A/N: You're getting another chapter so soon because I had the last one ready to go last Wednesday and was convinced I had uploaded it, but somehow that didn't happen. This chapter was actually ready for Satrday but two at once seemed like overkill, so here it is now! All that being said, thanks to all for the lovely reviews, and on we go...

(For disclaimer, etc. - see prologue)

Chapter 44

"Damn Connecticut and its perfectly flat roads!" Rory complained loudly as she half-stamped, half-waddled back into the apartment.

"Yeah, it's a real problem how they fill those pot-holes so fast and so well," Jess smirked some, unable to help himself.

Rory wasn't amused, and he knew why. It was now eight days past her due date. It was late in the evening and tomorrow she had an appointment at the hospital and there was talk of inducing labour in a proper medical fashion to get this kid of theirs out. Jess wasn't thrilled by the concept and Rory was even less so, but the doctor had explained that worse complications, including the death of a child, were more likely to result from leaving the baby in situ than hurrying him out. Today's ride out in the car had been one last ditch attempt to get the kid to move of his own accord, but finding bumpy places to drive had proved somewhat difficult. Jess was grateful for the sake of the car's suspension, but Rory was more grumpy than ever. He shed his jacket and walked over to the couch, sitting down next to her. Rory had her arms folded on top of her over-sized stomach and a real deep frown on her face.

"C'mon, Ror, it'll be okay," he tried to tell her, putting his arm around her shoulders to pull her close. "You heard what the doctor said, the procedure for inducing the birth doesn't hurt you or the baby, and it's better he's out than stay there any longer," he reminded her, kissing her temple.

"I know," she sighed heavily. "I just wanted it to be natural, y'know? I wanted our baby to be born when he wanted to be born, but for some reason his favourite place seems to be inside of me."

"There's a joke in there, worthy of your mother's 'dirty', that I'm not going to make," said Jess softly, and Rory both giggled and blushed at the implication. "But seriously, Rory, it's gonna be okay, and hey, the kid still has almost twenty four hours to put in an appearance before the doctors decide to help."

That much was true. They had to go over to the hospital tomorrow morning and Rory would spend the day there, before the inducement of labour occurred next morning. That was more than an entire day away, and there was every chance that labour would start before that. Jess really hoped it would, for Rory's sake more than anything else. She'd had enough now of being pregnant, she was ready for it to be over, to meet the little baby boy that was their son.

"I like that we didn't tell anyone about the name we picked yet," she smiled then, curling up close to Jess, or at least as much as she could in her present state. "It'll be a great surprise when he finally gets here."

"I'm amazed you haven't told your mom yet. It's not like she hasn't asked at least a hundred and fifty times a day since she found out we decided."

"She's just excited," Rory giggled. "I'm glad actually. She could've been so mad about this whole thing."

"I think any anger was pointed directly at me," said Jess thoughtfully. "But honestly? Lately we get along pretty good. I guess I should've known we would if we actually tried. You two do have a lot in common."

"And what we don't have in common, you and her sure do," said Rory, earning herself an odd look from Jess. "Oh, come on, you know you do. Parental issues, authority issues, teenage parent..."

"Hey, that last one applies to both of us," he reminded her.

Rory smiled; "Yes, it does."

She reached up to kiss him and Jess happily obliged. If somebody had told either of them a year ago that they would be this happy to know they were going to be parents at their age, some serious hilarity would have ensued. Now, Rory and Jess couldn't imagine wanting more than this life they had built for themselves. No situation was ever perfect, and this one wasn't either, but it was pretty damn good, all things considered.

"Mmm," Rory sighed happily into their kiss. "You don't know how much I wish we could continue this."

"Nobody's going to try and stop us," Jess pointed out, going in for another long, deep kiss.

Rory didn't even try to put up a fight, it felt too good. It completely sucked that sex was all but off the table at this point. They had their fun in different ways, and Jess was very good about what they could and couldn't do, what she needed sometimes even though the traditional activities were difficult or impossible. It wasn't the same though. Rory knew she still had a long wait before they could get back to what they had before, but a girl could certainly day dream. Unfortunately, right now wasn't a moment she could spend enjoying herself.

"Jess, I can't," she squirmed away. "I'm sorry, that was a long car ride, and junior is sitting on my bladder again."

"Wow, mood officially killed," her fiancé said with a shake of his head as Rory levered herself up off the couch.

Rory was almost as sick of bathroom trips as she was the back ache and the waddle-like walk she had been forced to adopt these past few weeks. Every day seemed to be punctuated on a ridiculously regular basis by peeing, and Rory was so bored of the four tiled walls of the smallest room in the apartment. It was only when she was in said room with the door closed that she realised something was wrong. It really did feel like she needed to use the toilet, and yet the pain in her back suddenly shifted and pulled tight around her middle like a rope. Something in the baby book came to mind a second too late, and with a whooshing sound like nothing she ever heard before, Rory found herself standing in a puddle of fluid that was definitely not from her bladder.

"Jess!" she bellowed loudly, the call turning into a strangled scream as pain tore through her.

He was there in a second, practically falling in through the door. His eyes widened at the sight that met his eyes, and the smell that hit his nose too.

"Geez!" he exclaimed. "Er, we gotta get you to the hospital. I need keys," he said to himself, rushing to fetch both the keys he spoke of and Rory's pre-packed bag that was already right there by the bed.

"Damn Paris and her Murphy's law theory!" Rory yelled, gripping the side of the tub with both hands before the contraction finally subsided.

"Her what?" asked Jess as he returned, edging around the mess on the bathroom floor to get a hold of Rory and help her walk out to the car.

"I'm wearing my favourite underwear and now it's ruined," she told him sadly.

Jess smiled with amusement that broke through the panic in a second. He kissed the top of Rory's head as they exited the bathroom together and he grabbed her bag as they moved towards the front door.

"The baby's coming, Ror," he reminded her, as if she didn't know. "He's coming on his own without any help. That's what you wanted, right?"

Rory stopped walking, her hand going out to the wall as the other gripped onto Jess' own. She had a vice grip on his fingers and screamed some when another contraction hit. It was barely two minutes since the first one, Jess was sure. That couldn't be good.

"Okay, I know it hurts, sweetheart, but we really have to get you in the car, now," he told Rory worriedly. "The hospital is a few minutes away and I don't think you wanna have this kid born in the back seat."

Rory nodded he was right and tried to breathe through the remaining pain as they headed out. It may have been a long wait to the moment when this labour started, but somehow it didn't seem like the actual event was going to last. Not long to go now.

When they got to the hospital, Jess started yelling for help. Between his insistent calling and Rory's all-out screaming, they had three nurses and an orderly within the first fifteen seconds of exiting the car. Rory was put in a wheelchair and rushed down a corridor with Jess in hot pursuit. It was only when his fiancée asked for her mother that Jess realised he ought to call Lorelai and fast. Of course Rory wanted her there, he expected nothing less and wasted no time in calling. Lorelai answered her cell on the first ring and asked if it was happening. All Jess had to say was 'yes' and that was that, she was promising to call Luke and that both of them would be over to the hospital just as fast as they could. Jess' job with regards to calling people was done then. There was nobody else he could think of who needed to know Rory was in labour. Once Lorelai and Luke left for the hospital, the whole town would spread the news. Other than that there was the Gilmore elders, but the last thing Jess or Rory needed was them at the hospital whilst the actual birth was taking place. Later would do for that.

Jess stood in the mostly empty corridor a moment, turning one way and then the other, really not sure what to do. Instinct told him both to run to Rory and run from the building all at the same time. He wouldn't leave her, not a chance, not now, not ever, but a voice in his head still told him it was the thing to do and it wouldn't quit.

"Jess?" an unfamiliar voice asked then and he turned to see a nurse poking her head out around a door. "Are you Miss Gilmore's partner?" she checked.

"Fiance, yeah," he confirmed, as the nurse stepped out into the corridor.

"My name is Carrie, I'm going to be assisting in the birth. If you come this way, you can wash up and then you can go right in and be with your fiancée," she smiled politely.

Jess nodded, unable to find any words at all as he followed the nurse down the hall. He glanced back before they went into the next room, hearing a scream that he was pretty sure was Rory.

"She's going to be okay, right?" he asked, feeling so stupid the very next moment. "Of course she'll be okay," he said himself. "Women have been giving birth for centuries."

"Longer actually, and before hospitals or any understanding of medicine," Carrie smiled right across at him as he rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands at the sink she brought him to. "I know it's a worrying time, a new experience for the father as well as the mother giving birth," she said knowingly. "But most baby's are born without any complications at all. Besides, on the off chance something goes wrong, and it's highly unlikely it will, you're all in the right place."

Jess nodded that she was right, but that didn't stop his heart beating a mile a minute against his ribs. Rory was down the hall, pain ripping through her body as their son fought to get out into the world. Things could go wrong, they did go wrong, for some people. Suddenly Jess found himself praying to a God he had never been a hundred percent sure he believed in that Rory and their baby came out of this okay, that everything ran smooth and there were no complications. If he lost either of them now, Jess didn't know how he would ever cope, and he didn't want to have to find out.

"Look, lady, I'm not screwing around here!" said Lorelai angrily as she leaned ever further across the Reception desk. "My kid is somewhere in this hospital giving birth to a baby of her own, and if you don't tell me where she is in the next five minutes, I'm going to go Buffy Summers all over your ass!"

"Lorelai!" Luke pulled her back. "She's not... She's just a little anxious," he explained to the nurse. "But we really would like to know where Rory Gilmore is, please?" he asked, still holding onto Lorelai who was struggling to get back to her previous threatening behaviour.

The nurse scurried away, promising in muttered tones to go find out where the young lady in question was and what was happening with her labour. Luke held on tight to Lorelai and made her look at him.

"Yeah, you better run!" she called behind the nurse before finally she focused her eyes on her boyfriend.

"Hey, c'mon," he urged her. "I know you're worried and stressed out. I understand because I'm pretty shaken up myself, but everything is going to be okay," he promised, holding her face in his hands.

Lorelai took a deep breath and was shaking as she let it out.

"Oh, Luke, this is so big," she told him, as if he didn't know. "There could be complications..."

"There probably won't be."

"I know that. I know, but even if things goes smoothly, it's... it hurts, a lot. Trust me, there is no pain in this world like it," she explained.

"Yeah, I remember the one about the splits and the crate of dynamite," Luke nodded, trying not to wince at the memory of the conversation where Lorelai had told him that particular metaphor for childbirth. "But Rory is strong, strong like her mother," he smiled. "And Jess is with her... or he was, I guess," he added as his nephew came rushing through the doors, two paces ahead of the worried looking nurse that Lorelai had been threatening minutes before.

"Lorelai," he ran to her. "You should come see Rory," he urged her.

"Really?" she asked, looking confused. "I didn't think they'd let both of us in there when she's actually... I mean, she's okay, right?"

"She's okay," Jess nodded. "In some serious pain, but apparently that's how this thing works."

"Oh yeah, I remember that part," Lorelai agreed. "But still..."

"She needs you, Lorelai," said Jess desperately. "It's... it's too much for her by herself. She needs you to hold her hand and tell her it's okay. I'm not... She needs you."

Lorelai was flattered and so happy. There was a moment when she was just going to run to her baby girl's side and be there at the miracle of birth that would bring her grandson into the world. That moment passed and she surprised everyone, including herself, when she shook her head.

"No," she said definitely. "Jess, I can't go in there."

"What?" he yelped. "Lorelai, did you not hear what I just said?"

"I did," she confirmed. "But Jess, honey, in that room right now? It's not my place. Trust me, if Rory was going through this alone, I would be there for her in a heartbeat, in less time than even that, but she's not. Jess, she is having your baby, hers and yours. Not mine or Luke's or my parents', just hers and yours. If anybody should be there when that baby boy comes into the world, it's his father."

She had her hand on his shoulder, her gaze fixed on Jess' own as she gave her speech. Lorelai meant every word, he knew that, even as her eyes teared up and her voice shook with the emotion of the moment. Jess nodded dumbly.

"I should be there," he said definitely, swallowing hard when his words came out wobbly at best.

"Yes, you should," Lorelai agreed. "So, go. Go, go, go! Don't miss this moment!" she told him, giving him a shove towards the doors.

With a grin the like of which she had hardly ever seen on his face before, Jess went backwards through those doors, then turned and ran. Lorelai watched him go and tears streamed down her cheeks, even as Luke pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

"That was a beautiful thing you just did," he said softly, knowing how hard it must have been.

"It was the right thing," she mumbled against Luke's chest as she hugged him back with all her might, praying that everything was okay with her baby girl. "C'mon, Rory. You got this, sweets."

To Be Continued...

A/N2: Looks like the next chapter is going to be the last! In the meantime, your reviews make me very happy ;)