TITLE: "The Road Less Traveled"
NAME -Sandra aka Lukerules
E-MAIL -baumann1@yahoo.com
SPOILERS - None.
SUMMARY - Five years later. Jess. Rory. Separate lives. 'Nuff said. Jess point of view story. He's a travel writer for the New York Times. He's tired and not over her. She's working behind the scenes as a political correspondent for CNN in Washington DC. She's not over him. Luke and Lorelai finally get together and are getting married.
I wrote this (longhand on a thousand scraps of paper) sitting in an airport, watching a guy at the bar engrossed in a book (hence the beginning.)
RATING - PG-13 - mostly for language. But may change in future chapters
PAIRING OR CHARACTER - R/J (no Tristan, not in ANY of my stories, ever, sorry), L/L
DISCLAIMER -I don't own the characters (pout) but I'd like to borrow Luke/Scott for a few hours/days/years, please, please, pretty please? The WB, Amy Sherman-Palladino, et al owns it all. *************************************************************************** *****************
Chapter One
I sat at the airport bar on a quiet Monday night, a neglected vodka and tonic in front of me, completely engrossed in a heavily worn copy of "Moveable Feast". No, no notes in the margin anymore, my time and energy was now being spent writing travel pieces for the New York Times. 'Ah, New York, home sweet home' I thought out loud. But New York wasn't really home for me. Home was an insane little hamlet called Stars Hollow, Connecticut. It still haunts me, like a far away place that one dreams about visiting but had never been to, that one pictures in an abstract way. But it had been real. SHE had been real. Flesh and bone, long brown hair and soulful blue eyes. Eyes that still haunt me.
When I was writing, or traveling, or breathing -basically, I often drifted off in thought, wondering..where is she? What is she doing? Does she ever think about me? 'No!' I pushed her out of my mind again. She had her mother. She had Yale, a future. I had nothing to offer her then. I didn't even tell her about my one-and-only stand-up moment in Stars Hollow - when I was voted 'employee of the month'. Geez. Luke showed up. That's when it all started. It's all his fault. He talked to my supervisor and found out I was working more than 40 hours a week. That was it for me. Never mind that I was doing okay there, making money, had gotten a couple raises, and shit, no, Luke wanted me to do what he couldn't' do - graduate from high school then actually makes something out of myself. And get the hell out of Stars Hollow. Yeah, well, I did that. I got the hell out of Stars Hollow. But I left behind the one thing that completed me. Not my books. Luke sent them to Jimmy's in California a few weeks after I got there. It was HER. Always HER. I can't even think her name, it makes me crazy. I called her cell phone. Just to hear her voice, too frightened to say a word. But she knew. SHE knew it was me. We had (have?) a cosmic connection. One that can't be broken by time and distance. Or can it? It's been 5 years since that day, her graduation from Chilton, when she told me 'she might have loved me'. The day I stood on the boardwalk and could feel my heart break - actually feel it physically fracture. Split, explode.
I was convinced that I'd never love anyone again. And I haven't. Shit, I've slept with plenty of women. Since I've been writing the travel column I've had women practically throw themselves at me. I never close my eyes when I'm screwing someone. Some of the women I've been with thought it was sweet, then again some thought it was creepy. They don't know that if I were to close my eyes, I would only see HER. I only wanted HER. She's the one person I never really had.
I wanted to make love to her. I didn't want to screw her, fuck her and get her pregnant or the other horrors that the town was convinced I would do to her. No, I wanted to make love with her. Open up to her completely, to finally show someone who the real Jess Mariano really is - and who he can be. I often wonder how different our lives might have been if we had actually made love. Would we still be together? Married? Would I have gotten my shit together at school and graduated? Would she still love me? Whoa. That's a tough one. Would she have gone off to Yale and decide that I was a 'mistake'? I mean, Liz has called me that before. It's not like I've never heard it. But SHE believed in me. She always did. Why did I have to fuck that up? Luke warned me. Luke always warned me - even though I wouldn't listen.
I haven't spoken to Luke since I left for California. I heard through Liz that he and Lorelai finally got together. And they were planning on getting married. Soon, I think she said in early June. It was.May? Geez, I've been traveling so much I don't even know what month it is. I looked at my ticket to Laguardia - shit, it was already June!
A wedding. Huh. It made me think about the wedding when I had come back to Stars Hollow the first time. When SHE kissed me. I just stood there for a few minutes after, looking to where she had run. I knew that I had come back for one reason only - HER. But I didn't tell her that. She was the only thing that kept me there the first time. We had been getting so close. I was hoping that she was starting to feel the way about me that I had felt about her since the day we met. Then I had to have that damn accident. The accident that drove me away from her. But then she came to New York to see me. To see ME. She missed me. I knew that I finally had a chance. Then the wedding. And she kissed me, she initiated it. I chuckled to myself. Maybe I should show up at Luke and Lorelai's wedding just like I did at that one. Would she kiss me again? Tell me not to tell anyone? Ha! This time I would shout it from the rooftops. Publish it in the paper. Hell, just tell Miss Patty, that's about the same thing. Would she even talk to me? I know that I wasn't worthy of her then, but I've made something of myself.
I was a pretty well-to-do writer for a prestigious newspaper. I was also a published author, having written my first book the year after I left Stars Hollow. I thought about sending a copy to HER - after all, I dedicated the novel to her - but thought the better of it. She probably hated me still. Who knows - maybe she still hates me. I'd like to think that she's stumble across my book one day, read what I wrote and try to find me. Geez, when did I become such a complete romantic sap? Oh yeah, she did that to me. Making me read Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson and all of that flowery, girly literature that she loved. I was happy with my Hemingway and Kerouac. But suddenly, I was reading poetry about love lost, love found, love rekindled. Yeah. Maybe I'll write a poem about love rekindled in the dedication to her for my next book. Christ! I haven't even started my new book but I'm already planning out a dedication to HER. Geez, Luke would smirk at me over that one.
What am I thinking so much about Luke? Maybe because I'm sitting at the airport with a drink and nowhere in particular to go, except to an empty apartment. I wonder if I could change my ticket and get a flight to Hartford? What the hell? I downed my drink in one long gulp, left a couple of bucks for the bartender, slung my garment bag over my shoulder and headed for the ticketing counter.
End of chapter one. What do you think so far? Please review!!!
SUMMARY - Five years later. Jess. Rory. Separate lives. 'Nuff said. Jess point of view story. He's a travel writer for the New York Times. He's tired and not over her. She's working behind the scenes as a political correspondent for CNN in Washington DC. She's not over him. Luke and Lorelai finally get together and are getting married.
I wrote this (longhand on a thousand scraps of paper) sitting in an airport, watching a guy at the bar engrossed in a book (hence the beginning.)
RATING - PG-13 - mostly for language. But may change in future chapters
PAIRING OR CHARACTER - R/J (no Tristan, not in ANY of my stories, ever, sorry), L/L
DISCLAIMER -I don't own the characters (pout) but I'd like to borrow Luke/Scott for a few hours/days/years, please, please, pretty please? The WB, Amy Sherman-Palladino, et al owns it all. *************************************************************************** *****************
Chapter One
I sat at the airport bar on a quiet Monday night, a neglected vodka and tonic in front of me, completely engrossed in a heavily worn copy of "Moveable Feast". No, no notes in the margin anymore, my time and energy was now being spent writing travel pieces for the New York Times. 'Ah, New York, home sweet home' I thought out loud. But New York wasn't really home for me. Home was an insane little hamlet called Stars Hollow, Connecticut. It still haunts me, like a far away place that one dreams about visiting but had never been to, that one pictures in an abstract way. But it had been real. SHE had been real. Flesh and bone, long brown hair and soulful blue eyes. Eyes that still haunt me.
When I was writing, or traveling, or breathing -basically, I often drifted off in thought, wondering..where is she? What is she doing? Does she ever think about me? 'No!' I pushed her out of my mind again. She had her mother. She had Yale, a future. I had nothing to offer her then. I didn't even tell her about my one-and-only stand-up moment in Stars Hollow - when I was voted 'employee of the month'. Geez. Luke showed up. That's when it all started. It's all his fault. He talked to my supervisor and found out I was working more than 40 hours a week. That was it for me. Never mind that I was doing okay there, making money, had gotten a couple raises, and shit, no, Luke wanted me to do what he couldn't' do - graduate from high school then actually makes something out of myself. And get the hell out of Stars Hollow. Yeah, well, I did that. I got the hell out of Stars Hollow. But I left behind the one thing that completed me. Not my books. Luke sent them to Jimmy's in California a few weeks after I got there. It was HER. Always HER. I can't even think her name, it makes me crazy. I called her cell phone. Just to hear her voice, too frightened to say a word. But she knew. SHE knew it was me. We had (have?) a cosmic connection. One that can't be broken by time and distance. Or can it? It's been 5 years since that day, her graduation from Chilton, when she told me 'she might have loved me'. The day I stood on the boardwalk and could feel my heart break - actually feel it physically fracture. Split, explode.
I was convinced that I'd never love anyone again. And I haven't. Shit, I've slept with plenty of women. Since I've been writing the travel column I've had women practically throw themselves at me. I never close my eyes when I'm screwing someone. Some of the women I've been with thought it was sweet, then again some thought it was creepy. They don't know that if I were to close my eyes, I would only see HER. I only wanted HER. She's the one person I never really had.
I wanted to make love to her. I didn't want to screw her, fuck her and get her pregnant or the other horrors that the town was convinced I would do to her. No, I wanted to make love with her. Open up to her completely, to finally show someone who the real Jess Mariano really is - and who he can be. I often wonder how different our lives might have been if we had actually made love. Would we still be together? Married? Would I have gotten my shit together at school and graduated? Would she still love me? Whoa. That's a tough one. Would she have gone off to Yale and decide that I was a 'mistake'? I mean, Liz has called me that before. It's not like I've never heard it. But SHE believed in me. She always did. Why did I have to fuck that up? Luke warned me. Luke always warned me - even though I wouldn't listen.
I haven't spoken to Luke since I left for California. I heard through Liz that he and Lorelai finally got together. And they were planning on getting married. Soon, I think she said in early June. It was.May? Geez, I've been traveling so much I don't even know what month it is. I looked at my ticket to Laguardia - shit, it was already June!
A wedding. Huh. It made me think about the wedding when I had come back to Stars Hollow the first time. When SHE kissed me. I just stood there for a few minutes after, looking to where she had run. I knew that I had come back for one reason only - HER. But I didn't tell her that. She was the only thing that kept me there the first time. We had been getting so close. I was hoping that she was starting to feel the way about me that I had felt about her since the day we met. Then I had to have that damn accident. The accident that drove me away from her. But then she came to New York to see me. To see ME. She missed me. I knew that I finally had a chance. Then the wedding. And she kissed me, she initiated it. I chuckled to myself. Maybe I should show up at Luke and Lorelai's wedding just like I did at that one. Would she kiss me again? Tell me not to tell anyone? Ha! This time I would shout it from the rooftops. Publish it in the paper. Hell, just tell Miss Patty, that's about the same thing. Would she even talk to me? I know that I wasn't worthy of her then, but I've made something of myself.
I was a pretty well-to-do writer for a prestigious newspaper. I was also a published author, having written my first book the year after I left Stars Hollow. I thought about sending a copy to HER - after all, I dedicated the novel to her - but thought the better of it. She probably hated me still. Who knows - maybe she still hates me. I'd like to think that she's stumble across my book one day, read what I wrote and try to find me. Geez, when did I become such a complete romantic sap? Oh yeah, she did that to me. Making me read Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson and all of that flowery, girly literature that she loved. I was happy with my Hemingway and Kerouac. But suddenly, I was reading poetry about love lost, love found, love rekindled. Yeah. Maybe I'll write a poem about love rekindled in the dedication to her for my next book. Christ! I haven't even started my new book but I'm already planning out a dedication to HER. Geez, Luke would smirk at me over that one.
What am I thinking so much about Luke? Maybe because I'm sitting at the airport with a drink and nowhere in particular to go, except to an empty apartment. I wonder if I could change my ticket and get a flight to Hartford? What the hell? I downed my drink in one long gulp, left a couple of bucks for the bartender, slung my garment bag over my shoulder and headed for the ticketing counter.
End of chapter one. What do you think so far? Please review!!!