I don't own Gilmore girls or the characters. Just a story about them
Luke was arguing with Kirk about the warmth of the eggs in front of him, when he saw something that instantly made him happy and sad at the same time. Lizzie, his sister was turning the corner to come into the diner. He loved Liz, truly he did, but she only showed up when she needed something. And that was the reason for his anxiety about seeing her. "What mess had she made now?" he thought. But he didn't have much time to worry about it. She was inside and hugging him very quickly.
"Hey big brother!" Liz said a little too happily.
"Hi Lizzie." Should he ask and get right to the point, or wait for her to be out with it? He'd wait. He normally did- she would tell him what was up before too long. But for now at least he would ask one question. "Liz, where is Jess?"
"He's around. I'm not sure where, but he's around."
"You don't know where your eleven year old is?" Luke really wasn't surprised, knowing Lizzie, but he still couldn't believe how passive of a parent she was.
"He's almost a teenager Luke! How am I supposed to keep track of him! He doesn't listen to me…and how can I blame him? I didn't listen to anyone either at eleven!"
He decided to drop it. Obviously their parenting styles were different. And she was right in one way. How could she tell him to behave and listen to her when she made it very clear that she never did those things? She couldn't. So a couple years from now when he's ready to do drugs and drink, how would she say it's wrong? She couldn't. Man this kid was in trouble. Maybe he could help, at least a little. Be a good and healthy male role model in the kids' life.
So Luke went after Jess. He knew basically where to look- all the in-trouble kids hung out in only a couple places around here. And just like he thought, Jess was in one of the alleys smoking with a couple of kids. He grabbed Jess by the ear and drug him away from the kids before yelling at him. "How did you find hooligans your age so fast? You've been here for 20 minutes and you found kids to smoke with."
"Did you just come to spoil my fun? Mom doesn't care if I smoke, so leave me alone." With that he pushed Luke aside and walked back towards the Diner.
Luke didn't know what to say. The kid was right. Well, Liz cared, but her hands were tied as to what she could come down on him for since she did all the same things. "Jess, I care. And you aren't going to smoke anymore." He yelled down the alley. Jess just kept walking. This kid has had such a crappy life, Luke thought. But on the walk back to the diner, Luke got even more frustrated. Liz showed up randomly all the time-she always needed his help but never LET him actually do anything. It was so frustrating to him but truly he needed to get used to. It would probably never change. Lizzie would always be Lizzie.
Luke walked upstairs to his apartment; he had to help if he could. "Liz, that kid is in trouble." He said, trying not to be harsh. He knew Liz was in over her head and didn't know how to deal with her 11 year old son.
"Luke, I- I don't know what to do with him. He's more then I can handle…I don't- I don't know what to do with him anymore." Luke hugged his sister. She was so screwed up- Luke didn't even understand how she got to be the way she was. If only she would let him help her. Luke really had no idea why she had showed up this time, but she had a way of hiding those things until she was ready to reveal it.
The next morning Luke woke up to the sound of banging. He was completely confused as to what was going on but got up to answer the door. As he stumbled towards the door, he tripped over a body-"what the?!" oh right Jess and Lizzie were here. When he opened the door a big guy with a very angry looking snarl on his face pushed his way into the room.
"Where is Liz?" he demanded.
This guy looked dangerous and Luke didn't know what to do. "Um, who are you?"
"I just need to find Liz."
"Well, I need to know who you are before I tell you where my sister is"
The hallway up to the apartment caught the man's eye and he ran for it, there was nothing Luke could do to stop him. By the time Luke got upstairs the man was yelling at Liz to pack her things and get into his truck without a word. "What the hell is going on here?" Luke asked.
"This is, is- Peter. We've been living with him for a couple months."
"And then Liz just disappeared without any warning the other day and I was worried. I had to come find her." By the look on Lizzie's face Luke could tell that there was more to the story then Peter was telling.
"Ok, let me tell you what is going to happen here Peter. Liz and Jess aren't going anywhere with you, and if you continue to come after her I will call the police on you. Now get out of here."
Luke really didn't expect him to leave that easily, but he walked out the door. He'll be back, and with some buddies, Luke thought." "Lizzie, when were you going to tell me about this?"
"Oh Luke, he turned mean this last week. Probably when I told him I had no money to buy pot for us. He beat me Luke, and threw me to the ground. I didn't know what to do. I have no money- he spent it all! I have to get away from him. But I didn't know how. So I thought of you Luke. I am so sorry to bring you into this, but I didn't know what else to do."
"You were living with this guy and doing pot in front of your eleven year old son?"
"Yes. He offered me a home- a place to live, which Jess and I didn't have. Until I ran out of money everything was going fine."
"Ok Liz. Look that isn't ok. I'm going to keep Jess here with me for awhile. And I am sending you to therapy. You have to change how your life is going Lizzie. I am going to make some calls today, and get you into the best place for your situation. You and Jess rest and hang out up here today."
"No, Luke we'll be fine on our own. I just need a job and a new boyfriend."
"Liz-"
"No Luke."
Finally Luke got mad. "Liz, you come to me for help. And then you don't let me help you. You come to me wanting me to fix things but don't let me do the one thing that would actually fix this. You want your kind of fix. You want me to make you all better and then send you right back to New York to keep doing what you are doing. That isn't going to happen. You have ruined enough of your life Lizzie. Let Jess live here til you get back on your feet and go to rehab. It would be so good for you! You could have a normal life after that. You wouldn't have to just come to me when you had problems and were in a mess. You could come to just say hi. Please Lizzie."
But Liz never did very well with getting yelled at, mostly because the person yelling was her beloved brother that was trying to help, and was telling her that her life was seriously messed up. But she never did well with being yelled at. So she did what she always did. Took Jess and walked out the door. And there wasn't anything that Luke could do but shake his head.
