The rest of their weekend in Stars Hollow passed too quickly, as usual, before they were headed home for the work week. Despite her excitement over starting in on her first official front page story for the New York Daily News Rory knew that it was going to feel like an exceptionally long week. She couldn't wait for her Mother and Luke to finally be married. She knew her mother was a strong capable woman and perfectly able to take care of herself but she was happy to know that she and Luke would finally be entering a place in their lives where they would be taking care of each other.
"This week is going to feel so long," Rory pouted as she and Logan walked hand in hand to the office.
"Aren't you the one with a brand spanking new front page position to keep you entertained this week?" Logan asked sarcastically, "I'm the one who's going to be bored with my same old job."
Rory rolled her eyes and replied, "You know I'm excited about getting front page stories to work on…but my Mom's wedding is on Saturday! And on Sunday night we leave on vacation. Don't tell me that you're not excited too."
"I never said I wasn't excited," Logan assured her, "In fact I'm probably even more excited than you are."
"I highly doubt that," Rory scoffed.
"I am excited to get you away from New York and the stress of this new life we are living here. You need to relax and we need time to reconnect," Logan said, "I'm also excited to watch you watch your Mom marry the man who has been like a father figure to you all these years."
"I'm glad to hear that you understand my excitement," Rory replied.
"I understand it and I share it. I'm just much better at keeping it under wraps," Logan teased.
When they arrived at the office Rory met with Artie to discuss the front page article he was assigning her to work on this week. He had asked her to come prepared with a list of ideas and together they would choose one that felt promising. Rory's list was long and an impressive number of her ideas went into Artie's file for later. In the end they were left with two ideas. Artie thought she should cover the proposed smoking ban for the city and Rory was favoring the proposed changes to tolls on NYC bridges. After much debate between the two about which story would sell more papers Artie proposed they ask Logan's opinion.
"Before you get my husband on the phone," Rory began, "Let me ask you this. If he wasn't my husband would you be calling to ask the Editor and Chief his opinion or would you just pull in one of our random co-workers."
"Obviously I would just pull in a random co-worker," Artie assured her, "But half the fun of having the boss' wife working for me is having better access to the boss himself. There are few people whose careers are as important to your husband as yours."
Rory rolled her eyes as Artie picked up his phone and dialed Logan's office number. This was part of her annoyance with working for her own husband. At times she felt like none of what she worked on was her very own; he had at least some small part in everything. It wasn't that she minded working and collaborating with him; it was more that she wanted to feel that she deserved full credit for her career and right now she couldn't say that she did. The worst part of working for her own husband was when people thought they could use you to get closer to the boss, just like Artie was doing right now.
Jonathan answered professionally saying, "Logan Huntzberger's office, Jonathan speaking."
"Hey Jonathan this is Artie. Rory and I are kicking around a few ideas and were hoping for Logan's input," Artie explained, "Is he around?"
"Currently he is in his office with his father but they should be finished shortly. Would you like me to ask him to stop by?" Jonathan asked.
"That would be fantastic," Artie replied, "Thank-you."
"Am I on speaker phone?" Jonathan asked.
"You sure are," Artie confirmed.
"Rory are you there?" Jonathan asked.
"Hi Jonathan," Rory greeted.
"You saved me a call Artie," Jonathan said, "Rory, Logan and Mitchum would like you to join them for lunch. Do you have time?"
Rory had been about to decline as she was so anxious to start working on her story and she only had until Thursday to finish it, when Artie answered for her, "Of course she has time, no problem."
Unsure how to back out after Artie's reply on her behalf she parroted, "Of course I have time, no problem."
Artie and Rory discussed other pertinent matters to her joining the front-page staff that they hadn't yet had a chance to discuss. Ten minutes later Logan and Mitchum appeared outside Artie's office. Artie cheerfully moved their meeting into a nearby conference room. With the unexpected addition of Mitchum Artie's office would not hold them all. As they settled around the conference table Rory grew annoyed with Artie's insistence that Logan, and accidentally, Mitchum sit in on this meeting. Both were busy men and had far better things to do than help decide the topic of the newest front page reporter's first story.
Clearly in a hurry to head out to lunch Mitchum asked, "Well Artie, you've got us here, what can we help you with."
"Rory and I were meeting this morning to decide what her first front page story should be about. As it has been a couple of slow news weeks we are starting her with a more filler type front page story. I asked Rory to come prepared with a list of ideas. I must tell you that I have never seen so many promising ideas produced from one person. Rory and I narrowed it down to two ideas and I hoped that we might get Logan's input," Artie explained.
Rory desperately wanted to jump out of her chair and announce that she had been against inviting Logan into this conversation. There was no reason why his input was needed when they could have just as easily asked anyone else in the entire company. Her agitation must have shown plainly on her face. When Artie finally stopped speaking Mitchum asked, "Rory, is there something you would like to say?"
For a moment Rory floundered, unsure of what path to take. She could be honest and tell Logan and Mitchum that she had advocated against involving Logan in this decision but that might drive Artie to dislike her and she already knew how hard it was to work with people who disliked you. But, could she really pretend that she was fine with Artie making the most of his connections to the boss by using her? Rory decided to play innocent, "Well, I just think it is silly that all this fuss is being made about what my first story should be. I mean, Artie and I could have just asked one of my fellow reporters. We didn't need to be a bother to the two of you."
Artie, blind to Rory's little trick, took her innocent comment at face and added, "Rory's right, we could have asked someone else but as her husband I thought you might hold a particular interest."
Logan opened his mouth to comment but Mitchum cut him off saying, "While I'm sure Logan appreciates the sentiment, Rory was correct in thinking that perhaps Logan shouldn't be bothered with this sort of decision. He is a very busy man. In the future I suggest that you more carefully review what sorts of issues you are bothering him with."
Making sure that his father was done speaking Logan said, "I don't mind assisting this time as long as you already have us here; but I would agree that next time a fellow writer might be just the person to ask."
Artie pitched both of Rory's ideas that they had been disagreeing over and to Rory's surprise Logan liked one while Mitchum liked the other. They were still in a tiebreaker situation.
"Perhaps Rory works on both stories," Logan suggested, "Both are her ideas so she has the right to both of them. Perhaps she does the more time sensitive of the two this week and the second when we return from our vacation in two weeks."
Artie thought for a moment before agreeing to the idea. After further discussion it was decided that the smoking ban story should be tackled first. Artie thanked Logan and Mitchum before heading back to his office. Rory was heading off to lunch with the pair and was to check in with Artie when she returned for the specifics for her article.
As soon as Rory was safely ensconced in the elevator between her husband and father-in-law did she really let go of her anger over what Artie had just pulled. "I cannot believe he just did that," Rory fumed.
"Why don't you explain to us exactly what that was," Logan suggested.
"That was Artie getting himself some more access to the boss himself by using me," Rory spat, "Never mind that I tried to talk him out of it. I detest being used to get to the two of you. I can't believe he put me in that position."
"Did he tell you that was what he was doing," Mitchum asked.
"His exact words were, half the fun of having the boss' wife working for me is having better access to the boss himself," Rory mimicked, "Right away I suggested that rather than bother you we just ask another writer in the department."
"But he didn't agree?" Mitchum asked.
"No, he insisted that you placed a lot of value and importance on my career and you'd want to be part of this decision," Rory explained.
"The kicker is that based on your experience with hostile co-workers you can't risk getting on his bad side so you play innocent in the meeting instead of nailing him to wall like you wanted to," Logan added.
"Exactly," Rory growled.
"Should he face disciplinary actions?" Mitchum asked.
"No," Rory blurted, "That would just make things worse. Everyone on the front page staff would hate me for getting Artie in trouble."
"I suggest that we hope that he's learned his lesson. We'll keep a record of this occasion and you'll let us know if this kind of behavior continues," Logan said.
By this time they had reached Mitchum's favorite deli just a few blocks from the office. They placed their orders and found an empty table. "Let's talk about something more pleasant," Mitchum suggested.
"What did you have in mind?" Rory asked warily.
"Logan and I have an assignment idea for you," Mitchum announced, "As you know we are revamping the travel section of the paper. Rather than having a specific staff of writers who we send out and about to review different locales we are going to employ staff writers to write about their journeys whenever they take them."
"That sounds like a fantastic idea, but aren't you afraid that you'll end up with a plethora of stories about Orlando and Disneyland?" Rory asked.
"It is possible, but naturally if we have covered Disneyland in a recent issue of the paper we will not feel compelled to run another story," Mitchum explained, "The two of you are going to Scotland. Let's hope that your co-workers have the sense to pick diverse destinations as well."
"You'll give me the story specs before we go?" Rory asked.
"I will," Mitchum promised, "But I'd prefer you not actually start writing until you return. Take notes on your trip but do not write. A vacation is meant for relaxing. Besides if you wait to write the story until after you return it will have an interesting retrospective and perhaps nostalgic quality to it."
"Sounds fun," Rory said cheerfully.
"You forgot to tell her that she'll be providing her own photographs to accompany the article," Logan reminded his father.
"Really? Cool!" Rory exclaimed excitedly.
After lunch Logan and Rory headed back to the office together while Mitchum headed to a meeting at another one of his companies. As they walked Rory was thinking about just how excited she was for their vacation. At times she nearly forgot about it, as wrapped up as she got in the plans for her mother's upcoming wedding. She was looking forward to spending uninterrupted time with Logan like they had on their honeymoon. Ever since they had returned from their honeymoon life had been busy, busy, busy, go, go, go. She was looking forward to sleeping in late and no deadlines and sex whenever it suited them and room service. It was going to be fantastic. But first they needed to make it through her mother's wedding and this long work week.
Back at work Rory let herself into Artie's office when he motioned to her. She cringed inwardly waiting for the onslaught…it didn't come. Artie still hadn't realized that her innocent act was just an act and that in fact she had given him away to Logan and Mitchum.
"Take a seat Rory," Artie instructed. Handing her a sheet of paper with the specs for her article he launched into an exhaustive description of each of the individual specs listed. She smiled to herself realizing that Artie did not deem her capable of selling him out.
The rest of the day flew by as Rory worked tirelessly on her smoking ban article. She had done hours of research and booked four interviews by the time Logan stopped by her desk to see if she was ready to head home. The department was deserted, even Artie had left for the night and he was a workaholic. On the way home they picked up soup and sandwiches to eat for dinner back at the apartment.
After dinner Rory headed into their bedroom and pulled her suitcase out from under the bed. She propped it open on the floor against a blank stretch of wall near the closet. Logan had followed her into the bedroom and finally asked with a puzzled expression, "What are you doing?"
"This is going to be a busy week," Rory explained, "I am going to pack progressively. I will tackle one clothing category each evening before I go to bed each night and by Thursday evening when we leave I will be all packed without the stress of having done it all hurriedly at once."
"Let me guess, this is a Lorelai method of packing?" Logan asked.
"Are you kidding?" Rory teased, "This is the result of witnessing Lorelai's method of packing. I learned young that if I didn't want to end up with a suitcase full of impractical clothing that I didn't want to wear I needed to devise my own packing system."
"So, what are you packing tonight?" Logan asked.
Rory pulled a list from her briefcase and after quickly consulting it tucked it into an inner pocket of the suitcase and replied, "Underwear and socks."
"I bet I would be an excellent consultant on bra and panty selection," Logan mused.
"I bet you would and I will let you consult if you will do one thing for me," Rory offered.
"Shoot," Logan challenged.
"Get out your suitcase. You and I are going to try my progressive packing method together," Rory announced.
Logan groaned and flopped back onto the bed and said, "Ace, I'm more than fine with my slap-dash style of last minute packing. I've never wound up with a suitcase full of clothing that I wouldn't be caught dead wearing."
"But you have to admit that your last minute style of packing is stressful," Rory said.
"It's not so bad," Logan replied.
"It's bad for me because I'm the one who usually has to help you track things down that you could have worked on finding earlier in the week," Rory explained.
"Is that why you are always a little cranky when we first leave for somewhere?" Logan asked.
"Yes, I like to be prepared and not making myself crazy hunting for things at the last minute," Rory admitted.
"I never knew it bothered you that much," Logan said, "I will try your progressive packing method if you promise that next time something bothers you that much you just tell me instead of tricking me into a progressive packing method."
"Okay," Rory said sheepishly, "Now, go get your suitcase."
Together the couple packed underwear which lead to their favorite pre-bedtime ritual in which they removed each other's clothing, including their underwear.
The week flew by faster than Rory had anticipated that it would. Suddenly it was Thursday and Rory was doing a final read through of her article before turning it into Artie and heading home to finish packing and head to Star's Hollow for her mother's wedding. During the week Rory had done hours upon hours of research and conducted hours upon hours of interviews. Finally she had spent hours upon hours of writing and re-writing her article. If she said so herself, the article could not be more perfect. She just hoped that Artie agreed. She had not yet submitted an article for his consideration and she was unsure how strict his standards were. With a freshly printed copy of her article in hand Rory timidly knocked on Artie's door frame.
"Rory," Artie said when he looked up from his computer, "Come on in. I'm assuming you are brining me your finished article."
"You assume right," Rory replied nervously.
"Why don't you take a seat while I read it over," Artie offered.
"I'll stand," Rory said, "I think I might need to pace."
Artie smiled at her reassuringly and said, "You don't need to be nervous, you are a tremendous writer, I'm sure this is a wonderful article."
"Thank you," Rory replied, "But this is the first article I am submitting to you. I'm going to be nervous. That is just the way I work."
Artie nodded and then seriously got down to reading. Rory paced in a very tight little circle and cringed each and every time his red pen touched the paper. As the number of times the pen touched the paper passed a dozen her heart began to drop. As the number passed two dozen she thought she might vomit. She collapsed into one of the chairs as the number passed 30 and she squeezed her eyes shut until he finished reading.
"Rory, you can open your eyes," Artie urged her.
"I'm not sure I want to see all the red marks you left on my article," Rory replied.
"I'm not sure I understand," Artie said.
"That many red marks cannot be a good thing," Rory explained.
"Rory, you are the one who doesn't understand," Artie began, "As I read an article I like to put in marks for different things like quotes that would we might pull out and highlight or places that might work well should we need to split the story over several pages; things like that."
"So you aren't marking things that need to be corrected?" Rory asked, sounding relieved.
"Mostly not. I did find one thing that should be corrected," Artie told her.
"What is it?" Rory asked.
"I thought you were going to start hyphenating your last name professionally," Artie said, "In the by-line here in only says Gilmore."
"Oh," Rory said, surprised, "I forgot."
"Rory, I think this is a wonderful article. I cannot think of a single thing that would improve it. I just hope that all your articles are this good all the time," Artie said.
"Really?" Rory squeaked, "Thank-you!"
"Thank-you!" Artie replied, "Expect this story to run on the first day that we don't have a breaking news story to cover. Congratulations. You should know that not everyone's first front pages stories make it into the paper. Sometimes we get writers who need a few tries to hit the desired front page writing style right. You nailed it."
Artie excused Rory and told her to enjoy her mother's wedding and her vacation. He reminded her that when she returned she had to make an appointment to have her headshot taken with a staff photographer. Sometimes the paper liked to run a picture of the writer with the story. If they needed one for this story they would just use the headshot that graced her press pass.
When Rory arrived back at the apartment Logan was already there. She found him sitting on the couch reading a copy of her article that Artie had faxed over to him. In front of him on the table were two glasses of champagne.
"What's all this?" Rory asked.
"We are celebrating your first ever front page story. It is running next week provided that there is a day without any breaking news," Logan explained.
"Artie told me that," Rory said.
"This is a great article Ace, I think you really outdid yourself! Congratulations," Logan said.
An hour and a half later found the couple in the Escalade leaving New York for Star's Hollow. They had brought everything they would need for both the wedding and their trip to Scotland. They had originally considered heading back into New York on Saturday night after the wedding but decided instead to rent a room at the Dragonfly and really savor the day. Besides they could probably help Sookie and Michel clean up the Inn on Sunday after the festivities were all over before heading away on vacation.
When they pulled onto the gravel driveway behind Lorelai's jeep they could immediately sense that something was amiss. Typically, no matter how busy she was, Lorelai could be counted on to bound out of the house to hug them. Her jeep indicated that she was home but there was no sign of her. Logan and Rory exchanged wary glances as Lorelai's absence continued.
"Why don't I carry our bags into your bedroom and you go ahead and see what your Mom is up to," Logan said in a tone that masked his concern.
Keeping up the charade Rory cheerfully replied, "Yeah, she's probably absorbed in some wedding detail upstairs."
When she entered the front door she could hear that her mother was indeed upstairs in her room. It sounded like she might be crying. Rory's heart clenched at the sound. As Rory quickly mounted the stairs she called ahead of her, "Mom?" Lorelai did not respond but Rory hadn't really expected her to. She had called out as more of a warning that she was coming up.
When Rory entered the disheveled bedroom she found her mother sitting on her bed crying. Rory looked around the room as she moved toward her mother, hopeful that the chaos in the room might offer some clue as to what had happened.
"Mom, what's going on?" Rory asked carefully as she folded her Mother into her arms.
Lorelai just shook her head at first, unable to speak. She clung to Rory as she struggled to control her tears. Finally she whispered, "I can't go through this again."
"What can't you go through?" Rory asked.
"I can't put a second wedding to Luke on hold," Lorelai whispered, "Luke came over with dinner tonight. He started talking about how nervous he was about the wedding and how he wasn't sure that he was ready to become a husband. It turned into a terrible fight. I screamed at him about how immature he was being and how selfish. If this wedding doesn't happen this will be the second wedding that he's ruined because of his insecurities and doubts. What will my mother say?"
"Oh Mom," Rory breathed, "I'm so sorry. What a terrible time for Luke to get jitters. Don't you think he'll come to his senses and marry you anyway? The two of you had been so looking forward to just being married."
"I know he loves me and I think he really does want to marry me. I think he is scared to get married in front of everyone. Maybe it would have been better to elope like he wanted to," Lorelai mused.
"Would you mind if Logan and I went to talk to him?" Rory asked.
"I would like for you to stay here with me. But Logan can go talk to him," Lorelai agreed.
"Let me go talk to Logan. I'll be right back," Rory promised.
Logan was waiting for her on the front porch. Rory explained all of what her Mother had told her to Logan. When Logan left for the diner Rory went back upstairs to sit with her Mother and wait.
While taking the Escalade would have been faster Logan opted to walk. Walking gave him some time to collect his thoughts and decide what he was going to say. As he neared the diner he began to realize that he might just be the perfect person to talk some sense into Luke. Logan pushed open the diner door and the bells jingled overhead. Luke's back was to the door as he worked on something behind the counter.
Gruffly he addressed his visitor, "We're closed."
"I know Luke," Logan replied, "I came to talk to you."
"I knew it would only be a matter of time before you or Rory or someone else showed up to talk some sense into me," Luke muttered, his back still to Logan.
"Will you talk to me?" Logan asked.
"I'm not sure that you're going to give me an option," Luke growled.
"Do you want to talk here or somewhere else?" Logan asked.
"We might as well go upstairs," Luke grumbled as he moved toward the stairs.
Logan followed him. Upstairs Luke motioned toward the table in the kitchen area. Logan sat and watched as Luke pulled two beers from the fridge. When Luke finally turned to face him Logan was not surprised to note that Luke's eyes were red and bloodshot as if he too had been crying. Luke sat across from him at the table and demanded, "Let's get on with it then."
"Why don't you tell me what happened," Logan suggested.
"Didn't Lorelai already tell you what happened?" Luke asked.
"She told Rory and Rory told me; but I want to hear what you have to say about it," Logan insisted.
Luke sighed dramatically indicating that he didn't really want to talk about it but said, "Ever since that fitting at her parents house on Saturday I've had this gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach. I'm not sure if it is fear or nerves or what. All I know is that the closer the wedding gets the worse the feeling in my stomach is. Finally tonight I'm over at her house. She is rattling on about the wedding and my stomach hurts worse than ever. I start trying to explain to her how my stomach feels and how scared and nervous I am. She jumps up and starts screaming at me about how I've already ruined one wedding and I can't ruin this one too and how selfish and immature I'm being. She didn't even let me finish what I was saying."
"What were you trying to tell her," Logan asked as Luke took a swig of his beer.
"I just wanted to confide in her about how scared and nervous I was. Maybe she was just as scared and nervous as I was. I wasn't trying to tell her that I wasn't ready to marry her. I do sometimes wonder if I am ready but that's beside the point. I just wanted to confide in her, isn't that the way this is supposed to work?" Luke asked.
"So you have every intention of marrying Lorelai on Saturday?" Logan asked.
"I'm a little ticked that she jumped to conclusions about where my little speech was going and I might be a little nervous and scared but, yes, I still have every intention of marrying Lorelai on Saturday," Luke said.
"Thank goodness," Logan whispered, "Can I tell you something?" Luke nodded and Logan continued, "That feeling in the pit of your stomach is stress from all the worrying you've been doing. I had the same thing before both my weddings with Rory. As much as I love her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her I couldn't help but worry about how things would turn out. Rory was my first serious girlfriend ever. I had been a playboy, a guy who was never going to settle down. What if I was wrong about how I felt about her? What if this wasn't what was supposed to happen?"
"How did you get past that?" Luke asked.
"I tried to imagine my life without her and it was all wrong. I asked myself if I'd rather deal with the worries I had of going into this marriage or the pain I'd inflict upon myself in breaking things off with her. The answers were clear," Logan explained, "And that feeling in your stomach goes away as soon as you see her walking down the aisle toward you."
"So you think I should quit worrying?" Luke asked.
"I think it is okay to worry and to be scared but I also think that you know that marrying Lorelai is right," Logan assured him.
They were silent for a minute while Luke thought about things. "Are you heading back to the house?" Luke finally asked.
"I am, but I walked," Logan said.
"That's fine. Let's walk back together," Luke replied, "When we get there I'm going to suggest that you and Rory go stay at the Dragonfly for the night. It'll give Lorelai and me a chance to work this out."
"Sure, not a problem," Logan agreed.
Back at the house things went as planned. Luke went upstairs and a few moments later Rory came downstairs to find Logan carrying their bags back out to the Escalade. Without even questioning him Rory climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle and they set off.
Up in Lorelai's bedroom Luke sank down next to her on the bed. Quietly he took her hand and said, "If our marriage is going to work you need to get better about not jumping to conclusions." She silently nodded and he continued, "Let me start by saying that I have every intention of marrying you on Saturday. I know that I backed out of a wedding with you once but that is in the past, you need to forgive me and let it go. This time is different. I am so sorry that I hurt you but this is not the same thing."
"Explain to me what this is then," Lorelai asked hoarsely.
"Let me finish this time," Luke warned. Lorelai's head bobbed slightly in affirmation and he continued, "Ever since Saturday at your parent's house I have had this gnawing in the pit of my stomach. It is probably nerves or fear and everyday that the wedding grows closer the feeling grows worse. Rather than hiding my nervousness and fear like I did before I am telling you about it so that maybe you can tell me that you feel the same way; that you are nervous and scared too. But maybe you aren't and that is fine too. If you aren't nervous and you aren't afraid maybe you can just hold my hand and tell me that everything is going to be okay. I do want to marry you on Saturday and according to my step-son-in-law to be this feeling will go away as soon as I see you walking down the aisle toward me, but until then I'm pretty sure that I'll be a little bit of a mess but that will never change how I feel about you or my desire to marry you."
Lorelai sniffled quietly beside him and without turning to look at him yet took his hand in her own. When her tears were closer to being under control again she said, "I was nervous and scared too. I worried that this wedding would turn out like the last one. But you're right I need to let it go. This time will be different."
Luke pulled her into his arms and there she cried.
On Friday morning Logan and Rory were awakened bright and early by Lorelai and Sookie bustling in with heavy laden trays for breakfast in bed.
"What's all this?" Rory asked groggily as she struggled to free herself from the circle of Logan's arms.
"Well," her Mother said, "Partly this is an apology for getting sent to sleep here so Luke and I could talk."
"What's the other part?" Logan asked with a yawn.
"The other part is a bribe to get up and at 'em," Sookie said with a giggle, "We could really use your help setting up for the wedding tomorrow."
"So eat your breakfast, take a shower and then we expect you downstairs," Lorelai encouraged.
"Don't you have actual employees to help you with this?" Rory asked.
"Yes, but there was some tasks that were scheduled to be completed last night that didn't happen due to the small crisis at home," Lorelai explained, "Please?"
"Of course we'll help," Logan said, "Give us an hour tops and we'll come downstairs."
Lorelai and Sookie left the room leaving the couple to eat their breakfast in peace. As Rory lifted the domed lid that covered her plate of breakfast Logan located the remote and flipped to a morning news program.
"They really are trying to get on our good side," Rory squealed, "This breakfast is amazing; pecan French toast, a Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese omelet, hash browns, sausage, grapefruit juice and coffee."
"I can't eat all this or I'll burst," Logan said as he eyed his plate.
"Save me the leftovers," Rory said around a mouthful of omelet.
Forty-five minutes later, full and freshly showered, the couple found themselves meticulously laying out place cards for the rehearsal dinner later that night in one of the event dining rooms. Emily had agreed that the rehearsal dinner as well as the wedding reception could be held at the Inn but the wedding itself need to be at either the club or a church. Lorelai had them clean out the window boxes of dead leaves and fill them with red, white and silver Christmas ornaments. They helped wrap the wooden pillars of the front porch as well as several small trees in twinkling white Christmas lights. They arranged a mountain of photographs into several large elegant French memo boards that Lorelai had opted for in lieu of standard photo collages to represent the bride and groom's lives. They helped erect and decorate a podium for the guest book as well as tables for the gifts and cards to be heaped onto. It was well past noon when Luke rushed in with bags of cheeseburgers and fries for everyone. The diner was officially in Caesar's capable hands until Luke and Lorelai returned from their honeymoon. It would be closed for the day of the wedding so that all of Luke's employees could attend the wedding. Most of the loyal customers would be in attendance as well. The Inn's dining rooms were closed to the public until the day after the wedding and the only guests that had been booked for the entire weekend that the wedding fell on were wedding guests.
Little details were worked out and finished all day long until it was time to head to the church for the rehearsal; after rehearsing, dinner would be served back at the Inn. Logan offered that Luke, Lorelai, Sookie and Michel could ride with him and Rory in the Escalade. The ride over was relatively silent as they all prepared their wits to deal with Emily at the rehearsal.
At the church everything looked perfect. Emily had been in charge of preparing the church and she had not disappointed. Everything was decorated with sprays of red and white roses, strands of white twinkle lights and red, white and silver Christmas ornaments. It was the perfect winter wonderland to hold a wedding in. A few of the other wedding attendants had arrived at the church before the carload that Logan had driven and they were nervously trying to stay out of Emily's way. Emily was already in full on tyrant mode as she wandering around inspecting things and shouting at the plethora of people assisting her to fix or change certain things.
As soon as everyone had arrived the rehearsal proceeded. Emily was overly harsh and critical with anyone who made a single misstep. By the end of the third run through the ceremony Rory had started to wonder if there might be something bothering her Grandmother. When Emily finally dismissed everyone from the church to head to the Inn for dinner Rory stayed behind to talk to her Grandmother. As she approached Emily was busy packing her note-laden clipboard back into a sleek briefcase.
"Hi Grandma," Rory greeted her.
"Oh Rory, you're still here," Emily said in surprise, "Aren't you heading to the Inn?"
"Well sure, but I thought I'd talk to you for a minute first," Rory explained.
"Was there anything in particular you wanted to discuss?" Emily asked properly.
"Well, I just wanted to ask if everything was okay," Rory said carefully.
"I'm not sure what you mean," Emily said, stiffening instantly.
"Well I know that you want Mom's wedding to be completely perfect and it will be it just seems like you were being a little harsh with the people helping you decorate and the attendants in the wedding. I thought maybe there was something bothering you," Rory explained.
"You know me too well," Emily sad sadly, "This might sound silly but I'm afraid that once Lorelai gets married she won't need me anymore. I know she has been completely independent since she was 16 years old but every once in a while she'd run into a problem that she couldn't solve on her own and I knew that sometimes she'd still come to us for help. Now that she is marrying Luke she probably won't have any more problems to come to us with."
"I don't think that is silly in the slightest," Rory said, "My Mom had the same fear when Logan and I got married and moved to New York. But you know what, she's still my Mom and you are still her Mom."
"Rory you know your Mother has never needed me the way that you have always needed her," Emily cried, "I'm really losing her forever."
"I don't think that is true. My Mom needs you as much as I always needed her. The only difference is that my Mom and I were always friends as much as we were mother and daughter. I think what my Mother needs most from you and will always need is your approval. She wants to know what you are proud of her and approve of where she is and how she got there," Rory explained.
"You really think so?" Emily asked.
"Yes, I do," Rory assured her.
"You don't think she'll disappear from our lives again like when she was 16?" Emily asked.
"I think all the time we've spend with you and Grandpa the last few years has conditioned her to accept you as an important part of her life and she won't be able to cut you out again," Rory said, then added, "There is a fine line of how much of you and Grandpa she can handle but I don't think she will disappear again."
"When did you become so wise?" Emily asked with a proud smile.
"I don't know. But I am sure that partly it is due to the wise women I am related to," Rory said, "Are you ready to go to dinner?"
"Yes," Emily said.
Sookie and her staff had prepared an impressive spread. For the rehearsal dinner Luke had suggested comfort food. With that idea in mind Sookie and her staff had prepared an upscale, elegant Thanksgiving type meal. There were roast turkeys, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, fancy dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn, pumpkin pie and everything else one would expect on Thanksgiving. The food and company were excellent and the dinner seemed to go on for hours once the toasts got underway. Rory had asked specifically to be the last to give her toast and her heart skipped a little when she realized it was her turn. Standing up from the table Rory looked at the faces around her and smiled before beginning, "Tonight, the eve of my Mom's wedding to Luke, is a night that I thought might never come. It is something I have wished for since I was a little girl. There were two parts to why I wished for this; one, clearly Luke was in love with my Mother and of all people she deserved to have someone who would look at her like he did and two, it wasn't possible that there could be anyone better to become my step-father and complete our family. All those years of wishing have paid off and my wish is coming true. My amazing Mother is finally getting her happily every after. Congratulations and best wishes to both of you. I love you both." It had been so hard to not stand up and talk forever about how amazing her Mom and Luke were and how much they were meant to be and the obstacles that they'd had to overcome to get to this place, but she hoped that she'd hit the right balance. As she noticed a few people wiping away tears she thought she just might have.
Luke surprised everyone by rising from the table and saying, "Thank you all for your kind words. Despite the years, worries and fears to overcome to get to this point there is nothing that is going to stop me from marrying this woman tomorrow. I love her dearly and I'm so grateful to have her and all of you in my life."
Lorelai rose then too with tears still sparkling in her eyes and added, "Thank you all for coming here tonight and being a part of our special day tomorrow. We are so thrilled to finally be starting our lives together."
The party broke up by ten that night. People who lived near by departed for the evening and other's who did not live near by retreated to their rooms upstairs. Luke, Lorelai, Sookie, Michel, Rory, Logan, Emily and Richard and a handful of the Inn staff were busily cleaning up after the party and putting the finishing touches on the arrangements for tomorrow. When everything was settled and the last people departed for home or went up to bed Lorelai and Rory were the only two left in the kitchen.
"Are you tired?" Lorelai asked.
"A little," Rory said.
"Will you stay up with me a little longer?" Lorelai asked.
"Absolutely," Rory agreed.
Together they prepared a thermos of cocoa with extra marshmallows before bundling up and heading outside to sit on the swing on the porch. In silence they rocked and sipped their cocoa.
Finally breaking the silence Rory whispered, "Are you nervous about tomorrow?"
"No, do you think I should be?" Lorelai asked.
"No, Luke loves you and is going to take good care of you," Rory assured her.
"That's what I thought," Lorelai agreed, "Tomorrow we with both be married ladies."
"Weird," Rory said.
"I agree," Lorelai said with a smile, "But exciting too."
They were quiet for a minute before Lorelai asked, "Are we really sure that things are going to work out?"
"Yes," Rory said.
"How do you know?" Lorelai asked.
Rory smiled at her Mother before saying, "It's snowing!"
Every good thing that had ever happened in Lorelai's life had taken place directly after a snowfall. Snow was her good luck charm and she took it as a good sign that the heavens had chosen this moment to open up and sprinkle her life with its chilly magic.
Author's Note: Well, here it is, my long overdue update. And it's a long one so I hope that makes up for some of my tardiness. Life seriously is nuts and I hate to use that as an excuse, but it is the truth. I hope people enjoy the chapter. The next chapter will deal with the wedding and the following will deal with Logan and Rory's trip to Scotland. Please leave reviews I love to hear how I'm doing. I also love to hear suggestions for the story. However – please stop suggesting that Logan and Rory get pregnant. I am as excited about that story line as everyone else seems to be but I'm not ready to go there just yet and once I do it is hard to reverse without major terribleness. Let them have some more time to just be together. Thanks! Tinkerbell ;)