"My baby is having a baby!" Liz exclaimed hugging Jess shamelessly, after they'd just announced the news to Liz and Luke, causing Jess to cringe at the length of the hug.

"Congratulations," Luke said, unsure if he should hug Celeste or not, settling for a slightly awkward half-hug with a pat on her back. Celeste smiled at him with slight amusement at his crudeness. He congratulated Jess, almost wordlessly, rather in grunts of approval and a firm pat on his shoulder, feeling proud. Luke had already pretty much guessed why they'd invited him over to Liz's for 'some news' and he was glad he'd been right.

Liz continued over to Celeste, giving her a lengthy motherly hug. "I just knew you two had this lush orange aura around yourselves. It symbolizes fertility, you know!" Liz said, still holding onto Celeste.

"Hey, what did we miss?" Lorelai asked as she walked in with Doula, having helped Liz with picking her up from a friend's house by her house. She could see the joyous faces clearly noticing she'd missed something.

"Jess and Celeste are having a baby! Isn't it wonderful?" Liz exclaimed again.

"Really?" Doula cheered, excitedly.

"Really," Jess nodded, accepting Doula's hug with much less resistance.

"Oh, wow. Congrats, Jess," Lorelai replied, while remaining composed, not quite getting over the strangeness of the coupling itself.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Liz asked, her mind already thinking at all the little baby sweaters she could knit and whether there were any of Doulas's old things she still had left in the basement.

"We do. It's a girl," Celeste announced, smiling humbly, Jess' arm around her waist.

"It's pretty cool, you and Rory having kids so close together, and one of each by the four of you," Lorelai noted.

Celest could sense that Lorelai didn't like her much, though she wasn't sure why. Was it just the association to Logan? God, that felt like a lifetime ago. A very different life. Or was it something about her person? Though she'd only exchanged a few brief conversations with her during the entire time she'd known her. She couldn't help but to worry, how that would affect the way she got along with Luke, knowing how important Luke was to Jess, and how Lorelai might influence Luke's opinion of her.

"It is," Celeste agreed. They'd already formed a secret club of sorts, which no longer needed to be a secret. Rory was already giving her some of her early pregnancy clothes and some baby gear which she had double of, which was quite a lot thanks to so many parties wanting to smother them with gifts. Rory had told Logan already, so there was really no need to announce the news to anyone else.

"Can I help you decorate the nursery?" Doula asked eagerly.

"Doula, honey, I think this is something they want to do themselves, am I right?" Liz tried to calm Doula a little.

"We have some things figured out, but you can definitely come and help me add some finishing touches later," Celeste offered.

"Thank you! This is so great!" she replied.

"Oh, and you should definitely consider hiring a doula, like we did," Liz began, leading Celeste over to the couch to continue talking about her home birth experience. Jess glanced at Celeste apologetically, but even despite the topics being something Celeste was not too interested in, esoterics and new-age stuff really not being her thing, what she felt was still genuine love, and that was enjoyable to her despite the topics.

"So Jess," Luke began, being left alone with Jess in the kitchen. "I know it's none of my business but do you plan on making an honest woman out of her?" he asked, feeling like it was the appropriate thing to ask. He couldn't quite explain it himself, but he felt almost fatherly towards Jess, having not quite identified the feeling before this moment.

"We've talked about it," Jess said, taking a deep lungful of air. He'd worried questions like this were just around the corner. "But we agree that we're in a just as good place without it as we would be with it, so we're not in a hurry," he explained, looking over Celeste across the room, their eyes meeting. Her entire being radiated, and it was almost incredible how at peace she seemed, being bombarded with Liz's questions and advice.


Back in Brooklyn, they settled into their new rhythm - summer was over, Jess was back at work and Celeste continued her day-to-day. She still traded, kept up with the relevant news and podcasts, exercised, scribbled and read. She took some parenting classes, some with Rory, some with Jess, who still kept saying that surely they had some time and didn't need to take every class on her 4 or 5th month of pregnancy. But Celeste had decided to enjoy it to the fullest - indulging herself in discussions, breathing exercises, foot rubs, reading any piece of information she could get her hand on and just daydreaming while she spent her time by the Harmony Playground with her notebook.

Rory had invited her to go swimming with her, and while she was nowhere as round as Rory, she could see what she liked about it and was pretty sure she was going to keep it up herself. While Rory was still very much in her work mode, trying to get as much done before she gave birth, between the two the baby talk came effortlessly and they did spend a lot of time together.

And of course then there was the shopping. She hadn't really had a good reason to do it for a while, not counting things related to the house, and now she had the best reason. She was even slightly embarrassed as the boxes and tote bags filled up the nursery, getting slightly disapproving but forgiving glances from Jess.

Celeste had gone shopping with Rory that day, Rory at the very final stretch of her pregnancy, being too bored to just sit around her own apartment, feeling some rush of energy in the past few days and sensing like she didn't have all the things she would need.

"That marine romper looked so cute though," Celeste commented as they stepped through her front door, carrying her haul, having just been thinking back at some items they'd left at the store.

"I know, I know I have too many of those probably, but I figured I won't be going shopping for a while once this little guy comes out," Rory added, storking the side of her belly.

"Is he kicking a lot today?" Celeste asked. She couldn't wait to feel the kicks.

"Braxton-Hicks, I think, or maybe he's just kicking a weird spot," she replied, taking a deep breath. "Mind if I go grab something to drink?" Rory asked.

"Of course not, help yourself. I'm just going to go drop these off to the nursery," Celeste said, climbing up the stairs.

"Hey!" Jess greeted as he stepped through the door as well, the sight of Celeste walking upstairs in ther short tight dress being the first thing he saw. Not a bad view to come home to.

"Hey!" Celeste said, glancing down from the second story landing, adding, "Rory's in the kitchen."

"Hi Rory!" he waved briefly, taking one step towards the living room, seeing her slouched onto one of the armchairs they'd gotten for the kitchen, because Celeste tended to spend most of her time in the kitchen she loved so much, glancing at the garden between her tasks.

"Hi!" she replied with a wave, continuing to drink her apple juice as she was typing something into her phone.

"I'm just gonna go upstairs for a bit," he added, excusing himself. What was so nice about having Rory as a friend was that she never expected any formalness when visiting or when they visited them - it was just like having another family member around, just happy being where she was not needing to be entertained or small-talked.

"How was work?" Celeste asked as she saw Jess come up, while she was unpacking some of the items she'd purchased.

"Good, we signed this really cool feminist author. Very fresh point of view, and I think the readers would really love her," he replied, leaning against the nursery doorway. They could carry on a conversation on whatever topic, his mind parally taking another train of thought as he glanced over her tempering form.

"Great," she commented, folding away the totes she'd finished unpacking. She glanced at the cupboard, noticing one of the boxes they still hadn't unpacked from before they moved. She opened it up, noticing the "plot twist" onesie.

"Hey, Jess, look at this," she gestured to him to come closer. "I meant to give you this when I found out about the pregnancy. I bought it just after you'd say you'd try this with me," she said smilingly, the thought of that time bringing back good memories.

"Very cute," he smirked, appreciating the thought but not really caring so much about the onsie, placing his arms around her hips from the back, brushing his stubble and nose against her neck teasingly. "And did I mention you look incredible today," he added, appreciating the way she loved to show off her tiny bump in stretchy dresses that hid nothing.

She purred in reaction, his hot breath against her ear driving her crazy. "Jess, Rory's just downstairs," she scolded quietly, her eyes falling shut at the sensation of his hands on her body. There was no resistance left in her body no matter what her lips said.

"She won't mind if we're AWOL for a bit," he murmured, his lips finding their way to her neck. She turned, kissing him fiercely, her hands hastily feeling his arms and abs, untucking his shirt. The kissing continued, hardly any air left between them. His hands soon found their way up her short dress, just beginning to pull down her panties.

"Celeste?" Rory's voice approached, and their kiss broke reluctantly, leaving the two panting, trying to pull themself together with a giggle from her about almost being caught mid-action.

Jess growled quietly - they were just going to have to continue this later. Jess let out a deep sigh.

"Yeah?" Celeste called out, adjusting her panties back to place and stepped away from Jess to peek out to the hallway. Celeste's skin looked a little flushed her lips reddened - not really hiding the fact that she'd just been making out like a teenager.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think I'm going to need a ride to the hospital," Rory said apologeticaly, standing at the middle of the stairs, seeing Jess with an untucked dress shirt and similarly flushed cheeks appear to the doorway just behind her. "And I'm sorry about the mess in the kitchen, my water broke," she added.

"Oh, of course," Celeste said, being jolted out of their moment in an instant. "I'm sorry, I'll just go get my purse," she said apologetically. "Jess, can you drive?" she called, already heading downstairs.

"Uh-uh," he mumbled, still gathering himself.