A/N: Thanks for all the reviewage on the previous - y'all make me smile so much! This chapter... Meh, it's not my favourite, but maybe you'll like it. Hope so.

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 17

"Not that I'm objecting to you being happy or anything, but you wanna explain the uncontrollable giggling today?"

Rory tried to stop being quite so giddy when Jess asked his question, though she noted from her place beneath his arm that he was having trouble keeping a straight face anyway. It wasn't as if he usually smiled a whole lot, but today was different. They both had plenty of reasons to be happy right now, the most important one being each other.

"You're one to talk, Guy Smiley!" she countered with a grin. "Y'know it's highly likely that someone's going to call the cops on you, suspecting you're on drugs or something. How else can you explain that highly uncharacteristic cheery demeanour?" she teased him.

Jess leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I can explain it just fine," he told her softly, the most intense look on his face when Rory met his eyes.

She kind of loved this, and she definitely loved Jess. It was how they had been once before, too many months ago when things were good, before she had to worry why he was pulling away and things fell apart. Now all the baggage was taken care of, all the issues had been ironed out. Rory wasn't expecting to have an argument-free, perfect relationship or anything, such a thing just wasn't possible, she was certain, but this was better, so much better. Certainly better than being apart.

"So, you headed back to Yale tonight?"

"That's the plan." Rory nodded into her reply. "As much as I hate to leave when we're just back together-"

"Ror, don't," Jess urged her as they stopped walking right outside the diner. "Us being together is not contingent on you being within three feet of me at all times," he reminded her. "Sure, I like the within the three feet thing," he admitted, holding her close in his arms, "but it's not a deal breaker. You have Yale, I have work and apartment-hunting. It's not a big deal."

Rory tightened her arms around his neck and moved in to kiss his lips.

"No big deal," she agreed. "I mean, it's only twenty two point eight miles, right?" she said with a smile.

"So they tell me." Jess nodded, recalling the same conversation she was in this moment and not minding at all. "Now go on, scram. I got work to do," he told Rory, sparing her one last kiss before she departed.

Watching her head off across the square, Jess let out a long breath. It was kind of unbelievable, being back here, dating Rory again. It was what he wanted, all he ever dreamed of since the day he first came to Stars Hollow and met the only girl in the world that could steal his heart. They had been through a lot, together and apart. Now it seemed as if maybe they were in a good place, that this thing between them could work out. If it didn't, it would not be through a lack of trying.

Turning around, Jess headed inside the diner, finding Luke mid-rant at Kirk.

"-and if you don't get your skinny ass out of my diner in the next thirty seconds, you are going to be wearing that perfectly good meal like a helmet, which you will need because I'm about to throw you through the window of your choice!"

Jess barely had time to move out of the way before Kirk tore past him at ninety miles an hour, obviously in fear for his life. Quite honestly, even Jess was shocked by his uncle's outburst and wasn't surprised to see several other patrons leave hastily, lest they face the wrath of Angry Luke. Clearly something was not good here, and Jess could take a pretty good guess at what it was. Two women were in the frame for causing Luke's craziness - the current Mrs Danes, or the one woman in town who stood a chance of owning that title for keeps someday.

"How're things, Uncle Luke?" he asked cheerfully as well as sarcastically.

"Not now, Jess," came the reply, a growl more than words.

His nephew took a look around the diner. Not too many customers and a couple of wait staff covering the tables for now. He had a chance here and he was going to take it.

"Hey, you got a minute?" he asked Luke, heading for the curtain. "I kinda need to talk to you."

Jess never said what he wanted to talk about, never even implied it, but he did know that Luke would assume he was the one looking for advice. The truth was very different, but once he had got his uncle up to the apartment, and himself between Luke and the door, he knew he could deal.

"You know if you need to talk, Jess, I'm always here," said Luke, adjusting his cap. "But now really isn't the best time. I'm supposed to be working, you're supposed to be working, and-"

"And you need to tell me what the hell has you threatening to hang Kirk from the rafters," insisted Jess, pointing an arm back down the stairs to where that particular scene had taken place. "I know the guy is a freak, Luke, but you really lost it back there. So what is it? The divorce from Nicole or something to do with Lorelai?"

Luke opened his mouth to respond, and Jess would lay good money that his uncle was going to argue too. He held firm, knowing he was right. They weren't leaving here until Luke told the truth and that was that.

"C'mon, Luke. You spent more than two years trying to get me to talk to you, trying to help me figure my life out. I know you think you failed, but you didn't," he said definitely, even as his eyes dipped to the floor in no little amount of embarrassment when it came to speaking so frankly. "I'm back, I'm with Rory, things aren't exactly terrible right now. Let me return a little of the favour. Tell me what's going on."

He looked awkward, but then Luke always did when asked to talk about anything that mattered. Jess knew the feeling because he was exactly the same, but this needed dealing with. Luke ripping heads off customers was amusing in its way, but Jess didn't want to see the guy suffer any more than he already had. He didn't deserve that.

A huge sigh escaped Luke then as he moved over to the table and sat himself down heavily in a chair. Removing his hat from his head a moment, he ran a hand back over his face and hair before replacing the baseball cap that he was rarely seen without.

"I screwed up," he admitted at last. "I really screwed up."

Jess moved to grab the other chair and sat down too. "I have some experience in that area," he said with a hint of a smirk that he couldn't help.

Luke smiled a little too. "Yeah well, screwing up with women probably runs in the family or something. Even my dad, for all that he adored Mom, he could make her more mad than anybody else on the planet. I guess us Danes men just don't handle these things well."

"Nicole or Lorelai?" Jess asked again, before Luke got lost in waxing nostalgic.

"Lorelai," admitted Luke, exhaling loudly. "I... I don't know, we were talking about my divorce and her breaking up with her boyfriend. It was just a friendly conversation, but she was looking at me like... like it was more than that? I don't know, Jess, I'm not good with all the signals and the hidden meanings. All I know is I'm standing there looking at Lorelai and she's looking back at me, and I'm realising all of a sudden that I feel more for her in one moment across the counter than I ever felt for the woman I actually married," he said, with one more heavy sigh. "And I'm an idiot because that was two days ago, and Lorelai, the coffee addict, hasn't been back into the diner since. Clearly I did something wrong."

"Maybe," Jess considered. "Or maybe she's just a little freaked out because she was thinking the same thing you were," he guessed, continuing off Luke's odd look. "C'mon, Luke, you and Lorelai have been dancing around each other for years. You know it, she knows it, every whack job in Stars Hollow knows it. You never should've married Nicole, and Lorelai shouldn't have been dating James or John or..."

"Jason."

"Whatever!" Jess literally waved away Luke's interruption with the correct name. "If you two wanna be together, you gotta just make it happen. Take it from a guy that knows, hanging around waiting forever, it's not enough."

Luke looked like he was giving his nephew's words serious consideration at first and then just like that he shook his head.

"Me and Lorelai... We're not getting together," he insisted as he got up and headed for the door. "I mean, I'm trying to figure out a divorce, and she just broke up with her boyfriend..."

"Rory and me, we got together about a half hour after she and the Beanstalk were over," said Jess getting up behind his uncle.

"Yes, and look how well that turned out," replied Luke, rounding on him, regretting his words the moment he saw the look on Jess' face. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly, hands raised in mock surrender because he knew for sure he had done wrong. "You know I'm happy you guys are back together, right? Rory was always good for you, and honestly, I think you're good for her too."

Jess' eyes widened that that last remark. "Really?" he checked. "Not what I heard the first time we were together."

"Yeah, well, that was different," said Luke with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

He looked no better for having talked about the situation at hand. Honestly, Jess wished he knew how to help him more, but he didn't.

"You should talk to Lorelai," he said in one last ditch attempt to assist. "I know she hasn't been around and maybe that's because of what happened, maybe it's just because she's busy, but you do know that you're allowed to go see her too, right? You know where she lives, or better yet, you know where to find her inn that needs all the help it can get right now."

Luke looked at his nephew and found a smile. The kid was trying desperately to be helpful and at the same time, trying to pass it off as assistance given only to stop him having to deal with a grumpy uncle. It didn't matter what the real reason was for Jess' intervention, Luke was choosing to take it as a good deed, and he wouldn't ignore the advice given. He may have been around longer than Jess, but that didn't mean Luke knew anything more about women and romance in the long run. His track record so far was certainly proving that. Jess had proven himself to Rory in the end and things seemed to be going well for them. Perhaps it wasn't too much to hope that one day Luke could be as lucky with Lorelai. One thing was for sure, if he never tried, he would never know.

"Well, time to head back to those salt mines," said Rory with a smile as she tossed her bag into the trunk of the car and closed down the lid. "You really shouldn't have made a specific trip home just to see me off. I could've swung by the inn."

"I know." Lorelai nodded. "But honestly, it's such a construction zone. Noisy, full of smelly guys, and... and, well, there's this thing I've been meaning to tell you."

She stalled right after those words and with the weirdest look on her, Rory was almost worried.

"Mom, c'mon," she urged her. "Whatever it is just rip off the Band-Aid, because you're making me both nervous and late."

"Okay then," said Lorelai, clearing her throat. "Um, Dean is working at the inn."

"Oh." Rory frowned some. "Er, okay. Well, that's no big deal to me. I mean, I do wish he was doing more with his life than construction, because he's capable of it, you know that as well as I do, but it's not like I can't bear see him or anything. Me and Dean have been over a long time now."

"I know, hon." Lorelai nodded. "I just... I don't know, things never seemed properly settled with you two. Last time you were with Jess, there was so much tension and, well, I felt like I should just tell you so that if you do come by the inn at some point you won't be surprised by the presence of an ex."

Rory wasn't sure to think about all her mother had said. It was true that things between her and Dean had ended badly and been more than a little awkward ever since. When she was dating Jess before, Rory always carried the guilt of how their relationship had begun at a cost to Dean, and then when Dean got married to Lindsay, Rory hadn't an idea how she really felt about that. Things were very different now. Rory and Jess had started over in the right way, and she could honestly say she hadn't given Dean a thought one way or the other for quite a while now.

"Thank you for telling me," she told her mother then. "But honestly? I couldn't care less about what Dean is doing these days. He has his life, I have mine. I mean, I'm always going to care about him, but... that flame went out a long time ago," she said with a shrug.

At one time, Lorelai would have argued that point, but now she believed every word Rory said. It had only been a couple of days since her daughter got back together with one Jess Mariano, but Lorelai had known for a while now that those two were destined, that this time it was likely to stick. Dean was the first love, but Lorelai knew from the start he was unlikely to be the last.

"So, time to go be brilliant some more," she told Rory, reaching out to hug her baby girl tight. "See you Friday, I guess?"

"I'll be here," she promised, hugging back a few moments more. "You're okay, right?" she checked when they parted. "Nothing else you need to tell me?"

"Nothing," Lorelai confirmed. "Why?"

Rory stared at her mom for a few beats and then shook her head. "I don't know, you look like maybe you have more on your mind than just me possibly running into Dean."

Lorelai thought about telling her. She usually shared any and all dating-related gossip with her daughter and never once flinched about doing so. The problem was timing, and certain awkward connections. How did one tell a daughter they might be getting into a new relationship with the guy that served their coffee, who was also said daughter's boyfriend's uncle? Not that Lorelai even knew what was happening with her and Luke yet, if anything. She had avoided the diner since their 'moment' and hoped Rory wouldn't notice this weekend, covering herself by always being way too busy with the inn.

"Hon, I'm fine," she assured her daughter. "The Mom Brain is just all busy-busy-busy with the Dragonfly, that's all."

"Okay, well, you go be brilliant too," she said with a smile, using her mother's words to her just minutes before. "I'll see you soon."

Rory got into the car and left then, waving as she cleared the drive. Lorelai waved right back and smiled wide, though her mind was running with too many thoughts now. She really did have a lot to do at the inn, but mostly she kept on thinking about Luke. At some point, she knew she would have to face him and deal. Just maybe not today.

To Be Continued...