A/N: Two amazing artists drew up scenes from this story! I expect more to come :D Feel free to follow or just check it out on instagram #wolvecub07

yes I'm crazy. I'm updating chapters three days in a roll. Enjoy! Oh wait and special thanks to Simon & Garfunkel for the title, lol.

Chapter 24: Homeward Bound

New York International Airport 9am April 27th 1993

'Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I want to welcome you aboard Air Canada flight 787 service from NYC New York City to YYC Calgary. Once we get airborne today, our flight time will be 5 hours and 27 minutes; currently in YYC, the winds are out of the South at 12MPH, excellent visibility, light snowshower may be anticipated later in the evening. The temperature is 2 degrees centigrade. We'll get back to you enroute just as soon as we have more information; once again, welcome aboard.'

Charles bought first class tickets for the three. Jess was sitting next to the window while Liz fell asleep instantly after they settled down. Jess was looking out of the window, he was devastated, Luke never came. He tried to call him at the payphone in the airport but no one picked up. There he was, about to leave his country into the land of unknown.

Luke's apartment 9am April 27th 1993

' Luke, are you crazy?!' Lorelai gasped after hearing Luke's story from last night of why he didn't bring Jess back to Stars Hollow.

' Calm down, Charles is really different. This is the best option for Jess now. He's going down a good path.' Luke sat up from his bed explained.

' Oh, just by looking at him holding Jess' hand, cracking jokes and giving him a piggy back ride gives you a conclusion that he suddenly becomes Jess' perfect father figure?' Lorelai shot back, she was mad that Luke jumped to conclusion again.

Luke sighed, ' There's nothing I can really do, Lorelai. I'm not Jess' legal guardian and if we are going to get a lawyer and fight back it's no use. Cause we're running against Charles Mathers. Let me repeat this again, Charles Mathers!'

' Charles Mathers as in the guy who always gets invited on CBC, NBC, CNN morning news when they start to babble about oil and gas prices when nobody actually cares?' Lorelai asked, ' That Charles Mathers?'

Luke nodded, ' yes, Keywest Energy CEO Charles Mathers.'

Lorelai needed a second to think, ' how did Liz even get to know Charles Mathers? He's like a billionaire!'

Luke stood up, he grunted, ' I don't know and I don't care!' He sat back down and quietly said, ' This is way out of my league now, I'm just gonna hope for the best for Jess.'

Lorelai sat up next to Luke and smoothed his back. She understood Luke must be feeling awful right now. She knew Luke loved and cared Jess like he's his own kid, but he's really stuck in a helpless situation.

April 27th 1993 Calgary, Alberta

' Wow look at this place Jess!' Liz squealed in excitement, spinning herself round and round in the big high tech mansion with a million dollar view of the Rocky Mountains.

Charles chuckled, ' Home sweet home.'

Jess walked up to the paranormic window in the huge room, which is said to be the one of many living rooms in this house. He gazed out to the view of the Rockies. Charles slide the door on the very right corner and invited Jess to go out with him. Jess followed along. They walked out to the big patio. Jess was speechless when he saw the infinity pool.

' You like it?' Charles asked proudly.

Jess nodded, ' it's awesome.' He still couldn't believe that everything changed in one night. He was now living in a mansion with a pool and a view and perhaps many other things that yet to be discovered. He thought he was living in a Richie Rich TV Show. Suddenly, he snapped back to reality, Luke. He needed to call Luke.

' Charles, can I borrow a phone to call my Uncle?' Jess asked.

Charles gave a very apologetical face, ' I'm afraid I can't let you use the phone right now.'

' But why?' Jess asked, all confused. Charles' a billionaire, he must have a phone somewhere.

Charles bent down and talked to Jess at the eye level, ' You see, your mother and I were looking at your grades, and it's not good Jess. I pulled in many relations to get you into the best school and I don't want you to get distracted.'

' You can't do that to me! I need to talk to Uncle Luke!' Jess complained.

' I'm sorry Jess, but this is the decision. Until we see your grades up, I will let you call your Uncle and may be even visit him during the summer, okay?' Charles tried to ruffle Jess' hair.

Jess growled, ' Don't touch me!' No one can ruffle my hair but Uncle Luke and Lorelai. No one!

April 28th 1993 7am

Jess had to start school the next day, he crawled out of his queen sized bed and tip-toed out of his room. He checked the whole premises for signs of Charles. But there's no one there except his mother dead asleep in the master bedroom. He quickly rushed back into Charles' study room and picked up the phone and dialed Luke's number.

860-564-5885

'Access denied. Please try again.'

860-564-5885

'Access denied. Please try again.'

' Jess I told you no phone calls, buddy.' Charles sipping on his morning coffee, stood next to the door of his studies.

' You made Uncle Luke cancel his number?!' Jess exclaimed.

' No, but all the phones here recognise only my finger prints and your mother's finger prints right now.'

Jess was shocked, since when could phones do that?!

'Come on, you better get ready for school. Frank your driver will be waiting outside shortly.' Charles simply said and picked up his business phone when it rang.

Luke's diner April 28th 1993 7:30am

'Rory, baby. Can you put down your book for a second. Luke and I have something to tell you.' Lorelai held Rory's hand and gave her a nervous smile.

Rory put down the book on the table and looked into two nervous adults. ' Did someone die?'

' No, no. I mean, I hope not. No, absolutely not. No one died.' Luke assured.

Lorelai looked at Luke, Luke took a deep breathe then nodded to Lorelai before she took up the courage and told Rory the news, ' Jess is gone.'

' What do you mean Jess is gone? Is this a late April's fool joke?' Rory questioned.

' No it's not Rory, I'm so sorry. But Jess went back to live with his mom.' Luke confessed.

'We're so sorry, baby.' Lorelai added, while giving her daughter a hug.

Rory who was so confused that her face was showing that she's going to cry anytime soon. Why didn't Jess tell her that he was going to leave? Jess always tells her his secrets! Luke was as heartbroken as Rory was. He comforted Rory,

' I'll make the extra fluffy chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries on the side okay?'

A week later.

Stars Hollow Main Street

Luke went out of his diner and was walking down the street to get a few errands done. Then a uniformed Kirk was running towards him.

' It's Jess! Luke! It's Jess!' Kirk running and waving with a letter in hand.

Luke stopped and turned around, all he heard was 'Jess' and his heart started to beat faster.

' It's a mail from Jess!' Kirk said excitedly and handed the letter to Luke.

Luke quickly opened the mail and read it.

Dear Uncle Luke,

How are you? This is Jess. I hope you didn't forget about me. I called you before I get to Canada but you didn't pick up the phone. I am okay. Charles doesn't let me use the phone to call anyone until I get good grades at school so this is the best way I can talk to you. My driver Frank will help me post this letter secretly, I hope you write back to me. The address is Frank's home so it's safe. I miss you but I hate you for not bringing me back to Stars Hollow.

Jess

Luke had a big grin when he read through the letter, those familiar kiddie hand writing of Jess made him so happy. He forgot about the errands and walked back to his diner.

' Wait up Luke!' Kirk shouted, Luke stopped and looked at what Kirk was trying to do. Kirk reached to his back pocket of his working trousers.

' Here you go.' Kirk handed Luke a thick white envelope, ' it's from the printing shop, it was actually done a couple weeks ago but I spilled apple juice all over the machine so I thought all the pictures were ruined, but it didn't. So here you go.'

' Thanks Kirk.' Luke patted the guy on the shoulder and went straight back to his apartment. He can't wait to write back to Jess.

Mount Royal Academy 3:30pm

Jess was standing in front of his new school's gate reading a book while waiting for Frank to pick him up. He was all dressed up in a proper uniform. White tucked shirt with a navy blue tie, grey trousers, grey school jacket with navy blue lining and a grey school cap.

' Logan, look.' A blonde hair kid pointed at Jess, ' it's the new kid.'

Logan smirked and walked up to Jess. The blonde boy snapped his thumb to the other two blonde boys. The two other boys went up to Jess and knocked down his books. The three kids laughed.

' Hey!' Jess shouted.

Logan walked up to Jess, ' Who's your father new kid?'

Jess picked up his book and replied, ' it's none of your business, dick.'

The dirty blonde hair boy shoved Jess back to the brick wall, ' How dare you talk to Logan like that!'

' Tristan, that's enough. He's new, he doesn't know the rules.' Logan stopped his friend/body guard.

Jess got off the wall and fixed his tie and adjusted his school cap, ' Leave me alone before I throw a punch at you blondie.'

' That's cute.' Logan and the boys laughed at Jess. ' We just need to know who your father is. We need to rank you in the school chain.'

'What school chain?'

' School chain ranks you accordingly, we'll see if you are one of us or you're the bottom feeders.'

' You guys are dumb!' Jess rolled his eyes, ignoring the group of blonde preppy boys.

' Look, kid. You go to this school, you play by our rules. Everyone here brings his or her father's business card to school. You better start doing that tomorrow.' Logan threatened.

Jess scoffed, ' You don't scare me, daddy's boy. I'm from the Bronx.'

There Frank finally arrived and Jess pushed through the boys and got into the car.

' Hey boss, you've got a letter.' Frank said while handing Jess a small package.

' Thank you Frank. Please call me Jess, I'm not your boss.' Jess replied and quickly opened the parcel.

Frank smiled, ' whatever you say sir.'

Dear Jess,

All is well. Rory, Lorelai and everyone in town misses you. I miss you. I'm sorry I didn't bring you back to Stars Hollow but this is for your own good. Charles is going to provide you with everything you need to be a successful man in the future. Don't be like me Jess. I'm not a good role model. All I do is flip burgers. Charles makes thousands of dollars every minute. Be like him. Listen to Charles okay? Behave and don't talk back. Your words are your sharpest weapon. And as much as I wanted to write you and talk to you, Jess. This is not right. Charles will soon be your step-father, and this is not good. Don't do things behind his back. You might also get your driver fired. Along with this letter, here's your pal, Speedy.

Take care. Make me proud, son.

Love,

The Uncle that you hate.

Jess crumbled the letter, threw it on the floor, curled into a ball and cried. He hated that Luke was not only not coming to pick him up, he was not going to write him back and more than all that, he missed Luke too much. He rubbed his eyes and took Speedy out of the parcel box, he held it tightly and sniffed it. Speedy was full of the scent of Luke's apartment.

Don't worry Speedy, we are going home.

Luke's Apartment 10pm

Luke closed up his diner and went upstairs. He told Lorelai he wanted to spend the night alone. He opened the fridge and took out a bottle of beer and sat on his couch. He switched on the TV.

' Scooby-Scooby Doo, where are you? We need some help from you now!'

Switched to another channel Luke. That's Jess' favourite show. You have got to stop thinking about him. let it go. let it go.

Luke switched to ESPN and watched some sports highlight.

' And I mean, look at the Yankees, they are looking good this season. Paul O'neill just gave his...'

Damn it!

Luke turned off the TV and went to the bathroom to wash his face to cool off a little. He got to the sink, turned on the tap and splashed his face with cold water. Then he proceeded to grab his towel which he accidentally knocked down Jess' yellow wolverine toothbrush and blueberry blast toothpaste.

God damn it Luke! Just go look into the photos you pussy! You know you miss your nephew.

Luke got out of the bathroom, walked to his desk and opened the thick white envelope. He sat down and took out a big pile of photos. He can't help but grin at the first picture.

It was Jess in his dinosaur PJs with his wake up hair, with a big grin on his face and a hole left on the front and centre, waving a 5 dollar bill.

Luke flipped to the second photo, the smile on his face now matched the one he had in the picture. Lorelai must have taken that photo.

The morning after the winter break, Jess and Rory were sitting next to each other and Luke bent down between the two kids. Rory had a big smile on her face being all excited to get back to school and Jess gave a grumpy face and had his chin rested on the table.

He flipped to the third photo, he let out a little laugh. Again, Lorelai must have taken this photo with his camera.

Jess was all GQed up in a suit with his new haircut Lorelai gave him. He was posing in front of Luke's diner with his BMX bike and wearing one of Luke's shades.

Luke continued, he had also not seen this picture before. But he did remember that hot sunny day, he was pitching for the Stars Hollow Softball team in the State Championships. The whole town was there to watch the game and he remembered Jess was just running around and playing catch with his friends beside the field when he wasn't pitching.

The sunlight was reflected in the picture's background. Jess, Johnny, Sean and Dean were shirtless, sitting at the bleachers, each holding an ice cream cone with a wide smile, having their arms over one another's shoulder.

The next photo had Luke laughing hard, he believed Sookie took this photo of Jess. It was the dance marathon. The picture was in a perfect angle.

It was a side shot of Jess and Rory. Jess was holding the microphone near his lips, a feet away from Rory on the dance floor, he held out his right hand to invite Rory to dance with him and he was staring into Rory's eyes with such passion.

Luke's laugh faded when he flipped to the next picture. He stared at the picture for a long hard minute before he slammed the pile of photos on the table, he cursed and hung his head low, stared at the floor and had his hands covered his forehead and eyes.

That night, Kirk saw Luke's camera lying around the counter top. He took it and snapped random pictures around the diner while Luke was sitting down with Lorelai, Rory and Jess at one of the table having dinner.

The picture was just so ordinary of the four of them eating and interacting with one another, yet Luke saw the beautiful line that was hidden in that picture.

Jess was sitting next to Lorelai, and facing Rory. Rory was sitting next to Luke. Luke was helping Rory cut her steak. And Rory was asking Luke a question which Luke hung a ridiculous grin on his face in the picture. Jess was using all his energy to squeeze out ketchup from the ketchup bottle and Lorelai was holding up a napkin just around the corner of Jess' lips, attempting to wipe the ketchup stain off.

This is home. This is family. This is my home and my family.

A/N couldn't write the last part of this chapter without listening to this song, 'Turning Home' by David Nail. Thank you for reading! I know I haven't yet answer all the questions you all have. It will be answered in the coming chapter. Reviews are always greatly appreciated! Loving all of your supports and questions! Till then...stay tuned. :)

I am probably going to reply all of you through private message from now on (reviewers who reviewed it with an account). Do tell me if you prefer I reply you here on the story. But thank you for all y'all reviews. DC Nixon, Droolia, junienmomo, Anon1, Nancy, RhizOneill, DSLeo, roganjalex !

Anon1, thank you for your review! So glad that you liked that chapter! Haha yea, I got that question from everyone, why the heck did Luke not fight back. I don't know, I was thinking he always thought he's not good enough for Jess, he's never good at parenting and raising a kid. And now that he thought Jess is in good hands, he wanted the best for Jess. Remember, he thought. Keep reading, you will find out soon :P

Nancy, thank you for your review! Sorry I haven't answer your question yet regarding why Liz would even get to meet a billionaire and other questions on how Charles' kids would react and everything. All will be up and answered in the next chapter, don't worry. :) Won't spoil things for you here, but you are on the right track. Something is fishy! There's no free lunch in this world. Thanks again for your detailed review and questions! Hope the next chapter won't disappoint you.