Again, I'm sorry for the delay. There's a lot of crap going on in my life right now and as a result of that I've been lacking in inspiration lately. I'm not very pleased with how this chapter turned out at all, I don't think it flows very good, but I felt I had to give you something and I honestly don't know how I could write it any different…
I will finish this and all of my other stories, it's just that the updating will maybe be a bit slower for a while as I'm having troubles focusing with everything that's going on.
"Sookie has made enough breakfast to feed a small country" Lorelai explains as she points at a table. "So stock up on energy – 'cause everything's on the house and we have a lot to do today" She smiles as the small group of people heads towards the table.
When Rory passes her, she grabs onto her arm and stops her as the rest of the group continues on towards the table. "Have you talked to him?" She whispers and Rory looks confused. "To Jess. About him not going to Logan's" she clarifies and Rory's face drops as she shakes her head.
"You might want to do that" Lorelai looks over at Jess, who looks back at them as he sits down next to Lane at the table. "Soon" She adds.
Rory nods and sighs. "I will" She goes to join her friends at the table.
"Hi there little guy" Matt bends down to look at Steve, who's staggering around, currently using Matt's leg to hold onto for stability. Steve simply looks up at him, studying the stranger with wide eyes.
"He's a bit shy" Lane explains as the child turns around, grabs onto her leg instead and hides his face in her lap, where his brother's sitting.
"Yeah" Matt smiles wide. "I was too as a child"
When Rory pulls out the chair next to Jess and sits down on it, Lane turns her gaze away from her son. "You need any more help with the move?" She asks, while shifting Kwan's weight on her legs. "I could ask Zach and Brian, and I'm pretty sure Gil still has the van if you need it"
Rory hesitates. "Actually…" Everyone's attention is turned towards her. "…I think it's better if we try to minimize the numbers of the moving party" She looks down at the table, feeling slightly embarrassed at her suggestion, and even more at the thought of just who she's thinking about excluding from the moving party.
"That might be a good idea" Vanessa nods and Rory sends her a thankful look. "The guy's just been dumped by his fiancée" Rory grimaces at her words, but she continues anyway. "At least I don't think Jess should come"
At that moment Rory could have jumped across the table and hugged her for lifting that block of off her shoulders.
"Why not?" Jess shoots back as he furrows his eyebrows.
Vanessa rolls her eyes. "I know you don't like the guy…but having the new boyfriend come move Rory's things out might be rubbing a little too much salt in his fresh wounds, don't you think?"
Reluctantly Jess nods in agreement. "So what do I do? Sit around here and wait?"
"Oh, no my dear" Lorelai quips in. "There's a ton of things for you to do. The garage needs to be cleaned out to make room for Rory's things, Luke could probably use your help at the diner with the entire town storming it to try and pry details about what's going on out of him, and also the gutters could use some cleaning"
"The gutters?" Jess looks confused. "What do they have to do with anything?"
"They need cleaning" Lorelai replies quickly.
"Nice try" Jess smirks in her direction.
"Ah, well…" Lorelai smiles.
"So…" Matt looks around the table, unsure. "Do you still want us to come?"
"Well…" Rory looks at Jess and bites her lip. "I could use some help with carrying things…"
"Vanessa and the guys will go with you" Jess says and places his hand on top of hers on the table. "I'll stay here and clean out" With a pointed look towards Lorelai he adds: "The garage"
Lorelai pouts for a second and then smiles as she starts talking again. "I'll talk to Luke about borrowing his truck"
The moving party, consisting of Rory, Vanessa, Matt, Chris and Lorelai, make their way down the hall and towards Logan's apartment. No one utters a word as they walk and when they reach the door, Rory stops and hesitates for a second before she takes a deep breath and reaches her hand out and knocks.
They're all waiting in silence as they hear someone inside the apartment moving closer to the door. Moments later, when the door is slowly opened and Rory feels herself flinch at the movement she realizes how tensed she's been about this ever since they left Stars Hollow.
"Hey" Logan's eyes are bloodshed and he looks tired as he lifts his head to a nod as he greets them.
"Hey" Rory looks down at her feet. "I brought a few friends to help me carry things" She explains with a vague gesture towards the people behind her.
Logan nods again and pushes the door wide open for them to enter. Rory mirrors his nod before she takes a few steps into the apartment and looks around her. It looks almost the same as when she was last here the day before her wedding. A little messier maybe.
"I've started putting some of your things into boxes" Logan says and gestures towards a few boxes sitting on the kitchen counter. "Mostly books and stuff"
Rory nods again, and then for the first time since he opened the door she looks up and meets his eyes. "Thank you"
He tries to hold onto her gaze until she feels compelled to look away and break the tension that threatened to build up. She clears her throat to say something, anything to make this moment feel less weird and tense, but is interrupted by Matt before any words leave her mouth.
"Wow" Matt steps forward, unknowingly placing himself right between Logan and Rory as he looks around the apartment. "Cool place" He turns to face Logan as he speaks.
"Thanks" Logan attempts a smile and then furrows his brows as he watches Matt. "I don't think I've met you…"
"Oh…well…eh…I…" Matt stutters while gesturing around him with his hands, not sure how to explain who he is in relation to Rory without mentioning Jess.
"He's my boyfriend" Vanessa steps in and reaches her hand out for Logan to shake it. "I'm Vanessa" Logan nods and she continues, gesturing to Matt and Chris. "And that's Matt and Chris – I brought them to help with the move"
Logan nods, although there's a thoughtful expression on his face as he observes the three of them.
"And you've met my mother" Rory adds quickly and gestures towards her mother.
"Yeah" Logan raises his hand to a small wave in Lorelai's direction. "Hi"
"Hi" Lorelai waves back. "So…" She takes a few steps forward towards the group that has formed around Logan and Rory. "…shall we get started?"
Behind his book, Jess can spot Babette and Miss Patty at a table in the back, whispering with their heads leaned close together. He rolls his eyes and focuses on his book again. This town was too nosy for its own good.
"Refills" Luke shoves the coffee-pot in front of Jess and gestures towards a table by the window.
"Got it" Jess folds his book into his back pocket and heads with the coffee-pot in the direction of the table in need of a refill.
"Do you think he knows" Babette leans over the table and tries to whisper to Miss Patty, but her shrill voice carries through.
Jess rolls his eyes. He had never met the like of the nosiness in this town.
"Of course he knows" He hears Miss Patty whisper back across their table. "I'll bet that's why he's here"
"Ooooh" Babette breathes loudly. "Lorelai's gonna be mad"
"Refills?" Jess asks after taking a few large steps over to their table.
"Oh, oh" Miss Patty stutters, both women looking rather perplexed at his sudden presence at their table. "Yes dear" Miss Patty quickly gathers herself and pushes her mug forward.
Babette does the same and Jess proceeds to refill their mugs without uttering a word as both women scrutinizes him with their gazes.
"I think he knows" Jess hears Barbette's failure attempt at a whisper as he makes his way back to the counter, smirking.
"Hey" Lorelai peaks her head into the bedroom, where Rory's busy packing the last of her clothes into a box. "We're about done with the packing out here, so we're engaging the boys in some heavy carrying. You'll be okay?"
Rory nods. "Yeah, I'm almost done"
"Good" Lorelai sends her an encouraging smile before she turns around and Rory can hear her starting to give out orders to Matt and Chris regarding which boxes to start with.
Things had gone unexpectedly smooth today. Logan had been nice and civil; he had even helped packing a few boxes. She could understand how hard this must be for him and she had expected him to be angry – which he had every right to be, and make this move a lot harder for her.
She looks up from her packing as she hears someone entering the bedroom.
"You need any help?" Logan offers and his broken appearance clearly shows how much the nice and civil act had cost him.
Rory smiles, hoping that he will understand how much she appreciates his efforts to make things easier for the both of them. "It's okay. I'm almost done"
Logan nods and looks like he's about to turn around and leave. Suddenly, it seems, he changes his mind and starts talking. "These last couple of days, I've had time to think. A lot of time. About what happened, about us"
He takes a small step closer to her, and Rory puts the empty hanger she's been holding back in the closet.
"Logan…" She tries to stop him, but he quickly interrupts her.
"I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter, I want to be with you" He talks fast, as if he's afraid she'll cut him off again if she gets the chance and all while talking he moves closer and closer to where Rory stands. "I can live with being your second choice. Over time maybe you'll even get over him."
When Logan comes to a stop, he's standing only inches away from Rory. She shakes her head. "I can't"
She had thought this was all going so smooth. Why did he have to do this?
Logan's face hardens at her rejecting words. "It's that writer guy, right?" He scoffs. "I knew it when I met him that he was trouble. I should have punched him while I had the chance"
His intuition was a little too good, and Rory sighed. "Logan, don't…"
He shakes his head and interrupts her again; pleading this time. "Please Rory…I don't know what to do without you. I'm lost and I'm miserable without you. We can work through this; I'll help you get over him"
Rory hesitates, now would probably be the time to tell him that she was with Jess; that she had been wrong when she said he didn't want to be with her. But how did you do that?
Logan seems to interpret her hesitation as being in his favor, because there's a new light of hope in his eyes as he reaches for her arm and continues. "We were good together. We were great together, and we can be great again. You said he didn't want to be with you, right? Well, I do and I will spend every day of my life making you happy"
"He…" Rory starts. "I…" She continues. Why was it so hard? "I was wrong" She finally says.
"You were wrong? About what?" Logan's grip on her arm fastens and his intense gaze feels like it's burning on her face. "About us?" He asks, his tone revealing that he doesn't really believe that's what she was wrong about.
"No" Rory shakes her head and backs away from him. "About him…about him not wanting to be with me"
Logan scoffs and lets go of her arm. "It figures"
"I'm sorry" Rory tries to apologize, without really knowing for what. With a hurt look on his face, Logan waves her apology away.
"I'm just gonna…" She gestures towards the half-full box on the floor, grabs it and hurries out of the room.
On the other side of the door, she almost bumps in to Chris where he stands, leaning against the wall next to the door. It's obvious he's been eavesdropping, but she doesn't say anything to call him on it, after the confrontation with Logan's feeling she just doesn't have the energy.
Chris straightens himself up from the wall and clears his throat. "I was just looking for more boxes to take down to the truck" He explains, the guilty look on his face revealing his lie.
"Here" Rory shoves the box she's holding into his hands. "That's the last" She says before she heads for the door and leaves the apartment.
Having packed all of Rory's stuff into Lorelai's garage, the group, now accompanied by Jess, is walking through the streets of Stars Hollow heading towards the diner.
Ignoring all the prying looks from the townspeople, Jess casually throws his arm around Rory's shoulders. She turns her head around and smiles towards him and leans into his embrace as they keep walking.
A crowd of people is seen standing talking on the other side of the street, both Miss Patty and Babette is among them and they're whispering excitedly to each other while not-so-subtly gesturing towards the group.
"I'm guessing Babette's washer will be broken in a few hours" Lorelai lowers her voice and whispers to Rory as she waves a greeting to the ladies across the street.
"What?" Rory looks confused.
"So Babette will have an excuse to come over and get the latest gossip on you and Jess" Lorelai explains, as if that would have been obvious.
"Oh" Rory breathes and looks over at the group.
"So?" Lorelai hesitates. "What do I tell her?"
"Tell her to mind her own business" Jess chimes in.
Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Stars Hollow doesn't work that way my friend"
"Tell them to come to the town meeting this afternoon" Rory explains and smiled to herself.
Lorelai stops for half a second. "Town meeting?" She catches up with them again. "What's happening at the town meeting?"
"Come to the meeting and you'll see" Rory answers, still smiling.
"I'll have to wait until the town meeting to find out? Don't I get some kind of VIP-treatment for being your mother?"
Rory frees herself of Jess' embrace and pulls the door open as they reach the diner. "Nope" She gestures for her mother to step inside.
Jess smiles at their bickering and his smile widens as both Matt and Vanessa follows Lorelai into the diner and immediately picks it up, dangling little pieces of information about their plan in front of her without really giving anything away.
"Jess?" He rips his eyes away from the scene in the diner and turns around to look at Chris, standing on the street a few feet away, looking rather uncomfortable.
Jess gestures for Rory to go ahead into the diner and turns his focus back to Chris. "Yeah?"
"I…" He looks down at his feet and clears his throat before continuing. "Do you have another copy of the book?"
Jess looks surprised. "Sure. Why?"
"Well, I…" He glances at Rory through the window. "I was wondering if I could maybe read it?" He grimaces and then quickly adds: "I mean, you let Vanessa read it, and with the plan and everything…I thought…"
Jess smirks. "Sure. I'll get you a copy when we get back to the Inn"
Chris smiles. "Thanks"