Me again! Some might call this a timely update. Others perhaps have begun to band together with torches and pitchforks and could be knocking down my door any day now. Whatever your persuasion, BEHOLD, The Next Chapter! Exciting, right?

Thanks for the reviews! They were delicious. I even have a REVIEWER RESPONSE to share with you all!

To justmenomore: I do have a direction, I promise! Hang tight. Also, I think I agree with you: my Jess is a little bold. Unfortunately, that's the way he's gonna stay. I don't think it's too terribly out-of-character. Mostly, I want to explore how Luke handles the situation, and a bolder Jess lends itself to that exploration.

Jackie! One MORE thing:

I don't usually like to give background information outside of the text of the actual story, but I think with fanfics it can sometimes be appropriate. So, here:

The setting I'm envisioning is as follows. Jess and Rory are dating, so we're like Season 3, timewise. However, when Jess comes back after the accident, he seems to me a little toned-down (nicer, less hostile). My Jess never had this "reformation," so he's still raw, angry Jess. I'm also putting his parents out of the picture. They are resources, though limited, to him in the show. Not so here. In a nutshell: angry!Jess, implied R/J, no more than hints of L/L, little if any blatant romance.

Was that unnecessary? WE MAY NEVER KNOW.

Well, that's more than enough of my senilish ramblings ("senilish" used here is a word meaning, "like an old crazy person"). Please stop listening to me and start reading. Much obliged.

CAPITULO DOS

At first, Luke was surprised when she wasn't there. Then he remembered that there was really no reason for Lorelai to be at the diner at three o' clock on a Tuesday afternoon. She had a job, after all, and he had it on good authority that there was in fact a coffee maker at the Independence. But Rory would be getting back soon, so there was a good chance he'd be seeing at least one of them within the hour.

Sure enough, by a quarter to four, the doorbell announced the entrance of both Gilmore girls, chatting animatedly. Luke grabbed a fresh pot of coffee and hurried to meet them at their table.

"So I'm waving at this guy," Lorelai was saying, "trying to get him to roll down his window, and he gives me this smarmy grin and starts revving his engine."

"Oh, no," said Rory.

"And then the light turns green—"

"I can't watch!"

"—and he just guns it, and it's like, the pile of wood in the truck bed kind of stays there, and the truck moves, like when you pull a tablecloth really fast off a table and none of the dishes break, except that then there was nothing under the wood, so it all ended up in the middle of the road."

"Poor guy!"

"I felt so bad."

"You tried to warn him!"

"I guess he thought the pretty lady sitting next to him in a Jeep wanted to race clunky old cars."

"It's not like you were in a Mustang or something. That I could understand."

"I know, right?" She looked up. "Can we help you?"

Luke had been standing with a half-interested, I-just-walked-in-on-the-middle-of-your-story look on his face, having poured the coffee, waiting for a chance to interrupt. "Oh," said Luke. "Hi, Lorelai. Hi, Rory."

"Hi, Luke," said Rory.

"Do you want something?" said Lorelai.

"Oh, no, no, nothing," said Luke. He turned to go, stopped, and turned back. "Can I talk to you?"

"I don't know, can you?"

"In private, please?"

Lorelai grinned. "Dirty!"

"Excuse us, Rory, I have to drag of your mother and seduce her in the walk-in."

"How romantic!"

"Please, Lorelai?"

Lorelai heaved an exaggerated sigh and stood up, taking her coffee mug with her.

"Thank you." Luke led her behind the counter and into the walk-in storage room.

"This is quaint," said Lorelai. "How come I've never been in here before? Ooh, mangoes! You have mangoes?"

"I need your help."

"What do you make with mangoes?"

"Lorelai."

"What?"

"I need your help."

"I love to help! Just say the word."

Luke heaved a sigh. "I need help with Jess."

"Oh." Lorelai took a sip of her coffee. "Well, a knife or a gun would probably be hard to disguise, but I bet you could make an overdose of aspirin look pretty convincing."

"He doesn't listen to me."

"You don't say! Oh, that reminds me—Did you hear that they knocked down the Berlin Wall? Oh, and I guess the Romans killed this Jewish guy, name of Jesus or something. Had you heard about that? The things in the news these days!"

"Look. I'm not a parent. You are. I just thought maybe you'd have some advice."

"I gave you my advice."

"Short of murder." Luke scratched his head under his baseball cap. "I just... He did something, and I need him to, uh, fix it. Only..." He shook his head. "Only he won't! I don't understand. I'm the grown-up, he's the kid. Why won't he listen to me?"

Lorelai shrugged. "Because he doesn't have a reason to."

"What?"

"Like... if he doesn't fix this 'thing' he did—which I probably don't want to know about, right?"

"Yeah, probably not."

"So, what's going to happen if he doesn't fix it? I mean, what are you going to do?"

"Me? I'm supposed to do something? Like what?"

"Like repercussions. Punishment."

"Okay." Luke thought for a moment. "Like what?"

"Seriously, Luke."

"Well, I've never done this before!"

"Okay, like... grounding."

"It seems like trying to ground him would be kind of pointless."

"Then lock him out of the house."

"I think I'm trying to keep him in the house as much as possible."

"Well, I don't know."

"Come on, Lorelai!"

Lorelai put up her hands. "Hey, I'm not the authority on child rearing! It's not like I studied this or anything. When I had Rory, I just... I don't know... well, you had parents!" She nodded, like she was on to something. "Whatever horrible, nasty, I-don't-want-to-know-about-it thing Jess did, what if you did that when you were a kid? What would your dad have done?"

Luke scoffed. "Turned me over to the authorities."

"Yeah, I really don't want to know. Okay, let's pretend he didn't want you to go to jail."

"He would have worn me out."

"Guaranteed?"

"Pretty much."

"And would you have done it again?"

"I wouldn't have done it in the first place! You didn't mess with my dad."

"Alright, well, there's your answer."

"What?"

She raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, great. I'll just take my belt to him. That'll go over real well with Child Services."

"You don't have to beat him," said Lorelai, and a glint of humor came into her eye. "Just... give him a good spanking!"

"Lorelai."

"Oh, come on! I know I'm not the only person who would pay good money to see you take him over your knee."

"Lorelai, I can't spank him."

"Why not?"

"He's seventeen!"

"And if there's a teenager who more deserves to be taken down a notch or two, I have yet to meet him."

"No."

"I'll pay you twenty—no, thirty bucks."

"What else you got?"

"Fine, thirty-five, but I've got a kid to feed."

"Can we please be serious for a second?" Luke massaged his temple. "I really want to make this work. I want him to respect me, and I really had to swallow my pride to come talk to you, so I'd appreciate it if you'd hold the sarcasm."

"Who's being sarcastic?"

"Lorelai."

"And it's flattering that coming to me for advice is damaging to your ego. You really know the way to a girl's heart."

"Lorelai!"

"Alright, fine." The smile faded from Lorelai's face. "Look, if you really want that kid to listen to you, you're going to have to make him hurt."

"For the last time—"

"No, I mean... You have to do something he'll find unpleasant. Something he won't want to happen again."

"Okay. Like what?"

"Take something he likes to do, and don't let him do it."

"I don't know what he likes to do."

"Come on, Luke, you live with him."

"I know he reads, but I'd rather encourage that. I mean, he's not exactly home a lot."

Lorelai heaved a sigh. "So where does he spend his free time?"

"I have no idea."

"Luke!"

"The only place I know he definitely goes on a regular basis is your house."

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"Well, that's all I can think of."

"There has to be something you can take away from him. Something physical. Something you can control, that he can't."

Luke's eyes widened. "Wait—that's it!"

"What's it?"

"Rory!"

"Rory?" Lorelai's brow furrowed, then her eyes got big, too. "Oh—no, Luke, no."

"Why not?" Luke was getting excited. "It's perfect! If he couldn't see Rory for... even one week, I'll bet he'd shape up in a big fat hurry!"

Lorelai shook her head. "You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It isn't fair!"

"I thought you hated them together."

"Yes, I kind of do... And if there was a way Rory could somehow think not seeing Jess for a week at a time was a good idea, believe me, Luke, I would be one hundred percent on board. But she likes him just as much as he likes her, and... I don't know, I just don't want this to be something where she ends up getting hurt."

"Please just let me see what she thinks."

"You know she won't say no to you."

"Then what do you say?"

Lorelai looked away for a moment. "I mean... I guess..." She sighed. "I guess I can talk to her."

Luke took her by the shoulders. "I promise you won't regret it."

"What if it doesn't work?" said Lorelai.

"Oh, it'll work."

"What if it doesn't?"

Luke shrugged. "If it doesn't..."

"A spanking?"

"I don't think so."

"Forty dollars, and that's my final offer."

"It's a little disturbing how much you seem to like that idea."

Lorelai grinned. "Just trying to help," she said. She sipped her coffee and carried it out of the walk-in. Luke took an underripe mango off the shelf, examined it for a moment, smiled widely, and followed.