" Logan, I'd like to have a word with you," Mitchum told his son as they walked out of a meeting at the Hartford Sun.

"Sure Dad," Logan said stoically as he looked at his watch. It was after 1 o'clock already and Logan was starving but he figured he'd get to lunch sooner if he just pandered to his father.

Mitchum led his son into an empty conference room near by and sat down. "Have a seat." Logan did as he was told.

"I wanted to talk to you about some things," Mitchum began.

"OK."

"You did some great work in London, I want to tell you that. I knew that if you put your mind to it, you could be great at this job."

"Thank you," Logan said, slightly taken aback by the rare compliment from his father.

"Don't thank me yet," Mitchum warned. "You've been distracted since you've been back, your work has been slipping."

"Well I've only been back a month, I'm still getting used to being here again," Logan defended himself.

"Really? Because I sense the opposite problem. I think you're a little too comfortable here. You're spending too much time with those old friends of yours and you're slipping back into bad habits," Mitchum said matter of factly.

"That's bullshit, Dad, and you know it. I hardly ever get to spend time with Colin and Finn or any of my other friends. You've got me working 24-7. I don't have a life anymore," Logan said angrily.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that. I am you're father and you'll show me some respect," Mitchum boomed. "Just because you're not off gallivanting about like a drunken frat boy, jumping off of things and making a fool of yourself doesn't mean you don't have a life. You have important responsibilities and you're going to take them seriously."

"That's all I have is responsibilities," Logan bit back. "You tell me I still have a life, I have your life. Well I don't want that life. Look what it did to you. It made you angry and spiteful and selfish and greedy."

"That's enough!" Mitchum demanded. "You're life is what it is. This is the plate you've been handed and I'm sorry if you don't like it but it's better than going hungry. Now, you will do what is expected of you and you will do it without another complaint."

Logan sat back in his chair and sighed. His father was right. His father was an asshole, but he was right. He had been trained for the newspaper business since he was old enough to crawl. This was his life, it was the only life he knew and it was the one he would have to live with. "Fine, what do you want?"

"I think it's time you took on the full responsibilities of a Huntzberger. The company has been looking to acquire a new paper. I think this would be a good project for you to take on. There are several prospects that I've been looking at," Mitchum informed his son.

"So what do you want me to do?" Logan asked.

"You're going to research these papers, decide which one is the best investment. I'll help you negotiate a deal to buy the paper. After that you will stay on and manage it."

"And I'm guessing these papers aren't here in Hartford," Logan speculated

"No they are not."

"So where are you sending me now, Dad? Argentina? Lebanon? Siberia? Just how far away are we talking?"

"You'll be going to Philadelphia, you leave on Monday."

"Getting another cup of coffee?" Sue asked as she walked into the break room. "What a surprise."

"Now you know I can't function without my twelve cups a day," Rory reminded her.

"I don't suppose you have a few minutes to sit and enjoy your coffee with your bestest friend in the whole wide world do you?" Sue asked.

"Well…for my bestest friend in the whole wide world I suppose I could spare a few minutes- but since she's in Connecticut I should probably get back to work," Rory teased.

"Fine, I don't need your company. I'll just sit here all sad and lonely drinking my coffee by myself," Sue pouted.

"You know, drinking alone is the first sign of a problem," Rory told her friend.

"I'm the one with a coffee problem? You really want to stick with that story?" Sue asked.

"You've got me there," Rory shrugged her shoulders, finally pulling a chair out to sit at the table. "So what do you want to talk about? Anything particular on your mind?"

"Nah, just looking for some mindless chatter. We could always talk about your wedding. Tim is never proposing to me so I need to plan my wedding vicariously through yours."

"I know what you meant to say was 'I'm so excited for you Rory, I just keep thinking of all these ways to make this wedding perfect for you.'"

"Yeah, something like that," Sue said. "Now, about my bride's maid dress…"

"Oh well I was thinking a sort of Barbie convertible pink, because it'll go so well with your red hair." Rory said with mock seriousness.

"Oh now that would be nice. You're dress is going to be all black I assume, to bring out the evilness in your eyes."

The girls looked up from there conversation as the door to the break room opened and a man in his mid thirties walked in. "Hey ladies. Talking about anything interesting?"

"Hi Brad," Sue greeted the new comer. "Just a little girl talk here."

"Girl talk? So like, shoes and lingerie and pillow fights?" Brad asked playfully.

"Oh you really know your girl talk, Brad," Rory jested. "We girls love out pillow fights."

"But only if by 'pillow' what you mean is a pillow case filled with loose feathers." Sue chimed in.

"Yeah, but they have to be the magic feathers that float around the room in slow motion," Rory added.

"Oh now come on, not at work ladies. Save that kind of talk for the bedroom," Brad admonished.

"Oh we're sorry. Please, let's talk about something that you find appropriate Brad. How about that hooker you picked up last night?" Sue teased.

"Oh, low blow ladies," Brad said, stirring the milk into his coffee as he sat down at the table with them.

"Sorry," Sue said mischievously.

"So, did you girls hear the news?" Brad asked, changing the topic.

"What news?" Sue asked.

"Frank is thinking of selling the Liberty Herald," he informed the two girls.

"What? Why? He loves it here," Rory said.

"Well I don't think he's actively trying to sell or anything, he's just entertaining an offer."

"Was it an offer he couldn't refuse?" Sue said in an awful Godfather imitation.

"Wow, that was bad," Rory told her friend regretfully.

"Whatever, I'm a journalist not a stand up comedian."

"Seriously though, you don't really think he'd sell the paper," Rory asked, getting back on topic.

"Maybe, if the price is right," Brad told them.

"Ooh, The Price is Right. We could work for Bob Barker, how much fun would that be?" Sue joked.

"Nah, he'd make us put a whole bunch of PSA's in the paper about how you should spay or neuter your pet," Rory said. "PSA's are only fun on TV when they're done by really bad actors with floundering careers."

"I'll never know where you girls get all your energy," Brad told them with a shake of his head.

"Twelve cups a day," Rory said, shaking her empty coffee cup in Brad's face.

"So anyway," Brad continued. "Frank apparently has a meeting set up with Huntzberger Publishing Group for Thursday."

"Huntzberger Publishing? So we're talking big leagues here," Sue said, impressed.

"Thursday? This Thursday?" Rory ask in a panicked voice. "Mitchum Huntzberger is coming here, this Thursday?

"Why Gilmore? Not enough time to prepare that brown nose of yours?" Brad replied sarcastically.

Sue looked over at Rory and noticed that her already pale complexion had gone whiter than the wedding dresses they'd been looking at. She kicked Brad in the shin under the table and shot him the evil eye. "Rory's not a brown noser," she told him.

"It's just soon, that's all. I like working for Frank and that's pretty soon to think he might not be our boss anymore," Rory rambled, trying to cover up her true feelings. "I'm ah… I'm gonna go back to work now." Rory stood up and walked out of the break room.

"Ow!" Brad finally said once the door had closed behind Rory. "What'd you kick me for?"

"You know, for a journalist you're not very observant," Sue told him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Didn't you see the look on Rory's face? That wasn't because she likes working for Frank and doesn't want him to sell the paper, moron. There's a story there," Sue rolled her eyes at her co-workers obliviousness.

"But did you have to kick me?" he asked her.

"Yes." Sue said, standing up from the table.

"It hurt," Brad complained.

"Wuss!" Sue told him as she walked out of the room.

Rory sat on a bench outside the door to the Liberty Herald. The world was spinning. Or maybe her head was spinning but it felt like the world. She breathed slowly and deeply, trying to calm her nerves.

Mitchum was going to buy the paper…her paper. She couldn't work for him, it was too much. He would come down here for a while. She would see him everyday. She couldn't see him everyday.

All the horrible things that could come from this were swimming through her head. What if he somehow managed to convince her, yet again, that she wasn't cut out for the newspaper business? What if he fired her? What if he was perfectly nice to her now that she was no longer with Logan and she realized that he had just screwed up her whole life in an attempt to manipulate her relationship?

At the thought of Logan a new panic set in. Would she see him? Would he come down with his father or was he working somewhere else? Would she have to hear about him everyday? What if he was miserable? Worse yet, what if he was happy? What if he had fallen in love with someone new?

The thoughts popped into her head in quick succession, each one more real than the next. And as each possibility became more tangible everything else around her became less real, less tangible. Rory felt her heart racing along with her thoughts. She was breathing faster and shallower and he muscles were trembling. Everything felt so far away, like she was floating away and watching the world disappear beneath her. She felt like she needed to do something, to move, to walk.

As Rory stood up she felt someone grab her by the arm. "Hey there Gilmore, going somewhere?" Sue's voice sounded very far away.

"Walk," Rory said tersely.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sue warned. "Why don't you sit back down?"

"But…" Rory began.

"The only but I want is yours on that bench," Sue directed her. Rory obeyed. "Good, now take a deep breath and try to concentrate on my voice."

Rory breathed in slowly and deliberately. "That's right, deep breaths," Sue reminded her. Rory listened to Sue's voice. She squeezed her eyes shut and continued to take deep breaths. When she opened her eyes the world suddenly seemed more focused.

"Feeling better?" Sue asked.

Rory nodded her head. "So that's what a panic attack looks like from a third person point of view," Sue said, giving Rory a small smile. "You must really love working for Frank to have this kind of reaction."

Rory remained silent so Sue spoke again. "You want to tell me what this is all about?"

"It's nothing," Rory told her.

"I know nothing, that wasn't it."

"It's just…I've worked for Mitchum Huntzberger before." Rory said, deciding to share half the story with her friend.

"And I'm guess it wasn't all fun and good times?" Sue asked.

"His estimations of my potential as a journalist were less than stellar, and I kind of took his opinions to heart," Rory explained.

"Just how close to the heart are we talking?"

"I dropped out of school."

"That's pretty close to the heart," Sue acknowledged.

"I got into this huge fight with my Mom and didn't speak to her for months," Rory continued.

"What? You and Lorelai never go more than a day without talking to each other."

"I know, it was awful." Rory admitted. "Eventually it was Jess that got through to me. I hadn't heard from him in forever and he just showed up one night. He had just gotten his book published and I was so proud of him. He was doing something with his life and I wasn't. He let me know just how stupid I was being for giving up on my dreams," Rory continued with the abridged version of events.

"Aww, that's so sweet…The last part with Jess anyhow, the rest of it, not so much."

"I can't work for him again, Sue. I can't work for the man who almost ruined my life. The Huntzbergers are supposed to be in my past."

"The Huntzburgers?" Sue asked quizzically, emphasizing the plural.

"You know what I mean," Rory said, attempting to sound nonchalant. Telling the Mitchum story was hard enough, she couldn't talk about Logan now too.

"Sure," Sue said hesitantly. She felt like she was missing a part of the story but she decided to let it go for now. "Listen, we'll figure this out. We won't let Frank sell the paper. If necessary we'll just put our worst foot forward on Thursday and make sure that Huntzberger doesn't want to buy the paper. Nothing's set in stone yet, we'll figure this out."

"Thanks Sue, it's good to know I have a friend who will screw over another friend for me," Rory gave the red head a wink.

Sue smiled brightly. "Anytime."