Chapter 28

When Rory walked into the paper on Monday afternoon, she found the entire staff sitting with their heads together, whispering furiously.

"Alright," she put her coat down. "Lay it on me."

"Big shock, it's Paris," AJ said sarcastically.

"What did she do now?" Rory sighed.

"It's not what she's done, but what's been done to her," Bill said.

"The Howell Raines-ing is complete," Joni explained.

"She's out?" Rory asked, not exactly surprised.

"The board has spoken," Bill nodded.

"More like screamed," Sheila corrected.

"How did she take it?" Rory asked, a little afraid of the answer.

"She hasn't," Bill shook his head.

"She won't come out of her bunker. We were just trying to figure out how to get her out."

"Tear gas!" Someone cried. "How do we get tear gas?"

"Stand down, everyone," Rory frowned. "I'll tell her."

"Really?" AJ asked.

"Really. Besides, it's probably best whoever does it doesn't chuckle with glee while they tell her, Bill."

"I would not chuckle," he chuckled. "Oh my God, that was completely inadvertent."

Rory just shook her head at him and headed for the bunker. Paris waved her in as she finished up a phone call.

"This job is 24/7," Paris huffed as she hung up. "It's not enough to put out an outstanding paper, I have to coddle alumni and advertisers when they call and complain about the tiniest little mistakes! Do you want some soup?"

She wheeled her chair over to a hot plate with an open can on it.

"There's no ventilation in here," Rory frowned.

"I'm careful!" Paris snapped.

"Right, well, no thank you," Rory shook her head. "I just came in here to... I was just thinking..." She tried to find a way to start.

"Yeah?" Paris prodded.

"Five plus years? That we've known each other," she finally said. "Five-plus, that we've been friends."

"That long, huh?" Paris asked distractedly, seasoning her can.

"It seems like forever ago, Chilton, the day we met. Just a couple of rosy cheeked kids."

"My face inflamed easily back then," Paris explained. "Too many tomatoes and red peppers."

"We got off to kind of a rocky start," Rory continued. "We were competitors, but somewhere along the way we became friends- good friends, I think, because we respected each other and supported each other. Through good times, and bad."

"Did I open this can today, or yesterday?" Paris wondered aloud, obviously not listening to what Rory was saying.

"This is one of those not so good times, Paris." She tried to get her attention back.

"I know. If the hurricanes don't kill us, the bird flu will."

"I mean for you," Rory clarified. "Here, at the paper."

This seemed to grab Paris's attention.

"The board voted you out."

"Oh. I see," Paris rolled back from her hot plate. "So it's over."

"I'm sorry," Rory tried to comfort her. "I just found out. I'm so sorry."

"Well, it's not like I didn't have a clue that was a possibility," Paris reasoned.

"It has been pretty tense around here."

"So, are they all out there excitedly awaiting my perp walk?"

"Oh, who cares? Who cares about them?" Rory waved angrily towards the newsroom. "You don't perp walk. You're Paris Geller, you walk tall. You're better than all of them."

"Really?" Paris asked, obviously not believing her.

"Definitely," Rory assured her. "And this job, Paris, being editor, you don't need this- this hassle. You're gonna be a doctor."

"Surgeon," she corrected.

"And a lawyer."

"Judge."

"That's a hell of a workload. And the workload here, the indignities, smoothing the ruffled feathers of advertisers, covering sports- as if they matter- you're exhausted, stretched thin, eating soup out of a can!"

"Soup I don't even like," Paris agreed.

"See, this might not be such a bad thing."

"I have been pretty tired," Paris reasoned. "And I'll be damned if I'm gonna give those people a perp walk."

"Good," Rory smiled. "Good attitude."

"Let's get out of this spider hole and deal with this," Paris got up from her chair.

"I am with you friend!" Rory leaned over and shut off the hot plate, then followed her out to listen to Paris's rousing 'resignation' speech.

As soon as she was gone, Bill walked over to the grease board and moved her magnet over, causing the newsroom to erupt into cheers, much to Rory's chagrin.

They spent the rest of the week casting endless votes for a new editor. By Friday everyone was exhausted and agitated, and still in a total deadlock.

"This is ridiculous!" Sheila cried. "We're not getting anywhere!"

"Why don't we take a break and get some coffee, or more food?" Rory offered. "Try and clear our heads a bit."

"I'm way too wired to drink anymore coffee!" Joni shook her head. "What we need is to find someone we can actually agree on."

"We need a new name," AJ agreed.

"How about Gilmore?" Bill said suddenly.

"I like that name," Joni mused.

"I like that name," AJ echoed.

"Whoa, wait!" Rory jumped up in an attempt to stop them from adding her name. Unfortunately her refusal didn't seem to do much good, as people around the room started nodding in agreement.

"Got a statement?" Bill asked her.

"No, um..." She wrung her hands nervously. "I'm flattered. But I did miss that semester, so there's the question of seniority."

"We passed taking seniority into account twelve votes ago," Joni assured her.

"You totally bailed us out that night," Sheila reasoned.

"The paper wouldn't have gone out without you," AJ agreed.

"What's your hesitation?" Bill asked. "Is it Paris?"

"No, it's not Paris, it's just... you know what, no. I'm not hesitating," she shook her head. "I accept the nomination."

"Please tell me we don't have to vote!?" Joni begged. "She seems pretty consensus-y."

"All those in favour of Gilmore, say 'Aye'," Bill offered.

The staff let out a communal 'Aye', everyone nodding happily.

"That sounded pretty consensus-y to me. Congratulations," Bill nodded to her.

"Thank you," Rory laughed completely shocked by the sudden turn of events. "I promise I won't let you down."

Without another word, people started piling folders on her desk with articles and photos to be approved and assigned.

As exciting as her new promotion was, Rory was dreading what she would walk into when she got home- Paris had never exactly been one for rationality.

She had expected a lot of yelling about backstabbing and betrayal, and possibly the need to run and hide before Paris could kill her. She didn't expect silence.

When she walked through the front door, Paris was sitting on the couch studying, and Rory fought the urge to bolt to her room and lock the door immediately.

"Hey, Paris." She greeted her nervously.

Paris didn't look up from her work, didn't even acknowledge that she had heard her.

"Paris?" Rory asked again. "Are you okay?"

More silence.

"Look, I'm sorry. I promise you that I didn't lobby for the position or anything, I even tried to turn it down, but the board was insistent," she tried to explain. "I really am sorry."

Paris still didn't look up, she just kept on highlighting her book and making notes.

"Paris," Rory pleaded. "You're not even going to talk to me?!"

The continued silence seemed to answer her question, and Rory decided to give up for the time being. She would try and get through to her later, once she'd had time to cool off.

Dropping onto her bed, Rory pulled out her phone and called Jess to tell him the news.

"That's awesome, Ror!" He congratulated her. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks," she sighed.

"Why don't you sound as excited about this as I am?"

"Paris," Rory huffed. "I think she thinks I helped oust her so I could get the position- which I didn't!"

"Come on, Rory, nobody whose met you would ever think that," Jess argued. "You're the nicest person ever, it can be nauseating sometimes."

"How sweet of you," Rory said sarcastically. "Paris has a tendency towards rashness, though. I wouldn't have put it past her to kick me out, but this is new. The silent treatment is not her usual form of revenge- which is worrying."

"What, you think you're gonna wake up in the middle of the night and she'll be holding a knife over you?"

"I didn't until now!" Rory cried. "Thanks a lot."

"I'm nothing if not helpful," Jess laughed. "Crap, I gotta go. I'm really happy for you!"

"Thanks," Rory sighed. "Call me later?"

"Definitely. Love you!"

"Love you, too." Rory hung up the phone and started to get ready for dinner with her grandparents, packing an extra bag so she could go home with her mother afterwards and give Paris space to cool off.

Dinner was just as tense as the week before, though with notably less yelling, despite Rory's announcement that she had been made Editor in Chief. Lorelai decided to cut the evening short before dessert could be served, claiming that there was some sort of wedding emergency she needed to deal with immediately. Rory wasn't exactly sure if her grandparents actually bought the excuse, but she was willing to take it- anything to get out of that house.

"I'm starving," Lorelai cried once they got home.

"Me too. Pizzas?"

"With tater tots!" Lorelai agreed. "And turnovers."

While Lorelai prepared their second dinner, Rory got changed into her new pair of Yale sweats, then joined her mother in the living room.

"Those are new," Lorelai observed as she sat down, handing her daughter a Poptart to snack on. "Did you get some for Mommy?"

"They're on your bed," Rory nodded.

"You know who might like a Yale sweatshirt?" Lorelai asked as they channel surfed.

"They don't make them for dogs," Rory cut her off. "I already asked."

"That's okay, he's a Princeton man anyways," Lorelai shook her head. "I was talking about Christopher."

"Dad?" Rory asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah, I think he'd love it!" Lorelai nodded. "It'll make him feel all Daddy-ish."

"Okay, sure." Rory nodded. "I'll pick one up for him."

"You know what else he'd probably like?"

"The matching sweatpants?"

"Well, yes, probably," Lorelai agreed. "But I was going to suggest a tour."

"Of Yale?"

"No, of the house," her mother said sarcastically. "Yes of Yale! Take him around campus and show him the libraries and crap- make him feel included."

"Okay, I'll call him tomorrow," Rory agreed.

"Just bear in mind that if you bore him to death, he'll be a lot harder to carry around campus than I was."

"I'm not going to bore him to death," Rory scoffed.

"Well you don't exactly have the greatest track record," Lorelai shrugged.

"Shut up! I give great tours!"

"Of course you do, Honey. Just, maybe skip the boring classes. And don't make him smell all the old books, and you know, once you've seen the first lecture hall you've seen them all-"

"This is my tour!" Rory interrupted her.

"Fine," Lorelai raised her hands in surrender. "But don't come crying to me when you have to spend the day dragging your Dad's limp body across the quad."

"I won't," Rory assured her. "Why don't you go check on our dinner?"

"You know, there was a time when you appreciated my advice you ungrateful spawn," Lorelai huffed.

"And I'm sure you have very fond memories of those days," Rory conceded. "But now I have to make grown-up decisions, and you don't exactly have the best track record with those."

"Huh!" Lorelai scoffed. "Well if that's how you're gonna be, then maybe you won't get any dinner."

"I'll just go to Luke's," Rory shrugged. "He still loves me."

"That's because you haven't betrayed him yet," Lorelai explained.

"Pfft," Rory moved past her mother to get to the oven. "You're insane- and you're burning dinner."

"Because ungrateful spawn only deserve burnt dinner."

"That's your dinner too," Rory pointed out.

"Drat!" Lorelai frowned. "Luke's?"

"Luke's."

Rory turned the oven off and leaned down to pull that pan out but her mother waved her off.

"We'll just get it later. I'm hungry now."

"It's a miracle we haven't burned this house down yet," Rory mused, following her mother out the door.