Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls. Although it would be nice if I did, then I would be a genius. I would also like to say thank you to Amy Sherman-Palladino for making a show that not only young girls can watch but it is one that they can watch with their mothers like I used to do.

Rory had never been able to work when everything was quiet, but at the moment she would kill to have a few moments of silence. Jake had been running a fever since that morning and had recently started coughing and hacking. Aiden was content for the moment but Jake's coughing and light wheezing was causing her to worry. She shut down her computer before going to the bathroom in search of Jack's cough medicine.

Getting him to take the medicine had always been a chore. There was usually a lot of pleading which led to a bribe with a lot of tears and flailing arms on his part in between. After five minutes of begging him to take it and his refusing she had been able to get him to take with a promise of ice cream after lunch.

Once he was calm she checked on Aiden before going to heat up some soup for Jake. He had fallen asleep once Jake had calmed down. She laid him in his crib while Jake ate his lunch.

"Momma, I don't want anymore," Jake said when she walked back into the room.

"I'll get you some ice cream," she said running her fingers through his hair with one hand while feeling his forehead with the other.

His fever was starting to go down so that eased some of her worries. She brought his ice cream into the dining room to find him asleep hunched over the table. She set the ice cream down before scooping him up into her arms. She kissed his forehead gently as she carried him to his room. Once she had settled him into bed and put his ice cream back in the freezer she set down on the couch with her laptop in her lap once more.

She had been working for an hour when her cell phone rang. It was the nurse from Maddie's school saying that Maddie was in the clinic claiming that she was sick. She had probably had the same thing Jake did. She shut down her laptop, satisfied that she had gotten a little work done.

She was able to get the teenage girl from across the hall to stay with the boys while she went to pick up Maddie. Half an hour later Maggie was nestled on the couch with a movie and a bowl of ice cream. Miraculously the boys were still asleep.

Rory was finishing up her research on one of the candidate's when she heard Aiden cooing. She sent Maddie to her room with the promise that she could use her laptop for an hour. She went to the boy's room and Aiden smiled widely up at her while reaching his arms up to her. She carried him to the living room and sat down on the couch. She placed him on the couch before placing a pillow on one side so he wouldn't roll off.

"Hey Little Man, you took a long nap," she said playing with his feet.

A two and a half hour nap during the day was a new record for him. She had thought that taking care of the boys without Tristan there would be a challenge. Rory had finally been successful in talking him into going back to work fulltime. This was his first week back and so far she hadn't felt overwhelmed.

Maybe when the boys were a little older, like when Jake started school she would go back to the office but right now she felt at ease working from home. She wanted to be there for every first that Aiden experienced.

XXXX

The phone rang making Rory wake up with a start. She reached for it blindly, the cobwebs of sleep refusing to go away. She sighed gratefully when her fingers encircled the chirping device on the nightstand.

"Hello?" she answered, her voice still thick with sleep.

"What are you doing still asleep at nine in the morning? Who's watching the boys?" Jess questioned.

"Aiden is in his bassinet next to the bed still sleeping and I'm pretty sure that Jake is sleeping too. I don't hear him," she was slightly alert now that Jess had mentioned Jake. It wasn't like her four year old son to sleep this late.

Sure enough, he was still asleep when she went to check on him.

"Jake's still asleep," she confirmed.

"Did you slip Nyquil into the kid's formula last night?"

"No I did not give my one month old cold medicine Jess. He's finally sleeping through the night."

"It only took the kid a month. What about Jake?"

"He's been sick and hasn't been sleeping well; he's catching up on his sleep now."

"I wanted to thank you for being so great about everything while Skylar was sick."

"I didn't do anything, my mom and Luke helped you out."

"Luke stepped up and gave her the bone marrow that she needed and Lorelai let us stay with them. You were my sounding board when I felt like I couldn't talk to Casey. She took everything in stride and I was mad at the world. You didn't complain once."

"The only reason I didn't complain was because I know that you wouldn't complained if the tables were turned. How are Casey and the girls doing?"

"They're fine. Skylar went back to school for the first time last week."

"How did that go?"

"She was exhausted when she got home but the doctor warned us that something like that might happen. She's taking things one day at a time."

"Since I've got you on the phone, I want to talk to you about something."

"What's up?"

"Was it hard for you to find time to write when you first started working from home?"

"It was hard to carve out time to write. Casey had just had Skylar and she needed all of our attention. I found that sleeping when she did and working at night helped until she was on a regular sleeping schedule. You probably can't do that though since the boys never sleep at the same time except at night."

"Tristan wants to hire a Nanny or send Jake to preschool," she admitted.

"What's wrong with Jake going to preschool? It would help him adjust before he starts kindergarten, unless you plan on homeschooling him."

"What do you think I am, crazy?" she asked in a scared voice.

"With Jake in school and Aiden being so small you can work at home and still take care of Aiden. He can go wherever you go. You would just have to find someone to watch them when you do field work."

"You make it sound so easy."

"It's not rocket science Ror; it's time that Jake made friends his own age," he reasoned.

"I'll do some research and find a school Jake," she grumbled.

"The first step to being a good parent is admitting that you can't do it all yourself. You have to let other help you."

"Yeah," she said begrudgingly.

"I need to go. Skylar needs me to help her get her snow gear on."

"I'll talk to you later."

She thought long and hard about what Jess had said before deciding that he was right. She spent most of the morning checking preschool websites in the area before deciding on a few that she liked. Now she had to tell Tristan, she was sure that he would agree wholeheartedly that it was time to let Jake try something new.

XXXX

Rory had talked to the principles of the preschools that she and Tristan liked and had an interview with two of them set up for the next day. They had been nice enough to send her applications to fill out so that she could have it done before the interview. She hoped that Jake was ready to handle being in school. He hadn't had much interaction with children his age due to having two parents who were very career minded and didn't have much help in raising their family.

Tristan had been elated that Jess had been able to talk Rory into finally agreeing to ease up the reigns. Rory had seen that she was wrong and that she had coddled Jake for the first four years of his life. She just hoped that he wasn't emotionally scarred.

She was working on the outline of her article when her phone rang, pulling her from her thought process. She read over what she had written as she reached for her phone.

"Hello?" she asked absentmindedly.

"Stop whatever you are doing and pay attention to what I am saying because I have huge news," Casey warned her.

"What's going on?" Rory asked her interest piqued.

"Jess and I have made the decision to move back north."

"Where exactly back north exactly?" Rory asked

"We're thinking Connecticut so that we can be close to both you and his family."

"When did you guys decide to do this?"

"A few days ago, he made the decision and I went along with it. He has never liked living here and with his career taking off it's more logical to live closer to New York."

"I can't wait to have you back, I've missed you guys," Rory said sentimentally.

"We've missed you too."

"What do the girls think of moving up here?"

"They're okay with it. Skylar wasn't even born when we lived there last but I think that she'll like it."

"When were you thinking of moving?"

"Not until this summer. We want to wait until school lets out."

They talked for a few more minutes before Aiden woke up from his nap. Rory had almost forgotten that Jake was in the room with her until he asked if he could have something to drink when she came back in. Jake was starting to ease into things finally and was starting to settle into a routine. Rory decided that he would be able to handle school and that everything was going to be fine. She needed to stop worrying so much.