A/N: Why, hello there. How are you? Nice to see you again. It's been a while, hasn't it? A lot's happened (including computer death and a pinched nerve in my neck which is making using my right hand sooooo much fun). But I'm back with a new chapter so let's get on with it!

Butterfly nest

"Choose!" Rory pounced as soon as Jess walked in the house on Wednesday evening, holding two paint chips up to his face, while she clutched a roll of paper towels in the other hand.

"If you're trying to be a young widow, you almost succeeded there." He smirked, shaking his head. "Why am I looking at paint?"

"Because we're painting."

"Huh, always the last to know these things."

"Will you pick one, for the love of all things?"

"What exactly are we painting?"

"Brett's room." She sighed, getting increasingly more frustrated.

"What's wrong with it now?"

"It's pink!"

"And…?"

"Welcome to the world, here, let us shove you straight into a stereotype to which you'll be expected to adhere for the rest of your life. While we're at it, let's get her some pearls and an apron too, why don't we?"

"Because she could choke on them?" He joked and she glared at him.

"Jess!"

Grabbing the two chips from her, he looked at both of them for a few seconds before holding one of them up again. "I like the green."

"Great, that one goes better with the butterflies."

"Butterflies?" He asked again, getting more confused.

"For the wall behind her crib…" She said like it was obvious. "Never mind." She smiled when she saw his still puzzled expression. "Trust me on this?"

"How the hell is pink going to scar her for life all of a sudden but butterflies are perfectly nice and gender neutral?"

"They're both pink and blue. And charcoal."

"For the dark, soulless automaton she's going to be when she finally has to get a job and join real life?"

"Exactly!" Rory laughed, placing a quick kiss on his lips.

"They still don't scream big burly man." He pointed out, smirking. "I think they're a bit girly by definition."

"Fine, the butterflies are for me, because I think they're adorable and she's not going to be scarred by some girly things. At least I hope she's not, given that I don't think anyone's bought her something that's not frilly."

"And the painting…?"

"Count your lucky stars that I'm not asking you to paint the entire house."

"Can I give up now?" He sighed, laughing and Rory nodded.

"It will be easier for both of us."

"Just tell me what you want me to do."

"Painting is all, I promise." She smiled, running her fingers through his hair. "I'd do it myself, but I really don't think getting up on ladders is a good idea." She pointed at her stomach, cringing. "You don't have to if you don't want to, I can…"

"Oh, shut up." Jess smirked, placing a small kiss on her lips. "Seriously."

"It's a really big thing!" She protested.

"Fine, I'll cajole Matt into helping and then it won't be."

"But…"

"He's still mad at me for not letting him help put the furniture together, he'll kill me if I don't."

"I love you." She mumbled after a few seconds of silence, biting her lip. "And Matt. But you more."

"Good to know, crazy." Jess smiled, giving her a hug. "Would you like me to tell me what that's all about?" He pointed at the roll of paper towels in her hand and she laughed.

"Cleaning windows."

"Why?"

"Because if I don't do it now it will drive me crazy until I do."

"Why?"

"There was a smudge!" She explained, looking at him like he was crazy. When he returned the look, she burst out laughing. "There was!"

"Uh-huh. Can I suggest that you may be nesting or will that earn me a kick?"

"Kicking you would probably end in some comic fall as my sense of balance isn't what it used to be."

"That's assuming you had some in the first place."

"Hey!" She whined, smacking his arm lightly. "I can still do that!"

"Oh, you hurt me." Jess rolled his eyes, smirking.

"I'll tell Luke you mocked me." She narrowed her eyes, trying to glare.

"So your way of solving marital disputes involves bringing in a grown up? Great, I'm dying to hear how you plan on dealing with parenting stuff."

"By letting teachers deal with them, of course. Or her juvi probation officer." Rory laughed, kissing him. "I thought we had this all settled, the extent of our involvement will be giving her a room and table scraps."

"As long as she supports us as soon as she's eighteen, I'm good."

"We really need to look at child labor laws, I'm telling you there's got to be a loophole somewhere."

"I'll get right on that." Jess smirked. Realizing they were still in the hallway, he looked at her. "Am I allowed to come inside the house now?"

"Yes." Rory stepped to the side, ducking in the kitchen where she'd left her coffee cup. Taking a sip from it, she grimaced. "Ugh. Cold."

"I'll make you more while you do whatever the hell it is you were doing."

"Cleaning the windows." She reminded him.

"Being a complete lunatic."

"Oh, you love me so." She giggled, handing him her cup and grabbing the paper towels again.

"Yeah, I do." Jess smiled, emptying it in the sink on his way to the coffee machine.

"I come bringing beer." Matthew announced as Rory opened the door on Saturday morning, holding up a bag. "Damn, you've…" His eyes widened a bit in surprise and Rory held her hand up.

"If your next words are going to be 'gotten to be the size of a house' or anything similar, yes, I know, I've been told, please don't remind me."

"You've gotten so amazingly pretty I am forced to challenge Jess to a duel." He tried to save the situation with a grin. "How's that?"

"That I can live with." She laughed, jerking her head towards the kitchen. "Come on, Jess isn't back from the store yet."

"Any chance you've changed your mind on the pink? It's so adorable!" He asked as he walked in the kitchen, sitting down at the table.

"Nope. But wait until you see the butterflies."

"And Jess is ok with those?"

"He's far too nice to me and is letting me get away with it."

"As he should be."

Rory tried to grab the beers from him to put them in the fridge but Matt frowned.

"Not allowed to."

"Matt, I'm fine." She assured him, taking it anyway.

"There's non-alcoholic one in there for you too. Don't want you to feel left out."

"We did buy beer. I'm pretty sure coercing friends into helping you paint and not giving them beer and pizza is a violation of basic human rights."

"I would do it for nothing in return, but I'll accept your bribery because I don't want you to get in trouble with the UN or whoever is in charge of these things."

"I think it's the UN." She nodded, trying not to laugh. "Would you like something to drink? There's…well, water, beer, coffee…uh…" She opened the fridge but closed it again quickly. "…Nothing else."

"I'll take the nothing else, I've never had one of those before." Matt joked. "Coffee's fine, I'll start the drinking once we've covered enough walls with paint that sploshing it won't matter."

"Give me a minute then." She took out the coffee pot out of the machine and walked to the sink. "How's Chris?"

"He's fine. Says he would have loved to help but he's busy washing his hair."

"I can appreciate that." She giggled.

"He did say he'd be done in time to join us for more drinks and pizza later."

"Good, I haven't seen him in a while."

"Count your blessings." Matthew laughed.

"How's Jane?"

"She's fine. Sends her love. She would have actually liked to be here, but she's working today."

"Ouch, work on a Saturday is no fun."

"It does come with bonus pay so she's not too broken up about it." He shrugged, taking a cup from her before looking pointedly at one of the other chairs. "Thank you. Now sit down."

"I can't wait for this baby to be out so I can make it through an entire day without someone telling me to sit down." She tried to sound annoyed as she grabbed a seat.

"I will never do it again." Matthew made a cross over his chest, grinning.

"Back!" Jess called from the front door, propping it open with the can of paint in his hand. "Hey." he waved at Matt, poking his head in the kitchen. "Didn't think you'd be here already, but since you are…" He smirked.

"Fine, I'll come help. And then we paint?" He asked, hopeful.

"You have the weirdest hobbies." Jess chuckled, nodding. "There's even a bookshelf that you can help put together."

"Best day ever!"

"Look, I'm just saying I'd rather read all the Twilight books without drinking any alcohol instead of coming near paint!" Much later that evening, Chris lifted his hands in the air, holding a beer bottle in one. "He may enjoy it, I don't." He pointed at Matt before grabbing a slice of pizza.

"That's not what I was curious about, it's about what the hell made you come over for beer and pizza."

"Partly because this means I don't have to think of dinner, partly because you love me so much that you couldn't possibly spend the evening without me and partly because there's beer." He chuckled, drinking from the bottle.

"I for one am amazed that any reasons other than beer crossed your thick skull." Matt laughed.

"Don't make me throw something at you." Chris threatened. "Because I will and I'll make sure to pick something sharp."

"Won't be your mind then."

"I have some suggestions for a thing you could go do right now, but I'll refrain 'cause Rory's here."

"Now, behave or you won't get any of the cake I lovingly picked out for you at the store." Rory giggled, picking up more pizza.

"It's his fault!" He pointed at Matthew, laughing. "Right, what else is new with you?"

"Nothing much. My replacements start work next week so they can have two weeks to learn the ropes."

"You get more than one?"

"Two college students." She nodded. "They're going to be sharing the work, since they start classes again before I go back."

"Hot?" Chris suddenly perked up, making everyone laugh.

"You cannot hit on my interns, Chris."

"I said no such thing!" He tried to defend himself, laughing.

"With you it's a preemptive strike." Matt mumbled.

"Why you think that of me I'll never know." He grinned, finishing his beer. "Right, who needs refills?"

"I'll get them. I should bring out the cake anyway." Rory said.

"I'll help!" Matt jumped up, grinning at her. "What, helping out is not the same as telling you to sit down!"

"Less than a month…" She reminded herself, laughing as they set out for the kitchen.

"I have now made my husband go out so that I could clean." Rory whined into the phone to her mother, scrubbing the stove at the same time. "That was the last step to full blow insanity, right?"

"Only because if he's out it means he can't do the work for you." Lorelai whispered, getting out of bed.

"Why so quiet? It's only half past eight. You weren't in bed, were you?"

"Sort of, Luke and Will fell asleep reading and I've been…well…watching them." She admitted, closing the door softly behind her not to wake them up. "Ok, fine, I'm pathetic, I spent the last ten minutes doing that. There, you can mock me."

"I would, but all the pregnancy hormones are raging at the moment and I'm having to fight the urge to aw very loudly."

"You're picturing Jess with Brett right now, aren't you?"

"Split screen, Luke and Will are on the other because the fuzziness of Brett's image isn't helping and they're too adorable not to." She tried not to coo at the thought. "Come on, mock me. Let me have it. Maybe with enough mocking I'll stop cleaning this stupid stove and this stupid grease that won't come off." She started scrubbing even more violently than before.

"I would, but I've been there, done that, got the swollen ankle when I fell off the step stool."

"You're lucky that's all you got. I thought Luke was going to kill you for climbing up there all by yourself."

"It was five inches!" Lorelai argued. "And the damned cobweb was there and there was going to be a spider and I was going to panic and throw Will when my arms flew up in the air and he was going to die." She laughed, remembering the event. "Let it be known that pregnant brain is weird. How did painting go?"

"All done, waiting for it to dry completely before I can stick the butterflies. They moved the furniture back before they left."

"Good for them. So you're all set?"

"I will be as soon as this damned grease is off!" She groaned, throwing the sponge away. "I give up."

"Rory, can anyone else other than you see this stain?"

"I'm going to say yes because there's no one else here to ask, unless we count Brett and I doubt my unborn child has an opinion since she can't see the thing anyway but it really is there."

"You're rambling. This is highly entertaining." Lorelai tried not to laugh but ended up failing miserably. "Would you mind waiting for me to grab some popcorn?"

"Way to be sympathetic."

"I didn't know you wanted sympathy!" She complained. "You said I could mock you like five seconds ago."

"Mom…?" Rory almost whispered, biting her lip as she sat down.

"Yes."

"I'm not going to give her some random disease that's going to kill her because of the state my house is in?"

"No, you're not." Lorelai shook her head. "You survived your childhood and we both know you're the one that's any good at this cleaning business."

"I don't want her to get sick. Or hurt. Or have anything bad happen to her."

"Aw, honey, I know you don't."

"Listen to me, she's not even born and I'm already overprotective of her."

"Yeah, well, it's natural." She reminded her daughter, smiling. "You get used to it, though I guarantee you will feel like hell the first time she gets a cold. Don't even get me started on the first time she'll hurt herself by accident while you're watching. I practically had a heart attack when you rolled off the bed this one time – you were fine, didn't even cry, but I didn't sleep that entire night checking up on you."

"Maybe I would have had a Pulitzer by now if you hadn't let me fall down." She joked.

"Ouch. That was mean."

"I'm sorry." Rory apologized, rubbing her bump. "I wasn't serious and you know it."

"I still wonder what I could have done better some times. You know, the whole 'maybe if I would have changed this thing, you would have been happier'."

"I was happy, mom. Am happy. If I'm half as good as you, I'll be satisfied."

"You'll be amazing, kid. Trust me." Lorelai shrugged, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "You have no idea how much I regretted not being able to give you a more traditional family."

"Didn't need one, you were way more than enough." Rory tried to reassure her mother. "Now we need to stop this before we both start crying because if Jess comes home to a blubbery mess, he'll never leave me alone again."

"Look, from where I'm sitting, that's not such a bad thing."

"Oh, stop it, I have enough crazy people making sure I don't strain myself by lifting my hand too much or anything."

"Did you just imply your mother is crazy?"

"Yes, I did." Rory giggled. "It's true."

"That's it, I'm hanging up, calling Jess and telling him you're inhaling dangerous chemicals and he needs to get back home immediately."

"You wouldn't."

"I will if you don't stop being mean."

"Truce?" Rory offered.

"Truce." Lorelai agreed. "I can't believe your baby is almost here. Where did all my time go? You were born five minutes ago, weren't you?"

"Mom…"

"Sorry." She wiped her eyes. "I love you, kid."

"Love you too, mom." Noticing something, she frowned. "I'm going to have to go because…"

"There's a spot on the floor that needs cleaning?"

"Like I can reach the floor." She laughed, shaking her head. "No, the fridge door handle. Do you have any idea how filthy that is?"

"To the general public or to you? Because I'm guessing a radioactive dumping site would look clean compared to it if I took your opinion."

"It's the only one that matters." Rory pushed herself up with one hand, letting out a loud sigh. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"No step stools, ok? Or anything else that's off the ground."

"Not even high heels." She promised.

"Good. Talk to you soon."

"Bye."