A/N; YAY FOR AUTHOR'S NOTES. Okiday... HUGE warning for this chapter. I've never seen a single episode where Luke and Lorelai are together. Never, ever in my life. The only episodes I watched in the sixth season where the episodes with Jess in it, and even then, it was only the Jess-centric scenes. In short, I have no idea how they talk, walk, move, do things at all. Don't kill me, then I couldn't finish my other stories, even if this one falls on its ass today. Trust me, I like happy or bittersweet endings, so this one probably isn't going to end in the fashion that the end of the story lends itself to... you'll know what I mean.

Anyhoo. This is not my best chapter... ever, like, in a million years would I even consider this chapter good, let alone well-written. I can stand to read it because I'm ignorant. For all of those who are happy in their ignorance with me... woo!

My Latest Mistake

Chapter Three

After

Rated T

Luke stared at his nephew from the door. Jess hadn't noticed he was there yet, but he'd been standing for at least ten minutes. It was odd, the teenage version of his relation would have known he was there the second he leaned against the doorstop, but this one seemed oblivious. In less than twenty four hours, Jess had managed to write almost one hundred pages of… something. He'd been very secretive about it, hadn't let anyone near the pages. Ever since the strange Lorelai-attack and the blackout after it, there had been no pauses.

"Jess," Luke coughed, trying to gain some attention.

"Huh?" Jess muttered, looking up at him. A frown appeared on his face, like he was confused, and then something dawned on him and a look of shock appeared. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Doesn't matter," Luke shrugged and stepped into the room.

"You didn't have to close the diner down today… I'm fine," Jess protested again, as he had every single time they'd talked that day.

"If you were fine, you wouldn't be here," Luke pointed out and Jess frowned before nodding.

"Did you want something?" Jess asked after a few seconds, and Luke sighed. Yes, there was something very specific… but it was awkward and involved a topic that neither one of them wanted to talk about.

"What happened… after the wedding?" Luke finally got out. At the 'what happened', Jess probably thought it would be about the drugs, but the second part seemed to throw him off balance, and the younger man turned away with a sober look in his eyes.

"I did something stupid," Jess answered, a straight answer. Luke was almost shocked, but this was a pretty serious situation to be joking in, especially after the attack.

"How stupid?" Luke pressed with a slight glare.

-gGg-

Was there anything beyond stupid, beyond idiotic, moronic? If there was, that night would have been one of the many days that he'd hit that low. Feeling the story attempt to choke him, he didn't know if he would be able to recite it. Cringing, he looked away, feeling her name begging to be said on his lips again, but he couldn't say it… it would drive him crazy.

"How was mom after the wedding?" he evaded instead.

"Jess," Luke growled, but Jess ignored it, like he usually did.

"I mean, I said I'd say goodbye, but I was too pressed for time," Jess stated with a firm nod.

"Liz was upset, Jess," Luke grumped, throwing his hands up. "What happened to you after the wedding, what did you do?"

"Her dress was gorgeous though, I'm kinda upset that I didn't go in costume. Do you think I would have looked good in tights?" Jess continued to throw off the words, terrified of what the story was going to do to his sanity.

"Lorelai thinks that I need to send you to a mental hospital," Luke blurted, and they both froze.

"What?" Jess gasped after a few seconds, all his defenses shattered.

"She doesn't think we can help you here," Luke reasoned, but sounded uncertain of the words.

"I'm not insane!" Jess shouted.

"I know," Luke stated, looking thoroughly mad at himself.

"But if Lorelai commands," Jess scoffed, unbelieving of what was being said to him.

"This has nothing to do with Lorelai!" Luke growled.

"Then what?" Jess roared, sitting up in the bed even though it made his entire world go black for a second.

"You're sick, Jess… I don't know if I can help you," Luke stated, almost defeated.

"I came here, to you, for your help. You're Mr. Fix-It. You fix everyone, even when they don't want to be fixed. I didn't want your help then, but I need you now," Jess explained tiredly, falling back onto the bed. If that didn't work, then he'd happily leave Stars Hollow forever.

There was a moment of consideration where Jess watched his uncle hang his head down, and then he slowly nodded. "Okay," Luke finally agreed. "But we have to go see a doctor."

"Fine," Jess sighed, turning away, even more tired now that he had his verdict. If he'd have been kicked out, there weren't many other places he could go.

"I need to know," Luke finally said after they sat in silence. Jess's eyes closed slowly. He'd prayed that Luke would have forgotten. Apparently his luck wasn't that good. Either that, or God wasn't listening.

"I went to see her, at Yale," Jess said evenly.

"Oh," Luke muttered.

"Dean was there and I told her I needed to talk to her, alone," Jess continued to explain, like a robot. "I asked her to run away with me to New York. I begged her not to say 'no'. I told her only to say if she really didn't want to be with me… and she said it. She said it to my face… screamed it. I left, I went back to New York, and that was the last day I was sober for the past two years."

"Jeez," Luke sighed, shaking his head.

"Damn those Gilmore women, huh?" Jess attempted, but neither of them was humored with the situation.

"I always wondered what drove her to do that…" Luke frowned.

"Do what?" Jess frowned.

"Oh, uh, nothing… just… I guess, with Dean and," Luke stammered.

"What?" Jess demanded, but he felt his blood run cold. He knew what it was. He knew it before Luke even opened his mouth.

"About a week after the wedding, a week after you saw her, she and Dean… well, and they were together for a few months before he left," Luke offered with a shrug.

"Wasn't Dean supposed to be married?" Jess managed to get out, even though his tongue felt like sandpaper.

"Well…" Luke trailed off.

"Jesus," Jess blinked, shaking his head as though to get the thoughts out of her out of his head. "I need… I need – to sleep."

"Yeah, sure, okay, no problem," Luke continued to trip over himself, getting up and going to the door. "I'm going to Lorelai's if you need me."

"Yeah," Jess almost whimpered, turning away.

Luke sighed and walked out of the apartment, leaving the distraught youth to his new piece of self-flagellation.

-gGg-

"Lorelai, are you home?" Luke requested as he opened the front door. He'd knocked for a few minutes, unsure what was going on, but she hadn't answered. Thus, he invited himself inside and looked around. "Lorelai?"

"Oh my God!" Lorelai shouted, coming out of Rory's room and slamming right into him.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked with concern, gently supporting one of her arms.

"Yeah, fine, just… awesome and continuing with the fine," Lorelai nodded, but it was obvious she was troubled.

"Look, I have something that I need to tell you," Luke sighed, leading her to the table.

"I was looking up a few places for Jess… places that work well with people with drug addictions who also have mental problems, because apparently he's not as unique as he always pretends he is and there's actually something in Hartford-," Lorelai ranted.

"He's staying," Luke cut her off, looking down at the ground uneasily.

"What?" Lorelai gasped, blinking at him.

"He needs me… he's staying," Luke shrugged.

"I thought that we agreed that it wouldn't be good for him," Lorelai stammered.

"No, you stated, I thought and attempted to dissuade, but got caught up… I talked to him, and he wants to stay, so he's staying," Luke shrugged.

"But what do you know about helping drug addicts?" Lorelai snapped.

"About as much as I did about raising teenagers," Luke joked.

"Yeah, and look how that turned out," Lorelai grumped, and the room seemed to drop a few degrees. It seemed to dawn on her after a few seconds precisely what she'd said and she looked at him in desperation. Luke stared at her, jaw dropped as the words repeated over and over in his head.

"This was not my fault!" he roared, standing up and pointing in the general direction of the diner.

"No, I didn't mean that it was your fault… I just – it was stupid and out of place and I'm sorry Luke," Lorelai attempted.

"Is that what you think?" Luke snapped.

"What?" Lorelai pleaded with him to understand where she stood in all this, but it was like a hit and miss right now. Jess was a very sensitive subject with anyone who happened to be related to him.

"Do you think it was my fault?" Luke clarified.

"No, I think that Jess was already screwed up. There was no way for you to help him," Lorelai stated.

"He was doing better! He was getting better!" Luke objected.

"Sure, because crashing a car, failing high school and running away are great past times," she scoffed.

"Yeah, well who was to blame for that?" Luke growled.

"What are you getting at?" she sighed, as though she was tired of this conversation already.

"If Rory hadn't told him to turn right, that car crash never would have happened. If he wasn't working so damn hard to impress her, he never would have failed high school, and if Rory hadn't ripped his heart out at Yale, he never would have done this!" Luke motioned wildly with each of his words, suddenly realizing how true they all were. Their entire time together, Luke had always thought that he'd have to protect Rory from Jess. Never had he realized that it was the exact opposite.

"This was not Rory's fault! How could you even say that?" Lorelai protested, tears sprouting in her eyes.

"I think I need some time," Luke blurted, feeling the reality of the situation crashing in on him.

"What?" Lorelai gasped, staring at him in horror.

"Until he's good to go and he leaves… I just… I need some time," Luke shrugged.

"Are you… calling off the engagement?" Lorelai leaned heavily against the table and Luke, for once, didn't feel the undying urge to protect her from herself.

"Yeah, I guess I am," Luke shrugged, standing up and walking towards the front door.

"Luke, wait!" Lorelai cried, chasing after him. "Why?"

"Because… I love you, but he's family, and if you can't accept my family, even when they come to me for help, then you can't support me when I need it. He needs me, and you want me to send him to a mental facility. You can't be there for me, because you still hate him too much for what he did to Rory. Maybe you should ask Rory what she did to him. But wait… you can't, because Rory's run away too! Guess we're even," Luke shouted at her, and watched her recoil with ever word. A pit of hatred rolled in his stomach. Hatred for himself for saying those things, hatred for Jess for coming to him, hatred of Rory for hurting Jess and somewhere inside him was the slightest bit of hatred for Lorelai for being unable to accept this.

Without waiting another minute to hear her response, he turned and marched back to the diner in an angry cloud.

-gGg-

The black cloud that entered into the room signaled his uncle's approach, and Jess found himself looking up from the words that he'd written on the page in front of him to the man who was now ripping things involving Lorelai from every surface. Sighing, Jess placed the book down on the bed and tried his best to sit up.

"Luke," he attempted to stop the storming man, but Luke didn't seem to hear him.

"Luke," Jess sing-songed. "Oh Lukey-bear!"

"What?" Luke snapped in disgust, finally turning to look at him.

"Nice to see you know your name," Jess scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not in the mood, what do you want?" Luke grumbled.

"To know why the Lorelai exterminator decided that today was the perfect day for purging," Jess eyed the objects in Luke's hands pointedly.

"I called off the engagement," Luke sighed, sitting down on the end of Jess's bed.

"What?" Jess gasped, sitting up straighter and almost knocking himself out by moving too quickly.

"With Lorelai… I called it off," Luke clarified a little better, but that wasn't the question being asked and they both knew it.

"Let me rephrase that… 'Why?'" Jess restated.

"She just… she doesn't understand anything right now. She's so caught up with Rory that she-," Luke started.

"It's because of me," Jess cut him off, staring down at the bed.

"No, well, not really, I mean yes, you had something to do with it," Luke fumbled, but they both knew precisely what was going on.

"So now you're going to get rid of all her stuff, put it in a 'Lorelai-Box' and then go work in the diner, burning everyone's food and kicking out people who complain?" Jess joked lightly.

"Why would I do that?" Luke scoffed, staring at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Because you don't know how to vent your anger," Jess shrugged. "You just sorta… do things."

"I do not," Luke protested. "They're sensible things!"

"Sure, right," Jess nodded, eyeing him with a raised eyebrow.

"Shut up," Luke said after he lost their staring war and shuffled off to his side of the apartment.

"I think… I think I need to see her… Rory, I mean, when I get better," Jess attempted to distract him from destroying, yet another, Lorelai-based object.

"Are you kidding? The last time she was even mentioned, you practically had a seizure," Luke shook his head.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Jess muttered.

"You've had seizures before?" Luke frowned, moving back to Jess's side.

"Just during withdrawal," Jess shrugged, looking away.

"How many times have you tried to quit?" Luke asked, sitting on the edge of his bed lightly and looking sternly at him.

"I don't know… I tried to quit on my birthday last year, but I couldn't," he shrugged, his eyes flickering up to Luke's and then back down to the bed.

"It'll work this time," Luke said sternly, giving him something of a glare.

"If I didn't think it would, I wouldn't be here," Jess returned, staring at him just as hard.

"Good," Luke nodded, rising again and placing things more lightly into the Lorelai-box.

"When I leave… you should apologize and, I don't know, get her flowers or some shit," Jess shrugged.

"Maybe," Luke shrugged, looking over at Jess with a grimace.

Jess just nodded and returned to his pages. The first set, over two hundred pages, were gone. This one was new. It was flowing from his mind like water. Some story that he'd never thought about before he'd gotten high. Perhaps there was something good about being on drugs. It really screwed your brain into thinking up some original ideas. Hell, Alice in Wonderland was a great example. Smirking, he traced down another line and wondered how she would like it. The words hesitated for a moment. Despite being brought up in the conversation, Jess had been attempting to bar her from his mind. Apparently it wasn't working too well. Sighing, he pressed a hand to his forehead to chase her away, and then returned to his words.