Chapter 39

With both cousins gone, Luke had to sit and listen to his sister and new boyfriend alone. Thankfully, there was beer, so that helped to make the time more tolerable. Maybe a little too much.

With his nephew's words heavy on his mind, along with everything else, Luke found himself downing enough beers where he became intoxicated. Needing some air and an excuse to leave, Luke remembered Lorelai had called that morning to help fix her window. So, since fixing things was what he did best, regardless of whether or not they should be fixed, Luke made his way over. He was aware enough to know to go on foot and not get behind the wheel, at least.

Lorelai wasn't at home and both doors were locked, so he had no choice but to climb her tree up to the porch's roof. It took him a couple of tries until he was able to climb up there without falling. Thankfully, nothing broke, though he would probably be sore for a few days.

Luke checked each window until he found one that was unlocked and pushed on the window to open it. He then was able to drop inside, knocking over a lamp in the process. Once the lamp was taken care of, he headed downstairs to look at the damage. Since he was under the influence, it was difficult to steady his vision and focus on what he was doing, and ended up cutting his hand on a piece of glass being held together by what looked like Barbie and basketball band-aids.

The front door opened behind him, followed by a "hello?" from Lorelai. "Oh, Luke," she said when she saw it was only him.

He pressed part of his flannel shirt against his palm to stop the bleeding. "Oh, yeah, hey."

"How did you get in here?" she questioned, setting her purse on a nearby shelf.

"You left your bedroom window unlocked."

She stared at him. "My bedroom window is on the second floor." Lorelai noticed his hand. "What did you do?"

"Oh, I promised to fix your window, so I am here to fix your window," he said, looking back behind him at the window.

"Oh my God, you cut yourself." She moved closer to get a good look at his hand.

"The glass was broken," he pointed out.

"Hence the need for fixing." Lorelai reached for his hand when she realized Luke was drunk. "I'm sorry. Are you drunk?"

Luke snorted loudly before denying he wasn't drunk. "I had some beer. Beers. More than one," he waved his hand in the air, "a few. And then I came here and climbed your tree."

Lorelai removed her jacket while he was explaining and set it with her purse. "Well, good thinking."

"And then I fell out of your tree," he continued.

Lorelai led him over to sit down on the couch and headed for the kitchen.

Luke kept rambling. "I landed flat on my back. I felt like Kirk."

"Hold your hand up in the air," she called back to him.

He held his hand up by his head as he sat down. "And then I climbed back up the tree. This time I made it. I got in. Sorry about the lamp."

He briefly heard the kitchen faucet while he was staring at his hand. "You know, Luke, you could have broken your neck."

"Well, it would have been all right if I had. I would have fixed it, because that's what I do. I fix things. Even when they don't want to be fixed."

Lorelai returned, sitting next to him, pointing out they used the rest of the basketball band-aids on the window and only had Barbie left.

"Why do you have basketball band-aids?" he questioned.

"Because Shelby wasn't fond of the Barbie ones, so I got ones she would like for when she comes over." Lorelai also pointed out she never known how many times a kid can scrape up a body part before knowing Shelby, since Rory wasn't as active as she was. Apparently, Luke wasn't the first to attempt climbing her tree. It was any wonder Shelby hasn't broken any more bones than the one time during her basketball game. "Let me see your hand."

"Why?"

She had been trying to peel the band-aid wrapper open. "Because it's bleeding and I need to look at it." He held his hand out to her, causing her to semi freak out at the sight of blood. Without looking at it, Lorelai cleaned up the blood with the wet towel she brought with her despite Luke assuring she can leave it alone. "I can't leave it, it's cut."

Since she wasn't looking, Lorelai moved down and started dabbing at his wrist, which he pointed out to her. She sincerely apologized and returned to his hand and finished cleaning the cut.

"You're very good at this," he teased her.

"I don't like blood, okay?"

"Then leave it alone," he insisted.

"No, I can't leave it," she too insisted. Tossing the towel on the floor, Lorelai finished unpeeling the band-aid and placed it in his hand. "There. Now, you want to tell me what happened?"

Luke took in a long breath as he muttered, "Nothing," and stood up again to return to the window.

"What are you doing?"

He pointed his other hand ahead of him. "I'm gonna fix the window."

"Forget the window." She spun around in her seat to face him, leaning her arm over the back of the couch.

"I can't forget the window," he argued. "I made a promise, and I am the reliable guy who helps everybody out whether they like it or not."

"What?"

"Oh, yeah. Nothing I can do about it, just the way I am. It is my big problem."

Lorelai gave him a concerned look.

"Didn't know it was my big problem till today, but now I know. It is my big," he paused to stare at his hand again, "problem. Got a handful of Barbie."

"Luke, what happened today?"

"Today, I found out what a big, dumb idiot guy I am. Just an imposing, judgmental know-it-all who blows around, yelling and complaining, and screwing up everybody else's life." Luke let out a slight chuckle as he held up one finger.

"I hardly think…"

He interrupted her with another laugh. "I'm dumb, you know. Not like Jess. Jess is smart. He doesn't care about anybody else's life."

Lorelai lifted her head again when he mentioned Jess.

He pointed his finger once more in emphasis, "He just takes care of himself."

"Did you and Jess have a thing?" she asked.

"He informed me that I am nothing but an unwelcome burden to everyone around me." Luke forced out another laugh while stifling other emotions.

"Luke, that's not true," Lorelai tried to insist as he bent over, laughing.

"Yes, it is," he argued once more as he continued, now in a fit of laughter.

"Luke, stop it." Lorelai got up from the couch to make her way around to him. "Liz was just saying today how grateful she is to have you as her brother, and how much she looks up to you." She stopped right in front of him.

He stared at her at once. "You talked to Liz?"

"I thought she was you," she explained.

"I'm a man," he pointed out.

It got a slight snicker from her at least. "She was in your truck."

"When I'm in my truck, I am still a man," he continued to point out.

"I couldn't see who was driving, okay?" she shrugged. "I ran over to the truck, and we met, and we started talking."

Luke looked away towards the floor as he rubbed his ear. "You shouldn't have talked to Liz."

Lorelai smiled. "She worships you."

He rolled his eyes.

"She said she even wants to move to Stars Hollow so she can be closer to you."

Luke stared at her again, this time as if in disbelief. Like Lorelai was lying to make him feel better or something. This place was too quiet for his sister. Liz never wanted to move back before, even when he had suggested it on several occasions. Her answer was always the same. "She didn't say that."

"She did say that," Lorelai said firmly that time. "And what about Shelby, Luke?"

Luke lifted his gaze towards her when Lorelai mentioned his little buddy.

"That girl idolizes you even more than Liz does."

"She has Roger now," he tried to brush off, as he thought about the last few months and how he was slowly becoming a new pal for the kid, especially seeing as he was into video games and other similar stuff Shelby liked, and apparently gave better life advice than he could. "He's the best stepdad a kid could ever ask for." Luke stared at the floor again.

"That's just it, Luke," Lorelai told him, "he's just another pal. A stepdad. He's not Dad. He's not you. No one but you can ever fill that role. The way she goes on about you and how much she loves you, and looks up to you. The one that's been there ever since you found out about her. You're her number one hero, Luke, not Roger. I promise."

Things grew silent for a moment as Luke continued staring at the floor until Lorelai spoke again.

"Jess is an unhappy kid," she said, shaking her head. "He's angry. He doesn't mean the things he says."

Luke finally looked up at her once more and mumbled, "he did me a favor."

Lorelai glanced at him for a moment. Taking a hold of his arm, she told him, "listen, why don't you hang out here, rest for a little while. Okay?" She led him back around to sit on the couch. "I'll go get you a real bandage."

"I like the Barbie ones," he insisted.

"Yes, honey, but the other kids will beat you up if they see you with one of those." Lorelai pushed him back down as he let out another snort. "I'll be right back."

Luke waved at her with his good hand, though it involuntarily reached out for her. His hand missed when she moved, heading over to grab her jacket and purse before leaving him alone to rest. He then slunk further into the couch, wrapping it over his head.

While Lorelai was gone, Luke eventually dozed off and slept longer than he would have liked. The only reason he woke up was when Lorelai woke him late in the afternoon to inform him she and Rory would need to leave in a few hours and need time to get ready for it. Thanking her for her help, Luke felt sober enough to head back to the diner where Liz and TJ were getting ready to go check out the festival.

Thankfully, with the Firelight Festival getting ready to start, the diner had one of its lulls since Luke now had a headache from all the beers he had, declining Liz's invitation to join them. He did request if they happen to run into Shelby, to have her check in since he hadn't seen her since she and Jess left earlier.

About an hour later, TJ returned to try once more to persuade Luke to come out and join them. Luke at least agreed to come out to say good-bye since they were leaving after the festival.

Since the diner was basically dead, Luke closed early for the night and lifted the chairs on the tables. On the way to the festival, he stopped by Gypsy's to find neither of the cousins there. Despite what his nephew told him, Lorelai's words helped enough for Luke to slip an envelope of cash inside the visor on the driver's side while Gypsy was finishing up.

"How's Shelby doing?" she asked, looking around the hood.

"Uh, haven't seen her all afternoon," he replied and stepped closer to her. "I assume she's still with Jess."

"So you haven't heard about the blow-up?"

He stared at Gypsy in confusion. "Blow-up?"

Gypsy told him about Lorelai coming by and getting into an argument with Jess that ended with trying to persuade Shelby to go with her instead of hanging around him, until it triggered the kid to blurt out she wasn't her mom. Shelby must have regretted the outburst and took off in the direction of the town's lake.

"The only good thing about it was it stopped the incessant nagging when Jess went after the kid," Gypsy admitted with a shrug. "Not that I want to profit off that girl."

Luke nodded in understanding. "And you haven't seen them since?"

Gypsy shook her head. "Nope. Which was why I was asking."

Luke smiled at the concern Gypsy had for his little buddy. He thanked her before heading for the town square, figuring he would say a quick good-bye to his sister and go off to look for Shelby.

To his dismay, Luke ran into Crazy Carrie and two of her friends, who apparently talked about him the entire night at their high school reunion, and that night he didn't remember. Or didn't want to remember, to be honest. Thankfully, Liz was spotted and Luke was able to get away, catching the tail end of TJ talking about a booth he had built for Liz to sell her earrings at the fairs. It was Miss Patty who pointed him out.

"Hey, Luke," Liz greeted next, "I didn't see you there."

"Yeah, well, I heard you were leaving," he replied, "so…"

She nodded with a smile. "Well, I'm so glad you came out."

The siblings excused themselves from the group and walked away to chat one last time before Liz left.

"Can you believe this thing?" Liz spoke first, meaning the festival. "It hasn't changed one bit since we were kids."

Luke walked with his hands shoved in the pocket of his jeans as he watched the ground. "Yep," he agreed, "same crazy gathering that Mom would take us to."

"And then Dad, after she died," she added, while also watching the ground.

"Yeah, he hated it worse than we did. He only took us because Mom liked it."

"Yeah," Liz laughed. "'Course, that Founder's Day punch…"

"Lethal," Luke quickly finished for her.

"The first time I ever threw up from booze, it was Founder's Day punch."

Luke nervously laughed. "It's a nice story."

Liz chuckled some more. "Hey, listen," she said. They stopped walking and faced each other when they reached the sidewalk. "I'm sorry about Jess."

"Boy, that statement could encompass a whole myriad of things," he sarcastically said.

"I'm sorry I told you I wasn't in touch with him. It's just been the last six months, he started calling, and he asked me not to tell you, so I was trying to bond or something."

Luke took in a deep breath as Liz continued.

"I just mentioned the car to him," she pointed out with a shrug. "I didn't know he'd come back and try to take it."

"It's okay," he assured with a shrug. "It's his car, he should have it."

"I'm just trying to make things better with us."

"You should," Luke agreed and reiterated, "it's fine."

Liz pointed her styrofoam cup towards him. "I have a feeling about him. I think he's gonna be okay." She nodded. "He's kind of like Dad, don't you think?"

Luke moved his head, shaking it. "Oh, I don't know."

"I do. I think he's like Dad." The statement made him think of the discovery of how much Shelby looks like their mom. If he was honest, they were similar in more ways than just looks.

"I honestly feel the same whenever I think of Mom and how much Shelby reminds me of her. So I guess it's not so crazy," he admitted.

Liz smiled at the thought. "Jess mentioned how amazing Shelby can sing."

Luke couldn't help smile with proudness. "Yes, she can. Miss Patty says she's a music prodigy."

"That's so great," she commented. "So, what if math is hard for her? Not like I ever use that algebra stuff, nowadays." Luke couldn't help think about that statement. Thinking about it now, he felt stupid for worrying so much over Shelby's learning disability. So what if math wasn't a strength of hers, right? There were so many other things she was great at. In his opinion, the school system was a broken piece of crap, anyway.

Liz snapped him out of his thoughts. "Remember when Mom used to sing to us whenever she put us to bed or when we weren't feeling well?"

He smiled at the memory as it came back to him as Luke stared at the grass. Suddenly, it fully sunk in. His head shot up as he realized their mom had the same gift of music Shelby has now. How could he have forgotten something like that? "Guess that's where Shelby gets it from," he said with another shrug. In a way, they had their parents back.

Liz smiled some more before she changed the subject. "I want to thank you for everything you did for him. For Jess, I mean."

Luke shrugged, modestly. "Well, never hurts to take a shot. At least you know you tried."

"Sometimes things take a while before they sink in," Liz said, returning the shrug this time. "Did with me." Suddenly, she added, "Sorry I'm so boring tonight," while leaning backwards.

Luke chuckled a little under his breath.

"I only had one cup of punch." Liz glanced inside her cup. "Gary switched us over to club soda after that."

"You're not boring," he reassured before realizing the new name she used. "Who's Gary?"

"That's TJ's real name."

Luke stared up at her in awestruck with his head lowered. "TJ's real name is Gary?"

"Yeah."

"Gary?"

"Yeah."

"How in the heck did he get…" Luke stopped himself and gave up. Mostly because his head was still hurting and wasn't up for any thinking at the moment.

They started walking again.

"I heard him talking back there, Gary. It sounds like things are going good."

"They are," Liz nodded her head at him, "really good."

"Good, good." Luke watched the ground some more.

Liz gasped when she remembered some earrings she made the night before and handed them to him. "You can give them to your wife," she offered. "Or Lorelai, whoever."

Luke snorted a little as he stupidly grinned at the mention of Lorelai's name. He thanked her.

"And, I'm thinking I might make something for my niece that isn't too girly," Liz added to his surprise.

"You don't have to do that," he assured her some more.

"I want to," she also assured. "Maybe even get to know her." Liz nudged him with her elbow. After a moment, she told him she was heading back to his place to gather their stuff and to let Gary know. But not before the two of them shared an affectionate hug.

After Liz headed back to the diner, Luke went in search of Gary, finding him by the bonfire and let him know where she went. After he thanked him, Luke awkwardly told him he knew the two were thinking of moving to Stars Hollow and how he approved of both it and TJ, who misunderstood what he was trying to do and called him a dick before walking away. Thinking about it, Luke probably could have worded it a bit better. Even better, he wished he hadn't said anything at all and probably wouldn't get any invitations to hang out at a bar for "guy time" or anything like that.

"So, I just heard the tail end of that conversation," he suddenly heard Lorelai walk up behind him, causing him to flinch as he turned around, "and I assume you haven't changed your name to Richard."

"Long, long story," was all he said. "I'll tell ya later. But here's a teaser, the word Etch-A-Sketch comes up."

"I'm hooked," she replied with some excitement.

Luke smiled. "You're all dressed up," he pointed out, not remembering Lorelai and Rory had to go somewhere for her parents that evening.

"Just for you," she teased.

"You go somewhere?"

Lorelai shook her head, shutting her eyes for a brief moment. "Well, my parents had a charity event, and, um, they needed a chair filled, and who fills a chair better than I?"

He shook his head. "No one comes to mind."

Bouncing up on her toes briefly, she asked, "So, did Jess leave yet?"

Luke took in a deep breath. "I stopped by Gypsy's earlier and she was just about done then, so probably," he shrugged.

"No good-byes?"

"No, but Liz has a feeling about him, though. She thinks he's gonna be fine."

He noticed her roll her eyes as she fidgeted on her feet some more. "He could be."

"Yeah."

No one else said anything for a moment. Luke thought about asking about the blow-out Gypsy mentioned. Strangely enough, Lorelai didn't ask how Shelby was doing after it. So, instead, he changed the subject and took the earrings Liz gave him out of his pocket to offer them to her.

Lorelai softly gasped, complimenting how pretty they were.

"Liz made them yesterday," he explained, but lied when he added, "she wanted you to have them."

"Oh, great." She looked at the earrings in her hands. "Well, be sure to tell her thanks for me."

"I will." They then said good night before parting ways.

Liz and TJ were taking off just as he got back to the diner, catching them to say good-bye one last time. Liz also mentioned Shelby was upstairs on his side of the apartment.

Once he got inside, he locked the door behind him and headed upstairs.

Shelby was propped up against his pillow, strumming on her guitar.

He removed his jacket and scarf, hanging them on the rack by the door before making his way around the wall. "Hey, kiddo," Luke sat down beside her as she was staring off into space. "Rough week, huh?"

Shelby remained silent. She didn't even motion her head.

Luke nudged closer and wrapped his arm around his little buddy, who immediately snuggled against him.

"I yelled at Lorelai," she ratted on herself.

"I heard, Gypsy told me what happened," he reassured. "It's okay."

She shook her head, still staring into space. "Something's wrong with me, Dad."

Luke looked at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Shelby shrugged. "I don't know." Taking a deep breath herself, she then rambled on about what she said to Lorelai. Then, when Jess found her at their spot, she yelled at him before taking off again and hid in the surrounding woods. Then, when Liz found her there in the apartment a moment ago, she silently acted mean to her as well, wanting to be left alone. Liz wasn't really doing anything to deserve it, either.

"I don' wan' to be mean to anyone." Shelby sniffed back some tears as her voice choked.

"I know you don't, kiddo," he said as he rubbed her arm affectionately. Lowering his head, Luke kissed the top of her head before returning to rubbing her arm. "I know you don't."

As he comforted her, reassuring nothing was wrong with her, Shelby added the cherry on top of it all.

"You know wha' else?"

"What?" he asked.

She sniffed in some more. "I lef' my Gameboy in Jess' car."

For some reason, Luke had to stifle a slight snicker without Shelby catching it. As calm as he could, he reassured her, "I'm sure Jess will mail it or give it to your aunt or something."

"Yeah," she murmured softly as Shelby continued to stare at nothing in particular.