Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story idea.
A/N: See Chapter One for full premise. To sum up, this is an AU (Alternate Universe) in which Jess Mariano never existed. In his place, Jessie Danes, daughter of Liz, has come to live with her Uncle Luke for the summer. This is still not beta'ed to be gentle. I am very pleased that so far people are enjoying this. Reviews are always welcome, no matter how short or long. This is the last of what I had written before I started posting so from now on the updates will be a little slower, but I've got an outline with several things on the agenda. If there's anything you'd like to see, or any aspect of their relationship you'd want to see explored, all you have to do is ask.
June: Arriving and Adjusting
Chapter Four
~~
Some days later, things had not changed. Every night Jessie fell asleep on the couch with Luke while they watched Cartoon Network. Every night he put her to bed, and every night she woke him up from a dead sleep so that she could join him in his cramped single bed.
When he'd called Liz to get more clothes for her, he'd broached the subject carefully.
"Does Jessie ever like to sleep with you?" Luke asked.
"Sleep with me?" Liz repeated, confused.
"You know, like wake you up in the middle of the night to climb in bed with you," he clarified.
"No, but to be honest, I'm not usually alone to begin with, if you know what I mean," Liz cackled softly.
"I don't want to hear this," he sighed.
"Well, what was I supposed to do?" demanded his sister. "Give up my social life just because I was unlucky enough to get knocked up?"
Disgusted, Luke tried to keep his voice even as he replied, "Actually, yeah, that's exactly what most mothers do."
"Whatever," she sneered. "That's not for me."
"No kidding," Luke commented, sarcasm thick in his voice.
"What's she been up do?" Liz asked, not catching the sarcasm and not really interested in the answer. Luke could hear pages turning in the background and he suspected that she was flipping though some magazine.
"You know," he said, fumbling for words, "kid stuff. A friend of mine has a couple of horses and she's been riding. She wants to take ballet lessons from the local dance teacher, so that's something we might do, too."
"Luke," Liz sputtered, suddenly impatiently, "I can't pay for dance lessons! Just put her in front of the TV, she'll be fine."
"Don't worry about it, okay?" he answered, exasperated. "I'll pay for 'em. Just send her more clothes. I can't believe you let her come here for the summer with just that little backpack."
"Well, she would have suspected otherwise," Liz duh'ed
"Yeah, and that's another thing," he felt himself working himself up into a full rant. "I can't believe you lied to her!"
"Oh, kids are resilient," she scoffed. "She probably won't even remember by the end of the summer."
Luke shook his head at the memory. Same old Liz. The clothes had come, but not before they'd had to start borrowing Rory's old hand-me-downs. Luke hated asking anything from anyone, but the kid needed to be dressed. And if she was going to be riding horses, she needed more denim than just those overalls. He couldn't believe how quickly Lorelai and Jessie had taken to each other. It had almost become routine. Jessie woke up, got dressed and came downstairs for breakfast at about the same time Lorelai would come in for breakfast. They ate together and then left together for the Dragonfly. Jessie would ride for much of the day under the supervision of the inn's trainer and then Lorelai would bring her home in the evening. There had been a few rainy days that Jessie had indeed spent in front of the TV, but other than that, Luke was fairly pleased with how things were going.
Kirk was still afraid of Jessie and that amused Luke to no end. Whenever he came into the diner he avoided her like the plague. If she were sitting in her normal seat at the end of the counter, he'd take a seat at the opposite end. All she had to do was look at him funny and he was making up excuses to leave. In a weird sort of way, he felt a swell of pride at her ability to intimidate Kirk. Like a rite of passage where you weren't a Danes unless you could scare off a Kirk and now that she could, she'd become a man…or something like that.
Luke shook his head and glanced at the clock. He was supposed to be meeting Lorelai and Jessie here any minute now. It was mid-afternoon in the middle of her second week in Stars Hollow and Luke had finally talked to Lorelai about getting a bigger bed. He hated that he needed her help, but Stars Hollow didn't have a bed store and he knew that she'd know where the best one was, especially since she'd just finished outfitting an inn full of beds.
Of course, Lorelai wasn't the kind of woman who could simply give advice, though. She had to tell him where the best place was, how to get there, offer to drive, suggest they take Jessie with them, and then demand that he be ready for her when they arrived from the Dragonfly to pick him up. Just as he sighed once more and glanced at the clock again, he saw the jeep pull up.
Calling to Caesar that he was leaving, Luke left the diner and made his way to where they were parked. Yanking open the passenger-side door to find Jessie already buckled in, he jerked his head toward the backseat.
"But I already called 'front seat'," she said with a frown.
"Tough," he replied. "You'll fit a lot better in the back than I will."
Sighing heavily, she dramatically unbuckled her belt and squeezed between the two front seats toward the back. Once she'd vacated the front seat, he sat down and pulled the seatbelt across his lap. Turning to make sure Jessie was also putting her seatbelt on, he noted that she wasn't her usual filthy self and said, "Did you ride today?"
"Nope, I helped Sookie mix cake batter in the kitchen today and then she let me help her frost the cake when it was done and THEN she even let me lick the bowl! It was so cool!"
Turning back to the front, Luke gave Lorelai a stern look. "You let her eat frosting before dinner?"
"Oh, Luke, lighten up," replied Lorelai with a wave of her hand. She was heading out of the town proper and toward the highway. "The horses were occupied with guests and she wasn't ready to come home, so I let her play with Sookie. She was fine."
"She was eating sugar straight from the bag in all likelihood. If she fills up on frosting, she won't eat her dinner."
"Yes I will!" Jessie piped up from the back, not wanting to get Lorelai or Sookie in trouble with Luke.
"Uh huh," he responded. "Just like you ate all your dinner last night?"
"That was different," she answered dismissively.
"How?"
"It was broccoli!" she said in a tone that suggested he wasn't playing with a full deck.
"She's gotta point, Luke," Lorelai cut in.
"Lorelai, please. She needs her fruits and vegetables. She's a growing child."
"Not if they're yucky I don't need them."
"Especially if they're yucky. In fact, the yucky ones are the best ones for you," Luke said firmly.
Jessie giggled. She'd never heard her uncle use a word like "yucky" before.
"What's so funny back there?" he asked, but she just giggled louder and the conversation ended.
About twenty minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of a strip mall. The little chain of stores had not only a bed store, but also a linens store. Groaning, Luke said, "All we need is a bed. You know that, right?"
With another wave of her hand, Lorelai answered breezily, "Oh, Luke, you can't buy a bigger bed and expect your single sheets to fit it. Plus you'll need another pillow since I know you only have one for your single bed. We can kill all kinds of birds with just one stone."
"I don't want to kill any birds," demanded Jessie from the back as Luke opened the door.
"It's an expression," he answered as he helped her out of the car.
"Like, 'more than one way to skin a cat'," added Lorelai.
"What?! No! No hurting cats and no killing birds!" Jessie cried as they headed toward the stores.
Luke chuckled, stopped walking and said, "What Lorelai means is there's more than one way to do something and we can get a lot of stuff done with just this one stop. No body ever really means they're going to skin a cat or kill a bird. Okay?"
Jessie regarded him solemnly for a moment before nodding and saying, "Okay."
Slipping her hand into his she skipped along beside him until they caught up to Lorelai and Jessie caught hold her hand as well so that they were walking toward the store in a line with Jessie in the middle. Anyone who might have seen them would have assumed that they were a family. The thought was not lost on Lorelai, but Luke seemed oblivious. He was preoccupied with all the purchases he'd be expected to make today and why. Liz had been no help at all and he was trying to decide whether he should ask Lorelai if Rory had ever gone through a stage where she needed to sleep with her.
Once inside the girls immediately began throwing themselves onto beds to test them. "Gotta make sure you're comfortable, Luke," Lorelai told him firmly.
Luke quickly chose a bed, paid for it, and gave his address for the delivery. They set up a time for later in the day when they could make the delivery and the trio left the store and headed toward the linens place.
This, of course, turned into the bigger nightmare. Picking out sheets was not something Luke felt he could do well. In fact, if he were honest, he would have admitted that he was still sleeping on sheets left over from when he was in high school. In fact, the sheets and quilt on Jessie's bed were from when Liz was in high school. In short, Luke couldn't imagine anyone in the world less able to pick out sheets.
Luckily, Lorelai took over the sheet experience. After trying to get him to go with "masculine flowers", "pretty stripes", "non-flannel plaid", and, in a moment of complete abandon, "Lord of the Rings", Lorelai finally hit on something Luke could handle. Solids.
"I just want something plain, okay?" he said.
"So, pink?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.
"No, not pink. Dark colors. Manly colors. Green, dark red, black, navy, any one of those would be fine."
"Yeah, for Borings McBoresalot," Lorelai mocked.
Jessie giggled. Luke turned to her and said with fake menace, "You think this is funny?"
"Uh huh!" she replied with delight.
Turning back to Lorelai, he said with conviction, "This must be your work."
"Hey, if you can't teach a child when to appreciate a good laugh, what can you teach them?" she answered with faux innocence.
Luke rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the sheets in front of him. Dismissing it with a, "There must be something easier," mutter, he walked away from them and around the corner of the aisle where they heard him shout, "Ah ha!"
Lorelai and Jessie looked at each other, smiled, and followed the sound of Luke's voice. "This is exactly what I'm looking for," he was saying as they rounded the corner.
Triumphantly, he held up a "Bed-in-a-Bag". The colors were navy and cream and the bag included sheets, a comforter, pillowcases, and a dust ruffle (whatever the hell that was, he silently added to himself).
"Perfect!" crowed Lorelai. Then, with one hand on her chest, she fake sniffed and said, "I feel like you've learned so much, Grasshopper."
Rolling his eyes again, Luke said, "Now all I need is another pillow and we can get the heck outta here."
"Pillows are this way," said Jessie helpfully as she skipped down an aisle.
"Thank God," said Luke. "We're almost done."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Lorelai countered with a smile.
~~
When they finally left, Lorelai had filled a cart with his linens, pillow, bathroom stuff, Powerpuff Girl sheets for Jessie, and a myriad of other things he just couldn't begin to name. He had had to pointedly remind her that they were expecting a bed delivery and needed to get back to Stars Hollow soon or she never would have left the store.
The ride back to Stars Hollow was quiet. Half-way there Jessie broke the silence by asking, "Hey, Lorelai, are you going to stay for dinner?"
"What a silly question," she replied with a snort. "Dinner is my favorite meal of the day."
They arrived just in time to see the delivery people pull up. Luke ran in and helped coordinate the trip up the stairs with the new bed while Lorelai and Jessie hung back at the counter.
Caesar, knowing the coffee drill, poured a mug for Lorelai before she had to ask and was rewarded with a smile.
"Can I have a coke, please," asked Jessie.
"Luke says you can have milk or water," he answered.
"Come on!" she cajoled. "Puh-leeeease!"
"Sorry," he said with a shrug before leaving to bus a table.
Jessie propped her elbows onto the counter and rested her cheekbones on her fists sulking. "This bites," she spat. "I can't do anything."
Lorelai chuckled next to her and Jessie glowered even harder.
"You know what would make you feel better?"
"What?" Jessie asked darkly.
"A donut," Lorelai replied as she lifted the plastic lid off the pile of donuts on the counter.
Jessie's eyes widened as she said, "The last time you did that he yelled at you."
"Yell, schmell," Lorelai said with her customary good humor as she took a donut, broke it in half and handed some to Jessie. "Eat it fast so that we don't get caught, though."
Determinedly, they each shoved their halves into their mouths. Lorelai's mouth was bigger than Jessie's, though, and the scene Luke walked into when he finally came downstairs was this: side by side, Lorelai chewed with her hand over her mouth while trying not to giggle as Jessie chewed with two fingers holding a gob of donut as it protruded from her mouth.
"The hell?" he asked.
Startled, they both spun in their seats to look at him guiltily.
With arms crossed over his chest, he glared at Jessie and asked, "What's in your mouth?"
Jessie's dark eyes were wide with innocence as she continued to push the donut into her mouth and replied, "Ud-ing."
"It doesn't look like nothing to me," he played along. "It looks like donut. Have you been eating donuts?"
Shaking her head no, Jessie finally swallowed a bit of it and was able to fit the rest of the dough into her mouth.
With a sigh, Luke turned to Lorelai who'd finished chewing and said, "I imagine you had nothing to do with this?"
"Not a thing," she assured him.
"Uh huh." Looking back at Jessie, he saw that she was finally swallowing the last of the donut.
"Now that you can answer, young lady, would you care to tell me what it was you were eating if it wasn't a donut?"
"Um…it was…a…sandwich?" she fumbled for words.
"Since when are sandwiches just dough and sugar?"
"Since Caesar is the best sandwich maker in Stars Hollow," supplied Lorelai.
"Don't sell me down the river," Caesar broke in as he passed them on his way to the kitchen.
"Ingrate," Lorelai called after him.
"That's enough. No more donuts without asking first, understood?"
With a great sigh, Jessie rolled her eyes in a perfect imitation of his own eye roll and replied, "Fine."
"Good. Now, how about dinner?"
"How about dinner!" Lorelai answered enthusiastically.