AN: First off to anyone over at Illusive who voted for this story as featured story I want to thank you. I was sooooo soooo excited about getting that distinction. It's seriously a huge honor because there are sooooo many great stories out there. Anyhow, here's another chapter to feed your frenzy. I hope you like it and please please please leave a review and I will love you forever. :)
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As the car approached the outskirts of Stars Hollow, Rory began to get nervous. Arriving in style like this was a sure fire way to draw the attention of her kooky, small town neighbors. The one saving grace was that the vehicle that had picked her up had been a town car and not a stretch limo, so at least it wasn't quite so conspicuous. If only she hadn't brought so much luggage she could have asked the driver to drop her off just outside town and walked the short distance to the house. Well, it looked like the luggage wouldn't be going home right away; she would just bring it directly to the Dragonfly so she could avoid driving straight through the center of town. "Turn left here, please," she directed the driver, guiding him through the streets in a circuitous fashion to circumvent the nosiest of the town's gossip mongers.
A few minutes later, the car drove up the gravel pathway to the Dragonfly Inn and came to a stop. The driver got out and came around to open the door for Rory. "Thank you," she told him. Her eyes darted around, praying no one was outside, luckily her prayers were answered. The driver took Rory's bags out of the trunk and began to bring them inside. "No," she stopped him. "Leave them please, I'll take them in." The driver looked unsure but relented and let go of the bags. Rory tipped him and sent him away as quickly as possible. She breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that her mother had not seen the car; it would have been a dead give away and she wanted to tell Lorelai herself.
Rory grabbed the suitcases and rolled them towards the Inn. "Hey Michel," she greeted the Frenchman at the counter.
"Little Lorelai, what a pleasure to see you," he replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Rory responded with a small smile; it was nice to be home, back in good, old, predictable Stars Hollow. "Could you put these bags aside for me please?" she asked of him.
"But of course, what do I look like? A servant?" he sneered.
Rory looked at him appraising, "Hmm, no; I don't think I would go with servant," she cocked her head to the side and stared for a moment. "I've got it!" she said excitedly. "Employee! That's it, you look like an employee. You know, someone who gets paid to do things like put luggage aside."
He glowered at her but came around the desk and took the luggage. "Your mother is in the dining room," he said, effectively dismissing her.
Rory stuffed her now free hands into her coat pockets and headed off towards the dining room and her mother. As soon as she had crossed the threshold Lorelai spotted her and squealed. "Rory, only child, fruit of my loins, you're here!" the older woman ran to her and embraced her daughter in a rib crushing hug. Rory stood there tensely, afraid to hug back because it would require her to remove her hands from their safe woolen hide away. "What was that" Lorelai asked as she released her grip and stepped back.
"What?" Rory asked.
"You haven't seen your mother in over a month and you can't even give her a hug? What kind of greeting is that for the woman who spent 18 hours in excruciating pain to bring your pretty, little self into this world?" Lorelai took another step back and examined her daughter. "Why won't you take your hands our of your pockets?" she asked.
"Can we go somewhere and talk Mom?" Rory asked.
Lorelai didn't answer for a moment as she looked around the room, peaking around Rory to look through the entryway towards the lobby of the Inn. "Where's Jess?"
"Mom," Rory tried again.
Lorelai, still acting as though Rory had not said a word, continued to size up to the younger Gilmore and then grabbed her left arm, yanking it from the coat pocket. "Ah hah! I knew something was up!" she pointed triumphantly at Rory's hand. "No ring. When did this happen? Were you planning on telling me or were you just going to wait until I showed up at the church and realized no one was there?" she raved.
"Mom," Rory interjected.
"I mean seriously, you think you'd tell your best friend and giver of life that she was going to have to wait a bit longer for those grandchildren but I guess I'm not a priority any more."
"Mom," Rory tried again.
"Yes?" Lorelai stopped ranting and looked at her daughter, acknowledging her words for the first time since she had walked through the door.
"Can we please talk about this somewhere a little more private?" she wanted to tell her mother the whole story without intrusion and if there was one thing that could be counted on in Stars Hollow it was other people intruding on your business.
Lorelai looked around as though just realizing they were smack dab in the middle of the Inn for all to see and hear. Of course not many people had shown up yet and no one of significance had witnessed the scene but that could change at any given moment. "Right, come on," she said, leading Rory to her office and shutting the door behind her.
"OK, now tell Mommy all about it," she ordered, plopping herself down in the chair behind her desk. "Oh my little heart breaker," Lorelai added, her voice filled with something that sounded almost like...pride? "Running out on a wedding; I've taught you well. Now if only you had waited until the day before, not told him, and run off to Harvard, I could really call you my own."
Rory looked at her mother strangely. "Kidding," Lorelai finally said.
Rory chuckled and shook her head in amusement. "No, I just waited until the day before Thanksgiving, told him I was in love with another man, and ran off to Stars Hollow. Of course that's not very effective running since he's coming here too."
"Ahh, good it did only happen yesterday. In that case I will forgive you for not telling me sooner on account of the fact that you were, no doubt, busy having an all night sex marathon with this so called 'other man'." Lorelai grinned a knowing grin.
"Moooom," Rory whined. "Must you be so blunt? You know how I hate it when you talk about sex."
Lorelai just scoffed. "If you're old enough to have it, you're old enough to tell your Mommy all about it."
"Well unfortunately for you I'm going to insist on skimping on the details but suffice it to say I had a very good night...and morning. You're not mad, are you?"
"Mad, why would I be mad?"
"Well you were never exactly Logan's biggest fan.
"No, but if you'll recall, I was never really waving any pompoms around in Jess's honor either. But he was important to you and eventually I learned to accept, and heck, even like the guy," Lorelai reminded her daughter.
"So you're saying you accept and like Logan now?" Rory asked tentatively.
"Well let's hold off on the like part, I never really did get to know him. But you're in love with him and as far as I know he's always treated you well; his family hasn't but heck, if Luke blamed me for every awful thing your grandparents ever said to him I would have wound up dying an old spinster with a house full of cats. And as long as you promise not to let him talk you into committing any felonies, I'm good. As long as you're happy, I'm happy for you, kid."
"Thanks Mom...Not to press my luck but why are you so much more accepting now than you were the first time around?"
Lorelai sighed and leaned back in her chair. "A lot has changed since then, hun. You're not my baby any more."
"Mom, I was 20, I wasn't you're baby back then, either."
"Well, no. Technically you haven't been a baby since you were, well, a baby," Lorelai replied. "It's just, your freshman year of college we were still so close. You came home all the time and we were always talking on the phone. Then sophomore year dawned and you met Logan and things started to change, you started to change. You spent more time at Yale, you were leaning towards a world that I had tried so hard to get away from, and then there was the thing with the boat and the dropping out of Yale and we didn't talk, and then he was gone and you came back to me. I guess it was easier to blame him for all of that rather than accept that you were growing up and making your own choices in life. Like I said, you weren't my little baby anymore. But now you're out of school and you moved away and you have your own life. I've learned to accept that you're all grown up and you don't need me as much as you used to. You're a big girl, capable of making your own decisions and I will support you no matter what."
Rory smiled and appreciative smile at her mother. "Thanks."
"No problem, kid. Now tell me how this all happened. Last I heard Logan was ignoring you like the 600 pound gorilla in the room."
Rory began telling her mother the story of the past few days. She told her about Colin and Finn and the dinner they went to with Sue and all of their words of wisdom. She told her about Logan showing up and the kiss outside the restaurant. She told her about the talk she'd had with Logan and finally about the break up with Jess. "And after that, well you know the rest," Rory finished her story.
"Damn, kid. You 'yadda yadda yadda-ed' over the best part and that was still one hell of a story."
"It was quite a roller coaster ride of emotions; I'll tell you that much," Rory chuckled. "Actually, it was more like space camp and right now I feel like I'm in orbit. I mean, yeah Jess made me happy but not like this, Mom. Being with Logan again just feels so right. He makes me feel completely comfortable and completely out of my element at exactly the same time. He's somehow both calming and exhilarating; safe and yet exciting. He's the right guy. I tried to make Jess the right guy but I could only fool myself for so long. It's Logan, it's always been him."
"Aww, you're waxing poetic, you really are in love," Lorelai's voice was mockingly sweet. "So, where is this Mr. Right?"
"He's still in Philadelphia," Rory said a little wistfully.
"He had other plans?"
"Not really, unless you consider watching sports and getting drunk with the boys holiday plans. No, he wanted to come but it wouldn't have been right. I've hurt Jess enough, no point to rubbing salt in his wounds. He should get to enjoy Thanksgiving as much as possible. But I do have a favor to ask..." Rory ventured.
"A favor? You mean carrying you inside of me for 9 months and clothing, feeding and housing you for 18 years wasn't enough?"
"Well just think how easy this favor will be in comparison."
"Fine, but when you and your media mogul get hitched I fully expect to be repaid in Mustang convertibles. Now what is this favor you needed?"
"Well Jess is only staying for tonight," Rory began. "So I invited Logan down for the rest of the weekend. I think he'd prefer not to sleep on the couch in our living room so I thought- hmm, who do I know who owns a fancy Inn with cozy, romantic rooms?"
"You know someone with their own Inn?" Lorelai pretended to be shocked.
"Mooom."
"I suppose I might be able to find a spare room," Lorelai sighed, acting as though it were the biggest favor in the world. "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you don't want the room I'd set aside for you and Jess for tonight."
"That would be preferable, although technically if you gave us the same room you'd planned on for Jess and me we'd never really have anyway of knowing, now would we."
"Unless I'd planned on personalizing the room, you know, a giant banner saying 'We happily welcome the future Mr. and Mrs. Jess Mariano.' You think Logan would be upset if he checked in a saw that?"
"You're evil. It makes me proud to call myself your daughter. Of course if you actually do that I will secretly cut the break lines on those promised Mustangs."
"You're no fun," Lorelai pouted. "Seriously, what good are you if you won't let me mock you? OK, fine. I'll go check the reservation book and see which rooms are available."
"Thanks Mom, for the room and for understanding." Rory felt much calmer after talking with Lorelai. She was so happy to have her mother's blessing; her opinion mattered more to Rory than anyone else's. She hoped everyone here could take the news so well but she knew that she would not be so lucky. Luke would be devastated, he was almost as excited about Rory and Jess's wedding as he had been about his own. She wasn't looking forward to breaking the news to him but she knew it had to be done. "Is Luke around?" she asked her mother.
"You know Sookie won't let him set a foot in her kitchen if she can help it. Do remember how paranoid she got when she was pregnant with Martha and got put on bed rest and Luke had to cover for her. Not pretty. He's at the diner making some pies for dessert. Why?"
"Well I should probably tell him."
"You don't think Jess will tell him?" Lorelai asked.
"Oh no, maybe Jess should tell him. But I can't lie to him and I can't just ignore him until Jess gets here. Unless Jess already got here and Luke already knows. Oh know, what if Luke already knows and he hates me?"
"Breath kid," Lorelai's voice broke through Rory's ranting. "Luke won't hate you, I promise. He'll be upset, I'm sure, but you're as much his family as Jess is and he loves you. He wants you to be happy as much as anyone. Now as for breaking the news to him, perhaps if Jess hasn't already done it you should tell him together. I know it might be awkward but you made it sound like the breakup wasn't too horrible and I'm sure Luke would appreciate hearing it from both of you. In the mean time why don't you go visit Sookie in the kitchen. If you're lucky maybe she'll let you taste test the candied yams. She knows how you love any food with the word 'candy' in it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Rory agreed, standing up. She leaned across the table and gave her mom and hug. "Thanks again." She walked out of the office ready to head for the kitchen but she spotted someone across the room and stopped short.
"Rory!" Liz's excited voice carried across the Inn as her former mother-in-law-to-be raced across the lobby to give her a hug.
Rory hugged back hesitantly, not sure what to say but Liz broke the awkward silence again. "I'm so sorry to hear about you and Jess," she told her.
Rory breathed a sigh of relief with the knowledge that she would not have to lie, or at least be evasive, though she was surprised by Liz's warm greeting if she had already heard the news. "So I see you've heard," she said solemnly.
"Jess is at our house right now, he got here just a little while ago."
"How's he doing?" Rory asked with genuine concern.
"He's putting on a brave face but I'm his mother and I can tell he's hurting. You'll be a hard one to get over," Liz answered honestly.
"I never wanted to hurt him. I care about him a lot- love him even, just not in the right way. It wouldn't have been fair to either one of us."
"I know, you're a good girl, Rory, you'd never hurt anyone intentionally. And don't think this makes you any less a part of the family. Your mother is a Dane's now too you know and you Gilmore girls are a package deal."
"Thanks Liz, it's really good to know you feel that way," Rory paused. "Do you know if he told Luke yet?"
"I don't think so, he came straight to the house."
"Good, I think this is something Luke needs to hear from the both of us. I'll see you at dinner." Rory gave Liz a quick hug before heading out of the Inn. The easy part was over, now she had to go see Jess again and talk to Luke, neither were conversations she was looking forward to.
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