Early spring in Philadelphia brought with it a hopeful promise of greenery and warmth after a particularly bitter winter. Unfortunately, Jess Mariano was feeling none of this optimism.

"I swear", Jess groaned, slamming the phone down and slumping back into his office chair, "if that fucking idiot calls me again today, I'll set myself on fire."

Across the room, Chris snickered, looking up from a stack of paperwork to where his coworker was massaging his temples, "He's a real treat isn't he? I'm so glad you lost that 'who should deal with the needy poet' poker game."

"It wasn't poker, it was Jenga", called Matthew from the adjoined front of house, "Stop trying to make us sound cooler than we are." The third man joined them in the open plan office, "It's dead out there, we've had four customers since nine and one of them was Chris's mom."

"Chris's mom is hot", Jess contemplated, nearly falling out of his chair trying to avoid the dictionary that was promptly hurled at his head.

The phone rang again.

"No!" Jess dragged both hands down his face, drawing out the syllable "I don't even have to check. I know it's him. I'm not answering."

"Oh yes you are", commanded Matt, the constant voice of reason, "He's annoying but he sells well and I need to buy Anna's mom a fancy birthday present next month. Pick up the damn phone."

Groaning again, Jess plucked the offending handset off it's cradle and pressed it to his ear, anticipating the unpleasant Mississippi drawl of their most recently signed writer.

"What do you want now?" He snapped, ignoring the barking laugh coming from Chris' desk.

"Oh, um, Jess?", A distinctly familiar, female voice greeted him instead.

"Rory?" His grimace quickly transformed into a grin as he removed the hand which had gone to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Hey. Sorry, I wasn't expecting you to call."

"Yeah- Look, are you busy? I really need you. To speak to you. I couldn't get you on your cell." Her recognised her shaky voice as the one that followed a particularly severe bout of tears.

"Rory?" He sat up straighter, "What's wrong?"

"I, um. I-" He could hear hiccuping sobs through surfacing through the crackly connection but no answer came.

"You're scaring me, babe. Rory? Just tell me what's wrong."

She slowly began to speak and his eyes widened and widened again as she choked through an elaborate story about vomiting, a missed period and two Walmart EPTs.

"You're pregnant?" He blurted, interrupting her rambling. He saw Matt and Chris' heads snap up in his peripheral.

"Yeah." A heaving sigh. "I think so? I mean, it's early but all signs point to yes and the test was cheap but extensive googling tells me they're pretty accurate." There was silence on either end of the phone. "Please say something Jess, I'm so sorry. I know we're only 23 and this wasn't what we planned but-"

"Rory! Stop a second, where are you?"

"Washington." Her voice was small.

"State or DC?"

"What would I be doing in Washington State?"

"I dunno", he replied, trying his best to calm her down, he needed to stop her crying, "You felt like doing some hunting? You love Sleepless in Seattle?"

"Oh yeah, you know me and Tom Hanks." He was relieved to hear her laughing weakly, although he himself felt as if his heart might explode, "I'm in the city, for work. I know you're busy this week but can you- can you come here?"

"Text me the address of your hotel, okay? Don't even worry about it, I'll take the train." He battled to keep his voice even.

"Okay", she sniffled, "Get here quickly." After a moment, "I love you."

"Sit tight, I'll see you soon." He let the phone slide to the floor as he folded forward and dropped his head on the desk.

"Jesus." He could barely hear his own voice over the blood hammering through his ears. "Jesus Christ."

"Jess, dude." He felt a light palm on his back, "Try not to freak out." Matt removed his hand as if burnt at the look of reproach Jess shot over his shoulder.

"We haven't even been back together for a year, Matthew. A baby? Me, a father? Are you kidding me?"

"It's Rory, Jess. You love Rory, we love Rory. This does not have to be a bad thing."

"Rory's probably having twice the panic attack you are", Chris contributed, "you need to stay calm and get your ass the hell out of here."

At the mention of her name, he snapped out of his daze and jumped up without another word, grabbing his backpack and shouting as he jogged towards the stairs, "I'm stealing a change of clothes."

"Wow." Chris still sat frozen at his desk chair, "First baby drama of the group. I'm surprised it took this long."

"That was some heavy shit." Matthew wiped a hand over his face, sitting down heavily in Jess' abandoned chair.

"He better not steal my underwear. Did you hear him call her 'babe'? That was pretty disturbing."

They both shut up as Jess reentered the room, his eyes wild. He opened and closed his mouth before half apologising and leaving quickly to a chorus of shouts from his co-workers.

"Good luck!"

"Love you!"

"Call us when you get there!" Yells came from the office as the door swung shut. "Shotgun not picking up that poet whilst you're gone!"

It took him exactly three hours and thirty minutes to arrive outside her hotel. He had bitten his nails down until they were raw and painful before he even found a seat on the train, whilst his anxious brain begged him for one of the cigarettes that he realised with an audible curse he had left in his bed side dresser. He clicked and unclicked the black biro he carried with him until the woman sat opposite him politely asked him to stop, at which point he began drumming his fingers wildly on the fold away table. He went over Matt's words in his head. This does not have to be a bad thing.

He raked and re-raked his fingers through his hair as the snooty man on reception eyed him suspiciously. He practically sprinted to her door.

"Hey", he greeted her when she cracked it open, almost doubled over, his smoker's lungs struggling after the short run.

"You're here", she responded, opening the door fully and clamping a hand over her mouth as a fat tear slipped down her cheek, "I'm sorry- I just- I was so-"

Needing to hear nothing more, he gathered her up into his arms and quietly shut them in with his foot. After 5 minutes of rocking and gentle shushing he pulled away slightly to look at her face.

"Hey." Her face was red, blotchy and terrified. He gave his best attempt at a half smirk. "Just FYI, there's no way we're calling it Lorelai."

He was here. He wasn't going anywhere. He was letting her know.

This does not have to be a bad thing.

She understood, choking back another sob and mashing her face into his sternum as he murmured into her hair.