The day has started unusually cold, even for late February in Stars Hollow. By noon clouds were scudding across the sky, low and grey and promising snow. Michel finally flipped on the weather channel about an hour later, just in time to hear the warnings about a blizzard that was forecasted to hit the area that evening. Lorelai and the Inn staff spent the rest of the afternoon checking the back-up generator, getting extra firewood, distributing extra blankets in the guest rooms and calling the night staff in early. She was on her way home by 4:30 and the snow was already starting to fall. Luckily she'd thought to call ahead to Luke's and dinner was waiting for her to pick up.

"Are you going to be all right tonight? Storm's supposed to get pretty bad," Luke asked as he handed over the to go boxes.

"We'll be fine. Most of the firewood you brought over is still there and I'll drag a bunch of it in as soon as I get home."

"Do you have flashlights and candles? Extra batteries? Matches?"

"Yes Luke." The tone was playful but Lorelai's eyes were flashing a small bit of impatience. She'd had a very long day and was anxious to get home. The baby wasn't due for another two weeks but she still didn't want to leave Rory alone for too long. Some part of her 'Mom radar' was going off, she just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Take these with you just in case, okay." Luke handed her a bag of emergency supplies. Seeing the rebellion on her face, he followed by handing her a large flask of coffee as well. "If you argue, I'll take this back."

"Mouth, meet silence." She headed for the jeep. The snow was falling faster and the wind was picking up. She wanted to get home.

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"Rory! I brought dinner!" The door blew shut behind Lorelai in whirl of ice and snowflakes. She'd made it home just in time. It had taken her a half hour to get from the diner back to the house and visibility had dropped to nothing by the time she pulled into the driveway. "Respond please!"

"We're in here!"

" 'We'? Are you Queen Elizabeth now?" Lorelai rounded the corner into Rory's room and found her sprawled awkwardly across her bed. Lane was sitting on the floor sorting through CD's. "Hi Lane."

"Hi Lorelai. I stopped by to drop off some new music. Babies can hear before they're born you know and I consider it my civil duty to give this kid good taste." She gestured to the wide array in front of her. "Everything from the Clash to Bowie."

"Nice impulse. As payment, you're staying here tonight. The storm broke and there's no way I'm letting you go out in it now. Call your roommates before it gets too late so they don't worry. I'm going to set up-" A frantic pounding on the front door interrupted the sentence. "What the-" She left the girls and went to see what was the matter. "Paris!"

The angry college student in question shoved her way past Lorelai, dropping a couple of grocery bags as she did so. "That jerk! How could I have spent so much time with such an immature, unemotional, overbearing asshole? Rory!" Without waiting for a reply she headed towards Rory's bedroom.

"Hi Paris. Sure, come on in. Can I take your coat?" Lorelai groused to herself as she collect the dropped bags and lugged them towards the kitchen.

"Paris! What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Rory was more than mildly surprised to see her friend appear in her room. "Did you drive in that snowstorm?"

"What snowstorm?"

"This one." Lane yanked the curtain aside to reveal the near whiteout conditions beyond.

"Oh. So that's why the guy at the grocery store looked me funny."

"Grocery store? Paris what's going on?" Rory managed to sit up without help, though it took a few minutes.

"Jamie and I broke up. How I could have dated that emotional shut-in for as long as I did astounds me. And I stopped at the grocery store on the way here because I thought break-ups require junk food."

"Paris how'd you like to become my adopted daughter?" Lorelai reappeared in the doorway. "I think you brought every single bit of junk food known to mankind."

"Men are the scum of the earth."

"And on that note, I'm going to get dinner together. Paris, you're staying here tonight as well. Call whomever you need to call so they don't worry." Lorelai escaped back to the kitchen to avoid the rant she sensed was about to erupt from Paris. Let Rory and Lane deal with it; she'd rather get food and coffee ready for immanent consumption in mass quantity. She'd already drained the thermos that Luke gave her on the way home. Once the food was ready, she'd go pull out some movies and-

"Mom!"

"Lorelai!"

"Lorelai!"

The three hysterical screams split the air simultaneously, causing Lorelai to drop a pot of coffee on her foot. She let out a yelp of her own and jumped back to avoid getting burned, only to crash into the counter and end up on the floor. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her right ankle she got up and went to see what was the matter.

Rory was standing next to her bed, frozen in place and staring down at the floor at a rapidly expanding puddle. Lane was standing on the desk chair as though she was trying to escape a mouse, while Paris was pressed up against the closet door, looking as though she was going to faint. "Oh shit."

"Mom?" Rory sounded five years old again. "I think my water broke."

"Okay." Lorelai took a deep breath. Water breaking. That meant hospital. Right, call the doctor and go to the hospital. "Okay. We're going to call Dr. Larson and go to the hospital. The baby's coming." She gently took Rory by the arm and steered her towards the bathroom, while simultaneously grabbing clean sweats from the laundry pile. "You change into something dry and stick a towel between your legs while I find the phone. Are you having any contractions yet?"

"No." Rory tried to mentally steady herself. The baby was actually going to come out soon. And she wasn't ready for it, not at all. She hadn't even picked the adoptive parents yet. She thought she had more time. Her back throbbed again and she automatically put her hands over the ache. Lorelai's eyes narrowed at the movement.

"Is that a contraction?"

"No, just the backache that's been bugging me all day."

"What backache?" All of a sudden those earlier beeps on the 'Mom radar' made sense. And Lorelai did not want them to make sense, not right now, not in the middle of a blizzard.

"My back's been cramping up since around noon. It comes and goes but it hasn't really hurt." Her eyes went wide with the realization. "Oh shit."

"Rory! You've been labor all day and you didn't tell anybody!"

"I didn't realize!" Rory's protest was cut short as the ache in her back coalesced into pain and pressure. "Oww!"

Lorelai was at her side in a second. "Deep breaths. All the way and slowly let it out. In and out. Good girl, it'll be over in a minute." The contraction eased and Rory straightened up.

"I don't think I'm going to like this."

"You aren't supposed to like it. We need to call Dr. Larson and head for the hospital. How close together are those back cramps?"

"I don't know. I wasn't really paying any attention." Rory took a cautious deep breath. "Not too close."

"All right." Lorelai looked over at Lane and Paris. "You two help Rory change into some clean clothing while I call the doctor. And for God's sake stop looking so shocked. You knew this kid was coming out sometime." She didn't mean to sound so caustic but she couldn't yell at Rory right now and her nerves had to be vented somewhere.

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There was no dial tone. On any of the extensions Lorelai picked up. And her cell, along with Paris and Rory's had no signal. One look out the window and she knew that snow tires or no snow tires they weren't driving anywhere until the storm let up and the snowplow cleared the road. All she could do was pray that the storm ended soon and that Rory had a long labor ahead of her.

"What did Dr. Larson say?" Rory appeared in the doorway with both her hands pressed against her lower back. Paris was behind her with the hospital bag.

Lorelai took a deep breath. "I couldn't get through. I think the lines are down and there's no reception on any of the cell phones."

"What! We have to call the doctor, I'm in labor for crying out loud!" Rory grabbed at the phone. "I'll try." And got the same response that Lorelai did. No dial tone, no reception. "So we'll just go to the hospital now and call Dr. Larson from there."

"Have you looked outside? There's no way to drive in that." Lorelai pointed to the window for emphasis. "Even if the jeep could plow through that much snow visibility is crap. Driving is way too dangerous right now. We're going to have to wait until we can call an ambulance. Their vehicles are equipped for this."

Rory slumped into a kitchen chair, on the verge of tears. "This is not happening. I'm in labor and I can't get to the hospital because of a damn snowstorm."

"First labors take forever. I'm sure this'll clear up soon and you'll be at the hospital in plenty of time. Right?" The Voice of Reason, a.k.a., Paris set the bag down and glanced over at Lorelai. "We'll keep trying the phones every so often. Cell phone coverage should come back pretty soon and we'll have an ambulance in no time."

"Paris is right sweetheart. Let's just eat dinner, and then watch a movie or something. We've got plenty of time." Lorelai took a mental deep breath and started improvising a new game plan. "If Paris will take over in here, I'm going to mop up your floor before anything stains."

"I took care of that Lorelai." A very shaky looking Lane appeared in the doorway with a pile of damp towels. "I'll go toss these in the washer. You might want to clean up that coffee though." She nodded to the drying brown stain and broken glass shards from Lorelai's earlier mishap, then hastened to the laundry room

"You broke the coffee maker." Rory stared in mock horror at the shattered pot. "Why did you kill Rufus? What has he ever done to you?" A tiny bit of her old personality shone through in the lighthearted banter. There was light at the end of the pregnancy tunnel and Rory was looking forward to it, despite the weather conditions outside.

"The screaming from your room startled me," Lorelai commented. "Somehow I don't think coffee'd be a good idea for any of us right now anyway."

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Despite the mountain of food on the table all four women did little more than pick at their plates. Several times during the meal Rory would suck in her breath and her hands would fly to her belly as the process of childbirth continued unabated within her. Each time Lorelai would talk her through it, encouraging her breath deeply and regularly. After the third such occurrence within 30 minutes both Lane and Paris were beginning to look a little pale. As soon as she could Lorelai yanked them aside.

"You both have to hold it together, whether you want to or not. I have no idea when we'll be able to get Rory to medical attention and I absolutely cannot deal with either of you freaking out right now. If you can't handle this, then you go up to my room and stay there where she can't see you. Understood?"

The both gulped and nodded. "Good. Here's the game plan: we'll keep trying the phones every fifteen minutes but I'm pretty sure service won't be back for awhile; in the meantime we're going to keep Rory calm and do whatever we can to support her. We still have power right now but we need to be prepared in case it goes out. Lane, you know the house better. Go bring down extra blankets and pillows, along with candles, matches and flashlights. Luke sent a bag of stuff as well; it's on the kitchen counter. There's a huge pile of firewood outside the back door, I'm going to bring in as much of it as I can. We'll set ourselves up in the living room. Paris, go sit with Rory. Talk to her, time her contractions and keep her as calm as you can. I don't care if you have to bite your tongue till you bleed, you will not stress her out in anyway." Both girls moved to their assigned tasks while Lorelai bundled herself into her heaviest clothing and mentally cursed at the storm outside.

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An hour and a half later all four women were gathered in front of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' while a fire blazed cheerily in the fireplace. The scene was downright homey. With one exception.

"God damn it!" Rory had Lorelai's hand in a death grip while a contraction threatened to overwhelm her. "I don't want to do this anymore. It hurts too much, I can't do it!" The pain passed and she relaxed slightly. "How far apart are they?"

"Still every ten minutes or so," Paris said, noting the latest contraction down on the pad she'd retrieved for that purpose. "They're all lasting under a minute."

"Doesn't feel like it," Rory groused as she reached for a water bottle. "Feels like I'm being tortured for information that I don't have."

"Well now we know you'd be of no use as a secret agent. Sidney and Vaughan have job security," Lorelai joked. She discretely glanced at the clock. Almost 8 and the weather showed no sign of clearing up. Damn. Lane was on phone detail at the moment and by the shake of her head service was still out. At least they still had power. Even as Lorelai thought this, the overhead lights flickered and dimmed but stayed on. The howling of the wind outside was getting worse as well.

"Does anybody else have the feeling we're stuck in a 'Lifetime Movie of the Week'?" Lane asked, breaking the tension and causing Rory to laugh a bit.

"All we need is Justine Bateman and Rob Estes and we're in business." Lorelai swiped a handful of popcorn from under Paris's nose and tossed her a candy bar in retribution. "This storm can't last for that much longer."

"What does it feel like?" Paris had been quiet since the movie had been turned on, claiming she'd never seen it and that she wanted to understand the philosophical implications of the Oompa-Loompas.

"What does what feel like?" Lane replied as she reached for the Twizzlers.

"Labor," was the quiet reply. "What does it feel like? I mean, I get that it hurts but it can't be just pain. Can it?"

Rory was silent for a moment and then spoke. "A lot of pressure. All the muscles in my stomach seem to be clenching up at once, as hard as they can. It doesn't start from the outside; it seems to come from deep inside. Like my whole body is squeezing together, almost imploding. As each one comes, a little bit more of my body gets involved. I can't really think or concentrate on anything except the pain. In fact it's getting hard to talk during them. All you want is for it to end and each one seems to last for longer and longer." Any further explanation was cut off by the arrival of one of these infamous contractions. Once again Rory seemed to curl in on herself, pulling her arms and legs close in and forming herself into an awkward ball around her belly. A low, guttural moan escaped her lips as she struggled against the hurt inside. As soon as it passed, she struggled to her feet and began to once more pace restlessly around the room. Lorelai, Lane and Paris all exchanged helpless glances. They were useless to alleviate Rory's agony or help her with her struggle. All they could do was watch from the sidelines like superfluous cheerleaders.

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By 10:30 that night all pretenses of movie watching had been abandoned. The pains had changed, shifting and merging, charging the atmosphere with an overwhelming sense of anticipation. Rory's contractions were now coming less than five minutes apart and lasting a good 90 seconds before easing. Sweat was pouring off her and she no longer had the energy to move around the way she had been. She was hunched on the floor in the nest of blankets and pillows that the other women had managed to arrange around her. One of her hands clenched Lane's left hand in a death grip that never eased and Lane had long since ceased to try and free herself. Her fingertips were going numb but if holding on helped Rory to deal with the pain then she wasn't going anywhere.

The storm was showing no signs of easing and phone service was still out. Lorelai had already come to the conclusion that the baby was most likely going to be delivered in the living room and soon. Rory couldn't talk at all during the contractions and seemed to be close to letting go and screaming. Her long-off memories of Rory's birth included the fact that screaming had come right before pushing.

"Mom I can't take this anymore! I gotta push, I gotta push!" And here was the screaming now. "It hurts too much! I can't take this anymore! Make it stop, make it stop!"

"Just keeping breathing sweetheart, keep breathing. It'll be over soon." She shot a worried glance at Paris, who seemed to miraculously understand the meaning. The younger girl rose to her feet and headed towards the bathroom, dialing a cell phone as she went. She was back a few minutes later frowning at the phone and carrying towels, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, a pair of scissors and spool of thread from Lorelai's sewing kit. "Rory, are you sure you have to push?"

"Yes!" The word came out in an animal howl of pure pain. "Get it out of me!"

Lorelai took a shaky breath. This was really happening and she had to deal with it. "Okay, here's what we're going to do: Rory, I'm going to pull your sweats off and take a look. I know it's embarrassing but don't fight me. Paris and Lane sit her up and support her from behind. Help hold her legs. Make it one less thing she has to spend her energy on." Another deep breath and Lorelai reached to get Rory's pants off. She'd shed her top an hour ago and was now clad only in her bra. A quick glance confirmed Lorelai's greatest fear. The top of the head was just barely visible. The baby was definitely coming. "I can see the head Rory. Lots of dark hair." She strove to keep her voice upbeat and cheery. "I guess on the next pain you should push down and hold it for as long as you can." There wasn't long to wait. The contraction came and Rory screamed with the effort. She screamed so loudly in fact that Lorelai was surprised that the Babette and Morey couldn't hear the commotion next door.

"Get it out! Get it out!" The pain ended and Rory collapsed panting back into her friend's arms. "I don't want to do this anymore!"

"That was really good! You've got to keep this up. You keep pushing like that and the baby will be here before you know it."

"I don't want it!" The pain and exhaustion was too much for her to handle and Rory began to cry. "I never wanted it and I hurt all over and this is too much, I can't do this anymore, I don't want to do this anymore, please make it stop, just please make it STOP!" The worst pain yet seized her belly and Rory instinctively leaned forward and bore down as hard as she could, for as long as she could. The baby inched every so slowly towards the outside world.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" And the pain returned and by now the responding push was automatic. Every ounce of energy within in her body focused on the push. The dark, fuzzy little glimpse of baby grew larger.

"Keep pushing Rory, keep pushing!" Lorelai's words of encouragement and Rory's howls of pain seemed to blend into one loud noise that threatened to shatter eardrums for a significant radius. A small, detached part of Lorelai's mind wondered how the hell Babette and Morey could possibly not hear the noise. "Come on, you're almost there! The head's almost out!" She quickly splashed some of the alcohol over her hands and grabbed a towel to hold it ready for the catch.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" A millimeter at a time, the baby's head slipped further into the world and into Lorelai's outstretched hands.

"The head is out! That's the hard part, you're almost done. Hang on just a little longer! Keep it up, you're almost done!"

"GET IT OUT!" The shriek of pure pain, and corresponding reflexive push shot the rest of the little body into the world in a rush of fluid.

"Girl! It's a girl!" Lorelai cried out triumphantly over the mewling wails of the newborn. Delicately she wrapped the towel around the infant, keeping a careful eye on the umbilical cord that still connected Rory and the baby. "She's gorgeous."

Rory let out an exhaustive breath and slumped back against Lane and Paris. The baby was still howling, growing louder with each breath. "I'm so tired."

"You did good. You did so good." Lorelai wanted to hug her daughter but her hands were full of a newborn that was still connected to her mother. The afterbirth hadn't been delivered yet.

Rory closed her eyes and began to groan again as the contractions started racking her body once more. "I thought I was done."

"The placenta has to come out. Just let it come, nice and easy. You've already done the hard part." A few gentle pushes and the afterbirth was out as well, wrapped in a towel that Lane had thought to spread just in time.

With the placenta out, Lorelai used the alcohol to sterilize the scissors and thread and cut the umbilical cord. The baby was on her own now and seemed be settling down.

Almost reflexively, Rory reached for the baby. Very gently, Lorelai nestled the tiny girl into her mother's arms. "Wow."

"Pretty cool, huh?" Despite all the circumstances surrounding the birth, Lorelai couldn't take her eyes off the baby. She was only a few minutes old but already had the elder Gilmore woman wrapped around her little finger. "Almost makes you forget all the pain."

"No way!" Rory's louder than intended reply startled the infant, who promptly started crying again. Without even thinking about it, Rory pulled her bra aside and held the baby to her breast. "I'm never going to forget that! And I'm never doing it again!" She looked down at the little girl, and then yelped in pain. "Oww! She bit me!"

"She gets that from you."

"What?"

"You bit me constantly for the first six weeks. It's why I stopped breastfeeding. Hurt too much."

"Do you hear that? Biting has consequences young lady." The baby let out a burp and promptly fell asleep. "Lovely attention span." Rory yawned and blinked hard. "I feel like sleeping for about the next 10 years. Take her, would you?" Without waiting for a reply, she shifted the baby over to Lorelai and closed her eyes, falling asleep within seconds.

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Not 30 minutes after the newest Gilmore girl made her debut, cell phone reception was restored and paramedics were dispatched to the household. Both Rory and the baby were asleep by then and neither was pleased at being awoken and checked over before being loaded into the ambulance. The flashing lights brought Babette running over despite the weather and Lorelai knew the story would be all over Stars Hollow within the hour. Right now she didn't care. All she wanted was to get her daughter and granddaughter (Holy God, she was a Grandmother!) into competent medical care as quickly as possible and then get some much deserved sleep before dealing with everything in the morning.

Dr. Larson met Rory at the ER and proclaimed her healthy. Antibiotics were prescribed in case of infection and a small tear was repaired, much to Rory's chagrin. The modesty she'd temporarily shed during the birth had already returned. As soon as she'd been admitted to a room, she fell back to sleep.

The baby weighed in at just over 7 lbs, 10 oz, and 19 inches long. Just like her mother, she was proclaimed healthy as could be and was immediately subjected to a blood test, antibiotics and a vitamin K injection before being taken off to the nursery for the night.

Lorelai thought for certain she'd fall asleep but instead found herself sitting outside the nursery till morning, waiting to see the baby again. A plan was beginning to form itself in her mind, a resolution to the dilemma Rory now faced. Unfortunately, discussion of said plan had to wait until Rory was awake and coherent.