THE KID

CHAPTER 1 – The end of the road

Luke woke with a start, the rattling of the door his alarm. It had been a long time since anyone had tried to break in. The alarm clock's red display flashed 3 AM.

He grabbed the baseball bat by the side of the door, and slowly headed down the stairs.

The first sign of life he spotted was a small girl sitting atop a table at the diner, surrounded by a couple of duffel bags. The girl looked straight at him, brown eyes and dark reddish hair.

And then, out of the kitchen came Jess, bearing a glass of milk.

Luke slowly let his bat down. "How'd you get in?"

"Picked the lock."

"You never did learn how to knock, did you?" he asked, grabbing hold of the counter.

"Old habits die hard." Jess walked over and shook Luke's hand, both men's grips firm. "Uncle Luke, I want you to meet Annie. My sister, Annie."

Luke approached the girl. He looked straight at Jess. "You guys in trouble?"

Jess placed the glass of milk in front of Annie. "In over our heads," he admitted.

Annie looked at both men, then down at her milk. "Jess, do you think uncle Luke has chocolate for our milk?"

Luke shook his head. Another pain in the ass. "I'll get it. And some coffee. We'll talk."

Jess nodded as Luke disappeared into the kitchen.

The apartment still looked the same, Jess thought, after tucking Annie in to sleep in his old cot. Luke had offered the bed, but the kid was small enough to feel comfortable right there.

"You look older," Luke stated, taking a beer out of the fridge and offering it to his nephew. Jess took it.

"I am. Running away with a kid will do that to you."

"It was that bad?" Luke asked.

Jess didn't want to get into the discussion, but figured it was better to get it out of his system than to wait. "It could be worse."

"Did he…"

Jess shook his head. "Not as far as I can tell. Bruises on her back and arms."

"What did Liz say?" Luke asked. He watched Jess take a swig of beer and scratch his head.

"How long since you two talked?"

"About five years, maybe. After AJs car crash."

"That's about the time she started falling apart. I tried to get her into rehab, she found herself a great guy in there," Jess answered, the sarcasm made his voice bitter, reminiscent of his adolescence. Luke knew that voice all too well. He'd been just a kid and he'd had those bruises, and Luke had been too blind to notice.

"She told me then that you were going to live with her," Luke said, staring Jess straight in the eyes.

"When she called, she was drunk and there was this kid crying in the background. What else could I do?" Jess took another drink, a long one this time. He set the cool bottle against his forehead. "But I work, you know, I couldn't be there all the time. And Mr. Whatshisface doesn't hold down a job. I didn't ask the kid how she got the bruises. I packed our shit and left."

"And here you are." Luke tried to find clues as to Jess' plans in his eyes, but he could hardly see anything past confusion.

"Here I am."

"You better get some sleep, kid."

Jess smirked. It was something else to be called kid again. "Your couch looks really good right about now."

"That's exactly what I thought you'd say."

Living in New York, in a tiny apartment with hardly any clean air, Jess had become accustomed to waking in the dark. Every window in the apartment looked onto someone else's window, or onto the back of another building. The sunlight hit his eyes with unkind strength, reminding him that he wasn't in New York any longer.

He found the kid staring right at him, sitting on the floor by the sofa, eating a bowl of cereal.

It was nice not to be woken up by screams, or sirens, or a broken bottle in the kitchen.

"Morning, kid," he said, groggily.

"Can I watch TV now that he's awake, Uncle Luke?"

Luke popped his head in from the kitchen. "Sure thing."

"You want to watch TV?" Jess asked, confused.

"Uncle Luke has no good books," she replied, turning the TV set on.

Jess got up, rubbing his face with his hands. In the kitchen, Luke seemed to be doing something along the lines of a tax return. Jess grabbed some orange juice out of the fridge and poured himself a glass.

"Thanks for letting us crash here. I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can figure out what to do," he said.

Luke kept punching keys on the calculator. "I called Liz," he said, not looking up. "I told her that you'd be staying here with me for as long as it took, and that if she had a problem with it, I would send child services her way."

Jess took a long drink from his glass. "What did she say?"

"That I had no right. That I didn't know what the hell I was doing." Luke raised his eyes from the documents in front of him. "She won't bother you until she's clean again."

"Thanks," Jess said, looking at the floor.

Luke smiled kindly at him. "Don't mention it. I should have done that long ago."

Stars Hollow in the daylight seemed very much as he had left it. He'd left after the wedding to find her. And when she'd rejected him, he'd never thought of returning.

The streets hadn't changed. He'd yet to spot someone he knew, but it didn't matter all that much. The kid had taken to exploring and wanted to see every park and every corner of the town. She held a sticky popsicle in one hand and her brother's hand in the other.

Summer in Stars Hollow had always been an event. The main street was closed to cars, so that kids could play safely in the square without the possible threat, while their parents ate ice cream, or pie, or traded gossip.

Gipsy spotted him before he saw her.

"I ain't fixing that car of yours even if you won the lottery," she said, holding in a smile.

Jess couldn't help laughing. His car was still the same eyesore she'd gotten up and running almost eight years before.

"Go kid, run wild, but keep close, ok?" he whispered to Annie, who took it as an order and bound off towards the gazebo.

"Gipsy… it's good to see a familiar face," he said, moving in for a hug.

She backed away. "You don't fool me, Jess Mariano. I mean it about that car," she replied. She smiled though, and allowed the hug to happen. Her hair had grayed a bit since he'd seen her last, and her scowl had softened just a little. "If you can call that a car."

Jess laughed. "So I'm easy to recognize, I gather."

"You still wearing that same dumb-ass jacket, and still got no motorcycle for it."

She had him pegged to a T. He uncomfortably looked around to keep an eye on Annie.

"So how you been?" Gipsy asked. "Not any richer, if that car is any indication."

"Working. Getting exploited. The usual."

Gipsy raised an eyebrow. "See you got yourself a kid."

Jess didn't bother to correct her. "Yeah, she's kind of the reason we're here." He looked over at the kid, only to find her spinning around a lamppost. "I should go… but it was nice seeing you," he added.

"Yeah, I'll be seeing you, then. You can bring that dumpster in for a look tomorrow if you like," Gipsy replied, pointing at the car.

"I'll think about it," he said, smiling as he headed over to catch a dizzy Annie.

Gipsy kept on walking, all the way to Doosey's market, to the cashier, where Taylor was taking care of the cash register.

"Look over there," she said calmly, a small smile on her face.

"Gypsy, can't you see I'm busy?" Taylor turned to his customer, an old lady with two cans of peas. "Those are 2 for 1 today, Mrs. Jennings, wouldn't you like to take another pair?"

"Oh, I don't know… should I, dear?" the lady asked Gypsy.

Gypsy took the can from her hands, "Don't let him dupe you, lady."

The woman passed on the offer and paid quickly, walking out of the store.

"There, now you ain't busy no more." Gipsy stood beside him and pointed at the Town Square. "Now look who's back in town."

Taylor shrugged. "Oh, hell." He put on his thick-rimmed glasses and looked intently at the square. The all too familiar leather jacket and the hairdo were easy to spot. "Oh, God. It's that boy again."

"And he's got a kid with him. Thought you'd like to know," Gypsy said, glad to be of service. The town was too boring to let this run it's natural course. It was time to move things along.

"KIRK!" he called out. From behind a display case, Kirk appeared, with a worried look in his eyes.

"What is it, Taylor?"

"Activate phone tree number 325."

Kirk looked confused. "But that's the emergency phone tree, for hurricanes or for when he…"

"He's back, Kirk. GET TO IT."

Gypsy chuckled. This was going to be a good week.

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To be continued…

Author's note: Hi, so I'm not new to Gilmore Girls but new to the fandom. I've written fics for other shows' before, and I'd love to get some feedback on this story. I already have five more chapters done but I'll dose them out. Tell me what you think!