February 2005

The melodious sound of woodwinds floated in the air. The press of her fingers tingled through his suit jacket as he led her around the dance floor. She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes and he felt a strange sensation in his gut—uneasy but enticing. Her eyes glanced away, her chin tilting down. "What?" he asked in response to the change.

She inhaled and looked back up, "Why did you come?"

Why had he come. He still wasn't sure he knew the answer himself. Except that he did know. It was the same reason he'd spent so much time at the Yale Daily News last semester (his father had been thrilled, much to his dismay.) When he'd opened the invitation in the mail last week, he couldn't have cared less about Richard and Emily's vow renewal. He didn't much expect that The Gilmores had some great burning desire to share their special day with him either. They wanted him there for the same reason he wanted to be there…Her. "Open bar," he replied flippantly.

She rolled her eyes, nodding her head in mocking agreement. "Quite a draw for a guy with an American Express black card."

"Live band, salad, butter pats…" he continued.

"Logan."

"Little knit bags full of those Jordan almonds." His lips curved up into a smirk. God, he loved messing with her. It was so rare to find someone who could keep up with him.

"Are you ever going to ask me out?" Damn…she just came right out with it. How was he supposed to come up with a snappy comeback to that? He couldn't…he had nothing. "You flirt with me. You act like you like me a little. You show up here, with a friend, not a date. I mean, aren't you? Ever?" Damn, so much for the detached, indifferent thing he'd been attempting around her. Not that he wasn't well aware of all the times he'd screwed that plan up. He might as well have been twelve and pulling on her pigtails. But how could he help himself when her face would get all flushed and adorable every time he'd make an untoward comment, or the way her blue eyes would get that angry sparkle every time he'd tease her. "You do like me, right?" He still couldn't answer. He didn't know what to say without getting her hopes up. Because while, yes, he did like her, it didn't matter that he liked her. "Oh. Okay. Uh, no problem." She looked horrified and it simultaneously made him ecstatic and chagrined. He hated to hurt her, but the fact that she even cared what he thought of her; the fact that she wanted him to like her…"I'll just, um, let you go back to your table, and I'll just start burrowing directly into the ground." She started to pull away but he kept a hand on her arm.

"Rory."

"I should be in China by midnight."

"Rory." She tried to retreat further but he pulled her back, flush against him. "Rory," he repeated more forcefully as he once again started leading her in their dance.

"You called me Rory."

"I want to be clear." He needed to address this. He needed to nip it in the bud before it got out of hand…for either of them.

"Oh, good." She looked confused and disoriented.

"I have thought about asking you out, several times. I just don't think it's such a good idea." In fact, he knew it wasn't a good idea.

"Why not?"

"Because you're special." He'd never met anyone like her. Anyone who could tell him off like she did. Anyone who could argue with him about everything from Bill Buford to The Office. Anyone who could color coordinate eight pounds of notes for an article and throw caution to the wind and jump from a seven story scaffold.

"Special?" she replied her voice affronted. "Like 'Stop eating the paste', special?" God, she was cute.

"You are beautiful. You are intelligent. You are incredibly interesting. You're definitely girlfriend material. I, however, am definitely not boyfriend material." She inhaled, preparing to say something but he kept going. He needed to get this out. "I can't do commitment, and I don't want to pretend to you that I can. If I were to date you, there would be no dating. It would be something, right away, and I'm not that guy." He was most definitely not that guy. He had a world of commitment piled on him the moment he'd been born; force fed to him along with that silver spoon everyone always thought he was so lucky to eat from. He couldn't take anymore commitment. He was all commitmented out. He needed to enjoy what little freedom he had while he had any left at all. And she…she might make him forget his shackles for a while, but he couldn't be contained forever and one day he would wind up hurting her.

"But I'm not looking for anything something like," she insisted, her hand sliding down his lapel to press into his chest.

"Rory," he sighed.

"I'm not. I've done that. As a matter of fact," she shrugged her shoulders, "I just did that, and that's not what I want."

"I'm not saying you want that right now." He knew what it was like...to want something so bad you could convince yourself you could be different. He'd come achingly close to that point on more than one occasion when she was around.

"No, I don't want that at all." He gave her a disbelieving look. "No," she reiterated. "I'm not expecting anything. I just…I like you, and I want to spend some time with you. No strings attached." She looked up at him with a confident smile. And damn, he wanted to believe her; to have his cake and eat it too. And now his brain was officially in the dirty place.

"No strings attached, huh?" he replied with a smirk.

"Hey, girls just wanna have fun. Stringless fun." He wasn't sure how much longer he could stay strong. There was only so much fight a man could be expected to put up.

"You may feel like that now, but—"

"I do feel like that now." She had the cutest look of determination on her face. And after all, who was he to tell her what she wanted?

"Okay, but—" He attempted one last half-hearted protestation as she grabbed his hand and started pulling him off the dance floor. "Where are we going?"

"How should I know?" she scoffed, turning to face him but continuing to walk backwards, away from the crowd. "What, do you think I have a plan or something? Geez." Her hand disengaged from his as she used it to grab an open bottle of champagne off the bar as she passed. "Live in the moment, Huntzberger," she said as she started walking away. He stood paralyzed with the decision in front of him as he watched her retreat. She looked back over her shoulder to see he wasn't following. A worried look passed over her features like a shadow "Coming?" she asked with an intoxicating combination of apprehension and hope. So, with one last glance back at the party, he followed her.

She led him down an empty hall, eventually pushing open the door to a random room and steering him inside. He still wasn't sure about this. His head and his other parts were in vast disagreement about what was about to happen. But so far, 'other parts' were winning out.

He walked into the dressing room with a resigned shake of his head as she closed the door behind them.

"Champagne?" she asked, striding over to meet him and handing him the bottle she had pilfered. He exhaled in acquiescence and took the bottle, helping himself to a long dreg, hoping the alcohol would quiet that pesky voice in his head that was still telling him this was a bad idea. She took the bottle back and took a sip of her own.

"Look, are you sure you want to do this?" he asked for confirmation one more time. He'd been fully transparent with her about what this would be…about what it could be. She had all the facts; he just needed to make sure she consented to them.

She set the bottle down on a table and stepped up to him, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear coyly. "I just want to know what it would be like." Jesus Christ. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

She put her hand on the back of his neck and closed the gap between them with a stilted, awkward kiss. She pulled back and he looked her up and down, taking in her tailored suit and the silver tie that hung loose around her open collar, taunting him with a tasteful flash of alabaster skin. She could most certainly pull it off. And yet, the words that bubbled out of his mouth to break the tension were, "I feel like I'm kissing a guy."

She shook her head with a chuckle, once again eliminating the space between them. This time his lips unfroze and he kissed her back, giving in to the desire he had had for months. Her lips were smooth and warm and they made him feel things he didn't know kissing could make you feel, despite his ample experiences with the activity. He sighed as they once again broke apart, knowing in that moment, that he was in trouble…and it was worth it.

"And apparently I had no idea what I was missing." He reached both hands up to cradle her face and initiated a deeper kiss, opening his mouth to her. Her tongue darted in, strong and fervent; a force to be reckoned with.

His hands dug into her hair pulling her closer and he felt her grip slip from around his back to the front of his jacket, fumbling with the buttons. Once they were undone, he shrugged the superfluous layer off and returned his hands to her own jacket, letting his palm slip under the lapel to cop a feel before helping her get rid of it altogether.

He wasn't sure how long they continued to make out; letting hands wander lazily over their clothes, fumbling with random buttons, untucking hems, loosening ties…however long it was, it wasn't long enough. The click of the door broke them apart, Rory jumping away from him like he was the wrong end of a magnet.

He stared, frozen, at the intruder who bore a striking resemblance to the woman he'd just been undressing. Her mother, he presumed.

"Grandma wants a picture," she stated stonily.

"Of this?" Rory screeched? Logan folded his arms across his half-undone dress shirt, scratching nervously at his chin

"Rory, what are you doing?"

"Mom.."

"You're at your grandparents' wedding…renewal…vow…thing." Rory's mother waved her arms in the air as she searched for the right word to describe the event they were at, finally giving up. "Whatever. They're right out there. God, Rory, I swear!"

"Rory? Rory's in here?" A masculine voice came from outside.

"Okay, don't, Chris, it's all right." Despite Lorelai's efforts, a man entered the room, his face darkening as his eyes landed on Logan and Rory in their disheveled appearance.

"What the hell are you doing in here with my daughter?" He growled. Logan's heart thundered in his chest as the angry man—Chris—stalked further into the room, his shoulders squaring predatorily.

"I—" For the second time that evening, Logan was at a loss for words. Logan lived and breathed words. He grew up in a family of writers, and editors. He was majoring in English. He was poised to take over a newspaper empire. Logan never ran out of things to say. He could smooth talk a Doberman into giving up his bone. And yet, tonight, he had repeatedly come up short on the vocabulary front.

Christopher reached an arm out, pointing a menacing finger their way and Logan instinctually backed up as Rory grabbed his arm protectively. "Get away from her. That is my daughter!" Logan held his hands up in front of him in surrender as Rory continued to clutch his arm, pulling him backward. "I will kick your ass! I will kick your ass, you little weasel!" Rory's mom grabbed the arm Chris wasn't using to threaten Logan, and pulled the man backward.

"Get out!" Rory's mom shoved her dad back into the hallway and Logan felt a slight easing as the immediate threat to his life went away. Without a word, he and Rory both started hurriedly dressing as the arguing continued in the hall.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Who's that guy, Lorelai?"

"Christopher, calm down! You're drunk!"

Logan scooped up his tie, letting it dangle from his wrist as he hastily started doing up buttons.

"Calm down? There's a guy in there pawing my daughter!"

"What guy? There's a guy in there with Rory?"

"Oh, my God, Luke!"

"Hey!" A new, angry voice shouted. It was clearly coming from inside the room this time and Logan turned to see a new man—the one he'd seen dancing with Rory's mom earlier—charging towards him. Get your hands off her. I mean it. Right now! Hands in the air, I want to see hands in the air!" What the hell was happening here? The whole experience was beyond surreal.

Lorelai managed to wrangle this man too. "Out!" She forcefully evicted him from the dressing room and slammed the door.

Logan draped his loosened tie over his head as Lorelai turned to face them with a forced smile. "I think you guys better use the back way out of here," she suggested in a saccharine voice.

"But, Dad! Luke!" Rory protested, pointing towards the hallway with one hand and clutching her jacket to her chest with the other.

"I will take care of Dad and Luke," her Mom assured her. "Please go, now, go!" Rory made a beeline towards the back door. Logan grabbed for his coat, keeping his head down. But it wasn't over yet. "So, um, you must be Logan." Great, she knew his name. Which meant she could probably figure out where he lived and track him down,

He glanced the way Rory had gone, longing for escape. "Uh, yeah," he admitted sheepishly.

"I'm Lorelai."

"Nice to meet you." He reached for every bit of charm that had ever been instilled in him to try to diffuse the situation, but it was too far gone, and he was nowhere near on the top of his game right now. "Okay, well, I'd better…" he pointed towards the back door.

"Yeah." They both scurried towards their respective exits.

The back way out found him outside on a patio. A few wrote iron tables sat deserted and peppered with snow in the cold February air. He looked around for Rory.

"Oh my god, I am sooooooo, sorry." He turned to the sound of her voice. She was standing off to the side, clutching her thin suit jacket around her and shivering.

"Umm, it's…fine." It wasn't fine. Nothing about what had just happened was fine. For all of the years Logan had been fooling around with girls, he'd never been caught by their parents before. It seemed strange that he hadn't, considering the sheer statistics of it all, but then again, he'd spent most of his time away at private school. He had been caught by a couple of house counselors, and once even the Dean. But that was hardly comparable.

"Really Logan. You have no idea how bad I feel. I mean, I practically dragged you into that room, and then…" she buried her face in her hands. Dragged was a long way from an accurate description. Sure, it had been her idea. And sure, he had protested, but the truth was, he hadn't exactly been a hard sell. But this was exactly the kind of thing he'd been trying to tell her.

Logan didn't do parents. He didn't do crazy drunk relatives screaming at him. He didn't do drama. And her mother…her mother knew who he was. She knew his name. Was Rory talking about him? How stringless could this be if she was telling her mother about him before they'd even hooked up?

Then again, maybe it had been Richard and Emily. They'd clearly been vying for a pairing between Rory and him since Richard had seen them together at that meat market party they'd thrown. Maybe they had been talking him up to Lorelai as a potential match. Maybe it didn't mean anything that she knew who he was. Maybe it could still be stringless fun…

But no, it was probably best if this ended here. Even if Rory was telling the truth, it was too much.

"Look, Ace…" he hoped the use of her nickname would ease the rejection.

She shivered, hugging herself tighter with one arm while using the other to wipe a frozen tear from her cheek. Fuck. He couldn't do it. He walked up to her, taking his own jacket, which he had yet to put back on, and draping it over her shoulders.

"It's fine…really. It's over I made it out with all my appendages." One of which was still calming down. "And it makes for a great story for my memoirs one day." He smiled down at her teasingly as he wrapped his arms around her for a hug.

She chuckled half-heartedly and he felt warm despite their frozen surroundings. It was fine. It could be fine. It was a one-time occurrence, and it was over. Now that they'd established the new parameters of their…friendship, there was no reason for him to pop up unannounced at family events just to see her. So yeah…he'd probably never even have to see her parents ever again.

December 2005

"Lorelai? Lorelai?!" But it was too late, she'd already hung up, leaving him standing there, mouth agape, staring at baren trees and listening the sound of the dial tone. He felt numb—and not because he'd taken the phone call outside in the thirty-degree weather without a jacket. "Fuck." He pushed open the side entrance to Kyle's Mom's garage and made his way back in. "I have to go," he announced.

"We've barely started," Mark replied. "It's going to take us hours to go through the rest of this paperwork.

"I have to go," Logan repeated, grabbing his coat from the coat rack and donning it.

"Is everything okay?" Jason asked, his voice laced with concern.

"My girlfriend is in the hospital." He didn't even look up at them, just started digging through his pockets for his keys.

"Is she okay?" Kyle asked.

"She's in the hospital," he snapped. He immediately felt bad. Kyle was a nice guy—a little too nice, maybe. There was something not quite right about his eternal cheerfulness.

"That sucks man, but I'm sure she's in good hands," Mark told him.

Logan looked up, as he pulled on his gloves. "She's eight months pregnant."

"Oh. Shit. I'm sorry, Dude," Jason replied sincerely

"Well," Mark grumbled, "I guess that explains a lot."

Logan finally stopped moving. He took a deep breath and looked Mark in the eye. "Listen, you know now. So you can believe me when I tell you I am in this and I will be back to finish finalizing these details. And I will do everything in my power to help you guys make this thing a success. I'm about to have a son to take care of and my father…well, I can promise you I'm not going to be able to count on his help. That means my family's future is dependent on this. So, I promise you…I will be back. But right now, I have to go."

"Yeah, of course," Jason assured him.

Logan started moving towards the exit once more but stopped. It was Saturday, which meant Rory was scheduled to work at the bookstore; she was probably there when it happened. He looked up at the guys. "What hospital is closest to Back Bay?"

"Huh?"

Logan grimaced. "Her mother wasn't that forthcoming with the details. It's a long story."

"Oh, umm…Tufts, maybe?"

"No…Mass Gen."

"Actually, it's Boston Medical."

"Nevermind." Logan shook his head. He flipped the phone closed, then back open again and tried Rory's cell but it went straight to voicemail. He could try calling each of the hospitals in the area but that could take forever. He had one more idea before he started driving aimlessly around Boston. "Can you look up the number for BeanTown Books?"

Kyle typed the store name into his browser and read off the phone number as Logan dialed it.

"BeanTown Books, how can I help you?" A voice forced full of faux chipperness greeted him.

"Hi, I'm looking for Ror…Leigh Parker?"

"Oh, umm…" The voice on the other end of the line got solemn and trailed off. "She's uh…she's not here right now."

"No, I know," Logan waved his hands in frustration. "But she was…right? Earlier."

"Uhh, yeah but she had to…leave early."

Logan sighed, rubbing his face wearily. Why was it so hard to get some damn information? He just needed to find out what was going on…or at least where to go to find out what was going on. "Just...do you know what hospital they took her to?"

"Oh, umm…" His voice got distant. "Hey Sally, do you know what hospital they took Leigh too?" There were some mumbled voices and then the guy got back on the phone. "Mass Gen, I think."

"Great thanks." He hung up the phone. "Mass Gen it is," he told his partners as he headed for the exit.

"Hey Logan?"

Logan looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah, Kyle?"

"You think your girlfriend would want some chocolate chip cookies?"

Logan laughed, glancing at the plate full of baked goods. His mother really did make a mean cookie. "Her stomach could be ruptured and she'd still want a chocolate chip cookie."

Kyle took a stack of them off the platter and wrapped them in a napkin then handed them over. Logan gave him a kind smile. "Thanks, man."

His shoes squeaked against the linoleum as he raced his way down the hall to the ER waiting room. He stopped short at the sight of a familiar looking man standing a few yards away talking to a doctor. Though his feet had slowed, his heart sped up with nerves. He wasn't sure if Christopher had spoken to Lorelai yet so he had no idea what kind of reception he would get. Probably not a great one either way, since the man surely at least knew she was pregnant by this point. Still, he was going to have to face her family eventually, and right now, all that mattered was finding out if Rory and Samuel were okay.

"Christopher," he called out as he made his way across the waiting room. Rory's father looked up and his eyes immediately narrowed into thin, venomous slits. It was a look that put to shame the one he'd had when he'd caught Logan making out with Rory at her grandparent's vow renewal. He definitely knew.

"You seriously have the nerve to show up here?"

"Is she okay?"

Christopher answered with a scoff. Logan turned his attention to the doctor. "Is she okay?" he asked.

The doctor looked uneasily from Logan to Christopher and back again. "I'm sorry, you are?"

"I'm her boyfriend," he said. "Logan Huntzberger." He held out his hand but the doctor didn't take it. He glanced back at Christopher once more who was glaring angrily with his arms crossed against his chest, conveying with acute clarity that he did not approve of Logan getting any information.

"I'm sorry," the doctor informed him, "but I'm only allowed to give out information to family members."

Logan looked at Christopher who remained as stony as the Great Wall of China. It was clear he was going to be of no help. But he wasn't going to let that stop him. He had a right to know what was going on. "Okay well, what about the baby? I mean, I'm the father…that's family. So, you can at least tell me how Samuel is…right?"

A look of great consternation passed over the doctor's face as he struggled with the legal and ethical ramifications of disclosing anything to Logan.

"Samuel?" Logan turned to Christopher whose scowl had melted away to a look of tentative awe, as he repeated the baby's name.

Logan felt his shoulders relax. "Your grandson's name is Samuel," he confirmed.

"Grandson," he repeated in wonder. "I didn't even know the…" He exhaled, and with a shake of his head, and plastered the scowl back on, but it was lacking the severity it had once held. Christopher waved a dismissive hand and sighed, indicating to the doctor that it was okay to speak.

"Okay, well umm…" The doctor still seemed slightly uncomfortable at the tension between the two men, but he shrugged it off and continued anyway. "As I was telling Mr. Hayden here, Leigh…"

"Rory," Christopher corrected.

"Right," the doctor nodded. "Sorry. As I was saying, Rory has pre-eclampsia. It's a condition that occurs late in pregnancy and is characterized by persistent high blood pressure as well as damage to other organs—usually, as is the case with Rory—it's the kidneys."

"Kidney damage?" Logan's eyes went wide. He noted Christopher cringe slightly but otherwise he didn't react. Logan assumed he'd already heard this part.

"Look, the good news is, her condition is not too severe, despite the syncopal episode that brought her here. I suspect stress and exhaustion complicated matters. She does have protein in her urine which is one of the classic signs of preeclampsia. But according to her records from her prenatal appointment just four days ago, the urine was clean, so it's still early. Her kidney values on her blood work are stable, as are her liver values and her platelets, and her lungs don't show any fluid buildup. So that's all good news. And so far, her blood pressure is responding well to the antihypertensives we've administered." The doctor elaborated.

Logan breathed a little easier. "So how do we treat it?"

"The only cure for preeclampsia is to have the baby."

"But it's too soon," Logan shook his head. Samuel wasn't ready. He was supposed to have another month.

Christopher shot Logan a look. "But it's curable?" He reiterated, talking to the doctor. "You deliver the baby and she's cured?"

"Yes. Although she may be more prone to end-stage kidney disease later in life. But in most cases, within 24-48 hours of delivery she'll be back to normal."

"Okay, so what…you do a c-section? Induce labor?"

"What about Samuel?" Logan piped up again. He didn't want anything to happen to Rory, but if Samuel came too soon…He needed his son to be okay. He needed them both to be okay

"Full term is 37 to 38 weeks. Ideally, we'd like to get them that far along before delivery, but Rory is already 35 weeks and if we did have to deliver, Samuel would almost certainly be just fine. The survival rate at 35 weeks is identical to that for a full-term baby, though he'd be small, and he might be slightly more prone to infection and low blood sugar at first. Honestly, he'd likely spend a night or two in the NICU out of an abundance of caution and then he'd be fine to go home."

"And he's okay right now?"

"His movements have been good and his heart rate is normal so we don't have any reason to be concerned about him at the moment, although we'll have to keep a close eye on him as his health is, obviously, linked to Rory's."

"When can I see her?" Christopher asked. Logan was anxious to see her himself, but he could only imagine how Christopher felt. It had only been a week since Logan had last laid eyes on her—a very long week considering how they'd ended things. But for Christopher…he didn't even want to think about it.

"She hit her head when she passed out. She's awake, but a little confused. It's probably just a mild concussion, but we've taken her to CT to make sure there isn't any bleeding. After she finishes up there, they'll move her to her room and you'll be able to see her. I'd say another 20-30 minutes."

The doctor left, leaving the two men standing there awkwardly. A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed before Christopher turned on his heel and walked to the other side of the waiting room pulling out his phone. Logan figured he was likely calling Lorelai with an update. After a couple minutes, he put the phone away and took a seat.

Logan closed his eyes and exhaled. A part of him thought the smart thing to do would be to keep his distance and take a seat far away. But he was about to be neck deep in enemy territory as the rest of Rory's family arrived, and he was going to need an ally. It sure as hell wasn't going to be Lorelai. Richard would probably be readying his shot gun, and Emily…she'd probably come around eventually—she'd always liked him—but she would definitely hold a grudge at first. That left Christopher. They'd always gotten along reasonably well—that first meeting at Richard and Emily's vow renewal notwithstanding—and he'd seen a crack in the man's armor before when Logan had told him Samuel's name. Plus, right now it was just the two of them, which meant he had the opportunity to try to talk his way into some good graces one-on-one, before the others arrived.

Logan made his way across the room and took a seat next to the man. Christopher shot him a sideways glare, then leaned forward to pick a People Magazine up off the coffee table in front of them. He deliberately crossed an ankle over his knee and opened the magazine up with a dramatic flourish.

Logan sighed and took a deep breath, preparing to dive in despite Christopher's less than welcoming demeanor. "Look, can we talk?"

Surprisingly, the older man lowered the magazine and looked at him. "You want to talk?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes."

"Okay. What do you want to talk about? Knocking up my daughter? Lying about knowing where she is? Which Clash album is the best—because you're on thin enough ice as it is and if you say Sandinista, there's gonna be real trouble."

There it was again…the assumption that he was the one who'd gotten Rory pregnant. It was an assumption he shared, actually. And as far as Lorelai and Christopher were concerned, it wasn't even an assumption at all. He'd told Lorelai that Rory and Samuel were 'his family.' He'd told the doctor right in front of Chris that he was the father. It had just come out. He hadn't thought twice about it. In his heart he was Samuel's father. Plus, he'd needed to say that to get information about how they were. But now, now he did have a chance to think twice. Did he tell the truth—that he might not have been the biologic father? It could buy him a little less antagonism, perhaps. And Rory was still so adamant. Would she be mad if he let everyone go on thinking it was him? He squeezed his eyes shut and made a choice. "Look, I understand that you're upset."

Christopher shrugged. "I really couldn't care less what you understand."

"I just want a chance to explain."

"Oh?" Christopher uncrossed his legs and turned in his seat to look at him straight on. "There's an explanation? One that would make me not want to kill you? Is this where you apologize? Beg for forgiveness? Say how you screwed up and if you could go back and do it all over again, you'd do it differently?"

"No." Logan shook his head. Maybe she would be mad…he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. But for now, he wasn't going to open that can of worms. She was going to have enough on her plate with confronting her family; she didn't need the added stress of having to explain the Dean situation. So, whether or not it could help him with her family, for now this was a secret he would continue to keep. He just had to deal with the consequences of the secret that was out of the bag. "This is where I tell you I'm not sorry and if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing."

Christopher scoffed. "You've got moxie, Kid. I'll give you that."

It was a bold tactic, he knew, but it was the truth. He wasn't sorry. He wasn't going to apologize for doing what he thought was right. He wasn't going to apologize for doing what he had to to make sure Rory was alright. "I think I get it from my father," Logan joked, trying to ease some of the tension.

"I heard your father's an asshole." He ignored the dig, his father was an asshole.

"I love her. I want you to know that."

"Right, you love her so much you let her run away from her family…live in god only knows what conditions, work herself into a health crisis…"

"Didn't Lorelai do the same?"

Christopher glared at him again. "That's not the same."

"Not exactly, no. But the point is…could you have convinced her to go home? Could you have made her do anything she didn't want to? And what do you think she would have done if Richard and Emily had shown up at that Inn and tried to drag her back home again?"

Christopher looked away, the scowl on his face softening to a look of contemplation. Logan felt a combination of relief and determination. This was it…he was getting through. "She would have run…" Logan surmised. "She would have packed Rory up and left again. I couldn't risk that. I couldn't risk losing her again. Not once I'd found her…especially not once I knew about the baby."

Christopher tried to fight it a little longer, though it was clear to Logan he knew it was the truth. "She needed her family," he countered.

"I know she did. But she needed to get to that conclusion on her own. And I thought, with time, I could help her get there. And until then, I made sure she was okay. I made sure she knew she could trust me…could come to me."

"That wasn't your job. We're her parents. And we were worried sick about her…"

"I know," Logan exhaled. "And I felt bad about not telling you, I did. But Rory came first. Rory will always come first. Her and Samuel. I would do anything for them. I would lie to you. I would lie to my own friends and family. I would graduate early and get a job on my own…not with my father, so I could be there for them, no strings attached. They are the most important thing to me. And I know you don't agree with the choices I made, but I just need you to know, I made them for Rory."

Christopher was silent for a minute. "A job?" he asked.

"It's how I got here so quick, actually. I was already in Boston…going over contracts."

"Does your father know?"

"No. And he is not going to take it well."

Chris looked almost sympathetic. "If he's anything like my father, he really won't."

"It doesn't matter," Logan shook his head. "I…" But he trailed off as a woman in scrubs approached them.

"Are you Leigh Parker's family?" she asked.

"Rory!" Christopher insisted. Logan had started getting used to the name situation, but he wasn't going to hate the idea of Rory just being Rory again. The idea of being able to say her real name out loud…in public. It was a relief.

The nurse looked confused. "She goes by Rory," Logan clarified. "But yeah, we're with her."

"Right, well, she's back in her room now, and ready for visitors. Room 342."

Logan looked over at Chris who looked equal parts eager and terrified. He couldn't blame the man. He hadn't seen Rory in six months. And he wasn't here now because she'd asked to see him. What if she sent him away? What if she still wanted nothing to do with him, or the rest of her family? It had to be hard for him. Logan couldn't help but worry a bit himself. Last he'd seen Rory, she had told him to go. She had asked for space. What if she still wasn't ready? But that was before…before she passed out and wound up in the hospital with preeclampsia. He just had to hope that she wanted him here now. The two men glanced at each other, then slowly rose from their seats and followed the nurse's directions to room 342.

AN: Man, I'm on a roll with these cliff hangers. Don't you just hate me? Lol. At least this one isn't quite as evil as the last two. And I'm hoping to get one more chapter up to you before I go back to work Wednesday. These fast updates have been courtesyof my staycation, so I can't promise they will continue to come so quickly, especially considering I have something else up my sleeve. Anyway...as always please review!