"Jess can you fry up some french toast for the table in the corner there?" he asked as he poured some more customers some coffee. Jess sighed, "I'm sorry okay-but right now I'm trying to get three other tables their meals!" he said upset as he hurried himself over to another table by the side window.
Luke frowned, "This is impossible that it's been this busy-where is Lane?"
"She doesn't work here anymore Luke, remember?" he grunted and went to take the plates from the back counter window and carried them back to his first table. They had been waiting for about thirty minutes more than his other table. He set it down in front of them; filled them up on coffee and taking his new orders back over to Caesar in the back.
"Luke-it's time you hired more people." he gruffed before going back to his spot in the apartment.
"You think I don't know that?" Luke shot back before he was bombarded with more customers. He sighed and rubbed his head slightly, "Okay..." he prepared himself for another wave and grabbed his notepad out again.
By around three o'clock the rush was dead and everyone remembered that there were other options to eat. Luke sat down at the counter and tried to catch his breath. Jess did the same, plopping himself down at a seat near a table in the middle of the diner. Luke rubbed his head, "Okay. We'll start hiring. With more money coming in, we can afford to hire more people." he admit.
"You think?" Jess sassed.
"Shut it." he said exasperatedly.
Jess looked back at him. "Hey," he spoke up, "Is there anything up with Lucy?" Luke looked up and scoffed, "What isn't." he said.
"What's that mean?" he asked, "Something happen?" Jess sat up a little straighter.
"Besides her grandpa passing?" his eyebrows cocked up a little and he shrugged, "I don't know. She's on her own, I'm pretty sure she's little shaken by that." he said. Jess furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "Aren't you all gung-ho on making sure she's okay?" he asked.
Luke sighed, "Not recently, no."
"Strange." Jess commented.
"What?" Luke looked at him. Jess got up and shrugged; shoving his hands in his back pockets as he leaned back on the table, "Just that I wouldn't have guessed you to be that person to leave her to do things by herself."
"Might as well." Luke said with a reluctance, "She's been making a point of telling me she's not a kid anymore. And I'm not her dad. High time she learned to do things for herself. She's needs that space I guess.."
Jess sensed there was a conversation he missed between them that gave Luke this sudden revelation. He eyed him slightly suspicious, "Now though?"
"Yes now." Luke spoke before he got up and went to count the cash in the register. Jess looked at him before nodding, "I'm gonna head out. You good for the dinner shift? Or should I come back?" he asked. Luke shook his head and waved his hand slightly, "Nah you're good, thanks for the help." he assured him. Jess nodded and slid on his jacket quickly from the back.
"Hire somebody." Jess ordered him as he left the dinner. Luke shook his head and smiled smally before he went back to counting.
Jess went ahead and walked down the streets of Stars Hollow and knocking on to Lucy's house. When he was there he noticed a man he hadn't seen in town before right at her porch. Almost as if he had just gotten there himself. He was a tall burly man with a hazel brown beard and hair on his head to match.
There were some questions in his head as to who this man was and why he was at Lucy's house of all places in town. He did look somewhat familiar to Jess somehow. He stopped at the foot of the steps a little below the man and looked up at the man's wide back.
Jess cleared his throat which clearly scared the man. Slightly satisfied that he could do that to a big man, he maintained his composure when the man came down the steps. The stranger's feet boomed on the wooden steps. "Hi." a gentle yet raspy voice emerged from the forest of his beard.
Jess looked at him, "Howdy." he mocked slightly.
The man looked down awkwardly putting his hands in his jacket pockets. He looked down briefly, "Bet you're wonderin' what I'm doing here..."
"It crossed my mind." Jess said sarcastically.
The man breathed in through his teeth awkwardly before biting his lip, "Hi, my name's James." he held his meaty hand out to shake. Jess looked at the man's hand and back up at his face. The man took the hint and cleared his throat as he let his hand fall to his side.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Well um.. I'm here visiting family." the man confessed.
"Lucy?" Jess said trying to keep up. The man nodded. "Who are you." Jess asked.
"I'm James." he said.
"Yeah I got that. I mean who are you to Lucy." Jess said as his arms crossed over his chest.
The man looked down guiltily and gruffed, "..I'm her father."
Jess didn't leave a second of silence to the imagination as he punched the man in the face. He gruffed furiously and looked at him, "The hell are you doing here!" he yelled. The man rubbed his jaw only having drawn back a little. "I suppose you've heard of me..." James looked down as he rubbed his jaw again.
"Yeah you've got a reputation." he growled. Jess was feeling the pain in his fist resurfacing again and he bit his lip to restrain himself from revealing that pain. He looked at the man coldly.
"Then please know that I don't fit that reputation anymore.." he said his hooded eyes slightly sagging in sincerity, "Or at least that's what I worked hard to do." he rubbed the back of his head.
"Well excuse me if I don't believe the shit you're talking right now." he said and looked at him.
"I mean no alternative than what I say," James tried to reassure him. He wiped his lip to see it was a little bloody and chuckled looking at his red thumb, "Believe me, a few years ago a punch like that would have been all it took for me to send you to an early grave, boy.." he sighed, "Eleven years in prison is enough to set a terrible man straight." he said. "I didn't want to cause any trouble. I just want to talk to my daughter." he said.
Jess looked at the man. He knew the eyes of a liar. He would look at them in the mirror every day. This man didn't have them. The only glint in this man's eye was the glint of a man looking for redemption. He sighed and breathed out slowly. He was going to regret this so much.
"Do you drink coffee?" Jess said through clenched teeth.
The man nodded innocently, "Yeah." he looked at Jess with a little hope. Jess nodded begrudgingly; holding his fist, "Let's go."
_____________
Luckily enough for him, that random burst of customers had left with the afternoon. The night shift was slow like it usually was in Stars Hollow. Jess made sure the place was empty. Partially because he didn't want others to know this man's existence, but also because he didn't want others to know that Jess was even sitting with him. Let alone conversing.
He saw that Luke wasn't there either but had managed to keep the place unlocked for him. He went in and switched the lights on in the place and allowed for James to follow suit.
He went to the back counter and started up making some coffee. James smiled looking around before looking back at him, "Wow. This place has not changed.. Does uh, Luke? Still work here?" he asked him.
"Yeah, he's my uncle." he said continuing to poor the coffee. "No way." James said in astonishment. "Liz went ahead and did it? She had a kid?"
"As unbelievable as it is, yeah." Jess said as he started the machine.
"Wow." James sat back in his seat still flabbergasted.
When Jess had brought back the coffee mugs he set it down in front of the man asking, "You knew my mother?"
"Oh, I knew them all. Luke, Liz, Miss Patty, Babette.." he listed off. "Even that spunky girl, whats her name, she popped up around the time I did with a kid." he snapped his fingers as if it would help himself remember.
"Lorelai?"
"Lorelai! Yes!" he nodded and smiled, "She had a way of making men dizzy, and not in the ways you think." he said muttering the last part.
"Oh believe me." he sighed, "She'll pass around a headache or five on a good day." Jess ran his hands through his hair.
James smiled and chuckled, "Great to hear not much has changed." he smiled. Jess smiled briefly before stopping himself. He shook his head slightly. He shouldn't be pals with this guy. The same guy who gave Lucy those scars; ones she had to live with for the rest of her life. Consistently reminded that he did that to her.
Jess' expression hardened at the thought. "Why'd you do it." he spoke up.
James stopped smiling; knowing the context of his question. He bit his lip and looked down. He let out a steady breath and let his hands rest together loosely on the table in front of him and around his coffee cup. "You have to know that before then it was a harder time.." he started to speak. Jess couldn't help but scoff. "It was," James said and sighed, "Lucy's mom..." he breathed out another sigh and shook his head at the thought. "Genevieve.." he let out as if it was the first time in a long time that he had even spoken the name. "Her family didn't have the healthiest medical background. She was always getting these heart issues.. only made it worse when she got pregnant." he rubbed his wrinkled forehead and brushed his beard a little as he fidgeted.
Jess watched him carefully but let him finish.
"She wanted a baby though, bless her little heart.." he exhaled, "Unfortunately afterwards she would have to take it easy all the time... I was so busy taking care of Lucy that I didn't have the time to care for her too, it was too much and I was really young. I wasn't ready." he stopped seeing as he was making excuses for himself. He looked down briefly. He took a sip of the coffee.
"Okay so you have your little, I-wasnt-always-a-piece-of-shit speech, but that's not what I asked. I asked why you did it." he said sternly.
James looked at the boy and sighed. "There's no reason I could give that excused what I did. I beat up on a poor defenseless kid." he said, "My daughter." he sighed and rubbed his head, "When her mother died I was just so lost. I was angry. I blamed Lucy, and that was in no way right." he looked at him, "I'm a terrible dad. And I just want to make it right."
Jess sighed. That was a little bit better.. he thought. At least he wasn't denying he was a piece of shit. Jess drank his own coffee before going back to nursing his fist.
"Bruisin' there buddy?" James asked.
"Just wondering whether or not I should lay another one on ya." Jess remarked. James chuckled. "You need ice for that?" Jess asked him his eyes gesturing to his fat lip. James smiled knowingly, "You need ice for that?" he retorted gesturing to his knuckles. Jess looked at it for the first time since he hit him and noticed that it was bruising a purple pinkish color. He nodded briefly, "Fair enough." he muttered going to go get them both some packs of ice.
When he came back he slid it over to him across the table, while nursing his hand with the other. Jess sat back down and looked down at his fist. "So you decided all of this in prison?"
"Well no. Deep down I knew it was wrong.." he looked down, "I guess it just took being tossed into prison to wake me up." he said setting the pack of ice on his jaw. "She's been okay though? With her grandpa?" he asked out of the blue hopefully.
Jess looked up at him. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head and sighed, "I..." he said awkwardly. This was the first time in this whole encounter he felt less confident. "She's better than when she was with you, that's for sure." he said.
"Something wrong, something happen to her?" he asked.
"I-" he stammered, "Her grandpa died just a few days ago.." he shrugged.
James sat back in his seat and brushed his beard once more concerned. His bushy eyebrows furrowed. "Poor Rob..." he sighed, "I didn't know... And I was going and knocking on the door and everythin'." he shook his head blaming himself. "Smooth. Real smooth." he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Dude was old. Was bound to happen sometime, right.." Jess sympathized, or tried to.
James let his hand fall back down on the table and nodded, "I guess. Rob was a sweet old man." he said, "Raised his daughter right." he nodded his head as if agreeing with himself on the claim. "Lucy's not doing to well then?"
"I'm sure she's sad. But I see her walking around here and there like normal." Jess said, "Just yesterday I ran into her at the music store."
"More than I can say. I haven't been able to catch a glimpse of her. I don't even know who I'm looking for.." James muttered. He sighed before his eyes trailed back up to Jess. "Sorry boy, I didn't even catch your name."
"I'm not sure I want to throw it just yet.." Jess said as he sat across the man.
James nodded understandingly; pursing his lips to sip his coffee again. "She's got your eyes.." Jess spoke up; which caught James' attention. "I can see that.." Jess said quietly.
"You uh... close friends with my daughter?" James asked hopefully.
Jess bit his lip before looking down at his hands, "I'm not sure at the moment," he looked back up at Lucy's father with a steely gaze. James nodded, "I know that feeling." he said with an awkward chuckle, "Her mother had a way of doing that."
"Doing what?" Jess cocked his head slightly.
"Making you feel like shit when you deserved it. No matter how little, the silent treatment was big." he drank the rest of his coffee down. Jess couldn't help but let a small smile sneak onto his face; thinking about it. That's exactly how he was feeling; or how Lucy was making him feel.
He snapped out of his thoughts before looking back into the eyes of Lucy's father. "James, you seem like you've got your shit together, but. If this is in any efforts to get Lucy to talk to you, you've barked up the wrong tree."
"I figured," James gruffed sadly looking down in his empty mug. "Just nice. To talk to someone who doesn't hold you accountable for your mistakes."
"Oh I hold you plenty accountable." Jess corrected him, "I'm just not sure I want to toss you out a window just yet."
"Well I appreciate that." James joked in bad taste.
Jess smirked before taking his coffee and pouring it in James' cup. James smiled in gratitude before drinking it. "If you get to talk to her. What happens then?" Jess asked.
James pursed his bearded lips in thought before speaking. "I don't have a right to plan that far.." he said. "If I can just apologize..? See that she's healthy. That'll be enough for me.." he confirmed by finishing off his coffee. He got up slowly before nodding his head to Jess. "I appreciate the chat. And the coffee," he gruffed friendly. "If there's anything I can do, just let me know."
Jess stood up, "Yeah. There is." he spoke. James paused looking at him to talk and speak what he wanted. Jess sighed, "Just hold off meeting Lucy for now." he said, "Stopping by her house everyday. Don't do that." he shook his head, "It'll happen when it happens."
James nodded in thought slightly before looking back at Jess, "Promise." he agreed before going to the door saying, "You're a good kid, boy." he looked back at him as he was exiting, "Lucy's really lucky to have you in her life. Even if she doesn't know it yet." he smiled smally before leaving Jess to cleaning up the two coffee mugs.