disclaimer: i don't own Gilmore Girls or any of the characters.
quick note: thank you for checking out the first chapter! i wanted to challenge myself to write a love triangle between Jess, Logan, and Rory so i'm excited to explore that. hope you enjoy!
It had been a beautiful ceremony filled with whimsical décor, old friends, and delicious food which she had barely been able to enjoy. She wondered if her mother had felt the same consistent waves of nausea when pregnant with her or had the same aversion to anything with a color other than tan.
Her childhood bedroom looked drab in the morning light, sun creeping through the floral printed curtains onto the nail polish stained hardwood. How she had ever managed to have sex with somebody in a room this small was astonishing.
Was anybody else awake? She laid in silence hoping to hear a floorboard creek but was only welcomed with silence. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask her mother about but she knew that it would be welcome with the one that was on everybody's mind:
Who's the father?
The options were pretty slim considering she had slept with basically one person in the last three years besides the occasional anniversary sex with Pete- Paul- Ted? What's his name?
Either way, it wasn't him but the person who it was, was not the person that she wanted it to be.
Wanted was a really strong word. She didn't really want this pregnancy. As harsh as that sounds and as much as people would shame her for saying that she felt it from her head to her toes. She knew she had options but all of those sounded equally as terrible. She really just wished she could go back in time and keep her legs closed, throw a chastity belt on, maybe triple up on the birth control even though health class told her that wouldn't work.
"Knock, knock!" A voice slipped in through the crack that had appeared in the door. She hadn't even heard the knob turn or the hinges creak. Wow- she was way to self-centered to be a mom.
"Hey!" She pulled at her tunic to hide her growing stomach from those who didn't know, and slid over to reveal space in the bed for the mop headed man.
He sat, arms lazily flopped on his legs, awkward body language taking her back to Senior Year of high school. They were in a very weird and distant way related now.
By marriage, nothing more.
It was still weird to have swapped spit with her stepfather's nephew. It seemed frowned upon, very medieval European. It kind of made her nauseous or maybe that was the smell of leftovers creeping in from the kitchen?
"What's up?" She nudged him, trying to open up the conversation, curious if he would be sticking around or heading back to his life of creating content far away from the town that had never let him.
He huffed, his usual word search taking longer than it had in the past, "Just trying to sneak out of here without anyone noticing!"
"But you saw my light on, didn't you?" Rory smirked, proud of herself for being the first one awake since ever, "Have you ever seen Luke sleep this late in his life?"
Jess laughed, "I didn't know it was humanly possible! Do you think he's dead?"
Rory nodded, "It's the only explanation!"
"It was nice being around everyone. It was nice seeing and… being!" He was stalling.
"Jess?" She allowed her hand to fall to his leg, "Do you want to get some breakfast or something?"
"I guess I could go for an omelet!"
She winced at the thought of eggs, "Think Caesar will give me the family discount now that it's official?"
"I don't even get the family discount and I'm blood related!" He challenged.
She removed herself from the bed searching through a box on the floor for something to wear, "I have nothing to wear!" Correction, she had nothing to wear that fit her comfortably.
"What you have on is fine!" He stood, admiring her petite figure as she turned in the mirror.
Her eyes caught his and she smiled. Smiled at the boy who had been in a bad phase but managed to turn it into the best lifestyle. She was so looking forward to spending the rest of her life getting to see him on family holidays, at weddings and in a darker thought, funerals. He always made every mundane event entertaining and she could spend hours talking to him about the latest in literacy.
"Can I ask you something?" She grabbed a coat and lowered her voice to a whisper as they made their way through the rest of the house. He returned the sentiment with a nod, men of few words often relied on body language, "Do you want children someday?"
He was taken aback, "What do you mean?" He had never really thought about having children in the conventional sense. He kind of saw himself maybe acquiring a few kids down the line, sort of like stragglers, similar to how Luke had created such a large family but never being in a hospital birth room waiting on his own children to enter into the world.
"Like do you want children?" She repeated the question, thinking about her own response, "You know a little human that is half yours, looks a little bit look like you, has similar mannerisms as you?"
"I don't really see myself as a father figure… at least not to infants! Maybe to a rough and tumble high schooler. I'd take him in, let him live about my diner- this isn't where you were going with the question?" How did he always have such a good read on her?
Her smile was mesmerizing as she stared into him, "If I tell you something do you promise to just take it as what it is and also never talk about it again?"
"You're scaring me a little bit Gilmore!"
She was scaring herself, an unstoppable laugh bubbling up from her insides as she stated the same words she had the night prior, "I'm pregnant. I am having a baby!" Stars Hallow was so empty at this time in the morning that she was surprisingly not worried about blurting out the phrase in the middle of the sidewalk on her usual walk to Luke's, "Literal fetus growing inside of me right now! Half me and half another person just forming fingers and toes and a LIVER! Oh my god, a liver!"
"And kidneys! Two of them!" Jess chimed in, shocked internally but remaining calm for the fact that if he didn't, Rory might have a straight up mental breakdown at the rate she was going.
"You're so right! And I'm going to have to teach it to walk and talk and that coffee should always be black and if you think that you want eggs, you don't- you always want pancakes!" She stopped outside of the diner, noting that the early birds were already eating their rye toast and reading through the newspaper making the ends crinkled and the centers stained with bits of food and debris.
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Jess grabbed her arm and pulled her closer to him, his voice barely above a whisper. He had such a calming and protective presence despite being the cause of so much chaos.
"Someday I will. But today's not that day." She grabbed the door for him, "You first brother-nephew!"
"Is that the term we're going with?" He crinkled his nose in disgust, "That's horrible!"
"I'll work on it!" The two plopped at a table in the corner, the same old menu looking suddenly less appetizing. He noticed the green tint in her pale cheeks but he didn't want to throw his concern into her chaos.
"How about we just get it to go?"
"I'm fine, it's-," Her hand flew to her mouth and she closed her eyes sharply, "To go would be good!"
"I'll meet you outside!" He shut both the menus, sliding them back where they found them and ushering her out front away from the sharp smell of bacon and old lady perfume mixed with dark roast and sunny side up breakfast bakes.
She caught her breath, the fresh air a welcome response to her heightened sense of smell.
Being pregnant really sucked.