As he walked around the country nightmare of a town he was forced to live in he realized it was more hellish than he first thought. There were four shops that sold ceramic unicorns and one single stop light that takes ten minutes to turn. Not to mention the only thing resembling a grocery store was a tiny little market. He just pulled out the cigarettes that he carried with him from New York. It was a bad habit … sure, but it made things easier to deal with. He didn't even want to think about the fact this was probably his last pack in a long time. He just stood there leaning against the market. He tried to close his eyes and picture his beloved home town, but nothing could take him back. "I wouldn't let Taylor catch you out here like that." He heard a voice say causing him to open his eyes. There stood the mystery that was Luke's daughter standing in front of him. She looked better than she did an hour or so ago, apparently the nap helped. He started to open his mouth, but she just took the cigarette out of his hand and flicked it on the ground. "Taylor will give you a ticket if he does." She said as she stepped it making sure it was out. "Luke would freak. You might even get to see that vain that comes out of his neck, but I don't think that would be the best thing to do on your first night in town." She added as she looked at him.
"But, you make seeing the vain sound like so much fun?" He replied with a laugh causing her to smile. For a moment he let himself believe that this town might not be so bad … if he had a partner in crime. He just smiled at her taking in her long brown hair and bright blue eyes. She seemed happy for a moment that was until a blonde fellow about their age group called for her.
"Mary, you have to stop running off." He said as he walked up to them.
"You used to be a hell of a lot more fun." She muttered bitterly to him before pointing him in the direction of the market. "I will meet you in there in a minute. I am just filling in Luke's nephew on some important town rules." She added as she tried to smile at the blonde. She just watched as he walked away before looking back at Jess again.
"Boyfriend?" He asked coldly making her tone a minute before sound like cheering.
"Tristan are you kidding." She said with a laugh. "He is more of a bodyguard. Lorelai's sad little lackey." She replied as she looked down at the sidewalk.
"Well, your bodyguard is waiting for you." He said as he looked through the window to see the blonde looking up at them from one of the aisles.
"Personally I think he only came at the chance he could get a punch in on the bag boy, but I better hurry up everyone is waiting for us back at the house." She explained as she walked towards the door. "I will see you around roomie." She practically squealed before walking into the market.
She hated going into the market. She hated seeing him. He was the worst one in this town that threw everything back in her face. And somehow he was always there looking smug as he bagged the people of Stars Hallow groceries. Sometimes she wished someone would drop a case of potatoes on his head … other times she tried to kill him with kindness. Neither of her thought processes ever worked. "I swear that his name tag should say Asshole." Tristan said as he watched her try to avoid eye contact with the tall teenaged bag boy who was stocking tampons just a foot away from them. But, his comment only made things worse. It caused the asshole of the year to pay attention to them. She wondered what she ever saw in Dean. He used to seem nice, but after their last breakup she lost all respect for him.
"We don't serve douche bags here." Dean said as he looked at Tristan completely ignoring her. How could he do that? After almost a year together he could look right passed her just to piss off one of her friends.
"Oh, no so you just employ them here?" Tristan asked bitterly causing her to grab a pink package not caring if it was up to her mother's standards. She just needed out of that store.
"Tristan lets go please." Rory said as she looked up at him. She could tell it was too late to stop this. His anger was getting the best of him. It always did when it came to Dean. That's why she tried to run off to the store without him. She didn't want to put up with this anymore.
"You might want to listen to her Tristan." Dean muttered. "Why would you want to keep your little girlfriend waiting?" He said coldly as Rory just gave up walking over to the registers.
"I am sorry did I miss something. The last time I checked you were the asshole that dumped her when she needed you the most." Tristan replied as he walked away towards Rory.
"It took her no time at all to replace me!" Dean called back. By that point Rory was on her way out the door wanting to just go home. All she wanted was to forget what happened in the market, what happened with Dean at all.
Sitting on a bus bench across the street debating if he wanted to light up another cigarette he had a front row ticket to the show that went on when the girl he was just talking to stormed out of the market. Lorelai's lackey as she called him following behind her. "You don't get to do that." She spat at him once they were out the door. "I get to hate him. Not you. Not my mother. Not Luke." She said her voice getting louder with each word. He couldn't help, but wonder what the hell happened. They just ran into the market for a few minutes. When she was talking to him she seemed to be happy, but now she looked like she was going to kill him.
"I think everyone has a right to hate that ass!" The blonde yelled back to her. "He was the coward that ran! A year together and he did that to you!" Jess noticed more and more townspeople stopping to watch the fight. Apparently this was his first dose of small town entertainment.
"Exactly!" She screamed at him. "He did that to ME!" She yelled.
"What so I can't hate him for running out on you the first time the C word came up?" He asked back keeping his voice lower than his. C word? What the hell was the story with this girl? She surely seemed to have crazy down pat, but he knew it was something more than that. It had something to deal with the crying and bloody tissues this morning.
"No you can't. He didn't want to believe it. I don't want to believe it and since you can't even say the word you don't either!" She yelled at him as tears started running down her face.
"You want me to say it really. You want me to call it out in front of the whole damn town! Because I thought that was what you hated, but here we are! SO TELL ME WHAT THE HELL TO DO HERE AVA!" Jess wasn't the only who knew calling her the wrong name was the last straw in this fight. She just chucked the Doose's Market bag she was carrying at him.
"DROP DEAD!" She called out as she ran the other way. Her hair just flew behind her as she disappeared down the street. Everyone else around just stood there in shock. He didn't know why he did it, but he found himself walking after her. In his mind, he justified it as keeping an eye out for his uncle's girl. If something happened to her Luke could kill him. But, he knew it was something more.
AVA. AVA. AVA. AVA! AVA! She knew that it would only be a matter of time. He wasn't in this to help her. He didn't give a crap about her. He was just trying to bring his sister back. Why the hell couldn't he just accept that nothing was going to bring her back? Ava was gone. She was still here, but so often he made it seem like the other way. Rory died when the results came back, but Ava became alive again. They had the same eyes. She could see how he saw Ava when he looked at her. But, she wasn't AVA. She never would be.
She ran to the old bridge. She loved that place. Luke took her here when she was younger. They would go fishing. She cried every time she caught a fish until he threw it back in. He brought her here three years ago when he asked for her blessing. No one mattered more to Lorelai he explained. She was so happy at the thought of her mother finally marrying Luke. He had been so good for both of them. He treated her like a daughter when he didn't have to. He could have been someone who just wanted Lorelai. He could have sent her off to live with Christopher. Who knows what would have happened then? She loved her father, but he wasn't always the most reliable. Hell, she didn't even know where he was anymore. He would call though. He always made sure he called. Checked in with his Gilmore Girls as he called them even after her mother became technically a Danes. But, he wasn't there for them like Luke was. But, lately … the worst things got … he just started to pull away from her. Distancing himself from her pain. Not wanting to go through everything he did with his father. She could understand it, but at times she didn't want to. She just wanted the old days back. She wanted to go back in time. Back to when everything was easy. But, she knew she couldn't. She looked at her reflection in the water. She was just the shell of the person she used to be. Everyone else had seen it, but she had been avoiding thinking like that.
She just left the bridge walking back to the house trying not to think about anything. She knew by now everyone had heard about what happened. Her mother would probably take Tristan's side. Say that he just cared about her wellbeing and that he hated Dean before everything happened anyways. Luke would just sit there staring at his shoes. Sookie and Jackson would be too amused by the fancy food they were making for this little dinner party tonight to even put in their input. She could see the house as she walked up to the house, but she just turned around. She didn't want to deal with them right now. She didn't need lectures. She didn't need the sad looks. She just wanted to live a little. Do something crazy. Tristan or no Tristan.
"Bailing out before you even make it to the driveway … you don't seem like the type." She just smiled as she stopped herself from running into Jess. Much like herself he seemed to be turning the other way from the mess of a gathering.
"How do you know what type I am?" She asked back still walking away from the house, but now with company.
"Well, I know that Blondie calls you Mary. You only call goodie-goodies Mary without adding the Magdalene onto the end." He answered as he smirked at her.
"Oh yeah, so the whole too cool for school thing makes it where you don't do dinner parties?" She asked as they walked towards the same old bridge that she had just come from.
"Tuffaware parties and potlucks aren't my sort of thing." He replied as he looked around at the trees that surrounded them.
"Bummer." She replied with a laugh. It felt so good to be this free. To laugh for the sake of it.
"So, Mary where are we going?" He asked as he smiled at her.
"Never call me that again." She replied as she stopped in her tracks. She wasn't sure why she said that to him. Maybe it was because of how much she hated the nickname. Or maybe it was because ONLY Tristan could call her that. Either way there was no way that she was going to let him call her Mary. It wasn't going to happen.
"Well, you haven't proved to me that you're not a Mary." He said with a laugh. "This whole dinner party thing could be a fluke. A little taste of rebellion from a Mary way too scared to do anything more daring."
What the hell was he thinking picking a fight with this girl? She was clearly still upset from the fight outside of the market. Plus, he really shouldn't piss off the person he is forced to share a room with. He could wake up with no hair tomorrow if he didn't watch what he was doing. But, she just made it just so much fun. He watched as she moved closer to him bracing himself for when she tried to beat the shit out of him. "I'm not scared of anything. And I am not a Mary." She said as she looked at him. They were only inches apart. He was about to tell her to prove it when before he knew it her lips crashed down on his. His mind went blank as he kissed her back. He wasn't sure what the hell he was doing. That probably had something to do with her perfectly gentle lips moving with his. He had never had a kiss affect him that way. He thanked his mother sending him to stay with his uncle Luke. Then it clicked in his head that this was his UNCLE Luke's girl. He pushed her off him as soon as he could.
"What the hell was that? Why the hell would you do that?" He asked as he started to freak out. "We are freaking cousins." He added as his anger and frustration came through his voice. She just laughed for a minute as she rolled her eyes.
"And I am the Mary." She replied sourly. "That was a kiss, Sherlock and I did it because I wanted to." She said before she started walking away from him. "Oh by the way, I'm not blood related to you genesis, so don't freak out about incest or what the hell you are thinking about." She replied coldly before she walked slowly across the wooden bridge that she had led him to. He just watched as she walked away for a moment before he moved to catch up with her.
"I'm sorry about that." He once he did. He knew that he had hurt her feelings. It was written all over her face.
"Don't be. It was a learning experience. I can honestly say I have never been pushed away by a guy before. There is a first time for everything I guess." She said as she avoided looking in his eyes. "Now I can understand how Tristan felt when I cried that time he kissed me." She rambled on. He didn't know what he was thinking when he put his arm on her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. She just wasn't like every other girl he had met before. He could tell there was just something different … special … about her. Maybe that is why he risked getting shipped off again when he kissed her again. He was expecting her to push him away. He deserved it. But, she didn't. His mother would question what kind of girl would kiss someone she had just met because she felt like it. Luke would probably kill him for even touching this girl. Yet, he just couldn't bring himself to pull away. That was until she pushed him a little straight into the water. He just looked up at her in disbelief as he came up from under the water.
"What would you have done if I didn't know how to swim?" He asked her as he watched her smile grow more and more. He watched as she discarded her jacket before she sat down on the edge of the bridge.
"I was a lifeguard a couple years ago for a day. I would have saved you." She explained as she slipped her shoes off placing them on the bridge. "Plus, you seemed like the type of person up for an adventure." She said with a laugh as she lowered herself into the water.
"Pushing someone into a lake is what you call an adventure. What were you a bubble child?" He asked as he looked at her. Why couldn't he figure her out? It bugged him to no end. He had never been around a girl that he had to put a second thought into it. She was so different then.
"Well, you know I have to work my way up to knocking off the liquor store." She said with a laugh as she leaned back to get her hair wet. He couldn't believe that she was letting the lake water touch her head. Most girls would care too much about getting the fishy lake smell trapped in their head.
"I see you got big dreams there." He replied as he swam over closer to her.
"Of course, I'm a Gilmore!" She exclaimed like he was supposed to know what that meant. "Plus, jumping in this lake could be a matter of life and death. If you cross Dewy you might never get out alive."
"Dewy?" He asked as he wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Yep, he is this really mean swan that stays out by Lawerson's Dock." She explained as she looked at him. "He chased Luke once all the way back to the diner. It was a riot. You know I think Mom got that on video tape, we need to show you that someday." She said as she smiled at him. He just laughed thinking about his uncle running down the street being chased by a swan. "Now whenever he goes passed the dock he carries a ladle. What good is that going to do I have no clue." She said as she looked at him.
"A ladle." He repeated as he processed her words. "Yep, I am have to give him hell about that."
"You might get to see the vain then!" She said with excitement referring back to the conversation they had outside the market. He just laughed as he thought about her words.
"I think I done a lot more than that to cause me to see the vain." He said as he held her close to him. It was going to be more than hard to explain swimming in the lake with his stepdaughter after he had kissed her.
"Right the cigarette outside of the market." She replied softly with a laugh. He couldn't help, but to love how she was avoiding talking about what was happening. It only made her more appealing to him. How someone could be as bold as she was and yet so innocent he would never understand.
"Yep." He replied with a smirk as he smiled at her. But, something changed quickly. He could see fear in her eyes before he saw the blood coming out of her nose. "Shit." He said as he led her back towards the bridge. Once they were out of the water, he panicked and grabbed her jacket. It was the only thing that they had to stop the bleeding. "Put your head back." He said as he placed the fabric of the jacket against her nose.
"It always ruins everything." She said as she moved his hand so she was holding the fabric before standing up. "I'm sorry." She mumbled as he wrapped his arm around her waist leading her back to the house. He watched as she started to cry. "Just when I thought I could escape for a little." She mumbled through her tears.
She knew something was wrong when she couldn't find her daughter. Sure she knew that Rory would need time to cool off after the fight at the market. Seven people from around town called to ask about it. It wasn't like Rory to blow up like that in public. It wasn't like Tristan to forget where he was and call her Ava. She knew that was what hurt more than anything. When he compared her to Ava, Rory felt as if she was going to die too. But, fight or no fight Rory always at least called when she was hiding out from the blonde camped out in the living room. "It's not like you can lock her in this house and not let her leave." Luke said as he looked at his wife. Like hell she couldn't. She was one more minute from going and buying the child a bubble. She couldn't handle waiting like this. She took a breath when she heard the front door open up. That was until she heard Jess's voice.
"Uncle Luke!" He called as he led a soaked Rory into the kitchen holding a jacket to her nose. Lorelai started to panic at the sight. It was the second nosebleed of the day.
"Why the hell are you two soaked to the bone?" She asked angrily as she rushed to her daughter's side. "How stupid could you be!" She yelled at Jess as Luke and Sookie looked at her daughter.
How could he be that stupid? She wanted to know the answer, but he didn't have one. Maybe he would know what not to do if someone would tell him what the hell was going on. He was about to say something like that when Rory interrupted him. "Don't yell at him. I was the one who pushed him in the lake." She said as looked at her mother.
"That explains why boy wonder is wet, but what about you?" Lorelai asked her. He wished she would have let him take the blame. The fact that Rory was behind this only made Lorelai more upset that her daughter was behind this and she made that clear.
"I jumped in after him." Rory replied weakly as she looked up at her mother.
"Rory, you can't just jump into the germy water. What are you thinking?" She asked as she sat down in the chair next to the younger girl.
"I wasn't thinking." Rory replied as she looked at her mother before she looked over at Jess. "That's what made it so great." He left the room as Lorelai started to go on her lecture. He wasn't welcome in that room. But, when he got to the living room he saw Tristan sitting there and he knew he wasn't welcome there either. He ended up sitting out on the front porch looking out at the front yard. He thought back to sitting on the stoop in New York watching people walk around and cars fly by. It was more peaceful than the eerie silence that fell over this yard.
"I've been dreading having this conversation with you." Luke said as he walked up and sat down next to Jess. Jess just looked over at his uncle. He could see the pain in his face. He wondered why he didn't pick up on it earlier. "You can't be reckless when you are with Rory."
"Yeah I got that." He mumbled keeping himself from making an ass of himself at that moment. He could tell something was really wrong here.
"She's sick, Jess." Luke chocked out as he looked down at his lap. "In May she was diagnosed with Leukemia." He could tell how hard it was for those words to come out of his mouth.
"Cancer." He said aloud in disbelief. He didn't see that one coming. It seemed like a sick twist in fate. He finally found someone worth putting time into to form a relationship and she was sick. God must really hate him.
Someone told him. She could tell by the way he avoided her. He was caught up in a book and the music playing in the background. She could kill someone for ruining this. He treated her life she wanted to be; now he won't even look at her. She just sat down the book she was trying to read and walked over to the bookshelf. She knew something that could at least get him to acknowledge her. There on the bookshelf sat the CD that she was looking for. Tristan had got it for her as a joke. She just smiled as she replaced the Clash CD that had been playing with the Loretta Lynn CD that she had only listened to once before. She turned it to the track she wanted and just sat back and waited. Well I was born a coal miner's daughter, in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler… She saw him smirk as the music played in the background. She could tell by his face that he was holding in something. "Please tell me you people don't stand in the town square singing this." He said as he gave up putting his book down on his cot next to him.
"Ha, I got you to talk." She said as she crawled down to the end of her bed. She could reach out and touch him if she wanted to. He just rolled his eyes at her.
"Yes you got my attention, now can you turn that down?" He asked her. She just laughed at him. She wasn't about to let him trick her.
"No, if I turn it off you will pick your book back up and ignore me again." She explained. "And next time I will just chuck something at your pretty little face." She said with a laugh. He just sat there. "You don't get to do this." She said coldly as she looked him dead in the eyes. "You come here and we have multiple descent conversations. You don't just get to avoid me because of what they told you."
"I'm just…" He stopped himself from finishing that thought as he looked at her.
"Scared?" She asked. He nodded slightly as he looked at her. "You do realize that you can't catch it right?" She asked with a laugh. "Because some people around here didn't." She added.
"Rory, I am not stupid or five." He said as he looked at her. Then he looked down at his lap. "It just sucks. I finally met someone with some substance to them. They love books and mostly good bands … I have to question the last choice of yours. And then this… it just sucks." She just moved to sit on the cot next to him. She wrapped her arms around him gently.
"I'm not going anywhere." She whispered to him. "Well, tomorrow I have school so physically I will be gone sometimes, but you get what I am trying to say here right?" She asked.
"Yeah, I get it." He replied as he looked down at her. She just prayed that night that she didn't lie to him. She wanted to be here for him. She wasn't ready to leave yet.
