bAuthors' Notes/b Monday crept up on us this week...sorry for the delay. As always, thanks to bpaulanka/b for the wonderful job she does as our beta.

centerbNot Even WishesbrChapter 7/center/b "Are you sure you didn't tell them that someone would meet them at the airport?" Rory asked, checking her watch again. 6:45 p.m. "Maybe they're waiting for us there."

"Positive," Colin replied, checking his own watch, and then glancing at the clock on the wall.

"I thought they'd be here at least an hour ago, though," Rory complained, stretching her hands above her head. "Should we call Honor's cell?"

"She said she'd call if there were any problems," Colin reminded her. "Maybe she just got stuck in customs or something like that."

"But she's a Huntzberger!" Rory protested. "If there was ever a time to use her name to get out of something, this is it!"

"Calm down," Finn soothed. "They'll be here soon."

"Well, it's not soon enough," Rory grumbled under her breath. Colin and Finn caught each other's eyes and exchanged a look, which just made Rory that much more upset.

Rory seethed at their apparent lack of sensitivity. She had been fine with Honor's absence, knowing that she was on her way back, and she had even gotten some work done and felt as close to normal as she could get for most of the day. But now, knowing that Honor was an hour later than she said she would be, and that she was presumably within a few miles of the hospital, Rory was getting anxious. Honor could get them more information, and Rory was tired of being kept in the dark.

The room was silent, save for the creaking of Finn's chair, the tapping of Rory's nails on Logan's bed-rail, and Colin's sighs every few seconds. The tension covered the room like a blanket, thicker than it had been since their first few hours of anxious uncertainty as they waited, feeling like they were waiting for an ultimatum, even though Logan's condition hadn't changed since earlier that day.

Everything that Rory had tried to push aside while she was working came flooding back in the silence and the interminable waiting—the guilt, the sadness, the fear, the blame, the worry, the anger. All the emotions that she had tried so hard to ignore—everything that she had told Jess she was fine with—were suddenly overwhelming her, and she had to consciously plant her feet on the floor to keep herself in the room.

It was easy, in the moments of overwhelming love, to say that she was going to stay with this; it was a different story when she wanted nothing more than to forget about it all and get away. This was too much—this tension with Colin and Finn; this waiting, waiting, waiting; the frustration of wanting information and getting nothing; the feeling of helplessness that overcame her every time she looked at Logan's eyelids and realized that she was starting to forget what his eyes looked like when they looked into hers. She wanted to stay, though. More than she had ever wanted anything, she wanted to be there when he woke up. She wanted to be around in all the ways that his family had never been, and in all the ways that her mother had always been.

Rory sighed, drawn back into the moment by the noises of the room—the beeping and sighing and humming that had become the soundtrack to her days and the lullaby that rocked her into short, restless naps. iHow much longer/i she wondered again, looking at her watch.

Short, staccato footsteps beat down the hallway, and all three of them looked up towards the door, hoping that the change in sound signaled Honor's arrival. When Honor appeared in the doorway, Rory nearly cried with relief as she launched herself out of her chair and met Honor halfway to the door in a hug. Finn and Colin joined them, hugging Honor as she extracted herself from Rory's embrace, and Josh appeared in the doorway a few seconds behind her.

"We're so glad you're finally here, love," Finn said, holding her at arm's length, then kissing her on the cheek.

"How is he?" Honor asked, wrapping an arm around Rory's shoulder and walking to Logan's bed with her.

"That's what you need to tell us," Colin said, joining them. "They won't tell us anything, since we're not family. We know the very basics."

"Well, where's a doctor when you need him?" Honor asked, turning towards the door and marching out into the hallway.

She was back within five minutes, her expression business-like. "Amazing what the Huntzberger name will do. The doctors were practically quaking when I told them who I was!"

"So what'd you find out?" Rory asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer. When everything was vague, she could pretend Logan was much better off than he probably was, for the simple reason that she didn't know. And as much as she couldn't stand not knowing, she didn't know how she would feel if it was much worse than she had thought.

"He's got a concussion and some broken ribs—six, actually. A busted knee—he won't be playing basketball for a ivery/i long time." Honor shook her head. "My brother is so stupid," she muttered, brushing a stray hair back from her face. "And he had some internal bleeding and a collapsed lung, but they performed emergency surgery to fix it." Her voice shook slightly on the last part. "But they say he'll be fine. He's unconscious right now, but they're not that worried. They said it's natural, and it's nothing to be too concerned about."

"Do you believe that?" Colin asked.

"I didn't want to, but I think they were scared of me, and they wouldn't dare tell me anything but the truth," Honor replied. Rory let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. It was as bad, and worse, and better than she had thought.

"Now," Honor turned to the boys and they withered under her big-sister glare, "let's discuss exactly how drunk you were when you were doing this."

"Honor—" Colin tried to protest.

"No," she cut him off. "I don't care. You're always pulling stupid stunts, and that's fine. That's just you. But this was the worst one of all. I can't believe you'd all be so stupid! And careless," she continued. "You want to jump off a cliff? Fine, go for it! Just make sure you're not going to kill yourselves first! Figure everything out, don't be drunk when you make the plans, don't be drunk when you do the jumping. God!" She started to pace back and forth between the two boys, who had the decency to look chagrined. "I'm surprised any of you remembered to pull the rip cord on your parachutes. I'm not surprised Logan is laying here in the hospital. I'm just surprised it's only him. You could have died. Any of you." She tried to hold her anger, but her voice cracked.

Tentatively, Josh came up beside Honor and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, murmuring to her in a low voice. She turned to him, burying her face in his neck, and he rubbed small circles on her back as her shoulders heaved with sobs. Rory, Colin, and Finn stood silently, half-watching the heartbreakingly intimate moment, half holding back their own emotions, and Rory was surprised that she felt jealous—ishe/i wanted someone to hold her and rub her back while she cried it all out. After a few minutes, Honor composed herself and turned back to face everyone. "I'm still mad at you," she told them, running a finger under each eye to make sure her makeup wasn't running too badly.

"We know," Finn said, looking sheepishly at his shoes.

Rory couldn't help but agree with Honor. It was something she hadn't thought much of since she heard about the accident, since she had been mostly focused on Logan, and his condition; focused solely on the present and the future. Honor had brought her back to the reason they were all here. She didn't blame Colin and Finn--no more than she blamed anyone. She could yell at them, berate them, tell them it was their fault, that they should have had his back. She blamed Logan, she blamed herself for letting him go in the middle of a fight, and for letting him do it in the first place. She blamed Finn and Colin for letting their best friend get seriously hurt. She blamed Robert for not having the measurements exactly.

When all was said and done, though, blame didn't get them anywhere. They were all still here for the same reason. That would, eventually, have to be dealt with, but now, Rory knew instinctively, wasn't the moment. Honor needed some time with Logan; they all needed time to breathe a collective sigh of relief that they knew more. Rory needed the time to process the new information; the guys needed time to realize how serious it was. They all needed the time to let it sink and be thankful that it wasn't worse. Right now, thought, they needed to relax, just a little.

Rory took a deep breath, deliberately choosing to lighten the mood. "How was Greece?" she asked. The others all looked at her as if she had grown a second head, and she shrugged, a 'what?' gesture to the room at large.

"Greece, Rory?" Colin asked.

"We're going to talk about Logan's condition for weeks. Months," Rory explained. "And now that we know more... I don't know—I feel like I can talk about something else now."

Honor smiled slightly at Rory, and Rory had the feeling that Honor knew why she was changing the conversation, and that she would be okay with it, even though she still needed her own time to process. That would come—within minutes, if Rory guessed correctly. Rory was so grateful for the addition of another woman to the mix—as much as she had grown to love the boys, especially in the past few days, she needed a girl around, at least for part of the time.

"Greece was beautiful," Honor said, squeezing Josh's arm. "After all the work of planning the wedding, especially with my mother, it was so good to just leave and let someone else clean up the mess."

"I've always wanted to go to Greece," Rory said. "You'll have to show me pictures—it looks amazing."

"It is. We spent most of the time at a resort hotel, but we did go stay in a little fishing village for a few days, and that was incredible."

"I bet it was," Rory sighed, letting her imagination carry her far, far away—almost envying the fact that Honor had been able to squeeze a few more hours of ignorance out of the situation than she had.

"We were actually planning to go back out there for another few days at the end of the trip," Honor said, warming up to the subject. "There was this beautiful little restaurant, and we just fell in love with the couple who owned it—they were really old, and everyone who worked there—the waiters, the cooks, everyone—was related to them somehow. Kids, grandkids... it was amazing, in the way that a family business is really supposed to be run." The last statement was said without bitterness, to Rory's amazement—she and Honor had never really talked about Honor's feelings about the Huntzberger dynasty, and it surprised her that Honor could compare it to something so… normal, for lack of a better word, without letting her disappointment in her own family show.

Honor was still talking. "I wish we'd had time to do that—I mean, I had to get back as soon as I could, especially since I knew that Mom and Dad wouldn't come"—at this, a slight trace of bitterness crept into her voice, but vanished again as soon as the words "Mom and Dad" were out of her mouth— "but if Logan was awake, there'd be hell to pay for making me cut things short!"

Rory felt the blood drain from her face as the words hung between the five of them. If Logan was awake. If Logan was awake, Rory knew, both she and Honor would go hoarse from yelling at him—in between hugs and tears, of course. But he wasn't, and while she was somewhat used to it after the past few days, she didn't like it any better, and even finding out exactly what was wrong didn't help as much as she thought it would. In a way, it helped, and only time would tell whether it made distracting herself easier, but she still had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach—a rock that refused to budge and made her constantly nauseated. She was getting used to it, though—that was the upside, if there was one. It didn't feel nearly as oppressive as it had; now, it was just a constant presence.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rory saw Honor and Josh "talking" from the other side of Logan's bed, in that unspoken language of eye contact, subtle head nods, and minimal gestures, and Josh moved towards the door, after giving Honor one last squeeze around her waist and a light kiss on the lips.

"Guys?" Honor said softly, moving closer to the bed and taking Logan's hand. Colin and Finn looked up, instantly responding to the tone in her voice. "Can you show Josh around a bit? The hospital, the good coffee shops... things like that?"

"Trying to get rid of us already?" Finn joked weakly, already grabbing his sunglasses.

Honor's lips turned up in a close approximation of a smile, although it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Just for a few minutes," she said, sitting down in the chair that Colin had vacated.

As he pushed the chair closer to Honor so she could sit, Colin wrapped his arm around her shoulders and dropped a light kiss on her cheek. "I'm glad you got here," he said, straightening up and patting Logan's arm on the way past as he walked towards the door, where Finn and Josh were already waiting.

Rory met Honor's eyes, which reflected the clouds she saw in her own, and smiled an encouragement as she picked up her purse and made her way across the room to the door. Honor's hand on her wrist stopped her. "Wait."

"Do you want me to bring something back for you?" she asked, as the boys slipped out the door and closed it gently behind them.

"No," Honor said, her voice barely audible. "Just stay here, too, okay?"

"Okay," Rory said, pulling her chair up on the other side of Logan's bed, interlacing the fingers of his other hand with her own.

Honor dabbed at the tears that were coming to her eyes again. "Can't seem to stop crying," she admitted. "Ever since Colin called...and now, seeing him, it's..."

"I know." Rory reached across Logan to briefly squeeze Honor's arm. "Me too. I've never seen him be still for so long. He's even a restless sleeper."

Honor smiled through her tears. "He was always like that, even when he was little—always running around everywhere." She paused, looking over Logan and brushed a lock of hair off his forehead. "He's so fragile," Honor said softly. "You wouldn't think it, even if you knew him pretty well, but he is really fragile."

iFragile/i Rory thought to herself. She had never really thought of Logan like that. Physically, sure, he was fragile, but so was everyone. She actually thought he was remarkably strong, not only that he was going to make it through this, good as new, but in other ways. He was the strong one in their relationship. He fought for them, forcing her to realize what was going on. She was always afraid, scared of confrontation, and second-guessing everything. That's why it hurt so much to see him like this. It wasn't just the stillness; it was that her Logan, who Rory always saw as so strong, was lying here, broken.

And here was his sister, the only other woman in the world who loved him as much as she did, who knew him better than she did, saying how fragile he was. It shook Rory to realize that they could see such different sides of him—she knew, deep down, that he couldn't be strong all the time, but it was easier to pretend when she didn't have the first-hand stories of his vulnerability.

Rory looked at Honor, saw the love and worry in her expression. "You're such a good big sister—he's so lucky to have you," she said, verbalizing for the first time what she had thought ever since she first met Honor. Every time the four of them had gone on a double date, or she had gone shopping with Honor, or they'd talked on the phone, or Logan had mentioned a conversation with her, Rory had been profoundly grateful that he had such a normal relationship with his sister. It was the kind of relationship, full of teasing and love, that she'd always pictured siblings having, and she knew that Logan loved his big sister fiercely.

She thought of the few encounters she had had with the senior Huntzbergers and wondered, not for the first time, how Logan might have turned out if he hadn't had Honor to love him like she did. In many ways, Rory felt like she owed Honor for more than she even knew to be thankful for.

"You're so sweet, Rory." Honor tilted her head to the side, looking fondly at Rory. "You're really good for Logan, you know that? He's changed a lot in the past year."

Rory nodded; she agreed with that statement whole-heartedly. He really had changed for the better in the year they had been together, and to be honest, Rory hadn't exactly expected even this much of him when they started dating . The two fell into comfortable silence for a few minutes; the only sounds in the room were the beeping of the monitors and an occasional sniffle from one girl or the other.

"Tell me something about when you two were little," Rory requested suddenly. As well as she knew Logan as he was now, she had just realized she hardly knew anything from his pre-Yale era. Except, of course, his crush on Alyssa Milano, about which she had teased him for ages, and a few stories that she had dragged out of the boys. Those were always macho and full of dare-devilry, though, and Rory wanted to hear about the little boy that Logan had been.

Honor looked up, slightly surprised, then a huge smile crossed her face. "Did he ever tell you about the time he broke his arm?"

"No!" Rory exclaimed. She lightly squeezed Logan's hand. "I thought this was the first time he had broken bones."

Honor laughed. "Please—do you think that he could pull as many stunts as he has without a few injuries?" She gave a small shrug. "I think he's embarrassed about the arm, though. He had to have been about eight or nine, and he was rollerskating."

"Rollerskating?" Rory echoed incredulously. "No wonder he was embarrassed!"

"Oh yeah." A real smile flashed across Honor's face. "Not even rollerblading, either. He found a pair of Mom's four-wheel roller skates in the attic from when she was a kid—you know, the kind you can rent at the roller-rama, or whatever, and he decided that he ihad/i to learn to skate. He used to wear them constantly—all around the house, even though he got chased outside by every single person on staff, as well as Mom and Dad; they were petrified that he would mark up one of the floors. He wore them everywhere—except to school. I managed to get them off his feet for that, and he should be eternally grateful to me. I mean, can you imagine his social prospects if he'd shown up wearing an old pair of white roller skates?" They both laughed.

"But," Honor continued "he tripped over some branch or something in the driveway one day after someone booted him out of the house, and he fell and broke his arm. Mom blamed the gardener, fired him, and then yelled at Logan for being careless." She paused, and Rory found herself feeling indignant and defensive for the little boy with a cast on his arm, being scolded instead of getting an ice cream cone on the way home from the doctor's office. "Anyway, he was in a cast for six weeks and that was the end of the skates."

"Wow." Rory leaned back in her chair, settling into the conversation as they fell into a comfortable rhythm: talking sometimes, sharing stories, laughing and crying together, and often just listening to the quiet in the room, occasionally bringing Logan into the conversation with a, "Right, Logan?" When Josh, Finn, and Colin returned an hour and a half later, that was the picture they walked into, and it was the scene that continued well into the night, until all five of them drifted off, dried tear tracks on their cheeks and small smiles on their faces.