Disclaimer: I do not own the Gilmore Girls or any of its characters, nor do I have any connection or affiliation with the actors and actresses, producers, show-runners or the CW. Because let's face it – if I did, Gilmore Girls would still be on, Rory would've married Logan, and I wouldn't be writing this fanfic.

Rating: PG for now, for language.

Major Relationships: Rory & Logan, with Luke & Lorelai from time to time.

Author's Note: Hope you continue to enjoy the updates.

If I Never See You Again

By Heather Nicole

Chapter 14

Logan tried to focus on the Ikea catalog. He really did.

But he couldn't get his mind off the situation with Rory and Lorelai.

Rory couldn't just call up her mother and tell her she'd skipped her plane to Iowa and instead charged a ticket to California on her grandparents' American Express card to come move in with him. That conversation just wouldn't go well over the phone. Lorelai simply wouldn't take it well.

Rory and Lorelai had spent too much time apart and fighting over the past few years, from what Logan knew personally and from what he had ascertained. And he also knew that while Lorelai did like him as a person and didn't think he was some sort of assassin or horrible human being, he also knew that Lorelai was possessive over Rory. It was a universal parental emotion, and he couldn't blame her for it. Most every parent experienced it, if in different ways. In Logan's case, his father was possessive over his career. In the case of his mother and grandfather, they were possessive over his social status. Lorelai really was tame. She was just concerned.

Lorelai's adult life had started at sixteen. Of course she wanted more for Rory. Lorelai was possessive of Rory's future. Of course, in a strange way, so was Logan. This was and always had been the main conflict between them. That and the fact that Logan came from Lorelai's world, the world she'd grown up in and had grown ever suspicious and wary of. He also couldn't blame her for that.

So what was the solution?

He asked himself that question over and over again. How could Rory present this to Lorelai over the phone and have it go smoothly?

And eventually, he settled on the answer he'd known all along – she couldn't.

And that is how Logan found himself on his laptop, fifteen minutes later, searching for flights to Hartford on the internet.

Not five minutes later, he'd done it – he'd booked a flight for two to Hartford for tomorrow afternoon. They'd leave San Francisco at 9 a.m. tomorrow and arrive in Hartford around 6 p.m., and hopefully be to Stars Hollow by 7 p.m. That gave him very little time to talk Rory into this – and he hoped she wouldn't be angry. Maybe if he could track down her luggage, it would smooth the path.

And so while he waited for her to get out of the shower – 'What is taking so long?' he thought to himself – he called the airline and began the process of searching for her luggage.

Surprisingly, it only took him ten minutes to find her luggage – it was still in Iowa, but if he wanted, he could have it shipped. So he did – and he had it shipped to Stars Hollow. It would be there in two days. Perfect.

Just a few minutes after he'd hung up, Rory emerged from the bathroom, wrapped only in a towel – she'd been smart enough to dig for one before she got in the shower.

"Any luck on the furniture?" she said.

"Not yet," he answered, fixating on the computer.

"Logan!" she said, exasperatedly, but also with a bit of a laugh. She climbed onto the bed, and knelt beside him as he laid back, propped against a pillow and the headboard, focused on his computer. "We have nothing. You have a bed, and a sorry little TV. You have some crates. We have no place to eat, which is okay for now, considering you have like, nothing to eat."

"Sorry," he said. "But I did find your luggage."

"Oh, yea?" Rory said, excited. "Where is it?"

"It's still in Iowa, I had it shipped," he said.

"Great, when will it be here?" Rory asked.

"They said it'll arrive in about two days," he said. "In Stars Hollow."

"In Stars Hollow?" Rory panicked. "Why is it arriving there? If my luggage arrives at my house, my mom will know something is up!"

"I thought you were going to take care of it sooner than that?" he said.

"Well, I am … but you know, if it gets there early …" she said.

"It won't," he assured her. "You'll be lucky if it gets there in a week. These things usually take longer than planned."

"Oh … okay," she said, calming.

"Besides, we're going to be in Stars Hollow by tomorrow night. So you can get it yourself," he said, slowly, staring straight at the computer.

"Excuse me?" Rory said, panicking again.

"I just booked us a flight to Hartford for tomorrow morning," Logan said.

"But why!?" Rory asked.

"Because you can't have this conversation with your mother over the phone, Rory, it won't go well," he asserted. "For all we know, she may get on a plane herself and show up here. Or she'll stew about it. Either way, it won't be good. You need to talk to her about this face to face. You're never going to feel okay about this situation until you have."

He saw her face fall as she considered what he said.

"Look …" he began. "If you don't want to go, I guess we don't have to – I'll just be out the money. But look at it this way: you need your things. If you're moving out here, you need all your clothes, your things from home, things from your room. You weren't bringing it all with you to Iowa. You should have all of your things here. And this way, when you go home to get them, you can clear the air, and you won't be going back in the dead of night to steal your things away to avoid a confrontation with your mom."

"She's going to be mad," Rory answered, softly. "She's going to be mad, and I'm going to have to see her be mad at me. The phone eliminated that portion of it."

"Yes, maybe," he said. "But maybe she won't be mad. And if you do this over the phone, you'll be missing out on so much more than just the anger, and maybe for a long time. It's a big gamble to take, don't you think?"

"I guess," she responded.

"And I'll be going with you," he said. "I'm not sending you alone. I'll come, I can even be there when you talk to her if you want, be a buffer, though I honestly don't think you're going to need it. Your mom cares about you Rory. She just wants to know you're happy. Even if she doesn't agree with it right away, I think if she sees you happy, she'll eventually be okay."

"Yea … you're probably right," she agreed. "But you shouldn't come with me while I talk to her. She'll feel outnumbered, Shanghaied, bombarded … I should do it."

"That's fine, too," he said. "All that matters to me is that we do this right. You'll never forgive yourself if you moving out here without telling your mom the right way puts a wedge between the two of you. And I don't want you associating that with us for the rest of your life."

"Yea …" Rory said.

She scooted over next to Logan, to sit close to him. He wrapped his right arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her forehead, still damp from the moisture of the shower. The fresh smell of her shampooed hair out of the shower comforted him.

"In the meantime, I thought we could order some furniture and it'll be waiting here for us when we get home," he said.

Rory picked her head up off his shoulder only for a second to kiss him softly, a few times along his jaw line, eliciting a small groan from him. Then she focused on the computer with him – or at least she attempted to – and spent the rest of the evening picking out furniture, and contemplating her journey home to Stars Hollow in the back of her mind.