Logan paced around their house, trying to figure out what to do next. He stared at his mobile, willing it to chime with an incoming text from Rory. He couldn't figure out what was wrong and it was making him crazy. He didn't know what to do.

Finally his pacing took him back to Rory's office. He needed a distraction. He picked up the book that held the strip of photos, and looked at them again. He and Rory were so happy then. They had a blank slate in front of them. "What did I do?" he asked the strip of paper.

He took the book and sank down in Rory's chair, after staring at the pictures for a few minutes, he returned them to their place, and opened the book to the beginning. The Screw Up – by Jess Mariano Logan flipped the page and read the dedication, to his wife! He flipped back and looked for copyright information. Since it was a mock up, there wasn't any. He stood up from his chair and went over to Rory's bookshelves. He began to peruse the shelves, looking for the rest of Jess's works. He knew she had them all, regardless of the fact that he was her ex-husband, she still respected him as a writer. Having read The Subsect himself after he and Rory broke up, even he begrudgingly admitted that Jess had talent. Logan found her battered copy of The Subsect, along with a few other novellas, none of which were titled The Screw Up.

Logan returned to Rory's chair and began to read. After an hour or so, he closed the book. This was Jess's love letter to Rory. His grand apology for everything that went on between them. It was a fictionalized version of their lives, until the point where Rory left, and then it seemed to turn into the main character's path for redemption. He wasn't exactly sure how it ended, because he stopped reading. Was this why Rory left? Did she want to make another go of things with Jess now that he'd fully understood how his actions had hurt her? He stood up and let out a frustrated groan. What was he going to do? He kept the book with him, and headed to the kitchen. While he wasn't really hungry, he needed to eat something.

As he called and ordered take out, Chinese for delivery, he idly began flipping through the book, he turned to the bookmarker, and read those pages. Was that where she'd stopped reading? Or had she merely tucked the pictures into the book? He turned to the last page, to see how it ended. Of course it ended in death, he'd known that since the first sentence. He sighed, and returned to the place he left off, he had to finish reading this book. Maybe it would give him a clue as to what happened to Rory.

The Chinese food seemed to arrive within minutes, and Logan again set down The Screw Up to eat. As he slowly ate his Kung Pao Three In One and his chow mein he tried to figure out what to do in the immediate future. Did he go to work tomorrow and pretend nothing was wrong? Or did he call out sick? Or did he call his father and tell him what was really going on? As he tried to make up his mind as to a course of action, his thoughts drifted back to the last time…

Five and a half years ago…

After Logan insisted that Emory leave, he laid in bed for hours staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what to do next. He finally ended up calling his office and leaving a message for his assistant that due to his flu, he'd be out for the rest of the week. After that, he got out of bed and headed to the living room. He grabbed a bottle of scotch from the liquor cabinet and took it to his favorite recliner. He spent the night watching old movies and drinking scotch, as he tried to sort out his feelings. He was feeling pain in his heart that he hadn't felt since Rory turned him down all those years before. But he couldn't figure out why. He knew that he didn't love Emory. He liked her well enough, but it wasn't anywhere near the same as that rush of being in love. As he separated out his thoughts, he finally realized that it was the loss of the children he wanted so badly that was causing him so much pain. For the last 18 months, every month he comforted Emory because they weren't pregnant, his heart had cracked a tiny bit. And now, to find out that it had all been a lie, it must have been the final blow, and his heart shattered into a million pieces.

He sat in his chair and stared at the screen, but he wasn't seeing what was actually on it. Instead of seeing Sam play it again, he was seeing visions of the future he'd always wanted. He could see himself pushing a little boy on a swing set, while a little girl came running up to him, encircling his leg with her arms "Daddy, push me next!" Logan shook his head vigorously to try and clear the sight, but he couldn't stop the tears that had formed in his eyes. As much as he blamed Emory for causing this by lying, he also blamed himself. Why couldn't he just love her?

"Damn it!" he said aloud. He set the scotch bottle down, turned off the TV and went back to bed.

The next morning he woke up, not sure if he felt better or worse. His flu symptoms felt better, but his hangover made him feel a lot worse. Determined to move forward as quickly as possible he pushed through the pain. He showered and dressed, and headed out to pick up moving boxes. He returned home with boxes, tape, markers, and breakfast. After a quick, greasy, breakfast to remedy the hangover, he began to assemble boxes. He started in their bedroom. He packed items into boxes labeled either Emory or Logan. The house had to go. He couldn't stomach the thought of living in the giant house he'd bought for his future family all alone, and he didn't want to pay for it while Emory lived there either. He would pack up the house, have movers move his stuff to a new place that he picked somewhere, and have them dump Emory's stuff wherever she wanted it.

It felt like he packed for weeks, but really it was only three days. He hadn't heard from Emory yet, but he also hadn't found a new place for himself, so he hadn't scheduled movers.

His office contacted him at least once an hour, and given the toll his emotional state had taken on him, the remnants of the flu, and the physical exhaustion of packing, he sounded bad enough that they only called for the first contact of the day, after that, he got text messages.

Finally, it was Saturday morning, the house was packed, except the bed Logan was sleeping in, his laptop, some clothes, and his toiletries. He needed to bite the bullet and tell his parents what was going on so he could find a new place. He'd never hear the end of it if his parents found out about his divorce from the Hartford Gossip Circle. Part of him had thought that Emory would go straight to his mother, but since Shira hadn't called him, he knew she didn't know.

Logan took a long hot shower, trying to wash away some of the heaviness of the week. Afterwards, he wrapped a towel around his waist and shaved the week's worth of stubble from his face. It would have been considered a beard had his hair been darker. He pulled on a pair of khakis and a sweater, and headed to the car. He drove to his parents place with a sense of doom that he hadn't felt since the first time he took Rory home for dinner as his girlfriend.

He found his parents in the kitchen eating breakfast when he arrived.

"Logan, what are you doing here?" his mother asked suspiciously.

"Are you feeling better?" his father asked, knowing about his absence from the office.

Instead of just blurting out his news, he made his way to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup of coffee. He settled in at the table across from his dad, and took a sip of his coffee.

"Logan, what's going on?" his mother asked impatiently.

"Emory and I are getting a divorce." He cut straight to the chase.

"Lets discuss this first," his father told him.

"What did you do?" Shira asked. "You have to fix it."

"There's nothing to discuss Dad. We're getting a divorce."

"You just couldn't keep it in your pants could you?" Mitchum accused.

Logan scowled at his father. "That's your problem Dad, not mine."

"Logan!" Shira scolded. Mitchum just glared back at him.

"How much is this going to cost?" Mitchum asked.

"Nothing." His father looked at him with surprise. Of course that's what he cared about, money. "I didn't cheat, we have no kids, and she worked before we got married. No alimony, no child support."

"Why?" his mother asked.

"I don't love her."

"So what?" both of his parents said at the same time.

"I want to have kids, and she doesn't want to have kids with someone who doesn't love her." He kept the blame for the divorce himself. While he didn't love Emory, he didn't want her to be publicly smeared by his family, and he knew if they knew about her deceit, that would be just what would happen.

"Why don't you just tell her that you love her?" his mother asked, as if there was nothing wrong with such a lie.

"There are some things you just don't lie about," he spat in disgust. "Anyhow, I just came to tell you this because I didn't want you to find out from someone else. I'm selling the house, and getting something new."

"But Logan," his mother started pleading, "how will this look?"

"I don't give a flying fuck how it looks." Anger was starting to take over. He quickly stood to leave before he made matters worse.

"Huntzbergers don't get divorced," his father told him, as though it would change anything.

"Well I guess I'm starting a new tradition. From now on Huntzbergers don't marry people that they don't love. Or at least this Huntzberger doesn't!" He gave his parents pointed looks. He knew his father had no love for his mother. She got pregnant and he got married, that was what happened and things like love and respect never even factored into the equation.

"I'll call Emory, I'm sure I can make her see reason," Shira told him.

Logan snorted audibly. Just what he needed, his mother teaching his wife how to trap a man. "No you won't," he replied firmly. "Look, I didn't come here to discuss this, I came here to tell you how it was. It's my life and it's not open for negotiation."

Shira began to cry. "What will everyone think?"

Mitchum began to lecture, "Logan, you know…"

And Logan turned and left the room.

Looking back, that felt like heaven compared to now. His heart wasn't broken over Emory when they split, and while his parents were not at all supportive, they mostly left him alone about it. Mostly. Mitchum went back to treating Logan like a screw up, but he knew how to handle that. And Shira spent the next six months trying to repair his relationship with Emory. Luckily, while Emory had the society girl background that Shira loved, she also had enough self-preservation to stay away from society. She hightailed it back to California to go back to school and work on her M.R.S. degree… errr masters degree.

He wondered how his parents would react now. Would his mother rejoice in the fact that 'that girl' was no longer part of the family? Would his father start treating him like a screw up all over again? Or would they surprise him completely?

Three years earlier

After they bumped into Luke and Lorelai in Hartford, Logan knew it was just a matter of time before everyone found out. And as much as he didn't care what his parents thought of the situation, he wouldn't let his family berate Rory again like they had so many years before. He needed to give them this information himself, along with some ground rules to go with it.

After Rory left to have brunch with her mother and head back to New York, Logan got on the phone and tracked down his parents, to find out when they'd be home. He wanted to tell them together, so he made sure they both knew the rules.

A week later, he finally got a chance. Oddly enough, it was another Saturday morning. And again, he found his parents eating breakfast in the kitchen.

"To what do we owe the honor this morning Logan?" Mitchum asked, as he buttered his toast.

"You're seeing someone aren't you?" his mother said gleefully. He knew full well she was pushing every society girl she could find in his direction.

The maid slid a cup of coffee in front of him, and he gratefully took a sip. "Yes I am."

"It's Marissa Roberts isn't it?" Shira asked. "I knew she'd be just your type."

"It's not Marissa Roberts."

"Is it Danita Grey then? She's such a lovely girl." Logan merely shook his head. "Is it…"

"Shira, why don't you just let Logan tell us, instead of trying to guess?" Mitchum cut her off before she could rattle off every name she knew.

"Is it at least someone from a good family?"

Before Logan could answer, his father spoke again. "Goddamn it Logan. That's why you're moving the office to New York isn't it?"

"I really think New York is the best place for the office, it'll be easier to have people come to me instead of traveling all the time," Logan told him. He hated that even after he'd proven himself time and time again, his father still second guessed everything he did, determined to find some nefarious ulterior motive.

"I should have paid more attention to the rumors," Mitchum said with a sigh.

"What's going on?" Shira asked, unable to follow the conversation.

His dad opened his mouth to speak, but Logan beat him to it. "I'm seeing Rory Gilmore."

"Mitchum you knew about this?" Shira screamed.

"I knew she lived in New York, and that she and Logan had renewed their friendship. I didn't know it was more than that." He glared at Logan.

"Logan, how could you? After how she embarrassed us all those years ago…" Shira trailed off.

"How on earth did she embarrass you?" Logan snapped at her. "Rory was never anything but polite to you. Yes she turned down my proposal, but I'm the one who walked away."

Shira huffed at his statement, and opened her mouth to reply, but Logan kept talking.

"I'm here to tell you in person. I didn't want you to find out from someone else. Rory and I are seeing each other. Therefore, if you see her, you will be polite to her. You will be polite to the Gilmores. You will be polite to the Haydens."

"What do the Haydens have to do with anything?" Shira asked confused.

"Francine is Rory's grandmother. Christopher is Rory's father."

"I don't like being threatened Logan," Mitchum said.

"This isn't a threat. I don't know if Rory's 'the one' or not, but I want to be left alone to figure it out. No snide remarks, no setups, no pressure."

"And if we don't?" Mitchum asked.

Logan smiled. "If you don't, I'm out." Logan had saved every penny from the sale of his company in California, and despite Emory's penchant for spending, he managed to make that amount grow while they were married, and even more so since then. "I was successful before on my own," he reminded them.

His father continued to glare at him, and his mother looked lost in thought. He assumed that the knowledge that Rory was a Hayden changed her opinion of her.

…

When the time came a few months later, and they were all at the same event, Logan was pleasantly surprised. Shira remained polite, with no backhanded compliments, and Mitchum actually ate a little crow and told Rory how much he was enjoying her current series in the Times. Rory had changed too. She was no longer the girl who was desperate to please everyone; she'd grown into herself. She was confident and humble at the same time. While he wouldn't say his parents loved Rory the second time around, they were at least polite and not actively working to get rid of her.

…

All remained well, until Logan decided to propose. Again. This time, he did things completely differently. Instead of asking Lorelai (or Christopher), he and Rory discussed whether they saw themselves getting married again, and to each other even. Rory would not be blindsided with his proposal again.

The week he planned to propose, he was in Connecticut for meetings, and stopped by his parents house. He wanted to use his grandmother's ring. He wouldn't reuse the one from the first time, and frankly he couldn't if he wanted to. After she got engaged to Jess he gave the ring to Finn to return so he wouldn't be tempted to chuck it into the Pacific Ocean. Emory had been all bent out of shape that she didn't get the family ring, as Shira had been going on and on and on about it, since she and Logan started dating seriously, but Logan refused to give the ring to anybody he didn't love. When he was 25, he didn't want to give it to Rory, because he didn't want the tie to his family. But now, they had both accepted his family, and he wanted her to have the ring.

He headed into his father's study, where he knew the ring was kept. It was in the wall safe, behind a lesser known Picasso that his father just loved. He was surprised to find his mother sitting at his father's desk, rifling through papers, looking for something.

"Hey Mom, what are you doing in here?" he asked.

She looked up startled. "Logan! What brings you out here today?"

"I came to get Grandmother Anne's ring."

"You're proposing? Again?"

"Yes I am. Thank you for the support," he spat sarcastically.

"Logan, Rory's a nice girl. I'll admit I should have given her a better chance the first time around, but she's still not Huntzberger wife material."

"Why not? Because she's not a gold digger who only wants to lay her hands on the Huntzberger fortune?" he suggested to his mother with a knowing look.

Shira blushed at his insinuation. "No. It's not that. I know you think the only reason I married your father was for the money…" she started.

"I don't think, I know. I've seen the evidence," Logan interrupted coldly.

Shira sighed. "Huntzberger wives are meant to support the Huntzberger husbands and produce the Huntzberger heirs. I just don't think that Rory's up for the task. She has her own career. Does she even want kids?"

"Don't you think after what happened with Emory, I'd be sure to know the answer to that before I thought of proposing?" Logan asked in return. "Of course Rory wants kids," he added before she could answer his rhetorical question.

"Well with both of you working, who's going to raise them?"

"We'll figure it out when the time comes. You didn't work, and yet Honor and I were still raised by nannies."

Shira flushed at Logan's slight on her parenting skills.

Logan continued on, "Rory's mom worked more than full time when Rory was little, and still managed to raise her on her own. I think Rory and I can manage to work and raise kids."

While his mother sat there awkwardly trying to come up with her next argument, Logan spun the dial on the safe to open it. Once it was open, he moved around several jewelry boxes, until he found the one he was looking for. He flipped it open to find the ring, exactly as he remembered it. It wasn't a huge ring, a three carat emerald cut diamond solitaire, but his grandfather had given it to his grandmother with love and that made it more valuable than anything money could buy, in his opinion. His grandparents had loved each other until his grandmother's death, and even after that, his grandfather hadn't moved on. He hoped that he and Rory would have that same long-lasting love.

"Just make sure it's in the prenup that you get the ring back if you two split up," Shira said in a snide tone.

Logan refused to be baited, and just stalked out of the room.

Maybe Logan should have listened to his mother. He shuddered at the thought. No, he just had to figure out what was going on with Rory, and until then he was going to go about his life as if nothing was wrong, and do everything in his power to find out what was wrong, and fix it.

He cleaned up the Chinese food, sticking the leftovers in the fridge, and took The Screw Up into his own office to finish reading it. He poured a tumbler of scotch, and settled himself into his favorite recliner, the only thing he'd kept in every place he'd lived, and picked up where he left off.

He finished the book a few hours later, and he finally saw some of what his wife saw in Jess Mariano. He really was an amazingly talented writer. If Logan was a bigger man, he'd call Jess and tell him exactly that, but instead, he settled for just admitting it to himself, which was hard enough as it was.

The book didn't give him any hints as to why Rory left. Based on the storyline, the Screw Up's continual run-ins with his beloved long after their divorce, he could tell that the book was written after Rory left Jess, but before she and Logan got together. It had to be something else.

He looked at his watch to see that it was after 10:00, and decided he should go to bed. Not that he'd likely sleep, but at least he could try. He returned the book, with the pictures in their rightful place, back to Rory's office, then headed to their bedroom. As he looked around the room he considered sleeping in the guest room, but decided against it. He walked into the bathroom and took the time to brush his teeth, then when he returned to the bedroom he stripped off his shirt and slacks, leaving them in a pile where he stood. He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off his socks, tossing them towards the pile of his clothes. He just didn't care about putting things away right now. He stood up and flipped the covers down on the bed, then clad only in his boxers, climbed in. He let himself drift to Rory's side of the bed, and rested his head on her pillow. The maid had come at some point during the day, but instead of changing the sheets she'd merely made the bed, so Rory's pillow still smelled like her shampoo. He hugged the pillow to him, then rolled back to his side of the bed, taking the pillow with him. He sat up against the headboard to check his emails before turning out the lights, to make sure he didn't have one from Rory. He didn't. He scrolled through the last few bits of correspondence between the two of them, looking for something upsetting or out of the ordinary, but found nothing.

Logan sighed and set his phone on the nightstand. He flicked off the lamp, and laid down on his side, hugging the Rory scented pillow to him. "I miss you Ace," he whispered to the pillow.

The tri-tone chime of his phone startled him and he reached back to grab it from the table. Rory!

I love you too was all that it said.

All hope was not lost. Logan gripped the phone in one hand, while he had the other wrapped around Rory's pillow, and drifted off to sleep.

AN: So sorry for the delay. Real life got in my way! So I hope you like Chapter 6, please read and review.

As you know, I don't own anything.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks for reading!

-S