Chapter 9
"My mom is my hero!" Rory declared, flopping back down next to Logan on the couch in their new apartment.
"Well that's not exactly news, but what did Lorelai do to get those sorts of accolades today?" he asked, not moving from his recumbent position.
"She arranged weeks ago for both of us to have full spa days at Bliss if we want them. I don't know how interested you'll be in getting a mani and pedi, and then a salt scrub and seaweed wrap, but a massage would probably hit the spot for you as well as me."
"That sounds great, and while I'm not usually one for an overly metrosexual type of lifestyle," Logan chuckled, still not moving, "my cuticles look like they just came through The Birds and a massage sounds fantastic. My body is so tired and aches in places that I didn't even know it was possible to ache in."
"She also arranged for hair appointments next door, which, considering the fact that we apparently are expected at my grandparents on Friday and my hair is an absolute disaster, is fantastic as well," she mumbled sleepily. "And you're going to have to shave, which is sad, I like the stubble you've been sporting for months now."
"Your hair looks fine - you just need a haircut since you haven't had once since the wedding," he said, stroking her head resting against his hip.
"We're having dinner at Emily and Richard's on Friday?"
"Yeah," she confirmed with a yawn. "Dad, Mom, and Luke will also be there."
"Oh this should be fun," he laughed, joining her in exhausted sleep.
"They got stuck in traffic on the 95 - they said they would be here in about five or ten minutes," Lorelai relayed, closing her cell phone.
"Oh, well good. Would anyone like another drink?" Richard asked, getting up to head toward the drink cart.
"Lorelai, you really haven't seen them yet?" Emily questioned skeptically.
"No," Lorelai replied handing her glass to her father. "I arranged for them to both get pampered a bit yesterday, and Rory has been complaining about her hair for the last couple of months. It was really long when we saw them, so I made her an appointment to get it cut as well."
"Oh, that was a wonderful idea," Emily exclaimed. "Not being in a place where you're unable to get a decent haircut or anything else for months on end must be horrible."
"Well, I'm sure that if she had tried hard enough she would have been able to find something in Mexico City," Lorelai answered. "It is a totally modern city with horrible pollution, over population, and traffic worse than L.A."
"I'm sure it is, but I still don't think I would want to trust someone I didn't know to cut my hair," Emily replied.
"I know I'm really excited to see them," Honor piped in. "Even though Lorelai, Luke, Josh and I all saw them last month, it wasn't for very long, and I've missed my baby brother."
"I know Rory's always saying how close the two of you are," Lorelai commented "but I don't think I realized how close till the weekend in the Dominican. I must have seen your blonde heads stuck together a zillion times, those bright heads do stick out. Very Osmandesque."
"I think it was survival," Honor laughed, accepting a freshened drink from Richard. "Neither of us would have turned out as normal as we did without each other. Not that we're 'normal,'" she laughed, her husband nodding his agreement. "Mom loves us both, but she has a tendency to smother, since Dad was rarely around. Dad loves us, in his own way. But it's all wrapped up in obligation and expectations, especially for Logan. We always got to just be ourselves when we were together. We didn't expect anything else from one another.
"I think that's why he loves Rory so much. She loves Logan, and could care less that he's Logan Huntzberger. He didn't encounter many girls like that, if any, besides her," she finished as the doorbell rang.
"Oh they're here," Richard jumped up, heading toward the door.
"Oh my goodness," Emily exclaimed, following her husband. "I feel like the conquering heroes have returned."
"I do believe they have," Richard agreed, opening the door with a flourish and an enthusiastic, "Rory, Logan, welcome home!"
Rory hugged her grandparents first, since she had seen her mother, Luke, Honor and Josh, recently. Logan went to embrace his sister and brother-in-law, first, then came back to give Emily a kiss on the cheek and Richard a warm handshake, Richard giving him a hearty slap on the back. Rory went to Honor, giving her an excited hug, with "I'm so thrilled you're here!"
Christopher gave them both hugs, enthusing about how proud he was of them and excited he was to see them both.
Luke hung back a bit, but greeted them both warmly when they sought him out. Lorelai threaded her arms through both of theirs, once she had given them both strangling hugs, leading them back into the living room.
"It's very exciting the adventures the two of you have had," Emily began after everyone had sat down and Richard had gotten drinks for Logan and Rory. "We don't even have to ask you to share your pictures because we've been able to follow along with you while you've been away."
"Actually, there's a lot of stuff you haven't seen yet. We're thinking about making a limited access side of the site that you have to get into with a password so we can post some of our personal pictures there. We have some beautiful stuff we didn't put on the site from India in particular," Logan explained. "We put most of the stuff in Tanzania on the site, but we have a few personal pictures to share."
"It is all very exciting," Emily enthused. "So cutting edge. And you both look fantastic! Lorelai said you got your haircut yesterday, Rory?"
"I did - it was way too long, and I had to wear it up all the time," Rory nodded.
"It was really healthy though," Lorelai interjected. "What was it you said you were putting in it?"
"Cocoa butter, avocado and banana," Logan answered.
"Yeah, it made my hair look great," Rory agreed. "It was just way too long."
"Made you smell good enough to eat," Logan smiled, stroking her hair.
"Ew, dirty," Lorelai gasped. "Not an image I really wanted to think of."
"Though it does call to mind the first time the three of us 'met' Logan," Christopher cut in with a laugh, indicting himself, Lorelai and Luke. "At least, I think it was the first time you met him, Lor."
"Dad!" Rory gasped.
"What are you talking about?" Emily asked.
"Besides the wedding and Rory's graduation, the only time I can think of that of you three were all at something together was our vow renewal a few years ago," Richard continued.
"Well, when you wanted to take a picture of the wedding party…well, Rory and Logan were in the dressing room doing a bit more than just kissing," Christopher laughed.
"Dad, do you really need to tell this?" Rory exclaimed. "It's not like you're drunk this time – you can't use that as an excuse."
"It does sound very much like my little brother," Honor smiled mischievously.
"Oh, come on, Rory, you're safely married. It's not like anything the two of you did before everything was legally approved of by the state of Connecticut and God can be held against you now," Christopher defended. "Plus, these are the kinds of stories you're going to want to tell your grandkids."
"But not my grandparents!" Rory said, blushing fiercely and shaking her head.
"Or we could discuss how you and Luke each tried to out machismo one another," Lorelai quipped, trying to save their daughter from complete embarrassment.
"I didn't even know the two of you were dating at our vow renewal," Emily commented, laughing at Rory's horror. Christopher was right; Rory and Logan were safely married. Anything that was inappropriate or unseemly before had ceased to matter the moment he had slipped the ring on her finger. Emily's own misgivings about their premarital sex life had flown out the window with that one action, as well.
"We weren't," Logan admitted putting his arm around his wife. "I was interested, but avoiding Rory because I was afraid of what would happen."
"Meaning?" Richard asked amusement apparent in his voice. "Though knowing how things went with the two of you, and your past reputation, Logan…." he drew out with a deliberate note in his voice.
"I was happily living the life of a carefree and fun-loving playboy college student. I had a well earned reputation for, shall we say, living life to its fullest," Logan chuckled. "I don't think anyone in this room would disagree with what I told her that night when she asked me why I hadn't asked her out."
"You haven't even told me this story, little brother," Honor laughed. "I do have a feeling I know the answer though."
"She's special," Logan smiled, reaching over to squeeze his wife's hand with his free one, entwining them in his lap. "I think I was quite afraid of what might happen - what ended up happening."
"Which was?" Richard continued to prompt, smiling at the two of them.
"I would end up falling in love with her and change my entire life because of it. I wasn't ready for Rory when she walked into my life. I figured I would meet someone like Rory many more years in the future, if ever. But life happens sometimes and you have to be prepared to embrace what it offers," he smiled, leaning over to kiss Rory's temple. "What Lorelai, Christopher and Luke interrupted was the beginning of the end of my carefree single days and the opening bid of Rory's absolute strangle hold on my heart."
"Why don't we head into the dining room," Emily suggested, beaming toward the young couple sitting on the couch. "We're having pot roast, potatoes, and Parker House rolls, with hot fudge sundaes for dessert. I know the both of you love that and I figured you hadn't had it in a while."
"Grandma, everything smells wonderful," Rory smiled as the main course was brought to the table.
"Yes, Emily, it smells fantastic," Logan agreed. "Thank you. We've had some wonderful food where we've been, but sometimes you just want what tastes like home."
"A cheeseburger at Luke's," Rory sighed, smiling over at Luke, widening her eyes to give him her most innocent and wistful look.
"I'll be happy to make you one," Luke laughed, chuckling at both of them.
"Thanks. We were having a zebra steak in Tanzania and Rory started waxing nostalgic about if she could just get one of your cheeseburgers life would be pretty perfect."
"Well, tomorrow, cheeseburgers from me are on the menu," Luke continued. "Aren't both of you going back to Stars Hollow tonight?"
"Yeah," Logan confirmed. "We're going into the city though tomorrow night to meet Colin and Finn for dinner."
"I've even gotten the two of you a new, bigger, bed, since I'm sure Rory's single wasn't the greatest for both of you," Lorelai told them.
"Thanks, Mom," Rory smiled. "You're right, it was a tight fit."
"But it also brought back some memories of our early days together," Logan chuckled.
"Logan!" Rory gasped.
"Oh, it's all right, Ace," Logan smirked. "Remember, it's all been made official in the eyes of, well, anyone whose eyes would disapprove of our premarital activities."
"You're incorrigible," she muttered.
"Always have been, Ace," he winked. "You love that about me."
"Speaking of going back to the city, we have gifts for everyone," Rory quickly changed the subject. "But we haven't gotten a chance to go through all our bags yet, so we didn't bring them all tonight. Would it be okay to come back next Friday for dinner, Grandma? I mean, if no one has plans - we can do it some other time if it's not good for everyone."
"No Rory," Emily said with a pleased smile. "Next Friday would be perfect."
"But we did bring one gift with us, for Grandpa," Rory told everyone, reaching down to get a bag she had put next to her chair. She handed it to Richard, who was sitting to her left, and began to explain.
"We took a couple of weeks to get to Mexico from Tanzania. Logan surprised me with a side trip to Egypt - we went to Alexandria, the Valley of the Kings, Cairo, and then a short trip to…"
"Fez," Richard finished for her with a laugh, holding a hat in his hand.
"Yes, Fez," Rory smiled with him. "He asked me at the graduation party why you mentioned Fez in your toast, so I explained it to him. And he surprised me with a short trip there."
"So now if anyone ever asks if you've been to Fez, you can answer yes," Richard laughed conspiratorially.
"Okay, am I the only one that doesn't have a clue what just happened here?" Christopher asked, looking around the table, most everyone else was as confused as him. "I don't think inside jokes are appropriate at family gatherings."
"Shortly after Rory began Chilton," Richard began after getting a nod from Rory, "she came to the club with me, and told me for the first time that she wanted to be a journalist. Like Christiane Amanpour - if I remember correctly. Go to exotic places, to tell the stories of those that couldn't tell them themselves. One place she told me she wanted to go was…"
"Fez," the table finished for him.
"Yes," he chuckled. "And now if anyone ever asks, she will be able to say she's been there. How was it?"
"The bazaar was amazing. We got lots of stuff for everyone there. Some carpets, a bunch of these amazing gilded and embroidered material squares…" she trailed off when the doorbell rang.
"Who in the world would be coming by at this hour?" Richard asked.
"I have no idea," Emily said turning toward the front door. "Everyone would already have plans for this evening. This is odd."
"I know the way to the dining room," a disembodied male voice could be heard from the foyer.
"Oh God," Logan groaned as he recognized the voice.
"Shit," his sister said. "I'm so sorry," she breathed to Emily.
"How did he find out we're back already?" Rory whispered, her hand seeking out Logan's under the table.
"No, I do not care that the family is at dinner. Two of them are my son and daughter-in-law. Now get out of my way."
Richard had gotten up and moved to the foyer and could now be heard greeting their unexpected guest. "Mitchum, how are you?"
"Richard," Mitchum greeted his old friend, his voice laced with sarcasm. "So nice of you to invite me to the family welcome home for Logan and Rory."
"We assumed you would be doing something for them yourselves."
"No, you knew that Logan would be avoiding me for as long as possible," Mitchum declared as he entered the room.
"I have no idea how he found out," Emily hissed under her breath toward a now edgy Rory and Logan, as the two men's voices approached the dining room. "I didn't tell anyone we were having you for dinner tonight."
"He probably has someone watching the house," Logan muttered as he got his first look at his father.
"Dad," Logan, gritted out, his tone as tense as his shoulders. "If we were trying to avoid you we wouldn't have scheduled a meeting with you first thing Monday morning."
"Honor, when did you become a member of the Gilmore clan? So nice to see that your sister was kept informed as to when you would be home," Mitchum bit back, shooting a look between his two children, "but you didn't feel any sort of need to tell me? All I'm worth is a business meeting."
"I'm not taking sides here," Honor defended. "I'm just supporting Logan and Rory."
"I think that's called choosing sides, my dear," her father laughed caustically.
"I don't call it that," Honor replied, raising her chin.
"Thank you, Honor, we can take it from here," Logan interrupted, his forgotten fork clattering back to the table, startling everyone in the room. "Dad, we knew that if we wanted to have dinner with you, Mom and Grandpa, it wouldn't just be a relaxed welcome home dinner like this one has been. It would end up being all about business."
"Yes," Mitchum agreed acerbically, his hand sweeping to include all the room's occupants, "but it would have been a happy homecoming had you not decided to shirk your responsibilities and gallivant around the planet playing junior reporter."
"Now wait a minute," Richard interjected, starting to get back up from his seat.
"Grandpa," Rory interrupted him, putting a hand over his, "we can handle this. We need to handle this."
"You gave us six months to have a honeymoon," Logan said calmly, the vice grip he had on Rory's hand belying his tone. "We used a month of that for fun and frivolity, and, as you know, we've been working for the rest of it."
"I have a place for both of you, Logan" Mitchum interrupted, with a flick of his hand. "You have responsibilities. You both want to tell stories for a living? What the hell do you think the hundreds of reporters I employ do for a living? What the hell do you think HPG…"
"Yes, Dad, you do," Logan cut him off. "You have a place for both of us in a dying industry. It doesn't matter how great the writing is at the newspapers we own; the younger news consumer has rejected that as a medium. You know it and I know it. We've had a zillion meetings in HPG to try figure out how to stop the bleeding and all we seem to be able to do is stem it a bit, not stop it. We're going the way of the horse and carriage, and if we don't adapt, then we're going to be irrelevant by the time I'm your age."
"That is entirely possible - I don't deny it," Mitchum reluctantly agreed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, seeming to be on the defensive for the first time since he had walked into the room. "You know I agree with you, and we've been trying to adapt and modernize for years."
"With how much success?" Logan asked, getting a reassuring squeeze from Rory.
"You know the answer to that," Mitchum answered, running his fingers through his hair. "You just said we have stemmed, not stopped, the bleeding. The entire newspaper industry, print media, is in freefall."
"Exactly," Logan nodded, sneaking a glance at his wife, and getting an encouraging smile. "No matter what we've done it hasn't solved our problem."
"So you just go off, behind my back. Why the hell didn't you come to me?" Mitchum barked, banging his hand on the table.
"You know why," Logan answered forcefully, flipping an open hand toward his father.
"No I don't," Mitchum answered.
"Yes, you do, Dad," Logan sighed. "Had we come to you telling you what we wanted to do, you would have told us to go to hell. That what we were planning to do was impossible, a flight of fancy, frivolous. You would have tried to stop us, not helped us, which is what we needed. So we went around you instead."
"Well that's rather obvious," Mitchum bit out, fire coming back into his eyes.
"What," Rory interrupted the exchange. "What about what we did do you disapprove of? That we did it, or that we did it without your involvement?"
"That…that…that," Mitchum stammered.
"Do you think our stories weren't good? That they weren't valid?" she continued, unlacing her hand from Logan's to lay it on his upper arm.
"No, I liked all three stories, though had you had asked me, I would have recommended that you do the Kilimanjaro story first," he answered her, turning for the first time to look at someone besides his son. "It's not as emotionally resonant of a story, and there wasn't as much meat there, so you could have used the time to learn and develop your style. Instead, you had to do that on the female babies in India one. Otherwise I thought you did an excellent job."
"I would agree with you, about Tanzania," Rory conceded, with a nod. "But we didn't know that when we were planning our trip out."
"Thank you," Logan accepted. "But if had I come to you eight months ago when we were first putting the site together, what would you have said? I was getting close to the end of a year you had forced me to work in London, where I learned a hell of a lot, but I was miserable. Do you really think you would have just said, 'Okay, Logan, go do what you want'?"
"I don't know," Mitchum answered honestly, after a moment, his open palmed hands shrugging up.
"And we couldn't take that chance," Logan answered back, with a pulling smile, reaching over to loosely lace his fingers with Rory's free hand. "You know as well as I do that the chances of you trying to shut us down before we ever started are very high. If we wanted to see if we could do this, we had to do it without you knowing.
"Instead of a nascent idea, just a dream, we come to you with three successful stories that we've done. Five site contributors already and more trying to gain access - we just have to try to decide whom we want to accept. We're even in negotiations with Michael Yon to contribute. We also have meetings next week with potential advertisers, not just google ads or blog ads, but actual advertisers for the site.
"I'm not trying to say we didn't deceive you. We did," he conceded with a nod. "But we did it so we would have something to present to you, instead of just something we were talking about. It was too important to us to give you veto over it. We were planning on presenting all of this to you on Monday, but instead, I'm still starving and my roast is cold, as is everyone's but Lorelai's."
"Watching a tennis match makes me ravenous," she laughed with a wicked grin. "I just kept eating."
"Why don't we get the rest of the roast from the kitchen, add another place setting, and we'll talk like the family we all are," Richard suggested.
"That's fine with me," Logan agreed. "Dad?" he asked with a cocked brow.
"That would be fine," Mitchum nodded, waiting for the maid to bring a chair, before sitting between Richard and Christopher.
"Logan," Mitchum started again, once everyone had been served, "why did you do it? You knew I had places for both of you - you could have been doing stories like this working for me."
"Yes, but not together. I learned a hell of a lot last year while I was in London, but I hated every second I was away from home, because Rory is home for me, Dad," Logan began. "I lived for the few weekends I got to come home and see her, or she could come over and stay with me. We didn't want to do that as newlyweds; we wanted to do something together.
"Plus, we both know that it will be at least another decade before you even begin to think about stepping down," Logan explained. "You love the news business. You love the adrenaline rush, the hustle and bustle of it. Well, I've learned that I do too. And if there's going to be a Huntzberger Publishing Group for me to one day perhaps take over, something had to change. Plus, you're not that old, and really, I'm not very interested in the management side of the business right now.
"It was your idea?" Mitchum asked Logan.
"The initial idea was mine," he confirmed. "Rory was involved with and oversaw the design."
"It's a beautiful site," Mitchum complimented Rory, genuinely, smiling over at his daughter-in-law.
"Thank you," she accepted, looking down at her lap, not knowing how to react to praise from her father-in-law, then looking up to meet his gaze with a small smile.
"It's extremely user friendly and easy to maneuver around," he continued. "You did a wonderful job."
"Thank you," she repeated, her smile growing.
"I just thought it would be easier to get you to agree to let us continue if we presented you with a finished product rather than with an idea," Logan started again, pointing his fork toward his father. "Plus, like I said, we knew you would be sending us off to all the corners of the earth separately, and we would never get to see each other. And that's not good for us long term. Not as a couple, even if we both learned a lot. We didn't like last year, either of us. Even if we did become closer in some ways, in others it was awful.
"So instead we're learning together, learning to craft a narrative, and doing it in a modern medium. It's good for everyone. And in a few years when we decide to start a family, we can cut back on the international travel, come back to New York, and maybe take positions at HPG. We're learning the business from the ground floor, by telling stories; we're just telling them differently, or using a new portal to tell them than how it's been done in the past. Eventually that's going to be good for everyone."
TBC
Endnote - There is still a short epilogue that will be posted as the final update of this story.
Also, I wanted to bring up my very great thanks for the lovely reviews that have been left. I respond to all the ones that are registered users, but to the guest/anon folks, I just want to take the opportunity to say thank you so much for your kind words. Someone mentioned in the first work related chapter that they thought this was interesting because they're partners, not Logan as the boss. I'm pretty sure I already brought up my love for FNAFF, and there they are partners, each doing their part and what is necessary to get the paper out. And then he supports her being made editor, which technically made her his boss. So, that's how I see them, partners, who each have their strengths which are greater together than apart.
Thanks for reading, reviews are always greatly appreciated.