Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. If I did, believe me, it would have turned ou quite differently.

A/N: I told you guys I would update the story again. I'm so happy that there are still people reading this and that I also have new readers. We write for you, thank you for sharing your opinions and kind messages. I wrote this entire chapter from Logan's point of view because I know it's a fan favorite in here. I think we're finally getting there.

Please, review.

CHAPTER 18 - GET THE PICTURE

Two months later, Logan was wondering when Rory would ask him to get together again.

Since their last night, they'd only done it once — four and a half weeks ago.

Yes, he was counting. He still didn't know what had prompted it, but she'd knocked on his door at about two o'clock in the morning one night and had gotten half a stilted question out before he'd dragged her into his room, into his bed.

He'd known she was likely to withdraw when the sun came up, so he'd made it last as long as he could handle.

The memory of that night — of all the nights he'd spent with Rory — still came to him far too often. It was not like he was moving on.

He understood why she was being careful, but she wasn't dating anyone else. She didn't really seem to be trying to find a relationship as far as he could tell since she hadn't had a date in the past weeks. He didn't understand why they couldn't keep doing that.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if she treated him like a boyfriend. He liked hanging out with her. He liked talking to her. He liked doing things with her.

They were two reasonable adults, and they could handle any awkward consequences that might come up.

He didn't like the distance he could feel between him and her.

He'd never gone after a woman when both he and she hadn't been equally into it, and he wasn't going to start now, just because he was in this weird emotional prison shaped and controlled by Rory.

Soon she would look for him again.

Surely she would.

Please God, he hoped she would.

Rory had a date.

With Hal — whom Logan had thought was out of her life for good.

But somehow the guy had weaseled his way back in, and Rory was letting him do it.

She mentioned the date as she ate her cereal in the morning as if it were no big deal.

Logan hadn't been expecting it, and he'd asked a bunch of questions about how and why this date had developed. He'd kept asking until Steph had finally told him to get a grip and leave Rory alone. It was just a freaking date.

Steph was right, and he hated that. Rory had every right to go out with anyone she wanted.

But Logan hated the idea.

He hated the idea so much he brooded about it all day.

He'd been hoping she might decide to fool around with him again soon, but clearly her thoughts were drifting in another direction.

Hal's direction — with his way too-long shaggy hair and his hipster glasses and his obvious adoration of her.

He stayed at the gym for almost three hours that day, trying to work off his angst and get his head on straight again.

He should care about what was best for Rory, and Hal was obviously it.

Logan couldn't give her what she needed. It was better this way. He knew it was. But still, he hated it.

The group was hanging out at Stephanie's place.

He had been there, staring blindly at the television, while Rory puttered about getting ready. Stephanie was helping her to dress up for this guy. Rory was wearing a sexy little dress and her high socks with the pink bows on them.

Logan bristled at the sight.

She'd worn those socks the night they met. He felt like they should be only for him.

Logan was giving himself a mental lecture to be good, to not say a word, to not get in her way. But when she came into the kitchen, searching for something, Logan got to his feet.

His muscles ached from too much exercise, but he ignored them. He walked into the kitchen. "What are you looking for?"

"My earrings with the pink and silver beads on them. Have you seen them?"

"No."

"I thought I might have taken them off earlier when I was sitting here, but I can't find them anywhere." She gave the counter one last scan with her eyes but then evidently gave up.

She looked back up at Logan and was evidently surprised that he was standing so close to her.

Very close.

Almost trapping her against the counter.

"Oh no," she said, her voice very low. "Don't you dare."

"Don't I dare what?" His voice was more guttural than it should have been but just as soft as hers.

"Don't you dare do this again. Get all bristly and possessive. I'm going out with him, Logan. I'm doing it."

"I know you are." He told himself to back up, but he couldn't seem to follow through. She smelled so good, so much like peaches and Rory, and every part of her was deliciously touchable.

But he wasn't allowed to touch.

"This is going to happen," she said, her eyes almost fierce as she met his gaze.

"Maybe," he said. "Or maybe you'll decide he's boring, and you'll come back to be with me."

Her cheeks flushed, but her eyes narrowed. "I'm not doing that anymore," she murmured, softly.

"That was good, but it wasn't enough for me. I told you that from the beginning. You can't be surprised or offended that I'm moving on at last."

Logan was all wound up again. His heart was hammering, and adrenaline was coursing through his veins. It was taking all the control he possessed not to grab her and kiss her against the counter. He wanted to so much. "I'm not surprised. Or offended."

"Then why are you standing there bristling about it?"

"Am I supposed to be happy? We had an arrangement."

"What arrangement?" she snapped, so angry now she spoke a little too loud.

Evidently realizing it, she continued more softly, "You think that was a good arrangement for me? Here I am in all my manly glory. You get to sleep with me occasionally if you feel like it, but you don't get anything else from me. Was I supposed to swoon that you offered me even that little bit?"

"No, you weren't supposed to swoon," Logan growled. "What kind of asshole do you think I am?"

"I think you're the kind of asshole who's looming over me right now, all bristly that I'm going out with another man when he's never offered me anything he knows I want. That's the kind of asshole I think you are."

Logan blinked, the truth of what she was saying hitting him unexpectedly. He would have taken a step back, so he wasn't cornering her this way, but he was momentarily frozen.

Suddenly they both seemed to have realized that their little spat was beside the point.

"Here's your earring." Colin picked up the jewelry from the table and dropped it into Rory's hand. She held it between her thumb and index finger and studied it carefully.

"Thank you." She turned to the boys and addressed them, now holding a pair of shoes in each hand. "Which ones should I choose?"

"Are you really going out?" asked Finn. "We have plans tonight."

Rory shrugged like it was no big deal, and Finn saw this as an opportunity to see how she acted toward them outside of the group. He didn't like it. "Rory, I can't believe you're

the type of person who would ditch a friend for..."

In the midst of his inspired speech, Finn remembered that discouraging someone from doing something that could have ended in a good lay was against his principles. Despite Logan's reproachful look as he realized his friend was backing down on his case, Finn dropped it. "I think the black one suits you very well. Have fun tonight."

And so he raced out of the room, followed by Colin, leaving Logan alone in full charge of his problems.

Sorry, Logan, but Finn was a man committed to a cause.

Logan tried once more to form some argument that might change her mind, but Rory was on a roll. She wouldn't even give him a chance to start.

"Do you want to be my boyfriend, Logan?"

He stared at her, paralyzed by the question, paralyzed by the answer — the true answer — that had sprung immediately into his mind.

Yes. That was what he wanted but couldn't say.

"That's what I thought," she hissed, before he could get anything said.

"You don't want to be my boyfriend. You don't want anything from me but sex. And it's not enough for me. You know it. You've always known it. And I'm not going to change my mind and suddenly decide that a casual relationship without any feelings is going to make me happy. So I'm going out with Hal tonight. And I'm going to move on from this thing with you. So you better rein in your horses and figure out how to accept it. Act like a decent human being, and let me try to find something and someone who is able to make me happy."

Without any further ado, Rory walked away from him. From them.

She stormed off, slamming the door into the dorm. The sound echoed through the house, a gunshot in the silence.

Logan didn't say anything. Instead, he ran a hand over his face and down his jaw. Tension corkscrewing through him while he faced the door she had left.

Logan straightened his shoulders and spine despite the look of resignation on his face and saw his friends. There wasn't judgment on their faces, despite looking like they had just witnessed a terrible accident, horrified and sad at the same time.

Impressed by the first time Logan was left speechless and pining over a girl. Finn could only have come to one conclusion. "This girl is my religion."

Logan was flabbergasted.

He thought he and Rory had been getting along well for the past two weeks, and Logan was generally happy about their situation. He'd been training himself to refocus on other things, and he'd even been managing about half the time not to imagine how it would be if only he told her he wanted to be her boyfriend.

He'd been as good as he could possibly be, and it would be nice if that meant he would be rewarded. Instead of rewarded, he had to deal with watching Rory leave with the guy and brood about what they might be doing.

She knew what he looked like. She knew how he acted. And she wanted to go out with him.

The date wasn't likely to be a flop.

She'd probably have a good time.

She'd probably go out with him again.

She'd probably decide she really liked him and make him her boyfriend.

After she left the dorm, he left too, going to a bar he'd found last week with a decent bartender and not filled with swarms of college kids. But he didn't have a good time.

He talked to a couple of women, and they had seemed interested in him, but he couldn't muster enough interest or energy to make a move on them.

He thought about going back home, sitting in front of the television by himself, watching sports and drinking beer and wondering when Rory would go home.

But he didn't.

He went back to Steph's dorm. Hoping Rory would show up there.

He knocked on her door and had no answer. He kept knocking and calling Steph's phone at the same time until she, scared, walked to the door and looked through the peephole to see a smooth forehead, messy blond hair, and a pair of sad eyes.

She was a little relieved that it wasn't the freak apocalypse on the other side of the door, but she couldn't say she was happy either.

She reluctantly wrapped herself in her robe and opened the door.

Logan was almost crawling inside. Despondent, with slumped shoulders and a defeated look.

"What the hell you think you're doing? You know what time it is? "

"Please don't scream with me now." He whined.

And then he noticed that she was defensive, a little disheveled and he could have sworn he heard a noise coming from her room.

It was likely that she wasn't alone in there. She could see he knew it, but decided to keep quiet. Stephanie appreciated that.

Even so, she wouldn't let him off the hook. "Have you been drinking?"

"No," He answered way too quickly, merely confirming what she was already thinking.

Stephanie now moved in closer, sniffing him like he was some kind of animal. "Yes, you have."

"So what?"

"Behaving like that is not helping you."

He sat on the couch and then buried his face on his hands.

Stephanie sympathized with his plight. She took a deep breath, approached him and patted him on the back. "I know you're hurting. It's very obvious."

"Are you saying that I'm hooked?"

"No, cause that would be an understatement. You're hooked, caught, pre-packed, boiled and now waiting to be purchased."

Logan looked at her, but she continued. "I'd even risk that you're in love."

He was about to retort, but she interrupted him. "We both know you are. Don't even try to lie."

He consented silently.

"I don't know what to do." He admitted, his shoulders drooped, and his arms hung limply from his sides.

"Yes, you do. Now go tell her that before she picks someone else."

Down in his gut, he knew she was right.

He had refused to listen to it before. He'd burned his bridges with Rory, but he'd walk through hell to get back to her.

She realized he was finally ready to do something about it and added.

"Logan, please. Don't screw this up. She's a nice girl and deserves to be happy."

"Also, we finally have found a good girl friend. Don't ruin this."

"What about Rosemary?"

"Rosemary wants to be kidnapped in a tricked-out van..."

A deep frown entrenched itself in his forehead. "What?"

"Never mind..." Stephanie waved dismissively, "Just don't mess it up."

"I'm not messing up."

He walked towards the door with a mission, but before that he turned around to her and asked the inevitable question. "Is it Colin?"

Stephanie's heart fluttered. Subconsciously rubbing her own arms, she gave him a subtle smile. That was enough.

He smiled back, feeling warm inside and infinitely better. "Good. I'm happy for you."

A/N: So, this story is supposed to have two chapters left. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update this time, but I'll tell you what: If this story gets at least 20 distinct reviewers per chapter until its end, I'll also update "A Light in the Life." Word!

So, please, let's make this happen and send me your messages. ❤︎