AN: I warned this wedding was a lot of chapter, lol. But we're getting closer anyways.


Chapter 209

July 23rd, 2022

"Actually…," Gigi began in a discouraged tone, not quite daring to look Rory in the eye. "...the officiant got to the island, but he then realized it was the wrong island once the taxi driver pointed it out for him... He's trying to get back to the mainland but most of the ferries are completely booked today it seems…," Gigi explained, swiping her forehead.

It was a massive mistake on the officiant's front, but in a way making also the organizer and Gigi feel responsible for not having triple-checked everything as they were the two that had been in contact with the man most recently. It had seemed so obvious, but apparently Nantucket was way less popular for weddings compared to the Vineyard.

"Oh hell!" Rory cursed. "And this is the genius that Tweenie Halper recommended!? What, he's never been on a boat before? I specifically said Hyannis!" Rory rambled, now for the first time looking seriously pissed. Finding an officiant had been one of the hardest things to find, truth be told, July weekends being booked much longer in advance than they'd been engaged.

"There's this new boat line that runs from Hyannis to Oak Bluffs apparently, and there are no more direct ferries from there to here…," Gigi explained, all three of them knowing that if the guy indeed got to Nantucket through the long route, that meant at least another three hours. Sure there were charters and other options, but as far as Gigi had understood, the guy was already frustrated out of his mind himself, complaining about the heat and the tiring travel, and didn't sound keen on going to look for charters by himself.

"Just breathe, we'll think of something," Logan rubbed Rory's back, sensing her stress level rise.

"Okay - I think what we need is a family meeting. Serve the guest more drinks and appetizers and we'll meet downstairs in the living room or something… we'll brainstorm. Maybe we know someone to call? Someone local?" Rory instructed, along with a deep exhale. Everyone headed downstairs to try to think of a solution.

"Mommy, how much longer?" Em asked, looking adorable in her chiffon dress, tugging at Rory's fingers, as she saw her.

"Not yet, Em… we're missing a person," Rory explained to the girl, carefully looking over Em's hands before allowing her to hang on to her like she often did, not to ruin the dress again.

"Ugh… why do we have to wait so long!" Em groaned. But this was entirely age-appropriate and expected, and Rory couldn't really do much more than gently soothe her by gently running a hand over Em's beautifully braided hair.

They made their way into the smaller living room that was closed off for most of the guests. On their way there, naturally, they ran into a number of guests all of whom were wondering what was going on with the timeline and why were the two of them walking the halls together. Rory simply advised them to have some food and assured them that the wedding was still on its way and they were having some technical difficulties. The last thing she wanted - and for so many reasons - was to admit that it wouldn't be happening.

Apparently a lot of people took the word 'family meeting' very broadly, but that actually made Rory feel warm and supported. Not only had Lorelai, Em, Christopher, Gigi, April and Honor come to the room, but also Paris, Colin, Tristan, Lane, Robert and Finn. Though Finn was standing on the other end of the room, clearly feeling a little hurt from earlier, and Paris wasn't much better, looking grim. Naturally the organizer was there as well - but she'd never had a very executive role in this, considering Lorelai and Rory constantly kept wanting to take over. Shira was entertaining her guest somewhere, Logan having not even really thought about including her in this - he didn't want her comments on how this wasn't proper or complaints about this thing not being handled professionally.

"So what's going on?" Christopher asked as people gathered.

"We're missing the officiant," Gigi explained with a sigh. "We have an option to hope that he gets a ticket and gets here in around three hours, unless someone has a private plane or a speedboat waiting?" she added. But the latter also meant a back and forth trip in that case.

"I doubt it," Logan replied, knowing from the past that coming here this time of year by ferry or sailboat was sort of a rite of passage for many. "But maybe ask, just in case?" he said to the organizer, so quickly headed off to make inquiries.

"Could we find someone locally? A minister? Notary or something?" Colin suggested, knowing a bit about who could and who could not marry people.

"Oh, I've met Reverend Kirkpatrick, and trust me you don't want him there," Lorelai explained, shaking her head, the guy being way worse than Reverend Boatwright.

"And unless you're about to turn Jewish in the next hour Rabbi Friedman won't help you," Paris added, knowing a bit about the area thanks to Doyle's association with the area from years ago.

Luke arrived at the room a moment later, having been outside somewhere and Loki slipped in along with him, clearly missing Logan and went sniffing all the people around the room, liking the abundance of brain stimulation.

"What's going on?" Luke asked Lorelai in a whisper, and she quickly filled him in. Luke looked concerned too, but didn't quite dare to bud in, not knowing what they'd already discussed.

"I got an idea - I mean, if you can't bring Mohammed the mountain maybe we can bring the mountain to him," Christopher began, speaking a little cryptically. "I mean it'd still be a delay, but why don't we just move all the people to Martha's Vineyard?" he suggested, carefully, unsure how viable his plan really was at this point.

"Um.. you're forgetting one thing, Chris. We don't have a venue there. Sure, we could pick up and bring most of the food or get some take-away, but a house, an Inn, a community hall that would be expecting us would be crucial," Lorelai replied, thinking she was bringing him down to Earth with his plan.

"Actually… I sort of have a place there," Christopher confessed, definitely sounding like he'd been hiding something.

"You do?" Rory and Gigi asked in unison, being very surprised at this information.

"I'm sorry I hid it… but I honestly didn't get it to help you guys out so much as I simply fell in love with the property. Those coastal properties are really hard to come by…," Christopher explained.

"So you were the one that bought the house?" Logan reflected.

"I did, yeah," Christopher confessed.

"You mean he bought our house?" Honor repeated, in disbelief. Logan nodded.

"I just want to eventually move away from Boston and settle there, work long distance more. This way Gigi might actually visit, you know," Christophe tried to joke, trailing away.

"Dad!" Gigi whined.

"Okay, we're getting off topic here," Lorelai continued, taking charge.

"So we need to get people over there somehow, right?" Logan asked the next logical question, the thought that Christopher had indeed bought the place still not seeming real. There was definitely more to talk about this, but this could wait.

"Ah..," Paris reacted, not too loudly all of a sudden, a sharp pain causing her to clutch her stomach.

"You okay there?" Rory asked, just as Finn was about to. There was genuine concern in his eyes though nonetheless.

"It's just another false contraction, I'm fine!" Paris replied, already sensing how Finn was ready to step into action. But frankly, she just felt like punching him right now. Since Paris was a professional, they trusted her judgment without doubt, besides Paris was not easily convinced otherwise, especially when she was in a bad mood.

"Well I have a boat and I saw a lot of people arrive by boat too," Christopher added, still being fairly proud of his new Monte Carlo MCY65.

Logan glanced out of the window, which overlooked the two lengthy docks, that was indeed parked full of various vehicles, even a couple anchored down further away that had taken smaller boats to shore. Just as he was looking also Hugo had arrived by boat with his wife for example.

"Don't forget mine," Finn pointed out. One of the latter was his.

"That's a big one - yeah - 90 ft, lots of room," Colin added, having just been over there drooling over it, hoping to distract Finn from his moping. Finn's boat also came with a small crew.

"Shira came with my uncle, they have one that should fit around 20 people," Logan discussed.

Soon several others pointed out the bigger boats that people had arrived with, calculating in their head if they could possibly fit everyone.

"Okay, so we'll do that!" Rory called, just wanting to be on her way already.

"I'll tell people to start boarding and have the caterer pack up what we can," Lorelai said, and headed off to give out the instructions, including one to get the organizer to find them transfers locally. Thankfully, a decent marina was just five minutes from the house in Martha's Vineyard.

Rory then saw Paris lean against the wall again, clearly having another one of her contractions.

"You sure, you're okay there? You really seem to be getting them a lot…," Rory said, worriedly.

"It's nothing," Paris shook her head. But she was trying to be strong about it, just seeing how Finn was already inching closer to her, a concerned look on his face.

"Maybe Tris could look you over?" Rory suggested with a light shrug, realizing it wasn't probably going to go over very well. And indeed the angry glance back at her wasn't exactly forgiving.

To make things worse, Tristan had overheard the mention of his name, and came by.

"Are you feeling alright, Paris?" Tristan asked.

"I'm fine. This is nothing like the main event," Paris reminded both of them that she'd done this before.

"How many weeks are you?" Tristan asked, stepping into his ER doctor mode and genuinely wanting to make sure, while remaining respectful to Paris' own expertise.

"32 weeks tomorrow," Paris replied, as Rory excused herself, to grab her own things from upstairs and make sure Em had hers. They weren't in as much hurry with the food as with just getting there - the ceremony would take a while and until then the catering would have a chance to set things up. Lorelai and Chris were already discussing if the place needed other arrangements, but it seemed Christopher had things under control since the place had just recently been renovated and cleaned, offering ample space and entertainment furniture, even if not quite for the amount of people that were coming.

Rory reached upstairs and as she'd gathered up her most important things, at this point not bothering with anything she had for back-up, she noticed Logan looking a little concerned in his own room, through the ajar the French doors.

"What's wrong?" Rory asked. "Is it the house?" she asked, as she stepped close.

"It's weird. I don't know…," Logan said, not having really had a chance to wrap his head around it yet. In a way he was glad it had remained in the family but he didn't like how it had felt like a handout, thinking back. "But I was actually more concerned about our honeymoon getaway," Logan admitted, turning it into something more positive.

"Well I'm sure we'll find a way to get away. Take the boat back here if we have to," Rory said, speaking optimistically. A lot of people will be leaving their cars here," Rory explained. The positive side of this little detour was also the fact that those most eager to complain probably simply wouldn't bother coming.

"I guess…," Logan admitted, having just really wanted to see the look on Rory's face when she saw the Porsche.

"Hey, let's get married..," Rory whispered, slipping her hand around his neck, and kissed him, no longer caring even if her make up was perfect. "Even if we get out later… I don't care, wherever we intend to be married to you before the sun goes down, okay?" Rory assured, making Logan smirk widely.

Logan took her hand in his, not wanting to let go, and grabbed their essentials, not bothering with all of it. They'd be back for their exit to their honeymoon anyways. He even forgot his suit jacket, but at this point it didn't seem to matter anymore.

Most of their group boarded Christopher's boat, while those without one mostly got transferred to Finn's, him remaining on mainland for now, waiting, because he didn't dare to leave Paris, unsure what was going on with her. Paris had complained for quite a while not wanting Tristan to give her a physical, but eventually she'd relented allowing him to check the basics at least. Him giving her a gynecological examination was neither to Paris' or Finn' liking, making him especially on edge as he was forced to deal with the boat issues while Pairs remained inside.

Naturally there were complaints, but Logan just blamed it all on boat traffic and the unfortunate officiant. There were many of their more posh friends who were telling them to postpone, but he wouldn't hear of it.

Finn was just about to send one of the waiters over to his sailboat because the boat had the biggest fridge below deck, when Tristian appeared behind him. Logan was close by so he overheard.

"Hey, man," Tristan began.

"Yeah?" Finn turned, having not expected him this second. "Is she alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is - but even though her water hasn't broken or anything like that, the contractions are suspiciously close together and they seem to be getting worse. So honestly as a doctor I wouldn't recommend her to get on that boat right now. It could be nothing, but I think it'd be wiser to get her to a hospital to be checked out properly. Better safe than sorry," Tristan explained, adding that they could probably get a rescue chopper to come get her even.

Logan didn't have to ask whether Finn was staying - of course he was, and with a supportive hug, he let one of his best friends walk off, knowing he'd be missing the wedding. But some things were more important and he knew he would've done the same in a heartbeat.

"Logan?! We're ready to go! You?" Christopher called out from the boat, Rory and Em already on board with everyone that mattered.

"Coming!" Logan said, and almost made his way quickly towards the motorboat, jumping on board like a pro. This was definitely nothing like last time.

One by one the boats took off, each captain having their instructions where to go. Things were looking up, and the detour actually had created a very cool adventurous spirit to this event that had almost threatened to turn into a stuffy society event. This was a far cry from that and in this action Rory hadn't even really had a chance to worry about what others thought. It was a very refreshing feeling. Naturally, Rory was a little saddened that Tristan, Paris and Finn hadn't joined them, but as Tristan was right - better safe than sorry.

With most of the journey through, they were just passing the Cap Poge Lighthouse, when Gigi's phone rang.

"Yeah?" Rory heard her say.

"No, wait. What? But I told you to wait!" Gigi said in a panicky tone.

"Oh no, no-no-no…," Gigi fretted, sounding awfully a lot like Rory when she'd written her starting date at Yale down wrong.

"What?" Rory asked, sensing something had happened. "Is it Paris?" she asked.

'"The officiant got on a boat. I left him a message he wouldn't...why would he?" Gigi fretted. "So he must be just passing us - there," she added, pointing at the ferry in the distance.

Rory suddenly felt powerless, and sank down onto the sofa she'd been sitting on, feeling like everything was against her. "Why is this so difficult!?" Rory exclaimed, letting her hands fall into her lap.

"Hey, it'll be fine, we'll find a way," Logan said, not knowing what else to say. He nearly added, that they'd been through worse, and they'd make it through this as well.

"Hey, why don't you just let the captain marry you? I mean at least it used to be so that a captain could marry people, right?" Luke suddenly budged in, having this whole time kept to himself, not quite daring to bud in when people with a lot more money and fancy degrees had been planning this thing. He'd gotten married like that once, after all.

"Is that true?" Logan asked, looking at Colin. He wasn't entirely sure, and this sounded a little too good to be true.

"Um.. I'm not sure. They made some changes to the law recently. Eric, do you know?" Colin asked, glancing at his collegue. This wasn't exactly his speciality.

Eric pondered a little, trying to recall and did a quick search on his phone.

"The captain has officiation rights in MA in case they are also a minister, a Notary Public, judge or a justice of Peace," Eric explained.

"Well - are any of our captains certified for this that we didn't think of before?" Colin looked up at Logan.

Rory could just see how the lightbulb in Logan's head was lit. "Damn, how did I not think of this before! Hugo's wife is a judge!" he said, hailing towards the boat that had been riding by theirs for almost the entire voyage, Hugo's wife steering it.