One Friday in October (2020), Logan walked into the house with Grace and Sammy after picking them up from school on his way home from work, and found Rory in the kitchen, talking on the phone.
"Mama!" Sammy ran to Rory and wrapped his arms around her legs.
"Hi baby" Rory said and ruffled his hair.
"What?" Lorelai asked through the phone.
"No, not you" Rory said. "Logan just walked in with the kids"
"Tell them I say hi"
"Grandma says hi"
"Are we going to grandma?" Sammy asked
"She's coming here tomorrow" Rory said
"Yeah, so you wanna tell me what the plan is for tomorrow?" Lorelai asked. She knew that Rory needed her to babysit, but she wasn't clear on who or when exactly.
"Both boys have doctor's appointments tomorrow. Nicky has chemo and Sammy just has a regular checkup, but we don't wanna bring Grace to the hospital with us for no reason"
"So you need me to watch her?"
"Yes please" Rory said
"Just text me and let me know what time you want me to come"
"Thank you"
"Where's Nicky?" Logan asked once Rory hung up.
"He's upstairs, reading about geography"
"So I see we've started a new focus" Logan said. Nicky was still recovering from his surgery so he hadn't been to school since the second week. His doctor said it would be ok for him to do his schoolwork from home so he was, but in addition to that he'd also been jumping from topic to topic. He spent a few days reading about insects, then it was the solar system, after that was volcanos, and now he'd moved on to geography.
"Yeah, he asked me earlier why Wyoming exists" Rory said
"What?"
"He came over to me and said 'mom, why does Wyoming exist?' How am I supposed to respond to stuff like that?"
"What's his beef with Wyoming?" Logan chuckled.
"I have no idea"
The next morning Rory and Logan headed to the hospital with Nicky and Sammy.
When they got there Logan took Nicky to get his chemo and Rory took Sammy to see the pediatrician. All 3 kids saw the same pediatrician and they have been since Nicky was born.
"Sammy, would you like to go play while I talk to your mommy?" Dr Miller asked and gestured to a small table in the corner of the room that had some toys on it. "Alright so size wise he is catching up. He's still very small as I'm sure you know, but he's getting closer to catching up with his peers. Other than that he seems very healthy, and developmentally on track. His lungs sound great, and I see no signs of rejection. Of course he'll continue to take his anti rejection medication, and I recommend this for all children, but especially those who are immune compromised, that they have a flu vaccine around this time of year when we tend to see a spike in flu cases. If you'd like, I can give it to him now"
"That's alright, we're actually gonna take all 3 of the kids to get it together" Rory said.
"Alright, then do you have any questions?"
"I don't think so. No"
"Ok then. Is it alright with you if I offer him a lollipop?"
"I'm sure he'd love that" Rory said. "Sammy, come here" she said and Sammy walked back over to them.
"Since you did such a good job, you can pick a lollipop and a sticker" Dr Miller said and opened a drawer that had 2 containers inside. One with lollipops and one with a bunch of different stickers.
"And for Nicky too?" Sammy asked.
"Of course" the doctor said. She knew that Nicky was getting chemo that day which meant he'd be in the hospital. "And you can even take one for Grace if you want"
"But Grace not going to the doctor" Sammy said.
"That's ok. She can have one anyway"
Sammy picked out 3 lollipops and a sticker before he and Rory headed up to the 5th floor to the oncology unit to find Logan and Nicky. Nicky was in a private room that day, so it was fine for Sammy to be there. Nicky still had a few hours left of his treatment so Logan took him home befor going back to the hospital.
——
The next year was really hard. Rory and Logan were juggling work, being with Nicky when he had doctors appointments (which was almost daily and a lot of the time they were at the hospital for an entire day), and trying to make sure they spend enough time with Grace and Sammy.
In November of 2021, Grace had her very first dance recital which meant that for the first time since Nicky got sick, Rory and Logan would have a babysitter watch the kids.
"Mom, where's my watch?" Nicky asked as he walked into Rory and Logan's bedroom where Rory was getting ready to leave.
"I think your dad put it on the charger" Rory told him. A few months prior, Rory and Logan had decided to charge everything in the kitchen so it was all in one place. That included Nicky's watch (which he wore to monitor his heart rate), the pump for Nicky's feeding tube, and Grace's processors.
"Ok" Nicky said. He started to leave the room, but Rory stopped him.
"Hold on" Rory said
"What?" Nicky asked.
"Do you feel ok?"
"Yup"
"Good" Rory said. She was nervous about leaving Nicky with a babysitter, but she didn't want Nicky to know that.
"Can I play on the switch?" Nicky asked.
"Yes, but you have to listen when Erica tells you to go to bed" Rory said.
"I will"
Nicky left the room and a little while later Logan walked in. "You look beautiful" he said and kissed her.
"Thank you" Rory smiled.
"Ok, so the boys are in the living room. Sammy's watching Nicky play Mario Kart on the Nintendo thing and Grace is twirling around her room" Logan said. "Babysitter should be here soon"
"Perfect"
Rory was in the kitchen, giving Grace dinner when there was a knock at the door.
"Hi" Rory said when she opened the door. "Erica, right?"
"Yes" Erica nodded.
"Come on in" Rory said. Erica walked in and Rory closed the door behind her. "So, the boys are over there on the couch" she said. "Nicky's 9. Sammy's 4. There's dinner for them on the kitchen counter and of course you're welcome to eat too. You can help yourself to whatever you want, from the fridge, pantry, whatever. Nicky probably won't eat, but he might decide that he wants to. The instructions for the feeding tube are written out on a piece of paper on his dresser, but my husband is setting it up right now so all he'll have to do is connect it and press start. He knows how to do that on his own. Sammy goes to sleep at 7:30, Nicky can stay up until 9 but he'll probably decide to go to bed earlier, and we should be back by 10. Please call or text if you need anything"
——
After Grace's dance recital, Logan and Rory decided to take her out somewhere even though it was way past when she'd usually go to bed. They let her decide where she wanted to go and were not at all surprised when she picked frozen yogurt.
"No, that's wrong" Grace signed to Logan who was using his spoon upside down. He was just trying to get a laugh out of her but she didn't realize that.
"Why is it wrong?" Logan signed.
"You need to turn it around" Grace signed.
"Like this?" Logan asked. He picked up his bowl and put it down on top of the spoon
"No, the spoon part has to go inside" Grace signed.
"Oh, ok, I get it" Logan said and put his spoon in Rory's bowl.
Grace giggled. "Mama, don't give it back" she signed. Rory chuckled.
"Here" Rory said and gave Logan's spoon to Grace.
"Oh, everyone's teaming up against dad?" Logan asked. "That's what's happening now?"
"Yes"
Later that night, after checking on the kids, Logan joined Rory in bed.
"You know what?" Logan asked. "Deaf kid in dance class went better than I thought it would"
"Yeah" Rory said. She was happy for her kids to do whatever they enjoyed but her first thought even Grace asked to take dance classes was 'do you not realize that you're deaf?' Of course she didn't say that, but she did think it. Grace could hear with her cochlear implants, but she didn't hear the same way most people did and a lot of the time she couldn't hear music, so Rory had definitely been worried about how dance would go if she couldn't even hear the music.
It had been a long day and it wasn't long before Rory was asleep with Logan's arms around her waist. "Good night, Ace" Logan kissed her cheek. "I love you"