Family Portrait

A/N:I'm so sorry that I didn't update sooner than this. I was busy with school and other things. Well, I'm just going to get on with the story. This chapter is going to focus mainly on Jess and Liza. I have a pretty good idea as to what's going to happen. On with it!

Chapter 9: Home Videos

"LIZA!" Jess grumbled, looking under the couch in the living room. Not even five minutes into his little baby-sitting session and he had already lost the kid. He had turned around for one second and she had disappeared from the kitchen table where she had been just seconds earlier. He heard her soft giggling coming from down the hall where the bedrooms where. Quietly, Jess creeped over and caught sight of the four year old peaking out of the crack of her door, the minute she saw Jess she jumped back in and closed the door. Jess approached the door and knocked lightly on it. "Liza..." he tested.

"GO AWAY!" the girl exclaimed from inside, "I'm getting dressed!"

"Do...do you..." Jess hesitated, "Do you need help?"

"NO!" she shouted. Jess leaned his head against the wall and sighed before heading into the living room. He wasn't cut out for this job. Sitting on the couch he waited for Liza to come out of her room. What was he supposed to do? Barge in? She might be his kid biologically, but Jess still hadn't become a father to her, not yet.

A few minutes later, the door to the room creaked open and Jess smirked as he stared at the TV, waiting for her. Listening carefully to the light patter of her feet Jess estimated exactly where she stood in the room. He leaned back a bit and then flicked the channel, waiting for her to announce herself. "Jess..." he heard her light whisper from behind the couch. Jess turned around slightly to face the child. She was wearing a pink t-shirt backwards, her jeans were unbuttoned and there was a brush stuck in her thick hair.

"What?" Jess asked, holding back a laugh.

"Can you help me?" the girl stuck out her lower lip, pouting. Jess rolled his eyes and motioned for the girl to come around the couch. Then, he zipped and buttoned her jeans. As he went to turn her shirt the right way around, Liza giggled. Jess shook his head and fixed her shirt. Then he went for the hair. As he slowly brushed her hair trying not to pull at the knots Liza screamed and cried squirming under the brush. Jess groaned, this was not something he ever thought he would have to do.

"The more you move the more it'll hurt," Jess informed the girl, who immediately stopped worming around. As Jess finished un-knotting her hair, the four year old scrambled away and over to the TV. She sat in front of the TV and opened a drawer right underneath the wooden table on which the TV sat. She began moving things around, but from where Jess sat on the couch he could not see the contents of the drawer. He stood up and walked across the room to where his tiny daughter sat.

"Can I watch a movie?" the girl asked, she looked up wide-eyed at Jess holding up some video that was unmarked. "Jamie always lets me watch a movie," she informed.

"Whatever," Jess shrugged, looking at the drawer filled with movies. All the tapes were used blank tapes with their titles scrawled across on the white sticker applied in Rory's elegant handwriting.

"Pick one!" Liza exclaimed holding up two videocassettes. Jess took both from the little girl's outstretched hand and looked them over. Across one was written Peter Pan, Peter Pan 2 and Cinderella and the other had Home Videos on it and had dust piled. Jess handed Liza the one filled with Disney magic and stared curiously at the other tape wondering what its contents could possible be.

"You seen this one?" He questioned the girl, "The videos your mom taped?" The girl shook her head, her brown hair whipping against her cheeks. "You want to?" Jess inquired and the girl shrugged. The last thing Jess wanted was to sit and watch corny Disney movies all day, and the Home Videos didn't seem like a better option but Jess' curiosity got the best of him. He ordered Liza back to the couch and slipped the video into the VCR. Grabbing the remote from where he had placed it on the table Jess pressed the PLAY button and sat down next to Liza on the couch. Within seconds the image appeared.

New Years, 2002/03 the black screen read before changing.

Paris frowned, "Dave! Turn that off!"

"Come on Paris, live a little!" Jamie laughed appearing behind his girlfriend, "It's New Years, let Dave play with his new toy."

"As long as the camera is away from me he can play with it all he wants," Paris declared. From behind the camera, Dave's laugh could be heard. The image shifted away from the couple and focused on Lane. They were outside the Gilmore home, that much was obvious and Lane was grinning brightly at the Camera.

"Let's go inside!" Lane exclaimed, "We're already late." The agreements of Paris and Jamie were faint because the image was already moving towards the door. Dave's hand appeared on screen as he knocked on the door to the Gilmore home. Within seconds party sounds filled the air and Lorelai Gilmore appeared from behind the door.

"Ooh!" Lorelai smiled brightly at the camera, "A camera! Just because you're making me famous I won't be mad that you're the last ones here!" Lorelai moved out of the doorway and Lane, Paris, and Jamie filed in. The image circled around the Gilmore living room filled with the smiling faces of the Stars Hollow residence. The Image stopped moving as it reached Jess and Rory in the far corner of the room, kissing. The camera approached them and finally the two pulled away.

"Oh, god," Jess mumbled. As he turned around, the Camera focused solely on his face.

"Hey!" Liza exclaimed from next to Jess, "Dat's you!"

"Yeah," Jess said distractedly as he watched the video. Rory had now entered the picture; her eyes twinkled in delight as she clung to Jess' arm and kissed his cheek. She didn't know yet, Jess realized. At that moment she was carrying their child and she didn't know, or did she?

"Whatcha doing with mommy?" Liza asked.

"Having a good time," Jess replied before his attention shifted back to the video.

"Dave, where's Lane?" Rory asked the camera, her smile still wide and joyous.

"Somewhere," Dave's off-camera reply came, "Probably getting something to drink." Jess was trying to edge away from the camera but he couldn't without dragging Rory away with him. She held his arm tightly pulling him back into the glare of the camera next to her.

"Geez Jess," she sighed, looking at him, "The Camera's not going to kill you." Jess muttered some comment under his breath, but it was unheard by the camera. It was not unheard by Rory. "It's New Year's!" she exclaimed scolding, "It's the one day of the year you are allowed to not be a rebel."

"You said that about Christmas," Jess reminded her. Rory leaned in and kissed Jess lightly on the lips, to remind him why he was doing this. Jess wrapped his arms around Rory and deepened the kiss.

"I think I'll go find Lane," Dave announced as the Camera turned away from the lovers. Luke appeared on the screen, without his baseball cap and was looking pointedly in the direction of Rory and Jess. "Luke!" Dave greeted. Luke turned towards the screen and his frown seemed to deepen.

"Get that thing away," Luke ordered. Trying to slip out of the camera's view, but Dave just followed Luke's movement, seemingly amused.

"Aww..." Lorelai cooed, appearing beside Luke, "Is Lukey afraid of the camera?"

"No!" Luke declared, "I just-I don't like them!"

"Like Uncle like Nephew," Dave sing-songed. Luke turned to glare at the camera.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Just that it seems that camera-shyness runs in the family," Dave replied, "And look, there's Lane." The perky Korean girl appeared once again, holding two drinks in hand. She titled her head at the camera and smiled slightly.

"Dave, turn that off for a while," Lane suggested, "Come have a drink and relax."

"Hey, who else is going to get this town on tape?" Dave wondered. Lane shrugged and gave him a pleadingly look. The screen went black.

Jess stared at the blackness. His mind drifted back to that night. How Rory seemed to glitter with delight to be able to spend New Year's Eve with her boyfriend and her friends. He also remembered how at Midnight, after their kiss he had made his resolution, his secret promise to her, the promise that he would try harder and be a better boyfriend to her, calling when he was supposed to, and getting along with her friends. He had broken that promise. It wasn't completely his fault; Rory had shut him out of her life. He had never understood why until that night at Lorelai and Luke's when he had discovered the existence of Liza, his daughter.

With the thought of Liza, Jess was brought back to reality. The four year old was speaking and Jess tuned into what she was saying. "You and Mommy kissed like Grams and Luke do," Liza said, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "It's yicky." Jess fidgeted in his spot on the couch, how was he, the man of few words, supposed to explain to a four year old why he and her mother kissed in such a way. Images still flashed on screen, images that meant nothing to Jess, images of Lane and the band playing and Jess ignored them as he tried to think of an answer.

"Well...uh...sometimes..." Jess mumbled. He had never had to have anyone explain things like this to him. He had never had a relationship with his father; he didn't know how one was supposed to behave towards a child that was his own. His mother wasn't the best parent either. Then, as he looked into his daughter's innocent eyes he felt fear flutter through him. This girl was oblivious to the evil in the world. She knew only the fairy tale wonders of the land. Everything was good and happy; she did not know the dark side. Jess suddenly felt an even huger weight on his shoulders. He was her father, he had to protect her and keep the innocence in her. He felt unlike himself then. The words came to him like his love for Rory had come to him. "Sometimes when people love each other, they kiss like that," Jess announced, "To show each other their love."

"Do you still kiss mommy like that?" Liza asked.

"No," Jess shook his head. A guilty feeling rumbled in his stomach and he already knew the next question coming up.

"How come?" the four year old was swinging her legs over back and forth over the couch, "Don't you love mommy?"

Suddenly, Jess realized that the questions would keep getting more and more difficult, and that the first was the easiest to answer after all. How was he supposed to answer a question he himself wasn't sure the answer to? Did he love Rory? The answer used to be as clear as day to him when he lived in Stars Hollow, even before they ever got together Jess had been sure he loved Rory. Now, four years into the future he wasn't supposed to love her anymore. He had a girlfriend and a life in New York. Rory was supposed to be past. The girl who got away, yes, but he was supposed to have gotten over her.

He felt Liza's eyes burning into him and he brought himself to turn and stare into her eyes. She had eyes like her mother but speckled with a tinge of brown. Jess wondered if the brown would fade away through the years and leave her with eyes identical to her mother's. Eyes filled with love, forgiveness and joy. Eyes that haunted Jess wherever he went trying to force him to force him to answer one of the hardest questions in the world, to him, did he still love Rory Gilmore? Looking into the eyes of the four year old he knew that she was waiting as patiently as she could for the answer. "I don't know," he responded truthfully and the repeated the words quietly to himself, "I don't know."

Liza looked as if she were about to follow-up his answer with another question but her eyes darted back to the TV. The band had finished playing their number and Rory had appeared on screen, she shouted something out to whoever was behind the camera, and then it went off. The black reappeared and then text magically appeared on the black.

March 14, 2003

The black faded to the whiteness of a hospital. People of all different ages were scattered around, some with children and some very much pregnant. The camera zoomed over to five of the people in particular. Lane, Lorelai, Paris, and Jamie all smiled at the camera as Luke's glare bore into it. Lorelai noticed Luke and hit him on the arm. "Be happy!" she exclaimed, "We're about to find out the sex of my Grand-baby!"

"And you're happy?" Luke grunted, "I swear, if I ever get my hands on Jess..."

"Hey! Get in line!" Lorelai protested, "It's a long one too, I'll squeeze you in before Taylor though."

"How thoughtful," Luke frowned.

"Okay, happy day remember?" Lane reminded, "Let's not think about killing, or hurting Jess right now. Let's focus on what we're going to name the kid."

"Fine," Lorelai mumbled and folded her arms across her chest, pouting.

Jess stared at the screen thoughtfully as the others began to suggest different names for Rory's kid. Funny thing was that when Jess had showed up in Stars Hollow one day in early September Luke had hid very well any inkling of hatred for him. He wondered how much it had killed Lorelai and Luke all those times he visited and they hadn't been able to bite his head of about getting Rory pregnant.

"Why does Grams and Luke and Lane want to kill you?" Liza wondered. Jess was, once again, pulled back into reality by the girl's questions.

"Because," was Jess' only reply. He knew that Rory didn't want him telling Liza he was her father yet; he didn't feel it was the time himself. So, without giving that little bit of information away there was no better way to answer the question.

"Because why?" Liza persisted. Jess was saved though because the camera's vision had turned to reveal Rory approaching the group.

Rory smiled radiantly and the group rushed towards her. "So? So?"

"What's the verdict?" Dave asked, in a tone of authority, "Will it be a girl or a boy?"

"It's a girl!" Rory's grin grew more radiant by the second.

"IT'S A LORELAI!" at the top of her lungs and the camera slowly showed that the whole room was staring at the group with curiosity and some even giving Lorelai dirty looks for disturbing their quiet wait for the doctor to see them. The girls, Paris, Lane and Lorelai were all cooing and hovering around Rory as she showed them the picture of the baby from the sonogram. Luke and Jamie sat back waiting patiently to be addressed and the camera moved towards the girls them.

"Hey, Rory, show us the baby," Dave demanded, "One day you can show Little Lorelai what she looked like in your stomach."

"Do you ever put that camera down?" Paris asked unenthused.

"Paris, one day you'll be glad he took these videos," Rory assured, "I mean we're all going to want to remember this day and what better way than to have it on tape? Also, it's a good device to torture you mercilessly years from now at reunions."

"That's my daughter!" Lorelai announced merrily, looking around the room pointing at Rory. The patients in the waiting room gave her weary looks and the nurse behind the counter could be heard laughing merrily as she called someone into the check-up room.

"So, are you going to hold it up or not?" Dave wondered.

Rory rolled her eyes and sighed, holding up the sonogram picture, the baby was barely visible, she was so tiny. The picture disappeared and Rory's face appeared on screen again. She looked at the sonogram picture, a flash of sadness in her eyes that only Lane seemed to catch onto because she wrapped her arms around Rory and began to whisper something in her ear. Rory managed a small laugh. Jamie approached and took the picture from Rory and Luke stood behind him looking at it.

"How can you tell?" Luke wondered. The camera turned on him.

"Tell what?" Rory's off-camera reply came.

"That it's a girl," he answered. The camera recoiled so that the whole group was visible. Lorelai stood leaning on Luke's arm trying to see the picture again and Rory stood in between Paris and Lane facing the other three.

"I can't really," Rory admitted, "But the doctor could and she said it was a girl, so..."

"What do you think she'll look like?" Lane ventured.

"I bet she'll have my eyes!" Lorelai exclaimed. Rory smiled faintly at her mother.

"I bet she will too," was the expectant mother's sigh.

"She'll be beautiful, just like her mother," Luke assured Rory and handed the picture back to Rory, who in turn gave Luke a huge hug.

The two pulled away and Luke seemed to be blushing slightly. Lorelai laughed and Luke glared at her before Lorelai wiped the glare away by kissing Luke on the lips. The camera got a close up of the whole group as they collected their coats and purses and the screen went black just as they exited the hospital waiting room.

"What was that pitchur?" Liza wanted to know immediately after the camera had turned off. Jess sighed. This girl certainly was a Gilmore.

"You," Jess replied quickly, basking in the fact that he had been able to witness a moment in the past he hadn't been there too. Jess wasn't one for regrets but if he did have one, though. He regretted acting the way he had, for making it seem impossible for Rory to believe that she could tell him that she was pregnant.

"Dat's me?" Liza queried, "I'm small."

"Huh," Jess grunted in response not looking at the little girl next to him, he did want to look at Liza right now. Within seconds another section of the video started and Liza slid off the couch and made her way over to the TV. Jess sat silently watching it all.

August 17, 2003 the date read.

The camera opened to the backs of Lane and Rory. They were in the Gilmore home, in Rory's room. The girls were oblivious to the camera's presence behind them as it snuck closer and their whispers became clear.

"So, what did the doctor say?" Lane was asking.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Rory shrugged, "Just that I should take things easy for the next few weeks and that I've been too stressed out lately for both my good and the good of the baby."

"Well, he's right," Lane stated.

The camera's image bounced around from floor to ceiling, there was a bang and then both the faces of Rory and Lane appeared on screen, looking confusedly at the camera. Rory's face was beautiful and her stomach rounded from eight months of pregnancy, in her hands was a bag of chips, which she munched on as she watched the camera. Lane looked the same as always save that her hair was slightly longer.

"Dave!" Lane exclaimed, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Dave insisted, both woman rolled their eyes.

"Nothing, right," Lane sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

"C'mon Lane give him a break," Rory insisted, "He hasn't filmed us in what? Three months?"

"Five," was Dave's reply, there was a beat and then, "So, what's this about you being stressed?"

"Well first it was exams, then graduation and now what I'm going to do come September when I'm due for college and to have a baby," Rory explained, "I have to relax or I'll hurt the baby or induce labor a little too early."

"Other than that the baby is healthy right?" Lane asked.

"Yeah," Rory nodded. She stood up and wobbled over to the mirror, gazing at her belly, "Anyway, the baby is big enough already. In one month I'll be the size of an elephant."

"Hah! Runs in the family babe," Lorelai entered the room carrying a basket of clothes, "You should've seen how big my stomach was with you in it!"

"Do we have chocolate?" Rory wondered. Lorelai and Lane shook their heads, exasperated.

"God, even I didn't eat as much as she did when I was pregnant," Lorelai stepped out of Rory's way she intently headed towards the kitchen, "And I was two years younger on top of that and I didn't even get to drink coffee."

"Well, I think Luke feels a bit guilty," Lane sighed.

"I know," Lorelai plopped down on Rory's bed, "I guess he feels kind of responsible because according the Rory the night "it" happened I had dragged Luke out to the festivities against his will. He thinks he didn't keep a close enough eye on Jess."

"It probably would've happened anyway," Rory said. The camera focused on her as she wobbled back into her room, "I mean, if not at the diner here, or somewhere else. I think it was kind of inevitable." Rory had a sad look in her eyes, "I mean, I was ready. I loved Jess and I know he loved me."

"She's right," Lorelai shrugged, "It probably would've happened anyway. I remember how resourceful Chris and I were."

"Maybe I should turn this off..." Dave began, but before he could Rory yelped in pain. The camera swung in her direction and Rory held her stomach and leaned over slightly.

"Rory? Rory are you alright?" Lane and Lorelai had rushed over to her side. Rory nodded fiercely but winced, as another sharp pain seemed to have hit her

"Uh-oh!" Rory managed as she clinged to her stomach, "I think I might've just induced labor."

"What?" Lorelai and Lane stared at Rory in shock.

"Um...my water just broke," Rory announced, staring at the floor, "I'm having the baby."

The camera went off as Lorelai and Lane began shrieking inaudible orders.

"Mommy had a big stomach," Liza declared. The screen remained black and it seemed that the movie was over, Jess felt almost regretful that there wasn't more. He wanted to see Liza as a baby, maybe see how Rory was with the baby and how she seemed to cope with an infant and college. There was no more though and Jess guessed it was because they had all started college and had been too busy to film, also the fact that Dave and Lane went to New York while Rory, Paris and Liza were in New Haven.

Liza jumped off the couch while Jess continued to stare at the black screen, contemplating everything that he had just seen. Jess barely noticed the four year old disappear down the hall; he barely even noticed that she was no longer sitting next to him bombarding him with thousands of questions about the movie and other things. When he finally did notice he was somewhat relieved that she was no longer nagging him, but realization soon kicked in. Groaning, Jess stood up.

"God, can't she just sit still for longer than two minutes at a time?" Jess muttered to himself as he searched around for the girl. He still had the rest of the day ahead of him and he had no idea what so ever when Rory, Paris or Jamie were going to return home to relieve him of his duties.

After five minutes of searching he still hadn't retrieved Liza. Jess cursed the girl for knowing how to hide so well in an apartment he didn't know anything about. The phone rang then and Jess cursed some more under his breath so that if the four year old was anywhere around she would not be able to hear him and repeat his foul words to her mother. He knew that Rory would not like it if Jess taught her daughter swear words. Remembering that he had seen a telephone in the living room Jess exited the rather small bathroom and headed to retrieve it. Rory, unfortunately, did not have caller ID so Jess would either have to answer the whole or ignore it completely. The ringing began to annoy him so he opted for answering it. "Hello?" he grumbled into the receiver.

"Hey, Jess, how's Liza doing?" It was Rory. Jess sat on the couch heaving a sigh. This was just what he needed. He couldn't find Liza and now Rory was calling to check up on him.

"She's fine, we just finished- uh- watching a movie," Jess managed.

"Good, good," Rory sounded pleased by the news, "Uh, its just I didn't know how you would manage so...um...can I talk to her?"

"Actually Ror, we are...Uh..." Jess thought quickly thinking up an excuse for Rory not to talk to her daughter, "Paying...uh...Hide and Seek."

"You're playing hide and go seek?" Rory seemed to be suppressing a laugh through her surprise, "Uh...I'll be home in a few hours. Uh...Have fun."

"Sure," Jess grumbled unenthusiastically as he hung up the phone, "I'll have tons of fun." Rory did not hear the second part of his sentence this with sarcasm because Jess had already hung up the telephone. Jess had changed a lot over the years, but he still was not one to play games with kids, and he sure was not ready to be a father. He hoped one day he would be.

Until then, he had to find Liza, quickly.

"LIZA!" Jess shouted, for the second time that morning, "LIZA! Come on!" Jess sighed, he didn't know how Rory managed this everyday, and he could barely make it through an hour with the kid.