Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, and unfortunately, didn't
even write the first THREE chapters.
The song is 'Could It Be Any Harder' and it's by The Calling.
Chapter Three: ONLY THING AGAINST US NOW IS TIME ~~*+*~~ Lorelai barged through the emergency room doors and strode quickly and purposefully towards the front desk, Luke trailing close behind her. "Hi, um, someone just rang me and told me my daughter was here, she was in some kind of car accident; where can I find her, please?" Lorelai managed to stutter, hardly conscious of herself talking. Her words felt like a distant echo from another time, and almost sounded as if they were coming from another person. "Name?" the woman asked as she reached for a stack of files beside her. "Rory. Rory Gilmore." Lorelai replied hastily. "Rory Gilmore." the woman repeated as she searched through the files, a frown on her face. "We don't appear to have a Rory Gilmore here." Lorelai closed her eyes as she started to drum her fingers on the desk. Maybe this was all a mistake, or some kind of sick joke; maybe Rory wasn't even here, but she was at school at that very moment, debating alongside Paris; maybe. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore? Does that ring any bells?" the woman suddenly asked. Maybe not. Lorelai opened her eyes and stared at the woman, the sick feeling in her stomach returning. "Yes, that's her." Luke suddenly spoke up from behind her as he sensed Lorelai tense up at the name. "Oookay, and what relationship do you have with her?" the woman nodded as she separated a single file from the rest. "I'm her mother," Lorelai promptly replied, sounding almost agitated as her voice began to rise slightly. "Now will someone please take me to her?!" "I'm very sorry, ma'am, but we cannot take you in to see your daughter just right." she shook her head before Lorelai cut her off. "No! I don't want to hear it! I just want someone to take me to my daughter! I need to see her!" Lorelai frustratedly hit her fist on the table, hardly aware of her shoulders shaking and the helpless tears streaming down her cheeks as she began to cry again. "Lorelai." Luke pleaded quietly as he stepped closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That would be quite impossible right now, miss." The woman, clearly experienced with this sort of behavior from families and friends of patients, spoke in a steady, collected tone. Lorelai closed her eyes and took a deep breath in as she tried to stop her tears and, most importantly, calm herself down. "And why would that be?" "Because your daughter is still in surgery," the woman replied frankly. Lorelai opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Surgery? Why was Rory in surgery?! The silence between the trio, who, just a moment ago, were making the loudest noise and riot in the emergency room, was overwhelming. Luke, uncertain of what to do next, stood uncomfortably behind Lorelai, while even the woman at the counter seemed almost remorseful of the way she had blurted the words out. A mention of surgery obviously wasn't something the girl's mother had expected. The moment of heavy, deafening silence between them seemed to go on for eternity for Lorelai, and she felt as if she was stuck in the moment with no way out; and it was in the silence that her thoughts were loudest. Terrifying images raced through her mind as her confusion grew. She felt stupid and naïve for even contemplating the scenario of coming to the hospital to find Rory waiting for her without so much as a small bump on the head and only in need of a small check-up; ready to go home in no more than half an hour. Yet she had led herself to believe that that would be the case.after all, she had thought, this is Rory; and nothing can ever happen to Rory. But now, the sudden reality-check was taking its toll as it crashed down on her. Rory was no longer invincible.she was now more vulnerable than she had ever been in Lorelai's eyes, and this frightened Lorelai more than she could have ever imagined. Because now, anything was possible. "H-how is she?" Lorelai could hardly manage to get the words out. "I'm sorry, ma'am; no-one has told me, I don't know anything." The woman at the desk shrugged impotently. "Well, then, may I please speak to someone who does?" Lorelai eyes had an unnatural, almost maddening gleam in her eye as she leant dangerously on the counter. The woman smiled sweetly at Lorelai. "Well how about I try to get a hold of one of Lorelai's doctors." "Rory." Lorelai cut her off quietly. "We call her Rory." "Rory's doctors," the woman corrected herself as she pulled out a bundle of papers from the file, "and in the meantime, if you could just fill out some of this paperwork for the hospital." "O-okay. Thank you." Lorelai stuttered distantly as the woman passed her some papers and a pen over the desk; but the papers did not remain in Lorelai's hands for long as they slowly slipped through her trembling fingers and fluttered to the ground messily because of the tremor in her hands. Lorelai brought a hand up to her head frustratedly as she bent down to retrieve them, apologizing profusely. No more than a second later, a familiar hand - the same hand that had served her and Rory coffee and fed them for the past 16 years - grasped hers. Lorelai slowly brought her eyes up to meet Luke's, who was kneeling down beside her. "Why don't you go and take a seat for a second, I'll take care of this." He whispered soothingly. Lorelai nodded numbly as she gradually stood up, brushing her jeans off with her hands as she stood awkwardly on the spot before finally residing in one of the chairs, letting her head fall in her hands. Luke's face fell as he watched her from the counter. Why her? Why Rory? They didn't deserve this kind of pain.no-one did. Sighing dejectedly, he turned away from the heartbreaking image for a moment as he addressed the woman at the counter, holding the papers out to her. "If you could just give her a moment, maybe she could do them a little later." he shrugged uncomfortably as he turned to walk towards Lorelai. "Sir? Maybe.maybe if you could possibly do them for her, they're very important, we need them right away." The woman called after him. "It's just general information: name, date of birth.just things like that." Luke froze, wringing his baseball cap in his hands. He wasn't even related to Rory, how could he fill out a whole heap of papers for her on her mother's behalf? He was about to explain the situation to the woman behind the desk before he caught another glimpse of Lorelai slumped on the chair. But then again, it wasn't as if he didn't know Rory's name or birthday was it? "Okay.that-that's fine. I'll do it for her." He replied nonchalantly as he reached for the pen and set to work filling out the forms. Behind him, Lorelai's sobs continued to echo through the lonely hospital halls; bouncing off the walls and chilling anyone in earshot of the helpless mother crying, and praying, for her daughter.her everything. ~*~ You left me with goodbye and open arms A cut so deep I don't deserve You were always invincible in my eyes The only thing against us now is time ~*~ Minutes turned into hours as the hands of the clock continued to turn ruthlessly. Luke and Lorelai sat on the hard hospital chairs, Lorelai nursing a full cup of coffee she still could not bring herself to drink. Through the past two and a half hours she had gone from sobbing quietly, to sitting blankly, to pacing the corridors, to abusing the nurse at the front counter, to crying hysterically and, now, staring distantly at a wall on the other side of the room. And through all that time Luke knew he could do nothing to help ease her pain. He knew that the only thing that could help Lorelai now was if Rory came waltzing through the doors grinning, asking her mum if they could go home yet; but he had a feeling that wouldn't be happening any time soon. Both adults looked up as a doctor entered the room and strode over to the counter, where he began talking to the nurse. Lorelai was on her feet within seconds. "Hi, um, hi, I need your help, do you." Lorelai stumbled over to the counter as she addressed the doctor. The doctor turned to face Lorelai, smiling warmly. Even with the young girl's injuries, he could still see the resemblance between the two and knew almost immediately who he was dealing with. "Ah, I'm assuming you're young Rory's mother?" he asked as he shook Lorelai's limp hand firmly. "Dr. Stevens.I was just working with your daughter in the operating room." "Oh, thank God.how is she?!" Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally going to tell her something. The doctor's face adopted a troubled look as he stared hard at Lorelai. "Why don't you follow me to my office, and we can discuss this inside." Lorelai nodded distractedly as she turned and motioned for Luke to join her as they both followed the doctor closely down the winding corridors. "Please, take a seat," the doctor welcomed them into the small office as he sat behind the desk, folding his hands in front of him. "Now I understand that as a parent, your head is probably reeling with unanswered questions by this point in time; but I'm asking you to hold them for just a moment while I explain some things." Lorelai stopped herself from bombarding the doctor with questions for a moment as she agitatedly sat forward in her seat, nodding vigorously. The sooner, the better.
The doctor hesitated uncomfortably for a moment before taking a deep breath and talking again. "Well from what I was able to gather from the police who were actually there at the scene, the accident was mainly caused by the rainy conditions. The other car involved was a red truck, which slammed into your daughter's car, sending it sliding along the slippery roads easily. We're lucky it didn't come in contact with any other cars." "And what about." Lorelai whispered as she clutched Luke's elbow tightly. "Rory?" the doctor smiled slightly through his shadowed expression. "Let me tell you, she's a fighter, that one. I was in there the whole time, and we almost lost her a couple of times; but she seemed pretty determined to come through in the end." Lorelai felt like she was going to throw up. They almost lost her? Almost lost her little girl?! "So how is she?" Luke cut in, tired of the doctor's small talk. He knew every word coming out of the doctor's mouth was killing Lorelai. The doctor sighed and pursed his lips, his expression turning grave as he looked them in the eye. "She's in pretty bad shape." He told them honestly. "Some of her injuries include three broken ribs and a punctured left lung from the impact of the steering wheel. She's also broken her left arm in two places and her knees may be a problem later on; but that's not our biggest worry right now." Lorelai stifled a horrified gasp as she felt tears gather behind her eyes. There was more? How could it get any worse than this?! "She's lost a lot of blood, and has some severe head trauma, which could pose some huge threats." The doctor continued matter-of-factly. "What kind of threats?" Lorelai wasn't even aware of whether it was her or Luke who had muttered those words as she snapped back into the clouded reality surrounding her. "Well, you see the thing is.Rory slipped into a coma while we were working on her," the doctor stated quietly. "Now we don't know when she'll wake up.or if she even will. We have moved her to the Intensive Care Unit where she can be monitored 24 hours, and we have her on a respirator and we are doing all we can to help her make it through; but we still can't promise any." "Are you saying," Lorelai interrupted him as she choked back a sob. "Are you saying that my daughter might not even make it?!" "I told you; we're doing all we can." he shrugged helplessly. "Obviously not enough! What kind of doctor are you if you can't even keep my daughter alive?! You're supposed to be saving her life!" Lorelai jumped out of her chair, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Lorelai." Luke tried to calm her down. "How about we go see her, hmm?" Lorelai nodded through her tears, hardly able to talk. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare that just kept getting worse as time wore on; and now, she could lose her daughter. "So I'm assuming we're all of immediate relations here?" the doctor spoke up. Luke opened his mouth to speak, but Lorelai beat him to it. "Yes; we're her parents." "Okay then, if you would both just like to come this way." The doctor brushed past them. Lorelai and Luke were silent as they followed the doctor down the hospital halls. Everything was so white, cold, sterile.so unwelcoming. Lorelai involuntarily shuddered as she concentrated on leading her feet down the corridor. One step, two steps, three.left, right, left, right. She felt so detached from the world around her. On the outside she was hardly registering what was going on, moving and talking automatically, as if she was nothing but a puppet being pulled into action by another person. And on the inside, she felt nothing but numbness, which was slowly being eaten away by an overwhelming feeling of emptiness as her mind slowly recognized that something was seriously wrong. But there was nothing, no matter how large or how small, that could add up to the reality check that hit Lorelai as she stood at the door of the Intensive Care Unit, her eyes skimming desperately over the beds until they found her daughter. Lorelai could not find any breath in her to even gasp with the horror of what was happening as she stared at Rory from afar. She was blind to everything but her daughter's battered face lying against the pillow, her pale, snow-white complexion bringing out the dark, angry cuts and bruises that marred her distant, sleep-like expression that Lorelai had fondly watched over for countless nights over the years. She could hear nothing; feel nothing but the sound of the respirator breathing life into her little girl and the intruding, consistent beeping of the heart monitor. It was overpowering in her ears, dominating the ragged sound of the respirator as it grew louder to such an extent that for a terrifying, fleeting second Lorelai thought the respirator had stopped completely. She felt rooted to the spot as a crushing sense of heaviness drifted into her feet and spread upwards through her body, turning all her insides to lead. The air around her suddenly felt so thick that Lorelai felt like she was being suffocated. A nurse walked past the group, blocking Lorelai's view of Rory for a split second; and before she knew what was doing, Lorelai had turned on her heel with a choked sob and pushed past Luke and the doctor as she rushed out into the safety of the hallways, afraid to have to face her daughter's still form upon the bed again. She stood in shock for a moment, clutching her stomach as she prepared herself to make a mad rush to the nearest bathroom across the hall; but nothing of the sort appeared necessary as she felt her knees buckle as she slid down the wall, silent, helpless tears flooding her face. "Lorelai.Lorelai, look at me." Disoriented, Lorelai brought her face up from her knees to acknowledge Luke, who was crouching in front of her on the ground, his concerned gaze piercing her heart sharply. "She's going to die," Lorelai mumbled quietly, her voice quivering. "No, she's not," Luke shook his head. "She'll be okay. She's okay." A few stray tears made their way back down Lorelai's face as she stared Luke square in the eye. "No, Luke," she said with an almost haunting edge to her voice. "Last night, in the diner.she was okay then. But this.this is not okay. You can't tell me she's okay. She's not okay." Lorelai repeated the three words over and over again until her voice eventually broke into sobs; and Luke could not think of anything to say or do but hold her trembling figure as she cried. ~*~ Could it be any harder to say goodbye, and without you; Could it be any harder to watch you go, to face what's true; If I only had one more day.. ~*~ (Look at the pretty review button. Isn't that a pretty review button? Ah, such a pretty review button!)
The song is 'Could It Be Any Harder' and it's by The Calling.
Chapter Three: ONLY THING AGAINST US NOW IS TIME ~~*+*~~ Lorelai barged through the emergency room doors and strode quickly and purposefully towards the front desk, Luke trailing close behind her. "Hi, um, someone just rang me and told me my daughter was here, she was in some kind of car accident; where can I find her, please?" Lorelai managed to stutter, hardly conscious of herself talking. Her words felt like a distant echo from another time, and almost sounded as if they were coming from another person. "Name?" the woman asked as she reached for a stack of files beside her. "Rory. Rory Gilmore." Lorelai replied hastily. "Rory Gilmore." the woman repeated as she searched through the files, a frown on her face. "We don't appear to have a Rory Gilmore here." Lorelai closed her eyes as she started to drum her fingers on the desk. Maybe this was all a mistake, or some kind of sick joke; maybe Rory wasn't even here, but she was at school at that very moment, debating alongside Paris; maybe. "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore? Does that ring any bells?" the woman suddenly asked. Maybe not. Lorelai opened her eyes and stared at the woman, the sick feeling in her stomach returning. "Yes, that's her." Luke suddenly spoke up from behind her as he sensed Lorelai tense up at the name. "Oookay, and what relationship do you have with her?" the woman nodded as she separated a single file from the rest. "I'm her mother," Lorelai promptly replied, sounding almost agitated as her voice began to rise slightly. "Now will someone please take me to her?!" "I'm very sorry, ma'am, but we cannot take you in to see your daughter just right." she shook her head before Lorelai cut her off. "No! I don't want to hear it! I just want someone to take me to my daughter! I need to see her!" Lorelai frustratedly hit her fist on the table, hardly aware of her shoulders shaking and the helpless tears streaming down her cheeks as she began to cry again. "Lorelai." Luke pleaded quietly as he stepped closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That would be quite impossible right now, miss." The woman, clearly experienced with this sort of behavior from families and friends of patients, spoke in a steady, collected tone. Lorelai closed her eyes and took a deep breath in as she tried to stop her tears and, most importantly, calm herself down. "And why would that be?" "Because your daughter is still in surgery," the woman replied frankly. Lorelai opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Surgery? Why was Rory in surgery?! The silence between the trio, who, just a moment ago, were making the loudest noise and riot in the emergency room, was overwhelming. Luke, uncertain of what to do next, stood uncomfortably behind Lorelai, while even the woman at the counter seemed almost remorseful of the way she had blurted the words out. A mention of surgery obviously wasn't something the girl's mother had expected. The moment of heavy, deafening silence between them seemed to go on for eternity for Lorelai, and she felt as if she was stuck in the moment with no way out; and it was in the silence that her thoughts were loudest. Terrifying images raced through her mind as her confusion grew. She felt stupid and naïve for even contemplating the scenario of coming to the hospital to find Rory waiting for her without so much as a small bump on the head and only in need of a small check-up; ready to go home in no more than half an hour. Yet she had led herself to believe that that would be the case.after all, she had thought, this is Rory; and nothing can ever happen to Rory. But now, the sudden reality-check was taking its toll as it crashed down on her. Rory was no longer invincible.she was now more vulnerable than she had ever been in Lorelai's eyes, and this frightened Lorelai more than she could have ever imagined. Because now, anything was possible. "H-how is she?" Lorelai could hardly manage to get the words out. "I'm sorry, ma'am; no-one has told me, I don't know anything." The woman at the desk shrugged impotently. "Well, then, may I please speak to someone who does?" Lorelai eyes had an unnatural, almost maddening gleam in her eye as she leant dangerously on the counter. The woman smiled sweetly at Lorelai. "Well how about I try to get a hold of one of Lorelai's doctors." "Rory." Lorelai cut her off quietly. "We call her Rory." "Rory's doctors," the woman corrected herself as she pulled out a bundle of papers from the file, "and in the meantime, if you could just fill out some of this paperwork for the hospital." "O-okay. Thank you." Lorelai stuttered distantly as the woman passed her some papers and a pen over the desk; but the papers did not remain in Lorelai's hands for long as they slowly slipped through her trembling fingers and fluttered to the ground messily because of the tremor in her hands. Lorelai brought a hand up to her head frustratedly as she bent down to retrieve them, apologizing profusely. No more than a second later, a familiar hand - the same hand that had served her and Rory coffee and fed them for the past 16 years - grasped hers. Lorelai slowly brought her eyes up to meet Luke's, who was kneeling down beside her. "Why don't you go and take a seat for a second, I'll take care of this." He whispered soothingly. Lorelai nodded numbly as she gradually stood up, brushing her jeans off with her hands as she stood awkwardly on the spot before finally residing in one of the chairs, letting her head fall in her hands. Luke's face fell as he watched her from the counter. Why her? Why Rory? They didn't deserve this kind of pain.no-one did. Sighing dejectedly, he turned away from the heartbreaking image for a moment as he addressed the woman at the counter, holding the papers out to her. "If you could just give her a moment, maybe she could do them a little later." he shrugged uncomfortably as he turned to walk towards Lorelai. "Sir? Maybe.maybe if you could possibly do them for her, they're very important, we need them right away." The woman called after him. "It's just general information: name, date of birth.just things like that." Luke froze, wringing his baseball cap in his hands. He wasn't even related to Rory, how could he fill out a whole heap of papers for her on her mother's behalf? He was about to explain the situation to the woman behind the desk before he caught another glimpse of Lorelai slumped on the chair. But then again, it wasn't as if he didn't know Rory's name or birthday was it? "Okay.that-that's fine. I'll do it for her." He replied nonchalantly as he reached for the pen and set to work filling out the forms. Behind him, Lorelai's sobs continued to echo through the lonely hospital halls; bouncing off the walls and chilling anyone in earshot of the helpless mother crying, and praying, for her daughter.her everything. ~*~ You left me with goodbye and open arms A cut so deep I don't deserve You were always invincible in my eyes The only thing against us now is time ~*~ Minutes turned into hours as the hands of the clock continued to turn ruthlessly. Luke and Lorelai sat on the hard hospital chairs, Lorelai nursing a full cup of coffee she still could not bring herself to drink. Through the past two and a half hours she had gone from sobbing quietly, to sitting blankly, to pacing the corridors, to abusing the nurse at the front counter, to crying hysterically and, now, staring distantly at a wall on the other side of the room. And through all that time Luke knew he could do nothing to help ease her pain. He knew that the only thing that could help Lorelai now was if Rory came waltzing through the doors grinning, asking her mum if they could go home yet; but he had a feeling that wouldn't be happening any time soon. Both adults looked up as a doctor entered the room and strode over to the counter, where he began talking to the nurse. Lorelai was on her feet within seconds. "Hi, um, hi, I need your help, do you." Lorelai stumbled over to the counter as she addressed the doctor. The doctor turned to face Lorelai, smiling warmly. Even with the young girl's injuries, he could still see the resemblance between the two and knew almost immediately who he was dealing with. "Ah, I'm assuming you're young Rory's mother?" he asked as he shook Lorelai's limp hand firmly. "Dr. Stevens.I was just working with your daughter in the operating room." "Oh, thank God.how is she?!" Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally going to tell her something. The doctor's face adopted a troubled look as he stared hard at Lorelai. "Why don't you follow me to my office, and we can discuss this inside." Lorelai nodded distractedly as she turned and motioned for Luke to join her as they both followed the doctor closely down the winding corridors. "Please, take a seat," the doctor welcomed them into the small office as he sat behind the desk, folding his hands in front of him. "Now I understand that as a parent, your head is probably reeling with unanswered questions by this point in time; but I'm asking you to hold them for just a moment while I explain some things." Lorelai stopped herself from bombarding the doctor with questions for a moment as she agitatedly sat forward in her seat, nodding vigorously. The sooner, the better.
The doctor hesitated uncomfortably for a moment before taking a deep breath and talking again. "Well from what I was able to gather from the police who were actually there at the scene, the accident was mainly caused by the rainy conditions. The other car involved was a red truck, which slammed into your daughter's car, sending it sliding along the slippery roads easily. We're lucky it didn't come in contact with any other cars." "And what about." Lorelai whispered as she clutched Luke's elbow tightly. "Rory?" the doctor smiled slightly through his shadowed expression. "Let me tell you, she's a fighter, that one. I was in there the whole time, and we almost lost her a couple of times; but she seemed pretty determined to come through in the end." Lorelai felt like she was going to throw up. They almost lost her? Almost lost her little girl?! "So how is she?" Luke cut in, tired of the doctor's small talk. He knew every word coming out of the doctor's mouth was killing Lorelai. The doctor sighed and pursed his lips, his expression turning grave as he looked them in the eye. "She's in pretty bad shape." He told them honestly. "Some of her injuries include three broken ribs and a punctured left lung from the impact of the steering wheel. She's also broken her left arm in two places and her knees may be a problem later on; but that's not our biggest worry right now." Lorelai stifled a horrified gasp as she felt tears gather behind her eyes. There was more? How could it get any worse than this?! "She's lost a lot of blood, and has some severe head trauma, which could pose some huge threats." The doctor continued matter-of-factly. "What kind of threats?" Lorelai wasn't even aware of whether it was her or Luke who had muttered those words as she snapped back into the clouded reality surrounding her. "Well, you see the thing is.Rory slipped into a coma while we were working on her," the doctor stated quietly. "Now we don't know when she'll wake up.or if she even will. We have moved her to the Intensive Care Unit where she can be monitored 24 hours, and we have her on a respirator and we are doing all we can to help her make it through; but we still can't promise any." "Are you saying," Lorelai interrupted him as she choked back a sob. "Are you saying that my daughter might not even make it?!" "I told you; we're doing all we can." he shrugged helplessly. "Obviously not enough! What kind of doctor are you if you can't even keep my daughter alive?! You're supposed to be saving her life!" Lorelai jumped out of her chair, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Lorelai." Luke tried to calm her down. "How about we go see her, hmm?" Lorelai nodded through her tears, hardly able to talk. She felt like she was trapped in a nightmare that just kept getting worse as time wore on; and now, she could lose her daughter. "So I'm assuming we're all of immediate relations here?" the doctor spoke up. Luke opened his mouth to speak, but Lorelai beat him to it. "Yes; we're her parents." "Okay then, if you would both just like to come this way." The doctor brushed past them. Lorelai and Luke were silent as they followed the doctor down the hospital halls. Everything was so white, cold, sterile.so unwelcoming. Lorelai involuntarily shuddered as she concentrated on leading her feet down the corridor. One step, two steps, three.left, right, left, right. She felt so detached from the world around her. On the outside she was hardly registering what was going on, moving and talking automatically, as if she was nothing but a puppet being pulled into action by another person. And on the inside, she felt nothing but numbness, which was slowly being eaten away by an overwhelming feeling of emptiness as her mind slowly recognized that something was seriously wrong. But there was nothing, no matter how large or how small, that could add up to the reality check that hit Lorelai as she stood at the door of the Intensive Care Unit, her eyes skimming desperately over the beds until they found her daughter. Lorelai could not find any breath in her to even gasp with the horror of what was happening as she stared at Rory from afar. She was blind to everything but her daughter's battered face lying against the pillow, her pale, snow-white complexion bringing out the dark, angry cuts and bruises that marred her distant, sleep-like expression that Lorelai had fondly watched over for countless nights over the years. She could hear nothing; feel nothing but the sound of the respirator breathing life into her little girl and the intruding, consistent beeping of the heart monitor. It was overpowering in her ears, dominating the ragged sound of the respirator as it grew louder to such an extent that for a terrifying, fleeting second Lorelai thought the respirator had stopped completely. She felt rooted to the spot as a crushing sense of heaviness drifted into her feet and spread upwards through her body, turning all her insides to lead. The air around her suddenly felt so thick that Lorelai felt like she was being suffocated. A nurse walked past the group, blocking Lorelai's view of Rory for a split second; and before she knew what was doing, Lorelai had turned on her heel with a choked sob and pushed past Luke and the doctor as she rushed out into the safety of the hallways, afraid to have to face her daughter's still form upon the bed again. She stood in shock for a moment, clutching her stomach as she prepared herself to make a mad rush to the nearest bathroom across the hall; but nothing of the sort appeared necessary as she felt her knees buckle as she slid down the wall, silent, helpless tears flooding her face. "Lorelai.Lorelai, look at me." Disoriented, Lorelai brought her face up from her knees to acknowledge Luke, who was crouching in front of her on the ground, his concerned gaze piercing her heart sharply. "She's going to die," Lorelai mumbled quietly, her voice quivering. "No, she's not," Luke shook his head. "She'll be okay. She's okay." A few stray tears made their way back down Lorelai's face as she stared Luke square in the eye. "No, Luke," she said with an almost haunting edge to her voice. "Last night, in the diner.she was okay then. But this.this is not okay. You can't tell me she's okay. She's not okay." Lorelai repeated the three words over and over again until her voice eventually broke into sobs; and Luke could not think of anything to say or do but hold her trembling figure as she cried. ~*~ Could it be any harder to say goodbye, and without you; Could it be any harder to watch you go, to face what's true; If I only had one more day.. ~*~ (Look at the pretty review button. Isn't that a pretty review button? Ah, such a pretty review button!)