Chapter 14: Angels and Snowflakes

A MONTH AFTER THE CAR ACCIDENT

December 23rd, 1992

'Which channel do you want to watch?' Jess flipping the channels on TV asked Luke who just woke up. Luke was recovering very fast from the car accident, he couldn't walk yet and was still using the wheelchair to commute around but both his arms were working as fine as before.

Luke sat up on his bed and looked at his nephew who was all dressed at 7am, watching TV. He sighed, 'Jess, you know you don't have to do this, I'm way better now. It's winter break go outside, throw a ball, do something but taking care of me!'

'First of, it's snowing, nobody's playing baseball outside, it's like minus 15. And you're not better, if you're better you could work in the diner or walk down the stairs without the crutches. So you're not better. I'll be here until you're all better.' Jess replied while gluing his eyes to the TV.

A small little rock just tapped the window by the kitchen. Jess jumped out of the couch and rushed to the window. He saw his friends waving at him, trying to say something. He sighed and opened the window.

' Jess get down here! We're gonna go to the town square to have our first official snowball fight! Come on!' Johnny shouted excitedly.

Jess shook his head and replied, ' You guys go I'm busy here.'

' Jess are you mad at us or something? I've never seen you out of this building since school ended! It's the holiday, you can't be THAT busy!' Johnny argued back.

Jess got tired of this, his friends had been urging him to go out and play all the time, especially since school's out, 'I just am busy okay! Go throw your stupid snowball! Stop bugging me!'

' That's what you want? Fine! Jess Mariano I hate you, you stupid moron!' Johnny angrily shouted back.

' shut up, idiot!'

'Watch it, Jerk!'

'Scab eater!'

'Butt sniffer!'

'Fart Smeller!'

'I know you are but what am I?' Johnny challenged back.

'If you know who I am but you don't know who you, yourself are, you're just purely dumb!' Jess laughed.

Johnny couldn't think of what to say and angrily threw a big snowball at the window. Jess got angry as well and filled a glass full of water from the sink, ready to pour it down.

'Jess! Don't you dare! My arms recovered and I'm sure you don't want to test how strong my right arm is right now, do you?' Luke warned.

'But Johnny threw a snowball at your window!' Jess argued back still holding that big cup of water.

'I don't care! You better come down from the counter right now.'

'Fine.' Jess replied, pouring the water back on to the sink and hopped back to the couch.

Luke hung his head low, looking all defeated, ' Jess, c'mere' Luke patted the side of his bed, telling Jess to sit beside him on his bed. Jess put down the remote and walked over to his uncle. He sat down and was looking down at his own toes. Luke held up Jess's chin and turned it slightly so the boy is facing him. ' Jess, the car accident was not your fault. It was an accident. You have got to stop blaming yourself and let it go. I'm more than grateful that you sacrificed your free time after school after the accident, helping out at the diner, doing laundry and even learn how to cook. But it's been a month and I'm really better, you have got to stop this and go outside and play with your friends.'

'It's okay, my friend just hates me, called me a butt sniffer and threw a snowball at me anyway.' Jess simply replied.

Luke rolled his eyes and scoffed, 'please, I was once eight, those words mean nothing. You go down now, throw a snowball at him, he will turn back, throw one at you and now you're having fun throwing snowballs at each other. Afterwards, you guys come back here and have ice cream sundae. You're friends again.'

Jess got up from the bed and walked towards the dinner table. He grabbed a plate of food that he made this morning for his uncle and handed it to Luke. 'I'm not going anywhere, until you eat your breakfast.' Jess said with his little authority voice.

Luke chuckled 'okay Uncle Jess.' and took a bite of the toast, ' You made this? You're kidding right?' Jess shook his head, watching his uncle take a small bite of the omelette. ' Jess, this omelette is chef quality! You now just need to learn how to drive and get a job and you can live on your own!' Luke jokingly said, still amazed how much Jess's cooking had improved in only a month.

'Thanks.' Jess replied, still sitting next to Luke on the bed. ' Don't forget to take your pills too, ok? Never mind, I'll just stay here until you take your medicine as well.'

' No! Go! Put on your jacket and gloves and get out of here! I promise I'll take my medicines. Ok?' Luke assured his nephew, slightly pushing him up from the bed.

'Okay, okay! You don't have to push me!' Jess put on his jacket, gloves, beanie and his snow boots and headed to the door. Before he opened the door, he said, ' You better not move around, I'll be back very soon! Go watch TV ok?'

Luke rolled his eyes but he nodded while finishing his breakfast.

After Jess left, Luke got up from his bed with the help of the crutches and picked up the phone and dialed a number.

'Independence Inn, Lorelai speaking.'

'Hey.'

'Heyyy!'

'So Jess finally got out of the house.'

'Really? Wow what kind of witchcraft did you use to finally get the boy out of his cave?'

'No witchcraft. His friends were trying to get him out for a snowball fight and I just told him again for the billionth time that he shouldn't be guilty. And finally, after a month of telling him that, he agreed to it.'

' Good for you both! By the way, I'm so sorry I couldn't be there with you today, Michel said he really just need me today.'

'Lorelai, stop taking days off for me, you've been doing it on and off for the whole month. Seriously, I'm perfectly fine on my own. In fact, for christmas, I'm cooking us four christmas dinner at my place.' Luke said it proudly.

'Noooo way! First, you can barely walk without the crutches and your place is not christmasy at all.'

' Okay, last compromise, tomorrow night you girls come over and have a sleepover here. Then on Christmas day, I'm still going to cook, but we'll have it at your place. Seriously, I'm not risking my life, my boy's life and Rory's life with your cooking.'

'Ouch! You hurt my feelings, Lucas!' Lorelai said it sarcastically.

'Toughin up, snowflake.' Luke smirked.

' Bye DUKE!' Lorelai teased back and they hung up the phone.

After the phone call Luke tried walking down slowly to the diner, despite Jess's nagging about moving around. He needed to talk to a specific person desperately while Jess, Lorelai and Rory were not there. He walked down and everyone greeted him and asked him about his legs. He greeted everyone back and tried to avoid small talks until he saw that person he needed to talk to.

'Luke! Hope you're recovering well!' Taylor put down his newspapers and greeted Luke.

'Taylor! Thank you, I'm recovering pretty well here.' Luke replied with extra enthusiasm in his tone, which was really rare from him as he was never fond of Taylor.

'Well I'm glad to hear that!' Taylor replied back.

' Taylor, I need to talk to you about something.'

'Okay, you're talking to me right now, Luke.'

'Right..' Luke laughed nervously. 'So I need your help.'

'You need MY help?' Taylor was shocked, 'Luke this better not be some kind of joke from you.'

'Taylor, how often do I ask you for help like this, huh?'

'None?'

'Exactly. So I'm serious.' Luke whispered scared that other people were trying to listen to their conversation. 'Look Christmas is in 2 days, and I know it's a rush, but do you think you can call up a couple of guys from your S.S.H.C or S.H.S.T.C or whatever to make a little skating rink outside of Lorelai's house? I would have done it myself in a heartbeat but as you can see, I can't.'

'It's the S.H.B.A., the S.H.T.B, the S.H.N.W.O. and the S.H.C.C.S.H.C, Luke. Anyway, does Lorelai even know about this?'

'No, but that's the point, it's supposed to be a surprise for Lorelai, Rory and Jess for christmas day. The three of them had done awfully much for me this month, and I need to do something back for them. Now are you gonna help or not?'

'Okay, I will help. But Lorelai's gonna know if she's at home.'

'She's working the whole day tomorrow and I'm going to invite Rory to my place and hang out with Jess while your crew can work on the skating rink.'

'Okay.'

'Thank you! You saved the day!' Luke said happily even giving a hug to Taylor which Taylor hesitantly accepted.

Next Luke walked to the counter and talked to Kirk who was eating toast.

'Kirk how are you doing?' Luke asked. 'You want coffee? Coffee's on the house.' Luke poured Kirk some coffee without him replying.

'Thank you Luke, but I'm trying to stop drinking coffee because it is said to be making people leak more gas. It is now scientifically proven..'

'I don't care, fart all you want here in my diner. Drink it.' Luke grunted, which caused Kirk to immediately took a sip of coffee. Luke returned to a smiley face, 'Kirk, I need some help from you.'

'I don't help people without having a financial benefit. If your help involves working part time here at the diner then I propose taking 30% of the profit you make that day.'

Luke sighed, 'no it's not the diner, I need your help to buy something at the mall as I can't really drive yet.'

'Okay. I have fully qualified experience in being a mall shopper for people. Three times, I helped Mrs. Williams shop for grocery out of town and Doosey's market was out of lettuce and broccolis.'

'Great!'

'So what will my financial benefit be?'

'Free breakfast for the next week?'

'two weeks.'

'9 days.'

'10 days plus one complimentary lunch meal as well.'

Luke was tired of negotiating, 'fine, 10 days plus a free lunch.'

Kirk took out a notepad out of nowhere and asked, 'so what do you need me to buy?'

' it's fairly simple actually, one size six youth figure skating shoes and a size eight youth hockey skating shoes.' Luke took out 200 bucks cash from his wallet, 'here this should be more than enough.'

'Any specific brand or style?'

'Whatever, stick with Bauers, CCM or Reebok.'

'Okay, I will go right now.'

'Thanks Kirk.' Luke patted Kirk on the shoulder before slowly walking back up to the apartment.

December 25th, 1992 8am

Lorelai and Rory had spent the night at Luke's apartment. After watching Home Alone at 10pm, the two kids fell asleep and was carried to their bed and mattress in Jess's room by Lorelai. Then the two adults watched some more TV in bed and eventually fell asleep.

' ready? 1, 2, 3!' Jess whispered to Rory before the two rushed into Luke's room and jumped on to the bed and woke up the two sleepy adults.

'Merry Christmas!' The two kids shouted, Jess sat on Luke's stomach and squished his uncle's face with his hands while Rory slipped in between the two adults and rolled around until the two would almost be falling down to the ground.

Luke grunted in his just woke up voice, ' I'm gonna kill you both.' Luke threw a pillow on to Jess's face and rolled over and tickled the two kids until they almost accidentally pushed Lorelai out of the bed.

Lorelai got out of bed, pretending to be all angry, crossing her arms around her chest. The three immediately stopped throwing pillows at each other and looked at her with a sheepish look. They all know that Lorelai has the highest potential to changed into an angry beast when her sleep is interrupted.

'They started it.' Luke pointed to the two kids like a little kid.

'No mommy it wasn't me! Jess planned it!' Rory trying to look as innocent as she can.

' Liar! You wanted to wake them up as much as I wanted to!' Jess argued back.

'Quiet!' Lorelai shouted. All three of them terrifyingly looked at the woman who was so angry that they thought smoke were coming off on the top of her head. Only if they knew she was actually pretending.

'Sorry we woke you up..' Rory said softly and then the two kids hide behind Luke and pushing him forward to Lorelai as if he was their shield. Luke looked at his girlfriend, partly scared of that never ever been seen angry face and partly puzzled as to why she's being this angry on a christmas day. Lorelai was trying so hard not to laugh at Luke's innocent and confused face, she quickly grabbed a pillow and whacked it on Luke's face. Then burst out laughing, 'Got you three! I was just pretending!'

'I can't believe you tortured us like that!' Luke exclaimed and lightly whack Lorelai on the arm with another pillow. And the pillow fight started again.

After almost 10 minutes, the adults got tired and ended the pillow fight. The four lay down on the bed to take a rest.

'Can we open the presents now?' Jess asked.

'Yea! Can we?' Rory added.

The two adults were dead tired, still laying on the bed.

'Pleaseeeeeeeeee!' The two kids started begging.

Luke sighed, 'yea go ahead.'

The two jumped off the bed and went straight to the presents, it wasn't a lot, two from Miss Patty, two from Babette, two from Sookie and two each from Luke and Lorelai. The two went right to the heaviest and biggest wrapped box, which were from Luke's.

The two adults now sat next to the kids and watched them trying to open the presents.

Jess shook the box close to his ears, 'I wonder what this is, it's pretty heavy!' and started ripping the wrappers off, while Rory slowly unfold the wrapping papers.

'Woah! This is so cool! It's hockey skates!' Jess exclaimed while taking the shoes out. Rory was as excited as Jess, 'Thank you Luke!' Rory went over and gave Luke a hug, 'you're welcome Rory.' Luke had the biggest smile on his face. He was known to be the worst gift giver, but he's pretty sure he got it right this year.

'But they didn't make a skating rink this year at the town square, where are they gonna skate?' asked Lorelai.

Luke smirked, 'well we'll just have to go to your place.'

The three looked puzzled but opened all the gifts and Lorelai drove the three back to her house afterwards.

The three hopped off the jeep, only to see a 24'x50' skating rink right in front of the house.

'Oh my god! Luke! How did this happen!' Lorelai asked excitedly.

'I got my ways.' Luke smiled.

The two kids were already breaking into their new skating shoes and stepping on to the rink.

' I learn more about you everyday, Luke Danes.' Lorelai kissed Luke on the lips.

Luke gave her his half smiled and kissed back, ' Go grab your skating shoes, crazy woman.'

A/N yea just a little cute chapter of the four. I'm probably bringing in a character from the show next chapter, guess who? ;) Again, reviews are always greatly appreciated, love reading them and it keeps me motivated! Till then...stay tuned!

Anon1: Thank you for your review! Haha, yea, I figured Jess had just such a horrifying experience in New York that it was a good consequence for running away. But you never know what's gonna happen in later chapters :p and yes I agree, may be watch it after this story ends, I seriously am not very good at sticking the characters truly to the tv characters, so you might get disappointed once you watched it..lol trying my best. Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter!

RhizOneill: Thank you for your review! Of course they are gonna be together! Let's see if they're gonna be 'together, together' later on in the story. ;) Let me know what you think of this chapter!