Chapter 176

May 6th, 2022

"I'll be right with you," Luke said, hurriedly, carrying a few empty plates to the kitchen and collecting some money from a few tables in passing.

"I thought you had the evening off," Rory noted as she and Logan made it inside the diner. Em had already picked out her favorite table, the one by the window.

"I do, and the diner is just closing," Luke made it a point to say especially loudly so even the last few people still sitting at tables could hear. There was some charity event that Taylor was throwing which was giving Luke the out to host Friday Night Dinner that evening.

"Do you need any help?" Rory asked, generously. Truthfully, Rory had hoped to get a word with Luke about her mom, being a little worried about the two of them by now, but it didn't look like she was going to get that moment.

"I'm fine, I'll just be with you in a minute," Luke said, hurrying back towards the kitchen.

It was just as the three had sat down at a table, when Em who'd already began playing with the salt and pepper shakers, when Jess walked past outside on the street. Naturally, it only took Em a second to register this. "Daddy!" the little girl squealed banging on the window at the same time, nearly shocking Rory. Logan had gotten a some of those greetings by now as well - but he could tell they were a lot more genuine when directed to Jess, and he had to admit he was kind of envious of that.

It hadn't been the plan for Jess to join them, but there he was.

"Hey," Jess said, as he made his way inside the diner, the coor chiming as he did. Em stormed him, wrapping her little arms around him, as he raised her to his level. "How was school?" Jess asked Em, focusing all of his attention on her.

"I got a gold star," Em boasted.

"Did you? For what?" Jess inquired in a theatrical way.

"Math," Em said proudly.

"Wow…. looks and the brains," Jess commented, expressively, feeling equally proud.

"I'm here," Lorelai said, sounding a little out of breath, as she emerged through the diner door with a door chime. "Was it just me or did I just see a platoon of clowns cross the street?" she asked, feeling confused.

"That's just Taylor," Luke commented as he was writing a check of his last clients.

"Taylor's dressed up as a clown? What, he suddenly learned to clone himself or something?" Lorelai replied.

"Nah, just some competition or another," Luke commented, not really caring about the event in question and guided his customers out.

"Hey, Jess!" Lorelai noticed him, Em's arms still wrapped around his neck. "Logan, Rory - hey," she saw the others who'd already sat down.

"Jess, you staying for dinner?" Luke asked, as he was getting everyone at the table plates.

"Stay dad, stay! Please!" Em pleaded.

"I really should get to the post office," Jess replied, having no real interest in dining with Logan and Rory that evening.

"Don't go out there, grandma Lorelai said there were clowns!" Em tried to convince him.

"Smart kid," Lorelai commented, sinking down on a red chair next to Rory. "Now let me look at you?" Lorelai turned to Rory.

"Mom, you just saw me last week," Rory rolled her eyes.

"Come on, stand. I want to look at you," Lorelai demanded while Em was still trying to sweet talk Jess into staying for dinner.

Rory groaned but stood up for a moment. Her knit-dress really was hiding nothing at this point.

"Hello there, it's grandma Lorelai here," she said, touching her bump gently just like she'd done last week. "Still no news on the gender?" Lorelai inquired.

"Nope," Logan replied for Rory. He was frankly curious to find out himself.

"Sometimes they do the ultrasound at 20 weeks, but at the latest at 30 to assess the weight. We'll all just have to wait," Rory explained. Logan didn't really get why she wasn't curious to hurry things along, his sister had even recommended this specialist that did 3D ultrasounds and whom she swore by, but Rory had considered it unnecessary.

"Can't they run some fancy tests by now or something?" Lorelai began to ask but was interrupted.

"Em is insisting I stay. Do you mind?" Jess said as Em went to wash her hands.

"Sure, stay - of course," Rory replied, feeling like there was no polite way to really refuse. It would awkward but nothing they couldn't survive.

Jess moved a table around, making the one they'd been sitting at a little longer to accommodate himself.

"Here we go," Luke finally returned to the table with a large fish dish and a salmon burger for Em. Jess went to help him and brought out the chili fries and coleslaw.

"So, what's been going on?" Rory asked her mother, while Luke headed back to get everyone drinks.

"We're booked two months solid, Lorelai shared. "And they're going to finally repaveve Maple street next month," she added, and continued with a number of insignificant but rather entertaining news.

"As I am here, I actually would like to tell you guys something," Jess said, about half-way through dinner. Em had finished quickly and was already voluntarily filling the salt shakers by the counter.

The people focused their attention on Jess, expectantly.

"I already told Rory this but...I just wanted to say that I spoke to Lisa today, and I'll be moving to Providence to live with her over the summer," he confessed, having made up his mind. "The store will stay, for the time being at least," she added.

"Wow," Luke exhaled. "That's a big change," he commented, but everyone could tell it made him a little sad as well.

"I'm happy for you," Rory added, feeling like she needed to balance Luke's sadness of the change somehow.

"Thanks," Jess replied.

"I have some news as well," Rory began, feeling like this was as good of a moment as it would present that evening. "I've decided I'm not going back to Chilton after I have the baby," Rory confessed.

"What!?" Lorelai didn't quite believe what she was hearing.

"I just want to take a moment to enjoy it… figure things out," Rory explained, feeling like she'd used that phrase one too many times.

"I wanna see that," Jess snorted but caught the scolding glance from Logan's direction. "It's just that I've never seen you not want to work," he added, apologetically.

"You want to try writing again, is that it?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't know, maybe. I'm still toying with this piece on grandma. They're publishing a shorter version of it in the D.A.R newsletter but other than that…, " Rory said with an added shrug.

"Huh," Lorelai replied, trying very hard not to judge. But Rory could read her better than that.

"Teaching is just… it's so all-consuming. I can't think straight at the end of the day. And I just want to have the time to… to live…," Rory explained.

"I think it's a great idea. She deserves to do what feels right," Logan added, supportively.

"As long as your entire purpose won't become sitting on committees and running charities," Lorelai said, unable to stop herself.

"It won't," Rory promised, but could tell her mother rather wanted to tell her not to become her mother, or Shira. She was also pretty sure she was pondering how much of this had been Logan's idea.

"Will I at least get to throw you a baby shower?" Lorelai inquired, changing the subject, seeing as well that this wasn't going anywhere. It was a deeper discussion for another time.

After Jess had taken Em to stay with him for the weekend, planning on telling the child more personally what his plans were considering the move, half an hour later Logan and Rory arrived home. As the door swung open, Rory nearly stumbled on a cardboard box.

"Watch it, you're gonna hurt yourself," Logan cautioned her, laughingly, catching her by her elbow just in time.

"Huh," Rory reacted, and reached out to flip the light switch on. The room illuminated and Rory saw what Logan already knew - the large foyer was filled with boxes - at least two dozen of them piled on top of each other.

"The shipment came just before I left. I didn't have time to put it away. This was Logan's past catching up with him - all of the things Odette had shipped over. There really was a lot, a lot more than Logan had imagined. And frankly he was a little intimidated by the amount and also the content of it, having not really expected to feel like that after a week of feeling confident about moving forward.

"Wow, it's quite a lot," Rory exhaled, as she placed her prune-tone Loewe leather tote that also held her laptop onto the entryway table. She'd just been to the driveway earlier to pick Logan up with Em to drive over to Stars Hollow.

"Yeah…," Logan exhaled.

"Want to dig in?" Rory said, hanging her floral bomber jacket onto the clothes rack, as Logan did the same.

"Don't you sound energetic today," Logan said, sounding surprised.

"Must be the second trimester energy boost people keep telling me about," Rory said and smiled cheekily. "But for real, I had a long lunch break. Got a full 30 minutes sleep on the teacher's lounge couch before Amy woke me by sneezing," Rory described.

"That must've been a loud sneeze," Logan replied, his one hand around her hip and the other one brushing a stray hair behind her ear.

"It was," Rory replied, resting her hands on his chest, already melting at the way he was looking at her.

"But it's good you found a moment to rest. I do wonder if I could get you some better spot, a bed maybe," Logan pondered, not meaning it too seriously.

"Hanlin used to have a nice Chesterfield in his office," Rory pointed out. "And there's like a month left," she shrugged, not really seeing the need, but she got it that he hadn't really meant it too seriously.

"And Max doesn't?" Logan asked, his thumb stroking her side a little, pulling Rory a little closer to him. Frankly, if he could help it, he'd rather spend his night doing better things than going through those boxes.

"Beats me, the back room is usually for other types of meetings, and he's never really been that kind of guy," Rory explained.

"Those other types of meetings... wonder if his wife visits him there a lot," Logan teased.

"Beats me," Rory shrugged innocently. "But come on, I wonder what's in all of these boxes..," she suddenly turned and began to untape one of the boxes, feeling curious.

"Is this really what you'd rather do?" Logan hummed close to her ear, wrapping his arms around his hips from behind her. He'd admired the short-sleeved knit dress she wore the entire evening. The way it hugged her hips and bump, and her one cup size larger breasts definitely had a draw to it and he was pretty sure he'd seen Jess take note earlier as well.

"Hey, I remember this picture," Rory pulled out a framed photo from a skiing trip at Chamonix with Colin. She remembered the photo from Logan's apartment she'd frequented in London, where it had been positioned right by the couch.

"Yeah, Colin broke his collarbone on that trip," Logan humored her, taking the frame from her hands. He had never been much for sentimental objects, but there were things that held some value.

"What's this?" Rory said, taking out a golden Moai figurine, but the label below it explained itself soon enough. "It's a Titan Award," Rory exclaimed. "You got a Titan Award?" she noted, reading the label from 2018. "That's such a big deal, I can't believe I didn't know!" she added.

"It was a team effort, this really should belong in the office," Logan explained, moving to her side, but his hand remained around the small of her back.

"I wonder what more is in there that I don't know about," Rory pondered.

The box contained a few more photos - with his friends or his sister, certificates and documents - nothing too surprising.

But then came a photo book, and frankly Rory was surprised to find one. These days the only people she knew to have photo books were those loving printouts of their babies or weddings but the front cover remained fairly neutral. There was no cheesy wedding photo on the cover, no dates - hence Rory dared to peek inside.

"Ah…," Logan exhaled. Not cautioning her but just becoming a little hesitant.

But that didn't stop Rory, her curiosity taking charge.

The photo book contained pictures of her and the two of them at Yale, the Life and Death Brigade event, their life living together, the goodbye party before he got shipped off to London and many more. Rory didn't have many photos from that time. There was one from her Yale graduation even as she'd accepted her diploma. That one certainly stung, thinking he'd still taken it and saved it. But the book didn't end there. There were pictures from their weekend trips to Scotland, Germany and events they'd been to while she'd visited him in London, even though not all of their quality was the greatest, having been taken with whatever phones and simpler cameras they'd had back then. There were several photos of her when she hadn't known he'd been looking, let alone photographing her. But not in a creepy way.

"What is this?" Rory exclaimed, barely being able to get any words out.

"This…," Logan sighed. "Odette actually suggested I make this. She told me to process… after New Hampshire and sometime before the wedding. Back then she knew me surprisingly well, she could tell I needed something to deal...," Logan explained, recalling well how awful those couple of months had felt and how he'd spent far too many nights drinking. Odette had seen it in him how saying goodbye had broken him, and she'd tried to help however she knew.

"It took me forever," he added. He'd considered throwing it out or even burning it, but he hadn't. It had just stood there in his bookshelf next to all the other books and Odette had never requested him to get rid of it, even though she certainly could've.

Rory didn't reply, already getting emotional, but turned towards him, and kissed him, her hands going around her neck. Being so worked up in her issues these past weeks it had nearly slipped her mind that Logan had baggage too, he'd hurt too - and he was allowed to have worries about the possibility of feeling that hurt again just the same. But for the first time she saw herself through his eyes - she'd really gotten under his skin just like he was under hers. The feeling was unbelievably comforting.