One morning Rory found herself walking into Chilton early with Grace so she could meet her new teacher. She and Logan had decided that it would be really good for her to have a teacher that she could communicate with.
"Hi! This must be Grace" a young woman said and signed when she noticed Rory and Grace walk into the classroom. "I'm Ms Megan. It's nice to meet you"
"Mama!" Grace said excitedly and tapped Rory.
"What?" Rory asked.
"She talks like me" Grace signed. She was very aware of the fact that when she spoke she sounded different than most other people. Rory and Logan also thought that that was a big part of the reason that she didn't talk much.
Megan smiled. "I'm deaf, like you" she signed.
"Your ears" Grace signed
"She means the cochlears" Rory said and signed. "At home we call them her ears"
"I call them my ears too" Megan said and signed. "So Grace, I heard that you're gonna come be in my class from now on"
Grace nodded.
"Well why don't you go look at all of our toys while I talk to your mom" Megan signed. "So, does she talk at all?" She asked once Grace went over to where there was a little playhouse.
"Not usually" Rory said. "I think she realizes that she doesn't speak quite as well as other people and it makes her want to talk less. But she signs"
"Ok. And academically she's on track?"
"I think so. Yeah"
"She can count to ten, write her own name, knows the alphabet, and knows her colors?"
"Oh yeah" Rory said. "She can actually read"
"That's awesome" Megan chuckled. She hadn't met many young kids who could read, and she was pretty sure that Grace was the youngest. "Ok so I think that's everything. Unless there's something else you wanna discuss"
"I think we're all good"
——
One Friday night in October, Rory and Logan brought the kids to Friday night dinner at the Gilmore's.
"Nicky, how's school going?" Richard asked
"It's good" Nicky said. "I won the word search race"
"What's a word search race?" Lorelai asked
"You know um...word search puzzles?" Nicky asked
"Yeah"
"So Mr Medina gave everybody one and we had a race who could finish it first"
"That's pretty cool" Luke said.
"Yeah. And I saw Grace today at recess"
"In the slide" Grace said before going back to playing with her play dough.
Nobody said anything. Other than the occasional 'mama' Grace never spoke, so hearing her say what was practically a sentence surprised everyone. A moment went by and nobody really knew what to say. Sammy ended up being the one who broke the silence when Shadow got a little too close. "No doggy! No!"
"Ok. Ok" Rory said as Sammy stood up on her lap to try and get away from the dog. "Shadow, back up"
"He's still scared of the dog, huh?" Lorelai asked
"It's getting better" Logan said. "He'll actually pet him now, but only from behind. He doesn't want Shadow to look at him or put his face anywhere near him. Right, Sammy?"
"Doggy chomp" Sammy said
"Sammy, this doggy doesn't bite. Look" Nicky said. He put his hand in Shadow's mouth, but the dog just sat there with his mouth open. "See? No chomp"
"Bad doggy" Sammy said
"No. He's a good doggy"
——
"Do you have nail polish on?" Finn asked with a laugh. He was sitting in Logan and Rory's house, having coffee with Logan. Rory was at the office and the kids were at school, so it was just Logan and Sammy in the house that day, so Logan invited Finn over.
"I have a 4 year old daughter" Logan said. He would do anything to make his kids happy, especially considering everything they had to deal with. So if putting sparkly pink nail polish on him was gonna make Grace happy, he was gonna let her. Even if it meant that he was constantly taking nail polish off his nails.
"You let your kid paint your nails?"
"My kids have been through a lot in their short lives, so if they want to paint my nails, or sleep in my bed, or eat grilled cheese for lunch every day, I'm gonna let them" Logan said. It wasn't that he and Rory let their kids do whatever they wanted, they didn't, but with all that they'd been through, they realized that it's not worth stressing about things that don't really matter. "At the end of day, what matters to me is that they're happy"
"You're a good dad"
"God, I hope so"
The conversation moved to other things and at one point Finn's phone rang.
"Everything ok?" Logan asked when Finn hung up
"Yeah. Isabella's just at home and she's not feeling well so she asked me to get her a few things on my way home"
"Not to sound selfish or anything, but she doesn't have something that you're gonna pass along to Sammy, right?" Logan asked. Of course he cared that one of his friends wasn't feeling well, but he was more worried about Sammy. Sammy had a weak immune system and something as simple as a cold had the potential to put him in the hospital.
"No. No. Nothing like that" Finn said. "Actually, can you keep a secret?"
"Yeah. Why? What's going on?"
"Isabella's pregnant" Finn said
"That's great! Congrats man"
"Thanks. Yeah, we're excited, but you know, we saw what you and Rory want through so we're keeping it quiet for a little while"
——
Over the next few weeks Grace started talking a little more. Mostly at home, but Rory and Logan had also been told that she was talking at school sometimes. One day in November Rory went to pick her up from preschool and she came running over with a piece of paper. "Mama!"
"Hi baby!" Rory said. "What's this?" She asked as she looked at the turnkey that was made out of Grace's handprint.
"My hand" Grace said. "We made it tomorrow but then it had to dry" she signed.
"Yesterday" Rory said. "Not tomorrow"
Grace giggled.
"Alright, let's go get your brother"
That night, Rory and Logan were asleep when Shadow came into their room and barked at Logan. It took him and Rory a minute to realize what was happening. They got up and went into Nicky's room, where he was sleeping peacefully. They used Nicky's watch to check his heart rate and while it was a little low, it wasn't low enough to worry about, so they went back to sleep but left both Nicky's and their bedroom door open.
The next day was Saturday so everyone was able to wake up at their own pace. Logan was sitting at the kitchen island, eating cheerios with Sammy. It was pretty early and Rory, Nicky, and Grace were all still asleep.
"Ok, ready?" Logan asked.
"Yeah!"
Logan threw one cheerio into the air and caught it in his mouth.
Sammy laughed and stood on his chair to reach Logan who was on the other side of the island.
"Hey" Logan said. "Put your butt on the chair"
"It's little persons" Sammy said, ignoring Logan. He pointed to Nicky's Lego that he was working on building. Sometimes when Nicky would build Lego, Sammy liked to sit with him and play with the little Lego people. Or as he called them 'little persons'
"Sit down" Logan said. Sammy was really small, but he was 2 and was no longer willing to sit in a high chair, but Logan always worried about him falling off the chairs.
Sammy sat back down and then pointed to the Lego again. "Daddy, it's little persons"
"I see it, but let's not touch. Nicky's working really hard on that and we don't wanna break it" Logan said. Nicky had gotten a small Lego set for his birthday a couple of months before and he absolutely loved it, so Logan decided to get him a few more to build.
"Nicky build that"
"Yeah. Nicky built that"
"Daddy"
"What?"
"I go down now" Sammy said. The stools at the kitchen island were pretty high , and there had been a couple of times where Sammy had proven himself incapable of getting up and down by himself.
"You're done eating your cereal?" Logan asked
"No. I need the something"
"Oh. You need a something" Logan said as he lifted Sammy off his chair and put him down. "Of course"
Sammy left the room and came back a minute later with a book and the blanket that was in his crib. "I need the this"
Logan wasn't sure how he got the blanket, but he figured that it didn't really matter. "You want me to read you a story?"
"This story" Sammy held up his book.
"Do you wanna finish your cheerios first?"
"No more cheerios"
"Ok"