"Luke's… what is it Taylor?… Slow down your babbling… Well, how do you know it was Jess?… Okay, Taylor, I'll talk to him. But if he tells me he didn't do it and nobody saw him do it, then he is off the hook, understand?"

Luke couldn't help but feel he was out of his league right now. Jess had to have been the one to do it, right? Jeez, how often did Taylor get robbed? Luke wasn't sure. In fact, he made it his mission to stay as far away from Taylor Doose and his business as possible. There were quite a few punk kids in this town, Luke doubted that none of them had stolen from Taylor before. It's just that Jess was the newest person in Stars Hollow and thanks to Luke and his big mouth, everyone thinks he's a troubled problem child. Luke sighed, he wasn't really sure what to do. Thankfully, he could get his mind off it because Lorelai and Rory entered the diner.

"Danish day, mom, it's danish day!"

"That it is hon, the most bestest day of the week."

"And the most important meal of the week."

"Ahh yes, what would we do without our weekly dose of sweet sweet breakfast pastry?"

"I don't know, I wouldn't want to find out though."

"Good thing we don't have to."

Luke used the time he had while they were bantering to get two of his biggest to-go cups worth of coffee and two danishes, packaged separately since Lorelai would be going to the inn and Rory would be going to school. He didn't say anything, he just pushed the two bags over the counter.

"Oh, my hero! What would we do without you?"

"Probably not much, I'm the one that gives you the coffee and we all know what you're like without your caffeine fix."

"Good point. Yet another thing I'm thankful we don't have to find out."

"Hey Luke, what happened with Jess last night, is he okay? He disappeared last night." Rory asked.

"Oh yeah, he's fine. He went off on his own, he's kind of a loner, I'm finding out. He came home when I was in the shower and was asleep by the time that I got out. I didn't get to talk to him much."

And the only thing they had time to talk about this morning was all the paperwork that needed to be filled out so Jess could start in school today. Luke was actually thankful for that, he still wasn't sure what to say or how to go about it. He also wasn't sure how he was going to undo the damage he'd done around town already, the only thing he could think to do was tell the truth but he didn't want to do that because that would be letting everyone know Liz was an addict who had no problem choosing men and alcohol over her son, and that she told a lie to make herself sound better.

"Oh, okay, it's good he's okay, at least. Oh shoot, the bus is here! See you two later!"

"Bye, Rory."

"Have a good day!"

Luke was smiling while watching Rory leaving but as soon as the front door closed Lorelai turned around to look at him with her serious face. Luke felt a sigh coming, just as he stopped worrying for a second, of course Jess was about to get brought back up. Luke got angry at himself, what did it matter if he was uncomfortable, his nephew needed him right now.

"So, how goes Operation Bright Side?"

"Why bright side?"

"I don't know, because we want the town to be brighter and nicer to him, or because we want them to see the bright side of Jess."

Luke just shrugged, he couldn't fault her logic. "Not great, I just got off the phone with Taylor who had a great time yelling at me while accusing Jess of stealing money from a donation jar at Doose's."

"Do you think he did it?" They both started speaking lower when they remembered there were a lot of nosey people around, including Miss Patty, the town gossip, who was sitting at a table close to the bar.

"I don't know, I don't know what his money situation is like, I'm going to have him work here but he hasn't got paid yet. I made sure he had what he needed though. Then again, I might have looked some stuff up when I got home last night. Kids that have those types of parents, those that drink and disappear a lot, they get used to fending for themselves, do what they have to, to have money so they feel safe. Even if they have people to care for them now they don't always trust it so they do what they have to, to make sure they're safe. Does that make sense?" He fidgeted with his hat, it was something he did when he felt uncomfortable. "I'm probably not making any sense. I have no clue what I'm doing."

Lorelai reached over and put her hand on Luke's arm, she could tell Luke was about to go down one of his rabbit holes, usually they were anger-related but she supposed this time it was worry. "Don't panic, Luke. Plus, what you said makes complete sense. And you're doing great, you did research, Rory would be proud. So here's how I'm going to help, I'm going to put it in Patty's ear that you had it wrong about Jess, that the leather jacket just through you for a loop, and that I had dinner with him last night and he was a proper gentleman."

"Come on Lorelai, no one is going to believe that."

"Okay, you're right, a proper gentleman might be pushing for too much. Okay, he's a good kid that just needs some time adjusting to leaving all his friends behind and moving somewhere completely new and different from what he's used to."

"Yeah… Okay, yeah, that sounds good. That will work. Thank you, Lorelai."

"Of course, Luke. Plus yeah you're my friend but I'm not really doing it for you, I'm doing it for Jess, he doesn't need a harder time than he's already having. We have to help him settle, not make it worse."

Luke felt his affection for Lorelai grow more than it already was, he didn't think that was possible but he was proved wrong. Like always, he pushed those feelings down because she wasn't interested in him that way. Plus, he had to focus on his nephew, that was what was important right now.

Lorelai sauntered over to Patty. "Hey Patty, how are you doing this fine morning?"

"Fine dear, how about youself? Babette told me she saw Luke and that punk come over to your house for dinner last night. How was it? Did he steal any silverware?"

"Patty no! Don't say things like that, you've got it all wrong. Sure the kid is having some trouble settling in but he's not bad." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Between you and me, I think the leather jacket and the James Dean hair might have scared Luke a little and made him think the worst. He's a good kid, just sad that he had to leave his home and his friends."

"Really? Now that I think about it, that'd make sense. Luke used to dress like that and be hell on wheels when he was Jess's age, he's probably worried Jess will get up to the same trouble."

Lorelai's eyes opened wide. She couldn't stop herself from looking over to Luke speculatively. She could see the appeal of a Luke in leather and a bad attitude. "Hmm. Yeah, that must be it. Do me a favor, will ya? Spread the word, I don't want the kid to have a harder time than he already is."

"Oh honey sure, if you're giving him your seal of approval then he must not be too bad."

"Thanks, Patty, well, I gotta get to work, I'll see you later!"

"Bye!"

Luke looked at Lorelai as she got up from the table and felt a wave of relief when she gave him a thumbs-up before she left the diner. Good, that's one thing off the list. With Patty on the job, everyone would know the deal before Jess even got out of school. Now to deal with everything else. He sighed again and spent the rest of the day thinking over how to talk to Jess. Talking wasn't one of his strong suits and from what he'd gathered, it wasn't one of Jess's either.

~~~~~

Jess always hated school, it wasn't like it was too hard for him, the opposite really, it always bored him and didn't challenge him enough. In New York, he did what he had to do because Child Protective Services got called on Liz enough that they knew him and his mom by sight. He knew how easy it would be for them to take him and send him somewhere he didn't want to be with people he didn't know. Now he didn't really see the point because that happened anyway. Sure, he knew Luke, in the way you know your distant relation you see on holidays, which is to say, almost not at all.

So instead of listening to the lectures and spending his time meeting and buttering up the teachers, he did what he'd rather be doing, reading. Reading what he wanted to, not what was on the syllabus. Some kids tried to introduce themselves and he would be as affable as answering monosyllabically and not looking up from his book. He did notice one girl he thought about getting to know. He heard her name was Lane, she had a Ramones shirt on and he heard her talking about the Clash so he knew at the very least she had decent taste in music.

He ended up in the library when he was supposed to be in algebra because he misjudged the time it'd take him to notate Howl. He was done by second period so he was a good little student and went to the library to check out Hollywood by Bukowski. He figured that if he read slow that'd hold him over till school was over. He was disappointed when he remembered that Rory hadn't gone to this school, so he decided he was going to find a way to run into her sometime tonight.

When the final bell rang for the day he went straight for the doors to get to freedom. He was so focused on his book that he had to stop himself from jumping in surprise when Luke called him because he was waiting for him right out front.

"Hey, how was school?"

"Great." He didn't know much about Luke but he already figured out his uncle hated sarcasm so Jess made sure to lay it on thick.

"Did you learn anything good?"

"Oh yeah, tons of things, I got gold stars plastered all over my forehead."

"I had an interesting call today. Wanna know who?"

Jess hated himself for the hope he had that his mother called asking for him. He knew better than to hope for such things, he learned that truth at the tender age of six. So when he answered he tried to sound as uninterested as possible. "Not really."

"It was from Taylor Doose. You know, he owns the market."

"If you say so."

"He said you came in today. "

"He did?"

"And he said you took some money out of a little donation jar to help repair the bridge. I told him he was crazy, you wouldn't do that, you weren't a thief, that he was just trying to start trouble and then I hung up on him. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy hanging up on Taylor and he is crazy but I was just wondering if maybe any of the other things he said were true."

"What do you think?"

"I think that if you tell me what he's saying is not true then I'm going to believe it's not true."

"It's not true." Jess didn't steal anything from the market. Don't get him wrong, it's not like the thought didn't pop into his head, he'd been in the situation where he had to steal before, sometimes he wouldn't eat otherwise. But he didn't this time, Taylor didn't take his eyes off of him the entire time he was in the store, he would have been caught red-handed if he tried to.

"Okay."

They'd been walking at a pretty fast pace around town but when Luke agreed so easily Jess had to stop walking and look at him and he realized it was the first time he actually looked at him today. Jess had been too focused on his own shit to actually pay attention to Luke. Luke stopped walking after a few feet when he realized Jess stopped. Jess only had to look at his face for a moment before he realized.

"Oh jeez."

"What?"

"She told you. I knew she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut. Damn it, usually I'm better at keeping my shit to myself."

"Okay, yes, she told me, Jess. She told me some things anyway, I'm not sure if she told me all of it. Any chance you wanna give me some more details? Let me know what happened so I can help?"

"No, that's not going to happen. Stop acting like you care about me."

"Of course, I care about you! I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't."

"No, you only let me come because your poor perfect sister asked it of you. If you actually cared about me you would have done something years ago. Don't act like you had no idea what was happening, you might not have actively accepted it but you'd have had to be a blind fool to not notice anything was wrong whenever you decided to show up."

Luke flinched, he hated how close to the truth that was, not the knowing and doing nothing about it but the fact that the only reason he said yes to this arrangement was that Liz asked him to, told him she needed help, and couldn't do it alone. Jess took the flinch as a sign of admission and scoffed before walking away.

"Jess, wait!" When he didn't stop Luke sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today. "Well, that went great." Louder he yelled, "Come on Jess stop, please!"

Jess did stop, then he stomped back over to Luke. "Look, what exactly do you want from me? You bring me here to this place, you put me in this school that says the pledge of allegiance in six different languages, of which I'm almost positive two of them are made up. You take me away from my home, and my friends, and now you want what from me?"

"I'm trying to help you!"

"Well stop trying, stop talking to me, stop following me, and stop asking me questions, just stop!"

"That's what you want?"

"Yes!"

"Well too bad, it's not going to happen! You can believe what you want Jess, and maybe I am an idiot for not knowing but I really had no idea what was happening there. Yes, I took my sister at her word when she said you were too much trouble to handle, yes I bitched about it around town so now all the townies don't trust you, yes that's my fault. And you better believe I'm going to be blaming myself for my mistakes much longer than you are. I want to fix it, I want to help, you might not want it but too bad buddy because it's happening anyway. It might take you some time to believe but you got me in your corner kid, no matter what, whether you want me there or not."

Luke was as shocked as Jess looked at the amount of words that just came out of his mouth. He was glad they came out sounding good because he didn't think that through at all, that all came from the heart. He doubted Jess would believe him, he had a feeling the only thing that would get Jess to believe and feel safe was time. Good thing Luke had no problem waiting him out. Once Jess got over his shock his only response was another scoff before walking away, Luke didn't try to stop him that time. If Jess were anything like him, he'd need some time alone after that unasked for heart to heart. But it was okay because Luke actually felt pretty proud of himself for what he said, not that he'd ever tell anyone about it.

Jess had a million things running through his head but he was so mixed up he couldn't pin even one of them down. No, that wasn't true, he knew that Luke had to be lying, he wasn't sure how but he knew it to be true. He'd been around a few of his types in his time. Do-gooder adults who saw him as a charity case who they set their sights on. They'd be there for a while trying to help him out, sometimes they'd stay for a few weeks, some even months but eventually they'd all let him down, whether it was because he was too much to handle, he needed too much because his mother wasn't providing enough, or they'd get bored of him and go back to their own life. Either way, they all left him because something about him wasn't good enough. He knew Luke would be no different, even if he was family.

He circled back around to the bridge once it'd been long enough for Luke to stalk away and sat down to read. He got so lost in the book that he didn't look back up until he turned to the last page and then realized that the sun had set. With a sigh, he reluctantly got up and started to make his way back to town. Luke might not stick around forever but if Jess was stuck here he sure as hell was going to take the roof over his head and the free food.

He was almost back to the diner when he saw Rory exiting the book store, he walked faster to catch up with her. "Hey."

"Hey yourself."

"What are you doing out here?"

"I needed something for school, how about you?"

'Oh yeah, same."

"Oh. So, that was quite the disappearing act you pulled the other night."

"Oh yeah. I'm not usually one to give away my whole sob story, not on the first night anyway." He tried to joke, feeling uncomfortable. "Had to get out of there."

"Sob story?" It was at that moment when he realized Lorelai didn't tell Rory anything he told her. It surprised him, from what Luke kept blabbing about, those two were thick as thieves. It made him appreciate Lorelai, at least she wasn't going around telling everyone. He cringed because now he was the one that gave away too much, again. He really had to get back on his game, he guessed moving messed with him more than he realized.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Not really a big fan of potlucks." He took a quarter out of his pocket to have something else to focus on.

Rory looked at him for a few seconds before responding, he figured she was deciding if she wanted to dig more. He was glad when she didn't. "Too cool for school, huh?"

"Yes, that is me."

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, this?" He held the quarter up so that she could see it and started moving it around his hand through his fingers, "Nothing," before he opened his hand wide so that she could see that the quarter was gone. "Just another little disappearing act."

"Little tip?"

"Yeah?"

"If you ever wanna speak to me again, don't pull it out of my ear."

"So I assume the nose is off limits too?"

"Any place you wouldn't naturally find a coin. Let's leave it that way."

Jess just nodded his head and started walking again, he was pleased when Rory continued walking with him. "So what are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing, I still have some schoolwork to do."

"Okay. Then I'll leave you with this last little trick." He pulled her copy of Howl Out of his back pocket and handed it to her. She didn't take it, instead, she looked at him with a disappointed look on her face.

"You bought a copy? I told you I would lend you mine."

"This is yours."

"You stole my book?!"

"No, borrowed it."

"Okay, that's not called a trick, it's called a felony."

"No, I just wanted to put some notes in the margins."

"What?" She finally took the books from him and opened it. "You've read this before."

"About 40 times."

"I thought you said you didn't read much."

Jess shrugged. "Well, what is much? Goodnight Rory." He said and started to walk away.

"Good night, Dodger."

"Jess stopped and turned to look back at Rory, "Dodger?"

"Figure it out," Rory said and started her walk back home.

She had only taken two steps before Jess said, "Oliver Twist!"

She turned to look at him to give him a smile and a nod before going back on her walk home. The whole walk she didn't look up from her book and Jess's notes once.

Jess ignored the feeling of warmth he got while watching her read his ideas and thoughts. He turned and made his way back to the apartment hoping Luke was already asleep but had a feeling he wasn't that lucky. He walked around the square smoking a few cigarettes hoping to wait Luke out, though from what he'd seen, Luke might be even more stubborn than he was. When he made it up to the apartment Luke was eating dinner and there was a plate for him. His stomach growled at an inopportune moment reminding him that he hadn't eaten since lunch at school, so he sat down without looking at Luke once.

"Grilled chicken parmigiana with whole wheat pasta. I needed something other than diner food tonight."

"It's good." Jess wasn't really sure how to act around Luke anymore, it was easy to hate him and treat him like he did but after what his uncle yelled at him today, it felt almost wrong. He mentally shook his head, it's not like he believed Luke, he'd act just like he always would.

"Thanks, yeah, I like to cook but cooking the same things day after day gets old after a while."

Jess just nodded his head and went back to eating in silence. Luke took the hint and they spent the rest of the night not talking which was just fine with Jess.