A/N: Glad y'all seemed to approve of my writing an appearance by Great Grandpa Richard. I thought it would go down well and I loved bringing him back to life for a bit :) Now, I can't outdo the adorableness of that I'm sure, but here's something maybe almost as good ;)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see Chapter 1)

5. Guys Like Me - 16th October 2010

He never thought she would be the type to like Disney princesses. Jess could understand his own daughter being into fairy tales. He told her those stories when she was too small to understand yet, and Rory had always liked those kinds of movies well enough, but Doula was different. She was supposed to be different.

Raised by Liz and TJ, any kid was going to be non-traditional, and Jess was okay with that. All he was sure on was the fact he was not letting Doula grow up like he did, thinking she was less than she was, thinking she wasn't important, believing she wasn't loved. To start off with, Liz had been okay. She really seemed like she was trying, like she wanted to be a good mother. With Rory, Lorelai, Lane, and Sookie around to show her how it was done right, she had every reason to improve, to try harder and be better. It was a shame it didn't last.

Liz had a couple of relapses already, into drink and pot and irresponsibility. Doula lived with Luke and Lorelai for a month when she was two, when TJ walked out and Liz lost it big time. Right now, she was spending the week with Jess and Rory, whilst her parents went to a marriage counselling camp that was supposed to fix everything. God only knew if that was going to work, but for the sake of the almost-four year old sat on the rug in front of him, Jess hoped it could.

"Jessy!" Doula complained when she caught him not paying attention. "Look!"

"I'm looking, I'm looking!" he told her, refocusing his eyes on the screen.

He tried not to smile at the pet name she had for him. Only Doula was allowed to call him Jessy. He would pretty much kill anybody else that ever tried, but his little sister had him wrapped around her little finger, in ways even his own kids couldn't boast. It was just a different thing, a particular familial bond that he couldn't explain. Siblings were supposed to be close and look out for each other, but with him being old enough to be Doula's father, it changed things. He was half-brother and partial pseudo-father at times. Theirs was a particular dynamic that was all their own, and Jess wouldn't change it for the world.

"So, you wanna be a princess when you grow up, huh?" he asked her with a smile. "Or just a mermaid?"

"I can't be a mermaid, silly Jessy!" Doula giggled as she leaned into him.

Stood up, she was just a little taller than he was, sat on the floor with his back against the base of the couch.

"Daddy calls me princess sometimes, but not a real princess," she said, shaking her head as she thought about it. "I'm just Doula."

Jess frowned at that, arm slipping from around his sister as she ran back to her place on the rug, staring at the animated movie, waving to Ariel and Eric as they sailed away out of shot. Of course she was right. Doula wasn't ever going to be a mystical creature like a mermaid and it was highly unlikely she would be a princess, but at her age, she ought to believe she could. She ought to have that imagination and lack of fear, to think she could be anything she wanted to be, do anything she wanted to do. It was sad to realise that she didn't, that the reality of life was already dragging her down. Jess knew how that felt and he was not letting it happen to her, no way.

Doula got up to dance to the music that played over the end credits, singing every word to 'Under The Sea' as Jess watched and smiled at her antics. She was a good kid, one of the best kids as far as he was concerned. He'd be damned if she was going to grow up so jaded, to become the tortured soul he had been in his teen years.

"Hey, D. C'mere," he told her, encouraging her to dance his way already.

He turned the volume right down on the TV as she came over and then he pulled her into a hug. Doula threw her little arms around his neck and held on tight.

"Love you, Jessy," she told him, sweet enough to make a grown man cry.

"Love you too, D," he promised. "Which is why you gotta listen to me, okay?" he continued, setting her in front of him so they were eye to eye. "You're a good kid. One of the best in the whole world. You gotta know that you can be anything you want to be. Anything at all. If you can dream it, you can do it."

Doula frowned and then looked awful thoughtful for a while. Eventually she smiled.

"I can have fairy wings?" she checked. "Like Tinkerbell?"

Jess opened his mouth to deny it and then closed it fast, smiling because he couldn't help it. Trust her to come up with probably the most impossible thing in the world. Still, people could have wings, store-bought that didn't actually get them anywhere, but they had them. Actors were put on wires and made to look and feel like they were flying. Maybe it wasn't wrong to tell her she could.

"Maybe, if that's what you really want," he told her eventually. "I don't ever want you to think stuff is impossible, okay? And I can't promise that you can have everything you want, but if I can make it happen, I will," he promised, sure that she wasn't truly understanding what he meant.

Poor kid knew well enough that her parents weren't like everybody else's mom and dad, that they didn't always get along like they should, that they screwed up more often than the average family. At the same time, she was way too young to know what that really meant, how much it could screw her up in time. Jess knew, he was just so determined that things were going to be different for her.

"Mommy said I can have a princess crown," said Doula then. "Like Ariel when she marries Eric."

"A tiara? Seriously?" Jess checked, recalling the movie they just watched a little too easily after having seen it many, many times.

"They have 'em at the store." Doula nodded. "Mommy always says I can have one, but then she forgets..."

Her voice trailed away and her eyes dipped to the floor. Something gave way in Jess' heart. That sounded like Liz, making promises she couldn't keep, not caring enough to remember. Just something simple like a cheap piece of plastic crap that'd make her daughter happy for a while. She should care, but she didn't.

"You should have a crown!" said Doula then, clapping and laughing happily at her idea.

"You think I wanna be a princess?" asked Jess, looking unamused.

"Boys aren't princesses, but you could be a prince," she said, grinning wide.

"Like Prince Eric, huh?"

"No, silly!" Doula rolled her eyes. "He marries the princess, and I'm the princess!" she said, gesturing to herself. "But I guess Rory is a princess too, so maybe."

Her logic was sound and yet she was getting herself in a mental tangle, Jess knew. Kids just couldn't process relationships the way adults could (and it wasn't always easy for them either). Doula knew there were people you loved because they were family and people you loved that you married, but it was still a pretty basic set of rules in her little girl head.

"I guess anybody can be a prince or a princess if they want," said Jess then, wondering how he ever got to a point in his life where that was a valid sentence.

It made Doula happy though, so it was totally worth it.

"Yeah, we can all be princes and princesses!" she said definitely. "But only I get a crown."

"Sounds fair," Jess agreed, levering himself up from the floor. "Okay, go find your shoes and coat and we'll go buy you that crown, okay?"

"Yay!" Doula squealed, rushing for the hallway.

Jess watched her go and wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry. Having his own kids was nothing short of amazing. Jack and Tori were his world in so many ways, and he couldn't love them more, but Doula meant just as much in a different way. She didn't have to love him or even like him. He was only her half-brother and old enough to be her dad, but she clearly adored him, and not just because he offered to buy her a plastic tiara either. That was incredible to Jess.

"Ready!" Doula declared, jacket thrown on and feet shoved in shoes that were one untied and one just barely knotted.

"Not nearly," said Jess, shaking his head as he crouched down to help her out. "I gotta feeling I'm going to be running around after you, keeping you out of trouble for a while yet," he told her, though he didn't expect her to really understand. "But then I guess that's just what big brothers do."

"Jessy, you're the best big brother in the whole world!" Doula declared, throwing her arms around him as best she could whilst he tied her shoe for her. "Love you."

It was weird to think that he could be any kind of role model or any kind of help to an innocent little kid like her, but Jess knew that he was literally the only one who truly understood the danger she was in, the danger of becoming the screw up he used to be. Jess was not going to let that happen.

"Love you too, D," he told her, moving to hug her back as tight as he dare. "Don't you ever forget that."