Another double update! Posting this one as well because it has been a while and it's kind of a shortie :) Please enjoy and make sure you check out CH7 before you read this one. Love :))


The next day, Rory was sitting at her desk at the Gazette, nervously kicking its leg. Esther's withering stare made her stop. "Sorry," she offered a weak apology, not noticing she had absent-mindedly begun tapping the tip of her ball pen against the desk. Esther huffed in dismay. "Man. Sorry. Nervous."

A few hours earlier, Jess had texted her that he had sent her manuscript to his partners at Truncheon. They had a consensus-based system, where they would only publish works that all three of them agreed were worth publishing. Jess had explained it to her the previous night. He also said that knowing them about as well as he knew himself, he didn't foresee any trouble getting them on board. Didn't stop her from constantly feeling like biting her fingernails, a nasty nervous habit she had trained herself out of when she was ten. She unlocked her phone, turned it off, unlocked it again, let out a breathy urgh, threw it in her desk drawer and slammed it shut, only to open it again after thinking she heard it ring.

She took a deep breath. She shouldn't be wasting her time like that. She shook her head and clicked 'save' on the piece she was currently editing, a pretty decent one by a high school senior Rory had been grooming since she was a sophomore, Clarissa. She marked an entire paragraph, making a mental note to praise Clarissa for her fresh take on the already-thoroughly-chewed matter at hand, homophobic behavior among teens in small towns, and then her phone rang, startling her, and she accidentally erased the entire passage. Frantically hitting the 'undo' button until the disappearing paragraph deigned to reappear, looking somewhat insulted by the incident, Rory opened her drawer and picked up the phone without even looking at it to see who it was.

"Hello?"

"Well, if it isn't Ms. Confidentiality." Emily Gilmore's voice came out ice cold. Rory's heart sank. Of course. She forgot to tell her grandmother.

"Grandma, I'm so sorry I didn't call you, I-"

"My own granddaughter and great-granddaughter's house burns to the ground, and I have to hear about it from Beatty Charleston?"

"Well, actually, grandma, it didn't exactly burn to the ground, the fire department said-"

"Oh, right. Why should I assume anything I know about it is in fact correct? Anything else you want to share? Perhaps you've fled and taken shelter in Mexico?"

"No, no tacos and handsome Spanish speaking men around here," Rory attempted a faint joke, but Emily must have picked up on something sincere in her voice, because her next few words came out softer.

"How is Sylvie doing?"

"She's fine, grandma. She was a little shocked at first, but mom and Luke are helping us so much, and she's having a blast living in mom's house."

"Good. And you, are you alright?"

Emily's concern struck a chord in Rory's chest, and she fought off a couple of tears as she replied, "Yes, Grandma, I'll be fine."

"And you know that the two of you are welcome here at any time."

This was more of a statement than a question. The Emily Gilmore way. "Yeah, I do. Thank you, Grandma. I'm so sorry you had to hear about it from Beatty. I feel awful."

"It's all forgotten, Rory." Her grandmother assured her. "I plan on coming to see you sometime soon. It certainly already has been too long, and with everything that's been going on with the two of you… I'll wait until the dust settles, of course,you should have all the time you need to attend to the matters at hand without disturbance, but I'm coming to see you not a moment after that."

"Grandma, you're never a disturbance. You know that."

"Come, now," Rory could hear Emily's smile in her voice. "Goodbye, Rory. I'll see you soon."

"Bye, grandma."

She hung up, feeling both scolded and relieved. There was nothing quite like a call from the oldest Gilmore girl to set your priorities straight. Jess will call when he calls, whatever will be, will be. Rory took a deep breath and forced herself to collect her thoughts and re-concentrate on Clarissa's piece, only for her phone to ring once again two seconds later. Her thoughts scattered all over the place, her anxious mind flying at the speed of light. Was it Jess? Was it Emily again? Was it her mom? Was something wrong with Sylvie? Was it Luke? Was something wrong with her mom?

Incoming call: Logan Huntzberger, the display read.

Logan? "Hello?"

"Hey, Ace." He sounded off. She could tell from the first syllable that left his mouth.

"Hi, yourself." She replied, trying to calculate his intentions. "How's the vineyard?"

"Actually, I'm not there. Odette took the children."

"Oh," Rory felt honestly baffled. "Why didn't you-"

"Rory, I need to see you. I need to see Syl. I haven't slept a full night since we talked the other day, I can't stop thinking how much worse everything could've ended up."

"Logan, I…"

"Ace, please." He sounded almost desperate, which shook her to her core.

"Logan, you know our door is always open to you." She reminded him of the deal they had made all those years ago. "I will never prevent you from seeing Syl."

"Thank you, Ace," He breathed.

"When were you planning on getting here?"

"Actually," Rory turned around, her heart pounding, to face a tired looking, smiling Logan, who in turn hung up the phone and placed his luggage on the floor of the Stars Hollow Gazette. "I was thinking, today. If that's okay with you."

"Never without a big gesture and a grand entrance," Rory smiled as she got up, sticking her hands in her pockets as she neared him with cautious steps.

Logan smiled, that same smile that never failed to make her skin tingle with excitement, and spread his arms for a hug. "Only for you, Ace."