A/N: Thank you for the reviews, you guys are all awesome. I know my timing on the house thing is a bit off, but...eh, creative license ;).

jillian, Matt(or Matthew) is one of the Truncheon boys. He's on the show for about 2 minutes in season 6, "The Real Paul Anka".

Ding, dong, the witch is dead

Monday evening, Rory sat down on the couch, putting her feet up and grabbing her phone out of her purse. Sitting down next to her, Jess picked up the remote, turning the TV on while one of his hands was mindlessly rubbing her feet.

"Three weeks!" She yelped happily as soon as her mother answered the phone.

"What?"

"We move in three weeks. Well technically, more like two and a half weeks, since we get the keys on a Friday."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. We signed everything. Jess and I have now joined the ranks of the real grownups and own a house." She grinned, ruffling his hair and he pretended to be disgusted, smirking at the same time.

"Must you refer to me as…that?"

"Yes."

"Tell him I said that there's no way for him to escape the grownup label." Lorelai laughed, shaking her head. "The sooner he accepts it…"

"Would you like me to hand him the phone so you can tell him yourself?"

"No, I'm good." Lorelai announced, snickering again. "Luke waves hello."

"Wave hello back. How's my baby brother?"

"Making his dad chase him around the house."

"Aw, sweet."

"Don't worry, I'm taping this. I'll send you the video later."

"Thanks." Rory smiled, looking down at her bump, an image of Jess chasing their daughter around the house flashing before her eyes.

"Anyway, congratulations on the house, kid. I can't wait to see it."

"You're coming over as soon as we're moved, right?"

"No, I'm coming over to help you move! Lane said she's dragging Zach as well. I refused Kirk's offer, since I kind of assumed that you wouldn't want him there, but I'm sure you can always call him and he'll be more than happy to charge for his moving services."

"Thank you."

"Motherly duty and all that." She shook her head, grinning. "I'm sure it's somewhere in the handbook."

"There's a handbook? Where do I apply for my copy?"

"Don't worry, I hear you get it after about 50 years of being a mom. I'm still waiting for mine."

"That is not helpful." Rory laughed, shaking her head.

"Hon, I need to go, Luke looks like he's about ready to cry."

"Give Will a kiss for me."

"Poke Brett back for me." Lorelai smiled, making Rory grin as well.

"Will do. Bye, mom."

"Bye."

Putting the phone on the table, Rory curled up to Jess, smiling when he kissed the top of her head. "We have a house, Jess. Officially."

"Does this mean you're going to stop being worried about us bringing the kid home to this?" He pointed around him, smirking.

"I'll give it my best try." Rubbing her bump, she looked down at it. "You get to have your own room, baby. You won't sleep in a drawer."

"I highly doubt she cares where she's sleeping."

"So you want her sharing our room for the next 5 years?"

"Good point." He chuckled, kissing her head again. "We calling for dinner to celebrate this properly?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." Sighing as a feeling of content came over her, she cuddled closer to her husband. "I'm happy, Jess. So happy."

"Yeah…me too." Jess admitted, smiling as well and she lifted her head, pressing a soft kiss on his lips.

"I love you."

A few days later, Jess walked into the bedroom, finding Rory lying on the bed, poking her stomach. He shook his head, smirking.

"Should I even ask what you're doing?"

"Playing with your kid." She grinned, lifting her head to look at him. "She's kicking me again."

"And you're…?"

"Poking her back. I have no more house descriptions to read to her, I need to keep her entertained somehow."

"Heaven forbid our fetus gets bored."

"My book was far away, I didn't feel like getting it."

"And…"

"And I love feeling her kick."

A smile appearing on his lips, Jess walked to the bed. Sitting down next to her, he watched as she took his hand and placed it on her bump. "I'm sorry you don't get to have fun with this yet."

"I'll live."

"I'm not sure I will, I want you to get to feel it as well."

"Stop worrying about me, crazy woman."

"I like worrying about you." She lifted her hand, running it slowly through his hair. "I want you to be as much a part of this as possible."

"Ror…"

"I know." She smiled, picking up his hand and placing a small kiss on it before placing it back on her bump. "You're good? You're not feeling excluded or anything?"

Taking a deep breath, Jess rolled his eyes, smirking. "No."

"Promise?"

"If I do, will you stop being paranoid?"

"No." Rory grinned. Leaning down, he kissed her softly, smiling.

"I promise anyway."

"Thank you."

"I'm done with dinner, want to go pop in a movie and eat or are you going to keep doing this?"

"I can multitask." She laughed, extending her hands, waiting for him to help her up. "Can we watch The Wizard of Oz? Please, Jess, please." She started pouting, batting her eyelashes quickly and he smirked.

"I haven't even said no and you're already pouting?"

"I know you're going to say no."

"Crystal ball?"

"You never want to watch it with me. I'm just pulling out the big guns preemptively."

"Fine, we'll watch it, but tomorrow night, it's Fight Club."

"We can even get Thai food." She grinned, kissing the corner of his mouth before sitting down on the couch as he put in the DVD before joining her. "We'll need to find new take-away places."

"What?" Jess looked at her, the remote in his hand.

"After we move. All of the ones we usually order from will be too far away."

"Maybe there'll be a decent pizza places that doesn't take an hour and a half to deliver."

"God, I hope so. A good Chinese place is a must though."

"So what, if there isn't one…?"

"We're selling the house again and moving." Rory grinned, grabbing her plate from the table and looking at him. "Start the movie, will you?"

A while later, Jess looked down at Rory, who was curled up in his arms, hearing her sniffle. Smoothing her hair down, he paused the movie.

"What's wrong?"

"She's dead!"

"Who? The Wicked Witch?"

"Yeah!" Sniffling again, she sat up on the couch, grabbing a tissue from the box on the coffee table.

"You're…seriously crying over this?" Jess blinked a few times, shaking his head, trying to understand what was happening.

"But she's dead, Jess! First her sister gets killed and then Dorothy kills her and oh, my God, poor Auntie Em! She's crying over Dorothy and she doesn't know she's safe and she's made friends that are taking care of her but no one cares about the poor witch!"

Biting the inside of his lip in a desperate attempt not to laugh, Jess rubbed her knee sympathetically. "Ror, it's a character in a kids' movie."

"But she used to be someone's baby too! And that poor mother lost both of her daughters because of that brat! She could have just handed her the shoes and then it would have all been fine!"

"But then Dorothy…"

"Dorothy would have been just fine, it's all a stupid dream anyway!"

"So…if you remember that part, why are you crying over the witches?"

"Because they're dead!" She started weeping again, blowing her nose. "And Auntie Em, imagine how worried she must be!"

"I give up." He finally chuckled, shrugging.

"What's so funny?"

"You're crying over The Wizard of Oz. Even you have to admit it's slightly ridiculous."

"I don't get what the hell's so ridiculous!" She grumbled, crossing her arms across her chest. "Just because you don't see it, it doesn't mean you need to make fun of me!" Standing up, she walked to the bedroom, glaring at him one more time before slamming the door closed. Shaking his head, Jess picked up his phone, dialing Luke's number.

"She's gone crazy." He smirked, glancing at the door.

"Rory?"

"She was crying over The Wizard of Oz."

"Lorelai cried over a car ad." The older man smiled sympathetically, nodding.

"It gets worse from here, doesn't it?"

"Yeah."

"And there's nothing I can do?"

"Ice cream seemed to calm Lorelai down, have you tried that?"

Shaking his head, Jess chuckled. "Not yet. I suppose me laughing didn't help either."

"Bad mistake."

"My chances of not sleeping on the couch tonight are…?"

"Grab the ice cream, knock on the door, let her rant about how mean you were and how you don't get it and then it'll be fine. And do it fast before she has a chance to think about it too much."

"Thanks, Luke."

"Any time."

"Bye."

"Goodbye."

Dropping the phone on the table again, Jess picked up the box of ice cream and a spoon from the kitchen before walking to the bedroom, knocking on the door.

"Go away!" Rory yelled from the other side of the room, still angry.

"I have ice cream."

"I don't care. I don't want to see you."

"Ror, it's my bedroom too, you can't keep me out just because you want to. Plus, there isn't a lock on the door, so I'm only knocking to give you a chance to pick up something heavy to throw at my head."

Opening the door, Rory glared at him. "Fine, you go in, I'll go for a walk!"

"Didn't we agree that I was the one that had to go if we got in a fight?"

"Well, you don't freaking seem to get it!" She huffed again, crossing her arms across her chest, eyeing the ice cream at the same time.

"Peace offering." He extended his hand, waving the box in front of her. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"Whatever I did that made you mad." He smirked and she grabbed the box from him.

"Do I get a spoon as well or do you want me to eat with my hands?"

"Only after you forgive me." Jess chuckled, lifting the spoon in the air and she tried to grab it, but he pulled his hand back, catching her wrist with his other hand. "Nope."

"I'll just get another spoon." Rory smiled, still trying to hold on to her anger.

"I'll hide them. And the teaspoons. Even the knives and forks if I have to."

"You're being silly." Relaxing, she pouted, looking at him. "Please, can I have the spoon?" She asked in a childish voice, making him chuckle.

"I'm the silly one?" Leaning closer, he placed a soft kiss on her lips before handing her the spoon.

"I know it's stupid to you, but the movie just…" Shrugging, she bit her lip and Jess nodded.

"I suppose I'll have to pretend I get it from now on."

"I'll try to not go crazy on you if that helps."

"I'd appreciate it." Walking inside the bedroom, he sat on the edge of the bed and she walked closer to him, grinning when he kissed her bump. "Be nicer to your mom, kid."

"It's not her fault." Rory ran her free hand through his hair, smiling down at him. "We're the ones to blame for this particular situation."

"I have a feeling alcohol may have played a part as well." Smirking, he rubbed her leg and she sat down next to him, opening the box of ice cream and starting to dig through it. "So, no more movies from now on?"

"I'll keep the box of Kleenex on hand and not tell you why I'm crying, just so you don't have a chance to mock me and I don't get pissed off about it. At least not tell you until I'm calm and can laugh about it as well." Shaking her head, she looked at him, the spoon sticking out of her mouth. "Did I honestly start crying because the witch died?"

"Yes." He smirked, kissing her cheek.

"I'm sorry."

"I'll live." He rubbed her leg, placing a soft kiss on her shoulder.

A week later, Jess was sleeping when a loud noise from the living room woke him up. Looking at the clock, he noticed it was close to 3AM so he glanced at the other side of the bed, worried until he saw it was empty. Letting out a noise closely resembling a growl, he pulled a shirt on before walking to the living room. Finding Rory sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and boxes, he shook his head, blinking a few times.

"This is a dream, isn't it?"

"I'm sorry about the noise." Rory shook her head, her teeth biting her lip. "I was reaching for something and the books fell so…"

"You ok?"

"Yes. They didn't get me." She smiled, picking up two books and putting them in a box.

"So…do I get to know what the hell you're doing?"

"Packing."

"Why?"

"Because we're moving and I need to pack!" She announced, pushing the box away from her, frustrated. "If you're awake, you can help."

"I don't want to be awake. Bed. Sleep. I like it." He pointed to the bedroom, walking to her and sitting on the floor, trying to stay calm. "Come back to bed with me."

"No! I have to pack!" She grumbled, glaring at him. "You can go back to sleep. I'll try to keep it down."

"Why can it not wait until the weekend, for the love of all things?"

"Because it can't!"

"Ror…what's going on here?" He rubbed her knee, trying to stifle a yawn at the same time.

"Other than the fact that we're moving in a week and we still haven't packed? Nothing!"

"We were going to pack this weekend. That's why we're not going to your freak town. We had this planned."

"Well, I've unplanned it! I don't care, you can go to sleep, I'll do everything I can and then leave whatever's left for tomorrow night and the weekend."

"You're going to be exhausted tomorrow at work."

"I'll deal. Now if you're not going to help, get out of my way."

"Not until you tell me what's really wrong." He shook his head, taking her hand when she reached for another book.

"It's Thursday."

"Yes." He nodded, looking at her as she chewed on her lip. "And? There's one of them every week, it's not that much of a surprise."

"Yes, but I'm 20 weeks pregnant today! Do you know what that means?" She continued, not giving him a chance to reply. "It means I'm halfway through this!" She pointed at her bulging stomach, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. "I am not ready to be halfway done! We were supposed to have moved and I should be getting things ready for her and she doesn't have a crib or a changing table or a freaking car seat! We can't even bring our daughter home from the hospital, Jess! So I need to pack because I have to do something and I can't buy things for her because we don't have the space to store them. I can't stand the fact that everything we buy is in Luke's old place! And don't tell me to do research, because I can talk for hours about different types of car seats and which one is the safest!"

"Ok." He smiled, hugging her close to him and placing kisses on her head. "I'll help you pack."

"No, Jess, go back to sleep."

"You're going to be awake, I'm going to be awake." He wiped her cheeks when she pulled back to look at him. "What do you want me to do?"

"Jess…"

"I don't care. I can't do anything more than to help you pack. I don't have some sort of magic wand to make it next week and have us in our new place so that you can buy anything you want for her."

"You don't have to do anything." She finally smiled, cupping his face in her hand and tracing his bottom lip with her finger.

"But you're stressing out."

"It doesn't matter. Let's go to bed."

"What?"

"Help me up."

Standing up, Jess extended his hands, pulling her up and they walked to the bedroom, lying in bed. Resting her head on his chest, Rory smiled, hugging him close. "Thank you."

"You need to tell me these things before I find you packing in the middle of the night."

"I was doing ok until tonight." She shrugged, looking at him. "Mostly ok, anyway. And then I woke up and I started thinking and I had to pack."

"You know we still have a lot of time."

"Yes. But I want to be able to do things for her. Get her room ready and rearrange it a million times…it's stupid, but it means something to me."

"You will. Give it one more week." He smiled, kissing her forehead.

"Can we start packing tomorrow night?"

"Yes."

"Thanks." She rubbed her eyes, kissing his shoulder. "And you don't hate me for constantly going crazy on you?"

"It might not make a lot of sense to me most of the time, but I don't hate you. Wish I could make it stop? Yeah." He admitted honestly, chuckling. "But I can deal with 9 months of you being unusually psychotic if it means we get to have a kid at the end of it."

"That is probably one of the sweetest things I've ever heard you say, barring your proposal and vows."

"You only think that because you're hormonal." Jess teased, flipping over, supporting himself with one hand while the other started tracing lines on her bump. "So…halfway there, huh?"

"That's the official math."

"That means four weeks away from…"

"Yes." Rory smiled at his veiled concern, running her fingers through his hair. "She's going to be ok."

"How do you know?"

"She's your kid, she's too stubborn to not want to inflict all sorts of pain on us for as long as possible."

"Oh, please, 'cause you're so easy going."

"You love me, really."

"Yeah, I do." He shrugged, kissing her. "If I go back to sleep, I won't wake up again to you trying to pack the pillows?"

"No." Rory shook her head. "My energy has been consumed."

"All of it?" He cocked an eyebrow, smirking. "Because, since you woke me up…"

"Shut up." Laughing, she covered his mouth with hers, tangling her fingers in his hair again.