A/N: Thank you everyone for your reviews. Wow, I've really not got much to say, which is strange, my A/Ns are usually borderline rambly. Enjoy chapter 27, sorry for the wait!
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…).
27. Reality is so much more pleasing
"Very well done, Rory."
Rory blushed, and smiled goofily, as she took in Gerald's praise. She'd stayed up until the wee hours rewriting the column, changing, changing back, changing again, tweaking, biting her nails and hoping it was good enough. For the first time since practically ever, she had been hesitant about pushing the print-button when she was done, and she had lost a good ten minutes just staring at the damn machine, her finger weighing on the left mousebutton.
"I'm glad you liked it," she replied shyly. "I wasn't sure if the changes I made were, well, vague enough for what you had in mind."
"Are you kidding me? This is great! It's vague without being too vague, it's crazy without being over the top. Really, you couldn't have given me a better revision. And everything you've mentioned is true?"
"Oh yes. From the movie night candy-pool to the bid on the basket to the knitathons. And that's just the beginning."
"I can see we are in for a wild ride," Gerald noted, putting down the paper on his desk. "So, shall we move on to the big stuff then? Signing papers and all that?"
"Sure!" Rory enthused, feeling jittery at this pivotal moment of her day, hell, her life.
Gerald pulled out a desk drawer, speaking as he pulled out one paper after the other.
"So, you would be employed by us, but free to freelance if you should want to. However, we have reserved this specific column for Metro, so you can't publish that in another paper. As I mentioned yesterday, this could start out as a bi-monthly column, with a probation period of three months. It sound little, I know, but with these things, all it takes is one, maybe two columns to see if it's going to work out. And don't worry, you'll still have your job after three months regardless of how the column takes off."
"What about my working hours?"
"It's really up to yourself, so long as we have the final product by the deadline. You don't necessarily have to come in and leave a physical copy, you can upload it onto our server and we'll take it from there. It would be fun to see you every once in a while though."
"Good, that's good. I mean, about my flexible work schedule," Rory said, feeling a bit lighter inside. The work hours had been her main concern as she had taken the bus to Metro's office.
"Normally I'd try with kids and family, but you seem far to young for that..." Gerald said with a smirk.
"No, it's not kids. More family, maybe. My... fiancé and I are actually moving back to Stars Hollow, he's opening a bookshop subsidiary there, and apart from him needing me to run interference, the thought of moving home is actually pretty tempting. After spending almost a year on the road for the Presidential campaign, it feels good to set down roots, sort of."
"I see. Well, it's fine by us. Just hand in your stuff on time and show up occasionally, okay?"
"That won't be a problem," she promised.
"So when's the big move?" Gerald asked, signing the papers rapidly.
"Oh, um... as soon as the details are all hashed out. My fiancé and his business partners have quite different views on how the bookshop should be run."
"What bookshop is it, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Truncheon, down on Locust."
"Oh yeah, those guys! We did a feature when they opened shop. So they've branched out? What other places have they got?"
"Actually, the one in Stars Hollow is their first. Don't ask me why, it sort of happened by mistake. We lost track of Chris and Matt in Stars Hollow and during the short time it took us to find them, they managed to strike a deal with the current bookstore owner in Stars Hollow. I think the general idea is for this to be sort of a literary grassroots movement. It's a little different from Truncheon, sort of like a haven for people who want to read a little underground literature, enjoy the ambience and relax. I think it's pretty exciting."
"I might just have to swing by sometime to see it for myself," Gerald commented, then handed her a neat stack of papers. "Okay, then. Your turn. Sign there, there, there and there." He pointed to a dotted line next to his signature on every page and handed her a pen.
Rory could feel her hands shaking as she took the pen. This was it, she was moving onto a new stage in her life. She had been employed before, but living in a bus or out of drafty motel rooms had not had the proper feeling of being employed. This was different, this was for real. She breathed in, pressed the pen against the paper and signed herself off to her new future.
"Okay, great. You're now officially part of the Metro staff," Gerald congratulated her, shaking her hand. "Your first column will go to print tomorrow, so it will be in the paper the day after tomorrow. Swing by Pamela at the help desk to get your username and password, and she'll show you how to use our intranet to upload to our server. We have a copy of your column, so you don't need to upload one today. The deadline for your column is always 12 am the day before it's in the papers, which in your case is Wednesdays at 12 am. Any questions?"
"Not that I can think of," Rory told him smiling widely.
They shook hands once again, and Rory made her way to the helpdesk. Pamela turned out to be a 28-year-old computer tech originally from West Virginia if you believed her shirt, who looked like a living, breathing computer nerd archetype. She absentmindedly fixed a username and a password for Rory, showed her the basics of the intranet and handed out a card with the helpdesk's telephone number and e-mail on it. It didn't matter that this woman didn't seem to care one bit. Rory was floating on little clouds as she practically skipped out of Metro's office. She was barely out the door and out on the street when she'd speed dialled Lorelai.
"If you're calling to rub my face in the fact that I'm getting fatter every stinking day, you can just hang up," Lorelai answered grumpily. "Michel's already giving me hell here, but not enough to make me consider a homicide."
"You're not fat, mom," Rory offered, holding back a 'not yet, anyway'.
"You always know how to make me happy. So what's up?"
"I'm officially employed!" she gushed.
"What? When did this happen?" Lorelai wondered, now sounding considerably more happy.
"Yesterday. And today."
"Okay, I need more here, unless you've found some glitch in the space-time continuum that I don't know about."
"Metro's editor called me yesterday and said he'd been handed the column I wrote as a work print for the Inquirer. Metro's columnist had apparantly quit very suddenly, so Gerald, the editor, called me and asked if I wanted to start writing columns for them."
"Babe, that is so great!"
"I know," Rory continued, feeling how the happiness bubbled inside of her. "I just left Metro's office, I've signed all the papers and gotten my username and password from the geekiest girl in Philadelphia, and my column will be in print the day after tomorrow."
"Send me a copy," Lorelai told her assertively. "No, send me ten, or maybe twenty, so I can pass them out around town and brag about you."
"Well, considering I'm writing about the town, I can think of a few, who wouldn't like it," Rory hedged, biting her lip.
"Taylor? Don't worry, I'll spread the word. No need to get his panties in more of a bunch than they already are. Not that I would know what kind of bunch they are in, because if I did, I would have to gouge my eyes out and pour bleach into my head," Lorelai rambled, and Rory scrunched up her nose. There would never be a conversation where Taylor's pants would be involved and it wouldn't be nauseating.
"I'll send you five copies," Rory instead promised. "One for you, one for grandma and grandpa, one for Sookie, one for Michel, even though he might not read it, and one for Babbette so she and Patty can spread the word. There, I've ensured town gossip for the coming month with only five copies."
"Do I have to be the one giving the glorious paper to your grandma and grandpa?" her mother whined.
"Mom, you're a big girl. They will not bite you."
"Are you completely sure, 'cause I've seen the way grandma looks at me when I give the peas voices."
"Mom, I promise, it's just this one time. We'll move back soon, and I can start running interference for you and grandma again."
"Something tells me this will end up in one of your columns..." Lorelai grumbled. "Though that would certainly be a nice change if Emily Gilmore would bark at someone else but me for talking about her in a less than flattering tone."
"I will not be mean to grandma!"
"Well, you're mean to me! And you're baby sibling It."
"Tell It not to put its nose where it doesn't belong yet."
"Please, like It would know its nose from its butt..."
"I'm going to hang up now, before we're back to talking about Taylor's pants and what horrible, horrible things that might come after that."
"You know you love me," Lorelai teased, using her best Gossip Girl-voice.
"XOXO. Bye mom."
They hung up, and Rory continued on her way home, taking the bus to the 69th Street Terminal and continued homeward on foot. She was one block away when she decided to swing by Truncheon to give Jess the good news. She turned left on Chestnut Street onto South 41st Street, and soon saw the Truncheon facade. The bell above the door jingled when she entered.
"Hi Chris," she greeted chipperly as the door closed behind her.
Chris looked up, gave her a wave and a smile.
"Your boy's downstairs. I think he's having a little meltdown or something."
"More trouble with Cammie?"
"And Matt. It's not Jess's day today. Cammie left on her own accord, but I had to send Matt upstairs. God knows how we'll manage without Mariano here when you two leave..." Chris shook his head.
Rory smirked, and quickly descended the stairs down to the basement. She found Jess in one of the corners, banging his head against a wall, grinding his teeth.
"What's the problem?" she asked calmly.
"They're idiots, that's what's the problem," Jess replied surlily.
"Elaborate."
"They freaking tag teamed on me just to torture me! Cammie wants this, Matt wants that, they harass me to get both, and I want none. Cammie thinks this, Matt agrees, and I could not care less."
"Well, you must care, otherwise it wouldn't bother you," she pointed out sensibly.
Jess grumbled something unintelligible, and stopped banging his head.
"I don't want it to turn into the fancy god damned water hole they're planning it as. I want it to be what it is, nothing more," he said after a while, sounding tired.
Rory stepped up to him, and hugged him, leaning her head against his back.
"Have you tried telling them?"
He snorted.
"As if I'd get a say in things..."
"Hey, you're going to run that place, you should have everything to say about it!"
"I guess..."
"Okay, now, tell me what they want and we'll see if it's impossible to steer them away from the apparant insanity."
"Cammie wants plush, candles and red interior. Matt wants red, leather and lights."
"And you want?"
"Anything that will annoy the hell out of Matt?" Jess suggested jokingly.
"Jess... seriously," Rory reproved, though she was glad to hear he was getting out the immediate funk.
"I want... odd chairs. Not a posse of plush or leather arms chairs and couches. I'm not totally opposed to the candles, but something tells me Taylor will bust us for burning candles on a weekday or something like that...I don't want to change the place too much. I liked it as it was. It just... needs a touch of Truncheon."
"And Cammie."
"Yeah, that too, I suppose."
"So, tell them that," Rory told him encouragingly. "Odd chairs sounds interesting. And they can get one plush and leather chair each, and everyone will be happy. Candles are nice, and I'll personally start a boycott against Doose's if Taylor tries to shut you down. And I agree with you, don't change the place too much."
"I love it when you sound so peppy." Jess turned around and gave her a soft kiss.
"I'll start making my pom-poms tonight," she promised challengingly.
"Fine," he sighed and inclined his head. "I'll go all bossy on them later. So to what do I owe the honor of your pleasant company?"
"Why, thank you for asking, sir. I just came by to say I've landed myself a job."
Rory felt like she was about to explode. She'd never get tired of saying that she was employed, it was such a sweet feeling to bask in. Jess took hold of her, lifted her up and spun her across the room.
"Congratulations, Rory. I knew you'd charm the pants off some editor sooner or later."
"We can finally move. I'm employed, you're going to straighten things out with Cammie and Matt and then we can actually pack up and move..." She was about to say 'home', but she held it back. Living in the upstairs apartment from Luke's would be a home, but not the home.
"Leave one nuthouse for another," Jess filled in with a wry smile.
"Oh, come on, you'll enjoy harassing Taylor. Admit it."
Jess didn't answer, just gave her his trademark Jess Mariano up-to-no-good smirk. She kissed him again, and thought about the future. This felt right, returning to their roots. The dream of working in New York or abroad had always been just that, a dream. In reality, Rory suspected the lifestyle of an overseas correspondent would have clashed with her personality. She could still be Christiane Amanpour, just not in a foxhole in some country at war. Philly was a big enough city, Metro just the kind of paper she needed to start out with, and Stars Hollow had always been her home base, wherever she'd been in her life. Dreams were nice, but when reality clicked, it was much more satisfying.
"So, when will they print you?" Jess asked after they broke off the kiss.
"Day after tomorrow. I've promised to send five copies to mom," she replied, taking his hand, and began dragging him up the stairs.
"Only five? Wow, I expected more from your mom."
"Oh, trust me, she wanted twenty, but I negotiated it down to five."
"At least one of those copies have to go to either Babbette or Miss Patty, otherwise there would be no point in trying to spread the word with five copies," Jess commented, putting up a mild fight. He didn't feel like confronting those pig headed associates of his just yet.
"You know me so well."
Jess came to a full stop in the middle of the staircase, pulling Rory to him. They locked gazes, as he whispered to her:
"I've known you since the first time I saw you."
He softly kissed her on the forehead and the on the mouth, after which he obediently followed her out of the basement and up the stairs to the apartment above Truncheon to talk to Matt.
A/N: Review, pretty please! This fic is running on its last few chapters. I can promise you as much that it won't go over 30 chapters. It has run its course and I promise to give it a good, dignified ending.