A/N: Sorry, folks, exams in September, 65% of med school ranking, so time's short. I appreciate your patience so much. All the love.

Frankie Says

"So, tell me something," Rory asked as they started walking back to the inn, her hand nestled in his. "What was the plan if I hadn't come back to the diner tonight?"

"Find a boom box, stand outside the inn. You know, the classics."

"Basically stalking."

"It's only stalking if you're not into me. Ask any rom-com." He smirked and kissed her cheek.

"A boom box sounds harder to find than phone signal."

"And what, you were going to answer if I'd called?" Light teasing in his voice.

"Point taken," Rory smiled before pausing for a moment and looking at him. "Jess…? I should have talked to you."

"Took me a while too, so maybe it's not all on you." He squeezed her hand.

"Don't get in the way of a good self-flagellation."

"Sorry," another smirk. "You wanna split the week, I'll take Monday to Wednesday, you can have Thursday to Saturday and we'll alternate Sundays?"

"Sounds like a plan," she chuckled. "And speaking of plans…?" Rory stopped as they turned towards the Firefly. "Do you mind if we…?" She looked down at their hands. "I mean, it's not like anyone's going to be awake, other than Mom, and she's got to know, or that I want it to be a secret, but I'd rather tell Grandma alone…?"

"Hiding me, huh?"

"Just until tomorrow. Unless you don't want people to know, 'cause I didn't check, I just assumed…"

"You need to relax," Jess kissed her, cradling her face in his free hand.

"I'll try and find an excuse so you're not stuck having lunch with her or something."

"Thank you."

"Come on." Rory kissed him one more time before letting go of his hand with a disgruntled hrmpf. "Just in case someone came back downstairs?"

"Relax," he told her again.

"Ok, Frankie." She opened the door to the inn.

"Oh, my God, you're finally back! Do you know how worried I've…" Lorelai started rambling when she saw Rory, then stopped as soon as she noticed Jess behind her and clapped a hand to her mouth.

"It's going well," Rory smiled, looking over her shoulder at Jess.

"Got to say, this might be the first time I've seen her speechless."

"But… you… then… you…!" Lorelai mumbled, barely intelligible over her hand. "What happened?" She finally composed herself and dropped it again.

"Details later," Rory told her mother. "Can you get Liz first? Jess needs a key to their place."

"Yeah, I can call her room, give me…" She started, heading behind the desk before stopping. "Actually, had an idea, we have a room available, Lane and Zach barely put their bags down before Mrs. Kim called about the twins, you can have it, Jess, unless you're not looking for somewhere to stay and need a key for something else 'cause then I can call…?"

"You sure?"

"You have to promise to give feedback," Lorelai replied with a nod, holding out a key. "Breakfast's six thirty 'til nine thirty, come down whenever, Sookie's making waffles."

"Thought it was pancakes?" Rory raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"It's both now. I barely talked her out of having on omelet station. So?" She stretched out the key towards him and Jess took it.

"Thanks."

"Room seven, top of the stairs, turn left. Notebook and pen on the nightstand. I'm having a contest to see if anyone can out-nitpick Taylor."

"He's in the hundreds," Rory told him with a smile. "Go, I'll see you tomorrow," she encouraged, touching his arm briefly.

"Ok," he nodded. "Night."

"Night."

"Night, Jess," Lorelai called after him as he started up the stairs, then, as soon as he was at the top, she turned back to Rory. "So?"

"Is telling you I'm tired going to make a difference?" Light teasing in her voice.

"Then talk fast, you're a Gilmore."

"Ok, so I got to the diner…" She started recounting the evening's events.

"Wow," Lorelai let out the breath she'd been holding practically the entire time. "You were gone for less than an hour."

"Yeah."

"Wow," she repeated. "So…"

"I have covered everything that happened. Whatever you're about to ask, I don't have answers."

"Can you find answers?"

"I assume Jess and I will talk at some point this weekend again, yes."

"And if I give you a list of things I'd like to know?"

"I'm going to bed." Rory kissed her mother's cheek quickly before starting up the stairs. "Night, mom."

"Can I at least tell Luke?"

"Can I stop you?"

"There's a good chance he'll be asleep, I think you're probably good until the morning."

"It's fine, tell him," Rory told her.

"Rory?"

"Hm?" She asked, a couple of steps up already.

"I'm so happy for you!"

"Thank you."

"Did Lorelai come by here too to tell you I'm a hero?" Jess asked Rory the next morning, sitting at her table in the dining room.

"You are?"

"Oh, yeah. I've swooped in and saved the day when Lane and Zach had to go," he rolled his eyes. "The run through was practically a disaster with an empty room."

"I was getting really worried about the inn's future success, I've got to admit."

"Not as worried as she apparently was."

"She is very happy you're here," Rory told him.

"So she approves?"

"She's been trying to get me to call you the whole time. I was kind of expecting her to pull some kind of stunt to get you here."

"I'm going to have to rob a liquor store or something, I don't think I can deal with this."

"Can you hit the Soda Shoppe instead, half my paycheck's going on this red velvet fudge Taylor found?"

"Deal."

"Had I known there was the possibility of grand theft fudge, I'd have called you two weeks ago." Rory smiled.

"How are the twins?"

"Lane called, they're back to their normal selves this morning, so she's thinking it was some kind of bug, but still keeping them home for the weekend, just in case." She filled him in. "Any plans for today?"

"I've been claimed by Doula for book shopping."

"You've been downstairs for a minute!"

"No, I've been here for fifteen, trapped by my mother somewhere over there." He waved a hand towards reception.

"You poor thing."

"Could be worse, they could have been on their way to breakfast instead of back upstairs. Though I hear that omelet station your mother talked Sookie out of is good."

"Really good, actually. As are the pancakes."

"Noted," Jess nodded. "Have you thought about how you're telling Emily?"

"We're going shopping and then stopping for lunch, figured I'd tell her then. I'm hoping that since she took Not Lorelai's existence so well, you're not really going to be a problem."

"What happened to Paige?"

"Feels too much of a pun for a bookworm's kid. I'm keeping it on the reserve list though."

"Don't call her anything, say it's a social experiment."

"Also on the list," Rory laughed. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Too scared to make eye-contact with anyone."

"You know there's room service, right?"

"Yes, but then I wouldn't have gotten to see you," Jess pointed out. "And on that note." He tilted his head towards the door that Emily had just walked through, mid-conversation with Lorelai. "Have fun."

"You too." She waved, watching him as he left, swinging via the coffee machine to avoid the two women.

"Wow." Jess chuckled as she walked into the diner a while later, holding about five shopping bags in each hand.

"Don't start."

"Are there any baby clothes left?"

"In the entire state of Connecticut? No." She answered after pretending to mull it over for a second.

"You want some coffee?"

"I want a normal family. And coffee," Rory nodded, sitting at the table nearest the counter. "She also made me go with her to her realtor's office, which took all of three seconds to turn from looking for a house for her move back to 'isn't this one lovely, that room would be perfect for the baby'." She continued when he sat down and slid a cup of coffee towards her.

"When do you move in?"

"I stood my ground. Hope so, anyway. There's going to be a set of house keys on the doorstep on Monday, isn't there?"

"Did it at least have a nice living room?"

"Not bad, and the bedroom had a walk-in closet," Rory said with a small laugh. "Are you having a good day?"

"Got better a couple of minutes ago."

"You know, I'm under strict instructions not to carry these bags upstairs by myself, lest I wilt or something. Do you mind giving me a hand?"

"As you wish." Jess stood up and grabbed the bags, waiting for her. "Where do you want these?" He asked when they got to the apartment and Rory shrugged.

"Anywhere." She set her coffee down on the table. "Do you want something to drink? I can go get you a cup of decaf or something, I've got orange juice…?"

"I'm ok," he nodded, setting the bags down next to the small dresser. "You've changed things around."

"I really want to move the crib closer to my bed, but I'm pretty sure I'm never going to hear the end of it from Luke if I don't ask him to do it. I moved the footrest for the glider on my own and he's still complaining." She rambled, then took a breath. "I've been trying to keep busy," she admitted.

"Drinking's been working for me, though I suspect CPS would frown on it."

"More heads, more to love," Rory laughed.

"How'd it go with Emily?"

"Really good. She sounds happy. I don't think she'll grill you too much."

"Good." Jess nodded.

"I did figure that all three of us in the same room as everyone in town would be weird, so maybe we can wait until tomorrow? Is that ok?"

"Geez," he rolled his eyes, walking to her and giving her a quick kiss.

"Frankie, come on," she smiled. "I don't want you to actually think that I'm hiding it."

"I haven't told Liz yet, we're even. What, you think she'd keep her mouth shut?" He answered to her inquiring look.

"We're both wusses then?"

"We're not making more work for ourselves than we have to."

"I'll take that," Rory nodded, tangling her hands in his. "I'm worried someone's going to ask something, and I'm going to be left there, not knowing what to say, 'cause Mom was going to last night and…"

"Like?"

"Like what happens after…?" She looked down at her bump, lip pulled between her teeth. "Everything's barely normal now, it definitely won't be in two months' time."

"Better learn how to change a diaper then, huh?"

"Jess…"

"You better be unspeech-ed out, 'cause it's time for round two," he smirked. "Way I figure, I've got two choices here. I can either throw it all in or I can hedge my bets for a while, and the first one might go wrong, but the second's a lot more likely to." He stopped for a breath. "You just have to let me be here, that's it."

"That's a good speech. Not the Gettysburg address, but pretty good," Rory smiled before kissing him. "Get yourself a beard and funny hat and you might be up there as far as I'm concerned."

"Noted."

She rested her forehead against his, still smiling. "All in." The smile grew bigger, mouth an inch from his as she whispered it before kissing him again. "Ok."

"So, you've got a book I can borrow so I can figure out which end of the baby goes up?"

"Got a bunch, you can pick."

"Good." Jess nodded. "Come on, your coffee's getting cold. You can tell me about your new place."

"Don't even joke," she laughed, sitting down, a hand still holding his.