A/N: So, last chapter was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for Jess, and therefore, for us all, but fear not because this chapter is somewhat less dramatic. Thanks for all the feedback, you lovely folks! :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 19

"So, it's been more than a couple of weeks now," said Lane with a smile. "How do you like Stars Hollow High so far?"

"It's not so bad," said Jess, shrugging his shoulders. "The teachers are no worse than back home, a couple might actually be smarter. Plus, I think I made a couple of friends already," he said, smirking at her.

Lane blushed at that remark, as Jess knew she would. Miss Kim wasn't quite so easily embarrassed as Rory, but she had her moments. Despite how she seemed in front of her mother, Lane really wasn't the shy little flower that she had first appeared. Jess already liked her a lot, happily finding she knew almost as much about punk and rock music as he did. She wasn't exactly a replacement for his father in those kind of discussions, but she held her own, and Jess was glad for another friendly face that wasn't making demands on him.

For all that Luke was proving to be a great uncle, he was trying just a little too hard in Jess' opinion. It was as if he thought he literally had to make up for the last eighteen years of absence all at once. Either that, or he was trying to step into the shoes of Jess' father. Luke was no Jimmy, and that just wasn't going to happen, though Jess supposed it was sort of nice that he was trying to be there for him.

It just felt strange most of the time, having so many people all want a piece of him. Back home, Jess knew a lot of people, but they didn't exactly care what he was doing all of the time. Stars Hollow was the biggest gossip factory Jess had ever known. Every time he went over to the house affectionately known as The Crap Shack to eat dinner or just spend some time with Rory, her neighbours were there, peering out of the window, or even sitting out on the porch, watching him. Jess felt like he knew Babette better than most since she made a point of talking to him almost every time he passed by. Her friend, Miss Patty, from the dance studio was no better. In fact, she was a little bit worse, especially she since realised that Jess was eighteen, and therefore not so much jail bait.

There were people in town that Jess liked well enough. Andrew at the book store was a good guy and seemed happy to have another avid reader in town. Gypsy already said she would help him out if he decided he wanted a car while he was in town. Of course, there were also people like Taylor who didn't seem to like anyone new in town who might not be as in love with the idea of quarter inch grass and collectable plate stores as he was, but Jess figured he would take Luke's advice and just ignore the Town Selectman as best he could. It sure seemed to work for his uncle a not small part of the time.

"Well, I should get home," said Lane, moving to part ways with Jess outside of the school building. "That biology homework is not going to do itself."

"Tell me about it." Jess rolled his eyes, then looked towards the diner.

He hadn't realised that he sighed quite so loudly, until Lane called him on it.

"You miss home that much?" she checked.

"Yes and no." Jess shrugged. "I mean, Luke's cool. He tries, but..."

"He's trying a little too hard maybe?" Lane suggested.

Jess smiled and she knew she was right.

"Luke means well. Always, with everybody. You have to see it from his side. You're his family and he never really had that before. I mean, he has Lorelai and Rory now, but he hasn't had blood family around in way too many years. You're a novelty, I guess. He just wants you to know how much he cares."

Jess nodded that he understood, because quite honestly, he did. He didn't have an overabundance of family himself, but what he had worked for him. Apart from his mother, he never really thought about having or needing any further additions to his family circle. He didn't always feel he needed to know her.

Luke was a good guy, there was no question on that, and Jess get along with Lorelai too. As for Rory, she was never, ever to be considered family, but Jess certainly loved her. The problem wasn't getting along with people, it was people (namely Luke) trying just that little bit too hard.

It was probably a conversation they should have, Jess was all aware of that, and yet he backed out every time the topic came up. He and Jimmy could be like that sometimes. Close as they were, saying how they felt, rocking the boat for good reasons or bad, it never felt like a plan. Jess certainly had reasons enough not to want to piss off Luke. If he was to throw him out or anything then Jess really had nowhere else to go but back home. On the surface, that sounded like a fine idea, but he knew he didn't really want to flake on this arrangement, and he really didn't want to leave Rory.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Lane," Jess called to her as they parted ways at last.

He headed over to the diner, taking a deep breath as he pushed through the door and painted on a smile for Luke's benefit.

"Hey," his uncle greeted him, even as he rushed up and down the counter serving customers. "Good day at school?"

"Sure." Jess nodded. "Let me drop this off, I'll come back down and help out," he offered, moving to take his bag upstairs.

"No, no. It's fine. You do your homework and... and then whatever you want to do. I'm fine."

Jess stopped by the curtain and took another deep breath. He couldn't take much more of this. He wasn't used to it. At home, if he offered to help out around the house or at Dante's it was just accepted. More than that, it was sort of expected really. They were a family that all pitched in together and got stuff done. Jess would say that Luke came from that kind of family too, and yet he was making this big deal about almost coddling him, which he really didn't appreciate.

Going upstairs, Jess threw his bag into the chair and sat down hard on the bed, hands covering his face a moment. He and Luke were going to have a conversation. Today. Just as soon as the latest rush was over in the diner. He couldn't take this anymore.

In the meantime, he figured he may as well get his homework done. As Lane had said, biology needed his attention, as did math and English.

By the time Luke came upstairs to check on him, Jess was just finishing up, and was glad to be done.

"Hey," said Luke, smiling too wide. "You okay?"

"No, not really," said Jess honestly. "Luke, we need to talk."

"Okay." His uncle frowned some, but did take up the chair Jess gestured to without argument. "Should I be worried right now? Are you about to tell me you broke something, or you got thrown out of school or something? Oh God, are you leaving?"

"No, nothing like that," Jess promised him, shifting awkwardly in place. "I just... Look, thank you, okay? For everything you're doing, letting me live here and... and I appreciate it, okay? You get that."

"Sure." Luke nodded. "I want you to be happy here, Jess. You should feel at home."

"Yeah, well, I can't" his nephew admitted. "At home, I'm actually allowed to help out. I'm supposed to help, and I want to. And nobody is watching me every second, checking on me like I'm a wayward toddler, and making a huge deal out of everything all of the time. I'm not saying I hate that you care, Luke, I just... I can't live like this. The lack of pressure is starting to feel like pressure."

He said it all in a rush, doubtless the most words anyone in Stars Hollow had heard out of his mouth in one go, and that included Rory. Jess did a good line in laconic, and though he knew he got that from Jimmy, Luke had suggested it was something the two of them had in common too. Right now, a lack of words just wasn't going to cut it. Everything that had been rattling around in his head these past three weeks just needed to be said, and so it was.

Luke looked a little stunned, and then a little sad.

"I screwed up," he said, shaking his head. "I just... I'm sorry, Jess. I'm doing by best here, you know? I guess I'm not used to dealing with people, kids, teenagers, I don't know."

"The stories I here from the gossips in town, 'people' seems to cover it," said Jess, smirking uncontrollably, "but hey, we have that in common. Me and people aren't always a winning combination either, not in close quarters. Of course, it depends on the people."

Luke nodded like he understood, but he still looked kind of sorry for himself.

"Hey, you're a good guy, Luke," Jess assured him. "I'm not complaining exactly, and like I said, I'm grateful for the whole letting me live here thing and all of that. Just, when I offer to help out at the diner, you could let me. If I don't look ecstatic with life every single second, you don't have to bug me about what's wrong."

"Okay. I can do that."

"Thank you," said Jess. "So, anything you've got to say to me while we're here in this awkward moment?"

Now he had said what he came to say and Luke hadn't gone ballistic about it, Jess felt more than a little self-conscious and could see his uncle wasn't faring any better. If they did have any more differences to air, now was probably a good time to get it all over with, so they would hopefully never have to do this again.

"I actually have a question," said Luke after a moment's pause. "You and Rory, I know you're serious about each other. I've never seen her like this about a guy. There was the bag boy, but that wasn't..." he said, waving away Dean as if he were nothing at all and making Jess smile into the bargain.

Having met the guy at this point, Jess was amazed that Rory ever thought the Jolly Green Giant was worthy of her. Dean was not exactly God's gift to the human intellect, and damn, was he ever stupidly tall!

"My point is," Luke continued, "it's pretty obvious you're as serious about Rory as she is about you, at least, it seems that way to me and to Lorelai. I know I'm not your father, Jess, but whilst you're here, I do have some kind of responsibility for you. As Rory's step-father and somebody who loves her a lot, I have a responsibility for her too."

"Is this going somewhere?" asked Jess, not exactly loving where they seemed to be headed now. "I mean, you said there was a question."

"There is," Luke confirmed, looking all around the apartment. "You're not... I mean, I don't really want to know, exactly, I just..."

"Oh, geez!" Jess covered his eyes with one hand and willed this whole situation away. "No, we're not sleeping together, and yes, if we did, we'd be safe. Does that cover it?" he said, still unable to look at Luke at all.

"Covers it for me," said his uncle quickly, getting up from his seat and making a hasty exit. "Glad we got all that figured out."

"Yeah, me too," said Jess, shaking off the awkward of what came before. "So, you want a hand in the diner tonight? Rory's at her grandparents so I'm free."

"You don't have to," said Luke, like a reflex, before seeing the look on Jess' face, "but if you want to, I'd be more than happy to have you pitch in," he said with a smile. "It's pretty quiet now, but you could come down to eat if you wanted?"

"You got pie?"

"Three different flavours."

"Right behind you, Uncle Luke."

To Be Continued...