A/N: I liked writing this chapter. It's chaos, it has a lot of townies... it's fun. A bit of fluff and a bit of drama. Enjoy it while I figure out what the hell I'm doing.
My Latest Mistake
Chapter Twelve
Un-Coma
Rated T
"How did it happen?" Luke asked excitedly, bouncing around like a little kid on Christmas day.
"I don't know," Rory answered quietly, still sitting by Jess's side, holding his hand, running her fingers through his hair gently. She was arranging it and rearranging it. Somehow he didn't look right in long hair. It needed to be shorter, gelled. Smiling to herself, she realized that she'd phased out the rest of the world and had to blink to regain her footing.
"Rory?" her mother prodded, giving her a look that was a mixture of amusement and fear.
"I didn't hear you," she admitted guiltily.
A look passed between the two adults, something akin to terror, and they ducked ungracefully from the room. Rory watched them, misunderstanding the look as something happy and went back to playing with Jess's hair absently.
-gGg-
"Oh God, she can't do this again!" Lorelai ranted, throwing up her arms and placing a hand to her forehead.
"She's been in there for three months. Did you really expect her to just - I don't know - abandon him when he woke up?" Luke sighed.
"No, not abandon him, just not fall totally back in love with him," the elder Gilmore raved.
"It's our weakness," Luke joked, but she just shot him a withering glare. "What?"
"We Gilmore women are strong, we don't have weaknesses," Lorelai snapped. "We're amazons!"
"Amazons who wear designer clothes and stiletto heels?" Luke shot back.
"American Amazons!" Lorelai declared.
"Uh huh," Luke nodded, knowing that she was grabbing at straws.
"So you're supporting this – that?" Lorelai grumbled and looked back into the room, where Rory had placed her head on Jess's chest and was in the midst of falling asleep. "His hand is going to fall off if she doesn't let it go soon."
"No it won't, and yes," Luke grumbled.
"Gah! I feel so alone! You're supposed to support me, I'm your fiancé!" she sobbed, throwing herself at him overdramatically.
"And he's my nephew," Luke said half-angrily. They'd already had this discussion, and both of them knew that it didn't end well.
"So I guess that offering something kinky won't make you change your mind, 'cause I think I have a pair of fuzzy handcuffs at home," Lorelai chirped.
"Nope," Luke agreed solemnly.
"Damn, so we're stuck with this?" she questioned.
"Yup," he answered with a nod.
"Do you think we could have a double wedding?" Lorelai changed subjects rapidly.
"What?" Luke deadpanned, staring at her in horror.
"A double wedding! It would be perfect!" she stated, her eyes wide in excitement.
"Please tell me you're joking," he blinked.
"A double white wedding! My parents would have a heart attack!" she declared and started doing a little 'dance' around the hallway.
"Shouldn't we be asking them first," Luke stammered a little bit, pointing at Rory and Jess and attempting to take in the situation that he'd just got himself into.
"It wouldn't take me very long to make her the dress, I mean… it took me all of a week to make her that blue one for her first dance, but maybe it would be easier just to buy it," she continued as though he wasn't there.
"Lorelai-," Luke attempted to cut her off, but she danced around his grasp and threw open Jess's door.
"So what do you think?" she demanded of Rory, who jumped and looked up at them with doe-eyes, like she'd been doing something wrong and didn't want to be punished for it. Frowning, Luke moved into the room and stood beside Lorelai awkwardly.
"Of what?" Rory asked, stunned with their sudden entrance.
"Of a double wedding!" Lorelai sighed, like it was old news and Rory was supposed to have gotten the memo months ago.
"Who? What?" Rory blinked, obviously as shocked with this proclamation as Luke was.
"You, me, Luke and Jess!" Lorelai chirped.
"Woah, pause for a second, what?" Rory continued with the deer-in-the-headlights looks.
"Well seeing as how you and Jess are still completely head over heels-," Lorelai started, and Luke leant against a wall in defeat, knowing a rant when he saw it.
"What?" Rory squeaked in protest, letting go of Jess's hand and jumping away.
"-and don't try to deny it because it's obvious. I thought that we could have a double wedding once Jess wakes up and is able to don a suit!" Lorelai continued, not even really acknowledging Rory.
"But mom-" Rory started, and suddenly he was listening to two ranting women at once.
"It would be a white wedding-,"
"-Jess just woke up!"
"-and we both look good in white, hell, we could have matching dresses!"
"Who knows if he even wants to talk to me again-,"
"Ooo! Yours could have blue flowers on it and mine could have pink!"
"-I mean, after what happened and with the coma-,"
"Maybe mine should have blue and yours could have pink."
"-and now with the waking up from the coma and his book-,"
"It would be adorable!"
"-oh my God! He doesn't even know about the second book!"
"And we could have Taylor do the ceremony-,"
"He's going to be so angry that we published that!"
"Fuck, doesn't anyone in this hospital go to sleep?" Jess groaned from the bed, halting Rory in her tracks.
"-he'd love that!" Lorelai finished, and then looked down at the now-awake Jess. "You're awake!"
"Unfortunately," he grumbled.
"Thank God," Luke moaned and stepped over to his nephew's side. There was an unspoken greeting, a calm that settled over the room that even Lorelai was able to sense.
"Hey," Jess finally said.
"Hey," Luke greeted in return.
"Hi," Jess faced Rory.
"Hi," Rory greeted back.
"Hi," Jess greeted Lorelai.
"Hi," Lorelai sighed.
"Hi," Rory greeted Luke.
"Uh, hi," Luke continued.
"Why does this feel so familiar?" Lorelai mumbled.
All of them were sent to a flashback to three years ago… to the day after the Dance Marathon. They all looked away from each other, attempting not to connect these two occurrences.
"How long have I been out?" Jess questioned abruptly, looking back up at the three others who were still attempting to look anywhere but him, especially with this question.
-gGg-
Jess couldn't help the fear that was growing inside him. They were all avoiding him, avoiding his eyes, and avoiding talking about the hospital. He was able to move his legs now, which was a blessing, but he was still pissed off with his inability to tell time. There were no calendars in his room, no clocks, nothing. Sighing, he felt the sudden urge to scream.
"Can someone just call the doctor?" he requested tiredly after no one answered for a full two minutes.
"Sure," Luke nodded, grabbing Lorelai's arm and dragging her out of the room with him, despite her raving protests and something about a wedding.
"Who's getting married?" he asked Rory with a frown.
"Don't ask," Rory sighed, and then smiled at him loosely. "Welcome back!"
"Back from where? Why can't you tell me how long I've been out?" he sighed, knowing that it must be bad or else they wouldn't be putting up such a fight.
"You were in a coma, Jess," she told him after a second.
"What?" he gasped, feeling the press of time against his mind. A coma…? That could mean weeks, months, hell, years.
"Three months," she cried, grabbing onto his hand and holding it as if to prove to herself that he was still there.
"Three months," he repeated, feeling like a parrot.
"But you're back now!" Rory proclaimed.
"Yeah," he sighed, but he didn't feel back, hell, he barely felt awake, let alone part of the world.
As the doctor came in, looking both relieved and scared of something, most probably relief that Jess was awake and fear of Lorelai, he was shoved aside by a group of people before he could take two steps. Miss Patty, Babette, Kirk, Sookie, Jackson, Bootsy, Taylor, Cesar and a whole bunch of other people he couldn't even recognize poured into his room, dragging all sorts of party gear with them.
"Oh God," he moaned, wishing that he had the strength to get up and run away.
"What's going on?" the doctor questioned, dodging cakes, burners, warmers, large metal cans, a barbeque, an assortment of candies that would make anyone sick and more food than anyone, with the exception of a Stars Hollow resident or Gilmore girl, could consume.
"It's a party, honey," Miss Patty cooed. "Are you married?"
"Yes..?" he answered, wondering if this was the correct answer.
"Oh," she sighed, disappointed, and went off to help Babette set up the cat and gnome candles that she'd brought.
"What is the party for?" the doctor questioned Jess, moving through the chaos to stand beside his patient, who was being saddled with ten million streamers.
"He woke up," Rory chirped, and Jess sent her a glare.
"Here you are," Babette proclaimed, putting a hat on Jess's head. "We couldn't find anything that said anything about comas, so we made our own!" She held up a mirror so he could see it. The thing was a violent hot pink colour with blue writing all over it, mostly signatures, but an incredibly messy set of block letters covered the front saying 'Un-Coma Boy'.
"Gee," Jess mumbled.
"I did the writing!" Kirk shouted, hoping for some recognition.
"Thanks," Jess growled, causing Kirk to run away.
"And this is all for you waking up?" the doctor shouted over a stereo which was now playing some sort of oldies that were being danced to by a group of little girls.
"Oh!" Rory gasped, looking at the girls. "That routine was supposed to be for the wedding!"
"Wedding?" Jess asked again, having to holler over the noises.
"Yeah, Luke and Lorelai are getting married!" Babette informed him as she rushed past.
"What kind of cake do you like?" Sookie demanded as she stumbled over to his bed with a butcher's knife.
"Jeez, what the hell is that for?" Jess squirmed, attempting to get away from the knife.
"The cake," Rory said, as though it were obvious.
"I don't know," Jess finally answered, shaking his head.
"Is this the way it always is?" the doctor asked, astonished with the bustling movement in such a small room.
"Should we take this wall out?" Taylor asked Tom, standing by the windowed wall.
"Wait, what?" the doctor yelled, panicked, as Tom started taking measurements.
"That guy's really nervous," Bootsy commented, dragging around a beer. "Do you want one?"
"Yes," Jess half-begged, reaching for Bootsy's beer, which was being offered.
"No he can't," Rory slapped Jess's hand out of the air, causing him to glare mercilessly at her.
"Why?" he snarled.
"Because you're in a hospital bed!" Rory pointed out.
"Jeez," he sighed again, leaning his head back on his pillow and preparing to brace himself for a long night.
"So should we bring in the sledge hammers?" Tom asked Taylor, who was talking to the doctor, who was screaming about how they can't just destroy hospital property.
"I have them out in the hallway," Kirk declared from the middle of the crowd.
"Sledge hammers?!" the doctor shouted. "No!"
"Who's he?" Taylor demanded stuffily.
"He's a doctor or something, check out the jacket," Bootsy pointed out, grabbing the doctor and tugging off his jacket and then slinging it over his shoulders and then holding out his beer to the doctor. "Do you want one?"
"What?" the doctor gazed in horror at the beer. "No!"
"Suit yourself," Bootsy shrugged and started away.
"I have the sledge hammers!" Kirk shouted, panting and staggering under the weight of the hammers.
"On second thought," the doctor sighed, grabbing the beer out of Bootsy's hand.
"That's the spirit!" Bootsy patted the doctor's shoulder and went to obtain another beer.
"Ever been to hell?" Jess asked Rory conversationally, watching everything in front of him.
"Nope," she shrugged, eating a fry from Luke's and attempting to pick out a cake from Sookie's table, which held at least seven different types.
"I think it probably looks like this," Jess nodded absently.
"You're overreacting," she shook her head, like he was the biggest wimp in the world and needed to obtain some balls. He glared at her, the pink hat's streamers falling into his eyes and cringed as the entire party started singing a homemade song about people in comas and how it's good to come out of them.
"This is the birthday in hell, this is worse than hell, is there anything worse than hell?" Jess moaned, hiding his face in Rory's hair.
"Aww, poor baby," Rory pet his hair unsympathetically.
After the town's song was finished Bootsy, Jackson and the doctor, whose name was revealed as Dillon, started into a rendition of Kashmir, with Jackson on drums, Dillon on air-guitar and Bootsy on vocals, causing most people to gape in horror.
"Never… ever will I ever listen to Led Zeppelin the same way again," Jess cried.
"It could be worse," Rory attempted to convince him.
"How? That's my fucking doctor," Jess pointed out the man.
"You could be in a coma," she said solemnly, grabbing his hand lightly in her own.
"Yeah… that would be worse," Jess admitted, squeezing her hand tightly. The world seemed to fade away again, leaving them alone in the room… at least, until Kirk ran into the room in a grass skirt and a sea-shell bra which caused a lot of shouting, screaming and scrambling. Rory was knocked to the floor. Jess scrambled off the bed and reached down to help her up. They paused again, the chaos blending into the background as they moved closer. The room's energy seemed to pause, freeze as they shared looks and their lips moved closer.
-gGg-
What could he say? He knew it was coming. As he watched his nephew and his soon-to-be daughter-in-law kiss, all he could figure was that it made sense. Gilmores and Danes seemed drawn to each other. It was terrifying, especially terrifying because Jess was more a son to him than anyone else in his history, and the fact that his surrogate-son was about to give his heart to the same girl who'd absolutely slaughtered it in the past made him want to move ten million miles away. But a part of him new that Jess would come back. Sooner or later, Jess would go back to Rory and him to Lorelai. They were magnets.
The room, complete with a half-naked Kirk, was in shambles. There was a sledge hammer hanging out of the window, another hanging out of a wall and Bootsy was passed out in the hallway. Lorelai had gone home in search of more junk food and left him alone to make sure that the party didn't get out of hand, but for Stars Hollow, what the hell was out of hand? Sighing, he turned and walked down to the cafeteria, rolling his peppermint tea in his hands and pondering what the hell he was going to tell Lorelai… as well as offering his prayer to God that she wasn't serious about the wedding.