Chapter 10: "It's six in the morning. Anyone who knows us knows we're not up until at least eight."

A few days after Valentine's Day Rory was nineteen weeks into her pregnancy and excited for her twenty week ultrasound the next week where they would see if her and Jess were right and their little bump was a boy. Even though she was still hoping for a girl, Lorelai had come around to thinking it was a boy after Rory told her about the little surprise she got the morning of Valentine's Day. Instead of being woken up by the feeling of nauseousness she had become used to in the first few months of her pregnancy, Rory was woken up by a few slight kicks from their little one.

"He still kicking?" Jess asked as they laid together on the couch after dinner.

"Yeah, I think he's a fan of spicy food," Rory said.

"What's it feel like?" Jess asked, rubbing his hand on her stomach to see if he felt anything yet.

"It's a fluttering, really," Rory said, "You know that whole butterflies in your stomach feeling, it's kind of like that only there actually is something floating inside."

"I can't believe your Mom has come over to our side," Jess said.

"Well, she said it has to be a boy since I felt him already. She said she didn't feel anything with me until week thirty," Rory said, "And with Hunter she was feeling him by week fifteen."

"But that could be because he was her second pregnancy," Jess said.

"True, but she asked Sookie and Lane about it, too and they both felt their boys moving pretty early, too," Rory told him.

"Well, I'm definitely not going to argue that Lorelai thinks it's a boy because I've been saying it from the beginning," Jess said, "But you have to admit her reasoning is off."

"I know. Just because she felt Hunter so early and Lane and Sookie with their boys, doesn't mean anything for us. Every pregnancy is different," Rory said.

"Have you heard anything else with the space for the bookstore?" Chris asked Jess while they were doing inventory.

"No, and it really sucks, you know. The space is perfect and it's in a good location," Jess said.

"Yeah, I can't believe someone else put an offer in on it," Matt said.

"I know, that place was practically ours," Chris said.

"Not quite. We never signed anything. No money changed hands. It was fair game," Jess said, "Now we wait to see if they accept the other offer."

"We could always offer more," Matt said.

"We could, but I don't want to. It's a great space, but it's not worth upping the offer," Jess said, "I already have to dig into Rory's trust funds to buy the place even though I didn't want to, but that's the unfortunate side affect of being proactive and putting each other onto our accounts in case of an emergency. The money may not be mine, but since my name is on it I can't get any kind of loan or anything since it looks like I have money."

"Even though the money in Rory's trust funds just sits there?" Chris asked.

"Yep. And it probably wouldn't even matter if my name wasn't on the account since we're married," Jess said.

"Does it really matter if you buy the place with Rory's trust fund money?" Matt asked, "It's not like you're buying it with money she earned from her job at the paper so it shouldn't bruise your ego or anything."

"I know and it wouldn't bruise my ego. I know she taps into that fund to buy all the old albums and first edition Hemingway's she's gotten me," Jess said, "But, I just feel weird spending money that neither of us earned. She got that money purely because of the family she was born into."

"So what?" Matt asked, "She may have gotten the money because of who her family is, but that money didn't just appear overnight. Someone earned that money once upon a time and it just kept getting invested and passed down."

"I never thought of it that way," Jess said, "That makes sense. Rory didn't earn the money she was given and Richard has made quite a bit of money over the years, but nowhere near as much as what Rory was given. The money they put in her trust fund was family money that was invested long term and passed down to Richard from his father."

"See and now it's been passed down to Rory to do with what she wants. She can invest it, spend it, let it sit in the account forever, it's up to her and you," Matt said.

"Make it stop," Rory groaned, rolling over and covering her head with a pillow to drown out the ringing of Jess' phone, "It's six in the morning. Anyone who knows us knows we're not up until at least eight."

"Probably a wrong number," Jess said, leaning over to grab his phone from the nightstand, pausing when he saw the name flashing on his screen. If Rory was grumpy in the mornings, his mother-in-law was a nightmare, yet it was her name that appeared on his phone, "Hello."

"Jess!" Lorelai said, her voice sounding too soft and husky for it to be just because it was early in the morning. Kissing Rory on the forehead, Jess climbed out of bed to avoid waking Rory back up as he told Lorelai to hold a moment.

"Lorelai, what's wrong?" Jess asked.

"He's gone," she said, her words breaking as she said each one, "He was fine at dinner on Friday. He was happy. He couldn't wait to hold the baby, but this morning…this morning he didn't wake up."

"Who, Lorelai? Who didn't wake up?" Jess asked, though at her mention of dinner, he already knew, but needed her to confirm it before he woke his wife with the worst news he could ever imagine her getting.

"My dad," Lorelai said, breaking down. Jess heard a slight clash before Luke came on the phone.

"Sorry, she dropped the phone," Luke said, "Jess?"

"I'm here. I just can't believe it," Jess said, "He's really gone?"

"Yeah. He went to bed last night and never woke up this morning. It hasn't been confirmed, but we're pretty sure he had another heart attack," Luke said.

"I, wow. We just saw him a few weeks ago. Rory told him she was sure the baby was going to be a boy," Jess said, his own tears beginning to fall, "He was so excited. He couldn't wait to have a great-grandchild. It's just not fair."

"No, you're right it's not," Luke said, "And it's not fair that you have probably the toughest job of any of us right now."

"I have to tell Rory," Jess said, "God, how do I do that? We were supposed to go for her twenty week ultrasound today. How do I tell her that he's gone? How do I tell her that one of the greatest influences on her life, one of her twin pillars is gone?"

"I don't know Jess. I really don't know," Luke said, "All I can say is be there for her. You know Rory, she likes facts. Just be honest and upfront. Let her know it's okay to cry and hold her when she does."

"Yeah. Thanks, Luke. Take care of Lorelai and tell her I'm sorry," Jess said, "I'll call you later once we know when we're heading up."

"I will. Take care, Jess," Luke said.

"Mmm, something smells good," Rory said when she came downstairs a couple hours later, giving Jess a kiss when she got to the kitchen, "You never came back to bed after the phone rang. Is everything okay?"

"Here, sit. I made you chocolate chip pancakes," Jess said, "And I sliced up some strawberries and bananas to go with them."

"We didn't have any bananas yesterday," Rory said, "You went to the store this morning?"

"Yeah, I needed to get the bananas and since you haven't been drinking it we were out of coffee," Jess said.

"You made me coffee, too. Jess, what's going on?" Rory asked, taking a small sip from the cup he handed her. It had been weeks since she had any do the heartburn she got every time she tried to drink it, but if Jess was offering it, he must feel like she needs it so she'd gladly suffer the heartburn.

"The phone call this morning," Jess began as Rory cut into her stack of pancakes, "It was Lorelai."

"My Mom? It was six o'clock in the morning. Was she drunk?" Rory asked, "She's never up that early."

"No, she wasn't drunk," Jess said.

"Well, is everything okay with Luke and Hunter. Hunter's not sick or anything is he?" Rory asked, "I can't think of any other reason she would be up so early."

"No, Ror. Hunter's fine. So is Luke. Um," Jess said, "It's uh. God this is hard."

"Just tell me what happened, Jess," Rory said, setting her fork down to wipe away the tears that had started to fall as Jess reached across the counter to take her hand in his.

"Your grandpa, Rory," Jess said, giving her hand a squeeze.

"What about him? Is he alright? He didn't have another heart attack or something, did he?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, Ror, he did," Jess said.

"But, he's going to be okay, right? They got him to the hospital and he's going to be okay," Rory said.

"No, he's not," Jess said, "I'm so sorry, Rory."

"No, no…"

"He's…"

"Don't even say it, no. He can't be."

"Rory."

"No! He's fine. He's going to have a great grandson named after him. He's going to love our little Richie as much as we do."

"I know, Ror, I know. He would have been so happy to have our son named after him," Jess said.

"Don't talk about him in the past tense," Rory said, getting up from the kitchen counter, "He's fine. He's had a heart attack before and he was fine."

"Ror," Jess said, taking her hand in his, laying his other hand on her cheek.

"No, just stop," Rory said, turning away from him to go back upstairs, "He's fine!"

An hour later after cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen Jess heard Rory coming down the stairs. She was dressed and had her purse and shoes in her hand.

"Rory?" he questioned.

"Are you ready? We have to be at the doctor's office in thirty minutes," Rory said.

"You still want to go to your appointment?" Jess asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I? We've been waiting for this from the beginning," Rory said, "We have to see our baby boy today. Our, Rich...our Richard. Richard Mariano."

"Okay. Let me just grab my jacket and we can go," he said.

"He still needs a middle name," Rory said, her head leaning against the window of the car as they drove to their appointment.

"Holden," Jess said.

"What?" she asked.

"Holden. Richard Holden Mariano," he told her, "We were doing inventory at the store the other day and I came across a few copies of Catcher in the Rye.

"Richard Holden Mariano," Rory said, running her hand across her bump as she felt a few small kicks inside, "I love it and I think he does, too."

"He's kicking?" Jess asked.

"Yeah. I wish you could feel it," Rory said.

"I will soon," Jess said, "He is part Gilmore, you know. He's stubborn. He'll kick for me when he's ready."

"I'm not stubborn," Rory said, "Mom, maybe, but not me. I'm an angel."

"Uh, sure. Try not to poke yourself while shining that halo," he said, opening her door for her when they pulled into the parking lot of the doctor's office.

"Are you insinuating that I have devil horns?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm not insinuating anything. I'm outright saying it," he said with a smile, pulling her into his arms for a kiss, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said, taking his offered hand as they walked into the building.

"Okay, are you ready?" Doctor Sanders asked after checking Rory over and getting the ultrasound set up.

"Very," Rory said.

"Here we go," she said, placing the wand on Rory's stomach, "Now, I believe you've said from the beginning that you were having a boy, right Jess?"

"Yes and Rory's recently admitted that she agrees with me, as has her mother," Jess told her.

"Well, it seems you were right all along. Take a look," Doctor Sanders said, turning the screen to face them once she had a clear picture of their artichoke sized little boy, "See right there."

"Our little boy," Jess said, taking hold of Rory's hand.

"Our Richie," Rory whispered, her fingers brushing the screen as her tears began to fall, "He'll never know his namesake, Jess."

"I know," Jess said, kissing her forehead and brushing away a few of her tears, "Can we have a minute, Doctor Sanders?"

"Of course. I'll get some pictures printed and be back in a few minutes," she said, saving the image on the screen so Rory could continue to look at it before putting the wand away.

"Thank you," Jess said, wiping Rory's stomach off and pulling her shirt back down before joining her on the chair, pulling her into his arms.

"He'll never know, Jess. Our son will never know the great man he was named for," Rory said, clinging to Jess' shirt as her tears fell and her body shook with sobs.

"We'll tell him all about him, Ror," Jess said, "It's not the same, I know, but Richie will know everything there is to know about his great-grandfather. He'll know how much he loved him and wanted to meet him."

"I miss him already," Rory said, "He's...he was one of my best friends, Jess. He got me. He believed in me."

"I know. Richard was a great man," Jess said.

"And he liked you," Rory said, "I've never seen him get along with a guy I was with as much as you. He didn't even get along with Logan as well as he got along with you. He loved you."

"I don't know about that. I think he just liked having someone to talk Hemingway with," Jess told her.

"That's not true. He loved you Jess," Rory said, her tears subsiding for the moment, "We have to go to Stars Hollow."

"Yeah. I told Luke this morning I would call once we had our plans set. I already talked to the guys so you just need to let your editor know," Jess said.

"We can stop on the way home. You were supposed to take me to work anyway," Rory said, "I'll just go in and tell him I have to go back to Connecticut for awhile."

"Okay. I'll get everything packed when we get back and then we'll head out," Jess said.

"Sounds good," Rory said, "Thank you."

"For what?" Jess asked.

"Dealing with my craziness. All the tears. For letting me ruin your shirt," Rory said, lifting her head a bit to see that the top of his shirt was soaked through from her tears.

"Always. I love you and all your craziness," Jess said, kissing her briefly when they heard a knock on the door, "Come in."

"Is everything okay in here?" Doctor Sanders asked.

"It will be," Jess said, giving Rory's hand a squeeze as he looked into her eyes to see if he could share their sad news with the doctor; continuing when she nodded, "Um, we got some bad news this morning. Rory's grandfather passed away."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Doctor Sanders said.

"And we decided a couple weeks ago that we would name the baby after him if it was a boy like we thought," Rory said, "Now they'll never know each other."

"What was your grandfather's name, if you don't mind my asking?" Doctor Sanders asked.

"Richard. Richard Gilmore," Rory said, placing her hand on her stomach, "And this one is Richie. Richard Holden Mariano."

"That's a good strong name," Doctor Sanders said, "I'm sure you're grandfather is very proud of you."

"Thank you," Rory said.

"We should get going," Jess said, "I'm sure you have other patients to see and we have a long drive ahead of us back to Connecticut."

"Yes, well, again, I'm very sorry for your loss," Doctor Sanders said, handing Jess the envelope with the sonogram pictures, "Take care of her Jess."

"I will," Jess said, shaking the doctor's hand before following Rory out of the room to the car.

After leaving the doctor's office Jess drove to The Inquirer so Rory could inform her editor of Richard's passing. He called Luke back while Rory was inside, telling him they would be there in a few hours. Rory also stopped in to see Kara and Lacey, letting them know what was going on. Both offered their condolences and asked that Rory let them know when services would be so they could come up for it. After packing up what he figured they would need for a few days, Jess and Rory began the longest trip they would ever take towards their old home of Stars Hollow, Connecticut.

AN: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please don't hate me, I'm sorry. I don't know how Amy did it when writing for A Year In The Life. I always planned this. From the moment I wrote Fifteen Years Gone and began writing That Part Always Worked I knew I was going to have Richard die while Rory was pregnant and it was the hardest thing I've ever written.