AN: Thanks for all the love for this story. I'm so glad people are loving it. Just a heads up, I changed Rory's networth from 75 million to 250 million. I got an idea and for it to work it would make more sense for her to be worth more.
Originally this was going to include, a conversation with Lorelai, telling everyone about the baby and Rory moving. Then Lorelai had opinions and I couldn't resist a Luke/Rory bonding moment. So, we'll get to that in the next few chapters.
Three and a half hours later Rory pulled into the driveway at the Crap Shack. Rory sat in her car for a minute debating how much she was going to tell Lorelai about her trip. The issue was that Rory was unsure exactly how Lorelai would react to some of the information she would hear. Her mom would be thrilled about the job and would be glad that she found a place to live. Rory was unsure how she would react to Logan, sure she would be ok with the fact that he wanted to be an involved parent and he wouldn't leave her to be a single parent like Lorelai was, but Rory didn't know how Lorelai would feel about them being back together. She knew for a fact that Lorelai would throw a fit about how much her new apartment cost. Even though Lorelai knew that she had dipped into her inheritance to pay for it, Rory had a feeling there might be a bigger explosion coming. Rory hoped to avoid it, but every time she got to close to the world that Lorelai ran away from, she always pitched a fit. She hoped that Lorelai wouldn't ask right away about how much the place cost and that they'd hold off on that conversation until Lorelai saw the place.
Rory finally got out of her car and walked up to the house. "MOM!" She shouted as she walked in.
"Fruit of my Loins!" Lorelai came flying out of the kitchen and gave Rory a crushing hug. "How was the big city? Any crazy people doing naked interpretive dancing?"
"No, I think all the naked interpretive dancers live in Stars Hollow mom."
"True. We do have a strangely high concentration of them in the Hollow."
"I can't believe that Kirk's two cousins moved here to help him form a dance trio," Rory said amazed. "How does that not go against Taylor's 'family friendly' atmosphere bylaws?"
"It's Kirk and Taylor." For Rory that was as good an explanation as any. They walked back to the kitchen and Lorelai started getting out snacks and put a cup of coffee in front of Rory. "So, besides the lack of naked dancers, how was the trip?"
"It was really good." Rory smiled thinking about just how good the trip was.
"Oh, that's your boy smile," Lorelai said trying to sound chipper but failing a little. "What happened?"
Rory did not want to get into a fight with Lorelai about Logan just yet so she ignored the boy comment for the time being. "It was good. The job looks amazing, I'd get to write as well as be an editor. The paper is in desperate need of some fresh blood so I'd be involved with boosting readership and having the paper make money again. They were specifically losing money on the guy I would be replacing. They were paying him a ridiculous amount of money and they wouldn't even break even for his department. He was a member of the old guard who didn't know what to do with the new world they were living and didn't like the new generation people coming in. Just imagine if Bernie Roundbottom, Esther or Charlie worked for a metropolitan paper with a real readership. That's what was happening at the Brooklyn Daily Post. Charlotte, the other person in the department, is nice enough and her work is solid considering she's relatively new to the profession, she is excited that there will be a new editor and it will be someone who knows how to work a computer. The editor, his name is Josh, was really nice, and when I questioned whether I was really qualified for the position, he told me that I was exceptionally qualified. He also told me that I had the best contact in the business because of Logan and that I should use it to my advantage. It's a real paper, with actual circulation, that reports actual news. I'm so excited! I'm finally starting to feel like myself again and that I have a purpose."
"That's great sweets!" Lorelai was honestly excited for Rory. She had been so lost the past few years and she had been living in denial for the majority of that. She was less than thrilled that the job came from Logan but decided that her daughter's career was more important than how Rory heard about the job. If she's learned anything it's that the journalism runs on nepotism and favours. If it once worked in her daughter's favour, she'd let it slide. "Did you tell Josh about the littlest Gilmore?"
"I didn't have to. He guessed."
"What?" Lorelai was genuinely confused at that. "What are you talking about?"
"I didn't tell the editor I was pregnant. When we were talking about my qualifications and other logistics he told me that they had a daycare on sight for the baby. He told me that he and his wife had four kids and that she had been pregnant six times, so he knew what pregnancy looked like."
Lorelai laughed when she heard that. She had never heard of that happening. "Seriously? I had already told your dad I was pregnant and when I started to show he said 'Lor, I think the pop tarts and pizza are starting to make you fat.' So, he's ok that his latest hire is pregnant? That's impressive. I think I lied, the greatest man in the world isn't Luke, it's your editor."
Rory laughed, thinking that her editor comes a close second to Logan. "He didn't mind at all. The daycare in the building makes the idea of working and being a parent much less terrifying. I tried to call him this morning to tell him that I'd take the job, but it went straight to voicemail so I'll call him Monday and we'll hash out a start date and salary."
"So," Lorelai said trying to sound relaxed but came off sounding nervous. "How did it go, telling Logan that he was going to be a parent?"
Rory knew that it was going to come up but she was still nervous to tell Lorelai what had happened. "Well, he was shocked at first, then there was a bit of yelling, then he was really excited. Once he got over the shock he took it all in stride. It went really well overall." Rory was trying to get a read off of Lorelai, and the best way Rory could describe Lorelai's expression was as a society face.
"That's great, hun." Lorelai took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "So, did he say how involved he's going to be?"
"He said he wants to be there for everything," Rory said grinning. "He wants to be a real dad to our child, nothing like Mitchum or Dad. He quickly turned into the doting dad. He was asking me what I was craving and when I had a bad reaction to some coffee he was with me in the bathroom, he rubbed my back and held my hair. He was so sweet."
"And how's he going to tell his fiancé?" Lorelai said, her disapproval and deprecation finally breaking through.
"He doesn't have a fiancé anymore," Rory said heatedly. "He ended it with her before his father died. It was all arranged as a business deal to help Mitchum save HPG from eventual financial ruin, Logan wasn't working for HPG at the time, but he came back to fold after his dad nearly died, saving the company. Logan figured just how little power his dad had over him and the business, took matters into his own hands, told his dad where he could shove it and ended the engagement. I think Odette was pleased since they were simply friends throughout the whole ordeal. No feelings were hurt when he ended it."
"Rory, are you sure about that?" Lorelai said concerned and frustrated that Rory would go back to Logan so quickly.
"Yes, I am sure. I had buried myself in a hole, so I blocked news notifications about and HPG, that's why I didn't know that Mitchum died. One Google search and it was all there. The broken engagement, how neither party was particularly upset by it and how Logan would have been cut out but Mitchum dropped dead before the paperwork went through." Rory stated, which irritated Lorelai. "I am a reporter mom, not always a good one, but a reporter none the less. I know how to do research."
"You've always been on his hook if he asked you to jump you would. Hell, you did!" Lorelai snapped at Rory.
"He never asked me or forced me to do that jump Mom. He gave me the opportunity, I did it to prove to myself and to others that I wasn't as sheltered and timid as I came across. Mom, I love him. I love him so much and he loves me. I trust that he wouldn't lie to me about something this important. I trust him as much as you trust Luke. We hashed out a lot of our issues while I was there and things are better. I told him about the money grandpa left me, about how just how badly my life had fallen apart in the last few years and I told him why I didn't marry him." Rory said fiercely
"You didn't marry him because he wasn't good enough for you. He was self-centred and a smchuck." Lorelai said sharply
"No mom. He's not. He's sweet, kind, generous and loving. He loves this baby, even though he only found out about its existence 24 hours ago. He hasn't always been the man he is now. He's not perfect but he's perfect for me." Rory said passionately. She hated how Lorelai thought about Logan, how she simply wouldn't accept him because of his family background. He wasn't perfect but neither was she, he had a past, as did she, but he had straightened himself out and was a good man. "Sometimes I think he's too good for me. He loves me in spite of my past, he makes me take risks and he helped me find my adventurous side."
"It was that adventurous side that led you to have an affair with him," Lorelai said irately.
"You're right mom. I shouldn't have done that but it wasn't Logan's fault. When we were in Hamburg he told me that he'd break off his engagement. He would tell his father to shove it, it didn't matter if he got tossed out of the family business or was disinherited because he would have me. I was the one who told him no. I told him that we should just be Vegas, I couldn't understand why he'd blow up his entire life for me, for someone who could barely hold down a job, who couldn't face the legacy her grandfather left her, and who couldn't get the one thing that was attainable to her. I was scared to admit that I still loved him. Then he went and blew it up anyway. He didn't want an arranged loveless marriage, he wanted something real. He told me everything. He told me how much he loved me and how badly he wanted to be with me. He said he wanted to marry me and for us to be a real family. And you know what, I want all of that too. I told him so. I told him I wanted us to be a real family and that I've loved him since I was 19 and that I've never stopped."
Lorelai was stunned as she listened to Rory's speech. She knew that Rory still felt something for Logan, how could she not with the situation they were in, but she didn't realize just how deep those feelings ran. Or how much of their 'Vegas agreement' was Rory's doing. "You guys are getting married?" Lorelai said, stunned.
"Not yet, too much has happened between us and to us for us to simply pick up where we left off. We're going to take things slow. Or as slow as two people who are in love and having a baby can go. We want it all, but this time we're going to do it right. There's too much on the line to screw it up." Rory looked at her mom, knowing that they hadn't had a real conversation like this in some time. Despite how it felt right then, it was good for them. "Look, mom, I know you don't like him, but he is the father of your grandchild. So, he is going to be around whether or not we're together. While he's not perfect and done some inane and idiotic things in the past, but so have I. I have done some really stupid things, remember Dean, or the grand theft boating incident? Imagine if someone said I wasn't worth something because of my mistakes. He's also redeemed himself from all of it, and he NEVER made the same mistake twice. Out of all my boyfriends, he was the only one who cared about Stars Hollow." Lorelai went to object but Rory cut her off before she could. "The reason we weren't here often was that we didn't live here. Jess lived here but never went or cared about town events, he outright belittled the events and practically bullied anyone who went. Jess hated all of it, the people he went to school with, the townspeople, and he barely tolerated Luke and me. I strongly believe Dean was just killing time until he graduated and went back to Chicago. Logan at least attempted to make an effort to understand the town. Logan knew how important you were to me and hardly ever got in the way of our relationship. Logan came to you for your help when we broke up that first time because he knew I'd listen to you, and he knew that I wouldn't want to choose between you two so he tried and fix things with you. Hell, he asked for your permission to propose! Dean simply tolerated our relationship, he thought it was strange and Jess actively tried to get in between us. Logan cared about all the little things that made me, me." Rory stopped to take a breath. Trying to calm down Rory went over to the fridge to look for some apple juice, finding none she turned back to the table and to Lorelai. "I'm going to run to Doose's and pick up some Apple Juice. When I come back I'm going to tell you the plans for the next week."
"Apple Juice? Why do you want that?"
"Apple's in liquid form. It's amazing."
Rory left, leaving Lorelai to her thoughts. The more Lorelai thought about it the more she realized that Rory was right. Out of all of her boyfriends, Logan was the one who tried the hardest. Lorelai didn't like that they loved each other so strongly at such a young age, it made her nervous. It also made her jealous. Her daughter had figured out 'Happily Ever After' almost twenty years before she did. While she was jealous, she was worried that Rory would get pregnant when she was still in school and Logan would leave as Chris did. Now Rory was pregnant but it looked like Logan wasn't leaving, and he was doing it out of his own free will. Lorelai knew that one of her main issues with Logan was that he came from her parent's world. A world of money, fake emotions, fake marriages, and nepotism. A world where people only cared about the impression they gave and how they looked. Logan had tried to redeem himself, by breaking away from his father's company not just once, but twice. When it would come right down to it, Logan would choose Rory over society, money, his family and the 'dynastic plan'. Whatever the hell that meant. Lorelai knew that Rory was right when she said that Logan wouldn't get try to get in between the two of them, but she knew that he had the power to take her away. If Rory was forced to choose, for whatever reason, she would choose Logan. It was already happening, he swooped in with a job opportunity and the relationship Rory's been pining after and Rory's planning on leaving. Lorelai knew that Rory would leave Stars Hollow but she'd hoped that it would always be Rory's home, but it wasn't going to be that way anymore because of Logan. Her grandchild wouldn't see Stars Hollow as home, it would be the place they come to visit, a place they would hopefully love, but they wouldn't consider it home. Lorelai filled up her coffee cup then started to make another pot. She was starting to get a headache. She put her head down on the table and groaned.
Rory was right about so much. She always was. She knew that if Rory wanted to move beyond freelancing she was going to have to leave Stars Hollow, Lorelai didn't like it but she knew it was right. She wanted her daughter to succeed and become the successful person she should be, so she was going to have to just deal with the fact that Rory was leaving. She wasn't going far, and she wasn't moving to Hartford and throwing herself into society to be a trophy wife, Rory was going to New York City for a job. A good job, a job that they always wanted her to get. Lorelai could get used to train rides, and spending time on the I-84. Rory was right about Logan too. Out of all of her boyfriends, Lorelai knew that Logan cared the most about Rory and what made her, her. All he ever wanted was to make her happy. Lorelai always knew that even if she didn't want to believe it. He fought for what he wanted, even if it went against society's rules. She had done the same thing, so she felt an odd sense of understanding with him when it came to going against his family's rules. She knew that you couldn't completely condemn someone based on the mistakes they made when they were a kid. People gave her a chance when she was a teen mom, and if someone tried to tell Rory that she couldn't have a job or go after what she wanted because of her mistakes she would kill them. She realized she was going to have to give Logan the benefit of the doubt, at the very least be civil around them or else she'd lose Rory as Emily lost her.
That thought brought her up cold. Was she turning into Emily? A lot of what she had said and what she thought did have a certain Emily-esq to them. That worried Lorelai more than anything else.
Rory came back in the house at that point carrying the shopping bags. "Hey, kid." The way Lorelai spoke worried Rory.
"What's wrong, mom?" Rory sat at the kitchen table across from Lorelai.
"Do you think I'm acting like Emily?"
Rory moved from the table and started unpacking the groceries. She grabbed a glass and filled it with apple juice then sat back down. "The silence isn't boding, well, is it?" Lorelai said trying to sound light but coming across sad.
"Maybe. A little bit. Your initial reaction when you found out I was pregnant did have an Emily like flare to it. And you don't like Logan, even though he's stepping up and wants to be involved with the baby, no matter what happens to us."
"Oh, kid. I'm sorry."
"We got passed the stuff about the baby. But, can you lighten up with Logan? It is a little reminiscent of how Grandma treats Luke. She hates him simply because of his background and his job. If you find a real reason to hate Logan, then I'll listen but his background isn't one. He will be around, sooner rather than later and I don't want him to dread coming here. We dread enough places."
"I would never want you to dread coming here." Lorelai hated the idea of Logan and Rory doing what she would do with Emily, make excuses, avoid her at all costs, and keep her grandchild away from her. "I'll do better with Logan. I do have my reservations but I'll back off. I don't want to lose you." Lorelai said, her voice full of regret
"You won't mom." The two Gilmore girls stood and wrapped each other in bone-crushing hugs.
Once the two girls pulled away from each other, Lorelai shooed Rory to the living room to pick out the movies while she arranged snacks for a movie night. Lorelai came in with all the patented movie night staples while Rory was on the floor sorting through movies. "So, what are we rocking tonight? Are we giving Tori Spelling another shot?"
"Nah, I was thinking something more classic and always watchable." Rory then held up Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club.
"Yes. You can never go wrong with the Molly Ringwald Trilogy." Rory went to put in Sixteen Candles before Lorelai stopped her. "Wait, kiddo you never told me the rest of the plans."
"What?" Rory looked up from the DVD player confused.
"You said that when you got back from Doose's you'd tell me the rest of your plans."
"Oh right." Rory moved over to the couch and sat next to Lorelai. "I told Logan that I would take the job but I haven't told Josh yet. I called him earlier this morning to tell him but I got his answering machine. Which isn't surprising considering it's Saturday. I left a message and I'll call him again Monday morning. Hopefully, then we'll work out my start date and my salary and benefits. I'm so glad to have benefits again. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've had my teeth cleaned? I mean it's just gross and disturbing at this point."
"Hun, while I'm glad you have concern for your dental hygiene can we get back to the point?"
"I'll move down to the city depending on the start date he gives me. But I know that the current guy is losing his job this week no matter what I say, so they may ask for me to start as early as next week."
"Next week?! So, are you planning on moving this week?"
"It's a real possibility. It all depends on my conversation with Josh goes."
Lorelai sighed before asking the next question. "Do you think you can manage that?"
"I think so. I was hoping that you'd help me though." Rory gave her best doe eyes to her mother hoping to convince her to help.
"Oh kid, not the Bambi eyes! No one is powerful enough to resist those."
"Please, mommy."
"Oh ok. You got me. I'll help move my darling daughter, the fruit of my loins to another state. Despite that, it will crush my soul."
"Thank you. A lot of my things are still packed up so it's really a matter of relocating everything."
"Well, that's good. The worst part of moving is packing.
"What about the rule about how Gilmore's don't exercise? Moving would count as exercise."
"Yes, but packing makes you realize how much a hoarder you are." Lorelai cringed at that thought. "Earlier you said something about having Logan tell Grandma. You also said something about him coming here sooner rather than later, would you like to elaborate that statement for mommy?" Lorelai said trying to get Rory to tell her the whole story.
"This is where it gets interesting."
"Should I break into the popcorn?"
"Mom, you haven't forgotten the rules to Gilmore movie nights? You're aren't that old!"
"I am one young hot grandma to be, thank you very much. Yikes, now I do feel old." Rory was laughing so hard she was nearly doubled over.
"Ok, hot Grandma. Do you want to hear this story or not?"
"Yes please!" Lorelai sat to attention like a small child expecting a gift.
"So, after Logan and I worked out a lot of our crap, and decided that we really wanted to try all of this again, he brought me to the unfortunate realization that we would have to tell everyone."
"Everyone?"
"The dragon lady who's also known as Shira Huntzberger. Amongst others."
"Oh, kid. Is that a good idea?"
"We have to tell her mom. Now that Logan is in control of the family money she might be little less cruel knowing that he could take away her allowance."
"I don't even know to say to that," Lorelai said actually stunned.
"Me neither. I think the words, sexist, acquisitive and shallow were thrown in there."
"Oh, big words. Your Yale education is hard at work."
"Logan doesn't call me his 'Ace Reporter' for nothing," Rory said with a smile.
"Oh! I get it now! That's bugged me for years. But, what middle age woman is on an allowance controlled by her son?"
"High society ones?"
"Weird. What others do you speak?" Lorelai added with a dramatic flair at the end.
"The Stooges, also known as Colin, Finn, and Robert. I'm hoping that I'll see Steph, Juliet, and Rosemary when we see dumb, dumber and drunkest."
Lorelai chucked. "Finn being the drunkest?"
"Seriously I think the last time that overgrown bean pole was sober, he was 12 years old."
"Don't insult my exotic lover like that! He may be bathed in liquor but he gives me a type of lovin' that can't be found anywhere else!" Lorelai said suggestively. She had met the crazy Australian once and they have played this game full of innuendos and over the top flirtation that only Finn can really pull off, ever since.
"Oh MOM. Seriously, what about Luke? How does he feel about your exotic lover?"
"He loves Finn as much as I do. Finn has given Luke some tips to improve his game. Which really worked. And one can't compare to the other. Now both at the same time though-" Lorelai was cut off by Rory's dramatic and horrified yelp.
"ENOUGH! You are putting graphic images in my head that I've never needed! If you want I can go into VERY specific details about what happened the night my baby came into existence?" Rory said warningly.
"No thanks. Is there more to your plans?"
"Yes, if you stop interrupting me, I might tell you the whole damn thing."
"My lips are sealed." Lorelai moved her index finger and thumb over her lips in a zipping motion then nodded at Rory to continue.
"The plan Logan came up with was that we tell Shira and Honour Friday night at dinner.
"You and Friday night dinners."
"Mom."
"Sorry. Continue."
"Then we would spend the Friday night and Saturday morning here, see Lane, tell her what's been going on, and see all the townspeople. Then we would go up to Hartford in the afternoon and tell our friends, I'm hoping we get out that lunch with Logan relatively sober. Then we go up to Nantucket, we will plan to stay overnight with Grandma but if that goes to shit we'll spend the night at the house on Martha's Vineyard then on Sunday we'll head up to Boston and see dad."
"How in the world do you guys plan on doing that? He does know that Nantucket is a solid six-hour drive from here. You can't meet with long lost stooges in the afternoon and be in Nantucket by dinner. You can't do anything timely and organized when the stooges are involved. I remember the Quintin Tarantino themed party and so many other things from your Yale years, and if I'm remembering Mr. Toads Wild Ride correctly they're still like that. They won't let you just drop a bomb like that, and run. And no matter how much tour guiding she does, your Grandma is still Grandma, she won't stand for you arriving for dinner at ten at night. Not to mention the fact that your thinking about moving this week, and the fact that you're pregnant! So how do you plan to pull this off?"
Rory sighed not able to predict Lorelai's reaction. And when Rory can't do that, it means that it might not end well. "Mom, he's the CEO of a multimillion, multinational corporation. His net worth is well over a billion dollars, and he is one of the most powerful man in the newspaper business."
"I know all that sweets. I don't always like it, but I know it. How is that relevant?"
"He has a private plane. We aren't driving to Nantucket, we'll fly. It's barely an hour flight, so even if we leave the Stooges after 5:30 we'd still make it for a 7 o'clock dinner."
"Wow. Aren't we moving up in the world." Lorelai said snootily.
Rory sighed. She knew that she was going to have a fight with her mother about money, about how they use Logan's, about how she spends her, and the fact that her grandfather made her the heir and didn't tell anyone because he knew how it would pan out. Richard Gilmore was many things but he cared about his family and didn't want things to fall apart. He knew how close Rory and Lorelai were and he knew that if it was a known fact that he was leaving the Gilmore fortune to Rory, it would cause a rift. They haven't talked about it but now that she is back with Logan, money is going to become an issue. She was hoping she could put it off for a while simply because it's been an exhausting day and she couldn't handle two arguments with her mother in a four-hour time span. "It's easier than flying mom."
"So, after all this jetting around are you going to come back to the humble Hollow."
Rory was getting a migraine. She decided she was going to go back to the diner apartment after this so she could get some much-needed sleep, and Lorelai could cool off. But she decided to tell her mom the rest of the plan since she was reaching the end of the story. "It'll depend on the start date I get when I talk to Josh on Monday, if I succeed on moving and how long we're in Boston. I think if we can leave Boston before three or so, then we'll come back for a bit."
Lorelai couldn't fault Rory's logic on how the weekend was structured. It was very reasonable and if she had to fly out of Boston she wouldn't want to make a pit stop halfway between there and her home if she had to work in the morning. She simply didn't like the fact that Rory was quickly finding herself in the world of high society after all this time. She knew it wasn't Logan's fault but she was dating the billionaire with a private jet, that sentence just screamed high society. Never mind the fact that Rory was worth her own millions. Lorelai knew that Rory was still Rory, she wouldn't be the high society trophy wife, she needed her own career and life but she couldn't bring herself to be ok with the idea that Rory was becoming the person she had worked so hard for her to detest. "That sounds perfectly reasonable." She knew she sounded like Emily when she said that, but at the moment she didn't especially care.
Rory knew that there was no hope in resolving this without a fight and Rory was not in the mood to fight. She was too tired, to emotional and to queasy to deal with it. "You know mom, this day has taken a lot out of me so I think I'm going to head to the diner apartment and get to sleep. Then I'll start working on packing things up."
For some reason, this snapped Lorelai out of her sullen state. "Will you be packing everything?" This had been Rory's home base for her entire life, she would only take the essentials when she moved around, and she'd never pack everything. Mostly because there was a time limit on her move. She'd come home when semesters were over, she couldn't take everything when she followed Obama around the country or when she freelanced. Even the period when she rented an apartment in New York the majority of her things stayed here.
"Most of it. It would be silly to move some things." Lorelai hoped that meant that she would leave things that she still cherished but didn't see the point of relocating. Unfortunately, Lorelai's hopes were dashed. "The things I don't use anymore, I'll leave. But, everything else is coming with me. Except for my bed, I'll need a new one of those." Rory saw the disappointment on her mother's face and hoped to squelch her fears. "Mom, I'm 33 years old, I'm having a baby, I'm restarting my career, I need to move out. I'm not leaving because of something you did, but it's time to be on my own. When I moved back in the summer it was only temporary, for a minute there I thought it would become permanent but this isn't where I'm supposed to be long term mom. It's why I went to Chilton and Yale. It's why I followed Obama around the country. This is why we went through all that we did. It was why you left Hartford at 16, and it was why you went to Grandma and Grandpa for help. It was all so I could chase whatever dream I had. It was all so that I could have a career and a life bigger then Stars Hollow. I love it here, I'm most comfortable here, and it'll always be my home. I need to go, mom, you know that."
"You always were to smart for your own good, you know that. I feel like I just got you back kid." Lorelai said sadly
"You never lost me, and you'll never lose me." Lorelai wrapped her daughter in a bone-crushing hug for the second time that day and held her while she cried. Lorelai felt unnerved with all that was happening to her and her daughter. "Hormones acting up?"
"It's been a long day," Rory said weepily.
"I'll say. Why don't you go back to the apartment and we'll do our movie night tomorrow?"
"Ok, mom." Rory gathered her bags and her groceries and headed to the door. "I love you, mom," Rory said by the door.
"Love you too kid."
With that Rory left to gratefully go to bed, and Lorelai cleaned up the junk food and thought about just how much things were changing.
When Rory got to the diner, she found the place deserted except for Luke, who was behind the counter cleaning up and getting ready to close. Rory couldn't help but notice that the usually gruff man seemed almost chipper since he and Lorelai had gotten married. Rory was so happy that her mom had finally gotten her happy ending and that the man she had always considered her father was now her father.
"Hey, Luke." Rory came over and sat at the counter as Luke cleaned up.
"Rory, hi. How was New York?"
"It was good. I am going to need something tasty and something to wash it down with if I'm going to tell you the whole story."
"I am NOT serving you coffee. I don't care what you or your mother say. You guys do not have superhuman abilities, and all this crap will catch up with you eventually. I will not have your baby coming out with two heads if I can help it."
Rory chuckled. She liked that Luke was so caring and protective of her and her child. It made her feel wanted and loved. It was a special type of love that she thought was a myth for a long time. A father's love. Two different men, in one day, showed her that it was real, and that father's do love their children. No matter the circumstances. "I was thinking more along the lines of grilled chicken and apple juice if I may. But don't tell mom."
"I'm glad one of you has some sense. One grilled chicken breast coming up and one glass of apple juice." Luke moved into the kitchen, and Rory heard the distinct sounds of the fridge opening and closing along with a cupboard door. A moment later Luke appeared with a glass of juice and put in front of Rory. "Now why am I not telling your mom about your midnight snack?"
"She's having a hard enough time with all of this. The knowledge that I am having healthy cravings might put her over the top."
Luke groaned. He loved his wife, and he loved Rory like a daughter and he didn't like getting in the middle of their arguments, but he knew that Lorelai did have a tendency to be a little overbearing and she liked her opinion heard. She was more like her mother then she would like to admit. "What happened?" Luke moved the different ingredients and supplies out to the dining area so he could look at Rory while they talked. He didn't want her shouting through the diner and thinking he wasn't listening.
"Well, to tell you that I should probably tell you the story from the beginning. But, how much do you know about why I was in New York?"
"That you were up for an editing position in Brooklyn."
"Did mom ever tell you how I heard of the job?"
"No." Luke was suspicious now.
"Logan called last week and told me about it. He offered me the job right then. I told him I wouldn't accept the position unless I met with the editor in chief and the staff who would be under me."
"Logan put you up for the position? Doesn't his father hate you? Why on earth would he hire you? If this is another one of Mitchum's mind games, I'll whoop his ass."
Rory laughed at the idea of Luke Danes, diner owner, taking Mitchum Huntzberger, newspaper tycoon in a wrestling match. "Don't worry about beating Mitchum up Luke. Mitchum died a few weeks ago. Logan is now CEO of the Huntzberger Publishing Group.
"Holy shit."
"That seems to be the motto of the week, yes."
"Ok, well what happened with the job?"
"I went to the paper, The Brooklyn Daily Post, spoke to the editor in chief, spoke to the sole writer who would be working directly under me and I liked the job. The current editor is too old and too out of date to be involved in a newspaper. The paper and this one section, in particular, were falling apart. So, I'd be replacing him, I'd also be doing some writing because of the lack of staff in the department. The editor in chief didn't care that I know Logan and that he put me up for the job. He said I was qualified and that I had the best contact in the business and if I didn't take advantage of it I was an idiot. I paraphrased that last bit."
Luke moved into the kitchen to grill up the chicken. Rory took a sip of her juice as she heard him shout to her, "I have to agree with the editor there. You've got the best contact in the business. I remember you used to spend so much time building contacts and maintaining them specifically for job opportunities. Now you have the God of the newspaper world at your beck and call. Use it!"
Rory laughed at Luke's enthusiasm. He was always one of her biggest supporters in whatever she wanted to do. "I'm planning on it!"
"What?!" Luke nearly dropped the plate he was carrying as he made his way back out. He knew Rory understood the importance of nepotism in the world, he'd seen it when she was at Yale and handled her grandparent's parties. But, she'd always had trouble acting on it. He always thought that was Lorelai's doing. It was inadvertent, but none the less, Rory lived in fear of disappointing people. Especially her mom.
"I took the job."
"Rory, that's amazing! Congratulations! I know I said that I wouldn't feed you any more crap but I have some danishes in the oven and you can have them. Are you craving apples?"
"Yes I am, why?"
"Because they're apple danishes."
"Awe thanks, Luke." Rory was almost moved to tears as the plate of fresh apple danishes were put in front of her.
Rory started eating on the danishes happily as Luke started cleaning. "So, I take it you're moving to Brooklyn?"
"Yeah. I already bought an apartment. Depending on the conversation I have to have with Josh, the editor in chief, I might be moving this week."
"Wow. Let me know the day and I'll help you. You shouldn't be driving your old Prius on the interstate. It's nearly as old as your mom's zombie of a jeep. It's not safe."
"Logan said the same thing," Rory said wistfully. Or as wistfully as you can around a mouthful of apple Danish.
Luke struggled to ask the next question. He always considered Rory his daughter and a father shouldn't have to ask questions about the man who got his daughter pregnant.
"Out with it, Luke," Rory said once she noticed his awkward behaviour.
Luke tossed his dish towel down and looked at Rory. "Isn't Logan the one who caused-" Luke gestured randomly at Rory unable to speak his thoughts. "All this."
"You mean the one who got me pregnant?" Luke groaned at her bluntness. He knew she was doing it to make him uncomfortable. She really was her mother's daughter. "Yes, he's this little bean's dad." Rory rubbed her belly gently, smiling as she thought about everything that had happened over the past few days.
Luke watched as Rory was taken away by a memory and started to smile. He knew she'd be a great mom, it was in the Gilmore Girl genes. "Does he know?" Luke knew what it felt like to be left out of their child's life and he wouldn't wish that on anyone. And if he had any voice at all in the decision making, he was going to make sure that the child had a father. Especially when it came to his grandchild.
"Yes. I met with him after my meeting at the Post."
"How'd he take it? Because if he hurt you I will not have any regrets over taking him out back and waving my gun at him."
"Luke, when did you turn into Rodney Atkins?"
"Who?"
"Never mind. He took it really well actually. Well, once the initial shock wore off, he actually was really excited and said that he'd be there for everything. Be the type of dad that we never had." Rory saw Luke's expression shift from concern and excitement to one of sadness. "Oh, Luke. That's not what I meant, you are like my dad. You were more of a dad to me than my actual dad. I love you like a father, you are the one I'm scared to disappoint, you did all the things a father should do for their daughter and that's what you are to me." Rory had broken down into sobs after thinking that she hurt Luke's feelings.
Once Luke got over his initial shock of Rory bursting into tears he came around the counter and gave her a hug. He just held her and slowly rocked her until she calmed down. When Rory felt Luke pull her in for a hug she simply buried her face into his chest and let her sooth her. She had a long and exhausting day and she felt like she had failed everyone and she needed to be comforted for a minute. "I'm sorry." Rory hiccupped out. "I'm sorry I failed you."
Luke's heart broke hearing Rory so unsettled. "It's ok darling, you didn't fail me."
"You still love me, right?" Rory said, her voice muffled as she hadn't moved from Luke's chest. She had never asked him that before but despite his shock, he could never deny her anything. "Of course, I do, Rory. It's called unconditional love, I'll love you no matter what."
"Even though you aren't my real dad?" Luke had no idea what had gotten into Rory. She had never acted like this, except for maybe when she had the chicken pox when she was eight.
"Even though I'm not your real dad." Luke just held her and rubbed her back, until she calmed down.
Eventually, the sobbing stopped and Luke felt comfortable to let her go. "Feeling better?" She just nodded against his chest. When he felt her nod, he unwrapped his arms and led her over to a table. Once she was sitting down he sat down in the chair next to her. "Is there more to the Logan tale?" Luke wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling that there was more to Logan's involvement in the last 36 hours then his reaction to his impending fatherhood.
"Yeah." Rory hesitantly started. "He told me he loved me and that he wanted to marry me. He said it wasn't because of the baby but that he has loved me since Yale and never stopped."
"Wow."
"Yeah. I told him that I loved him too, and we're getting back together. We're on the same page and we want to spend the rest of our lives together. We are going to take it slow, so we aren't going to get married any time soon. Too much has happened for us to just dive back in."
"You're right, a lot has happened. More than what happens to most couples. Are you ok, with that?" Rory could tell that it wasn't a dislike of Logan that made Luke ask these question, but he wanted to make sure she was happy.
"We talked about everything. We talked about his dad, Odette, how he ended the engagement and told his dad to shove it. He would have been disowned but Mitchum died before it was made official. We talked about how he made changes over at HPG and now the company is flourishing. He refuses to be a workaholic so he promoted people and shuffled things so that there were Vice Presidents, so he won't have to be as hands-on as Mitchum was. He doesn't want to be his dad, he wants to be a good father to our child, he wants to be there, he doesn't want our child to question how much they're loved. and he told me how scared he was of becoming his dad and being a good father. We talked about how I turned down his proposal, how I always thought about marrying him and having a family but at 22 I wasn't ready. I told him that I'd been in love with him since I was 19 and never stopped, and ending things with him three months ago was the hardest thing I've ever done. I told him about what Grandpa left me and how I was scared of using it in case I made mom mad. We're not done yet, but we're getting there. We aren't going to hide things and assume as we did before, that's what broke us more than once. But neither of us want to screw it up, we've got too much to lose."
Luke watched as Rory gently rubbed her stomach again as she finished her speech about her and Logan. He knew then that Rory was in love with Logan and no matter what she would always love him. But as his fatherly duty, he felt it necessary to ask a few questions. "I have a few questions, if that's ok?"
"Sure, but it might be a little easier to threaten him if it's face to face."
"I'll do that the next time I see him. But I was thinking of something else."
"You'll see him Friday or Saturday if you don't see him earlier. I'm giving you ample time to call your hit squad. What are your questions?"
Luke smiled seeing that whatever emotional tsunami that had hit Rory was fading, if she's able to make fun of him, everything's fine. "Do you trust him?"
"With everything. I trust him with my life, my heart and our child." Rory said seriously.
"Does he make you happy?"
"Deliriously happy." Rory said with a grin.
"My last question is this. Do you love him? Does he love you and your baby?"
"I think that's three questions," Rory said with a smile. She loved how she was doing what Christopher had never done, doing everything he could to protect her from harm and make sure she was happy. "I love him with all my heart. He loves this baby so much. He's quickly becoming the doting dad. He's loved this baby from the moment he processed what I said to him."
"But does he love you?" Luke was a little worried that she seemed to skirt around that question. He couldn't tell if she was avoiding it or if she was giving into her maternal instinct and putting her child before herself.
"He loves me so much. He helped me with my morning sickness, he cooked me multiple delicious meals that satisfied my bizarre cravings and he went apartment hunting with me. He said it was because he wanted to make sure the place we would be living was good enough for me and the baby. He's shown me a type of love that I wasn't sure existed."
Luke smiled at Rory. It was clear that she was happy with how things were working out. Things were finally looking up in Rory world and knowing that her biggest dreams are coming true made her glow. "Well, that's all I needed to hear. I'm happy for you Rory."
"I'm glad someone is," Rory said, her voice full of sorrow.
Luke knew this was a reference to Lorelai but he could tell Rory was getting tired and probably didn't want to get into just yet. "I'll work on her Rory. She won't stay upset for long."
"We can hope." Rory yawned then looked at her watch to see the time. Realizing how late it was Rory got out of her seat. "Now, if it's ok with you, I'm going to bed. This has been a very long and emotionally draining day and I am wiped. Good night Luke. Thank you for everything." Rory gave Luke a hug before heading towards the stairs.
"Good night, Rory." With that Rory climbed the stairs to finally get to bed and Luke closed down the diner and went home to the other Gilmore girl in his life. The one who's also known as his wife.
AN: There we have it. I actually didn't plan for Luke and Rory to have a father/daughter moment but I was writing and it came out. But, I love it and no one can resist it.
Now I have a question, would someone be willing to have me bounce ideas off them, so I stay in character and that the plot makes sense? I would really appreciate it if someone would.
Review if you please!