Not Dreaming
A/N: So…finally updated. Sorry it took a while, but life has been busy lately. This chapter has been a long time coming; I just had to find a good place to fit it in with the story. And I feel this is a good place. Hope you like.
Thanks for the reviews as always. They make me happy. I'd love some way to contact the anonymous reviewers too, but a huge thank you here will have to do for the moment.
And thank you Knowhere for your help and for telling me when I write something completely idiotic. :)
This chapter is for Selina, because she has been bugging me about it for a long time now.
Chapter 16. Acting Crazy
The shrill ringing of her alarm clock pierced through her sleeping mind, shattered her dream and started off the dull ache in her temples again. Groaning she turned, reaching for the annoying thing and in the process noticed that the bed beside her was empty again.
She sighed and finally managed to turn off the beeping. She missed waking up next to him, missed the close contact of their bodies and the feeling of security it gave her. But it had been happening more and more frequent lately. She laid her head down on his pillow and took a deep breath. His smell was still there.
She rolled over to her back, closed her eyes tightly and rubbed her aching temples, wishing she could go back to sleep. But her sensible, dutiful side took over once again and with a heavy sigh she flung the covers to the bottom of the bed and hauled herself up to a standing position.
She stretched and went over to her wardrobe, gathering some clothes and with a big yawn went on her way to take a shower.
As soon as she opened the door to the common room the sweet smell of coffee reached her, making her head shoot up, and she forgot all about her shower. She quickly searched for the source of the smell and found Jess sitting on the couch, coffee cup in hand, seemingly completely engrossed in a stack of papers in front of him.
"Hi," she said, trying to catch his attention and changed her direction to him instead of the bathroom.
"Oh, hey," he said, quickly looking up from his papers, smiling briefly at her. "There's coffee for you by the door."
"Ok," she said, her eyes quickly finding the cup, and went over to get it. "Thanks."
"Sure," he said, waving it off and stood up. "I've got to go, just wanted to make sure you got up." He downed his coffee and quickly put his papers down in his bag.
"Oh, ok," she said, frowning slightly over her coffee, feeling disappointed that he was leaving.
"Yeah, I have to be in New York by nine and traffic in the city sucks in the morning," he said with a shrug and shouldered the bag.
"Right, New York," she said, grimacing inwardly at the fact that she had completely forgotten about that. "But you'll be back tonight, right?" she asked hopefully, watching him searching through his bag for something.
"Depends on how long it takes," he said, walking up to her and shrugged a little. He kissed her on the cheek and squeezed her hand lightly, giving her a small smile. "I'll call when I know."
"Ok," she nodded, kissed him lightly and watched as he exited the dorm room and walked down the hallway, finally disappearing out the main doors.
With a sigh she closed the door and looked sadly at the coffee cup in her hand before finishing in record time. It was still hot and she felt a little better after drinking it, at least she felt more awake.
She took a long shower, letting the water wash away the ache in her head and felt refreshed when she was done. After a short walk to the cafeteria to get breakfast she went to the news room, starting her day with looking through the three drafts left on her desk. After lunch she went back to her dorm and sat down at her desk to study, starting up where she had left off the night before.
It was late when he came back that night and he felt exhausted. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for the end of May and he had been painfully aware that the air conditioning in his car had broken down the week before. Not only had it been hot, but the hours spent in traffic to and from New York had not exactly helped to brighten his mood. Not to mentioned that he hadn't eaten in almost twelve hours.
He opened the door and almost instantly dropped his bag to the floor. Stumbling over to the couch he fell down on it, landing in a really uncomfortable angle. He didn't bother moving though, thinking that he didn't have the energy to do so at the moment.
"You tired?" he heard Rory ask from the doorway to their room. He saw her leaning on the doorframe, studying him with a slight frown on her face. He nodded briefly at her trying to stifle a yawn.
She mimicked his yawn, stretching in the doorway and walked up to the couch, flopping down beside him. "I feel like I could sleep for a week," she said, yawning again and leaned her head against his shoulder.
"You done studying?" he asked, changing position till he sat a little more comfortable.
"I just took a break and I heard you come in," she said, taking a deep breath.
"Breaks are good," he mumbled, closing his eyes for a second. Then his stomach grumbled and he groaned.
"Hungry?" she asked, sitting up with an effort.
"Starved," he admitted. "I haven't eaten since lunch and that was around noon."
"Well, you've got perfect timing. I was just gonna order pizza when you got here." She smiled at him and reached out for the cordless phone on the table. "You want the usual?" she asked as she dialed.
He gave her a nod and closed his eyes again, leaning his head back against the couch. "Sounds good," he agreed and relaxed, listening to her ordering.
"Yeah, hey Nick," she greeted, laughing a little at the answer on the other end. "Yeah, it's me again." She laughed a little more and asked for a double of their usual order, with extra topping.
"We order there too much," he remarked when she put the phone down.
"They do have the best pizza in close proximity to us," she said automatically, followed by another laugh. "God, I'm so tired," she groaned and fell back down against the couch.
"Mhm…" he mumbled in agreement, then opened his eyes suddenly, looking at her with a frown. "Hey, didn't Nick quit a while ago?" he asked, clearly recalling Rory's confusion from a couple weeks ago when someone else answered the phone.
"He did," she agreed, frowning a little. "I didn't even think twice about him answering… Wonder when he started again," she reflected thoughtfully.
"You know, I ran into him a couple days ago," he said thoughtfully after a while. "He didn't say anything about it then. But then again, he and Leo looked to be pretty together again, so it might have slipped his mind."
"Oh, they made up?" she asked, looking up at him. "I told you they would," she added with a big grin.
"Do you ever think it's sad that we know so much about the personal life of the pizza guy?" he asked.
"It's our pizza guy, why shouldn't we look after him?" she asked, giving him a puzzled look, shaking her head.
"Never mind," he mumbled, chuckling a little at her and kissed her on the temple. She smiled up at him a little and they both grew quiet. "Pizza's here," he said about fifteen minutes later as answer to the knock on the door.
They ate in silence, both too occupied with their food to have time for conversation. It didn't take long until there were just crumbs left, but by then they were both feeling a lot less hungry. He let out a big yawn and fell back against the couch again, the past day catching up with him full force.
"I'm gonna go sleep," he declared tiredly, but didn't make any move to get up. "In a sec."
She smiled at him and stood up, reaching out her hand. "Come on, get up," she said, waving the hand in front of his face to get his attention.
He smiled tiredly up at her and with the help of her hand managed to drag himself out of the very comfortable couch. He didn't bother brushing his teeth, just removed his shoes, jeans and shirt and laid down on the bed, feeling like he would go to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you were tired," she remarked, smiling at him where he lay dangerously close to the edge of the bed.
"Be nice," he grumbled, not moving an inch. "You going to bed?"
"Soon," she said, sighing a little. "I just have to finish the last couple of pages."
He sighed, not expecting any other answer and too tired to really feel the disappointment. He was soon asleep and she was once again sitting by her desk, reading the same text she had been studying for the past week.
When the alarm clock beeped the next morning she wasn't alone in the bed again. She had an arm draped over her stomach and her head was nestled comfortably by his shoulder. She smiled a little and snuggled closer for a few moments before sighing and removing his arm, reluctantly getting up from the bed.
He grumbled when he felt her move and tried to grab her, but missed. "Don't get up," he mumbled reaching out for her, peering up at her with half closed eyes.
"I have to. I have to be at the paper early this morning to get everything done in time," she apologized, suppressing a yawn.
"Fine," he grumbled, stretching and got out of the bed too, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out. "I need to work too anyway."
Half an hour later they were both showered and he had been to get them each two cups of coffee and doughnuts. They both hastily ate the improvised breakfast in silence, each of them thinking of the different things they had to do during the day.
They were both just about to go out of the dorm, heading for their separate destinations when the door to the other bedroom suddenly opened, revealing a very sleepy Susan. She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times, staring at them as if she thought she was dreaming.
"Wow, I think this is the first time I've seen you both in a week," she said finally. She shook her head as she headed for the bathroom. "You're both acting crazy, you know that right?" she asked and opened the door, disappearing once again.
"Huh, I think she's right," he mumbled, thinking back, trying to remember the last time he saw her. If he wasn't completely mistaken it was last Tuesday.
"Really?" Rory asked surprised, but soon shook it off as she remembered she had to get going. "You gonna be around for lunch today?" she asked as they exited the dorm room together, locking the door behind them.
"Yeah, sure," he said and grabbed her hand when they started walking towards the newsroom. "I'll come by around noon, ok?"
"Sounds good," she agreed and then they walked the rest of the way in silence.
They kissed briefly before she disappeared into the building and he turned around, walking over to the nearest library, intending to try to finish the latest chapter off his book and send it before lunch. He had been working on it a long time now and finally felt confident enough to send it in. Now he just had to do the last checkups to make sure there weren't any misprints.
He just reached the building when she exited through the main doors and they almost collided, but managed to avoid it, both laughing a little. He kissed her and took her hand in his, entwining their fingers, and steered them towards the cafeteria.
"I can't stay long," she said apologetically when they started walking. "There's this article I need to get done that should have been done yesterday and I just remembered it a couple minutes ago," she explained, squeezing his hand a little.
"Oh, ok," he said with an almost unnoticeable sigh. "It's ok, I need to do some more changes than I thought, so I've got plenty to do too."
She nodded and released his hand as they reached the cafeteria, opening the door and entering the crowded room, scanning it for any empty seats. "I'll go get seats if you order," she said, nodding towards a table not far away. "Ok?"
"Sure," he agreed, making his way over to the line to the checkout, sighing a little and checking his watch.
When he had finally gotten their food he found her sitting with a notebook in front of her, writing furiously and obviously not noticing him approaching.
"Hey," he said in her ear, setting the food down in front of her.
She jumped, a small scream escaping from her lips, and took a deep breath to compose herself before glaring up at him. "Don't ever do that again," she warned, eyeing him seriously.
He only smirked and sat down beside her, grabbing his soda and opened it. He took a sip of it, all the time watching her and finally shook his head a little. "Come on," he said, nudging her with his elbow, "surprises are good for you."
She stared at him a few more seconds before demonstratively digging into her food, seemingly ignoring him. They ate in silence for a while, until she couldn't take it any more and looked up at him. She was met by his eyes looking straight at her and she couldn't help but smile.
They left the cafeteria not long after, once again entering the warm spring air, walking hand in hand towards the library. She stopped suddenly, remembering what she had been thinking of asking him since they met outside the paper, and turned to him, peering up at him questioningly.
"You said you'd come with me to dinner with my dad when he comes down here, right?" she asked.
"If you mean, did you con me into it, then yes," he said with a smirk and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"Ha, ha, think you're funny, do you?" she asked, glaring playfully at him, but snuggled in closer under his arm, deciding to make the best of the time they had.
"Nope, just stating a fact." He shook his head and rubbed her arm a little, enjoying having her close again.
"And just how do you say I conned you into this?" she asked playfully, eyes gleaming up at him.
"Hmm…" he said and leaned in to kiss her. "I think it had something to do with this."
"I knew it!" she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him again. "You just can't resist me," she said when she pulled back again, smiling brightly at him, reveling in how completely normal everything felt for once.
He only shook his head and smirked at her, steering them on the right way again. There was no point in arguing with her about it, so he didn't even try any more. He knew she was right anyway, and it wasn't like he tried hard at hiding it from her.
"So, you're coming then?" she asked when they had been walking in silence for a while.
"Sure," he agreed. "I've lived through insufferable dinners with your grandmother and her friends, so I think I can handle your father."
"Of course you can," she said, ignoring the comment about her grandmother for the moment. "So, do you have to go home before the weekend or are you staying?" she asked, turning her head to look up at him again.
"Uh, neither," he said, slowing down to look at her more closely. "I'm staying the week and going home on Friday. You know that."
"But dad is coming on Friday. You can't go home then," she said, frowning at him, already missing the content feeling from a couple seconds ago.
"Well, I can't be at two places at the same time, now can I?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her and dropping his arm from her shoulders, stopping completely.
"But I told him we'd come," she protested, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. "As in both of us. I can't just show up by myself and you said you'd come."
"Well, I can't this weekend. You know I can't. I told you two weeks ago I have to be in Philly," he said, giving her a pointed look. "Maybe you should have told me what day he's coming when you asked."
"But can't you just be here for this weekend?" she asked, hopefully. "Please, you can go home right after, I promise," she pleaded, ignoring the whine in her voice.
"Just for this weekend?" he asked a bit astonished. "This is the first weekend I'm going back there in almost two months and you call it just this weekend?"
"Well, this dinner is important to me," she said with a pout. "Can't you just go back after the dinner?"
"No, I can't," he said firmly.
"Why not?" she asked, trying to remember what he was supposed to be doing this weekend and not coming up with anything.
"I promised the others I'd set everything up for Saturday since I'm away so much, which by the way is because of you." He was getting more and more annoyed by the minute now.
"So now it's my fault?" she asked with a frown, her voice rising.
"I didn't say that," he said, matching her frown with a scowl of his own. "But I though you could at least understand that I have to go home sometimes."
"For what?" she asked, getting worked up.
"For that client and press dinner thing we're having," he said, getting even more irritated by the fact that she obviously had no clue what he was talking about.
"Oh God, I completely forgot!" she exclaimed.
"I even asked you if you wanted to come, but you said you had to study," he added, almost as if he hadn't heard her. "But you obviously aren't too occupied to go to dinner with your father."
"I'm sorry, ok," she said defensively. "I've had so much going on these past weeks that I've barely been able to keep track of my own thoughts."
"Yeah, I've noticed," he said, still agitated. "I just thought you'd at least once want to go to something with me, and not always the other way around."
"I did want to go!" she exclaimed. "But I have finals next week, and I need to study for that. I've told you how hard some of there classes are, you should know that."
"I do know that!" he yelled. "I can't avoid knowing, 'cause you tell me every day. And still you have time to go to dinner with your father, but not to for once go home with me."
"I told you I had to study, which I did," she defended, getting worked up again. "But I've gotten a lot more done in these last weeks than I thought I would, so Dad asked if I had some spare time. And I haven't seen him in over a year, so I said yes." She almost ended her tirade in a scream, but contained her voice when she remembered where she was.
"So you double booked a dinner without even checking if I could go. That's nice," he scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I had completely forgotten about that dinner or I would have gone with you," she yelled, no longer caring who heard. "And since when are you against me studying? I though you were the one who wouldn't let me drop out of school."
"Of course I want you to study!" he almost yelled back, his frustration growing by the minute. "I've never stopped you from studying. But my work is important for me too and I don't feel like you understand that anymore. Lately it's always about your classes, what you have to study or your next assignment for the paper. And I get that those are important things to you and they are to me too. But I'd like you to at least pretend to show some interest in what I'm doing once in a while. And at the moment it feels like you couldn't care less. You couldn't even remember the most important thing we're doing so far in the whole time I've worked there!" He stopped, staring at her, out of breath.
"I do care! It's just hard to show it when you're never here!" she yelled back, offended by his accusation.
"I'm never here?" he asked incredulous. "What do you call the past months if I may ask? I haven't been home since March! I've spent every single damned night here for the past eight weeks. And you say I'm never here?"
"Well, it doesn't feel like it!" she yelled back, staring at him defiantly.
"It's not my goddamn fault you are always at the paper and never go to bed before midnight." By now he had started to let his frustration take over and was emphasizing his words with angry gestures.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she replied sarcastically. "Excuse me for trying to run the paper. Excuse me for wanting to do well on my finals that are in less than a week!" she yelled, her voice rising dramatically on the last words. "And you're not one to say anything. You spend half the time away from here and when you are here you're up before the sun and off somewhere on campus before I can even say good morning." She paused for a second, catching her breath, but didn't let him say anything before finishing. "No, you're never really here." She finished and shook her head.
"That's not fair," he argued. "I'm not gone that much and when I am it's for my book. You remember that, right? The book you couldn't wait to read every single draft off! How long has it been since you asked to see any of it now? A week, two weeks? Longer? Don't accuse me of not being around when I'm doing something you've always wanted me to do!"
"But it's ok for you to accuse me of ignoring you for school? Isn't that just the same thing? Huh? Isn't it?"
"Fine, I'm horrible and you're right again," he said, lowering his voice again and staring straight in her eyes. "Doesn't change the fact that I can't come on Friday. You'll just have to tell your father I'll see him some other time."
"So that's it? You won't come and will leave me to tell my father that you won't meet him?" she yelled, feeling herself growing desperate. This was not what she wanted, but she couldn't seem to stop yelling, no matter how irrational her reasoning became.
"Well, it's not my fault you didn't check with me, now is it?" he asks, voice low, but the anger was still obvious in his tone.
"Oh, don't give me that," she sneered, glaring at him, trying to take back some control.
"Give you what?" he asked, stunned for a second by her tone. "The truth?"
"Some lame ass excuse to dump everything on me!"
"So what? I tell you how it is and somehow it's my fault that the reality doesn't fit with how you'd like it to be? Well gee, I'm sorry!" he scoffed, getting fed up with this. "Now if you excuse me I have to go ignore you some more so I can finish up my book." And with that he turned around, walking away as fast as he could, his mind on everything but the book.
She stared speechless after him for a long time, too stunned by his sudden disappearance to come up with anything to yell after him. She could feel the anger floating through her, filling her every fiber and for a second she was almost ready to run after him, stop him and yell at him some more.
She wanted him to know how wrong he was, how she felt about everything, school, work, his book, that he always seemed to be somewhere else even when he was right beside her. She wanted to yell at him about his disappearing. Mostly she just wanted to keep yelling, as if that would make it all better, like it would get them back on track, back to their perfect life from only a month ago.
But she stood still where she was, watching him disappear around a corner and kept standing there for a long time, letting the anger float through her and eventually out of her. She felt almost like a balloon that had been popped with a needle, drained and shrunken, void of all energy, instead of floating upwards falling down faster and faster. Eventually she sat down on a bench, completely exhausted, not knowing what to do but sit there.
He rounded the corner off the nearest building, managing to make it there without looking back at her. His heart was beating fast and his jaws were clenched so tightly it almost gave him a headache, but he didn't care. He only sped up his steps, making his way off the campus as fast as possible without running, ignoring the people he collided with on the way.
His mind was playing the last couple of minutes over and over in record speed, making him relive it again and again, and it only managed to fuel his anger even more. Panting he burst out through the gates and continued over to the parking. What he needed now, he decided, was more speed and he steered his way over to his car that he had parked with great relief not much more than twelve hours before.
As he steered the car out of the parking spot, the warm air of the car surrounding him, and barely missed backing into an oncoming car he almost decided to forget the idea. But a bigger and more persuasive part of him kept him going and he hit the gas, speeding out towards the edge of the city, not caring what direction he went.
He knew, somewhere deep inside, that the anger floating around everywhere in him was for the most part very irrational and uncalled for. But like with the driving some other part of him took over, feeding the anger till it was almost another being, almost visible beside him. The pressure in his head had finally developed into a pounding headache, but the only thing it accomplished was to drive him even faster forward.
"You finally gonna tell me what happened?" Lorelai asked when the after credits began to roll, eyeing her daughter carefully.
They had been sitting on the couch for hours now, watching old movies and eating junk food. It wasn't that she minded the activity; it was just that she knew Rory had something on her mind. Her daughter's puffy eyes had not gone unnoticed when she appeared and Lorelai knew for a fact that Rory was supposed to be at the paper now, or maybe off somewhere studying, and not curled up on her couch, hugging a pillow.
Rory didn't say anything for a long while, only hugged the pillow closer, her eyes trained on the rapidly flowing text on the TV. "We had a fight," she suddenly whispered, close to tears. "In the middle of campus. It was bad."
"Aw, I'm sorry Hon," Lorelai exclaimed, opening her arms for her daughter, hugging her close when she crawled over and whispered soothing words in her hair.
And then the tears began to fall for real, tears of exhaustion, anger, frustration, all the pent up emotions of the past month flowing out at once. It was a long time before Rory's sobs subsided and she relaxed her tight hold of her mother.
"I'm sorry," she hiccupped, using the back of her hand to remove tears from her cheeks. "I don't know why…"
"No, no, don't apologize," Lorelai hurriedly interjected, hugging her daughter closely to her again. "You've got nothing to apologize for."
"I'm so tired," Rory mumbled, pressing down another attack of tears.
"It'll soon be over and then you can sleep for a whole week, won't that be fun?" Lorelai asked, trying to make her voice as cheerful as possible. Inside she was dying to know more about the fight, but she was determined to wait till Rory was ready.
"Sounds nice," Rory mumbled and took a deep breath, stroking the last tears away from her cheeks and sitting up. "I must look like a mess," she said and looked up at her mother with a trying smile.
"Aw no, you're as beautiful as always," Lorelai assured her while gently moving a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Thank you," Rory smiled.
"You're more than welcome. I mean, what am I supposed to do if not assure my perfect daughter she looks like a goddess even after spending a good ten minutes crying?" Lorelai asked with a huge grin.
Almost against her will Rory started laughing, her eyes tearing again, but when the laughter subsided she felt a lot lighter, like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She met her mothers questioning eyes and smiled a little. "I love you mom," Rory said and hugged her tightly.
"Love you too, sweetie," Lorelai said, hugging back and kissed her daughter's forehead. "So…" She continued, her curiosity taking over.
"Well…" Rory began cautiously, sitting back and looking up at her mother, "I wanted him to come to dinner with dad on Friday, but he can't because he has a dinner thing with work and everything just got too much for both of us I think, so we started yelling at each other and then he left. In the middle of it, he just left and didn't even let me finish yelling at him." She took a deep breath, calming herself down again, before concluding, "God, that feels so stupid now, but I was just so mad."
"Everything you do seems rational when you're mad enough," Lorelai agreed. "I bet you both regret some things you said, but you'll get over it."
"I hope so," Rory mumbled.
"You will," Lorelai assured her. "So, what was all the yelling about?"
"It's all a bit fuzzy," Rory said, leaning her head against the back of the couch. "But I think we both accused the other of not caring and never being around. And parts of it weren't exactly wrong because we have both been so busy lately. I've had school, the paper, work and Jess is finishing his book and doing his normal work. And I just think everything finally exploded."
"Ok, so basically it was just a whole lot of clearing the air?" Lorelai clarified and gave her daughter a questioning look to which Rory offered a small nod. "Well, that's not so bad."
"Yeah, I guess," Rory sighed, leaning her head against Lorelai's shoulder. "I was just so mad, you know," she said, almost to herself. "And then he left and I just stood there, not knowing what to do for so long. And I felt so lonely."
"Hey, listen to me," Lorelai said, shifting so she was facing her daughter, looking her in the eyes. "You'll talk it over and then you'll make up, and I so don't want the details of that by the way, and then everything will be fine and you'll get back to being sickeningly cute again."
Rory couldn't help but smile at her mother's words. They gave her hope and she began to relax a little more. They sat in silence for a while, watching the blank TV screen, until they could hear footsteps on the front porch approaching the door.
"Damn, I forgot to call Luke," Lorelai exclaimed and gave Rory a quick hug. "I'll be right back, just sit tight," she said and hurried over to the front door, intercepting her husband before he could enter the house.
Rory listened to the mumbled voices, wondering what her mother was telling Luke, but she was too tired to really be bothered about it. She slowly closed her eyes and could almost feel herself falling asleep.
She didn't notice her mother coming back, or the blanket being tucked around her.
The apartment was quiet and dark when he entered and looked very much like it had the last time he had been there. He guessed that Luke didn't use it that often anymore. He winced a little when he dropped his bag to the floor and breathed out a string of curses. It felt like it had been days since he drove off from Yale, but he figured it had only been about ten hours.
He made his way over to the couch and let himself fall down on it, grateful to be still again, and very much appreciating the softness of it. He contemplated removing his shoes, but decided against it and instead relaxed into a comfortable position with his head resting on the armrest.
He was almost asleep when the creaking of a door startled him out of his thoughts and nearly made him jump out of his skin. Breathing hard he sat up and was suddenly face to face with a very surprised Luke.
Luke was the first one to speak. "You look like shit," he stated, closing the door after him and walking up to the fridge.
"Huh, thanks Uncle Luke," Jess replied tiredly, falling back down on the couch, covering his eyes with a hand. "You sure know how to make a guy feel better."
"Well, I wasn't exactly expecting to find you on my couch and you look like you've been through a storm," Luke shrugged and pulled out two beers.
"Not too far off," Jess mumbled, closing his eyes for a second before sitting up.
"And besides," Luke said, sitting down on a chair by the kitchen table, "I'm not sure how friendly I'm supposed to be with you yet." He opened his beer and held up the other for Jess, indicating for him to come and join him by the table.
Jess groaned and closed his eyes again, pulling a hand through his tangled hair. "I suppose Rory went to Lorelai, huh?" he said, already knowing the answer.
Luke nodded, eyeing him carefully. "Yeah, she was there when I got home and Lorelai ushered me out of the house, saying they needed some girl time."
Jess only nodded as response and taking a deep breath he stood up with a grimace and walked over to the table, gratefully accepting the bottle before sinking down on a chair. The room descended in silence, both men sitting on their chairs, sipping on their beers and both trying to decide what to say, waiting for the other to start. The only sound was the occasional shuffling of feet against the floor when one of them changed position.
"So, what are you doing here?" Luke asked suddenly, breaking the silence.
"I needed to think," Jess said quietly, not looking back up at Luke.
"Want to talk about it?" Luke asked, fixing his eyes on his nephew across the table. "Whatever it is."
"I don't know," Jess shrugged and finished his beer, setting the bottle down on the table carefully. "I don't even know where to start if I did."
"You could start by telling me how you ended up looking like something the cat dragged in," Luke suggested, not completely able to hide his curiosity.
Jess gave a humorless snort and shook his head. "Walking almost ten miles can do that to you," he answered after a brief pause.
"Do I even want to know how you ended up on this walk of yours?" Luke asked suspiciously, but also somewhat amused.
"Probably not," Jess offered after thinking through the events of the afternoon. "Do you mind if I use the shower?" he asked then.
"Uh…no, go ahead," Luke said shrugging. "Towels are in the closet and you left some clothes in the drawer over there."
"Thanks," Jess nodded with a small smile, grateful that Luke didn't press him for any details. He didn't feel like talking about his day just yet, with anyone.
After the shower he felt a lot better. The warm water had eased the ache in his muscles and made him more relaxed. The headache had been reduced to a small pounding in the back of his head, and compared to a couple hours ago he hardly noticed it anymore.
He found Luke still sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the empty bottle in his hands, and walked up, taking his seat again. Then he noticed the phone on the table.
"Lorelai called," Luke said, as if reading his mind, and looked up from his contemplating of the bottle. "She told me that I could come home again, that Rory was asleep on the couch," he continued, studying Jess' face as he spoke and thought he saw him nod a little. When he didn't get any more response, he added, "I told her you were here."
"Oh," Jess mumbled, looking down at the table, fiddling with the tablecloth in the middle of it.
"Yeah," Luke nodded, studying him carefully, but not able to read his expression.
"We had a fight," Jess suddenly blurted out, surprising both Luke and himself, and then grew quiet again.
"Yeah, I kinda figured," Luke said quietly. "You…"
"I don't really want to talk about it, no," Jess interrupted quickly. "I just… Damn, I don't know."
"You ok?" Luke asked after a long silence, not sure what to say and really not comfortable with the situation.
"Been better, been worse," Jess mumbled, rubbing his face with his hands. "Look, I really don't want to talk about it, ok."
"Yeah, sure," Luke nodded, and the room grew quiet again.
"Could you come with me to get my car tomorrow?" Jess asked suddenly, breaking the silence and startling Luke.
"Uh, yeah. Sure," Luke agreed. "Um…where?"
"Somewhere on the way to Woodbury," Jess said, not looking up.
"What's it doing there?" Luke asked, trying to get some more information about the situation.
"It ran out of gas," Jess said simply with a shrug. "And I didn't have any money to get it filled."
"What?" Luke asked surprised and a bit worried. "I didn't think you had any trouble with money. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't," Jess assured him with a small laugh. "Someone apparently went through my car and took anything valuable there was," he said, sitting still and staring at his hands, then shook his head a little. "Including my wallet," he added when Luke didn't say anything.
"Someone broke into your car?" Luke asked baffled, not at all expecting that.
"Well…I was angry and forgot to lock it, so technically they didn't even break in," Jess said with a shrug and looked up briefly. "They left the bag and the chapter for the book I'm working on though. And the car, which I don't really get. Guess it was too much trouble hotwiring it or something. Which doesn't really make any sense 'cause that wouldn't take more than half a minute or so." He shrugged again.
"Did you report it?" Luke asked.
"I found a payphone and blocked the cards and the phone. Didn't have enough change to call the police though. Didn't see much point in it anyway and besides, it can wait till the morning."
"Yeah, probably," Luke agreed thoughtfully. "Hey," he exclaimed then, eyeing his nephew, "how do you know about hotwiring a car?"
Jess looked up at him curiously and shook his head amusedly, chuckling a little. "You serious?" he asked, and chuckled some more when Luke just kept staring at him sternly. "You are, aren't you?"
"Oh, I'm very serious," Luke agreed, not breaking eye contact.
"You seriously mean to tell me that Liz never once told you about any of the reasons she sent me here?" Jess asked, looking back at Luke curiously.
"Well, no she didn't. She just said you got into some trouble and that she couldn't deal with it," Luke said, trying to remember anything specific and not coming up with anything.
"And you never asked?" Jess asked, raising an eyebrow at him and shaking his head with a scoff.
"Of course I did," Luke said. "But you know Liz. How far do you think that got me?"
"Right," Jess agreed, shaking his head again. "You seriously had no idea what you were getting into, did you?
"Nope, not a clue," Luke admitted, releasing a deep breath.
"Sorry," Jess said, looking up at Luke seriously.
Luke stared at him for a second and then a small smile appeared on his face and he nodded a little before getting up from his chair. "Go get some sleep, I'll go get your car tomorrow morning," Luke said and walked over to the door, putting up a hand to stop Jess from protesting. "And you go talk to Rory," he finished with a stern look and went out the door, closing it behind him.
Jess sat still for a long while, staring at the door, and then went up and lay down on his back on the bed, feeling the day catch up to him and soon drifted off to sleep.
