AN: Okay, this is super short, sorry. I was going to put the next scene in this chapter, but then I decided I liked this as a place to stop and the next scene really belongs in the next chapter anyhow since it goes with a different episode from the show. Anyhow, a short chapter now is better than waiting for a longer chapter-right?
"Hi Doyle," Rory greeted her editor as she walked into the Yale Daily News. Well, almost editor. She wasn't officially on staff at the student paper yet. Every freshman needed to write an article for each section before they were accepted.
"Rory, welcome back. Congrats on your first article," Doyle replied, barely breaking stride as he made his way across the newsroom. "Nice take on the lacrosse match."
"Thanks! I'm already working on my next assignment," Rory scrambled to catch up with him. "You're going to love my take on the upkeep of the divinity quadrangle." Doyle finally stopped, realizing that Rory wasn't going away. "Once, back in high school, I got assigned this article on the repaving of the faculty lot and, not to brag, but let's just say, I dug deep and managed to bring tears to people's eyes."
"That's great, Gilmore," Doyle said, his voice belaying his disinterest. "Can't wait to read it." Doyle started to walk away again but stopped short. "Oh no!"
"What?" Rory asked, seeing the sudden terror in Doyle's eyes.
"He's back." Rory turned to the door to see a familiar face walking into the newsroom. She rolled her eyes. She should have known he'd show up here eventually.
"Doyle, my friend!" Logan greeted, reaching out for the editor's hand and shaking it enthusiastically. "You're looking very, very well, how ya been?" Logan seemed completely oblivious to Rory's presence. There was no way he hadn't seen her there, right? She'd been standing right next to Doyle.
"I've been great, Logan," Doyle squeaked uncomfortably. "Great to have you back."
"Yeah, well, I stayed away as long as I could, but the Yale Daily News called to me."
"Oh, sure," Doyle kowtowed. "So how's everything? How's the family?"
"Everything's fine, the family's the family." Logan turned to the desk next to him. "Ah, my desk. Beautiful." He pulled out the rolling chair and sunk down into it, getting comfortable."
"Um, you know, Logan," Doyle hesitated. "I wasn't sure exactly when you were coming back and I actually handed out this week's assignments already."
"That's fine, Doyle, I'll take whatever you've got left."
"Actually, there's none left."
"Perfect, just the one I wanted." Logan breathed a sigh of relief. He'd write if he had to, but that wasn't what he was there for. His real reason was standing 10 feet away. He continued to ignore her. "Relax, Doyle. I'm just here for the pretty picture in my father's head. I'm not going to be any trouble at all."
"Oh, Logan, please," Doyle gave a sycophantic laugh. "You, trouble? Stop!" He clapped Logan on the back. "We're just glad to have you here."
"Careful, Doyle, you might hurt yourself," Logan replied glibly. "Better get back to work, right boss?," he said, turning away from the editor. "Rory." He finally acknowledged her. "Nice to see you."
Doyle strode quickly across the room to Rory. "You know Logan? How do you know Logan?"
That was a story Rory didn't want to get into. The last thing she needed was her past relationship with Logan getting in the way of her aspirations at the paper. "My grandparents introduced us," she evaded.
"You're not friends, are you?"
"No, not friends." Not anymore.
"That guy's a real piece of work. He was supposed to take the year off with a bunch of his friends. He was going to sail Daddy's yacht around till he sank it."
"I think I heard something about that." She really wanted to stop talking about Logan. She glanced over to see Logan leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk, a fedora resting over his eyes to drown out the light. Why was he ignoring her? Was he finally over her?
"You know, I've spent two years kissing Logan's butt. Guess it's time to pucker up again. Man, I hate those kinds of guys."
"What kind of guys?" Rory rolled her eyes. If Doyle knew anything about Logan he'd know he didn't want to be sucked up to. Logan needed to be challenged.
"Privileged, white, males."
"Doyle, you're a privileged, white, male," Rory snapped back. A little piece of her shuddered. This was the man responsible for making sure she got on the paper. She didn't need to piss him off. But she was annoyed, and she wanted out of this conversation. Not to mention sucking up to Doyle at this point would be more than a little hypocritical of her considering her inner monologue from just a few seconds ago.
"Yeah, well he's richer…and way whiter. Why am I talking to you?"
"I was just telling you about the piece I'm working on."
"Oh, well it sounds great. Better get to work."
"Thanks, boss." Doyle walked away.
Rory looked back at Logan who was still ignoring her. She looked over at one of the empty desks the recruits shared. She should go work on her piece. She started walking, but the next thing she knew, she was in front of Logan.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed.
Logan took the hat off his head and looked up at her, his signature smirk in place. "I'm on staff. I work here." He shrugged nonchalantly.
"Well then, work. There are people who actually want to be here you know."
"Oh, I want to be here," he promised.
"Ugh, you are so infuriating."
"How was your date last week," Logan segued. "Was he a proper gentleman—pick you up at the door? You didn't let him kiss you, did you? You gotta make a guy work for it, Ace."
Oh my god! She knew word would get back to him. Stephanie had been right; once Colin knew she needed help picking out an outfit on a Saturday night, it wasn't a far leap to 'date'. Still, Logan could at least try to act like a decent human being about it.
"My dating life is none of your business," she hissed. The truth was her date had been a total bust. Not that it had anything to do with Trevor. He was a gentleman. She was a spaz. Lorelai had been right; Rory knew nothing about dating. She'd forgotten the names of his siblings as soon as he'd said them, she didn't know where to sit, and she had spent at least five minutes rambling on about "urine mints." Logan didn't need to know any of that. The last thing she needed was Logan knowing the whole embarrassing story. That's why she'd only told Stephanie that it didn't work out and kept mum on the details. It's not that she didn't trust her friend with the information, but Logan could be awfully persuasive. The less Steph knew, the better.
"Hey," Logan held his hands up in a mea culpa. "I was just offering a little, friendly advice. I know how guys think, after all."
"I don't need your advice, friendly or otherwise. I need you to leave me alone."
"Umm, you came over to my desk and interrupted my nap," Logan reminded her. "The bustling sounds of a newsroom always put me to sleep."
"You're not here to work on the paper, and you're not here to nap. You're here to get under my skin. And Doyle's too by the way. Your mere presence has turned him into a sniveling pile of goo, you know."
"It's thoughtful of you to be so concerned about Doyle," Logan countered with a smirk. She was right, he was there to get under her skin and clearly it was working beautifully.
"I don't need you distracting me. It's bad enough I can't find a decent place to study, I don't need you ruining the one place I actually can get work done."
"You know, Ace, they have these things called libraries. Now, I've never been to any of them, but I'm told there are, like, 15 on campus and they're supposed to be excellent places to study."
"The libraries are too big, and drafty, and quiet. And I can't study in my room because Janet squeaks and Tanna wants to watch TV on a ladder with her ear up against the speaker and Paris is Paris. I had a study tree but then some stupid guy stole it so he could read his Trucker's Weekly magazine. And now this is the only place I have left, so you need to leave."
"What's a study tree?" Logan asked with a laugh. She was cute when she rambled.
"It's the perfect study spot, is what it is. It fits my back perfectly so I don't get tired, and the light is right, and it's just far enough away from anything busy so that the noise level is perfect, and it's quiet but not Unabomber, and…why am I telling you this? It's none of your business."
"Clearly."
"Please just go away, Logan."
Logan shrugged. "Okay." He pushed his chair back, letting his feet fall back to the ground.
Rory looked at him suspiciously. "Really?"
"Really." Logan agreed.
"That easily? What's the catch?"
"No catch," Logan said, standing up. "You want me gone, I'm gone." Besides, Logan had some real investigative work to do. He had to hunt down a study tree.
Rory strode through the Quad, bag over her shoulder and an arm full of books. She was going to reclaim her tree. There was no other choice. She had tried to find another place to study. She went back to her dorm and tried to tune Paris and Janet out but those two were impossible. She'd gone to the library again but the quiet was deafening. She'd tried one of the on-campus cafés, but all she could concentrate on was the 30 different brews of coffee on the chalkboard behind the counter. She even went home to Stars Hollow but her mother and Sookie had turned her room into a tart emporium.
She had managed to get through her article after Logan left the Daily News, but it hadn't been easy. And studying was a completely different game then writing. The hustle and bustle of the newsroom was motivating when she was working on something for the paper; it was distracting when she was trying to learn about Game Theory.
So, she was determined to get her tree back. If Trucker Dude was still there, she'd simply apologize. If she was contrite enough, maybe he'd feel sorry for her and give it back. And if that failed, she wasn't above bribery. It couldn't cost more than the five cups of coffee she'd bought at that café.
As she approached the tree, she spotted a leg sticking out from behind it. Damn. He was still here. Well here goes nothing, she thought to herself.
"Excuse me," she started, but as she rounded the tree she realized the current occupant was not who she expected.
"Really?" she sighed exasperatedly. "I suppose you expect me to think it's a coincidence that you just happen to be sitting on my tree?"
"No coincidence."
"How the hell did you even know which tree was mine?"
"You're saying 'hell' now? I think we've been a bad influence on you, Ace. And really, you think word of a crazy chick harassing a guy over a tree isn't going to get around? Believe me, it wasn't hard to pin down." Logan stood up and handed Rory a cup of coffee. She glowered at it. Under normal circumstances, coffee would be hard to resist, but she was still riding the buzz from the coffee house.
"You're not going to try to hold this tree hostage until I agree to go out with you, are you?" she asked suspiciously.
"What? No. I know how important school is to you, I'm just saving your spot, trying to help a girl out."
"You really expect me to believe this is completely selflessly motivated?"
"Well, I was hoping for a few brownie points…which reminds me…" Logan moved the coffee to his left hand and opened his messenger bag with his right, digging through until he pulled out a cellophane wrapped package with a red ribbon on it.
Rory rolled her eyes. "You want brownie points for buying me brownies?"
"Not bought, Ace. No, these are the real, hand-made deal. I didn't even use a mix."
"You baked?" Rory looked at the package like it was going to explode.
"Yep!"
"And you expect me to eat them?"
"Yeeeees…" Logan replied uneasily.
"What, you think the food poisoning will lower my defenses and in my fever induced delirium I'll agree to go out with you again?"
Logan laughed. "These are perfectly safe, I promise you. I had Finn taste test them first. He assured me they are gooey and delicious—though he'd have preferred salted caramel—and 24 hours later he is still alive and afebrile. He did throw up once last night, but I'm fairly certain that was from the half bottle of scotch he drank, and not from the brownies."
"If I take them, you'll go away?"
"For now."
"Logan!" Rory rebuked.
"I'm not giving up, Ace," Logan replied. His voice sincere and determined.
"I see that," Rory sighed.
"I hurt you, and I'm sorry for that. But I want a chance to make it up to you, I miss you, Ace."
"I miss you too," Rory replied sadly.
"So come on; come out with me," Logan pleaded.
Rory stood silently for a moment, contemplating the man in front of her. She wanted to say yes. She wanted it with every fiber of her being. But she couldn't. She didn't trust him. She didn't trust herself when it came to him.
"I'm sorry, Logan."
Logan nodded slowly, taking in her answer. "I'll leave," he said, holding out the brownies and coffee cup. "But I'm not going anywhere, Rory. Not this time. You're not just some whim for me. I care about you."
Rory took the food and beverage without a word.
"I'll see you around, Ace," Logan said with a sad smile.
Rory sunk down to the ground and leaned her back against the tree. How was she supposed to get any studying done now?
AN: See, the ice is cracking. Rory can't stay mad at Logan forever-she's never been any good and withstanding his charms. Also, I thought I had matured past the point of begging for reviews, but I was wrong. I sooooo love all of the wonderful feedback you, my awesome readers, give me. Please, please leave a review.