I'd love to hear your thoughts and predictions. I will try to respond to all comments.
"Go on with it, doll. What's yer big news?" Babette yelled above the crowd gathered inside of Miss Patty's studio.
"Yeah, honey, tell us your news!" Miss Patty joined in the nagging.
Rory surveyed the crowd. So many of the people she loved were there. Luke was in a corner trying desperately to block out Taylor's railroading for an official town crier. Zach was running around chasing his twins while a just showing Lane was being force fed kimchi by Mrs. Kim- who would no doubt be holding a prayer circle later that evening for Rory.
Rory spotted Suki and Jackson, and made a beeline for the pair. Jackson was always good at blocking off everyone when they got overly 'huggy' and Rory was sure that she could hide behind him. When she had secured her spot between Jackson and the door, Rory waved at her mother and gave her the go ahead.
"Friends and family… Just family. Stars Hollow has been my home for 32 years. You have loved me and my daughter unconditionally and I can't wait to share the next big adventure in our lives with you. Luke was still looking oblivious as Lorelai began her speech.
Suddenly a hand grabbed Rory's from behind. Instinct said to panic, but the faint smell of Chanel and the ocean let her know that Emily had made it to the party and was standing by her side. Now she was truly ready.
"…and as you can see by the look on his face- even uke doesn't know the exciting news." Lorelai continued.
"Do I hear wedding bells?!" Miss Patty hinted.
"Oh… Rory! You're not leaving us again so soon, are ya dollface? Some big political scanda in Timbuktu taking our kid away again!" Babette yelled and clutched her chest.
"No Babette. As I was saying, we have all been so grateful to call Stars…"
Just then out of the corner of her eye Rory caught him. Jess was standing in Miss Patty's studio and was looking for her. She tried motioning to her mother to stop the announcement immediately, but the crowd was too packed in, and no one could stop Lorelai once a speech began. So Rory did the next best thing- she ran to Jess.
"Jess! What are you doing here?" She yelled above the din.
"Luke called. Said you were making an announcement. I figured if you were going to announce your book I should be here to celebrate with you." He said barely taking his eyes off Lorelai and the rolled up banner behind her.
"Let's go outside."
"No way. You're not going to miss this." Jess pulled Rory in and held her waist to his own.
"… So without further ado…" Lorelai was wrapping up.
"Please, Jess… let's go outside." Rory begged.
"No!" he laughed.
"…Luke pull that cord!" Lorelai yelled.
Suddenly the air was filled with falling gray and turquoise balloons with gold glitter and confetti. A large banner unrolled behind Luke and Lorelai on stage that said 'Rory is pregnant!' and the crowd erupted… except for Jess.
Jess stood there in bewildered shock. His grip from Rory's waist went slack and he was suddenly pushed out of the way by a crowd of people trying to congratulate and hug Rory. Minutes passed like hours as she tried to spy him in the crowd. Rory could only catch brief glimpses of the people she loved.
She caught her mother giving an overjoyed Luke a baby sized Luke's diner hat as tears flowed freely down his face. Her grandmother trying to organize people into some sort of line to congratulate her. Suki and Lane jumping up and down already planning a baby shower.
When Rory finally found Jess amongst the chaos he was sitting on a chair head in his hands. He was clearly having an internal argument with himself, and was losing. Rory pushed through the crowd saying she needed air. When she finally reached him she put her hand on his shoulder.
"Jess," she said as he shrugged off her embrace," Can we talk outside?"
Without saying a word he rose. His face was pale, and his eyes were bloodshot. He hadn't looked so tired or so old ten minutes ago. The two walked out of the deafening building and over to the gazebo. The two sat in silence for a whole minute; Jess' hand on Rory's leg and Rory's head on his shoulder.
"You should have told me." Was the sentence that cut through the burning silence.
"I couldn't. I…"
"Let me guess. You're not 4 months along are you? Closer to what… 2?" Jess had clearly done the math already.
"I didn't want to tell you about something that might not be your problem." She explained.
"Problem…" he chuckled," man this kid is going to have it rough if you already think she's a problem."
"I just didn't want to freak you out." Rory sniffled, tears threatening to fall.
Jess pulled away from her, and stared into her eyes," I'm not 17 anymore! I deserve to know if I'm going to be a father, Ror."
"And when I know I planned on telling you."
"But you had this crazy ass party to tell everyone else that you're pregnant?" he accused.
"This was mom's idea. It's for Luke. I couldn't say no. Anyway, am I not allowed to celebrate something big in my life." The tears that had been building started flowing freely.
Jess held her face in his hands and wiped her tears away with his thumb. He wanted to stay mad. He deserved to stay angry with her, but he couldnt. Rory had been it for him since day one.
Jess leaned in and kissed Rory softly on the lips. He pulled her in close to him and their kiss deepened. Rory felt crazy for falling into his arms like this, but as crazy as it felt- it felt good too.
"Whoa there fella," Rory pushed Jess back," this isn't a good idea."
"It's a great idea Gilmore." Jess said pushing his fingers through her hair and pulling Rory back in kissing her neck.
"Jess!" Rory pushed him back again," We can't do this here. I don't want Luke to get the wrong idea. If he sees us like this he's going to assume the baby is yours."
"It could be mine." Suddenly the mood shifted and Jess was very serious," I could be a good father, Ror. I would be better than my old man. I would be good to you. I swear."
"Jess," Rory wasn't sure what to say," Let's take this one step at a time. You may feel very differently in a few weeks."
"Why? I've felt this way about you since we were kids."
"Jess, you don't know how you would feel if this baby turns out to be Logan's."
"Give me a chance, Ror… please?"
"I'm moving into Luke's old apartment tomorrow. You staying with mom and Luke for a while?" she asked.
"I have to head back to Philly Sunday. You think you can put up with me for a couple of days?" Jess smiled that half cocked smile that made her weak in the knees.
"I think we'll manage, but you have to take it easy on me. I'm pretty out of sorts these days."
"I hear from Liz that growing a human is pretty tough work."
Sunday came too quickly for Rory. She had gotten to spend a beautiful weekend with Jess, and was almost able to forget the mess her life was in right now. But as it always was with life Monday was here and the real world called.
This morning she was going into the Gazette to see about cleaning up the office. It turned out that they had spent so long doing without that she had enough money in the budget to completely renovate the office. She had hired Lane to help clean out the office, and gave the other employees the week off. Truth be told she would be surprised if they came back at all.
"I don't think we gave this much thought," Lane said as they finished packing the last box," Two pregnant women aren't carrying all of these boxes."
"We just got done early. I hired a few teenagers to come load and unload the boxes into storage after school." Rory took a seat on one of the larger boxes.
"Speaking of pregnant. How are you?" Lane asked.
"I'm good… I think." Rory shifted on her box perch.
"I saw you spent most of this weekend with Jess. Is he the lucky guy?" Lane took a long sip of her water.
"Lane," Rory braced for impact," I don't know. It could be Jess, or it could be Logan."
"Huntzberger? You could have a tiny media mogul growing in your uterus?" she laughed.
"It's not funny," Rory said throwing a paper wad at Lane," I don't know what to do."
"There's nothing you can do really. That bell was rung a few weeks ago." Lane rolled her eyes as she dusted off her jeans.
"Not that." Rory laughed.
"What could be more troubling than who's yer daddy?" Lane joked.
"Well one potential daddy wants to start dating again, and the other is MIA. I can't get Logan to return my calls or texts. I thought for sure he'd be back from his honeymoon by now, but he seems to be still unreachable. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go to into enemy territory to make contact."
"If you're going to London you're going to have to travel soon. You won't be able to in a few months."
"Not London- Paris. Odette insisted on continuing to live in Paris after they married."
"Going to Paris, where the heiress literally owns half the town. I was unaware this was a kamikaze mission." Lane's eyes were as wide as saucers.
"If he's the dad, I can't not tell him. Mom was pretty clear about disowning me if I pull an Anna Nardini."
"That's April's mom right?" Rory nodded to answer Lane," Yeah I gotta agree with Lorelai on this one."
"I know she's right, but I don't know that I want Logan to know if he's the dad. He'll feel obligated to me, and that's the last thing I want from anyone."
"So that's why you're so iffy about Jess, huh?" Lane questioned her oldest friend while sidling up to her at her desktop perch.
"I just don't want to be anyone's burden."
"Get over it!" Lane yelled to the heavens.
"What?" Rory was taken aback.
"I've been married to Zack forever. I love him, he loves me, but still there are days when I'm his obligation. He made a promise to be with me. That's just life. I guarantee last 4th of July when the twins 'accidentally' set his favorite guitar on fire and then it caught ALL of the fireworks on fire and exploded- Zack wanted to run away. Instead he woke up July 5th, got on ebay, and started over."
"They blew up his guitar?" Rory was shocked.
"Yep. The only thing left was his favorite pick. Better men have left over less. But Zack stayed. He stayed because he said he would, and that's okay. Marriage… family- it isn't all rainbows and butterflies. It's work and obligation mixed with joy and love."
"Wow. I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it that way."
"Because we all bought into the lie of 'happily ever after'. It's bullshit. I'm mostly happy ever after and it's more than I could have dreamed of." Lane leaned her shoulder into Rory.
"Okay, okay, okay…" Rory conceeded," I'll try to get in touch with Robert or Finn and see if they can send Logan my way. Sound good?"
"Sounds right. What sounds good is coffee icecream." Lane ribbed.
"Don't say coffee. Don't even think it. We can't have coffee or coffee ice cream." Rory whined.
"Ah young pregnant grasshopper," Lane's Mr. Miagi was horrible," The ice cream parlor makes decalf coffee toffee icecream specifically for us preggos!"
"Lead the way sensei!"