A/N: Thanks for the reviews, folks. Always pleases me to see where you think the story is going - sometimes you're right and sometimes you're wrong! ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 20

"And I have to admit, it was all a little overwhelming at first, but now I think I have a rhythm going and it's actually going pretty well," Rory enthused as she told her mom all about her exciting internship at the Stamford Eagle-Gazette.

"I am so thrilled for you, babe," said Lorelai from her end of the call. "Honestly, you so deserve this opportunity and I know you'll kick butt at it."

Those words gave Rory pause for thought. She was pretty sure her mom was right, that she did deserve this internship. At the same time, she did doubt it a couple of times. After all, Mitchum Huntzberger didn't exactly offer it to her because she was the best candidate for the position. It was all a big favour to make things up to Jess after the way Logan treated him.

"Rory?"

"Still here," he told her mom fast. "Sorry, I was just..."

"Worrying again that you shouldn't have this internship because of the way you got it?"

"Kind of," she admitted with a sigh. "I can't help it, Mom. I just keep thinking, if what happened with me and Logan and Jess had never happened at all, would I have got this chance?"

"Well, probably," Lorelai considered. "I mean, if Jess never showed up in town, there's a good chance you would've continued seeing Logan, and you would've gotten the internship because you were dating the boss' son, right?"

"Mom!" Rory gasped. "That's not helpful!"

When she heard laughter in her ear, she was somewhat relieved, knowing her mother was not really serious in what she said. Of course, Rory couldn't deny she might have a point anyway. There was every chance Rory could've got an internship from dating Logan, perhaps even more easily than she got this one by dating Jess instead, but she would like to think Mitchum Huntzberger was a little smarter than that. Surely, it had to be down to her skills as a reporter too. He had said as much and she didn't really have any reason to doubt him.

"Rory, come on," said her mom then. "You know as well as I do that the best people on the staff at the Yale Daily News are you and probably Paris. If a chance like this was going to come up, one of you was always going to get it, even if we're only talking writing skills and stuff."

"I guess." Rory sighed.

"And hey, you are so much easier to not strangle before the day is out than Paris ever is."

"Also, true."

"Well then, there you go," said Lorelai with a smile that Rory could just hear. "You're a natural, kid. So, you got a little unconventional help to get your foot in the door, that doesn't mean you're not worthy. You're already doing great, you just told me so, and Mitchum Huntzberger is gonna be so impressed, he's just gonna be sorry he'll never get to call you his daughter-in-law."

Rory laughed at how ridiculous that sounded, but a part of her would almost like to think it was true anyway. Not that she could imagine a world where she ever would have been so very serious about Logan. Sometimes, she wondered why she ever thought she wanted to be more than friends with him at all. Since she met Jess, it all seemed so ridiculous and foolish to pursue that kind of relationship with a guy like Logan.

"So, in other news," said Lorelai then, "which I was going to wait to share until you came home this weekend, but honestly, I can't hold it in any longer!"

"Oh, is it about Sookie and Jackson's baby?"

"It's not really about them," she admitted. "Although, it's kind of related to that whole situation. They're doing fine, by the way. Sookie, Jackson, little Martha. From what I've seen so far, they really shouldn't have had any worries about Davey getting jealous. He seems to love being a big brother."

"Well, that's great." Rory smiled. "I can't wait to come visit and see them all. I know I haven't always been the biggest fan of babies, but I just know any kid of Sookie and Jackson is going to be so cute, and Davey as a big brother? That must be adorable."

"Oh, it is," Lorelai confirmed. "Uh, do you ever feel like you missed out, kid? You know, never having a little brother or sister?"

Rory frowned at that question which seemed a little out of left-field. After all, she was twenty years old at this point, highly unlikely to be having a tantrum over being an only child. She had vague memories of wishing for a younger sibling when she was maybe ten or so, but that was half her life ago. Why bring it up now?

"Uh, I think I'm good," she assured her mom. "Why would you suddenly ask that? It's not as if..."

Rory trailed off as her brain calculated the facts and came up with only one possible explanation. Newborns. Siblings. News to share.

"Oh my God! Mom, are you...?"

"Maybe," said Lorelai, giggling like a teenager in her ear. "I don't know. Well, I kind of do know, because the test said yes, but you know, drug store tests aren't a hundred percent. I have to see a doctor to be super sure, but also, I ate an apple!"

"You... you ate an apple?" Rory checked, feeling so bemused by that part that she almost forgot to react to the rest.

"Don't you remember me telling you how I ate apples when I was pregnant with you? Because I did. I ate a lot of apples. Not so much before or after, just when I was pregnant. It was like my body knew I needed something healthy and apples were the only tasty way to do that, you know?"

"And you ate an apple?"

"I ate an apple."

"Oh my God, Mom, you're pregnant!"

"Seems that way," Lorelai agreed. "Kid, you have no idea how much I have been wanting to tell you this, and it's probably so wrong, because I didn't even tell Luke yet, and I absolutely should've done it in person too, but it's you, Rory. I had to tell you, I just had to."

Rory smiled and cried all at the same time on hearing that. "Oh, Mom, you sound so happy."

"Gotta admit, it doesn't suck," she assured her. "So long as you're not too freaked out. You're not freaked, are you?"

"I'm not freaked." Rory promised. "I mean, surprised, sure, and I guess it will be kind of weird, you know, having a newborn brother or sister when I'm twenty-one, but that's okay," she said definitely. "When was our family ever conventional anyway?"

"Uh, if we're counting our family as just you and me, pretty much never."

"Exactly. If you're happy, Mom, then I'm happy too," said Rory giddily, "but shouldn't you get the doctor type confirmation and then tell Luke, you know, sooner rather than later?"

"That's the plan, sweets. I have an appointment later this afternoon, and then, at the apartment tonight, when we have dinner, I tell Luke. God, I hope he's happy too."

"You know he will be, Mom," said Rory without pause. "You told me a while ago that you two talked about it and both said you wanted kids someday."

"Yeah, but someday has come a little faster than I thought it would. Might be a little fast for Luke too."

"The way Luke is about family, and about you, there's no way he'll be anything but thrilled."

"I hope so."

Rory wished she could be more reassuring for her mom, but she supposed true reassurance wasn't really going to happen until Luke told her he was happy. Rory genuinely couldn't imagine him saying anything else when he got the pregnancy news, and there was no doubting that he and Lorelai were going to make great parents to any son or daughter they had.

Sure, what Rory said was still true. It would be very strange to have a sibling so young she could be the child's mother herself, but she could deal with that. She would rather not think about the part where she and Jess would both be blood related to the child in question, though the thought came into her head a minute after she hung up from her call and made her face screw up for a few seconds.

"Not going to think about that," she told herself, shaking it off, since it was hardly relevant in any case.

She and Jess had bigger things to deal with than his future cousin and her future brother or sister being the same person. Up to this point, he still hadn't managed to patch things up with Logan, and each and every time Jess came to meet her on campus, she worried about the two of them running in to each other and a fight of some kind ensuring.

It didn't matter that Mitchum had tried to make peace with Jess, or that Rory and Logan had come to some understanding between them too. The fractured relationship between Jess and Logan seemed pretty irretrievable at this point, and though everybody assured her it wasn't really her fault, she had a feeling she would be experiencing the guilt of it for a good while yet.

Checking her watch, Rory frowned on realising that Jess should've been at her dorm at least ten minutes ago. With any other guy, maybe she would've just waved it away as no big deal. After all, it was just a few minutes, but Jess was oddly punctual most of the time, sometimes even a little early. Rory wondered if he got that trait from Luke, though she never did say as much.

Going out of her room into the common room, she headed straight to the outer door, opened it and peered out into the hall. Jess wasn't in sight in any direction. Since he still didn't have a cell yet, she couldn't call him. He was likely to be on his way to her rather than at the diner or anything. Rory closed the door again, considered for a moment, then went to grab her jacket and purse before heading out.

Jess usually came into her building from the same direction, so if she followed that route back, Rory was sure to run into him eventually. She was just about to turn the corner when she stopped on hearing a familiar voice. She didn't move, even when someone practically ran into her back from the sudden stop and complained loudly as they shoved their way around her. Rory was just too busy straining her ears to hear what was happening a few feet away in the opposite direction.

"Oh, no!" she said to herself, realising there were two familiar voices involved - one was definitely Jess, the other could only be Logan.

Hurrying towards the voices, she came upon a scene that was seemingly much more civilised than she had expected. That was a good thing, obviously, but she wasn't so sure she wanted to disturb them if progress was being made. Ducking back around the large potted fern at the corner, she peeked at the two guys talking and tried to hear as much of their conversation as possible.

"You know, I never meant for it to happen, man, but the fact is... the fact is, I love her, and nothing is going to change that."

"Yeah, well, I guess I can't blame you for that. She is one hell of a woman, I know that. Of course, I never thought I'd see the day when Jess Mariano fell in love."

"If I knew how much you liked her..."

"It wouldn't've made a damn difference, man, and I don't mean because you don't care. I know you do. I know this was as rough on you as it was on me for a while there. All I'm saying is, when you fall for someone like Rory Gilmore, there's no escape. You're hooked, you're lost, that's all there is to it."

"I'm still sorry about how it happened."

"Hey, it is what it is. I'll heal, I'll survive. It's what guys like us do, right?"

"Right."

"Look, I'm not gonna pretend I love what happened, and you know as well as I do, we're not gonna all hang out together and be best buds or anything, but the last thing I need is any more enemies."

"Yeah, me too."

From her hiding place, Rory saw Logan extend a hand and Jess take hold and shake on it. She actually felt herself getting a little emotional at the moment of reconciliation between old friends. She also realised maybe she shouldn't be caught watching it unfold. Silently, she turned and ran back to the dorm room, throwing off her jacket and sitting herself down on the couch with a magazine, long before Jess came to pick her up.

If he wondered what the huge grin on her face was all about when he finally got there, he never did ask, and Rory never told him. It didn't really seem worth it, so long as everybody was happy and friends again.

To Be Continued...