A/N: I hope you enjoy the next couple of chapters. They've been a very long time coming.
Take Two
"What do you think my chances are of convincing the hospital to give me an epidural now?" Rory asked, pacing around the living room between mild contractions on Wednesday evening. "I mean, come on, it's not going to be that long, hook me up to some drugs and let's go. Epidural on the rocks, that's my new business plan. We're going to be billionaires."
"Vodka's the best I can do."
"Good, hand me the bottle." She joked, sitting down next to him. "Come on, kid, pop out already!" She growled at her bump before leaning against the sofa. "I'm sorry, you must be so tired listening to me complain about this."
"Yet bearing it stoically." Jess smiled, kissing her cheek. "Look, you have to do the giving birth part so you can complain all you want."
"Sounds like a fair compromise."
"Plus Luke would kick my ass if I said something."
"There's that." She giggled, grabbing the take away menu from the table. "Oh, screw Chinese food. I've been eating nothing else for the past week and it's not done anything."
"Thank God."
"Hah, that tired of it?"
"You have no idea." He admitted, laughing. "What will it be?"
"Indian? I don't think I can deal with anything not spicy by this point, it would taste too bland."
"Indian's fine. As long as it's not going to be for another week."
"Nah, I plan on switching to Thai tomorrow."
"And after?"
"Get a burger, smother it in hot sauce. It will be the only way to hide the taste since it's not going to be one of Luke's burgers. I could kill for one of those right now." Rory replied wistfully.
"Call him up and tell him to bring you one."
"Because I'm sure he has nothing better to do."
"You underestimate your power."
Instead of replying, she grabbed his hand, squeezing it as she had another contraction. "Ow." She moaned through her clenched teeth. "Stupid damned pain."
"Is there anything I can do?"
She shook her head in reply, leaning forward as far as she could, waiting for the pain to pass. "What were we talking about?" She asked weakly when it was done, opening her eyes again.
"Dinner."
"Indian?"
"Anything you want." Jess smiled, kissing her.
"Will you get me a pony when I actually go in real labor if I ask for it?"
"Probably."
"Don't, I hate horses." She laughed, grabbing the menu from the table.
"Don't get excited, but my contractions have been at fifteen minutes for two hours now." Rory waddled up to Jess in bed the next morning. "I mean, I know it's not close, but it's the first time they've been steady and oh, God, I might get rid of the Space Hopper that I seem to have swallowed soon."
"I see you're taking this calmly." He smirked, taking the cup from her.
"It's either excited or curled up into a ball crying right now."
"I'll take excited." Jess nodded, placing a kiss on her lips.
"I think it was the jumping jack that did it."
"You tried to do a jumping jack?"
"It was very graceful."
"I can imagine."
"No, you really can't. It was quite a sight." She said. "Can we walk to the mall now? And coffee shop? And Timbuktu for all I care as long as I can walk somewhere and help move this along."
"You don't think getting back to the hospital from Timbuktu would take a while?"
"Yes, because that's the question when it comes to walking to an African city. Damn." She whined, rubbing the side of her stomach. "The pain better not get any worse."
"Feel free to hit me when it does."
"Make sure to stand nearby."
"I will." He kissed her before standing up. "I'm going to go take a shower and then we can go somewhere."
"I'll be downstairs."
"I've got to admit, the only good part of being overdue is seeing everyone's face when they ask when I'm due and I say last week." Rory mused as they sat down in a coffee shop later that day.
"I'm glad you found a positive."
"The only one. Ow."
"Contraction?"
"Kick." She answered, shaking her head. "Listen, kid, I'll make you a deal. If you're born in the next twenty four hours, I'll forget all about that no coffee before sixteen and sneak you some coffee when your dad's not looking."
"She has to be at least fourteen."
"Eight."
"Twelve." He countered.
"Mom started giving me coffee at eight and there's nothing wrong with me!"
"Where do I begin?" Jess joked and Rory leaned closer, kissing him.
"Ten." She mumbled before cupping his face in her hand, placing another kiss on his lips. "It's a compromise."
"Fine, ten. As long as it's half a cup."
"Three quarters?" She tried to push it between more kisses.
"Half." He declared.
"Better than nothing." Rory shrugged, biting her lip happily as she pulled back. "Now you just have to be born." She looked down at her stomach again.
"If bribing her with coffee doesn't work, nothing will."
"I hope you're right."
"Are you in labor yet?" Lorelai asked when Rory answered her phone. "And remember I'm your mother and you said I can ask and I have been suffering for you because everyone in town asks me now that they can't reach you."
"I…don't know."
"Oh…" She exclaimed in shock. "I… So… This is the first time you've not answered me with a resounding no."
"I've been contracting every ten minutes or so. And I think they're getting closer."
"They are." Jess said from his seat, eyes not moving from the book he'd been staring at, not able to read.
"Don't say that, you'll jinx it. Right now we think or they might, get it?" She addressed her husband, giggling.
"Hey, you were talking to me!" Lorelai whined. "How are you doing?"
"Anxious." She shrugged. "And out of chocolate."
"You have failed me."
"It's Jess' fault! He won't go to the store to buy me more."
"I don't think I can blame him for that."
"Way to be on my side." Rory pouted. "What's new with you?"
"Nothing much. Kirk came by the inn today to ask if he could set up an ice cream cart outside."
"Why?"
"Because Taylor wouldn't give him a license to operate his own unless he put it there since he has the candy store's one and there's apparently something in the town bylaws about ice cream cart density."
"Ice cream cart density?"
"You can't oversaturate the market. Basic economics."
"What did you say?" She asked, grimacing as she started another contraction. Seeing her face, Jess extended his hand and waited for her to squeeze it.
"That he can't put it there and if really wants one, he'll either have to go in the forest or leave town!"
"Uh-huh."
"You ok?" Lorelai noticed her strained tone.
"Contraction."
"Oh my God this is so exciting!" She exclaimed before she caught herself. "Other than you being in pain. I don't like that part."
"We're all in consensus over not liking it."
"Do you want me to head over now and see if I can distract you?"
"Yes. No. I don't know." Rory grimaced, squeezing Jess' hand harder. "No. Stay home, we'll call you when we're on our way to the hospital. If we ever get to that point."
"I'm pretty sure you will eventually have to."
"Ever the optimist." She smiled again, slouching back against the couch. "I'm not going to let it happen like last time, we're only going when I know for sure we won't be sent back."
"Just don't wait until you have to push. It's too late then."
"Thank you, mother."
"Always here to help."
"Go help someone else then, I'm all helped out."
"Great, now you shun me!" Lorelai sighed dramatically. "After all I've done. I should get back to work." She realized.
"Playing hooky?"
"Just long enough to see how you're doing so I can pass it along to the next person who asks."
"Are they really driving you crazy?"
"No." She lied.
"Ok. Hopefully I'll call you later."
"I'll ask Sookie to be on standby."
"Love you, mom."
"Love you too, kid."
"I can't take this any more!" Rory growled, pacing around the living room. "Wait until they're at five minutes? Screw them, I can't wait! Why has no one figured out a way to speed up things and get me to the hospital now?"
"I don't think they would send you home."
"Yes, they would. Because they are evil. Everyone is." She sighed, stopping and closing her eyes, trying to ride out another contraction. "Fuck…" She moaned, breathing in and out loudly. "Ow, ow, ow, ow."
Grimacing, Jess stood up, walking to her and trying to put his hand on the small of her back but she pushed it away.
"Don't."
"Ok." He nodded, leaning against the wall, watching his wife. When she was done, she walked to him and kissed his cheek.
"Sorry. I don't want anything touching me right now."
"Nah, I get it."
"You sure?"
"Yes." He answered with a nod, placing his hand on the back of her neck and pulling closer for a kiss. "I hate not being able to help you."
"Being here helps." She told him going in for another kiss. "But I wouldn't object if you knocked me out."
"Let me find a bat. How's the pain?"
"Worse. Way worse."
"What do you want to do?"
"Wait." She shrugged. "Well, not want, but I should."
"At least call Lorelai and tell her to come over, it's going to be a while before she gets here."
"But then it will be real."
"Is it not real now?"
"Sort of." She admitted. "But not real enough that my brain has processed that we might have a baby before tomorrow." They were both quiet when she finished her sentence, letting the words sink in for the first time. "Whoa." Rory was the first one to recover. "There's a good chance we could hold Brett later today."
"Can we focus on this first? Because I'm barely holding it together here." Jess said, his hand cupping her face. "I don't do well when you're hurting."
"You don't have to be here."
"Like I could be anywhere else. We're in this together."
"No, Jess, I…"
Cutting her off with a kiss, he smiled. "I'm here as long as you need me. And I can't really miss the birth of our kid now can I?"
"Suppose not."
"Good, it's settled. Now pick up your phone, call your mom and Luke and tell them to get here as soon as they can. And then whoever else it was on your list."
"Nuh-uh, no way! Changed my mind."
"On?"
"No one else can be there."
"What?" He asked, surprised by the change of plans.
"Look, mom I need, Luke I want, but everyone else is going to stress me the hell out and I don't want to deal with anything. So tough luck, they can find out later."
"You don't want to at least call them?"
"I'll call grandma and grandpa when we leave for the hospital and tell them they can come tomorrow. Dad too. You'll take Liz?"
"Yeah."
"Good, we have a plan."
"Bag. We've forgotten the hospital bag." Rory almost cried as Jess started driving towards the hospital a few hours later.
"It's in the trunk."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Calm down."
"I can't calm down, I'm in labor!" She yelled at him. "Have I lost my mind, I can't be in labor. Not happening. This is scary and it hurts and I need it to stop right this minute. I take back everything I've said, I don't want to have this baby, I'm fine with a c-section." She rambled, clutching Jess' hand. "Oh, no, snacks, we forgot to buy you food and now you're not going to have anything to eat."
"Rory, I'm fine."
"No, you're not, you don't have food!"
"The hospital has a cafeteria." He tried to remind her but she started contracting again so instead of a reply he only got some strained huffs.
"You can't leave me alone!" She told him when she was feeling better, letting out a breath. "I don't care if the cafeteria is right next to my room, you can't leave." She continued. "Damn it, I can't sit in this chair, it hurts too much." She moved around, trying to find a different position. "Who the hell decided seats are a good idea?"
"Rory…"
"No, they're terrible!"
"I'm sorry."
"Why, did you design the car?" She snapped at him before squeezing his hand again. "I'm sorry."
"I'm driving as fast as I can."
"Don't crash."
"Not planning to."
"Does anyone plan to crash their car?"
"People who're trying to scam their insurance?"
"Oh, yeah." She giggled. "Jess, I'm scared."
"I know."
"And you're calm and I really wish you were panicking with me."
"I promise I will the second we get to the hospital."
"No, you can't then, you'll have to fill in insurance forms."
"Fine, after I'm done with that." He said, tapping his free hand on the steering wheel as he waited for the light to turn green.
"Ok, that sounds all right. Have we called everyone that had to be called?"
"Your mom is taking care of it."
"And there's nothing for me to panic? Other than this whole labor thing?"
"There isn't."
"Damn." Rory sighed. "You know what no one tells you? That this stupid thing hurts even when I'm not contracting."
"Have I told you yet I'm sorry?"
"Yes, you have. It's ok. Baby. She's gonna make it worth it. Aw, damn." She moaned, clenching her hand around his tightly again. With a glance at the speedometer, he accelerated even more, trying to weave through the traffic.