This Crazy World

Part 17

Taking a step back from the wall, Jess arched his back, and heard it crack loudly in the almost empty room, the sound echoing against the bare walls. He was exhausted, his whole body ached and he couldn't remember the last time he had slept more than an hour at a time, but he appreciated the hard work. It was a welcome respite from battling his recent bout of writer's block.

He tossed the worn out sandpaper in the general direction of a trash bag in the middle of the room, flexing his stiff fingers, and absentmindedly pushed a soggy strand of hair out of his eyes. Squinting in the bright light of the construction lamp he scrutinized the wall in front of him, using his hands to feel for any remaining imperfections. Finding a slight edge he pulled out a new piece of sandpaper from his pocket and got back to work.

Chris and Matt had preached to him about the advantages of using a sander, but he preferred to do it by hand, enjoyed the feeling of the rough wall getting gradually smoother under his fingers. And the satisfaction of watching the progress was so much better without the interference of noisy machinery.

With the last edge sanded down he pulled the mask away from his face, relieved to be rid of the sweaty fabric, and just breathed for a few moments, not caring about the dust still swirling in the air.

Starting to feel his throat tickle, he sighed and walked over to the door to get some fresh air, mentally preparing himself for the time consuming work of getting the room cleaned.

Flinging the door open he stopped dead in his tracks, suddenly finding himself face to face with Luke, standing on the landing, his arm poised to knock on the door.

Luke's eyes widened in surprise as he took in the scene in front of him.

Jess was the first to recover. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

But Luke just shook his head, not able to take his eyes off the sight in front of him, attempting to stifle a laugh.

Jess narrowed his eyes at him, which only resulted in Luke bursting full out laughing.

"What?" Jess demanded, but Luke just laughed harder, so Jess shut the door in his face, stalking back into the store, grumbling to himself.

Outside the door Luke waited a moment, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, before following his nephew inside. He found Jess angrily circling the room, picking up sandpapers and whirling up dust in the air.

"Wow," was all he said when he saw the state of the place, and slowly he closed the door behind him.

Jess ignored him, dumping the sandpapers in the trash bag and letting his mask follow suit.

Luke remained just inside the door, watching as Jess picked up a broom in a corner, shook it to rid it of some of the dust, and started brushing off the walls.

Finally Luke sighed.

"Look Jess, sorry about before," he started. "I saw the sign in the window; I just wasn't prepared to meet the snow monster."

"The snow monster?" Jess scoffed. "Wow Uncle Luke, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you came all this way just to make fun of me."

"No!" Luke protested. "That's not…"

"I mean, you could have put a little more thought into it, given you had almost three hours of spare time on your hands."

"Jess, could you be serious for one second?"

Jess ignored him. "But of course, you wouldn't have spare time after all, because of all the yelling you'd do at the other cars and all that.

"Jess," Luke sighed, exasperated. "I just…I mean, have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?"

"Well, next time I renovate anything I'll just stuff myself in a magic bubble," Jess retorted.

Luke couldn't hold back a chuckle. "Now that would be a sight."

"I'm sure," Jess said dryly and stopped brushing the wall, resting his weight on the broom. "So, what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" Luke repeated in amazement, walking further into the room. "I haven't heard from you in almost a month, and you've stopped answering your phone," he said accusingly. "I was getting worried."

"I've been busy," Jess defended, motioning vaguely around him.

"So I see," Luke agreed. "So, what's the reason for all of this?"

Jess shrugged. "There was a fire next door, something electrical, and there was some damage to one of the walls."

Luke just watched him, stunned. "Wow," he finally managed. "You say that like it's no big deal."

"And how should I say it?" Jess asked curiously.

"I don't know," Luke admitted. "But a fire, Jess. Things could've been so much worse. The place could've burned down, or you could've been hurt, or…"

Jess shrugged. "But it didn't, and I wasn't."

"But…why didn't you call me? I could've helped, or at least known you were ok."

Jess shrugged and looked down at the floor, not sure how to explain, or even if he had the answer. "I don't know," he finally said.

"Ok," Luke nodded, realizing he wouldn't get another answer, at least not now. "So, you want some help cleaning up?"

"Sure," Jess agreed after a moment, and stood up straight, giving the broom to Luke. "I'll be right back."

It was almost two hours later when Luke carried the trash bag out in the back alley, throwing it in the garbage container. Jess was already there, dusting off the broom and doing what he could for his clothes.

They had worked in silence, Luke brushing the dust off the walls and Jess wiping them down with a wet rag. The last dust had been swept up and the floor thoroughly washed. The only things left now to clean up were themselves.

Jess hit the broom once more against the brick wall, before deeming it dust free enough, and turned to his uncle. "Thanks," he said, leaning the broom against the wall, "for the help."

"You're welcome," Luke smiled. "So, what's the plan? Now that the ground work is done I mean."

"Well," Jess smirked, "I was gonna go grab a beer and something to eat when I was finished."

"Jess!" Luke muttered, annoyed.

"You're welcome to come with if you want," Jess offered, feigning ignorance.

"You know that's not…"

Jess just continued, seemingly unfazed by Luke's protests. "It's your choice of course. If you don't want to, I won't force you."

Luke just stared at him in silence for a moment before he threw his hands up in the air in defeat and stalked back into the store.

Jess chuckled to himself and followed his grumbling uncle. "So, Italian?" he suggested.

Luke let out a big sigh and shook his head. "Sure."

"Ok," Jess nodded. "I'm just gonna take a quick shower and put on something a little less stiff," he added with a grimace, motioning towards his clothes. "I would offer you a change of clothes as well, but I'm not sure I have anything that fits."

"Um, thanks," Luke said awkwardly, "but that won't be necessary."

"Huh?" Jess looked at him curiously. "Although you're not quite at the snow monster stage, you're well on your way."

Luke shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Well, I wasn't sure how long I'd be staying, so I brought some stuff."

Jess tried - not very hard, granted, but still - to hide his amusement. "Huh."

"You could've been in the hospital for all I knew!" Luke defended, glaring at his nephew. "I just wanted to be prepared."

"Ok," Jess said, dropping his smirk, and fished up a key from his pocket, giving it to Luke. "I'll go take that shower. Lock up when you get back."

Luke accepted the key with a nod and Jess went up the stairs.

Both in clean clothes, and far less resembling snow monsters, they were sitting at a corner table in a nearby Italian restaurant, waiting for their food and sipping on cold beers.

"I'm sorry I didn't call," Jess abruptly broke the silence.

Beside him Luke looked up, but didn't say anything, waiting for the other man to continue.

Jess absentmindedly took a drink from his beer. "I think I just needed to be alone for a while."

Luke nodded, muttering to himself. "I know the feeling."

"Huh?" Jess' head whipped up, and he watched Luke with a cocked eyebrow.

"What?" Luke questioned.

"Oh, nothing," Jess shrugged. "You just kinda insinuated I wasn't the only reason for this trip."

Luke stared at the younger man. "I did not!" he protested.

Jess just kept looking at him. "So, you came here because?"

"I was concerned for you!" Luke maintained, though he refused to take his eyes off his beer.

"And…" Jess pressed.

Luke was silent for a long time before he finally lifted his gaze. "And Lorelai and Rory are having a get together before Rory goes back to Yale next week."

"Oh." Jess put down his beer on the table, leaning back in his chair.

Watching his nephew carefully, Luke went on. "Yeah, they're on a trip, wouldn't tell me where."

Jess smirked, nodding to himself. "Sounds like them."

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "So, I put Caesar in charge of the diner, and thought I'd take the opportunity to come visit you, see if you were still alive."

"Ok," Jess said slowly. "So, why didn't you say so?"

"I…" Luke faltered, raising his glass, and setting it down again almost immediately. "I just never know if it's ok to talk about…you know, Rory."

"You don't have to protect me, you know," Jess said with a wry smirk.

"I wasn't…" Luke started to protest, but Jess cut him off with a pointed stare.

"You were," he stated. "And though it's a nice gesture, you don't have to censor yourself because of me."

"What are you talking about?" Luke asked, confused.

Jess sighed. "If you're really getting back together with Lorelai, which, by the way, I assume you are, Rory is bound to be part of your life. You know, besides the whole coffee and food thing."

"Yeah," Luke nodded in understanding.

"And it's fine. I'm fine," Jess continued. "And it's time I stopped living in the past," he added resolutely.

Luke watched him closely. "Are you sure?"

Jess met his uncle's gaze and nodded. "I'm sure."

"Ok," Luke said after a moment.

He was about to say something else, when a waitress arrived with their food, effectively cutting him short. And when she left after wishing them a pleasant meal, Jess changed the subject.

"So," he said with a smirk, "anything exciting going on in the Hollow?"

Realizing their past subject was now officially closed, Luke looked up at his nephew. "Not since your stunt with the traffic light."

"Too bad," Jess smirked, digging into his pizza.

For a minute they were both silent, their food much appreciated after the busy night.

"Oh, that's right, I never got a chance to tell you," Luke suddenly said, stopping with a forkful of salad halfway in the air. "April stayed with me last week."

Jess looked up from his plate. "So, Anna finally gave in, huh?"

"Yeah," Luke smiled.

Jess smiled back, genuinely happy for his uncle. "Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"So," Jess asked in between pizza slices. "You do anything fun?"

"Well," Luke said, "I took her to the end of summer festival."

At that Jess got a horrified expression on his face. "You didn't!"

"What?" Luke asked him bewildered.

"And he doesn't even see it," Jess said, sadly shaking his head.

Luke blinked in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry to inform you, Uncle Luke," Jess said dramatically, "but you're crossing over to the dark side."

"Hey," Luke exclaimed, "it was only one festival."

"That's how it starts," Jess stated.

"You're being overly dramatic," Luke protested.

But Jess just watched him, an expression of deep sorrow on his face and sighed deeply.

"You're impossible!" Luke exclaimed, shaking his head in exasperation, and went back to his food, studiously ignoring the young man.

Jess' sorrowful air turned into an amused smirk, and moments later he hungrily went back to his pizza.

"So, where are your partners?" Luke suddenly asked as they neared the store. "Shouldn't they be here helping you with the renovations?"

"You mean the two geniuses who couldn't figure out which way of a screw was which?" Jess asked, raising a questioning eyebrow at his uncle.

"It wasn't that bad," Luke tried, thinking back to the book case incident, cringing inwardly at the memory.

"Wasn't far from it," Jess shrugged. "Anyway, we all agreed it'd be best if they…stayed away for a while."

"Oh," Luke nodded.

"They've set up a temporary office at Matt's parents' house," Jess clarified. "They're taking care of all the paperwork with the insurance company and suppliers and all that."

"Sounds good," Luke said and looked around, noticing they had arrived, and stopped at the foot of the stairs.

Jess continued up and unlocked the door. "You coming?" he asked, looking down at his uncle.

"Are you sure?" Luke asked, hesitating. "'Cause I could just find a hotel."

"Are you kidding?" Jess questioned. "Chris is staying with Matt, so it's just me here. Plenty of room to spare."

"Well, if it's not a problem…" Luke relented.

"Of course not," Jess stated.

"Ok then," Luke agreed. "Just let me get some things from the car."

"Sure," Jess nodded and waited by the door while Luke went over and grabbed a bag from the backseat of his car.

They entered together and Jess hit the light switch, the naked light bulb flickering to life, illuminating the bare, grey walls, as he moved on to lock the door.

"You planned on painting the ceiling?" Luke asked after watching the room for a moment, taking a few steps forward.

"Yeah," Jess said, joining him and pointed to a part of the room to the left of them. "You can't really see it in this light, but the wall and ceiling over there's been rebuilt."

"Oh," Luke mumbled and walked over, taking a closer look. "It's good work," he commented. "I didn't even see it before."

"Yeah," Jess agreed. "The guys who're fixing up next door did it. They had to fix the wall anyway, so…"

"Of course," Luke nodded and turned away from his inspection of the wall. "So, we should start with the ceiling tomorrow then."

"We?" Jess questioned, frowning.

Luke watched him incredulously. "You didn't really think I'd leave you alone with all of this, did you?"

Jess just shrugged.

"Well, I'm staying, end of discussion," Luke stated, a little more forcefully than intended.

"Ok," Jess said, a small smile on his face. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Luke muttered.

The room turned silent for a moment, before Jess nodded towards the stairs. "So, I'll show you where you can sleep."

Luke nodded and followed him.