A/N: Okay, so here's a new idea for a Lit fic. It's a little bit different, so I would love to know what you think :)

(Disclaimer: All recognisable characters from Gilmore Girls belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and other folks who aren't me.)

Chapter 1

"So, he's your cousin?"

"Well, sort of," said Rory, making a face.

"You can't have a sort of cousin, Gilmore-Danes," Paris reminded her. "You can have a second cousin, or maybe even a cousin-in-law, but there is no sort of cousin."

"I guess, technically, he would be my... step-cousin?" she tried, shaking her head. "I know that's not technically a real thing, but he's Luke's nephew, and Luke has been so much like a father to me. Plus his Grandpa William was also my Grandpa William, at least in name. It's a little complicated."

"So, you're not actually related?" said Louise, frowning some, but not half so much as Madeline who was clearly completely lost.

"Who is Luke again?"

"Her step-father, genius." Paris rolled her eyes. "The guy who runs the diner which you have been to several times? I can understand your confusion, the place is only named after him," she said, with no shortage of sarcasm.

"When did you last see this not-quite-a-cousin Jess anyway?" asked Louise then.

"Um, wow, it's been a lot of years," Rory said thoughtfully. "His parents moved to New York when we were maybe four, but even then, they would visit sometimes, at least until Uncle Jimmy - Jess' dad - got itchy feet and wanted them to start travelling more. I'm pretty sure the last time any of them were in Stars Hollow was when we were maybe nine?"

"So, you have no idea if he's gotten hot?" asked Louise, one perfectly tweezed eyebrow raised.

"Eww!" Rory recoiled. "He's my cousin."

"We just established that he's actually not," Paris reminded her, rolling her eyes one more time. "So, he's coming here for the summer?"

"Part of it, I think." Rory nodded, eyeing Louise with distaste still before finally looking at Paris again. "I'm not sure that the plans are really set yet. Luke only got the call last night, asking if Jess could come stay a while. Which reminds me, I won't be able to make the extra council meeting this Saturday. I'm helping Luke air out the diner apartment and get it set up for when Jess comes to stay."

"He can't stay in your house?" asked Madeline curiously.

"We only have three bedrooms." Rory shook her head. "Besides, I'm guessing he'll probably want his own space. From what Luke said, as much as he wants to see us all again, one of Jess' main reasons for coming is to get away from it all."

"But you said he lives in LA," said Louise.

"Yup, Venice Beach."

"Who on Earth would want to escape from a place like that?"

"I saw you, Jimmy! I have eyes in my head and I am not stupid, despite what you think. I saw you talking to her!"

"Yes, I was talking. Talking is not a crime. It's not an adulterous act, Liz! Seriously, you're getting beyond paranoid here."

"Well, maybe if you stopped giving me reasons to be paranoid, I wouldn't be!"

"Maybe if you hadn't started smoking so much again, you wouldn't be!"

Jess winced as the door slammed loud enough to shake the whole house. The number of fights his parents were having lately was getting beyond ridiculous. In the beginning, he had tried to play peacemaker, but that never ended well, and nine times out of ten, he just became a pawn that Jimmy and Liz could use against each other. Now, he just avoided them whenever they were like this, going out altogether when he could, or hiding out in the safety of his room.

It didn't matter so much to him if they fought, even if they ended up divorced or whatever. He was eighteen years old, two weeks away from graduating, and thankfully, able to pass his finals without the need for too much studying. In this atmosphere it would've been impossible anyway. His real concern lie completely with someone else.

"They're doing it again" she said from the doorway.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Jess rolled his eyes, even though all she could see from there was his back. "You coming in or going out, because I prefer my door closed."

"In," she said, closing the door behind her and padding over to the desk where he was sat. "Why can't they just break up like everybody else's parents?" she said with a sigh, even as she tried to read over Jess' shoulder. "I could handle one week here, one week there stuff. It'd be better than this."

"Tell me about it." Jess sighed too, hiding his legal pad from her sight. "I'm sorry about all this crap, kiddo," he said then, turning to look at her. "I wish I could do something about it but sometimes I think they're the kids instead of us."

"Whatever. It's not your fault."

"You are seriously the most jaded eight-year-old in the world, Tues," he said, ruffling her hair.

She made a face and looked a little too much like Liz. Jess wished he could do something about that too, but unfortunately not. Sadly, what he said about his little sister being jaded was true enough. Where Jess had at least had seemingly happy parents for the first few years of his life, plus regular contact with a decent grandfather, uncle, aunt, cousin, and a whole town full of friendly folks who wanted only the best for him, Tuesday Mariano had been mostly raised in tension and sniping, that lately had become all-but daily warfare. It didn't mean that Liz and Jimmy didn't love their kids, or that Jess and Tuesday didn't love them, but things were getting worse rather than better, and as far as Jess was concerned, it was time for a change.

"So, I guess it's about time I told you the plan," he said then, making a snap decision that had been rolling around in his brain too long. "You know what happens in two weeks?"

"You graduate high school," said Tuesday easily. "And then you go visit Uncle Luke, who I've never met, and leave me here with the crazies."

"Hey, come on, that's not cool," Jess told her firmly, even though he knew she had a point. "Anyway, about the whole leaving you here part, what if I don't? What if I take you to Connecticut with me?"

Tuesday's eyes went so wide, Jess would've sworn they were going to roll clean out of her head.

"Are you serious?" she checked. "Like, seriously serious?"

"Seriously serious," Jess confirmed, smirking a little at the phrasing. "But there is one condition on this," he said then, finger raised to illustrate his point. "You cannot, under any circumstances, tell Liz or Jimmy or anyone else about this, okay? This is our secret until it's time to leave, and then you let me do the talking. You got it?"

Tuesday nodded solemnly, silently crossing her heart for good measure.

"Okay, let's shake on it," said Jess, holding out his hand.

It was no surprise to see the smile return to Tuesday's face as they went through the routine of their 'secret handshake' and then she was flinging herself at Jess for the biggest hug ever.

"I can't wait to go to Stars Hollow," she said happily, bouncing around in his embrace. "You always make it sounds so magical and amazing!"

Jess laughed at that, he couldn't help it. He wasn't entirely sure what it was about his time in the Hollow that sounded so incredible to Tues. All he did know was that anything was better than what passed for home right now, for both of them.

"Will, honey, can you bring down your laundry for me?" Lorelai called up the stairs.

"Two pages!" he yelled back and his mother smiled.

"Okay, in two pages, please bring down the laundry, or you're going to have to walk around in whatever's clean. At this point, we might be down to Halloween costumes and the sweater your grandma picked out last Christmas."

Lorelai headed back to the kitchen and continued sorting whites from coloureds. True to his word, her son came rushing down shortly after with another bundle of clothes to be added to the two piles.

"You finish the chapter?"

"Uh-huh." Will nodded madly. "The girl went into the haunted house, and because her friend came out and said he was messing with her, she thinks it's safe, but neither of them knows what's lurking in the shadows!" he said, with way too much glee.

"Ugh, how can you read that stuff and not get nightmares?" asked Lorelai shuddering. "I swear, I don't know what happened to your natural fear gene."

"Dad says that there's nothing to be afraid of. They're just stories." Will shrugged. "If it's not real, how can you be scared of it?"

"When you're older, I'll show you some movies that'll make my point for me," she said with a look. "In the meantime, you wanna help Mommy out by shoving some of this stuff in the machine?"

Will dutifully took a bundle of all whites outside of the back door to shove into the washer/dryer. He really was such a good kid and Lorelai never once regretted having him, even if she had been wary when she fell pregnant the second time. It wasn't that she and Luke weren't happy together and totally committed. They had been married a year by then, having waited probably too long to make things official between them.

Rory already looked to Luke like a father, pretty much from Day One, even though she knew Christopher held the real title. There had been no doubt in Lorelai's mind that Luke would stand by her and be happy to raise a kid of their own too, and to his credit, he never once treated their son as if he mattered more than Rory. In Luke's eyes, they were both his children and he adored them equally.

"Mom?"

"Hey, sweets," she called towards the front door when she heard her daughter come in. "Things going okay over at the diner?" she checked as Rory came into the kitchen.

"Yeah, I think so," she agreed, nodding her head. "It's so stuffy up there, and we had a lot of stock to move downstairs, but it's starting to smell fresher and look more homely again now," she explained, smiling. "It's so weird, I know Jess is the same age as me, but when I picture him in my head, he's still a kid, pretty much Will's age."

"Well, that's because we haven't seen him in so long," Lorelai agreed. "Speaking of your brother-" The back door opened before she could say anymore and Will wandered back in. "Hey, slugger. I was starting to think you fell in with the laundry."

"Babette was outside," he explained. "She wanted to know if what she heard was true, about Cousin Jess coming to visit."

"Ah, the jungle drums of Stars Hollow beat forever true." Lorelai rolled her eyes.

"It's not like it was a secret, I guess." Rory shrugged. "Besides, you know everyone will be happy to see Jess again... except maybe for Taylor," she added, just as her mom said the same thing.

"Mr Doose doesn't like anybody, does he?" asked Will, making a face.

"Not a lot of people, hon, no," his mom confirmed, "but that's okay, because we're going to make Cousin Jess really welcome, huh?"

"Sure." Will shrugged. "Can I go back to my book now?"

"Yes, you can," Lorelai confirmed, shaking her head but smiling as she watched him literally run away. "I swear, I have no idea how I produced two bookaholic kids. Neither of your fathers are big reading types and I'm certainly not, so how did that happen?"

"With me, I think it was just a fluke, but Will may have been my influence. Sorry," Rory apologised, moving to help her mom with gathering up some fallen items of laundry and putting them back on the table.

"Hey, what would I rather have, a nine-year-old son that begs me to let him go read some more, or a nine-year-old son that wants to shoot people's heads off in video games all day? I got the good deal, my friend, and I know it."

Rory smiled at that. "I guess I can't blame him for not being super-excited about Jess coming to visit. I mean, he was just a baby the last time."

"Still seems crazy to me that it's been so long since Liz and Jimmy last came here, but California is a long way for a visit, expensive too, and we haven't exactly been over there either. You and Will have another cousin that you've never even met, which makes me a little sad."

"Well, someday we'll make that happen," Rory said definitely. "In the meantime, I have to admit, I am really looking forward to seeing Jess again. It has been way too long!"

To Be Continued...