The next morning, Rory got dressed in her jeans and shirts, and they
both headed off to the hospital where Rory would receive her first
treatment.
"Coffee?" Lorelai asked.
"Nope," Rory said. "I'm not supposed to have anything to eat of drink
before this."
Lorelai decided against coffee also. If Rory wasn't going to drink, she
wasn't going to drink.
"Nervous?" Lorelai asked Rory.
Rory thought about lying, but decided against it. "Petrified," she
admitted.
"You'll be fine," Lorelai assured her. After the drive to Hartford, they
went in.
The nurse, Mary, greeted them with a smile. "Come right this way, Rory,"
she said.
"Wait! Can I go with her?" Lorelai asked.
Rory looked at Mary excitedly.
Mary hesitated. "I'm not really supposed to do that," she admitted, "but I
can see how close you are. Yeah, Lorelai, you can come in."
Lorelai grinned. Already she liked Mary, and was glad that she was taking
care of Rory.
Mary hooked Rory up to an IV machine and let the drip on. This was going to
take a few hours, and they were both prepared for this boredom; they had
brought books.
After three hours, Lorelai looked up from her book. Rory had fallen asleep.
Lorelai thought to herself in angst how she hoped and never thought Rory would be like this. It shattered her heart into a million pieces.
An hour later, the treatment was over. Mary slowly removed the drip and Lorelai woke Rory up.
Rory was extremely weak and had to lean on Lorelai as they slowly walked to the car. Rory groaned inwardly to herself. She felt as bad as she did before she was diagnosed, and her stomach was feeling all wibbly wobbly.
Lorelai drove home slowly. On the way home Rory managed to ask Lorelai if she could pull over. Lorelai did and Rory raced out of the car and threw up. She started crying. Lorelai stroked her hair and kissed her until Rory was feeling a bit better; then they continued to drive home. On the way, Lorelai said, "Honey, is this the worst that you've felt before?"
Rory was confused. "Yeah," she replied. "Well, it can't get any worse now. This is going to be hard, I told you that. But you're going to get through it, cause you have me. And that's a promise." Rory nodded, tears slipping down from her cheeks. "Okay," she whispered.
When they got home, Rory immediately went to bed. Lorelai thought her heart would explode. To think Rory had to go through so many more treatements made her heart break.
But miraculously, things were progressing. It had been a month since Rory's first chemo treatment,and she had gotten quite used to it. She still hated it, but only had to go once a week now. Lorelai and Mary had gotten to be friends, they shared the same kind of humor. Rory still hadn't gone to school, but Paris had been bringing her all of her assignments, and she had managed to catch up with the rest of her classmates. Rory was still feeling sick, but not as sick as she should have been.
One night, Sookie came in. "Dinner, my sweets!" she called. Rory and Lorelai smiled at each other. They loved it when Sookie made them dinner. She had been making quishes and all sorts of fancy things for their dinner. Rory sneezed. "aww sweetie," Lorelai commented as she went to greet Sookie.
Later that night, Rory was feeling really weird. She knocked on Lorelai's door. "Mom?" she asked in a small voice. "I'm feeling really weird and dizzy. My stomach hurts too."
Lorelai woke up instantly. Inside her head, voices were pointing out to her that this was not good. Rory's immune system was down so even if she got a cold, which she probably had right now, she could. die.
"Okay kid, grab your robe and get down in the car; we're goin to go to the hospital."Lorelai replied. She didn't even bother to grab her robe, just grabbed a sweater. As she put her arm around the shivering Rory to help her to the car, she noticed at how skinny Rory had become, and horrifyingly realised the fact that maybe Rory wasn't as well as everyone had thought she would be.
They got to the hospital in record time, and Rory was admitted immediately. Lorelai paced back and forth the waiting room, until the doctor came out. "Well?" Lorelai asked, not meaning to sound rude, but wanting to find out about her daughter. "She's doing fine.. we put her on antibiotics, and you can't take her out of the house for two weeks." Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God," she muttered to herself. She excused herself to go see Rory. When she got to the room, she hesitated. The hospital brought back so many bad memories; memories she wanted to forget. But this was about cheering Rory up, so she went in.
"Hey you," she said quietly. "You gave me quite a scare, missy." "Yeah, I know," Rory replied. "I'm sorry." Lorelai crawled into bed and tickled her. "Ready to go home?" "Am I allowed?" Rory asked, surprised.
"Yup," Lorelai replied cheerfully. "Come on babe, let's go."
The next few days were spent quietly and uneventfully. Richard and Emily came the following night, which surprised both of the Gilmore's. They hardly ever visited their place. "Mom? What can I get you?" Lorelai asked. "Oh just a soda," Emily replied like it was her usual order. Lorelai choked. "A soda? You want a soda?" she asked in disbelief. "Well," Emily admitted, "you probably don't have any other drinks here."
Lorelai nodded. Yes, she was right as usual. Why on earth did mothers have to be right? Rory came down a few minutes later and laughed at her grandparents for drinking soda. Emily and Richard gave her a hug. "We have a surprise for you. Actually, for all of us. We're taking you on a trip to our beach house we just bought. We leave on Monday, is that alright with you?" Lorelai and Rory hugged each other excitedly. "It's great!" they said together.
On Saturday night, Lorelai went in and got a movie. She hid it behind her back."You have to guess what it is before we see it," she said. Rory laughed. "Not fair!" she exclaimed. "Let me see. Is it the movie we've both seen two million times? "Willy Wonka? But of course," Lorelai admitted. Rory watched about half the movie, then fell asleep on Lorelai's shoulder. Lorelai smiled as she kissed Rory's forehead, shut the movie off cause it was getting late, and leaned her head on Rory's shoulder, where the both soundly slept.
"Sunscreen?" Lorelai asked. "Check," Rory replied. "Pills?" Lorelai said. "Yup," Rory sighed. "Everything else?" Lorelai asked. "Check." Rory replied.
Rory yawned, Lorelai frowned. "Kid, you're having a nap before we go. Off to bed, I'll wake you up when it's time to go. Love you." "Yeah, love you too Mom." She hugged Lorelai and wandered sleepily into her bedroom. Lorelai smiled absentmindedly. This was going to be so much fun; and Rory hadn't had a lot of fun in ages.
Two hours later, Lorelai called out to Rory from the kitchen. "Babe, it's time to get ready!" There was no answer from Rory, so Lorelai went into Rory's bedroom. "Ror?" she bent down to shake her awake. Peering down at Rory's forehead, it felt like fire. Her face looked as white as a ghost and her breathing was becoming more and more shallow. Out of instinct, Lorelai picked up Rory, raced for the car, and sped through to the hospital.
After being admitted again, Rory was moved into Intensive Care this time and Lorelai wasn't allowed to be with her, no matter how hard she begged. This time Lorelai could sense it was different. This time Lorelai could sense that this was critical. She laid her head on her arms and finally began to cry. After an hour of hearing nothing, the doctor came in to tell her the bad news. "Lorelai, you're daughter isn't going to make it through the night. I suggest you get the people close to her to come here quick and say goodbye. She's in a coma, but she can still hear you." Lorelai nodded mutely. The doctor squeezed her arm and whispered, "I wish there twas something I could do." Lorelai couldn't speak. If she did, she would have yelled and screamed at the doctor, begging her to save her daughters life.
"Luke?" Lorelai whispered. "Lor." Luke immediately sensed that something was wrong. "I need you to phone Sookie and Lane and come to the hospital as quickly as you can, okay?"
Luke sighed. It was obvious what was happening. He couldn't believe it. Rory was like his own daughter. "we'll be right there Lor. And hang in there."
Lorelai hung up the reciever and sank down in the chair. She closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, Luke,Sookie, and Lane were there. They had all been crying. Lane was still crying. Lorelai hugged all of them and said, "Rory's not going to make it through the morning. I think it's time that we said goodbye. Lane? Do you want to go first?"
Lane nodded. Lorelai showed her to Rory's room, as she entered it "Hey Lane," Rory said softly. Lane took Rory's hand. "Hey Ror." She tried to hold it together for Rory. "Ror, I love you so much. You've been my best friend forever. I don't know what I'm going to do without you in my life. It's going to be so depressing. I'm sorry if I haven't been the best friend I could.. but I love you." She kissed Rory on the cheek and fled from the room, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Sookie entered the room next. "Hey baby doll," she said. "I don't know what we're going to do without you. Without your bright smile.. the bookstores gonna have to close out of buisness now." Sookie wiped her eyes to keep tears from spilling down her cheeks. She hugged the lifeless Rory, and whispered, "love you," to her.
Luke entered the room slowly. He had grown up with Rory, she was like his daughter in a way. "Hey Ror," he said softly. "You're giving us an awful hard time, how are we supposed to live without you? How's your mom supposed to live without you? Her best friend. I'll miss giving you coffee.. I'll miss everything about you." He bent down, kissed Rory on the cheek, and went to get Lorelai.
Lorelai entered the room extremely slowly. Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but Lorelai wiped them away. She would not cry. No matter what, she would not cry. Lorelai took Rory's hand and held it tightly. She looked at the life machine, and it started to speed up. Rory twitched and slowly opened her eyes and looked at Lorelai. Lorelai's face held so much pain. "Mom?" Rory whispered. "Where am I?" "You're in the hospital sweetie," Lorelai said, her voice trailing off. "Mom, what's going on? I'm dying,aren't I? I can feel it, my body's getting so weak. It hurts mommy, make it go away." Lorelai couldn't do anything except cry. Then a "I'm trying baby, believe me I'm trying." Lorelai nodded. There was no use in lying to her now. "yes, sweetie." Rory reached up and gave her mom a big embrace, neither of them knowing how she ever got the strength to do that. "Mom, you've been with me since I was born. You did everything with me, you were and always will be my best friend. No one on earth was as important to me as you were. I love you so much and I always will. I'll always be watching you heaven." Lorelai sobbed and sobbed. When she finally regained composure she said, "Ror, you may never know this but you have been the light of my life since the day you were born. Without you, I don't know what I would have done. You've helped me through so much and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without you. I'm not sure if I can go on without you. I love you more than anything in the world.." with that, her voice broke again.
Rory lay down in bed, both of her hands holding Lorelai's. She closed her eyes, and the life machine got slower and slower until it finally stopped. Lorelai closed her eyes in horror. This could not be happening. No, this was not happening. She knew that wasn't true when the doctors came in to take her away.
"What are you doing with my daughter?" she screamed at the doctors. "Miss, we have to take her to the autopsy room." Lorelai sobbed loudly. Sookie, Luke and Lane all heard her. Sookie and Lane burst into tears and hugged while Luke rushed to comfort Lorelai. He took her into her arms. "Lor, Lor.. it's going to be okay. Take a deep breath. "I don't want to take a deep breath! My daughters dead and nothing will ever be the same!" she screamed to him. Luke just held Lorelai until she collapsed onto him in exhastion.
After three hours, Lorelai looked up from her book. Rory had fallen asleep.
Lorelai thought to herself in angst how she hoped and never thought Rory would be like this. It shattered her heart into a million pieces.
An hour later, the treatment was over. Mary slowly removed the drip and Lorelai woke Rory up.
Rory was extremely weak and had to lean on Lorelai as they slowly walked to the car. Rory groaned inwardly to herself. She felt as bad as she did before she was diagnosed, and her stomach was feeling all wibbly wobbly.
Lorelai drove home slowly. On the way home Rory managed to ask Lorelai if she could pull over. Lorelai did and Rory raced out of the car and threw up. She started crying. Lorelai stroked her hair and kissed her until Rory was feeling a bit better; then they continued to drive home. On the way, Lorelai said, "Honey, is this the worst that you've felt before?"
Rory was confused. "Yeah," she replied. "Well, it can't get any worse now. This is going to be hard, I told you that. But you're going to get through it, cause you have me. And that's a promise." Rory nodded, tears slipping down from her cheeks. "Okay," she whispered.
When they got home, Rory immediately went to bed. Lorelai thought her heart would explode. To think Rory had to go through so many more treatements made her heart break.
But miraculously, things were progressing. It had been a month since Rory's first chemo treatment,and she had gotten quite used to it. She still hated it, but only had to go once a week now. Lorelai and Mary had gotten to be friends, they shared the same kind of humor. Rory still hadn't gone to school, but Paris had been bringing her all of her assignments, and she had managed to catch up with the rest of her classmates. Rory was still feeling sick, but not as sick as she should have been.
One night, Sookie came in. "Dinner, my sweets!" she called. Rory and Lorelai smiled at each other. They loved it when Sookie made them dinner. She had been making quishes and all sorts of fancy things for their dinner. Rory sneezed. "aww sweetie," Lorelai commented as she went to greet Sookie.
Later that night, Rory was feeling really weird. She knocked on Lorelai's door. "Mom?" she asked in a small voice. "I'm feeling really weird and dizzy. My stomach hurts too."
Lorelai woke up instantly. Inside her head, voices were pointing out to her that this was not good. Rory's immune system was down so even if she got a cold, which she probably had right now, she could. die.
"Okay kid, grab your robe and get down in the car; we're goin to go to the hospital."Lorelai replied. She didn't even bother to grab her robe, just grabbed a sweater. As she put her arm around the shivering Rory to help her to the car, she noticed at how skinny Rory had become, and horrifyingly realised the fact that maybe Rory wasn't as well as everyone had thought she would be.
They got to the hospital in record time, and Rory was admitted immediately. Lorelai paced back and forth the waiting room, until the doctor came out. "Well?" Lorelai asked, not meaning to sound rude, but wanting to find out about her daughter. "She's doing fine.. we put her on antibiotics, and you can't take her out of the house for two weeks." Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God," she muttered to herself. She excused herself to go see Rory. When she got to the room, she hesitated. The hospital brought back so many bad memories; memories she wanted to forget. But this was about cheering Rory up, so she went in.
"Hey you," she said quietly. "You gave me quite a scare, missy." "Yeah, I know," Rory replied. "I'm sorry." Lorelai crawled into bed and tickled her. "Ready to go home?" "Am I allowed?" Rory asked, surprised.
"Yup," Lorelai replied cheerfully. "Come on babe, let's go."
The next few days were spent quietly and uneventfully. Richard and Emily came the following night, which surprised both of the Gilmore's. They hardly ever visited their place. "Mom? What can I get you?" Lorelai asked. "Oh just a soda," Emily replied like it was her usual order. Lorelai choked. "A soda? You want a soda?" she asked in disbelief. "Well," Emily admitted, "you probably don't have any other drinks here."
Lorelai nodded. Yes, she was right as usual. Why on earth did mothers have to be right? Rory came down a few minutes later and laughed at her grandparents for drinking soda. Emily and Richard gave her a hug. "We have a surprise for you. Actually, for all of us. We're taking you on a trip to our beach house we just bought. We leave on Monday, is that alright with you?" Lorelai and Rory hugged each other excitedly. "It's great!" they said together.
On Saturday night, Lorelai went in and got a movie. She hid it behind her back."You have to guess what it is before we see it," she said. Rory laughed. "Not fair!" she exclaimed. "Let me see. Is it the movie we've both seen two million times? "Willy Wonka? But of course," Lorelai admitted. Rory watched about half the movie, then fell asleep on Lorelai's shoulder. Lorelai smiled as she kissed Rory's forehead, shut the movie off cause it was getting late, and leaned her head on Rory's shoulder, where the both soundly slept.
"Sunscreen?" Lorelai asked. "Check," Rory replied. "Pills?" Lorelai said. "Yup," Rory sighed. "Everything else?" Lorelai asked. "Check." Rory replied.
Rory yawned, Lorelai frowned. "Kid, you're having a nap before we go. Off to bed, I'll wake you up when it's time to go. Love you." "Yeah, love you too Mom." She hugged Lorelai and wandered sleepily into her bedroom. Lorelai smiled absentmindedly. This was going to be so much fun; and Rory hadn't had a lot of fun in ages.
Two hours later, Lorelai called out to Rory from the kitchen. "Babe, it's time to get ready!" There was no answer from Rory, so Lorelai went into Rory's bedroom. "Ror?" she bent down to shake her awake. Peering down at Rory's forehead, it felt like fire. Her face looked as white as a ghost and her breathing was becoming more and more shallow. Out of instinct, Lorelai picked up Rory, raced for the car, and sped through to the hospital.
After being admitted again, Rory was moved into Intensive Care this time and Lorelai wasn't allowed to be with her, no matter how hard she begged. This time Lorelai could sense it was different. This time Lorelai could sense that this was critical. She laid her head on her arms and finally began to cry. After an hour of hearing nothing, the doctor came in to tell her the bad news. "Lorelai, you're daughter isn't going to make it through the night. I suggest you get the people close to her to come here quick and say goodbye. She's in a coma, but she can still hear you." Lorelai nodded mutely. The doctor squeezed her arm and whispered, "I wish there twas something I could do." Lorelai couldn't speak. If she did, she would have yelled and screamed at the doctor, begging her to save her daughters life.
"Luke?" Lorelai whispered. "Lor." Luke immediately sensed that something was wrong. "I need you to phone Sookie and Lane and come to the hospital as quickly as you can, okay?"
Luke sighed. It was obvious what was happening. He couldn't believe it. Rory was like his own daughter. "we'll be right there Lor. And hang in there."
Lorelai hung up the reciever and sank down in the chair. She closed her eyes. The next thing she knew, Luke,Sookie, and Lane were there. They had all been crying. Lane was still crying. Lorelai hugged all of them and said, "Rory's not going to make it through the morning. I think it's time that we said goodbye. Lane? Do you want to go first?"
Lane nodded. Lorelai showed her to Rory's room, as she entered it "Hey Lane," Rory said softly. Lane took Rory's hand. "Hey Ror." She tried to hold it together for Rory. "Ror, I love you so much. You've been my best friend forever. I don't know what I'm going to do without you in my life. It's going to be so depressing. I'm sorry if I haven't been the best friend I could.. but I love you." She kissed Rory on the cheek and fled from the room, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Sookie entered the room next. "Hey baby doll," she said. "I don't know what we're going to do without you. Without your bright smile.. the bookstores gonna have to close out of buisness now." Sookie wiped her eyes to keep tears from spilling down her cheeks. She hugged the lifeless Rory, and whispered, "love you," to her.
Luke entered the room slowly. He had grown up with Rory, she was like his daughter in a way. "Hey Ror," he said softly. "You're giving us an awful hard time, how are we supposed to live without you? How's your mom supposed to live without you? Her best friend. I'll miss giving you coffee.. I'll miss everything about you." He bent down, kissed Rory on the cheek, and went to get Lorelai.
Lorelai entered the room extremely slowly. Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks, but Lorelai wiped them away. She would not cry. No matter what, she would not cry. Lorelai took Rory's hand and held it tightly. She looked at the life machine, and it started to speed up. Rory twitched and slowly opened her eyes and looked at Lorelai. Lorelai's face held so much pain. "Mom?" Rory whispered. "Where am I?" "You're in the hospital sweetie," Lorelai said, her voice trailing off. "Mom, what's going on? I'm dying,aren't I? I can feel it, my body's getting so weak. It hurts mommy, make it go away." Lorelai couldn't do anything except cry. Then a "I'm trying baby, believe me I'm trying." Lorelai nodded. There was no use in lying to her now. "yes, sweetie." Rory reached up and gave her mom a big embrace, neither of them knowing how she ever got the strength to do that. "Mom, you've been with me since I was born. You did everything with me, you were and always will be my best friend. No one on earth was as important to me as you were. I love you so much and I always will. I'll always be watching you heaven." Lorelai sobbed and sobbed. When she finally regained composure she said, "Ror, you may never know this but you have been the light of my life since the day you were born. Without you, I don't know what I would have done. You've helped me through so much and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without you. I'm not sure if I can go on without you. I love you more than anything in the world.." with that, her voice broke again.
Rory lay down in bed, both of her hands holding Lorelai's. She closed her eyes, and the life machine got slower and slower until it finally stopped. Lorelai closed her eyes in horror. This could not be happening. No, this was not happening. She knew that wasn't true when the doctors came in to take her away.
"What are you doing with my daughter?" she screamed at the doctors. "Miss, we have to take her to the autopsy room." Lorelai sobbed loudly. Sookie, Luke and Lane all heard her. Sookie and Lane burst into tears and hugged while Luke rushed to comfort Lorelai. He took her into her arms. "Lor, Lor.. it's going to be okay. Take a deep breath. "I don't want to take a deep breath! My daughters dead and nothing will ever be the same!" she screamed to him. Luke just held Lorelai until she collapsed onto him in exhastion.