Contact
Tentatively, Rory nudged the metal clipboard that lay on the low table in front of her. The older nurse had dropped it there quite deliberately awhile ago, with the unspoken instruction that Lorelai was to complete the form attached to it. Lorelai had just as deliberately ignored it.
"We should probably fill this out," Rory spoke up gingerly. "Nasty Nurse over there keeps giving me pointed looks."
"Well, you just give her pointed looks right back," Lorelai instructed petulantly. "Or barbed looks. Barbed looks sounds meaner."
"She's just doing her job," Rory protested faintly, but even she was having a hard time continuing to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. "Besides, what else do we have to do? We might as well do something that might help Luke."
Lorelai snorted. "I highly doubt that the scant amount of information I have about Luke will be relevant to his medical care," she said disparagingly. "Uh- he has a tattoo on his right shoulder- they've probably already figured that out, and if they haven't managed to make that observation, then I'm pretty sure we're screwed either way. He likes to fish. He sings country music in the shower but you will never in a million years get him to admit that. He wears flannel because it reminds him of his dad. He snores, and when he sleeps his hands curl up like a baby's-" She broke off with the sudden realization that she might never see Luke do any of those things ever again. "And he makes the best coffee in the world," she added, giving a watery smile.
"Luke's a snorer, huh?" Sookie mused. "So is Jackson. We should start a club or something- women who can't sleep, because the men they sleep with spend eight hours imitating a freight train."
"Good idea- the name's kind of long, though," Rory commented. "Might want to shorten it, or use an acronym."
"An acro-what?" Sookie wondered.
"It's when you take the first letter of each word in a phrase and make a new word," Rory said absently. "Like ASAP is 'as soon as possible,' or NATO is 'North Atlantic Treaty Organization.'"
"Huh."
"Back to the form," Rory said sternly. She unclipped the pen at the top of the clipboard. "Full name. Lucas….Lucas…hey, what's Luke's middle name? Does he have one?"
Lorelai shrugged. "Beats me."
"Hmmm. Okay, skip that one. Date of birth?"
"November 21st," Lorelai responded promptly.
"Year?"
"What?"
"Year. What year was he born? How old is he?"
Lorelai looked extremely puzzled, and she thought hard for a moment. "I don't know!" she finally admitted, slightly panicked. "How do I not know? I never even thought about it before. Is he older than me? Younger than me? Over the hill?" she paused dramatically. "I am dating a 40-something year-old?"
"Let's think about this logically," Rory suggested. "Jess is the same age as me. That means that his mom, Luke's sister, has to be at least as old as you, probably older, since I don't think she got pregnant at sixteen. So let's say Liz is a couple years older than you- that makes her what, 36? And Luke's her older brother, so he's maybe 38?"
Lorelai frowned. "Can we put twenty-nine? I like the sound of that."
"No, you can only lie about your age on your driver's license," Rory said wryly. "Oh! Check his wallet!"
"Okay, but if he lied about it on his license, it's not going to help us much," Lorelai grumbled as she pulled the Connecticut state driver's license out of Luke's wallet. Another wave of fear and worry hit her as she stared at his picture.
"Eleven-twenty-one-sixty-six," she read, biting her lip.
"Perfect," Rory muttered as she copied it down.
"So he's three years older than me," Lorelai said slowly.
"Sex?"
"What?" Lorelai's head snapped up in surprise. "What on earth do they need to know about that for?"
"Male," Rory continued, giving her mother a funny glance.
"Oh," Lorelai realized, trying not to meet Sookie's glance but not succeeding. Sookie just grinned and shook her head.
Rory moved to the next question. "So if you don't know his birthdate, I guess it's pretty safe to assume you haven't memorized his insurance policy number, either."
"B1179832," Lorelai answered superciliously.
Rory blinked. Lorelai held up a health insurance policy card. "It was in his wallet."
"Good, we're getting better, answering more questions," Rory said, almost to herself, as she filled in the numbers Lorelai had read.
"It's not a test," Lorelai sighed tiredly.
"Previous health conditions?"
"I don't know," Lorelai answered, dismayed at how little she really knew about him.
"Allergies?"
"No clue."
"Taking any medications?"
"Rory, I think we've answered every question I know, so just give it a rest, okay?" Lorelai snapped in frustration.
"Fine." Rory tried not to be hurt. "You better give this to the nurse."
"I'm not going up there," Lorelai declared vehemently.
"Mom, come on," Rory prodded.
"No way! That nurse hates me."
"I'll come with you," Sookie offered. It was obvious both Gilmores were running out of energy, patience, and tolerance, and she figured a little intervention was required.
"Thank you, Sookie," Rory said with exaggerated politeness, aimed at her mother. As soon as Lorelai and Sookie got up Rory regretted her frustration. Lorelai was being difficult and obstinate, but right now Rory acknowledged that she had every right to be. They were both worried about Luke, but tonight Lorelai was the one who stood to lose the most.
At the front desk Lorelai handed the clipboard over to the younger, friendlier nurse. "I filled out as much as I can," she explained. "It's not a lot."
The nurse took the form and scanned it. "So I see," she frowned. "Is there anyone who would know more detailed information? We want to know about any potential drug interactions or allergies, if at all possible."
Lorelai shook her head. "Parents are dead, sister's whereabouts unknown," she answered shortly. "I'm it, and I don't know anything." She hated the feeling of helplessness that filled her.
The nurse tapped her pen thoughtfully against the clipboard. "I can try checking our records again, but it's almost impossible to find a patient unless we know the year they were admitted." She gave a rueful smile. "I always complain about this computer system, but I'm a nurse. I'm not supposed to have an opinion."
"I don't think he's ever been here before," Lorelai said, feeling a little panicked. What if there was some medication he was allergic to that she didn't know about? What if they gave it to him and he died? She shut her eyes for a second in an attempt to shut off the thought.
Next to her, Sookie squeezed her arm and spoke up. "Try under 1998," she suggested.
Lorelai looked at her in confusion while the nurse searched the computer's records.
"What? What was wrong with Luke in 1998?" she asked, momentarily distracted.
"He sprained his knee playing softball," Sookie answered.
"I didn't know that. Why didn't I know about that?" Lorelai demanded, astonished.
Sookie rolled her eyes. "Nobody knew about that," she responded darkly. "Stupid stubborn man drove himself to the hospital- with his right leg injured, by the way- and then refused to wear the brace the doctor gave him."
"So how did you know?" Lorelai asked, almost jealously.
"Someone we went to high school with works here," Sookie shrugged. "I ran into her, she asked how he was doing, bing bang boom, cat's out of the bag."
"So much for patient privacy," Lorelai muttered.
"Here he is!" the nurse announced triumphantly. "Lucas William Danes, admitted June of '98 for out-patient surgery. Wonderful- I'll get this to the ER staff right away. And I'll call his emergency contact."
"Oh, thank God," Lorelai said in relief. "Liz should know what's happened."
"Who's Liz?" the nurse queried.
"His sister. She'll be his emergency contact," Lorelai ran a hand through her hair, feeling a weight being lifted off her. Somebody was doing something. It might not be much, but it made her feel so much better.
"You mean Lorelai," the nurse corrected, cradling her phone against her shoulder and dialing.
"No, I'm Lorelai, his sister's Liz," Lorelai contradicted irritably.
"Then I don't need to call her," the nurse said, hanging up the phone.
"What?" Lorelai snapped. "Of course you need to call her, she's his emergency contact! And probably the only family member you'll even be able to get hold of! Call her back!"
"I don't have a number for Liz," the nurse said calmly. "He's listed his emergency contact as Lorelai Gilmore."
Lorelai straightened abruptly. "Excuse me?"
"You're his emergency contact. But I don't need to call you- you're already here," the nurse explained patiently, swiveling around to collect Luke's record from the printer. "I'll just run this over to the ER," she said to the other nurse, who barely acknowledged her.
"I'm his emergency contact?" Lorelai repeated in astonishment to no one in particular. Stunned, she trailed after Sookie back to their seats. "I'm his emergency contact," she informed Rory when they sat down.
"Oh, Mom," Rory murmured.
"Why am I his emergency contact?" Lorelai asked, blinking quickly and pressing her lips together. "Why was I his emergency contact five years ago?" She shook her head quickly, biting her lip repeatedly. "Don't answer that. I know-" She swallowed hard, fighting a losing battle against the tears that threatened to burst through her dam of self-control. "Luke." She bit her lip hard to halt the waterworks. Dammit, she had held it together all night long, not once breaking down into great blubbering sobs. And now she was going to lose it because five years ago, in a pain-medication-induced delusion, Luke had off-handedly scribbled her name on a piece of paper? Some perverse, stubborn insistence within her refused to let all that hard work of not crying all night long go to waste. She sniffed loudly and held her head up.
She had managed to convince her head that it didn't mean anything. Her heart protested loudly and insistently that it meant everything.