Chapter Two Starts NOW

Luke stared at the small television blankly. On it was a live showing of Jess's surgery. There were several medical students huddled around him (and it), and they kept making various 'oooh' and 'aaah' sounds as the surgery progressed. It made Luke a bit sick, actually. Eventually, he blew up at the students, and was forced to leave the observation place.

"Hey, Luke," Lorelai greeted. "Uh- I thought you were watching Jess's...thing."

"I was. I sort of started yelling at the students," Luke said, trying to keep his tone light, but no humor reached his eyes.

"Uhm." Lorelai said. Something witty..something witty.. "Stupid medical students. Too smart for their own good. We ought to shove a wind shield wiper threw their stomach and see how they like it." Lorelai's attempt at humor failed, and Luke only paled more at wind shield wiper comment.

"Good lord, have you no tact, women?" Rory gasped. She apologized fiercely to Luke. He gave her a strained smile.

"No, it's ok," They lapsed into silence.

Luke busied himself by doing little things like fetching the girl's coffee and finding pens so he and Lorelai could sign Rory's cast. Lorelai was forging the signature of various famous people, much to Rory's amusement, when a doctor stepped into the waiting room and approached them.

"Ah, Mr. Danes," The doctor said, glancing over a bunch of papers with charts and medical jargon on them. "Your nephew will be fine. The wind shield wiper was successfully removed, and, by some miracle, he only sustained minor internal injuries. His left leg is also broken, and we've got him a crutch and a cast. He should stay here a day or two- for observation."

"Can I see him?"

"Yes, he just woke up a few minutes ago," The doctor replied. "That's pretty strange in itself. The stuff we gave him should have kept him knocked out well into the night."

"Jess is stubborn like that." Lorelai chimed in with a smile.

Luke walked slowly into Jess's hospital room. The kid laid there, staring at the ceiling. Luke coughed to make his presence known. Jess sat up as best he could, wincing.

"Is Rory ok?" He asked immediately. Luke blinked.

"Yeah, she's fractured her wrist, but otherwise she's fine. She's out with Lorelai in the hall." Jess visibly relaxed at that. "What about you?"

"Ah, I'm fine," Jess dismissed. I always am, he continued in thought.

"Jess," Luke said incredulously. "A wind shield wiper went threw your mid-section, and you're 'fine'?"

Jess paled dramatically. "Is that what happened?" Christ! Did they not tell the kid--?

"They- they didn't tell you?" Luke asked in shock. Jess shook his head silently.

"No. No one told me anything." There was a pause. Jess carefully moved a hand onto his stomach and moved it around a bit, as though he were expecting to suddenly find a hole in himself. Luke swallowed hard, and continued.

"Well- you also have a broken leg. Your left one. But your fine." Luke continued. Jess nodded to himself.

"So, when do I get out of here?"

"They said in about a day and a night."

"Oh. Well, tonight you could pack my stuff, and Thursday I'll go." Luke blinked.

"Go where?"

"Back to New York," Jess said in an 'are you stupid' tone.

"Why would you go back to New York?"

"Why wouldn't I? I just crashed Rory's car, the car her boyfriend made for her, and broke her wrist! You're not sending me home after that?"

"Of course not, Jess! It was an accident. There was a deer thing and you swerved. Rory probably would've done the same thing if she were driving."

"But she wasn't driving," Jess said quietly. He lay back again, closing his eyes and sighing. "I think I'm gonna... sleep or something. Tell Lorelai I'm sorry." Luke left after softly telling Jess good night.

"What did he say?" Rory asked, glancing up from where Lorelai was writing Trent Resnor on her arm.

"Just that he was fine, and he told me to tell you he's sorry," He said, directing the last bit at Lorelai, who blinked in surprise.

"Oh," She said slowly. There was a long pause. "Me and Rory are gonna head home, get some sleep, pamper Rory endlessly with lots of sweets."

"Mooom," Rory groaned as Lorelai made a half-assed attempt to pick her up and carry her to the car.

"No 'mmooom'-ing me, hun. We are renting Charlie and the Chocolate factory, and buying lots and lots of marshmallows and..." Lorelai's voice faded from the waiting room as she and Rory left. Luke stood by watching them leave, the waiting room feeling very empty.

Luke walked slowly back to Jess's room. He couldn't just leave the kid. He snuck into the room, careful not to wake Jess up. Jess was muttering in his sleep.

"I don't even know you. Please stop," It was a mix between fear and annoyance. Luke frowned, and walked to the other side of the bed. A voice came from outside the door.

"I am family. I'm his brother." The voice protested a nurse. The nurse reluctantly agreed. Luke's eyes widened and he hid in the shadows of the room. The door opened to reveal an older looked version of Jess, with a bit longer hair and a different air about him. It was a lot less threatening and sarcastic than Jess's.

"Psst. Hey, Kid." The young man said, giving Jess a light punch on the shoulder. Jess's eyes snapped open.

"Jesus Christ, Mark!'' Jess exclaimed, gasping. "You scared the living-"

"I know, I know, keep it down, will ya?" He said, glancing over his shoulder. "These nurses are lookin' to kick me out."

"They can't. You're family," Jess assured him.

"Welfare of the patient goes beyond family," The other boy cited, rolling his eyes. He frowned and looked down at Jess again. "How is the patient, anyway?"

"Ah, He'll live. He's faced worse stuff than this." Jess said dismissively.

"Oh, yeah? How many gang members have mugged you by shoving wind shield wipers threw your guts?" Jess flinched.

"Er, two?" Mark glared at him. "Alright, none. How'd you hear?"

"I was watching you get cut open on the monitor out there." Mark informed him, jerking his head over at the door.

"They had my surgery on the monitor?" Jess asked incredulously, sounding a bit disturbed.

"Yea. You'd think they'd have some kind of patient thing you have to sign before they start the televising."

"The revolution will not be televised," The brothers said in unison, making a hand gesture at each other before chuckling slightly.

"How've you been, kid? I heard that crazy bitch Liz sent you to some crazy sleepy hallow town or something."

"Stars Hallow. I swear, this town is out of is crazy. Once I'm out of here, they're probably going to lynch me in the town square. But enough of me. How have you been, big brother? Last I saw of you, you were up in the mountains chasing down that red haired girl-"

"Let's not bring that up." Mark said quickly, blushing slightly. "I got an apartment in Philly. I got a steady job- I needed a break from the nomad style livingafter our fight. I'm setting up a little something. I'm hoping to start an independent, I don't know, center type deal that all purpose so I can rent it out to people for various things. Bands for practice, literary groups, protestors." He said this in a And that's also why I came back here." Jess raised an eyebrow, and Luke leaned forward a bit.

"I've come to take you back to Philadelphia with me."

End Chapter

R & R

A/N:

After reviewing all of my notes, and some of your reviews, I had noted that I had dug myself into a hole with the paranormal happenings plotline. It's true that I am a fanatic when it comes to the oogedy-boogedy, and I always end up trying to incorporate it into my stories, even if that wasn't the original intent. My original intent for this story was- hey, what if Jess was hurt in the accident, and his whole mysterious past comes to light. Maybe he will have a better relationship with everyone! And then suddenly I'm spewing nonsense about chupacabra's. / Sorry about that, but I've re written a bit of my story, switched things around, toyed with the plot-hole that this stories become. All of you non-ghost fans can relax, I'm fixing everything: D