Author's note: I am not now and nor have I ever been a medical professional. My medical knowledge comes from ER and various television shows.
On a weeknight the community hospital ER was usually quiet, something Lorelai was vaguely grateful for as she sat in the waiting room, her head resting in her hands. Over two hours had passed and there was still no word on how Rory was doing, let alone the condition of the baby. The thought of losing her daughter or her unborn grandchild was almost more than she could bear. Lorelai forced the thoughts out of her head with a ruthlessness she didn't know she possessed. But no matter what she did, she couldn't rid herself of the image of Rory crumpling to the ground and slamming her head into the coffee table.
"Here, drink this." A steaming cup of coffee was thrust into her hands and she sipped the liquid automatically, not even glancing at the person who was sitting next to her. Until she tasted the coffee. "Luke! What are you doing here?"
"Babette called me, said Rory got taken away in an ambulance. I had to practically hogtie Jess to keep him home and he only agreed if I came to check on her." He sighed, caught sight of a stretcher, and immediately looked down at his shoes. "How's Rory? And what happened?"
"I don't know. She's been in there for almost two hours and I can't get any information about her. The nurse keeps telling me that the doctors are with her and doing all they can." She took a deep breath to keep from crying. She was not going to cry without a really good reason. "She fainted at home, just crumpled to the ground and smacked her head on the coffee table as she fell. I couldn't wake her up and she was bleeding and –" Lorelai's voice started to wobble and she trailed off.
"Oh man." Luke couldn't think of anything to say beyond that. So instead he put what he hoped was a comforting arm around Lorelai and simply sat with her while waiting for word on Rory. He wanted to reassure her that Rory and the baby would both be fine but a little voice in his head kept telling him that he didn't know that. Reassurances could be cruel if something did happen. He still remembered the pain of having a nurse tell him that his mom would be fine, only to have her cancer win the battle the very next day. "I've got more coffee when you need another fix."
Despite herself and the circumstances, Lorelai let out a small snort of laughter. "You must really be worried if you're feeding my coffee habit without a fight."
"Don't get use to it. As soon as every thing is back to normal, you go back to begging."
"Fair enough." Lorelai took another sip, then sighed and lean up against one of her oldest friends. "I hate waiting."
"No one likes it." He wrapped his arm around her a little more firmly and settled down to wait with her.
"Ms. Gilmore?"
She'd dozed off. Lorelai leapt to her feet in an instant, not believing that she'd managed to doze off. And on Luke's shoulder. But the doctor was in front of her and she'd feel awkward about Luke later. "Is Rory all right? And the baby?"
"I'm Dr. Kendricks, the on-call OB tonight. Rory's being moved up the ante-partum unit right now. I'm admitting her indefinitely. Her blood pressure is much too high, which is what caused her to faint tonight. We need to get it under control or she's at major risk for stoke and permanent organ damage, not to mention premature labor and significant risks to the baby."
The vise grip on Lorelai's heart contracted a bit more. "How bad?"
"If we don't get her blood pressure down, we will be forced to deliver the baby early. Rory is just nearing the seven-month mark. Ideally, we want to keep the baby inside her until at least the first week of February. At that point, the baby could be delivered early with minimal risk to either her or mom. If we deliver before then, we're looking at immature organs, underdeveloped lungs, a long stay in the NICU and an uncertain outcome. I've called Rory's obstetrician and she's on the way down here, but so far she's agreed with my conclusions. I'm having Rory started on medication to lower her BP, along with putting her on strict bed rest. We're going to see how that works for a few days. If there is no substantial change or the stress begins to affect the baby, then we'll have to re-evaluate."
"She hit her head pretty hard when she fell. She didn't break anything right?" Lorelai's brain was desperately trying to process all the information she'd been given and she'd realized that something was missing.
"We ran head CT and took an X-ray. She has a slight concussion but nothing to be too concerned about, along with three stitches to close the cut. Head wounds tend to bleed quite a bit even when they're minor. There'll be no lasting damage except possibly a very faint scar along her hair line when the stitches come out."
"You said medication. How is that going to effect the baby?"
Dr. Kendricks frowned. "I don't like to give an expectant mother any medication more than necessary during pregnancy but right now I feel it is warranted. Rory is on the verge of pre-eclampsia. If she develops that condition, the baby will have to be delivered early and by C-section. No way could Rory's body tolerate the stress of labor; right now she'd likely have a stroke in the delivery room. Yes, the medication could pose a slight risk to the fetus, but those risks are the lesser of two evils."
Lorelai swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. Now was not the time to fall apart. That could wait until after she was back home. "Does Rory know what's going on?"
"Yes. I updated her completely before they took her upstairs. She's agreed to give the medication a try. I did give her a light sedative to help calm her down, along with a mild painkiller for the head injury and she's resting peacefully. As soon as we're done here, you can go to see her. Rory tells me she's been seeing a therapist?"
"Yes, Dr. Katherine Riley. Should I call her?"
"That can wait until morning. I know the circumstances surrounding Rory's pregnancy are contributing to her stress levels, which is in turn driving up her blood pressure. She was looking at adoption forms tonight?"
"Yes, and she was getting very frustrated by it."
"Until we see substantial improvement in her blood pressure, I don't want her stressed out in anyway. Continuing to meet with Dr. Riley will probably help her but talking about the adoption won't. For now, we need to keep her as calm and relaxed as possible for as long as possible. If her blood pressure goes any higher or doesn't show any improvement in the next day or two, the baby will have to be delivered. If you come with me Ms. Gilmore, I'll take you up to see Rory. She should be settled in by now." Lorelai nodded mutely and turned to follow Dr. Kendricks. For some reason she wasn't surprised when Luke accompanied her to the elevator, taking her hand in his as he did so. A tiny part of her brain told her to study this development later, when she could think again. Right now, all that matter was Rory and the baby.
Luke waited in the corridor, settling himself uncomfortably on a bench near the nurse's station while Lorelai went to check on her daughter. Rory had a room to herself and seemed to be dozing when Lorelai stepped inside.
"Rory?"
"Mom." Rory yawned and opened her eyes.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm tired. And my head hurts." One hand fluttered towards the bandage on her temple but drifted back down to the bed before it got there.
"Well I'd expect nothing less after the night you had." Lorelai smoothed back a few errant strands of hair, careful to avoid the bruise showing on the edges of the bandage. "When you feel this bad, you should at least have wild night to blame it on."
"No drinking for me. I'm gonna have a baby and drinking is bad." The painkiller had kicked in and Lorelai smiled in spite of herself and the situation. "Can't hurt the baby."
"No, you shouldn't do that. You know they want you to stay here for awhile?"
"Yeah. Stay here and stay in bed and stay and stay-" another yawn cut off the drug-induced babbling and Rory started to close her eyes again. "Sleepy now."
"You rest then. I'll be back first thing in the morning, with some of your stuff. Pajamas, toothbrush, the works. Just sleep now, alright baby?"
Rory didn't answer. She'd already slipped back into an exhausted sleep.
Lorelai plopped unceremoniously down next to Luke and rested her head in her hands. She suddenly felt every single one of her years and them some. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she looked in the mirror, she'd definitely look her age as well.
"How's she doing?"
"Pretty out it. And they must have her on some good drugs, her babble reflex was kicking in." The response was automatic. Luke's hand rubbing her back was not but Lorelai would think about that later, along with the handholding in the elevator. There was nothing else she could process that night. "I'm not sure she'll even remember it in the morning." She rubbed her eyes and groaned. "I can't take much more of this. Every time I turn around there's something else to be dealt with, some huge drama that sucks up my time and energy and emotional fortitude and the worst part is that it's all legitimate. There is no part of my life that I can just cut off and ignore. Rory is an emotional mess that needs all the support she can get, plans have to be made for the baby, eventually Emily will worm her way back into my life and I'll have to deal with her for Rory's sake, theIndependance is the middle of the Christmas rush,Sookie can't help there because she's got a newborn at home, Christmas is a week away and I haven't finished shopping and the list just goes on. There're never enough hours in the day and at night when I should rest, I just lie awake in bed with nine million worries and concerns running through my head. Hell, I'm in therapy now and even that's not helping."
Luke wasn't sure what to say. He'd had plenty of experience over the years in dealing with Lorelai's breakdowns, meltdowns, caffeine highs, sugar highs and righteous anger. But this was new. This admission that her life was too much to handle seemed to be the worst he'd ever heard her say, and that included everything she'd screamed after the car accident a year earlier. All he could think to do now was offer her a ride home.
"That'd be great." Lorelai sat up and seemed to visibly pull herself together, summoning all her inner strength. "Considering I rode here in the ambulance and I'm pretty sure they won't take me home. Well, maybe if I flash them they will."
"Let's not go there right now. Come on, you're almost asleep on your feet." He gently pulled Lorelai to her feet and guided her towards the exit. "You can sleep in the truck."
And sleep she did. Lorelai was snoring before Luke pulled out of the parking lot and didn't wake up upon arrival back in Stars Hollow despite his best efforts. Finally, Luke dug out the spare key from the turtle and carried her up to her bedroom. He pulled her shoes off, turned off the house lights and locked up behind him. Lorelai never stirred.
Rory woke with a start, trying to process where she was and what was happening to her. She'd been dreaming; one of those intense, vivid dreams that seemed completely real at the time. She'd been at Yale, in her dorm room and fighting with Paris over an article for the campus paper that they had to share a byline on. She'd actually been winning the argument when a loud beeping noise had issued from Paris's mouth, disturbing the pleasant reality Rory was enjoying. She'd woken up to find a nurse taking her temperature. And she came crashing back into her current reality. The ache in her head, the pain in her back, the urgent need to use the bathroom, and the relentless kicking and movement from within her swollen abdomen. Yale had been a dream, the baby was reality.
"You're awake." The nurse leaned over to check Rory's pupils. "How're you feeling?"
"My head hurts. And I have to pee." She ran a dry tongue over drier lips. "Can I have something to drink?"
"Sure." Carefully, the nurse (her name tag said 'Mary') held a glass of water for Rory to sip through the straw. "Better?"
"Much." Her mouth still tasted like old gym socks though. "What happened? Why am I here?" Rory had a vague memory of the previous night, a doctor telling her she had to stay and Lorelai bending over her but not much beyond that.
"You were admitted last night through the ER with blood pressure in the stratosphere, after fainting at home and slamming your head against the coffee table on the way down. You have three stitches in your head and slight concussion. Dr. Kendricks and Dr. Larson want you stay here until your BP improves." Mary put away the thermometer and pulled out the blood pressure cuff. "And speaking of, I need to check it. Just stay quiet for few minutes, okay?" Without waiting for an answer she wrapped the cuff around Rory's arm and starting inflating it. Within a minute the uncomfortable pressure subsided and Mary frowned. "138/88. A little better than last night but not much. Dr. Larson will be by soon to see you and breakfast will be delivered soon. Can I do anything for you? Do you need anything?"
"Can I get up to go to the bathroom?"
"Sorry, honey. Not just yet. I'll get a bedpan for you. You're on strict bed rest until the doctor says otherwise." Mary was quick and efficient in getting the unpleasant chore accomplished. "Better now?"
"Yes." Rory made a mental note to never land in the hospital again. Bedpans were gross. "Is my mom here?"
"Visiting hours won't start for another half hour, so I imagine she'll be here soon. She was pretty worried about you last night. Your dad too."
"My dad was here?" That made no sense. Lorelai had sworn she wouldn't tell Chris about the baby, and considering she was in the ICU or anything there was no reason to call him.
"The guy with the baseball cap? He was here the whole time as far as I could tell. Kept giving Ms. Gilmore coffee and I think I overheard them talking about driving her home."
"Oh." The pieces fell into place. "That wasn't my father. That was Luke. He's-" How could she describe Luke? "He's a good friend of the family."
"Sorry, my mistake." Mary checked the printout from the fetal monitor attached to Rory's belly and noted something on the chart. "The baby's doing real well considering the circumstances. As soon as Dr. Larson comes in, she'll do an ultrasound to confirm that. So you just lay back, relax and think nice thoughts. Pretend you're in Aruba or something."
Rory just closed her eyes and tried to recapture her Yale dream. Being a student at the school of her choice seemed better than any exotic vacation.
"I have to fully agree with Dr. Kendricks' opinion. Admitting was the right course of action and at the moment I'm not to inclined to send you home, not until your blood pressure goes down and stays that way." Dr. Larson looked up from the chart. "I still want to do the ultrasound on the baby to confirm no trouble there. The fetal heart rate is steady and where it should be, but it never hurts to have that confirmation."
"So I can go home soon?"
Dr. Larson frowned. "Rory, I don't think you understand me. You're on the verge of pre-eclampsia. You're going to remain hospitalized for at least several weeks and if released, you'll be on strict bed rest for the remainder of this pregnancy. Right now, you may be here until you deliver. The risks to both you and the baby are too big to ignore."
"That's fine." Lorelai replied this time and shot a look at her daughter that Rory understood all too well. It was the look that said 'I'll hogtie you to keep you safe so suck it up.' She'd only seen that look a few times before in her life and knew her mother meant business. Rory nodded and agreed to the doctor's parameters.
