A/N: How about a little Jess & Luke blow out before we put this fic on hold for the holiday season? ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

Family dinners were just one more thing Jess was having to learn to get used to. He didn't mind sitting around a table with Luke, Lorelai, and Rory. Actually it was kind of nice to have people in his life who wanted to listen when he chose to talk, and would share things with him like he mattered. Liz never cared all that much what was going on with him and really only spoke to him when she wanted to vent, rant, or cry on his shoulder. At the Geller house, they often ate all together, but Paris dominated conversation whenever she could, so it wasn't really the same as this.

With Luke dating Lorelai and Jess dating Rory, they were quite the tangled family unit, but they got along, and Jess couldn't find a way to hate it at all, though he did huff and sigh when encouraged to be social even in this small circle. Thankfully, Rory told most of the stories when it came to Chilton, keeping Jess from having to do so. Not that this latest one had to do with school.

"And the next thing I know, Lane has a towel on her head and she's literally pushing me out of the window to go buy black hair dye!" she explained, complete with wild arm gestures. "It was crazy."

"So, technically, she still has dyed hair," Lorelai considered, having heard this story earlier and been given time to think on it.

"But dyed her natural hair colour?" said Luke, checking he had it right.

"Yes." Rory nodded. "But it's still a dye job"

"Power to the underlings," said Jess, dead-pan as usual, even as he punched the air like a rebel.

Rory laughed, she couldn't help it. "Anyway, for a couple of hours, Lane had purple hair and we have the photographic evidence to prove it."

"Et voila!" said Lorelai, producing the picture with a flourish.

Luke's eyes were wide as saucers as he looked at the photo.

"Why would anyone want their hair to be that colour?"

"Huh," said Jess. "Looks cool. Shame she was too afraid of Mrs Kim to keep it. Not that I blame her," he added quickly. "Seriously, she is maybe the only person is Stars Hollow that genuinely scares even me."

"Really? The only one?" asked Lorelai. "Kirk doesn't disturb you at all?"

"Kirk's a different kind of scary," Rory considered. "But hey, you were going to tell us about your talk at the high school. How did that go?"

Luke started laughing and Lorelai smacked him in the shoulder.

"Yuck it up, Butch!" she said, affecting a high-picked faux-cheerleader voice. "Just so you know, Sissy doesn't think you're so handsome when you laugh at her."

"I'm usually pretty up on my pop culture and your Mom's bits," said Jess in a low voice, leaning closer to Rory, "but who the hell are Sissy and Butch?"

"Beats me," his girlfriend admitted with a shrug.

"You don't need to know," said Luke definitely, "and I'm gonna do the dishes now."

"Oh, Butch, don't walk away from me, I'll just die!" Lorelai over-acted, still in the same ridiculous voice.

Rory was laughing because it sounded so funny but she really wanted to know what was going on. Lorelai happily told her everything, all about Luke's high school days as a track star. That was when Jess started to get real amused. Without even looking at him, Luke knew the kid was just cataloguing all of this into his brain as ammunition for later should they ever have a disagreement of any kind. It didn't bear thinking about.

"Well, don't stop there, Lorelai," he said when her hilarious tale was over. "Why don't you tell Jess and Rory what happened when you gave your talk, and what happened with the moms from the PTA after the event."

"Hey, no part of that was my fault!" she said definitely, "but yeah, turns out that the students of Stars Hollow High are really, really interested in what it is to be a teenage pregnancy dropout," she said, wincing at the memory of that particular part of the talk. "The PTA Mom Brigade was not happy."

"They want a mother to hate on, they should've asked mine along," said Jess, without looking up from his plate. "At least you raised your kid right and made something outta your life."

Lorelai looked at Luke who shook his head. She wasn't really sure how to react to that comment, but figured being grateful for the compliment couldn't hurt. It was better than addressing Jess feelings about Liz, that was for sure.

"Well, thank you, Jess," she said with a smile.

"Any time," he replied, not looking quite so happy himself, but then no-one really expected him to when mentioning his mother.

The phone rang in the hall, breaking what might have been a tense moment. Rory jumped up from her seat and said she would go.

"It's probably Lane."

From the sounds of it, she was proven right and disappeared into her room talking animatedly about the wrath of Mrs Kim. Jess was considering leaving Luke and Lorelai alone and going into the living room with his book when is uncle suddenly turned to him.

"So, did you think any more about college yet?"

"Ah geez," he groaned, spoon clanking in the dish as he pushed it farther away in a mild fit of temper.

Immediately, Jess wished he had moved faster. This was just the kind of conversation he really didn't want to have, and especially not in somebody else's house.

"No, come on," said Luke seriously, wiping his hands on the dishtowel and turning to face him. "I know you said it wasn't for you but you gotta have more of a reason than that."

Lorelai looked awkward, getting up from the table with the last of the dirty dishes to put in the sink. She wasn't much for the washing of plates and utensils, but right now it seemed like a really good idea to take over where Luke left off so she wasn't in the middle of whatever explosion might take place next.

"Why are you so resistant?" Luke asked Jess, who sat turned slightly away from his uncle, arms folded across his chest. "Is it just because I'm telling you it's a good idea? Because Paris is saying it? I mean, you're definitely smart enough."

"I don't know, okay?" Jess snapped, rather more harshly than he intended, but he couldn't help it.

Luke looked like he didn't believe that, probably because it wasn't entirely true.

"You don't know?"

"I know you're not helping and neither is Paris," said Jess smartly, "but honestly? All I know for sure is that I don't want to be tied down to more school, and... and I need money," he admitted. "I need it now, and when I can finally get out of high school I can make more."

"There's more to life than money, Jess." Luke sighed.

His nephew laughed, rolling his eyes for good measure also.

"That's what people say when they have money."

"Jess..."

"No, Luke!" he yelled, seeing where he was going and not liking it at all. "You are already paying for Chilton and letting me live at your place. You bought me a freakin' car for crying out loud! I already owe you enough. College would cost even more money, and... and I can't deal with that!"

He was up from the chair and slamming out of the back door before Luke could say another word. He was just left standing there a moment with his mouth wide open, and was that way when Lorelai turned to see. The second she realised he had made up his mind to give chase, she came over to him, wiping her hands dry on the way.

"No, babe," she urged him, seeing the frustrated anger in his eyes. "Let me go?" she urged him. "Take a breath, okay?"

Luke wasn't sure what Lorelai was going to say to Jess that could possibly help, but he loved that she wanted to try. She probably had a point anyway. As wound up as he was, as emotional as Jess seemed to be, they were only going to get into a bigger fight if he went outside right now.

Lorelai let out a sigh of relief when Luke nodded and offered to finish drying the dishes. Honestly, she wasn't sure how much help she was going to be, but she wanted to give it a shot. She didn't know Jess as well as Rory or Paris could boast, but she had spent enough time with him via the girls that she couldn't be any less successful than Luke had been in trying to get through to his nephew. She was glad when she realised Jess hadn't gone so far. He was out on the porch, arms resting on the rail, staring out across the yard when she approached.

"Hey," she greeted him with a half a smile. "You okay?"

"Peachy keen," he dead-panned, barely acknowledging her presence.

Lorelai didn't take offence, just moved up beside him and leaned there in a similar pose.

"I understand, y'know?"

"You do?" asked Jess, finally looking at her, one eyebrow quirked in apparent surprise.

"I do," she confirmed, nodding her head. "See, my parents... well, they weren't like yours, far from it, but Richard and Emily thought they knew what was best for me, just like Luke thinks he knows what's best for you," she explained. "The problem was that there was a lack of communication. They didn't get me. I think you have an idea what that feels like," she said, bumping his shoulder with her own. "So, anyway, my folks had all these dreams for me. Cotillion, college, good marriage, cute kids, in that order. I was supposed to grow up to be my mom, married to a guy just like my dad. I couldn't stand that idea," she said, shaking her head and staring out into the yard as if she was seeing the past play out across the lawn. "Me and Chris, we were gonna live the dream. College, maybe, but then out into the world, backpacking around Europe, sleeping on benches, waking up under the Eiffel Tower. Live fast, live long, be free."

"Sounds good," said Jess, making Lorelai smile all the wider.

"Yeah, it might've been, if it happened," she agreed. "Instead, Rory happened, and the dream changed. For my parents it stayed very much the same, 'cept the timetable moved up some. Chris was going to work for my dad, marry me, and we would raise a happy little family under the Gilmore regime."

"You ran."

"Like the wind, and I don't regret going out on my own. It was the right thing for me, and for Rory. In the end, it all worked out, but what it did to my parents... It took me so long to realise just how much it hurt them to have me leave the way I did, to throw all their plans back in their faces."

Jess knew what she was saying, at least he thought he did.

"You think I should go to college because Luke wants me to?"

"No." Lorelai immediately shook her head, turning in to face him more. "No, Jess, I'm not saying that at all. What I think - and you don't have to listen to me if you don't want to, it's a free country, man - but I think that you should give serious thought to your future," she explained. "Luke is offering you an opportunity, and whether you take it or not, that's up to you, but don't not take it because you feel you don't deserve it, or because you're worried about the money, or some dumb reason like that. Luke wants what's best for you, only good things, y'know? Please, don't get mad at him for doing his best. It's all a decent parent wants to do."

Jess felt like maybe he ought to feel patronised by the way she was talking to him. Maybe he would have been if she hadn't started with her own tale of parental woe. Lorelai had it tough, not dissimilar to Liz, what he said earlier held true. Lorelai had coped a whole lot better, tried a whole lot harder to do right by her kid and make a life for herself. He hadn't really known that her parents weren't in the picture for a long time, how much she disappointed them and alienated herself from them to make that life she and Rory had since built. He had a lot of respect for Lorelai, and that meant he had to take her advice into consideration. She knew whereof she spoke.

"Thanks," he said eventually.

Lorelai smiled. "No problem, kid," she told him, moving away a step. "I'll give you a minute."

She was almost out of sight when Jess called her name and got her attention back.

"It's just... The verbal thing, it comes and goes, with me."

"I get it," Lorelai nodded, "but if you ever do want someone else to talk to Jess - to vent, to yell, whatever - I'll listen, and I'll try not to judge. Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed, nodding also. "Thanks. Again."

This time when Lorelai walked away he let her. Jess went back to staring out into nothing, giving serious thought to all Lorelai had said, as well as Luke before that. He had some big decisions to make, and probably an apology to give to his uncle. This whole situation, living amongst family and friends thar actually cared, it was a bigger learning curve than Jess ever really expected. School work came easy, navigating the streets of NYC never seemed all that tough, but small town living and getting used to being part of a real family, it was just not something Jess felt he could adjust to all that easily.

"Jess?" Rory called from the back door, coming to seek him out. "Hey. You okay?" she checked.

"Yeah," he promised, finding a smile for her as he pulled her into a hug. "Y'know, your mom is pretty cool?"

"I like to think that's where I get it from," she said with a smile.

Jess nodded, tucking Rory's hair behind her ear and smiling too. "Can't argue with that."

To Be Continued...

A/N2: This fic is now going on hold 'til 2017. I do this every year as I have a lot of other stuff to do in December, including Christmas-related fics and of course plenty of RL things too. Please rest assured, this story will be back in the new year, and hey, I did make sure not to leave y'all on a cliffhanger or anything :)