Chapter 183
May 25th, 2022
"Thanks for doing this," Rory called out from the bathroom, where she was doing her makeup. She was beginning to feel most of her outfits were already a lost cause, but she just stuck to what she knew - most of her maternity dresses looked pretty much the same to her if one didn't focus too much on their colors. She was past observing her figure too carefully as one normally would, just trying to push onward and going through the motions of 'making herself pretty'.
"Yeah, like I could say no to you," Logan replied with the roll of his eyes, buttoning his dark navy dress shirt, getting ready himself.
"And you are going to make some teenage boys look very insecure tonight once they see you. Or maybe I should worry about the girls?" Rory said, stepping out of the bathroom, Logan's chic look definitely catching her eye. She had to admit, while she loved the new more relaxed Logan that worked from home most of the time, she kind of missed seeing him all dressed up. He looke damn good in a suit. Not that where they were going that evening was anything too glamorous.
"High school is hard enough. Maybe I should change?" Logan said, jokingly, threatening to unbutton his shirt again.
"Don't you dare," Rory said, smiling widely, and gave him a quick kiss. "Or maybe…" she added, flirtatiously, not minding one bit if she got to see him without his shirt on.
It was at that moment they could both hear Em and Loki running down the upstairs hallway, which caused them to pull apart, their lingering smiles promising to pick up where they left off.
"Mommy, you look so pretty," Em exclaimed, hugging her hips, taking the words out of Logan's mouth, that he'd been already thinking from the moment she'd stepped out of that bathroom. The claret-colored dress, with a deep V-neck and ¾ sleeves looked great on her, even if its jersey fabric was perhaps not the classiest thing she had in her wardrobe.
"Thanks baby," Rory replied.
Logan scratched Loki behind his ear, as he was demanging his attention, trying to not get any dog fur on his suit that he was pulling on just then.
"I concur," Logan said anyway, knowing by now well that he'd just get a roll of her eyes from Rory if he made a too big of a deal of complimenting her. But he certainly wasn't going to stop with the assurances and compliments.
Even their therapy sessions had been going exceptionally well these past few times - it seemed that once they'd gotten over the bump of admitting to some issues, it was also a lot easier to communicated them. Rory was insecure, one of her deepest issues being the fear of love towards her being conditional. So now at least Logan could take that was a starting point and always factor in that even if she said or did something that seemed to be pushing him away he would know it was because of it and he needed to just give her time to come to her senses and not get offended by every little thing while Rory tried to differentiate between facts and feelings better. Logan's job was to be the rock, even though that too was a tiring job sometimes - but right now he was feeling stronger than he had in years, making him up for the job.
"Can you do my hair like that for the wedding?" Em asked, liking Rory's twisted side braid. She rarely did things like that to her hair, usually sticking to either a bun or a simple ponytail. Truth be told - she was now beginning to realize that while she did have her dress sorted and many of the other wedding organizing covered, she hadn't really gone into great details on her hair or any of the other details. She'd been thinking a lot today about all the things that still needed to get done, having gotten the invites that morning which she just needed to go through before the organizer was going to mail them in the next few days.
"Sure, honey," Rory replied, stroking Em's back.
Then they heard the doorbell, which was likely to be Lorelai who was coming to babysit.
As usual, she came with a bagful of takeaway, aiming to make it a movie night with Em.
"Now look at you!" Lorelai exclaimed in greeting, giving Rory, Em and even Logan a brief hug in greeting. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you two were going for a night on the town," she added. "You really should… considering," she said, nodding towards the bump, that was generally not too emphasized around Em as agreed.
Lorelai had always been very helpful when it came to Em, even when she was just a baby. She was Rory's escape to go to her classes of work, many times even taking Em with her to the Inn, and just continued working. After all that was what she'd done with Rory and for her multi-tasking like that was a piece of cake. She had always been the one to suggest Rory should go out with Jess more after they'd had Em. And while they'd certainly tried a couple of times to regain some of that one-on-one time, it had just been too late by then. Here - Rory was sensing a similar suggestion - have as much fun together while you can.
"We should get going," Logan suggested.
"But we have plenty of time, it doesn't start before 7," Rory replied, sounding surprised. While she was pretty much ready to go, she had hoped to grab a few bites to eat before she went. It felt like she was always hungry these days, but could only really eat small amounts at the time without getting heartburn. They 'joy's of pregnancy were beginning to show themselves.
"I was hoping we could make a stop," Logan said suddenly, as Lorelai headed towards the kitchen away from them. "But we could go later if you need to eat. Feeding you comes first," he suggested, not wanting to make his errand a priority.
"I can probably just have something in the car," Rory replied, seeing Lorelai had brought spring rolls and hijacked a boxful of them along with Lorelai's half-hearted accusations, before making a playfully speedy exit after hugging Em goodbye.
They took Logan's car this time, since Rory's had needed some repairs and was at the shop. Logan was making sure she never took her car to the dealers again - it was a small thing, but he would gladly take another thing off her plate.
They drove through the city, and Rory was casually going through her mental list she needed to go over with Logan in the next couple of days, thinking out loud and making notes on her phone. This list included the invitations, out of which the most important ones they wanted to sign personally, going to the vital records office to get the marriage license and to go pick out their wedding bands.
The honeymoon was still hush-hush, Logan having taken charge of it. Rory mostly worried about fitting into the dress still. Sure - alterations had been made but there was always the worry that she might gain weight all over not just on her bump. Anyways - little by little - the nerves were beginning to set in that something could go wrong before they got to say their "I do's".
With this topic in the air, Rory nearly didn't notice Logan was about to turn to another direction than Chilton.
"Hey? Where are we going?" she asked, after he'd turned to the opposite direction.
But it all came clear soon enough as Logan pulled up into the parking lot of the Cedar Hill cemetery, where they'd seen each other in October.
Rory was almost about to ask for further clarifications, but then it hit her. "It's May 25th," she noted.
"It is," Logan replied, still holding onto the wheel.
"Do you want to go by yourself or…?" Rory asked, unsure what the best course of action was here. It was Mitchum's birthday, and Logan hadn't said a word about him in weeks. But clearly with the decision about finally accepting his inheritage becoming more and more logical, there being less and less reasons not to now that his head was clearer and old grudges dissolved, Mitchum had been on his mind.
"Nah," Logan replied, looking at her briefly but not hurrying to get out of the car. "I'm not sure even why I'm here," he shrugged, his strong nature showing that softer, gentler - more sensitive side of him that really only Honor and Rory had ever seen. For a second Rory could observe his hand nearly going for the ignition button again to turn the car back on but instead Rory took his hand, telling him not to flee the feeling that had brought him there.
"Let's go," Rory said, sensing that making peace with his father was what he needed.
Wordlessly the two made their way through the cemetery in evening light, not quite dark yet but getting there, hand in hand. Logan hadn't brought flowers - his mind was able to imagine his father snorting at the gesture.
Mitchum's headstone was positioned next to Elias', made out of black marble with white, bold, capital lettering. 'Huntzberger' it said, his first name only added in much smaller lettering above it. It held no verses, no deep and meaningful messages. Mitchum truly had been 'to the point' in that sense, and he hadn't even particularly enjoyed small talk - Logan recalled him even saying once when he'd been in his teens how small talk is just a bunch of hot air you have to get through so people will think you like them.
Logan didn't really need long by his father's grave. His conversation with his father was a quiet one, Rory only guessing what he had to say. But the essence of what he said was illustrated well by the expensive-looking watch Logan dug out from his pocket. It had been amonst the things Odette had sent him - a gift from his father for a job well done at some point. Of course he'd never actually said 'good work'. He placed the watch, still ticking, onto the corner of the gravestone, leaving it there.
He was accepting his inheritance, his legacy - but he was doing it on his terms, without the reminder of that ticking that symbolized his father's work ethic. Work first. Time was money. Logan was in no way going to lose his own work ethic, he just didn't want it to overcome him. He wanted his family to come first.
They walked away, Logan's hands tucked into his pockets, as Rory clung to his arm, supportively. After a quick stop at Emily's and Richard's graves, they made it back to the parking lot.
"You know I actually came here during his funeral, pretended to vist my grandparents. I wondered whether you'd show," Rory confessed, as they reached the car. "I wasn't even sure what I would've done if you had..," Rory added.
That certainly made Logan smile, even though it was a little bitter sweet.
"It's kind of funny, how he's the reason we ran into each other again, isn't it?"
"He wasn't reason enough. It took Paul Anka dying and my crazy mom insisting on scattering his ashes onto our family plot," Rory replied.
"Two dead dogs essentially," Logan tried to joke, though knowing it was definitely something for the dark humor category.
"I do wonder what he'd say if he saw us now," Rory replied, though she dreaded the thought just the same. She would've been very stressed to hear what Mitchum thought about her career. "You could've done better had you..." or "I told you so" - were a couple of things that her mind managed to think up. She was still a bit away from finding that power in herself to change things around on that front, the baby taking priority right now.
"He always talked about me finally having kids of my own. How I'd understand the reasons behind is actions and stuff like that. He wanted to see me become a father - even if the deeper meaning was probably to have someone to leave the company to in the future," Logan explained.
"Oh…," Rory reacted, having not really thought of that side of things. Whatever Logan did now - this was something their child was going to inherit one day just the same.
"Oh, trust me - I'll never force them to do any of it," Logan felt he needed to add, shaking his head.
"Oh yeah, of course," Rory replied, having not thought that for a second.
"But I do think I want the baby to have my name. Together with yours," Logan added, knowing that even if the baby was going to carry his name as a part of his name, Rory and him having talked about hyphenation for a few weeks now whenever they tried out names, that weight of it was going to be heavy enough. But he too had been 'Huntzberger', like it stood on his father's gravestone now, for years - it did define him whether he liked it or not. Without it it wouldn't have been him either.
He wrapped his arms around Rory's hips, wanting to linger for a moment.
"Of course, it's your right," Rory replied. She would've been willing to let him have the last name, but it was the fact that Em was Gilmore-Mariano, and she didn't want her kids to feel too different or get the idea that the last name meant something deeper. She wanted both her kids to feel they belonged to both of them - Em to Jess and her and baby X to her and Logan, and were equally loved.
Logan took a deep breath, switching to a less serious line of thought.
"I do, kind of, wish he'd see us now," Logan said, feeling a little giddy at the happiness he held in his arms right now. He wanted to boast, brag - show to the world how he'd gotten his second chance. The wedding couldn't come soon enough in his mind.
Rory pushed herself onto her toes, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him, feeling the bump between them.
"Come on, we have a prom to go to," Rory whispered as the kiss broke, the seriousness of the moment switching to something a lot more childish as they were going to chaperone the Chilton senior prom that night.
