Chapter Nine

Lorelai takes a deep breath once she sets foot outside of her house, she has an idea as to where Jess would be so she heads toward the bridge that Rory had gone to the day she had found out she had lost her baby. Lorelai walks toward the bridge slowly and she isn't surprised to see Jess leaning over the bridge staring down so that Lorelai can't see his face.

"Jess?" Lorelai gently places her hand on his shoulder.

"Lorelai not now." Jess jerks his body away from Lorelai.

"Jess, you need to talk to someone." Lorelai urges.

Jess doesn't move for a long time but finally Jess turns to Lorelai his face is tear stained and his question is simple, "why didn't she tell me?"

Lorelai takes a long time to respond to Jess, "she was hurting Jess, you can't fathom how much she was hurting."

"I think I can." Jess mumbles.

"She didn't know how to tell you she was pregnant in the first place, and then she didn't know where she stood with you and then between how unsure she was and how much pain she was in she couldn't tell you."

"She should have found a way, no matter how much pain she was in." Jess returns.

"Jesus Jess," Lorelai snaps, "she moved to New York and refused to come home for years, that's how much pain she was in, this is the first time in three years that I've heard her talk about the baby. And then when the pain lessened she just wouldn't deal with it, how could she talk to you about it if she wouldn't deal with it. You saw here today Jess, and it's been three years, try to imagine what she was like before the time had passed and made her pain less."

"Fine, Rory couldn't tell me. But you knew, you knew and you saw me almost everyday between then and now and you kept it from me. And Luke too!"

"This wasn't ours to tell you." Lorelai sighs, "Jess it happened, and I'm sorry you weren't told but it wasn't in my power to tell you, I would never betray Rory's trust like that."

Jess' hits the wood in front of him, "Lorelai I don't know what to do, I don't know what to say." With his words he cries openly in front of Lorelai.

Stepping forward Lorelai wraps her arms around Jess hugging him tightly to her, "I know how hard this must be for you."

"Luke's is closed?" Babette as well as a crowd of other Stars Hollow residents stand around Luke, "has Luke's ever been closed?"

"What's going on?" Lane and Teague make their way through the crowd to read the sign.

"Luke's is closed." Babette explains, "it doesn't say why, just that it is. But Jess and Rory did have another blow up at each other outside the diner, Rory took off and Jess slammed things around, seemed kind of typical to me."

"Wha'd they fight about?" Lane asks quickly.

Miss Patty shrugs, "they were outside."

"All right everyone, Luke's is closed," Jessica comes out of the diner holding Georgia's hand, "so go on."

"Jessica what's going on? Where's Lorelai and Rory?" Lane asks.

Jessica shrugs, "I'm not sure, Luke just called and said to close down the diner and bring her to Lorelai's house."

"I'll take her," Lane offers.

"I don't know..." Jessica trails off, "he said for me to bring her."

"It's fine, I'll take care of Luke, he won't be angry with you." Lane assures and holding out her hand she says, "come on Georgia I'll take you home."

Georgia slips her hand out of Jessica's and into Lane's, "all right. Will Rory be at home?"

"I hope so." Lane responds as she turns to her husband, "I'll meet you at home, all right?"

Teague nods, "call me if I can do anything."

"I will," Lane kisses her husband before leading Georgia off toward Lorelai's house.

"Is it all right to go home?" Georgia asks once they are further away from the diner.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Lane asks.

Georgia shrugs, "I don't know, but Lorelai told me to stay at the diner cause Rory needed some time alone."

"Do you know what Jess and Rory were fighting about?" Lane asks.

Georgia shakes her head, "uh-huh Luke and Lorelai were fighting about answers, but I don't know what they mean. Like homework answers?"

"I don't think so sweetie, how would you like to go home with Teague? You can play with baby T.J."

"Really?" Georgia looks excited.

Lane nods, "really."

Georgia's face falls, "I don't know if Rory would want me to without asking first?"

Lane thinks for a second, "I actually asked Rory before, she must not have told you."

"Really?"

Lane nods, "really." So she makes a move in the direction of her house and luckily meets Teague in the front yard, quickly making the arrangements for him to watch her before she hurries to see her friend.

"Lane, what are you doing here?" Luke asks when she walks quietly into the silent house.

"I was at the diner,"

"Was Jessica coming back with Georgia?"

Lane shakes her head, "Georgia's at my house playing with the baby. Where is everyone?"

"Lorelai went to find Jess, Rory is asleep."

"So everything's out then?" Lane asks cautiously.

Luke nods, "Jess didn't take the news well, Rory didn't give the news well."

"Is she OK?" Lane asks.

Luke shrugs, "she cried herself to sleep. She's been mumbling in her sleep to, sometimes she cries out."

The door opens behind Lane and Lorelai followed by Jess walk in, the four look back and forth between each other and Jess' face is once again emotionless, with the exception of the tear stains on his cheeks. "Where's Rory?" Lorelai asks.

"Asleep."

"Where's Georgia?"

"At my house."

"Jess is going stay here so he can talk to Rory when she wakes up," Lorelai soothingly rubs Jess' back.

"We can go to the diner." Luke offers.

Lorelai shakes her head, "I don't really want everyone around."

"The diner's closed." Luke responds, "Jessica closed it for me."

"Luke you can't just..." Lorelai sighs and then nods, "all right."

"I'll see you guys later." Lane calls as she walks down the front steps and towards her home, "you can pick Georgia up whenever, she can stay over if she needs to."

Jess felt calmed as he watched Rory sleep, he'd done it so many times before for that exact reason. Watching Rory sleep peacefully made the whole world seem okay, like it couldn't touch either one of them so long as they were inside their room. So long as they were inside their room the world melted away and the only thing that was important was them. The only thing that was important was them? What a joke, if nothing was more important than them why had they let so many things get in-between them before? Why hadn't Rory been able to come to him and tell them about the loss of their child? And why hadn't he been able to tell that there was something more going on with Rory than just their fight to make her flee to New York? With all these thoughts pushing themselves into his head Jess didn't even notice that Rory was beginning to move as she began to wake.

Rory didn't want to wake up, because she knew that when she woke up her whole world would be changed. She knew that she could no longer hide behind the lies that she had built around her life to protect her from the heartache of the past. The heartache of the past had caught up with Rory and now she had to live with the consequences of not only Jess finding out the truth but the fact that Rory could never hide behind the denial that she had been living in for years. The denial that if she didn't talk about it she didn't have to deal with it, because Jess was going to want to talk about it. It didn't take long for Rory to pick up on the soft breathing beside her bed, she assumes it must be look and embarrassed she hopes he goes away so she doesn't have to face him. He had treated her so amazingly despite the fact that she was essentially asking him to lie for her. But knowing that he isn't going away Rory rolls over and slowly opens her eyes only to be faced with the one person she wasn't expecting to see.

"Jess!" Rory sits quickly up in bed, to quickly and immediately she feels dizzy from lack of food and the headache that had been brought on by the tears. "What are you..."

"Your mom suggested that maybe we needed to talk to each other more than other people." Jess responds, his voice is still rough from the tears earlier.

"Yeah, I guess we do need to talk."

One the next Gilmore Girls:

Lorelai seductively at Luke, "we need to have a serious talk about getting you a bigger bed. Because this one just isn't suitable."

Jess takes Rory's hand, "we can start all over Rory, we can have it all get married have another baby do it all again for all the right reasons this time."

"Jess..." The phone rings just as soon as Rory opens her mouth to say more and instinctively she picks it up, "what? Wait, slow down. All right, all right, I'll be right there. Jess, we have to go, something's happened."

"What?"

"Luke's, fire, we have to go." Rory is all ready nearly out the door before Jess is even on his feet.