Had to get to work. Call me later
Love, Conan

He stared at what he had written. Love? Why had he put that? He shrugged it off and ran out the door, down to the parking garage. He retrieved his Land Rover and sped off to work.

"Dammit." he murmured, looking at his watch. It was past noon. On any given day he would have been to work by ten.

With a start he realized that wasn't his biggest problem. Ten to one, Lynn was waiting in his office at this moment. What would he say? "Sorry, Lynn, I was screwing a 21 year old because I'm sick of you." he said, to get a laugh out of himself. Then he realized what he had just said. Was he sick of her? "Christ, I can't even keep up with myself...."Conan muttered, swerving into the NBC parking garage. The guards waved him by, and he sped to his parking spot. He sprinted to the elevator, willing it to move faster. He got to the floor his office was on, and took a deep breath. He slowly pushed the door open.

Lynn spun around as he entered, eyes flashing. Conan didn't make eye contact with her, just slunk in and sat down.

He tried not to look up, but Lynn's stare was practically burning holes in him. He looked at her, into her eyes. She looked hurt, angry, and confused.

"Please."she said slowly. "Tell me you were attacked and left for dead last night."

Conan looked at himself in the mirror hanging on his wall. He did look like hell. Hair matted, clothes wrinkled, he needed to shave. But he was kind of smiling.

"No, no. I wasn't attacked." He said in an amused voice.

Lynn stared at him, amazed at his confidence. "No? So what were you doing?"

Conan sighed, exasperated. "You already know, so why do you want a confession?"

Lynn took a step backwards, first of all amazed that he had said that, second of all, because he was mad and she was actually afraid he might take a swing at her."You.....I guess......I'm leaving then....." She was flustered. She had had this planned out. She........suddenly, she broke down. A sob escaped her lips. "How could you?" she asked, breathlessly, tears rolling down her face.

Conan could not look at her. "I don't know, Lynn." he answered honestly.

She nodded, wiping her eyes. "Well.....I'm leaving.....I'll go get my things...."

Suddenly Conan was angry. "You're just going to leave? You're not going to ask anything? Who it was? Don't you want to know, Lynn?"

Lynn stared at him. He was out of control.

"Well, I'll tell ya. Last night I didn't come home because I was fucking a twenty one year old girl that I prefer to you. Is that what you wanted to know?"

Lynn looked him in the eye, chin quivering " I guess so......"she said, spinning on her heel and walking out. She shoved past an intern, who stared at her. "Wasn't that Conan's girlfriend?" She asked her friend.

Tori smiled. "Yes it was."

Tori could make you feel better, his conscience reminded him. He sighed again and picked up the phone, when there was a knock at his door.

"Come in...." he muttered. The door opened, and there she was. Conan stared at her. She appeared almost angelic.....

"Hi." Tori said, looking at the floor. " I wanted to visit you."

Conan raised his eyebrows " How did you get in?"

"Susan, one of the interns, is a friend of mine. I just wanted to say hi. If you want me to leave......."

"No, no, stay." Conan said, smiling. "I want you to."

Tori walked in, unsure. "So, how are things?"

Conan got quiet "Kinda bad."

"What's wrong?"

Conan smiled. She was genuinely concerned."Well, Lynn left me."

Tori's eyes welled up with tears. "Because of me, right?"

Conan jumped up and quickly made his way around the desk, wrapping his arms around her. "No, not because of you. Don't cry. It's because of me. I did it, Tori. I had a choice. I screwed up."

Tori sniffed and inhaled the sent on his chest...light cologne, maybe aftershave. She was in heaven from the scent.

"Besides," Conan added, "I have you."

Those words seemed to echo forever in both their minds. Tori could not beleive he said it. Conan could not believe he meant it. Conan leaned down and kissed her, all twenty-one years of her, while reaching out and closing his office door. Nobody would disturb him with it closed. They moved apart, both breathless. Conan sat at his desk again. Tori, a little more confident, sat on his lap, and nuzzled his neck. Soon they were kissing again, this time with more passion. Tori rubbed his chest, her hands moving down further with every stroke. Down, down.........

Bleeeeeepppp! Chirped the phone. In mid kiss, Conan sighed, and grabbed it. "Hello?"

Even as he spoke, Tori lay gentle kisses on his face and neck, something Lynn had never done, he noted.

He hung up the phone and sighed. "I have to go tape a segment...." Tori sat up.

"Oh." she looked flushed, he was sure he did as well. What would have happened if the phone had not rung? He was fairly positive they would have had sex, right there in his office. Something he had never done before. But he had been perfectly willing just then....he even had half a mind to finish what they had started. He smiled to himself. This girl had quite a spell on him.

"Did you want to come?"

"Huh?" she asked, still not quite back to herself.

"Do you want to come with me while I tape the segment?" he said teasingly.

"Oh....sure....but won't everyone see us?" she asked, concerned what his coworker's would think of her.

Conan waved his hand "Screw em. I made the choice, I'm stickin' to it."

Tori laughed, standing up. They walked to the door, hand in hand. Conan took a deep breath, and opened the door. Conan was met face to face by his assistant, Julie, who was in a hurry. "Conan, let's go......we're way behind, since you showed up so late......who's she?"

"Uh....this is Tori...."

Julie gave him a funny look, but let it pass. "Well, hurry up...." She began listing things he needed to do before the show, including rehearsal. He was way too behind, and it made it worse that he hadn't done any work the night before. He flipped into work mode, forgetting about Tori for a moment. He added it up in his mind.

"Okay, I can do it all, but we'll have to cut rehearsal short and start the taping around a quarter til six. I don't think I could do it in any less than that. "

Julie looked exasperated. "Okay, but try to anyway, okay? God, Jeff is gonna be pissed....not to mention the audience......." She walked away muttering to herself. Conan suddenly remembered Tori. He turned to face her.

"Sorry, I have a few different personalities....."

Tori giggled. "So what should I do?"

"Sit in the audience and cheer me on?" Conan looked around. "I really don't know......why don't you go find Susan?"

"Okay....."she stood on her tiptoes and they kissed. When she walked off nearly everyone in the studio was staring at him. He gave everyone a hard look, and they all looked away. He, although not many times, had had his confrontations with the crew, and they were never pretty.

"All right, lets get to work. " He called, rubbing his hands together.

*******