2023 Autumn

Rory was sitting in the nursery and crying dramatically. In her hand she was holding a little music box.
As soon as Jess realized the situation, he kneeled down and touched her slightly.
"Hey, what's up? What happened?", he asked calmly.
The brunette woman looked at him with teary eyes, still sobbing and having an "ugly cry face". Jess smirked at this thought but was smart enough not to mention it in this very moment. Damn those pregnancy hormones.
"I'm just... sad. So sad. So sad." She started crying again.
"But why, babe? Everything's fine! We finished with the nursery two days ago, I convinced your Mum not to paint everything blue, because you know, fuck gender, we're totally ready to meet our son." He stroke her arm.
"I.. I don't know. I was looking for his bibs and counting the tiny socks and suddenly... something came over me. What if you never left for California? What if we'd dated during my time at Yale? What if.."
"Ror, hey, come on." He tugged her to his chest. A lotta "what if's" in the last couple of weeks.
"We've talked about it. Screw any "what if's." We cannot change anything. But we can enjoy what we're having now."
"But... "
"No but. You know what happened to us? Life. With all it's ups and downs. That's normal. We learn from our mistakes, our past. Imagine angsty emo Jess as a father to Emma. Geez. Not possible. Imagine him seeing you with your Yale friends while he still was working at Walmart. You think that would have went well? I doubt it. So please, leave those thoughts behind. "
She sniffed. "Okay. You know I love you, right?"
He smiled. "I love you, too. And to distract you a bit, I've got something for ya."
"Oh yeah?" Her blue eyes lit up.
"Fresh from the press." He stood up and brought her a medium size black book.
She frowned. "What is it?" Her eyes opened up wide. "Your moleskine? Your journal?"
"Kind of. Some letters to Em and Rick. Explaining myself."
Rory stared mouth-open at the pages, seeing his edgy handwriting, putting together beautiful words.
"Not for the public, just for you. And them, of course. Maybe when they're older." He winked and stroke his hair back.

"You may wanna have a glance at the first page."
His girlfriend turned back to the beginning. The first page. The dedication.
"Letters to my children", she read, "Dedicated to their Mum, my forever love story."
She looked up and met his brown eyes, who were a shade darker than usual. Something was different, like slow motion, all other background noises suddenly disappeared.
"Rory", he said with a raspy voice, his face was serious. "Will you marry me?"
She stared at him, seeing his eyes that were waiting for an answer, his mouth, slightly open, a curl of his hair that sticked out stubbornely. All of their shared memories appeared on her mind like an odd black and white movie, beginning from their first encounter in her room back in Stars Hollow until seeing him snuggled up together on the couch with Emma yesterday, after they both watched Aristocats.
"Yes", she said with a bright smile, "of course, yes!" She started giggling and put his cheek in her hand.
"That's... cool." Jess stared intensely at her and coughed. "Well, that wasn't an appropriate expression, but yeah.. never done that." He smirked. "I hope you didn't plan to have red roses and candles and stuff like that..."
"Oh yeah, because that would totally be Mariano-style", she interrupted his speech.
"... but I've got that." He pulled out a little box from his pocket, opening it and Rory saw a beautiful ring, a rose-gold finish with a lot of tiny diamonds around it.
She gasped. "Oh my god, Jess, that's beautiful!"
He took her hand. "I read that such a ring.. umm, when the ring rail is entirely surrounded by diamonds, it's referred to as an eternity ring or a memoir ring. It is a symbol of unforgettable moments, because every diamond can stand for a special event. I thought that's fitting."
"It's perfect." She was beaming with joy and watched him putting the ring on her finger. She reached out to kiss him fiercely. "Can't wait until that belly is not in the way anymore", she sighed.
Jess chuckled. "You're looking fine. With belly. Without belly. My future wife is always a catch."
"Future wife, huh?"
"Sounds good."
"Sounds right."

Later she found herself alone in the love seat in the living room, enjoying the silence and having a cup of tea on her own.

She ate some of the oatmeal cookies with pecan nut bites from Sookie that she was craving lately.
Then she breathed in and took out the journal again. She flipped to a random page and started reading.

Dear Emma,

today I've found you sitting behind our couch with a box of crackers, crumbles all over you and you literally got caught red-handed. I was just about to give you a lecture about not eating just before dinner or not making the living room dirty or whatever reason you'd imagine, because I was the adult in this situation and guess what, that's what I'd supposed to do. But then I stopped for a second and realized that's not important. Sometimes I'm having cookies between meals, too. Sometimes I leave dirty cups or plates and annoy your Mum with it. Sometimes I also feel the urge to hide myself behind the couch, just to be alone for a moment. It's okay. So I just smiled at you and didn't say a word. I want you to feel loved, home, secure. I want you to be the person you want to be, not someone else's idea. I want you to feel welcomed here, even when you're a teenager and Mum and I won't always agree with you. We give you some boundaries, of course, but only because we love you. You're so precious to us, Em.
I'm thankful to be your father even we don't share the same blood. But we both love the same woman the most, your Mum. You and her, you're so similar and yet different. And the both of you combined is my idea of perfect.
Be wild. Be loud. Be passionate. Make crumbles. Be my Emma.
Love,
Dad

Rory swallowed and felt tears in her eyes. She was so thankful that he gave her a glimpse of his emotions through those letters. And reading them made her even more convinced that marrying him was the best decision she could make. She looked at her ring again. "So beautiful", she murmured.
Curiously she turned to the next page.

Hey Rick,

you're not even born yet, bud, but my ideas of what we gonna do some day together are running wild.
Will you share my love of reading books? Writing stuff? Loving blue-eyed girls?
What will you look like? Will you resemble me? Or having your mother's great brain? I'll hope so.
Yesterday I've talked to your grandfather - still totally weird to write this because you know, I don't really refer to him as my father. But he deserved to know and I guess he was kinda thrilled to hear about you. I mean, kinda thrilled as you can be as a Mariano. You'll learn about this.
I just want you to know that I'm not him. Maybe we both had the tendency to run away when things went crazy and seemed too hard to handle, but I won't ever leave you. You're a choice, Rick. My choice. Your sister taught me to have unconditional love and my love for you and her won't change.
Can't wait to meet you, Ricky. Stay safe!
Dad

Rory sighed. That was not her happy ending. It was just the beginning.