Rory crossed the threshold into Hartford Airport. A minute ago, she said goodbye to Lorelai at the curb. That morning, she said goodbye to Luke. The day before she said goodbye to her grandparents and nearly everyone else she'd ever met in her life. Exactly one week ago, she said goodbye to the person she loved more than anything. Well, not exactly. He said goodbye to her – and walked away.

Logan Elias Huntzberger was the person who she loved so much that her body physically ached. He was also the person that she could not immediately agree to marry and run away with to California. So, Logan accepted the proffered engagement, said goodbye and walked away.

Rory's life could be divided up into chunks of time. Two minutes ago, she was in the safe confines of her mom's arms complete with the aroma of coffee and legendary hugs. A week ago, she had a longtime boyfriend and was in love. A month ago, she was a college student with roommates and friends and classmates and professors and Friday Night Dinners. What in the Hell was happening to her life? And why won't these clocks slow the fuck down so that she could make some decisions?

But now, she couldn't lament about her current relationship status, career status and address status. She had to actually move her body. She had to move her body out of the doorway. She had to physically pick up her feet and push them forward so that she could literally take the next step of her life. And she needed to get out of the way of the bus load of who appeared to be a busload of track teammates who were unloading from their bus, which was not unsimilar to a clown car. How did they get THAT many people into that bus? But that was a question for another time. Right now, she had to move out of their way, or she was going to get trampled by what seemed to be the most energetic 200 teenagers she had ever seen in her life.

After stopping at the ticket counter to retrieve her boarding pass from Hugo's online newspaper, she headed for security. She glanced at her boarding pass and discovered that her ticket had been upgraded to first class - no doubt the work of her grandparents. As though flying to New York and then continuing on to Omaha on a first class ticket would somehow make up for the string of chartered buses and Best Westerns she was going to endure over the next year.

As she joined the security line and prepared to lift her bag onto the conveyor belt, a man standing in line before her glanced over to her and said, "Allow me," as he placed her wheeled carryon onto the belt for her.

"Thank you," she said and nodded in reply.

He was a chatty fellow. He tried to make small talk as he tried again, "So where are you headed?"

Rory mumbled, "West," as she carefully arranged her tote bag and purse on the conveyor belt. To avoid the conversation, she put entirely too much effort into perfecting the placement of her belongings on the belt. She looked down at the floor to avoid his gaze as he nodded in response.

He grinned back at her and said, "Me too! I'm going to Salt Lake City. It's my first job after college graduation."

Rory smiled back and said, "Congratulations. I hope you love it."

"Thank you! I hope so too." He smiled back at Rory a little too long until the TSA agent shouted at him to go through the X-Ray machine.

He even stumbled a little as he went through the queue and then waited for Rory after he collected his things. "So, I'm Tom," he told her as he set her suitcase down on the floor and extended the handle for her.

"It's nice to meet you, Tom. Good luck in Utah." Rory gave him a quick smile as she grabbed her things and scurried away to her gate.

Rory picked a seat near the windows so that she could watch the planes come in as she waited. She put on her headphones and tried to find soothing music that would calm her down. That guy – Tom – could have been someone she could have dated. He was handsome, tall, kind, educated and newly employed. But he wasn't the one thing that she wanted: Logan. He wasn't Logan. No one else was Logan – except well... Logan. Logan was brilliant, sexy, driven and unpredictable. He also wasn't hers anymore.

Logan had no idea, but he was the second guy that tried unsuccessfully to get Rory to run away with him. Three years ago, Jess had also tried unsuccessfully to get Rory to leave New Haven with him and run away to who knows where. Logan wanted to get married and run away to Palo Alto. For two guys who were certain that they were polar opposites of each other, they sure operated the same way.

As the gigantic sports team from earlier flooded the gate area, Rory turned up the volume on her music and grabbed her book. She was early for her flight so she figured she could get through a chapter or two before it was time to board – hopefully a flight without the entire track team of shouting 17-year-olds.

After a chapter and a half, she decided to use the restroom and grab some coffee for the first leg of the trip. As she was walking back to her gate, she noticed a familiar shock of blonde hair attached to a hot man sitting at a bar. "REALLY?!" she thought. "Today is the first day of the rest of my life and LOGAN is here in the damn airport? Unbe-fucking-lievable." She hurried back to her gate and got back to her seat hopefully without being seen. If she could board her flight without having to see him again, she would be fine. She could ignore the flood of emotion she was feeling right now and pretend she hadn't seen him. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could pretend she had never met him. She could maybe believe that her heart wasn't completely shattered by that coward of a man.

She returned to her seat and turned up her headphones again. "I never saw him. He is not 200 feet away at a shitty airport bar drinking scotch and reading. He just isn't." She thought that over and over. How many times did she have to think it before it became true? She squeezed her eyes shut and pretended he wasn't there while the unbearable physical pain washed over her. "Can you actually die from a broken heart? Because I think you probably can." That was her last thought.

The gate agent for the flight to Wisconsin just called for last call as the high school track team all filed into the boarding down and probably galloped down the jet bridge. She squeezed her eyes shut again to try to relax. When she opened her eyes again, of course Logan was walking towards her. He carried his usual leather bag and had his black leather computer bag over his shoulder. He looked exactly the same and probably smelled the same. She closed her eyes and hoped the carpet would swallow her up so that they didn't have to interact. But that didn't happen and apparently, they did have to interact. "Ace," he breathed as he saw her sitting there.

Rory grimaced and narrowed her eyes at him. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" she asked evenly.

Logan pursed his lips and sighed, "I'm still going to California. This is my flight."

"Of course you are," she said as she scowled at him. She rolled her eyes and looked away with a huff.

"What?!" he asked incredulously.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," she huffed at him.

"No, tell me. What?" he insisted.

"Fine," she said as her voice became tight. "NOW you do what you say you are going to do. Of course you decide to keep your word NOW."

"Rory..." he said with a sigh.

"No. You walked away from me. You don't get to 'Rory' me," she said as she looked away.

"Please? Talk to me?" he implored.

"I believe... What's the point? Is a popular phrase to use these days. How about that?" He sighed and looked at the floor. "Does that phrase make you feel insignificant?" she asked. She looked over at him sitting there with his eyes closed and said, "Good."

Author's Note: here is another Rogan story... let me know if this needs to be continued... And thanks for reading.