A/N: Short-ish chapter since real life is still massively kicking my butt. But hey, 2 weeks 'till Easter break. Thank you for the reviews.

Celebratory fears

A few days later, Rory picked up her phone, seeing Jess' number flash across the screen.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Are you doing anything after work?"

"Nope. Why?"

"No reason." He let out a soft chuckle, making her laugh as well.

"Sure." She drew out the word playfully.

"I'll pick you up."

"You're leaving work early?"

"Perks of being your own boss." He smirked at the other end of the phone. "Got to go now, see you later." He cut her off before she had a chance to ask anything else. Putting the phone back on the desk, Rory smiled, sipping from her cup of coffee.

A few hours later, Rory walked out of the building, saying goodbye to her coworker before she spotted Jess, leaning against their car.

"Hi." She wrapped her arm around his waist, kissing his cheek quickly. "Do you know what today is?"

"Thursday." He chuckled, kissing her again. "Go on, this is important." He let go of her and opened the car door, waiting for her to get inside before walking to the driver side and driving off.

"Jess, I'm serious, do you know what today is?"

"Unless I've missed something, I'm pretty sure it's still Thursday. What, is there some wedding countdown that I'm not aware of?"

"9 days, but that's not important."

"Ok, 5 days until Christmas then?" He guessed, trying to hide his smirk. "How was work?"

"Fine." Rory huffed, crossing her arms against her chest.

"Oh, chilly." He chuckled and she shook her head.

"This is important, Jess!"

"It's not our anniversary, is it? I can never remember these things."

"Forget it." She bit her lip, trying to calm herself down. After a few minutes of silence, Jess pulled the car in a parking space, looking over at her.

"We're here."

"That was close."

"Yes. Are you going to keep being mad at me or would you like to see where we are?"

Looking over at him, she weighed the options in her head. "I want to see where we are. But I am still mad at you."

"Doesn't work that way, I'm not doing this if you're mad." He grinned, making her glare at him.

"Jess, I'm tired, sick and pissed off. Now unless this is the greatest surprise in the world, it will not make up for you not knowing what today is."

Cupping her face in his hand, Jess leaned over, placing a quick kiss on her cheek. "Give me one minute. If you don't like it, we can go home and you can pout all night."

"I'm more angry than pouting." She smiled hesitantly, looking at him.

"My bad." He kissed her quickly, getting out of the car and walking to her side. Taking Rory's hand, he started heading towards a shop down the street, watching her expression as she started smiling, while still looking slightly apprehensive. Stopping in front of the window, he smiled, pointing with his head to the store door.

"Want to go in?"

"Jess, this is…" She grinned, hugging him.

"Yeah."

"But…it's…" She stopped mid-sentence, trying to hold back tears.

"Seriously? This is going to make you cry?" Jess teased, kissing her forehead.

"I'm pregnant and emotional, you jerk!"

"I know, why do you think we're standing in front of a baby shop?" He chuckled as she hugged him closer to her. "Figured you'd like to celebrate the first trimester being over with some sort of baby related purchase. Especially since the last few weeks have been mostly about the wedding."

"So you made me get mad at you for no reason?"

"It's fun." He laughed, kissing her cheek. "But really, between you mentioning this date about 20 billion times in the last few weeks and the big, red circle on the calendar in the kitchen, you thought I wasn't going to remember this?"

"I don't know, you have your stupid moments." Rory stuck out her tongue, laughing.

"Oh, snap." He smirked, looking at her before pointing to the door. "Go on, it's going to close at some point."

"Let's go." She grabbed his hand, dragging him through the front door.

"So, this is what a pastel colored nightmare looks like." Jess deadpanned as soon as they were inside, making her laugh.

"You'd dress this baby in black, navy and army green at all times, wouldn't you?"

"And red, if I must." He chuckled, wrapping his arm around her waist as Rory looked around her.

"Thank you. For doing this."

"Just remember we're still moving, so buying the entire store just means more shit to pack and move."

"I'm not worried, it's not like I'm going to do any of the work." Rory grinned, kissing his cheek. "Look how adorable this is." She lifted a dress, running her fingers over the ruffles.

"Sure. Because that's clearly gender neutral enough to work in case it's a boy."

"I thought you were rooting for a girl."

"I don't care." He shrugged. "But if the kid is a boy, you will cry your eyes out at some point in the next few months because the first thing you bought for our kid is totally wrong and you're going to be a terrible mother and ruin his life." He pointed out and Rory snickered, shrugging.

"Probably." She put the dress back on, tilting her head towards the toy section. "Want to head over there?"

"Sure."

Picking up a toy, Rory smiled, lifting it to show Jess. "Does this say 'I will be loved forever and ever'?"

"Not really. I think the talking toys are over there." He chuckled and she slapped his chest, putting the toy back down.

"So not what I meant."

"Really? Could have fooled me."

"This one!" She lifted a caterpillar, grinning. "Look how cute it is."

"It's a freaking caterpillar."

"It's the Very Hungry Caterpillar!"

"Uh-huh. Sure. Bad rhyming and retarded plots. What, picking up some sort of Seuss related crap was too hard?"

"Jess, this is for a tiny kid. You can't read Hemingway and Bukowski to her and hope she turns out ok."

"Children's books are boring and frankly, they insult a kid's intelligence. Trains and trees and freaking farm animals holding hands and living happily together. Sure. Green eggs and freaking ham."

"And reading a multi-chapter book to a child that has an attention span of 5 minutes is a better idea?"

"I don't care. It's better than boring them to sleep with that!" He pointed to the toy again, chuckling. "There is no way you'll get away with exclusively reading stupid kid's books to it."

"I don't want to exclusively read children's books. But fairy tales are important."

"We'll talk." He kissed her temple, looking at the toys again. "What about a teddy bear? They're classic."

"Only if I can find a cute one." Rory smiled, picking one up and holding it up in front of Jess. "Does this fit your standards?"

"It has a dress."

"I can't help it, dresses are so cute!" She laughed, kissing him. "Can I change my mind and definitely want a girl now, just so I can buy as many frilly outfits as possible?"

"Sure. My no-dating rules still stand." He smirked, cupping her face in his hand and running his thumb over her cheekbone.

"You're cute if you think I ever took you seriously."

"Try me." He smirked, kissing her shoulder quickly. "I'll walk around, you find something gender neutral."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Come find me if you need me." He nodded, kissing her shoulder again before leaving her alone. A few minutes later, Rory walked behind Jess, hugging him from behind and looking over his shoulder.

"It's cute." She smiled, seeing a light green baby onesie in his hand.

"It's small."

"Babies tend to be small." She smiled again, kissing his shoulder. "I'm done." She extended her hand, showing him a teddy bear. "It's cute, works for both and it's the kind of thing that can be kept forever."

"By you, because I doubt the kid will take a teddy with it to college."

"Girls tend to be sentimental."

"Fine, someone will have this forever. If it doesn't disintegrate by then."

"If it doesn't." Rory laughed, grabbing the onesie from him. "Can I get this as well?"

"You like it?"

"Ok, let me explain this to you: tiny baby outfit and pregnant woman. What does that tell you?"

"That we better get out before our house is overwhelmed with baby clothing?" He smirked, running his fingers through her hair.

"Oh, yeah, we have at least a couple of months before that happens."

"We have to move first."

"Don't remind me, I don't know when we'll have time for that as well."

"I'm sure we'll make some." He kissed her cheek again, pointing at the register. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

"For?"

"This. Bringing me here. Remembering."

"Anytime."

Much later, Rory walked out of the bedroom, finding Jess sitting on the couch, looking at the onesie. Sitting next to him, she pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

"Why are you still awake? It's almost 2 AM."

"Can't sleep."

"What's wrong?" She ran a hand through his hair, smiling softly.

"Nothing."

"Jess…"

"I'm scared." He admitted, not looking at her and she tilted her head, looking at him.

"What of?"

"This." He lifted the small piece of clothing, still staring back at it. "It's tiny."

"And again I point out, babies are tiny. They're not that scary."

"I'm just…I don't want to mess up its life. You were born to do this. You're good with kids and all that. They like you. I'm just…I'm scared." He let out a breath, looking at her and Rory smiled, leaning over and kissing his temple, while her hand still played in his hair.

"Jess, you..."

Cutting her off, he shook his head. "I don't want to mess it up. I don't know how to do this. I didn't have anyone that I can think of and use as an example. I'd read adult books to it and let it watch completely inappropriate movies and just fuck everything up."

"Jess, you're not going to fuck anything up." She whispered softly, picking up his hand and squeezing it tightly. "I'm sure being scared is normal, because if it isn't, then we're both in trouble. It's big and terrifying but you're amazing and you'll do just fine."

"I don't do baseball and football and shit like that. What if the kid ends up loving sports?"

"Then we'll ask Luke to explain the rules to us and take turns trying not to look too bored at its games. And the book thing? You can read whatever you want to it. As long as you realize that you're the one that's going to have to explain what a whorehouse is because I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole." Rory smiled when she saw a small smile appearing on his lips, before taking a deep breath. "You can choose to not believe me, but you will be a great dad to this kid."

"You have a lot of faith in me." He smirked, looking at her again.

"Yeah, well, I have to. It's part of whole marrying you thing." She cupped his face in her hand, her fingers playing slowly in his hair. "It's going to be ok, I promise."

"Yeah. I'm probably just over-thinking this. You must be rubbing off on me or something."

"It was bound to happen. Feel the need to write a pro/con list now?"

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves here, ok?" He chuckled, placing his arm on her shoulders and pulling her closer to him, kissing the top of her head. "Thanks."

"Jess, I'm here any time you need me. I love you, but you don't always have to be the strong one." She kissed him softly, smiling. "Now back to bed, mister, or you'll be too tired for dinner tomorrow and I know how heartbroken you'll be if you miss it."

"Oh, yeah, terribly."

The next evening, Emily, Lorelai, Rory, Luke and Jess were gathered in the elder Gilmore's living room, sitting on couches and chair, drinking quietly and waiting for Richard to arrive so that they could start dinner.

"How are you feeling, Rory?" Emily asked, looking at her granddaughter.

"Not great. I've decided all the books lied to me when they said I'm supposed to start feeling better now. Hopefully it'll get better in time for the wedding."

"If not, we can always have a puke bucket at the altar." Lorelai grinned.

"Lorelai!" Emily admonished her, looking angry and Lorelai's smile disappeared.

"Sorry, mom." Looking back at Rory, she winked. "We'll keep it hidden."

"Decorate it with that ridiculous flower arrangement." Jess smirked as well, making Rory and Emily glare disapprovingly at him.

"What's wrong with the flowers I picked and since when are you even entitled to an opinion?" Rory laughed, squeezing his hand.

"Nothing. They're gorgeous, really."

"Oh, shut up." She grinned again, looking at her mother. "How does 'I'm marrying him despite the fact that he can never keep his mouth shut when he's supposed to' sound for the vows?"

"Only if you add 'However, he does it so often when he's expected to make conversation that people have confused him for a mute in the past'." Lorelai laughed as well, drinking from her glass.

"Wait, you're writing your own vows?" Emily chimed in and Rory looked back at her.

"Yes."

"But it's tacky!"

"Grandma, this is important to us. Now I appreciate your opinion, but we've discussed this with Revered Skinner and he has no problem with it and I promise we will avoid all mentions of meatloaf or peanut butter or whatever it was that your friends' daughter said 10 years ago, so please respect the fact that this is our completely non-negotiable wish."

Snorting, Emily stood up, heading for the drinks cart. "Anyone need a refill?"

"Nice! You've left my mother speechless!" Lorelai leaned over to Rory, whispering so that only she could hear.

"I practiced it."

"Refills?" Emily's voice boomed again and Lorelai extended her arm, holding up her glass.

"Me, please!"

"Sorry I'm late everyone." Richard walked in the room, smiling. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing much." Rory smiled, getting up and hugging her grandfather. "How was work?"

"Good. Our China office needs to learn about time zones, though."

"Can we have dinner now? I'm starving!" Lorelai whined from her seat, taking her glass from her mother.

"Not yet." Emily announced, sitting down and Rory took her place next to Jess, everyone looking at Emily.

"What is it, mom?"

Sitting down next to his wife, Richard smiled, looking at his granddaughter and her fiancé. "We have a wedding present for you first."

"Oh, God, this won't end well." Lorelai sighed. "Is it another China set like the one you got me? Or some terrible painting?"

"No. We want to get you a house." Emily announced and the room went dead silent, everyone waiting for the younger couple's reactions.