A/N:Thank you for the reviews.

Things that go bump in the night

A few days later, Jess walked in their bedroom, finding Rory standing in front of the mirror, turning around, her shirt lifted slightly. Smirking, he cocked an eyebrow as he sat on the bed, looking at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I have a bump." She pointed at her stomach, grinning.

"You do not have a bump."

"Yeah, I do!" She pointed again. "See?"

"Rory, there's nothing there."

"Yes, there is!" She pointed stubbornly one more time and Jess groaned, leaning back on the bed and taking a pillow, putting it over his face. "What?" She asked and he threw the pillow to the side.

"Fine, you have a bump."

"Don't pacify me, I'm not a child."

"So you're acting like one because it's fun?" He chuckled, looking at her.

"I am not acting like a child. I have a bump."

"'Cause if you say it enough times, it will be true?"

"How can you not see it?" She turned around to face the mirror again, lifting her shirt with her hand again. "It's clearly there."

"I'm not arguing about this with you." Jess shook his head, moving further up on the bed.

"You're being stubborn."

"You're trying to wish something into existence. What, you think you won't spend enough time pregnant as it is and need to get a head start?"

"My book says that there should probably be something there by now."

"Key word probably."

"Key word is!" Pointing again she shook her head. "See?"

"Ror, I'm pretty sure I'm the one that spends more time on average looking at you. You look exactly the same. If anything, you've lost some weight."

"That's because I can't freaking eat like usual. Being sick sucks."

"Come here." He extended his arm, waiting for her to walk up to him and sit down on the bed. "I'm sorry you're sick, but that won't make your bump appear by magic."

"But it's there!" Rory protested again, making him groan.

"Fine, you're right, I'm wrong."

"You're learning. I need you to remember that for when we are actually married."

"Why is that?" Jess smirked.

"Because from that day forward, I will always be right, you will always be wrong and, with no exceptions, you won't get a say in anything." She grinned, kissing him.

"You know, I still have time to change my mind."

"And break your pregnant fiancée's heart?" Pouting, she looked at him, trying to stay serious but broke into a fit of laughter. "You wouldn't do such a thing."

"I will if you decide to turn into a dictator. Maybe." He added after a short pause, pulling her to him and hugging her.

"How about a benevolent dictator?"

"Isn't that an oxymoron?"

"No." Rory shook her head, kissing him before leaning on his shoulder smiling. "I'll make sure you get some of the things you want and are happy, while still getting my way all the time."

"How would that work?"

"I'll think of something. Hopefully."

"You're lucky you're pregnant, otherwise I'd leave you right now, you know that, right?" He smirked, kissing the top of her head, making her laugh.

"Sure you would."

"My secretary and I have been planning this for months."

"You don't have a secretary."

"Maybe I'll get one just to annoy you. I'll make sure she's tall, blonde and wears only short skirts."

"Oh, please, Matt and Chris would never let you get away with that."

"You and your spies…damn it." Jess chuckled again, pulling back and kissing her.

"Face it, you're doomed to spend the rest of your life with me." She smiled again, moving closer to him. "What if I don't fit my wedding dress anymore?"

"What?"

"At the wedding? What if my bump gets too big and I can't wear my dress?"

"Your imaginary bump."

"My very real bump."

"Please consider therapy." He laughed, kissing her forehead softly. "Your dress will be fine. Didn't you say Lorelai said she can fix it if gets too small anyway?"

"I'm still worried."

"You're insane, that's what you are."

"You love me for it."

"Despite of it."

"It's part of my charm." Rory snickered, placing quick kisses on his lips. "You'd get bored if I was sane."

"It might be a nice change."

"Then go run with your secretary, I'm sure she's sane. But when she turns out to be a bunny boiler, don't come running back to me."

"Hollywood has taken any fun out of ever having an affair. Damn it, might as well stick to you." Jess kissed her again, hugging her close. "Good thing I love you."

"Very good thing."

"And please stop stressing about the bump. It will happen soon and then you can whine to me about being fat."

"I'd never…"

"Don't even try." He cut her off with a kiss, laughing.

A few more days later, Jess woke up, grumbling. Looking out the window, he saw it was still very dark outside. Glancing at the other side of the bed and finding it empty, he sat up on the bed and picked up his alarm, cursing when he saw it wasn't even 5AM yet. Hearing noise coming from the bathroom, he stood up, walking to the door and knocking softly.

"Everything ok?"

"Yes." Rory managed to squeeze out from the other side of the door, her voice weak.

"Rory, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

Sighing, he leaned against the door. "Is everything ok?"

"Yes. Just sick, don't worry about it."

"Sure. It's that easy."

"Jess, go back to bed." She tried to argue with him, her voice growing more tired with every word.

"Let me in."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want you to see me like this." She shook her head, wrapping her arms against her body.

"I don't care." Taking a deep breath, he rested his head against the door. "Please, Ror."

"It's unlocked." She sighed and Jess walked in, finding her sitting on the bathroom floor, leaning against the wall. Sitting down next to her, he draped his arm over her shoulders, looking at her.

"How bad?"

Rory just shook her head, resting her head on his shoulder and he kissed the top of her head, sighing.

"I'm sorry."

"Nothing you can do. Just go back to bed, please."

"Nope." This time, he shook his head, smoothing her hair down. "How long has this been going on?"

"Almost an hour."

"I mean you being sick at this time of the night."

"A week or so." She admitted, looking down and taking a deep breath.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"It's not like there's anything for you to do anyway. You should be sleeping, you have work in a few hours."

"So do you." He pointed out, hugging her closer to him.

"I have to deal with this. You don't."

"I want to be with you when you deal with this, isn't that good enough?"

"Jess, there's no use in both of us being exhausted at work. And frankly, I don't like you seeing me lying on the bathroom floor or worse, throwing up."

"Why?" Moving his hand to her lower back, he started rubbing it slowly, kissing her shoulder.

"I just don't." She shook her head slowly, leaning her head back against the wall. Ducking his head down so he could look into her eyes, Jess smiled softly, his hand pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Ror, we're less than a month away until I get to officially promise you I'll be here in sickness and in health. Why can't I just start now?"

"Don't make me want to kiss you, I've been throwing up for the past hour." She smiled weakly, making him chuckle.

"Rain check." He lifted his head, kissing her forehead instead. "How do you do this?" He cupped her face in his hand, caressing her cheekbone with his thumb gently.

"Do what?"

"Get up at dark o'clock, be sick for hours, then go to work and do all that, without even complaining?"

"It's worth it." She just shrugged, her hand squeezing his. "I love you. Love this baby. It's not like I can do anything else. And I do complain."

"I didn't know about this. Points lost for being a complete idiot that managed to not notice this for a week." Jess smirked, kissing her shoulder.

"I've been trying to be quiet. I didn't want to wake you up."

"Yes, please make sure I'm comfortable when you're sick."

"I just don't see the point in both of us being up."

"You're stubborn." He pointed out, pausing for a second. "You can quit. I'll get a part-time job, we'd still be able to make sure things are ok moneywise and you wouldn't have to do this."

"Jess, I'm fine." She leaned her forehead against his, smiling. "This will be over soon. I'd never see you if you took another job. You work too much as it is. And you really should go back to sleep now, you were up for a while after I went to bed."

"I've started writing something new." He admitted, squeezing her hand.

"Novel?"

"Short stories for now."

"When do I get to read them?"

"They were supposed to be something like a wedding present. Surprise fail, obviously." Jess chuckled, kissing her forehead again.

"You'll still make me wait, won't you?"

"Yes. And work on keeping my mouth shut, for future events like this one."

"Will you try to get them published?"

"Probably not. They're more for you than for general consumption."

"So you're being a sap again?" Rory laughed, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Pretty much, yes. Started when I was trying to write the vows."

"How did that go?"

"I got about 3 words in, so good progress." He smirked, hugging her closer to him.

"You'll finish them the night before the wedding, won't you?"

"That early?" Jess laughed. "I was thinking more like 5 minutes before the actually ceremony."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Of course, they'll still be better than anything I can come up with."

"I wouldn't bet on it." He looked at her, cupping her face again. "Feeling better?"

"A bit. Being distracted helps."

"Want to crawl back in bed?"

Nodding, Rory smiled and he stood up, taking her with him and then headed back to their bedroom, pulling the blankets up to cover her after she found her place on the bed next to him.

"Thanks." She whispered softly, drinking from her glass of water.

"For?"

"Keeping me company."

"Next time, wake me up on the way so I can be there from the beginning, ok? I don't like thinking of you sick and alone." Before she had a chance to protest again, he put his finger over her lips, smiling. "Sleep."

"I love you." Rory kissed his finger, looking at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Sleep." He chuckled again, waiting for her to fall asleep.

Later that night, after work, Jess walked in the living room. Finding Rory on the couch, drinking from her coffee and staring at a notebook, he smirked, sitting down next to her.

"What's going on?"

"You mentioned vows this morning so I decided to try and write mine."

"How's it going?"

Lifting her notebook and showing him the blank piece of paper, she smiled. "I keep getting distracted and remembering things."

"Like?"

"Right now, it was the first time I told you I loved you."

"Don't think that'd work in the vows." Jess smirked, leaning closer to her and kissing her. "Figures it would be like that."

"Hey, your fault!" She pointed her finger at him, trying not to laugh.

"How was it my fault? You're the one that started yelling at me!"

"You were being infuriating."

"You were being paranoid." He pointed out, laughing.

"Can we share the blame?"

"Fine." He dragged the word out, looking at her. "But I am just agreeing because you're pregnant."

Around 4 years before.

"Jess, where do these go?" She asked, holding up a stack of books in her hands and he walked to her, his arm wrapping around her waist from behind and kissed her shoulder, smirking.

"Doesn't matter. It's not a science. Just throw them in somewhere."

"But it has to be perfect!" She pouted, twisting her neck so she could kiss him.

"I believe the whole point of you helping me was for this to be done sooner and we could go do something fun." He pushed her hair out of his way and started kissing her neck, getting a soft moan out of her. Shoving the books in the closest available space on the shelf, she turned around in his arms, making him smirk when she attacked his mouth. Pulling back after a few seconds, she placed a quick kiss on his lips before pushing him away.

"Go work."

"Oh, bossy." Leaning in and kissing her again, he whispered "I missed you." Before turning around and heading back to his shelves. A few seconds later, the front door opened and they turned around to see a blonde girl standing there, flashing a huge smile.

"We're closed." Jess grumbled.

"Even for old friends, Jack?"

"Jess."

"No, I'm Claudia, silly!" She started giggling as she walked to him, making him snort. Walking up to Jess, Rory took his hand in hers, smiling coldly at the other woman.

"Still closed." She announced.

"Aw, Jack, really?"

"Really." He replied.

"Can I go upstairs and wait for you to be done?" She licked her lip seductively and he shook his head.

"Nope. Sorry."

"Yeah, sorry." Rory's smiled faded completely and she walked to the front door, opening it. "Lots of work to do so if you'll excuse us…"

"I'll see you around, Jack." Claudia announced before leaving the room, glaring coldly at Rory. Closing the door behind the girl, Rory walked back to the shelf she was organizing, trying to stay calm.

"So, who was that?"

"Random girl." Jess smirked, turning around and crossing his arms across his chest, amused by her jealousy.

"She seems nice."

"Yeah, she's just great." He rolled his eyes, chuckling.

"So, uh, do you know what she was doing here?"

"She's been coming over once in a while for the past month, trying to figure out which one of us she slept with. And hoping for a repeat, I don't know."

"Oh, ok." Rory bit her lip, shoving the books in her hands in the shelf forcefully, while he continued to watch her, trying not to laugh. "And…which one of you did she sleep with?" She asked after a few seconds of silence, still not looking up from the books that she was organizing.

"Does it matter?"

"Just making small talk." She huffed, picking up one of the books she had just shelved and moving it around.

"About my sex life?"

"Well, you know, sleep with someone, sleep with every person they've ever slept with. And this means it is you then." She tried to bite down angry tears, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Would it matter if it was?"

"No. I mean, you're allowed to, that's what we said and yeah, sure, you can do whatever…" She rambled quickly, lowering her head. Walking up to her, Jess put his hand on her arm, trying to make her look at him, but she shook her head. "Don't." She snapped, now angry and he took a step back.

"Are you mad?"

"No, you're allowed to fuck anyone you want to. I'm not mad."

"Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but you decided that we could see other people."

"I didn't freaking mean Shane 2.0! And I didn't expect to actually run into the women you've slept with."

"Rory, why are you mad at me? Since I haven't confirmed anything, you don't even know for sure if I actually slept with her or not. And really, you said, and I quote, 'since we won't see each other for months at a time, you can sleep with someone else, if you want to'."

"You weren't supposed to want to!" She snapped again, finally looking at him.

"Oh, ok, so you're mad at me for not being able to read your mind and knowing that 'you can' actually means 'don't you even dare'?"

"No, I'm mad at you because she was here and I am an idiot who can't even look at someone else without thinking of you and is constantly counting down the days until I get to see you again because I miss you so much all the time and because I love you while you apparently think it's ok to go and fuck someone else!" She yelled back at him, the words flying out of her mouth without thinking about them. When she realized what she had said, she looked into his eyes, biting her lip and Jess stepped next to her, crushing his mouth to hers, his hands cupping her face.

"I love you too." He whispered when he pulled back, then quickly kissed her again.

"You…love me?"

"Yes." Jess nodded. "I love you." He repeated, making her smile grow even bigger. Rory started placing quick kisses on his lips, her anger forgotten.

"I love you." She whispered again between kisses, her hands clutching his t-shirt and pulling him closer.

"And just for the record, Chris."

"What?"

"She slept with Chris, not me."

"How does she…?"

"I'm sorry, did she strike you as a candidate for Mensa?"

"So…there was no one else?"

"Hordes of women, actually." He chuckled, kissing her again.

"Not the time for jokes."

"No one else." Jess confirmed, nodding.

"It was my fault. I don't think I even realized it before I said it." Rory smiled, kissing him.

"Good thing we got into that fight then. Saved me from trying to find some romantic way of telling you."

"You knew?"

"For a while. Just waiting for the right moment."

"That probably wasn't it."

"Probably not." Jess picked her up and pulled her closer to him, hugging her. "It was good to get it out of the way, though."

"And without you jumping in your car immediately after."

"10 years later, I am still mocked for being an idiot." He chuckled, shaking his head before placing quick kisses on her lips.

"I'll never stop. And trust me, this kid will know all those details when he's old enough."

"Good, even more people to make fun of me."

"Hey, serves you right for being stupid. But…I don't know, it was good being apart. We had time to grow up."

"And way more importantly, sleep with other people." He laughed, standing up. "Life would have been much more boring if we would have never broken up. I'm going to go see what I can do for dinner. Any preferences?" He changed the subject quickly, looking at the kitchen door.

"List is on the fridge."

"I feel like a well trained dog." He announced before walking into the kitchen. After a few seconds, Rory walked in as well, hugging him from behind as he was standing in front of the fridge, looking over the list.

"Already missing me? I know I'm irresistible, but seriously now…" Jess chuckled, turning around and hugging her to him.

"I need more coffee, don't flatter yourself."

"You'll get this kid addicted to coffee before it's even born."

"It's decaf, you jerk."

"Same thing."

"Sure. If you have no taste buds." Rory laughed, kissing him.

Placing his hand on her stomach, Jess started running his knuckles over it. "Kid, there is…" He stopped in the middle of the sentence, looking down.

"What?"

"Nothing." He moved his palm up and down, furrowing his brow as she looked at him.

"Ok, now you're seriously freaking me out."

"It's nothing. Just…it's not so…flat?"

"What?" Rory looked at him again, even more confused. Taking her hand in his, Jess moved it with his, smiling.

"I think your imaginary bump is real. You can barely feel it, but it's different."

"Maybe next time you'll listen when I tell you my pants don't fit as well anymore."

"Next time it will hopefully be because of too much pizza, not another surprise baby." He laughed, pulling her in for another kiss.

"How nice." She pouted, trying not to laugh.

"Go stare at your almost bump, I'll make dinner." He pointed with his head in the direction of the bedroom, smirking.

"Thank you!" Rory grinned, picking up the coffee pot and filling her mug before bouncing off to the bedroom, leaving him behind, shaking his head before turning back to look at the list again.