January 2020:
Early one Tuesday morning, Nicky walked into Rory and Logan's room where they were asleep.
"Daddy" Nicky whispered and tapped Logan's shoulder.
"What's wrong, buddy?" Logan mumbled.
"I don't fell good"
"Does your head hurt, or do you just not feel well?" Logan asked. There was a big difference between Nicky having a headache and being sick. Sickness was fine and not really anything to worry about, but if it was his head it was likely because of his epilepsy.
"I just don't feel good"
"Come here" Logan said. Nicky moved closer and Logan put his hand against his forehead. "Alright" he got out of bed. "Come, I'll give you some medicine and I think you're gonna stay home today"
It was decided that Rory would work from home that day to stay with Nicky and Sammy who had also woken up sick.
After lunch Sammy was taking a nap, Sammy was watching a movie in Rory and Logan's bedroom, and Rory was working at the kitchen island. At one point Rory went to check on Nicky and found that he was asleep. As she was leaving the room, she heard crying downstairs. As far as she and Logan were aware, Sammy had gotten himself out of his crib for the first time on Christmas and in the 2 weeks since, he'd done it several times. They'd gotten a little bed for him, but since he was still so small they were trying to hold off on making the switch for as long as possible.
Rory went downstairs and found Sammy in the office. Her best guess was that he woke up, went looking for her, and got scared when he realized that he was alone downstairs.
"Mama!" Sammy cried and reached for Rory.
"What happened?" Rory asked as she picked him up and wiped the tears that were rolling down his cheeks. He put his head down on her shoulder.
"No" Sammy said
"No what?" Rory asked
"No"
"Ok" Rory said.
Once Sammy calmed down Rory got him a snack and they went into the living room. Rory was sitting on the couch, watching Sammy who insisted that he needed to sit on the rug.
"What's this?" Sammy asked and pulled a large book out of the coffee table.
"Oh, that's the photo album from mine and daddy's wedding" Rory said. While they didn't really have a wedding, they did have a photographer to take pictures of them and their family while they were all dressed up. Once they got the pictures back from the photographer, Honor sent them to a place that printed the photos directly onto the pages of a book.
"I see it" Sammy said and brought it over to Rory.
"Come" Rory lifted him into her lap. After flipping through a few pictures from the ceremony itself, reading the vows, exchanging rings, first kiss, etc... Rory turned the page to reveal a picture of her and Logan with all of their family members.
"It's grandma!" Sammy pointed to Lorelai in the book. All of the kids had a great relationship with Lorelai but something about Sammy's relationship with her was extra special.
"Yeah, that's our whole family" Rory said. "Everyone's in here"
"Where's me?" Sammy asked
"You weren't born yet"
"But where's me?" Sammy asked. Rory was started to regret her choice of words. To Sammy, the whole family included him. It didn't matter that the picture was taken well before he was born.
"This was before you were born. You weren't even a thought"
Just then Logan walked into the living room. Rory hadn't heard him come in.
"Daddy!" Sammy said and reached for Logan who picked him up.
"You look like you're feeling better" Logan said and put his hand on Sammy's forehead. "You're still hot though"
"Daddy, where's me?" Sammy asked and pointed to the picture.
"You weren't born yet" Logan told him
"But where's me?"
"Yeah, we just went through this" Rory said. "That's not an acceptable answer to him"
——
The next day not only were the boys still sick, but Grace and Rory also both woke up sick.
Logan was sitting at the kitchen island drinking coffee and trying to get some work done while he kept an eye on Nicky who was building Lego at the kitchen table while he ate waffles. Rory was still asleep and both Grace and Sammy had made their way into Rory and Logan's bed at some point.
"Daddy, can you help me?" Nicky asked.
"Yeah" Logan said. He got up and went over to where Nicky was. "What do you need help with?"
"I don't know where to put that one" Nicky said and pointed to one piece of Lego that was sitting on the instruction booklet.
"It looks like it goes on the other side of that grey circle" Logan said
"Oh yeah"
Logan smiled. "Anything else?"
"No. Thank you"
"Alright" Logan kissed the top of Nicky's head. "I'm at the counter if you need me "
A little while later there was a knock at the door. Logan opened it to see Lorelai. It was Saturday and usually Lorelai came over on Saturday morning. L Logan had forgotten to tell her that everyone was sick. "Hey, come on in. I'm sorry, i forgot to tell you not to come. Everyone's sick"
"Daddy's not sick" Nicky said from the kitchen.
"Yeah, I'm somehow the only person in the house who doesn't have a fever right now" Logan said.
"Grandma, come look what I'm building!" Nicky said. Lorelai set the shopping bag she had down on the counter and went over to Nicky. "It's gonna be a train when it's finished"
"That's pretty cool" Lorelai said.
"Do you want coffee?" Logan asked
"Logan, how long have you know me?" Lorelai asked
"About 15 years"
"And in those 15 years have you ever known me to turn down a cup of coffee?"
Logan chuckled and went to get a cup of coffee for Lorelai.
"So where's everyone else? It's so quiet"
"Rory's asleep and last I checked Sammy was in our bed, and if I had to guess, I'd say that Grace is probably in there too" Logan said. Just then he felt Shadow pulling his leg with his nose. He looked over at Nicky who was staring into space. "Nicky? Nicky, can you hear me?"
"What's happening?" Lorelai asked
"He's having a seizure" Logan said.
"What? What do you do?" Lorelai asked. Even with the about of time she spent with her grandchildren, she'd never actually seen Nicky have a seizure.
"Nothing" Logan said. "This is an absence seizure. It'll stop in a minute and odds are he won't even know that it happened"
"So you're just calm?"
"It happens. Were used to it. And it's better than the alternative which is a full on seizure. Plus a fever can trigger his epilepsy so it's not surprising"
A little later, Nicky has moved on from Lego to watching a movie, and Logan was sitting at the kitchen island with Lorelai, drinking coffee.
"Hey" Logan said when he saw Sammy walk into the kitchen.
"Daddy" Sammy said and then said something that Logan didn't understand.
"Come here" Logan said and pulled Sammy into his lap. "You need to blow your nose, little man"
"Daddy, I go outside" Sammy said. One of the kids' Christmas presents (that they did not open with everyone at the dragonfly) was a swing set for the backyard.
"We can't go outside right now" Logan said. "It's raining and you're already sick"
"No! I go outside!"
"Sammy, look out the window. It's raining"
"I go swing" Sammy said.
"Why don't we go downstairs?" Logan suggested. The kids had a little jungle gym in the basement and there was a swing there. "You can swing there"
"No! I go outside!"
"We can't go outside right now"
"I go outside"
"I know, but we can't go outside when it's raining"
"No!" Sammy buried his face in Logan's chest.
"Yeah, you're grumpy. I know"
Over the next few days everyone started to feel better, and surprisingly Logan never got sick.
On Sunday Logan was in the kitchen making breakfast when Grace came over and tapped his leg. "Daddy"
Logan smiled. He'd never get tired of hearing her say that. "What's up?"
"I wanna help you" Grace signed.
"Ok, come here" Logan said. He lifted Grace up to sit on the counter where he was cutting up strawberries. "You have to be really careful" he said and signed. "Ok?"
Grace nodded.
"Ok" Logan said and gave her a -not so sharp- dinner knife.
"Daddy, aweegoneasawbys?"
"What did you say?" Logan signed.
"Are we going to eat strawberries?" Grace signed
"Yes" Logan signed. "We're gonna eat them with the pancakes"
"Ok" Rory said as she walked into the kitchen with Sammy following her and put 4 pacifier on the counter. "He slept in our room twice. Why do I keep finding these in our bed?" While everyone was sick, Sammy had slept with Rory and Logan a couple of times, and now they kept finding pacifiers in their bed.
"I need that" Sammy said.
"Only when you're sleeping, baby" Rory said.
"I not sleeping"
"I know"