Chapter 13

Despite a handful of people knowing there was something going on between the two, they were hardly flaunting it at this point, and that especially went for the newsroom.

Rory was working on a plan B story she'd come up with on Sunday on the topic of the Yale Museum of Art - it had taken her just a couple of e-mails to answer a question only few thought about - How did a museum get its content? Not her best work but good enough for a backup. It was not that she didn't trust Logan, she trusted him more than she felt she should all things considered, but she was never really the one to like to put all of her eggs in one basket. Not since her last year of Chilton at least.

She struggled to fight her smile as she saw Logan waltz into the newsroom, having missed the morning meeting, his attitude, like he owned the room, showing in his walk. She knew that he knew that she didn't appreciate his cocky behavior much in the context of the paper, but she understood that especially today he needed to stick to it for this to work.

"Hi, Ace!" Logan typed as he'd sat down at his desk, surprising her by IM-ing her. That was a first.

"Hi!" she replied, glancing over, getting a glance of his smug smile in return.

"I'm sending over my pieces now," Logan typed, giving her the all clear like they'd talked. At this point they didn't yet have access to the server from their personal computers, things were moved around by memory drives.

"What about the interviews?" Rory had managed to type but there was no response.

A few nimble keystrokes later, Logan looking satisfied with his plan coming together, and clearly having not read her last message, rose and walked over to Doyle's corner with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Hey, Doyle. I sent over the stories you asked for just now, take a look! My apologizies fot the delay, you know how it is..." Logan declared.

Doyle's mouth fell open, and for the two of them, in on the plan, it was quite a sight.

"Now, isn't that wonderful…," Doyle began, not quite believing his ears, and opened up the shared folder where people deposited their stories for him.

Doyle nodded approvingly, his eyes wide, seeing … Rory didn't know exactly what she was seeing, and being curious herself, she opened the same folder on her computer and saw it. Logan had uploaded six stories. Six! And not short ones - but really proper lengthy ones. Had he been seriously sitting on these? It didn't fit in her head why he hadn't just submitted them ages ago. The topics varied from cultural observations to opinion pieces, most of them though being not really that time sensitive. They weren't sloppy either, only enforcing her opinion of Logan as a good writer.

"Are we done here? I have some place I need to be…," Logan said, gesturing towards the door.

"Uh-uh, sure, Logan. Come again!" Doyle called after him, Logan already being halfway out the door.

Rory nearly forgot what the mission was, and it took seeing Logan out in the hallway reminding her with his facial expression to remind her.

"Here goes nothing…," Rory mumbled to herself, stood up and headed over to Doyle's desk.

"Gilmore?" Doyle asked, his eyes on his computer screen, sensing her presence.

"About the secret societies piece…," Rory began, sounding hesitant.

"So… how's the story coming?" Doyle asked, swinging around in his swiddle chair to face her, expectantly.

Rory suddenly remembered Logan's pep-talk from the other day and she swallowed her hesitance.

"I think I'm onto something big, really-really big," Rory said, excitedly.

"Are you now? Here I was thinking you were asking for an extension..," Doyle chimed, raising the corner of his mouth, nearly ruining Rory's act.

"I've got a contact," Rory said, hoping he'd take the bite.

"Inside?" Doyle asked, a spark in his eyes awakening.

"Deep inside," Rory confirmed.

"Who?" Doyle asked.

"Anonymous. Don't ask again," she replied.

"Your call," Doyle replied, continuing to walk across the room to get a some papers from another student.

"I'm going to tell this story from the inside," Rory continued eagerly.

"You'll be careful?" Doyle asked, almost making Rory laugh.

"Careful enough," Rory replied.

"Well, stay on it," Doyle said.

Rory replied. "But…," she began.

"How much time do you need?" Doyle asked, realizing her next question.

"Until next week? I might even get another source from the first one if I'm lucky," Rory added, making that part up.

"At least a 1000, no make that 1500 words, and it better be worth it," Doyle requested.

"You bet!" Rory agreed, already feeling the pressure.

"I love this," Doyle replied, having kept a nice pace with this negotiation, while getting a number of other small tasks done in the meanwhile through the newsroom. "We just had a very 'All the President's Men' moment," he added, approvingly.

"Very," she replied.

"Moving around the newsroom like that - felt good," Doyle added.

"Let's do it again sometime," Rory agreed.

"Now?" Doyle asked, almost hopefully,

"Might look silly," Rory said, tilting her head.

"Carry on," Doyle replied.

"Right, Chief," Rory said, hoping it'd be appreciated.

After Rory had finished things up at the newsroom and headed off to two of her classes that day she walked back towards her dorm, wondering whether she should give Logan a call. She still wasn't entirely comfortable calling him just like that - in fact she hadn't called him not once so far, never having really had the reason for it. But she certainly didn't want to come off clingy this soon - after all she'd just seen him this morning and surely he too had classes and things to do.

She was just searching for her keys at her door, when a delivery boy walked by, reading out room signs.

"This is H10, right?" he asked, carrying a box of donuts and a tray of coffee.

"Yeah, it is," Rory replied, gesturing at the label.

"I have a delivery for Rory?" he asked hesitantly.

"Oh, that's me," she replied, having not expected anything, and got her key out. "Can you just hold that for a sec," she asked and unlocked her door, feeling relieved to find Paris out somewhere.

She took the food from him, thanked him and backed her way into the dorm room, flipping the lights on with her elbow, and pushed the door closed behind her with her foot.

Her first instinct was to assume the food from her mother, or perhaps even her dad - sending study snacks being their kind of thing to do. But as she finally set the handful of things down she checked the note that was stuck inside the donut box.

"Ace, I didn't know which ones you liked so I got your one of each. Enjoy! I'm out of town this week, but I'll be back this weekend. I'd keep your eyes open and the weekend schedule flexible if I was you.. And don't worry about the interviews - they'll come to you," the note said, signed by 'Logan'.

She was a little puzzled by the note - the part about keeping her eyes open and the interviews, but appreciated the food. It felt special that he'd thought about her, and it certainly felt more personal than just a voicemail or a quick call.

She ate one of the chocolate donuts right then and there, needing a sugar fix and gulped down a few large sips of her coffee, aiming to return to the couch to read for tomorrow's class. Before that she just wanted to change out of her clothes into something more comfortable.

She almost didn't notice it, the light being set on low in her room.

Rory opened the window, seeing the manila envelope with her name on it stuck on the outside of it.

She could assume that this was one of Logan's tricks, though she did wonder why he hadn't handed her it in person. Or along with the good. After all - she knew he was in the Life and Death Brigade, even his hint at the former note making it clear as day.

"Be in your vestibule at four Saturday, blindfolded - The LDB," the fancy handwritten note said, and the envelope also held a black silky blindfold. It felt silly all things considered, but with the giddiness she felt in the bottom of her stomach, she felt excited and willing to go along with it.

Besides, she couldn't wait to see Logan again. Group or no group.