Chapter 101

January 1st, 2022

It was around 6 AM, when the phone that laid on the armrest of Rory's couch, began to buzz. The phone was Rory's, both her and her mother having dozed off on the couch, the TV still playing. She was no longer wearing her coctail dress, thankfully, just a simple pair of leggings and a sweatshirt, having hastily changed last night.

All of her muscles felt stiff from the awkward sleeping position on the couch, next to her mother, still dressed in the clothes she'd come in last night, who was likely due experiencing a similar type of pain very soon. Rory's condition was a little worse though, as her brain throbbed as well, the body's ability to handle a hangover not being quite what it used to be in her twenties.

"Yeah?" Rory answered, without looking who was calling. In that moment she'd nearly forgotten what was going on. She recognized the voice in an instant thought.

"I'm at the psych ward at Hartford Hospital," Jess said, and continued to explain how after trying to talk Luke down to come and get in the car with him without success for an hour, he'd ended up having to call an ambulance in the early hours of the morning. Because Luke had been considered a danger to himself and others at that point, the first stop had been the Psych ER, where he'd soon been given some sedatives. But either way, he was expecting the doctor to come and talk to him within the next hour or so, hopefully to give him some actual insight as to what was going on with him.

Luke had been in pretty bad shape, several self-inflicted wounds on his hands on top of everything.

Rory knew without Jess asking her, that Lorelai would want to be there, and even though her mother was never a huge fan of 6 o'clock in the AM, she knew it was time to wake her.

She drove her mother's car to the hospital, where she was relieved to find Jess without wandering around the hospital too much. Logan had texted her already during the night that she was staying with Em, while Jess went to handle things with Luke, but while she was a little concerned how Em would take the surprise of waking up without his dad being present, she felt confident Logan would just have Em call her if there was anything she worried about.

"How is he?" Lorelai asked Jess before Rory had a chance to, and hugged him as they reached him. Jess wasn't too keen on hugs from family members excluding Em and in the past also Rory, but under the circumstances he didn't fight it.

Rory could tell by the way his skin tone was a little dull, hair messy and eyes reddish that Jess had truly had a rough morning, or rather - the whole night.

"He's sleeping now, the meds they put him on made him pretty drowsy, but they did some preliminary assessment and the doctor should be out soon to give us an overview," Jess explained.

"It's good it's something medical, I guess," Rory added with a sigh, trying to see the silver lining. She could only imagine what state Luke was in - hardly something he would've been proud of himself.

"Yeah...," Lorelai exhaled, the hope that this wasn't really him, his underlying personality, that this was just something that was wrong with her husband giving her some assurance. Though as they'd already talked in the car with Rory, the fact that it was the psych ward made this certainly something less consoling. Rather it was upsetting and confusing. And Lorelai really didn't understand how she hadn't noticed something being really wrong with him until last night. These little changes had almost snuck up on them.

There were various levels of security at most psych wards - but the waiting room of the one they were sitting in was certainly not one with a low level of security. And as much any of them knew about psych wards - people didn't come out of them that easily, nor quickly usually. This was only added concern to Lorelai, who'd already been fretting about what would happen to the diner.

"You look tired, did you get any sleep at all?" Rory said with concern in her tone to Jess.

"I'm fine, for once going to bed the same time as Em actually paid off," Jess tried to sound positive. The three-four hours of sleep he'd gotten were nowhere near enough, but it was better than nothing.

Lorelai took a seat next to where Jess had been sitting earlier, and Rory suggested she go get Jess some coffee but he refused, saying he'd just had a cup, adding that it had been horrific.

"I wonder if Em's up yet," Jess pondered, essentially asking if she'd heard from Logan. It was clear he still had some doubts about the guy, but it was understandable.

"No word yet, but I'm sure they're fine," Rory replied, actually feeling some pride for Logan putting resolving this situation ahead of his pride and asking for Jess' help.

It was then the doctor emerged through the doors of the restricted zone. The way Jess' attention was drawn to the man in question that made it clear this was someone they'd been waiting for.

"You're Luke Danes' family?" the man in the white coat asked.

"That's right, I'm his wife," Lorelai stepped in. Despite having been thoroughly scared last night, the sense of security as his wife had been shaken from its foundation, he was still her husband. In sickness and in health.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Waters, I'm the attending here. We haven't had a chance to give him a full evaluation, he's been sleepy and we'd need to take him off the sedatives to do that. But after he's rested a little, we aim to do that as there were some irregularities in his blood work that suggest we talk to him properly and try to look for reasons beyond the psychiatric," the bald man spoke.

"What kind of irregularities?" Lorelai inquired.

"There's are some mild signs of anemia and also elevated levels of copper, it could just be diet related, and his behavior could just be something psychiatric, but we do believe running a few more test, a MRI and a CAT scan if we have your permission," the doctor continued, adding that currently Luke was not really capable of decision making Lorelai was in charge of his decision. Rory held her mother side-ways as the doctor continued to explain a few more possibilities, while not mentioning any concrete diagnosis just yet.

"But if you want, you're welcome to come sit with him for a bit, he's awake but hazy. There's a nurse nearby just in case but he has calmed down significantly. Seeing a friendly face might do him good," Dr. Waters added, after several minutes of explaining.

"Um… yeah," Lorelai replied hesitantly.

"Do you need me to come with you?" Rory suggested.

"I'm afraid it's just immediate family at this point, he's easily overwhelmed. But I assure you there's no danger," he added.

"Okay… I'll be okay," Lorelai said, and was guided through the doors.

"I'm glad you were around to help," Rory sighed, and took a seat where her mother had sat before, letting out an involuntary yawn. Her head still throbbed a little.

Jess took a half-empty water bottle from the floor, and handed it to her nonchalantly as he regained his seat too.

"Thanks," Rory replied, screwed the cap open and took a small sip.

"I figured you might be a bit… you know," Jess said, raising the corner of his mouth, assuming Rory was at least a little hung over. It was no secret she'd been out last night, having posted several photos on her feed for one.

"Right," Rory chuckled. "It's not too bad," she replied, humbly.

"It was a little weird getting the call from Logan in the middle of the night though," Jess began, feeling like he was all talked out about Luke by now. "Even weirder handing him the keys of my store and house," he added.

"You know I'm actually proud of you two…," Rory added.

"Hey, all I did was find a way to go check on Luke, it was better not to have him in the way, and much more convenient than waking Liz at 2 AM. He's much better off sticking to the white-collar stuff anyways," Jess teased, squinting his eyes, indicating he didn't actually mean it too seriously. It simply meant it would be a while before he'd stop teasing him at least amongst the adults.

"I bet Em is still asleep," Rory said, glancing at the time.

"Maybe," Jess sighed, leaning his elbows onto his knees. He was ready to go home, but decided to hold off until they had some time estimate when they'd have more information. Besides, he also knew he'd need to tell Liz what happened once she got up. And that was a whole other undergoing.

"You know, I met Lisa the other day. She sort of told me about the two of you," Rory decided to share. She still felt a little weird about the fact that she hadn't heard about it form him.

"Yeah, she told me about that," Jess admitted, looking down and then directly at her.

"Has she met Em?" Rory asked. Em hadn't said anything but she figured that it could've happened in passing perhaps, Em maybe not thinking much of it at the time.

"No..," Jess replied, shaking his head. "It's not that we're not serious enough. It's not just a fling. I think we are…," he began but didn't finish that sentence, not ready to quite define them. "I didn't expect to meet someone like her, not this soon," Jess shared. "It's a little complicated - she's actually in the class that I'm teaching," Jess admitted. "I just, don't think there's no hurry with Em, I don't want that pressure when I'm just getting to really know her," he added, and Rory truly respected that.

Rory kind of wanted to know whether the draw in her was that she was a little like her. But she held off, knowing no good would come of it. Besides, they were both pretty tired. She truly hoped, perhaps being a little self-centered at that, that it wasn't that, but rather that the similarity was more superficial, which would've been the healthier option. Either way she wanted Jess happy.