A/N: Thank you for your reviews, as always. I love to hear that people are reading and enjoying my writing. I've got this story mapped out for many more chapters to come, so I hope you stick with me!
Chapter 9 – Sheep monitor
Rory struggled with her new key, trying to juggle her bag and coffee mug while unlocking the shiny deadbolt on the building's front door. Jermaine had dropped the key in her office earlier that afternoon, using his smile to get through her reluctance and general unhappiness about her new security reality. And the agent's smile was pretty effective, she had to admit. Even Angelique, who she knew to be a very happily married woman, took a few extra seconds to appreciate the view he presented as he walked out.
The lock gave way relatively easily, letting her into the foyer cum lobby. The other two renters in the building were also given new keys, she was told, along with a discreet background check by the friendly Secret Service. Once through her own apartment's front door, after battling with another new deadbolt, she came face to face with her state-of-the-art alarm system.
Rory scrambled in her pocket for the post-it Jermaine had given her, spurred on by the panel's ominous beeping. The supplied 1-2-3-4-5 code seemed too simple to be effective, but thankfully the beeping stopped and she could breathe normally again. As instructed, she pushed the Home button to secure the doors and windows, but leave the motion sensors inactive, and started dropping her purse, coat and shoes on her way through to the kitchen.
The coffee machine was always pre-loaded and ready to go, and she turned it on, needing a cup rather badly after her long day. While she waited for the water to start dripping, she pulled out her phone, surveying the emails that had arrived on her commute home. She was busy typing a response to the Wall Street Journal's International Business section head when the phone rang in her hand. The caller showed as 'Private', but that wasn't unusual in DC. Still, she was slightly apprehensive as she answered.
"Hello?"
"Rory, it's Agent Wells."
She breathed a sigh of relief and sagged against the counter. "Oh, hi. I just got home. Everything worked fine, thank you."
He cleared his throat. "I know."
"You do? How did you—"
"Your alarm panel is wired to the monitoring company, but also to the Secret Service operations office."
She rolled her eyes, praying for the coffee machine to hurry up. "Of course it is."
"It's just in case of emergency, which we're not anticipating. But it's better to be safe."
"Right. So everyone in your office will know when I come and go from my own home?"
"Well, only if they're really looking." He had the decency to sound apologetic. "If you have time now, I'll walk you through changing the code to something you'll remember."
Rory pulled a mug from the cupboard and tapped her fingers on the counter. That coffee really couldn't finish soon enough for her.
"I think I'll remember 1-2-3-4-5 just fine."
Jermaine cleared his throat again. "That's just the factory setting. You need something harder to guess, otherwise there's no point."
"Oh. Right." She sighed, his tone making her feel a like a little kid that you had to explain things to very simply and slowly. "Ok, sure. Let's do that now."
His instructions were easy to follow, and after a few seconds of thinking, she decided on a new code and inputted it into the control panel.
"I'm sure you know this, but don't tell anyone else the code, and don't write it down anywhere."
Rory wanted to respond in the sarcastic voice running through her head, but then she remembered he was just trying to be helpful. And none of this was his fault to begin with.
"I won't. Thanks again, Jermaine. I'm feeling much safer already."
"Well, that's my job."
She could hear him smiling, and found it hard to stay annoyed with him for this intrusion into her life.
"If anything happens, day or night, I want you to call my cell, ok? Even if I'm off duty, it will get routed to my coverage."
"Ok. Thank you again for everything." She hoped with everything she had that she would never need to use that number, but it was nice to know there was someone looking out for her.
"Anytime."
They both paused, and Rory felt like she should make some sort of apology for her stubbornness. He really was going out of his way to worry about her situation, taking it on in addition to his regular workload.
"So, I guess the President probably doesn't complain like this when you tell him he can't go and get a burger whenever he wants, hmm?"
Jermaine laughed sharply. "Are you kidding? POTUS sneaks out more than you might imagine. His personal detail has a hell of a time… shit."
"What?"
"I shouldn't have said any of that." He sounded anguished that he might have revealed more than he should have, somehow compromising the President's security.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything," Rory rushed to reassure him. "I've seen the In and Out bags in the trash outside his office. His love of burgers is well known, trust me."
"Yeah, well, I just meant that no one takes it well when their freedoms are restricted to keep them safe. Not even him."
She smiled as she considered the President being told he couldn't do something. "Good to know I'm nothing special, then."
"I wouldn't say that."
Rory's eyes widened as she realized what he'd said. Combined with his tone, there was an implication that was completely unexpected, and she really wasn't sure how to handle it. After waiting for what was probably 2 seconds too long, she chickened out and decided to avoid the topic altogether.
"I'll probably see you around tomorrow, then."
"Maybe. I'm working in the afternoon."
Was she crazy, or did he sound disappointed? But he couldn't possibly mean…
"Goodnight Rory."
"Ok. Bye, Jermaine."
She hung up quickly and stared at her phone, as if she could interpret his meaning just by watching her own reflection in the screen. Surely he was just being friendly. Granted, she'd never had a security advisor before, but she didn't imagine it was kosher for them to have any sort of personal relationship. And why was she even worrying about this? She had Jess. Didn't she?
Jess.
He still hadn't texted her today as he'd promised. She had tried not to be consciously waiting all day, but found herself regularly checking her phone anyway. Maybe he'd forgotten. Maybe he was just busy. Maybe whatever was happening between them didn't mean as much to him as she thought. Maybe he was out with another girl and was too busy being interested in her…
Stop. Just stop.
Rory followed her nose back to the finished pot of coffee and left her doubts with the alarm panel by the front door. Just the smell made her shoulders relax. She really didn't want to stay awake any longer than absolutely necessary, but coffee was more of a comfort than a stimulant at this point. As she sipped, she tried to wipe out the memory of her day.
The Benghazi Congressional Hearing had been going since the early morning and while she didn't technically work for Secretary Clinton, the White House was predictably very interested in how things were proceeding. She must have called the Press Corps together a dozen times throughout the day to speak on various items that had come to light. After all those questions, and all that attention, she was exhausted.
To make matters worse, she hadn't slept particularly well the night before. Her brain was too wound up in whatever was developing between her and Jess to shut down long enough to let sleep happen. In between briefings today, she had found herself running their last conversation over and over in her head. She had definitely been more forward than was normal for her, but as she got older she felt less need to be coy or shy about her feelings.
So much for not thinking about it.
Rory brought her mug down onto the counter with a little too much force and the black liquid slopped over the edge.
"Perfect," she muttered, reaching for the paper towel.
As she tore off a sheet, she noticed a red light winking at her from the corner of the kitchen.
Motion sensors. Wonderful.
Even here, close to her coffee sanctuary, she was being watched. Well, not watched exactly, but monitored. The thought of it still gave her the creeps. It was just another reminder that she wasn't a small town girl anymore. Her mother had regularly left their back door unlocked, much to Luke's horror. But that was just life when the whole town's population was less than 5,000.
Now, she always felt like someone was watching her. At work there was constant surveillance, for obvious reasons. And at home, where she was supposed to feel free to do whatever she wanted, agents sitting somewhere in an office on the 2nd floor of the West Wing could monitor her comings and goings by the times she logged into her security system.
All this oversight didn't make her feel safe, however. Instead, it just made her angry; at her stalker, at this big city, at the world in general for being so anonymous and scary that things like security systems and motion detectors were a necessary part of life.
With that thought at the front of her mind, she wandered across the hall and into the bathroom. A quick glance at the ceiling reassured her that they weren't spying on her while she showered.
Ooh. A shower. Now that might actually help.
She just needed a good night's sleep, and then she'd be able to think logically about her life and any almost-relationship, whatever-it-was. There was no point in circling around it again and again in her mind while she was insomniac-tipsy. And what better way to relax before bed than a nice hot shower?
The bathroom was one of the things she loved most about her apartment. The room wasn't big, certainly, but it was luxurious. In place of a bathtub there was a sizeable stand-up shower, wrapped in marble with a sparkling glass door. The marble continued onto the floor in a small mosaic, mimicking what had probably been there when the building was originally built. The best feature, she had decided, were the heated floors. There was nothing quite as heavenly as stepping out onto warm tile on a cold morning.
When she moved in, Lorelai had expressed her doubts, concerned about the lack of a tub. But Rory wasn't upset. She had never enjoyed soaking in her own dirty water, and so she and the shower were a match made in bathing heaven. Thankfully, each suite had its own hot water tank, otherwise she would have been very unpopular with her neighbours.
Rory sat on the little tile bench and let the hot water scorch away her problems, at least for a short while. Every time a thought about Jess, or work, or a lurking stalker surfaced in her mind, she drove it away. She tried to keep her mind deliberately blank, or focused on physical things like how the water felt, or how the tiles were going to make a strange pattern on her backside when she finally stood up. As was usually the case, her mind outlasted the hot water, and she stood with a sigh, shutting off what was now a lukewarm spray at best.
Wrapped in a towel, she began the ritual of brushing her hair and applying various lotions and potions. She wasn't a slave to skincare, but she also wasn't a spring chicken. She gave her reflection a wry smile in the mirror. Her skin wasn't sixteen anymore, and neither was the rest of her. So why, then, was she flirting with a boy? A man, she corrected herself. And why was she wondering when he might call, or if he would take her someplace nice? Or if, perhaps, he was out with another girl...
When her phone buzzed from the kitchen counter, she tried to ignore the little jump her heart made, thinking it might be him. She would never admit to anyone that she was slightly disappointed when the screen showed her mother's name rather than his.
"Hi, Mom."
"Hey sweetie! Glad I finally caught you. I feel like we haven't talked in ages!"
"It hasn't been that long, has it?"
"We haven't talked since shoulder pads and stirrup pants were in fashion."
Rory rolled her eyes and hitched up her towel. "Right. That means I should be getting my Kirk Cameron autograph in the mail any day now."
"You must be so excited! So what else is new?"
"Work, work… oh, and did I mention work?"
"Wow," Lorelai huffed, "remind me not to live vicariously through you anymore."
"Sorry. I'll try to get drunk and make a fool of myself at least once before New Years, just for you."
"That's the least you can do for your dear mother."
"What's new at home?" Rory wandered down to her bedroom, searching for pajamas now that her towel, and feet, and everything were cold.
"Hmm, let's see. Luke has decided to bring back the veggie burger at the diner, due to popular demand."
"Let me guess - Kirk won't shut up about it?"
"He says he needs the low-fat protein if he and Lulu are going to procreate."
Rory dropped her towel, closing her eyes against the ghastly mental image of Kirk trying to reproduce. "I can never unthink that. Thanks."
Her mom giggled. "Just trying to share the horror. And Will now loves Star Wars. Anything Star Wars. All hail the Star Wars."
"Luke must be thrilled." Rory struggled with her pajama pants, holding the phone against her shoulder.
"Yup. Possibly even more than that time I ate cauliflower I mistakenly thought was mashed potatoes."
"Oh my god, that looked nothing like mashed potatoes!"
"It was covered in gravy, and was sitting next to the turkey. I was confused!"
Rory rolled her eyes. "I still say you were subconsciously sucking up to Luke so he wouldn't make you try the brussel sprouts again."
Lorelai was quick to defend herself. "Trust me, trading one vegetable for another is not something I'd waste my time on. I'd just feed them all to the dog."
"That dog might be the closest thing this world has to a canine vegetarian."
"Well, it's not like I can share my bacon. Because, well, it's bacon."
"Hold on." Rory put the phone down while she pulled on her pajama shirt and dug her fuzzy slippers out from under the bed. "Ok, I'm back."
"I'm sorry, are you multitasking while talking to moi? How can this be? I'm fascinating enough to keep at least 4 or 5 normal humans entertained, and one surly diner owner. But not my brilliant daughter? Whom I carried for 9 long months, I might add?"
Rory sighed, not possessing the energy or patience for a Lorelai chat in her current mindset. "I'm just getting ready for bed. It was a very long day."
"Awww. Other kids still not playing nice in the sandbox?"
"You could say that. But he's the least of my worries lately."
"Did I miss something? I thought things were going better?" Lorelai sounded genuinely concerned now, and Rory felt bad for complaining.
"No, it's just with the hearing going all day today, and the security system and Agent Wells monitoring my comings and goings, it's a lot to take." Rory breathed a sigh of relief as she unloaded all her worries in one long breath.
"Security system?"
Rory smacked herself on the forehead, not believing she had just spilled her own secret in a moment of weakness.
"Um, well..."
"Why would you need a security system?" Her mother sounded a little panicky now, even for her.
The silence dragged for a second while Rory decided how much to reveal, and how to word it so it didn't sound too serious.
"It's nothing, really. I just got another letter, is all. And the agent assigned to my case suggested some upgrades to my apartment."
Lorelai actually spluttered while trying to marshal her thoughts. "You got another letter? From your STALKER?! Why didn't you tell me?"
Rory's cheeks burned with guilt. "Because I didn't want you to worry."
"I'm your mother. I'm supposed to worry. It's my job and god given right!" Even though she was trying to make a joke, her tone was sharp.
"I know, Mom. I'm sorry. It's just like before; no direct threat, nothing to investigate. Jermaine just insisted that I have a security system installed. And really, considering my weird hours and the fact that I live alone, it's probably not a bad idea."
"Jermaine?"
Rory rolled her eyes. Leave it to her mother to latch onto the one thing that could keep her from panicking herself into a frenzy.
"Agent Wells. He's sort of become my personal security advisor."
"I see. And you're on a first name basis with him already?"
This line of questioning from her mother was nothing new. But after her strange conversation with Jermaine earlier, Rory didn't want to talk about him.
"Yes. He's nice."
"I'm sure he is..."
The implication was clear. Lorelai had been gently teasing her about her lack of love life for a couple of years. And Rory was still steadfastly ignoring her jabs.
"Please tell me he looks like Kevin Costner."
"Not remotely."
"Gerard Butler?"
"Mom…"
"Ok, fine. Channing Tatum, then. But only because we've all seen him without his gun holster, if you know what I mean."
"I've really got to get some sleep, Mom."
"What?" Lorelai whined. "Already? But we were just getting to the good stuff!"
She chuckled as she got under the covers and snuggled down into her pillow.
"Sorry. The country gets up early, and I have to be ready to go when the news calls."
"I know. Well, please be careful and take care of yourself."
Rory yawned. "I always do, Mom. Give my love to Luke and Will."
"Will do, kiddo."
"Oh, and Mom? He's more like Shemar Moore."
She could hear Lorelai's gasp over the phone. "Oh my! But without all that 'baby girl' stuff, right? Because that's just creepy."
"I'm absolutely positive that Jermaine would never say that." Rory chuckled at the thought.
"Ok, good. Night, honey."
"Bye, Mom."
After the screen of her cell phone went dark, she stared up at the ceiling, wishing that she'd never mentioned the letter, or the stupid security system. And definitely not Jermaine. She hadn't lied; he was nice. Unfortunately, he just wasn't Jess. And as she had learned to recognize in many of her failed relationships (if you could even call them that), no matter how great they were, they just didn't measure up to him. She had tried to ignore it, or to simply appreciate who she was with for their good qualities, without any comparison. But it never worked for long.
More recently, she'd thought of it like a curse. She was haunted by the memory of this feeling she had when she was with him. But it had been so long, she wasn't sure she could trust that memory anymore. And what if it had never been real? They were together for such a short time, really, even counting the dramatic moments thereafter. How could she possibly remember a feeling accurately that had happened an eon ago, and for only a short speck of time?
Stop it. Go to sleep!
She rolled to plug her phone in, and caught another blinking red light out of the corner of her eye. Damn, she thought. Not even her bedroom was sacred. Settling down, Rory purposely turned her back to the motion sensor, trying to pretend it didn't exist.
After counting a thousand sheep, mentally trying to do her income taxes, and reciting as much of The Iliad as she could remember, Rory was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness - until her phone buzzed on the nightstand.
She grabbed it, ready to hurl it across the room, or type in a scathing reply peppered with profanity, when she noticed who had messaged her.
Jess_: Still up?
Rory felt childish but she grinned, ridiculously happy to hear from him, especially after her rotten day. Her fingers found the keys on her phone easily, her job having made her an expert in typing without looking.
-Unfortunately yes
Jess_: Sorry it's so late. Long day?
She sat up a little against the pillows, rubbing her eyes against the brightly lit screen.
-You have no idea
Jess_: I think I might, actually. My agent is annoyingly peppy and long-winded. Only headed home just now
In the darkness, she giggled, imagining his annoyance at having to make nice with someone because he had no choice. It was probably hellish for him.
-Lol. My condolences
Jess_: Have some news that might cheer you up though
-Oh yeah?
Jess_: How does dinner on the 13th sound?
Rory held her fingers to her mouth, but her small sound of surprise slipped out. She had self-deprecatingly assumed that he would forget about their plans, or not have time for her in his touring schedule. But she had misjudged him, and she'd never been so glad to be proven wrong.
-Sounds just about perfect
Jess_: Around 8?
-Sure. What day is that?
Jess_: Friday
She laughed out loud, her fingers flying nearly as fast as her brain was moving.
-You're taking me out on Friday the 13th?
Jess_: Apparently…
-Will Jason be joining us?
Jess_: Nah. His cutlery skills leave something to be desired
He never disappointed with his quick wit, and she laughed loudly in the darkness.
-LOL. Ok. Just text me where and I'll meet you
Jess_: Will do. Sorry about your long day
Rory smiled, feeling warmth spread across her chest.
-That's ok. It's suddenly not so bad…
He didn't respond right away, and she was briefly concerned that she'd said something wrong. Was she too forward, or maybe too sentimental? She scolded herself, remembering that she didn't really know what he was thinking, or if this dinner would be anything more than two friends catching up. Her hand was already reaching for the nightstand when her phone buzzed again.
Jess_: Goodnight Ror. Sweet dreams
-Night Dodger
Her grin this time was interrupted by a yawn. Apparently she would be getting a good night's sleep after all. And while she didn't want to admit that her mood depended so heavily on a man, she was grateful just to take the sleep and enjoy it.