A/N: This is the parallel story to The one that got away. I mentioned how I maybe was going to post another story to that and that is what this will be. This will be a Literati story, not a story of missing their chance or moving on :)

Prologue

December 2016

"I don't want to go to a New Year's Eve party," Rory whined to her mother as she looked in the mirror.

"It'll be good for you," Lorelai explained.

"How?" Her daughter turned to face her. "I can't drink. Not many people even know I'm pregnant. It's not like I have a date either and I don't exactly want one considering I'm three months along and what guy would want to get involved with that?"

Lorelai stood up from Rory's bed where she sat as Rory looked through her closet at her clothes then back to her stomach where a bump was beginning to form. "First of all, you don't have to drink and you don't need a date. That's not all New year's is."

Rory stared at her strangely. "Then what is it? And please don't say it's the beginning of a new year. It's a celebration or something close to that because I may throw up and not only because I'm nauseous."

"Because it's a party," she began. "Parties are supposed to be fun because of what you're doing and who you're with. Not about who gets the most drunk or who's making out at the end of the night."

"I know," she sighed and sat on her own bed, where her mother just sat. "It's just - what am I gonna do? Stand around and drink applied juice? Keep hiding this huge secret?"

"You can tell people, you know," Lorelai pointed out.

Rory sighed again. "I know. It's just I'm not quite sure how to tell them."

"Rory, the people here love you," she pointed out. "They won't care. They'll want to support you in any way possible and they'll love you just as they always have."

"And you?"

"What about me?"

"Do you?" She asked questionably.

Lorelai's face softened and she sat beside her daughter. As she brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, she said, "Of course I do."

"But this isn't what you expected for my life?" She wondered. Lorelai said nothing so she continued. "It's okay. It's not what I expected either. Any of this, really."

"It's not that," she replied. "I guess I just hoped when you had a baby, you'd be married. That you wouldn't be alone like I was."

"I'm not alone," she admitted. "I have you."

"Always," she told her and leaned in to hugged her daughter.

….

"Remind me again why I have to go to this, Like," Jess said.

"Because you're here and Lorelai is making me go so I am making you go," he replied.

"I'm over 32 years old," Jess said.

"I'm older than you and I lost this one so I'm bringing you down with me," Luke went on.

"It's your wife," he said.

Luke grinned. "Which makes her your family so you have to go too."

"I can go home, you know," he tried.

"You can but then I'll hold it over your head," he pointed out.

Jess sighed. "I don't know why this town is even having a New Year's party. It's not like any of the fun stuff that happens at one will happen in Stars Hollow of all places."

"Who knows?" Luke said. "The night might surprise you."

He left the apartment and headed downstairs to the diner. Jess looked around at the room he'd been staying in the past week when he came for Christmas. He sat down and sighed again. "Not fucking likely."

….

The party had finally started and Jess was already bored. A Stars Hollow party was never like any other party. The only party he remembered being anything like the outside of Pleasantville was that one in high school. That wasn't a party he liked to think about either so he shook his head to erase the memories out of his thoughts.

Quickly he began to move. Luke and Lorelai wouldn't notice if he hid away at the bridge. On the way there, he bumped into someone. The last someone he expected to see.

"Hey," Rory smiled.

Jess smiled back despite his mood seconds earlier. "Hey."

"Are you leaving?" She wondered.

"Was thinking about it," he looked around to see if his uncle was in sight. "What are you doing here? I thought you had an interview in Boston."

"It didn't work out," she explained. "They wanted someone with more experience."

"I'm sorry," he said and he genuinely was. "Are you still working on the book?"

"Yeah," she half-lied but decided to tell the truth. "I've been a little stuck though. A lot of things going on that I haven't gotten the chance, you know?"

"I do know," he nodded twice.

"Can I come with you?" She asked. "Wherever you were going. I'm not exactly in a festive mood and my mom made me come."

Jess laughed once. "Those two really are a pair, huh?"

Rory seemed confused. "What do you mean?"

"Luke made me come, too," he explained. "I think they forget we're adults now."

"They definitely forget that," she laughed too now. "Although I do think right now, they're forgetting because they're in a newlywed bubble."

"They get a certain pass for that," Jess decided. "But not by much because they shouldn't forget dear old us."

Rory laughed again. "Believe me, I'm not sure they could ever forget us."

"You still wanna come with me?" He asked, bringing the subject back. Rory nodded. "Come on."

He led her out into the backwoods of the high school. The trees parted and the bridge appeared which led to a smile on Rory's face. "I should have known this was where you were headed."

"That obvious, huh?" He smirked.

She shook her head. "Not to everyone else. Maybe to me but also a lot of things have changed, haven't they?"

He nodded a few times. "That they have."

They're both silent for a moment. Rory thought of her own changes in life, especially recent ones. Her hands wanted to rub over her stomach, feel the baby growing inside of her but she resisted the urge.

"Did you ever find your underwear?" Jess laughed, lightening up the atmosphere surrounding them.

Rory laughed too. "I did, finally."

"Good," he smiled. "Of course if you hadn't, I'd still have offered all gentleman like to buy you underwear."

"As all gentleman do, I'm sure," she teased.

"What can I say?" He teased back. "It's one of my changes."

Rory suddenly felt very serious. She sighed and sat down on the bridge. "I'm worried about my changes, Jess."

He sat down beside her. "What do you mean?"

"I still don't have a job," she replied. "It doesn't seem to be looking too good, honestly. I don't know what I'm gonna do when -"

Rory cut herself off before she could say 'the baby is born'. Jess looked at her as he waited for her to continue. She tried to steady her breath before she went on.

"When what?" He asked.

"When I actually get a job," she smiled as best as she could. "I've forgotten what it's like by now. I've just been writing stuff for people and not having a steady job. I don't even have a home. I'm staying here in my old room."

"So work for me," he shrugged.

She turned to him in surprise. "What?"

"Work for me," Jess repeated. "Maybe not exactly for me but we could use some extra help at Truncheon. And you'd get to preview new books and we get special editions in too so really it'd be like getting paid to do stuff you like to do."

She stared at him with her jaw metaphorically open. "What?"

Jess laughed bow. His head looked down as he did so and he almost had to contain himself. He finally turned to face the girl beside him. "Come on. Work for me. What do you have to lose?"

Rory jokingly scoffed. "Beside you?"

"How would you lose me if you come work with me?" He questioned.

"Isn't it obvious?" she retorted. "We used to date so it might be awkward. Plus we'd be spending a lot of time together and you'd be like my boss and what if that affects our relationship? It took us long enough to get to this place. I don't wanna risk that."

He began to disagree but she cut him off. "Rory -"

"Besides," she added. "I have no place to live. What am I gonna do? Commute from Stars Hollow to Philadelphia? That doesn't sound practical."

"Hey," he said and she stopped talking. "First of all, I wouldn't be your boss. I'm a higher position then you start in but you can always move up. Second, spending time together doesn't have to be a bad thing. And third, if you're worried about the commute, you can stay with me, or at Truncheon, you know, either."

"Okay not to sound repetitive but what?" She asked again. "You're asking me to live with you?"

Her tone didn't seem to affect him. "Only until you got on your feet, if you wanted to."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Jess," she shook her head and thought of her unborn child. "I appreciate it, I do. But it just seems like you and me - living together, working together - I don't know how well that would end up."

"It doesn't have to end up bad," he suggested. "It's not like we're pining after each other and besides, it'll be a temporary thing. You can move out once you find a place."

"I didn't even agree to the job," she commented.

"Yet," he pointed out.

"Okay so what if I do?" She wondered. "What if you have a date or we walk in on each other naked or something? What happens then?"

Jess laughed again. He seemed to laugh a lot tonight. "I don't think we're gonna walk in on each other naked but it's great that's what you worry about the most with us living in the same place."

"Okay fine, keep laughing," she crossed her arms but she wanted to laugh too. "What about dating?"

"Do you mean we're gonna date or -" he teased.

Now she did laugh. "No! I mean, come on. Look at you. You probably go on a lot of dates. I don't want to be running into half naked girls in the kitchen the next morning."

Jess couldn't stop laughing. Rory glared at him.

"It's not that funny!" She yelled at him and hit him playfully on the shoulder.

"What?" He tried to stop. "I'm sorry but it's just funny this is your worries."

"It's not that crazy," she commented.

"Yes, it is," he replied. "You're making excuses to not do it."

"Even if I am," she said back. "It doesn't change that I'm right."

"Actually, it does," he corrected. "And besides, it doesn't matter because I don't really date that often. Or have as all these one night stands you seem to think I have."

"No?" He shook his head. "Oh."

"See?" Jess said. "One more reason gone."

Rory was quiet as she thought. Her thoughts immediately, as always now, went to her unborn baby. She couldn't do it, even if she wanted to. She couldn't just move away from her mother when she needed her most. She couldn't take a job that sounded like a dream.

And she definitely couldn't live with Jess even if it was perfect. It wouldn't matter if it was only temporary. She was about three months pregnant. It wouldn't last and she couldn't do that to him. And she couldn't take the offer without telling him everything.

"Give me some time to think about it?" She asked.

"You can have all the time you need," he told her.

Rory smiled at Jess gratefully. She hated that she already knew her answer. She hated that she has to turn it down. But it was the right thing to do. At least that's what she told herself.

…..

"It's almost midnight!" Lorelai shouted happily.

Cheers erupted from the guests as they gathered outside for their own countdown to the new year. Rory now sat alone on a bench but stood up. She didn't particularly feel like watching everyone ring in the new year by kissing their loved ones.

Just as she tried to escape the crowd, she bumped into Jess. "Oh! Sorry."

"It's okay," he told her.

She eyed him curiously. "What's going on? You look like you're running away from something. Oh...it's almost midnight! Who's chasing you?"

"Miss Patty," he glanced around. "I think I lost her but I gotta go before she finds me."

"Come on," Rory reached for his hand and dragged him back towards the diner.

"I didn't even think of this," he commented as Rory found the spare key and opened the door. Once they were inside, she locked it again.

Miss Patty was hidden in the crowd, obviously looking for someone. Probably Jess. "You gotta stay sharp, Mariano. You never know when you'll need a rescue."

He chuckled. "Yeah, that's definitely true. And I'm thankful."

"You better be, mister," she poked a finger into his chest. "I actually like Miss Patty. I shouldn't help her conquests escape."

"Is it really a conquest when one person doesn't want to be one?" He asked.

She made a face. "Probably not but to be on the safe side, let's say yes because when there's a man involved, it's a mission."

Jess sighed heavily but in relief. "So what now? We hide in here?"

"For now," she shrugged. "We can wait out midnight, right?"

"Right," he agreed with an unease in the air.

Outside, everyone started counting down from fifteen. The two of them looked at each other, knowing what this moment meant to most people. There wasn't much time to discuss what should or shouldn't happen. When they started counting down from seven, Jess leaned closer.

Rory noticed. "Jess -"

The clock struck midnight and the people outside cheered. Inside the diner, Jess' lips had just reached Rory's. Their mouths fit together as perfectly as they had so many years ago. The last time they kissed was over ten years ago but yet it felt like no time had passed.

It was over as soon as it began it seemed and Jess pulled away. "Sorry. It's just -"

"New year's," she finished for him with a smile.

"If it was wrong," he said. "Let me know and I'll also backtrack on my offer if I just screwed things up."

"You didn't," she shook her head. "It's just -"

"What?" He asked.

"I'm pregnant," she breathed out. It felt good to tell him even if his next reaction was not something she expected.

He laughed once. "Gee, I figured I was a good kisser but this is bigger than that."

"Jess," she tried again. "Really. I'm pregnant."

"Oh," he was surprised and taken aback. "Who's - when - no. It's none of my business."

Rory took a deep breath. "Do you remember Logan?"

"Blonde dick from Yale," he replied then connected it. "It's his? You two got back together?"

"Not exactly," she sat down. "It was more a fling, not an actual relationship. But now he's gone and I'm having his baby."

"Wow," was all Jess could say.

"Do you hate me?" She wondered.

"Why would I hate you?" He asked.

She pointed to her stomach. "Because of this! Because of Logan and because my mistake created a baby that I can't regret even in the circumstances."

"No," Jess shook his head. "I can't hate you. I don't. And this is just something you have to go through regardless of how you got here. I know you will be an amazing mom, Rory."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Did i just screw up the offer?" Rory questioned.

"No," he smiled. "If anything, now you need it more."

Rory smiled back. "If it's okay then, I want to accept it."

"It's done," he told her.

She leaned forward and gave him a hug. The part of telling him was over at least. She just wished that was the hardest part.

A/N: what do you think? I don't know how long this fic will run for but I am promising it's an endgame fic. No unhappy ending in this one as my last one (I stand by the ending and if anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer the why's).