A/N: Thank you for the reviews.

Countdown

Nine days to due date.

Rory walked downstairs to the diner and scanned the room, spotting her mother sitting at a table by the window. She sat down opposite her with a tired groan.

"How am I this tired at eight in the morning?"

"Baby growing is hard work," Lorelai commiserated. "But but but!" she started excitedly. "Single digits left now!"

"See, I got excited about that one last night around midnight, and then I remembered she's statistically likely to be late, because first babies are mean jerks like that, so I'm going to be pregnant forever. Kinda killed the whole thing," her voice sounded defeated.

"But maybe she'll be on time! Or early, wouldn't that be amazing?"

"And then I'll be tired because of the crying baby instead of the wriggling baby?"

"Ok, yeah, that's true, but they don't cry all the time!"

"I'll give you that," Rory conceded. "I just don't want to get excited and think about it too much, because then it's going to suck even more when I'm pregnant for another two weeks instead of nine days."

"I'll be excited for both of us then," Lorelai announced and picked up her coffee cup. "Do you want me to track down Luke?"

"Eh, he'll come by eventually," she dismissed it.

"How you doing, sugar?" Babette practically charged up to their table. "Any contractions yet?"

"Uh, no?" Rory answered, after a hesitant break.

"Better get on it, tell Luke to get you some pineapple!"

"Hm?" She asked again, but the woman was already gone. "What was that about?"

"Uh…" Lorelai hesitated, looking over her shoulder. "I think I should get Luke, I haven't had…"

"Mom?"

"There's a pool. On when the baby's going to be born," she replied "I tried to stop Kirk!"

"Of course Kirk is involved." Rory rolled her eyes.

"People are bored! We don't have a lot to do in this town, we have to grasp at every straw we can find."

"The way you say we makes me wonder how much money you threw in."

"None!" she clutched her heart in fake pain. "Kirk said I wasn't allowed to," she added to her daughter's suspicious look.

"So this attempt of yours to stop him…?"

"I have been more convincing in the past, in all honesty," she agreed.

"You disappoint me," Rory scolded her.

"You love me," she reminded her daughter with a grin.

"I need a ride to the doctor, if that counts as love?"

"I'll take it," Lorelai agreed. "You want me to tell Taylor and see if he can find some bizarre town law that will make Kirk stop?"

"Oh, let him," Rory shrugged. "How much money can it actually be?"

"Over two grand."

"Geez!"

"Bored and very invested in your baby."

"People should have put their money towards Netflix accounts or something."

Eight days to go.

"What do you think my chances of mastering telekinesis in the next couple of days are?" Rory asked as she opened the door to her place to let Jess in. "'Cause I need to go full Carrie and burn this place to the ground."

"I'll have a getaway car ready," he kissed her quickly. "The pool thing?"

"I can't leave the house without five people following me to see what I'm doing and if I look like I'm about to give birth," she sighed. "I like that you encourage my murderous rages," she softened again, smiling. "Hi. Sorry."

"What for?"

"Making you stand in the doorway so I could rant?" she tilted her head to the still open door behind him.

"I like that you're making up for it with more standing."

"Oh, right," she realized with a chuckle. "Come in. Sorry," she said again, plopping down on the couch. "Hope you're happy not leaving this place until Sunday, 'cause I am definitely not. Leaving. Or happy about it. No, wait, we need food. Luke will bring us food," Rory rambled. "I had such a nice weekend planned too, because I figured it might be our last weekend together, I know it's likely not and she's going to be late, but it might be, so I wanted to go to the bookshop and then have cake at Weston's, so I don't have to stand for more than five minutes without cake, it's very risky, you know, and then go by the bridge but now…?" She stopped the rant. "This town sucks."

Jess set his hand on her cheek gently, fingers playing with her hair. "Want to drive to Hartford?"

"Not really."

"Want to sit on this couch and see how much pizza two people can eat in a weekend?"

"Definitely," Rory smiled, motioning for him to come closer so she could kiss him. "Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Offering to drive the getaway car."

"I'll have us halfway across the country before they figure it out."

Four days to go.

"Good morning, child!" Lorelai walked into her daughter's apartment, holding a tray of food. "If you're not coming out to eat, food will magically arrive to you!"

"I am coming out to eat! We had dinner together last night!"

"You waited until the diner was closed before leaving."

"Fine," she conceded, eyeing the breakfast. "Did you bring any coffee?"

"No. Luke's bringing the coffee," she added to Rory's disappointed face. "What, you trust me to carry cups up those stairs?"

"I'm surprised that's still in one piece, actually," she agreed. They sat at the table and Rory picked a slice of bacon. "How is it?" she asked, chewing on it.

"Downstairs? Oh, you know."

"How worried do I have to be that Kirk will try to get a ladder up to me windows?"

"Reasonably concerned," Lorelai answered after thinking about it for a moment. Standing up to the noise of a foot tapping on the door, she held it open for her husband to walk in, carrying a second tray of food and two cups.

"Got you regular, but I can…"

"Regular is great, thank you," Rory interrupted before he could finish. "You didn't have to listen to her and bring half the breakfast menu up here."

"Eat the banana at least," the man told her, shaking his head, before heading back to the door.

"She's pretty whole now, I don't think there's a lot of good fruit can do her," Rory told him, picking up an empty plate and starting to stack it with bacon as soon as he was out of the room. "I like that he complains, while supplying us with food."

"Did we ever consider that just complaining about our eating habits makes him happy?" Lorelai shrugged. "Get any sleep?"

"Some. Not enough. As usual."

"You sure you don't want to come live with us now? I will happily keep you company in the middle of the night."

"And much as I appreciate the offer, I want to get as much work done for college as I can."

"Nerd."

"Very mature," she rolled her eyes. "But you brought me food, so I'll let it slide."

"Knew I was good for something." Lorelai picked a plate for herself. "Any plans for today?"

"Hide?"

"Need company?"

"You don't have to work?"

"I can take the day off to be with you. Michel's got a handle on things."

"We haven't done an all day movie marathon in a while."

"Say no more."

Three days to go.

"You ok?" Jess asked, the slightest edge of worry making its way into his voice.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're quiet."

"Tired, I guess," she replied with a small shrug, even though he couldn't see her. "I don't really like this thing where I can't leave my place without feeling like everyone's stalking me to see if I'm about to have a baby on the sidewalk or something, like it's somehow their business. It's all wearing me down. More than usual today, I think, it's just… making me feel off, too? I don't know what I'm feeling, but none of it is good," she admitted. "I'll get over it."

"You want me to take a couple of days off and drive over tomorrow?"

"No, don't worry about it. Seeing you would be nice, but I'll just end up taking my grump out on you. It's not worth it," she shook her head with a smile. "I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, I'll ask Mom if she wants to go do something around Hartford after we're done."

"Lorelai and shopping? That's gonna be a hard sell."

"Thought we could stop for coffee too, but decided against the idea, she'd never go for it."

"Better that way." Jess paused for a second. "If you change your mind…?"

"No, I'm pretty sure she won't go for coffee and shopping," Rory chuckled. "I'll call you."

"Ok."

A few hours later.

Rory stared at the clock on the nightstand, trying to think about anything other than the starting-to-feel-a-lot-like-pain thing that she had been trying very hard to ignore and pretend it was just tightening, or dehydration-induced-cramp, or anything but pain, and definitely anything but contraction pain. She picked up her phone as soon as it abated.

'Can I call?'

The phone rang in her hand less than a minute later.

"Hey," Jess sounded groggy.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"What's up?" He ignored her apology.

"Hurts," she admitted, biting her lip. A hand rested on her stomach.

There was a short pause at the other end and a shuffle. "I…" he paused again. "I was gonna ask if you're ok, and then figured that'd be stupid." Sounding a lot more awake.

"I have been better," Rory smiled. "I don't really know why I called you."

"So I can tell you to call Lorelai?"

"Probably."

"Call Lorelai."

"I don't think it's that urgent yet. It's probably nothing. Just some new way this whole pregnancy thing has found of trying to keep me awake," she tried to justify it, not sure if she was trying to convince him or herself more.

"Yeah, it'd still make me feel better."

"So I should do it for you?"

"Exactly."

"Ok. 'Cause you asked," another smile.

"Keep me posted."

"Yeah," she bit her lip. "Jess?"

"You'll be ok."