AN: Some of you will hate me for delaying this but the "action" deserves a chapter of it's own.
"6?" Rory exclaimed, not wanting to believe what the doctor, who's resemblance to Doyle McMasters was almost uncanny, if it hadn't been for the glasses. They were at New York-Presbyterian's private maternity ward, surrounded by wood panelled walls and leather armchairs. The place really would remind a lot more of a hotel room than a hospital room if it wasn't for the medical equipment. "But it doesn't feel like 6," she almost wanted to argue. Having just learned that she was in fact 6 cm dilated by the time she got there, just didn't fit in her head. The contractions were still fairly mild, and infrequent too - was that even possible? Essentially gravity was doing it's job but if there weren't strong enough contractions to help push them out - what would that mean? She'd read about vacuums and forceps and the prospect really didn't seem appealing to her.
"But the babies are doing okay?" Logan asked, looking for confirmation. The doctor, while approved by Paris briefly with a strange combination of "technically qualified" but "annoying as hell" - it was left for debate how much that had to do with the man's doppelganger. For some reason though the doctor didn't make them feel particularly trusting for some reason, neither not quite able to put their finger on the reason.
"For the moment, yes - they seem to be doing fine. We have no cause to worry," the doctor advised. There was just something about the bedside manner of this particular doctor that neither really liked, and without Paris around to order troops around or make changes happen if needed, god knows how she did that in a hospital she didn't even work at, they were at a bit of a loss, almost hoping that Dr. Abioye who had treated Rory a few weeks ago would be back on her shift sooner rather than later.
"But isn't the infrequent contractions an issue? I mean with my first child it was a lot more frequent and that's what all I've read says needs to happen," Rory inquired.
"Not right now. They usually pick up on their own soon enough. As long as the water has not broken, there isn't an infection and the babies are doing alright, there is no medical reason to rush this. The fact that they are further apart and weaker really is quite normal as well - with the uterus stretched out that much as it is with multiples, it sometimes may act a little 'lazy'," he explained, making air quotes, making Rory squint her nose almost involuntarily. "But indeed, if it doesn't pick up in 12 hours or so, we're considering either administering Pitocin or doing a C-section. Dragging this process too long will simply wear you out, and we don't want that," he added with a slight chuckle.
"Is there anything we can do to speed this up? Last time really was horribly long for her," Logan added gesturing to Rory. "We're at least not being sent back home, right?" Logan inquired, really not liking the prospect of that scenario.
"No, not home - with twins there's always a bit more risk so we'll want to keep an eye on you," the doctor replied. "But technically you can try natural methods of increasing contractions," he said as if it was obvious. The two stared at him questioningly, not quite following. "At this stage sex is not permitted, clearly, but nipple or clitorial stimulation has been shown to help," he assured. The fact that this was coming from a slightly awkward looking short middle-aged man made the suggestion probably sound worse than it really was, almost pervy, hence it really took the two a little while longer to actually believe that it had been a genuine recommendation.
"Right," Logan exhaled, not feeling particularly like getting frisky in a hospital room with his wife, 6 cm dialated, and ran his palm over his forehead and neck, as he kept pacing the room nervously.
"I'll send in a nurse to check your vitals once more, get a blood and urine sample from you, and we'll run another CTG in a few hours. Other than that I'll just advise you to rest," he added.
"Alright, thank you," Logan replied and the doctor headed off with a nod.
"At least we know it's really happening," Rory sighed - that alone felt like a relief. "I should call my mom," she added, not really looking forward to it knowing what kind of panic she would set her mother in.
"I'll let Celeste and Honor know. Oh, and Finn texted that he's going over to play with Finny so Maya will get her rest too," Logan added, trying to think who else he might need to call.
Logan headed out into the waiting room to make the calls, knowing that Rory's conversation with Lorelai was likely going to be a lengthy and loud one, like it usually was.
It was as Logan was just stepping out of the room, focused on his phone, he almost stumbled into the male nurse that was just arriving to take Rory's blood sample.
"Sorry," he muttered, his mind preoccupied with everything that was going on.
"It's no problem," the nurse said. But there was something in that voice that made Rory hold off dialing Lorelai's number for a moment. Where did she know that voice?
"Tristian?!" Rory exclaimed, not believing her eyes, as she recognized him. She hadn't seen him in nearly twenty years and the last place she would've expected to see him and in a dark blue nurse's scrubs no less.
"Mary!" Tristan said, smiling broadly, as he came to a halt, having not quite realized whose blood he was supposed to be drawing earlier. He quickly corrected himself, and attempted to focus on his task at hand.
"I can't believe it's you! What are you doing here? Well clearly I can see what you are doing here.., I'm sorry - how are you?" Rory babbled, not knowing where to begin. While it was in a way pretty cool to see him - she was almost beginning to hope he wouldn't be treating her when it came to anything more than getting her samples - awkward would've been an understatement in that case.
"I'm good. Well I work here. Well I normally don't work here, but downstairs at the ER. I'm filling in for a friend today," he replied, setting the items he was carrying down on the table besides her bed.
"From military school to nursing - that must be quite an interesting….," Rory pondered, but her sentence was interrupted by another contraction, only strong enough to really cut her sentence in half, but not to make her groan or make other animalistic sounds she recalled from the final stretches when she had Finny. She clutched onto the bed railing strongly and breathed through the contraction.
"Sorry... ," she felt the need to apologize for some reason.
"No reason to apologize," he commented, clearly being used to seeing all sorts of conditions in his work. "But I'm going to take your blood pressure and the blood sample now, before you get another one," he continued, getting on with his work. It was weird seeing the full grown man that Tristian had grown up to be - his features having aged and his hair a littler silvery on the sides.
"Sure, though it might be a while before I get another one, apparently my uterus is lazy," she laughed, trying to fight the awkwardness.
Tristan attached the blood pressure cuff and measured, but as Rory was not allowed to talk - he answered her earlier question. "I actually was an army nurse before coming to New York, I was mostly positioned in Germany before going back to civil medicine," Tristan explained.
The cuff had now reached its capacity and was squeezing her arm, slowly beginning to deflate as he read the dial for the data.
"140 over 95 - normal when in labor," he commented and marked it down on the computer in front of him.
"I see you've changed names - married?" he asked curiously, as he checked her records to get an ID for the blood sample vial, he was prepping. He'd distanced himself from his family after military school and all Hartford society gossip that he might have heard about the Huntzbergers had missed him completely.
"Yes, and these would be our second and third," Rory replied, stroking her bump.
"That's great, congratulations," he replied, and continued to put on a tourniquet, disinfect her arm and to draw her blood sample.
"You?" Rory asked.
"Divorced, have a 8 year-old though, his name is Jasper," he explained briefly. "And I'll just leave you with this, no rush - within the next hour is fine," he explained placing the urine sample cup in front of her. Again the awkwardness, but he seemed to handle himself perfectly - professionally. She could sense he too was feeling a little awkward at the meeting - but it didn't seem to be as much about the medical situation but simply the fact of seeing her.
"Ah, there's that husband of mine now, " Rory noted, seeing Logan return from making the calls. She wasn't even sure why she was so relieved to see him at that point.
"Logan, I'd like you to meet Tristian DuGray, we went to Chilton together," Rory introduced him.
"Nice to meet you, Logan Huntzberger," Logan replied, shaking his hand. Logan's face was still serious as if dealing with a problem to solve - Rory knew that face well, but she also knew that at this point his determinedness to 'solve' was of little use.
"Tristian and I were just catching up a little," Rory replied.
"Alright, that's it with the tests for now, I need to see some other patients now, but maybe I'll see you around. And good luck!" Tristian replied politely, as he gathered up his things.
"Thanks! It was nice to see you!" Rory said. "Oh, wait - do you know how long that short doctor, what was his name…," she began, trying to recall his name that she kept forgetting.
"Cresswell?" Tristan asked.
"When does his shift end? I'm kind of hoping for Dr. Abioye when this gets closer to action," Rory asked in whisper, pointing at her bump.
Tristan chuckled. "You know you're the second person to ask me that today," he replied. "He should be finished in a few hours," he added.
"Thanks," Rory replied and waved her hand as goodbye.
"Was that the guy that…," Logan began recalling Rory telling him something about some guy teasing her and infuriatingly calling her Mary back in Chilton.
"Yep, that's the one," Rory chuckled, still not believing the coincidence.
"So I called Celeste, Honor, Paris, Finn and Maya. Finny is doing great, just had his dinner and Celeste is coming tomorrow. I left dad a message too. Paris promised to keep an eye on things from the distance, and Honor is flying in on Sunday," Logan gave her an overview. He was unsure what to do with Owen - while in theory he should've called him just as urgently as Honor, but he felt more distant with him and it wasn't like Owen was going to fly over just for this either. Hence he'd decided to call him once it was over.
"Shoot, I never got around to calling mom," Rory recalled, and finally dialled her number.
"Hey," Gigi stood at the doorway of the fourth floor, having heard Finn play with Finny as she was heading upstairs from the kitchen by the stairway.
"Hey," Finn greeted, looking up at her. He'd explained to her how he did enjoy talking to her, but how he needed to make things clear that she wouldn't misinterpret his attention to something it was not.
Gigi hadn't really replied to him much on that note - only huffed about it to herself and Logan in front of Rory. She wasn't particularly proud of herself that she'd done that - but she just had her mother's fiery temper, and sometimes she reacted before she really thought things through. She knew she needed to apologize to Logan at some point.
Finny was exploring his new play kitchen set, while Finn was sat at the tiny child-sized chair and was expected to eat whatever Finny served him. Apparently it was time for some eggs and chocolate cake by the looks of those fake food items Finny had chosen for him.
"Care to join me for dinner?" Finn invited Gigi. He wanted to know where her mind was at - having not really gotten any other reply from her than the notification that she'd read his messages that morning.
"Okay," she replied, going along with Finny's game - "Finny, I would really like some of those apples and pears," she gestured towards the cute felted toy fruits in a basket by the window.
"Tank you," the toddler stated and handed Gigi an apple. He hadn't quite mastered the 'th' combination nor who was the one supposed to stay 'please' and who 'thank you', but it was cute nonetheless. Finny went on to turn the knobs on the toy kitchen, as if getting ready to cook something more. Clearly this particular playroom addition was a success.
"Are you alright?" Finn asked Gigi. He could see that she was hesitant, not quite daring to make eye contact - but yet there she was, when she clearly could've just not come to him.
"I guess," she replied, briefly glancing up at him.
"I really didn't want to hurt you," Finn said.
"I'm just … I don't know…," she began, looking out through the window for a second, eye contact still being difficult for her. "I am just expected to be all grown up - manage without my dad around, graduate early, pick my college and major, make sure I go to the doctor's and dentist, buy my own clothes and tech...or whatever. Yet everyone still treats me by the date of my birthday on my passport," she explained. "In one country I am legally allowed to get a glass of wine with my lunch, here I'm supposed to go lying about it for another five years. In one country I'm treated as an adult who can make her own decisions at age 17, in another at 15 - and it just seems so unfair that some decision maker has just picked a number out of thin air and decided on what I can and cannot do without even so much as a psychological evaluation," she explained, making surprisingly lot of sense for someone who was just 16. It was true, that teenagers matured differently, and unless it was the matter of how she sometimes reacted to things she didn't like - most of the time she was maturer than her age. She wasn't perfect, but even she herself knew that.
Finny came around placing two tea sets in front of the two and poured them both some pretend-tea.
"Thank you," Finn replied courteously, playing along.
Hearing Gigi explain herself, actually did make Finn a little sympathetic of her - some of these things were fairly familiar to him too - Australia having a different set of rules compared to the US as well. And with Gigi, having skipped a grade, these rules were probably feeling even more unfair to an average teenager with experiences from more than one country.
"I just don't want you to get the wrong impression - this is what I am like - I can't turn this off, the choice of words, how physical I am - it can sometimes just come off a little too familiar perhaps. But I don't want you to think that I have anything against you," Finn explained. He almost wanted to add that he liked talking to her - that she seemed to be different from anyone he'd known - and frankly it had been years since he'd spoken to anyone even as remotely interested by the unique set of experiences and views she expressed, but he held his tongue.
"Well, whatever it is, it feels nice - better than some jocks at school who's idea of attention is yelling something after you," Gigi explained.
"But can you see where I am coming from with this?" Finn asked.
"I almost wish I didn't," she admitted, swallowing the lump in her throat that had formed, the notable motion making Finn feel even more guilty.
She hadn't felt like this in her life - dealing with an issue face-to-face like this. But she'd gathered up her courage to talk to him face-to-face deliberately - realizing that if she wanted to be treated like an adult, she needed to correct her behavior where it still resembled that of a teenager. Surely, beginning to identify the place in which she needed to do that in, was a start.
"I feel like I'm on their turf," Logan complained humorously, referring to the babies, having relented to give stimulating Rory's nipples a try, as by midnight she'd barely advanced by a centimeter. Her breasts were firm and very full as it was, and upon touching them, anywhere, not just the nipples, they would leak colostrum, and while Logan had no objection tasting it on occasion when they'd made love before - at this particular moment he had trouble getting the impending situation and the hospital room, however nice and dimly lit at this hour, setting out his mind.
"Come on, Logan - close your eyes or something," Rory instructed, having a little trouble herself to get into the mood, and his doubts were not really helping.
He changed his position, climbing sideways to her bed - thankfully there was still some room. He ran his tongue over her left nipple once more, swirling around it and gently grazing it with his teeth while his palm brushed gently at her other breast, sensing the leaking wetness under it, her wrap night-dress, she'd chosen to wear instead of the hospital gown, opened wide.
"Tell me about the first time we did it," Rory instructed, attempting to make an effort to really get the feel for what he was doing, having closed her eyes. She knew that first time had been special for him, and her no doubt as well. It had been the first time when he'd sensed that he was in it deep - having attempted to push all feeling aside for weeks before that. But it was then he'd realized, that there was no going back - once he'd had her, others just didn't not compete. He'd tried, but it just had never been enough.
"Ah…," Logan grinned with satisfaction, as he observed her impression, feeling a little proud for some reason that she would ask him about that particular time. Sure, he couldn't disagree that the first time had definitely been the most exciting one, but he was fairly sure his performance in bed had significantly improved since then.
"Please," she pleaded, knowing how he liked that.
"I loved how effortless you looked that night," Logan began, "you didn't need heels or dresses or anything… you were incredibly sexy as you were," he added, repeating a barely grazing motion on her nipples with the insides of his fingers.
"And your closeness was just so tempting, every little touch…. And that kiss… well that was just one of the sexiest kisses I've ever had," Logan recalled, kissing her then in present, his slightly feverish lips brushing against hers. "And they way you seemed just so determined to not let me leave…" he added, not parting far from her lips. "Sweet innocently looking Ace showing her true colors for the first time," Logan murmured, Rory then pulling him in for a deeper kiss as if on que. His fingers kept caressing her breasts, feeling her nipples grow harder at his touch.
"Tell me more," she said.
Logan couldn't deny that reminiscing that particular night did help, perhaps too much even, knowing that the bulge forming in his chinos wasn't certainly getting any attention that night. But he wasn't upset about it, how could he - after all he was just returning her a favor and he had no doubt she deserved that and more.
"Your skin felt so soft as I slipped underneath your shirt.. And that the way you gasped as I first touched your breast… I'll always remember that. I knew then I wanted to hear that and more," he recalled, repeating the motion he was describing in reality.
For Rory this was definitely working, the need for a release growing inside of her as he spoke, continuing onwards to describe what she'd felt like to him, how sweet she'd tasted when he'd ran his tongue over her body. Rory knew Logan wasn't daring enough to touch her where she wanted to be touched right now - he was afraid he'd somehow hurt her or the babies, but she took what she could from the way he caressed her breast and rubbed her nipples, on occasion using his lips, tongue and teeth.
Rory let her own hand wander leisurely downwards, feeling the moisture that had formed between her legs - she didn't particularly want to know whether it was that or something more as might be expected during the course of labor, but with caution she applied her clit with some pressure, gently teasing herself, while Logan kissed her, continuing to alternate between gentle squeezes and twists aime at her nipples.
"And the way you felt when I thrust into you, it felt like you'd squeeze the life out of me - it was the most spectacular feeling," he continued to murmur in whisper.
Rory's breathing had grown heavier, more rapid, as her shaky digits brushed up and down her slit, swirling her clit in a circular motion.
"I remember," she said, her voice trembling with excitement, her sentence turning into a low, orgasmic, moan. The orgasm felt different, her whole body seemed to clench, a loud, "ah, aah, aahhh," escaping her lips.
Logan chuckled at her volume, his forehead pressed onto hers, a wide grin on his lips, as she began to make sense of her presence again. Their unconventional bliss on a hospital bed was interrupted by a knock on their door.
"Yeah?" Logan replied loudly, Rory swiftly pulling her wrap dress together.
"Everything okay?" an elderly nurse asked, worriedly, Rory's moan having perhaps been a little louder than intended.
Rory nearly wanted to burst into laughter at that question.
Strangely enough after a release like that she felt calmer than she had in weeks - she knew that one way or another the babies were due. She wasn't as scared as she'd been the first time, and surely - if something had felt as good - it couldn't have been bad for any of them. She felt an unusual amount of trust in her body at that moment, as if relying on muscle memory or something of the sorts. Surely her body would know what this was. And a contraction that hit her next, was confirmation enough. She welcomed it with a completely different attitude - it was one more contraction closer to meeting her girls.