Quick authors note. Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. I know I say that every chapter, but I never mean it any less. I'm sorry this wasn't up sooner.
Also, after I put the question to you guys of whether or not you'd like a glimpse into what happened that day when Rory went into Logan's work, there was quite a lot of interest in that idea. Since then, I actually found a little spot where I feel like that blends in well, so you'll get to read that flashback in around chapter 17-18.
CHAPTER 13: First Impressions
After Rory's conversation with Elleigh, she sets the plans in place for her daughter to meet her father, properly. Just three days later, Logan is back in Connecticut and arriving in Stars Hollow to meet up with Elle.
As the limo approaches the home, Logan is a bundle of nerves. Even though it's technically not their first meeting, he still feels beyond nervous.
... Jumping off of potentially unsafe scaffolding? Easy. Stealing a boat? Done one too many times. Learning how to be a father to a nine-year-old? Terrifying...
As he leaves his vehicle, thanking his driver, Logan slowly makes the short-distance walk up to the front door of the mother and daughters home, drawing long, deep breaths with every step he makes.
Even after he reaches the front door, he takes a moment before knocking; trying to psych himself out and convince himself that any reason for fear is all in his head. After all, Elleigh had gone to the effort of trying to find him and they had to spend three hours together on the drive home from New York. Not to mention, they'd gotten on just fine and she seemed to like him then... right?
... Well, that was before she knew that he is her father...
Logan the voices in his head, the fight between the positives and negatives, into silence by plunging into the deep end and finally knocking on the door of the home.
As he stands there idly, waiting, he can hear a squeal of excitement further in the home, along with five words that bring a smile to his face and give him the confidence that he needs.
"He's here, mom! He's here!"
Just seconds later, the door opens up revealing the beaming child on the other side of it. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees her mother approaching them from further in the house, too.
"Hello again Elleigh" Logan greets. Still standing in the same spot, he withdraws a bouquet of flowers from behind his back and hands the arrangement of white daisies, bright pink daisies and a few blossoms to the young girl.
A smile spreads across his daughter's face as she takes the floral arrangement that looks way too big in her small hands.
"Wow... Thanks! This is the first time I've ever gotten flowers. Only mom ever gets them."
Logan smiles. "I figured it's a special occasion..."
Elle thanks Logan for the flowers once again, before handing them to Rory after declaring she had no idea what to do with them. As Rory fetches a vase and fills it with water, Elle leads Logan into the lounge room where the three of them had sat and talked after her adventure to New York just a week ago. A lot has changed over the course of that single week.
As Logan and Elleigh take seats on the lounge, Logan locks his fingers together as he rests his hands on his knees. Meanwhile, Elle makes herself comfy on the lounge, clearly much more comfortable in her own home than her father is.
Logan and Elle sit there silently, not quite sure what to say or do next about the elephant in the room. They smile at each other, a reassurance that they're not uninterested or uncomfortable with one another, but rather only the situation is uncomfortable.
"Thanks for meeting up with me, Elleigh. I'm not sure if your mom mentioned it, but I'd really like to spend time with you and get to know you."
"You know, you can call me Elle by the way. I feel like I'm in trouble when I get called Elleigh. But I'd like that too... A lot" Elle responds with a smile of confirmation which Logan reciprocates. Suddenly, he has no idea what he had been worrying about just minutes earlier when he'd been cowering outside of the home and working up the courage to knock on the door.
However, despite the little break from the quietness, the two both return to silence, trying to work out what to do or say next as one of them learns how to be a father as the other learns what it's like to have a father. Eventually the silence is broken again as Elle speaks up this time, with a statement that faces the elephant in the room.
"So... you're my dad..."
Logan simply nods, giving the younger girl a smile of acknowledgement. He doesn't quite know what to say to her or whether that'seven the sort of thing that you should say anything in particular back to. He's only just getting used to that title himself. So, instead he takes her comment in a different direction.
"I feel like I need to introduce myself properly to you... So I figure you know my name's Logan Huntzberger. I'm 33. I have one older sister named Honor. She has two kids, which makes them your cousins. I'm one of the co-owners of a start-up business, but I also work quite closely with my father who has a few big businesses."
Elle nods at Logan's brief summary of himself and his life. She doesn't mention that she knows each of those facts after reading up about him and researching him when she was only suspicious of whether or not he was her father. However, she doesn't say anything about that before going on to compile her own in a few sentences for him.
"My name's Elle... Well really its Elleigh...spelled the most complicated way possible... Actually, that's my middle name and my first name's technically Lorelai, but I only ever get called by my middle name. I'm nine. I like the colour blue. My teacher's name is Mrs. Moore. I like reading... and parkour."
Logan nods at his daughter, absorbing every word and every fact she tells him. He takes mental notes to recall what she's saying, before he makes a light-hearted quip at her last comment. "Reading and parkour? That's quite the diverse range of interests you have there."
"Well I like parkour, but mom won't let me practice much. It freaks her out. She says that it will land one of us in hospital."
Logan chuckles at the younger girl and her bluntness. "If it's alright with your mother and if you'd like to, I could pay for you to get some professional parkour lessons."
Elle fidgets uncomfortably a little. She had been raised with the same stubborn mindset as her mother and grandmother, not to take handouts, nor to be bought.
Logan senses her discomfort, but flails as he tries to determine why she's uncomfortable after his suggestion.
"Don't worry. You don't have to. I can get you something else if you'd prefer. You said you like reading... Like is there a book or a series or anything that you want?"
Again, Elle squirms at the suggestion of Logan buying her something once again.
He can tell that she is still just as uncomfortable. He doesn't like it and he tries to fix it, but in the heat of the moment, with his nerves and in his panic he assumes that she just doesn't want either of those things. So, he begins to list other things which he thinks a nine-year-old girl might be interested in.
"What about jewellery? How about a necklace? Do you want a pet?"
After Logan lists off another ten or so things, he realises that she's really not interested and not comfortable with the idea of choosing presents. So, he tries remembering things that his niece is interested in. However, seeing as Indy is a few years younger than Elle, that doesn't work either and she either hasn't heard of or has no interest in 'Shopkins', 'Frozen' or 'Peppa Pig'.
Sensing that Elle is uncomfortable, Logan flails and flounders under the pressure he's putting on himself for he and his daughter to have a good time together.
It's not that Logan's not trying hard enough. Rather, the issue is that Logan's trying too hard.
While things had initially been off to a good start, things are slowly beginning to go downhill, fast. Logan can feel it. He can feel the awkwardness growing and he can sense Elle's discomfort. So, trying to aid it he unintentionally only makes it worse and worse...
#
From where she is sitting and relaxing in her room as she browses through today's issue of the New York Times, Rory is interrupted when she receives a phone call from the last person she'd expect to see on her screen.
"Hey Ace, it's me" Logan says before Rory has a chance to speak a word.
"Logan? Where are you?!"
Rory peers out into the lounge room where she had left him with their daughter nearly half an hour earlier. After she'd left to fetch water and a vase for the flowers that Logan had bought Elle, Rory had snuck off, leaving the father and daughter together, figuring it would be easier for them to talk without her being the third wheel.
"I'm outside. She's still in there. I just told her I had to quickly go outside and take a call. I need help. I'm floundering in there, Ace. I'm digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole. I could tell she was starting to feel uncomfortable so I started overcompensating and trying too hard and it started getting awkward... It was going so well to start with!"
Rory intervenes and interrupts Logan. She's never heard him sound so unstuck.
"Calm down, Logan. Just hold on. I'm going to go out there. Come back inside in just a minute. We'll talk then."
Rory hangs the phone up without waiting for Logan to say another word. She quickly drops the newspaper and her phone before she walks out to where her daughter is flicking through the channels from where she sits on the lounge.
"How's it going out here?"
"Good... Logan's just gone outside to make a phone call. I like him... I feel a little bit sorry for him. I think I scare him. The last couple of minutes I think he was getting a bit nervous and he tried too hard."
Rory nods, taking in her daughter's version of events. Unlike the way that Logan had made it sound, it seems that overall the meeting has been going quite well and that Elle feels comfortable with him for the most part.
"Hey missy, do you think you should take a break and do your homework for a few minutes while he's not here? I'll explain it to him and tell him that you won't be long."
Elle sighs with a grimace. "I probably should... I kind of want to keep hanging out with Logan, though."
"Just for a few minutes, Elle" Rory encourages. "I'll tell him what you're doing when he comes back in and I'll say that you'd like to spend a bit more time together before he has to leave."
The nine-year-old just nods at her mother before she exhales a sigh, although she is fairly content with the compromise.
After Elle leaves the living area for her own room it's barely half a minute later when Logan opens the front door and returns to the lounge room where he meets Rory.
"Look at you... Hiding from a nine-year-old" Rory quips with an amused smirk.
A look of horror spreads across his face. "She doesn't think that I'm hiding from her, does she?! I'm not - really. Oh, I hope I haven't hurt her feelings."
"Relax. She just thinks you went outside for a phone call. I don't think it's going as badly as you think it is. She just told me she likes you. She's just doing her homework for a few minutes, but she was hesitant to leave because she said that she wanted to spend a bit more time with you."
"Really?"
Rory can hear the surprise in his voice as clearly as she can see the joy on his face.
"Really... So what happened? She said that she could tell you were getting worked up and nervous. That doesn't sound like you... You're one of the most confident and charming people I know."
"It was stupid... It went from parkour, to parkour lessons, to Peppa Pig, to books, to offering to buy her a library. It started getting too quiet and I started trying too hard, then I listed off a whole stack of things that she's grown out of and basically offered to be a Genie and buy her anything her heart desires."
Logan's face scrunches up, cringing as it suddenly becomes clearer and more embarrassing how he realises that in the heat of the moment -with his rising nerves- he had tried to 'buy' his daughter.
"Oh hell... I screwed up. I'm Mitchum Huntzberger 2.0. I was trying to buy her affection. I guess that's hardly surprising since it's the only method of parenthood that I know... Well, that and shanghaiing but I figure the former would work better."
Rory takes a step closer towards him with a sympathetic look. "You didn't screw up, Logan. She said she could tell you were nervous. You were trying. She could tell. That says more than you realise."
"I want to be a good father to her, Ace. I really do. I just don't know how to take the Huntzberger out of me..."
"Look. You had a bad example of a father. Learn from that. Look at your dad's example and think about what you would have liked from him when you were a child. Think about what you would have liked your father to do for you."
Logan nods at Rory's advice and counsel to him, taking it all in seriously... After all, she's had nine years of practice in parenting the same child so she must have some clue as to what she's talking about.
"Also, it's more important to just be there for her... Listen to what she has to say, what she thinks and what she feels. Pay an interest in her when she has a good day and just be there for her when she has a bad one."
He continues listening, nodding and taking in every word that Rory is telling him. He also resolves within himself to spend the time and make the effort with his daughter, rather than splurging money on her. He realises he can't just buy Elleigh, her trust and her love; he doesn't want to. Instead, he knows that he has to earn it.
"Now, someone once told me something about you, Logan Huntzberger... If I remember right, someone once said that: 'if he says that he can do something, he can do it. He likes trying new things'... Now, this is something new. This is something different."
Rory pauses from repeating her affirmations to her ex. A smile spreads across Logan's face as he recognises the familiar words that he'd told her about himself on the day that he agreed to be exclusive and the day that they first became boyfriend and girlfriend, all those years ago.
However, in addition to repeating what he had told her about himself all those years ago, Rory adds her own remark, her own observation about Logan to further his confidence in his own abilities in being a good father to their daughter they share.
"And what's more, I believe that you can do it, too."
I know so many of you were looking forward to Logan & Elleigh's first meeting. I hope I didn't let you all down. It might not have gone as smoothly as you all might have liked (Logan & Elle included!), but there's plenty of time for sweeter scenes. To me, I couldn't imagine it being all smooth sailing as it's a pretty massive adjustment and Logan feels the pressure to not only build that relationship with Elle, but to also catch up on nine years.
So, I hope you liked it! I'd love to read all of your thoughts, feelings and comments on the chapter as well as what you'd like to see from here on.
Next chapter: Logan & Elleigh's relationship hits another hurdle... What leaves Elle so devastated?