A/N Thank you all for reading and reviewing. Last chapter was a set-up for the future. This one is a bit more fun. Hope you are continuing to enjoy and so many secrets on the horizon.

I own nothing.

Chapter 19 Coffee will kill you

When Lorelai woke up the next morning Luke had already been at work for two hours. She wondered why she was awake, since the clock said it was only seven-thirty-seven. Then a finger poked her in the back and she realized that she was not alone. Turning over she saw Rory's huge Christmas morning grin and smelled a cup of coffee. Lorelai slowly sat up and sighed, "OK offspring, what is with the early bird imitation?"

"We're going to Strand today!"

"Good Lord, is this going to be like a fix to a junkie? I'm only going to the bookstore one day Rory, tomorrow we do normal things like shoe shop. Got it?" Lorelai grabbed the coffee out of Rory's hand.

"Well, I was talking to Jess last night and we thought that maybe you could go shopping on Wednesday and I could go back to Strand with Jess?"

"NO! You and I are here at the request of my boyfriend and we are going shopping together on Wednesday; today you get one day in heaven that's it. Make the best of it. Wednesday we need to go shopping for other things including a Christmas gift for Luke. Got it?"

Rory wasn't happy, but when Lorelai talked about shopping for Luke she knew that it was a good idea, if it wasn't for Luke she wouldn't be here now.

"Speaking of my boyfriend, were you awake when he left?"

"Yep, I was sitting in the living room waiting to wake you up and I think I scared him. He said not to wake you until after seven –thirty."

"So how long did you wait?"

"Seven-thirty-two."

"Nice restraint. Well, let's get up and get breakfast. Here's the drill, Strand opens at nine-thirty. We'll be waiting at the door, when is Jess joining us?"

"He's there now."

"WHAT?"

"Well, he's a bit excited too."

"Uh, yeah. Well, we need to get breakfast before we tackle books. Does Jess have a cell phone?"

"Yep, that's how I know he's there now."

"OK, so call him back while I get a shower and tell him we need a real breakfast place, a diner, restaurant, just no bagel place, or fast food. Then get directions to meet him. OK? I'm gonna change."

"Got it. By the way, Henry called up and said he's downstairs in the lobby."

"O-kaay, why is Henry in the lobby?"

"Luke's afraid we'll get lost so he asked Henry to get us to Strand and then the theater and home."

Lorelai sighed, "I really love that man, but there are days. Did he think of how we're to explain Henry to Jess?"

"Probably not. Is it unusual to have a limo in New York? Could we tell him it's part of the package deal?"

"Let's just try and avoid lying about this and avoid the subject all together. Give me half an hour." Lorelai got up and went into the shower. When she came out she noticed that Luke had left her a note on her dresser. He left a credit card asking her to pick up a gift card for Jess and letting her know that if she needed anything to just go ahead and use the card. She looked at the credit card and it had her name on it. She just shook her head.

Rory and Lorelai allowed Henry to let them off a block away from Strand and took the number of the car phone so he could get them to the theater on time. They walked up the street to the coffee shop Jess had told them about and went inside. He'd gotten them a booth.

"Hey Jess," Lorelai greeted him, "What time did you get to Strand?"

"About seven." Jess was as talkative as his uncle when they'd first met him.

"So, a little excited?" Lorelai asked, hoping to get something out of the boy.

"Yeah," Jess smiled, "When Luke comes down I can get anything I want. When it's just mom she puts a limit on it, usually one or two books. I've been wanting the reissued book by Chinua Achebe "Things Fall Apart." Also Strand has a signed first edition of Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' I've wanted and when I talked to Luke last week he said he would try and get that for me. I really want to see if it's there. Is Luke going to meet us?"

"Oh, Jess, I'm sorry, he's tied up in a meeting today, but he told me to take care of what you wanted, so you and Rory can have the run of the place." Lorelai was really sorry because she realized that Jess was looking forward to spending time with his uncle as much as he was going to Strand.

Just then her phone started to ring, "Hey babe, we're just talking about you."

"Oh, really? Good things I hope?" Luke smiled into the phone, he really needed to hear her voice right about now.

"Always good things. Jess is here, we're meeting him for breakfast before the bookstore opens."

"Are you in a restaurant?" Luke was surprised she was up and about.

"I know I'll go out side so as not to disturb the patrons." Lorelai smiled at the kids and went out the door.

"Why is it that you never are that quick to leave my diner?" Luke chided her.

"Because part of the reason I wanted to go out is to talk to you without them hearing. Luke, Jess is really disappointed that you didn't join us today. I think he thought that you were going to be here. So I was thinking, what if we invite him to come along with us on Thursday, that way he'll get to see you and spend time with us as well. He and Rory seem to have a great deal in common."

"You know how much I love you? That's really one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. You know how important family is to me. I'd love to have Jess join us if you are OK with it?"

"Absolutely, not a problem. Can Paige get us another ticket if Jess wants to go to this sob-fest of a musical today?"

"I'm sure she can do anything, but call her if he wants to go. Tom is calling us back to the room, I'll call you around lunch time OK? I love you. Bye"

"Love you too. I can't wait to see you tonight. Bye" Lorelai walked back into the coffee shop and said to Jess, "What plans do you have for Thursday Jess? We're going to do the whole obnoxious tourist sight-seeing thing and we'd love you to join us, Rory, Luke and me. What'd you say?"

"That'd be great I don't have anything planned since we're on Winter break." Jess seemed to be happier knowing he'd spend time with his uncle as well.

"Well, then let's get on over to Strand and start shopping kids." Lorelai paid for the breakfast and they started to walk towards the big warehouse.

"I'm going to get some magazines and set up shop in the coffee shop. I want you to check in every hour OK? Jess you have a cell phone, I'd like that number incase I need to get a hold of you two, so don't split up. OK, now go have fun." Lorelai watched them take off and head for parts unknown. She went to get a magazine and coffee and sat in the most comfortable overstuffed chair they had.

Almost three hours later Billy the barista came up to Lorelai with another beverage, the fifth one in two hours. "Billy, didn't I tell you after the second one that I'm not interested in receiving coffee from any men who think that this is a single's bar especially since I'm not single?"

"Yes, miss, but this isn't coffee it's tea."

"Now why would you bring me tea since I've only been drinking coffee?"

"Because the gentleman at the counter said to tell you that coffee'll kill you."

Lorelai snapped her head to look at the counter and sure enough there was Luke in all his business glory. She smiled at Billy and said, "Well, I think I should go give this guy a piece of my mind." She got up went over to Luke and gave him a very passionate kiss. "Hey you." She purred, "I didn't think I'd see you until this evening, this is a wonderful surprise."

Luke continued to hold her in his arms, "Well, after you told me that Jess was disappointed I wasn't here I told Tom I wanted to take a real lunch break today, and he was thrilled. Usually I barrel through and we order in while we continue to go over the reports. Can you find the kids so we could go?"

"Actually I noticed them coming in when I came over to greet you. They are pretending to be invisible." Lorelai laughed, "I think I just wigged out Billy too, about five different guys have tried to give me coffee, and I told him to stop sending them over."

"You, turned down coffee? Really?"

"Yep, only room for one coffee pusher in my life now."

Lorelai leaned in for one more kiss before they heard, "Aw, jeeze, get a room," from Jess and Rory giggled.

"Hey Jess, sorry I wasn't here this morning, I had some meetings I needed to attend. Since you are the one so familiar with the area, why don't you pick the place we eat?"

"It's OK Luke, I'm glad you were able to come for lunch. Since Rory and I have a huge pile of books that we haven't checked out, why don't we eat next door, that way we can finish up before two o'clock and get to the play?"

"So they talked you into going to the musical? I'm surprised." Luke said.

"Well, I wanted to see this one since it's based on Bronte's novel. I'm not sure I'd want to see Seussical the Musical tomorrow." Jess made a face.

"Gotta go with you there," Luke chuckled, "singing cats never've done it for me. The play we're going to see on Thursday is Lily Tomlin's, Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe they said it was a revival, so no music on Thursday."

"We're going to see Intelligent Life Thursday? I can't believe it! That is awesome!" Lorelai is jumping up and down.

"Ya know Uncle Luke, if I ever thought of you dating, I'm not sure I would've put you and Lorelai together." Jess laughed.

"Wait until you see her get him to go shopping," Rory said knowingly.

"Aw jeeze. Can we just order some food please? I need to get back to the office."

"How's everything going?" Lorelai asked discreetly. "Did you come up with a viable solution?"

"Yep, we decided that everything will remain steady for now and put stricter guidelines in to make sure any non-compliance won't cost us money. There is a failure to comply contract that'll be developed for all of the departments so it won't look like we're targeting, and a mentoring period where everyone will have a little buddy to make sure they know what is what. After that it'll be their choice if they want to continue with the company."

"Wow, that sounds complicated but very fair. Do you feel good about it?"

"I always feel better when we can help people to succeed, if they don't take the help, I can't do anything about it." Luke sighed, turning to Jess he asked, "So how is school and home life?"

"Well, I probably should talk to you about it more later, but I don't think I'm going back next semester."

"What!?! Why Jess, you were doing so well there, they challenged you and you were making all A's weren't you?" Luke was very upset, it had taken years to figure out that Jess was not being challenged and the reason he was acting up was that he was bored, but this school seemed to be working.

"Well, mom met this guy," Jess started.

"Shit," Luke said, "Say no more Jess, I'll talk with your mom and see what we can do. You're going to get a great education; you're too smart to just be dragged along on one of her hair-brained schemes that always ends in disaster. I don't want you to worry about it OK?"

"Thanks Luke, I really don't feel like going on the Renaissance circuit with her and Gary."

"Wait, you mean they are leaving the state? Did she even think to tell me about this? When did she make this plan and why didn't she say anything about it last night?" Luke was starting to move into a full blown rant when Lorelai stopped him.

"Luke, you have a lot to focus on right now, don't worry about anything, there are lots of options available for Jess and I'm sure you'll find one that's best for everyone. For right now you need to deal with the next two days and then we can all relax and have fun on Thursday right?" She was holding onto his hand and talking softly into his ear and just as one quiets a spooked horse, Luke started to calm down.

Jess looked t Rory and said quietly, "I've never seen Luke go from rant to peaceful in such a short amount of time. Wow."

"Yep, they've been friends for about five years now and mom has been able to calm him down better than anyone. Of course she's also the best person to get him into rant mode, you should have seen us trying to get out of our house yesterday, mom had three suitcases for a three day trip." Rory laughed and Jess joined her.

Lorelai felt a twinge for this young man who seemed to crave a normal family, she knew how she felt that growing up in a two parent family. She looked at Luke and whispered, "As much as I don't want to point out the obvious, I think you need to get back to the office so we can go to dinner at a decent time tonight."

"Yep, got to go listen to accountants and lawyers for a few more hours, but then we can have a nice evening together." He whispered back, to Jess he said, "Lorelai said you wanted that first edition of 'Of Mice and Men' if they still have it Lorelai has my credit card to get that for you. I'll see you for dinner too?"

"Sure, mom is out with Gary tonight, so it was just going to be leftovers. Thanks for everything Luke."

"Great, see you all soon. You're more than welcome Jess, you're my nephew." He kissed Lorelai and hugged Rory and Jess good-bye.

They went back to Strand to check Rory and Jess out so they could get to the theater. "Are we going to have to carry all these books with us?" Rory whined.

"I could say something about dealing with the disease, but I'll be the really nice mommy and call Henry." Lorelai teased.

"Who's Henry?" Jess asked.

"Henry is a very nice limo driver that Luke's let us use today and he's going to get us to the theater on time as well." Lorelai didn't want to lie, but she also didn't want to give Luke up before he wanted to say things to Jess,

The musical was depressing, but Lorelai enjoyed the music and singing, the kids talked about it all the way back to the suite and Lorelai didn't even think before opening the door where Jess stopped and said, "Whoa."

"Hey Jess, come on in and have a seat, do you want something to drink?" Lorelai was trying to play this off as just a hotel room, nothing more.

"Sure, a soda would be good, whatever you have." Jess was walking around looking at the place. He turned to Lorelai and said, "Rory said that your parents are paying for her to go to Chilton, are they rich?"

Lorelai smiled, "Yes Jess, they are rich. But you know sometimes people who're rich aren't as upfront about it as others. They see money as a way to serve people instead of making people feel they're better than others. My parents tend to use their money to feel better than others. But sometimes people who have money just want to do what's right."

"You mean like my Uncle Luke?" Jess said looking at the widescreen TV.

Lorelai's mouth opened a couple of times trying to figure out what to say. "Huh, Jess, I don't know what to say to that. Maybe you need to talk to Luke?"

Jess pulled out his wallet and from it pulled a piece of newsprint, for a second Lorelai thought it was another horoscope, but it was a page from the financial section ten years ago talking about Buech Corporation changing it's name to Buech – Danes Corporation and the owner Lucas Buech Danes.

"Yep, Jess, I'm pretty sure you need to talk to your uncle. Does your mom know?"

"Hah! If mom had access to this kind of cash she would blow it all in a heartbeat. I think Luke knows this and is one of the reasons he keeps such close tabs on her. I think she likes living a simple life, although she doesn't have to worry about money, I know Luke takes care of my school and the rent. All she has to do is get the food and sometimes I wonder about her being able to do that."

Just then Luke opened the door, "Hey everyone, man it's good to be outta there." He walked over to Lorelai and kissed her.

"Do they do that a lot?" Jess asked Rory.

"You don't know the half of it. Apparently Luke closes the diner a couple days a week for a few hours, no one absolutely knows what happens, but they make a fair guess."

"Oh My God! Where did you hear about this?" Lorelai was shocked that Rory knew about their special time during the mid-morning lull.

Rory was laughing, "Kirk told me because he was concerned about Luke and wanted to make sure he wasn't sick."

"Mean girl for keeping this from the mommy!"

"Maybe," Rory said still unable to control her laughter, "but until today I didn't have any reason to embarrass you."

"Those Strand bags are mine! All those books are going to go to grateful children!"

"No, mommy, please don't give away my books!"

Luke is laughing at the play before them and Jess is looking at them in wonder. "Do they always behave like this?"

"It's better than anything Broadway could ever put together, feel grateful you're now a part of it, I know I do. OK, ladies, let's get dressed so I can show off the most beautiful women in New York City this evening. Jess, do you want to call Liz and tell her you'll stay here tonight? I can get you a taxi home in the morning if you want to stay, there are two extra rooms."

"That sounds great Luke. Thanks." The ladies went to get changed to go to dinner.

When they returned back to the suite after dinner and all of them retired for the night Lorelai talked quietly with Luke, "You know Chilton is a great school Luke and Jess already knows Rory."

Luke looked at her, "Yes?"

"Well, have you thought about Jess coming to stay with you in Stars Hollow and going to Chilton with Rory?"

"Lorelai, I would love to have Jess stay with me, but what do I know about raising teenagers?"

"Luke, no parent knows a damn thing about raising teenagers even after you've raised them. Each one is different and you have the most important thing going for you already."

"What?"

"He loves and respects you even more than he respects his mom. He trusts you to keep him safe and knows that you look out for him. He has an article out of a New York City newspaper from about ten years ago that tells about Buech being taken over by Lucas Buech Danes, as owner of Buech-Danes Corporation."

"Shit"

"He knows you pay for his school and his mom's rent. You said it yourself, he's a smart kid."

"Lorelai, I don't know what to do, you and Rory have to talk about this too."

"Why?"

"Well, Jess would invade Rory's territory at Chilton, also at Star Hollow and conceivably in the next few years, he could invade her territory at home, unless you've had second thoughts about someday making a more permanent commitment."

"Nope, no running here, I gave away my track shoes," Lorelai smiled, "but you are right, I need to talk to Rory about this too. If you bring Jess to Stars Hollow, and we combine homes, we would probably need a bigger house, of course we would've needed one if we had kids anyway, but this would make it a more urgent need."

"Well, if this works out with Jess I should get a house anyway, a kid shouldn't live above a diner. The question would be, should I just get any house and when we combine then sell that one, or would you want to look for a house together that would one day become home for us all?"

"Wow, I don't know. This was so not where I thought this trip was going to take us. These are things to think about and talk over with Rory. But I think you need to do what is best for Jess and you too. He really needs to have some normalcy in his life right now and maybe the lunacy of Stars Hollow's what he needs. We can figure the logistics out later."

Luke hugged her tightly, "You don't know how important it is to me that you're looking out for Jess like you would Rory. Every time I can't imagine loving you any more, you do something like this. You know that I don't want to leave you tomorrow and go to work, right? I would much rather stay here with you in bed and show you all the ways I love you."

"That is so sweet and I know that while you feel that way you will still get up at five-thirty tomorrow and go across the street to another day with accountants and lawyers. Because you are a responsible man who takes care of others, damn it, but it is also one of the reasons I love you."

"So tomorrow is Katherine Hepburn day?"

"Audrey Hepburn, breakfast at Tiffany's. Yep, then we'll do some Christmas shopping and lunch at Sardi's thank Paige for the reservations, and see the Cat in the Hat and back here for dinner. Thank you for giving us this opportunity, aside from getting to see you which is the best, I get to share New York City with Rory." Lorelai leaned in and kissed him gently.

"You bet."