Disclaimer: Sadly, I still don't own anything.
Not Meant To Be – Chapter 2
She strides through the hallways as if the whole hospital belonged to her.
Normally he would be able to keep up with her, but the bags and flowers she has made him carry force him to walk more slowly today.
So he is content to join Rory in the second row. He can't but smile to himself at the sight of his wife, being so obviously excited at the prospect of seeing the new family.
Who would have thought this day would ever come? That Emily and Richard Gilmore would gladly set out to meet their second grandchild, born to their daughter and a man who flips burgers for a living?
But here they are, gleeful anticipation written all over their faces as they make their way through a maze of hallways that all look the same.
When they finally reach the maternity ward, Emily is quick to find a nurse and ask her for the whereabouts of their daughter.
What happens next strikes him as odd. They are asked to sit down in the waiting room, a nurse at the desk picks up the phone and turns away from them as she talks, other nurses offer them coffee.
When they begin to ask questions he thinks that he sees something like compassion in the nurses' eyes as they apologize for not being allowed to tell them anything. One nurse promises to go and get Mr. Danes. Is he imagining things?
"It all went well, didn't it?" Emily anxiously grabs hold of his forearm, the joyful expression has long vanished from her face.
"Of course", he says absentmindedly, hardly believing in his own words although he wishes he could.
Rory sits next to him, eyeing the whole scenery suspiciously. The slender fingers she inherited from her mother tightly clutch the handbag that's resting in her lap. When she notices that he's looking at her, she just shrugs her shoulders at him. He deliberately avoids looking her directly in the eye for fear that she might see through the veneer of calmness he hides behind.
All of a sudden he wonders why Lorelai's voice is nowhere to be heard. Normally one would expect that the minute they come anywhere close to her room, her constant chatter would be audible. But nothing. The only thing he hears is the casual wailing of a newborn – perhaps his grandchild? - and Emily shuffling her feet next to him.
In an attempt to calm her down, he gently places one hand above her knee. The hand is immediately covered by one of her own. It feels cold. He knows that she's nervous.
Before he can decide upon anything to say in order to ease the tension building up around them, a nurse approaches them.
"Are you the Gilmores?" Her voice sounds friendly, though not overly joyful. Didn't they just become grandparents and big sister? Shouldn't she be happier to finally show them to Lorelai's room?
"Will you now finally tell us where to find our daughter?" asks Emily in a voice that betrays a mixture of indignation and worry.
"Would you just like to follow me, Mr. Danes will be there in a minute." The nurse replies, not being very helpful, and motions for them to follow her through some more hallways.
She eventually leaves them alone next to a row of chairs mounted against the wall.
He places the bags and flowers he has been carrying on one of the chairs and notices a red baseball cap lying on another one.
Rory, who also seems to have noticed the baseball cap, picks it up and almost instantly a smile spreads across her face.
"Isn't that Luke's?" she waves the cap in front of his face. "So they must be in there", she concludes, pointing at the door next to the chairs.
Emily has also retrieved her smile and is about to knock at the door when it is opened from the inside.
From his position in the hallway he is the first to see who's coming out of the room. And the smile that he felt tugging at the corners of his mouth freezes in the very second he catches full sight of the man standing in the doorframe.