A/N: Wow, look at all the love for this fic. Thanks so much for all the reviews, folks :)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 3
The wedding reception took over. First, Miss Patty wanted the chance to dance with Jess, and then, Babette came to fetch Rory because her mom was looking for her. Before they knew it, they were swept away from their conversation and back into the general festivities, from which there was no further escape.
It was ridiculous how little time they got to spend together, almost as if there was actually a plan to keep them apart. To think that the maid of honour and best man were usually all too easily paired up! Of course, since the only person who might want to put distance between them was usually her mom, Rory couldn't really think that was what was happening. Lorelai was far too busy enjoying her wedding reception. Besides, she would recognise the fact that Rory and Jess absolutely needed to talk, in the circumstances. She, of all people, understood that.
Unfortunately, the events of the afternoon and evening just didn't allow for a private chat. Rory and Jess kept on missing each other, for the most part, and when they finally were in the same place at the same time, there were just too many other people around to be spilling secrets. Still, Rory couldn't say she didn't enjoy the festivities, even if she was pretty sure Jess was merely enduring them, mostly for Luke's sake, no doubt.
Finally, when it was all over, Rory made a point of standing next to Jess as Lorelai and Luke got into the car, ready to drive away on their honeymoon. It was only a weekend away, but it was enough. It meant Rory and Jess could go back to the house alone and really talk things through.
"So, your place?" said Jess, as the car disappeared from view and he finally put down the hand he had been waving with.
"I guess so." Rory nodded her agreement, taking a moment to marvel at just how two-minds-one-thought they were sometimes. "Let's go."
They didn't talk on the walk over. Honestly, Rory wasn't sure she would have known where to start and the look on Jess' face suggested he was similarly afflicted. With his hands shoved in his pockets, wearing a suit that certainly flattered him but wasn't very Jess, Rory almost laughed at the situation they found themselves in. It wasn't funny, not any of it, except that it kind of was. A small giggle must have escaped, because suddenly Jess was looking at her as if she were a lunatic.
"I'm sorry," she said fast, shaking her head. "I just... This is maybe the weirdest moment of my life, and you know as well as I do, it has some stiff competition."
"Right there with you." Jess sighed, just as they reached the house and headed up the driveway to the front door.
Rory let them inside, Jess hovering awkwardly in the entryway, until she told him to go through to the living room and take a seat. She excused herself to the bathroom while he sat down on the couch to wait.
Jess honestly didn't know what to think or what to say. He had to admit he could almost understand Rory's laughter on the way over to the house. It was kind of a crazy situation. To think that this was at least one of the things that her mom and his uncle had been so afraid of more than ten years ago. That he could get Rory pregnant and ruin everything. Back then, it would have been a real mess, screwing up both their lives royally. Jess couldn't have been a parent at seventeen. He wasn't even sure how he was going to handle it at thirty-three.
"Hey," said Rory as she returned to the room, pulling him from deep thought.
"Hey," he replied in kind, shifting over a little on the couch so she might join him, which she did. "So..."
"So..." she echoed, "I guess we should start at the beginning. If it wasn't already totally clear, I'm having this baby. I've weighed it all up, I'm more than aware of the choices, but in the end, I've decided, I can't just... I'm having this baby, Jess."
"Okay." He nodded his understanding, his agreement too, though of course she didn't really need it.
It was her body, after all, so he couldn't exactly stop her, no matter what her choice was. It wouldn't have occurred to him to try. Still, he had to admit, he was happier knowing she was keeping the kid than not. It was probably stupid, because it left them in a real tangle, one way or another, but he was still glad.
"Are you staying here?" he asked then, figuring it was the next logical question. "I mean, with the baby and everything."
He needed to know where Rory was going to be if he planned on being a part of the kid's life, and he absolutely did. There was no way in hell he was turning out like his own father. Jimmy was okay now, as a friend he could go visit or call sometimes, but he wasn't a dad. Jess was going to do his damndest by this kid, come what may. He was real determined on that.
"Uh, I don't know," Rory admitted, squirming a little in her seat. "I mean, Stars Hollow is a great place to raise a kid, I guess, but in this house? I don't know. Mom and Luke would let me stay, obviously, I know that, but they're newlyweds and I don't really want to be in the way of that. Plus, a baby, under mom's nose all of the time, when she knows that she can't have another one? You know she and Luke talked about it, right?"
"I heard." Jess nodded solemnly. "Sucks they waited too long."
"Really sucks," Rory agreed without pause. "Anyway, somehow, I'm going to have to think about getting my own place, and I guess Stars Hollow would be a good choice, at least in the beginning. Mom and Luke are here, Lane and Zach, Sookie and Jackson, all my friends and neighbours. After all, it takes a village, right?" she said with a half-smile which Jess easily returned.
"Yeah, I think I read that somewhere."
He hadn't meant it to sound as significant as it did. Reading was where they had started, him admiring her book collection, her offering him to borrow Howl if he wanted. Their next conversation alone, she had ended by calling him Dodger, the thief from Oliver Twist. From there on, a friendship grew, not just based in a shared love of books, but it didn't hurt any to always have that in common. How far they had come from there, he could hardly believe it.
"Jess?"
Rory looked a little worried, like she was scared she had overloaded his brain or something. The expression he wore probably made it seem that way, Jess realised. He really had been thinking much too hard about the past, when what really mattered was the future.
"Sorry. I was just... Uh, so, you'll be here. Philly's only a few hours away, it'll make visiting easier. I mean, you know I'll want to visit, right?"
"I was hoping you would," she said, with a light in her eyes and a smile on her lips that almost seemed dangerous.
She meant for the baby's sake, Jess knew that, but he couldn't help but find hope in her expression that she meant something else. Something more. Something just for the two of them. It was so stupid. He knew she was long over him, she had to be, but then, he had never really gotten over her. He thought he had, a few times, but it never stuck. No other woman ever came close to what Rory Gilmore meant to him. The truth was he loved her. It had started when they were seventeen years old and it had never completely gone away. Jess was certain at this point that it was never going to.
Of course, that was just one more complication that this already complex situation really didn't need. It seemed better not to say anything about their former romance or any future one he might be dreaming of, however fruitless. The focus had to be the baby, because that was happening, and there was no changing it now.
"Obviously, I'll chip in my share of the money," he said then, clearing his throat before he went on. "I have no idea what kids cost, but I'm guessing it's a lot. Don't people always say kids are an expensive hobby?"
"Pretty sure that's true." Rory nodded, looking strangely startled. "But I wasn't... I mean, when I told you, I wasn't... I hadn't thought much about the money."
Jess would have found that hard to believe if anybody else said it, but this was Rory. Practical as she was in most regards, he absolutely believed that she was more concerned about the kid and his feelings and such when she told him, than being so mercenary as to want to know how much money he would give her. That said, he did have to make his contribution, play his part. It mattered, to him if not to her.
"Last we talked about money, I heard you were busted, broke, and beggared," he recalled aloud.
"Your memory is scary good." Rory rolled her eyes. "The truth is I have a little money. It's not much and I do need to find some way to raise more, especially with a baby on the way, but that doesn't mean I was angling for you to pay for everything."
"Trust me, I couldn't afford to pay for everything," he assured her fast. "But I'll put in my share. As much as I can afford, without leaving myself destitute anyway."
Rory smiled a rare and beautiful smile. "You're a good man, Jess Mariano. I know you never really believe that you are, but it's true."
He smiled back at her, even as he declared; "You're cracked."
She took it in good humour, just as he knew she would. After all, he knew just about everything about her and she knew almost everything about him. That was what happened when you knew someone as long as they had known each other. When you had been as close.
"One thing that has me confused," he said then, as a thought occurred to him. "When we... were together," he said tactfully, knowing anything else was bound to embarrass her, even now, "I know I had a few shots of scotch in me, but you did say something about the pill, right?"
"I did." Rory sighed. "And I was telling the truth, Jess, I swear. I have never skipped a pill, not for the whole time I've been taking it, and when this happened, I really could not figure out how. Later, I went back to check my diary again. There was a note in there that reminded me, a couple of days before we... we were together," she said pointedly, borrowing his own words, "I had some kind of stomach thing. It wasn't much of anything but, well, without getting graphic on you, I'm guessing the pill passed through before it got a chance to do its job."
"Huh." Jess nodded. "Makes sense, I guess."
It certainly made as much sense as anything else did on this weirdest of all weird days. His uncle marrying Rory's mom he could deal with, that had been on the cards, off and on, for years enough. He could handle seeing Rory and the onslaught of memories and feelings the whole occasion brought. It didn't even bother him anymore when he got alternately loved and hated by the various wacky denizens of the Hollow. What Jess absolutely hadn't been ready for was to hear he came into town a single, free guy and was leaving a prospective father.
"Whatever happens, Jess," said Rory then, "I want us to always be us, you know? I mean, we've come such a long way, been through so much, but we... we've always been friends, right? Really good friends and... and I would just hate to lose that."
She was right, obviously. Rory Gilmore usually was. Not that Jess had a reason to argue with her. They had started out as friends in the beginning, even if, deep down, he had always been hoping for more. He was in love with Rory from the first moment he ever saw her, he knew that for sure, but yes, they had been friends before their doomed romance, and again after, and to this very day.
For all the other ups and downs, he knew if he really needed her, she would be there, and she seemed to be certain of the same. The love and trust between them that never truly died was how they ended up falling into bed all too easily in the first place.
"Rory," he said eventually, realising that if he left her hanging without an answer for too much longer, she was going to get worried and upset. "I promise you, whatever happens, I'm here for you. Not just for the baby, but for you too. Whatever you need, okay?"
When Rory looked at him then, both their heads leaned sideways on the couch as they faced each other, she met his eyes and saw the same thing in them that was there when they were eighteen. When he had stood across from her in town square and told her he loved her for the very first time. He had shocked her then, but she did believe what he said, just as she believed him now.
"Okay," she said, nodding slightly. "Thank you, Jess."
"For what? Being a good friend?" he checked.
"For that and for everything else. You've been so cool about this whole thing."
"Well, I'm Frank at the Sands, remember?"
The reference made her laugh and made something clench in her chest at the same time. It was a repeat of a moment so long ago, in what ought to have been a simpler time, though she couldn't exactly call it that. She and Jess had troubles enough when they were young. Some things never changed, but that was okay. Whatever was between them - this thing that was bigger than the both of them, but always completely undefinable - it was strong. It always endured no matter what. That really mattered right now.
"We're going to be okay, aren't we?" she said then, more of a rhetorical question really, though she knew she wouldn't mind if he chose to answer it. "You and me, raising this baby. We can make it work, somehow."
"Sure, we can," Jess assured her, though he looked a little concerned as he stared at her.
It was only when she blinked and everything turned blurry that Rory realised she was crying. Her hand came up to swipe at her cheek, but Jess was already reaching for her.
"C'mere," he urged, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tight.
As always, Rory found comfort and peace in his embrace. She gripped onto him just as tight then, as the day's emotions caught up to her, the tears coming full-force into his shoulder for quite some time.
To Be Continued...
