AN: Whether you realize it or not, we are at the end of this journey. Thus, I have some thanking to do. First, foremost and most importantly, fulfilled, my very wonderful beta and cheerleader. The plot would have been about the same, but the story would not have been nearly as good I readily acknowledge. She has helped me in more ways than I can even begin to say, so thank you so very much, it was my privilege that you contacted me, and wanted to help with this story, meeting someone new, making a friend the wonderful benefit. If you've never read her stories, fulfilled is a wonderful writer herself. A Rory fan, she is both a Sophie and a Lit - I know, boggles the mind, she loves Rory and always wanted what was best for her - I highly encourage you to search for her pen name and read her work.

But I also want to thank my friend iolite23, who encouraged me from the start of my nascent idea. Thanks, Claudia, ever so much.

Finally, to all those that have read, and most especially, reviewed. I appreciate each and every one of you, very much. Sometimes the comments confound me, sometimes they make me laugh, most times I'm unbelievably touched, I've tried to convey that in my comments back to you, but if I didn't quite hit the correct note, this is to let you know. Thank you ever so much.

I hadn't planned on writing something like this, honestly I tend to not have the time, but I found a couple I really love, in Rory & Logan, and I think have so much potential that it ended up being easy to tell a story about them. Thank you for coming along for the ride. If you have me on author alert then you will be notified, but to let those of you that don't - I have two more stories to post, both one-shots I wrote during S6 & 7. So know those are coming here very soon. I will shut up now, and let you finish the story, but I just wanted to say a very grateful thank you to everyone that's read this story, a special thank you to those that left comments, favorited or followed the story; but really, thank you to everyone that read it.

Epilogue

"Whoever decided there is such a thing as global warming has never been to Antarctica," Rory grumbled to Logan as he walked through the door of their bunkroom.

"Well the point isn't that it's not cold," he reasoned, trying to get as close to Rory as possible, she had command of their heating unit.

"Yeah, well, that's pretty obvious," she cut him off with a snarl.

"The point is," he laughed, "that it's warmer than it used to be."

"Again, obviously the person doing the measuring was not here to see for themselves how cold, cold can be," she replied sarcastically, holding her covered hands out to the heater.

"I don't think the people doing the measuring were doing it by how cold they personally were at the time," he returned, attempting logic. "They have thermometers and such that measure precisely how cold it was, and how much warmer it is now."

"Thank you very much mister meteorologist. And what would your five day extended forecast be?" she snapped back. "Oh I think I might be able to do that all on my own. Cold and windy with a chance of windy and cold!"

"Rory," he laughed at her exasperation.

"I think we can confirm for sure why the dinosaurs died. After having lived in lush tropical weather for thousands of years, who exactly would want to live through this?" she asked with a dramatic wave of her hand. "At least we'll get to leave in a couple of weeks and go somewhere warmer. They didn't have that option. The whole planet was like this!"

"There are proven methods of warming oneself," Logan suggested wryly.

"If you think I'm going to do anything which involves actually taking layers of clothing off, you are sadly mistaken, mister," she returned, outrage hot in her voice.

"Well, it's been proven to be the best way to warm yourself up, outside of hopping in a hot tub when on skiing trips," he shot back with a grin.

"Hmm, yeah, I'm not one of your little snow bunnies," she retorted.

"I'm writing Mom as soon as I get the nerve up to take off my gloves long enough to type something. She thinks snow is magical, that it's her good luck charm. I, however, have discovered why Dante's higher levels of hell were colder, not hotter. This is hell on earth."

"Three weeks, Ace," he reminded her with a chuckle in his voice. "Three weeks and we're out of here for good."

"You owe me time on a tropical beach where I can get fruity drinks with paper umbrellas and lots of fruit in them," she groused back.

"I do believe that can be arranged," he readily agreed, letting his thoughts drift to warm tropical sun, and Rory in much less clothing than she currently was wearing

"Remind me to never let your father suggest a story for us ever again."

FIN

Endnote - And so ends this mini saga. I originally posted this in the hiatus between seasons 6 & 7, it was spec fic and I had no clue as to how they were planning on ending Rory's story on the show. That said, I stand by this story as being truer to the character of Rory than her going off on her own to be an "independent woman." That may sound arrogant, but Rory was NEVER a happily independent girl. She wanted to ditch Chilton for a boy she'd just met, but who smiled at her and was becoming her first crush, in the freaking pilot! During the first three seasons she was never single - she happily rode the bus back to Stars Hollow to the comforts of Dean or Jess, Lorelai and home - when she ended up single in the forth season she was miserable to the point of giving her virginity to a married man because he reminded her of safety and happiness. On the path to professional success Yale was everything Rory could have possibly wanted, yet, she was miserable. Nothing on the seven seasons of the show create a picture of a truly happy & fulfilled girl with nothing in her life but her career. I think the girl I loved throughout the show would have jumped at the chance of a partnership and adventure with the man she loved, not turned her back on it. Lorelai was the runner, Rory the stayer or anchor. I was honestly just as heartbroken for Rory as I was for Logan by the choice the writers made, and have never actually seen the series finale. This story, or some version of Persuasion - be it cuppajoe's fic or the classic of Austen - are my canon. Rory didn't walk away from love, ever, she certainly wouldn't have thrown it away. She would have told Logan she wasn't ready yet, or something like that, not stomped on his heart. You will never convince me that Rory would walk away from something she had worked so hard to keep strong.

My guess has always been that the writers wanted to give Lorelai a traditional happy ending with Luke, finally getting what she could never seem to quite find, and that also giving a similar ending to Rory would be redundant. Or maybe they wanted to give hope to Jess fans, though Daniel Paladino himself had closed that door in s6. I disagree, and don't think it remained true to the character ASP created. I know a lot of folks ended the show upset at what Rory did to Logan, I ended my relationship with the show because I was dismayed at what the writers did to Rory by making her do that to Logan. /rant

Thank you for reading, reviews are always greatly appreciated!