Title: What Sam Says

Chapter 6: The Second Phone Call

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

A/N: I swear, I'm obsessed with this story. Oh, well. That's good for you guys, not so good to anyone who wants to read any of my other stories.

Anyway. Questions. Hee, hee.

Most of the questions I'm not so sure about the answer…did that make any sense?

Anyway, The father: I dunno who it is yet, but I do know that Rory doesn't talk to him much—but he does want to talk to her. He's too clingy for Rory right now, and I'm not sure why yet. Hang in there, kiddo!

Sorry. Mark: Rory's boyfriend. She immediately fell in love—he was nice, charming, literate, on the Dean's list in Yale, and treated her impeccably. Unfortunately, she was blind to the fact that he was controlling her life. Why? I dunno yet.

Inevitable final pairing for Rory: Someone. I'm not sure who yet.

College: No one's asked about college yet, but that's because I haven't said anything about it yet. I do, however, know that she dropped out in her senior year of college—she had just started her senior year when she turned twenty two and met Mark…she and Mark both continued to go, although less and less, until April, which I've just realized is seven months from October, but ignore that. Anyway, in April, they ran to Stars Hollow to wish Lorelai a happy birthday, and then they ran back to New Haven, at which point they crashed on Rory's couch and bed, respectively, before Mark ran her away to France.

Why: I have no idea. I think it has something to do with the fact that Mark…is not what he seems.

Hey, I could write taglines for mystery movies! Actually, I think that is the tagline for "The Bourne Identity", but whatever.

Oh, and I'm starting right where I left off, but don't worry: the last two lines are repeated just to make sure you didn't forget.

Oh, and before I forget, everyone gets that most of the flashbacks are the story that Rory's telling Lorelai, right? Cause if you don't get that…then I've just told you.

*****

*******

*****

"Is Tristan the father?" Lorelai asked, her eyes grazing over Rory's stomach for about the two thousandth time since Rory had shown up on her doorstep less than twelve hours before.

Rory bit her lip.

"Rory?" Lorelai asked, semi-desperately. "Is he?"

Rory shook her head, slightly, and Lorelai let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. "So, who is?"

Rory stared over her mother's shoulder at an invisible spot on the kitchen wall, and then blushed slightly and ducked her head. Suddenly there was a burst of mechanical music from Rory's room and she leapt from the table and retrieved her cell-phone. She didn't answer it however and walked back to the kitchen with the small gadget in her hand.

"Who is it?" Lorelai asked, remembering the phone call Rory had received last night, but hadn't answered.

Rory just stared at the phone, trying to decide which conversation she wanted less—the one with her mother about the father, or the one with…him. Finally she shook her head and handed the phone to her mother.

"It's him."

Lorelai stared at Rory, hoping for a little more identification beyond, 'it's him,' but she didn't receive any, so she flipped the phone open and lifted it tentatively to her ear, almost as if it were a bomb of some sort.

"Hello?"

*****

*******

*****

"Where are we going?" Rory asked as she looked out the window of the jet to see sea, sea, and more sea.

"I told you. An English speaking country." Tristan smirked. Now that Rory knew it was Tristan, she really couldn't stand him.

"Great. That really narrows it down." Rory glared at Tristan and crossed her arms across her chest. "Why are you here?"

"I'm Mark's friend."

Rory scoffed. "Trust Mark to make friends with Tristan DuGrey."

"I'm hurt, Mary." Tristan said, holding his hand over his heart and making puppy dog eyes at her. She groaned disgustedly and picked up the pillow from the seat next to her.

"You're an arrogant ass," she responded, throwing the pillow at him.

"And you like it," he argued, ducking.

"Never."

"Never say never."

"Back to cliché spouting, are we?"

"'Back' to it? I never started it."

"'Curious, aren't we?'" Rory mocked.

"That's not a cliché."

"It might as well be."

"You're just mad cause I left and never returned."

"Oh, yeah, Tristan. Exactly. You see, I was always secretly in love with you."

"Finally, a confession from Mary Gilmore! I've been waiting. Then again, I always knew it."

"Shut up, Tristan."

"Tell me: how long after I left did you finally break up with Bag Boy?"

"A year later."

"Oh." Tristan was a little thrown off, but not too much. "And why did the perfect couple break it off?"

"If you must know," Rory started defensively, "because…of someone else." She got a little quieter at the mention of Jess.

"Ah. For him or you?"

"For me." Rory stated simply.

"Who?" Tristan asked.

"Someone you don't know. Jess."

"And how long were you with Jess?"

Rory calculated quickly. "Seven months, I guess. Although, the demise of our relationship started way before it actually ended."

"Oh, really?" Tristan raised his eyebrows. "What happened?"

Rory shrugged. "I don't know. We were…really happy to be together for a while, and then…he got distant."

"Sucks when they get distant, huh?"

Rory nodded.

"Yep. I've used the trick a few times myself."

Rory groaned and stood up from her seat. She shoved Tristan and walked to the back, where there were some more seats. Tristan knew well enough to leave her alone, and so the next time they spoke, they had landed.

In New York City.

*****

*******

*****

"Hello?" Lorelai answered Rory's phone.

"L—Lorelai?" the voice on the other end asked, shocked.

"Yes…who's this?"

"This…this is Jess."

"Mariano?" Lorelai asked, ten thousand times more shocked than Jess had been moments before.

"Yeah." Jess responded simply. "I—is Rory there?"

Lorelai covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand and mouthed to her daughter, 'are you here?' Rory shook her head no, and when Lorelai opened her mouth to protest, Rory mouthed, 'no.' very deliberately. Lorelai shrugged and turned her attention back to the phone.

"No. Why?"

"Well, it's something that I need to talk to her about. Just her. Alone." Jess paused, and then continued nervously, "You don't wanna kill me, do you?"

Lorelai shot her daughter a strange look, and then said into the phone. "I'm not sure yet."

Jess let out a sigh of relief. "Good. Uh…say hi to Luke for me." He hung up.

Lorelai stared at the phone for a second, and then turned the same stare to Rory.

"Rory…"

"You don't understand," Rory said defensively. "It was…weird, seeing him again."

"You saw him again?!"

"Uh…yeah."

*****

*******

*****

"We're here," Tristan announced, throwing the words to the back of the plane, as the jet touched down.

"Where is 'here'?" Rory asked, looking up from her Literature textbook. It was the only book she'd had a chance to grab before Mark had flown her off to France. Rory wasn't sure if she was going to make it back to school in the next month, the last remaining month of her college career, but she'd decided to study, nonetheless.

"New York," Tristan said with a glint in his eyes. He exited the plane before Rory and held a hand out for her to follow him down the stairs. She took it—listlessly—and walked down the staircase after Tristan. He continued holding her hand as he led her to a waiting limo, parked near an airplane gate in a spot marked, "Tourist Buses Only". He allowed her to get in first, and then slid in after her. Immediately the limo started moving. Rory looked away from Tristan and gazed around her new surroundings. Her eyes caught a black phone set into the bar and she leaned forward and tried to grab it.

"Uh-uh," Tristan said, grabbing Rory's arms seconds away from the phone. "Mark said no phone calls. Especially to your mother."

Rory sighed and leaned back into her seat. She tried once more to get the phone—with the same results—before giving up entirely and scooting as close to the window and as far from Tristan as she could.

'I'm sorry, Mom,' she tried to communicate telepathically. 'I tried. I'll try again later.'

******

*******

*****

"Rory, sweetie, where exactly is this story getting us? So you landed in New York. So Tristan's a big ol' interfering ass. I get that. What I don't get is what this has to do with Jess, and what the hell this has to do with Mark, why Jess is 'him', and who the father of your baby is!"

"I'm getting to that. Calm down. I'll get there soon."

"Get there faster."

*****

*******

*****

"What the hell is the holdup?" Tristan asked forty minutes later, after spending thirty of them not moving in midnight traffic.

"Don't look at me," Rory said, holding her hands up in defense. Tristan rolled his eyes and picked up the black phone. Without dialing, someone answered the other side, and Tristan started a conversation.

"What's the holdup? I've got a very important delivery…" Tristan listened, and Rory reeled at the fact that he had just called her a delivery. "Miller won't be happy about this. He'll give you hell. I'll give you hell. Just find out what the goddamn holdup is." Tristan hung up quickly, with a satisfied look on his face, and Rory shook her head and looked out the window, rolling it down slightly so she could see the tips of the buildings in the New York skyline.

The last time she had been there was right after Lorelai had taken her to Europe. Their plane had experienced technical difficulties and they'd been rerouted through New York, instead of back to Hartford. Lorelai and Rory had taken advantage of the five hour delay to stop by Sephora, and then Rory had shown Lorelai the record store Jess had shown Rory when she'd shown up in Washington Square Park near the end of her junior year of high school.

The black phone beeped, once, twice, and Tristan picked it up wordlessly. He nodded, said, "Congratulations. You've just kept your job for one more day," and hung up.

"What was the holdup?" Rory asked, even as the car started moving.

Tristan shrugged. "Some movie."

"Oh." Rory nodded and looked back out the window. Within five minutes they'd reached the movie set, and Rory rolled down her window a little more, so as to see movie stars. Who she saw, however, was a shock in itself.

"Jess?" she asked, throwing the car door open as the limo slowed down for a red light. "Jess Mariano!" she called, cupping her hands around her mouth. He turned around, faltered a minute from shock, and then smiled. A real, genuine smile. One that Rory hadn't seen since right after they'd gotten together, so very long ago. She ignored Tristan yelling at her from the limousine and ran directly to Jess and threw her arms around his neck.

He returned the hug.

*****

*******

*****

"What was Jess doing there?"

"Turns out that while he was living in L.A., he made friends with this girl who wanted to be an actress, only she couldn't get a job, cause no one wanted a girl who looked and acted like her. So she got Jess to write a movie for her."

"And he obliged?"

"Yep. And then they got this friend of theirs, a film student at UCLA, to produce it, while Jess directed it, and they filmed half of it as a student film for this guy. He showed it to his teacher, who had network contacts, and the next thing the three of them knew, they were making a multi-million dollar movie."

"Wow. E! True Hollywood Story at its best."

"Exactly. That's what I told him, too. I also told him to create a bit of scandal on the set, so he could have his own Hollywood story as soon as possible. So, he suggested that the writer/director disappeared for a few days. And, then we did."

"'We'?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah," Rory blushed slightly. "That's also why he was calling. It's kind of a big deal. I should probably tell you about it."

"Yeah." Lorelai crossed her arms across her chest and leveled her gaze at her daughter. "You should."