A/N: Thanks for the reviews, reader peops, always appreciated! :) Now it's time for the great Emily Gilmore to hear about the Literati baby. Please brace accordingly ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

"You doing okay, sweets?" asked Lorelai, turning around from the front passenger seat to look at her daughter in the back. "You know, my offer still stands, if you think sitting up front would be easier."

"I'm fine," Rory assured her with a shaky smile. "I really don't think where I'm sitting in the car is what's causing the nausea."

"Aww, babe," her mom sympathised, reaching back to squeeze her hand. "I know Emily isn't always the greatest with pregnancy news, but your situation and mine are so, so different. Besides, this is not the same version of my mom that was mad at me when you came along."

Rory knew she had a point. Grandma had certainly changed a lot over the past few years and in so very many ways, ever more so since the loss of Grandpa. Even so, Rory wasn't sure the great Emily Gilmore was ever going to be entirely happy at the news of what she would call an illegitimate pregnancy in the family. The fact the father of Rory's baby was Jess Mariano certainly wasn't going to help at all.

"You know you look good in anything, but green really is not your colour," he said softly, clearly having waited for Lorelai and Luke to be talking about other things before he dared speak. "Seriously, you need us to pull over?"

"I'm fine," said Rory one more time. "Well, fine is pushing it, but pulling over wouldn't help any more than switching seats with Mom." She heaved a sigh. "I just want to get to Nantucket, drop the bomb, and..."

"Run like hell?" Jess suggested with a smirk.

Rory smiled with amusement she couldn't contain. "I think I'll leave that to you. After all, I've always been the golden child with her, more or less anyway. You on the other hand..."

"Ah, the infamous dinner" Jess rolled his eyes. "She does know that was a lot of years ago, right? I was eighteen, for crying out loud."

"Gilmores have long memories, especially Grandma," Rory reminded him. "It was the first time she met you and you showed up with a black eye that you couldn't or wouldn't explain. Besides, my mom was not exactly your biggest fan back then, so Grandma had really only heard the bad stories from her," she said, keeping her voice low, glad to note Lorelai was only talking more loudly by now as she got into a familiar rant at Luke over his radio station choices. "You do know that, back then, the problem was that we were dating, and now, ironically, she'll probably be more upset that we're not. I mean, we might have gotten away with not being married, but not even together..."

Rory trailed off then, realising too late what she might be implying. At thirty-two, she ought to have learned long ago to think before she spoke. Usually, she did, but there was something about Jess that made her want to be more free and easy with voicing her thoughts. That could be great, but it could also be dangerous. It was all too easy to make a fool of herself.

"Sorry."

"For what?"

"I didn't mean to... I don't want to make you any more uncomfortable than you already are about all this. I'm not asking you to pretend that we're together or anything, I wouldn't do that, not to you, and not to Grandma either. Our situation is what it is and I'm fine with it. I'm just... I'm sorry."

She was rambling, the words coming out too fast and patently too loud, since they soon got her mom's attention. Lorelai's eyes met hers in the rear-view mirror, a questioning look in them. Rory shook her head, assuring her mother everything was fine and she needed no help.

Since the car was in silence by then, it was no surprise that Jess didn't say anything in response to her apology. Rory was fine with that too. She supposed she was going to have to learn to be fine with a lot of things this Thanksgiving, come what may. Whatever her grandma said about the pregnancy situation, there would be little to no chance of escape from Nantucket until the weekend was over. There would be questions galore and they would all need to be answered. There would doubtless be judgement too.

Rory sighed and turned towards the window, looking out at the scenery flying by. For all that Jess' family were far from perfect, she at least got to enjoy the experience of telling Liz and TJ and Doula about the baby. They asked questions too, obviously, starting with how long Rory and Jess had been back together, but at least they weren't shocked by the answer that they weren't. Of all people, Liz had to be understanding of complicated relationships between men and women. She was just thrilled to know she was going to be a grandma. On realising she would soon be an aunt, Doula was excited too, but TJ was the one who got the most over-emotional, even though, technically, he wasn't related to the unborn child at all.

Jess had looked fairly uncomfortable throughout, but Rory didn't worry about it. She knew that was much less to do with her and the baby, much more to do with his own family being what they were. When they left that house, headed back to the Crap Shack just in time to leave for Nantucket, he had looked relieved, almost cheerful, just for a little while.

"At least they were happy," Rory had said.

"Yeah, I guess that's something," he agreed, nodding his head, before a grimace came over his face.

Rory didn't have to ask to know he was thinking of the next hurdle in their path. Thanksgiving with Emily, telling her the news, waiting for the explosion and the fall out. Glancing over at him now in the backseat of the car, it was hard to tell what Jess was thinking. He was looking out of the window, or maybe he even had his eyes closed, it was tough to judge. Either way, it seemed best to leave him to his own thoughts for a while, even if Rory wasn't so sure she wanted to be left alone with her own!


Jess never expected a warm reception. He wasn't sure anybody ever did with Emily Gilmore, not even her own daughter. Maybe especially her own daughter. Anyway, the fact she looked almost happy to see her family came as surprise enough, and when she asked Jess about his life and work, seeming almost genuinely interested in his responses, you could've knocked him down with a feather!

"Well, given that you're here and sitting so very definitely next to my granddaughter, I can only presume you've come to tell me the two of you are together again," she said then, sitting back comfortably in her chair and crossing her legs just so as she sipped at her drink.

"No, Grandma, we're not back together," said Rory, shaking her head, her tone not so sharp or in any way affronted as to make Jess feel insulted. "Jess is here because... well, we do have something to tell you, some pretty big news, actually."

Emily's eyes moved from Rory to Jess, then all the way over to Lorelai before she sighed. "You're pregnant," she said stiffly. "You're pregnant and he's the father, even though, as you said, you are not back together."

Jess felt like he was holding his breath, waiting for the rest of what she was going to say, or yell, or whatever, but nothing happened. He glanced at Rory but her gaze had dropped to her hands for a moment. He reached to pick one up and squeeze it, hoping if he gave her the confidence to say more, she might, saving him from saying something himself and only making matters worse.

"You're right, Grandma," said Rory, squeezing his hand back as she raised her head and met Emily's eyes. "Everything you said is exactly right. You're going to be a great grandmother, that's what I... what we came to tell you."

There was a long silence, in which only a clock ticked softly for what was at least a minute or two, but felt as if it could have been an hour-and-a-half as far as Jess was concerned. He wasn't sure that Emily even blinked in all that time, and then, at last, she put down her drink, stood up, and opened her arms to Rory.

"Oh, I wish your grandfather were here," she said, wearing a smile that almost immediately dissolved into silent tears.

Rory got up and went to her, the women sharing a tight hug. He couldn't exactly hear what Rory was saying over her grandma's shoulder, but the sentiment was doubtless that she wished her grandfather was there too. Jess shifted his gaze to Lorelai who seemed equal parts happy and annoyed, something he could well understand. After all, she only wanted what was best for her daughter, but it still had to sting that Emily was taking this unexpected, out-of-wedlock pregnancy so much better than the last one.

"You're not mad?" Rory checked as she pulled away from her grandma.

"What do I have to be mad about?" she asked her, shaking her head. "You're a grown woman, Rory, and you've made a choice. It's a choice that will allow me to meet my great grandchild, before it's too late. Also, the person you've chosen to have this child with is a man you've known for many years and clearly have faith in, even if he was a terrible hoodlum in years gone by."

Jess was a little surprised by the turn of phrase and by the apparent smirk on her lips as Emily looked at him then.

"I suppose you have nothing you want to say to me, young man?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Respectfully, ma'am, not much," he admitted. "I'm going to be the best father I can to this kid me and Rory are having, so you don't have to worry about that. I don't think there's much else you're going to want to hear from me."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," she told him, her appraising eye moving over him, making Jess just a little nervous, not that he would admit it, "though I am glad to hear you intend to take responsibility for your part in making this child. I'm well aware that people don't automatically get married in these situations anymore, I learned my lesson there." Her eyes went to Lorelai for a moment when she got to that part, though they quickly returned to Jess. "If you're still in my granddaughter's life after all this time, I suspect you can't be all bad. At least on this visit, you don't appear to have just stepped out of a boxing ring."

It was a strange thing to realise his fingers had gone to the very eye that had been blackened by bruising the first time they met, and Jess put his hand down again the second he noticed. Still, he wasn't about to take on Emily Gilmore and make a scene when she was actually smiling at him, a look that he could almost believe might be genuine this go around.

"Like you said, Mom," Lorelai chimed in then. "Rory's a grown woman, and Jess is a grown man. They know what they're doing."

"Yes, I'm quite sure that they do," Emily agreed, her eyes not leaving Jess' face for quite a while, until finally her attention returned to Rory. "Well, I think I should call for Berta and get us some champagne to toast the happy occasion."

At those words, Rory visibly let out a breath she seemed to have been holding all day long and, strangely, Jess felt himself heave a sigh too. Nobody's opinion should really matter but theirs, but as Luke had told his nephew so very long ago, Rory was a package deal, always had been. She came with a mother and a grandmother and friends and exes and all the baggage those people could bring. Jess had learned in the intervening years not to mind so much. He was pretty sure he could put up with a lot if it meant making things work with Rory, and maybe not just for the baby's sake either, though for now, he suspected, it was better not to say so.

To Be Continued...