Rory walked with Valentina back to her mom's house, not that far from the town square. She contemplated telling her mom and Luke about Jess' reemergence, but she didn't know how long he was staying, or if he was staying at all, so she decided not to say anything.

Jess had been right, the air was crisp tonight and she should've brought a blanket for her daughter, and a jacket for herself. But she wouldn't let herself think that Jess was right, what does he know about being a parent, not that she knew every trick in the book either. Rory got back to the house a few minutes later and carefully took her sleeping daughter out of her stroller and took her inside to her room. Lorelei had redone Rory's room when she was away so she could fit a training bed for Valentina. Rory placed Valentina in her bed and then got ready for bed herself.

All night though, she couldn't sleep. She had just seen the man that she loved for the first time in four years. Why is he back? she thought. Where is he going next? How will I contact him?. She didn't believe Jess, that he was just here to read. He hated this town with every inch of his being, he wouldn't have come back if he didn't have a reason.

Valentina woke up early that next morning, much to Rory's disliking. Valentina came in Rory's bed and cuddled up with her, before starting to jump on the bed. Rory sighed. The jumping on the bed was fun and cute when she had a full nights sleep, not three hours.

"Go see if Nana and Papa are up yet." Rory suggested, half awake. Lorelei and Luke insisted that Valentina call him Nana and Papa respectively, because they thought they were too young to be "Grandma and Grandpa". Valentina smiled and ran out of the room, and went upstairs to see if Lorelai and Luke were awake. She opened the door just a little, but disappointed when she heard Luke's snoring. She giggled a little though, then ran down the stairs to wake her mom up again.

As she was running down the stairs, Valentina missed a step and fell down the rest, bumping her head on the wooden railing at the bottom. That woke Rory up right away, and ran over to where she heard the noise. Valentina was standing up, so at least she didn't break her foot or any toes, but she covered her head with her arm.

"Mommy it hurts.." She pointed to her head, with tears pouring down her face.

"I know honey, come on, let's go make you feel better" In less than two minutes, Rory was changed into jeans and a sweatshirt with the blue, embroidered letters spelling out YALE on the front. She wrote her mom a note, explaining that Valentina had bumped her head and was taking her to the hospital.

As she put Valentina in her car, the panic started to set in. All of these scenarios popped up in her head, what if Valentina had a concussion, or had broken something. Rory drove fast, but not enough to get her a ticket, to the hospital. She took Valentina out of the car once they arrived, who still had tear marks down her cheeks and brought her in the emergency room. As steady as she could, she filled out forms for Valentina before she could be taken back.

Rory got to the part of the form where it asked for the paternal information. She easily filled out everything for her, but filling it out for Jess was the hard part. She didn't know anything about his medical history and she really needed it now, for the sake of her daughter, their daughter.

She took a deep breath and called the last known number of Jess's that she had in her phone. It rang for what felt like an eternity. "Hello?" a groggy voice said on the other end. She knew that normally Jess wouldn't be up for hours, as it was just 7:30.

"It's Rory.." she said softly, trying not to let him hear the panic in her voice.

"Gilmore, it's freaking 7:30 in the morning, what the hell are you doing calling me?" He sounded annoyed, but who wouldn't be annoyed if you got woken up at 7:30 by your ex-girlfriend.

"Very funny Mariano. I'm in the hospital with Valentina, she hit her head this morning as she fell down my mom's staircase."

"What happened to being perfect and never having a concussion," He remembered the conversation they had from last night. "And what do you want me to do about this, she isn't my daughter."

Rory sighed hearing those words coming out of his mouth. "I need your medical history for the pages of forms I have to fill out." Now she was getting nervous again, nervous that Jess wouldn't give her the information needed for Valentina to be admitted.

"Give me ten minutes, I'll be down there" He huffed and then hung up. Rory gave Valentina her phone to watch TV on as she waited for Jess to come. Ten minutes passed, then fifteen. Rory was worried that he wouldn't come, what if he had left town already, she thought.

Jess walked in and saw Rory finishing filling out her side of the form. She saw the little girl next to her, God she looked like a perfect blend of the both of them, having Rory's blue eyes. Jess would never admit it because he wasn't a helpless romantic, but that was his favorite thing about Rory, and now his daughter had the same beautiful eyes.

"What do I need to do so I can go back to bed?" He sat on the opposite side of Rory than Valentina was sitting on.

Rory rolled her eyes and gave him the clipboard. "The top of both of these sheets."

Valentina cuddled into Rory's arm. Her head still hurt even though the hospital gave her an ice pack and she didn't know who Jess was. Rory pulled her onto her lap and held her close. Jess looked up from writing. Rory looked up at him. "What?" she asked with a chuckle.

"You're just good with her,that's all" Jess half-smiled and went back to filling out the form. After a few minutes, he gave it in and sat awkwardly next to Rory,

"You can go home you know, we're probably going to be here all day and I'm sure you have better things to do." Rory told Jess softly and rubbed Valentina's back.

"I don't want to leave. I've felt one too many times and now that I know about her," he looked down at the little girl Rory was holding. "I don't want to leave her. I mean it this time Ror, it's different than it was four years ago. If I would've known that I did this to you, I wouldn't have left, you have to believe me. She's beautiful by the way, I know where she gets it from." Jess looked into Rory's eyes, that to him, were more blue than the ocean.

"Jess..not here, not like this.." She sighed. She had wanted this for so long and she just destroyed the chance she had.

Valentina's name got called and Rory got up with the little girl and Jess followed, leaded by a nurse that took them to a room. Valentina smiled when she saw the size of the bed. It was definitely bigger than the bed she had at Nana's house. Rory placed her down and gave Valentina her phone back. Jess stood at the foot of the bed with his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, just looking at his daughter. He was nervous for her, but didn't show it for her and Rory's sake. The doctor came in after a few minutes.

"Hello Ms. Gilmore, Mr. Mariano, I'm going to take your daughter back for some tests. If you could just wait in the waiting room that would be great." Rory looked her little girl and softly took the phone away.

"This nice man is going to take you to some special machines for a little while okay? And then Mommy will be back okay?" She said, holding back her tears, she didn't want to cry in front of Jess.

"I'm a big girl Mommy" Valentina smiled and the doctor wheeled the bed out of the room.

Rory sighed and wiped away the tear that was streaming down her face. "We should go wait in the waiting room.." She said softly to Jess.

The waiting room made Rory more nervous though, she was just pacing back and forth with Jess watching her. He was getting more nervous too watching her like this. After the twentieth pace, Jess stepped in front of her.

"Stop this Ror, come on. She will be fine. And just because I'm here doesn't mean that you can't be emotional about this. I know that you're nervous about this, I am too, but Valentina will be fine."

"You don't understand. You just met her twelve hours ago, she's no one to you. She's my daughter Jess. She may have your last name but she's my daughter."

Jess took Rory's arm and led her outside. "Don't tell me that I don't understand. I'm trying to make things right with the three of us. You're going to have to tell her eventually that I'm her father Rory." He raised her voice at her and she started to cry.

Jess sighed. "I'm sorry Ror, I didn't mean," Rory hugged him, she needed to. "No I'm sorry." she said and let go.

"We should get inside.." he said, almost at a whisper. Rory nodded in agreement and started to walk inside, but not before Jess put his arm around her waist, in a way that felt like he never left.