it was, Honor warning her that it might end up being off the rack, like that was something to be ashamed of. But Rory knew that Honor meant well.

"Honor, you have your hands full, I'm sure. I can find something closer by, it doesn't need to be that fancy," Rory assured, but wasn't really sure why she was insisting on being so humble about this. Her mother's example in wedding planning made her cautious - as if there were ways to jinx a wedding by doing this wrong. Not wanting to try on her wedding dress and getting everything organized in a day being the two more worrisome scenarios burnt into her brain.

"I know, tell me about it," she snorted, commenting on the workload she had. "But I want to. I'll have my assistant help, don't worry. Just for a change I want to do something fun, and I want one-on-one time with my future sister-in-law," Honor explained, lovingly.

"Well okay, I suppose," Rory agreed, dreading a little of what to expect from this. She did want to try on her wedding dress. She wanted to find that wedding dress. She'd just gotten so caught up with the house and it had nearly slipped her mind. She could only hope the latter wasn't a bad omen.

"How many friends do you want to invite?" Honor inquired.

"My mom, Lane, Paris… Oh, I'm not sure, but my sister Gigi might like to come," Rory suggested and quickly glanced through her calendar, and explained to Honor that every other weekend starting from the next should be alright, considering Em would then be at Jess' during the weekend. While she knew Em would absolutely love a trip to the City and go dress shopping, she also knew that she'd end up being bored out of her mind after 20 minutes. She'd just need to take her separately, when it'd be time for her own dress and make her feel like it was their special one-on-one time. Especially after today spoiling her rotten sounded like a really attractive thought.

Honor continued to bug her for other details on the wedding, but thankfully her mother had been already very busy during the holidays and put her Inn's genius event organizer on most of the details - guestlist, invites, RSVPs and to-do lists. The caterer was local to Nantucket, approved by Sookie and most of the menu consisted of locally sourced or broadly available components, limiting the risk of last minute drama. The holiday homes were booked, and if nothing else, they'd just need to house a few guests over at the Sandcastle, considering Logan was inviting a few more people than she'd originally expected. Lorelai had promised to handle ferry and plane tickets.

As she finally got off the phone, it was the first time she'd really had that spare time to think about her wedding and her wedding dress - really thought about it.

She texted Lane, asking suggestions for a band and a DJ for the wedding, knowing it'd be good to have both from some of the weddings she'd seen her mother throw growing up. She knew she'd probably need someone to host the evening too, and honestly struggled to think of anyone better than her mother. But she knew better than to put her to work during the actual event. As Lane had also been to a lot of weddings as a performer, she shot that question towards her as well, hoping she'd have recommendations.

A few google searches on wedding decor and a new Pinterest board later, she was already knee deep in wedding dress sites, dreamily enjoying the fact that she hadn't brought her laptop which would've meant she'd need to start reading papers. She was so into just being like this, dreaming of her wedding, and enjoying the sensation of her daughter's weight on her, that she didn't notice Loki's lowered level of energy and the slight twitch in him, as if he was trying to shake off something that was bothering him.