Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Here is another chapter of A lifetime Ago...

Logan sneaked a look at her. She was leaning against him and was entirely too quiet. Normally whenever they watch a movie she took the time to thoroughly mock it until she becomes completely engrossed.

She has been closed off since her meeting with Hunter. He tried to find out what brought Hunter to his knees but she continued to make a joke of everything.

They had coffee with Jess and the rest of the guests when they got back from LA. Hunter was noticeably absent, which he pointed out to Addy once they were back at her place. She just shrugged in response and suggested that they watch a movie.

That's exactly what they've been doing for the past hour. He could tell that she wasn't really paying attention. She was off somewhere else and he was desperate to restore the camaraderie that they've had ever since they started spending time together again.

"So…" he began.

"Hmm?" Addy looked up at him.

"Your parents. They're arriving tomorrow."

"Yup." She looked back at the TV.

"So…what's the plan?"

"Plan for what?" she pulled away from him and gave him a questioning look.

"For when your parents get here, what are we going to tell them?"

Her brows wrinkled in confusion.

"You know, about us. What are we going to tell them if they ask about us?" Logan was beginning to feel exasperated at her evasiveness.

"What is there to tell?" she smiled at him quizzically.

"The fact that we've been making out like there's no tomorrow for the last eleven days, that the subject of sex has been brought to the table. You're asking me what is there to tell." He rolled his eyes at her attitude.

"I don't know." She gave him an impatient look.

"So you vote that we tell me them nothing then. Meanwhile, when I pull you to the dance floor on Jess and Veronica's wedding day and proceed to give you a passionate kiss, one of your parents' body guards will drag me away from you."

"Why would you do that anyway? What brought this on? We were getting along fairly well the last few days. And now this…"

"Fairly well? Here I thought we were actually going to start a relationship." He shook his head bitterly.

"Not this again. I thought we agreed to keep it casual."

"Casual, we've been doing this for the last year and a half Addy. I don't know how much more I can take. I feel like I'm the girl in this relationship." He got up from the couch and loomed over her.

"What do you want me to say Logan? Should I confess my undying love for you? I don't need this right now." She sighed in frustration.

"Addy. I can't believe I have to say this, I want a commitment. I want us to be something more than fuck buddies." He ran his hand through his hair in aggravation.

"What are you talking about? We were never fuck buddies. In the past year and a half we've never had sex."

"You brought it up. And if all you wanted from me was my body you could have just told me and be done with it already. I don't appreciate being played, not even by you Addy." He looked at her with resentment.

"I can't give you what you want, at least not right now." She replied sadly.

"Why not? It's not like we've never done this before." A trace of desperation can be heard in his voice.

"I think I'll go to bed."

"We're not done here Addy. If you walk away right now I don't know if I can keep doing this." Logan reached out and pulled her hand in his.

"I'm not going to force you to do something you don't want to do."

"I think I'm going back to Jess' place." He dropped her hand as if he was burned.

She looked at him with such sadness and just nodded.

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Rory wrapped her robe tightly against her body. She held onto her towel and pondered the wisdom of her decision to go night swimming. But she proceeded towards the swimming pool anyway. Her inability to sleep was what brought her to the pool. She shrugged to herself and figured that she might as well follow through.

When she got to the poolside she saw a lone figure. Rory hesitated but she eventually walked forward. It was Logan Echolls. He rolled his pants up to his knees and had his feet dangling in the water.

"Hey." She gave him a smile.

Logan looked up at her and nodded.

"I thought you were staying over at Addy's." she remarked simply as she sat down next to him.

Logan scoffed at the name. "I won't be invited over for a slumber party anytime soon."

"You guys had a fight?"

"Fight? No couples fight, Addy and I are not a couple, therefore we don't fight."

"So why are you all broody?" she gave him a skeptical look.

"Well I just found out that the girl of my dreams likes me only for my make-out skills, beyond that she wants nothing else. I never thought I'd be devastated by such a discovery, after all I take pride in my abilities." Logan looked at the water.

"Somehow I doubt that. She's completely into you." She disagreed quietly.

"Oh but she's not, not completely. Not enough to want an actual commitment from me. Let me tell you I never imagined myself so desperate to be in a relationship." He looked at her conversationally.

"You guys broke up before right? And you still managed to find your way back to each other. Maybe give it more time." She suggested optimistically.

Logan remained quiet, completely unable to muster a response.

"Why did you guys break up in the first place?" Rory can't help her curiosity.

"Rory Gilmore, intrepid reporter." He looked up at the skies and laughed hollowly.

"I'm an idiot. All this time I thought we got past everything." It seemed like he made an astounding discovery.

"What do you mean?" she put the question out there, not really expecting an answer.

"Did I ever tell you how much of an ass I am?" he asked her lightly.

"No. But we've only known each other for two weeks so I won't hold it against you." She smiled.

"Well, I am. My friends say its part of my charm."

"I thought you were going to tell me why you and Addy broke up." Rory frowned at him.

"I'm getting there, man are you impatient." He smirked at her eagerness to know why he and Addy broke up.

"Addy moved here when we were sixteen and everything already fell apart. You probably know everything about the Lilly Kane murder, being a reporter and all." Rory nodded and Logan took it as gesture to continue.

"I was, to quote Veronica, an obligatory psychotic jackass. My girlfriend was murdered, by my father but that's an entirely different story, my best friend, Duncan Kane lost all his personality and Veronica picked a different side. When Addy moved here she is by definition an 09er. 09ers are rich kids; they live in the 09 zip." He looked at Rory to see if she's processing all the information he's giving, she nodded again.

"Anyway, my mom was very close to Addy's parents. They knew each other back when they were younger. They even bought a house here in Neptune, even though they don't visit that often. At sixteen, Addy moved out here, without her parents. But she refused to become a part of the 09er crowd. I've known her since we were five, but we never really got along because she loved New York and I loved California."

"That's it. You guys didn't get along because she loved the East coast and you loved the West?" Rory shook her head in amazement.

"I'm getting to the good part of the story. Way to interrupt Gilmore." Logan rolled his eyes at her.

"Sorry, go on." Rory rolled her eyes at him.

"Addy remained an outsider throughout high school. One time my mother made me go to her house and see if she was doing okay by herself. After that first visit I started to make a habit of it. You could even say that we became friends. She saw me through my mother's death, my dad's psychosis, my up and down relationship with Veronica and all my torrid affairs. Not once did she make a comment. I felt like she accepted me for who I was." He gazed at the sky, looking completely lost.

"Well she did make a comment once." Logan smiled ruefully.

"She did?" she shot him a curious look.

"Yeah, I remember it was after a Sadie Hawkins dance at our school, senior year. I guess I was about to blow up on one of our classmates and Veronica pulled me away from everything and we danced. Back then I still had strong feelings for Veronica. After the dance I came over at Addy's house and ranted. There was so much going on and I ranted. You know what she told me?" he looked at Rory and can't help the smile on his face.

"What did she tell you?" she seemed amused at the sudden change of his morose attitude.

"She told me that if I really wanted Veronica back then all I had to do was follow through my Landon phase."

"Your Landon phase."

"Landon Carter from A Walk to Remember, the guy in the movie was a jerk first and then he fell in love with a sick girl and was transformed. She told me that I already changed when Veronica and I got together. All I had to do was stop acting like an ass and be that guy again. I told her that wasn't me. She told me it was, that despite all the crap that happened to me I can still act like a decent human being. Of course I didn't follow her advice but it was good to know that someone thought of me that way."

The two were quiet for awhile. Logan was being flooded with memories while Rory was waiting for him to continue.

"Veronica and I broke up after freshman year in college. By then we knew it was coming. Addy moved back to the East Coast the year before and went to Harvard."

"She's a Harvard graduate?" the surprise was evident in Rory's question.

"Yup, she went all Ivy league on me."

"So what did she major in?"

"Business. Hey aren't we supposed to be talking about my relationship with her?" Logan looked at her wearily.

"Sorry, go on." Rory smiled at him.

"Summer after freshman year she moved back here. I guess by then I was no longer looking at the world through Veronica-tinted glasses. I remember asking Addy if she was only here for the summer and she told me that she decided to take the year off and that she'll be staying here at Neptune."

"Why would a Harvard student want to take a year off?" Rory's brow furrowed as she pondered the question.

"Her grandfather just died. And she told me was that she missed me. I missed her too. And one summer day I suggested that we try the friends with benefits concept. I actually expected her to reject the idea but she didn't. Soon enough we became something more. I found myself falling for her."

"It sounds like you guys fit together."

"We did. But as I told you I am an ass." Logan broke off.

"We were both adults and we had a very adult relationship." He began.

"So you two were having sex." Rory looked at him expectantly.

"We were. And Addy and I were doing great. Until she told me that she might be pregnant." Logan sighed after he blurted the words out.

"What did you do?" she asked him warily.

"I was only twenty. Back then I had a lot of issues, especially about fathers; I wasn't ready to be one." Logan looked like he was trying to convince her as well as himself.

"What happened?"

"I avoided her for a week. Tried to come up with something to say, then she called me and told me that it was a false alarm."

"You weren't there for her?" Rory looked horrified at the way he acted.

"I know that look. Every one of my friends had that look when they found out what I did to her." Logan bowed his head in shame.

"She was only twenty as well. I don't know what I would have done in her place." Rory commented softly.

"I know all that. But I couldn't deal. When she called me and told me that she wasn't pregnant I was relieved. I finally saw her again and she acted as if the whole thing never happened."

"Did you think that maybe she…?"

"No! God no, she would never ever do that. She wouldn't have an abortion even if someone put a gun to her head. For awhile I thought we could go back to how we were before that pregnancy scare. But two months later she broke up with me and moved back to New York. I didn't hear from her for a few months."

"Then what happened?

"Jess and Veronica broke up and then got back together. Jess moved here permanently so Addy had to come here to visit him. I dated other women but I just…" he trailed off.

"So now because of everything that happened you feel guilty. And you figured if you're with her then you don't have to feel like that anymore. You are equating her commitment to you as forgiveness, for what you did three years ago."

"You're smart."

"Hey, I did go to Yale." She smiled at him sympathetically.

"But I'm not with her now just because of guilt. We talked about it once before we started this non-relationship thing. She told me she understood why I reacted that way; she told me she forgave me."

"Yet here she is unable to have a functional relationship with you."

"I thought if I gave her enough time to get used to me again we'll go back to what we were three years ago. I thought maybe we could even end up like Jess and Veronica." He sighed heavily.

"Are you giving up?"

"I honestly don't know. I've been doing this with her for the last year. No matter how much she tells me that we are casual I haven't dated other women. But to have her tell me that she can't give me her heart. It's just too much." He kicked the water in frustration.

Rory put her hand on his knee tentatively, to convey her sympathy. Logan patted her hand awkwardly and then let it lie on top of hers. Rory looked blankly at the water and then she looked at him.

Their eyes met and neither knew who made the first move but suddenly their lips connected. Desperation and frustration were the dominant emotions as they kissed each other hungrily. Logan pulled her closer to him; Rory wrapped her arms around his neck. Both were eager for more contact.

Someone coughed noisily, bringing them out of the moment. Logan looked at Rory and then at the intruder.

"You forgot to bring your stuff with you. I know how anal you are when it comes to your nightly rituals so I brought you bag here." Adriana smiled at the two of them.

"Addy-" Logan stood up and looked between her and Rory. Rory got up as well, flushing bright red.

"I'll just bring it inside. As you were." She grinned at the two of them and then disappeared inside the house.

Logan looked at Rory and then at the direction where Addy went.

"Go." Rory murmured softly.

Logan nodded gratefully and went after Addy.

AN2: Okay so that's the RoganE hookup that I've been setting up. Hopefully it was believable enough. Logan at this point of the story was feeling particularly vulnerable. Meanwhile Rory reached the decision that maybe she and Huntzberger should call it quits already (it was during her confrontation with Jess a few chapters back). And I reached for both of their issues and came up with this. Things will get more complicated it the upcoming chapters. Anyway, I figured I should include Logan and Addy's history, that way the state of their relationship would be better explained. I wanted a concrete reason why those two are unable to have a functional relationship and the whole pregnancy scare seemed the best path to take. It pained me to make Logan the bad guy in their relationship but it became necessary and I think that he was justified in acting the way he did. After all the things his father did to him and to those he loved he was battling inner demons, hoping that he wasn't anything like Aaron. So hopefully the kiss that Rory and Logan shared was believable enough, take two desperate people, put them together, allow them to bond and you may end up with this (I seem to recall Rory kissing Tristan back in season one after her breakup ith Dean). On a lighter note I couldn't help but give a shoutout to Plan B, the episode when Veronica and Logan danced, with the song Sway by The Perishers playing in the background. It was awesome to see them gazing into each others' eyes after avoiding eye contact for a number of times. Anyway, i think this is the longest AN I've ever written, now to my reviewers:

Problem Child1: Thanks for taking the time to review even if you are busy. Now I guess this chapter explains why Addy is having a difficult time with the idea of her and Logan again. I know other couples have gone through worse but what she experienced when she was younger made her different. Anyway, I hope this shed some light about her character and thank you for the review again. As for Jess I love him too, his comment about Veronica's eating habits was too funny to pass up.

LoVe23: I totally watched the gag reels the moment I got home, my favorite was when RT sneaked up on Jason Dohring! How about the deleted scenes? There was an extended one of logan asking Veronica for help in the girl's room, that was even better than the one that they aired. One thing broke my heart though, in Look who's Stalking, Logan called nightcap and it was Kendall, I had hoped that he did not sleep with her because the next day Veronica seemed so vulnerable and willing to give him another chance. And I finally understood why Kristen Bell liked Duncan better than Logan, the former did a number of grand romantics gestures that we were not able to see during the season, I'm still a die hard LoVe fan though. Now about this story, you are right about the two Logans' egos. That will be quite a scene. And Logan Echolls is completely unaware of what happened to Addy when she as younger. I'm still not sure if he will ever find out. I've already written a couple of chapters following this one and it'll become more and more intense. It's actually emotionally exhausting writing about it. Oh well thanks for the review as always.

shotswithMrsKim: Thanks for the review as always. And just a heads up Mitchum will be even worse in the upcoming chapters. I tried not to make the RoganE hookup cheating, i have an aversion for such things, but Addy and Logan are not an actual couple, as mentioned in this chapter, but it was still difficult for me to write. As for Rory and LH well the latter is a little preoccupied by what he discovered in the previous chapter and Rory is trying to come up with a good way of breaking up with him. Thanks again for reviewing.

tylerhiltongrupie53: Whenever I try to write i think of the best way to approach a chapter and most of the minor characters are telling me to use them. I like focusing on other characters so the intensity of the chapter won't be as overwhelming, but the next chapter will be just that because the focus is back on the new pairings. Thanks for the review and the bachelor party will be raised in a few chapters. I already have it all planned out. Thanks for reviewing as always.