The Storm Chapter 14: Take a Breath, a gilmore girls fanfic

I want to say thank you to everyone who sent me messages and reviewed the story, reminding me how much they enjoyed it and wanted to see it continue. It means a lot to me that something I started writing for fun almost six years ago still holds peoples' interest.

This chapter is for everyone out there who has reviewed the story and encouraged me to keep going even though I felt like I couldn't write anymore. Especially those who sent me messages telling me to ignore the negative comments I was getting. I also took the time to read all of the reviews I had ever gotten on this story, and was amazed at how many of my favorite authors from GG fanfiction gave me such positive feedback. I am mentioning these authors purely because I know their stories off of the top of my head and know for a fact that they are part of the reason that I wrote fan fiction in the first place, so I wanted to thank them: Hopes2High, KeitaWolf, Gilmoregirl7878 and citygrl.

I have made a promise to myself that I am going to work on this story little by little. I can't guarantee that there will be the same level of detail coming through as there was in the early chapters because I'm not writing from the same place personally as I was then. I am also planning on going back through the story and reposting some edits that I found when I reread the story today.

Courtney

Enjoy!

Lorelai and Rory just leaned back on the sofa and watched Willy Wonka. Each of them was in another world, thinking about what had just happened and what it would mean for their relationship and their life.

Logan woke up that morning remembering what had happened the night before and he couldn't help but smile. He wasn't smiling because he slept with Rory, he was smiling because they cared enough about each other and trusted each other enough to take that step. Sure, he had slept with other girls before, but there was zero emotion was involved in those encounters. Last night with Rory had been nothing but emotion.

Wanting to give her a good morning kiss, Logan rolled over to the other side of the bed. Instead of finding Rory, Logan just found an empty bed. He sat up in a sheer panic. Logan listened for the sounds of the shower running, but didn't hear anything. He also didn't smell any coffee brewing. She wasn't here.

He quickly got out of bed and started looking around his room. Rory's cell phone was gone and so was her purse. He ran downstairs and saw that the alarm had been deactivated. The clothes she wore yesterday were still on the bathroom floor. Where the hell did you go Rory?

Logan picked up his cell phone and dialed her number, but it went straight to voicemail. Now he was panicking. She had run away. She only ran away when she was scared of something, what the hell had happened between when they fell asleep last night and this morning?

He called the next person he could think of, "Tristan, have you heard anything from Rory? I woke up this morning and she was gone. There's no note, she didn't wake me up, I have no idea where she is."

Tristan pulled up in front of Logan's house just as he answered the phone, he knew that Logan would wake up, find Rory missing and assume that something terrible had happened, so as soon as he had dropped Rory off, he turned around and went back to Logan's. He quickly got out of his car and headed toward the side entrance to the house. "I'm outside your door Logan, come let me in."

Logan went to the door and let his cousin in. Immediately Tristan saw that Logan looked like crap. "She's fine Logan."

Logan breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto a chair in the kitchen area. "Where is she?"

Tristan walked past him and went into the kitchen to get a bottle of water and a container of yogurt. "She called me this morning and asked me to come get her and take her home."

Logan's head snapped up. "Why didn't she just –"

Tristan held up his hand, signaling Logan to stop talking. "I have no idea why she called me instead of asking you to take her home. I asked her and all she told me was that she needed to talk to Lorelai about something, and since that something pertained to you, she didn't want to ask you to drive her home. I don't know what she wanted to talk about but it seemed important, and Rory was really out of it."

Logan put his head in his hands out of exasperation. "We slept together last night."

Tristan was in the middle of taking a gulp of the water bottle when he heard what Logan had said. He started blinking and slowly brought the water bottle back down from his lips. "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right, can you say that again."

Logan lifted his head and locked eyes with his cousin. "We slept together."

It took every ounce of self-restraint that Tristan had to keep from lunging across the room and strangling Logan. "Have you lost your damn mind? She had just had a huge fight with Lorelai the night before, she was a mess. She was scared and vulnerable, she thought your entire relationship was changing because she was going to have to go home. This is Rory we're talking about. The girl doesn't make any major life decisions without making a million pro/con lists first and then talking to Lorelai about it!"

Logan felt his temper rising. "I know Tristan! Its not like I planned this! Don't act like you know Rory better than I do, we've all known each other the same amount of time. And lets not forget, I'm the one who has been here for the past year, not you. You got your ass shipped off to military school."

Tristan threw the water bottle across the room. "If you knew her, you never would have done this! Damn it Logan! She's been in love with you for years, she just couldn't admit it to herself. She watched you go through girl after girl all during high school and just toss them aside when you were done with them. Do you know how many times she called me crying, wondering why she wasn't good enough for the guys at Chilton? She would never say you specifically, but I knew that she meant you. Then you two finally get together, and less than a month later you sleep with her. Hell, it probably would have been better if you had planned it, at least then your addle minded brain might have had a chance to realize that she was going to freak out the next morning because she just gave her virginity to her best friend. A best friend who has a track record of "love em and leave em." No wonder she called me this morning!"

Logan sat there taking in everything Tristan had just said to him. He knew Tristan was at least partially right. Rory wasn't a spontaneous person, she never did anything without evaluating the pros and cons. She couldn't even buy a new backpack or book without a list. And last night had been infinitely more monumental than purchasing a backpack or book. He hadn't even thought about the fact that she might freak out this morning, but he should have know that she would. He couldn't help but feel like he had majorly screwed this up.

"I need to go talk to her."

Logan moved to grab his car keys. Tristan stopped him. "Tristan, let me go or I swear to god I will tell every girl in the school that you like guys now. I need to talk to her and you aren't going to stop me."

Tristan gripped Logan's arm more firmly. "First of all, no girl in the school would believe that I was gay, I'm too good of a kisser. Second of all, you need to calm down first. She only just got home. Give her some time to talk to Lorelai and figure out what she is feeling right now. You know as well as I do that when Rory gets scared like this, the worst thing you can do is corner her into talking to you. She'll just clam up and won't say anything. Go take a shower and eat something. Gather your own thoughts and then go over there. Its only 8:30 in the morning."

Logan sighed, "fine. I know you're right." He threw the keys back onto the counter and walked over toward the bathroom.

As Logan was closing the door he heard Tristan yell, "I'm going to wait right here to make sure you actually take that shower, eat, and give her some time before leaving."

He slammed the door to the bathroom. Logan hated that Tristan knew him so well.

Rory slowly began to wake up from her deep sleep on the couch. She refused to open her eyes yet, she wanted to remain in her dream world for just a little while longer before she had to start dealing with everything. She sighed, "dealing with" was the wrong way to say it. She didn't need to deal with it, she and Logan needed to talk about what had happened last night, they needed to talk about their relationship and how they were going to handle all of the sudden changes, both good and bad. Rory smiled as she thought back to last night. It had been perfect. Logan was so careful and gentle with her, but at the same time he let her explore and learn new things about herself. It might not have been the "candle light and roses" that so many girls picture, but it was everything she ever hoped her first time would be. She didn't regret it at all. She could still feel the way his hands made her tremble, the way he held her as he moved and whispered into her ear, the way she fell asleep wrapped up in his arms. They had been in their own world.

Rory curled into her blanket and drifted back to sleep reliving the memories from the night before. Lorelai felt her daughter fall back asleep and was about to close her eyes as well when she heard a commotion upstairs. Quickly and quietly Lorelai extracted her arm from underneath Rory and went upstairs to see what was going on. Before she could even reach the top of the stairs, she heard Logan's voice. I should have known he would show up soon.

Logan was about to open the door to the basement when Lorelai slipped out and held up her hand, signaling him to stop. "She's sleeping Logan, just let her be right now."

"I woke up this morning and she was gone. What is wrong? Is she ok? Why didn't she wake me up?"

Lorelai sighed. She could tell from the look of sheer panic on Logan's face right now that he not only truly loved her daughter, but also was very concerned about what happened to make Rory leave like that.

"Logan, deep breaths. Rory is fine, nothing is wrong, she just needed to come home and talk to me this morning, ok?"

Logan took a moment and as he as about to open his mouth and ask more questions, Lorelai stopped him.

"Logan, if you want to keep talking, why don't we go into another room. I don't want Chris to hear us talking and then try to kill you."

To say that Logan was shocked would be an understatement. He felt like his Aunt Lorelai just knocked the wind out of him. All he could manage to do was nod his head and then follow her into her home office.

Lorelai settled herself on the couch in her office and waited for Logan to take a seat and process what she had just alluded to.

She knows. Why does Lorelai know?

"Logan, look at me." Logan stopped fiddling with his hands in his lap and looked up at her. "Rory is my only daughter. I love her more than anything in the world and I am closer to her than any mother in Hartford is with their daughter. That is what happens when you have a kid at 16. They turn into your best friend instead of your daughter." Lorelai paused to look Logan in the eye, making sure that he was understanding what she was saying. Logan nodded, signaling her to continue.

"Her entire life, Rory has told me everything as soon as it happened. And I mean everything. I know it seems strange, and it probably is, but Rory woke up this morning and realized that something major had just happened and she needed to tell me. So being Rory, she decided to leave and come find me. She doesn't regret what happened, she isn't having second thoughts, she just needed to tell me."

Logan understood all of that, he had never questioned the uniquely close relationship that Rory and Lorelai had but that didn't explain everything.

"But Aunt Lorelai, why didn't she wake me up? Why did she call Tristan to come get her and then just leave like that? I would have understood, hell I would have driven her here myself so long as I could escape before Uncle Chris found out what happened."

Rory woke up when the Willy Wonka credits began to play and she expected to find her mother passed out next to her, but Lorelai was gone. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Rory stretched and walked up the basement stairs in search of her mother. Rory headed towards Lorelai's office, figuring that Lorelai had gotten a work call and was in there dealing with whatever emergency was going on at the Dragonfly.

As Rory got closer to the door, she could hear two voices and quickly realized that Logan was in there. Not wanting to interrupt them, but still wanting to know what they were talking about, Rory listened at the door to the conversation.

When he spoke, Rory heard the pain in his voice. She had hurt him by leaving the way she did, she hadn't been thinking about how it would look to him when she took off earlier that morning, all she was thinking about was the fact that she wanted to get home to Lorelai.

Rory took a deep breath and pushed open the office door. Both Lorelai and Logan turned to see Rory standing there, and relief flashed across Logan's face. "I was scared."

Rory's voice was barely above a whisper and Logan almost didn't hear her. He walked across to the room and simply said, "Come here Ace." He took Rory into his arms and led her over to the couch.

"What are you scared of Rory?"

She curled into his side, rested her head on his shoulder, and closed her eyes so she could gather her thoughts. "I'm scared of everything. I'm scared that you and I were moving so fast, I'm scared that I had driven my parents away and made them hate me, I'm scared about everything I feel for you and how intense those feelings are, but most of all I was just scared because I hadn't talked to Mom yet about everything that had happened."

Lorelai watched as Rory explained herself to Logan and realized that they all needed to have a talk about this relationship and how to handle the situation. She, Chris, Shira, and Mitchum would sit down and talk, and then they would talk to Rory and Logan.

Logan stroked Rory's hair as she talked, trying to keep her calm. "Rory, will you please promise me something?"

Rory looked up from his shoulder and wiped the ears from her eyes, "what?"

He put his hand under her chin and raised her face so she could see his eyes. Logan brushed his thumb across her cheek, "no matter how scared you are, no matter how much you need to talk to Lorelai, don't ever leave like that again without waking me up or even leaving a note. You scared me half to death. I thought something happened to you, I thought you left because I had done something wrong. It killed me to wake up this morning and realize you weren't in bed."

Rory saw the hurt in his eyes and flung her arms around his neck, "I promise Logan, I'm so sorry. Last night was so perfect and –"

Lorelai finally spoke up, "Ok stop right there. Mom is still in the room, remember?"

Lorelai got up from behind her desk, walked over to the two of them on the couch, and sat down on the edge of the coffee table. "Look, the both of you need to understand that, while I understand and support the relationship that you have, I don't want to hear about certain things." She looked straight at Logan, "Rory only told me about what happened last night because it was the first time and because she promised me a long time ago that when it happened, whoever it was with, she would tell me. That being said, details and discussion end there, and you better hope to god Chris doesn't find out about this anytime soon."

Lorelai stood up and motioned for the teens to follow her. They all left her office and headed into the kitchen down the hall. Lorelai went straight towards the coffee machine, "I need massive amounts of caffeine right now."

Rory and Logan had just sat themselves down at the island when Rory's stomach let out a loud growl. Lorelai turned around and started laughing at her daughter. "Forget to eat something this morning Ror?"

Rory smiled, "I guess so." She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost noon. "It is too late for breakfast, how about some lunch?"

Lorelai looked at her daughter and the leaned on the counter next to her, "has living at Logan's for the past month caused your memory to fail?" She began to jokingly "inspect" Rory for damage. "I can't cook sweetie. In fact, the only things I am allowed near in this kitchen are the fridge, the freezer and the coffee maker. If it involves any more skill than scooping coffee grounds into the machine, pouring coffee, or putting ice cream into a bowl, I'm banned from it."

Logan quickly got off the stool and began rummaging around in the fridge, "you may be banned from cooking Aunt Lorelai, but I'm not."

Lorelai handed Rory a mug of coffee and took Logan's seat at the counter. The two women watched intently as Logan bustled around the kitchen. After Rory had finished her first cup of coffee and got up for a refill, she finally spoke, "Logan, you can cook?"

He laughed at her, "who do you think has been cooking most of your meals for the past month? Little elves?" He turned the oven on and, while he was waiting for it to warm up, he chopped up the food he had taken out of the fridge and added them to the meal. He quickly spread the sauce over the dough and sprinkled cheese on top. Just as he finished preparing the mini pizzas, the oven beeped letting him know that it had reached the right temperature. Lorelai and Rory jumped at the noise. Logan put the pizzas into the oven and set the timer for 35 minutes.

He turned around and was met with the amazed stares of Lorelai and Rory.

Rory looked at her mother, "Did you know the oven made that noise?"

Lorelai shook her head, "I knew it made noises but I never knew that the noises actually meant certain things . . ."

Just then Chris walked into the kitchen and surveyed the scene before him. There were dishes everywhere, including knives but there was also no sign of blood. It was then that he noticed Lorelai and Rory were looking utterly perplexed at the oven, and Logan staring at them in disbelief. He felt a surge of emotion come over him when he saw Logan in his kitchen. He was still incredibly angry about what had happened on the tarmac, and while he didn't know exactly what had caused Rory to act that way, he knew that Logan played some part in it. Chris caught his wife's eyes and Lorelai, subtly nodded at him, indicating that everything was fine. He took a deep breath and let his anger pass. Chris walked over to Rory and kissed her on the head, then kissed his wife.

"I heard the oven go off and figured that Logan had to be here because there is no way that Lorelai or Rory would ever be able to go near that thing without setting the smoke detector off."

Logan laughed and smiled at the comment, "Rory's stomach let out a gigantic growl before and rather than let her starve or worse, gorge herself on crap, I decided to make pizzas for lunch."

Chris walked over and patted Logan on the back, "smart man. You learned the rules of dealing with Gilmore Girls at a very young age." Chris started the list by holding up a finger, "never withhold coffee."

Logan continued and held up a second finger, "never deny them food."

"Never try to feed them vegetables."

"Don't wake them up early without coffee and don't try to talk to them until they've had at least 3 cups of it."

"And finally, never let them near a kitchen otherwise you will no longer have a house."

The two men burst out laughing as they watched Lorelai and Rory scowl at them. Logan took a deep breath before turning to Chris. He needed to work up his nerve in order to have this conversation. "Uncle Chris? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Christopher Hayden turned and looked Logan in the eye. He saw the seriousness on Logan's face and simply nodded towards his study. The two men disappeared down the hall.

Lorelai watched in disbelief as the scene played out before her. When she heard the study door shut, she turned to Rory. "Do you have any idea what that is about?"

Rory shook her head, "I don't have a damn clue."

Please read and review!

I know its been forever since I updated this, but I'm finally getting my motivation back a little. I promise I will finish this story and it will be worthy of all the positive feedback and encouragement I received from all of you over the years.