Sorry for my love affair of cliffhangers!

Thank you everyone who reviewed chapter three: Faulty Cameras, gilmorefanforever, DiehardJavaJunkie14, ShaolinQueen, gilmoreintraining, JessRoryYunaTidusforever, Kassandra27, CherryWolf713, Loridhhp, Curley-Q, kobrakai-kate, Environmentalist, lillitgirlx2, lukkygrl08, and JESSandRORYforever.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls, and I probably never will.

Food For the Gods

It had been two hours since Jess fell asleep. Carefully, Rory rolled herself out of bed and kissed his cheek. It was nearing six in the evening, and Rory was starving. The upstairs apartment was dark and empty except for the two of them. Luke had obviously headed downstairs to the diner to deal with the dinner crowd. Rory opened the door and softly closed it before heading down the stairs.

"Hi, Rory," Luke greeted her as she emerged from behind the curtain. "Sorry I left you two alone up there. I needed to get started on the dinner rush."

"It's fine, Luke," Rory said lightly. "He's sleeping."

"Good. Good. That's good," Luke stuttered.

"So, his father is dead," Rory said, attempting to dive into a conversation that Jess would never have with her.

"That's what I heard," Luke said. "That's why his girlfriend delivered the note that said he was dying."

"Why didn't they just mail it?" Rory asked.

Luke put his face in his hands. "I called about the accident early on, when Jess had little chance of pulling through. I didn't think either of them would come, but I guess they proved me wrong," Luke said. "What I really want to know is where Jimmy got all that money from."

"What money?" Rory inquired. Jess had not said much since she arrived, and money certainly was not a topic that Jess would bring up.

"There's fifteen thousand dollars in an account waiting for Jess. Apparently, Jimmy set it up before he died. He wanted to make up for his mistakes like abandoning Jess and then driving him away."

"How do you know that?" Rory asked.

"I called Sasha. The number was on the inside of the card." Rory looked down at her hand and waited for Luke to continue. "She told me about the money. Jess doesn't know yet."

"How long ago? How long ago did he die?" Rory asked.

"Two weeks ago."

Rory toyed with the ends of her hair, unsure of what to say.

"Do you want some coffee?" Luke asked, holding the pot of regular and a blue mug.

"Please," Rory said, thankful for the coffee. "I'm going to get back to Yale soon. You don't think he's going to wake up in the next hour or so, do you?"

Luke sighed. "Hopefully I can get him to sleep for the whole night."

"I'll see about leaving in about two hours, then," Rory said. "I'm going to run by the house and say goodbye to my mom again. I'm actually surprised she isn't here yet."

"She left about twenty minutes ago. I didn't want to bother either of you by going back upstairs." Luke looked at Rory. "Thank you for today. For coming back and everything."

"It's never a problem, Luke. I love him," Rory said with a smile before sipping her coffee.

"Jeez. I leave you alone for three hours and you're up here being a walking catastrophe and making a ruckus. What the hell are you doing?" Luke stood in the doorway as he watched Jess maneuver a mixing bowl.

"Baking," Jess said simply as he stirred the contents of the bowl with a spatula.

"Since when do you bake?" Luke asked as he eyed the kitchen table.

"I was bored." Jess shrugged.

"And you couldn't have just read a book?" Luke asked.

"I read them all," Jess said as he poured the brown mixture into a metal pan.

"You read every book in the apartment in three days?" Luke asked, shocked.

"There were only forty-five of them," Jess said indifferently as he opened the oven.

"Three days and forty-five books. How is that even possible?" Luke asked as he calculated it in his head.

"I was bored," Jess repeating, shrugging.

Rory crept up behind Luke and peered into the apartment. "Whoa. It looks like a bakery exploded in here!"

Jess scowled. "Why is everyone questioning my baking?" Rory walked over to the table and selected a muffin from one of the trays. Jess turned around as she took a bite. "Wait! Don't eat that!"

Rory spit the muffin out in a napkin. "Jess! What's in this thing? It's horrible!"

"You want some water?" Luke asked as he headed over to the refrigerator.

"Please!" Rory gasped, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. "What were you thinking when you made these?"

"That maple sugar, white chocolate, and three different fruits would taste good in a muffin." Jess gazed at the table. "I was wrong."

"I'll say!" Luke responded in disgust as he spit his muffin in the trash. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted.

"Gee, thanks. Rub it in a little more," Jess said as he hobbled over to the table so he could trash the tray of muffins.

"What about the rest of these?" Rory asked cautiously, eying the four other trays of muffins, a jar of cookies, and two plates of brownies.

"Those are fine." Jess studied the table harder. "I think. I didn't try all of them."

Rory retracted her hand from the brownies. "What did you try?" she asked.

"Uh, everything but those muffins over there," Jess said, not actually sure what he sampled.

"These aren't too bad! They're pretty good, actually," Luke complimented as he broke off another piece of the muffin.

"Well, you know. I had to do something productive," Jess said as he checked the timer on the oven. "You want warm raspberry chocolate brownies in a few minutes?"

"I love you," Rory said as she threw her arms around his neck.

"Okay. Well, you two have fun baking. Don't make any more of a mess!" he warned. Shaking his head, Luke traipsed downstairs to find Lorelai sitting at the counter. "Hi," he said gruffly, stretching across the counter to kiss her.

"Wow. Someone is in a good mood today," she mocked.

Sighing, Luke put his face in his hands. "Jess is driving me crazy! He's not well, and I get that. He's just so antsy that I don't know what to do with him. He won't sit still and he always needs to be doing something."

"What's he doing know?" Lorelai asked.

"Baking a lifetime supply of brownies, muffins, and cookies." Luke groaned. "He's read every book in the apartment, but can't still long enough to entertain the idea of television. I just don't know what to do with him!"

"Here's an idea. Have you asked him what he wants to do?" Lorelai questioned.

"It's Jess. Huh. I don't know. Whatever," Luke mocked.

"Ah. Okay. Have you tied him to a chair?" Lorelai asked.

"No! Why would I-oh, you were joking."

"Lighten up, Luke. He's going through recovery and the shock of his father's death. Plus, you have a gorgeous girlfriend that would happen to love a lifetime supply of brownies."

Luke sighed. "I just want him to be better."

"I know, but these things take time," Lorelai said as she leaned on the counter. "Now, what do you say? Coffee?"

"Sure. Coming right up."

"Have you told Jess about the money yet?" Lorelai asked as Luke filled a red mug to the brim with coffee.

"No. I don't know how to bring it up," he said. "I don't want to keep it from him. He could really use that money for college. Jess is so dead set about not having other people pay his way."

"You need to tell him," Lorelai said.

Luke sighed again. "I know I do. I just want him to adjust a bit first."

"Adjust how?"

"You know. He's going to be on certain medications for the rest of his life. I don't know why that would coincide with money issue, but it seems best if I tell him later." Luke looked toward the curtain that separated his work life from his personal life. "I don't know how much information he can handle at once. He flew off the deep end with the news of Jimmy's death and he barely knew him. Either there's something else bothering him or he's just being overly sensitive."

"Almost dying would do that to a person."

"I suppose." Luke looked at the clock. "I hope they're okay up there."

"Rory's upstairs?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah. She arrived about fifteen minutes ago.

"She didn't stop home first. I wonder if there's something bothering her," Lorelai wondered as she took another sip of coffee.

"Has anything out of the ordinary come up?" Luke asked.

"Not that I know of."

"She's probably just concerned about Jess," Luke said.

"That's right. It's the most logical thing," Lorelai responded. "Send her home tonight, please?"

"Sure." Luke kissed Lorelai and ran his fingers through her hair.

"I have to get back to the Inn. If she opts to stay with Jess tonight, there's room in my bed." Lorelai winked and blew Luke a kiss before leaving.

Smiling, Luke turned to the register and started to sort the cash.

"Luke?" a familiar voice asked.

Luke looked up from the stack of one-dollar bills he was counting. "What are you doing here?"