May 28th, 2012
Rory woke slowly, stretching languorously. It was surprising that she was so calm on her wedding day. She'd gone to bed the night before more anxious about being anxious than really worrying about the wedding itself.
Sophie knocked on Rory's door and pushed it all the way open, bringing in two cups of coffee and the morning's paper. She blinked at her mother, lounging, but alert. "You're not fussing," she said bluntly, holding out the mugs.
Rory pushed herself into a sitting position, accepting both mugs as Sophie crawled in on the side usually reserved for Logan. "I am not nervous," Rory said with a smile.
"Not nervous?" Sophie inquired in surprise, taking her mug and setting it on Logan's bedside table while she divided up the paper. "On your wedding day?"
Rory grinned as she took the front page while Sophie took the arts section. "Trust me, I'm surprised."
"Did you sleep?" Sophie asked, cupping her coffee between her hands as she spread the paper before her. By her calculations, she and her mother had a good hour of good paper-reading time before anyone would be around to push Rory into the final wedding preparations.
"Surprisingly well," Rory replied as she scanned the headlines. She had to admit, the routine of the morning, with or without Logan, made her feel even better. And she very much enjoyed the time she got to spend alone with her daughter. She loved Logan, but they'd been Rory and Sophie first.
"You're not going to go over all of the plans? Call Lorelai to make sure she's going to be here on time? Check with Honour at the church?"
"If my mom is late on my wedding day I will never talk to her again, Honour has gone over the plans with me until I thought I may toss them at her and she's coming to the church with us. She may be my wedding planner, but she's decided she's my bridesmaid first." It was nice for Rory to be able to talk to Sophie almost like she would any of her girlfriends. They'd always been close and Rory knew that Sophie had been happy for Rory upon finding Logan, but for the first while, part of the small child had resented Logan's place in Rory's life. "Plus, I'm spending time with my daughter."
Sophie blushed a bright pink.
The peace was shattered forty-five minutes later when the door slammed open. "Rory! Rory Hayden where are you!"
Rory and Sophie exchanged a look and a sigh. Minutes later Honour was bounding through her bedroom door, dress bag over her arm and hair thrown into a hasty ponytail. The blond blinked.
"You're not racing around."
"My daughter, my perfectionist baby, isn't racing around on her wedding day? I thought for sure you'd be ready to go to the church by now," Lorelai said from behind Honour.
"Sophie and I were reading the paper," Rory said with a shrug. "The scariest part for me was the rehearsal dinner."
"You're not nervous Logan'll get cold feet? Or something will go wrong with the plans? Or my mother will stand up when they say whatever it is that lets someone stand up and say they don't think the people should be married?"
"Honour," Rory said with a laugh. "You sound like me."
The phone rang before Honour could reply and she settled on a pout instead. Rory smiled when she recognized Logan's cell on the caller display. "Good morning."
"Thought I'd call and check in."
The realization she was getting married in a few hours was starting to sink in and Rory could feel her excitement growing. "We're good. Honour and my mom just showed up."
"So now the craziness starts."
"I think that might be the reception. All of those formal guests plus our friends?"
"I'll tell Finn to save his crazy hat then."
Rory chuckled. "Please do."
"I'll see you in a few hours, Ace. I love you."
"I love you too."
Hours later, Rory stood, breathing deeply in the bridal suite. It was the only thing that was keeping her nerves calm and not because she was nervous about the wedding itself. Her grandmothers were starting to breathe down her neck, criticising the simplicity she'd chosen. It was starting to frustrate her and she hadn't even walked down the aisle.
"And I thought the Fallon wedding was a mess," came the happy voice of her wedding planner, the same woman they often hired to run their charity events.
Rory groaned as she dropped to the stool of the vanity. "My grandparents are insane," she agreed.
Alanna Cabot rolled her eyes. "It's not even the grandparents, Ror, it's your grandmothers. They've asked me to make all sorts of last minute changes."
Rory groaned again. "I hate them. Well, not actually, but I do. A lot. Right now."
"Breathe," Alanna coached. "This is your wedding and Honour gave strict orders to anyone not to change a single thing without her final approval or Lorelai's. I promise this will be exactly what you want."
"How much time?"
Alanna checked her watch. "Fifteen minutes."
Rory nodded. "Thanks."
"Sure thing."
Twenty minutes later, she was preparing to take her first step down the aisle, her father at her side, Sophie half of a step in front of her. She could already feel the tears gathering in her eyes, much like she had felt when she'd seen Lane and Honour all dressed in the bridesmaids dresses. Her mother looked gorgeous and she was sure that if her father wasn't the one walking her down the aisle, he'd have shoved Colin out of the way to get the honour.
"You ready, Kiddo?" Christopher asked as the first chords of the wedding march played and Sophie started her walk down the aisle.
"As I'll ever be," Rory replied, squeezing her father's arm. She could see her grandparents on one side of the aisle, beaming proudly and the Huntzbergers on the other, Shira looking resigned to her son's choice in wife.
But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was the blond man at the front, standing gorgeously in a black tuxedo, Colin at his elbow. Her eyes stayed fixed on Logan as she stepped down the church's red carpet, feeling more and more like a princess with every step. Of course, that had as much to do with the way Logan was looking at her as it was the dress she was in.
Rory barely paid attention to the service, something she was sure her grandparents would scold her on later. They would never understand that it wasn't the words that mattered, it was the people surrounding her, all of the most important people in her life and Logan, right in front of her.
She barely registered reciting her vows, ones she'd written with Sophie by her side and Finn to correct her grammar – a surprise that he'd pulled out of his back pocket at the last minute – nor did she really feel Logan sliding her wedding band to sit with her engagement ring. She did, however, hear what she felt was the part she'd been waiting for since the day he proposed.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Sophie fidgeted in her seat as Lorelai made her maid of honour speech and Colin made his best man speech. She had a present of her own to give to her parents. It wasn't anything material, for that wasn't Sophie's style. It was something different, and was as much a present to her as it would be to Rory and Logan.
Lorelai caught her eyes, her own blue ones teary with the words she'd just spoken. "And Sophie would like to say a few things to you."
Rory and Logan looked completely shocked as Sophie climbed the stairs to the stage. The little girl cleared her throat. "Um… Honour asked me, about a week ago, what I was going to get my parents for their wedding day," she began nervously. "And I had no idea. How do you get something for the pair you truly think has everything? I tried to think about what their favourite things were, about what they wanted to accomplish, about what they may like to read or do, and I still couldn't come up with anything.
"Then it hit me. Rory and Logan did an amazing thing for my birthday. Logan officially adopted me. And yet, I realized, I'd only ever sporadically called them Mom and Dad since." Sophie took a deep breath. "So, here's my present: Rory, Logan, would it be okay if I called you 'Mom' and 'Dad'?"
Logan was out of his seat pulling her off the stage before she could even put the microphone down, Rory not far behind. They hugged her tightly, Rory crying in earnest, her shoulders shaking. Even Logan had tears in his eyes.
"Sophie," he said softly, one arm around Rory while Sophie clung to his neck. "We'd be honoured."
Lorelai watched the flashes go off around them, personal and professional cameras and smiled, tears racing down her cheeks. Christopher hugged her tightly, his own eyes looking a little glassy.
"We did it, Lor," he whispered to her. "We raised and amazing daughter."
Lorelai looked up at her husband a smile on her face. "And now she's got her own amazing family."
Christopher nodded. "Our job is done."
Lorelai nodded, glancing around the gorgeously decorated room until her gaze fell on her other baby girl. She smiled wryly. "At least until Kitty grows up."
"No, no, no," Christopher protested. "Kitty won't be dating until she's forty…"
Lorelai just smiled.
Well, ladies, gentlemen and faithful readers, this marks the end of my foray into the Gilmore Girls world. I want to profusely thank the people who have not only reviewed, but have periodically PM'd me to ask me where this chapter was. It took forever to get right and then finals and other stories got in the way, but I'm trying to get all of my stories finished before I allow myself to post my next one.
I won't be writing another Gilmore Girls story for a while, at least. I do still have the plans for the NY one that people have been asking about, but I didn't like where I was writing it at the time and thus, took it down. I may put it up later on.
But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you liked Sophie's present to her parents!