Rory's POV

There's a good example of Luke's ability to show affection without speaking. I remember my Mom telling me that Jess chewed into Luke about helping people. Jess told him that he should back off and try not to fix people, problems, situations, whatever was bothering them. I agreed with Jess to a point. I know I hate it when other people butt into my life, but in this case Jess was wrong. Luke wasn't butting in he was trying to help. He wanted Jess to be happy. He wanted him to have a good life, live up to his potential.

Jess had been living with Luke for a little over a year. They had a lot in common even if no one would admit it. They were fundamentally different, but there were similarities. They were both stubborn, they hated group activities and they both had a biting wit when no one was looking.

Jess had been driving around town in his "new" car and Luke wasn't too happy about it. He felt like it was death trap and he was probably right, but Jess wouldn't hear it. There was a rumor that Jess had been cutting school to work at Wal-Mart, but Luke wasn't ready to admit it so he was in the process of looking the other way.

I was in the diner one day and Jess stormed in and Luke tried to talk to him. Luke was upset because Jess's car had leaked oil all over the street in front of the diner and Taylor was giving him grief about it. Not only that, but Luke was concerned that Jess's car was leaking far too much oil and he'd be stranded or get into another accident. Jess, in his usual fashion, wasn't concerned about it.

"Jess, that car is another accident waiting to happen," Luke reasoned. "You should get it fixed."

"And how can I afford to get it fixed?" Jess shot back. "Do you think I make thousands of dollars working at Wal-Mart?"

"No I don't," Luke said. "But I also don't think it's okay for you drive that thing around town leaking oil everywhere. It's not safe for you or for anyone else," he added pointedly.

Jess glanced over at me. The accident we'd been in had nothing to do with Jess's car, but it was clear that Luke wasn't going to take anymore chances with us or the car.

"Yeah, well when my horse comes in and I win the lottery then we'll talk about getting the car fixed," Jess said.

"Jess, come on," Luke sighed. "You have to start taking some responsibility for your life," Luke tried again.

"Well I was kind of hoping the automobile fairy would visit in the dead of night and fix my car," Jess said quickly and exited to the solitude of the apartment upstairs.

Luke just sighed and I tried not to act like I was watching. I pretended to read my book. I saw Luke scrub the counter briskly with his rag. I've noticed he does that a lot when he's upset about something or concerned about someone. When my Luke and my mom were fighting I swear he just about wore a hole in the counter from all his efforts to keep the diner clean.

He eventually threw the rag over his shoulder and picked up the phone. Luke went into the kitchen and I was running late so I packed up and left. It was later that I found out what Luke was up too.

I had spent most of the night over at Lane's and I was walking home. Taylor had the square blocked off for some sort of festival so I decided to take the back way home and that's when I saw Luke. I was passing the alley behind the diner and I noticed a lot of light coming from the alley ahead. I was walked over to see what was going on and I found Luke, Jess's car and one of those huge construction lights.

"Luke?" I asked looking at the figure peering under the hood of Jess's car.

"Rory," he replied startled. "What are you doing here? It's late."

"I was walking home from Lane's and I noticed the light," I said.

"Oh, yeah well Jess's car needed to be fixed," Luke said wiping his hands on a rag.

"So you decided to fix it in the middle of the night?" I asked.

"Not part of my original plan, but the Automobile Fairy apparently only visits when his diner is closed," Luke said wryly.

"Does Jess know you're here? He should be helping you," I replied.

"No, he doesn't know and he doesn't need to," Luke said. "I know that everyone thinks Jess is a bad kid and I can't deny that sometimes I think so too, but he's really not. He just hasn't had any good breaks and if I can help him out then I'm going to try."

"I know," I said. Of everyone in Stars Hollow I was probably the only other person who agreed with Luke.

"So you won't tell Jess I fixed his car?" Luke asked.

"Fixed his car? I thought only Automobile Fairies fixed cars that were too expensive to repair," I replied.

Luke suppressed a small grin and nodded. "Thanks," he said.

"Well I better get home," I said starting to walk.

"Hey, it's late," Luke said. "Why don't you let me give you a ride? I should probably make sure I fixed the Jess's car. I know enough to get by, but I'm no Gypsy."

"Are you sure Jess won't mind?" I said.

"No, he's at work. He decided to pick up a late shift," Luke said. "I made him walk until his car was fixed. Hop in," he said slamming the hood of the car.

That was night I discovered that as much as Luke would rant and rave about Jess and as much as he usually agreed with everyone about his behavior, he would always go the extra mile to help out family, or anyone else.

TBC