Title: The Coffee is Always better at Lukes
Summary: A story about a regular week in Stars Hollow which includes sprained wrists, shattered doors, ditching school, I love yous, fist fights and more. Reoccurring characters include Rory, Jess, Luke, Lorelai, and Dean.
Rating: PG-13 just to be on the safe side, for mild language
Spoilers: not really, perhaps some of season 3
Disclaimer: Oh yeah, forgot about this, we don't own Gilmore Girls, the characters, the actors, the writers, or the town. They all belong to WB or Amy Sherman-Palladino or some other company that we are not at all affiliated with.
A/N: Trying to make up for lost time with this quick update. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. And Please Read and Review!
Jess swallowed, "Luke and I were re-enacting World War III I'm surprised you didn't hear us from your house," Jess said as he began scooping up the glass a bit more quickly, "I was asleep behind the counter and then he was on the phone," Jess shook his head and closed his eyes trying to remember the order of things that happened that morning, "and he sounded upset on the phone so I said something to him, and everything just blew up from there about him locking me out and how he was worried about me not being here even though he locked me out." Jess was beginning to ramble a bit, thinking about it just confused him even more than before. "Jeez," he yelped as he cut his palm open on a piece of glass. "I hate glass!"
Rory frowned "Well, I'm sorry about your fight and I'm sorry that I got mad at you this morning because I didn't know why you were mad...and where do you keep your band-aids?" Rory asked as she stood up.
"It's fine, really, you have nothing to be sorry about, you didn't know" Jess said, as he got up and threw out the glass he had collected, "and I'm sorry I yelled at you this morning, and told Luke and Lorelai everything. It just kinda happened." he went to the sink and turned on the water and rinsed his hand and wrapped a towel around it. "Not sure where Luke keeps the band-aids and I don't really think that asking is a good idea." he said to Rory .
"Okay," She said as she walked over to him and threw her glass in to the trash can. "Let me see it," She said as she reached out for the towel.
Jess looked at her as if he never expected her to say that, "it's okay really, you don't have to. It's fine." he said as he let her remove the towel.
She scrunched her face up in disgust as she saw it. "Ew, it's bleeding!" She exclaimed, "I am going to find a band-aid." She informed him as she walked quickly to the bathroom and began to dig around in the drawers. "Ah ha!" She yelled from the bathroom, "I found one!" She came out holding a band aid and neosporin. She grabbed his hand tenderly and put some neosporin on it.
"Rory really you don't have to do this, it's fine." he said as he tried to squirm away from her. But that seemed pretty much useless. "Thanks," he sighed, giving up and letting her fix his hand.
She put the band-aid on before looking up at him. "Well I couldn't let you BLEED to death could I?" She asked smiling.
"Somehow I doubt that I would have bled to death," he smirked, "of course I guess now we'll never know for sure." he winked at her. "So since you helped me clean and kept me from bleeding to death, can I make you breakfast?" he asked her trying to make up for everything that had happened that morning.
Rory grinned, "That's the way to win a girl's heart." She said laughing, "I'm starving...I haven't eaten anything since my donuts last night," She said sounding as if she was famished.
Jess laughed, "wow what's it been eight hours and you haven't passed out from the starvation, I'm impressed." Jess teased. "So let's see," he started rummaging through the cabinets and then the refrigerator. "We've got cereal, pancake mix, frozen waffles, eggs, bacon, um...something that looks like yogurt or maybe cottage cheese, either way it's probably not safe to eat," Jess remarked as he rattled off a list of food in the house, "so any requests?" he asked Rory as he shut the fridge and turned to face her.
"I'll take pancakes, and bacon...please." Rory responded as she sat down in a chair.
Jess started pulling out the measuring cup, bottle of oil, and a mixing bowl. Then grabbed the pancake mix and read the instructions on the back. "Can you," he started but then realizing it was Rory decided not to ask for help, "um...," now he had to come up with something better to say, "uh, set the table?" he finally finished.
Rory jumped up from the chair. "Yeah, sure, I guess," It should be easy enough "Where is your silverware?" She asked as she looked around the kitchen.
"Uh," Jess was trying to measure the ingredients and talk at the same time, "second draw from the 3/4...I mean left." Jess said as he finished measuring out all the ingredients and began mixing them. "Plates are in that cabinet," he pointed to the cabinet to the right.
She grabbed the silverware and the plates and started to set them on the table. She put the fork on the right side of the plate and the knife on the left side of it. She hoped that she was doing it right. "Okay, I'm done." She said smirking as she watched him cook.
He glanced up at her, "I'm impressed Miss Gilmore," he teased as he smiled at her and began pouring pancake batter into a frying pan and then went into the fridge to get the bacon out. "How much bacon should I make?" he asked her as he began to open the package.
"Uh...I don't know...whatever you want...how many can you eat?" She said indecisively as she walked into the kitchen and sat on the counter.
"huh" Jess pondered to himself as he took out ten slices of bacon and turned back to look at Rory for approval.
"Yeah, that's good...so, uh...why were you sleeping outside?" Rory questioned and turned to him, waiting for a response.
Jess turned looking at her like she was crazy and the he realized that he hadn't explained about the fight that he and Luke had the night before. "Luke was pissed that we locked him in the store room. So he locked me out of the diner." Jess said simply as he turned back to the bacon hoping Rory would drop the subject.
"And you had to sleep outside?" She asked wide-eyed. "That's terrible!"
Jess shrugged, his back still toward Rory. He chewed on his bottom lip while he expertly flipped the bacon. "Huh," he said when it sizzled in the pan, "think breakfast is ready."
"Good...I'm starving.." Rory looked at her watch and her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh! I'm going to be late for school!" She exclaimed. "...maybe I should call mom and ask her if maybe I should stay home today...cause of my wrist...And what about you! You're gonna be late too!"
Jess seemed to ignore the urgency in Rory's voice as he turned off the stove and placed pancakes and bacon onto two plates and then brought them over to the table. "Really just don't feel like going today." Jess said calmly as he got up and poured himself a glass of orange juice. "Juice?" he asked.
Rory raised her eyebrows. "Juice! What about school! I have never EVER ditched school...well, with the exception of that one time that I went to visit you in New York...but that wasn't the whole day even..." Rory sighed in frustration. "So you just 'don't feel like it' so you don't go to school?"
"I guess that's a no for the juice then." Jess said calmly as he put it back in the fridge, "and just to clarify things, I didn't tell you to skip school, Ror. I simply said that I didn't feel like going." he sat down at the table and picked up the fork and started to cut the pancakes, "so no, I don't think that I'm gonna go today."
Rory glared at him. "Well...well...well" Rory stuttered, "If I left for school now...there would be no way that I'd make it on time and that would screw with my records." She walked over to the phone and dialed Lorelai's number. "Hey, mom...uh, I kinda just remembered that it was a school day...so I would be late if I left now...really?...are you sure?...no!...okay...love you too...bye." She walked back to the table and sat down. "She said that she'll call the school and have them excuse me for my arm." She stated before grabbing her fork.
Jess felt like he had just gotten whiplash from Rory's behavior, 'wasn't she pissed that I wasn't going to go?' he thought to himself as he stared at her in disbelief. "So in that case, coffee my dear?" Jess asked after he recovered from her ditching school, as he got up to make a fresh pot of coffee for Rory.
She looked at him hardly. "Yeah...So do you do this often?" She asked indifferently.
Jess could feel the temperature in the room drop at least 10 degrees, he glanced back at Rory, trying to think of the most honest answer that would get him into the least amount of trouble. "Not that often," Jess replied as he carefully measured out the coffee refusing to look back at Rory. "I mean it's not like I have a reason to feel like not going everyday."
Rory made a buzzing noise. "I'm sorry, that's the wrong answer. Please try again." She said coldly.
Jess was beginning to feel this was getting ridiculous. He turned to face her finally, "I skip occasionally...maybe once every few weeks, it's not that big of a deal Rory."
"Fine," She said before starting to eat her pancakes. She looked back up at him. "What about your grades?"
"What is this a trial?" Jess couldn't help it, he felt like she was challenging him. "Well your honor, my grades are fine, peachy even." He sighed and and ran his hands over his face. He stared right at her, "What do you want from me, Ror? What do you want me to be?" he asked, the sarcasm was almost entirely gone from his tone.
She didn't really know how to answer that. She finally decided to dodge the question. "I'm not trying to change you Jess...You're aren't a sharing kind of person and I know that. I also know that if I don't ask, then I'll never know...so I ask...I mean, who knows what's going on with you...for all I know, you could be flunking out of school and only showing up once ever other week." Rory said as she stared down at her plate.
"And if that was the case then you wouldn't be sitting here right now eating breakfast would you?" Jess asked her, "I mean let's be honest here Rory, if I were doing something like that then you would probably have nothing to do with me." Jess raised his eyebrows waiting for a response...but yet also fearing her response.
"Well," She started, "That is not necessarily true..." She tried to find the words that she was looking for "...I do not base who I talk to or who I don't talk to on they're GPA. That's very stereotypical. You took a beer from my fridge and I still talked to you. You got in about 5 thousand fights with my boyfriend and that didn't stop me from liking you...it didn't necessarily help, but still...I liked you for who you were...not for what you did."
"So if I were to never step foot in Stars Hollow High you'd be perfectly fine with that." Jess wasn't ready to let this go since he felt Rory had been avoiding his implications.
She glared at him again. "Well...what do you want me to say? No? I would hate that, I would immediately break up with you, I would never again talk to a stupid, useless, person like you. I would cringe if someone ever mentioned your name and I would tell my mother that she was right about you...and I would go running back to Dean!" She yelled annoyed.