Celeste had cheerily whisked away Emma and Finny and while Rory had asked about the details, Celeste hadn't really given her much other than she'd come and find her if they needed her, insisting she'd simply relax. She'd even suggested Maya go to the Inn for a complimentary spa treatment, saying how she had things covered. For the day at least she really did - having G and Doula around, plus Luke, who'd promised to stop by for a few hours, unsure if he was coming with or without Lorelai and Leo. Stars Hollow really was the village raising its young.
Rory laid on her side, her head resting on her outstretched arm on her bed in the chief's house, the curtains pulled down, just a thin ray of sun shining through from underneath it. Leigh was placed in the soft carrycot, sleeping by her side, her little palm clamped into a fist as if it was the most natural position in the world, breathing steadily. When she was born, Rory used to watch her chest rise and fall sometimes for hours, scared it would stop. She had struggled trusting the breathing monitor in the beginning, and as Leight had had some problems with her lungs, having worn oxygen whiskers too for some time, her life just seemed so fragile to Rory. In a way it still did.
Rory really should've been sleeping, napping when the baby did. She had tried, she might have even dozed off for a couple of minutes, but she just couldn't fall into that deep sleep that left one fully rested. She was anxious about how Emma was doing without her and truthfully just not that used to napping during the daytime.
She stared at the beautiful baby in front of her. It wasn't that she didn't love her or care for her - she worried a lot about her too. She just didn't have that spark with her like she had with Emma and Finny, which made so many things so effortless. And whenever she went into that spiral in her head - how unfair that was to Leigh, how unfair it was spending time with her instead of the others with whom she felt constantly like she was depriving them of the love she did feel. A couple of lonely teardrops feel down to the blanket under her. She didn't want to spend her day crying but she couldn't help it. It was a brain against the heart battle - the brain knew that in order to fall for Leigh she needed to spend time with her - lots and lots of it, every single book and doctor assuring that it would happen. It was actually fairly common - women struggling to bond with the second born twin, or the weaker twin - as if a body's mechanism for protecting themselves for the potential loss that could occur. And while Leigh was in no immediate danger, Rory's body just hadn't gotten the message. And everybody said it would just take time. She just didn't understand why the hell it was taking so long.
She then heard a low buzz of her phone on the nightstand, and turned as steadily as she could, not wanting to wake Leigh. She wiped her eyes into a tissue - at least a text from Logan asking if she had time for a call, certainly lifted her mood a little.
Rory texted back, "2 min," and went to wash her face. She didn't want him worrying excessively, understanding well that he would've wanted to be there with them if he could. She didn't hide how she felt, but she didn't like to bring it up either. She'd done the tests with her doctors, and even her therapist once, to see if she actually did classify as depressed - but as her emotions varied a lot throughout the day, on some days not really hitting the lows at all, and she'd never had any thoughts about hurting anyone or herself, she just didn't fall into the general diagnosis. And it was not like she wanted to be taking meds - she knew that those were difficult to kick afterwards and she'd been especially afraid of any type of meds that might alter her brain, feeling like no matter what, if she lost her ability to think straight, write or work, that would be an even greater loss than a few mood swings. She just went on hoping that one day she'd feel different with Leigh. She wanted to trust what everybody said - that it would happen.
Rory closed the door just enough and sat onto the floor of the hallways so she still saw Leigh on the bed. While Emma might turn herself off a bed like that if she woke, Leigh so far could not, her muscles still being a little weak for that. But still, she took the extra precaution.
"Hey," she said with a weak smile as she called Logan on Facetime. She could see Logan was outside, clearly having been out running again, the way his breath was visible in the cool air and his winter jogging clothes being a clear indication. It was good seeing him out and about, taking the positive out of a difficult situation.
"Hey!" Logan replied, continuing to walk a few steps and found himself on a bench. It was one of those old, dark green ones, from cast iron. He'd just finished his jog, but as he really wasn't in no hurry back to the hotel, he'd decided to call her before heading back - the Sunday morning park being a much nicer setting. He could tell from her slightly puffy eyes she'd been crying, even if she appeared fine now, and as horrible as it sounded, he wasn't terribly surprised. Every now and again she did that, and it was to some extent the norm. Nevertheless it made his chest ache, making him want to do anything that would make things easier for her. But this was one of these things that money or even him being there could do very little about.
"Looks like a nice day - where are you? Huntress Fortress?" she asked, noting his background and the unusually sunny November morning. She knew London pretty well herself. Logan was actually out a little later than usual, but she just figured he wasn't planning on going to the office today, which she was correct to assume. Sure, she would've liked him back home any number of days sooner if it was possible, but she also knew that people needed their free time to be at their best.
"Yeah," he replied. "Very quiet where you are? Did you hide in the closet again?" he joked.
"I'm at the chief's house with Leigh, she's sleeping. Celeste kidnapped the others," Rory joked in return.
"Ah…," Logan realized, getting a pretty good idea what Celeste was doing. Whatever burden she managed to lighten from Rory - good for all of them.
"And tomorrow's Emma's turn and then Finny's," Rory explained to him the plan. "I really should be sleeping... But…," she shrugged.
"I went out with some guys from work last night, they deserved a treat. And today I'll go see Bobby. She says she's okay as long as she is on foot and outside - so we'll probably meet by the Winfield grounds or something," Logan gave a brief summary of his plans.
"Well, tell her 'hi' for me," Rory replied.
"I will," Logan assured.
"Have you had some chance to catch up with Celeste?" he inquired. "I got to thinking about her financials a little, tried to add up some costs in my head and unless she's done something big I don't know about I can't seem to figure out why they should be having issues, even with Evie's fund set aside," Logan said. He didn't mean to pry, but in a way he considered her like a sister - they used to discuss investments and tax schemes all the time back in the day so he had a pretty good idea what she had and how she handled it. And now with their house rented out in Brooklyn that was surely enough to cover their living expenses alone, plus Jess was working and his book was selling. Even Celeste was working. Sure, he knew starting a business didn't come cheap but with the bargain they'd gotten the house for - he was beginning to get a little concerned, feeling a little guilty for not having asked her himself or simply for not having kept better touch with her.
"Not much," Rory replied, regretfully. That she truly wanted to do. She didn't want this whole trip to be about her. Celeste had her struggles too and she really did want to support her - yet right now it was all about Celeste supporting her. For a brief moment she considered, perhaps that was her defence mechanism or something, but it didn't show if it was.
"I'm sure you will," Logan assured, knowing Rory really wasn't in no hurry to return. On occasion he did think about how much Rory really missed her hometown and what he would do if she'd ever put him in the position Celeste had put Jess in. He knew Rory's draw to the place was amplified by the fact that she physically hadn't been able to go there for almost half a year and the fact that Celeste was there, but still - he did ponder how much of her life she'd even up morphing after his, there not having been really a lot of discussion before they'd moved to New York.
"G's going back to the City tonight, she's got school tomorrow," Rory explained, sounding like a parent. "I feel a little bad that she'll have to be in that big house all by herself," she added.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, she'll be in school most of the day, doing homework in the evening, it's not like we hang around with her that much on most days anyways," Logan replied. G had proven to be quite a studious and low-maintenance teenager, not at all what he'd first expected from their earlier reactions. Sure, she was a little temperamental sometimes - acted or spoke before thinking, but both him and Rory had a good buffer for that, letting it come in from one ear and out the other, knowing she'd usually just humbly apologize a day or two later.
"Maybe I could ask Finn to check on her or something," Rory considered briefly, thinking out loud.
"You could, but I think Finn's leaving this week to go home," Logan said, having spoken to Finn a little by text about his plans - wanting to know if he was coming to London anytime soon as he sometimes did this time of year.
"Already?" Rory asked a little surprisedly. Finn usually went in the beginning of December and stayed until the New Year, his entire extended family usually preferring to time their vacation for that month. It was close to a family reunion, as far as she'd heard from Finn's stories.
Logan shrugged. The conversation hadn't been very lengthy and by the amount of typos Finn had seemed a little out of it, so he didn't really have all the answers.
It was then Rory noticed Leigh stretching herself out, followed by a few feet kicks towards the air. There was a weak squeal from the girl, that she sometimes did. It didn't sound very urgent though - and that was one thing she'd learned with Finny - that it wasn't wise to rush to the kids after the first little peep.
"I think someone's waking up," Rory said, sorry to see him go. Just talking about casual, everyday things, felt good. She'd already begun to miss these little things. She was glad that these days there were more ways to communicate than just audio calls and texts.
"Just remember to take care of yourself too, okay? Go swimming or something," he suggested. "Oh, and check behind the door if you get a chance," he said, casting his signature smirk on his face.
Rory gave him a puzzled look and got off the floor, briefly glancing over Leigh who was about halfway awake. She headed for the door, the phone still at hand. As she opened it she found a bouquet of white, pink and slightly yellowish peonies all readily in a large vase.
"Thank you, Logan," she said, smilingly. It was very sweet of him. He had warned her after all, and even though he knew it wasn't necessary - she appreciated the gesture nonetheless.
It felt good to see her smile, even if it was just something small and insignificant like this.
"Hey, Leigh, look what daddy sent us," Rory explained to Leigh, showing her the bouquet. Leigh certainly got a whiff of their scent as it seemed to make Leigh sneeze, making Logan chuckle at her response.
Rory set the flowers down onto the dresser and went to lie down on the bed with Leigh allowing Leigh and Logan to glance at each other for a moment too.
The baby cooed, her little legs still kicking in the air. And then she made the face. Both Logan and Rory knew that face - so much for a cute family moment. The face suddenly turned sour and Rory could smell the cause.
Rory didn't need to explain to Logan why she was finishing the call, simply finishing with "I love you"-s as she headed off towards the changing table, Leigh already in her arms. At least one thing was better - handling just one baby at time, without hearing the other in the background made her a lot less anxious.
"Hey!" Celeste picked up her phone, adding without waiting what Jess was calling about, "hold on, I'll put you on speaker."
"It sounds like you're running a daycare there," Jess chuckled at the sound of the two toddlers singing some tune they'd just made up and playing with Evie's wooden instrument set.
"Hi, Jess!" Doula pitched in, while she was keeping Evie and Finn company.
"Hey!" Jess greeted her in return.
"Well, it's not very far from a daycare, but thankfully I have Gigi and Doula helping out," Celeste replied, having not gotten around to explaining Jess G's preference in names yet. Emma, whom she was just holding on her knees, her legs propped up to the coffee table, then cooed a little, making it clear to Jess what this 'daycare' entailed. Having a baby around felt wonderful - Emma was adorable, smelled and felt wonderful and Celeste was honestly a little jealous at Rory for having all that cuteness around her. She definitely felt the itch in get gut, but she knew that it was just her hormones playing tricks on her.
"Listen I got some news, two pieces of news actually. And I know… I should've discussed both of them with you before, but I just had this pretty cool interview this morning and I sort of spurted out two tiny things on live radio," he began, elevating his voice a little at the 'tiny things' a little hesitant to her reaction. He'd already done some damage control, telling Lauren how she needed to go over the draft with Celeste before she'd get to read it and already made a few price inquireies for website developers to get the store up and running online.
"Uh-uh," Celeste responded, carefully. Jess was usually a pretty withheld kind of guy, hardly ever blabbering about things he wasn't directly asked about, so without a doubt she was curious but also apprehensive to find out what the news was.
"So I apologize in advance, but I sort of advertised the store a little and I said out loud the date - so December 6th is a go if we can make it happen. And I know it's not the best timing... I've already started a list of the last minute things we need to get done, and I can do a few of those on the road," he explained, apologetically.
Celeste sighed audibly. But then Emma smiled at her and she smiled back, distracting her.
"Okay, what do I have to do?" she asked, no longer sounding very discouraged.
"We need to clean the place up and finish stacking everything. If we can manage on our own - great, if not - we'll need to hire in. And then we need to organize the opening - we could really use a band of some sort, low key, but something with a draw, you know," Jess explained. "I'm sending you the list with the small things, but those are the key things, I think," Jess added.
Celeste's mind was already getting swept away in the choice of bands - oh, how she wanted to see one of her favourites perform there. That was the dream. But the trouble was, that at least for the opening the question largely was the price, as this was something they couldn't really charge people for.
"You think you could do that? Jess asked, curious about the silence from Celeste, while all he could hear were the toddlers in the background.
"Yeah," she replied. She knew that there was always Lane and her band if it came to it, but she kind of wanted something different in terms of style, something that spoke more about the character of the place.
"Okay, so this is happening," Jess sighed, still feeling a little overwhelmed himself.
"What's the other thing?" Celeste asked, almost having forgotten it.
Jess wasn't going to go into great detail over the speaker phone with so many people around so he simply said, "I'll send you a draft. When you get a chance read it, let it set and then tell me what you think," he said simply.
She was quite used to reading his drafts. There had been quite a few that hadn't gone anywhere. But still, she liked seeing him like this - clearly inspired by something. If she only knew that once again it was her that had inspired him. The only problem was, and Jess knew it too - this time it was probably a little too close to comfort for her. Yet, there was already interest, Lauren already insisting she'd get to read it too.
"Sure," she added, focusing her attention on Emma, who was clearly beginning to get a little hungry.
"Un lait maternel," G said gallantly, right on time, as she returned from downstairs having warmed up Rory's breast milk for Emma. They'd just hit a French speaking streak, Doula insisting to learn and G and Celeste actually quite enjoying the slightly humorous list of 'most vital French phrases' they were teaching her.
"Okay, but I got to go," Celeste replied to Jess, clearly already having other things on her mind, attempting to feed Emma from the bottle, which could end with a screaming baby, taking priority.