After Four Years

by samo810

In the four years since she graduated from Yale, Rory has worked hard to move up in her career and move on in her personal life. When she wakes up one morning after hearing a familiar voice in her dream, she suddenly finds that she has to face what she has tried so hard to leave behind... those thoughts, those feelings, that guy. Post-finale, ROGAN, some LL an other

35. Chapter 35

I was in line at the coffee cart when Leslie snuck up from behind and made me jump about a foot, "Geeze. What did everybody sign up for Give-Rory-a-Hard-Time-Day?"

"What?"

"Nothing; You and Logan are just on a roll this morning."

"Well that's too bad. I'm excited for movie night tonight…"

"Good distraction?"

"Who needs a distraction?" She was clearly still working on convincing herself of that. "Isn't it possible that I want a night to myself with my best friend?"

"I suppose…" I almost felt bad that we were going to Shanghai them into a face to face… almost.

"Good. Should we get takeout?"

I looked at her, making it more than obvious that that was a silly question.

She smiled, "Right..."

I didn't hear anything from Gerry all day, but in the meantime I took the chance to send out some potentially presidential feelers. In my last search for sources earlier in the week I'd hinted at the prospect, but the more frustrated I became with Gerry, the more I wanted to please Dominic.

Before I left I saw Duncan coming out of Gerry's office. This is it. Gerry's going to have to make a decision. I don't know what Duncan submitted but I have to believe mine is better. It is better. I wanted to stop at his office and ask him how he was leaning, but his door was shut when I walked by. He was on the phone, but I'm pretty sure he was deliberately avoiding looking at me when I passed his window. I didn't know how to interpret this, but it certainly was not helping me relax… maybe I should have mentioned Mitchum.

I was caught up in my own thoughts when Leslie met up with me at the elevator.

"Ready?"

The plan was for Les to come over, we'd start a movie, and then Logan would accidentally show up with Finn and Colin… "Yep."

On the way we decided to pair the laughably bad portrayal of John Wayne as Genghis Kahn in The Conqueror with food from the new Mongolian place down the street from the apartment, and on the way inside I made a pit stop at the desk in the lobby to pick up the mail.

I was absentmindedly flipping through it in the elevator when Leslie piped up, "This is so strange."

"What?"

"This; a couple of weeks ago we would have been trekking it up four flights of stairs to get into your apartment…"

She was right. I looked around the elevator… even the elevator is nice… and nodded. To look at this objectively, it was very surreal.

"And you would have had to undo multiple deadbolts to get inside. Now you live here. Like really live here."

"Really live here? As opposed to…"

"I don't know… just staying here? I just can't get over it."

"You did help move me in."

"I know I did, but…" I had to smile when I turned the rocket ship key chain over in my hand, and I would be lying if I didn't have moments like this once in a while coming home to this apartment. "…look at this place. I mean, I know this isn't really new to you…"

"Hey, it has been a long time since then… Besides, you should see his parent's house; it's like living in The Louvre."

"Really?"

I nodded, "I mean… they don't have a giant pyramid out front, but…"

"You're not going to tell me that you've been to the actual Louvre, are you?"

"Well the first time my mom and I were backpacking through Europe, so it's not…"

"The first time?"

I rolled my eyes and busied myself getting plates in the kitchen, trying to make this conversation seem as casual as possible. "I went with my grandmother once, not backpacking, and Logan and I spent Christmas in Paris one year…"

"Christmas in Paris?" She shook her head, "Rich people, man…"

"Right?" She just stared at me, making it clear that my attempt at solidarity gave her no consolation. "Hey, I'm like… rich people adjacent."

"Yea, whatever…" I knew she was kidding, but I was still eager to move on from this conversation, I motioned for her to grab the plates to the coffee table while I carried glasses and a bottle of wine and we started the movie.

About a half hour in I got a text from Logan, 'Stuck working, dragged out to drinks with a couple of investors." Great. It was closely followed by, "Colin and Finn are on their way." Oh boy. Now I get to entertain everyone… fantastic.

Ten minutes later there was a knock at the door. Leslie looked surprised, so I mirrored her expression as I got up to answer it.

"Colin, Finn… What a surprise!" I glanced back to see a mixture of surprise and discomfort on her face as she paused the movie and stood up from the couch. "Logan's stuck working; he didn't tell you?"

Finn looked equally surprised when he saw Leslie and stumbled somewhat uncharacteristically, "Well, um… we'd hate to be a bother, Love…"

Thankfully, Colin was in on the plan, so he played along, "Nonsense Finn… I'm sure Rory doesn't mind if we hang out, right?"

"Of course not…" Not exactly how I envisioned this evening, but what the hell, "Come on in!" Colin practically pushed Finn through the door and he and I exchanged a sly glance.

While the boys were busy making themselves drinks, Leslie grabbed my arm and pulled me into the kitchen. "So, this is a surprise, huh?"

"Completesurprise."

"Really? I'm here, and Finn just happens to show up?"

"Colin is here too. And do you really think I planned this?" I had a really hard time keeping a straight face as I used her own words, "Isn't it possible that I just wanted to spend a night with my best friend?"

She glared at me, no words necessary.

"Okay, don't kill me. You were avoiding each other… what were we supposed to do?"

"I was not avoiding him."

I continued as if I hadn't heard her, "There was nothing left for us to do but to collude to get you here at the same time…"

"Us?" She practically screeched the question, and then quickly lowered her voice, a prudent choice considering the openness of the kitchen. "Is Finn in on this?"

"No… just everybody else." I flashed my best 'Logan' grin and pulled her out into the living room, "Would you just come out here and relax."

Colin handed us a couple of drinks as we rejoined the two of them; Finn was noticeably quieter than usual, but was trying to play it cool, "So Lovelies, what are we watching?"

I caught them up on the lackluster plot of the classically bad movie, which they decided to turn into a typical Colin-and-Finn drinking game… potentially dangerous for sure, but a good icebreaker for the relationship challenged in the group.

Several drinks during and a couple more after the movie had ended, Finn and Les had stumbled onto the balcony, Colin had turned up the music but was now wandering around on the phone with the latest object of his affections, and I was attempting, somewhat sloppily, to clean up the takeout containers when I heard the door open.

"Need a hand there Ace?"

Sooner than I had expected, Logan had appeared behind me in the kitchen where I was trying to balance the leftover containers in the refrigerator, only struggling slightly.

"Hi!" Obviously I've had more than my fair share to drink for the evening.

Clearly amused by my overly-enthusiastic greeting, he gave me a quick kiss and then took the last container from my hand and slid it into the fridge. "Having fun?"

"Well, somebody left me to fend for myself during this contrivance you devised, so I had to do something to get the ball rolling…"

"Contrivance?"

"Yes; Contrivance… gimmick, scheme, master plan…" The amused look hadn't left his face as he stood there staring at me. "What?"

He shook his head with a laugh, "Nothing… just amazed at your ability to be a walking, drunken thesaurus."

"I am not a dru…" Yes you are. "Well, like I said… I was left alone to deal with all of this."

Logan eyed the couple on the patio outside, "Well it looks like you managed. Things seem to be going well."

"They are indeed…" I did not need more wine, but I refilled my empty glass just the same as I mumbled under my breath, "…no thanks to you."

"Wow..." I was having a hard time keeping a straight face through my ruse and Logan saw right through it. He laughed as he rounded the counter into the living room, giving Colin a pat on the back as he walked by, "No mercy tonight, huh?"

"Mercy? Why should I show you mercy?" He poured himself a drink and came face to face with me in front of the couch. If we had actually been arguing it would have been the perfect spot for posturing, but even I knew I was being stubborn just for the sake it. I was also having a superbly hard time suppressing the urge to giggle. "I held up my end of the deal. I got Leslie here. You didn't do anything but schluff off your responsibility."

I had thrown my hand out to emphasis schluff and almost lost my already precarious balance. Luckily Logan was ready, not only to catch me, but to pull me onto the couch with him so that I was sitting on his lap. He kissed me again and found his most suppliant voice, "I know, but please consider granting clemency... Believe me, if I could have gotten out of this I would have."

"Right..." I'm not buying it yet… for the sake of argument, of course, "You know, I think I'm actually beginning to agree with Colin and Finn..."

"Oh is that so? What is it that you are agreeing with them about?"

"You are no fun anymore."

He almost spit out his sip of scotch. "I'm no fun?"

I nodded indignantly.

"This coming from the girl who has been working pretty much nonstop since I've been back in the city?"

"Coming from the guy who hasn't been home before midnight all week."

"You both work too much."

We looked up to see that Leslie had come back through the French doors and picked up on our conversation.

"Here, here…" Finn agreed as he followed close behind. "You should all be more like yours truly." He took the liberty of refilling the empty glasses he was holding, only to have one of them usurped by Colin on his way back into the room. "Oh by all means, please, help yourself…"

"Why thank you, I will… and if by yours truly you mean plastered and irresponsible, then I think we're better off as we are."

Finn handed Leslie her glass, and went back to pour himself another, but was still partaking in the inebriated verbal tennis match that had started, "Oh you're on to talk… besides I meant carefree, fun-loving and…"

"So this is what it's like, huh?" It took me a second to register that Logan was whispering in my ear over the repartee that was continuing in the room.

"What what's like?"

"Being you."

"Excuse me?"

He chuckled a little, "Six years ago you would have been the mostly sober one, dutifully watching over us while we were falling all over ourselves, drunk and arguing…"

I nodded; it was definitely the case more often than not. "And now?"

"Now, I go out, have two drinks with a couple of investors, then come home and get stuck with all of you lushes giving Hunter Thompson a run for his money."

His observation was rank with sarcasm, so why stop with the stubbornness now? "I resent that whole heartedly…"

He laughed, "As you should… you're not nearly as drunk as Thompson."

"Hey!" He laughed as he dodged my fist aiming for his shoulder. "Finn on the other hand might be ready to join the Hells Angels any minute…"

"Oh leave him alone…"

"Are you telling me that you don't think he would appreciate having his ashes fired out of a cannon?"

We were suddenly interrupted by an argument over Colin's phone, which was now in the possession of Finn. "Finn, stop being an ass!"

"Colin, you're the ass. You told her you would call her… and yes…" He turned to Logan, "…I think a cannon would be an especially appropriate send off for me."

Logan laughed as he inquired, "Who is he supposed to call?"

"Cozette… she's French."

Colin very flatly corrected him, "She's French-Canadian…"

"Same thing."

"What happened to the girl you were just on the phone with?" Leslie clearly hadn't had enough experience with them to know how desperate they usually were.

"Who knows... And she is hardly more interesting than anything else to come out of Canada."

I somehow managed to come up with some of my high school French, only slurring slightly, "Elle parle Français?"

Finn took the liberty of answering me, "Oui."

Colin continued to defend himself in French, "Elle vit au Québec."

"L'appeler, de toute façon."

Leslie was lost, "Um… For us prep-school impaired, could we keep this conversation in English, please?"

He rolled his eyes, "She lives in Quebec… and I am not calling her."

"Because you have so many other options rolling in…"

"Shut up, Finn."

Logan had to jump in, "Why not call her? You could jump on a plane and be there in two hours."

Even I found myself ganging up on him now, "Yea, you know put on some Patti LaBell. A little Voulez-vous Coucher Avec Moi."

"Now that one, I understood." I smiled at Leslie… She would know what that meant. "I agree with Rory."

"God, you know what? Fine, I'm going to call her, but I'm not sitting around here to be beleaguered when I do... You all deserve each other."

With that Colin grabbed his phone and stormed out of the apartment, while the boys dissolved into laughter, knowing full well that the argument would be forgotten by tomorrow. Harassing each other has always been a favorite past time of theirs.

Finn looked at Leslie, "Well, I think we could take this as our cue as well…" He stood and held out a hand to her

"Our cue?" I couldn't help myself from egging them on a little bit, despite the look on Logan's face suggesting that I not push the subject.

"Well, uh…" He cleared his throat and collected himself quickly, "I'd be remiss to let a lovely lady fend for herself getting home at this hour…"

"Yea, I bet…" Logan goaded him as they made their way toward the door.

I assured Leslie that I'd call her later in the weekend, and Logan added on more remark as they headed down the hall to the elevator, "Hey Finn…"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Don't screw this up."

Finn winked as they got on the elevator, and I had to laugh… the plan did work. The laugh turned into a yawn and I steadied myself against Logan as he shut the door.

He was the one laughing now, "Alright, Bluto… Let's get you to bed."

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than expected, only a little worse for the wear, and when I followed the aroma of coffee downstairs I found Logan sitting at the counter on his laptop… Surprise, surprise.

"Hey you…"

I mumbled a hello before he kissed me, and was on my way to pouring myself a cup of coffee only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. Who the hell is here at seven thirty in the morning?

I opened it to find Leslie holding the usual stack of newspapers, "Hey, did I leave my phone here last night?"

With no further invitation necessary she came through the doorway, dropped the papers on the kitchen counter and went in search of her phone. "Please, come on in…" I was surprised to see that she seemed to be perfectly fine after last night's gathering. "You seem chipper…"

"I am." To no surprise of mine, she was sporting her patented 'up to no good' face.

I knew better than to go looking for details, but Logan, who was now handing me the cup of coffee that I had yet to pour for myself inquired, "So I take it that Finn managed not to screw things up this time?"

"He screw…"

"Please don't." Judging from the tone of what was only the first word and a half of her sentence I knew that I didn't want to know the rest.

Leslie shrugged and busied herself searching for her phone while Logan let out a laugh before turning to me, "So what do you think? Pancakes?"

"I love you."

Garnering another laugh from him and earning myself a kiss I followed him back into the kitchen, hoping that he would trust me enough in the kitchen to at least let me help him with pancakes.

"Yes!" We could hear her through the closed French doors to the balcony before she came back inside.

"Found it?"

She answered me by valiantly waving her prize above her head.

"Can we interest you in some breakfast?"

"Can't, sorry."

I was about to take an extra plate from the cupboard when I heard her reply, "You're turning down breakfast? What's got you in such a hurry this morning?"

"I'm meeting Finn."

"Of course you are."

"We're going to look at apartments."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh God, relax; apartments for him."

"Wow…" Even Logan looked surprised by that one.

"That sounds a lot like commitment."

Leslie rolled her eyes, "It's not that big of a deal. He's been living in a hotel for the last few weeks; he just figured it was time to find a place." She was very intent on making it all seem very casual.

"Right…"

Logan agreed with me, "For Finn? That's a commitment."

"Not to me. He's just deciding to stick around the city."

"But he's taking you to look for apartments."

"I told you… not a big deal."

I looked at Logan, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

He nodded in agreement, "Indeed."

She looked at the two of us for a minute in frustration while we struggled to keep straight faces. Deciding that she was on the losing end of this two-to-one argument she conceded. "Whatever. Enjoy your breakfast."

She left without another word and we couldn't help but laugh a little at the two of our reluctantly infatuated friends.

We did enjoy our breakfast, but even more than that I enjoyed the fact that we had gone several hours of the day without any interruptions from work. Midway through the morning we were making our way through the stack of newspapers on the patio, which was quite nice now that winter had finally moved on, when I pulled out the features section of The Post and froze.

"Oh my God." I can't believe it. There; right there in black and white… My headline followed by Duncan's name.

"What?"

"Oh my God." I started to scan through the article and was slightly relieved to see that it was actually his writing, but it was still with my headline, and that fact it was there meant that my article had been eschewed in favor of his.

"What?"

"I cannot believe that he… Ugh!"

"Ace! Catch me up here."

"Gerry."

He looked at me, waiting for me to continue.

"He went with Duncan's article."

"About the WikiLeaks story?"

All I could muster was an exacerbated sigh as I tossed the paper to him.

"Did you talk to him about Mitchum?"

No… and in that moment I was seriously regretting it. I just shook my head, and then watched him as he read the article.

"You should have."

"It shouldn't matter."

"I know that, but apparently it does..." He tossed the paper down on the table, "This is crap."

"Logan..." I don't need him to defend me just for the sake of argument.

"I'm serious. I read what you wrote, this doesn't even compare."

"You read my article?"

He shrugged in defense of himself, "You left a copy of it on the printer..." I wasn't mad, just surprised, and he could see it on my face.

He smirked, "Hey, what's the point in dating a reporter if you can't get advance copy of the news?"

I caught myself smiling before I realized that I was still pissed at Gerry, "Well it's not going to help now..." I looked down at the article again and only became more disgusted, "Ugh. He couldn't even tell me he was going with Duncan's article? He just publishes it, with my headline no less, and assumes that I'll see it for myself?"

As he sat there it was clear that Logan was at least as frustrated as I was. "You should send it to Dominic."

"What?"

"Your version of the article; send it to Dominic."

I thought about it for a second. There's really no reason I shouldn't. Gerry had his chance to publish it, which is all he asked for, and he clearly wasn't interested. "I need a new headline. And it could use some work…"

"It's already a great article…"

"I should make it more about the administration's reaction. He wants stuff that's going work in my favor in my portfolio."

A smile spread across Logan's face, "Well, get to work then…"

I returned his smile, suddenly very motivated to stick it to Gerry, and kissed him on my way back inside. I sat myself down at the desk in the office and delved in, pretty much consumed with making it an article worthy of my Times portfolio.

By Sunday morning I was pretty confident that I had completed my task. I knew Logan was going to be busy that morning, getting together with the board of the soon-to-be renamed Huntzberger Media Corporation to go over the last minute details before the official merger tomorrow, but since he was apparently keen on previewing my work I decided to slip him a copy over coffee… make sure it's fit to print.

He was coming to the end of it and began to shake his head. I got worried for a second… I hadn't changed that much about it… but a smile spread across his face as he finished.

"You sure you don't want to write for one of our papers?"

"Ha ha." I snatched the paper back from him.

"Come on… I bet you've even got a shot with the president of the company." He winked at me.

"Nah… I hear those Huntzbergers are only in it for the money…"

He made a gesture of being stabbed in the heart, "Ugh, you're ruthless."

"I just call 'em like I see 'em." I gave him a quick kiss as he got up to get his things together for his meeting. "So you think it's good?"

"It's great."

"You're sure? I was thinking that the ending…"

"Send it. Trust me."

I nodded.

"Hey, what do you say to dinner tonight… just you and me?"

I thought for a second about how crazy things could get after tomorrow, "A little calm before the storm?"

"Yea, something like that."

With a kiss he was out the door and I was back at my computer. I drafted an email to Dominic, explaining how motivated I was this one published without going into too much detail. I attached the article and sent it on its way, with no copy to Gerry.

Logan was supposed to home around seven so we could go to dinner, and in the meantime I made the unfortunate mistake of rereading Duncan's story. Mine was definitely the better written piece. I shouldn't have read it again, but I did... It only got me more worked up and by the time Logan came through the door I had just finished sending Gerry an email, all but demanding a meeting with him tomorrow.

I felt bad because dinner was supposed to be relaxing for Logan before things got even busier with work, but I knew I was distracted the whole night. I apologized when we got home, but he understood.

"If anybody can empathize with getting screwed because of my dad, it's me."

"I know, it just… It sucks."

"Well Gerry is crazy to pass up an article from someone who is so well spoken."

"Logan…" I caught a hint of a smile on his face and just a smidge of sarcasm in his voice.

"Come on, Ace… you know I'm kidding. You're talking to Gerry tomorrow right?"

I nodded.

"So, see what he says and go from there."

Monday morning I was up early and made it into the office before almost anyone else, determined to be sure that I was on Gerry's schedule for that day. I checked the calendar that Sherry kept at her desk, and I found my name penciled in at 3 o'clock. 3 o'clock? Really? Well, that's better than him continuing to avoid me, I guess.

During the day I figured I could be productive and started looking more into sympathizing groups that have popped up over the last couple of years since WikiLeaks first started publishing. Even if Dominic doesn't like what I sent him, maybe Gerry will get over the Mitchum thing and let me do a follow up piece.

Logan and Mitchum were holding a press conference to officially announce the merger at one, so I took a late lunch and headed to the break room. I sat down with a cup of coffee and the chair next to me at the table was quickly filled by Leslie.

"Hey…" She nodded to the TV, "Loverboy's press conference?"

I nodded as I took a sip of coffee.

"So when do you meet with Gerry?"

"What?"

"Duncan's crap story was in the paper on Saturday, so I assume you're taking this to Gerry."

"3 o'clock."

She nodded, taking pride in the fact that she was right. "You gonna stick it to him?"

I rolled my eyes right as the press conference began, and afterwards I spent the next hour trying to prepare myself for the impending meeting. At about 2:40 I got an email from Dominic. Finally.

Gilmore,

Good work. Some of your best so far; whatever's got you inspired is working for you. Sent it on to The Times, I'll keep you updated.

Dominic

That is exactly what I needed to hear.

Sherry called my desk right at three to let me know Gerry was ready for me. I took a deep breath before I headed to his office and one more before I walked in. Stand your ground.

I found him looking over things at his desk, as per usual. He acknowledged me without looking up, "Gilmore, sit down."

I did, and then he continued, still occupied with what I could see was another article, "I got your email. What's so urgent?"

I was dumbfounded for a second. What's so urgent? "Well…"

He finally looked up at me, "Oh, right. I take it you saw the paper Saturday…" Yes I saw the paper Saturday. He went back to what he had been reading, "…it's a tough break, but Duncan had the stronger piece."

That's a load of crap. "Did he?"

Once again he was looking up at me, evidently surprised. Honestly, I was a little surprised. After all of my mental preparation for this meeting I was now kind of flying by the seat of my pants.

He sat up straighter in his chair and crossed his arms across his chest. "Are you questioning my judgement?"

Don't get too excited. "Well, I'm… I'd like to know what went into your decision."

"He had the better piece, Gilmore. That's it."

"That's it?" Yep, definitely going rogue here.

He sat back in his chair and seemed to relax a little, but I could still see the vein in his temple throbbing. "Look, I gave you both a shot. I gave you the chance to write something else, you chose to do this and he came out on top"

Remember to breathe. "I know… I just want to know if you chose the article based on writing alone."

He was getting visibly frustrated and starting to sound defensive even. "I know I wrote a good piece, so I'm wondering if there was anything else that went into your decision to print his instead of mine."

"What is it that you're getting at Gilmore?"

I did my best to remain as calm as possible when I asked, "Did your choice have anything to do with my association with Mitchum Huntzberger?"

"What would make you think that Mitchum Huntzberger have to do with this?"

Well, your reaction, for one thing. He had dropped his arms so that his hands now rested on the edge of the armrests of his chair and I could see a small vein starting to appear in his left temple.

The problem is that if I bring up Logan, it pretty much nullifies my request for separation of church and state, but if I don't bring it up it could continue to bite me in the ass. Just do it. "I… I just want to make sure that any history between…"

"History?" I could from the look in his eyes that he knew what I was talking about, and that vein in his temple was throbbing now. This is not going well.

"Look, I just…" Breathe. "We talked before about how I want to keep my personal life separate from my work and I want to make sure that we're still on the same page."

He sat back in his chair, but his face remained unchanged. "Sure, Gilmore; we're on the same page."

"We are?" So far, he had instilled zero confidence in me that supported that statement.

He nodded.

Okay, give it a shot. "Good. In that case, I'm hoping that you'll give me a chance to do a follow up, or maybe a companion piece about other groups that have been forming related to WikiLeaks…"

"No."

What happened to being on the same page? "No?"

"Here… look these over." He dug a folder out from under the other papers on his desk and handed it to me. "Come up with a couple of ideas for our pitch meeting tomorrow and we'll talk about them at the pitch meeting tomorrow."

He again picked up the article on his desk and resumed his reading, effectively dismissing me from our meeting. I carried the folder back to my desk, feeling like I had gone through a revolving door a little too quickly. He claims Duncan had the better story, but I know that's not true. He got way too defensive when I brought up Mitchum, but still asserts that it had nothing to do with how he made his decision. He shoots me down for a chance to follow up on the story and… Are you kidding me?

I had opened the folder as I sat at my desk and found that there wasn't a single thing in this stack of so called leads that was worth anything. Did he really expect me to find something in here?

It wasn't that I was getting too big for my britches or anything like that, but honestly. This was all fluff; the kind of stuff that nobody notices whether or not it's in the paper at all. Its crap is what it is. I really had gone from feast to famine.

I just couldn't bring myself to look at what my other options were. I tried to ignore it and continue to work on that companion piece, despite what Gerry had said, but I had to get out of there. I stopped by Leslie's desk and left her a note that I would call her later.

I replayed the whole thing in my mind on the way home, and I only ended up getting more upset about it. Needless to say that by the time I opened the door I was practically livid.

"Hey, how'd it go?" I was surprised to see that Logan was home. I thought for sure he would be stuck working until all hours right from the get go, and yet here he was.

Despite the pleasant surprise of his company the best response I could manage was to drop my laptop and bag heavily on the dining room table.

"That good, huh?"

"Worse."

"Worse?"

"He told me it was a tough break and that Duncan just had a better piece than me; then not only did he deny that Mitchum had any bearing on his decision, but he also gives me a stack of crap leads to choose from before the pitch meeting tomorrow."

"What did you say?"

I slumped into a stool at the counter and Logan handed me a glass of pity wine. "Nothing."

"You didn't say anything?"

"Well I didn't see what he had given me to choose from until I got back to my desk…"

I took a less than ladylike gulp and stared into the glass.

"I'm a better writer than Duncan. I deserved that piece."

"I know."

"And Dominic knows it. He said is some of my best stuff."

"That's great… Did you tell him that?"

I took another swallow from my glass, and admitted, "No."

"Ace…"

I stood up from the counter, for whatever reason thinking that it would help support my argument, "Well, it's not for sure getting published yet. I don't want to go rubbing his face in it and then having to eat my words… Plus he's still claiming that Mitchum had nothing to do with it…"

Logan rolled his eyes. "He actually said that? That Mitchum had nothing to do with it?"

I thought back to our meeting. "Well, he managed to avoid actually addressing it… but there's an obvious conflict of interest there, right?"

"Right."

I could hear myself getting worked up about it all over again. "And I started looking into another piece, something to go with what I'd already written, and he shot me down without even looking at it, then hands me that pile of fluff to take my pick from."

I downed the last of my wine and continued my diatribe. "He can't do this… I should get to write what I want to write, especially when I do it better than somebody else… right?"

Logan nodded in agreement, "Right."

"And if he can't see that I'm doing better work than Duncan then he's an idiot, right?

He nodded again, continuing to calmly agree but this time stifling a smile, "Right."

"I just…" I exhaled, finally calming down a little, "What am I supposed to do?"

He looked at me, silently asking if I really wanted his opinion. I really did.

"Quit."

What? "Quit? Are you kidding?"

"No."

"I not going to quit my job."

"Why not?"

"Because it's crazy."

Several 'right's ago Logan had taken a seat at the counter while I had been manically pacing around the kitchen. It would seem between the two of us that he was the more level headed one in that moment but it really was crazy.

"It's not crazy."

"Logan…"

"You're writing for The Times, Ace."

What is wrong with him? "But it's not a job. It's freelance work… I mean it looks good, but a few freelance pieces does not a career make."

"It could be a real job."

I rolled my eyes, "Could we please be a little realistic?"

"I am being realistic."

"You know what Dominic said, there isn't even a guarantee that they're going to be taking on new staff even if it is an election year…"

He was almost sarcastic at this point, "They're going to take on staff."

"Even they, what are the odds that they'd hire me?"

"Ace, you've probably gotten as many pieces published over there in the last month than half of their staff writers."

I'm not getting anywhere with this argument. "Well, what about Leslie? I'm just going to leave her?"

"Leslie can handle herself." He ran his hands over his face and audibly exhaled, "Look… You're unhappy, right?"

Obviously I was unhappy; I nodded.

"Then do something about it. You're not getting the work you deserve at The Post..."

"But at The Post I have a job. A consistent job; a job with a salary, you know, where they pay me regularly…"

"Rory…"He scoffed and gestured around the room, implying that money was a stupid argument.

"I have credit card bills, and rent, and…"

"Rent?" You're still paying rent?"

"My lease isn't up until June."

He rolled his eyes, "Are you kidding?"

"That's entirely beside the point…"

"No it's not... You're making excuses."

"I am not."

"You're scared."

"I'm not scared."

"You are." I glared at him, but he continued, "You've wanted to work for The New York Times for as long as I've known you, and this is your chance. It's a real chance. This is not about Leslie, or money, or anything else. This is about you being scared."

I knew he was right; it was only a matter of resigning myself to that fact... "Of course I'm scared. They've turned me down before… more than once. It would be a huge risk."

"Its different this time… you know it is. You have your foot in the door, they know you. Plus, you'll be able to really focus on what you're writing for them…"

Everything he said was true, but quitting my job? It was crazy; absolutely crazy. I can't quit my job… Can I?

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** I do not own any characters or content related to Gilmore Girls or any other entities mentioned. **

A/N - I hope the longer chapter makes up for the long absence, at least a little bit. I know it's a little fluffy, but it was fun top write, so i hope you enjoy it!

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