Okay everyone. This chapter is wholly dedicated to Jessica Thompson who is now my all time favourite reader! She took the time to e-mail me and totally made my day. I promised her that I would write a chapter when I got home, so when I walked in the door at 11pm, I didn't think I would do it and then suddenly found a second wind at 1:30am. So here it is, complete (though not checked over-so please excuse any mistakes as I would check it if I weren't almost asleep) and I'm relatively happy with it-though I would like it to be slightly longer. Signing off at 4:26am, about to fall asleep on top of my laptop with my lamp and TV on.
Lorelai went upstairs later that night to find Lailah sitting on her bed, looking out her window with her book closed next to her, seemingly thinking hard about something. Lorelai leant against the door frame, just watching Lailah obliviously staring at the setting sun for a while before breaking the silence and making her presence known to the teen. "Room looks good so far."
They had decided that they would paint later that week but set everything else up as it would be when they were finished. Lailah loved how it all looked, and immediately started hanging out in there instead of always being around the family. It was a little odd that she'd suddenly changed it up as she had but Lorelai just reassured the others that Lai could be like that, and they all went their separate ways to do their own things. Lorelai was only up to check on the teen as she'd not come down once in hours. "Yeah, I love it." Lailah replied none too enthusiastically with a small smile.
The woman pushed off of the doorway and stepped into the room, heading towards Lailah's bed. "What's wrong gorgeous?" she asked, sitting on the bed and pushing a piece of hair out of Lailah's face.
"Why me?" she asked, playing with her book and not looking at Lorelai.
The frown was etched deep into Lorelai's brow as she looked at Lailah, slightly taken aback by the question. "What?"
Lailah finally looked up at Lorelai, searching her eyes. "You can't have kids anymore, so why me? Why adopt a damaged teenager and not a baby? What made you choose me?" her eyes weren't emotional in the slightest, simply seeking out an answer to the question she'd been beating herself up with for days now.
Lorelai didn't really know what to say as her mouth opened and closed, looking for an answer in the messes of words bouncing around in her mind. Finally she looked Lailah dead in the eye and said with resolve, "Because you're mine. We love you, all of us. You are so special to this whole family and after talking to you all that time we just knew we wouldn't be whole without you."
The teen looked down at her lap for a moment then looked back up at Lorelai while she shuffled in her spot uncomfortably, "Yeah, but you could raise a baby, have it turn out like you. A baby would never be as fucked up as me."
Lailah's Mum's arms went around the girl before the thought even got to run through her mind properly. "Don't even let your mind go there, Lai. You're the only person we want to add to our family right now." Lailah nodded against Lorelai's chest, her nose taking in the scent that was only something Lorelai could smell like; Home. "What you reading?" the woman asked, her arms still around Lailah as they sat back against the headboard of the queen sized bed. Lailah held up the book to show Lorelai the cover, "The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight?"
"Yeah, it's really good."
"What's it about?" Lorelai asked while she smoothed her hand over Lailah's curly hair, playing with the bottoms which naturally turned into ringlets.
Lailah shifted so that she was leaning on Lorelai more and sighed at the feel of her hair being played with. She'd always loved it when her grandma would tuck her in and play with her hair or rub her back as she fell to sleep. "It's about this girl and this guy who meet at the airport when they're both going to England, and basically it's just set in a twenty-four hour period where they get to know each other and fall in love. It's really good."
Lailah smiled and opened the book again, playing with the edges as she only got to read the next sentence before Lorelai pulled the book from her hands and started turning it over, playing with the corners a bit herself before asking Lailah, " How long you had this one? it's pretty ratty."
The teen shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the book back, reopening it to where she was up to. "I haven't had it all that long, just read it a lot. It's really good, maybe you can read it when I'm done this time." She suggested.
"Sure, I need something good to read."
"Okay, well I'll bring it to you in like an hour."
Lorelai looked at the book which was still opened and only around a hundred pages in, with around three hundred left. "You're worse than Rory." Lailah nodded frantically, drawing a small laugh from Lorelai. "Anyhow, put that away. Dinner time."
The brown eyed girl shook her head with a pout while Lorelai pulled at her hand. Finally Lai pulled her hand out of Lorelai's grasp, "No, I'm not hungry. My tummy hurts." She put her now free hand to her stomach.
Lorelai's eyebrows furrowed and she looked down at Lailah, trying to decide whether she was just fibbing to get out of going down stairs and having to stop her book. When she saw the frown on her daughters face and the honest pain in the way she was holding her stomach, remembering back to how she'd been mysteriously holed up in her room all afternoon. "How long it been hurting?"
"Since like lunch time. I think I pulled something while I was running. I'm totally gonna take what dad said into consideration next time I'm stretching. Not feeling too pretty right about now."
Lorelai held her frown in place but appeased Lailah, leaving the girl laying down as she made her way to the door. "Fine, but I'll be back later to check on you."
Lorelai left the room and Lailah went back to reading, happily laying on her bed with her book. It was only when she finished an hour and a half later that she really felt. She pushed through the pain and picked up The Boy Who Sneaks in my Bedroom Window from her bookshelf, replacing it with the Statistical Probability and going back to her bed. Seeing as the light was fading from the sky, she turned on the two lights by her bed, painfully changed into a pair of summer pyjamas and slipped under the covers, curling up on her side and starting in on her new book.
Lorelai checked in silently from the doorway every hour, finally going to bed four hours after dinner, completely drained and ready to crash out for a solid eight hours, if not more.
Lailah was up for those four hours, trying to stay in the same position as not to irritate her side. Eventually she finished her book and closed it, simply dropping in onto the floor, not caring how it landed so long as she didn't have to move. Her lamp was just in reach which she was unbelievably grateful for, and she reached up, biting back a yelp of pain as she switched it off, laying her head as comfortably on her pillow as she could and closed her eyes, hoping for sleep to come.
At two am Lailah was still awake, sweating and crying because of the horrible pain in her stomach. She had figured earlier that she had simply pulled a muscle and when the pain only deepened and started to hurt all the time, she thought that maybe she was getting her period super early. Though when it kept her up and she had it both aching and shooting pain through her entire torso, she knew that there was probably something wrong. A particularly sharp pain shot through her and she started sobbing, holding her stomach as securely as she could without hurting herself even more. After laying though another half hour of the pain she finally gave in and resigned herself to the fact that this was serious. "MUM!" she screamed, the pain evident in her voice. "MUM! HELP!" she started sobbing and holding herself again, the screaming having jolted her and caused her more pain.
Lorelai burst into the room, slightly out of breath after running as fast as her legs would carry her, Luke tailing her as fast as he could go while behind her. "Lai, what is it?" Lorelai asked, jogging around to face her daughter, kneeling on the floor in front of her. Luke came to stand behind her, acting dutifully as the father and partner he is.
"It... it hurts Mummy. Please make it stop." Logically, she knew that Lorelai couldn't just magically make her body stop hurting, though that didn't stop the little girl in her from crying out for the comfort she'd always wanted.
Lorelai looked up at Luke worriedly, pulling down the covers to inspect Lailah. The teen was covered in sweat and clutching at her stomach. "Your belly?" she asked, trying to pull Lailah's hands from where they were pulling at her tank top.
Lailah looked at her mum with wide eyes, full of pain. "No, no, don't make me move!"
"Just let me look, baby. I'm trying to help." Lailah finally gave in and Lorelai pulled her hands away, tugging her tank top up to just under the girl's chest as to keep the girls modesty in front of Luke. Her stomach looked fine, maybe a little more bloated than normal but then again that could just be from her laying down. "Where does it hurt?" she asked tenderly.
"My tummy." Lailah moved to cover her stomach with her hands again.
Lorelai pulled Lailah's hands away from her damp skin, "What side?"
Lailah pointed to her right side, sobbing more heavily when Lorelai nudged her onto her back. "Here."
"Shit." Luke cursed, pushing past Lorelai and standing by Lailah's side with a worried look on his face which Lorelai knew meant bad news. "Okay, Lai, this is probably gonna hurt but I need to check, alright." Lailah shook her head with wide eyes, silently pleading with him not to do it. Lorelai grabbed the girls hand and smoothed her hair back.
Luke pressed down lightly but still enough to be felt on the space just below Lailah's belly button and just above her pubic bone on the right side, holding his breath as Lailah cried out, gripping Lorelai's hand tighter. He let go and the teen screamed at the top of her lungs, the note being broken by a sob half way through. "STOP!" she screamed.
"Okay, let's go." Luke said, "Lorelai, go tell Rory we're going to the hospital and ask to borrow her car. Get our stuff from downstairs and I'll get Lai's stuff. We need to go, NOW!" they both ran off in opposite directions, meeting back at Lailah's bedside, both still in their pyjamas with their jackets on and pockets full of all things necessary. Luke handed Lorelai a jacket and sweatpants out to Lorelai for Lailah, her ugg boots in his hands ready to go on her feet.
Together, Lorelai and Luke pulled back the blanket and gently slipped on Lailah's ugg boots as not to jostle her too much. Rory was leaning against the doorway, watching concernedly while her little sister was prepped to go to the hospital. Luke warned Lailah to grit her teeth for a minute and he quickly gathered her into his arms as gently as he could. On the way out Lorelai was stopped by Rory who handed her the keys to her prius and a patchwork blanket that Lorelai had made for her when she was a baby. "We'll call when we know more. Love you." Lorelai kissed her eldest daughter on the forehead and ran downstairs after Luke and Lailah.
When she got to the car Luke instructed her to sit in the back seat with Lailah and she didn't need to be told twice. She climbed into the seat and put her daughters head on her lap, handing the keys to Luke and slinging the blanket over the whimpering teen. They drove to the hospital with Lailah crying out in pain at every jolt and bump that the car took. When they finally got there, Luke pulled her out, making sure that her right side was facing out so that the doctors could get to it. Lorelai was glad that Luke had been through this before as she hadn't and she wasn't too sure how she would have coped if he hadn't of jumped into hero mode.
The emergency room was full to the brim and Lorelai pushed through the crowd, clearing a path for Luke to carry their daughter through to the desk. Lorelai bounded up to the counter and beat against it until the woman looked up, "My daughter, it's her stomach..."
Lorelai was cut off by Luke as he came up directly behind her, "It's appendicitis. My other daughter had it."
The nurse's eyes went wide and she called something into the office behind her. The middle aged woman ran out of the door next to the office window and examined Lailah, the teen still crying and calling out to Lorelai when the nurse poked at her side. "Alright, we need to get her into surgery right away. It feels as if her appendix is about to burst." Almost as if it was cued, a crew of nurses in scrubs came out with a gurney and loaded Lailah onto it from Luke's arms which elicited another cry from the girl at being removed from her parent's arms and presence.
"It's okay baby. We'll be waiting right here, I swear, we aren't going anywhere. I love you!" Lorelai had been jogging alongside the gurney, holding her daughter's hand before she was pushed through a set of doors that she was instructed she couldn't go through. She turned to Luke with a slightly distraught look on her face, to find him looking concernedly at the doors their daughter had just been taken through.
"It will be okay." Luke comforted Lorelai, putting his arm around her and guiding her to the waiting room closest to the doors with a sign saying that it is the surgery waiting room. Lorelai simply nodded and leant on Luke's shoulder, simply waiting for Lailah to be brought out.
An hour and a half later the doors opened and a man in blue scrubs came out with small drops of blood on his top, and a mask around his neck. "Family of Lailah Gilmore-Danes?" he asked as he approached the couple, one hand held out to Luke after they nodded. "Dr Charles-Stamford."
"How is she?" Lorelai asked, hugging Lailah's jacket to her and clutching at Luke's arm as they stood.
The doctor nodded with a small smile on his face. "She is absolutely fine. We got in just in time. Her appendix was about to burst when we got to it. You are very lucky that you got her in when you did." Lorelai sighed with a hand held to her chest and a small smile on his lips. The doctor rubbed her arm for a second and then withdrew his hand to clasp both in front of him. "We removed her appendix with a keyhole surgery, which usually would only leave small scars but due to the size of her appendix when we got to it, there was some taring to one of the incisions which will take a little longer to heal and will leave a larger scar, though I think the real point here is that we got to it just in time. You have a healthy and may I say; very beautiful daughter." The doctor turned to depart and Luke and Lorelai wrapped each other in their arms. "Oh, and she should be awake in a couple of minutes. You can go right ahead and see her. Room 351."
The couple nodded, collecting their stuff and rushing to their daughter's room. They entered the stark white room where there was a shock of brown hair spread out on the pillow with the white blankets turned down and an ugly hospital gown wrapped around her body. They could see her pyjamas in a plastic bag on the bedside table next to her. Lorelai laid the blanket across Lailah and sat. Once she was comfortable in the ugly hospital chair beside the bed, she reached for Lailah's pyjamas. She pulled them out of the bag, and laid them across her lap.
Lorelai's mouth gaped open and se glared at the clothing. The top was completely split up the middle and the shorts were cut down both sides. Left in the bag was Lailah's cut knickers. "I spent fifty dollars on these two weeks ago. She was already knocked out, couldn't they just take them off?" Lorelai said, holding up the top and bottoms, demonstrating that they were ruined by letting the pieces drop.
"You paid fifty dollars for a tank top and shorts?" he asked, appalled at the cost of such small pieces of fabric.
Lorelai shrugged and put the clothing back in the bag and reminded herself to send Luke home to get more clothes for Lai in the morning. "They're from Paul Frank, and Lai wanted them. You've seen the puppy dog eyes."
Luke smiled a little in Lailah's direction before snapping his head back to Lorelai, "Yeah, I know the puppy eyes. I still wouldn't spend that much on a pair of pyjamas though."
There was a small, weak laugh from the bed and both sets of eyes snapped to Lailah as she woke up, "We'll see. I'm gonna need a new set after this anyhow." Luke and Lorelai laughed before standing and walking to Lailah where they both grabbed a hand from opposite sides of the bed.
"Babe, we'll buy you anything after the scare we just had." The blue eyed woman said with moist eyes as she looked in the tired eyes of her brown eyed daughter.
Lailah yawned and pulled her hand up to cover her mouth, though she stopped when a stinging pain shot through her, which Lorelai reminded her were the stitches from the surgery. "Maybe I'll think about it while I sleep." The teen suggested and closed her eyes, both hands still clasped in her parents with one of Lorelai's hands in her hair, and one of Luke's on her shoulder.
She'd never felt safer or more at home than she did as she drifted off, not hearing Lorelai say, "Yeah, baby. You sleep and we'll watch over you."
Just a small ending note from your favourite zombie writer. ;)
Quote inspired by the movie I'm watching right now (Hint there already):
"Oh, wow, I forgot you're fifteen." –said by Jennifer Aniston... now, what is the movie?