My first ever AU story. Don't think I've forgotten about my other two stories, because I haven't, I'm just having difficulties writing the chapters right now. I'll try to update both stories as soon as possible.

As I said, it's an AU story, set in New York for now. Both Rory and Logan haven't met yet, keyword being yet, it will be hard to write a Sophies story without them meeting. This is also set one year after Rory's graduation from Yale. Everything else will be explained in the story. So enjoy, be sure to leave a comment. I've got the second chapter planned and in my mind so it should be up soon as well.

Chapter 1: And so it begins…

"No Rory, no!" Anna called out once she stepped one foot inside Rory's office. Ever since Rory had moved to New York to work at a paper, she had a connection with Anna, her co-worker. They had soon become friends and hung out a lot, discussing the latest office or celebrity gossip, movies and music.

"So Paris isn't the capital of France?" Rory said dumbfounded as she stared at her computer screen. "So that's where I went wrong in my crossword puzzle."

"What?" Anna questioned, slightly confused, as she took a seat across from Rory.

"My question exactly."

Deciding to ignore Rory's comment, Anna jumped to the question at hand. "You can't leave the company, you can't Rory."

"My transfer papers told me a different story this morning," Rory smirked.

Anna rolled her eyes in response. "No time for jokes Rory, why are you leaving? Why didn't you tell me?"

"You really want to know?" Rory questioned her friend, who nodded in return. "I'm transferring to a paper, the Stamford Eagle Gazette, because it's closer to home. I didn't tell you because it wasn't certain until thirty minutes ago."

Rory looked at her friend who was looking back at her, she could see that her friend was in thoughts. It took a few seconds till Anna responded.

"Okay, I get that you miss your home, especially because you have a such close bond with your mother. But this is New York Rory, New York! The Big Apple!" Anna told her. "I know you hate fruit and all so calling it the Big Apple probably doesn't help but this is a big paper. People would kill to have your job at this paper!"

"I'll have the same position at the Stamford Eagle Gazette in a few months when one of the current features journalist will retire," Rory tried to reason, while smiling at her sad look upon her friend's face. "And of course I will miss you too." Which caused Anna to smile slightly.

"I'll miss you too Rory."

"This has just turned into a really crappy sappy movie," Rory smirked. "But that won't stop me from visiting you, you know. Somebody has to make sure you remain a bit sane."

Anna smiled, before jumping to a more serious topic, Rory's current boyfriend. "So what did Marc say?"

"Well, I told Marc a while ago that I wanted to be closer to home and he knows about the offer I got. I just haven't told him yet that I've decided to accept it too."

"Why not?"

"For one, he's not a fan of my mom," Rory told her in all honesty. "He may understand that I want to live closer to her. But it's still an issue."

"Outrageous," Anna smirked, who had met Lorelai Gilmore a few times, finding her an incredible and unique person.

Rory laughed. "And he's a New York guy. He'll never leave New York and I'm not sure if he'll do a long distance relationship."

"Why not?" Anna questioned once again. "Did he tell you that?"

"Not in so many words, but he likes to have his things close. He hates to travel and such," Rory reasoned.

"But we're talking about an almost eight month lasting relationship here. You think he won't even try it for you?"

"I don't know," Rory said honestly. She honestly didn't know if Marc would do that for her.

"But he loves you, doesn't he?"

"Well," Rory started off slowly. "He, well we, never really said those words to each other."

"Do you love him?" Anna blurted out, curiousity getting the best of her.

"I could," Rory paused for a second.

"Oh no," Anna sighed as she began to understand what may be the problem here. "Is this still about that Dean guy you dated in college?"

Rory shyly looked away from her good friend. "It's been three years since you guys broke up. I thought you were over him."

"I am," Rory quickly responded. "But he hurt me back then, and that still kind of hurts. I'm just afraid that if I let myself love Marc, I'll get hurt again. So this situation is kind of..."

"Perfect for you," Anna added to which Rory nodded in return. "This way you'll find out if he loves you enough to stay in a relationship with you, a long distance relationship."

"Kind of yes," Rory admitted shyly. "I'll tell him tonight."

Noticing how uncomfortable Rory began to feel, and knowing she had to figure this out on herself, Anna decided that a change of subject would probably be the best move. "So, other topic?"

"Yes please," Rory sighed.

"Who's going to replace you?"

"Danny is, after all he's been wanting to be a features writer for god knows how long, so he grabbed his chance," Rory explained. "But that's not all, there's actually some good news too."

"Not all? There's more?"

"You're going to get a new boss," Rory grinned, knowing her friend would like this.

"And this is good news how?" Anna said confused.

A small grin started to form on Rory's face. "He's a man."

"Intrigue," Anna smiled widely. "Young or old?"

"Young."

"How young?" Anna eyed her friend with interest.

"Legally young," Rory smiled.

"My kind of guy."

"He's the boss' son by the way," Rory informed her friend.

"So he's rich!" Anna smiled.

"Golddigger," Rory smirked. "And luckily for you I heard he's quite a playboy."

"Rich and cute?" Anna smirked. "Oh! He's perfect!"

Rory just laughed out loud while her friend just adored her new boss more and more.

"And it's my job to let him get to know the company. Normally, Jake would do it, but he's on a trip and since I won't be doing a lot in the next few days, I'll be the one doing the tour. Kind of weird in my opinion since I don't know that much about everybody here but what else can I do in my last two days?"

"Shouldn't he already know how things are being done here?" Anna asked curiously.

"I hope so, but apparently the big boss Mitchum Huntzberger doesn't have that much faith in his son that he'll do that so now I can tell him all the pretty stories." Rory smiled.

"Only good stories about me of couse?" Anna smiled.

"Naturally," Rory smirked.

"So, it will be fun right? Not doing any real articles anymore, just relaxing a bit, taking care of the last things and stuff. And you get paid for it too!"

"Yeah, I'll be having a blast," Rory said sarcastically.

"No really, it is fun, spending two days with a hot guy," Anna told her. "Who doesn't want that?"

"Me?"

Anna scoffed at Rory's remark. "Yeah right, like you'd walk away from Wentworth Miller just because you've got a boyfriend. Keep telling yourself that Gilmore!"

With a smile Anna walked out of Rory's office, as she wondered if the Stamford Eagle Gazette would be just as much fun without Anna there.

Later that evening, Rory went out to diner with her boyfriend, Marc. Diner had been nice, they talked, they laughed, they had a lot of fun together, like they usually had. But this time the night would end differently, that's what Rory knew. She would either end up without a boyfriend, or she would end up with a boyfriend who she knew cared enough for her to try a long distance relationship. That would be difference, tonight she would find out.

So as they walked down the streets of New York, after diner, Rory decided that now would probably be the best time.

"Hey Marc," Rory started off.

"Yeah?"

Deciding it was probably best not to immediately jump into the conversation just like that, she decided to easily bring up the subject.

"I had a great time tonight."

"Yeah me too," Marc said as he smiled down onto his girlfriend.

"So, can I tell you something?"

"Okay," Marc said as he stopped walking so he could face her, not liking the tone she used.

"You know that I told you about that job offer right? A couple of weeks ago?" Rory asked him to which he nodded in return. "Well they've decided to let me know that I can get the job in Stamford if I still want it."

"Are you?" Marc immediately wanted to know, feeling that she probably already had made the decision all by herself.

"You know that I've been thinking about transferring and it's really close to home," Rory started. "So..."

"So you're going to accept the offer?" Marc questioned her but he pretty much knew the answer to that, when looking at her eyes, how they shined as she thought of home.

"I kind of already have accepted the offer," Rory told him, while looking down to the ground, not being able to look him into the eyes.

"Without asking me?" Marc asked her, pain and hurt showing in his eyes. "What about us?"

"I thought we could give a long distance relationship a shot," Rory suggested.

"Long distance?"

"Well it's managable, it's not that far apart," Rory tried to reason.

"We hardly see each other now Rory, how will we ever manage then?" Marc reasoned back and Rory knew it wasn't heading into the right direction.

"We'll manage," Rory said.

"I don't know Rory," Marc started, which was a really bad sign for them. Rory knew that.

"You don't even want to give us a shot?"

"I just need time to digest this," Marc tried to explain it to Rory.

"I understand that," Rory told him and she really could. Of course she was just dropping the subject on him just like that, of course they had talked about the job offer before.

"When are you leaving?"

"In three days," Rory said quietly.

"Three days?" Marc said, shocked by how fast Rory would be going away. "That's really soon."

"It is," Rory confirmed.

"You just expect me to make a decision right now?" Marc wondered. "Just like that?"

"The choice is really easy Marc," Rory said calmly. "It's that you either give it a shot or not."

"Can't you just stay here?"

"We talked about this Marc, I miss my family and my hometown and everything is all set," Rory explained once again. They had talked about it a few times and Marc seemed to understand it back then, but of course now it was real, back then it was only up in the air. The possibility of leaving was just a possibility, it was real now, she was leaving New York. "You knew that I've been thinking about this and that I got this offer."

"Don't start blaming this on me," Marc told her, getting slightly angry.

"I'm not," Rory told him, in all honesty. "But don't act like I jumped this on you just like that. You knew I was thinking about this, you knew I had the offer."

Then it was silent, both of them not knowing how to continue or what to say next. A decision had to be made.

"I don't think I can do this," Marc told Rory. "I just can't."

"You won't even try?" Rory said, surprised by Marc, in the back of her mind she knew he wasn't that kind of guy. That he wanted things and people close to him, not on a distance. His family lived in New York, and so did his friends. Rory's friends and family lived in Hartford and Stars Hollow and she missed them. Marc didn't reply to Rory's question though. "Marc?"

"I'm sorry Rory, I just can't." Marc told her. "I hope you understand."

He gave her a small kiss on the cheek and with that he left her, in the middle of the New York Streets.

"I don't." Rory sighed as she walked back to her apartment, wondering why it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would be.

Okay, I know, no Logan, but I didn't want Rory to dump the guy while knowing Logan or with Logan meeting afterwards in the same chatper. I planned on doing that in the second chapter, which should be up very soon, since I've got it written down partially. So the next chapter will contain some Sophieness, though not anything special since Rory just broke up..

So rate, review, respond ;) I know I'd appreciate it :)

Karen