A/N: The Lit has hit a rocky patch, I must confess, but trust me, dear readers, all shall be well in the end. In the meantime, thanks for all the fab reviews - y'all are very kind :)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 15

"Okay, what is wrong with you?"

The question came so suddenly into the silence that Jess felt himself physically jump. He glanced up from his legal pad to see his uncle staring at him, hands on hips, concern in his eyes though he was trying to hide it under annoyance. It was a patented Luke Danes look that Jess knew well, though he wasn't entirely sure what he'd done to earn it today.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head. "What? Am I writing too loud?"

"No, not too loud," Luke admitted. "In fact, I'm more worried about the lack of loud, if I'm honest. You come home for the weekend, you spend all of your time with your nose in a book, and that's fine, it's normal, I embrace that now," he explained, "but this time it's writing, not reading, a whole bunch of pretty audible sighing, and no punk bands blasting or TV blaring. This is not like you, Jess."

He smirked at the way Luke described it, he couldn't help it.

"So, because I'm not being a pain in your ass, there must be something wrong with me?"

"Pretty much." Luke nodded easily. "So, what is it?"

Jess considered all the answers that he could give to that question. Each one would be honest, except for the one he already tried which was 'nothing.' There were things on his mind, more than one, but it was awkward to share with Luke, as it was Paris, or even Rory. Everybody was so closely connected to everybody else, which was great when things were going well, but a total pain when they weren't.

"A better question would be, what is this?" he said pointedly, waving the legal pad towards Luke.

"And the answer to that question would be?" his uncle prompted, never one for the kinds of games that Jess took pleasure in dragging him into whether he liked it or not.

"Well, it's not much yet, but one day, I guess it could be a book."

Jess watched Luke's eyes grow wide at that answer. He was pretty sure his uncle was expecting to hear it was an essay for school, maybe a letter explaining how he was dropping out of college, or one to his father or mother maybe. There were a hundred things his scribblings could be about, but Jess would lay good money that Luke never would've put 'novel' out there as a top ten guess.

"A book?" he echoed eventually. "You? You're writing a book?"

"Yeah." Jess nodded. "Well, it's a short novel, and I don't know if it's going to work out but... I don't know, my English professor seemed pretty psyched about the whole idea and I was enjoying it so... yeah, I'm writing a book."

"That's incredible, Jess," said Luke then. "Seriously, I can't... You're writing a book."

"Don't get too jazzed," his nephew advised with a smirk. "It's not like it'll probably ever be published or anything. I'm still trying to figure out a decent ending and I might never finish it, actually, but for now, it's a cool side project. Might even get some extra credit for it if I turn it in to Ms. Fuller sometime."

The look on Luke's face was dumb to say the least, but Jess didn't mind seeing it. There was more than a little pride in that expression, and it was all for him. Jess really wasn't used to that. Liz never cared enough about his school work, or anything really, to be proud of his achievements, which was probably why he stopped trying for quite a while. There hadn't really been anybody else around to pay any attention, not until Luke, and of course, Paris.

"You can stop now," said Jess, looking back at his paper and scribbling down nonsense just so he was doing something. "It's not the big deal you're trying to make it."

"You're not going to stop me being proud of you, nephew," said Luke anyway. "Come on, this is amazing. If your professor is encouraging this, she must think you have talent."

"Maybe," Jess relented, "but even she hasn't read it yet. Paris has been angling for the chance for a week, but there's no way I'm having her be editor-in-chief. She's great, but there are limits."

"Well, you have Rory to help you out if you need a second opinion, right?"

Jess was hoping that Luke wouldn't notice how he evaded that particular question. The truth was, he hadn't told his girlfriend about the book yet. Actually, he had barely had the opportunity even if he wanted to. Whilst a part of him did want to share the news, an even larger part decided against.

"Jess?"

"What?"

"What's going on with you and Rory?"

"Nothing."

Two seconds later, the legal pad was unceremoniously snatched out of his hands.

"Hey!"

"Jess, come on," Luke urged him, holding the pad too far away for him to get without getting up off the bed and physically chasing him around. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Jess repeated. "Actually, literally, nothing."

"And what does that mean?"

With a heavy sigh, Jess admitted defeat. Apparently, he wasn't getting out of this without explaining all to Luke. In some ways, he was glad, because it was killing him having all this stuff in his head and no-one to talk to. On the other hand, he knew he was about to put the both of them in a really awkward position. They may be uncle and nephew, but their respective girlfriends were mother and daughter too. This was never going to end well, but Luke just might be of more use and slightly less likely to open his mouth to the wrong person about the wrong thing than Paris, and she was the only other person Jess would trust with his private business.

"Things are just weird lately, with me and Rory," he admitted. "I don't know, with the whole Yale thing... We just don't see much of each other."

"Well, you have classes and work to do," said Luke, shrugging his shoulders. "That's just the way it is."

"It's more than that." Jess shook his head. "We had plenty of time together between classes and at lunch and on weekends before. Then we had that stupid fight, but we fixed it and everything was supposed to be cool."

"But it's not cool," Luke guessed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Oh, Jess. What the hell happened?"

"I have no idea. It's like Rory just has better things to do than be with me. Not that it's all her. I don't even know why I didn't tell her about the book. It's probably my fault anyway. It's always the guy, right?"

"Well, that's what women will tell you, sure," Luke agreed, wearing a smirk his nephew would've been proud of when he looked up at him. "Relationships are tough, Jess. Both sides have to work at it or it falls apart."

"I don't think we've completely fallen apart, but the tiles are loose and there's a couple of choice cracks in the wall," he said with a sigh. "It's just tough to talk to anybody about it, you know? Paris is my sister, but she's also Rory's best friend and her room-mate. You're here and you'll listen, which is cool, but then you and Lorelai-"

"Hey, it doesn't matter about me and Lorelai," Luke insisted. "We're adults and we're completely capable of keeping what we have separated from what you and Rory have. I just want you both to be happy. If that's together, that's great, but if it's apart, that's okay too."

"I don't want to break up with her," Jess admitted. "Honestly? I kind of just want things back the way they were before. It just seems like that's impossible lately. Yale's changed things."

"Well, maybe with the break coming up for Thanksgiving, you guys can spend some time back here, away from Yale. Could help."

"Maybe," Jess agreed. "Gotta hope so."

Luke nodded, unsure what else to do. He handed the legal pad back to Jess and patted him on the back, before walking away. He hoped he had helped, if only by giving Jess the chance to state all his worries out loud. He also really hoped that the kids could work out their relationship and be happy again soon. As much as Luke said it was okay if they broke up, so long as they were happy, he had a hard time believing that would be the result of Rory and Jess no longer being together.

"So glad I'm not a teenager anymore," he muttered to himself, as he headed back downstairs.


"So now Grandma is mad at Grandpa, and they're both acting like it's as much my mom's fault as anyone's when really it's this other woman that Grandpa used to date. Friday Night was just awful, and then I figured I should really come back here to get some more work done, but honestly, I'm so tired, I'm barely concentrating... and you're not even listening."

"What?" Paris looked up fast, apparently completely oblivious to whatever Rory had been saying, just as her friend suspected. "Did you say something?"

"No, I said about eight things," said Rory with a look, "but apparently, I was talking to myself."

"Well, you get a little rambley sometimes, Gilmore. I zone out." Paris shrugged. "Anyway, how come you're not in Stars Hollow this weekend? I'm pretty sure Jess said that's where he'd be."

"Oh." Rory frowned at the question, then shook her head. "I didn't know he was going. That's weird."

"Not really," Paris scoffed. Off Rory's confused look she added; "Well, let's face it, you guys haven't exactly been spending a lot of time together lately."

"That's just... horribly accurate," Rory realised, feeling instantly guilty.

Some of it, possibly a large part, was definitely her fault. If she hadn't even taken notice of how little time she and Jess had spent together recently, it didn't say much about her girlfriending abilities, or her love for her boyfriend. Of course, Jess should be making an effort too. She hadn't exactly been dodging his calls or refusing to make dates. He just hadn't been around lately. Most likely they were both to blame.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, Rory checked she hadn't missed any messages. Actually, there was a text to say that Jess would be in Stars Hollow for the weekend, and it was marked 'read.' All Rory could think was that she hit the button without realising.

"Huh," she said to herself. "I guess things have been a little weird since the whole fight thing."

"Took you long enough to notice," said Paris, rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm not on anybody's side in this - you're pretty much my best friend and you know I'll always see Jess as my brother - but you're the woman, so I have to appeal to you to be the one with any good sense in all of this. Please, for everybody's sake, just make it work, or end it now. I can't handle witnessing another train wreck like the breakdown of my parents' marriage, okay?"

"I promise you, Paris, me and Jess will figure things out," said Rory, with perhaps a little more confidence than she felt.

She turned back to her desk but could no longer concentrate on the paper in front of her, not that her heart had really been in it before. Rory did not want to break up with Jess, not at all. Things just seemed to have changed so much since they came to Yale. They had to get better at communicating, that was for sure, and she planned to make a more conscious effort from here on out. She didn't like the idea of the consequences if she failed.

To Be Continued...