August 3rd 2007

Lorelai's phone buzzed across the inn's kitchen counter, Rory's name flashing across the screen. Lorelai flipped the phone open. "You know, I'm starting to really love you being pregnant. It's made you realize that you still need to talk to your mommy every day, even though you're two time zones away."

"It's been almost three weeks since Finn gave him the letter." Rory whined as she opened the hotel room's blinds, flooding the room with sunlight and ignoring her mother's attempt at a joke.

"Well hello to you too." Lorelai chortled.

"MOM DID YOU HEAR ME?! I'm having a panic attack here! Logan has known for three whole weeks. . . almost a month, and all I've gotten is radio silence."

"I know." Lorelai said cooly, "Are you sure Finn gave it to him?"

"Finn swears he gave it to him, and watched him read it."

"Did he say how Logan reacted?"

Rory sighed. "He said he read it, put it in his desk drawer and told Finn he had a meeting to go to. Then he didn't even mention it when they met up with Colin later that evening."

Lorelai bit her lip, choosing her words carefully. "Well it's a lot to take in. maybe he's just processing still."

"Can't he process faster?! This is kind of time sensitive."

"Rory, if it's meant to be he'll come around."

"What if it's not meant to be?"

"Where is the negativity coming from?" Lorelai replied, trying not to not broadcast her doubt of a certain blonde gentleman on the other side of the country.

"I'm just grouchy. This baby won't let me eat anything. I haven't had coffee in over a you know what that's like? Reporters run on coffee. Not to mention I'm up before the sun, with my head in the toilet bowl. No sleep, no caffeine, I'm floundering here."

"It's nine months. You can tough it out without caffeine." Lorelai sighed as she guiltily scooped coffee into the coffee maker. She tried to start it quietly, but the old machine whized and gurgled, and Rory instantly noticed.

"You're making coffee aren't you?"

Lorelai silently cursed herself for not letting Luke buy her that new machine when he offered. "I'm not the knocked up one!"

"MOM!"

"Look Rory, I'll buy you a jumbo caramel macchiato with a double shot once you push her out ok?"

Rory sighed. "Quit calling my son a her."

"Quit calling my granddaughter a he!"

Rory caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Although her hair was freshly washed, it appeared stringy. Large dark circles rest under her eyes, a jarring reminder of how little sleep she had been getting. "Ugh, mom, I gotta go. I'm sure everyone else is already downstairs at breakfast and I'm still in donut pajamas, and look like some extra in a zombie movie."

"Hey, you're in print journalism not television journalism, I say just go in the donut jammies."

"Very funny."

"Ok, Talk to you later hun."

"Bye mom."

Rory closed her phone, and quickly pulled on a pair of khakis and a lightweight linen dress shirt with a small embellishment on the collar. They were in Arizona, and the meteorologist on the weather channel said it was going to be a "balmy 97 degrees today with lots of sun." She buttoned the shirt quickly, the buttons straining to close against her rapidly growing torso. She maneuvered the button through the buttonhole, but it was no match for her new shapely body. The button snapped off, pinging across the hotel room at breakneck speed. Rory took a deep breath, but before she could even blink, tears were streaming down her face. She sat on the edge of her bed, shrugging off the blue shirt. She wiped her eyes, silently cursing Logan for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. She ran a hand over her bare stomach. Had Logan really turned his back on them? Did he really not want anything to do with them? She longed to hear something. . . anything. . . even if it was Logan's decision to not be involved at all. Living with this big unknown was beginning to swallow her whole.

Once again she found herself wishing to be back in Stars Hollow. The campaign trail was lonelier than Rory had anticipated, everyone in the caravan rivals, rather than comrades. There were niceties and after work happy hour sure, but even Lauren who had befriended her was hardly someone she could confide in about an unexpected pregnancy. That spontaneous trip home a few weeks ago had been so refreshing. It was nice to have some familiarity in a time of such uncertainty. Sure, she hadn't announced to all of Stars Hollow yet, nor was she ready for all the chaos that would surely ensue with that big step, but it was nice to have someone to talk to, to roam pregnant and free. Back here, on the campaign trail she felt like she was living a double life.

Between running off at the smell at her once beloved coffee and barely staying awake during the evening press report, Hiding her pregnancy was becoming harder and harder. Thankfully, her roommate Sandy, was a deep sleeper, who fell asleep listening to a smoking cessation tape on her walkman every night, and didn't hear Rory's early morning meetings with the toilet bowl, but her body was becoming quite a tattle tell. From everything she had read, most women didn't show until about sixteen to twenty weeks. However, Apparently she had unfortunately received the Gilmore pregnancy genes that, to quote her mother, made you "Swell up like Shamu instantly." Pretty soon people were going to be asking, and she was going to have to tell them, no, the dad wasn't around, and yes, she was doing it alone.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Rory? Rory, are you ok?" It was her friend Lauren.

"Just a minute!" Rory called. She quickly shrugged on a more forgiving tunic, throwing on a knit cardigan over it to make it more professional. She grabbed her press badge, and opened the door.

Lauren took in Rory's disheveled look. "Wild night Gilmore?"

Rory smiled. "You have no idea."

The midday sun stood watch in the middle of the sky, bathing the dry outdoor arena in blinding white sunlight. Rory could feel her tunic, once loose and comforting, now sticking to her back, wet with sweat under her cardigan. Why had she grabbed a cardigan? She longed for the cool crisp linen shirt, missing button and all. Lauren stood next to her, dressed in a smart yet professional cap sleeve sundress. If she were as hot as Rory she certainly didn't show it, her brown skin just barely gleaming with a hint of sweat. Rory could feel her hair growing wiry around her face, beginning to escape her loose braid. She just knew her cheeks were flushed bright red, a burning contrast to her milky white skin.

Lauren turned away from the stage where Obama was speaking, noticing her sick friend. "you ok Rory?"

Rory fanned herself with her notepad, sweat running off of her like condensation off an ice cold glass of water. "It's just really warm. I didn't expect it to be so hot."

"It's the temperature mixed with this huge amount of people. I think this is Obama's biggest crowd yet."

A woozy feeling hit Rory, her legs suddenly feeling wobbly. She steadied herself, grasping to regain her composure. "Hey I think I'm going to go try to find some shade for a minute ok?"

Lauren nodded. "I'll pass you some of my notes later."

Rory pushed through the crowd, the fairgrounds swarming with people in every direction. She spotted a large overhang not too far away, and made a beeline toward the overhang and its very welcoming patch of shade. She was almost there when someone caught her eye. Could it be? No, the heat was making her hallucinate. She pushed past a large man in a stenson, and saw the familiar face once again. She squinted, trying to make out the person in the distance, to be sure. His hair was a bit blonder, his skin a bit tanner, but there in front of her, without a doubt, stood Logan.

Fear gathered in her throat, sitting there in a hefty lump. Her heart raced, her palms began to sweat. She turned sharp on her heels, but she wasn't quick enough.

"Rory?" his voice called out across the crowd.

She turned around, facing him head on. She opened her mouth to say hello, when the nausea from her abdomen crept slowly up her body into her head. She once again felt woozy, like her heart had stopped beating and her blood was pooling in her feet. Her knees buckled and she began to sway. Then with one step backwards she crumpled like a puppet, suddenly released from their strings.

Rory opened her eyes, her vision fuzzy and out of focus. She rubbed her eyes, and blinked rapidly. She was lying on a soft gurney, in a large tent. She tried to raise up and the room began to spin.

"Not so fast there!" an unfamiliar voice called out. She turned her head slightly to see Logan standing next to a man in a paramedic uniform. The man approached her. "You took quite a tumble. Just lay there and relax for a minute."

The man brought out a stethoscope and put it to Rory's chest. "I'm Bill, I'm the medic on call. Your friend here says you're pregnant?"

Rory glanced at Logan. Rory wanted to scream. Her friend? Friend? He wasn't her friend. He was . . . He was her Logan. The father of her child. She nodded shyly, glad that only the medic could hear the rapid uptick of her pulse when she looked at Logan. "12 weeks." She whispered softly.

Bill took the stethoscope out of his ears. "I think you're ok, just overheated and dehydrated. However, I still think we should transport you to the hospital, just to make sure everything is ok with the baby."

The thought of the whole spectacle of being wheeled into an ambulance and whisked away with sirens blaring made Rory shudder, but she was concerned about her baby. She shook her head in agreement. "Of course."

Bill patted her softly on the back. "Ok hang tight, and I'll be back to get you in just a minute." he exited the tent.

"So a letter huh?" Logan said, his voice barely audible.

Rory nodded. "I know you want nothing to do with me, but you needed to know. If you don't want to be part of this baby's life, I get it. I know we left on awkward terms so I fully understand."

Logan drew in a deep breath, floored at Rory's confession. His heart beat rapidly, the steady rhythm pulsing in his ears, the only thing he could hear. "Those terms don't matter anymore."

"I'm serious, Logan. I understand completely. You cut me out of your life, so if you don't want me. . . want us.. ."

His big brown eyes glared at her, the same look that had haunted her dreams for weeks after she turned down his proposal. "Do you not want me in your life?"

"I didn't say that."

"You're already trying to push me away."

"You're the one that moved across the country and changed your phone number. You're the one that wanted to pretend we never existed."

Logan looked as if he had just been slapped in the face. His voice was a low , raspy, whisper. "I didn't change my number. My dad cut me off when I told him I was leaving HPG. He cut me off of everything, including my cell phone. I admit, I've tried to forget you, but I did not for even a minute ever want to pretend we never existed. You were the best thing to ever happen to me. You helped make me who I am today. I can finally face myself in a mirror without hating the man in the reflection. "

Rory's stomach fluttered, but this time it wasn't baby related. Suddenly Bill entered the tent. "Ok Miss Gilmore. We're ready for you." He unlocked the wheels and much to Rory's dismay, wheeled her into the ambulance with a large crowd of people watching. Bill jumped into the ambulance. He glanced at Logan, standing awkwardly in front of the Medical tent. "Would your friend like to come? He's the hero that carried you to the tent after all."

Rory glanced over at Logan. "You carried me?"

Logan shrugged nonchalantly.

The thought of Logan's hands on her body sent Rory's heart racing once again. She turned to Bill. "I want him to come."

Logan climbed into the ambulance, and they began their descent to the hospital.