Missing Pieces

Chapter 19: Flowers Revisited

Will and Lorelai burst through Rory's front door right on time Saturday night, and he was bursting with typical three-year energy. He flew straight into Rory's arms when he saw her.

"Sissy!" he squealed as she picked him up.

"Hey there, buddy. Are you excited to play with Emma tonight?" Rory asked. Will nodded and then buried his head in Rory's shoulder shyly.

"Who that?" he asked, pointing to Finn.

"That is Finn. And you know what? He loves to play cars. Do you know anyone else who loves to play cars?"

"Me!" he answered excitedly as he squirmed out of Rory's arms and walked over to Finn hesitantly.  Finn handed Will a couple of cars and allowed Will to pull him down into the floor to play. Lorelai looked on with a smile as Finn focused on entertaining her son.

"Oh, he's good, Ror. First the father daughter dance and now playing cars with your little brother. Please tell me you're planning on keeping him," Lorelai teased.

"I have no intentions of getting rid of him. We've already grown pretty attached," Rory chuckled.

"Good.  Well, we will be back in a couple of hours. Thank you for watching him, sweets."

"No problem, Mom. You guys have fun," Rory told her mom as she shooed her out the door and walked to the kitchen to work on dinner.

Given that she had two kids to feed, she opted for an easy dinner of chicken nuggets and homemade mac and cheese. After Rory had found out that she was pregnant with Emma she had asked Sookie to help her learn how to cook, and while she would never be a chef, she could hold her own in the kitchen now.

After dinner and more play time for all four of them, Lorelai and Luke picked up a sleeping Will up and Rory tucked Emma into bed and Finn and Rory sat down on the couch for a few minutes before he left for his own house.

"I don't know how you do It, kitten," Finn said as he plopped down.

"Do what?"

"I don't know how you raise Em on your own. I never realized just how much work it is being a single mom."

"It's hard, but it's worth it," Rory mused. "Sure, I would love for my daughter to have a dad who lived here with us and did all the dad things, but Logan couldn't have been that man. My dad was an absentee father for most of my life, and I don't want that for Em. I would rather her not know that heartbreak of wondering why she wasn't a priority for him."

"I can see your point," Finn said thoughtfully. "She deserves better than Logan."

"She really does. It was hard at first, emotionally, but it didn't take long for me to realize that we're better off without him."

"You deserve better too, Rory. You deserve help," Finn said emphatically.

"I have my family, and I have you. You've been so amazing to us, Finn. And I have Jess, even though his life is kind of crazy right now and we don't get to see him very often."

"I hope you know that I'm here for you anytime, love. I love spending time with you and Emma."

" I do know that, and we love spending time with you too," Rory replied as she yawned.

"You need to get to bed. Come on, I''ll tuck you in and then let myself out."

"You drive a hard bargain, Morgan, but I can't turn down my boyfriend tucking me in," Rory said with a laugh.

Rory walked to her bedroom and grabbed her pajamas before ducking into the bathroom to get ready for bed.  When she walked in her bedroom, Finn scooted her into her bed and kissed her soundly.

"Goodnight, beautiful," he whispered.

"Goodnight, handsome," Rory whispered back as she blushed at Finn's compliment.

"Sleep tight. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Finn told her as he kissed her on the forehead, cheeks, and lips once more before turning off her light and letting himself out.

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After the chaotic weekend, Rory was relieved to get back into their normal routine of school and work on Monday. As she walked into her classroom to get settled for the day, she was surprised to see a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for her on her desk. She picked up her phone and dialed Finn's number.

"Morgan," came his voice.

"Gilmore," she parroted, and she immediately heard Finn chuckle.

"Good morning, love."

"Morning, baby. So, I walked into my classroom this morning to find that my boyfriend had sent me an arrangement of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen."

"Sounds like a thoughtful guy," Finn retorted.

"He definitely is. But he seems to have forgotten that he and my daughter brought me flowers just yesterday when they brought me breakfast in bed."

"Or perhaps he just thought that you needed to start your birthday week with flowers at home and at school," he proposed.

"He is quite considerate. Frankly, I'm pretty crazy about him," Rory whispered conspiratorially.

"Well, I hear he's pretty crazy about you too," Finn whispered back.

"Well, if you talk to him tell him thank you from me and that I''ll see him tonight," Rory said with a giggle.

"Will do, love. Have a great day," Finn replied before he disconnected the call. He was determined to make Rory's birthday week special for her.