Chapter Two – The Pregnancy

"What do you want to eat?" they walked up the streets of Stars Hollow, they kept an arms distance between each other as to not help spread rumours. He had twelve more hours until his flight back to London and while Rory insisted that he didn't have to return to Stars Hollow with her after the sonogram, he hadn't wanted to leave her.

"I think I can only muster a saltine cracker" he looked at her sympathetically and made a b-line into Doosey's market. For as long as he had known Rory – she could not, would not turn down a meal. Not even the great Food poisoning epidemic back in Yale when after two hours of throwing up he had gone to cancel dinner reservations and she had tutted and said 'I could eat'. Her arms hug her twisty tummy as Logan marched past her usually food options – stopping at the cracker section – he reached towards a packet, a packet that he placed back as she groaned. After several more attempts he and his new box of crackers headed towards the counter "And an apple. I think I need an apple," she followed as he picked the juiciest apple – her arms glued to her body as though her grandmother had told her to look with her eyes and not with her hands again like she had when she was six. Her and the baby hadn't developed any rules yet, how was she to know whether simply touching a food would send her into a morning sickness attack. "Do you think they know?" Rory asked as they stepped out of the store and continued on their merry way.

"With there x-ray vision and premonitions?"

"We just brought an apple and saltine crackers, Gilmores don't buy apples"

"Is paranoia a side effect of pregnancy?" she jokingly slapped his arm. He couldn't wipe the smile off of his face – while this whole situation wasn't under the best of circumstances – he could remember a time when this was his overarching life goal. To be having a baby with the woman of his dreams. He used to wonder what would have happened if she had of said yes to his proposal all those years back – would they still be together? Would they have moved to London together? Would they have had children? – he never dwelled long and in this current moment he was glad that she didn't say yes because what they had now was far greater than anything he could pine for. "It's amazing" she attempted to follow his gaze "It just seemed like the moment that it's little heartbeat hit my ears, that I could imagine my whole future – it's whole future. I could picture its little face – a mixture of you and me – hopefully more you than me. I could picture the weight in my arms, I could picture names…"

"What about Odette?"

"Well that would certainly be an obscure name choice for our baby" Logan attempted to deflect her anxiety with humour – it wasn't working

"Does she know?" his silence was answer enough "Where does she think you are Logan?"

"I told her that I had a meeting" Rory tutted and stormed off – in an attempt not to make a scene or draw attention to themselves in the middle of stars hollow, her version of storming off included walking a few paces ahead of him "Rory" he sped up to stand in front of her

"Logan how is this going to work? I can't ship this baby to London every second weekend. Your fiancé doesn't even know. Are you just going to pretend you are borrowing a neighbours kid that looks remarkably like you?"

"Look she is in France for a girls week, contrary to popular belief, I do care about her – she isn't…" he thought carefully about his next words "she was a family obligation, but she still deserves to be told about this all face to face" Rory nodded, before they continued forward together

X-x-x-x-x-x

"So how are things? Doyle? The kids?" Rory brought the cup of decaf coffee to her lips – she hated it, absolutely hated it but had made a promise to Luke that she was going to give it a go – he argued that there was already enough hyper activity that could be tied to coffee in this family and that it didn't need to be passed down to the next generation

"Doyle is Doyle" Rory could smell the strong coffee that Paris swirled back and forth in her cup "We lost another nanny to those stairs"

"Couldn't take it anymore?"

"No we literally lost one, she died on her way up to the fifth level" Rory gasped "We resuscitated her, She's fine. But was gone for a good four minutes"

"Please just move" Paris shrugged her shoulders "It's so good to see you.." she moved the conversation

"How far along are you?" Rory looked at her in wonder, she was sure that out of all of the people that she had told – none of them would have had the opportunity to speak to Paris "I'm guessing around fifteen weeks"

"How did you know?" were the only words that Rory could process

"Are you kidding? I'm in the uterus business, I was born to know" she took a sip of her coffee "Did Logan inseminate you?"

"I wouldn't put it so clinically" she paused "How did you know?"

"I called you while you were in London once and I could hear a man in the background – knew it wasn't Paul. You have told me about every single conquest over the past ten years, yet you hadn't told me anything about any humping in London. So I started thinking about the people that you knew in London and that left Logan. I did some sniffing around – mainly on Facebook – and I noticed that a photo you posted of a bird on a balcony matched a photo that Logan had posted on his Facebook wall from a garden party." She signalled over to the waiter "You have been wildly underestimating me."

X-x-x-x-x-x

"I cant believe that I have been referring clients to this mess" Paris looked on unimpressed as the doula ran the class "You would think that something sponsored by the hospital…" a swift shoosh was delivered from somewhere around the room, Paris made menacing eyes in an attempt to discover which direction it came from "I'm more experienced than her" she continued, closer to Rory's ear "And that has nothing to do with my years of medical training" she eyed off another couple who looked at her for a second too long "It's more that I've popped two of the life suckers out of this vagina" she pointed down "There is blood, there is guts, there is screaming. Go to the hospital so that someone can catch it because lets face it Bob over there" she indicated to the man who she was convinced had tried to quieten her "Bob would definitely drop it. They wash it and wrap it up nicely and then you just Google the rest morons"

"Remind me not to invite you into the delivery room"

"Your loss" she shrugged her shoulders "I am an asset in the delivery room" Paris spent the next half an hour of the 'preparing for labour and parenthood' class whispering in a heckling manner. Perhaps Rory's judgement was wrong when she invited Paris – the doctor – to attend these classes with her "All of these women will have to have caesareans" Rory grimaced. She wondered if Paris knew that when she whispered that everyone in this room and the room over from this one could hear her. "Their hips are too narrow, except for Gert over there – definitely has child bearing hips that one"

"Don't worry I wont bring her back" Rory told the Doula at the door as the class finished. It was true – Rory needed to find a replacement and she needed to find it soon.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"You okay Champ?" Jess asked barely looking up from the computer screen he was furiously typing away at. After the wedding Jess had decided that he had wanted to be closer with family. His mother had been delighted, the fact that he was going to be able to be closer to his little sister Doula made her beam, Luke intervened as T.J suggested Jess lease the little cottage next door to them or better yet move in with them because there was "no way to be closer with your estranged family than all living under the same roof". The apartment above the diner had been virtually abandoned when Lorelai and Luke had found their way back to each other – if you didn't count the time that they found Kirk squatting in there – Jess had quickly accepted his offer over his step-fathers proposition, moving in that following Monday. He had cited boredom when he asked Rory if she needed help with the Stars Hollow Gazette – he had actually just noticed an increase in her stress tap dancing and an increase of jitteriness every time her phone sounded and figured that he should find a way to alleviate her stress. Since he couldn't physically carry the baby for her or confront Logan about not getting in contact with the mother of his impending baby – cause look at how well that had turned out last time – he knew he could write, and he hoped that by taking a little stress off of her plate that her tap shoes could be put away for the foreseeable future – She had made him a member of the permanent staff. Rory passed him an opened envelope and placed her head on his desk "What is this?" he asked as he carefully peeled the envelope open "Oh shit"

"Read it," she mumbled

"Mitchum and Shira Huntzberger are proud to announce the engagement of Logan Huntzberger and Odette…" Rory moaned, "I think that's enough" he looked at the photo for a moment longer – his gaze sticking with the blonde man who he had met when he still had the mentality of a boy. He had forgotten how attractive he had been – he threw the save the date onto the piles of paper on his desk and reached his hands forward to cover hers "You okay Rory?"

"I'm fine" she lifted herself from the desk and attempted to pull herself together – her eyes were puffy but he felt as though telling her that he knew she was lying and wasn't okay wasn't in the realm of their new found friendship.

"What did your mum say?" he knew from back in those high school days that nothing had really seemed real to Rory until she had informed Lorelai.

"Nothing. I didn't tell her. I know she would be understanding but

She has done this before, she has been in my position – admittedly at a much younger age and with a lot less support at her disposal – she has faced being a single mother and I don't want to toot my own horn but she did a pretty amazing job with what she had. I loved my life growing up but I don't know if I could do it exactly the same – I'm not as strong as her and I'm definitely not as stubborn" he bit his tongue, sure that her current situation didn't need to be sassed. "She already is iffy with Logan – apparently impregnating someone's daughter while engage to someone else doesn't give you sort of mother in-law brownie points"

"I will keep that in mind" her phone beeped and her attention completely darted away from him "Him?" he asked her after she placed her phone back down on the desk, her eyes remained glued to it – a perplexed look remained "Rory?"

"Hmm" she thought for a moment "No not Logan, but I do have to get going"

X-x-x-x-x-x

Rory turned right and pulled into the grand driveway – memories flooding back in as she parked and slowly made her way out of the car and towards the bed and breakfast that had caused this whole beautiful mess. Most of her memories were clouded by night – had the lawns been this manicured the last time she had been here? Had it always been this colour? Did the boys still own the place? "Please don't step on the grass" a voice in a banana lounge hollered as she stepped away from the gravel and towards the path. Her latter question now officially answered

"Colin"

"Come here" he stood up from his position and opened his arms "I am very serious about the grass though, took months to get it perfect" she rested her chin against his shoulders. After a moment alone in an embrace Colin led her into the house

"My goodness, this exquisite creature cannot be pregnant" Finn appeared as he always did – from nowhere – sweeping her up in his long arms

"Just because she isn't currently the size of the house doesn't mean she will not become the size of a house. You all remember my sister" the three boys shuddered as Robert entered the foyer

"So I'm guessing Logan is telling people" she pretended that it didn't bother her, that it was water off a ducks back, but it hurt that he was able to talk about the baby with other people but wasn't able to pick up the phone and call her

"Told us what?" Finn feigned shock "That you were pregnant? Twas mothers intuition that informed me of your uteruses current state"

"How are you doing?" Colin asked as they whisked her into the den – the place where she was supposed to say her final goodbye to these boys, to the boy whose child she was now going to raise – potentially alone. She shrugged her shoulders – there was something about being in these boys presence – they were overbearing, annoying, self-entitled and spent money like it was going out of fashion on ridiculously frivolous things (including the bed and breakfast they were currently residing in) – but to be loved by them, oh to be loved by them, you felt as though you had constant protection – they were loyal, they were fierce and they would drop everything in a heartbeat to come and make her smile.

"We thought you might be hungry from your trip up, so we have prepared you a smorgus board of sorts. We have sugar, we have savoury and Logan told us that for awhile you were so sick that you could only eat saltine crackers"

"I must say I was quite disappointed in you Rory Gilmore"

"We got you a selection of flavours – Plain Saltines are the worst thing in existence"

"Did he call you?" Rory asked, attempting to control her eyes and the tears that threatened to spill out of them at any moment

"A few times" she would laugh at how they spoke as though they were all part of a long running marriage but she could no longer hold the tears in. All three boys clearly did not know what to do with a crying woman – nor did Rory expect them too, for years she had heard exact stories of how they had avoided situations just like this one – but because they loved her they all looked on at her desperately trying to determine the next course of action – one holding a box of tissues, one a box of saltine crackers and one offering loudly and adamantly that he would like to perform his 'passion of the Christ' for her – a request that made her sob harder.

X-x-x-x-x-x

"So here is what I know" Colin said as he passed her a cup of tea and sat down next to her – sandwiching her between himself and Finn "Logan had no idea those save the dates were going out, it was Shira's doing – she claimed that they had already been at the post office when Logan told her about the baby but Logan is still fairly suspicious about it all."

"So he didn't mean to send the save the dates but the wedding is still…"

"Off. He told Odette the week after your first sonogram and she took it like a champ. Turns out she had been sleeping with an ex-boyfriend from back in France at the same time. Their families didn't take it so well. Lucky Grandfather Huntzberger wasn't around to see this, because he would've died – A Gilmore breeding with a Huntzberger, how preposterous" she smiled "Shira is devastated, mainly because she is the talk of the DAR'

"So much stress in her life that one, she would have to be on at least twenty stress cigarettes a day. Honor is attempting to keep the peace but it's all a little feisty over there right now."

"And Mitchum is all about trying to give the kid focus again – working him into the ground, trying to get him to commit to business plans that will leave him in Timbuktu, anywhere expect for New Haven"

"Why isn't he the one telling me all of this? I haven't heard so much as a peep since I sent him off after the first sonogram – I've had two more since then and I've sent him a photo each time but nothing, nada, zip. What am I supposed to think?"

X-x-x-x-x-x

By some kind of karmic torture – and bad planning on the boys part – Rory ended up in the bedroom that she and Logan had shared the night that they conceived. She tried to fight back the memories of the evening by folding herself into the mountain of duvet on the supremely comfortable bed. For the past few weeks she had been waking up in a cold sweat – nightmares of faceless babies, of abroad weddings, of life in a trailer park – once she was able to calm her body and her heart rate returned to normal she could talk herself out of these dreams – her baby would have a face, she had a roof over her head and she would survive if Logan got married – but there was something in her that remained unsettled and refused to let her sleep. She had run her dreams past her mother – sans Logan – who had chocked it up to uncertainty. Lorelai had attempted to convince her that this would come in time, Rory had agreed but was not feeling the same confidence that everything would work out the way it had back for her mother when she was a baby. Her phone vibrated against the nightstand, for the first time since he had gone back to London she didn't jump for her phone – it was as though for the first time in months she knew it was him and she was pissed off. If she hadn't been missing him, craving his voice, had a fuck-tonne of curiosity of how he would explain his disappearing act to her – she may have ignored the call and attempted to sleep. She answered the call but remained silent. Just being on the other end of the phone with him calmed her somehow. "Ace?" she did not answer "Ace, are you there?" she was standing her ground, her anger spurred her on "I'm so sorry Rory, I didn't think mum was sending a save the date card to you or I would've called much sooner" he was met with a continued silence, "Colin told me that they had filled you in" she realised that she owed this phone call to three boys who she was currently sharing a roof with – clearly her tears had freaked them out

"Would you have called if they didn't?" now the floodgates had opened. She didn't give him a chance to answer "When I told you about the baby you said that it was your kid and that you would sort it out – Is your version of sorting it out pretending to be supportive and then washing your hands of me? Of us?"

"No" he sounded hurt

"Then explain it all to me Logan"

"Things are super complicated right now Ace. I'm torn, I'm walking on eggshells here – mum is constantly crying which makes dad push me further and further into work and all I want to do is tell them to shove the job – but I want to be able to provide a stable future for this baby and for now all I can think of to secure that is putting my tail between my legs and taking responsibility for my shortcomings" Rory remained silent "Ace, you are not a shortcoming. This baby is not a shortcoming. I am scared shitless but I am also as happy as I could ever be. I just didn't do it right in their eyes, It came out of the blue for them" she wanted to add that it had also come out of the blue for her too " I completely fucked social etiquette and they are desperately trying to salvage face – a baby with ones mistress is supposed to be hidden" he joked "I'm going to sort this out, and I'm going to be there for you and this baby. But you just have to give me time" she hoped that the next six months was enough time because all of a sudden she wasn't completely sure that she could do all this on her own.

"I get that Logan, god I have been with you through a whole bunch of Huntzberger obligation – I can work with that but complete radio silence will never work with me. Not now, not when this baby is born"

"I wanted to come to you with a plan, with a direct course of action, with some idea of how this whole thing was going to work out and I don't have that yet."

"What is it with men thinking that they need to solve things on their own?"

"Cant live with them, Cant live without them" he hoped that the latter was true

"I don't need you to have a plan, I don't need you to have all of your shit together. I just need to know where your head is at. I need to know that we are on the same page. I need to know that it isn't just me…" she thought for a moment "I need to know that I'm not having this baby on my own. And right now you aren't showing me that"

"Rory…" there had always been something about the way that he had said her name, she was always Ace when he was trying to impress her, joke around or express his admiration but he reserved her actual name for when they were both most vulnerable. The way it came off of his lips – a desperation, a hunger to do right by her or to make her listen. It took her back to the very start of their relationship – her grandparents wedding renewal – she had been blabbering and trying to backpedal after spilling her feelings all over him and the sharpness of her name had drawn her out of it. It took her back to the night he snuck into her dorm room and the moment that he checked in to make sure everything wasn't going too fast – she had melted then and she found it hard not to melt now.

"I'm tired Logan"

"Rory"

"Show Me," she said before leaving him to the sounds of the dial tone

X-x-x-x-x-x

"What is she doing here?" Lane asked as she sat down at Rory's diner table

"Doyle has the kids for the weekend" Lane needed no further information, she was still with the father of her children and even though she begged for some time on her own away from farts and sticky hands whenever Zach finally took the hint or her mother took the kids for the weekend she would hate the silence and feel so lonely.

"Do they serve Saltine crackers here?" Paris sat down in between the two women

"I'm actually feeling pretty good now, I think that I am out of the nauseous stage now. Hopefully its smooth sailing from here" Lane and Paris looked from Rory then back to each other before laughing

"She has no clue"

"You get through the wall of nauseous and then you are hit with mood swings, the hairy face, the weird shooting pain, near suffocation from the milk bags here" Paris grabbed her breasts and pushed them upwards " Incredible hunger followed by a fatigue that leaves you asleep in the in-n-out parking lot. Oh and the horny stage"

"Oh yeah, the horny stage" Lane fondly remembered "Are you at the horny stage yet?"

"The horny stage?" she tried to ask discretely as possible – it really wasn't the best conversation to have in your stepfathers diner surrounded by people who had watched you grow up – including the town priest.

"When I was pregnant with the twins it got to the point where Zach just had to look at me for ten seconds and I wanted to jump his bones. And we both know how opposed to sex I was at that point"

"I was so horny during my first pregnancy that we thought we had broken Doyle's p…"

"No" she didn't need to hear about anything that included an undressed Doyle "I clearly have not hit the horny stage, and in all honesty I don't think it would really matter if I did, in case we don't remember I don't really have any romantic prospects right now"

"It's not about romance, its about getting your rocks off" Rory shrugged her shoulders as if to say that the purpose didn't all of a sudden make the list of potential suitors expand. Lane pondered, "Oh I know, we can play One, Two, Three he's yours"

"What?" Paris was clearly unfamiliar with the game

"It's a game that Lorelai and Rory pioneered back in high school. You have the choice of the next three guys that walk past. You can pick number one and potentially miss out on something better out there, you could pick the next guy or you wait and be automatically stuck with the third guy"

"I love it" Paris wiped the crumbs from her mouth and perched herself higher on the seat "One" she pointed to the man across the road

"No! That's Al from Al's Pancake World" Rory gagged "We cant play this in Stars Hollow, especially for your purposes you two horn bags are talking about"

"Agreed" Lane took a sip

"Finally some sense"

"She needs Tinder" Paris pulled her phone out

"No one is going to swipe right when they see this stomach" she rested her hand on her now showing baby bump

"That's why you just post photos of your face, they wont know you have a baby bump until you stand up at the end of the meal – if they are clever – and by then the Rory Gilmore charm has worked its wonders and your boning in the back of his Prius"

"I never thought I would hear Paris Gellar say 'Boning"

"Even after C-SPAN?"

"Maybe there needs to be a pregnancy tinder – prinder?" Paris said ignoring their previous conversation

"I think I walked into this at the wrong time?" Jess both pulled a chair out to sit on and pushed it back in

"They were just…"

"Don't need to explain it to me" Jess said with a smile as he backed away with the table "You girls have fun now. And I'll see you later for that pre-natal class?" Rory nodded

"You know technically he was number two"

"No" she became physically uncomfortable in her chair "He wasn't"

"Why not?"

"Lane, you hated him, why are you advocating for him now?"

"I hated the way he treated you in high school, it's not high school anymore"

"I can't go back there. I made the decision years ago – we kissed and it wasn't the same, I picked Logan and I think I knew in that moment that Jess and I weren't supposed to be more than just friends – or technically step cousins. Ew."

"All that aside, I've seen the way that he has been looking at you since he has been back here – pregnancy and all – and I don't think he would be opposed to lighting that old candle back up again."

X-x-x-x-x-x

"I majored in journalism, I shouldn't be finding it this hard to do this" she said exasperated as she threw herself back onto the bed

"I think you are thinking about it too much" she heard him yawn, while she was usually pretty good when it came to respecting time zones, she woke up in a flap and desperately needed to talk to him. She suspected that he hadn't told her to piss off because A. she was the mother of his child and B. He was in the process of trying to prove to her that he was in this for the long haul. Already he had confirmed all of her appointments and was planning on flying over for as many as he could, he had sent her a fruit basket because he read in some article that oranges made babies smarter and was constantly sending her baby name ideas. All of this was borderline, but he was making an effort and that was certainly better than the radio silence he had been giving to her since he flew back to London the first time.

"Are we sure Facebook is the right medium?"

"The criteria was that it needed to spread this information to the masses, Facebook won because you figured you had a more stringent 'friending' policy and the people on Facebook might be more interested than the ones that follow you for your 'funny and relevant' tweets"

"I don't appreciate the air quotes" she feigned hurt feelings

"I don't want to be generic but I don't want to overdo it either"

"Rory"

"What about 'There's about to be GilMORE' huh?" she typed as she enthusiastically made her suggestion, Logan's laughter indicated that he did not think that was a good idea "How did you tell your family?"

"Hey Mum. Dad. Do you remember Rory Gilmore? 'Yes Son, how is she doing?' 'She was looking well in London' 'You saw her in London' I of course ignore both of them and say she is doing really well, but interesting bit of news she's pregnant. 'oh wow, I didn't hear that she was in a relationship' my mother says because she thinks that she knows everything in the whole entire world and I say Other than a Wookiee she isn't.."

"Please tell me you didn't actually say that"

"I said that it was actually my baby and that I hoped they would support me in raising it and if they didn't want to then that was up to them."

"That's cute" she hoped that he couldn't see her cheeks blush on Skype, if he mentioned it she was sure that she could blame it on some kind of pregnancy symptom there were enough of them "Okay how about this, we just don't say anything until the baby pops out and then we surprise everyone"

"The lengths you will go to avoid things still astound me Ace" she thought for a moment and furiously typed, read back over it and nodded

"And we are sure that we have told everyone that we needed too?"

"Post it Gilmore" she clicked the post button and returned to the Skype screen, they began talking about her disastrous birthing class stories when her phone went off on the bedside table next to her.

"I think we need to talk"

"Oh Shit!"

To be continued