She says nothing at first, and Rory waits.
"Huh."
Rory waits to hear her mother (rightfully) lambast her for sleeping with a (practically) married man (again). She waits to hear her tell her how irresponsible she is, how much of a disappointment she is.
"Okay."
Rory knows it's coming, knows this can't be all her loquacious mother says in this critical conversation.
"It's Logan's."
Not a question, so much, but her voice goes up a little at the end, betraying the inquiry that Rory doesn't need to answer with anything but a nod.
"You're going to be okay, kid. I'm not my mother."
Rory knows this, but there's a little bit of Emily in both of them. Even now, with her DAR outburst, her sudden sale of the Gilmore home and move to Nantucket to be a museum docent, all that doesn't change the core of who Emily Gilmore is.
And Rory's a Gilmore. And her baby will be too, Huntzbergers be damned.
Rory looks up at her mom, a glass in her hand that she's sipped at mindlessly. There's a question in her eyes too, and Lorelai answers it with a hug.
"I'm here. You don't have to run away."
"That's good, cause I'm kinda homeless."
"And underwear-less. Hence the current situation."
"Well, I see that now."
They joke, and Lorelai hugs her again, and then they move on. Lorelai and Luke have to get married (again).
Jess is the best man at the public wedding, and she the maid of honor. Rory owes him so much and now he's really her family. In the traditional sense, not the "Friends" or "Buffy" chosen family sense. They're related by marriage. Weird.
It doesn't stop her stomach from fluttering a little when he gives his speech at the reception. She doesn't shy away from dancing with him. When he gives her a look that says she looks really good in her pseudo-bridesmaid dress, she wonders if this thing between them will ever really be over.
She tells Logan that in no uncertain terms he should not cancel his wedding to the French swan, that she will raise the child, and that she will always love him but they will never be right together. She tries to believe the words as she says them. It's a little bittersweet, but all Rory cares about right now is her baby.
He offers her child support, and she reminds him that she's a Gilmore.
He laughs, but she's serious. They're over, and she can take care of herself.
Her mom goes with her to the first ultrasound appointment, and holds her hand while Rory cringes at the cold gel that makes a squirty sound as it lands on her stomach. The moment is ruined humorously when Paris barges in.
Rory should have known that grown-up Paris would be just as micro-managing of her as younger Paris. Plus, they're using her fertility company with its full range of pre-and post-natal services, so it's hardly a surprise that she shows up.
"Is it a girl? It has to be a girl. If it's not, we can try again. I have an 82% success rate with sex-determination with expectant mothers. We can pretty much guarantee a girl the second time around if this doesn't work out."
Rory grins and thanks her for Paris's totally unnecessary rant. She already knows, she can feel it.
When the ultrasound technician turns to confirm if they want to know, Rory says she doesn't need to, and looks at her mother. "Of course it's a girl." The tech is confused, but tells her she's right.
Paris starts in again, weighing the pros and cons of naming her Lorelai, but Rory can't take her eyes off that little picture on the screen.
Jess stays in Stars Hollow, and they don't really talk about why. He mentions offhand that he wants to spend more time with Doula, and that Luke could use some help at the diner while he's in the (official) honeymoon period with Lorelai.
She doesn't question it, but he spends a lot of late nights eating Al's Pancake World with her and writing her comments on the chapters she provides him. When she starts to get pregnancy cravings, he doesn't even complain as he gets them the Indian food he hates the smell of.
She keeps writing, and writing, and writing, and before she knows it, she's mostly done.
Everyone's in the book, everyone except him. It feels strange to write about him when he's going to read in and give her notes on it, and even stranger that she doesn't quite know what to say.
In her heart, she remembers it all fondly, even the nasty bits. In her head, she knows she caused him just as much heartache as he caused her.
He loves her book, and makes jokes about how soon she'll be bumping him off the NYT bestseller list.
She doesn't ask him if he's writing anything. She sees him reading a lot, her stuff and more. He goes away some weekends to do New England book press events, and one day he did a Skype interview with someone from the Times itself. He came over to the house to do it, sat at her desk on his fancy Macbook while she read on the bed and ate a bag and a half of Red Vines. He said it was because it was quieter there than anywhere else, but she saw right through that.
April comes to visit again, this time less stressed and more stoned, and she and her step-sister bond over books and college and how scary and wonderful the world is.
Luke is superproud of both of them.
Logan calls every week, just to check in. Sometimes his voice is hushed, like Odette is there and he doesn't want her to hear him. Rory knows he told her. There was a time a few weeks back when he emailed instead of calling, told her not to expect a call from him this week because Odette needed time to cool down.
Rory isn't Sherry.
This time, his voice is strong and normal, and once they get the awkward small talk out of the way at the beginning, she tells him that she's fine, all healthy. Her shoes don't fit her anymore, and Logan offers to send her money to buy her more, but she refuses and says that she'd happily be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen if it meant she got to eat all day.
Luke hides the coffee, but Lorelai is on her side and knows that Rory turned out okay despite her mother's dependency on coffee throughout her pregnancy. So when Luke hides the coffee in the house, Lorelai just brings more home. At Luke's, Jess sneaks her regular caf every few cups when Luke isn't looking.
She remembers that summer when she was in Washington, right after she first kissed Jess, when Lorelai told her about a dream she had where her mother and Luke were married and she was pregnant with his twins and he talked to her belly and hid her coffee.
She laughs.
Lane gives her all sorts of tips about giving birth, and dealing with a newborn, and when she'll feel normal again and get a full night's sleep again.
Lane seems so much older than Rory now, so much more experienced.
Her best friend tells her that she has sex with her husband again, and when Rory laughs and says "Finally," Lane just blushes and smiles, telling Rory that the second time really was better than the first.
Rory takes comfort in the fact that while Lane had two brand new babies to deal with all at once, she'll just have the one.
Jess has taken to offering her baby name suggestions, mostly literary. He texts her in the late afternoon some days to ask what she's craving, then shows up with it later along with a laundry list of potential names, most of which are hilarious.
"Emma?" he offers.
"Which one?"
"Anne?"
"I say again, which one?"
"Alice?"
"Too British," she counters, thinking too late of how it reminds her of Logan.
"Becky?" he suggests, to which she immediately retorts, eyebrow raised, "With the good hair?"
"Okay, Hester?"
She laughs.
"I'm serious. What about Pippi?"
Now he's just trying to make her laugh, but her bladder isn't so generous these days, and she scampers up (as quickly as someone of her size is able) and runs to the bathroom.
When she comes back, she glowers at him. "I'll have you know, Pippi Longstocking is a wonderful literary character."
"Who says otherwise?" he asks, innocently.
"You owe me cones for that." She says, and he sobers, but goes to the kitchen, where he has a stash of sugar cones for just such an occasion.
"Forgiven," she says, taking it from him, piling on some ice cream, and smiling all the way to her eyes.
"What about…"
She has a scare with just a few weeks to go, while her mom is at the Dragonfly. She is working on editing one of the early chapters when she gets a painful cramp and knows something is wrong.
Jess is writing again, eagerly typing on his computer at the kitchen table across from her while she edits longhand on her printed manuscript.
He's scared, she can see that, but he puts up a brave front and she guesses that maybe he has seen some bad things happen to Doula, because he handles it like an old pro.
"It's going to be okay, Rory," he says, looking her right in the eyes, with that look that scares her.
He lifts her up, heavy as she is, and takes her to his car. She hasn't failed to notice that he's moved up in the world, owns a new car, works out, has his shit together. When did she become the messed-up one of the two of them?
Lorelai meets them there, confident it's just Braxton Hicks contractions but rushing to her daughter's side just in case.
She's not surprised to find Jess there.
A few weeks later, Caesar takes over Luke's Diner for the day so that Luke can be there when it happens. He and Lorelai don't have any biological children together, but he's more of a father to Rory than her own is sometimes.
Lorelai leaves a voicemail for Emily, who is working when Rory goes into labor. She figures it's better than leaving a note.
When the baby comes, and Rory has to choose the name, she looks down at her daughter and smiles.
Funny how history seems to repeat itself.