Summary: Jess comes back to Stars Hollow for Luke and Lorelai's wedding. Rory has a secret she desperately needs to tell him. Watch as everything unfolds for Jess and Rory as he learns about this little secret.
One Thing Can Change Everything
Chapter One – I Can't Tell Him
Rory Gilmore sat in Luke's Diner that Wednesday evening sipping from a cup of coffee, that most likely was not her first cup since arriving at the small restaurant. She was nervous and paranoid, though as much as she hated admitting that last part, it was true. Her mother's and soon to be step-father, Luke's wedding was coming up in only two weeks. There was tons of preparing that still needed to be done, but Rory wasn't nearly as concerned about that compared to some other things.
Her main concern happened to be with a twenty-five year old Jess who also happened to be attending the wedding. Well, she knew that Luke had sent an invitation, so there was a chance that he wouldn't come. Still she couldn't help but be nervous about it, because she didn't know if he would be there or not.
It had been almost three years since they last saw each other and Rory wasn't too happy about what happened then. That one little night had changed almost her whole life and he didn't even know. They had run into each other purely coincidentally that night at a bar. Rory had been so shocked when he approached her, clearly as surprised as she had been.
The only reason she had gone to that place was because she had a tough day at work and needed somewhere to cool off and have a drink or two. She hadn't expected to run into Jess. He took a seat next her at the bar and they talked about current things in their lives. The moment he opened his mouth, Rory realized he had changed so much from his seventeen year old self.
Before she knew it, she had consumed about three or four drinks. She needed someone to vent to about work and other events going on and Jess was the only one there, so she started venting to him. He listened, taking a sip of his drink now and then. They spent a few hours catching up with each other when Rory finally decided that she needed to head home.
Jess was concerned; he didn't think it was such a good idea for her to drive tonight, so he offered to let her stay at his apartment and he'd bring her back tomorrow for her car. She agreed after a small bit of arguing, knowing that it was probably for the best.
Long story short, she ended up kissing him that night. What compelled her to, she wasn't sure, but it happened and there wasn't anything she could do about it now. The kiss turned into something deeper and when she awoke the next morning, she found herself in bed with her ex-boyfriend. She hurriedly changed and left the apartment as fast as she could. She couldn't imagine what would happen if he woke up and she was there, so she ran like all of those times when he used to.
Once she found her car, she left the place and went back to the apartment she shared with her roommate. A week or two passed and that's when she began feeling different. First it was a little nausea throughout the day and then she began waking up in the middle of the night or morning and getting sick. She had no idea what was wrong so she decided to get a quick check-up to make sure it wasn't anything serious. She explained all of the symptoms and that was the day when she found out that she was pregnant.
She couldn't believe it. She, Rory Gilmore, was pregnant and it was obvious who the father was, she had no doubts about that. She was scared now; more scared than anything else in her life and she didn't know what to do. That night, she called her mom and told her she wanted to come home. Lorelai asked why, but Rory refused to say anything until she was home, so Rory left and went home.
She told her mother everything that had happened. Lorelai was certainly overwhelmed by the news, but she was happy for her daughter. Maybe not so much under the current circumstances, but her baby was having her own baby and that made her more happy than anything, even if Jess was the father. She tried to convince Rory to call him, talk to him, and tell him, but she wouldn't. He had his own life and she couldn't possibly dump something like this on him, she wouldn't, even if it cost herself her own happiness, she refused to do so.
Now Jess might be coming back and she didn't know if she could face him. She was afraid that the moment she saw him, she'd run away. She knew she should have called him because he would find out one day and boy was she not looking forward to that day, but every time she picked up the phone, she'd put it down again. She couldn't bring herself to tell him, especially over the phone, so she said nothing at all and now she was going to have to tell him if he showed up.
She closed her eyes and let out a small sigh, taking a drink from her coffee. This whole thing was just so stressful and frankly, she was getting tired of thinking about it. She wanted it to go away forever, but that would never happen. If only Luke didn't invite Jess to the wedding...
Rory shifted her eyes about the restaurant, and stopped at the window. Her breath hitched in her throat and it was almost as if she quit breathing completely. There was a man who just stepped out of his car and was now locking it, and who just so happened to be the last person she wanted to come face-to-face with. Ever.
He turned around and stood before the restaurant for a few seconds taking it all in and sucking in a huge breath. His eyes had not noticed her yet and she was halfway tempted to run and hide in the storage room. Her feet stayed glued to the floor though and she could barely move from the seat. She just stared as he advanced toward Luke's, and finally opened the front door.
She vaguely heard the ringing of the bell as the door opened, her eyes completely stuck on the person who just stepped over the threshold, and now whose eyes roamed the small place. Immediately they came to a stop and Rory couldn't tear her eyes from his intense ones.
A small voice in the back of her head told her to run away. To get up, push past him, and run out the door. Forget about ever seeing him or talking to him and just run to wherever. She would have gladly accepted the idea, had he not now began to walk to the table she currently occupied. Cue mental nervous breakdown.
Rory's muscles tensed, a sure sign that she was beginning to get panicky. Her appearance showed no signs of nervousness, but inside of her head, Rory was starting to panic; very badly.
This wasn't supposed to happen; it just wasn't. He was not supposed to show up this early, at this time, or at ALL. She was supposed to not see him, run into him, or be alone with him. But all of this was happening and it was happening now; she didn't know what to do. So she just sat there, watching dumbly as he stopped before her and smiled. No smirk, anger, or sarcastic remarks. He simply smiled. And now she was confused.
It had been what, two or three years? He should have been standing there, angry, and having every intention of yelling or cursing at her; not smiling like he was. He should hate her for taking off then or even having sex with him in the first place. At the moment, he looked the opposite of angry; happy actually, maybe even happy to see her, and that wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be happy in the presence of her; he shouldn't even want to look at her, let alone smile at her.
He should not be here. At. All.
That was what Rory was thinking until the moment when he opened his mouth, then all thoughts ceased. "It's been a while." His tone was gentle, showing sincerity, and making it clear that he was in fact, glad to finally see her again.
Her head moved on it's own accord, nodding, slowly. "Yeah, it has." Her mouth took it upon itself to respond and give a dumb response at that. She felt so stupid at the moment.
"Two and a half years, actually."
"Yes."
"I didn't know you would be here though."
Rory swallowed. "Um, yeah, me too. Well, I mean obviously I knew I would be here, but you? Yeah, you, I didn't know you would would here and I honestly didn't expect you to be either. If I had known, I wouldn't have come here in the first place and I wouldn't be sitting here rambling and making a complete fool of myself." Her eyes turned to stare at the table top, her embarrassment showing.
His smile never faded, although now he had an amused glint in his eyes at her rambling. "Well, for a second I thought that maybe you'd gone all monosyllabic on me, but I see that you've proven me wrong."
"Yeah.."
"Or maybe not." The amused smile stayed and Rory began to feel a bit awkward with the situation.
She opened her mouth to respond, to say something, just hoping to break the awkward silence herself, when they were interrupted. "Jess?" The man in question averted his eyes to the curtain, that his uncle, Luke, had just now walked through. He smiled and walked toward the duo. "I didn't think you'd come. You never gave me a response or anything." Luke gave Jess a quick hug.
Jess looked a bit uncomfortable, but soon got over it. "Well surprise, I guess, because I'm here."
"Yeah, I can certainly see that." He looked over his nephew, having not seen him in such a long time. "You're still looking good, it seems." His eyes moved and he finally spotted Rory sitting at the table. "Hey Rory, I guess you two already ran into each other, huh?"
Rory nodded slowly. "It looks that way. Yes, well, I think I should be going now." She stood up, putting her jacket on. "So, I guess I'll see the both of you later, then. I have some things to do, and yeah, I'll just be leaving now, so um, bye, I guess." With that, she fled from the restaurant, going to the first place that popped into her head.
She could not believe that that had just happened. It was incredibly awkward and strange. And her goodbye? That was most certainly pathetic and clearly showed she was nervous, that she wanted out of there. Jess wouldn't be fooled either, he most likely noticed; he wasn't stupid. Also, what was with the whole 'Oh, I guess I'll see you two later then'? Why had she even said that? Of course she would be seeing Luke later, but she had no intentions of seeing Jess anytime soon, so why had she let those words spew from her mouth? 'Well it'd be rude to say, "Oh, I'll see you later Luke, but I don't plan on seeing you later Jess, just so you know." Also, I was nervous, it just slipped out on it's own!'
She scolded herself in her head, repeating that whole entire scenario and everything that went wrong with it (which was pretty much everything), as she walked to the Dragon Fly Inn. Upon entering, she immediately went to the front desk, where her mother was sure to be. She frowned as she noticed that her mother was in fact not there, but only Michel was. He looked annoyed as he leafed through some documents. Rory approached him anyway, only intending on finding the whereabouts of her mom.
"Hey, Michel. Do you know where my mom is?" She asked.
He bothered not to even look at her as he gave her a response. "I believe your mother went into the kitchen to see Sookie."
"Okay."
With that and one last look at the man, she made her way to the kitchen. As she opened the doors, she spotted her mom with Sookie taste-testing something that Sookie had just conjured up. "This is great, Sookie! You have to use this!" Was her mother's excited response to the taste.
Sookie grinned. "I'm glad to see you like it so much! I'll be sure to make more!"
"Hun, all of your food is fantastic." Sookie giggled and went to start making more.
Rory stepped forward, hesitantly. "Mom?"
Lorelai looked up, having not noticed her daughter before; she smiled. "What's up, o' kid of mine?"
Rory allowed a small smile to grace her features at her mom's greeting. "Um, I need to talk to you, is that okay?" She tugged at the sleeve of her jacket, biting her lip.
Lorelai turned serious after noticing her daughter's nervousness. "You know you come first, so come on , we'll talk outside. I'll be back later, Sookie!" She yelled to her best friend, before pushing Rory out of the kitchen and into the lobby. "What's bothering you, kiddo?" She tried to mak light of the conversation, but Rory's expression did not change.
She crossed her arms over her chest. "I cannot believe that he just showed up! And at the exact same place I was at, nonetheless! Why so soon? It couldn't have been in a week? He just had to arrive two weeks earlier?!"
"Wait, wait, wait! And who are we talking about here again?" Lorelai asked, confused.
Rory sighed, "Jess! He just showed up randomly at Luke's ten minutes ago! I was sitting there, minding my own business, drinking coffee, when he pulls up right outside the diner! I couldn't move and then he talked to me and I could barely form sentences except when I started rambling which only made me appear even more stupid than I was already being! Everything got awkward, then Luke came out, I practically ran out the door, and came straight here to tell you! Why is this all happening at once?!"
Lorelai gave her daughter a sympathetic look, knowing how stressful this must be. "Hun, you knew there was a chance that he would come. You can't avoid him forever."
Rory stared at the floor. "I know, but I'm just not ready. I was hoping that somehow he wouldn't show up, that he'd call and say that something else came up and there was no way he could make it. I especially didn't think or even consider the idea of running into him within ten seconds of his arrival!"
Her mother place an arm around her shoulders to comfort her a bit. "I know you didn't, sweetie, but maybe this is for the best. Did you ever think about that? I mean, maybe this was suppose to happen and something good will come out of it."
Rory looked at her mother skeptically. "Mom, you've seen everything that's gone wrong with Jess and me; nothing ever goes right between us. Everything always gets messed up and we run away from it all. What makes you think that this time it'll be different?"
"I don't know, but something could happen. Jess is older now, maybe he's grown up some."
"Since when did you start to defend Jess?" She asked, confused.
Lorelai simply smiled. "I need to give him a chance at some point, why not now?"
"You're something else."
"I know." Lorelai looked at her daughter seriously again. "So, what happens now? What are you going to do?"
Rory sighed, focusing on reality again. "I honestly don't know. I can't just pull him aside and say, 'Hey, did you know that you have a kid now? Yeah remember three years ago when we ran into each other at that bar and what happened afterward? Because of that incident you can call yourself a dad now, buddy.' It doesn't work like that! I don't know what to say or do. I don't even know if I can tell him."
She began pacing, becoming distressed with the situation again. Lorelai crossed her arms. "Well first, you should start by calming down a notch."
Rory turned on her. "Hey, put yourself in my place and try to calm down. At the moment I'm fighting a breakdown! I really, really want to tell him, but I'm scared of the outcome! Jess is Jess, and he will always be Jess. He can't handle these situations! He gets scared and he runs off for a year or two and shows back up again, just to mess things up, and then he takes off again! I know he didn't leave the last time, I did! But I couldn't bare to see his face when he woke up that morning, I had to leave.
"Also, he has a whole 'nother life back in Philly! He can't abandon everything there or have something this big weighing on his mind! I can't believe I had almost forgot about something like that!" She paused to take a breath, and Lorelai continued to stare knowing that she was not done yet. "I can't tell him. It'll ruin his whole life! And he may even go back to Philly and not even care if I did tell him." She began to tug at her hair as she paced back and forth. "For once, I screwed everything up. We had just begun to be friends again and I kissed him and that led to other things and now I've messed our lives up so bad! He'd never forgive me if I told him!"
When she finished, Lorelai stared with a frown on her face, her arms still crossed over her chest. "Rory, you're in a tough situation, I know that, but not telling him will be the worst mistake you'll ever make. What happens when you don't and your daughter grows up wanting to know where daddy is and if she'll ever see him, and then you have to explain to her that she won't and that he doesn't even know she exists? Not only are you messing your own life up, you're affecting your daughter's as well. You know better, Ror. This may be confusing, but you've always tried to make the right choices and saying that you may not tell him is completely ridiculous! Are you losing your mind, kid? You're smart, brilliant, and can handle this situation much better than I ever could! I've been in situations just as bad and I look back at them and realize that I made the worst mistakes, so don't tell me to put myself in your situation because I'd mess it up so bad and I could just add one more huge screw up to my long list of screw ups in my life!
"If you back out now and chicken out, then I guess you aren't as smart as I thought you were." Rory stared at her mother stunned, taking in her words and sorting through them in her head. Her mother was absolutely right. She's putting her daughter's life with her father in jeopardy because she's too big of a wimp to tell him the truth. How could she even consider doing that?
She sat down in a near-by chair, her legs shaking. "You're right. I've been such an idiot. I've been so worried that I haven't taken the time to actually think about it all. I guess I need more time to think things through."
Lorelai sat next to her daughter, placing a hand on her back. "I just want you to do the right thing. Don't screw up like I have, I want to see you live a better life and get the things that you deserve. Talking to him is the best thing. Time to think over it is good, but at some point, you need to tell him."
"I know." Looking up at her mother again, she leaned over to hug her. "Thanks for talking some sense into me." She chuckled a bit and Lorelai smiled.
"No problem, kid."
It was silent for a few seconds with them still hugging when Rory spoke up again. "You're not a screw up, mom. I hope you know that. You never were and you never will be."
Lorelai tightened the hug for a second before releasing her daughter. "At least someone thinks so."
Rory stared at her looking persistent. "You're not. I don't think so, nor do any of your friends, and even Luke could tell you that you aren't."
Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Try telling that to my parents."
Rory pointed a finger at her. "Sush, enough about that. Just accept the fact that we don't think you are or ever will be and leave it at that."
"Okay."
"Alright. Well, I think I should get to Lane's, it's getting kind of late. I'll see you at home. Love you." With a quick kiss on the cheek, Rory gave her mother a small hug, before leaving the inn, and heading for Lane's place.
Today had been so stressful and she wasn't sure it would get any better soon. All she knew was that she had a lot of thinking to do. These next two weeks were not going to be easy, she had already figured that much out.
A/N: So that's the first chapter! I'm not sure when the next update will be because I have other stories to work with, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless. I may make some changes or something soon, but I just needed to upload something! Review if you'd like to, I'd appreciate it!