AN: Thank you sooooooo much for all the great reviews. I'm so glad you like the story. Enjoy this chapter and like always leave your reviews!!
Ch 4
"Where we going daddy" Alex questions me as we approach Rory's apartment building. It's actually not that far from our place surprisingly. That makes things simple.
"It's a surprise" I say. He's been like this all morning but I want to surprise him.
"Why we have pie, you no let me have pie" he says as we enter the building. He acts like he never gets sweets. I try to install good eating in him but have a funny feeling that is all about to change.
"Well we need pie today" I state as we approach the elevator and he hits the button.
"But where we going, me need to see Santa today" he says and I smirk. We got up, dressed and hit the bakery before it closed this morning. Getting a chocolate crème pie that I know is Rory's favorite and dinosaur cookies for Alex that were covered with green icing and sprinkles.
"I like this place" he says as we get off at the penthouse floor and it's all decorated for Christmas. I tried to do this to our place but failed miserably. I ended up calling the professionals to do it.
"Okay, you know to use your manners and listen, right?" I question before we knocked. I'm nervous. More nervous than I was when I showed up in Hartford with a four day old Alex and crawled back to my father.
"Yep then Santa right daddy" he smiles and knocks on the door.
"Hey" Ace answers and Alex yells Rory before jumping into her arms.
"Hey buddy" she says hugging him. I just smile at the sight.
"Daddy its Rory" he says as she steps aside and allowing me to enter.
"I know" I smile and kiss her cheek.
"Is that pie" she smirks and I nod.
"Chocolate with lots of whip cream and Dino cookies with loads of icing" Alex says enthusiastically and I laugh. Rory just nods along at him. She looks great in the jeans and black sweater. Her hair pulled up in a ponytail simple, yet perfect.
"Well, we'll just have to skip lunch and eat those instead" she says winking at me before carrying Alex over to the kitchen counter and placing him there to remove his jacket and hat.
"We having lunch here" he says looking around at all the Christmas decorations and huge tree by the window.
"If you want to" she says to him and he hugs her.
"Yes" he says excitedly as Rory puts him down on the floor.
"Whoa" he says running towards the huge flat screen and the Wii sitting there. "Presents from my father" she says as I look at her.
"Daddy look cart" he says picking up the controller.
"Alex, that's Rory's you have to…" I start to discipline him.
"Leave him be, you grouch" she states walking over and turning it on for him. Alex is giggling and I look at him.
"You found that funny" I state and he nods. Rory just laughs at me.
"Okay that's it, I can't win with you two tag teaming me, I'm just going to place this in the refrigerator" I smirk walking to the kitchen.
"Hi" she says walking into the kitchen and hugging me from behind.
"Oh, now you want to be nice do you" I say turning so I can hold her.
"Maybe" she says before leaning up and kissing me. "Hi" she smiles.
"Hey Ace" I smirk before cupping her face and kissing her passionately has the stove timer goes off. "You actually cooked" I say as she moves to get the trays out.
"I told you I was" she laughs and I have no idea what they are.
"Is there a theme" I say as she lifts the covers off the round cookware and I see what look like meatballs in sauce.
"Yep" she says grabbing the other tray and lifting off the cover and I see some sort of pizza looking things in shape of little Santa Claus's and I smiles.
"Kid friendly I see" I state.
"You didn't think I was going to serve Alex shrimp cocktail or salmon puffs did you" she laughs.
"Honestly I had no idea what to think" he state leaning against the counter and she looks at me.
"You have that little faith in me" she questions almost challenging me.
"Ace, reality is when we were together, you could barely make cinnabuns out of the tube" I state and she throws a dish rag at me. I just look at her a little shocked.
"Go back Alex, lunch will be ready in a few minutes, now get out of my kitchen" she states pushing me out of the kitchen, but with the open floor plan I can still see her. "Nice apron by the way" I joke and another dish rag comes flying at me. It is cute with candy canes on it that states 'lick the cook for peppermint surprises' it has to be a gift from Lorelai.
"Hey buddy look at you go" I state seeing him racing around the rack.
"I've been pacticing with Uncle Finn" he states not looking away.
"Practicing Alex" I correct him.
"Oh" he says. I watch him play for a few minutes when Rory called for lunch and I hit pause on the game for him and we head to the table.
"What in world is this" I laugh looking at the dining room table covered in a miniature North Pole.
"Daddy, look Santa. Lots of Santas" he exclaims looking at the plates.
"You out did yourself Ace" I say kissing her temple. This is a shock, not only did she cook, but this spread is incredible. Chicken pizza Santa's with a bowl of reindeer noses (meatballs) and gumdrop lane leading to the wrapping ribbon bowl with snowman buttons and elf ears (salad with tomatoes and cucumbers ).
"Boys did you wash your hands" she questions motherly and Alex and I look at each other. "Go now or no food" she states and points down the hall. Alex takes off running and I look at her. "I'm serious" she states in that 'don't mess with me Huntzberger' look on her face.
"All done" Alex says climbing on the chair and she looks at me. I show her that they are washed and she nods.
"Sookie did this for me when I was scared of Santa when I was his age" she whispers as Alex goes to town on the Santa on his plate.
"Can you be any more perfect" I say leaning over and capturing her lips with mine in a quick kiss because Alex wasn't looking. She smiles at me and we start eating. Everything is incredible and I still can't believe she did this for him.
"Daddy, Rory come home with us" he questions with a ton of gumdrops in his mouth.
"But Rory lives here buddy" I say.
"Pleaseee" he whines.
"What if I say you can come over anytime you want little man" she says finishing her salad and that is even slightly odd.
"Can I" he says as his eyes grow wide.
"I guess as long as you take daddy with you" she says winking at me.
"All the time" he whines.
"Hey, I let you know I'm tons of fun" I state defending myself. They both just laugh at me.
"At least for now" Rory says and he nods.
"Can I be ext-cued" he says and Rory looks at me.
"Excused and yes" I say and Rory is trying not to laugh.
"He's been spending too much time with my sister" I state. She gets up and begins to clean up. I help and we talk about Honor and her two girls Ava (4) and Lily (2). She tells me that Lorelai and Luke finally got married after graduation and now has Will who's almost 4 now. Then all about Lane's twins Steve and Kwan, started Kindergarten this year and they have a baby girl Leighton who will be one in January. Paris and Doyle are still together and married now with a baby boy on his way by the middle of January and that she's huge.
"Oh no daddy, I think someone passed out on us" she says innocently as we enter the living room.
"I thought he was too quiet, maybe we should go" I say.
"Pick him up and follow me" she orders and I look at her. "Now Huntzberger" she demands and I missed how hot she is when she's bossy. I pick up Alex and follow her down the hall and into the open door.
"Have a three year old I don't know about Ace?"I smirk as I walked into a transformer themed room.
"It's Will's when he comes to visit. Mom demanded a room for him" she says as I lay Alex down.
"Sounds like Lorelai" I say softly taking one more look at Alex before shutting the door.
"Coffee" she questions and I nod. She walks into the kitchen and I clean up the living room game console that Alex had all the games all over.
"Here" she says walking in with two huge coffee mugs. I grab one and she sits next to me on the couch.
"You really out did yourself with Lunch ace, sandwiches would have been fine by us" I say playing with the strands of hair on her shoulder.
"Did you want the poor kid to be scared forever or love Christmas? I don't know about you but I love it, he should too" she says smiling at me.
"I can tell" I say indicting to the décor.
"You know me, you can never have enough twinkle lights" she smirks and touch her face gently before letting go and looking away.
"What" she says and I shake my head at her.
"Would believe me if I said I was nervous" I say and it's true. I don't want to rush this and I don't want to lose her now that she's back in my life even a little.
"Depends, what are you nervous about?" she questions and I see the reporter spark in her eyes.
"This you and me; but it's more you and me and Alex. God, Ace it took him months to even sit on Steph's lap and even longer to allow Rosemary to hug him, but with you…I don't know, he just… everything is you. He wants to see you. He wants me to find you. He never does this. He doesn't attach to people like he did with you with the little time he spent with you. I'm afraid of messing this up and losing you and then he loses you too" I say being completely honest. I want this to be right
"Logan, he can tell by your feelings" she says touching me leg and I'm slightly confused. "Even though we haven't seen each other in years or even talk, he can still feel you let your guard with me and I do the same. He can feel that and knows I'm not a threat you your relationship. It's like Luke. I never saw him as a threat for Mom's attention. I willingly opened up to him when I was little and now I see him more of a Dad to me than Christopher ever was going up" she says and I smile.
"Did you major in Child Psychology in Yale when I wasn't looking" I questions jokingly.
"No, but I spent three months reporting about an African country orphanage learning about genocide and you meet people that inspire you and learn from them. It's part of life" she says. That's when I remembered about Daniel saying she was leaving soon.
"You're leaving soon aren't you" I question and she leans back away from me. I guess she didn't expect that.
"Yeah for Jordan the day before Christmas" she says getting up. Something is up. I don't understand why she's not going to Stars Hollow.
"I find that hard to believe that you the woman who loves Christmas wants to be away from her family now" I say pulling her back to the couch. She's not getting away with that.
"They all have a life now Logan. Mom has Luke and Will. She's happier than I ever seen her. Play dates with Sookie and kids, it's the normal family she always wanted. Lane has Zack and the kids; they go to Zack's parents with Mrs. Kim every year. My grandparents are god knows where this year. I just don't fit in there anymore. So why stay here alone on Christmas when I can be in a different country and not think about it and what I don't have" she says getting back up and walking back to the kitchen. As much as she tried to hide it, I saw the tears falling.
"Ace" I say coming in and seeing her holding the end of the counter with her head down. "Ace" I say coming closer and rubbing her back.
"I'm sorry" she says looking sideways at me.
"For what, you can't help how you feel, but I do doubt that you don't fit in. It's always Lorelai and you. You will always be the princess of Stars Hollow. Ever think that maybe you're pulling yourself away from them?" I say there's nothing wrong with what she's feeling if it's true.
"No not that. I'm sorry for not choosing you" she says turning around and sliding down to sit on the floor with her back against the cabinet. That was something I didn't expect.
"I guess we're going to talk about it now then" I smirk and she cracks a small smile. I sit down next to her.
"I think we need to, to maybe be able to move forward" she says still crying a little
"Is that what you want?" I questions knowing that I want nothing more than to be with her again. To be able to feel a small part of my former self before California and Alex and to have another chance at forever with her.
"If you do" she says looking at me. I nod and kiss her lightly.
"It's all I could think about since last week" I state and she smiles.
"Why" she says and I'm confused.
"Why did I ask you?" I say trying to get what she was asking and she nods. "Honestly, I thought I would lose you if didn't" I state playing with her hand.
"That was stupid, even for you Huntzberger" she laughs and I look up at her.
"Excuse me" I reply harshly, more than probably needed.
"We said that we would factor each other in, I wanted to be with you Logan. I was prepared to do whatever it took to make it work long distance again. We were stronger than we ever were and that includes when you left for London. I needed time to figure out what I wanted career wise and I wanted you there to help me. But when you said all or nothing, it was a slap in the face. I waited for you when you were in London. I stood by you when the deal blew up in your face and I was still there when you tried to push me away and went to the boys instead. That hurt worse than anything. I was always there. Putting us first, putting our love first. All I wanted was for you do the same for once and you couldn't do it. That ripped me in pieces Logan. You have no idea how depressed and destroyed I was. I almost gave up on the campaign because of self pity and it took Paris and Lane to physically kick my ass to get me on that plane. And I'm glad they did, but when I meet Barack Obama for the first time or Christine Amanpour, Joe Biden, Powell or any of the other celebrities and senators, it was you I wanted to call and share it with. It was you that I needed to hear was proud of me. It was you that made me keep going. I always thought about you and what you would say on this article or this interview. But at night when I was alone, you weren't there and the pain from graduation was instead" she says and I just stare at her. Gilmore rant at its best. I missed those, but it was everything I needed to hear. She needed to tell me and I can't comprehend how much I hurt her. Sure it killed me inside losing her but I just did what I did before her and meet Nikki.
"Does that make you feel better, getting that all out" I smirk I couldn't help it.
"Actually yeah" she says laying her head on my shoulder. I feel like I have to be honest too.
"It was so hard to walk away from you that day Ace, I didn't know if I could even get back to the car before turning around and giving in to you. But I knew that I ruin it with that stupid ultimatum and I hated myself for it. I still do. I should have not asked you." I say kissing her hair.
"We never talked about a marriage and kids Logan. I was stunned when you did propose. But never think for one minute shouldn't have asked because I loved hearing those words from you because I loved you. Getting asked to spend the rest of your life with the man that you love is something ever girl wants and dreams about. It was me, I blame myself and if I could go back in a time machine and change things, first I would have made sure of was that it wasn't in a room filled with my grandparents' friend and the answer would have been yes" she say looking me directly in the eyes and I know that she's being completely honest.
"You mean that" I question because basically she's telling that she wants that and with me, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I hated myself for asking her at the party. She deserves something intimate and just us.
"Yeah, but I don't want to jump that quickly. Too much has changed in the last few years for the both of us that we need to adapt to one another and get back to that place. I mean if you want" she says looking away afraid that she overstepped something and I turn her face to me.
"I want you Ace. I want to be able to call you mine again. If slow is what we need to do than we do it" I say kissing her gently and I'm surprised when she's the one that deepens it.
"Not that slow Logan" she smirks and I stand up and extend my hand to her. She takes it and gets up. I walk us back to the couch. I pull her to lie down next to me. I missed this. I miss just being with someone and not doing anything but being together. She spoons back into me and I kiss her temple before wrapping my arm around her waist to watch a movie and just be us.