The stolen lines are from 6x20 this time around: "Super Cool Party People." I don't know why these chapters are coming so fast, but for some reason they are.
Again, Nicolle rocks.
Oh, and I'm not trying to diss Christopher. I just didn't like the direction things went with Lorelai, Luke and Christopher, and I'd like to try to fix that.
Chapter Four
Rory sits next to Jess while she calls Colin. The connection is fuzzy at best and she can't understand everything he tells her. The gist is that there's been an accident. Logan fell or jumped or something and they're airlifting him to New York.
He thought she should know. He also thought she should know that he thinks she's a whore who is unworthy of his best friend's love.
"What do you want to do?" Jess asks when she hangs up the phone.
She turns to face him, her mouth open and her phone clutched tight in her hand. "I don't know."
He reaches for her free hand. "It's okay if you want to go see him."
"It is?"
He nods. "You were with him for almost two years. I'd be a little worried if you weren't concerned about the guy."
"Yeah." She sits back and leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I can stay with your mom if you want me to."
She shakes her head. "No, that's okay. I'll stay."
"You sure?"
She nods. "Yeah. I'll go see him tomorrow."
--
They fall asleep together on the couch, Rory's head nestled in the crook of Jess's neck. When Rory wakes, a little after nine, her muscles all ache.
She sits up, runs her fingers through her hair. It's tangled and sticky from yesterday's hairspray. Jess stirs behind her. "Morning," he groans.
"Morning."
"I don't think sleeping on the couch was such a good idea."
"No," she agrees. "Probably not."
In the kitchen Lorelai is already up and pouring coffee down her throat.
"How are you even awake?" Rory asks, shuffling to the table. "Shouldn't you be upstairs, sleeping it off?"
Lorelai moans something that sounds like "too loud."
Jess pours a mug of coffee for Rory and one for himself before sitting down at the table. "I was thinking about helping Caesar out at the diner today. Figured I should stick around until Luke gets back."
Rory nods. "That sounds good."
"Are you going to go to New York?" he asks her.
Lorelai sets her mug down. "You're going to New York?"
Rory sighs. "Logan had some sort of accident in Costa Rica. They were airlifting him to a hospital in New York last night."
"Is he okay?"
She shrugs. "I don't know, I haven't talked to Colin since last night."
"You should go see him."
"Should I?" She sits back. "I mean, I don't even know if he'd want to see me. After the way we left things…" She thinks of his retreating back, the way he departed on his trip with his shoulders slumped and his head down.
Lorelai nods. "Well, you should at least make sure he's okay. That there's someone there with him. Isn't his sister still on her honeymoon?"
"I think she is."
"And Mitchum isn't exactly going to win any awards for parent of the year."
"No."
"Tell you what," Jess says, standing up. "I'll make you guys breakfast while you check on Logan, and then you can decide once you've eaten."
"You're making us breakfast?" Lorelai asks. "When did you turn into Luke?"
Jess shrugs. "Do you have any eggs?"
--
Jess makes them omelettes while Lorelai complains about every bang of the pan and Rory dials first Colin and then Finn. Neither answers.
"Maybe they had to turn their phones off," Lorelai suggests. "Hospitals tend to make you do that."
She nods. "Maybe. Or maybe they're not taking my calls because they're mad at me for dumping their best friend."
"Breakfast's ready," Jess announces. They eat in silence.
--
She decides to make the trip while she washes the plates in the sink. Jess tells her it's a good idea and her anxiety lessens. "I can't imagine he'll be too happy to see me."
He shrugs. "You never know. It's possible."
"Yeah."
She showers, pulls on her favorite jeans and a pink top. Lorelai waves goodbye from the couch where she's recovering with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin. Jess follows her out the door.
"So I'll probably be gone by the time you get back."
She nods.
"But I had a good time this weekend. Thanks for inviting me."
She reaches out to him and wraps her arms around his neck. "Thanks for coming. Aside from carrying Mom home and rushing off to New York, this weekend was pretty fun."
"It was."
"You want a ride to the diner?" she asks.
--
The drive to the city is long and she gets stuck in traffic by the tunnel. When she finally makes it to the hospital she can't find anyone who knows where he is. They tell her to look for him on the seventh floor, finally, and even there they are unhelpful.
"Excuse me, can someone here help me find Logan Huntzberger!" she finally shouts, a hint of hysteria in her voice. In the car she'd had time to imagine every possibility. Every horrible thing that could have happened during the night, everything bad that could have been made worse.
"He was just transferred out of ICU. Room 713," says a passing nurse.
"How is he?" she asks.
"Are you family?"
"I'm his…well, I'm his ex-girlfriend, but we only just broke up. I'm practically still his girlfriend."
"All I can tell you is that he's conscious right now and that he's in serious but stable condition."
She sighs. "What does that mean? Serious but stable."
"Just what it says."
"But…" she grips her purse a little tighter. "Is it more serious or stable? I mean, which way is it leaning?"
"Sorry," the nurse says. She doesn't sound very sorry. "I can only release more information to family members."
"But he's conscious?"
The nurse nods. "Yes. He just woke up about twenty minutes ago. You're welcome to go see him."
She wanders toward Logan's room, her steps slowing the closer she gets. She can hear Colin and Finn's voices floating out into the hall. "We thought we'd found a solution to the family-only-gets-information thing. We're adopting you," Finn announces.
"Adopting me?"
"Yes. You're going to be the apple of your fathers' eyes," Colin says.
She sighs. Colin and Finn, joking already.
She takes a tentative step into the doorway and knocks lightly on the frame. "Hi," she says when they look up.
"Rory," Finn says.
"Tramp," Colin adds.
"Ace."
Logan doesn't look good. One leg is in a swing, his face is bruised and cut, one of his eyes is swollen. He doesn't look angry, just injured, physically and emotionally.
She approaches the bed cautiously. "I wasn't sure if you'd want me to come," she says as Colin and Finn leave the room.
"I wasn't either."
"I just…the boys weren't answering their phones and I didn't know how you were doing."
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine." There's a chair beside his bed, the hard-plastic variety that are always uncomfortable. She sits down. "The nurse told me you were 'serious but stable.'"
"That's what I've heard."
"What does that mean?"
He shrugs. "It means my parachute didn't open all the way and I got a little banged up." He winces as he tries to move. "I'll be okay."
She shakes her head. "I'm so sorry, Logan."
"It's not your fault. I didn't jump off a cliff because you dumped me, I jumped off a cliff because I'm an idiot and my best friends are idiots and all three of us were drunk."
She nods and takes his hand. "I'm still sorry."
"Does that mean you want to un-break-up?"
"No." She lets go.
"I didn't think so."
She stands up from the chair and wanders around the room, taking in the IV, the machines he's hooked up to, the steady aural reminder of his heartbeat. "Where's your family?"
"Well, Honor's still on her honeymoon in Mykonos, and Colin tells me my dear mother checked herself into a spa in Arizona as soon as she heard."
"And your dad?"
"My dad thinks I was acting like a child and he is therefore boycotting my hospital stay."
"He's what?"
Logan shrugs. "He told Colin that he wouldn't come see me because he didn't approve in the first place."
"That ass!"
"You can't tell me you're surprised."
The look of half-resignation, half-apathy on Logan's face breaks her heart. "He's your father and you're in the hospital. He should be here."
"That doesn't mean he will be."
She huffs and sits back down. "Do you need anything?"
He shakes his head. "No."
"Do you want anything?"
"No."
"Do you want me to leave?"
He reaches out for her hand. "No."
--
She sticks around until mid-afternoon, getting coffee, fixing his pillows, trying to make up with Colin and Finn and finding out everything she can about Logan's condition. When she leaves she promises to call and check up on him, then dials Mitchum's number as soon as she's out of earshot.
"Mitchum Huntzberger?" she asks when he answers. "Yes. It's Rory Gilmore. I just thought I'd call and remind you that Logan is lying in a hospital bed with a partially collapsed lung and a whole host of other potentially life-threatening injuries and I'm figuring a guy like you, surrounded by nothing but a bunch of terrified sycophants, might not have someone in his life with the guts to tell him what an incredibly selfish, narcissistic ass he's being. So I thought I'd jump on in." She takes a deep breath and then yells, "swallow your pride, get in a car and come down here and see your son! Now!"
--
She stops by the diner when she gets back to Stars Hollow a few hours later, hoping to find Jess waiting tables. It's just Luke, though, and Caesar, who grumbles while he wipes down chairs.
"Hey, Luke," she says, taking a seat at the counter. "How was the rest of your trip?"
"It was good. Lots of farmland, Amish people…" He pours her a mug of coffee. "Donut?"
She nods.
"So guess who was waiting for me when I got back?" he asks, setting the donut down in front of her.
"I'm going to say…Jess?"
"It was."
"I invited him for Lane's wedding." She smiles at him and then takes a sip of coffee.
"I got that." He tosses his rag down onto the counter. "So…are you guys a thing again? Because chaperoning you was hard enough when you were eighteen and didn't have your own apartments."
She shakes her head. "We're just friends." She takes another sip. "And you didn't need to chaperone us."
"Right."
"We're just friends, Luke. For now, anyway."
She finishes her coffee and gets up to go.
"How's your mom doing with that hangover?" he asks as she heads for the door. "She seemed pretty out of it when I saw her earlier."
"I haven't seen her since this morning."
He nods. "Well, I'll be at the house later. Hopefully she's feeling better."
Rory frowns, thinking of Lorelai's words from the night before. "Yeah. Hopefully."
--
Most of the lights are out in the house and she climbs the stairs to find her mother in a dark room.
"You couldn't possibly still be hung-over," she says, her figure silhouetted in the doorway.
"Nope, just tired," says the form in the middle of the bed.
Rory crosses the room to climb in beside her.
"Logan's doing alright."
"Yeah?"
"Well, he was pretty drugged by the time I left, and he's got to put up with Colin and Finn, but the doctor said he was pretty lucky."
"That's good."
"Yeah."
Rory rolls over so she's facing her mother in the dark. "Mom?"
"Yes, Dear?"
"Can we talk about what you said last night?"
Lorelai shrugs. "What did I say?"
"When you were giving your toast—"
"I gave a toast?"
"No. Well, sort of. While we were walking you home, you gave a toast to me and Jess. You wanted him to repeat it word-for-word to Lane and Zach."
"Oh. Really?"
She nods and cuddles a bit closer. "Yup. You were very nice to Jess yesterday. I was proud."
"Well, it's obviously important to you."
"It is." She reaches out for her mother's hand. "Last night. You said, during your toast. You said you weren't getting married."
"I did?"
"You did. You were very certain about it."
"Oh, babe, I don't want you worrying about this."
"Well, tough."
"Ror."
"No, Mom, your relationship with Luke, that affects both of us, and I haven't said anything until now because you didn't seem like you wanted to talk about it, but…I want you to be happy, and I love Luke, and I know you love Luke, but these days he just seems to be making you sad."
"Rory."
"No. You can't deny this one, Mom. You need to talk to him."
"This is his thing, Rory, his daughter."
"And you're his fiancé!"
"I know, but…"
"But nothing. Mom, it's gone on long enough. I don't want you to be sad anymore."
"Yeah."
"Luke said he was coming by the house when he got off work."
"Okay."
"You need to talk to him, Mom."
"Okay."
