Saving Grace
Rory Gilmore groaned and burrowed deeper beneath her scratchy floral bedspread, desperately trying to block out the sound of her cell phone vibrating on the nightstand. The vibrating continued, however, and Rory's roommate muttered from the other twin bed "God damn Gilmore, get the frickin' phone! It's four in the morning!"
Rory mentally aimed a deadly glare at her room mate, then reached over and snatched her still-vibrating phone off the laminated wooden night table.
"What?" she answered, her voice scratchy from sleep. The annoyance that Rory felt was replaced by curiosity as she replied to the operator on the other end of the line. "Yes, I'll accept a call." Who would call collect? Doesn't everyone have a cell phone by now? Rory wondered.
There was a click on the line as the operator connected Rory to the other speaker. There was a brief moment of fuzz on the line, and Rory was about to hang up in frustration when a small, crackly voice came on the line. "Rory?"
"Luke?" Rory asked blankly. "Not that I'm not glad to hear from you, but you do realize it's four a.m here, right?"
"Yeah, sorry about that-"
"Luke, can I please call you back in an hour or so? My roommate is ready to shoot me, and rightly so, I mean, it is four a.m. We didn't get in until late last night, we ended up having to stay behind at the convention center late last night, because the press bus broke down, and-"
"Rory! Please, be quiet for two seconds! Jeez, you're just like your mother," Luke grumbled. "Listen, Rory, there's been an accident,"
At these words, Rory's heart seemed to stop. Terror filled her veins, turning them to ice, and Rory saw her face contorting into an expression of panic in the mirror that was across from the bed.
"Mom? Oh my god, it's Mom! Is she okay? Oh my god," Rory babbled, tears beginning to spill from her eyes.
"No! No, it wasn't your mom. She's fine. Your grandparents got into a car accident, and were just brought to the hospital. Your mom is inside harassing the nurses, and I offered to call everyone and let them know what's going on."
Rory breathed a sigh of relief for her mom, but then guilt consumed her as she processed Luke's words. "Grandma and Grandpa? What happened? Are they okay?"
"Listen, kiddo. I don't want you to worry too much, but it isn't looking too good. They were on the highway coming back from a friend's party and some drunk coming home from another Labor Day party ran a stop sign and hit them. They were pushed into oncoming traffic, and they were.. uh, well, they were hit by a couple other cars that couldn't slow down in time. There was um, there was a tractor trailer and a minivan, I think." Luke replied, the caution in his voice telling Rory that there was more to the story.
At this point, the tears were spilling down Rory's face. She let out a gasping sob, then took a deep breath and controlled herself, knowing that Luke would most likely be embarrassed by her emotions. Then again, maybe not.
Sure enough, Luke didn't seem surprised, just a bit uncomfortable.
"Listen, Rory. Your mom, she uh, she wants-" Luke's voice cut off suddenly, and Rory could hear him speaking to someone else on the other end. The murmurs continued for a minute and Rory impatiently called his name.
"Sorry, Ror. That was the doctor. Your mom went to get coffee, so I had to talk to him. What was I saying? Oh yeah. Your mom doesn't want to worry you, but we think it would be a good idea to come home. Your grandparents aren't doing too well, and uh, just in case, you know?" he finished uncomfortably.
"Oh my god. Luke.. oh my god. Of course I'm coming home, I'm leaving the hotel right now," Rory responded, her mind automatically kicking into gear as she shoved her legs out of bed and began to gather her various belonging from around the hotel room, shoving them into her duffel bag.
"Do you need a ride from the airport or anything when you get here?" Luke asked.
"No, no. I'll get a cab. Please, just stay with Mom and Grandma and Grandpa.. Luke, thank you being there. And I just... just take of Mom, okay?"
Luke cleared his throat, and answered with a suspiciously gruff voice. "Of course. I'll see you soon. Oh, we're at St. Francis Hospital. Third floor."
"Okay. I'll be there soon. Give Mom a hug for me." And with that, Rory bade her grumpy room mate goodbye, and hurried down the dimly lit hotel hallway dragging her suitcase behind her.
Well, this is my first ever Gilmore Girls story, and my first ever story that isn't a one-shot. I've already written some more chapters, so I should be uploading them within the next couple days (if you guys are interested). I'm not really sure what inspired this, but I wrote so much today, I felt like if I didn't get it all out, then I would just lose all of the ideas!
Please let me know what you all think. I'm very nervous, never having a real story before. Hopefully it's up to the standards set by the Gilmore Girls section. Please review!