Ch 6
"Luke's."
"Is Lucas Danes there?"
"You got him," Luke said frowning at the order pad in front of him. Kirk wanted what?
"Mr. Danes, do you know a Lorelai V. Gilmore or a Lorelai L. Gilmore?"
"Rory? And Lorelai? Yeah."
"Well, you were listed on the call list we have on file for the elder Miss Gilmore."
"I'm sorry, who is this?"
"I apologize. This is Dr. Whitmore at Northwest Medical Center in St. Albans, Vermont. Miss Gilmore and her children were brought here after a car accident."
"Children? Are they okay?"
"The little ones are fine; it's their mother and sister I'm concerned about. How quickly can you get here?"
But Luke didn't hear her question, he was already out the door.
"Luke?" Lane called after him.
She went to get the phone. After only a few seconds, she was calling Jess, ordering Caesar to take over and hanging up her apron.
"Lane? What's going on?" Jess asked.
"I'll explain on the way. Where's your cell phone?"
"I got rid of it." Jess dried his hands on a towel and led her to his car.
Lane gaped. "You got rid of it?"
"I don't want to answer to the Man." Jess opened the door for himself.
Lane sat down and buckled her seatbelt, thinking half remembered Korean prayers. She was getting in a car with JESS? After he wrecked Rory's car and sent her to the hospital? "I hope you mean the government."
"Who else?" Jess turned the car on and maneuvered out of the space.
"A drug dealer?" Lane snapped. "How could you not have a cell phone? It's ridiculous."
"That's why." Jess smirked at the Korean who looked about ready to do a teapot imitation.
"Crap. I guess I can wait to call Paris." Lane rubbed her forehead.
"Paris? That blonde who went to Chilton with Rory? Why would you call her?"
"Well, she's Rory's roommate and one of her closest friends."
"Lane, what's going on? I don't even know where I'm going."
"St. Albans, Vermont. Lorelai and Rory were in a car accident."
"So I should follow the rubber Luke's putting on the highway?"
"That sounds about right."
"Hang on," Jess sped up.
Luke entered the ER and headed for the desk. "Gilmore."
The nurse looked up and her mouth opened slightly. The man in front of her had a dish towel over his shoulder, a crumbled pad in his hand. He didn't look right. Her hand inched toward the button for the psych ward. "Your name is Gilmore?"
"I'm here to see the Gilmores'. I was the contact list."
"And your name is?"
"Danes. Luke Danes."
"Luke, short for?"
"Lucas." He said. "Please. They mentioned kids."
"You said your last name was Danes?" The nurse was typing something into the computer.
"Yeah."
"I have two infants listed as coming in with the Gilmores. The younger Gilmore woman was conscious long enough to tell us their names. William Danes and Satchelle Danes."
Luke dropped the pad, put a hand on the counter and leaned forward, breathing hard. The nurse was getting ready to ask if he were having an anxiety attack or if he had a heart condition when two twenty-something's ran in and made a beeline for the man.
"Luke? Are they okay? What-" Lane stopped talking for a moment when she saw Luke's face. "Are you okay?"
Luke ignored Lane in favor of talking to the nurse, "What happened?"
"Maybe you should wait-"
"What happened?"
"Sir-"
Luke threw the rag from his shoulder over the nurse's shoulder and shouted, "Dammit! What the hell happened?"
"Security!"
"That's not necessary," Jess started desperately.
"He's just worried and upset," Lane continued.
"He's not dangerous," Jess finished, managing to tug Luke away from the very alarmed woman at the desk. "Luke, c'mon. Lane's going to find out what's going on while we sit down and you calm down."
"No-"
"Yes. Otherwise the nice woman behind the desk is going to have you tossed out on your ass."
Lane waited until Jess had Luke a respectable distance away before she turned and smiled at the woman behind the desk. "Sorry about that. They're getting married soon and they've waited a long time and I think he's just more anxious than the average groom."
"Ah, I see. Okay. Are you family?"
"Yes, I am. I'm the elder Miss Gilmore's niece. My mother was her sister." Lane could hear her mother now. Me? Related to a woman who got pregnant at sixteen? And you're lying? Lane Kim, go to your room Sorry Mama. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
"Ah. Okay. Your cousin is in much better shape than your aunt. Are you authorized to sign things for treatment?"
"No. But I believe that if you look at Aunt Lorelai's file, she has papers stating that Luke is."
"Can he hold a pen?" The woman asked. Luke had started to pace, and Jess was watching, making eye motions like that of a spectator at a ping pong match.
"Yes. He's just upset. Uh, the younger ones? Are they okay?"
"Yes. They're up on the pedes floor for observation for the night. You should be able to take them home tomorrow."
"Is the girl--is Satch crying? Because she goes to sleep if you rock her, but otherwise she can make you want to rip out your hair."
"I'll call the pedes floor and pass that along," the desk nurse said with a smile. "Now your aunt has some internal damage that needs immediate surgery."
"Luke'll sign. But uh, he'll want updates. I don't care if you dress the janitor in scrubs, but he'll want like an hourly progress thing."
"I understand. The surgical waiting room is on four. I can have someone take you upstairs after he's signed the consent forms."
Lane took the clipboard and caught up with Luke on his next lap around the chairs. "Sign this so they can operate. Then we go upstairs and wait."
"Lane?" Jess spoke up and motioned for her to come over to him.
"Yeah?"
"How's Rory?"
"She's better than Lorelai. That's all I know."
The rebellious boy had grown into a man, but there were remnants of the boy in the slight worship-from-afar aspect that remained part of Jess's treatment of Rory. "They gonna be okay?"
"I don't know," Lane said honestly. She looked at Luke and then back at Jess, "She never told him she was pregnant."
"You didn't either."
"Luke's my friend. I respect him but Lorelai practically raised me and Rory's my best friend."
"Doesn't mean you think everything she does is right. You had to know how bad this would hurt him."
Lane bowed her head. "And you don't know how much he hurt her," she said quietly.
"Bull." Jess said, succinctly. "I know, I'm talking about a Gilmore girl, and they're saints, and not to be criticized. I know Lorelai is hurt, and you think that if you're mad at her, it'll make it worse if she doesn't come back. But I've been the one who runs. I've taken that coward's way out. I know how, at first, you blame everyone else for your problems. And yeah, he was an ass to her, and her parents were asses to him. Playing "Who's the biggest jerk" doesn't make anyone right, and it does mean that he missed a once in a lifetime chance with Lorelai. So don't try to sell me, or him. Get him to sign the damn form, we'll go upstairs and let him pace."
"Surgical waiting room is on four. Give the papers to the nurse when he's done. I'm going up to pedes."
Jess grabbed his uncle's arm, used the momentum to propel him to a chair, presented him with clipboard, paper and pen, and indicated the places the administrator's needed Luke's name.
Lane headed for the elevator. On her way she passed some phones. She dug some change out and dialed Rory and Paris' apartment.
"Luke would you sit down? You're making me dizzy," Jess said.
Luke shot him an annoyed look. "No."
"Fine, then I'll stand." His nephew joined him.
"What are you doing?"
"Solidarity, Uncle Luke."
"Go back to the diner. Caesar can't handle it by himself."
"I'm not leaving you here so Security can chuck you out the door."
"Jess? It is Jess right?" A blonde woman walked into the waiting room. She was wearing a pair of pink pajamas and sneakers.
"You must be from the pedes unit?" He guessed.
"No. I'm Paris, we met once, remember?"
Jess winced. He remembered. "It was good of you to come, but..."
"Lane called. Are they okay? That idiot nurse downstairs wouldn't tell me anything but she did say my father was upstairs in the waiting room."
"Did you tell her you were Rory's sister or something?"
"No. I was yelling a little so she must have thought I was family."
"Right. You should know that we're not telling Christopher or Emily." Jess said. "Lane and I decided that Lorelai won't want to deal with them and Luke when she wakes up." If she wakes up, he thought.
"Oh, well that's smart. Do you know if Lane called anyone besides me?"
"No. She's with Satchelle in the pedes unit. Apparently, the kid has a set of lungs on her."
"Yeah. Did she tell you that Satch is deaf? Lorelai just found out last week."
"She hasn't told us much." Jess said. "Now, I'm going to try to deal with my uncle a bit, so if you could go help Lane or find somebody to talk to us, I'd appreciate it. As I remember, you can be kind of intimidating, and since you're pre-med, you probably understand the chain of command and who actually knows what they're talking about at a hospital."
"I can try. Oh, if someone named Logan shows up, come get me."
"Why?"
"Cause he has no right to be here."
"Explanation."
"Well, I was going to tell Rory when she got back on Sunday so I figure I can tell you now. I saw Logan, Rory's boyfriend, making out with some girl yesterday. Lane wouldn't know that so she might have called him and told him about Rory."
Jess nodded. "Got it, no Logans."
"And if you see anyone with him that's swaggering and has an accent that's Finn. Call security or he'll play doctor with a nurse."
"So Rory made some really charming friends at Yale."
"Looking back, the only one worth anything was Marty and he stopped coming around Rory started up with Logan."
"Okay, well, you go threaten people. I'm going to talk to Luke."
"Okay. You said Lane is on the pedes floor right? I'm gonna go talk to her."
"Bye." Jess caught up to his uncle. "Stop. You'll make yourself sick. Do you want to go meet the babies? Or see Rory--she's sleeping, but she's out of surgery. They'll come get us when they finish with Lorelai."
Luke didn't respond.
"You pacing here doesn't help her."
"I knew something was going on that day in the dance studio. Stars Hollow was her home and here she was ready to say bye to it without a backwards glance. If I had just pushed a little more maybe..."
Jess watched Luke finally sink into a chair. "There was always supposed to be a second chance," Luke said, almost to himself. "She wasn't supposed to run away from me. I didn't push, because when you push her, she runs. She did it to Richard and Emily, she did it to Max. So I knew, I knew not to push too hard, but there was supposed to another chance."
"Luke, she's not dead," Jess said to him. "Right now, this minute, she's still breathing. She's alive. And as long as she is, there is a second chance."
Luke shook his head slowly, "Maybe, for some things. But even if we get to a good place, we'll have the memory of it in between us."
"Luke, I waited to long. I was to late when I told Rory I wanted to be with her. I screwed up and I can't take it back. I can't fix it. You can."
"I know." Luke said. "And I will. I'll forgive her for running and lying, and she'll forgive me for pushing her away. But we'll always remember. I failed her when I pushed, she failed me when she ran. You can live with it, get past it. But you remember it."
"Fine. Remember it but don't let it keep you from each other."
"I know better, and so does she." Luke sighed. "You don't understand what I'm saying, do you?"
"I guess not."
"Go see Rory. I'm going down to the pede's floor to see the kids."
"Okay," Jess nodded and made his way up to the Surgical ICU. He found Rory's room and a nurse was writing on her chart.
"Hello," she greeted.
"She's still asleep?"
"With the meds she's on--yeah, she'll be sleeping for a while."
"Oh," Jess looked at Rory. She was pale and a bandage was attached to her forehead. "Is she gonna be alright?"
"Yes, she should be fine. Are you family?"
"I will be if her mother and my uncle ever figure out that they shouldn't let other people get in between them."
"I see," the nurse looked at Jess oddly.
"Yes, we're family."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I'm engaged to her cousin, who is upstairs checking on our cousins who were also in the accident with Rory and Lorelai." Off the nurse's look, "It's a very convoluted family tree."
"Okay," the nurse said. "I'll be back to check on her in a bit."
Jess sat down next to Rory's bed. "Hey there. I know I'm probably the last person you expected to have sitting next to you right now but when Luke got the call Lane and I followed him up here. I, uh, I went to the gift shop before I came up here and I picked up a book. It's a romance novel. It wasn't my first choice but when I read a couple of the first lines it conjured up an image of someone I knew. See if you agree with me." Jess opened the book and started to read, "'She wasn't a patient woman. Delays and excuses were barely tolerated, and never tolerated well. Waiting-and she was waiting now-had her temperature dropping degree by degree toward ice.'" Jess looked up from the book at Rory, "What do you think? Sound like a certain grandmother you have?" He half smiled before he continued reading to her.
Luke half listened to what the doctor was saying about Satchelle and Will. They were okay and that's all he really needed to know for now. Rory was okay; Paris had come down a few moments ago to tell them that before she and Lane went to get a soda.
"Get out!"
Luke looked up when he heard a very agitated female voice. Through the window he could see Lane and Paris along with that kid Logan and a dark-haired boy standing in the hall. Paris looked beyond pissed at Logan. She was gesturing and being loud and Lane looked confused but Logan looked slightly guilty.
He apologized to the doctor and went out into the hall.
"Hey. What the hell is going on out here?"
"He hasno right to be here," Paris pointed at Logan.
"Okay. Why?"
"Because he cheated on Rory!"
"What?" Luke looked at Logan who had chosen that moment to swallow hard.
"Paris, I don't know what you think you saw but-"
"I sawyou with your tongue down some red head's throat in the middle of the quad," Paris fairly shrieked at the blonde man. "So, I want you to take your lecherous friend and go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under before the need I have to physically harm you becomes to much and I drop kick you out a window."
"Alright, look Paris-"
"Leave," Luke said. "Right now. Or I'm going to drop kick you off the roof."
"Stay out of this. This is none of your business," Logan said snidely. "Hey!"
Luke grabbed Logan by the collar, "You listen to me you snot-nosed little punk. The only reason I didn't pound the crap out of you the last time we saw each other was because I was busy trying not to pound the crap out of Christopher. That's no longer a problem. Now, if you don't leave you're going to be very glad we're in a hospital and if you try to come back you'll be lucky to be in such close proximity to so many doctors 'cause I'll break every bone in your body. We clear?"
"Yes sir," Logan gets out.
"Good," Luke lets him go and goes back into the nursery.
He misses Paris and Lane stomping on Logan's feet and belting him in the stomach respectively and only notices when they come back into the nursery.
It was late. The hospital wasn't as busy as it had been a few hours ago and Luke could actually hear the ticking of the clock as he walked into Lorelai's room.
She was pale and there were too many machines around her but she was breathing on her own and according to the doctors that was a good thing but they didn't know how long it would take for her to wake up.
That was what scared him. The fact that the doctors were saying that she could either wake up tomorrow or in ten years or never. He would have to tell Rory that soon. It couldn't be put off forever. But first he wanted a few moments alone with Lorelai.
He laid a hand over hers and sighed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"We have a lot of arguing and talking and figuring things out to do," he whispered. "So don't you die on me, you hear me? Don't you dare die on me." He rested his forehead against hers for a few moments before he stood up. "I'll be back."
The part where Jess reads to Rory is from Nora Roberts' book Luring a Lady. I thought it fit. :)