March 2002

The door opened behind her and Lorelai glanced up from her copy of Jane to see Rory entering the house. "Hey, where have you been?" she asked conversationally as she returned her attention to her magazine.

"Scouring the town," Rory answered, her voice sullen as she moped towards her room.

"Nothing, huh?" Lorelai asked. Rory had spent the past two days searching every inch of not only the house, but all of Stars Hollow like a truffle pig, looking for her lost bracelet. Lorelai hated seeing her like this; that bracelet meant a lot to Rory. It was her first piece of jewelry from a boy, after all. And it wasn't just any boy, it was Dean.

"Not yet. I'm gonna check my room again."

"Haven't you already looked in there like a thousand times." Not that Lorelai could blame her. She'd helped her check there at least five hundred of those times. She'd had Michele check the Inn…and then she'd checked again after him.

"A thousand and one," her voice echoed from the room, devoid of emotion. Lorelai scanned an article on the best ways to style a pleated tennis skirt, but she wasn't really paying attention; she always found it hard to pay attention when her daughter was upset. She knew there wasn't really much she could do, but still, it felt wrong to be doing nothing.

A few seconds later, her daughter's high-pitched voice broke the silence once more. "Mom, come here, hurry!"

"Rory?" She shot up off her seat, dropping her magazine on the couch. Had something happened? Did she hurt herself?

"Mom!" Rory called again.

"Are you okay?" She jogged the ten feet across the living room to her daughter's bedroom door.

"I found it!" Rory was standing in front of her bed, dangling the hand embroidered bracelet from her fingertips.

"What?"

"I looked under the bed and there it was. I thought I had already looked under the bed, but I don't know, maybe I was too panicked or. . .I don't know, who cares, I got it!"

"Aw, that is amazing!" Lorelai beamed at her daughter's gleeful face as she handed the bracelet over for Lorelai to reattach.

"Put it on," she instructed her mother, bouncing with excitement. Lorelai wrapped it around her daughter's outheld wrist, twisting the strands at the end into a knot. "Make it tight."

"Oh, I'm cutting off circulation here, baby," Lorelai assured her as she made another throw on the knot and pulled it secure.

"Oh, look at it," Rory hummed with delight. "It looks even better than before, doesn't it?"

"I think the time away from home did it some good."

"Okay," Rory stated emphatically as she started towards her bedroom door. "When I get back, we celebrate!"

"Where are you going?" Lorelai wondered. She couldn't go tell Dean, he didn't know she'd lost it in the first place.

"To tell Lane she can stop praying," Rory informed her, without stopping her hasty exit. Despite the fact that Rory was literally running away from her, Lorelai was ecstatic; she loved seeing her daughter so excited, especially after being so miserable the last few days. A happy daughter was all Lorelai wanted.

Lorelai turned and watched her go, but as soon as Rory and her excitement were gone, a strange feeling settled over her. She peered out the through the bedroom window to see Jess in the yard, gathering up bags of leaves.

She'd hired Jess to clean the gutters. He'd been there for days. He was there yesterday when Rory had rushed into the kitchen in a panic after realizing the bracelet was missing in the first place. He'd been there as she'd turned the house upside down, searching under furniture and in corners and through every drawer imaginable. He knew she was looking for that bracelet.

And when Lorelai had returned home not thirty minutes ago, she had caught Jess coming out of Rory's room…not exactly a place with a whole lot of gutters. He'd made some excuse about looking to see if she had a book he wanted her to read. It was a perfectly logical explanation, as far as explanations went; Rory and Jess had bonded over books. It was the one thing they had in common.

And yet, Lorelai hadn't bought it. She'd had the feeling his presence in Rory's room was far more nefarious. She just couldn't figure out how…until now. She'd tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, for Rory's sake. But it turned out, he was just the kind of trouble Lorelai had always known he was. Well, she wasn't about to just stand idly by while he lurked about, waiting to blow up Rory's life and her relationship.

She made her way out of Rory's bedroom, grabbing some cash off the kitchen table and throwing her coat on hastily as she made her way out the side door to the yard.

Jess was throwing a bag of leaves and gutter junk onto the pile to be taken away by the garbage man. "You leaving?" She asked, her voice full of false brightness.

"Yeah, all done." He grabbed his coat off the porch railing, barely even casting a glance Lorelai's way.

"You weren't gonna come get your money?" She waved the wad of bills in the air to entice him…lull him into a false sense of security.

"Ah, I figured I'd get it eventually. It's not like I don't know where you guys live." He continued to avoid her, adjusting the collar on his coat as he marched towards the front of the house.

"That's true. You certainly do know where we live." Lorelai kept in step alongside him, coming around the porch to the front steps and following after his rapidly retreating form. "Well here," she held the money out to him and this time he did look up at her. "After all, you earned it."

He paused for a moment, looking suspect, before he took the three strides to meet her, plucking the cash from her hands. "Thanks." He turned away and just when he thought he was free, she hit him with it.

"You took it, didn't you?"

He turned back to face her.

"Excuse me." His incredulity seemed almost convincing. But Lorelai wasn't that big of a fool. This kid was messing with her daughter. He'd been messing with her daughter since the day he got into town. Well, no one messed with her daughter and got away with it.

"Rory's bracelet; you had it the whole time," she laid it out for him even though she knew he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"No idea what you're talking about." He shoved his hands in his pockets, closing the distance between them.

"How'd you get it?" That was the part that was bothering her most of all. He'd snuck into Rory's room to return the bracelet, had he snuck in there to steal it too?

"I didn't get anything."

"What, did you break into our house? You got all dressed in black and pulled a Mission: Impossible?"

"Actually," he pointed towards the roof. "I came down the chimney and pulled a Santa Claus."

"Very funny."

"Thought a ridiculous accusation deserved a ridiculous response."

"So, it's just a great big ol' coincidence that I catch you coming out of Rory's room a half an hour before she mysteriously finds the bracelet under her bed?" Did he really think she was that stupid?

"Guess so." He shrugged.

"Why would you do this?"

He rolled his eyes in response. "I gotta go." He turned and started to walk away again.

"I mean, I know you hate the world, but I thought you liked Rory," Lorelai called after him. It was the one point of credit she'd given him; he liked Rory. And Rory liked him. She wanted to trust her daughter's senses. She'd wanted to believe that if Rory saw something good in him, it had to be there. But there was no good in this kid; he was messed up beyond repair. And Lorelai wasn't going to let him mess Rory up with him.

"I didn't do anything."

"Bull."

"Whatever."

"Oh, don't 'whatever' me, you little jerk. You let Rory run around completely panicked, thinking she lost her boyfriend's bracelet. She was miserable, do you understand that?" Did he even care? His 'the world hates me so I don't gave a damn' act may have fooled Rory into thinking there was a nice guy under that wall he'd erected, but Lorelai didn't buy it. She didn't have a smidge of sympathy for the guy. If he wanted in on Rory's life, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to hurt her…to steal from her. Just because he returned the bracelet now didn't undo the fact that he'd taken it in the first place. And who was to say he wouldn't try something again; to think he was entitled to be in Rory's life; to try to take something that didn't belong to him.

"I didn't take it."

"I'm sure you're jealous of Dean because he's great and Rory's madly in love with him, but you taking the bracelet didn't hurt Dean, it hurt Rory. That bracelet is the most precious thing she owns. She never takes it off. It means everything to her. And you stealing it was unbelievably cruel."

"The most precious thing she owns?" Jess asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"If it's the most precious thing she owns, why did it take her two weeks to figure out it was gone, huh? You might wanna reevaluate how madly in love she is. I wouldn't start calling him 'son; yet."

"Get out of here," she hissed.

"You read my mind." He turned to go yet again, and this time she let him. She couldn't stand to look at his weaselly little face for a second longer. She wanted him off her property, out of her house, and most of all, out of her daughter's life.

December 2005

Lorelai laid Samuel down in his crib atop the blue and grey dinosaur sheets. She stood up, taking a look around the room. "Wow, these are some nice digs this kid has got." The walls were white—she imagined there wasn't much time for painting—and adorned with three framed cartoon paintings of blue dinosaurs just above the crib. Another wall had appliques of a large, blue palm tree with dinosaurs underneath it. A grey changing table and dresser were across from the crib—also dinosaur themed. And there was a rocker in the corner with a blue dinosaur decorated blanket folded neatly over the back. All the contents of the room were, of course, made of the highest quality materials. Lorelai was fairly certain Christopher had hired a decorator to pull it all together—she highly doubted nursery design was one of his hidden talents.

"Yeah, Dad, this is amazing," Rory noted. Lorelai watched her daughter's eyes scan the room with a mixture of admiration and self-consciousness. "I can't believe you got this all together so quickly. I mean, there was still office furniture in here when I left for the hospital."

"It was no big deal. The store actually had someone help me pick it all out and they sent someone to get it all set up when they delivered it." Lorelai could only imagine how much that had cost. But it wasn't like he didn't have the money; he'd recently inherited a boatload from his grandfather. "And I don't have to work anymore so what do I need an office for?"

"Well, I really appreciate it. You didn't need to do all this; we'd have made do with a bassinet in my room."

"Don't be ridiculous, my grandson deserves his own space. And now he'll have a room all his own when he comes to visit his Pops—which I expect to be a lot."

"Dada, can I play with the baby?" Gigi asked, tugging on his leg and looking up at her father with wide, brown eyes. Lorelai could tell the girl had him wrapped around her little finger. Not that she could blame Christopher, she knew the guilt associated with raising a kid as a single parent. Of course, it was starting to look like his new grandson might have just as big a hold on the man.

"The baby is too small to play with Geeg, he told her. He's a real, little boy, not a doll." Gigi's eyes started to fill with tears and Christopher scooped her up. "I'm going to go get her down for her nap. She's had a long few days; she never gets enough sleep at my Mom's."

"I want to stay and play with the baaaaaaaby," she sobbed.

"It's nap time, kiddo," he told her, marching her out of the room. But it was too late, the toddler's cries had woken Samuel and he started to bawl himself.

Rory hurried over to the crib and leaned over, scooping the baby up. "Hey, it's okay," she soothed, bouncing the child softly. "Mommy's here." It was so strange, seeing her daughter be a mother. For all the coming around she'd done in the last month, Lorelai still felt a bit like she had fallen asleep and woken up ten years in the future. This wasn't supposed to be happening yet. Rory was supposed to have finished school, worked for a few years as a journalist, gotten to experience life as a single, mature adult, and then settled down and married a regular guy with a steady, middle-class income. This wasn't how she'd ever wanted things to turn out for her daughter. But seeing her there, cradling her child, full of fear and awe and heart-rending love, she couldn't help but remember what it felt like to be a new mother herself. And for all the things she'd given up to raise her daughter, for as hard as it had been, she'd never once regretted having Rory. Rory may not have the life Lorelai had wanted for her, but hopefully she could make a life as satisfying and fulfilling as the one Lorelai had made for herself.

Rory sat down on the rocker, continuing to calm the crying baby. She had almost succeeded when the doorbell rang. "That's Logan," Rory's head popped up. Rory had been given the seal of health that morning; the doctors had determined her pre-eclampsia had fully resolved with no linger effects and discharged her an hour ago. Logan had left with with them but he must have gotten lost on the way back to Christophers, considering he'd never been there before.

"I'll go let him in." Lorelai headed to the foyer to open the door, letting Logan and his sister Honor in.

"Hey," Logan greeted. "Sorry it took me so long. I tried to follow you but some guy in a van cut me off and then I made a wrong turn on Oliver Street."

"I told him just to get on I-93 but would he listen to me?" Honor shook her head with amusement. "Men."

"An inability to ask for directions is pretty much DNA encoded into their tiny y chromosomes," Lorelai agreed with a laugh. "Come on, let me show you to the nursery." She led Logan and Honor down the hall.

Logan walked into the room and Lorelai noticed how his face immediately morphed into a goofy grin at the sight of Rory rocking their crying baby. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. She got the point; he was goo-goo gaga for Rory and Samuel, she believed him. She didn't need to be subjected to this level of sickeningly sweet sentimentality; she was going to get a cavity. She'd never admit she secretly loved it.

"Hey," he greeted, walking over to Rory and bending down to give her a kiss on the forehead "How's our boy?"

"Tired, I think. He fell asleep on the car ride here but he just woke up again and he's being a little grump." She bounced the baby gently in her arms to try to get him to stop fussing.

"Can't blame the kid for that, I'm grumpy when you wake me from a nap too," Lorelai piped in.

"Why don't I take him for a bit," Logan offered. Lorelai could tell it wasn't a purely magnanimous gesture on his part; he wanted cute baby snuggles. A few days ago Lorelai never would have believed it, so sure she had been that he would turn tail and run the second Samuel was born. But here he was, once again proving her wrong. She was glad.

"I've got him," Rory shook her head. "You need to get settled in. Where's your stuff? In the car?" she looked up suddenly. "You don't need to go back to New Haven, do you?"

Logan looked confused. "Umm, no, I've got some stuff in the car, but…"

Rory cocked her head at him. "But what?"

"Well, most of it is at Honor's. What's not in storage, anyhow."

"Ok, well, you don't live that far, do you Honor?"

"About 20 minutes, but I thought…" Honor trailed off, looking from Rory to Logan with confusion.

"What?" Lorelai noticed the sudden tension in her daughter's shoulders.

"I…" Logan looked unsure of himself. "I was planning to crash at Honor's."

Rory's eyes started to brim with tears, her shoulders trembling slightly. Lorelai's heart broke for her despite the fact that she was pretty certain this was just some sort of miscommunication. Still, the post-partum state was an emotional roller coaster and even the smallest of miscommunications could send a new, sleep deprived mother into hysterics; logic be damned. "You don't want to stay here with us…but I thought…"

"Of course I want to stay," Logan insisted. He looked affronted at the mere suggestion that he wouldn't want to spend every waking moment with them. "I just assumed, well, I mean, this is your Dad's place, plus he's got your sister and we're not married…"

"Dude, you already knocked her up." Christopher reentered the room, having apparently succeeded in getting Gigi down for her nap. "What do you think I'm afraid will happen?"

Logan turned to him, looking surprised and hopeful. "You don't mind if I stay here?"

"As opposed to you leaving my daughter alone with a newborn every night?" Lorelai knew Chris was just giving him a hard time for the hell of it. For starters, Rory would hardly be alone; Christopher would probably be all over that baby. Plus, he had a nanny. Lorelai wouldn't be surprised if he went ahead and hired and night nanny too.

"Well, I…I mean, that's not what I…" Logan stuttered, his eyes wide with terror.

"I'm kidding," Christopher let him down off the hook. "Not about you staying here. Relax, kick up your heels. You're welcome to stay as long as you need."

"That's…amazing, thank you. Thank you so much."

Honor smiled at her brother's relief and excitement. "Honestly, who are you and what have you done with my commitment-phobic brother?" she teased. Logan rolled his eyes at her and she laughed. "How about you stay here and I'll go get your stuff?"

"That would be great, thanks, Hon."

"Great. Do you want me to show you around?" Rory asked, preparing to rise from the rocker with Samuel who was once again asleep.

"Stay," Christopher told her. "You both need some rest. I'll give him the grand tour. Plus, it will give me a chance to make menacing Dad threats about what will happen if he hurts you." Lorelai couldn't say there wasn't still a little annoyance at Christopher swooping in and playing the savior after years of not being around. But on the other hand, it was nice to see him stepping up and being a Dad, even if his attempts at intimidation were pretty laughable… or maybe because of it.

Christopher showed Honor and Logan out leaving Lorelai alone with Rory and Samuel. Lorelai glanced at the door where everyone had just exited. "You know, I'm glad I was wrong about him." She had been wrong about a lot of things. But seeing how involved Logan was, seeing the look on his face when he looked and Rory and Samuel…she was glad she was wrong. But even more, she was glad she'd been forced to come to her senses and see what a mess she was making of everything. She'd come so close to losing Rory again and it would have been all her fault. She never wanted to even think about the pain of losing her child again; she wouldn't wish that on her worst enemy…or her former worst enemy turned into, what she was pretty sure was her future son-in-law. And that's why there was still the tiniest inkling of apprehension that she couldn't shake.

"He's a good man," Rory confirmed looking down at Samuel and gazing at him with all the love of a mother. "And a good father." He was. Against all odds, and definitely against Lorelai's better judgement, Logan was turning out to be a good guy, and a good father. He made Rory happy. After all her daughter had been through, she deserved that.

But Lorelai could see the trouble lurking. She could see the bomb waiting to be dropped. And she wasn't about to just stand idly by waiting for it to blow up Rory's life and her family.

"Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." Lorelai headed out into the hallway, looking around to see if anyone was around before picking up her phone and dialing.

"Hi," she said when the line picked up. "I need to talk to you. Meet me at the Inn tomorrow at 3."

Lorelai glanced at her watch for the eighth time in the last five minutes. The battery had to be dying, right? Or maybe there was some supernatural gravitational force that was slowing time down. She looked up at the antique grandfather clock in the corner of the room, disappointed to see that it was, in fact, still only 2:56.

"What are you doing?" The bored, accented voice of Michele, asked.

"Nothing." Lorelai waved a dismissive hand.

"Yes, that is what it looked like you were doing but I thought surely that could not be the case considering how little you've been working recently." Lorelai rolled her eyes and the Frenchman's tactlessness.

"It's called personal leave."

"Oh, sure. Your daughter runs away and has a baby and you get to take personal leave. But where was my personal leave when ChinChin needed surgery to repair his ACL?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just compare this situation with Rory to your dogs' bum knee."

"Whatever," Michele waved a dismissive hand. He started to turn away and head back to the desk just as Dean walked into the lobby.

"Dean, hi," Lorelai chirped. She glanced nervously at Michele who had slowed his stride and was looking rather suspicious. "Thanks for coming. I had a few small repairs I needed done and I figured you could use a little extra holiday cash while you're in town." She figured it was a solid cover story for why she was meeting with her daughter's ex. Plus, the weather strips around the doors really could stand to be replaced, and there were some shelves she needed mounted in room seven. She hated the thought of giving Dean even a small amount of business, but the last thing she needed was to give anyone a reason to start asking questions. It was the safest cover.

And sure, there was the little voice in the back of her head telling her she shouldn't be doing this at all. She wasn't supposed to be meddling in Rory's life anymore. But she hoped her daughter would forgive her this one transgression, because she'd be damned if she let this jerk hurt her daughter again.

She'd always thought of Dean as a good guy; solid, dependable, hard working. And most of all, she thought he loved Rory. But it turned out, she was wrong about him. After all he'd done—cheating on his wife, taking advantage of Rory while she was drunk, telling her to get an abortion—who knew what he was capable of? He said he was with Lindsay, but that relationship was about as healthy as the spider plant in her living room that she hadn't watered in weeks. And what happened when it died? Would he come looking for Rory and Samuel? She couldn't risk letting that happen. Rory and Samuel weren't his back-up family; they deserved to be someone's first choice…and they were.

"Hey, umm, yeah," Dean looked uncertain. "Thanks."

"Come on, I have the list in my office." Lorelai led the way back to the small back room she used for paperwork and payroll and the other managerial tasks she had to contend with every day. She took a seat at her desk as Dean followed her in. "Shut the door," she instructed.

Dean did as instructed and then turned to Lorelai. "Is it about the baby? About Rory? Is everything okay?" he quickly asked, his voice somewhat panicked. Lorelai felt her anger swell; what right did he have to be concerned? And if he was concerned, what might he be capable of doing about it?

"They're fine," Lorelai ground out, trying to keep her voice even.

"Is he…I mean, did she…?"

"She had the baby."

"And he's…okay? I mean, he's healthy any everything?" Dean shoved his hands nervously in his pockets, his eyes cast down in shame. Good; he should be ashamed.

"He's perfect. Seven pounds, three ounces; ten fingers, ten toes; great set of lungs…"

"Right…right," Dean rocked back on his heels, still unable to bring himself to look at Lorelai. "Look," he finally raised his gaze. "I know things are complicated. And I don't want to shirk my responsibility…"

"What responsibility?" Lorelai cut him off.

"Well, I mean…financially, I just…"

"You have no responsibility." A part of Lorelai loved seeing him twisting in the wind and would have been content to let it go on forever. Plus, she hated the idea of absolving him of the consequences of his actions. But this wasn't about him, this was about her daughter and grandson and what was best for them. And the sooner Dean was out of their lives, the better.

"What do you mean? I…" Lorelai cut him off before he could go pretending he was some sort of responsible, honorable guy.

"They did a DNA test," she lied. Logan was adamantly against one. Rory was more on the fence. She was scared of not knowing…what if there were health problems one day and they needed the information for medical reasons? But she seemed equally scared of knowing. If there was proof out there that Logan wasn't the biological father, she was afraid it could be used against them. So, for now, there was no test. But Dean didn't have to know that.

"Oh."

This time Lorelai did let him twist in the wind for a bit. It was obvious what she was implying but he still needed to hear it outright, and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction…at least not right away. After an uncomfortably long pause, which she hoped was even more uncomfortable for him, she finally spoke. "Logan is the father. You're off the hook."

He looked almost…disappointed. But Lorelai couldn't feel so much as a smidge of sympathy for the man. If he'd wanted to be involved, he'd have been involved from the beginning. He didn't get to feel bad that he wasn't going to have a secret family he kept from his wife.

"Oh, umm…good." He nodded his head robotically. "That's uh, that's good."

"I'm sure it is."

"So…" he was rocking back and forth on his heels, apparently unsure where to go from here.

"So…the lock on room twelve needs to be changed and the bathtub in room three needs to be re-caulked. Along with a few other things." She picked up the list on her desk and handed it over to him. "I'd get on that…unless you want people asking questions about why you were here."

"Right, yeah. I'll uh…I'll get right on that."

"Great," Lorelai smiled as he took the list and started to turn towards the door. "Oh, and Dean?" He looked back over his shoulder at her. "Thanks for that super generous discount on your services."

AN: Welp guys, there you have it. Samuel and Rory are out of the hospital and healthy. Logan is going to be allowed to shack up with them at Christopher's until they all get a place of their own. Lorelai is now fully on team Logan, and the Dean threat has been neutralized. Of course, we still don't know who's DNA Samuel has. And we're running out of time-next chapter is our last full chapter and then we've got an epilogue. Will it ever be revealed?