A/N: As you will have noticed, I'm bouncing between canon plots (rewritten and otherwise) and new stuff that I'm making up as I'm going along. Seems to be working for you all so far, so that's cool. Thanks for the reviewage :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 18

"Did you hear what happened?"

Paris looked absolutely frantic as she came barrelling down the hallway, grabbing Rory by the wrist.

"Did I hear what happened with what?" she asked her friend. "Paris, you're hurting me, and everybody is staring," she added in a lower tone. "Let go!" she insisted, pulling her arm free.

Paris looked left and right, then actively shoved Rory towards the girls' bathroom.

"Have you lost your mind?"

"No, but Jess might have. He's sat outside Headmaster Charleston's office right now and the rumours are flying about suspension, even all-out expulsion!"

"What? Why?"

"Apparently there was an altercation between Jess and that idiot Bowman. Punches were thrown, a chair was broken. The rumour mill has them brawling like wild animals, Bowman making threats to bring Daddy's gun to school, and Jess pulling a knife, though I would hope that's unsubstantiated rumour."

"Let's hope," Rory agreed wholeheartedly. "This is just crazy. Jess hasn't got into trouble for months, not since he first came here. Why would he do this?"

"How should I know? All I do know is that we have to do something before he gets himself thrown out of here. You and I are maybe the only people that have enough pull with Charleston right now, and certainly the only two here that would bother to go to Jess' defence."

Rory knew that much was true. She and Jess were the poor relations at Chilton, him most especially. At least Rory's grandparents made the grade when it came to the Hartford elite. Jess had no such connections, and that might be what started the fight, though she doubted it. Being called poor and lowly wouldn't bother Jess enough to risk his place at Chilton, not after all the trouble Luke had gone to in order to keep him here.

"I don't understand. Things have been going so well lately."

"Yeah, well, something got Jess all riled up," Paris insisted. "Anything going on at the homestead that I don't know about?"

"Nothing serious," said Rory, thinking carefully about it. "Luke and Jess are both kinda mad at Taylor right now. He's been working overtime on setting up his soda shoppe and making Luke's life miserable, which doesn't exactly put Jess in a good mood either. I don't see how that would cause a fight here though."

Paris couldn't see how that would be the reason either, but something had certainly caused an issue. All she knew for sure was that life at Chilton would be somewhat less bearable without her brother around. She didn't feel like sharing that fact with Rory, though she suspected she understood just exactly how she felt.

"Okay," said Rory after a while. "Um, so what can we do?"

"We can go down to Charleston's office, find out what we can by way of the facts on the case, and stand for the defence."

"Paris, this is school, not a court of law," Rory reminded her, knowing before she even finished the sentence that it was pointless.

"That's the problem, Rory. You see a difference," her friend said sharply. "I don't."

"Michel, I will be there in thirty minutes," said Lorelai, her free hand over her ear so she could better hear him on the other end of the phone. "I'm sure you won't die of starvation in that time. Well, if you do, I promise the eulogy will be special and we'll play Celine when they bring in the casket. Goodbye, Michel!" she yelled, closing the phone whilst he was still mid-ramble.

Half of it was in French anyway so it wasn't as if she would have understood if she had listened.

"God, that man is a drama queen," she muttered, stuffing her cell back into her purse as she shuffled a few steps further away from the construction zone.

The work at Taylor's new soda shoppe was beginning to seem like maybe it wasn't worth it. As much as Lorelai loved the idea of so much ice-cream and candy right there next to the diner, she really hated all the noise and mess around here lately. She knew it was driving Luke nuts too, and that meant Lorelai was getting annoyed by proxy, same as Jess. It was going to be a long few months until the place was finally finished, that was for sure.

Not looking where she was going, Lorelai ploughed right into someone coming the other way. A face full of Miss Patty's ample bosoms was not exactly where Lorelai intended to be and laughed at the thought of how many men might be jealous of her right now... and how many men had been in that position. Lorelai shook her head and tried to think of anything else.

"Hey, Patty," she greeted her with a smile. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Oh, sweetheart, it's fine," she told her kindly, patting her arm. "You poor dear."

"Okay," said Lorelai, feeling confused and looking just the same. "Um, thanks for the sympathy, but my day isn't so bad," she clarified, "and yet you're looking at me like a kicked puppy. Patty, what's up?"

"It's probably not what it looks like, honey," she said, forcing a smile. "I mean, the man loves you, we all know that."

"The man? As in Luke?" she checked, unable to think of anyone else that Patty could be talking about.

Looking in through the diner window, she expected to find him serving customers, or maybe yelling at them, since he liked to do that a lot too. Lorelai got a real surprise when she realised that actually Luke was talking and laughing, all in a fairly friendly way, with some pretty but stylish red-head she had never seen before.

"Huh."

"Apparently her name is Nicole something. She's Taylor's lawyer," Miss Patty told her, leaning in close and speaking out of the side of mouth like it was some huge secret she was divulging. "Personally, I'd like to bet she's worked on both sides of the law at some time or other, if you know what I mean."

"Patty, I'm sure she's just a nice, decent woman who is being friendly," said Lorelai, though something inside her was twisting into a knot just seeing her boyfriend being so relaxed and happy with a woman that wasn't her. "They're probably swapping 'Taylor's a pain in the ass' stories," she justified.

"Maybe that's all it is," Miss Patty considered. "But if I were you, sweetheart, I'd make sure Ally McBeal in there knows that a certain plot of fine Danes real estate is not for sale."

She patted Lorelai on the arm as she walked away, but honestly, Lorelai barely noticed. Her eyes were fixed on Luke and this woman who seemed hell-bent on getting her claws into him. She was probably being ridiculous, Lorelai knew that, and yet she had the overwhelming urge to go in there and rip out some red hair.

Taking a deep breath, she painted on a bright smile and barged on into the diner.

"Hey, honey!" she called to Luke, immediately getting his attention.

"Hey," he greeted her in kind, moving away from the lawyer woman just a little.

Lorelai didn't even spare her a glance, leaning over the counter and grabbing a handful of Luke's shirt so she could haul him close enough to kiss. What might usually be a brief peck was an epic lip-lock that went on almost too long for a public place. Lorelai didn't care. She was smiling all the more when they parted.

"Hello, lover."

"Hi," said Luke breathlessly. "Um, I... This is... Um..."

He had completely lost his ability to think and to breathe as well. Lorelai marked that a win and only then looked at the other woman who chose to make her own introductions.

"I'm Nicole Leahy," she said, holding out a hand to shake. "You must be Lorelai. I've heard a lot about you already."

"Really?" said Lorelai, grinning as she sat down on the next stool over from Nicole. "All good, I hope."

"There is only good to tell," said Luke dutifully pouring his girlfriend a coffee. "Not that we were exclusively talking about you."

"Oh, no. Actually, Luke was telling me about all the great places around here for hiking and fishing, all the outdoors pursuits. I love all of that stuff."

"Me too!" Lorelai enthused, causing Luke to almost drop the cup in his hand.

"You?" he checked. "You like to hike and fish now?"

"Well, I don't get much of an opportunity for the hiking quite honestly, but I've been trying to get Luke to teach me to fish forever."

Luke's eyes were so wide they almost rolled clean out of his head as he watched Lorelai wax lyrical on how she so wanted to learn fishing from him. Nicole looked surprised, which was not a shock since he just got done telling her how Lorelai was really not the outdoorsy type at all. This made no sense, unless Lorelai was just saying she liked those activities because Nicole did. Could it be that she had been bitten by the jealousy bug? Luke smiled at the very idea, he couldn't do anything else.

"Oh my God!" Rory gasped at the sight of Jess.

He had a bloody lip, the start of a black eye, and his blazer and shirt were torn. She supposed there would be more bruises she couldn't see on other parts of his body if the fight was even half as vicious as it was rumoured to be.

"It's not as bad as it looks," he told her. "How'd you get in here anyway?" he asked them, suddenly realising that should be impossible.

"Paris," she said simply, finding a half a smile.

"That makes sense." Jess nodded painfully. "I don't think this little talk I gotta have with Charleston is going to go so well."

"Jess, what happened?" Rory asked him desperately. "You haven't gotten into trouble for so long."

"I don't wanna talk about it, Rory," he told her, looking away. "Let's just say Bowman had it coming."

Rory didn't know what to say to that. She didn't want to push if Jess didn't want to talk. At the same time, she wanted and needed to understand why this happened. Bowman was an idiot but she couldn't see him sucker punching Jess for no reason. Besides, the general consensus seemed to be that Jess took the first swing, though why seemed to be a mystery to most. There were all kinds of guesses, but no one definitive answer.

"Jess..." she began, but his hand around hers and the pleading look in his eyes when he met her gaze then brought silence immediately.

"I'm sorry," he told her. "For whatever trouble this gets me into, I am sorry, but I don't regret giving that asshole what he deserved."

"Probably not the best attitude to get you out of this unscathed," said Paris from the doorway. "You might have really screwed yourself this time, Mariano."

"Thanks for the autopsy, Paris," he said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, you two should get out of here."

"Not a chance, brother," she told him firmly. "You go in there alone, you're going to make things worse for yourself."

"And who's gonna make it better? You?" he asked. "Hate to tell you this, sis, but diplomacy? Not your strong suit."

"We just wanna help, Jess," said Rory, looking as close to tearful as he had seen her since a certain day in New York that was almost too painful to recall. "Paris thinks she knows a way to get you out of trouble, but you really should tell us what happened."

Jess was a silent a moment, looking away and shaking his head. He was considering something, perhaps how much truth he wanted to tell.

"Bowman said some things I found offensive," he settled on eventually. "I took a swing at him, he fought back. Apparently he's tougher than he looks," he said, rolling his shoulder painfully.

"And this something you found offensive was...?" asked Paris, arms folded across her chest.

When Jess looked up and met her steely gaze with one of his own, she knew he wasn't going to give it up.

"Fine!" she snapped, pushing forward to the Headmaster's door and rapping on it.

She didn't even wait to be invited in, just barged her way into the room, already in full flow. Jess and Rory heard Charleston try to kick her out to no avail right before the door closed.

"She's gonna make this worse," said Jess sadly.

"Maybe," Rory agreed. "Or maybe she really can fix it. Paris is pretty good at getting what she wants, one way or another. There's actually a chance Headmaster Charleston will give in just to make her stop talking."

Jess smirked at that, partly because it was funny, partly because it was also probably completely true.

Rory leaned in close enough to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek, mindful of both Jess' bad eye and lip.

"I'd like to take a pop at Bowman myself for doing this to you," she said crossly.

"Trust me, he looks worse," said Jess with perhaps slightly too much pride. "Why'd you think he's not here? The nurse won't be done with him for a while."

Rory didn't mean to smile, but knowing her boyfriend came out the victor in a fight was kind of nice, even if the whole thing was technically barbaric and pathetic.

Before long, Paris' voice could be heard beyond the office door, though they couldn't make out her words, just her anger. Two minutes later, she came storming back out, face like thunder. However, the moment the door closed behind her, she was smiling.

"You're all good, Mariano. Free and clear," she said happily.

"What did you do?" he asked, frowning some, then stopping when he realised how much that expression hurt right now.

"I just simply reminded our Headmaster of your exemplary academic record in comparison to Bowman's, the fact that he has a longer history of violence and misbehaviour than you do here, and that if he put all this on you, it could be viewed as victimisation of a student whose family can't afford to buy new computers for the whole library, something Mr and Mrs Bowman did not so long ago. These facts could find their way into a front page Franklin article next month also, if the editor saw fit to print them."

She was proud and triumphant, and she had every right to be as far as Jess was concerned.

"You're one in a million, sis."

Paris had the courtesy to blush at Jess' remark, and was really not ready for the way Rory leapt up and hugged her tight.

"You're amazing!" she declared. "So, Jess isn't even in trouble?"

"I'm not that good." Paris rolled her eyes. "You've got some detention ahead of you, and an essay on why disagreements should be solved verbally rather than physically, but a small price to pay, right?" she said to Jess.

"Not bad, Gellar," he said, nodding his head. "I owe you one."

"Family doesn't keep score, right?"

Jess smiled at that. "I guess not."

To Be Continued...