Before we get onto this chapter, than I just say the biggest thank you to all you lovely, lovely readers. The feedback that I received on the last chapter was phenomenal and overwhelming. It means so much to me that you're all supporting this work and enjoying reading the story as much as I am enjoying writing it. Thank you.

Also, just quickly, there was a few reviews that mentioned and speculated on the day when Rory went into Logan's work, with the intention of telling him about Elleigh. Now how that day went down is something I have a very clear vision of in my mind. I've been thinking about including it in the story as a flashback... I haven't written that yet, but is that something you'd like to read and get a glimpse into? Maybe not?

CHAPTER 12: Moments of Truth

After their meeting that morning, Rory and Logan ended up back at the mother and daughter's home.

Logan had asked to see photos of Elleigh as a child and Rory, ever the proud mother, had been more than happy to show off photos and stories of their child.

"So here's her school photo from last year. There's Elle. Remember my friend Lane? She and Zach's boys are in the same class as Elleigh" Rory says as she points the set of Korean identical twins out. "Steve and Kwan are Elle's best friends. It's very sweet."

Logan nods initially, but it doesn't take long before a look of horror floods over his face.

"Boys, Ace? Boys...? You let her hang out with boys already?"

Rory gives Logan a carefree shrug and screws her face up in a little smirk.

"They're nine, Logan. I'm not quite sure what you think they get up to –actually, maybe I don't want to know- but let me tell you, it's usually just board games and movies."

Logan shudders once again, the horror on his face going nowhere.

"I'm still not cool with it. Boys can't be trusted you know. Not to mention two of them. I've been there done that. It goes from hair-pulling, to kiss-chasey to puberty. It's all bad news. Especially with our girl..."

Rory rolls her eyes once again at Logan's sudden over-protectiveness, without having any basis for it. So, she ignores it and tries to move the subject along, onto something else. She pulls Logan's focus back to the scrapbook of Elle's life that she had tried to make a few years ago; tried being the operative word... After all, a Gilmore's crafty skills aren't exactly related cutting and gluing...

Pointing to particular points on the page that has a few photos of Elle and clippings from last year, Rory shows it to Logan.

"This is a short piece she wrote last year. She's into her writing, she enjoys it, but she's more into reading."

Logan looks over the piece closely. While he tries to avoid it, after many years in the writing industry and editorial world, Logan can't stop his eye from critiquing pieces of work. He can't help but do it with his own daughter's even.

"She's good... I don't even need a touch of fatherly bias to say that. I'm impressed. She has quite a different writing style to you, its more-."

Rory cuts Logan off and finishes his sentence, even if it's not the words that he was going to use.

"... More like you. She has a very similar writing style to you. I've thought that ever since she was in reception."

Logan's mouth drops open with amusement. Rory never had any problem cutting down his ego. Then again, more often than not, bringing Logan down a few notches was called for.

"Are you saying thatI write like an eight year old?"

"Oh no... I wouldn't pull Elle down to your level" she says jokingly with a light-hearted shrug as Logan just grins back at her, far from offended.

He has always found it amusing whenever she insults him, jokingly or not. After all, how can you stay offended at someone who earnestly tries to call you a 'butt-faced miscreant'?

Logan looks back to the page and notices one other detail on the lined white paper which had been last written on last year. Seeing 'Elleigh Gilmore' scrawled on the top right hand corner of the page, a sudden realisation strikes Logan.

"Elleigh... Elias and Leigh... Her name's a meld of our middle names, isn't it?"

Rory nods in response to Logan's questions. "You're right... To be quite honest, I don't think that she likes her name very much."

"Well, I do."

As a small smile spreads across her lips, Rory can't hide the fact that she is impressed that he worked out the small detail on his own.

"Well done... You're the first person to make that connection without any prompting. It's a bit of an inside thing - most people wouldn't get it. I even had to explain it to my mom. She thought I'd just chosen Elleigh randomly like she'd chosen Rory. It was only when Elle turned one that I realised that she didn't get it and so I explained it to her."

"I should hope I would connect the dots and get it... It is half of my middle name, after all."

The two share a small, subtle smile. It's a special little moment. After all these years, they're talking about their daughter freely and Rory's heart has melted just a little after he made the connection between Elleigh's name and their own. That in itself is like a little inside secret.

However, as Rory makes the mistake of glancing down at her phone, her face screws up and she lets out a little gasp at seeing the time. The moment instantly draws to a close.

"Oh shoot. I better go and pick up Elle from school. I would ask if you wanted to come, but I think I need to talk to her alone first... Mind you, she already asked me about you. She thought she'd found a 'scoop' and she asked me outright if you are her father. I need to come up with a better way to explain all to her. I think I'm going to try and explain it all to her as gently as I can. It's going to be a massive transition for both of you and she's only nine. If you're happy with that, it might mean a bit of drip-feeding her information."

Logan nods at what Rory says as she rushes around picking up her phone, purse and a few other essentials.

"She asked me the same thing, too. The dad thing, I mean."

"What? When?!"

Despite the fact that she had been frantically racing around her living room just seconds earlier, after hearing Logan's comment, she pauses, frozen on the spot as he shares this detail with her.

"In the car on the way home from New York. She just dropped it on me like she was just asking what the time was."

"Yeah, well, she's a smart kid..." Rory says with a sigh. "Sometimes she's too smart for her own good. She's smarter than I was at her age. I'm sure she's going to be smarter than the both of us."

The two share another smile before the fact that Rory had been getting ready to leave sinks in again. Logan gathers up his wallet that he'd put on the coffee table as he and Rory head for the front door again until Logan stops just before they reach the threshold.

He holds his hand out to just gently touch Rory's wrist, the touch being just enough to get her to stop and stand still for one moment.

"Hey, I'm glad you told me everything, Ace. When I stop and think about it, I still feel pretty bitter that it's taken you this long to tell me about Elleigh. I can only hope that feeling will ease off over time. But, thank you for telling me, anyway. It might feel like its nine years too late, but I'd rather be told now than in another nine years time."

Rory sighs and looks to the ground guiltily. How she has managed to get through the last nine years, especially the last few, with little consideration of Logan and the fact that he deserved to know about their daughter amazes her, and not in a good way. One thing is for sure and that all the guilt has come flying down for good measure now.

"Logan. I am sorry... I should have told you. You should have known before she was even born. I thought I was protecting Elle in case you weren't ready initially and then in case you weren't interested in being a part of her life or if you were just going to come and go when it suited you. But, I think I was trying to protect myself, as much as I thought I was trying to protect her. I thought I was making the right decision and doing the right thing for us at the time, but, looking back, I think I was wrong about that and all I can do is say sorry for the nine years that you missed. I know sorry isn't nearly enough..."

He doesn't say a word in response. With a sad smile, Logan just touches Rory's arm, giving her shoulder a little squeeze. There aren't really any words for what she has just said. He can't just tell her 'it's okay' when it's not yet. However, he doesn't want to remind her of the fact that yes she's right, yes she should be sorry and yes everything is not okay; knowing that will only make it worse.

So, instead, she is working on righting the wrongs of the past and he is working on getting past it, forgiving the woman in front of him and focusing on building a future with his daughter... their daughter.

#

"Did you have fun?" Elleigh asks her mother with a grin as the two youngest Gilmore girls stroll through the front door and into their small, two-bedroom home.

Elleigh had been at school all day, but she knew that her mother was meeting 'a friend' in the morning. And, judging by the fact that she noticed her mom change outfits five times before they left the house this morning, Elle had a pretty good guess as to which 'friend' she was meeting.

"It was fine. It was just a meeting" Rory replies neutrally as she puts her handbag down before immediately heading to the coffee machine, checking there is an adequate amount of coffee and water to serve its purpose before letting it work its magic. "We need to have a bit of a chat by the way, Missy."

A look of terror initially spreads across Elle's face as she momentarily stops to think about anything that she may have done recently to be caught out on.

... Nope, there has been nothing extraordinarily notable lately that is worth a 'special chat'. Phew... Unlike the time that she and the Van Gerbig boys went and changed the decimal point of everything in Doose's, to reduce the value and cost of everything in the shop.

Feeling quietly confident that she's not in for a lecture, nor will she be getting in trouble for anything in particular, Elle follows Rory over to their lounge suite. The mother and daughter take a seat beside each other, sitting in similar positions with one leg comfortably tucked under the other on the lounge.

"So... You have been asking a lot of questions lately, young lady. I don't know exactly why you've been so inquisitive about certain topics, but that's beside the point. I need to tell you a story."

Elle squints at her mother curiously, but she doesn't question it. She thought that she had outgrown story time many years ago.

"Once upon a time, there was a young couple. They loved each other very much. But, one day, one of them said something that made them realise that they had different focuses. The couple still loved each other a lot, but they knew that they wouldn't be able to find a compromise that would make them both happy."

"Huh... That's the same thing Logan said about you guys."

Rory presses a finger to her lips to hush her daughter's interruption. However, she does make a mental note to go back and find out what Elle had meant and find out when exactly Logan had said a similar thing about them.

"Shhh! Anyway, back to the story. When they knew that there wasn't a solution that would make them both happy, they broke up on the day of her graduation. Then, a little over a month later, she got a surprise that would turn out to be the best news in her life... She found out she was having a baby. There were a few complications and a little bit of confusion and both of them made mistakes. She made some really big mistakes and-"

"I was right... Wasn't I, mom? Logan is my dad... Isn't he?"

Once again, Rory's daughter is three steps ahead of her. So much for the anonymity and effort in her manner of trying to story-tell it to her daughter. Sometimes Elle is just far too perceptive for her own good.

"Yes, Elleigh... Logan is your father."

Elle pauses for a moment. Initially a smile spreads across her lips, with the smile radiating through her eyes; exactly like her dad.

"Wow... Wow..." Then, after the initial grin and the smirk that celebrates the fact that she'd been right all along, her expression turns more serious. It's like she's thinking deeply for a minute, letting the news and the impact that it has on her life sink in and process within her.

When Elle appears to return to the conversation, as though she's thought it all through, she then looks at her mother; as if she's seeking more of an explanation from Rory who continues to speak.

"So, that's where I was this morning... Logan and I were talking. He wanted me to ask you whether you'd be happy to meet up sometime because he'd really like to spend time with you and get to know you, sweets."

"Tell him yes. I'd like to meet up with him sometime. I'd really like that. I want to know what he's like."

Rory nods at her daughter's decision.

While she is primarily pleased by how well the father and daughter seem to be receiving each other so far, a little part of Rory can't help but worry.

She can't help but think how the situation can go terribly wrong from here... The father and daughter might not like each other. They might not gel, or get along. One of them may like one person while the other one can't stand them. Or, worst of all, Logan might not come through on his promise to be the best father he can be.

Suddenly, Rory can't help but worry as she realises that the time has come for her to relinquish the reins, to relinquish some of her control to Logan. Their daughter deserves that. He deserves that.

Logan... Peering over to look at Elle, Rory watches her as she appears to be thinking deeply as she looks around the room, with a little smile forming as she thinks. Rory unleashes a breath, noticing just how much her daughter looks like Logan in that moment.

"You don't know how much you remind me of him, Elle."

The younger girl smiles at her mother's remark before Rory moves a hand to her daughter's head, affectionately stroking a loose lock of blonde hair, tucking it behind her ear and out of the way.

"So you're all good? This is a really big thing, Elleigh. Do you have any questions? Anything else you want to say or ask me for now?"

Elle appears to ponder her mother's question seriously, although only for a moment before she replies with a little smile.

"Well... I'm sure I'll have more questions for you later; I just need to work on them first. But, secretly, I have kind of been hoping that Logan's my dad... He seems like a pretty cool dad to have. I'm excited to get to know him."

"I think you might be right about that, sweets..."

The mother and daughter share a smile and Elle announces that she better look over her schoolwork. But, she has a test tomorrow, along with a bet in place with Steve and Kwan that she will get a higher grade than the boys. The nine-year-old is carefree and blase, as though it's just an ordinary afternoon and as though it's every day that you find out who your father is.

However, before she walks off, Elle stops and turns back to Rory with one final, cheeky remark.

"By the way, there were a lot of blanks in that story – there's no way you could get that published, mom."

I hope you all like this chapter. I'm sorry it wasn't up a little sooner, but I haven't been perfectly happy with the Rory & Elle chat so I've just tried to play with it a bit over the last week. I wanted Rory to tell Elleigh more in this chapter, but I found it difficult to find the balance between telling her more, making sure she didn't overload Elle with life-changing information (despite how smart a Gilmore/Huntzberger hybrid is, Elle's still only nine after all!) and not messing with the plot of how the rest of the truth will be revealed to Elle.

Now, rest assured, Elleigh WILL know the whole story in time. Rory doesn't get off scot-free. Elle's definitely not just going to leave the matter there. There's a lot of big questions that are going to be simmering away in the back of her mind and pretty soon she's going to be thinking about where her dad's been all her life and why. Like she said to Rory, she will have more questions, she just needs to think of them first, haha.

Next chapter: Logan and Elle meet for the first time knowing that they are father and daughter!