Summary: It didn't hurt, but it was a shock when they collided. Lit. Say Goodnight, Gracie AU.

Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino and the WB/CW.

Jess had walked her home, but when Luke arrived his nephew sat at the kitchen table, temple pressed onto his fist and frowning down at papers spread in front of him. Circling something on a legal-pad.

"Hey," said Luke, dropping keys on the table. "Close up alright?"

"Hear you talked to my father last night."

"How -? Oh, jeez." Luke looked heavenward. "He came by? What am I saying, 'course he did. I tell him 'Stay away,' but no, he's -"

"Slipped your mind, huh?" Icy still.

"I didn't want him here, Jess. You've got enough goin' on," Luke said, gesturing at the table's litter of lists. "You don't need this."

"No, I don't," Jess snapped. "But you -" He took a deep breath. With effort, he finished more calmly, "A heads up mighta been good, still."

"But -" Luke's features hardened. But the flicker went out with an audible sigh, and the lines unset. "Okay, fine. Maybe you're right," he said, suddenly exhausted. "You ... alright?"

"I'll live."

Luke jammed a finger in his tie-knot and tugged hard to loosen it as he asked, "What d'he say?"

"Nothin'."

"Nothing?"

"Pretty much."

"Oh, Jimmy, whatta prince."

"Whatever. I'll get over it, but ..." Jess trailed off.

"What?"

"I ... I'm not - -Look, they kicked me out, so -"

"Wh -? The school?" A nod. "What!-? Jess, you're kidding, right? We had an agreement."

"I know, but -"

"I knew it."

"Hey, hear me out, okay? I ... I screwed up, but I'm handling it, alright? Rory's looked at some stuff and - -And I don't know," he shrugged. "They want me to take the year over." Quieter as defense broke down into explanation.

"The whole year?"

"Yeah," Jess dropped in a breath. He brought down on its point the pen he'd been fiddling with, speaking more quickly, "And I don't know what yet, but I'll figure something out. Maybe get my GED, 'cos I am not going back to that place."

"Jess, you better figure something out 'cos you're making me look a moron here. Hell, I know I'm not father of the year or anything, but I'm doing my best. You gotta gimme a break."

"A break, huh? Sure, whatever. - -But hey, if I hook you up, you think I can catch one of those maybe? 'Cos this is all pretty craptacular where I'm standin' as well, you know?"

Luke shrugged off his jacket with a dismissive, "Yeah, yeah," then pulled up a chair at the kitchen table opposite his nephew. "So, what happened?"

Jess glanced at the door. Focused on the spot where he touched pen to paper. Once. Twice. Again. "I didn't think I missed that much."

"I thought you said it was under control?"

"I thought it was. I don't know, alright?" He met Luke's questioning look for a second, then looked down at the papers in front of him. "I don't know."

"Jeez, Jess, this is ..." Luke paused and leaned forward to try to catch his nephew's eye, his palms open in front of him. "I don't want you working at Walmart for the rest of your life, for crying out loud."

Jess's eyes snapped up. "Really? 'Cos it's my dream."

"Hey. Don't be smart with me just yet."

"Fine."

Luke softened again slightly to say, "I want you on the right path."

"Got a map?"

"Jess -"

"Yeah, I know: shut up. Think I'd settle for a friggin' signpost right now."

"It's not always easy."

"You're telling me."

"And your dad dying kinda sucks as a signpost, take it from me."

"Well ... yeah." Jess looked back at Luke with a slight nod, his eyebrows climbing a little. "Can't argue with that."

"Wow," Luke said drily, sitting back and folding his arms. "I shoulda taped that for posterity."

Jess's fingers lifted off the table an inch. "Can't win 'em all."

"Right. Anyway, I had no clue 'til then. Just worked in the store, looked after my dad, worried about your mom. Rinse. Repeat. And then I just fell into it. All this," Luke said, making a vague flap at their surroundings. "And it felt right. Hey, maybe I should be slicing open some guy's brain or putting up shelves in the space station with Vladimir, but I don't think so, and I feel lucky. Some days anyway."

Luke looked into the middle distance. "Days without Taylor. Or Kirk. Or those damn freaky - -Anyway, what I'm saying is you're smart, Jess. Luck shouldn't come into it for you, you know? And god knows your luck stinks."

"So ... you're not kicking me out?" That half-hopeful look Luke had seen before.

"Sure, 'cos that'd really be a load off my mind, wondering where the hell you are like I did your mom all those years." He wagged a finger as he continued, "Don't think I haven't thought about it just for the half a day's relief before I started tearing my hair out. But you gotta get a plan, I'm - -Don't laugh, Jess, this is serious."

"I'm not." It was more of a release of breath, plosive-sounding as he ground his thumb into the hollow of his temple, shading his eyes down at the table. "S'just what Rory said, that's all."

"Well, I guess if she's in your corner you got a chance at least. Things are okay with her? I figured the fight with Dean -"

"We're good," came with a deliberately blank look.

"Good." That warning finger. "Don't mess this up, Jess. Any of it."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Jess -"

"Jeez, I won't, alright?"

"And you gotta cut me some slack here. Make it easier on the both of us, okay?"

"Okay, okay, whatever."

"About Jimmy -"

"I really don't -"

"Sure. That's okay," Luke said, scraping his chair back. "You eaten?"

Luke had made grilled cheese despite Jess's protestations, and they sat in front of Sports Center. Jess crumbled the sandwich into shards and ate a few, while Luke drank a beer and popped the occasional walnut absentmindedly.

"So he's staying in town?" Jess hadn't taken his eyes off the screen.

"Who, Jimmy?" Luke said, looking round. "Yeah. Why, you wanna see him?"

Still watching TV, Jess shrugged a shoulder. "Maybe."

"I guess it's your right. He could be gone though."

"Maybe."

"I just ... I figured you didn't need another distraction."

Jess glanced at his uncle. "I get it." The screen.

Luke too turned back to the TV. "Said he lives in California."

"Huh."

"Yeah. He was at the North Motel."

"Huh."

"You could call."

Jess shrugged.

Rory had gone to bed with her mind racing, her heart at its heels, and her blood out in front leading both.

Nothing had happened.

Or rather, nothing had happened that hadn't happened before.

Or, if it was new, it was because his hands had stalled on her, weighed down by everything that had passed. Acutely aware of her injunction. Not wanting to press or push in case ... just in case. Until hers became bold to trace redrawn boundary-lines, delimiting for both of them the scope of now. And so now his followed. Now, up against soon and straying as close as it could. Up against time and the constraint of space but feeling nearer now than ever.

The headlong rush made everything fast. But fast locks had keys and so did Luke, so nothing was fast. Things undone so easily. So much as yet undone. Futures' uncrossed Start/Finish lines on the horizon.

Some things said and not a little unsaid, but about Jimmy on the walk home she'd told him hesitantly, "This ... it's - -I won't tell, Jess. You know that, don't you? That you can trust me?"

He'd wryly observed that he could use all the pity-points he could get right now if she thought Lorelai would go easier on him, but in truth he was still conscious of putting Rory in an awkward position by asking her to keep secrets from her mother. Not when everything seemed so overcharged right now. Not with so much at stake.

In the event, when she told Lorelai what little she knew over half a bag of marshmallows and a repeat screening of Kevin Bacon's angry-dance, she had been as aghast as Rory had expected; maybe a little moved, which she hadn't.

But Rory convinced herself the other decisions she'd come to weren't for late-night discussion. And then the morning came with its rush of lost shoes and curling irons, and it didn't seem like a broad-daylight talk to have either.

The post-breakfast lull found Jess above the diner.

"North Motel. Can I help you?"

"You got a Jimmy Mariano there?"

"Checked out this morning."

"Right."

Figures.

So it plagued her wandering thoughts all day in classes where teachers talked about finals and handed out past papers, and students whispered their plans for prom and after-parties.

Double-spacing. Writing on both sides of the page. Guidelines and rules. Limos and lakehouses. Nerves, calming them. That practice makes perfect. The crucial importance of timing.

But she caught herself thinking in circles too and shook herself mentally more than once. Sound of Jess's breath in her ear. Dark eyes fixed on hers and serious. His fast fingertips. Then, inevitably, her mind's eye conjured Lorelai's too-understanding face, waiting for Rory to speak.

So she made the resolution to talk it over as soon as Lorelai returned from the inn, though she spent the bus ride back in the same uneasy reverie and wasn't any more at ease once the two had sat down and channel-surfed during the story about Michel and the bran muffin.

There was no speech prepared, but Rory finally sought to break the stream of consciousness and pull it out through her mouth somehow. She pictured it like a magician's knotted silk scarves, and it was making her feel just about as sick.

"So, um, Mom?"

"Yeah, hon?"

"I think ... I think ..."

"Therefore you are?"

"I think Jess and I might ..." Palpable ellipsis transparent. "After finals."

"Oh." Remote in hand, Lorelai reached out blindly towards the TV and killed the sound. "So, you're ... you're scheduling?"

"Kinda."

"Right. Huh. Um, so ...?"

"So, I thought I should say. That I should tell you. That's okay, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Oh, yeah. I - -It's fine."

"So, ..." Rory paused.

"So, you want to know ... something?"

"I, um, I think I've got the basics down, but ... I, um ..."

"Okay, Rory? Regroup. Deep breath. Go."

"Where?"

"Where?"

"Yeah, because a motel seems kind of seedy, and Luke'd freak if, well, you know - -And here's just -"

"You can - -Here's fine."

"Here?"

"Well, not here, like, on the couch, but -"

"Mom!"

"Rory, I am this close to hyperventilating, so don't knock me off my stride, okay?"

"Okay. Sorry. Go."

"I want you safe, and, yes, a motel's kind of seedy - -Well, not always but, you know, for this. And as for Luke, there's just no knowing because, well, he's Luke, so -" She took a deep breath. "I probably need to start going over Dragonfly-stuff with Sookie and, boy, do we get drunk when we do math, except, um, Sookie's pregnant, so I guess I'll be drinking for two but whatever: it's pretty likely I'll be crashing there some nights. And god knows I am totally on board for scheduling a few, now the thing with Alex is - -Eh, who knows? Not me, that's for sure. But anyway, I could do that. Maybe. Or something."

Rory took up the baton immediately, saying just as quickly, "I don't know what to say to that."

"That's okay I think."

"Okay."

"I could talk to Luke," Lorelai offered. "Do I want to talk to Luke? How would I talk to Luke? Ever, ever again?"

"That's okay, really."

"Couldn't Jess talk to Luke?"

"He's kind of ... on thin ice over there." Their pace was slackening as the tension dissipated.

"Right."

"The topic will be broached, though. Eventually."

"Before you and Jess are on Golden Pond?"

"Maybe, right before."

"Well, ... then I'm down with the scheduling, babe."

"Good."

"So, um, Rory?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to say about a dozen things real quick, okay? You've heard 'em all before."

"Okay."

"So." Lorelai took a deep, long breath before rapping out, "It might be uncomfortable, but it's not supposed to hurt. If it hurts, stop."

"Got it."

"It might not feel great. At least, at first. Probably weird, even. But it can be great, and it should be great, and not everybody's first time isn't great, but my main point is pretty much relax."

"Okay."

"Then relax some more."

"Right."

"Take your time, you know?"

"Um ..."

"- -And remember to breathe. That's me right now and you whenever."

"Agreed."

"And talk. Before. During. After. What's good, what's bad, whatever. He should ask, but tell him anyway."

"Okay."

"Don't drink."

"Roger that."

"Dirty."

"Mom!"

"Hah! And come on, you know this one, kid. Say it with me. Make sure -"

"Make sure he suits up, yes. I know, Mom."

"Questions?"

"None right now," Rory replied, a bigger smile echoing her mother's, as with so much else.

"Great. Good. But before I pass out, any thoughts on this prom dress at all?"

A/N: Thanks for reading. Next chapter's up too, if you're interested, because it's the same day and why not?

At nine o'clock, Jess arrived with three kinds of leftover pie ...