Title: Too Close for Comfort
Chapter Three: There Go The Stars
Time: Timeline of 'Here Comes The Son', except two weeks later, 'cause it needs to be two weeks later.
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"I hate final exams," I complained, dropping the books from my arms in a pile on Luke's counter.
"I know," Jess retaliated, leaning over to kiss me quickly.
"No, you don't understand," I continued, settling onto a stool. "I abhor them. I abhor them with a passion."
Jess chuckled, setting a cup of coffee in front of me. "Fine. You abhor them. You still have to take them."
Taking a page from my mother's book, I pouted. "Stop being the voice of reason."
"So sorry," he said, mock-seriously. "Didn't mean to offend you or anything."
I smiled and took a sip of my coffee. "Are you coming to graduation?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he smiled back, before heading off with an order pad. I watched him for a minute, and then turned back to my books, prying open my Psychology book to Manic-Depressive Disorder. Jess was back in seconds, and he stopped to read over my shoulder, a habit he'd recently taken up, and I'd recently come to dislike.
"Find anything interesting?" I asked. He shook his head, and continued behind the counter.
"Nope. More coffee?"
"Please," I said, holding out my cup.
Luke, coming down from the apartment, glanced at me and said in passing, "You shouldn't drink coffee when you're pregnant."
Unsurprised, I glanced down and rubbed my hand over my barely protruding stomach. "Mom did it with me," I shrugged.
"Ergo, the problem," Jess whispered, leaning in close to me. I grinned and threw an elbow into his chest as he went by. He laughed and continued on his way.
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I sat up slowly in bed, my dark room coming into focus around me. It took too long, it seemed, and so I blinked and then settled back against the pillows. The room tilted for just a second, as if someone taking a picture was playing with the focus on the camera. I closed my eyes again, and when I opened them, light was seeping softly through the window, and it was a little after six. I got up slowly and dressed.
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At least part of my dream had been true. I do abhor final exams with a passion. Too much stress always messes me up. I don't sleep, I drink too much coffee, and my period goes all haywire, causing my moods to do the same.
But still. The rest of the dream was wrong. Jess was gone, I was very decidedly un-pregnant, I, thank God, was not in Psychology, and…well, I wasn't in Luke's. Anyway, back to the exams. My real life. My life where Jess was gone, had been gone for two weeks, and most likely wouldn't be back anytime soon, especially not for graduation.
This was my last year at Chilton, and consequently, my last exams. Somehow, those facts, combined with the fact that Jess was gone, made my last week of Chilton a living hell.
My mom, however, had yet to realize that Jess was gone, and that was the reason she was sneaking around our kitchen at seven in the morning.
I, of course, had been up for hours, and was already dressed for school, with my books spread all across the kitchen table. I had gone into my room for another pack of note cards, and exited to find my mother trying to sneak water into the coffee maker quietly.
"Hey," I said, shooting her a weird look. Her body was all angles, and for some reason she was trying her hardest to not touch the counter at all, leaning very far over it just to pour water into the coffee maker.
She threw her arms up, splashing water on the floor, and spun around quickly, startled. "Oh!" she said, the hand holding the now-empty coffee pot over her heart. "Oh, God, Rory, you scared me."
"Sorry," I said dismissively, walking past her back to my spot at the kitchen table.
"I've been sneaking around here like an idiot trying not to wake you up," she said, walking back over to the sink to refill the coffee pot.
"I've been up for hours," I explained, flipping the pages in my calculus book. For just a second, the room went out of focus again, and I grabbed the sides of the table. It passed quickly.
"Why?" Mom asked, turning from the sink. "Did you have a bad dream? Oh, the one where you finally meet Christiane Amanpour and she's really stupid?" Mom gave me a pitying look.
"No, I just realized last night that at this rate, I will never finish all the work I have to do."
"What work?" Mom asked. I realized, once again, that all this Inn stuff was freaking her out, and she was practically in her own little world. Wordlessly, I handed her my list of things I had to do. She glanced over it, nodded appreciatively, and handed it back.
Suddenly I groaned. "I can't finish all this and sleep too!"
"You have to sleep, it's what keeps you pretty," Mom explained, patting my head.
"Who cares if I'm pretty if I fail my finals?"
Mom, still joking, said, "Okay, you've got this completely backwards."
"I can't do this!" I yelled, standing up.
"Oh, sweetie, yes you can," Mom said seriously, reaching to give me a hug. I wrenched from her grasp.
"Not right now," I said angrily, shoving my books haphazardly into my backpack. After that, I grabbed my notes in handfuls and dropped them on top of the books. When the table was clean, I knocked my backpack onto the floor. "I'm going to Luke's."
Mom realized when to leave me alone, and let me go by myself.
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The second I walked into Luke's, he glanced up and hurried over to me, ignoring the customer he was talking to.
"Hey," he said cautiously. "You doin' okay?"
I tried not to glare at him, but it was really hard. Finally, I just shook my head and clambered onto a stool at the counter. "Danish, coffee," I mumbled, propping my sleep-deprived head up on my two fists.
"Still Jess?" he asked, leaning close to me.
I shook my head again, but stopped quickly as it caused the room to spin slightly. "Just finals."
He nodded, and then set my order in front of me. Before he could walk away from me, I cleared my throat.
"Do you know where he is?" I asked quietly, picking up my coffee cup with two hands and staring at it.
He paused, and then nodded slowly. "Do you want to?"
"No. But thanks." I looked up, and smiled slightly. He smiled slightly back, and then walked off.
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After school that day, I was standing in the hallway listening to Louise and Madeline lament over the news about jean jackets—they were on the way out—when my cell phone rang. I shook myself out of my stupor and paused slightly as the room went out of focus at the sides.
"Hello?" I answered quickly…and kind of rudely, seeing as I didn't excuse myself out of the conversation with Madeline and Louise…but I also didn't really care.
"Rory, you haven't returned my calls," my grandmother greeted me. Suddenly, I didn't feel so rude anymore.
"Oh, Grandma, I'm so sorry. I've been really busy."
"I don't care how busy you get, young lady, you have to call your grandmother back." Had Grandma ever called me 'young lady' before? It seemed such a grandmother-ly thing to do, I didn't think she had. She really wasn't that disapproving of me.
"I'm sorry," I said simply, because what else could I say?
"I'm won't be around forever, you know," Grandma continued harshly.
"I'm really sorry," I repeated. Inside my head, I was counting to ten. For some reason, that day I had a really short fuse, and Grandma's being unusually mean wasn't helping anything. Luckily, she suddenly switched moods, reminding me that I'd promised to head over to her house and help her pick out clothes for graduation. After I hung up with her, I called my mom and quickly explained to her where I was going, and asked her to please pick me up in an hour. After a quick attempt to talk me out of it, she agreed to stop by in an hour, and I quickly sped out of school.
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At Grandma's house, I met Miss Celine, my grandparents' fashion consultant, who quickly proclaimed me Sabrina, after Audrey Hepburn in the movie of the same title. She showed me off to Grandpa proudly as "just a waif with eyes". Grandma said I was even prettier, and then started bragging about Yale. Miss Celine said something about a whole new wardrobe, and then mentioned Jimmy Stewart's colonoscopy.
I nodded along. Miss Celine was really neat and all, but still a little wacko.
After an hour, Grandma and Grandpa were off trying on clothes, and Miss Celine was still talking to me about what I would need for my new Yale wardrobe.
"Now, Sabrina,"—oh, and she was still calling me Sabrina—"college is a very important time in a young girl's life. You need to be properly attired."
"I know," I started, "but—"
"Trust me," Miss Celine interrupted, ignoring me, "a young girl is completely and solely judged by her appearance." I raised my eyebrows at that. She continued, "Now, I always start every wardrobe from the top. The hat. Remember, Sabrina, it's the first thing that God sees when you walk outside in the morning."
"Oh," I said, nodding solemnly.
"Well, I'm exhausted," Grandma proclaimed, walking down the stairs. "I feel as if I've tried on every dress in town."
"So is it the blue?" I asked, leaning my head on the back of the couch to see Grandma. Also, I was kind of using the couch to keep the room steady.
"Yes, I think it is the blue. I think it's quite suitable for my granddaughter's graduation," Grandma beamed. She looked so proud.
"Hey," Mom said, walking into the room. She still had on her coat and still carried her purse, so it was obvious she was only here for a short time. "Hey, hon," she said to me, before turning to Grandma and saying, "Hey, Mom."
"What are you doing here?" Grandma asked rudely.
"I just came to pick Rory up." Mom finally noticed Miss Celine and greeted her with an astonished, "Miss Celine!"
"Oh, my God, it's Natalie Wood!" Miss Celine exclaimed, standing to walk over to Mom. She held Mom's arms in front of her, turned to me and said, "Look Sabrina! It's Natalie Wood!"
"Miss Celine, I can't believe it!" I responded, smiling at Mom.
Grandma, hardly paying attention to the conversation, suddenly said, "I left the suits upstairs. I'll go get them."
"No, no, I'll get them. It's who I am, the keeper of the clothes." At the bottom of the stairs, Miss Celine turned back to Mom and said, "Delight to see you again."
"You too, Celine," Mom said with a smile. As soon as Miss Celine was out of earshot, Mom rushed over to me and said, "Oh my God, she was like a thousand when I was ten! I can't believe it!"
Trying to placate Grandma, I said, "Grandma picked out a beautiful blue dress for graduation."
"Aw, I'd like to see that, Mom." Thank God, Mom was being nice.
"It needs to be altered," Grandma started icily, before being interrupted by the maid.
"Dinner's ready, Mrs. Gilmore," she said. She was, of course, new, and had a thick Mexican accent.
"No, it's not," Grandma said quickly.
"I just checked, and it's—" the maid continued.
"I just went in there ten minutes ago, and it still had another forty minutes to go."
"But it's really brown, and—"
"Lupé, do not argue with me!" Grandma said sharply. The maid nodded meekly and left the room.
Astonished, Mom and I both turned to Grandma.
"Mom, it's seven o'clock," Mom said.
"So?"
"That's your dinnertime," Mom stated simply.
"I don't have a dinnertime," Grandma responded, dismissing it.
"You don't have a dinnertime? So all the years I grew up in this house, we did not sit down to dinner at exactly seven o'clock every single night?"
"No," Grandma said simply.
"I just imagined that?" Mom asked.
"Lorelai, I don't know what your obsession with dinnertime is. Dinnertime is whenever the food is ready, and the food will certainly need at least another twenty-five minutes. We don't have a scheduled dinnertime in this house."
Grandpa, unfortunately adding gasoline to the fire, walked into the room and said, "Emily, for God's sake, it's ten after seven! Why aren't we eating?"
Mom, disgusted, said, "I can't believe you, Mom." She turned on her heel and sped quickly from the house.
I glanced at my grandparents, and then grabbed my things and left, calling, "Mom, wait."
When I got outside, Mom was pacing back and forth next to the car, swinging her purse around.
"I can't believe that woman! I can't…what was her problem? All because Dad gave me money to pay them off for Chilton. Ugh! This is so stupid! I wasn't the one to get rid of the dinners, Emily was. She was the one who decided that we didn't need to come anymore, and because Emily always gets her way, we didn't go."
As Mom babbled on and continued pacing in front of me, I became acutely aware of the fact that the area around her seemed to be moving instead of her. It was a little disconcerting, so I said quietly, "Um, Mom? Could you maybe stop pacing?"
Mom, unfortunately, was so deep into her conversation, that she hardly even realized that I was still there, so she continued her pacing. Then, when the horizon seemed to become vertical, she started moving too, and stopped babbling.
"Rory?" she asked, sounding worried. I tried to nod, but nodding didn't work.
Suddenly she started getting bigger while still moving. Her arm shot out. "Rory?" she asked in a high-pitched voice, reaching for me. The books fell out of my arms and dropped to the ground. The lights went out and I soon followed.
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I blinked. The fluorescent lights directly overhead devastated my eyes, and I quickly shut them again, hoping to get rid of the pounding headache I could already feel at my temples.
"Rory, sweetie?" my mom's voice asked from my bedside.
I kept my eyes tightly closed, because the headache was killing me.
I heard footsteps come into the room, and then sloshing liquid. "Is she awake?" I heard a very familiar voice ask.
This piqued my curiosity. "Dad?" I asked, squinting my eyes open.
"Ror!" He sped to my side and smiled at me. "Hey. How you feeling, kiddo?"
"Bright," I groaned.
"Oh, sorry," Mom said quickly, walking over to flip the lights off. "Better?" she asked, smiling as I glanced at her. I tried to nod, but it hurt my head too much.
"Yes. Where am I?"
"Hospital," Mom stated simply, walking back over to my bed, on the opposite side of Dad. She settled onto the bed and laid a hand on my head. "You fell down. Got a concussion," she continued, tapping the bump on my forehead.
"What happened?" I asked.
"They don't know," Dad said, handing the cup he was holding to Mom. "Here."
"Thanks," she said, smiling. She glanced at the cup, glanced at me, glanced back at the cup…. "Here. Drink this," she said furtively, leaning closer to me and holding the cup practically on my face.
"What is it?" I asked, struggling to sit up and push the cup away from me at the same time.
"Shh!" Mom hissed, pushing me back onto the pillows. "Don't let the nurses see!" This time, she shoved it more towards my hands, and I leaned up a little bit and took a tentative sip.
"It's coffee!" I whispered joyously as the warm liquid trickled down my throat.
"Shh!" Mom hissed again, but this time she was grinning. "The nurses!"
"Thanks, Mom," I smiled, pushing myself into a sitting position. It was as I was rearranging the pillows behind my back that I realized I had an IV stuck in my arm. "What's this for?" I asked, running my finger along the tube, and then shuddering as I came to the tape covering the place it entered my arm.
"They think maybe you fainted because you were dehydrated," Dad explained, taking Mom's spot as she stood.
"Sweetie, I'm just so glad you're okay!" Mom exclaimed, leaning back down to wrap me in a big hug. "But, as much as I love you, I'm gonna go ahead and get my own coffee." She winked and left the room.
"Your mom told me it's 'cause you've been studying too much."
"It's hard," I explained. "These are my final final exams."
"I understand," he nodded. When I glanced at him, he added, "I mean, I never had my own senior exams, but I get that it's a hard time."
"Yeah." I nodded too. Happily, I realized that nodding no longer caused the room to spin. "Hey, the room's not spinning!"
Dad looked at me, concerned. "How long have you been this dizzy?"
"Well," I started, thinking, "I'd have to say for at least a few days. But it's really only been bad today."
"And how long have you been studying all night long and not sleeping?"
"Since this morning at six." When he frowned, I quickly amended, "But, you know, I had a bad dream and woke up sometime before then. It was still dark." Suddenly I realized something and looked towards the window. "What time is it, anyway? I have a calc exam tomorrow."
"It's ten-thirty," Dad said off-handedly after glancing at his watch. He seemed lost in thought, but I decided to ask him a question that had been bothering me for a few minutes.
"Where're Sherry and Gigi?"
"Huh? Oh, Sherry had work, so she stayed in Boston. Gigi's with Sherry's mom for the week."
"Oh," I said quietly, watching Dad's face. He seemed like he hadn't realized that Gigi and Sherry could have been there. Then again, Mom probably would have killed him if he'd brought them, so it's probably for the best. I shrugged, and then set my empty coffee cup on my bedside table.
"I'll be right back," Dad said suddenly, leaning over to kiss my forehead quickly before bolting.
"Whoa," Mom said, standing in the doorway as Dad raced down the hallway. "He's in a hurry," she said to me, walking all the way into the room.
"Yeah."
"How ya doing, sweets?" Mom asked, settling back onto my bed. "Better?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Good," Mom smiled, took a sip from her coffee, and set it next to my empty cup. "I tried to call Jess earlier and tell him about you being here. Luke answered, babbled some excuse, and hung up. Any idea what that was about?" she raised her eyebrows at me.
"Uh, maybe he's uncomfortable with hospitals."
"Rory. I didn't even tell him you were in the hospital. I asked him if I could speak to Jess."
"Maybe Jess was off somewhere and Luke didn't know."
"Rory." This time, right after shooting me a disapproving look, she stood and flipped on the light over my bed. "Tell me."
I sighed. "Okay, first of all, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I just thought with all the Inn stuff and everything, it could wait."
"What's going on?"
I took a deep breath and let it out quickly. "Jess is gone."
"Oh. How long?"
"Two weeks."
"Two weeks? Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry I didn't know! Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I've almost gotten over it. I mean, there was a weird dream this morning, but I'm letting it go."
"Well…good for you." She picked up her coffee again and took another sip. "I don't think I could've done that at 18. Hell, I can hardly do that at 35."
"It's okay."
Mom reached out and patted my hand. She smiled, and I smiled back.
"This is the room," we heard Dad say, before walking in. An older man in a white doctor's coat followed him.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Mabry," the man said, extending his hand towards me. "You were unconscious when we met earlier." A twinkle in his eyes told me he was good-natured, and so I smiled and took his hand.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
"Yes. Well. I'm here with your test results. You see," he said to me, "when you came in, you had fainted, and no one knew why. Your mother said it might be exhaustion from too much studying. When my nurse suggested dehydration, your mother said that couldn't be, because you were living on coffee. That alone suggests dehydration, so we hooked you up with these fluids. Of course, there were many other things that could have happened, and so we took some blood and ran some tests on you. Now I have the results." He flipped the first page of paper back from the chart he was carrying, and looked at me reproachfully. "You're not getting enough folic acid. That's especially bad for someone in your condition."
"Her..condition?" Mom asked. "A senior during finals week?"
"No," Dad said gravely. "She's…." He buried his head in his hands.
Dr. Mabry supplied the rest of Dad's sentence. "Pregnant. You're pregnant," he turned to me. "Only a few weeks, though, so I don't really blame you." He flipped another page on his chart and then looked back at me with a smile. "Have you been experiencing any morning sickness?"
I shook my head slowly. I was pregnant. And Jess was gone.
"That's abnormal. Especially considering your affinity for coffee. Hmm. Do you have an OB/GYN?"
I nodded.
"Good. You need to make an appointment soon to get started on a pregnancy regimen. Until then, I suggest you stay away from caffeine, especially coffee, and eat more leafy vegetables. I'm also going to prescribe you some folic acid pills until your level gets back to normal. And, like with any concussed patient, I'm going to insist you stay overnight, so we can be sure you're all right."
"I'm fine," I insisted, sitting up a little straighter.
He shook his head. "It's better if you stay overnight. Don't worry; I'll make sure you get a chance to make up your exams."
"Okay. Thanks," I said as he left. I watched as he walked from the room and kept staring at the same spot for a minute or two. Finally, I took a deep breath and looked at my parents, who were standing next to each other and staring at me.
"Rory, when did this happen?" Mom asked slowly.
I quickly glanced at the hospital blanket, playing with a loose thread. "Remember Kyle's party?"
"Uh-huh. Oh," Mom said slowly. "You didn't leave your key at Lane's, did you?"
I shook my head no.
"Well, I'm gonna go call Luke again," Mom said, resigned.
"Why?" Dad asked suspiciously.
"He knows where Jess is," Mom told him.
"Jess isn't there?" Dad asked, turning to me.
Again, I shook my head, and then said, "Mom, please don't call him. I don't want Jess to know."
"What? Why not?"
I sighed. "If he felt like he really had to go, then I don't want to pull him back here just for this."
"What do you mean, 'this'? You're pregnant, Rory. And Jess is the father. He needs to know."
"He really does, Rory," Dad nodded.
"Thank you," Mom said, turning to go.
"No!" I yelled. "I don't want you to call Luke. I don't want Luke to know, I don't want Jess to know, and I don't want to talk about this right now. I just want to go to sleep." I pushed myself down and shoved my head into the pillows. "Can someone turn the light out, please?"
After a second, my mom slowly walked over and flicked the light over my head off. "Goodnight, babe." She kissed my forehead, and then put a hand on my dad's back to lead him out of my room. The door slowly clicked closed, and I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.