July 4th 2007.
"Mom? Mom, can you hear me?"
"It's really loud here! Hang on just a sec okay?" Lorelai screamed into the phone. She motioned towards the phone, and Luke handed her the key to the diner. She hustled across the street and stepped inside, the empty diner a nice solace from the rambunctious Independence day celebration taking place in the town square. "Rory? Are you still there?"
"Still here," Rory replied.
"Kid, you are missing one heck of a party! I wish you could have come home! Miss Patty's Founder's Day punch is extra strong this year. . . .It's not even dusk yet and Kirk has already serenaded the whole town with 'Party in the USA'. He even used a hot dog as a microphone."
Rory sighed "Yeah, no Founder's Day Punch for me this year. Mom I. . ."
"Oh Hun, are you still sick? I told you to get you some vitamins when the caravan stopped last week! When do you get another day off? Do I need to call Hugo? He's working you too hard. . . I can. . ."
"MOM!" Rory shouted, so loud it even startled her. She took a deep breath, no amount of mental preparation could have ever prepared her for this moment. "Mom, I'm pregnant."
Lorelai padded around for a chair, slipping slowly into the one she found, right before her knees gave out. Her heart beat rapidly, her mind was going even faster than usual, disbelief blanketing her. Surely her ears had misheard.
"Mom?" Rory whispered meekly into the phone.
"That must have been one heck of a Democratic National Convention." Lorelai croaked, still completely flabbergasted by Rory's startling confession.
Rory sighed. "Very funny."
"I. . . I just don't understand. I thought I heard you say you were pregnant."
"I was walking around Walgreens, trying to find some vitamins, when I passed the tampons. I realized that I hadn't had to buy any tampons since I started the press tour last month and then .. . "
"You don't need to finish the book, I've heard this story before." Lorelai said cooly, trying to ignore the storm of feelings that was starting to brew inside her.
Rory bit her lip, trying to gauge her mother's reaction. "Are you . . . . are you mad at me?"
Lorelai sighed, rubbing her temples. "Mad at you? Rory, you're a grown adult. You are an Ivy League graduate and an established political reporter. If you want to have a baby, you can have a baby. It doesn't matter what I think."
"It's just. . . you worked so hard to get me here. . . you sacrificed so much, so that I could do what I loved. . . and now here I am. . . just throwing it all away. I. . . I should have been more careful. . . I'm such a disappointment. . ."
Lorelai thought back to when her parents found out she was pregnant with Rory. She swallowed her feelings and put on a brave voice. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, You are not throwing it away. If anything, that little baby is going to push you to strive harder. Things are going to change, it's going to be hard, but you are not a disappointment."
Tears sprang into Rory's eyes, warm and stinging. She silently cursed her new hormones, and tried to regain composure but it was a lost cause. She broke down into big, heavy sobs, releasing months worth of feelings without a single word.
"I wish I could be there with you right now." Lorelai asked, her heart breaking that she couldn't wrap her arms around Rory and let her cry on her shoulder.
"I. . . I just. . ." Rory sniffled. "Everything is just so. . . "
"I know exactly what you're saying." Lorelai replied.
"But. . . but I didn't even say anything." Rory whimpered.
Lorelai glanced out the window, a sea of emotions washing over her. "You don't have to. I know baby, I know."
Lorelai sat silently in the empty diner, listening to her only child cry over the phone. She looked around the diner, the deep blue walls seeing so many big events of her life.: Rory's last baby tooth, Where Rory told her about Dean, starry-eyed and blinded by first love, her proposing to Luke, her last cup of coffee with her baby girl before sending her to the campaign trail. Now, here she was, once again in the confines of the blue diner walls, the bitter aroma of coffee lingering slightly, finding out she is going to be a grandma. She rubbed her temples softly, a headache starting to bud.
Once Rory's breathing had slowed, the sobbing fading into haphazard sniffles here and there, Lorelai spoke. "Does Logan know?"
"L. . .L . . Logan?" Rory sputtered, her heart jumping into her throat, choking her.
Lorelai rubbed her temples slightly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but unless you got a campaign trail hookup I don't know about, I believe this is Logan's baby?"
Rory could feel the lump form in her throat, the lump that choked her up everytime she thought about Logan. "It is."
"What does he have to say about this?"
Lorelai could hear Rory gulp in a sharp intake of air. "He. . . he doesn't know."
"Rory, he needs to know."
"Mom, the last time I saw him. . . when I gave him back the ring. . . I broke his heart."
Lorelai sighed. "And think about how much it would break his heart to find out from someone else that you were pregnant with his baby. It's not just you anymore. It's just as much his baby as it is yours."
"I'm going to tell him. I don't even have a due date yet."
"February eleventh give or take a few days." Lorelai said matter of factly.
"How do you know that?!" Rory said, exacerbated.
"Forty weeks from the last time you saw Logan. You're about 8 weeks pregnant. This is finally a subject I know more about than you kiddo! All I'm saying is tell him longer you wait, the harder it will be."
"I will. I just need to sort some things out first, I haven't even been to the doctor yet. This could be a false positive, or. . . "
"Rory, very rarely is it a false positive."
"One percent of all manufactured pregnancy tests produce a false positive result."
"Oh me being the one percent that hits the powerball is ridiculous but you being the one percent that gets a dud test is perfectly plausible?"
"It's just. . . . I'm just processing."
"Well you and Logan should process together! You can't make a pro-con list about a baby. Especially without the father. Having a baby isn't a black and white decision."
Rory crumbled up the small two column list she had drawn up, instantly feeling stupid. "Mom, I can't do this. I'm barely pregnant and I'm already a big ball of anxiety. Do you remember when Sookie was 'comin' round the mountain?' I still shudder at that nursery rhymes cd in the library! Look at Sherry? She was so calm and in control and then completely lost it! And Lane, Oh mom, what if I get put on bed rest?! I can't report from my bedroom! Who would I interview? -a-World? What if Obama gets the nomination? Do I just try to get my newborn a press badge as well, and pray for the best?! Not only that, but do you know how much a baby costs?! Babies use approximately 2,000 diapers in the first year! Formula is outrageous. . .Do you know what grandma and grandpa are going to say? Even worse, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE HUNTZBERGERS ARE GOING TO SAY?! I HAVE TO SHARE A BABY WITH THE HUNTZBERGERS! .I can't breathe. All the air has left my lungs and I've stopped breathing, I'm suffocating. Oh my God I can't breathe, I .. ."
"RORY!" Lorelai screamed into the phone, " You're spiraling!"
Rory sat down on the small hotel bed, unaware that she had been pacing back and forth furiously, practically wearing away the rug under her feet. "Mom, I screwed up."
"No hon, you didn't screw up. Your life just took a different path, The long road. That's all."
"How are you just so calm about this?" Rory asked, feeling the white hot sting of tears once again nipping at her eye.
"Because I've done this before. Remember? And I was a lot younger and less prepared than you. I'm not going to sugar coat it, It was hard, but you know what? All that hard work got me a beautiful, intelligent, talented, successful daughter, who is doing amazing things and is going to continue to do amazing things, even if she has to do it with a baby on her hip. Rory you are a Gilmore. Gilmores are resilient. We are like succulents."
"Did you just say we are like succulents?"
"You can throw the harshest conditions at us, neglect us, do everything you can to stop us and we still continue to bloom."
"If you water a succulent too much, they'll die." Rory said nonchalantly.
"Don't kill my metaphor kid!"
Suddenly there was a knock on Rory's hotel door. She peeped out to see Lauren and Scott, two of her press tour colleagues that she had quickly befriended. "Hey Mom, I gotta go, Obama's campaign manager scored us some passes so we get to go to the Independence Day Concert on the White House Lawn with him."
"Aww baby's first concert!" Lorelai joked.
"Ha ha" Rory replied unamused.
"Love you."
"Love you too." Rory replied.
"And Rory?"
"Yeah mom?"
"We don't have to share this baby with the Huntzbergers."
Rory giggled. "I somehow knew you'd say that."
Lorelai flipped her phone closed, running a hand through her hair. Pregnant. Rory was pregnant. Sweet, naive Rory, who had the whole world in front of her, ready to explore, now saddled with a baby. Her heart was broken, thinking how this would change Rory's whole entire , it was not 1984, and women worked and had kids all the time, but it's not like she could exactly go trekking through Burma with a baby strapped on her back. A pang of guilt struck Lorelai, finally realizing what she had done to her parents all those years ago. She stood up, sighing loudly. From the big picture window she saw Luke approaching the diner. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. She opened the door, meeting Luke on the small stoop.
Concerned wash over Luke, noticing that Lorelai was trying hard to pretend she was ok. " I was just coming to get you. The fireworks are about to start. Everything ok?"
She glanced up at the sky, still in disbelief at the bomb Rory had just dropped. "Yeah, Rory just had some news."
"Some news?"
"Rory's pregnant."
Luke's jaw slacked, all the color draining from his face. "She's what?"
"She's pregnant."
"I just . . . I just can't believe it." Luke stammered.
A Roman candle streaked by, erupting right above them with a loud whistle and a pop, illuminating them in a bright red hue. Lorelai's eyes stayed fixed on the sky. "I know, Certainly not the bang I was expecting this fourth of July."
