Luke and Lorelai were still reeling from their kiss when Rory came up on the house. She didn't even register that her mother was still holding Luke's hand in her lap or that both Luke and Lorelai's cheeks were flushed red.
Lorelai and Luke however did register Rory's mood and tears as she made her way into the house.
"Uh oh," Lorelai sighed. "Crying."
"Crying's not good," Luke stated
"No crying is not good," Lorelai confirmed. And if mine is crying, then…"
Luke sighed and rose. "Mine probably caused it."
"I wasn't going to say that, Luke," Lorelai defended.
"I know you weren't," Luke replied. "But odds are…"
Lorelai nodded, "Odds are."
Luke waited a beat, and then moved closer to Lorelai and gentle kissed her with his. "See you tomorrow?"
"Count on it," she replied and went into the house.
Rory went to the refrigerator and took out a gallon of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. She sat down at the table and began eating it right out of the carton. That's where Lorelai found her.
She sat down next to Rory. "Want to talk about it?"
"Not really," Rory grumbled. "It's not really a big deal."
"It's a big enough deal to make you cry," Lorelai pointed out. "Did something happen with Jess?"
Rory jabbed the spoon into her ice cream and nodded. "Yes, Mom he…he just said such awful things."
"What kind of awful things, Babe?" Lorelai asked.
"Well, he said…it doesn't matter what he said, Mom. It doesn't even matter that none of it was true. What matters is he believes it," Rory cried wiping her eyes on a napkin.
"I need more," Lorelai said. "Start at the beginning. What happened after you left the diner?"
It dawned on Rory then who she and Jess left in charge of the diner. "Mom! Who's at the diner?"
"Oh, no!" Lorelai exclaimed realizing no one was at the diner. "Let's go you can tell me on the way."
While Lorelai and Rory made a mad dash for the diner, Luke made one for the Dragonfly. If Rory was upset she and Jess had a fight. If she and Jess had a fight, Jess was probably as upset as Rory was if not more so. On the way there, Luke stopped at the diner. It was empty except for Kirk and Sookie, who was behind his counter. On any normal day, Luke would have completely flipped to see Sookie behind his counter, today he just didn't care. In fact he didn't care if he had a normal day ever again.
Luke unlocked the door to find Jess' wheelchair vacant. That was no surprise he often chose to lie down during the day to relieve the pain in his back. Thus, Luke went into Jess' room.
Jess was in bed fully clothed lying on his side. He had his back to the door and was quiet except for an occasional light moan when he tried to shift position.
Luke carefully sat on the bed. "Back hurt?" he asked.
"Don't matter," Jess replied, his voice hoarse.
"It does matter," Luke countered. "I could get you a pill or something."
"The pills don't work," Jess replied.
"What happened with Rory?" Luke asked, no longer waiting for silent Jess to bring it up.
"Nothing," was the reply.
"I know something happened," Luke argued. "I was at Lorelai's. She came home crying."
"Guess the truth hurts," Jess replied.
Luke was even more confused. "The truth about what?"
"I really don't want to talk about this. Rory and I are finished. It's for her own good. Leave it at that."
"Sorry. Can't leave it at that," Luke protested. "Rory was obviously upset. You are obviously upset. What happened to make you that way?"
"We broke up," Jess snapped.
"Why?" Luke pressed. "Talk to me, Jess."
"Oh, that's rich coming from you. You don't talk to me so why should I talk to you?" Jess questioned.
"If I talked to you, would you talk to me?" Luke asked. He needed to talk just as much as Jess did.
Jess couldn't answer. He wanted to talk to Luke. He wanted to tell him what Rory said about Yale and about his answer. He wanted to tell him why he did what he did. He knew Luke would understand. He also knew his uncle would tell him what an idiot he was. Maybe though, talking to Luke would help the pain go away. Not the pain in his back, only Rory could help that. Jess meant the pain in his heart.
"Sure," he replied, executing a maneuver to rollover and sit up. "You first. What's the deal with Taylor? Kirk told me he's suing you."
Luke sighed. "Yes, Taylor is suing me."
"Why?" Jess prompted. Luke was not good at heart to hearts.
"Because…because the day before I checked you out of St. Barbara's I heard a vicious rumor come out of Taylor's mouth. He was telling everybody I was using the diner's profits to pay your hospital bills."
"Which you were," Jess confirmed. "That's your income."
"Yes, I was using it to pay your hospital bills, just like I was using it to pay my other bills," Luke replied. "Somehow, Taylor convinced the good people of Stars Hollow that if they gave me money by patronizing the diner, they'd be paying for your medical care," Luke replied. He wasn't sure he wanted to go on. He didn't want to hurt Jess' feelings. But his nephew did want the truth. He felt that he owed him that.
"As they would," he affirmed. "The diner's your income." Jess was having trouble locating the problem.
"Once again, you are correct," Luke replied. "Taylor convinced the citizens that to give me their money in exchange for my services would be hypocritical."
"I think Taylor should invest in a dictionary," Jess quipped.
Luke sighed. This next part would really upset Jess. "He convinced them it would be hypocritical because by giving me their money…"
Luke couldn't finish the thought. He didn't have to, Jess all ready got the drift. "By giving you their money, they'd be helping me. And since they all hate me…I get it now," Jess' shoulders slumped a bit. "So you punched him for that?"
Luke shook his head. "I was too shocked to punch him for that."
"So why did you punch him?" Jess asked.
"Later, I relayed the story to Rory and Lorelai and apparently…" Luke chuckled a bit at the memory. "Rory got pretty angry at Taylor and went to confront him. I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice that she left. Anyway, long story short Taylor drags Rory back, manhandles her, insults Lorelai…then I punched him."
Jess listened to Luke's words. His uncle was being sued for defending his honor, his girlfriend's honor, and Lorelai. Of course, Lorelai, she was his uncle's Achilles heel. Jess nodded in response. "Thanks."
"Thanks? For what?" Luke was confused.
"For defending me," he replied. "No one ever did that before."
"Except Rory," Luke reminded him.
Jess' eyes glazed over at the sound of Rory's name. His heart hurt at the loss of her love ad affection, his back hurt from the stress and he craved her tenderness. Luke noticed his nephew's silence.
"Jess, what is it? What happened between you and Rory?" Luke asked.
Jess knew it was his turn to talk. Luke had been straight with him, now he had to hold up his end of the bargain.
"I love her," Jess confessed. "I love her too much to let her throw her life away on me. I can't let her give Yale up for me."
"I know you love her," Luke replied. "But what's this about Yale?"
"Rory told me she was giving up Yale. She talked about transferring to UCONN or to SCS so she could take care of me. I couldn't let her do that," Jess confessed his voice choked with tears he was no longer embarrassed to shed.
"So what did she say when you told her that?" Luke asked.
"She didn't…I didn't exactly tell her that I told her I didn't…that I didn't need her and that…there's no point in going over this," Hess sighed his voice breaking. "I had to do it, Uncle Luke. I had to…" He trailed off and let his first tears fall. "I had to leave her, if I didn't leave her she would have left me. And I don't think I could have handled that."
Luke, since Jess was six years old, had never seen his nephew cry. Once just after his Dad left him and Luke went to New York to see about Liz and Jess that little boy cried the entire time he was there for his Daddy, and then never cried in his uncle's presence or anyone else's presence again.
Thus, Luke wasn't sure what to do when he saw the tears on Jess' face. If this were Lorelai or Rory he'd know what to do, hold and comfort, but with Jess that concept was foreign, he wasn't sure how his private nephew would respond to physical comfort.
Luke let his paternal instinct take over and put his arms around his nephew. Luke didn't know what reaction he would get from Jess, so when he felt Jess hold on to him in return Luke couldn't help but be a bit shocked.
Luke knew what Jess was feeling. He'd let go of Lorelai so many times as a gesture of love and it killed him. That pain must be ten times as bed in Jess. He had Rory back. He had the girl of his dreams in his arms and he let her go out of what he believed was love for her.
Luke moved his hand up and down on Jess back in a gesture of comfort until Jess relaxed. "You okay now?"
Jess nodded. "Was she really upset?"
Luke nodded. "She seemed it. I'm sure Lorelai took care of her."
"Yeah, I bet she'll start hating me again," Jess sighed.
"Actually, I think Lorelai will understand, Jess. She knows you want what's best for Rory," Luke comforted.
"I'm getting really tired," Jess said in response to that comment, effectively ending the conversation. "I need to sleep."
Luke nodded. "All right. You get your rest in. I need to get back to the diner before I have to pay medical bills for Sookie."
Jess let his body drop and pushed himself down with his hands. "See you later, Uncle Luke."
"Sleep well, Jess," Luke said before he left, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Over June and part of July Luke and Lorelai tried to get Jess and Rory to communicate with each other. Luke talked to Rory, tried to convince her that Jess only said what he said so she would continue her education and reach her goals.
Lorelai talked to Jess. She tried to convince him that Rory loved him enough to sacrifice Yale for him and if he didn't ask her to, if he only permitted her to she would not resent him. Neither adult made a dent.
Rory wanted an apology from Jess and Jess stubbornly refused to admit that he did no believe what he said was true and thus refused to "beg" for Rory's attention and forgiveness.
Lorelai ached for her daughter; she saw how deeply Rory was suffering being in Stars Hollow with Jess so close. She saw him often either at the Inn or at the diner, and after each encounter Rory would become a puddle of tears.
Luke hurt for Jess just as much as Lorelai hurt for Rory. Each day he watched as Jess grew weaker grew more tired, grew more withdrawn. He started out working in the diner as much as he could, going to therapy steadily, and doing as much on his own as possible.
Over time however Jess' hours became more erratic, he couldn't tolerate being in public view he claimed. Jess slowed his therapy from five days t three, then eventually to none. It was useless, too expensive, and caused him too much pain, he claimed. There was truth to both of those statements, but the reality was with Rory out of his life, by his own hand, he felt lonely and depressed. He just didn't have the will to fight anymore. So most days now, Jess remained in the room at the inn, in his bed, in the dark, shut off from everyone around him.
If it's conceivable that anything good could possibly come out of the rift between Jess and Rory, it was the joining of Lorelai and Luke.
Luke supported Lorelai as she hurt for her child and tried to help Rory and Jess reunite. Lorelai hurt for Luke as he watched Jess withdraw and weaken. She hurt for him as he watched his livelihood slip away, when business in the diner did not pick up and the mortgage bills came due. Luke saw that if he kept breaking even he could hold onto the building that meant so much to him, but if business fell off anymore or a sudden expense came up, he'd never be able to pay the loan up to date. Lorelai stood by Luke as he fought to keep his head above water, and she hated seeing what that was doing to Luke physically.
Luke who was never sick once in ten years, got three severe colds in six weeks. He lost weight, his skin lost it's healthy glow, and his tongue lost it's razor sharp edge. Finally, there was no real Luke left, only a shadow of the man everyone head known and taken for granted.
Luke relied on Lorelai a lot more now. He relied on her to help with Jess, to help out in the diner, and o on, and this only because of their developing relationship and Lorelai's careful and tactful manipulations.
By the end of July, Rory realized she could not stay in Stars Hollow as long as Jess was there. It hurt her too much to see what was happening to him and to know she could not help him, because he could not or would not accept her help. Thus, Rory signed up for a three week seminar on journalistic integrity at Yale.
Lorelai understood Rory's need to get away from Stars Hollow and encouraged her to use the time to reexamine her feelings for Jess. Lorelai told her to think about her feelings and determine if they became any less strong when she didn't see Jess everyday. If they did, then she'd simply have to take her time to get over him. If they didn't, she was doomed to be at his side forever whether they admitted it or not.
Ironically, it was the night that Rory left for Yale that all Hell broke lose in Stars Hollow. Luke had loaned Lorelai his truck to help relocate Rory's stuff to Yale. She returned it to the diner, to find the place as usual empty save Luke.
Luke heard the door open and turned to see Lorelai come inside. She held up the keys to the truck and smiled. "I'm back, and this time there's no mattress in the back."
Luke smiled and moved around the counter. Lorelai looked at Luke's color, it was even paler than the new usual and he kept massaging his left shoulder.
"Luke, are you all right?" she asked worry eteched on her face.
Luke saw the fear there and tried to soothe it away. "I'm fine, Lorelai," he comforted taking her in his arms. "I'm just tired. How are you holding up?"
Lorelai burrowed closer to Luke's chest resting her head in the crook of his arm. "I'm tired. I'm glad though that she went back. She needs Jess, but she has to realize that. She has to realize she loves him even when he's out of her sight. I'm going to miss her though."
Luke caressed her forehead with his lips. "I know, but maybe she'll come home on the weekends. Or maybe she'll still change schools."
"She wants to, Luke," Lorelai confessed. "She wants to stay here, care for Jess, be with him, but not until he apologized for saying what he said."
Lorelai pulled away and sat on a stool. Luke poured her a cup of coffee. "He calls out for her every night," Luke confessed. "Every night around the same time he wakes up with the spasms and of course I get up, go to him, and he's calling out for Rory."
Lorelai sighed, "How are they both so stubborn?"
"They're our kids," Luke pointed out. "You and I can be pretty thick headed. Look how long it took us to…you know."
"Yeah," Lorelai nodded. "It took us pretty damn long, did it?"
Luke looked at her with emotion in his eyes. "Too long. But we found it didn't we?" he asked running a finger down her arm before closing for a kiss.
"Yeah, we did," she agreed as the kiss ended. "You want to go home? Get some rest?"
Luke unconsciously massaged his shoulder again. "Yeah, maybe a hot shower can get rid of this pain. I must have pulled something," he justified with a little cough.
Lorelai had a sick feeling in her stomach. Luke didn't look well, his cough didn't sound good, and he kept massaging his shoulder. Lorelai's mind recognized a connection between those symptoms unconsciously, but consciously she only saw a weakening of her knight in plaid.
"All right, Luke," Lorelai capitulated. "Can I get a ride home?"
"Sure," he smiled and quickly set about locking up.
Jess was in bed reading when Luke returned home for the night. "Hey, where have you been? It's late."
"I had to wait for Lorelai. She borrowed the truck," Luke replied not mentioning why because Jess sensed it all ready.
"How are things with you two?" Jess asked his mood higher than it had been in six weeks.
"Fine," Luke replied. "Slow but sure," he grinned.
"Don't mess it up, Uncle Luke. Lorelai's really something," Jess said seemingly out of nowhere. "Like Rory," he added.
"She'll be back in three weeks," Luke comforted.
"Doesn't matter," Jess grumbled, slipping back into his mood as quickly as he slipped out of it. He lay down on his side, "We're over."
Normally Luke would argue with Jess. He would point out how stubborn he was being and how much his silence was hurting Rory, but tonight he was too tired to argue again, so he simply said, "Goodnight, Jess."
Luke went to the small table where he paid bills and tried to make the minimal income he was receiving stretch to be enough to pay the doctors, the suppliers, and the mortgage. He'd all ready received one late payment notice from the bank on that subject.
As Luke picked through the mail he noticed an envelope from Stars Hollow Savings and Loan amongst the junk and other unpaid bills. The pain he'd been feeling in his chest intensified as he opened the envelope and read the words on the page.
As he read those words, he felt as if he had no air. He felt as if he could not breathe. The letter was telling him in black and white what he all ready knew. He was losing it. If he couldn't pay the loan up to date in 30 days, he would lose the diner. He would lose his business his livelihood, the only link to his father he had left. He couldn't let that happen.
Luke didn't know what time it was or how long he sat and stared at the paper. It must have been a pretty long time because eventually the words got blurry so much he could no longer read them. His chest felt tight and breathing seemed exhausting work.
When Luke was younger he was prone to panic attacks in new or intense situations. This felt like that only his chest hurt; it ached like something was squeezing his heart. He needed fresh air, he needed a bit of cool Connecticut air then he'd be all right.
Luke tried to rise but his legs wouldn't support him, he felt dizzy and went down like a ton of bricks to the floor of the room, the ability to breath completely leaving him.
He knew he had to try and get Jess' attention. He knew he had to get help soon, because the connection that Lorelai had unconsciously made, Luke was beginning to draw consciously. This was no panic attack; this was an attack of a far more serious nature.
With the last amount of strength he had and what felt like the last bit of oxygen Luke called out for his nephew. The word seemed soundless and Luke prayed Jess heard him. "Please God let him hear me," was his last conscious thought.
Jess couldn't sleep try as he might. The pain in his back was as intense as ever, overshadowed only by the pain in his heart. He missed Rory so badly it physically hurt. The only thing that made his pitiful existence tolerable was Luke. His uncle had showed him more love and compassion than he deserved. That almost made him want to try harder, but that desire was always superceded by a cold hard fact. The therapy required cost more money than Luke had to give.
Jess was not a religious boy, not at all, but if there was a God in Heaven he had to thank him for blessing him with an Uncle Luke.
At that moment Jess heard a sound. It sounded like a chair scraping the floor, then as if someone fell. "Uncle Luke!" he called out and waited for the answering footsteps. When none came Jess tried to get his wheelchair close enough to get into. He had to check, maybe Luke stepped outside, but he had to see to settle the knots in his stomach.
Jess was almost in his chair when he heard a sound that if it had any strength behind it would be his name. "Hold on Luke," Jess called out. "I'm coming."
Jess didn't even bother to put his legs on the foot rests before he unlocked the wheels and opened the door. Jess' own heart skipped a beat when he saw Luke on the floor cheeks a deathly shade of while, lips a sickening shade of blue.
"Oh my God!" Jess exclaimed and moved his chair so he could see his uncle's chest. Luke's eyes were closed and Jess couldn't tell if there was the telltale rise and fall that indicated breath.
Jess wasn't normally prone to panic, but seeing that everything he ever knew went out of his head. He could remember his mother teaching him as a young boy, "Phone first, phone fast." What he couldn't remember was who to call.
In a crisis, there was only one number to dial, and that number belonged to Luke. Now Luke needed the help, so who to call now.
Suddenly the light clicked on in Jess' head. He knew now who to call, who would be able to help. He grabbed the phone and dialed.
Lorelai ran from her shower to get the phone expecting it to be Rory. "Hello," she answered breathlessly.
"Lorelai," Jess squeaked out. He could barely form words.
"Jess. What's wrong?" Lorelai asked her mind working to think why Jess would be so upset.
"Lorelai, it's Luke," he managed. "You have to come. He's un…he's on the floor and he's pale and…Come please come."
Lorelai took a deep breath to calm herself. Jess needed her to be calm; Luke needed her to be calm. "Jess, call an ambulance. I'm on my way."
