Knight in Shining Hair Gel – Chapter 4

Standard disclaimer applies

Thank you all very much for your feedback so far – I really appreciate it. I'm afraid this story is more fluff than substance at the moment – I have a very bad habit of waffling! But if you're still reading, then please enjoy this next offering.


Lorelai banged on Jess' door a good fifteen minutes before he really had to be up, assuming that a fifteen minute lag was to be expected in all dealings with the taciturn teenager. She'd been right, too. Eventually, his door creaked open and from where she stood in the kitchen, taking out boxes of cereal, Lorelai was glad to hear him finally moving around.

Going off previous experience, Lorelai had made it to the bathroom first, leaving Jess plenty of time alone with the wash basin, the mirror and his hair products. When he emerged for breakfast, his hair was dark, tousled, bouncy and had obviously been behaving itself because Jess had pulled off his trademark casual, cool and slightly disdainful look with aplomb.

Lorelai grinned when she saw him. "Morning, sweetie!" she called. "How do you like your cereal?"

"Lactose infused," the boy replied, taking his seat from last night.

"Ah – my speciality. Coming right up." A carton of milk was placed in the middle of the table and Jess grabbed the box of Cheerios from the side and poured himself a bowl.

"You sleep okay?" Lorelai asked, being careful not to sound too interested in case Jess took offence. Fortunately, a good night's sleep appeared to have worked a small miracle on Jess who simply gave her a slightly guarded look before nodding.

"Fine." He didn't mention the i-pod but then Lorelai knew enough now not to expect him to and she accepted it without insult. A sudden knock at the door brought them both up short. Jess glanced over his shoulder towards the hallway and Lorelai exchanged a brief, puzzled look before she shrugged.

"Could be the mail?"

Their answer came a few seconds later. From where Jess sat, his back now to the door, he frowned as he heard Lorelai's still puzzled voice. "Sam? What are you doing here? I'm sorry, I thought we weren't meeting until lunch." A man's deep voice answered her but Jess couldn't quite make out the words.

The next thing he knew, Lorelai returned to the kitchen followed by a shiny, tailored suit encompassing a tall, well-built man in, what Jess guessed to be, his late thirties. His blonde hair was cut short and stylish, maybe a little too young for him and his designer stubble made him look like he'd just stepped out of the pages of a very glossy GQ magazine. Yet, for all the trimmings, when he followed Lorelai in, hovering just too close so that she bumped in to him when she turned around, he still moved awkwardly and oozed inadequacy.

Jess looked back to his cereal and smirked. He lived and breathed for mocking geeks like this. As if Lorelai could sense his attitude, she sent a light warning look his way. Jess had caught the look and obligingly buttoned his lip: for the time being. He was still a guest in her house and for Luke and Rory's sake, Jess didn't want to screw that up.

"Did you want some coffee, Sam?" Lorelai asked, moving to top-up the water in the kettle. Their unexpected guest plastered a wide, and in Jess' opinion, a slick grin over his face and propped a hip on one of the kitchen chairs. When he promptly slid right off it again, sending the chair a few feet across the floor, Jess snorted and almost choked on his cereal. The young man winced as he felt Lorelai smoothly move behind him and helpfully thump him on the back, just a little harder than necessary.

But 'Sam' was shaking his head, tooth-paste commercial-grin still in place and trying hard to regain his suave composure. "No that's very kind of you. But I was hoping we could grab a bite of breakfast before work?"

Quickly retrieving the piece of furniture, he straightened his tie and tried once more to lean against it as he watched the young woman expectantly. Lorelai rested against the kitchen counter, her reply hanging in the air for a moment as she weighed up the situation. Her face registered her momentary hesitation. "If you'd rather not," he swept in, "I can just see you at work." He gave a smooth laugh. "Though a little bird told me you love good coffee and pastries." Sam gave her a quick wink while Jess rolled his eyes in disgust.

"A little bird tell you where she lived, too?" he muttered into his cereal. This 'Sam' character just rubbed him the wrong way. Jess didn't trust him. Luke sure as hell wouldn't trust him and without his uncle or Rory there, Jess knew he was the only one left to be on his guard. Sam glanced over at Jess, sitting hunched over his bowl and looked just a hair guilty as he shrugged, ruefully at Lorelai.

"I did a little digging," he admitted. But, Jess noted irritably, Lorelai didn't appear to be upset. Instead, she gave him a devilish smile and wagged an accusatory finger.

"I knew you had a little Tin-Tin in you."

"Or Richard Ramirez."

"Jess."

More than used to hearing his name sounded as a warning, Jess sighed and pushed himself away from his half-eaten breakfast. "I'm done," he announced, rising to his feet and clearing his bowl to the sink. Lorelai shot a slightly embarrassed smile at her work colleague, feeling her cheeks a little flushed. Though she hadn't quite worked Jess out, she got the feeling he was, for the most part, acting out of a sense of goodness rather than a need to annoy. But that still didn't change her awkwardness as Sam had flashed a surprised look to the back of Jess' head.

Without a word to her, Jess grabbed the old trash bag and tied it up. Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Can you do that with your crutches?" she wondered but Jess simply ignored her and snatched up the said items, the over-flowing bag somehow supported in the grip of one hand. Then he quickly made his exit from the kitchen before he said anything else unwise or unwarranted about Lorelai's choice in slimy companions.

"Jess?" she called after him when she didn't get a response. Jess bit back a sigh. He was always forgetting this wasn't Luke and that, unlike his uncle, Lorelai kept waiting for verbal responses to her questions.

"It's fine," he shot back, still attempting to sound civil.

Sam pushed himself away from the table as he watched the teenager struggle to manoeuvre his leg, the crutches and the bag to the front door. "Uh, do you want a hand with that?" he asked, though from the direction his eyes were travelling, he seemed to be addressing Lorelai more than the object of his question.

Jess narrowed his eyes as he put the bag down by the door to open it, glad Lorelai couldn't see the gesture as he didn't want her disapproving frown on him any longer. Creep, he thought to himself taking the bag out and leaving them alone for a moment. He wasn't sure why this jerk riled him, but that's exactly what he did.

Left alone in the kitchen, Sam seemed to find his flow again. He gave what he hoped was a polite half laugh. "I didn't know you had a son," he offered, nodding to where the hostile teenager had just disappeared. "I thought it was just you and your daughter."

"Oh, right - Jess." Lorelai began, her smile widening. "I'm sorry about before. I think he gets a little over-protective…though that one's a new experience for me, too." Truth was, though she hated the idea of Jess being rude to one of her guests, it was a little touching, in its own warped way. She wrapped her arms around her middle as she faced Sam feeling a little strange yet excited at his unexpected arrival.

Sam was nodding in understanding. "That's perfectly natural for a young man his age – he's just looking out for his mother." At that, Lorelai laughed, though not without a small twinge of something unidentifiable.

"Oh, he's not my son."

Sam looked surprised. "He's not? He has your colouring. I just assumed…"

"No." She shook her head. "Every evening I do the rounds of the neighbourhood in my cunningly disguised ice-cream truck-cage and I see how many kids I've collected by the end of the night." She gave Sam a disarming smile. "Young Jess has a weakness for cherry-flavoured popsicles." Lorelai laughed again when she saw just the slightest trace of uncertainty cross his face. "Don't worry. He's staying with me for a few days as a favour to a friend while he's out of town. And please," she assured him, "don't worry about Jess – he's just teasing. Kids, eh?" Samuel tried to hide his grimace: if that was teasing, he'd hate to see him angry.

At that moment, the front door banged open again and they both watched Jess return, minus the bag. "Thanks, Jess," she called out. The kid gave her an embarrassed nod before sitting down on the couch and pulling a paperback from his book-bag, which Lorelai had apparently removed from the back of the kitchen chair and placed on the coffee table.

Watching this, Lorelai felt a tiny affectionate glow inside her. He really could be a sweet kid if he decided to let you see that side of him. If this was the side that Luke saw, the small gestures that may sometimes go unnoticed or a conversation void of barbed remarks, then the perceptive Gilmore was realising more and more why her friend stood up for his nephew as often as he did; why he so vociferously defended the mini-hoodlum against those who often came baying for his blood at the first hint of trouble in the town.

"So," Samuel suddenly announced. "How about it Miss Gilmore? Can I twist your arm and buy you breakfast? I would like to add that it would be my pleasure."

From the couch, Jess was holding his breath, willing Lorelai to have some common sense and kick the creep out on his ear. His heart sank then when he heard her laugh and say in a rather good Southern drawl, "Well, good sir, how can I possibly turn down such a charming offer as that?" They shared another hearty laugh while she no-doubt batted her eyelashes at him, which made Jess grip the pages of his book a little tighter.

Jess kept his eyes glued to the page as Sam led Lorelai from the kitchen, his hand holding her elbow. To Jess, it felt predatory but doubtless Lorelai found it 'charming'. Jess just didn't get it: she was a smart woman, not someone he would have classed as gullible. Well, he amended, not so much recently, anyway. Why couldn't she see it?

Guys who turned up at a woman's door, unannounced and first thing in the morning to make their move just came off as either freaky or desperate in his book. It raised his hackles and there was something about Samuel Jenkins, for all his sharp suits, silver tongue and top education that nevertheless reminded him of some of the losers Liz used to bring home after a night in the local bar.

But, his erstwhile guardian had made it clear that she didn't appreciate his contributions on the matter. At least, not the ones she knew about. Samuel took Lorelai's coat from the peg by the door and helped her in to it. Like her arms have suddenly stopped working? Jess thought to himself, irritably. But she accepted the gesture with a simple 'thank you'. Romeo then opened the door for her.

"I hope you'll like the car. It's a beautiful morning to be driving with the roof down." Outside the house was parked a gleaming, silver Porsche 911 looking rather out of place in-front of the Gilmore's modest residence. He stepped back to allow Lorelai to go first and looked surprised when she held back with an apologetic shake of her head.

"Oh, that's really sweet of you," she started, "but I assumed I'd be taking my own car." Again, Jenkins shot her a puzzled look.

"Why? We can go on to work together afterwards and I can drop you back home at the end of the day. Far more economical. I really don't mind!" he assured her as he watched Lorelai's expression falter a little more.

"I really can't," she insisted as she fished her car-keys out of her purse. "I need to drop Jess at school." Despite his dislike of her new Casanova, Jess' dislike of school still won out.

"I can walk! I don't need a lift," he called from where he sat. He hadn't been driven to school in a long time and it was probably just as embarrassing as he remembered.

"I could give him a ride in…" Jenkins began to weakly protest.

"As what?" Jess snorted. "A hood ornament?!"

"There's space in the back!"

However, Lorelai quickly broke up the blossoming argument. Ignoring the disappointed look on Samuel's face and the annoyed one on Jess', she remained insistent. "Jess – you do need a ride in. It's one thing when you were at Luke's and right across the street from it but you're too far away here with your leg the way it is."

"But…"

"No 'buts', Jess!" She fixed him with a hard look, her hands on her hips and Jess tried hard not to growl in frustration as he realised it was another battle lost. "I'm not arguing with you." She suddenly tossed him the keys and he had to think quickly to catch them before they flew right past him. "Go let yourself in," she told him, "and wait for me in the car." When Jess didn't immediately move, her voice notched up a level. "Now, please Jess."

Jess let out a final exclamation of teenaged-annoyance before shoving his book in his bag and pushing up from the couch. He slung his bag over his shoulder and shuffled past the two adults, steadfastly ignoring Jenkins and casting a baleful look at Lorelai. "You got your pills for after lunch?" she asked him. His expression darkened and he looked away from her.

"Yes," he muttered, then made his way down to her car, as instructed. Jess paused a moment by Jenkin's car. He examined it closely, peered in through the window. What he saw made him smile. A CD case of Ricky Martin lay in the door pocket on the driver's side. Behind the passenger seat, just sticking out from underneath it was the edge of Cosmo magazine. Checking to see that Lorelai and Samuel weren't watching, Jess leaned in to the car and flipped open the glove compartment. A selection of receipts, manuals, lipsticks and a compact mirror slid forwards. With a smirk, Jess snapped the compartment shut and stepped back from the car.

"What a weasely little liar," Jess wondered aloud to himself. "It's not his at all - it's his damned wife's car!" Or maybe a girlfriend, he silently amended. Then, what had been amusement turned to anger. He glanced back at Lorelai, still exchanging words with Jenkins and noted the way the sleaze now had his hand on the small of her back – all in perfect innocence of course. The boy's eyes narrowed. He wanted to stalk up there and call the jerk out on it. Though he could probably deny it. Jess thought about Lorelai. She didn't like him interfering and probably wouldn't appreciate being embarrassed in front of him. She'd already proven as much.

But didn't he have an obligation to tell her? Isn't that what these supposedly 'noble' and 'honourable' people were supposed to do? Jess was sure he'd read that in a book somewhere. But wait, he commanded himself, with supreme will power. What if this really is just breakfast, and what if he was reading too much in to it? What if Lorelai knew exactly what she was doing? She wasn't Liz, after all. She didn't need watching like his mother had. He sighed, heavily. There was too damned much to think about when you were trying to do the right thing!

The front door slammed, making Jess jump. "Okay, Sam. I'll meet you there."

Lorelai came up beside him and gave him a puzzled look. "My car opens the same way all the other cars do, Jess." It was then that Jess remembered her earlier instruction and, a little sheepishly, handed her back the car keys. But on seeing the Porsche, she just smiled and patted his cheek, fondly. "Some day Jess, if you eat all your vegetables, you too may own a car like this." Despite his earlier misgivings, Jess rolled his eyes in response.

"I could think of better things to waste my money on." Lorelai narrowed her eyes at him, opened the passenger door of her car and pointed, meaningfully to it.

"Get in," she said, a light warning in her tone. She watched as Jess followed her command and then carefully shut the door when he was safely tucked inside. Then she turned back to Samuel. "I'll be about ten minutes," she told him. He nodded his understanding, gave a wave to Jess who made a point of looking the other way when he saw it, then climbed into his own car. Within a few seconds, the engine was revving and he had squealed off down the street.

Lorelai watched him go with a small shake of her head. Fancy cars did not impress her but it was sweet that he seemed to be trying. Not that Jenkins was really her type, even if the flattery was something Lorelai would sometimes like a little more of in her life. But a working breakfast would be fun and productive.

She climbed in the car and started the engine, glancing sideways to check Jess was strapped in. He followed her gaze and sighed, causing her to smile. "Sorry," she laughed. "It's a mom thing."

"If you say so."

As Lorelai pulled out into the early morning neighbourhood traffic, she spared another look at her companion. "You okay?" she asked. He seemed to be drifting away from her again. For a second, she saw Jess hesitate. It was as though, she thought, he had something weighing on his mind, something he was debating talking about. She felt like holding her breath. Jess rarely chose to say anything.

But eventually, the boy just closed his mouth and shook his head. "Everything's fine," he mumbled and that was all she could get out of him until they pulled up outside the school. As Jess unclipped his seat-belt, Lorelai looked over to him.

"Promise me you won't walk back." Jess groaned.

"Seriously? I am not having you pick me up from school!"

"I mean it, Jess. I won't wait for you where people can see, I promise. Look, you go wait at Luke's after school and I'll be by as soon as I can after work. Okay?" Jess opened his door and let it swing wide. "Okay?" she repeated, that tone back in her voice.

Jess sighed. "Okay," he acquiesced, grumbling.

"Have a good day then." Lorelai smiled warmly at him as Jess climbed out of the car. Before the passenger door slammed, Lorelai could just about make out:

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."


At school that day, Jess had honestly made an effort to concentrate on his teachers. Well, he hadn't mouthed off to anyone or started any fights. He considered that a laudable achievement and frankly so did the faculty. But still, his mind turned back again and again to Lorelai. She had been okay, he mused, as far as adult house-mates went. Certainly, though she had been hard work and hadn't left him alone to his own devices, as he had hoped she would, he had still enjoyed his evening.

As much as he hated the interference, he also kind of enjoyed her fussing. Just a little. And he would never tell her that. But there weren't many women who had cared about him, though, in her own way, Liz had tried. But Lorelai had an instinct for it and it was fair to say that Liz didn't. It was just that Jess just hated the feeling in his gut that Samuel Jenkins was a fake and no-good and that he should have said something earlier to Lorelai. His gut kept telling him this. But then Luke was always telling him not to listen so much to his gut – that it led him astray and that he needed to listen more to reason.

Jess sighed and looked at the clock. Twenty minutes until school let out. His Spanish teacher was asking the class to repeat something. Jess had no intention of joining in but it did bring his attention back to the present and he at least peered over his neighbour's shoulder to find out what page they were on in the textbook.

When the final bell rang, Jess gratefully headed out of school and over to the diner. The school crowd were already spilling in, filling up the tables and Jess was very grateful to have somewhere safe to disappear to, away from them. He found himself talking to Lane a little and exchanged the odd word with Dean, but otherwise, Jess wanted nothing to do with that crowd of people.

Once upstairs he surprised himself by making a start on his homework and he fixed himself a snack, grabbing a soda from the fridge. Luke's beers sat on the top shelf but Jess knew he'd notice if one was missing. Then there'd be hell to pay when his uncle got home. All things considered, it wasn't worth it.

At four-thirty, Jess heard a key in the door and quickly shut his book, having done as much of his homework as he intended to that night.

He heard her voice behind him: "Hey, sweetie. Sorry I'm late. You ready to go?"

It was light, breezy and bona-fide, Lorelai-chipper but immediately his gut tightened as he knew it: something was wrong. And just like that, Jess knew he should have trusted his gut.


Right – that's it for now. Thanks for reading this far! Chapter 5 is already underway and I shall try hard to get it out in the next day or so. Your feedback really does help to encourage me and to keep the creative juices flowing. I have no-one in my life who watches Gilmore Girls so this is my only opportunity to share ideas with the like-minded and get inspiration So please, if you have a minute, do drop me a line as I love to hear from you.