Flannel Pyjamas

A/N: Hey, guys. Okay, I'm making a list again.

1) Bagel Hockey. I'm going to leave it up to you guys. It can/cannot be included in the series. You can think of it either way. I may or may not write what I guess you'd call an alternative ending; only I don't know if that's the end, so…yeah. If you have a really strong opinion, PM me.

2) This takes place post Pirate Day. The gap between the two might even be somewhere around a year, maybe a little less.

3) Still without a beta at the moment.

4) May be the last fic I post for a while since I'll be going on a road trip. Hopefully you'll like it.

5) I really, really appreciate every single review I get. Please, keep 'em coming.

6) I'm Canadian. That's how we spell pyjamas, cause we're just that cool.

7) Sorry about this long A/N list.

8) Read on!!

"Rory!"

"Yeah?"

Lorelai appeared in the doorway of her room, eyes wide. "Where's the mistletoe?"

Rory looked puzzled. "I put it in the archway between the kitchen and the living room, like we always do."

"Oh, Rory," Lorelai said, disappointed. "I told you to buy extra, so that I could hang it in every doorway and embarrass Luke every time we walked in or out of a room!"

"Yes, I know, and I ignored you."

Lorelai sighed. "You're not my favourite daughter anymore."

"I'm your only daughter, Mom," Rory replied.

Lorelai grinned wickedly. "That we know of."

"Uh-huh." The doorbell rang and her eyes lit up. "That must be him!" She ran to the door and pulled it open. "Mom!" she cried delightedly. "It's snowing!"

Logan laughed. She looked radiant. "Hey, beautiful," he said, pulling her outside and into his arms.

"Hey back," she said, flashing him her pearly-whites before she kissed him.

Lorelai cleared her throat. "Gag me. Now stop being cute and get your asses in the car. We need mistletoe."

Luke, who was walking up the front step, Will in his arms, paused. "We already have mistletoe, Lor."

She smiled. "You can never have enough, hon. Now go," she said, waving Rory and Logan away.

"Mom, can I at least get my coat?"

"You'll live!"

Rory shook her head as the door close. "And that was Lorelai Gilmore in all her Christmas glory."

Logan smiled and wrapped an arm around her tightly to keep her warm as they walked over to his car. "I'm happy to see you, in all your Christmas glory. I love the shirt," he added, nodding to her candy cane-themed tank top.

"Thank you," she said with a smile as they reached his car. She hugged him again before they got in. "It's so good to see you."

Lorelai was standing in the living room, peeking at them through a tiny space in the curtains.

"What're you doing?" asked Luke.

She jumped about a foot in the air and placed a hand on her heart. She reached out with the other hand to hit him. "What are you doing? You cannot sneak up on a person like that!"

"But it's fine for you to spy on your twenty-two-year-old daughter and her boyfriend?"

"Fiancé," Lorelai corrected painfully. "She has a ring, now. It's…" she shrugged and shook her head. "It's more serious. He wants to marry her."

"And she wants to marry him," Luke reminded her.

"Mm." Lorelai bit her lower lip apprehensively.

"Lorelai, come on."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "She's too young, Luke. She's twenty-two. She's a baby."

"She's in her twenties."

"But she's not ready. She's my daughter, Luke, I know her. She's too young for this."

"Then why didn't you say no when he asked you for his permission?"

She rolled her eyes. "You can't say no. It's just a formality. I had to say yes!"

He frowned at her convoluted logic. "Lorelai-"

She shook her head again. "I mean, look at us. We weren't twenty-two when we got married."

"That doesn't mean that people don't get married at twenty-two. They love each other."

"Really, truly? How do they know that? What if it's just puppy love? Really strong infatuation? I mean, this. You and me. This was like, ten years in the making. They should have ten years."

"We wasted those ten years," he told her gently. "We could have had those ten years together, but I was…and you were…"

Lorelai blinked back tears. "I'm scared for her."

Luke sighed. "Don't be. She'll be scared for herself- if she needs to be."

"Luke. It's Rory."

"What does that mean?"

"It means…" she shrugged sadly. "It's Rory."

Rory and Logan ran from the car into Doose's market. They burst into the store, holding hands and laughing.

"Mistletoe, mistletoe…" Rory muttered breathlessly. She squeezed Logan's hand. His presence was distracting her. Her head was spinning and she couldn't think straight.

"Ace?"

She started. "Um, yeah?"

"You okay there?" he asked, exuding cockiness.

"What're you smiling about?" she demanded, but her voice was soft and breathy.

He was smiling because he could tell. Her flushed cheeks, super-bright eyes…she was thinking about him. He decided to test it out, and kissed her. He was pleased when she whimpered slightly at the contact. Oh yeah, she was thinking about him.

"Jeez, Rory, the From Here to Eternity moments never end for you at Doose's. Is this some sort of crazy fantasy of yours?" a voice asked, gruff but teasing.

She whirled around. "Jess!" Maybe it was the Christmas spirit, or the happiness Logan's arrival had brought her, or, most likely, that she knew he'd grown up now and she was so proud of him- but she was happy to see him. She leaned forward to kiss his cheek quickly, placing a calming hand on her fiancé's chest. "It's so good to see you. I'm sure the two of you remember each other," she commented wryly.

They nodded to each other and shook hands, both of them much less defensive than they had been at their first meeting.

Jess was amazed that Rory could still manage to talk; her eyes were so bright and starry that it was almost blinding. But the Gilmore genes must have prevailed, because she said, tucking her right hand back into Logan's, "Are you coming over for dinner?"

He smiled back slightly- who could not, with that face looking at them? "I'm going to Liz and T.J.'s."

"Oh, good, Jess that's good." There was a way she said it that made it sound unquestionable.

"Yeah, it is. I'm just picking up a can of cranberries, Liz messed hers up." Logan handed them to him and he said, "Thanks."

"See you around, Jess."

He took her left hand in his and gave it a quick squeeze, looking down at her diamond ring pointedly. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Merry Christmas," Logan added, and she smiled up at him gratefully.

Jess just nodded back, his eyes conveying many things, the two most prominent being: 'it's all in the past', and 'you break her, I break you'.

When he disappeared from sight, Rory kissed Logan again, her hands slipped into his hair as she pushed him back against the shelves, matching her hips to his.

"Ace?" he asked when they came up for air.

"Yeah?" she asked innocently.

"I'm sorry, but aren't you this town's virginal princess or something? Maybe we shouldn't be doing this here if I don't want to get murdered?"

Rory looked thoughtful. "You know, I'm pretty sure Mom has somehow managed to tell everyone that I'm not exactly virginal anymore. Well, except for Kirk. He wouldn't be able to take it, poor guy."

"Oh, so this is okay?" Logan asked devilishly.

In response she kissed him again, and a can of cranberries fell to the floor. Rory shivered as Logan's cold hands found their way under her shirt and onto her back.

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke them apart.

"Excuse me, young lady-"

Rory nodded to herself. "Taylor. I forgot about Taylor."

"Well, that's a nice thing to say. You forgot about me."

Rory took a big step back from Logan and put her fingers to her lips. "Sorry, Taylor, I didn't mean it that way."

"Rory, I would appreciate it if you would not come into my establishment, the place where I do business-"

She was in too good a mood. She couldn't help herself. "What kind of business, Taylor?"

He held out a finger. "You are your mother's daughter."

She curtsied, giggling. "Thank you. Now, will you tell me where the mistletoe is?" she added with the Rory Gilmore pout. She'd perfected it in her twenty-two years of life and there was not a single person in Stars Hollow who was resilient.

So, of course, Taylor gave in and pointed her in the right direction. "We have an excellent sale on!" he called after them.

She studied the mistletoe critically, unable to keep from smiling.

"I must say, Ace," Logan commented, wrapping an arm around her waist. "You have everyone in this town wrapped around your finger."

"Yes, well, they think I'm demure," she laughed. "Well, no, that's my grandparents. Everyone here just thinks I'm cute."

She gathered some mistletoe in her arms and held a little bit above their heads, leaning in to kiss him.

"You're…gorgeous…today," he said, unable to understand her joy.

She sighed happily. "It's just that everything's working out for me. I'm where I always wanted to be when I was twenty-two. I mean, grad from Yale, and a great job…and I just feel so…" she smiled up at him, one of those smiles that made his heart ache because of how much he loved her. "I feel so right with you."

He slipped his fingers under her shirt again to touch her skin. "I feel right with you, too," he said softly. His voice was more vulnerable than it normally was, and she touched his jaw tenderly before pressing her lips to the spot she'd just touched.

"Come on," she said softly, pulling him after her by the elbow. "Let's pay and go. I have somewhere I want to take you."

"Slow down," he said laughingly as she yanked him over to the cash register.

She turned to him and looked right into his eyes. "Slow down you die, Huntzberger." She held his gaze with her serious eyes for a moment before turning to Taylor and handing him a twenty dollar bill. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Doose," she said, and in that second she was an eight-year-old again, dressed in a white dress with wings on her back, playing an angel in Miss Patty's seasonal ballet.

Logan marvelled at how easily she fit back into this personality. She'd grown up in that town, and it was obvious by the way people treated her. They all said her name with affection and tenderness. They all knew things about her that one's family would know. They were her family in an odd way. And when he saw her like this, so completely in her element, he understood her abilities to love and forgive him.

"Ace," he called, tugging on her arm as she pulled him out into the snow.

"Rory! Hey, popcorn," called the woman he'd been introduced to once before. She was the chef at the inn, but he couldn't remember her name…

"Hey Sookie!" Rory replied, yelling to be heard over the gusting winds.

"There's going to be a blizzard, sweetie, get yourself inside soon! Nice to see you, Logan!" she waved and slipped into her car before driving off.

"What?" Rory asked, turning back to him.

"Ace, you heard her. It's insane out here. And you're wearing a tank top."

She shook her head playfully, frustrated with him. "Snow can't hurt you."

"I think that theory's been disproved a few dozen times."

"Shhh!" she threw over her shoulder as she pulled him toward the town square. He could hardly see anything, and the winds were harsh and cold.

When they stopped, he realized that they were in a small gazebo. It didn't have walls, so it wasn't exactly providing them shelter. He pulled her to him, his protectiveness for her kicking in. "Ace, you're losing it."

She slipped her cold hands under his jacket to hug her. The wind changed direction and the snow was coming straight at them, but she didn't falter. "This is how I want to get married."

He looked around at the mess of white. "Like this?" he asked incredulously.

"It's beautiful," she breathed, still smiling ear to ear even though she was starting to shiver.

He understood, suddenly. Just like he'd held out his hand to her on top of that scaffold, she was holding her hand out to him. Come into my life, she was saying. Try this, please. It doesn't just have to be my life. It can be ours.

Logan looked up again. Luke's Diner had windows decorated with soft, white lights, and that was the only thing he could see through the storm. But it was beautiful, in a different way. That was what she was, what her town was, and she wanted him to have that, too. He nodded down at her shaking body. "We'll do it like this."

She broke out into an even bigger smile and kissed him, but her lips were trembling. "We've got to get you warm."

The next morning, he woke up early, at five in the morning. He knew that even Luke, thanks to Lorelai's crazy decorating spree the night before, would not be up that early. He kissed Rory's cheek and she murmured something unintelligible. She was cuddled into flannel pyjamas and wrapped in a couple fleece blankets. She'd started sniffling practically the moment they'd walked through the door. Lorelai had looked at Rory in admiration, but Luke had immediately gone into Dad-mode, which left Lorelai to look on, holding back tears at how sweet he was being.

Logan moved the bottle of water on the nightstand so that it was within Rory's reach and set the tissues down by her as well, in case she needed to blow her nose. He gave her an Eskimo kiss, rubbing his nose gently against her red one, and she smiled in her sleep.

He'd been wrong. When he wandered into the living room, Lorelai was sitting on the couch, also wearing flannel reindeer-patterned pyjamas, nursing a cup of coffee.

"Uh, hey," he said hesitantly.

She snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh, hey," she said with a small smile. "Come sit. Do you want some coffee?"

"No, thanks. I'm okay."

She nodded and stared straight ahead again.

"Is everything okay, Lorelai?"

She turned to him and seemed to scrutinize him. "I'm just a little worried, actually. About you guys getting married. You're so young."

"Is that really the best you can come up with?" he asked kindly.

"What?" she snapped.

"You don't want me to marry Rory because you think I'm no good for her. I'm just this rich kid with a trust fund waiting to take over daddy's company, and you don't want me to take your baby girl and whisk her away to the life you worked so hard to keep her from."

She stared at him. "Did Rory tell you that?" she whispered.

"I may have secured a place at the head of the Huntzberger Group without any work, but I'm not stupid."

"I know. I'm sorry. I don't want to…fight this so much. She really likes you."

"She loves me," he corrected gently. "And I love her, too. I'm not going to hurt her."

"She is not a trophy wife," she said threateningly.

"Rory? Hell no," he agreed. "Actually, I think I'm her trophy husband. I mean, really. Out of the two of us. Who's prettier?"

She chuckled reluctantly. "Well, you do spend more time on your hair."

He opened his mouth to retort but just shrugged. "Fair enough."

She turned to face him fully. "That is my daughter. My baby. My best friend. I worked so hard to raise her the best way I could."

"And you did a really good job."

She nodded. "Rory's…not always good at…letting people know how she feels. She…she gets a little oblivious sometimes. She's just so innocent."

"I know."

"And even after I introduced her to my insane, incommunicative parents, she was innocent. Even after she went through the hell that was Chilton, she was so innocent. Even after she had sex, she stayed that innocent." She looked into his eyes. "Rory is always going to have some of that innocence. I don't want anything to happen to ruin it. She may be oblivious sometimes, but she's happy, and she's my daughter, and I love her."

"I understand."

She nodded affirmatively and faced the wall again. "So where're you getting married? Or has Shira not chosen yet?"

"Actually, we're going to get married in the gazebo."

"In the snow," Rory added from the doorway.

"Hey, sweets, how're you feeling?" Lorelai asked.

Rory waved away her words. "The nose makes it look worse than it actually is."

"Yeah, you and Rudolph could be related. Hey, that'd be so cool, to have a reindeer child. Do you think he'd give me free rides to go see Santa? If your mommy was having an affair with the Claus-man, I bet you could get whatever you wanted for Christmas."

"Uh-huh," Rory muttered sleepily.

"Come over here and sit, honey," Lorelai told her, holding out a blanket.

Rory shook her head stubbornly and looked at Logan. She pointed to the archway above her. "Mistletoe."

Logan smirked and pointed above the couch. "Mistletoe."

Rory smiled softly and walked over, leaning down to give him a chaste kiss before settling across the couch, her feet in Lorelai's lap and her head on Logan's. Lorelai nudged her feet. "Say it."

"Your decorating ideas beat mine," Rory said through a yawn.

"Yes!" Lorelai cheered softly. She watched as Rory quickly drifted back to sleep, curled up between them. As her breathing evened out, Logan spoke up.

"A reindeer child?"

"Shut up." There was a pause, and then she said, "Rory totally talked you into the gazebo thing."

"She did not."

There was another pause, and then Lorelai whispered, "You are sooo whipped."

"Shut up."

They sat there in peaceful silence after that, having come, once and for all, to a truce.

Rory stirred. "Coffee," she murmured.

Logan bent down to kiss her temple. "I'll go."

As he left, he heard Lorelai stage whisper, "Nice, babe. Very nice."

A/N: I love reviews.