"Mommy!"

Rory looked past the bedroom door and sighed as she stared at her youngest child. Riley was bouncing in her bed despite the fact that she should've long since been asleep. Her daughter who was every bit her father and knew every way to push her buttons. "Yes Riley?" Lorelai Emily Huntzberger, Riley for short was hazel eyes and tousled dirty blonde hair and fiery Huntzberger to her core. It drove Rory absolutely insane and simultaneously filled her with joy to watch her little Tasmanian Devil tear apart boys who told her she should like pink, or teachers who wanted her to be more ladylike, but when it came to bedtime, Rory desperately wished that Riley was a little bit more like her and a little bit less like her father. "You've gotta go to bed."

"I wanna see'em," Riley pouted. Her little arms were crossed as she sat in bed upright. Her Minnie Mouse quilt from Pottery Barn Kids tucked around her little legs as she stared. "Not goin' to sleep till I see'em."

Rory took a deep breath. It was a trick she'd been trying to practice since the divorce. Three breaths, focus on something tangible and try to respond calmly to the little domestic terrorists who lived with her. "Ri, you can't see him because he's not here. But Daddy will be here tomorrow for dinner. So if you go to sleep, then by the time you get home from school, Dad will be here and he will hang out with you guys," she failed to mention the part where she would flee for the city and have drinks with her best friend from childhood, Lane, and leave Logan to deal with homework and bath time and bedtime for the kids.

"Where's my Daddy? We can FaceTime him?" Riley asked after a moment of silence. It was moments like this where she wasn't the little Tasmanian Devil, she was just a little girl who was confused about where someone she loved was and when they would be together again.

"Daddy is on the plane on his way home," she answered simply. Rory could remember feeling the same way when she was a kid. Of course, with Logan it was very different than it had been with her own father. Logan was away for work, he was gone on business. He had been gone for 3 weeks. A bit longer than was initially planned but an opportunity had popped up in Australia that they needed to look into so he had called Rory and run it by her. She wasn't sure why he ever posed it as a question. It wasn't her place to tell him what to do. She was more than happy to keep the kids, he could re-coup his time when he got back, and he hadn't listened to her pleas to stay home more often when they were married so she certainly didn't know why he thought she would beg now that they were divorced. "Daddy was in China, and then he went to Australia, and now he is on his way home."

"That's far," Riley looked at her mother. Rory was no longer standing in the doorway. She had perched herself on the edge of Riley's bed and adjusted the quilt a bit. "Tomorrow, ok Bean?" Bean was the nickname they had given Riley when Rory was pregnant. One of those stupid pregnancy apps had said that the fetus was the size of a coffee bean in those early stages and it had somehow stuck, coffee bean, jumping bean, stinky bean, green bean…they were all thrown around with laughter and joy and Riley lived for it, but most of the time now it was just Bean. Riley nodded and Rory was relieved as she pressed a kiss against her head, "night baby. I love you." Riley mumbled that she loved her too and Rory helped her get settled in the bed. She turned off the bedside lamp that Riley had turned on and she made sure that her favourite doll was in bed with her. It was something from a company she had found online, for every 1 doll purchased, 25 meals were sent to underprivileged children and since she had found it, it had become a staple gift for any baby shower or birthday party they were attending. It helped Rory not feel as guilt about the insane privilege they enjoyed. Ultimately Rory took one last look at her daughter, dozing off under the beautiful four poster, canopy bed that Rory had purchased for her with glee and once again, the fire, the spark, the tornado that she could be during the daytime had been replaced with the calm, peaceful little girl that just wanted to snuggle with her mommy.

Rory made her way down the wide, open hallway. On one side of her there were the white wooden spindles with a beautiful maple bannister, and on the other there was the door to a guest room and then it was the door to Christian's room. He was long since asleep. His navy blue walls a stark contrast to the pale pink that Riley had. She peaked inside, his walls lined with neatly organized bookshelves, a few trophies from different sports that he played, photos of him and his friends on the wall as he slept soundly under his own Star Wars themed duvet. Where Riley was all Huntzberger, Christian was all Gilmore. Blue eyes, alabaster skin and dark brown hair. He was the spitting image of Rory. And while he played sports in a way that Rory was reminded all the time was 'just like Logan as a boy', he loved books and stories and school and he was calm and meticulous and talked a mile a minute. Logan had put a hard rule that he didn't want the kids drinking coffee until high school, but other than that… Christian was every bit his mother. Rory went in and kissed the top of his head, wishing him sweet dreams and telling him how much she loved him before she clicked the door closed and returned to the main floor.

The house felt big. Well, it always felt big. It was big. The house in New Canaan had been a gift. A gift from her in-laws when they got married. It had taken nearly 2 full years to build and since it was built it had been renovated top to bottom once which Rory thought was ridiculous, but she had gone along with because honestly she was so tired. By the time she agreed to the ridiculous proposal by her mother in law, she was halfway out the door in her marriage and her husband was gone more days than he was home. So she had agreed. She had agreed to the (beautiful) remodel and she had taken her kids to Stars Hollow for the summer and stayed there except for the 10 days they had spent in Martha's Vineyard with Logan, she often thought of it as the final 10 days of her marriage. By the time the remodel was complete, she had asked Logan for a divorce and so while his office had been fixed up and his closet was full of his clothes, Logan had never moved back into the house after it had been renovated.

Rory walked to the fridge and poured herself a glass of wine. She had an open bottle of Sauv Blanc from the night before and she was going to enjoy another drink. She didn't drink nightly, more like a couple of times a week, maybe a bit more when the kids were with Logan, but something to just take the edge off was necessary after some days. Riley had been begging to see her father for days and it broke Rory's heart. It broke her heart that she couldn't just snap her fingers and make Logan appear. Oddly enough, Logan was more present since they had a hammered out custody agreement than he had been during the final year of their marriage. Things with the kids were certainly easier, everyone slept through the night and they were both toilet trained. Now though it was just birthday parties and soccer games, hockey, swimming, dance…everything in between. She leafed through the mail, Christmas cards and invitations coming in daily. They were in that strange spot between Thanksgiving and Christmas and Rory was exhausted just thinking about it all.

Jess was annoyed with her. She was ironing it but she knew he was annoyed. They hadn't seen each other since Logan had gone away because Jess worked during the day, Rory worked at all hours of the day, and Rory didn't want Jess at the house when the kids were there. In fact, she did her best to not have him in the house if she could. She spent the occasional weekend with him in Brooklyn, she encouraged trips back to Stars Hollow or even weekend getaways…but something about having Jess inside the house that she had brought her children with Logan home to felt…well, it felt wrong.

Rory took a long sip and opened the thick black envelope that she knew was from Huntzberger Publishing Group, she used her mail opener to slice through the thick card stock and pulled out the perfectly classy piece of paper and read through the invitation. She had known it was coming, it always came. The annual Christmas gala which she had attended for longer than the duration of her marriage. It took place every year at The Plaza which Rory had no problem telling anyone who would listen, both before and after her divorce that it was incredibly over the top, and since they had children, Rory and Logan would attend with the kids, eventually Riley and Christian would be ushered upstairs with their cousins and a nanny and the adults would be left to enjoy themselves.

Things had of course gotten awkward since the divorce, but, Rory was an author published by one of the HPG subsidiaries and Logan … well, he was a Huntzberger. Her third book would be out midway through the following year, her second had come out in May, navigating motherhood, friendships and relationships after divorce was the subject matter and it had been soul crushing to write. She had sent an advanced copy to Logan. Not because he had anything to do with the publishing of her books, but rather as a courtesy because even if they weren't the best of friends, they were still coparents and arguably the subject matter of the book itself, or part of it.

Her phone interrupted her thoughts dancing around about the Christmas party, where she would fit in with it all and Rory almost immediately cursed him under her breath for having not called a short while earlier when Riley would've given anything to talk to her Daddy. "You have shit timing," Rory answered the phone. She was holding the stem of her wine glass between her fingers as she took a quick sip and perched herself up against the island. "Ri is missing you."

"I'm sorry, I was trying to make it before bedtime."

"It's fine," Rory exhaled, "you'll be home tomorrow, right?" She tried not to sound too eager as she tucked a stray auburn hair behind her ear. "I told them both that they'd see you tomorrow," and she'd told herself that she would finally get a break with him back in the same hemisphere.

"I'm here now. I was trying to surprise them," Logan caught himself before he suggested that he was trying to surprise Rory too. He was…to a certain extent. Maybe trying to woo her with his parenting skills? He wasn't sure exactly what he was doing, all he could be sure of really is that he was barely making any headway with his ex-wife and sooner or later it was going to be the death of him. "Are they both asleep?"

"Christian had basketball tonight. He conked out right after he finished his homework. Little Miss Riley on the other hand, she was fit to be tied."

"Can I come kiss them goodnight?"

Rory could tell how tired he sounded. She knew all of his sighs, all of his laughs, all of his voices, all of his smiles…everything. She knew every part of him. "Logan you're exhausted. Go to bed and see them after school."

"It has been weeks," Logan countered. He was right, it had been weeks, too many weeks since he had seen his kids in the flesh and not through a screen.

"Fine but if you wake them up, I will remove an appendage that I happen to know you are very fond of and it will not be pleasant."

Logan chuckled, "I'll be there in a few."

Logan ended the call before Rory could say anything else, and even if there was a huge part of her that was annoyed he was gone for so long, she was relieved that he wanted to see the kids more than anything. That was the man that she had needed him to be, that was the man that he decidedly was not in the last moments of their marriage. Rory exhaled. She took another sip of her wine and tidied the pile of her mail, tucking it away in the corner of the counter. She could put it in the office, but that would suggest she used the office. The office had always been his and so unless she had to re-set the internet router, or check some sort of contract…but the office was not a room that she lived in. She could go weeks without ever going in it.

For a brief moment she considered if she should change her clothes. She was ready for bed with a pair of J Crew joggers and an old Yale t-shirt, she was sure that Logan would walk in wearing a suit and make her look like she was an absolute schlub, but she wasn't changing. She was comfortable. She was in her own house, and she had been kind enough to agree to let him come over. So he would have to take her as she was. Sweatpants and all. The knock on the door interrupted the battle she had created in her head and Rory put her wine glass down on the white marble counter and walked to the door. He had a key. Of course he had a key, but she appreciated that he wasn't using it. It was one of the boundaries that she had tried to establish since the split. If he was bringing the kids home, she encouraged him to use the key…but she preferred that he knock if he were coming over to see the kids.

"Hey," Rory greeted him warmly, surprised to see a man standing before her in a Canada Goose jacket and a pair of dark washed jeans and dress shoes. "Come in, come in, you'll ruin your shoes." It was almost as if she couldn't stop herself from babying him. Apparently old habits died hard? "Have you eaten?"

Logan shrugged off his jacket and toed off his shoes. She was right, they were wet from the slushy mess on the driveway. "I'm fine Ace, thank you though," Logan smiled at her. He was exhausted and the only thing that really got in the way of his exhaustion was the burning desire in his chest to see his children. He hadn't been gone this long in a long time and unsurprisingly, he hated it. There would've been a couple of times that he could've gotten back home, but then he would've had to return and as much as he would've loved to see his kids, he knew it would've caused more chaos. "I'm just gonna," he nodded towards the stairs and Rory took a step back.

She wasn't sure what to do. If they were married, she would've just gone about her evening. She would've wrapped her arms around him when he walked in the door, kissed him senseless and he would've gone upstairs to see the kids, then he would've changed into a pair of sweats and come back downstairs to meet Rory in the kitchen. They would've opened a bottle of wine or poured a drink, and then they would've curled up on the couch, watched a movie or the news and caught up on whatever had gone on since he'd been gone. Eventually, when they were first married, they would've tumbled back into bed together and everything would've been perfect. But that was then, and this was now, and now Logan was upstairs staring at their kids and she was in the kitchen swirling her glass of wine, and Rory had no idea what she was supposed to do when he came back down.

His footsteps came first and Rory busied her hands with the glass of wine in her hand as she studied him. His right hand was massaging the back of his neck as he exhaled and then finally his eyes settled on her, and his lips grew into a smile. "Hey," he leaned against the counter, fighting the urge to grab himself a glass and pour himself a glass of wine. Reminding himself for the millionth time, this is not my house. "Thank you," he wasn't sure what else to say. He was appreciative. He was beyond appreciative that Rory made coparenting so damned easy. She never complained when he needed to shift his time, she expected him to be there when he said he would be there (and he was), and she never denied him access to the kids. The waves of grief after the divorce had been difficult, but when he realized that he would need to ask to see his kids when they were with their mother, that had hurt. Now that they had been doing it though, he knew he could always see them, and he wasn't far away. His house was a few miles away, close enough that he could be there quickly if Rory needed him and the kids didn't have a terrible commute to school in the morning.

"Of course," Rory took a sip of her wine. They were not good at this. They were good at coparenting, they were good at making sure their kids never had to make a choice about Christmas or a birthday, they could do anything and everything together…but being alone…being alone still felt like they were balancing on a tight rope that was on fire. "Do you want something to drink?" She had offered him something to eat already, but surely this was different? She wasn't being weird about this. This was a normal, friendly thing to do.

"I'll have what you're having," Logan smiled. "I'll be here tomorrow after school? Make dinner with them, do homework…you can have the night?"

"That would be great," Rory sighed as she handed Logan the glass of wine. "Trip was good?"

"Trip was…long," he sipped the wine, "did what I needed to do. We're trying to grow our portfolio, I don't think we can move beyond print media though. We've got to run some numbers."

Rory nodded. This was not the first time she had heard this particular discussion, maybe a different geographic area, but in most areas, they started with print media and then slowly moved into broadcasting once they had gotten their bearings. "I got the Christmas invite," Rory pivoted the conversation away from his life and back to their shared children. "You have them on the weekend, why don't you just take them?" Rory suggested. She knew that even if Logan agreed, she would get a call from her former father in law and inevitably Rory would end up there, even if she said she wasn't going to.

"C'mon Ace, we'll do the usual."

There it was. The punch to the gut, Ace. The usual. The way it was. Before. When they were married. "Logan the kids could use some time with you."

"The kids will want you there," Logan countered as he sipped his wine once more. "Dad will want you there, Honor will want you there…and I'm sure if most of the HPG staff were to be polled and had to choose, they would tell you they would rather you be there because no one wants their future boss at a party. I'm a wet blanket."

Rory smirked and raised an eyebrow. Logan was many things, but most definitely not a wet blanket. For as long as she had known him, Logan had been the life of the party, it was part of the facade he put up. "You take the kids Friday night," that was their custody arrangement, that was where the kids were supposed to be, "I will get to the city on Saturday afternoon and come home after the party," she'd take a car service, "the kids can stay at the hotel with you and your family, and then drop them off here on Sunday after dinner?"

"Before dinner, lets do dinner" Logan challenged, he ignored her shaking her head and pinching the bridge of her nose, "c'mon Ror…dinner, for the kids."

"Indian," Rory responded curtly after thinking about it for a moment. "You can bring takeout, and you can clean it up, and," she added for good measure, "I need someone to clean the dryer vent. I can't reach it and I don't want to call a maintenance guy, I don't like ladders," she started to ramble on, "Luke won't be here until Christmas."

"I'll do it now," Logan told her as he put his glass of wine on the counter. It wasn't his favourite task, household tasks in general weren't his favourite. He was more than happy to pay someone to take care of all of this, but Rory was asking and he wanted to make her life easier, so even though his legs felt like dead weight and he was exhausted he went to the front door and put his shoes back on before heading out to the garage where he still knew the code for the outdoor keypad and grabbed the ladder that was needed. It was he supposed one of the pitfalls to second floor laundry, cleaning the vents was not easy. It took about 15 minutes, he was glad that Rory hadn't come out because she would've been worrying about the ladder and stability, he couldn't help but wonder when the last time he did something like this the first time Rory asked as opposed to the tenth.

"All good?" Rory asked when he traipsed back into the house. She could see how tired he was. "Is your car here?" She had looked out front and didn't notice it, but he could've parked behind the garage and out of sight.

"I'll call the driver back," Logan explained as he yawned. "We good?"

"Go to bed Logan," Rory nodded up the stairs towards a guest room. "By the time he comes back, it's late. You can see the kids in the morning."

"I don't want to impose," Logan gave her a the same stupid grin he'd been giving her for years. "Interrupt your morning."

Rory wrapped her arms around her body and inhaled. When had this gotten so awkward? They didn't dislike each other. That had never been the problem. They weren't fighting. But somehow they just couldn't seem to exist without the undercurrent of who they used to be surging between them. "You won't be interrupting anything." She paused for a moment and waited for him to agree, which he did, "I'm going to tidy up the kitchen. Can you make sure the doors are locked and turn the lights out on your way up?"

Logan nodded. It was just like old times. Before he could respond she was on her way to the kitchen, and Logan went to the mudroom first and turned off the lights, checking the doors as he went. Walking upstairs felt so incredibly familiar, but when he turned towards the guest rooms, that felt more foreign than he would care to admit. So instead he bought himself another minute before he had to face the reality of who they were to each other now and went to Christian. He opened the door and snuck inside, leaning down to kiss the top of his head. "Love you buddy," he whispered, smiling as Christian stirred and mumbled something in his sleep. Rory talked in her sleep too, although he had never gotten her to accept it. It was cute, endearing, little ramblings that didn't make much sense and Christian had that same trait. "I'll see you in the morning," he scanned the room quickly, taking note of the Harry Potter books that were sitting on his desk, making sure he would be able to ask about it in the morning. Then the door was shut and he made his way to Riley. Her room was tidy, dolls perfectly in place in their dollhouse as if he was interrupting a moment in time for the little family who lived within the walls of the custom made creation. "Ri you've gotta take it easy on Mom," he whispered as he sat down on the edge of her bed, making sure to pull the blankets back up over her. Riley loved to kick off her blankets and then traipse into one of their rooms in the middle of the night declaring that she was cold…on the nights that her blankets were fixed before he or Rory went to bed, she always stayed on her own. He kissed her head and let out a sigh of relief, it was good to be home, "I love you sweetheart."