The response to Richard's emergency call was twenty-two minutes. The party died down and guest slowly evaporated from the room of decadence. The gaggle of gossips, escorted by their patriarchs, said their farewells. Few would call the next day for an update, not that they really care.
Half an hour after the fact, a third of the campus was woken up with the buzzing report. Any news always traveled around Yale campus like a punch of a peacock mantis shrimp, it seemed. Finn and Colin fielded calls, messages, and questions from the brigade members with skills of a corporate PR team.
Color slowly flushed back into her cheeks as Logan rotated a clean rag—which Honor had ordered Josh to gather up with ice wrapped in it—on her forehead, cheeks, and neck. Lorelai had removed her camisole to help her body breathe a bit better with less restriction and layers. Logan mentally thanked her for doing something that would have rattled the rumor wheel if he had done just that.
Sirens suddenly blared through everyone's eardrums, paramedics were swiftly guided—Josh and Honor had waited outside for the ambulance—to the patient. They did a routine check, rattling off numbers and words that didn't comprehend in Logan's ears. Seconds later they carefully removed Rory's limp body from Lorelai and Logan, setting her on a stretcher to wheel her out. Although Rory didn't go without protest from Lorelai.
"If there is anyone who wants to ride with us to the hospital, you have to make a decision fast," said a paramedic, eyes darting between people before setting on Logan's frozen body on his knees, clutching the rag of ice. Lorelai had jumped to her feet, determined to be with her daughter.
"Logan, you go. We'll meet you there." Emily rushed, holding onto Lorelai's arm to keep her from barking a refute. He didn't respond much to Emily's words until he was pulled to his feet by his best friends and pushed towards where he was needed.
Logan nodded to the quiet paramedic and followed, leaving all friends and family behind him. He hopped in, staring at her pale form. His worried gaze fell to the hand laying at her side closest to him. He took it between his hands, pressing her knuckles into his lips and then to his forehead as if in prayer. A secondary paramedic watched him as the primary paramedic got work on a saline IV, she didn't want to interrupt but she needed to get the woman's medical history.
"What's her medical history, allergies, and current medications?"
Staring into the abys of his despair, Logan refused to believe he was sitting here and feeling what she must have felt after his Costa Rica accident. This pit in the center of his soul was gaping and rearing up his fear and guilt and he didn't know how to dispel it. The heaviness brought on tears that he has held back for so many years for so many overwhelming emotions. But he could do this, this one thing to help her when she has helped him numerous times for numerous things. There was a reason why she was his emergency contact. Bringing his lips to her fingertips once more, Logan started rattling off answers about allergies and medications and other needed information.
Lorelai tore away from her mother, took Chris, and rushed to her Jeep—nearly tripping in her three-inch heels. Emily made no refute to her daughter's abrupt leave, turning back to the lingering crowd, after taking a glance at her husband who was on the phone. The flushed cheeks, shaking shoulders, and deep frown told her that he was handling the nincompoops at Hartford General and whatever else that was making him high-strung. She'll inquire about it later.
Honor and Josh had followed Rory's parents to their own car, joining the growing caravan of loved ones.
In the ambulance, Logan stared at the paramedic running current vitals and things. He didn't want to know what it all meant, it was the fearing reality of it being bad that kept him quiet after answering their questions. That moment, it took his mind back to every time that his love for her had grown an inch, a step, a yard, a leap, a mile, or a jump more than seven-stories down the rabbit hole. His memories were a cascade in reveling hope that everything would be okay. It also helped that the driving paramedic tore through traffic like a NASCAR driver.
Arriving at the hospital was another realm of dread, while Logan was forced to the side to watch the paramedics rush his Ace through the doors. She was transferred to an ER bay, her body lifted off the gurney and transferred onto a bed, they paged an ER doctor and a spread of nurses fluidly took on their roles. Her information was rattled to an ER resident for a check as they waited for a doctor to attend to the patient's prognosis. Sending blood work in, and checking for any signs of concussion or nerve damage to the brain, she was ready to be emitted until she woke up.
They wheeled her to a room and transferred her to a new bed, so the ER could have theirs back. Vitals were checked again, saline was distributed again, and tests were ordered to rule out any questions or doubt.
Logan was later allowed into the room to see Rory still unconscious. He sat with her to keep her company in the quiet, sterile room and watched her until he dozed off in the late hour and was woken up by a nurse soon after.
"Sorry, sir. But we need to clear out the room. She's only sleeping, but we are moving her to a more comfortable room by order of her family."
Logan only nodded and followed the nurses that were helping moving her up to a VIP room. Went to follow in on the elevator but was stopped by the co-resident pushing her bed.
"Sir. No overnight visitors. It's late, you need to go home and sleep in a proper bed."
Logan turned hotly to the young resident; his gaze narrowed with the irrational heat of anger flaring, in the sudden drop of anguish, thoughts reeling about not being allowed to see her.
"If you think—!"
"Hospital policy, sir. She's going to be fine. Let her sleep. If you wish to stay, we have a fully functional waiting room just down the hall by the main lobby entrance."
The resident walked off and Logan huffed, turning on his heel towards the waiting room. Might as well wait for her family, right?
It was a good thirty-or-so minutes of sitting in the waiting room—what looks to be recently renovated with old chairs huddled in the one side of the room and the comfy chairs holding people in various states of sleep, anxiety, and/or grief. There were even a few strangers talking with other people about random things to distract them from the circumstances.
"Logan!" His head popped up to find who was calling his name, "Logan where's Rory? Is she okay?!" Lorelai bombarded him as soon as her sights were on him at the entrance. "I'll go find a nurse for information, I'm her mother! They'll tell me!" And her trail of fire followed to the nurse station and worked her inherited Gilmore magic.
"Hey Logan." Chris breathed and sat down next to him, slumping into the cushioned seat.
"Hey Chris." It was easy to greet and sit next to Chris after that bonding conversation of how many boarding schools they had gotten kicked out of. He didn't tell Rory how he and Chris had started a monthly meeting, Chris' olive branch after Logan had reached out to him for business tech and legal advice that was not under his father's thumb.
"Logan! Josh and I are going to nag the kitchen staff for edible food. Need anything?" Honor asked, popping into view. Logan, bewildered at her sudden appearance had taken a paused breath to process her welcomed presence and her question. His sister waited and watched her brother's body language, having picked up on his tiredness and worry very quickly.
"See if they don't have the diluted crap in the canteen." Logan finally said to his sister, looking at the mirrored brown irises with heavy gratitude.
"Got it." Honor dragged Josh off to the hospital cafeteria, whispering her observations and worry. She was already conspiring a cheering up plan.
"Coffee?" Chris smirked in Logan's direction. He knew well and good Logan's beverage preferences did not include coffee unless it was to-go.
"No. That's Rory's thing. I only have coffee when I must get through something. I'm an Earl Gray guy, and right now coffee would make me so wired I wouldn't even think straight."
"Really?" Chris mused, encouraging his future son-in-law to talk, "She tease you about it?"
"All the time," Logan chuckled, a smile slightly appeared for the first time since he arrived, "but she can't complain when I make her have one cup for our Sunday brunch."
Chris laughed. "Oh, what a feat to do. I tried that with Lorelai once."
"Didn't end well?" Logan glanced at Chris from his hunched position, arms resting on his knees. He already knew the answer, but talking was better than silence.
"That, but she hated me when she was pregnant with Rory. Tea was the only thing she could keep down." Chris laughed joyfully at the memory of Lorelai's icy glare above the mug of hot tea as she grimaced at every sip. She'd bite through the distaste when after every sip her stomach would settle.
"Really?" Logan grinned widely at Chris, his mind hoping he'd get to experience that with Rory.
"Yep. But she refused all other healthy foods. I always feared she'd give our daughter diabetes early on. I mean no fruits, no vegetables, only fast food, and sugar." Chris felt the bitter stone in his chest turn, a reminder of a time he had such resentment for Lorelai's rebellious choices.
Logan winced and his stomach turned at the thought nothing healthy in Rory's young diet. His stomach growled in retribution. He hoped that when they had kids, in the far future, that he'd give them the healthier diet and he could convert Ace too.
"Yeah," Chris smoothed, "my thoughts and reaction exactly. When she ran away with her, I worried if Lorelai would be able to be a good mother for Rory with her wild and rebellious advocation. I mean, she chose to do things that I wasn't brave enough to do since she was fourteen. She influenced my actions as a teenager. She was a go-getter and the world was her oyster. I had just trailed along for the ride. Then she got her out. Refused to marry me and took off into the night. I found them sixteen months later. For reasons that I don't understand she refused any ounce of help but took Mia's help and generosity with no qualms at all. I just..." Chris broke his train of thought when he realized he was rambling. "Sorry, Logan. You don't need to hear or know any of this."
"Hey, you're welcome to talk to me. It kind of helps to know what dynamic history I'm walking into marriage with. But if I may, why did you marry Lorelai now after such baggage of history?"
"I cared for her, didn't know if I was in love then. But I love talking with her, watching movies with her, waking up next to her, and just existing with her and knowing that with her I could be happy apart from everything that is messed up in my life. I've made my own mistakes and I've owned up to them. I know she still sees some of that teenage kid that made stupid decisions, but those were her influence. Influence she denies to see as her own doing, but this time around I think I can be a good influence on her to break some of that bad influence. If that makes sense?"
Logan nodded, open to listening to this whole new side of Lorelai that he had tried to mask, to see what Rory had always seen. But truth be told, impressions from someone that wasn't grown up under that person and their choices, actions, and morals, is simply a whole different ball game of opinions.
Taking a moment of silence, Logan looked over in the direction of where Lorelai disappeared to. Seeing the frantic hand motions and the facial reactions of the head nurse, Logan flinched and pulled his thoughts back to something else.
"You know, it's a good thing she's not fighting me on changes to her breakfast routine. Lunch is debatable and dinner is whatever. But Rory has been really liking cranberry juice and my brioche French bread. Fruit smoothies and pancake bites on the go."
Chris turned to look at Logan, gob smacked. "Wait, really?"
Logan nodded, a soft smile on his lips.
"Don't tell Lorelai that though or she'll work back to converting Rory to pop tarts and doughnut holes."
"Yeah, learned that lesson when Lorelai made a sudden presence at the apartment and Rory went into a frenzy to pull out the forgotten box of pop tarts, open them and took out three packages, hiding two and eating one. But quickly ate a yogurt and asked me to put her smoothie in her thermos instead of her usual smoothie drink bottle. That's when I realized there was another thing wrong in their relationship."
Chris breathed out a long sigh, hand dragging down his face and cupped over his mouth and chin.
"They're running tests and won't let us see her because she's asleep. He had the gall to tell me to leave and go home!" Lorelai growled to Chris and Logan as she plopped down next to Chris.
"Well, the sign says 'no visitors past nine'," Chris points to the little sign standing on the waiting room coffee table.
Logan forgetting about the conversation he shared with Rory's dad and turned his thoughts to his girlfriend's well-being and beating himself up in the process:
I should have listened to my gut. I should've taken her home to rest. Why did I have to rope myself into speaking at the party? I should've stopped before I was ahead. I should've waited. She's going to be okay though. She's just sleeping right now. I should probably be sleeping right now too. We all should be.
He had looked at his watch and the late hour mocked him. 10:49pm.
Honor and Josh had come back bearing gifts of energy substances. Six drinks; two of them were coffee. An abundance of snacks was laid out before them, some healthy, some not.
"These two are coffee. I didn't know what you preferred Mr. Hayden, so I grabbed both." Honor replied and pointed at one coffee and one tea.
Chris picked up the tea and pushed the second coffee to Lorelai. "Chris is fine, Mr. Hayden is my father. I prefer tea anyways." Honor nodded and looked at her brother, quietly sitting next to him. She could pick up on his downward spirals from miles away with the strain in his jaw, the shifting gaze of his eyes looking for something and everything, the tenseness in his shoulders, and the clenching fists rolling in his lap.
"You didn't know. You didn't know this was going to happen. It'll be fine baby brother, she's in good hands here." Honor said soothingly as she rubbed her brother's back.
"But I should've known. She told me she wasn't feeling well. Then again for the past week she must've been sick, with the way she acted on the phone sometimes. She said she was fine. I knew I should've taken her home anyways, but I brushed it off." Logan rambled on with a sigh, running a hand through his blond locks. He took a sip of the tea his sister picked up, it wasn't how he usually took it, but it was good enough for now.
Any dispute from Honor was stopped by a loud Australian-sized interruption.
"Mate! How's mother doing? We brought the rest of the gang and the others are waiting for an update." Finn said loudly as he strolled in with a parade of friends: Colin, Stephanie, Robert, Juliet, and Rosemary, all bared get-well gifts.
"Finn, Colin. What are you all doing here?" Logan says towards the others, looking at Stephanie specifically.
"When Colin got your message. He told me and I wanted to tag along, so I told Rose and she told Juliet who told Robert. And so, we all are here!" Steph said holding up a cookie and muffin basket.
"That's so sweet that Rory has friends that look after her," Lorelai eyed the basket, picking out what she'd eat first and then save some for Rory and a movie night later.
"Well, love takes care of us boys, so she is dubbed mother, and the girls here take care of her in her free time when Logan isn't around," Finn jests as he plops onto a cushioned chair, taking up a lot of space.
A genuine smile on Chris' face said more than the mother of dearest mother's flaky, society one. Finn shared a look with Colin that their company picked up on like a wildfire in the middle of June. Logan had received approval from Rory's father that wasn't needed, but appreciated.
It wasn't even five minutes later when everyone recognized the determined heel click-clack pattern of Emily Gilmore with softer footstep patterns of Richard and Francine.
"Any news yet? How's Rory?" Emily demands worriedly.
"Nothing yet mom. They're running tests." Lorelai replies while digging into a bag of Cheetos.
"Oh nonsense, a doctor should be around here somewhere." Emily looks around the nurses' station. She marches up to them and demanded to see her granddaughter's doctor. It wasn't long until a doctor bellowed towards Emily, and the crowd, with a large patient file and in their white coat over their sage green scrubs.
"Family of a Lorelai Leigh Gilmore-Hayden... the third?" The doctor says not looking up right away. When he did, his gaze rising from the clipboard, he sees too many people answering to that name. His eyes widened and situated his glasses better on his nose, briefly worrying if he jumped into some government protection disclosure issue for a hush-hush-VIP.
"Wow, okay. Can the parents, please step forward? Those who aren't immediate family stay here." He nervously adjusted his glasses, waiting to get on with the update for the family and a few questions to confirm some things.
Lorelai and Chris steps forward immediately, yet everyone follows a half-step after them.
"We are her grandparents, where can we go to discuss these things?" Francine jumped in.
"Oh, and Logan. He's, her husband." Emily pleasantly grinned as she hooked Logan's arm and pulled him into the group. Every other person of Rory's support group side-glanced Emily as if she lost her marbles. Logan couldn't get a word out when the doctor suddenly turned his questioning gaze from him to the clipboard.
"I don't... there is no record of a spouse on her record."
"Oh, you know these young kids are nowadays, get married, honeymoon, and worry about legalities later. Their marriage license is currently being processed, so we don't have the after-marriage certificate copy yet. The court house takes so long on these things."
"Oh, of course. Well, then this way." Dr. Callaghan agrees from second-hand experience, and leads them to a conference room to discuss the matters of Rory's health.
"Okay, so there are no injuries. Her blood pressure just dropped quite a bit making her pass out. Has she eaten anything earlier today or drank anything?" He began once all the immediate family sat down.
"Umm I haven't seen her eat or drink anything. Logan?" Lorelai responded, then turned to Logan.
"She did have a bit of champagne today, only a few sips before she dismissed the rest and didn't drink anything else. She did drink some water though. I don't know about food," Logan responded, sitting by Chris.
"Hm. Okay. I have a theory that I need to confirm, thank you for the information. Is there anything else that I need to know?" It was silent for a long moment, before he concluded the meeting and explained they could go back to the waiting room.
As the small group made their way back to the waiting room, Lorelai broke off and chased down Dr. Callaghan.
"Lorelai!" Emily called out, but was easily ignored.
Once out of everyone's ear shot, "Hey Doc! I did find my daughter throwing up in the bathroom before she went back out and Logan found her. Does that information help at all?"
The doctor smiled, "It defiantly does. I'm going to check with the Lab." Lorelai nodded, still feeling uneasy she made her way back to the crowd.
"Lorelai! What on earth were you doing? At least have some propriety." Knowing Lorelai, Emily thought that her daughter went to flirt her way to get some information. It wouldn't have been her first improper feat.
"Whatever do you mean, mother? I just needed to ask a question." Lorelai cast her eye roll slightly away from her mother's discretion, so she wouldn't get that much bite off shoulder. Not that it wouldn't help the larger-than-life chip off the old block graze a sharper deviant into their loving relationship.
Emily scoffed and went to find a seat while mumbling about something on proper things. Richard sighed, giving a helpless and discouraged look at his daughter's back on his way to sit with his wife. Francine had already found her seat next to Chris, the one Lorelai should have claimed.
Lorelai, being the troublesome mind in the family dynamic, had easily dismissed her mother from her thoughts and ran through what could have led her daughter to make such a mistake before her career even began.
Rory lay on the stiff medical bed, still sleeping. The doctor entered the room with a nurse at his side to check over her vitals as he extracted another blood sample, bandaged her, and sent the nurse off with it tagged and labeled to the lab. He wanted them to run quick OB Lab hormone tests after they gave the initial routine pregnancy test a positive notation.
He walked into Rory's room once again when he got the results back hours later. The early hours of the following day were welcoming and she seemed to agree since Rory was waking up this visit. A nurse had brought her saltine crackers and water.
"Hello, Ms. Gilmore-Hayden. How are you feeling?"
"I'm feeling a bit better and please, call me Rory." Her voice was tired and dry as she tried to sit up comfortably. The nurse had quickly come to her aid to fluff up the pillows behind her and guide her back down in the slight memory foam mattress.
The doctor nodded and wrote down some observational notes.
"I do have some good news for you," his smile wiped away the lingering fear and worry left in her body. Hope welled within her, her blue eyes sparking with life and curiosity. This moment brought the doctor a little light in his long, night shift. Dawn was slowly cracking through the velvet night.
"You are a good healthy. Your iron levels are a little low for my liking, but once you've settled an appointment with your OB, you should be okay. You simply passed out, from your blood pressure dropping. I was told you haven't eaten or drunken much, if at all earlier today. Have you been feeling sick for a while?" The doctor continued, slipping in a little info hoping to see is she knew at her bodily condition.
"Yes, that's true. I've been throwing up all week. And the food and drinks at the party made the sick feeling worse." Rory warily said, her mind connecting to the real world from her groggy state, sipping her water.
"Yes, well that does tend to happen when pregnant. Alcohol is unhealthy and especially not allowed when you're pregnant, but it seems your body quickly understood and you threw up to get rid of it."
Silence filled the room. Rory stared down at her water cup, processing. Her eyes, wide and worried, snapped to look at the doctor before her.
"Could you... Could you please repeat that?" Her voice was shaky and soft, but her thoughts ran wild with worry for herself, the baby, and then sudden realization burned within her.
"Congratulations Rory, you're pregnant!" He grinned widely, pure joy across his face.
Rory could feel the panic pulsing and there was a distinct ringing blasting in her ear as the doctor rushed to her side and nurses burst through her door to assist him. Voices melded together and soon she fell back into nothingness.
"She went into shock! Page OB! I need Dr. Fallon immediately!"
11 pages
Reedited 4/26/22
Reedited 5/1/22