Chapter 58

On Monday evening Rory was standing in front of the sushi selection at Whole Foods, trying to pick something out for a quick dinner, feeling too exhausted to cook or even to order in tonight. Since Logan had been over during the weekend, she'd skipped her usual weekend shopping trip and she was forced to handle this after work. She'd also gone to work a lot more unprepared than she usually did, deciding to wing it just this once. Despite some self-doubt she'd managed alright, and knowing she'd gotten a whole weekend of Logan's energy, both mentally and physically, and it seemed kind of worth it despite her current exhaustion.

Shopping on an empty stomach wasn't the best idea, and her cart had already filled up with a lot more than just a couple of items. She was just about to pick up a box of shrimp tempura rolls and another one of rainbow rolls for Corinne, and call it a night, when her phone chimed in her coat pocket.

"Hello?" Rory picked it up without looking, half expecting it to be Logan, telling her he'd made it home.

It was as if she got an ice cold shower right then.

"Who do you think you are, coming into my apartment!?" Rory heard, getting the equivalent of an ice cold shower, hearing Tucker's teeth clench at the word 'my', recognizing his voice unfortunately from their many fights.

She didn't have a chance to respond, being caught off guard.

"And if you think for a second by stealing my hard drive, you've achieved something, you are wrong! You are so wrong! Just you wait, Rory," Tucker yelled, causing Rory to freeze up even more.

"What?!" Rory barely managed to get out, after she'd closed her mouth that had fallen open. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, trying to understand what this was that she was being accused of exactly.

Tucker said nothing more, disconnecting the call with an angry huff, wishing he had a phone to slam, leaving Rory with the phone in her hand, staring at the floor, holding back her tears. It had all become so sudden. Not only was she panicking about what Tucker was threatening her with, but also about the possibility that someone, somewhere had a hard drive with something potentially incriminating on her. It was that hard drive he was speaking of - wasn't it? Why else would he call her and yell at her like this?

In panic, she left her cart where it was and rushed out of the store towards her car, nearly being run over by a nondescript Impala.

"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay," Rory repeated to herself in a shaky voice, needing to confirm herself, as she finally sat into her car. But she didn't really believe her words.

It took her a good five minutes before she was ready to turn the engine on, and she headed to the house, wanting to just feel safe. What was one supposed to do in a situation like this? Hide? Inform her principal about a potential upcoming scandal? Hire someone? And if so who - a PI, lawyer, some IT wiz, her dad? Or just try to find a good place to hide for a couple of years until whatever this was blew over.

"I thought you were going to get dinner?" Corinne, who'd taken her bike home that day, asked her mother in a disappointed and confused tone.

"Something came up," Rory said, hanging her coat up in a hurry, and made her way into her study, needing a minute more before facing her daughter. Was she supposed to tell her what was going on? Fight dirty by telling Corinne what a jerk her dad could be?

"Just order something, anything you want is fine," Rory called back through the closed door of her study, answering some of Corinne's upcoming questions.

"Fine, whatever," Corinne shrugged, pouting.

Rory held her phone in her hands, flipping through her contact list. It wasn't that Logan's name didn't occur to her, but it was more about crying on his shoulder since he was one of the few people who knew about the said hard drive, but something within her wanted to be stronger than that and not lean on her boyfriend that much. She felt it made her too dependent, too fragile, and she wanted to be stronger than that, and just expect her boyfriend to fix her problem for her.

She wondered what kind of proof Tucker even had - that he hadn't made a mistake and just misplaced it. Or maybe his whole plan was to make her think it had been taken, so she would panic. But somehow, she couldn't really believe that - he wasn't that good of an actor in her opinion. His voice had reflected genuine anger.

She let herself sink down on the floor, her back against her grandfather's old desk, and hid her face in her hands. She didn't know what to do.

It couldn't possibly be that Corinne had anything to do with this? She really didn't want her daughter accidentally finding those videos and images of her, and damaging her for life.

But in that moment, to her the only logical option did seem Corinne. She had a key. She could've needed the hard drive for some school work, maybe but it sounded a little hard to believe, it was not like people really used external hard drives a lot these days, especially kids her age. But she had to ask, as potentially this was the easiest explanation.

"Hey, Corinne…?" Rory began, climbing up from the floor and blowing a little air in her eyes, not wanting to seem that upset.

Corinne was out of earshot, considering her earphones were on, so she didn't respond. Instead, Rory's phone chimed for the second time that evening and this time she carefully looked at the caller ID first, not wanting to hear Tucker's angry tone again that night.

But it was with relief she answered the phone this time.

"Logan?" Rory said, breaking down a notch from the strong woman that she was. She sniffled a little, but not loud enough for him to really detect it.

"Hey," Logan said, "Listen, I've got a confession to make," he added.

"Uh?" Rory reflected, feeling a little confused.

But as she listened to Logan explain what he had done, largely leaving out Corinne's part in this, except for the part of taking her keys and shipping them back to her in the next few days, Rory's mood changed from pure panic to a range of feelings. There was definitely some frustration, powerlessness, anger, but also positives like relief, disbelief and thankfulness. There was also fear - fear of what Tucker would do - what was it that he'd warned her against?

"And I have a guy checking through his online accounts, just to make sure there's nothing else out there. My friend said he was very discreet, and he can do it so he won't leave any trace behind," Logan explained, having just gotten off the phone with the guy who was on it.

"I can't believe you'd do this," Rory replied, leaving Logan confused whether she was mad or glad he had.

"I know I was over stepping… but I just couldn't leave it like that," Logan explained.

Rory sniffled more audibly, but tried to remain strong.

"It's going to be fine, he won't have control over you anymore. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I'll ship the hard drive over to you along with Cor's keys, if you want. You deserve to decide what you want to do with it," Logan replied, not being entirely sure if things really were fine or whether in the eyes of Rory he had crossed a line that he shouldn't have crossed.

Rory didn't really know what she wanted. And right now - it actually felt kind of nice that she was not in the possession of that item, almost as if that made her unconnected to its disappearance.

"Um…," Rory inhaled, gathering up her thoughts. "Tucker just called, like 40 minutes ago… He accused me of taking it," she explained.

"Crap," Logan cursed. "Really wish I'd taken that photograph now," he muttered, not really thinking.

"What photograph?" Rory asked.

"Shit, I didn't mean… I mean… he had this one photo there printed out. I had a feeling he'd notice if I took it. I contemplated, just going back and getting it for like 20 miles," Logan replied.

"Oh god," Rory groaned, feeling disgusted at the thought of Tucker still having some personal picture of her.

"I'm sorry...," Logan felt he needed to apologize for not taking it.

"Ah," Rory exhaled. "Don't be. I get what you were trying to do," she said, surprising even herself for her understanding.

"So we're okay?" Logan hesitated, that somehow seemed like the thing he wasn't supposed to ask, now when Rory had more serious things on her mind.

"Yeah, we are," Rory sighed.

Logan audibly exhaled with relief.

"So, when do you think that guy is done looking?" Rory asked, trying to be practical about it, wiping her face as if trying to wipe away her upset.

"A few days, max," Logan replied.

Rory sighed.

"I just have this feeling that there's more… like the not knowing is what he still has over me," Rory added.

"Well, unless the guy has something buried under a tree somewhere or in a safety deposit box, I doubt it," Logan replied.

"And we might never know…," Rory realized, speaking her thoughts out loud.

Logan realized that too. There was only so much his connections, influence and money could do. If the guy wanted badly enough he would just think of new things. There were still ways to mess with someone's reputation.

"Do you want me to talk to you about something else? Distract you?" Logan offered, sensing there was only so much good his words could do to assure her.

"Yes, please," Rory requested, ignoring her rumbling stomach.

"As I was driving home, overthinking that whole burglary thing I did," Logan said, trying to make the whole endeavor sound funny and adventurous. "A friend of mine from London called, Bobby. We started at the same time in the company, and we always worked well together. She's taken over part of my jobs and was asking for some advice and not believing I wasn't flying over for the whole Royal ceremony. Anyway, long story short, she…," Logan began to explain.

"Wait - she? Bobby is a 'she'?" Rory intercepted, not that it mattered.

"Yeah, I keep forgetting you don't know her. I think you two would get along really well actually. She was an English major too, like you," Logan shared.

That prospect actually didn't sound that bad - knowing some of Logan's friends. Even if they were his London friends. This reminded Rory how there were still a lot of things about Logan she wished she knew more about and not just through stories.

"Anyway, she was complaining how she was sick of spreadsheets and budgets and was missing her editor days, where she could just sit down and read a book," Logan continued, taking a breath. "And I don't know… I sort of said, I'd think about it and maybe I'd send something over for her to read. I haven't yet, I've had other things going on but maybe if you don't completely hate the idea. I mean, she could read it. It could be just her, and you'd still have all the control. It wouldn't have to go further than that. I just think, you could use some independent feedback," he added.

"Wait, you're talking about my book?" Rory exclaimed, having not realized at first what he had been talking about.

"Of course, yours," Logan replied with a chuckle.

"You're not serious," Rory replied, her mood already becoming lighter because of the way Logan made her feel.

"I am. So, can I? Can I send it to her? I can even make it anonymous if you want," Logan offered.

"Just don't tell me if it's bad, and anonymous would be best. It's bad enough I have half naked photos of me laying around in Tucker's bedroom," Rory said, unable to shake those thoughts.

"I can still go back there, you know," Logan offered, realizing himself that probably wouldn't be a good idea. But he was sure he could figure something out.

"No, it's my problem. No need for you to go get arrested over something like this. You've got three kids to take care of," Rory said. "I just have to toughen up," she added, trying to reassure herself.

"You're already a lot tougher than you feel, Rory," Logan said, meaning it from the bottom of his heart.