1Title: Too Close For Comfort

Chapter 11: Together

POV: Rory

A/N: Congratulations, those reviewers who discovered the secret switcheroo! See, I'd written Jess there, when Rory was delivering, and it was just a crap chapter. So, I rewrote it. The person who was Jess was really Iliana's husband, but you'll see why Rory and Lane were both confused if you read this chapter. Part of the chapter is stolen from "Nick Nora/Sid Nancy". You'll see. The next chapter will be much longer, I promise, but this one is through for now. There's not much more I can write without going into what the next chapter is about.

Chapters Left: Well, we got this one, and then I'm thinking one more, and then a fun fun epilogue! Because we want the last chapter to be the thirteenth one.

-

He looked so different. His hair was slightly longer, his chin was slightly stubbled, and his leather jacket had never looked better. But it was him. It was totally him. And I was very excited that he was leaning on my shoulder, watching as Jessica yawned and dragged a hand across her forehead.

"What's that?" he asked quietly, pointing to the baby mittens on both of her hands.

"Oh, those are little mittens, so she doesn't scratch her eyes out."

"She can do that?" he asked, surprised.

"Oh, she can do almost anything. As a matter of fact, right now, she's out." I smiled up at Jess. "Do you wanna put her back in the bassinet?"

What looked like sheer terror came over his face. My heart dropped, and I realized that I wanted him to be the perfect dad already. But he wasn't, and if I wanted him to stay, I just had to force a smile and say, "Never mind. Can you pull the bassinet over here?"

He visibly relaxed and pulled the plastic basket near us. I settled Jessica into the pile of white blankets and looked up at Jess. I scooted over and patted the bed. "Sit down," I commanded. He pulled off his jacket and dropped it in the chair near the door before settling nervously on the edge of the bed.

"Your hair's different," I told him. He raised a nervous hand to his longer hair and nodded.

"Yours, too."

I raised my own hand to my hair. "Oh, yeah," I said, smiling. "I'd forgotten about that."

"Looks good like that," he almost mumbled, reminding me of before we'd dated, when he'd said that to me.

"Yours, too. Actually, I mentioned it because earlier today, my friend's husband showed up here, and it was the first time I'd ever seen him, and I swear, Lane and I both thought he was you."

Jess seemed to struggle for words, and then finally came up with, "You have a friend who's married?"

I nodded. "Actually, a couple. Um, Iliana and I met at this young mother's meeting thing. She's really helped me through, um, the last couple of months." I thought about telling him about Dean. But bringing up the thing that was such a huge obstacle for us didn't seem such a good idea with our new huge obstacle.

Jess cleared his throat and stood up. "Why'd you name her after me?"

Shocked by the sudden bluntness, I blinked. Then I realized–it's Jess. Jess is bluntness. He doesn't tiptoe around anything. And there he was, asking me about one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make.

"Blunt. Good. I was waiting for that." I smiled, but Jess didn't waver. He kept staring at me, waiting for the answer. I nodded. "Right. Well, it was something that kinda killed me for a few weeks. You know, should I name her something from a book? The options were endless–Charlotte, Katherine, Jane, Ayn, Emily, Dorothy–but nothing seemed to fit."

"Ayn?" Jess repeated.

I smiled, and ignored him. "Then I thought about something from pop culture. Mom and I had a field day with that one, but still, nothing seemed to fit. And the options were so bad I refuse to repeat them. But then I thought about family. I thought about my mom, and her mom, and your mom, but I didn't think the baby seemed like a Lorelai, or an Emily, or an Elizabeth. And so I changed all the boys into girls. Richard I kinda left alone, and then my dad's name changed to Christine or Christian, and your name changed to Jessica, and Luke's changed to Laura, for some reason–and then something clicked. And so, last week, I sat down at my desk and wrote down two names–one for a girl, and one for a boy. Jessica Lorelai Gilmore. Christopher Lee Gilmore. And then, when I saw her–dark hair, dark eyes–I knew she was a Jessica. I'm not sure if she's a Jessi or not yet. We'll see."

Jess walked over to the bassinet and leaned down. He trailed his hand softly across the dark fuzz on top of her head and then across her cheek. When he looked back at me I could hardly see through the tears gathered in my eyes.

"Rory?" he asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," I said, reaching for a kleenex and wiping my eyes. "Hormones."

He nodded, and waited until I threw the tissue away and looked up at him, ready for action. He cleared his throat again. "I want to do this."

"Okay."

He walked back to the bed and placed a hand on my cheek. "We're going to do this. Together."

I nodded and started sniffling; I could feel the tears gathering. He leaned over and kissed me, deeply, like that night at Kyle's party. I slid over, and let him sit on the bed next to me. He stretched out, one arm around my back so that my head was cradled in his chest. His warmth was comforting and familiar, and I breathed in his scent and let myself slide off into sleep.

-

Mom took Jessica and me home two days later. Dr. Robinson was the only one to see us off–Mom had told the rest of the town to wait at home, because this was a mother-daughter-granddaughter thing, and dammit if Lorelai Gilmore wasn't going to be the mother in that equation.

Mom, of course, took the opportunity to quiz me on my newly-rekindled relationship with Jess. She was sitting in the front seat of my Prius while I watched Jessica sleep in her rear-facing car seat in the back.

"So, he's staying?" she asked, staring in the rearview mirror.

"Yes, Jess is staying," I said, watching as my three-day-old baby sighed.

"Where's he staying?"

"Stars Hollow, even though he hates it."

"You know what I mean," Mom said, sighing. "Look, I'm trying to be nice about this. Make it easy. It would be nice if you could help."

"All right, fine. We were hoping that for the first few weeks he could stay on our couch, maybe? My room would be better, but that bed is a joke." I said it very dryly, and then took pleasure in watching Mom's eyes bug out. "Relax," I said. "Not my room. Just the house, please?" I caught her eye in the mirror. She looked resigned.

"Fine. For a few weeks, anyway. Just to let the three of you bond."

"Exactly." I smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

"You're welcome, babe." She smiled. "I just don't want to regret this later."

"Oh, believe me. You won't." Jessica stretched an arm in her sleep, and then forgot to drop it. It lay, half in the air and half on the car seat. I lifted it and re-nestled it next to her body, causing her to sigh again and reposition herself. She was so cute. This whole baby thing hadn't quite overwhelmed me yet, but there was plenty of time left. I just hoped that having Jess and my mom and, let's face it, Stars Hollow there to help me might make it all a little easier.

-

I was sitting at my desk, working on a paper for school. Sookie was in the kitchen, making way too much food. Jackson was helping her by playing with his produce. Mom was helping everyone by calming them down. Luke and Jess would be over soon, and we would all have a nice dinner.

It seemed startingly similar to another night, two years ago, when all the same people were here for an introductory dinner. Except now, Mom was cooing over almost two-month-old baby Davey in his bouncy baby seat settled on the kitchen table amongst all the food. There was a crib jammed between my desk and my bed, wedged beneath the window in my room, and filled with a very young newborn. And Jess wasn't unknown and untrustworthy. Jess was...Jess, like he'd become a year after his introduction. And Jess was the father of that little newborn filling the crib.

"Rory, they're here," Mom called, walking past my open doorway with a plate of food.

"Coming," I said, trying to finish up the last sentence in my paper.

"Hey," I heard him say in my doorway. I turned around and smiled at him.

"Hey," I said. "I'm almost done."

"I figured," he said, shrugging and walking into my room. I grinned. He recognized the similarity as well, and was going to pretend it was two years earlier.

"Nice to meet you," I said, watching as he started examining my bookcase.

"Wow. Aren't we hooked on phonics?"

"Yeah, I like to read. Do you read?" I asked, anticipating what I knew now to be an un-truth.

"Not much," he answered, shaking his head and picking up Howl.

"Oh, that's great. I could loan you that if you want."

"No thanks," he said, dropping it on the edge of my dresser.

"Well, if you change your mind." He walked over towards me and stopped.

"Is that her?" he asked, pointing at the crib. I nodded, and he walked over and sat on my bed, the only way to comfortably look at the crib in my squashed room. After a minute of staring, he cleared his throat and said, "Shall we?"

"Shall we what?" I asked.

"Bail," he responded, just as simply as he had that night.

"Bail? No." I walked over to him and sat on the bed next to him. "Though it may not seem like it at this moment, this is gonna be fun. Trust me."

"Don't you look trustworthy," he stated, looking at me.

"That's my line," I said softly.

"Rory, I have to tell you something."

"What?" I asked, suddenly realizing we were incredibly close to each other.

"I love you."

Ooh, brick wall. A big brick wall just slammed into me at full speed–although brick walls rarely speed–and knocked the feeling out of me.

"That's the last thing I was expecting you to say," I said, truthfully.

"It's true. I love you. I think I've loved you since that conversation. And," he sighed. "It's not so shocking, is it? I mean, you just had my kid. I obviously don't have passing feelings for you."

"I don't have passing feelings for you, either," I said softly. "I love you."

Jess smiled and kissed me quickly. "Can we take her with us to dinner?" he asked, looking at Jessica.

"Sure," I smiled. "We'll just put her in her car seat."

"Okay. Let's go eat. You want a soda?" he asked, leading me and Jessica from my room to the living room.

"Yes, please," I said, my arm already starting to feel as if it would break off from the weight of Jessica and her car seat. Jess got sodas for both himself and me, and then settled a hand on my back as we walked into the living room.

This just might work out, after all.