AN: The past week was hell, and right now I feel like I am only just recovering. Thankfully - I am now on holiday and lucky enough to have some time to write (and finish this story). Thanks for waiting, reading and reviewing!


Chapter 130

"Hi! Rory Huntzberger to see chief editor Kate Hessel," Rory announced, smilingly, as she stopped behind the receptionist's desk. She was nervous. But even more so because she was fifteen minutes early. Both her mother and Logan had cautioned her not to be too early, yet she'd overestimated the time it would take her getting around Providence and she'd made it there in good time anyway. Somehow, she was always a lot more trusting of Logan's words over her mother's and had actually tried not to disappoint her husband, recalling him explaining to her how sometimes coming early showed the person as too needy or pushy or plainly having too much time on her hands. It was such a trivial thing, yet under these conditions, it seemed as the most achievable one. Yet it had turned out to be not quite as easy in practice.

The building was gorgeous. Arch top windows facing the street, wooden partitions with gridded windows, the age-appropriately squeaky floor and a lingering smell of stale coffee and old paper in the air. Honestly, it reminded her a lot of Yale Daily News. It was definitely a place with history.

"She's in a meeting right now. Take a seat, please," the receptionist advised, muting the microphone on her headset.

Rory took a seat on the weathered leather sofa, not a terribly comfortable one, and glanced at her phone.

There was an unread message on the phone - "Knock 'em dead, Ace," Logan had typed.

It warmed her heart. But it didn't make her miss Logan any less. She'd gone from counting weeks to counting days until he'd be back. The current toll was 5 days. Logan would be with her in 5 days. She would've liked to say that Logan would be home, but she knew better than to consider her New Haven apartment with just the temporary lease none of them would have reason to stay in after graduation as their true home.

Ever since she'd gotten off the train in Providence and wandered her way to the newspaper office, she'd tried to picture them living there. She already liked the city for its bridges, and Boston would be a little closer, so she could in the future visit her dad and sister more often, but the business district hadn't yet shown its interesting side to her, hence she was only pretending to be excited by the prospect. It wasn't completely impossible to pretend to be excited about a new beginning, if nothing else she could be excited about finally having Logan back on the same continent with her.

She'd done her homework for this interview. She was going all in, feeling like her patchy writing experience this past year was going to be her major flaw going in. But she'd read almost all the recent editions of the paper, and she considered herself well prepared even for Paris' high standards. Hell - Paris had even make her take a trial interview.

The office she was in was a lot different from the Stamford Eagle Gazette. It looked older, less modern for sure. Truthfully, it kind of reminded her of the office of Stars Hollow Gazette, except it was a lot bigger than that corner office on Main Street. She couldn't quite place what kept bothering her about this place, however, until she was jolted out of her thoughts by the receptionist.

"There's your 2 o'clock over there, Kate," she said, nodding towards Rory.

"Oh, hello," Rory stuttered, standing up in a rush, almost blushing since this really hadn't been the impression she wanted to leave. She offered her hand to the woman, wanting to shake the initial awkwardness off and she accepted the hand graciously.

"Kate Hessel," the woman replied.

"Rory Gilmore. It's great to finally meet you," Rory replied.

She followed the editor through the newsroom, a busy, but surprisingly quiet office, where it finally hit her what was weird about this place. There didn't seem to be too many young people working there, at least not on desk duty, and the youngest she saw was one college-kid looking guy, who looked like he must've been on his internship.

In the editor's office, where they were interrupted by various quick messages and knocks at least three times, they went over Rory's resume, and to Rory's relief her London experience was actually considered as a perk rather than wavering from her path, it seemed.

"So listen, Rory… May I call you Rory?" Kate began.

Rory nodded, naturally. So far everything had gone well. She'd shared her experiences, discussed world events and more local literary developments, demonstrating how she was well-read and capable of keeping up a decent discussion, so she didn't really fear a sentence starting like that. But maybe she should've.

"So, naturally we'd love to offer you the position. But you see, the paper truly needs some fresh blood and something or someone to turn this place around. Ideally, I'll admit that we're in search of an investor. And I am saying that on the behalf of the board," Kate said at one point, adding a meaningful look.

"Um, well I'd definitely be able to provide a fresh, young, perspective," Rory said, tentatively, unsure if she was truly reading what she thought out of her double talk.

"So, we have an understanding?" Kate asked.

"I'll need to give it some days to think about it. After all this would involve a move and so on," Rory discussed, not wanting to say anything right now.

"Absolutely. Think, discuss with your husband, your family… but like I said, we'd be blessed to have you with us," Kate assured. "Now, how about we take a tour of the office, introduce you to some people?" she suggested, raising from her seat, leaving Rory a little baffled at her words.

Rory emerged from the building some ten-fifteen minutes later, having finished her interview with a tour of the offices and its key team.

She'd gotten the offer. She should've been over the moon. The offer, however, had been a conditional one. She was so new at this and she wasn't sure how much exactly had she read into this. Honestly if she was right, she felt dirty just to think of it.

"You got the job yet, Ace?" Logan asked, as Rory had made her way back to the train station and hopped on the next train heading towards New Haven, and picked up her phone realizing she needed to vent.

For Logan it was already evening, but he was still at the office.

Rory sighed.

"That bad, eh?" Logan asked, sensing it from her tone.

"I got the job. I have to let them know by Monday," Rory replied.

"Then why aren't you celebrating?" Logan asked.

"I met the editor, Kate Hessel. I sat down, we started talking, and we just had so much to talk about. It was great. It was an amazing interview," Rory began.

"But…?" Logan inquired, sending the 'but' coming.

"We talked about Seymour Hersh and how he was comparing Iran to Nicaragua and the contra war and from everything from Alexander Haig and Watergate to the Oprah phenomenon. I was just being myself, I was just talking and I forgot about impressing her," Rory continued and for a moment Logan already began to be hopeful the interview had indeed gone well.

"But there you were -impressing her," Logan praised her.

"Well, yeah, I got the job. But in the end it was the way she offered it to me…," Rory sighed.

"Ah…," Logan exhaled, guessing what the problem had been.

"She was talking about needing investments and fresh blood…," Rory said, continuing to explain the editor's undertone in the whole offer.

"I'm sorry, Ace," Logan said.

"I wanted so badly to be hired for who I am, and in the end all they wanted was the name and the money, that they don't know I don't really have or have any power over," Rory sighed.

"Hey, but it's not like PJ is your first choice anyways, right?" Logan tried to cheer her up.

Sure, Rory had sent dozens of applications in all different directions, and she did have her eye on the New York Times. It was a long shot, she knew that. But she couldn't help but to think of bigger destinations with Logan in mind. He'd have a lot more opportunities there as well, and while he'd told her that he'd follow her wherever, she was unconsciously factoring him in too.

"I guess," Rory sighed, getting to a realization that she really didn't want to be accepting deals that came with strings attached. It felt as bad as making scheming things with Mitchum would've been. She was yet to face her husband's parents since he'd told them he was leaving, and it was safe to say she was anxious about it, knowing they were likely going to blame her for those developments.

"Then screw the offer. You're better than that," Logan said. While he was yet to step out in the real world himself and be showered with offers and possibilities, he still had that mentality. He wondered whether he'd need to come down from his high horse at some point.

What gave Rory hope that she would figure it out was honestly Logan's attitude. She needed his can-do spirit and his belief in her like oxygen. It enabled her to get out of her head and just believe for better moments to come.

"Logan, thank you," Rory sighed.

"Always, I love you," Logan assured.

"I love you too," she replied, ending the call, knowing they'd speak again soon enough. Better yet - they'd see each other again in 118 hours, going from days to hours.

With Rory having her final exams to take, papers to finish and every other little thing standing in the way of her graduation to handle, those hours, thankfully, swooshed by quickly, and that weekend, Friday night dinner truly felt like a finale of some sort.

The grandparents by now knew about Logan leaving, and while they'd been a little disappointed to hear it directly from the horse's mouth, they did get it that it was not something one flaunted about, especially when one's spouse was still half-way across the world.

"Rory, your grandfather and I have been thinking about purchasing a little Pied-Terre in the city," Emily announced half-way through drinks.

"Nothing fancy. Maybe just a little two-three bedroom on the Upper East Side," Richard continued.

"That's exciting," Rory commented, not being quite sure where they were getting at.

"Now we realize that the Upper East Side is not the most convenient address if you're working for the New York Times, but New York has a lot of options to offer," Richard elaborated.

Now Rory was getting it. They'd offered to get them a place before, and since they now knew Christopher had never actually bought them the promised first home, like the talk had been to hold her grandparents off buying them something they didn't really want, now they seemed to be doing a second attempt.

"You're giving her an apartment, mom?" Lorelai asked, cutting through the vagueness.

"No. It'll be our apartment for Logan and Rory to live in. Maybe even a couple of grandkids at some point, who knows? Of course, we would never drop by unannounced," Emily replied.

"Well, that goes without saying," Richard assured.

"We would just come in on the occasional weekend and maybe stay over some nights when we're going to be in the city late," Emily added.

"Hear that, honey? You're all going to be roomies," Lorelai teased.

"So, what do you think? Of course, I apologize I didn't wait for Logan to get here and discuss this with him present," Emily said, hopefully.

"Oh, it's a very generous offer," Rory commented, feeling grateful, but disturbed at the concreteness of the offer. Just minutes ago, she'd still felt as if the world was wide open to Logan and her, having no real concrete offers just yet, just a few interviews set up.

"Oh, and we're glad to do it," Richard assured.

"But I don't know if I'm actually gonna be moving to New York after I graduate," Rory shrugged. "I haven't even heard back from the New York Times yet," Rory added.

"Well, you can hardly just lean on one option now, can you?" Richard suggested.

"But did you know that New York has at least 100 other media outlets that would be lucky to have you?" Emily said, having done her research.

"Besides, we'd love to have you at least somewhere on the East Coast so you could visit," Richard added.

"I know New York has a lot of options, but honestly… But I have seen many great offers there besides the Reston Fellowship. Besides - Logan hasn't even really begun looking yet. I've got to factor him in too," Rory said.

Rory could sense Richard and Emily exchanging glances, like they knew something she didn't.

"What?" Lorelai asked, knowing that look.

"Well, we might just as well," Emily said, evasively.

"I'm sure this is something Logan should...," Richard said to Emily.

"What is it?" Rory insisted, suddenly feeling a little blind sighted.

"Well… it may be nothing. But we're hoping you wouldn't get your hopes up too much about The New York Times," Richard replied.

"What? Why?" Rory asked.

"Years ago… god, it must've been like 25 years?" Emily began to recall. "Mitchum had this big lawsuit with the Henry Maddox, the…," she added.

"The president of the New York Times?" Rory reflected, knowing well who they were talking about. "Of Course, he had," she exhaled, getting the gist already.

"Anyways those two have been warring since then, even though silently and avoidantly. But I doubt they'd be eager to select a Huntzberger for such a prominent fellowship unless Mitchum did some serious admitting of his faults and apologizing for the man," Richard explained.

"They might even invite you for an interview, but pretend they'd choose someone else over you just to make it look honest and have you not contest it," Emily added.

"He did something similar to that MacCallister boy who applied for their financial advisor position," Richard said.

"That's right," Emily confirmed.

"That sucks, honey," Lorelai rubbed Rory's shoulder.

Rory honestly couldn't believe how she didn't know about it, and how she'd been kept hopeful for her dream position by her entire family, Logan included. She knew Logan hadn't been purposefully trying to hurt her, but it did sting not to have the person she trusted the most let her down easy before she got her hopes up.

"But like we said - there are hundreds of places in the City that would love to have you. You and Logan, both," Richard assured.

Rory mostly just felt defeated. It hadn't helped to get her motivation back to do what she loved, the name just kept coming around to bite her. But most importantly she was now again lost about what to hope for. She didn't have a second and third option backing her up, she just had the fellowship on position one and everything else shoved back there with locations all across the country. Would anyone else even want her? Had giving up The Providence Journal been a mistake? The only thing that made all of this a little better was knowing Logan would be back in less than 12 hours, but she couldn't deny she was also eager to hear why she'd had to find out about this from her grandparents and not her husband.

"Hey! Finally!" Rory exclaimed, as she stood outside the limo, waiting for Logan at JFK arrivals. His plane had been running late.

"Tell me about it," Logan exhaled, and kissed her earnestly.

"Well, come on - we better hurry," Rory suggested.

"Hi, Frank," Logan greeted their driver, whom they had for the night.

Rory had been driving a replacement rental, a tiny Toyota Yaris, and that didn't quite seem like the car to make an entrance into Andreas's dinner party. The scheduling of this dinner party hadn't been easiest, Logan having had to postpone his flight back more than he'd hoped initially.

Logan had quite a bit of luggage, and the rest was being shipped, and it was Frank who took care of packing their car up with everything, while they could have their little moment in the car.

"Hi," Rory smiled, trying to focus on Logan's presence over what she'd learned last night. She didn't want to fight. Besides, one way or another, this wouldn't be changing the outcome of things.

"Hi," Logan replied smugly, kissing her again, and slipping his hand into her hair.

"Hey, watch the hair," Rory cautioned him, having put some effort into her relaxed but cute-looking updo.

"Sorry," Logan replied, hearing Frank get into the driver's seat and drive off.

Rory snuggled into Logan's side on the back seat, just wanting to feel him with her entire body, knowing they had at least an hour until they'd need to change Dirty Dancing style before arriving in Montauk. They talked about this and that, like who was likely going to be there and what had been going on with Logan these past few days when he'd been crazy busy setting things up for his permanent departure. The apartment was yet to be sold, but he'd made sure his HPG lawyer was granted the permission to make the deal for him. Some privileges stretched beyond his contract, thankfully.

Watching each-other change clothes in the limo, was nearly too much, for two people with electric chemistry and who'd been forced to stay apart for weeks, but the presence of Frank kept them just building on that tension.

They emerged from the limo just on time, Logan having changed into a Dries van Noten suit that Rory had bought him. Rory looked simple, yet elegant, sheer dark blue knee-length dress, that was the perfect balance between summary and conservative, now really knowing what she was walking into, despite knowing Logan described the crowd as casual and friendly. But she also knew Logan and her had a very different understanding of what that was.

"God, those heels look hot on you," Logan commented as Rory stepped out behind her, holding out his hand for her.

"That was the point," Rory smirked, knowing her ankle strap heels were his favorite, as she stepped up to him, and felt his hand go around her hips.