--
Logan left the Observer for a lunch meeting before heading back to the Times. From there, he headed out to another meeting. When he was finally done, he noticed how close to Columbia he was, and wanting to have time to clear his brain before confronting Rory, he called Colin to meet up for a drink. They didn't talk about the fight, but Logan used the time they were out to relax after a long day and finally think about what had happened between him and Rory.
Logan got home at 6:30 and found their apartment empty. He knew Rory had been working late lately, but he thought that she would have come home so they could talk about their fight. Figuring that she was still at work, he went to their room to change, but before he could, he was surprised by the sight of the shirt Rory wore to work in the hamper. Thinking that he missed seeing her, he walked back to check the study but didn't find her or any sign of where she went. He knew that she was mad, but the fact that he couldn't find her after she had clearly come home was making him worry.
He called her cell phone but there was no answer. He hung up and decided to check the first place he thought she would run, or at least call, Lorelai. After a brief conversation that only served to worry Lorelai, he found out that mother and daughter had not spoken all day. After that, he tried Steph who hadn't talked to her either, then Rory's phone again that went straight to voice mail this time, letting him know it had been turned off.
Eventually, he found Bri's number and called her, but she wasn't answering either. He started to wonder if the two had gone out after work. He went to finally change out of his work clothes, and then not sure what else he could do besides wait, tried to watch TV. He was flipping through the channels, telling himself that she was just out with Bri, but couldn't sit still and before he knew it was up pacing around the room and calling her phone every few minutes.
When his phone rang, he answered almost instantly, "Ace?"
"Sorry Mate," Finn's voice replied.
"Finn, I can't talk right now, I don't know where Rory is."
"I do," Finn said.
That got his attention, "Where, with Bri?"
"No, on my couch."
"I'll be right…"
"No!" Finn shouted, then lowered his voice, "You can't come over yet."
"What? Why not? I need to talk to her."
"I know, but I promised her I wouldn't tell you where she was. I had to wait until I could escape to my room before I could call you."
"So why exactly did you call?"
"To tell you where she was."
"Why didn't you call me sooner?" Logan asked, instantly calmer now that he knew where she was, but still edgy from their unresolved fight.
"I was talking to her, she looked upset."
"Yeah, well, we had a fight," Logan snapped.
"I know," Finn informed him, not wanting to make matters worse.
"Why is she there? Shouldn't she be talking to me about this?" Logan asked, frustrated with not having this resolved.
"She said she got home and you weren't there, and she didn't want to be sitting there waiting when you did."
"She ran away and didn't get any further than across the hall? I made it all the way to Colin's when I ran away. I was eight," Logan rambled.
"I don't think criticizing her ability to run away is really the approach you should take," Finn suggested and added, "Besides, if I were you, I'd be hoping any kids I had would take after her on this one."
"I'm just saying I think she could have at least made it to Steph's," Logan replied seriously.
"Logan, focus!" Finn snapped.
The irony of being told to focus by Finn wasn't lost on him, but he knew he needed to figure this out, "So why didn't she want to be home? Is she that mad?"
"Not as far as I can tell. She said something about not wanting you to think it's all okay," Finn tried.
"What?"
"I think it's girl logic, but I swear, it made sense when Bri said it."
"Bri?"
"Well, I tried to listen to Rory, but she wasn't making any bloody sense," Finn whined.
"So you called Bri."
"Yes, she told me that she knew you two got into a fight today at work, but Rory wouldn't talk about it."
"Really?" Logan asked surprised, usually Rory talked to her friends when she had a lot on her mind.
"Yeah, and for some reason, she decided to talk to me. I didn't know what to do, so I called Bri. She said I should just listen to her, but not to say much unless she calmed down."
"And did she?" Logan asked, hoping the answer was yes.
"No. A few times I thought she was almost there, but then she'd randomly start yelling or crying," Finn explained, still baffled by the normally logical girl being so irrational, "Is she PMSing?"
"Her period shouldn't be for a few more days," Logan replied without thinking.
"Do I need to remind you that the work pre in there," Finn exclaimed, "that explains so much."
Logan rolled his eyes, even though Finn couldn't see him, and returned to the bigger issue, "Is she still mad at me?"
"You should be talking to her," Finn said, uncomfortable with becoming the middle man in this.
"I want to, but you said not to come over. I don't want to start fighting again."
"Just, come and knock on the door, and ask me if I've seen her."
"This is why you were never in charge of covert plans in the Life and Death Brigade," Logan informed him seriously. The plan was lame, but he really wanted to talk to Rory.
"Do you have a better idea?"
"No," Logan admitted, "I'll be there in a few minutes. Go back out there so you're with her when I knock."
"Fine," Finn agreed, but didn't think it would make a difference.
"Thanks for calling me Finn."
--
Logan impatiently waited five minutes until he found himself knocking on Finn's door. It took a moment for Finn to answer and say loudly, "Logan, what are you doing here?"
"Looking for Rory, have you seen her?" Logan asked, knowing his voice betrayed the fact that he was aware of the answer.
"Umm," Finn said, he hadn't thought about what he would say when Logan asked.
The boys were saved from trying to figure it out when Rory walked up behind Finn and accused, "You called him!"
Finn turned to her and gave his best sympathetic look, "I knew he'd be worried about you."
Rory turned to look at Logan, who said, "I saw your work clothes so I knew you weren't still at the paper. I was worried. I called your office, your cell, Lorelai, Steph, Bri. I was pacing the apartment when Finn called."
"I'm sorry," Rory sighed, she hadn't meant to make him worry, just didn't want to sit around waiting.
Logan looked at her and knew they had a lot to talk about, "Can we talk at home?"
"Sure," Rory said, then turned to Finn and gave him a hug, "Thanks Finn."
"Anytime, Love," Finn promised her, kissing her cheek as he pulled back.
The couple walked silently across the hall and to the couch. Once they both were seated, Rory was the one to break the silence, "I'm sorry Logan. I really am."
Logan sighed, he knew they both got carried away, but he'd been thinking about what happened all day and still couldn't figure it out.
"What happened today? I mean I know we need to talk about some stuff, but all the yelling, that's not like us," Logan asked. Out of everything that had happened, the yelling was what bothered him the most about their fight.
Rory looked at him, "Besides being upset about what you talked to Mike about?"
"Yeah," Logan said, knowing that they needed to talk about the work situation as well, but for now, he wanted to stay focused on the actual fight.
"I don't know. I mean, I've been so stressed out, and I was mad that you went and talked to Mike. People overheard you, and they were gossiping about it…about you coming to defend me, wondering if you'd been helping me do my work and that's why I got so overloaded when you went out of town…"
"That's ridiculous!" Logan interjected.
Rory laughed for the first time since their fight, "I know, but my point is, hearing them speculate just made me more stressed. Then, you have me stay after and spring on me that I have another workshop to prepare for."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
Rory heard what he said, but just continued talking, "It just all added up until it was too much. You were there, and I was ready to blow…You teased me like you always do, but instead of teasing back, I just lost it."
"I wouldn't have said that if I knew how stressed you were," Logan said, "Do you feel better now?"
"Yeah," she admitted, "And at the same time, I feel worse."
"Oh."
"I'm so sorry, I was being so selfish. All I was thinking about was how people saw me, and what they were saying about me. I didn't think about what it's like for you. I know how much you hate it, I do, and it's like I completely forgot. How could I do that?" she asked herself, now on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry for leaving like I did," Logan replied honestly.
"Do-don't b-be. I-I wa-was s-screa-screaming at you, and I-I'm so s-sorry for that…I am. I fe-felt-t horrible all day. I-I'm s-so sorry," she pleaded, tears now streaming down her face.
"I know," Logan assured her, trying to calm her down. Pulling her into a hug, he softly murmured, "Shhh Baby."
"How can you forgive me? I yelled at you!" Rory managed to get out through her sobs that were slowly subsiding. Not giving him a chance to respond, Rory managed to leave Logan's arms and started to work herself up again, "I'm so mad at myself for yelling at you like that. There was all of this crap, and none of it was your fault, but I was yelling at you. I felt horrible: I worked non-stop all day because it was the only thing I could do that kept my mind off how I treated you."
"Sometimes, people just need to yell," he tried to reason.
"But it was-s-sn't your fau-ault," Rory stammered. How sweet he was being even after everything she said had the tears once again pouring out of her eyes, "Y-You do-don't know ho-how sorry I-I am, I ju-just want to g-go bac-back and ma-make it not hap-happen, but I can't. Just, pl-please, let m-me make it up to you. Tell-ll me what to do, and I'll make i-it up to you, ple-please I just want to…"
Knowing she was racked with guilt, Logan cut her off midsentence by wrapping her in another hug. As he held her close, he said, "Rory, it's okay, shhh…it's fine."
"You were so mad," Rory remembered, still crying.
"We both got caught up in the fight. We can't change that, but look, we're here, and we're talking. We both feel bad and wish we hadn't fought. I'm not mad anymore Rory, promise. Now, we just need to get you to stop beating yourself up," he reassured and kissed head, trying to lighten the mood a little.
It seemed like they were enveloped by silence for a long time, but in reality, it was no more than a minute, when Rory said, "I know you would talk to any editor who was doing that."
"I would," Logan affirmed.
"Thank you."
"You don't have to thank me, he was abusing the power of his position, and it needed to stop, but you're welcome."
"Logan," Rory said more timidly than she had been to this point, "we have to figure out how this will work."
"I know," he agreed, "but I have to do my job as well."
"I know," she assured him, then added, "I do, you need to handle the situation the same no matter who the employee is, and logically I'm sure other people know it too"
"But?" Logan prompted.
"I'm not just any employee. When you come in like that, yelling at my boss because of how I'm being treated, all anyone sees is you protecting your fiancée."
"You being my fiancée didn't affect how he was reprimanded, or what I said, or even the meeting I had with Charles…" Logan listed.
Sensing the hesitation in his voice, Rory prodded, "But?"
Looking at her, he confessed, "But I'd be lying if I said it wasn't why I spoke to him in the tone I did, or why I was so angry when I confronted him, or even why it was taking all my self-control not to get revenge."
"Logan," Rory warned, that was not what she had wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry, but I was furious for how he was treating you. I love you, I want to protect you and that includes protecting you from your boss. But I promise, it didn't change what I said, just the passion with which I said it."
"Are you sure?"
"Would it make you feel better if I told you that I presented the information to Charles, but all decisions on how to handle Mike were his?"
"Were they?" Rory asked, avoiding the answer.
"I brought up putting a timeframe on his probation, he picked one month. I also brought up not allowing him to weasel his way out of staying late this week by reassigning work, but Charles agreed."
"Okay, then, yes, that does make me feel better."
"It's true," Logan promised her.
"I'm just not used to this. I mean I worked hard to get into Chilton and then Yale. I worked hard at both schools, people saw how hard I worked, and that was it. I was a nobody, people didn't care what I did, and now people are paying attention and talking about me…and I know they might do the same for you, but…" she was rambling, but cut herself off before she could finish the last thought.
Logan raised an eyebrow and filled in, "But, I've been dealing with it my whole life?"
"Yeah," Rory admitted, "It's just not something I'm used to, it'll take some time before I am."
"You never get used to it," Logan informed her and, seeing her scared face, added, "You may learn to tune it out or learn not to care, but you won't get used to it."
"That doesn't make me feel better," Rory whined in a playful way.
Logan laughed, but turned serious again, "I am sorry if what I did made things worse for you. That's not what I wanted to do, I was just so focused on talking to Mike that I didn't think about how it would look."
"Logan, don't apologize, you were doing your job," Rory said sincerely, but then the couple fell into a silence.
"This doesn't solve anything," Logan sighed.
"I don't want to affect how you do your job, and you don't want cause me problems," Rory surmised.
"Well first, I can try to keep my cool better, yelling loud enough for people to hear our conversation isn't going to help."
"That would help," Rory agreed.
"I also think I should establish a policy that all disciplinary meetings I have, no matter who, will be in their boss's office from now on. That should keep other employees from overhearing, and in Mike's case, will be on another floor entirely so no one can overhear."
"I promise not to let what they say get to me, well as much as I can," Rory offered, not sure what else she could do, and wasn't sure how well she would even do this.
"Can you also promise to inform someone if you're being treated like that again? Remember that you're an employee?" Logan asked.
"I can do that," Rory agreed.
Rory leaned over to kiss Logan and said, "I love you so much, and I'm so sorry."
"I love me too," Logan replied.
"Logan!" Rory yelled, but was laughing as well.
"I love you too, and I'm sorry," Logan replied kissing her again and deepening it.
Still feeling bad for how much she yelled and remembering her earlier promise of making it up to him, she broke the kiss and repeated, "I meant what I said earlier, just tell me what to do to make it up to you, and I'll do it."
"You don't need to do anything," Logan assured her.
"But it would make me feel better. Anything, something, I just want to make it up to you," Rory pleaded, she felt so guilty for what had happened.
"Ace, it's fine," Logan said, kissing her again. As it deepened, Rory straddled his lap and let her hands play with his hair.
They were still kissing when Rory remembered the infamous list he wrote at her birthday. She pulled away, causing him to let out a frustrated groan, and innocently asked, "Not even something from that list you made?"
"Don't tempt me," Logan said seriously, his body already reacting to the possibilities.
"Come on Logan, please," Rory begged, with a playful pout. Logan decided to humor her, not really sure if she was being serious or not, but scoped her up and carried her to their room, dropping her unceremoniously on the bed.
Without a word, he went to his dresser to retrieve the list, and as he did, he thought about what he should say. He was pretty sure she had been suggesting something sexual, but wasn't sure how serious she was about doing it and definitely didn't want to make her feel like she had to now.
As he walked back to the bed, he decided to tease her with some of the more tame things on the list, "So what's it going to be? Watch an entire hockey game or learn to drive a manual transmission?"
"Why are those on the list?"Rory asked shocked, forgetting everything else, she didn't expect something like that to be on there.
"This list is about getting you to do things you wouldn't do on your own," Logan reminded her as he sat down on the bed as well.
"And here, I thought everything on the list would be categorized as sexual or hazardous to my health."
"How little faith you have in me," Logan mocked, "I do not discriminate based on the potential amount of sexual enjoyment."
Rolling her eyes, Rory said, "Well, those are boring. What else?"
"Swim with sharks?" he said, going to the other extreme.
"We're in New York," Rory said frustrated, "Come on be serious."
"What do you want me to say? We're sitting here reading a list."
"I just want to something to make it up to you, I feel guilty."
"Isn't that what we were doing before you interrupted?" Logan asked, as he pulled her closer and she climbed back into his lap.
"But we have sex all the time, I want it to be something different," Rory explained. She let her hands play with the hem of his shirt and hint, "You know were got some things at the shower…"
Logan's mind started thinking and there was only purely sex related gift he could remember. A bit surprised she was hinting at that, he asked, "You'd actually try that?"
"Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's about trust. I trust you, I want you to know how much," she explained remembering what he had said about it.
"I'm just surprised to hear you suggest it, you seemed so against it before."
"I told you I was going to make it up to you," Rory started then, hoping she hadn't misread his interest, added, "and you seemed to like the idea…"
"If you're sure," Logan said, one more time, but now getting excited. When he saw Rory nod, he quickly moved into the closet, returning a moment later, setting what he had retrieved just out of her view.
Logan leaned in for a forceful kiss and anchored his hands on her hips as they became more intense exploring each other's mouth. He skillfully used his tongue and teeth to tease, soothe, suck, and nibble to get Rory worked up. Soon, he felt her start to rock her hips, searching for the contact she wanted. Tightening his grip on her hips he stilled them, but continued his torment.
Rory's hands moved to take off his shirt, and soon, he was doing the same. He was still kissing her when he moved to release the hooks of her bra, letting it fall to the ground. When it did, he surprised her by pulling quickly from their kiss.
She groaned in frustration, but felt him push her back onto the bed just as quickly. She gasped in a pleasurable shock to feel him suddenly bring his mouth to her nipple and begin toying with it much like he had been her lips. Rory couldn't believe how good this was feeling, and unconsciously, her hands started to go to his head to increase the contact.
Logan felt her hands start to move and before she could grab his head, caught her wrists and brought them above her head. Logan looked over her body then picked up the metal handcuffs from the bed. As he closed them on her wrists, he kissed her lips one more time and said, "If you want to stop, tell me."
Rory was surprised that she wasn't more nervous, so smiled and answered simply, "I trust you."
She almost regretted her words when she saw the mischievous grin on Logan's face, but stayed silent and watched as he kissed and licked down her body stopping at her chest and resuming his previous actions. Logan took note of how she was reacting, and after ample attention, he switched to her other breast.
By the time he was done, Rory was sure she was losing her mind, especially when she felt him moving his mouth over her skin, making his way back to her mouth. As he kissed her, she was trying to roll her hips again, but Logan still had a firm hold and kept her still.
He continued to kiss her then pulled her hips lightly indicating she should lift them, allowing him to remove her pants. He discarded them, crawled back up the bed, and kissed her neck then lips, while he propped himself up above her.
He let his fingers play with the elastic on her panties, then trail slowly up her body as he said, "You're so sexy."
Rory gave a blushing smile, causing him to kiss her before starting his slow descent. Once he reached his destination, he settled himself between her legs, letting his fingers tease her opening through the fabric. As he continued his ministrations, he couldn't help but grin as he heard her breathing increase.
Logan kissed the inside of her thigh, running his tongue lightly over her skin, then did the same to her hip and finally stomach. When he reached that destination, he finally moved his hands to remove her panties. Once they were discarded, he turned his attention to her newly exposed flesh.
He was touching her as softly as possible, first with his fingers then with his tongue. When he finally let his tongue pass over her nub, she moaned, "Looooggggaaaan."
"Yes?" he asked innocently.
"Please," she practically begged.
Hearing her so aroused and frustrated made Logan grin, but he hid it well, as he lowered his tongue back to its previous actions. He had barely resumed what he was doing when he was caught off guard by Rory moving her legs in an attempt to force him to give her more. Before she could get them around his head, he sat back causing her to let out a sound of frustration.
Logan shook his head at her, and this time, he made sure to place his hands on her legs to keep them on the bed before resuming his actions. He let his tongue run over her slit before focusing on her nub. He increased the pressure slightly as he circled it, he knew it was not what she wanted, but continued to give his affections.
Rory felt like her body was on fire. She was so turned on yet yearning for more. After a few minutes, she felt him stop causing her to lift her head and see he was only a few inches away. She continued to watch him, and when she saw him move back in, she lifted her hips desperate to get the contact she desired.
Seeing what she tried, Logan pulled back again and let out a small laugh and moved off the bed.
"Where are you going?" Rory asked in a desperate voice.
"Don't worry Ace, I'll be right back," he said and disappeared into the closet, leaving Rory flushed and sprawled on the bed.
When he reappeared, he was twirling a piece of black cloth, Rory warned, "Logan what is that?"
"You know what it is," Logan promised her.
"Why do you have a blindfold?"
"It said handcuffs AND a blindfold," he reminded her.
"I know, but…" Rory started, a bit more uncomfortable at the prospect of adding this to their situation.
"I just want you to relax and enjoy yourself," Logan said in a quiet, smooth voice, "That can't happen when you keep doing things."
"Because you keep teasing me," Rory groaned, her frustration showing through.
Logan looked up at her, giving her a challenging look, and purposely toying with the blindfold.
"Fine," Rory said in defeat, she would have agreed to almost anything by this point.
Logan reached up to tie the infamous blindfold into place. Once it was secure, he sat back, looking her over, trying to decide what to do to surprise her. After a moment of consideration, he decided to go for the simple, and bent down to kiss her.
He could tell she was caught off guard and waited a second for her to grasp the situation, then deepened the kiss quickly. As he enjoyed her mouth, he let his hands wander over her body, paying special attention to her breasts. When she let out a deep moan, he slowly ended the kiss and began to move back down her body.
He knew her body had been teased to its breaking point before he added the blindfold and was sure she would quickly be back to that point. He was laving her nipples when he surprised her by thrusting two fingers into her quickly. He felt her hips lift in response before he moved his free hand to still them.
Logan kept his fingers pumping her at a steady tempo while his mouth kept working. He kept his lips on hers for a few minutes before finally descending the rest of the distance down to her heat. He could feel her body shot a small spasm when he gently bit her bud, then suck it between his lips.
Her body continued to be worked up by his ministrations, until he felt the first signs of her pleasure. He increased his suctions and the tempo his fingers had found and soon was rewarded by her screaming his name and rolling her hips against his hand.
He kept going through her entire release, but once it was subsiding, he pulled back, quickly shed his boxers, and grabbed a condom. Before Rory had time to even begin to recover, Logan was back on the bed between her leg, attacking her lips and thrusting into her.
At the sensation, she let out a surprised shriek and had just wrapped her legs around his waist when he started a quick pace. Logan kept kissing her frantically and moving one hand down to play with her breast.
"Oh god," Rory squealed and tried hard to keep up with him.
Logan took this as encouragement and started to move faster and deeper while whispering in her ear, "You feel so fucking good Rory."
The couple continued moving at their frantic pace, until Logan felt her second wave coming. When he did, he moved with even more force, hoping to find his own release as well. Moments later, he felt Rory begin to fall, gripping him tighter with her legs and moaning loudly. Feeling her contract around him even tighter had him thrusting a few more times before following close behind.
Logan had just enough sense to remember to reach up and undo the handcuffs, before rolling over and taking Rory with him. Once on his back, he reached up and pushed the blindfold off her face as well.
He saw her blink a few times, obviously trying to get her eyes back into focus, and when she did, he could see her embarrassment starting to set in as she broke eye contact.
Hoping to ease some of that, Logan confessed, "You know, I've never done this before."
"Really?" Rory asked, very surprised, but looking back at him before she could stop herself.
"Yes really," Logan assured her, not missing the hopeful look in her eyes.
"Why not?" Rory asked, now truly curious.
"I may have had sex in all sorts of places, but it never got this…" Logan explained then paused while he searched for the right word, "experimental. That would have made it too personal, it was casual sex, and I never wanted to cross that line."
"So why'd you out it on the list?" Rory questioned, she had thought it was something he enjoyed in the past.
"I put it there just as much for you as I did for me, I've always been curious," Logan admitted.
"I'm glad you were," Rory said quietly, then brought her hand to his face to give him a soft kiss.
Logan could tell she was more comfortable with it now so dared to ask, "So you liked it?"
"It was weird at first, but once I got used to it…amazing," she admitted.
Logan looked at her, "So we're okay, right?"
"Yeah," Rory promised, resting her head against his chest. After a few minutes of a very content silence, she complained, "I'm hungry."
Logan laughed and said, "Let me go get cleaned up, and then I'll order us some food."
"Chinese?" Rory asked.
"Sure."
"With Crab Rangoon?" she asked.
"If you want some."
"And egg rolls?"
"I know Ace," Logan promised as he rolled her back onto the bed, "I've ordered Chinese for you many times."
"And extra fortune cookies?" she asked hopefully.
"Yes," he said in a playful sigh, then kissed her before standing up and saying, "Now, I'll be out in a minute, you wait there."
"But I need to make coffee," she replied.
Logan smirked at her, "I'll make it when I'm done and bring it to you. You just stay put exactly like you are."
"You're going to serve me in bed?" she teased.
"If you promise to not get dressed, I'll bring you anything you want for the rest of the night," he said seriously. He had enjoyed being so intimate with her after the fight and didn't want to loose that closeness by leaving their bed.
Rory for her part just grinned and replied, "So that's the big secret? All I have to do is let you use handcuffs and stay naked afterwards? I can do that…"
Logan just shook his head and muttered, "Why do I put up with you?"
From the bedroom, he heard Rory yell, "Because you looooooooove me!"
--
Thursday, Rory went into work, hoping to not be interrupted much. She left earlier than she probably should have the day before because of her fight with Logan meaning that she either needed to work faster or she was doomed for a late night.
A little after she got there, she went for yet another refill of coffee. When she entered the breakroom, she saw Julie starting a new pot of coffee.
Rory was about to leave and just come back later, when Julie said, "Hi."
"Hi," Rory said awkwardly.
"So…" Julie started, but was cut off.
"Whatever you want to ask, just ask it," Rory said, not really in the mood to waste time playing games.
"That was quite the fight yesterday," Julie commented.
"I was stressed and taken by surprised, nothing more. Don't worry, you can go tell everyone that all is well in paradise, I know they must be curious," Rory said dryly.
Julie was a bit taken aback by how straight forward Rory was being, but didn't say much more. After the coffee pot finished percolating, she gestured for Rory to take the first cup. Once she left, Julie filled her own mug. Then, she went to find someone to tell.
The first person she found was Sam. Excited to be able to share the gossip, she exclaimed, "Guess what I just found out?"
"Someone has a STD?" he asked sarcastically.
"No!" she yelled, but with a playful eye roll, "Rory came into the break room for coffee."
"And this is news how?" he asked. Rory may not have been close to many people in the department, but it was still well known that the girl drank a lot of coffee.
Ignoring him, Julie continued telling him what was said in their brief exchange.
"So? They made up, what's the big deal?" Sam asked.
"All is well in paradise," Julie repeated from the conversation, "That sounds sarcastic, maybe Alison was right."
"About what?"
"It being arranged."
"We already talked about that, what about those pictures of them together?"
"They could be acting," Julie reasoned.
"When is this going to get old?" he asked.
"There just has to be something else going on! And what about wanting to know if he's been helping her with her articles? It's not like anything else exciting is going on around here; besides, we're a newspaper, this is what we do," Julie said, then chided, "You may be more subtle, but you gossip as much as the rest of us."
"Point?" he asked, knowing he couldn't dispute her last point.
"We need to get more information on them," she said seriously.
"I'm not stalking my boss."
"I know that," she huffed, "But what about the conference?"
"What about it?"
"It would give us a chance to see her talk about journalism, see what she really knows. She's giving a workshop with someone from the Times. Plus, she's bound to interact with Logan occasionally, and if nothing else, they have a workshop together."
Sam hadn't thought about that, "So what do you want me to do?"
"Spread the work for people to keep an eye out for her while they're there. See if anything seems off between them, observe her workshops and see how she handles herself, those types of things, anything to help us figure this out," Julie explained.
"Will do," Sam said, before walking off.
--
Rory worked all day, never fully taking a lunch break, just eating while she worked, but she was still deeply entrenched in her articles at 5. She kept working, noticing her co-workers slowly filter out, but maintained her focus on her work. The next time she glanced at the clock it was almost seven. She looked around and saw that the office was empty except for the light that was on in Mike's office. Part of her felt bad, he really wasn't helping anything by staying, but it was motivation to be fair in the future. She knew she couldn't say anything without undermining Logan, not something she wanted to do, and she enjoyed this small amount of revenge.
Rory went back to work, and didn't stop until she heard Mike ask, "Are you done yet?"
"No," Rory said annoyed with how mad he seemed about it – he was the one who gave her so much work.
"When will you be leaving?"
"I don't know," she replied.
"Well, how much more work do you have?"
Rory glanced at the clock and saw it was almost seven forty five now, "I need to finish this article, which I'm almost done with, and get part of my next one written."
"So how long will that take?" he asked, getting impatient.
"Longer than it would if you didn't ask me so many questions," Rory snapped, wanting to go home as much as Mike did.
With that, Mike went back to his office leaving Rory to her work. It was more than a half an hour later that Rory was brought out of her thoughts by the elevator opening. She half expected to see Mike leaving, but instead, she was surprised to see Logan entering.
He walked up to Rory's desk and handed her a large coffee.
Rory took a long drink, "My hero!" then kissed him in greeting.
"I've come to drag you home."
"Logan, I still have a lot to do."
"Ace, I'm sure your articles are fine, and you'll have plenty of time tomorrow to finish."
Rory looked around her desk thinking about what she had left to do, "Ten more minutes."
Rolling his eyes, Logan decided to let her work for that much longer, but no more, and conceded by asking nonchalantly, "Is Mike still here?"
"In his office," she replied.
"Right, well then, I'll be back," Logan announced and walked towards the office. He knocked, and when he was told to enter, he did so, "I see you're still here."
"I wasn't under the impression I had a choice."
"Correct," Logan said, "You can choose to believe me or not, but you were out of line, it didn't matter who the employee was."
"With all due respect sir," Mike said, his fatigue and annoyance for still being at work coming through, "while that may be true, if it were any other employee you wouldn't be here right now."
"Maybe, but someone would be checking in on you."
"Is there anything else?" Mike asked.
"Realize that if it weren't for me, she'd be staying for at least another hour," Logan said, and as he moved to leave, added, "Rory will be leaving in a few minutes, you can go whenever you want."
Logan walked out, and while he was waiting for Rory to finish up, he saw Mike quietly leave his office. Shortly afterwards, he was leading Rory out of the building for what he hoped was her last late night.
--
Saturday morning came and after Rory went to her OBGYN appointment, she headed to the Times to meet with Heather. The two women were working on some final edits to their presentation portion of the workshop.
"Is there anything else we can add?" Heather asked, having just looked through their presentation.
"Not that I can think of, but I think we should have some examples ready."
"For what?"
"For the group discussion, when we have the group brainstorming."
"That's a good idea."
"Yeah…I've just been in a lot of different workshops, and sometimes, there are people ready to jump up and give a ton of ideas, but other times people are a bit reserved at first. It'll just keep things moving if we had some ideas ready if that happens."
"We can do that, you take the first topic, I'll take the second?"
"Sounds good."
"You know, I heard things have been kind of crazy for you over at the Observer."
"That's one way to put it."
Heather gave a light laugh, "I just thought you should know that I'm impressed by your work. Not just your articles, which are good, but working on this with me as well. It's hard to believe you've only been out of school for six months."
"Thanks," Rory said sincerely.
As they were finishing up, they started to get side tracked.
"So how was the shower?" Heather asked, remembering that Rory hadn't been available to meet last weekend because she and Logan were going out of town for their wedding shower.
"It was good," Rory replied, "A bit crazy, but it always is with that crowd."
"How are the wedding plans coming?" Heather asked, remembering how crazy everything was leading up to her own wedding.
"Okay, I mean, I think we have everything figured out, and my mom has been really helpful. Plus, she's dealt with this before at the inn, so she's good at it."
"That would help," Heather commented, then asked, "So are you nervous at all?"
"No, not really," Rory answered. "Not right now anyways, I think I will be when it gets closer. Were you?"
Heather gave a small laugh, "Yes, but not about getting married."
"Then what?" Rory asked confused.
"That my niece, our flower girl, would get distracted before she made it down the aisle," the woman said seriously.
Rory laughed, "Well, we don't have one of those, anything else?"
"That my father would embarrass me while dancing."
"I guess that's not impossible, but I'm more worried about my neighbors," Rory said truthfully, the image of a dancing Kirk making her shutter.
"You know, you'll have a big responsibility," Heather teased.
"What?" Rory asked confused.
"You know being married to the boss," she said seriously, but giving Rory a meaningful look at the end.
"Heather!" Rory exclaimed, embarrassed by the implications.
"What? Dan and I don't want to get yelled at!" she defended, "He dropped by in a really bad mood Wednesday, and in the 30 minutes he was here, he found a way to take it out on us. Then miraculously on Thursday, he comes in, and he's probably in the best mood I've ever seen him in."
"And?" Rory asked, trying not to blush as she remembered her fight with Logan and their subsequent make-up.
"Well…" Heather said slowly, then took on a teasing tone, "We were hoping you could make sure that whatever happened to cause his drastic turn around could be repeated at opportune times."
"And those would be?" Rory couldn't help asking.
"The night before we have performance reviews," she joked, "or better yet, just before he sets our salaries."
Rory could hear the playfulness in her voice, so playing along, she replied, "I'll see what I can do."
After that, they decided to talk through their workshop one more time before calling it a day. Rory went home, where she and Logan still had to work on the presentation they were doing together. As much as she wanted a break from work, she knew that if they could finish most of it today, it would mean that she could just relax all day tomorrow.
They were working when Rory randomly said, "Heather said something that got me thinking."
"What's that?" Logan asked. He wasn't sure what it was, but something about her voice made him think this was something big.
"She was making the title slide and put Ella Danes."
"And?" Logan asked confused.
"I wasn't sure if I should use that or Rory."
"Why wouldn't you use Ella? I mean your professional career is based on that name."
"I know. I guess there are a lot of things that I didn't think about when I made the choice to not use my real name."
"So you want to stop using a penname?" Logan asked, not sure what else she meant.
"No. I can go as Rory Gilmore and be introduced as your fiancée," she explained. "I can say my major in college was journalism, and I write for a Huntzberger paper but use a penname."
"Yes you can, but how is that any different than just giving up on the penname?" Logan asked, wanting to make sure she had thought about this.
"I'm not going to tell anyone what my penname is, but I know some people will find out. I mean, I was already introduced to writers at the Times as your fiancée, any one of them could recognize me.
"When I thought to use a penname, one of the main reasons was so that the people I worked with didn't judge me right away. Well, they know now, so that doesn't apply. The other part was me worried about my reputation in the journalism world, but a lot of them don't care. But you know what I didn't realize then? How many people would care I was your fiancée. I got a few angry emails on my Yale account when the announcement was made. I don't want anything from that to be carried over to my job, and I don't want people to see my byline and think, 'oh Logan's wife.' They would either consider my writing a joke or hate it before they ever gave it a chance.
"But that's not the biggest thing," she said almost embarrassed.
"No?" Logan asked, wondering what else there could be.
"It's just that I'll be at the dinner with you, and I'm doing a workshop with you…" she said shyly.
"And?"
"If people think I'm just Ella, a writer from Huntzberger Media, that's going to look weird. People may start wondering if we were having an affair, wondering if the reason that I got hired was because I was sleeping with you," Rory pointed out, then looked away, "If they did that, they'd think you were cheating on me.'"
"Rory," Logan said softly, reaching out to her.
"It was hard enough when a few people in the office thought you were cheating on me, but I knew they were making something out of nothing, that they were searching for any gossip, so I could just ignore it," she admitted and looked at him to say, "but this is so many more people. I mean, at first it's the journalists at the conference and then what? Hartford? Logan, I couldn't take all the whispers, all those people saying that you were cheating on me."
"It's just gossip," he assured her.
"I know, but it's something I could avoid this way."
"You know that gossip may be spread anyway," he said carefully, "I would never cheat on you, but you know my dad's reputation."
"I know Logan, I do. And I trust you, but why make it worse?" she asked rhetorically, "But that's just half of it."
"Okay, what's the other half?" he asked, not sure what else there could possibly be.
"I didn't want to use my real name because I didn't want anyone to think I was 'sleeping my way to the top.' If I use Ella and people start wondering about the nature her relationship with you, they may think she 'slept her way to the top.' That defeats the point of using a penname."
"But people at work know you're my fiancée," he pointed out.
"I know, but not everyone knows that. Besides the idea of the penname was that it wouldn't be connected to you, and you asked me yesterday if I would sit with you at dinner."
"Which you don't have to," Logan reminded her.
"I know, but I wasn't to. And if I say I'm Ella, how will that look? The two Huntzbergers, three contest winners, and a random rookie reporter? Come on, everyone would wonder why I'm there and being able to say, 'I'm his fiancée,' would make it so much easier. Being connected to you through a scandal would be worse than being connected legitimately."
"I agree with you, but you're getting into a lot of hypothetical's," he pointed out, "A million different scenarios could happen, you'll never be able to prepare for them all."
"I know, but I just think that doing this conference as Rory is what I should do."
"You're sure?" he asked.
"Yeah," she said, giving him a reassuring smile.
"Okay, then I'll have the changes made to the convention information."
--
Wednesday finally arrived, and Rory was heading over to the conference to meet Heather before their workshop began.
Rory navigated the hotel's conference center, eventually finding the right room. When she did, she saw Heather already there and greeted, "Hi Heather."
"Hey Rory, are you ready for this?"
"A bit nervous to be on this side of things, but I'm sure it will be fine."
"Of course it will, it'll be great," Heather said confidently. They walked into the room and started getting everything set up. Soon, students were walking in and taking seats around the room.
Once they were settled, Heather said, "Before we begin, I'm Heather Williams, the City Editor at the New York Times, and this is Rory Gilmore, another writer for Huntzberger Media," remembering the introduction Rory had requested.
Rory let her eyes scan the room as she said, "Our workshop today is on covering local news…" Stopping sharply, Rory was surprised to see Danielle in the back of the room, but quickly recovered, "To start, we'll be talking about tactics we use…"
--
Danielle sat in the back listening as Rory and Heather alternated talking on various aspects of reporting local news. It wasn't anything she didn't know, but conceded that they were doing a good job of presenting it in a clear, but interesting manner.
Soon, she heard Rory speaking again, "The thing to keep in mind when covering local news is that this is something that is happening in your readers' community. It could be something that impacts their life or someone they know. Because of this, many times you will find for the bigger stories, you will want to run both the main news piece, but also a few complimentary articles."
From there, Heather picked up the speech, "For instance, if there is a string of house robberies going through the area, your main article will give the facts of the case, but does anyone have ideas for another article to go with it?"
Heather noticed that the room fell silent, and after waiting for someone to say something, she heard Rory suggest, "You could have a side article about ways people can protect themselves."
This suggestion got people thinking and soon, a girl in the back timidly raised her hand and spoke, "What to do if you see something suspicious in your neighborhood."
Once she said that, a boy blurted out, ""What to do if your home was broken into…"
As the groups started throwing out more suggestions, Danielle saw the time and quietly left the room.
--
Once the workshop was over, Rory headed home to work on her articles. This week, Rory had only been given two articles. At first, she was worried that Mike was now taking things to the other extreme, but he explained that the people who were spending more time at the conference had a lighter work load and then talked about being a team and needing some people to pick up the slack this week. He also said that he was able to bank three articles for this week's issue from the articles written last week, one of Rory's being among them. That made Rory happy since she that counted as her third article for this week, and she would only need to make sure no information had to be updated, but besides that, the article was already done.
She worked for a few hours, managing to finish a draft for her first article and the research for the second before leaving. She needed to go home, shower, change then head back to the conference for the banquet dinner.
On her way back, she had called Logan, who said that he was about to sit in with his Dad on a conference call and wasn't sure how long it would take, so they would meet her at the table. Rory looked around the room before making her way up to the front to find her table.
She saw there was one guy currently sitting there, and when she took a seat across from him, he said, "Hi, I'm Brandon."
"Rory," she said simply. Logan had told her that they would be sitting with three students who won the essay contest open to anyone attending the conference. Winners were selected from nine different regions across the United States. From there, the top three nationally were selected, and they had all of their expenses for trip to the conference and their accommodations paid for by HM and got to sit with Mitchum and Logan at the dinner. The other six students not selected as one of the top three had their registration fees paid. All nine students received a certificate and were acknowledged at the banquet.
"So, Rory," he said smoothly, "What school are you from?" Before she could answer, he was saying, "No, let me guess…Northwestern?"
"No," Rory said, becoming amused by his behavior.
"Well, I'm from Brown, so I know you can't be from this area," he explained out loud, "Wisconsin?"
"No," she answered and added, "Why are you so sure I'm from the Midwest?"
"Natural beauties like you always are," he said smoothly giving her a wink, sure she was teasing him because he was right.
Rory barely kept from laughing out loud at how cheesy the line was, and managed to say, "I'm definitely not from the Midwest."
Frowning slightly at his error, he thought, and then regaining his confidence, recovered with, "Berkeley? California women are beautiful, and you're obviously intelligent."
Rory shook her head, "Give up?"
"Nope," he said cockily.
"Suit yourself," Rory said, not sure what else to say to the kid.
"Maybe we could meet up later, get to know each other. Then, you could tell me where you're from," he offered, still thinking that being evasive was her way of flirting.
"Uh…"
"What are you doing?" a voice asked in shock.
"I'm Brandon," Brandon offered to the guy who just walked up to the table.
"Ryan," he replied and, as he took the seat next to Brandon, asked, "Rory right?"
"Right," Rory agreed, a bit confused that he knew her name.
"You two already met?" Brandon asked, curious how they knew each other.
"No, but I knew who she was from the workshop earlier," Ryan stated, wondering if this Brandon guy realized she was a writer, but not really wanting to give it away because this could be entertaining.
Not really listening, Brandon leaned in and whispered, "I was here first man," then a bit louder turned to Rory to ask, "Are you staying here? I'm in room 1134."
"No, not staying here," she said with a bit of amusement in her voice.
"What hotel are you at? I can come meet you if you want," he offered.
Rory was having fun toying with him, so she was trying to think how to respond without giving too much away, when she saw another girl join their table.
Ryan, by this point, was trying not to laugh at Brandon's attempt to flirt with Rory. His suspicions were confirmed that Brandon didn't realize that Rory was a writer, not a student. Now, he was just watching, waiting for the information to be revealed. While she was distracted with her exchange with this Brandon guy, he took a moment to study her closer. True, she was young, and undeniably beautiful, but she didn't look like a college freshman, that was for sure. Physically, there wasn't much of a difference between her and the girls his age, it was more the way she carried herself, it showed her maturity. He was still looking at her, when he saw her eyes drift, and looked to see what was there. When he did he saw a girl who had long, dirty blonde hair and cute glasses, and said, "Hi?"
As she went to sit down to Rory's right, she quietly replied, "Hi."
Rory didn't want to give away who she was quite yet, but couldn't help saying, "Shouldn't you leave two seats together for the Huntzberger's?"
"Oh," Melissa said quickly, stopping herself before she was fully sitting. Looking embarrassed by her error, she quickly went to sit on Rory's other side, in a seat between her and Ryan.
As she sat down, Brandon asked, "Who are you?"
"Melissa," she said simply.
"Are you sure you're sitting here?" he questioned.
Melissa looked down at her name card, then at the table number and said, "Yes."
Ryan realized that Brandon thought the three winners were already there, but he knew Melissa was the third so he started another round of introductions, "I'm Ryan from UC-Davis."
The girl, who already looked slightly timid, replied, "I'm Melissa, Northwestern University."
"Brandon, Brown University," Brandon said. He shot Rory a 'see what I meant,' look, and added, "Nice to meet you. This is Rory, although she won't tell me what school she is from."
"Hi," Rory said, wanting to give the girl an encouraging smile.
"Hi," she replied, but gave a small smile back.
"Nervous?" Rory asked her.
"About what?" Brandon asked, trying to regain Rory's attention.
"We're sharing a table with Mitchum and Logan Huntzberger!" Melissa exclaimed in a hushed voice.
"I know," he said calmly.
"And you're not nervous? They're big!" she said, moving her hands while she talked.
"They put their pants on one leg at a time, just like everyone else," he dismissed, but inside he was just as nervous as Melissa was.
"Just take a few deep breaths," Rory told Melissa. "Be yourself, and it'll be fine, I promise."
Melissa nodded silently and tried to follow her instructions by taking a deep breath. Feeling the most comfortable around Rory, she rambled, "You know I googled them before I came. Mitchum is the second child and oldest boy, he has two sisters and one brother. Mitchum has two children, Honor and Logan. Logan runs the New York papers, will one day be taking over the company, and is getting married next month.
"Do you think any of his siblings or his daughter are involved in the company as well?" Melissa wondered out loud, as she thought more about the family.
"His brother is the CFO, and his younger sister's husband is on their legal team," Rory answered.
Melissa looked wide-eyed at Rory, "How did you know that? That wasn't on the internet! Have you met them before?"
"I have," Rory said being honest, but choosing to ignore the first question she asked.
Brandon seemed annoyed to hear this and assumed she was trying to make herself sound more important than she was so spat, "So what, you've been introduced, have you ever even talked to them?"
"Once or twice," she replied with a smirk. She caught his gaze with her own and held it until she heard Melissa gasp. She glanced to see Ryan leaning in close to her, whispering in her ear. Assuming it was about her being a writer for HM, she turned her full focus back to Brandon.
Rory was still thinking of what else she could say to Brandon when she saw him reflexively sit up straighter in his chair. Curious about what caused him to react like that, she turned around to see Mitchum and Logan approaching the table. Smirking, she turned back towards Brandon and was pleased to see that a slightly panicked look was now crossing his features.
She kept her eyes focused on the students as the men walked up to the two remaining chairs, Logan of course taking the one next to her, and exchanged brief introductions before sitting.
Once they were seated, Mitchum asked the students, "How has the conference been so far?"
Logan made some small talk with the winners and his father as they answered, but as Mitchum took over more of the conversation, he took a moment to turn to Rory and say in a soft voice, "You look beautiful as always, Ace."
"Thanks," she said with only mild embarrassment, glad that no one seemed to be listening to what they were saying. "Did your meeting go well?"
"Yeah, it was just a routine status meeting for my Dad with one of his chief editors, but he thought it'd be good for me to sit in on it. It's different dealing with the papers that are further away, this one is out west, which is why the call was later."
"Makes sense," Rory said with a nod, "I was just curious."
"Did you get your article done?" Logan asked.
"I finished the draft for one."
Logan glanced around the table, making sure that Mitchum wasn't sending him glares yet, but he saw that his father was explaining different aspects of his job to Ryan. He continued to look around the table and was surprised to see the guy who introduced himself as Brandon looking in their direction. With one look at the guy's face, it was clear to Logan that he was thinking about being more than friends with Rory.
Wondering if anything happened before he arrived, he asked Rory quietly, "I see you have a fan club?"
"What?" Rory asked confused, not noticing where he had looked.
Logan kept watching Brandon out of the corner of his eye and saw they now had his full attention. Although Logan knew Brandon wasn't in any way a threat, he couldn't help but want to give him a little show. Logan leaned in closer, much closer than what was considered a friendly distance, and brushed his lips softly across her cheek so he could whisper in her ear, "Across from you, Brandon, I believe, is checking you out."
Rory let out a small laugh when she felt his lips and breath tickle her ear, and when he was done talking, she playfully hit his arm, then turned her head enough to whisper in his ear, "Worried?"
Logan kissed her cheek and said, "Never," then pulled back into his own space shooting Brandon a confident look.
Mitchum was listening patiently to Melissa explain something, but took note of both the exchange between Rory and Logan and the rather heated looks Brandon had been giving them. He also noticed the look Logan gave Brandon, before he looked at him with an innocent smile, before smoothly rejoining the conversation.
As that happened, Brandon, who did not like how Logan was behaving around Rory, thought about what he could do to break up their obvious flirting. He waited until there was a pause in the discussion before casually saying, "Mr. Huntzberger, I don't believe you've be introduced to Rory yet."
Mitchum couldn't believe this kid had the audacity to presume who he did or did not know. It's not like Rory came here as this kid's date, and the fact that he had the nerve to make the introduction irked Mitchum. Looking straight at Brandon asked, "Rory huh? No last name with that?"
"No Sir, she didn't provide one," Brandon quickly replied, smart enough to sense the irritation in the man's voice, "I believe she's an additional contest winner."
Amused by his response, he turned to Rory and teased, "Rory, I had no idea you were still in school."
Able to see his playful tone, she answered, "I never said I was Mitchum, he just assumed, and I didn't bother to correct him."
Turning back to Brandon, Mitchum took on an authoritative voice, "I've meet Rory, many times thank you. Logan and I are very aware of who she is."
"So you're not a contest winner?" he asked before he could stop himself.
"No," Rory said.
"How do you know the Huntzberger's?" he asked, hoping to get more information.
"She works for them, you idiot," Ryan informed him, not able to suppress his laughter while he talked and gave Melissa a quick glance, who immediately started laughing as well.
"While that's true, it's not how I first met her," Mitchum corrected.
"No?" Ryan asked, becoming confused as well.
Logan heard the comment Ryan made and couldn't help smiling at the confused looks now gracing both their faces. Knowing it would only get better, he gestured to Rory and said, "I'd like you to met my fiancée Rory,"
"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore?" Melissa asked, remembering the information she had found during her research.
"Yes," Rory confirmed a bit shocked by how much she knew.
"Sorry," she said quickly, "I saw you mentioned in some of the research I did."
Logan held in a laugh, and leaning over to Rory, he whispered in a voice that was loud enough for the whole table to hear, "She's a mini-you."
"Logan!" Rory exclaimed and told Melissa, "Ignore him."
Melissa seemed overwhelmed by the attention, but before Rory could say anything else to her, Logan said, "Why are you hitting me? I didn't mean that as a bad thing!"
Rory gestured across the table, "You're scaring her."
"I didn't mean to," Logan defended.
Rory looked at Melissa and said, "I was always doing research before I went places in college, specifically before I met Mitchum for the first time, I swear he didn't mean anything by it."
The girl nodded while she seemed to debate a question briefly in her mind, but still asked, "It said you were the editor at Yale's paper, why haven't you written anything since graduating?"
Pleasantly surprised to be asked the question, Rory replied, "I've been writing under a penname."
"And inciting a ruckus among my staff," Mitchum added, teasing Rory about the gossip surrounding her and making the students chuckle.
Not wanting the conversation to get too sidetracked, Mitchum asked, "What presentations do you think you will be attending tomorrow?"
The table talked while drinks and dinner were served until Mitchum saw that it was time for him to give his keynote address.
Mitchum walked up to the podium, welcomed everyone to the conference and thanked everyone who was helping run it. He then took a moment to acknowledge the 9 regional contest finalists, then the 3 overall winners, by presenting them with certificates.
Once that was done, he began his address. "As you develop your writing, it is important to remember how critical primary sources are in reporting. They add a depth to an article you cannot get through any other means. As I talk about different ways they can be used, I will be showing examples from a journalist as their writing developed from high school, to college, and now to professional levels.
"This first piece," he continued and flipped the PowerPoint slide, "was an early high school piece about repaving the school parking lot."
Rory almost screamed when she realized it was her articles that were being shown. Turning to Logan, she whispered "Where did he get that?"
"I honestly don't know. When I talked to him last week and he told me what he was giving a talk on, I asked what writing samples he was going to use."
"You knew!"
"No. He didn't really answer me. I figured they'd be mine or his, there aren't many people who he would have access to their high school articles."
"So how did he get mine?" she asked.
"I don't know, I swear!"
"I can't believe he's showing them to everyone," she said, now embarrassed.
Wanting to relax her, he teased, "But I'm sure you learned a lot about cement."
Rolling her eyes, she couldn't stop herself from shooting back, "Not as much as I did when I had to do an article about the Concrete Canoe Team."
"The what?" Logan asked confused.
"The Concrete Canoe Team."
"What do they do?"
"Build a canoe out of concrete," she said in an obvious tone.
"Why?" Logan asked still not following.
"Because they can," Rory responded sarcastically.
"But why?"
"And do you know what I learned," she asked rhetorically, switching back to her original train of thought, "Concrete and cement aren't the same thing."
"Is that so," he teased.
"And don't get them confused, or they will let you have it," she ranted, remembering her mistake.
"What's the difference?"
"Concrete is in cement or the other way around, I forget which…" she said offhandedly, "like all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares."
Still confused, but seeing why she was annoyed with the interview, he conceded, "I get your point, but what does that have to do with your parking lot article?"
"Nothing, but you asked about cement."
"Ah," he replied, "well, forget I asked."
"Don't worry, I will."
The couple sat quietly as Mitchum continued talking and showing portions of articles, pointing out spots where a primary source would have been useful and also examples of where they were used well.
Rory looked around the room and saw how enamored the students were. She knew she had been like them, but now, she was just impressed by Mitchum's success in the business, and found it interesting to watch how people responded to him. She looked around the table and could see that Melissa was making a mental recording of everything he said, Brandon was trying not to be impressed, but obviously was, and Ryan was just taking it all in. One thing she did see was that everyone was hanging onto Mitchum's every word.
She was doing her best to avoid looking at her articles that she could still see on the screen. Eventually, she realized he was almost done because she heard him say, "…And with hard work and dedication, you too can join the ranks of professional journalists," and showed a paragraph from one of her articles she had written for the Observer.
Mitchum never made any indication as to where he got the articles he was using for examples, but regardless, she was blushing profusely hearing the compliments he gave her. Since the engagement, he had told her that he was impressed by her writing, and while it was nice to hear, a part of her wondered how truthful he was being. She couldn't help but ask herself if he really meant it or was saying it to try to keep the peace.
When he used her writing as his examples for his speech in front of all these people, she knew that he meant every word. True, he had both complimented and critiqued her writing, but some of the articles were more than a few years old, and she was aware that her writing had improved over the years. Still, even in the oldest articles, he showed there were good points, something she was proud of.
Rory had been surprised to see her articles, but was still able to recognize it, as much by the topic as by the style, almost immediately. At first, she wondered why he wasn't using something Logan wrote, but quickly came up with two problems with that: One, Logan probably didn't write that much in high school, and he didn't have much at Yale before his senior year, making the number of examples scarce, and two, people would more likely realize that he wrote them, and it wouldn't help the company any for Mitchum to be publicly critiquing the future CEO's talent. In the end, Rory decided it didn't matter what made him choose to use her articles, just that she felt like she truly knew what he thought of her writing and couldn't help but smile at that realization.
Rory was torn from her thoughts as she stood with the others to applaud at the conclusion of his speech and watched as he eventually made his way back to their table.
Sitting down, he asked, "What did you think?"
"They were quite good for the time they were written. Like you pointed out, some things to be worked on, but a clear talent was there. I'm not surprised they write professionally now," Melissa commented thoughtfully.
Mitchum smiled, "Luckily for me, they now work at one of my papers."
Ryan casually said, "I thought it may have been your own writing Mr. Huntzberger, or your son's."
"Neither of ours," Logan said, and turned to Rory, "I'm sure who ever wrote it was more than happy to supply the portfolio."
The college students were silent, not sure what to say, but when Rory saw Logan smirking, she knew he was trying to bait her. She tried to ignore his comment, but curiosity got the best of her, and she blurted out, "Where did you get my articles!"
Giving her the same smirk that was currently plastered on his son's face, he answered, "I remember Richard always mentioning his granddaughter, the aspiring journalist, and proudly telling me that he was saving all the articles she'd written. So when I was working on this speech and needed examples, I put that information to use. I simply told Richard I was interested in reading more of your articles, and he was more than happy to make me copies."
"That was so nice of him," she replied sarcastically.
"I thought so," Mitchum said sincerely, ignoring her tone, "and when I read them, I couldn't help but notice how well they'd work for this."
"I'm sure," she said dryly.
"Those were yours?" Ryan asked.
"Um, yeah," Rory answered, a bit embarrassed.
"Melissa was right, they were good. I'm impressed," he told her.
"Thanks," Rory said, but squeezed Logan's had, making it clear she wanted him to change the topic.
Logan took the hint and asked, "So…what kind of writing do you all prefer to do for your college papers?"
The group talked for a while longer until Mitchum excused them by saying there were a few people they needed to talk to before they left for the night.
--
Friday morning came, and it was time for Rory's and Logan's workshop. Rory, for her part, was much calmer now that she had successfully completed her workshop with Heather and had a productive luncheon the day before.
She quietly set up the room while Logan hooked up his laptop to the projection equipment. Soon, she heard the familiar sound of students walking into the room and finding their seats. When Rory looked up, she noticed a conspicuously large number of girls crammed into the front looking rather eager. Once she got past her initial surprise, she noted that apparently Logan's popularity with college girls didn't diminish despite no longer being in college.
She also saw that the room was very full. While she would be the first to admit this was one of the most relevant workshops going on, she knew part of the high numbers were due to curiosity about the Huntzberger heir.
Before either of them could speak some whispers started in various parts of the room and, a girl in the front asked, "Mr. Huntzberger, is it true that you spend time working closely with you employees?"
Rory's jaw almost dropped at the question, while it could be a very legitimate one, the suggestive tone in the girl's voice left no doubt about her double meaning.
"I find I can make the best improvements when I have a better understanding for how a particular department or paper runs. I get that by spending time there," Logan said simply hoping to not leave anyone with the idea there was something more going on.
"Really?" she asked, but Rory noticed how she had leaned forward on the table to make her cleavage much more obvious. Rory also saw Brandon in the room, who was currently gesturing towards her and whispering to the people around him. She had no doubt what he was saying.
"My relationship with my employees is strictly professional," Logan said fiercely, not wanting anyone to think he was like his father in that aspect.
"Not even with your fiancée?" another girl a few rows back who had heard the rumors floating around the room muttered snidely.
"Excuse me?" Logan asked surprised, clearly hearing what the girl said.
The girl seemed to be frozen, but shakily tried to explain, "What I meant was that people said your fiancée writes for one of your papers, you must have a personal relationship with her."
Seeing Logan's annoyance, Rory looked at the audience they had. It was obvious that word had spread to some that she was in fact the illusive fiancée. Figuring there was nothing to loose and the fact that she was the fiancée would spread through the rest of the room quickly, Rory said, "I can assure you our relationship is strictly professional while we are at work."
Hearing her say that with such calm and seriousness caused a silence to fall over the room. This allowed Logan time to recover and begin, "Now that that is out of the way, are there any other questions before we begin?"
Rory was sure there were, but amazingly the group remained silent. After an appropriate pause, she heard Logan continue, "I'm not sure if this is necessary, but incase anyone in unaware, I'm Logan Huntzberger and this is Rory Gilmore and we will be talking to you about balancing campus and non-campus news at college papers."
While Logan was talking, Rory looked around the room one more time, fairly sure a member from her department was there. It took her longer to spot her, but sure enough, trying to be discrete in the back was Alison and a bit surprisingly Jason. Instead of making her nervous, she saw it as a challenge.
"Some issues are major things that you will, no doubt, be covering, like the election next year. But even with that, there are things that need to be decided. For instance, how often should it be covered in the months leading up to November? Part of this depends on how frequently your paper is published, but after that, knowing your readers is important. You will have the basic articles, but beyond that articles focusing on the student vote or issues college students focus on," Rory explained. "This is one example of a story that is not based on campus news, but is balanced by tying it to students. The other side is things that are strictly campus related: student protests, productions, activities."
"For this, however, we're going to talk about making larger topics relevant to your readers. Now, the first thing we need to do is identify what topics college students are interested in," Logan explained, then asked, "Anyone?"
From the back of the room a guy shouted, "Sex, drugs, and rock and roll!"
Logan laughed, "Not how a lot of people would put it, but oddly accurate."
Rory was smiling at the comment as well, but still asked, "Anything else?"
"Job markets," someone else said.
"Okay, let's take those two and bring them together," Logan suggested.
"How?" a student asked.
"Well, how many of you are on Facebook?" Rory asked, and saw a number of hands go up, but added, "MySpace?"
Seeing where she was going with her questioning, Logan asked, "Okay, now how many of you like to go to parties?"
Not surprisingly, almost all the hands were again up in the air, so Rory asked, "Now how many of you have pictures, public messages, or are in a group that says you party, or talks about excessive drinking, even drug use?"
At that, there was a slight pause, but eventually a good number of hands went back up. Rory looked at Logan, who gestured for her to continue, "What do you think a potential employer would think if they saw that?"
A few kids looked scared, but most just looked like they were thinking about what she said.
"Surveys of employers are showing that more and more companies are looking into these types of sites to learn more about potential job candidates," Logan informed them.
"Also," Rory said, "Student groups, especially national fraternities and sororities, have been revoking students' membership or even disbanding chapters based on evidence of underage drinking and hazing on their profiles."
"You'd have to be incredibly stupid to put up pictures of hazing," someone commented.
"And in fact, there are incredibly stupid people in the world," Logan replied, then added, "and at college campuses as well."
"The fact remains that students are being punished for things they publish on Facebook or MySpace. While loosing your membership in a fraternity may not seem like a big deal to some of you, not getting a job for the same reason would probably be a very big deal to you. Both cases are happening, and taking these national issues and tying them directly to something that is common for college students to have would make a good article," Rory explained, trying hard not to laugh at Logan's remark.
From there, they discussed that topic a bit more, but also moved onto other issues that could be used. When the workshop ended, people stayed to asked questions, and by lunch, word of the workshop had spread. In fact, there was enough interest by those who had not been able to attend that a second session was added that afternoon.
--
After the workshop, Alison and Jason worked their shifts at the conference before heading back to the Observer. When they got there, a curious Danielle and Sue asked them what they thought.
"So?" Danielle asked.
"I still think it was arranged," Alison said, causing the others to roll their eyes.
"Alison, you'll think that no matter what," Sue told her.
"Because it's true!" she defended.
"Because you want him for yourself," Danielle corrected.
"So what if I do?" Alison asked.
"Nothing," Jason said laughing, "but that doesn't make you the most objective observer."
"So you think they're in love?" she scoffed, "you heard them fight last week!"
"We all did," Sue reminded her, "but she told Julie they were fine, and I saw them talking when they thought no one was around. They weren't fighting at all. Actually, they looked like they care about each other."
"What about how she acted in the workshop? She didn't do anything," Alison pointed out, remembering the other reason they had been observing her.
"That's not true," Jason said, causing Alison to glare at him, "she held her own."
"That's what I thought when I saw her in the other workshop," Danielle commented.
"They could have just prepared her really well," Alison pointed out.
"But those topics were thought of by the students, how could she prepare for that?" Jason asked. He wasn't about to argue the nature of her relationship with Logan, but after working with her, he was fairly sure that she was more than competent when it came to journalism.
"Maybe she just happened to know a lot about that subject: I mean Facebook, come on, that's not that obscure of a topic."
"There was more to it, and you know it," Jason told her, "Now, is there anything else you want to know? Otherwise, I need to get to work."
Everyone shook their head, and as the group broke so they could get back to work, Alison said one last time, "I still say it's arranged!"
--
A/N: I really can't say how sorry I am this wasn't up sooner. Just after my last post I found out I got a job in Texas (I currently live in Michigan) and so went into a full frenzy to get everything done before I leave. So between taking care of things here, packing, planning my move, and seeing friends/family before I do it slowed down the writing process. Then just when I had some time I got a bad sinus infection and wasn't sleeping and needed to go on antibiotics.
That being said, I leave this week and while I don't anticipate a long delay from now until 36, I don't know what my work schedule will be like yet and it will take some time to get settled. Please bear with me, and check the blog for updates. Again sorry for the wait!
I hope you like the make up scene and besides that hope, you enjoyed the chapter, and please let me know what you thought :)