Disclaimer: "Muahaha! They're all mine now! Muahaha"...stops mid-maniacal laugh, stares deadly daggers at unseen source... "What do you mean they're not mine? What? You were supposed to get rid of the evidence!"...

AN: OMGosh, thanks to all the people that reviewed! I'm so glad you all liked the last two chapters! You're all awesome! Well, without further ado...

Chapter 17

"Rory?" Dean asked, finally breaking the silence.

They had been on the road for twenty of the thirty minutes it took to drive back to Stars Hollow from Hartford. And the car had been filled with complete silence. Neither Rory or Dean knew what to say to break the silence. They had both been right - Emily and Richard did not accept their news. And from the looks of it, they both didn't seem to want to be in the young couple's life.

"Rory?" Dean tried again, turning his gaze to her for just enough time to take in her emotional state. Her eyes were red and a bit wet still, but she wasn't crying any longer. That was a good sign. Dean averted his eyes back to the road. "Are you okay?"

Rory debated whether or not to answer him. The silence of the car was welcoming to her anger. She was angry towards her grandparents, herself, her mom, and even a little bit towards Dean. Her grandparents were completely irrational and stubborn, refusing to let a little happiness in Rory's life. And Lorelai should have known better than to suggest telling Emily and Richard. She shouldn't have allowed Emily to invite Rory and Dean at all. And Dean - it was his fault in the first place. If he had just let her pass him by, that night would have never happened. Rory would have never fallen back in love with him, or gotten pregnant, or upset everybody and their lives.

But Rory also knew that wasn't right - to lay the sole outcome of tonight on Dean's shoulders. All he'd ever done was love her. And she'd broken his heart twice.

The anger melted away then. It was replaced with confusion and loss. How could she have been so stupid? To let Dean go the last time? Or to let herself believe all the lies about different worlds and different people? How about convincing herself that she was supposed to be the one person that everybody counted on - the one who was supposed to make everyone happy? It was imprudent to think such a thing.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked, seeing the sadness spark life in Rory's eyes for a second time that evening. "Rory? Don't cry."

Rory brought her hands to her face and let out a hiccupped sob. "It's not fair," she cried. "I keep messing everything up. First with Logan and school, now with you and a baby. Dean, I'm ruining everyone's dreams and wishes, even my own."

Dean pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He flicked on the hazard lights and watched a car pass them through the rearview mirror, distantly curious if it was Luke and Lorelai, wondering if they'd escaped yet. Then he turned to Rory and wrapped his arms around her shaking form. He rested his head on hers, kissing it softly and taking in the smell of her shampoo.

"Shh," he cooed, rubbing her arms and trying to still her tears. "Rory, you aren't ruining anything."

"Yes I am," she insisted. "My grandparents wanted me to become this big shot journalist/reporter, and do the things that my mother never had a chance to. They wanted me to marry into this blue-blood family just like theirs, and to graduate from Yale. And my mom and Luke - they're getting married soon, and my mom has all this stress with Luke's twelve-year old daughter coming into the picture and having to postpone the wedding, and now me and you are living with them. And you," she cried out, pulling away from him and backing against the car door, throwing her index finger out, "You were finally paying off all your bills, and going to school, and living with that girl, being happy - "

"I wasn't happy with her," Dean objected, his brow furrowed in confusion as to why Rory had ripped herself from his arms. "Rory, why is it always about everyone else? Can't it be about you? What do you want?"

Rory was taken aback by the question. "What?"

"What do you want?"

"I want everyone to be happy! I want to make everyone happy!"

Dean shook his head sadly. "You can't, Rory. That's not your responsibility."

"Yes it is! I'm Rory Gilmore - the perfect daughter of Lorelai Gilmore, and granddaughter to Emily and Richard Gilmore. The Valedictorian of Chilton Preparatory, and attendee of Yale! I'm the Town Princess who does no wrong!"

"Rory, you can't always be those things," Dean reasoned.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want you to be," he replied quietly. "If you're all of those things, where do I fit in?"

"Dean," Rory started, her rationality coming back to her. "I love you, you know that."

"Yes, yes, I do. But admit it - if you were all of those things, you'd be the same person you were a year ago. And we'd be on different pages again."

Rory shook her head to object, but remained silent, lost at words. It was true what Dean said.

"Rory, why can't you understand that this was meant to happen? Things happen for a reason."

There was silence in the car once again. Rory's sobs had diminished to hiccups, and she'd stopped crying long enough to clear her blurry vision and get a good look at Dean. He looked worried, yet sincere. "You always tell me that," she mumbled finally.

Dean offered a small smile and nodded, "Yeah, I do. And I mean it."

Slowly, Rory let herself relax back towards Dean, and he wrapped his arms around her once more. She took in the feel of his breath atop her head, and his hands rubbing soothing circles on her arms, trying to instill faith and sense into her once more. After a moment, she turned her face up to his and offered an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for getting all worked up. This pregnancy thing is trickier then Mom said."

"It's okay; I understand," Dean replied, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"I love you, Dean," Rory said.

"I love you, too, Rory," Dean said.

They pulled apart, and Dean turned off the hazard lights and pulled the car back onto the road. After a minute, he was reminded of Rory's outburst in the Gilmore Mansion, and he turned to look at her. She had her head against the cool glass of the window, her eyes half shut. He almost didn't want to bother her, but she saw him and picked her head up to look at him, smiling.

"What?" she asked.

Dean shook his head, embarrassed for being caught staring at her. "Nothing."

"I'm sorry," Rory apologized, already knowing the reason he'd been looking at her. "I'm just so tired after everything that happened tonight."

"I know; it's fine." He turned to look at her a moment. "You can go to sleep. I'll carry you inside when we get home."

"Ooh, how romantic," Rory joked. She laid her head against the window again.

Dean let out a chuckle before the image actually registered, and the question popped up in his head again. "Um, Rory," he finally decided, "can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," she responded.

"At your grandparents', you, um, said to your grandmother that you were, uh, going to marry me and spend the rest of your life with me."

"Uh-huh," Rory said slowly, turning a light shade of pink.

Dean waited for her to say something else, but she remained silent. He had to rip his gaze from the road and turn to her to see if she'd fallen asleep in the ten second silence. Seeing her awake and staring out at the red tail-lights of the cars in front of them, Dean rested his gaze back to the road and asked, "So? Is that what you want?"

"I guess," Rory replied. She shifted in her seat, a little uncomfortable with the topic. She still didn't know how Dean felt about marriage and life together. She knew he loved her, but marriage was a big step for them, especially considering the fact that Dean had already been married once before, and it had not been a pleasant experience. "I mean," Rory went on, seeing the disappointment on his face, "I love you, and I want you to be in my life forever, and the baby's. I just don't know how you feel."

"I told you," Dean said, "I love you, Rory. Always have, always will. A side effect to meeting the Gilmore Girls," he added with a grin.

"So then what? Do you want to get married? Just because you love someone doesn't mean you want to marry them."

Dean was silent for a second before he replied, "Let see how all of this goes first. We'll have the baby first, and if we're still sure about everything, then we'll get married. If that's what we both want."

"Okay, good," Rory sighed, and Dean sent her a mock-insulted look. She laughed, "I mean, 'Good, I don't have to walk down the aisle fat and eight months pregnant.' Not at the top of my list, that one."

"You'd still be beautiful, though."

"Aw, aren't you sweet?" Rory said, patting his arm because she was too tired to move her head to kiss him. She let out a yawn. Within seconds, she'd fallen asleep to the rhythmic hum of the car on the asphalt, and Dean took a quick glance at her before averting his eyes to the road once again. She looked like such an angel when she slept; his angel.

As always, Read&Review!

AN: I realized all too late that my logistics (or timetable) of the whole story is a little off. The only reason I'm stating this is because I don't want you all to picture Rory with a beach ball of a stomach already, because she's still early in the pregnancy and she's barely starting to show now. So, I hope this'll help clear up the images: Rory and Dean got together on February 3rd (so disreguard the concept of the episode Vineyard Valetines, b/c Rory and Logan weren't together obviously on Valentine's day in this story), and Rory is about 2.5 months pregnant. Okay, got it? I'm sorry, I just felt like I had to clear that up.