A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed the previous chapter :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 25

"You only got it a month ago, how can it be broken already?"

"Correction, I have had it for one month and two days, and it is broken because I have superior electrical appliance breaking skills. After all these years, how do you not know this about me?"

Jess rolled his eyes and said nothing. He knew Lorelai had a point. He also knew there was never much point in trying to argue with a Gilmore girl, even if her last name was technically Danes these days. Instead, he put all his concentration on trying to find the fault with the overly fancy coffee machine that Lorelai had received for her birthday.

Obviously, such things were usually Luke's domain, but since he had paid the largest part of the money towards the gift and had Lorelai promise him she would be careful with it and not treat it too harshly, like the last couple of coffee makers, she was a little reticent about telling him she broke it so soon.

"From what you said, it's probably just one of these catches jamming," said Jess then, trying to prise each one open, struggling when he reached a particular piece and proving his own point. "I can't guarantee I can fix it, but if I do, could you maybe not break it a second time? Keeping things from Luke is not my favourite thing in the world."

"Hey, it's not mine either," said Lorelai fast, "and it's not like I'm never going to tell him. I will. Just, not right now, that's all."

Jess smirked at the odd logic and concentrated on the task at hand. Lorelai was so quiet, he could almost think she left the kitchen when he wasn't looking, but then he saw her move in his peripheral vision, messing with the magnets on the refrigerator door.

"So, how's it going, Jess?" she asked, nonchalant as anything.

"It's going," he replied absently.

"Cool. You busy with work?"

"Yes and no. I got a little ahead with things the last few days, mostly to free up today, so I could be out of the house while Rory has Paris visiting."

"Oh, yeah," Lorelai said knowingly. "That girl is an acquired taste."

"You're not kidding." Jess sighed. "You know, we were in the same room for ten minutes, I honestly don't know how either one of us got out alive. Seriously, who walks into another person's home and immediately talks about sperm counts? I don't even know her that well."

"Yeah, that's Paris," said Lorelai with laughter in her voice. "To be fair, she is kind of in the fertility business."

"Not my fertility," Jess countered, cursing under his breath when he caught his finger in the inner workings of the coffee maker and hurt it.

"You need a band aid?"

"No blood," he confirmed, shaking his head, even as Lorelai came over to check on the state of both his hand and the machine. "I'm better with toasters, but I can probably do this. It's just gonna take a little time is all."

"'All good things come to those with a little time to wait' ...or something like that." Lorelai frowned. "Rory's the one who does the fancy quotes. I'm better with movies."

"I know." Jess nodded, smiling some. "I'll do this as fast as I can. I know how a Gilmore can suffer without her coffee."

"Ain't that the truth? God, it must be awful for Rory, all that decaff." She shuddered at the very idea, taking a seat at the table, to give Jess his space to work, presumably. "She seems to be doing okay though."

"She's fine," he confirmed, continuing to fight with the machine. "I mean, it's rough for her, being so big, feeling so tired, needing to pee every five seconds."

"Can't be fun for you either," said Lorelai, considering it. "Pregnant women aren't exactly peachy to live with."

"She's the one who's suffering." Jess shrugged. "I'm just... there."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, Mariano. You're there for her when she needs you. That matters. Besides, this is your kid too. Trust me, I get what that means to you. It's taken a while, but at this point, I more than get what Rory means to you."

Jess was a little surprised by that one, but he did smile and thank Lorelai for saying it. He knew he was accepted these days and they really did get along so much better than they ever had before, but hearing that kind of thing once in a while, it was never a bad thing.

"You know, you matter a lot to her too," he said then, clearing his throat, "and I'm not just saying that because you said it to me. The fact you didn't have her change anything much in her book, that was a big deal."

Lorelai heaved a sigh. "Yeah, well, let me tell you, I was tempted. It's not easy, having the less-great parts of yourself there in print for all the world to see."

"Tell me about it." Jess rolled his eyes, unwilling to look at Lorelai to see what her reaction was to that. She read the book and she knew him as a teen, so she really couldn't fail to understand how he knew just exactly how she felt.

"The thing is, I don't regret it, not any of it. Even the tough parts and what some people might see as mistakes, I can't look at my life that way. Would I recommend teenage pregnancy and running away from home? Of course not. Has my life been one big bowl of cherries? No way. But it's my life. It has Rory in it, and Luke, and Sookie and Jackson, and all the crazy people in this town, including you," she said, smiling when Jess glanced at her then. "Nobody's life is ever perfect, we all know that, but if you try hard enough and wait long enough, in the end, it usually turns out pretty good. That's what Gilmore Girls says to people, right?"

"I guess so." Jess nodded.

"Then it had to be published, just exactly the way Rory wrote it."

"Hey, I'm the one who edited it and got it published, so no arguments here."

"That's right, you did that." Lorelai snapped her fingers in some kind of realisation, though whether that was real or just sarcasm, Jess wasn't sure - he still had trouble identifying one from the other with her sometimes.

There was another snap then, as the stuck catch finally gave way and Jess was relieved to realise it hadn't completely snapped off as a result. From there, he was pretty sure he could fix the coffee machine, so long as he did a little cleaning and made Lorelai promise to stop overfilling the mechanism and pushing the 'go' button too hard in the future.

"Good snap or bad snap?" she asked, wincing as if she fully expected him to choose the latter.

"Good. At least, I think so," he told her.

"You think so?"

"If it's too easy to fix, I'm going home a lot earlier than I planned and that means..."

"Paris," Lorelai said for him. "You want me to break a couple more appliances? Pretty sure I can, without hardly even trying."

Jess smirked and wondered again just how much she was kidding and how much she was serious. Maybe he would never fully figure it out. Maybe it didn't matter anyway.

"So, after he threw a few accusations and I threw a couple of vases, we finally sat down and really talked. Long story short, the divorce is on hold and we're trying to figure things out."

"Paris, I am so happy for you!" Rory enthused, squeezing her friend's hand. "You know, I always thought you and Doyle were just made for each other. It made no sense that you were breaking up."

"Yeah, well, you always did think life should turn out like a fairytale." Paris rolled her eyes. "I guess since your old frog of a boyfriend turned into a modern-day Prince Charming, it's easy to see how you were fooled."

"Jess was never a frog." Rory frowned. "Though I guess he wasn't exactly princely in the beginning either, but what teenage boy is?"

"True." Paris sighed. "Anyway, at least you're happy now, I can see that. Geez, if you were glowing any brighter, I'd need sunglasses."

She said it like she wanted to sound mean, but Rory could see the smile pulling at her friend's lips even then. Nobody could really say Paris had mellowed over the years, that would be going much too far, but she certainly did love her nearest and dearest with a fierceness that could never be denied. Rory knew that Paris loved her like a sister, even if she never actually said so. She also knew she felt exactly the same way herself, but she wasn't saying it either. Maybe they were both as bad as each other.

"Oh, I just remembered," she said then, attempting to lever herself up from the couch.

Paris was on her feet in a second. "Whatever it is, give me directions. It's like trying to watch a beached whale get back into the water - pointless, frustrating, and weirdly upsetting."

"I have a gift for you, well, sort of, anyway," Rory explained, giving in and resettling herself into the couch cushions. "I left it on the kitchen counter."

Without a word, Paris disappeared into the next room and soon returned with the very item Rory had been talking about in her hands. Not that she seemed to know that.

"All I found was this book."

Rory smiled. "Turn it over. Also, open the front cover."

Paris rolled her eyes as she sat down again, but also did as she was told. She looked mildly surprised to realise it was a copy of Gilmore Girls that she held in her hands, and appeared visibly moved when she saw that Rory had signed it for her, along with writing a message of thanks.

"I didn't help with this book," said Paris, her voice too soft all of a sudden.

"You did, actually," her friend told her definitely. "I wouldn't be the writer I am today if not for you. At Chilton and at Yale, you made me work harder and be better. Ever since, you've been such a good friend. Come on, Paris, you know you have."

It was as close as they were going to get to 'I love you like a sister' and that was okay. When Paris leaned over to give Rory the best hug she could manage, given her friend's large state of being, telling her; 'You're such a sap, Gilmore, but thanks,' that was good enough.

"Not that you'll be a Gilmore much longer, I suppose," she added, sitting back down in her seat with the book clutched in her lap. "For all the modern woman stuff you claim to believe in, I just know you'll go traditional and be 'Mrs Moody Beatnik' after you're married."

"Actually, we're thinking of being Mr and Mrs Gilmore-Moody Beatnik." Rory stuck out her tongue when she was done saying so. "I don't know, we'll decide for sure when the time comes, but Jess and I both agreed we wanted to wait for Junior to be born before we talk about the wedding."

Her hand went to her stomach when she talked about her son, who kicked at her some more for good measure. He had been doing so a lot since early that morning, causing Rory more than a little pain. She really hoped he gave it a rest before too much longer.

"I notice he never got you a ring," said Paris, staring at Rory's left hand.

"I told you already, I proposed, so I bought the ring for Jess. I even insisted he didn't get me one in return."

"And the idiot actually listened to that?"

"He's not an idiot, Paris, he just knows that if I say I don't want something, then I don't. He listens," she said pointedly.

"He pretends to," her friend told her with a look. "Guys are good at the pretend-listening. There's very little actual listening that goes on, trust me on that, especially once you're married. I'd like to say it's different with sons, but I'd be lying. You're going to have a hell of a time raising a boy."

"Thank you, Paris." Rory rolled her eyes.

"Did you pick out a name yet?"

"No, not yet. We've been over and over and over it, so many ideas, so many options. It's just that nothing sounds right. I mean, I don't hate the idea of naming him after somebody, but Jess hates his own name, neither one of us is close to our dads. There's Luke, obviously, or Richard, for my grandpa, but at the same time, I kind of think maybe he should have his own name that's just his, you know?"

"It is a minefield." Paris nodded in agreement. "Speaking as someone who was named for their place of conception, that's certainly not an option I would recommend."

"Duly noted," said Rory with a look. "Since that would mean naming my son either 'Stars Hollow' or 'Dragonfly Inn', I don't think you need to worry about us going down that path."

As she said it, the baby kicked some more, or maybe just moved around. He seemed displeased with the possible name choices, which Rory well understood. Still, she wished he would stop causing her so much trouble today.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Paris then.

It wasn't the first time she had said it during her visit. Rory's squirming around and making faces of obvious pain was clearly bothering her friend. Honestly, it was starting to bother her a little bit too.

"I don't know. I think maybe I need to get up and move around a little," she said, trying again to get herself up off the couch. "Actually, the bathroom should probably be my next stop."

"Here, let me help you," said Paris, putting her book down on the couch and rising to literally lend a hand.

She carefully pulled Rory to her feet and was in the middle of asking if she wanted her to go with her to the bathroom, when suddenly there was a strange whooshing sound and a lot of something wet on the rug.

"Oh my God!" Rory gasped, knowing for sure that it wasn't her bladder that caused the mess.

"Yeah, that was your water breaking, three weeks' early," said Paris, without a hint of concern or panic. "We need to get you to the hospital."

To Be Continued...