"Now one more push, Rory," Dr. Abioye instructed.
To Logan the power with what Rory had carried through the night, humming at her contractions, yet somehow still managing to nap in between, had seemed almost primal. It had been 6.15 when she'd been rolled into the operating room, the sterile conditions not particularly helping either of them to relax, but somehow Rory still had managed - for the past hour she'd almost been unreachable - being in a mindset of her and her alone. He wasn't even sure if she heard his encouragement. Rory was doing this drug-free, just like last time, despite having had the epidural catheter inserted in case there was an emergency.
Birthing naturally in an operating room wasn't the easiest thing to do - everything reminding how controlled this was and how forceful and quick the intervention could be if anything did go wrong. But neither was going to argue with having help at hand. There were so many people in the room - two of everybody - and this was why it was probably better that Rory zoned herself out.
At the next contraction Rory almost roared, and with that baby A was out, the baby screaming way louder than Finny ever had. The newborn, covered in vernix and blood, was positioned on to her chest, the cord still attached, and it really wasn't just Rory who was crying tears of joy.
"Hi, Em..," Rory panted, nudging the baby's wet hair with her cheek, not caring if that left her stained. Logan used the moment to grab a few photos, knowing that they'd regret it later if he didn't, but he really wanted to just be in that euphoric moment. Logan touched her little fingers, and he could swear she looked up at him first - her eyes being brown like his. Emma was surprisingly large for the gestational age and for a twin, at least larger than Logan had expected. He recalled the size of Evie roughly at a few days of age after she'd been born, and Emma was actually a little bigger. But he knew it could be in part just the puffiness from the amniotic water at this point.
"Rory, looks like you're lucky - baby B clearly wants to follow her sister's lead," the doctor described as the baby had descended. This was a relief to Rory - while vaginal birth had it's inconveniences it was a much easier recovery in most cases compared to surgical interventions which she desperately had hoped to avoid. Rory naturally felt exhausted, but the energy boost she'd gotten from seeing Emma, had helped. The second sac had not broken, so that was done for her, and frankly it felt strange experiencing that gush of water the second time that morning.
"When you feel the next contraction, and you feel like you need to push, you can, but just a a little, okay?" Dr. Abioye instructed.
Before that happened, Logan cut Emma's cord and watched her as she was transferred onto the examination table to clean her up and check her vitals. But Logan had a good feeling - Emma looked good. Just as he momentarily forgot himself staring at the little girl while she was weighted - 4 lbs 16 oz, he heard Rory groan again. The other twin wasn't far behind, and he took his spot besides her again - but already, he felt conflicted as if wanting to be with both of them.
"You're doing great, Ace," he assured her, taking her hand again, as he had held it before. "Half way there," he added.
She pushed a few more times, this one feeling much easier to push. Just for a second she thought - she was doing this for the third time! It was strange how that way of thinking assured her - she'd done it twice, surely she could do it once more - even if she felt she had hardly any power left in her.
The second baby was born 12 minutes later than the first. However, what Rory expected to hear was a cry and that didn't come, a momentary panic setting in her gut. But as the cord was still intact and the nurse did place her onto her chest just the same, she breathed a little easier.
"Just for a moment, we might need to help her a little more," the nurse explained.
"She so much smaller," Rory noted, almost beginning to cry - with her she worried - the lack of cries, her size and how her skin looked a little paler. Another nurse quickly placed a heating blanket on top of her and after Rory had barely said "Hi, Leigh," she was whisked away, not even allowing Logan to cut the cord. She did let out a whimper, but it took a few minutes, probably the longest minutes either Logan or Rory had ever experienced.
Two paediatricians checked the girls over - Emma got an Apgar score of 8, and based on the preliminary assessment was 'good', meaning that she'd get just some extra attention in terms of check-ups compared to full-term babies. Leigh, however, was just 4 lbs 4 oz, struggling to keep her temperature and needing additional oxygen - that meaning NICU time for her. Her Apgar was just 5. Thankfully, they both knew they were at the right ward for getting the special treatment that didn't mean separating the twins between different departments. Cobedding - that they had hoped for the beginning would be unlikely but at least they'd all be together. It did however mean that they'd be staying in a room that looked a lot more like a NICU ward than the room they'd been in before - but that just seemed irrelevant now.
Logan kissed Rory's temple, as she laid there completely exhausted. There were still the placentas to be delivered. Thankfully that happened soon enough, and while there was a little more blood than the doctor's had expected, she was given an injection to stop the bleeding which thankfully helped. With the babies being that small and them not being her first, she was lucky enough to only get a couple of stitches, which she hardly noticed as by that time she got to hold both of her babies on her chest, Leigh wrapped in a warming blanket and oxygen whiskers in her nose, but at least they were both there - breathing, moving their tiny fingers against her skin. Emma actually managed to find her breast, almost on her own, as Rory had heard happened sometimes - that too felt incredible. Logan supported her a little, Rory not quite feeling she had the strength in her arms to hold the two of them right there, but at least she was able to make an attempt at her first few sips of milk.
Leigh was clearly a lot weaker, making Rory worrisome. But who wouldn't in a situation like that?
"Come on, you need your strength, sweetie," Rory urged, positioning Leigh as well as she could closer to her nipple. She did lick a few drops that Rory expressed her manually, but there was no such sucking as with Emma.
"We might have to tube feed her for a little while. Don't worry, it's really not at all that uncommon. You can pump your own milk if you want," the neonatal nurse explained.
Leigh got placed in a hot cot. And frankly it was her the two parents kept checking on the most for the next couple of hours, even despite her being hooked up to various monitors to do that for them.
They'd had a long night and but the excitement, blended with worry for Leight, made it difficult for either of them to rest, having to force their bodies to relax just by laying down for an hour or so, even if the minds were too alert from adrenaline.
Celeste and Lorelai had gotten the message that the babies were on their way and as agreed they'd drive to the city in the morning - there not being much point to hang out at the waiting room throughout the night. They were all up pretty early - even Lorelai - but the cause was important enough that despite her puffy eyes she'd dragged herself into the passenger's seat with her extra large travel mug, as if holding a lifeline.
Jess needed to stay until lunchtime to finish up a few things and was driving to the city a little later. But as it was clear Celeste didn't want to wait, she took Evie with her to get her out of Jess' way and got a ride with Luke and Lorelai instead - Finny's carseat in the back coming in handy. After all they all had the same destination.
"So you've got everything set for the wedding tomorrow?" Lorelai asked Celeste, who was sitting in the back seat with Evie.
"Yeah, it seems like a pretty straightforward event," she replied.
"You know, I may have events for you to handle in August too, but September to October are pretty dry. I could offer you some front desk work, but I'm not sure that'd be something you'd be interested in," Lorelai explained. She wasn't really sure what Celeste's plans were - and while she didn't have anything full-time to offer her, there were bits and pieces she could use - but she almost felt like she'd be offending her if she offered her the really simple tasks. The truth was she didn't know her all that well really.
"I'll think about it, okay?" Celeste replied. She wasn't really sure if a clerk's position was what she needed, after all hopefully by fall they might have the store open and surely there'd be things to do there as well, especially if Jess went on the book tour. Sure, her earning something additionally was currently very convenient, eliminating the drop that they'd experienced with Jess' change in positions - but as living in Stars Hollow was significantly cheaper and they were getting rent for their townhouse - there really was no urgent need to grab just any job.
"Fine, no hurry," Lorelai replied.
"How's Leo doing - I haven't seen him in a while? Celeste asked, continuing to make polite conversation. She rarely hung out with Jess' family without him around, so she felt a little uneasy. With Luke it was a little easier - the man was overly helpful but at the same time with few words, and with Lorelai she usually spoke about work mostly.
"He's good, enjoying a summer with his classmates - it's either soccer, videogames or the pool on most days," Luke replied, as Lorelai's mouth was full of her muffin, she'd brought along.
"Sounds fun," Celeste replied.
"He's having a bit of a weird reaction to his aunt inquiring about him, I'm not sure if Jess told you about that," Luke added, having confided in Jess briefly about the topic. Jess was surprisingly good to talk to about serious things like that - cool headed and hardly ever took anything personally, somehow being able to distance himself from the sitution - in this case the parallels that were possible to draw between him and Liz and the situation Leo was in. Besides Jess never made Luke talk about his feelings like Lorelai usually did.
"Yeah, I can imagine that being rough. What does Leo want?" Celeste asked, hoping it wasn't too forward.
"He hasn't expressed it as such, but it seems to be he just wants to stay with us," Luke added. "April suggested we should consider adoption if we want, but I think it's too early to really consider that…," Luke continued, realizing he hadn't really explained that thought process to Lorelai yet.
"You never told me that…," Lorelai couldn't help but to point out.
"As I said - this means that they'll have to take away all of the aunt's rights concerning him to even make this a possibility, and that's not something the court does lightly. And honestly I'm not really sure what is in his best interest. I mean Liz was in a similar situation for a while there - and I don't know if taking her parental rights when it came to Jess would've really helped anything. Despite how flaky the decision may have seemed at the moment when she sent Jess to me, it turned out to be a pretty good decision," Luke explained.
"Do you remember the time you thought you knew so much about teenagers and thought you were just going to put Jess in his place by making him work at the diner. God, you were so in over your head and you couldn't even admit it," Lorelai pointed out teasingly.
"Yeah-yeah, and like you had all the experiences with a difficult teenager," Luke shot back, friendlily.
"I was the difficult teenager, don't forget," Lorelai reminded him.
The drive continued in without talking for the next ten minutes or so, Lorelai singing along to Beach Bunny's 'Cloud 9' and Bill Withers' 'Lovely day'.
"Hey, I meant to ask you - we were thinking about the possibilities of getting a couple of parking spots in front of the house now that the garage won't function as one anymore. Is it Taylor we'll have to talk to or if there any way around him?" Celeste asked, practically.
"I think you can fill out a form, explain why this is necessary and then I would recommend getting the consent of the neighbouring properties just in case and then submit it to Miss Patty. This way she'll just slip it into the town meeting proceedings and Taylor hardly looks them through prior to the meeting. He might still stall, but it really depends whether he has anything else on his mind that takes priority. I once slipped in a building addition proposal like that and it was the same week as Taylor was organizing the basket bidding competition, or was it the movie night at the square?" she trailed off. "Anyways - something like that. And I got it approved on the first try, I didn't believe it for a week until I got the official confirmation letter from Miss Patty," Lorelai blabbered.
"How is he still the selectman? I mean by the sound of it - he hardly does this by the book. It's all so subjective with him," Celeste exclaimed.
"He's the selectman because nobody else wants to be the selectman - Sookie's husband, Jackson, tried - but he had his own business and he only really ran against Taylor out of spite. So he didn't really want to do it either. He lasted, what... a few months?" Lorelai replied, glancing to Luke to see if he disagreed but he just shrugged.
"Huh," Celeste noted, leaving the topic at that. While France was not particularly exemplary for running things effectively - things involved far too much bureaucracy and took ages - procedures were still followed and there was a certain chaotic order whenever one dealt with the town officials, same in the UK. It was just something she hadn't expected to have to deal with, and she let the topic be, focusing on the surroundings while Evie looked through her a book of farm animals.
Again a silence carried while the radio played some classic rock.
"They just had the babies," Celeste exclaimed suddenly, having gotten a text from Logan as they were already driving past New Haven on the I-95.
Lorelai's phone beeped just a second later, getting the same message, not giving her anything to complain about as she was just almost going to about being the last to know.
"Oh, one baby is in the NICU but the other one is good, they sent me pictures too," Lorelai added, attempting to show them to Luke, who was driving her Toyota. Luke glanced briefly, knowing Lorelai was not going to put the phone down before he did.
"Do you know the names?" Lorelai asked Celeste.
"I think Emma and Leigh were thrown around, but I'm not sure of the full names," Celeste explained.
The first to arrive to the hospital that mid-morning, was Finn together with Finny as per Logan's request. After all this was a pretty big day for him too. He was a big brother now.
"Finny, let's go see mommy and your sisters, okay?" Logan spoke to Finny in a low voice, as he emerged from the hospital room doorway with the toddler on his lap. Finn had stayed in the waiting room for know, knowing that Rory and Logan both really just needed some rest and would be there to keep Finny entertained later. He'd probably never spent as much of his summer holidays looking after a toddler, but strangely enough he didn't seem to mind.
"Hey!" Rory exclaimed wanting to hug the boy first. She positioned the toddler onto her lap - sure she was a little sore, but it was liveable. "Finny, remember how we talked about that mommy had two babies in her belly?" she began. "Well you see - they came out - belly is a lot smaller now and the babies are in there. They're your sisters, Emma and Leigh. They're asleep now, so you've got to be very quiet - can you do that for me?" she asked.
Finny perhaps sensed that Rory was still a little shaky and exhausted looking, not yet quite seeming like the mommy he knew, hence he simply wrapped his arms around her neck and refused to let go.
"Logan, maybe you can roll Leigh a little closer so we can take a peek," Rory suggested, realizing that Finny really didn't want to let go of her.
"Look, Finny! This is Leigh, she's a little smaller," Logan explained, and went to get Emma, and placed her onto his arm. There was definitely some muscle memory involved - despite their smaller size, there wasn't such a feeling as had been with Finny - fearing like he would break the baby just by lifting her. "And here's Emma," he introduced, and sat next to Rory on her bed, allowing Finny to look at the baby up close.
"You can touch her if you want, but very gently," Rory advised, thinking for a moment whether Logan had washed Finny's hands before entering, but he nodded as if reading her mind. Rory smiled - both at Logan for knowing what to do and for the sight in front of her - Finny gently touching Emma's arm.
"Small baby," Finny noted.
"Yes, they are small, Leigh is even smaller. But they'll grow. In a few year they'll be as big as you, and you'll be even bigger," Rory added, optimistically, pushing her fears about Leight aside for now. Finny didn't need to know about those.
It was then Finny did something unexpected, almost making Rory hold him back, protective of the baby - but it was harmless - the boy wanted to give the baby a kiss and that he did, right on the forehead.
Tears fell down Rory's eyes. It was incredibly cute and her hormones were still clearly all over the place. They were all there - all five of them - she couldn't believe the amount of love she felt.
Finny stared at her questioningly - "Mommy sad?" he asked.
"No, mommy happy," she whimpered. She only wished she could hold Leigh just the same, but they were advised to keep her in the hot cot as much as possible. They'd get to hold her when it was her feeding time, and despite that taking place via a tube right now - still those brief moments were precious. Now it was just left to wait.