It was exactly 12:37 in the morning when Juliet heard the door to her bedroom open. She opened her eyes, already half awake, and smiled at her older sister padding into the room.

Lorelai climbed into bed beside her, laying on her side so the two sisters were facing each other.

"Happy birthday Jules."

"Hi Lor."

"God, you're growing up fast. It seems like only yesterday when you were all tiny and wrinkly, with a perfectly proportioned head."

"And now you have a perfectly proportioned head, and mine is too small for my body."

"Shut up! Your head is perfect."

"Dirty!"

Lorelai swatted her arm. "Juliet Leigh Gilmore! Who taught you it was proper for a young lady to talk that way?"

"It must've been my wild and crazy older sister," Juliet said with a giggle.

"What a horrible influence that girl is! She should be sent to a convent!" Lorelai said in an impression of the uppity New England accent that their parents' friends spoke with.

"But who will remind me of the perfect size of my head?"

Lorelai sobered for a moment, pushing a stray lock of hair behind Juliet's ear. "Seriously Jules, who said that to you? Was it Mom? Because she and I are due for a fight anyway, and if she's being mean to you I might have to break out the boxing gloves."

"No, it was Gran. She called it the 'Allerton pinhead'. Apparently, Mom's side of the family have smaller heads than Dad's family," she said with a rueful chuckle.

To an extent, their grandmother was right. Lorelai's coloring had always matched those of the Gilmore clan, whereas Juliet's auburn hair resembled their mother much more closely.

"Maybe you shouldn't get into a fight with Gran. She did build the maternity wing where we were born."

"Oh yeah. Where would the fine people of Hartford have all their babies, if it weren't for your grandmother?" Lorelai said, impersonating their father's booming voice.

"We'll be thanking Trix instead of God when we're in the hospital giving birth to our own kids!" Juliet laughed, her smile fading when she saw the look on Lorelai's face.

"Lor? What is it?" She asked, nudging her with her foot.

Lorelai looked away, tears pooling in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"You promise not to say anything to Mom and Dad?"

"Cross my heart."

Lorelai took a shaky breath, wiping a stray tear aside. Juliet took her hand in both of hers, waiting until her sister was ready.

"You know how I told you a couple months ago that Chris and I finally. . . you know?"

"Did it?"

Lorelai nodded, still avoiding Juliet's eyes.

"Well. . . I kind of. . . I haven't really gotten my period since then, I don't think."

Juliet's eyes widened. God. A baby.

No one her age had nieces or nephews, unless they had much older siblings from one of their parents' previous marriages. Even then, these were siblings they barely knew, who were grown up and married.

But Lorelai was cool. All her friends said so. Lorelai was her cool, brave older sister, who definitely wasn't ready to be a mother. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. What would Lorelai say to her, if she was the one who thought she might be pregnant?

"Um, well, you've always been kinda irregular, haven't you? I bet that's all it is."

"Yeah, probably. I got a test just to make sure. Three, actually. Just in case one is a false positive or negative."

"Have you taken them yet?"

Lorelai shook her head. "No, not yet. I was hoping you could be there? Not, like, while I'm peeing or whatever, just while we're waiting?" She finally looked Juliet in the eyes.

Juliet had never seen her sister so vulnerable. Lorelai never needed anything from her. Juliet was always the one crying to her when someone was mean at school, who would climb into bed with Lorelai in the middle of the night after a bad dream.

Lorelai was her protector, her hero. If Mom was mad at Juliet, Lorelai would do something worse to take the heat off of her. If Juliet's friends were being mean, Lorelai would let her hang out with her high school friends.

Surely, she could do this one little thing for the person she loved most.

Later

"Okay," Juliet whispered, shutting off the timer before it could wake their parents up, "they're all ready."

"Oh God, let me look," then, "wait! I don't want to know."

"They could be negative."

"I don't want that!"

"You. . . you don't?"
Lorelai covered her face with her hands.

"I don't want it to be positive either. God, I wish I could just make up my fucking mind!"

"Want me to look?"

Lorelai nodded, her face still in her hands.

Juliet flipped them over one by one. All three had two pink lines. She sucked in a breath.

"Jesus," she whispered. I'm going to be an aunt.

"Jules?"

"They're all positive, Lor. You're pregnant."

"Fuck. Shit. Fuck!"

"Shh!" Juliet whispered as she glanced at the door, worried that Lorelai's little outburst had woken their parents up. "Breathe, Lor. Everything's going to be okay."

"How the hell is anything going to be okay?" Lorelai sobbed, "I'm not even sixteen, I can barely take care of myself! How the fuck am I supposed to take care of a baby?"

Juliet shushed her again, then said, "I mean, you could go to Planned Parenthood or something. I'll go with you."

Lorelai shook her head. "No, no. I can't get rid of it. It's like, like I love it already, you know?"

Juliet sighed. In a way, she understood exactly what Lorelai meant. Aside from the fear she felt for her sister, she couldn't help but be excited at the prospect of a niece or nephew. She thought of her Aunt Hopie, glamorous and far away and grown up, and how much she and Lorelai looked forward to her visits. She loved the idea of some little kid who would call her "Auntie Jules" and look at her like she hung the moon.

"I just don't know what I'm gonna do," Lorelai whispered.

Juliet took her hand, squeezing gently. "It won't be just you. I'll help you. I mean, I'm only thirteen, but I can babysit and stuff."

Lorelai sniffled, squeezing her hand back. "Thanks."

"And Christopher? You have him, right?"

She gave a bitter laugh. "Yeah, he'll be a big help. Mr-crashed-his-Porsche-the-day-he-got-it will be a great daddy."

"You're not being fair, Lor. How many times have I covered for you when you went to some party and didn't come home until late?"

"So I'm going to screw this kid up too?"

"No! I mean, maybe a little, but everyone screws up their kids a little! I mean, even without this," she gestured at the pregnancy tests, "it's not like either of us think Mom and Dad were perfect parents."

Lorelai laughed at that, wiping her nose. Juliet relaxed a little, until she heard Lorelai suck in a sharp breath and say,

"Oh my God. Mom and Dad."

Juliet's head whipped around, expecting to see their parents glowering in the doorway. When they weren't there, she turned back to her sister, confused.

"What about Mom and Dad?"

"How am I going to tell them?"

"How are we going to tell them," Juliet corrected her gently, smiling when she saw Lorelai's frown lift a little, "and I don't know. We don't have to say anything yet. It's not like you're showing or anything."

Lorelai nodded, exhaling shakily.

"Sorry to make you deal with this. Probably not what you imagined for your birthday, huh?"

"It's okay. I'm gonna be an aunt. That's a pretty good present," she said, trying to lighten the mood.

Lorelai finally cracked a real smile, pulling Juliet into a side hug. "Thanks Jules. Want to sleep in my bed tonight?"

Juliet nodded, marveling at how much their roles had reversed in just one night. She wrapped an arm around her sister's waist as they walked to Lorelai's bedroom.

"Let's just hope this kid gets my head. Apparently, yours was a pain to shove out."

Lorelai mock glared at her, flicking Juliet in the head.

Author's Note

Okay, 3 things:
1. I know most of us kind of hate the "Lor" nickname, but to me, it makes sense for it to be a childhood nickname. The only reason it's unique to Christopher is that he's really her only friend from childhood that we see in the series (I don't think Jason Stiles, the love of my life, was friends with Lorelai in childhood, just someone she knew). Hopefully, Juliet makes the nickname less icky if this story continues. If not, I also like "Lora" as a nickname.
2. I got Emily's family name from a Wikipedia list of Mayflower passengers since we barely get anything about her backstory in the show. That's okay though, it means we get to make it up!
3. This is my first Gilmore Girls fanfiction, but if you like Barbie movies, I've written a couple of stories for those fandoms too! Let me know what you think, especially if you want to see more from this story!