General AN: For some peace of mind, I'm going to try to update fanfics at the end of the month in the future. I actually have Excel documents that show the popularity of the fics and will write the ones which are most popular first but hope to update a lot of them monthly. Thank you for bearing with me during this and I hope you enjoy.
Specific Fic AN: I may have said a different time period before with the pregnancy but I honestly forgot that when I was asked about it I thought I should put something. I'm sorry if it doesn't quite make sense.
Chapter Forty-One – Familial Formality
41.1
Logan took deep breaths to center himself as he went into the board room of his father's company. This location was still in Connecticut but he would be speaking with people all over the world through the video conferencing. His father had given him more power and independence this time and it was to be his duty to lead the team into the next quarter and hopefully a more profitable one.
He had already had to speak with his father about how Rory's pregnancy wasn't making it unable for him to complete the assignments that were set out before him. Still, Rory had become pregnant just before the summer and he had left when she was eight weeks pregnant, that had been at the beginning of the summer and now that the summer was over she was about five months pregnant. It had definitely felt like a lot longer.
He couldn't say that he wasn't at all distracted by the knowledge that he was going to be a father and that he was going to get married but he had cut a lot of distractions from his life so that he could fulfill his duty and today he felt that he would be half lying to his father. Yes, he was going to be the obedient son that his parents had always expected him to be and act as a leader in the business but he had to start trying to find ways to get his own independence.
As much as he'd love to take a risky technology investment in California, he didn't want to punish their son by doing that. From now onwards, he wasn't the only one to be making decisions in his future. These were supposed to be opportunities and decisions which he and Rory made together but he still wanted to step away from his father and his family as safely as possible.
"Logan," he heard a voice say and he sat up immediately as he saw his father enter the room. "I like how you decided to come before everyone else."
"I didn't…think that you'd be attending this meeting in person," Logan said as he stared at his father half-shocked. He could try to hide his motives if his father was half way across the world but being sat here right next to him was making this seem much more nerve-wrecking.
"You mean that you'd have done something different if you felt that I'd be breathing down your neck," Mitchum laughed before sitting down opposite his son. "If you want to, you can lead this meeting and I'll just observe what you're doing but no, the reason that I'm here isn't really for you."
Logan nodded as he managed to keep his face from showing any expression. It was easy for him, he had been trained not to show any weakness by the man who was sitting in front of him. He had never been the reason for his father to do anything. In fact, the fact that he had a son was more important than being there for his son's birth. Hopefully Logan would be a better father than this.
"Have you been getting enough rest? You do have a room separate from hers, right?" Mitchum asked and Logan looked down and sighed. He didn't want to discuss this right now. He didn't want to be as formal as his father was when it came to Rory. He wondered if that was why his mother always got drunk, he knew her reaction to the various women who his father flirted with but he hadn't paid attention to the very formal way his father talked about family members before. He felt sympathy for her.
"Rory and I are happy in how we're living our lives. I've been completing the assignments, attending the meetings, creating the presentations, integrating the material that you asked me to. I don't think that anything else is important.'
"I think the two of us should go for dinner tonight," Mitchum told Logan who shifted uncomfortably. He didn't see his father very often and maybe taking this opportunity to see how he reacted to a few things would be helpful for the future. However, he did need to text Rory in that case and tell her that he wouldn't be able to have dinner with her and her grandparents and her parents.
She would understand about that, right?
41.2
Rory was half glad that Logan was going to miss out on dinner that night since his father had wanted to speak with him about something. She couldn't argue against the fact that she was wondering whether the dinner between father and son would lead to some stress for Logan, but she was happy that she didn't have to meet with him.
Besides, her grandparents knew that Logan would come with her if it wasn't for something important especially since she was pregnant and especially since she had had to go to the hospital before. She was supposed to text him if anything felt strange but he just seemed too anxious about the pregnancy and hopefully she could handle this without problem. She parked in the driveway of her grandparents home and got out of the car, trying to tuck her coat around her belly as she felt a little more self-conscious these days.
She was heading towards the front door when she saw a very familiar car driving very quickly but with a confident driver and Rory hopped back as she stayed out of her mother's way. She smiled and gave a small wave to her father.
"There! Told you I could get us here in that time. Pay up." Lorelai said as she held out a hand in Christopher's direction. He seemed stunned by her doing so and then walked over to Rory and wrapped his arm around her.
"Hey, kiddo," Christopher smiled to his daughter and kept looking at her belly. There were about four more months left of the pregnancy and most things had been sorted but that was mostly speaking from a financial perspective. The nerves of having a wedding and giving birth must be stressful and then there was the fact that she would still be going to school. If it wasn't for her missing the time because of grand theft boating then he would encourage her to spend some time away from Yale. Still, it didn't seem good for the same student to request time off twice.
"How are you feeling? Everything okay with this little one?"
"Yeah," Rory nodded as she saw Christopher and Lorelai looking around. She let her shoulders drop as she took a deep breath out, "Logan couldn't join us for dinner tonight. He's got some work problems and some family problems he has to sort out but he said it was okay for me to come here instead of where he and his father are eating."
"You sure that that's okay with you?" Christopher asked. "I mean, I would have missed your company if you hadn't been here. In fact, I'm not so certain that your mother would have wanted to come if you weren't coming."
"I wouldn't say that I wouldn't come," Lorelai argued, "but it's better with more people. More conversation, more chances to interrupt a conversation also and that can be even more fun. I am very glad to see that you drove yourself here," Lorelai commented and Rory gave her a confused reaction. "I mean, I thought that everyone from the Fancypants family would request on having personal drivers."
"Well, we do have a personal driver from the car company Logan's a part of but I couldn't get comfortable with using them for anything," Rory said as Christopher nodded and wondered whether he should pay for something like that for himself.
"You do know that none of us are obligated to be here, we could make a run for it, ask that personal driver of yours if he knows any quick getaway locations," Lorelai said and Christopher chuckled but shook his head.
"I think this is the duty of family and despite all of Emily's naggings to you and the way that neither of them can relate with general society, we love them and -" Christopher saw Lorelai shake her head and Rory bowed her head with her own smile. They did all love one another despite how that communication could be stated as lacking. It wasn't as if they were all antagonistic all the time.
"I just would like a calm meal where I can just eat some good food and try to remember the name of the maid," Rory said before she knocked on the door. She waited for a moment before seeing a panicked Emily. "Grandm-"
"Come in here, right now," Emily said as she pulled Rory in and the young woman looked to her parents in surprise as Emily seemed to bring her to the main room without even a glance at Lorelai and Christopher and had Rory sit down on the sofa. "So, when were you going to tell us?" she asked and Rory looked up. The baby. The engagement. What was she referring to?
"Tell you?" Rory asked and Emily frowned.
"How come the Huntzberger family know you went to the hospital before we did and then you never even called to tell us you were all right. I mean, something could have happened to the baby, fortunately nothing did but -"
Rory sighed. She hadn't thought that this would have become such a huge deal but she should have known that the families talked. All wealthy families who were connected at boards and events and charities all talked. She sighed before hearing her mother's voice and seeing unexpected pain on her face.
"You went to the hospital and never told me about it?" she asked. Rory looked at her. She used to tell her mother everything. Before she would have told her mother before anyone else but now it was Logan and if Logan made her feel better then the situation ended there. When had that started being the case?
End of Chapter Forty One
Thank you for reading
Thank you to those who left a review on Chapter Forty
Bseriel, December Jeffries2, Eyann85, Kathy Messer, Kellybras, KV2021, luchieneedstherapy, roganjalex, Rori Potter, sramos33
