Thanks for all the encouragement!!!!! It is so nice!
And all disclaimers apply-Amy Sherman-Palladino owns this ALLLL..
Length of Time, Chapter 8
"Ahhhh," Rory, thought, drinking water from the water fountain in the hallway, outside of her mother's room. "Now this hits the spot."
"Well it's good to see you've got some color back in your face," a familiar voice said, and she stood and turned to be faced with Jess.
"Well, seeing her made me feel better. She's definitely... well, her. And it showed me she was okay."
"So, are you going back tonight? To Yale, I mean?"
"I don't want to go back tonight. I'd like nothing more than to stay here all night, in case she wakes up and wants to talk, but I've already asked the nurse all about bending the rules about visitors hours, and she didn't seem to think that my inclination to talk to my mother was reason enough. I'm still working on another scenario. I was thinking about claiming to be Siamese twins, but joined at the heart. I'll just say that we HAVE to be together at all times."
"Might be hard to convince her of it from the hallway," Jess quipped, to which Rory shot him a skeptical look.
"Don't stomp on my genius, I'm still working out the kinks of that plan."
"Do you.. uh... " he looked at her face, which was clearly waiting for him to finish his sentence. "Nevermind."
"Jess. Come on now, just say it. Remember? We are past awkwardness and are, at the very least, good acquaintances. Now do I..."
"----wanna go for a walk? It's just.. you've been here for awhile, and it's sort of depressing, and you'll probably be here for awhile longer, and I just thought----"
She cut him off and smiled. "Yeah. That would be good," she said.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the hospital...
Luke walked into the room slowly. And quietly. Lorelai didn't even turn toward the door, most likely not hearing that someone was there. She was still sore and out of it, and had her face resting the opposite way toward the now-empty chair. He walked until he was at the foot of the bed, where he just stood and watched her.
Lorelai finally felt someone's eyes burning a hole into her and turned her head. Upon seeing Luke, she smiled at him. She noticed he seemed nervous at seeing her like this, but he managed a small smile nonetheless.
After uncomfortably looking at Lorelai for a few, eternal, moments, he put his hands in his pockets and pretended to find the wall to her direct right very interesting. She looked at the wall he was staring at.
"Imagine how exciting that wall would be if there were actually something on it," she said, breaking the ice. He turned to her and smiled. He noticed the scratchiness of her voice. "Sorry," she said touching her throat with her hand. "I keep pushing this button, to get the nurse to bring me water, but she doesn't seem to care about my aquatic needs."
"Your aquatic needs?" he repeated, fighting the urge to laugh just then. He turned toward the empty bed that was on the side of the room by the door, and saw it slowly move forward a little, and then back a little more. And turned back toward Lorelai's bed and noticed her punching that button, dramatically.
"Uh, I don't think you're gonna get the nurse's attention with that," he said, pointing toward the moving personless bed next to her.
"Ah, well why is this next to ME?" she asked, placing the remote down, and moving a little, in an attempt to get herself comfortable.
"Looks like the wires are all mixed up between the two beds," he explained, staring now at all the wires on the floor, like they were doing a tap dance or something.
She moved in a way that sent a shooting pain to the area of her stomach where they operated, and winced in pain.
Luke noticed this and moved to the side of her bed, by the chair, nervously.
"Down boy, I'm okay," she said, holding a hand up to him, to let him know she was okay. "Luke, sit down, you're making me nervous."
He sat down obligingly and looked at her expectant face. She had her eyebrows raised, like she was expecting him to say something. He stood up again, and walked back to the foot of her bed. She watched him walk there, away from her like she was a disease or something and looked at him confusedly. He noticed her expression and walked back and sat down again, putting his elbows on his knees, looking at his shoes for a few moments before looking back up at her.
"God, Luke, if I knew you were gonna come in here with nothing to say, I'd have had Rory write you up something," she joked, which only produced a confused look from him. "Duh," she thought to herself. "He doesn't know Rory was in here ten minutes ago reading a memoir to me out loud."
She realized he wasn't going to relax any time soon, so she decided to try to force him to converse with her in the only way she knew how---- engage him in ridiculous banter.
"So, you tried to warn me that someday my addiction to coffee would kill me. But I wouldn't listen."
He smiled at her. "Ah, so does this mean that now you'll take my advice and stay away from it, because this would make my job a lot easier."
"Ha. No. Actually, I am totally kidding. That rotten kid of mine actually had the gall to joke with me that it was your coffee that put me here. I mean, talk about unsupportive. What job are you talking about?"
"Well, it turns out that one thing you'll have to stay away from for a few weeks is.. well, coffee. Yeah, and I hate to be the one to tell you that. But maybe it'll serve a higher purpose in the end."
"That's funny, Luke. You and Rory should get an act together and go to Vegas, because you are THAT funny!" Lorelai said, leaning her head back and looking at him. He just regarded her with that smile that was always reserved for her. "I mean, you'll slip me some, right? Luke, if there is a heart behind all that flannel, you will truly and most definitely slip me some. I mean, you can disguise it as water--- put it in an Aquafina bottle- --"
"Black water----"
"---- and just tell that nice nurse lady that YOU are meeting my aquatic needs, but only you and I will really know the truth. It can be our little.. thing."
"As fantastic as it seems, giving you the one thing that I hate giving you, when I actually have a medical reason not to give it to you ---- I am gonna have to decline. I am gonna, instead, opt to help your health. Call me heartless, but that's what I'm gonna do. THAT can be our little....thing. Getting you better."
"Don't I already look better?"
"Well. you look like you're in pain," he said, more seriously now.
"Eh, a little. But nothing compared to the pain of this deprivation that you masquerade as candor and concern for me. Okay, Luke? You have GOT to stop looking at me like I am a ticking time bomb! I mean, I don't have a mirror with me right now, so I am not sure what I look like, but I am well aware that my hair is probably a mess and I am not wearing makeup, and this hospital gown is hardly flattering, but you don't have to look so terrified of me----"
"Lorelai----"
She took a small breath and looked at him.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be looking at you like you're.. terrifying.. but.." he stopped and looked around.
"But what, Luke? I don't think it's a big mystery here that you are completely weirding me out.."
"I.. I'm glad you're okay," he started.
"Thank you. I'm glad too."
"Lorelai, I know you were in the diner this morning and heard what I said to Nicole."
That got her attention. She looked at him squarely, no comeback ready for that one.
"Babbette," was all the explanation he offered.
"I should have known. I saw her sitting there, nibbling pancakes," she said, scrunching up her face, like she was imagining an attack on the crazy, well-intentioned neighbor.
She looked at him, looking like he was trying to find the right words. She rested her head back, to listen.
"I need you to know, that I didn't mean anything I said-----"
"Luke, you don't have to----"
"I really do have to. I have needed to apologize all day. But this... well, this has been the day from hell. You know, next time your appendix decides to explode, please make it, like in my diner or something, so we could get you to the hospital ASAP and avoid a lot of... well, let's just categorize it all under the name 'drama.'"
"Okay. But Luke? I don't think there's gonna be a next time. Yeah, those nasty doctors, the ones who don't want me to have coffee and are basically out to get me? Yeah, they took my appendix, and I'm not sure they're giving it back."
"From the sound of it, I don't think you'd want it back."
"It WAS a real pain toward the end," she agreed.
"You had no idea you had appendicitis?"
"I thought it was food poisoning."
He grunted. "And you didn't tell anyone?"
"If I told you I thought I had food poisoning, would you have rushed me to the hospital, thinking it might be appendicitis?"
"Well, no. But when you disappeared, I might have crossed the option out of my mind that some crazed trucker stole you and was keeping you for ransom. I might have considered that it was related to that stomach problem you kept mentioning and you were at a hospital somewhere," he stated.
"From now on, I will keep you up to date on any remotely odd symptom that I have. About anything."
Luke nodded and looked at her. She smiled at him, in a way that let him know that she was okay, and she wasn't mad at him. But he wouldn't let himself off the hook. He knew he had to apologize before HE could feel better about this.
"Lorelai, I want you to know, I didn't mean anything I said. Nicole... she was always asking me questions about our friendship, and... and it got really annoying and frustrating, and I wanted to shut her up about the whole thing. But that doesn't ..I ...I shouldn't have said anything anyway. All the qualities that I held against you..they are the things that are so, YOU, so Lorelai Gilmore. And I wouldn't change them. You know, I said that I wouldn't care if you never came into the diner again---- -"
"Ah, yes, I do remember something about that----"
"----and.. and if you never came into my diner again, I would live the dullest existence, and eventually go mad from it..."
"And what about calling me exasperating?" she asked.
"Well, you can be exasperating," he said.
"And, and about getting under your skin.."
"Oh, you definitely do that. But in all fairness, I try very hard to get under your skin too sometimes," he said.
"And you accomplish that as well. You do that very well sometimes. This whole coffee thing, for example----"
"I know.. well, I am sorry. Really sorry." He stopped, and then decided to add, as an afterthought, "and, me and Nicole, that's over."
"Luke, you didn't have to break up with her! I mean, I know this is has been a really dramatic day, but----"
"You know, you weren't brought into the hospital until after two this afternoon, and Nicole saw your car on the side of the road around nine- thirty and didn't stop."
Lorelai looked straight ahead of her and made a little face. "I guess I'll cross her name off my Christmas card list this year," she said.
Ignoring her attempt at humor, he barreled on. "You are one of my best friends, Lorelai," he started, which prompted her to look back at him. "And what I said made me a bad friend... and even though I shouldn't have said it, SHE brought that out in me. And I... well, it's over. That's all."
"I'm sorry, Luke," she said, staring ahead.
"Don't be. You have no business apologizing in the middle of my apology."
"Well, I'm sorry to apologize in the middle of your apology, but you have no girlfriend right now, and in a small, indirect way, or let's just say it, a big, direct way, it's because of me. So I can apologize if I want to. And I'm sorry----"
"Twice she apologizes in the middle of my apology. You see? This is an example of you getting under my skin!"
She smiled, proud at herself. "Wow, I wasn't even trying."
He smiled at her. "I'm really glad you're okay," he said, trying to keep his emotions intact. But just then, looking at her smiling back at him... from that hospital bed, looking so small, and not bouncing around like her usual self, his emotions were starting to surface in him.
"I know you are, Luke," she said, seriously.
"I was really scared before and would like to never repeat this day again, if that's okay by you."
She noted the pain in her stomach. "More than okay by me," she agreed.
He stood up. "You should rest. I'll send your mom in."
"You did not just put those two sentences together."
"She's here, and wants to see you," he said.
She just pouted at this inevitability. "This is so unfair. I am in no condition to climb out the window."
He smiled back at her, and started to leave the room. She grabbed his hand, quickly, and he looked down at her, feeling like his heart caught in his throat, at the unexpectedness of her action.
"Luke, Rory said you closed the diner today. And that's all well and good, considering, but as you can see, I'm okay. And a lot of people, myself included, are being deprived of your amazing coffee right now and you're losing business. You don't have to sit here all day, it's okay, you should go back and open it up. Salvage the business of a good dinner crowd----"
He simply gave her hand a little squeeze, smiled and said "not today," before walking out of her room.
As he entered the hallway, the voice of Emily Gilmore could definitely be heard, as she was harassing the nurse again. He shut the door, quietly, so that Lorelai would be left in the peace of her room, without fuss.
"I'm sorry, but she is going to need to rest for another hour or so before she can have another visitor," the nurse was explaining.
Emily glared at Luke momentarily and then turned her attention to everyone else.
"Well everyone, the ice man has ruined our chances of seeing her for at least another hour!" she said, to which Luke smiled to himself, and ducked, practically unnoticed, outside.
The nurse used the opportunity to duck into Lorelai's room.
"You, Ms. Gilmore, have a very loud following out there.. and they ask a lot of questions."
"Ah, yes, well that is your own fault. You should have pretended not to speak English."
"But I------"
"No, no, it is the perfect excuse! I would use it myself except, my mother? I don't think she'd buy it," Lorelai said, smiling.
"Well before she can come say hi to you, I'm afraid, you are going to have to rest."
"Oh YOU, missy, are my hero! I think we have ESP or something. Do you think that this whole experience has somehow given you and me a sort of telepathy?"
The nurse regarded her with a very confused face as she fixed her pillows and helped her settle into a comfortable position. "You aren't making sense. I definitely think you need rest," she said, as she walked out of the room.
Once alone, Lorelai smiled, happy to be alone with her thoughts, which she soon realized were occupied by one person. She opened her eyes with a start, asking herself where those thoughts came from.
And all disclaimers apply-Amy Sherman-Palladino owns this ALLLL..
Length of Time, Chapter 8
"Ahhhh," Rory, thought, drinking water from the water fountain in the hallway, outside of her mother's room. "Now this hits the spot."
"Well it's good to see you've got some color back in your face," a familiar voice said, and she stood and turned to be faced with Jess.
"Well, seeing her made me feel better. She's definitely... well, her. And it showed me she was okay."
"So, are you going back tonight? To Yale, I mean?"
"I don't want to go back tonight. I'd like nothing more than to stay here all night, in case she wakes up and wants to talk, but I've already asked the nurse all about bending the rules about visitors hours, and she didn't seem to think that my inclination to talk to my mother was reason enough. I'm still working on another scenario. I was thinking about claiming to be Siamese twins, but joined at the heart. I'll just say that we HAVE to be together at all times."
"Might be hard to convince her of it from the hallway," Jess quipped, to which Rory shot him a skeptical look.
"Don't stomp on my genius, I'm still working out the kinks of that plan."
"Do you.. uh... " he looked at her face, which was clearly waiting for him to finish his sentence. "Nevermind."
"Jess. Come on now, just say it. Remember? We are past awkwardness and are, at the very least, good acquaintances. Now do I..."
"----wanna go for a walk? It's just.. you've been here for awhile, and it's sort of depressing, and you'll probably be here for awhile longer, and I just thought----"
She cut him off and smiled. "Yeah. That would be good," she said.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the hospital...
Luke walked into the room slowly. And quietly. Lorelai didn't even turn toward the door, most likely not hearing that someone was there. She was still sore and out of it, and had her face resting the opposite way toward the now-empty chair. He walked until he was at the foot of the bed, where he just stood and watched her.
Lorelai finally felt someone's eyes burning a hole into her and turned her head. Upon seeing Luke, she smiled at him. She noticed he seemed nervous at seeing her like this, but he managed a small smile nonetheless.
After uncomfortably looking at Lorelai for a few, eternal, moments, he put his hands in his pockets and pretended to find the wall to her direct right very interesting. She looked at the wall he was staring at.
"Imagine how exciting that wall would be if there were actually something on it," she said, breaking the ice. He turned to her and smiled. He noticed the scratchiness of her voice. "Sorry," she said touching her throat with her hand. "I keep pushing this button, to get the nurse to bring me water, but she doesn't seem to care about my aquatic needs."
"Your aquatic needs?" he repeated, fighting the urge to laugh just then. He turned toward the empty bed that was on the side of the room by the door, and saw it slowly move forward a little, and then back a little more. And turned back toward Lorelai's bed and noticed her punching that button, dramatically.
"Uh, I don't think you're gonna get the nurse's attention with that," he said, pointing toward the moving personless bed next to her.
"Ah, well why is this next to ME?" she asked, placing the remote down, and moving a little, in an attempt to get herself comfortable.
"Looks like the wires are all mixed up between the two beds," he explained, staring now at all the wires on the floor, like they were doing a tap dance or something.
She moved in a way that sent a shooting pain to the area of her stomach where they operated, and winced in pain.
Luke noticed this and moved to the side of her bed, by the chair, nervously.
"Down boy, I'm okay," she said, holding a hand up to him, to let him know she was okay. "Luke, sit down, you're making me nervous."
He sat down obligingly and looked at her expectant face. She had her eyebrows raised, like she was expecting him to say something. He stood up again, and walked back to the foot of her bed. She watched him walk there, away from her like she was a disease or something and looked at him confusedly. He noticed her expression and walked back and sat down again, putting his elbows on his knees, looking at his shoes for a few moments before looking back up at her.
"God, Luke, if I knew you were gonna come in here with nothing to say, I'd have had Rory write you up something," she joked, which only produced a confused look from him. "Duh," she thought to herself. "He doesn't know Rory was in here ten minutes ago reading a memoir to me out loud."
She realized he wasn't going to relax any time soon, so she decided to try to force him to converse with her in the only way she knew how---- engage him in ridiculous banter.
"So, you tried to warn me that someday my addiction to coffee would kill me. But I wouldn't listen."
He smiled at her. "Ah, so does this mean that now you'll take my advice and stay away from it, because this would make my job a lot easier."
"Ha. No. Actually, I am totally kidding. That rotten kid of mine actually had the gall to joke with me that it was your coffee that put me here. I mean, talk about unsupportive. What job are you talking about?"
"Well, it turns out that one thing you'll have to stay away from for a few weeks is.. well, coffee. Yeah, and I hate to be the one to tell you that. But maybe it'll serve a higher purpose in the end."
"That's funny, Luke. You and Rory should get an act together and go to Vegas, because you are THAT funny!" Lorelai said, leaning her head back and looking at him. He just regarded her with that smile that was always reserved for her. "I mean, you'll slip me some, right? Luke, if there is a heart behind all that flannel, you will truly and most definitely slip me some. I mean, you can disguise it as water--- put it in an Aquafina bottle- --"
"Black water----"
"---- and just tell that nice nurse lady that YOU are meeting my aquatic needs, but only you and I will really know the truth. It can be our little.. thing."
"As fantastic as it seems, giving you the one thing that I hate giving you, when I actually have a medical reason not to give it to you ---- I am gonna have to decline. I am gonna, instead, opt to help your health. Call me heartless, but that's what I'm gonna do. THAT can be our little....thing. Getting you better."
"Don't I already look better?"
"Well. you look like you're in pain," he said, more seriously now.
"Eh, a little. But nothing compared to the pain of this deprivation that you masquerade as candor and concern for me. Okay, Luke? You have GOT to stop looking at me like I am a ticking time bomb! I mean, I don't have a mirror with me right now, so I am not sure what I look like, but I am well aware that my hair is probably a mess and I am not wearing makeup, and this hospital gown is hardly flattering, but you don't have to look so terrified of me----"
"Lorelai----"
She took a small breath and looked at him.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be looking at you like you're.. terrifying.. but.." he stopped and looked around.
"But what, Luke? I don't think it's a big mystery here that you are completely weirding me out.."
"I.. I'm glad you're okay," he started.
"Thank you. I'm glad too."
"Lorelai, I know you were in the diner this morning and heard what I said to Nicole."
That got her attention. She looked at him squarely, no comeback ready for that one.
"Babbette," was all the explanation he offered.
"I should have known. I saw her sitting there, nibbling pancakes," she said, scrunching up her face, like she was imagining an attack on the crazy, well-intentioned neighbor.
She looked at him, looking like he was trying to find the right words. She rested her head back, to listen.
"I need you to know, that I didn't mean anything I said-----"
"Luke, you don't have to----"
"I really do have to. I have needed to apologize all day. But this... well, this has been the day from hell. You know, next time your appendix decides to explode, please make it, like in my diner or something, so we could get you to the hospital ASAP and avoid a lot of... well, let's just categorize it all under the name 'drama.'"
"Okay. But Luke? I don't think there's gonna be a next time. Yeah, those nasty doctors, the ones who don't want me to have coffee and are basically out to get me? Yeah, they took my appendix, and I'm not sure they're giving it back."
"From the sound of it, I don't think you'd want it back."
"It WAS a real pain toward the end," she agreed.
"You had no idea you had appendicitis?"
"I thought it was food poisoning."
He grunted. "And you didn't tell anyone?"
"If I told you I thought I had food poisoning, would you have rushed me to the hospital, thinking it might be appendicitis?"
"Well, no. But when you disappeared, I might have crossed the option out of my mind that some crazed trucker stole you and was keeping you for ransom. I might have considered that it was related to that stomach problem you kept mentioning and you were at a hospital somewhere," he stated.
"From now on, I will keep you up to date on any remotely odd symptom that I have. About anything."
Luke nodded and looked at her. She smiled at him, in a way that let him know that she was okay, and she wasn't mad at him. But he wouldn't let himself off the hook. He knew he had to apologize before HE could feel better about this.
"Lorelai, I want you to know, I didn't mean anything I said. Nicole... she was always asking me questions about our friendship, and... and it got really annoying and frustrating, and I wanted to shut her up about the whole thing. But that doesn't ..I ...I shouldn't have said anything anyway. All the qualities that I held against you..they are the things that are so, YOU, so Lorelai Gilmore. And I wouldn't change them. You know, I said that I wouldn't care if you never came into the diner again---- -"
"Ah, yes, I do remember something about that----"
"----and.. and if you never came into my diner again, I would live the dullest existence, and eventually go mad from it..."
"And what about calling me exasperating?" she asked.
"Well, you can be exasperating," he said.
"And, and about getting under your skin.."
"Oh, you definitely do that. But in all fairness, I try very hard to get under your skin too sometimes," he said.
"And you accomplish that as well. You do that very well sometimes. This whole coffee thing, for example----"
"I know.. well, I am sorry. Really sorry." He stopped, and then decided to add, as an afterthought, "and, me and Nicole, that's over."
"Luke, you didn't have to break up with her! I mean, I know this is has been a really dramatic day, but----"
"You know, you weren't brought into the hospital until after two this afternoon, and Nicole saw your car on the side of the road around nine- thirty and didn't stop."
Lorelai looked straight ahead of her and made a little face. "I guess I'll cross her name off my Christmas card list this year," she said.
Ignoring her attempt at humor, he barreled on. "You are one of my best friends, Lorelai," he started, which prompted her to look back at him. "And what I said made me a bad friend... and even though I shouldn't have said it, SHE brought that out in me. And I... well, it's over. That's all."
"I'm sorry, Luke," she said, staring ahead.
"Don't be. You have no business apologizing in the middle of my apology."
"Well, I'm sorry to apologize in the middle of your apology, but you have no girlfriend right now, and in a small, indirect way, or let's just say it, a big, direct way, it's because of me. So I can apologize if I want to. And I'm sorry----"
"Twice she apologizes in the middle of my apology. You see? This is an example of you getting under my skin!"
She smiled, proud at herself. "Wow, I wasn't even trying."
He smiled at her. "I'm really glad you're okay," he said, trying to keep his emotions intact. But just then, looking at her smiling back at him... from that hospital bed, looking so small, and not bouncing around like her usual self, his emotions were starting to surface in him.
"I know you are, Luke," she said, seriously.
"I was really scared before and would like to never repeat this day again, if that's okay by you."
She noted the pain in her stomach. "More than okay by me," she agreed.
He stood up. "You should rest. I'll send your mom in."
"You did not just put those two sentences together."
"She's here, and wants to see you," he said.
She just pouted at this inevitability. "This is so unfair. I am in no condition to climb out the window."
He smiled back at her, and started to leave the room. She grabbed his hand, quickly, and he looked down at her, feeling like his heart caught in his throat, at the unexpectedness of her action.
"Luke, Rory said you closed the diner today. And that's all well and good, considering, but as you can see, I'm okay. And a lot of people, myself included, are being deprived of your amazing coffee right now and you're losing business. You don't have to sit here all day, it's okay, you should go back and open it up. Salvage the business of a good dinner crowd----"
He simply gave her hand a little squeeze, smiled and said "not today," before walking out of her room.
As he entered the hallway, the voice of Emily Gilmore could definitely be heard, as she was harassing the nurse again. He shut the door, quietly, so that Lorelai would be left in the peace of her room, without fuss.
"I'm sorry, but she is going to need to rest for another hour or so before she can have another visitor," the nurse was explaining.
Emily glared at Luke momentarily and then turned her attention to everyone else.
"Well everyone, the ice man has ruined our chances of seeing her for at least another hour!" she said, to which Luke smiled to himself, and ducked, practically unnoticed, outside.
The nurse used the opportunity to duck into Lorelai's room.
"You, Ms. Gilmore, have a very loud following out there.. and they ask a lot of questions."
"Ah, yes, well that is your own fault. You should have pretended not to speak English."
"But I------"
"No, no, it is the perfect excuse! I would use it myself except, my mother? I don't think she'd buy it," Lorelai said, smiling.
"Well before she can come say hi to you, I'm afraid, you are going to have to rest."
"Oh YOU, missy, are my hero! I think we have ESP or something. Do you think that this whole experience has somehow given you and me a sort of telepathy?"
The nurse regarded her with a very confused face as she fixed her pillows and helped her settle into a comfortable position. "You aren't making sense. I definitely think you need rest," she said, as she walked out of the room.
Once alone, Lorelai smiled, happy to be alone with her thoughts, which she soon realized were occupied by one person. She opened her eyes with a start, asking herself where those thoughts came from.