So I haven't updated in ahem let's settle with a long time, but there's only one chapter anyway so for any new readers it's not a lot to catch up on. And because I didn't update for so long, I put up two chapter instead of just one. I do have a lot of story continuation ideas, so hopefully this fic will be continued on a more regular basis from here on out.

"Hey! Come on in. You can go upstairs and put your stuff on the couch. I'll be right up." Luke smiled at his nephew. Man had he changed. Gone was the leather jacket and Metallica shirt. Gone was the black.

"Yeah, ok. Thanks" Jess replied.

Luke just nodded and ran off to argue with Kirk about the taxes on his order. He was glad that Rory was on her break. He didn't want the confrontation to be this soon. Maybe give Jess a little room and some time to think about what to do when he ran into her.

Upstairs, Jess walked into Luke's apartment. He immediately felt sixteen again, with Rory on that couch…how they had checked every ten minutes to make sure that the couple wasn't doing anything really bad. He missed those days, before he had gone to California, before he had told Rory that he loved her. He was broken out of his reverie when Luke came through the door.

"Hey! You don't look like you have much."

"I pack light."

"Right."

"I think I'll go downstairs and grab a bite to eat." Jess started to move past his uncle.

"No! I mean, there's the lunch rush and you could get hurt…or something." Luke knew that Rory had come back from her break. She was downstairs waiting tables and he really didn't want Jess to see her.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You're acting a little tipsy."

"What? No! I'm telling you, when people come in here for lunch, they're violent."

"Since when has Stars Hollow been violent? Nobody in this whole damn town could hurt a fly." Jess was getting annoyed. He just wanted some food.

"No, Taylor killed a bumblebee the other day. You're wrong."

"Luke! Taylor's killing of a stupid bee has nothing to do with my needing food. Now get out of the way, or tell me what's going on."

Luke sighed. "Rory's down there."

"What? Why is Rory down there?" Jess checked his watch. "Doesn't she have school? Classes?"

"Look, Jess, she isn't going to Yale, she took a year off."

"Why? She didn't get some weird illness or something, did she? Is she OK? Does Lorelai know about this?"

"What do you think? Of course she knows about it. Rory is her daughter, Jess, even though they might not be on speaking terms right now."

Jess sat down. OK, you have got to explain this whole thing to me right now."

Luke sat down opposite him. "Rory had a boyfriend at Yale, Logan. About a year ago, he invited her to dinner with his parents. His mother and grandparents attacked Rory, telling her that she wasn't good enough to marry into the Huntzberger family. As a way of apologizing, Logan's father offered Rory a job at a small, growing newspaper. She, unfortunately, accepted."

"This is not going to end well…"

"Logan's father let her work there for about two weeks before he called her into his office and told her that she would make a great secretary, but that she didn't have the makings of a journalist. She didn't take that too well. I mean, come on, this is Rory, she has wanted to be a journalist since she was like four. Anyway, she ended up convincing Logan to steal a yacht, and-"

"They got caught."

"Yeah. Well, you've stolen things like that. You know what happened. She was not convicted of anything, but since she was convinced that she was not going to be a journalist, she quit Yale. She says she's only going to a year off. In the meantime, she's living with her grandparents and Lorelai and her are barely speaking."

"Wow. Just, wow. A lot has happened since I left." Jess was having a hard time digesting all of this at one time.

"I think the fact that you broke her heart, asking her to leave with you…I don't think that helped either."

"You have no idea how bad I feel about that. I just…I wish it could all go back to the way it was, you know, before I did all that stuff…I just…" Jess felt the weight of the past years falling down on him.

"I know. Let's go get some food. It's not like you can avoid Rory for the rest of the time."

"I guess. I can't wait to see the expression on her face when she sees me, though." Jess laughed.

"Jess!"

"Kidding. Jeeze. Let's go."

"Fine." Luke walked out of the office, followed closely by his nephew. This is going to be one hell of a party.