A/N: Thank you for the reviews, you guys rock :).

Confusion and celebration

After a few minutes, Rory heard the phone ring and sat up on the bed, picking it up while Jess watched her. His hand went moved almost instinctively and started rubbing her lower back, making her smile gratefully at him.

"Good timing." She smiled when she saw her mother's number and pressed the green button. "Hey, mom!"

"Apparently you're engaged!" Lorelai laughed at the other end of the phone and Rory looked at Jess, confused.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That I'm engaged."

"Wait…you're engaged?" Lorelai took a deep breath, trying to understand what her daughter was saying.

"Didn't you know?"

"I'm confused."

"So am I."

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Engaged!" Lorelai sighed exasperated, making Rory laugh.

"Yes. I was getting ready to call you and tell you!"

"I want to know everything! Leave out a comma and pay for it." She threatened and Rory smiled.

"So you didn't know?"

"Obviously I didn't know!"

"Then why did you open with that?"

"I'll explain after you tell me everything, and email me pictures of the ring. And you better do that soon, otherwise I will drive back over there! Now start at the when and work your way from there." Lorelai squealed excitedly, sitting down better on the couch, getting ready to listen to the story.

"About twenty minutes ago." She started telling her mother the story, taking Jess' hand in hers, while looking at him.

"God, I'm a sap." He smirked when she reached the part about the actual proposal, placing a small kiss on her hand. She chuckled softly and ran her fingers though his hair, nodding in agreement, then finished her story.

"Wow…who would have thought that Jess can string that many coherent sentences one after the other? Impressive, I tell you." Lorelai laughed, making Rory laugh as well.

"It happens from time to time." She answered, the heard a man's voice say something at the other end of the phone, but couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Rory and Jess got engaged!" Lorelai squealed again and Luke muttered something else. "Rory, why is my husband saying "Finally!" instead of "Congratulations!"?"

"How should I know? You're the one that's married to him. Out of the two of us, you should know how his brain works."

"Luke, care to explain?" Rory tried to hear the man's answered but couldn't make out the words, so she looked at Jess who was smirking, trying not to laugh.

"You know something about this."

"I might." Jess agreed, chuckling.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"After you're done with the phone call."

"Mean." She stuck out her tongue and he sat up on the bed, kissing her cheek.

"Just wait until I start making you eat healthy. You're really going to hate me then." Rory shook her head, laughing softly, then kissed him before he went back to lying down on the bed.

"Rory, Luke's not saying anything." Lorelai said at the other end of the phone. "But he did say I have to tell you he is sending his congratulations. And if we can convince Sookie to babysit Will this weekend, we want to take you guys out for dinner to celebrate."

"Aren't grandma and grandpa coming back this week?"

"The week after."

"You have one extra week to live." Rory giggled, looking at Jess.

"Huh?"

"The grandparents aren't coming back until next week, not this one."

"I'll get started on my will." He deadpanned.

"So, now will you tell me why you started the conversation the way you did?" Rory turned her attention back to her phone conversation.

"Oh, yeah!" Lorelai finally remembered. "Babette saw me leaving last night and then coming back with you guys and apparently Miss Patty went by the inn and Michel told her that we told Sookie a secret that we didn't want to tell him. Also, Kirk saw you going back to Lane's place and adding all that to the fact that it is Sunday and you usually visit for a whole weekend, not just a few hours, they assumed that something major has happened and that that something was that you two got engaged. And cornered me in Doose's, by the way, trying to get the truth out of me. But I didn't tell them a word. Mostly because I didn't know you were engaged." She rambled quickly.

"Breathe. And don't tell them. I want to do it."

"Ok." She paused for a second. "Hey, kid?"

"Yeah?"

"Congratulations. He might be annoying and all that, but Jess is a good guy."

"I know." Rory smiled lovingly at her fiancé, running her fingers through his hair again.

"And I'm happy for you. Both of you. Now go celebrate and we'll talk wedding plans tomorrow or this weekend. Soon, anyway."

"Night, mom."

"Night."

Putting the phone back on the nightstand, Rory lied back down on the bed, looking at Jess.

"Now would you like to tell me why Luke reacted that way?"

"He's kind of known about this for a long time. And didn't react well to me taking my time doing it."

"How not well?"

"Yelling was involved."

Earlier that day, back at the diner. As soon as Jess closed the door to the upstairs apartment behind him, Luke put his son in the playpen, then turned around to look at Jess, stepping closer to the kitchen area of the small apartment.

"What are you still waiting for?"

"How did I know you were going to bring this up?" Jess sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Jess, it's been months! You haven't changed your mind, have you? Because I swear, if you do anything to hurt Rory, especially now, I will forget that you're my nephew and kill you!"

"No, I haven't. But thanks for being on my side, by the way."

"Hey, she's pregnant. And considering how long you've been dragging this, I don't think I have much sympathy left for you."

"I want to get this right, ok? For her, not for me. Because trust me, if it was just for me, I would have asked her after I bought the damned ring."

"Stop waiting for the right moment and just ask her already! As long as you're honest she's going to love it, no matter how it goes down. It's been…what? 7 months since you first talked to me about this."

"Around that."

"And how much longer are you going to actually wait?"

"If I ask her now, she's going to think that it's because she's pregnant."

"Then I can be your witness when you tell her and anyone else who might butt in that you have been planning it for a long time. Very..." Luke accentuated the word. "...long get off your ass and just propose already. Or do you plan on waiting until you're both 80?"

"I will. Soon. Good enough?"

"Depends on what you understand by soon."

"Soon."

"Wait, 7 months?" Rory asked surprised.

"Before the 'how the hell am I going to ask this', there was the slight problem of getting a ring."

"You spent 3 months looking for a ring?"

"Well, I wanted you to like it! And do you have any idea how hard it is to buy jewelry for you? All the advice I could find was decidedly moronic. Look at her other rings-the only rings you have are the one you got at your stupid winter carnival and some other trinkets. I doubt that's going to help me much. Ask her best friend for advice-yes, 'cause Lorelai would have been just great at keeping her mouth shut. Has she given you any subtle hints? If you have, they were too subtle for me to notice. Try to approach the subject stealthily-the one time I tried, you were too busy with your ice cream to pay any attention to me. Maybe I should have tried when there was no food around you, not that happens too often. Seriously, couldn't you have just found a ring catalogue and left it on the table one day, with about 10 rings circled? Because that's what the stupid website says you should do!" He sighed frustrated and she looked at him, trying very hard not to burst out laughing.

"Luke, is that you?" She finally started giggling and Jess moved until he was almost on top of her, waiting for her to calm down and stop laughing before he kissed her.

"Not nice."

"I'm sorry, did you hear that rant? He'd be proud. Do you feel the need to buy a flannel shirt? Baseball cap? Truck?" Rory lifted her head and kissed him. "But, if it makes you feel better, I love my ring. Absolutely love it." She cupped his face in her hand, looking at her ring.

"Good. Not sure it was worth wasting that much time looking for it, though."

"I'm not sure it was worth waiting this long to ask, just because you thought I had lost my mind and wasn't going to say yes."

"Well, see, I believe you've lost your mind because you said yes. Because it does mean that you're going to spend the rest of your life with me. And you can't go back on it now."

"I want to spend my life with you. And mini-Jess." She smiled, kissing him again.

"Stop wishing that on the poor child."

"Stop thinking it would be the worst thing that could happen." She countered again, her fingers playing in his hair.

"I will remind of you that comment if we ever come home to find a gnome in the closet."

"Why steal a gnome? Really?"

"I was bored?" He offered half-heartedly, then kissed her forehead, making her smile.

"Fair enough. And before we even start worrying about gnomes and teenage years, we have to make it alive through diapers and toddler temper tantrums."

"No, first I have to make it alive through you being pregnant. Sorry, knocked up. I think that's how you put it." Jess laughed and she glared at him.

"You cannot use what I said earlier. I was angry and irrational."

"And why does that mean I can't use it?"

"Because it would be the mean thing to do." Rory put her arm on his waist, smiling.

"And I suppose you've never used something I said against me."

"Well, I'm pregnant!" She pouted, laughing at the same time, making him smirk and kiss her cheek.

"Great excuse. How exactly is that supposed to explain every time you picked on something I've said in the past few years?"

"I don't know." She shook her head, giggling. "But I will start crying just to win this argument."

"Crazy woman."

"Incredible. That's the word you're looking for."

He shook his head, smirking and kissed her one more time before moving back to his pillow. After a few minutes of silence, both of them lost in their thoughts, Rory looked at him, rolling to her side to see him better.

"How did we go from boyfriend and girlfriend to engaged and future parents in 24 hours?" She smiled, running her hand slowly down his chest.

"Well, I doubt the whole kid thing happened in the last 24 hours. We just found out about it now."

"You know what I mean, Jess."

"Yeah, I do." He nodded, looking at her.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy, well, more than happy actually, but if someone would have told me this was how this week was going to end…"

"Ror?"

"Hm?" She looked at him and he motioned for her to come closer. Moving next to him, she smiled and waited for what he had to say but he just kissed her, tangling his hand in her hair.

"Stop thinking."

"I'm sorry, we have met before, right?" Rory laughed, placing quick kisses on his lips.

"Once or twice."

"And, despite that, you expect me to stop thinking?"

"I would prefer it if you wouldn't stress yourself out tonight."

"Can I do it tomorrow?"

"Only if you write down 'freak out' in your day planner."

She made a face, laughing, then ran her fingers across his face, moving her body even closer to his. "You're mocking me, but fair enough." Lowering her hand, she snuck it under his shirt and kissed him. "But only because we still haven't had a chance to celebrate this."

He lifted his head and kissed her, the cupped her face in his left hand and started trailing kisses down her neck and collar bone, smirking. "If you're not going to even go anywhere near coffee…" He started whispering between kisses. "…What are my chances…of celebrating this…engagement…the way I want to?

"Well, you see…" She laughed softly, running her fingers up his chest under the shirt. "While I've yet to find a mention of coffee in my book, page 36 says that…celebrating…" She smiled playfully, kissing him. "…is ok."

"I like page 36." He smirked again, tangling his other hand in her hair as well.

"Very good page."