The long road home

Chapter 2: It's complicated

Lorelai knew that this would be a memorable night when she and Luke decided to get married privately, but had no idea just how memorable it would be.  Her baby girl was pregnant, and the father was none other than the Logan Huntzberger.

She looked down at Rory sobbing in her arms and still had so many questions, but she decided that right now, her baby girl just needed to be held.  Rory finally calmed herself after several minutes and looked back up at her, looking so grown up and so young all at once that it made Lorelai's heart ache to protect her.

"And that's it.  We had one amazing night together and he left to go back.  Back to his job, back to his fiance, back to his home with her.  Back to his future.  And six weeks later, here I am, finding out I'm pregnant," Rory finally said.

Lorelai weighed her words carefully before she said anything.  "Ror, I don't even know where to start.  First, my baby is going to be a mom.  Oh my God, I'm going to be a grandmother!  I'm going to be a grandmother, kid?  How can that even be?  I will not turn into Emily, you understand me?!

They both laughed together and the tension seemed to ease before Lorelai continued.

"Look," Lorelai started cautiously, "I don't want to pry, but have you told him yet?"

She noticed Rory's face fall before she answered softly.  "No, Mom.  I mean, he made his choice.  He chose to go home to her and continue his plan.  I can't...I don't want to get in the way of his happiness, Mom.  I mean, if he had wanted to be with me, he would have fought for me, right?"

"Perhaps you should fill your dear mother in a bit more on the details of this...arrangement that you guys had."  Logan had always been good at getting Rory to do things that she would never consider otherwise, and she might just fly to London herself if her suspicions are confirmed and she finds out that he pushed for this.

"After we saw each other in Hamburg, I knew that I needed him in my life in some way, Mom.  So I proposed the Vegas arrangement."

"As in, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Lorelai asked.

"Yeah.  When we're together, we're together.  And when we're not together, we're not together.  God, how pathetic am I?"

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, you are many things, but pathetic is not one of them.  Beautiful, responsible, kind, smart, funny.  Those are things that you are, little girl."

Lorelai hesitated for a minute before she said to hell with it and asked what she was thinking.  "Do you love him, Ror?"

Lorelai didn't even have to wait for her daughter's answer in order to know that she loved Logan deeply.  It showed in her eyes and in the way she talked about him.

"I do, Mom," she finally answered.

"Then you have to tell him, kiddo"

"No, Mom, that's exactly why I have to not interfere with his happily-ever-after."