A/N: I love this chapter. I probably shouldn't say that about my own fic, and it's really not the happiest chapter ever, but I actually really love how it turned out, so I hope all you reader types do too. Let me know in the usual way please ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Prologue)

Chapter 25

"Happy Thanksgiving!" said Lorelai with way too much glee, and a paper turkey in each hand.

Jess and Rory were a little startled having only just stepped out of their bedroom into the kitchen. The smell of good food cooking had finally roused them from a well-deserved lie in, but now apparently they had entered the Thanksgiving-themed twilight zone.

"How many coffees has she had?" asked Rory as her mother literally galloped around the kitchen, bobbing the paper turkeys on her fingers.

"Strangely, only two," replied Luke as he shifted from checking the contents of the oven and a pan on the stove. "This is... I just... Why didn't we do this at the diner where there's enough space and... and less dancing in the food preparation area!" he snapped at Lorelai.

She stopped her movement a moment, looking like a guilty child, then bobbed the paper turkey on her right hand in Luke's face.

"But you wanna be here," she said in a squeaky voice that was clearly meant to be the bird, especially when she added a 'gobble, gobble'.

Rory failed miserably at stifling a laugh and Jess wasn't far behind. She recognised the decorations even if her boyfriend didn't. Sookie always made those kind of place settings for special occasions. No doubt she made extras for what was going to be a very special Thanksgiving at the Gilmore house.

Previously, Lorelai and Rory would go to Sookie's house, sometimes the Kims, even the grandparents. They also called in at the diner every year to eat too, but this year was different. Luke had decided it was time to spend a holiday with his own family now that he had a real one. Sure, he and Lorelai were only dating so far, no moving in together or anything serious like that, but that didn't mean they weren't entirely committed. Add into that he had helped raise both Rory and Jess in different ways and that those two were about to connect the whole family unit up by having a baby, and Luke had quite decided effort was needed. Hence cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner in the Gilmore house, which was fast turning into a nightmare.

"This is ridiculous!" he complained as he tried to move past Lorelai and couldn't manage it without bumping the table. "Why could we not just do this at my apartment or in the diner?"

"Seriously, in the diner?" his nephew checked. "With all the floor to ceiling windows and half the town staring in at Stars Hollows cutest little foursome like a freak show?"

"We are cute," Rory agreed, shrugging her shoulders.

"And the apartment is so... meh," Lorelai made a face as she explained.

"I'm sorry my apartment is 'meh'?" said Luke, wheeling around to face her. "What does that even mean?"

Jess pulled on Rory's hand and led her through to the living room as the older couple bickered. They didn't mean anything by their sniping and no doubt the making up in ten minutes time would be even more disturbing to witness than the mini-fight.

"So, this is a real family Thanksgiving, huh?" said Rory as they sat down together on the couch. "So far it's kinda nice."

"Like you haven't had this before," Jess rolled his eyes. "This whole town has been your family since you were a kid."

There was a bitterness to his tone that Rory might've found offensive if she didn't know for sure Jess never meant it that way. It was tough on him, though he didn't usually like to talk about it. There were no special occasions for young Jess Mariano. Liz was a pretty crappy mother by all accounts, never making the big deal she should out of Jess' birthday or Christmas or anything like that. He never really had a family, except for Luke who he had seen so little of until he was seventeen and came to live in Stars Hollow. Rory had always tried to make Jess feel like a part of something, like he mattered more than he seemed to believe he ever could. In some ways, this baby was probably the best thing that could have happened. Their son or daughter would always be connected to him and Jess would have the chance to build something special from the start, a relationship the like of which he never had with either of his own parents.

"Great! On top of everything I forgot the baster... and the ricer!" complained Luke too loudly from the kitchen.

Jess rolled his eyes as he got up from the couch, but couldn't get away as Rory kept a tight grip on his hand and pulled.

"Don't go in there," she warned him. "It'll be a massacre. Death by spatula or something!"

He turned back to her, leaning down to her level with a grin on his lips.

"It is almost too cute that you think a spatula is needed to cook a turkey," he teased her, planting a kiss on her lips before she could complain about the comment. "But I wasn't going in there anyway. I'm going over to the diner, get Luke the tools he needs from the apartment. Sound good?"

"Very good plan," Rory nodded. "You're very smart."

"I have my moments," he acquiesced, sparing her one more kiss before he left.

Jess shook his head at the bickering still going on in the kitchen, Lorelai asking what she could do to help, and Luke letting her know in no uncertain terms that the greatest help would be if she just left the kitchen altogether. Lorelai wouldn't go, she was stubborn that way, and it became clear very quickly it was going to be a long process getting dinner prepared. The TV went on just before Jess left and he heard Rory cranking the volume as she watched the Macy's parade. There was a smile on his lips as he exited the house, pulling his jacket tighter around him. It was cold and crisp outside, making the warmth and even the noise of the Gilmore house actually seem like somewhere he genuinely wanted to get back to. Jess never thought he'd see the day when he wanted to be such a family person, but then he never expected there to be people who wanted to have him be part of their situation.

Hurrying over to the diner, he reached for the spare key in its usual hiding place. He got a real surprise when he found it wasn't there. Frowning hard, Jess tried the door and was startled when it proved to be unlocked. There was no way in hell Luke had been so careless, not even when he was busy and stressed thinking about everything else. Somebody was inside the diner, more specifically the apartment by now, Jess suspected, since he couldn't see anyone yet. There was no consideration of going back home to get help, he just pressed on. He crossed behind the counter, picking up the baseball bat secreted back there. In a place like Stars Hollow there really wasn't any crime to speak of, but Luke liked knowing he had something handy just in case, hence the bat.

Jess ducked behind the curtain and peered up the stairs. There was definitely movement in the apartment above, and he took a deep breath before he crept slowly up the stairs. From the other side of the apartment door, he watched somebody walk past the frosted glass, and then he heard a voice singing along to the radio, a voice he knew too well. The bat dropped from his hand unnoticed. Jess thought about turning and running then, in fact he had his back to the door contemplating the stairs when the it swung open.

"Jess?"

"Liz," he greeted her coolly as he turned back to face her.

In a second she was flinging her arms around him, laughing and squealing as she fussed over her 'baby boy'. Jess didn't even lift his arms to hug her back, just let her get the greeting process out of her system. He meant what he said to Luke before, he didn't hate his mother, not really, but he didn't exactly like her much either. Liz never understood Jess, and most of the time she didn't even seem to care that he existed. Just lately, since she supposedly got her life together, marrying the Etch-a-Sketch guy and making jewellery for Renaissance Fayres, she had started making a big deal about reconnecting. They had talked on the phone semi-regularly since the wedding in May, but since returning to Stars Hollow a few weeks back, Jess had been avoiding Liz's calls and not making any of his own to her. Of course, as soon as she was done fussing, her first question was why they hadn't spoken in so long, followed by why he was back here in the Hollow.

"Where's your husband?" he countered as she led him into the apartment, half expecting to be told yet another relationship had broken up.

"Oh, T.J. is around somewhere. He likes to go out and explore," she laughed, going back to the wanton destruction of Luke's apartment apparently.

"What are you even doing here?" asked Jess as he watched her hunt for food and toss things in and out of bags. "Did you break in?"

"Break in!" Liz laughed out loud. "I knew where that spare key was long before you did, kid," she explained, stopping her running around when she seemed to suddenly realise Jess hadn't answered her questions.

She stopped in front of her boy, the kid that had grown into a man she supposed, and yet he still wore his hair too long and had on a leather jacket like Jimmy used to wear. She winced at the vision of him stood there, reaching out to push his fringe back behind his ear for him. He flinched away.

"Jess," she sighed. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing that's any of your business," he said, looking anywhere but at her, hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Don't do that, don't shut me out again," she urged him. "Your father used to do that! And the next thing I knew he'd up and left us. I don't want you turning out like Jimmy," she shook her head sadly.

Something in Jess snapped then, he just couldn't stop it.

"Yeah, well, I gotta hope I don't turn out like either of my useless parents!" he yelled at her. "One thing's for sure, Liz, when my son is born, I'm sticking around to help take care of that kid, and I'm gone treat him a whole lot better than you ever treated me!"

Liz was about to yell right back at him, angry and hurt as she was, until her brain finally caught up with precisely what Jess had said. This wasn't a hypothetical kid he was talking about. He really was going to be a father.

"You idiot!" she said eventually, too loudly, too cruelly given how hypocritical she was being. "You... I can't believe you would screw up some poor girl's life like that! Oh my God, it's happening all over again, just like your father. I knew you were going to turn out just like your father!" she complained, turning away and dropping down into a seat by the table.

"I am nothing like Jimmy, and thank God, nothing like you either!" Jess yelled right back at her, incensed by the attitude she dared to give him, after everything that had come before, how dare she! "Not that it's any of your business, but I happen to love Rory, and no, this kid we're having wasn't planned, but we're happy. Happier than I ever was as a kid being left home alone or kicked out into the street when you had a guy over, or told what a bad seed I was just because I was Jimmy Mariano's son!" he screamed at her.

All of it was true, every word. He didn't hate Liz, but he did hate what he had gone through because of her. She wasn't the only one to blame, but she was a big part of it. Just when he was turning his life around, just when Jess was starting to feel like he belonged somewhere, with someone, Liz had to show up and make him feel like that worthless child from too many years ago, in a run down New York apartment with too-small shoes on his feet and a stolen book in his back pocket.

"You don't get to stand there and talk to me that way!" Liz yelled back at him, on her feet in a second, slapping his face for daring to be so harsh.

Jess wouldn't strike her back, not ever. This was far from the first time she raised her hand to him, but he had worse from a long string of her exes. Those he had hit back, at least when he got big enough to try, but never Liz, never any woman. Still, he bit his tongue so hard it bled with a hundred other things he wanted to yell at her, with frustration that also brought tears to his eyes that he refused to shed. All Jess could do was turn and walk away, slamming the apartment door so hard in his wake, it was more surprising that the glass didn't shatter.

Straight down the stairs with Liz's nasty words still ringing in his ears and her hand print glowing on his cheek, Jess planned to go straight home, even as his mind raced and every nerve ending jangled with rage and frustration and pain. He was all the way to the Gilmores' front door, reaching a hand to the knob to let himself inside when he noticed how badly he was shaking. There was no way he could control it, the overwhelming need to run overtook him. He couldn't go in there and face Rory, Luke, Lorelai, he just couldn't, not in this state. Turning right around he set off walking at a pace, close to disappearing from sight when the front door he had just left behind opened up and Luke stepped out, still calling back to Lorelai about leaving the stove well alone until he got back. He noticed Jess as he went around the corner and frowned, calling his nephew's name. Something wasn't right here.

Rory came to the door, surprised to find Jess wasn't actually there.

"You said Jess went to the diner for my utensils, right?" Luke checked with her.

"Yeah, that's what he said," she nodded, frowning herself now. "Did he come back?"

"I don't know, I thought I just saw him go around the corner but... That doesn't make sense," he shook his head. "Look, you stay here, make sure your mom doesn't touch anything in the kitchen, and I'll be back as fast as I can, okay?"

Rory thought about it and then agreed. A part of her wanted to run after Jess and see what was wrong, but it could just as easily be nothing. Besides, if her boyfriend had gone for a walk then he had a good reason, and she trusted he would be back before too long.

Luke headed off to the diner then, as originally planned, with a thought in his head that he didn't much like. Not much got to Jess these days, but his mother never failed to mess with his head. By the time he found the door to the diner not just unlocked, but swinging open, there was no doubt in Luke's mind that he would find Liz upstairs. What he hadn't been quite ready for was her floods of tears as she threw herself into his arms. Something bad had happened here, and honestly, Luke dreaded finding out what it was. More than that, he dreaded trying to get Jess back to the happy equilibrium he had found now Liz had ruined it. He hoped, more for Rory's sake than anyone's, that it was an easier fix than it used to be.

To Be Continued...

A/N2: Well, it had to happen, didn't it? I know you're all probably mad at me right now but if you wouldn't mind, after you drop me a review, maybe you could head over to my profile page and check out the poll - I want to know who you want to see more of in later chapters of this fic please! :)