Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Rory told him she was pregnant, he'd immediately made plans with Matthew and Chris that let them all work from their own homes whenever possible. Truncheon had gotten a fancy new website a few weeks before then, and it was well within their budget to hire a few new employees to work in the store. They were college kids, mainly, and didn't really do much except take messages from the phone, make appointments and go pitch new releases to independent bookstores every now and again when they weren't immediately picked up by other stores. 

After Jess and Rory had moved out, Chris and Matthew each made the same leap with their own girlfriends and so the upstairs of the store became storage space for manuscripts they hadn't gotten to yet. More often than not Chris and Matthew could be found in Jess's home office, or on their couch eating their food. The three of them made an effort to go to the store at least once a week, though, to make sure that college footballer who started a few weeks ago hadn't blown anything up in the microwave yet.

Jess had wanted to work from home before Rory told him she was pregnant anyway because Rory was working on her book and doing free-lance on the side and it gave them time to be together, by themselves, in ways they hadn't been able to do properly since they were eighteen and Rory had followed him to New York for the weekend.

He also just liked having a home. 

New York was never much of homey place for him growing up, and despite Luke's best efforts they both knew that Stars Hollow was just temporary for him anyway. Plus, with everything that happened during his stay there, it was just a fact that he wouldn't be house hunting there any time soon. When Rory had moved into Jess's room above Truncheon after she graduated they had both tried to make it a home for them, and it had worked to an extent, but they had basically begun looking for new places six months into that arrangement when the apartment got too crowded. 

Of course, for the first two weeks, neither he nor Rory managed to get any work done between wrapping their heads around the fact that they're having a kid and spending time together in bed that they've both been warned won't happen a lot after the baby's born. 

"We're having a baby."

Jess stretches against her and muffles a yawn into the crevice between her shoulder blades. Rory turns in his grip and it's a little hard to keep his mind focused on what she's just said when she's still naked and pressed up against him. She pokes at his shoulder and presses a fleeting kiss to his hairline, wrapping his curls around her pointer finger.

His hands find the tiny little bump between them absentmindedly. Rory's made it a habit to wear his shirts since New York, but mainly when it's just them. Rory wearing his shirts had been a thing for Jess before, which was a little pathetic in his mind but no less hot, and now that the bump's become more noticeable Rory's been donning his shirts out and about as well. It hides the bump easily, which Rory insists on doing until she's out of the first trimester. She's been adamant they get through the first fourteen weeks when something can go wrong before they start telling people outside of their inner circles, and considering Jess doesn't have anything to do with the pregnancy after making Rory pregnant he's willing to go along with whatever she wants until the kid's born. 

Lorelai knows, and so does Luke, Emily, Paris, Lane, and the Truncheon lot. Lorelai had wanted to start spreading the news immediately after the two had gotten back from the bridge when Rory told him, but had been talked out of it before Babette could hear the squeals and start making posters. Rory had known for three weeks before Jess was told, and had apparently only waited because she wanted to wait until she got to eight weeks before telling Jess so that she knew she wasn't just late. He'd been a little upset he'd missed the first scan but quickly got over it when Rory had dragged him to the next check-up and he got to hear his kid's heartbeat for the first time.

He hums with his mouth against her collar, "Bet you it's a girl."

"No," Rory murmurs, "It's a boy."

Jess hums again, pulls her closer, and waits until Rory's breathing has evened out before he closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.

"How's he handling it?" 

Jess and Luke are helping Morey fix up some broken boards on his and Babette's porch, so Rory and Lorelai have stationed themselves on their porch swing to watch their boys at work whilst trying to bat off Babette offering cookies every two minutes.

Lorelai had tried to tell Rory she'd be fine drinking coffee, but Rory wants to do everything by the book and so her mother has begrudgingly started filling Rory's coffee mug with water instead. Rory holds it on her lap now, keeps her eyes trained on Jess nodding along to Morey's story.

"Good," She nods, "He's freaking out a little bit but trying to hide it. He'll talk about it when he's ready, though. Other than that he's beginning to nest real hard and it's a little freaky."

"You know," Lorelai nudges her with an elbow and sends her that warm smile that's come about since Rory told her about the baby, "I know I hated him for so long, but I'm glad you kept him around."

She thinks back to all those arguments - with her mother, with Dean, with the town - where she'd defended Jess until it hurt. To all those nights where she'd stayed up wondering if the town was right, if Jess would run away again, and how badly it would hurt if he did. To those four hours where they'd broken up and she'd been bringing the mood down at the Yale party while Jess had driven three and a half hours in the pouring rain to come and apologize. Thinks back to the way he'd given her the key to Truncheon and had looked so vulnerable in it. To the first time he'd told her that he loved her, and to the last time he'd said it (thirty minutes ago when he'd pressed her against her childhood mattress and laughed quietly as she'd unzipped his jeans despite her mother being just outside the door).

Thinks back to sitting on that bus to New York, wearing his Metallica shirt, playing with that cast on her arm and wondering if running after him was going to be worth it and sitting on a bus back to Stars Hollow knowing he was. 

Rory rests her head against her mother's shoulder and looks back at her fiancé with a little tug of her lips, "I told you he was worth it."

He's freaking out.

Like a lot.

"It's going to be okay," Rory tries to squeeze his hand but it only highlights how tightly he's holding onto her and Jess tries to slacken his hold a little bit but can't seem to, "We can always tell Babette and let her tell Liz. Miss Patty will end up making posters anyway so she'll find out either way."

Jess takes a shaky breath and turns to face Rory instead of Liz's house, "No... No, I need to tell her myself."

It's a perfectly decent house; three bedrooms, white picket fence, for some reason two (and a half, TJ insisted on a half) garages, and a row of lavender plants above the front door. Jess has avoided it since Liz and TJ had moved in when he was twenty, and in the past six years has managed to get away with just two Christmas dinners at their place, had insisted on the other four being at Luke's or Lorelai's or literally anywhere else. Even when he hangs out with Doula for the day he's managed to pick her up and drop her off away from the house.

It's not that he's not proud of Liz. He is, because she's finally managed to clean up her act, and he's glad that this time it had stuck - it's that he's still, for some reason completely unknown to him, irrationally angry about it too. She'd done it because TJ came into her life, because TJ wanted her clean and Jess could handle that because he was the one to turn his back on Liz to begin with, and because it meant someone else could handle the struggle that is Liz instead of him or Luke. And, honestly, he thought TJ would give up. Liz had tried to be clean for so many people and it never panned out, so when she went through her first relapse with TJ both Jess and Luke were surprised to hear he was still sticking it out. Then she got that first coin from AA (for the third time), and then she got pregnant with Doula and that's when Jess started getting jealous. 

He had wanted Liz to be clean when he was around. He wanted that doting mother. He never got either of them for very long, and suddenly this new kid comes along and gets it all without any interference from her previous crutches. It was stupid, and Jess was well aware of it because this kid wasn't even born yet and he should be glad that they'd never get the childhood he did, but it didn't soften the blow that Jess just wasn't enough of a motivation for Liz to do all of this sooner. 

There's still a lingering sense of jealousy there, not big enough for Jess to dislike his eight-year-old sister, but enough for him to not want to spend any time in her house. Except, this is a big deal and Liz is too busy getting Doula's stuff ready for when she goes back to school to leave the house for an hour so Jess can tell her in a more neutral setting. It's probably best to tell her in her own house because this is a big deal and it's a story Liz will tell for years - and, quite frankly, hearing 'my son told me in the middle of a coffee shop' sounds bad on his part. Plus, Liz might cry and Jess doesn't want to deal with tears out in public.

TJ's out when Liz opens the door, which is good for Jess because TJ will want to hug him when they spill the news, and Jess really doesn't want to hug TJ today. 

"Sit, sit," Liz ushers them to the kitchen table and shoves aside paperwork from Stars Hollow Elementary and those stickers you put on your gym clothes with your name on. Jess sees Rory awe a little at it and he squeezes her hand to tell her they still have ages before their kid needs some of them. 

Liz gets Rory talking about that book she had loaned Doula a few weeks ago, which gives Jess some time to labor his breathing and try to figure out how to tell Liz she's expecting a grandchild. It's still new information for him, something he hasn't fully gotten his head around, but Rory's thirteen weeks along now, out of the first trimester, fewer health risks towards the baby now, and soon enough Jess's shirts won't be able to cover the growing bump. They had agreed they'd tell Liz that morning and after that, they'll tell Miss Patty and Babette - and after that their job is basically done; Jess had wanted to send Taylor a personalized card, but Rory had talked him out of it seeing as Taylor is more than capable of filing for a restraining order on their unborn child. 

"You know," Liz is looking at him now, bright-eyed and kind of glowy - which Jess knows is all bogus, it's just because he was so used to seeing her pale and dull when she was depending on drugs to keep her going. "I'm glad you came to visit."

Rory squeezes his hand under the table and Jess shoots a quick wink in return. 

"Actually," Jess sits up a little straighter, "We have news," Liz arches her eyebrows and looks like she's going to say something, but Jess blurts out "Rory's pregnant!" before any of them can make a move.

Rory tries to hide her laugh at the distressed look on Jess's face when Liz all but leaps over the table to hug Jess but fails miserably and Jess mouths "it's on" over Liz's shoulder.

"Taylor wants a restraining order against our child."

"I told you," Rory huffs and puts down her phone. Luke had moved into Lorelai's place pretty soon after Rory had moved to Philly, and so whenever they visit they get the keys to the apartment above the diner. Luke's still grumpy about leaving them unsupervised - despite them being engaged and expecting a baby - but Jess had promised they'll be on their best behavior and there would be no 'teenagering' like Luke had banned all those years ago. 

They had barely been in the apartment five minutes before Jess was taking Rory's jeans off and pushing her in the direction of the bed; "It's not 'teenagering' when you're not a teenager anymore, Ror. Get your shirt off."

He had disappeared ten minutes ago to go get them some food, leaving Rory still wrapped up in the blankets, and she'd been too preoccupied texting Paris updates to focus on the fact that Jess had taken longer than necessary to pick up some fries and burgers from a place literally three seconds away.

He prances back through the door balancing two plates and wearing a goofy grin on his face. He drops down in bed beside her and leans over for a kiss before handing her a plate, "Miss Patty told him and he came in to say that he's had plans drawn up to make sure none of my old pranks can be redone since the first time I hid salmon in his curtain rails."

"Hm, what did you say?"

The grin on his face makes him look eighteen again, and Rory's thrown back in time to when they'd made it through New York and Luke had gone out for the night and Jess had gotten her naked in that single bed that's now long gone. "Told him I've already been reading new ideas to your bump so he should probably update his plans."

"My son is not going to be a carbon copy of you, Jess Mariano."

"That's fine, Rory Gilmore because my daughter can handle it herself."

Jess stands to shuck off his shirt again and Rory can't help but push their plates away and drag him back down into bed. She pushes their foreheads together and tugs a little at the locks of hair at the back of his head, "You really think it's going to be a girl?"

"Absolutely," He presses into her mouth, "She's going to have your eyes," A kiss to her cheek, "And my attitude," Another to her temple, "And if she doesn't like books we'll both cry," Rory closes her eyes and huffs a laugh out as his lips sweep against her collar, "But we'll get over it eventually because our daughter's going to be the absolute best kid in the world so it won't matter."

Jess props himself back up to kiss her before he pushes her hair behind her eyes and looks down at her, "What's our son like?"

"He has your hair, and Mom thinks probably my nose because mine's cuter," Jess rolls his eyes at that, catches her hand as it trails down his chest and raises it to kiss her fingers, "And he'll love books but not any of the ones we like, and he has your attitude about school but he's stubborn like me so he sticks with it anyway. He's a city boy like you so he'll get crabby about visiting Stars Hollow but secretly he likes it. He's the best kid in the world too."

"We're great parents."

Rory laughs and accepts the kiss he plants on her, "That we are, Mariano."

Elinor E. Mariano was practically born a daddy's girl, and no amount of time spent locked away in Rory's office without Jess has changed that in the past five months. 

"I named her," Rory grumbles through a pout, "and grew her and gave birth to her. You cheated."

"How could I have cheated? You had more time with her."

To be fair to Jess, he has earned the affection from his daughter. Since that moment on the bridge when Rory had handed him the scan, he'd been nothing short of amazing. When they got back to Philly after telling everyone about the pregnancy, he had begun nesting so hard Rory had to phone Paris to make sure this was normal and that her fiancee hadn't turned crazy. He'd thrown out all the food that the mommy-blogs had put on the 'sin lists', and even ordered a dozen baby books for them to read. Anytime Rory had a strange craving, Jess was there preparing it for her. He drove her around Philly late at night when the bump made it too uncomfortable to sleep, and he rubbed her feet as they watched TV together to help alleviate some of the pain from her ankles. 

And then, when Elinor was born, Jess had only gotten better. Rory's pretty sure he's been internally freaking out the entire time, and she knows that there's a deep worry in him that he won't be the best father because of his lack of paternal figure for the first eighteen years of his life, but Rory knows her daughter hit the jackpot in the father department. If Rory had thought she'd seen Jess at his best, she was completely wrong. 

He's completely wrapped around his daughter's finger and it has no right being that adorable. Jess gets up at night each time she cries, even if he's exhausted from work to the point he's practically dead on his feet. Rory so far hasn't changed a single diaper during the night and has to practically sprint out of the room when Elinor needs feeding at three in the morning otherwise Jess would beat her to the baby and insist Rory can nurse in bed. 

And, honestly, Rory doesn't blame her daughter for wanting to be around Jess all the time. She totally gets it.

She can, however, blame her daughter of favoritism. Rory had been the first to nickname their daughter Eli, but two months after she was born she would scream the house down if anyone but Jess called her that. It suddenly became her father's nickname for her, open to no one else, and Rory's still a little butt hurt over it. 

Jess has taken the week off now that his new book is in the final stages of being printed, and it means more time huddled in bed together. Rory's insisted it's no big deal if he wants to go work in the city again, especially since it's barely a twenty-minute drive and she can bring Elinor up whenever he wants to see her, but Jess is insistent on being at home with the baby as often as he can, and Rory's not going to be the one to say no. When he does work at home, he's in his office, but the door's always open and more often than not Rory can find him stationed in Elinor's nursery with his laptop and the newest manuscript he's proofing while Elinor naps.

He can be found in the nursery quite often, which Rory is grateful for because it means she can work on her newest article or carry on with her own book. Frequently, though, she'll sit with Jess as their baby sleeps across the room. Often, Jess will put away their laptops and papers, drag Rory onto his lap, and they'll look at their daughter in her crib and whisper about what they think she'll end up being. They spent some time entertaining the idea of her being a doctor, but with how squeamish they both get around blood it probably won't happen. Jess thinks that with their influence she'll probably be a writer, but they both agreed that watching both of her parents stress about deadlines and verbs might put her off. 

For now, Elinor seems perfectly content with being a daddy's girl. 

It's a lazy kind of morning before they drive to Stars Hollow for a few nights. Jess had only gotten out of bed to go attend to Elinor and bring her back in to wake up Rory. It's become a habit for the three of them, to spend half an hour or so lazing in bed together before they get on with their day, and Rory always enjoys watching Jess and Elinor interact whilst she's still struggling to keep her eyes open. 

Jess is propped up on one elbow now, smoothing down the tiny wisps of dark hair on Elinor's head with one hand, his other hand holding her favorite stuffed tiger and using it to tickle her stomach as the five-month-old giggles loudly. She looks so much like Jess when she smiles already, but Jess insists she's practically Rory's double with the blue eyes and 'withering stare' she's perfected already.

"You still cheated," Rory mutters with half of her face in the pillow, but one hand rubbing circles into Elinor's palm. 

Jess looks up at her and grins, leans over their daughter briefly to sneak a kiss from Rory before he turns his attention make to the baby. 

"Maybe it's because you named her after an Austen character," Jess shrugs, "And not even the good one."

"Paris said it when I was in the middle of giving birth, Mariano, and I was under no influence to agree but you still let me sign the damn certificate-"

"I know," Jess laughs and scoops Elinor up so he can fall to his back and settle the baby on his chest, raises his arm so Rory can cuddle into his side. Elinor's already found a comfy spot on top of Jess, cheek pressed against where his heartbeat thumps and Rory rests her cheek right next to her daughter, smiles at the way Elinor's cheeks tug into a lazy grin when their foreheads settle against each other. 

Rory falls asleep again to the feeling of Jess's fingers running across her scalp dramatically, and at the soft gusts of Elinor's even breathes against her cheek.

The last time they were in Stars Hollow, Rory was seven months along in her pregnancy and finding it a nightmare to stay on her feet for more than ten minutes. It's not that they've avoided Stars Hollow since Elinor was born, it's just that they avoided traveling since Elinor was born - so, really, any kind of trip that takes more than forty minutes. Lorelai, Luke, and even Sookie and Jackson had made the trip up to see them at the hospital when Rory was in labor and had taken enough pictures of the baby and new parents to use as wallpaper on every available service in Stars Hollow, so they don't feel super guilty about staying in Philly for as long as they have, but it's about time they make the trip. 

Rory's excited to see her grandmother, who'd scared them all when she fell ill for a few months and couldn't come visit the baby but is back on her feet now, and also Lane who's been too scared to wrangle the twins to Philly for the day. They'd not taken that personally, considering they're on the edge of their seats just buckling Elinor into her car seat now and she's as quiet of a baby as they come - plus, Paris has stopped by often enough to might as well just move in and has sent Lane hourly updates and pictures of Elinor whenever she can. But it's the first time they'll get to see the baby in person and Jess has already had to convince Rory that the two hadn't forgotten how to hold a baby in the time they've not seen them.

And, of course, Liz still has yet to meet her granddaughter, so that's another name on the long list of people who Jess will have to physically wrestle his daughter away from. 

Elinor spends the entire drive sleeping and only wakes up when Jess scoops her out her car seat when they park outside Lorelai's. Rory's busy hugging her mother at the front door, and Jess takes a moment shielded behind the car to watch his daughter try and stay awake. She looks so much like Rory when she's calm like this, startlingly blue eyes trying desperately to blink away the sleep, chin curving the same way as Rory's. He knows Rory thinks Elinor has his smile, but he thinks it's just the way that one side of her mouth curves up before the other just like he does. He'd been concerned that he'd passed down the same dead nerves he has, but Paris had ensured that it's probably just a trait she'd noticed from Jess and picked up. 

"I'd get some sleep if I were you," Jess mumbles against Elinor's forehead, her skin warm and still baby soft, "You're the talk of the town right now, Superstar, everyone's going to want you awake for a while."

Luke joins him behind the car just as Elinor wrangles a hand out of the blanket Rory had draped over her, and Jess can't help but smile widely when her tiny hand touches his cheek. She's always been a big fan of contact, especially since all Rory and Jess seem to want to do since she was born was cuddle her, but she's recently started actively searching for it now as well and Jess's heart always clenches whenever she reaches out for him with grabbing fists.

"You both look exhausted." Luke helpfully comments, claps a hand to Jess's shoulder, and drops a kiss to Elinor's forehead. 

"Been a long visit."

"You got here forty seconds ago."

"We saw Kirk with rollerblades a few minutes ago and that never ends well."

Lorelai steals Elinor from him with a half-hearted wave in Jess's direction, and she disappears into Babette's within seconds, Luke behind her before Lorelai and Babette start talking about a little Lorelai and Luke running around. Rory curls into his arms and Jess huffs out a sigh into her hair. It's the first time in five months that someone else has had the baby and not been in the same room as them, and if it were anyone else but Luke and Lorelai they'd both be freaking out. For now, they both take a simultaneous heaving breath they've been holding in for so long. 

"I love you," Rory whispers into his neck, and it's a little pathetic that those words still make Jess want to shiver after all these years. 

"I love you more," He mumbles into the top of her head, presses a kiss there to seal it, "We better go save our daughter."

TJ had insisted that Jess helps him get the boxes of Doula's old baby clothes from the attic, so Rory's left alone with Doula and Liz in the living room. Liz has been cradling Elinor for the past half hour without taking her eyes from the baby, and Doula's practically hanging over the armrest to get a better look at her niece. Ever her mother's daughter, Elinor's a sickler for a routine and hasn't let the change in location interrupt her nap time (which, honestly, sounds more like Jess than Rory but Jess refuses to admit he still takes naps), and Liz seems only a little disheartened that her granddaughter's been in her house for forty minutes and hasn't opened her eyes yet.

"You know," Liz says suddenly, and Rory tears her eyes away from where Elinor's hand is curled around her blanket, "I didn't think he'd ever have one. I was worried after you two told me, that he'd be like his dad but..." She trails off, and Rory doesn't know if it's her place to get angry at Liz or not for even entertaining that idea let alone say it out loud. 

Jess reappears just then and interrupts Rory's train of thought. He sets a box down in front of Rory and has barely sat down beside her when Elinor suddenly starts crying. Rory knows Liz is more than capable of quietening a baby, but Jess is on dad-mode and he's taking Elinor into his arms before Rory can even blink. 

"Hey, shh Eli, it's okay," His voice softens so much when he talks to, or about, Elinor, and the way he rocks her warms Rory right through. It doesn't take much for Elinor to stop crying once she recognizes Jess's voice, and when Jess sits back down beside Rory she can't help but reach out to let her daughter wrap her tiny little fist around her pinky finger. Jess doesn't look ready to give up his daughter again just yet, so Liz takes it upon herself to lift things out of the box and show Rory. 

Doula hangs over Jess's shoulder to watch the baby again, and she looks so much like Jess that for a moment Rory has to bite her tongue. She can see this exact scene play out in a few years if they were ever to have another kid, especially when Jess rearranges Doula to sit on his lap and settle Elinor in his sister's arms. Liz catches her eye and gives her a smile that makes Rory forget all about her previous comment.

So what if Liz never thought her son would stick around or have a kid, to begin with? Rory knows the man sat beside her now, and he's completely different from the boy Liz is thinking about.

His relationship with Rory's grandmother had started off stilted because of that black eye, but over the years they'd both made an effort to build an understanding of each other. Jess is also pretty sure that driving down to Hartford to ask for her blessing to propose to Rory also earned him some brownie points (Luke and Lorelai had teased him about it, but he also knows it earned a little bit more trust from Lorelai too).

Rory's holding Elinor when they're escorted into Emily's house, and the way Emily holds herself back from whisking the child away makes Jess chuckle a little. Rory eventually hands her over and falls into step beside Jess as they follow Emily into the sitting room. 

"Who would have thought Emily would be the one to ask permission to hold her, huh?" She jokes before she quickly excuses herself to go to the bathroom. 

Elinor doesn't make too much of a fuss with Emily, and actually seems to enjoy the baby noises Emily's making at her, but she does keep searching the room for Jess until he sits beside them and strokes the sole of her foot.

"She looks like Rory," Emily comments, and Jess smiles down at his daughter. 

"I keep telling her that, but she seems to think she looks like me." To prove his point, Elinor screeches out a laugh with a lopsided smile on her face, perfectly executing Jess's own laugh.

"Rory tells me you won't let her do the night stuff," Emily looks a little disgruntled when Elinor reaches her arms out towards Jess, but he catches that little smile on her face when she passes him his daughter. 

"She gave birth," Jess shrugs and sits Elinor upright on his knee, bounces her up and down just to hear her giggle, "Least I can do is change a few diapers at night."

There's a moment of silence where Jess thinks back to what he'd overheard Liz say to Rory just a few hours ago, and he can't help but turn to Emily now and meet her eye. "I'm not- Did you ever think I was going to be a Christopher? Or like Jimmy?"

Emily had heard all about Jess's dad, especially when Rory's pregnancy became public knowledge and Emily spent more time with them in Stars Hollow, and Jess would be lying if he said that wasn't a huge cause of insecurity during the entire pregnancy, and even now. He remembers sitting on Jimmy's porch in California, telling him that if Rory were to be pregnant that night he would be there, that Jess wouldn't be like him and walk away when he's needed most. 

He would also be lying if he said the idea of walking away hadn't crossed his mind;

*

They'd argued a lot when Rory was pregnant, more so closer to Elinor's due date, about stupid stuff that stopped mattering the second they heard their daughter cry in the delivery room. It was mostly about the arrangement of the nursery, on who left that mug in the sink, why the door to the closet should be open or closed, but that night it was about whether or not they should tell Jimmy about Elinor. Rory was due in three days, and they still hadn't told Jimmy that he has a granddaughter on the way. Jess was against it, and Rory was trying to get him to see that he had already told Liz, so why shouldn't Jimmy get to know too.

It was late when Jess stormed out of their bedroom, but he'd only gone as far as the porch. It was the first and only cigarette he'd smoked since his time in California, and he'd only smoked it because he needed something to do with his hands before they grabbed his car keys. He wouldn't have driven far, he knows. He knew he would have driven around the block a few times and then come back to talk to Rory about why he doesn't want Jimmy to be apart of his kid's life, but there was a tiny voice in the back of his head that was still seventeen years old and screaming at him to take the easy option and run. 

Jimmy had done it, ended up with a pretty decent life, why shouldn't Jess continue the pattern?

Jess hadn't wanted to. He'd promised Rory, promised himself, that the easy option of running away had stopped being an option that night in Rory's dorm at Yale. He'd been so stupidly happy when Rory told him she was pregnant, and just because they argue about stupid things now doesn't mean he can revert back to his coping mechanisms from eight years ago. 

He's glad he didn't go for a drive when Rory slips a blanket over his shoulders and sits beside him. He slings an arm over her shoulders, gathers her and her protruding baby bump under the blanket too, and stubs out the remaining half of his cigarette. They've stopped tasting good since he was seventeen anyway, and he wouldn't have finished it. 

"If I tell him," He says slowly, tries to keep his voice even so it doesn't let on how vulnerable he feels, "It means I won't be able to bring myself to stop him from being in our kid's life. I want this kid to have all the family they can because I didn't and it sucked, but it's hard enough seeing Liz play the Mom role I didn't get... If I have them both in my kid's life, I have to see both of them parent the kids they had after me. I have to see them be the parents to these other kids that I wanted them to be for me. It's not about our baby, Ror. It's about me, and it's stupid and selfish and-"

"It's not stupid or selfish," Rory interrupts him, cradles his cheek in her hand to make him look at her, "I won't pretend to understand how this feels because I don't know but... I'm sorry. For pushing you and the subject. If you don't want to tell him, that's okay. If you want to tell him when this kid's in High School, then okay. Telling Jimmy is down to you and I'll support whatever you come out with."

*

Emily studies him with that look that he has yet to decipher before she sighs and heads to pour herself a drink. He shakes his head at the silent invitation for one, carries on bouncing Elinor on his leg but settles back into the couch. 

"There was a worry that you would find it too much," Emily finally says, stood behind the armchair, "But I never thought you'd leave."

It's surprising, that of all people Emily Gilmore would be the one to have some faith in him, but she carries on speaking before he can open his mouth, "I was worried you would break down with all the pressure, but I was also worried that Rory would too. A baby is a big deal, and you two had such different upbringings. I worried that wouldn't translate well, but I never once worried that you two couldn't handle it. You two are excellent parents, Jess, and you're nothing like your father or Christopher."

"Hey," She finds him in his office, reading over something on his laptop with a pen pressed to his temple. 

He doesn't look at her, but holds a hand up in her direction and pulls her onto his lap when she's close enough. Rory settles against him, closes her eyes as she buries her nose into his hair and takes a deep breath. 

"The baby asleep?" His voice is tired, a little husky. 

"Mhm," Rory nods, "I might have accidentally fallen asleep in her room for half an hour."

She feels the vibrations in his chest when he chuckles and hears the click of his laptop shutting. Rory doesn't move until he finishes writing something down and places both of his hands on her hips - once he does she slings one leg over his lap and settles with their hips together, leans back enough to look him in the eye.

"What are you working on?"

"New book," Jess mumbles, closes his eyes and tilts his head back into her hand when she starts scratching at his scalp, "It's not going well."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Mhm," He hums, uses his hands to direct her hips into a motion they're both very familiar with, "You're wearing too many clothes."

"So are you," She removes her hands from his hair to tug at the drawstrings of his hoodie. The smirk on his face is one she hasn't seen in a while but remembers so vividly from their teenage years. 

Jess lifts her effortlessly and stands between her legs when he gets her sat on his desk. Later, when they're redressing themselves, he starts laughing when Elinor starts crying through the baby monitor.

"Her timing's getting better."

"I know it hurts Eli, but so do my ears and I really need you to stop being so loud." Jess manages to shove the teething ring in Elinor's mouth mid-wail and the screaming instantly stops as Elinor starts sucking the icey condensation off the ring. Jess sighs in relief and closes the freezer. 

Elinor started teething one week before Rory and Jess's wedding day, and if Rory thought they were already stressed about making sure their wedding went off without a hitch, they had another thing coming. They had had such a quiet baby they should have known she was bottling it all up for a reason, and it all came screeching out the morning of the wedding. 

Jess got stuck on baby duty, considering all he had to do was put on a tux and Rory had been shoved into a whole weekend of prep for today, but Lorelai had wrangled Luke into helping him - Rory had made a sex joke about it, laughed as she shut the door behind her when Jess looked horrified; her relationship with her mother might be good enough to talk about their sex lives together (which Jess only knows they do because Lorelai keeps over-exaggerating winks at him now), but that doesn't mean he has to then hear about his Uncle's sex life in return. He's totally freaking out, both because of the wedding and because he's just spent a whole weekend alone with his daughter without Rory there with him and he's pretty sure he'll be so happy to see Rory that he'll football toss their daughter down the aisle so he can get a break from the crying. 

"Oh thank god," Luke grunts, head tilted back into the couch when Jess comes back to the living room cradling a now quiet Elinor in one arm, "Think she'll start back up again during the ceremony?"

"Most definitely," Jess plonks his daughter down in Luke's lap and escapes to the other side of the room for the solitary armchair, "But we've armed Sookie, Babette and Miss Patty with teething rings so I don't care who she ends up with it, but she's their responsibility until tomorrow morning."

That last part is a total lie and he knows it. In Elinor's entire nine months on earth, the longest Jess has ever spent away from her was only twelve hours for a meeting in Texas, which means that the two days that Rory's been away from them both this weekend has been the longest Elinor's gone without both of her parents right there and the longest that Jess has had to go without Rory falling asleep beside him since they got engaged. 

He'll have to pass Elinor off to one of the three-woman army members Lorelai had put together on babysitting duty before the ceremony begins, but he'll also know that at the first chance they get he and Rory will be racing back towards her before they leave for their week-long honeymoon and leave Elinor with Lorelai and Luke. Just thinking about all that time away from her makes Jess want to reach across the room and swipe his daughter back up, but Luke seems to have her in a comfortable spot and she looks ready to fall asleep. 

"Nervous?"

Jess is shaking his head before Luke even finishes, "Not in the slightest," He meets his Uncle's eyes and for a split second remembers that time, on the bridge, when Luke had said that Jess can get away with a lot from him, but hurting Rory won't ever be on that list. He remembers a few weeks after that, on the same spot on that same bridge after the accident, where all Luke had to say was I know and offered a ride to wherever he wanted to go. He'd hurt Rory, and he'd spent years thinking Luke had let him get away with it, but it hits him now, nine and a half years later, that he'd never gotten away with it all, but the punishment had come from the town and not Luke.

"She's always been it," Jess shrugs and it feels so right saying it out loud to someone other than himself, "She's always been the only contender."

"It's official now, though."

"I don't need a wedding," Jess smiles when Elinor startles awake and searches for him. She wiggles out of Luke's grip and uses the table to take hesitant, unmeasured steps towards Jess when she spots him, laughs for the first time since she'd woken up five hours ago when Jess swings her up above his head once and settles her on his lap, "I didn't even need Eli to tell me it was official."

"How did you know? That she was the one?"

He can't look at Luke when he answers, has to look down at Eli because she looks so much like Rory it's comforting, "She listened. She came to New York and stuck around after everything that came with it. She chose me."

It's been a long weekend, but all the primping and hours in that salon chair are so worth it when she's halfway down the aisle and she sees Jess wipe away a tear. Her mom's walking her down the aisle, because she hadn't even invited Christopher (or, rather, she'd told him about the baby and he'd freaked out on them and ultimately made the bed he now has to sleep in), and because Luke's stood beside Jess as his best man - Matthew and Chris had sulked when they found out they weren't even in the running for it, but are stood happily on Luke's other side as Jess's groomsmen.

Her mom's crying too, which was expected, but Rory can tease her later. Lane takes her bouquet when she reaches Jess, steps back in place beside Paris as Rory's bridesmaids, and Rory reaches up to wipe at Jess's cheek with a slight giggle only Jess can hear. 

He rolls his eyes playfully at her, swipes a quick kiss to her forehead before Kirk can look up from his notes and reprimand him for it. Jess had suggested they should get a proper officiant, but then Kirk had yelled out his credentials through the closed door for an hour before Jess had given in and signed the papers. Jess blames it on the fact that Elinor was sleeping and he'd rather Kirk announce them married than wake up his daughter, but Rory really knows it's because Jess had been too distracted by Kirk's insistent yelling to focus on getting her bra off as quickly as he would have liked. 

The wedding's quick and simple and feels just perfect when Jess steps forward before Kirk can finish his sentence and pull Rory into a bruising first kiss as husband and wife. Rory understands, now, why her mother was so happy on her wedding day; because kissing your husband is so much better than kissing your boyfriend, and Jess seems to know it too when he nudges their foreheads together and smirks as everyone around them cheers.

They get dragged apart at the reception; Rory towards the women of the town who want to see the wedding ring and how it differs from the engagement ring, and who want to the proposal story again; and Jess towards the bar where Matthew and Chris have beers waiting with questions about which one Taylor is and how they can mess with him whilst they're in town. 

When Rory finally gets a moment to breathe, she spots a very familiar figure standing at the bridge. 

"How did you manage to slip away from Taylor so easily?"

"Years of practice, isn't that right Eli?"

Rory's heart clenches at the sight of her daughter and she bundles her up in a hug as soon as she's within arms reach. It's been such a long weekend without her - the regular photo updates from Jess have helped, and the video from Luke last night of Elinor sat on the diner counter, Luke's cap sat backward on her head and Jess reading The Fountainhead to her over her head had made Rory weep into her mother's shoulder.

"The Fountainhead?" Rory asks now, peers at her husband over their daughter's head. He's watching them silently, hands in his pockets, and a content little smile on his face.

The water laps gently around them and Rory's reminded of a night as equally quiet as this one, where he'd rested his head in her lap and fallen asleep as she read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There was a moment, in London, where she'd stood with a copy of that book in her hands and a Hemingway in the other. She'd thought Fear and Loathing was Dean, that Hemingway was Jess and that she had a choice to make - except there was no choice, no contenders. Both of them were Jess, even when one of them used to be Dean, and it's electrifying enough to realize that now that she has to reach out for him, make sure they're really twenty-six, a kid in between them that's both of their creation, wedding bands on their fingers and a lifetime behind and ahead of them. 

"One day she'll have to read my book," Jess says gently, wraps his arm around her waist and brings the other to cup Elinor's elbow and keep her steady as they slowly rock to the quiet hum of the love song playing from their wedding party, "I want her to know just how good her dad is compared to Rand."

Rory purposely steps on his toes and he laughs it off. Rory would be so biased to say that Jess is her favorite writer, but she'd also be saying nothing but the truth, and so she can't argue his point. 

"I want our daughter to understand how much I love her mother," Jess murmurs into her ear a beat later. Rory closes her eyes as he rests their temples together, feels their daughter rest her cheek to Rory's shoulder between them and join in on their embrace, "I want our kid to grow up knowing that this is what love's supposed to look like." Rory knows what he's leaving out of that - I love you so I proposed using your favorite author that I can't stand; I love you so I'll show our daughter the things you love even if I hate them; I love you so I'm showing our daughter that she shouldn't settle for anything without a compromise - and she knows all of this because she's read Elinor more works from Hemingway than she has any children's book out there and because she lets Jess dress her in that god-awful Tool baby tee-shirt that she despises so much, and because she'll sneakingly video when Jess puts a Tool album on and dances around the kitchen with their daughter on his hip. Because when Elinor's first word was 'Dada' Rory cried because Jess had been in his office and missed it, and not because she'd been hoping for it to be 'Mama'.

"I want another one," Rory presses into the lapels of his tux, feels the way Elinor reaches for Jess's tie and clings onto it, "I want a boy this time who'll look like you but prefer me because it's not fair that I did all the work and this one gives you all the praise. I'm raising a traitor and I need someone on my side."

Jess's chest rumbles against hers and he's smiling when he kisses her for the second time as a married couple, "Let's have another one then."

Jack Richard Mariano was born seven minutes past midnight the morning after Jess's birthday. He'd cried when Rory held him and stopped when Jess took over. 

"Traitor," Rory mutters under her breath and Jess just laughs as he presses a kiss to her forehead. There's a nurse jotting down Jack's vitals at the end of the hospital bed, but Jess is too focused on his son and wife to pay her any attention. Elinor's out in the waiting room with Lorelai and Luke - who'd driven them up when Rory's water broke in Lorelai's kitchen, which Jess was glad for because Hartford's baby unit was too crowded and if he was the one that had to drive them to the nearest New York hospital he would have crashed - and Jess will go get her to introduce her to her brother, but for now he's trying to find every small detail of his son's face. 

There are tufts of dark brown hair on top of Jack's head, flattened by the blanket, and when his son opens his eyes to look at him they're a golden brown.

"Okay," Rory says so gently, so happily, Jess has to close his eyes to take it all in, "Maybe I can forgive you then - but only a little."

Two years ago she'd said she wanted another kid, one that looked like Jess but favored her. Jess is about to make a 'half-way-there-Bon-Jovi' joke when suddenly Jack starts whimpering and doesn't stop again until Rory swipes her thumb gently over his chubby reddened cheek. She's quick to scoop him into her arms once again, and she has actual tears in her eyes when Jack quietens down.

"I'm sorry the first thing I said to you was traitor."

Jess laughs and even the nurse stifles a giggle. Rory's cheeks match their son's and when he presses a kiss to one it's warm from the six-hour labor process.

"Are you settled on the name?" The nurse breaks the comfortable silence, clipboard still in hand. 

"Yeah," Jess smiles down at his son, "Jack Richard."

Rory waits until the nurse leaves before she nudges Jess with her elbow, "You know, now we need to tell my grandmother that Elinor's middle name is Emily, right?"

"And tell Lorelai her granddaughter's name isn't Elinor Euphemism? No thanks, I'm proud of that one."

"Jess!"

"My kid, I make the rules with that one," Jess says, thumb stroking the back of Jack's hand above the blanket, "You get this one."

Rory settles her cheek against Jess's shoulder, and Jess rests his against the top of her head, "Deal."

When Jess props a nearly-two-year-old Elinor on his hip an hour later and points out which baby in the hospital's nursery is Jack, Rory presses her forehead into the dip of his back between his shoulder blades. Once he sees that Elinor's found the right baby and doesn't seem to want to take her eyes off of it, he reaches down to his side and entangles his fingers with his wife's, thumb finding her wedding ring.

Seventeen-year-old Jess had spent his birthday sitting on his fire escape wondering if he could get away with fooling around with a girl in order to spend a night away from Liz. Eleven years later, Jess got to spend his twenty-eight birthday with his wife and daughter, and minutes after midnight got to hold his son for the first time too. 

"I love you," He whispers loud enough for Rory to hear, feels her smile against the material of his shirt. 

So he'd run away from her once, worried he'd screwed it all up. Jess was meant to be with Rory, he'd known it from the moment he'd met her when they were seventeen and had no clue what was coming next for them.

Rory rounds to his front and leaves a ghost of a kiss to the corner of his mouth before they turn their attention to what they're daughter's so enthralled with. And, to be fair to Elinor, Jack's pretty damn enthralling. Jess curves an arm around Rory's waist, locks her in place with her back to his chest. Her fingers catch his wrist, her head tilts back to rest against his shoulder, and even Elinor shuffles to rest her cheek to his chest; all of their eyes stilled trained on the baby. 

"I love you more."