"Do you think he's coming?" Logan asked as he paced around the living room, on occasion glancing out into the driveway illuminated only by the lonely porch light.

"Honestly?" Rory began, taking a deep breath. "I'm beginning to think he won't," she admitted along with a deep sigh, as she sat on the couch in her leggings, legs crossed massaging gently her bump. She was pretty sure she'd been feeling some fluttering already, and Logan had attempted to feel something too all afternoon. While unsuccessful at that, it had provided a good distraction for him besides cooking from what occupied his mind now.

It was already nearly 8 PM, and Owen hadn't texted Rory saying he would be coming, but Logan still held a small hope that he might, even if not for dinner. They'd already had dinner, having placed the rest of the tajin Logan had made back into the oven to keep it warm. With plenty of moisture, while it might still overcook, it would taste pretty good if he did show up.

"Come on," Rory grabbed his hand, wanting him to stop the pacing and pulled him to sit next to her. "If he comes, he comes, you've done your part. He might just need time to process," Rory added, trying to cheer him up, intertwining her fingers with his.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed, leaning his elbows onto his knees. There was no doubt that he was disappointed. Not that he had expected some tangible outcome out of this - he wasn't that naive. At best he would just be extending an olive branch to open the line of communication, and Owen would accept it.

"Maybe suggesting he should come here was wrong of me, maybe coming here is more intimidating to him than I thought," Rory pondered, wondering if she could've done anything differently that could've led to a different outcome.

"I'm sure it would've been intimidating either way," Logan sighed again, running his hands over his face and leaned back to the couch. If Catherine had told Owen anything, he was likely intimidated by a lot more than the house in question.

"Thank you for supporting me on this," Logan said, looking Rory in the eye, gently stroking her forearm.

"Well I do have a fair amount of experience when it comes to half-siblings, some just showing up out of the blue even," Rory commented innocently. He knew he meant more by it, but she felt he really didn't need to emphasize that - she was his wife after all, and not just on paper.

"Are you okay? About being here?" he asked, hinting at something more serious.

"The place itself, it isn't bad really...but the rest, I guess I've accepted," Rory added. Apprenantly years of therapy had helped - associating everything she had been through with the experiences rather than the place where she'd tried to overcome them.

"I know this might be difficult for you, but would you mind terribly if we go and light a candle or something in Sam's memory," Logan said after a few moments, in a slightly broken voice, his tone coming a bit out of the blue for Rory.

While Logan could see Rory was doing quite well on the subject, at least she seemed to, and she'd gone to therapy, to him, returning to the place where they'd grieved together, had woken something to him, despite the other distractions they'd had going on. And while he knew it had been necessary, the baby simply hadn't been viable and due to the loss they had had the opportunity to have Finny, it still hurt a little.

"I think that's a lovely idea," Rory replied quietly, leaning against his shoulder supportively. She felt a little guilty for forgetting his feelings in this, having perhaps been too focused on her own fears concerning the place which hadn't really been confirmed. But he'd lost a baby too. "I think we should have some candles here," Rory said as she rose a moment later, running her fingers caringly through his hair in passing, and headed for the kitchen.

As Rory got the candle and lighter, the two wordlessly put on their coats and boots and headed out through the back porch door. A gust of freezing ocean air blew into their faces as they approached it, their cheeks feeling stiff from the cold within moments. It really hadn't been this cold, and there hadn't been any ice, the last time they'd been out there at the beach like this, stepping from stone to stone, Logan trying to illuminate the way, both of them trying not to slip.

"Lighting the candle in this wind is going to be trickier that I thought," Logan said loudly, realizing this may not have been one of his brightest ideas.

"Maybe between the rocks?" Rory suggested yelled over the ocean. She'd never been the outdoorsy type, but she remembered some words of wisdom from Luke from a while back.

"Can you hold the torch?" Logan said, handing it to her.

He placed a few smaller rocks around in a circle, creating a small nest for the candle. It wasn't really about the candle, but the place, being out there by the ocean like this the two of them together that carried the emotion - they'd been through this and while many say things like that drove couples apart, for them it had been quite the opposite. With a few attempts Logan lit the candle within its metal container, leaving it in the pit. They stepped aside, his arms wrapping around Rory from behind, her hands resting on his. They just stood there for a few minutes, not saying anything.

They left the candle out there, and walked back to the house, watching their step. Rory paused just for a second before they went back in, glancing back to the tiny flicker between the rocks.

"I'm glad we did this," she sighed. She was left a little more emotional than she'd expected, the motion bringing back a lot of the feelings she hadn't felt that night when Logan had first come to her after finding out about the loss, but above all, she was just glad they were doing this together.

He kissed her temple, hugging her once more, the kiss being all the reply she needed.

After one more deep breath, they stepped back inside, the warmth beginning to melt their half-frozen cheeks and fingers slowly.

It was just as they'd removed their coats, and Logan began to take them back to the foyer, he froze in his path because of the sight in front of him. The mood was altered in an instant.

"Hi, I'm sorry, I sort of let myself in - old habit," Owen said apologetically, clearing his throat. His voice caught Rory's attention, who replied with a hesitant wave from the back of the living room, as well.

"Hi," Logan replied and hung up the coats. "We were just outside for a moment, I hope you weren't waiting long," he added.

"I just got here," Owen added simply. He'd called out once but noting that their car was there and boots were not, he'd made the logical conclusion that they must've been out back, deciding to wait.

"Well come on in, let's sit," Logan suggested, suddenly feeling more nervous than he'd expected. They'd met before, so there was no need for introductions though without actually saying out that they were half-brothers.

Owen followed him to the living room only now seeing Rory's bump clearly, her wrap sweater and leggings combo clearly emphasizing it rather than hiding it.

"I didn't notice before, congratulations," Owen said, gesturing towards Rory.

"Thanks," Rory replied. Rory didn't know what to do - should she stick around for this or retreat upstairs?

"So..," Owen exhaled, as he took a seat. He seemed a little cocky, but as Rory recalled this was something of a defence mechanism for him, hoping Logan would pick up on it and not make judgments based on that.

"Would you like a drink?" Logan asked, walking over to the bar cabinet and pouring himself a scotch, hoping it would ease his nerves.

"Sure, one won't hurt," he replied, pulling up the sleeves of his moss-green wool sweater, exposing his heavily tattooed arms, one of which had appeared since that last time he'd seen Rory.

Rory observed the two, desperately wishing she could have one drink as well in this moment, wanting to ease the tension in the room. She wasn't sure what to expect - yelling? Him being offended because they'd hidden this from him? Surely not a friendly family reunion?

Before Logan had a chance to say anything Rory jumped in, feeling like she needed to explain herself. "Owen, before you guys continue, I just want you to say that when I met you I didn't know about this - I only began to piece this together little by little and I swear I never meant to lie to you about this. The information was just so delicate and uncertain at the time," she explained.

"Rory," Owen began, in a calm steady voice. "I actually knew all of this already. I knew that Mitchum Huntzberger is my father. I've known for years, my mother really hasn't been that secretive at hiding the documents," he added.

"Oh," Logan managed, landing on the couch opposite Owen. This he really hadn't thought about that course of events.

"Then why pretend like you didn't know?" Rory asked confusedly.

"Because I wasn't supposed to. The NDA is my mothers only major source of income, I wasn't going to jeopardize that," Owen explained.

"Well, what I am here to say is that I want those times to be behind us. I'm sorry for the issues that you've had to face because of this. I'm sorry for this pretence, and I guess for not coming here sooner - for that I really don't have a good reason," Logan said, taking a large sip of his scotch.

"Yeah, but it's not really your apology I need, nor what my mother needs - you didn't cause this situation," Owen clarified.

"Ah..," Logan sighed. "Well my father," he began, "our father," he corrected, adding, "has never really been the one to admit such things. He doesn't show what he feels or thinks, barely admit he's ever wrong unless it is requested from him through the court and even then he does it as insincerely as possible," Logan replied bitterly, speaking from experience.

"So this is just coming from you?" Owen asked sceptically.

"Yeah, believe it or not some of us actually appreciate the concept of family," Logan replied.

"Right," he exhaled awkwardly, unsure what this really meant.

"I know this is weird, but I'd honestly just like to get to know you, I'm sure Honor would too. You already know Rory, there's a bunch of kids in the family, and we're about to have two more, and I guess I just would like there to be this possibility for them too to know their family in its entirety, and frankly I am expecting this to be the nicer side of it," Logan explained.


"Come on, Evie, let's go see what uncle Luke is up to! I bet there's lots of snow!" Celeste said excitedly to her daughter, as she sat at the back seat next to Evie changing her car-seat safe wool-fleece onesie to a snowsuit instead as they sat at the carpark in Woodbury, that was supposed to have excellent possibilities for snow tubing and skiing.

Jess already waited outside the car, talking to Luke, the two of them keeping their eyes on Lorelai and Leo who were building a snowman that looked a lot like Shrek, minus the green. The kid was skinny, his hair light, cheekbones high and lips thin - it was almost as if he was too ordinary, nothing about him really stood out. However, there seemed to be something he enjoyed about the interaction he was in, an occasional chuckle leaving his lips.

"Here we go," Celeste said, as she pushed the car door open and waited for Jess to pick up the baby. No matter how well-aged and luxurious at the time it had been built, Jess' BMW was hardly the most convenient option as a family vehicle, but as they didn't really use it that often for longer trips, it usually didn't bother either of them.

"Are you excited?" Jess asked the one-year-old, nodding along to get her to mirror him.

"So what is this place?" Celeste asked, having never really been to Woodbury. Celeste had intentionally kept her excitement low, mainly focusing her energy on Evie, having spent most of her childhood at the fancy resorts at the Alps. She doubted this would compare, and she hadn't done winter sports herself in years.

"The place is a little smaller than Stars Hollow, but they have the good sledding hills," Luke pointed out.

"And they have a very good Inn, one of our biggest competitors. Since Sookie left they might actually have better fine dining," Lorelai grumbled as she joined the group, Leo trailing after her.

"Wasn't here something about maple syrup?" Jess recalled having once taken one of the slow busses to New York through the town and seen some posters.

"There is," Lorelai confirmed. "But hey, everyone - this is Leo," she introduced him officially. "Leo, you can call them 'everyone' or Celeste, Jess and that's little Evie," she added pointing out each person. "Jess is Luke's nephew and she's his wife, they live in Brooklyn," she explained, trying to engage the kid their family dynamic, but even the names alone, let alone relationships, was a lot for him to remember.

"Nice to meet you, Leo," Jess replied.

"Hi," a hesitant voice said.

"So I'm going to go - I have a meeting at a local Vineyard," Lorelai explained, having not had enough time during the week to drive all the way to Woodbury and had now thought of combining two things. "I shouldn't be long, an hour tops," she added, patting Leo's back who was clearly looking like he was more attached to her than Luke.

"Well alright, we'll go rent some tubes, they have foam sliders as well, I think," Luke added, leading the group towards the rental kiosk.

"You take her, I'm fine where I am," Celeste assured Jess, about five minutes later, struggling to feel terribly enthusiastic about the idea. She'd come aiming to make it a fun day for Evie - it was her first time snow tubing after all. But with her mood having been down the past few days, she didn't feel like pretending to enjoy the hustle.

"You'll get cold just sitting here, we'll take turns or something," Jess suggested, sounding a little dissapointed.

"I'll be fine, but sure," she replied, not wanting to bicker about this. She'd prepared for this, having dressed well in light wool layers under her winter coat, and had an extra layer in the car if she needed it.

"See you in a little while, Evie," Celeste waved after them, Luke and Leo having taken separate tubes a few seconds earlier, beginning to look for a place with a good view by the round picnic bench. She sat and pulled out her phone with her Kindle app to read, picking up where she'd left off in Will Dean's Dark Pines.

She raised her eyes every now and then checking where Jess and Evie or Leo or Luke were, waving at the kids friendlily if they noticed her, and then went back to the reading. Jess had just pushed off another time, Evie clearly loving the motion, when a man approached her. First she didn't pay much attention, thinking surely he either just wanted to sit or was waiting for someone just like she was, but then he spoke.

"Do you mind if I sit?" he asked, catching her off guard.

"Sure," she replied, noting a fairly handsome clean shaven man, probably in his early thirties, in a dark blue snowboarder's anorak, carrying a pair of skis, and went back to her reading.

"You come here a lot?" the man asked.

This was just too much by the book to her experience - clearly this was a pick-up line, catching her by surprise.

"No, first time actually," she humoured him. It had been a while since anyone really tried something like that on her, and thinking this was all innocent, didn't bother to panic just yet.

"It's no Aspen, that's for sure, but the hills are pretty steep," the man commented, clearly trying to sound worldly.

Celeste was tempted to throw Chamonix and Grande Rousses into the mix, but held back, knowing this was not the place.

"Hm-hm," she muttered, glancing back towards the hill, noting Jess approaching with Evie, and waved at them, taking the easy route out of this conversation.

"Did you like the slide, Evie?" she asked endearingly, taking the baby form Jess' hip and placed her onto the ground letting her take a few steps for a change.

The guy soon scattered wordlessly, and she was glad.

"Was that guy bothering you?" Jess asked defensively, having seen the major part of that interaction as the elevator was bringing him up

"Nah, he was harmless," she replied. She couldn't deny that the fact that someone was actually attempting to flirt with her had felt a little exciting - it was only so often a 38-year-old woman got that much effort which was all based on her appearance, but what felt even better was Jess switching out from the needy and loving partner to that hypermasculinity that had once pulled her to him. She had always had a thing for bad boys, and that she had never denied, and now she couldn't help but to wonder, whether that was her problem - that in the role of a father Jess wasn't bad enough?

After a while Luke joined the others, seeing Leo continue to go on to another round.

"I need a break, I'm too old for his," Luke grumbled, making Jess chuckle.

"Do you want me to go?" Jess asked, gesturing down the hill, where Leo was already headed.

"Would you?" Luke asked.

He complied, and surely while the kid was no baby, he was still their responsibility.

"I'll be right back. Do you want something to drink?" Luke asked Celeste as he was beginning to head towards the cafe.

"Water is fine," she called after him, knowing Jess might appreciate that too.

Evie was playing with snow in front of her and she put her phone back into her pocket, it becoming clear that she wasn't going to get through the main plot twist of her book that day, and she wanted to savor it.

"Tubing not for you?" Lorelai asked, as she landed next to her on the bench.

"Yeah, not my thing really, but it's great seeing Evie enjoy it," Celeste added. "Did your meeting go well?" she asked politely.

"Nah, this year's wine wasn't that great, we can do better," Lorelai noted as she leaned her back against the table, stretching out her legs.

The two observed Jess and Leo, who were just heading back up the hill.

"Where's Luke?" Lorelai asked.

"He went to get drinks," she replied, gesturing towards the cafe.

On that note Lorelai pulled out her phone and texted Luke she wanted a Macchiato.

"I think Evie wants to go on another round," Celeste said to Jess, who was clearly enjoying this process a little more than he wanted to admit, a wide childish smile plastered onto his face. Evie had already been starting to eye the tubes passing them, her eyes searching for Jess.

"Do you now!?" he exclaimed grabbing Evie playfully and throwing her up in the air along with her giggles. Lorelai waved casually to Leo who was just passing not wasting any time and slid down the hill yet again.

"I'll take a picture," Celeste called out to Jess and Evie, to get their faces, and snapped one.

"He's pretty good with her," Lorelai commented.

"Yeah, he's a great father," Celeste replied - there was no arguing with that.

"Everything okay between the two of you? When he came for Evie's birthday a few weeks ago, I saw him briefly and I don't know, he seemed a little off when I asked him where you were," Lorelai mentioned, adding "I'm sorry, it's probably none of my business."

"It's okay," she replied, not too enthusiastically. That particular day hadn't been her brightes moment, getting over a hangover. But she felt there was no reason to lie, to pretend that everything was all roses.

"Do you want to talk about it? I know Rory's probably got enough on her plate right now," she offered, knowing Celeste really didn't have many people to talk to about things like that.

Celeste sighed, unsure how to put it nicely. "I guess… it's like we've been missing some of that connection that we used to have. It's all functional but I'm not sure how we can get that back. And I know he's really trying and I respect him immensely for that, but that's like all that he's become. He used to be this strong, stubborn, almost assertive, kind of guy, you know. Now it's like being a father has really changed him - it feels like he's a puppy that trails after me or something - and trust me I know that sounds horrible, and I feel horrible even thinking it. And I am trying to get past this too. We tried going on a date and talking with each-other more, but I don't know... I guess I'll go to therapy if I have to. Maybe it's just in my head, you know. I've been feeling a little aimless myself," Celeste blurted out, surprised herself where all of that had come from.

"Wow, okay, I know this is probably a lot more complicated than that, but I guess what I can tell you is that being with someone for a long time changes the dynamic of the relationship - not everything can go back to the way it was in the honeymoon phase," Lorelai said realistically.

"I know that," Celeste replied.

"Well, the good thing is that you are trying to work on it, whatever that entails, and if you ever need to vent, you can call me," Lorelai offered, seeing Luke approach with a coffee, two water bottles and a soda.

"Thanks," Celeste mouthed just before he arrived, their conversation having been cut short.