Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls.

AN: I am so thankful that there are still people reading this story. Thank you so much!

Jess had never liked hospitals. He was willing to overlook that fact because his daughter needed him to be strong enough for the both of them. The doctor had asked them what seemed like a thousand questions. Their family's medical histories were discussed for over an hour this morning. Skylar was the first person from his family to ever have cancer, while Casey had a distant relative who had recently battled breast cancer.

"All strands of cancer have to start somewhere. Skylar was just the unlucky one who it fell upon." The doctor explained sympathetically.

Jess would give anything to trade places with Skylar so that he didn't have watch her suffer. He felt like there wasn't anything that he could do. Luke and Lorelai had been gracious enough to let them stay with them because the hospital was less than an hour away from Stars Hallow. The twins were good sports about sharing their room with the girls while Jess and Casey slept on the fold out bed in the living room.

Luke had scheduled an appointment to get tested the day after Jess had told him and luckily he had been a match. Casey's parents and sister had flown in so that they could help in any way that they could.

The surgery was only supposed to last an hour and a half but it had been going on two hours. Jess was like a bomb ready to explode when the doctor came out of the operating room to talk to them. His face was expressionless which worried Jess even more.

"They are both doing fine. We had some trouble retrieving Mr. Dane's marrow, but once we got past that everything went exceptionally well. They are both sleeping right now but you may go and see them." The doctor explained.

Lorelai, Rory, Tristan and the boys went to Luke's room while Casey led her family to Skylar's. Jess followed the doctor down the hall to the nurse's station before getting his attention.

"How can I help you Mr. Mariano?"

"I have some questions."

"I'll do my best to answer them." The doctor promised.

"What are the chances that the cancer will come back?" Jess asked in a scared voice.

"There's always a chance that it will come back. If it does, we will do everything possible to make it as easy on Skylar as we possibly can."

"Is there any way that she can have chemo instead of radiation?"

"Is there any reason why you would choose one over the other?"

"I've done some research. She'll have a better chance of having children if she has chemo."

"That is true, although the chances of her having children will go down considerably with either option you choose." The doctor warned.

"Thank you, Doctor." Jess said gratefully.

Casey came to stand behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her chin on his shoulder and he turned his head to look at her.

"Everything is going to be fine." she promised him.

"You can't promise me that. What if this happens again?" he questioned.

"Then we will handle it the same way we handled it this time." she encouraged him.

"How can you be so calm?" he asked with a sigh.

"Because it's not every day that something shakes the unflappable Jess Mariano." she said logically.

"I knew I loved you for a reason." he said with a small smile.

"I love you too." she said kissing the corner of his mouth.

She pulled her arms from around him and he turned to take one of her hands in his. They walked to the window outside Skylar's room and he got his first look at her since having surgery. Casey's parents and sister surrounded the bed watching Skylar as she slept. She looked so small and frail. Jess couldn't wait to hold her in his arms and reassure her once more that everything was going to be fine.

XXXX

Finally after three hours the apartment was filled with silence. Rory thought that she would never be able to get the boys down for a nap. Jacob was still adjusting to having to fight for Rory and Tristan's attention. After three weeks of being a big brother the cool factor had worn off. He had actually asked Tristan the other day if they could give Aiden back to the hospital.

It wasn't that the baby was troublesome, far from it. Rory loved all three of her kids with every fiber of her being, even if they did suck the life out of her sometimes. She had been waiting patiently to open the e-mail from Meg that she had gotten that morning. She checked on the boys one last time while her laptop booted up. They were sleeping soundly.

She scrolled through her e-mails before finding the one that she was looking for. Meg felt that she was ready for her first assignment since having Aiden. She was grateful to have something to distract her from the silence and give her a break from the boys for a few hours. She needed to write a piece on the upcoming presidential candidates visit to the city. She would be expected to go to the press conference. She was ecstatic that Meg had finally given her an assignment that really mattered. She could write about proposition eight so many times. She was all for legalizing same sex marriage, but it wasn't the only thing that people needed to know about.

She gathered information on each candidate and making of list of all of the laws that they supported and were opposed to. She thought that was a decent start. She checked her watch to notice that nearly an hour had gone by and that Maddie would be home soon.

She needed to take something out for dinner and by the time she had decided what they were going to have Tristan and Maddie were home. Tristan read over what she had written so far while she started dinner. The TV in the living room could be heard and the sounds of Pooh Bear and Christopher Robin filtered into the kitchen. Jacob must be up.

"This is a great start Babe." Tristan praised once he was done reading.

"Does it come across like I'm trying to sway people towards who I want?"

"No. It's very biased. This is the first article that you've written in nearly four months and it's great. I can't wait to read the rest of it." he reassured her.

She walked towards him with a thankful smile. He opened his arms for her to step into them and she rested her head on his shoulder. He had always been her biggest supporter after her mom. There had been a lot of hurdles for them to jump over when they had first gotten married. She was accused of marrying him so that she could get the inside scoop on what went on at the courthouse when in reality he rarely discussed work with her and vice versa. Her work might have brought them together but that was where there work relationship ended.

He kissed her temple as he rubbed her back. He knew that the first few weeks of working from home were going to be hard on her. He also knew that she never backed down when things got hard to handle. Rory would handle things in her own way. She always had and he had the utmost confidence that she would make it through this adjustment just fine.

XXXX

Jess sat next to Luke on the couch while Casey made dinner. Things were still chaotic and they were still adjusting to be a two family household but at least there had been no harsh words or bloodshed. Luke turned off the TV before gingerly turning towards Jess. It had only been a day since he had been released from the hospital and he was still feeling the effects of the surgery. Skylar would be in the hospital for the next week and Jess was still trying to figure out he and Casey were going to pay for it. Luke cleared his throat to get Jess' attention and Jess looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Luke was looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Jess asked cautiously.

"I've been wondering. Why haven't we heard from your mom? I figured she would have been at the hospital."

"I haven't told her."

"You told your Dad, who is three thousand miles away; but yet you didn't tell your mom who lives less ten minutes from here?" he questioned.

"I didn't want to deal with the drama."

"You're Mom isn't like that anymore. She's calmed down a lot since she divorced TJ and married Marshall."

"Can we not discuss the investment banker right now?" Jess asked evenly.

Yes, he was happy that his mom had finally decided to be a grown up. He just wished that she had done it twenty years ago. There were so many times when he was growing up that he'd had to be the parent. He guessed that he should consider himself lucky, at least she wasn't abusive or an alcoholic. He was luckier than some people in some aspects and for that he was grateful.

Marshall wasn't a bad guy, just dull. All he ever talked about was the stock market and bonds. He was smart, polite and he took care of his mom. That was all Jess could ask for.

"Don't you think you should call her?" Luke ventured.

"There isn't anything that she can do." Jess said with a shake of his head.

"That isn't what I asked. Our family is going through a very hard time right now and she needs to know."

"What would she be able to do?"

"Give you moral support. She could take help take care of Sky." Luke pointed out.

Jess sighed, knowing that he was right. He usually was. Jess didn't give Luke the credit he deserved. He figured that he should just get it over with. Direct and to the point would be his best bet. He dialed his mom's number hoping that she was home so that he wouldn't have to leave a message. He didn't want to make her worry any more than he had to.

"Hello?" Liz answered on the fourth ring.

"Hey Ma." Jess said feebly.

"Hey Baby! What a surprise." she said happily.

"I'm sorry for not calling more often."

"That's okay; I know that you're busy. How have you been?"

"I haven't been that great lately. There's something that I need to talk to you about."

"You aren't dying are you?" she asked in panic.

"No." he said, laughing lightly in reassurance.

"Then what could be so bad?"

"We found out that Skylar has leukemia. She's had a bone marrow transplant and she's recovering as best as she can."

"Do you need me to come down there? I can help in any way you'll let me." she said in concern.

"Actually we're at Luke and Lorelai's." he corrected her.

"Why are you just now telling me this?" she asked, hurt.

"I know that you have a lot going on. Willow is less than a month away from having the baby, and I didn't want to take you away from her." he explained.

"I'm sure your sister will understand when I explain the situation to her."

"If you want to come over then I won't stop you."

"I'm on my way over." she said before hanging up.

Jess hung up with a sigh, his lips pressed together loosely.

"She's coming over?" Luke asked.

"Mm hmm." Jess answered.

"How did she react?"

"She was hurt that I didn't tell her sooner."

"Did you expect that she wouldn't be?" he asked logically.

Before he could answer Lorelai was letting Liz into the house. She must have broken the speed limit to get there.

"Did you even tell Willow that you were leaving?" Jess asked.

"She's lying down, plus Marshal is there. He is just as capable of taking there as I am. How are you doing?" she asked sitting on his other side.

"I'm stressed out to the point that I feel like I could snap at any second and I haven't slept in days."

"Then stay with me. There's more room and you won't have to sleep on a couch bed."

"That's not the problem mom." he said with a shake of his head.

"I wish that there was something that I could do." she said placing an arm on his shoulders.

Usually he would have shrugged her off because she knew that he wasn't the touchy feely type. But right now he was backed into a corner and her arm on his shoulder was comforting. He needed to be reassured by his mother for once instead of the other way around and she had stepped up to the plate without even being asked. He was at a loss for words.

She pulled him to her and he rested his head on her shoulder, burying his face in her neck. She cupped his neck with one hand and ran her fingers through his hair with the other. Luke watched them with wide, surprised eyes. Liz met his eyes and she gave him a helpless look. Casey came into the room and watched the interaction silently. She was glad that Jess had finally stopped being so strong for everyone else. She couldn't support him on her own, she was just as stressed as he was.

"Hi, Casey." Liz said to break the silence.

"Liz." Casey said politely.

"Case, why is everyone so quiet in there?" JJ asked from behind her.

"It's not important Jay, why don't you go and see where you brother is? It's almost time for dinner."

Casey left the three of them alone before going back to check on dinner. Things were still raw and they still had to go through the treatment sessions. That was not something that she was looking forward to. She felt helpless that she couldn't do something more to help her little girl. She would give anything to take her place.