A/N: Hey, all my readers & reviewers are here! You guys rock, thank you! :) Now, what's a good thing to have in mid-January? Oh, yes - Thanksgiving! :P

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 22

Jess half-expected to regret staying in Stars Hollow for Thanksgiving. After all, he knew he had to be a fool to turn down the chance to go home like he had. He missed California, and moreover the family he left behind there, since the moment the plane touched down in Hartford almost three months ago. Still, being at The Crap Shack with Rory and her mom and Uncle Luke, it wasn't so bad. In fact, Jess was now more sure than ever, that when he left one home it was to come right here to another. He just belonged somehow, and it didn't suck to realise that at all.

"This is amazing," he said, looking at the table filled with every kind of Thanksgiving food. "Are you expecting more people?"

"Nope, just us," said Lorelai definitely. "Since Rory and me already swung by our parents, and the Kims, and called in on Sookie and Jackson while you guys were doing your chef thing, there's really nobody left to see."

"And you ate at all those places too?" he said, looking to his girlfriend for confirmation.

"Not whole meals," Rory confirmed. "Well, most of one at Grandma and Grandpa's, but not much at Lane's because Mrs Kim serves tofurkey, and hardly anything at Sookie's either this year since Jackson has plans to deep fry the turkey."

"Deep fry...? Nope, I'm not going down that crazy path," Jess decided, holding his hands up in mock-surrender.

"Good choice," Luke agreed, preparing to carve the turkey at last.

It felt like a real family occasion, and Jess was genuinely part of the family. He'd already gotten over much of the potential ickyness of dating his step-cousin (if that was even a thing) and had sort of accepted his place as both Rory's boyfriend and Luke's nephew in the grand scheme of things. Nobody else was making a big deal, except for Lorelai, occasionally, when she liked to make a good hill-billy joke or something, but Jess had also learnt that was just her way too, and to never be offended by her. It was the last thing Rory's mom ever intended.

With their plates piled high with turkey and all the trimmings, the girls were eager to dive in and eat right away. Jess looked awkward a moment and met Luke's gaze across the table. He opened his mouth to speak but the quickly changed his mind, covering with a cough and picking up his fork.

"Jess?" Luke checked. "Something wrong?"

"No, it's cool," he assured him. "I just... Er, back home, Sasha usually makes us do the whole 'what we're thankful for' thing before we're allowed to eat. Seems weird not doing it," he said, shrugging like it was no big deal.

He felt a little dumb now, almost even guilty as Lorelai let her fork drop to her plate and tried desperately to chew and swallow way too much sweet potato and marshmallows all in one go. Rory followed suit, hastily clearing the turkey from both her mouth and her fork, so she could appear ready to share in Jess' tradition.

"You don't all have to do it," he assured them.

"Hey, we want to," said Luke definitely. "In fact, I think I'll start. I am thankful for my wife, and our Rory," he said, deliberately using the phrase that Lorelai so often favoured, even as Rory herself blushed. "I am very thankful that our vacation to California led to us finding Jess, and that we've gotten this chance to get to know you and have you staying here with us for a while," he said, smiling across the table at his nephew.

"Amen!" said Lorelai with gusto.

Luke rolled his eyes. "I was giving thanks, not praying," he pointed out, "but thanks, anyway."

"See, I gave you one more thing to be thankful for, right there," said Lorelai with a grin, patting his hand on the table. "Now, personally, I am real thankful for all this delicious food, and for having a husband that knows how to cook like this. Can I get a 'hell yeah'?"

"Hell, yeah" Rory supplied without missing a beat, much to Jess' amusement.

"And obviously, I am also grateful for my awesome kid, and her pretty awesome boyfriend, who is just about crazy enough to fit into this crazy town like he belongs. And, I'm even more thankful that I have to spend very little time with my parents on this blessed day of Thanksgiving," she said, smiling widely in Jess' general direction. "Your turn," she prompted him then.

"Well, I'm thankful for you guys, making me welcome here and everything," he admitted, "and for the folks at home, for understanding when I told them I wasn't going back until Christmas. I guess, all in all, I'm just thankful for family," he said, looking around the table at three smiling faces.

It was nice, but at the same time Jess couldn't help wishing the floor would open up and swallow him. It was just a little embarrassing to be loved this much by people he had known such a short time in reality.

"Rory, you go," he urged her, if for no other reason than to get the attention off him.

"I guess I'm just the same as everybody else," she admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm grateful for Mom, for Luke, for Jess, for Grandma and Grandpa," she added, sticking her tongue out at Lorelai when she said it, "and Lane, and Sookie and Jackson, and all our friends in town-"

"Oh, my God, could you please just say 'everybody in the whole wide world' and be done, people are starving here!" Lorelai teased her.

"And everybody in the whole wide world," said Rory deliberately, grinning the whole time. "Let's eat."

At that, they all took up their forks again and dug into what was truly a delicious meal. When the girls started complimenting Luke on his always excellent cooking skills, he made a point of mentioning what a great help Jess had been, and that he'd pretty much made the pie for dessert all by himself when Luke started to run out of time.

"Another man that cooks?" said Lorelai happily. "Honey, you did good."

"I know," she agreed, grinning at Jess.

"So, are we getting any of this pie, or what?"

"Lorelai, you barely finished with dinner," her husband pointed out. "I thought even you would want a short breather in-between," he said, before shaking his head. "But I'm an idiot and I should know better, so let's go get that pie," he said, rising to clear the table.

"I'll help," said Rory, moving to get up to, but Jess stopped her.

"It's okay, we've got it," he insisted, taking her plate as well as his own.

He and Luke disappeared into the kitchen, laden down with dishes, as the Gilmore girls relaxed in their seats. Jess hadn't realised he was grinning like an idiot until Luke called him on it.

"You look really happy," he noted. "I'm glad. I started to worry maybe you'd regret not going home, you know, not being with Jimmy and everybody."

"Nope, no regrets," Jess promised, shaking his head. "I mean, if I could have them here too, that'd be great, but it was one or the other and this is kind of cool, being part of a second family too. I don't hate it," he said with a smirk he couldn't help.

"Me either," Luke agreed.

They busied themselves with their chores then, putting the dishes in the sink, wrapping up leftovers, and of course, getting the pie ready to serve. Jess picked it up to bring through to the living room where the table was set up, and Luke followed behind with the dishes and spoons. It was a strangely proud moment for Jess, or it would have been, if he hadn't walked out there to find three women where he had left only two.

"Hey, kiddo," said Liz, grinning wide.

Jess suddenly didn't feel so much like smiling.

"Hey, Liz," he said awkwardly, glancing back at Luke, who honestly looked just about as shocked as Jess himself. "So, you're here," he said, looking back at Liz then.

"I'm here," she agreed, still smiling too much. "Well, don't I get a hug or anything?"

Jess looked at her then down at the pie in his hands. He had this momentary brain freeze when he sort of didn't know how to get from standing here holding food to hugging his biological mother, or maybe he did know and he just wished he didn't.

"I've got it," said Rory, taking the pie from his hands with what Jess assumed was supposed to be a supportive smile.

He nodded his thanks and moved around the table in time for Liz to throw her arms around him. He hugged her back, but his heart wasn't in it. They had kind of figured things out before, in their two visits together, but she had shown little interest over the past couple of months, and Jess was almost certain Luke had invited her to Thanksgiving only to be turned down. Yet, here she was, and smelling a little of booze, if Jess wasn't mistaken.

"Hey, big brother," she said then, tackling Luke much the same way she had Jess.

He moved quickly back to his seat so that wouldn't happen again and tried not to notice how awkward the Gilmore girls looked in their own home. It all felt very much like Jess' fault, and yet he knew that was dumb. He didn't invite Liz here, but he knew she probably wouldn't have shown up if not for his presence.

When he gave any more attention to Liz and Luke, Jess realised his uncle was explaining they had already eaten, but that he could fix her a plate of leftovers if she wanted.

"It's fine, I'm not all that hungry anyway," she said, waving away his concern. "I'm sure I could eat some pie though. You know, this brother of mine makes the best pie in the world," she told Jess, still grinning as she squeezed in at the table on the spare chair Luke brought for her.

"Actually, Jess made this pie," said Lorelai, no doubt feeling the need to speak in the long silence that was starting stretch out around the table.

Awkward didn't even begin to cover it.

"Wow. Just like your uncle, huh?" said Liz, shaking her head. "'Cause you sure don't get any cooking skills from me, and last I saw Jimmy, his idea of gourmet was cheese in a can, you know what I mean?"

"He got classier after he left you."

Jess knew how it sounded the second the words left his lips. He winced because he felt a little of the pain he caused ricochet back, more from Luke than from Liz, truth be told.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, rubbing a hand over his face. "I'm not so hungry anymore."

He got up to leave because it was all he could think to do. Jess wasn't even sure what he was running from, he just knew he couldn't be at this table anymore. He kept on thinking about home. It had been happening all day, but in a nice way, where the memories and comparisons were all good. This place, these people, it felt almost as comfortable and happy as being in California with Jimmy and Sasha and Lilly might. Then Liz walked in and everything fell apart. All Jess wanted to do was run. There was no way to run all the way back home, but he could at least have retreated to the apartment. He didn't even do that. The moment he reached the front porch rail, he stopped, shivering from the cold and regretting not picking up his jacket on the way out. Still, there was no way in hell he was going back inside, not now. He couldn't bear too.

"Hey, Rebel Without A Clue," said Lorelai behind him, tossing his jacket into his hands. "You really need to remember to bring that thing everywhere that doesn't have walls and a roof," she said with a friendly smile. "We're not quite as hot as the Golden State."

"Thanks," said Jess, pulling on his jacket and zipping it up to the top.

Even with his hands wedged in his pockets and the house to protect him from the wind, he was still cold. He should really get some Connecticut-suitable clothing, but it seemed sort of pointless. The cold weather could only last so long and he was headed home when the school year was out anyway.

"So, you and your mom have some stuff to work out still," said Lorelai, leaning on the railing beside him.

"Apparently." Jess nodded. "She was supposed to care, you know? She made this big deal about caring, but clearly she doesn't. I'm not sure she's capable."

"Yeah, I get that," Lorelai agreed. "My mom is nothing like Liz, but the not always caring when you feel like they should thing? They have that in common."

"Your mom didn't drink, smoke, and take drugs the whole way through her pregnancy, and then not even bother to come look for you when your father took you away," he said flatly. "At least, I doubt it."

"Huh, sometimes I wish there was a country between me and Emily," said Lorelai, not entirely joking anymore as far as Jess could tell, "but yeah, I guess our situations are pretty different that way. All I can really say in Liz's defence is that having a baby that young? It is not easy."

"You coped," said Jess, shrugging his shoulders. "From what Rory told me, you were younger than Liz, not married, with parents who were not exactly supportive. Liz had Jimmy, and Luke, and her father. She still couldn't pull it together."

Lorelai sighed. She was trying to be helpful and Jess appreciated that, but there was no argument she could make right now that was going to help win him over. He was mad at Liz for not caring enough, partly when he was younger, but mostly now. She thought she could just swan in and out of his life as she chose and act like the greatest mother in the world, when in fact, she was just proving herself to be as useless as Jess ever imagined she could be.

"Okay, so we were having a pretty good time in there before Liz showed up, right?" said Lorelai with a look. "Right, so here's my plan. You go over to the diner, get things straightened out in the apartment, no underwear on the floor, no porn where I have to see it," she teased, "and I will go back in there, retrieve as much of your delicious looking pie as I can, find some polite, ingenious way to get rid of Liz, and then, we'll all come join you to continue the Thanksgiving Day funfest. Sound like a plan?"

It took a couple of beats after she finished talking for Jess to fully process all her words. Lorelai was in fact the only person he knew who could talk faster than Rory.

"Okay," he said, nodding his head. "Thanks, Lorelai."

"You're welcome kid. Us in the less-than-stellar moms club have to stick together, right?"

"I guess so," he agreed, turning to go.

Jess stopped on the porch steps and turned back, catching Lorelai a moment before she opened the front door.

"If I asked Rory to come with me to California for Christmas, would that be okay with you?" he asked her.

It wasn't supposed to be emotional blackmail, but it probably came off that way, Jess realised too late. After all, she just offered him one favour, and now he was asking for another. Plus, she knew he was having a tough time today, it was probably really unfair to ask now, but the thought came into his head and he just couldn't help himself.

"Sure," said Lorelai after a moment's consideration. "I mean, if she wants to go, I won't say she can't."

"Thanks, Lorelai," said Jess, smiling genuinely by now. "For everything. Y'know, there's times you kind of remind me of Sasha."

"Given the way you talk about her, I'm taking that as a very big compliment."

"You should."

Lorelai smiled all the wider, as she urged him to go with a wave of her hands.

"Now scram and let's get this plan into action," she said definitely.

"Yes, ma'am," said Jess, laughing in spite of himself as he hurried across the square.

No, he definitely did not regret staying in Stars Hollow for Thanksgiving.

To Be Continued...