Logan had needed to go into the office, his home office lacking furniture by now, to do a proper web conference with the UK office before their work day was through, and had asked Finn to take over making sure the last of their things got moved. But it hadn't gone terribly well, as just as he'd been fifteen minutes into a crisis meeting the power had gone out.
It had really only taken him a glance out of his window onto the 5th Avenue to see that something was up. People walking the streets, everyone climbing out of the subway, cars honking at the nearest intersection and not a single traffic light or ad display lit.
He managed to to place a quick text to Bobby, thankfully the reception didn't seem to be affected where he was. He glanced around the office, considering briefly whether he should hotspot his laptop, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't have been decent quality enough to actually do a multi-participant web conference. Besides, he didn't want to drain his battery, which was already half out having been on the phone almost all morning. He then recalled having a power bank around his office somewhere. He went through a couple of drawers, finally finding the charger.
He was just about to plug it in, but just as it began loading he noticed the text from Rory.
"Power went out. Gigi is stuck in the elevator. Finny is still in the park with Maya," Rory had texted.
He realized there probably wasn't a lot he could do if he did get home, he wasn't exactly an elevator mechanic, but it felt wrong to just leave them there alone like that. He felt he should try at least. With the city in a state of moderate chaos as it seemed, it felt like a good idea to make sure everyone was together. Bobby was just going to have to handle this alone, and frankly he quite liked the blackout providing a convenient excuse for him to step aside. Surely this was something they ought to be handling on their own - it had been in part their convenience of having Logan around to advise and his reluctance to give up full control of the situation - they both needed to learn how to do that.
He went down the fire escape, the 21th floor not exactly being the most convenient location for his office in a situation like this, but thankfully it wasn't higher than that. There were a number of people leaving his office building along the fire escape, some women holding their high heels in their hands already. The problem that rose, however, he discovered as he reached the parking garage. He didn't usually bring his own car to work, often taking Hallam or one of the company drivers as the more convenient option. But there he was, seeing a line of cars in front of him, all hoping to exit, but the line was not moving.
He groaned on the inside, briefly considering his options. It was then he noticed the next text from Rory.
"Are you far? It might be nothing, but I've had two slightly different feeling contractions," Rory had texted, the timestamp showing four minutes earlier than it was now.
"Crap," he muttered.
He made a beeline to the garage exit to see what the hold up was, switching into problem solving mode.
"Hey, my man," Logan greeted the parking lot attendant. "What seems to be the hold up?" he asked, adding, "besides the obvious."
"The system doesn't work so I have no way of knowing who's paid for parking or not," he replied.
"But theoretically the boom barrier works?" Logan asked.
"Yes, but the company deducts mistakes from our wages, besides I just started here," the man explained.
"Listen, it's very important that I get out of here with my car. You see I have a wife at home, possibly in labor," he explained calmly, putting on his best calm face he could master, while on the inside he was nothing but, seeing that the row of angry drivers already in line were really not helping any of it. He showed him the last text Rory had sent as proof. "And I fully understand your concern. However, how about we just agree that I'll have a talk with your supervisors, because they're really not supposed to deduct wages for things like this, this is force majeure. And if they still insist that you pay, I'll pay it for you. And if they cause you trouble, you can come see the HPG for a job, how about that?" Logan assured, offering the man his card.
The man took a deep breath, clearly having been terrified of losing his job, and searched for the key and manually opened the boom.
"Thank you! I owe you, man," Logan added and hastily headed for his Volvo, while the others only seemed to grumble from annoyance as they drove out, when they really should've been cheering.
It would have normally been just a twenty minute drive to their new home, but as soon as he reached the street he realized this was going to take a while. With the power bank attached to his phone he attempted to call Rory several times but kept getting the standard intercept message. It was the worst feeling - not knowing how she was doing.
He tried Finn.
"Everything alright, mate?" Finn asked as he picked up.
"It seems there is some major power blackout," Logan answered, the car radio having explained the situation for him a bit.
"Yeah, same here," he replied, still hanging out at Logan's Upper West Side apartment.
"I'm heading home to check on Rory, I might have to take her to the hospital. Could you do me another favor and head over too, Rory's sister is stuck in an elevator. I'd hate to just leave her there alone in case I need to take Rory in, and Maya already has her hands full with Finny," Logan said, already having a million scenarios going through his mind.
"Sure, mate," Finn added, beginning to worry a little about Rory himself. Finn had a much more direct route, probably with a lot less traffic, to get to Greenwich village than him, having to come to a complete halt for at least five minutes at each larger intersection. Some intersections seemed to be moving on more quickly, however, giving him some hope, if a policeman or in some cases even some volunteers had taken over directing traffic.
"Thanks man, I'll probably see you there," he said, having little hope that he'd make it before he did. It was safe to say he felt nervous, frustrated and anxious, desperately hoping nothing was seriously wrong.
"I'm sure she's alright," Finn added his two sents, knowing his friend well enough. He didn't need to say it for Finn to know that he was worried out of his mind.
He tried Rory's number again as he hung up. Still no answer.
From what had been a situation of Rory trying to calm Gigi, who was not a fan of closed off spaces, currently sitting inside a pitch dark elevator with just her phone that didn't have reception, had turned into Gigi calming Rory, who was clearly experiencing something even scarier.
Gigi really didn't know a whole lot about pregnancy or labor, but by having Rory explain some things for her had distracted her a little. The negative was that she seemed to be having contractions, as as her guidelines she'd gotten from Dr. Norton, she was supposed to go in after having four contractions within an hour. But on the positive she'd had the four but not in an hour. They hadn't gotten stronger, or closer together in the hour and half. The babies, or one of them at least, had been just as active in kicking - surely that was a good sign that they were alright.
Finny and Maya had arrived home some minutes ago, Maya attempting to feed Finny some dinner, as clearly a toddler's stomach waits for no one, and trying to keep him calm while she herself seemed rather worried, pacing back and forth and pondering if she should be doing anything. Now with Maya and her own car accounted for, they'd told the movers they could go. At least there was an adult present.
Rory had probably never been as relieved as she did now when she heard Logan call out from downstairs as he arrived.
"Ace? Where are you?" he called out.
"Upstairs, by the kitchen," Rory replied, her voice resonating over the parlor, the dining area positioned on a half-open floor that overlooked it.
Finn had arrived at the same time, casually glancing around their new place which he hadn't seemed before, after being relieved to see Rory was not in a complete state of panic yet.
"What sort of a strange receptionless place you got here?" Finn asked jokingly, hoping to lighten the mood.
"How are you feeling?" Logan asked Rory, as he knelt by her.
Finny, having eaten, already insisted on a hug from Logan, which he got, though it was not exactly easy to stay calm in front of him.
"Stable it seems, but I think we ought to go check it out just in case," Rory replied, showing him her app which was showing her a "yellow" alert advising to contact her doctor. "But Gigi is in the elevator," she added, gesturing towards her left.
"Hey, Gigi? You okay in there?" Logan asked loudly.
"I wouldn't mind getting out right about now..," Gigi replied. She'd adjusted surprisingly well, having shifted her own worry to Rory instead.
"Hey, Finn, you want to help me try to pull these doors open, maybe we can see where she is?" Logan suggested, hoping they could just quickly resolve the situation.
The two men l pulled on the doors, but they wouldn't budge.
"I think this is the type where you need to open them from the inside. There's like a hook-like connector there holding the doors together," Finn explained.
"Since when do you know so much about elevators," Logan noted.
"I saw a tutorial once," Finn replied with a shrug.
"Gigi, darling, do you think you could attempt to pull the doors apart from the inside?" Finn called out.
Gigi set her phone down on the elevator car floor with the flashlight mode on and tried.
"I can't, I can't fit anything between the doors," she replied a moment later.
"I need to take Rory to be checked out, but Finn and Maya are here, these things shouldn't take much longer to fix," Logan said apologetically, not really knowing what else to try in this case. Surely Rory needed to be a priority in this case.
"Go already," Gigi insisted, beginning to show at least a side of her that wasn't selfish, surprising even Logan.
"Lorelai Leigh Huntzberger, goes by Rory, age 35, 33 weeks pregnant with dichorionic twins. Blood pressure 135 over 80, fetal heart rates A 133 and B 140 bpm. Patient has been experiencing contractions for the past two and a half hours, three in the first hour 10 to 25 minutes apart, second and third hour 15 to 20 minutes apart lasting for about 90 seconds. Cervix is not dilated or effaced. Both babies A and B are positioned in vertex, baby A has dropped to the pelvis. Patient is experiencing back pain, pain scale 4," the intern outlined her chart to the attending doctor. At least they were getting a lot of attention at the hospital - despite the private facilities, it was still a teaching hospital.
"So what do we do?" Dr. Abioye, a woman with a powerful presence in her 40s asked her residents and the two interns in the room.
"Consider administering corticosteroids to help the baby mature and tocolytics to slow the contractions," a tall man, a resident who'd identified himself as Dr. Davenport, answered.
"And I see here on your chart, you don't really have any drug allergies as far as we know, so I agree, that these are our best options for keeping the babies in there a little while longer," Dr. Abioye advised. "Every day we manage to keep them in there is good, the corticosteroids take a few days to work, but this will improve their possibility to breath on their own significantly," she continued.
"What else do we advise?" Dr Abioye asked her younger colleagues.
"Hospitalization until the contractions stop, complete bed rest, pelvic rest, and running urine and blood test," the intern replied.
"Blood test for what?" Dr Abioye continued.
"CBC, fFN," Dr. Davenport replied.
"Good, get on it, "Dr Abioye advised.
"We're doing everything that we can," Dr Abioye said to Rory and Logan, assuringly. This was turning into a very different experience compared to having Finny, but after a day like they'd had they frankly no longer cared as long as Rory and the babies were getting help.
Logan kissed her knuckles in assurance.
Rory was clearly feeling exhausted but at the same time upset - everything was happening so fast. She had an IV of fluids and CTG sensors strapped to her belly. But she wasn't ready for this, she wasn't moved in yet, and on top of everything she worried what Finny must be thinking.
"Everything at home still needs unpacking, there's so much to do," Rory worried, clearly needing to focus her attention somewhere else than worrying about Emma and Leigh.
"I'll call the organizational specialist, the one we had over after you had Finny. I'm sure this is something she could handle," he suggested.
"And you should call Celeste, Paris and mom, but don't tell mom we need help unpacking," Rory added. The last thing she wanted was her mom going through all her things and taking liberties in their placement. She was not in the mood for her practical jokes at this point.
"I will," Logan replied, kissing her temple once more and left the room to make calls just as the nurse came in to take blood and administer the drugs.
It was then Rory noticed the TV in her room, the sound turned off, where the lower third of the screen kept announcing that the power was back up, enabling her to breathe a little easier at least for Gigi. Now it was just left to hope that the drugs worked.