Epilogue Part One

"Jessie," Ryan says grabbing onto my leg.

"What buddy?" I ask as I pick one year old Ryan up off the ground and cradle him.

"No move," Ryan tells me sternly and then buries his face in my chest.

"I have to move Ry," I say to him as I sit down on the couch. "I'll come and visit you all the time, hey, we'll only be in New Haven and that's only thirty minutes away… 22.8 miles to be exact."

"No!" Ryan protests grabbing onto my shirt tightly.

"Ryan," I tell him as I rub up his back soothingly. "Don't you want me and your big sister Rory to move?"

"No move," Ryan repeats.

"But you'll have mommy and daddy," I try to sway him.

"Milo?" Ryan questions me.

"No, I'm sorry buddy," I tell him sadly. "Milo's coming with me."

"No!" Ryan says now crying. "Jessie, Milo, Ror, stay."

"Rory can you give me a hand?" I call out to her.

"What's going on?" Rory asks confused coming out of her old bedroom.

"Ryan won't let us move, will you buddy?" I explain.

"But Ryan don't you want us to bring you presents when we come and visit?" Rory tries to tempt him. "If we stay here then we won't be able to bring you presents."

"Presents," Ryan says immediately brightening up. "Coffee?" He asks all hopeful.

"You can't have coffee yet," I tell him. He sure was taking after Lorelai. "And maybe your mommy could get you a dog of your own."

He looked at me skeptically.

"Maybe we should just leave without him knowing," Rory suggests.

"Ssshhh, he can hear you," I tell Rory as I cover up Ryan's ears. "We can't just leave him."

"And he's not going to let you go Jess," Rory replies sadly. "You two have been attached at the hip this past year. If Lorelai was a single mother then he would call you dad."

"Who am I?" I ask Ryan after I take my hands off his ears.

He looks at me confused before answering, "Jessie?"

"See," I tell Rory. "He doesn't see me as his father, we just have to find the right thing to make him happy with us leaving."

"Well if he's anything like mom and me, then coffee's the only thing that's going to work," Rory explains. "And we all know that Luke and you won't let him have it."

"Ror," Ryan says pulling on her hair trying to get her attention before climbing off my lap and onto hers.

"What Ryan?" Rory asks him.

"Love you," Ryan tells her. "Coffee?"

"Nice one Ry," I congratulate him. "Butter her up first."

"Jess do not encourage him," Rory warns me.

"Fine, fine," I relent as I try to figure out a way for Ryan to let us go. As much as I loved living at home with Ryan it was time for Rory and me to live together. We rented a place close to Yale, a little one bedroom, but it would be big enough for us. I couldn't wait until we moved in, but with Ryan being as stubborn as he is, it might be a while. "How about we just tell him that we're going to Yale," I suggest. "We do that already, but instead of crashing in your dorm we'll have our own place. And it's not that far, we can come and visit Ryan a fair bit, but then as time goes on we gradually come less and less… but we'll still come down and see him every weekend though, I'll miss Ry," I tell Rory whilst playing with Ryan's thick light brown hair.

"That might actually work," Rory says as she leant over and kissed me. "It will be the same as now, but different for us, Ryan will never expect a thing, and like you said we'll visit him every weekend, we're already spending three to four days in New Haven anyway."

"Good it's settled," I say as I turn my attention to Ryan. "We're going to Yale today," I tell him, it's what we told him all the time and he now knew that would mean that we would be away for a couple of days, it should work out perfectly.

"Yale," Ryan says happily smiling up at us. "Dan."

"Dan?" I question him. "Do you want us to bring you another bulldog when we come home?" Rory and I had brought him a stuffed bulldog from Yale and called it Dan, Ryan loved it, he took it everywhere with him. Maybe we could get him another one and this time he could name it.

Ryan nodded his head enthusiastically.

"Go get Dan," Rory tells him as she puts him on the ground.

Ryan walks slowly towards my room… well his room. I gave it to him because he seemed to like the blue walls so much. So whenever I stayed over here I just slept with Rory in her room. It's exactly the same room as it was, just more kid friendly, small bed with rails, all that. Plus the rest of my stuff was being moved out so that I could take it with me to New Haven.

"Dan," Ryan announces proudly as he picks up the stuffed bulldog and hugs it tightly.

"Well done buddy," I tell him as I pick him up. We hear the front door open. "Mommy's home, let's go say hello."

I walk him into the kitchen.

"Hey my big boy," Lorelai says excitedly as she takes Ryan out of my arms. "You miss me?"

Ryan nodded his head excitedly.

"Yale," Ryan says enthusiastically.

"You guys going back today?" Lorelai questions.

"Yeah," I answer. "We're going to finish packing up here and get settled in this afternoon."

"How'd Ryan take the news?" Lorelai asks concerned.

"Not well," Rory answers. "So we just told him that we were going back to Yale, we'll come back and see him in a few days, he won't realize that we actually moved out."

"Probably for the best," Lorelai agrees. "I'm going to have to take him to the Inn with me now, he doesn't like to be away from us."

"Well we better get packing," I tell them.

"Are you going to come help us move in?" Rory asks her mom.

"If by helping you move in you actually mean watching you and Jess move in then yes," Lorelai replies. "Isn't that right Ryan, isn't that right?"

"Don't baby him," I warn Lorelai.

"Why not?" Lorelai replies. "He's my kid and someone has to do it, god forbid if Rory or you spoke to him like he wasn't an adult. Your children are going to be so emotionally scarred."

"No our children are going to be smart," I tell Lorelai.

"Our children?" Rory questions me in disbelief.

"Well I'm assuming that we're going to have children one day, aren't we?" I ask her confused.

"Well sure," Rory replies. "But I didn't realize that you were thinking about it."

"Well I am, are you?" I ask her suddenly unsure.

"I am too," Rory tells me and I lean down to kiss her.

"Okay, that's enough," Lorelai tells us. "You're making me sick, go pack your things and we'll drive down to New Haven with you."

"Finally," Rory says as she watches me bring the last box in.

"Says she who didn't lift a finger," I tell her completely out of breath.

"Hey, I was supervising with mom and Ryan," Rory defends.

"Yeah," Lorelai agrees. "But you did a good job Jess."

"Well time to unpack," I tell Rory. "And that does include you."

"No you can't," Lorelai says to me. "Seeing as you took so long to bring the boxes in it's time for dinner and seeing as today is Friday we're going to the grandparents."

"No way," I quickly protest.

"Wait it gets better," Lorelai tells me cunningly. "So I figured that today was a good as any day for you to tell the grandparents about your engagement."

"You didn't?" Rory questions nervously.

"I told them that you have big news," Lorelai explains. "And I might have accidentally let slip something about you being pregnant."

"But I'm not pregnant," Rory sighs frustrated.

"Well then they should take the news of your engagement fairly well then," Lorelai says standing up with Ryan in her arms. "Now come on we don't want to be late."

We followed Lorelai out of the apartment. She got in Luke's truck with Ryan, whilst Rory and I got in my Impala.

"Jess please tell me that I am dreaming," Rory pleads me.

"I don't think that you are," I reply nervously. "We're going to have to tell your grandparents tonight, at least Richard's on my side I just hope that he keeps Emily in check."

"That won't happen," Rory says knowingly and then stares out the window.

The rest of the drive was silent. Both Rory and I were expecting the worst as we pulled up in the driveway behind Lorelai.

"Are you ready?" I ask Rory as I stop the car.

"No," Rory says in horror. "Something bad is going to happen."

I got out of the car and went around to her side and helped her out.

"Nothing bad is going to happen," I reassure her as I grab her hand and lead her to the front door. "Nothing they say can ruin what we have, okay?"

"No, it's going to be bad," Rory replies.

"Well think of it like this," I explain to her. "At the end of this dinner we get to go home, to our own home, just the two of us… how does that sound?"

"Good, really good actually," Rory says her mood brightening up.

"Good," I say as I kiss her.

"Excuse me," Emily says from the door and I immediately pull away from Rory. "I don't appreciate fornicating outside my house."

"Of course," I apologize to Emily. "Do you maybe have a free bedroom then?" I ask her and her face falls. "We won't be long… fifteen minutes tops."

"Jess," Rory warns me. "Sorry Grandma please ignore Jess."

"Come inside," Emily says as she moves aside.

"Where's Marcia?" Lorelai asks as she follows Emily into the house.

"Cooking dinner," Emily retorts. "Where else would she be?"

"I don't know," Lorelai replies sarcastically. "Greeting your guests like she usually does."

"Lorelai I expect these kinds of rude remarks from Jess, not you," Emily says as we sit down. "Now what's this news?"

"Don't we get drinks?" Lorelai asks confused. "We could be dying of thirst over here and I'm sure that Ryan would like a juice box."

"Oh," Emily says looking down at Ryan. "You brought him."

"His name is Ryan," I tell her bitterly, she seemed to hate Ryan because of who his father was, she never did like Luke.

"I know that young man," Emily says condescendingly to me.

"Where's grandpa?" Rory asks quickly.

"Right here Rory," Richard says coming into the room. "Ah hello everyone, Jess, oh and Ryan… he's getting big Lorelai."

"Yeah he is dad," Lorelai replies happy that at least one of her parents knew her child's name.

"You don't have drinks?" Richard asks us confused. "Didn't you offer them any Emily?"

"Oh," Emily says in mock confusion. "I must have forgot, especially with this big news that Rory and Jess have."

"Oh yes," Richard says excitedly as he makes our drinks. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Emily replies. "They won't tell me… you better have not impregnated her Jess."

"Emily," Richard warns.

"No Emily nothing like that," I tell her. "Rory is definitely without child."

"Well that's something," Emily says. "So what's so important that you had to come here?"

"Ouch," I say in mock hurt, two could play at this game.

"Jess," Rory says warningly to me as she grabs my hand soothingly.

"Fine," I say as I take a deep breath. "I asked Rory to marry me," Well technically I asked her to marry me over a year ago, but they didn't need to know this, especially Emily. "And she said yes."

"You can't be serious Rory," Emily says to her in disgust. "Him of all people."

"I think it's great," Richard tells us. "Congratulations Jess and Rory."

"Thanks Richard," I tell him sincerely.

"Yeah thanks Grandpa," Rory says happily.

"Oh god you are serious," Emily suddenly realizes. "Rory have you even thought this through… if he's threatening you into agreeing to this than tell me, I can help you."

"I can't-" Rory begins but is cut off by Emily.

"It's okay," Emily tells her. "Just blink twice if he is forcing you into this."

"Umm, I'm going to get Ryan something to drink," Lorelai says standing up. "He doesn't need to hear this."

"Do not insult Rory like that," I tell Emily once Ryan was out of the room. "She is old enough to make her own decisions and if you even knew Rory then you would know that she never does anything without thinking it through and she would never do anything that she is uncomfortable with."

"I'm sure that-" Emily begins but I cut her off.

"No, let me talk," I tell her. "Haven't you ever heard the expression if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all… well I guess you have but for you to actually comply with that expression then you might as well be a mute because you sure as hell never have anything nice to say about anyone. Now I'm only saying this for your benefit so listen carefully, Rory and I are having a long engagement, very long, a couple of years at least. We are still going to attend Yale, but she isn't going to be taking your money anymore, we'll accept Richard's half but not yours. We will be having children sometime after college and after we get married you unfortunately won't be able to be anywhere near our kids, I will not subject them to you."

"As for you Richard," I continue calming down slightly. "We would like to meet you once a week, somewhere in Hartford, we'll come to you. You will be invited to our graduation, wedding, child's birth… all that. We love how you've accepted everything about our relationship and we have no reason not to keep on seeing you, but we cannot see Emily anymore, and unless she changes dramatically then we'll stay away. Now we are going to go, sorry Richard I hope that we haven't ruined your evening."

"No, of course not," Richard says standing up when we stood up.

"Good luck paying for Yale," Emily tells me.

"Oh don't you worry about that," I tell her. "I have it all covered." I had started getting checks for my third in Truncheon's profits and it wasn't overly much, I wasn't going to be a millionaire, but it would be enough for now. Truncheon will get more well-known soon and when I finish my book and get it published I should get a few dollars then. "Come on Rory," I say to her grabbing her hand and leading her towards the front door, I think she was in shock.

"I'll meet you outside," Lorelai tells us as she takes a sleeping Ryan out the front door.

"We'll be in touch Richard," I tell him as I hand him a Truncheon business card with my name on it, Rory thought that it was a good gift for my last birthday so she printed out 100 business cards for me to give out… this was the first that I had given out though.

"Thank you Jess for not cutting me out as well," Richard says sincerely. "And I'm sorry about Emily."

"No problem, I'll see you when I see you," I tell him as I walk out the front door with Rory.

"You alright?" Lorelai asks me. "I heard everything."

"Ryan?" I ask her concerned, had he heard me?

"He was asleep by then," Lorelai reassures me. "Do you want to come back to Stars Hollow?"

"No," I tell her. "I think it would be better if we just went home… it will be good to be alone for a little while."

"Rory looks a little pale," Lorelai notices. "Call me if anything goes wrong."

"Will do," I tell her as I walk Rory to her side of the car and place her in gently.

I back out of the car and drive back to New Haven. Rory was still in much the same condition. I reach out and grab her hand, she gives me a light squeeze back and I let out a sigh of relief. Rory was alright, well she was heavily in shock, but she just needed time for everything to sink in. We arrived home not long later and I help Rory out of the car. We got inside and I headed straight for the bedroom, none of our things were unpacked, but luckily Rory made the bed before we left.

I laid her down gently, took off her shoes and lay down next to her.

"Rory?" I ask her cautiously. "Are you alright? …Are you in there?"

Rory nodded her head solemnly.

"Can you piece together a sentence?" I ask her. "Maybe just a few words, huh?"

"Thank you," Rory says finally. "For standing up for me."

"Of course," I reply. "You're my fiancé and it's my job, you don't have to thank me for it."

"What about Yale?" Rory asks me concerned. "I don't want to take all your Truncheon money."

"Hey what's yours is mine," I reassure her. "And don't worry about it."

"But we'll need that money for rent and food," Rory says to me.

"I know," I tell her as I pull her over to me so that her head is resting on my chest. "How about I call up Richard, huh," I say mindlessly playing with her hair. "Get him to keep on paying the whole lot without Emily knowing, how about that?"

"Okay," Rory agrees. "But what about Grandma, I don't think that I can cut her out completely."

"Let's just play it by ear," I suggest. "See if she changes first, the ball is in her court. Let's just go to sleep and enjoy our first night on our own, no Lorelai, no Paris, just us."