Ok, so I seem to be obsesed with altering Rory and Jess' worlds. I don't know were this obsession comes from, but it's fun. Anyways, I'm doing this one on my own, and I have a few kinks to work out, but I've written over 40 stories by myself, and some of thenm may not have worked out too good, but I figure I can do this. I don't own anything, except the idea, and here's the full summary:

Jess Mariano has lived in Stars Hollow his entire life, with his mother Liz and uncle Luke. Rory Gilmore lives in New York and is going off the rails. When she loses control over her kid, Lorelai sends her to a town where she used to spend a lot of time, where her old friend Sookie lives. Not wanting to deny her, but unable to take the child in, Sookie asks her friend Luke to take Rory in. He reluctantly agrees, and the nice, naïve, sheltered Jess, finds himself falling for the new, dangerous girl from The Big Apple. AU.

She rubbed her eyes as the phone rang. It was late, right? People shouldn't be calling at this time.

With a groan, Lorelai Gilmore pulled herself out of bed and padded across the living room to find the phone and answer before whoever it was, disappeared and tried calling again.

"What?" she demanded as she picked up.

"Mom?" Rory, Lorelai's sixteen-year old was the one calling? Seriously? Why wasn't she home? "Mom, I need you to come get me."

"Come get you? What do you mean? Where are you?"

"I… I'm at the corner of 357 West and 35th Streets."

"The corner of… That's the address of a police station…" Lorelai repeated slowly. She had known this was coming. For months now, things had been building and Rory getting arrested was inevitable. She had known that unless she stepped in and did something that her daughter would do something stupid and get herself thrown into a cell. "What did you do?"

"I um-"

"Times up." Called a voice somewhere behind Rory.

"Can you just come? And bring some money," she requested, before the line went dead.

Lorelai dropped the phone and pulled herself up to get ready. To pick her daughter up from jail. God, this couldn't really be happening could it? She knew that Rory was on a destructive path, that things weren't exactly perfect in their lives. Well, nothing had ever been perfect, but she had thought things were good at least. Getting knocked up at sixteen, moving away from home with your newborn baby; not exactly the beginnings of a fairytale. But she'd done the best she could.

Lorelai knew she could have gone home. At any point her parents would have accepted her back, even after she broke their hearts. But she had never gone back to them. Now she knew she should have asked for help months ago, maybe even last year, because now it was too late. Rory would now have a criminal record, and there was nothing she could do to stop her daughter from further ruining her life.

"Damn it, what the hell is the matter with you?" she muttered, shoving her feet into a pair of sneakers, while grabbing a jacket and her keys. As she walked out the door, she checked that there was money in her coat pocket before racing down the hall, through the narrow rundown staircase and out onto the busy New York street.

She had no idea who she had been talking to when she asked that question, but there was no time to ponder that now. Rory needed her help, and once she had her daughter safe at home; she needed to work out a plan to keep her safe. Get her out of this city so that she had a real chance to sort her life out.

After all, was that not why Lorelai had left Hartford in the first place? To give Rory the life that wasn't as stifled and controlled as her own?

She hadn't wanted Rory's life to be like her own, but nowhere in her wildest dreams had she imagined her daughter getting so incredibly out of control.

"I'm sorry I screwed us up so much kid," she whispered, stomping down the street. "I'll figure out a way to fix it though. I promise." She added, rounding the corner as her destination came into view. "I'll fix it." She vowed.

Rory Gilmore sat in a jail cell, looking through the bars, and trying to ignore the woman of questionable morals sitting beside her, yammering away about her wonderful life.

"Gilmore?" an officer called out and Rory jumped off the bench, to walk through the cell door. "You're free to go." He told her, leading the way out to booking area where her mother stood, holding a plastic bag and looking extremely pissed off. "Have a nice day ma'am." The man added to Lorelai before walking away.

"So, how was your night?" Lorelai asked once they were outside.

"Mom, I'll pay you back. I-"

"With what, Rory? You don't have a job, you have no money. I don't have any now either, so we're probably going to lose the apartment. Thanks for that by the way; what the hell where you thinking?"

"I was... I dunno. I was just bored, I guess."

"You were bored? Well, that's wonderful. Did you cure your boredom, breaking into a library?"

"I'm sorry, mom."

"That makes everything hunky-dory then. I'm so glad you're sorry." They walked in silence for a moment, before Rory attempted to make another apology, but Lorelai cut her off. "I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with you anymore Rory! I mean, I always thought your life would be so much better if I kept you away from my parents, and their life, but it just seems like I've screwed up your chances by keeping you here. I don't know how to fix this."

"Maybe if you'd actually been a mother for the last few years, paid a little attention to me, and not focused so much on the weekly love of your life, then things would have been different. Maybe then I wouldn't be spending so much of my time out on the streets, getting into trouble. Did you ever think about that?"

"You can't stay here." Lorelai answered.

"What? Where am I supposed to go?"

"I don't know that yet, but I'm going to find somewhere. You need a change of environment and I am going to find you somewhere safe to go for a while. I thought that I could do this, I thought I could raise you, but I just can't do this anymore-"

"I'm sixteen! It's a little late to be having this epiphany now, don't you think?"

"You're not done yet. You still need guidance and I cannot give you that right now. Just, please, try and stay out of trouble while I figure this out, ok?" Lorelai asked as they reached the entrance to their building.

Rory looked up; she could see her bedroom window from here. "You're sending me away? I can't believe this! Thanks for nothing mom!" Rory stormed away from her mother, fuming at the woman's audacity. 'She's been a really lousy parent in the last few years and now she thinks that she can make it up by sending me away? God, I hate her!' Rory thought to herself as she dropped onto a park bench. Washington Square Park; her safe haven, the only place in this stupid city that she actually liked. Well, not the only place, but one of the very few.

"If she really wants to send me away, that's fine. I'll just make her life a living hell for as long as I'm here." Rory vowed.

Jess Mariano sat at the counter of his uncles' diner, staring at a piece of paper that had just been handed to him, still disbelieving.

"Seriously, mom; if this is a joke… it's really cruel." He finished lamely, unable to form a better response.

"Come on! Would I do that to you?" Liz Danes asked her son as she sat beside him. Instead of answering, Jess looked at his uncle, who stood on the other side of the counter.

"It's possible." Luke replied and Liz waved him away.

"Look at this thing, Baby! It's on official Chilton stationary, and that's the headmaster's signature. This is way too good to be a fake! If it were though, I could make a fortune selling passports and birth certificates on the black market."

"What are we talking about?" Lane Kim, Jess' best friend asked walking in and sitting on his other side.

"Liz is contemplating a life of petty crime." Luke responded as Jess handed the letter over.

"Nice," Lane quickly let her eyes sweep over the words in front of her, "No way! You heard from Chilton?"

"Yep."

"This sucks! I can't believe you're going to leave me alone with Jamie Fertman and Lindsey Lister and Dean! I hate you!" She quickly turned sad eyes on Luke. "Luke, can I-"

"No!"

"What 'no'? I didn't get to finish my question."

"I know what you're going to ask,"

"I could surprise you."

"Fine, ask away."

"Can I have a coffee?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Let's start with the most obvious reason, shall we? Your mother would tear me limb from limb if she knew what you ate and drank here and at Liz' house; I refuse to add caffeine to that list. And besides, you're too young for coffee anyway."

"Jess drinks it!" Lane pouted, glaring at her friend as he smirked and took a sip of the very drink she wanted.

"Well, you know, I guess there isn't anyone in the world that cares about Jess enough to stop him from slowly killing himself."

"Hey!" Liz and Lane both cried out; they cared about him a lot. Even though Jess and Lane weren't really able to socialize too much outside of school, they'd still managed to build a solid friendship in the nine years they'd known each other. Her mother was very disapproving of the boy, not just because he was a boy, but also, because his mother had been just seventeen when she had him, and she was still unmarried,

"The bottom line is, I will not serve you coffee, Lane. So just get used to it, ok?"

"You suck too! I'm going to see Sookie. You wanna come, Jess? She might have cookies,"

"Ohh, yeah, cookies!" the boy replied sarcastically. Nevertheless he handed his letter back to his mom and stood up to follow his friend out the door as Luke picked up the phone to call the chef at the Independence Inn, to stop her from giving the beverage to the teens.

Sookie St James hung up the phone with a shaky hand and slowly turned towards her husband.

"Sookie? What's wrong?" Jackson Melville asked. They had been discussing his strawberry crop a few minutes before, but then she got a phone call and he'd moved away to speak to her sue-chef about the pea tendrils.

"That was Lorelai. She needs some help."

"Hey Sook, listen, I'm really sorry Rory and I didn't make it for the wedding. I just... I couldn't get the time off work and I couldn't afford to lose my job, and I-"

"That's ok, Lorelai. You already explained, and I understand. Don't worry about it."

"Ok, great. Well... I really hate to do this, since we haven't talked in a while and it's been years since we've seen each other, but... Well, Rory's in trouble, and I just don't know what to do with her."

"Oh no! What kind of trouble? Is there anything I can do?"

"Actually, I was kind of hoping there was. You see, I was sort of thinking if I could get her away from the city for awhile, that would really help her. Right now, she needs to be somewhere where she doesn't have to grow up quite as fast as she's been doing. She has to get away from the people she's been hanging around with. I want her to have a chance at life and she's screwing hers up, big time."

"Well of course, I'll help in any way I can,"

"I was actually thinking... I mean, it's a crazy thing for me to ask you, but you're pretty much my closest friend and I'm completely out of other options and I-"

"Lorelai, what can I do?" Sookie interrupted; Lorelai was pretty well known for her talking abilities, she could rant with the best of them, and when she got nervous, it got worse, especially if there was coffee involved.

"Ok, I was hoping that maybe... Rory could stay with you and Jackson for a little while."

"Oh."

"I mean, not long. Just a couple of months, until she's slowed down, gotten her grades up. I could save some money and make our lives better too. But only if you-"

"What about Christopher?"

"Are you kidding?" Lorelai laughed dryly. "I haven't seen him since we left Connecticut when Rory was a baby. He's never even tried to make contact with us, and even my parents stopped mentioning him after about a year."

"They couldn't help at all?"

"Living with them would probably be worse for her than living on her own. I can't feed her to the sharks."

"Well, what if-"

"I completely understand that this is a crazy request," Lorelai interrupted, knowing what her friend was about to suggest, "and if you don't-"

"Of course! I mean, I'm sure that would be fine. I would have to talk with Jackson about it first, but, I'm sure..."

"Really? That would be so great, Sook, you have no idea how much this would help me out."

"Well, I'll have to call you back in a little bit after we talk, but I'm sure it would be fine. Is this the same number?"

"No," Lorelai gave the new phone number that she had, and they hung up.

"So… What do you think?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sookie, I know Luke's probably already called and told you to ignore me. But, he's being really mean and won't let me have coffee again and I really, really want some!" Lane interrupted as she and Jess walked through the door. Sookie had known Jess since he was a baby and Lane since the two kids had started grade school. They'd been friends for so long, that unless Mrs. Kim was around, it was very likely that when you saw one, the other wouldn't be far behind.

"Sure, Pumpkin. There's a fresh pot, and I just got a batch of poppy seed muffins out of the oven, help yourselves." She replied, distractedly, "Jackson and I have to go and talk." Taking his hand, she lead the way out of the kitchen, to the reception area, and they took a seat across the room from where Michel stood, muttering under his breathe as he flipped through the reservation desk and a potential customer nattered away in his ear.

"Any thoughts?" Sookie asked again. Jackson hadn't had a chance to make a sound yet, and she was starting to worry.

"She wants Rory to live with us?"

"Not permanently, just for a little while."

"What kind of trouble has she been getting into?"

"I don't know exactly. We didn't really get into that, but I'm sure it's nothing major. She wouldn't ask if she could send her murderer daughter here, it's probably nothing. Just her grades aren't very good, so I'm thinking she doesn't go to school too often, and maybe she's been staying out more than she should."

"I don't know about this Sookie. I mean, I'm sure that when you saw her last, Rory was a nice kid. But… we've only been married for six months and I kind of thought when we had kids, they wouldn't come to us in the form of rebellious sixteen year-olds. We'd at least get the chance to have a baby around for a while before they turned on us."

"I know. But Lorelai was my best friend in high school and we were really close back then. I know things are different now, but I'd like to think that if the situation were reversed, she would do the same for me."

"Where would we even put her? Your house-"

"Our house," Sookie corrected, Jackson hadn't moved in until right before the wedding, but there were times when he seemed to forget that that was his home too.

"Our house is really small, and she's probably got lots of stuff; girls have lots of stuff, right?"

"Probably."

"I don't know if we would have the room,"

"Hey, Sookie, do you have any chocolate?" Jess asked, coming out of the kitchen. The two adults turned to look at him, both seeming to have the same idea.

"Sure sweetie, I'll get it for you, but I want to ask you something," she put an arm around his shoulders and lead the way back to where they'd come from, thinking of calling her very good friend, Luke.

"Luke's," he answered the phone just as Liz stepped out; she was headed to her new job at the Hartford learning centre, teaching a jewelry making class. Jewelry was her new thing, and she loved it. Once she'd tried making pottery, she used her oven to make it, but it didn't work at all, and she cut off all her hair. But the jewelry seemed to actually hold together, and even more surprisingly, people liked it.

"Hey Luke,"

"Sookie, I tried calling a little while ago. Lane was just here, she wanted coffee, but I refused and then she decided to go see you. I hope you didn't give in to her."

"Ahh, well, there may have been a pot in the kitchen, and I may have had to step out for a minute…"

"Sookie! Mrs. Kim wouldn't think twice about killing you or me if we ever did anything she considered bad for her kid. Why would you do that?"

"It was an accident. I had to talk to Jackson, and I wasn't really thinking… Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something, do you have plans tonight?"

"I was going to sort my receipts and restock the store room, why?"

"Well, Jackson just harvested a new crop, it's a hybrid, and I've been experimenting with some recipes. I thought maybe you'd like to come over for dinner and I could test them out on you."

"What kind of hybrid?" he asked, hesitantly. Jackson had come up with some very odd combinations lately.

"It's a fruit, a cross between a cumquat and a raspberry. He's thinking of calling it a raspquat, and I've got some pies and a fruit salad, and there's this sauce that I made to go over-"

"What time do you want me there?"

"How's seven?"

"Seven's great; I'll let Caesar close up for the night."

"Great, that's great. We'll see you at seven." She hung up quickly and Luke was left wondering what she could possibly want to talk to him about. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to try and set him up on a date; she'd done it before, apparently people cared if he ended up all alone, but hopefully this meal would have nothing to do with his love life.

As Sookie fussed over the plates, waving Jackson away, she thought back over what she was going to say. She'd already called Lorelai back and said that, yes, of course Rory could come and stay for a while, but could she hold off for a few days, while things were prepared.

Lorelai had been overjoyed to hear that and told her to take all the time she needed.

Now she just needed to talk to Luke about the plan she and Jackson had discussed.

Luke had just arrived and as Jackson left the kitchen with a couple of beers, Sookie heard a snippet of what he was saying.

"… glad this isn't a set up. I really would appreciate if we never tried that again."

"Oh, no problem. I tried talking Sookie out of that, but, you know, once she gets an idea in her head…."

The door swung shut and she shook her head, "I am not that stubborn," she muttered.

A few minutes later, she looked at the three dinner plates on the counter. They all looked perfect.

"Dinners ready!" she called out, carrying them with ease through the door to the dinner table. The three of them sat down to eat, and Sookie prepared herself to start pitching her idea.

"So, Luke, I was thinking about how you've had all that extra space, since you decided to buy the offices besides your apartment and you knocked out the wall a few years ago…" she began as she served up a piece of raspquat pie with whipped cream.

"Please don't tell me you met my soul mate, and she's all ready to move in as soon as I give the green light."

"No, no, nothing like that. I just… I got a call from a friend of mine today, and she asked me to do her a favor."

"How does your doing a favor, make you think of my home?"

"Well, you see, the favor, it concerns her daughter,"

"Uh huh."

"Lorelai needs help, Luke." Sookie finally admitted. "Rory's been getting into trouble. And she wants her to get a change of scenery. She asked me if Rory could stay here with us for a while, but we just don't have the room. Jackson and I were talking about what we could do when Jess came out of the kitchen, and..."

"It got us thinking of an alternative," Jackson added. He knew Sookie didn't really want to ask this, but she had to. She'd made a promise and even though it was extremely awkward anytime Lorelai Gilmore was mentioned in Luke's presence, this was the best thing they'd thought of. "What we thought, was, maybe, if you were up for it-"

"Would you two just spit it out already?" Luke demanded. These people were his best friends', he'd known Sookie since he was about Jess' age, probably earlier, and he cared about them a lot, but sometimes…

"What would you say about letting Rory stay in the spare room in your apartment?" Sookie finally asked, and Luke stared at her.

"You want Rory to stay in the… That's Jess' room."

"I know, but that was for when he was younger and Liz went out of town and you guys didn't want him staying home alone. But he barely ever stays there now."

"Except on days that he's working and we have early deliveries."

"Right, except for then… I forgot about the early deliveries."

"Let- let me get this straight. Lorelai asked you if her delinquent daughter could live with you, you said yes, all the while planning to pass her off to me?"

"She's not a delinquent!" Sookie replied quickly. "She's really a very sweet girl, I mean, I haven't seen her in… well, I think she was probably eight or nine, but… No. I mean, I did say yes to Lorelai, and if you're not up for it, I totally understand, and we'll find a way to make it work. But you've done such a great job helping Liz raise Jess, I thought…"

Luke sat staring at Sookie as she tried to make a case for this supposedly troubled, yet sweet girl to live with him, for who knew how long? "When will she be here?" he finally asked.

"I told Lorelai that I needed to sort a few things out, so she was going to wait until the end of the week to send Rory."

"And what does Lorelai think of her kid living with me, after… everything?"

"Well, I sort of didn't mention that part yet, but I'll explain it to her, and if it really makes her or you or Rory uncomfortable, like I said, we'll-"

"Find a way to make it work, right. Ok. I guess I'll have to run it by Jess; it is his room after all. But if that all works out, then, we can give it a go,"

"Thank you so much Luke! You have no idea what this means to me."

"Yeah, thank you Luke," Jackson added. "Now, what do you think of the raspquats?"

"They're great. Very… flavorsome."

"So, you've got clothes, some books… I put a little money in your purse for when they stop, if you want to get something to eat, and… I think that's it. Sookie's going to meet you at the bus stop in Stars Hollow and she'll show you around. I'm going to send the rest of your stuff next week." Lorelai explained as Rory sat on a bench at the bus station, glaring at her.

The last few years, Rory had grown more and more sullen, she was nowhere near as chatty as she'd been when she was little, but in the last week she hadn't uttered more than ten words.

This was so unbelievable! Her mother was sending her to live in some stupid small town in Connecticut with some woman she had absolutely no memories of, even though Lorelai had been rattling off stories of their time in school together all week long.

Rory had done a little research on the town on the one day she was allowed out of the house to say goodbye to her 'friends'. She had no one of importance to see at that time and so she'd gone to the library and done an internet search on Stars Hollow. It was small, tiny. And there were numerous articles that came up about strange goings on, like pickle trains derailing and the residents all just going about their business; living art festivals; 24 hour dance marathons, and other crazy things that Rory wanted nothing to do with.

Lorelai looked at Rory hopefully; she knew that she was going to hate her for this, but it was what had to be done. And she hadn't completely lied, either. Sookie was going to meet her and show her around, it was just that, she wouldn't be living with her.

As it turned out, Sookie did really want to help, she just didn't have the room, so she had enlisted the help of a friend. He had a job waiting for Rory, as well as a room of her own, and there were some kids her age, waiting to meet her. Lorelai had spoken to Luke a few times after Sookie ran the idea by her, it was clear that neither of them were completely comfortable with the plan. But Sookie told her all about him helping his sister with her kid, and Lorelai realized she would be hard-pressed to find another person confident enough to take on Rory. She had wanted to tell Rory about the new arrangements, but decided against it, thinking she would refuse to go, if she knew the truth.

"All passengers traveling on the GX534 to Boston please be advised that your bus will depart from gate 7 in five minutes. That's the GX534 to Boston, departing in five minutes at gate 7. Thank you for choosing to travel with Greyhound." The nasal announcer's voice disappeared from the air and Rory stood up, hoisting her duffel bag onto her shoulder and starting to take steps towards the gate.

"Hey, don't I at least get a hug, a goodbye, anything?" Lorelai asked, pulling on Rory's arm.

"Good bye Mother. I hope you enjoy your time without your pesky daughter, getting in the way of your partying," Rory replied tartly, before turning and walking away once more. She hated this; it was completely unfair and there was no way in hell she was going to waste energy on trying to make her mom feel better.

If she was being condemned to a life in the hell whole that was Stars Hollow, she was going to torture Lorelai as much as she could.

So what do we think? Are we intrigued? Please review, I'd love to hear what you thought.