A/N: Well, the suggestion that Rory might be pregnant certainly got a reaction! lol Thank you for all the feedback. Now, what does Jess have to say about being a potential father...?

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Prologue)

Chapter 6

Jess went into a state of shock around the moment Rory said the word 'pregnant'. He wasn't entirely sure what it felt like when a person had a stroke, but he'd guess pretty much like this. He couldn't speak, he couldn't move, truth be told he could barely think. Pregnant. This was not supposed to happen. Sure, he wanted Rory back in his life, more than anything. He thought they'd do the young and in love thing for a while before anything got too heavy. Jess never considered he was the settling down type, the kind of guy that wanted to get married, have kids, that whole thing. Of course, falling in love with Rory had certainly changed his outlook on life. Right now, he was pretty sure he'd go through anything just to be with her, to have whatever semblance of a happily ever after a person like him could strive for. Still, he had not been ready for this. Pregnant.

"C'mon," he said eventually, snapping out of a daze he never meant to fall into.

With his hand in the small of her back, Jess guided Rory through the store and out into the not-so-fresh air of New York City. They had to get home, right now that was priority one. They were not going to have this very serious conversation in the street, and certainly not in frickin' Wal-Mart of all places!

The city that never slept was bustling full with people. Jess let his hand move around to find Rory's own, determined as he was not going to lose her in the crowds. She wasn't talking, that in itself was scary as hell to Jess. Rory never stopped talking, never. Her yammering was adorable, he wouldn't deny, and he almost never tired of it, but the point was it was ever-present. The fact she was quiet just proved how very freaked out she was right now, and Jess could relate.

Rory was concentrating on not lagging behind as they moved through the streets. The apartment wasn't far, and she supposed it was best if they got back there before they talked about things. The pregnancy test tucked into her inside pocket felt like a lead weight, to match the one sat in the stomach right about now. Rory felt mean for thinking that, as if she were saying something bad about the baby that was potentially inside of her. This creation, if it existed, was a part of her, and an innocent, whether it was Jess' baby, or the alternative.

Swallowing hard, Rory looked up at the back of Jess' head and told herself it was okay. If she was pregnant, there was way more chance of it being her boyfriend's child than her literal one-time lover's baby. She and Dean were a one-night stand. She had lost count of how many times she and Jess had been together since she got here. The law of averages alone said it should be okay.

The building came into sight and Rory wasn't sure if that made her feel better or worse. It meant they were going to talk, that Jess was going to help her to stop freaking out, just like always. On the other hand, he was probably kind of freaked himself. Maybe he would be mad that she let this happen. Rory considered that fact and then got a little mad about it herself. How dare he blame me? It takes two to tango, and to make a baby! she thought to herself.

"Rory?" Jess prompted when she just stood on the doorstep apparently glaring at him - he had no idea what was causing that reaction.

Looking up and meeting his eyes, she seemed to snap out of whatever daze she had fallen into. She found a smile and Jess managed to return it, more out of instinct than anything else. Now didn't feel much like a time to smile. Maybe it should, after all, having a kid was a happy occasion for a lot of couples. Of course, most of those couples probably hadn't only just got back together less than a month ago. They probably weren't living hand to mouth. They probably had plans that went further than the end of the Summer.

Three flights of stairs passed quickly and slowly at the same time. Neither Rory nor Jess were willing to explain how they came to that conclusion, and yet they both had. Both reached for their key as they got to the door. Jess frowned.

"Oh, Mrs Rossini gave it to me," said Rory in explanation. "Um, the door closed when I ran to the bathroom and... she helped me out," she muttered.

Jess didn't want any further explanation right now, not out here in the hall most especially. A couple of the nefarious looking neighbours from upstairs crashed through the hallway, drunk as skunks with punctures in their forearms that Jess pretended not to see. He ushered Rory inside as fast he could, slamming the door behind the both of them. Now they had to talk, maybe the most serious conversation they'd ever had, and that included the one where he first told Rory he loved her (which he still did) and another where he told her she could depend on him now (that was still true, also).

"So..." he said, shifting awkwardly, hands going into the pockets of his faux-leather jacket.

"So..." she repeated.

It was oddly reminiscent of days gone by when they first got together, when a whole conversation could consist of a dozen 'hi's'. That seemed like a lifetime ago in this moment. Rory swallowed hard.

"Jess, I...I don't know how this happened," she said, wrapping her arms around herself as tears came to her eyes. "I mean obviously I know, but we, we were careful, every time, weren't we?" she checked, as if she just wasn't sure about anything anymore.

"We were," he nodded his confirmation. "But, er... y'know, you said you might be," he recalled very clearly from the moment he spotted her outside the door in Wal-Mart. "You don't know for sure?"

"No," she shook her head in agreement. "Not for sure. I was sick, and Mrs R thought she knew why, and then I started to do the math, y'know, the math," she said pointedly, hoping that she didn't have to give anymore explanation than that. "It's been at least six weeks, maybe seven," she admitted.

Jess nodded that he understood. That wasn't normal, he knew that. It didn't automatically make Rory pregnant, but he could see why she would think so, and why Mrs Rossini might assume too. Now that he thought about it, Rory had mentioned feeling off-colour a couple of mornings. She got over it pretty fast and said she was fine, so he hadn't worried about it much. Now Jess was wondering what other symptoms they might have been ignoring when they were actually important.

"I wish I knew what to say right now," he thought aloud, running a hand back through his hair. "Rory, I never thought..."

"I know, me either," she cut in. "Like we said, always careful."

"Condoms aren't a hundred percent, I know that, everybody knows that."

"I didn't know that!"

"How did you not know that?"

"Hello! Virgin until a few weeks ago!"

They both stopped at that confession. Not the right words for it perhaps, considering Jess already knew that particular truth. He also knew he hadn't been Rory's first time. If he hadn't wanted to throw up before, he sure did now. If she was pregnant, it might be his kid, but at the same time, it might not.

"Forester," he ground out. "Oh, this gets better!"

The laugh that escaped his throat was pained and hollow. Rory couldn't hold the tears in any longer. She rushed towards him and stopped with their toes practically touching.

"Jess, please," she urged him, putting her hands to the back of his head and neck, making him meet his eyes. "I know it's overwhelming, believe me, I know, but I need you not to freak out, because I'm already really, really freaking out, and I know it's unfair to expect you to be the strong one, but I can't... I just can't..."

The sobbing started and words failed her. Rory had been holding it all in until this moment, determined she had to be stronger than she felt. Jess felt awful as she cried into his chest. He held her tight in is arms, rubbing her back, promising her it was all going to be okay. It was a dumb thing to do, because he couldn't really say for sure that everything would work out. Life would be beyond complicated if she was pregnant, if it was his child inside of her. If Dean had anything to do with this, well, Jess would love to say he was a good enough man to stand by Rory no matter what, but honestly? Right now, he wasn't so sure. It was a hell of a big ask to raise another man's child as your own... if there was a child at all.

"Rory, we gotta start from the beginning here," he said when her crying got down to a dull roar. "We need to get a test, check what the situation is, before either of us really freaks out about it."

It was awfully grown up and sensible of him to talk that way. Rory found a small smile coming to her lips even through the veil of tears in her eyes. Jess hated when he had to be all mature and upstanding, but he would do it, for her. He'd proved it a lot of times actually. For all his running out when things got rough, he had faced her grandmother with a black eye, he hadn't backed out of their relationship when Lorelai clearly hated him or the town disapproved. In the end, he had come back for Rory, told her he loved her, asked her to be with him. Now here they were, and they were so happy, or at least they had been these past three weeks. Rory didn't want it to all go to hell just because she might be pregnant. She also might not be.

"I bought a test at Wal-Mart," she admitted, sniffling as she brought her head up off his shoulder and met his eyes.

Jess nodded, letting go of her as she reached into her coat pocket and produced the box. Rory turned it over in her hands twice, just staring. She understood how these things worked, just like everybody did, whether you'd taken one before or not. It was pretty much pee on a stick and then wait for a line to appear, or a plus, or whatever the box specified. She started reading it carefully.

"So, apparently two blue lines means I am, and one means I'm not."

"Huh," Jess replied, leaning over to look at the words she was reading. "That simple."

"That simple," she agreed, making no real moves to actually go to the bathroom and take the test.

Jess wanted to give her a nudge already, but he couldn't do it. In a strange way, it was easier not knowing the truth. Ignorance was bliss, that's what they said, and yet he knew neither of them were going to get any rest until they knew for sure whether baby was about to make three.

"Rory..." he prompted when she hadn't moved for fully five minutes.

"I know," she replied, taking a deep breath and walking by him to the door.

Jess watched her go, running a hand over his face as the door clicked shut behind her. This was crazy, insane, about as ridiculous as any situation he'd ever been in, and there had been some doozies over the years. Rory might be pregnant, carrying his child, or Dean's child. It made his head swim and his heart jump up into the back of his throat. All those things he said about Rory being able to rely on him now, and he meant every word. He never expected this to happen. Maybe that was naive after all the time they'd spent in bed lately, but he just hadn't considered it, not now, not yet, not like this.

"So?" he asked the moment Rory let herself back into the apartment.

"We have to wait," she told him, swallowing hard.

They both sat down on the end of the bed, still as marble statues and feeling just about as cold. Rory held the white stick in her hand, staring intently at the small rectangle that would eventually bear a blue line or two. Jess fixed his eyes on the same spot a moment, then looked sideways at his girlfriend. He never saw her look so pale or so afraid in the whole time he knew her. Hs arm wrapped instinctively around her back, pulling her in close. Rory's head dropped onto Jess's shoulder but she couldn't relax. Her eyes remained on the result of the test, or at least where that result would soon appear, and she could feel that Jess was watching too.

The five minutes seemed like hours, maybe even days, and never were two people more concentrated on one spot for so very long. Little by little, the result started to appear. One blue line... and that was all.

"One line," said Rory in a small voice.

"One is for negative. Not pregnant, right?" asked Jess, equally as quiet as she was in his tone.

Rory didn't answer verbally, just nodded against his shoulder, then he felt her body convulse with a sob and she was crying again. Jess just held her tight, kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back to bring any kind of comfort he could.

It was weird, but he had a feeling this wasn't all relief for the negative result. He knew because he felt weird about it too, like tears were coming to his own eyes, like something had been snatched away. Jess wasn't ready to be a father, he wasn't sure if he ever truly would be. At the same time, there had been a little while there where he might've been, were he and Rory might've made something special with their love, something that was only theirs. It was strange to think that was gone, that it was all a mistake that never even existed.

Jess laid back down on the bed, pulling Rory with him. They lay there, curled up together, just letting the realisation of what had happened this morning wash over them. There was no baby, and it was a good thing in so many ways, and a sad thing in a few less obvious ones.

"I can still go to Yale," she mumbled, her face in his shirt. "We can be free to do whatever we want, it's... it's a good thing, right?"

"Yeah, it's good," he muttered his reply, hugging her closer still.

They shouldn't be in anyway disappointed by the fact they weren't about to be parents, and yet it seemed as if they were both feeling the same way about it. Such an odd mix of relief and pain could never properly be explained, and Jess had twice as many reasons to feel hurt. Rory still planned to go to Yale, which meant going back to Stars Hollow, he had no doubt. Jess made it clear before that they couldn't build a life together there, he just wasn't supposed to be in that place. Rory planned to leave, it had to mean that, and Jess hated knowing it. Right now, he couldn't bear to bring it up. He just held onto her a while longer, whilst he had the chance to keep her close. He should know by now that even when his dreams did come true, it was never destined to last long.

To Be Continued...