Thanks to those who reviewed!
Disclaimer- I don't own the Gilmore Girls. It would have turned out very differently if I did.
Chapter Fifteen -Almost Grown
Jess rolled over in bed and found the space next to him empty. He opened his eyes and squinted in the early morning sun. Sitting up he looked about the bedroom, which was still filled with unpacked boxes from the move.
"Lyds?" He pushed himself out of bed and checked the en-suite but it too was empty.
He wandered into the hallway and heard Lydia's voice coming from the room across the hall. He crossed over to the room and pushed open the door.
Lydia was sitting on the floor in what would become their baby's nursery singing. "We french kissed on a subway train, he tore my clothes right off, he ate my heart and then he ate my bra-hey!" She looked up and saw Jess leaning against the door frame.
"What are you doing?" He moved to sit opposite her, their knees touching.
"Singing to Peanut."
"What was that you were singing?"
"Lady Gaga. But I don't think Peanut liked it. There's no movement."
"As least our kid has taste." Jess smirked, rubbing Lydia's knee. "What are you up for? It's six thirty on a Saturday."
"I'm excited. We've a scan, and then we're going nursery shopping! Very big day."
"Yeah, but it doesn't start for another three and a half hours." Jess laughed, standing up and giving Lydia his hand to pull her up. "Come on, I'll make you breakfast."
"Thanks." Lydia kissed his cheek, and then took his hand, placing it on her small bump. "Feel this." She smiled and started to sign. "Wake up Maggie I think I got something to say to you. It's late Septemb- Feel it?" She laughed.
"Oh my Go- That's our baby?" Jess asked.
"Yeah, I felt it moving yesterday and last night, both times when I was singing Rod Stewart. I was trying this morning to see if anything else worked. It didn't. Just Rod."
"Our kid's a Rod Stewart fan?"
"You may pray that they don't develop a love of leopard print trousers too." Lydia laughed, walking out of the room ahead of Jess, singing as she went. "You wear it well. A little outta time, but I don't mind. Oh yeah, definitely a Rod fan."
"Lydia Mariano."
"That's us." Lydia smiled at Jess and they both stood up and walked into the doctor's office. "Hi Dr. Brady." Lydia smiled.
"Lydia, Jess. Take a seat." The blonde smiled, standing up from her seat to shake both Lydia and Jess' hand. "So, how are you doing Lydia?"
"Great. I still can't eat chicken. And most diary products are still off the menu, but other than that, I'm great. I can feel the baby move. Not kicking, more of a wiggle."
"All perfectly normal."
"Hey Doc?" Jess reached over and grabbed Lydia's hand. "Can the baby hear yet?"
"Well, it has developed ears. Why do you ask?"
"The baby wiggles when I sing." Lydia smiled.
"Yeah, Rod Stewart."
Dr. Brady laughed at Jess' discomfort to the baby reacting to Rod Stewart. "Don't worry, I'm sure your baby will be wiggling to..." She glanced to Lydia for the name of a band.
"Oh, The Clash."
"Wiggling to The Clash any day now."
"I haven't sang any Clash songs yet. Want me to try?" Lydia grinned at Jess. "A little 'Rock the Casbah'?"
"Maybe later, huh Lyds." Jess smirked, nodding his head towards Dr. Brady.
"Right! Baby scan!" Lydia laughed.
"Yes. So if you'd like to hop up on the bed, we can get started." Dr. Brady stood and walked them to the other side of her office. Lydia sat on the bed and swung her feet up and then reached out for Jess' hand.
"You excited?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'm bummed I missed it last time."
"Well, Lily was a good stand in. Not as a kisser as you though!" Lydia winked at Dr. Brady and the two women then started to laugh.
"Very funny." Jess rolled his eyes. "Am I always going to get this abuse?"
"It's normal in most cases where the husband missed the first scan."
"I was working. I had a meeting I couldn't reschedule." Jess ran his free hand through his hair.
"Hun, I know. I'm just teasing." Lydia gave his hand a slight squeeze.
"Okay, Lydia, if you just lift your shirt, we'll get started."
"Sure." Lydia smiled and lifted her shirt and Dr. Brady squeezed some gel on to her stomach. "Oh!" Lydia flinched slightly.
"Cold?" Jess rubbed her arm.
"No." She shook her head smiling, "They just always do that in the movies. Thought I'd give you the full experience."
Jess rolled his eyes just as Dr. Brady pointed to the monitor. "There's your baby."
"Oh my God." Jess breathed out and bent over to kiss Lydia's forehead. "That's the heartbeat?"
"Yes. And it's nice and strong." The doctor confirmed. "Would you like to know the sex?"
"No." Lydia shook her head. "We're okay with Peanut being androgynous for the time being."
"Okay." Dr Brady smiled and then checked her notes, frowning. "Hmm?" She glanced back at the monitor.
"Something wrong?" Jess asked, looking between the monitor and the doctor.
"Yes." Dr. Brady nodded.
"Oh my God! What is it?" Lydia panicked. "Does it have two heads, or a tail? I'll limit my tea intake."
"It's not a problem." Dr. Brady assured them. "Your baby's perfect. We just have the wrong due date."
"What?"
"Your baby is due on the second of September, not the fourteenth, as we thought before."
"Oh." Lydia sighed. "Glad I didn't panic. So we just get the baby two weeks earlier than we thought?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's good. Right?" Lydia looked up at Jess.
"Really good." He agreed, kissing her on the crown of her head, and then lowering to press his lips against hers.
"Brenda would be a good name. Or Donna!"
"No!" Jess glared as he opened Lydia's car door for her.
"Well, what about Kelly? Or Tori? Shannen?"
"No, no, no! And these are all girls names. What if it's a boy? You gonna name it... Damn, I never watched the show!" Jess groaned as he opened their front door
"Well, Dylan's one. Brandon. Aaron." Lydia smiled. "But no. I 've known what I would call my son since I was thirteen. We just need to pick a name for a girl."
"Don't I get a say? Or a clue to what this boys name is?"
"No, you have no say. And since you've no say, why not wait and be surprised?"
"Cruel and unusual." Jess sighed as they went into the the living room to find Lily on the sofa, watching a movie with a teenage boy about her age.
"Hey guys." Lydia waved at them. "Oh, 'Empire Records'. Good movie."
"Hey. Weren't you supposed to be shopping?" Lily pressed pause on the dvd remote, before looking back at Jess and Lydia.
"We were shopping." Jess nodded. "Who's this?"
"This is Sam." Lily smiled.
"Hey." Sam nodded at Jess and then looked at Lydia. "Hi Ms Mariano."
"Hi Sam. Lil, a word in the kitchen?"
"I'll be right back." Lily told Sam and then followed her guardians into the kitchen.
"I thought we had house rules, Lil." Lydia poured herself a glass of water and the turned back to face Lily. "No boys in the house when we're not here?"
"I know, but I tried calling you guys, but both your phones went straight to voice mail, I left messages."
"Doctor's office." Lydia turned to Jess. "We didn't turn our phones back on." She looked back at Lily. "So, what's with Sam being here? I thought you were with Mark?"
"Yeah. I went to meet Mark after his soccer practice and he dumped me. In front of all his friends. Sam's on his soccer team. He brought me for coffee and drove me home. I invited him in. We are friends. You've seen us in school."
"I know. But you've never socialised outside of school before."
"Well, we will from now on." Lily took a deep breath and the exhaled slowly. "He told me he knew why Ryan broke up with me. Said he was an idiot. And that he's liked me since the start of the year."
"Really?" Lydia grinned, biting down on her lower lip.
"Yeah. And I know you said I'm too young for a relationship, but dating and playing the field isn't me. Too much hard work. And I like Sam. He's sweet and cute. So do you mind?"
"You going out with Sam? Why would I mind. I don't wanna date him!"
"No!" Lily laughed. "Do you mind if I try a relationship, instead casual dating? Like you suggested."
"Oh God, no. Lil, what do I know about boys? I had the same boyfriend for nine years. Then a very long hiatus period, then Jess. Do whatever makes you happy. That will make me happy."
"Thank you." Lily smiled, hugging Lydia.
"Welcome. Now you think Sam'll want to stay for dinner? Rory and the boys are coming over."
"You cooking?"
"Nope, no takeout. Jess is making steak and mashed potatoes."
"I'll ask." Lily smiled and turned to walk back into the living room. "Oh and Lyds, you're welcome to join us watching the movie when Jess kicks you out of the kitchen."
"The cheek! Get out of here!" Lydia laughed and then sighed. "God, her love life has more drama than an episode of The Hills."
"Lyds? Why did Ryan break up with Lily. You never told me the whole story."
"And I can't tell you. I've sworn never to divulge the divine secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Sorry."
"Not even a clue?" Jess stood behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, placing his hands on the bump.
"You can probably guess."
"He wanted her to...?" Jess asked and Lydia nodded her head once. "And she said...?" Jess asked again.
"She said no and he broke up with her. Little jerk!"
"I wanna kill him. Is that rational?"
"I think so. I wanted to kill him too." Lydia placed her hands on top of Jess'. "But it won't help."
"I guess." Jess nodded, kissing Lydia's shoulder.
"Oh. Let's see if Peanut wiggles." She laughed before clearing her throat. "The shareef don't like it, rock the casbah, rock the casbah. Oh a Clash fan." She smiled as they both felt their baby move. "What about this? Sally, take my hand. We'll travel south cross land. Put out the fire and don't look past my shoulder. The exodu-Oh and we have a baby who likes The Who."
"You're insane." Jess laughed into her neck, giving he a quick kiss. "And aggravating."
"Thanks."
"Now, will you please leave the kitchen, so I can cook dinner?"
"Sure call me if you need anything." Lydia lifted her glass of water and headed to the living room.
"I will!" Jess called out after her, opening a drawer to find the potato peeler.
"This is good, Jess. Luke would be proud." Rory smiled and pointed to her plate with her knife.
"Thanks. It's nothing really."
"And there's that Dane's modesty." Rory grinned. "How's your scan go today?"
"Good. But they realised they had our ETA wrong." Lydia replied.
Mathew looked up and squinted at his friend. "ETA?"
"The due date, sweetie." Rory laughed. "So, is Peanut getting here sooner or later?"
"Sooner. September second."
"Wow, a whole two weeks out." Rory lifted her wine glass to take a sip, but her glass stopped halfway to her mouth. "Hang on. September second? So your baby's due date is 9/2/10? That's amazing! You're having a Brenda or a Brandon!"
"Ha!" Lydia pointed at Jess. " Pay up! Someone else got it."
"What?" Lily asked. "Why's that date amazing?"
"Well, September second, writted out is 9/2/10- or 90210. Beverly Hills!" Rory laughed.
"I love you Rory." Lydia smiled. "You just helped me win twenty bucks!"
"Glad to be of service. And how?"
"Jess told me that no one else would pick up on the Beverly Hills reference of the due date."
"Please. My gift is obscure references. And that wasn't even that obscure. You deserve to lose your money."
"You know, Jess, I don't think you've won a bet against Lydia since I've known you guys." Simon laughed.
"That's not true. I've won."
"No, you haven't." Chris agreed. "What? You letting her win?"
"I'm not letting her win. She's clearly a witch." Jess smirked.
"And I think I'm offended." Lydia pouted turning to Lily. "Hey, it's a shame Sam couldn't stay."
"Yeah, but he promised his mom he's be home for dinner. He said next for sure."
"Who's this?" Simon elbowed Lily.
"Just a boy." She shrugged.
"You're going through them quicker than I ever did." Simon smirked.
"Well we're hoping this one lasts longer than a week. Right Lil?" Jess said.
"Right." Lily replied, blushing a deep red.
"Oh, look at that shade of crimson. She likes him." Rory teased.
"Okay, shut up!" Lily covered her face with one hand. "Can we talk about my room?" She asked Simon, changing the subject.
"Sure. You want Paris again, or something else?"
"Something else. I want the walls a light biscuit colour and then the wall behind my bed to be duck egg blue. But I want over the top of it an Audrey silhouette."
"Oh that sounds good." Lydia told her, and Simon nodded his head in agreement.
"Yeah, Lil. I like it. I'll get to work this week."
"Thank you!" Lily beamed, throwing one arm round Simon to hug him.
"Oh, Simon, while we're on the subject of redecorating," Lydia smiled, "I want to commission you to paint the nursery."
"Thought we had to paint the nursery?" Jess smirked.
"Yeah, but you were right. Neither of us had any artistic talent, so why not leave it up to the artist." Lydia smiled, gesturing at Simon.
"I'd be honoured. If you do one thing for me? Come dance classes with me." Simon smiled.
Lydia rolled her eyes. "What?"
"Yeah, swing dancing. It'll be fun and I've no one to go with and it'll be good it get my old dance partner back."
"I guess it would help with the baby weight. Sure," Lydia grinned. "Why not?"
"Excellent! Well, about the nursery, I'm free on Wednesday, I could come over-and oh no! Wednesday's not good for you two."
"Why, what's Wednesday?" Lily asked.
"It's nothing. Wednesday is fine Simon." Lydia smiled, pouring a glass of water.
"You're not doing anything?" Mathew asked.
"What's going on?" Rory frowned.
Lydia sighed and put her water glass down. "Wednesday is our anniversary."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Lily looked upset.
"We're not making a big deal." Jess shrugged.
"But it is a big deal." Lily told him.
"Lil, it's fine. We have a bigger things to concentrate on. The house, and Peanut. Plus I'm working. We'll have dinner or something next weekend."
"You still should have told me. I feel like an idiot for not knowing."
"Yeah, me too." Rory agreed.
"You didn't even know me then, Ror." Lydia laughed.
"Still." Rory shrugged. "Would have been nice to have known."
"Can we just drop it, please." Lydia sighed. "I don't want a fuss made."
"Okay. Sorry." Rory said, catching Lily's eye, both looking suitably guilty.
"Yeah sorry Lyds." Lily gave her a weak smile.
"So, who's for dessert? I brought pie!" Simon smiled, trying to break the tension.
"I'll help." Lydia stood and started to clear plates and following Simon into the kitchen.
"I'm so sorry about that."
"Don't worry about it Si. You weren't to know." Lydia placed the empty plates in the sink.
"Why aren't you guys celebrating?"
"Jimmy and Sasha's wedding anniversary would have been a few weeks ago. I didn't want to make a big deal and remind Lil that her parents were here to celebrate their own."
Simon crossed the kitchen and hugged her. "God, Red, sometimes I think your heart's too big for your own good."
"That little girl means a lot to me Si, I wouldn't do anything to hurt her."
"I know that." Lydia and Simon turned to find Lily at the kitchen door holding a stack of dishes. "Lydia, you can't pretend things in your life aren't happening in case I get upset." She set the dishes on the counter and Lydia hugged her.
"You're such a great kid."
"Yeah, well you're a great sister." Lily laughed. "Now you sure you don't want to celebrate with Jess on Wednesday?"
"Well, I'm still working. And I hate going out when I've to get up for work the next day." Lydia shrugged one shoulder. "I'm fine just going for dinner on Saturday or something."
"Okay." Lily grinned and lifted a stack of clean plates for the pie. "Oh, Rory said don't forget the cream for the pie."
"Come on, Red." Simon smiled, lifting a can of cream from the fridge and picking up the pie and headed back to the dining room.
"No cream on mine!" She called after him, before joining him.
"Jess. Wake up, Jess." Lydia pressed a few open mouth kisses on Jess shoulder blade early on Wednesday morning.
He groaned slightly and lifted his head to look at her. "Morning." He smiled, his voice gravelly with sleep.
"Happy anniversary." Lydia whispered, giving him a quick kiss on the mouth before pulling back slightly.
"Where you going?" Jess grinned, pulling her to him and kissing her deeply. When they pulled back Lydia gave a soft sigh, and ran her hand along his cheek.
"This time last year we were waking up with the world's worst hangover." She smiled and kissed his nose.
"Yeah. It was worth it though, right?"
"Right." She nodded and sat up, leaning over the side of the bed.
"What are you doing?" Jess laughed, but quickly sobered when she dropped a small box in his chest. "Lydia, we said no presents." He sat up and she shrugged.
"You bought me a house. You deserve something. Open it."
Jess pulled open the box to find a copy of On the Road. He lifted and looked at Lydia, one eyebrow raised.
"First anniversary is paper." She explained. "So a book. A first edition."
"No way!" Jess dropped the book quickly, as if it had burned him.
"Yeah." She laughed. "And there's a little something wrote on the inside."
"You wrote on it?" Jess asked, sounding annoyed, flipping the book open.
"What's the big deal? You write on your books all the time." Lydia shrugged. "Besides I didn't write on it. Kerouac did." She pointed at the signature on the title page.
"You got me a signed first edition?"
"You got me a house." She smiled, giving him a kiss. "You like it?"
"I love it. Thank you." Jess smiled and then reached into his bedside dresser and pulled out a wrapped gift. "Here."
"Jess, the house was my gift remember?" Lydia swatted his shoulder.
"Just open it."
Lydia pulled the paper away to find that Jess had given her a book too.
"Paper, right?" He smirked, while she lifted the book to read the title.
"Laughing Since I Fell: A Story of Boy meets Girl. The World's Most Aggravating Girl. By Jess Mar-You wrote a book about me?"
"Yeah. It's dedicated to you too. Guess I wanted everyone to know that my life didn't end with Rory."
"I saved you?" She laughed.
"Not quite that extreme, but yeah."
"Thank you so much. This is amazing!" Lydia dropped the book on her lap and kissed him hard.
"Happy anniversary!" Lily bounded into their room, causing them to break apart groaning.
"Lil? What would you have dome if we had have been having sex?" Jess asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Requested years of therapy." She grinned sitting on the edge if the bed. "Besides you have plenty of time for that. You have food poisoning." She pointed at Lydia. "And Mathew and Chris know you're not coming in."
"What?" Lydia squinted.
"I phoned the school and talked to Headmaster Green. He wishes you a speedy recovery. Enjoy." She laughed and left the room quickly.
"That girl's more trouble than she's worth." Lydia sighed, resting her head on Jess shoulder.
"She means well." Jess traced his hand over Lydia waist. "And now I have you for the entire day." He smirked, placing soft kisses along her jaw.
"Whatever will you do with me?" She grinned, turning to kiss him.
"I can think of a few things." He laughed, pulling her shirt over her head, the movement causing her book to fall to the ground with a heavy thud.
Please review. I was thinking of writing 'Laughing since I Fell', which would be a collection of oneshots about Jess and Lydia. But I dunno, would anyone be interested. Let me know.