Fake Gold
Note: This is not a part of the Lightning series. I haven't abandoned that one. Don't worry. I'll get to it soon. I just needed a break for this LIT. I hope you like it.
Necessary Background Info: Takes place at the would-be start of season one, but Luke and Lorelai have just gotten married. Rory is starting Chilton. Dean does not exist. Jess comes to live in Stars Hollow, but his story is different. He has a younger brother. His father left when he was 5. Jimmy is a big movie star and Liz is a touring musician. Jess and his brother have pasts that will be revealed throughout the story.
P.S. If there are typos, assume I know the proper smelling/grammar and that I was just having dumb moment.
Chapter One: Fashionably LateThank God Old Man Twickham had kicked the bucket.
It was strange how quickly a family could grow. Just a few short months ago it had just been Lorelai and Rory. The witty little mother-daughter duo of blue-eyed young women, but they knew that couldn't last forever. They didn't really want it to. There was something peculiar about the way they had lived. For the most part it was a good peculiar, but it was lacking something. Luke. It was lacking Luke. He brought a security that hadn't been there. Before, the family was just a partnership of girls who couldn't live without each other. That was the driving force in their lives. Yes, ambitions made little homes in their minds, but they had always held onto each other more firmly than anything else. They didn't want anything to come between them because it would change what they had. What they had was safe, comfortable, but it wasn't really safe. That was the scariest thing. It could only last for so long. Life, real life would eventually step in. When Luke stepped in, everything they had ever believed changed. They saw what could be. They saw a solution. They saw happiness. Eternal happiness. There were moments of sadness, of longing for the past, but they pushed those aside. The good outweighed the bad. They had a new family and a new home. They were safe.
Well, what is safe?
Lorelai had been reluctant to move out of her and Rory's old house, but as she leaned against one of the tall pillars, awaiting the arrival of her two nephews, she was glad Luke had talked her into it.
"When are they getting here?" Rory asked as she battled her way through the screen door. Luke had just replaced its springs and now the door had taken to swinging back and hitting you before you could get out. Lorelai had joked that it was like a mousetrap for burglars. Rory supposed that it was just one of those little, unfamiliar quirks she'd have to get used to in her new life.
"Fifteen minutes ago." Lorelai answered with a smiling roll of her eyes. "I guess they're going for the whole "fashionably late" thing." She surmised as her daughter took a seat on the porch railing.
"I didn't think boys cared about that stuff." Rory thought aloud as she readjusted the porch fan in an effort to combat the August heat.
"Maybe they don't. How should I know?" Lorelai answered with a laugh and a shrug. "These ones might be special though. Luke was so hush hush about them. He was like some crazy CIA guy. I don't know what to expect." She threw a glance down the street once again.
"Well, we know that Luke's sister is a musician and our theory that she might be a Bangle or from Bananarama was shot to pieces when I Googled her yesterday. She does this weird sort of folksy/ technoy stuff that's big in Europe." Rory explained.
"Hence the European tour." Lorelai interjected.
"The site said something about her marriage to Jimmy Jay Mariano, but-" Rory was interrupted.
"Jimmy Jay? Wouldn't it be funny if he was really Jimmy Jay and Luke had just never told us that his ex-brother-in-law is the Jimmy Jay?" The two girls shared a laugh.
Upstairs, Luke could hear his wife and stepdaughter giggling about something. He assumed it was about something he wouldn't understand anyway so he left them to giggle in peace. He liked to leave them to just be with each other sometimes. He liked to hear them giggle the way they had for years and he hoped they would continue forever. He just hoped they weren't laughing at him. Eh, who was he kidding? They were always laughing at him. Sometimes he believed that was the basis of their new little family; he fixed things while they mocked. Actually, it was pretty nice.
Jess arched an eyebrow at his brother as they drove past the "Welcome to Stars Hollow" sign. The younger boy gave a shrug. As they drove through the town square, the older boy began to frown and the younger started to grin.
"This place is like some cracked out Norman Rockwell alternate universe." Jess stated with furrowed brow.
"I know." Laughed the twelve-year-old.
"Cohlie, we have to live here." Jess tried to make his brother understand.
"I know." Cohlie's laughter only grew.
"Why are you laughing?" Jess asked as the crease between his eyes deepened.
"Because I just figured out why Liz is nuts." With this Jess let a bitter guffaw slip from his smirking lips as his brother's light, angelic laughter swirled through the back of their limousine, but as the car began to slow to a stop on a quaint little street, Cohlie watched as his brother's surface hardened a bit. Jess folded his smirk into stony neutrality, put on his sunglasses, and prepared himself for anything.
Lorelai and Rory stopped laughing when they saw a black town-car stop in front of the house.
"Luke?" Lorelai called without taking her eyes from the car.
"Yeah?"
"Either your nephews or the mob have arrived." Rory declared.
"Probably both." Luke mumbled as he kicked through the front door and headed towards the car. The doors opened and the two boys stepped out. Lorelai and Rory immediately froze on the porch.
"Is that Cohlie James?" Rory whispered in awe as she looked at the thin, poised, twelve-year-old boy with blonde hair that fell messily over his huge eyes.
"Yes, but that's not the half of it. Get a closer look at Mr. Broody." Lorelai said through the corner of her mouth as she pulled her daughter towards the guests.
"Holy crap." Rory breathed as she recognized the dark-haired boy.
Luke, Jess, and Cohlie stood awkwardly for a moment. To their knowledge, there were no preset rules of etiquette regarding estranged relatives. Luke squeezed his hands together and looked on the verge of speech without actually saying anything. Cohlie had wrapped his right ankle around his left as he unconsciously tugged at the hem of his t-shirt. Jess stood completely still. He didn't fidget. Eventually he turned and picked up his and Cohlie's army duffel, effectively waking his brother and uncle from their uncomfortable trance.
"Right. So-" Luke began as he adjusted his baseball cap.
"Hi." Cohlie volunteered with a bright smile that relaxed his uncle ever so slightly. Lorelai and Rory had neared the group in time to see the awkwardness.
"Hi, I'm Lorelai." She offered with a warm smile when she saw that her husband was not about to introduce her.
"Oh, yeah," Luke realized his error. "Cohlie, Jess this is my wife, Lorelai and her daughter, Rory." He clumsily introduced.
"Hi." Cohlie shook Lorelai's hand. "Hi." He shook Rory's hand.
Jess took off his sunglasses and nodded. He looked at his new family. Lorelai radiated a level of enthusiasm that made him uncomfortable. His first inclination was not to like her. She was too unfamiliar. He didn't want unfamiliar. He wanted to be left alone. At least, he felt this way until he made eye contact with Rory. It wasn't that she was, hands down, the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, or the way she smiled so gently that made him feel better, but it was the fact that she was, most definitely, as uncomfortable as he was. He almost smiled. Almost.