Luke just stood there, astonished, wondering what on earth could have happened between the two of them. One moment they have their faces superglued to each other and the next, they aren't even able to be within a 10-foot radius of one another. Whatever happened, it must have been particularly bad. Rory was not the type of girl to give anyone, let alone her boyfriend, the silent treatment over something trivial. Not even daring to imagine what Jess could have possibly done, Luke went upstairs after him.

Just as he had expected, his nephew was sprawled out across his mattress, a thick tattered book in one hand while his other fiddled with his stereo, knocking over his tall pile of CD's in the process. Jess, of course, was oblivious to all of this as he just carried on trying to get the radio on without a second thought. He would just pick them up later.

While he was preparing himself for what was to come, Luke began having second thoughts. He did not want to pry. He hated it when Taylor stuck his big, ugly nose where it did not belong, but then again, Taylor was not family. Jess was. Luke could not imagine how this would play out. He knew that Jess hated it when he was asked the simplest of questions, so asking him something that would require more than a grunt and a nod in response would be quite the challenge.

Without thinking it through properly, Luke just blurted out, 'What the hell happened down there?'.

Jess just stared up at him blankly, already wanting his uncle to stop talking. He didn't like where this was going.

'Come on Jess. Don't play dumb. It's really not worth it. What happened between you and Rory?'.

There was annoyance clearly evident in his voice as Jess spat back vexed, 'Nothing happened. And even if something did, it wouldn't be any of your business. If you are that desperate to irritate someone then I would more than gladly give you a couple of my cigarettes for you to accidentally drop outside Taylor's market. But just leave me alone.'

That outburst made Luke mad. Although he was quite easy to irritate and annoy, and the outcome was normally quite amusing, it was a very rare occurrence when Luke genuinely got mad. But, ever since Jess arrived in Stars Hollow, his patience had been getting shorter by the second.

'Honestly Jess! I don't give a damn about all your other ex-girlfriends or whatever they were to you but if you've hurt Rory then you've got another thing coming! I can't believe that after everything I said -'

Luke was cut-off from his rant by a furious Jess Mariano. 'I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! OKAY!'

Unable to contain himself for much longer, Luke shouted at the top of his voice, 'JESS MARIANO! YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU DID RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME, I'M GONNA -'

Jess' next upheaval shook the diner, taking Luke by surprise.

'What have I ever done to you, or anyone for that matter, that means that you can't believe a single word that comes out of my mouth? What about me makes me so untrustworthy? Go on, answer me! Why is it so difficult for my own family to accept what I'm saying isn't just a bunch of lies? Can you please tell me because I honestly have no clue, I'm completely baffled!'

Although Jess was screaming in anger, beneath his façade were hints of insecurity and sadness. For a split second, Luke's eyes softened but he settled for a firm stare. Both Jess and Luke stubbornly stood their ground, each waiting for each other to crack.

Eventually, Jess sat down on the caramel chair by him and sighed defeatedly, 'Fine. I'll tell you but you have to promise me that, A) you won't just take Rory's side and go all protective angry dad on me and, B) you'll wait until the end before you say anything till I'm done because otherwise I'll never get through this.'

'Alright. Fine. Whatever. Go on, tell me.'

Luke sat down on the chair opposite him across the table and waited. Seeing his nephew all firm and serious really amused Luke but worried him all the same. He wondered what could've happened that caused his nephew to be so concerned. Jess took a deep breath and began his story.

'Okay, you know that Lane had a gig at a party with her band the other day, right?'

'What, Kyle's party? Where you tried to kill Dean and broke half the stuff in their house which I then had to pay for?'

'Yeah. That party. Anyways, you don't know why Dean and I fought in the first place.'

Jess really wanted to escape the room there and then but he knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so reluctantly, he carried on.

'Well, don't get mad but it turns out, I'm not graduating this year. I've skipped too many days of school to work at Walmart.'

'WHAT THE HELL JESS!' Luke began but he was quickly cut off by:

'Ah, ah, ah. You promised me you'd be quiet.'

Luke rolled his eyes in annoyance as he huffed: 'Alright! Fine! Ugh.'

'Great' Jess replied, smirking. 'Anyways, I guess it's safe to say that I was pretty pissed. Definitely needed to let off some steam.'

Luke gave his nephew a knowing look, thinking back to all the times that his temper got the best of him.

'Well, anyways, we walked around a bit, Lane chatted to Rory and then we bumped into Prince Charming and his barbie girlfriend and I finally got SO sick of stupid party. So I went upstairs to Kyle's bedroom. It was the only quiet place in the house that wasn't infested with crazy drunk idiots.'

Jess paused for a minute, wincing at the memory of Kyle's bedroom. He knew he should've stopped the first time she asked. He knew he shouldn't have gotten frustrated. He knew he shouldn't have yelled at her. Rory was his world. He was the best thing that had ever happened to him. And, of course, like an idiot, he pushed her away. And now he had to explain all that to Luke. Fear and shame were bubbling inside of him as he resumed his explanation.

'After Lane and her band finished playing, Rory came looking for me. She knew I was in a bit of a mood, as you like to say, and she was trying to cheer me up. As much as I'd love to make you as uncomfortable as possible with every single detail of our lovely encounter, I really want this conversation to be over and done with as quickly as possible so I'm just gonna give you a brief summary.'

Luke knew how hard it was for Jess to open up and the fact that he'd managed a long, honest conversation that didn't consist of swear words, grunting or just a really hefty attitude really showed Luke how far his nephew had come. He really was proud of him.

'We went from talking to kissing, to talking and then back to kissing and we ended up on the bed.'

Looking at Luke, Jess could tell he was ready to explode at a moment's notice so he tried to get through this next part as quickly as possible.

'It got a bit heated, okay, very heated and she asked me to wait. I didn't properly process what she was saying so I carried on.'

Jess took a deep breath and said, 'When I got to her belt buckle she shouted at me and I got off of her. As you know I was already pissed and it just frustrated me even more. I know I sound awful but I just wanted to be with my girlfriend. Rory,being the girl she is, after the initial annoyance anyways, saw I was upset about something and tried to talk to me about it…'

'I pushed her away Luke!' he exclaimed tearfully. 'She was just trying to help Luke and I shouted at her. Pretty much blamed her! I can't believe what I did.'

Jess looked up to his uncle, expected to see disappointment written across his face but instead, saw sympathy for the poor boy. Although he shouldn't have taken it all out on Rory, he was proud of him for being so concerned and forthcoming.

'Jess,' Luke began.'Come on, you-'.

'No! Don't tell me to come on! She left crying Luke! Tears were streaming down her face and I caused it! I did that to her; she didn't deserve that! I'm so sorry Luke!'

Jess' glassy eyes stared back up at Luke, attempting to gauge his net words.

'Okay. Well, although I know what happened with you and Rory, I'm curious. How did any of this cause you to commit attempted murder. Well?'

'I may as well tell you. While Rory was running down the stairs, she ran into Dean and of course he assumed the worst. I swear, I walked away but he punched me first. Like I said, I was just defending myself!'

Luke chuckled at the amount of conviction in his voice. It was so abnormal that he had to believe him.

'Alright fine. I'm glad you told me and all but have you told Rory that you're sorry? Have you told her how you felt?'

'Well, not exactly.' Jess answered. 'Why would she want to speak to me anyways?'

'Have you forgotten that she's the one who came here, not the other way around? She knows you, okay. She knows you didn't mean it. She's just waiting for you to come around.'

'Yeah. Okay. You're probably right.'

'I know I am. Well, make sure you tell her before it's too late. Now, I've got a funeral to get to so I'm gonna go now. Bye, I guess.'

'Yeah, bye Luke.'

As the door shut behind his uncle, Jess groaned. He couldn't believe that conversation had happened. He'd told Luke. It'd just sunk in for him. He supposed it helped him process what had happened. He was going to have to talk to Rory at some point anyway.

Luke was going through the exact same thought process on the way to the funeral. Jess' story was a lot to process. But what surprised him the most was that both Jess and himself managed to have an actual conversation for longer than a minute. He was definitely impressed. He hoped Jess would do the right thing and make it up to Rory.