All Too Well (Gilmore Girls)

Memory Lane

Later that week Logan had called Rory up at work and instructed her to drop Ava off with Honor for the night as he had a surprise for her. She had badgered him trying to get more information out of him but he wasn't going to budge – he would give nothing away and frustratingly, when she arrived at Honor's house, Honor had sworn blind that she had no idea what he had up his sleeve other than she had been told she was to have Ava for the night. This wasn't entirely true though as Honor was a master at extracting secrets from people and so she knew full well what Logan was planning for the evening. There was no way that she was about to share that with Rory though.

When Rory pulled up to the front of their house in her SUV she was surprised to find it in darkness. She was positive that Logan said he would meet her there after work but there was no sign of him as she opened the front door and she wondered if she'd got his message wrong. She pulled out her cell phone to see if he'd called but there were no missed calls or messages so Rory figured that he was probably just running late at the office for some reason – it wouldn't have been unusual for that to be the case.

She reached over to turn on the lamp on the side table as she walked into the entrance hall and then she froze on the spot. Something was different. She could definitely sense that something was going on. Rory scanned the room and over by the stairs, a bright red silk ribbon caught her eye. She could see a note affixed to it. Puzzled, she put down her bags on the floor and walked over to read what it said.

"Ace, Follow the ribbon and take a trip back down memory lane with me. Let's go back to start. PS don't overthink it, just do it! Lx"

Rory smiled at how well Logan knew her. He knew that she would be trying to work out what was going on but she decided to humor him and do as she was told. She started to follow the length of the ribbon as it trailed around their home, intrigued at what memories Logan would pull up.

She laughed as she looked at first note that was attached to the ribbon. It was a picture of the British actress Judi Dench. She remembered Logan's face on their first proper meeting when she had called him that, he had been slightly offended but it hadn't been entirely her fault. She had been irritated by Logan who she had felt had treated her friend Marty badly. What had started as a heated debate quickly turned flirty with Logan telling her to call him Master and Commander – she still did call him that from time to time, but only in the privacy of their bedroom. She shook her head when she remembered the nerve of him. He was one cocky guy that was for sure.

The next note had a scrap of pale blue material attached to it and Rory recognised it immediately as matching the dress that Logan had picked out for her to wear at the first Life and Death Brigade event she had attended. He really did have an eye for dress sizes, it had fit her perfectly. Rory had been amazed that Logan had actually invited her along to the event and she was impressed when she had discovered that it wasn't just some big drunken brawl but an actual sophisticated get-together. His words when he was trying to encourage her to climb up the scaffold tower with him had stuck in her head always. It was a huge turning point in her life and she knew that she'd be forever grateful that he had pushed her out of her comfort zone, and that he continued to do so.

"It'll be fun, it'll be a thrill. Something stupid, something bad for you. Just something different. Isn't this the point of being young? It's your choice, Ace. People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute. You climb up here with me, it's one less minute you haven't lived."

Rory giggled as she turned over the next piece of paper. It was a photo of Kate and Leo in Titanic on which Logan had written: "Would you jump again?". She knew that this was a reference to them standing at the top of the scaffolding tower together. In that moment when he had turned to her and asked her if she trusted him, she had answered his question in the best way she knew – with a cheesy movie quote. In truth, she was absolutely terrified, they were such a long way up but she wanted to prove to him that she wasn't just some sheltered little girl and for some reason, she DID trust him, even though she still didn't know him very well at that point. If he was willing to jump with her, then in return she had complete faith in him. They were in it together.