Author's Note: I understand that Rory and Jess are the same age in the show, but I wanted Jess to be older than her in this story. I feel it works better with the rest of the setting.
I'm too tired to write anything else. Enjoy. I'm going to sleep.
2:00 in the Newsroom
I'm a loose bolt
Of a complete machine
Capitalize, dumbass... commas are not just for flavoring... how the hell did this idiot get into Princeton?
Jess was editing stories for the next day's Princetonian. Everyone's writing was good, but the amount of simple mistakes that these fledgling reporters made annoyed Jess. His internal conflict was interrupted by a voice.
"Here it is." Rory dropped a stack of three typed pages on Jess' desk.
Jess glanced at the pages before looking up at Rory. "This was due two hours ago." His tone was clipped (those damn commas were still on his mind).
"I know," Rory began, " and I had it done two hours ago, but it didn't feel quite right."
"It was due two hours ago," Jess repeated.
"It's in now. Edit it."
Jess stood up, his editor mode fully engaged. "I know that two hours doesn't sound like much to you now," he spat venomously, "but time is money. Two hours is a lot of time. If you pilled this kind of shit at a major newspaper-- no, any newspaper, you'd be fired."
Rory looked a little scared as Jess' voice grew harsher.
"Deadlines are set for a reason." He picked up Rory's story and rolled the papers into a tube. "If you," he gestured to her with her story, "aren't satisfied with your piece, I don't really give a damn. You turn it in."
Rory was tearing up, but Jess wasn't done yet.
"I will decide if a story is good or not. Take this," Jess shoved Rory's story at her, "and get out of my sight."
Rory held the papers and stood for a second. A tear rolled down her cheek and landed on the papers. She looked at Jess, who stared coldly back at her. Then she turned and walked slowly out of the newsroom.
Jess sat back down at his desk and picked up his special red pen, intent on finishing the day's edits. However, a small hand shipped it ou tof his grasp.
Jess looked up and was met with Joanne. She was livid.
"What was that all about?" Her hazel eyes were bright with fury.
Jess could do one of two things. He could acknowledge the chewing-out he had just given Rory, or he could play dumb. He chose the latter.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Joanne poked him, hard, on his cheek with his pen. "Why were you so hard on her?"
He gritted his teeth. "Aren't we supposed to be preparing them for a real newspaper environment? The New York Times would not tolerate a missed deadline."
Joanne put on her mother hen face. "But we aren't the New York Times. And she's still new. Jess, you shouldn't take out your frustrations over Randall's total lack of punctuation skills on Rory."
"Hey!" a blonde boy yelled from across the room.
Joanne looked apologetic. "Sorry Randy." She focussed back on Jess. "This really isn't fair to Rory."
Jess felt a twist in his stomach, but ignored it. "She missed a deadline," he put simply. "That's not my problem."
Realizing that she wasn't going to get Jess to change his decision, Joanne sighed dejectedly and walked back to her desk.
Jess stared at the story in front of him, but made no move to start editing it again. He was thinking about Rory... and Joanne had neglected to give him his special red pen back.
Maybe he had been a little unfair-- snapping at her like that. And yes, it hadn't been all her fault. But her late story when they were already behind schedule had pushed him over the edge.
He'd fix it later, he decided. Right now, he had to focus on these edits.
"Jo," he spoke, "Give me back my pen!"
TWO HOURS LATER
Alicia looked as Jess edited the last story on his desk. She hadn't seen Jess' little talk with Rory, but Joanne had given her an overview.
He was tense, that was obvious. She walked up to his desk and tapped him gently on the shoulder.
"Hey," she said softly, "I was thinking that we could go out to dinner to-"
Jess cut her off. "Not tonight." His voice was weary.
Alicia was caught off guard. Jess had never turned down so much as a trip to the printers with her, let alone a date. "Oh," she mumbled, "okay." She wandered away. Jess' eyes had never left the document in front of him.
Just then, the door burst open.
"What the hell did you do?!"
Jaime's usually calm voice boomed, echoing between the valleys of the desks scattered around the newsroom.
Jess stood up. "Let's talk abou this outside." He took Jaime by the shoulder and guided him outside. A cool September breeze seemed to cool Jaime's anger.
"Now," Jess turned to face Jaime directly, "you were saying?"
"Rory is on our couch, clutching some papers to her chest, crying her eyes out. The only words I can get out of her are 'story,' 'Jess,' and 'late,'" Jaime said. "Would you care to tell me what that is about?"
Jess had his hands in his pockets and now proceeded to dig them deeper into the denim. "I may have yelled at her for missing a deadline."
Jaime's anger returned full force. "What the hell, Jess? Didn't I ask you not to-"
"Yeah, I know," Jess interrupted, "and I'm sorry. But I was having a bad day."
Jaime still looked angry, but his harsh gaze softened as he took in Jess' appearance.
He had bags under his eyes, and he was still dressed in the same clothes he had on yesterday.
Probably from an all nighter in the newsroom, Jaime assumed.
"Okay," Jaime said. "I'm going to go kick a crying girl off my couch as gently as I can. Go, get back to your work."
FIVE HOURS LATER
Jess was the only one in the newsroom. He had just gotten out of his Advanced Calculus class and was now attempting to finish the last page of the Princetonian.
There was a blank spot halfway down the page, and he had nothing to fill with with. A little voice spoke up in the back of his mind.
You have to apologize, it said. Jess tried to ignore it the best he could, but the voice was so insistent. He grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and went out into the night.
It was severaly minutes before he found his way to what he believed to be her dorm building. Knocking on the door, he prayed that he had the right room.
When Rory opened the door, Jess noticed that her eyes were puffy. At that, Jess felt a twinge of guilt. Swallowing his pride, he opened his mouth to speak.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you about your story. There's a blank spot on the issue with your name on it. I can place your story tonight."
Rory broke out into a smile. On an impulse, she stepped forward and enveloped Jess into a hug.
He was startled for a second, but eventually wrapped his arms around her slender form. She smelled so good-- like strawberries and sunflowers. Jess' nose was tickled by Rory's soft locks. He never wanted to let go.
She broke the hug.
Rory stepped back, a wave of embarrassment washing over her. She clasped her hands behind her back. "I should probably go uh... go get that story." She spun around and grabbed the papers from her desk. "Here," she handed the story to Jess. "It's saved under the common file."
"Right... Okay." Jess looked at the papers in his hand and then back up at Rory. "I'll just edit this then." He turned to walk out of the dorm room.
"Jess," Rory caught him by his jacket sleeve. He turned to stare into her captivatingly blue eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled and Jess smiled back.
Ten minutes later, Jess sat back at his desk. He put the paper in front of him and pulled out his special red pen. But after looking at the paper for only a moment, the pen's cap was back on.
Jess picked up Rory's paper and smirked.
The damn thing was perfect.
