Disclaimer:  I don't own anything but the storyline and Jessie.

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. 

My beta-reader is on vacation so this is all me.  Please be gentle. 

Thank you to all the reviewers.  You have no idea who gratifying it is to read all your thoughts and opinions.  A special thanks goes out to Lindsay for letting me bounce all my crazy ideas off of her.  And another big thanks goes out to my beta-reader and friend, Sarah, for taking the time to read these chapters and make them as good as they can be.

July:  Cowboys and Ballerinas

Chapter Twenty

~~

Lorelai stormed through her front door and headed straight to the living room where she flopped into a chair and crossed her arms with an emphatic "Humph!"  On the couch, Rory looked up from her biography of Erasmus to frown and note, "You don't look happy."

"Luke is an ass," Lorelai informed her daughter matter-of-factly.

"This is news," Rory commented with interest as she set her book down.  "What happened?"

"He told me I was a bad parent."

"What?" Rory asked incredulously.

"He did," Lorelai insisted.  "Jessie made fun of Taylor, I laughed and then he told me I was a bad parent."

"But you're not Jessie's parent," Rory pointed out logically.

"That's not the point!  Are you even listening?"

Rory sighed.  "Yes, but what you're saying isn't making sense.  Why would Luke tell you you're a bad parent?"

"Because I laughed."

"When?"

"When Jessie made fun of Taylor."

"What did she say?"

"She told him it looked like fake hair."

Rory giggled and said, "It does look like fake hair."

"Thank you!  Funny!"  Lorelai felt vindicated.  "Of course, Taylor didn't think so."

"She said it in front of Taylor?"  All of a sudden Rory looked concerned.

"She was talking to him.  Rory, you gotta keep up with stories."

"Hmmm."

"Hmmm?"

"Mom," Rory began carefully.

"Oh, no," Lorelai said quickly, standing up.  "You can't agree with Luke."

"I don't," Rory asserted.  "But I'm still not clear on why he called you a bad parent."

Lorelai sighed dramatically before saying with a huge eye-roll, "He thinks I encouraged her."

"Did you?"

"No!  I laughed.  It was funny!"

"Was Taylor still there when you laughed?"

Lorelai hesitated and then allowed, "Maybe."

Rory heaved a sigh.  "Because if he was, then she might have garnered from your response that making fun of Taylor was okay and Luke might want her to not make fun of Taylor or people in general."

"Why on earth wouldn't he want that?"

"Who knows!  But he is the decision maker in her life, right?  So if he thought you might have been encouraging her to do something he didn't want her to do, then…." Rory trailed off, hoping Lorelai would finish the thought.

Lorelai crossed her arms and kicked the couch.  After a moment, she pouted, "No more Yale for you."

Rory picked her book up again.  "Are you going to talk to him?"

"Eventually," Lorelai nodded, wishing someone agreed with her.

~~

By the time Luke picked Jessie up from ballet he'd spent his anger on the dishes up in the apartment.  He was still baffled over their fight, though.  All he'd done was ask her not to egg Jessie on.  Was that really so horrible?  He stood on the steps of the studio and waited for his niece to make an appearance.  When she did he had to chuckle and he felt any remaining anger seep out of him.  She was in her black leotard and white tights, but instead of her ballet shoes, she wore her pink converse.  In her hands she clutched the ballet shoes as if they were gold and as she bounced down the steps her bun atop her head bounced along with her.  Her hair was very fine and it seemed that no amount of hairpins could keep curly tendrils from falling down to her shoulders.

Luke gave her a small smile along with a pair of raised eyebrows.  "Had fun?"

"Yes!" she crowed loudly as she returned his smile with a wide one of her own.  "We learned fourth and fifth positions today and did you know that you don't use third that much?  So they don't teach it?  Funny huh?  Why don't they just make that one fifth and then teach first, second, third, and fourth?  I asked Miss Patty and she told me that children should be seen and not heard.  What does that mean and why do they still have a third?"

Luke's eyes had glazed over by the time she'd ended her breathless chatter.  "You're asking the wrong guy on both counts," he said as he took her hand and led her down the steps to the sidewalk.

"But I wasn't counting and where's Lorelai?"  Jessie said distractedly as she looked around.

"Lorelai went home," Luke told her shortly.

"Why did she go home?  I thought she was staying for dinner and TV."

"Something came up and she had to go home."

"Can we go over there?"

"No."

"Why?" Jessie whined.

"Because whenever we go over there you eat like they eat and I don't like it."

"Humph!  You're so mean!"  Jessie stomped her foot as they reached the intersection they needed to cross.

"Yeah, yeah," Luke agreed feeling tired.  Then to change the subject he said, "So do you want to do anything special for your birthday?"

"My birthday?" she asked, a little confused over the quick change of subject.

"Yeah.  August 15th, right?  Two weeks away.  Anything special you want to do that day?"

Jessie stared into the distance for a minute as if thinking it over.  She'd never really had a birthday party before.  Something like that might be a lot of fun.  Maybe she could invite her ballet friends.  "Can we have a party?"

"Sure," Luke answered easily.

"Really?"

"Yup."

"Can I invite my ballet friends and have pizza for dinner and chocolate cake for dessert?"

Luke winced but nodded.  "It's your birthday," he told her firmly.

"And can we have it at Lorelai's so there's room for everyone and then after the party the four of us can watch a movie?"

"Lorelai's?" Luke argued.  "We can have it right in the diner."

"But it's a diner!" Jessie pointed out, perturbed.

"So?"

"So I want to have my party at a house."

Luke sighed.  "Why?" he asked impatiently.

"Because other kids have their birthday parties at their houses!"

"But Lorelai's isn't your house.  The diner is."

"The diner isn't a house at all!  It's a diner with a stupid apartment on top!"

"Well, until we have a house it's all we got."

Jessie frowned and looked up at him.  "Are we getting a house?"

Impatient with the light, Luke led her over to a sidewalk bench.  "Sit down," he said with a sigh.

They sat.  "Jess, how would you feel about…" he hesitated and then just let it come out, "…staying here?"

"Staying here?" she repeated haltingly.

"Yeah.  After the summer ends, instead of going back to New York, you could stay here and go to school.  I have a house that I've been renting out.  The tenants are leaving soon, though, so we could move in and you could keep taking ballet and horseback riding…" Luke trailed off and immediately felt a little guilty for throwing the ballet and horses into the mix.  He was trying to get her to stay and he knew it.

"What about my mom?" Jessie asked uncertainly.

"It would only be if she agreed, too," Luke assured her.

"No, I mean, did she ask you to ask me?" she wondered warily.

"No," he answered quickly, not wanting to give her the wrong idea.  "I haven't talked to her about it yet.  I wanted to see if you would be interested in staying first.  If you aren't, then there's no need to talk to her about it.  And you don't have to answer now.  Think about it, okay?"

"Okay," she said slowly as she nodded and then stood up. 

They crossed the street and went into the diner each quietly lost in their own thoughts.

~~

Luke and Jessie didn't talk about her party or her moving to Stars Hollow for the rest of the day.  Luke remained characteristically quiet, but Jessie suspected that there was more going on than he'd told her and she further suspected that it had to do with Lorelai going home.  During the dinner rush, Jessie sat on her stool at the end of the counter and tried to force down the baked chicken and steamed vegetables.  Just as she was about to start hiding pieces of chicken in the napkin dispenser, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned and smiled wide when she saw Lorelai and Rory.  "Hey!" she beamed at them.

"Hi, Jess," Lorelai said returning the smile. 

"How's it going?" asked Rory as they took seats beside Jessie. 

"Good!  I get to have a birthday party next month!" she announced with glee.

Luke joined them just then and said stiffly, "What can I get you?"

"Luke can I talk to you for a sec?" Lorelai ventured.

Looking up from the order pad, Luke seemed a little skeptical as he nodded and motioned for her to join him behind the curtain.  Lorelai stood up and followed him up the stairs to the apartment.  Rory and Jessie exchanged looks as the two adults left.  "Wanna help me hide this?" Jessie asked after a beat.

Once inside the apartment, Luke stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of pure dread on his face.

"I just wanted to apologize," Lorelai began slowly.  "I'm sorry if you thought I was…encouraging Jessie.  You are her guardian and I should  respect your wishes when it comes to her.  If anyone had tried to tell me how to raise Rory I would have ripped their head off.  I'm just…I'm sorry," she finished quickly.

Luke nodded and brought his arms down to his sides.  "It's okay," he told her softly.  "I probably over-reacted."

"Can we just forget it?" she asked as she stepped closer to him.

"Yeah," he said and lifted his hands to settle affectionately on her shoulders.  Pulling her close, Luke wrapped his arms around her and felt her arms slide around his waist.  She smelled so good…the scent of those damn flowers filled his head.

With her head tucked under his chin, Lorelai commented, "Let's not fight again, okay?"

"Okay," Luke agreed, his eyes closed so as to absorb as much of her scent as possible.   

After a moment spent just holding each other, Lorelai pulled back and said with a slight smile, "So Jess tells us she's having a birthday party.  Since when do you play host to a bunch of little girls?"

"Yeah," he answered distractedly.  "I wanted to talk to you about that.  She wants to have it at your house.  Apparently, all her friends have their parties at houses not diners," he finished irritably.

"Of course she can have it at our house," Lorelai agreed immediately.  "Just tell me the date."

Luke nodded and looked away, his shoulders tight.  "Is that all that's going on?" she probed.

With a quick shake of his head, Luke looked back at her and said grimly, "I asked her about staying and she hasn't said anything yet."

Silently, Lorelai studied him as she tenderly rubbed one hand on his arm.  "Maybe she needs time to think.  It's a big decision for an eight-year-old."

"You're probably right," he said with a quick nod.  The look on his face told her he was still worried about it, though, and she took his hand in hers and squeezed.  "Whatever happens, I'll be here, okay?"

Luke took in her calm features and saw nothing but support and love.  He gave her a small smile and said, "Okay."