AN: Well this is short, but fluffy...so it's a trade off. I will warn, there will be one chapter + the epilogue remaining in this story. It has been a lot of fun to write and I will leave it open to a sequel should I choose to go that route. Read, review, enjoy. I currently have a lot on my plate (work, kids, life...) so this week might be slow for me in terms of updates.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter Eleven - Marry Me?

September 17, 2020

"So when can we tell people?" Rory asked as they drove back from her first appointment with the doctor. As it turned out, the doctor who had delivered Nathan had retired but her replacement had agreed to continue seeing Rory and all of her medical files had been transferred from her OB-GYN in Brooklyn. She hadn't been to the doctor since the pandemic started and the experience had been quite eery, very different than her first pregnancy. She had been to many appointments when she was pregnant with Nathan by herself, but she supposed the difference was that now Logan was here, and wanted to come, but he couldn't because only one person was allowed in the office, and she completed the first portion of her appointment in the car on bluetooth. At least Logan had been there for that. She went into the building to give a urine sample, have bloodwork drawn, and then for an ultrasound. She wished desperately that Logan could've been with her for the ultrasound, it felt wrong that somehow after all they had been through, he was still missing out on some of these moments because of a pandemic, but FaceTime would have to do given the circumstances.

"I mean, we can tell people whenever," Logan shrugged, "it's more a question of when we want to tell people."

"When do you want to tell people?" Rory asked, she took a sip of her water and looked at him intently, she wanted to do things his way this time, she didn't want everything to be about her. It had been about her the first time.

"Stop staring at me," Logan laughed, "I think we should wait a couple of weeks," he admitted. The ultrasound had dated the pregnancy at eight weeks, "and then we can tell Nathan, and then we can tell everyone else after…"

"Ok," Rory nodded, she agreed with the timeline, and it gave them a bit of time to decide what they wanted to do before everyone was asking what they were going to do.

"Do you want me to put you on payroll?" Logan asked as he turned a corner, "I mean, we can swing it because we're publishing the book, because then you're eligible for benefits. We can waive the trial period as part of the contract. Or, I can pay out of pocket for everything…whichever you want." They had started a conversation a couple of days earlier about the costs associated with being pregnant. Logan had of course been more than willing to simply pay for it, but he also knew Rory well enough to know that she was never good at just accepting money from a person.

"Payroll?" Rory repeated, "isn't that kind of…I don't know? Unethical or something?"

"No," Logan laughed, "you're writing a book, we are having a baby… we can make it work."

"What if…" Rory paused, thinking about what was about to come out of her mouth. She would blame pregnancy brain if she had to, "what if we got married?"

Logan tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles were white from the pressure, and his chest felt tight at the suggestion, "what?"

"We could get married, then I would be on your benefits and you wouldn't have to lie about me working for Huntzberger."

"You're so concerned about insurance fraud that you would get married in order to…get insurance?" Logan repeated, he was simply trying to buy himself time before he had to actually respond to her suggestion. "I think that is still insurance fraud, just by another means…"

"So no?" Rory asked him pointedly.

"You know," Logan exhaled, "I really wish you didn't feel the need to do this in the car on the way home because I would rather talk about this on the couch like normal people, but ok…here goes. No. I am saying no. And before you spiral about how I don't love you enough. I do. I love you, and I want to marry you. But I have asked you that question before and you said no to me. We were madly in love and you said no and fuck Ace, that hurt like hell. And one day, I do want to marry you. I want to ask you that question, but here…today….in the car to try to cut costs on insurance of all things? No. I will not marry you as a means to an end. I want you to want to marry me because you can't imagine waking up with anyone else but me. Which frankly I am hoping is true anyway because we're living together and you're pregnant with our second kid, but I guess we can have that conversation if we need to."

"Logan I don't want to marry you for your insurance."

"Really? Because that is exactly what you just said. You said we could get married so you could get on my insurance…"

"I didn't mean just for your insurance," Rory groaned, she knew she shouldn't have said it. The truth was that she wanted to marry him. She didn't want to go through another pregnancy not married to him. She didn't want to follow the steps to prove paternity, she wanted to be introduced as Mrs. Huntzberger at events, but only socially because they both knew well enough that Rory would not legally or professionally change her last name at this point in her life. She wanted Nathan to be able to introduce them as his parents and as a family unit, not that they weren't now, but she wanted it to be different. But nope, instead of saying that she had said she wanted to get married for insurance. "I just…it would be another good reason."

"Another good reason…what are the other ones? The tax breaks? Do we get cheaper auto insurance rates?"

Rory exhaled, "I'm sorry," she told him softly, "this was…it was not the right delivery and I'm sorry. I know why this is a difficult subject for you."

"It's fine Ace," Logan reached over and squeezed her hand, he didn't want to fight with her, but he also wasn't going to marry her if that was why. "What do you want for dinner?" He asked, changing the subject.

xxx

October 3, 2020

Three weeks later, Rory was spiralling. She had spent a great deal of time obsessing about how to tell Nathan, but here they were on the day and her stomach was in her throat as she waited for Logan and Nathan to return from a run. She had spent more time than she would care to admit staring at her naked stomach after she got out of the shower. She was convinced that she was showing and would not accept that it might have just been the five slices of pizza she had eaten the night before that had caused her stomach to expand ever so slightly. She had gotten dressed in a pair of leggings and a long black shirt and then went to the kitchen to make herself a half-caf coffee while she waited. Logan had left a note on her bedside table telling her they would be back around eleven and even though it was still before eleven, she was wanting them to get home now. The plan had been simple, Logan and Nathan would do something together to reinforce that he was still a priority, and then Rory had ordered a brunch box which had arrived a while earlier from a local restaurant that Nathan liked, and they would sit him down and tell him that in April he would have a little brother or sister. It seemed simple enough. Things had been relatively calm in the weeks since he had walked in on them, they had made a point of locking the door when necessary and Nathan for his part knocked before he entered their bedroom. It wasn't as though they were two horny teenagers having sex at all hours, so it seemed to be working pretty well. Rory heard the garage door open and smiled as they came into the house laughing at something. She heard water bottles being dropped and shoes being kicked off before they came into the kitchen and Rory smiled at the mere sight of them.

"You two are gross," Rory made a face at the two sweaty people standing in front of her. She had noticed as the weeks went by that Nathan was looking more and more grown up, and more and more like his father.

"Morning Ace," Logan gave her a quick, sweaty kiss on the lips and Rory made a face, "we'll go clean up and then breakfast?"

Rory nodded and smiled as they were both gone as quickly as they had come in. She still couldn't wrap her head around going for a run unless someone was chasing her, but alas, it was something that Logan and Nathan could do together. She pulled the brunch box open and took it to the table, following it up with utensils and waters for everyone. It felt like forever, of course, just like it had felt like forever when they had been gone on their run for them to return. It was probably fifteen minutes before Logan reemerged and Nathan was a few minutes later. "Sit, sit," Rory gestured to the table as she ushered Nathan to his seat. "How was your run?" She asked as he sat down and gave her a confused look.

"Fine," he shrugged.

"It was cooler than we expected," Logan explained, "so we got a bit farther than we originally planned…which meant we had to come home farther and…well, there are some regrets, right?"

"Uh huh," Nathan nodded with a smile on his face. "This looks good," he nodded to the food.

"It's your favourite," Rory nodded to encourage him to dig in, and he certainly complied. She understood now what Lane had always said about how much he boys ate, there was virtually no way to keep enough food in the house at any given moment, and it was even harder to try to guess what he would like from day to day. Rory took a sip of her coffee and then looked at Logan who raised his eyebrows as if to encourage her, "there is something Dad and I wanted to talk to you about…"

"Are you guys breaking up?" Nathan looked at his father with wide eyes and a certain amount of terror.

Rory tried not to laugh, she didn't want to diminish his concern but they were so far from breaking up, it was laughable. "No, no, don't you worry about that ever, ok?" She told him, he nodded his head and Rory looked to Logan. "But…I am pregnant…" she paused for a moment to gauge his reaction, he looked from Logan to Rory and then looked at Rory a bit more intently. "I'm due in April…"

"You don't look pregnant."

Rory and Logan both laughed, "no, I don't because I'm not very far along yet, but trust me, it will come. It's still a secret, just the three of us know…well… and the doctor."

"And…we'll have the same dad, right?"

Rory felt her cheeks turn red and Logan was biting his lip to keep from bursting into laughter, "yes Nathan," she managed, "you and this baby will both have the same dad. I'm not sure who you thought the other option was…"

"I don't know," Nathan shrugged, "so…do I have to like…do stuff with it?"

Logan smirked, he had heard of friends and coworkers with kids telling their older children about a new sibling to be met with similar reactions. He was sure that if Nate was five, he would've had a much different reaction, but at this age he was more concerned with video games and sports and girls than he was with having a new sibling. "You will have to be his or hers brother…but I don't think Mom and I expect you to be doing night feeds if that is what you mean…"

"So it'll just be…a baby?"

"Yup," Rory nodded, "that tends to be how it starts…and then eventually that baby will grow up…"

"And what about," Nathan turned to his father, "the stuff…you know?" His eyes widened in hopes that his father would telepathically understand the message he was sending.

"The stuff we talked about?" Logan asked and Nathan nodded his head frantically, "nothing about our talk changes," Logan answered vaguely, clearly trying to keep Rory in the dark about whatever they had discussed.

"What did you guys discuss?" Rory asked with a smile on her face as she took a sip of her coffee which was now lukewarm.

"Guy stuff," Logan shrugged.

"Yup," Nathan nodded. "You wouldn't get it."

"Oh?"

Logan nodded at Nathan while Rory was choosing which pastry to enjoy next from the brunch box that was still being picked through. "Uh…mom," Nathan mumbled, "can you look over some of my homework in my room?"

"Right now?" Rory asked.

"Yeah I have an English paper due and…well, I think you're probably the best person to look it over. It's not due for a few days…"

"No, we can go," Rory agreed, "let me just," she popped a piece of chocolate croissant in her mouth, "do not throw this out," she told Logan in a warning tone, "I will be back for this."

"I wouldn't dare," Logan smiled and took a sip of his own coffee. He waited until they were both upstairs before he stood up and walked to his office. He opened the bottom drawer on the right side and pulled out a small black velvet box. He had been thinking about proposing since they had found out she was pregnant, he couldn't help but want to give her some shit when she suggested they do it for the sake of insurance, but he would marry her any time, any day. He flipped open the box revealing a two carat oval shaped diamond with a yellow gold setting. The band was made from jewelry that had once belonged to her grandmother and great grandmother that he had melted down to create the band. It was classic and romantic and he had to hope that for the second time in his life asking the same girl this question, he might get a different response.

"Ace," Logan shouted as he returned to the kitchen a few minutes later. Long enough that Rory would have had a chance to look at whatever fake homework Nathan was having her look at. He pulled the ring out of the box and shoved the box into the pocket of his jeans, he carefully placed the ring inside the brunch box, which he knew she would see the humour in, and Nathan had suggested it. Nathan's logic when he and Logan had discussed his plan was that Rory liked food, and she liked Logan, so she would agree to a marriage proposal if it involved Logan and food. Logan had tried to re-arrange the delivery so that he would be able to intercept it, but Rory had made that difficult by changing the time of the delivery without him knowing, he only found out when he asked her specifically the day before. "Come on, no more homework."

"Hold your horses," Rory rolled her eyes as she returned, Nathan practically pushing her along. "I barely even looked at it."

"Dad wants us."

"And since when do you listen to Dad?" Rory countered as she took a seat, Logan hovering a couple of feet away as she sipped her coffee, Nathan and Logan anxiously waiting for her to notice.

"Maybe he has something to say?" Nathan countered as he stared anxiously.

"You two are strange," Rory looked down at the box of food in front of her and gasped, "what is?" She turned to Logan who was now down on one knee beside her as she took the ring from its spot perched on a strawberry.

"I probably should've learned not to do this in front of anyone, but I'm hoping," Logan smiled broadly at her, "that you will make me the luckiest man in the world and marry me?"

"You two," she looked to her son who was grinning from ear to ear, "you two planned this? How?"

"You didn't answer, Mom!"

"Yes," Rory smiled at Logan who was still on one knee, she put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him, "yes, yes, yes, one hundred times yes."

"You sure?" Logan grinned as he kissed her once more and stood up, pulling her up to a standing position with him, he took the ring which was still perched on the strawberry and held it to Rory who happily gave him her left hand to slip it on her ring finger.

"Yes."

"I love you Ace."

"I love you too," Rory felt tears falling from her eyes as she hugged him. "You said no…" Rory recalled their conversation from a few weeks earlier when they were leaving the doctor.

"Yes, I said no," Logan smirked, "and I would say no again. But to be clear…I'm not asking you to commit insurance fraud with me, I'm asking you to marry me."

"Yes, well that is what I was saying yes to. The insurance thing is just a perk," Rory smiled at the two of them and then her head whipped back to look at her son, "wait…you knew…why did you ask about us breaking up?"

"Had to keep it real."

"Ugh," Rory put her head in her hands thinking about Logan and Colin's stupid antics in college when they pretended to fight over her in a class, "you are so your fathers son."