I Can't Heal

I was helping Luke out in the kitchen, cutting up tomatoes, I decided he needed a break… Well I knew he needed a break, that was one of the benefits of reading minds, I could always avoid trouble. Cutting tomatoes wasn't a task which needed much concentration, so I focused on Rory's thoughts.

Jackie Wilcox and Claire Bennet were involved in a horrific attack which left one girl dead and the other unscathed. Claire Bennet made it out alive and it is said to be the work of a serial killer who is randomly killing people all across the US. Some have dubbed Claire the Miracle Girl, but Claire insists it was her dad, Noah Bennet, who saved her life. Noah is said to have heard his daughter screaming while walking past the locker rooms.

'I heard someone screaming,' Noah recounted. 'And I knew that I had to try and help them. I had no idea that it was my Claire-Bear. I'm just sorry that I couldn't get to Jackie in time, she will be missed.'

Witnesses have come forward saying that they saw the killer, dressed completely in black, running off into the local forest, but no arrests have been made as of yet. There are also rumors that a Haitian and two Japanese tourists were at the crime scene. No one knows why they were there, but no sightings have been seen since.

"Shit," I groaned as the knife sliced my palm, I was too busy reading Rory's mind that I accidentally cut myself.

"What's going on?" Luke asked concerned as he came into the kitchen. "Jess, you're bleeding."

Oh no, now he goes and cuts himself. It better not be deep, I can't deal with this… I wonder if Lorelai's still out there, she'd know what to do. -Luke

"I'm fine," I reassured Luke as I grabbed a dish cloth to cover the gash before he has time to see it. "It's only a scratch."

"Are you sure?" Luke asked, calming down a little. "That's a lot of blood for just a scratch."

"I bleed heavily," I lied to him. "But I'm fine."

Good, he's alright. Maybe I should give him a break, he shouldn't be working while he's injured. -Luke

"How about you spend the rest of the day with Rory," Luke suggested. "Then you can help me out tomorrow when your hand is better."

"Okay, thanks," I accepted. I didn't want Luke worrying about me, so I left the kitchen and rejoined Rory.

"What happened?" Rory asked as she grabbed my hand and pulls the dish cloth off. "What?" she asked confused.

"What?" I looked at my hand, there was no cut at all, it looked perfect.

"Did you use fake blood to get out of working?" Rory said.

"No," I replied examining my hand. "I really did cut myself… weird."

"Are you sure?" Rory asked in disbelief. "What did you do then… heal yourself?"

"Maybe," I said. "It might be possible considering all the other things that I can do."

"So how can you heal…" Rory asked me as Lorelai rejoined the table.

"Jess can heal?" Lorelai asked confused.

"No," Rory answered quickly. "I was just asking him how you can heal a drunken rabbit."

"And how do you?" Lorelai wondered.

"I don't know," Rory replied. "That's why I was asking Jess."

"So Jess?" Lorelai prompted.

"I don't know either," I replied. "Why is the rabbit drunk in the first place? Now that's the question you should be asking."

"Sure," Lorelai replied, she was now completely confused. "Okay back to our previous conversation," Lorelai said to Rory. "The one before I needed to go yell at Taylor."

"He's dead," Rory said as she let out a sigh. "I thought this topic was dropped because you left the table."

"No," Lorelai said defiantly. "And he's alive."

"You know you're wrong, just admit it," Rory said getting annoyed.

"No, I'm right, you're the one that's wrong." Lorelai didn't wavering from her point of view.

I tried to stay out of the argument, but I knew I'd get dragged in regardless.

"Jess," Lorelai said mischievously. "Jess."

I avoided eye contact, I didn't want to fall victim to the infamous Gilmore pout.

"What?" I finally snapped meeting her eyes, I couldn't take it anymore.

"No, don't worry about it," Lorelai said in mock disappointment.

"I'm sorry," I replied falling straight into her trap. "Now, who's dead?"

I rested my head on my right hand and faced her. I knew this was most likely going to be a long discussion.

I looked outside the diner window and saw three guys driving aimlessly around. I thought I recognized two of them from back in New York, but I quickly dismissed it and turned my attention back to Lorelai.

Rory sat there watching the interaction between Lorelai and me, laughing every now and then.

"No truly, Jess, forget about it," Lorelai said still trying to make me feel guilty.

"Lorelai just tell me," I replied. This went on for a while, back and forth, with no end in sight.

"Jess," Rory interrupted, "can we talk upstairs?" She motioned towards the stairs, knowing I wanted out of this ridiculous conversation.

"Yeah, sure," I replied as I quickly stood up and pulled Rory with me.

"No horizontal making out!" Lorelai yelled after us as we make our way up the stairs.

"So," I said as I followed Rory into the small apartment and closed the door behind us.

Rory sat down on the couch and I followed suit. I leaned over and kissed her softly, but it quickly escalated.

"Jess," Rory tried to say, but she got caught up in the moment and lost her train of thought. "Jess," Rory repeated. I didn't let up until Rory pushed me off of her. "Jess, as much as I would like to continue doing what we're doing, don't you think we should talk about your future?"

I sighed, I knew this moment would come eventually, but I wasn't counting on it being this soon.

"Jess?" Rory questioned as she looked me straight in the eyes.

I sighed again.

"My future?" I asked, not being sarcastic, but being genuine as I draped my arm around Rory and held her close. Rory let her head rest on my shoulder.

"So what are you going to do?" Rory asked as she let out a small laugh.

"It's not funny," I replied as I scowled jokingly at Rory.

"It's a little funny," Rory retorted, trying really hard not to burst out laughing again. She placed her hand on top of mine, which was resting on my thigh. "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I replied. "What is there to do?"

"Well…" Rory said trying to think of something. "You could always fight crime."

And that did it, Rory couldn't keep it in any longer, she burst out laughing, she laughed so hard it brought tears to her eyes.

Meanwhile I just sat there watching her.

"Sure," I finally replied sarcastically. "Stars Hollow is really a town in need of a superhero."

"Well, you could always make it your mission to annoy Taylor," Rory replied and this brought a smile to my face.

"Well sure, there's always that option," I said as I pondered the thought, but I'm interrupted once again by Rory's laughter. "What now?" I asked her getting slightly annoyed.

Rory was laughing so hard that it was hard for her to get the words out, all she could manage was one word, "Tights!" before she once again resumed her laughter.

"Oh, jeez, I don't have to put up with this," I replied as I got up off the couch and stormed out of the apartment. Rory was hot on my tail.

"Come on, Jess, it's funny," Rory said as we made our way down the stairs.

"No, it's not!" I replied as I made my way through the curtain, stopping suddenly. All of the diner's customer's eyes were on Rory and me.

"Geez, Jess," Rory said as she ran into the back of me, then she noticed what made me stop in the first place.

"What are you looking at?" I barked at the customers, who all immediately returned to their previous conversations. Rory and I made our way back over to Lorelai's table and sat down.

"So what's that all about?" Lorelai asked while taking a sip of coffee.

"Nothing," I replied quickly.

"It's not nothing," Rory said, looking at me lovingly. She grabbed my hand and turned her gaze towards Lorelai. "Jess is going to wear tights," she said excitedly, jumping up and down for joy, well as much as she could sitting down.

"Wow, Jess are you sure about this?" Lorelai said trying not to laugh. "It's a big decision, you know."

Lorelai only got halfway through her last statement before she burst out laughing and Rory quickly followed suit. Soon both had tears in their eyes, but the laughter hadn't died down.

"Oh god," I groaned as I let my head hit the table. I covered my ears trying to drown them both out.

Suddenly a whole group of people rushed into the diner and quickly took a seat. Among the group was Miss Patty, Babette and Morey, who all sit at a table in the middle- close to the action. Taylor and Jo somehow end up at a table together on the other side of the diner. Andrew and Gypsy sit in the back corner near the bathroom. Kirk was already in the diner at his usual center table and Lane came in completely out of breath, sitting down at our table. All the new diner patrons try to look as inconspicuous as possible, by picking up menus and conversing in random chit chat.

"Whoa, that was freaky," Lorelai exclaimed.

"Yeah." Rory agreed. "Definitely weirder than usual."

"Something's going on," I added, as we looked around at the diner's new patrons.

Then Lorelai, Rory and I turned our attention to Lane, who was taking a sip of Lorelai's coffee. She put it down when she felt all our eyes upon her.

"By the time the message reached me all I got was 'get, diner, quick,' and then something about a mess or something," Lane said confused. "I think it kind of got scrambled along the way, I would blame Kirk, but it looks like he was here the whole time."

"Wow," Lorelai said.

"I wonder what's going on." Rory said nervously to me.

"I don't know," I replied, starting to get nervous.

Then the three guys from the car outside earlier came walking into the diner. The driver, who I couldn't see before, turned out to be Parkman, the same guy who came into the diner a few days ago, the one who could possibly read minds. The other two guys looked oddly familiar too, but I couldn't place them. They all sat at the counter and picked up menus, obviously trying to fit in. They seemed completely unfazed by the completely packed diner.

Luke exited the kitchen and approached the three men.

"What can I get you?" Luke asked them, taking out his order pad.

"I'm Mohinder Suresh," The Indian, obviously Mohinder said. "We're looking for Jess Mariano."

Me? Now I was confused, but I decided to stand my ground.

"Who?" Luke asked, probably in disbelief that anyone, especially three men would be looking for me.

"Jess Mariano," the guy with horned rimmed glasses repeated. "He's your nephew, isn't he?"

"Wait, does he owe you money, because I swear…" Luke replied angrily.

"No, it's nothing like that," Parkman said cutting Luke off.

"Don't I know you?" Luke asked Parkman. "Weren't you in the diner a couple of days ago?"

"We need his help," Mohinder told Luke.

My help… My help for what? Maybe I should bail.

"I know," Lorelai said triumphantly, obviously not hearing the conversation that was now taking place. "I'll go asked Patty, she'll know what's going on."

Lorelai got up and made her way over to Patty, Babette and Morey's table.

I tuned the three guys out and decided to listen to Lorelai, if Miss Patty knew something it was probably worth hearing.

"Hello, Lorelai, sugar," Babette said. "How are ya?"

"I'm good, Babette," Lorelai replied.

"And how's Rory?" Patty asked.

"She's good too," Lorelai answered. "So do you know what's going on?"

"Sure," Patty answered. "You see those three handsome men over there," Patty said motioning to the three men seated at the counter.

"Yeah, sure," Lorelai replied.

"Well they came by the dance studio," Patty explained. "The Indian was a little… frisky, let's just leave it at that."

"Don't tell me you sexually violated the poor man?" Lorelai asked Miss Patty.

"I might have," Patty replied. "He's just so cute, I couldn't resist."

"So what are they doing here?" Lorelai asked. "Apart from the obvious vie for you affection."

"Oh my," Miss Patty said, day dreaming the scenario out. "They were asking about Jess."

"Jess?" Lorelai questioned confused.

"Jess!" Luke yelled to me.

I looked up at Luke, just as the three guys turned around to see who I was. I could now see the three men clearly and I realized I knew the other two from New York. The Indian guy was the guy who kept harassing me, talking about evolution. While the other guy, the one with the horned rimmed glasses, tried to kidnap me once, but I managed to fight him off and get away.

Everyone in the diner was now watching me and the three mysterious guys' interaction. Rory looked towards the three men and then back to me. She noticed my face change from confusion to fear.

"Jess, are you alright?" Rory asked me concerned.

"Oh no, they've found me," I said with sheer terror etched in my voice.

"Who?" Rory asked confused.

I got up quickly and ran out of the diner.

"That's him!" Mohinder said amazed.

"Come on, Parkman, you're with me, Suresh, you stay here in case he doubles back," the guy with the horned rimmed glasses said.

"Do you have any chai tea?" I heard Mohinder asked just before I was out of earshot.

I was halfway across the square when I noticed the two guys chasing me. I was listening to Rory's thoughts trying to pick up some vital piece of information. I decided to head to the bridge, the one place where no one but Rory would find me.

"Can I help you?" -Mohinder

"Why are you looking for Jess?" –Rory

"We need his help," -Mohinder

"How do you know him?" –Rory

"Well I don't, well not personally, but he may be the only individual that can help us stop Sylar for good," –Mohinder

"Sylar? And you think Jess can help?" –Rory

"Yes, we believe he has a great power. Wait, do you mind if I asked you a question?" -Mohinder

"Go ahead," –Rory

"How do you know Jess Mariano?" -Mohinder

"I'm his girlfriend, Rory," –Rory

"Rory, it's nice to meet you, I'm Mohinder Suresh" -Mohinder

"It's nice to meet you too, Mohinder," –Rory

"Does Jess Mariano confide in you Rory?" -Mohinder

"Jess, well not really, but more than anyone else in this town," –Rory

"I see, well have you noticed anything out of the ordinary while being around him lately, or has he told you anything that seemed strange?" -Mohinder

"Not that I can think of. He tends to be a man of very few words." –Rory

"I see." -Mohinder

I'd made it to the bridge, but I heard them coming and decided to hide in the woods. I could still see the bridge, but I was completely hidden by the surrounding bushes. They stood on the middle of the bridge, looking around… looking for me. I was so preoccupied that I didn't even hear the person behind me. I only realized when it was too late. They covered my mouth with one of their hands, preventing me from screaming.

"Jess Mariano," they said murderously. "I have you now."

I searched his mind… for anything, but all I got was one word… Sylar.

"Sylar," I said fearfully and he tightened his grip on me.