Chapter 2

Luke waited at the bus stop, his nerves strung out at the recognition that in a few short moments he would be solely responsible for a teenage boy who was so troublesome his own mother couldn't handle him anymore. The reality of the situation was finally setting in, and Luke had to scramble to regain his composure as the bus Jess was supposed to be on.

Passengers filed off the bus seemingly in slow motion as Luke paced himself for the sight of his seventeen year old nephew.

He finally spotted the unruly dark head of hair his nephew had always sported. He slunk off the bus, his lack of enthusiasm acute.

Luke took in the sight of his nephew, who looked much more like a man than he had been anticipating. Jess was much taller than he had been the last time he had come to visit Luke several years before. His eyes were piercing in the same way Luke remembered his father's being, dark and cutting. He had a deep scowl imprinted on his face as he met Luke's stare. That's when Luke noticed how gaunt his nephew was.

Luke knew teenage boys were usually slight of frame, but Jess bordered on unhealthily thin. His eyes were rimmed with shades of red and purple, screaming the volume of his exhaustion. A bruise darkened the boy's cheekbone, and Luke drew in a deep breath, readying himself.

"Jess. It's been a while. You've… grown." Luke grimaced at his pathetic attempt at speech.

Jess grunted in Luke's general direction and glanced around the town's square, his expression guarded.

"Right. Well, we should probably head back to the diner. Never a good idea to leave it alone for long."

Jess tilted his head ever so slightly, an indication that he understood the English language if nothing else.

Luke stood still for a moment, waiting for Jess to say something, anything, but when it became clear he had no such intentions, Luke turned and silently led the way back to his diner.

Jess barely made a single sound as Luke guided him back to his new home. He kept his focus on the steps he was taking and the sight of the back of Luke's head to keep his thoughts from wandering back to why he was here in the first place.

People turned and stared as they made their way through the streets of Stars Hollow. Jess vaguely recalled his mother once saying a long time ago that one reason she left this place was the people. They were always in each other's business, gossiping and spreading rumours across the entire town. Jess groaned internally. He had a feeling all eyes would be on him for quite some time.

They reached the diner, and Jess quickly ducked inside to avoid the stares of the townspeople. The last thing he needed was attention. He already felt as if he could just crawl inside himself and get lost in his pain.

He strode up the stairs behind Luke and waited as the man unlocked the apartment door. He pushed inside and stood at the entrance, a look of expectation in his eyes.

Jess looked around as Luke gestured to the bags and bags of groceries strewn across the kitchen. He walked slowly over to the table and peeked inside a bag.

"Yeah, I did some shopping. I don't know what you eat normally, so I just kind of guessed at most of it. I remembered you like Frosted Flakes the last time you were here, though." Luke clapped his hands together nervously and glanced around the room as he waited for a response from Jess.

Jess turned back to face Luke and leaned against a chair heavily. He gave a slight shrug and pressed his lips together tightly. "Yeah, well. They're ggggrrr-eat."

Luke gave a half-assed chuckle and nodded a little.

"Well, um, over here's the bedroom. I didn't have time to buy a bed, so I blew up the old air mattress. Hope that's okay."

Jess stared at the pathetic block of plastic that Luke referred to as his new bed and couldn't help the pang of misery he felt flare inside him.

"I guess it'll do."

"Good. Well, I'm gonna head back down to the diner and open up. You can hang out, get settled in here and I'll-"

"I'm gonna head out." Jess brushed past Luke and made a beeline for the door.

"Out where? You just got here." Luke tried to follow him, but Jess had already slipped out the door and down the stairs.

It was getting late, the night sky having replaced the sun hours ago, and still no sign of Jess. Luke was starting to wonder if the kid had run back home to the big city, but he decided that even if he had Liz would have simply stuck him right back on a bus.

Luke's mind began to wander as he wiped the countertops down methodically. Jess had obviously gotten into some pretty serious trouble to have made Liz so livid. The kid certainly looked worse for wear, but Luke didn't have the slightest clue as to how to get Jess to talk about why he's really here.

As Luke strode over to the diner's door to change the sign to 'closed', he noticed a shadow slinking towards him. So the kid hadn't run back home.

"Where the hell have you been? It's almost midnight." Luke followed Jess to the bottom of the stairs and pulled at his shoulder to make him turn around.

Jess flinched slightly at the grip on his shoulder, something that Luke didn't miss. "I was out." Jess' voice was low and reserved. His eyes moved carefully to the hand on his shoulder, almost seeming to calculate what it might do next. He slowly pulled himself away and took on a more guarded stance, his eyes meeting Luke's once again.

Luke's face instantly took on a parentlike concern at the reaction he had just received from his nephew. "You were out, I got it. Are you okay?"

Jess took a step back, his expression unreadable. He gave a lazy shrug. "I'm fine. Just enjoying my beautiful new life." He turned and jogged up the stairs.

Luke heard the door slam, and he let out a long, drawn out sigh. He really wasn't cut out for this. He pressed his face into the palms of his hands, sighing again. There was definitely more to all of this than 'Jess got mixed in with the wrong crowd.' Luke thought that deep down he knew what was really going on. The bruises on Jess, the way he remained in a constant state of caution, the flinching. The signs were all there, but Luke just couldn't bring himself to admit that his sister might have gone down such a dark path.

Luke shut off the lights in the diner and sluggishly headed up to the apartment, wondering if he should keep trying to get Jess to talk or just let the kid be. Before he even reached the door, the strong smell of cigarette smoke hit him hard.

Luke pushed inside hastily, ready to lay down some ground rules for Jess. But when he got in, he spotted Jess slumped across his air mattress, plumes of smoke unfurling from between his lips lazily and a cigarette dangling in his long fingers. Jess had his eyes closed, alternative music playing softly over the radio.

Luke moved closer to the kid quietly, almost relishing in how relaxed he seemed to be in this moment. The kid took another long draw off the cigarette in his hand, and Luke then noticed that Jess' hand was trembling slightly.

Jess let his mouth droop open and small clouds of smoke glided out and curled up towards the ceiling. Luke sighed loudly and stepped over to the window to open it.

Jess opened his eyes and glanced at Luke before sitting up to swipe a deck of cards off the floor, cigarette dangling in between his lips lightly. He shuffled the cards in flashy ways, turning them over and over in his palms.

"Okay, Jess, we've gotta get a few things straightened out if you're going to be living here from now on." Luke started to wait for Jess to respond, then decided to keep going. "First, if you're going to smoke, do it outside, not in my bedroom, got it?" Jess didn't even glance up.

Luke sighed and continued. "Second, I don't know how things went when you lived with Liz, but while you're here, you're going to tell me where you're going when you head out like you did today. I'm not going to be distracted at work everyday wondering where you've gone." That seemed to get his attention enough to make him stop shuffling the cards.

"That's not so bad. Think you can manage?" Luke paused so the kid could respond. Jess set the cards down on the mattress and took a heavy puff off his cigarette. He looked at Luke and slowly blew the smoke in his direction, his eyes daring Luke.

"Alright, that's it. Give me that." Luke bent over and snatched the cigarette from Jess' hand, tossing it roughly out the open window. Jess tensed slightly but kept his face stoic.

Luke closed the window forcefully and met Jess' eyes sharply. "You're living in my house, you will abide by my rules, capiche? I'm not going to let you get away with whatever you want like my sister has."

Jess dropped his eyes at the mention of his mother and he wrung his hands together, desperately wishing he had something to keep them occupied with.

Luke sighed and closed his eyes for a second. "Kid, you gonna tell me why you're really here? Because I have a sneaking suspicion it doesn't have much to do with the kind of kids you've been hanging around." Luke moved closer to Jess and plopped himself on the air mattress next to his nephew.

Jess continued to stare at the ground, his knuckles turning white as his twisted his hands together roughly. He chanced a look at his uncle and sighed as he caught his eye. Jess leaned back and slapped his palms against his legs.

"I, uh, I guess I just didn't get along with Liz's boyfriend. She got pissed at me when he left, so she sent me here." The way he said it sounded like he was simply stating a fact of life. If Liz doesn't like what I do, she sends me to live with someone else.

Luke felt a deep sorrow fill his chest as Jess spoke. He looked at the bruise on Jess' cheek again and thought about what he might mean when he said he hadn't gotten along with Liz's boyfriend.

"Jess, did this man… Did he hurt you at all?" Luke was way out of his comfort zone, but family is family, and this particular family seemed to be in dire need of help, so Luke could deal with a little discomfort.

Jess went pale and clenched his jaw tightly, staring straight ahead with hollow eyes.

"Jess…" Luke put a hand to Jess gently, and the kid shot to a standing position so fast Luke barely saw him even move. He gawked up at his nephew, and watched as his face went from frightened to blank in a split second.

"I'm fine. I'm gonna get some sleep, so if you could move that'd be great." Jess was jiggling one of his legs as he waited for Luke to move off his bed.

"Yeah… Sure." Luke got up carefully and moved so Jess could take his place back. Jess practically threw himself down, sighing contentedly as he settled into the puffy mattress.

Luke stood still for a few minutes until he saw Jess' muscles relax and his breathing slow to a steady pace. Luke pulled his cap off his head and twisted it around in his hands for a beat, staring intensely at Jess' back move in and out with his breaths. He noticed how young the kid looked while he slept, and something went off inside Luke.

He didn't know exactly what had happened with Jess before he got on that bus to Stars Hollow, but he was going to make sure it never happened again.