Another chapter in under a week! I'm getting good at this, ha ha.
Anyway, as always, thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I can't believe we've passed the 100 mark already! You honestly have no clue how much I appreciate the feedback and fact that you spend a few moments to not only read, but review my story too.
CHAPTER 8: The Big Question
"Logan? What on earth are you doing here?! Why is she with you?"
In the few seconds that it takes Logan to answer, Rory attempts to brainstorm a potential reason as to why on earth her daughter -who had skipped school this morning- is now being returned home by her ex-boyfriend. Her mind runs a blank as to any possible reason.
Every passing second feels like hours as Rory helplessly tries to piece it all together, working out where exactly Elle had disappeared to and why Logan had brought her home.
"Hey, Ace..."
Despite the fear that is still evidently etched into her face after the stressful day she must have had, Logan can't help but crack a small smile at her presence. After nearly ten years, it's still a novelty factor just to see her.
"Don't worry; I'm just here to bring her back. I was doing a seminar/meet-and-greet in New York and she came to see me... You're going to have to ask the little lady why though. I worked out that you didn't know she was there, so I brought her back."
Rory looks down to her daughter, as if to confirm that she corroborates the bizarre story; still stunned as to not only why she had traveled all that way to see him of all people, but also why she had done it without telling her. She liked to think that she and Elle were as close as she and her own mother are.
"I'm sorry, mom. The website said it was a one day event and I didn't think that you would let me go."
In that moment, Rory sees a streak of her daughter's father in her; the streak of courage that sets Rory and Elle apart from each other when it comes to going after what they want.
"We'll talk about that later because right now I'm too relieved that you're safe to tell you off for it" Rory says, giving her daughter another hug as she takes one more deep breath of relief before Logan interrupts the girls. "I better leave you two to it and hit the road."
"Come in for a drink. I owe you that much as a thank you for making the three hour trip just to escort her all the way back here."
Logan looks at Rory warily, giving her a second chance and an opportunity to cop out.
"Are you sure? I was planning to just drop her off and then head straight back into the city..."
Rory simply nods decisively as she closes the door behind him to affirm her point that he isn't leaving until he lets her thank him.
"Elle, can you put some coffee on? I'll be back in a second. I just have to call my mom to let her know that you're okay so that she can call off the search party and tell Miss Patty to pass the message on."
Elle shows Logan the way to the living area of the small home. In fact, the living area is also shared between the kitchen, dining and lounge areas of the home, all meddled together in one, open room.
As Logan trails behind the nine-year-old through her home and from the front door to the living area, Logan keeps an eagle eye and takes note of every detail, especially every photo that he can catch a glimpse of as they move through the home.
Studying every small detail, he notices a big pink, painted 'E' hanging on a closed door which Logan can assume must be Elleigh's room. He notices Rory's Yale Diploma hanging proudly on a wall; a memento that she received on the last day he had seen his ex-girlfriend before seeing her again at grandfather's funeral, nearly ten years on.
Then, there are the framed photos that Logan tries to observe especially intently, the photos that are scattered across the walls and surfaces...
He sees the photo of Rory beside a younger-looking Elle, the two standing in front of a school sign; presumably marking Elleigh's first day of school...
He sees the photo of Luke and Lorelai with their arms around their granddaughter, the two girls wearing silly expressions.
He sees the photo of Elleigh with a big, toothless grin missing her two front teeth.
Then, he sees the photo that he finds the most startling; one of the oldest photos and one of the first photos of the mother and daughter.
... What he finds startling is that Rory looks exactly the way he remembers her looking. It's the Rory he remembers from their college years. She looks like the Rory he said goodbye in the gardens of Yale, but in the photo she is fresh-faced and glowing, proudly holding a teeny, tiny baby in her arms on a hospital bed.
Mind you, it's no wonder that she looks the way that he remembers her as; the way he has pictured her every time he has thought of her for almost a decade before meeting again just recently... After all, the photo would have been taken just seven months after the last time he saw her. Just seven months after the day they parted ways.
As they reach their destination further in the house, Elle speaks up and interrupts Logan from his thoughts and analysis of the photograph.
"I thought that she would be more mad than that" Elle says honestly, confiding in Logan as he takes a seat on the lounge, looking around and taking in the small room of the house that the mother and daughter share as the child brews a fresh pot of coffee. She knows exactly what she's doing with that pot of coffee; definitely a Gilmore girl.
"Like your mom said – wait till later. It might be a different story then."
Elle gives Logan a dramatic, scared grimace that makes him chuckle before they are distracted as Rory walks back into the room, phone in hand.
"Your glam-ma says hi, she told me to give you a big hug and warned you that you're in big trouble the next time you see her for sneaking off on the one day that she dropped you off. So, in her words, she said you owe her 'a trillion foot massages', Elle" Rory explains, relaying the message to her daughter as she takes over from Elle where she's making the hot drinks in the kitchen.
"Glam-ma?" Logan just questions at the unusual word, although he can assume what it is referring to.
"My mom. She taught Elle to call her 'glam-ma', instead of grandma or nanna anything else that she thought made her sound too old. Originally she tried to teach her to call her 'Marilyn Monroe', so really 'glam-ma' is a big improvement."
"Clever. Very Lorelai..." Logan says with a small smile, considering the fact that his ex-girlfriend's mother does not sound any different than the woman he knew nine years ago.
As Rory brings the three cups over from the kitchen, she hands her daughter a hot chocolate who grumbles about the fact that she isn't allowed a coffee so close to bedtime, then she hands the second cup to the male in the room, before letting out a little gasp.
"Sorry... I didn't check what you wanted. I can make you another drink" Rory apologises, realising how quickly she had fallen into old habits without even realising it.
"Is it black with two?" Logan checks regarding the hot beverage that he has just been handed. Black coffee with two sugars had been Logan's standard hot drink during his college years.
Rory nods in confirmation, understanding that not everyone's drink of choice stays the same after nearly a decade, but Logan just cracks a smile that she slowly reciprocates.
"Perfect. Thanks Ace."
Growing a little flustered, Rory suddenly turns to her daughter again and mentions more of the detail that her mother had told her about during the brief phone call.
"So, Elle... Just to reinforce how much trouble you're in, wait until you hear what effort the town has gone to to try and find you after your little adventure... Everyone in town spent the day scouring Stars Hollow and the neighbouring towns, all the way to and past Hartford. There are rosters, maps, fliers and schedules. Taylor's setting up a fundraiser to raise the money to pull in either the C.I.A., or a private investigator. Not to mention, your face is on thousands of fliers that they've put up half the way to New York."
Elle sighs at what she's caused from what she just viewed as a simple minor misdemeanor, crossing her arms in front of herself unhappily.
"All I did was miss a day of school and catch a bus! Kirk should have mentioned that he saw me! After all he was driving the bus!"
"Don't try and put this on Kirk, young lady, even if he should have worked out that you were skipping school. It is Kirk after all."
"... Well, I kinda told him it was a pupil free day..."
"Elleigh! Kirk is going to be in so much trouble with his mom now."
Kirk Gleason is the only forty-something-year-old man to still get grounded by his mother.
"I'm sorry... I thought that I'd get into the city, go to the meet-and-greet and be on the bus back home just an hour after school finished. But Kirk drives slow so the bus was running late and-"
As Elle is going through all her excuses, Logan intervenes and cuts in, shouldering some of the blame too.
"It's partly my fault, too. She would have been home a lot earlier than she was if she stuck to her plan. I realised that she was there on her own and that you didn't know. So after she called you to tell you she was safe I made her stay by my side until I could wrap the meet-and-greet up and take her back. I couldn't just have her jump on a bus and hope that she got home safe."
"And he got me food! In a limo! Have you ever gotten drive-thru food in a limo?!"
Listening to the recount of the afternoon from the duo, Rory has to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling from the inappropriate timing. However, Rory can't help but acknowledge –albeit to herself- just how well and how maturely Logan had handled the situation. He'd done the right thing to take her home himself, rather than to hand her over to some strange P.A. or lackey. Also, he'd done the right thing to get Elle to call her first to let her know that she was safe and okay, rather than just waiting until he brought her home.
However, Rory doesn't let herself linger on these thoughts before moving onto Elle.
"It's getting late. You better have a shower and head to bed, Houdini. There's no chance you're skipping school tomorrow. I'll be escorting you into school, to your desk and then posting Steve and Kwan's grandma, Mrs. Kim, as a sentry until 3."
Elle sighs unhappily as she gets up from the lounge that she'd been sharing with her mom. Maybe Logan had been right. Maybe she hadn't gotten off scot-free just yet.
"'Night, Logan. Thanks for taking me home... You're pretty cool."
Logan smiles at the compliment, waving the younger girl off. Her comment means more to him than what he would have thought. He stands up and prepares to leave since Elleigh is going to bed and considering that Rory's invitation had served its purpose and he'd finished the drink that he had come in for.
"Thanks, Elleigh. Have a good sleep. Now, try not to sneak off to Las Vegas tomorrow... at least for your poor mom's sake, yeah Nance?"
A wild grin fills Elle's lips at the joke and his reference to her as Nancy Drew once again as she says a final goodbye to the two adult's before heading to the bathroom for a shower.
"So..." Rory says uncomfortably now that she and Logan are suddenly left alone, without the third person buffer.
Just moments ago, Logan had figured that he would leave straight away. However, now that he has the opportunity, he suddenly has a burning desire and urge to confront the issue that's been on his mind ever since a certain little girl had approached him -on her own- at the meet-and-greet.
"So, you have a daughter... Congratulations. She's beautiful, Ace."
A sudden discomfort and awkwardness comes over Rory as she uncomfortably and unconfidently looks down at her shoes and the timber floorboards.
"Thanks... She's a good kid."
He had been planning to do more research before confronting her with the question that hasn't shifted from the fore-front of his mind. He had been planning to look up birth notices to try and determine if a father of Rory Gilmore's baby had ever been mentioned. He had been planning to determine if she'd had any other boyfriends or men in her life shortly after him. He had been planning to do more digging and then, if need be, he had planned that he would confront her.
But, he had spent the entire afternoon with the young girl who had skipped school, taken a bus to an unfamiliar place just to see him and just to talk to him, to try and find out what he now needs to determine, too... The same beautiful, intelligent and confident little girl that by his calculations and by what he has determined so far, who could very well be half of him.
He just has to know... now.
So, after Rory's last response, Logan takes a moment and he pauses, taking the time to work up the courage as he runs his hands through his neat, blonde hair, before he eventually locks eyes with her. Logan knows that he'll be able to read the truth from her, even if she doesn't say it.
"Rory? Is she mine, too?"
The truth is nearly out! Finally! But, where will things go from here? When he knows, will Logan want to be a part of their daughter's life? Will Rory let him?
I'd love to hear everything and anything you have to say about the last chapter.
Next chapter: After the confrontation, how will Logan react? The LDB boys are here! Elle surprises Rory.