AN: Well, this chapter is a bit shorter than most of the others, but it serves a purpose. I'm hoping to have another chapter out by the end of the weekend but no promises. Thank you all for the reviews, the follows, the faves, I really appreciate and it makes me so happy. Also lets all remember when I said "ten parts max" and we're at 9 and clearly it isn't ending tomorrow ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or The Holidate

Part Nine - July 8, 2021

"So you told him not to come?" Abigail was sitting on the couch in the pool house at Richard and Emily's house as Rory wrote out thank you notes for the various floral arrangements that were at the Hayden house. Lorelai was bringing her the list of people who needed to be thanked in the evening, and Rory would work on the cards. She had gone to see Francine twice, to express her condolences and to spend time with her father, but aside from that, she was staying away. Staying with Richard and Emily had been easier, Rory had her space to work, but didn't need to worry about making herself meals or disturbing anyone because she was in her own space for the week.

"I told him it was done, the…holidate thing…"

"Rory!" Abigail gasped.

"Abs, it was getting too hard, everything got so complicated, and then…and then we…"

"You what?" Abigail glared, "what happened that made you stop answering the phone when that fine specimen of a human calls? I mean, if I wasn't very happy with Nick, I would be all over him!"

"Well, you are with Nick so…"

"Rory, come on, I'm your friend."

"You can't make a face."

"I won't make a face. Remember when you told me you hadn't had sex in forever and I didn't make a face?"

"Well, that issue is no longer an issue."

Abigail felt her eyes begin to widen and she quickly blinked that away, "oh so you and Logan…were intimate?"

Rory gave her a look, "yes, we had sex."

"And…"

"And then my dads dad died and here I am…"

"When did this happen?"

"Last Friday, when I was with him and his family. We went for dinner and it was really nice, and we just…it just happened."

"Ok," Abigail tried to keep a smile from creeping over her face, "so you had sex with him one time. That doesn't mean you can't be friends."

"I didn't have sex with him one time," Rory admitted, "we…we were making dinner, and we kissed, and his dad walked in and it just…it opened something up. So the next day, I met his ex and we talked, and then we went to dinner and we came back and we were talking, and he's just…he's a nice guy. He's scared of people seeing who he is and it's like I'm one of the only people who lets me see that side of him…and then…we were going to watch a movie, and I kissed him, and we…well we had sex."

"But not one time?"

"Definitely more than one time."

"So how many times? Like do I need one hand?" Abigail paused as Rory put her hand over her face, "oh my god! Two hands?"

"Sure."

"Rory…"

"I didn't count!"

"But you know…"

"Two hands."

"And then what happened?"

"And then he went fishing and I was hanging out with his sister and my mom called to tell me about Straub so I left him a message and I left…"

"Ok…"

"And then," Rory exhaled, "I told him we couldn't do this anymore. That I didn't want to lie, I didn't want to have my family be attached to him…it's not fair. It's not fair to him, or me or anyone else."

"Rory, you've been happy these last few months."

"Well yeah, I mean, I am over the Jess thing, but that is totally separate."

"This isn't about Jess," Abigail stood up and walked to the kitchen where she grabbed a bottle of wine and poured two glasses before returning to her friend, "you and Jess weren't happy. I mean, I get it, the breakup surprised you. Certainly no one really expected Jess to break up with you. But Jess Mariano was not the man for you, he didn't get you."

"Jess got me."

"No, Jess liked books and you liked books. Jess is intellectual and you are intellectual. But Jess never accepted the world you came from, he hated Stars Hollow, he didn't particularly like your family, and he treated any of your friends that weren't his friends like crap. By the time you found Jess again, you were just so sick of dating that you clung to the idea that running into him in New York was fate…"

"I did not!"

"Ok fine, I made that part up, but you two grew apart. You didn't bring out the best in him and he didn't bring out the best in you."

Rory took a sip of her wine and exhaled. This psychoanalysis on her life was more than she could take right now. "And what was Logan?"

"You and Logan had fun. You were light, you were happy, you smiled. I don't know what you two are supposed to be, maybe you are supposed to be friends, but the way you are treating him right now is not how someone treats a friend."

"How do we even go back?"

"You're the one with a Harvard degree, so I guess that is up to you to figure out, wouldn't you say?"

"You suck," Rory pouted.

"Life is tough bubba," Abigail laughed, "get a helmet."

"Thank you for coming, I don't remember if I said that…"

"Well you dumped your fake boyfriend, so if I'm not here, who is going to hold your hand while you cry? Paris? I don't think so. It's what friends are for."

"Paris would definitely not hold my hand," Rory laughed as she thought of one of her oldest friends.

"Do you know what you're wearing tomorrow?" Abigail asked, "I brought a black dress."

"My grandma dropped something off in my closet earlier, so I'm all set."

"Do you think Logan's family will be there?"

Rory hadn't even thought of that. Of course there was a chance they would be there. Why wouldn't they be? Straub Hayden was a Supreme Court Justice, he was a respected man in Hartford, Mitchum and Shira would be at the funeral. "Fuck."

"That didn't just pop into your head as a possibility, did it?"

"Ab," Rory glared.

"Sorry."

Rory put her head in her hands in her head, what a mess she had made. What a mess and at the end of the day, the only thing that she knew for sure is that she wished it was Logan sitting beside her right now, and not Abigail. "I guess…"

"Call him."

"I can't call him."

"Why?" Abigail was getting sick of Rory acting like a lovestruck teenager as opposed to a grown woman who simply needed to admit the truth to herself.

"Because what do I say? Logan has spent his entire life with people using him for something. His money, his status, his looks…I can't treat him like shit for almost a week and then expect that he is just going to jump because I say so! If I make that call, if I ask him to do this…I'm not a good person, I'm not a good friend."

"So you're just going to see his parents alone?"

"I will figure that out. This isn't his job to fix."

"Anything I can do?"

"Be my wing woman tomorrow?"

"Of course."

Rory sat with her friend for another little while before Abigail declared she was going to bed, and Rory showed her to her room in the main house. She had offered Abigail the couch in the pool house, or the bed that Rory had been sleeping in, but Abigail insisted that she would sleep in the main house to give Rory her privacy, she figured it was more likely that Richard and Emily would leave her alone, if Rory came out, they would want to know how she was doing, and Abigail could tell that her friend was not doing well, the only difference was that Abigail knew why Rory was not doing well.

Alone in the pool house, Rory put their dishes in the dishwasher and cycled it, she figured this would be her last night in the pool house before she returned to Manhattan, the least she could do is leave the maid with a clean dishwasher, Emily had already told Rory that the maid would drop off a selection of items for breakfast and they needed to leave for the church at nine in order to meet Francine and her parents. She put on her pyjamas and sat cross legged on her bed before she pulled out her phone and pulled up FaceTime. She figured she owed him this, the closest thing to a face to face conversation she would have with him right now. His face came onto her screen and for the first time in a long time, she couldn't read his expression. It was blank. "Hi," Rory whispered, sadness was clear in her tone.

"Hi."

"Are you busy?" Rory asked, nervously tucking a hair behind her ear, she didn't want for him to answer before she continued on, "I'm just…I'm in Hartford at my grandma and grandpa's house, and Abigail is here with me, which is a godsend, but…tomorrow, tomorrow is the funeral…" she paused, hoping he might jump in at some point.

"I've heard."

Rory nodded and bit her bottom lip trying to figure out what to say next, "I miss you," she admitted softly. Logan exhaled and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair, he was giving her the first bit of expressive behaviour since she had called and it was clear that at the very least, he was frustrated. "I know I messed up," Rory continued, he wasn't about to make it easy for her, and she couldn't blame him. She had treated him like crap and he was right for not just opening his arms to welcome her back. "We said it wouldn't change anything," Logan scoffed at this and shook his head, "and I swear, Logan, I didn't…I didn't stop this because of the sex. It wasn't the sex, it was…my parents wanted to know when you would get here for his funeral. Doesn't that feel like we're taken this a little too far?"

"If you say so."

"I want us to be friends."

"To be friends with someone, don't you have to answer their calls? Text them back? Any of those things…I mean, I know that you and I know each other on a more biblical level now, but…I really don't see how I deserved a call where you declared this over and then you refused to answer my calls for the rest of the fucking week. You see, I'm pissed Rory, I'm pissed because you kissed me. I asked you and you said yes, I didn't force you, I didn't push you. I gave you every fucking out in the world and you wanted to do this, and then not twenty four hours later we have called an end to whatever this thing was. And here's the thing, what were we? We weren't friends before all of this holidate bullshit, we didn't even know each other. So if you're calling an end to our thing here, I guess we're just done. There's nothing left to say because you decided, right? Is that it?"

"I want to be your friend!"

"We were never friends though, Ace," Logan told her before ending the call.

Rory rolled over on her bed and clutched her phone to her chest as tears began to fill her eyes. What had she done? He was right. It wasn't the sex that had screwed them up, it was her being too afraid to admit that something had shifted, and maybe that something would have been good if she had given it a chance.

xxx

"Abigail, I have been blowdrying my hair all by myself for decades now," Rory was frustrated as Abigail insisted to help Rory do her hair for the service.

"I know you have," Abigail rolled her eyes, "but this is a big thing, and we want you to look your best, if for no reason other than to remind Francine Hayden exactly who you are, but in the most tasteful, WASPY, appropriate way possible. Not to mention, the dress your grandma left is amazing and if you're going to be wearing Dolce and Gabbana, you are not half ass blowing your hair out."

"The dress seems a bit over the top," Rory looked at the black tweed dress that she was surely going to sweat to death in, but Emily Gilmore had deemed it appropriate to wear with her diamond studs.

"Just go with it," Abigail glared as she continued brushing and drying the hair. "How are you doing? Not with the Logan stuff, with the dead-estranged-grandpa stuff."

"It's weird," Rory admitted, "I mean, I never really envisioned a relationship with him, but my dad was just trying to sort things out with him and that was going alright…so now that is just gone."

"Maybe with his mom then?"

"There's a chance," Rory shrugged, "hopefully for him, if that is what he wants."

"Alright," Abigail turned off the blowdryer, "go get dressed. I'm going to go to the big house and change, meet in the lobby in," she looked at her phone, "ten. Emily Gilmore told me we would be leaving on time and anyone who wasn't there would be left behind. I think that applies more to me than you though because you're family and I'm just…your date."

Rory smiled and hugged her friend. Abigail left and Rory took a moment to stare at the dress Emily had left for her. It had elbow sleeves and was absolutely stunning, it felt like a very mature and appropriate choice for a funeral of such a prominent man, she just didn't know how she felt about wearing it to a family members funeral. Rory exhaled and pulled her sweatpants off and put the dress on, struggling ever so slightly with the zipper before she managed to get it on and put on a pair of black heels that had been left for her as well. Rory took a deep breath and looked in the mirror as she fixed her lipstick and grabbed her purse. To say that she was ready for this day to be over would be an incredible understatement, she loved being around her family, but she also missed being alone in Manhattan, doing what she wanted, eating what she wanted, watching what she wanted and going to sleep when she wanted. She walked into the main house and smiled as she saw her grandma fussing over her grandpa's tie, she wondered if Straub and Francine had similar traditions, if Francine would help Straub with his tie, or make sure that he didn't have too much cholesterol in his diet. "Hi," Rory smiled.

"Rory you look beautiful," Emily smiled, "Richard, doesn't she look beautiful?"

"She looks wonderful," Richard agreed. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Rory shrugged as Abigail came down the stairs dressed in an appropriate black dress. "You look nice."

"I always look nice," Abigail winked.

"Rory, where is Logan? Is he meeting us here? At the church?"

"Oh I'm not sure," Rory lied, tucking her hair behind her ears, "but…let's go and if he can make it to the church, we makes it to the church."

"What do you mean if? He should be here…."

"Grandma, it's just…Logan is very busy, you know that."

"Why don't we just get going?" Richard suggested, "we wouldn't want to keep Christopher and Lorelai waiting, not to mention, Francine…"

"Of course," Emily agreed, "alright, let's go."

Rory walked out of the front door and stood in the driveway, she half expected Logan to be standing there. Maybe he would've felt bad about their interaction the night before, but the only car waiting was the SUV that the funeral home had sent to pick them up. Rory and Abigail went into the back of the car while Richard and Emily sat in the middle, the church was about fifteen minutes away and they were mostly silent the entire time except for Richard point out the occasional landmark on the drive. Rory watched as her grandparents walked ahead to find her parents, while Rory stared at the overbearing building in front of her.

"You alright?" Abigail asked.

Rory nodded and took a deep breath, "I don't even know how to feel about it," Rory admitted. "I feel bad for not caring," she explained, "but…the last thing he said to me was 'keep well' at Easter, and I don't have much of a connection with that…"

"And the other stuff?"

"It isn't about the other stuff," Rory told her firmly.

"Fine."

"It isn't!"

"So it's not going to interest you to know that Logan just pulled up?"