Introducing...

"Last time. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, done!" Laura counted, taking the baby carefully in her hands with the last word and holding her up for Rory to see. "It's a girl!"

"Congratulations!" She grinned before putting the squirming and crying newborn of Rory's chest. "You're going to be a handful, aren't you?" She joked as she grabbed a blanket from the nurse and started rubbing the baby with it gently, trying to warm her.

"Hi honey." Rory cooed, biting her lip to stop herself from crying as she wrapped one arm around the baby. "She's perfect, Jess." She glanced at her husband for a second before looking down at their daughter again. "Perfect." She whispered as she wiped her face with a corner of the blanket.

"You both are." Jess whispered in reply in Rory's ear, kissing her temple, his eyes not leaving their daughter.

"A bit messy though." Rory laughed.

"Told you to squint." Lorelai chimed in, wiping her eyes with the back of her left hand. "Shoot, I said I wasn't going to cry."

"Sorry to break the party, but would you like to cut the cord, Jess?"

"Sure." He nodded and Laura handed him a pair of scissors.

"Here." She indicated a place and he cut it before handing the scissors back to the doctor. "Great, almost done."

"Sh…" Rory tried to pacify the crying newborn. "If you're too much trouble, your dad's going to start threatening to feed you to the wolves again." She grinned, looking at Jess.

"I suppose we can keep her." He smiled, running his finger over the baby's cheek. "Maybe. On a trial basis."

"Shush or I'll get rid of you instead." Rory threatened, giggling. "Ok, I need to check fingers and toes." She pulled the blanket up, quickly counting. "All there."

"At least she won't need custom gloves. I'm not about to start knitting." Lorelai laughed.

"I think you lose grandmother points for that." Laura joked, pulling her gloves off her hands. "Right, well I'm done here. Are you ok to be left alone or would you like me to stay longer?"

"I don't know." Rory shook her head, biting her lip. "What if I do something stupid?"

"You'll be fine." She tried to reassure her. "Here's the one piece of advice you need about kids - they're far more resilient than they look. And I'm not leaving you alone in here, Jess and Lorelai can stay all they want. Plus there's the button conveniently located right next to your bed that you can ring and someone will rush to your side to help."

"Ok, in that case, you can go." Rory smiled.

"I'll be back in an hour or so to weigh her and get you to shower. Now bond."

"Any advice on that?"

"I hear coffee and gossip helps."

"Hah! I now have a doctor saying I can give her coffee!" She gloated, looking at Jess. "I win."

"Sorry, Jess." Laura tried to stop herself from laughing. "Try feeding her until you can find a nice coffee shop around here. And call for someone if you need help."

"Will do."

"Right. I'll see you all later. Congratulations again."

"Thanks." Rory waved as the doctor and nurse left the room before sinking back in the bed, looking at her daughter again.

"Worth the trouble?" Lorelai asked, grinning.

"Yeah, I'd say so."

"I'm going to go tell Luke and let you two be alone with her for a bit." She ran her hand over the baby's back. "You were so good, honey." She smiled at her daughter, kissing the top of her head. "And you're the most precious thing I have seen in a very long time and I will be back to cuddle you in a little bit." She told her granddaughter. "Do you want me to start making phone calls?"

"If you don't mind."

"Not at all."

"Mom?" Rory called to Lorelai as she stood in front of the door, hand on the handle.

"Yes?"

"Can you bring coffee when you come back?"

"You got it." Lorelai laughed before leaving.

"Hi." Rory let out a breath when they were finally alone, looking at her husband. "Come sit here." She asked him, patting the edge of the bed next to her and he did. "That was crazy."

"It was." He smiled, leaning over and kissing her softly. "You were incredible. Are."

"Hey, none of that, you're going to make me cry and I've been doing so well so far." She told him. "Do you want to hold her for a bit?"

"If you don't mind letting her go."

"Not to you." She shrugged, lifting her arms carefully and putting the baby in his. Taking her, Jess made sure to wrap the blanket around her again.

"She really does have your nose." He smiled, glancing at his wife.

"And everything else is you. I don't think I can sell the postman's her father story any longer." Rory joked, trying for the second time in less than a minute to stop herself from crying. "I love you so very much, Jess. And you, honey." She caressed their daughter's cheek with her fingers. "Though I was however hoping you'd cry."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"I'm pretty sure it's impossible to disappoint me right now." Rory told him, running her hand through his hair.

"She's tiny." Jess said.

"I have body parts that feel like they're starting to disagree with that statement."

"Do you want me to call the…"

"I'm fine, Jess, the drugs are starting to wear off a bit."

"I can go find vodka." He smirked. "This doesn't feel real."

"Have you tried poking her?"

Poking their daughter's stomach gently with his finger, he chuckled. "Oh, yeah, much better now."

"Told you so."

"Should we try and pick a middle name before someone comes and asks?"

"Probably. But I'm going to need to take her back from you because I've heard that the mother needs to hold the baby when deciding stuff like that."

"I think she's lying to me, spawn." Jess smiled, handing Rory the baby anyway.

"Aw, damn it." Rory whined when she finally started crying, wiping her eyes with the back of her right hand as her left arm cradled the baby securely. "I just realized I'm a mom and she's ours and …damn it. I was doing so well."

"Language, baby ears around." He teased her, leaning closer and kissing her temple.

"Funny man you dad is." She told the baby, snickering between tears. "Ok, I'm better. I think it's a victory I lasted this long really."

"Very proud of you."

"Yes, I should get a medal." She paused for a second. "We were going to pick a middle name."

"If I tell you something, will you finally hit me?"

"Maybe."

"I don't think she looks like a Brett." Jess shrugged, holding the baby's feet in one of his hands.

"Is it because she's a girl?" She giggled. "She's all squished and weird, should we really make a decision now?"

"Nope. We can give it some time and then come back to it."

"There you go, being rational."

"We could call her Gollum and be done with it."

"Please, she has way better hair." Rory replied. "So we don't have a first name either. This is not progress."

"We'll figure it out."

"Before she goes to college, I hope." She smiled. "Are you going to be grossed out if I try to feed her?"

"I'm not seventeen anymore."

"You practically ran out of the room every time mom tried to feed Will."

"Yeah, that had nothing to do with the action and everything to do with it being your mother."

"I suppose I can accept that." She nodded, giggling yet again. "Can you go get mom though?" She bit her lip, her joyful expression turning into one of concern. "I know it's stupid, but I'm not sure I can do this the right way and I'm worried she won't get enough milk."

"Sure." He stood up. Briefly putting his hand on the back of her neck, he kissed her head. "You have nothing to worry about, ok?"

"Keep telling me that." She asked, looking up at him.

"I will." He promised, kissing her head one more time.

"How about Catherine?" Her voice stopped Jess as he was about to head to the door. "Cate."

"What?"

"It was the only other name we seriously considered and I like it much better now that you'd only get away with only one Hemingway name. Plus I think it suits her."

Sitting back down on the other side of the bed, Jess looked at their daughter. "I like it too."

"There is the whole issue of naming her after a boring, one-dimensional character to consider though."

"One-dimensional? Come on!"

"Can we not argue literature for one day? …Probably not." She answered herself.

"You started it."

"What do you say?"

"Her middle name could be Lorelai. I remember some late night talks about how you'd like that."

"But…"

"We don't have to, I figured you'd want to." He kissed her.

"It was going to be one of those happy blubbering buts." She confessed. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"About both names?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"I think it's perfect."

"We've settled it then." He kissed Rory again before leaning down and kissing the baby's forehead. "You're going to have to find something else to hate me now that having a boy's name no longer applies, Cate."

"I'm sure there will be plenty." Rory said.

"I'm going to go find your mom." He told her, standing up again. Stopping halfway to the door, he turned around again, scratching the back of his head. "C or k?"

"Hm?"

"In the book, it's Catherine with a c and seriously, there's no point in calling her Kate with a k because…well, it's stupid. I don't feel like I need any more arguments for that."

"C is fine, Jess."

"Good."

"Your dad's weird." Rory told her daughter jokingly and Jess pretended to glare at her before leaving the room.

"Can I come back in now? This is not fair!" Lorelai pounced on him as soon as he stepped foot in the hallway and he chuckled with a nod.

"Yes. I was coming to get you."

"Oh, thank God. I'm going mad here and my mother isn't helping." She waved her phone around animatedly. "That woman is impossible!"

"Where's Luke?"

"Gone to the car to get coffee."

"I'll wait for him here." He told her and Lorelai stepped to the door before remembering something.

"Stand still." She told him before wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Congratulations."

"What is it with you and this hugging thing?"

"It's an important day, I'm emotional."

"Did you get it all out of your system now?" He smirked when she let go.

"Yeah. I don't want to catch your cooties." Lorelai nodded before going in her daughter's hospital room. Digging through his pockets, Jess found a couple of one-dollar bills and fed them to the machine, waiting for his coffee.

"How are you?" Luke asked him, holding a thermos in his hand.

"Good." Jess smiled, taking the paper cup. "Really good."

"You know the hard part starts now, right?"

"Thanks, that's reassuring." He replied sarcastically.

"You'll be fine."

In the meantime, inside the hospital room.

"Hi! I think I'm doing this!" Rory exclaimed excitedly when she saw her mother, tilting her heads towards her feeding daughter.

"Looks like you are." Lorelai said as she sat down in one of the chairs. "How are you?"

"So happy." She smiled, cupping her baby's head in her free hand. "She's… God, I don't know how to describe it. Perfect."

"Yeah, that sounds right."

"Oh, we picked a name!" She told her excitedly. "A different one."

"Seriously? Tell me! Now!" She urged her daughter, waving her hands. "That should have been the first thing out of your mouth! Or Jess's!" She whined, still gesticulating. "You sure know how to bury the lead, don't you?"

"Catherine Lorelai Mariano. And yes, she is named after you." She interrupted her mother's rambling.

Fanning her face with her hands, Lorelai shut her eyes. "No way."

"Come on, you can't cry. I'll take it back."

"Fine, I'll stop." Lorelai sniffled, wiping her nose. "But it's not fair!"

"Life's not fair. Do you like it?"

"I love it." She nodded with a grin. "Mom will too now that she has a normal name."

"Yeah, until Jess tells her we named her after Trix."

"You wouldn't." Lorelai's jaw dropped. "Oh my God, please let him do that! She'll explode!"

"I'll see how much she annoys me today."

"You've finally reached your full evil potential. I'm so proud of you."

"How do I know when she's done eating?" Rory blurted, looking from the newborn to her mother. "The stupid book didn't tell me."

"You'll know."

"Yeah, that's what the book said too."

"Rory? Trust me." Lorelai told her. "You'll know. Maybe not today, but give it a couple of days."

"Hey. Can I come back in?" Jess poked his head in a room after a quick knock. "I have coffee." He waved the thermos he'd taken from Luke.

"Yes! Get in here!" Rory urged him. "Give me!" She extended her free hand anxiously and he unscrewed the top, pouring some in the makeshift cup it turned into.

"Luke said he can go back to our place and make you more if that's cold."

"Can you go thank him? And tell him that as soon as I've had a shower, he can come in here."

"Luke's fine, hon, don't worry." Lorelai told her.

Sitting down on the edge of the bed again, Jess handed Rory the cup. "I can go get you some from the vending machine if you want. It's not terrible."

"He's lying." Lorelai grimaced.

"This is fine." Rory said, taking the cup and taking a small sip from it. "Ok, it's frozen." She whined, handing it back to Jess. "Can you…"

"I'll get rid of it. Do you want some from the vending machine?"

"Nah, I can wait. I'm not wasting first real cup of coffee with that." She smiled, holding the baby up a bit as she fixed her clothes. "I'm choosing to believe you on this."

"You can ask the doctor in a bit."

"I will." She told her mother giggling. "Would either one of you like to hold her for a while? I can share. And my arms are getting tired."

"Lorelai?" Jess cocked an eyebrow and she looked at him, surprised.

"You sure?"

"I've had her for a bit, you should have some time with her too."

"You're such a grown up sometimes." She smiled, standing up and picking up the baby from Rory. "Oh my goodness, hi!" She cooed over her granddaughter. "You're gorgeous, aren't you?"

"I think she looks like Jess."

"Maybe she'll grow out of it." Lorelai replied.

"I can kick you out." Jess threatened. "Or at least take Cate away from you."

"Don't you listen to him, sweetheart, he's a big meany. Did I tell you I called pretty much everyone? Sookie, Lane and everyone else in town sends their congratulations since Sookie was in the diner when I called so she got to spread the news. There was some very loud cheering. Your dad and grandparents are dying to come see her, but I only told Chris where you are since, well, my mother is my mother. "

"They can come after I'm cleaned up a bit." Rory said, grabbing Jess's hand. "Is that ok with you?"

"Yes."

"Sure?"

"Yes." He kissed her temple. "Whatever you want."

"I'm not pregnant any more, you can't use that."

"Yes, I can."

"Take advantage of it." Lorelai advised her. "So yeah, that's all done. Oh, yeah, I have to call them back after this tiny little baby has been weighed." She cooed over the baby again. "Right on cue." She said when she heard the knock on the door. "I think so anyway."

"Come in!" Rory called from her place in the bed and Laura made her way in the room.

"How we doing?"

"We're perfect."

"Great. Ready to get up and move around for a bit?"

"Definitely."

"Great, let's give it a try then."