Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story line.
A/N: I AM SO SORRY! I was completely stuck on this story…I felt so bad. But, I'm happy now that I can finally update your cliffhanger…except, oops, I think I have one on the bottom of this chapter too. Lol. Sorry. But, don't worry, I will definitely update WAY faster. Again, I'm sorry. Well, on with the story…
---
"Mom. Please. Sit down, your making me crazy pacing like that." Rory said in a shriveled voice, half scared of having a nervous breakdown, and half scared that something horrible might be happening to Luke at that moment. Lorelai barely paid attention to her daughter, but she did sit. "Umm, did—I mean, what--,"
Lorelai stopped her, "Rory, no. I'm sorry, but I'm not in the mood for conversation right now. I can barely hold my head up and I don't want to fall asleep right now."
Rory leaned into her chair, slouching down. Feeling smaller and smaller every second that her mother scolded her. Jess noticed. "Rory, how about we go and get some coffee in the cafeteria, huh?" She nodded a small nod, and picked up her sweater. Jess turned to Lorelai, "Want us to bring you something?"
"Just go. I'm fine."
Rory didn't look at her mother when she had said this, she had a feeling that if she did then she would probably start to cry. She followed Jess out to the cafeteria; they didn't say anything to each other the whole time. She had her sweater clutched in her hands, even while she was eating her Jell-O.
It had already become watery, and it was barely whole. "So, wild day, huh? I was practically scared out of my mind when mom told us that he had some kind of collapse or something. I mean, he's the healthiest man I know probably."
"Uh-huh." Jess nodded, his eyes wouldn't even meet her's.
"What's wrong?"
He flinched, "Nothing, Rory. Eat your Jell-O."
She felt her eyes start to water, and she looked down at her coffee. "This isn't my fault."
"I know."
"Then why are you treating me this way? Why is everyone treating me like a piece of dirt?"
"Nobody is treating you like a piece of dirt, Rory."
She switched her fork to her other hand, still picking at her food. "Okay." Her voice was small, and when he looked at her he could tell that she was upset. Her hair was in front of her eyes, and her hands were shaking.
Jess sighed. "I'm just not in a chatty mood, okay?"
"I get it." She nodded. But, he could tell that she didn't because she was still staring at her coffee as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I—Well, I guess that I'll go and bring some coffee to mom."
Then, she was fast enough to get out of the room so that she didn't have to look him in the eye.
He leaned back against the chair and rubbed his temple. He was getting a headache for all of this. Rory, Luke, Lorelai. It was all that was going through his mind. He wanted to comfort Rory, and tell her that it wasn't about her. Or, even talk to Lorelai…who had been completely horrible to him in the past, but the only person that would understand him at that moment. See Luke. That was first on his list of things to do.
When he was getting up to pay, a doctor stopped him.
"I'm sorry, could you tell that young woman that was with you a second ago that her father has woken up and is requesting to see her…he goes by the name of Luke Danes?"
His lip quivered. "But—I mean, he wants to see Rory?"
"He said that she would be with you, his nephew? Blue eyes, brown hair? I assumed it was his daughter."
"Oh. Yeah, I'll tell her."
He nodded, "Great."
"Oh, and doctor!" Jess called after him, he stopped. "Is—is he okay?"
The doctor gave him a genuine smile. "I'll let him tell you that himself."
He could catch his breath again, and looked down.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Everything had happened so fast. Too fast. She was just getting used to no one talking to her, when Jess just out of the blue sat next to her and mumbled about Luke wanting to see her. She was now standing in front of his hospital room. She was the first person he wanted to see. Believe it or not, that was a huge responsibility. Her mother could barely believe that Luke would want to see Rory first. She couldn't even try to apologize because she didn't exactly know if she had anything to apologize for.
A nurse walked up to Rory, worried. "I'm sorry, can I help you with anything?" She talked slowly as if she thought that Rory was mentally unable to comprehend what she was saying.
"No thanks. I'm just…waiting for someone."
"Okay." She said, giving her an idiotic smile and then walking away.
She looked around, it was now or never. She pushed the door open and put her hand over her mouth when she saw him. Luke was laying in a hospital bed, he didn't look too comfortable. He looked pretty pale, but he didn't have an awkward look on his face when she walked in. More like peaceful, she guessed it was the drugs.
"Luke." Rory nodded, walking over to the side of the bed slowly.
He cleared his throat, as if he had also lost his voice. "I didn't think you would be here…I mean--,"
She shook her head. "I freaked out when mom told me that you were here. I mean, it just came to a surprise. But, I would have never not come. And…Uh, how are you doing?"
"I'm getting my nutrients from a hospital machine, who knows if they have some kind of unhealthy substance in that stuff? It could be anything."
Rory smiled, fighting back tears. "It's a hospital. They want to make you healthy."
Luke pointed a finger at her. "That's what they want you to think." She laughed dryly. "So, your probably wondering why--,"
"You asked to see me first? Yeah, a little."
He nodded his head. "I just needed to tell you that I know."
"You know what?"
"You and Jess, Jess and you. I found your..uhm, bra behind the couch at home. He probably didn't think that I would actually have to clean at some point." He looked uncomfortable.
Rory turned bright red. "Luke, we didn't—I mean, we never…"
"Okay." Luke stated, sighing. "Just…don't. I mean, don't now if you didn't then…or—,"
"It was just your basic boy-girl stuff, I promise."
Luke didn't nod, he barely even acknowledged it. "This doesn't mean that I'm okay with this. You should know better than hiding this from your mother, especially after she told you not to see him. It's not fair that I had to keep that secret all that time."
"Mom knows." She whispered.
"Oh, she knows?"
Rory sighed, shifting uncomfortably. "Yeah. She knows. But, I didn't tell her. So, it makes me the same kind of liar. She came in to tell us about the hospital, and we were kissing."
"It was today?"
"Yup." Rory looked around, not meeting his eyes. "So, now that you told me that you know…should I call in mom? Or even Jess?"
"After you tell me what's wrong."
She shook her head. "Nothing. Everyone's just tense. And Jess is upset, so, I can call him in if you want. He was worried even if he doesn't admit it. Mom was going ballistic."
Luke shut his eyes, "You can send Lorelai in."
"Oh. Okay." Her face dropped, but she nodded.
He heard her close the door, and then the drugs took over and he couldn't keep his eyes opened.
The next time he opened his eyes, Lorelai was sitting next to him with coffee in her hands.
"Hey there. We had a bit of a scare back there. You okay?" He nodded. "Don't talk, drink." She shoved the coffee in his face, but he firmly shook his head.
He grumbled, "It doesn't matter that I had a near death experience..I'm still not drinking something that can kill you. Coffee isn't going to be the thing that will kill me, I'm sure of that."
Lorelai smirked. "I am."
"Exactly." He chuckled.
"So, with your hilarious sense of humor…I can guess that you're doing at least okay?"
"Not great, but okay." Luke nodded, he stared at her hands that were trembling. "But your not. Rant. Go ahead. Tell me all about Rory and Jess' romance."
She shakily changed the subject, "The doctor said that you had a mild heart attack. Why don't we talk about that?"
"Stress, nothing else to it. Now, talk to me about the fact that you are picturing fifty different ways to murder Jess without anyone noticing."
"Fifty-one." She mumbled.
He sighed, "What happened?"
"I—I walked in, and they were heavy on the making out. It was only what I expected, this was bound to happen when one turns into their mother." Lorelai's voice was strong, but she could barely hold up her cup. "Lock you up and throw away the key. I'm surprised she's not pregnant."
"Lorelai--,"
"It's fine, Luke. It's actually good that I know what has been happening to me. Chris flashbacks. You know Jess and Chris could be brothers? That's how much they're alike. It's just scary. She's bound to make a mistake."
Luke narrowed his eyes on her. "Rory was a mistake?"
"Well, it wasn't a smart decision."
He nodded. "But you love her, and everything is great now. She is the best kid in the world, and just with a touch of her finger, she could probably make someone look at her differently. Jess fell into her spell. Can't blame him. Those are some good genes."
Lorelai looked up and smiled. "If you're trying to make me feel better, it's working." He returned the smile. "Eh, Luke, are you really okay?" He didn't respond, he just shrugged. "I could barely breath when I saw that you had collapsed. You were clutching your chest…"
"I was going to be okay."
"Well, it didn't feel like it." She said in all seriousness. "I couldn't move, I didn't know what to do. The next thing I knew, someone had called an ambulance and I was just staring at you, not moving. When strange men came to pick you up, I walked out the door and watched the ambulance drive away. It took me fifteen minutes to get to my house, because I was so—upset." She finally said. He could see that she was starting to cry, hiding it terribly.
Luke shook his head. "You weren't going to loose me."
"It took me fifteen minutes to get to my house, Luke. I'm a horrible person, you could have been dying and I was taking my grand old time."
"But you weren't."
She shrugged, "What's the difference? You would have never done the same with me…you would have probably performed surgery right there, because your like that. Brave. I don't know what I would even do without you."
Luke smiled. "I'm not going anywhere, so, you don't have to worry about that."
Lorelai wiped existing tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I was too late."
Luke had a blank expression on his face, but she felt a warm hand over her's. "No you weren't."
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Umm, excuse me, but could you tell me where that guy over there went? He had kind of black hair, leather jacket?"
"Oh, the cute boy…I think he went down to the cafeteria." The receptionist smiled. "Aww, your boyfriend?"
Rory nodded emptily. "Something like that."
"Cute, cute."
Rory nodded and sighed. "Well, thanks. I'll go find him."
The woman gave her a reassuring nod and then walked off. Rory sighed, fingering the cup of coffee in her hands. She had to talk to him, she couldn't even bear not having contact with him for half an hour, and it had been a long six hours. He hadn't even made eye contact, which was probably her fault.
She walked quickly to the deserted cafeteria. There was no one in there except a bunch of doctors laughing on their lunch hour. She looked around, and saw that Jess wasn't there. She frowned; there was only one other place he could be.
Instantly, when she walked outside, she saw him leaning against the walls of the hospital, having a smoke. He was just kicking the snow around; he was so distant that he didn't even notice that she was there. She walked over to him, and stood next to him. "Hey. You okay?" Rory whispered, not wanting to bother him.
He practically jumped. "Oh, hi. I thought you were Lorelai…"
Rory smiled, "Well, we do have a resemblance."
He took a look at her and nodded. "We haven't talked yet, have we?" Rory looked confused. "Yeah, I was kind of dreading this talk…it's the talk which ends with you crying."
"What are you talking about?"
"Rory."
"What, Jess? What do you want from me? Do you want me to go into your brain and understand what you're trying to do or say to me? Am I supposed to understand why you're being so distant or horrible? I can't do that." Rory felt her nose running from the coldness; it could probably be the fact that she was about to cry. He knew her too well.
Jess sighed. "I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for, Jess? Tell me please."
"I knew that this was going to happen. I knew it. Because I always screw up, and you're always the good one. Lorelai was right, you know? I was going to ruin you. Look at you, Rory." She looked down. "You're lying to your best friend, you're sneaking around with the guy who isn't right. Who's wrong. And you're just in it for the chase."
Rory looked up. "What chase? There is no chase, I've caught you. Or you've caught me..I thought we were doing alright, but I guess you had other thoughts that I didn't know about."
"I'm your charity case, Rory."
"Your not, Jess." Rory refused, "You're my boyfriend."
"You're trying to fix me."
She felt tears stinging in her eyes. "No I'm not."
"This was all my fault, Rory. Don't you get it? Luke is like this because of me. I was the one who stole the car every single day, I sneaked out in the middle of the night, and it was all just to see you."
"So, it's my fault? Or are you saying that I'm not worth it?"
Jess groaned, looking down. "Your definitely worth it. And it wasn't your fault…it was mine. That's why---That's why I want to go back to New York."
Now, he could tell that she was really crying. "But, you can't."
"I'm not doing anything for Luke here."
"You're doing something for me, Jess. I never felt this way, not even with Dean. Why would you sweep me off my feet just to sweep me back down? Why would you put me through that if you knew this was going to happen? If you knew it wasn't going to last?"
"I didn't think about anything…I just wanted to look into your blue eyes without feeling guilty. Have one kiss, maybe just one before I screwed up."
"Did you even think about me? How this would make me feel?"
"This is better, Rory."
He reached out to console her, but she just backed up. "Don't give me the 'This is better, Rory' It's all crap, that's what it is. And I actually thought that this could last…but, your just scared, you're scared that you could actually fall without getting hurt. So, you're hurting me. And I don't think that's fair at all."
"Maybe it isn't…but, I have to go. Luke doesn't even want to talk to me."
"This isn't your fault!"
"Of course it is, Rory. Don't be so freaking naïve."
Rory bit her lip, wiping some tears off of her eyes, and rubbing her hands for warmth. "Why are you doing this?"
For the first time, his voice sounded tortured. "That's the worst part, I don't even know."
"So, you're breaking up with me because you don't know? I'm here for you and you don't know?"
Jess looked down at the frozen ice on the sidewalk. "I'll be helping Luke for two weeks, and then I'll tell him that I'm going back to Liz. If she hasn't abandoned her apartment yet. If she did, then I'll get my own job and I'll survive."
He tried to make eye contact with her, but she just looked away. He tried holding her hand, but she held it for two seconds to hold on to the feeling and then left him feeling cold. Then, she felt something cold on her head. She looked up and little snowflakes were coming down from the cloudy sky, she felt one stick to her lips and then she looked to Jess. He reached out, and she closed her eyes. She felt his finger wipe against her chapped lip, and when she opened her eyes, he was gone. She could see his shadow of a body, walk down the sidewalk. And the only thing she could do, was stand there.