A week had slowly passed by since Logan and Rory had fought about her date. During that time she'd gone out with Carter again on a lunch date. While Carter was a really nice guy, Rory wasn't really sure if she had actually wanted to go out with him or if it was more about wanting to demonstrate to Logan that he couldn't control her life, but either way, she'd had a nice time and was already making plans to see him again.

Rory was frustrated and angry. She was annoyed that Logan had appeared to have gone AWOL. Of course, she also felt very bad about what she said and she knew that it was completely out of line. He'd just kind of taken her by surprise showing up like that. Rory had called and messaged him several times but it was to no avail. He never picked up the phone or responded to any messages. Short of driving over to the Huntzberger's house to confront him she didn't really know what she should do next - and she really didn't want to do that if it could be avoided.

Rory decided that she would call him one last time today. She groaned when she heard his voicemail kick in yet again and steeled herself for leaving him another message that he was bound to ignore.

"Logan. I know you are angry with me but this is ridiculous. This is the absolute last time I am calling you so you had better listen and listen good. I screwed up, I know that. I should never have said what I said but your just disappearing off the face of the earth, it is not acceptable. Not now, not ever. I thought I made it clear Logan. I am not interested in a part-time father for Lily. You're either in or you're out. There's no in between. If you're in, you're all in."

Rory ended the call and slammed the phone down on the counter.

After waiting around all afternoon to see if Logan might call back after receiving Rory's angry message, she decided to get out of the house for a bit so she grabbed Lily and headed to Stars Hollow to see her mom.

She pulled up outside her old house, unclipped Lily out of the car and walked into the house. The house was in silence yet she knew that her mom was there somewhere as her jeep was sitting outside in its usual spot.

"Mom?" she called out.

"Hey Rory, I'm in the kitchen, come in here I'm just…"

"Stop right there lady because if that sentence ends in any kind of insinuation that you are cooking I am walking straight back out that door…" Rory said as she walked into the kitchen to find Lorelai sitting at the table eating.

"Ice-cream?" Lorelai said holding out the tub "Grab a spoon kid!"

Rory smiled and went and got herself a spoon. She sat down next to Lorelai at the table with Lily on her lap.

"Here, give me my grandbaby," Lorelai said arms outstretched "Aww Lily I've missed you. What's up Ror? Still not heard from Logan?"

"Yes and I am so mad at him right now," Rory said pursing her lips.

"What happened between you two anyhow? You never did say, only that 'words' had been had" Lorelai said wiggling her eyebrows at her daughter.

"Ugh, it's all your fault!" Rory exclaimed.

Lorelai looked puzzled. "Err, my fault? How so?!"

"I bumped into Logan, and his entire family, when I was on the date with Carter. He freaked out about it. We had a fight. I I've not seen or heard from his since. The end"

Lorelai wrinkled her nose. "Awkward, but I don't see how it's my fault?"

"It was your idea for me to go on a stupid date!" Rory rolled her eyes and mimicked her mother "Oh go on a date Rory, it's just what you need Rory, it will take the edge off Rory"

"Why did you fight about it?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh, I don't know really. It all just got a bit awkward. Then Logan came around afterwards and started insisting that I should have told him and…" Rory trailed off and bit her lip.

"And…" Lorelai questioned knowing that there was clearly something significant to come.

"And well, I may or may not have said something that I shouldn't have" Rory wrinkled her nose. Lorelai was looking at her expectantly. "I made some throwaway comment about him only being in Lily's life for five minutes…."

"Rory…." Lorelai sighed and closed her eyes.

"It was in the heat of the moment!" She threw her arms up in the air. "And now he won't talk to me at all."

"Well, are you surprised? Jeez, Rory" Logan wasn't always top of Lorelai's Christmas card list, he'd done some pretty shitty things in the past but even she was well aware that Rory had been a bit harsh.

"Okay, I'm a bitch, I don't want to talk about it anymore". Rory said getting annoyed.

"But…." Lorelai tried to interject.

"I said I don't want to talk about it!"

They continued to eat their ice-cream over polite chit-chat and some idle gossip before moving into the living room where Lorelai and Rory sat and watched a movie with Lily. When the movie had ended, Rory decided it was time to get Lily home. She'd hope that maybe Logan would have called after receiving her last angry message but she had checked her cell phone incessantly through the afternoon and there had been no calls or text messages.

Lorelai stood on the porch and waved them off. As she watched Rory's car leave she couldn't help but think how much of herself she saw reflected in her daughter. Rory was undoubtedly stubborn at times – definitely something she had inherited from the Gilmores. Lorelai sighed as she walked back into the house and sat on the sofa. She'd always wanted more for her daughter than she'd had – whether that had been the college education she'd missed out or the opportunity to travel around the world or chase a fantastic career. Not all of that had worked out for Rory yet as fate had dealt a different hand, however, nothing had changed – Lorelai still wanted more for Rory and now Lily. She knew that Rory had a great childhood and they loved their time together, she wouldn't change a thing but Lorelai also knew just how lonely and difficult life as a single parent could be. She knew that Logan and Rory cared for each other, she just wished they could each deal with their issues so they could move on and hopefully rebuild a relationship.

Rory walked towards the pool house, juggling an increasingly wiggly Lily in one arm and her bags in the other. As she was walking down the path, she accidentally dropped her keys on the floor. She carefully crouched down, trying to balance herself and prevent herself landing in a messy heap on the floor as she retrieved them from the gravel. As she stood back up and righted herself she noticed someone sitting outside the pool house.

"Logan!" Rory said in surprise.

Logan looked up at Rory and their daughter. "I'm in," he said quietly "Of course I am in."

Rory sighed and smiled tentatively. "Do you want to come in?"

Logan followed Rory inside.

"I'm just going to go and put Lily into bed, it's been a long day and she's completely overtired. If I don't get her in now, I never will. Do you want to fix us some drinks?"

Logan nodded and watched Rory disappear into the bedroom. He'd picked up her message as soon as she had sent it that afternoon. He hadn't purposely been avoiding her all week, he'd been in and out of New York at meetings with HPG for the most part but he had neglected to respond to her texts and calls. Logan knew it was petty but he was stewing over what she had said to him and just hadn't been in the mood for arguing with Rory during what was a busy and stressful working week. He fixed them some drinks and sat on the sofa waiting for Rory.

Once she had put Lily down to sleep, Rory came out of the bedroom and sat down next to Logan on the sofa. For a moment neither of them said anything. Rory picked up her drink, took a sip and turned to Logan.

"Logan, I think we really need to talk." She looked at Logan and he nodded slightly. "I know you've been really angry with me this week and you have every right to be. I am really sorry that I said that to you."

"It's fine," Logan said without looking up at her.

"No, it's not fine. It was hurtful and cruel and I honestly don't know that I was thinking. Except maybe I wasn't thinking. I'm mad at myself for that. I promise I will never say anything like that again."

Logan smiled up at her "Thanks" he said before adding "And I'm sorry I went off-grid. It was just a stupid knee jerk reaction. I was just angry. And I totally overreacted to the whole dating thing, I mean I'm still not comfortable with it but…"

"Yeah, about that" Rory put her drink down. "Logan, if we're going to do this co-parenting thing, successfully, I think we're going to have to accept that other people are going to come in and our of life. That is unless you are planning on becoming a Buddhist monk and I honestly wouldn't recommend it because I really don't think you could pull off the sandals."

"And there I was thinking it was because orange isn't my colour" Logan smirked. "I know, I know. You're right – but it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No, you don't have to like it, but it does mean that you have to keep your opinions to yourself, mister. I don't plan on spending the rest of my days as a bitter old spinster. I'm going to go on dates. You're going to go on dates." She said matter of factly.

"Unless we date each other, that would solve a problem" He raised his eyebrows.

Rory laughed and shook her head "Logan, that would cause more problems than it would solve, I think we both know that."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Logan smiled. They still hadn't discussed their almost-kiss. Logan had planned to talk to Rory about it but then he had bumped into her on her date with Carter and the moment seemed to pass them by. He couldn't help feeling a little sad about it.

"Hey, you want to watch a movie?" Rory asked, trying to move the conversation along.

Logan looked at his watch "It's getting late Rory. I'd better get going, I've got to go to New York in the morning…"

"Oh…okay," Rory said slightly disappointed. It wasn't really that late. She couldn't help thinking that Logan was making excuses to get out of there but she certainly wasn't going to force him to stay.

A little later that evening Rory was relaxing in front of Breakfast at Tiffany's when her cell phone rang. She looked at the screen before she answered. For some reason, she half-expected it to be Logan but she saw that it was Carter calling instead.

"Hey" she answered the phone and settled back onto the sofa.

"So I was wondering if you were free on Saturday night?" Carter asked mysteriously.

"Yeah, I'm free…what are you thinking?" Rory said casually.

"Well I have tickets to a show in Manhattan and I was wondering if you'd like to come with. It would mean a hotel stay so I guess it would depend if you were able to get an overnight sitter or not…"

Rory pursed her lips. An overnight stay was probably pushing it a little further than she would have liked right now. That opened a whole new can of worms and she wasn't sure that after only two dates she was quite ready for weekends away, but on the other hand, she was young, free and single, so why not?

"Sure, I'm sure I can sort it. Sounds great Carter." She smiled.

"Great, if you can get away early on Saturday we could make a weekend of it?" Carter said sounding hopeful.

"I'll see what I can do" she smiled as she put the phone down.

"Logan, are you busy this weekend?" Rory had toyed with her cell phone before finally making the call.

"You propositioning me Ace?" Logan asked with a smirk.

"In your dreams Huntzberger! Well actually, I do kind of have a proposition for you…" Rory trailed off.

"I'm listening…"

Rory was just about to launch into it but paused. "Before I say this next thing you are not allowed to pass judgement or make a silly comment or get annoyed or anything. Okay, promise?"

"I promise" Logan laughed. He had felt a lot better since seeing Rory earlier that day and clearing the air. They'd said their apologies and while they hadn't both laid out all their issues, it was nice to be at least on speaking terms again.

"So Carter has invited me out on Saturday but we're going to New York City and we're going to need to stay over. In fact, we were hoping to make a weekend of it…"

There was silence.

"….so I was wondering if maybe you'd like to stay here at the pool house and look after Lily for me." Rory rattled out the sentence as quick as possible.

"Hang on a minute, you're asking me if I can babysit our daughter this weekend so you can basically just disappear off for a weekend of hot sex with your boyfriend?"

"Firstly, it's not babysitting when it's your own child. Secondly, he's not my boyfriend, it's just a date and thirdly, there will be no hot sex Logan"

"Hey Ace, sex with you is always hot," Logan said seductively down the phone.

Rory had never been gladder that she was on the phone and Logan couldn't see her blushing. "Logan!"

"You know I am right!" he laughed.

She shook her head "There will be no sex." She said firmly.

"He's booking you into a hotel room and you don't think he's expecting you to put out? Come on, I know you're not that naive…"

Rory contemplated what Logan was saying. She hadn't actually thought about that aspect. Would Carter really be thinking about them taking their relationship to the next level this weekend? She hadn't really considered that but now Logan had put that thought in her head. Was she ready to take that next step?

"Rory, I am kidding! Relax! Go, have fun. I'll take care of Lily. Just let me know what time you want me to get there for."

"Thanks, Logan" Rory said with a degree of uncertainty.

Rory ended the call and immediately called her mom. "Mom! I think I am going to have to have to sex this weekend."

"Now Rory, I told you, just say no. You don't have to give into peer pressure…"

"Mom, I am serious, I am freaking out. Carter is taking me to New York for the weekend, we're staying in a hotel. Logan is going to look after Lily and he said that Carter will be expecting sex."

"Logan who freaked out about you going on a date has agreed to look after your daughter while you go on a dirty weekend? Well, I never!"

"It's not a dirty weekend…God, you are as bad as him!"

"Well he's probably not wrong but kid, I mean, I doubt Carter is packing the travel Scrabble in his bag if you know what I mean," Lorelai said with a hint of sarcasm.

Rory groaned "I just don't think that's somewhere I want to go right now…it's been a really long time since I, you know…"

"So don't do it." Lorelai shrugged.

"You think? You don't think he'll be offended?"

"If he is, so what? Rory, you make the decisions, you say who, you say when. If you're not ready, you're not ready and if he's a decent guy, he'll understand that." Lorelai reasoned.

Rory smiled. It was just what she needed to hear. "Right. Thanks, mom. I've never been away with anyone other than Logan. I'm just stressing over nothing. I'll speak to you later."

"I'm sure you are. Oh and Rory?" Lorelai said quickly before her daughter ended the call.

"Yeah?"

"Don't forget to shave!"

Rory rolled her eyes and laid her back on the sofa. What had she got herself into!