380Paris had told Rory that since twin pregnancies were at higher risk than singleton pregnancies that she was going to have more appointments and if she didn't show up at the appointments every two weeks Paris would drag her down to the office herself. It was because of this that Rory found herself in Paris' practice the Tuesday after the gala. She had gone through the same battery of tests that they'd done at her last appointment and now she was waiting for Paris to come into the exam room.
It didn't take long for Paris to burst into the exam room and start glaring at Logan, "Huntzberger,"
"Hi Paris," Logan replied calmly, throwing Paris off for a second.
"We have some things to discuss so if you're going to be hysterical you can leave right now," Paris directed to Logan.
"We'll be fine, Paris."
"Stop harassing Logan, Paris" Rory interjected, annoyed. "Feel free to do your job. You said that we had to discuss something, what is it?"
"Yes, we do," Paris said as she quickly glanced down at the tablet she was carrying. "Your blood pressure is still too high. I'm not putting you on bed rest yet, but I am recommending that you take a few weeks off work to relax and avoid any stressors."
"Really?" Rory asked frustrated, "How many weeks do I need to be off work?"
"At least two and preferably three to four. No coffee, no fast food and no extra sugar unless you want the babies to be born with mis-sized heads, and I do not care what is stressing you out, but you have to get away from it for a while. You can do a little work on your computer as long as it doesn't stress you out and you are sitting down while doing it. Understood?" Paris barked.
Rory nodded silently thinking about how she was going to explain to Josh that she was going to have to take a few weeks off when she'd only been working there for less than three months.
"What about you Huntzberger? Do you understand? Relaxing means relaxing, no death-defying stunts or adventures with the life and death brigade."
"Understood, Paris."
"Good," Paris quickly typed a few things on her computer before speaking again," I've written all that down in case your idiotic boss doesn't want to give you the time off. Pick up that note on the way out. Now get out of my office."
After being unceremoniously thrown out of Paris' clinic Logan and Rory stopped to get some breakfast before heading their separate ways for the rest of the day. After the waitress brought by a teapot and their breakfast, Logan looked at Rory who was lost in thought and fiddling with her teacup.
"Rory," Logan prodded gently as he grasped her hand to stop her fidgeting.
"What?" Rory said as she was snapped out of her trance by Logan's light touch.
"What's wrong? You seem distracted."
Rory sighed before answering, "I've only been working at the Daily Post for three months, how am I supposed to explain to Josh that I need multiple weeks off? I already took time at Christmas, and I've taken time to go to doctors' appointments and other things, I can't take four weeks off, three months into a new job!" Rory squawked, getting more agitated by the minute.
"Rory, you're not taking time off to go on vacation or because you just don't want to go into work. You're taking time off for your health, your doctor has ordered you to relax and not go to work for a few weeks. Also, you're not totally disappearing for four weeks, you can still work remotely for as long as you're off work. You can't work eight hours a day, but you can still do parts of your job while not in the office."
Rory looked at Logan, thinking about what he said before answering, "I never considered it that way. Do you think Josh would be ok with that?"
"He'll have to be, it's doctor's orders, Ace." Logan said, he took a quick bite of his waffles before speaking again, "Plus I'm his boss, if he's not ok with it I'll threaten him until he is."
"Logan!" Rory admonished, though she was laughing knowing he wasn't serious.
"What?" Logan replied, "I can be very threatening, I am the son of Mitchum Huntzberger, I should be able to channel some of his vile behaviour."
"Yes, you are very threatening," Rory joked.
"I can be!"
Rory fell into a fit of laughter which made Logan lightly laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Rory was starting to eat her oatmeal after they had calmed down and Logan was debating whether to broach a topic that he had thought about since he had heard about Rory's inheritance but wasn't sure how she'd take the idea.
"Ace?"
"Hm?" Rory responded looking up from her breakfast.
"Why don't we go away for a while? Paris said that you need to get away from things that are stressing you out for a few weeks and going away will give you a real shot at properly relaxing."
Rory stared at Logan for a minute, slightly stunned at his suggestion. "Really? Where were you thinking?"
"I was thinking we could go to England for a few weeks. Have you ever even seen the house that Trix left you?"
"No. Never. I knew she had a house in England, Grandpa helped her close up the house when she decided to move back to Hartford during my senior year at Chilton. I know why I didn't see the house when I went backpacking with mom, or when I went around Europe with Grandma, she was so angry with Grandpa during that trip and Trix caused the whole thing in the first place, there's no way she would have gone by the house at the time. But Grandpa had me run errands for him while I was freelancing in the past, it's weird that he never told me about the house since he knew I was in England regularly." Rory thought about it as she took another sip of her tea then spoke, "I'd love to go and see Trix's house. Are you sure we can be gone that long?"
"The nice thing about being the boss is that I can take time off and no one can tell me, no, but I need to check on our holdings in the UK, and I do need to spend some time in the London office. So, I will be working a bit while we're there if that's ok?"
"Work dork," Rory said with a grin.
"You know you love it." Logan quipped back, "What do you say? Should we take a trip to Jolly Old England?"
Rory shook her head, still grinning like a lunatic, not believing what she was about to agree to. "Let's go." Even after all this time, she couldn't quite believe the things Logan brought out in her, and she loved it.
"Fantastic, Ace!" Logan said enthusiastically, "When do you want to leave? We have the jet so we can go whenever you want."
Rory thought about it, and while she would've loved to run off with Logan right then she knew that she had responsibilities to take care of, and even though she was involved with the boss, she wasn't the boss, and she couldn't leave without any notice. "How about Thursday? I need to talk to Josh about my time off and I need to sort out something for this interdepartmental meeting tomorrow."
"Thursday it is," Logan said, "Rory, I know you want to work hard but you have doctors' orders to rest, ok."
"Logan…" Rory admonished
"I worry about you Rory, and I just want you and our babies to be as healthy as possible."
Rory smiled at Logan's sweet and slightly awkward statement, "I appreciate that, and I want us to be healthy too. I'll go home as soon as I can and find a solution to the meeting tomorrow. I've been to other interdepartmental meetings since I've been at the post but I don't want the rest of the staff to think I'm getting special treatment for sleeping with the boss."
"I'm the owner, not the boss," Logan said with a smirk.
"You're right. I'm sleeping with the bosses, boss."
"And don't you forget it, Ace."
Rory smirked and finished her breakfast. Once they had finished their meal and paid the bill, they left the café and went to face the rest of their day.
Rory was nervously fidgeting on a chair outside Josh's office as she waited for him to be available to talk to her. She had never needed to ask for a leave that didn't relate to a major holiday before and was extremely nervous to do so. After a few minutes passed Josh opened the door, smiled at her and gestured her into his office.
"Rory, how are you this morning? I hope you're feeling at home here at The Post."
"I'm alright. I have enjoyed working here so much, everyone has been welcoming, which amazed me because I wasn't sure how people would feel about how I got this job."
"People were so glad to be rid of Sal, that they didn't have much to say about your fantastic connections." Josh said with a chuckle, "Now what can I do for you today?"
"I had a doctor's appointment today," Rory started nervously.
"Oh, I guess it didn't go well since you're discussing it with me."
"No, I was told by my doctor that I have high blood pressure and that she wants me to take a few weeks off," Rory said quickly before handing Josh the note that Paris had written.
Rory watched as josh read the note, watching as his facial expressions changed dramatically in response to what Paris had written. "Your doctor seems to be an extremely, uh, colourful person," Josh said once he finished reading.
"That's one word for her," Rory muttered quietly. "I've known her since college and she's very protective of me." Rory said to Josh, "I'm sorry for the note but she is a fully qualified professional and considered one of the best OB/GYNs in New York State."
"No, I know. I recognize the name. She delivered Shelly Martin's, from Entertainment, baby a few months ago when her doctor was unavailable. She apparently threatened Shelly's husband within an inch of his life during the delivery."
Rory couldn't help but chuckle, "Yeah, that sounds like her."
"Well, you taking a few weeks off shouldn't be a problem, especially for medical reasons. I'd have granted the leave without the note, but I don't want to evoke the wrath of Paris Geller by denying it."
"Thank you, Josh," Rory said with a grin, "Even though I'll be out of the office, I will be reachable and I can still work remotely."
"That's good to know, but I'm not to concerned about it," Josh said as he picked up a file, "I've been very impressed with the pieces you've been submitting, and everything you've been doing in Opinions." Josh said calmly, "I really enjoyed your piece on Gene Wilder, my only critique would be the title." Josh said professionaly, then he started to smile, "The picture you painted of you and your mom trying to recreate his chocholate factory was quite something, your mom sounds like something else."
Rory let out a burst of surprised laughter, "She really is. She insisted on physically renting a copy every few weeks and we would always watch it with an array of snacks that would make Willy Wonka happy."
"I also really enjoyed your piece on Donald Trumps inauguration. You're comparrision of his inauguration and Barrack Obama's was quite something. I forgot you had attended Obama's inauguration, but you worked on his campaign trail for his first term, so that would make sense."
"Yes, I was at Obama's inauguration, and it was an amazing experience. While I didn't attend Trumps, I still felt like I was in a unique situation to comment on it."
"Well, you did a fantastic job, and you're doing great at turning the entire section around to. Do you know what you're next piece is going to be on?"
"Not yet. My next few pieces will probably just focus on local issues for a while if that's alright? I know I'm asking a lot already by working remotely for a while so it's ok if you want to give me an assignment." Rory rambled nervously.
"That's perfectly alright, I trust your skills and your judgement for this," Josh nodded then looked at her thoughtfully, "You know Rory, many of our staff work remotely permanently, not just in emergencies."
"Really?"
"Yep. They do it for a range of reasons, but not every position needs to be in the office every day and for many, it would just cause more aggravation than is necessary. You could consider doing that as well." Rory stared at Josh gobsmacked, having never really considered the possibility of working remotely once she was finished freelancing. "Not everyone wants to raise kids in the city and your kids could have a real yard to play in."
"I don't know," Rory finally stated, "Even if I was able to work remotely some of the time, Logan would still have to come into the office, and the wife and kids out in the country, while the husband commutes into the city, feels a lot like Don and Betty Draper for me."
Josh laughed loudly at the reference, "Well, he doesn't really strike me as the Don Draper type, but what I do know is that working remotely is an option if you don't want to come into the office every day, especially when the kids are little."
Rory nodded briefly, wondering if she'd want to do that, "Thanks Josh, I'll think about it,"
"That's all I ask, and your time off is approved. Let me know when you're ready to resume full-time duties again."
"Thanks, Josh, I'll see you soon,"
"See you soon." Rory shook Josh's hand and left his office thinking about the option Josh presented that she hadn't considered in the past. As she thought about it she thought that maybe she could have both, the real writing job that she's always wanted, and the life she had privately envisioned for herself when she thought about her life and her future kids.
She was headed home to pack for weeks in England with the thought of a backyard playground and white picket fences rolling around in her head.