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It was late afternoon when Jess was released from the hospital. The boy had been rather stubborn during his stay, refusing to eat for the most part as well as trying to pull out the tubes that were connected to his body. Luke knew Jess was uncomfortable--anyone could clearly see that--and the boy had been dying to leave the hospital, but he could have been a little more cooperative. The boy had kept to himself for the rest of the stay, only speaking up to protest the doctor's suggestion that they take photographic documentation of the scars and bruises that covered his body or to remind Luke to "quit staring," at his neck. Luke was not trying to look at the marks, but they just stood out against they boy's skin. Those marks that ran around his neck were a constant reminder to Luke that he had failed the boy. His nephew could have died, and it would have been all his fault for not fighting harder for him.

To Jess, those marks--like all the others on his body--were just reminders of what the voices in his mother's head were capable of making her do. When they took control of her the mother he knew was gone, and all that was left was the angry woman who burned him with cigarettes and smacked him across the face with her rough hands. These marks felt somewhat different this time to him, though. That was exactly where her hands had been when she stole away the oxygen his body had craved, where she squeezed so tight that her nails dug into his skin. He had almost lost consciousness, and if that had happened, he knew he would have never woken up. If those cops had not come to pry her off of him, she would have killed him. His own mother would have killed him. He had never been more afraid of his mother than he was now.

The two had made a stop at Jess' apartment; a cluttered, two-bedroom complex that smelled like piss and was infested by rats. Luke couldn't believe his nephew and sister had lived in a place like it. He at least expected them to be living in a clean building, not one like this. "This is where you two lived?" Luke asked the boy in astonishment, stepping over a mess of broken glass and trash.

"Home sweet home," Jess dryly replied, his voice still a bit rough, but thankfully sounding much more like it should. The boy was hoping it would soon be back to normal completely; his voice made him think about the marks around his neck, which made him think about Liz, and he was trying to get away from all that--at least for a bit.

Jess made a quick dash to his room, turning inside and quickly spotting his pack of cigarettes near the broken lamp. He kept his mind focused on what it would feel like to have that first puff, the one he'd been craving since he woke up in the damn hospital, and swiftly picked up the pack and placed a stick in his mouth. His lighter had fallen on to the floor, near some of the glass from the lamp, and Jess carefully picked it up, making sure not to cut himself, and his eyes feel onto a red and ashy circular burn on his wrist. He had his fair share of cigarette burns--the words in his back were formed by those near-perfect circles--but this one always seemed to stick out to him the most. Maybe it was because he saw it almost everyday--unlike the others--or maybe it was because it had been his first, he didn't know. Cigarettes held bad memories for him, but yet, he still managed to smoke almost a pack a day. It was funny, something that used to hurt him was now something that he relied on the most to assuage his pain. He wouldn't be able to stand it without at least one cigarette in a day, and the lack of nicotine during his stay in the hospital had been hard for him to handle.

He quickly lit up the cigarette and grabbed out his old duffle bag from his closet. It was worn and the green was fading out due to its constant use over the years, but the bag was reliable. He threw it onto the bed and began to stuff clothes inside, taking puff after puff of his cigarette.

When Luke entered to find the boy stuffing his clothes into his bag and smoking a cigarette, the man opened his mouth to speak up. He knew the right thing for a good parent to do would be to scold the boy for smoking underage, but he just couldn't get himself to speak up. His nephew's situation was so messed up, and the cigarette had seemed to calm down the tense boy somewhat, so who was he to stop that? If a cigarette made his nephew feel a bit better at the moment, then he could have it. Luke would just have to make sure the boy didn't keep up with the habit.

"Do you need any help?" Luke asked, the boy's eyes quickly snapping up towards him. He stopped his stuffing for a moment, and let his eyes wander around the room.

The cigarette was pulled out of his mouth, and the boy finally spoke up, "The books," he said, causing Luke to look around the room at the stacks of books that were scattered about, "I want them."

Jess placed the cigarette back in his mouth and grabbed up another random shirt from the floor.

"All of them?" Luke asked, wondering how the hell he was going to get all of those books into the back of his truck. He had no boxes, so he didn't know how he'd even be able to store them all for the ride to Stars Hollow.

"Yeah," Jess responded, exhaling a cloud of smoke from his nostrils, "There are boxes in the closet near the bathroom," He told his uncle, the man raising a curious eyebrow at this, "Liz was always prepared to move," Jess clarified for him, "if the voices told her to, we'd be out of here within the hour."

"Oh," Luke gave a nod and watched as his nephew quickly went back to focusing all of his attention to packing and smoking. He seemed to be a bit uncomfortable when it came to his mother and her antics, and the boy had just reason to be. Luke would always wonder what it was like for the boy to be living with his nomad mother for all those years, but he highly doubted he would ever get any information on it. To be honest, he didn't think he really wanted to know. He had had his glimpse of it when he saw his nephew laying in the hospital bed, looking pale and weak, wires trailing their way out of his skin, and he didn't know if he would even want to hear about the other things that happened to his nephew. If his sister was capable of almost killing his nephew then who knew what else she had done to him over the years?

Luke made his way into the hallway and was back within moments, holding two large stacked boxes. He busied himself with packing up the books, eyes scanning over the titles as he placed them in the box. A Lesson Before Dying, Ham On Rye, Choke, The Scarlet Letter, so many books were thrown into the boxes, some with familiar titles, and some with titles he had never even heard of. He never pictured his nephew to be a bookworm, but apparently that was the case. It wasn't a bad thing though; reading was supposed to be good, and though he was not one for it, it was good that his nephew had a normal hobby, other than traveling across the country with his nomad mother.

Jess finished stuffing the last of his CD's into his duffle bag and pulled the drawstring, causing it to close tightly. He hoisted the bag onto his shoulder as Luke stood up, carrying the two boxes, and put his cigarette out on an ash tray near his window. He had managed to go through three sticks as he packed, and he was still craving a fourth. His eyes had kept wandering over to the broken glass on the floor, which then made him think of how she slammed him into it, which forced his body to remember the fractured rib and the marks around his neck. He didn't feel the pain in his rib too much, thanks to a heavy dose of Advil, but it sometimes stung when he took a sharp inhale or moved the wrong way. The pain was bearable though, and he hoped it would be the same when the Advil wore off. He didn't like to take any medications, neither did Liz.

"Ready to go," Luke asked, causing Jess' gaze to snap up towards him.

It quickly traveled back to a fixed point on the wall behind Luke as he responded, "Yeah."

The two made their way out of his old room and into the living room, proceeding over to the old, beaten up door to leave. When Jess reached out to grasp the knob, he saw it jingle and he quickly recoiled his hand and backed away from the door. He kept on a blank expression as Ted made his way into the apartment, putting on a rather peeved expression as he spotted the boy.

"You've got a lot of nerve for coming back here, boy," He spat, edging closer to the boy. Jess backed more and hit the wall, keeping on his neutral expression instead of showing his true feelings. He had to look tough, he had to look unaffected, because if he didn't he'd have no chance. If Ted knew he was afraid of him, then it was all over, "You got your own mother thrown into jail."

"I didn't press charges," Jess told him, keeping his voice stoic and calm, "and it's not like you really love her. You told me she was just a good screw, remember?" The conversation had been an awkward one, and Ted had been completely smashed when he had told him that. Jess remembered it clearly though. Liz was pretty much the only screw he could get, and that was pretty low, considering she was a nut case.

Ted had reacted to that, and Jess could see his face redden out of anger. It was like at any moment the man would blow steam out of his ears and charge at him like a cartoon character.

"You little shit!" Ted raised a hand up, ready to smack him, and as Jess awaited the blow, he shut his eyes, readying himself. It never came though, and the next thing that he heard was not the collision of fist to jaw, but instead his uncle's roaring voice.

"Hey!" his uncle's voice was loud and felt like it almost echoed around the room like a siren, "You do not raise a hand to my nephew, you understand me!" Jess opened his eyes to find his uncle staring down at the man, having more than a few inches over him. Ted seemed so small to him now, and that thought made a smile curl up on Jess' lips. It was a great turn of circumstance; the burly man who made him feel small finally looking small himself.

Luke pushed Ted out of the way and let his nephew through. He picked up the boxes that sat on the ground and turned to face Ted once more, "And if you ever come near my nephew again, I'll kick your ass." He made his way out of the door and spoke to his nephew, "Come on, Jess, we're leaving."

The car ride had been quiet for the most part, the only sound being the hums of the engine and the low buzz of the radio playing out an old tune. The sun had made it's way below the horizon line and the dim glow of the moon had taken its place. Jess had drifted off at some point during the ride, and now he sat with his head resting against the window and an open book on his lap. He was wrapped up in an old leather jacket, the collar popped up somewhat to cover up the marks on his neck from Luke's sight. The position seemed somewhat uncomfortable to Luke, but he didn't want to wake up the boy, knowing full well that the kid needed any sleep he could get. His nights at the hospital hadn't been too well for him, and he kept waking up from nightmares with quick breathes and a fast heartbeat, causing the monitors to go crazy and start beeping madly. Jess would usually stay mum about what the dreams were about--if he even remembered them--and would just sit there, eyes gazing out of the window or glued to the TV. His nephew tended to zone out a lot, he had picked up on that.

His mind went to the small paper card that stuck in his pocket, the one the doctor had handed over to him after a brief conversation about his nephew's mental state. The doctor believed that his nephew would benefit from talking to someone about everything. Luke had to agree with him, but he knew his nephew had inherited the Danes family stubborn streak, and there wasn't really any way the kid would willingly consent to this. He didn't even want anyone looking at the scars, so why would he want to talk to someone about how he got them. The whole situation was very messy, and Luke still couldn't believe it was happening. He didn't want to believe his sister was capable of doing something this terrible to her own son. It was the voices though, as both Liz and Jess had confessed. Without that medication, those voices were allowed to run free and tell his sister lies and get her to do terrible things like this. He never understood why his sister would rather have those voices giving monologues in her head rather than taking the medication that would stop it.

Luke turned the corner onto the familiar street that lead towards town square, where his diner sat, empty of its usual customers. He wondered if any of the townsfolk would remember Jess, other than he and Lorelai. The boy had been known by most of the town while he was living there those four years of his early life, but that had been ten years ago. The older residents would remember his sister though, and they would probably have a vague memory of Jess. Liz had grown up in the town, and when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the news has spread fast. It was a small town, and that was to be expected, of course. He expected the same for Jess' situation now, knowing full well that Lorelai and Caesar probably had not kept to themselves. He was sure Lorelai had kept some of the details to herself, but Caesar had probably gone off and told everyone he had saw. The information had had two days to travel its way around town and to every ear, so he was sure that most of the town was well aware of the situation now. The diner would be packed tomorrow with curious townsfolk waiting to get a glimpse of the boy, he knew that. He sometimes thought the town was too curious for their own good, but there was nothing he could do to stop their curiosity. It was a natural emotion, but the town was a little too ... straight forward with it, he supposed.

The whole situatoin strangely reminded him of the time he drove Liz home from the hospital, after she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She had been around sixteen, nearing seventeen. She had taken a pair of scissors and scratched up her arms, digging deep into the skin and craving degrading words into the flesh. It had been his father who found her, and she kept screaming about how they had told her to do it, and how she had never wanted to ruin her arms like that. She was in the hospital for some time, seeing a psychiatrist, or "headshrinker," as Liz referred to them, once a day. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia--which devastated her more than anything--and was put on affective medication. Luke had offered to pick her up, and the drive home had been silent for the most part, except for a buzz of a Dylan song playing low from the speakers and a soft hum of the engine. The town had heard of the news, and all were wandering around near the hardware store, coming in to buy plungers or parts for a broken toilet. They all knew that they weren't fooling his father--not everyone in the town could have had toilet problems in the same day, but his father tolerated it as much as he could. When Luke had brought Liz in, arms covered up in bandages and a ski coat on to cover them from sight, the townsfolk began to stare and whisper. That had been the last straw for his father, and his short temper burst. He kicked them all out and escorted Liz quickly upstairs and out of sight. Liz and his father had been extremely close for the months after, until Liz started going on and off her medication and rebelling much more than usual. She ended up pregnant with Jess four months after her seventeenth birthday, and that was that.

Now, instead of his mentally unstable sister, it was his emotionally (and physically) scarred nephew. It was a twist of fate; he never would have seen this coming, and he knew that things were only going to get harder from here on out. His nephew was extremely damaged, and this whole thing was just so ... crazy. Luke never imagined this would have happened, and now that it had, it was still hard to believe.

He pulled up to the curb in front of the diner and put the car into park. He noticed that most of the residents of the town weren't out, minus the few that were walking around the square, and he was thankful for that. He was extremely tired, and all he wanted to do was get Jess up into the apartment without the interruption of any crazy townsfolk expressing their concerns and get some rest. The last few days had worn him out, just as they had his nephew, and he was ready to sleep.

He turned his attention to Jess, who was still sound asleep in the seat next to him, leather coat wrapped tight around his skinny frame. Luke had made a mental note to get the boy eating three square meals a day and to get him to gain some weight. He was far too skinny for Luke's liking, he felt as if the boy would break a bone if he simply tripped. Luke placed a hand on the kid's shoulder, completely forgetting what Jess had told him earlier a few days ago, and the boy woke up with a start. He slammed himself against the door of the car, not awake enough to hide his fear. He looked so terrified, and Luke felt incredibly stupid for doing what he had done.

"Didn't we go through this already?" Jess exclaimed as he calmed himself down to the point that he could hide his fear and throw on his usual blank face. He cursed himself for being so off guard, for letting those emotions slip out. No one was supposed to see him like that; it made him look weak.

"I'm sorry," Luke apologized, watching as his nephew relaxed more and rubbed at his head: he had hit it hard against the window, "I forgot, that's all."

"Yeah," he replied, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the passenger door, hand still rubbing at his head, "you forgot." He slammed the door and walked towards the back of the truck, grabbing out his hefty duffle bag from the back of the truck.

Luke followed him swiftly and grabbed out the two boxes of books and placed them near the door, his nephew waiting patiently beside it, staring out towards the town square. He remembered parts of the town; the gazebo, the dance studio, the odd assortment of shops devoted to porcelain unicorns, and the odd peace that always seemed to fall over the town near night. The peace was unfamiliar and odd to him now, and he hadn't had this sense of calm in years. His life had been one event after another with his mother, and it seemed he rarely had a break from the chaos. It was refreshing, but still, it just didn't feel right to him.

A couple passed by--two people he could not recognize--and they set their gaze his way. They looked from him to Luke, then back to him again, and Jess felt uncomfortable under their gaze. He adjusted the collar of his coat to make sure the marks on his neck were completely hidden, but he sadly had no way of hiding the bruise on his cheek. He could feel their eyes on the purple swelling, and he sent the strongest glare he could muster their way, causing the two to quickly look off towards the other end of the street and whisper to each other.

Luke turned the key in the lock as Jess spoke up, "Did you tell anyone about ..." he paused, trying to avoid saying the words "mother" and "kill him" in the same sentence yet again, "the thing?"

Luke looked up towards the boy and watched as he rubbed a hand against his neck, eyes drifting off towards the center of town, "I may have told a few people," Luke admitted as he opened the door, causing the boy to send a glare his way.

"Good thinking, Uncle Luke," the boy sneered, making his way inside, "spread the word around so everyone knows how screwed up I am."

"Jess--"

Before Luke could get another word out, the boy was already up the stairs and the apartment door was slammed open. He made his way up slowly, making sure not to drop the boxes on his way up the stairs, and found the boy pouring his clothes out onto the floor near his old bed. Luke had kept the old thing up, never really having the time to take it apart and bring it down to the dump. No, he had kept it because he wanted to, he knew that. He was always prepared for a call or a sudden appearance from his nephew, not sure when Liz would just go too far or just abandon him all together.

"I never had time to take apart your old bed," Luke explained as the boy sat down on the mattress, giving the man a raised eyebrow at the statement.

"Yeah," Jess replied, laying down against the comfortable mattress, "right." Jess didn't believe he hadn't had the time to take down the bed after ten years of him not being there, but he didn't really feel like having any long conversations right now. He was tired, and he wanted to sleep. Even though he wouldn't have his music to keep his mind concentrated on that other than his past, he felt he was tried enough to avoid dreaming altogether.

Luke dropped the two boxes of books near his nephew's bed and sat down on the couch, eyes drifting over towards his nephew every few minutes, waiting for the signs that his nephew was fast asleep. It didn't take long when the boy was this tired, and he was out cold within minutes.

The diner owner let out a sigh and ran a hand though his hair as he slouched down into the couch. It really just struck him that he was a parent now, and that his nephew was truly going to be with him for good, pending on the custody case he would file. He'd have to get on that in the morning, as well as figure out a way to take care of a teenager in the first place. He hadn't been the best at parenting when Jess was a child, and now he had to take care of a seventeen year old who had spent years living with an unstable mother. His life was about to get ten times harder than before, but he had no choice. He would help his nephew, he would fix what had happened to him. It was his job as an uncle--as a parent. Things would be better for his nephew from now on; Jess would finally be safe, he would make sure of that.

Thanks you all so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and please review!

You guys will love to hear that the next chapter is a whooping eleven pages, so I'm in for a hell of a lot of editing, haha. I may post it on Wednesday, as a Thanksgiving gift to you all, but that all depends if I can get the next chapter written and done, as well as the next chapter for my Charmed story that needs some attention as well.

Reviews are loved and always help me get my creative juices flowing, hence why the next chapter is eleven pages long :)

Thanks again for reading, and I will try to update as soon as possible!

:)