One In The Same - Jess Mariano

More Shocking Than a Sixteen Candles Reunion

-

Y/N felt defeated. Bedridden and not able to enjoy the taste of any of the junk food she would typically gorge on under the watchful eye of her guardian. Nothing tasted good, her appetite was non-existent, her nose was bright red and stuffed up and her eyes were glassy. Her bed was littered with tissues, a mix of used and scrunched up unused ones. A bowl of soup, long gone cold, sat atop her bedside table, made especially for her by Sookie.

Jess burst into the apartment around lunchtime, shocking Y/N into a throaty coughing fit.

"You're supposed to be at school, Jess. Didn't Luke see you?"

"I snuck in while he was yelling at the town beanpole about something stupid he was selling. Besides, school is no fun without you," He carefully made his way to the side of the girl's bed. "Um. So, how are you feeling?"

"You don't need to do that,"

"Do what?" He sits at the foot of the bed, keeping his hands in his lap.

"This. The whole, pretending to care about me because I am unable to fight back. If you're nice to me, I will fear I've fallen into a crazy fever dream, then God knows what could happen," He lets out a breathy laugh, and his eyes set on the bowl at her bedside.

"Hey, I can nuke that up for you if you want,"

"Not hungry. Seriously, please don't bring up food in front of me. You know what, take that out of my face, the smell is making me queasy," He wordlessly gets up and places it by the sink, before returning to his place by Y/N.

"Movie?"

"Jess, really, I don't like being pitied," Jess is already flicking through tapes, pulling out 'Clueless' 1995. It pops into the video player, and he lays by Y/N's trembling frame. "Interesting choice of movie. I wouldn't take you for a chick-flick kinda guy,"

"What can I say, Paul Rudd is great... You cold?" Her head nods, and she shuffles further under the covers.

"Hey, this is definitely the foggy brain clouding my judgement but, you can get under the duvet if you want,"

"I knew this was a plan to get me in your bed. Bet you're not even sick, are you?" He teases, but climbs under the blankets before she can lose her temper and take back what she said, knocking tissues down onto the hardwood floor.

"When I get my strength back, I'm kicking your ass. I hope I get you sick,"

"If you get me sick, you'll have to take care of me," He smiles down at her, resting his chin on her slightly sweaty head, but he doesn't mind.

"I'll just get Miss Patty to do it," He gasps in faux offence, causing her to smile too. She sniffles and turns her attention to the movie.

-

Luke finishes up his shift around 6, and exhaustedly throws his keys down on the first surface he sees. Just then, he notices Jess' tousled hair poking out from under the sheets of Y/N's bed. At first he freaks out, ready to yell at the kids about being inappropriate, but he halts. He saw the smile on the pair's faces, and it helped that the two were seemingly fully dressed, so there was clearly no funny business going on. In fact, Luke then kicked himself for not owning a camera to capture this moment to hold over their heads when they inevitably went back to the mutual hate they shared for each other.

Luke quietly picks his keys back up and closes the door discreetly. He picks up the landline phone, dialling up Lorelai's number.

"Hey. You'll never guess what I just saw," Lorelai gasps on the other phone before replying,

"Oh! Did Molly Ringwald come in and ask for a table for her and Michael Schoeffling?"

"No. That did not happen. I might even say it's more shocking than that,"