Meet Again

Summer 2020

"I just hate that he has to go through this"

"I know"

——

At the end of August, Rory found herself sitting in a coffee shop with Lorelai.

"Is he going to school?"

"So we met with his principal and his teacher. They're aware of the situation and we made a plan. Nicky will go to school whenever he feels good. Probably not on days he gets chemo, just because he's in the hospital for most of the day. I obviously won't send him if he's drained from the chemo and throwing up. On days that he does go, Shadow will obviously go with him, and if anything happens, or he doesn't feel well, or anything like that they'll call us"

"You nervous?"

"You know what? I'm not. I thought I would be, but he's ready to go back, and there's no reason for him not to live his life just because he's sick. I'm actually more worried about Sammy going to school"

"Oh yeah, he's starting preschool"

"Yeah. We took him to see the place and we met the teachers. I'm worried about the fact that he's about to be 3 years old but he's smaller than the average 18 month old. He'll be tiny compared to the rest of the kids" Rory said. "Plus we never sent him to daycare, so I have no idea how he's gonna react when we try to leave him there"

"I'm sure it'll be fine"

"Logan's gonna drop him off" Rory said. "I won't be able to leave him there if he's screaming"

——

The next morning Rory woke up with Logan's arm around her waist. She got out of bed, being careful not to wake him, and brushed her teeth before going into Nicky's room. He was usually awake before anyone else in the house, but he was stuck on that floor of the house until either Rory or Logan disconnected his feeding tube from the pump. It didn't seem to bother him though. The pump was on an IV pole which was on wheels so he was able to go into the playroom, or the bathroom, or Rory and Logan's room if he wanted, but usually he just stayed in his room until someone else woke up.

When Rory went into Nicky's room, he was sitting on the rug, building Lego with Grace. She stood in the doorway and just watched them for a moment.

"Can I have a purple one?" Grace signed

"Check in the box" Nicky signed. "Shadow, get the water" he said and pointed to his water bottle that was on his bedside table. Shadow was trained to do all kinds of things for Nicky. One of them was retrieving certain things.

Shadow brought Nicky his green water bottle.

"I can't find purple" Grace signed

"Then I don't have any" Nicky signed. "Pick a different color"

"Hey" Rory said turned the light off and then back on, then off again, then back on. Nicky could hear her, but Grace didn't have her processors on so flickering the lights let Grace know that she was there. "Did you sleep well?" She asked and signed. Both kids nodded. Rory disconnected Nicky's feeding tube from the pump before she, Nicky, and Grace went downstairs. Rory gave Grace breakfast before giving Nicky his medicine and by the time she was done with that both Logan and Sammy had joined them in the kitchen.

"Nicky, do you wanna eat something before we leave?" Logan asked

"Nope" Nicky said.

"Ok, so why don't you go get whatever you want to bring with you" Logan said. Since Nicky was at the hospital for several hours when he went in for a treatment, he would always bring stuff to keep himself busy. That usually included his giraffe blanket, a few books, some Lego, and a few other things. "Your backpack is in laundry room" 

"Can I bring Shadow today?" Nicky asked. He knew that he was allowed to bring Shadow to the hospital but he usually didn't.

"Sure"

When Logan and Nicky got to the hospital the nurse told them that they'd be in the chemo room that day. Most of the time Nicky had a private room, but on the rare occasion that there wasn't one available he'd have his treatment in the chemo room. It was a room with 10 recliner chairs in it where people would sit while they got chemotherapy.

There were only two other people in the room when they got there. An older woman sitting on the other side of the room who was asleep, and a guy sitting one chair away from Nicky who Logan guessed was in his early twenties. He also happened to have a service dog with him.

"I'm done" the nurse said after taking Nicky's blood. "Someone will be in soon to start your medicine"

"Thank you" Logan said.

"Daddy, that man has a service dog too" Nicky said.

"I see" Logan said.

"Her name is peaches" The man said.

"Like a fruit?" Nicky asked

The man chuckled softly. "Exactly"

Around noon, Nicky and Logan were playing Go Fish.

"Alright" Logan said after Nicky won the game. "Are you gonna be ok for a few minutes if I go get some coffee?"

Nicky nodded.

"Press the call button if you need something, ok?"

"Ok" 

A few days later, around 2am, Logan was woken up by Sammy tapping his arm.

"What's wrong, Sammy?" Logan mumbled

"I want mama" Sammy said

Rory had her head on Logan's shoulder and was closer to Logan's side of the bed than her own, meaning that Sammy could reach her. He was also too small to climb up onto the bed by himself.

"What happened?" Logan asked

"I want mama"

"Ace" Logan said softly

"Hmm?"

"You have a visitor" Logan told her

"What?"

"Sammy"

Rory sat up halfway and saw Sammy standing next to the bed. "What's wrong, baby?"

"I wanna sleep with you" Sammy said.

Rory and Logan exchanged a look before Rory moved over a little so that Logan could put Sammy in between them.

"Go back to sleep" Rory said.

"Good night, Ace" Logan said and leaned over to kiss Rory.

"Night"