The couch was occupied by Rory when Lorelai came home. Blaring through the speakers was The Smiths, and books and papers littered the floor. "Hey Sweets, I brought food." Called Lorelai.
"What kind? Pizza, Chinese, Indian?"
"None of the above. Luke's. I got you a cheeseburger, curly fries, and-," She was cut off by the sound of retching coming from the bathroom. "Rory? Sweetie?" Lorelai walked into the bathroom and immediately stopped. Rory had her head resting on the cold porcelain of the toilet seat and looked absolutely miserable. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, mom. Just sick is all."
"Do you need anything?" Rory nodded feebly before dry heaving for several moments.
"Can I have some water and 7-Up?"
"Sure, kid. Anything you need." Lorelai left the bathroom and gathered up the beverages. She returned once more and handed them to Rory. Lorelai sat down against the wall, Rory's head against her shoulder.
"You want to tell me what's going on?" Lorelai asked softly. She felt her shirt gradually moisten, and looked down to see tears staining Rory's face. "Aw, hun. No crying. There is no use for tears."
"I'm….I'm pregnant." Rory whispered apprehensively, dreading Lorelai's reaction. The silence dragged on, each minute growing tenser as they ticked by.
Finally, Lorelai spoke. "Wow. That's just…wow."
"You're not mad?"
"What? Are you crazy? Of course I'm mad. I'm freaking furious! At you and at Jess. I mean, how could you be this irresponsible? I thought you knew to be safe. But above all, I am disappointed and sad. I expected you to not make my mistake, to be a better person than I could ever be. And now I guess I didn't teach you properly because now you're pregnant and I am a failure of a mother."
Tears were now streaming down both of their faces, and Rory stared at her mother in disbelief. "This isn't your fault. It was mine. I chose to have sex. I felt like I was ready for that next step, especially with Jess. And anyways we were safe, even though it doesn't look like it. We used a condom, but we didn't realize it broke until afterwards. Plus, I am on the pill. Or, I was anyways. We took precaution, I swear." Rory pleaded, willing Lorelai to believe her. It was rare for Rory to be considered a disappointment, especially in her mother's eyes. It wasn't a pleasant experience.
"And look at where that got you," Lorelai pointed out, before noticing the look of hurt dance over Rory's face. "Sorry, that was harsh. I'm glad that you at least took precautions, but the results are still the same. My beautiful daughter has been deflowered and that damn hoodlum just happened to impregnate you." Rory remained silent. The emotion in Lorelai's words rendered her speechless.
After a minute Rory asked, "What should I do?"
Lorelai chuckled dryly in response. "The million dollar question. I remember asking myself that very question. Currently, you have three options: be pregnant for nine months and then put it up for adoption, keep it and raise it, or abort."
"I don't want to abort. I'm not against other people doing it, but I don't think I can do that."
"What about adoption?" Rory thought for several moments.
"While it's a nice option, I'll probably get too attached and won't be able to follow through. I've only known about the baby for a few hours and I'm already attached."
"So…you'll keep the kid. Raise it." Rory let out a breath of air, weighing her options. Several things rushed through her head at once. What about Yale? Her dreams? How will Jess react? What if he doesn't want it while I raise it? Rory couldn't imagine her child not having her father around, just like her.
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it scares me to pieces, but it seems like the best option I have."
"Okay," The silence came once more, but Lorelai couldn't shake the thought that kept rolling around her brain. "Does Jess know?"
"No."
"Are you going to tell him?"
"Yes. He deserves to know. The baby is half him. I'm just scared of his reaction."
"Okay." Lorelai repeated. Before either person could reply, Rory felt a wave of nausea rush over her and resumed retching.
Lorelai immediately grabbed her hair before stating, "I guess all chances of you lying about this are gone. Well, I'll be damned. My eighteen-year-old daughter is pregnant."
"No shit, Sherlock." Came the mumbled reply.
"Hey Luke, is Jess here?" Rory asked as she and Lorelai entered the diner the following morning.
"Yeah, he's upstairs."
"Thanks." Rory went through the curtain and up the stairs. Luke turned to Lorelai and poured her a cup of coffee.
"Don't worry. I'll go check on them in ten minutes. Like I said, perfect system."
"Don't." Lorelai demanded.
"Why not?"
"Just don't. I'll let you know about the situation later. Right now, you will leave them alone because I know for a fact that nothing is going to happen."
"But-"
"Luke Danes, you will remain down here serving, your customers, and not asking questions. Do I make myself clear?" Luke opened his mouth to reply, but promptly shut it after seeing the look in
Lorelai's eyes, silently daring him to continue. He replied by topping off her cup of coffee.
Rory knocked on the door. She heard a faint "Come in" echo from the other side of the door. She stepped through the threshold and located Jess sitting at the table eating some cereal while reading The Sun Also Rises. "Hey." He got up and kissed her. It gradually got more heated, as neither could pull away. He brushed his tongue across her bottom lip, begging for entrance. She immediately opened her mouth, reveling in the sensations her body made as his tongue explored.
She pulled away several moments later, breathless, as she remembered her true purpose for being there. He began kissing along her jaw line and down the column of her throat.
"Jess," he grumbled in response
"Why?"
"Because I need to talk to you."
"And it can't wait?"
"No, it's big."
"How big?"
"Kurt Cobain suicide big." He sighed against her neck, his breath tickling her ear, causing her body to involuntarily shiver.
"Okay, fine," He said after he momentarily dropped a small kiss on her lips. "Talk." Rory rolled her eyes and sighed.
" Well, I can't just drop it on you. It takes a lot of effort to say." She said, exasperated.
"Either you tell me now, or you can go on your merry way down to the diner, drink your coffee, and eat you pancakes."
"You drive a hard bargain." She leaned in closer to him, lips barely brushing.
"That I do." He resumed kissing her. She lightly pushed him over to the couch and pushed him onto it, defiant.
"You will not distract me because you need to know this. And now I'm saving you the trouble of sitting down when you find out what I have to tell you." Jess looked at her expectantly, his eyebrows raised, mirth dancing in his eyes, his mouth twitched up in a slight smirk. Rory paced nervously in front of him for a few minutes, trying to ignore his eyes following her movements.
Minutes passed before Jess rolled his eyes and moved to stand up, saying, "Well, if you're not going to tell me, I need to go downstairs before Luke yells at-"
"I'm pregnant." Rory blurted. Jess froze in his tracks, his entire body tense. He looked at her quizzically, checking for any clues to see if she was lying. He didn't find any. The couch was occupied once more.
"Shit," he breathed. "How? I thought we were safe. I though we took the necessary precautions to prevent this situation."
"So did I! But remember? The condom broke and…and I forgot to take the pill that day – don't tell my mom about that part; she thinks I took it and it was ineffective-and now we are in the situation we were trying to prevent, and now I am scared. And I'm rambling. Stop me, now." Jess grabbed her hand and pulled her down, massaging her shoulders to calm her down.
As he heard her breath even out, he began to speak quietly, "What are we going to do?" Rory smiled weakly, her eyes shining with tears, thanking any god that may exist that he said 'we.'
"I don't know. I went over my options and only found one that seemed reasonable, but it depended on you and what you wanted to do." Jess' heart fluttered as she spoke, flattered that she actually factored him into her decision.
"What was the option?"
"Keep it and raise it. But if you don't want to be in the kid's life or mine, then I would consider the other options available."
"Okay."
"Okay..?"
"Yes."
"Yes what?
"Yes, I will be with you and the kid." Rory felt a weight lift off of her shoulders, but felt another one forming.
"Jess, I…I don't want you to feel obligated."
"First off, I'm not. Second, and you should? You're the one who has the baby growing inside of you. You're being forced into this and that is completely unfair."
"But-"
"No buts, Rory. Don't even try. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I want to be with you, and you and I can do this. Raise a kid, we can do it. As long as we are together, we can do this," He waited for her to say something, but all he heard was silence. "Ror?"
"Sorry," she turned around and straddled him, his hands immediately going to her hips. She had tears flowing down her face. The pad of his thumb brushed them away. "Hormones. It's just…" She crushed her lips to his, and Jess was overwhelmed, letting himself be dominated.
"You're amazing, you know?" she said as she pulled away, moments later.
"No, but if you keep telling me, it might register somewhere in the depths of my mind," He remarked with a slight smirk. She just replied by kissing him once more, before being interrupted by Rory's stomach growling. He pulled away and placed his hands on her stomach lightly. "So that's our kid in there."
"Yup."
"Huh."
"Why hello again, monosyllabic boyfriend. I was wondering where you went." He pushed her off his lap and he stood next to her, pulling her towards the door.
"French toast."
"What?"
"Pancakes are gross. French toast on the other hand…" he just shook his head, the corner of his mouth turning up in a slight smile.
"French toast it is. But no coffee." Rory gasped loudly, stopping in her tracks and pulling Jess to face her.
"No coffee?"
"No."
"But, but-" she spluttered.
"Out of the question."
"But Jeeessss," she whined, drawing out his name.
"Rory." She sighed loudly.
"Fine, have it your way."
"I normally do."
"I hate you."
"Okay then. No French toast for you." Jess said as he went through the curtain at the bottom of the stairs.
"Jess!"