Jess

He sat at the kitchen table in the apartment later that night after dropping Cassie off at her place. He had a book in his hand and was reading peacefully. Until his uncle came into the room.

Luke ripped open the door and stomped inside loudly, causing Jess to look up at him. "Hey Bigfoot, ya mind keeping it down?"

Luke walked over to him with a frown on his face. "You don't get to talk tonight, you're gonna shut up and listen," he tells his nephew sternly, surprising Jess at his bad mood. "I heard about your little stunt around town."

"What?" Jess asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

"You and Cassie," Luke said as a flash of recognition appeared in Jess' eyes. "Had a fun lunch?" He asked sarcastically.

Jess closed the book in his hand, marking his page with a receipt he found lying on the table. "What do you want me to say?" He knew Luke was protective of Cassie, he just didn't realise how much. Or maybe it was just because she was going out with a guy like him.

Luke shakes his head at him. "I don't want you to say anything, I want you to listen." He repeated his words from before.

"We are gonna lay down a few ground rules," Luke begins. "When she is up here, that door remains open." Luke pointed behind him towards the door. "You two will not be allowed on either end of this apartment," Luke held both his hands up and gestured to the two sides of the apartment. "You will stay here, in the middle portion of the room."

Luke bent down to Jess' eye level where he sat in the chair. "You may sit on the couch or on the chair, as long as you two are sitting on separate seats," he emphasised. "If she is on the couch you will be on the chair and vice versa."

Jess rolled his eyes at his uncles dramatics. "I get it, thank you."

He ignored Jess and continued to go on. "On weekdays you will have her home by nine. On weekends, she'll be home by eleven." He pointed a finger at Jess. "Any evidence of alcohol, cigarette smoke or anything that Nancy Reagan would find unacceptable, and you will not be allowed within ten feet of her without an adult present." Jess had no doubt that Luke would stick to his word at all.

Luke took a deep breathe as he finished. "Are these rules clear?"

"Yes," Jess answers with an eye roll.

"Good."

He looks at his uncle, "May I speak?" Luke opens his arms as a signal of allowance.

"Do you want me to have you committed or would you want to check yourself in?" Jess joked, trying to lighten the situation.

"I'm not joking here, mister." Luke walked behind Jess to get to the fridge. He opened it up and took a bottle of water for himself, probably to soothe his throat from all the shouting.

"You know," Jess began turning in his seat to face Luke. "You're my guardian, not hers."

Luke swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of water before closing the fridge. "You don't need the guardian," he says. Jess hated to admit it but in the back of his mind, he knew Luke was right.

"We had a great time today," Jess began to agitate his uncle. Earning a few 'stops', his way. "I mean we couldn't get kicked out of Al's but we'll try again tomorrow."

Luke looked at him with a glare. "Jess, stop it."

"What do you think is gonna happen?" He asked his uncle curiously.

"You know what I think is gonna happen."

Jess tilted his head ever so slightly. "No, I don't," He lied. "Tell me what I'm gonna do to her."

This seems to make Luke smug for some strange reason, unbeknownst to Jess. "Nothing, you're not gonna do anything." He says. "Because when you're at her place there's Maria, then when you're here there's me. When you're out in town, there's Miss Patty and Babette, and you know they'd be all to happy to tell me what you two are up to."

"Romeo and Juliet had warring families, and they still managed to do a little damage." Jess commented.

"As soon as I catch you in a pair of tights and talking like Shakespeare, then I'll get worried." Luke fired back. "Till then do your homework." With that, Luke went out the apartment with a smug smirk. Leaving Jess alone in the empty apartment with his thoughts.

~~~

"So incase you didn't know, my uncle is a whack job," he tells Cassie as he pours her a cup of coffee in Luke's the next day. He had explained to her all of Luke's many rules for them, resulting in her shaking her head at the fact that Luke thinks they're actually gonna follow them.

She sat alone at the counter as Luke made her breakfast in the kitchen. "You know he might hear you right?" She tells him between sips of her coffee.

"Good," Jess says. "Then maybe he can finally check himself into the psych ward."

"But then where will we get our delicious pancakes?" Cassie asks just as Luke comes back with her plate of pancakes drenched in maker syrup.

He put the plate in front of her. "This will kill you," he told her monotonously at the amount of sugar in her breakfast. Without waiting for a reply, he headed back into the kitchen.

"He's just a ray of sunshine isn't he?" She asks Jess with a small smile on her face as she begins to cut her pancakes.

"Well then you should see him in the evenings," Jess commented as he leaned on his elbows on the counter. "The resemblance between him and Severus Snape is uncanny."

She put down her fork and knife with a gasp and looked up at him with a wide grin. "Was that your first ever Harry Potter reference?" She asked excitedly.

Within the time that he's been back in Stars Hollow, he had managed to finished the entire series of books. He may have cried a bit at the ending but if anyone asks he definitely did not. Well, Cassie knew he did. She just had that way of knowing things without you having to tell her.

Her excitement made him feel giddy himself. So when he kissed her lightly on the lips he blamed it on her being just so darn cute. "Good enough of a reference for you?" He asked her once they pulled apart.

"Hm, not bad for your first try." She said teasingly.

Jess let out a playful scoff her way. "Well who else would be like Luke?"

Cassie thinks for a moment as her green eyes scan over her half eaten pancakes. She snaps her fingers together suddenly. "I got it," she announced proudly. "Mad-Eye Moody."

"I guess it fits," Jess agreed with a nod of his head. He checks the watch on his wrist for a moment. "Finish up the food, you've gotta leave soon," he tells her.

Cassie was supposed to go on a trip to Yale for the day. That's why she came alone, her mum was packing back at their house. If Jess remembered correctly, they were going along with Rory and Lorelai, plus both their grandparents. Which made the whole trip seem like something straight out of Loony Tunes, emphasis on the loony.

Once Cassie had finished her food, Jess cleared away the plates. "What time will you be back?" He asked her as she gathered her things.

"Umm, sometime after six and before twelve in the morning." She answered.

"What a big help that was." Jess remarked.

She shrugged her shoulders at him. "You don't have to come over," she says. "I'm afraid you're going to get sick of me with how much I've been seeing you."

"I'm not gonna get sick of you," he reassured her. Jess felt like he could see her every second of the day and still he'd want more.

"Promise?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Jess puts on a thinking face before answering her. "No," he says even though they both knew he was lying.

"You're mean," she pouted as Jess smiled at her.

"And you have to go," Jess fired back. "I'll see you when you get back."

"Alright," she says before pulling him in for a long kiss. He felt her hands go to the back of his neck as she kissed him.

Jess put his hand up to cup her cheek but they were interrupted by Luke somewhere in the kitchen. "Bye, Cassie!" He called out to get them to stop.

They both separated with a glare in Luke's direction. Neither of them could see him from inside the kitchen but Jess knew that Luke was feeling very proud of himself.

"Bye," she tells him with a small peck on the lips.

"See you, Cherry." Jess said goodbye as she got up off her stool and made her way to the door.

She stopped with her hand on the handle and turned around. "Bye, Lucas." She shouted loud enough for Luke to hear from the kitchen.

"Get out!" Was Luke's only response as she went out the door with one last smile in Jess' way.