Title: Finding Family (Part 4)
Author: Sirius superpuppy88@aol.com
Rating: PG
Archived: July 31, 2002
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rory and Jess find that they are supposed to be together. Jess gets a visit from someone in New York, which leads to a very complicated week.
[FADE to later that day when JESS and RORY are walking back to Luke's Diner.]
(A bus pulls up in front of the diner and passengers begin to unload. RORY and JESS stand there for a minute and watch them. Then, a teenage girl that looks to be about 14 or 15 gets off the bus. She has black hair that's cut about an inch above her shoulders and has lime green streaks in it. She is wearing long black pants that are baggy and a red shirt with a green dragon on it. She gets her bag off the bottom of the bus and straightens up to look around.)
GIRL: God, Jess was right.
(JESS looks up at the mention of his name and his mouth gapes open.)
JESS: Carly??
GIRL: (Looks up at JESS and RORY.) Jess?? Oh my God! Jess! (Runs up to him and drops her bag. Then she throws her arms around him. Jess picks her up and hugs her tightly.)
JESS: Carly, what are you doing here?
(By now RORY is very confused but listens to Carly as she explains.)
CARLY: I came here to stay with you. I couldn't stand to stay in New York without you. I needed you. (CARLY starts to cry.)
JESS: Shh now. It's okay now. (JESS soothes her and hugs her.) Tell me what happened. Did he come back?
CARLY: Yeah, on Saturday night. It was about three o'clock in the morning and he had come home after going out all night drinking. He got mad because we were out of beers and he came into my room and he.he. (Carly starts crying again.)
JESS: Are you okay? Did he hit you? (Carly nods and buries her face in JESS' shirt.) Shh, it's okay now. Don't worry. I'm here now.
CARLY: Can I stay with you?
JESS: Uh, yeah. Hold on, we'll talk to Luke about it. Don't worry, he'll be cool.
CARLY: (Just now noticing RORY looking at the two of them.) Oh, sorry, who's your friend?
JESS: Carly, this is Rory, my girlfriend.
CARLY: Oh, hi.
RORY: Hi.
JESS: Rory, this is Carly. my sister.
RORY: Wow. Hi!
CARLY: (Embarrassed now.) Hi.
JESS: Come on, let's go talk to Luke.
[FADE to inside of diner.]
JESS: (Steers CARLY up to the front of the diner to where LUKE is putting coffee on.) Hey Uncle Luke. Uh, can I talk to you for a minute?
LUKE: (His back is to the three of them.) Jess.(Exasperated) I'm really busy right now. We'll do it later. Okay? (He turns around and sees CARLY.) Oh, uh.yeah.we can talk.I'll have Caesar run the diner. Go on upstairs. (Looks back at CARLY and then heads upstairs.)
JESS: (To CARLY.) Stay here with Rory okay?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS turns and follows LUKE upstairs.)
[FADE to inside the apartment.]
(JESS and LUKE have been talking for a second and JESS has explained the situation.)
LUKE: Jess, there's absolutely no space. Even with your new room there wouldn't be enough for the three of us.
JESS: Luke, she's my sister. I can't just walk out on my sister. I'm her older brother. She's supposed to be able to count on me for stuff. (JESS was losing hope.) What am I supposed to tell her? No Carly, I'm sorry, there's no room for you here. I guess you have to go back to New York and have some guy beat you to death. Come on Luke!
LUKE: Jess, I know she's your sister, and I know you feel like you have to help her, but she just can't stay here.
JESS: What if she works in the diner? She's a really good worker.
LUKE: We don't need any help. With you here we've got plenty.
JESS: What if I get a job somewhere else and she can have my job?
LUKE: Jess, I'm sorry.
JESS: I'll share a room with her! That way we are in each other's way instead of in yours! That's no different then it already is!
LUKE: (Thinks it over for a minute.) If you think you can handle that then sure, but I'm warning you, it's not going to be easy.
JESS: Nothing ever is. Thanks Luke.
(JESS runs downstairs to go tell CARLY.)
LUKE: (To himself.) Oh boy.
[FADE to the diner.]
JESS: You can stay. Don't worry about anything.
CARLY: Oh Jess, thank you!
JESS: No problem. I told you everything was going to be okay. (JESS looks at RORY who is sitting there staring at them and gives her a pain filled look.) Here, let me go clean up the apartment a little bit and then you can unpack, okay?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS runs back upstairs. LUKE soon comes back down.)
RORY: Hey, while we wait for him, how bout I treat ya to a drink?
CARLY: Thanks. I'll have a Coke I guess.
RORY: (To LUKE.) Hey Luke, can we have a coffee and a Coke please?
LUKE: Yeah, no problem. (pours a mug of coffee and fills up a Coke from the fountain.) Here ya go.
RORY: So, how long do you think you'll be staying?
CARLY: (Nervous.) Um, I'm not sure. As long as Jess will let me I guess.
RORY: It looks like Jess really cares about you, he'll probably let you stay till the end of time if you need too.
CARLY: Yeah, Jess is a great older brother. (CARLY seems deep in thought so RORY just stares down into her coffee mug.)
(About ten minutes later JESS came down the stairs from the apartment.)
JESS: Okay, I freed up part of the closet and some drawer space for you. Come on up.
CARLY: Okay.
(JESS grabs her bag and CARLY carefully walks up the stairs to the apartment.)
JESS: (To RORY) Hey, can you hold on a minute while I get her settled? I really need to talk to you.
RORY: Yeah, take your time.
JESS: Thanks. (Runs after CARLY.)
[FADE to the apartment.]
JESS: Okay, so Luke said you and I would be sharing a room for a little while, until we can come up with something else.
CARLY: Don't worry, that's fine. Thanks.
JESS: Okay, well the bathroom's over there, the kitchen, our room, Luke's room, TV, phone, closet. Yeah, okay. Well you can use the closet as much as you need, just push over all my shirts, then the bottom two drawers of the dresser are empty so you can use that too. So, uh, I guess you want to get unpacked then?
CARLY: Uh, yeah. Thanks. (Comes over to JESS and hugs him. She starts to cry.)
JESS: There's more to your story isn't there?
CARLY: Yeah. But I can't talk about it now.
JESS: Later?
CARLY: Yeah, later.
JESS: Okay, well I need to go talk to Rory so, uh, get settled and you might want to take a nap. You can use my bed if you want to.
CARLY: Thanks. I love you.
JESS: I love you too.
(JESS hugs her and then walks out the door of the apartment and down to the diner.)
[FADE to the diner.]
RORY: Walk?
JESS: Yeah, walk.
[FADE to the streets of Stars Hollow.]
RORY: Are you okay?
JESS: I don't know.
RORY: Why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?
JESS: I don't know, I guess it just didn't ever come up.
RORY: (Thinks for a minute.) Can you explain to me what's going on?
JESS: Which part?
RORY: I don't know. Just start talking. We'll get to her situation eventually. (They sit at the bench by the gazebo.)
JESS: Okay. Well, um, in New York, I lived in an apartment with my mom and Carly. It was in a bad part of town and I used to get in fights and stuff. I got a pretty tough skin after a while. Carly and I went to school together every day and when we would get home my mom would never be there. She would always go to work and then stay out late partying, you know?
RORY: Yeah, I'm with you so far.
JESS: She never would give us money or anything so I remember having so get up really early in the morning to steal money out of her purse. She was always too hung-over to notice if she was missing any. Carly and I kind of raised ourselves. I was always more of a father type to Carly then a big brother. I had to remember to pay the landlord so that we wouldn't get kicked out of our apartment. (JESS pauses for a minute to collect his thoughts.)
RORY: (Still listening.)
JESS: Carly always had friends so she could uh, do girly stuff, with them and their mom's. (RORY got what he meant by "girly stuff" and just let him talk.) But then about three years ago my mom started to date men she met at bars and would bring them home with her or just not come home at all. Then, last year, she met some guy named Frank, and she got married. Luke didn't know about him I don't think. So now he lived with us. But he would get drunk like my mom and then he'd start hitting us. I remember one time waking up in the hospital.
RORY: Oh my God, Jess.
JESS: I learned to protect myself pretty well. A couple times I would take Carly and we would get out of the apartment for the night if it was really bad. If he would come after Carly I would hit him. I couldn't let anything happen to her. But when I got caught with my friends one night for drinking underage and I was sent here. I barely was allowed time to pack. Frank forced my mom to call Luke.
RORY: And so Carly was left there all alone?
JESS: Yeah. I've written to her every night since I've been here. I've told her that she could come whenever she wanted to get away from them. I've sent half of my money from working at the diner to her. I didn't want her getting a job at her age and I didn't want to think of what kind of job she could've gotten.
RORY: So what are you gonna do now?
JESS: I don't know. Luke barely let her stay here. We are gonna share my room and she'll go to school here next year I guess, and.well besides that.I have no idea. Before I came to talk to you she said that there was more that I didn't know about but she said that she couldn't tell me now. I'm worried what else could have happened.
RORY: Jess, it's okay. Don't worry. She's here now. She's gonna be fine. (She leans over to him and hugs him. She feels him shake and knows that he's crying.)
JESS: (Tries to stop crying but it doesn't work. He pulls back and looks at RORY.) Thanks, I don't know what I would have done without you.
RORY: Hey! Idea! What if you and Carly come over tonight and we watch a movie? She can meet my mom and stuff.
JESS: I'll talk to Carly about it. I don't know if she might just want to sleep.
RORY: Yeah, good plan. The offer stands anytime though okay? Anytime you need to get away or talk or anything, you can come to me, you know that right?
JESS: Yeah, I know. (He kisses her.) I love you.
RORY: I love you too.
JESS: Well, Carly might need my help with unpacking. So, I better go. Thanks.
RORY: No problem. See you later.
JESS: Yeah, later.
[FADE to the apartment above the diner where JESS is helping CARLY unpack her things.]
JESS: So, are you ready to talk yet?
CARLY: No.
JESS: Okay. (Quietly continues unpacking her CD's.) Wow! You have Switchfoot? Cool! There goes one off my list to get. I always knew you had good taste.
CARLY: Yeah. I got it for my birthday from Marissa.
JESS: Did you get my present?
CARLY: Yeah, thanks.
JESS: You're welcome. I was looking around the music store with Rory and I saw it and I totally thought of you.
CARLY: You really like her don't you?
JESS: I don't like her, I love her.
CARLY: Oh, I didn't think you guys were that serious.
JESS: Yeah, for me it was kinda one of those cases where you see the person and you are like, "Damn!"
CARLY: Haha! Yeah, she seemed really nice, but not really your type.
JESS: I guess that since I met her, my type has changed. I've changed.
CARLY: Hmm.
(They continue unpacking and JESS comes across something at the bottom of her bag.)
JESS: You have a diary?!?
CARLY: What? Oh, man. I was hoping you wouldn't find that. (She gets red in the face and grabs it away from him.) Don't read it okay?
JESS: Yeah, sure, whatever.
[FADE to RORY walking home from the bench deep in thought.]
LORELAI: (Pulls up to her in the Jeep and honks. RORY starts.) Hey there, little lady. (Pretends to tip a hat that she's not wearing.)
RORY: Don't ever do that again! Ahh!
(RORY hops into the passenger side of the car and LORELAI drives away to their house.)
[FADE to the front of the Gilmore house.]
(RORY and LORELAI get out of the car.)
LORELAI: What's wrong honey? You are really quiet. Did you and Jess get in a fight?
(LORELAI sits down on the porch and motions for RORY to do the same.)
RORY: No. We're fine.
LORELAI: Well then, what's wrong?
RORY: Did you know that Jess has a sister?
LORELAI: No. Does he?
RORY: Yeah, she showed up today. She's gonna live with Jess and Luke for a while.
LORELAI: I wonder why Luke never mentioned anything.
RORY: Well, he didn't ever mention Jess until he showed up right?
LORELAI: True.
RORY: Her name is Carly and she's probably about 15 or something.
LORELAI: Cool.
RORY: Yeah. Except that she came here because her and Jess' stepfather was beating her.
LORELAI: Oh, oh my.
RORY: Yeah. Jess is great with her though. He's real protective of her.
LORELAI: Well, I guess when you live in New York its good to have someone to look after you.
RORY: Yeah. Jess is a wreck now though. He cried when he told me about when he lived in New York. I think he tried to forget about it but when Carly showed up it all came flooding back or something. I'd never seen Jess cry before today.
LORELAI: They must have really had it bad. Jess doesn't seem like the crying type.
RORY: Yeah. Oh, I invited them to come over sometime if they wanted to watch a movie or something. I want her to meet you. Ya know, so she has a woman she can turn to while she's here. Is that okay?
LORELAI: Yeah, that was a good idea.
RORY: Oh, and uh, don't let her appearance influence your opinion of her. She's really nice.
LORELAI: What do you mean by that?
RORY: She has .uh.green hair.
LORELAI: Hmm.trendy.
RORY: Yeah. Actually, it kind of grew on me after a while.
(They both laugh and head inside.)
[FADE to the apartment above the diner.]
JESS: So, that was all your stuff, right?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS lays down on the bed and CARLY moves over to the window.)
JESS: So, what are you reading now?
CARLY: Of Mice and Men.
JESS: Ah, a classic. Hold on, didn't I have that book?
CARLY: Yeah, I took it before Liz shipped the rest of your stuff here.
JESS: Okay, well can you put it on the bookshelf when you're done? (Motions toward the corner of the room where his bookshelf is stacked high with books.)
CARLY: Yeah. Sure.
JESS: So, you wanna watch a movie tonight? Or do you just wanna go to sleep.
CARLY: I don't care. We could watch a movie.
JESS: Okay, cool. Rory invited us over to rent something. I'll call her and tell her we're coming.
(JESS picks up the phone and dials a very familiar number. A voice on the other side answers.)
RORY: Hello?
JESS: Hey, it's me.
RORY: Hey! How bout it? Are you coming?
JESS: Yeah, well I asked her and she said a movie could be fun. When do you want us to come over?
RORY: Now, if you want. We can order a pizza.
JESS: Cool. We'll be over in about half an hour then. I'm gonna show her the town on the way over.
RORY: Okay, see ya in a bit.
(They hang up and JESS grabs his keys to get back into the diner.)
JESS: You ready?
CARLY: Yeah.
JESS: Okay, let's go.
Author: Sirius superpuppy88@aol.com
Rating: PG
Archived: July 31, 2002
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rory and Jess find that they are supposed to be together. Jess gets a visit from someone in New York, which leads to a very complicated week.
[FADE to later that day when JESS and RORY are walking back to Luke's Diner.]
(A bus pulls up in front of the diner and passengers begin to unload. RORY and JESS stand there for a minute and watch them. Then, a teenage girl that looks to be about 14 or 15 gets off the bus. She has black hair that's cut about an inch above her shoulders and has lime green streaks in it. She is wearing long black pants that are baggy and a red shirt with a green dragon on it. She gets her bag off the bottom of the bus and straightens up to look around.)
GIRL: God, Jess was right.
(JESS looks up at the mention of his name and his mouth gapes open.)
JESS: Carly??
GIRL: (Looks up at JESS and RORY.) Jess?? Oh my God! Jess! (Runs up to him and drops her bag. Then she throws her arms around him. Jess picks her up and hugs her tightly.)
JESS: Carly, what are you doing here?
(By now RORY is very confused but listens to Carly as she explains.)
CARLY: I came here to stay with you. I couldn't stand to stay in New York without you. I needed you. (CARLY starts to cry.)
JESS: Shh now. It's okay now. (JESS soothes her and hugs her.) Tell me what happened. Did he come back?
CARLY: Yeah, on Saturday night. It was about three o'clock in the morning and he had come home after going out all night drinking. He got mad because we were out of beers and he came into my room and he.he. (Carly starts crying again.)
JESS: Are you okay? Did he hit you? (Carly nods and buries her face in JESS' shirt.) Shh, it's okay now. Don't worry. I'm here now.
CARLY: Can I stay with you?
JESS: Uh, yeah. Hold on, we'll talk to Luke about it. Don't worry, he'll be cool.
CARLY: (Just now noticing RORY looking at the two of them.) Oh, sorry, who's your friend?
JESS: Carly, this is Rory, my girlfriend.
CARLY: Oh, hi.
RORY: Hi.
JESS: Rory, this is Carly. my sister.
RORY: Wow. Hi!
CARLY: (Embarrassed now.) Hi.
JESS: Come on, let's go talk to Luke.
[FADE to inside of diner.]
JESS: (Steers CARLY up to the front of the diner to where LUKE is putting coffee on.) Hey Uncle Luke. Uh, can I talk to you for a minute?
LUKE: (His back is to the three of them.) Jess.(Exasperated) I'm really busy right now. We'll do it later. Okay? (He turns around and sees CARLY.) Oh, uh.yeah.we can talk.I'll have Caesar run the diner. Go on upstairs. (Looks back at CARLY and then heads upstairs.)
JESS: (To CARLY.) Stay here with Rory okay?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS turns and follows LUKE upstairs.)
[FADE to inside the apartment.]
(JESS and LUKE have been talking for a second and JESS has explained the situation.)
LUKE: Jess, there's absolutely no space. Even with your new room there wouldn't be enough for the three of us.
JESS: Luke, she's my sister. I can't just walk out on my sister. I'm her older brother. She's supposed to be able to count on me for stuff. (JESS was losing hope.) What am I supposed to tell her? No Carly, I'm sorry, there's no room for you here. I guess you have to go back to New York and have some guy beat you to death. Come on Luke!
LUKE: Jess, I know she's your sister, and I know you feel like you have to help her, but she just can't stay here.
JESS: What if she works in the diner? She's a really good worker.
LUKE: We don't need any help. With you here we've got plenty.
JESS: What if I get a job somewhere else and she can have my job?
LUKE: Jess, I'm sorry.
JESS: I'll share a room with her! That way we are in each other's way instead of in yours! That's no different then it already is!
LUKE: (Thinks it over for a minute.) If you think you can handle that then sure, but I'm warning you, it's not going to be easy.
JESS: Nothing ever is. Thanks Luke.
(JESS runs downstairs to go tell CARLY.)
LUKE: (To himself.) Oh boy.
[FADE to the diner.]
JESS: You can stay. Don't worry about anything.
CARLY: Oh Jess, thank you!
JESS: No problem. I told you everything was going to be okay. (JESS looks at RORY who is sitting there staring at them and gives her a pain filled look.) Here, let me go clean up the apartment a little bit and then you can unpack, okay?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS runs back upstairs. LUKE soon comes back down.)
RORY: Hey, while we wait for him, how bout I treat ya to a drink?
CARLY: Thanks. I'll have a Coke I guess.
RORY: (To LUKE.) Hey Luke, can we have a coffee and a Coke please?
LUKE: Yeah, no problem. (pours a mug of coffee and fills up a Coke from the fountain.) Here ya go.
RORY: So, how long do you think you'll be staying?
CARLY: (Nervous.) Um, I'm not sure. As long as Jess will let me I guess.
RORY: It looks like Jess really cares about you, he'll probably let you stay till the end of time if you need too.
CARLY: Yeah, Jess is a great older brother. (CARLY seems deep in thought so RORY just stares down into her coffee mug.)
(About ten minutes later JESS came down the stairs from the apartment.)
JESS: Okay, I freed up part of the closet and some drawer space for you. Come on up.
CARLY: Okay.
(JESS grabs her bag and CARLY carefully walks up the stairs to the apartment.)
JESS: (To RORY) Hey, can you hold on a minute while I get her settled? I really need to talk to you.
RORY: Yeah, take your time.
JESS: Thanks. (Runs after CARLY.)
[FADE to the apartment.]
JESS: Okay, so Luke said you and I would be sharing a room for a little while, until we can come up with something else.
CARLY: Don't worry, that's fine. Thanks.
JESS: Okay, well the bathroom's over there, the kitchen, our room, Luke's room, TV, phone, closet. Yeah, okay. Well you can use the closet as much as you need, just push over all my shirts, then the bottom two drawers of the dresser are empty so you can use that too. So, uh, I guess you want to get unpacked then?
CARLY: Uh, yeah. Thanks. (Comes over to JESS and hugs him. She starts to cry.)
JESS: There's more to your story isn't there?
CARLY: Yeah. But I can't talk about it now.
JESS: Later?
CARLY: Yeah, later.
JESS: Okay, well I need to go talk to Rory so, uh, get settled and you might want to take a nap. You can use my bed if you want to.
CARLY: Thanks. I love you.
JESS: I love you too.
(JESS hugs her and then walks out the door of the apartment and down to the diner.)
[FADE to the diner.]
RORY: Walk?
JESS: Yeah, walk.
[FADE to the streets of Stars Hollow.]
RORY: Are you okay?
JESS: I don't know.
RORY: Why didn't you ever tell me you had a sister?
JESS: I don't know, I guess it just didn't ever come up.
RORY: (Thinks for a minute.) Can you explain to me what's going on?
JESS: Which part?
RORY: I don't know. Just start talking. We'll get to her situation eventually. (They sit at the bench by the gazebo.)
JESS: Okay. Well, um, in New York, I lived in an apartment with my mom and Carly. It was in a bad part of town and I used to get in fights and stuff. I got a pretty tough skin after a while. Carly and I went to school together every day and when we would get home my mom would never be there. She would always go to work and then stay out late partying, you know?
RORY: Yeah, I'm with you so far.
JESS: She never would give us money or anything so I remember having so get up really early in the morning to steal money out of her purse. She was always too hung-over to notice if she was missing any. Carly and I kind of raised ourselves. I was always more of a father type to Carly then a big brother. I had to remember to pay the landlord so that we wouldn't get kicked out of our apartment. (JESS pauses for a minute to collect his thoughts.)
RORY: (Still listening.)
JESS: Carly always had friends so she could uh, do girly stuff, with them and their mom's. (RORY got what he meant by "girly stuff" and just let him talk.) But then about three years ago my mom started to date men she met at bars and would bring them home with her or just not come home at all. Then, last year, she met some guy named Frank, and she got married. Luke didn't know about him I don't think. So now he lived with us. But he would get drunk like my mom and then he'd start hitting us. I remember one time waking up in the hospital.
RORY: Oh my God, Jess.
JESS: I learned to protect myself pretty well. A couple times I would take Carly and we would get out of the apartment for the night if it was really bad. If he would come after Carly I would hit him. I couldn't let anything happen to her. But when I got caught with my friends one night for drinking underage and I was sent here. I barely was allowed time to pack. Frank forced my mom to call Luke.
RORY: And so Carly was left there all alone?
JESS: Yeah. I've written to her every night since I've been here. I've told her that she could come whenever she wanted to get away from them. I've sent half of my money from working at the diner to her. I didn't want her getting a job at her age and I didn't want to think of what kind of job she could've gotten.
RORY: So what are you gonna do now?
JESS: I don't know. Luke barely let her stay here. We are gonna share my room and she'll go to school here next year I guess, and.well besides that.I have no idea. Before I came to talk to you she said that there was more that I didn't know about but she said that she couldn't tell me now. I'm worried what else could have happened.
RORY: Jess, it's okay. Don't worry. She's here now. She's gonna be fine. (She leans over to him and hugs him. She feels him shake and knows that he's crying.)
JESS: (Tries to stop crying but it doesn't work. He pulls back and looks at RORY.) Thanks, I don't know what I would have done without you.
RORY: Hey! Idea! What if you and Carly come over tonight and we watch a movie? She can meet my mom and stuff.
JESS: I'll talk to Carly about it. I don't know if she might just want to sleep.
RORY: Yeah, good plan. The offer stands anytime though okay? Anytime you need to get away or talk or anything, you can come to me, you know that right?
JESS: Yeah, I know. (He kisses her.) I love you.
RORY: I love you too.
JESS: Well, Carly might need my help with unpacking. So, I better go. Thanks.
RORY: No problem. See you later.
JESS: Yeah, later.
[FADE to the apartment above the diner where JESS is helping CARLY unpack her things.]
JESS: So, are you ready to talk yet?
CARLY: No.
JESS: Okay. (Quietly continues unpacking her CD's.) Wow! You have Switchfoot? Cool! There goes one off my list to get. I always knew you had good taste.
CARLY: Yeah. I got it for my birthday from Marissa.
JESS: Did you get my present?
CARLY: Yeah, thanks.
JESS: You're welcome. I was looking around the music store with Rory and I saw it and I totally thought of you.
CARLY: You really like her don't you?
JESS: I don't like her, I love her.
CARLY: Oh, I didn't think you guys were that serious.
JESS: Yeah, for me it was kinda one of those cases where you see the person and you are like, "Damn!"
CARLY: Haha! Yeah, she seemed really nice, but not really your type.
JESS: I guess that since I met her, my type has changed. I've changed.
CARLY: Hmm.
(They continue unpacking and JESS comes across something at the bottom of her bag.)
JESS: You have a diary?!?
CARLY: What? Oh, man. I was hoping you wouldn't find that. (She gets red in the face and grabs it away from him.) Don't read it okay?
JESS: Yeah, sure, whatever.
[FADE to RORY walking home from the bench deep in thought.]
LORELAI: (Pulls up to her in the Jeep and honks. RORY starts.) Hey there, little lady. (Pretends to tip a hat that she's not wearing.)
RORY: Don't ever do that again! Ahh!
(RORY hops into the passenger side of the car and LORELAI drives away to their house.)
[FADE to the front of the Gilmore house.]
(RORY and LORELAI get out of the car.)
LORELAI: What's wrong honey? You are really quiet. Did you and Jess get in a fight?
(LORELAI sits down on the porch and motions for RORY to do the same.)
RORY: No. We're fine.
LORELAI: Well then, what's wrong?
RORY: Did you know that Jess has a sister?
LORELAI: No. Does he?
RORY: Yeah, she showed up today. She's gonna live with Jess and Luke for a while.
LORELAI: I wonder why Luke never mentioned anything.
RORY: Well, he didn't ever mention Jess until he showed up right?
LORELAI: True.
RORY: Her name is Carly and she's probably about 15 or something.
LORELAI: Cool.
RORY: Yeah. Except that she came here because her and Jess' stepfather was beating her.
LORELAI: Oh, oh my.
RORY: Yeah. Jess is great with her though. He's real protective of her.
LORELAI: Well, I guess when you live in New York its good to have someone to look after you.
RORY: Yeah. Jess is a wreck now though. He cried when he told me about when he lived in New York. I think he tried to forget about it but when Carly showed up it all came flooding back or something. I'd never seen Jess cry before today.
LORELAI: They must have really had it bad. Jess doesn't seem like the crying type.
RORY: Yeah. Oh, I invited them to come over sometime if they wanted to watch a movie or something. I want her to meet you. Ya know, so she has a woman she can turn to while she's here. Is that okay?
LORELAI: Yeah, that was a good idea.
RORY: Oh, and uh, don't let her appearance influence your opinion of her. She's really nice.
LORELAI: What do you mean by that?
RORY: She has .uh.green hair.
LORELAI: Hmm.trendy.
RORY: Yeah. Actually, it kind of grew on me after a while.
(They both laugh and head inside.)
[FADE to the apartment above the diner.]
JESS: So, that was all your stuff, right?
CARLY: Yeah.
(JESS lays down on the bed and CARLY moves over to the window.)
JESS: So, what are you reading now?
CARLY: Of Mice and Men.
JESS: Ah, a classic. Hold on, didn't I have that book?
CARLY: Yeah, I took it before Liz shipped the rest of your stuff here.
JESS: Okay, well can you put it on the bookshelf when you're done? (Motions toward the corner of the room where his bookshelf is stacked high with books.)
CARLY: Yeah. Sure.
JESS: So, you wanna watch a movie tonight? Or do you just wanna go to sleep.
CARLY: I don't care. We could watch a movie.
JESS: Okay, cool. Rory invited us over to rent something. I'll call her and tell her we're coming.
(JESS picks up the phone and dials a very familiar number. A voice on the other side answers.)
RORY: Hello?
JESS: Hey, it's me.
RORY: Hey! How bout it? Are you coming?
JESS: Yeah, well I asked her and she said a movie could be fun. When do you want us to come over?
RORY: Now, if you want. We can order a pizza.
JESS: Cool. We'll be over in about half an hour then. I'm gonna show her the town on the way over.
RORY: Okay, see ya in a bit.
(They hang up and JESS grabs his keys to get back into the diner.)
JESS: You ready?
CARLY: Yeah.
JESS: Okay, let's go.