Chapter Thirteen: Written On A Concert Leaflet

Rory stared at the pages in front of her with a quickly developing panic in her chest, her heart beat rapidly as she scanned the lines for the tenth time that night, Anna's soft cries from her bedroom snapped her from her trance like state; walking into the bedroom still holding the pages in one hand she picked up her daughter and held her closely to her body, bouncing slightly to calm Anna down she read the pages through again hoping that this time she'd see something, anything that she could mark up to be revised.

After four months which to Rory seemed as though they had flown by and to Lorelai and most of the people in the down the time had dragged on for longer than they'd thought possibly, exactly ten weeks after Jess had promised he'd stay until the book was done, Rory sat with the pages of his book going through them hoping to find something that needed fixing. No matter how hard she looked though there was nothing wrong with the novel. Which wasn't surprising since in reality it had been at least two weeks since it was good enough to be printed and she'd forced herself to come up with the smallest imperfections in grammar or structure so they could keep working together, all the while plans for reopening Truncheon were well underway and she knew it was only a matter of time before Jess would have to leave.

So with a heavy heart she cast the papers aside knowing that there was nothing else she could find to change, she held Anna closely and let the tears she'd been holding back roll down her cheeks.

'It's going to be ok baby girl, we'll be fine just the two of us.' Rory said kissing Anna's head as she stopped crying. Rory quickly wiped away her own tears as she heard her mother arrive home. Checking her appearance in the mirror quickly to make sure that no visible signs of her sadness were noticeable she went out into the kitchen carrying Anna, to join her mother and step-father for dinner, which was being laid out on the table by Luke. Rory put Anna down in her high chair and walked over to the fridge to get out Anna's dinner and a soda for herself.

'Rory me and Luke were wondering if you wanted to watch a movie with us tonight, we rented both versions of Charlie and the Chocolate factory so we can compare them, and because despite me knowing him for years and dating then marrying him, Luke has never seen the original!' Lorelai said tucking into her dinner. Rory smiled at her mothers shock that Luke had never seen the movie, feeding Anna whilst trying to compose her answer without betraying her feelings.

'However tempting that sounds I've got something I need to do tonight, me and Anna are going over to see Jess.' Rory said then turned to Anna, speaking to her to deflect any reaction from Lorelai and Luke who were both looking at her. 'Aren't we baby, we're going to tell Jess that his books all finished.' She said in a forced happy voice as she continued to feed Anna.

'It's finished?' Lorelai asked. Looking between her daughter and her husband, who was watching his step-daughter with a worried look on his face, concerned that Rory wouldn't take this very well.

'Yeah, I finished going through the latest draft tonight and it's perfect.' Rory said keeping her voice level, 'So I thought we'd go over and give him the good news.'

'And it is good news?' Luke asked carefully.

'Of course it is.' Rory said shrugging her shoulders and eating her own food, while keeping a close eye on Anna who was banging her plastic spoon against the table excitedly.

'So Jess will be leaving?' Lorelai asked trying not to sound too pleased about it.

'I guess so, that was always the plan. Things are getting running with Truncheon in Philadelphia, they'll be ready to open again soon so he'll need to get back.' Rory replied.

'And you're ok with that?' Luke asked.

'Yes, why wouldn't I be? Jess is my friend and sure I like having him around and he's been a great help but I knew he'd be leaving once the book was done, so why wouldn't I be ok?'

'Because Anna is just over six months old and he's been around everyday for, oh yeah just over six months. It'll be difficult to adjust so I want to make sure you're really ok, and that Anna will be ok, she's at that age where she starts to get attached to people, recognising them and he's been there for her everyday, she'll find it hard too. I'm just worried.' Lorelai said, there was a long pause while they all finished their food.

'What are you thinking? Rory?'

'I'm thinking I want you to stop!' Rory shouted getting to her feet and going to her room to grab her coat and Anna's coat and shoes.

'Stop what?' Lorelai followed her daughter into her bedroom.

'Stop pretending that you're concerned about Jess leaving, stop pretending you haven't been waiting for this day to come because I know you have!' Rory shouted, going out to the kitchen she quickly got Anna ready to go out and headed to the door.

'Rory just wait a second, I know I'm not Jess' biggest fan and yes I admit I think the sooner he leaves the better, I just want to make sure that you'll be ok when he does.' Lorelai pleaded. Rory paused with the door half open.

'I'll be fine, now just leave it. I'm going to see Jess, feel free to celebrate his imminent departure.' Rory said hurrying out the door and across the yard.

Lorelai returned to the kitchen and sunk down into her chair looking across at her husband.

'She's going to get hurt.' Lorelai sighed resting her head in her hands.

'She's not the only one.' Luke said shaking his head, Lorelai looked up at him in confusion, to her it was clear cut that Rory was the one who would be affected by this.

'What do you mean?'

'You said it yourself Lorelai, Jess has been there everyday since Anna was a few days old, he's just as attached to the two of them as they are to him.' Luke replied thinking of his nephew. He'd come to the thinking that Rory and Jess were not good for one another and he'd hoped for weeks that Jess would return to his own life before either of them could get to attached, but now he was almost certain that Rory wouldn't be the only one to find goodbye hard.

'Hey, I wasn't expecting you tonight.' Jess greeted Rory as he swung the door to the apartment open and let her step inside, it was clear that she was agitated from her manner as she came in and carefully set Anna down on the floor with some of her toys.

'You ok?' Jess asked.

'Yeah, I just had a bit of a thing with my mom, it's nothing though.' Rory brushed it off taking her jacket off and leaving it on the sofa.

'You're sure you don't want to talk about it?' Jess questioned.

'Positive.' She nodded smiling over at him.

'Have you two eaten?'

'I gave her some dinner but she's not had her bottle yet and I'm starting to wean her onto formula now.' Rory replied tucking her legs underneath herself.

'I'll get her a bottle.' Jess replied, pouring out two mugs of hot chocolate and making up a bottle for Anna out of the formula he kept at his place for when they came round. He came over a few minutes later and handed Rory her drink, setting his own aside he picked Anna up and sat her on his knee to give her the bottle.

'So the reason we stopped by is because I finished reading the draft you gave me.' Rory said trying to stop her voice shaking. She managed to stay calm. Jess looked up from Anna and met her eyes.

'Have you got some more revisions for me? I'll get started on them tomorrow.' Jess said as Anna started wriggling round.

'Actually there are no notes.' Rory said leaning her head on her hand and watching his reaction, he looked back at her in surprise trying to get a hold of his thoughts.

'None at all?' Jess asked after a minute of silence.

'None.' Rory confirmed. 'I went through it a million times and there's nothing that needs changing.'

'Oh, wow.' Jess set Anna back down on the floor as she started wriggling even more once her bottle was finished, eager to get back to her toys. 'I didn't expect it to be done so soon.'

'Well we work well together.' Rory shrugged.

'What about the ending, because we had some trouble getting the ending to work.' Jess said keeping an eye on Anna, not wanting to admit that he'd had a call from Chris earlier that day saying that it would be good if he could get back as soon as possible.

'The ending's perfect, so you're free to go back to Philadelphia and get Truncheon up and running again.' Rory said standing up, 'I'm going down to the diner to grab some pie, keep an eye on Anna for me.' She said rushing out and down the stairs, stopping at the bottom and leaning against the wall, breathing heavily trying not to cry.

'Rory! Rory! Come quick!' Jess called loudly from the doorway of the apartment a few minutes later, slightly panicked Rory took the stairs two at a time and entered the apartment.

'What's wrong?' She asked frantically.

'Nothing, look I think Anna's going to start crawling.' Jess said pointing to Anna who was on her hands and knees. Rory smiled widely.

'She's never crawled before!' Rory said excitedly. 'Get the video camera.'

'Already on it.' Jess said coming back to her side with the camera in hand and filming Anna as she started to crawl.

'Wow!' Rory smiled widely tears in her eyes. 'You're so cleaver.' She said getting down onto the floor next to Anna, holding out her hands Anna crawled towards her, wobbling slightly as she did. Jess sat down beside Rory and kept filming them both. Rory took the camera off him and set it on the table where it would film them all while they played with Anna, as she wobbled around the room crawling about.

'Thank you.' Rory smiled at Jess.

'What for?'

'For calling me in time to see this.' Rory smiled watching her daughter.

An hour later Anna had fallen asleep, leaving Rory and Jess sat on the floor with their backs resting against the sofa.

'What are you writing?' Rory asked quietly turning to Jess who was scribbling something on the back of a concert flyer, which wasn't an uncommon sight for Rory to see. He finished what he was writing and looked up at her.

'A different ending.' He handed her the paper.

Rory,

I think I've known for a long time now but I didn't know how to say it, or admit it to myself; but after tonight there's no doubt in my mind about where I want to be, and who I want with me.

Rory, you and Anna have become my whole world, I feel like I have a family and however dysfunctional that family is I wouldn't change it for the world, besides neither of us have particularly functional families.

What I'm trying to say is that even though I'm not Anna's father I feel like I am, I want to be her dad.

Rory, I love you. I always have and what I'm trying to get out here is to ask if you could ever love me again?

Rory's eyes filled with tears and she leaned across and kissed him letting the tears spill over as he kissed her back. After a minute she pulled away with a smile on her face.

'I've never stopped loving you, and I can't think of any better father for Anna than you.' Rory said kissing him again.

'I love you so much.' Jess wrapped his arms round her and smiled, reaching out her picked up an envelope from the table and dropped the contents into his hand, pulling back he smiled and kissed Rory again.

'Will you marry me?' He asked his voice husky with emotion as he held out a simple silver engagement band with a small diamond with sapphire stones around it. The ring was small but beautiful and perfect for Rory, her eyes widened, she hadn't expected this.

'Yes!' She kissed him again tears rolling down her cheeks. 'Of course I will.'

Jess smiled and slipped the ring onto her finger.

'I'm glad you said that.' He smiled kissing her softly.

'Oh yeah?'

'Yeah.' He said they sat together for another hour talking about how much they'd missed each other, and how much they loved one another, until Anna woke up.

'Hey baby.' Rory held Anna in her arms. 'I should get her home.'

'Ok.' Jess agreed knowing it was practical that she needed to get Anna to bed since it was getting late. 'I love you.'

'I love you too.' Rory kissed him again.

'Are you going to tell your mom and Luke tonight?' He asked helping her stand up.

'I'd like too, I want to tell the whole world.' Rory smiled. 'Do you want to come?'

'I think you should tell your mom on your own.' Jess said after considering it.

'You're probably right, but what about Luke?' Rory asked.

'How about you tell your mom tonight then we announce it together tomorrow to everyone else.' Jess suggested.

'Perfect.' Rory kissed him, then as they walked to the door she passed Anna to him. 'Say goodnight to your daddy.' Rory smiled with tears of joy in her eyes, Jess' eyes filled with tear which he tried to hide and he hugged Anna and kissed the top of her head. Wondering how he'd managed to get everything he'd ever wanted.

'I love you kiddo.' Jess said passing Anna back to Rory and kissing her one more time before they left.

When Rory got home she was pleased to find that Luke had gone to bed but Lorelai had waited up for her, quickly Rory put Anna to bed and came into the lounge her hands behind her back, she sat on the couch next to her mom and covered her hands with a cushion.

'You were gone a while.' Lorelai said switching off the TV. 'So is Jess leaving?'

'Not at the moment.' Rory said looking down not sure how her mom would take it. 'I have something to tell you.'

'Oh.' Lorelai said with interest.

'Uh Anna started crawling tonight.' Rory said smiling widely.

'Really! Oh I can't believe I missed that, she's so smart!' Lorelai clapped her hands. 'Can we wake her up and get her to crawl again?' Rory just looked at her with a slightly amused looked. 'Ok probably not, so is that why you can't stop smiling?'

'That and something…else.' Rory said unable to stop smiling.

'There's more? Big night.'

'Yeah really big.' Rory said. 'Jess asked me to marry him.'

'What!' Lorelai was stunned. 'He…what…I…but…'

'Mom try and get a full sentence out, what are you thinking?' Rory asked.

'Ok.' Lorelai took a breath letting the news sink in. 'He asked you to marry him?'

'Yeah.'

'But you've not even been dating, have you?'

'No we haven't but we love each other.' Rory smiled. 'Here read this, he gave it to me just before he proposed.' Rory handed her the concert leaflet and watched as Lorelai read it.

'Wow, he wants to be Anna's dad?'

'Yeah.'

'And how do you feel about that?' Lorelai asked still stunned.

'I think Jess has been the perfect father already.' Rory said watching as realisation hit her mother.

'Wait…hold on…did you answer him yet?' Lorelai asked.

'Yeah I did.' Rory said pulling her hand out from under the cushion she showed Lorelai the ring.

'Oh boy.'

'What?'

'It's a little…fast.'

'I know it is but I love him, and when you think about it it's actually been a really long time, I've loved him since I was 17.' Rory replied.

'Ok, and you're happy about this?'

'Really happy.' Rory smiled. 'I really love him.'

'Wow!' Lorelai pulled her daughter into a hug. 'You know all I ever want is for you to be happy right?'

'I know mom.' Rory hugged her back, 'And I am happy.'

'Then I'm happy for you, congratulations honey.' Lorelai said trying to work out if she really was happy about this.

'One more thing before I go to bed, could you not mention this to Luke, me and Jess want to announce it to him together tomorrow.' Rory said standing up. 'I just wanted to tell you first.'

'Of course sweetie.' Lorelai said as Rory went to her room with a bright smile on her face. Lorelai leaned back on the sofa and sighed deeply. She would have to get used to Jess being in their lives.

A/N- Hope you like this, sorry it took so long, please review….