Disclaimer: I do not own anything
A/N: Thank you for all of the kind reviews. I have an end in sight for this story that I am happy with, and I am also happy to put a bow on the end of this story that is the same age as my oldest daughter ;) Please keep the reviews coming. I'm hoping to be out with some more R/L stories soon.
Chapter Twelve
"We need to go back down." Logan kept their heads pressed firmly together, "Or I might not be able to control myself."
"I'm not having sex with you." Rory told him, the words even surprised her, "Not here. Not tonight."
"Whatever you want, Gilmore." he kissed her once more, "You go, I'm going to need a few minutes."
Rory laughed, she brushed her thumb over his lips once more before she left the room, she felt an odd sense of relief that it wasn't hanging over them anymore. The passion, the chemistry, it was all still there. She hadn't imagined it, or simply wished it hadn't been lost, it was there, and she just had to hope they really stood a chance at this. Rory made her way back to the ballroom, it wasn't lost on her how absurd it was that the Huntzberger family actually had a ballroom in their home, and acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Mitchum," Rory was surprised to see him at the bottom of the stairs, "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas Rory." Mitchum smiled, "Is Logan up there?"
"He is." Rory felt like she was 17 again, "He should be down in a minute."
"I'm not looking for him, just curious." Mitchum shrugged.
"Can you…can you take me to where the kids are? I would love to see my daughter."
"She is a pretty great kid, Rory." Mitchum admitted, "I'm glad that you are so…willing to be around us when it comes to her."
"I never tried to keep her from you. From him."
"I know that." Mitchum assured her as they walked, "Things got…complicated. I think that is what Logan said. I didn't know all of the details back then, of your plan, your little arrangement with my son. Stupidly, I somehow didn't realize how in love with you he was back then, how it had never changed, even though he had gotten together with Odette."
"I don't think caring for each other was ever Logan and my problem." Rory gave the Huntzberger patriarch half a smile as they stood outside a closed door, she could hear children laughing inside. "I want to ask you something, and I hope it can stay between us?"
"Off the record, of course." Mitchum agreed.
"Are you going to stop being on my side at some point? Are you going to decide that you have what you need from me? From my daughter? And that suddenly being a Gilmore, or being the mother of your grandchild, a woman who loves your son…is that not going to be enough?"
"You still love my son?"
"Answer the question, Mitchum."
"He never told you, did he?" Mitchum smiled at her, a genuine smile, she shook her head, unsure of what he was referring to. "Two years ago I was diagnosed with cancer. My prognosis is positive, for a man my age. But I realized two years ago that the money, the professional accolades, the employees kissing my ass…it wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to be with my family. I want my grandchildren to have fond memories of their Pops. I want to be at hockey games and school plays. I want to be the Grandfather I didn't have, that my children did not have. I wish it hadn't taken illness to make me understand that. I wish I had realized long ago that my children deserved more of me."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Rory wasn't quite sure what to say. She was however sure that the Mitchum Huntzberger standing before her was not the man she used to know, or thought she knew. "My Grandfather was a wonderful man. I didn't get to know him until I was sixteen." Rory explained, "I miss him dearly, and I wish he knew my daughter. So I hope that you will take this chance you have, the chance you have to know her and that you will show her how much she means to you."
"Richard was a remarkable man." Mitchum agreed, "And I remember how highly he spoke of you. Your goals, your aspirations. He beamed with pride when he spoke of you. It would be an incredible honour to be half the Grandfather to Charlotte, and to Liam and Hunter that he was to you."
"I'm going to get her." Rory nodded to the door, realizing they had been lingering in front of it for several minutes now, "Wait here." she instructed as she poked her head in, "Charlotte, Charlie," she called, she saw Charlotte's head pop up from where she was playing and came running towards her, "are you having fun, honey?" Rory lifted Charlotte up.
"Uh huhhh"
"I bet if you ask Pops really nicely, he probably has a special cookie for you in the kitchen?" she looked at Mitchum who was clearly surprised. "Right Pops?"
"Well," he laughed, "only for a little girl who asks nicely."
"Please please please please please!" Charlotte squealed and wriggled out of Rory's arms.
"Come on kiddo," Mitchum smiled at Rory, "I'll bring you back to your Mom when we're done."
Rory watched them walk away, Charlotte tentatively reaching for Mitchum's hand as he led her down the hallway. She waited until they had disappeared from her vision before she went back for the party and helped herself to a glass of champagne.
"You don't happen to know where my little brother is, do you?" Honor winked as she stood beside Rory.
"I think he went upstairs." Rory told her.
"You need to fix your lipstick." Honor winked at her, "Just a little smudged."
"Must've been my drink." Rory thanked her.
"Must've." the elder Huntzberger nodded her head, "So what happened with Logan and Matt to make him run out of here faster than when Grandpa used to give him shit for getting married while he was off finding himself."
"I went on a date with him." Rory told her honestly, Honor couldn't hide her shock, "I didn't know he was your cousin. We had never met, we ran into each other at Starbucks near my house daily for a couple of weeks, and he asked me for drinks. I went last week, we had a good time…"
"Please tell me you didn't sleep with Matt. Of all the people Rory, I don't think Logan would recover from you sleeping with Matt, and trust me, he wants to be a family with you guys."
"I didn't sleep with him." Rory assured her, "We kissed, and I had to go. Logan called. Charlotte had a fever, I left and then didn't see him again until tonight."
"Thank fucking god." Honor exhaled. "This town is too small."
"Tell me about it," Rory nodded, taking another sip of her champagne, "has too much happened? Am I crazy? For thinking Logan and I can be a family? After everything that has happened. Yale, London, New Hampshire, everything in between…Odette."
"Do you blame him for Odette? For not knowing?"
"I don't." Rory admitted, she believed him. She had believed him before Odette had called and told her, she had believed him since the moment she opened her door in Philadelphia and he had turned her world upside down. "I have never blamed him. I should have told him earlier. I should have called. I knew he was getting married. I knew about the plan, I knew that if I had told him I loved him, if I had put an end to our arrangement he would have chosen me. I was scared. Then when I had her, I realized that more than being scared, I loved our daughter, and our daughter deserved him, because I knew he would be the best Dad." Rory paused, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I should have picked up the phone. I should have sent another e-mail, I should have called you or Finn, Colin…your Dad. Anyone."
"Don't beat yourself up." Honor tried to reassure her, she could see that Rory was beginning to get upset. "You and Logan, you are responsible for your arrangement, but Odette…she was responsible for him not knowing. You tried. And honestly Rory, had you shown up to see my Dad, would he have let you in? Would he have welcomed you with open arms? Short of storming the place with a baby in your arms, which would have been a whole other spectacle that no one needed, I don't know that we wouldn't have all tried to protect him from the heartbreak. Our hearts would have been in the right place. You have to be able to understand that. Losing you once…that was hard enough on him, but losing you again? After New Hampshire, it was so hard to see him like that."
Rory hadn't really considered it. She hadn't thought of how things were for Logan after they ended. Probably because a few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant and that had consumed every thought in her mind for the next eight months. She hadn't realize that saying goodbye to each other had hurt him too. "This is a mess."
"It doesn't have to be a mess." Honor nodded to the entryway where Logan, Mitchum and Charlotte were walking into the room. "But you need to be sure of what you want, because Logan is sure of what he wants."
xxx
"The cookies are out, the terror is in bed." Logan smiled as he peaked his head into Rory's room, she was in sweatpants now. Her hair swept into a messy ponytail, "And you look beautiful."
"I told you I wasn't having sex with you tonight, Huntzberger." Rory laughed, "Now come on, I told you. The tradition is to drink wine and watch Hallmark movies."
"How could I say no to a tradition." Logan chuckled as he followed Rory down the hallway and to the stairs to the study. Rory hadn't changed much since she had started writing in there, but she had added a flatscreen television and re-arranged some of the furniture.
Rory silently poured a glass of scotch for herself and Logan, she waited for him to sit and she instinctively curled into the side of him, her head resting on his shoulder, his arm finding it's way around her like it had a million times before. "Merry Christmas, baby daddy."
"Merry Christmas baby mama." Logan laughed as he watched Rory play with her phone to stream a movie onto the television. "I have to tell you something." he told her as the film popped up on the screen. The title flashed before him and he couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it sounded, A Christmas Prince, "My dad is dying." he paused, Rory exhaled, he could feel her body move against his, she leaned forward and put her drink on the table. "He likes to say that his prognosis is positive, but it isn't. He has fought, very hard, and he has made a point of being a better man in these last couple years than he was when I was a kid. He has been a Dad, and a Grandpa…a Pops." Logan swallowed the lump appearing in his throat. "I don't think I'm ready." he admitted.
"Logan," Rory sat up and turned to him, wrapping her arms around him, "I know you're not." she assured him as she held him close, "I'm sorry that your Dad is sick."
"I'm not angry at him anymore." Logan admitted.
"I know." Rory kept herself wrapped around him, "He did the best he knew how."
"I wish…Charlotte…she really seems to like him."
"She does." Rory assured him, "And that doesn't need to stop. Whatever time they have left together, those can be happy memories. Let them be happy, let him be the man he wants to be to them, to you. You have a chance that I didn't have when my Grandpa died. He…one day he was just gone. You have a chance to make memories with your Dad, and with your daughter, so do it."
Logan took a moment to pull her arms off of him, "I'm taking a leave of absence from work." he told her, "My Dad is stepping down, and in the interim our CFO will step in. I will be named Chairman of the board, and Dad will announce that he is sick and we have chosen to spend what time we have left together as a family. When he…." Logan choked on the words a bit, "when he dies, i will return to work as CEO, I will hold the majority stake in the company. A trust has been in play for years, which I will have control over which splits the shares between my sister, Mother and I…, but for the sake of controlling the company…it's all mine."
Rory took a deep breath, it was a lot, a lot to digest and to swallow, a lot to understand. "Is there anything I can do?"
"I don't know what we tell Charlotte." he admitted.
"We won't right now." Rory told him simply, "We will wait until after Christmas is all over with, and then sometime in January, after she is settled down in school, we will explain it to her, and then we will encourage her to spend time with him, and we will get family photos taken of you and your parents, your sister, Josh, all of the kids."
"You?"
"I will be there if you want me there."
"I guess we missed the beginning of the movie." Logan nodded at the screen.
"I suppose we did." Rory leaned back against him, his arm returned to where he had been holding her. "Logan," she exhaled, looking up at him, a smile crossing her lips as he looked at her, Rory leaned up, she kissed him gently, he pulled away, giving her a questioning look. "I said no sex." Rory laughed, "I meant that…but I think," she paused as his lips came back onto hers and he pulled her closer to him, her legs finding their way to either side of his body, "that doesn't mean we can't kiss."