Jess had been tempted to go and find his sister, but thought that Luke would have questions, and he should probably answer them instead of leaving it to Allie, who hadn't wanted Luke to know in the first place. He leaned against the side of the table, waiting patiently for Luke to speak.
"When did this happen?" Luke asked quietly.
Jess shrugged. "Mom started going out with this guy about three months before I came to stay here. He was ok for the first couple of weeks, but then... Allie's about two months along, I think."
"And does Liz know?" Luke's voice was hollow.
"She knows that he's a violent guy. As I said, he liked to knock us all about a bit. But she doesn't know about the other stuff."
"I have to call her."
"And Allie doesn't want her to know. Not yet. So please don't call her or anything, at least not until you've talked to Allie. She'll be mad enough that I told you without mom finding out as well." cautioned Jess.
"Why didn't she want me to know?"
"Look, I shouldn't have told you in the first place, but I just get so sick of people thinking that they can see right through us, thinking we're no good and all. Allie didn't come out here with the intention of letting you in on this, she doesn't like putting her baggage onto other people. She just came here to get away." Jess told him.
Luke couldn't quite get his head around the whole thing. "And is that why Liz sent you out here? Because of this guy? Why didn't she send Allie as well?"
"Talk about twenty questions." muttered Jess, and then sighed. "I got sent to you because... well Allie and I had already been in a bit of trouble, cutting school and stuff... we tried to stay away from home as much as possible, it was ok when he wasn't there. A couple of times he randomly came to our place and Allie was the only one home, and that's when it would happen. She never told me the first time, but it happened again and he'd smacked her around a bit and she had some nasty bruises, so I ended up finding out. Basically, the next time I saw him, I told him never to touch my sister again, and to make sure he got the message, I... I broke his nose and both his hands..."
"His hands? How the hell did you manage that?" interjected Luke, morbidly proud of his nephew.
"That's really not the issue here." Jess skirted the question. "After that, he told mom that he'd have me up for assault, and she didn't want me to have a criminal record or whatever and she said that she was scared of the direction I was going in, so she sent me out here. I talked to Allie as much as I could, and she reckons that she never had any trouble from him after that- his hands were still pretty messed up- I don't know if it's true, but... well, she's here now."
"So has she gone to the police? Does anyone else know?"
Jess grimaced. "No. Not yet."
"She has to report it!" Luke was shocked. "She can't let him just get away with it."
"She doesn't want to. At least not yet, so just leave it ok? She'll sort it when she's ready." said Jess firmly. "So do you have any more questions? Coz if you don't then I'm gonna go find Allie."
Luke shook his head dumbly. "Go."
Jess paused at the door. "Oh, and don't make a big deal of this, ok? Allie wouldn't want you to."
After he had left, Luke paced about the room, still trying to comprehend was had happened.
"Oh god, the things I said to her!" he groaned, slapping his forehead. He had been slightly numb with shock during the conversation with Jess, but now feeling was returning in the form of anger. His head burned with it, and his muscles tensed. All of a sudden, he found himself unreasonably furious with Liz for bringing that man into her life and the lives of her children; he was filled with wrath just thinking about the drunken fool who had caused all this; he was irate at Allie and Jess for having kept this from him, and most of all, he was completely livid at himself just for not doing anything sooner, and not being able to do anything now. In his state of rage, he threw a few things across the room, smashed a few cups and plates, and violently punched the wall until his knuckles split. With tiny rivulets of blood snaking between his clenched fingers, he rested his head against the wall he had just assaulted, breathing hard, his anger melting away just at quickly as it had bubbled over.
It was about midnight, and Lorelai wandered into the kitchen in search of coffee. She was in pyjama bottoms and a singlet, and had been contemplating going to bed, but decided that she could do with one more cup of coffee before hitting the sack. Rory had already been asleep for a couple of hours, so Lorelai padded quietly across the lino to the fridge (it was now working fine and all mysterious life forms had been removed from it and it only contained regular fridge stuff.) and tried to remember how old the milk was. A sudden tap at the window totally caught her by surprise, and she leapt back, her hand flying to her mouth to stifle a shriek. She stared in shock at the face peering in the window, and it wasn't until she heard the second insistent tapping that she realised it was only Luke, and she unfroze, and went to let him in.
"For god's sake!" she hissed, swiping at his chest. "Sneak up on me in the middle of the night! Way to give me a heart attack! And I'm so young, too..."
"I need to talk to you." he muttered.
She ushered him inside, closing the door behind him. "Now?" the serious look on his face answered her question. "Ok, but we have to go into the lounge, I don't want to wake Rory."
Luke nodded and followed her into the next room. "I brought coffee."
Lorelai gazed at him for a moment before eagerly grabbing the cup. "Sometimes I think that you're an angel sent from god especially for me to read my mind and cater for my every whim and fancy. Did you bring pizza as well?" she tried, hopefully.
"No." came the flat reply.
"Hmmph. Well you need to read over your contract, mister. You can't just do this whim and fancy thing by halves, you know. It can leave a person feeling very cheated. But I'm still grateful for the coffee."
They sat down next to each other on the couch, and Lorelai put her feet up and sat sideways so she could face Luke. He fidgeted and sighed a few times. "Whenever you're ready." encouraged Lorelai, sipping at her coffee, enjoying the caffeine fix seeping through her bloodstream.
Luke took a deep breath. "I don't know what to do, Lorelai. I just... I don't..."
The urgency in his tone caught her by surprise, and a cold spiral of dread snaked around her stomach.
"What's wrong?"
He gazed over at her, his eyes wide. "It's Allie." He started to tell her what had happened that day, how he had found the pregnancy test box, and confronted Allie and how they had argued. When he got to the part where Jess had come in and Allie had stormed out, he got up and started pacing back and forth in agitation.
Luke was finding it difficult to repeat everything that he'd been told, and kept stopping and starting and stammering, but Lorelai kept quiet, and just let him tell it at his own pace, careful not to upset him anymore than he already was.
"He did that to her, and now she's pregnant, and I... I don't know how to deal with this" he said desperately, still pacing. Lorelai set down her cup. "It's ok, Luke."
"Ok?" he drew a hand over his face agitatedly. "It's definitely not ok."
Lorelai jumped up and grabbed his shoulders. "Just stop for a second, ok? Just stop."
He swallowed hard, but stood still. He looked so lost that Lorelai's heart went out to him, and she pulled him to her. He hugged her tightly, his eyes shut and his brow furrowed, and she just held him, rubbing his back gently and soothing him.
She sat him down on the couch, and took his hands in hers, stroking them. She stopped for a second. "What happened to your hand?" She ran a finger over his knuckles tentatively. "Have you been playing knucklebones again? I told you, you take that game way too seriously. Look what happens."
"I punched a wall... a few times." he told her resignedly. He had lost all his anger and was now just feeling tired and helpless.
"So how is Allie now?" Lorelai asked quietly.
Luke shrugged. "I don't know,I haven't seen her since she walked out, but I think Jess went to find her."
"God, I'll kill Liz..." he carried on, frowning. "Bringing a man like that into her house and... and letting all that happen."
"I am sure that Liz didn't mean for any of this to happen, Luke. Don't blame her."
"Well she probably could have done something to stop it... or something, but now, he's hurt them all, hurt Allie, and I just want to be able to take it all back, I want to take it all from her and fix it so she doesn't hurt anymore and she can just..."
"I know." soothed Lorelai. "I know you want to, but it's done, and all you can do is be there for her now."
"And it's not just that," Luke shook his head. "It's Jess as well, what he's been through. I've been so hard on him. No wonder he couldn't settle when he first got here, and he was calling home all the time and I didn't even pick up that something might be wrong... and that's why he wanted her to come out here so bad... so that he could get her away. And I didn't even think..."
"You weren't to know. No one was. She's here now, and that's all that matters."
He turned to her suddenly. "How do you do it, Lorelai?"
"Do what?"
"Be a parent. Like a proper parent. How do you ever let her out of your sight, knowing what could happen? I've only had Jess for a few weeks, and it's hard enough, how can you look after someone for sixteen years, and know that's only the beginning?"
Lorelai smiled. "I don't know. It's just ingrained. I couldn't imagine life without Rory, and as scared as I am to let her go, it's amazing to watch her grow and make it on her own."
They sat in silence for a few moments until Luke spoke.
"So what now? What do I do?"
"What does Allie want to do?"
"She doesn't want to keep it."
"She's sure?"
"Her mind seemed pretty made up about it." sighed Luke.
"Well then, you help her through that, and then..." Lorelai squeezed his hand. "And then you take it from there."
Luke seemed content with that answer, and he put his arm around Lorelai's shoulders, and kissed her hair.
"Thank you."
"I'd do anything for you Luke, you know that - you're my coffee guy."
