Gilmore Girls: Precious Ties

Chapter 28: Christmas Joy

Christmas morning arrived under the hot Australian sun. Conditions were perfect as Rory briefly glanced out the hospital window at the blue, cloudless skies. The temperature was already 25 degrees celsius and as stockings were emptied across the city, many families were heading out, making their way down to have Christmas breakfast on the beach. For most, there was much anticipation for a day ahead filled with family and all the usual feasting associated with the season.

While the usual Christmas traditions were not going to be part of this day for Rory, anticipation was high in her heart this morning, with the hope that today Logan would awaken from his coma. As she quickly splashed cold water on her face in the hospital bathroom, Rory ignored the dark circles under her eyes, ran a brush through her hair, cleaned her teeth and quickly headed back to the ICU.

Finn had gone home for the night but Rory had insisted she stay with Logan in case he started to wake up. At around 2am, the night nurse managed to convince Rory to have a few hours sleep on a spare bed which was set aside for relatives. She had promised to wake her if there were any changes.

Honor had arrived at the hospital early as she had not been able to sleep due to jet lag. She had been there since 6am and was sitting by her brother, chatting away about how lucky Logan was to have Rory in his life. Honor expressed how thrilled she was at the thought of becoming an Aunt and talked about how gorgeous this child would be with Rory's beautiful blue eyes and fair skin. She kept telling Logan that everything was going to work out really well and that it wouldn't be long before he would be holding Rory and the baby in his arms.

Looking at the time back home, Honor decided to Skype her boys on her phone. They were getting very excited for Santa's arrival the next day. She missed them so much and loved hearing their voices and watching them play. It was weird to think that it actually wasn't Christmas Day back home yet! It was snowing at home and they showed her the little snowman they had made —it made Honor long for her home and family. The nurse thought it was a great idea for Logan to hear the voices of his nephews and noticed the positive response on the monitors. Honor of course had decided to leave all the stressful news about Mitchum for when Logan was much better.

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Finn had been given the task of bringing a change of fresh clothes to the hospital for Rory. Standing in the guest room at the dressing table overlooking the sea, he sighed as he thought about the Christmas plans that would just have to wait until another time. Lost in memories, he carefully folded Rory's top and skirt, placing them in a bag. He noticed a frame she had placed on the dresser and was intrigued by the quote he read:

'Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting...in the Twilight Zone.'

The quote made Finn think about how long he had been waiting - waiting for love. He tried his best to shut out thoughts of what could have been, deciding not to linger there too long as Rory's fragrance filled the room. He had been through a lot in the past couple of days. Seeing the response Logan had made to having Rory near him in the hospital had removed all thoughts of any sort of romantic relationship with her. Finn could see they definitely belonged together and he would just treasure the precious friendship he had with both of them.

A knock on the front door interrupted Finn's brooding. Thinking it may have been his sister, he yelled out, "Yeah coming," as he headed down the stairs. Finn was most surprised at the sight that greeted him as he swung open the door. His visitor was the most beautiful redhead he had ever set eyes on, right there on his doorstep! He felt like all his Christmases had come at once which immediately took him far from his pensive mood.