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Luke's POV:

"A concussion?", I confirm with the doctor.

"Yep. That tackle really caused a good amount of head trauma, but he should be fine. He'll wake up soon", the doctor tells me.

"So, he's gonna be okay, right?", Jess asks.

"He'll be fine", the doctor smiles.

"Any permanent damage?", I ask.

"Not if it gets treated properly"

"Meaning?", Jess asks.

"Meaning that if it goes undiagnosed or untreated, Jason, here, could be looking at the risk of developing second impact syndrome. It's a fatal injury that happens when an athlete, for example, goes back to training before their head injury was completely treated"

"Thank you, doctor", I say, she smiles and walks out.

"You okay?", I ask Jess, who hasn't took his eyes off Jason ever since we got to the hospital.

"Well, I'm not bleeding or anything", he replies, sarcastically.

"Jess, come on, I know tonight was pretty tough on you. It was tough on everyone, you can talk to me"

"Tough on everyone? Who else in this town gives a damn about me or my brother? Tell me, Luke, who?", he demands. I stare at him for a second, in shock, at his sudden outburst.

"Me", I state.

He scoffs, "Shouldn't you be calling your girlfriend right about now?".

"She called me when she found out what happened, she asked how he was doing", I answer, ignoring him calling Lorelai my girlfriend.

"Must've been some line at the snack stand", he comments, snidely.

"Jess, I realize you're upset about Jason. But you also have to understand that I'm...", I begin but a small voice cuts me off.

"Could you two keep it down?", Jason mutters, slowly opening his eyes.

"You're awake!", I exclaim.

"You asshole, don't ever pull that again", Jess says to him, patting his shoulder.

"I promise I won't, little bro", Jason smiles.

I run my fingers through Jason's messy hair and start to rub his shoulder.

"How do you feel?", I ask.

"Like crap. If I would've made just one more touchdown, we would've won", he replies.

I roll my eyes.

"Not your best game", Jess agrees with a smirk.

The doctor walks in with another nurse. I watch Jason and Jess's heads both turn at the young nurse.

"I see our patient is up", the doctor says with a smile.

"Yes, ma'am", Jason replies with his signature smirk.

If he didn't have a concussion, I would've smacked the back of his head right about now.

"I'm Lexi, I'm gonna be your nurse", the young nurse smiles.

"Nice to meet you, Lexi. I'm Jason", he responds.

"We want to keep him in here for a few nights for further testing", the doctor says to me.

"Approximately how many nights? I don't think he wants to be cooped up in here for long"

"Uncle Luke, please, let them do their jobs", Jason smirks, motioning to the nurse with his eyes.

I roll my eyes at him.

"It shouldn't be longer than three nights", the doctor answers.

"Perfect", Jason says.

"We actually have to do some tests immediately because he woke up sooner than expected, but visiting hours start at 6 am tomorrow"

"Okay, we'll get out of your way, thank you doctor", I say.

"Later, Jay. Take it easy, man", Jess says.

"You too, Jess"

I walk over to Jason's bed and ruffle his hair up a bit. He glares at me and once again motions to the nurse standing next to his bed. I laugh at the embarrassed look on his face.

"Feel better, Jason. I'll see you first thing tomorrow morning"

"Night, Luke"


As I make breakfast for Jess and I, I take notice of the way he sleeps. It's the same position Jason sleeps in, it almost looks like he's on the defense. Every morning when I try to wake them up, as soon as i touch them, their face tenses up. Right now, I decided to let Jess sleep in and miss school so we could go visit Jason in the hospital. I also told Cesar that he's in charge while I'm out. I continue to make pancakes as Jess slowly wakes up.

"Good morning", I say, when he sits up in his bed.

"What time is it?", he mutters.

"9:17 am"

"Why didn't you wake me up? We have to visit Jason"

"Do you really think Jason's gonna be up?", I point out.

He thinks about this for a moment. He gets up and begins to stretch.

"I made breakfast"

"Not hungry"

"Jess...", I warn.

He rolls his eyes at me.

"You have to eat", I continue.

"Not hungry", he repeats.

"I don't care if you're not hungry, force it down"

"Luke!", he groans.

"Jess, we're not leaving this apartment until you eat something", I conclude. He glares at me but sits down at the table. I put a stack of pancakes in front of him.

"Eat", I order.

He continues to glare at me, but takes a pancake from the top of the stack and takes a bite from it.

"Happy?", he asks.

"Ecstatic", I answer, rolling my eyes.


Jess's POV:

Luke and I walk into Jason's room and find him sleeping on his bed with his head wrapped up and his nurse and doctor looking through some papers.

"Any new information?", Luke asks.

"We ran an MRI. It's nothing too severe but nothing too mild", the doctor replies.

"Poor kid's gonna have some fatigue, he's going to be much more irritable, he's gonna be a little drowsy, he's going to be very tired, and maybe some nausea", the nurse explains.

Luke nods, looking over at Jason with a concerned face. Luke and the doctors start discussing symptoms when a thought suddenly comes to my mind.

"Does Liz know?", I ask. They all stop talking and turn to stare at me. There's a long pause.

"I called her last night", Luke answers with hesitation. By the look on his face I can tell that Liz didn't give a damn.

"With everything going on, she really wanted to be here but she just...", Luke's voice drifts off.

"Whatever", I mutter.

The doctor and nurse exit, leaving Luke, a sleeping Jason, and me.

"You okay?", Luke asks.

"I'm not the one with the concussion"

"Jess, I know it must suck not to have your mom around at times like this"

I scoff. "Save it. Jason and i are used to it. We don't need her, we don't need anyone", I snap.

An annoyed groan cuts Luke off before he has a chance to argue with me. It was coming from Jason.

"Jess, keep your damned voice down, my head is pounding", he mumbles.

"Morning, Jason, how are you doing?", Luke says.

"How does it look like I'm doing?", Jason replies.

"You're right, that was a stupid question", Luke admits.

"Why aren't you in school?", Jason asks me.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I'm not. You're not the one with the concussion"

"He's going back tomorrow. I figured you'd like to see some familiar faces today", Luke tells him.

"Has anyone called Liz yet?", Jason asks.

Luke and I look at each other and there's a long pause.

"She can't visit Jason, I'm sorry, but she sends her best", Luke answers.

Jason doesn't say anything, he just looks up at the ceiling with a blank look on his face. Luke sits down in the chair next to his bed and puts his hand on Jason's shoulder.

"I'm tired, I'm not in the mood for visitors right now", he finally says.

"Jay, it's not...", I begin but he interrupts me.

"It's not a big deal, I know, Jess. I never said it was, I just wanna get some rest, okay? It's sort of necessary when a 300 pound dude tackles you down", he grunts.

"We'll be back later, you get your rest", Luke cuts in before I have a chance to argue. He pulls me out of there.

"We have to give him some time", Luke says.

"Whatever"

"Jess, I know you wanted to hang out with Jason, but he has to rest, it's the hardest on him"

"I didn't say anything"

"You didn't have to"

"Can we just go?"

"You have the day off from school, what do you wanna do?"

"Right now, I wanna get away from you"

"We can't all get what we want"

I roll my eyes. I'm just not in the mood for all this crap. Jason's always the first person to say 'screw Liz' or 'who cares about Liz? She doesn't care about us', I don't understand why he got so upset.

Luke and I walk out to his truck. I can tell he wants to say something but he's probably scared I'll snap at him or something. He sighs as he buckles his seat belt.

"Poor kid", I hear him mumble to himself.

"What?", I ask.

"Nothing, just thinking about Jason", he replies, obviously surprised I heard him.

I turn on the radio and listen to rock music. I turn the volume up and just stare outside as Luke drives. I look over to him driving with a timid face, I can tell the music is getting to him but he's not saying anything, he's just cringing. I decide to turn it up a little, just to see how he reacts. His face tenses up. I tap along to the music and bop my head once in a while.

"I can't do this!", he suddenly exclaims, stopping the car.

"What?", I say innocently, a little surprised at his outburst.

"I can't take this music, the tapping, the head bopping. Get out of the car!"

"What?", I say, actually surprised.

"Walk home, get some fresh air, God knows you need it"

"Whatever you say, Uncle Luke", I smirk, opening the car door and happily hopping out.

"Be home in an hour, the latest"

"Thought I was grounded"

"Not for the next hour. Walk around, sit on a bench, do something, anything! I just need an hour"

"Anything?", I smirk.

"Keep it legal", he warns.

"I'll try my best"

"You have an hour", he repeats, before driving away.

I smiled to myself as I watched Luke's truck drive away. I respect him for being able to handle Jason and I the way he does. It's not exactly the easiest job in the world. I looked at my watch, it was 12:41; that meant everyone in the town was either at work or at school. I decide to take the long way back to Luke's, it's the first time I've been out alone in a while because I got grounded.

As I'm walking, I see a pond come into a distance. I walk closer to it and I can see a bridge. It was completely hidden away behind trees and it was quiet. I sit down on it and let my legs hang off it over the water. This is the perfect spot to get away from it all. Away from the town, away from the stress; away from everything.

Staring off into the distance, I begin to think about everything that's been going on. Why won't Liz just come and see Jason? She could at least send a card. It just makes me so angry. But the worst part is that we're used to it, and that alone makes me even angrier. I throw a rock and my reflection in the water and for a second, the water ripples and my reflection disappears, but it appears again. I look down at my watch and see that it's 1:03, I should start heading back.


I walk into the diner at 1:36, Luke is standing behind the counter talking to Lorelai. I really don't wanna get into a conversation right now, but on the other hand I'm starving and all Luke has upstairs is healthy junk. I start to walk into the kitchen to make myself a sandwich but sure enough, Luke stops me.

"Jess, you know Cesar doesn't like you back there when he's working", Luke says.

"Then tell him to make me a sandwich", I reply, getting annoyed.

"Sit down, I'll make you a grilled cheese", he tells me, walking into the kitchen.

I roll my eyes and sit down two seats away from Lorelai.

"Hey, Jess", she greets.

I nod at her.

"I heard Luke kicked you out of his car"

"The words 'get out of my car' were uttered"

"How are you?", she asks.

"Well, I'm not bleeding or anything", I answer, not making eye contact.

"I mean with Jason, that must've been awful seeing him like that", she recounts, sympathetically.

Thankfully, before I have a chance to respond, the diner phone rings.

"Jess, could you get that?", Luke calls from the kitchen.

I walk around the counter to pick up the phone.

"Luke's", I say.

"Hello? Luke?", a male voice says.

"This is Luke's", I repeat, impatiently.

"I need to talk to Luke. Who are you?", the man asks.

"This is Jess, Luke's busy right now, who are you?", I reply.

"Jess?", the man says in a questioning voice.

"Yeah, like I said, Luke's busy"

The line starts to beep, meaning that the other person hung up. I roll my eyes for the phone call wasting my time and put it back on the base. Luke walks out of the kitchen with my grilled cheese.

"Who called?", he asks, placing the grilled cheese in front of the empty seat next to Lorelai.

"They didn't say, they just said they wanted to talk to you", I answer, walking around the counter.

"What did you say?"

"I said you were busy"

"You couldn't have took a message?"

"I'm not your secretary"

Luke rolls his eyes and begins to wipe the counter. I try to take my grilled cheese upstairs with me, so I could avoid conversation, but as soon as I got up, Luke motioned for me to sit back down.

"I have to go pick Rory up from school", Lorelai says, getting up.

"Okay, I'll see you later", Luke replies.

Lorelai smiles, but continues to stand there, looking like she wants to say something else.

"Are you visiting Jason today?", she finally asks.

"Yeah, Jess and I should be going back tonight at around 5, why?"

"Is it okay if Rory and I come? I wanna see how he's doing"

"Sure, I'm sure he'd appreciate the extra company"

I scoff at that and Luke shoots a warning look at me.

"Great, we'll be here at 4:30. Bye Luke, bye Jess"

Luke waves and I just continue to eat my sandwich as she walks out.

"Your people skills are really improving", he says, sarcastically.

"Thanks for the feedback", I respond.

"Pour refills", he tells me, handing me the coffee pitcher.

I take the pitcher from him and begin to go around refilling coffees. Taylor walks in and eyes me suspiciously then continues to walk towards Luke. I watch Luke roll his eyes as Taylor approaches him. I walk up next to Luke and he hands me a cleaning rag. I start to wipe the counter so I can hear what Taylor is saying.

"What do you want Taylor?", Luke groans.

"There seems to have been an incident this afternoon", he begins, shooting a sideways glance at me.

"Thanks for the information", Luke replies, obviously done with the conversation.

"Do you have anything you want to say for yourself, young man?", he badgers, turning to me with an accusatory look. I just roll my eyes at him.

"What did I do now?", I ask, amused. Now Luke looks interested, he crosses his arms and looks back and forth from me and Taylor.

"Many people witnessed your nephew walking to the bridge this afternoon", Taylor starts.

"What? Now you have the whole town spying on me?", I sneer.

"Where is this going, Taylor?", Luke exasperates.

"That bridge is under construction! First he and his hooligan brother stole the money to repair it, now they're deliberately trying to sabotage the repair process!", he exclaims.

"I sat on a bridge; arrest me", I smirk.

"This is ridiculous! Now, would you prefer to walk out? Or be thrown out?", Luke threatens Taylor. I smirk to myself. It felt good knowing that Luke would always be there to stand up for me.

"Your nephews are out of control! What are you going to do about it?"

"Well, one of them's being hospitalized at the moment, so I don't have to worry about that one sitting on any bridges any time soon. As for Jess, I'll make sure to lecture him on the bridges he can and cannot sit on", Luke replies, contemptuously.

"Can't you take anything seriously, Luke?"

"I was serious when I said I would throw you out"

"This is unbelievable", he declares, storming off.

"Glad to see he's warming up to me", I joke.

"Jess, please, just try and stay out of trouble", he pleads.

"It's not like I committed an offense, Luke, jeez! I sat on a bridge, there weren't signs or anything"

"This isn't about the bridge, Jess. Just in general, Taylor's already looking for a reason to make you look bad and piss me off"

"You have me locked up all the time, it's not like I have endless opportunities to commit a felony", I mutter under my breath.

"Don't give me that! I'm trying to teach you that your actions come with consequences. You think I'm bad? Wait till you get to the real world. One of your stupid pranks go wrong out there, and you'll be wishing that you just had an extra shift in the diner and that you had to stay home", he lectures.

I know better than to argue with Luke when he gets like this. I put my head down and avoid eye contact.

"You can stand there and complain all you want. You can hate me for grounding you, I don't care. But as long as you live under my roof, you live by my rules. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand", I answer, annoyed.

He looks surprised that I gave in so quickly.

"Good, we're on the same page"

"I don't hate you", I mumble, without thinking.

"What?", he asks, not hearing what I said.

"I don't hate you", I repeat, rolling my eyes.

"Could've had me fooled", he scoffs.

I roll my eyes once again as Luke looks at me like he's trying to decide what to do.

"Get upstairs and finish your homework, I'll call you down when it's time to go", he decides.

"I finished my homework", I reply.

"Really? Perfect, I'm sure Cesar could use a hand with the dishes then", he warns.

"I'll find something to do", I mutter, heading upstairs.

I open the apartment door and go over to my bed which is across from Jason's. Jason's bed looks just like it did before he went to the football game. His clothes were scattered all over the floor surrounding the bed, his bed wasn't made, the clothes he changed out of were on the bed, and he had his autographed football placed on his bedside table. For as long as I could remember, that football was always right next to Jason's bed. I walk over to it and take it off its stand; I'll take it to him in the hospital today.

I turn on my music and blast it to the highest volume, lay down on my bed, and close my eyes. I have a few hours to kill, so I might as well test out how high I can play my music before Luke has an aneurism.


Luke's POV:

I decide to close the diner at 4:00 today so Jess and I could visit Jason without Cesar having to handle everything by himself. I turn the sign over to 'closed' as Cesar exits.

Jess's damned music has been blasting for the past two and a half hours. I didn't say anything; it would've just ended up causing a fight. I go upstairs and nearly go deaf at how much louder the music is upstairs.

I find Jess sleeping on his bed, I have no idea how anyone could sleep through this. I turn it off and walk over to Jess's bed. I nudge him and as expected, his face tenses up and his arms tighten up as if they're protecting something in his hands. I lean in to see that Jess is holding on to Jason's football that he keeps next to his bed. It looked like he was guarding it with his life. I run my fingers through Jess's unruly dark hair because it's the only time I can do it without getting a withering glare from him. He starts to wake up.

"Hey, it's time to go visit Jason", I say, calmly. He nods as he lets out a loud yawn.

"Are you taking his football to him?", I ask, pointing to the football he was still holding on to as if his life depended on it. He immediately loosens the grip on it and nods at me.

"Is Lorelai here yet?", he asks.

"She and Rory should be here soon"

"Great", he mutters sarcastically.

"Be nice", I warn.

Jess, football in hand, and I walk downstairs. I can see Lorelai and Rory approaching the diner from the window.

"Hey", Lorelai greets, cheerfully, as she and Rory enter.

I wave to her.

"Let's get going, I'll drive", I say.

"Okay", they agree in unison.

Jess and I walk behind them and I throw the diner keys to Jess to lock up behind him as I look for my car keys. I unlock the car. Lorelai sits in the passenger seat and Rory sits in the back. Jess locks the diner door, hands me the keys, then joins Rory in the back.

"What'cha got there?", Rory asks, probably referring to the football.

"Jason's autographed football"

"Isn't it mean to bring something that reminds him of his injury?", Lorelai asks.

Jess just grunts in response.

"My mother drives faster than you, Luke", Lorelai comments.

I roll my eyes.

"It's true, I've witnessed Grandma pass 30 miles per hour", Rory adds.

"I'm sticking to the speed limit", I state.

"The speed limit which was decided by Taylor", Lorelai points out.

"I think about this for a moment and consider that whatever Taylor decides, it's usually not a valid decision. I drive a little faster and Lorelai begins to cheer like a little kid on a ferris wheel.

"You're not supposed to be distracting the driver", I say.

"Sorry, driver", she pouts.

"You're such a child"

"You're such a grown up", she retorts, sticking her tongue out at me.

"Please, for the love of God, drive faster", Jess groans.

"Ooh, he has the capability to speak in full sentences!", Lorelai exclaims, in mock surprise.

"You're all mental", I hear him mutter under his breath.

"Hey, what did I tell you?", I warn him.

"To close the bathroom door while I'm pissing or taking a shit", he replies with a serious face.

"Jess!", I exclaim.

Lorelai and Rory giggle.

"I'm glad you thought that was funny, because I just saw it as disrespectful", I say to Lorelai.

"Come on, Luke, lighten up. You're starting to sound like my mother", she laughs.

I roll my eyes.

After five minutes of driving and listening to Lorelai and Rory talk about the people who don't close the door behind them when they use the bathroom, I pull up in front of the hospital. Jess is the first one out of the car and slams the door behind him. This is the third time coming back and we still always get lost going to Jason's room. We all approach the desk to ask as Jess impatiently stands there with his arms crossed.

"Could you please direct me to Jason Mariano's room?", I ask. She types something up in her computer then looks back up at me.

"He has a visitor right now that has requested full privacy", she replies. This really catches Jess's attention.

"Excuse me?", I say.

"That's impossible", Jess cuts in.

"Who authorized this? I'm his uncle, who came in and thought they could just have full privacy?", I demand.

She looks something up in her computer and scrolls up and down with the mouse.

"It says here that his father came in almost five minutes ago and requested that he be uninterrupted during his visit"

"That's not going to happen", I say.

"Where's the room?", Jess asks.

"I can't help you"

"Look, I know it says his father came in and everything. But, you don't understand the circumstances. Allowing that man to be alone with that kid isn't smart. Nobody's seen him in 13 years, we don't know if he's stable, if he's doing drugs, nobody knows. I just need you to tell me where my nephew's room is"

She looks torn. She looks to make sure no one else is listening in.

"If he files a complaint, say you found the room on your own. It's down that hall and to your left. Room 283", she answers.

I thank her quickly then rush to the room.


Jess's POV:

"Jimmy?", is the only thing I'm able to make out. I walk into Jason's room to see my dad, who I haven't seen since I was barely three, sitting next to Jason's bed.

"Jess", he states, uncomfortably.

"Jimmy", Luke says, as soon as he storms in.

"Luke", he replies, now sounding nervous.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here", Luke says to him. Lorelai and Rory stand outside the room and Jason just sits there on the bed, not saying anything.

"Luke, please, I tried to call you to let you know I was coming but you weren't there. Jess picked up the phone and I was too nervous to talk to him", he explains.

"How did you even know what happened?", Jason asks.

"I booked a plane ticket as soon as Liz called me, I wanted to make sure you were okay"

"He's fine", Luke answers, sternly.

"I'm sure he is, I trust you'll take excellent care of him", Jimmy says, getting up from his seat.

"I left my number for you, Jason, I definitely want to see you and Jess before I head back to California", he says.

"With Luke's permission, of course", he adds quickly, as he looks at Luke's angry face.

He exits and Lorelai and Rory walk in.

"Everything good?", Lorelai asks, hesitantly.

"Everything's fine", Luke answers, walking over to Jason.

"Are you okay?", he asks Jason.

"I'm fine, Luke, he was only here for like a minute before you all came in"

"It was long enough for him to leave a number", I point out.

"Whatever, I don't wanna talk about it", Jason says.

I understand where he's coming from. Jason was older than me when Jimmy left; he remembers more.

"Jess brought you something", Luke says, changing the subject.

His face lights up when he sees the football.

"Thanks, man! Put it next to my bed"

I place it on the nightstand next to the bed.

"Aren't you going to thank Lorelai and Rory for coming to see you?", Luke reminds him.

"Hey", Jason greets, casually.

"How are you doing?", Rory asks.

"Concussions don't feel too great", he answers.

"Good point", Lorelai chimes in.

I stare at the piece of paper with Jimmy's number on it, right next to Jason's bed. He must've noticed me staring at it.

"Can you guys give me and Jess a second?", he asks.

"Sure", Lorelai says, pulling Luke out who looked like he wanted to object.

"No", Jason states immediately as soon as they walk out.

"I didn't say anything", I defend.

"I'm not letting you see him"

"You're not the boss of me, Jason!"

"I'm older than you, therefore I am"

"You didn't even give me a chance to say anything! You're just making assumptions!"

"Tell me if my assumptions are wrong. Do you wanna see him?"

"Yes", I admit, quietly.