She Ain't My Blood, But She's My Girl

Chapter 40

Rory and Harper stayed on the phone for a couple of hours last night discussing the changes that would be made. Because of this and Rory fixing Simon's mess, she got to bed late. Logan put Mia to bed. Which was what Mia and Logan both wanted. Logan brought Rory supper to the office. He told her that IT will be here tomorrow to run some more lines to give her access in the office as well as in the bedroom. This will give her more options later in her pregnancy.

They were on their way to the City. Logan had been on his phone since he got in the car. Rory and Mia talked about making plans for this weekend. Mia wanted to go to the zoo. This is because Uncle Finn called the first of the week to check on them and he mentioned the zoo. Rory was going to have to let Finn and Logan take her. She could not stomach the smell.

They dropped Mia off. Rory walked her in and talked with her teacher for a few minutes. When she returned to the car, Logan was off the phone for the first time since they left the house. She told Logan about Finn and his zoo comment. He agreed to call Finn and ask if he wanted to meet him and Mia at the zoo Saturday.

Logan got out at the Times with Rory. When the elevator got to her floor, he kissed her and told her he would see her in a few. He then went on up to the executive floor, where he was meeting with Dean before the weekly meeting.

When Rory got to her office, she told Harper to follow. She wanted to talk to her some more about the change in jobs. She was making a list of things they needed to talk about. She told Harper to do the same, with both jobs. She wanted her to make a list of questions for Rory as well make a list for Harper's replacement. They were deep in discussion when Rory's door opened. It was Simon. The first thing Rory did, it was out of habit, was look at her watch. The meeting was in 30 minutes and he was just getting to the office.

"Simon," Rory said. "We have a meeting with Dean in 30 minutes. Have you got the reports ready? I didn't find them on my desk this morning." Rory told him. Simon looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"I….I left them on your desk," He said. He is getting his confidence back. "You left early, maybe someone moved them." He said looking at Harper. Harper was busy printing the summary of the reports for the meeting. Her head shot up.

"I hope you are not insinuating that I did something with the reports. I am aware of how important these reports are, unlike some people." Harper said as she went back to working on getting the pages printed.

"Well I don't know what happened to them," He said, flopping down in one of the chairs in front of Rory's desk. Rory was watching him. He didn't seem to care. She looked at her watch. They had about 20 minutes. She always likes to get to her meeting early.

"Simon, I think we have a problem. I had hoped to talk with you before the meeting, but we seem to be running out of time. I found the report on my desk last night. You made a mess of the reports. I spent most of the night fixing them. To say that I was unhappy is an understatement. We will discuss this after the meeting. Go straighten your clothes. I will see you in the meeting." They both stood up. Rory headed to her private washroom. She closed the door, Simon was looking down at his shirt and tie, He was running his hands over it to try to get the wrinkles out. He also had a spot of breakfast on this shirt.

Rory knocked on the door frame of the conference room on the executive floor. Logan and Dean were talking, she didn't want to interrupt. They both motioned for her to come in. Harper was not too far behind her. After she got seated, Logan brought her a water and a muffin. Others started to slowly enter and take a seat. Everyone was grabbing muffins, water, coffee, and/or donuts.

Before Dean started the regular meeting, he welcomed Logan as CEO of HPG. Logan had met all the department heads when HPG bought out the Time. Logan was in the middle of his little speech, telling them to relax, he wasn't here to fire anyone. He explained he had a meeting with Dean after this one and just thought he would sit in on this meeting. Before he could finish, the door opened up and Simon entered. Logan has the same habit that Rory has. He stopped and looked at his watch, noting that it was 10 minutes after the original start time for the meeting.

Logan turned the meeting over to Dean. Dean continued with the meeting. He purposely left Rory's department for last. Rory had asked her two assistant editors to attend this meeting and the next one.

When everyone was finished giving their reports and discussing problems and or changes that needed to be made, Dean dismissed everyone with the exception of Rory's department. When everyone filed out of the room, Rory turned to the two assistant editors and asked them to take a 10-minute break and then return to the conference room. They both nodded and left the room.

Rory turned to Simon. She took a deep breath before she started to speak, this was a habit she had gotten into after her pregnancy started to show. Simon spoke up before she could say anything.

"Is this some kind of shanghai?" he asked, trying to take the edge off the tension in the room. Rory was staring at him.

"No, I have no intention of shanghaiing you. I want to talk to you about the report I left for you to do while I was out of the office." Rory told him. He rolled his eyes. Logan saw this and raised an eyebrow. Who did he think he is? Logan thought. "I walked you through this very report last week. You told me that you understood. I know that sometimes it takes more than one time to be shown, but when I asked you to do the report alone, while I was out of the office, you called me five times. I finally had to turn my phone off. When I asked you Wednesday about the report you told me you had it all under control. I asked you to leave it on my desk so that I could review it before today. It was not on my desk when I left. Harper had to bring it to me. It was a mess, I don't think you comprehended anything you did last week. I spent all night last night fixing this." Rory stopped to take a breath and to choose her word carefully, but he interrupted.

"I'm sorry, I guess I did not understand as well as I thought I did, but I did go by your office Wednesday for you to help, but you had already left for the day," Simon said. He was acting like he was telling on her for being out of the office. Before Rory could say anything else, Harper spoke up.

"You were told Wednesday morning that Rory would be out of the office after lunch. I called you to ask you if you needed help, you told me that you could handle it, you told me to go back to answering phones and getting coffee for Rory." Harper said. She was staring at him. She refused to blink. She had brothers. This was nothing compared to them.

"You didn't tell me that part," Rory said. Laughing and shaking her head.

Dean was sitting at the head of the table, tapping his fingers on the table. "I think," Dean started. "That it is best for you to return to your previous department. Take the rest of the day off and Friday. Take you a long weekend. When you return Monday, report to Chris, your old boss. He will have your assignment." Simon was looking at Dean and processing what he was saying. A smile came across his face. He got up, told them to have a good weekend, he would see them Monday, and left the room.

The four of them sat there for a second or two. Then Rory spoke up. "I need a five-minute break." She said and stood up. Logan stood up to follow, she turned around and told him that she had to pee and he couldn't help. This caused Harper to laugh, although she was trying not to.