A/N: I know I know, you are very disapointed in me. I am a busy Senior now. Also this chapter has been with me since I started the story and it was hard for me to put the exact emotion into it. It always sounded bad. I told you before that this wasn't going to be your typical Gilmore story, but stick with it and I am sure it will be one amazing story when it is done. I'm so sorry for the lack of updates. Thanks to every single reviewer and I will have to hold an awards ceremony at the end of this. I am truly thankful for all of them.

As Always:
I own nothing...
Still a teen story, but it will be
pushing the teen drama

Bright Lights by Mochamint19

"She got out of town, on a railway New York bound, took all except my name, another alien on Broadway. There are somethings in this world you just can't change." Based off the song "Bright Lights" Matchbox 20. Rory is off to New York to find someone that should help her understand why she can't change her fate.

Chapter 8

It had been two months since the big party in Stars Hallow and the month was a breezy cold November. Rory was six months pregnant and her, Jess, and their unborn song had settled into a great schedule and a wonderfully peaceful life. At six every morning Rory would leave the apartment for Yale and at seven Jess would take his classes at the University of Connecticut. It was an amazing two months and the two lovers had grown closer and more in love. In October they or more Rory had decided that they would name their little one Riley Oliver Mariano. Rory chose Riley immediately at looking in the baby book and Jess chose Oliver after his favorite book, ' Oliver Twist ' of course. It was the third week in November and it had been a long Friday. Jess didn't have class on Fridays, however Rory not only had all of her classes, but the newspaper deadline to attend to. It wasn't until eight that evening when she got home.

Rory was glad Paris had been there. Looking back in her years at Chilton she was really convinced that she had hated Paris. But somehow things had changed and Paris had matured. Almost as soon as she saw Rory her face had softened and she was more kind. It also might have helped that Paris was studying pre-med and had a slight weakness for young pregnant women. She understood that Rory had not planned this and felt sympathetic. Paris had helped Rory a lot in the past two months, taking notes after Rory fell asleep in class and helping her with her articles for the paper. Rory was even starting to enjoy having Paris around and they hung out as much as they could. Paris had even started to get along with Jess. Rory still couldn't believe it had been six months, she loved this whole thing, but she was starting to get anxious about seeing their son. Every time her hand would fall to her stomach, she was feel how much more real this was and she would smile.

It was the papers 'hell week' and Rory had been tired and busy. She had a headache since Tuesday. So instead of bothering Rory's focus Jess put his time and effort into something more important to him. He knew how rough she had it this week.

He could tell that she loved it the moment she walked in.

"This is beautiful Jess." Rory said breathlessly.

Inside the small bedroom down the hall and next to the bathroom was the most amazing sight an expectant mother could see. The room was the shade of a light airy blue sky and had swirls of cerulean. There was a blue border on the wall near the ceiling with bright yellow stars. Two bright yellow star rugs now covered the once wooden floor. In the far-left side of the room was a crib painted blue and in the right corner was an old-fashioned blue rocking chair with a yellow seat cushion.

"But how?" Rory had managed to stutter.

Jess smiled at her, "Luke helped me build the furniture and Lane helped with the bedding."

As Rory continued to look around the room there was a bright yellow changing table already set up with diapers and baby powder. A small table was in the third remaining corner with a small glowing lamp. Looking between the crib and the rocking chair was a small yellow bookcase against the wall. Bending down to examine more closely she noticed slim books of fairy tales.

"That was my idea," Jess said proudly. "I hoped you would like that."

Shaking her head with joy she turned back to the bookcase. On the bookcase she also noticed two thicker books. While the other books had obviously been new these were older and had the look of being read many times. Pulling out the first book confirmed her belief. The cover read ' Oliver Twist '. Opening the cover inside she was greeted with the familiar scribbled black writing she knew so well. It read: 'Property of Jess Mariano'. The second book was a copy of Catcher in the Rye.

"I thought he should start on the best." Jess said as Rory began to tear up.

"The delinquent collection?" Rory laughed joyful tears now present in her eyes. She hugged him tightly. As she held him close to her she noticed the inside of the crib. The crib held the star theme blankets and sheets; there was even a plush star mobile, but there was something that held Rory's attention longer. It was a baby book, beautiful and blue. Opening it she saw that the first couple pages were already filled with pictures of Rory, Jess, and all there friends and family. There were even pictures of that day on the bridge, spinning the mobile Rory smiled and lightly kissed Jess.

"You have really outdone yourself this time, I love it.. Oww!" Rory said touching her stomach for a slight second.

"Are you ok?" Jess said startled

"Yeah," Rory said rubbing her stomach. "This little guy just won't stop kicking."

"Are you sure Rory?" Jess said still not convinced; something deep inside told him something was wrong.

"Yes!" It had been two weeks of him worrying over her and she was starting to get irritated. His actions were so sweet, but really quite annoying. "Quit fussing over me I'm fine!" she said sternly. "I am just going to get a glass of water and be right back ok" she smiled sweetly, hoping that her eyes would apologize, but also get her message across.

Coming back from the kitchen she paused for a slight second leaning against the doorway still holding her stomach. Jess couldn't help but stare at her, even though she was pregnant he never felt more in love with her, she was beautiful and she was perfect, but immediately her was ripped from his reverie by the loud crash of glass breaking. Before he could comprehend everything that was happening Rory had slid down the wall and was on the floor.

"Owie, Owie, Ow, Make it stop" Rory whimpered trying desperately not to cry.

"What's wrong," Jess asked trying to sound calm, he didn't want to scare Rory or have her see that he was scared himself.

"I don't know, it just, hurts." Rory had lost control and was now crying. "I need you to help me up, we have to get to a hospital." Taking a deep breath as she was wincing at the pain.

"Um Ok! Anything else?" Jess said jumping up. "Don't, Don't try to get up, I'll pick you up."

With that last statement said Jess lifted Rory up gingerly. He didn't know where the sudden burst of strength came from; maybe it was the true fear in his system or the adrenaline that was gripping him. It really didn't matter, with this newly found strength he carried Rory down the steps from their apartment and into the car. Driving, he felt like one of those cliff jumpers, his heart was beating rapidly and hard against his chest.

"Jess I don't think I have to tell you this, but please hurry." Rory said crying in pain.

It seemed like an eternity, but they finally got to a hospital. "I'll be right back ok." Jess said as he made a sprint towards the building. "I'll go get someone!" When Jess reached the front desk he found the first person he thought could help. "Excuse me, um, I need some help," he said feeling helpless.

"You'll have to wait sir," the blonde nurse said barely glancing his way.

"Please Ma'am, my finance is six months pregnant and I think her and my son are in a lot of trouble." His voice squeaked under the pleading pressure.

"Oh my." The nurse said looking up at Jess's frightened face. "I'm sorry, where is she?" She saw this scared young man with so much fear and finally saw him as more than a stupid teenager.

"She is right outside in the car, please hurry, they are my life." The nurse quickly grabbed a wheelchair, two interns and they followed Jess out to his car.

"Sorry it took so long Rory." Jess said as the nurse helped place her into a wheelchair.

"I love you." Rory said wincing again in pain. "You don't have to apologize, please just hold my hand ok."

"Ok." Jess said not knowing what else to say or do. It wasn't more than five minutes later that he was told to 'wait outside' despite all his pleading he could convince nobody. The last thing he could remember was Rory's scared exhausted voice.

"Everything will ok, it will be just fine Rory." Jess said trying to hide the fear in his own trembling voice.

"Can you promise me Jess, please stand there and tell me everything will be ok."

And he did, he stood there looking into her beautiful blue eyes, and he lied to her.

That was six hours ago, it wasn't like he could forget he spent most of it checking his watch every twenty minutes. About three hours into his wait a doctor came out to ask him some questions.

"Are you Jess Mariano?" the older man asked in a concerned voice.

"Yes. That's me." Jess said abruptly, "How is she, why can't I see her?"

The older man's face showed a small frown and he spoke. "Would you like to sit down? I think it might be best if you did." As Jess's knees felt weak he had no choice but to fall to his seat. "Do you know if Miss Gilmore has had a fever lately or been feeling ill?"

Jess swallowed hard. "I'm not sure, she wasn't feeling good on Tuesday, but what is going on?" His mouth started getting that dry cottony feeling.

"Well," the doctor said. "It seems that she has some how contracted a case of viral meningitis. It is pretty common in college students, but we had to put her into an induced coma to stop the bleeding. She could have bleed to death if we didn't, the illness has caused her to go into premature labor, and we did all that that we could. Miss Gilmore should make a full recovery, but I'm afraid she lost her baby.

So this is where he still sat numb and so cold. He had wanted to call Lorelai, but didn't know if he could get the strength to get up. And for the fist time in his life he truly wanted to cry. As Jess sat there he thought he could just buy a bottle of Jack Daniel's and drink this pain away. He just wanted to be drunk, pain-numbingly drunk, but he knew that wasn't what Rory would need when she did finally wake up. He wanted to be there with her when she woke up, 'Why wouldn't they let me in her room?' he thought. The alcohol was sounding better with each passing moment; no, Rory needed him sober. Maybe he would just get another cup of coffee, the one he had was still full and had the consistency of sludge. Jess never understood the girl's addiction to it, but he would drink anything to make him feel warm again. He couldn't move, the shock in his body made him just sit there staring in reverie of the cold brown liquid. A liquid he was afraid would make him wake up and actually face this horrible reality. He remembered the first time he had brought Rory to the hospital. It was shortly after they had met and they had gotten into a car accident. Rory had only fractured her wrist, but he had never been as scared before that moment and he made sure everything was alright. That was what he was always supposed to do for her, make sure she was ok. How was he supposed to do that now? He had found a new form of fear in the present moment. Suddenly a nurse came out and spoke quietly to him. "Mr. Mariano? Miss Gilmore has woken up."

Walking into her room Jess had tried, he tried so hard to keep it together, but seeing how pale Rory was he could help it and broke down, Rory looked at him seriously.

"He's gone isn't he?" she whispered to him saying it more of a statement than a question. She was bitter. All Jess could do was nod his head.

It really wasn't all the names she had called him, in fact he had been called much worse. And it really wasn't the way she yelled at him, her voice tired and to the point of breaking that had hurt him. The thing that had really killed him was the clink of her engagement ring as hit the floor, or maybe it was the force she used in telling him that she hated him. What was it then, he knew it now, he couldn't fix this and that was what killed him the most. Crying he blinked back the tears now forming in his tired brown eyes, the tears, he found odd, were not in her blue ones. Her unwavering bitterness made his tears fall harder.

" You promised me, and obviously things are not ok Jess" she said her voice becoming more and more hoarse. "Do you realize how much I hate you right now, do know that you gave this to me, and you were the one that took it away." Jess was speechless; his throat had gone dry again. "Go back New York Jess, you don't have me and the baby weighing you down anymore. Have fun at NYU. I really don't care what you do, just get away from me."

Jess was more shocked then anything else, the anger that would normally be in him was not there. "I'll make sure to call your mom before I leave." It didn't sound like he was pleading objection, but he could tell she had already made up her mind and there was no use. Picking the ring up off the floor he left.