For Logan and Rory's wedding anniversary, Lorelai offered to watch the kids so they could go away together for the weekend. They hadn't really had much time just the two of them for a while, so they decided to take Lorelai's offer and spend a couple of nights in New York City. It was somewhere that they could have a good time, but not so far from the kids.
It was Friday morning and both Grace and Nicky were at school, so it was just gonna be Lorelai and Sammy for most of the day. As soon as Rory and Logan left, Sammy started crying.
"Woah. Hey. What's wrong?" Lorelai said and picked him up. That's when she realized that Rory didn't leave Sammy very often, and when she did Logan was with him. It was rare that neither of them were with him.
"Mama!"
"It's ok. We're gonna have fun. We're gonna go get your brother and sister later, and then maybe we'll go to Stars Hollow. What do you think?"
"Mama!"
"Sammy, you're ok"
"Mama!"
"Alright" Lorelai sighed. She took Sammy into the kitchen and set him down on a stool at the island. She opened the cabinet above the sink and grabbed 2 of Sammy's little straw cups. She was hoping that she could give Sammy a snack and some juice and he'd calm down. "Which one do you want?"
Sammy pointed to the clear yellow cup that had a blue lid and a blue straw, and the cup itself had little Mickey Mouse decals on it.
"Good choice" Lorelai said. She filled the cup halfway with apple juice and the rest with water (per Rory and Logan's instruction) before closing the cup and giving it to Sammy who had already calmed down a little. "That it, huh? All you needed was some juice?"
"Need mama"
"I know, honey. She'll be back soon"
——
On Saturday morning, Rory was woken up by Logan kissing her neck. She turned her head to meet his lips with hers.
"Happy anniversary, Ace"
"Happy anniversary"
"I have an idea" Logan said
"An idea?" Rory asked. She knew that whatever Logan was thinking was likely dirty.
"I think that we should spend the whole day in this hotel room. Naked"
"That's your idea?" Rory asked.
"Are you surprised?" Logan asked. "If I had it my way, you'd always be naked"
"You're crazy" Rory laughed.
"And you're hot" Logan said as he wrapped his arms around Rory's waist, pulling her closer. He put his hand on Rory's chin and gently turned her head so he could kiss her.
——
Lorelai woke up in Rory and Logan's guest room, to the sound of crying. "Damn it" she groaned and got out of bed. She walked out into the hall and saw Sammy standing in Rory and Logan's room. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"No!" Sammy ran over to Lorelai and wrapped his arms around her legs.
"Ok..." Lorelai said and picked him up. "Why are you crying?"
"No mama and daddy" Sammy said and pointed to Rory and Logan's bed.
"I know. They went to New York" Lorelai said. Her best guess was that Sammy woke up and like every morning, he went looking for Rory and Logan. When he realized that they weren't there, he got scared. "Do you want some breakfast?"
"Cheerio"
"Alright, let's go get you some cheerios" Lorelai said. She brought Sammy downstairs and got him his cereal before making some coffee.
"Grandma, you have coffee?"
"Yes, I do, because you woke me up at 6:30 in the morning" Lorelai said
"It's awake time"
"Oh yeah? What makes it awake time?"
"A sun" Sammy said and pointed out the window.
"That's the rule? When the sun wakes up so do you?"
Sammy nodded. A few minutes later, Nicky came downstairs and opened the back door to let Shadow outside.
"Nicky, I wanna feel doggy" Sammy said. In the ten months since Nicky got Shadow, Sammy slowly got less afraid of him. He would now pet Shadow, but only on the head.
"He went outside" Nicky said.
"Why?"
"Because if he pees in the house your parents will be mad" Lorelai said. "Nick, you want some breakfast?"
Nicky nodded and sat down next to Sammy. A little while later, Grace woke up and once everyone had eaten breakfast and gotten dressed Lorelai asked them what they wanted to do. Unsurprisingly, they ended up in the library.
——
After having breakfast, Rory and Logan found themselves wandering around the city.
"You ever wonder what would've been if things had gone a little differently for us?" Rory asked
"I try not to"
"Why?" Rory asked.
"Because we can't change what did happen. It might not have always been sunshine and rainbows, but I don't think it's worth getting caught up on the bad stuff"
"I don't necessarily mean it like that. I just mean that in general, our lives would be really different if things had gone just a little differently"
Before Logan could say anything Rory's phone rang. "It's my mom" she said.
"Answer it" Logan said
Rory answered the call and put the phone to her ear. "Mom?"
Logan watched the expression on Rory's face turn to worry. "Ace, what's going on?"
"We need to go" Rory said.
Just over two hours later, they walked into the hospital waiting room where Lorelai was sitting with Grace and Sammy. Shadow was sitting on the floor with his head on Grace's lap.
"Mama!" Sammy said when he saw them walk in.
"Hi baby" Rory said and picked him up. He put his head down on her shoulder. "What the hell happened?"
"It uh...it wasn't a seizure" Lorelai said. "He just collapsed. He's having an MRI right now, but they said that since I'm not a legal guardian they can't tell me anything. They'll come out and let us know when he's done"
A little while later, Logan was sitting in the waiting room with Grace on his lap, Lorelai was sitting next to him, and Rory was pacing back and forth, holding Sammy who wouldn't let her put him down.
"Ace, you should sit down"
Rory shook her head.
Just then, a doctor walked out into the waiting room. "Mr and Mrs Huntzberger?"
"Yeah" Rory nodded. Logan stood up.
"Nicky's stable. He's asleep right now, but you can come see him" the doctor said.
"Thank you" Logan said.
"Come here, Sammy" Lorelai said and went to take Sammy from Rory so she could go see Nicky.
"No, mama! No, mama!"
"I have to go see Nicky. You're gonna stay with grandma" Rory said
"No" Sammy started crying
"I'm sorry, baby" Rory said and kissed the top of his head as she passed him off to Lorelai. "I hate doing that to him" she said to Logan as they followed the doctor. "Hello, goodbye, hello, goodbye"
"I know"
"We can have someone take them to the playroom" the doctor said as he led Rory and Logan down a hallway.
"What?" Logan asked.
"Your kids" he said. "We can have a social worker bring them to the playroom"
"That ok" Rory said. "My mom is gonna take them home"
"Alright" the doctor said. "So Nicky's just had an MRI done, and he was sedated so he wouldn't move. That way we could get a clear image. It may take a little while for him to wake up, but you can sit with him"
"Thank you" Logan said
A few minutes later, Logan was watching Rory who was sitting on a stool next to Nicky, running her hand through his hair. "Ace, what's going through that head of yours?"
"This isn't fair" Rory said. "He shouldn't have to go through this crap. He's a little boy. He should be building his Lego, and playing with his toys. Not laying in hospital bed because he collapsed in a library"
Logan sighed. "He's ok. He's gonna be fine"
"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Rory asked.
"Both of us, I guess"
Later that day Logan was on the phone with Lorelai to let her know what was going on.
"What does that mean?" Lorelai asked
"It means that he has a brain tumor and they won't be able to tell us if it's cancer unless they operate and take it out" Logan told her.
"How is he?" Lorelai asked. She had a million other questions, but that wasn't the time to ask.
"He doesn't know" Logan said. "He's reading a book with Rory"
"Is she ok? Are you?"
"Define ok"
"Right. Keep me updated?"
"I will" Logan said. He hung up and went back into Nicky's room.
"Look what we made" Nicky said and showed Logan a car made out of Lego.
"That's great, buddy" Logan said.
That night, while Nicky was asleep, Rory and Logan sat down with a team of doctors to discuss what they wanted to do.
"I'll quickly introduce everyone before we get started. I'm Dr Winters, I'm a pediatric surgeon. Over here is Dr Browne" He gestured to the woman on his left. "She's a neurosurgeon. And this is Dr Johnson" He gestured to the man on his right. "A pediatric oncologist"
"In my opinion the best course of action is to operate" Dr Browne said. "Take the tumor out. Once it's out we can determine whether further treatment is needed"
"Further treatment?" Rory asked.
"If it's not cancerous, then we'd remove the tumor and that would be it. It may even cure his epilepsy. But if it is cancer, then we'd need to do further tests to make sure that we got it all and it's not anywhere else"
"What does that mean?" Logan asked. "Anywhere else?"
"Cancer spreads, Logan" Rory said
"Right" Dr Johnson said. "Now, we're not sure that it is cancer, but you do need to prepare yourselves for that possibility"
"As for the surgery, there are a few risks" Dr Browne said "Just like with any surgery there's a risk of infection, swelling, bleeding. Cutting into the brain has other risks. There's a possibility that when he wakes up he could have problems with speech, memory, vision, balance and coordination, muscle weakness. Those issues however would likely be temporary, and we have an excellent rehabilitation program here should he need it"
"We know it's a lot to digest so we'll give you some time to think about it" Dr Winters said before all three doctors left the room.
Neither Rory or Logan said anything for a few moments. Logan saw a tear rolling down Rory's cheek and wiped it away. "Rory..."
"Cancer, Logan" Rory said. "That's what we're talking about. We have to let someone cut into our son's brain so they can find out if he has cancer"
"We should call Paris" Logan said. Paris was a doctor and Logan thought that she might be able to provide a little more information about what exactly they were dealing with.
"Yeah"