Chapter 1: Unbearable Pain:

Twenty-seven-year-old Tristan Michael DuGrey was on a plane headed for Sydney, Australia on a business trip. A trip he was dreading with every minute that passed. Tristan loved his job, but this business trip came at the wrong time. His wife of five years was two months pregnant with their first child, and he had to be away from her for three weeks. He hated knowing that he had to be so far away from her for so long, especially since lately, she'd been having problems with the pregnancy. He'd only been gone for a few hours, but he already missed her and was really anxious to talk to her to see how she was doing. He knew, however that her grandparents were throwing a party that she would have to attend without him.

'I'll just call her when I get settled.' Tristan thought.

Back in Hartford, Rory was trying to find an outfit for the party. So far she'd had no success. Being two months pregnant was making her a little awkward and had started to hinder her clothing sizes. She had an hour left until she was supposed to leave for her grandparents and she still couldn't find anything. She was beginning to get frustrated as she had been looking since she got back from taking Tristan to airport two hours ago.

Ring…ring.

"Hello?" Rory answered after locating the phone. She had inherited her mother's ability to misplace the phone.

"Hey, mini-me." Lorelai replied.

"Hey, mom." Rory said, "What's up?"

"Luke won't give me coffee." Lorelai replied.

"Per usual." Rory said, rolling her eyes in amusement. "So are you guys coming to grandma and grandpa's party?"

"Yes. No choice." Lorelai replied, "So did Tristan leave for Australia yet?"

"Yep. Two hours ago. And I've been looking in my closet for clothes since then." Rory replied.

"Two hours, huh?" Lorelai asked.

"Yes. And nothing." Rory said, sighing in frustration.

"What about the blue spaghetti strap shimmery dress?" Lorelai suggested.

"Doesn't fit." Rory replied.

"The red sleeveless?" Lorelai asked.

"That too. None of my current formal or semi-formal dresses fit anymore." Rory replied, "Well they do but they're a little tight and no one but family knows I'm pregnant yet."

"Why not?" Lorelai asked.

"Because it would create too much publicity around me and Tristan and we both don't want that. All of Hartford and most of Connecticut will know within a day once we tell anyone else." Rory replied, "The problems of both of us having high profile jobs."

"So not even Paris and Lane know?" Lorelai asked, "And when are you telling friends?"

"When it is totally impossible to hide and Paris and Lane do know." Rory replied.

Paris and Lane had actually been the first to know. Before Tristan had even known, but that was only because she had been scared of what he would say once she told him.

"You know I'm not the kind of person to be in the spotlight." Rory added.

"Yes but you are a Gilmore and you're married to a DuGrey as well as working at the top newspaper in Connecticut." Lorelai told her daughter, "And Tristan's job is pretty high up there."

"Exactly the reason only family and Lane and Paris know so far." Rory said, "I still have nothing to wear though."

"Then it's a good thing I am standing outside your house." Lorelai remarked looking at the sheer size of her daughter and son-in-law's house. Rory was a part of the world she had tried to save her from.

"What? Why?" She asked as she gave up the clothes search and headed downstairs.

"Just come to the door and find out." Lorelai replied.

"Mean." Rory said as she finished descending the stairs, "Hey I'm gonna hang up the phone and answer the door." She added before hanging up the phone.

"Okay." Lorelai said also hanging up her cell.

Rory put the phone down on the table in the foyer before she opened the door.

"My daughter!" Lorelai said her arms full of garment bags.

"My mom! " Rory said, "Okay we make it sound as if we haven't seen each other in ages."

"It's been two days. That's long enough for me." Lorelai remarked putting the bags down and hugging her daughter.

"Okay." Rory said hugging her mom back.

"So I brought you some dresses to look at." Lorelai said.

"What like you knew I didn't have anything to wear?" Rory wondered laughing, "Anything good in those garment bags?"

"Only the best for my lovely pregnant daughter." Lorelai answered, "And I anticipated that you would have nothing to wear."

After taking some time to look through the dresses her mom brought by for her, she finally found one that met with her approval and got ready. "Hon, I'll meet you there, ok? Luke's already there, and I know he's probably bored out of his mind!" Lorelai called out to Rory before heading out to her car.

"Okay mom! See you there!" Rory responded before shutting the door to her room. As soon as she was finished, she headed out the door to her grandparent's to meet up with her mom and Luke.

The Gilmore's' party was in full swing, and in typical Hartford style, only the who's who of Hartford elite were in attendance. It was a pretty boring party and without Tristan there, Rory was feeling a little lonely. She was the only married person there who didn't have her partner present.

'Stupid business trip.' She thought as she walked around the party mingling.

One thing she really hated was that Tristan was often gone on long business trips. She hated being alone in the huge house, by herself with just maids and other servants. Her whole life growing up she had lived with just her mom. Then it had been Paris all through Yale and then with Tristan after Yale. They didn't live in the house they were in until they got married though. Rory's grandparent's party ended about 11 pm and Rory started to drive home. As soon as she got home, she got undressed and crawled into bed. She lay there in the dark for a few minutes, and rubbed her still flat stomach. "Night, baby. Daddy will be home soon." she said before turning over and going to sleep. She quietly muttered to herself. "It's just three weeks."

Two weeks later, one week before Tristan would arrive home, Lorelai had decided to go visit Rory and spend some time with her. She rang the doorbell, but no one came to answer the door. After a few moments of no answer, she tried calling the house phone, then Rory's cell. Still no response. Finally getting worried, she let herself in with her the key they had given her.

"Rory!" she called out from the foyer. Nothing.

She decided to go upstairs, and see if maybe Rory was just asleep. "Rory are you here!" she called again. As she got closer to Rory's room, she heard a small whimper. "Rory?" she said quietly, as she pushed open the door.

"Mom!" she heard Rory's weak reply come from the bathroom. She quickly made her way to the bathroom, where she found Rory curled up on the floor in pain. Rory was crying, as she clutched her stomach.

"Rory! What happened to you?" she exclaimed as she went over to help Rory sit up.

"Mom! It hurts so much!" she said through gritted teeth.

The first thing Lorelai thought of was the baby. All Rory could think of was that she wished Tristan was back already.

"Hun, I'm taking you to the hospital." Lorelai said. She'd come into Hartford to spend the afternoon with her daughter.

Lorelai tried to help Rory walk down the stairs, which wasn't easy due to the pain Rory was in, and took her to the jeep. Then she hopped into the driver's seat and headed for the hospital. When they got there, she immediately rushed Rory into the emergency room. A nurse came up to them and asked what was wrong.

"She's pregnant, and she's having abdominal pains." Lorelai replied.

"Name?" The nurse asked.

"Lorelai DuGrey." Lorelai replied answering for her daughter. It didn't look like Rory was about to answer any questions at the moment anyway.

Eventually Rory was taken to a room and told that a doctor would be in to see her soon. She'd started to worry about the baby and what could be wrong. Now she really wished that Tristan was here cause she needed him, but she knew it would be another week before she could see him. Lorelai was in the room with Rory and had called everyone except Tristan because she was planning on finding out what was going on before she called him long distance.

"So you called everyone, mom?" Rory asked sitting up in the bed with another pain, "Including Tristan?"

"I'm waiting until we know what's going on before I call Tristan." Lorelai answered, "I don't want to freak him out and then say we know nothing."

"Makes sense I guess." Rory said but all she could think was 'He should know and he should've been the first to know.'

"He'll be the first one I call when the doctor tells us what's going on." Lorelai assured her daughter, "Can I get you anything?"

"No thanks, mom." Rory replied laying back down. It didn't matter what position she was in, she just couldn't seem to get comfortable.

"Well I'm going to go find myself some coffee." Lorelai said before she went to kiss her daughter's forehead, "I'll be back." She added before exiting the room.

As soon as Lorelai left the room Rory's eyes went to the phone that was beside her bed. She wanted, no she needed to talk to Tristan. She wasn't happy with waiting until they found out what was going on for her mom to call him and let him know what was going on. He needed to know that she needed him now. She picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?" Tristan answered.

"Tris, it's me." Rory replied still in pain.

This is the beta version and I have to say it's alot better than the un betaed version.