"Mom?"

"Yeah."

"I'm pregnant."

In an instant, Lorelai felt like she was in the nightmare of her past. Then she realized that Rory was thirty-two years old and not sixteen. She put her hand on her heart and tried to catch her breath. She inhaled deep and exhaled.

"Please, mom. Say something," Rory said. "I didn't want to disappoint you but I need you now more than ever."

Lorelai turned to face Rory and grabbed her hand, "When did you find out?"

"A few days ago and I haven't told anyone yet." Rory felt the tears welling up in her eyes, "I didn't know how to tell you. I couldn't keep this to myself any longer."

Lorelai put her arms around her daughter and held her. Rory rested her head on her mom's shoulder and sobbed. "We'll figure this out kid," Lorelai said. "You have some serious explaining to do though."

They stood up from the steps of the gazebo. Lorelai intertwined her arm around Rory's and they began to walk. "I don't want to ruin your wedding," Rory said. "I waited so long for you to be this happy and I feel like I'm ruining it."

"Rory, you are not ruining this day for me. Don't even worry about me right now. I need you to tell me this though, is Logan the father?" Rory shook her head and Lorelai looked confused. "Paul's?"

"No mom," said Rory. "It's Jess." They walked along and Rory told Lorelai the long, crazy story.

/

Six weeks ago…

Rory slept with the engaged Logan one last time before parting ways. She was angry at herself for her lack of control. Even after Dean, she still hadn't learned her lesson. When would she learn to leave things alone that weren't hers, regardless of her feelings? She was beating herself up and she couldn't get the thoughts out of her head. She decided to go to Luke's that night, drink coffee and just was alone in the dark, sitting on the bar stool. Luke gave her a key for nights like these. She heard the bells on the door jingle. She turned around and saw Jess, surprised that he was actually staying. He walked over to her, threw his backpack on the floor and took a seat next to her.

"Coffee in the middle of the night cannot be good for you," he said.

"Don't act like you don't know me. Coffee anytime of the day is always a good thing," she said. "I was raised by Lorelai Gilmore, I was practically born with caffeine in my blood." He laughed and there was a short pause between them. "Jess, what are you doing here?"

"Besides being lost in my life...Luke is letting me crash for a while until I start to figure things out. Do you ever feel like your life is going nowhere?"

"Welcome to my life," said Rory. "I feel so stuck, I think I was suppose to stop feeling this way a long time ago by now. All of my friends are either engaged, married or pregnant."

"Sounds about right," he said. "So what's up? When I walked in, you looked like you were in a very deep thought."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'm the other woman again."

Jess looked confused, "What do you mean?"

Rory unloaded and Jess just sat there and listened. She was so emotional at this time that she was vulnerable and willing to do just about anything to take the stress away. He was wondering if she wanted to come upstairs and have a drink with him in the apartment. She accepted and together, they both got very drunk. They kissed and at first, it was just a little peck on the lips. Rory's mind was elsewhere and she wasn't able to stop herself. She wasn't able to think that Jess could go away at any point and this would never matter. That little peck on the lips turned into more passion and eventually, they were practically ripping each other's clothes off.

Rory woke up in the morning and her head was pounding. She sat up in bed and looked around. At first, she closed her eyes and opened them again. For a moment, she thought she was waking up from a terrible dream. She could hear the busy towns people chatting in the diner. Rory looked over to see Jess sleeping in the bed next to her. Completely naked, she stood up from the bed and found her clothes. She was trying to be as quiet as possible so she could avoid any sense of conversation with sex over what just happened. She also had to somehow manage to get out of the diner without anyone noticing. As she was buttoning her shirt, she took a moment to gaze over at Jess. He looked so peaceful. She stopped herself though because she didn't want to get hurt again. He made it so easy for her to fall in love with him again and all she wanted to do was fight it.

/

Once she laid out the whole story for Lorelai, everything seemed to make sense to her from there. "Does Jess know?"

"No," she said. "After it happened, he tried to talk to me about what happened that night and I completely shut him out. I said the whole thing was a mistake, but I didn't mean it."

"What do you mean you didn't mean it was a mistake?"

"Mom, I love Jess. I always have and it never went away. It doesn't matter who I'm with, he'll always be in the back of my mind. I tried to run away from it for so long because I didn't want to get hurt again. But now, I'm so scared. What if he takes off and never comes back this time? I know you never liked Jess mom, but you don't know him like I do."

"Luke tells me that he's changed and he's more mature, that's saying something. Rory, don't you see? Jess is your Luke. All this time I thought it was Logan, but I was wrong."

"I'm not following," Rory said.

"I was always supposed to be with Luke, Rory. Those feelings I had for him never went away either. You deserve to be happy, to be with your Luke." She looked at Rory, "Don't wait any longer. Please, Rory. He deserves to know. You need to tell Jess everything that you just told me."

"You're right," Rory said and hugged Lorelai. "I love you, mom."

"Love you too kid," said Lorelai. "We're going to figure this out, okay?" Rory nodded in agreement.