bAuthors' Notes/BThis story keeps gaining momentum! We decided this was our favorite chapter, so enjoy. Thanks always to our wonderful beta, bpaulanka/b!

Rory didn't know how long she lay there, just listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing and his pulse under her fingertips, but it must have been a while. Eventually, the sound of confident footsteps broke into her consciousness. A man in his mid-40s with a warm smile, wearing a white lab coat and a stethoscope around his neck, walked in the room. "Hi," he greeted Rory, holding his hand out. "I'm Doctor Ackerman."

"Rory Gilmore," she said, straightening up and trying to look alert.

Dr. Ackerman smiled and took Logan's chart from the foot of the bed. "What's your relation to young Mr. Huntzberger, Miss Gilmore?"

"I'm his girlfriend," she replied, feeling instantly childish and foolish, like she should have said that she was his fiancée or sister—something that would get more information.

Dr. Ackerman skimmed over the chart. "In a few moments, Miss Gilmore, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step out in the hall for bit. Strictly procedure."

Rory nodded—she didn't like the idea, but as long as she wasn't being chased out of the room for an extended period of time, she could live with it. "How is he?"

"He's stable," Dr. Ackerman told her. "It's pretty serious, but he's a strong young man and I have every confidence he'll recover fully."

She let out a sigh of relief without realizing it, and the tears pricked at her eyelids again. "Thank you, Doctor." The next question was one she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to. "How long... how long do you think it'll be before he wakes up?" she asked, her voice breaking.

The doctor looked at her with kind eyes. "It will be a few days, at least. Possibly a week. Shouldn't be too much longer than that, though there's no guarantee."

Rory nodded, trying to stay strong. She blinked rapidly, in an attempt to stop the tears that threatened to leak out again. "Thank you, doctor," she whispered.

The doctor placed a comforting hand on her shoulder briefly. "I'll have to ask you to wait outside for a few minutes now, Miss Gilmore ."

Rory nodded, not trusting her voice, and walked into the hall, hugging herself tightly. She wasn't going to break down again—she had spent too much time crying, and she needed to be strong; if not for her own sake, then for Logan's. It was such a cliché, "be strong for his sake," but in the past day, she had come to the realization that she needed to buy into the clichés, if only to have a way to define and explain all this.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself, and leaned against the wall, rolling her shoulders, flexing her toes, and stretching her arms out in front of her. She couldn't remember ever feeling this stiff after a night spent on a floor or in a chair before, but the stress is definitely getting to her, affecting her whole body, beyond just making her tired. Still, she'd adjust. She had to. If she was going to be here for the long haul, she'd just have to make her body get used to sleeping in chairs for short stretches at a time, eating bad food, and not showering. She was a college student—she could mold her body and her psyche into any schedule, right? That's the joy of being young and resilient.

The thought overwhelmed her slightly—in her wildest dreams, she had never imagined being twenty-one, looking ahead to the next... months? years? at her boyfriend's rehabilitation. And it wasn't that Rory didn't want to be there, but she hadn't even begun to think about how it would affect her—her dreams, education, plans. She wasn't even thinking about leaving him alone during this, but she was beginning to realize how firmly this would bind them together.

If this had happened five years from now, if they were married, if they really were each other's world, it would be completely different—she would have no trouble getting information from the doctors, and there would have no questions about whether or not Rory would stay. But this—she knew that she could walk away from it, life would move on, and people would forgive her eventually, but Rory was tired of running. She was tired of looking at challenges and turning her back on them. She was tired of fearing the kind of love that stuck through thick and thin.

Her phone rang, snapping her out of her reverie. She fumbled in her pocket, catching it just before it went to voicemail. "Hello?"

"Hey, Rory," Jess' voice said.

"Hi," she said, finding a chair not far from Logan's room, keeping an eye on the door, waiting for the doctor to come out.

"How are you?" he asked, concern tingeing his voice.

She thought for a second before answering. "Okay," she said, a hint of surprise in her voice. "I'm actually... okay."

He laughed. "Well, that's good to hear, even though you sound like you're still trying to convince yourself."

She smiled. "It's just weird to think I could be okay, even with this."

"It's healthy, Rory. You can't constantly be a wreck—eventually, you'll wear out."

"I know," she sighed. "I'm good, but I'm tired."

"I bet," Jess sympathized. "It's been a long day."

"Yeah, it has." Rory paused, closing her eyes for a moment. "So, what's up? To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"

Jess laughed. "Just checking in on you."

"Ah, so you're my babysitter now?" Rory said, not at all offended.

"Yeah."

"Why?" Rory grew quiet.

Jess sighed, but didn't say anything for a few seconds. Finally, he said, "I don't know, actually."

"Oh."

"No—" he reassured her, hearing the beaten tone in her voice. "I don't mean that I don't want to look out for you... I just feel like you need someone. You're strong, Rory. I know it, and if you want to believe it, you know it, but..."

"But what?" she asked when he trailed off.

"But it's going to be hard. I just don't want you to get overwhelmed. I want to make sure that you remember that you've got someone to vent to. And... I don't like him. You know that. If I had my way, you'd walk out of that hospital right now, and never go back." Jess started to get angry, his voice getting louder as he spoke. "He doesn't deserve you, Rory. He... if he cheated on you, he doesn't deserve you sitting in the hospital beside him, not sleeping or eating, waiting for him to wake up. He doesn't know what he's got, and I... it makes me want to punch him."

"Jess," Rory protested, but he kept talking.

"He doesn't deserve you," Jess said heatedly, "but you're there with him." His voice got softer again, almost to the point where Rory had to strain to hear him. "I don't like him, but I... I care about you. You're my friend, Rory, and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Rory stayed silent—she didn't know what to say to something like that.

"And I know you're hurting, and I know I can't keep things from being hard and bad, but I can be here if you need me, and I can make sure you're as okay as you can be."

The tears were threatening to come again. She was tired, stressed, and scared as hell, but Jess knew. He always knew; somehow, he always understood. Just knowing that fact warmed Rory to the core and took away some of the tension from her body. "You help. You do help... a lot," she told him quietly—and she knew how hard it was for him to support her when he disliked Logan so much. She remembered the night Jess had met him, and the little she had told him when she saw him a few weeks ago, and she didn't have to wonder what made him dislike Logan so much.

Part of her wanted to tell Jess all about it—everything, all the good in Logan, in their relationship. What made her change her mind was not that he wouldn't want to hear it, but more that it would come out sounding defensive, and that's not what she wanted.

"Hey." Jess cleared his throat. "Call me, okay? I have to make sure you haven't worried yourself into a tiny little stress ball. And don't try to be strong," he told her firmly. "You'll just make it worse. If you want to cry, cry... if you want to yell, that's okay too, but don't try to be strong for everyone else. It's not your job."

A small smile crossed her features. "I'll try," she promised him. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye, Rory."

Rory closed the phone but kept her hand wrapped tightly around it, as if somehow that would keep her grounded, and connected. Connected to what or whom, she wasn't sure, but she just couldn't bring herself to put the phone away just yet. Luckily, the doctor chose that moment to exit the room. "How is he?" she asked, a tremor in her voice.

Dr. Ackerman smiled kindly at her. "We're doing everything we can. He's going to have a tough time, but he'll pull through."

She nodded, thanking him again, and headed back into the room. Pausing by the doorway, Rory took in the sight of Logan. He still hadn't budged; the only thing that was moving was his chest, up and down with his breathing. That comforted her, though she couldn't stand to see him hooked up to all the tubes and monitors. Quickly, she took a seat right by the bed, on the opposite side from his IV tubing, where she could only see him—where the machines were behind her and out of her peripheral vision. Laying her phone in her lap, she took Logan's still hand in hers and held it tightly. She brushed some hair off his forehead, careful not to bump the cuts and bruises, and kissed his temple lightly.

"Logan," she whispered softly. "Come back to me. It hurts to see you like this... you hardly sit still for more than two minutes at a time. Colin and Finn are worried about you, Honor's cutting her honeymoon short—I know you like to be the center of attention, but honey, this is a little ridiculous." Rory laughed quietly and didn't bother to stop the tears that leaked from her eyes. She and Logan were not usually ones for little endearments, unless, of course, they were laced with sarcasm, but very occasionally and privately, she liked to use them. It made it more special, she thought.

She thought about that, then; how her mother used endearments like they were going out of style. Everyone was honey, or baby, or sweets to Lorelai. It was just the kind of person she was, and as much as they were alike, Rory could never bring herself to use the pet names so casually. Absently, she ran her thumb over the back of Logan's hand. The "honey" had been a recent addition to her vocabulary with Logan, and she was careful not to overuse it, for fear it might lose its meaning.

Rory thought back to how their relationship had started—it had mostly been about the physical. She was practically ready to sleep with him right after they had first kissed, and it had just progressed from there, though for the first few months it had been largely about the sex. That's not to say they hadn't simply enjoyed each other's company, but there weren't many movie nights, not much talking. Bantering, flirting, sex with words was how they started. They still did that, of course, but it was different now, or so she liked to think--no, she knew it was different now. They couldn't have made it a year if it was the same as it had been then.

She had used endearments in one other relationship, she remembered, and she felt a small pang. She had called him "baby," and even that had only used a total of twice—maybe—the entire time they were dating. She wondered, though, if perhaps she was the only person to ever call him that, to feel so protective over him, and yet she could tell that he had felt that about her as well.

There had been intimate moments she shared with him, and though most people would use the word 'intimate' primarily in regards to sex, that wasn't where they had found their intimacy. No matter how often they had made out, or whatever it was that they had done physically, it had never been solely about that. Oh sure, she had thought about it, wondered, even hoped... but the fates had seemed to be against it—or maybe it wasn't anything as romantic as that. Maybe they just hadn't been ready, and they had sabotaged themselves. Whatever the reason, it just hadn't been meant to be, and she could look back on it now without feeling the raw pain that she had all those years ago.

Someone walked by the open door, and the clicking of the heels on the tile floor brought Rory back to the present. At once, she felt slight guilt over having forgotten that she was here, and why. She looked over the face of the man she now loved, a face she was very well acquainted with, and her tears continued to fall.