Family Ties
Chapter 7: Meeting the family
AN: There's no flashback in this part, and I think I'm going to do a few chapters just describing the family reacting and living with Isabelle, tell me if that's alright with you pls!
I wake up to loud crying and am disorientated for a moment. What is this? I sit up, look around and reality hits me. I'm in Paris, in a Hotel room and the crying comes from Isabelle. I stand up quickly and walk over to her bassinet. I carefully take her out and check her diapers but they aren't full. She probably is hungry. I look at my watch. Four AM. I sigh and look for her milk. I put her bottle in the baby bottle heater we bought and wait. Isabelle has quietened a bit, sensing she's getting some food I guess. Lorelai has never stopped crying till the bottle hit her mouth. I tried breast-feeding her at first, but I did not nearly have enough milk for her. She was always hungry, I guess she still is. Well, better than those thin, skinny children where you have to shove the food in their mouth. The bottle is ready and I feed Isabelle with it. She sucks hungrily and looks up at me while doing that. She really is a delightful child, not very cranky, smiling a lot, luckily not yet comprehending what bad luck fate had provided her with. She seems to be fine with Richard and me as well. She liked me from the beginning, well, Hope and I did look similar. She quaked a bit when being with Richard at first but he pulled funny faces at her and now she seems to be really comfortable in his arms. He used to do that with Rory too, when she was a baby. I look at him now and he's sleeping deeply and soundly. Typical. That man wouldn't wake if an airplane crashed down beside him. I remember when Lorelai was a baby, I insisted on putting her bed in our bedroom. He protested that he had to go to work in the morning and could not sleep with Lorelai next to us. His mother had a coronary too, of course. A baby in the parent's bedroom, impossible. Well I put her in our bedroom for the first six months and Richard did not wake up once! I stood up every night, fed her, changed her diapers and calmed her down and he just wouldn't wake. In the morning he would stand up and tell her what a delightful daughter she was, not disturbing her parents at night. Once, I let her cry for about an hour just to check if Richard would hear it eventually (I first checked if she was alright of course). He woke up and said "Emily, Lorelai is crying." A minute later, he was fully asleep again. I didn't want a nanny at night for my daughter, I felt bad enough for leaving her during the days. When she got those ear infections, I stayed awake at her bedside for about two weeks, before Richard persuaded me that we better hire a nurse for the time being. But they wouldn't stay either, Lorelai wore them all out, so the job was on me again. Luckily I soon found the song that ultimately calmed her down and so I could get some sleep again. I really, really was a very tired woman by the time my little girl was completely healthy again. And I'm a tired woman now. Isabelle fell asleep again, bottle in mouth. She looks absolutely adorable and I gently put her back to bed and tuck her in. I wonder how she'll take the flight. It's nearly five by now and I crawl back in my own bed to get some sleep before we got to get ready to go home. I think of the funeral yesterday. It wasn't all too crowded, a few friends of Hope and Paul, a few friends of Guillome and his wife, some colleagues, Marie and us. Annie took care of Isabelle during the ceremony. I really want to go home now, sleep in my own bed again. I turn to Richard and move closer to him. I ponder whether or not I snuggle up to him. Well I won't really wake him and if he really should wake, he would fall asleep again in a matter of seconds so I just do it. I put head on his chest and put my arm around him a bit. He stirs a bit and turns towards me onto his side. He brings up his arms and embraces me to him. I smile and kiss his chest before I fall asleep. I really don't need my own bed to be home.
When I wake up again, Richard is already awake and packing. I look at the clock. It's nine already.
"Why didn't you wake me?" I ask as I crawl out from under the covers.
"You looked so angelic, I didn't want to disturb you. We have still enough time. Good morning." He kisses my cheek while I pass him on my way to the bathroom.
"Morning." I mumble. I really need some coffee right now. Luckily, when I come out of the bathroom, freshly showered and fully clothed, breakfast was already brought by the room service. We always take our last breakfast in a hotel in our room, it's our own tradition. The coffee smells great and I drink some eagerly. Richard comes in from the adjoining room with Isabelle in his arms. She looks even smaller when he holds her.
"Did she awake?" I ask, superfluously. As if he would dare to take her out if she was still sleeping.
"Yes, she did. And I changed her diapers." He answers proudly.
I nearly choke my coffee. "You changed her diapers?"
"Yes. Took me awhile to figure it out but I managed."
"I'm impressed." He grins like a small boy, who got his first A in a math exam. Well you could have had that before, Richard Gilmore. Your daughter had diapers too.
"When do we arrive in Hartford?" I ask him.
"Around four PM."
"Shall I call Lorelai and ask her if she wants to come to dinner tonight or do you think we'll be too tired and jet-lagged? It's Sunday so maybe Rory could come to."
"I won't be too tired, Emily, I'm accustomed to this." Yes and usually you're tired as hell.
"Well I won't be either. I'll call her then." I ponder how I'll manage to get her before we fly. It's five AM in Connecticut right now and our planes takes off when it's eight over there. That's too early to call on a Sunday. Well I leave a message on her mobile phone voice mail, hopefully she hears it before we arrive.
Our plane is a little late and I have to admit that I am indeed a bit tired when we arrive in Hartford. The tiredness is wiped away at once though, when Richard and I step out of the security zone and Lorelai and Rory are standing there, waiting for us. Our daughter and granddaughter waiting for us at the airport. I look at Richard and see that he is really amazed by this as well. Well, curiosity really gets out the best of Lorelai, I got to say.
"Lorelai, Rory. What are you doing here?" I ask them when we get close.
"Well Mom, you know, Cat Stevens is going to arrive at exactly this gate in about two hours, so Rory and I decided to come here before to get the real good viewing places." I roll my eyes but secretly enjoy this side of her. It usually means that she's in a good mood and a bit embarrassed for doing something nice for her parents so she ridicules about it.
"Well isn't that nice." I say and move to embrace Rory. I awfully smell like airplane but I got hug her, it's so sweet they came. I really would like to embrace Lorelai too. You normally do that when you come home from abroad and your daughter is waiting there for you. I remember how she came running to us when Richard and I arrived at home and she was a child and how we would hug her close, so happy to see her again, so happy that she was happy to see us, so happy that she needed us that bad. But we won't hug now. I really don't know what it is between the two of us but there's some kind of wall and we can't tear it down. We have to make it smaller, stone by stone. I guess it's not as high as it used to be but sadly we put some fresh stones on it, now and then.
Rory moves out of my embrace and Richard hands me the baby carrier to hug his granddaughter as well.
"So I take it you heard my message then?" I ask my daughter and put a hand on her arm to show her at least that I'm happy she is here.
"Yes, well I heard the phone ringing too, actually." She admits.
"Oh no, I'm sorry Lorelai, I thought you turn off the tone at night. I didn't want to wake you, really I didn't."
"Doesn't matter Mom, I normally do turn the tone off, I just forgot, but I soon fell asleep again." She waves it off. "Now let's look at our newest family addition."
I put the carrier on top of our luggage on the trolley and lift Isabelle's blanket a little.
"She luckily slept during the flight but I'm sure she awakens soon." I tell my daughter and granddaughter who both look at the baby.
"Aww, she's so cute." Rory coos.
"Yes she is, isn't she?"
"She looks like you, mom, when you were a baby." Lorelai says. I look at Richard and we both grin.
"We thought so, too." Richard tells her. „Well, I guess we should go home, don't you think?" He then asks us.
"Will you two stay for dinner?" I want to know from Lorelai. Please say you do.
"We planned to, yes. If you are too tired, however, we can..." She begins.
"No, we're not tired at all, we're glad you'll stay." I interrupt her. She nods, smiling, and we walk towards the exit.
On the trip home Richard and I tell them about the funeral and how we were surprised with Isabel.
"Was it easy to take her with you? She is French by law, isn't she?" Rory asks.
"Yes she is. However, since your grandmother is her only relative, it just took a few formalities which your great-aunt's lawyer had already prepared."
We arrive at home and Richard carries our luggage inside. As soon as we're in the house, Isabelle awakes and begins to fuss. I take her out of the carrier and calm her down. I sense Lorelai and Rory watching me. Rory hasn't ever seen me with a baby, I think, and Lorelai barely has. She did not let me carry Rory around all too often, when she was a baby. She wanted to do it all by herself and in addition, Rory seemed to be taken with me and Lorelai wasn't all too pleased by that at the time. I turn around to face them now.
"Anyone?" I offer them Isabelle. Rory seems a little scared but Lorelai gladly takes the baby in her arms.
"Hey, aw, you're really quite a cutie." She tells Isabelle. The baby however seems not to be persuaded and begins to cry. Lorelai looks a bit disappointed and I have to smile.
"She's just tired, it was all too much for her, so many new people, the flight and leaving her well-known environment." I comfort her while I take back Isabelle. She stops crying immediately. "She probably is hungry too. Richard where did you put her bottle?" I call up to my husband.
"In her bag, right on the top. " Richard calls back.
"Dad fed the baby?" Lorelai incredulously asks.
"Yes and you better sit down, he even changed her diapers!" Now she really looks shocked.
"I wouldn't believe it too at first, but he did really well, I got to say. However I would have loved to see his face when he accomplished that task." I wink at them and we all chuckle.
I get Isabelle's bottle and heat some milk for her. I then feed her and put her back to sleep into her carrier.
"We have to furnish a room for her in the next days. We just took with us what was necessary and buy the rest in the next days."
Richard comes down the stairs, he has showered and put on some fresh clothes. I should definitely do the same.
"Well, Richard you can entertain our guests now, I'm going to re-fresh myself a little." I tell him and go upstairs. While I'm making my way to our bedroom, I ponder which room we'lluse for Isabelle. I neither want to use Lorelai's nor Rory's since I want them to have the possibilty to come here whenever they want. They probably won't take me up on it, but I don't want to cut them of that chance. I already took out a few things of Lorelai's room during the wave of anger towards her which hit me a few months ago. Bui of course it's still her room, I couldn't turn it into anything else. Her things are still in the basement. Except the dollhouse which Richard brought to her one night. We had a major fight afterwards, As if I would have sold it. I wanted her tome here and get it, that's all.
But those two rooms and our bedroom are the best rooms in the house. Hm, I guess we'll take the one beside Rory's, it's large and a lotof light is coming in. No balcony there though. Well maybe it's better that way, I ruefully think.
The shower was wonderful, all the disgusting aeroplane smell washed away and it also had a soothing effect on my muscles. I change and go downstairs to join my family again. The scene that greets me lets my heart swell and I guess this is one of the moments you gladly would die for. Richard sits on the couch with Isabelle in his arms and Rory sits beside him, head on his shoulder watching the baby squealing with delight as they both put on grimaces for her. I just stand a few meters away watching them for a moment when Lorelai comes out of the bathroom and stands beside me.
"Now, who of them is the cutest?" She asks me, grinning.
I grin too. "Tough decision. I guess I vote for Rory trying toentertain both her grandfather and her new...grand-cousin? Great-grand cousin?" I'm confused.
"Hm, Guillome wasmy cousin and Rory and Isabelle are our children, that would make them grand-cousins I guess. Or Isabelle is my grand-cousin. I don't know, Mom but I guess it'll be more like you are her parents and we'll be her sisters or aunts, don't you think?"
"Yes, well, I'm not sure if I want that, I mean we'll raise her of course but we will be around for limited time only you now."
"Mom," she says in her "please don't say something like that"- voice, "You and Dad are going to be around for along time coming."
I smile at her. She can be so sweet. She can.
"I just thought about which room we could use as her nursery." I change the subject."What do you think of the room beside Rory's?"
"Hm, it's nice, but why don't you use my old room? You don't really need a gift-wrapping room, do you?"
"It's not a gift-wrapping room Lorelai." I quietly tell her.
"What did you turn it into then?"
I turn toher. "I turned into nothing. It's still your room."
She just looks at me, comprehending and understanding what I just said and what it means for her, for me, for us. Then she just nods slightly and we both turn back to look at Richard and Rory with Isabelle. Richard notices us now.
"Well, you two, come on you can join us, entertaining that little girl here."
Just as I'm about to go to them, Lorelai holds me back slightly by laying her hand on my arm.
"Thank you." She says and I nod just as slightly as she did before. I walk towards the couch where the rest of my family sits and as I'm already a few meters away from Lorelai she quietly adds: "Mommy." Tears spring to my eyes at hearing that word she now nearly never uses when addressing me. I quickly swallow them. I was always glad that she did still calls me Mom, not Emily or mother like many grown-ups do, especially when they're not on best terms with their parents. But when we were still on better terms she always called us Mommy and Daddy and I'd be all too happy to hear the word more often again. I remember the last time she called me that. We got into a major fight afterwards. I turn to her now again. I no longer want things to be like that between us. But for the time being, I can only try not to fight with her and wait for the right moment to talk. I just hope it'll come.
Coming up: Adjusting to new situations