A/N: So glad you guys enjoyed the previous chapter. I do love my specifically Jess & Paris sibling scenes - the whole C-SPAN thing was a gift really! :) Thanks so much for all the lovely reviews. Now, here's the next chapter, though I should warn you, there aren't that many left to come!

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 26

"How's she doing?"

"Better, I think," said Jess, looking over his shoulder to make sure Paris hadn't come into the room.

Honestly, he didn't expect it. She was hauled up in her own room and had been almost the entire weekend, not even allowing the staff to see her if she could help it. The news about Harvard had hit her so hard. As much as he knew she had set her heart on going, Jess never would have imagined she would lose it quite like this. Anger and injustice, those things he was expecting, but this was real sadness, desolation, and buckets of tears. Jess never knew Paris could cry this much, and it had taken some work on his part to be the support she needed. He always said he would be her brother no matter what. Having to prove it now was interesting to say the least. He never had to be this person before, but for her, he would always do his best. She did it for him, after all.

"I feel so bad for her," Rory sympathised. "I'm glad she has you, with her parents not caring so much."

"Geller's not so bad, he just thinks more of his work than his daughter." Jess sighed. "I guess you can say at least he's making money to keep her in her precious education system. He's doing more than my father ever did for me."

Rory tried not to wince at the bitter tone. Jess didn't talk about his dad much. All she really knew was that his name was Jimmy and he left before Jess was born, or right after he was born, she was a little vague on the exact timing. Needless to say he had never been a part of Jess' life, and his mother, whilst friendly enough when Rory met her, really wasn't much use as a parent. It seemed to Rory that she had pretty much won the parental lottery with her mom. Sure, her dad was kind of absent, but Lorelai would do anything for Rory, putting her feelings, her welfare, ahead of anything else. One way or another, Jess and Paris had both been much less lucky. At least they had each other now, plus Luke, herself, and Lorelai by extension. That wasn't nothing.

"How's everything there?" asked Jess then. "How's your mom?"

"She's okay," Rory told him. "I think the whole fire thing is only just now sinking in. It was all adrenaline when we were dealing with the guests and figuring out what happened. Now the shock is fading and it's all so real."

"I'm sorry I'm not there to help."

"Jess, you're not Superman. You can't be everywhere all at once," she said, though she was smiling at the fact he wanted to. "Me and Luke are helping Mom. Paris needs you more right now."

"You wouldn't think so," he told her with a sigh. "She spends half her time telling me to get lost."

"She's just lashing out because she's hurting," Rory reminded him. "This was her dream. All she's talked about since I met her was going to Harvard. It's kind of what she's lived for her whole life, in a weird way. I mean, I would've been upset not to get in myself, but for Paris? She doesn't exactly have a lot in her life apart from school, at least until you and me, and Jamie, I guess."

Jess nodded he understood, even though Rory couldn't see. Honestly, she was helping him out a lot right now. It was tough explaining to Paris that her life wasn't over and getting her to believe it. When he tried to cheer her up, tell her she still had options, she still had friends and family and a boyfriend, Paris brushed it off like it was all nothing. Jess started to think maybe he was talking crap, but now Rory was confirming that what he was saying was right, what he was trying to do was worth it. He needed that.

"If I don't get back in time to see you tonight, I'll catch you in school tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed. "I love you," she told him, knowing it was random but really feeling the need to make it clear right now.

"Yeah, I love you too," he promised before they ended their call.

Jess put the phone down and let out a long breath. Rubbing a hand over his face he found his bearings and got up to go find Paris again. Not that she took much finding. He hadn't been kidding about her hiding in her room as much as possible. This whole weekend, she had only gotten out of bed a handful of times for the sake of bathroom visits and the like. Given half the chance, Jess had a feeling his sister planned on becoming a recluse, but there was no way in hell he was allowing that to happen. Talking to Rory, hearing her being so supportive of his cause, it gave Jess the strength that he had been lacking the last few hours. Enough was enough, and this ended here.

"Paris!" he bellowed, busting into her room.

He found her watching TV and blowing her nose loudly into a wad of tissue.

"Do we have to have another talk about knocking, you idiot?!" she yelled at him, eyes red from crying again. "I could've been naked."

"And then I would've gouged my own eyes out with the nearest sharp object," Jess dead-panned. "We're not doing this anymore."

"Doing what?" she grumbled, refocusing on the TV.

Jess barged into her room and put himself between her and the screen.

"Hey!" Paris protested, but it did her no good.

Her brother turned off the set and faced her head on, something most people would never dare. The difference was that Jess wasn't most people.

"Get up, get dressed, and stop feeling sorry for yourself," he told her forcefully.

"Y'know you should really do something about your bedside manner," Paris complained. "Like getting one."

Jess was unmoved.

"You're not sick, Paris. Sick in the head sometimes, sure, but not the kind of sick that needs bed-rest and a nursemaid," he told her firmly. "So you didn't get into Harvard, it sucks, I get it, but now you have to move on."

"Really, Dr Phil? Is that what I have to do. You couldn't possibly understand!" she complained, arms folded across her chest as she looked away.

"I don't understand?" Jess echoed. "You have no idea, Paris. You wanna talk disappointments? I got a hundred for you. So you didn't get into a college, you got into a bunch of others that are just as good. You've had the best of everything your whole life. Classy schools, fancy clothes, all the gadgets, a flashy car, waited on by maids and cooks and butlers."

"Nobody has a butler anymore." Paris rolled her eyes. "I'm not Lex Luthor."

"You know what I mean!" Jess continued crossly. "You had everything, Paris. Not a family, I get that," he said before she had a chance to cut in and say so. "Your parents suck, I know, but at least they were around. You got money instead of time. It's not the best, but it's more than I had."

Paris couldn't argue with that, because she knew damn well how true it was. Liz was worse than her mother, and Jimmy was way more absent than Ira, in that he had never been there at all, not even a little bit. Paris did not have the monopoly on bad parents. She couldn't boast the sucky living situations that Jess had endured over the years, or the kind of suffering he had seen. She was lucky and she knew it, even if she didn't feel it right now. Jess felt it was his job to make her see, for her own good, as well as for everyone else's sanity.

"I thought I could at least count on you for sympathy, brother," she said then, a lame attempt at keeping him on side in her pathetic sulk.

Paris ought to have known it wouldn't work.

"Geez, Paris! I've been sympathetic," he reminded her. "I'm sorry you didn't get into Harvard, and I'm sorry that you feel like it's the end of the world, but it's not. It's just not," he repeated. "You gotta snap out of this thing, acting like your life is over because some stupid-ass college said 'no, thanks'. You're Paris frickin' Geller. You gotta be tougher than this," he reminded her, "because if you're not, it's like I told you before, you're not the woman I agreed to have for a sister."

Her head turned so fast so she could meet his eyes, Jess was surprised Paris didn't give herself whiplash. It was practically a threat in her eyes, saying she wouldn't be his sister anymore if she didn't suck it up and get over it already. Last time he said it, she was too upset to take notice, but now he had her attention. Jess knew she would take it this way, which was exactly why he said it. Jess and Paris were two of a kind in ways most people would never understand. They had each other in place of other people who ought to have been there for them, and in the past eighteen months, they had come to rely on each other somehow. Threatening to take away the support he provided, Jess knew that would hurt Paris, but it was what he had to do, because he couldn't take seeing her like this anymore.

"You realise how screwed up this is, right?" she said, trying to be angry still but mostly coming off tired and sad. "I'm taking advice from some James Dean wannabe from New York, a rebel without a clue, who I've willingly adopted as my brother. How could I ever expect Harvard to want me? I must be certifiably insane."

"I always thought so," Jess dead-panned, not at all insulted by her words, because he knew that wasn't really her intention.

Quite honestly, it was a pleasure to hear her sounding more like herself. If she started being really nice to him, Jess would probably be more worried about her than he had been before. The tears and pathetic sulky behaviour really weren't Paris.

"Maybe my life isn't over," she conceded. "Maybe," she reiterated with emphasis. "Doesn't mean I'm happy about this."

"Nobody expects you to do back-flips, Paris," said Jess, letting all the anger and fight go now that seemed to finally have reached the acceptance stage of her Harvard grief. "You're disappointed, you're allowed to be, but just put it in perspective," he urged her, sitting down on the edge of the bed facing her. "You're not a failure, you're just gonna take a different path to what you thought, that's all. You're still gonna make it. Be the great doctor or lawyer or whatever it is you end up wanting to be. You can do that. I know you can."

It was the kind of rousing speech Jess got from Luke occasionally, that often resulted in him rolling his eyes or scoffing loudly. He knew what he was capable of, but when your parent or guardian told you in quite that way, Jess felt every teenager was obliged to look underwhelmed, whether they believed it or not. Paris was getting this talk from him, someone more on her level, and there was no way she didn't know how smart she was, since she was usually the one telling everyone else. Sure, Harvard's rejection had knocked the wind out of her, but she could come back from that. She could cope, with his help, Jess was sure.

"Maybe," she said eventually, "but... Chilton expects me to go on to Harvard. Everybody knows it was the dream. The comments I'm going to have to endure when they find out I didn't make it..."

"Hey, you can handle it," Jess told her. "If anybody says anything, you can give as good as you get and we both know it. Besides, I'll be there. Rory too," he promised. "You gotta stop thinking it's you against the world, Paris."

"Huh!" she scoffed at that. "Yeah, 'cause you're great at taking help and advice."

"I listen to you, don't I?" he countered. "How dumb does that make me?"

He smirked when he said it, he couldn't help it. When she smiled too, he knew they were on the same page. Neither one of them was good at taking help or criticism or any opinion that wasn't their own, but they were learning, bit by bit. They helped each other, and then there was Rory, Luke, and Lorelai, all playing their parts.

Paris took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm not going to Harvard," she said aloud. "I'm not going to Harvard," she repeated, meeting Jess' eyes. "I'm not going."

Her voice shook and her eyes watered. Jess' heart broke for her all over again, but they both had to be stronger than that.

"I'm not going to Harvard either," he reminded her. "But... I don't know, I might go to Yale?"

He hadn't known for sure that it was something he wanted to do until he said it, but Jess found he didn't hate the idea when it did occur to him.

"You wanna go to Yale?" Paris checked. "Mr I'm Too Cool For School?"

"Yes, that is me," he dead-panned. "Hey, I applied, didn't I? And for some insane reason I got in. Luke seems to think we can afford it, somehow, so why not?"

"It is a good school," said Paris, giving the idea more consideration. "And I guess it wouldn't be the worst thing ever to be close to home, places I know, people I don't hate," she said, giving him a look.

"Don't I feel special?" said Jess, a hand over his heart as he smiled. "C'mon, Paris, tell me you don't love the idea of seeing me in college. It'll be like a social science experiment of your very own."

At that she couldn't help but grin, at least for a minute, before another thought occurred to her.

"What about Rory?" she asked.

"What about her? She got into Harvard, I'm guessing that's where she'll go," said Jess, looking anywhere but at his sister.

Wallowing in her own self-pity, Paris hadn't considered what all this meant for him. Rory could follow her dream and go to Harvard yet, leaving both of them behind. It was entirely possible Jess would lose her in time. Paris hated that thought and felt sick just thinking about it. Not quite as sick as she did for herself in not being able to go to Harvard, but almost.

"So, you and me at the same college," she said eventually. "Yale wouldn't know what hit it."

"Sounds good to me."

"Yeah." Paris smiled then. "Yeah, me too."

To Be Continued...