Dani buried her face in Jess's chest, listening to her brother snore and hiding from the morning sun. Lorelai and Luke were sitting in chairs in a corner talking softly. She groaned and pulled a pillow toward her, clamping it over her head, muffling their voices. Lorelai came over and gently removed the pillow. "Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." She teased.

Dani glared at her and smoothed down her hair before giving up and rolled over slowly, avoiding bumping her hip. "Coffee?" She asked groggily.

"Right here." Lorelai handed her a cup from Luke's.

"Thank God for coffee." Dani muttered around the rim, taking a big swallow then looking up at the woman standing beside her and smiled a little grudgingly. "Hi."

Lorelai returned the smile and pulled her chair toward her and took a seat. "Hi. How do you feel?" Sounding much too awake for Dani's taste.

"Like crap." Dani said, wishing everyone would just leave her alone.

"How do you feel?" Jess asked from behind her.

Dani groaned, "Will everyone just leave me alone?" she said loudly, her temper escalating.

"It's not an unreasonable question, Dani." Jess pointed out for once not being sarcastic and his face showing his growing concern.

"All of you need to leave. Now." Dani said, visibly struggling to keep from yelling at them. "Now!" She shouted when they hesitated. "Please." She whispered. This time the three listened and hurried out. When they had left, Dani hugged the pillow to her and fell into her memories.

"Lucy, I'm home!" Dani called entering the apartment.

"Why are you being so loud?" Liz groaned, from where she was draped over the couch.

"Sorry, Mother." Dani whispered with a sarcastically sweet smile and walked out of the room, stomping as loud as she could. Jess had taught her well. Wandering down the hall to her room where the thirteen year old dumped her purse on her bed, then crossed to her brother's room where she knocked lightly while opening the door, to find Jess lying on his bed, reading, of course. "Hey."

Jess glanced at her, and then returned to his book. "You really should knock, pause, then come in."

"Why?" Dani stared at him, purposely putting a confused look on her face.

"Because." Jess set down his book to look at her.

Dani took a seat at the end of his bed. "You might be doing something dirty?"

"Don't make me laugh." Jess said sarcastically.

"Come on! It's not that unrealistic!" Dani told him, trying to hide a smile from his obvious annoyance.

"Right. And I should knock on your door, because you're running a meth lab." Jess picked his book back up.

"Yeah!" Dani looked at his book. "Hey, give me that." She snatched the book from his hands.

"Hey!" Jess protested, taking it back.

"It's mine!" Dani sat on his feet, leaning over to take it back. "It was in my bookshelf." She opened it up. "You wrote in it!" She smacked him on the back of the head with it. "It's going back in my bookshelf." Dani glared at him. "And staying there!"

Dani smiled at the memory. The two had always fought over whose books were whose. It was their 'thing' as their mother had referred to it, when she had been there and sober. Something Dani had seen very rarely growing up.

Dani looked up from her computer when Liz knocked on her door. "Hey honey."

"Hi Mom." Dani paused over the last word, wondering what to call the woman standing before her.

Liz came in and sat on her neatly-made bed, wrinkling the sheets a little bit. Dani frowned and went back to her computer. "I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping tomorrow or something." She leaned forward, acting like a teenager about to reveal her biggest secret. "We could even get your ears pierced again."

"Already been done." Dani sighed, pulling back her hair to show her mother the double earrings she wore.

"Oh." Liz sounded disappointed.

"I haven't had a third one done yet." Dani said hesitantly, unsure of her mother's intentions.

Liz clapped her hands like a little girl on Christmas. "It's a date!" She cheered.

"It's a date." Dani repeated, a small knot of excitement growing in her stomach.

Dani nearly danced out of her room, the next morning, bumping into Jess in the hallway. "You do know you're almost fifteen and not five, right?" He asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Dani told him as she brushed past, grabbing her purse from the table in the hall and heading toward the kitchen. A few minutes later, Liz stumbled in.

"Not so loud!" The woman groaned, before pouring herself some coffee and going back to her room.

Dani sat down at the table, flinging her purse onto the floor as hard as she could, wiping her eyes to control the tears. "You should have known better." Jess said from the doorway.

"Not helping!" Dani snapped, pushing on her eyelids in an effort to keep the tears at bay.

"But I am sorry." Jess finished, taking the chair opposite her.

"No, you're right." Dani admitted. "I should have known better. I mean, I have lived with her for fourteen years." She grew angry. "But that doesn't excuse it!" She marched down the hall and threw open Liz's door. "You should have known better than to drink last night! You had a date with your daughter! Remember me? That's right, your daughter! I never get to see you or talk to you or tell you any of my secrets the way mothers and daughters are supposed too! Do you know who I told when I went on my first date? Jess! Because you were always drunk or wasted and if I told you when you were sober you wouldn't remember!" After unloading her emotional baggage, she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her.

Dani had gone out and gotten her third piercing that day, of course without Liz. She reached up and gently fingered the small topaz birthstone earring that marked the hole. Speaking of holes…..

"Come on, Jess!" Dani called through the apartment. "The movie starts in five minutes!"

Jess came into the living room pulling on his leather jacket. "Remind me why I'm taking you again?"

"Because you love me and want me to be happy?" Dani tried, pushing him out the door.

"Wrong." Jess locked the door and put the key in his pocket.

"Because it's summer and there's nothing else to do?"

The 'conversation' carried on for several minutes until they had paid for their tickets and had found their seats in the air-conditioned theater. "So, what are we watching?" Jess hissed to Dani during the previews.

"'Holes'." She told him.

"Why?"

"Because the only other thing playing is 'Chicken Run." She whispered.

"Ah." The two watched the commercials for a few minutes until Jess broke the silence with: "Remind me why I'm taking you again?"

Dani laughed quietly and smacked his arm.

Dani carefully rolled over on her back and stared at the ceiling trying to collect her thoughts and find some sleep. Instead of the sleep she so desperately craved, she found more memories.

"Come on Jess!" Dani whined, pulling him through the pool gates.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." He sighed.

"You'll live." She told him, claiming their chairs.

"I'm not swimming." Jess told her flatly.

"Well you're not even changed." Dani pointed out.

"Like that's ever stopped you." He snorted.

"You're right." She smiled happily and walked over to the pool edge, dipping her toes in, testing the temperature. Jess quietly crept up behind her, giving her a light shove to throw her off balance. Dani shrieked as she fell in. "I hate you!" She yelled, surfacing, while trying not to laugh. She allowed him to pull her out of the pool, before hugging him tightly, effectively soaking him.

"Dani!" Jess complained, pushing her off.

She flashed him a brilliant smile before jumping into the pool, with a huge splash, soaking him. Again.

Dani grinned at the memory, before sinking into another.

"Danielle. Jess!" Their mother's sing-song voice called through the apartment.

"You go out there first. She likes you." Dani hissed to Jess from his bedroom.

"I don't want to." Jess sighed.

"Suck it up." She told him, grinning.

"You are a cruel, cruel person, Danielle Mariano." Jess told her, backing out of the room, leaving Dani smiling triumphantly.

The smile faded as she tried to hear the indistinct conversation in the other room. "I'll go get her." Was all she heard.

When she heard footsteps coming down the hall, she shot backward into the room and took a seat on the bed. When Jess appeared in the doorway, she shook her head frantically. "You can't make me go." She told him, looking almost...scared.

"Dani, come on."

"I'll climb down the fire escape." She threatened.

"No." He said firmly.

"I don't want to go." She pulled her knees up to her chest and rocked back and forth. "I don't want to." She said quietly.

"This one actually seems decent." Jess told her.

"Liar." She caught him.

"Just." He pulled her to her feet. "Give him a chance, Kris."

She put her arm around his shoulders. "You so owe me." When they entered the living room, Liz squealed and pulled Dani in front of the man standing next to her.

"David, this is my daughter, Dani." Liz made the introductions. "Dani, this is my new boyfriend, David." Dani and Jess shared a look that plainly said, 'Why am I not surprised.'

"How old are you?" David asked bending down to Dani's height.

"Ten." Dani murmured before giving him a small half-smile and backing over the couch where she immediately curled into Jess's embrace. When the two left the room, she sighed. "Another one."

"Yeah." Jess stroked her hair gently, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Why can't we have a normal mom?" Dani asked. "One who loves us and takes care of us and plays with us. Why can't we have one daddy? Just one?"

"I don't know." Jess admitted.

"Why did-" She was cut off.

"Dani, I don't know!" Jess said loudly. She left his lap quickly and moved to the other end of the couch, a hurt look evident in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Dani. I'm just-" He paused. "Tired."

When he turned to look at her, she had crossed to the window and was staring out at the streets of New York. "I know. I'm going over to Emily's."

"Dani, it's not safe." Jess protested.

"I've been doing it for ten years, I think I can do it one more night." Dani snapped.

"Dani, please don't go. Not tonight." Jess relaxed as she took her hand off the doorknob.

"Why not?" She turned to look at him, her eyes clouded with anger and hurt.

"I have a feeling. Just- not tonight. Please Kris?"

She walked down the hall. "Okay." She called back quietly, knowing his feeling was probably right.

That night there had been a suicide on the streets of New York, on the street where Emily lived. Emily's drunk father had committed suicide that night right after severely abusing his wife and children. After that, Dani had learned to trust Jess's feelings.

Jess had always said that he could read her emotions in her eye color. Dark blue, for when she was upset or hurt, green for when she was angry, gray for when she was lying and sky blue for when she was truly happy

He had only seen the sky blue once...

"Excuse me?" Liz entered the classroom, not drunk for once.

"Mrs. Mariano?" Dani's school principal, Miss Allan, stood and offered Liz the seat beside Dani.

"Miss Danes, actually." Liz corrected.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Miss Allan looked flustered, but then regained her composure. "I wanted to talk to you about Dani's grades."

"Why? Is she failing?" Liz asked quickly, sending Dani an accusatory look.

"Oh, just the opposite." Miss Allan assured her. "I would like your permission to have Dani skip a grade. Her marks are

amazing, well over the average for a 13-year-old."

"Wow." Liz stared at Dani, her blue eyes showing amazement. "Um, sure. If it's okay with Dani."

Both women looked at her. "Yeah. I'd like that."

After filling out the needed paperwork and whatnot, Dani and Liz walked to her car together. "Skipping a grade, huh?"

"Yeah." Dani stared ahead, jerking to a stop when Liz grabbed her arm.

"I just want you to know, that I'm proud of you." She said simply, before walking to the car where they found Jess.

Dani's eyes were sky blue.

Dani shook her head smirking at the memories that seemed to flood her mind. She was thinking back to the week before she and Jess were sent to live with Luke.

"Are you sure we should be doing this Jess?" Dani asked guiltily looking around as they were walking toward the fountain in the center of the park that was located just three blocks from their small apartment.

Jess mischievously smirked and nodded, "Yep, now come on we are on a limited time frame here!" He said as he walked faster and was whistling an unknown tune. Dani smiled at him and reluctantly followed hiking up her backpack. When they finally arrived they put down their bags and started ripping open packages of Jell-O. They had been buying and stealing the Jell-O for months and hiding it in their rooms, not that Liz would have cared, it just made them feel more evil. They laughed as they started to add the powder to the fountain watching the water turn red.

"Hey Kris, hand me that branch will you?" Jess said. Dani went to get the fallen branch from the corner of the park while Jess finished dumping the final box into the fountain.

"Here you go!" Dani replied giggling. They quickly mixed the red water as the timer for the fountain came to life. It was cold enough that the Jell-O was already starting to thicken and the spray wasn't working. The only thing you could hear were the small mechanics of the fountain grinding attempting to spray the water into the air. "Come on let's get out of here before we get caught" Dani laughed as she and Jess collected their evidence and ran back home.

Dani was laughing so hard that she never realized that Jess had slipped back into her room.

"Hey, you seem to be in a better mood. What's so funny?" He asked.

"Nothing" was her only reply.

A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter! I was going to make it longer but decided to split it into a two-parter with all of my incredible ideas. :-) I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!

Love ya'll!

Brianne