Lying to Lane

"Lane, I need to tell you something."

Rory was ready to start sharing the news to her closest friends, a sure symptom, she thought, of having worked everything out. "Me too."

"Really? What is it?"

"You first."

"Now I'm not sure. How important is your thing?"

"Not very. A 2, in a scale to 10. A 1.5, maybe."

"OK, you go first. Mine's higher, so I think it's best if we leave it for the end."

"OK... I hope you don't get mad, and I don't know why you should, but I still feel bad about it for some reason…"

"Lane, focus."

"Alright. Jess was here yesterday in a playdate with Doula, Steve and Kwan."

Wow, totally higher than 1.5. "OK… Why? How? Let me get it out of the way: I'm not mad at all, why would I be? I'm just surprised."

"I don't know, he's Jess. He has like this aura about him, like he has the ability to shake everyone's life if he wishes to. Your life. I don't know, I don't spend much time in the real world, I could be imagining things."

Rory thought that it sounded pretty spot-on. "So… My previous questions still stand: why? How?"

"I just saw him waiting in Stars Hollow's Elementary and we started chatting, and it was actually quite nice, and then there's something I need to tell you but you cannot tell anyone."

"OK… that sounds worrying."

"No, no, no! It's just that…"Lane lowered her voice as if she was still gossiping in Ms. Kim's house. "Kwan is in love with Doula."

"No way! That's so cute!"

"I know! So I saw Jess there, waiting for her sister, and thought I would play matchmaker."

"You're very cunning, Ms. Van Gerbig! So, how was it? The playdate, I mean. No, Jess, actually, how was Jess?" She tried to sound nonchalant but wasn't sure if she had managed.

"He was… really nice. As in really, really nice. He loves that kid to bits, let me tell you, and she loves him back. They're quite funny to watch, actually – he talks to her as if she was an adult and she actually gets him. That kid is gifted. And she always replies with very girly stuff and then you see Jess' head exploding, trying to come back with jokes that are not corny but failing most of the times. Perhaps kids are like Jess' kryptonite, you know? Like they disarm him or something." Rory couldn't stand it anymore and burst out crying. "Rory? What is it? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no, it's just that... I'm pregnant."

Lane put a really serious face, darted to the cupboard and came back with a box of Mallomars. "Here, for the meltdown. I used to get them all the time and chocolate would be the only help."

Rory had one Mallomar between sobs. She watched Lane watch her eat it, as if she was disarming a bomb, and started laughing in fits at the tought, but still sobbing.

"Oh my god! You are 100% pregnant!"

"I know!"

Lane hugged her hard. "Sister, welcome to the club. It's the shittiest club ever: alcohol is not allowed." That only made Rory cry and laugh harder, and it got Lane crying and laughing too. "OK, we need to calm down here! You need to tell me everything! And what has Jess have to do with everything?"

"What? Nothing!"

"Sorry, it's just that your meltdown came right after me talking about him being great with kids and I just connected the dots."

"No, there's nothing going on with Jess. And the baby… is Logan's."

"OK… Logan who's getting married? Logan in London? That Logan?"

"That one."

"Oh, OK. And… Jeez-there-are-so-many-things-I-want-to-ask-and I don't know where to begin! Give me a Mallomar."

Rory handed her the Mallomars and then told her everything about the pregnancy and what she had decided.

"I'm going to London. The day after tomorrow. To tell him. And I have a contract for him to sign."

"Wow, and… do you think he will?"

"I'm not sure, but I think he will be smart enough to take the easy way out that I'm handing him."

Rory left Lane's house and walked to the library, where she would sometimes go to write during the day if the diner was busy and she couldn't concentrate in the apartment. She selected her usual spot. It had a nice chair beside the window and a huge shelf of really outdated IT manuals on the back that no one ever checked out, which made her feel sheltered. That day, though, she was not alone in that corner. She could make out someone hushing behind the shelf.

"Tell me again why you like this spot?"

"Because it's right by the outdated IT manuals that no one ever checks and no one will kick us out for sitting here. Nobody has needed a Windows 95 manual since… well, 1995."

Jess. She couldn't decide if running or staying put.

"I love the book, Jess. Am I like Matilda a little bit?"

"A lot, that's why I got it. Minus the telekinesis. You don't have telekinesis, do you?"

"I wish. But I would tell you if I did, now that we share secrets and all."

"Good, because I have some really heavy boxes at home that I haven't touched since the last move and I could really use some help."

"OK, shhh, I'm trying to concentrate on moving things around here. Go back to your book."

Her heart was coming out of her throat. Lane had been right, only she had underrated how good he was with Doula. They were pals. They were book buddies. He had taken her to his secret reading spot. She felt something she had never felt, not even since finding out she was pregnant – maternal instinct. Towards a father. Was that a thing? Whatever it was, the feeling manifested itself with a good amount of arousal, as was usual lately. She needed to get out. She gathered her stuff untidily and darted out, only to crash against a buffed up wall.

"Stealing books, Gilmore?"

She blushed, and she knew instantly that it was the blush to end all blushes. "What?"

"Are you? You look really shaken, as if you had stolen the declaration of independence. Wait… are you stealing MS-DOS manuals for the Gazette?"

"I… I…"

"Go on, I won't tell. I'm the one that committed that fake crime in front of Doose's, remember?"

"I… I need to get out."

She circled around Jess and quickly made it to the door. She heard Jess ask Doula to stay put until he came back, and his sister asking him if "it was her". She wasn't. She wasn't the her in Jess' life, whatever her name was. She never heard the reply, though, because as soon as she was near the door she started running.