Disclaimer: Any recognizable dialogue in this chapter comes from various episodes of season 4
Chapter 6: Forest of the Dead
Veterans Day had an entirely new meaning for Lorelai Gilmore.
For most of the world, it was a solemn day of remembrance, of celebrating those who had served their country. For her, it was a day of covertly planning balloons and cakes and presents and everything else she could afford on a shoestring budget. Heavy emphasis on the shoestring part. It helped that Sookie was already starting to grow antsy in the days after Davey's birth and begged to still bake the cake. When Lorelai turned her down, Sookie had done so anyhow. It was hidden in the last place the recipient would think to look - under the very bed they slept in.
It surprised Lorelai that she had gone for years without realizing when Luke's birthday was. The diner was closed every year on Veterans Day, but so were most businesses in town. She assumed that he closed for the same reason, because she vaguely remembered him mentioning that his dad had served in World War II. She knew he was a Scorpio, but Liz had come through on the rest. A subtle call to his sister not long after the New York trip had resulted in the precious information that Lorelai needed, and she had begun to plan.
She had presents for him, though they weren't elaborate. She turned to the same crafting skills that had gotten her through Rory's childhood and spent hours at Sookie's furiously finishing a scarf and a pair of socks. They weren't much, but Luke had expressed admiration at her knitting while they were in Europe, and she already had his measurements. She also wanted to steal his old green jacket and do some repair work on it, but that would have to wait. She wanted one gift that wasn't clothing and blew the rest of her budget on the second Babylon 5 DVD boxset.
They hadn't gotten around to watching the first set yet. The rest of October had been spent combining two households, which had been far more work on Lorelai's part than Luke's. He didn't have much, but it was enough to where they had to figure out a way to cram everything into her overly small closet. Her extra clothes had gone downstairs in Rory's mostly vacant closet, to be dealt with hopefully before Rory was home for the summer. But it was clear that the Crap Shack needed some remodeling work to accommodate the lives of three people. The bathroom wasn't large enough for both of them, and it gave her heart a small jolt every time she saw his cologne and shampoo among her things.
It wasn't a bad jolt.
The kitchen had transformed entirely. It was actually used. The first week had been spent with Luke scolding Lorelai over the abysmal shape of the room before chasing her out of the house and completely scrubbing it from top to bottom himself. Most men, Lorelai thought, had a man cave. Her father's was his office. Clearly the kitchen was going to be Luke's. There were now spices and utensils and cookbooks. She once thought he memorized everything he did, but she found several well-worn recipes for staples she'd grown used to eating tacked up on a small corkboard he installed next to the stove.
She gratefully surrendered the grocery shopping to him, provided he kept an ample supply of junk food, of course. He complained every step of the way, but the stuff she wanted usually found its way into the cabinets. But he had to make a point. Lorelai would pull down a box of Pop Tarts only to find Luke had stacked oranges next to the tarts. "Eat those with this," a Post-It note instructed.
How very cute, Lorelai thought fondly and left the oranges.
On the morning of November 11, she woke up early, ready to put "Operation Birthday" into motion. She touched the mattress next to her and found it cold. She frowned. Luke had reminded her the night before that the diner would be closed, but she didn't expect not to find him in bed. He hadn't said he was going out fishing or up to the cabin. He hadn't said anything. Baffled, she checked the bathroom then wandered downstairs.
The coffeemaker was set the way he always did before he went to the diner, with ground beans ready and the correct amount of water in the reservoir. This time, a yellow Post-It like the ones attached to her junk food was stuck to the side of the machine. Lorelai peeled it off, frowning as she read, Gone out for the day. Will be back later.
"OK," Lorelai said to the empty room, drawling out the syllables. Her heart gave a couple hard knocks when she saw the cell phone sitting next to Sadie on the table. It wasn't hers, which mean it had to be his. Which meant he either forgot it or didn't want to be found.
Lorelai switched on the coffeemaker and sat at the table, absently leaning over to wake up computer. The screensaver disappeared to reveal her copy of iCal open on the desktop. November 11 was surrounded by asterisks.
What the hell? Why did Luke disappear on his birthday? She knew he wasn't the biggest fan of them, but he knew that she loved celebrating them. Surely the dots had connected in his mind. She filled a mug with coffee and plopped back in her chair. She drank and wracked her brain. It wasn't the big 4-0. Not quite yet. That wasn't for another two years. Was there some sort of bizarre ritual he observed on his birthday? Sacrifice the hair of a goat? No, that wasn't Luke. Lorelai closed her eyes, and suddenly she saw Mia standing at the airport, giving Lorelai her farewell.
"I think you should know. Bill died on November 11, 1989."
"Oh. Oh." Lorelai put the Post-It back on the table and ran upstairs to throw on clothes.
When she walked outside, the truck still sat next to the Jeep in the driveway. It meant wherever Luke was, he hadn't driven to get there, and that made Lorelai's life a lot easier. She spent the next hour wandering over Stars Hollow until the obvious struck her. So she detoured to the florist then headed to the cemetery.
And there he was, sitting before a large double gravestone, knees drawn into his chest as he rested his chin atop them. She hesitated on the approach. She had never seen him looking so sad, so lost. Liz had called a couple times since New York, and the conversation between the siblings was always a bit stilted. There was a history there that Lorelai only knew the absolute basics about. It was funny. Luke knew everything about the twisted mess her family was, but he had shielded his from her eyes.
There were catalysts in every family that affected the members of it, and as far as Lorelai could guess, it was the death of Luke's mother that shattered his entire family. Whatever wedges had been driven into it were further deepened by his father's prolonged death from cancer. She knew Liz had Jess young, had experimented with drugs and alcohol. She constantly used her brother to bail her out of rough situations, the last and biggest being him taking in Jess.
She almost left him to his memories, but then his head turned and his eyes looked straight into hers. So she squared her shoulders and walked to his side. Her shoes made small squishing sounds as she crossed the grass and bent over to untwist the vase set into the ground before the gravestone. She turned it upright, secured it, then arranged the flowers in it before taking a seat next to Luke. He just stared at her, and the words flooded out.
"So, I looked all over town for you. Looked in that garage, crawled through the boat just in case you were tempted to pull a Sylvia Plath or something. You've got to clean it, I think they're staging an Alien remake in there. I know you weren't at the diner, but I checked the apartment anyhow. There's a Jess in the spare bed so I poured a glass of water on him and fled. Then I decided bam, check the cemetery, and here I am."
Luke winged an eyebrow. "Did you say Jess is in my apartment and you poured a glass of water on him?"
"On his crotch."
He gaped at her. "Lorelai!"
"He hurt my kid. He hurt you. He hasn't begun to see my wrath yet." She leaned her head on his shoulder. "Is this what you do every year?"
He scooted closer to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Sometimes. Sometimes I go to the cabin for a few days. I disappear. I shoulda told you before now. We're in a relationship, we're living together. You deserve more than a Post-It note on the coffeemaker."
"It's nice to know you think more of me than Jack Berger did of Carrie Bradshaw."
He didn't bother to check the cultural reference. "I've never told anyone before. I don't like to talk about it."
"I sorta guessed that."
"You didn't have to do that." He nodded to the vase of flowers.
She shrugged. "You visit a grave, you bring flowers. Some things my mother pounded into my head actually stuck." She craned her neck at him. "Are you doing OK?"
"It doesn't seem so bad this year," he admitted.
"Going to sulk the entire day?"
"Not this time."
"You've got presents waiting."
He flushed. "Aw, geez."
Lorelai rubbed his leg. "This explains why I keep missing your birthday. I wasn't forgetting it, you just weren't around. I set myself six reminders this year, which probably means Sadie has run out of battery because I'm not home to dismiss the alerts. Double whammy for you, huh?"
"I didn't even realize it at the time. I actually think it was the day of the funeral when I realized I missed my own birthday."
"Well now you have presents, a Sookie-made cake, a girlfriend wearing some racy lingerie, and a nephew in a water-logged bed." Lorelai frowned. "Why would Jess be coming back here if he has the car? I doubt he wants to spend Thanksgiving with us."
"I have the title," Luke explained. "It's in the safe. Which he doesn't have access to anymore because I got a new safe for the diner and took the old one to the house when I moved in last month. I suppose I'll have to deal with it." They fell silent as they contemplated the grave. After a few minutes, he nudged her side. "How racy?"
Lorelai gave him a teasing grin. "You know how you said you like me in those tight jeans?"
His eyes lit up. "Yeah?"
"And when I wear that little black dress. And the hair flip?"
"Yeah?" She thought he might had been drooling, but maybe it was her own imagination.
"Better."
He suddenly sprang to his feet, grabbing her hand to tug her to hers.
"Going to check the safe, huh?" Lorelai teased as Luke all but dragged her out of the cemetery.
"Something like that."
The return trip to the house was done so fast, Lorelai was afraid she was going to be too exhausted for the reveal of said racy lingerie. But before she could warn him of it, they were in the back door and his hands were beneath her T-shirt. He spun her so her back hit the door, pushing the shirt up to get a good look at part of his gift. He sucked in a breath as he trailed a fingers down the lace of the bra, using talented fingers to coax her breast free from the cup. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head as he took her into his mouth, fingers diving beneath his hat to rake through his hair. The blue cap popped off and rolled across the kitchen floor.
Somewhere in the maelstrom of sensation, he lifted her off her feet, spun her around and boosted her onto the table. A sweep of his arm had most of her paperwork on the floor, and they managed to get Sadie set safely on a chair. Then his hands were working her jeans open as she toed her shoes off.
He throughly appreciated the bottom half of the racy lingerie as much as he had the top.
Some time later, she couldn't decide whether it had been five minutes or 50, the table groaned under their combined weight as they struggled to catch their breath. With a kiss to the side of her neck, he eased away and surveyed the paper strewn all over the kitchen.
She propped herself on her elbows and noticed for the first time that her panties were hooked around the big toe of her right foot. She kicked, and they landed somewhere next to the back door. "So, 10 out of 10 for the lingerie? The rest of your gifts aren't anywhere that impressive, but …"
He helped her to her feet, and they swayed together like drunks. "Thank you," he said into her hair, and she knew it was for more than the truly impressive table sex.
"As much as I love naked hugging in the kitchen, Rory's gonna be home soon." She smirked as the color drained from his face and took that moment to swat his ass. It was there, and it was gorgeous, so why not? "C'mon, babe, suit up. I'm going to change into work clothes. I need to run by the inn, drop off this paperwork for Tom, check on a few things, then the rest of the day belongs to us."
Rory hummed as she climbed out of the car, grabbing a large gift bag off the passenger seat as she did so. The convenient thing about Luke's birthday was that it landed on a day where there were no classes, so she had no problem taking the time to come back to Stars Hollow. Picking a gift? That had been harder. Paris offered Rory some sort of bead art tableau she'd made, but Rory managed to turn her down without causing an argument. But she did utilize Paris' attention to detail and they found themselves in a sporting goods store that included fishing supplies. Paris had been merciless, harassing the poor salesperson until they left the store with an assortment of lures and a new tackle box.
She headed in the front door, dumping the bag on the coffee table. "Hello! I hope you two aren't doing anything slutty," she called out, then made her way into the kitchen where Luke was wiping down the table. Her mother's laptop and reams of paperwork were stacked neatly on the counter. "Happy birthday!" she said, moving across the room to hug him.
It was more normal now, the hugging thing between him and her, and it was comforting. He gave her a one-armed hug as he put the stack of paper on top of her mother's laptop, cheeks a curious shade of crimson. Rory suspected it had something to do with the discarded underwear in front of the back door, but she was so not going there. She filed it away under stuff to tease her mother mercilessly about later. "So, did Mom spring everything on you yet?"
Luke just stared at her, and yeah, her brain officially needed purging. "Living room?" Rory asked, hoping it didn't sound like she was begging to flee the kitchen.
"Thank you," he breathed and practically ran into the other room.
Rory shook her head fondly and followed. "Where's Mom?"
"At the inn. She needed to drop off some stuff for Tom and said she'd be right back."
That sounded normal, so Rory sat on the couch and pulled the gift bag to her. Luke rocked back on his heels for a moment, then let out a long breath before taking the armchair nearby.
"Um, look, Rory …" He pulled his cap off, running his hand nervously through his hair in a manner that reminded her sharply of Jess. He stared at the cap, bending the bill a bit before putting it back on. He took a deep breath, then met her eyes. "Jess is back."
Her breath caught in her throat. She could hear her heart racing in her ears, and it took every hard-won ounce of Gilmore self control she had learned over the years to keep her voice calm. "Is he?"
"Your mom saw him crashing in the apartment above the diner this morning. I know she probably wanted to tell you herself, it's just been a busy morning."
Rory shook her head and hoped her heart would calm down before she had some sort of heart attack. "No, no, I get it." She played with the twisted handles on the gift bag. "Have you seen him yet?"
"No."
That made sense. If Jess didn't want to see her, clearly he wouldn't want to see his uncle either. But why was he in town if it wasn't for either of them? Jess made no secret of how much he hated Stars Hollow. "Any idea why he's here?"
Luke stared at the ground, then met her eyes. "I took his car, Rory."
Rory sucked in a sharp breath. "You? You were the one who stole his car?"
"Hid it in a garage I rent, yeah."
She wasn't sure how to take that. Jess had suspected a lot of people, with Dean right at the top of the suspect list. But neither of them had imagined that Luke would be behind the theft. Though it made sense. She knew how hard he'd been scrambling in those last few months to keep Jess in school, to keep him from leaving. Part of her wanted to be pissed at him on Jess' behalf, then squelched the instinct. Jess had brought everything on himself, she firmly reminded herself. Everyone kept trying to help him, but he didn't want it. There was nothing she could do about it. It was the thought that kept her going through the summer, when her heart hurt and never wanted to stop. Jess had fled without a word, without even a note. He didn't even make an effort during that final bus trip to Hartford to clue her in on his plans. He didn't have the courage to face her or his uncle. He didn't deserve her sympathy.
Rory found herself looking into the eyes of the one other person who carried the same sense of failure she did regarding Jess and confessed, "Mom and I were the ones who egged his car last year."
Luke just stared at her for a solid few seconds. "Really?"
Rory shrugged. "It was my idea. Mom went along with it."
He wiped his hand across his mouth, and before she could puzzle out what he was doing, he pressed his hand to his eyes and his shoulders started to shake. For a horrifying moment, she was afraid that he was crying. But when he dropped his hand, she saw that he was laughing. Answering laughter bubbled up in her chest, and she started giggling.
"Why are we laughing?" Rory managed to say. "You stole his car, I egged it. The town square stank for days! We should be paying restitution, not laughing!"
Luke shook his head. "I dunno, but if you really think about it, that is one cursed car."
Rory laughed and laughed until tears streamed down her cheeks. When she finally had to breathe, she relaxed into the sofa cushions, feeling better for the first time in weeks.
"I'm sorry about everything," Luke said when his own laughter died away.
Rory tilted her head thoughtfully. "Why are you sorry? It's not your fault Jess left."
"Yeah, it is. I told him he couldn't stay unless he quit his job and finished high school." He shrugged. "I figured when push came to shove, he'd choose you."
Or you, Rory thought.
"It was his decision. I kind of suspected, when I saw him on the bus to Hartford on the way to school that last time. When he said he couldn't get prom tickets. But it was all going wrong anyhow and especially after that party and …" She clamped her mouth shut tight as it started to run away from her, before she could go into what happened at the party. It was one thing to tell her mother, and Rory remembered the fury that flashed in her eyes. But she couldn't tell Luke. It'd break his heart. Or he would murder Jess, though quite frankly she was pretty OK with the idea at the moment.
"I don't blame you. Ever," Rory said with as much conviction as she could. This, she thought, would be the part where if she had been her mother, she would had reached for his hand or hugged him or something else that was comforting. Her mom was always like that. She backed up her reassurances with physical touch, and Rory always found it baffling and soothing. "I'm glad you and Mom are together."
His eyes were sober, but he smiled. "Me too."
Rory bit her lip. "This is a hugging moment, isn't it?"
"Only if you want it to be."
They grinned at each other, then Rory scooted the gift bag in front of him. "OK, so, I am really proud of this gift. And it comes with a supplementary audio CD of Paris explaining the best way to use the gift. It was the only way to keep her from coming with me to give this to you."
"That's probably the best present of all," Luke said honestly, and Rory remembered the time that Paris had graced the diner and accused him of fencing children. It had truly been one of the most memorable Paris moments she'd ever experienced.
They had the tackle box open and everything Paris had selected spread out on the coffee table when the front door banged open and Jess strode in like he hadn't been gone for more than half a year. Rory froze, some sort of lure in her hand, as Jess strode up to Luke, who had risen from the armchair.
"I want my title back," Jess demanded.
"He doesn't call, doesn't write, just waltzes in like he owns the place," Luke replied, seeming like he was talking to her more than Jess.
Say something. Rory carefully set the lure back among the others and threw her lot in with Luke. "I was taught to knock before entering someone's house."
Jess kept his gaze focused squarely on his uncle, and Rory tried to ignore the crack in her heart that it caused. He wouldn't even look at her. "Look, I'm only here to retrieve my property, not to put up with Wisecracks 'R Us. Not to mention someone dumped water all on me in bed. Where the hell am I gonna sleep if I'm forced to stay here?"
"The other bed's in there," Luke said.
"You mean the upgrade because you're finally banging the woman you've drooled like a St. Bernard over for years?" Jess pushed his face into Luke's as Rory seethed at the description of her mother. "I could have you arrested, you know."
"No you won't. You can't even afford the registration."
"And the fines because you didn't renew it!" Jess spun away, throwing his arms out. "I'm 19. I'm an adult."
Luke's voice raised slightly, just under ordering-Kirk-out-of-the-diner mode. "You are not an adult. You're a stupid-ass kid who ran out on his girlfriend without saying good-bye to go across the country to chase a deadbeat dad. This is all after trashing a guy's house that I had to pay off so he wouldn't press charges against you!"
Jess whipped back around. "You leave Jimmy alone. Besides, you're the one who threw me out!"
Now Luke was the one to push his face into Jess'. "You need to finish school! You were so close, so damn close! What've you been doing for the past six months, huh?"
"I've been getting by," Jess spat.
"Sure, you've been getting by, but you don't have enough to pay for car registration."
"I'm getting my GED. It's good enough. Or do you want to go lording it over the rest of us that you're the only one in the family with an actual high school diploma. Maybe I'll follow your route? Start college, get a couple years in, drop out. Keep it in the family, huh?"
Rory saw the moment Luke flinched, and she was on his feet and at his elbow before she fully realized what she was doing.
"You think you're so perfect, leaping in to save us from ourselves, telling yourself you're a good guy," Jess continued, landing verbal blow after verbal blow with the force of a physical punch. "But, you know what? You're just a self-righteous ass. You make it so that when people fail you, you get to feel like the martyr and they get to feel like not only did they screw up, but they also disappointed you. You interfere and you make everything worse. No one is asking for your help. No one wants your help. Focus on your own life and leave everyone else alone."
"Hey, back off!" Rory yelled.
For the first time, Jess swung her attention to her. "This is none of your business, Rory!"
Rory stepped around Luke, fully tapping into her own anger. "He and my mom are living together in our house so yeah, it's my business! He's done nothing but support you and try to help you."
"Oh yeah? What sort of helping was that when he packed me off to New York last year after the wreck?" Jess jabbed his finger at the fireplace, where pictures of them at Rory's graduation and the Europe trip sat on the mantle. "He chose you and your mom first. He'll always choose you first. You're the kid he wanted. I was just the leftovers."
Rory hadn't seen red very much in her life. She considered her normally even temper one of the finer parts of her personality. Not today. "You know, I have actually thought about this moment. A lot. What would Jess say to me I ever saw him again? I mean, he just took off, no note, no call, nothing, how could he explain that? And then seven months goes by. No word, nothing, so he couldn't possibly have a good excuse for that, right? I have imagined hundreds of different scenarios with a hundred different great last parting lines, but I never imagined that any of them would end with me strangling you."
Looking back at it later, Rory wasn't sure how to describe those tense few seconds of silence, where the three of them simply vibrated from the force of their anger toward each other.
"I'm not leaving this place without my title," Jess snapped at her, turned on his heel, and marched out. He shoved past Lorelai, who had stepped up to the open door and was just gaping at all of them.
Rory hugged herself, rocking back on her heels. "OK. Right. Well, then." She wondered if some sort of earthquake was happening, because everything around her was moving. Then, she realized, it was her. "I'm shaking. Why am I shaking?"
"C'mon, I'll get us some tea." Gently, Luke took her arm and started to steer her toward the kitchen.
"I'm going to murder him."
They swung back around to see Lorelai, cheeks flushed with righteous fury, standing in the foyer. Rory wondered how much her mom had seen.
"Lorelai," Luke said.
"You'll post the bail for me, won't you, babe?" Lorelai responded through gritted teeth.
"Lorelai," he repeated, and his gaze swung between Rory and her mother. She nudged him toward her mom.
Lorelai tossed her purse on the couch with such force that it bounced and landed on the floor. "He's back in town for less than 24 hours and he's already stormed into my house and spouted a bunch of crap to you and Rory that was loud enough for Babette to hear because the door was still open!
"Lorelai," Luke said once more, now moving to her side.
She jerked away when he tried to take her arm. "You have done nothing but support him and try to him. Rory too! And the way he treated her during that party …"
"Mom, don't!" Rory gasped.
"What happened during Kyle's party?" Luke asked, and Lorelai's mouth snapped shut. His gaze shifted to Rory, and she saw the moment he realized what they weren't telling him. Shock, then sorrow filled his eyes as he stared at her. "Did he hurt you?"
"Not physically. I'm fine. Really, I'm fine. We're all fine." She pointed at Lorelai and Luke. "You're fine, and you're fine, and I'm fine. Everyone's happy!" Rory's voice escalated until she was shouting the final words, then remembered that the door still stood open. Well. Miss Patty and Babette were going to have a field day with this one.
They stared at each other, and absurdly, Rory marveled at the family unit they had become.
Because he was the closest to the door, Luke pushed it shut. He stared down at the knob for a few moments, then turned to them. "Hey. There's some place I've been meaning to take the two of you. So let's go now."
That was it. He'd had enough of this farce.
Jess waited until the Jeep pulled away from the house with all three of them inside. Perfect little Leave it to Beaver family. Screw it. Screw them. He watched the house from where he hid in Babette's yard for another five minutes, then sprinted across the lawn to grab the key from the turtle. Rory had told him about it once, and he was counting on the Gilmores being creatures of habit.
He wasn't wrong.
Once inside, Jess stormed up the stairs, into the master bedroom and surveyed it. He dropped to his knees and peered under the bed, seeing a small stack of brightly wrapped gifts and a cake holder. He yanked one of the gifts out and scowled at the squishy feel of it before hurling it back beneath the bed and turning to the closet.
It would normally be big enough to hold two people's normal wardrobes or a single person's very large one. Now it was comically overstuffed, but it was clear Lorelai wasn't the one wearing all the flannel. He dropped to the floor and pushed aside trouser legs to reveal the safe. His uncle was a creature of habit as well. Ergo same combination. Jess had the safe open and his car title in hand before 30 seconds passed.
He wasn't sure what possessed him to keep rummaging through the safe. Probably because Rory's anger kept circling in his head. Probably because he couldn't erase the image of the devastation in his uncle's eyes when he unleashed everything he had at him. He never thought he could hurt his uncle. Sure, he raged and ranted and threatened. But the raw pain was something else entirely.
Jess opened a folder and flipped through it. Old hospital records from the 1970s. What a packrat, he thought, before realizing that this belonged to his grandmother. The one who had died a decade before he was born. The last paper was the death certificate and a clipped obituary. There was an included picture, and Jess was looking into his mother's face. But no, it was his grandmother. He had no idea they had looked so much alike. Luke hadn't been exactly one for pulling out the old photo albums.
Uncomfortable, Jess set that folder aside and picked up a second. His grandfather's. The records had changed from typewritten to being printed on a dot matrix printer. Like with his grandmother, the folder ended with the death certificate and the obituary. The included picture this time was clearly his grandparents' wedding photo. Jess scanned it. November 11, 1989. 14 years ago that day. He'd been five then. Hazy memories filtered through his mind of a tall man slowly wasting away. His heart jolted just a bit to find his own name listed among the survivors. The only grandchild. He tucked it away and pulled out the next folder.
School records, his mom and his uncle's all meshed together. His mom's grades didn't surprise him, but his uncle's did. He was actually a good student, Jess realized, looking at the rows of straight As and the letters offering athletic and academic scholarships to various universities. He flipped a page and found college records and was surprised again. His uncle had attended UConn with a major in civil engineering. That was news to him. He'd known that Luke had attended college for a brief period before dropping out, but nothing beyond that. Still good grades for the first year of school and the first semester of sophomore year.
The final paper was a letter indicating that the student had withdrawn to take care of his ailing father, who had Stage III lung cancer. He had forfeited his athletic scholarship in the process.
Jess stared at the letter, then shoved it back in the folder. He put the other folders back in the safe, then set the title to his car on top of everything and closed the safe.
"Wow. That place was amazing," Rory said as they got out of the Jeep. She carried a plastic bag with the word Sniffy's printed on one side.
It truly was amazing. Luke had taken the two of them to a restaurant owned by friends of his parents, one of the few places he liked to frequent when he managed to escape Stars Hollow. Her mother, especially, had loved Sniffy's and did a dramatic reading of the back side of the menu that talked about the history of the place.
"Yeah. I haven't been back there much since we went to Europe," he told them as she walked around the back of the Jeep to join him and her mom.
"You should make sure to keep going back," Rory said. "Tradition is very important."
Lorelai slung an arm around her shoulders. "Look at her, parroting her grandfather."
Rory rolled her eyes. "I like traditions."
Her mother squeezed her. "I do too, kid. So this is a new one. We go out to eat at Sniffy's every year on Luke's birthday."
"So say we all," Rory intoned.
"And that wasn't creepy at all," Lorelai muttered while Luke gave Rory a baffled look.
"I thought the new Battlestar Galactica doesn't come out until next month?" he asked.
"Nerd," Lorelai muttered under her breath, then shot him a wide smile when he glared at her.
"Paris has connections and, despite being on the religion beat at the paper, said it was vital to appeal to a certain subsection of students by providing an in-depth analysis between the miniseries and the 1979 TV series." Rory reached in her purse and pulled out a DVD, waving it at Luke before handing it over. "There you are, one last present. Now, you two, go on and commence engaging in your slutty celebration. Don't think I didn't notice that you left evidence in the kitchen. Anyhow, I've got class in the morning."
Lorelai gazed a bit sadly at her. "You don't want to come in for Sookie cake?"
"Sookie cake is appealing, but I just want to hit the road. Save me a slice?" Rory pointed first at her mother, then at Luke. "Not you, you. I know who actually won't hog all the cake in the house."
Lorelai gaped at her. "Are you accusing your own sainted mother of eating the entire cake and not saving you any?"
Rory pulled open the door to the driver's side of the Prius. "Yes."
Lorelai blew her an exaggerated kiss and waved off the car until it turned the corner at the end of the street and was no longer in sight. Content, she hugged herself, then turned back to Luke. "So, good birthday?"
"Yeah." He swung an arm around her waist and steered her toward the front door.
"Even with all the sad and the fighting?"
He shrugged. "It worked out in the end."
She tugged at his jacket. "C'mon. You've got more gifts to open."
The corner of his mouth lifted in a half-smile. "I can just unwrap you again."
"Funny man. After the other gifts."
It wasn't a horrible day. All in all, other than Jess' dramatic explosion in the living room, it had been a good day. Luke couldn't remember the last time he had a good birthday, or even really bothered to celebrate it at all. Rachel had known when his birthday was, but respected his wishes to avoid it entirely. He and Nicole hadn't been together long enough for the subject to come up other than her vaguely mentioning that her birthday was in the fall as well. He'd had a few other girlfriends, but likewise he had avoided the subject with them.
But now there was Lorelai and Rory, and of course they had made a big deal over it because it was them. But it hadn't been anything horrifying. It'd been nice. Wonderful even. Thanks to them, the day was no longer quite so dark. He didn't think it would ever be like that again.
Luke lay awake, watching the moonlight crawl across the ceiling. If all of this was true, why couldn't he sleep?
Instead of tossing until he woke Lorelai, he got up and stepped over the pile of discarded clothing they had left in their wake hours earlier and found his normal night clothes. He quietly descended the stairs, frowning when a couple of them groaned beneath his weight. He'd take a look at those in the morning.
The small pile of gifts Lorelai had bestowed on him sat on the coffee table, next to the tackle box from Rory. Luke sat on the couch and picked up the pair of socks she'd made, running them through his hands. She had bought the yarn in Europe, boasting she knew the exact pattern she wanted to use it with and that it wasn't too girly. And it wasn't. The scarf had also been from yarn purchased in Europe, and clearly she had picked it to compliment his green jacket. He couldn't remember the last time anyone made something specifically with him in mind, and it was just another reminder of how Lorelai and Rory had pulled him from the lonely axis he'd stood on and into their world. If he was really being sappy, it'd be like that moment in the Wizard of Oz when everything had changed from black and white to Technicolor.
Oh God, he was being that sappy.
Luke scrubbed his face with the heels of his hands. That's what you get when you're still awake at 1:47 in the morning. Thank goodness he'd had the foresight to ask Cesar to open the diner in the morning. He found the first Babylon 5 set tucked among Lorelai's other DVDs and finally broke the plastic on it.
He dozed off halfway through the pilot episode.
He woke to a soft tapping on the front door and thought it was something on the TV. The disc had reached the end and had looped back to the beginning, playing the menu music on endless repeat. He fumbled for the remote and hit pause just as the tapping sound came again. Confused, Luke saw it was just after 5 a.m. Then it changed to a hint of worry as he shuffled to the door and peeked through the peep hole. Inwardly groaning, he yanked it open to confront an almost contrite Jess. Well, as contrite as he'd ever seen his nephew. Still, after yesterday, after only three hours of sleep, he didn't bother to go for niceties.
"What now?" Luke barked.
Jess opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Tell me what I need to do to get the title."
Clearly Luke was still asleep and was in some sort of bizarre dream. "What?"
"Just tell me what I need to do to get the title, all right?" Jess snarled, then stared at some vague spot on the wall next to the front door.
Luke simply stared at Jess as his words slowly penetrated his exhausted mind. He thought of what it meant to be family. Of what the girls implied had nearly happened at Kyle's party. But something about Jess had changed in the hours since their fight, and he knew this was the one chance he had to take everything back he'd done months earlier. Hoping Lorelai wouldn't kill him, that he wouldn't fail Jess one more time, he said, "Your mom is coming for Thanksgiving. Stay through then and I'll give it to you. Do with it as you like. If you need money, you can work in the diner, and you can stay in the apartment."
It was far more than Jess deserved, and they both knew it. "Deal."
Author's Note: Long time, no see on this story! A lot of this got rewritten and characters shuffled around a bit, but I greatly prefer the end result rather than what was in the beginning.