Oh my gosh, you guys! Your response to this story has been awesome - makes me even more excited. I LOVE reading the reviews. Hope this new chapter doesn't dissapoint.

With love,
Gilmoregirl19

(ps: you will know more and more about how Rory and Logan got together - all in good time!)

Disclaimer: I do not own gilmore girls!

Preschool Blues

Four-year-old Rory grabbed her best friend Lane's hand as the pair stood on stone steps in front of a large brick building. Lane looked at her, fear written all over her features, her bottom lip trembling slightly. Rory gripped her friend tighter, while she lifted her other hand to her face. She was holding her pink bunny stuffed animal, Lucy, the one her mommy said would make everything better. She dangled the bunny in front of Lane's face.

"I brought Lucy Bunny," Rory said bravely as Lane nodded slowly.

Christopher and Lorelai stood behind the young girls and watched them carefully. "Don't they look adorable?" Lorelai grinned as she slid her arm around her husband's waist.

"We did good, babe," she breathed. Chris knew Lorelai was stalling, and this was her way of making Chris stall as well. Granted, he was not all to found of having is only baby girl start preschool today, but he also did not want to have an educationally stunted daughter.

"Lore," he warned softly, "It's time. You don't want them to be late on their first day of preschool, right?"

"Well, if they are really, really late they might not take them anymore, and then we'd have to take them back home. We would be bad parents if we did not. Take them home, I mean…"

It was normal for Lorelai to talk fast, but this morning she was speaking exceptionally fast – a sure sign she was nervous.

"They'll be okay, hon," Chris tried to comfort Lorelai, "They've got Lucy Bunny and everything," he added, more so to comfort himself than anything else.

"I know," Lorelai sighed, blinking back tears. "It's just, where did the time go? It seems like just a few months ago Evil Emily was spreading the word I was at fat-camp and not pregnant and Laney was crawling around on the kitchen table, headed straight for the brownie pan…"

"…giving her nanny a proverbial heart-attack…" Chris finished her thought, and smiled fondly at the memory.

Chris wiped a tear off Lorelai's cheek, "You can't cry now, you don't want the kids to be upset," he whispered in her ear, and pulled a tissue out of his coat pocket.

She blew her nose loudly, handed the dirty tissue back to Chris, who shook his head and stuffed the tissue back in his pocket.

"Okay, I'm good," she nodded and flashed a goofy grin at her husband. She kneeled down, to be eyelevel with her children, seeing as she thought of Lane as one of her own.

"So, are you girls ready for today?" she asked happily, her eyes widening in anticipation.

Both girls nodded dumbly, since they did not really want to admit that going inside that big brick building scared the wee wee out of them. They were big girls now, and this was a big girl thing to do, or at least, that was what Lane's Nanny had told them the other day.

"Good!" Lorelai exclaimed joyfully and grabbed Lane's hand as Christopher grabbed Rory s'.

"Preschool is going to be so much fun, you'll get to color, and paint, and have nap time and cookie time and ABC time and reading time….My favorite was cookie time, but I also like paint time. I was a real Picasso in my day. Too bad your grandmother never picked up on my talent…" Lorelai also rambled when she was nervous.

The quartet made their way down the long brightly decorated hallway and walked in to a large brightly colored classroom.

Rory and Lane immediately let go of Chris and Lorelai's hands and ran over to the arts and crafts corner. "I see she has your talent for painting," Chris smirked as his arm found its way around Lorelai's waist and pulled her in closer. "They'll be fine."

"It's only for a few hours, right?" Lorelai squeezed Chris's hand, as they took one final look at Rory and Lane.

"Who's that?" a small girl tapped Rory on her shoulder. Surprised, Rory spun around to see who it was. Lane immediately found her place next to Rory, since they were in this together.

"Who?" Rory asked the tiny blue-eyed blond haired stranger.

"That," the young girl pointed her perfectly manicured finger at Rory's bunny, the one she was still clenching tightly in her left fist.

Rory glanced down at her fist, realizing the strange girl was talking about her bunny. "Lucy Bunny," she stated matter-of-factly.

"I have Sammy!" the unidentified girl squealed in reply, and ran towards her cubby, returning moments later with a small stuffed sheep.

"Sammy meet Lucy," she said as she waved her stuffed toy in the air. "I'm Stephanie by the way, but you can call me Stephey, my daddy does!" She smiled broadly.

"I'm Rory, and that's already short for something, so you can't call me anything else…" Rory said as she bit her lip nervously and pointed towards Lane who was right by her side, "This is my bestest friend, Lane. Actually, she is Lane-Kim. That's her real name, but you can call her Laney like my Mom…"

Stephanie nodded, as Rory continued nervously, "You can be our friend, but not bestest since I don't know if you can have two bestest friends…."

"I like Lane!" Stephanie declared as she dropped Sammy to the floor and picked up a paintbrush. "I think you can have lotsa bestest friends," she said as she swiped her brush over a large piece of paper. "Coz I have three bestest friends."

Lane and Rory stared at her in amazement. Before today, they were the only other kids they knew. Little Rory and Lane wondered if kids lived in the other big houses on her street, but her mommy told her not to ask so many questions. For now, only Lane was important. So, for Stephanie to be just as old as them and to know three other kids, and be best friends with them was a lot to digest.

"Who?" Both girls asked simultaneously. Stephanie pointed towards the naptime area and called out to her friends. "Finn, Colin, Loooogan! Come here!!"

A chorus of no's emerged from the naptime area, and Stephanie sighed heavily. "They always do this!" She rolled her eyes. "Let's go,"

"See, I told you she'd come!" Colin said, poking Logan. "I'm right!"

"Want to meet my new friends?" Stephanie asked eagerly.

This caught the boys' attention as they all nodded. The sat in a tiny circle and Finn was the first to speak up as he clearly represented the boys.

"I'm Finn and this is my Hippo," he said as he held up a rather unfortunate looking stuffed hippo. "That's Colin, and sometime's he is stupid," he laughed and pointed at a small brown haired boy, with glasses. "I have a Truck," he said by way of introduction and held up a shiny tractor. Finn shushed Colin and continued, "That's Timmy and Logan," and Logan held up his toy giraffe. "And that's it," Finn said happily, and sat on the ground.

Stephanie laughed, "This is Rory and this is Lane," The girls smiled nervously and Rory held up her bunny, "And Lucy," she spoke softly.

After that initial introduction, the six preschoolers instantly bonded. They did all the playtime activities together, and were hesitant to let others into their group. Back then, they did not know they were the Golden Children - they just liked each other.

Rory and Lane were too busy playing with their new friends to notice that Chris and Lorelai were long gone.

Somewhere around afternoon playtime, Rory looked up at the doorway where she had left her Mom and Dad. She frowned, where had they gone? She set down her colored pencil and walked over to the doorway, and in realization that they indeed were not there, she turned around and scanned the classroom. Then it hit her, her parents were gone. And, more importantly, they were not coming back. She was convinced. She swallowed hard, as she felt a wave of panic wash over her young body. She padded back to her coloring table, her bottom lip quivering ever so slightly.

"What's wrong?" Logan asked, as he was the first to notice his new friend was not smiling anymore. "You did not lose Lucy, right?" His eyes widened at the mere thought of loosing something as beloved as his Timmy.

Rory bit her lip hard and shook her head. "No," she managed to croak out before she started wailing. Logan, Lane, Colin, Finn and Stephanie surrounded her instantly.

Logan did not want his new friend to be upset, so he did the only thing he could think of that would make her feel better. He gave her Timmy – just to borrow, mind you. It was difficult for him, since he was not sure if Rory would give Timmy back, but for some reason the desire to make her feel better was greater than the possibility of her not returning his stuffed toy.

She grabbed hold of the stuffed giraffe, and held him tight as she cried for a little while longer. Soon, she calmed down and looked Logan in the eyes. "I think my Mommy and Daddy left me here!"

She blinked at him, as he hopped from one foot to the other, in thought. "Nah, I don't think so. Nanny said she would be back later, so your Mommy and Daddy will be back, too." He nodded confidently, he was pretty sure that's what Nanny told him.

"Are you sure?" Lane asked, not sure what to make of this.

"Yeah," he said, and young Rory wiped her tears away, "Okay," she nodded, still clenching Timmy.

The kids got back to coloring and Rory set Timmy down between her and Logan. "Your mommy and daddy will come back, Rory," Logan said softly, never taking his eyes off his coloring paper. "And, if they don't, you and Laney can come home with Nanny and me!"

A few minutes later she heard her mother's voice call out to her, "Oh, where are Rory and Laney?"

This caught the attention of the group of kids, as they watched Lorelai and Chris walk through the preschool classroom, "Not over by the dolls," Lorelai exclaimed in mock-confusion, "She not here either," Chris mimicked.

Rory giggled, "I'm over here, Mommy!" and her parents ran toward her, and Lorelai scooped up her daughter as Chris picked up Lane. "Who are your new friends?" Chris asked, as Rory showed her mom her drawing.

Soon, all the children were showing their drawing sto Chris and Lorelai – the surrogate parents – as they waited for their nannies to pick them up. "Mommy, you know how Laney comes over and plays," Rory whispered in her mother's ear, "Can my new friends come, too?"

And so it began.

At eight a.m., a sharp buzzing filled the room. Lazily, Rory switched the alarm off, rolled over to the right side of the bed and opened her eyes, to be greeted by an empty space and a tremendous amount of disappointment. It was like that every morning, since she and Logan rarely slept in the same bed anymore, but still, she wished it were different.

As she got up, and padded her way towards the bathroom her thoughts quickly returned to last night's events. Like it would matter, she thought bitterly, he's on his way to London, right now, so it's not like he'd be in bed…

She sighed as she examined herself in the mirror. Bags under eyes, her lip was nicked from Logan's passionate nibbling, a hickey as if she was a fifteen year old sat mockingly on her neck, smeared mascara and sticky, hairspray ridden hair. She noticed that she was only wearing one diamond earring, and hoped her other one was lost in the bed linens. Frankly, she was a mess, definitely not what one thought of as a high society wife. She sighed again, disgusted, and made her way into the kitchen and lazily set a pot of coffee.

As she waited for her coffee to brew, she flipped open her blackberry and was greeted by a list of chores for today.

DAR Lunch
Catering Garden Party
Dress fitting
Manicure
Dinner with Lane

Of course, she had a bunch of voice messages, mostly her friends and her mother.

Never a message from Logan, that he made it on the plane, or arrived safely. She smiled wryly, since it had not always been like that.

When he first started going away, she came with him to the airport – no matter what crazy time the flight was scheduled. She would kiss him until her lips were numb and wait for the plane to be out of sight. The minute he landed, he would call her, and he called her every single moment of free time he had for the rest of the trip.

Upon his return, she would be waiting at the airport, waiting for him to get off the plane. She would wait for him to spot her, and run up to him. He would pick her up, twirl her around and kiss her as if it was the last time he would be able to kiss her. It was their thing.

Naturally, Rory knew that they could not go on like that forever; soon Logan was away on business every other week, and Rory was consumed by her mind-numbing, but demanding society schedule. She would join occasionally, though she would not be as sad to see him leave. He, in turn, would still call when he got to wherever he was going – though soon he would have his secretary send a message.

Her heart panged thinking about how they used to be, so she just rolled her eyes, shut her blackberry and let it fall on the counter. Oops. Like she cared.

At 11 o'clock, she left her apartment looking like the perfect society woman, clad in black pants, a soft blue cashmere sweater and black ballerina flats. Her hair tied back in a loose bun, her make-up flawless, the lost earring returned to her ear and a soft, light-blue scarf hiding her hickey.

The town car she ordered to take her back to Hartford was waiting, and off she drove, leaving the City behind her.

The ride back was long, though she really did not mind. Of course, she could have taken the jet, but at least now, in the car, she had some time to gather her thoughts. She was upset with Logan, but she had been for the longest time. At the same time, she knew she couldn't blame him for any of this – he was just a puppet.

Before she could ponder on this subject any longer her blackberry rang – her mom.

"So, please don't tell me you are calling to cancel on the DAR luncheon, please!" Rory answered.

"Butch, we can't go pig wrestling this afternoon – I forget I had other plans…" Lorelai yelled over her shoulder, jokingly cancelling her 'other' plans. "Have I ever stood you up, sweets?" she grinned.

"Very funny, Mom, very funny," Rory said flatly.

Rory spent the rest of the ride listening to her mother gone on and on about that damn prada bag, and that annoying chick on "So you think you can dance." Her 'thinking time', went out the window, but mindless chit-chat with her mother worked wonders on her wounded spirit.