Aki- Hey, last chapter with the "Who's the father?" jokes, I was just trying to be humorous, some of you reviewers took it as Rory-bashing, and you enjoyed it! Well, any readers who are irritated with Rory in this story or its prequel will probably enjoy this chapter, where she really comes into stride. If you're mad at the Rory in the actual show, then I can't help, but to suggest that you buy the DVD's and only watch seasons one, two, and three where Rory is still cool and Jess is there a lot.

Anyway, I didn't originally plan to have a second chapter in this story with the grandparents, but after 'Dinner and Disaster' and a review from Bru about it, this just popped into my mind and I thought it would be appropriate especially since their was no real grandparents scene in 'Christmas Miracles.' Wow, long author notes. Few of you probably actually read this.

Dinner and Disaster Again

"Stop!"

"Why?"

"I think I left the oven on."

"Jess, we rarely ever cook at home, how on earth could the oven be on?"

"I was bored?" answered Jess hopefully, Rory glared at him from behind the steering wheel. Rory was always he one to drive on the way to the grandparents because Rory believed that if Jess drove, he would drive into a tree just to get out of going.

Again Lorelai let it slip to her grandparents over the phone that Rory, Jess and Amber were in town (Rory was staring to suspect she did it on purpose to get some sort of sadistic pleasure). Although this time the plan backfired and Lorelei and Luke were shanghaied into diner too.

Not long later they pulled into the Gilmore mansion driveway, shortly followed by Lorelai and Luke in another car.

"Why did I have to come?" whined Lorelai dramatically as she got out of the car.

"Mom," protested Rory.

Luke looked at Rory then his wife before adding, "Why did I have to come?"

"Luke!"

Jess glared at the two complainers and then grumbled to himself, "Why did I have to come."

Rory gave Jess a sharp look before addressing the whole. "Come on guys, I need your support," she said placing her hand on her stomach, "Tonight is the night I'm telling Grandma and Grandpa about the pregnancy."

Jess's scowl deepened. "Do we have to?"

Rory put her hands on her hips. "What's your plan? Avoid seeing or talking them for nine months, and then suddenly show up at their door with a baby in your arms and say, 'Hey, here is your new great-grandkid we didn't tell you about because I was too afraid!'"

Jess shrugged, "Sounds good to me."

Rory pouted and said sadly, "Come on Jess. I can't do this alone. I need you help. It is your baby."

"Ha! The truth comes out!" Lorelai joked loudly.

Rory turned to her mother and pleaded desperately, "And please, Mom, for the love of all things unhealthy, sugary, and greasy in this world please don't make 'whose the father,' jokes in front of the grandparents…that goes for all of you." Rory added, looking pointedly at Amber, who smiled innocently.

"Rory, Amber," greeted Emily enthusiastically as they all entered the living room for drinks. "Lorelai," she added with slightly less enthusiasm, followed by an even less enthusiastic, "Luke." Last but not least an almost flat toned, "Jess."

Chorused back were a mix of 'Hello, Mom's' 'Hi, Emily's' and 'Nice to see you Grandma.'

"Well, sit down everybody let me get you some drinks," said Emily, walking over to the drink cart, but before stopping to yell up he steps, "Richard, they're here!"

Emily prepared all her guests drinks, with an odd glance at Rory when she asked for soda instead of her usual.

"Hello everyone," said Richard, finally making his entrance. He fixed himself a drink before sitting down in his usual armchair.

"Lorelai, Luke. Business going well I hope?" asked Richard politely and the next few minutes were filled with pleasant small talk about the Inn and the diner.

"Rory, Amber, Jess. Anything new with you three?" asked Emily a few minutes later.

"Actually," began Rory, finding Jess's hand and holding it in her own, "Jess and I have something we want to tell you."

Emily nodded for her granddaughter to continue with polite interest.

"We have decided…Well, we are, um…"

"Yes, Rory?" implored Richard, taking a sip of his scotch.

"We're pregnant," Rory blurted out. Jess thought he might be lucky enough to live his whole life without seeing a spit take than other in a movie or television show, but he was sorely disappointed by Richard's reaction.

"What!" squealed Emily, standing up suddenly.

"Mom, please calm down," Lorelei said from he couch in a lame attempt to quell her mother's violent reaction.

"How could this happen?" Emily exclaimed, pacing.

"Grandma, please. We're adults. We're married," protested Rory.

"Babies are expensive, but only one of you has a solid, regular income and you, Rory, will most likely take time off."

"My office has paid maternity leave," explained Rory, standing up.

"But the maternity leave they offer now days is not nearly long enough…and what if you want to make you're absence more permanent."

"Grandma," said Rory, putting her hand to her grandmother's arm, stopping her pacing, and to hopefully calm her, "We have things under control. We know how to handle ourselves. We have money saved up and we can scrimp if necessary. And if worse really does come to worse, there is you and Grandpa, and Mom, and Luke, and Dad, who would all be willing to help us."

"But are you sure you are ready?" asked Emily, looking intently back at Rory.

"Of course we are."

"Both of you?" reiterated Emily, raising her eyebrows in silent communication and Rory understood instantly what she meant.

"Is that a lack of faith in us or just in Jess?" asked Rory, almost silently.

"Rory-,"

"Because I wouldn't have married a loser," Rory continued louder. Everyone was staring silently at the scene before them, sometimes occasionally glancing at Jess to see how he was reacting, but he didn't even notice. His eyes were glued on Rory, her face, stern. Her eyes, shimmering just a bit more than usual from either unshed tears or passion or both. Her voice was unyielding, yet just slightly shaking from forced calm. If things were heading as Jess thought they were heading, this would be the first time that Rory had stood up for him to Emily. She had stood up for him with Lorelai and Luke and basically anyone else who thought that they maybe didn't belong together, but never Emily.

"Jess's is going to be a wonderful father," said Rory with determination before glancing back at her husband, for just a second their eyes connecting, before she turned back to Emily and said a little meeker, "He already is."

Emily was silent. (For maybe the first time she really didn't know what to say.)

Rory continued, "I can't just stand aside anymore as you bash him, and that is what you are doing, I'm not being paranoid. Mom can attest to this, but anyway. If you should be worried about anyone being a parent it should be me." No one said anything as Rory paused. They all knew where this was going.

Rory closed her eyes for a moment, as though holding back threatening tears. "I'm the one that screwed up. I'm the one that left. I'm the one who is totally unprepared for this," Rory said, voice cracking. "This girl," continued Rory, motioning toward Amber with one of her hands, "That you love, and spoil, and gush over because she is cute and sweet and polite and funny and smart, but not because of anything I did. Jess raised her like that in the first nine years of her life. Some of those years on a barely nothing income." Jess would have protested this comment if the moment hadn't been so serious.

"Him, not me." Rory concluded then took an unsure deep breath, eyes glistening even more. "Excuse me," she said, putting her hands on her face, rushing out of the room.

"Rory," Jess called after her, before jumping off the couch and chasing after her.

"Mom, we need to talk," said Lorelai, practically dragging her mother out of the room leaving behind Richard, Luke, and Amber, all uncomfortable and silent.

Jess found Rory outside on the back patio where she had once found him not too many weeks ago.

"Hey," said Jess as he approached her, "Whatcha thinking?"

She was silent a second before answering. "How we are going to explain to this one," Rory stated, putting her hand on her stomach, "Why they never meet their great-grandparents."

Jess wrinkled his brow, confused and unsure where Rory was going with that. "Because you…killed them?"

Rory gave him a look that clearly said she didn't appreciate his humor at the moment. "Because they disowned me."

"They wouldn't do that."

"Wanna bet?"

"They adore you…"

"Not after that."

"…which is, consequently, why they despise me."

Rory turned to Jess and sighed, "So what did you think of my little freak out in there."

Jess absentmindedly tucked a strand of hair behind Rory's ear before replying in earnest, "I think it made me fall in love with you all over again."

The slightest grin appeared on Rory lips, "You sure know what to say to make a girl feel good."

Jess shrugged, "It's a gift." Jess put an arm around his wife's shoulders, "You know we have to go back in, don't you."

"Do we really?"

"They're your grandparents."

"Oh, so now there my grandparents," Rory joked.

"Hey, you owe me favor. Last time we were on this very patio, you agreed that you owed me one and I'm calling you out."

Rory looked at him a moment before conceding, "Fine…but this isn't the way I thought you would spend your favor on."

"Dirty," teased Jess, leading her back towards the house.

After entering they were stopped mid-hallway by Emily and Lorelai.

"Jess, Rory," said Lorelei, "Your grandmother has something she would like to say to you. Mom?"

"Jess, Rory. I have something that I would like to say to you," said Emily in a way that was neither forced nor rehearsed (note the sarcasm). "I apologize for the way I reacted to your news. It was uncalled for. I was wr-…"

Lorelai nudged her mother lightly with her elbow.

"Lorelai, I can very well do this on my own without you monitoring me as if I were a little child."

"Fine," said Lorelai, exiting the hallway, yet obviously standing just around the corner, listening in.

Emily cleared her throat, "I was… I was wr-,"

"Wrong," Jess supplied in a polite voice, hiding his smirk.

"Yes," agreed Emily, with difficulty though when she continued she was more relaxed, more natural, more sincere. "I was wrong about Luke, so I suppose I was wrong about you too, Jess. You're not the man I would have chosen for my granddaughter, but she chose you and that has to mean something. And I need to commend you on how well you raised your daughter. From now on I will try to treat you with more respect. Now, if you please, let's all go to dinner and celebrate the future addition to our family…Lorelai you can stop hiding now."

Emily left the three behind, two of which taken back and surprised.

"Wow," whispered Rory.

"Yeah, I know," Lorelai deadpanned, "I didn't tell her to say half those things."

"She admitted she was wrong," continued a flabbergasted (that's a fun word) Rory.

"I'm starving, let's hope Emily isn't serving some disgusting European dish," commented Lorelai before going off to the dinning room. Rory and Jess, on the other hand, walked there slowly.

"So, are we good now?"

"Hmm?"

"Me and Emily. She said she was going to try and respect me from now on."

"Keyword, try."

"Meaning…?"

"She's just going to be a lot more subtle from now on." Jess frowned, but Rory just gave him a little shrug and a smile.

Wow, so this is what it was like typing chapter for "Christmas Miracles" Long chap…