present tense

pieces of wood with swedish names

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore," Jess scolded from the hallway of Rory's apartment.

"What," Rory groaned from the kitchen.

They had gotten home from the baby shower about half an hour ago. Rory had invited Jess up for some tea and such, and he had accepted and then proceeded to explore her apartment, apparently.

Now she made her way over to Jess to see him standing in the "nursery."

"Is this supposed to be the baby's room?," he asked incredulously.

"Yes," Rory said looking over the room that could have been described as desolate if you were feeling dramatic enough.

"How pregnant are you?"

"Seven months."

"Rory!"

"I know, I know- "

"You're baby is going to be sleeping on the floor at this rate."

"You sound like my mom."

Jess turned to look at her as if he had smacked her across the face.

Rory almost spit out her tea and then started laughing.

"None of this is a laughing matter Rory," Jess said sarcastically.

"Okay well I have absolutely everything I need to put in this room I just haven't gotten around to setting it all up."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! I even bought the paint, it's there in the corner."

"Okay. What are you doing tomorrow?"

Rory looked at him puzzled.

"Nothing. Well, other than writing that book of mine," she answered.

"Okay, I'm coming over and we're going to paint and get this all set up, if it takes us all day. I'm coming over at 8:00, make one of those lists of yours. We're going to do this."

Rory was taken aback. She wanted to laugh but she really believed him. He was serious. He wanted to help her. Somehow, and she could see this in his eyes, he knew that the nursery had been a huge point of stress for her. It just seemed like this big project that would cement this huge change in her life that she wasn't ready to face. He also remembered her lists and her need for order, and that this lack of preparation on her part was driving her crazy.

He stayed a bit longer, finished his tea, and left in order to hit the hay before their long day of work following.

The next day, Jess came in with one of Luke's toolboxes, decaf coffee, and breakfast of everything bagels with cheese and some donuts.

"K. We're going to start with the first coat of paint. Then we're going to build the crib. Depending on how long that takes us, we could do the rocking chair as well before lunch," Rory read off her list with a mouthful of bagel, "Then we can do the second coat of paint, build the changing table, take down the room of all the painting equipment. Because the walls are wet we won't be able to do anything else except unpackage the hanging ornaments and other things. I'll just hang them later."

"Well I can just come back on Monday afternoon and do it before we have dinner at Luke and Lorelai's that night. That should be enough time for the paint to dry, right? About 48 hours?"

"Well perfect, then we'll have it all done this weekend!," Rory said excitedly.

Jess smiled into his coffee affectionately and Rory pretended not to see.

The two worked very hard at the painting and eventually got to sit down on the floor of the living room and begin the long task of building the crib.

"That's not the right piece!," Rory shouted from her position of leaning against the couch, instruction manual in hand.