Chapter 55

Logan's car pulled up on the address Rory had given him. But it took him a moment to verify whether this was actually the place.

The place just didn't look like Rory. Not like her house in Maine did. Not like the Rory he knew.

Logan hadn't heard all the specifics of Rory's interactions with Tucker during the past week, having given Rory some space - meaning he had called, he just hadn't specifically asked her about it, knowing it wasn't her favorite subject. In the evenings he knew Rory just wanted to relax, think about something pleasant - often just to hear him speak while she closed her eyes and just listened.

Logan rang the doorbell, not knowing whether to expect Corinne to be home or not.

The door opened quickly and unexpectedly and a pair of familiar hands landed around his neck, surprising him with the suddenness. But that initial surprise was quickly exchanged with a pleasant warmth, Rory's signature scent invading his nostrils, and her soft hair against his skin.

"You're here, you're finally here," Rory murmured, still holding him.

Logan's arms tightened his grip around her body, just waiting for the 'all clear' to grab a hold of her and carry her back inside and have his way with her.

That hope was short lived, unfortunately.

"Mom, the oven's beeping," Logan heard Corinne's voice call out from somewhere in the house.

"Well, come on in…," Rory chimed, walking Logan in hip to hip, whilst keeping her arm around him.

Logan made a mental note that it was highly probable that for one reason or another Tucker hadn't altered his plans despite Rory's request. He didn't want to start this weekend off by asking about it nor saying how she should've made him listen. He also didn't want to make himself sound like a pig for wanting Rory's kid out of the way. He genuinely liked Corinne, and didn't want to make her feel rejected just because he was there or happened to want some alone time with her mother.

"Hi, Logan," Corinne said, cheerfully, sounding genuinely happy to see him as well.

"Hey," he replied.

"How was your drive?" Rory inquired, casually, maintaining physical contact with him.

"Uneventful," Logan replied briefly, wishing he would have skipped the coffee break in Worchester which had left him with mild heartburn. Now Rory could make good coffee, even with her low-tech French press, and he'd truly missed the simplicity of her presence as he'd gotten to experience it all summer.

In this house, however, a different side of Rory prevailed. Self-cleaning automatic coffee maker began to buzz in the kitchen, making itself heard, and Logan's eyes caught sight of the Smart Home technology screen on the walls of this house, meaning that most of the appliances were likely linked up to Rory's phone one way or another. It wasn't unusual, even Logan enjoyed the perks of such advances, but the Rory who lived up in Maine lived very differently. For a second it did make him think whether the Rory he'd gotten to know was only just a mirage - a holiday version of her.

Rory looked different too - sure, it was Friday night, after work, and in September, and instead of her flowy linen outfits Rory was cozily tucked in a pair of leggings and an oversized floral sweatshirt. But her hair looked like it had been pulled up for most of the day, and even her face was a lot more made up, having not gotten around to removing her makeup just yet, than Logan was used to seeing on her.

Rory headed to what appeared to be the kitchen, and turned the oven off, having made roast salmon for dinner.

"Thank god for assisted cooking programs," Rory commented, anticipating Logan's question, as she took out the oven dish.

A large wooden bowl with salad stood already waiting on the counter, along with a bottle of white wine, sitting on ice.

"I would've been fine with burgers," Logan said, wanting to say a lot more about how good it was to see her and how he really didn't care if he ate anything all weekend as long as he could breathe the same air as she. Logan found it a little amusing to be honest that he would become such a romantic at his age, but he couldn't deny that he could now understand what many famous authors wrote a lot better about love than he had in the past. And he'd certainly had time to read on those lonely nights.

"Hartford doesn't exactly have a lot of options on the kind of gourmet burgers that you like," Rory teased, and continued to pour Logan and herself some wine.

"You know, on occasion I have been spotted eating a Happy Meal," Logan replied, huskily.

At least the banter and the tension between them hadn't vanished anywhere. But Logan hadn't suspected it had, their phone calls had kept that up amicably.

Logan had had long distance relationships before. When the kids had still been young that had sometimes been a lot simpler to handle than having someone in London, but those had never ever really been that serious. Even Odette hadn't been that serious in the beginning. And later - huh, it just took him effort to even analyze what in the world he'd been thinking with her. He couldn't quite understand how he hadn't seen her mental health issues through better and just mistaken them for her eccentric self.

Logan drank a few sips of wine to extinguish his thirst, then placed it on the counter to rest, wanting to not get drowsy from drinking it too fast. Every hour with Rory counted.

"Cor, can you help me to set the table?" Rory called out to her daughter who was in the living room.

"I could help too, you know," Logan pointed out, wondering why she hadn't asked him. He was right there, after all.

"No, no. You're a guest," Rory said, sounding a bit puzzling to Logan. Why was she suddenly tip-toeing around him? It was almost as if his name had finally gained recognition in her eyes, resulting in a different way of treatment like Logan had experienced many times in his life.

Logan ignored her statement, and picked up both of their wine glasses, aiming to make himself useful despite her words. He felt almost offended by the suggestion that he was a 'guest', he'd very nearly felt like they'd lived together, even if that technically hadn't been the truth.

"So, Corinne, how's school?" Logan inquired, familiarly, wanting to engage Rory's daughter in the dinner. It seemed to be the setting they were in, and there was no point trying to pout or be annoyed with it. Both he and Rory were package deals with their children.

"Hard," Corinne replied, placing plates in front of everyone, while Rory carried in the salmon with her Hello Kitty oven mitts.

"That's just what Liam said about Yale," Logan replied.

"I doubt it. He doesn't have two hundred pages to read every single week, and assignments for every day," Corinne replied.

"Well, I'm not really sure how much he reads but I guess college does have a bit of flexibility in terms of when you do that homework. In some classes you don't really have to do much at all until the final weeks before the finals. But generally that means you're in some trouble already. Trust me, trying to take an important final, while sleep deprived, isn't the best idea," Logan replied, leaving out that he'd been on top of everything a little hung over while he'd taken the exam in question at the time.

"Chilton isn't exactly a walk in the park, and I think it's great you're doing as well as you are, Cor," Rory chimed, trying to be supportive. Her daughter had certainly some genes from both her parents when it came to numbers and books, but things usually didn't come to her as easily as they had to Rory. Chilton was hard for her, on some days near impossible, but she pulled it through, so far with a 3.5 GPA, which really wasn't bad considering she actually had a life outside of school.

"Yeah," Corinne sighed, not too enthusiastically.

"Sounds like you can't wait for the holiday to come," Logan said, trying to sound optimistic. He already had some plans for that week to be honest, knowing it was the same for both his kids and Rory. He was planning a little surprise trip for the whole group, hoping to get some sun like he was accustomed to before the darkness took over.

"I think we both are," Rory commented.

"Oh, any plans? Someplace warm perhaps?" Logan hinted, squinting his eye quickly at Rory, telling her wordlessly how he was up to something. That caused Rory to smile, but not yet reveal what she was guessing, wanting to at least scold him a little on doing something so out there and wanting to involve her. Rory felt he was spoiling her rotten, even just with his 'good mornings' and 'good nights', and surprise deliveries, mostly food, he was known to send her way.

"I wish," Corinne groaned obliviously. "Dad's usually busy that time, so at best I spend the week watching movies with my Boston friends," Corinne added.

Logan shot a look towards Rory, curious to know how things with Tucker were going, but found Rory hiding her eyes in that moment, and taking a sip of wine instead.

God, how he just wanted to set the guy straight. But it felt like it was something he couldn't even begin to do unless Rory truly opened up to him, and told him it was okay. He couldn't, no matter how much he wanted to, just walk up to that apartment of his and punch the guy. That might've solved some matter of pride back in high school or college, but not now.

But besides those whirring thoughts in Logan's brain, wondering what exactly had happened - both years ago and this week, he put up a neutral face and tried to enjoy the evening. In a way he was actually falling into the role of a step-dad here, engaging with Corinne more and more freely, a role he'd never expected to take up on top of everything he had already going on.

It was later, when Rory and Logan were in bed, having treated the evening rather casually, not so much romantically so far. There was a slightly sexier nightgown involved and Logan had made sure to shower before bed as they climbed between the sheets, but on the whole they weren't in a hurry to just do it, rather wanting to regain the other type of intimacy before that happened.

"So… I'm sorry about Corinne being around," Rory said, snuggling into his side.

Logan looked at her, wondering whether she truly thought he'd be upset about something like that.

"I don't mind, really," Logan said. "But I guess that means your talk with Tucker didn't go too well?" he inquired carefully.

"Harsh words were said, threats made, mostly by me - to be frank, but I guess I lack on the follow through, or at the very least he seemed to have found a loophole in everything I said," Rory replied, reluctantly, having truly been leery on actually getting lawyers involved.

"What - he canceled at the last minute or something?" Logan guessed correctly.

"Yup," Rory popped the 'p'. "Apparently he's got a sore throat," she added.

"Yeah right," Logan chimed, not believing that for a second.

"I know what you're thinking," Rory began, studying him.

"What?" Logan asked.

"That I should get some backbone," Rory hesitated.

"That's a little hard for me to judge without actually knowing what he has on you," Logan replied, biting his tongue because he hadn't really wanted to rub that topic in. He didn't want her to take that as pressure to reveal it to him. It had to come out on her terms.

"Yeah, but no matter what it is, I feel like I should just be over it. Like I'm a grown woman and I shouldn't be threatened by something like that. And I guess I wouldn't be, if it weren't for Corinne or my job… I work with students all day and they can be pretty ruthless about stuff like that," Rory explained.

"What - he's got some recording of you watching porn or something?" Logan suggested, not too seriously, recalling a fairly well-known spam scheme. He'd expected the answer to be 'no' or laughter.

But it was Rory's face and quietness that indicated he'd hit the nail pretty closely on the head.

"Uh?" Logan urged her to elaborate, feeling he was too close not to ask.

"Well, not exactly. But yes, there are recordings. It was something we used to do to keep the spark alive, I guess," Rory confessed, blushing as she did, wanting to hide her face in her pillow.

"So, he has sex tapes of you?" Logan reflected, with some disgust in his tone, not of the fact that Rory had made such things but rather that her ex-husband still possessed such an intimate piece of information on her. Hell - theoretically he could still watch her in those intimate situations whenever he pleased, and that made Logan want to kill him even more.

"God, that sounds so awful," Rory hid her face behind her palms.

"I think far more people have something like that than you realize," Logan said, wanting to soothe her somehow. It didn't solve the problem, but hopefully would make her understand that he wasn't judging her for having made them at the time.

"Yeah, still. And it's not just sex, it's solo stuff, it's sort of striptease kind of thing or I don't know… burlesque…," Rory whispered, as if speaking about it quietly made it somehow easier. What she hadn't anticipated, however, was how getting the information out there actually did make her feel lighter.

"Shit," Logan commented, getting turned on by just the thought of Rory doing things like that.

"I know it's kinky and weird, and I regret making them," Rory added.

"And hot," Logan replied, letting the thought slip.

Rory punched him gently, but knew well what he meant. They had once seemed sexy to her too.

"But of course - I hate the guy for having those files and using them as leverage. That just makes him an asshole in my eyes, even more than before," Logan said, correcting his earlier comment a little.

"Yeah, but there's little I can do about it," Rory sighed, hopelessly.

Logan disagreed. In his experience - there was always something to be done about things like that. It was just the matter of getting information about the location and form of this data. He'd heard bits and pieces from her before, but if he went on to inquire more from her, she was more than likely to ward him off the hunt. But he almost felt like it was his duty to do something, and knowing Tucker could make Rory this disturbed about the fact that he had something on her, he wasn't going to leave things just like that. It wouldn't have been like him.