Author's note: In my story, Jess didn't leave and the Independence Inn
didn't close. And before everyone tells me that Rory is out of character,
keep in mind she is suppose to be acting this way.
*******************************
Time passed, as it always did. With her sudden windfall, Rory promptly quit her summer job at the Inn and stayed home. She saw no one but her family and went nowhere but her grandparents' home and the doctor's office. The nausea finally started to ease but the depression and lethargy remained.
"Are you crazy Gilmore?" Paris, tired of not having her phone calls returned, showed up on the front porch and forced her way into the house. "I mean it. Have you lost your mind?"
"Yes, Paris you can come in." Rory shut the door and tried to focus on the intense young woman in front of her. "What you doing here?"
"I've been calling and emailing you for the last month, trying to make plans for this fall. Finally I give up hope of response, and call the school myself about rooming together like we talked about. Low and behold, Yale tells me you deferred for a year. What the hell is going on with you? Have you lost your mind?"
"I'm pregnant Paris."
For the first time in her life, Paris Gellar found herself without a reply to a statement. The first intelligible thought that entered her head was 'guh?' "What?"
"Pregnant. It's not a hard concept. Sperm meets egg, nine months later a baby is born."
"How can you be pregnant? You're a virgin."
"That party." It was all Rory had to say. The recognition flashed instantly across Paris's face.
"Oh God." Paris sat down on the couch, her hand to her mouth. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go eat some ice cream. Then I plan to brood over 'Judge Judy.' And you?"
"Very funny." Her mind was racing a hundred miles per hour now, as she sorted through the solutions to the problem. No one would ever say that Paris Gellar didn't think fast. "Are you keeping it?"
"I'm not having an abortion, if that's what you mean. As for the rest, I don't know." Rory decided that the simple approach would be best. She didn't have the energy to fight with Paris right now.
"Then why aren't you going to school? You're going to need an education if you plan to raise the baby."
"Paris, I don't have to explain myself to you." Maybe a fight would get some of this anger out of her chest. And who better to fight with than Paris?
"That's rich Gilmore. You remember me? The person you agreed to be roommates with, the person who has told you all my deep, dark secrets, the person who found you at that party." Paris picked up on the edge in her voice and deliberated softened it. "You've helped me a lot over the last three years. If I can help you now, I'd like to. School starts in two weeks. You can still change your mind."
"And accomplish what exactly? Be remembered as the knocked-up freshman for my entire college career? Give birth in the middle of the spring semester and miss exams? I know; how about I get stared at and asked inappropriate questions wherever I go? I'm showing now Paris. You can't see because of the sweatshirt but it's there. This little bulge that won't go away and will only get bigger. I've deferred for a year and that's that." Rory crossed her arms and fell silent.
"I think you're making a terrible mistake. You put off school now, you might never get there. You'll find yourself caught up in diapers and day care, completely wasting your potential."
"This isn't any of your business Paris," Rory shot back. She felt the familiar nausea rising in the back of her throat and willed it back. This wasn't the time. "I'm not going. I'll be there in a year, when you're a sophomore. I'm not putting it off forever, just for a year."
"You're going to be bored out of your skull a week from now. You don't know how to not go to school."
"No Paris, that's you." Rory stood and held open the front door. "Thank you for coming by Paris, I hope you do well in school."
"I'll leave but don't think this is the end of this. You can't just self- destruct."
"I'm not. But I am tired and Judge Judy started 10 minutes ago. I'll talk you later."
**************
"It won't zip!"
"What won't zip?"
"My 'fat' jeans. I can't get the zipper to move more than ½ an inch!" was Rory's frustrated reply. "Nothing fits me anymore!"
Lorelai hurried into her daughter's room to soothe the latest fit of temper. The morning sickness had finally faded for good two weeks ago, but had been replaced by violent mood swings. "You are four and a half months pregnant. How are you just now discovering that your clothes are too small?"
Rory didn't reply. She didn't want to call attention to just how much time she'd been spending in her baggy pajama's in the last few months. "What am I going to do?"
"Wear some of my stuff today, and then buy new clothes. It's all you can do babe."
"No. There has to be something else. I can't just keep getting fatter."
Lorelai bit back the sarcastic laugh that was trying to fight its way out. "There isn't. Being pregnant means getting bigger. That's just the way it is. I'll take you to the mall tonight after work. Unless you'd like to go your own." Lorelai mentally cursed herself for making the offer but she'd seen the look in Rory's eye the minute she'd made the shopping offer. The last thing Rory wanted to do was shop for maternity clothes with her mother. She knew the answer she was going to get but it still hurt to hear it.
"I'll just go after I find something to wear. You don't have to worry about taking me," Rory replied distantly.
******************
"She's driving me nuts Sookie!" Lorelai stormed into the kitchen at the Independence Inn in full rant mode. She'd even neglected to pick her morning caffeine at Luke's.
"Okay, first calm down. Second, don't scream at the pregnant lady," Sookie replied from her throne. The kitchen staff had taken a vote of which the outcome was that at eight months pregnant, Sookie supervised as queen of the kitchen but didn't have to do any dirty work.
"Sorry. That was incredibly bad of me your highness," Lorelai mocked bowed, then flopped down in the chair next to Sookie. "Did I offend thee?"
"Not really. Bob almost cut off his little toe with a dropped knife earlier so the baby will be deaf no matter what. What's wrong sweetie?" The look on Lorelai's face was hard to miss.
"Rory. Again. She needs bigger clothes and she won't let me go with her. Just another in a long line of things for me to worry about."
"Are you sure you're not just jealous because she's closing herself off from you instead of sharing everything?" Off Lorelai's look, Sookie clarified herself. "You have history of jealousy you know."
"It's not that. I wish I was just jealous. Under normal circumstances I would be but this is really bad." As quickly as the anger had come, Lorelai felt it slip away, replaced by the ever-gnawing worry that was always present in her gut these days. "She's so withdrawn. I don't think she gets out of bed most days when I'm not there. She never talks or smiles or even really looks at other people. Just stares at the TV or a book. She won't communicate with me or her friends. Paris stopped by the other day and Rory nearly took her head off."
"Well as least she told you about that." Sookie tried to offer encouragement.
"She didn't. Paris stopped by to talk to me. She's very worried about Rory. I know she's been through a lot. A traumatic experience, that's just been compounded by the pregnancy but at some point she has to start coming back. And she's not. She's slipping further away."
"Have you thought about getting her talk to someone, a counselor maybe?"
"She won't go. She's intent on staying in the house until after the baby comes. According to Rory, it's too embarrassing to walk around outside now that's she's showing. She's trying to hide it."
"Talk to her doctor. Maybe she's depressed. She has good reason."
"I know. I can't imagine being in her shoes right now. When I got pregnant with Rory, the circumstances were completely different. I don't know how to help her. I don't know if I can."
*******************************
Time passed, as it always did. With her sudden windfall, Rory promptly quit her summer job at the Inn and stayed home. She saw no one but her family and went nowhere but her grandparents' home and the doctor's office. The nausea finally started to ease but the depression and lethargy remained.
"Are you crazy Gilmore?" Paris, tired of not having her phone calls returned, showed up on the front porch and forced her way into the house. "I mean it. Have you lost your mind?"
"Yes, Paris you can come in." Rory shut the door and tried to focus on the intense young woman in front of her. "What you doing here?"
"I've been calling and emailing you for the last month, trying to make plans for this fall. Finally I give up hope of response, and call the school myself about rooming together like we talked about. Low and behold, Yale tells me you deferred for a year. What the hell is going on with you? Have you lost your mind?"
"I'm pregnant Paris."
For the first time in her life, Paris Gellar found herself without a reply to a statement. The first intelligible thought that entered her head was 'guh?' "What?"
"Pregnant. It's not a hard concept. Sperm meets egg, nine months later a baby is born."
"How can you be pregnant? You're a virgin."
"That party." It was all Rory had to say. The recognition flashed instantly across Paris's face.
"Oh God." Paris sat down on the couch, her hand to her mouth. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go eat some ice cream. Then I plan to brood over 'Judge Judy.' And you?"
"Very funny." Her mind was racing a hundred miles per hour now, as she sorted through the solutions to the problem. No one would ever say that Paris Gellar didn't think fast. "Are you keeping it?"
"I'm not having an abortion, if that's what you mean. As for the rest, I don't know." Rory decided that the simple approach would be best. She didn't have the energy to fight with Paris right now.
"Then why aren't you going to school? You're going to need an education if you plan to raise the baby."
"Paris, I don't have to explain myself to you." Maybe a fight would get some of this anger out of her chest. And who better to fight with than Paris?
"That's rich Gilmore. You remember me? The person you agreed to be roommates with, the person who has told you all my deep, dark secrets, the person who found you at that party." Paris picked up on the edge in her voice and deliberated softened it. "You've helped me a lot over the last three years. If I can help you now, I'd like to. School starts in two weeks. You can still change your mind."
"And accomplish what exactly? Be remembered as the knocked-up freshman for my entire college career? Give birth in the middle of the spring semester and miss exams? I know; how about I get stared at and asked inappropriate questions wherever I go? I'm showing now Paris. You can't see because of the sweatshirt but it's there. This little bulge that won't go away and will only get bigger. I've deferred for a year and that's that." Rory crossed her arms and fell silent.
"I think you're making a terrible mistake. You put off school now, you might never get there. You'll find yourself caught up in diapers and day care, completely wasting your potential."
"This isn't any of your business Paris," Rory shot back. She felt the familiar nausea rising in the back of her throat and willed it back. This wasn't the time. "I'm not going. I'll be there in a year, when you're a sophomore. I'm not putting it off forever, just for a year."
"You're going to be bored out of your skull a week from now. You don't know how to not go to school."
"No Paris, that's you." Rory stood and held open the front door. "Thank you for coming by Paris, I hope you do well in school."
"I'll leave but don't think this is the end of this. You can't just self- destruct."
"I'm not. But I am tired and Judge Judy started 10 minutes ago. I'll talk you later."
**************
"It won't zip!"
"What won't zip?"
"My 'fat' jeans. I can't get the zipper to move more than ½ an inch!" was Rory's frustrated reply. "Nothing fits me anymore!"
Lorelai hurried into her daughter's room to soothe the latest fit of temper. The morning sickness had finally faded for good two weeks ago, but had been replaced by violent mood swings. "You are four and a half months pregnant. How are you just now discovering that your clothes are too small?"
Rory didn't reply. She didn't want to call attention to just how much time she'd been spending in her baggy pajama's in the last few months. "What am I going to do?"
"Wear some of my stuff today, and then buy new clothes. It's all you can do babe."
"No. There has to be something else. I can't just keep getting fatter."
Lorelai bit back the sarcastic laugh that was trying to fight its way out. "There isn't. Being pregnant means getting bigger. That's just the way it is. I'll take you to the mall tonight after work. Unless you'd like to go your own." Lorelai mentally cursed herself for making the offer but she'd seen the look in Rory's eye the minute she'd made the shopping offer. The last thing Rory wanted to do was shop for maternity clothes with her mother. She knew the answer she was going to get but it still hurt to hear it.
"I'll just go after I find something to wear. You don't have to worry about taking me," Rory replied distantly.
******************
"She's driving me nuts Sookie!" Lorelai stormed into the kitchen at the Independence Inn in full rant mode. She'd even neglected to pick her morning caffeine at Luke's.
"Okay, first calm down. Second, don't scream at the pregnant lady," Sookie replied from her throne. The kitchen staff had taken a vote of which the outcome was that at eight months pregnant, Sookie supervised as queen of the kitchen but didn't have to do any dirty work.
"Sorry. That was incredibly bad of me your highness," Lorelai mocked bowed, then flopped down in the chair next to Sookie. "Did I offend thee?"
"Not really. Bob almost cut off his little toe with a dropped knife earlier so the baby will be deaf no matter what. What's wrong sweetie?" The look on Lorelai's face was hard to miss.
"Rory. Again. She needs bigger clothes and she won't let me go with her. Just another in a long line of things for me to worry about."
"Are you sure you're not just jealous because she's closing herself off from you instead of sharing everything?" Off Lorelai's look, Sookie clarified herself. "You have history of jealousy you know."
"It's not that. I wish I was just jealous. Under normal circumstances I would be but this is really bad." As quickly as the anger had come, Lorelai felt it slip away, replaced by the ever-gnawing worry that was always present in her gut these days. "She's so withdrawn. I don't think she gets out of bed most days when I'm not there. She never talks or smiles or even really looks at other people. Just stares at the TV or a book. She won't communicate with me or her friends. Paris stopped by the other day and Rory nearly took her head off."
"Well as least she told you about that." Sookie tried to offer encouragement.
"She didn't. Paris stopped by to talk to me. She's very worried about Rory. I know she's been through a lot. A traumatic experience, that's just been compounded by the pregnancy but at some point she has to start coming back. And she's not. She's slipping further away."
"Have you thought about getting her talk to someone, a counselor maybe?"
"She won't go. She's intent on staying in the house until after the baby comes. According to Rory, it's too embarrassing to walk around outside now that's she's showing. She's trying to hide it."
"Talk to her doctor. Maybe she's depressed. She has good reason."
"I know. I can't imagine being in her shoes right now. When I got pregnant with Rory, the circumstances were completely different. I don't know how to help her. I don't know if I can."
