A/N: I don't own GG.

Love, Forgiveness and the Space In-between

Lorelai and Luke staggered out of the Gilmore Mansion on weak legs. The night had been one nightmare after another, and no amount of pinching could wake up either of them. She knew dinner would be awful; she knew her mother would be in rare form because she knew that Luke would not be an acceptable man for her to show any sort of serious interest in. She was always meant to be with Christopher and nothing would ever convince her parents otherwise. It was good that Rory was off working on her article because even the angelic grandchild, savior of the Gilmore clan would not have been able to buffer tonight's deluge of passive-aggressive snide remarks.

"You know what's amazing, I mean truly amazing?" Luke asked.

"What?"

"She never said anything directly bad about me or the diner or anything else concerning me. And all I did was thank her. Over and over. She'd hammer me, and I'd thank her."

"She does that to the best of us," Lorelai said sagely.

"Is your flask empty?" Luke asked.

"Dry as the model's hair in those split end commercials where they try to sell you products that will counter act the heat of a blow-dryer, but we all know that the only real way to avoid the damage of something we know is bad for you is to avoid it all together. All natural, letting your hair dry in the breeze."

"Catching pneumonia from your all-natural approach to hair care," Luke added.

"Hey, pneumonia would have excused you from tonight's laceration."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time."

"I know. We'll stop at a liquor store here in Hartford, buy the largest bottle of vodka known to mankind, drive home and see how fast we can find the bottom of the bottle. I'll even let you go first, and you can fill the life boat flask and use it, too."

"Rory actually likes coming here?" Luke asked, still lost in his own thoughts.

"Amazing and completely against everything I ever taught her. Some children never learn."

"You do what you can," Luke consoled. "Do you think there is an open liquor store?"

"If there is, we will find it and buy it."

"It?"

"The whole thing, their whole inventory. We are battered and weary and we will not be denied!"

"Good."

Luke opened the passenger door for Lorelai before walking around to his side of the truck. For a moment, he just sat in the cab of his truck enjoying the silence. His car, in spite of what Eimly Gilmore said, was not dirty. He'd washed it earlier that day, knowing he'd be going to see Lorelai's parents for the first time.

"Luke?" Lorelai asked.

He turned to her, not liking the suddenly serious tenor of her voice. "What?"

"This is worse than the morning after which is the guy's normal time to get the hell out of Dodge. Do you want to get out of this?"

"This?"

Lorelai gestured between the two of them. "This?"

"Oh, Lorelai. No. I told you I was all in. Crazy family, crazy food habits, crazy town that you have a strange attachment too…all of it. I want you."

"Even if I come with the crazy Gilmore luggage?"

"Have you met Liz and T.J.?"

"They're harmless."

"Have you met Liz and T.J.?"

"I'll take yours if you'll take mine?"

"Deal."

"Good."

"I – I need to go," Rory told Stephanie.

Stephanie opened her mouth to apologize, but Rory was gone before she had the chance. She didn't mean to upset her new friend, but she also knew that certain facts needed to be revealed. In all of her life, she'd never met two more stubborn people; which of course made them absolutely perfect for each other.

Rory took a lantern from a nearby table in one hand and another glass of champagne in her other before wandering into the forest at the edge of the festivities. The noise of all of the people was not conducive to deep thought and she had many thoughts that would require a lot of deep thinking.

"What are you willing to endure to have Logan in your life?" Stephanie's question hounded her, relentless in its pursuit of an answer, an answer she didn't have. Sure, she liked Logan, sure she wanted to be around him, but she didn't want to be discarded in the morning. One thing she knew in her sea of unknown things was this: she would not endure Logan's playboy ways. It was all or nothing for her. She could deal with nasty blondes who were upset with her ignoring the line, but only if Logan really wanted a relationship. She wouldn't simply be some experiment for him.

She would endure her mother's disapproval of a relationship with Logan. He was from a world completely different to her own, and not one her mother would be at all thrilled about, but she could endure her mother, if Logan wanted a relationship. He'd admitted he liked her, he'd called her Rory instead of Ace, but Logan was not a relationship person by his own admission and that wasn't enough for her. There was, however, this nagging voice in the back of her head that kept reminding her that she really did want him. Maybe she wouldn't endure being one of the many, but was she ready to simply give up on him, on the possibility of a them? If what Stephanie said was accurate, which she thought it was, then Logan wouldn't allow her to walk out of his life. That thought made her smile. If he would fight to find a way for her to stick around, shouldn't she do the same?

"Word was a bear dragged you off," Logan said as he walked into Rory's line of sight. He'd watched her pace for a while before venturing closer. He knew it was probably too soon to begin round two, but he couldn't just leave it like that with Rory.

"No bear, I just wanted a quiet place to collect my thoughts," Rory informed him. Clearly, Stephanie was right. Logan wasn't going to let her simply slip away.

"You found it," Logan commented, looking around at the desolate spot she'd discovered.

He held out a plate of food. From what Stephanie had told her, Rory'd consumed several glasses of champagne.

"Thanks," Rory said softly as she took the plate from him. She nibbled on something absently. Now that he was here in front of her, she wanted to run away, to let things go back to where she was just some random girl in the hallway that none of them knew.

"Are you getting much from the group?" Logan asked.

"I've already filled two notebooks; one without using the letter 'e'. I haven't gotten your take on all of this, which I could use. You are the one who arranged for me to come. Unless you've changed your mind? Regretted your decision?"

Logan smiled, a bit sadly. Regret? Definitely not, but if he could go back, do things differently…no, he knew he'd do exactly the same thing. This girl had a strange effect on him. Even when they were arguing earlier he'd enjoyed simply being around her. In the time he'd been away from her, during Colin's mandated time of separation, he'd thought about her for an unhealthy amount of time. He didn't have any more answers now than he'd had a couple of hours ago. All he really knew was that he wanted to be around her, and he couldn't do that if they were stuck in the limbo between a fight and not a fight. Since he had little experience when it came to fight's with females he wasn't sure where they were in the fight cycle. She hadn't thrown anything or slapped him, so maybe they were better off than he originally assumed.

"No regret. I'm glad you're here, Ace. What do you want to know from me about out little event?"

"Little?"

Logan laughed.

"How do you pay for this? Are there dues, or do you chip in, is there alumni sponsoring it? How is it organized? And what is happening tomorrow? Is it just as big, or bigger? And do people know that you're here? Park Rangers, or the landowner? Where are we? Are we still in Connecticut?"

"With all those questions you've still managed to fill two notebooks?"

"I like my research."

"I should tell you some of the conditions of you being here as a reporter, not simply a member."

"Okay."

"First, no pictures. Second, no names."

"Stephanie told me about the names. I'll keep you all anonymous."

"Third, no identification of our location."

"Can I say woods? Or forest? I could describe the area as wooded, resembling a forest and having trees. If it helps, I could do that section without using any 'e's'."

"Fourth," Logan said with a chuckle. "Most important condition of all. You must agree not to interfere with the integrity of the event."

Rory gestured to her outfit. "I'm wearing the period clothes, Logan."

"So you agree?"

"Yes, I agree."

"Good, because that rule applies both to you as a reporter and to you as an inductee to the Life and Death Brigade."

"Inductee?"

"You'll know soon enough, Ace."

"Fine," Rory grumbled.

"Look, Ace," Logan began hesitantly, "I shouldn't have just walked away like that earlier. I don't have any solutions, or really know what else there is to say, but I don't want to just end with that argument being...unresolved."

"People argue, Logan," Rory said.

"Not me. I don't want to be the guy who stands in the middle of the forest yelling at someone. I get enough of that – " Logan cut himself off. There was no way he was going to tell Rory the details of his home life. Not now when things were so unresolved between them.

"I don't know what I'm doing here, Logan. This is new territory for me. I've had two serious relationships in my life, and that's it. I'm a solid girlfriend girl, but I don't want to just walk away from you."

"I don't want you to walk away, Ace. I shouldn't have just walked away earlier. I know it's a pathetic excuse, but I'm not used to arguing with girls," Logan paused and looked up at Rory. "I didn't want to ignore you."

"Stephanie helped me fill in some of those blanks. Colin has to second you or something like that, and he would only do it if you stayed away from me. I was told it was for our own good," Rory told him.

"Maybe they're right. Maybe we should have some distance."

"I don't think that's the solution. Did the distance help you?"

Without answering, Logan shook his head. The distance had done nothing except remind him about how much he wanted to see Rory, and how much he wanted to kill Colin for preventing him from seeing her. "Colin wanted me to take time to sort through my 'Rory Issues'."

She smiled, thinking Stephanie would come up with a similar label for her thoughts concerning Logan. "'Rory Issues'?"

"They knew we eventually have this uncomfortable conversation eventually."

"Ah, so mindreading runs in the group."

"Colin wanted you to be part of the LDB."

"I'm glad." Rory paused. "Logan, we haven't resolved anything. Everything from earlier is still there; we can't ignore it and pretend it will go away. Denial is not just a river in Egypt."

"You really get straight to the point," Logan commented.

"Only because neither one of us wants to talk about it," Rory mumbled.

"I'm not walking away from this," Logan said as he took a step closer to Rory.

"What are you doing then? We've both said who we are, and who we are doesn't mesh well together," Rory asked. She wanted to retreat, but her legs were rooted firmly to the ground.

"We're good together, Ace," Logan told her, his voice soft and slightly husky.

"Good together?" Rory asked. "Logan, the last time you were this close to me, a random blonde girl interrupted us. I've also heard there's a line of these girls who are really eager to have a complication free relationship with you. I'm not going to wait in some line to have a millisecond of your time before you move on to the next one."

"It's not a relationship. It's…something, and it's something fast and emotionless. I don't want a millisecond of your time; I want every second of your time."

"That's commitment, Logan. You said you weren't ready for commitment."

"I'm not."

"Then – "

"Just be my friend, be someone who I can talk to, spend time around. Just – don't walk away," Logan pleaded. Sometime during his passionate plea, he'd closed the distance between them in a manner similar to when she'd first asked him for his help. The irony was not lost on him. Unfortunately, there was no blonde to interrupt them, and he wasn't too sure he would be able to stop himself.

"You want to be my friend? Strictly my friend? Can you handle being just my friend?"

"I don't know, Ace. But I know I can't handle not being your friend."

"So, friends?"

"Friends."

Another chapter for you, complete with a truce between our favorite two characters! Let me hear your thoughts!