One

Jess entered his apartment, arms full of grocery bags that he was about to drop. He had run to the store for the second time that week to restock on foods that were gentle on the stomach for his girlfriend who seemed to have a stomach bug that she just couldn't kick. All she requested was saltines, grape Jell-o, grape popsicles, and actual grapes. He didn't get the theme, but his Rory was sick and therefore she got what she wanted.

He stumbled over to the kitchen table and deposited the bags, starting to unpack them. His roommates were downstairs, working in the bookstore part of their publishing house. It was Saturday and he had pulled the "sick girlfriend" card and got out of working for the weekend, opting to risk getting sick. But, it had been a few weeks and he still hadn't caught whatever Rory had, neither had Matt or Chris, so he weighed his odds and decided to try to help Rory feel better.

He finished putting the groceries away as quietly as possible, assuming Rory was asleep in their bedroom. He was successful until immediately after putting the last item away. He closed the cabinet and turned to leave the kitchen, promptly stubbing his toe on the kitchen chair on his way to the living room.

"Shit!" he hissed loudly, grabbing his throbbing foot.

"Jess?" he heard Rory call from the bathroom.

He limped over to the closed bathroom door and knocked lightly.

"Rory? You okay?" he called.

He heard her sniff. That wasn't good. He hated it when she cried, and she'd been crying so much lately.

"Um… come in, I guess."

Jess furrowed his brow in confusion and concern before gingerly opening the door. He found Rory sitting on the floor, facing the toilet, and leaning against the bathtub.

"Rory, what's wrong?" he asked softly. Suddenly, his eyes fell on the small object in his girlfriend's hands. His stomach dropped. "What's that?" he asked hoarsely, despite knowing exactly what it was. He'd had to pick a few of those up for his mother over the years. He'd never known the results of those, but without even seeing this one, he had a feeling he knew its results.

He had a feeling the results of the current one in question were not what they might hope.

Rory sniffed again, tears streaming down her face. She looked up at Jess, breaking his heart in the process with the expression on her face. "So, uh…" She held up the pregnancy test. "I'm pregnant, apparently," she whispered.

Jess felt his knees go weak as the color drained from his face. He sat down next to Rory against the tub. He ran his hand through his hair, at a loss for words.

"Um…" his voice broke. "Wow," he whispered.

"Yep."

"That's…"

"Yeah."

Jess had to remind himself to breathe. To blink. To function. He just stared at those two little intersecting blue lines on the plastic stick in his girlfriend's hands.

"Rory, I don't know what to say here…"

"Me neither."

"But… how?"

Rory snorted. "Wow, our education system must be really bad if you don't know how this happens."

Jess rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean, we're always… careful."

"I know. But, protection doesn't always protect apparently. And between finals and the wedding and moving here, I forgot to refill my birth control when I ran out."

Jess sighed heavily. "And, you're sure?" he asked. He was pretty sure it was a dumb question, but he still had to ask it.

"This is the fourth test I've taken," she said, gesturing to the others sitting on the closed toilet lid. "All various forms and colors of two very bright lines. So, yeah, about as sure as I can be," she whispered.

Jess had no response other than to wrap his arms around Rory and hold her, protect her as much as he could. She leaned into him, burying her face in his chest and releasing all the pent-up tears from inside her. Jess stroked her back and held her tightly. He felt dizzy.

"What are we going to do?" Rory asked shakily after the tears had subsided some.

"I don't know," Jess replied hoarsely. "But we'll figure it out."

Rory sat up. "How?"

Jess shrugged. "We just will." He reached up and brushed her hair out of her face. "I know it's all really fresh, and you don't have to have an answer yet, but… how do you… feel?" he asked haltingly.

Rory's eyes welled up with fresh tears. "I don't know… how do you feel?" she whispered.

Jess smirked. "I asked you first."

Rory sighed. "Scared. Terrified…" she said quietly, avoiding eye contact.

Jess's tone turned serious as he gently stroked Rory's cheek with the back of his hand. "What else?"

Rory took a shaky breath. "Excited?" she whispered as she met his gaze. "Happy, I think."

Jess felt something deep inside him soften. He'd barely been able to tell if he felt anything when he'd asked Rory the question. But now, she put words to his thoughts, and he realized that for some crazy reason… this excited him.

"Me too," he whispered.

"Really?"

"Really," he said, barely able to believe it was true.

"But this so isn't the right time! I mean, I'm going to back to Yale in a few weeks! We won't be in the same place, I have to finish school, you have to be here to help run Truncheon, I don't know where I'm going to work after I graduate… we've been dating less than a year!"

"That's only if you count this time," he whispered. "Because if you ask me, we've just been dating off and on for like… five years," he said with a smile.

Rory sniffed and smiled softly through her tears. "Fair point, Mariano."

Jess reached out to squeeze Rory's hand. Whether it was to comfort her or strengthen himself, he didn't know, but the contact was needed by the both of them.

"I just… as crazy as it might sound, and as bad the timing is… as soon as I saw the first test turn positive… something in me changed. Is that crazy?" she asked softly.

Jess stared down at his bent knees. "No, I don't think so," he said hoarsely. He turned to look her in the eye. "Hey, remember what we talked about after Luke and Lorelai's wedding shower?"

Rory thought back to that night before nodding, smiling a little.

"I meant what I said. I'm in this, no matter what happens, forever. Okay, our timeline is gonna look a little different now. That doesn't change how I feel about you or this relationship, got it?"

Rory nodded. "Got it."

"Good." He leaned over and pulled her back to him. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you, too," she whispered back.

They sat there, holding each other, not knowing or caring how much time was passing.

"We're gonna have a baby," Rory whispered, sounding equal parts thrilled and deathly terrified.

Jess felt his stomach flip. "Yeah. We're gonna have a baby," he whispered back, feeling the terror start to set in past his previous numbness and thrill.

"Mom's gonna kill me," Rory cried softly.

"Kill you?" Jess asked indignantly. "No way, she and Luke are gonna take turns killing me."

Rory laughed sadly. "Either way, we're both totally dead."

Jess heard Matt and Chris come into the apartment and he went into action mode, stuffing down any feelings of fear or concern or thrill.

"Come on, I don't remember the last time we mopped this floor," he said, ushering Rory up from her seated position. He grabbed the pregnancy tests from the toilet lid and shoved them in his jeans pocket.

Rory grimaced. "You know I peed on all of those, right?"

Jess wrinkled his nose, holding his hand out in disgust. "Actually, I forgot about that part. I just didn't want the guys to find them."

"Just wash your hands now and your pants later," Rory laughed. "What time is it?"

"I don't know. Probably sometime in the evening considering the guys are up here," Jess replied, drying his hands after washing them thoroughly.

Rory sighed heavily. "You know, I don't even care what time it is. I'm going to bed."

Jess looked at her and saw how absolutely drained she appeared. It was then his own fatigue hit him full force. It felt like he'd aged about twenty years in the past hour. He nodded at Rory. "Me too."

They made their way from the bathroom to their bedroom, dismissing Matt and Chris's teasing and their requests for Jess and Rory to join them at a bar. Jess waved them off, telling them to have fun but not too much fun.

He and Rory prepared for bed in silence, both climbing under the sheets before the summer sun had had a chance to fully set. Jess closed the blinds, turned out the lights, and crawled into bed, wrapping Rory in his arms. They lay together in the quiet, both deep in thought.

"I'm scared," Rory whispered into the darkness.

"Me too," Jess whispered back.

Soon, he heard Rory's breath even out as she fell asleep. But Jess lay wide awake next to her.

He was going to be a dad.

Whose idea of a sick joke was that? He knew less than nothing about how to be a father. His own dad had left after the first diaper change only to magically reappear eighteen years later. That summer had been a bust. Turned out Jimmy didn't really want to make room for Jess, just wanted to make sure he was alive or whatever. Jess lived with Jimmy, Jimmy's girlfriend Sasha, and Sasha's daughter Lily for three months before getting on a bus back to New York. Jimmy handed Jess a wad of cash and told him to take care of himself, and that had been the extent of Jimmy's excursions in parenting Jess. They still talked on the phone very occasionally, only discussing surface-level topics before running out of things to say ten minutes later.

Then, there was his mother… she was a whole different story. The absentee parent who stayed, if that was even a thing.

Jess knew nothing about how to be a parent.

So who the hell decided he himself should become one?

He ran a hand over his face. He felt sick.

He had told Rory that they would figure it out, but how the hell were they going to be able to do this? She was right. In just a few weeks, they were going to be in separate cities in separate states. She had to finish school.

Oh, God, Yale. She had to graduate. There was no way he would be the reason she wasn't going to accomplish her dreams. He'd told her grandparents that.

Oh, God, her grandparents. Her mother. Luke.

Jess had managed to screw up his girlfriend's life and disappoint the one good parental figure he had in one fell swoop.

The nausea was starting to eat him alive as he tossed and turned, doing his best not to wake Rory who was sleeping peacefully next to him. He sat up in bed and swung his legs over the edge until his feet hit the floor, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head in his hands.

He'd learned early on how to suppress everything – thoughts, emotions, stresses. That's how he'd made it as far as he had. Only now, everything was begging to be let out. His fear, his joy, his... whatever else he was feeling that he didn't have the words for. He just didn't know how, nor did he want to. All he knew was that he had no idea how they were going to handle this, and he was freaking out.

The more he stewed on his and Rory's situation, how much their lives were going to be drastically changed by this, the sicker he felt, until suddenly he realized he needed to get to the bathroom now or else he'd be in trouble. He left the bedroom as quietly as possible before sprinting across the living room and into the bathroom, kneeling in front of the toilet just in time for his stomach to violently release its contents.

He flushed the toilet and sat back against the tub, right back where he was a few hours ago when he'd found Rory with the pregnancy test in her hand.

What the hell where they going to do?

"Jess?"

Jess jumped at the sound of Rory's voice as she materialized in the doorway, squinting at the bright light of the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" she asked, concern lacing her voice.

Jess nodded silently, standing up from the bathroom floor and ushering Rory back towards their bedroom.

"Jess, come on, talk to me," she whispered once they were back in the room with the door closed.

"Rory, really, I'm fine. Let's just go back to sleep," he muttered, climbing back into bed and sitting with his back against the pillows.

Rory sat down on the edge of the bed, her brow furrowed. "Jess…" she started.

"Rory, stop!" he snapped.

Rory shrunk back and winced at the tone of his voice.

Jess squeezed his eyes shut in regret almost immediately.

He sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I'm sorry."

Rory paused. "It's okay to be seriously freaked about this," she said in a soft voice.

Damn it. She was able to tear down all his walls with that voice.

Jess exhaled, letting the weight of everything hunch his shoulders over. "Yeah," he whispered.

"Like, this sucks," Rory said.

Jess chuckled, still staring at his knees.

"Kid probably won't, but the situation? Sucks!" Rory said, a smile starting to spread across her face.

Jess looked up at Rory and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand as Rory closed her eyes and sighed.

"This is huge," she whispered as she blinked her eyes open. "This is huge, and terrifying, and kind of crappy. But we'll be okay."

Jess nodded silently.

Rory crawled across the bed and curled up into Jess's side and he wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head.

"We have to tell Luke and Lorelai," he whispered.

Rory inhaled sharply. "Yeah. We do." She tilted her chin to look up at him. "I'll go to the doctor on Monday and have them confirm it, then…"

"We'll go to Stars Hollow next weekend," Jess finished for her.

"I'll take Mom."

Jess nodded. "And I'll take Luke."

"And then we'll run far, far away so as not to get killed dead."

Jess chuckled tiredly. Minutes later, he felt Rory drift off on his chest and he carefully slid down the pillow to lay them both down. He took a shaky breath and kissed Rory's forehead, wishing he could protect her from all the stress and change that was about to come their way. He wasn't sure how, but they'd make it through this. There wasn't any other choice.

He finally fell asleep, a small smile gracing his face.

He was going to be a dad.

A/N: Hey, hi, hello! It is so good to be back with another big project! I've been writing this for a while and wow I still have so much to go. So looking forward to sharing with all of you.

Chapters will (should) be posted Sundays and Wednesdays PST. If I fall behind in my editing, run into a technical glitch, have a strangely busy schedule, get his by an asteroid, yada yada, you'll have at least one chapter a week. Promise.

Anyway. Super glad to be back. Hope you enjoy!