Note: So, this is it: the last story! Thank you for coming along the way with this crazy little collection of Luke-Jess stories. I can assure you it was fun to write.

Story 12: Thank you for being here

"I know I've said this many times before, but thank you for always being there for me," Jess Mariano said softly. His voice broke a little, but a gentle smile adorned his features.

"Dad, why do you say that every year?" A twenty-five year old man asked him standing to his left. His sharp, brown eyes observed his father. "Uncle Luke died four years ago…" They came here every year, all of them, the whole family, but Jess always stood there longer and the only person to remain alongside him was his son.

"Because he was always there for me," the father answered without hesitation, "ever since he awaited me on the bus station in Stars Hollow."

The younger man observed the older one next to him silently and was aware of his father's awareness of what he was doing. Uncle Luke had once told him that his dad was the most observant person he'd ever met and that he had found no evidence for the contrary. Ever since he was a kid he had tried to observe his father unnoticed and it had never worked for more than ten seconds. Today again, Jess looked over to him smiling sadly, but there were no tears falling down.

In fact, the only time he'd seen his father cry was at the funeral of Uncle Luke: He had been supposed to hold the eulogy, but all he had been able to say was "Thank you for everything. Good night, Uncle Luke," right before he had broken down and started to sob. His mother had ended the prepared speech albeit she had been crying, too. His remaining grandmother had been completely unresponsive.

It was the only time he'd seen his dad cry. He hadn't cried when Grandma Liz had died, he had held the eulogy without shedding a single tear. He had mourned for her, but it had been a much more reserved form of grief than what he'd gone through after Uncle Luke's death.

His dad was a rather successful author and accomplished editor. These days, he conversed with his friends and partners in Philly thanks to emails and phone calls (his father was old-fashioned that way), but they visited frequently always bringing news from their second home. Ever since Truncheon (whose reputation was excellent) had become a joint company with Andrew's Bookshop the connection between Philadelphia and Stars Hollow had deepened not only through Jess Mariano and his family but by work relations as well.

His father always insisted that he was not the boss of the company.

"They are my friends, not employees."

That might be true, in fact, each of them had their particular specialty: Uncle Matt was the one to deal with the poets, Uncle Chris the one who dealt with the art and artists, and Jill, the artist himself, together with Sam who despite being responsible for a column at a local paper was always ready to write articles for their magazine that came out once a month for more than thirty years. There was also Aunt Sylvie, an old, very good friend of his dad who was being the coordinator between Stars Hollow and Philadelphia.

However, despite the fact his father insisted on not being anybody's boss, it was him who kept them all together for that was – according to his mother – his greatest talent:

"He's like a magnetic stamp: People who meet him are drawn to him and no matter what they think of him, he touches their lives. It can take years until they realize it, but that touch is always positive in the end."

His grandmother and Grandma Liz had both insisted that this was a gene which Jess had inherited by his uncle and that was passed to every male Danes (or Mariano) and therefore a gift he was supposed to have as well. He was quite sure not to have that talent, not the way his father or Uncle Luke did.

Ever since the later had retired twelve years ago Luke's Diner was in his father's responsibility who had given said responsibility to an odd but cherished friend of their family, Kirk, who ever since was taking care of the diner making sure that one part of Stars Hollow never changed. His dad occasionally helped out by cleaning the tables or closing it up.

It was no secret that his dad was mentally writing a new book – just a short novel, he still insisted on that although some of his novels were everything but short – when helping out in the diner.

His mother was a diligent (and successful) journalist, sometimes working abroad for weeks without ever neglecting her children or husband. Nevertheless, it was his father who was the main figure in his life for he was always there, no matter how far they were apart.

When his little sister had decided not to attend to an Ivy League school Jess had been the first to support her. When his dad's adoptive half-sister – as they called Auntie Lou for fun – had had the wish to study in the East – the same Community College his father had studied at – it had been him taking care of everything. The only negative aspect of having someone like Jess Mariano as your father – or older brother as Aunt April, Doula and Auntie Lou confirmed – was the fact he knew every trick of rebelling against authority (parental or otherwise) and therefore he caught up on them planning mischief fairly quickly. Another negative side he'd never had to experience himself, though, was a certain tendency of his father to be overprotective towards the women in his life which made the dating for the females under his dad's care a nightmare. His mother swore he was worse than Uncle Luke and his great-grandfather – whom he had only known for the first three years of his life – combined. Luckily, he wasn't in the position to say so.

He smiled when he thought of his mother and father.

He always smiled when he thought of them together. His dad – though one would not guess it when seeing him speaking of the world in general – had a deeply romantic soul and proved that every time he looked at his wife. No matter what, he always smiled happily when he saw her and she smiled back (it was a very special smile reserved only for him). Their love – albeit undoubtedly having gone through several challenges over the years of marriage (he could only guess about those for they'd never fought in front of their children, not even when they had become adults themselves) – was still as strong if not stronger than the time they'd met each other as teens.

In fact, it was said that while being apart for several years, his father hadn't met with any other woman. However, his father had never said anything about this and there were hundreds of rumours concerning Jess Mariano coursing through this town of which some were more ridiculous than others:

Why on earth would his father replace body lotion with glue or create a fake murder scene in front of a shop? Well, this was only topped by some story about an overaggressive swan which was just ludicrous.

He had always liked the stories Uncle Luke used to tell. His favourite one being the one of the miraculously self-repairing toaster while his sister liked the story in which their dad had been pushed in the lake. What he'd liked the most about the stories was the affection they had been told with:

Despite they'd called each other "nephew and uncle" until the older man's death, even blind people could see they were like father and son… The more he thought of it though, the more he realized why they never called each other father and son:

They'd been more.

They had confided in each other, they had been friends, too. His own relationship with his father couldn't be compared to theirs for they'd met when his dad had already been a seventeen year old teenager, an individual with views, opinions and most importantly life-experience. His father had cherished Uncle Luke, loved and respected him, but he had been there for him just as much as the other way around.

When Uncle Luke had died, his dad had not only lost a father but also one of his closest friends.

He looked at the grave of his uncle – grandfather, whatever – and felt a sad twinge inside of his stomach. He could only imagine what his dad had to feel whose eyes were fixed on the gravestone:

Lucas "Luke" Danes-Gilmore

1960-2039

Beloved Husband, (Step)Father and Uncle

Thank you

"Come on, Lucas. Let's go home," his father said, putting softly a hand on his shoulder.

At that Lucas Mark Gilmore followed his dad towards a certain diner where the town would hold their fourth wake in honour of a man who had positively influenced all of their lives.

THANK YOU! I've loved all of your reviews and comments.

12 people alerted my story, 8 even put it on their favorite list... Thank you very much! That makes me happy.

lilliwhite, Miss Goali75, ., Jeremy Shane, LiteratiLady, Kaz010, Acute Delirium and jessLOVEr: Thanks for reviewing so regurarly!

I also want to thank watram, MountainLass, savedprincess85, Polly, Lomiel, Kate and Nancy who've reviewed once or twice.

So, once again I'm asking you to review my story. And this time I have a request to make: Please tell me which story you liked the most... I'm curious about that.

.: I guess the title wouldn't have helped much, would it?

Is anybody interested in an other story collection such as this? I would like to write some more, especially Luke/Jess related... I was thinking of a follow-up which would be a bit shorter than this one. It would contain more angst, because the title would be Wish you were here. Are you interested?