Chapter 8: The torture of waiting…

The ride to the hospital seemed to have taken an abnormally long time to Luke; he breathed a sigh of relief when they finally reached their destination. On the way there, he had contacted Sookie and let her know what was happening. The chef had been relieved to hear from him and didn't reproach him from not contacting her sooner; all she wanted to know is if Lorelai was okay. Luke hadn't had the chance to talk to the paramedics about Lorelai and didn't know if she was actually okay now, but he knew she would be. She was, after all, in very capable hands, not to mention she was a Gilmore.

As he parked, he looked around, trying to find Rory's car, but he didn't spot it.

Where was she? Shouldn't she be here by now? It didn't take long to drive from her grandparent's house to St. Francis's hospital, did it?

He hurried into the hospital, his damp clothes becoming quickly soaked again. In the entryway, he paused.

Where was Rory? He didn't want to take another step in until she was here. Heck, he'd even take one of her grandparents right now.

He wasn't sure when his phobia of hospitals started – he guessed years and years ago, when his father had been stuck in one for months after a stroke, before he died. All those days and weeks… he never got used to the hospital smell, or all the nurses, doctors and families that would visit their loved ones. But what he hated the most was the sick people themselves- his dad and Lorelai excluded. He hated that they were everywhere, sick or hurt. He also hated the hospital gowns they forced their patients to wear. He'd seen one too many moon shots and swore to himself he would never get sick enough to be forced to wear one. There was no way he'd be caught dead showing off his rear end to everyone and their brothers.

Luke sighed as he stared at the admission's desk; he wanted to wait until one of Lorelai's family members was with him, but he needed to check on Lorelai. With a sigh, he walked over to the counter and cleared his throat, getting the attention of a young nurse on the phone. Holding up a finger for him to wait, she quickly finished up the conversation and hung up the phone. Turning to Luke, she forged a smile across her face.

"Hello," she greeted in a too friendly sort of tone. "What can I help you with?"

"Uh," Luke looked around, praying Rory would pop out of nowhere, but she didn't. "My uh," he looked back at the nurse. "My um, my friend, she was just brought in. She'd been in a car crash and I followed them here. I got separated when they took her through the ambulance's entrance… I um…"

The woman nodded understandingly. "All right, sir." She picked up a pen. "Now, were you involved with the accident?"

Luke stood there, stunned for a moment by her question. "What? Me?" He asked. "No, no, no. She uh, she called me to pick her up. I'm the one who called the ambulance."

"Okay, so you're just friends." The woman clarified. "Do you know if any of her family has been informed?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, I uh, called her daughter. She and her grandparents are on their way right now. They should be here any minute."

The nurse nodded. "Good, good." She typed something into the computer. "Has her husband been notified?"

"What?" Luke practically shouted, thrown off by her question. "She doesn't have a husband!"

The nurse stood up, alarmed at his sudden change in behavior. "I'm sorry sir, you mentioned daughter, I just assumed-"

"Well, don't assume! Now," he said, beginning with a calmer voice, "Can you tell me how she's doing?"

The nurse slowly shook her head. "I'm really sorry, sir, but I can't give out that information to anyone but family right now."

"What?" His voice began to rise. "My ex-fiancée was just brought in here after a car accident; she could be seriously hurt, and you won't even tell me if she's all right?"

"I'm sorry, sir," she said wearily, "it's hospital policy. I can't help you."

"I know about the damn policy and I don't care! What kind of hospital is this? I need to see her- I need to know if she's okay, please!" He felt the anger boiling inside of him, but he couldn't stop it. Why wouldn't this woman at least tell him if she was okay? What could be so bad about that?

The lady sucked in a long breath- she'd obviously had dealt with his types before. "Okay, sir, why don't you just go sit down, calm down, and when her family arrives, they can make the decision if they want you to know about her condition."

Luke was about to protest when from the corner of his eye he spotted a security guard. With one last glare, he sat down. He was there a good five minutes before he heard a familiar voice calling his name. Glancing up, he saw Rory running over to him, tears streaked across her face and her arms wide open for a hug.

Standing up, he caught her in his arms, letting her cry for a moment before he pulled her away. "It's okay," he comforted. "Rory, everything's going to be all right, okay?"

Rory met his eyes before nodding. "Yeah, of course she will." She said, wiping away the remainder of her tears. "I mean, she's my mom, she's Lorelai." She gave him a shaky smile. "I just… I don't know. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I mean, I know I got into an accident, but it wasn't anything serious… Oh, god Luke!"

"Rory," Luke cut in. "It's going to be just fine."

Nodding again, Rory turned around as her grandparents walked over; the two Gilmore adults looked unusually tense. Rory hurried over and gave each a hug, before turning back to Luke. "What did they say? How is she? Can we see her?"

"I um, they uh… I…" He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down. "They wouldn't tell me, I'm not family."

Emily nodded understandingly. "I'll be right back," she said as she turned and headed towards the admission's desk, her husband quickly followed.

"How did she seem?" Rory asked. "I mean, was she all right? She didn't have any broken bones did she?"

Luke shook his head hastily. "No, um, not that I know of… she had a pretty bad gash on her forehead, and um, something was wrong with her shoulder. She didn't tell me what was wrong."

"Yeah, mom probably wouldn't." Rory swallowed as she crossed her arms. "When you say a 'bad' gash, what does that mean?"

"Um, it was bleeding and it looked kinda deep, but nothing life threatening…"

Rory nodded. She opened her mouth to speak when she heard her grandmother's shouting from across the large room. Turning around, she saw Emily arguing with a nurse. "Oh no," she muttered, hurrying over to the scene. "Grandma!" She scolded. "What's the problem?"

"She won't tell me what's going on!" Emily complained, sounding like a small child who hadn't gotten her way.

"What?" Rory asked, turning to the lady. "Why not? We're family!"

The nurse shook her head slightly. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to sound like that. What I meant to say is that I can't tell you how she is because she's in surgery at the moment."

"Surgery!" Emily exclaimed, placing her hand over her heart.

"Surgery," Rory echoed, fearing the worse.

The woman nodded. "Yes, she's in surgery at the moment."

Luke cleared his throat, placing his hands on Rory's shoulders. "Do you know when she'll be out of surgery?"

The woman shook her head slowly. "No," she said sympathetically. "No, I don't know, I'm sorry. But, I can direct you to the waiting room and have a doctor come and tell you when they're done."

"Yes," Richard said, speaking for the first time. "Thank you."

Emily and Rory remained behind to fill out the insurance forms, Rory stayed at Emily's request, while Luke and Richard took the elevator to the third level. They walked into the waiting room, finding it completely empty. They took a seat, neither one of them saying a word.

After several minutes, Luke restlessly began to drum his fingers on the armrest of his chair. He wasn't comfortable to be around Lorelai's dad without someone else present. Heck, he didn't like to be around the man at any time! As he shifted in his chair for the hundredth time, he glanced up at the clock. He couldn't believe it was already well past midnight.

"So," Richard said suddenly, causing Luke to jump slightly. "Rory told us you found Lorelai."

Luke nodded stupidly. "Yeah, I um, I did."

"Hmm."

Luke swallowed, feeling as though he were in trouble for something. "Well, Rory called me and told me what was going on. I just thought I should-"

"Do you still have feelings for my daughter, Luke?" Richard asked, not even looking at the man.

"What?" Luke stared at the man. "That's none-"

The doors to the room flew open and Emily entered, followed by her granddaughter. "Richard," she called, "did you know Lorelai had the measles? We vaccinated her- how could she possibly have had the measles?" She turned to Rory for an explanation.

"I don't know, Grandma," Rory said wearily.

Emily scowled. "Why didn't your mother ever tell us she had the measles?"

"It just never came up," Rory said. "I mean, we don't tell you every time we have a cold."

"The measles is not just a cold, Rory," her grandma said firmly. "What if I had been filling out those forms? I wouldn't have known she had the measles!"

Rory looked down, guiltily. "I don't know, I don't think it would have matter with a car crash."

Emily would have continued if Richard hadn't pulled her away and sat her down, doing his best to calm her.

"Are you all right?" Luke asked.

Rory looked up. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's mom who you should be worried about. After all, she is the one in surgery right now. She's the one who found Paul Anka dead and she's the one who's going to get into a lot of trouble from grandma about everything." Letting out a sigh, she nodded. "I'm fine."

"Hey," Luke said gently. "It's going to be okay."

"I know," Rory said. "I just… I just can't help but think if I had only read those messages sooner, everything would have been all right. That maybe she wouldn't have gotten into a car accident. Maybe she would have been fine."

Luke knew she was frustrated with the situation more than anything else, but he heard the tinge of guilt in her voice. "Hey," he said quietly, but firmly. "It wasn't your fault."

A tear sparkled in Rory's eyes as she slowly nodded. Luke gave her a small smile and pulled her into another hug.

"Lorelai will be fine…"

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Thanks Morgann for editing this!

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