Luke POV

"Rory is being moved to the paediatric ICU as we speak, would you like to see her?" The doctor finished saying, and I could feel some of the tension leaving my body.

"Yes," Both me and Lorelai said at the same time.

"Only two of you can go in at a time, but I'll drop whoever doesn't go in off in the waiting room," He explained as we walked, and I nodded, prepared to wait if I had to.

"Mom, Dad, do you mind waiting?" Lorelai asked, and I turned to her, shocked; while I wanted to sit by her bed and never leave, I was expecting her to prioritise her parents over her boyfriend.

Emily started to protest, but Richard smiled kindly at us, "Of course not. You two go ahead."

Lorelai chuckled when she noticed how shocked I looked, "You've been playing dad to her for 5 years, and today has proved how much you care about her. You deserve to be treated as such and therefore, you get first dibs... after me, of course."

Emily and Richard sat down in the waiting room, and we continued. That was when the doctor spoke up, "She is still unconscious and is connected to a lot of machines, but don't be alarmed; it's perfectly normal after this type of surgery. There's also quite a bit of facial swelling and bruising, which is perfectly normal. Due to the anaesthetic, she is unable to breathe on her own, but as the drugs wear off, her breathing should return."

Lorelai looked terrified, so I took her hand in mine, gently squeezing it. She smiled gratefully at me, but she still looked nervous. And then we entered the room.

Her head was wrapped in a large bandage and she had a tube coming out of her mouth. Her eyes looked swollen shut, and if I didn't know any better, someone had punched her in the face. She had various wires attached to her, and I could barely see her body through it all. My throat dried up, and the fear returned. Lorelai sat in the nearest chair, taking her hand. I walked around her bad, and sat down in the other chair, taking her other hand into mine.

"Hey baby," Lorelai murmured, getting as close as possible, "The doctors said you did good, no complications. I'm right here and I'm not leaving your side. Please wake up baby, you need to wake up for me."

Lorelai trailed off, tears streaming down her face. She swallowed a few times, unable to speak for a moment, and then she did, "He's going to pay for this."

I nodded in agreement. Seeing her like this had changed my perspective on the situation and I wanted Christopher behind bars and away from Rory. I knew that we couldn't protect her from everything, but I wanted to protect her from him.

"Hey Rory, it's Luke," I started, wanting to say something, "You scared me, kid... I've never been more scared in my life. Even when my parents died, I wasn't this scared, and I think if your mom doesn't lock you away, I might."

Lorelai laughed, "You're not supposed to give me ideas."

"I love you so much, and have done for years. I didn't like kids until I met you, and I'm still not a big fan, but you're my kid," I looked down at our hands, blushing slightly, "And I'm not generally a big softie but that's what you do to me. I might not be your official father, but I'm staying right here."

Her fingers tightened slightly around mine, and I looked up, hoping that her eyes were open. They weren't.

"Rory, can you hear me?" I asked, shifting in my seat, edging closer to her. Lorelai looked at me curiously, so I explained what had just happened, and her fingers tightened again.

"We're right here, baby," Lorelai murmured, running her thumb over Rory's cheek, "Open your eyes for us."

Her breathing changed and the machines started beeping, causing doctors to rush in and for them to rush us out, being told to wait in the waiting room.

"Can we see her yet?" Emily asked as we walked in.

Lorelai was busy trying to figure out what was going on, so I explained, "No, we were just rushed out. And no, we have no idea what's happening."

She joined Lorelai, trying to peer into the room. We could see people in and out of it, but we couldn't tell what was happening. I wrapped my arm around Lorelai's shoulder and kissed her head, "She's going to be okay. She has to be okay."

"Your daughter is awake. She is groggy, but she's breathing on her own. She's asking for her mom and Luke," The doctor said, "However, now she's awake, she can have up to 4 visitors if you keep your voices down."

Lorelai was off before the doctor had finished talking, and I was close behind. I didn't check to see if Emily and Richard were following, but I assumed so since I could hear heels on the floor.

"Rory!" Lorelai half called, rushing into the room. Rory smiled slightly, visibly relaxing.

We retook our seats, both of us holding a hand each. Richard and Emily hovered in the doorway with horrified looks on their faces, which was fair enough given that she had two black eyes and had severe swelling.

Rory slowly turned her head to look at me and said slowly, "Was I dreaming?"

I rose my eyebrows at her, "You'll have to be more specific than that."

She wet her lips with her tongue, "You said you wished I was your kid."

The more she spoke, the sicker she sounded. Her voice was croaky from the tube and combined with how groggy she was, it made her sound awful.

"That's the basic gist of it," I said softly, my heart jumping because she heard and also because I was now scared that she didn't feel the same way.

She turned her head to look at the ceiling, "I wish I was your kid, too."

The smile hurt because it was so big, "We'll talk about this more when you're better. How do you feel?"

I took note of the fact Emily was looking curiously at me, almost like she was trying to figure out my motive. I ignored her in favour of listening to Rory, "My head hurts and my arms are really heavy... Mommy, can you pass me the water?"

Lorelai took the cup from the table and held it up to Rory's mouth, letting her drink from the straw. She drank greedily, and then looked at her grandparents, "I'm sorry you had to come here."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. We are your grandparents and will be there any time you want us," Richard said, and he clearly meant it, "We just wish we saw more of you."

Lorelai bit her lip for a moment, the guilt evident on her face, "Well maybe we could start doing monthly dinners or something. Just so you can get to know Rory; she deserves her grandparents."

She didn't want to do it, but she had mentioned it a few times. While she didn't care much for her parents, she did want Rory to have a relationship with them as long as it didn't harm her.

Emily's eyes lit up, "We'd love that, but of course we'll wait until Rory is better. And Luke, you're invited, too."

Crap.

AN: I wouldn't call any of these chapters medically accurate, I'm just making this up as I go. I also want to add in that I have officially finished writing this story (but not publishing) and I am already working on the sequel, which I'm hoping to have finished by the time I finish uploading this story, which will take 11 weeks as we've got 11 chapters to go. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you thought.