Logan woke to the sound of Finny's cry - that's how he often woke - followed by a friendly "Bloody hell, you're a loud ankle biter, aren't you? Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's not polite to wake people before noon?" exclaim from Finn, who was clearly not ready to get up.
Logan glanced quickly at his phone to see if there was any news from Rory. There wasn't. He then heaved himself up, and pulled on a robe, walked across the hallway to Finny's room, in passing seeing Gigi still asleep in the nursery.
"I got it, Finn," Logan said, meeting Finny's eyes full of excitement to see him, jolting him out of his bad mood. They'd played the guessing game with Rory for a while, why was it that he often woke like that, while Evie for example, mostly woke with giggles. But the best they'd come up with was that he wanted another awake human being to be around or he was simply hungry. With his appetite the latter was actually quite likely.
"Hey, mate," Finn grumbled, his head hitting the pillow again. "How's Rory?" he then added, clearly not that deep in his sleep anymore after Finny's wake-up call.
"Stabile as far as I know," Logan commented. Surely they would've called, if anything had changed.
"Good," Finn commented and turned the other side, clearly hoping to go back to sleep still.
"Thank you, Finn," Logan said and led Finny to the bathroom to change him out of his wet diaper.
Downstairs Maya had already put a pot of coffee on and was unpacking the kitchen.
"Good morning," Logan said, feeling slightly apologetic for looking like crap, but as they got used to having her around, he was slowly caring less and less. After all he didn't want to walk around his home on tiptoes, he just needed to have hope that Maya was willing to overlook their flaws.
"Good morning, Logan and Finny," Maya greeted. "Did Rory stay at the hospital?" she asked, continuing to place the utensils into the drawers.
"Yes, but she was doing better. Still in once piece," he replied with a sigh. "You really don't need to do that, Maya," Logan added, after having placed Finny into his high chair and observed her, while getting Finny some blueberries from the fridge so he would not get restless.
"I want to be able to cook food here, so this needs to happen," Maya replied matter of factly.
"I know, I'm sorry. We didn't mean to drop all this stuff on you," he added apologetically, running this hands through the side of his hair and down his neck, clearly still exhausted.
"Things happen, I'll tell you if it is a problem, right now this I can handle," she smiled, in passing pouring Finny a glass of orange juice.
"Thank you," Logan replied, meaning it from the bottom of his heart.
"So what do you want, Finny? Pancakes? I could make some for you too, Maya?" Logan offered, feeling the need to give something back.
"I already ate, so not for me," Maya replied, continuing to unpack the plates. She wasn't a woman of many words, but she was no doubt efficient.
"Pancakes it is," he confirmed after getting an excited grin from Finny, who had already eaten half of his blueberries, and began to prep the batter. "And after that we'll go see mommy, okay?" he suggested, the next moment getting a text from Rory.
"Just slept four hours straight, yay. They want to observe me for a day, but if this keeps up they might let me go home in the evening," it said, making Logan hopeful.
"More coffee?" Luke asked as he approached Jess' and Celeste's breakfast table at the diner, having taken himself the Saturday shift. He didn't really do it that much these days, usually just so his staff could have some time with their family or during holidays that he didn't think much of, excluding Christmas when Lorelai dragged her to Nantucket each year, but he'd gotten used to that too over the years.
"Just a bit, thanks," Jess replied.
"You picking colors?" Luke asked Celeste in passing. Evie was sitting besides her munching on her scrambled eggs.
"Yeah, already have it narrowed down to these three, what do you think?" Celeste asked casually, showing him a choice of sage, willow tree and green lily paint swatches. She wanted something simple for both rooms, and a wallpapered accent wall for Evie's room, which she'd already ordered last night, and Jess really had no objections, never having had an issue with her impeccable taste.
"I'd take the lightest, it opens up the place - but that's just me," Luke replied, often prefering to take the safest choise.
She smiled, placing the swatches down. "Jess, what do you think?" she asked.
Luke continued on to offer refills to some other tables in the meanwhile.
"I think these darkers are nice, but then I think we'd need some white for contrast - baseboard, moulding or panelling or something," Jess commented.
"Yeah, but that'll take time, more work," she noted.
"I mean we'll have to add baseboards anyways, we could get white doors or something," he suggested.
"I don't know, I always kind of imagined black to go well with the brick, maybe even black gridded doors and windows for the store, white, while cute, would feel a little out of place upstairs. It would be nice if the building had the same overall style," she discussed.
"Alright then, let's take the lily green then for the walls upstairs, keep the brick as it is, and let's get some simple doors that we can paint. So that'll leave us with some options," he suggested.
"Sounds good," Celeste exhaled, offered Evie a sip of her water and glanced at her phone for time.
"You think you could drop me off at the Dragonfly on your way to the construction store?" Celeste asked. Her feet were a little sore from last night, having worn a new pair of shoes to the wedding. She'd brought a spare pair as she usually did, but still, the damage from a busy day of simply not having much chance to go change, had done it's job.
"You know, we really should probably get you a car of some sort now that we're here. And I know - you'd like to walk everywhere, but you have to admit that on occasion it might prove useful. Getting Evie to the doctor's or go to Walmart or something. Besides, when I go on my book tour in the fall for a bit, I would hate you to be completely without transportation," he said.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were going on a book tour," she reacted, the subject of a car having almost missed her after hearing the mention of the tour.
"Nothing long, but it would make sense to do it. I've usually done a quick few weeks along the East Coast, and maybe a quick trip to Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus…," he added, feeling a little apologetic for not having made that more clear earlier. But surely by now she should've known how these things worked, having worked a bit at Truncheon herself.
"Yeah, alright, I should've figured…," she admitted. Somehow she'd just been so preoccupied with other things that this scenario had quite slipped her mind.
"I'm sure I can do it in bits, not all at one go, so the maximum I'd be away is maybe ten days or something," Jess added.
His book was nearly done, just needing some final touches, then another round with Lauren. He even had the design done. It was really just the matter of sitting down for a few weeks, which he hoped he could do once he got the house in a state that was livable. And while he was never a huge fan of promotional activities concerning his books, he knew they were vital, especially now if he hoped that it would actually provide for them, making up for at least a part of what he'd lost by letting go of the manager position.
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Celeste replied. It wasn't like Jess hadn't been away at all before. This was just in a new place, and without Rory not around, and she realized she might feel a little lonely. But this was life - she realized that - this was about new experiences and perhaps even new aquantances, after all she did know some people in this town already.
"So we'll go look for a car one of these days, okay?" he reminded her.
"Yeah, okay," Celeste replied reluctantly. After having driven in Stars Hollow a bit with Lorelai's SUV, she felt a little bit more comfortable at the thought. Still owning her own car seemed a little frightening to her. But she got it - if she was alone and needed to take Evie anywhere other than the daycare, it would come in handy - Jess made sense.
"I'm not going anywhere now - we'll have the place fixed up before that, I promise," Jess assured, seeing her go a little thoughtful, stroking her hand.
"I know," she replied, knowing inside that no matter how short the time, she was still going to miss him painfully. She leaned over the table and kissed him then.
Luke glanced at the two from behind the counter, smilingly shaking his head, almost wanting to say "get a room", but didn't. To him it was amazing to see the way Jess had transformed over the years - from an angry teen to this. He just hoped Jess himself knew how lucky he was.
"Yes, mom," Rory grumbled, having already been on the phone with Paris and after that Lorelai for a good thirty minutes explaining the events of the day before. "For now there are no more contractions, my vitals are good, the babies were good an hour ago when they took the CTG off, they're taking turns kicking," she assured her.
"Do you need me to come over? I can help," Lorelai offered, clearly worried out of her mind. She'd called last night too, but thankfully Rory had turned the volume down to get some rest.
"I don't need you to come over, Logan is there, Finn is helping out, we have Maya, we'll be fine," she added, not aiming to mention anything about hiring a specialist to help them get settled into their new place. The truth was there was a lot more to do than to simply unpack. It was a matter of getting organized in a way that would mean Rory would have to move as little as possible, for what was hopefully a few weeks and once the babies did come so things would be located in the least time consuming way possible.
"Are you sure? Because I could take a few days off..," she began, knowing that she could probably ask Celeste to cover for her now that she was in Stars Hollow.
"I'm sure," Rory assured. "Oh, here's Logan and Finny now," she mentioned, noting the little boy rushing to her from the doorway.
"Alright, but I'm coming next weekend, okay?" Lorelai insisted.
"Fine! Bye!" Rory replied, her attention already elsewhere. Her relationship with her mother was odd - it had cooled off and then picked up again, but as soon as they seemed to be getting closer, Rory had again felt a little strangled, and now especially, when she had enough to worry about without Lorelai worrying about her.
"Careful there," Logan said to Finny, who was already climbing onto a chair to climb into bed with Rory. "Hi," he added, kissing Rory.
"Hey," she replied, scooting over just a little so Finny could fit in bed with her.
"How are you feeling?" Logan asked.
"Pretty good, a little tired still," Rory replied, stroking her bump. "Was Gigi okay?" she inquired, having worried about her.
"Oh yea, found her sleeping in the nursery," Logan replied smugly. He wasn't sure what to read into it other than she'd clearly been involved in getting Finny to bed and interacting with Finn, as he had just barely exchanged a 'good morning' with her in passing in the morning as he'd been busy dressing Finny to go.
"We talked quite a lot yesterday, I don't know, maybe I was judged her too fast…," Rory admitted.
"Well, good," he commented, stroking her arm.
Finny had snuggled into her side comfortably, clearly having missed her already.
"So any hope in getting you out of here?" Logan inquired, glancing around hoping to catch one of the doctors or nurses.
"They'll give me another injection around 5 PM, and then after a few more hours if things look good, maybe," she replied, feeling optimistic. It had been such a relief when the contractions had stopped, and frankly she just didn't want to go to the 'what if' world in her mind, and kept trying to focus on the best possible prognosis. It was like being voluntarily naive, trusing herself entirely in the hands of medicine. She hadn't even googled the drugs she'd been given as she usually always did, just to not worry even more.
"You're being very brave," he added, kissing her temple.
Rory looked at him then, and he could see she was really just barely holding on in there and that she was scared. It was perfectly understandable - but it really wasn't the right moment, with Finny right there, to go exploring her feelings about this.
"Now, Finny, do you think we should show mommy what we brought her from Magnolia's?" he said, changing the topic, hoping this would cheer her up a little at least. He knew Rory probably wasn't supposed to be indulging on a lot of sweets, but he'd brought her a compromise - one of her favourite chocolate cheesecakes but just in miniature form. There was a cupcake for Finny and a vegan brownie for himself.
"You're such a tease, you know that?" Rory grumbled as she glanced at the size of cake, feeling thankful for the distraction Logan was providing. She really needed that.
Jess was just browsing the Doors Windows section at Home Depot, the store radio blasting Van Morrisons's 'Brown Eyed Girl, which Evie, who was sitting in the shopping cart, was clapping her little hands to, clearly enjoying the store's choice of music.
"So what do you think, Evie - these doors or these?" he asked, half jokingly, gesturing towards two alternatives he'd picked out from a long row of samples, hoping to keep the kid entertained. Shopping with a toddler in tow wasn't the most convenient way to do this, but Evie had been surprisingly co-operative, having a lot to look at.
Evie didn't really get the point though, she was clearly too young for that, but Jess continued his one-sided banter nonetheless.
"Yeah, you're right, this is a bit too rustic," he noted, writing down the model code for an unfinished 3-panel door with a matching casing, and headed towards the service desk to have the doors delivered. He tried to think ahead, trying to count in his head how many doors they would need in total, hopefully not having to come back to this particular aisle again.
He'd already stacked the cart with several gallons of paint, masking tape, rollers and extensions and so forth, and frankly he was feeling rather proud of himself, having gotten all of the things he'd wanted.
"Excuse me," he approached the consultant. "I'd like to place an order for ten of these," he said handing over the model code. He continued discussing the choise in handles and locks for a few of the doors, finishing the order up soon enough. "I read you guys also do custom doors and windows," he began, wanting to see what his options were when it came to replacing the garage doors with something a little bit less technical.
"We do," the consultant replied, "but I won't lie, the delivery time tends to be months in that case. But if that's not the issue, we have the catalogue right here, or you can check the homepage. Our guys usually can come and take the measurement within a week or so, but the actual production is a little backed up during the summer," he explained.
"Right," he groaned disappointedly, suddenly recalling what it was like around here with anything that didn't come readily made.
He then turned and came to a sudden halt. Evie was giggling away with another girl about her age, sitting at a cart next to her, the cart's owner clearly just being just a dozen feet away at the end of an aisle.
"Grady, I'm not going to tell you again - get off from that ladder," he said.
"But dad..," a disappointed complaint could be heard.
It was then Jess recognized him.
"Of all the gin joints…," Jess commented, not really knowing what else to say or do. The history wasn't exactly buddy-buddy, to put it nicely, but in the change of situation at least from his side there was even a certain nostalgia to it.
"Jess, what in the..," he exhaled, clearly feeling a little puzzled.
"Just shopping with my daughter Evie here," Jess explained, somewhat proudly, as if that was some kind of proof that he was a better man now.
"Well you're certainly the last person I expected to see today," Dean said, looking back for the boy, that he was talking to earlier. "Grady, do I really have to come back there again?" he called out, shaking his head, adding simply - "kids," as if it was self-explanatory.
"So you still live around here or something?" Jess asked. He wasn't even sure why, surely he could've just slipped away without any small-talk to speak of, but the girls were certainly enjoying each other's company and he hated to just break them apart without a good excuse.
"Just helping my dad with some home renovations," he replied. "And these are Grady and Mia," Dean then introduced, as the roughly 8-9-year-old appeared from the aisle reluctantly dragging his feet. "And you?" he asked a little awkwardly, but clearly seeing as well that Evie and Mia had already broken the ice.
"I'm actually just in the process of moving back, my wife and I are fixing up the old fire station," Jess shared.
"Oh, that's a pretty cool building," he commented, actually sounding a little impressed.
"Yeah, it is, but it seems making it cool is a little challenging with the selection around here," he added sarcastically, slightly elevating his voice.
"What are you looking for?" Dean asked, surprising himself how normally this conversation was going.
"I need custom doors and windows to replace the garage doors for starters. My mom's husband is a carpenter, but its out of his league," Jess replied, realistically assuming that Dean probably knew a thing or two about TJ-s abilities.
"You know, there was this tiny company, Berh or Bergh or something like that, in Beacon Falls that did something like that. At least they exsisted a few years back. They specialize in display windows and that type of larger projects. Tom, the contractor I used to work for, sometimes ordered from them, I think they even did the winter garden for Lorelai's Inn Annex," Dean said.
"Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it," Jess said appreciatively, glancing back at the girls, who had by now already switched their toys and were in the process of witching them back.
Dean smiled widely at his daughter, clearly simply enjoying to see her having made a friend, even if it was just briefly. "It's funny, how it's so simple for kids," he added.
"Tell me about it, Evie is just friends with everybody, she's been to the daycare in town once and already she's waving at half the kids in the playground, but I guess that's good because she's known Rory's kid since birth and I bet she's going to miss him once we move," he added.
"So you see Rory a lot?" Dean asked. "I saw the Times piece on her, looks like she's done pretty well for herself," he added.
"I do, my wife and Rory are BFF-s believe or not," Jess added with a smug smile.
Dean chuckled, adding, "well that's got to be interesting."
"You have no idea," Jess smirked, not beginning to elaborate how much of an understatement that was.
"Well, if you see her, tell her I said 'hi', but I better get going. Got to get some lumber before my other kids get bored outside at the playground," he gestured towards the exit.
"I will," he promised, adding, "and thanks for the tip on the company," and said to Evie, "say bye-bye to Mia, Evie."