"I hope you find someone who knows how to love you when you are sad." - Nikita Gill
"So, we're gonna go see your mom tonight..." Ty says, trying to get her to talk about it, but she doesn't. He can tell she's anxious about it but he doesn't say anything more, seeming to understand how little she wants to talk right now. "It'll be great, hun. I'll be here the whole time."
"I know." She says, pulling on her sweater awkwardly as if wishing it would swallow her up. Tyler places her leather jacket over her shoulders and grabs his keys off the table, having to pull her out of the house to get her to move. She's clearly terrified as he drives down the road to the other Gilmore house, even with Abbey Road playing in the stereo and her favorite song blasting. Normally the girl would sing along, but not tonight. No, she's too nervous to move, let alone sing.
"I love you, Delilah, you know that right?"
"I love you too, Ty."
The pair walk up to the door slowly, Delilah looking at it as if it'll eat her... which actually doesn't sound too bad right now. Slowly, Ty makes his way forward, giving her plenty of time to stop him before knocking on the door.
"Hey, Tyler, Delilah..." Lorelai trails off, eyes stuck on her daughter. She looks a lot like Rory, only less young and soft. She looks so much like Ty that Lorelai isn't sure if she's really her daughter or if she's his.
Her curly brown hair is swept up into a high ponytail and there's a tight sweater clinging to her like a vice, and Lorelai can nearly feel the waves of fear coming off of her.
"Hey Lor, it's nice to see you." Tyler greets her, but her daughter stays silent, much to her disappointment.
"Yeah, it's nice to see you too, Tyler."
"Great, so uh... how do we do this?"
"Well we've got a few friends joining us, and my daughter, Rory, she's in her room studying right now... do you remember Rory, Delilah?" She stutters out, finally landing on a good first question.
"She's seen photos and letters and things, Lor."
"Oh, good... so then... come inside, yeah, come inside." Lorelai offers, holding the door open for the pair. Ty takes her daughter's hand as he pulls her inside, and she can see that she visibly tightens when she's behind her.
"Oh, who's this?" A woman asks, standing in the kitchen. She's pretty, clearly around Lorelai's age, and she's got hair that bobs around her shoulders. There's also a man there who seems to be absorbed in cutting up his vegetables.
"Sookie, Jackson, this is my uncle Tyler and my... my daughter, Delilah."
"What?" The woman, Sookie questions, slapping the man's arm to get his attention. "This is Delilah, I mean- I mean you're Delilah?" And suddenly Delilah is swept up in a hug. Not from her own mother, no, but from this random woman she doesn't even know. Still, she allows it to soothe her. "I haven't seen you since you were eight years old!"
"Yeah, uh, I lived in Massachusetts..." Delilah says awkwardly as someone else knocks on the door. Lorelai takes it as the first chance to run away from the room suffocating with her daughter's presence.
"Coming!" She shouts as she goes. "Hey, perfect timing! Sookie's about to break her record for the most food served outside the roman empire."
"Sounds great."
"Sure does."
Two people say at the same time, voices mashing together so much that Delilah can't tell them apart.
"So, come in." Lorelai insists, taking a deep breath before leading the pair into the kitchen where her daughter still stands. "Sookie, Jackson. I want you to meet Luke's nephew. This is Jess" She says, walking in to find Sookie still hugging her daughter.
Sookie lets go immediately, wiping at her eyes a bit as she releases Delilah. The girl backs away to her uncle's side, glancing around the kitchen awkwardly.
Wait... Luke?
And sure enough, when she glances over, there he is. Her boss. "Luke?"
"Delilah? What're you doing here, kid?" Luke asks, glancing at Ty in confusion.
"Oh, Luke, this is Tyler, my uncle and Delilah... my daughter, Rory's twin."
"Rory's what? Your what? What the hell, Lorelai, Delilah's your daughter?"
"Yeah, uh, she's lived in Massachusetts with her uncle since she was eight." Lorelai says sheepishly, looking down at her feet.
"Why?" The boy beside Luke- his nephew -asks.
Cause Lorelai couldn't handle a kid like me and sent me off to live with the only person she could pawn me off on. Delilah wants to say, but she doesn't, electing to stay silent.
"No reason, it was just easier." Lorelai answers, making Delilah scoff. Jess looks at her immediately, but he isn't prepared when his eyes meet hers. She's beautiful, that's for sure, but that isn't what draws his attention. It's the glistening shields in her eyes that say she's a pin needle's width from crying. "Rory, they're here."
"Coming!" Someone shouts and seconds later a door opens towards the edge of the room and Rory walks out. Delilah can't seem to hold herself together anymore, seeing her twin not seem to recognise her. She walks out the back door, trying desperately to hold in tears until she's alone. Sookie immediately tries to walk after her, but Ty holds out his arm, stopping her.
"Don't, she just needs a few minutes to pull herself together."
"Whose that?" Rory asks, coming to stand by Jess.
"That's your sister, Rory, remember? Delilah?" Lorelai speaks gently. Rory's eyes widen and she rushes back into her room, slamming the door and locking it behind her. "Fuck."
"I can't believe you didn't tell anyone your daughter was coming to town, Lor." Tyler says, leaning against the door Delilah had disappeared through.
"I think we should go..." Jackson speaks up, but they ignore him. Jess just takes a seat on one of the counters with a grin.
"What was I supposed to say?"
"You've known about this for months, you had time to figure it out. You're the one who left her, not the other way around. It's on you to make that up to her."
Jess snorts out a laugh. "You think you're gonna make that up to her?" He asks, but Lorelai doesn't even spare him a look as Ty steps towards her. Jess takes the opportunity, slipping out of the door and grabbing a pair of beers from the counter on the way.
"Go away, Ty." She sniffles out from her spot sitting on the railing.
"Guess again." Jess says with a chuckle, coming to lean beside her and hands her a beer.
"Hey..."
"Hey. I'm Jess, by the way."
"Yeah, Luke's nephew. I helped him set up your room. Did he get you a real mattress yet?"
"Nope, the inflatable one popped this morning." Jess says, prying the metal cap off of the bottle using the wooden railing, then doing the same with hers. She takes a sip immediately, making him smile slightly. "So, that's your mom then?"
"Yep, she's a bitch, isn't she?"
"Probably, yeah. Inviting us over to buffer the awkwardness."
"You don't want to be here, do you?"
"This house or the town?"
"Both." She says, taking another swig and propping a hand on the railing to keep her stable as she swings her feet.
"Jeeze, Angel, why would anyone not want to be here?" He questions sarcastically, making her chuckle.
"Yeah, you're right about that." She announces, dropping to the ground in front of the porch ungracefully, her knees buckling beneath her as she does. Jess pokes his head over the side, now several feet taller than her.
"You know, I had a friend who broke his ankle doing that."
"You seem like the type with a lot of really stupid friends, Danes. I'm gonna go, see if I can stir up some trouble somewhere."
"I wish you the best of luck." He says, raising his beer in a toast and watching her jog away down the street.
"Ah, for me? Hey, thanks." Lorelai interrupts him, walking out in search of her daughter and taking the boy's beer from his hands. "Where is she?"
"She left." He says simply, placing his now empty hand on the railing where she had just been sitting.
"So, what? You're not hungry?"
"Not really, no."
"Sookie made you some grilled cheese if you don't like pot roast." She says, though he only grunts in acknowledgment.
"Oh, wow, if I had known that..." He jokes.
"Let me guess... you don't want to be here."
"Doesn't matter."
"I mean, here in Stars Hollow."
"Yeah, your daughter said the same thing. Jeeze, Miss Gilmore, why would anyone not wanna be here in Stars Hollow? Well that just sounds plum crazy."
"Oh, Jess, let me give you a little advice. The whole 'my parents don't get me' thing. I've been there."
"You have, huh?" He asks sarcastically, mind wandering back to Delilah. This woman has no room to talk about knowing what it's like to not be understood by your parents.
"Yes, I have. I've also done the 'chip on my shoulder' bit, ooh, and the surly, sarcastic, 'the world can bite my ass' bit. And let me tell you, I mastered them all, in heels, yet. And everything you're feeling might be totally justified. Maybe you are getting screwed, but Luke is a great guy. He's very special and he really wants to take care of you and make things right for you. You're incredibly lucky to have him." She says, though she can see the growing anger on Jess's face. "If you give this situation half a chance, you might be surprised at how good it can be. How much you like living here, and how comfortable it feels to have someone like Luke you can really depend on."
"What? Are you sleeping with him or something?"
"Excuse me?" She asks, taken aback.
"I don't know. The whole starry-eyed, 'you're so much better off just give it a chance' speech. You're either really fucking naive or you're getting some. This is absolutely none of your business."
Lorelai only scoffs at this. "There have been very few moments in my life where I've actually wished I had one of those enormous cream pies you can just smash in someone's face but this is definitely one of them."
"Well now that's not very neighborly."
"Hey, you know what? This is my house. And I choose how I get talked to in it. Ha ha."
"You know, you don't know anything about me, or my life, or my mom, or Luke so why don't you 'Dr. Laura' someone else?!" He shouts at her.
"I'm going inside, stay out of my fridge. And stay the hell away from my kid."
---
The next morning, Jess looks out of his window to find something that really makes him laugh. Doose's shop, though the front banisters aren't covered in flowers anymore, but instead, toilet paper spirals.
He walks downstairs slowly, finding Delilah Gilmore with an apron on, sitting in the middle of his uncle's diner with a cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other.
"Hey, school today!" His uncle calls from the back, handing him a bookbag, which he takes silently.
Delilah looks up, coming face to face with Jess as he sits down in front of her.
"Want a walk to school?" He asks, watching her mull it over with a small smirk on his face.
"Sure." She says once she's finished her last sip of coffee, standing and grabbing her backpack from the floor beside her. They walk out of the diner together, unknowing of the eyes on them. Luke and Patty watch in distaste as the pair walk out of the diner together and through the streets, chatting idly.
"So, how was the rest of the dinner?" She asks once they're enroute to the high school. It's the first day of her sophomore year and part of her wants to just stop caring about it all and quit, but she knows she can't.
She's going to Yale, after all.
"Boring as hell. Your mom stole my beer."
"Damn, that sucks." She says with a snort, earning a small shove on the arm from Jess.
"And she and Luke fought, so not she won't come into the diner, apparently. She showed up this morning and made a huge fuss out of it."
"Of course, cause that makes sense." Delilah mocks.
"I'll see you after school?" He questions as he makes his way inside, watching her nod before parting ways from her in search of his calculus class.
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