December 2000

"Rory?" There was a hand on her back and her whole body was shaking back and forth as it pushed against her. Her eyes blinked groggily open as she tried to make sense of what was happening. "Rory, what are you doing here?"

"Miss Patty?" she replied to the familiar voice. She turned over on what appeared to be a lavender beanbag chair and her eyes landed first on her sleeping boyfriend, before sweeping up to lay eyes on Miss Patty and her entire Sunday morning yoga class who were staring down at her and Dean like they were a rare pair of mating polar bears at the zoo.

"Yes. Have you been here all night?"

All night? It was morning? The last thing she remembered was Dean reading Big Blonde to her. They'd wandered into Miss Patty's after her dance last night, and they'd sat down and started reading together when Dean found the book in her purse. "Oh no!" she groaned as the reality of the situation hit her. "Dean, wake up."

"What time is it?" His head shot up and swiveled back and forth frantically.

"It's 5:30 in the morning." Miss Patty growled at him, her voice low and menacing as she leaned in close to his face.

"Oh my God! We fell asleep! How could we have fallen asleep?" Her mother was going to kill her. Literally kill her. She wasn't going to live to see her graduation, or get into Harvard, or meet Cristiane Amanpour. And Dean? Dean she might leave alive, but only so she could cut off his genitals with a rusty knife and have them turned into Christmas ornaments that she hung from the Christmas tree in the town square. She scrambled up off the beanbag and stood up.

"Calm down, I'll explain it to your mom," Dean said in his best attempt at a calming voice, but it was clear that he was just as freaked out as her. As he should be.

She hastily grabbed for her shoes and the book that had slipped from their hands at some point in the night and landed on the floor next to them. "Where's my purse? Where's my purse?"

"I got it. Relax." He had their coats draped over one hand and her purse dangling from the other. She snatched it from his hands, not at all relaxed.

"I have to go." She pushed past the crowd of middle-aged yogis and dashed out of the dance studio, still bare foot.

"Rory!" She ignored him and continued running, faster than she had ever run in her life. Definitely faster than that time they'd made her run the mile in gym class. "Wait up!" His voice echoed from behind her and she could tell he was following. Was he crazy? He shouldn't be anywhere near Lorelai Gilmore at any time ever again. Not if he ever wanted the option of having children someday.

"I have to go."

"I'm going with you," he said as he caught up to her. "We'll explain. It'll be OK."

"No," she tried to tell to him as he legs continued to sprint down Main Street. "You can't come with me. You shouldn't be anywhere near my house right now."

"It's not our fault."

"I know. I just have to get home."

"Look, please," he stepped in front of her, placing a hand on her wrist; she stopped running. "Please let me come with you."

"No!" she cried out, taking her shawl from his arms. The last thing she needed when she faced her mother was for Dean to be there. Nothing he could say or do could make this better. He didn't understand. He didn't have any idea how Lorelai would react. He thought she was the cool Mom. And she was. But not about this. This she was going to freak about. It was the one rule; unwritten but indelible.

"Rory—" he pleaded one more time, his hands raking through his hair in frustration.

"I have to go home." She was already running again. The half-melted snow crunched under her feet and seeped through her tights, but she couldn't feel the cold. She couldn't feel anything except sheer panic. She made a left down Peach Street and then a quick right onto her block, padding past Babette's house and across the yard onto the porch before stopping to catch her breath.

"Oh you're so perfect and I was so horrible." She could just make out her grandmother's voice through the walls. Crap, her grandmother was there. What was she still doing there? This was even worse than she'd imagined. Lorelai would be mad, but in the end, she'd believe her. But her grandmother? Her grandmother was an entirely different story. They were just getting to know each other. And she was so strict, and proper. Rory was never going to live this down. Her grandmother would probably think of her as a promiscuous vagrant forever; a failed product of her mother's questionable parenting decisions. "I put you in good schools. I gave you the best of everything. I made sure you had the finest opportunities. And I am so tired of hearing about how you were suffocated and I was so controlling. Well, if I was so controlling why couldn't I control you running around getting pregnant and throwing your life away." Rory cringed at that last statement. Yep, so much worse.

"Get out!" Lorelai boomed. Rory took a step closer and put a shaky hand on the doorknob.

"What?"

"You will not come into my house and tell me I threw my life away," she pushed the door open and tiptoed into the foyer, closing the door as silently as possible behind her. "Look around, Mom. This is a life. It has a little color in it so it may look a little unfamiliar to you, but it's a life. And if I hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't have Rory." She took a step closer, peaking around the entryway into the kitchen. They were fully consumed in their argument and she ducked across the hallway to hide in the living room next to the stairs.

"You know that's not what I meant," Emily insisted.

"Maybe I was some horrible uncontrollable child like you say, but Rory isn't." She breathed a sigh of relief, her heart rate decelerating just a smidge. Her mother was defending her. Her mother knew she would never do anything stupid like that. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she thought. "She's smart and careful and I trust her and she's gonna be fine and if you can't accept that or believe it, then I don't want you in this house!"

Silence blanketed the house at Lorelai's declaration, punctuated only by the sound of something slamming, followed by the running faucet. Rory slunk back further against the wall and the click-clack of her grandmother's footsteps echoed down the hall, into the foyer. The door slammed and Rory tentatively made her way into the kitchen where her mother was facing the sink, filling the coffee pot.

"Mom, thank you for saying all those—"

Lorelai turned to face her, "What were you thinking? Staying out all night! Are you insane?" she cut her off.

"I'm sorry," Rory hugged her shawl to herself. She could feel the tears prickling at the back of her eyes. "It was an accident."

"You're talking to the queen of staying out all night," Lorelai raved. "I invented the concept! This is no accident! You can't do this! Period."

"Nothing happened!" she insisted. Hadn't she just heard her mother tell her grandmother that same thing. Nothing happened. Rory wasn't Lorelai.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up with my mother here and find out that you never came home?"

"So all this is about Grandma being here?" Of course that was it. There was nothing Lorelai could stand less than having her mother think she couldn't handle things on her own. She was stubborn, especially when it came to her parents. But that wasn't Rory's fault. It wasn't her job to make Lorelai look good to them. Why should she be judged on a sliding scale just so Lorelai could feel like a superior parent? It wasn't fair.

"No," Lorelai insisted. "It's about the feeling of complete terror when your kid isn't in her bed in the morning."

Okay, that part was her fault. "I'm sorry."

"And then it's about a whole different kind of terror when you find out that she spent the night with some guy."

"I didn't spend the night with him. We fell asleep," She pleaded. It was innocent. They'd only been reading.

"You are going on the pill," Lorelai pointed accusingly as she stomped across the room.

"What?" She didn't really think she'd slept with Dean, did she? She was only sixteen. Then again…

"You're not getting pregnant." But that was ridiculous! She wasn't Lorelai. She knew better. She knew what not to do. She knew not to let some guy derail her whole life. Just because Lorelai got pregnant didn't mean she would. She knew what that kind of mistake could cost you.

"I'm not sleeping with Dean."

"Dammit!" Lorelai cursed, throwing her head back and her coffee cup clad hands up in the air.

"What happened to all that stuff you said to Grandma? What happened to trusting me? Where did all that go?" Rory asked. Did her mother really think so little of her? Did she think she couldn't be trusted to learn from her mother's mistakes? Lorelai had always made herself more than clear on the matter. Don't get pregnant. She knew that. She would never. But apparently Lorelai didn't trust her. Not when it came to boys. Not when it came to sex. When it came to that, there was no trust, because since Lorelai hadn't been able to control herself around boys at her age, clearly Rory couldn't either. And as far as Lorelai was concerned, there was no worse fate for her than an unwanted pregnancy. An unwanted pregnancy…and embarrassing her in front of her mother.

"I think it's back on Patty's yoga mats," Lorelai snarked.

"This is crap!" Rory bellowed. "You know I didn't do anything. You know this is an accident. You're just mad because I screwed up and I did it in front of Grandma and she nailed you for it. Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I screwed up and I'm sorry that you got yelled at, but I didn't do anything and you know it!" She turned and stomped into her bedroom, slamming the door behind her. She threw herself face first onto the bed, letting the tears that had been building since the moment Miss Patty had woken her, finally break free. She wasn't even sure what kind of tears they were. Tears of sadness? Of fear? Of anger? She knew she screwed up. She knew she'd worried her mother…and her grandmother. She knew why this was the worst possible thing she could do. But it wasn't fair. And it wasn't her fault. She was always a good kid. She never got into trouble. She did everything right. Wasn't she allowed one screw up? She hadn't even done anything. She'd just fallen asleep. But none of the that mattered. None of that mattered because Lorelai had gotten pregnant with her at 16 and apparently thrown her life away. So, she couldn't screw up… not like that. Because if she did, then Lorelai really had thrown her life away. And if that was the case, then what was it all for?

November 2005

The deadbolt clunked into place and Rory withdrew her key and shoved it in the pocket of her jacket. The night air was cold and she shivered as she pulled the threadbare used maternity coat she had picked up at Goodwill tighter around her. "Good night, Mubarak. Jenn," She waved goodbye to her coworkers before burying her hands in her pockets and turning in the direction of the Fairmont Copley Plaza. She took a few steps before stopping cold as the realization washed over her. She wasn't going back to the hotel. Logan was gone. There would be no more clandestine rendezvouses in luxury suites. No more jacuzzi baths. No more room service. No more amazing sex. No more telling him about her day. No more crazy Finn antics. No more drowsy late night conversations about Twilight Zone episodes. It was over.

She bent over as the pain ratcheted through her, her hands on her thighs for support as she struggled to catch her breath. Some passerby was liable to think she was going into labor if she didn't stand up soon, but she couldn't seem to find the strength. She'd managed to avoid thinking about it all day as the holiday shoppers descended upon the store keeping her beyond busy. But now, as she stood alone in the middle of the street, the pain and the emptiness overwhelmed her. And it was all her own fault. She was the one who'd told him to go.

She couldn't go back to her place. She couldn't be there all alone. She couldn't sleep by herself in the bed that he had bought her. She managed to pick herself up and start moving again. She didn't think about where she was going but before long, she found herself at the only place she really had to go. She knocked on the door, hoping she was home. A minute later, Jo appeared.

"Leigh?" She looked her up and down with concern. "Were we supposed to hang out tonight?"

"He's gone."

"I'm going to need a little more to go off of."

"Logan," Rory clarified, pushing her way into her friend's dorm room. "It's over."

"He broke up with you?" Jo asked as she shut the door.

Rory was pacing back and forth through the tiny space between Jo's desk and her bed. She shook her head manically. "No. He told me he loved me and he wants to move to Boston and raise the baby with me."

"Umm, okay, that's…"

"Insane?" Rory finished for her, stopping her pacing to look at her friend.

"I was going to go with intense, but, I mean…"

"It's insane," Rory repeated. "He wants to walk away from the family business. He got a job with some internet startup. He petitioned Yale to graduate early. He made plans!"

"Okay, why don't we, umm, sit," Jo suggested, placing one hand on Rory's shoulder and motioning to her unmade bed. Rory pulled away from her touch and started pacing again.

"Do you know what his father will do? His whole family? They hate me already. How do you think they'll react when he tells them he's throwing everything away to be with me and raise my baby? And…oh my god—" Rory's eyes went wide with realization and she spun around to look at her friend with a look of horror. "What will they do when he tells them he's running away to Boston to be with me?"

"Okay, let's take this one thing at a time. Let's not worry about his family just yet, they…"

"No, you don't understand. If he tells his family, then they'll know. He can't just move away to Boston to be with me without people knowing. And if his family knows…"

"Then your family will know," Jo surmised with a discerning sigh.

"What am I going to do?" There were so many factors to consider. And none of them were likely to wind up with the happily ever after that Logan seemed to be expecting. What were the options? She said 'yes' to his crazy proposition and either she was outed and had to not only deal with her own family's disappoint and judgment, but his family's as well as they blamed her for ruining Logan's life. Or, she stayed under the radar and she and Samuel lived as Logan's dirty little secret? Or she said no…let him go back to the life he was meant for. He'd be upset at first but he'd move on. And she, well, she would just try to take it day by day, focus on Samuel, and maybe someday she'd find a way to make a life for herself.

"Okay," Jo told her calmly, placing her hands firmly on Rory's arms so she had to look at her. "One thing at a time. Take a deep breath and sit down before you go into preterm labor on this dorm room floor.

Rory sucked in a huge gulp of air and held it for a second before letting it out. She felt slightly less frantic and she took a seat on the lumpy bed, burying her face in her hands. She felt Jo sit down next to her. "I don't know what to do," Rory wailed.

"Well, why don't you tell me what happened and then we can figure out what to do about it."

"I told you," Rory cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "He told me he loves me and he's graduating early, quitting his father's company, and getting a job with a startup here in Boston."

"To help you raise someone else's baby?" Jo asked with thinly veiled incredulity.

Rory sighed, her shoulders drooping. "Apparently he thinks the baby is his."

"Why would he think that?"

"I don't know," Rory howled.

"Okay well, I mean, could it be his? Because, for him to think that, there must at least have been an…event or two that could have led to shall we say…a sperm donation?" Rory glared at her friend. "Okay." Jo held up her hands. "I'm just checking because you kind of always made it seem like Dean was the only option. Like, I thought Logan was ignoring you at that point and that's why you…went looking for comfort elsewhere."

"He was. Or, I don't know, not ignoring me," Rory sighed. It wasn't like he saw her in the street and walked the other way. "But yeah, it had been over a week since I'd heard from him. Almost two since we'd slept together. But then after everything with Dean, I went to break up with him because I couldn't handle the no strings thing and instead he said he wanted to be my boyfriend."

"Okay, and I'm assuming that this momentous occasion was celebrated…with orgasms."

"Yes," Rory huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Three times," she added in a mumble under her breath.

"Excuse me?" Jo's eyebrows lifted in admiration. "Three times? Like, in a row?"

Rory diverted her eyes. "Twice in a row," she admitted. "Then once more later that night…" she paused. "And once the next night…and twice more the day after that."

"Damn, woman!"

"Okay yeah. But the point is, we were always super careful. Like, religiously careful. And with Dean…"

"You weren't," Jo surmised.

"No."

Jo pulled her legs up under her crisscross style and turned so she was facing Rory. "But like, you realize condoms aren't a hundred percent, right?"

"Well, no, but they're pretty darn close, especially on top of birth control. And, what? I'm supposed to let him ruin his whole life over like, a one percent possibility? Two percent maybe? What happens when he does all this and then the baby comes out and isn't his?"

"Sounds like a question you should ask him."

"I did," Rory admitted.

"And what did he say?"

"He said he didn't care." Rory bit her lip at the memory. She still didn't know how she felt about it. On the one hand, it was quite literally the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to her. On the other hand it was just…wrong. It was so wrong. He had too bright a future to throw it all away for nothing. And what happened when one day he got upset or resentful and threw it back in her or Samuel's face, just like…

No, I didn't go to college. Not all of us were lucky enough to go to college.

She pushed the memory away. "He said he could still be his dad."

"Okay, well, that's kind of huge."

"I think we've established that the word is 'insane'."

"Listen, Leigh," Jo placed a hand on her knee. "I agree that it's a little…extreme. But it sounds like Logan knows what he wants."

"What he thinks he wants," Rory said. "He doesn't know. He doesn't know what it's like to be poor. He doesn't know what it's like to have to show up every day for some menial wage. He doesn't know what it's like to wonder where your next meal is coming from or how you're going to make rent next month. He doesn't know."

"But maybe you need to let him decide whether or not he's willing to find that out. That's his choice."

"No," Rory shook her head. "No, it's not just his choice. Not when he's doing it for me. And I just…I can't be responsible for that. I can't be the person who has to make it all worth it. I can't. I mean…" Rory could feel herself getting hysterical again but she couldn't help it. Tears were building up behind her eyes and she swiped at a stray one as the words continued to tumble out of her mouth faster and faster. "What happens when I don't live up to the expectations? What happens when it turns out I'm not that special after all? What happens when everything we've been working towards blows up in my face and I can't fix it? What happens when I don't have 'it'," she finger quoted the word, "and I have to drop out of school because I don't know what I'm doing with my life? What happens when I get pregnant? What happens then Jo? Huh? I'm just out in the cold on my own? I'm kicked out with nowhere to go? I can't do that. I can't…I can't go through that," she gulped for air as her words petered out. "Not again," she sobbed.

"Oh Leigh," Jo sighed, reaching an arm up to wrap around her shoulder. She pulled her in and Rory didn't fight it, she just collapsed into her friend's lap and let the tears flow.

Rory gritted her teeth, trying not to squirm as the swab rubbed along the inside of her vagina. Luckily, it didn't take long, and a few seconds later, the doctor was telling her to sit up. He stuck the swab in a tube full of gel, slapped a label on it, and set it in a test rack before turning back to her.

"Alrighty," he said. "That will go to the lab to make sure you don't have Group B Step."

"And what if I do?" She asked. There were so many things she didn't know. How could she have let things get this far without knowing? How could she have not prepared better? This world of denial she'd been living in for so long was finally catching up to her. For months she'd just been living day by day and refusing to think about anything else. She'd been too afraid…too afraid to think about the future. Not when the future facing her was so far from anything she'd ever in her life imagined. And then, when Logan had shown up she'd been even more determined than ever not to think about what would be because she couldn't bear to imagine losing him again. But you could only escape the future for so long, and now it was here. Logan was gone…and that was all her doing. He'd probably be here right now holding her hand if she let him. But how could she? How could she let him do that when she knew what it would cost him? She couldn't be responsible for that.

"It's usually harmless in adults, but it can cause complications to the baby if he gets it, so if you're positive, you'll go on antibiotics during labor and that should prevent any issues."

"Okay, umm, good to know," she said as she swung her feet nervously off the side of the exam table and picked at her paper gown.

"The baby is growing normally, and his heart rate is good, so everything looks great with him. My only concern is your blood pressure—140 over 92. It's a little high."

"Is that bad?" Is that bad? What kind of stupid question was that? Of course it was bad. Since when was high blood pressure good? God, she felt like an idiot. Seriously, ever since reality had come crashing down around her last weekend, she'd been unable to stop marveling at what a goddamn idiot she was. In another life, another her, she would have known exactly what a normal blood pressure was and every single thing a high BP could possibly indicate. She'd probably have read up on all the treatments and would know the side effect of every medication they might prescribe—just in case. She would have been prepared for every contingency of pregnancy. But in this world, she'd barely cracked open the cover of What to Expect When You're Expecting—the only pregnancy book she even bothered to get. She wondered if Logan had read it. He probably knew what high blood pressure meant. He'd been so perfect, so amazing. And she hadn't even seen it. Or, well, she had, but like everything else in her life at the moment, she'd refused to accept it.

"It's borderline," the doctor told her. "Have you been under a lot of stress lately?"

She looked up at him as though he was as stupid as she felt. Had she been under a lot of stress lately? "Well, I'm eight months pregnant and working retail during the holiday season so…". And she was all alone, living under an assumed identity, and had just sent away the man she loved. Stress? Why would any of that be stressful?

"Do you have anyone to help you out?" he asked.

"Umm, my friend Jo has been helping out a little." It wasn't untrue…she'd picked her up some groceries the other day. But her biggest help had been in just listening to her unload. Not that she felt any more clarity after her breakdown in Jo's dorm room the other night. It wasn't that Jo didn't have some good points, she did. But Rory just couldn't seem to get there. It was too much, and she already had so much on her plate. She just needed to focus on the baby right now. That was all she could handle at the moment.

"Well, that's good," he smiled warmly. "Every little bit helps; you need to take it easy. Your urine didn't have any protein in it, so it's probably just the stress, but we're going to need to keep a close eye on those numbers. And I'm going to send some bloods out to the lab to check your platelets and your liver enzymes, just in case."

"Just in case what?"

"Preeclampsia." He told her. "It's a complication that can occur in late pregnancy. It's characterized by persistent high blood pressure and protein in the urine caused by damage to the kidneys. It can also affect other organs like your liver and lungs, or your platelets which are the blood cells responsible for clotting."

"Oh my god." Organ damage? Clotting problems? That didn't sound good.

"Like I said, it's probably just stress, but I want to be cautious. And it's important for you to take it easy. No matter what the cause of the high reading today, stress is only going to exacerbate it. You should cut down your hours at work. And see if maybe they can put you on desk duty or something. I don't want to have to put you on bed rest, but if your blood pressure doesn't come down, I might need to."

"Umm," Rory scrubbed her face. She couldn't cut back at work. And she definitely couldn't go on bed rest. She needed every penny she could get. She had just enough money to get through maternity leave as it was. She'd taken on extra hours between now and her due date to try to have a little something for a babysitter if she needed it. Jo had done some research and helped her find some public assistance programs she could apply for to help with childcare, but still, with the night and weekend hours at the store, that might not always be an available option. Bedrest would be cataclysmic. If she couldn't work for the five weeks leading up to the birth, there'd be no money left for her to take maternity leave. "I guess I can see if I can stay at the register, and maybe they'll let me sit." It was worth asking.

"Just make sure to take care of yourself, Leigh," he told her. "That's the most important thing right now. You need to stay healthy for your son. We'll check you again next week. In the meantime, if you notice anything like nausea, belly pain…especially on the upper right… swelling of your hands or feet, blurry vision, headaches, or dizziness, it's important you get checked out right away." He handed her a pamphlet.

"Umm, okay." She shoved the brochure willy nilly into her purse. She'd read it later. Besides, the doctor said it was probably nothing to worry about. She'd be fine, she had to be; it was the only option. She was responsible for another human being now. It was her job to make sure he was okay, so that was what she would do.

"Do you have any questions for me?"

She placed her hands over her belly where Samuel was moving around. It was strange, how her feelings about him had changed so quickly. Well, not changed exactly…developed maybe? Maybe it was the fact that she'd named him. Or the fact that she'd finally been forced to face the reality of the situation she was in. But the truth was, for most of her pregnancy, she hadn't felt much at all. She knew she was pregnant. She knew there was a child growing inside of her. And she felt fond of him. She felt protective. But she hadn't felt…connected. But now she was finally coming into that mama bear mentality she'd always associated with pregnancy. It was probably just that it was so close now that she was able to imagine him as a real person. It certainly had nothing to do with those intrusive thoughts Logan had put into her head—that maybe she was wrong about…the paternity.

Could he be right? But how? They'd always been so careful. Samuel had to be Dean's, didn't he? And even if he was right did it matter? She couldn't saddle him with this, it wasn't fair. She hadn't even told him about it. She'd made the decision to go ahead with this pregnancy all on her own. She hadn't considered him at all because, well, she didn't think there was a him to consider. If she'd told him in the beginning they could have decided whether or not to go ahead with the pregnancy at all. But now he was trapped. And she wasn't going to trap him. He had too much potential. Too much promise. He had a good life ahead of him. And sure, he said he wanted this, but what else was he supposed to say? Of course if he thought the baby was his he would convince himself he wanted it. Because he was a good guy who wanted to do the right thing. But what happened a few months or a year from now when his father had cut him off and they were flat broke and the novelty of trying to make it on his own and raise a family had worn off. He'd resent her. He'd resent Samuel. And he'd have given up everything for nothing.

But none of that mattered because he couldn't be the father…right? And if he wasn't the father, then she definitely couldn't let him make this sacrifice. She supposed there was one way to put an end to these doubts that had been plaguing her for the last four days.

"Umm yeah," she looked up at the doctor. "I know this is kind of a stupid question to be asking now, but…"

"There are no stupid questions."

"What are the chances my son will grow up to be a rodeo clown," she deadpanned.

"Okay, there are some stupid questions," the doctor laughed.

"Right, then. So…" she looked down at her lap again, crinkling the paper of her gown between her fingers. "What is the probability of getting pregnant with a condom and birth control. You know, as opposed to just birth control alone?"

The doctor pulled his little wheely stool up to the exam table and took a seat, looking at her sympathetically. "Why? Is there some question about the paternity, because we can…"

"I'm just curious," she interrupted.

He inhaled sharply and nodded. "Well," he said on his exhale. "Condoms, are very effective…when used correctly. But nothing is 100%. And there are things that can interfere with their efficacy as well. Birth control by itself is about 99% effective when used perfectly. But who among us is perfect, right? So, in practice, it's about 91% effective. That's why a backup method like condoms is strongly recommended…that and to prevent STIs. When you combine the pill and a condom, it definitely lowers your risk, but again, if you're having sex, the risk isn't zero."

"Okay, so what is it?" Not zero, she technically knew that. But there were an infinite amount of possibilities between zero and a hundred.

The doctor bobbed his head back and forth as he calculated the numbers. "With perfect use of pills and condoms together, there is a 99.99% efficacy rate. With typical use it's about 98.7%."

See? 98.7%! That was practically nothing. Even compared to the pill alone, it was eight times more effective…but was that each time? Because she and Logan had been together three times that day alone. And a few more through the rest of the week. But then again, the doctor said that was with 'typical' use. She and Logan weren't typical. They were ivy league students. They were smart enough to use a condom correctly…

"A lot of things can interfere with a condom's effectiveness; if they break, obviously. If they're expired, using oil-based lubricants, putting it on upside down and then flipping it over instead of getting a new one…"

"Wait…wait…" Rory's heart was suddenly beating faster in her chest as a faint memory flickered through her mind. "What was that last one again?"

"Putting it on upside down and then trying to fix it?" He repeated.

Well shit.

AN: Okay, so there's a lot to digest in this chapter. Rory's definitely in a bit of an existential crisis right now. Her past is really coming back to screw with her head. Lucky she has a good friend like Jo. Most importantly, I would like to address this little cliff hanger I've left you with. This is not, I repeat NOT a declaration of paternity. Even if she did have a condom screw up, an imperfectly used condom is still far more effective than no condom. In fact, statistically speaking, I've crunched the numbers and they are still on Dean's side. All this does is open the door, and for the moment, add an extra factor to Rory's already jumbled head space. We get to see how Logan is handling things next chapter, then on to more twists and turns. Hope you enjoyed. Please, pretty please, leave a review.