Disclaimer: Sadly, I still don't own anything... not even Dean (or Jared for that matter)--snaps fingers in disappointment--. Everything, including the objects in the baby box, belong to the creative and talented mind of ASP and is copyrigthed to the WB Network Television Company (until it changes to The CW... darn).

Chapter 12

"What are you going to do now?" Dean asked as he climbed out of the car and leaned through the open window.

"I don't know," Rory shrugged. She was still uncertain of her feelings toward her mother right now. Although, deep down she knew that Lorelai had only done it so her and Dean could be together. Or at least that's what she told herself.

"Don't be mad at her, Rory," Dean replied knowingly. "She knows she messed up. But she's your mom. She's Lorelai," he added with a grin.

"I know," Rory said.

The porch light on the Forrester's house came on, signaling that one, if not both, of Dean's parents knew he was awake and knew he was outside with Rory. Rory half-believed the curtains in the window beside the door would move to reveal Mrs. Forrester's face spying on them. She'd never really trusted Rory after Dean's divorce.

Dean seemed to have noticed the extra light coming from behind him, for his head was turned toward the door. Rory wondered if he was thinking the same thing she was.

Apparently not.

"I'd better get inside so they can turn the alarm on," Dean said, turning back to face her.

"I forgot they had an alarm," Rory noted.

"Like they need one," Dean snorted. "Who's going to break into a house here in Stars Hollow? The entire town has eyes constantly following everyone." He shivered and Rory chuckled.

"That's true," she said. After their laughs had abated, she nodded her head at the Forrester's house, an anxious look on her face. "Are you going to tell them about the baby?"

Dean sighed, considering the option. He hadn't really thought about telling anyone about the baby as he and Rory had driven back to Stars Hollow. His mind was a little more preoccupied with the fact that Rory had come back into his life. And it finally seemed like it was for good this time. "No," he said with a shake of his head. He watched all the anxiety fall from Rory's face before adding, "I'd rather tell them about us, and then have us tell them about the baby."

The color fled Rory's face and she looked back over to him. "Us?" she asked. But it wasn't from shock of the definition - that they were a couple again. It was from shock of the statement - she would have to face the Forresters.

"Yup, us," Dean repeated, and Rory wasn't sure whether the grin on his face was formed in encouragement or humor for her fear of facing his parents and informing them that she'd ruined their son's life. Again.

"Don't worry, Rory," Dean supplied. He lowered his voice a bit, "I don't hold their opinions too high on my priority list. I just have nowhere else to go while I save up money."

"My house," the words fell out automatically. Rory hadn't meant them at all. It was too early for her and Dean to be moving in together. Neither of them had enough money to live on their own, let alone support each other and then a baby. Besides, Rory wasn't too sure how Luke would react to the news of her and Dean's baby, or whether he'd even consider letting Dean live in the house with them.

This time, Dean read Rory's mind.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Rore," he said with a frown. "Luke doesn't like me too much, and I doubt Lorelai will kick her fiancee out just to appease you."

"You don't know Lorelai very well then," Rory joked. Lorelai would give anything to have Rory not be mad at her.

Dean laughed and Rory melted. "Right, well," he said, managing to lean across the passenger seat and plant a kiss on Rory's lips, "Goodnight."

"'Night," Rory replied sweetly. She watched him walk up the steps of the porch and enter through the threshold, the door shutting behind him. She sighed and headed back to her, where she would have to face her mom.

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Dinner had been over for a while. Rory could tell as she entered the kitchen through the back door, seeing the entire place swiped clean of dirty dishes and leftover food, and the lights off. She made a bee-line for her room, grateful at the thought of her mother and Luke asleep upstairs, and her not having to deal with facing Lorelai after she'd stormed off into the night.

Just as she reached her door, the soft glow of a light through the foyer caught the corner of her eye. Rory turned, scolding herself as her legs unwillingly carried her through to the living room. Lorelai was sitting on the couch, a shoe-box in her lap and a bowl of popcorn on the table in front of her. The light Rory had seen was the soft blue glow of the television, which Lorelai had muted so she could roam through the shoe-box.

Lorelai didn't notice Rory enter, which is why she nearly jumped out of her skin when Rory asked, "What's that?"

She looked up at her daughter with a startled look. Rory just laughed and said, "Dean was right, we Gilmores scare easily."

Lorelai cocked an eyebrow. "Dean?" she inquired as though the name was foreign to her.

Rory nodded and sat down on the edge of the couch cushion. 'So I can make a fast getaway,' she thought to herself with a grim smile before forcing a brighter one and saying to her mother, "Yeah, we talked, Dean and I."

"How'd that go?" Lorelai asked cautiously.

"Well, we decided to stay in each other's lives," Rory said with a hopeful smile. "I'm pretty sure we're getting back together as a couple, and we plan to raise the baby together, but everything else is still a mystery. I mean, I have another year to finish up at Yale, and Dean went back to school, and we both don't have any money right now. We're not sure how serious our relationship will get, though, because we don't want to push ourselves to the breaking point, you know?"

Lorelai let a smile fall across her lips. She was truly happy that Rory had put all the pieces of the puzzle together at last. She was glad to see - or feel, rather - that her daughter was finally happy with the way her life was going. "That's great, hun," she said.

Rory smiled with a nod, then sighed. "Mom, I want to apologize for earlier. I was just upset because it was so easy for you to tell Dean. You just walked up to him in a day and told him, and before I knew about his girlfriend, it had taken me at least a week to even get the courage to tell him. I'm sorry."

Lorelai nodded, tears in her eyes at the thought of coming this close to getting into another fight with her daughter. She leaned over and hugged Rory.

When they pulled apart, Rory's attention fell on the box again. "I repeat, what's that?" she asked, pointing to the old shoe-box.

Lorelai looked down in her own lap. "Oh," she said, another smile stretching across her features, "this is my baby box. I kept all the good things from the year you were born." She began to pull out the items, one by one. There was a walkman with a homemade tape in it ("99 Luftballoons, R.E.M., and the Thompson Twins," Lorelai explained), a magazine with the debating question: who's hotter, Andrew or Emilio, a necklace made of Bubbalicious gum wrappers, a Chunky candybar wrapper, a piece of paper with the writing "John's digits" and several numbers on it, and a jumper made out of Lorelai's favorite Bananarama t-shirt for Rory.

"Aww," Rory said, hlding up the jumper to look at it. She couldn't believe she was ever that small. She smiled again, and placed it back in the box. "I'm going to do one for my baby," she announced. It hit her then, that this situation was real, and that it could work out in the end. She could be happy with a baby; happy with Dean. Before, the thought had seemed a little daunting - she was still in school, her and Dean weren't a couple, she lived in her mother's house again - how could she raise a baby? But now, with everything falling into place, the thought of becoming a mother was filling somehow - complete.

"I think that'd be a great idea, Mr. Ed," Lorelai replied.

AN: First of all, thank you to my reviewers! My muse is crazy, just as I thought. Mustn't depend on that sucker anymore... she (I hope it's a she) ran away to be with Jared on Supernatural... and drool over his half-clothed self. Ha. Now if only we could get him fully unclothed -- taps fingers together, deep in thought--... Anyway, I just wanted to say that I have the best readers (though that's expected with Narco, huh? - Narco rules!) For those who are wondering, yes, I will be writing more Narco, and I'm planning on posting some Supernatural one-shots after I complete Eternal Promise. And don't worry, I'm going to finish this story before I do anything else.

Which brings me to my next order of business - I know I said that I'm getting bored connecting point A to point B, and I am, but I can't seem to see the light at the end of this tunnel yet - at least not with the path I took with this chapter. Anyway, I thought I'd be able to wrap this story up with another chapter or two, but I can't - it wouldn't bring justice to such an awesome piece (and I say that because it's the longest thing I've ever written and I'm proud of it). So, don't worry, I'm going to keep updating and posting chapter after chapter that falls out of my cluttered head. Whew! -- that was a long author's note. Sheesh. As always, Read&Review!