Chapter 9: Andre

Lorelai was still telling Clara stories about Rory when Clara's brother and his wife arrived along with their sons. The door to the room was ajar and the twin boys just came running in, having gotten a few paces ahead of their parents. Despite the children drawing attention to themselves with their loud footsteps and chorus of "Hi, Aunt Clara!", Jess ignored them and instead looked back over toward the doorway. He watched closely, ready to take in Andre's full appearance the moment he arrived. He and his wife showed up at the same time.

"Trevor! Shawn!" Pamela scolded the boys loudly. She looked up to Clara and offered an apologetic smile as she entered the room. "Would you prefer if they stayed outside in the waiting area?" she kindly asked her sister-in-law. Clara shook her head.

"They should stay," she then answered with a smile, glancing back at the twins. They both were now eying her very pregnant abdomen with intense curiosity. Lorelai walked around the bed in order to greet Pamela with a friendly handshake and introduce herself.

Jess wasn't paying much attention to what was happening beside him in the room though. His focus was still directed toward the man at the door. Clean shaven, neatly dressed, and barely taller than Jess himself, Andre didn't seem to be too scary of a guy. He was looking over at Clara, who hadn't looked back at him yet. She had been distracted by the three new people who had actually entered the room, and so she hadn't yet noticed that her brother, the only person she'd wanted to be here for her, had arrived. He was lingering, lightly fingering the doorknob, clearly taking his time to absorb the shocking sight of his baby sister being so pregnant. Jess wanted to read his emotions, and was fully prepared to attempt to protect Clara from any additional and unnecessary emotional distress. So he tried to see if her brother seemed angry at all, or even just disappointed in her... something clear on his face that would be legitimate cause for Jess to worry.

Andre was clearly upset, but not at Clara. Jess watched his slow and light little movements. He watched the muscles around his mouth. He saw exactly how his eyes stayed on Clara. Andre seemed to be purely upset for Clara.

Jess relaxed a bit, hoping his assessment of this man was correct. Clara finally looked toward the door and saw him. She smiled widely, clearly thrilled to see him, but then as he smiled back, her smile lessened and she started to cry a little. Lorelai looked back and forth between the siblings, a bit confused. She closed the gap between herself and the bed.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Lorelai asked Clara quietly and sympathetically, despite not knowing what prompted the girl's tears. Andre started approaching her quickly and Lorelai nervously watched the scene play out. He sat gently on the edge of her bed and then wrapped his arms around her in a loving hug. She squeezed back tightly and Lorelai and Jess both felt relieved to see her reciprocating the hug so strongly.

"I just really missed you," Clara whispered to her brother, just barely loud enough for Jess to hear.

He was tempted to leave the family members alone to catch up, bond, or do whatever they wanted without these strangers being present. So he glanced over at Lorelai. She met his gaze and he gestured subtly with his head, his eyebrows silently questioning her. She understood.

"Jess and I are going to go find some coffee," she explained as she started to head toward the door. Jess followed her out of the room.

"Sorry I said 'coffee', it was just the first-"

"First thing to come to your mind?" Jess completed her sentence for her. They smiled a little.

"But seriously," she said, "if you'd like to do something else, we could."

Jess considered for a moment.

"I guess we could eat some lunch," he suggested.

"Sounds reasonable," Lorelai replied. She then nodded purposefully and started walking quickly. Jess didn't quite know what her rush was, seeing as they actually were attempting to kill time, but when he caught up with her she was already looking at the hospital map which was on a placard conveniently located beside the elevator doors.

"Floor 5" she declared, having already determined the location of the cafeteria.

Jess was surprisingly pleased with the number of healthy and simple food choices in the hospital cafeteria, but because of the absurdly high prices he chose only one small item to eat – a pre-made turkey sandwich. He would find a water fountain later to quench his thirst.

Lorelai, on the other hand, bought so many different items that they barely all fit on her tray. She chose some healthy options like an apple and a pear from the assorted fruit basket, and a salad from the salad bar which she made quite a bit less healthy by using an excessive amount of creamy dressing on it. She also grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich that, until he saw Lorelai grabbing it, Jess had assumed only children bought . Then, she opted for some red jello, remarking about how she'd always wanted to try hospital jello, and that this would be a rite-of-passage for her. Lastly, she got herself a large coffee.

When they started eating, it was in almost complete silence. Jess was eating his sandwich slowly and neatly, but Lorelai was slurping her coffee, and in the effort to get her fork to stab a single, excessively dressing-filled piece of lettuce, was making a lot of noise. When she got around to biting into her apple and chewing the crunchy fruit loudly, Jess scowled a little. He knew Lorelai never ate apples. Rory and Lorelai never had eaten anything healthy, usually not even a salad, when they went to Luke's. And he knew Lorelai's outside-of-Luke's eating habits a bit too because when he'd been alone and eating with Rory, like in many other situations with Rory, she never could stop talking about her mother.

"You are aware that's fruit?" he asked simply. She took a moment to swallow, and then she looked confused for a moment as she glanced back and forth between Jess and her apple. Understanding came over her. Her eyes widened and she started to nod.

"I never eat apples; right. Well... I mean I did when I was pregnant with Rory. I loved apples back then. I craved healthy food, it was freakish. But now... well obviously that's not the reason right now... I mean it's technically been too long since I've even..."

Jess smirked a little, wondering if she'd really start discussing her own sex life in front of him... during their hospital cafeteria lunch.

"Maybe I'm just thinking too much about being pregnant with Rory, being around Clara so much and talking to her about it and stuff. Yeah. That's probably it," she ended, satisfied enough with her own conclusion. Jess didn't reply in any way, and Lorelai didn't seem to even mind. She'd, by now, gotten fairly used to Jess' extremely quiet habits.

After that, they returned to eating without speaking, with the noise of Lorelai's chewing and slurping and vigorous stabbing of various pieces of lettuce still filling the silence.

"The coffee at Luke's is eons better than this," Lorelai commented after drinking her entire cup.

"Eons?" Jess asked her, not really confused but teasing her a little over her poor use of the English language.

"It makes sense... you understood me!" she quickly retorted. "Therefore it should be perfectly acceptable word-usage." She seemed so sure that she was right about this, and not the least bit embarrassed.

Jess considered what it would be like to write a whole book in that manner. Using words incorrectly at least once per sentence or something insane, but still somehow making his chapters understandable. It would be a kind of fun exercise for him, just a challenge to see if he could do it. He was tempted to mention this thought to Lorelai, but decided against it.

When they returned to the room, Clara looked happier than ever, fully enjoying her family's company. Pamela was in the middle of telling Clara a cute story about something Trevor had done, so Lorelai and Jess both lingered near the door. Andre noticed them standing there and headed out to talk to them as his wife finished the anecdote.

"Thank you for bringing her here," he said to both of them, shaking both of their hands now because he had not done so earlier, his eyes darting from Lorelai to Jess.

"No problem," Lorelai replied. "I'm Lorelai, by the way."

"And I'm Jess. I just needed to make sure she was okay," he added.

"Well I really appreciate it," Andre said sincerely. He glanced back toward his wife and sister.

"Are you planning to help her after the baby is born?" Lorelai asked. Andre nodded.

"I think we have to. Clara won't tell me who the father is..." he trailed off, looking awkwardly at Jess for a moment. Jess was standing still, calmly awaiting what Andre would say next... half expecting an accusation. His expression was deliberately passive. "It's definitely not you, right?" he asked Jess very directly.

"No." Jess replied simply, not acting defensive in the slightest. Lorelai was impressed at how he was keeping his composure.

"Okay," Andre replied, satisfied enough with the answer. He turned back to glance toward his sister. Talking more to himself than anyone, he continued, "I didn't really think it was you anyway. Clara was acting really weird when I asked her about the father." Jess tensed up a bit, still not knowing who the father of Clara's baby was or what exactly he'd done, but already hating the guy, almost instinctively. He wasn't here, after all. Andre turned back toward Jess. "And she acted very differently when she was discussing you."

"Yeah, so um..." Lorelai tried to think of a polite way to phrase her question. She didn't want to tell Andre outright what he should do. But she was the only person other than Clara herself who knew about the awful situation with her stepfather – with whom she was still currently residing. Lorelai could not stop thinking about that fact and needed to make sure Clara would be removed from such a horrific environment. "What is the plan for after her baby arrives?"

"Oh..." I seemed that Andre didn't quite have a plan yet. "I'm not sure."

"Well maybe we can ask Clara and see what she wants?" Jess suggested. Andre nodded and Lorelai didn't think it was all that bad of an idea either. The three of them headed back into the room and Clara looked up.

"Hey there!" she greeted Lorelai and Jess. I told my brother and Pamela everything you've done for me today, both of you. I..." she hesitated, her eyes darting down for a moment. She finished very quietly, "I will never forget any of it."

"Aw, wow... thank you, we were happy to help," Lorelai replied graciously, looking over to Jess. "It was all his doing really."

"Yeah," Clara replied. "Well... really thank you even more then, I guess!" she said directly to Jess. He awkwardly looked down and averted his eyes from everyone in the room. He didn't know what to say, nor where to look. He wasn't used to getting complimented about anything, ever.

Andre then decided it was time to pose the question.

"Clara, what do you want to do after the baby's born?" He'd tried to ask it as kindly and non-judgmentally as possible. Her eyes got a bit wide and she started to squirm a bit in her hospital bed, clearly uncomfortable about the question.

"I was thinking..." she started slowly, glancing at Lorelai nervously for a moment before continuing... "of maybe giving the baby up for adoption." She kept her eyes glued to her brother's face after she finished, waiting for his reaction with bated breath. He took a moment to let the concept sink in, then nodded understandingly.

"You're quite young," he said. "That makes sense. I definitely don't have a problem with you doing that." Clara breathed a small sigh of relief and looked back down at her hugely pregnant belly. "But giving away your baby will be really hard... you know that, don't you?" She looked back at him then started to nod. Just then another contraction started for her, and Andre gently took her hand to help her through it. Lorelai and Jess slowly started to back away.

Pamela's attention was currently focused on the boys, who seemed to be fighting over which one of them would get to be the first one to play with a single Game Boy Advance. Andre stood there gently encouraging her, trying to help while Clara attempted to breathe through her pain. When the contraction passed, Clara looked up at Lorelai and so the Gilmore approached her.

"You were almost as young as me when you had your daughter, and you don't regret having her," she said knowingly. Lorelai shrugged a little and nodded slowly, not wanting to be too enthusiastic about just how amazing having Rory was for her when dealing with a girl who was considering the option to not be a mother, at least not just yet.

"You had a daughter when you were Clara's age?" Andre commented, surprised.

"Well, I was sixteen when Rory was born," she clarified. Lorelai tried to remember something from back when she was only fourteen-years-old, but couldn't really. Clara seemed so much younger than Lorelai remembered being when she was in the hospital, in labor with Rory. But maybe if her current self had been looking back on her sixteen-year-old self, she'd realize just how young she'd really been with new perspective. She contemplated silently while Clara continued to do the same, though about two much more realistic scenarios than Lorelai's imagined time-travel.

"If I give the baby up, I might regret it..." she said, mainly to herself.

"Well even if you do regret it," Jess quietly said, introducing himself into the conversation, "at least your kid will be with someone who loves them and who can take care of them."

Clara watched Jess closely, waiting for him to continue.

"I'm just saying... it would have been much better for me if my mom had realized she wasn't ready to be a mother. She was older than you... and older than Lorelai was... but she was still younger than I am now," he commented sadly. "And she just was not cut out for motherhood."

Clara took in his words and considered them. "So if I choose to keep my baby and I regret it, it'd be bad not only for me but for my... son or daughter too."

Lorelai looked from Clara to Jess. She understood why Clara wasn't ready to be a mother. But, whatever Jess had suffered in his life, from what little she knew about Liz which was mainly from what Luke had told her, Lorelai knew that Clara would never be nearly as horrible a parent as Liz. Lorelai felt sympathy toward Jess, she truly did, but she wasn't sure if he really was giving Clara quite the right advice in that moment.

"I don't think your son or daughter would suffer if you really tried your hardest to raise him or her," Lorelai dissented. "Especially not if Andre and his family are willing to help you."

Jess was a little stunned that Lorelai was saying these things to Clara.

"I think you should decide for yourself," Pamela said softly to Clara, having heard only the most recent part of the conversation, but getting the general gist just the same. The boys were now quietly cooperating with each other and their mother was able to leave them on the floor while she joined the other adults. "Whichever way you go, it will be the right decision. I don't have any doubt about that."

Clara nodded and everyone else agreed to let the subject drop, at least for now.

"So, just the other day the boys learned how to use the telephone in their preschool classes," Andre began. Everyone else turned to look at him intently. "It reminded me so much of when Clara was about their age."

"Really?" Clara seemed so genuinely pleased to have come up in her brother's thoughts.

"Yeah," he said, nodding and smiling. "You used to hold the phone with two hands, just like I saw Trevor doing, and suddenly I had this mental picture in my mind of you answering the phone like that." He looked over at his sister with affection. She beamed.

Andre shared some more funny stories about his memories of Clara when she was a little girl which Clara seemed to appreciate and everyone else, even Jess, found pleasant enough as a way to pass the time. After a while though, Lorelai took out her cell phone in order to check the time.

"So it's been really nice getting to know everyone here," she said. "But Jess and I probably should head out eat some dinner. Give you all some privacy for the evening. Right?" She didn't want to start imposing on their family too much.

"Are you leaving to go back to Connecticut?" Clara asked, full of trepidation. Jess looked to Lorelai, wondering himself what her plan was.

"Oh no, of course not. We need to meet that little baby!" Clara smiled, relieved that Lorelai wanted to stay for that. "I'm also very curious to find out if you're going to go the adoption route or not," she added. "And I agree with Pamela, by the way." She looked at Jess for a moment, then turned back to the girl. "Only you can know what you want for your child."


Before leaving the hospital, Lorelai and Andre exchanged phone numbers and Clara promised to make sure someone would notify Lorelai and Jess as soon as the baby was born. Jess and Lorelai decided it probably was best to not return to the hospital until then, unless Clara changed her mind and wanted them there sooner. They also promised not to stray too far from the hospital, so that returning would be fairly quick.

For dinner, Jess took Lorelai to one of his favorite restaurants, one that happened to be surprisingly close to the hospital where Clara was. After finding a rare $5 parking lot three blocks away for Lorelai's jeep, they walked inside. It was a one-of-a-kind diner that really reminded Lorelai of Luke's. Lorelai even spotted a "no cell phones" sign, and while it lacked the cute picture, she still felt like maybe she was back in Star's Hollow for half of a second. Lorelai considered maybe Jess had been a bit "homesick" for Luke or Star's Hollow when he'd discovered this place, but she didn't want to embarrass him by bringing it up and drawing attention to that fact. She smiled at the cuteness of the idea though. Jess was so much more of a softy than she'd ever realized. When they finished eating, Lorelai politely paid for her own meal, and Jess was thankful, realizing just how low on cash he was. Lorelai was tempted to offer to pay for his, but she figured he wouldn't take that too well.

After dinner, Lorelai insisted on buying a room with two beds at a nearby hotel, even though Jess said he could just meet up with Lorelai in the morning. Jess was willing to return to his own apartment and roommates for the night to save a little money but Lorelai said she didn't mind covering the fairly low cost of an extra bed. When she reminded him that they'd promised to stay close to Clara, he gave in.

It was still fairly early when they checked into the hotel - much too early for sleeping. So Jess opened his bag of clothes and got out a book to read. Lorelai was instantly reminded of being in that awful Chesire Cat B&B just about three years prior. Rory had been reading a book in much the same way in order to pass the time while she'd waited for Lorelai to wake up. Thinking about Rory made her very sad, though, because it reminded her of the current cold war she and her daughter currently seemed to be in. She glanced down at her cell phone, wishing she could just call Rory in Europe right then and there. She had talked about Rory so much that day, and now what she really needed was to hug Rory tightly and never let her go. She was so glad she'd had a baby at sixteen and had chosen to keep her.

She was still staring at her phone when it rang. She jumped from the sound, even though the vibration had started a second or so earlier. Jess didn't even notice her move, he was so engrossed in his book. Lorelai half laughed at herself, then answered it.

"Hi, Luke," she said with a grin. "I'm really glad you called. I need to know all about working at a Renaissance Fair!"

"Geez, give me a second to ask you about your day first! I mean come on, you and Jess on a road trip together? A mysterious pregnant girl? I'm sure you have more to tell me. You already know the gist of what a Renaissance Fair is."

"No, I don't..." Lorelai pouted. "I've never been to one. Come on, Luke. You tell me first."

"Fine," he said, and Lorelai could just picture him rolling his eyes despite clearly being very amused by her insistence. "I just sold jewelry, people didn't buy much and Liz thinks it's because I refused to wear the ridiculous costume they'd picked out for me to wear."

"Costume?" Lorelai giggled. "Was it like what TJ wore for his wedding?"

"What? No, even Liz knew enough to know I'd never wear tights!" Lorelai laughed again.

Jess half-smiled into his book.