A/N: Okay, so this chapter goes a little AU with the guy's new living arrangements. It all started because of a conversation I had on the Gilmore Girls subreddit. google a picture of the building housing Luke's diner and it'll make sense to you! you can't post websites or pictures here or I'd show you one myself.

As always, thanks for reading! I appreciate every new view, kudos, and comment!

Not too much Jess and Rory in this chapter, but a lot of Jess and Luke interaction, two of the most emotionally constipated people ever, though they're getting better at it!

Chapter 15

Jess was relaxing on his inflatable raft, trying like he promised, to make his way through the Fountainhead again while listening to 'What a Wonderful World' by the Ramones when Luke strutted into the apartment while clearly on a mission. Jess had all intentions of ignoring him when he heard him riffling through the utility closet, Luke came out of the closet a moment later and smugly swung a mallet over his shoulder. Seeing this, Jess had a moment of terror, logically he knew Luke wouldn't attack him, though he still wasn't sure his days weren't numbered here, that Luke wouldn't kick him out the first time he got tired of Jess and his antics, he was positive by now that his uncle wasn't the type to physically hurt someone who was in his care. That didn't change the fact that his whole life his mother brought men around him who'd have no problem using whatever was available to them to hurt a kid and make their point when they didn't like how Jess was acting, hell, Liz had been known to use her hands on him when the moment struck.

So he couldn't stop the moment of fear he felt when he saw Luke strutting at him though he was able to quell it quickly. Going by the look of surprise and worry on Luke's face for a moment, he didn't stop it quick enough. Thankfully, Luke didn't acknowledge it though, and just continued past Jess over to the far side of the apartment. Luke didn't say anything before swinging the mallet from his shoulder straight into the wall.

He looked over to Jess as he took the mallet out of the now big hole and handed it to his nephew pointing to the hole, "That's your room, finish up, then we can hold hands and skip together."

Jess stared dumbly at his uncle as he left the apartment without saying another word. He then looked at the hole and sort of stuck his head in trying to get a look at the room that was about to be his. He eventually shrugged and swung the mallet back in preparation to hit another hole into the wall before shaking his head and putting it on the ground, there was no way he was going to just take out a wall of this place without more information, he didn't want to be responsible if the whole fucking building came down because he took out something important.

He went downstairs to hear Luke whistling, clearly proud of himself. "Uh, what?"

Luke stopped his whistling but still had what Jess would call a 'shit-eating grin' on his face. "I bought the building."

"You bought…"

"Yep, the whole damn thing. I own all of this now, the restaurant, the apartment, the empty business space next store, the whole thing."

"What about those other two floors above us?"

"What?"

"You know, there's at least one, but most likely two more floors to this place."

"No there isn't."

"Uh, yeah there is." Jess grabbed onto Luke's jacket and dragged him outside, pulling him far enough from the building to see the whole thing there were clearly more than just two floors to the place, probably three and an attic.

"Huh," Luke said, both confused and interested. He took out his brand new set of keys to the whole place and went to the empty store connected to Luke's then unlocked it with Jess following behind but not before stopping back in his diner to grab a flashlight for the exploration. They explored until they found the stairs leading up, when they got to the second floor they noticed it was about the same size as the apartment they were both living in and they could see the hole that was made in the wall separating the two. Jess was the one who found the stairs leading to the next floor, he saw it was one big empty open space and his eyes opened wide. How long had this space just been sitting there unused? Why would they just open up their apartment wider when he could take this floor, and have a room to himself?

"Oh, no, no, no, no. I know that look on your face Jess, we're keeping with my original plan, you're not getting a whole floor to yourself!"

"Why not? It's just empty space not being used. I'm 17 Luke, don't I deserve to have a door to my room?" He knew he wasn't good at the innocent good kid act but he tried really hard to pull it off. It wasn't as if he had any evil or bad plans for the space, he truly just wanted a space to call his own.

"It won't be empty space now that I know it exists, I'll use it for storage, the diner is already very crowded as it is."

"Well you can use the space you were planning on to make my room the place for extra storage, it's closer to the diner anyway, you don't want to have to run up two flights of stairs every time you run out of bread, do you? You know damn well that'd cause Caesar to quit after a week, tops."

He knew Jess was right about that but he wasn't going to admit it. He just wasn't sure, he wanted to give Jess things he never had before, stability, support, and yes a place to call his own with at least some privacy along with it. He was split on whether it was a good or bad idea, especially now that the kid was dating Rory. He'd have to think about it but for now, he'd let Jess think his idea was definitely not going to happen. "No, Jess. We'll have enough room for ourselves in the space I already set aside. I'll use this for storage for big things, maybe rent it out."

"Well we haven't even looked at the last level, maybe it's another whole floor that you could turn into an apartment, or at least use that for your all important 'storage' space." He wasn't even sure where the sudden importance of storage space was coming from, Luke spent his whole adult life in that tiny apartment and always fit perfectly, and it wasn't as if Luke was planning on running out and buying a whole bunch of unnecessary shit just to have a place to store it all. He wasn't one to beg but he thought he might be convinced to try if it'd get him this floor to himself. He was sure Luke wanted his own space to himself again anyway, even if he kept denying it.

They looked around trying to find the entrance to the last floor, but did not find any stairs. Luke was the one who found the pull-down stairs in the ceiling. Jess grabbed the flashlight from Luke and was the one to walk up and check it out. It was clear to him that this was meant to be a storage place but he could see how it could be used for other reasons. He pulled on the string light making the flashlight unneeded and looked around. Fuck, he'd live here, he didn't care and he decided he'd make sure to convince Luke to give him one of the floors he didn't know he had before a few minutes ago.

He heard Luke come up after him once the light was turned on. The only thing he said about the new space was, "Huh. Alright, alright, let's get back downstairs and you start on that wall. Just make some headway, I'll call in some professionals to do the big work."

"Shouldn't we leave it all for the professionals? Do you know if any of the walls are load-bearing that you want me to knock down? I refuse to be responsible for taking the whole building down." Jess huffed as he followed Luke down and out of the building and into the entrance to the diner and apartment.

"How do you even know what 'load baring' means? Yeah, you're probably right, I know that wall is safe to knock down but knowing you, you'd find a way to cause a huge mess anyway," He said in a tone that was clearly a joke. "Leave it alone, we'll save it for the contractors. Plus, it seemed like you were in the middle of homework when I interrupted you, wouldn't want to be at fault for messing with your schooling."

Jess didn't say anything, he decided to let Luke think that he was working on school when he was really just reading though for a second he considered that schoolwork might be less boring and painful than the book he was reading. So he just nodded and made his way back to their apartment and his books. It wasn't long before he realized he wasn't going to be able to focus on the book anymore though, his mind kept drifting to the possibilities of the upstairs apartment. He was decidedly relieved when the phone rang. He took the distraction for what it was and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi."

A smile came to his face, knowing that it was Rory. He didn't want the conversation to be overheard so he walked over to the door, opened it slightly, and decided the coast was clear when he heard Luke downstairs watching his weird portable TV. He sat back on the bed, "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, you?"

"Nothing."

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?"

"I, um, I wanted to…" She sounded nervous for some reason so he interrupted her.

"I'm glad you called."

"Yeah?" Rory knew they were dating now and that he was her boyfriend but they'd never talked on the phone before, heck, he never even asked for her number so she didn't know if this was okay. Logically she knew she wasn't doing anything wrong but she also knew Dean and Jess were two very different people and they were the only experience she's had with dating before. They were so different it was almost as if this was her first boyfriend all over again so everything felt so new, and unsure. She was happy that he seemed excited to talk to her and happy she called. The tension in her shoulders eased at that realization.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Cause maybe you can explain to me what the hell this crazy woman is talking about," He said as he opened up the book to the page he left off on.

She was confused for a second not sure what he meant. Until she remembered their conversation on the bridge during the pick-a-basket. That felt like a lifetime ago, it kinda was, she was dating someone different, trying to convince herself that she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. Her eyes widened when she realized that was only a little more than a week or two ago. She shook her head and focused back on the conversation. "Ahh, the Fountainhead."

"Yes, it's your fault, and you will pay."

Rory shivered at the flirtation in his tone, she had the thought that she was sure she'd enjoy whatever he was planning before shaking her head again and feeling a blush on her cheeks.

"I promise, commit to it one more time and if it still is awful for you, I'll make it up to you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I'm going to hold you to that." Again, Rory heard the flirtation and suggestion in his tone, she couldn't deny that she liked it.

"Okay."Jess laid back, changing the subject, knowing that he didn't want to push that subject and make Rory uncomfortable by asking something along the lines of 'And how exactly do you plan to make it up to me?' So when he spoke next it was softer, more conversational. "Oh, you won't believe what just happened to me."

"What?" She asked, laying back on her bed too.

"Luke stormed into the apartment, took out a huge mallet, huge, I'm talking Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tom and Jerry big."

"Really? Why?"

"Then he walks over to the wall close to me and just starts swinging at it."

"What? No!"

Jess and Rory spent the next hour on the phone, first Jess telling her the story, then just talking, mostly about nothing important. The only reason they ended the phone call was because he could tell Rory was half asleep talking to him and he heard the telltale sound of Luke packing up for the night preparing to make his way upstairs for bed.

"Hey, Rory?"

"Hmm?" She asked, really flagging now.

"Get to sleep, I don't want to be responsible for the cranky monster that is a tired Rory in the morning," Jess said, half asleep himself.

"Not nice." She said, confirming she was still comprehending him but not enough to snark back at him.

"Night, Rory."

Night, Jess. Love you." She mumbled and hung up.

Jess stared at the phone, now fully awake, his eyes wide, jaw slackened. Did Rory really just tell him she loved him? Did she mean to or did it just slip out because she was half asleep? Did she mean it, did she really love him? He wasn't sure how that made him feel, he never had someone say that to him before. Sure, during one or two of Liz's sober periods, he kind of remembered her saying it to him before, and Luke probably did once or twice when he was still a kid but he didn't quite remember and didn't really count that anyway. A mom was supposed to be wired to love their kid, it wasn't supposed to be a choice for them, same with family. He'd never had someone choose to get close to him enough or care about him enough to fall in love with him.

He shook his head, she didn't love him, he was just being stupid. He probably misheard her, she was mumbling a lot and not in her right mind. Even if he did hear her right and she did say that she loved him, she didn't mean it, she wasn't conscious or cognizant enough to know or mean what she was saying. Yeah, it had to be some kind of mistake, whether from her or him it didn't matter. He'd pretend nothing happened and ignore it unless she brought it up again. He'd just put it out of his mind.

That was something easier said than done though. Thankfully, Luke chose this moment to burst through the door. Jess was surprised by the serious look on Luke's face. Not that he wasn't always serious, he was but he'd learned Luke well enough to know that this look meant Luke had to talk to him about something important. So with a sigh, he sat back up and waited to be yelled at for whatever he did wrong this time.

He was surprised again when Luke pulled out one of the kitchen table chairs and turned it to face Jess. His look calmed a little, he knew he still was going to have a talk right now but he didn't think he was in trouble anymore.

"Listen, Jess…" Luke trailed off, thinking over his words.

Uh-oh, he knew that tone. Seems like Luke might have gotten tired of him after all. Was he about to get kicked out? No, that didn't make sense, Luke just bought a whole fucking building so they could live together comfortably.

It seemed like Luke figured out how he was going to say what he wanted to because he took a deep breath and opened his mouth, "So I wasn't just watching TV down there, I was on the phone with contractors, pricing things out, talking about our options, seeing what works best for what we need. It took a while but we came up with a game plan. They're starting early first thing tomorrow so it's going to be busy and loud around here for a while, we might even have to close down part of the diner, hell, maybe the whole thing for a day or two, I don't know yet."

"Okay…" Jess said, still not sure where this was going.

"And we've decided on the layout of how the place is going to look now."

Ahh, now Jess understood, he was looking at him that way because Luke was about to tell Jess 'tough luck' you're not getting what you want. He sighed, it wasn't as if that wasn't expected after all. "Yeah, and what did you decide that these upper floors are going to look like?"

Luke sighed, "Jess, I hope you know that I know about your New York City adventure."

"Yeah, I kinda figured. It isn't like Lorelai is known for her secret-keeping abilities."

"Watch it," Luke warned, he wouldn't stand for anyone talking bad about Lorelai, once he was sure Jess got the point he continued, "Right, so I didn't make a big deal about it. I know you've been through a lot and I get you're more mature than most 17-year-olds should have to be. That being said, I'm not going to ground you for making a mistake, for going to the place that was your home your whole life, especially when the girl you clearly love wanted to go with you." Jess tried to interrupt, saying that he didn't love Rory but Luke held up his hand stopping him. "So like I said, I get it, and you're not in trouble but I do expect you to do what needs to be done to graduate. I get that it doesn't mean anything to you, that you don't care but I do. It means something to me so I need your word that you'll do what you have to, to get that degree. Are we agreed? Can you do that for me?"

Jess' whole body tensed. He felt backed into a corner and he didn't like it. He wanted to lash out, in fact, he opened his mouth to do just that but something inside him stopped him. He wasn't sure if he was thankful for that part of him or bitter because of it. With his promise that he made to Rory not to skip any more school and the promise Luke was asking of him now, he'd end up being the model student and he didn't like that thought one bit.

He hated himself a little bit when he looked at Luke and realized he didn't want to disappoint him. What the fuck was wrong with him? Why did he care? He knew sooner or later Luke would be done with him, throw him away like last week's trash. So why was he letting himself care? He was just setting himself up for pain because if he kept caring he'd grow attached and when it was ripped away from him it'd hurt. That was why he kept everyone at a distance, why he made sure he was the one to do the leaving instead of letting himself get left behind. Eventually, he decided on a noncommittal, "I'll try."

Jess had the feeling that Luke was seeing right through him and he hated it down to his bone marrow. Eventually, Luke nodded. "Okay, good. I'm trusting you, Jess. And because I trust you, I'm willing to concede to what you want when it comes to your room. To an extent!"

"To an extent?" Jess asked, unsure what his uncle meant.

"You can have the floor above us but there will be some rules."

Jess sat forward, trying but failing to hide his excitement and seem nonchalant about the conversation, hoping to be able to negotiate. "Okay. What rules?"

"One, you will keep the door open whenever Rory is with you, I don't care if she's just running upstairs to grab a book from you, the door is open. No, not just Rory, any girl that you have up there the door will be open. Oh, and that makes a number two, you better treat Rory right and never have any girl that she wouldn't approve of up in your room because she is the best of the best and you're lucky to have a girl like that love you." Jess flinched again at the love word being thrown around by Luke so willy-nilly. Jess didn't have a chance to get angry and offended at the implication that he'd hurt Rory because Luke quickly followed up with another rule. Three, I will have a key to your room and maintain the ability to enter it any time I want. I won't go in there for just any reason and I will respect your privacy but if you go missing, or start acting out I won't feel bad about using my key. And four, You'll, I'll… well, I don't know, I forget the fourth rule. So rule number four is the rule that I'm able to add or take away rules when I see fit." He ends with a self-satisfied nod, feeling that he was handling the situation well, he was even proud of himself.

Jess watched him unsure how to respond. It wasn't as if he was against any of the rules, he figured they'd come with having his own room anyway but he couldn't give in too easily. "Am I going senile already? Weren't we just having a conversation a few seconds ago about you trusting me?"

"Well yeah…"

"So which is it? Do you trust me or are you lying about that? Because it seems to me that if you actually trusted me, it wouldn't matter if my door was shut when Rory was with me. If you trust me then you trust me not to push her further than she wanted and trust me to be safe should anything like that ever happen. So I guess what I'm saying is, if you trust me, there's no need for rules one and two." He said quirking a brow.

"I—well, What I mean is…" Luke paused a second to get his thoughts together, when he spoke he sat straighter more sure of himself. "There's a difference between trusting you to do what you're supposed to and trusting two hormone bomb teenagers who have a place where they won't be interrupted to stop from doing something stupid. I might trust you Jess but that doesn't mean I'm willing to be the house where you and Rory slowly uh, get to know each other. Nope, I won't be a part of that and I definitely won't let you put me in Lorelai's crosshairs because you can't get creative." Luke's eyes opened wide like he didn't mean to say that last part.

Jess couldn't help but laugh. He stood up and held his hand out, "Okay, you have yourself a deal, Danes."

"Right back at you, Mariano," Luke said as he followed Jess' lead.

That was all the heart-to-heart either of the two gruff men could stand to have for one night so after they disengaged from the handshake they each went their separate ways throughout the apartment and started to get ready for bed not saying another word to each other for the rest of their night.

Rory and Lorelai were making their way to Luke's for their morning breakfast and coffee fix and Rory couldn't stop smiling because she couldn't stop thinking about her phone call with Jess the night before. Rory didn't know it was possible to have such a good time with someone when you weren't even with them. Though something was tickling the back of her mind, reminding her there was a reason to be embarrassed though she couldn't quite remember why.

"Ooh," Lorelai said, holding the O for much longer than necessary, at the sound Rory had a flashback to grade school when she teased Lane for having her first crush.

"What?" Rory asked trying to sound annoyed but had a feeling she was failing.

"Oh nothing, I just know what the look on your face means. I've had it a time or two myself. Though for Jess' sake, it'd better not be for the same exact reason I was making that face."

Rory bristled, it was way too soon to hear her mom saying anything bad about Jess after that whole overbearing talk she demanded to have with him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Lorelai took a step away from her with her hands up in surrender, looking like she was afraid Rory was about to blow. They were just getting back to normal, she didn't want to accidentally start another argument because of some silly teasing. "Nothing Rory, it was a joke, I didn't mean anything by it. It's just I've termed that smile that's been on your face all morning the 'Jess smile'. And I heard a lot of talking coming from your room last night. So much I didn't want to bother you so I picked up the phone to call Sookie."

"Mom!"

"I didn't eavesdrop after I heard it was Jess you were talking to, calm down. All I'm saying is that must have been one good phone call you had last night because you're all smiles today."

Rory calmed down and her blush was back, "Yeah, it was pretty good."

"Mhmm, I gathered that much myself. Any chance you want to let Mommy in on the details?"

"It wasn't anything crazy, just talking about… woah…" Rory said when they turned the corner and saw Luke's with all the builders around it and the whole thing clearly being under construction.

"Woah?" Lorelai asked and continued once she looked where her daughter was staring, "Woah. What do you think is happening there?"

"Jess said that Luke bought the whole building and Jess asked him about his plans for the higher floors they'd never seen before. It's turned into this whole huge project. From what he says it'll be like this for a while."

"Hmm," Lorelai mumbled noncommittally, worried about what they were considering, not liking the fact that her teenage daughter's new boyfriend might have a whole new private spot to spend time with her. No! Lorelai scolded herself, You promised to stop assuming the worst when it came to Jess and his intentions with Rory, stop going right back to the worst-case scenario.

When the girls walked into the diner Luke waved and even though he was distracted by yelling at Tom he looked at the girls and smiled, "Sit wherever you want." They nodded and went to the table closest to them "Oh wait, no, don't sit there."

"Why not? Lorelai asked as she sat down anyway, Rory following her lead.

"Three people got nailed in the head here earlier."

"Well their food was good, right?"

"Will you just move?" He asked and Lorelai was about to respond but her phone started to ring. She looked around for her phone and when she found it he demanded, "Take it outside!"

"You know, if I sit here one more second, I might just end up being outside," She smiled at Rory though Rory thought to herself that it was one of her mom's weaker jokes, and she smiled back all the same. As Lorelai started to get up but made sure to tell her daughter, "Order me a coffee."

Rory nodded and gave their orders to Luke so Luke went back behind the bar to let Caesar know. Jess came out from the back with a hard hat on and an umbrella in his hand, he knew that Rory would be there soon and he didn't want her meal to get messed up. He wouldn't ever admit this to anyone but he might have bought the largest size umbrella possible because he knew that Lorelai would be with her and even though Lorelai wasn't his favorite person in the world right now, he didn't want her food to get messed up either.

He walked over to Rory when he noticed her sitting by herself and opened up the umbrella one-handed, he looked pretty cool if he did say so himself. He leaned down and gave her a kiss good morning as he handed the umbrella to her. They both ignored Luke's 'Oh, don't you start too, you and Tom should make an act together.' At Jess because of the umbrella.

"Good morning," He said with a small smile on his lips just for her.

"Morning." She replied, smile much brighter and sweeter.

"Walk you to the bus after you eat?"

"Yes please."

His smile grew a little brighter and he leaned down for another kiss, this time much quicker and more chase before walking away and getting back to work.

A few minutes later Lorelai came back looking upset. As soon as Lorelai sat down Rory moved the umbrella over to cover both of them, noting that Jess made sure to give her one big enough for two without having to squish together. It was perfect timing because a second later something fell from above them and would have landed directly on the two and their food if they weren't covered. After the dust settled, literally, Rory thought with a giggle, she asked, "What's wrong, mom?"

"Your grandmother just tricked me, no, I was bamboozled, hoodwinked, duped, swindled, utterly deceived!"

"Okay, okay, take it down there a minute. How about you tell me what happened?"

Lorelai outlined the phone call she had and while Rory felt bad for her, it was only slightly. She knew her mom and grandmother had a different relationship than she and her grandmother did but she didn't understand the pure regret and loathing her mother had at the thought of spending any one-on-one time alone with grandma. So yeah, a corner of her brain was currently reserved for feeling bad for her mom, the rest of her was just plain mixed up.

Part of her felt excited she could finally have a night to herself, do her laundry the way she wanted to, and actually get to have the Indian food that she loved without having to hear her mom complain about having to burn everything in the house because of the sell the whole time she was eating, and instead just enjoy it. Another, equally as big part of her was excited for a different reason. She had a new boyfriend and they had already talked about plans on Friday. That part of her wanted to invite him over and have him with her at the house alone for the night. Well, not the whole night, it wasn't as if she was going to invite him to sleep there but she wouldn't mind hanging out with him in an empty house with no supervision for a night. Not that she was planning on doing anything that the parental supervision would frown upon, she thought with a blush covering her cheeks. It was just that Jess seemed much more calm and relaxed when there wasn't anyone else there with them, especially no one watching over them.

So she didn't know what she wanted to do more and she was confused about why this decision was so hard for her, it wasn't as if she couldn't hang out with Jess another time, and if they wanted to hang out alone they could go to the bridge or on a date. It wasn't often she was able to order Indian takeout, so the night alone should be the clear choice, right? Still though, she wasn't sure that was what she wanted to do.

"Someone is thinking hard over there. Are you already planning the big party bash for while Mommy is away?" Lorelai said in a joking tone but felt a little uncomfortable. If it was Dean her daughter was dating, she wouldn't think twice about leaving her alone there and having Dean come over unsupervised but Jess was a different story. No. She mentally shook her head, and there she went again, judging Jess when he didn't deserve it. Hell, she was the one that first started the 'Get Jess accepted in town' operation, she didn't know why she was feeling so different about the situation now. Well, that wasn't quite true, she knew it was partly because he was now dating her daughter, although she had seen that one coming from a mile away so she had time to wrap her head around it. It was also because of the whole New York thing, she had a feeling it was going to take some time for her to work past it. Though she did trust her daughter, and she trusted Jess too so she promised herself she wasn't going to worry too much about it and she definitely wasn't going to make either of them feel bad about their relationship or make them feel like she didn't trust them. And if she just so happened to call much more often than she normally would, well, that was a mother's prerogative.

"Oh yeah, I already sent out the bat signal to Lane, or should I say, the beer signal. She's ordering three kegs as we speak."

"Kids nowadays sure are efficient. It'd have taken me much longer to set that much alcohol up and I lived around a bunch of rich kids who partied often."

Rory shrugged, "I took your system and refined it. I couldn't have gotten to where I am without you." Rory said with her hand on her mother's shoulder.

Lorelai pretended to start to cry, "I've never been more proud."

They both laughed and talked about nothing important for the rest of breakfast. After they both finished their most recent cups of coffee and their plates were completely empty they both started to gather their things to go their separate ways. "So I'll see you after work? I Love Lucy marathon tonight since we won't be hanging out this weekend?"

"Sure, I'll have some homework to do but I'll be free after." Jess already let her know he was working at Walmart tonight.

"Good, see you then, hon, love you."

"You too," Rory said with a smile before walking over to Jess who was waiting by the door for her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and Lorelai watched as they walked down the street toward the bus stop. Even if she still had worries about those two she couldn't deny that they were cute and that it was clear they both really cared about each other. So she smiled and watched them until they turned the corner and she couldn't see them anymore. She waved goodbye to Luke before making her way to work, the whole time lamenting the weekend she was about to be forced to endure.