"I feel out of place already," Owen chuckled nervously, after he'd exchanged a few words in greeting with Rory. They were at the Lobby Bar of the New York Edition Hotel on Madison Avenue, Rory nursing a simple glass of water. It was another one of Finn's family's hotels, hence the choice of venue. They had about half an hour to go over things before they were meeting with the New York Times reporter for Owen's interview that was supposed to shed some light into who he was to be published just after they were going to make the big announcement at the gala on Thursday.
They sat at the far end of the room and the Lobby Bar really looked a lot more like a fancy minimalist living room than an actual bar from this angle. Thankfully for a Monday morning the place was pretty secluded as well, allowing them to speak without anyone overhearing.
"You'll get used to it," Rory replied. For a moment Rory recalled how it had taken her a while to get used to fancy places like this too. For her it had happened in several stages - first when her grandparents had begun taking her to restaurants and parties, then there had been Logan - their spontaneous getaways to The Pierre and Le Meridien and his family's events, and then for years it was just whatever work threw to her path until it was again Logan and Fairmont in Hamburg and the Savoy in London. Thankfully Le Meridien was back in their picture these days, but with a much nicer backstory, whenever they wanted a quick getaway in the City. God, how she missed him - wishing it'd be Wednesday already.
"So, how does this work - are you going to be in the interview with me or...?" Owen asked. He was clearly nervous, looking a little out of his element. He was even dressed out of character - his usual jeans and casual button-up shirts with rolled up sleeves that exposed his full-sleeve tattoos, that usually almost spoke to his favor in his classroom, were exchanged for a stylist-picked business casual look, trying to make him look more professional in this field, yet the added layer in the form of a light sweater under his blazer that was supposed to soften his look - make him seem approachable and non-threatening. He actually had some experience with interviews before, the difference was that those times they hadn't been personal, having mostly involved something to do with the curriculum he was teaching or if his school needed to put someone 'cool' in front of the camera to speak for the school, their principal being a rather timid woman, nearing retirement.
"I can be in the room if you want, but I'm not really supposed to bud in," Rory said, having figured she'd just hang out in earshot. She'd even worn a simple pair of high-waisted black jeans and a humble beige cashmere sweater, wanting to simply blend into the background.
"Okay," he sighed.
"You'll do great," Rory assured supportively. "Alright, let's go over these main topics just in case," she said and pulled out her notes, having prepared for this. The PR team had of course also talked to Owen about this, but there were things which Rory knew even better, having been at both sides of interviews like this. This was her way of helping Logan too, having the inside scoop of what to expect from this interview - whether there were going to be surprises, that they'd need to warn the PR against or prepare themselves. It wasn't that they didn't trust Owen, they just knew how easy it was sometimes to slip and say the wrong thing when being caught off guard.
They spent the next fifteen minutes going over the expected questions - who he was, why now, who had proposed this and how had that made him feel, and why he wanted to do it, until Rory got to the more intriguing bits.
"Do you believe this will help you reconnect with your father?" Rory asked, biting her lip slightly, knowing that this was what the reporter might really ask, but what perhaps Owen had not really prepared for, hoping he wouldn't mind her probing him a little in this manner.
"I'm not sure reconnect is the right word. I'll certainly learn more about him as I go along this process, but perhaps even more importantly I'll connect more with this new side of my family that I haven't known for very long," he replied.
Rory nodded approvingly. It had been a good diversion - if Mitchum was a difficult topic, diverting it to the broader family, perhaps Logan or herself, which was easier to talk about was a good option.
"What do you have to say in your defence to those who claim you don't have enough experience in the field?" Rory asked.
"Being a teacher required me to always keep learning - this just means that instead of glutathione transferase inhibitors or the principles of forging nanoscale chains using nothing but noncovalent interactions, that most of the students I've taught hardly appreciated, that I might get to try something that actually has an impact to the world," Owen said.
"Instead of 'try' say 'do'," Rory commented, helpfully.
"Right," Owen exhaled.
"And try to elaborate a bit, it sounded a bit like you're avoiding the question when you put it like that. It works, but it needs something more," Rory suggested.
"I'll be learning hands-on with a good team by my side?" Owen hesitated.
"Try adding some personality traits maybe?" Rory proposed.
"Quick study?" he said, sounding a little insecure about what she wanted to hear from him.
"Empathic, good communicator, agile, experience in making judicious decisions? You are all these things in a classroom and you don't even know it," Rory added supportively, with a friendly smile.
Rory put down her notes, deciding to trail off from the practice interview a bit.
"How did your school take the news?" Rory asked.
"They weren't happy - science teachers are difficult to find. Mike still doesn't get why I am doing this," Owen replied, referring to his best friend back in Portland.
"But you really do want this - it's not just Logan… or Charlotte pushing you into this, right?" Rory asked, realizing this might backfire.
"It's not like I would've asked for this myself, but I do appreciate the push, I really do. Charlotte sees my potential better than I do, and I think so does Logan. In a way I've always tried to hide, feeling like I was some big secret - so it's weird, you know, like coming out of the closet or something," Owen added, chuckling at the comparison.
"You're the very well-dressed skeleton from Mitchum's closet, alright," Rory noted humorously and checked the time.
Owen raised the corner of her mouth, trying to see this the best possible way. He should've been overjoyous of the fact that his father didn't want to hide him, though the fact that he still had for over three decades still stung a little.
"You realize that you are really helping me too by taking this position, right? This means that Logan can be in the States more and less in London. I really am very grateful - and really - if it doesn't feel right, we'll be the last people to insist you continue, no matter how much easier this makes our lives. I've seen Logan do this against his will in the beginning - there's no fun in that. It took him years to really learn to enjoy it," Rory explained realistically, feeling perhaps a little guilty for how much she was hoping it would work out.
"I'm grateful that you are the one helping me with this," Owen said, letting his nervousness show.
For a second there was a moment - something that brought back memories for them - not of the unfortunate drunken kiss but simply of the way they'd once connected. There was a lot of Logan in him but at the same time something even more rebellious and bolder that Logan had. It was perhaps the knowing that he was capable even without the Huntzberger fortune. Rory truly believed he could do it - Logan had made a small revolution happen in the company, but deep down she believed that perhaps what the HPG needed was something even more drastic and that may have just been what Owen could offer. Logan had gotten the same schooling as Mitchum, with a few detours, Owen, however, had seen a very different side of things, he had the kind of wit that one couldn't get from Ivy league schools and from sitting in at the board meetings for years. Rory simply hoped that he wouldn't be eaten alive by the press and his competition, both the external and internal, and that he'd make it long enough to really believe in himself.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Hunzberger, Mr. Ward - there's a Mr. Shields to meet you. He's waiting at the reception. We've arranged the Park Suite for you to talk in private in," the female concierge interrupted their moment.
"Thank you, Jae," Rory replied, checking her name tag. She'd learned a while ago, from Logan actually, that a personal touch went a long way sometimes and concierges were highly vital contacts to have. "Did you say Shields?" she then asked, half a second later, almost as the woman was about to leave, only then the name really registering.
"Yes, that's right. I didn't catch a first name, sorry," the concierge replied.
"That's alright," Rory said, taking a deep breath.
"You know him?" Owen asked, seeing her going a little pale.
"God, I hope not," Rory sighed, looking visibly uncomfortable. She stood up and soothed over her sweater just in case.
The two walked through the lobby bar towards the reception hall and caught a glimpse of the reception table, where a tall and friendly-looking dark-haired man waited.
"My life can't ever be boring, can it?" Rory muttered to Owen, having really no time to really explain to him that the man doing the interview was no other than her ex-boyfriend Paul.
Owen briefly cast a glimpse at Rory whether he should be panicking but the impression on Rory's face was really nothing other than awkwardness into which she'd squeezed a fake smile.
"Hello!" Paul greeted, adding "Paul Shields," and shook Owen's hand, recognizing him from the picture he'd been sent in advance, putting his professionalism first in this.
"Owen Ward, glad to meet you," Owen greeted, politely.
"Rory! Huntzberger, is it? What a surprise!" Paul only then turned to Rory. He obviously knew where life had led her since they'd broken up, and that wasn't really a great surprise, Rory having appeared in numerous stories herself during the past three years. It was really just embarrassing from Rory's side in this case, as they hadn't really ever been madly in love nor had broken up because of some big drama.
"It's been a while! How have you been?" Rory asked, the fake smile still plastered onto her face.
"Oh, fine," he replied, clearly not wanting to dwell on the past either. Well, technically one could argue whether they really had much of an actual past at all. It had been the most disgraceful relationship she'd ever been in, which she hadn't even had the respect to break off. It was like he'd been a beard of sorts, something she was supposed to have in the early 30s, while in reality she couldn't have cared less. Thinking back at those times made her feel like a horrible person because of it. For a moment she thought, whether the role model she was setting for G, or her own girls was really what she wanted to be setting as the experiences she'd have to share with them really weren't very admirable.
"We should head upstairs," Paul suggested, observing whether Rory was actually planning on joining them for the interview.
"I'll just tag along, I won't bud in, I promise," Rory added, keeping her promise to Owen while she would've much rather just fled. She just needed to rise above this.
Paul shrugged and pressed the elevator button, then focusing his attention solely on Owen. "I hope your journey to New York this morning was a pleasant one," Paul asked, clearly taking the professional route in this, and ignored Rory for the rest of the interview until the goodbyes.
Paul really was a very good journalist, New York Times having once been the holy grail they'd shared. And he'd clearly made it. He asked about the changed dynamics of Owen's family, but tactfully so. He asked what personal assets he was bringing into a company like HPG coming from his background. And besides the obvious questions that Owen had been drilled for, he also asked what directions Owen hoped the HPG would develop in the future. And this was certainly something he hadn't discussed with PR or with Rory or Logan, but what didn't turn out half bad.
"I think scientific publishing is certainly a field that requires a transformation. There's too much of 'publish or perish' which leads to inefficiency. Quality is not being accurately measured, researchers and educators don't have enough time to really take in what has been learned because they're too busy publishing just for the sake of publishing. But it's a field that doesn't just change because the industry changes - it requires cooperation and it starts with the way we teach the youth about information, source criticism, argumentation and so on…," Owen had said, continuing to explain how he hoped that someday he might actually be able to contribute to changing that, keeping the timeframe of any such changes very careful and realistic.
What this sounded like was almost like the second half what Rory had wanted to put into her Master's thesis, which she hadn't gotten to do due to her deadline, having simply skimmed such topics, which meant that Owen's sentence made her genuinely smile, making her almost forget the awkwardness she'd felt because towards Paul an hour ago.
G was sitting at their school cafeteria with Philipa, who'd just bitten into her roasted turkey sandwich. G wasn't feeling terribly hungry and was just barely picking at her broccoli-pesto pasta salad. They had just had one class together all morning and hadn't really talked, hence G was a little worried how much Philipa knew of what had happened on Friday with her and Philipa's siblings, Brody and Rosalie. She really didn't want to discuss any of it, least of all in school.
The silence lingered, and as seconds ticked away, she was beginning to sense that the silence was in part just confirmation enough that Philipa knew something.
"Listen, I don't really know what happened - Brody just sort of hinted to me that you might need a friend. And you don't have to talk to me if you don't want to - but I'm around if you need me - okay?" Philipa finally said, having finished her sandwich.
"Thanks," she replied, keeping her gaze in her salad.
"Did you break up or something?" Philipa asked, unable to hide her curiosity despite just having said what she had.
"We weren't really together, it was just casual - but I think it's through, yes," G replied. She really didn't want to face Brody again, she was embarrassed enough. But she had to admit that suggesting to his sister that she might need someone had been sweet of him, just like helping her out that night. While she was nowhere near ready for it - she realized that maybe one day she might want to thank him for doing what he had.
"We don't have to… but if you want we could go see a movie or something?" Philipa suggested. "They're playing Black Christmas which is supposed to be this sort of horror holiday movie and there's the new Jumanji at the AMC. I mean it's nothing special, but it might be fun," she added with a shrug. What G didn't know was that Philipa didn't have many close friends either, but Philipa hadn't really dared to suggest hanging out before because G was the kind of girl who appeared to have her life together - to have friends outside of the school, older friends, hence really not missing the friendship of someone who, while kind of cool, wasn't exactly popular.
G didn't feel like it, particularly, but she knew she needed to do new things and get out of her mind, thus she did the opposite her mind told her and agreed to go sometime that week.
They were about to clear their trays and head towards their next class - English, when G suddenly got another idea. She needed to do something for herself - so here it went.
"Hey, who did your hair?" G asked. Philipa had recently dyed her hair blorange and cut it into a chin length bob, which suited her perfectly. It was something brave, something just for her - and while it was perhaps a little juvenile - or something women did after their breakups, which usually were notoriously bad - but maybe it was something she needed for a fresh start?
Through some miracle, someone at Philipa's hair salon had cancelled a dye session that same afternoon, hence getting caught up at the idea the two had spent the next couple of recesses going over every cool hair dye option they'd seen, trying to think of what G should get. It was fun, a little reckless and definitely splurging a little, and while all sorts of colorful options and deeply teenager-appropriate ideas had gone through her mind, it had eventually been just a simple ash brown she'd gone with. It made her look years older, and in a way that was what she wanted.
It was Finny who saw her when she stepped through the front door first that evening.
"Gi looks diffelent!" Finny noted, insisting to be picked up.
"Oh hey," Rory called out from the parlor, where she'd just done a quick diaper change on Leigh. The girls were now seemingly in a hurry to grow up themselves, Emma attempting some pre-crawl movements and Leigh having mastered pushing herself on her elbows, Rory already fearing a little that she'd need to grow another pair of hands once they were mobile.
"Hey!" G called out, and hastily hung her coat up and washed her hands, before picking Finny up.
"Wow, that's a new look," Rory commented when she saw her. Besides the ash brown look, with mild balayage, she'd also had her hair cut roughly shoulder length, losing at least 3 inches. "It looks great," she added.
"Thanks," G replied and settled onto the couch, while Finny continued to explore her hair, sitting on her lap. "How did the interview go?" she asked, knowing what Rory had been up to that morning, deciding to instead of going upstairs to hide out, stay out here with Rory and the kids until dinner. It was so much easier to be around Rory now when she didn't need to hide or lie.
There hadn't really been a whole lot Finn could do when it came to talking Charlie out of going to work that morning, despite not looking or feeling too great. What he could offer was to drive her there to and from at the end of her shift, despite it being a short walk away. She'd explained to him again that it was more about being a trustworthy person and that Eryn, the owner, was essentially a nice person and people who were willing to hire backpacker types for short times like she had asked, were worth respecting by not bailing out on them. It was about respect and understanding the employer's position beyond the salary.
It was, however, three hours into her shift, when Finn got a call from Charlie. She'd apparently thrown up and feeling even worse than before. And as working in the food industry and being sick that way really didn't mix, she'd gotten the green light to go home nonetheless.
Finn was there to pick her up no more than ten minutes later, speeding a bit to get there faster. To be honest, he was very worried about her. While he had sisters, he hadn't even witnessed periods being be that bad.
He took Charlie to her apartment, and made sure she had everything at hand, while heading himself back out to the nearest Quick & Ezy to stock up on anything Google suggested him to get.
"To my rescue, again," Charlie mumbled from her bedroom, as she heard Finn return, seeing the pile of junk food he'd gotten her.
"How are you feeling, darling? Anything I can do?" he asked in a worried tone, while putting the ice cream to the freezer for now, being able to just see her from where he was.
"Can you just keep me company?" Charlie asked, ignoring the first half of his question.
Finn felt like Charlie would break if he touched her - how badly exactly was she hurting? But as she insisted, he climbed into bed next to her. Charlie was crouched in the fetal position, her face looking a little pale.
"Is it always this bad? I knew it could be bad - my sister's would be cranky or emotional, but I didn't know it could make you sick like this," he asked with concern.
"Ah… that's another wonderful thing about my dysfunctional uterus, I'm afraid," she replied sarcastically. "Thankfully, it's pretty irregular, so I can sometimes forget about this for a few months," she added with a shrug. That was the silver lining in this.
"If there's seriously anything I could do...," he offered.
"You could try to rub my lower back, it sometimes helps," Charlie said, and turned herself around to her other side with a groan.
Carefully he began to rub her lower back muscles in a circular motion, getting a few grunts of approval in return.
"You can try just above the tailbone too," she suggested, and he complied.
As he finished, he wrapped her back up in a sweater that seemed all too warm for this weather, but she'd insisted on wearing it, and spooned her carefully, placing his hand on her hip and his lips on her shoulder, as if not quite knowing where to touch so as not to hurt her more.
"Thanks," she whispered, and moved his hand to her abdomen, as if assuring that it was okay to hold her.
They both napped for a few hours or so, and it was Charlie who actually woke first, Finn's lack of sleep last night catching up with him, but her changing her side work him too.
"Sorry," she whispered, as he stirred at her movement.
"It's fine, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night," he explained his drowsiness, having yet not explained that his reasons for not sleeping well.
She rested her head on his chest and just lay there, listening to his heart beat. She loved the way that he smelled - it was just inherently him. Maybe those were the pheromones people talked about and that perhaps was what made him so wanted? - she wondered.
"Are you sniffing me?" Finn asked, with a smirk.
"You smell nice," Charlie replied, smilingly.
He chuckled at that response and stroked her upper back.
"Do you want to know what my diagnosis is?" she suddenly asked.
"Yeah?" Finn replied. He'd been curious, as this had come up on a few occasions already, but hadn't really dared to touch the gentle subject himself.
"Well basically what I had was an internal infection which they caught too late, CRP was through the roof," she began. "And because of that my fallopian tubes got blocked - there's a lot of internal scar tissue. One is completely blocked and the other almost. And as if that wasn't bad enough I ended up having an ectopic pregnancy - the egg implanted itself in that right tube that wasn't completely blocked. So they had to do surgery to remove it, essentially that was a miscarriage - it was a tough recover. And as the prognosis was pretty poor that any egg would ever make it to the uterus, rather causing another ectopic one, I had them do a tubal ligation during that same surgery so there wouldn't be any accidents like that again," she explained.
"Sorry. You'd think after all that you'd at least get to forget about this," Finn replied and kissed her forehead.
"Yeah, you'd think…," she snickered.
"I went to give some tests today - for STD-s, things like that," Finn shared. "I'm not suspecting anything - just in case," he assured, still recalling how he'd almost forgotten the condom a couple of days ago.
"I haven't really been with anyone since all that happened, they checked me then," Charlie explained and he had no reason not to believe her, and it was only then he realized that it must be the trust people spoke about - he was taking her word for it.
"I wasn't suggesting you'd need to," he said, for a moment worrying maybe she was getting the wrong idea. "And it doesn't mean we need to stop with the condoms, I just… I just wanted to be sure it was safe," he added.
"It's sweet," Charlie replied. Even if the underlying reason for it wasn't particularly nice to think about, his thoughtfulness was speaking louder than any of it.
"You said, you were jealous before? What brought that up?" Finn asked, that sentence from that morning still haunting him. He didn't recall him acting in any way borderline the entire evening at Cloudland - he's just been friendly.
"There was this woman at the party the other day - she sort of warned me about you - not to get my heart involved… well too late…," Charlie sighed her mouth smiling crookedly. "I don't know… I just figured she was someone you used to know," she added. "But it was like the way you interact with people - women - it just comes so effortlessly, it's so easy to imagine you taking that one step further, or them just making a move on you. I haven't known you that long to know how you'd react in a situation like that. I know it's really just insecurities speaking - that I feel like I'm not as good looking as they are or something… and I know what you'll probably say to this. And you don't need to. I like myself, I really do. But it's like I sometimes feel like you're out of my league or something. I don't know what to do to make that feeling go away," she explained, followed by a sob. "Sorry - it's just the hormones," she apologized, trying to stop herself from crying.
Finn wrapped his arms around her more tightly. "You're so wrong, you know that, right?" he said, hating to see her like this. "You're gorgeous. If anything it's my past that makes me not worthy," he said.
"I'd kiss you, but I should really go brush my teeth first," Charlie said some seconds later, wiping her tears away.
Finn laughed, but appreciated the thought.
"But I wonder who that bloody woman was?!" he then reacted, feeling like he seriously wanted to scold someone. How dare anyone say anything to her that'd make her feel like this?
"Around our age, dark hair, pretty short, wore black silk… or something, seemed to like you, said you were a great guy," she replied.
"Ah..," he reacted, suddenly recalling Archie mentioning Robyn being there. "Well if it was who I think it was you can just ignore her. That's like… 20 years ago ancient history," he said.
"Good," Charlie said. "Because I really don't like to share," she added with a grumpy face, making Finn chuckle.
AN: I'm going on a small trip again, so there maybe some delays in posts for the next couple of days. I hope there won't...
I'm very curious and always happy to read your reviews!