Disclaimer- Gilmore Girls and the characters associated with the show are not mine.
Chapter Three: A Stars Hollow Reaction
Home for Doula's birthday, Jess was wiping down a table after the morning rush when Lorelai stumbled through the door.
"Luke? Oh my God, Luke?" Lorelai moaned out in a shaky breath as she searched the diner. Spotting Jess, she covered her mouth with her hands and began to shake. She was in shock, and all he could think was, something had happened to Rory. Dropping his towel, he grabbed her shoulders and tried to get her attention.
"Lorelai! What is it? Is she okay? Tell me!" She looked at him, at the terror in his eyes, and hers' filled with tears. She let herself fall into a chair. It was so obvious. How could she have missed it before? Not missed it, underestimated it. He cared. They hadn't been together in years, but it was clear. She felt the uncommon urge to soothe him. Strange to feel it for Jess. She had trained herself to dislike even the idea of him and Rory. His intensity scared her, and woke her up from her terror.
"It's Rory, she's okay, but she was taken. By a drug cartel in Mexico she was doing a story on. There was a rescue mission. She wanted me to know before it came out in the paper. Apparently, we'll be able to read all about it," she let out a harsh laugh before continuing. "She could only talk for a second. They were getting her out of Mexico, but they didn't fly her to the States. She's not coming home. She's headed to Afghanistan," Lorelai said, gripping the salt shaker on the table. Wishing it was a cup of coffee to warm her hands on.
Jess looked down at her for a minute before clearing his throat and spinning on his heel to head up to the apartment. Turning back for a second he met Lorelai's eyes.
"Afghanistan? I'll get Luke for you," he said, before pulling back the curtain.
"Jess? Are you going to be okay?" Lorelai asked. Jess let out a dry laugh.
"Are you?" he replied before walking up the steps.
Jess wanted to leave. Running from Stars Hollow would never be easier. One, he'd be running home. Home was Philadelphia, Truncheon, his friends and life. Two, Rory wasn't here. He wouldn't be hurting her this time. He'd be running from the memory of her. Throwing himself onto the bed, after sending Luke down to Lorelai, Jess covered his face with his arm and tried to find some calm. She'd been taken. What did "taken" mean? Rescue mission… Jesus. She's okay. In good enough shape she isn't even coming home. Doesn't need time off. Doesn't need to see her mom. Of course, she didn't come home after Darfur, or being beaten in Haiti. He wrote a book after seeing the picture of her bruised and battered face on the news. His partners at Truncheon had convinced him it was a better choice to write his anger out than fly to Haiti to find the government officials who had disliked the idea of her reporting on their siphoning of relief funds. Now she was headed to Afghanistan. Shit. Yeah, heading back to Philly would be easy, but it wouldn't stop the thoughts. And Doula would be upset. She'd be four in two days. He could handle the onslaught of memories for Doula. He only saw her a couple of times a year, but as she got older, he enjoyed spending time with her and was showing up for family events with increasing frequency.
"Jess, could you come down? I need to get Lorelai home. We're not going out to dinner now, but I don't want to leave her alone tonight," Luke said from the door.
"Yeah. I wouldn't recommend asking her to marry you tonight. She's pretty shook up," Jess replied, standing and running his hand through his hair.
"You okay? I know it's hard for you to even be in Stars Hollow."
"I'm fine. I'm always fine," Jess shrugged his shoulders and headed past Luke and down the steps.