THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
April's birthday party brings an unexpected twist that changes Luke's and Lorelai's lives forever. Late sixth season.
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own nothing.
Chapter Seven: We Meet At Last
Luke pulled up in front of the diner, gratified to see that there were no flames leaping out of the windows and no water pouring out the door. Indeed, he found his staff moderately busy but handling things well. They reported that diner traffic had been at a normal pace all day and they were fine. They also told him they were available to do extra hours to cover for the next few days so he could spend time at the hospital with April. With that information, for which he was grateful beyond words, Luke took a minute to arrange their schedules through the upcoming weekend, deciding to open himself several mornings.
That done, he hurried up to his apartment, stripped and jumped into the shower, washing away as much as the hospital smell as he could. The warm water definitely made him feel better. He put on a clean pair of boxers and a T-shirt and dropped with a grateful sigh onto his bed. He was asleep almost before he closed his eyes.
He slept deeply and dreamlessly, waking about four hours later feeling surprisingly refreshed. Seeing that it was approaching dinner time, he started to dress, noticing to his surprise that his stomach was growling. He had had no food since his long-ago breakfast in the hospital cafeteria, so he made a sandwich and wolfed it down as he dressed.
He stopped to speak to Lane and Sam on his way out and also paused to accept good wishes for April from several townspeople who were in the diner. Again, he felt humbled and grateful for their concern for him and his daughter.
Arriving at the hospital, he strode into April's room to discover her sitting up in bed, picking listlessly at a plate of food on a rolling tray set up over her legs. When she looked up and saw him, her face lit up and she stretched her hand out to him. "Hi, Dad! You're back!"
Luke took her hand, squeezed it and dropped a kiss on her head. "Yep, I'm back. I told you I'd be here around dinnertime."
He sat down and surveyed her as she beamed at him and turned back to her dinner, now with more energy. "You look like you're feeling a little better," he observed.
"Oh, yeah—not nearly as sleepy," April reported. "But I'm feeling a little more pain. I'm going to set up a chart to correlate my level of sleepiness and level of pain with the timing and amount of the doses of medicine I get."
Definitely more like herself, Luke said to himself, pleased to see it. He grinned at her. "I see you got your glasses back, too."
"Yeah, they found them at the accident site." She frowned. "I guess they're more unbreakable than I am. I ought to write the company or something."
Luke nearly burst into laughter but the solemn look on her face told him she was not trying to make a joke, so he controlled himself. He sat grinning and listening to her chatter until she said, "How are you? Did you get any sleep?"
"Yeah, I got a few hours," he told her. "Pretty good sleep, too. I feel rested."
"Oh, that's great." She paused to fiddle with her meal for a moment. "Uncle Steve came by," she said, some of her excitement ebbing.
"Oh, good," Luke smiled. "Did you have a good visit?"
She glanced at him, looking under her eyelashes from her lowered eyes. "Well—it was a sad visit. We both cried."
"Well, I would expect that that's normal," Luke said softly.
She nodded. "That Ms. Webster came by, too. That's what she said. That I'll probably cry some for the next while, and maybe on and off for a long time, when I least expect it. She said everybody needs different amounts of time to mourn and they have to do it their own way." She paused again, seeming to be thinking. "She is really nice," April said in a low tone. "It was kind of nice to talk to her. I don't usually talk to people much about how I'm feeling," she added shyly.
"I'm the same way," he told her gently. "But I've found that always keeping things inside isn't good, either. Sometimes, if you hold them in without talking, they can just sort of boil over when you don't want them to, and that's not good."
"No, I guess not," she murmured.
Luke watched her. "You know, you can always talk to me, sweetheart," he said softly. "I may not always be able to help, but I'll always be happy to listen."
She flashed a small smile and seemed to recover a bit of her good mood. "Thanks, Dad. I'll try."
They sat smiling at each other for a moment, April's hand still in Luke's. April broke the moment by adding, "Ms. Webster also told me that there will be some decisions made about my guardianship, after she talks to you and Uncle Steve and everybody. She asked me what I'd like."
"Did—did you tell her what you'd like?" Luke asked with some apprehension.
"Yes." She glanced up at him again. "But I don't want to say what it is right now. Ms. Webster asked me not to. She said she'll get all the information together on what everybody wants and then we'll all talk about it."
"Okay," Luke assented. "I'll be talking to her tomorrow."
That kind of led naturally to the next thing he wanted to bring up with her. "Hey, April, do you remember meeting Lorelai? The first time you came in to the diner?"
She regarded him a little suspiciously. "I think so. Dark hair and very blue eyes?"
"Yeah, that's her."
"I remember." She was quiet a moment. "She's your fiancée , isn't she?"
"Uhh—yeah." April was fiddling with her meal again, her eyes deliberately turned away from him. He decided to plunge ahead. "She was here with me last night and is coming back tonight. She'd like to see you, and I'd like you two to meet. Would that be okay?" He was apprehensive about her answer.
"I guess," April said, pouting a little.
Luke waited but she said nothing further. "Is something wrong, honey? You don't have to meet her if you don't want to."
"No, it's not that. It's just. . ." She sighed. "Well, I've thought it was funny that I hadn't met her before now. Lane says she usually comes to the diner a lot, but she's never there when I am. I was thinking maybe she didn't like me or something."
Luke felt shocked. "Oh, no, sweetheart! No, she'd love to meet you!"
"Are you sure?" his daughter queried. "Because she looked really surprised when I told her who I was that first time I saw her. And then I saw you two arguing outside the diner right after and she looked awfully unhappy. I haven't seen her since, so I thought she didn't like me or was mad at me or something."
Luke sighed. "Well, she was surprised and she was upset, but with me, not with you."
April considered this. "Why was she upset with you?"
"Well. . ." Luke felt acutely embarrassed. "I didn't quite know how to tell her that I had a daughter and that I'd met you. Which was really stupid on my part," he added. "And you haven't met since then because—because I didn't want you to. "
His daughter stared at him, her eyes big. "Why not?"
"I'm not sure I can explain all the reasons to you," Luke sighed. "And I don't think right now is a good time to do it, anyway. Let's just leave it that I wanted time for you and me to get to know each other before you met your future stepmother."
April smiled a little at that. "Is she going to be a wicked stepmother?"
He smiled. "I doubt that very much. I think you'll get along fine. The only problem will be that she talks as much as you do, and my ears may not survive!"
April laughed out loud at that and Luke relaxed. "Okay, Dad, I'd love to meet her. I just hope she doesn't banish me to the kitchen with the mice and pumpkins to do all the work."
"If she does, I promise I'll go out and rent you a fairy godmother. She'll help you with the pots and pans," her father joked.
April giggled as she finished her dinner. Just then a nurse entered. "Now, Mr. Danes, I'm going to chase you out of here for a bit so I can give this young lady a sponge bath."
"Oh, okay," Luke stammered. "Sure. April, I'll be back in a little bit."
"Okay, Dad."
He still got a thrill hearing her call him that.
He stood in the hallway outside of her room, thinking over their exchange. She definitely was not her usual self; her moods seemed to be swinging back and forth more than usual and her cheerfulness had an anxious, almost manic quality to it. He suspected that it was due to the shock of her loss and was part of her adjusting emotionally to the drastic way in which her life had changed. She had certainly reacted strongly to seeing him, he mused. But there was also a desperate quality to her greeting, as if she was relieved to see that she still had a parent left after all. Luke suddenly wondered if she had thought he might not return; that her reaction was an example of the "clinginess" that Ms. Webster had warned him about.
He was lost in thought and didn't see or hear Lorelai approach him until she tapped him on the arm. "Hey, sailor, come here often?" she greeted him.
Luke was startled out of his thoughts. "Oh, hi," he smiled and gave her a peck on the lips. She rubbed her hands up and down his arms. "How're you doing?"
"Okay. The diner is intact and I got some sleep."
"Good," Lorelai responded, examining him closely, trying to gauge his mood. "And how's April?"
"She's. . . Luke frowned. "She's more awake and alert but—funny. Not quite herself. I was just thinking about that."
"Funny how?
He shook his head. "Hard to describe. Happy one minute, moody the next. She was awfully excited to see me, as if she didn't expect she'd ever see me again."
"Well—I'd say that's understandable," Lorelai said gently. "I mean—with what just happened to her mother."
"Yeah," Luke mused. "The social worker said she might get clingy."
Lorelai nodded. "And not only that, but she's injured, too." Her eyes grew distant. "I remember once when Rory was sick, at about the same age. She, like, totally regressed. She suddenly seemed like a very little kid again and didn't want to let me out of her sight."
Luke drew his eyebrows together and looked at her, a bit surprised. "Yeah, that's exactly what it seemed like. Like she was younger." He thought for a minute. "Yeah. Wow." He smiled at his fiancée . "That's really smart."
Lorelai shrugged. "Stick with me, buddy, and I'll have all kinds of insights for you," she teased.
Luke took her hand and squeezed it. "I told her you were coming."
He seemed a bit more serious and Lorelai's heart leaped into her throat. "Does she—doesn't she want to meet me?"
"No, she does," Luke assured her. "She just. . .she had been wondering why she hadn't met you before now." When she stared at him, her brow furrowed, he went on, a little reluctantly. "She saw us arguing in front of the diner that first time you saw her, and she thought maybe you didn't like her or something."
Lorelai's eyes widened. "Oh, Luuuuuke!"
"Yeah, I know," he winced. "I told her it wasn't true, and that it was my fault you hadn't met. I didn't tell her everything—just that I had wanted time for her and me to get to know one another." His face took on a mischievous look. "Then we talked for a while about wicked stepmothers."
He laughed as Lorelai hit his arm in almost-fake exasperation as she inwardly exulted, At least he's thinking of me as her stepmother.
They grinned at each other for a minute until Lorelai frowned, looking puzzled. "Why are we standing out here, anyway?"
Luke inclined his head towards the door. "Sponge bath."
"Oooo, I see," she grinned. Luke blushed.
They stood in silence, lost in thought until the nurse came out of the room and nodded. "All set now," she said and walked towards the nurses' station.
Luke cleared his throat. "I'll just go in and. . ." he jerked his thumb towards the door.
"Okay," Lorelai smiled, trying to hide her own nervousness.
Luke swung the door open and entered. "Hey, April. You all spiffed up now?"
She shrugged. "I guess."
"Are you ready for some company?"
April looked a little guarded. "Oh, she's here? Okay, bring her on."
Luke peeked back outside the door and nodded. Lorelai took a deep breath, braced herself and entered.
April looked at her wordlessly as she came in. "April, this is Lorelai," Luke said.
Lorelai smiled her widest smile and walked towards the bed. "Hi, April. It's nice to see you again."
April regarded her cautiously, no expression on her face. Then she stuck out her hand and said formally, "Nice to meet you."
A little surprised, Lorelai took her hand and shook it warmly, adding a little squeeze. April pulled it away almost immediately. Inwardly Luke groaned.
Lorelai gestured to one of the chairs at the side of the bed. "Do you mind if I visit for a little while?"
April shrugged. After a pause, Lorelai sat down. Luke sat down beside her.
Lorelai seemed a bit nonplussed, but doggedly went on. She nodded towards April's leg cast. "How are you doing with that?"
April shrugged again. "All right, I guess. It doesn't hurt much."
"Are you going to get crutches?
"Probably. But I have to wait until my ribs heal," April said, regarding Lorelai closely.
She nodded. "Crutches are a pain. But it's fun to have people write on the cast."
"Well, my cast is colored so I don't know if people can write on it."
"They can put stickers on it, though. That's what my daughter did when she broke her wrist a few years ago. I broke my leg once," she reminisced.
"How?" April asked. "Were you in a car accident too?"
"Nope. Yoga class," Lorelai replied succinctly.
April stared at her, puzzled. "How did you break your leg in yoga class?" she said, her tone displaying a little more expression.
"Hard to explain. Let's just say that I'm apparently too competitive for yoga," Lorelai told her, smiling.
After staring at her for a moment, a tiny grin appeared on the girl's face. "You're a little bit nuts, aren't you?"
"Yeah, well. . ." Lorelai shrugged, casting her eyes down modestly. "I try my best."
"She usually succeeds," Luke interjected. Lorelai turned to him, pretending to be annoyed. "No comments from the peanut gallery, please! I'm discussing broken legs with my new friend April here," she chastised him, her eyes sparkling.
April smothered a giggle. Lorelai grinned back at her. "So I hear you had a rockin' birthday party yesterday," she said impulsively. And immediately wanted to hit her head against a wall as April's face darkened.
"Yeah, well, except for how it ended," the girl muttered.
Luke closed his eyes in pain, but Lorelai was determined to save the moment. "I'm really sorry about your accident, honey," she said softly. "I'm really sorry about your mom."
April seemed to struggle to hold in her emotions and keep her face expressionless. "Thank you," she said tightly. After an uncomfortable silence, however, she looked back up at Lorelai, having apparently decided to just continue the conversation. "Did you hear that Hep Alien played? Well, most of them," she amended.
"I did hear that. That's so cool—your own private concert."
"Have you ever heard them play?" the teen asked.
"Heard them? You bet I have." Lorelai tried to pick up the mood. "They used to practice in my garage when they first got together." At April's look of interest, she went on, exaggerating her tone. "I was one of their first audiences, baby. They were deeply influenced by my critiques of their work. When they hit the big time, I get front-row tickets, where I'll stand and say, 'I knew them when.'"
When April's face thawed and she smothered another giggle, Lorelai continued, rejoicing inwardly. "Their success would not be possible if not for me and my garage," she continued, thumping her chest proudly. "Very strong creative vibes there, you know."
April grinned. "But why did they practice in your garage? Couldn't they practice at Lane's house or something?"
Lorelai looked at her with mock severity. "April—have you ever met Mrs. Kim?"
"Ohhhhh, yeah," April remembered. "You know, I think it's amazing Lane's such an all-American girl when she was raised by someone like Mrs. Kim."
"Well, I take some credit for that, too," Lorelai said, again putting on an exaggerated modesty. "Lane practically grew up in my house." At April's puzzled look, she added, "She and my daughter Rory have been best friends since kindergarten."
"Oh, Rory," April remembered. "I met Rory, right, Dad?" When he nodded, she said, "At my cousin Jess's bookstore in Philadelphia. When Dad and I were on my school trip."
"Yeah, I know you did," Lorelai said brightly. "She showed me a picture of you and her and Luke together. Nice picture."
April finally smiled. "Jess took it." She was thoughtful for minute and asked, "How does he know Rory, anyway?"
Luke joined the conversation. "Jess lived with me for a couple of years when he and Rory were still in high school," he explained.
April's eyes turned to Lorelai. "So you knew Jess, too," she commented.
When Lorelai assented, she nodded, but said nothing.
There was another brief silence while April seemed to be considering something. Then she took a deep breath, as if she had decided something, and turned back to them. "All right. I need information here," she told them, somewhat imperiously.
The two adults glanced at each other, unsure of what she meant. "What information, sweetie?" Luke asked with some trepidation.
She regarded him directly. "About you two. About how long you're known each other, when you started dating, when you got engaged, when you're getting married, all that stuff. Facts and figures, if you will." When they stared at her in surprise, she added, "It looks like you're both going to be in my life quite a lot from now on. So I want some information." She looked back and forth between them. "So who wants to tell me how you met?" she queried, sounding for all the world like a prim high school teacher.
Lorelai relaxed suddenly and laughed. "You're on, Mr. Danes," she told Luke, whose eyes were as big as saucers.
"Okay. Uhh—why me?"
She smiled warmly at him. "Because you've told that story before, and you tell it so well," she replied softly.
Luke looked back at her, a small smile on his lips, and they communicated silently for a few seconds, sharing the memory of their first date. This exchange did not get past April's watchful eyes.
"Okay," he said again, and settled back in his chair and turned to his daughter. "It was at the diner. It was during the lunch rush, I was really busy and this—person—comes blowing in like a hurricane. . ."
Lorelai and April settled back to listen to him, both smiling. The warmth in the room increased noticeably.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They continued in that vein for a while, all three relaxing as Lorelai and Luke continued to tell April stories of their friendship and courtship. They played up the comedic aspects of their stories, hoping to entertain her, and April responded in kind, asking pert questions and chiming in with funny observations from time to time. In less than an hour, however, Lorelai noticed that the girl hadn't said much in a little while and that her color had worsened, fading to a shade more white than pink. Her eyelids were beginning to droop and Lorelai immediately said, "Hey, we're tiring you out. We should get going and let you get some sleep."
Luke noticed, too, and stood up. Immediately April's eyes flew open. She grabbed at Luke's hand and wailed, "Noooooo! Don't leave me here alone!"
Both adults were startled at her sudden outburst. Luke gaped at her for a moment and then collected himself, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Honey, visiting hours are almost over. You need your sleep. And we haven't had any dinner yet." He jerked his head at Lorelai and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "If I don't keep her to her feeding schedule, she gets cranky," he confided, trying to lighten April's mood.
Lorelai caught on and slapped his arm. "Hey!" she said, pretending to be insulted.
"What do you mean? I only eat six or seven times a day!"
But April did not smile. She glanced dismissively at Lorelai and clutched Luke's hand again. "No, please. It's so quiet here, and I'm lonesome."
"Watch TV for a while," Luke suggested. "I bet you'll be asleep before you know it." When she did not respond he added, almost desperately, "Please, April, you need to rest to get better. And you have to get better in order to get out of here."
April raised her eyes to his. "Yeah? Get out of here? And go where?" she challenged.
Uh-oh, Lorelai thought.
She wondered if she should chime in with a joke or something, but after a startled moment, Luke rose to the occasion. "April," he said firmly, sitting on the edge of her bed and holding both her hands, "you know that we're working that out. We'll probably have a good idea by tomorrow of where you'll go when you leave here. We're meeting with Ms. Webster in the morning to talk it over. It will all work out, honey. I promise." When April looked down, pouting, he added softly, "I'll never let anything bad happen to you, April. Do you trust me on that?"
He looked steadily at her until she raised her head and met his eyes. "Okay, I trust you," she said sullenly. "But I still don't like it," she added defiantly.
"That's okay. You don't have to," he told her. He kissed her forehead and gave her hands another squeeze before he rose.
"Will you come back tomorrow?" his daughter asked anxiously.
"Of course," he soothed. "I'll spend as much time as I can with you while you're here."
April nodded and her eyes turned to Lorelai. "Will—will you come back, too?" the girl asked hesitantly.
Lorelai's heart warmed. "Sure I will, if you want me to, April."
"I do," April said with certainty. "Thank you for coming. I—I had fun," she confessed.
"Then my work here is done," Lorelai joked. "The sole purpose of my existence is to entertain." She smiled as the girl grinned.
Luke watched the exchange, his eyes soft. They said their final goodbyes and started to leave the room. Luke paused at the door, gratified to see that April already seemed to be half asleep.
They walked down the hall, glancing at each other. "Whew," Lorelai commented.
"Yeah," her fiancée grunted. "That was hard."
"Yeah." Lorelai thought quietly for a moment, and then turned to him. "But Luke, she's amazing. What a kid," she said admiringly.
Luke smiled. "Yeah, she is," he said gruffly.
They talked about her on their way out to the parking lot, recalling her various comments and the way her moods seemed to waver back and forth. They realized that caring for her emotional state was going to be difficult for the foreseeable future.
They talked all the way to Lorelai's car, where they stopped, a sudden silence falling over them. Luke watched Lorelai for a moment; she was fussing with her keys and seemed hesitant to look him in the eye. "So. . ." he began.
She looked up. "So?"
"Now we talk?" he asked softly.
She nodded. "Now we talk." They remained silent for a moment and then she asked, "Have you eaten?"
He shrugged. "Just a sandwich on my way in. I could eat," he added.
"Me, too." She hesitated, thinking. "How about I call for a pizza and we take it to my house and eat and talk there?"
"That's fine," Luke assured her. "See you there in about a half hour?"
She assented and started to climb in her car. "Hey—make sure you get one with vegetables!" he called over his shoulder as he walked away.
She waved a dismissive hand at him. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." She flipped open her cell phone to call in the order.
Luke smiled and went on to his truck.