AN: Big thanks to all of your comments and input, love reading them. Keep them up. Be advised that we are approaching the end here. Few more chapters to go.

Chapter 60

Rory spent the night in her empty bed, thinking things over, even if what she'd rather planned to do was sleeping on it. Maybe it was because of yesterday's good night's sleep, maybe because of that lingering excitement in the bottom of her belly from the conversation she'd had with Logan last night.

She didn't have all the answers, but she did have the support to do whatever the hell she wanted - recalling Logan's words. But she knew that things weren't so simple. There were other people influenced by this - and not just the most important person in her life - Corinne; but also things came down to being a decent person as to not leaving mid-semester without some kind of a plan.

"Good morning," Rory said, sitting at the dining room table, having prepped a whole table-full of Corinne's favorites for breakfast. It was nowhere as fancy as Emily Gilmore had treated her in the mornings, having a maid to do it for her, but it was definitely a lot more lavish than her mother had offered her in Corinne's age.

"Hey, what's all this?" Corinne inquired skeptically. The girl wasn't stupid - she knew something was up.

"I'm sorry I was so late coming home last night," Rory apologized, having not exchanged more than two words with her daughter last night.

"It's fine. Where were you anyways?" Corinne inquired, sitting down at the table.

"Um…," Rory pondered, having to make a decision. The confrontation wasn't first on her agenda to talk to her daughter about, despite having warned Tucker she might.

"Is this about dad?" Corinne asked.

"Kind of, and some other things...," Rory replied.

"Did he give it back to you?" Corinne asked, causing Rory's mouth to fall open.

"What?!" Rory exclaimed with a slight stutter.

"Whatever it was that he had. Logan sort of told me there was something going on. So, I offered him my keys," Corinne revealed, sensing she might be getting Logan in trouble.

But Rory trusted Logan enough to figure that he'd just barely told Corinne what he'd needed to get the keys, instead of outright stealing them, and he would not reveal anything delicate or controversial to her daughter.

"Oh, right," Rory said, calming down a little.

"I don't know what's going on with dad. He didn't used to be so… I don't know… difficult," Corinne tried to sound mature.

Rory chuckled lightly, liking her attempt at that. But she knew the girl didn't know half of what was going on.

"Yeah, I don't know either. Mid-life crisis, perhaps?" Rory threw casually in the air, having more tact than to black mouth Tucker. "But there's actually something related to that, that I wanted to discuss with you," Rory revealed.

Corinne took a sip of her coffee, indicating with her eyes that Rory should continue.

"I am thinking about giving up my job," Rory revealed. "It just isn't what I want to be doing anymore. Or at least not here," she added.

"Are you and Logan getting married?!" Corinne exclaimed, excitedly.

"Oh, no… no… not that," Rory replied, having not even thought about that. Marriage for Rory just seemed so unnecessary at this stage of her life. "But I don't know… I might want to live closer to him at least. Maybe someday live together. But I know I can't just change our lives around just because of a man… but it's just that the work it's not making me happy anymore. This entire semester, I feel like I've just gone through the motions," she explained.

"Welcome to my world," Corinne rolled her eyes, as if she knew what her mother was speaking of. Yet it was a good characterization of the way she felt about Chilton.

"So, what do you think? I mean… It might just first be quitting and it wouldn't have to involve moving right away. I don't just want to uproot you again," Rory explained.

"Anything to get out of Chilton!" Corinne exclaimed, surprising Rory a little.

"I didn't realize you hate it that much," Rory replied.

"It's not a nice feeling being at the bottom of the class despite studying like crazy," Corinne explained. The girl was far from stupid, having two highly academic parents as she did. But she just wasn't that driven, she didn't find fun in pushing herself to be better all the time but still resulting in her not always doing that great. Even not failing by any parameter, wasn't helping her motivations. She had friends, but not great friends - and that was what Corinne went on to explain to her mother.

"At least in Boston, I have people I like," Corinne suggested.

That caused Rory to bite her lip - it was moving back to Boston that her daughter wanted.

Corinne recognized some sadness in her mother.

"You're not talking about Boston, are you?" she asked. She hadn't expected her mother to think about moving back in with her father, not that - but at least consider her former school, which she had loved plus having her grandfather and Gigi close in Boston. It was home base as far as she knew.

Rory shook her head.

"I mean, Freeport is great, but not this time of year. There's hardly anything to do there. And I mean… things with Theo are still so weird. I am not sure I'd want to be stuck with going to school with the two of them all the time," Corinne explained, referring to both Theo and his sister.

"Yeah, I get that," Rory agreed, realizing indeed, that what was a draw for her in Freeport, even besides Logan, wasn't necessarily that for her daughter.

"But I mean, if it's the question of Freeport or Chilton, I'll take Freeport any day," Corinne tried to cheer her mother up, just wanting to go to a school that wasn't as demanding and rigid in their rules.

"You know, there are some pretty decent private schools around Freeport too," Rory added.

"Yeah, but also a bunch of people I know from this summer go to them and I'm not sure if I am eager to have to deal with all that… Boston was just home, you know. There's Kelly, and Sandra and Dex…," she added, referring to her old group she used to have lunch with.

"Okay, I'll guess I'll have some thinking to do…," Rory sighed. "But for the sake of honesty… your dad and I aren't really getting along these days. So, while I don't want to make things any worse, I feel like I have to at least get lawyers involved to sort out some agreement between us about your custody. I know it's nasty, and I can't expect you to choose… but it is likely they'll want to talk to you too at some point," Rory explained. "I just don't want there to be any room for interpretation there. I feel like I have to protect us, I just don't trust him anymore," Rory added.

"Okay," Corinne exhaled, not yet knowing what to think of it. Yet, on some level, from what she'd already heard - both in passing or overhearing the two speak, or from Logan or her mother, or from her father make tiny his tiny comments about her mother there seemed to have formed a context in her mind by now that she understood that it might be necessary. It was her way of saying to her mother that it was okay if she did that.

The two ate in silence for several minutes, each in their own thoughts.

"What do you think you'll do in Freeport? Do you think you'll become a writer finally?" Corinne suggested.

"I've already been a writer, remember?" Rory chimed, adding - "But no, I doubt that. I guess I'll figure things out as we go. Maybe there's something new for me to try there. Logan's in the process of figuring things out too, maybe we'll generate some ideas together."

As Rory said that, she realized that dragging her daughter to Freeport might indeed not be the smartest idea, especially if she or Logan might end up moving somewhere else entirely at some point in the future if that was where their next steps led them. A part of her couldn't believe that she was thinking years in advance, and seeing her future undoubtedly linked to Logan's. It was silly, stupid and naive… but it just felt right.

Regardless of the final decision, she did get to work half an hour early that morning, and made it a point to stop by the principal's office, informing him of her plan to give up her job. Just like that. And she could feel the weight lifting from her shoulders. She was giving them some time to find a replacement, but one thing was certain - she was doing this with an easy heart.