THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

April's birthday party brings an unexpected twist that changes Luke's and Lorelai's lives forever. Late sixth season.

Disclaimer: I don't own any property in Stars Hollow. I just like to visit.

Chapter Three: And Then The Phone Rang

Luke finished closing up the diner and went upstairs, relaxing with a sigh into his chair. He sat sipping a bottle of beer and let his mind run over the day. All in all, it had turned out okay, although he still felt some prickles of shame at his desperate lassoing of Lane to save the party and his utter cluelessness about an appropriate present for April.

Luke wondered if he should call Lorelai and tell her that he owed her a big, fat I-told-you-so. But she had made it clear that she didn't want to hear about the party, and he was willing to respect that although he longed to talk with her. Logically, Luke's thoughts wandered next to their verbal scuffle the night before and her desire for an explanation of his stubbornness about April. He sat back, took another swallow of beer, and began to think about it.

He recognized that what he had told her was true: he was afraid April would like her better than him. Luke had often seen the way Lorelai would both dominate and light up a room by her mere entrance, her manic and sometimes crazy conversations bringing smiles to everyone's face. It had never bothered him before to see her take the limelight—he was never interested in getting it, anyway. But with April it was different. Luke felt an irrational urge to jealously guard their budding relationship and try to keep away any intruders that might spoil their delicate connection.

Even as he put this feeling into words, he realized how stupid it was. April had met new people continuously since she began visiting Stars Hollow and might have liked any of the colorful characters better than her father. And yet, she didn't seem to. When she entered the diner, her eyes always went to him first and she repeatedly sought his attention during her visits, no matter what other excitement might be going on. The citizens of their little town were certainly an interesting bunch, any one of them capable of stealing the spotlight at any given moment. April seemed amused by it all—but attached primarily to him.

Perhaps she would react in the same way towards Lorelai: be open to getting to know her but still see her connection to her father as primary. And Luke knew in his heart that if Lorelai understood how he felt, she would refrain from doing anything that would tempt the girl's affections to turn in her direction, away from her father. At any rate, Luke thought tiredly, I can't control how April feels about anything.

The word "control" echoed uncomfortably through his brain and brought him to another issue he had about the whole subject—the speed and seemingly uncontrolled way in which his life had been barreling along the last year or so, taking him towards an apparently fixed future. He just wanted it to slow down a little, give himself room to breathe and get his head on straight. It had been a relief to postpone the wedding, but now he suspected Lorelai was getting anxious to move ahead with the planning. But there were feelings, he realized, that he wasn't sure he could control, and those were probably the reason for his hesitation.

He sat a while, thinking about it, trying hard to objectively examine every one of the feelings that popped up as he considered the situation, draining his beer in the semi-darkness of his apartment. Finally, he made two decisions and felt some relief. Then physical exhaustion caught up with him and he dozed off, still in his chair, fully dressed.

He was awakened by the shrill sound of a ringing phone.

He was startled for a minute and realized it was his apartment phone. He looked quickly at the caller ID as he reached for the receiver, thinking it might be Lorelai. But it was a number he didn't recognize—the Woodbridge police?

He snatched the phone from its cradle and urgently said, "Hello?"

"Mr. Luke Danes?"

"Yes, yes, that's me."

"I'm very sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, sir. This is Officer Watts of the Woodbridge Police Department."

"Yes?" Luke responded, almost holding his breath. Any number of horrible scenarios flashed through his head.

"Are you acquainted with a woman named Anna Nardini, sir?"

This surprised Luke a little—this was not the name he thought to hear. He had been expecting them to mention Lorelai, Liz, TJ, Jess—but not Anna. "Uh, yes, I am."

"What is your relationship to her, sir? Are you a relative?"

"No, no, not a relative," he murmured. "I'm—I'm her daughter's father. She and I have a child together."

"A daughter?" the officer queried. "A little girl about twelve or thirteen, with brown hair and glasses?"

"Yes!" Luke cried. His anxiety shot sky-high. "Why? Has something happened to my daughter?"

The officer hesitated. "Mr. Danes, I'm sorry to tell you that your daughter and her mother were in a car accident a few hours ago." When Luke didn't respond, he added, "We found a piece of paper with your name and numbers on it in Ms. Nardini's pocket. It looked like it had been put there recently."

"Yes, I had given it to her earlier this evening. They—they were on their way home from here. That must be when the accident happened."

The terror that he had briefly held at bay hit him full-force. "Are they all right? Were they hurt? How badly? Where is my daughter?"

"They were both injured. I don't know the extent," Officer Watts said crisply, used to dealing with moments like this. "They were both taken by ambulance to Hartford Memorial."

"Okay," Luke muttered. "Okay, I guess I should go? I'll go right now." The shock was garbling his mind and speech.

"Please, sir, one moment more. If you're not a relative of Ms. Nardini, we need to find one. Do you by any chance know the names or phone numbers of any relations?"

"Ummm—I don't know," Luke admitted. "Her mother is in the southwest, New Mexico I think. Besides that—Oh! Her brother," he cried, relieved to think of an answer. "Her brother's around here—I think his name is Steve. Yes, Steve Nardini. He works in a laboratory and I think he lives in Hartford."

"Steve Nardini," the officer repeated. "Okay, we'll check that out. Thank you very much, sir. Can you be reached at this number later if we need you?"

"I'm going to the hospital," Luke replied forcefully. "I won't be here. My cell phone is on that paper you found."

"Okay, thanks again, sir. When you get to the hospital, you should go to the emergency room. They can tell you what's going on with your daughter."

"Thank you." Luke hurried to hang up the phone and stood, staring unseeingly around his apartment. He was a little dizzy and still felt the confusion of the sudden awakening from a deep sleep blurring the edges of his mind. He realized, thankfully, that he hadn't undressed when he came upstairs and was able to grab his keys, run out the door to his truck and roar away.

If you had later offered him a million dollars, Luke would not have been able to repeat, in any sensible order, the thoughts that propelled him through the night to the hospital. Utter terror for his daughter was paramount and a hundred little memories of her ran through his mind like an out-of-control slide projector. Every minute or so, the real pictures were replaced by one from his imagination of April broken and bloody, and he would grip the wheels of the truck even tighter.

At some level, he recognized that getting into an accident himself would do his daughter absolutely no good, so he was somehow able to stay at the speed limit and drive safely. This was difficult, because at times it seemed like his vehicle was going through molasses and it took every bit of self-control he had to keep from pressing his foot all the way down on the accelerator.

Other random thoughts chased each other through his mind. He had a fleeting memory of the night he drove Lorelai to this very same hospital after her father had collapsed at the Christmas party, and how she had urged him repeatedly to drive faster. He now understood exactly how she had felt. He also now understood completely the utter terror, anger and helplessness she had experienced the night Rory and Jess had been in the car accident and Rory had broken her wrist and been brought to this same hospital.

He arrived in short order, parked the truck in the near-empty lot and raced into the E.R.

"Excuse me," he yelled at the woman sitting at the desk at the entryway. He sucked in a gulp of air before he continued. "I'm looking for my daughter. She was brought here after a car accident. April. April Nardini."

The woman, used to this kind of frantic behavior in her emergency room, said, "Just a moment, sir," and typed a name into her computer. "I'll be right back," she assured him and disappeared momentarily in the corridor behind her desk. Luke waited, panting. A moment later the woman returned, followed by a young man in a white coat, and said, "Dr. Hodges worked on your daughter. He can tell you what's going on."

"Doctor? I'm Luke Danes, April's father. Is—is she all right? Where is she?"

"Your daughter had several injuries from the accident, Mr. Danes," the doctor told him. "A broken leg, fractured ribs and a number of cuts and bruises. The thing that worried us most was that she seemed to be having some internal bleeding, possibly from damage to her internal organs. So she's up in surgery right now and will probably be there a while longer."

"But she's alive?" Luke said fearfully.

"Yes, sir. She was alive when she arrived. The surgery is sort of a precaution—we just don't want to wait to find out if there are more serious injuries."

Luke let go of a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you. Thank you so much." He paused. "Where should I go now? Where is the waiting room for surgery?"

"It's on the fourth floor. Go through those doors and down the hall and there will be an elevator on your left." He smiled and started to walk back into the corridor.

"Oh, one more thing—how's Anna? April's mother?"

The doctor hesitated. "Are you a relative, sir?"

"No—no I'm not." "Not an ex-husband?"

Luke shook his head.

"Then I'm afraid I can't tell you much, sir," the doctor said with sympathy. "All I can tell you is that she was brought here too and she's also in surgery." He hesitated as if considering something and added, "She was in a lot worse shape than your daughter."

Luke wondered briefly what that meant. "Okay. Thanks. Thank you very much, Doctor."

The young man smiled and walked back down the corridor.

"Before you go, sir," the woman at the desk interjected, "do you know anything about your daughter's health insurance?"

"Ummm—no, no I don't," Luke admitted. "I—I don't have custody and her mother handles those kinds of things. I'm sorry, I have no idea."

"That's okay. Don't worry about it," he was told. "Do you think you can fill out a form for us with some other basic medical information? And a consent for us to treat her?"

"I'll try," he said. "But I—well, I haven't known April for very long and there's a lot I might not to be able to answer."

"Just do the best you can," he was assured.

He made short work of the form, handed it back and walked quickly to the elevator as directed. He got off on the fourth floor and immediately saw the reception desk. "April Nardini?" he said. "Is she still in surgery?"

The clerk calmly checked her clipboard. "Yes, she is, sir. You can take a seat right over there and the doctor will be out when they're finished." She indicated an area with a number of chairs and small tables scattered about.

"Thank you," Luke responded. He went and sat down on a small couch and for the first time in an hour felt like he could stop long enough to take a full breath. His mind began to drift as he wondered if there was anything he should do. It only took a moment for him to recall something very important that he needed, and also wanted, to do.

He dialed Lorelai's phone number and when the voice mail came on said, "Lorelai, it's me. I'm really sorry to call you this late but—but something's happened. April and Anna were in a car accident and they brought them here to the hospital. I'm not sure exactly what's wrong yet but April's in surgery right now. Could you. . . "

The phone came on with a loud click. "Luke?"

"Yeah," he said. "There was an accident."

"Oh, my God," she breathed. "Do they know what's wrong with April yet?"

"Well, a broken leg and some stuff like that. But there's a possibility that her internal organs were damaged and she's bleeding inside, so they're doing surgery to fix that. Lorelai—" he hesitated. "I'm—I'm freaking out here and I know it's late but I was wondering. . ."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," she immediately assured him. "Hartford Memorial?"

"Yes, the fourth floor waiting room right by the elevator."

"On my way," she said and hung up quickly.

Luke closed his phone and felt relief wash over him. She was coming and he knew that that alone would help him to get his mind cleared and to start feeling in control of himself again. And, he realized, she would be someone to whom he could turn to in grief if that became necessary.