A New Beginning
Chapter 1: Welcome to Stars Hollow
A/N: Hey guys this is Ri, and this weekend I was trying to go to sleep when this idea popped into my head, so I wrote it down! Here's a Literati fic… Hope you enjoy it!
A little background… this story is slightly AU, and I added some characters. So that you don't get confused: Luke has two sisters, Liz and Jessica. They lived together in New York with their two kids. Jess is Liz's son, like in the real storyline, and Jessica has a daughter named Elizabeth, who goes by Lizzy to her closest friends. Lizzy moved in with her Uncle Luke when she was ten, though Jess did not at that time (to be explained in the story). Lizzy and Jess are cousins! Lizzy is best friends with Lane and Rory. Time is right before Jess comes to Stars Hollow. Sorry for the super-long authors note... on with the story!
"Luke! Coffee! Please!" Rory screams as she, Lizzy, and Lane enter the diner. The three of them have been best friends since they were ten, and Elizabeth Camrasheti moved in with her Uncle Luke. They are inseparable, and completely obsessed with coffee, which Luke strongly discourages.
"No," Luke replies calmly, continuing to attempt to convince the girls that they didn't need any coffee.
"Uncle Luke! Puh-lease! We will die if we don't get any coffee! You don't want to be responsible for three teenage deaths, do you?" Liz says, putting on her puppy-dog face.
"That's exactly why you can't have any. Now, go to school!" He glances at the girls' sad faces, and finally gives in. "Fine. Here. Go." He hands them each a cup of coffee and shoos them out the door. "Caesar, take over. I have to do something." Luke walks out of the diner, not fully paying attention to what he is doing. He runs into Lorelai, and when she falls, she accidentally trips him, so that he lands right on top of her.
"Oh, Lorelai, I'm so sorry! Please, let me help you!" He helps her up, both of them the color of Sookie's famous tomato sauce.
"It's okay Luke, but you could repay me with some coffee!" She says with a smile creeping onto her flustered face.
"Yeah, sure, fine. Go tell Caesar. I'll be back soon." He stalks off.
'Wow, he didn't even say anything about how bad it is for my health to drink coffee. Something's up,' Lorelai ponders as she walks into the diner.
Luke continues walking and gets to the bus stop to wait. Fifteen minutes later, the bus arrives, and a guy with ripped jeans, a leather jacket, and a huge duffel bag saunters off of it.
"Jess?" Luke asks.
"Yeah, are you my Uncle Luke?"
"Uh, yeah. Welcome to Stars Hollow."
"Let's go back to Luke's for lunch. This stuff is gross," Lane suggests. Both Lizzy and Rory agree, and they begin to walk towards Luke's.
IN THE DINER"Now, I haven't gotten the chance to tell Elizabeth about you moving in with us yet… I just didn't know how. So, you being here will kind of be, well, a surprise."
"Good, 'cause if you had told her, she probably wouldn't have come home. We have some… issues… to straighten out."
"Okay, sure. But part of our agreement is that you work at the diner. So, I'll let you, uh, get in to the swing of things here. The girls come home around two thirty-ish. Just warning you. Okay, so this is Caesar. He cooks. And this is Lorelai. She is Lizzy's best friend's mo—"
"No offense, but I honestly don't care. I'll just go work now, and you can ignore me and get on with your regular, boring life." With that, Jess grabs the coffee pot and goes off to refill mugs.
"Well, looks like you've got a lot of work ahead of you," Lorelai states, "I don't like him. He has a bad attitude."
"Lor, please don't take it personally. He's just one screwed up kid. Let me make it up to you; let's go out to dinner sometime." Luke is once again growing redder in the face with every passing word.
"Sure, how about Saturday night? That gives you four days to regain control in your 'family,'" Lorelai says, a little too quickly for her to obtain the image of being calm.
"Okay, great. Is seven good?"
"Yeah, seven is great. I, um, have to go to work now… So, um, good luck with your new mental patient, Dr. Phil! It looks like you're gonna have an even herder time with this one than with me!" She winks and walks off to work.
Then, Rory, Lizzy, and Lane enter the diner in an animated conversation. They take their usual table, and before Luke can stop him, Jess walks up and catches the end of the girls' conversation.
"… Is such a good kisser. Not that I have much to compare to, but," Rory sighs, "I'm just so happy with him."
Jess notices the sour look on Lizzy's face, which is not apparent to anyone but him. He knows that face so well, and gets angry that he has to see her wearing it again. This is what he had been working against.
"That is so sweet! I wish I could have something like that!" Lane gushes.
Jess then fills in the space between him and the girls, and asks, "What can I get for you ladies today?" with an everlasting, infamous smirk plastered on his face.
"Coffee," they all reply nonchalantly. Jess is shocked, especially because Lizzy doesn't recognize him.
'She's just concentrating so hard on hiding her emotions from these girls, especially her fear. Man! Fear. I was supposed to protect her from that.' He brings the girls their coffee, and they finally look up at him.
"Wha-?" Elizabeth starts.
"Hey. Luke didn't tell you, but, uh, I'm moving in. With you and Uncle Luke."
"No! You can't!" she jumps up, shouting. The entire diner gets quiet, watching the scene unfold in front of them. "I hate you! You lied to me! You made me trust you, and then you betrayed me!" Now reduced to tears, Lizzy starts to run out of the diner. Jess, however, is ready for this, and blocks her way out. He grabs her arm.
"No. You are going to hear my side of the story. I was trying to protect you! You didn't deserve that life, and you wouldn't have been able to come here if I hadn't done it!" While Jess is firmly telling Lizzy this, he is pulling her up the stairs and into the apartment, leaving the diner to hear a muffled version of the conversation. For once, Luke didn't yell at his customers to mind their own business. He, too, wanted to hear the source of the apparent conflict between his niece and nephew.
UPSTAIRSElizabeth collapses into Jess's arms, sobs wracking her body. He brings her to the couch, and silently tries to comfort her. He decides to blame Luke- he should have told her, so she was more prepared.
As Lizzy calms down more, she asks, "Why? You were supposed to come with me! That was our plan! I didn't want to come here, with Uncle Luke, without you! Why did you screw with the plan?"
"Lizzy! If we both took the blame for setting our moms up with cops, neither of us would have been able to leave! Please don't hate me. I got you out of that dump; it was horrible seeing you treated like that!"
"Do you think I like seeing you slapped around every time one of our mothers got their hearts broken? You deserved to get out of there too!"
"Look, I didn't want you to grow up and have to join them in their sick excuse for a job! I wanted you to have kids with a man you loved; so that your kids would have a father! You can't blame me for that, can you?"
Elizabeth shakes her head, and looks at the ground, ashamed. She knew he was right, but for some reason, it was easier to blame him for everything, rather than her mother and aunt.
"It's okay. I know what you are feeling. But I'm here now, so it's all good. Now, tell me," Jess smoothly changes the subject, "who is your gorgeous friend sitting in the diner downstairs?"
Wiping her eyes, Lizzy smiles and playfully whacks Jess's arm, replying, "Hey, she has a boyfriend, okay? But between you and me, I wouldn't be too upset if you replaced him." She then giggled nervously and added, "Not upset at all… go ahead down, I'll just wash my face and be there in a minute." Jess turns to go downstairs, and as he exits, hears a quiet, "Welcome to Stars Hollow."
A/N: Man, I wrote four pages for you guys! Okay, there's more to come. I definitely have more planned out in my head, so READ AND REVIEW to let me know if you want to see it! Also, just put your questions in the reviews and I will answer them as best as I can! 3 Ri