Ten

Saturday night had been an evening of emotions running high and comforts being offered, leading to a night of deep sleep wrapped in each other's arms. When they woke up on Sunday, the air seemed clearer, their shoulders lighter, and their spirits higher.

Jess and Rory sat in a comfortable silence as they ate breakfast and read the paper, that tiny pair of shoes on the table between them. Every time either of them looked at them, they couldn't help but smile. Despite the previous evening's dramatic nature, they had both woken up with a newfound sense of peace about everything going on in their lives.

There were still stresses of course – Jess still needed to figure out how to broach the idea of moving eventually and about him working a second job, and Rory was beginning to struggle with balancing the paper, school, some semblance of a social life, and doing what reading and preparation she could for the baby. But somehow, they felt like they'd work it all out in its time.

Eventually, Jess looked up from his paper and found Rory deep in thought, her brow knit together in concentration as she stared into space. He loved that look – it's the one she got when she was reading and analyzing and processing. It meant the gears were turning in her marvelous brain, and it brought a smile to his face whenever he saw it.

Jess nudged Rory's knee with his own. "What are you thinking about over there?"

Rory looked up at him, her face still screwed up in focus.

"I'm trying to figure out what did they put in water in Stars Hollow to have four babies showing up all the sudden."

Jess looked at her with wide eyes.

"Four?" he asked, assuming yet another Star's Hollow resident was suddenly pregnant, too.

"Oh, yeah, Lane's having twins," she said with a grin.

Jess let out a shocked laugh. "Oh, poor Lane and Zack."

Rory smacked his arm. "Hey! Be nice!"

"What? How did you feel in those two seconds when you thought we were having twins?" he asked.

Rory relented slightly. "Fine, I felt like I was gonna pass out until Sofia said it was just one."

"Exactly," Jess said, taking a bite of his food.

"But that's why you should be nice! They're kind of freaking out about it. Mrs. Kim doesn't even know Lane's pregnant yet."

Jess groaned in sympathy. "Oh, poor Zack," he laughed.

This time, Rory let a small, amused smile show. "That's what I said, too."

They both finished their breakfast, turned on some music, and started on the dishes – Jess washed while Rory dried. This time, it was Jess who was deep in thought. When Rory noticed, she bumped his hip with hers.

"What'cha thinking about over there?" she asked, repeating his words from earlier.

He set down the plate he had been washing and turned to face her.

"Can I make up for being an idiot and forgetting our date last night?"

Rory rolled her eyes slightly. "You weren't an idiot, you were in freaking out, with good reason. And yes, of course you can make it up to me, what'd you have in mind?" she asked with an excited gleam in her eye.

"Date. Tonight. The details of which are a surprise."

Rory temporarily looked frustrated at the lack of information before a wide grin spread across her face and she flung her arms around his neck, pressing her mouth to his.

He laughed into the kiss. "So I take it that's a yes?"

"Yes. Though, you need to at least give me a dress code. A girl's got to know how to dress for every occasion," she said seriously.

"Well, nothing would be my first choice," he whispered roughly, sending butterflies fluttering in her stomach and chills down her spine.

"I'm not sure that's entirely appropriate for public, but I think we can arrange something," Rory replied in a similar whisper.

Jess closed the space between them and kissed her, and Rory's hands came up into his hair and formed fists at the back of his head. Jess ran his hands down her sides and up her back under her shirt, not caring about the suds that left damp spots on her clothes or skin.

"Roommates aren't home," Rory whispered breathlessly before kissing him again.

"Thank God for that…" Jess breathed.

The sink full of dishes was forgotten as they stumbled their way to their bedroom, laughing as they tripped over the rug and clumsily shutting the door behind them.

As the day went on, Rory grew more and more excited for their mystery date. It really had been forever since they'd had time for a normal night out and Rory thanked the powers that be for a light load of homework and paper assignments that weekend.

When evening arrived, Rory donned the jeans and sweater Jess had promised her would be entirely appropriate for the events of their evening. This particular pair of jeans ended up being a struggle, however, and Rory had to quickly find a solution when she could no longer make the button meet the buttonhole. With a pout, she peeled them off and put on her slightly-less-flattering but looser pair of jeans, and even those had become especially snug at the waist. She loved seeing the evidence of her baby round out her stomach, and she was sure Lorelai would jump with glee at the thought of a prospective shopping trip for maternity clothes, but Rory felt slightly dismayed at how suddenly and rapidly her body was changing.

She finally zipped her jeans and fell back on the bed in a huff, blowing her hair out of her face and breathing heavily after the physical exertion it took to just put on a pair of pants. Jess then entered the room and found her panting on the bed and obviously repressed a snort.

"Did I miss some great battle against a hairbrush?" he asked with a smirk.

"I need new pants," Rory replied with a pout, not wanting to ever sit up again.

"Ah, so it was a battle against pants," Jess said as he lay on the bed next to Rory, propping himself up on his elbow.

"It's not funny! These are my biggest pants and they barely fit!"

Jess reached out and gently placed his hand on her tummy, stroking it lightly with his fingertips. The gentle affection, just a little "hey there" to the bump, brought a blissful smile to Rory's face. All day, really ever since their discussion the previous night, Jess had been more comfortable expressing his love for the baby. It was as if he'd felt awkward and out of place before, and though it had been less than a day, he'd now seemed confident in their new family dynamic. Seemed settled for the first time in weeks.

"Then we'll get you some new pants, no big. Anything for my girls," Jess said.

When he realized his words, his eyes went wide and his face and ears went pink.

Rory couldn't even try to stop the grin that spread across her face.

"You think it's a girl?" she asked quietly.

Jess shyly returned her smile and shrugged.

"I guess I just assumed it would be another Gilmore girl," he said. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know, I keep going back and forth. I'm supposed to have some sort of mother's intuition, but this kid isn't telling me anything."

Jess laughed. "That's not a good sign for our future."

Rory joined him in the laughter. "Already keeping secrets from Mom and Dad?" she asked her bump. "Shame on you."

"What do you want it to be?" Jess asked with a soft smile.

"I think I want a girl, but that's mostly because I know girls. I understand girls. Boys are a mystery."

"Hey, as a boy myself, I know a little," Jess said with a smirk. "We wouldn't be entirely in the dark if we had a boy."

"Fair enough" Rory chuckled. She reached out and played with hair that had curled around his ear. "What about you? What do you want it to be?"

"I know this sounds like a cop out, but it isn't. Seriously, as long as it's healthy, I'm happy with either."

"And if it isn't healthy?" Rory asked, turning serious.

Jess's breath caught briefly as he met her eyes.

"If something happens, we'll handle it. You know I love it no matter what."

Rory sighed heavily. "I hope everything's okay in there," she whispered, her eyes flitting down.

Jess drew Rory's chin up and gently pressed a kiss to her mouth, her cheek, her nose, her forehead. "Everything will be okay," he whispered against her hair. He then leaned down, pulled up Rory's sweater slightly, and pressed a kiss to her stomach. "You hear that? Both you and your mom are gonna be fine," he mumbled into her skin.

Blame the hormones, but Rory couldn't help the tears that sprang to her eyes. She quickly wiped them away as they blurred her vision, wanting desperately to imprint the image of Jess talking to their unborn baby in her brain forever.

When Jess rejoined Rory at the head of the bed, he gently stroked her face and gazed into her shiny eyes with a soft smile, simply relishing their moment of peace and offering any encouragement and comfort he could to try and ease her fears.

"What do you say, ready for our date?" he asked in a hushed tone.

Rory grinned and bounced to her feet, grabbing her shoes and jacket and practically running to the front door. Jess laughed and followed her out the door.

After a fifteen-minute drive, during which Rory did her best to study her surroundings to try and figure out where they were going, they pulled up in front of a small café. Rory turned to Jess and furrowed her brow.

"As much as I love coffee, I have to say, I expected more, Mariano," she teased.

"Just wait until we get inside," Jess said, climbing out of the car and coming around to open Rory's car door.

Jess's words made sense as they walked into the café.

Rory's jaw dropped as she found herself in a combo bookstore, café, and ice cream shop. It was as if a dream of hers had materialized in front of her eyes. The shelves held a myriad of used and new books, and next to the floor-to-ceiling windows there were big comfy couches to read on. The mixture of books and coffee and waffle cones smelled heavenly. Rory turned to Jess with a wide grin on her face.

"You like it?" he asked with a smirk.

"Jess, this place is amazing! How did you find it?"

"I was looking for places for Truncheon to distribute to and stumbled on it. And I know it probably won't compare to a Gilmore coffee palate, but I tried their decaf, and it wasn't half bad."

Rory smiled and kissed Jess gleefully before skipping towards the counter, dragging Jess along with her to order their coffee before losing themselves in the bookshelves for the next two hours. Every few minutes, one of them would find a book or passage or sentence to share with the other person and soon, they found themselves spending much too much money on new additions to their growing collective library. They quickly bought their ice cream – in cones – and then settled down on a couch in the corner with their purchases, eating their ice cream and trading sticky kisses and fully embracing the joy of normalcy that settled over them.

That night as they lay in bed, each reading a book they'd picked up on their outing, Rory contemplated bringing up the important life event occurring the following week. She knew she'd probably get nowhere, but it was important to her so she decided to broach the conversation.

"Hey," she said as she turned her head to face Jess.

It took Jess a second to turn his attention to her as he finished a sentence in her book, but he smiled softly once his eyes fell on her face.

"Hey."

"So, about next Thursday…" she said carefully.

Jess's featured turned hard and he went back to his book.

"No."

Rory pouted. "Come on!"

"Rory, stop, I said no."

"But it's your birthday! We should do something!"

"You know I don't like to celebrate. Why is it so important to you?" he asked, turning to face her again.

"Because it's your birthday! It's the day the world was blessed with the presence of the Jess Mariano! It should be celebrated!" Rory insisted.

Jess chuckled in amusement at her wording. "It's just another day, Rory."

"Why do you hate your birthday so much?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbow to face him better.

Jess sighed heavily as he deliberated on whether or not to tell her, whether or not he wanted to bring up this particular part of his past.

"I can take whatever it is, Jess. Please?"

"I've never celebrated my birthday," he said quietly.

Rory blinked in surprise. "Never?"

"Maybe once when I was like three or four?"

"So, Liz never…"

Jess shook his head. "The years she remembered she'd tell me happy birthday and promise to get me a present next year." He shrugged. "She never did."

Rory swallowed hard, was at a loss for words.

"I guess I kind of celebrated at school a couple times in elementary school, when I was in one place long enough for the teacher to have it on the calendar. But no, never really celebrated it. So now… I don't know. It feels weird to."

Rory blinked away the tears that flooded her eyes. She was thankful, oh so thankful, that Jess was continuing to open up with her. But it hurt every time she heard how much his own mother hurt him as a child. She hated that he'd ever had to hurt at all, and hated it even more that it came from the person who was supposed to love him the most.

"How about this," she whispered, making him turn his head to look at her. His thumb caught a stray tear and he frowned, but before he could object, Rory continued. "That weekend, we go away. Just the two of us, wherever you want. It doesn't have to be 'for your birthday', just… to hang out."

Jess smirked. "'Hang out'?"

"Isn't that what the kids are calling it these days?" she asked with a smile.

Jess sighed. "Can I think about it?"

Rory snuggled down under the covers, nuzzling her nose into Jess's neck. "Yes. But I'm only saying that because it's not a no." She felt the vibration of Jess's laughter and it brought a smile to her own face. "Thank you for considering it," she whispered before placing a kiss on his neck.

Jess put away his book and turned off the lamp on the bedside table before settling down in the bed and wrapping his arms around Rory. As much as he hated his own birthday, he loved Rory for trying to make it a day that he enjoyed. A day for him to feel special and loved and cared for. A day it had never been before.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair.

She only replied with even breaths, already asleep with her entire body curled into Jess's frame. He smiled and kissed her head before his breath evened out with hers and he fell into a peaceful slumber.

It didn't take much thought. Rory was so excited for his birthday, and honestly, after all the stress they'd been through, a weekend away sounded lovely. So, with quietly gifted birthday money from Luke, they booked a weekend in New York.

The weekend before the trip, Rory and her mother went on the shopping spree of a lifetime. Rory had officially grown out of all of her bottoms and suddenly her tops were stretched across the chest. There was no other choice than to buy a new wardrobe. Not that she was complaining, of course. Especially when Lorelai insisted on helping her pay for most of it.

They went from store to store, hunting down the cutest and most stylish maternity clothes they could find. In the end, a lot of the clothes they had found were still too big for Rory, but Lorelai insisted that she'd need them before she knew it and therefore they must buy them. Rory was just glad to have found a pair of jeans with a strange, elastic waist that would stop digging into her stomach, and finding clothes that fit and were flattering helped her feel a little better about ever-changing form.

As they slowly meandered through the mall, hands full of bags of successes, they laughed and talked and window shopped for everything and nothing. When they stumbled upon a lingerie store, Rory stopped and stared with a slightly fearful look on her face. When Lorelai noticed her daughter's expression, she resisted a laugh.

"Uh, honey. Those are bras. I know you've seen them before, you don't have to look so scared."

Rory shot an annoyed look at Lorelai.

"I just realized, none of my…" she paused, looking uncomfortable. "None of my fancy underwear fit anymore," she said quietly, hoping Lorelai got the gist of what she was saying.

"Oh!" Lorelai said. "And you want new ones?" Lorelai asked.

"I mean, kind of. Normally it doesn't matter…"

"Ah, stop, mommy ears are sensitive," Lorelai said, squeezing her eyes shut and putting her fingers in her ears.

Rory rolled her eyes and pulled her mother's hand away from her head. "It's just, Jess and I are going away next weekend."

"Right, for the non-birthday birthday trip." Lorelai paused, realization dawning on her face. "Oh, you want a little surprise for Jess," she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Rory looked mildly scandalized. "How is okay when you allude to my sex life and not when I do?" she asked with a laugh.

"Because, then I get to choose when it happens."

Rory playfully scoffed at her mother.

"Come on, let's go get you some pretty undies and a nice bra to show off those great pregnancy boobs you've got going on," Lorelai said, gesturing to Rory's bust before walking into the store with determination.

"Mom!" Rory laughed, following her into the store.

An hour later, the women left the store with a fancy new matching set that fit and flattered Rory, and surprisingly some nursing bras – a clothing item Rory hadn't even considered she would need eventually.

As they continued to window shop, a nagging feeling settled into Rory's gut. She had barely given any thought as to all the many supplies that not only the baby would need, but that she would need, too. She'd of course read about different kinds of cribs and strollers and diaper changing tables, but there were so many things the baby would need. Clothes! So many clothes! And baby carriers and a breast pump and whatever the heck a diaper genie was and…

"Rory? Honey? Hellooo?" Lorelai waved a hand in front of Rory's face, startling her out of her downward spiral. "How come I feel like you've heard nothing I've said in the past five minutes?"

"I'm so unprepared!" Rory cried in distress.

Lorelai looked lost. "I'm sure there's some context I'm missing here…"

"For the baby, Mom! All we have right now is a pair of shoes! Babies don't even need shoes!"

"You got the baby shoes?"

Rory waved dismissively. "Jess got some little Converse when he was at Target last week. That's not important, I have so much to do, I…"

"Jess got the baby Converse? That's so sweet!" Lorelai said in a soft voice.

"Mom!"

"Sorry, panicking, right." Lorelai put down her shopping bags and put her hands on Rory's shoulders. "Kid, you've got plenty of time to prepare. You don't need everything right this second."

"But I have nothing!"

"That's not true! You have shoes!"

Rory glared.

"Plus a mom who knows what you're going to need and when you'll need it, okay?" Lorelai added in a softer voice.

Rory tried to steady her chin when it began to tremble.

"I don't know what I'm doing."

"Nobody does, kid."

Rory had to laugh at that, considering that was exactly what she'd told Jess a week ago and yet somehow she'd forgotten it already. She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around Lorelai, holding her tightly both to show her appreciation for her mother and to try and steady herself.

"Thank you," she mumbled in Lorelai's ear.

"Just promise me you'll let me decorate the nursery."

That only worried Rory further. She pulled out of her hug with a horrified look on her face.

"Where are we going to put the baby?" she cried. "There's already four people in that apartment! Four people that take up a lot of space! And this fifth person has so much stuff! I don't have anywhere to put the stuff! Or the baby! There's no room for the baby or the stuff!"

Lorelai had no words of comfort this time.

"Mommy, help," Rory whimpered.

"Have you talked to Jess about this?" Lorelai asked quietly.

Rory shook her head. "I didn't even think about it until now."

"Do you think he has?"

"He hasn't mentioned anything, but maybe."

"Talk to him. About all of this. Okay?"

Rory took another deep breath. "Okay."

When Lorelai smiled at her reassuringly, Rory offered a weak smile in return.

"Thanks, Mom."

"Anytime, sweets."

Rory didn't have a chance to bring it up to Jess all week. Between her schoolwork, her job at the paper, and Jess's work, plus, unbeknownst to Rory, his secret job hunting, the times in which they were able to spend time together they were dead tired and in no place to have a serious conversation about their future. But they made it through the week, to Jess's birthday, and to their weekend away to, as Rory put it, "hang out."

Rory was packed and ready to leave before she even went to her classes on Thursday. She discretely tucked her "surprise" into the bottom layers of her suitcase so as to not be discovered by Jess and placed her bag by the front door before bringing coffee and cereal to Jess who was already hard at work at the desk in their bedroom. She put the dishes down in front of him and placed a quick kiss on his temple, drawing him out of his work.

"Happy…" Rory started, eliciting a warning look from Jess. "… Thursday!" she finished. "Happy Thursday!"

Jess snorted. "Thanks, you too."

"I'll be home as soon as possible today. I've just got to check in at the paper after my afternoon class then I'll be back and we'll get going."

Jess gave her a soft smile and fiddled with her hand while she spoke. "Why don't I come pick you up from the paper? That way you don't have to come all the way back here."

"Really?" Rory asked with her own smile.

Jess nodded. "Yeah. What time?"

"Three-ish?"

"Three-ish it is."

Rory leaned down and kissed Jess tenderly. When she drew back, he leaned back in and placed a gentle kiss on the bump.

"Go on, get outta here," he said with a smirk.

"See you at three-ish!" she called on her way out the door.

Jess sighed contentedly before turning back to his desk and pulling out the newspaper with various parttime job listings. He'd found some restaurants that needed waiters, some messenger positions, some awful-sounding holiday retail positions starting in a couple months… none of them were of course ideal, but they all paid decently and would allow him and Rory to start putting some money aside. So, he took the newspaper and went driving around town, applying at all the places he could.

Before he knew it, it was almost three, so he quickly ran back to the apartment, grabbed his and Rory's bags, and made his way to the newsroom. He'd been there a couple of times before, but never when anyone was really working. So, when he showed up and found a chaotic flurry of people running in every direction, phones ringing off the hook, and nervous-looking reporters typing furiously, he was fairly startled.

He hung back in the doorway, attempting to find Rory in the hubbub, when he finally spotted her standing hunched over her desk looking harried. He carefully made his way to her and stood a few feet away while she addressed a member of her staff. Once the reporter stepped away, Jess approached Rory.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked with concern.

Rory looked up in surprise before realization and dread dawned on her face.

"Oh my God, it's three-ish already. Crap, hold on, I just have to…" She started shuffling papers around on her desk before Jess reached out to slow her movements.

"Rory."

"What?"

"Breathe."

Rory took a deep breath ran her hand through her hair.

"Okay, now what's going on?" Jess asked again. "This place is insane, did someone get shot or something?"

Rory shook her head. "No, there was a protest on campus today. A group of students were upset with how the campus safety department handled a situation where a student reported that they felt unsafe and were being followed, and the protest got out of hand. The police were called, pepper spray was used, it was a disaster."

Jess listened with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape.

"So, now, we're all stuck here trying to write a story on it, get quotes from the people that were involved but not arrested, and completely redesign the layout before we send it to the printer tonight." Rory sighed in exasperation. "I'm so sorry, Jess. I don't know when I'm going to be able to get out of here and we were supposed to leave already, and… ugh, this day is not turning out how it was supposed to."

Jess took in Rory's disheveled appearance. Her hair was mussed, falling out of its haphazard bun at the nape of her neck, and she had either ink or pencil led smudged on her forehead. Honestly, she looked kind of adorable, if it weren't for the fact that she was stressed out of her mind.

"How can I help?" Jess asked, taking off his coat and bag and placing them under Rory's desk.

"Huh?"

"Where do you need me, boss lady?" he asked with a smirk.

"Jess. I can't ask you to help, it's—"

"Just another manic Monday," Jess interrupted before she could mention his birthday. "Except it's Thursday, you're going insane here, and I write and edit for a living. So, where do you need me?"

Rory smiled weakly. "Talk to Sheila at the desk by the farthest window, I just gave her a couple articles that need their final edits typed in. You can take one of those and borrow my computer."

"You got it," Jess said with a smile before making his way towards Sheila.

Rory caught his hand and pulled him into a firm kiss. "Thank you."

Jess stumbled back, feeling a little dazed. "Wow, I really need to help out here more often," he said with a smile.

Two and a half hours later Rory collapsed into her desk chair after hitting the "send" button with thirty minutes to spare and telling everyone to go home for the weekend. They had tomorrow off, they'd just worked their asses off, and they all deserved sleep. Rory, especially, felt drained. She'd already had her allotted coffee allowance for the day, and it was days like these when she missed the days when she could drink as much caffeine as she wanted.

Jess propped himself up on the desk in from of her and nudged her knee with the toe of his sneaker.

"How you feelin', Lois?" he asked with a smirk.

Rory opened her eyes and laughed. "Just fine, Clark," she teased right back. "You ready to hit the road?" she asked, standing up and mustering all her strength to appear as energized as possible.

Jess looked concerned. "Are you sure you're up to this? Because we can put it off, leave tomorrow even."

Rory shook her head vehemently. "Nope, I'm fine. The plan was to drive to New York tonight and we're sticking to the plan. I've already messed up today enough."

"Rory, stop. You did not mess anything up. Honestly," he said, leaning towards her conspiratorially, "I got to see you in action today, and I have to say… it was pretty hot," he whispered with a smirk.

Rory laughed and blushed. "Come on, let's go," she said with a smile.

"Want to grab some food before we hit the road?"

Rory grinned. "You know me so well."

A/N: After all their drama recently, I thought they deserved some fluff. Excited to share their weekend in New York!

Also, I made a Tumblr! I'll be posting story updates, possibly some short stories, and blabbing all about Gilmore Girls. If you're on there, come say hi!: sagestonefanfiction