Meet Again

One year

Rory and Honor were sitting on the couch in Rory and Logan's house. Rory was holding Sammy.

"How am I supposed to get anything done with this thing living in my house?" Rory joked. "All I wanna do is look at you and kiss your face!" She said and kissed Sammy's cheek

"I can't believe he's about to be a year old" Honor said

"Don't even say that" Rory sighed

"I wanted to buy him a first birthday shirt but they don't make them in his size"

"Really? They don't make first birthday shorts for 2 month olds?" Roti asked sarcastically "I'm shocked"

"I knew it was a long shot but I bought one for Nicky and I bought one for Grace so I really wanted to get Sammy one"

"It's fine, he won't even know that he doesn't have it"

——

2 days later, it was Sammy's first birthday and Lorelai, Luke, Honor, Josh, and Nathan were all over at Rory and Logan's house. Sammy was on Rory's lap and Lorelai was taking pictures of him.

"Hey. Annie Leibovitz." Rory said "cool it with the pictures, will you?"

"But look how big he is" Lorelai said

"Big?" Rory raised an eyebrow "he's almost as small as Nicky was when he was born"

"You can't complete a full term baby to a preemie" Honor said "how much does he weigh?"

"About 8 pounds" Logan said

"And how much did he weigh when he was born?"

"10.2 ounces" Rory said "He was 6 and a half inches long. Smaller than my hand"

"That's really small" Nathan said

"Yeah" Logan said "some of the stuff they used on him was so tiny, it looked like it was for a doll"

"Can we see the box?" Nicky asked

"What box?" Luke asked

"We have a box of stuff that he had in the nicu" Rory said "there's a blood pressure cuff in there, it fits on my finger. Some really tiny diapers. A little oxygen mask from when he was finally taken off the ventilator after his transplant. Little ekg stickers"

"His feet were tiny too" Logan said "I have asked the kids' newborn foot prints tattooed on my chest and his are a fraction of the size that Nicky's and Grace's are"

——

After giving Sammy a bath, Logan was sitting on the carpet in the nursery, getting him dressed.

"Can you say dada?" Logan asked, in a sweet voice. Sammy could say both mama and dada, as well as one or two other words. "Said dada"

Just then Rory walked by the room and decided to stand in the doorway for a minute. Logan had his back to the door so he couldn't see Rory but Sammy was laying on the rug and he could see her.

"Mama mama" Sammy babbled

"Mama? Mama's downstairs"

"Mama ma"

"No, say dada"

"Ma ma ma ma ma"

"Yeah, you love your mama. I know" Logan said "who wouldn't? I mean, it's pretty hard not to love her, right?"

"Ma ma ma"

"I'm telling you kid, you and your siblings...you got lucky. You've got a mama who would do anything for you. She loves you so much, you don't even know. She's smart, and she's caring, and she doesn't even know how amazing she is"

"Mama!"

"Mama's downstairs" Logan said

"No she's not" Rory said softly, startling Logan

"Jeez!" Logan said and put his hand over his chest "you scared me"

"Sorry" Rory chuckled. She crouched down behind Logan and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder and kissed his cheek "you wanna know something?"

"What?"

"Our kids have a pretty great dad too" Rory said

"Wha- you heard all that?"

"Yeah"

"Well, it's all true, you know"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah"

——

That night Rory put Sammy to bed. She was sitting on the rocking chair in his room and he was laying on her chest.

"Goodnight love bug" Rory whispered when Sammy finally fell asleep. She kissed his forehead before putting him in his crib and leaving the room. She made her way downstairs to where Logan was sitting on the couch.

"Come" Logan said and held his arms out. Rory sat down next to Logan and he wrapped his arms around her.

"It's hard to believe he's a year old" Rory said

"I know"

"Do you have a favorite moment?" Rory asked

"I have a favorite moment with each of them"

"Ooh, I'm curious. Start with Nicky"

"My favorite moment with Nicky was probably the first time he ran to me screaming 'daddy!' when I got home. I never get tired of them doing that"

"Yeah, it's pretty great" Rory said

"Your turn. Favorite Nicky moment?"

"That first second after he was born when they laid him on my chest" Rory said "that was the moment I became a mother, and up until then I'd been so scared, and so anxious about having a kid, but as soon as I held him in my arms, all of that washed away"

Logan smiled and kissed the top of Rory's head

"What about Grace?" Rory asked

"I have a feeling you're gonna say something similar, but it was when she said mama for the first time" Logan said "she was almost 2 and I think we'd both come to terms with the fact that she just wasn't gonna talk. Then one day she just said it, like it was nothing, and let me tell you, something about hearing her voice for the first time, when I thought we never would-"

"It was incredible" Rory interjected "definitely my favorite moment with Grace"

"What about Sammy?" Logan asked

"Any of the milestones" Rory said "even the small ones, because I think with Nicky and Grace, I took for granted the fact that they were just gonna do that stuff. And with Sammy it's not like that. He almost died. I know you don't like to say it but he did. And after sitting there in the nicu, thinking that I would never get to see him crawl, or hear him talk, or even breathe on his own, I think I appreciate those things more"

"How am I gonna tell you mine after you said that?"

"Logan" Rory rolled her eyes

"I'm serious, it's gonna sound shallow"

"I know you're not shallow, just tell me"

"The first time I got to hold him after he was off the ventilator" Logan said "I could finally hold him properly and he just snuggled into me. That was probably the first moment that I was confident that he'd be ok"

"That's not shallow" Rory said "not at all"