Chapter 26
Rory couldn't really blame Logan for having not made it to Stars Hollow through December or for the better half of January. School had been crazy for both of them and then he'd gone skiing with his sister and her boyfriend just before Christmas, and knowing it was the closest thing Logan had to an actual family that cared, she really hadn't objected. Logan had gotten the flu after his ski trip and stayed at home instead of coming back to the campus for almost two weeks - again something she couldn't blame on him. She and her mother had their own holiday celebrations, and despite missing Logan both talking to him about everyday things and once she got to bed later in the evening, the days filled with Gilmore-palooza were usually pretty easy to survive. It had also been convenient that they'd had their exams to study for, neither having to feel guilty for neglecting their quality dating time a little. They made up for it by sleeping over two-three times a week and other times - texting. Lots and lots of texting.
The latter had never really stopped once they got back to their normal college lives, carrying that sexual tension that hadn't died out yet to everywhere they went.
That too, was something Rory had learned how to do by studying for it, but in the end it was Logan who'd pushed her out of her shell to give it a go and not overthink it. They trusted each-other, and both knew the other to be pretty forgiving towards each-other's learning curves - neither was perfect.
Rory glanced down at her phone as she made her way from her Friday afternoon class towards her dorm room to change, knowing she needed to get ready for Friday Night dinner or she would be late. She saw yet another missed call, a third this week, from her dad. There had been a few of these but she'd been super busy at the paper, with her exams and … well… Logan. She made a mental note to call him back tomorrow, not wanting to speak while she drove to Hartford considering the roads were probably slippery nor when she got back late. She didn't enjoy driving in the dark much either, it tired her out.
Her dad had left a pretty generic voice mail a few days ago - just asking how she was doing and that he was hoping to catch up, but there was nothing that had sounded urgent and her dad had always been pretty forgiving when it came to her crazy schedules, especially the academic kind. And mostly they didn't talk about anything that exciting - just the casual 'how are you'-s and asking about Gigi mostly. Besides, it was not like her father had never been hard to reach. They really hadn't spoken much at all in the past few years - holidays and birthdays excluded, and Rory had held her annoyment to herself and never gone over to speak to him after that on time he'd called her mother for help with Gigi. She'd just swallowed that, taking Logan's advice to keep her opinion to herself. But there was still some underlying beef she had with him, she couldn't deny that. So she was a little tentative.
"Ever felt like getting it on in the newsroom? After my talk with Doyle just now, I got an urge to have you on top of his desk," Logan had texted sometime in the last two hours, causing Rory to smile naughtily. She could just picture his smirk while he'd typed that.
It wasn't his best work, and he was almost as good with his words as with his fingers and tongue, but still it had painted enough of a picture to make her think about having her way with him later, all these text being a part of their build up.
"Your desk would be way hotter," Rory gave him a tentative response, texting it quickly, as she fumbled open her suite door. She was saying 'no' a lot less these days, but she certainly didn't want a reminder of Doyle, whom she was seeing more than enough around their suite, while they did it.
Rory also knew Logan had the master key to most of the rooms on campus hence it might actually be something he challenged her to if he put his mind to it... After all, they'd already done it in some less than conventional places around campus by now, the exact locations remaining only for the two of them to know.
She hurriedly changed into a beige semi-formal skirt - definitely not her favorite, but in the winter time little things like the fact that the skirt had a thicker lining came in use. She matched it with a button-up sweater, not bothering with anything more elaborate. It wasn't a special occasion.
They'd timed their arrival well, Lorelai having a habit of waiting in a nearby bus stop lot until she saw Rory's car and then following her.
It was still the old arrangement - drinks at the pool house and dinner with grandma at the main house later. For that reason, this time it was a big surprise to find Emily sitting by the fireplace next to what looked like a dog.
What an odd sight.
After the initial 'hello'-s and a short discussion on the dog and whether or not Emily should stay, leave or join in on the conversation - which felt almost like old times - lighting some hope in Rory for her grandparents.
"Well I am curious to know when you girls got the bad news today," Emily suddenly said, rendering both Rory and Lorelai nearly speechless for a moment. It was not like them to not know about… anything, anything important at least.
"What bad news?" Lorelai asked.
"Christopher's news," Emily explained, making Rory's heart sink a little thinking back to that unanswered call on her phone.
"What about him?" Rory asked, growing increasingly concerned.
"You haven't heard?" Emily reflected redundantly.
"Nothing," Rory replied.
"Lorelai?" Emily asked.
"Same here," she replied.
"Well, that's odd," Emily reflected.
"I would have thought he would have called them right away," Emily mused, sounding surprised.
What news!? - Rory huffed impatiently to herself already.
"One of them at least," Richard added.
"Guys, what news?" Lorelai asked. "You're making me nervous here," she added, speaking for the two of them.
"Straub died," Emily said.
"Christopher's father died?" Lorelai repeated.
Guilt was swelling up in Rory. Being so occupied with her life, with Logan's frivolous parties and trips and sex… that was not a good reason not to call her father back even when she felt annoyed with some of his habits.
"This morning," Emily specified.
"Oh, my god. How?" Lorelai asked.
Rory was completely speechless, just thinking how disappointed and alone her father must feel.
"Well, he'd been sick," Emily clarified.
"Very badly. He'd been diagnosed a month ago, but it had already spread," Richard added.
"He was always the picture of health, so it caught poor Francine completely off guard," Emily continued. "That poor woman," she sighed compassionately.
"I can't believe Chris didn't tell us," Lorelai exclaimed, sounding genuinely disappointed.
"He may not have been in shape to think straight," Richard added.
"Did you check all your voicemails?" Lorelai asked Rory, who had remained awfully quiet.
"Yeah, yeah, I did," Rory confirmed. Well she had and those had said nothing about Straub being sick or any bad news.
"It's terrible having more than once answering service, that's the way you miss things," Emily commented, always finding something to complain about.
"Well, we should send something for the funeral," Lorelai suggested. "Does he want us to go?" she asked.
Rory had never even thought of the latter. It was not like Straub had ever liked her much, but maybe that was something her father would've wanted.
"He was very quiet on the phone, he was only good for the headline," Emily said.
Rory's heart was breaking for her father. She'd never even seed him sad, let alone in grief… what had happened months ago with Gigi and her mom… that hardly seemed like a reason to stay mad at him now. It just felt so childish ignoring him like this now.
"You can't blame him," Richard chimed in.
"He had a very tortured relationship with that man, but none of that matters at the end," Emily discussed.
They resorted to discussion about what and where to send Christopher something, all of it sounding rather lame. Even the dog moving around didn't make it better for Rory and Lorelai, the two remaining in a compassionate mood, and Rory also in a guilty bubble throughout the night. Sending something didn't sound good enough.
"Poor Chris. I mean it's so sudden," Lorelai discussed with Rory while their grandparents were busy with the dog. "Did you even know his dad was sick?" she asked.
"Well… he kind of called but… I was too busy to call him back, god, I'm awful," Rory admitted, regretfully. Her guilt showed in her tone.
"You couldn't have known, kid," Lorelai replied, squeezing her hand for a moment. It didn't help to ease the guilt much. "And with Sherry gone and the baby…Yikes," Lorelai continued just really making Rory feel worse, even if unintentionally.
"Yeah, yikes," Rory repeated her mother's choice of words.
Rory barely remembered some ancient stories where Francine and Straub lived, but Emily had flashed the address around at dinner, making sure they could send them something, but it helped that Rory had passed the community a few times since her childhood and the elaborate colonial house with many separate buildings in the back always was to her 'as the place where the grandparents that never wanted me' lived. So it was safe to say she had never once even considered turning into their street over in Brookfield, a bit off her path back to New Haven.
She glanced down at her phone again seeing a response from Logan, pulling her momentarily out of her guilt.
"What time are you getting back? The newsroom is awfully quiet this time of the week…," Logan had texted and added a winky smiley.
While that was no doubt a tempting thought, her mind was somewhere completely different. She did text him quickly before emerging from her car.
"I'm sorry. Something came up. My dad's dad died and I'm going over… I might be late getting back," Rory replied.
Rory headed over to the dauntingly red front door, one she'd never entered before, a bag of milk and cookies in her hand. She couldn't have been more relieved and at the same time heartbroken, to see her dad answer the door, not Francine or some maid which would've required an explanation.
She didn't stay very long, but long enough to apologize, hug him several times and assure that she was open to helping out however she could, babysitting or otherwise. She was even more relieved to hear her mother coming to see him just after she'd left. If there was ever a good reason for that - this was it.
She felt like she should've almost expected him, but she hadn't, her mind having been elsewhere entirely. But as she turned the corner to her suite door, there stood Logan, and not with his usual sexy smirk that was on the verge of just taking her clothes off the minute they got inside, but something more serious.
"Hey. You okay?" Logan asked instead.
"I'm… okay…," Rory replied, now really knowing what she felt. "You know you didn't have to come, right?" she felt she needed to ask.
"Yeah, but… here I am so…," Logan shrugged, sounding like he was leaving out part of the explanation. There was no question that he cared, him showing up like this was proof of that and it wasn't the first time he'd inconvenienced himself over her, even without the prospect of sleeping with her.
She unlocked the door and after the two stepped in, relieved to find Paris nowhere in sight. Rory welcomed the Logan, wordlessly, seemed to be offering and just held onto him, not sure where to begin to process all of this.
Logan didn't say much, he just seemed to be studying her - observing her.
"It was just.. So hard seeing my dad like that," Rory exhaled, eventually having released the firm and lengthy hug that she'd sorely needed, all of her energy having gone to support her dad before, not grieving herself so much. She wasn't even sure she was supposed to.
"Yeah, it must be rough. My dad was a mess when his mother passed too - though that was years ago," Logan shared. Rory had by now seen Mitchum Huntzberger, even if not up close and had never actually been introduced, but close enough to get an impression of him, his visits to the newsroom every now and again having become a thing ever since that big bunch of Logan's stories had been published, feeding his expectations of his son perhaps a little too much. Rory even felt a little guilty for that and had done her shear to steer his tasks away from him when she could. Logan liked to write, it was the expectation that he hated and that made him reluctant to do it.
"He was just… he hadn't shaved in days, I mean I've never seen him like that. And his father wasn't even close with him. Straub never approved of his choices, nor my mother or me…, there was every reason for him to despise him, but in the end I could just see he was still so broken," Rory explained, sitting down on the couch. She was still in a bit of a shock herself, truth be told.
"And how are you feeling…?" Logan asked, joining her, and placed his arm around her shoulders.
"I don't know… honestly. I mean. I've met him like two-three times in my entire life, I only remember one of those times and that did not exactly end well. He said some really horrible things… Francine well… she was always the flaky one, sort of 'follow the husband' type of woman, I guess. So whatever Straub said went. But I never even knew them, not really. I just knew what they thought of me, how they blamed me for my father not living up to their expectations. Like how he was supposed to go to Princeton and work for the family company… you know… kind of like you, I guess..," Rory explained.
"When's the funeral?" Logan asked.
"Next Saturday," Rory replied.
"Are you going?" Logan asked, hesitantly, a minute or two later, until then having just gently stroked her back.
"I don't know…," Rory exhaled. "I mean he sort of told me when it was but he never asked me to. I'm not even sure if Francine would want me there," Rory explained.
"Well you don't obviously have to decide now, and you can decided to not go all things considered... But maybe… your dad just doesn't think he has the right to ask you after all that you've been through because of them. But if you think you can and are willing to, maybe he'd still want you there for support? Whoknows, maybe it's not too late to patch things up with your grandmother still…," Logan suggested, sounding incredibly wise for someone to have less than perfect family experiences. "That's just something I thought of but what do I know?" he shrugged, rather appropriately.
"Yeah… maybe," Rory replied, having not made up her mind one way or another, and snuggled up to Logan's side, enjoying his comforting warmth.
"I should probably drive over to Stars Hollow tomorrow to check up on mom," Rory shared. "She went over to dad's just after me…I mean, I'm glad she did, but I just… I almost feel like I should check on her or something," Rory shared, switching the subject slightly.
"You two have the strangest relationship, you know that?" Logan replied, smilingly.
"I guess we do. But it's all I know," Rory shrugged, having spoken about this with Logan before - how there had been many times when she'd been the mother in the family, essentially.
"Do you want me to come with you? I mean maybe it's not ideal considering this loss in the family, but I don't really have anything planned for tomorrow…," Logan suggested, somewhat hesitantly.
That certainly got Rory's attention, and she straightened her back, and looked at him. She wasn't sure why he'd chosen now as the time, and maybe it was even more about him being ready than anything else - she couldn't be sure.
"You'd really do that?" Rory asked, almost not believing her ears.
"Why do I feel I should be regretting that I said that?" Logan teased, raising the corner of his mouth.
Rory replied with a hug way more joyous than the one before.
"You'll get to see the re-enactment and we can eat at Luke's…," Rory began to list all the things she wanted to show him, enjoying the distraction until she figured out what the hell to do with the funeral.