I own only the new characters.
Note: the ruler isn't working all that well for me, so I improvised. when you see the $ that means that it is happing back to back just in two diferent places.
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Lotte starred at the ceiling. She wasn't supposed to be here. This was in essence forbidden. But yet she was here; not to spite her father, or grandmother. Hell, the only reason she was here was because it was the only place left untouched, not corrupted by… Lotte stopped herself, that wasn't the only reason she was here; this – she felt – was the safest place for her to be. A voice broke the silence.
"Does he know you're here?"
"He doesn't even know I've felt the house."
"God Lotte! Do you know what kind of situation you're putting me in?" There was a defeated thump and Lotte pushed herself up, so that she was sitting on the floor starring at the man, his head in his hands on a 'seen better days about two years ago' chair. "How long have you been here?" His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.
"I guess about an hour." Her voice mimicked his in its level; he sighed again moving his head up so that only his mouth was covered by his hands. Though the room was dimly light he could still see the pain behind her eyes as he stared at her on the floor. Just her presence in the room seemed to lighten it, dwarfing the rest of the room in her beauty. He sighed again and slipped to the floor, lying on the outdated gold carpet next to her. He stretched out his arms and placed them behind his head. He closed his eyes and soon felt Lotte's partial weight on him. The two lay there in the middle of his poorly decorated apartment in silence, at peace with their world and all its faults.
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Logan sat at the table, his tie long since undone, and a glass of scotch in his hand. He watched as the wait staff and movers dismantled the room around him, transforming it from the gala ballroom in to the spacious sculpture garden of the MoMA. Logan placed his scotch on the table beside him, watching it slowly be pulled away by the female waitress. She had been starring at him since she had come upon him sitting there; sure she was only a few years older than Lotte but he was the one that was drunk, not her; he was the one being taken advantage of. Logan took his glass off the table cloth and tipped it towards her winking as he did; she giggled like a little school girl and quickly pulled the rest of the table cloth off and ran away. Logan laughed to himself, he still had that power over women even though his boyish good looks had begun to fade; his hair now speckled with white flecks causing it to look a shade lighter than in his youth, the creases in his face deepening ever so slightly. A voice over his shoulder drew him from his reflection.
"Is this what 'New York's Most Eligible Bachelor' does on his Friday night?" Logan prepared to turn but stopped when he saw Finn rounding the table.
"Well I could possibly go home with that waitress over there." Logan pointed her out from across the garden; he caught her eye, she ran in one of the sculptures and turned a brilliant shade of maroon.
"The one who just ran in to the man-like thing in the corner?" Logan nodded "She's practically the same age as Lotte. You can't be serious?"
"No, I'm not. But can't I have a little fun?" Finn scanned over his friend's face; the loss, the pain, the hopelessness etched on it so deeply.
"Hey, it's still early lets go to my club and you can flirt with all the girls – that we know won't sue you in the morning. What do you say, mate?"
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"Yeah, why not." Gulping the last of his scotch he stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair throwing it over his shoulder, eyeing the last few of people in the garden, Logan walked out with Finn.
"Well, mate. I must say I thought I'd be leaving with someone tonight; I just didn't think it would be you."
Rory stood staring at the ticket counter.
"You know you don't have to go. It's not like she's expecting you or anything. You could stay here Rory." She turned to face Jess; his face silently pleaded with her to stay but she couldn't give him that.
"I'll be back in a few days; I'm going to visit my mom, Lane, and Paris; as well so... I'll call when I land." He stepped forward to give her a kiss on the lips, but she turned her head, and he ended up kissing her cheek. Rory stepped forward and received her ticket waving goodbye to Jess where he stood; the look of sadness on his face was overwhelming, but Rory kept on walking. As she sat on the plane she thought of what she was doing. She had run away to Jess when things got hard with Logan, and now she was running back to Logan because of the way things were with Jess. After the six hours on the plane, Rory arrived in the JFK airport. She felt lost; she had not been on the east coast for fifteen years. Rory navigated her passed all the people finding their loved ones, meeting old friend, and people saying goodbye for maybe the last time; found a cab and proceeded to her hotel.
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A horn blared; the sound resonated with in the walls of Albert Boyle's. The sound woke Lotte from her sleep; the neon glow from the building across the way lit the room in an eerie wash of blue. In the deafening silence of the apartment, Lotte moved towards the door noiselessly, not wanting to wake Albie from his slumber. She quietly closed the door behind her locking it with her key. Bracing herself for the walk down the hall way Lotte glanced down to her watch: 3:30 am. As she walked down the hall, she caught the small glimpses of Albie's neighbors' lives: the women in 4D's cat liked to lay spread eagle across the hall way at night, the man in 4A had his milk delivered in the morning, and the couple that live in 4B have close to seven newspapers on their doormat – none of which were her father's. Lotte continued down the hall past the elevator to the stairs and down to the ground floor, she walked out of the lobby and down the few steps to the sidewalk. She pulled her light jacket closer to her body; not because she was cold, no, the emptiness of street was so daunting that she needed to feel fabric closer to her body to have some sense of normalcy. As she walked towards the subway entrance she seem as though she was in her own world floating in and out of the here and now. Lotte stared up at the massive doorframe; she looked around noticing that she had gotten all the way to her home. She had never really taken the time to study the doorframe of her house; it was massive, colossal, as Lotte walked towards it she felt so small. The Lotte opened door slowly and entered, afraid of what would be on the other side, but as the door was pushed open revealing more of the darkened room Lotte knew she was alone. Her father hadn't come home.
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Rory pressed her entire body against the wall of the elevator. There was absolutely no reason for this, the elevator was empty. But Rory was compelled to this to keep her sanity. The doors opened revealing an extremely busy lobby behind glass doors. She walked slowly threw them, the reception desk spanned the wall facing her with three women behind it, wearing very expensive suits and talking into headsets. Rory approached the desk cautiously, catching the eye of the youngest secretary. She smiled.
"Hello ma'am. How can I help you?" Rory tried to refrain from cringing at the word 'ma'am.'
"Yes. I was hoping to see Logan Huntzberger." The woman scoffed.
"Yeah, you and half of New York City." Rory turned to where the woman was now glaring at.
"Why are all those women here?"
"Didn't you read it?"
"Read what?" The women held up a copy of a magazine, with Logan's picture on it. He was laughing his eyes squinted, his mouth open showing his white teeth, and a glass of scotch posed close to his mouth as if he was about to take a drink, and there to the left of his head were the words: Logan Huntzberger named New York City's Most Eligible Bachelor. Rory took in the magazine as if was oxygen she had to read it all take it all in.
"Umm. Excuse me? Who shall I tell him is waiting?" Rory tore her eyes from the cover. What could she say, she could give her real name he'd have her thrown out. Rory stared to realize that she was taking far too long.
"Paris Geller." The woman seemed to accept it and look down towards her desk scanning a piece of paper.
"Please have a seat." The secretary stood up and walked to the back where she disappeared behind a wall.
Logan stared out the window of his office. The events that had transpired on Friday night he had long forgotten, they were of no concern to him; but they weren't what haunted him. The look on her face, that hollow, disgusted, revolted look, that Lotte gave him Saturday morning. She had never looked at him like that; sure he had seen that face when Finn would meet them somewhere with his new arm candy, she used that look on Finn, on her cousins, on Mitchum, on Gigi, but never on him. The slight reflection of his secretary broke the spell.
"Excuse me sir."
"Yes, what is it Sunny?"
"There's a Paris Geller here for you."
"Paris Geller?"
"Yes sir. Her name's on the list of people I'm to notify you are here, isn't it?"
"Yes, yes. Bring her in."
Logan turned to the window again. 'So she finally decided to show up.'
The young secretary came out of the back of the office. She picked up the phone and then went back to work. Rory was confused was she too supposed to sit with the rest of these women and wait to see Logan? A man walked up next to her, she looked up at him, and the secretary coughed.
"Well Ms. Geller, you're right on time for our meeting, please come this way." Rory stood up slowly and followed the man. As they rounded the wall behind the desk, there on the other side of the wall was the young secretary again.
"Thank you, Wally. Right this way Ms. Geller." The young woman walked rather quickly down the hall towards a large oak door. She opened the door and stepped aside to let Rory pass. "Ms. Geller. Mr. Huntzberger." Logan was standing next to a book shelf with his back to the pair.
"Sunny would you please bring Ms. Gilmore a cup of coffee?" Sunny looked rather confused and flicked her gaze between the two. Logan turned, a large book in his hands. "Sunny. Coffee. Please." Sunny nodded and left the room, in a bit of a hurry.
"How did you know it was me?" Rory asked still standing in the doorway.
"Paris hasn't come up here since her second heart attack; her doctor said she should stay away since she tends to get rather worked up after coming here."
"Oh… I didn't…" Rory couldn't really find what words to say, and was quite revealed when she saw Sunny walking down the hall with a tray of coffee.
"Please come in and sit down." Rory moved slowly away from the door frame, just as Sunny walked in and set the coffee tray on a table along side the wall. She began pouring Rory a cup of coffee but Logan stopped her. "Thank you, Sunny. That will be sufficient." Sunny scurried out of the room shutting the door behind her as she went.
"Logan I…" He walked to the tray and finished pour Rory's coffee and handed to her.
"I had a feeling that you would come on of these days." He walked back behind his desk and sat down opening the large book he had had in his hands when Rory walked in; he opened it. Rory now saw that it was a photo album; Logan trailed his fingers over the images. "Here look at what you left behind." He thrust the album towards her muttering something about being later for a lunch meeting and stormed out of the office. Rory could hear him stomping down the hall and out to the lobby, where she was sure, he was met by a large herd of the women waiting there. Rory leaned towards the photos and gazed down at them, they were all of a young girl. Of Charlotte in front of different buildings, riding a horse, lying amongst flowers, laughing on a swing; all pictures of Charlotte. All of her happy.
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Wow sorry it took me so long to post anything, the nothingness of summer distracted me. I hope you enjoy this; you won't have to wait so long for the next post ( I promise.)
Mavis