A/N: May I introduce you to 'Reasons - Part One, Epilogue'. This is merely the ending of the first part of the story, and then the next part will probably resume in a few months (in the story time, not in my writing time... I'm not that cruel). This was immensely fun to write, and I finally get to write in a third persons's POV instead of Luke and Jess... seeing as how I can now no longer use Jess for awhile. Although... how long? Bwahaha.

My Latest Mistake

Reasons - Part One, Epilogue

Chapter Ten

Home

Rated K+

The night was cold… the air was mild and the wind was biting, or at least he thought it was. Luke couldn't really feel anything. Part of him was in that room with Jess… dying, losing himself. Bitter tears fell down his cheeks. The first tears he'd cried for his nephew. Wiping them away, he just continued to stare at the streets of Stars Hollow. He'd been driven home by someone and told to stay inside, to not go see Jess for awhile… just until he came to terms with what was going on. How the hell was he supposed to come to terms with it? Two months ago Jess had called him… two months ago his entire life had gone upside down. He'd lost the Gilmores and gained a son and now he had nothing.

The phone in his diner rang and he turned to it absently, his mind ten million miles away. His hand rose without his permission and the phone was on his ear before he could do anything about it. "Yeah," he rasped, his voice betraying the tears. Coughing a little bit, he cleared his voice and said a grumbled: "What?"

"Is it true?" Lorelai asked on the other end of the phone, and he could hear the shock on her voice.

"Yes," Luke confirmed, and he felt the world shatter around him. Jess was in a coma, he'd failed him. The phone dropped from his hand, shattering uselessly on the ground.

Tears wrenched his body as he fell on the counter heavily. When Jess had needed him and actually wanted him to help, he'd failed him. The words repeated over and over in his mind. Luke had failed him, like he always did. Before long, he felt a hand on his face and he looked up to see Lorelai standing in front of him, tears drenching her own face. They stared at each other for a few seconds before he gathered her in his arms and they shared his grief.

-gGg-

The world was rushing through her ears. She'd gotten the call when she was at dinner with Logan, trying to act professional and respectful even though her heart was back in a hospital room with a man that she couldn't be with. When the phone vibrated against her hip, she'd through nothing of it, but when it continued for almost five minutes, she finally excused herself and took the call.

"Rory?" Lorelai called into the phone.

"Mom… hi," Rory answered, remembering Luke's words and allowing the guilt to wash over her. "Mom I'm so sorry-."

"Jess is in a coma," Lorelai told her through tears.

"What?" Rory gasped.

That was when it happened. She'd left the party without so much as a goodbye, throwing her cell phone in a trash can on the way to the hospital and trying desperately not to crash the car. By the time she'd arrived, all of the townspeople had left and Luke was gone as well. Smashing open the door to his room, she drifted to his bed and collapsed in the chair next to it.

"Oh God," she groaned, leaning towards him and running a hand down his face gently.

His skin was warm, almost feverish, but he showed no signs of having felt the touch. Tears clogged her throat and she panicked slightly, wondering what had happened since the last time she saw him… at the college. Absently, time passed for her as she mused over her thoughts. It was past eight in the morning before someone finally stumbled into the hospital. She had been there all night and she hadn't even noticed.

"You're difficult to find, Ace," Logan stumbled drunkenly.

"I wasn't trying to be," Rory brushed off, holding Jess's hand in hers and staring at his face without looking at anyone else.

"Who's this guy?" Logan slurred, slumping into one of the townspeople's chairs. Rory glared up at him a little bit. Logan sitting in that chair seemed to desecrate its innocence in her mind. Bile rose in her throat when she realized that she honestly couldn't see Logan fitting in with her old life at all, but she gagged the feeling back down when she turned back to Jess.

"He's an old friend," she said, her second hand moving up to brush a few stray hairs off Jess's forehead. A small part of her subconscious told her that she should bring in some hair gel… it would make him feel better, more Jess-like.

"So? Why are you here? Why did you leave the party?" Logan grumbled, a hand to his forehead, obviously there to support him in his stupor.

"Because he needs me," Rory cried softly. She didn't know how, or why, she just knew that he did.

"I need you too, Ace," Logan leered, and Rory shook her head in frustration.

"No you don't," she whispered, leaning over Jess as if protecting him with her body.

"Why don't you come home?" he suggested.

Rory froze. Home… where was home? She thought of her 'home' back at her grandparent's mansion. It was big, it was comfortable enough… but was it home? Her mind travelled back three years. It travelled back to when Jess would be waiting for her when she came home from school and they would kiss each other silly until they would almost walk in front of moving cars, not caring enough about their surroundings to pay attention.

A laugh froze on her lips as more tears bubbled down her face. For two people so enthralled with the tiniest of all details available in a book, they sure were ignorant to them when it came to their own surroundings. They could kiss for hours without noticing whether it was day or night.

"Ace?" Logan pressed.

"I am home," Rory finally gasped out, offering him a watery smile and kissing Jess on the forehead before leaving the room and going out to greet a crowd that she hadn't seen in years.

The two people she needed were near the back. Lorelai and Luke were supporting each other, half-limping through the crowd.

"Rory," Luke greeted lifelessly, simply staring at her like she was a demon.

"Offspring," Lorelai attempted to greet cheerfully, but it was obvious that all of them were upset and that none of them had done anything near sleeping that night.

"I'm so sorry," Rory sobbed, running into their bodies and hugging them both tightly as they hugged her. They all leant each other their support. The seconds stretched into minutes with the townspeople all funneling in to see Jess and offer him some part of their town yet again.

By the time the trio had made it into his room, the entire floor had been covered in cat designs, little ballerina shoes, random rugs with veggies on them, a few porcelain unicorns, and enough books and magazines to drown a normal person… but not Jess. Not if he were conscious to read them. Every slice of wall was covered with something. Even Lane had brought in a few band posters in remembrance of the few good band-conversations that the two had shared. It was that corner, with the music and the books that Rory identified with most.

"It's like the whole town is in here," Luke mumbled, looking around in a mixture of horror and amazement.

"It feels like home," Lorelai added.

"It feels like Jess," Rory finished, and all their eyes were drawn back to his form on the bed. Rory stepped away from the little gathering first, perching back on her chair and taking his hand into her own lightly. Some part of her wondered where Logan had drifted off to, but most of her didn't really give a damn anymore. This was where she wanted to be and no one, not Logan or her grandparents were ever going to take her away from this circle ever again.