AN: Here is What It Takes – Aerosmith. Blairbear014 requested this originally, but I'm not quite sure if it'll go the way she wants it to. Reading Miguel51's Kismet has me in a Rory/Marty mood, so we'll see where this goes.
As usual, I don't own the show, the song or anything else.
Tell me what it takes to let you go, tell me how the pain's supposed to go – Aerosmith
Marty Harrison had been an advertising executive for the last three years. He never thought that advertising was the job he'd end up doing after four years of hard work at Yale, but he actually liked the work, and it paid well enough that he could afford to live in New York, pay back his student loans, and still have a life.
Tonight he was enjoying a launch party for a new magazine that his company was promoting. He looked around the room. There were people everywhere. Several of his colleagues, the top brass from the magazine, some of New York's beatnik society – authors, musicians and artists – hoping to be featured in the new magazine, and several other industry types. He wasn't even sure why he was there, the magazine wasn't one of his products, but he was enjoying himself. He grabbed another glass of champagne of the tray a waitress was carrying by him and joined a conversation with his boss and her husband.
"So do you think this magazine will be a success?" her husband asked.
"Of course it will! This is New York City, the capital of cool, this magazine will be on the cutting edge of entertainment, and those that want to be in the know, will read it," she replied. "Don't you think Marty?"
"Of course. I think it'll be huge, especially outside of New York, where people can't just hop down to Greenwich Village and check out what's happen-" Marty stopped abruptly when a familiar laugh floated across the room. He glanced around the room, it couldn't be her, could it?
"Marty?" his boss started, "are you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry, I thought I heard someone I knew. Any way, I was saying that those without access to the creative regions of New York will love this magazine," he rushed to get the words out and continued to look around to see if he could find the source of the laugh.
"I couldn't agree more!" his boss agreed. Her husband nodded along.
"Excuse me," Marty said. He walked towards a table to set his champagne glass down. He picked up a stuffed mushroom and heard the laugh again. He swiveled his head towards the sound.
He hadn't seen her in years, and yet there she was out of the blue, not more than twenty feet away from him, chatting happily with one of his colleagues. She looked the same as always.
He blinked twice to make sure she was still there, he'd randomly thought he'd seen her before a couple times, so he wanted to be doubly sure she was really there before he approached her. Convinced that she was, he walked over to her.
"Rory?" he started tentatively?
She spun to see him, "Marty! Is that you? What are you doing here?" She hugged him firmly and he inhaled deeply. It'd been 5 years since the Lucy debacle and she still smelled exactly the same.
"I work here, what are you doing here?" he asked when she finally let him go.
"I'm here with Logan. He seems to have business everywhere," she replied. He looked down and saw the gigantic sparkler of a ring on her all important finger, and felt like someone punched him in the stomach. He began to wonder if he'd ever get over her.
The person she was talking to excused himself, and left the two old friends alone to catch up.
"So you and Logan, huh? Still together after all these years?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer, but knowing that he had to ask.
"Well, yes and no," she said quietly.
He looked at her quizzically but didn't say anything.
"Back together after all these years is more correct."
"Okay."
"So how about you? Are you married? I haven't seen you since…" she trailed off and blushed, so he was pretty sure she remembered the Lucy dinner just as well as he did.
"Recently single," he lied. He was single, it just wasn't recent. He'd had relationships since Lucy, some of them were even good ones, but he hadn't felt strongly enough about any girl to completely wipe away the memory of Rory. Rory smiled at him and nodded, accepting his answer.
"I'm sure some lucky girl will snatch you up quickly enough," she told him.
He smiled back her, "So," he started, picking up her left hand and tapping her ring, "how's married life?"
"Not married yet, just engaged." Of course she was just engaged, the rock on her finger could probably be sold to feed a small country for a year, but there weren't enough diamonds present to be considered married. By the time she was married, she'd probably have enough diamonds on her finger to feed the entire continent of Africa.
"When's the big day?"
"June 24th," she said wistfully, removing her hand from his and twisting the ring around her finger.
"That's just around the corner!"
"Don't remind me."
"Trouble in paradise?" he asked trying not to sound sarcastic.
"No, it's just-" Rory was cut off by a booming voice.
"Hey Ace, there you are!" Logan said loudly, finding his way to her side.
"Here I am. You remember Marty right?" she said.
"Yeah, yeah, sure! Marty, how are you? What are you doing here?" Logan asked.
"I work for Jones and Taylor, the advertising firm for the magazine," he said quickly. He had an irrational urge to punch Logan in the face, having a suspicion that no matter what he did, he would always be the guy that made killer margaritas to Logan.
"Cool man." A server passed by, and Marty watched as Logan set down his empty scotch glass and asked for a refill.
"So what are you doing here?" Marty asked in return.
"We invested in the magazine," Logan told him. Marty assumed 'we' was Huntzberger Publishing Group, but didn't really care to investigate any further.
"What are you up to Rory?" Marty asked after a moment of silence, changing the focus of the conversation.
"I write for the Times," she said. Marty tried to remember if that was a Huntzberger publication or not.
"Congrats! Isn't that what you've always wanted?"
"Yep."
"Now I'm trying to convince her to write for this new magazine, it needs someone with her fresh edge," Logan interjected.
"Logan, I'm happy at the Times," she responded wearily. Marty could tell they'd had this discussion before.
"You'd be happier as your own boss," he retorted.
"Maybe, but I wouldn't be happier being-" Rory was cut off as Logan's cell phone rang.
"Sorry, I've got to take this. If the server comes back with my scotch will you grab it?"
"Of course," she told him as he walked away talking on his phone. As soon as his back was turned she rolled her eyes.
"That happen a lot?" Marty asked. She looked at him darkly, and he took the hint. "So you wouldn't be happier being what? A circus clown? An entertainment writer?" He wanted her to finish her statement from earlier.
"I wouldn't be happier being other people's boss."
"You were editor of the Yale Daily News," Marty reminded her.
"Yes, but I didn't own a share of it."
"Oh. I thought Logan meant HPG when he said 'we.'" He blushed at his error.
"Nope, the we in this case is Logan Huntzberger and Rory Gilmore. Logan's not with HPG." Rory's voice was filled with pride that Logan was on his own. "But shhh, we bought it in a trust, and would rather keep it a secret. Well, at least I would," she amended.
He always thought he and Rory were similar creatures, they both worked hard and studied hard at Yale, they had good friends, but weren't necessarily into the whole high society thing. He thought they were both on the same socio-economic level, and now here she was buying a large share of a magazine. "I guess working at the Times has been good to you," he said. She merely shrugged. Was this the same girl he remembered rooting around in her change purse trying scrape up enough money for a coffee?
"So what do you do here Marty?" she asked.
"I'm an advertising exec."
"Would I know any of your work?"
"Possibly," he started, then listed off a bunch of campaigns he'd worked on.
"Oh wow! You're good!" she told him. She tipped back her champagne glass and finished it off, then made a small face of disgust. "Do you know where I could get some coffee?"
She was the same girl. "Not in here, but there's a coffee shop next door. Want to go grab a cup?" he asked, unsure if she'd say yes.
"Why not?" she responded with a smile.
"Don't you need to get Logan's scotch for him?" Marty asked trying again to keep the sarcasm from his voice. He looked around for Logan, who was in the corner of the room on the phone, and the server, who was nowhere to be found.
"Logan's a big boy, he's been tracking down his own scotch for years. Besides, he'll understand. He knows about my addiction."
"Alright then, right this way," Marty said as he offered her his arm and headed towards the exit. She grinned at him and took his arm, letting him lead her a way from the party and her fiance, towards her favorite addiction.
Maybe the reason he couldn't let her go yet was because he wasn't supposed to.
AN: It's a little different. I hope you like it. Let me know what you'd like to see next!
Thanks for reading, and please review! - S
