Author's Note: Hope you guys like this chapter and um.. I know nothing about baseball so I apologize in advance if it felt weird or something.

Chapter 2: The Game Gone Wrong

AUGUST 1992

A week has gone by, Luke was more comfortable with having Jess around except for the first night where after Jess took a shower and realized he didn't bring any new underwear or pyjamas with him. Hence, Luke had to lend Jess his shirt for sleeping, which looks like he was wearing a checkered table cloth, then they had to go shopping for clothes, which Luke found it very awkward and embarrassing.

Jess and Rory were really getting along, they chatted and read books together everyday when Rory and Lorelei came into the diner for breakfast or lunch or dinner. Afterwards, Jess would usually go to the ball park and spend sometime with the boys playing whatever sports they were playing and returned to the diner.

"Uncle Luke! I'm going to the park now!" shouted Jess who rushed to the door, ready to dash off to the park.

"Wait Jess! Did you finish your breakfast?" shouted Luke back in the kitchen, rushing back out.

"Gotta go, Uncle Luke, bye!" shouted Jess, who sticked his tongue out and quickly rushed out of the door before Luke can get out of the kitchen and see all the vegetables left on his plate.

Luke let out a sigh when he saw the boy running off to the park and the plate of unmoved vegetables.

"Thanks god you're here Jess! These 5th graders won't leave us alone, saying that they own this field and that we should leave cause we suck." Said Connor, one of Johnny's friends.

"We don't suck! We will play against them, and if we win, they should leave this field to us for the rest of their lives!" replied Jess who hates bullies, because bullies reminds him of Jack, Paul, Rick all those jerks his mother had as boyfriends who bullies him a lot.

Meanwhile at the diner, the Gilmore girls has just entered.

'Hi Luke!" Rory greeted while giving Luke a big hug.

"Hey Rory! Last week of summer, are you excited for school to start again?' Luke asked with a smile on his face, he always smiles when he sees Rory.

"Yup! I just wish Jess can go to school with me too." Pouted Rory.

"Rory, Im sure Jess can visit sometime, during holidays. Don't put your pouty face on, you're killing Luke." Said Lorelai comforting Rory.

"Yea, I'll definitely let Jess come visit you during breaks, no worries!" Luke also reassures.

"Where's Jess by the way?" Rory asked, trying to change the sad topic.

'Oh, he's out in the park playing." Replied Luke while pouring coffee to Lorelai.

"Mommy, can I go to the park and look for Jess, please?" asked Rory with her blue puppy eyes.

"Yea but not too long okay baby, may be like half an hour, cause mommy gotta go to work." Said Lorelai.

"Lorelai, let Rory go play, they can both come back to my diner and have lunch and I'll keep an eye on Rory for the afternoon until you're done work, it's really no problem." Luke suggested.

Rory's eyes beamed with excitement, doing her little cheering dance.

"Are you sure Luke? Will it be too much trouble for you?" asked Lorelai.

"Not at all, Lorelai, go on to your work I got it." Luke assured.

"Well, again, you save the day." Said Lorelai and heading out to the door with Rory going to the park.

Rory walked to the park and saw Jess was playing baseball with the boys, she sat at the bench waiting for Jess to turn to her direction so she could wave at him and say hi.

Jess was walking towards the first base and saw Rory sitting on the bench. He smiled and waved at her before focusing back at the game.

Jess knew how important this is for his friends to score a homerun, he got into position. He was getting nervous, the game is tied right now, he wanted to win so badly.

Strike! He was getting frustrated of himself, he hit the ground with his bat out of anger before he got back into position.

This time he hit the ball, everyone was cheering, Rory was happily jumping and eventhough she knows nothing about baseball, she assumes hitting the ball is a good thing.

Jess throw the bat down to the ground, he was running and running, high fiving his friends for the homerun he just made before he got knocked down by an angry kid from the 5th grader team.

The older boy punched him in the eye, forcing him to fall to the ground.

'What the hell man!" shouted Jess who put his right hand to cover his right eye while pushing the kid with his left hand.

"You suck! And you cheated that's why you deserved that punch!" yelled back the kid who also pushed Jess.

Jess was getting furious, he didn't care about his friends telling him to back down and just let it go, he headbutted the kid in the chest and shoved him to the ground. Although

the boy fell down, he was much bigger than Jess and began to wrestle Jess down to the ground and kicked him and punched him.

"Jess let it go!" "Jess come on calm down!" screamed the other kids while trying to pull off the two boys unsuccessfully.

Rory panicked and ran over, trying to help but the two boys just won't stop. Rory was scared that Jess would die from that kid's punching, she ran back to the diner to ask Luke for help.

"Luke! Luke! Help!" screamed Rory while rushing into the diner.

Luke immediately stopped everything when he heard Rory screaming his name and saw tears rolling down her eyes.

"Rory, calm down, what is it?" asked Luke who immediately hugged the poor girl.

"Jess is in a fight with a way bigger boy, and they are not stopping, Luke!" Rory exclaimed. Luke immediately rushed out of the diner and ran to the field.

"Stop at once you two! Jess!" shouted Luke who pulled the two boys apart instantly with his strong arms.

The older boy ran off, afraid Luke would get him into trouble by telling his parents. Luke was furious, he didn't say anything but grabbed Jess by the arm and marched him upstairs into the apartment.

When they went up to the apartment, Jess immediately lie onto his bed and covered himself with the blanket.

"Jess. What happened! Why were you in a fight?" asked Luke trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Jess mumbled under his sheets, he was actually crying silently, he didn't want his uncle to see the weak side of him.

Luke sighed and sat on Jess's bed patting the boy on his back, 'Jess, come on, I gotta know what happened. Get up, let me see your face." Said Luke softly, knowing the boy

was may be embarrased about the fight where he mostly was just getting beat up, because he was much smaller than the other boy.

"Jess."

Jess was sobbing really hard now, he hated himself, now Luke hears everything and must think he's a wimp. But he can't help it. Luke just forcefully pulled the boy up and

carried him up.

"It's okay, Jess. I'm here. You were not weak, I saw how tough you were, ok? But you have to tell me honestly, what happened. Please." Said Luke while putting the child down sitting on his bed and looking at him on the same eye level.

Luke now saw the really bruised up black eye that Jess is trying to hide while wiping the tears off his face.

' I didn't mean to fight that guy at all Uncle Luke! He punched me in the eye while I was running to finish my homerun and I got up and asked why did he do it and he said I

cheated! I got angry cause I wasn't cheating and then… and then.. I pushed him to the ground.." cried Jess.

Luke wasn't angry anymore, he would have done the same if he was in Jess position at that age.

"Jess, I understand now, let's forget about the fight, that black eye needs some attention." Said Luke, giving Jess a reassuring smile that he wasn't in trouble.

"Are you not gonna hit me, Uncle Luke?" asked Jess quietly while looking at Luke with his big brown watery eyes.

Luke was shocked, yea he might give the boy a few swats on the bottom if he misbehaves but he never thought of 'hitting' the boy.

"No, of course not! Why would you think of that?" asked Luke who doesn't actually wanna know why because he was afraid of the reality.

"Well.. when I'm in trouble, mom's boyfriends would always hit me…one time I was watching TV and Jack hit me on the back of my head with the remote control saying I'm the

one who caused the electric bill to be so expensive. Something like that.. sometimes…sometimes…he gets so drunk and mom was at work, he would pushed me to the ground

and kicked me for no reason until…until I stopped crying. Uncle Luke, I tried to be tough, I really did for mom, but I was scared." Confessed Jess.

Luke had a hard time digesting this. His eyes were watery, but tears didn't fall down, he didn't want his nephew to think that he is weak.

'C'mere.' Luke said softly while pulling Jess into a bear hug, he was never a man with a lot of words, he didn't know what to say to the poor boy but giving a hug to him.

After Jess calmed down, Luke got some cream and band-aids for the bruises.

"Here, take off your shirt so I can see how badly that jerk bruised you." Said Luke while carrying the boy and put him on the countertop.

Jess took off his shirt and revealed some black and purple bruises on his arms, side of his ribs, his back. Luke starred with his really worried eyes, Jess saw it and reassured his uncle.

"It's okay Luke, I've been through worst." Said Jess with a bittersweet smile.

Luke knew what he meant, the kid was seriously abused by a bunch of assholes over his young life, the kid has suffered so much more than he should.

Luke patted his head, wipe the tears off the little boy's face and replied with a smile,

"You're one hell of a fighter, kid."