CHAPTER ONE !
★・・・・・・★

☆.｡.:* "STARS HOLLOW? WHERE THE FUCK is Stars Hollow?"

When Jane had awoken to Emma's incessant crying at 4 o'clock that morning, she'd anticipated it to be the worst part of her day. She'd fed her, nursed her back to sleep, and gotten back into bed with the hope that she might sleep at least a few more hours until the baby's father rocked up to see her.

Of course, her father — otherwise known as Jane's shithead lifelong best friend — came along just three hours later to inform her that his mother had decidedly had enough of him and was sending him to live with his uncle in the middle of nowhere.

"I know, I know— and I promise it's not too far, but we had this, like, huge thing and she wants me to live with my uncle Luke to... straighten me out or whatever," he shrugged, dark eyes looking down at his feet to avoid her sharp gaze.

Jane shook her head, "Has she forgotten about the whole, oh I don't know, child we have? Or is sending you to fuck ass nowhere an attempt to make my life a misery too?"

"My words exactly," Jess shrugged, "She just said if we're that interested in co-parenting then you should come with me. Some bullshit about a fresh start."

Jess could be unreliable. Jess could be lazy. He could be stubborn, short-tempered and difficult, to use his mother's favourite term for him.

But he'd surprised everyone and been an incredibly present father to Emma in her 11 months so far. The support he'd given Jane when her parents kicked her out for the pregnancy had been somewhat unexpected but never unappreciated.

Sure, when she first told him she was pregnant he just silently left and disappeared for 24 hours — but when he returned he'd apologised profusely and promised that he'd be there for her whatever the situation.

Jess had never pushed Jane to get rid of the baby and never once made her feel bad for keeping her.

A small part of Jane wondered if he'd have been so accepting about the pregnancy if she hadn't had her whole life turned around and been kicked out for it, but she tried not to think too much on that.

For all of his faults, Jess was a good person. A good person who cared about her. A good person who was doing the best he could for Emma, too.

Obviously, having just turned sixteen when Emma was conceived, the pregnancy was a hell of a surprise to the pair — who'd thought they'd taken the necessary precautions to avoid such an outcome — particularly given that they had only slept together once in their cliche pact to lose their virginity to the person they trusted most for the sake of impressing their respective crushes in future.

They'd moved on from it quickly, trying to ignore the subtle change that having sex had made to their friendship, until an immense bout of morning sickness and those two blue lines had changed their lives forever.

Not to mention that their pact hadn't had it's intended benefit even before the pregnancy. Both of their crushes were, as usual, a flash in the pan, and then a couple of teenagers expecting a baby were hardly prime candidates for a flourishing love life.

Their friendship hadn't ever been received well by the Bolan family — not as a big-shot influential family with a global enterprise that was supposed to be a family affair.

But when Jane had fallen pregnant, she had been quite literally disowned by the family.

The Bolans gave her just enough money to get by for a few months and then packed her off to live with her father's cousin, Eddie, who lived on the other side of New York and had suffered the same fate of practically being exiled from the family when he decided to forge his own path.

Eddie was reluctant at first, but he fought his doubts and welcomed her with open arms, and Jane was infinitely grateful. She wasn't sure if she was ready for a baby at sixteen — but some part of her wanted to be, and so she had made her decision.

Jane had thought things were going well now — Jess seemed to be engaging more at school, and he was working when he could. He generally seemed to give more of damn about things now that he had his little family to think about.

Evidently not where his mother was concerned, though.

"Eddie's gonna flip, you know? I can't just come with you, and he's not going to want to just suddenly move, not when work is going well and he only leaves the city to go fishing and camping and shit," Jane felt an ache in her chest at the notion of Jess not being just a few blocks away, almost as vividly as she felt the ache at him seeing his daughter less.

Jess bit his lip, "You don't think I told her that? She said that since I think I'm so independent we should be able to find our own place and do things ourselves, without... how did she put it... leeching off others? And until then Luke was my best bet."

Jane felt the sudden urge to hug him, but despite having shared the intimacy of literally conceiving a child, they'd never been tactile friends.

Their friendship had been slow to begin with, as children bonding over books they had read at the park — at least until her nanny would take her from his company and make her go home.

They never went to the same school (the Bolans would never have allowed Jane to attend a public school) but they found their ways to hang out and soon enough they'd become attached at the hip.

Whilst Jane's parents hated it, Jess' mother had always loved that Jane brought out a side in him nobody else could.

He was still sarcastic, still a touch arrogant, still a pain in the ass; but he was happier and Jane Bolan was the source of this. For that, Liz never complained.

After the baby, however, Liz seemed much less fond of her and much more convinced that she'd ruined Jess's life as well as her own, leading him down the path he'd ended up on.

Though she often took care of Emma when Jane and Jess had school, alongside Eddie on days he wasn't covering the bar, she made it her life's goal to make not-so-subtle digs at the pair's situation.

"I'll speak to Eddie. Maybe you can come and stay at ours for, like, a bit? 'Til your mum cools down?"

Jess shook his head, leaning into Emma's bed as she began to awaken from her slumber and lifting her to his chest, "Luke's already expecting me. It was bad, J. Bad."

Jane's eyes turned from sadness to a harsh stare, "Is this the part where you tell me you're leaving now?"

"I've got no choice, J," he frowned, cooing at their daughter before returning eye contact with Jane's stony gaze, "I can come back this weekend to visit, and I'll visit as much as possible until we can figure something out. You could just come to Luke's too... I'm..."

Jane knew that what was lingering on his tongue was an apology — for letting her down, when he'd promised he wouldn't do that.

"It's not your—it's not entirely your fault," she pouted, kissing Emma's forehead where Jess cradled her, "I'll just— we'll figure something out. And you'd better be around for her birthday. You know how important birthdays are to me, Mariano. And she'll be one!"

"Do you even know me, Bolan? Wouldn't miss it for the world," Jess mocked, knowing all too well how seriously his best friend took birthday festivities, "Like I said. I'll see you this weekend, and everything will be fine. It's only in Connecticut."

"Really? Pre-Emma I'd have jumped at the chance to come with you to Connecticut," Jane laughed, "But that was when Yale was a possibility and not a pipe dream."

"You could still do it," Jess shrugged.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah, they just love teen mums who had to drop out of all their extracurriculars and could barely attend school because they had to care for their own baby."

"C'mon, give yourself some credit," Jess shook his head, "Your transcript was fuckin' ridiculous anyway. You'd be a shoo in for Yale. Plus I've never seen a pregnant sixteen year old fight to stay in school and actually keep their grades up like you did."

Jane bit her lip, "No point in false hope. I'd need to apply soon and suddenly changing high schools right before doesn't exactly look great either, and I... Anyway, this isn't about me. What did you even do, man?"

Jess looked even more deflated, "Can we talk about this another time?"

"You're moving out of New York and can't even explain why?" Jane put her hands on her hips in a way Jess would usually tease her about for being so motherly, "You know what, we can argue about this another day. Are you getting the bus?"

He nodded silently.

"I'll come to see you off then," Jane huffed, watching Jess smile just a little at her words.

Emma was babbling now, twinkling eyes flitting between her parents, "Huh Emma? We can go watch your idiot daddy get on his bus and wave him off yeah sweetheart?"

Jess rolled his eyes, "You're an ass, you know that right?"

"Says the one being shipped off like a naughty child going to boarding school or something," Jane quipped back, tongue in cheek.

"You know what, maybe you shouldn't try to move with me. I can get some peace and quiet that way," Jess teased, before lifting Emma to look her in the eyes, "That wouldn't be fair on you though, would it? Leaving you to deal with your mum going on all day, hm?"

"Loser," Jane grunted.

"Hey, you let this loser knock you up."

"Yeah," she took Emma from his arms and bounced her on her hip, "After the worst thirty seconds of my life."

"Charming. Talking like that in front of a baby?"

"She might be close to talking, but she hasn't got a clue what I'm on about, Mariano. Besides, Emma's going to grow up just as charming as me," Jane beamed.

"God forbid," Jess groaned.

"Haven't you got a bus to get on?"

★・・・・・・★

"You want me to up sticks and move to Connecticut? Am I hearing you right?" Eddie Bolan crunched on a french fry as he stared incredulously at the 17 year old before him, "Because the delinquent father of your baby— granted, I like the kid— has been sent there by his moron of a mother?"

Jane scoffed, "Well you don't have to say it like that! I'm just as surprised as you are, but he can't just be away from Emma. And it's a cute little small town, right up your street Mr Homebody."

Eddie put down another fry he was about to take a bite into and crossed his arms over his chest, taking in Jane's pained expression.

"You're serious about this, kid?"

"I know you can't just move, but would you visit with me while I figure things out? I'll work and pay for where we stay or—or something," she'd thought of every possible avenue, and her heart glimmered with hope at the twitch of Eddie's lips as he pondered her suggestion, "And Jess said I can stay with them when you can't be there, and I can transfer to the school he's been transferred to."

Eddie raised his brow at how meticulously she'd clearly thought about this, but he looked a little hurt, "You want to move even if I don't?"

Jane was immeasurably grateful for how Eddie had taken her in and supported her in the past two years, and she felt awful having asked in the first place.

"No, I don't want to go without you. You've been like a dad to me and I'm not taking that for granted," Jane said, "I just—I'm gonna miss my best friend. And Emma needs her dad. I know this all sounds stupid but I don't know what else to do."

"I'll see what I can do," he grumbled, but only half seriously now that he was satisfied she wasn't just desperate to be out of his company.

He'd taken on the role of guardianship of her reluctantly at first, but it had grown on him more than he cared to admit, "You two don't half confuse me."

Jane scoffed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Forget I spoke," Eddie replied.

Jane shook her head, "Oh no, you're not getting out of whatever dig you've got to make now!"

Eddie pushed his plate away from himself and into the middle of the table.

He looked up at where she stood, "I know he's Emma's dad, but I'm surprised you'd be so desperate to follow a friend to another state."

"He's not just a friend I can forget about seeing though is he?" Jane rolled her eyes.

"Exactly my speculation, kid," Eddie quirked his brow.

"Like you said. He's Emma's dad. This isn't about me," Jane groaned, "C'mon you know there's nothing going on between us."

"Alright, alright," Eddie conceded, "I know. Look, Andy and I have been discussing selling the bar for months now. With the grandkids he doesn't really want to spend half his life behind a bar, and I don't have time to do anything when I'm running the place constantly."

"I know I've come to you with this but I do want you to think about yourself as well as me and Emma, Eds," Jane frowned, "You've lived in New York your whole life and now I'm just asking you to move to Connecticut? You don't have to pretend this is even a remotely easy decision."

"I want what's best for you," Eddie shrugged, "And you're always going on that I've let myself get stuck here... Maybe you're right and I'd like the small town life. We'll see."

"You're the best, Eds," Jane pulled him into a tight hug, watching his eyes widen at the unusual affection before she glanced over at where her daughter sat in her rocker, "Hey Ems, this was easier than we thought, huh?"

Eddie knew she was just feeling awkward about the gravity of the situation.

"Don't I know it," Eddie nudged her away with a gentle sigh, "But I'm not making any promises, alright? I'm going to see what I can do. Go put Ems to bed while I give Andy a call, alright? Love ya kiddo."

"Love you too."

★・・・・・・★ ★・・・・・・★ ★・・・・・・★

AUTHOR'S NOTE !
so there's chapter one ... i hope
you enjoyed, it's only setting the
scene so i hope it wasn't too boring
and info-filled but i can't wait for
you all to get to see their dynamic &
everything. also eddie is a mf angel and i love writing him, yes he would
do anything for jane & emma !!!!!

thanks for reading <3