Chapter Nine
Rory was sitting in her hospital bed, nervously twirling strands of her hair around her fingers. Her hands were shaking slightly, and she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She glanced over at her Mom, who was looking at a magazine. Rory didn't really think she was reading it though, considering she had been staring at the same page for over half an hour.
Rory sighed. After everything that had happened to her last night, she hadn't really had a chance to get nervous about what exactly was wrong with her. The more she thought about it though, the more worried she got. After all, lots of people fainted, and she had never heard of any one being put in the hospital because of it. They had said her symptoms were "unusual" . . . now what the hell did that mean? The longer she thought about it, the more convinced she became that she was suffering from some sort of horrible disease. Just when she was about to work herself up into a state of tears, the door swung open, and Dr. Renyard walked in.
"Well, Good Morning ladies, Rory . . . Ms. Gilmore," Dr. Renyard nodded at each of them respectively.
Dr. Renyard looked like she was in her early thirties. She had pale blonde hair and kind gray eyes. There were little lines around the corners of her mouth, indicating that she smiled regularly. In fact, she was smiling now.
'She wouldn't be smiling if I was dying or something, would she?' Rory thought to herself in an attempt to calm down.
"How do you feel this morning, Rory?" she asked.
"Oh, pretty good," Rory weakly smiled back at the pretty woman.
"Have you figured out what's wrong with my daughter?" Lorelai asked bluntly. She was too nervous and upset to be her usual witty self.
"Well Rory's tests from this morning have come in, and they were more than enough to show us what was wrong," Dr. Renyard said seriously.
Lorelai reached over and grabbed her daughters hand. Rory squeezed it tightly, comforted just by her Mother's touch. Rory nodded at Dr. Renyard, and the woman continued.
"First, though, I must ask, Rory have you been experiencing headaches or nausea as a regular occurrence?"
Rory chewed her lip thoughtfully and said, "Well, actually I really haven't felt a hundred percent since school started . . ."
"Rory! Why didn't you say something?" Lorelai asked, shocked.
"Well, I just blamed it on stress from school and everything. I didn't start feeling really sick until about a week ago. I just didn't think it was that serious . . . it's not is it?" Rory asked her doctor nervously.
Dr. Renyard smiled, "Well it's not an issue to be taken lightly, but things could certainly be worse. Rory, apparently you're a diabetic."
"I'm a what?" Rory asked, astonished.
"Your suffering from diabetes, though thankfully it's not a serious case."
"Diabetes . . . but I don't understand, why would that just pop up all of a sudden?"
"Well, it's actually quite common for diabetes to appear as a person gets older. It doesn't always just start when you're still a child. In your case, however, your blood sugar levels aren't overly out of the normal range, and this is most likely why it took so long for you to catch it."
"So what does all this mean?" Lorelai asked.
"Basically what this means is that Rory's body isn't producing quite enough insulin to maintain an appropriate blood sugar level. Now, this is a perfectly treatable illness and shouldn't in any way interfere with Rory's everyday normal life."
"I'm uh . . . not going to have to prick my finger every day, am I?" Rory asked nervously, remembering a girl named Anna from middle school. Anna had had diabetes, and she had needed to prick her finger twice a day to check her blood sugar. Rory remembered feeling incredibly sorry for the girl . . . she hated needles.
"Actually, your case isn't serious enough for that. All you'll need to do is pay special attention to exercise and your diet. Exercise directly lowers blood sugar levels, so you'll probably want to start some sort of program, like jogging or riding a bike in the evening or something like that. More importantly, however, you'll need to watch you diet. You'll need to eat your meals on a regular schedule and have a snack at bedtime or in the late afternoon. You also need to go low on the sweets. Other than that, you'll just need to come in for regular check-ups and you should be fine. I'll have a nurse come in explain more in depth exactly what you'll need to be doing . . . " she trailed off when she noticed the horror-struck expressions on the two Gilmore's faces.
"Is something the matter? You do understand that this is in no way a life threatening disorder, correct?"
"Did you say 'go low on the sweets'?" Rory asked in a tiny voice. Lorelai was too horrified to even speak.
"Well, yes . . . Your disorder means that you already have overly high blood sugar so naturally you can't eat that much sweet food. I'm guessing you have a bit of a sweet tooth?"
"That's an understatement," Lorelai said, finding her voice, "Just yesterday afternoon she had two bowls of ice cream and a bag of M&Ms." Lorelai sounded proud.
Rory was vigorously nodding, "You see, you don't understand . . . I need junk food, I mean, it's right up there with coffee. Oh God, coffee, please don't tell me I can't have coffee either," Rory looked like she might cry.
"As long as you don't put sugar in it," Dr. Renyard looked like she was in jeopardy of laughing.
The two Gilmore's groaned.
Dr. Renyard was laughing now, "You know I don't believe I've ever seen anyone so upset about the lack of sweets before. . . "
"Trust me, it wouldn't be possible for anyone to be more upset about the lack of sweets than me," Rory announced with a pouty face.
"Oh, you're wrong about that one kiddo," Lorelai said.
"Really, who?" Rory challenged.
"Me, of course," Lorelai said seriously. She was actually feeling incredibly relieved that something was seriously wrong with her daughter. Her wit was returning quite rapidly.
"You two are something else. But don't worry, you can have sweets as long as you don't go overboard. And if you eat a little extra junk, then balance it out by taking a jog. Don't worry, the nurse will explain it all in more detail. It was nice meeting you, have a good day." With that, Dr. Renyard exited the room.
"Have a good day? How can she expect you to have a good day when she has just taken away one of the soul purposes for existence?" Lorelai asked, feigning perplexity.
"I know . . . this sucks."
Lorelai nodded grimly in agreement.
*****
Jess made his way out to the waiting room and took a seat on one of the brightly colored couches. There was a deep frown on his face, but he was actually in quite a good mood. His relief that there was nothing seriously wrong with Rory was unexpressible. Still, he had had to get away from Luke and Lorelai, who were incessantly arguing over the merits of junk food. Luke was down right thrilled that Rory was going to have to cut back on the sweets, and in his reasoning he decided that Lorelai would also be forced to start eating healthier. His reasoning was that if the younger Gilmore couldn't indulge in junk food, the older Gilmore would also have to be deprived, in order to keep temptation away from her daughter. Lorelai had responded that he apparently didn't know her very well, and on the argument went. Jess had left after that.
Jess glanced at his watch. It was almost 11:30 . . . he figured they'd be headed back to Stars Hollow any time now. He still hadn't spoken to Rory, while she was awake that is, since last night at the restaurant. He was actually a little nervous about seeing her again. Her behavior lately was making him worry that she might actually want to go back to Dean. After all, she had seemed pretty jealous about Mandi and all . . . and then Dean had had to go and tell her that he still loved her . . . If Rory went back to Dean, Jess wasn't sure what he would do.
Jess heard someone approach him from behind. He turned around and was surprised to see Lorelai standing there, staring at him. She actually looked a little uptight.
"Listen, Jess . . . I want to apologize for the way I treated you last night on the phone. I had no right to jump to the conclusion that you had done something to hurt Rory. I treated you unfairly and I'm sorry," Lorelai said seriously.
"It's no big deal," Jess responded, careful to keep any emotion out of his voice.
"Well, I think it should be. After all, I know you care about Rory, and as her Mother I play a pretty big role in her life. You ought to care about what I think about you."
She had backed him into a corner. He sighed, "Of course I care what you think of me Lorelai, but I can't make you like me. I can't make you trust me. Both of which, you obviously don't."
"I'm not going to lie to you Jess. I can't say that I'm overly happy that you're dating my daughter, but in all fairness to me, you didn't exactly make the best first impression. But I'm not blind. You've been doing a lot better, and I can see that. Even more importantly though, is that Rory sees something in you, and I trust her judgement."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Look, I'm not promising that we're going to suddenly develop a great relationship over night. But I am willing to try. I'm going to do my best to give you a second chance, and I'll try to be more fair and open minded. The way I treated you last night was wrong. It won't happen again unless you do something to make it."
The two were quiet for a minute when Jess spoke up, "I wouldn't hurt her, Lorelai."
"I know."
*****
Rory closed the door to her hospital room and quickly glanced up and down the hallway. She had been released, and was free to go home, but she didn't have a clue as to where her Mother had gone.
"Rory?" she heard a voice behind her say.
"Dean," she said, surprised.
"I was coming to check on you, I guess they let you out."
"Uh, yeah."
"Nothing to serious, then?"
"No," she said simply, not caring to go into details with Dean.
"Rory . . . about last night," Dean began.
"About last night," Rory interrupted, "I think we need to talk."
"I think so too."
Rory led Dean to a small waiting area on the far side of the hall. She sat down, and motioned for him to sit down as well.
"Dean we broke up."
"Thanks for the recap."
"Dean we broke up because things just weren't working anymore. If we got back together, things still wouldn't be good. What we had was great while it lasted, but it's gone now. I've moved on, you need to move on too," Rory said softly.
"Moved on? Rory you haven't moved on. You're with Jess for heavens sake. How long to you think that will last? Long enough for him to get what he needs and break your heart. I know what kind of guy he is, Rory."
"No, Dean," Rory said, fighting her anger, "You don't know what kind of person Jess is. How could you? You've never made any attempt to get to know him. Please don't talk about things that you don't understand. Jess and I are happy together, and no matter what you do, you won't be able to change that."
"Rory, I love you," he said desperately.
Rory shook her head sadly at him, "No you don't Dean. You just don't realize it yet. You got used to being in love with me. You felt comfortable and safe with it. It became so normal that you didn't even realize it when we fell out of love. That was one of the main problems with our relationship. Eventually you'll see, you'll meet somebody new, and then you'll understand what was missing in our relationship. We just weren't meant to be together, Dean."
"And what? You and Jess are?"
"I can't say anything for sure. But I do know this. We don't have a future together. Nothing you can say or do will change that," Rory's voice was calm and affirmative. She was confident in what she was saying.
Dean stood up, and without another word, left Rory sitting alone. Rory watched him go, feeling strangely free. She knew that one chapter of her life, her life with Dean, was finally closed for good. She could now move on completely to a new chapter, to her life with Jess.
'Speaking of Jess . . .' she thought to herself with a smile. Gathering her belongings, she headed off to find the man she loved.
*~!~* Well there ya go. Don't worry, next chapter there will be lotsa R/J action *grins* Also, as to all the stuff about diabetes, I honestly don't know that much about the disease, and since I was too lazy to actually do any research, I just went with what I thought was right. If I made some really horrible mistake, feel free to let me know and I'll change it. Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and please Review (you know you want to *hehe*) Bye *~!~*