Thanks for all the great reviews! And the patience...
Lydia rules
Rory gave Lorelai and Luke a smile. "Go! Have fun!"
Luke sighed and looked around his apartment a little. "Are you sure you can handle Jess?"
"It'll be fine," Rory replied. "We'll watch movies, and we'll read, and then he'll sleep... he's been sleeping a lot lately."
Lorelai frowned. "New medication again."
Rory nodded and looked back at Jess, who was slowly making his way through one of his books. "It doesn't seem to be helping very much..."
Luke nodded solemnly. "Gonna have to change it again."
Rory nodded back and pushed the two out the door. "Have a good time. Don't do anything illegal, and I'll see you when you get back."
Jess blinked worriedly as he watched the couple walk out the door. He got to his feet. "Go?"
"They're going on a date," Rory told him.
He furrowed his brow. "Oh."
Date.
Huh.
Heh.
Date.
"You wanna watch a movie?" Rory asked, sitting on the couch.
He stood awkwardly. "Movie?"
Rory nodded. "How about..." she wandered over to the small pile of movies Luke had collected from Jess's old place in New York. "How about Edward Scissor Hands? Do you like that movie?"
Movie?
Scissors.
Runs with scissors!
Movie...
Edward...
He didn't know what to say, so he nodded.
Halfway into the movie, Jess was screaming his head off.
Rory jumped from the sudden outcry, and wondered if he ever screamed before. "Jess!"
He covered his head with his arms.
"Jess, it's okay," Rory soothed. "It's just a movie." She grabbed the remote and clicked the television off. "See?"
He lowered his arms and looked around.
Where'd the movie go?
He looked at her, confused. "Go?"
"No," Rory replied, smoothing down some of his hair. He'd gotten it trimmed recently, but it was still longer than it used to be. "No, no one's going anywhere."
He looked frantically around the room for a moment, before settling his eyes somewhere past her and staying silent.
Go.
No go.
Go no.
Go, go, go, go.
He couldn't seem to get things right anymore.
"Jess?" Rory ran her hand through his hair again.
He blinked at her. "Hi."
She nodded. "Hi," she mumbled. They were close now.
"Don't," he said quietly.
She did anyways.
He pulled his lips away from hers and got to his feet, his eyes wide.
"Oh, god," Rory muttered. She felt queasy all of the sudden. "Jess... wait..." She got to her feet and took a couple of steps toward him, but he took a few steps back.
"Don't," he repeated. "Stop."
"Calm down," Rory pleaded. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking, I shouldn't have done that."
"You're not supposed to do that," he told her. "You're not... you don't do that. You... no... no, no, no, you don't do that!"
Rory felt like she might cry. How could she have been so stupid? "Jess, please."
"I have to..." he looked around. "I... I can't... no... I..." He made a quick exit to the bathroom.
There was an ambulance outside the diner when Luke put the truck in park on Main Street. He went pale. "Shit." He got out and rushed over, Lorelai close behind.
"Dammit, Rory! You can't do that!"
Rory sat in front of her mother, trying to hold back tears.
The two of them were waiting for Luke to come back with word on what was going. They were sitting in the emergency room.
"I'm sorry," Rory replied. "I wasn't thinking."
"You have to think with Jess now," Lorelai pleaded. "You have to be careful with Jess, or things like this happen."
"I didn't know he was going to do this!" Rory yelled. "I didn't mean for this to happen!"
"That doesn't matter!"
Rory shot up out of her seat. "When did you start caring about Jess more than you care about me?!"
Lorelai sputtered a little. "What?!"
Rory shook her head and stormed out.
"So?"
The doctor sighed. "The cuts weren't deep enough to do much damage... any idea what brought this on?"
Luke shook his head. He had no clue why Jess had tried to kill himself... again. He'd have to talk to Rory later. "No... I don't know."
The doctor nodded. "Well... I must say, after this I'm not too comfortable sending him home."
"That makes two of us," Luke replied. "I... I think maybe it's time."
They sat in the dark diner in silence later that night.
"Any word from Rory?"
Lorelai shook her head. "Not since she left the hospital."
Luke nodded. "I uh..." He looked around.
Lorelai watched him.
He slowly put his head down on the table and covered it his arms. "God, I can't believe I left him there."
Lorelai slid her chair over and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder.