A Second Chance

Chapter 4

In February Matthew started going to daycare and Rory started going into the office every day. One Friday Rory was sitting in her office, when there was a knock at the door. "Come in!"

"Do you have a minute?" One of the interns asked as he walked in.

"I have exactly a minute, then I need to go pick up my son" Rory said

"Never mind then"

"What did you need, Tom?" Rory asked

"I just wanted to ask about a writing job, but it can wait" 

"Come by tomorrow sometime before 1 and we'll talk about it"

"Thank you" 

Rory finished what she was doing and headed to the daycare to pick up Matthew. 

"Mama!" Matthew ran over to Rory and wrapped his arms tightly around her legs.

"Hi bubba" Rory said and picked him up.

"Mama, I lion" Matthew said. He had a small stuffed lion that Amy bought for him when he was born. He loved that lion and whenever he went somewhere he would always bring it with him. That morning Rory was in a rush getting out of the house and she forgot it.

"I know. We left him at home today" Rory said. She grabbed Matthew's little backpack and they headed home.

Matthew was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, eating a snack while Rory was getting his bag ready for the next day.

"What's this?" Rory asked when she pulled a small envelope out of his backpack.

"Lily's birthday" Matthew said

"That's fun" Rory said. She took the invitation out of the envelope and marked the date on the calendar that was pinned to the fridge by a magnet. She looked back over at Matthew who was standing on the stool. "Excuse me sir, put your butt on the chair"

"Mommy, I need that" Matthew pointed to his water bottle that was on the counter.

"Ok, I'll give it to you, but you're not allowed to stand on the chairs" Rory said. The stools were higher than Matthew was tall and even though they had armrests, Rory still worried about him falling, so him standing on them was a huge 'no'.

Later that evening Rory and Matthew headed to the Gilmore's for Friday night dinner.

"What's with him and that lion" Emily asked

"What? You don't have an emotional support lion?" Lorelai asked jokingly

"He just likes it" Rory said, ignoring her mother.

"Why? What's so special about it?" Emily asked

"It's soft, it's cuddly, it cute" Rory said. "We actually forgot it at home today, and his daycare teacher said that he was not happy about it"

"Hey, how's that going?" Lorelai asked

"It's going well" Rory said. "I mean, he still cries when I drop him off, but his teachers tell me that he has fun there"

"That's good"

"Yeah, and he even got invited to a birthday party for one of his little friends"

"That's gonna be the loudest 2 hours of your life" Lorelai said.

"What do you mean?" Richard asked

"Kids are loud" Lorelai said. "And when you get a bunch of them together in a room and give them sugar, they get louder"

"Yeah, it's gonna be a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds running around one of those indoor play places but he'll have fun"

2 weeks later, on Saturday afternoon, Rory found herself walking into an indoor playground with Matthew. There were tons of balloons, and a bunch of kids. She didn't know any of the kids but she recognized some of the parents that were sitting on the side.