AN: Okay, so this chapter has sat here unfinished for I don't know how long. I kept coming back to it and writing more for it. I knew what I wanted it to be, but just could not get it there. I'm not overly thrilled with this chapter, but I wanted to get out there. I'm hoping not to take as long for the next chapter.
Chapter 25: "Not the flu, then,"
"You're doing good, Grandpa," Rory said, walking with him and Riley around the floor of the hospital a few days after his surgery.
"Yeah, I think you've shaved some time off your record," Riley said, "You're down to a forty-five minute mile now."
"That puts you just behind Mrs. Abalone," Rory told him.
"Well, that's an unfair comparison," Richard said, "Mrs. Abalone had her bypass a full two days before I did."
"No excuses, Grandpa," Riley said, "Time to dig a little deeper."
"Yeah, just picture Mrs. Abalone eating your dust," Rory said.
"This is by far the most absurd conversation I've ever heard," Emily said, joining them when she and Lorelai arrived from getting coffee.
"Come on, it's fun," Lorelai said, "It makes the walk interesting. You've got this, Dad. Beat, Mrs. Abalone."
"Lorelai, really," Emily said.
"It's fine. How's this?" Richard asked, increasing his pace.
"I would say we have ourselves a new slow-walk lead in the cardiac recovery ward," Rory said.
"Do you hear that?" Lorelai asked.
"What the crowd cheering," Riley said.
"Whoo," Lorelai said.
"Go Grandpa!" Rory said.
"Could you all stop. You're making a scene," Emily said.
"So, Mr. Gilmore, congratulations on your recent victory," Lorelai said, holding a pretend microphone out in front of him, "Any opinions on the allegations of steroid use among your fellow athletes?"
"Well, I consider myself proof positive that it can be done and done clean," Richard said.
"Richard, please, don't encourage this," Emily said.
"Well, excuse me for being a little stir crazy and wanting to have a little fun," Richard said.
"You'll be out of here soon enough," Emily said, taking hold of his arm as they continued his walk, walking slightly ahead of their grandchildren and Lorelai.
Arriving at Yale after leaving the hospital, Rory and Riley met up with Tristan and Stephanie at the pub.
"They're forcing you to come back to school," Tristan said, placing an arm around Rory when she sat next to him in their booth.
"Yep, Grandpa should be out soon and they all insisted Riley and I get back to school," Rory told him.
"You've only missed a couple of days, not too much to make up," Stephanie said.
"No, but we did help out a bit," Tristan said.
"Oh, how's that?" Riley asked.
"We have notes from the classes we share and I had Paris give me copies of notes from a class she shares with Rory," Tristan said.
"And we got all your books that hadn't purchased yet," Stephanie said.
"We didn't want you getting stuck with all the used copies with notes other's left behind," Tristan said.
"Thanks, Tris. Save us a trip to the bookstore, I appreciate that," Riley said.
"No problem. It also gave Steph a chance to flirt with Richard's temporary replacement," Tristan said.
"Oh, really. You're into the older professor's now?" Riley asked, laughing as he said it.
"They actually got a grad student to take over for now," Stephanie said, blushing as she looked away from Riley, "And I wasn't flirting. I just recommended a book to him. He was trying to make a decision between a couple different ones and I suggested an Isabel Allende one that I've seen Riley read."
"She is a good author," Rory said.
"You weren't flirting, but that didn't stop you from googling him after," Tristan said.
"I was curious about him. He's taking over for you future Grandfather-in-law. Aren't you interested in knowing more about him to be sure he'll do a good job?" Stephanie asked.
"Not really. Rory and Riley will see to that," Tristan said.
"So, chatting him up and googling him was purely interest in his abilities as an educator," Riley said.
"Well, okay maybe I found him attractive," Stephanie said.
"So my girl has a crush," Riley said, "Whatever will I do?"
"You're not mad?" Stephanie asked.
"Why? It's just a crush right? We've been together for two years, I know we're good," Riley said, kissing the side of her head, "I trust you. Nothing wrong with you finding another guy attractive."
"Really, so does that mean you find other girls attractive?" Stephanie asked.
"On occasion, yes, I've seen girls in passing here and there that I would consider attractive," Riley said, "But, I would never do anything about it because I love you and only want to be with you."
"That's good. I only want to be with you, too," Stephanie said, laying a hand on his cheek to kiss him, "I love you, Riles."
"I love you, too, Steph," Riley said.
"Ready for this?" Riley asked as he and Rory both stood in front of a mailbox, similar envelopes in hand.
"It's now or never, right?" Rory questioned, "Once we send these out, our future is out of our hands."
"Together?" Riley asked, taking her hand in his before tipping the envelopes holding their applications for the Reston Reporting Fellowship into the mailbox.
"And now we wait," Rory said, laying her head on Riley's shoulder when he wrapped an arm around her.
"Now, we wait," Riley said, kissing the top of her head.
"Good luck, Ry," Rory told him.
"You, too, Baby Girl," Riley said as they walked away from the mailbox back to his car.
After dropping off their Reston applications, Rory and Riley went back to her apartment to meet up with Tristan and Stephanie so they could head to Stars Hollow for the weekend. Richard was home and they were having their first Friday Night Dinner since his heart attack that evening.
"Your application is in. How do you feel?" Tristan asked as he and Rory drove to Stars Hollow, following behind Riley and Stephanie.
"Good. I'm still a little nervous about it, but I did my part. I know I'm a good journalist and a good editor," Rory said, "It's out of my hands now. It's up to them to see what I already know."
"And they will. You'll get this, Rory," Tristan said, taking hold of her hand to kiss her ring finger just below her engagement ring, "You deserve it."
Thirty minutes later, they had arrived in Stars Hollow, parking their cars and unloading their things at The Twickham House before walking through town to Luke's. While the other three went inside to say hello to Lorelai and Luke, Rory was kept outside when Lane saw her coming, running out at seeing her friend.
"Woah, Lane, where's the fire?" Rory asked as her friend dragged her towards the gazebo.
"No, fire, I just have to tell you something and I don't want the entire town to hear," Lane said, removing a small piece of paper, folded in half out of her pocket, "So we weren't planning this or anything. It was totally unexpected, but we're incredibly excited."
"Excited by...Oh Lane!" Rory exclaimed, engulfing her in a hug once she unfolded the paper and looked at the image of the twelve week sonogram, "Wait, there's two of them."
"Yep, we're having twins," Lane said, her smiling never leaving her face.
"I'm so happy for you, Lane. This is great. Congratulations," Rory said, "So does anyone else besides Zach know? I can't imagine my Mom keeping this from me."
"Just my Mom and Brian since he's Zach best friend and he lives with us," Lane said, "We only found out a few weeks ago. Remember that flu I had just before Christmas?"
"Not the flu, then," Rory said.
"Nope, it was these two," Lane said, "Anyway, I was waiting to tell everyone until I could tell you and I didn't want to do it over the phone. With your Grandfather and school and everything you've been really busy and I didn't want you to have to come home just for me."
"Oh, Lane. I would have come back in a heartbeat if you asked," Rory told her.
"I know that, but I know you had a lot on your plate so telling you could wait," Lane said.
"So, now that I know does that mean the town can know?" Rory asked.
"Why don't we just start with Lorelai and Luke and go from there," Lane suggested.
"Good idea," Rory said, grabbing her hand, "Let's go."
After showing the sonogram to Lorelai and Luke; Riley, Tristan, and Stephanie were curious to see what they were all so happy about. When Stephanie got a look at the sonogram, she let out a squeal that alerted Kirk to something being up. Within an hour, Miss Patty had been informed as well as the rest of the town. All were excited to hear about the newest VanGerbig's.
Not wanting to keep Richard from being overwhelmed with visitors, Rory, Riley, and Lorelai were outside the Gilmore's waiting for the maid to answer the door. Luke was at the diner while April was out with Jay and Tristan and Stephanie were at The Twickham House looking after Sophie.
"Hello, can I take your coats?" the new maid asked, a timid smile on her face, as they walked into the foyer of the Gilmore's.
"Thank you," Lorelai said, taking off her coat and handing it to her, "You're new. What's your name?"
"Aurora," she said, "Today's my first day."
"Well, welcome Aurora and good luck," Lorelai said.
"Mom!" Rory said, handing her coat to Aurora.
"What! She's entered the lion's den, it's best she be prepared," Lorelai said.
"Hello, everyone, good to see you all," Richard said as they walked into the living room.
"Hey, Grandpa. How are you feeling?" Rory asked, giving him a hug, "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"I feel just fine, dear," Richard told her, "The doctor said it was perfectly fine to get back to my normal routine, as long as I abstain from anything to strenuous. Having dinner with all you is normal and it's what I want to do."
"Well, alright then. It's good to see you out of the hospital and back in everyday clothes," Riley said, shaking Richard's hand before being pulled into a brief hug.
After serving everyone a glass of club soda, abstaining from alcohol since Richard was not able to have any for awhile, the five of them talked about how things were going with Lorelai at the inn and at Yale with Rory and Riley. Richard asked their thoughts on the grad student who had taken over.
"He's pretty good, Grandpa. Knows his stuff," Rory told him.
"He's alright," Riley said, shrugging his shoulders a bit.
"You don't like him, Riley?" Richard asked.
"He just doesn't like that Stephanie has a crush on him," Rory said, "It's not a big deal, Ry. She told you that."
"Yeah, I know. I just can't help, but wonder what she liked about him enough to google him when I'm sitting there in class," Riley said.
"Nothing that matters more than how she feels about you," Rory told him.
After a dinner that, everyone found surprisingly delicious, even though it was prepared with Richard's dietary restrictions in mind, the five of them spent more time just talking in the living room; Rory and Riley sharing with Richard the latest books they were reading.
"So, that dinner didn't suck as much as I thought it would," Riley said when they arrived back in Stars Hollow.
"I know, with all the restrictions Dad is on and the fish kick mom has been on for awhile now, I was expecting to be starved after we left," Lorelai said, "But it was actually really good."
"Sookie recommended the chef. Did you really expect it to be that bad?" Rory asked.
"Well, I guess not. Sookie wouldn't recommend someone who didn't cook good food," Lorelai said.
"True, but 'good' good and 'yummy' good are two very different things," Riley said.
"I guess you've got me there," Rory said, "But at least Grandpa was happy with the food and that's what really matters."
"Right. It's most important that Dad likes the food. He'd drive Mom and extension all of us crazy if he was miserable in his recovery," Lorelai said, "So, have you two given any more thought to joining me for Mia's wedding?"
"I've thought about it and we could do it," Rory said.
"Yeah, it's during spring break so we wouldn't have too much school work to worry about," Riley said, "And I'm curious about her."
"Oh, definitely. Mia has been dying to meet you every since I told her about everything during one of our phone calls," Lorelai said.
"It could be a nice, sort of last family vacation," Rory said.
"It won't be the last, Baby Girl," Riley said, "We'll take loads more trips together, I'm sure of it."
"Yeah, think of all the places you want to show Sophie when she's older," Lorelai said, "We still have lots to see and do together. Just because you're graduating and taking a job, who knows where, doesn't mean we won't still have our time together. It just may not happen as often as we've become used to."
"You're right. So, Mia's wedding," Rory said.
"We're going?" Riley asked her.
"We're going," Rory said.