I definitely used my own birthday for this… #noshame

Also, T-Swift keeps getting stuck in my head. Because I'm (almost) feeling twenty-two.

April 5, 2013

And she will never have to wonder her worth

Because unlike you I'm going to put her first

The excruciating pain and hatred of all things related to sex faded away when Brett placed their child into her arms. "A little girl," he said softly. "This is our baby girl. This is our Lila." Rory smiled with tears in her eyes at the first physical meeting of the little girl they had been talking to for months now. Unable to look anywhere else, she simply stared at the small bundle of red skin that slowly stopped wailing upon contact with her mother's chest. She had vaguely heard the doctor announce that she was perfectly healthy, but Rory couldn't focus on anything else but the gentle weight in her arms.

In a daze, Rory found herself hushing the newborn, rocking Lila as best as she could while leaned back on the hospital bed. The nurses worked busily around them as they cleaned up the space. Lorelai was standing against the back wall, nearly in tears, waiting for them to call her forward. Rory reached out her hand to welcome her mom to her side; she came quickly, sitting on the side of the bed opposite from Brett. "Oh, Rory," she breathed. "She's beautiful."

"She's perfect," Rory said. Brett's hand came up to linger on the infant's head as he repeated her sentiment.

Lorelai shook her head, as Rory expected. "You were perfect," she told her daughter. "But this angel is the closest second I'll ever see." Lorelai bent over her and kissed their foreheads, Rory and then the newest member of their family.

Rory wasn't sure how long the three of them sat there gazing at this bundle of perfection before a nurse interrupted them. "Excuse me, but does she have a name?" The nurse held up a pen with the certificate of birth on the table in front of her.

Brett's eyes met Rory's, and they nodded in silent agreement over the name they had already discussed. "Lorelai Margaret Tyler," Brett announced. "Mom can spell that for you, if you'd like." The eldest Lorelai in the room flushed with pride, both at the continuation of their tradition and Brett's referring to her as Mom, and hurried over to the nurse to ensure Lila's full name was written out correctly. As soon as the nurse had left, Lorelai announced she was going to go find the rest of their family.

Brett smoothed the hair out of Rory's face, looking at his wife instead of his daughter for the first time since the nurse had placed Lila in his arms. Rory looked up at him, and he pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Thank you," he whispered, overwhelmed by the new life they'd created. "I know this isn't what you wanted-"

"Shh." She pressed a finger to his lips. "This was not what I had planned. But this is what I want now. You, and me, and Lila, and I know we haven't even been married for a year, and trust me when I say my doctor and I are going to have a very intense discussion about birth control, but our family is what I want now. I love you, and I love her, and neither of you will ever have cause to question that." Rory's eyes shone up into his before she closed them, pressing a kiss to his lips.

A cough from the doorway interrupted the fragile moment. They looked over to see Luke staring at the floor bashfully, unwilling to intrude. Brett pressed one more kiss to Rory's lips and lovingly stroked Lila's head before heading towards the door, clapping Luke on the back before walking out, presumably to find his own parents. Rory held out her hand to Luke, just as she had to Lorelai, beckoning him forward. "Come meet your granddaughter," she said quietly.

Luke's eyes held the same wonder she had seen when William was first born, as if he couldn't fathom any moment as breath-taking as a newborn baby. Rory patted the side of the bed next to her, and he took her hand as he reached her and sat. "She's beautiful," he told her. "Perfect."

"Do you want to hold her?" Rory asked him. He nodded slowly, reaching out to take the baby from her arms.

"What's her name?" he asked. "You two were pretty quiet with that in the last few months."

Rory was quiet for a moment, watching Luke hold her daughter. The scrunchy red skin of the infant contrasted just so with the telling wrinkles in Luke's face. His lined forehead and the crow's feet around his eyes exposed the extreme extent to which he felt emotion, and Rory hoped that when Lila was in her mid-forties she had lived life to the full, just like her assumed grandfather. "Lorelai Margaret Tyler. We've been calling her Lila." Luke's head jerked up, and he stared at her, a question in his eyes. "Yes," Rory whispered. "Margaret, after her great-grandmother, the woman who raised you."

The moment couldn't be any more perfect. Luke leaned forward with tears in his eyes and kissed Rory's forehead before raising Lila up close to him and kissing her forehead as well. "Lila Maggie," he said softly. "We love you so much."