Chapter 2
The door at the Gazette banged shut as Esther left for lunch, leaving Rory all alone in the office. The place was a lot less cluttered and dusty than it had been a few months ago, but it still had that former-century aura to it. But Rory had always found spaces like this comforting.
As usual Rory was putting a little too much dedication into the work that didn't really require that much from her. But on her defense, she was pretty much the only one doing the work. Esther handled the paperwork, payments and filing, the latter remaining somewhat of a mystery to Rory. And Charlie, who was only working part-time, dealt with the advertisements and classifieds section, the only source of income for the paper. The latter was mostly down to the fact that Charlie knew everyone in town. It was a quirky and sometimes dysfunctional dynamic, but Rory was simply relieved to not be at it all alone.
About five minutes later Rory's nimble fingers pressed Ctrl+S on the document in front of her. Rory sighed, finishing the feature piece. She stretched out her arms, yawned, and stood up to make a trip to the tiny bathroom in the back for the fourth time that morning. But just as she was about to step out from behind Bernie Roundbottom's old table, the door opened again.
"Hi! I brought you lunch!" Lane said, pushing her glasses higher up on her nose with her knuckle, as she closed the door behind her with her foot. Her hands were full - carrying a take-away bowl and a bunch of her own stuff.
"Aw… you take such good care of me," Rory chimed with endearment. Lane had been one of the few people who'd know about Rory's pregnancy from the first moments she'd found out. Just like Rory had been for Lane, years ago. It was also notable that was one of the two only people who had any clue about the paternity of her child, the other being her mother, who hadn't needed many guesses to figure things out herself. Lorelai had remained respectful enough not to pester her about the fact, allowing her to handle things her own way.
"Well, someone has to. I know how you eat, or how you don't eat," Lane commented, and placed a hot take-away bowl of homemade potato-dumpling soup onto her desk.
"I can't really help it if it's hard to keep stuff down," Rory shrugged innocently, begging for some pity. She was suffering from food aversion too, being unable to prepare herself much more than a bowl of cereal without getting sick.
"Anything that doesn't contain a load of carbs, you mean," Lane rolled her eyes. She'd definitely inherited her mother's attitude towards healthy eating while once she'd had kids of her own, while still enjoying chilly fries or a hidden candy bar every once in a while. "But lucky for you, this thing has plenty of those too. Just some extra leafy greens to help the little bean out," she added, having put in an extra handful of Bok Choy just for her sake.
"Hey, there were strawberries on my custard Danish this morning," Rory replied, innocently, excusing herself to the bathroom.
Lane continued to hang out behind the bathroom door, leaning her shoulder against the wall, whilst conveniently pressing play on her Discover Weekly playlist to give Rory some privacy. Lane for one was quite enjoying having Rory back in town, giving her back her best friend and someone to celebrate new music releases that went beyond Zach's tastes, with.
"Oh, and I heard the news got out there," Lane commented, speaking through the door.
"What news?" Rory asked, having spent the morning in the midst of 'news'.
"About the baby?" Lane reminded her.
"Oh. Babette. Right," Rory remembered, having tried her best all morning to not think about her morning encounter. She'd gotten pulled into work and she hadn't given the fact much thought that by now most of the town must've heard about her pregnancy.
"So, how do you feel about it? Was it awful?" Lane inquired, curiously but also supportively.
"It was fine," Rory said, and washed her hands. "I mean, it's not like it was going to stay a secret forever," Rory explained, trying to make it sound like a no big deal, and emerged.
"Well, yeah, of course. But…," Lane began, knowing Rory's main concern had been what people would ask, think, and gossip about.
Sure, it was 2016 and she was 32 - nothing like when her mother had turned up in this town as a teenager with a little baby in her arms. But Rory knew that as much as that gossip was going to be out of well meaning curiosity, the town cheering for her to have her happy-ever-after, it was still going to be a struggle to get past all their theories, once they realized the father wasn't in the picture.
"I'll just have to push through it," Rory replied. "On the bright side I did ask Taylor if had any apartments to offer, and he promised to ask around," Rory said, pushing the uncomfortable topic aside. Getting a place of her own again was the silver lining for her, and in the end she was glad to have gotten the asking over with. It was like getting a small amount of dignity back, even if she could just barely afford it.
"Uh-huh," Lane hummed, knowing Rory was essentially just circling around the hot stew, quite literally if she were to refer to the spoon in the soup in front of her.
"Hmm… this smells good," Rory said.
"Uh-huh," Lane repeated, not needing to ask the question that was lingering on her mind. Now that the news was out there - at least in the small circles of Stars Hollow, it was a matter of time Rory was going to have to deal with something much more crucial than a bowl of soup or decorating the nursery.
After a few small spoonfuls, Rory realized that her friend's silence was code on her being eager to hear more comments from her on the matter.
"What?" Rory looked at her friend, lowering her spoon. She hated to admit that it had been on her mind too, hence she decided to play clueless for a little while.
"You know, what," Lane pointed out, knowingly.
"I'll tell him right after Christmas. I can't help the fact I had my 12-week appointment just before Christmas. And if I were to call him now he'd think I am out to spoil his holidays or serve this as some well-hidden bad 'gift' or something. That's not the impression I want to leave," Rory lectured, clearly having spent a bunch of time thinking about this. Overthinking it - clearly.
"I think this might be the news one might actually want to hear - holiday or not," Lane commented.
"You don't know that," Rory argued, having imagined a million scenarios in her head of how Logan would take it.
Was it the news to ruin his life? Was it news to just complicate his life immensely? Was it news he wished he would've never learned? She had considered not telling him, thinking she might be doing him a favor, but she had enough life experience through her friends and family to know better. One at least deserved the option of knowing. Nevertheless, she wondered - Would he yell? Would angry at her for messing up her birth control and forget to mention it at the time? Would he demand she still 'take care of it'? Would he demand shared custody? Or on the contrary do something stupid and hop on a plane to make some grand gesture for the wrong reasons? The former Rory found unlikely, despite the thought having crossed her mind.
Lane simply made a face, knowing how Rory tended to over-think things.
"I know. I know. He has the right to know. And he will," Rory promised her friend. She had a very pragmatic reason for waiting the 12 weeks she already had. She had wanted to be sure everything was fine, and that she herself was sure of what she wanted, as well.
"Fine. At your own time," Lane sighed, shrugging her shoulders. While she could offer a friendly ear, support and advice, she knew there was little she could do about Rory's tendency to sabotage her life by being afraid to do something.
Lane wasn't aware of it, but her words had planted a seed of doubt in Rory's brain whether waiting really was what justified.
It took her a few days though, but eventually on the morning of December 24th waking up early at her grandmother's house in Nantucket where they were spending the holiday, she found herself idle and calculating in her head what time it was in London. Maybe it really was better to get this over with?
After pacing the chilly sunroom just adjacent to her bedroom a couple of times, glancing out into the foggy ocean where the sun was rising, she finally decided to do it. Technically, this was the closest she was going to be to Logan geographically if she was going to do this over the phone. She wasn't as dramatic to fly over just for this, nor did she want to do this over text, letter or a message through one of his friends.
She'd practiced this time and time again in her head, but what she got, as she finally found the courage to dial his number, was not what she expected.
"Logan Huntzberger's phone, this is his assistant Rhys Burton. How can I help you?" a voice Rory had heard a few times before this answered, catching Rory off guard.
Logan's equivalent to voicemail these past few years had been transferring his calls to his assistant when he was busy, at least those calls that weren't from a selected few numbers that he wanted to reach him directly. Apparently hers was no longer one of them.
"Hello?" Rhys repeated, as Rory struggled to get out so much as a sentence.
"Um, yeah. Sorry, I just didn't expect to be transferred," Rory said, realizing it was really a rather silly assumption in the first place. For all she knew Logan had probably erased her number altogether. It was probably very wise of him.
"Mr. Huntzberger is unavailable today because of the wedding. Can I leave a message?" the man asked.
"Um, no. I'll just try him later," Rory began, hesitantly, being unsure how good it would be to actually leave her name with anyone who worked for the HPG. It felt a little too close to comfort considering she didn't want the world to know about why she was calling.
"He might be unavailable for a while, to be honest. I'd recommend leaving a message if this is urgent," Rhys said.
It was then it suddenly hit Rory. It was his wedding, and the reason he was going to be unavailable for a while was because he was leaving for his honeymoon.
Crap.
"Um, okay. Can you tell him that…," Rory pondered, trying to think quickly. How big of a issue was it to leave her real name? She was so close to spit out her name, but something in her stopped her - she wasn't even sure why - it was not Mitchum she was scared of so much as she was reluctant to stir up trouble for Logan in case his wife heard of this.
"Can you repeat that please?" Rhys requested, trying to remain polite.
"Can you tell him that um… Leigh Hayden called and um… tell him to call me back when he gets a chance? That it's important but not urgent," Rory said, realizing how silly it was to use a fake name like this. Was it obvious enough for him? She didn't want to interrupt his reception either - this was problematic enough to spoil his day. Oh, why had she chosen this particular day to call?
"And he can reach you at this number that you're calling from now?" the man reflected.
"Yes," Rory replied.
"I'll make sure he gets you message," Rhys replied.
"Thank you," Rory said, feeling not just disappointed but also unexpectedly gutted. So much for calling him at the wrong time. Calling over the holidays seemed now like the least of her problems. Rory wanted to sink to the ground, hide under the covers until she was somehow a different person in a different situation - whatever worked.
A Christmas wedding. The thought of Logan having some fairy-tale themed holiday wedding seemed so foreign to Rory. Logan was hardly one to love Christmas or any holiday, but maybe this was one of the ways Odette was changing his life around. Maybe his holidays would now hold some more meaning? While Rory knew the relationship between the two was not the most typical, having some degrees of freedom, she was aware of the fact that he wasn't indifferent to her charms entirely. A dynastic plan sounded cold, but it was not happening against their will. Of course, all of this stung a little, causing Rory to sniffle slightly, but Rory knew that Logan wasn't hers to cry after. She took a deep breath, and wiped her face clean of the emotions the past five minutes had brought on. She had a day to face. She had her grandmother to face with her news and her father on their way home in a few days. There was nothing more that she could do than wait for Logan to get back in touch with her, if of course he even wanted to return her call. Was she still important enough for him to pick up the phone?
