"I am not liking this" Logan said standing behind his desk looking over the draft of the next day's issue.

Rory looked at him frustrated.

"When are you ever liking it?" she asked and she watched as he ignored her remark.

"This one can stay, although I wish you'd spare the drama and just put your name on it. Why is he still working here?" he asked, still not looking up, referring to their argument about Charles Hay.

She rolled her eyes.

"You seriously want to discuss this 12 minutes before deadline?"

He sighed.

"Fine. Then switch these two around, have her rewrite this crap here, and let's drop this other one altogether, this is completely off" he said, still looking at the drafts, gesturing with his hands.

Rory studied him as he talked. He seemed nervous, preoccupied, something she hasn't seen in the last couple of days. Not since his father's been here.

"Is he coming over?" she suddenly asked.

He finally looked up at her.

"My father?" he asked, not even waiting for her reply "I usually care about how the paper turns out either way, but yes, my father is stopping by tonight."

"Well, you shouldn't worry about all this. It is my job, after all. He can talk to me if he has a problem with it" she said determined, taking the drafts out of his hands and walking towards the door.

"Ace" he pleaded with her.

"No. I am sick of this. I feel like for the past week you've been overruling my editing decisions and if you want to do that, fine, but as far as I am concerned, I am still the editor." she said as she opened the door "now, if you'll excuse me, I have a deadline to meet".

He sighed as he watched her shut the door behind her.

He sat in his chair. He was tired. This week has been exhausting for him. It took all of his efforts to try to stay professional with Rory. It was hard to reason with her, hard to convince her of anything. And even if he decided to stick with his decisions it was fucking hard to resist her.

He's been spending all his nights at her place, he practically lived there. No matter how much they argued during the day, he couldn't stay away from her. Plus, weird as it was, he felt this calmness when sleeping in her bed, felt at peace and woke up revitalized.

His other problem was trying to convince Mitchum of sticking with this paper. He was halfway convinced about the paper itself, but he had serious doubts about the editing. Logan felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He looked up as his father burst in the door.

"Well this issue doesn't look any better than the last one" he said "I thought you had some influence on this woman, Logan."

"Please don't start." he replied as he watched his father looking over the drafts.

He was only hoping those were copies and Rory and him didn't have a bloody battle over who gets to look over them.

"Look at this, this whole page is crap. Except for this one article. Who's Charles Hay? Never heard of him"

Logan looked at him with a wry smile.

"That's Rory. She's writing that halfwit's articles pretty much"

"Well maybe she should get back to writing. At least that she's good at" he scoffed.

"Dad"

"This is nonsense Logan. Clearly she's not ready for this yet. She is intelligent and a great talent, but she's too young and she is just not capable of doing this"

"She's been doing alright"

"Well she has to do better than alright to make this paper profitable"

Logan sighed. It was the same fight over and over again.

"Let's let her go" Mitchum said.

Logan slumped back into his chair.

"And lose her as a writer?"

"She can stay as a writer"

"You think she's gonna stay here after you tell her she is not good enough to be an editor?"

"Well, excuse me for not giving a damn about her feelings, Logan, I am not the one fooling around with her"

Logan stared at him, his anger boiling in his eyes.

"The only reason I ever believed in this whole paper was her. Because of her writing. Not because I am fooling around with her. You know she's good, you said it yourself. You shut this paper down, or fire her and she'll be out the door in seconds. And you can bet she'll never work for a Huntzberger publication again."

"Logan" Mitchum said, sitting down in a chair, his voice calmer once again "that's a loss that you have to take sometimes. You know that. You would know that if you weren't so blinded by her."

"I am not blinded by her" Logan interrupted frowning.

"Oh really? Because the way I see it she's convinced you to change your decisions when I know you would have stuck by them any other time. Because I know that with any other writer you would have counted your loss and would have moved on, for the sake of the company."

He paused as he saw Logan lowering his gaze.

"You mean to tell me you would have made the same decisions about this paper if she wasn't the editor?" he questioned.

Logan closed his eyes, frowning.

"You can't let her do this to you" Mitchum continued.

Logan's eyes snapped open.

"She's not doing anything to me, father" he shot back irritated.

"Are you sure?" Mitchum asked him, his voice full of doubt.

"How do you know she hasn't done this all on purpose?" he went on.

Logan sneered.

"For god's sake, she didn't plan this" he hissed.

"How would you know?" Mitchum said, raising his voice again "How would you know?" he repeated, slower.

"What do you know about this woman? Nothing. All you know is she's got a talent for words and she's been incredibly successful in this business for someone so young."

Logan looked at him astonished.

"You think she got this far by..." he couldn't finish.

"I don't know" Mitchum said "how could I? All I know is that she is 32 and an editor of a major paper and she's got you convinced she shouldn't be fired".

Logan sat in silence.

He knew his father, knew his skills to persuade were excellent, knew he carried a hell of an argument. But suddenly it didn't just feel like he was trying to convince him.

Maybe he was right. Maybe he's just been too blind to see it this way. He couldn't imagine Rory planing all this out, but maybe, maybe subconsciously she was... He couldn't finish his thought, his mind was racing.

Or maybe. Maybe it was all planned out. He was replaying scenes in his head, trying to understand it, find a moment in time, as if remembering that one particular detail would make him see things clearly.

"Logan" he heard his fathers voice pulling him back to reality. He sat there, staring at a spot on his desk, his face frozen in a frown and that uncertain feeling returning to his chest. That feeling from the first day, the first time he saw her. He felt like his heart was crumpling up and his head was spinning.

"Logan" he heard his father's voice again.

This time he looked up. He saw him staring at him, with a sympathetic expression on his face as he began to talk:

"Look, I think it would be best if I took over from here. There is a paper down in L.A. I wanted you to take a look at anyway. I'll stay here and will take care of all this. And you... well, you'll have the time to think about... you know, get a perspective."

Logan listened to him without resistance and nodded his head lightly.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She heard the doorbell ring and looked up in anticipation.

It was already midnight and she hasn't seen him leave the office. By the time she finished with the issue, he was already gone. She found it strange but she figured he had a meeting with his father.

She opened the door and smiled as she saw him standing in the doorway. She moved in and gave him a light kiss on the lips.

"Hey" she said casually taking his hand and pulling him inside.

She was surprised to feel him resist. She turned to look at him, questioningly.

He looked like crap, tired and ... there was something else in his eyes that made her feel uneasy.

"What's wrong? Aren't you coming in?"

"No" he breathed the answer as if it were painful for him to speak.

She glanced behind him and saw a cab waiting. She looked at him again, puzzled.

"I have to go to L.A." He finally said.

"What? What do you mean?" she asked astonished.

"There is a paper there I have to look at" he said, his voice serious.

"What about here?" she asked bewildered.

"My father will take over" he stated simply.

"What?" she asked in shock. "What's all this Logan?"

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, then paused as if trying to find the right words.

"It will probably be better this way" he spoke slowly, his breathing heavy.

She felt her legs going week with the uncertainty attacking her "Better?" she huffed.

He closed his eyes and took another breath, not being able to talk anymore.

"What about us?" she asked him, hurt in her voice.

He looked at her with a painful expression on his face.

"I... I don't know" he mouthed the words.

She stared at him, her expression hardening, her chest rising and falling heavily.

"Well don't miss your flight" she hissed as she stepped back inside to slam the door in his face.

He leaned against the door cursing under his breath.

He stood there for a second, then walked down the steps and sat in the cab.

Rory listened through the door as it sped off.