I'm so sorry there has been such a big delay in me updating this. Things have been so crazy lately and life has got in the way. But I'm hoping to be more regular now so I really do hope you're all still with me. :) Thank you for all your support so far!
Chapter 2
Rory and Dean looked up and Dean pulled his arm away. "Gem..." Rory said quietly.
"What's happened? Are you ok?" Gemma said concerned.
"Yeah..I..uh..I've just had a rubbish day, that's all." Rory sniffed, getting up.
"Oh.." Gemma said glancing at Dean and then back at her sister.
Rory saw her glance. "I was looking for mom." She said. "But I couldn't find her anywhere and then Dean saw I was upset and asked what was wrong."
"Ok." She said.
"I'll leave you to it." Dean said. "But remember what I said, you're not a failure ok? Everything's going to be fine."
"Thanks." Rory smiled softly at him.
Dean nodded. "See you."
"Bye." Rory said.
"Yeah, bye Dean." Gemma sighed. She glanced at Rory. "What's going on?"
Rory sighed. "I had a meeting with one of my tutors today and he suggested that I drop a class." She said.
"Oh." She said understanding.
"I just kind of freaked out about it, that's all. I..well, you know what I'm like." She sighed.
"I'm sorry." Gemma said sincerely.
"It's just been a rubbish day." Rory said.
Gemma nodded. She glanced round. "So mom's not here huh?" She frowned.
"I can't find her anywhere." Rory shook her head.
"Huh. Weird. She told me to meet her here."
Rory shrugged. "Maybe she got caught up somewhere."
"Yeah maybe." Gemma said. "Are you staying the night?"
"Nah, I think I might head back to Yale. I've got early classes tomorrow." Rory said.
"Ok." She said as they walked away from the inn.
Gemma glanced at her sister. "So Dean was there for you tonight huh?" She said.
Rory glanced at her. "Yeah..."
"That was sweet of him." Gemma said innocently.
"Look, I know what you're thinking but he was honestly just being a friend." Rory said.
"Ok."
"Gem..."
"What?" Gemma said. "Ror, you can understand what it looked like from my view. It looked pretty cosy to me."
"He was just comforting me, that's all!" Rory defended.
She sighed. "Look, it's good that you two are friends but he's married. You really don't want to be caught up in that mess."
"What, like the screwed up Jess mess you're caught up in?" Rory retorted but regretted it as soon as she said it. "Sorry." She sighed.
"It's fine." Gemma said quietly. "I guess I deserved that."
"No you didn't." She sighed.
"I just don't want you getting hurt, that's all."
"I know. I promise I haven't even thought about that prospect at all. Me and Dean. It's in the past. I really like Lindsey and I think they're good together." Rory said.
Gemma nodded. "Ok. Good." She said. "Just...be careful yeah?"
Rory nodded. "I promise." She said. She then glanced at her sister. "I am sorry about the Jess remark."
"It's fine." She said. "I..uh..I actually just spoke to him." She admitted.
"Really? I thought he'd left?" She said confused.
"So had I."
"So? How was it?"
Gemma sighed and shrugged. "I asked the questions I wanted to ask. He answered them."
"Ok..."
"I don't know. I've just got so many things going on in my mind right now." She said.
Rory nodded. "I get that." She sighed.
"Did you drive here?" Gemma asked.
"Yeah but it's at the house."
"Ok, I'll walk back with you." She smiled.
Luke rushed up the stairs at the diner to get ready for his dinner with Lorelai. He was still confused about what it was all about. Lorelai never invited him out and she was acting weird. He opened the door to his apartment and froze as he saw a very familiar figure standing in the kitchen. "What...what are you doing here?" He said.
"Good to see you too, Uncle Luke." Jess said.
"How did you even get up here? Actually, scrap that, I don't want to know." Luke sighed. "What are you doing here? I thought you left."
"I thought I was going to leave too but...I couldn't." Jess admitted.
"Uh huh, why's that then?" Luke said.
Jess glanced at him. "I feel like you already know the answer to that one."
Luke let out an exasperated breath. "Jess, if you just came back to screw with her mind..."
"Geez Luke, thanks for your faith in me." Jess mumbled, sitting down on the couch.
Luke sighed. "I'm sorry." He said seeing the hurt in his nephew's face. He rubbed his hand over his face. "So what are you doing here?" He asked.
"I don't know." He admitted. "I just...found myself here."
"Ok..."
Jess sighed. "I spoke to Gemma today."
"Jess..."
"No, it was ok." Jess said quickly. "Well, it wasn't really. She was really angry at me at first which I don't blame her for but...it ended ok...2
"Ok..." Luke said hesitantly.
He sighed. "She..uh..she said I should talk to you. Try and make things right. She said you'd always care about me..." He said awkwardly.
Luke nodded. "Well...she's right." He said gruffly. "You're family, Jess. And as much as we hurt each other, you'll always be family."
Jess glanced at him. "Even though I said horrible things to you?" He said hesitantly.
"I think we've both had times that we've said things that we've regretted." Luke sighed. "I know I have."
"You were right about Jimmy."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah right." Jess said but smirked slightly. "You hate the guy."
Luke chuckled slightly. "Well you're not wrong there." He said. He sighed. "I hate him for what he did to your mom and you. But you were right. You had the right to know he was around. He's still your dad and it was your decision about what to do about it, not mine." He said. "For that, I'm sorry."
Jess shrugged. "You were right though. I should have listened to you about him. He was never going to change."
"What happened?" Luke asked hesitantly.
"I went to see him in California. You know he has a whole other family out there?"
"No. I didn't know that." Luke said quietly.
"Yeah, he lives with this woman, Sasha, and her daughter, Lily. They were cool. But it was obvious he hadn't told them about me. And it was obvious me being there was a hindrance. Jimmy made out he was trying to protect them by not bringing trouble to their door but I knew that was just an excuse. He literally just wanted to see me and then get on with his life." Jess shrugged. "So I left."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"I should never have kicked you out." Luke said.
"We had a deal. I broke it." Jess said.
Luke shook his head. "You're family. I should have tried harder to work through it."
"Luke, I wouldn't have listened to anything you would have said. I was screwed up back then." Jess said. "You didn't do anything wrong."
Luke glanced at him. "So what are you doing back now then?"
He shrugged. "I drove to the Stars Hollow sign and I just...couldn't leave."
"Because of Gemma?"
"I don't know. Yeah, partly. I couldn't hurt her like I did before. But I don't know. I just..I didn't want to leave." He admitted. "I don't exactly have anywhere to go."
Luke glanced at his watch and sighed. "Look, I have to go out to this dinner thing with Lorelai but I can cancel if you want me to..."
"No, you go. You should go." He said.
"Are you sure?"
"It must be important if she's actually invited you out. I don't remember her ever doing that when I was living here." Jess said.
"Hmm..." Luke said. He glanced at his nephew. "I don't think I will be late back. Will you still be here when I do?"
Jess glanced at him. "If that's ok?"
Luke nodded. "We can talk more then ok?"
"Ok."
"Ok." Luke glanced at his nephew once more. "I'm glad you came back, nephew."
"Geez, someone would think you cared, Uncle Luke." Jess smirked.
Luke just rolled his eyes before getting up to get changed for the meal.
Luke left the diner about half an hour later, nicely dressed, with his truck keys in his hand. He was walking round to get into his truck when he spotted Lorelai walking towards him.
"Luke..." She said.
"Oh hey, I was just coming to meet you." He said.
"I know. Uh..yeah." She said nervously playing with her hair. "Could we...uh...I need to ...I'm sorry, I need to reschedule our dinner." She said.
"Oh. Sure ok." Luke said, noticing she wasn't exactly acting like herself.
"Yeah, I'm just very tired." Lorelai lied.
"Ok." He said.
"So I'm sorry that I made you get all dressed up."
"That's ok, it's good for me to do it every once in awhile. It reminds me why I'm not an accountant." He joked. "Are you ok?"
"What?"
"Are you ok?"
"Why?"
"Because you don't look ok." He said.
"Well, geez, take me now, sailor." She tried to joke.
"I mean, you look distracted."
"Distracted, no. Well, maybe...yeah. Distracted, ok, sure. I'm very distracted." Lorelai sighed.
"Anything I can do?" He offered.
She glanced at him and sighed. "You know, there are very few times in my life when I find myself sitting around thinking that I wish I was married but today, I mean...I'm happy. You know? I like my life. I like my friends. I like my stuff. My time, my space, my TV."
"Yeah, sure." Luke said leading her to a nearby bench.
"But every now and then, just for a moment, I wish I had a partner, someone to pick up the slack. Someone to wait for the cable guy, make me coffee in the morning, meet the stupid sink before it gets sent back to Canada." She said.
"What happened?" He said softly.
"Um..." She sniffed, her voice breaking. "I just thought I had everything under control but I didn't and the inn is just falling apart. This has been my dream forever and I have it and it's here and I'm failing. I can't handle it. I just spend every minute running around and working and thinking." She cried, feeling Luke put his arm round her. She glanced up at him. "And I thought I would have help but Sookie has Davey and Michel has Celine and I'm...I can't do it all by myself." She exclaimed. "And I don't even have time to see my kids and hell, forget see them, just even talk to them. Gemma's been so busy lately and Rory's at Yale. And I miss them. And I sat there in my parents' house just listening to my grandmother basically call me a charity case and I couldn't even argue with her. I couldn't even say anything, because I am. I'm running out of money and I don't know what to do about it." She cried. She glanced up at him. "And I was going to...I was going to ask you for $30,000 at dinner tonight. That's how pathetic I am."
"Thirty thousand dollars." He said surprised. "Well, ok, I mean if you..." He said.
"I don't want to talk about it now. I don't want to think about it." She sniffed, burying her face in his chest. "I'm failing." She sobbed. "I'm failing."
"Hey, you are not failing." Luke said softly, hugging her close and rubbing her arm.
"I am! I'm failing and I don't know what to do." She sobbed.
"Hey, look at me." Luke said. "Lorelai, look at me."
Lorelai sniffed and looked up at him. "What?"
"You are not failing." He said firmly. "Yes, you're obviously going through some tricky times right now but you can get through it. I know you can. I believe in you." He said softly. "You're Lorelai Gilmore and you're going to get your dream because you're amazing."
Lorelai glanced up into his eyes and smiled tremulously. "Thank you." She said softly.
"Everything's going to be ok." He assured her.
Lorelai saw his reassuring and support smile and suddenly she felt something. Something she hadn't felt before. Slowly she leaned in and before she knew what she was doing, she was kissing him. They pulled away after a moment. Lorelai glanced at Luke who was looking infront of them, like a rabbit in the headlights. "Luke?" She said. "Luke, say something..." She said. "Luke, please..."
"Gemma..." He managed to get out.
"What?" Lorelai said confused.
Luke nodded his head forward. "Gemma...Rory..."
Lorelai looked up to see her daughters standing there, looking stunned. "Girls..." She said.
So I hope you liked it! Please let me know what you think by leaving a review. I really love reading them and I really appreciate your feedback and support! So thanks again and I'm sorry it's been so long! :)