"So," Sue began once they were sitting in the diner

"So," Rory mimicked.

"That was an eventful morning."

"Yes, it's lovely being ambushed by lots of people who hate me for being with Logan even though I'm not with Logan," Rory said with a sigh, thinking of both of the girls from the office as well as Mitchum.

"But on the bright side you didn't have a nervous breakdown and almost walk out into oncoming traffic like you did when you first found out Mitchum Huntzberger was buying the Liberty," Sue reminded her friend.

"Yes, this time I only verbally attacked a co-worker."

"Please, that bitch deserved way worse," Sue assured Rory. "I would have scratched her eyes out if you'd left it up to me. That also would have had the added bonus of her not being able to ogle your man anymore."

"He's not my man, Sue. Jess is my man," Rory said frustratedly. She knew what Sue was doing.

"So you keep saying."

"Can we not do this now? I'm not in the mood for another one of your 'Logan is so obviously the one for you' speeches."

"Fine, but only because you're upset about Mitchum right now...hey is that what this is about, his family not liking you?" Sue asked.

"How do you do that?" Rory asked with a shake of her head.

"Do what?"

"Agree to not talk about something and a start talking about it in the same sentence? I think that's a record, even for you."

"Hmm, it could be, although I'm known for my short attention span so you never know. So is it?"

"Is it what?" Rory asked, getting confused by the conversation.

"And here I thought I was the one with the short attention span," Sue mocked. "Is Mitchum the reason you won't give Logan a chance?"

"This isn't about Mitchum, not really anyhow."

"Not really? What's that mean?" Sue asked. She tried to hide her excitement; it looked like she was finally getting somewhere.

"It just means that...Logan."

"Yes...that is who we're talking about," Sue replied hesitantly, giving Rory a strange look. Her sentence wasn't really making a whole lot of sense.

"No, he just walked in," Rory pointed to the door.

Sue looked over her shoulder and sure enough Logan was standing there; he sure had bad timing. Rory was finally about to confide something to her and he walks in and breaks it up. "Hmm, so he is," Sue replied, trying to hide her annoyance.

"Usually his father spends a much longer time berating him."

"Well maybe Mitchum is lightening up."

"Hah! That's a good one."

Logan finally reached their table. "Hey ladies," he greeted.

"Hi," they both responded.

"Sue, do you mind?" Logan motioned back and forth between him and Rory.

"Not at all, I'll just leave you two alone," Sue said as she stood up from her seat and gave Logan a knowing look that did not escape Rory's notice. She decided to let it be for now.

"I'll see you later, Sue," Rory told her friend.

"Bye, don't do anything I wouldn't do," she responded with a wink and walked away. Rory shook her head and let a small grin appear on her face.

Logan sat down in Sue's vacated seat.

"Hi," he said awkwardly, this wasn't going to be an easy conversation.

"Hi," she replied.

"I think we need to talk."

"You mean you didn't come for the coffee?" Rory joked.

"No, but now that you mention it, I could use some coffee," he reached across the table to grab Rory's cup.

"Hey," she yelped, slapping his hand. "No touchy."

Logan laughed. "Kidding, I know better than to steal a Gilmore girl's coffee," he assured her.

"So young Skywalker, is Darth Vader gone yet?" Rory asked jokingly.

Logan sighed, "I'm sorry about that, Ace. I swear I didn't know he was coming or I would have given you a head's up."

"It's not your fault, Logan. It's his paper now; he can come by whenever he wants. I shouldn't have just run off like I did. It was just a really bad morning and I wasn't expecting it. He just caught me off guard is all."

"Don't worry about it. I've been running from him my whole life, so I certainly can't blame anyone else for doing the same thing," he replied with a wink.

"OK than, everything's good," she assured him with a smile.

Logan bit his lip nervously. "No," he answered, after his run in with Jenyl he was even more sure he had to do this. He didn't know how he let things get so bad for her around the office, and as much as he wanted her relationship with Jess to end, if she wasn't going to break up with him, he was only making things bad for her at home too.

"Huh?" What was he talking about? Was there something besides Mitchum he needed to talk to her about?

"I'm really sorry, Rory."

"We just did the apology thing."

"No, not about Dad, though I'm definitely sorry for him too. I'm sorry for me."

"I'm not really following here Logan," she admitted.

"I haven't been listening to you. You asked me not to buy the paper and I went ahead and bought it anyway. You told me that you were happy with Jess and that you were going to marry him and I didn't accept it. I should have believed you, even if you were lying, I should have believed you and respected your wishes. Instead I've been doing everything I can think of to mess things up for you just so I could have you for myself."

"Logan..." Rory broke in.

"No, let me just say this," he pleaded. Rory sighed and let him continue. "I love you Rory, you know that I love you, but that's all the more reason I have to do this. I have to let you go. I mean, I know I can't do that completely. What's done is done and I can't un-buy the paper. We're still going to have to work together but I promise you from now on that I'll keep things completely professional," he forced the words out of his mouth.

"My turn now?" Rory asked, once Logan stopped speaking.

Logan smiled and nodded, "Yeah, your turn now."

"You've had so many things in your life that were determined for you before you were even born, Logan. You don't get to make a lot of decisions in your life and so when you find something that you want, you go after it. I love that about you. I love that you fight for what you want. Even if we can't be together, I don't want you to change who you are. I want you to be you. Now granted, I don't know what you've been thinking with all the presents, because I know that you know that you can't change my mind with material things; if I wanted you for your money you wouldn't want me. I'm also not saying that you shouldn't back off a little and let me make my own decision here, but we both care about each other and there's no reason that we need to cut one another off completely, or as completely as possible given the circumstances. I like having you in my life again Logan; I don't want you to let me go."

"So what you're saying here is 'can't we all just get along?' 'Give peace a chance' and all that jazz?"

Rory laughed a little, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying."

Logan smiled at her across the table for a moment before his expression darkened again. "I don't think so Rory."

"What? Why not?" Rory was shocked.

"I just don't think I can do that. It's going to be hard enough to work with you. I don't think I can handle having you in my life and not having you in my life."

"So that's it then? We're just going to go back to the office, you'll make the requisite comments on my work, edit my articles, we'll exchange the occasional pleasantries and the rest of the time we'll just ignore each other and pretend there was never anything between us?"

"I guess so," he said sadly.

"Well than, I suppose we should get back to work," Rory replied with just a tinge of ice in her voice.

"I should," Logan said, standing up, "But you should take the rest of the day off. I'm not sure how much longer he'll be there"

"No, I don't need any special treatment. I'm just like any other employee, remember," She bit back angrily as she too stood up from her seat.

"Ace," he pleaded, he didn't want her to be upset.

"Don't 'Ace' me. You don't get to call me that anymore Logan, it's the way you want it."

Logan cringed a little at that. She was really angry. She would get over it, though. She would get over this a lot faster then she would get over the jealous fiancé and the jealous co-workers and the accusations of adultery and the evil looks he knew people had been giving her lately. She would get over it, but would he? God, she looked beautiful when she was angry.

Fine, there's just one more thing," he told her.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?"

"This," he said as he took a step towards her. He reached his arm out and snaked it around her waist pulling her towards him. His lips crashed down onto hers. This kiss was tender but passionate. Logan had both the fortune and misfortune of knowing this would be the last time they kissed and it had to be perfect. It was filled with a sense of need, not physical need like the kiss on the elevator, but emotional need. He needed her to know how he felt. He needed her to know that even though he was letting her go that she would always be with him. They stayed in their embrace for as long as possible until air became of dyer need. He finally pulled back, letting go of her waist.

Rory stood there in stunned silence, just staring at him open mouthed. What the heck had just happened? He told her he was going to stay away and then he kissed her? And all she could think of was how amazing it felt and how it would never happen again. She didn't know what to say.

"So... that's it then," Logan said, taking a few small steps backwards, his eyes never leaving hers. "I'll stay out of your life now. And if by some miracle, you change your mind anyway, you know where to find me." He turned and left the restaurant leaving a still stunned Rory behind.

------

Logan walked briskly down the street towards the office until he heard someone shouting his name from behind. He stopped and turned around. "What do you want Sue?" he asked the flustered red head.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked him.

"You know exactly what happened, Sue," he told her frustratedly.

"No I don't," she replied defensively.

"Yes, you do. You were hiding in a booth two tables away. You heard every word we said."

"Oh, you noticed that did you?" she asked sheepishly.

"I saw you on my way out."

"Still, you two need to learn how to project. I had to fill a lot of blanks in with my imagination."

"Sue," he said warningly.

"Fine, let me rephrase my question. Why the hell did that just happen?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you promised. You promised you wouldn't give up on her. We both know how stubborn she is but you're the one she really wants. You can't walk away from her, she can't marry Jess. He's an OK guy and all but she'll never be happy with him. She does a damn good job of pretending and I used to think she was happy with him, but I never truly saw her happy until I saw her with you," Sue babbled.

"If she's meant to be with me she'll figure it out on her own, and if she's not...well then I'm willing to be miserable so she can be happy."

"Did you not just hear a word I said? She's happy with you."

Logan sighed. Sue was ridiculously pushy, he knew that. She was kind of like Paris in that sense, only without being mean. He guessed Rory really did like people who knew what they wanted and went after it, and Sue wanted Rory and Logan to be together. He respected that but right now he just wished Sue could understand.

"You say that she really wants me, that she's just scared, well I've finally figured out what she's scared of," Logan began.

"You have? What is it?" Sue asked eagerly. It was the missing piece of the puzzle, the thing that stood in the way of her friend's happiness.

"It's the same thing I'm scared of."

"That doesn't really help me unless you tell me what you're scared of," Sue reminded him.

"Did she ever tell you that she made the first move?" Logan asked.

"Stop being cryptic Huntzberger. What does this have to do with anything?"

"I knew I wanted her from the moment she opened her mouth and put me in my place. I wanted her and she hated me," he said, smiling at the memories. "But I was Logan Huntzberger and I got what I wanted, so I weaseled my way into her life. The only thing is, I never made a move. I wanted to be a part of her life but I knew it could only be as her friend, if you can even call the relationship we had a friendship- mostly we just bickered and pissed each other off. Thinking back, fighting was pretty much like foreplay for us," he laughed a little at the thought.

"OK, as much as I want to hear this story, and I really do," Sue said sincerely, "I'm not exactly sure what the point is."

"I was always the guy who went after what he wanted and got it. Only that time I didn't- and the funny thing is, I think I wanted her more than I'd ever wanted anything up to that point in my life. It wasn't because I was scared. I was a cocky SOB and I don't think that for even one second I thought I couldn't have her if I really put my mind to it. No, the reason I didn't do anything about my feelings was because I knew I was bad for her. I knew I couldn't be the kind of guy she needed. I'd never done commitment before and I wasn't ready to give it a try, so I knew I'd only end up hurting her. So that's the difference. Back then I knew where to draw the line- yes, I went after what I wanted but I put the people I cared about first. I've lost the line, Sue. I don't know where it is anymore," Logan said desperately.

"So you're scared you're going to hurt her? That's fairly vague."

"I'm not scared I'm going to hurt her, I'm already hurting her, don't you see?"

"So than what are you scared of? What is she scared of? I can't make her see that she's wrong if I don't know what it is that she's wrong about," Sue pleaded. She just wanted to make things right.

"You can't make her see anything, and that's not your job. This is our thing and we need to deal with it on our own. I appreciate your help and your support and I know she does too but ultimately, we need to figure this out on our own. Besides, who ever said she was wrong?"

"She has to be," Sue said though she wasn't so sure of herself anymore.

"She doesn't have to be anything. The way I see it, it could go either way right now. The only way I can prove her wrong, is to do what I'm doing, is to step back and give her some space. I need to do this, for her and for me. I don't want to be that guy, the one who will step all over people to get his way."

"Logan," Sue said reassuringly. "I know I haven't known you that long yet but I can definitely tell you that you are not that guy. You care about people, you love Rory, and you have a really big heart. You are not that guy."

"Maybe not yet, but I could be."

"Logan," Sue tried again.

"I need to go back to the office Sue, and you need to go check on Rory for me. Please, just go make sure she's OK."

Sue sighed. "If you're really sure about this..."

"I am," he promised.