The next day Rory awoke on the sofa in Lorelai's living room where she had fallen asleep late the night before. She had managed to drift off in the early hours and exhausted, she slept right through to lunchtime. She woke a little disorientated and immediately looked at her cell phone, just in case Logan had called her, but she was disappointed to find that he hadn't.

Lorelai looked at her sadly "He'll call when he's ready Ror".

"What if he doesn't?" Rory chewed her cheek.

"Well, if he doesn't, then what have you really lost? You hadn't seen him in eighteen months, you didn't want to tell him about Lily and you were already doing this on your own anyway." Lorelai said matter-of-factly.

Rory remained silent. She knew that her mom was speaking the harsh truth but seeing Logan had changed things for her. He knew about Lily now. She had no expectations of any kind of relationship for the pair of them but she had hoped that he would at least want to get to know his child now he knew the truth.

Logan sat in a booth at their old favourite haunt from their Yale days, Rich Man's Shoe in New Haven. He'd needed to talk things through with his friends and while Colin was still in California at Stanford, Finn happened to be in the area visiting family and had suggested it as an easy meeting place for 'old times sake'.

Finn entered the bar and scanned around for Logan. "Mate!" he shouted across the room when he saw Logan sitting at a table, nursing an empty glass. Logan hadn't told Finn why he needed to speak to him but he had guessed from the tone of his voice that it was something pretty serious. Logan looked up as Finn took a seat at the table.

"Mate, you look like shit, no offence," Finn said holding up his hands.

"I feel like shit," Logan said. "No offence taken."

"So, what's going on Logan, my man. You look like your cat just ate your budgie."

"I saw Rory last week" Logan looked down at his empty glass, and swirled the remaining ice around in the bottom of it.

Finn sat back in the booth and placed his hands behind his head. He might have guessed that Logan's dishevelled appearance had something to do with Rory, it normally did. He was surprised to even hear him mention her name.

"Okay…and it didn't go well?"

"Oh, no it went very well. We got on fine, really well in fact. We danced together at a party, met for coffee and reminisced a little while and then I bumped into her at the park yesterday which is where she introduced me to my daughter." He said slamming the glass down on the table.

"Excuse me? You are what now?!" Finn said with his mouth gaping wide.

"I have a daughter. With Rory." Logan said laughing. He didn't know why he was laughing about it but it had sounded so strange when he said it out loud for the first time.

"I think I need a drink mate!" Finn said as he beckoned the waitress over.

Once Finn had a drink in his hand and Logan's glass had been refilled, Finn signalled for Logan to continue.

"I don't know what to say, buddy. I mean, how, why, when…"

"All very valid questions my friend and ones I have no answers to," Logan said as he knocked back his scotch.

"But when did you see Rory? I mean, in order to knock her up…again, no offence…" Finn said as he took a swig of his drink.

"By my calculations, she would have been pregnant at her graduation, though she may not have known then, I don't really know."

"But that was….ages ago?!" Finn said as the thought back to the day when Rory had turned down Logan's proposal. Surely if she had known she was pregnant then, she would have said something.

"Lily is nine months old. That's her name, Lily. I have a daughter called Lily who is nine months old and I don't know anything else about her." Logan said running his hands through his hair.

"She waited all this time to tell you?"

Logan shook his head "I don't think she waited - I don't think she ever intended to tell me. She only blurted it out yesterday because I had presumed the baby she was with was her sister."

"Ouch." Finn said "Sorry, mate. I'm stunned. I can't believe that Rory would have your baby and not tell you about it."

"Welcome to my world," Logan said sarcastically.

"So what are you going to do? I mean, how did you leave things?"

"Badly. I got really mad at her and I left. I've not spoken to her since"

Finn pulled a face. "Well I can't say I blame you, but you're going to have to talk to her sometime. I mean, I don't want to be the one to point this out to you, but you have a child together…"

Logan couldn't help but laugh at his friend. "I know. I know."

"You want to be involved with this baby though don't you?"

Logan slowly nodded. "Yes, I think so but I'm not ready to talk to Rory about any of it yet, I am just so angry and eaten up inside about it all. If I talk to her now…" he said shaking his head "I just don't think it will end well."

"Understood," Finn said nodding his head. "So what is she like?"

"Lily? She's beautiful" he smiled. "She has blonde curls and Rory's blue eyes. I don't have a photo" he shrugged. "or I'd show you."

"Relax mate, you've only been a dad for 24 hours, you'll catch on. Another drink?"

Lorelai walked into the bar and looked around. She had worked pretty hard to try and track him down today, having to resort to hijacking Rory's phone to find out his sister's number. Lorelai had called Honor who had luckily spoken to Logan that day so she knew exactly where he was headed to. She had no idea what was going on or why Lorelai would want to find Logan but she could tell that it was important.

Rory had to head back to Hartford to get back to Lily. She had never intended to leave her overnight so needed to relieve Marta from her duties. Lorelai had seized this opportunity to sneak off and do what her daughter would call meddling. Emily Gilmore would be so proud!

As she scanned the bar area, she spotted Logan sitting on a table in the corner with a young man she recognized to be his friend from Yale, Finn. She took a deep breath and strode over to the table. The two men looked up at Lorelai as she approached.

"Logan, can I talk to you?"

"Lorelai, I…." Logan started to make an excuse of why he couldn't possibly talk to her at that moment.

"It's really important Logan" she interjected.

"Mate, c'mon" Finn nudged his friend.

Logan sighed and gestured for her to sit down at the table.

"I'll just go and sit at the bar…" Finn said to them both. Lorelai smiled at him to say thank you.

Logan looked at Lorelai and waited for her to start talking.

"Look, Logan. I know that you must be reeling right now…"

Logan laughed at Lorelai's words. Reeling was an understatement. He rubbed his hand on his face.

"….but I really think you need to understand why Rory did what she did, or at least my understanding anyhow."

Logan sighed "I don't think I'll ever understand what would drive someone to lie to another person about them being a father."

"You could at least try," Lorelai said gently "And to be fair, she didn't really lie."

Logan looked at Lorelai incredulously "What? I can't believe you are saying that!"

"She didn't lie" Lorelai shrugged and shook her head.

"She never exactly told the truth though did she," Logan said taking a swig of his drink "and neither did you. You let me believe that Lily was yours."

Lorelai shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She hated being stuck in the middle. "Will you at least listen to me, Logan?"

Logan gestured for her to go ahead.

"Rory found out she was pregnant just a few weeks after graduation. Neither of you had made any effort to contact each other and by this point, you'd already left for Palo Alto. She was an absolute mess Logan – to be honest, she was a mess before she found out she was pregnant, the breakup was really hard on her." Lorelai stopped talking as Logan went to interrupt her. "I know, I know, it was hard for you too."

"She found it hard to reconcile herself with the situation, that you were no longer together and then she got this great job offer from Hugo and she'd just started to pick herself up and start envisioning a future for herself. She was just preparing to leave on the Obama campaign trail when she found out."

"That was the job she was offered? Wow, that was a pretty amazing opportunity….but wait she didn't go did she?" Logan asked.

Lorelai shook her head. "No, she didn't feel like she could leave right away when there were all these decisions to be made. She told Hugo she had some personal issues to get her head around and he gave her some time…"

Logan looked at Lorelai quizzically. "Decisions to be made? You mean?"

"I'm not going to lie to you Logan you deserve to know all the honest facts. Yes, Rory considered that terminating the pregnancy was an option that was open to her."

Logan winced.

"But it honestly wasn't a consideration for very long, we both knew that she would never have gone through with it so she told Hugo that she wouldn't be taking the job".

"She really wanted to tell you, she agonized over it, but she felt like the reasons you had split up remained the same – she wasn't ready to get married and you weren't willing to do the long distance thing so…I'm not judging you, Logan, the long distance thing is hard, it's not for everyone."

"Ultimately based on that, whether that was misguided or not Rory decided she didn't want her child to have a part-time dad like she did. Hell, Christopher was less than part-time! He was never there when she needed him to be, he let her down constantly. She decided it was easier for everyone to do it alone but that wasn't an easy choice for her to make. I have watched her wrestle with it constantly and it has taken a huge emotional toll on her. Lily is her world, we all adore her, you've seen her – how can we not, but there have been a lot of sacrifices made."

Logan looked up at Lorelai. "So, she stayed with you, in Stars Hollow?"

"At first, yes, but she lives with my parents now in Hartford. Back in the pool house" Lorelai rolled her eyes. It reminded her of the bad times when Rory had dropped out of Yale and they weren't on speaking terms for months on end. "It seemed like the best solution. It gives Rory and Lily a bit more space and privacy and my mother loves having them there – makes up for my complete failure as a daughter when I left home with Rory."

"She can't stay there forever though," Logan said.

"No. And her dad offered to help buy her a condo but you know Rory, she has grand plans and Lily will be a year old in a few months…."

She looked at Logan when she realised Logan didn't even know when her birthday was. "14th February, Valentines Day" Lorelai smiled.

Logan couldn't help but think back to last Valentines Day. What had he been doing while Rory was giving birth to his child? Feeling sorry for himself and wallowing no doubt. He knew for sure he hadn't been on a date as he had decided to boycott the whole holiday being as it was his first one without Rory. He'd thought about sending Rory a message so many times that day, now with hindsight he really wished he had. Would things have been different between them?

"Anyhow, for now, she's staying with my parents while she attends grad school. Did you know she was back at Yale?"

"Yes," he nodded "She mentioned that."

"Yes, well my mother has employed an au pair for Lily which she happily overseas." Lorelai rolled her eyes "You know my mother, but in fairness, Marta has been a great help to Rory, it's given her the chance to get on with her studies and keep a bit of her freedom. It's hard work being a single mom I can tell you that from experience."

"Emily and Richard, do they know…"

"That Lily is yours? No, well not outright but I guess they have their suspicions. Rory refused to discuss it. Logan, I know that you are hurting and angry right now, and you have every right to be but you can't avoid Rory forever, you need to talk about this."

"I don't know Lorelai…." he shook his head. Logan couldn't see where talking would get them, other than round and round in ever-decreasing circles.

"What! You're just going to pretend that none of this happened? That Lily doesn't exist?" Lorelai looked at Logan who shook his head again. "I didn't think so."

"I just need some space okay. I need time to work out what all this means and if I see Rory now, we're just going to end up in a big fight. I don't think either of us needs that drama in our lives."

"But you're not going to bolt, right?" Lorelai cocked her head to one side and looked at him.

"No, I'm not going to bolt," Logan said before taking a swig of his scotch and putting the glass down and looking at Lorelai. "Why did you come here?"

"Because she's my daughter and she's in pain. She's made mistakes, she's not perfect, but I love her and I will always try to help her when I can. One day you're going to feel this way about your own daughter Logan, just wait and see"