Title: Others' Mistakes
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: AU. Jess is a goody-two-shoes Gilmore. Rory is a bad-girl Mariano. Everything else proceeds as planned. Set in early season two.
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long. Life got in the way, you know. Plus I stopped watching Gilmore Girls, and writing, but then I suddenly had the desire to write again, and this chapter was almost through so it got finished first. And it's my first new chapter of the new year! Awesome!

Enjoy.

The next day, Rory was laying on her stomach across her bed, her feet kicked up in the air. Metallica was blaring from her stereo, and Howl by Allen Ginsberg was in front of her. She was taking a break from reading, however, and was staring out her window. A pigeon landed on the fire escape, and she wondered if they even had pigeons in Stars Hollow.

Stars Hollow. What a horrible name. It was all...Stars Hollow-like. It was probably a perfect little town, with mothers and daughters who actually got along and people who said hello to you in the street and always knew your business.

Almost immediately, she hopped up and switched songs. Metallica was switched for Elvis Costello, a much softer kinda guy. The song was "This is Hell," and she decided to put it on repeat. Just in case her mother was listening, and hadn't gotten the message when Rory had screamed and thrown suitcases and her mother's belongings all around the apartment last night.

Speaking of her mother...

"Laura Beth?" Liz asked, knocking softly on the door. "I'm calling your uncle. Would you like to talk to him?"

"Oh, sure." Rory said, rolling her eyes and resettling herself across her bed.

"Really?" Liz asked, surprised.

"No!" Rory screamed, before picking up her book.

Liz exhaled sharply. "Fine! Be that way!" She kicked the door, and then Rory heard her leaving. It was hardly any time before she was back, though.

Liz threw Rory's door open and began attacking her full drawers. "You are leaving on the first train in the morning! I mean it!"

"Whatever!" Rory screamed.

Liz spun around to face her daughter. "This is ridiculous, Laura Beth! Can't you at least pack for yourself?"

"No!" Rory screamed. "And it's RORY!"

"No, it's not, goddammit. It's Laura Beth. Lorelai Elizabeth Mariano. I named you, and I can call you anything I like!"

"And next are you gonna say, 'I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it'?"

"I did bring you into this world, and I will take you out if you don't shut your ungrateful little mouth."

"Anything's better than Stars Hollow!"

"You better believe it, missy!" Liz threw a final handful of clothes into Rory's open suitcase. "Close it," she said, pointing. "Bring it into the hall. I'm sending you now."

"What about giving Luke some warning time?" Rory asked, getting up and trailing Liz out of her room.

"Two hours is long enough! Now get back in there and do what I told you to do!"

"And if I don't?" Rory asked, sounding more confident than she felt.

"I send you without clothes and you have to wear Luke's."

Rory made a face. She hardly remembered meeting her mother's older brother, but what she did remember was flannel shirts and kick-ass pie.

"Exactly. Now go!" Liz pointed one last time, and Rory actually lowered her head and shuffled back into her room.

--

It was the day after Jess's admission, and Lane and Dean were sitting at the group's table in Luke's--it was off to the side, and towards the back, away from the windows, and the prying eyes of Lane's mother.

Mrs. Kim, while almost to the point of trusting Jess, had no intention of ever trusting any other boys, especially Dean. She took particular distaste in Dean's long, floppy hair and his leather jacket. Jess's hair wasn't exactly short, but it was shorter than Dean's. Plus, sometimes he used gobs of gel and it stuck up, something that always caused Lane to laugh uproariously and Jess to swear he would never do it again. Jess also owned a leather jacket, and it was even a leather motorcycle jacket, but Mrs. Kim still trusted him.

Lane was picking at her chili fries, and Dean was staring into space, when Jess wandered over, sighed, and offered to refill their drinks. Both of his friends jumped, and came out of their respective reveries.

"Jess!" Lane cried. "Where have you been? I've been trying to call you since yesterday."

"Busy," he muttered, still staring at the table. "More Coke?" He didn't wait for their answer, just swept their cups from the table and left.

Lane slumped and looked at Dean. "I feel bad."

"You didn't do anything," he said, shaking his head. "You didn't know. No one knew."

"But shouldn't I at least have had an inkling? I mean, we thought he was gay!"

"Well, he never dated girls. And he never wanted to go with Tristin to find girls. And...he does act kinda gay."

Jess cleared his throat, and his friends sheepishly looked over at him, standing next to their table, clenching their refilled drinks in his hands, and seething.

"Jess--" Lane started, but was interrupted by Jess throwing the cups on the floor and fleeing the diner.

--

Rory had to sit on her suitcase to fasten it shut, because of the haphazard way her mother had thrown things into it. When it finally clicked shut, she started dragging it into the hallway. It was old-fashioned, and reminded her of something from the 50s, but it was the only suitcase they had. As she dropped it on the ground in front of the door, she noticed that her mother was pacing in the kitchen, the phone stuck between her ear and her shoulder. Curious, she edged closer, seeing what Lizzie would say to Luke about Rory coming now.

"Hey big brother!" she said cheerfully. "Are you at work?" She paused while Luke answered. "Well, I wasn't sure. I mean, maybe you got a helper so you weren't always doing it by yourself. Or maybe you got yourself a girl or something like that. You didn't, did you?" she asked, worriedly. "I didn't do anything. I was just thinking that maybe you'd like to spend some time with your niece. A lot of time, actually." She paused again, and sighed. "Of course I'm serious, Luke. No, it's not 'just like that'! I've thought about this, a lot. I just need a little help, Luke. She's getting too hard for me to handle. And so I thought I'd send her to you. Now." She winced as the phone was slammed in her ear, and then hung it up softly.

Rory scoffed. Her mother was incompetent at everything, it seemed, not just matters of the bed. She grinned, thinking of her triumph last night, and flounced back to her room.

--

Jess stomped all the way home, and slammed the door as he entered the house.

"Jess?" Lorelai called from the living room. She followed the sound of his stomping and caught him at the door to his room. "Hey. I wasn't expecting you home so early. I thought Luke needed you through the dinner rush."

Jess didn't respond, just dropped face down on his bed.

"Ah," Lorelai said, nodding. "I get it. He doesn't know you're here."

"Uh-uh." Jess moved his head against the bedspread in something that vaguely resembled a shake of the head.

"'Uh-uh' he does know you're here or 'uh-uh' he doesn't?"

"Doesn't," Jess said into his bed.

"Uh-huh," Lorelai said. "Well, babe, he's your boss. He needs to know."

Jess sat up suddenly and said, "Dean and Lane thought I was gay."

"Oh," Lorelai said, taken aback. "Um, I guess he could let it slide this time."

Jess groaned and resumed his place on the bed. Lorelai walked over and kissed him on the forehead. "I'll go talk to him right now."

"Thank you," Jess told his bed.

--

Lorelai burst into Luke's, a mother on a mission.

"Luke!" she called, when she didn't immediately see him. She glanced to her left, the kids' usual table, and saw Dean and Lane sitting there, Dean staring glumly at the table, Lane looking sheepishly at Lorelai. Lorelai glared before she realized what she was doing and headed for the stairs.

"Luke!" she called again, running swiftly up the stairs. She was just about to knock on the door when Luke pulled it open.

"What is it, Lorelai?" he asked, pulling it to behind him and leaning against it, arms crossed.

"Um, I just wanted to tell you that Jess won't be working today. He's...not feeling well."

Luke nodded. "Would that have anything to do with his little outburst earlier today?"

"What outburst?" Lorelai asked, craning her neck to try to see around Luke's frame to the apartment behind him. "Why'd you close your door?"

"Jess threw two drinks on the floor earlier," Luke said, ignoring Lorelai's second question. "I think something Lane said upset him."

Lorelai nodded. "That's exactly it! Jess said they thought--well, they thought he was gay."

Luke's eyes widened. "Oh, no."

Lorelai nodded again. "I know, it's terrible. I'm still pissed off. Can I go into your apartment to cool off? I'm afraid if I go downstairs I'll accidentally rip Lane's head off, and that wouldn't help anything."

"Um," Luke said, looking uncomfortable. "I don't know."

"Oh, come on, Luke, you don't want Mrs. Kim to come after me, do you?"

Luke looked torn for a minute, and then finally opened the door for Lorelai. She grinned, and walked past him into the apartment. She spotted the bags of groceries on the table and the air mattress shoved in the corner and spun around to look at Luke.

"Um, Luke? What's going on?"

"Nothing," he said, a little guiltily. Lorelai gave him a look, and he crumbled. "My niece is coming."

"Oh, cool! To visit?"

"No."

"Is your sister moving here?"

"No. She's...shipping Laura Beth out here. Today. Liz says she can't handle her anymore."

"Oh. And she's how old?"

"38 but not a day over 15."

"Your niece?"

"No, my niece is 16. She'll be seventeen in a couple of weeks though."

"Ugh." Lorelai made a face. "She'll be trouble."

"How do you know?"

"I was trouble."

"She might not be as bad as you were."

"Hey. My parents didn't send me away."

"Oh, that's not Laura Beth's fault. That's all Liz's. She could never handle responsibility."

"Apparently not, since she's sending her kid to you. How are you supposed to help a screwed up teenage girl?"

Luke sighed. "I don't know. I was actually hoping...maybe you could help?"

Lorelai bit her lip. "I'll try my best. Oh, hey! You guys should come over for dinner tonight! Maybe Jess can get to her. Ooh! Lane could come over too!"

"I thought you didn't like Lane right now."

"Oh, it's just a misunderstanding. It'll blow right over. This is a dinner party! I'll call Sookie and see if she can cook. Oh, this is gonna be fun." Lorelai pulled out her cell phone and started dialing. "Gotta go if I'm gonna get this together in time. I'll see you later, Luke," she said, leaving the apartment.