A/N: Thanking you muchly for all the wonderful reviewage. You're reassuring me very well on the things that make me nervous, such as writing Logan correctly, and making all the characters seem like their GG selves despite the AU. I hope you continue to enjoy the fic :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4

Rory was being as quiet as possible as she made herself a cup of coffee and threw a Pop Tart into the toaster. She had managed to get up, get a shower, and get dressed all without disturbing her room-mates, but now here in the kitchen she had no choice but to make a certain amount of noise. Coffee machines did not run on silent, and the toaster was going to pop at any moment. She knew from the night before that the walls were fairly thin here, though thankfully Logan and his bed buddy seemed to have either found silent running or gone to sleep before she tried to get any shut-eye herself. There had been no theatrics since before ten p.m.

As her breakfast appeared, hot and sweet from the toaster, Rory flipped her strawberry treat onto a plate and turned to grab her coffee. Her new stiletto heels caught in a crack in the floor and she narrowly missed landing on her ass. The yelp that had escaped her didn't seem to have woken anyone and she sighed with relief as she righted herself and got on with breakfast.

The sound of the front door opening caught her off guard. Rory rushed out into the living room, wondering who had managed to get up and leave without her hearing a thing. It was even more of a surprise when she realised Logan was coming into the apartment rather than heading out.

"Hi," she greeted him, mindful of her volume since Jess was probably still in bed.

"Hey," Logan replied in a similar tone, eyes running over the whole of Rory's body as a low whistle emanated from his lips. "Wow, very business woman of the year." he said approvingly of her outfit.

Rory blushed, she couldn't help it. "Thank you," she said awkwardly, fastening the button on her jacket. "I, er... Well, it's my first day at the paper. I want to make a good impression."

"And I have no doubt you definitely will," he assured her. "I'm sorry, if I thought about you being up this early I would've brought you home coffee and doughnuts or something."

"It's fine. Um, why are you up this early?" she asked curiously. "I thought you... er, I thought you had a friend over," she said as diplomatically as possible, pointing in the general direction of Logan's room.

"Who, Carol? Oh, she left around midnight, had to get back to her dorm before anybody missed her," said Logan with a grin. "Me, I'm up before the birds at least three mornings a week. Gotta get across town for the first shift at the coffee shop. Y'know those commuters expect their espresso before they catch that early morning training."

"I've heard that." Rory nodded in understanding. "Jess mentioned you worked at a coffee shop, and a diner."

"He did? Well, we both do what we can to get by," he said, yawning into his hand right after. "I'm sorry, Rory, but I need to get back to my bed for a couple of hours. Good luck with the new job, okay?"

"Thanks," she said with a smile as he headed to his room.

Rory was just about to step back into the kitchen when she heard Logan speak again.

"And hey, I'm sorry if I came off a little hostile last night," he apologised. "It was a surprise to see you coming out of Jess' room is all."

"Like I said, he was showing me his books, that's all. No offence to your friend Carol but I'm not really the type to just dive right into a guy's bed when I just met him."

Maybe she was being just a little judgemental and unfair, but Logan didn't look mad at Rory. Actually his slightly startled expression soon grew into a wide smile, almost as if she had impressed him. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

"Have a great day, Ace Reporter," he told her with a wave, before finally disappearing into his room.

Rory shook her head, laughing a little. She really wasn't sure what to make of that guy, of either guy that she was living with, truth be told, but somehow she had a feeling she was going to be okay here.

"But right now, work," she reminded herself, getting back to the kitchen so she could finish up breakfast.

She needed to head out within the next five minutes if she was going to make it to work on time. As much as she loved the idea of being a real journalist at last, Rory was pretty sure she had never been this nervous in her whole entire life!

It was coincidence more than anything else that led Jess and Logan to the kitchen at the same time. While Jess had been out of bed for a couple of hours, earbuds in as he tried to wrangle the next chapter of his second novel into shape, Logan had crashed out for a while, catching up on sleep he would have got last night if not for the lovely Carol.

"Hey, man," said Jess, barely looking up from the pan that contained bacon and eggs. "You want breakfast?"

"It's almost eleven, so technically, that's brunch," said Logan, rubbing his eyes.

Jess smirked. "Never have quite knocked the penthouse out of you, have we?"

"And you never will. I'm headed back there, Mariano. Better get used to it."

"Whatever you say."

Moving to the refrigerator, Jess grabbed two more eggs. He had no problem making extra food and sharing with his room-mate. It was the kind of thing they did all the time.

"So, Rory," said Logan, leaning lazily in the doorway. "She seems settled in already."

"Not exactly like she needs a floor plan to find her way around here," Jess shrugged, pouring out two glasses of orange juice and handing one to his friend.

Logan nodded his thanks and took a sip. "You two are gonna be book buddies, huh?"

"Apparently. It's not like we're gonna lose you in a literary conversation," Jess pointed out as he served up breakfast (he was not calling it brunch, ever). "In fact she was talking The Fountainhead last night. You know my thoughts on Ayn Rand - she was a political nut."

"Clearly our Rory appreciates the forty page monologue," said Logan with a smile. "That's impressive, as was the way she looked in her business-like suit this morning."

"Huh."

Jess refused to say more than that. He wasn't all that surprised to hear that next to complimenting Rory's intellect, Logan was quick to follow up with a comment on her looks. It wasn't as if Jess hadn't noticed how easy on the eye their new room-mate was. Rory was in no way bad to look at. Despite the fact she claimed to eat anything and everything, her figure didn't show it, and she had the most beautiful blue eyes. Jess shook his head when he realised what he was thinking, and followed Logan through to the living room. His friend was already in the arm chair with his feet up on the coffee table, so Jess dropped down onto the couch and they both ate.

"I'm sorry if I came off kinda harsh last night, man," said Logan around a mouthful of bacon. "I know we had a deal about Rory. I wasn't trying to accuse you."

"Forget it," Jess told him, swallowing his mouthful of eggs. "But speaking of girls in the bedroom for just that reason, had last night's conquest even graduated?"

"High school? Of course," said Logan definitely, with a wicked smirk.

Jess shook his head. "You're playing with fire, man."

"Yes, because you're such a saint when it comes to women." Logan rolled his eyes. "That girl you dated last year, for what? Two months? Maybe more? Did you ever learn her last name?"

"That wasn't dating," said Jess definitely. "Shane was just..."

"A sex object?" Logan suggested.

Jess narrowed his eyes, but he couldn't deny it. Honestly, that was probably the most apt description for his 'girlfriend' of the time. He didn't care about her, and no, he didn't know her last name at all. She was just around when he was in a bad place, when getting laid on a regular basis helped with the pain, helped to silence the mess in his head that seemed impossible to escape any other way than with booze and a warm body to grab onto. It was a time he would rather not think about.

"You working at the diner later?" he asked Logan, knowing the only way out of this was a distinct subject change.

"Not 'til late," his friend confirmed, knowing better than to try to go back to their previous conversation. "I gotta go see my programming guy today."

"When are you gonna let that internet thing just lay down and die?" asked Jess with a sigh.

"I don't know, when are you gonna stop pushing your book into the face of every bookstore owner in the city?" countered Logan.

They both smiled. It was all good-natured, no malice involved. At the end of the day, they were best friends, almost brothers after everything they had gone through together. It was easy to push each other's buttons after more than five years as room-mates and buddies, but Jess and Logan rarely fought, verbally or otherwise. Neither of them wanted to start now.

When they were done eating, Logan grabbed a shower and Jess piled the dishes in the sink. He would clean them up later, for now he wanted to get back to his writing for a little while before he headed out for his shift at Wal-Mart. Since Logan was headed out almost immediately for his meeting, it gave Jess the chance to escape the confines of his room a while and set up with his laptop in the living room. The words started to flow and easily filled several pages. Unfortunately, he got so into the rhythm of his work, he stopped watching the clock. When his phone beeped on the table, he leaned over to see a text from a work buddy asking where the hell he was.

With a string of curse words escaping his lips, Jess leapt from the couch, put his computer back in his room, and got ready to leave. Seconds before he ran out of the door, he had a thought and dashed back to his room. One last task completed in thirty seconds or less, he was then out of the door and gone in a flash.

Rory arrived home from her first day of work, exhausted but happy. The paper was so full-on, which she had expected, but it was perhaps even more intense than she had anticipated on her very first day.

Unlocking the apartment door and pushing her way inside, a bag of celebratory take-out and a bottle of wine in her hands, she called out to see who was home. When no answer came, her smile slipped some.

"Jess? Logan?" she tried again, knocking on both their doors.

She had to assume that no reply, and no sounds anywhere in the whole place, meant she was alone. Trudging over to the couch, Rory put her purse, the food and wine down on the seat and then headed for her room in the silence. She had really wanted to talk through her day with the guys and celebrate the beginning of her new life with at least one of them. Apparently, that wasn't going to happen.

Deciding maybe she would call her mom instead and just crash out with the food and booze by herself, Rory went to kick her shoes off into her room when she noticed something on her bed that hadn't been there before. A bright green sticky note was attached to the front of a fairly thin book with a very dark cover. Frowning, she picked up said book and read the note aloud.

"'Rory, hope you had a good first day. Call this a 'welcome to the apartment' gift. Jess'."

Removing the sticky note, Rory read the title and author of the book, smiling widely when she realised what it said. The Subsect, by Jess Mariano. Okay, so maybe he wasn't there to celebrate with her right now, but that was okay. He was probably working, and maybe Logan was too. It was nice just knowing one of them had thought of her today and left her such a special gift.

With her cell in one hand and the book in the other, Rory went back to the couch, made herself comfortable with her food to hand and called Lorelai. They could talk over her first day and then later hopefully she could catch up with her room-mates. Rory was smiling at the thought, remembering at the last minute she was going to need a glass for her wine and dodging into the kitchen. She sighed and blew hair off her forehead when she saw all the dishes piled in the sink. Maybe living with room-mates, especially male ones, had its downsides.

"Nobody's perfect," she said to herself, just as Lorelai picked up the phone.

"Says who? Pretty sure you and I are darn close, babe."

Rory laughed, but she didn't like to deny it. Well, who would?

To Be Continued...