A/N: This time last week, I was feeling pretty crappy, and so there was no update. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Literati fix, and hey, it's a pretty long chapter too! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Prologue)

Chapter 34

"Oh, wow!" Lane enthused, a giggle escaping as she kept her hand on Rory's bump until the baby kicked again. "That is so amazing!"

"It's a little less fun when it's happening on the inside of you, trust me," her friend advised, though she was smiling enough when she said it. "Honestly, I could not love this kid more, but when he's kicking me in the kidneys or sitting on my bladder? Not exactly my favourite moments of pregnancy."

"Aaaw, be nice to your Mama," said Lane to the unborn baby boy, before moving her attention back to Rory herself. "It has to be pretty special though, knowing you're going to have a son in less than three months!"

"It really is," she agreed. "I mean, you know this was never the plan, but now everything just seems to be coming together. Pretty sure 2005 is going to be a really good year," she grinned.

"2004 isn't ending so badly," said Lane, picking up Rory's left hand to better to see the ring there. "It's so sweet that Jess was determined to get you a ring. Oh, I so want what you have!" she complained perhaps slightly too loudly.

"Lane, you're going to give Zach some kind of seizure!" her friend whispered to her, craning her neck to make sure the guys weren't listening in from the kitchen. "I think a couple of months of dating is probably a little early to be talking about engagement rings and babies."

"Oh, no. I don't want the baby. At least, not for a while yet," she insisted, shaking her head. "But the engagement ring would be kinda cool."

It was the way she said it and looked away that made Rory frown. There was more to that comment than met the eye, she was certain. Shifting in a little closer to her friend she got Lane's attention again to ask what she needed to know.

"You have something you want to talk about? About Zach maybe?"

"No... or yes," Lane squirmed, checking over her shoulder to see if the guys were coming back in yet, but they weren't. "I just... I really, really like him, Rory. I like him so much, I think maybe I actually love him, and when he kisses me, I... I want him so bad."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that," Rory smiled. "I mean, if you feel like you're ready..."

"I am, kind of," she frowned. "I mean, I want to. I really, really want to, with Zach, but I just... I'm not sure... And I really don't want to offend you right now," she clarified before going on. "Rory, I think I actually have to be married before I have sex."

Rory's eyes widened at that revelation. She really didn't know what to say.

"Doesn't it freak you out, man?" asked Zach as he stood by watching Jess finish packing up a flask of decaff coffee and snacks into a bag. "I mean, women get together, they talk about us. They could be saying anything," he said worriedly. "That freaks me out."

"Trust me, Zach, when you've got a baby due to be born in ten weeks or so, a lot of the little things that used to freak you out, they kind of stop mattering so much," he said sagely as he completed the task at hand.

They were headed to the town meeting that Taylor seemed determined to have in spite of the fact it was the Thursday between Christmas and New Year, and there really shouldn't be anything so desperate to be discussed. Rory wanted to go, mostly because she and Lorelai wanted to introduce Mrs R to the town.

Lane and Zach came by to visit a couple of hours ago, and when conversation got particularly girly, Jess excused himself to go run some errands. Zach had followed almost immediately but hadn't exactly made himself useful. Mostly he just wandered around on Jess' heels driving him crazy, but he bit his lip and did not show he was annoyed. Rory was all kinds of determined that Jess and Zach had to get along since they were dating a pair of best friends. Jess liked Dave better, that guy had been cool. Zach was nice enough from what he could tell, but not quite as bright as he should be.

"Geez, man. I can't imagine being a father. I mean, someday, sure, I guess it'd be cool, pass on the family name and all," he considered. "But now? At our age?"

Jess could do without the colour commentary on his life choices, especially from some guy he only knew because they happened to be dating friends. Jess really wasn't the most social of people in the first place, and those he did choose to converse with tended to be somewhat smarter than Zach. When the back door opened and Lorelai let herself in, it was actually a blessed relief to see her.

"Hey, you guys ready to go?" she asked cheerily.

"You have no idea," said Jess with a look that Zach completely missed.

Lorelai saw it and suppressed a giggle.

"Luke is walking Mrs R over to Miss Patty's so we get the good seats, I came back to grab up all of you young folks," she explained. "You been having fun?"

"Oh, it's been a blast," Jess told her, rolling his eyes as he went through to the living room.

"Huh, and I didn't think he liked me all that much," Zach commented as he followed on behind.

Lorelai failed at keeping the laughter in that time and hung back in the kitchen a moment to pull herself together. She heard Rory thank Jess for packing coffee and snacks in case she got hungry or thirsty at the meeting, and then everyone was putting on coats to leave.

"You sure you even want to come, sweets?" Lorelai asked her daughter. "I mean, I can't imagine what Taylor is even gathering everybody for, but you know how he can go on and on. Could get pretty late."

"I can cope with one late night," said Rory, though she yawned even as she said it. "Besides, you know I love the wackiness."

"And we have that in spades here in the Hollow," her mother agreed as the five all walked out together.

As planned, when they got to Miss Patty's, Mrs R and Luke were waiting with the whole front row of seats reserved for their group. They arrived just in time, as Taylor began banging the gavel and calling the meeting to order.

"Now, I would like to thank you all for coming to this meeting. I know we don't usually have these kind of gatherings in the midst of the holiday season, but on this occasion there is a lot to get through and it was deemed necessary..."

"Who is the man on the stage?" Mrs Rossini asked Lorelai in a whisper, even as he continued to drone on.

"That is the famous Taylor Doose that I have told you oh so much about," she grinned.

"Really?" she checked, frowning a little. "But you did not mention he was so handsome."

Lorelai choked on thin air when she heard that comment. Rory hadn't heard from along the row and looked at her mom with confusion as she coughed loudly.

"Lorelai are you quite alright?" asked Taylor with a sigh, not at all amused at being interrupted.

She shook her head and waved away his concern, as her breath finally came back to her.

"I'm fine, Taylor. I'm sorry," she apologised, encouraging him to go on, and of course he did.

"Now, the Christmas pageant was a particular success this year," he told the gathered crowd. "Great thanks to go to all those who assisted with costumes and scenery, and of course our wonderful actors. Rory Gilmore was particularly convincing in the role of Mary before the birth of baby Jesus, and Lulu did a wonderful job with the after-birth Mary."

Rory blushed at the compliment, just like always. It wasn't as if she didn't know she got the part primarily because she was the most pregnant person in town, but it was still nice to hear she had done well. She noticed Taylor didn't mention Jess at all. His playing Joseph had been somewhat controversial, and he hadn't wanted to do it at all, but the only other candidate seemed to be Kirk. In Jess' own words 'that freak is coming near my fiancé and my kid over my dead body', so it was pretty much a case of Jess himself playing Joseph or Rory pulling out of the festivities. The latter was not going to happen.

"Now, moving on to upcoming events..." Taylor continued, telling the collected members of town how New Year was to be properly marked.

It was all pretty pointless, just as Jess expected it to be. Stars Hollow had a New Year's party every year and it was always the same deal, since long before he moved here (so he was told) and probably would be long after everyone in this room was gone. The weirdest part to Jess was that said party was over by nine at the latest, meaning the actual arrival of the New Year was never marked. This was all because of Taylor's rules about noise pollution and other similarly dumb things that should never apply when an entire town was wanting to celebrate the coming of a new year. Still, he rambled on with how things were going to be, and Jess glanced down the row of family and friends at the reactions of everyone else.

Rory was yawning again, Lorelai was whispering to Luke, and between the Gilmore Girls, Mrs Rossini gave rapt attention to Taylor Doose with what Jess could only describe as a dreamy smile on her face. That was just disturbing. He glanced the other side of himself to see Lane and Zach sat comfortably together, his arm along the back of her seat, her leaning into him some with the biggest smile on her face. She smiled a lot more since she started dating the idiot. Maybe the guy was smarter than he seemed. Of course, Jess couldn't help but let his eyes wander back to Mrs R after a while. She really did seem to be awfully interested in Taylor. Jess shuddered at the thought, until suddenly his mind conjured up the image of Mrs Rossini actually coming on to Taylor and him being petrified by the old lady that could more than hold her own. That was just too damn funny, and somehow Taylor managed to look over right at the moment when Jess could barely contain the laughter rising in his chest.

"Mr Mariano," the town selectman said sharply. "I'm afraid I'm failing to see what is so amusing about the right of every man, woman, and child in our town to walk down a clean and tidy street on the first morning of a new year."

Jess hadn't been listening to anything Taylor said before, but he could guess what he missed. Unfortunately trying to speak at all just made the laughter escape. He bit his lip, tried to think of something smart to say.

"Not amused, Taylor," he assured him. "I'm sorry, I'm just feeling very happy tonight. That's not against the town charter is it?" he asked smartly.

Taylor looked ready to start a fight until he looked at Rory, Lorelai, Luke, and their older lady friend who he was sure he'd never seen before. There really was no point in starting a fight with that family, especially not with young Rory pregnant and emotional. Besides, smiling wasn't a crime, Jess was right on that. Taylor shook his head and let it go.

"Moving on..." he said, clearing his throat and going on with his speechifying.

Rory looked sideways at Jess, wondering what was really making him so smiley. She didn't doubt he was happy but there had to be more to it than that.

'What?' he mouthed to her when she stared at him.

'Nothing,' she shook her head, picking up his hand in hers and squeezing before turning her attention back to Taylor.

Jess looked down at her hand clasped with his own and felt the smile on his face growing. Maybe what he said to Taylor wasn't entirely accurate, but he really was pretty damn happy right now, and that was the truth.

"I can't believe you let that happen!" Luke exclaimed for maybe the third time since they left the town meeting and headed back to The Crap Shack.

"Oh, calm down," said Lorelai, leaning into him with her head on his shoulder. "Mrs R asked me to introduce her to Taylor and they get along. What difference does it really make to you?"

"He's Taylor!" said Luke loudly. "And she's... she's a nice lady. I can't even... It's just wrong."

Rory laughed at that.

"I don't think it's wrong, I think it's sweet," she grinned big, hand held in Jess' own as they wandered along home behind the 'grown ups'. "Two lonely older people getting to know each other. They could be great friends... or more."

"Ah, geez," her fiancé groaned at those last two words. "I do not need that mental image, and even if I could stand to think about Taylor getting familiar with anybody, Mrs R would eat him for breakfast."

"That certainly calls for a 'dirty!'," said Lorelai, looking back over her shoulder at them.

Jess rolled his eyes. Rory only laughed harder. The fact remianed that it was kind of nice to know that Mrs Rossini had made a friend outside of their family. It might encourage her to stay longer, and Jess in particular was glad about that. He hated knowing that Mrs R was alone in that awful neighbourhood he had also called home for a while. Stars Hollow was a nutty town, but at least it was safe.

As the four reached the house, Lorelai checked her watch. It wasn't that late, but she knew for a fact she had heard Rory yawn at least six times on the journey home. It made her wonder about her baby girl's insistence that tomorrow night she planned to stay up past midnight to see 2005 arrive in all its glory.

"Babe, are you sure you want to do the whole New Year's thing tomorrow night?" she checked as they headed up onto the porch and opened up the front door.

"Yes, definitely," she said with determination. "I can nap tomorrow afternoon, and sleep in all day Saturday if I need to, but I am going to be awake at midnight!"

"Why the steely resolve on this one?" asked Jess curiously as all four of them filed into the house.

"I... I don't know," Rory squirmed a little, proving that in fact she did know she probably just didn't want to say.

"Rory..." he challenged her, and all at once she caved with a large sigh.

"Okay, so things are only going to get tougher next year. We're going to have a nine month old, you'll be working hard, I'll be at Yale, we'll probably be in our own apartment somewhere else, not in Stars Hollow," she reeled off, all in one long burst, as was the Gilmore way. "I need to see in one more New Year here, in this house, with my family as it stands now. I just... I'm not unhappy with how things are going to be, Jess, but I need this. Do you understand?"

"Sure, I get it," he nodded, though somehow he looked a little like maybe he didn't get it, or just didn't like it somehow.

Rory didn't get a chance to question that when suddenly she herd her grandpa's voice and moved further into the living room to investigate. Lorelai had hit play on the one message left on the answering machine while they were out, and Richard was apparently the person who left it.

'I was considering coming over to your house to see you, but that was much harder to do without your mother finding out. I would like to give you some news, Lorelai, and Rory too, assuming she is listening. Emily and I are reconciled. We have talked things through and... well, things are once again as they should be between us. I shan't bore you with the details, but that is the news I wished to share. The other reason for my calling is this, I would appreciate if you would call your mother, Lorelai, and discuss when you might next attend Friday Night Dinner. Emily will not directly admit it, but I know she misses seeing you girls, and still feels there is a rift that remains unhealed between herself and the two of you. Our separation means I do not know all the details, but I would hope that the both of you, and Luke and Jess, of course, might attend dinner next Friday so we can talk things out. If you could call me back at some point, let me know your thoughts, that would be more than welcome. Thank you.'

The message ended, and Lorelai and Rory shared a look.

"Huh," said mother to daughter eventually. "Um, weren't they both supposed to be away, in different places, for like the entire Holiday season?"

"That's what I heard," Rory replied. "But yay for them being back together at least?"

"Oh, definite yay," Lorelai agreed.

"Did I just get ordered to go to Friday Night Dinner?" asked Luke, looking as uncomfortable as he both sounded and felt.

"I'm not sure it's an order anymore," his girlfriend considered. "But a definite request. How'd you feel about that, hon?" she asked Rory.

"I don't know," she confessed. "Mostly tired, I think," she admitted with a vague smile. "A little thirsty."

"I could make cocoa?" Luke offered, making Rory smile.

"That'd be so great, thanks, Luke. I'm just gonna go freshen up before I turn in," she said, heading for the bathroom.

She made no comment about the fact Jess wasn't there. He had wandered off towards the kitchen with the bag in his hands that had contained snacks and a flask of coffee, so Rory just assumed he went to deal with that. Lorelai found it curious when she followed Luke into the kitchen that the bag was just casually dumped on the table and Jess was gone. She peeked into the bedroom, but he wasn't there either. Checking out of the window, she spotted him.

"You want cocoa too?" asked Luke.

"No thanks, babe," she replied absently, wondering why Jess was hanging out alone on the back porch in the dark.

Lorelai moved towards the back door and then doubled back with a smile on her lips she couldn't help. Opening up the refrigerator, she passed the milk to Luke then helped herself to two beers.

"I'll be right back," she told her boyfriend as she headed out the back door.

Jess was so lost in thought, he didn't even hear her coming. If he had noticed the back door open and close, he probably would have guessed at it being Rory anyway. He really wasn't expecting Lorelai at all.

"That tree is familiar," she muttered to herself as she walked up beside Jess who was leaning on the porch rail, looking out unseeing across the dark yard. "Hey," she greeted him, nudging his arm with one of the beer bottles.

"Thanks," he said as he took it from her, though he barely glanced her way.

Something was up, Lorelai was pretty damn sure on that, though she was a little baffled as to what that thing was exactly. Jess had made mention at the town meeting of being so darn happy he could burst and he had certainly seemed pretty thrilled with life the last few days. Rory and the baby were all good, half a diner was now in the names of Mariano and Gilmore, Mrs Rossini was here for what seemed to be a good long visit, and everything was all smiles and joy. Right now, Lorelai was seeing no particular happiness in Jess, and it bothered her. The only trigger she could think of was the phone call from Richard, but why that should bother Jess she couldn't say. She wanted to tell him to snap out of it, to remember he had a good thing going, so if he was thinking of running or being a jerk, he should think again. A stab of guilt hit her hard in the chest when Lorelai started to get a distinct feeling of deja vu.

"You remember the first talk we had out here?" she asked so suddenly, Jess almost visibly jumped.

"Of course," he nodded once, turning to look at her, wondering where this was going.

Lorelai smiled slightly, with nostalgia he supposed, and some kind of awkwardness too.

"I remember it a little too well," she confessed, sipping on her beer as he did the same "First I remember you, your attitude and that teen angst thing you had going on," she explained, not surprised to see the familair smirk come to Jess' lips at the description. "And then I get mad and I remember me. I hear the words I said playing in my head like a bad recording and... and I just wanna grab 2001 me and knock her upside the head," she declared, complete with hand gestures that almost spilled her beer all over the porch.

Jess was a little surrpised by what she was saying, but he didn't let it show.

"I wasn't exactly charming," he shrugged as he turned to face her, leaning back against the rail now and taking a long drink from his beer bottle.

Lorelai shook her head.

"I never even gave you a chance," she told him what he had to already know. "I should have, Jess. Of all the people who should've understood where you were coming from, it was me, and instead of accepting that you were a mixed up kid that needed a little understanding, I... I freaked out. I saw how you could hurt Luke and how you could mess things up for Rory, and I freaked," she shrugged, not knowing how else to explain.

Jess frowned at that.

"How could you possibly have known on that first night that I was even interested in Rory?" he asked in earnest.

Lorelai's face took on a smirk that Jess himself would have been proud of.

"A mother knows," she said with a nod of her head. "You're the kind of guy that gets a girl's attention. Like I told you once before, you have enough parts of your personality that remind me of myself, but there's a healthy dose of a young Christopher Hayden in there too, or there was anyway," she sighed. "Rory was always going to like you, and she's so great, obviously you were going to like her. It scared the hell out of me, but I shouldn't've taken that out on you. You weren't the best kid, Jess, we both know that, but what I'm saying is... well, it's not entirely your fault that things with you and me, and even with you and Rory, were so rocky for a while," she explained. "For the part I played in making things tougher for you before, I am sorry."

Jess was a little bowled over by all this. Sure, he and Lorelai got along way better now than they ever had before, but he believed that was because he had to grow up these past few months. He still thought she looked back and hated his younger self. Apparently not so much anymore.

"I'm sorry too," he said after a long pause. "I mean, you weren't the only one prejudging people... or the only one that was pretty terrified that night."

That was a lot for him to admit, and Jess did so quietly and with his face turned away. Still, it made Lorelai smile. It took a lot for any person to admit that something in life really scared them. It took a very lot when that person was a guy like Jess and the confession was being made to his future mother-in-law.

"So, slate wiped clean," she said, leaning on the rail beside him. "Here's to a new year with no need for cream pies at the Crap Shack."

Jess took a second to get the reference and then let out a chuckle of laughter.

"There have been very few moments in my life where I have actually wished I had one of those enormous cream pies you can just smash in someone's face, but this is definitely one of them!"

"To the new year, a new start," he agreed, clinking his beer bottle against hers, before they both drank.

"You're still going to have to come to Friday Night Dinner," said Lorelai in the strangely comfortable silence that followed.

Yeah, Jess had seen that one coming.

To Be Continued...