"Feeling better?" Rory asked Logan as she called her on Facetime. She'd just put the kids down for their nap, through some miracle - all at the same time, and was having an unexpected breather, and it was kind of perfect as this way she didn't have to call Logan when he really should've rather been sleeping. Rory was sitting in their bedroom, legs crossed on their bed, like she usually was when she called, wanting to not share her attention with anyone else if she could help it when she called him.
"Much. I went out for a bit - work and then looking for an apartment for Owen and Charlotte. The temporary one at least," Logan replied, continuing to describe the one he'd helped them pick out in the end. He'd asked the realtor to limit the rentals down to just two by herself, giving her the list Owen, though probably rather Charlotte than him, had put together, adding his own two cents by what areas he used to love when he'd been a few years younger. In his mind the very least Owen and Charlotte deserved was to have some fun while Owen worked hard. Hence the Mayfair apartment was a rather lavish one - roof deck, desiner interior, gym and jaccuzi - all that conveniently located just walking distance from the good pubs and shops, yet quiet enough to sleep with the window open during the summer if they wanted. He felt a little guilty thinking of Charlotte, who was likely going to be in a city she didn't know anyone in while Owen worked long hours. Logan hoped they were strong enough for a challenge like that, but he knew neither well enough to know for sure. But either way it was their jump to make, he'd just asked the question.
"So they're definitely moving?" Rory asked. It had been such an unexpected development for her, she hadn't fully believed it until now. She saw Owen as a teacher first and foremost - even his appearance was so far off from the corporate world she truly had hard time imagining it.
"Yeah, Owen's coming just after the gala, Charlotte just before Christmas. We're announcing it at the gala too," Logan explained.
The HPG Christmas gala was already next week, it having by now become the norm to Rory. This year, however, its main perk for her was getting Logan home for a full long weekend, not so much the chance to get all dressed up. She was used to these things by now, having a dress ready and fitted a month ago. It was just one of these things that came with being the Huntzberger wife, but she knew she was lucky as that really was the only thing she was truly expected to do twice a year. She kept getting invites to events and calls from various committee's hoping she would join, but the kids provided a convenient excuse. And soon work would.
"Oh, wow," Rory responded, realizing the backlash that this announcement might cause right there during the event. But she understood why they'd chosen it. It was going to be their way of putting the positive spin on it - showing this as their new and welcomed development rather than bringing out some skeleton from the closet. Rory felt relieved neither Shira or Catherine was alive - there was no-one left to hurt by this.
"We're prepping the press releases and we have a couple of journalists doing personal interest pieces on him and my father - giving our side of the story. It shouldn't touch us much," Logan explained, hoping the latter was in fact what the case. While he could give the journalists input, he couldn't really stop Owen or Mitchum mentioning their role in this.
"Did you prep him?" Rory asked, for a moment feeling uncertain how well Owen would handle it. He was way less used to this than she'd ever been.
"I talked to him a little," Logan replied.
"If you want you could have them do the interview here in New York, I could tag along…," Rory offered.
"You think you're up for that?" Logan asked. Rory hadn't really been her usual self until very recently, having now gained enough confidence to try having some life of her own again, and that part he hadn't really seen with his own eyes. In his eyes Rory was still in her home slash mommy mode. He knew he shouldn't like it, but he kind of did - there was just something nice about knowing that his kids were at home taken care of by her, even if she had help. He wasn't going to stand in the way of her career, she deserved that too - but at the same time he secretly had hoped she would have decided to stay at home a little while longer. He just didn't know if and when he should tell her that.
"Sure - I'm here and I can help," she replied practically. "And he and Charlotte can stay with us," she suggested.
"Yeah, I kind of assumed that already," Logan said, half apologetically.
"Good," Rory replied. She hadn't been aware of that development, but surely she should've assumed. After all, one of the key reasons for getting a bigger place was having the possibility for friends and family to stay over. And they were definitely family now.
"Would it be okay if I told dad he could stay too?" Logan asked. "He might not, but it'd be nice to offer," he added, hearing the silence at the other end.
"Sure," Rory swallowed. It was good Logan was connecting with his father, wasn't it? But during the entire time she'd known Mitchum they'd not once stayed under the same roof. Their relationship, hers and Mitchum's, was better, but it wasn't exactly friendly.
December was going to be a busy month - a couple of HPG related functions, trip to Nantucket, Logan travelling home and back again just after Christmas, not to mention Rory still didn't have any Christmas shopping done. And while the babies would hardly know any different - it was still their first Christmas and she wanted to make it a good one. She desperately wanted to find some time after Christmas and spend time with Celeste, and while she knew G would be flying to her mother for Christmas, there were still two weeks to go until that - and she felt like she hadn't really given her enough attention either. It was the first time she considered that perhaps the hasty 'yes' she'd given to Lisa about going back to work had been a little premature, with all the prep work she still needed to do.
Paris had spent the weekend pondering why anything related to Tristian still influenced her as much as it did, while her kids were with Doyle. It wasn't like Tristian was the one that got away or the one she'd missed some big chance with. They'd even gone out, they'd even kissed once - but still - she'd still put him onto a pedestal while he had really only had eyes for Rory. She'd known it too. What had always drawn her too, besides the obvious, was that they shared something - a similarly difficult childhood. Or perhaps it all came down to being the coveted girl (or woman by now)? But then again it wasn't like Paris hadn't experienced that - Jamie had wanted her, Asher and Doyle. And Doyle had been the only one who'd lost interest in her. Paris had experienced a lot of things - she couldn't say that she'd been unsatisfied, but in some way the idea of Tristian or the idea of impressing her or making him realize she might have been the one that got away from him still haunted her.
Paris was under no impression that she wasn't messed up, she'd just accepted that most people didn't get her and she was fine with that. But she didn't like any of these aspects influencing her work. Even through the messiest times of her divorce her company hadn't taken a hit and she wasn't about to let some ancient history influence it now.
"Dr. Vikki Irwing speaking," the sharp yet low voice said, as it picked up her phone.
"This is Dr. Paris Geller from Dynasty Makers," she introduced herself.
"Hello, I'm glad to hear back from you," Vikki spoke, sounding surprisingly unsmug, but perhaps she realized that this really wasn't the moment to sound cocky.
"I'm calling with good news. How would you feel about coming to work for us here at Dynasty Makers," Paris spoke in an uncharacteristically calm voice, literally following a script for these things.
"I would feel great about that, thank you," she replied, sounding genuine. Paris was almost expecting something along the lines - 'I knew you'd call' in return but that never came, and she wondered whether she'd just painted her into someone she actually wasn't - but the interview couldn't have been that uncharacteristic, could it?
"Fantastic. I have it written down that you can start as soon as the 15th - is that right?" Paris asked.
"If you need me sooner, I could come in this week already. I just might have to cut the days a little shorter this week, if I cannot find a sitter for the afternoons," Vikki replied, fussing something in the background, the sound of her son asking for something, carrying into the phone.
"We do have a playroom, my own kids come in all the time," Paris shared. Somehow, the defensiveness and the smugness she'd sensed when she'd been in her office was gone - and for a split second she almost forgot the woman had anything to do with Tristian. What she heard now was a mother just like her, and what was even stranger was that they had kids who were exactly the same age.
"That sounds perfect. Thank you," she replied.
"I'll have Maria form HR set up the contract and I'll have it ready by Wednesday. We have a staff-meeting at 9. It would be good if you could sit in. And the first week you'd probably just be shadowing Dr. Carson who's patients you'll be taking over," Paris added.
After she'd hung up, Paris took a deep breath. For at least that time, she'd managed to put her emotions aside. Terrance, whom she still sometimes spoke to, would've been proud. Now she just needed to hope she could do it just the same at work.
"What's all this?" Jess asked, as he walked upstairs, finding Celeste at their dinner table well set in research mode. She had stacks of books on both sides, printouts, and her notebook in front of her. If he didn't know any better he'd thought she'd gone back to school.
Evie was happily playing with her Lego Duplos by the window, and as she saw Jess she began to demand his attention.
"What have you got here, Evie?" Jess asked, turning his attention to her before Celeste had a chance to respond.
"Just a little light reading," Celeste noted with a smirk. What had started out light, was no longer very light. The fictional titles she'd read on the go, both at work when it had been slow, like early December often was or before bed, and while interesting and opening all sorts of angles to the teenage mind for her, they hadn't been quite what she'd been looking for.
"For what?" Jess asked.
"You know…," she began, pondering how to put it. "I kind of see myself in G and she's struggling a bit - and I actually got curious about how to help her. I swear I had some of these same issues growing up, though a few years later, and there's got to be some better way to get her past this besides actually living through it the way I did," Celeste explained. There were indeed a lot of similarities between her and G - background, absent parents - even the French connection among other things.
"What kind of issues?" Jess asked, wondering if perhaps it was about mental health.
"Searching for attention, approval, self-destructive behavior," she listed.
"And in your case the latter was…?" Jess asked, not sure if he was quite following.
"Partying, sex..," Celeste replied, not wanting to break her promise to G, keeping it between the two of them, either.
"Right," Jess sighed. This was not particularly a topic he liked hearing about. Sure, he knew that her early 20s had been spent in a wild rebellious mode. She'd even been slut-shamed in some yellow magazine, which had really hurt her at that point.
"She might have parents that care, but they're just as clueless, Rory is swamped and G is just craving for attention. I don't want her to pick the route that I did just so it can make her feel good for 20 seconds," she explained, seeing Jess begin to worry a little.
"And you think books will help?" Jess raised his eyebrows, not really having a lot of faith in these things being text-book taught.
"I'm trying to understand myself - I don't just want to base this on my gut feeling," she replied. "Besides, once she's older - you'll be happy I know how to raise an independent woman who doesn't need men to tell her she's worth something…," she said, nodding towards Evie.
Jess did get what she meant - he definitely didn't want Evie to ever go through a period like that.
"But this is kind of fun too," Celeste said, deciding to lighten the mood, adding, "I'm learning an awful lot about sex," with a chuckle. From a couple of websites that discussed sex addiction and using sex to avoid other issues teenagers dealt with she'd found quite a few interesting things.
Jess smirked. "Is there more to know?" he asked, not quite believing it was possible, raising from Evie's side, letting her continue her play, and moved to look over Celeste's shoulder.
"Hmm..," he mused, tilting his head as he observed what she had up on the screen. "Well, by the time you're done you'll definitely be ready for that Stars Hollow sex-ed teaching position," he laughed, recalling her telling him about his mother suggesting it to her. Knowing how Celeste did her research, just like she had done it about pregnancy and babies, he knew she'd be an expert in no time. But he kind of liked seeing her in this mode - at least she seemed curious again, like a part of her brain was freed up by her family's heavy issues and her depression. He knew the latter hadn't magically disappeared, but maybe sending that letter really had helped.
G had just handed over one of Celeste's dresses to the courier who was delivering it to one of the buyers, a local collector, having gotten paid for it over deposit. She'd already handled two before this and was pleasantly satisfied with the revenue she'd managed to get for Celeste. While Celeste had offered her a cut, she really didn't do it for the money - she wanted to help, besides, having thousands of dollars for dresses around had actually been kind of cool. Besides, she'd bought one of the shorter and chapter cocktail dresses for herself. What was going to be the most difficult dress to part with for herself was the blue Versace, but that was as it turned out bought by the dreaded YvetteBeualiue78. She'd also bought two others eventually, raising the price well over 10 G. But since the auction had ended, the deposit had been made but other than that there was no word from the buyer. Technically there was a 10 day delivery period, hence G wasn't going to push it, her teenage mind thinking that perhaps that was all that their intention had been - letting her, or Celeste, just keep it.
"Was that another one?" Rory asked from the parlor, where she'd been breastfeeding Emma, having seen G fuss around the foyer with the garment bad. Packing these things up had been quite a challenge, lucky there were couriers who knew what they were doing, helping her pack these things appropriately.
"Yup," G sighed.
"You want to come hang out with me for a bit, I'm watching The Danish Girl?" Rory asked.
G was a little reluctant to join, having homework to finish, but she could see Rory trying to make an effort, hence she relented, not really showing how she really felt about it. She didn't like talking to Rory these days as much, simply because she didn't like the lying. With Celeste it was so much easier - she didn't judge.
"So how's school?" Rory inquired.
"I really don't like civics. I wish they'd just teach us the international kind - I mean they barely mentioned the EU," she complained. Again - coming from a French middle school did that, leaving G with a much broader sense of the world than most of her peers who were entirely satisfied with what they were getting.
"I think I saw they had something like International relations or something for seniors," Rory replied, having looked into G's school's website the other day.
"Maybe, I haven't checked," G replied.
"Have you given any more thought about having some friends over - Philipa or what was her name?" Rory suggested. "You could have a small party with them upstairs or if you want we could all make a movie night out of them. We used to do movie night with my mom and Lane all the time," Rory explained, realizing that this might just have sounded utterly lame to someone like G.
"Not really, but I might," G commented. She simply hadn't given it much thought. But realizing that maybe she wasn't hanging out with Brody for entirely best reasons, she was willing to consider some alternatives. This didn't mean she'd stopped either though, she just didn't encourage it especially. Brody still sometimes met her after school or they texted, but it wasn't a daily thing.
"Do it," Rory encouraged. "We're going to have some company over starting from the 18th, but other than that, just give me the heads up," she added.
G nodded, observing the movie for a moment.
"Everything okay on the guy front?" Rory asked as the silence had carried for a few minutes.
"Yeah, he's still around.. But a little complicated," G replied.
"We can talk about it if you want...," she offered.
"Don't take this the wrong way but I kind of feel more comfortable talking to Celeste about this - I appreciate you trying, but just… she just listens, discusses these things, she doesn't try to parent. She doesn't need to answer to dad," G confessed, perhaps a little bluntly.
But this was what Rory should've been used to by now. She was the one setting rules and trying to stop her from doing what she wanted to be doing, she had even kind of been naive to think that it wouldn't have any consequences. Still, Rory was momentarily dumbfounded, having not quite realized she'd been talking to Celeste about her issues. She wasn't mad, but a little disappointed. It wasn't about being envious of Celeste, but simply disappointed in herself for having reacted the way she had before - maybe she'd driven her away - or maybe that's what had been bound to happen. Clearly G was more drawn to the friend than a sister that was trying to mother her. But she had to admit, she was very curious about what she'd been telling Celeste and not her.