So I finished chapters 20 and 21. As a result, you get 19, just like I promised.

And I'll repeat this for the second time. You guys have blown my mind. I seriously never expected to get the feedback I did because this is my first Gilmore Girls story and it usually takes a few stories to build a good reputation within a fandom. You guys have floored me, made me blush and made me speechless. Thank you just doesn't seem like enough, but hey, thanks!

The disadvantage of a simple two hour flight was that Rory was back in New York in time to head to the office. Well, she didn't mind that so much, but the trip to Ottawa had been emotionally draining and all she wanted was to curl up in Logan's arms and watch a movie with Sophie. Oh, and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. She dropped her head back against the chair and sighed, waiting for her computer to boot up.

"Hey Ror."

The lack lustre greeting had Rory a little bit on edge. "Hey."

The blonde wandered into the room, taking a seat at one of the chairs in front of Rory's desk. "Did you hear about the blow up?"

"Honour, I've been in hospitals for the last twenty-four hours and I just got off a plane. I haven't talked to my daughter or my boyfriend in two days and I'm cranky. If there's something you need to tell me you need to come out and just say it."

Honour looked a little taken aback. "Wow, it was that bad?"

"I'm tired and un-loved."

That got a crook of the lips. "Logan and Shira had a blow up."

Rory groaned and dropped her head to her desk, impacting the pile of notepads there. "Over me?"

"Over Sophie."

"My baby?"

"It's nothing to worry about, I just wanted to make sure you knew. Logan's been in a bit of a mood and Sophie called last night a little worried because she couldn't get a hold of you and she was a little worried about Logan. She stayed with me."

Anger and depression warred in Rory's exhausted mind. Sophie was supposed to be safe with Logan, that was the idea. And he'd promised she would be. She shouldn't have to go stay with Honour because she was uncomfortable with the way Logan was acting. At the same time, Rory had seen and dealt with Logan after run-ins with his parents before. She knew he wouldn't cause harm to anyone that didn't deserve it. She hated that he fought with Shira over her or anything to do with her.

"Is she okay?"

Honour shrugged. "A little confused and a little nervous maybe, but there's no love lost between them. She's still going to head over there at the end of the day."

"Really?"

"Apparently she's been helping him out around the office and doing her homework when they both get back to his place. In three days the girl's developed a routine."

Rory smiled. "That's like Sophie though. She worms her way into your heart before you can blink. She loves the organizational aspect of everything anyway. The planning the filing… I wouldn't be surprised if she enjoys the hustle and bustle of a newsroom anyway."

Honour peered carefully at her friend. "Is everything okay?"

Rory sighed. "I hate this."

"This?" Honour asked, making herself comfortable for what was looking to be a rather large conversation. Rory didn't hate much. Dislike, yes. Be uncomfortable, definitely. Hate, never.

"This whole thing with your mother. I love Logan, I really, really do, but I don't like that I'm creating tension between him and Shira. She already hates me for helping you start this charity and she hates that I'm working while dating Logan and that, assuming Logan and I make it to marriage, I'll work after I'm married to him."

"And now Sophie." Honour made a mental note to come back to the marriage thing in a minute.

"And now Sophie. I don't want him to fight with her because of us."

Honour rolled her eyes. "Look, Ror, the Huntzbergers are different than the Haydens, and I think that's a fundamental difference you always have to remember. Yeah, you love your parents. Heck, you adore your parents. They saw your first steps, saw you off on your first day of kindergarten, had dinner with you every night, nagged you about your homework, played with you in the backyard, saw and cheered at your graduation, the whole thing. Logan and I didn't have that."

"I know that, but how does that justify the fighting?"

"Logan and my mom have never seen eye to eye. Never. She wanted Logan to grow up and just accept that he was going to take over Huntzberger Media. Logan lashed out. She wants him to find a trophy wife that only cares about the DAR, her shopping sprees and her husband's social calendar. Logan needs someone who won't put up with his crap, who will make him come home at the end of the day, who's more than a baby factory with good organizational skills."

Rory chuckled at the last part. "I still don't like that they fight."

Honour shrugged. "You get used to it. You've got Gramps' vote, you've got Dad's vote. Mother is stupid and irrelevant. She'll always be pushing and judging. Hypocrisy runs deep in the Huntzberger family, remember? You're good for Logan. Logan's good for you. He loves Sophie, and you've already said he loves you. Those are the things that matter. You can't compare every familial relationship to yours, Ror. Not all of us were that lucky."

Rory took in Honour's words, carefully considering everything. She resisted the urge to pull out a piece of paper and draw the lines of a pro-con list, just to assuage her mind. Instead, she went through the motions of shutting down her computer and packed her notes back in her bag. "I'm going to head over there and see if I can get him to cut out early," she decided. "I'll call Sophie's school and ask them to tell her to just come home."

Honour smiled. "Thatta girl. I'll see you tomorrow."

"I was thinking of working from home. I'm so exhausted," Rory said with apologetic eyes.

"I'll see you Monday then. Or maybe we'll get together over the weekend. We'll see."

Rory nodded as the two women made their way towards the elevators. They chatted pointlessly while they waited for the device and when the doors opened Rory gave Honour a very thankful smile. "You're an awesome friend, Honour. Thanks."

"Hey, this has a bearing on my sanity too! Have you guys ever seen yourselves together? The happiness is contagious. Have a good night Ror."

Rory grinned as she stepped into the elevator. "I plan on it."

"Dirty!"

Rory grinned. Though her insecurities were far from assuaged it felt good to fall into that comfortable friendly routine she had with Honour. Lane was and always would be, her best friend, but Honour was a very, very close second.

Logan sighed, pushing a hand through his hair. The words in front of him were blurring terribly and he couldn't focus to save his life. Everything had started going down hill when he'd gone to visit his grandfather yesterday afternoon. Since finding out Elias knew Rory, the two men had started to bond much easier than Logan ever had with his father. Logan had been a little bit surprised to find that the man who was so gruff and tough with his own family was so warm towards another human being. Of course, Logan allowed, that human being was a woman who could take him to his knees with a simple smile.

Good Lord he was getting corny.

What annoyed him was his mother. She'd caught him on his way out the door, forcing him into the parlour to see her guests. He'd known what was coming, saw the trap before he really could get out of it, and sat for an hour with clenched teeth, listening to 'his soul mate' blather on and on about some latest fashion line. His patience worn thin, he'd all but throttled his mother after her guests had left. They'd ended up fighting and Shira had thrown Sophie in his face.

'Lost it' was an understatement.

Logan had blown up. It was one thing to talk about Rory. Surprisingly, Logan could take his mother's degrading comments about Rory because he knew Rory was better person than Shira Huntzberger. However, bringing an innocent girl into the mix, an innocent girl that had been adopted by a phenomenal woman out of the kindness of her heart, was the last straw. He'd called his mother a heartless bitch, though not in so many words. Eventually, Elias had wandered out of the study to tell them both off. Predictably, Logan had stormed out.

At home, he hadn't been the best of company. He didn't want to take out his anger on the nine-year-old sitting quietly by the television and Sophie, in her intuitive mind, knew better than to bug him. She'd only asked to use the phone. Half an hour later, a surprised Honour had shown up at the door and he'd watched, a little heartbroken, as Sophie walked with Honour down to the car Honour had come in. He hated that Sophie had to leave because of his mood.

Laughter outside his office broke through his thoughts. He'd asked that he not be disturbed today. He wasn't even sure if Sophie was going to stop by after school ended, though he'd made sure to call and clear things with Frank anyway. Rory wasn't due back until later that night.

So when the door swung open without a knock and said brunette strolled through the door, closing it behind her, Logan was a little bit surprised. He watched as she dropped to the couch in his office, virtually ignoring his presence though he figured she was really just waiting for him to join her.

"Ace?"

"You coming to sit?"

Ah, he was right. He made his way over to sit beside her, dropping to the cushions with a heavy sigh. Logan's tense muscles relaxed as she took his hand, threading their fingers together on his thigh. Seconds later he had her pulled across his lap, forcing her to straddle him, his arms wrapped tightly around her and his head buried in her hair.

Rory relaxed against him bonelessly, allowing him to mould her to his form as his arms closed just above her hips. There was nothing sexual in their position, simply an exchange of comfort and reassurance. She cuddled her head in the crook of his neck, her own arms winding around him as best they could. She felt his hands snake under the back of her shirt to feel her skin, to reassure himself she was really there and really real.

Rory was the first one to break the silence. "Sophie's still coming here after school," she murmured into his neck, smiling when he let out a sigh.

"Honour told you?"

She raised her head to meet the swirling brown of his eyes. The emotion in them both frightened and concerned her. He was scared, he was frustrated, he was angry, he was guilty. "The Reader's Digest version. I hate it when you fight with your mom."

"I know," he admitted, pulling her head back against his shoulder. "I hate that I have to fight with my mom."

She sighed, the air fanning across his neck where the top buttons of his shirt had been left undone and the tie disposed with hours ago. "I hate that she hates me."

"Rory," Logan groaned.

He was serious. He rarely called her Rory and she'd gotten used to it. "I do."

"And I wish I could change that, but I really can't. I don't care what she thinks."

"But I do."

His fingers drew pointless shapes on her skin, relishing the feeling of her body pressed so tightly against his. "Why?"

"Subconscious worry about how she could hate Thumper?"

"Rory…" he warned.

She sighed, pulling back to meet his eyes again. "I hate being another bone of contention between you and your family. You fight with them enough as it is."

"And I'd fight with them with you in my life or not, Ace. We'd be fighting about how I hate the trophy wife, about how I hate all of the superficial society women my mother throws at me. I fight with my father about my job and my mother about the rest of my life, but these things happen. I'd rather have you to come home to after fighting with my family than some brainless trophy wife who I'd fuck to get rid of the tension."

Rory winced at his crude language. She'd never been a fan of it.

His fingers slipped around the front, undoing the bottom buttons of her blouse. It was cut too tight, he couldn't comfortably span his hand across her back or reach high enough on her spine to release that last bit of tension he could still feel in her body.

"Logan…" She was slightly surprised when he stopped just under her breasts and pulled her back to him, trailing his fingers up and down her spine. She almost purred, impressed by his knowledge of what made her melt completely.

"With you I can argue, I can discuss, I can release that anger in a different way, not that I'm particularly adverse to having sex with you, I just know that there are other ways. You just know."

"Your mother's a huge obstacle, Logan," Rory mumbled against his shoulder. "Your relationship is bad enough."

"It's always been bad, Rory. My mother and I have never agreed in twenty-seven years, and I do swear it's all twenty-seven of them. We've never gotten along, never seen eye-to-eye, never agreed on anything. My mother's opinion can't be a deal-breaker here."

He hated it when she was insecure and she knew it, but it wasn't like she could stop the feelings from creeping up on her. "I'm not a trophy to be paraded around. I have my own life."

"I know that and I admire that. I'm not asking you to give that up."

They'd never discussed their future before. They'd never thought more than two weeks ahead of themselves, never discussed what could happen in a month, in a year, in five, ten, fifteen years. "I will never be that, Logan."

"I don't want you to ever be that, Ace," he promised seriously. "I love that you're not a trophy, that you have your own opinions. You without those is like the hamburger without the meat… not a hamburger."

Rory snorted. "I can't believe you just related me to a hamburger."

Logan sighed. "We've never talked about the future. In fact, I haven't even really thought about my future or anything past next week that doesn't involve me taking over for my dad. What I do know is that I like you in my life, I need you in my life. Whether that means something more permanent in a few months or in a few years, I don't know. My mother doesn't get a say in my love life. She and her dimwitted friends can parade their daughters in front of me all they want, but I have you and I love you. It's enough."

Her eyes fluttered closed, both of them barely aware that someone could walk in at any minute. They were too focused on each other, on ironing this out as best they could in the circumstances. "I don't want Sophie to have to deal with your mother," Rory said softly. "You and I? We can deal with the limelight, with the rumours, with the tabloids, with the papers. Sophie? She's still in elementary school, the only society functions she's ever attended have been benefits for Catherine's Foundation and that's only because sometimes having the kids there to tell their own stories, to bat their eyelashes and pout in sadness, is the best way to get people to support the cause. She can't deal with that level of cruelty."

"I know that, Ace," Logan promised, his hands fanning out to span her back. "Sophie's a good thing, not a bad thing."

"Not from what Honour said."

"I love Honour but she can be a bit of a drama queen," Logan said seriously. "Sophie's a great kid. Anyone who doesn't love her on first sight isn't looking hard enough and isn't worth her time. Society's not for her, so don't expose her to society."

Rory leaned back from him in surprise. "A secret?"

"No," Logan replied empathetically. "We just won't tempt fate. I know you're proud to call yourself whatever equivalent you're using for mother and if it wasn't from prior knowledge or the fact that you don't look alike, I wouldn't think twice about assuming she was yours, so I'm suggesting we don't bring it up. If someone asks, the answer is the honest truth, but you don't bring Sophie to society functions as it is."

"But your parents…"

"Stop, Rory," he admonished in exasperation. "Stop worrying about my parents. Stop overanalyzing and freaking out. We're nine months into a relationship, we don't know if we'll get married, there's still a lot of unknowns here."

Rory sighed very much aware that any arguments she brought up would be refuted the same way. She needed to let this rest, to move on and come back to this debate at a later date. She needed a break, time to breath, time to absorb everything that had happened and she needed perspective. "You're going out with Finn and Colin on Saturday, right?"

He looked down at her in surprise. "We're supposed to do something, yeah. What's up?"

"I was thinking of calling Lane and getting her to come up here for a girls' night. She can leave the twins with her mom or whatever, Steph and Honour could come, my mom…"

"Sophie?"

Rory shrugged. "Can stay or go, it's up to her."

Logan nodded, pressing a kiss against her head. "Sounds good. Dinner on Sunday?"

"Sunday's official study night," she reminded him, "But I'm sure I can fit you in."

His hands moved around to her stomach, tracing patterns over the sensitive skin. "I'll cook," he offered, leaning his head back as Rory started pressing small kisses against his neck. He could always get lost in her.

"Mmm..." she hummed. "Deal."

A smile flitted across his face. "Good. Now I don't believe I welcomed you home properly."

She sat up fully, attempting to ignore his fingers dancing across her skin. "I cannot believe you just said that. That was corny Logan Huntzberger!"

Logan looked at her innocently, trying to stop the quirking of his lips at her teasing. "What? I can't say hello?"

Rory rolled her eyes, mumbling something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'butt-faced miscreant'. "First of all, I'm not at home. Second of all, your office door is unlocked and there's people out there you work with. Third of all…"

Logan mirrored Rory's eye roll, cupping the back of her head and pulling her down to his level. Heat and flame erupted in his body as he pressed his mouth against hers, his other arm pulling and holding her tight against his body. He took from her, forcing her mouth open – not that she put up much resistance – and coaxing her tongue to come out and play with his. The hand at her head threaded into her hair to hold her in place as he plundered her mouth, groaning softly as she fought back against him. Finally, he pulled back. "What were you saying?"

Rory followed him. "You know, I can't remember," she mumbled into his mouth, taking control of this new kiss. Her hands flew down the buttons of his shirt, ignoring the fact that he was still wearing his suit jacket. Part of her brain was still fully aware they were in his office, at work, where anyone could walk in, but she couldn't make herself stop.

Breathlessly they pulled apart a few minutes later, chests heaving, blood pumping, eyes glazed.

"God, I missed you," Logan mumbled as his mouth dove for her collarbone. He groaned when a timid knock sounded sharply on the door. "Who is it?"

"Sophie," came the small response.

Rory's eyes widened and her hands flew to his shirt, re-attaching buttons as fast as she'd pulled them apart to begin with. She glared at him as he chuckled. "You don't get to laugh," she whispered harshly, her fingers flying over her own buttons to restore some sort of decency and moving off his lap at the same time.

Sophie's head poked through the doorway, carefully taking stock of the room and it's occupants. She almost breathed out a sigh of relief when she ascertained Logan was in a much better mood. Then her mind identified the other body in the room and she let out a loud and excited squeal.

Rory laughed along with the curly haired and obviously bubbly child attached to her legs. "Hello to you too."

"I missed you," Sophie said earnestly.

Rory ruffled her daughter's hair. "I missed you too."

Logan smiled at the reunion. "I have an idea," he spoke up, interrupting. "There's a pizza place that just opened up by Central Park. Why don't we head down to the zoo and then I'll treat the two of you to dinner?"

Before Rory could protest – she loved being spoiled but she always felt guilty each time hepaid – Sophie stepped in with an excited cheer. "And ice cream?"

Logan pretended to ponder this a moment before nodding. "I think we could find some ice cream. Is that a yes?"

Sophie rolled her eyes, a perfect imitation of Rory's. "Duh!"

"What do you say, Ace?"

The excited sparkle in his eyes and the obvious pleasure on Sophie's face dissolved all exhaustion. She could forget about his parents for now and focus on other things. "Let's go."

Sophie cheered again and raced out of the room. Logan stayed put, pulling her against his body and kissing her thoroughly. "I love you," he told her, sincerity shining in his eyes.

It brought a happy smile to her face. "I love you, too."

They walked out hand in hand, stopping to lock the door behind them. Logan approached his assistance. "Sheila, I'm leaving for the day. If it's important, patch them through to Michael and he can call me if he can't handle it." Then he met Rory's eyes. "I'm off to spend some time with my girls."

She almost swooned. My girls?

Oh good Lord.

Okay, this is one of the few times I'm going to ask for the opinion of the peanut gallery (that's you guys). There's a few options with how far I can take this story and I have ideas to continue it through to the first and maybe even the second child, but I really want to know what you guys would like to see. I can:

A) Continue this story right through.

B) Stop at the engagement and put the wedding and kids into another story

C) Divide the whole thing into three parts (relationship, wedding, kids)

D) Stop at the engagement and leave it there

So, let me know in a review what you want me to do and preferably why you'd like me to do it. That way, I can pull a Rory and create my own pro-con list. That's a lie, I don't actually do that, though they are truly beneficial.