A/N: I don't think I've written one of these for this story yet. Exciting! I was going through the reviews, thank you for the feedback so far. I love reading them, even if it's just a 'keep writing.' I wanted to touch base. This is a Rogan. I know the feeling chelsbaby, where we see Logan with other people. In all honesty, I close the tab before I finish the story. But, this is Rogan. I am telling you that right now! So, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. We'll be seeing Rory soon. Enjoy!
"Logan, we have a serious problem," Jeremy said as soon as he stepped foot in the building. It was seven o'clock in the morning, he was hung over, and he did not want to deal with whatever crisis Jeremy thought they were having at that moment.
"Whatever it is, it can wait five minutes for me to get a coffee." He brushed Jeremy aside, making his way to the kitchenette, but Jeremy just followed. Looking around, he saw the chaos. He wasn't sure what was causing the chaos, but it was complete and utter chaos, not the usual hustle and bustle. Everybody seemed to be panicking, which made him wake up faster than any cup of coffee ever could. "What the hell is going on?"
"The servers crashed last night. We've lost everything for this next issue, Logan. Everything! The deadline is in ten hours, and there's no way we can get it all finished in time." Logan's instincts kicked in from when he worked at the London office, seeing something similar happen to one of the papers in Cardiff.
"I can fix this," he said calmly. He sat his briefcase down on one of the unoccupied chairs before turning to the office. "Everybody!" he yelled. "Listen up!" The chaos stopped as they all turned to him. He took off his jacket and tie, setting them with the briefcase. "I know you're all panicking right now. This is not the end of the world. All reporters: for right now, retype your articles. I'll call a friend of mine who's good in the IT area of this and see what we can do to restore everything that was lost. This is why we have our hard copies and our notes. If you don't have hard copies, rewrite your articles. If you have hard copies, retype them and then put them on my desk. Editors: meet with me and Jeremy in the conference room in five minutes. Call all reporters who are not working today or who are out on assignment. Bring them here. It's all hands on deck." Turning to Jeremy, he grabbed his belongings off the chair as he made his way to his office, the man following close behind.
"How are you going to fix this? Half those reporters have articles that took them more than six hours to write!" Logan kept his cool as Jeremy continued to freak out.
"Jeremy, this is one of those times I need you to trust me, okay? Call Colleen. I know she has something going on, but try to get ahold of her while I talk to the editors. Also, get Dylan in here. After my meeting with the editors, I'm going to call an old friend of mine and see what he can do, okay? Deep breaths, Jer. I've done this before." The man just nodded, pulling out his phone and dialing Colleen's number. Logan left him in the office, making his way to the conference room where the editors had assembled. They all looked stressed and frantic, nothing like what he'd like to see from them in a situation like this.
"Okay, guys," he said softly, sitting on the edge of the table as they gathered around. "I know this is worst-case scenario, and I know most of you probably haven't seen something like this happen. I want to tell you guys right now, it will be okay. We will get this issue out in its entirety. But, I will tell you guys this. How we handle this situation will make or break us, okay? It's important for our reporters to see as us a united front." It felt like their eyes were burning holes in him. "So, here's how it's going to go. Compile a list of the articles you had your reporters write and touch base with them all. See which articles we have hard copies of and which ones we don't. Let me know once you find that out. After that, start helping your reporters in any way you can. I know we have some slow typers out there, scribe if you have to. A reporter asks something of you, say yes - within reason, okay? Now, let's get this issue out." The team of editors left him, and he rolled his sleeves up as Jeremy walked in, looking even more stressed out than he already was.
"Dylan's on his way in, but Colleen's out of the state. She's trying to get back, but no promises. What are we going to do?" Jeremy sat down, and Logan looked at him with a smile.
"We're going to get this article out. Call up that coffee place down the street, see if they can get some donuts and coffee delivered. I don't care how much we have to pay for the delivery if they don't deliver. Get it here. Then go out there and get started on helping out however you can. As I was telling the editors, do whatever is needed, scribe if you have to. I'm going to call up my buddy, Nick, and see what he can do recon wise." Jeremy nodded, walking out of the room, Logan following behind. However, Logan took the route to his office while Jeremy went towards the bustle of the newsroom.
Sitting at his desk, he breathed out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He pulled out the phone and dialed a familiar number. He'd worked with Nick and HPG, and he walked Logan through every step he could think of to recover any of the documents they'd had prior to the servers crashing. When he and Nick finally hung up, he looked at the clock. Half their time was up, three hours to their deadline. He looked at the documents they'd recovered, knowing he needed to meet with the editors again. He knew he had told them to meet with him when they had an idea of where they were at article wise, but he'd ushered them out of the office as he worked on the server.
He walked out of the office, voice yelling over the bustle again. "Editors, meet with me in my office!" With that, he walked back into the office, taking a seat behind his desk and turning his attention towards the articles he'd managed to salvage. The group crowded around as he read off the articles that had been saved. "With that, meet with your teams and figure out which articles still need to be written. Afterwards, meet with me and we'll figure out which ones are going to get printed. I know it's not ideal to decide which articles go in before reading them, but I'm going to trust your judgement. Get them emailed to me ASAP with hard copies on my desk." The group left him as he leaned back in his chair, breathing out a sigh. It was the first big crisis since Logan started working six months ago, since Premier came to be nearly two months prior.
It was four fifty-seven. Logan stood behind Suzette as she worked on the finishing touches. Jeremy stood beside him on the phone with Colleen who was still en route and would be there in a half hour. Dylan was standing on the other side, biting his nails. Logan had his phone out, dialing the number of the printing company they were going through to try and buy some more time.
"Hey, Sly, it's Logan from Premier," he said. "I just wanted to make sure you guys got the new issue. We've been having some server problems, so I just wanted to confirm."
"We haven't gotten anything from you guys yet. You do realize your deadline is in less than two minutes, right?" Sly wasn't one that would give them a break. The news world stopped for nothing, not even server problems.
"I'm well aware of our deadline, Sly. We're sending it again right now," he replied as Suzanne did a quick once-over before hitting the send button. Everybody waited with baited breath, all eyes on Logan as he looked around at them. He knew that even though he told them it wasn't the end of the world if the issue didn't get out, he knew he was lying - they all knew he was lying. If this issue didn't get out, they'd be losing thousands and their reputation would be ruined. "Did you get it?" He took a deep breath, eyes closing as the man on the other end of the conversation finally spoke.
"Somebody's looking out for you guys at Premier. Got it at five fifty-nine fifty-nine seconds. Congrats." Logan didn't know how to respond, not right away. They did it!
"Thank you." He hung up the phone, breathing a sigh of relief as his eyes opened to see the group of reporters, editors, Dylan, and Jeremy all looking at him. With his signature smirk, he broke the anticipation filled silence. "That's how we do it at Premier Media!" Dylan and Jeremy shook his hand, bringing him in for hugs as the rest of the room hooped and hollered in celebration.
With this celebration, his mind went back to his senior year at Yale. He couldn't believe he had uttered the same phrase - different publication - three years later. It was back when his love life had been where he'd wanted it. Sure, life hadn't been easier back then given his standings with his father, but he had everything else he'd wanted. He'd had the friends and the girl and the charm. Now, all he had was the charm it seemed, his friends not finding their way to the West Coast too often anymore.
As the editors and reporters started streaming out, Logan, Dylan, and Jeremy all sat around the 'conference' table nursing cold coffees from that morning. As the reporters and editors drank theirs, the trio were too invested in making sure things went smoothly that theirs went untouched.
"Well, boys. It seems like I missed the bash of a lifetime," Colleen said, sitting in her chair next to them. Logan just closed his eyes, taking another drink. God, he needed something stronger than coffee, something to take his mind off the reminder he'd had that day. The whole day reminded him of Ace. He hadn't thought of that name in a while, always thinking of her by her name, not the nickname he'd given her practically from day one. His Ace.
"Oh yeah. Loads of fun," Dylan responded, words dripping with sarcasm. Logan just chuckled.
"We really didn't do anything. It was all Logan over there. I don't know what it was, Huntzberger genes or he's just that good, but he saved our asses!" Jeremy looked at Logan with pride, and he noticed Colleen do the same.
"Don't give my name any credit for that. Mitchum may have taught me a lot, and one of those things was pawning a crisis like that over to the right hand man. However, Yale Daily News taught me how to handle what just happened. Let's just say the editor and chief had a mental break down, causing the entire staff to quit. Me and her friend stepped up to the plate and got the paper out with seconds to spare." He was smiling as he told the story. Dylan and Jeremy stood, hands squeezing his shoulder before they left, leaving him and Colleen together.
"Her friend was the girl, I assume?" Colleen asked. Logan just nodded, taking another drink. "It's okay to miss her. It's okay to look back on those times with happiness instead of regret or bitterness." He nodded again, standing and grabbing his things. When he reached the door, she spoke one last time. "Keep up the good work." Glancing up at her, he flashed the Huntzberger smirk before responding.
"I intend to."