AN: Thank you so much to the people who reviewed. It means a lot to hear some feedback! I will always try the best that I can to get new chapters posted everyday. Also, if you could review and tell me if you want to see a chapter dedicated to Valentina's birthday that would be great! Thank you for continuing reading :)
About a week had passed since Valentina had her accident. She was out of the hospital the same day and was doing great now. Over this past week, Rory had taken Valentina to New Haven to see Jess, in an attempt to get them to bond. A few days it worked, a few days it hadn't. Today, was one of those days that it didn't work.
"Did I do something wrong?" Jess said, as he ran his hands through his black, wavy hair. He only did that when he was nervous. They were sitting on Jess' black leather couch in his little one-bedroom apartment in New Haven, trying to get Valentina to calm down.
"No, you were great. You are great. It just takes Valentina a little while to warm up to people. It took her almost nine months before she wanted to meet me." Rory said with a smile, as she held Valentina on her hip.
"Oh, you're hilarious" Jess said, with a sarcastic tone.
"Come on, why don't you hold her? She's your daughter too, and you guys should have a bond," Rory said as she gave Valentina over to a nervous Jess for the first time. Jess was always scared he was going to do something wrong to her, that it was in his genes that he would mess up being a father, like his father was to him, but of course it wasn't. "See it's not so bad." Valentina rested her head on Jess' shoulder and sucked her thumb.
Before he met Rory, Jess never thought he would be the settle-down type. But he knew that the relationship between Rory and her dad and himself and Jimmy, and he didn't want to be like that to his daughter. Four years ago, he got scared of the idea of settling down and that's why he left Rory.
Valentina slowly closed her eyes on Jess, falling asleep on his new AC\DC shirt. "You might want to lay her down somewhere. She's a droller." Rory said.
Jess got up, carrying Valentina into his bedroom to lay her on his bed. "Thanks for the fair warning." He pointed to a droll stain on his shoulder.
"It's not my fault." She was trying her hardest not to laugh.
He sat back on the broken-leather couch and pulled Rory so she was leaning his his chest.
"I really missed you…" He said with a quiet tone in his voice, playing with Rory's short brown hair.
She smiled softly, letting the scent of his cologne linger onto her. "I really missed you too. I read some really good books when you-" She leaned down to her bag, to pull out a book she wanted to show to Jess, when he interrupted her.
"Do you want to go out tonight, just the two of us?" He asked, rather quickly, as if he was nervous to ask it.
"Um, yes, that would be great actually. I barely get out anymore. I can get Luke and my mom to babysit Valentina for us." She looked at Jess and smiled.
"Do you want to drive back here? I can make dinner for us, but only if you're up to driving here again. If not, we can do something else."
"No I can definitely drive back here, around 8:30 good?" She asked, as Valentina started to cry again.
"Yeah that sounds good." He said, as Rory got up to get Valentina.
"Hi Mommy!" Valentina smiled.
"Hi babes" As Rory bent down to help Valentina down, she noticed a piece of paper on Jess' night table. Jess, I just read the most amazing book. Thought you would like it. I left it with Luke ~ Ror. She had written the short letter to Jess a few weeks before he left. She had just finished The Bell Jar, and had wanted him to read it.
Valentina ran back into Jess' living room and sat next to him, watching him read.
"Tina, we're going to go okay? Say goodbye to your daddy."
Valentina nodded and kissed Jess' cheek and she got Rory's bag for her.
"Bye Valentina, I'll see you soon, okay?" Jess kissed her cheek back. Valentina nodded and ran over to hold Rory's hand.
"I'll see you tonight Jess." Rory said as she walked out the door. Once she got outside the apartment, she couldn't stop smiling.
"You're going to Jess' looking like that?" Lorelai asked as Rory put on her black, high-heeled sandals.
"What's so bad about my outfit?" Rory asked. She was wearing black jeans with a black tank top and a white jacket over it.
"If I didn't know any better, I would say that Jess is taking you out tonight."
After a long pause, Rory finally spoke. "We're not going out, we're just having dinner at his place. Technically, that's not going out. We also have to talk about this co-parenting thing. Think of it as a business meeting and Valentina is the thing I'm trying to sell to him." She said, smiling.
She grabbed a pop-tart that had been sticking out of the toaster for hours now.
"I should probably go. The traffic to New Haven is crazy at this time of the night." Rory said, as she finished her pop-tart.
Lorelai nodded and smiled "I want to know every detail when you get home."
"Of course. If Valentina wakes up, kiss her Goodnight again for me." Valentina had just went to sleep about fifteen minutes ago, right after Lorelai took her to Luke's for dinner. Rory grabbed her keys, said goodbye to Lorelai and then drove to Jess'.
"Someone cleaned up nice" Jess joked as he opened the door for Rory. Earlier that day, she wore a pair of jeans she's had since she was fifteen and a Pippy Longstocking shirt.
"I would be lying if I didn't say the same for you, Mariano." Now he wore a nice black shirt and jeans.
Jess let her in and led her over to his kitchen table, which earlier, had magazines and books on it. Now it was covered with a white tablecloth, with a candle in the middle and two plates in front of the two chairs.
"Since when have you owned a tablecloth?" Rory half-smirked at him.
"About three hours ago." He said with pride.
"Just as I suspected" She smiled and sat down in one of the chairs. "So I really want to talk about Valentina. You made it a point that you want to be in her life, and I want you in her life. I was thinking that for a new more weeks, I can bring her here like I've been doing, maybe even sleep over, once she's comfortable too. And then comes the hard part. I've been offered a job in New York as a Times writer, or a job in Washington, D.C. to follow around and do press for a presidential candidate. I'm actually leaning towards going to New York." She took a bite of her chicken pot pie that Jess had made.
"I'm leaving for New York in about a week, for work. I have to go to their new office and make sure my office is settled and the way that I want it. I also have to go to a party for the release and press of my book. Maybe you and Valentina can come. Then, if you still want to work at the Times, You, Valentina and I can get an apartment there, like a real family." He suggested.
"I think that would be fun, going to New York with you." She smiled.
"Good, I hope it will be. And Valentina's birthday, are you doing anything special?" He asks, starting to eat.
"No, we don't usually do anything out of the ordinary. We eat pop-tarts for breakfast, and then we have a movie marathon, then we go to Luke's for dinner. You're welcome to join us this year if you want. It's really a lot of fun. I also read to her, usually it is something that I'm reading so she doesn't understand any of it, but somehow she does get it."
The two talked all through dinner and barely ate anything, even Rory who typically could have devoured three of those pot pies.
After about three hours of catching up and barely eating, Rory got up and Jess stood up next to her. "I really should be going. I hate that my mom has to watch Valentina, I feel it's burden and-" Jess cupped her face in his hands and kissed her lips for the first time since they made love the night when Valentina was conceived.
"Don't go. Stay for just a few minutes. I'm sure Lorelai would not mind at all." He whispered as he held Rory's hand and led her to the couch and laid down, then pulled her on top of him, kissing her so passionately that it felt like the first time. He pulled her jacket off and rubbed her arm, he missed how delicate she was. It was Rory this whole time that kept him going, encouraging himself to start writing, and now getting a published book.
After an hour, they were tangled together on the black, leather couch that now had more wrinkles in it than it did this morning. They just laid there, having skin to skin contact. Their clothes were scattered around the small living room, and now they just had a blanket around the both of them to protect them from the chill of the air conditioner.
"I love you, Rory Gilmore." Jess said softly into her ear.
Rory smiled, and might've turned a shade of pink.
"I love you too, Jess Mariano."
