Nothing Stays Lost Forever

Six Months Later

"This school sucks," Rory said coming out of the school. "I mean the people here are so... unintelligent."

"Just because you're some freak genius, doesn't mean the rest of us are stupid," Lane replied.

"Oh I know, but at Chilton the work was actually challenging, it feels wrong to be getting A's all the time for easy work."

"Now she's complaining about her 4.0 grade point average," Tex said to Lane. "At least you didn't get pushed back a couple of years, I'm with twelve year olds for god's sake."

"And you still only manage to get C's," Rory replied.

"C's are definitely better than A's," Tex told her.

"Really? How so?"

"Umm," Tex faltered. "They're easier to draw."

"Nice comeback, no wonder they put you back a couple of years."

"Hey," Lane defended Tex. "He hasn't been to school in around two years so he's right where he should be."

"Well of course you'd be on your boyfriend's side," Rory stuck out her tongue and ran towards the diner.

"Hey, wait up," Tex called behind her. "Gilmore's don't run."

"Hey Luke," Rory said as she pulled him into a hug.

"Hey kid, how was school? Did they teach you anything?"

"No, but I did teach Mr. Garner that it was wrong to start his sentences with a conjunction, he just looked at me confused, but I'm hoping that he'll look it up and stop doing it."

"That's my girl," Luke replied proudly.

"Where's your brother?"

"Probably necking Lane behind the diner, you know beside the dumpster."

"Right, he better not get caught by Mrs. Kim, or there will be hell to pay."

"Oh he knows, where's mom anyway?"

"She got held up at the inn, but she'll be here shortly. Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'll just wait for mom."

Rory sat down at a table, and starting thinking about how much her life had changed. They had been in Stars Hollow for six months now and time just seemed to fly by. Tex and Lane were together, the whole town knew, but have managed to keep it a secret from Mrs. Kim. Lane apologized to Tex the next day and dragged him across town to meet her mother properly. She introduced him as her friend. Tex couldn't be happier, Lane got her curfew revoked though, but she didn't care. Tex's smile was enough for her. They started out as friends, but they grew closer as the months went on, and one day Tex just asked her out. Lane accepted and they've been together ever since. Tex even told Mrs. Kim that he was gay, after Lane assured him that it would allow him to be near her without Mama Kim protesting. And Tex's fake coming out lead to Stars Hollow's first ever gay pride festival.

And then there was Luke and Lorelai. Luke pretended to be annoyed by the invasion of his home, but Rory could see through it. It only took a couple of weeks for everyone to get settled, and to fall into the comfortable routine. Luke and Lorelai had been dating for a while before they told the kids. They didn't actually plan on telling them at all, but when Rory found the negative pregnancy test in the bin, and showed her mom, who then scolded Luke for not disposing of it properly, the secret was out. But after Rory sat her mom and Luke down and gave them a safe sex talk, everything was fine again. Lorelai moved into Luke's room across the hall, and the kid's started seeing Luke as their new dad. A dad whom neither of them really had before, someone they could count on. They weren't at the stage of calling him dad yet, but it didn't seem to matter.

And finally there was Jess. Rory lost Jess' book sometime during the move into Luke's house. Everyone searched for hours, they didn't know the significance of what they were looking for, well apart from Tex, but they looked anyway because they knew how much it meant to Rory. They never found it, and about a month after Rory lost it, she willed herself not to think about it anymore. It would either show up again, or it would stay lost forever. So she moved on from Jess, sure he was still in the back of her mind, but he wasn't in the forefront anymore. It allowed Rory to move on. She hadn't dated anyone in the past six months, even though Dean kept on persisting, trying to get her to date him, driving her to the point of insanity, but she held strong and said no every time. Something changed recently though, she was sick of being the odd one out and decided to find someone to date, but she couldn't find anyone remotely interesting in Stars Hollow, so she stayed single.

So that was their life, which was definitely a step up from the life that they had come from.

"Rory, stop picturing Kirk naked," Lorelai said as she sat down opposite her daughter. Lorelai had lasted a few weeks at Stars Hollow Video, before Mia the owner of the inn offered her a job as a reception assistant. She jumped at it eager to get away from Kirk. They trained her up and when the assistant manager left on maternity leave, Lorelai got her job. She was now being trained to become the manager of the inn, for whenever the current manager should leave.

"I'm not," Rory replied annoyed. "I just wish something would happen in this godforsaken town."

Lorelai reached across and grabbed her daughter's hand. "Don't worry something will come your way."

With Tex always with Lane, Rory's best friend, and Luke with Lorelai, Rory was left on her own more times than not. She didn't mind it at first, but now she just craved for some human contact of her own, someone who got her, someone who knew what she was talking about. It seemed as though no one in this town actually read. Rory tried striking up a conversation with Andrew, the book store owner, once, but that proved useless. Apparently he ordered all his books from Oprah's book list, and the ones that made it into The New York Times.

"Look I'm going for a walk." Rory left and made her way to the bridge. Her bridge, no one came here, not even Tex. It was an unspoken agreement between the two. The bridge belonged to Rory. She always came here to calm down, or to let her walls down so that she could let it all out, either through anger or tears. It was her very own personal haven. It was also the last place she remembered having Jess' book, it was her last connection to him.

She felt confused today, she didn't know what kind of release she needed. She picked up a hefty rock and threw it into the lake. She liked doing that, it always made her feel better. The rock landed in the reeds and she was a little disappointed that it didn't make a splash. She sat down anyway, one rock was enough for today. Rory sometimes missed the simplicity of drinking, and now was one of those times. Drinking always made her forget, but she promised her mom and Tex that she wouldn't do it again after she found Luke's stash and got smashed a week and a half into their new home.

Rory looked out into the water, it was then she saw it, floating in the lake. She didn't wait for confirmation, she jumped into the lake and swam across to it. She grabbed it and held it above her head, and made her way out of the lake. She kissed it and took off towards the diner, she ran behind and pulled Tex away from Lane's lips and dragged him towards their house.

"Rory, slow down, what are you doing?" Tex asked as he tried to keep up. "Why are you wet?"

They made their way into the house and Rory immediately thrust the book at Tex, the book she thought was lost.

"Is this what I think it is? Where did you find it?"

"In the Lake. Now tell me what it means, decipher Jess' code for me." Rory gave him her no nonsense look, and he sighed.

"Give me a pen then."

Rory grabbed the pen off the desk and gave it to him. Tex took out her piece of paper and started unscrambling the message for her. After a few minutes Tex gave her the piece of paper, it read-

3/9 Waverly Place

Greenwich Village

554 5581

"It's an address," Rory said disappointed.

"It's Jess' address," Tex told her. "And his phone number."

"Where?"

Tex grabbed the piece of paper and put a 212 in front of the phone number for the area code, and handed it back to her. She looked at him dumbly. "Well aren't you going to call it?"

"Right, phone number," Rory was stunned, after all this time, six months to be exact, she finally had a way to contact Jess. The Jess she tried to forget so that it would make the pain go away. She didn't hesitate as she grabbed the phone and dialed the number, she waited nervously for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" A woman answered.

"Umm, yes, I was looking for Jess," Rory said taken off guard by a woman answering, somehow she thought that Jess would be the one to answer.

"Oh Jess, well he's not here."

"When will he be back?"

"Oh I'm sorry Jess has gone, as in gone, gone," Liz answered sadly.

"Can I ask where?" Rory asked losing hope rapidly.

"He's gone to live with his uncle. Look I've got to go, do you want to leave a message anyway, I'll pass it on if I get a chance."

"Umm, no... Wait just tell him that he's getting his second chance and he shouldn't waste it."

"Okay, I will, bye."

Rory hung up the phone, and turned to an expectant Tex.

"So?" Tex asked.

"Umm, he's not there anymore."

"What?" Tex asked confused.

"He's gone to live with his uncle."

"That's good news, that's what we were trying to achieve all along."

"I know," Rory replied. "But it would have been nice to talk to him again."

Three Days Ago

"Jess?" Liz asked tentatively, but he didn't answer. "Come on Jess let me in." Jess ignored her.

Liz frowned and made her way back into the living room. Everything had been great, Jess had come back from juvie, Liz was sober, everything was fine. They bonded over the next few months, and although Jess still wouldn't meet Liz's boyfriend TJ, Liz didn't care. Jess was finally giving her a chance, and she wasn't going to ruin it, and she didn't. Four and a half months, four and a half months of a normal mother/son relationship. Jess would go to school, Liz would go to work. Liz would make breakfast, make Jess' lunch, and cook dinner, and Jess ate the meals gratefully. Jess' birthday passed and Liz brought him a bunch of books, and Jess hugged her in return. It was the first hug Liz had received from her baby boy willingly in a long, long time.

But then it all changed. A month and a bit ago, Jess went to school as usual, and Liz went to work. Liz got home and Jess was missing, well he wasn't missing, but he wasn't home either. She had gotten used to getting off work and coming home to Jess reading on the couch. It was one of her favorite things, and not seeing him there she immediately feared the worst. She didn't call the police, she figured Jess was just caught up somewhere, but as the hours passed by she got more and more worried. It wasn't until the hospital called that Liz started panicking. They didn't tell her much, but she raced down there. She stepped into her son's hospital room and gasped. She could hardly recognize him. She ran to his side and stroked his bruised face gently.

"What happened?" Liz asked as soon as the doctor came in.

"Your son was attacked," The doctor answered. "The police found him in a park and brought him here."

"Do they know who did it?" Liz asked looking at her baby boy.

"No, they're still working on it."

"And how's Jess?"

"He should be fine. A few bruises, a broken rib, and a broken arm. He was very lucky," The doctor answered and then walked away. Liz thought that he was holding something back, but he was gone before she could ask him.

Jess was in the hospital for three days before they allowed Liz to take him home. They hadn't caught the culprit, and Jess hadn't spoken a word since the incident. Liz got him settled in his bed, in some comfortable clothes, and with his books in easy reaching distance. She tried talking to him about the incident that night, but he just turned away from her. She tried every day for the next couple of weeks, still he didn't speak. Liz could see him wasting away in front of her, he would eat, but it would never be enough. He was losing weight because of it. There was no life in his eyes anymore.

Another couple of weeks past and he was much the same. Liz deduced that something traumatizing must have happened to Jess that night, something bad. She tried talking to him every night still, but he wouldn't respond. And that's how things were until up to three days ago. Liz talked to him again, but he didn't respond, and she lost it.

"Jess you can't keep on living like this. You hardly leave this bed, you don't even eat anymore, you're not my Jess. What happened to you Jess? Why won't you tell me?"

Jess stared blankly back at her.

"Jess you need help, plain and simple. You can't live like this, I can't watch you live like this. Maybe I can call someone," Liz saw the flash of fear in Jess' eyes. It was the first real emotion she had seen in weeks. "I don't know what else to do Jess."

Jess opened him mouth, but not words came out. Liz tried to encourage him. He hadn't spoken a word in the past month and a half. She wanted him to speak, if he spoke then he was alright, well physically at least.

"I want..." Jess spoke and it came out raspy. "to live with my uncle."

Liz smiled at him. She immediately thought that it was a good idea. Jess needed to get away from New York, maybe a change of scenery would help him. Give him a fresh start, somewhere that he didn't have to be the broken shell of a man that he is. Somewhere that he could just forget it all. She told him to start packing and she said farewell to him at the bus station a few days later.

Present Day

"So what was wrong with Rory?" Luke asked Lorelai confused. "She seemed okay when she came in."

"She's feeling left out again," Lorelai answered as the phone rang.

"Luke's," Luke answered.

"Hey Luke, it's Liz."

"What do you want?"

"It's about Jess."

"What about him? Is he hurt? Is he okay?"

"He's going through a rough patch at the moment. He actually asked if he could come and live with you."

"I can't Liz, not now. My house is full with my new family, I don't have time to take him on," Luke paused when he heard Liz crying. "No, don't cry Lizzie. Maybe I can take him in for a while, just stop crying please."

"He was attacked Luke, someone attacked by baby boy and left him for dead."

"What? When? Is he fine?"

"Physical he's fine, it happened a little over a month ago. It's just he hasn't been the same since. Never talks, hardly eats. I tried to support him Luke, but I can't get through to him. I was ready to get him some help, but he asked to live with you. It was the first thing he has said since the incident, I couldn't say no Luke, he was pleading me with his eyes."

"Okay Liz, calm down, just send him here. I'll do my best."

"He's already on his way, but you have to be careful Luke, don't touch him, he's going to freak out if you do. Help him eat and try and get him to speak, but don't push him. Just try and help him get better."

"I'll try," Luke replied. "When can I expect him?"

"In an hour, tell him hi for me."

"Okay, will do, bye Liz," Luke hung up the phone bewildered, what just happened.

"What's going on?" Lorelai asked confused.

"Umm, that was my sister, my nephew's on his way to live with us."

"For how long?" Lorelai asked.

"Indefinitely. Liz sounded so broken, something happened to her son, she said he was attacked, and apparently he's, I don't know, distant. She didn't know what to do anymore."

"So she shipped him off to you?" Lorelai asked confused.

"No, he asked for me. She said it was the first time that he had talked in a month. The first time he talks and he says that he wants to live with me. Why, he doesn't even know me?"

"Don't worry about that now. When is he coming?"

"In a couple of hours."

"Okay, you stay here and try not to freak out. I'll go and buy some bedding, and anything else he might need. We'll work through this Luke, okay?"

"Okay," Luke agreed, slightly less freaked out than before. He'd have Lorelai by his side the whole time. He just hoped that he wouldn't stuff up and scar the kid worse than he already is.