A/N: Thank you for the reviews.


Tell

"That bus hasn't gotten any better in the last fifteen years." Rory sighed, sitting across from her mother in the diner. "Actually, I'm pretty sure it's the same bus it was back then."

"I told you to take the car." Lorelai argued back with a smile.

"You had to get to work. I'll buy a car eventually."

"Eventually soon."

"Very soon." She nodded, grabbing a handful of fries off Lorelai's plate. "Do you think Luke will mind sacrificing a weekend to help me get one?"

"Please, he'll probably make you sit in a corner while he picks for you." Lorelai grinned, glancing at her husband, before pushing her plate closer to Rory. "So, how did it go?"

"I have a job. Charleston said that as long as I'm enrolled somewhere reputable, he would be more than happy to have me on board. I'll be starting September with the next school year. It's only part-time, because I can't imagine swinging teaching, the degree and the you-know-what otherwise, but it should keep me afloat as long as I can find something cheap to rent in town."

"You're moving out?"

Rory shrugged. "I wasn't sure you'd want me and you-know-what living there."

"Nuh-uh, you and your you-know-what can stay as long as you want. My rent is very reasonable, just buy pizza once in a while."

"I've seen how much pizza you eat, rent would be cheaper," she chuckled. "You sure you don't mind?"

"Yes."

"And Luke doesn't mind?"

Lorelai lifted the menu from the table, showing her the framed article. "Super-proud Luke?"

"I have a feeling he's not going to be super-proud Luke for too long."

"Oh, Rory, you have to stop thinking that. No one is disappointed in you, ok? You're not sixteen, trust me, you've got a leg up here."

"Yeah." She nodded, still sounding unconvinced. "I should go, I have to check in at the paper and then head home and finally call Logan."

"You don't want lunch first?"

"I could do with some pie. If I get cherry pie, it's like eating better, right?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Lorelai nodded. "Oh, Luuuke!" she called for her husband and he popped out from the kitchen. "Rory needs pie and I need a refill."

"What kind of pie?"

"Cherry!" Rory replied.

"Give me a minute."

"I love that you broke him," she smiled, looking at her mother. "You should tell him."

"What?"

"About the … we need a code word here."

"The job?" Lorelai suggested and Rory nodded in reply.

"Yes. About the job. You guys are married, he should know and I don't know how long it's going to take me to tell Logan so I really don't want to make you wait. And Jess knows, so it's not like it's a big secret anyway."

"Jess?" Lorelai lifted her eyebrows in confusion. "You told Jess?"

"I was having a crappy day yesterday, he guessed. It's a long story."

"That's some guess."

Rory shrugged instead of answering, eating another fry.

"What's the deal there? Is there a deal?"

"No deal. We're friends. Like now's the time for deals with guys anyway." She rolled her eyes as she answered.

"Ok." This time Lorelai sounded unconvinced, but stopped herself from saying more.

"Coffee, pie. Rory, you need coffee?" Luke asked, walking up to the table and filling Lorelai's cup.

"Can you put it in a to-go cup, please, I need to head out soon."

"Sure thing." He headed back to the counter and Rory started digging into the pie.

"You know he'll make you eat your vegetables, right?" Lorelai looked at her husband, then back at Rory. "Are you sure about this?"

"Tell him." Rory nodded. "Just… can you ask him not to make a big deal about it? I'm still working on figuring out how I feel about it, I don't know how I'd deal with Luke too."

"Whatever you need." Lorelai reassured her.


"Upstairs!" Lorelai grabbed Luke by the back of his shirt, waving an arm towards the curtain as soon as Rory was out of sight.

"Wha…?"

"Upstairs! Now!" She told him again, practically dragging him with her.

"I have a diner…"

"Caesar, you're in charge!" she shouted towards the kitchen, before pushing the curtain aside and starting to march up the stairs. "Ok, sit down." She told Luke as soon as he closed the door behind him.

"What's…"

"I've been dying to tell you since Sunday but I couldn't, because it's not my thing to tell, you know? but it feels like you should know and I really need to talk about it with you and I was going to burst if she didn't say it was ok to tell you soon, but she did, so we're good and you're still not sitting down!"

"Lorelai, what's going on?"

"Sit down!" She pointed to one of the chairs and Luke finally sat, practically teetering on the edge. "Rory's pregnant." She announced as soon as he was down.

"What?!" The man shot back up. "Lorelai, if this is some kind of joke…"

"Oh, don't I wish it was."

"Whose…? I bet it's Logan's, isn't it? Taylor was talking about that little punk marching in and buying out the town."

"Yeah, it's Logan's. She hasn't told him yet."

"But she is going to tell him, right? Because…"

"Yeah, don't worry. She's definitely going to tell him." Lorelai ran her hand over his arm. "I just… God, I'm so disappointed. I've been trying to be nice and supportive because I remember staring at that stick thinking my life was over and I don't want to Emily her, but this is not what I wanted her life to be!" She sighed, looking down at her feet for a moment, arms wrapped around herself. "She says she's going to pull herself together and it's looking like she might, she's got a job at Chilton and a plan, you know, it sounds like she's got a good plan in place, but I'm so worried about her, Luke. I wanted more for her. I wanted her to have someone who'd go to the store in the middle of the night and who'd take turns with the baby so she can sleep and who'd do all the things you want someone to do and she's… she's not going to have any of that and it breaks my heart. Not the way she should have." She stopped her rant with another sigh and Luke wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in a tight hug.

"She'll be ok. She's a smart kid, she's got this."

"She's not a kid anymore." She hugged him back.

"She'll be fine." He told her again, kissing her temple. "Is she staying with us? You've told her we're here for everything, right?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her again."

Lorelai smiled, nodding.

"Do you think she'll want this place?" Luke asked, looking around. "We can do it up for her if she wants some more space. But she should be with us, we can help with the baby. I'll go to the store in the middle of the night. When's she due?"

"Summer sometime, I don't know."

"You should offer this place, but make sure she doesn't think we're kicking her out."

"Luke, you don't have to…"

"It'll stop TJ from trying to convince me to turn it into a poker parlor."

"Ok, I'll mention it to her."

"And tell her I'll paint. We can get her some new furniture, that bed is about a hundred years old. Maybe put up a wall so the baby can have its own room."

"I will." Lorelai smiled, kissing him. "Thank you. I got pretty lucky with you."

"Nah…"

"Don't argue." She stopped him with another kiss. "I have to get back to work."

"Caesar's probably burnt the whole place down."

"We'd smell smoke if he had. By the way, she doesn't want you to make a big deal out of it."

"What do I say to her?"

"Act normal." She shrugged, going out the door again.


"You left your bribe with my books." She texted, looking at the book Jess had chosen mixed in with her pile.

"Figured." Her phone buzzed a few minutes later, then again immediately after. "Look after it until Christmas."

"Not coming over for Thanksgiving?"

"Not sure."

"You should think about it. Mom's started to talk about all the food she's making Luke make already." She told him. "Is it still bribery if I return the book read?"

"Yeah."

"Good to know." She picked up her cup of decaf and took a sip before putting it back down. "How's work?"

"Debating if I can beat myself to death with manuscripts."

"You'd probably pass out before dying."

"I'll find something else. You?"

"Not contemplating manuscript-suicide." She curled up on the chair. "Procrastinating on a college application."

"?"

"Got a teaching job at Chilton, need a Master's. Penn State World, so I'll be sort of virtually in your corner of the world."

"A guy I work with got a degree from them, let me know if you want me to ask him anything."

"Will do, thanks." Rory replied. "I should let you get back to your manuscripts."

Her phone buzzed after a second with a picture of stack of papers, looking dangerously close to toppling over. "Please don't."

"Hah, fine. I can tell you what excellent taste in books I have. Remember the one you said was going to suck? It didn't."

"Right."

"I can hear the sarcasm from here. Now I'll have to force you to read it."

"Can't suck more than my current piles of crap."


"Rory?" Lorelai peered into her daughter's room later that night, door slightly ajar.

"Hey." She greeted back from where she lay on the bed with a pillow over her head.

"Are you ok?"

"Do I look ok?"

"I don't know if the pillow for a hat fashion statement's going to take off, but you always look pretty." She sat down on the edge of the bed next to her daughter. "What's up?"

"Argh!" Rory lowered the pillow, sitting up and gesticulating angrily at her open computer screen. "How is it that I can write everything but this stupid email?"

"Oh, honey…" Lorelai ran her hand over her daughter's hair, smoothing it down. "Did calling him…"

"Even worse an idea." She shook her head, thinking back to the hour she'd spent staring at her phone, trying to press call. "I can't do it, I can't listen to his voice while I ruin his life. If his fiancée finds out…"

"Rory, no. You're not ruining his life."

"Feels like it."

"Ok, this is his doing as much as yours. If he didn't want to risk his fiancée finding out about him cheating, he shouldn't have cheated. Now, if you want to give him out on being in the baby's life, that's up to you and I'll support you in that decision, but he made his own bed here."

"Right, 'cause what I was doing to Paul…"

"Was also crap, but that doesn't cancel his crap out. That's not how life works, just because you screwed up too it doesn't make him any better."

"Mom…"

"No." Lorelai shook her head. "You shouldn't feel guilty about this." She softened her voice, hoping she'd get across to her daughter.

"Tell me how, ok? Tell me how I should stop feeling guilty about the possibility of hurting a man I've been in love with for so long." Rory sounded close to pleading, then took a deep breath and threw her pillow down. "Come on, let's get some food, I'll feel better." She jumped off the bed.

Lorelai followed her daughter as she marched into the kitchen, stopping by to pick up the nearly full coffee cup.

"Rory…"

"Not talking about Logan."

"Ok." Lorelai nodded. "Ew, this smells like…"

"Decaf." Rory confirmed. "And don't you dare mock, I found the bag in your kitchen."

"Luke's misguided attempt at getting me to cut back. You've just encouraged him now."

"Did you tell him?"

"Yes. He says I should ask you if you want the diner apartment, but make sure I do it so you don't think you're getting kicked out. Because you're definitely not. But if you want more space and privacy…"

Rory sat down, biting her lip. "That wouldn't be too bad, actually."

"Ah, I'm hurt! You want to leave the nest just weeks after coming back?"

"You guys need more privacy too, you just got married," she pointed out. "And it'd be nice to have all my stuff in one place."

"I will tell him." Lorelai smiled.

"You don't mind?"

"No, no, abandon me." She sighed, trying to sound as dramatic as she could. "Whatever you want to do, it's fine. You can try living there for a while and then move back in if you decide it was easier having us here after baby comes. Anything."

"I'll pay him rent."

"Hah." Lorelai snorted. "Good luck with that."

"Fine, I'll sneak a twenty in the diner till once in a while."

"Sounds more plausible. Marshmallow?" Lorelai held out the bag to her daughter.

"Thanks." Rory replied, taking a handful out of the bag.

"What do you want for dinner?"

"I'll have leftover pizza. I'm beat." She sighed, eating a marshmallow. "It feels like I haven't slept in a week."

"There's wedding cake too."

"I'll take it."

"Chocolate definitely comes from a plant." Lorelai chuckled, pulling out the cake from the fridge.


Later that night, Rory lay in bed again, staring at the ceiling and the faint pattern the curtains and streetlight drew on it. Then, without letting herself think any longer about what she was going to do, she picked up her phone from the nightstand and opened her email.

"Logan,

I'm pregnant. It's yours. I don't want anything. Please don't call."

Then she hit send.