Come Back...Be Here (Gilmore Girls Post-AYITL)

Chapter 18

Logan and Rory lay back on the bed in their room at The Dragonfly Inn, exhausted from the events of the evening. Rory kicked off her shoes and turned to look at Logan.

"Well, I guess it could have gone worse?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Ha, yeah it could have gone a lot worse but I'm still sorry that they insist on treating you like that Ace," Logan said, leaning in to kiss Rory on the top of her head. He really meant it. While it hadn't been great, he'd seen his parents behave much worse in the past and in truth, his mom hadn't said anything that they hadn't heard before.

"You've nothing to be sorry for, it's not your fault Logan and it was nothing more than we expected," Rory said, and it was completely true. She didn't blame Logan at all, he was not responsible for his parent's actions and had nothing to apologise. Rory had completely prepared herself for how they might treat her. After all, they were never going to welcome with open arms, the woman who broke up their son's much-anticipated engagement to what they saw as the perfect trophy wife.

"Did you see their faces when they realised you were a Hayden though?" Logan laughed. "They didn't see that coming, that's for sure! I bet my mom is regretting a few of the things she's said in the past."

"I guess they never realised there was a link with the Haydens, because I never really had much of a relationship with them, only through my Dad ". Rory said sadly.

Growing up Rory always wanted to get to know her father's parents a little better but disapproving from the start, they had shut her out and for many years following were living abroad. She had only recently been able to start building a relationship with her grandmother after Christopher returned to the family business and her grandfather Straub Hayden had passed away. Straub had always been very cold towards Rory, and if he'd had his way she would never have been born as he had tried hard to convince the Gilmore's that Lorelai should terminate her pregnancy. It had transpired that the Francine had been less hostile and over the past few years Rory had been tentatively getting to know her grandmother although she hadn't had the opportunity to spend much time with her due Rory's travel for work.

"Which reminds me actually - I need to try and catch up with Dad soon, he's left me a few voicemails this week."

Logan pulled a face "I'm not looking forward to seeing your dad, Ace, I bet I'm not flavour of the month"

"Oh he'll be fine Logan, you know my dad, he'll be happy we're together again I'm sure. He was worried about me and well, I think the fact that we are trying to make this work together, will reassure him." Rory said, getting off the bed.

"Hey, where do you think you are going Ace?" Logan said pulling her back down onto the bed "We need some sleep, we're going to have a busy day tomorrow."

Rory looked at Logan puzzled. "We are?"

"Well, yeah. I thought tomorrow we'll go and see if we can find ourselves a home – just as soon as you decide where you want to live that is." Logan smiled.

"Wow, yes, I suppose we need to do that..." Rory trailed off. It made complete sense but as yet, she hadn't even begun to think about their living arrangements or even considered that it would be something they would do together but Logan suggesting that they go out and find somewhere together made her stomach do a little flip. She couldn't believe that only a few weeks ago she had felt like she was in a desperate situation and that she was going to be facing parenthood alone, and now, here she was, with the love of her life, planning a future together – for their family. Is this real? She thought. Can this really be happening?

"Ace..?" Logan said carefully "What's going on in that head of yours?"

"It's just..." Rory paused. "It's just, well obviously I'd started thinking about finding somewhere to live before 'we' happened, I know I can't live with mom and Luke long-term, but I don't suppose I'd really thought about us...buying somewhere together."