A/N: Wow, no love for Logan around here, huh? lol Thanks for those reviews, peops. Don't worry, Huntzberger is gone (for now) but lots more lovely Lit content is still to come ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"It is a great place," said Rory, turning a circle in the small living area of the little house she was viewing. "I always liked these cute little houses. Sorry, compact living spaces," she amended on noticing the realtor wince.

Rory should know better. She was a writer after all and finding the right words for the right situation mattered so much in the kind of work she did. She absolutely understood the job of someone selling a house was to accentuate the positive, but honestly, she hadn't taken much convincing when it came to the row of 'compact' houses on Plum.

She recalled thinking dolls should live in them when she was younger, though she supposed looking at them now, they really weren't so tiny. Much smaller than the house she had lived in with her mom since she was eleven, but still, quite big enough for just one person and a kid.

The smile slipped from her face as that thought passed through her mind. She would like it better if the house was for two people and a kid, but whether or not Jess would be moving to Stars Hollow was still up in the air. Not that Rory really wanted to move to Philadelphia either. Her money certainly wouldn't go as far there, plus all of her support would be so far away, save for Jess himself. It would make more sense for him to move, and yet, she didn't want to push him on it. After everything, it just didn't seem fair.

"If you're concern is the damp patch in the bathroom, I'm positive it's not a big deal," said Jeannie then, hugging her folder to her chest. "I've seen that kind of thing before, it's most likely a real easy fix just under the sink there."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Rory assured her, realising fast that the poor realtor must have seen the look on her face and jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Honestly, I love this place. I'd love to take it right now, it's just... Well, could you give me a couple of days?"

"I can try." Jeannie sighed. "There is another person interested. I'm expecting them for a second viewing tomorrow. I'm afraid if they want to take it, I can't really say no."

She looked sorry to have to say as much, but Rory understood. The truth was, she should have made her own mind up the last time she came by to see the place, but she just kept on dawdling. She wasn't even sure why. Like she said, she loved the house, and whether Jess came to live with her or not, she needed somewhere to call her own.

"How about I call you before five today and give you a yes or no?" she asked then. "It won't be gone before then, right?"

"Oh, I wouldn't have thought so," Jeannie assured her. "Like I said, the other interested party isn't planning to come by until tomorrow..."

"Okay, good." Rory nodded firmly. "Then I'll call you later with a decision, I promise."

With that agreed, the two women shook hands, and then, Rory headed back towards the Crap Shack. She was halfway there when she realised what a fool she was being and pulled out her cell to call her mom. Lorelai picked up on the second ring.

"Everything okay, sweets?"

"Everything is good. It could be really good, but I need your advice on something."

"Anything, babe, you know that. Shoot."

"It's not something we can do on the phone. Could you and Luke come meet me?"

"Uh, I guess so," said Lorelai, immediately talking in a low voice to a third party that just had to be her husband - that was a stroke of luck, because Rory hadn't known they were together right at that moment. "Are you back at the house?"

"No, I'm... well, I'll meet you on the corner of Plum and Peach, okay?"

"Oh. Well, sure, okay," Lorelai agreed, though she sounded confused yet. "We'll be there in ten minutes."

"Sounds good."

Rory was smiling as she hung up the phone, even though she knew she was about to have a pretty awkward conversation with two of her very favourite people. She really did want that house, and she could afford it at this point, more or less. It wasn't as if she needed parental approval for what she was planning to do, it was more that she wanted it. Besides, she hadn't actually even mentioned moving out to her mom and Luke yet. This was going to be a lot for them to take in.

Ten minutes later, they all convened on the corner of Peach and Plum, as arranged. Lorelai looked nervous, holding Luke's hand in a death grip, but he looked less concerned. If Rory had to guess, she would say he had already figured out what was going on and probably approved. Luke was pretty cool like that.

"So, what are we doing meeting in the street?" Lorelai asked then. "Are we planning a heist, Bugsy?" she added in her best gangster movie voice.

Rory laughed lightly. "No heist, I just want to show you something, and tell you something, but the showing needs to come first," she explained, leading the way past the first of a half dozen pretty little houses until they reached the one with the 'To Let' sign outside of it. "This house right here, I... well, I'm thinking of renting it. In fact, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to go ahead and sign the paperwork this afternoon. And before you say it, Mom, I know I'm always welcome at home and that you and Luke are happy to have me there, but I just... I need to do this. You understand, right?"

Rory knew that, of all the people in the world, her mother should understand her need to take this step on her own. It wasn't as if it was her first leap out into the real world and she wasn't exactly going far either, but it was still a big deal. Everything lately was a big deal and Rory would be quite glad when she reached a point where things settled back to any kind of normal. Unfortunately, she didn't see that happening any time soon.

"Lorelai," Luke prompted gently when she continued to stay silent.

"I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head, dislodging a single tear that rolled down her cheek, which she quickly moved to swipe away. "Wow, I didn't... I'm honestly not sure why this is a surprise, or why I feel so much about it," she admitted, smiling even as she cried. "It's not like you're a kid. I sometimes wonder if you were ever a kid, actually, but you know what I mean. Look at you now. You've come so far, even in the last few months. I just... Oh, Rory, if this is what you want, and you're sure you can make it work, then I am so happy for you."

She swept her into her arms for a big hug then which Rory was more than glad to be a part of. Over Lorelai's shoulder, she saw Luke smiling at her and knew for certain that she had his whole-hearted support too. It was a rare day when either one out of her mom and her new step-dad weren't on her side in anything at all. It felt good to know they weren't too upset about her wanting to move out.

"So, your own place in Stars Hollow," said Luke, as mother and daughter parted from their hug. "I think you made a good choice," he added, staring up at the house.

"You can tell from out here?" asked Lorelai with a look.

"My dad worked in hardware, and for a while, I did too," he reminded her. "There were some streets, you'd get the folks who lived there in the store all the time, needing stuff to clean up mould or fix the gutters or patch the walls. You almost never had anybody with those kinds of problems from Peach or Plum. These are good houses, built to last."

"I hope so." Rory smiled. "I really like the place and it's not so far from you guys. It's not big, but it doesn't really need to be, not for just us."

She was non-specific about who exactly she meant when she said that, though her arm around her own swelling belly proved she was including herself and junior, of course. Jess was a whole other factor and she only hoped that neither her mom nor Luke would ask about him. Rory just didn't have an answer to give them yet, not until she and Jess talked again and made a firm decision. Even then, she wasn't sure how things would work out. She was trying not to worry about that, but honestly, it didn't come easy.

Jess took a deep breath of downtown Philadelphia air and immediately started to cough. It was really a case of bad timing. The air quality wasn't so bad most of the time, but a bus had gone by him just as he chose to inhale and the fumes from the tailpipe caught in his throat horribly.

Of course, the city had its upsides and downsides. Most places did, truth be told. It suited Jess for a long time, to be in a big, busy, bustling place. New York had been his home, Philadelphia made for a good substitute when the city he knew best grew too expensive. Now, things were changing. All the parts of his life were getting altered and moved around, and all of a sudden, Philly was starting to lose its appeal.

Since he was hardly a social butterfly, Jess couldn't claim he would miss a whole lot of friends, if and when he left the city. Sure, he and the guys at Truncheon were pretty close these days, at least the original three of them that remained - himself and Chris and Matthew - but nobody was going to start crying if they didn't see each other every day. Business had become so electronic and internet-based, it wouldn't exactly be hard for Jess to continue on with most of his job from someplace else. Someplace like Stars Hollow maybe.

It made sense. Jess knew that it did, and as he walked the streets of Philadelphia, with all its sights and smells and hustle and bustle, he was sure he could easily give all this up. Maybe he would miss it sometimes, but it wasn't as if he was banned from coming back to visit. It was just that Philly probably wasn't the best place for him and Rory to start over and raise a kid. Stars Hollow would be cheaper, by a really long way, and they would have Lorelai and Luke, plus all the crazy townsfolk who adored their Gilmore girls and would do anything to help them.

Of course, Jess was all too aware that going back to the Hollow meant living within easy distance of his mother, whenever she and TJ returned to base camp. They were away a lot with the Renaissance Fayre circuit and everything, but still, he would have to adjust to seeing Liz and her nut of a husband more often. It might be cool to be closer to his kid sister, he supposed, but Doula was a little too much like her father for she and Jess to ever really get along like brother and sister might.

Heaving a sigh, Jess rounded the corner and found himself back where he started, just a couple of buildings away from Truncheon. It had been his work and his home for such a long time now, it would be weird to be anywhere else. Still, he knew it would be weirder to not be with Rory, when given the chance. To not be there for his kid, like he vowed to be, come what may. It did make sense to go back to Stars Hollow. Jess just wished the tiny piece of doubt in the back of his mind would evaporate already, but it wouldn't.

Just as he was about to go inside, his cell started to ring. Pulling it from his pocket, he was surprised but happy to find Rory was calling. "Hey."

"Hey, you," she said, sounding as if she was smiling, and yet there was a strange quiver in her voice as she went on. "So, I have news, of the good variety. At least, I think so," she explained, even as Jess continued to wonder about the shake he was sure he could hear in her tone. "Um, so that house I told you about, the one on Plum that was just so cute? Well, I signed the paperwork today. I am officially leasing that house, Jess. It's mine."

He was surprised how much that made him wince, when she said 'mine' rather than 'ours.' It was so dumb. Of course, it was her house. It was her money and her choice and her name on the lease. Sure, she probably dipped into their shared account, but only because he told her she should. After all, their kid would need a roof over his or her head, it was part of what that money was for. Jess didn't begrudge either of them, not one bit, but it still hurt to know he wasn't there. Pretty stupid when he had a choice in changing that.

"Wow, congratulations," he said then, clearing his throat before he could go on. "Uh, I guess I should come by and see the place sometime."

"That'd be good," Rory told him with a smile she could just hear. "It's just a little house, but it's all we need, you know, me and junior. Not that there wouldn't be room for you, if you came to visit, which obviously you will. That's a given, but I mean, if you wanted to stay. If we ever decided to-"

"Rory," he cut her off fast before his nerve went. "What if I moved back?"

The question hung there between them, across the couple of hundred miles from his street corner to hers. He wanted to move back. On some level, he had known it for a while, but the reality hit him in the face so suddenly, Jess almost reeled back with the shock of it. Stars Hollow was a nutty little town, but it always felt weirdly like home, because of Luke, because of Rory, because of the family he was building there, piece by piece.

"Jess, are you serious?"

He smiled at the question, not so much because it was funny, more so because of the understandable incredulity in her tone. It probably sounded very weird to her, his volunteering to go back to a place he had fought so hard to escape in the past. Things were so different now and she ought to know that.

"You think I'd joke about this?" he asked her anyway. "C'mon, Rory, you know I'm serious. We talked about this. We said we had to figure out where we'd be and how this whole thing would work. As much as you and I both know I'm an asshole for depriving you the chance of a good pro con list, that thing was only going to come out with one answer. You want to be in Stars Hollow right now and that makes total sense. I want to be with you, so I'll come back. As crazy as it sounds, it doesn't even feel much like a sacrifice anymore. Philly is great, don't get me wrong, but if you can't be here... then it's not home."

The second he finished saying it, Jess wanted to smash his head into the nearest brick wall. It was so damn sentimental and sickening, he could barely stand it, but the truth was, he meant every word. Home was where the heart was, that's how the old saying went, and it was true. Wherever Rory was, that was where he belonged, and the child they were having just added to that. They needed to be together, all three of them, and the place that made most sense for that was the one where they had family and friends, plus a chance to make their funds go further.

"Oh my God, Jess," Rory gasped in his ear, crying again, as she was wont to do lately, thanks to all those fun pregnancy hormones. "You have no idea how happy I am right now."

"Yeah, you sound ecstatic," he teased her, "but seriously, I'm happy too. We're gonna make it work this time, Ror. I swear we are."

"I know we will," she agreed, sniffling yet. "I love you, Jess."

"I love you too," he promised her, looking up at Truncheon and fighting the urge to sigh.

Now he just had to tell the guys what he had decided and hope they went for his under developed plan to continue working with them remotely from Connecticut. He hoped, rather than believed, that conversation would be as straightforward as the one he just had with Rory. Somehow, he doubted it.

To Be Continued...