Sorry about the slight delay, I'm taking a few classes this quarter and after spending three hours writing a paper, I'm really don't want to write anymore sometimes and just want to zone out. I'll still work on this, so don't worry it's not going on hiatus, just times between updates will be a little longer.

This chapter is a little longer so I hope that makes up for it.

That all said, I hope you all enjoy! :)

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Luke sits alone in a silent apartment. He used to love his quiet mornings, the ones where he would have Caesar open so he can read the paper in peace as he enjoyed his breakfast. He hasn't had a quiet morning to himself since Jess moved in. The kid is a walking natural disaster. He thumps around like an elephant wearing lead boots, turns the tv up to the highest volume then walks away, and worst of all, has his obnoxious music blasting all the time. He takes a shower, he takes his boombox in and blasts his music. He's reading, he has his music blasting. He's going to sleep, he has his music blasting! Luke got so sick of it, he went out and got him headphones so no one else has to listen to the crap, but even that backfired when Jess would have it so loud over the headphones that Luke could still hear the thumping of the bass across the room.

He'd do anything to hear his damn music again.

It's been a week since Jess packed his bag and left. A week of deafening silence since the worst fight the two have ever had. A week of waiting, Lorelai just about ordering him to stay away and let Jess come to him.

So that's what he's done. He's gone on with his routine, minus all the noise Jess usually leaves in his wake. Every morning, he eats breakfast by himself at the table, staring at the bed that's been empty for a week except for the one lone leather jacket Jess had left folded at the foot of the bed. The jacket Jess had been drooling over for months leading up to his birthday and then became a second skin after Luke gave it to him. Even as the days grew colder, Jess still wore it with some grey hoodie layered underneath to stay warm. Now it just sits there, mocking him. Reminding him of that horrible night and making him wish he could go back and undo everything, starting with keeping the adoption a secret from Jess to begin with.

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Luke sends the Gilmores off with the leftover rolls, not sure why he's surprised anymore with anything concerning them and food. He quickly finishes cleaning up downstairs, wondering where Jess got off to as he flips the last chair up onto the table. He should have been back ten minutes ago after dumping that last trash bag in Taylor's bin. He probably snuck in the back way to get out of closing again. After one last double check that everything's off in the kitchen, Luke flicks the lights off and heads upstairs, nerves setting in as he climbs the stairs. A little part of him is hoping he'll find Jess asleep just so he has an excuse to put this off one more night. But a bigger part of him knows he can't keep Jess' adoption a secret any longer. Time to face the music.

Jess is at the table huddled over some papers when he walks in, something not too uncommon now that he actually does his homework. It is a little strange that he's doing it now, the first night of a four day weekend, but maybe since Oliver's gone with his parents, Dean's in Chicago, and Lane and Rory are both with their moms, he's using the downtime to finish up.

"Hey, whatcha workin' on?" Luke stuffs his hands in his pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet a few paces away.

Jess leans back in his chair, angling his body towards Luke. "So, were you ever gonna tell me?"

Luke schools his face to a neutral expression. Jess could mean a lot of things, no point in giving away anything. "Tell you what?"

Jess rolls his eyes. "Don't play stupid. Jimmy told me about how you and Liz are scheming behind my back, Luke. Or should I call you Dad now? Or maybe you would prefer Papa or Father?"

Damn it, he was going to easy into it, not go straight into it! Way to go Jimmy, once again screwing everything up! "Jess…"

"You're such a goddamn hypocrite!" Jess jumps out of his seat. "You're always preaching about talking things out and telling the truth, and then you go and hide something like this from me?!"

"Listen, I know you're upset, you have every right to be, but if I can just explain-" Luke makes sure to keep his temper in check, expecting there to be yelling from Jess' end.

"Explain what?! How you broke the law and got my signature under false pretences?!"

"How I went about this was all wrong, I made a mistake," Luke admits.

"Hell yeah, you did!" Jess interrupts.

"But I did it for you."

Jess is speechless for a second. "For- How in the hell did you come to that conclusion?!"

"Your mom-"

Jess gives a wry chuckle. "Oh yes, do tell me how that wack job fits into all this."

"Hey!" Luke raises his voice for the first time. "Watch it." Jess glares, waiting for Luke to finish. With a sigh, Luke looks down at the table and notices the papers are all the ones on Jess that he had been keeping in his safe. His locked safe. "How did you get these?" He holds up one of the papers.

"You musta left them out."

"No, I know for a fact I had all these in my safe."

"Then they musta fell out! Who cares, they're about me anyway, I have a right to see them!"

"Which is why I was going to show them to you tonight!" Luke finally loses his patience, tossing the paper back on the table.

"Why should I believe a word you're saying?! Huh?! You've been lying to me for the past six months, you don't exactly scream trustworthy right now!"

"Because you're the one doing all the screaming!"

"Well, so are you!" Jess fires back.

Taking a deep breath, because this argument is quickly spirling nowhere fast, Luke starts again. "I didn't want to see you hurt by your mom again. I was scared if you knew she had given up on you-"

"That's what you're worried about?!" Jess cuts him off again. "Luke, I gave up caring about Liz back when I was seven and she left me alone in a shitty motel for two days while she was off on a bender with the boyfriend of the week! You lied to me! I thought I could trust you!"

"And you can! I know I screwed up, but you can trust me now, kid!"

"No! Stop it!" Jess grips his hair, squeezing his eyes shut. "Don't call me that! I'm not your kid! And you know what?! You're not my father!"

"Jess…" Luke feels like he just got sucker punched in the gut.

"Enough! I can't- I can't do this anymore!" Jess darts to his side of the room, pulling his old duffel bag out of the closet. He starts digging through his dresser, balling up clothes and tossing them in his bag.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing?" Luke stops staring and jumps into action, trying to stop him.

"Don't touch my stuff!" Jess snaps, snatching his bag back. Luke gives it up without a fight, taking a few steps back for good measure. Jess zips it shut and slings it over his shoulder, ready to go, but Luke steps in front of him and blocks his path.

"Don't leave, Jess. We're both tired. Let's get some sleep and pick this up again tomorrow after we've calmed down."

"Get outta my way." He growls, staring at the floor.

"Jess-"

"I said get the fuck outta my way!"

In a stunned silence, Luke steps to the side to let him pass. "Where are you gonna go?" Luke asks when Jess gets to the door.

He freezes, hand on the nob. "I'll figure it out."

"That's not good enough. I need to know you're somewhere safe."

"Any place that's not here! Dean's, Oliver's, Rory's… Hell, the back seat of my car are all looking like better options at the moment!" He snaps.

"Jess, it's thirty degrees out! You can't sleep in your car, you'll freeze to death!"

Jess smirks. "Well, that would just be a bonus then."

Luke flinches as Jess slams the door shut. That was not how Luke planned for this to go. He knew Jess would be upset, but he thought if he could sit him down and calmly talk through the situation with him like an adult, then everything would be okay. Having Jimmy show up out of the blue like that definitely threw him for a loop. That guy really does have a knack for doing the opposite of what's expected of him. He shows up dating Liz, Luke wants him gone, so he sticks around. He gets Liz pregnant, Luke want him to stick around for the baby's sake, he gets his ass out of dodge. Now Luke was finally making some progress with Jess, and it all goes out the window with the appearance of the great Jimmy Mariano.

"Shit!" Luke yells, letting all his frustrations out on the papers left on the table, watching them float to the ground. Instantly regretting it, he sighs as he bends down and gathers them all up in a neat pile, setting them back on the table to organize later. Worried about where Jess could be off to, he peeks out the window just in time to see Jess walk past his car. At least he wasn't serious about sleeping in the back seat.

Trying to think about where he could be heading to, he mentally crosses Dean and Oliver off the list. Dean's still in Chicago, and Jess would have gotten in his car to go to Oliver's, busses to Hartford not running this late. Lane's is a no-go, Mrs. Kim wouldn't even let Jess through the front door, much less let him stay the night. That only leaves Lorelai and Rory's as the only viable option. His suspicions are practically confirmed as Jess starts walking in that direction.

Wanting to give Lorelai a heads up, he dashes for his phone and dials the number by memory. He taps his fingers on the desk as the phone rings out.

"Hi, we're not home right now because we have a life, but my answering machine is, so you can talk to it instead! Wait for the beep!" Lorelai's cheerful message is all he gets. Not wanting to leave this as a message that Rory could over hear and wanting to talk to Lorelai in person, he hangs up and dials again only to once again get the answering machine.

"Come on, woman, I know you're home. Answer your damn phone." He mutters as he punches in her number again. This goes on for ten minutes straight before someone finally answers. "Lorelai-!"

"Luke, you have so much explaining to do, but not right now. I'll call you back when I get the chance, but for now you need to stop calling."

"But-"

"I'm serious. Jess is on the porch with Rory now and I only got away by lying and saying it was my mom calling. If I talk to you any longer he'll get suspicious."

"He's okay though? Jess is okay?" He gets in before she can hang up.

He hears a sigh on the other end and then a pause before, "He will be. For now just hang tight, I'll call you as soon as I can." She hangs up after that, leaving him with the dial tone.

The next hour is torture as he waits for Lorelai to call back. It's taking all he has to stay put and not march straight to her house to check on Jess himself.

The phone only gets through half a ring before he snatches it up. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he finally fell asleep on the couch downstairs." Lorelai whispers, the creaking of a door in the background. She must have taken her cordless phone upstairs to her bedroom. "Now, ready to explain what the hell happened? I thought you said you had a plan." She asks at a more normal level.

Luke untangles himself from the cord from all his pacing and collapses on the couch with a groan. "I did. Until freakin' Jimmy Mariano decided to make a guest appearance."

"Jess' dad showed up? I thought you said he hasn't ever reached out. That's how you were able to get him to sign that abandonment form."

"Well, I guess he had a change of heart, because he spilled the beans to Jess when he went to take the garbage out. God, he was probably the same guy that came in the diner and asked Jess all those questions while I was upstairs changing." Luke rubs his forehead, trying to massage away the headache that formed between his eyes over an hour ago.

"I'm sorry." Lorelai says.

"No, as much as I'd like to blame Jimmy for all this, he's not the one that was lying to Jess for all these months. You tried to warn me, but I was too stubborn to listen. None of this would have happened if I had just been honest from the start."

"Hey, you think you're the first parent to make a mistake? You were just doing what you thought was right for your kid. Sure, you made a bad call, but there's nothing you can do to change that. All you can do now is move forward and hope on the next crisis you'll make a better call."

"How do I fix this? You should have seen him, he was so mad and upset… I caused that. What if… what if he never wants anything to do with me again?" Luke's stomach does flips at just the thought of it.

"Oh, Luke, he'll come around, I'm sure of it. But I think it's best if you don't seek him out, let him come to you. I'm sure he has so much going on in his head, he just needs some time to process it."

"How long will that take though? When you ran away and went to Mia, you didn't start having a relationship again with your parents until fifteen years later. I don't want to wait fifteen years to see my kid again."

"I promise I won't let it come to that." Lorelai says without hesitation. "The situation with my parents is completely different from that of you and Jess. For one, you are not Hitler himself back from the grave."

"I think Jess would argue differently." Luke mutters.

"And," She presses on. "I will talk to him some more, try and urge him to see you."

Luke sighs. That's all he seems to be doing tonight. "Thanks. For everything. Taking Jess in like this, helping me… I know I say it a lot, but I really do appreciate everything you're doing for me and Jess."

"Oh, Luke, you big softie, you'd do the same for me if the situation were reversed."

"If only so Rory wouldn't die of scurvy." He tries to joke.

Lorelai chuckles. "You jest. Get some sleep now, okay? I'll come see you tomorrow."

"Okay, goodnight, Lorelai."

"Night, Luke."

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"Alright, chickadees! Come get it while it's still hot from the toaster!" Lorelai yells from the kitchen. Jess comes in at the same time as Rory leaves her room.

"Chilton instituting casual Fridays now?" He asks, glancing at her regular clothes and not her usual pristine uniform. He wraps one of the poptarts in a napkin and passes it to her, keeping one for himself.

She pushes past him to get to the coffee machine. "No, teacher workshop day. Which means no school for me." Now that she has her coffee and poptart, Rory disappears back into her room.

Jess sits at the table, snapping his fingers. "That reminds me, I have-"

"Nice try, Ferris Bueller. I know you have school today." Lorelai finishes tying her hair up. "Although, you could probably have the whole day off if you went over and talked to Luke." She doesn't look at him as she suggests it, more focused on pouring her coffee.

Mood instantly soured, Jess stands up uruptly. "I'm gonna be late."

"No, you aren't." She sits across from where he's standing. "Sit down for a sec, please." He stays where he is. "Okay, how about this. I haven't made you talk for the past week you've been here, so at the very least sit down and listen to what I have to say." Lorelai says more firmly.

Biting his lip, he sits back down, eyes focused on the poptart he left on the table.

Lorelai cups her hands around her mug, taking a sip of coffee. "I know you're probably feeling betrayed and lied to right now, and you have every right to be, but Luke didn't mean to hurt you. In fact, the whole reason he lied to you to begin with was to try and spare your feelings." She pauses, probably waiting to see if he says anything. When it's clear he's going to stay silent, she continues. "He loves you, he calls me every night asking about you. I just think you should meet him halfway on this, let him explain his side of it."

He keeps his eyes fixed down. "Are you done?"

Lorelai sighs, before shaking her head. "Yeah, I need to get to work. Michel is probably breathing into a paper bag as we speak."

"Well, you wouldn't want that." He tries to hide his discomfort behind sarcasm, his usual go-to.

She gets up, rinsing her mug out in the sink. "You wanna ride to school?"

"Nah, I'll walk." He'd much rather fight the cold than be trapped in a car where she might try and 'talk' to him again.

"Too cool to be seen being dropped off by Mommy? What next, you and Rory just planning on throwing me into a nursing home when I get old and frail?"

"Rory's scouting out places as we speak."

"Brats." She says jokingly as she plants a kiss on his head, dodging him as he swats her away. "Have a good day, sweetie."

"I'll be all smiles." He gives her a forced grin.

Lorelai rolls her eyes. "Babe, I'm heading out!" She knocks on Rory's door.

"'Kay, bye!" She yells through the door, not bothering to come back out.

"Wow, I feed them, clothe them, give them a warm bed to sleep in… and what do they do? Treat me like chopped liver!" Her complaints get cut off by the shutting of the front door.

Jess buries his face in his hands, taking the moment alone to gather his thoughts. All too soon he gets interrupted by Rory barging back out from her room. She freezes, nearly dropping her mug. "Oh! You scared me. I thought you'd left already."

She heads over to the coffee machine, pouring another mug. "Sorry to disappoint."

"No, not disappointed. Just shocked. Not shocked shocked, like I expect you to be skipping school, just the normal amount of shocked. I'm gonna stop talking now." Rory takes a gulp of her coffee. Things have been weird between the two ever since she witnessed his panic attack. She keeps dancing around him like he could break at a moments notice, keeping all their interactions light. "So, are you planning to? Skip that is."

Jess shrugs. "Haven't decided yet."

"Oh. Okay. If it's any constellation, I vote no on the skipping."

He nods. "I'll take your opinion under advisement." Rory forces a smile, obvious that isn't what she wanted to hear, and starts to head back to her room. He calls back for her at the last second. "Hey, you never told me how the extended talk with Dean went when he got back from Chicago."

She waves him off. "Fine. We're fine."

"Huh. Then why aren't you wearing that bracelet he made you? Just asking so Lorelai doesn't accuse me of theft again."

"What? Oh! It broke in the shower this morning. The leather had been fraying for a while, and I guess today was finally it. I'll just ask him to fix it when I see him."

"But things are good?" He checks again.

"I told you, we're fine. If we weren't then would we be going on a date tonight to La Vista in Hartford?"

Jess whistles. "Swanky."

"Yes, and I have a lot of work to get done, so are we done with this or do you want a breakdown of what we'll be wearing too?" She snaps. Good, he was getting frustrated with all the baby gloves.

"Think you can get a full transcript of the evening?"

Rory rolls her eyes. "Go to school, Jess."

"Whatever, bossy lady."

Jess swings his backpack over one shoulder, taking his time walking to school. After all the excitement of this morning, he's really not in the mood to go and be forced to be social for the next six hours. He's tempted to just get in his car and drive around, but it's still parked right in front of Luke's and the man is bound to notice it missing in the middle of the school day.

Almost like fate, the bus Rory normally takes for Hartford pulls up as he passes the bus stop. Watching a few people pack on, Jess makes a split second decision to jump on too.

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Oliver's taking the rare day off to finally catch up on some reading, when he gets interrupted by a tapping sound outside his window. His second story window. Curiosity getting the better of him, he marks his place and goes to peek out the window. He's not sure why he's surprised to find Jess throwing pebbles at the window. Very badly he might add.

He opens his window and leans out. "Good thing you didn't try out for baseball, your aim still stinks."

Jess tosses down the rest of the pebbles in his hand. "Yeah, I was a lot cooler in my head. My first choice was to hold a boombox over my head, but that would've been too awkward to carry on the bus."

"Shame. So, don't take this the wrong way, but why are you here? Shouldn't you be in school? Is everything okay?" Rory had told him about Jess and Luke getting in some huge fight the night of Thanksgiving and has been staying on her couch since then. He only found out through Rory because Jess hadn't been answering any of his calls all week.

"Everything's hunky-dory. Now can you come down here so I don't have to keep yelling up to you?" With a nod, Oliver shuts his window and quickly gathers his phone, wallet, keys, and jacket. Making it downstairs in record time, he slips on his shoes before heading outside, pulling his jacket closer to fight the cold. "I still don't get how you get cold so often. You've lived in Connecticut your whole life, you should be used to it." Jess comments from his perch against his car.

"Is that why you skipped to come see me? To make fun of me?"

"No, I came here to do this." Oliver lets himself be pulled into a kiss. "And," Jess adds. "To offer you a chance to see New York."

"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I've already been to New York. A lot actually."

Jess smirks. "Ah, but you've only seen the fake New York."

Oliver chuckles. "The 'fake' New York? And what, pray tell, does that mean?"

"It means, you've only seen the touristy parts of the city. The parts they want you to see, like your fancy uptown Fifth Ave and Central Park. I bet you haven't even been below 14th street."

Oliver doesn't dignify that with a response. "And what brought on this sudden need to show me the 'real' New York after a week of radio silence?" Jess winces at that, shuffling in place. "I don't mean that in a mean way!" Oliver corrects right away. "You don't need to answer that. Rory only mentioned that you and Luke had a huge fight last week, and I'm just curious why you went from shutting everyone out to wanting to take an impromptu day trip to New York."

"Rory told you about our fight? Did she say anything else?"

"Please don't be mad at her. She didn't want to tell me anything, but you weren't answering any of my calls and I was getting worried. I pushed her to tell me and even then she didn't go into any more detail than that."

Jess lets out a long sigh, making Oliver even more worried if that's possible. "I needed to get out of Stars Hollow for a day. It's like living in a glass house what with everyone knowing everyone else's business. Word of me staying at Rory's spread like wildfire and I'm sick of the whole town staring at me with all this concern. Even Taylor. I threw a gum wrapper on the ground in front of him and all he did was nod and wish me a good day! He's never that nice to me! And then there's Lorelai, who keeps babying me every two seconds. I just wanna be away from it all."

"Okay. Let's go."

Jess pushes off the car. "Really?"

"Yup." Oliver pulls out his keys, unlocking his car. "One condition though." He says before getting in.

Jess folds his hands on the roof of the car. "Shoot."

"If you're such an expert on New York, you better take me to the best damn pizza place in the city."

"Deal."

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The two and a half hour trip to New York ends up being a new experience for Oliver since Jess insists they take the bus, citing that otherwise he would have his New Yorker card stripped of him on the spot. Even once they got into the city the yellow cabs are a no-no, Jess telling him that they're extremely overpriced to scam money out of tourists.

("No New Yorker ever travels by car. Only the super rich or tourists do. I promised you an authentic trip and I intend on delivering."

"But a car is just going to sit in the same traffic as a bus, and at least my car smells better and doesn't have questionable stains."

"You're forgetting the most tried and true way of transport. The subway.")

And if he thought the bus was a culture shock, the subway was a different planet. All the different metrocard bundles might as well have been in greek for all the sense they made. After five minutes of staring at the sign, Jess grew tired of waiting and just picked one for him. Then once they got to the platform, which Oliver is still shocked at how swiftly Jess knew which train to take without looking at a map, Jess and all the other people waiting seemed to know the train was coming minutes before there was even a rumble.

"What's going on?" He whispers to Jess, not wanting anyone to overhear him.

"Did you feel that breeze a second ago?" Oliver nods. He was wondering about that since they were underground. "It's from the air pressure shifting from the oncoming train. Best alert system."

Seeing all the other cars full, he starts to head for the empty one before Jess takes his hand and pulls him toward one of the packed ones.

"Trust me. There's a reason everyone is avoiding that car, and you seriously don't wanna know why."

They squeeze on along with everyone else, Jess keeping a hold of him so they don't get separated. Oliver watches out the dirty window, and sure enough, no one goes in the empty car. He glances around the car as the doors close and notices no one, including Jess, is using the hand rails. Figuring that's another unspoken rule, he doesn't either and copies Jess, whose leaning against the glass divider between the door and seats. The train slowly starts to move, so he figures he'll be fine, until there's a jerk and they pick up speed. The sudden speed change throws him off balance and he nearly falls into the group of people in front of him if it weren't for Jess wrapping an arm around his waist, pulling him close.

"Jeez, the handrails aren't just for decoration, they serve a functional purpose too." He tells him with a laugh.

"You weren't using it." Oliver mutters, face heating up.

"Because I've been riding these all my life. I know how to keep my balance."

Oliver sticks close to him as they make a connection, partly out of necessity from losing each other in the crowd and also so he doesn't fall again on the next subway. Once they reach their stop and finally surface, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. While Jess is busy looking for the pizza place, Oliver pulls out his phone to find a few missed calls. One is from an unknown number, but the others are from Rory's phone and the diner.

"Alright, so we go a few blocks down this way, then- What's wrong?" Jess asks, cutting himself off.

"Did you tell anyone we were coming here?"

Jess' face goes blank. "Why?"

"Because Luke and Rory have both tried to get a hold of me in the last hour, and I'm assuming the other number is Lorelai's."

"So what? We're not minors, they have no control over where I go. If I wanna spend the day away from them, then they just have to deal. Let 'em stew, they deserve it." That said, Jess turns and starts heading down the street. "You comin'? You said you wanna try the best damn pizza place in the city." He calls out over his shoulder, not waiting to see if Oliver follows or not.

Oliver hesitates before running after him. It's not like he has much choice, every street and subway tunnel they've been through today have all looked the same, there's no way he could ever find his way back without Jess. This whole thing feels wrong now though. At first he was excited to spend the day hanging out with Jess in the city. Now he just feels guilty as he ignores his phone vibrating in his pocket for the fourth time.

They walk in an uncomfortable silence until they reach the small pizza place. Even then, they only speak to order their food. Oliver knows something is wrong when Jess doesn't tease him for his choice of toppings, not even a wrinkle of a nose when they sit down at one of the three tables in the place by the window. He nibbles at his slice, thinking about how Jess was talking about Luke and Lorelai. Knowing them, they're probably worried sick about a missing Jess, and yet Jess doesn't seem to care in the least. It's almost like he's enjoying their misery. Jess warned him at the beginning that he used to be a complete asshole, and could still 'have his moments' as he worded it. He didn't believe it, having never witnessed it himself, but now he's starting to see what he meant.

Jess sighs across from him. "Is this gonna be a whole thing now?"

Oliver jumps. "What?"

"If something's bothering you, just come out and say it."

Thinking it over, Oliver decides honesty is the best route here. "I've never heard you talk like that, especially about Luke. You guys are so close, what happened to make you guys have such a big blow up?"

Jess bites his lip, looking out the window for a minute. "Luke was keeping something from me. Something big."

"What?"

Jess clams up. "It doesn't matter."

Oliver tries to meet his gaze. "Hey, it obviously does if it's affecting you this much. You can talk to me."

He waits with bated breath while Jess thinks about it. "Last summer," He says softly. "Liz and my father gave up their rights to me, handing them all over to Luke so he could adopt me."

"I didn't know Luke adopted you. That's really cool!" Jess doesn't smile. "...Or not? Did you not want Luke to adopt you?"

Jess scoffs. "I don't know. It would've been nice to at least be consulted about it. Hell, it's my life, I deserve to be able to weigh in on the decision process."

"Nobody told you?" Jess shakes his head. "What about Lorelai and Rory? Did they know?"

"Not Rory, but Lorelai did. I don't blame her though, she said she only learned about it way after the fact and even tried to talk Luke into telling me about it."

"Wow, that's screwed up." Oliver comments on the situation as a whole.

"You can say that again." Jess mutters as he takes another bite of his pizza.

No wonder Jess wants to block everyone out, he'd be pissed too if he were in the same position. Feeling his phone vibrate again, he feels a spike of anger on behalf of Jess and takes it out to turn it off completely.

"Where are we going next?" Oliver asks after stuffing his phone back in his pocket, changing the subject.

"You wanna stay?"

"You promised me an authentic trip. Don't tell me you're bowing out on me, Mariano."

A grin grows on his face. "Never. And speaking of authenticity, who the hell gets a veggie pizza? Vegetables don't belong anywhere near a pizza." Glad to be able to get through Jess' funk, he lets him dump the last of his pizza and order him a new one, this one a plain cheese one. "Here, you heathen. You can eat it on the way." He gathers up his own slice and heads for the door, Oliver scrambling to follow after him.

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The rest of the day is spent by Jess showing him all his old haunts. Like promised, they stay below 14th street the whole time, and Oliver has to admit, he's liking it a lot better than all the stuffy uptown places his parents always drag him to.

The sun's setting as they head into a music store, Jess making a sharp left as they enter to a set of stairs that go down to a basement level.

"This place is the best to find live recordings of shows. The two guys that run it are geniuses, they put Dave's knowledge of sound equipment to shame." Jess tells him.

The downstairs is only lit by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling so it takes a second for Oliver's eyes to adjust, but once they do he looks around in amazement. All the walls are filled with floor to ceiling shelves of vinyl records. There's also an open doorway in the back that leads to another room like the one they're in. In the middle of the room is a desk where two middle aged guys are huddled over a record player with headphones on, different sound equipment surrounding them. Oliver hangs back, not wanting to disrupt them, while Jess walks right up behind one with blonde hair and pulls his headphones off.

"Boo!"

The guy jumps and spins around. "Shit! What the f-"

Jess sticks his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. "Wow, it's been over a year and that's how you greet me? I see how it is."

The guy grins, slapping the brown haired guy's arm to get his attention. "Check it out, man, Lil' Jessie's back in the flesh."

Jess rolls his eyes good naturedly. "I told you to stop calling me that, old man."

"We told you we will once you're able to reach the top shelf. Now, word was you got shipped off to the sticks. You back for good?"

"Nah, just visiting. Showing my boyfriend the better parts of the city." Jess gestures for him to come over. "Oliver, these two knuckleheads are Bill and Mark." He nods at the blonde first, then the other one.

Mark holds out his hand. "Ha! Pay up!"

"Damn, I really thought I'd be right on this." Bill grumbles as he pulls out his wallet and slaps a few notes in his outstretched hand.

Oliver glances at Jess, but he just looks embarrassed. "And when did this little wager start?" Jess asks challengingly.

"About… a month after you started coming here?" Mark looks up from counting his money to Bill for confirmation.

He nods. "About that, yeah."

"A month- I was ten, you assholes!" Jess stutters, ears burning red.

"A ten year old who was way too into Bowie and Queen." They tease. Even Oliver snickers a little, which earns him a glare from Jess.

"Changing the subject," Jess shifts. "What do you guys have there? Any good?" He gestures to the record on the desk.

Letting Jess have his way, they turn their attention to it as well, Bill taking the needle off and unplugging the headphones. "We just got this a couple days ago. New, local, band's all kids about your age. They aren't bad, lots of potential." Setting the needle back at the beginning, he lets the music play out loud. They sound great, but Oliver doesn't really have an ear for it like Jess or Lane do. Jess is nodding along so they must not stink.

"The bass is a little weak, but that singer more than makes up for it." Jess comments when the song ends.

"Yeah, she definitely has a future ahead of her." Mark says. He starts digging through the mess on the desk, pulling out a flier. "They're playing tonight if you have the time. But," He holds the flier out of reach. "I have to warn you, it's a pharm party."

Jess scoffs, snatching the paper out of his hand. "You know I don't do that shit." Folding the paper in fours, he stuffs it in his pocket and heads for the backroom.

They spend another thirty minutes looking around before they start to head out. "Give us a heads up next time, I know my wife misses cooking for you." Bill says, clapping Jess on the back.

"Yeah, whatever."

"And it was nice meeting you. Good to know there's someone willing to put up with the brat here." Bill ignores Jess' protest.

Oliver shakes his hand then gives Mark a wave where he's behind the desk. "Okay, enough. I'm gonna regret bringing you here, aren't I?" Jess asks rhetorically, wrapping an arm around Oliver's waist and not-so-subtly guiding him to the exit.

"Bye, Lil' Jessie!" Jess flips them off at the top of the stairs, not turning around. They can hear their laughs upstairs and Jess rolls his eyes as he holds the door open.

"They seem nice." Oliver comments as they head down the street.

"If you call me Lil' Jessie even once I'm breaking up with you." Jess warns him, putting one arm around his shoulders and the other in his pocket.

"No, you wouldn't." Oliver calls his bluff.

"Fine," Jess caves. "But I would take all your stupid Offspring CDs and replace them with Metallica."

"See, if you did that, then I would be forced to break up with you."

"We seem to be at an impasse then, Mr. Stone."

"Indeed we do, Mr. Mariano."

They walk in silence for a beat. "And that includes you telling anyone else about that stupid nickname." Jess tacks on.

"But-"

"I'm serious. They've been calling me that since I was a kid. I hate it."

"Alright, you win." Oliver relents.

"So, now that that's done, you interested in going to see that band?" Jess pulls out the flier. "The place isn't that far from here, should only be about ten minutes on the subway."

Oliver shrugs. "I got nowhere to be. I don't want to be super late though."

"We'll be in and out. Hour, two tops. Promise."

"Okay." He's a little unsure, but Jess really seems to want to go and he's had such a rough time lately, Oliver doesn't have the heart to turn him down on this. Plus, it's just listening to some music, how bad could it be?

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The answer is very bad. See, he thought they were saying farm party, not pharm party. Turns out the entrance fee isn't money, but pills that they put in a fish bowl that will get passed around later. At his worried look, Jess assures him afterwards that it's an optional thing and that he never takes part in it, although he adds on that majority of the pills in the bowl are just advil and the like.

And the place is flat out sketchy. It's some old abandoned pool that used to be the city's until funding got cut years ago. They had to climb a fence and then shimmy their way in through a chained door.

Oliver sticks close as they walk around waiting for a band to set up in the drained pool, Jess making small talk with guys he used to know when he lived in the city. When he parts with them, he leads him over to a keg, grabbing two solo cups. Oliver tries to say no as they walk off, but Jess has him take it anyway, subtly whispering that he doesn't need to drink it, but it would look weird if he wasn't at least holding one. When Jess finishes his, he'll just swap with him.

Oliver steadily gets more and more anxious as time passes and the band they've been waiting for still hasn't gone on. In the past hour and a half that they've waited, Jess has already finished both his own beer and Oliver's, and is currently working on his third. Debating what to do, he asks for where the bathroom is and Jess points him in the right direction, asking if he wants him to go with him.

"No, it's fine." He says a little too quickly, but Jess doesn't seem to notice as he shrugs.

"Alright, I'll just be hanging around here." Oliver tries not to grimace at the taste of cheap beer when Jess gives him a quick kiss.

Finding what passes as the bathroom, he locks the door and starts to pace. Holding his phone in his hand, he weighs his options. He could do nothing, go back out there, and wait for the band to play so they can leave, but the problem is he doesn't know when they're going to play. A flier matching the one Jess got is hanging on the wall and doesn't have any times, or even how many bands are here tonight. For all he knows, it could be hours before they play. On the other hand, he could just ask Jess if they can go now, but the whole reason they came was to hear this stupid band. Plus Jess really seems to be enjoying himself, although that might have something to do with the free beer. He can't leave by himself, what if something happened to Jess and he wasn't there, or something happened to him while he was trying to find his way back to the subway then the bus station? When they first met, Jess had joked about not missing being mugged from walking alone at night, but now that Oliver is here he's starting to think that he wasn't really joking.

The last option, the one that's both the most and least appealing, is to call someone. Both him and Jess would be in major trouble, but at least then they would have a guaranteed out in a few hours. Sure, there's a chance that the band that they've been waiting for could play soon, leading to them leaving soon and having them get in trouble for nothing, but at this rate that's looking less and less likely. Jess would be pissed at him for sure, but he'd get over it after he calms down and Oliver explains his side of things.

Right?

Biting his nails, he flips his phone open and shut as he tries to think of anything else, but nothing else comes to mind. Turning his phone back on, he's bombarded with missed calls from Lorelai and Luke. Mouth dry, he swallows as he hits the redial button. After a few short rings, a panicked voice answers.

"Lorelai? I need you to come pick us up." He whispers, hoping he made the right choice.

Yes, the pharm party is based off an episode of The Fosters, and if anyone is curious the band that they're waiting to hear is Someone's Little Sister from that same episode.