A Thousand Years

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Caffeine Fix

It all happened at once.

Hayden didn't even know what had happened. One minute, she was just sitting there at the dinner table with her sister, grandmother, and all her grandmother's guests for the annual holiday party and the next, she was climbing into her grandmother's car to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

She'd never even ridden with her grandmother before. It surprised her that, even while her husband was possibly having a heart attack, Emily Gilmore was the epitome of calm, never even tightening her grip around the steering wheel.

Well, maybe that wasn't true. Maybe she just didn't want to let either of her granddaughters to know she was scared, Hayden considered as she wandered aimlessly through the waiting rooms, just looking for a coffee machine that was working. Normally, she didn't partake, her go-to drink being tea, but she needed the caffeine right now.

"Any luck?"

"Nope," Hayden sighed, pushing the button for what felt like the thousandth time and failing to receive any coffee for her efforts. The machine was just laughing at her at this point. "Grandma find anything out?"

"No," Rory said, looking worried.

Glancing sideways at her twin, who was usually the more level-headed of the two of them, Hayden exhaled the sigh she hadn't realized she was holding. "I'm sure everything's fine," she said reassuringly, knowing her sister needed to hear it. Even if Hayden didn't believe her words, Rory needed to hear it. "This is one of the best hospitals for a hundred miles; I'm sure Grandpa will be fine."

"Yeah," her sister nodded venomously, "yeah, of course he will." But the worry didn't fade. "Did you get ahold of Mom? I keep trying but . . ."

"Left a voicemail on her cell and on the machine," Hayden assured her. Their mother must've gone to a movie or something like she said she was going to; the woman was practically glued to her cell, so there was no other explanation. "Told her Grandpa collapsed and which hospital we were at. She'll be here."

"I hope so."

"She will," Hayden promised, "and I am going elsewhere to find some coffee because this machine hates me. Need anything else? Pretzels, junk food . . .?"

Rory smiled faintly. "Some good news?"

"I'll see what I can do," Hayden said with forced cheerfulness, "and I'll see if I can't find some tea for Grandma." The older woman had enough on her plate without bouncing off the walls as well. "If the next one doesn't work, I think I saw a Starbucks down the street."

"Maybe we should stay here," her sister protested, stealing a glance to where their grandmother was arguing with every nurse at the station. "In case we hear anything . . ."

"Absolutely, you should stay and keep Grandma from wringing the nurses' necks, but I need to do something."

With that, Hayden walked away, knowing that she would be of no good to her grandfather just sitting around waiting. She didn't wish the man ill but she'd never exactly been close with her grandparents in the last sixteen years and she hadn't grown any closer to them in the months they'd been going to Friday night dinners. But she felt a stab of guilt, knowing that if something bad did happen, that was her last chance of getting to know Richard Gilmore.

And Hayden honestly didn't know how she felt about that.

She wondered through the hospital, just trying to find one machine in the entire hospital that would give her some frigging coffee, but they had were all in cahoots against her, refusing her the caffeine she so desperately needed.

Aggravatedly pushing the button, Hayden pleaded, "Come on, just work . . ." This was the last coffee machine on this floor, so she was either going to have to choose another floor or give up and go to Starbucks. "Come on, come on . . ."

But just like the last fourteen, the coffee machine just spat her dollar back at her, laughing at her indignance.

"Try the one by the nurse's station," someone said behind her. "That one usually works."

Hayden turned.

The person wasn't an employee; he was around her age. And he wasn't a visitor either, judging by the arm that was in a cast and the bandages wrapped around his head. There was an IV next to him and he was in full hospital gown, walking in slipper through the empty hallways.

"Tried that one already. I think they're in a conspiracy against me."

Downcast blue eyes suddenly filled with mirth and the boy suppressed a grin. "All the coffee machines conspired against you?"

"Yes. Because they know."

"Know . . . what?"

"That I am in desperate need of caffeine, otherwise I'm going to lose it and they know that if they keep me away from the coffee, then I'm just going to get crazier and crazier and they want to have a good laugh."

"Seems pretty extreme for inanimate objects."

"Yeah, well . . ." Hayden sighed, plucking her dollar back out of the machine and facing him completely.

"You visiting someone?"

"My grandpa . . . he's in the ER."

"You couldn't find a working coffee machine between here and there?"

"As unbelievable as that sounds, no."

"That's insane."

"No, the insane part is I never drink coffee except in extreme circumstances and my grandfather having a heart attack at the dinner table qualifies as 'extreme,' Hayden replied wearily, leaning her head against the doorframe.

"Is he going to be okay?"

Hayden shrugged. "No idea . . ."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too," she sighed, glancing at his blue eyes. "But there's not much I can do except wander around here, looking for coffee. I know my sister; she's even more of a caffeine addict than I am. And my mother, if she ever gets here . . ."

She glanced up at his silence, taking another look at his injuries.

It wasn't just his arm and head, she realized now. His face, though undeniably cute, had bumps and bruises all over it and there was a boot around his leg, suggesting that, while not broken, it still wasn't completely okay.

"How about you? What are you in for?"

He smiled ruefully.

"I was in an . . . accident. Doctors are keeping me hostage for 'observation.'"

"That sucks," Hayden sympathized. Just being here for a few measly hours was driving her crazy; she couldn't imagine being trapped here for days, if not longer. And that didn't count how long he'd been here already.

Laughing, he agreed, "You have no idea. I can't stand just sitting around; I need to do something other than stare at the stupid television with absolutely nothing on." He shrugged. "Guess that's why I'm walking around. Better than being stuck in the room. Nurses will probably chew me out when I go back."

"So don't go back."

"Eh, they'll track me down sooner or later. Pretty sure my roommate already ratted me out." He said this like he had already pulled this maneuver once before and that was exactly what happened. "Did you try the machine in the nurse's lounge?"

"The lounge?"

"Yeah," he said with a grin, "there is one coffee machine that never fails to work because if it ever did stop working, every nurse from here to the ER would throw up arms in protest. That's the one in the nurse's lounge. And I might know the back way in," he added, wagging his eyebrows suggestively.

Hayden giggled. "Well, kind sir, would you might showing me where this magical coffee machine is? That might keep you busy for at least ten more minute before they catch us in their sacred ground."

"Hmm . . . I could . . . on one condition."

"What's that?"

He leaned towards her. "If you tell me your name."

She laughed, surprised by how easily she was able to but this guy was able to get underneath her anxiety and bring some small comfort to the surface. "Hayden. Hayden Gilmore. What's yours?"

Innocent the question might have been but it still made him pause and the smile that he'd been wearing up until now slipped ever so slightly, the light in his blue eyes fading as he looked away, leaving her to wonder what she'd done wrong.

But he looked back up after the briefest of seconds, eyes suddenly sad.

"Uh . . . John."

"John," she echoed, not entirely sure if she believed him. Just the way he said it made her think that he wasn't sure that was his real name but she didn't press the issue. He had the right to privacy and if he didn't want to tell her his name, that was his business. "So . . . magic coffee machine?"

A glimmer of a smile, not quite as bright as before but still more than it had been a second ago, appeared and he gestured for her to follow.

"This way."

By the time that Hayden got back to the ER, they had already released her grandfather from the emergency room and put him upstairs in an actual room, so she was forced to retrace her steps back upstairs, making the rounds she had just made until she found the floor for cardiac patients.

She was just about to ask which room Richard Gilmore was in when she spotted a familiar face sitting in a chair, staring at his shoes.

"Luke?"

He looked up. "Hey, Hayden."

"What are you doing here?"

"I drove your mom—we weren't on a date," he added hastily, as though this need clarification, which, honestly, it kind of did. Of everybody in Stars Hollow, the only people that didn't know that her mother and the diner owner were attracted to each other were Luke and Lorelai themselves. In the five years since they had started going to the diner on a regular basis, the two had a mutual attraction that hadn't gone beyond the 'can I have coffee? No, it makes you crazy' phase.

Honestly, Hayden actually wished her mother would start dating Luke because he was a lot better for her than her usual boyfriends. Max Medina and her father, for example, were terrible. Christopher was hardly ever around, more of a sperm donor than anything else, and Max was Rory's teacher—enough said.

"If you say so," Hayden said delicately, not about to push the two idiots together if they weren't willing to do it themselves. "They said downstairs that they brought Grandpa up?"

"Yeah, they—"

"Hayden!"
Turning, Hayden was immediately engulfed in her mother's arms as she came out of a particular room. Her face, though noticeably drawn, was smiling reassuringly and Hayden knew that, whatever else, her grandfather was all right.

"Hey, sweets . . . you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Grandpa?"

"He's okay; you can go in if you want. They're letting him go home in a few days."

"That's good." Hayden let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Here, I found some coffee . . . sorry it took me so long."

"Believe me, I get the whole 'needing to do something' thing," her mother assured her, taking the cup Hayden passed over. She sipped the foam cup, raising her brow at the taste. "That is surprisingly good; where'd you get a decent cup in here?"

"Nurses' lounge, couple floors down," Hayden explained. "I met a patient that showed me where the good coffee was."

Her thoughts drifted back to John momentarily; she left him back on the floor she'd been on, after they'd been caught sneaking into the nurse's lounge. Just as John had predicted, the nurses hounded on him as soon as they found him, scolding him that he wasn't supposed to be up and to get back to his room right now. He just grinned sheepishly before turning to Hayden.

"See you later . . ."

He sounded so hopeful yet at the same time clearly didn't expect to ever see her again that Hayden found herself not wanting to abandon him, despite what was going on with her family. But she left, armed with coffee.

But she couldn't stop thinking about him.

God, she was awful. Her grandfather could have been dying and here she was, thinking about a boy she'd literally just met an hour ago.

". . . Hayden?"

"Huh?" She looked up, realizing she had been zoning out and both Lorelai and Luke were looking at her curiously. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said you should go see your grandpa before he goes to sleep," her mother said, giving her a gentle nudge towards the room she had just vacated. "Rory and your grandma are already inside; go see him."

Hayden nodded, doing as she was told but once she got inside, all she was greeted with was her grandmother lecturing the doctors and her sister making a comment every time that the doctor said something.

On the bed, her grandfather just looked so exhausted and for such a big man, he looked so small on the bed, but he gave her a smile when she walked in and Hayden felt a wave of relief, knowing he would be okay.

A change of diet was nothing. That was easily manageable and knowing Emily Gilmore, she would take charge of his diet like a lioness, challenging anything that would dare harm her husband. That was who her grandmother was; she would fight against anyone that would dare threaten her family, even the human body itself.

Eventually, she and Rory left their grandmother and that was when their mother sent them home with Luke, reassuring them that she would be fine. "Go call Dean," she instructed Rory, "and Hayden, don't let her hang up until they're arguing about who's prettier."

"Gross," Rory complained.

"When did we start liking Dean again?" Hayden wanted to know. Last she checked, they were still mad at Rory's boyfriend after the two had stayed out all night following a school dance. Apparently, all they did was sleep.

And Hayden totally believed that.

Mostly because Dean wasn't the type of guy that would push Rory to do something like that when she clearly wasn't ready, but also because her sister had only started dating a few months ago and definitely wasn't ready for a physical relationship.

"Since earlier tonight," Lorelai said, shrugging. "He came over, pulling the whole 'tapping on the window' bit."

"Yeah, he's good at that," Hayden agreed, grinning. It was a good thing that they hadn't shared the same room since moving into the Crap Shack because she was sure she would have seen stuff that a girl should not be seeing her sister doing.

Lorelai shook her head, smiling at Hayden.

"And you, missy . . . do something fun."

"Like rollerblade?"

"Yeah, make sure you do it past Taylor's house. It's almost ten, so he should be asleep."

"Sounds fun," Hayden said cheerfully, heading after Luke. After a minute, her sister followed suit.

They were almost to the exit when they happened to pass by the gift shop, with colorful flowers and gift cards in the window and she paused, impulse taking over. It was stupid, she knew, but she turned back.

Rory glanced at her. "Hayden?"

"I'll catch up."

The clerk looked up as the bell rang over her head, looking disappointed that she wouldn't be able to close up shop early. "We're five minutes from closing," she warned as Hayden disappeared into the card section.

"I know; I won't be long."

She spotted one of the 'get well soon' cards and, after a moment's debate, grabbed one with R2-D2 on it. Hopefully, he was into Star Wars, she thought as she made her way back up to the front, borrowing a pen to scribble a message.

Thanks for the coffee assist. See you soon.