Chapter 25

October 17th, 2021

Rory was driving down I-90, heading home from Boston, singing along to The Beatles' 'Here Comes The Sun' with Em, Em having agreed to play something else besides animation soundtracks for a change. Neither of them could really stay in tune, but it was fun nonetheless and made the time pass faster. They really weren't very far out anymore, approaching Auburn already.

It had truly been an exceptional weekend, and despite the small headache she'd woken up with that morning, it had left Rory with a good feeling. Maybe it was really possible to see the guys as her friends again? Seeing Logan was always a little weird - but it hadn't been uncomfortable. She was able to just be herself, and it was relief to know she had a strong group of friends who were open with her return. Sometimes that was just what one needed, wasn't it?

Naturally, the discussion about her dating Seth hadn't been the highlight of the evening for her, but she was glad it was rather out than something she needed to keep as a secret. She didn't one any one of them finding that out through some external sources.

She wondered what Logan really thought though. He hadn't really said much. But overall - she'd done what she wanted. She hadn't appeared like she was just sitting idly around, but that she was living - that's what she wanted to be doing.

Brunch with Gigi and their dad had been good too. They'd gone to the Sonsie, which was a little fancier than Rory's usual tastes, but the burger with smoked bacon and calabrian pepper aioli had indeed been amazing. So had the Banana foster French Toast Em had allowed Rory to steal a few bites from.

Rory had offered to help Gigi with her college applications one of these weekends and she was just glad she could be useful. In a way she was excited to get to know her half-sister a little better - seeing how she saw the world through her writing and what she wanted to major in, since she'd been a little reluctant to state that at the dinner. She didn't know why, but it wasn't like she had a lot of experience in living with her dad and knowing what he could be like while around 24/7. Maybe Gigi worried about his opinion or just felt it was something she wanted to figure out herself first.

As another song ended, Rory was pulled out of her thoughts by Em.

"Can we call daddy? I want to tell him about what we did," Em requested, excitedly.

"Um, sure," Rory said, having not really considered calling Jess and sharing this with him, but she was perhaps a little naive to think that it would not come up next weekend when Em would be at Jess' again. It was a Sunday so she doubted Jess was up to much, other than writing or something around the house.

The song was turned down and replaced with the ringing tone.

"Yeah?" Jess answered after the 6th ring, sounding a little out of breath.

"Daddy!" Em exclaimed from the back seat at his voice.

"Hi, Jess," Rory added too. "Em just wanted to call, if you're not busy. We're just on our way back," she said, having mentioned that they'd be going to Boston. It was strange how much calendar coordination there was between two co-parents. Even if she didn't usually give him an exact itinerary, he still usually knew where they were, at least more or less, especially if they went overnight, how she could be reached and so forth. They didn't text this, but Rory put all of these things into a shared calendar just in case.

"Sure," he replied, still breathing heavily, some odd echo in the background along with sharp squeaky noises.

"Yesterday was so much fun, daddy!" Em continued. "We played baseball and there were pink swings, and a carousel and this big room with all these colors like someone had painted on the walls," Em listed, speaking quickly and not each of her sentences making complete sense, going into a lot of detail on the giant ice cream Finn had bought her.

"Wow, it does sound like you had a big day," Jess commented, but he sounded a little distracted.

"And Finn carried me on his shoulders and I could see so far," Em continued.

"He did, did he?" Jess reacted, and Rory could definitely pick up on something in his tone. She could already guess that what he really wanted to ask her why she was spending so much time with Finn these days, having briefly mentioned seeing Finn a few times in the past months as well.

"And Logan and Colin played Jenga with me. It was huge!" she continued.

Now Rory was already biting her lip, hoping that Jess wasn't fully paying attention. He had sounded like he was a little distracted, and she tried to grab the thought by its tail and turn things around before he had a chance to comment on the latter.

"Where are you anyways? You sound off," Rory commented.

"Esporta. Racquetball," Jess responded without elaborating.

"I didn't know you played racquetball," Rory exclaimed, also wondering with whom he was playing racquetball. Sure, it was a game also played alone sometimes, but she doubted a solo-game was something Jess would bother driving into Hartford for. She had no right to inquire, really, but she couldn't help being curious and under the circumstances it really just was a defensive move.

"So Logan, eh?" Jess asked, having caught up with what she was trying to do. "I didn't know he was around," he added, keeping his comment calm and controlled.

"Just a friendly group reunion," Rory said like it was no big deal, but they both knew he had more to say.

"Grandpa got me a LOL doll," Em pitched in, shifting the topic back to what she'd been meaning to talk about.

As Jess and Em talked, Rory's mind wandered.

Rory did not look toward having this conversation with Jess again, already expecting something accusatory like taking his little girl to see those douches. She also didn't need Jess feeling threatened by Logan, knowing Logan would certainly be the worst option Jess could ever imagine to come back into her picture, even if it wasn't very topical at the moment.

She wasn't eager to have that type of conversation with Jess ever, not about Seth, not about anyone - and the other way around. But if things worked out, with anyone, it was only a matter of time, wasn't it? One of these days one of them was going to have to bite the lemon on whomever the other chose to be Em's step-parent. The other would have no say in it. Would they remain as civil then?


January 13th, 2017

Rory was sitting at the counter at Luke's, tapping her fingers nervously against the cup of coffee Caesar had brought over without asking. The drink was untouched. Luke was out of town for business somewhere, and there was relatively little of the usual crowd around the diner. That was probably a good thing that there wasn't anyone eager to talk to her, as she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be much of a conversation partner right now.

Her knee bounced involuntarily.

She really hadn't been expecting to dread having this conversation for the second time around, especially this soon.

The door behind her chimed but she didn't look, deep in thought.

"It's actually unfair how hot your ass looks on that stool. Just like when you were 17," a husky whisper alerted her, recognizing both the tone and the content in an instant, making her suddenly feel very warm.

They weren't public about seeing each other yet, having not wanted to cause unnecessary rumors, Jess never having been much for town gossip, hence Jess' hand only brushed against her ass in passing, his eyes doing most of the talking to follow him upstairs to Luke's old apartment that he was free to use for the time being. He was still mostly off in Philly, but found more and more reason to come back for weekends, always finding some excuse to come be around Rory.

Jess headed upstairs ahead of him, and Rory slipped away after him a minute later. Sneaking around was half the fun.

The old wooden stairs up to Luke's old apartment were still just as squeaky, bringing back a lot of memories. There were so many times they'd gotten so close to getting to the point of no return with Jess up there back in the day, and last weekend they'd definitely made some new, much more adventurous, memories in that apartment. Once on the bed, a few times on the kitchen counter and then the shower. Though the latter really had been way too small for what they'd attempted.

As Rory closed the apartment door behind her Jess' lips were on hers in an instant, sucking her into a quickly deepening kiss.

"Wait, Jess..," Rory panted, as his lips were already going down her neck.

"What?" Jess asked, sounding confused but having not given up on kissing her just yet.

"I need to tell you something," Rory added, fighting herself to not get pulled in by what she was feeling.

"So tell me," Jess urged, without stopping, his hand already sliding up her blouse.

"Jess - really. I'm serious," Rory warned, pulling herself away and walked to the middle of the room, needing to spit it out.

"Sorry," Jess apologized, hoping he hadn't been out of line. Rory had been so into it the last few times, he hadn't even stopped to doubt she wanted it anymore.

"No it's not that, I just really need to get this out," Rory said, sensing her pulling away might have seemed a little abrupt.

"Okay," Jess exhaled, and Rory could tell he was becoming worried, but stepped closer to her anyways.

"I'm pregnant," Rory blurted out. "I am pregnant," she repeated with a sigh, feeling like she wasn't even entirely sure if she'd gotten the words out the first time. She hadn't said it out loud to anyone this time before this. Not even her mother.

Between when the baby had been conceived and when she'd realized she was again craving apples, thankfully feeling less nauseous this time, and missed her period, she'd already figured out that rushing things probably wasn't her brightest idea. She'd even talked to a therapist about that, having been determined to get her head straight to give this relationship with Jess a fair shot. She was really trying, despite not quite being there yet. Even her therapist had urged her to delay getting pregnant, or making any life-changing decisions, a little suggesting she was just trying to replace her loss, which couldn't be replaced that easily. It made sense. But there had been that dive-in-head-first (even if the lake was a shallow one) kind of feeling in her already - and here they were now anyways.

"You're serious?" Jess asked, staying completely neutral, making it really difficult for Rory to read him. Sure, she knew he'd conciously agreed to it, but now it was suddenly very real, very fast.

"Uh-uh," Rory said, sounding very nervous. She looked up too, feeling a little emotional already. She didn't know what she was feeling or thinking yet either. Happy? That was what she'd wanted, right? Panicked? Scared? All of the above?

"And here I was thinking you couldn't get any hotter," Jess said, a wide grin appearing on his lips, and he soon closed the space between them and kissed her, his hands caressing her body lazily, her abdomen included.

Rory could tell Jess was beyond happy, she could sense him grinning through their kiss.

"You feeling okay?" he murmured between their kisses next, his need for her having not died out.

It was strange how by getting a response this positive from Jess made her feel a lot better about things too. It had been the response she'd hoped to hear from Logan but never had gotten a chance to hear, despite that having probably been wishful thinking anyways.

But she hoped that seeing Jess this happy would be sort of infectious.Surely being nervous and hesitant about this whole thing was normal? Maybe she was just overthinking things? Maybe things were indeed going to be alright?