Sick Jess, Worried Luke

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with, Gilmore Girls

Jess had been feeling awful all day. Ever since he went to bed last night he'd had this aching, stick feeling in his stomach that just kept getting worse. On top of that, he was boiling. He felt like he was sitting in the fiery pits of Mordor and he wanted nothing more than to go upstairs and lie down.

"Jess, come on, those tables aren't gonna clear themselves!" Luke called from behind the counter. Jess closed his eyes as his head throbbed with the noise. He swallowed hard against the nausea rising his throat.

Luke had been in a bad mood all day, something to do with Taylor, no surprises there. Jesse really didn't want to make it worse, but if he had to stay down here one more minute smelling eggs and bacon and other forms of greasy food...

Jess swallowed hard again and walked over to the counter.

"Uncle Luke?" he rasped, wincing slightly as the pain in his stomach throbbed, worse than before. It was actually starting to burn now.

Luke looked up and did a double take when he saw his nephew's face. Jess was pale, he actually looked a little green, and he was sweating like crazy.

"God, you look awful," Luke said.

"Gee thanks," Jess grumbled.

"No, I just... are you okay?" Luke asked in concern.

"Can I go upstairs?" Jess asked.

"You feeling sick?" Luke asked and Jess nodded once, the pain in his head and stomach spiking.

"Yeah, yeah, go on," Luke said, "Get some sleep, I'll come up in a minute if you need anything."

"Thanks," Jess mumbled, turning away from his uncle and starting to walk towards the stairs. However, he had only made it a few steps when the pain seared through him and his legs gave out, sending Jess crashing to the floor.

"Jess!" Luke rushed forward and knelt next to his nephew as the people in the diner stood and peered over the counter.

"Caesar! Call 911 and get everyone out of here!" Luke shouted.

Caesar dialled and then began herding people out of the diner.

"Jess? Jess?" Luke brushed the hair back from his nephew's forehead, noticing immediately how Jess was burning up.

"Luke," Jess groaned.

"I'm right here Jess," Luke said, "What's going on? Talk to me kid."

"Luke?" he heard someone call and looked up to see Lorelai leaning over the counter. "Oh my god! What happened?"

"I don't know," Luke said. "Caesar, where the hell is that ambulance?"

"It's on it's way!" Caesar called as Lorelai hurried around the counter.

"What happened?" she asked again.

"He was us going upstairs... he felt sick," Luke said, "And then..." Luke gestured to his groaning nephew lying on the floor.

"Luke," Jess groaned again. The seventeen year old wasn't totally sure what had happened. He was having a hard time focusing on anything except the pain he was feeling. He could hear Luke talking to him, but it sounded like his uncle was underwater.

"Luke," he mumbled, "Hurts."

"What hurts Jess?" Luke asked. "What hurts?"

Before Jess could even attempt to answer though, the paramedics had entered and rushed over.

Lorelai stood, pulling a reluctant Luke away from his nephew.

"What happened?" one of the paramedics asked.

"He just fell," Luke said uncertainly, feeling totally helpless. "He said he felt sick."

"What's his name?" the other medic asked.

Lorelai looked at Luke when the man didn't answer, but Luke appeared to be frozen, staring at his nephew as Jess was lifted onto a stretcher.

"Jess, his name is Jess," Lorelai told them. "He's seventeen. This is his uncle, Luke Danes. Can he go with Jess in the ambulance?"

"Of course," the medic nodded.

Lorelai pushed Luke forward, following after the two men as they brought Jess out to the ambulance.

"The diner..." Luke mumbled as Lorelai continued to push him through the people gathered outside.

"Don't worry about the diner," Lorelai said gently. "You just focus on Jess. I'll take care of the diner and then I'll get Rory and meet you at the hospital, okay?"

Luke nodded absently and Lorelai gave him another shove towards the ambulance. Luke stumbled in and took his pale, sweating nephew's hand.

"You're alright Jess," Luke murmured, brushing Jess's hair out of his face again as Jess stared at him with glassy eyes.

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Bright. That was the first word that popped into Jess's mind when he opened his eyes. Bright white lights. He groaned.

"Jess?"

Jess squinted his eyes, looking at the man sitting next to his bed.

"Uncle Luke?" he rasped, confused. "Where-?"

"You're in the hospital, your appendix ruptured," Luke said, but Jess just continued to stare at him in confusion.

"What?" Jess said.

"Your appendix ruptured," Luke repeated. "The ambulance came and got you at the diner after you collapsed."

"Sorry," Jess mumbled and now it was Luke's turn to look confused.

"What are you sorry for?"

"Messin' stuff up at the diner," Jess murmured, blinking his eyes hard. Luke could tell he was close to falling asleep again.

"You didn't mess anything up at the diner," Luke told him. "Lorelai and Rory were here earlier, they were really worried about you. They both said they'd come back again later to see you."

Jess nodded slowly, not really taking i anything his uncle was saying, but he thought he heard Rory's name.

"Get some rest," Luke said, "Everything's fine now."

Jess drifted off quickly and Luke smiled slightly. his nephew looked so young right now and, despite the situation, Jess actually looked more relaxed than he normally did.

Luke smoothed Jess's hair off his face and then leaned back in his chair, ready to wait for his nephew to wake up again.

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"Alright, you've got your books, your music, some snacks, um... anything else? Oh! The phone! Do you want me to bring the phone over in case Rory calls? But she'll be in school, won't she? And I guess she'll be here after school anyway..."

Jess stared bemusedly at his uncle as Luke rambled on.

"I'm good Uncle Luke," Jess said, "Really."

"You sure?" Luke checked, "I mean, you get through books so fast, maybe I should bring you a few more books..."

"Uncle Luke, I'm fine," Jess insisted, "I'm probably gonna spend most of the time sleeping anyway." The teen had just gotten home after spending three days in the hospital and the meds they had him on tended to knock him out really quickly. Something Jess was actually thankful for because if he had to lie there all day doing nothing he'd probably go out of his mind.

"Alright," Luke nodded, "Um, well okay. I guess I'll go downstairs. If you need anything-"

"I'll just bang on the floor really hard," Jess said with a smirk.

"Alright," Luke said again, chuckling as he slowly backed up towards the door. "Um, get some sleep, rest, if you need anything-"

"We did this part already," Jess said.

"Right, right," Luke nodded. "Okay, well, I'll go down to the diner."

Jess nodded as Luke opened the door.

"Hey Uncle Luke?" Luke turned. "Thanks."

Luke smiled at his nephew and nodded. "Get some rest."

This story had been floating around in my head for a few weeks and I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out.

I said on my other story that I really like hurt/comfort stories featuring Jess and Luke and I'm also a huge fan of sick!fics so this type of story was kind of undeniable.

Thanks so much for reading and let me know what you think!