A/N: I'm so tardy there's simply no excuse. Shame on me, and whatnot. I finally sat down and just wrote what came to mind. It's mostly a filler chapter, I needed to just get a few minor things out of the way before I can move this story forward. Thank you to those who came with suggestions about this and that, it was very helpful. Thank you times two to gish who made me realize I really have to start watching the show over again.

Disclaimer: I, the author of this story, do not own any of the characthers associated with Gilmore Girls. That honor belongs to the wonderful Amy Sherman-Palladino. I have no intention of making any money on this (in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm losing money over it…).

21. Mind Control Hats and Andrew McCarthy

"Rory Gilmore is a fine journalist, and it was a priviledge having her at the Yale Daily News. She is thorough, and has an uncanny ability to inspire others to do their work and do it good, a fact that Logan Huntzberger can confirm. Equipped with with sharp wit and a keen eye for language, it is my belief, that Miss Gilmore will take whatever newspaper that offers her a place by storm. She certainly took the Yale Daily News by storm, and eventually ended up as skipper for this fine newspaper. Plus, she makes good newspaper hats."

"'She makes good newspaper hats'?" Rory asked incredulously, trying to snatch the paper out of Jess's hand.

She had come home from her interview, and had told Jess all about it, from the shaky beginning, to the lunch rush column to Doyle's surprising recommendation that didn't seem so crazy, at which point Jess had snatched the folder containing her resumé and recommendations out of her hands, and began reading the recommendation Doyle had sent over out loud.

"Do I even want to know why you've partaken in paper hat folding during your time at Yale?" Jess asked, smiling slyly. "Did you make one of those really ornate ones? Did you save it? Please say that you did, that would be a mental image I'd take with me to the grave."

"You'd take it to the grave, all right..." Rory commented pointedly, finally getting hold of the piece of paper, reading it through herself. "And it was tradition for new staff members to fold paper hats and be like slaves during the first night at the paper... Wow, he really didn't mess it up. Apart from the reference to Logan and the hat."

"Should I take that as a 'yes', then?"

"What?"

"That you still have that paper hat," Jess reminded her, and gave her a chocolatey puppy dog look.

"Yes, I still have it," Rory sighed, finding it particularly impossible to resist Jess and his eyes today. "But I don't know where it is."

"Liar!"

"Desperado."

"Pinocchio."

"Really? Does that make you my blue fairy?" Rory retorted teasingly, putting down the paper on a small table beside their couch. She had to stifle a laugh as a picture of Jess in a blue, sparkly dress, complete with pointy hat and spark-spewing wand, popped up in her head.

"Like I would ever be a chick…" Jess said, sounding insulted by the statement. "I'm too handsome to be a fairy."

"Fine, drop the hat-issue or you will be an elusive fairy in blue for as long as I live."

Given the choice between being thought of as a fruity fairy and, well… not being thought of as a fruity fairy, Jess opted for not pressing the matter further. That is, until he could search through her stuff for the hat uninterrupted.

"Fine. I will not mention your cute paper hat."

"It was not cute, it was very basic."

"I thought we weren't talking about it anymore?" Jess questioned, cocking his head to the side.

"You said it was cute, I just had to correct you, because it was not cute," rory explained, rolling her eyes.

"You're so weird."

"Yes, I am. And if I don't get coffee now, I'll get even more weird."

Jess excused himself, saying he needed to go over to Cammie for a bit to discuss "all the ridiculous ideas" she had for the Stars Hollow Truncheon-but-not-Truncheon-franchise.

"Trust me, if I don't nip this in the bud now, I will regret it to infinity and beyond," he said as he moved to the door.

"Because Cammie really seems like a girl who can be talked down by a guy. Good luck with that."

As soon as Jess was out the door, Rory ran into the bedroom, pulled out a box she had hidden in her closet, and rumbled through it until she found the ridiculous paper hat she had had to fold during that first "real" night at the Yale Daily News. Seriously, "makes good paper hats"? Had Doyle not seen the monstrosity Paris had folded? It had a freaking flower, and was folded to make the Yale Daily News-logo appear at the front!

She went back out into the livingroom, and picked up her phone from he purse and called Lorelai.

"I'm very busy and important, unless you're Andrew McCarthy in all your 80's glory, in which case I am free for anything," Lorelai answered.

"You do know that time warp phone calls only exist in movies, right?" Rory replied, snickering a bit. "And I thought you liked Emilio better."

"Yes, well, there was Emilio, but then there was his brother Charlie, but then Charlie went really bad, and I had to go back to Emilio, but then I lost interest right around the time he started doing hockey-movies, and there he was, Andrew McCarthy, being all angsty and smoking hot in St. Elmo's Fire, and I was sold."

"But the Mighty Ducks-movies and Charlie's bad habits kicked off way after St. Elmo's Fire…"

"Honey, you do know you can watch a movie more than once, right? I didn't notice Andrew the first time, I was too busy yelling at Emilio for pining after Andy, which was so wrong on extremely many levels. And when I wasn't yelling at Emilio I was trying to hide my blatant fascination with Rob Lowe. By the way, I totally belive in premarital sax."

"Okay, why did I even call?" Rory sighed into the phone, fingering the battered paper hat.

"I don't know, why did you call?"

"I need you to hide something for me."

"Hide something?"

"Yes."

"What, like illegal immigrants, a home made snuff movie, drugs or embarrassing baby pictures?"

"Well, the illegal immigrants are securely locked in my secret den," Rory prattled casually. "And though Jess thinks my love for coffee is unhealthy, I'm still pretty syre coffee's legal, and you've got all the embarrassing baby pictures. And why the heck would I have a home made snuff movie?"

"For reasons… No wait, those are reasons mommy doesn't want to know about."

"I need you to hide a paper hat," Rory interrupted her mom, before Lorelai could go off on another rant about nothing in particular.

"Excuse me? A paper hat? What's so dangerous about it? Can you control people with it and need to hide it because some secret government agency is after it?" Lorelai asked suspiciously.

"It's a paper hat I had to make when I started at the Yale Daily News. Doyle made the mistake of mentioning it in the recommendation he wrote for me, which Jess read, and now he's totally obsessed with the damn thing."

"The recommendation?"

"No, the paper hat!"

"Why?"

"How should I know? The ways of Jess Mariano are mysterious and not always logical."

"I could've told you that," Lorelai reasoned in a matter-of-factly voice.

"So can you hide it or not?" Rory asked again.

"Fine, send the innocent paper hat to me and I'll guard it with my life," her mother sighed at the other end of the line.

"I'll hold you to that."

"Fingers crossed, toes crossed, pinkie swear on Luke's coffee."

"Thank you. I'll go down to the post office and send it right away. The sooner this thing leaves Philadelphia, the better."

"Okay… So, the interview, did you do mommy proud?"

"I don't know, I hope so," Rory replied, biting her lip. "I mean, I said I wanted to write columns, so naturally I had to write one as a try-out since I hadn't written any columns before, but I think I did good. Hopefully, the editor doesn't think I'm nuts."

"Why would the editor think you're nuts? Not even Luke thinks your nuts, and you're related to me," Lorelai chuckled, and Rory could not help but smile. She so missed her mom.

"Well, I wrote about Stars Hollow, and all the crazy stuff we've done."

"I'm sorry, crazy? We are not crazy, we are… original!"

"Whatever you say, mom. Look, I gotta go, I'll call again soon."

"No, don't leave mommy! I'm bored, I'm lonely, I'm…"

"Go to Luke's and bug him, you like that. Bye mom."

"Traitor. Love you," Lorelai shouted, before they both hung up.

Rory smiled, and sat up, seeing Doyle's recommendation on the small table. She eyed it again, relishing the words on it.

Rory Gilmore is a fine journalist, and it was a priviledge having her at the Yale Daily News.

With the smile still playing on her lips, she rose from the couch, pulled on a jacket and a pair of sneakers, and headed out, the paper hat folded under her arms.

A/N: Reviews make Jess find the paper hat.

St. Elmo's Fire is a really brilliant Brat Pack-movie from 1985, which features stars like Emilio Estevez, Demi More, Rob Lowe and Andy McDowell. I remember Lorelai and Sookie discussing Emilio vs. Andrew in the episode "Festival of Living Art", and since St. Elmo's Fire is the only movie I know of that feature both Emilio Estevez and Andrew McCarthy I couldn't resist using some references, since it's also one of my favourite 80's movies.