A/N: Okay, time to wrap this puppy up! Thank to all those who have left reviews on any or all chapters. Your final thoughts at the end of this last instalment would be much appreciated ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 21

"It wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, he just said he thought I was picking things up well for a new intern, but I'll take any compliment I can get from Mitchum Huntzberger," Rory explained as she and Jess walked back to her dorm. "Not because of who he is, you know, Logan's dad or whatever, but in his capacity as one of the higher-ups in newspapers and journalism. I mean, I know I mostly got the internship thanks to you-"

"Not true," Jess insisted as they came to a halt outside of the dorm room door. "I told you, there's no way a guy like Mitchum was going to take you on in that position unless you deserved it. Sure, he wanted to do me a favour by proxy, but still."

"Well, anyway." Rory sighed. "My point is, he seems kind of impressed with me, and that's very cool. Plus, since my grandparents found out about the internship, they seem to have gotten over the whole thing of me ruining the Gilmore place in society, and things were fine at dinner last night, which is also pretty great, because I hate it when we fight."

"Sounds all good to me," Jess agreed without pause.

He opened his mouth to say more, but the voices coming from inside the dorm made him stop and listen. He wished he hadn't been so intent on trying to figure out what he was hearing when it suddenly became horribly clear.

"Paris?" he checked, wincing already.

"And Doyle." Rory nodded her agreement. "Ugh, I really don't want to..." she said, gesturing towards the door before very determinedly backing away from him. "I hope it's their krav maga they're practising."

Jess smirked terribly. "Yeah, you can think that if it makes you feel better but-"

"Don't say it," she warned him, one finger raised in a stern way, though she couldn't seem to help but laugh all the same. "So, I guess we could go back into town for a while longer... or we could take a drive over to Stars Hollow?" she suggested hopefully. "I mean, Mom did tell me she was having dinner with Luke tonight, at the apartment."

"Yeah, he mentioned that to me also. It's why I was hoping to stay with you tonight."

"Right." Rory nodded. "Well, that means the house will be empty, so..."

"So, let's go," said Jess, without hesitation, putting his arm around Rory's shoulders as they headed out to the parking lot.

They talked books on the drive, which was hardly a new topic for them, but they always had something to say. There was what she was reading, what he was reading, what they thought about the new releases they heard were coming out, and movie versions recently created that were bound to ruin the books they were based on forever.

"You know, we never did get to the end of The Outsiders," Rory realised as she pulled up onto the driveway of the Crap Shack.

"Huh. I almost forgot about that. You have a copy here?"

"I think so." Rory nodded, moving to get out of the car as Jess did the same.

They met by the porch and went inside together, Rory heading straight for the cabinet of movies, while sending Jess towards the kitchen to see what snacks he could find. She rifled through two shelves before she came up with The Outsiders, smiling at the cover. Sad as the movie was in a lot of ways, she would always think of it fondly now. Viewing it with Jess in her dorm that night had sort of been something akin to a first date, even if they were only friends at the time.

"Were we ever just friends?" she asked herself, thinking back and knowing it would be a lie to say she ever really saw Jess that way.

She was attracted from the very first moment and she knew it too.

"What?" asked Jess as he returned to the room, two small bottles of soda in one hand, a box of Mallomars and a bag of chips in the other. "Rory?"

"It's nothing," she told him, realising she was staring and shaking her head. "I was just... I was thinking about how all this started. You know, you, me, The Outsiders," she said, sure she was blushing and taking the opportunity to turn away and make a big deal of putting the movie into the machine.

When she finally joined Jess on the couch, she found him smiling.

"You do know it started before that, right?" he checked. "At least, it did for me."

"What are you talking about?" she asked curiously.

"You and me," he told her easily. "Rory, you do know that pretty much from the second you walked into Logan's dorm, I was hooked."

Rory scoffed and rolled her eyes. "That's not true," she insisted. "You were so engrossed in Howl, you didn't even look up when I walked in."

"Shows what you know." Jess shook his head. "I looked. I noticed. It would've been impossible not to."

That made her blush all over again, but Rory didn't mind at all. She shifted closer to Jess, encouraged his arms around her and kissed him softly on the lips.

"You talk good talk, mister," she told him with a grin.

"It's not all talk," he assured her, as if she didn't know, holding her to him and kissing her back.

Rory didn't mind at all. She was perfectly okay with getting lost in the moment. After all, she had seen the movie many times before, and even Jess had managed to see the first half on his one and only viewing thus far. The surprise came when he was the one who eventually said they should slow down.

"I, uh... I need to ask you something," he said, looking awfully serious.

"Okay," she said warily, moving back to her part of the couch and fixing her hair a little. "Should I be worried?"

"No. No, you shouldn't be worried," he promised, clearing his throat before he tried to go on. "I, uh... well, you know I've been staying with Luke, and also, working in the diner."

"And at Walmart." Rory nodded. "Sure, I know."

"Right. So, Luke isn't charging me any rent, which means everything I make is getting saved. Two part-time jobs start to really add up when you play nice for tips, take the crappier shifts with the forklift, and you don't have a whole lot of outgoings."

"Well, that's good," said Rory, hoping this wasn't going where she thought it might be.

After all, when she first met Jess, he had no place to go and no direction for his life. He was horribly short on cash and staying with Joe while he got things figured out. Now, here he was, telling Rory he had got a decent amount of cash together. That could mean he was making plans, the kind that involved going back to New York or even somewhere else entirely. The word 'leaving' was flashing in Rory's brain and she didn't care for it one bit.

"And obviously, it would be better to have a place of my own, you know, not sleeping across the room from my uncle," Jess explained, pushing a shaky hand back through his hair. "It could be better for you too, for us, you know, next year. I mean, you don't have to live on campus, right?"

"No, I don't have to," Rory agreed, mind whirring at a mile a minute as he went on.

"So, I just thought, some place in New Haven. A small, cheap place, obviously, if they have those there, but it could be ours. You wouldn't have to pitch in all that much, just a little for bills, probably. I'd cover the rent and everything, at least until you get done with Yale and-"

"Jess," she cut in, unable to keep from doing so any longer. "Are you... are you asking me to move in with you?"

It definitely sounded like that was what he was saying, and since he was talking about when she was done with school, which was over a year from now, it seemed like a fairly permanent arrangement too. Still, Rory wanted to be certain. It was always better to be sure.

"I am," said Jess, nodding his head. "I'm asking if you wanna live with me, Rory, in New Haven. Trust me when I tell you I feel as weird about saying it as you probably do about hearing it. I mean, six months ago-"

"We didn't even know each other," she said for him. "I know. Kinda crazy."

"Kinda," he agreed without hesitation, "but it works, right? You, me."

"It works," she told him, nodding her head. "So, yes. I would love to live with you Jess."

She was back in his arms in an instant, the two of them horizontal on the couch and making fast work of each other's clothes, as the movie played on in the background, unnoticed.

"I have something to say."

Lorelai started laughing the moment she realised she and Luke had said the exact same thing at the exact same time, though she suspected some of her own laughter was born out of nerves as much as the coincidence. Luke just smiled and, gentleman that he was, said that she should go first.

"No, no," she insisted, waving away the gesture, no matter how kind. "You go, please."

Honestly, she needed a minute before she went ahead and gave him the news she got confirmed by the doctor this afternoon. Though Lorelai was mostly sure that Luke would be pleased to know they were having a baby, it was bound to be a surprise. They were usually so careful, but apparently, the one time they forgot the protection was all that it took. She could only hope that when he found out about it, he was as happy as she was, but first, she would let Luke speak.

"Okay," he said, clearing his throat, taking what was seemingly a very deep breath, and then beginning again. "So, I've been thinking a lot lately, about my life and about the people in it. I mean, you, and also Rory, you've been... well, basically, the family I was missing for such a long time. You know I think of Rory as... well, like a daughter. I know she's not, obviously, she has Christopher and everything, but that's just how I see her. And you. Lorelai, you know that I have loved you for so long, and I know I was an idiot for not telling you that sooner, but at least we're here now, right? We got here eventually.

"Then Jess shows up in my life, after all this time, and he's great, but it just hammers home to me how easy it is to lose people you care about and miss so much and, and I just don't want that to happen anymore, you know? I want to know that the people I love are permanent in my life. So, what I'm saying is... or what I'm trying to say and probably screwing it up, because hey, romantic speeches, not exactly my strong suit, but what I wanted to say is... I love you, Lorelai, and so, I was wondering... will you marry me?"

She hadn't noticed the ring box in his hands until it was open and pointed in her direction. Lorelai had been so lost in his eyes and his words and how perfect the whole thing was. Now she saw the diamond that went with the whole deal and she couldn't breathe for a few seconds.

"You are so wrong," she said eventually, voice so thick with emotion that the words hardly came out, her hands shooting up to cover her face a moment as she fought to get her bearings. "Oh my God, Luke, how can you even think romantic is not your strong suit after a speech like that?" she asked him, shaking her head. "And you don't even know yet."

She hadn't really meant to say that last part out loud, knowing she had said the wrong thing when his expression changed from hopeful to utterly confused. He was just waiting on a yes or no answer, instead she was giving him riddles. Lorelai felt horrible, but she just couldn't seem to find a way to be calm and rational enough to explain herself for a while.

"Lorelai, I don't..."

"I'm pregnant," she declared loudly, the first moment she was able, watching the shock register on Luke's face and ploughing on before her nerve went. "I thought maybe, so I took a test and it said yes, but you can't always trust those things and it seemed so crazy. So, I got a doctor's appointment and he checked and it turns out I am. Luke, I'm pregnant, we're having a baby."

It took a few seconds for it to sink in, but when it finally did, Lorelai was elated to see a grin spread across Luke's face, and then, he was on his knees beside her chair, hugging her, telling her how thrilled he was, fussing about how she was feeling and what he could do for her.

"I'm fine, I promise," she swore, her hand at his cheek. "I'm just... I wasn't expecting... I mean, you proposed. I kind of thought maybe you would after I told you, but you didn't even know."

"Right, the proposal," he said suddenly, apparently having forgotten his own question in light of her big news.

Immediately, he scrambled to retrieve the ring, previously abandoned on the table, pulling it from the box and moving to put it on her hand before stopping himself.

"You do want to marry me, right?" he checked, meeting her eyes.

"Oh, God, yes!" Lorelai declared, laughing and crying at the same time.

Luke was grinning widely as he pushed the ring onto the third finger of her left hand and admired it there a moment. Lorelai could see nothing through the veil of tears, but that was okay. She had never been so happy in her whole life.

Rory hadn't been all that surprised to get a message from her mom, very early in the morning, asking her and Jess if they wanted to come visit with her and Luke sometime soon. A quick reply told Lorelai that they were already at the house and an agreement was made that the four should all meet up there in an hour.

The news to be shared mostly came out within two feet of the front door, with the Gilmore girls bouncing around like crazy people, and the guys hanging back, happy to roll their eyes at the over-exuberance of the girls and then shake hands in congratulations when the announcements were made.

"We should toast all this stuff!" Lorelai declared then.

"Mom, it's nine in the morning on a Sunday," Rory reminded her.

"So?"

"Also, you're pregnant," Luke threw in.

"Okay, so, yeah, but still."

"Tell me to butt out if this isn't helpful," said Jess then, "but in this house, wouldn't it be appropriate to toast with coffee?"

Lorelai grinned widely. "I like this guy," she declared, letting out something akin to a battle cry regarding coffee then and leading the charge to the kitchen.

Not long after, the four were all stood around with various mismatched cups and mugs in their hands, ready to toast. Luke insisted Lorelai's coffee should be decaff, but since there was none in the house, she promised to let the caffeine go after this toast. Rory couldn't help thinking they were just saving a fight for later but said nothing for now.

"Okay then," said Lorelai, raising her cup. "To Rory and Jess moving in together."

"And to Mom and Luke getting engaged," Rory added with a smile.

"And to you guys having a kid," said Jess, figuring someone had to.

They all looked expectantly at Luke for a final toast and the poor guy faltered a little under pressure. His eyes scanned all three faces, before he eventually found the words.

"To family," he said definitely and with a smile that was echoed around the room.

They were all more than happy to drink to that.

The End

A/N2: As I said, final thoughts on this fic would be much appreciated, by way of reviewage. Also, if you didn't know already, I have something festive and a little bit different planned for December/Christmas this year, so keep your eyes peeled for that! :)