Disclaimer: I do not own anything, except for (maybe) the head I used to write this piece.
Author: Happy to hear you all liked chapter 1 so much and thank you for the reviews. Now, let's find out who that mysterious passenger is...
Chapter 2: "What is she? A cookie or something."
Luke heard a car slow down nearby, but did not pay it much attention. It was probably just someone slowing down for that godforsaken traffic light Taylor had insisted upon a few years back. Why someone still hadn't torn it down amazed Luke. He had thought about doing it himself from time to time, but always come to the conclusion that Taylor would point his chubby finger at Luke's direction first if that ever happened. And Luke didn't want Taylor to point his chubby finger in his direction more than necessary. He wanted as little to do with Taylor as possible. It was bad enough that Taylor had opened the candy shop next to the diner.
It was late Friday night. The last lingering customers had finally come to their senses and gone home. Luke had half expected Lorelai to waltz in through the door, knowing she had her weekly family dinner at her parents house, but so far no Lorelai. Deciding that if she had not shown up yet, she probably wouldn't come either, Luke had started his closing routine. Every Friday when he closed up for the night he cleaned the diner a little extra so that the early Saturday morning customers would wake up to a newly brewed cup of coffee in a sparkling clean diner. He had done it this way ever since he opened the diner and would probably continue doing so until he couldn't work no more. If Lorelai had known how important this routine was for him, she would have teased the living hell out him.
He had finished sweeping the floor, wiping of ketchup from the tables and was halfway through disinfecting the counter when the doorbell rang. Without looking up Luke said: "We're closed. Come again tomorrow."
The door closed, but the presence remained in the room.
"Hi, uncle Luke."
Luke almost got himself a whiplash the way he snapped his head up in surprised. He'd recognize that voice anywhere. Jess!
Jess stood on the opposite side of the counter, but it wasn't the Jess he remembered. Gone was the black leather jacket, the sprawling hair a bird could get lost in and the mocking attitude. Instead it was a neatly dressed Jess, in blazer and jeans with the dark hair pulled back, that stood in front of him. Only the face and the obscenely large print on his white t-shirt connected this new Jess with the one he remembered storming out of the diner two years ago and even the face looked different.
He'd aged, Luke noticed. The childhood softness on his cheeks was gone, instead Luke glimpsed the beginning of a black beard. The anger that had never seemed far off in the old Jess could not be seen in the face of this new Jess. He seemed... composed. Mature. Confident.
Luke didn't know what to do, even less what to say. Jess was back. After not hearing a single word from the boy in the last two years Luke had started to give up hope ever hearing from his nephew again. And yet here he was.
If it was the silence or the way Luke stared at him that made Jess uncomfortable, Luke didn't know. He only watched as Jess nervously shifted weight from one foot to the other, struggling to find something to say.
"This place looks just like I remember it." Jess chuckled, it sounded forced and died quickly.
Luke made a gesture to the east wall, to the huge window that wasn't facing the street.
"Taylor put up a candy shop next door."
Jess looked to where Luke was pointing.
"Oh, I see. Must have made you mad. To see him all the time."
Jess knew him too well.
"Excruciatingly mad."
Silence fell between them. This time it took them a whole long minute before any of them came up with something to say. Again it was Jess who beat him to it.
"You know, you could always put up a curtain if you don't want to see him..."
"I thought you were in California." It sounded almost accusing.
Jess shifted weight again.
"I've left California. It didn't work out with Jimmy," Jess explained. "I live in Philadelphia now. Working at this publishing company, Truncheon Books, and..."
"Jess," Luke interrupted again. This time with a much sharper voice. "What are you doing here?"
The question came over his lips before he could stop it. Once it was out it hung in the air between the two men like an old wet cloth threatening to suffocate them both. This time, when Jess cleared his throat to speak, it was with a lot less confidence.
"I came back to Stars Hollow because I want to introduce you to someone."
Jess made gesture towards the thing he held in left hand. Up until now Luke had ignored the thing, thinking it was a bag of some sort. It wasn't. It was an infant car seat, of the kind parents could carry their child with them in. A baby, no older than six months or so, peered curiously at him from bedding in it. Judging by the yellow bow in the dark hair it was a baby girl. When Luke's gaze met the little girl's, she cooed delightfully and started to drool.
Luke looked up at Jess in shock.
"You stole a baby!"
Jess' eyes narrowed.
"I didn't not steal her," he said offended.
"Borrowed her then?"
"No."
Kidnap?"
"No!"
"You know kidnap counts as stealing."
"Luke!"
"It's illegal to steal people even if they are cute and tiny."
"I did not kidnap her, Luke!" Jess blurted out in frustration. "She's mine. I made her."
Luke blinked. "Made her? What is she? A cookie or something." He leaned over the counter to have a better look at the girl. "She looks real enough for me."
Jess inhaled slowly to calm himself down before answering his uncle.
"Clara is my daughter."
Those words made Luke jaw drop to the floor and disappear under the counter.
"You daughter?" he repeated stupidly. He looked at the girl, then at Jess and then back at the girl. The resemblance was striking. The hair and the eyes. The eyes! They were identical. Two sets of the same eyes stared at him. One in annoyance, the other in dull delight.
Jess came forward and set down the car seat on the counter in front of Luke with baby facing him.
"Luke, I want you to meet my daughter Clara. Clara, this is you uncle Luke."
Clara cooed and reached out with her tiny little hands towards Luke. Luke stared at her in return. Jess had come back... a father?
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