"Wow."

"I told you this was gonna suck."

"What sucks, da?" Bella asked. Her inquisitive face was covered with ketchup and mustard- from her massacred cheeseburger. Holden was happily smashing his french fries, giggling wildly whenever bits of potato landed on the floor.

Jess sighed, "Nothing sucks Bella. Holden! If you dump that plate on the floor; so help me God…"

The tiny boy widened his emerald eyes in mock innocence. "Sorry da."

Lia smiled and placed some well cut pieces of hamburger in front of the boy. "There you go, Holden."

"Eat it Holden." Jess warned as he spotted the devilish look on his son's face.

"It was just awkward."

"Awkward? Did you see the look on Luke's face when I called him my uncle?"

"Yeah, that was a little…"

"Awkward?" Jess asked sarcastically.

Lia stuck her tongue out at him as she picked a mangled piece of french fry out of her hair. "Ha ha."

Jess smirked as he wiped his surrogate daughter's face. "If you really want awkward try telling someone we're not together."

"But we're not"

"I know that and you know that, but by now the whole town thinks Bella's my daughter and since you're obviously her mother," he gestured from mother to daughter- trying to highlight their similarities, "that puts us-"

"Together." Lia concluded.

Jess nodded and poked at his chicken ceasar salad with his fork. "Not much we can do now."

Lia blanched slightly, "You're kidding, right?"

"Why, am I that revolting?"

"Jess-"

"Why's this bothering you so much Lia? Everyone thinks we're together anyway…"

"Not here."

"What do you mean, not here? Here's no different from New York."

"Jess…"

"Seriously Lia. Holden, eat it or put it back on your plate."

The 2½ year old stuck the piece of hamburger in his mouth. "Sorry da." He smiled; ketchup smeared across his face and his mouth full of food.

"Star's Hollow is different than New York, Jess." Lia continued their conversation without missing a beat, used to being interrupted by at least one of the two children.

"How?"

"Star's Hollow's family."

Jess snorted, "Lia you know how I feel about-"

"It's important Jess."

"Lia-"

"No! You know how I feel about this!"

"Mummy?" Bella asked, her mother's angry tone scaring her.

Lia looked at her daughter, her face softening instantly. "I'm sorry, baby. Mummy's just tired."

"Nap nap?"

"Yeah buddy," Jess smiled slightly, "we all need a nap nap."

"I don't need a nap!" A big yawn negated Bella's defiant statement.

"I'll go tell Luke we're going upstairs."

"Jess-"

"I know." The brunette held up his hands in mock surrender. "It's not over."

"So…" Lane said nervously, "What brings you to the states?"

Colby smiled down at the Asian girl and shrugged. "I surf."

"Surf?"

He nodded. "Since I was 3."

"Not to sound rude, but the surf's not relly that great here in Connecticut."

Colby grinned. "I was in Hawaii a few weeks ago… and California last week, so I decided to come visit little Finny."

"How do you know Finn anyway?"

"My pa and his dad work together and our mums were mates all their lives."

"Were?" Lane asked curiously.

"My mum died when I was 5."

The bespectacled girl didn't know what to say. "I-"

Colby draped an arm about her shoulders. "No worries, pet."

The two walked in silence for several minutes. "That's the gazebo." Lane said lamely, pointing at the white structure.

"Gee, thanks." The big Australian smirked. "So… I surf. What do you do?"

"I'm a drummer." Lane answered simply.

"A drummer, eh? Anything I would have heard of?"

"Well," Lane hedged, "I'm sort of between bands right now…"

"It'll be alright, pet."

Lane shook her head. "You wanna hit Luke's? Best coffee ever."

The blonde shook his head. "I don't think that's such a good idea, love."

Lane seemed to shrink a little bit, "Oh."

Colby squeezed Lane's shoulders with the arm he still had wrapped around her. "Rory was pretty hysterical-"

Her face paled considerably. "Oh my God- Rory, I can't believe I forgot…"

"No worries, love. You were with me. It's understandable."

Lane rolled her eyes. "Let's go, Casanova."

Colby smirked down at the Asian girl again as they headed back towards the Gilmore-Danes home. He was about to make another 'witty' comment when he was cut off by a rather disconcerting and, frankly, scary voice. "Lane! Lane!"

The blonde felt Lane shiver under his arm. "Lane?"

She didn't answer as she turned to look at the terrifying woman. "Mama."

"Lane." The strict woman looked pointedly at the arm Colby had replaced on Lane's shoulders. The Australian merely grinned.

"Mama, this is Colby. Colby, my mother."

The blonde's smile widened and he inclined his head at her slightly. "G'day Mrs. Kim." He held his hand out to the woman. "Colby Sullivan."

Mrs. Kim glared at the proffered hand, "Yes." She then turned her glance to Lane. "Lane, you are home?"

"For the week, Mama."

"When did you get here?"

"A couple of hours ago."

"Why did you not call?"

"I'm afraid that's my fault, Mrs. Kim. You see-"

"Who are you?"

Colby cocked his head at the abrasive woman. "Colby Sullivan."

"You are dating my daughter?"

"Mama, he's not-"

"As a matter of fact-"

"We just met, mama." Lane said, glaring at the big Australian. "Colby's a friend of Rory's boyfriend. I'm giving him a tour of Star's Hollow."

"A tour." Mrs. Kim repeated narrowing her eyes at the blonde's offending arm again.

"Yes, mama, a tour."

"No touching. You come home for dinner tonight." And with that last command the older Korean woman turned and walked quickly away.

"That was interesting." Colby muttered keeping his arm firmly about Lane's shoulders.

Lane nodded absently as they started towards Lorelai's house again. "Congratulations. You've just survived an encounter with Mama Kim."

"Alright Lia," Jess said turning to his best friend, "let's settle this."

Bella and Holden were nestled together on Luke's single bed, sleeping. It was quite the picture; Holden clutching Sid tightly with one hand and one thumb jammed securely in his mouth, Bella held Grandma loosely by the ears and had her other arm thrown protectively over her surrogate brother.

Lia stared silently at the two children before looking at Jess. The dark haired 24 year old was a little concerned by the tears he saw in her eyes. "I overreacted a little… but Jess," tears started to slide down Lia's pale cheeks "you can't take advantage of your family… They're all you've got."

Jess cursed himself in his head while pulling the blonde into his arms. "Lia…" His softly spoken word was muffled as he kissed her silky blonde hair. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry."

The two were still locked tightly in their embrace when Luke entered the apartment. "Ah geez…" Jess watched with a smirk as his uncle quickly shut the door and made his way back to the diner.

"Go." Lia said, extricating herself from Jess' arms.

"But-"

"Go." She repeated. "I'll watch over Holden."

"Are you sure you're okay?" When Lia nodded confidently Jess started for the door. "I'll be back soon."

Lia nodded again as her friend left the room. This trip was going to be a lot longer than she'd anticipated.

"Luke!" Jess called, chasing his uncle down the stairs. "Dammit Luke. Stop!"

The older man stopped suddenly, halfway down the stairs, and whirled around to face his nephew. "What?"

"Can we not do this here?" The brunette gestured to the full diner, where people were surely listening.

Luke wordlessly turned away from him and stomped down the rest of the stairs and into the diner. "Everybody out!" He bellowed.

"But Luke-" Kirk protested from where he was perusing his menu, "I haven't even-"

"Out! Now!"

The gangly man looked at his watch, "But it's not-"

"Get the hell out, Kirk!" Luke roared. "Now."

Kirk got up and reluctantly followed the other customers out of the diner. "Don't think I won't be telling Taylor about this…"

"Good!" Luke shouted. He slammed the door behind the annoying man and flipped the open sign to close. Then he turned and regarded his nephew. "Talk."

"It's about Holden." Jess said seriously.

"What about him?" Luke asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jess stared silently at his uncle. "I didn't know who else to go to…"

Luke's stony expression softened slightly. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know." Jess responded, running a frustrated hand through his hair. "He has these nightmares. They're intense… He screams for me and doesn't really know when I'm there…"

"Night terrors?" Luke asked.

Jess shrugged. "He can't tell me what they're about. I just- I don't know how to help him." The brunette started pacing angrily throughout the diner. "I don't know what to do Luke… You were the only person I could think of. I…"

"You had night terrors." The sandy haired man said when Jess trailed off.

"What?"

"When you were younger. 3 or 4 I think."

"I did?"

Luke nodded. "Liz had no idea what was going on. She was dating some loser… Anyway, I came to New York."

"Why didn't I know this?"

"What kid remembers stuff from when they're 3 years old?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It never exactly came up." Luke said venomously. "Why did you tell me you had a son?"

"Luke-"

"No Jess," the diner owner's voice began to rise, "Why should you be the only one to keep secrets?"

"You never told me you had a kid either." Jess pointed out.

"I would've if I could have found you!"

"Hey!" Luke and Jess both turned at the sound of a voice behind them. "Would you two keep it down? There're two very tired, very cranky children trying to sleep upstairs!"

The two men stared wordlessly as Lia turned and stormed up the stairs. "Look, Luke, I'm sorry I never told you about Holden. I've been trying to get my life together…"

"I could've helped-"

"No!" Jess cut him off, "I needed to do it myself." The brunette ran a hand through his hair again and resumed pacing, trying to get his thoughts into some type of order, while his uncle leaned against the counter and watched silently. "When I left I went to see Jimmy in California. I stuck around long enough to meet my stepsister and figure out that I never want to be like him. So I moved back to New York. I didn't have any money so I ended up staying with one of my old… friends."

"Jess-"

Jess held up a hand, needing to get everything out at once. "I fell back into my old habits until I met Lia." The 24 year old smiled wryly at the memory. "She pretty much kicked my ass the first time we met. She yelled at me, told me life could be a lot worse and to get off my lazy, self-indulgent ass and do something. It was hard, but she helped me do it. I quit smoking, drinking, and all the stupid shit I was doing… I started helping her out with her pregnancy stuff and right after Bella was born we started a business together." He paused to take a breath, "I met Naomi after that and it was like things were finally starting to come together. I had a job, a decent apartment, a best friend, Bella… I was going to ask Naomi to marry me when she told me she was pregnant."

"Naomi? You mean Lia's not-"

"No, Lia's not Holden's biological mother, the same way I'm not Bella's dad."

"You're not…"

"I amin the ways that count." Luke nodded, silently telling Jess to continue. "What I didn't know was that Naomi and I weren't exactly on the same page. She wanted an abortion at first. I convinced her not too. Things went downhill from there… She left two days after Holden was born. Didn't even stick around to give the kid a name… It's pretty much been Lia, Bella, Holden, and I since then. Things started looking up again, the business is finally out of debt. It's actually starting to make a decent profit and then this nightmare thing starts happening… I- I don't know what to do Luke."

The older man simply stared at his nephew. This was a different Jess than the one he'd known 7 years ago. "Lorelai and I are married. We've got a kid, William. Liam for short."

Jess nodded at his uncle's succinct story. "I wrote a book. It did okay."

This time Luke nodded.

"Jess!" The two men looked up, relieved at the interruption that intruded upon the little moment they'd created. "It's Holden!"

Jess didn't even look back to see if his uncle was following him as he bounded up the stairs to the apartment. "Holden…" he muttered as he pulled his crying soon into his lap.

"Da…" The little boy sobbed as he woke.

Jess looked over at Lia, who was trying to calm a crying Bella and then at his uncle, who was standing awkwardly in the doorway. "Help?"