Leaps and landings

37

"My baby is having a baby!" Liz exclaimed hugging Jess shamelessly, after they'd just announced the news to Liz and Luke, causing Jess to cringe at the length of the hug.

"Congratulations," Luke said, unsure if he should hug Celeste or not, settling for a slightly awkward half-hug with a pat on her back. Celeste smiled at him with slight amusement at his crudeness. He congratulated Jess, almost wordlessly, rather in grunts of approval and a firm pat on his shoulder, feeling proud. Luke had already pretty much guessed why they'd invited him over to Liz's for 'some news' and he was glad he'd been right.

Liz continued over to Celeste, giving her a lengthy motherly hug. "I just knew you two had this lush orange aura around yourselves. It symbolizes fertility, you know!" Liz said, still holding onto Celeste.

"Hey, what did we miss?" Lorelai asked as she walked in with Doula, having helped Liz with picking her up from a friend's house by her house. She could see the joyous faces clearly noticing she'd missed something.

"Jess and Celeste are having a baby! Isn't it wonderful?" Liz exclaimed again.

"Really?" Doula cheered, excitedly.

"Really," Jess nodded, accepting Doula's hug with much less resistance.

"Oh, wow. Congrats, Jess," Lorelai replied, while remaining composed, not quite getting over the strangeness of the coupling itself.

"Do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Liz asked, her mind already thinking at all the little baby sweaters she could knit and whether there were any of Doulas's old things she still had left in the basement.

"We do. It's a girl," Celeste announced, smiling humbly, Jess' arm around her waist.

"It's pretty cool, you and Rory having kids so close together, and one of each by the four of you," Lorelai noted.

Celest could sense that Lorelai didn't like her much, though she wasn't sure why. Was it just the association to Logan? God, that felt like a lifetime ago. A very different life. Or was it something about her person? Though she'd only exchanged a few brief conversations with her during the entire time she'd known her. She couldn't help but to worry, how that would affect the way she got along with Luke, knowing how important Luke was to Jess, and how Lorelai might influence Luke's opinion of her.

"It is," Celeste agreed. They'd already formed a secret club of sorts, which no longer needed to be a secret. Rory was already giving her some of her early pregnancy clothes and some baby gear which she had double of, which was quite a lot thanks to so many parties wanting to smother them with gifts. Rory had told Logan already, so there was really no need to announce the news to anyone else.

"Can I help you decorate the nursery?" Doula asked eagerly.

"Doula, honey, I think this is something they want to do themselves, am I right?" Liz tried to calm Doula a little.

"We have some things figured out, but you can definitely come and help me add some finishing touches later," Celeste offered.

"Thank you! This is so great!" she replied.

"Oh, and you should definitely consider hiring a doula, like we did," Liz began, leading Celeste over to the couch to continue talking about her home birth experience. Jess glanced at Celeste apologetically, but even despite the topics being something Celeste was not too interested in, esoterics and new-age stuff really not being her thing, what she felt was still genuine love, and that was enjoyable to her despite the topics.

"So Jess," Luke began, being left alone with Jess in the kitchen. "I know it's none of my business but do you plan on making an honest woman out of her?" he asked, feeling like it was the appropriate thing to ask. He couldn't quite explain it himself, but he felt almost fatherly towards Jess, having not quite identified the feeling before this moment.