Tea Parties in Boston

6 - Baby Steps

"Well I wasn't going to cut off all the ties I have to London before I knew you were even going to see me, was I?" Logan replied.

Rory paused for a moment, suddenly feeling a bang of guilt.

"I'm sorry... of course you weren't. This situation with us... it's so weird. I keep trying to think how all the things I've seen, read, or even heard from Luke would apply to us, but nothing applies to us," Rory replied, shrugging her shoulders helplessly.

Logan nodded.

"You didn't give her up because you wanted to, obviously... You did what we decided after careful consideration to be for the best. So I can't throw something like that at you. I can't blame you for your absence, I can't - I know that. But she is my baby, and I can stand the thought of her hurt," Rory replied, suddenly realizing how her automatic line of thinking to interrogate him like that had indeed been wrong.

"I don't want her to get hurt either," Logan replied, humbly. "And thank you," he replied, the fact that she'd admitted that meant more to him than he'd thought.

"So, I do think we should consider this just as carefully - the two of us," Rory said, truly believing like the two of them were able to make some pretty well thought-through decisions based on past experiences. The thought of the two of them as co-parents was still very foreign to her.

"I agree," Logan replied, feeling a sense of relief. He'd already done a lot of thinking about this, but he'd always done it with caution, not wanting to get his hopes up.

"So we have the positives - she deserves to know you, I do think that," Rory said.

"She could also get to know Honor's kids and Honor herself. I've felt horrible hiding this from her...," Logan admitted, regretfully.

Rory let out a bitter chuckle.

"What?" Logan asked.

"My mom doesn't even know," Rory replied, her look regretful and very sad at that.

Logan had always sort of assumed Lorelai knew something or at least assumed it had been him, even they hadn't spoken about it. Who else did Rory have in her life back then who came with that kind of a veil of secrecy? Logan realized how significant the fact was, however, knowing well how close the mother-daughter team were.

But there was a lot he didn't know.

"We're not talking, you know..," Rory confessed. The wound was not fresh, hence she was quite composed, saying that. "It wasn't just this but also the book I wrote, and some other things too...Basically she didn't approve my choices...," Rory felt she needed to share. It was always so easy to open up to Logan.

"I'm sorry," Logan replied, knowing that this would be very much equivalent to the loss he'd been through. "But, hey, maybe now that you could tell her - maybe things could improve?" he suggested, hopefully being quite clueless in how bad things had gotten.

"I doubt it, but... maybe," Rory said, tucking her hands between her thighs as if searching for warmth.

Logan took a sip of his tea, observing her. It was difficult to imagine what had happened. Honestly, he didn't even know there was a book out there - he hadn't heard of it at least and that made him wonder why.

"Okay, so we have two positives. You two should know each other, and that certainly counts as more than one positive I think. Being able to tell people - number three," Rory listed, needing the change in topics. "What about your dad?" she asked.

"I don't think he really cares about what I do or don't do," Logan replied. Mitchum's health wasn't great either, but as far as Logan knew Mitchum was never the one who had anything against Rory. Some small part of him still wanted to introduce his daughter to him, and do it with pride, even if he realized there was a long road to that.