A/N- Shorter chapter. Trust me, there's more Luke/Jess than this, and it's coming up, but things happen slower with them. You know how it goes. Anyway, please read/review, and thanks for all the feedback lately, I've really appreciated it. It's been one of those days where everything goes to hell in a handbasket so I didn't expand this as much as I wanted to. I'll probably write a lot tomorrow though so I might do a double chapter post again tomorrow. I do not own Gilmore Girls or any of its characters or concepts but I own a ceiling that is leaking and blinds that don't close and I don't know anyone in this goddamn area and I certainly don't have a Jess and today that's making me pretty gloomy.


Chapter 93

"Luke?"

"Jess?" Luke muttered into the phone, rubbing his bleary eyes, "It's eleven at night. Is everything okay?"

"It'll be fine," Jess answered shortly, "Sorry to bug you. Just wanted to be sure the key was in the same place."

"So you're…"

"Coming there."

"How far…"

"20 minutes away."

"I'll see you then. I'm at the diner tonight. Early shipment."

"Alright. Be there soon."

"Lorelai's in Philadelphia."

"I figured as much," Jess rolled his eyes as he walked through the door Luke had opened, "Nice to see you too."

"Jess," Luke began, his voice low, "What happened?"

"Look, don't go off on me, alright?" Jess snapped, "If you're gonna do that I'll find…"

"I'm not going off on you, Jess," Luke cut him off, "You're not a kid anymore. You're a man. And I'll bet you had a pretty damn good reason if you were willing to get into a fight with her, especially one serious enough to chase you out of your apartment for the night, given how much you dislike leaving her. So I'm operating under the assumption that you were doing or at least trying to do the right thing. But I still want to talk to you about it."

Jess looked at his uncle, a bit surprised. "You're…you're assuming you're on my side?"

"You could say that," Luke nodded, "Come on, I'll get you some coffee."

"Thanks," Jess smiled slightly, walking over to the counter and sitting down. Luke grabbed two cups and poured Jess some coffee before finding a tea bag for himself.

"So…" Luke inquired. Jess sighed deeply.

"She wants to stay in Philadelphia."

"Why wouldn't she…"

"She's going to be an editor. She knows what she wants to do now, and she's more than capable of being the best there is," Jess answered quietly, "I'm not going to be the thing that holds her back from that. She deserves everything, everything the world can offer."

"So you..."

"Told her that, in different words. And then left. She needs to realize that she can't shape her life around me. She has to put herself first. I'm not worth that. No one is."

"I can see where you're coming from," Luke nodded, "When Lorelai first told me she left Yale I had a similar thought process. Nothing is worth giving up her future over. How did she respond?"

"Badly," Jess admitted, "She basically said that it was her choice and I didn't have the right to make it for her. And that it wasn't fair of me to make her feel bad for wanting to be with me."

"I mean, you see where she's coming from with that," Luke nodded, "But I get where you're coming from too. So how bad are you guys…"

"I'm here for a week at least."

"So...I guess I'll see you to open tomorrow?"

"You're not staying?"

"I figured you'd want…"

"I'm not gonna call her. Stay. I'm not kicking you out of your own apartment, especially when it doesn't make sense to," Jess nodded, "If you don't care."

"Nope," Luke nodded, "But if you start playing that crap again, I reserve the right to throw it out the window."

"As long as you don't chainsaw through my wall, I don't see any need for it to get to that point," Jess smirked, walking upstairs.