After a year in the life

The surprise you can get from just one small piece of paper

"Jess?" Rory asked, shocked and a little stressed. She ran out the door, afraid.

"RORY! I can explain!" Jess said, grabbing his jacket and the ring, while he ran out to chase Rory.

She ran to the car as soon as possible, her car stalling. She quickly reopened the door, and kicked her door, slamming a dent into it.

"RORY! Talk to me!" Jess said, continuing to follow Rory.

"Jess, I need some time. Okay? I just need..." Rory started to repeat, blabbering.

"Rory, it isn't what you think." Jess said, as Rory started her car and left.

Jess ran back inside.

"Hey, Jess! What's going on?" Luke asked.

"I need to talk to Rory, we REALLY need to talk about the ring, but she won't talk to me. Anyway, can I crash here tonight?" Jess said.

"Sure, Mi couch, Su couch." Lorelai said, coming in from the kitchen with Lily.

"'uke, Why did Rory 'eave?" Lily asked.

"It's nothing, Lily. Just a little stress." Lorelai said, giving Lily a hug and telling her to go pick some pajamas from her room. Lily just looked at her, before getting down and walking slowly to her room.

"Can we talk about something not related to Rory or rings of any sort?" Jess asked, grabbing a beer from their fridge.

"Sure, and this time I'll let you keep that." Lorelai said, sitting on the couch.

"Thanks, so what's up with Lily?" He asked, noticing they hadn't talked about Rory's new sister much throughout dinner.

"Well, she's great, as you saw she's a little behind on normal things, but they said that was common with kids throughout foster care. She actually really likes your uncle here. " Lorelai said, slightly depressed.

"Lorelai, they told you it could be hard to connect. You just have to give her time, you know what happened." Luke said, grabbing Lorelai's hand.

"What happened?" Jess asked.

"She almost got adopted about 6 months ago, the mom and her were really close, but the dad didn't pass the inspection, so... she was ripped from the home. They told us, that since then she hasn't trusted a lot of woman." Luke said, knowing it hurt Lorelai to be so emotionally distanced from her new daughter.

" I know, you want to spend time with her. But do you mind if I spend some time with Lily tonight?" Jess said.

"Yeah, I guess you need the practice." Lorelai laughed.

"Yeah. I guess I do." Jess said, now starting to think about all the responsibility this child would be.

He knocked on Lily's door. She slowly came over, she had turtle pajamas on, and her hair was mess.

"Do you mind if I come in?" Jess asked, kneeling down to Lily's height.

Lily simply shook her head yes. No words were spoken.

Jess looked through Lily's room, finally finding a small bookcase in the corner, he slowly pulled a book out.

"You like books?" Jess asked.

Lily shrugged her shoulders.

"Did anyone ever read to you?" Jess asked.

Lily pointed out her finger, trying to explain that one person had, once.

"Yeah, who?" Jess asked.

Lily suddenly started to slowly talk.

"M-M-i'ey" She said.