Logan sat at his desk at work and picked up his phone to call Rory.

"So, I was wondering if you had any plans tonight?" he said when she answered.

Rory smiled. It was only yesterday that they had decided to start trying out the dating thing again. Too much had gone down between them to just launch into a relationship so Logan thought to start out with a few casual dates felt like the best way forward.

"The answer to that question is going to depend on who it is calling…" Rory joked. "I have big plans for Chinese food and Noam Chomsky but aside from that…."

"Well, do you think Noam Chomsky will mind stepping aside and waiting until another night because I was kind of hoping that we could go out tonight."

"Out? Out out? Like on a date out?" Rory teased.

"Sure, on a date" Logan reaffirmed.

"Erm, okay, why not."

"Okay. I'll pick you up at 8 pm" Logan said.

"Mom, I am totally freaking about this," Rory said lying on her bed.

"Freaking out about what hun?"

"Well….I saw Logan yesterday and against my better judgement…we're kind of going out on a date tonight." Rory said sheepishly.

Rory still had trouble believing that she and Logan were going to start dating but here she was, getting herself ready for their first official date in what basically amounted to years. She felt super nervous which was ridiculous given that she'd been in already been in a long-term relationship with the guy and they now had a child. Still, that didn't prevent the butterflies that seemed to have taken over her body.

"I don't know why that would be cause for a freak-out you've been on a million dates with Logan, plus you just had sex with the guy like, what, just a few days ago so you already know that part works…"

"Mom!" Rory groaned "This is different! What am I going to wear? Oh my god, what will we talk about!"

"Will you just relax Rory!" Lorelai said "Okay, first clothes, presuming you'll need some – wear that blue dress, the one with the off the shoulder thing going on"

"The fitted one?" Rory asked as she pulled it out of the wardrobe.

"Yep, that's the baby."

Rory held up against herself and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "You don't think that maybe it's a bit too 'come and get it'?" she asked her mother.

"Seeing as he's already been and got it I don't see what that matters." Lorelai joked.

"Wow, mom. I am never telling you anything ever again."

"You look amazing," Logan said as he greeted Rory with a smile.

"Oh, this old thing? It was only about the 100th dress I tried on." She rolled her eyes.

Logan smiled "Nervous?"

"A little" She admitted with a shy smile.

"Me too," Logan said "Shall we go?" he asked taking her by the hand.

They got in Logan's car and he drove them to Carbone's, an Italian restaurant in Hartford, remembering how much Rory had loved the cuisine when they were dating. After a slightly stilted start, the conversation, with a little help from the Dom Perignon, began to flow more freely as they relaxed into the evening.

"Do you remember that time that Finn got caught naked in the cafeteria that night?"

"Oh my God yes! What was he even doing in there?" Rory threw her head back and laughed as she remembered the antics of their friends at Yale.

"I have no idea. I remember him saying something about some redhead who worked in there…"

"If my memory serves me right that redhead was nearly sixty." Rory shook her head.

Logan shrugged with a smile "It's Finn, you know where his standards are set – permanently low. Ah, we had some fun times huh". Logan laughed.

"Yeah, we did" Rory smiled.

"So Ace, tell me a bit more about what you've been up to over the past eighteen months, now I know you've not been working and all the stuff with Lily but…any significant others that I should know about?"

"You mean, did I have a boyfriend? Ha! Chance would have been a fine thing" Rory rolled her eyes.

"You didn't date at all?" Logan asked.

"Hmm, let me see. For nine months of it, I was pregnant – surprisingly not a huge turn-on for most men. There's a reason you're not meant to be single when you have a baby – it means someone is morally bound to want to take care of you, in more ways than one" Rory blushed before quickly moving on "and for the other nine months I was existing on two hours sleep a night and self-medicating with copious amounts of caffeine. No Logan, I didn't date at all."

"Gotta say I am a little bit relieved."

"And you're going to tell me you led a life of celibacy in California? I highly doubt that". Rory questioned.

"Not quite but nothing serious. Or even semi-serious. Not sure California girls are all they are cracked up to be" he said with a smirk.

Rory looked at Logan. "Do you miss it? California I mean?"

Logan shook his head "No, I don't miss it. It was never home you know. I always felt like I was just visiting though it definitely had some plus points."

"Perhaps you can take me one day…" Rory said, "It would be nice to see what…" Rory paused. She had almost said that it would be nice to see what she had missed out on but it felt too melancholy so she had stopped herself at the last moment. "I mean, nice to see where you were living, you know, getting your morning coffee and all that."

"Yeah sure," Logan smiled. He thought back to all the times he'd wished that Rory was there with him in California. "So what do you plan to do after grad school?"

"I have absolutely no idea! I only really went back to grad school in the end because I felt that I needed to do something. It wasn't my first choice, obviously going on the Obama campaign trail would have been absolutely amazing…" Rory trailed off "…but fate dealt a different hand…"

"I'm sorry," Logan said quietly. "I'm sorry that you had to miss that opportunity."

"Nothing to apologise for Logan" Rory shook her head. "No point dwelling on it, what will be will be. I'm sure there will be other great opportunities in the future, at least I hope there will be."

"Absolutely," Logan said firmly "You still want to travel for work?"

Rory smiled sadly. "No, I've let that dream go."

"Why," he asked.

"It's just not something that is possible with Lily. I can't very well take her out on the road with me and there's no way I could leave her behind so Option A just isn't open to me, so I'll have to try Option B."

Logan looked at her and felt a bit sad that she had given up on her dream. "Which is…?"

"Stay local. Look for a job that is within a reasonable distance. New York maybe, The New York Times would still be an absolute dream. The main thing is keeping Lily near her family. I couldn't take her away from my mom and Luke, they love her to pieces and obviously now you're here so…that would be a consideration." Rory smiled.

"You'd factor me into that decision?" Logan looked at Rory, slightly surprised.

"Well yeah, I mean, you are Lily's father, whatever happens between us in the future you're in her life now so that's always going to influence what I do. You're taking over HPG, that's based here, it's not feasible to expect you to follow us wherever we go." Rory shrugged.

"That's good to know, but you know I would factor you in too don't you?"

Rory nodded "Yeah, I know that".

After dinner, Logan walked Rory back to the door of the Pool House.

As she put the key in the door, she turned to face him. "Thanks for dinner Logan, I really enjoyed myself."

"No problem" Logan smiled at Rory as she pushed the door open.

"Erm, do you want to come in? Lily is in the main house with Marta so…" Rory trailed off, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, it's been a really long time since I have been in this kind of situation, I'm not really sure what the right thing to say or do is. You can come in for coffee if you want…"

Logan shook his head. "Maybe another time." He could sense Rory's disappointment and he really hoped that she didn't take it as a rejection from him because he didn't mean it to be at all. He was just aware that this had been their first proper date in years and he wanted to demonstrate to her, that for him, it wasn't just about the sex and he really did want to spend time getting to know her better.

"Oh okay," Rory said, looking a little hurt.

"Rory, Just because I'm not coming in with you, doesn't mean that I don't want to. Believe me, I do want to, so badly it hurts" Logan whispered as he leaned into Rory and put his hand gently on the back of her head, pulling her in close to him before pressing his lips to her and drawing her into a passionate kiss.

Rory pulled away breathlessly and smiled. "Okay, another time."

Colin was home from Stanford for a few days so Logan met up with him and Finn to catch up on everything that had been going on in their lives. It had been a while since Logan had seen Colin but he managed to fill him in on the arrival of Lily in his life.

"What's new with you Logan? Still burning the midnight oil at HPG?" Colin asked, taking a swig of his scotch.

"I am, it's going really well actually. Never thought I'd say it but I actually really enjoy it. My dad seems to be a changed man these days…shame it took a near cardiac arrest and two grandchildren to do it but it's not too bad" Logan said.

"How are you getting on with Lily? Is she talking yet?" Finn asked.

"It's great, she's great. She can say a few words now. Finally got a dada out of her the other day." Logan smiled as he thought about his daughter.

"And Rory?" Colin asked.

Logan laughed "I think she mastered the art of speech somewhere in the 1980's…"

"You know what I mean!" Colin rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Rory and I…it's…a bit complicated," Logan said picking up his drink.

"Mate! You shagged her!" Finn shouted.

Logan shook his head. "You want to say it again a bit louder Finn? I don't think the people in the building next door heard you."

"But you did right, you're not denying it," Finn said as he rubbed his hands with glee.

Logan rolled his eyes "Yes, we slept together, but just the one time. It's not happened since and we are just going to try dating for a bit, taking things slowly."

"Do you think that's a good idea, Logan? I mean, after everything that went down between you two and what she did with Lily. Do you trust her? Have you forgiven her?" Colin, always the voice of reason asked as he looked at him. Colin remembered too well just what sort of state Logan had been in after Rory had turned down his proposal. He'd never seen his friend so low and it had taken Colin and Finn a fair old amount of bucking up to get him back up on an even keel which is why when Logan had called to tell him about Lily, Colin had been less than impressed with Rory.

"I trust her" Logan nodded. "I'm not saying that I've completely forgiven her, it's not that easy but I have to at least try, right? Anyway, it's just a casual thing right now…" Logan shrugged with a slight air of bravado.

"Oh and we all remember how well that worked out the first time around" Finn laughed.

"Well, that's how it is at the moment. We're just seeing how things pan out, we're not exclusive or anything."

Colin raised an eyebrow. "Does Rory know that?"

"Yeah, sure," Logan said knocking back his scotch.