Where You Lead

Part 1

AN: this is going to be shorter than a lot of my other stories. It's a little different than the stories I've written before and it will be a sad one, so prepare yourself.

May 2007- Logan's POV:

I was standing outside, at Yale, looking at Rory. She was nervous, I could tell. I was nervous too. I could tell by the look on her face that whatever she was about to say wasn't 'yes'.

It was stupid to propose in front of all those people. It was stupid to propose right as she's graduating. She's got a million things to figure out and I just added on to the uncertainty.

"Logan, I love you. I do. You know that" Rory said.

"But you're saying no" I said. Rory was the first person I ever loved. She was the only person I ever loved, and the only person I ever want to. Her saying that she didn't want to marry me...like a knife in my chest.

"I'm sorry" Rory said. "I love the idea of being married to you but I just have so much to figure out right now. I don't know what my life is gonna look like, or where I'm gonna live, or what I'm gonna do...I need to figure all that out before I can get married"

"So...what?" I asked her. I was moving to California, she knew that. I couldn't imagine having to do long distance again, but at the same time, the last thing I wanted was to break up with her. "I go to California, you stay here, and we're both miserable? We've done the long distance thing, Rory. Neither of us were happy"

"I don't know" she said. "I really don't. All I know is that I love you, and that just because I'm not ready to get married right now, that doesn't mean that I never will be"

"I love you too" I told her. "So much that it hurts. Look, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and if that means that I have to wait for you to be ready then I will"

"So you're not mad?"

"How could I be mad? If you need time, you need time" I said. "But I hope you know that I'm gonna be visiting you every chance I get"

Rory smiled softly. "Are we ok?"

"We're more than ok" I said. It's true that I was bummed about Rory saying no, but I understood. She needed time. And it wasn't like I was losing her. We were still together, and I would do whatever I could to see Rory as often as possible for as long as we were living in different places. "Come here". I took a small step forward to hug her. "We'll figure it out. Everything will be fine"

"I love you"

"I love you too"

——

Rory's POV-

After graduating, I spent a year and a half writing for an online magazine, following the presidential campaign. Once the elections were over in November of 2008, I applied for a writing job at the San Francisco Chronicle. I got the job and after Christmas I moved into Logan's apartment in Palo Alto. In February of 2009, Logan proposed to me again, and this time I said yes. We got married on September 3rd 2009, and shortly after that we bought our house and also got a dog. A black Labrador named Winston. That brings us to January of 2016.

I was sitting up in bed, talking to Logan while he got ready for work. Usually we left at the same time, but he had an early meeting. I also had the day off which meant that I wasn't getting dressed until I absolutely had to.

"You're gonna-" I was cut off by someone screaming.

"Mama!"

"I'll be right back" Logan left the room and came back a moment later with the cutest little girl in the world. Am I biased? Absolutely. Do I care? No.

About a year and a half after we got married, Logan and I decided to have a baby. We tried to get pregnant for over 3 years with no luck. When it became clear that we weren't gonna have kids the traditional way, we started looking into other options. We adopted Sophie on December 10th 2014 when she was just over a month old.

"No! No! No!" Sophie shouted when Logan tried to put her down on the bed.

"Winston, get down" I said. The dog usually slept curled up at the foot of our bed and usually Sophie loved him, but recently she seemed to be annoyed whenever he was on our bed. Once the dog was off the bed Logan put Sophie down and she crawled over to me. "Hi baby"

"Alright, I gotta go"

"Ok" I said.

"We're still on for lunch, right?"

"Yes"

"Then I'll see you later" he leaned down to kiss me and then the top of Sophie's head. "I love you both"

"We love you too" I said. Sophie and I hung out in bed for a little while before we went downstairs to have breakfast.

——

Logan's POV-

"Someone's in your office for you" Joanna, my secretary said as I walked past her.

"Thank you" I said. I walked into the office to see Rory standing there with Sophie.

"Daddy!"

"Hi princess" I said and took her from Rory. "You been waiting long?"

"Just got here" Rory said.

"Good" I put my hand on her arm and kissed her quickly. "I just have to run something upstairs and then we can go"

"Ok"

I tried to give Sophie back to Rory but she started crying.

"You might have to take her with you" Rory chuckled.

"Looks like it" I said. I grabbed the laptop bag that was on my desk and left the office.

"Rory's here?" Carl asked when I got into the elevator. Rory and I were good friends with Carl and his girlfriend Megan.

"Yeah, we're gonna go have lunch but I needed to bring this to Sally first and someone didn't want me to put her down"

"It's cute. She loves you" he said. "Sophie, can you say Carl?"

Sophie tuned to but her face in my shoulder.

"Guess not" he chuckled.

"Yeah, she's not so into the talking thing yet"

——

Rory's POV-

I walked into the living room just in time to see Logan gently toss a giggling Sophie onto the couch. "What is going on in here?"

"Our daughter has a beautiful laugh that I don't hear enough of" Logan said. I smiled. Hearing him say things like that never got old.

"Please be careful"

"Am I ever not careful with her?" He asked. "The last thing I want is for her to get hurt"

"Ok"

"By the way, I might have to go to New York for a few days sometime soon. Just wanna let you know" he said. Logan had always gone on business trips, but he hadn't in a while. Not since we adopted Sophie.

"Ok"

"Daddy!" Sophie shouted.

"What?" He picked her up. "What happened? Why are you screaming? Who is that?" He pointed to me and Sophie smiled. "Is that your mama?"

"Mama"

"Yeah, we love your mama, huh?"

"She loves you too"