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"French braid, right?" Lorelai asked, her hands playing with April's hair as they sat on the bed in the younger girl's room. She had passed by the room, heading into the kitchen for coffee when she noticed April struggling to fix her hair. She popped her head in, asking if she needed any help and when April accepted the offer, they began to discuss hairdos.
"If you can do one," April answered. She picked up a few stray sheets of paper that laid next to her on the bed. "I printed off instructions but I can't figure it out on my own."
Lorelai smiled, using her leverage on the girl's head to tilt it back towards her. "Well lucky for you, I'm a whiz at the french braid and several other hairstyles."
Lorelai tilted April's head back to the front, grabbed the brush from the bed, and gently began to brush the girl's hair. She brushed through the tangles then separated the hair into sections as her fingers moved expertly through the young girl's hair, incorporating sections of hair to achieve the french braid that April wanted. Her work was finished fast, her skills honed that time when Rory was young and went through a french braid hair phase, and she quickly secured it with the hair elastic that April provided.
"There you go, all finished," Lorelai announced, she ran her fingers over the braid and secured any loose hairs. She grabbed a small hand-held mirror from the table beside the bed and passed it off to April. "Take a look."
April accepted the mirror and moved off of the bed to stand in front of the mirror that was attached to the dresser. She turned her back to the biggest mirror and angled the one in her hand to get the best view of her braid. "This looks great, thanks Lorelai."
"No problem kid," Lorelai replied with a smile. Her smile fell slightly when she noticed April holding her side. "You okay April?"
April nodded her head, moving her hand away from her side though there was a slight pain there. "Yeah, I'm fine. I need to finish getting ready for the party. I need to wrap Sabrina's present, do you have any tape?"
"Yeah," Lorelai replied, not fully convinced that April was absolutely fine. She pushed up from the bed and moved to leave the room. "I think it's in the kitchen, I'll get it."
April followed Lorelai out of the room and into the kitchen where she started to open and search through drawers for a roll of tape. Meanwhile, April moved to the kitchen table where the present she bought for Sabrina lay, a CD she thought she would enjoy, beside it were the news articles that she wanted to use for wrapping paper to put everything in perspective just in case the present wasn't enjoyed by the recipient. To her, it was a foolproof plan.
A few minutes later, Lorelai gently set the roll of tape down. "Here ya go kid."
"Thanks," April replied. She grabbed the tape and meticulously pulled off a few pieces, all the same length, before she began to carefully wrap the present. She made sure the edges were smooth as she folded the paper over the present, trying to ignore the slight but persistent pain in her side.
While April worked on wrapping her present, Lorelai set about putting on a pot of coffee while keeping an eye on April for any more signs that she might be feeling less than fine. A few minutes later, Luke entered the kitchen after having making a quick run to Doose's to pick up a few things for dinner for him and Lorelai. As he began to put away the groceries, the signs and symptoms that Lorelai just noticed moments earlier did not go unnoticed by him. Lorelai backed him up on the idea that April might not feel good, just having the sharp parental eye to know when a kid isn't feeling well. But when Luke asked April more than once if she was feeling okay, she just kept insisting that she was fine and definitely not hungry.
Despite his gut feeling that April wasn't feeling well, he sat her down for another talk about her first boy/girl party where he wanted to talk about kissing and whether or not she was ready for that, but replaced the word kissing with juggling much to Lorelai's amusement. She moved away from the table to look for the card to go along with the present after agreeing that there would be no 'juggling' at this party that she was going to. As she moved around the room, she held a hand over her right side where the pain still persisted.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Luke asked yet again while he watched April search around for the card. He noted that she looked a little paler than usual. "Sweetie, you don't look so good."
"Well that's not a nice thing to say to someone who's on her way to her first boy-girl party," April replied sarcastically.
"Oh, yeah, sorry," Luke immediately apologized.
Lorelai set the coffee cup in her hands down, pushed away from the counter, and made her way over to April. She lowered her voice. "Is it a girl problem sweetie? I do have stuff upstairs if you need anything."
"No," April practically screeched, more embarrassed to have this conversation in front of her father, even if Lorelai was whispering the comment to her.
"Okay," Lorelai backed off slightly. "But your dad is right, you do look a little pale. Are you sure that you're feeling okay?"
April picked up the card that she had left on the counter and plopped it down next to the wrapped present. "I told both of you that I'm fine," an irritated edge to her voice due to answering the same question over and over. And definitely not due to the fact that she was feeling fine, well less than fine but nothing too terrible.
"Here let me feel your forehead," Luke insisted.
"I think we have a thermometer upstairs if you need that," Lorelai offered, watching as Luke pressed the palm of his hand and then the back of his hand to April's forehead. "Though I can't remember the last time I actually used it, so not sure where it is."
"It's fine," Luke replied, pressing the back of his hand to April's forehead that did feel slightly warm. "April you have a fever."
"I swear, dad, I feel fine," April insisted yet again, the adults not believing her.
Luke sighed, he hated to tell her no on the party since she was so excited but she was sick. "You can't go to the party if you're sick."
"I'm not sick!"
Luke nodded his head, "Yeah, you are sweetie."
While April insisted once again that she was feeling fine and he was only doing this because he didn't want her to go to the party since he was worried that it was a boy/girl party, Lorelai walked up to the young girl using the same method of testing her temperature as Luke did just moments earlier. She agreed that April definitely did have a fever, a slight one, and that the young girl was definitely sick.
"It is! You don't trust me!" April accused when her father repeated that she couldn't go to the party when she was sick.
"Of course I do," Luke tried to reassure his daughter. "Look there will be other parties."
"NO!" April yelled.
"Hon, your dad and I both know you're excited for this party but he's right, you're sick," Lorelai chimed in, speaking softly in an attempt to calm April down. "You really should stay home."
April turned to Lorelai. "You can't tell me what to do, you're not my mother." Her words slightly harsher than she intended.
"I'm not trying to..." Lorelai started to speak but was interrupted by Luke.
"You're not going to speak to Lorelai like that and you're not going to this party," Luke repeated firmly, going as far to jam his finger in the table to prove his point. "Bottom line, you're sick and you're staying home."
"I can go!"
Luke shook his head. "No you can't."
"You suck as a dad!"
April's jarring declaration hung in the air as she marched off to her room right off the kitchen and slammed the door causing both of the adults to flinch. Luke sunk back down into the yellow kitchen chair, letting out a deep breath and hanging his head as the silence reverberated around them. He soon felt a hand stroke up and down his back, stopping to rub small circles to soothe him.
"She hates me."
Lorelai spoke softly, "She doesn't hate you."
"She said that I suck as a dad," Luke replied, he lifted his head to meet Lorelai's gaze.
"You don't suck as a dad," Lorelai said, hoping the reassurance in her tone was enough to convince him.
"She's upset."
Lorelai moved to sit down in the chair beside him. "Of course she's upset. She's a kid who got something taken away from her that she really wanted."
"I'm her father, that's what I have to do. I have to make the call that I think is right," Luke replied, his tone growing slightly more callous as if he was headed in the rant direction. "She's sick so I'm making her stay home, she can't go to the party if she's sick."
"I know that and I'm not saying that you didn't make the right call. There's no blame to you." Lorelai was bit taken aback by the callousness. "You made a decision and you stuck by it, you laid down the rules."
Luke sighed, "Yeah."
"Right," Lorelai replied. "How about you stay here and I'll go to Doose's, pick up some ginger ale for her stomach, something for her fever. Anything else we need?"
Luke shook his head. "No. I got everything when I went. Ginger ale would be good."
"Okay."
He reached out and grabbed her hand as she walked past him, pulling her back to him. "Thank you."
She gave him a small smile, "No problem."
Later, much later than she intended, Lorelai walked through the front door already rattling off excuses about why it took her so long when Doose's was just a few minutes away from their house. First Doose's was out of ginger ale and getting Taylor or any other employee to check in the back for more was damn near impossible. Then it seemed that all the employees at the pharmacy just disappeared off the face off the earth since she stood in line for what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time before deciding to retreat back to the actual pharmacist and ask him a few questions about what could possibly be wrong with April. Whether it was just a stomachache as April proclaimed or if it was something more.
Lorelai stopped and put the paper bags down when she heard Luke with April in her room trying to make her feel better about missing the party and suggesting activities they could do in place of going to the party. She peeked into the room, noting the young girl looked much paler than she did when she left and by the way she was still acting she was still in pain even if she was still saying that she was fine. She knocked on the frame of the door and gestured for Luke to come out of the room so she could talk with them.
"I asked her if she wanted ginger ale but she still said that she's fine," Luke said as soon as he was out of the room. "Did you get something for her fever because she's really hot now and still holding her side, I don't know what's wrong with her."
"Okay, slow down hon," Lorelai replied. "Did she throw up while I was gone?"
"No."
"Okay. And I know that she hasn't eaten anything bad because she really hasn't eaten all day," Lorelai pointed out. "I did get something for her fever and ginger ale and a few magazines, girly and one science related but I also talked to the pharmacist while I was there. He thinks it might be appendicitis."
"Appendicitis?" Luke echoed. "Why didn't you mention this when you walked in?"
"I was just trying to rule out anything else," Lorelai answered. "I asked the pharmacist just to see if it was something more than a stomachache. He listed the signs of appendicitis and April has those signs, the pain in her right side, fever, she hasn't eaten anything all day. We need to take her to the hospital."
"Okay, okay," Luke replied, not moving from his spot.
Because she knew that he needed to hear it, she added on. "She's going to be okay, we just need to take her to the hospital so the doctors can check her out."
"Right, right," Luke said, still unmoving. That only lasted a few seconds this time though. "I'll get April and we can go in your jeep. Or should we take my truck?"
"Well you're a little nervous right now and panicky because April is sick so I think that I should drive but since you don't like me to drive your truck..."
Luke interrupted, "Your jeep it is."
While Luke went to get April and inform her that they were going to take her to the hospital and there should be no more insisting that she was fine since she clearly wasn't, Lorelai picked up the keys to her jeep yet again to head back out. Seeing Paul Anka curled up on the floor prompted her to pick up her cell phone and call Babette to ask her to watch him while they took April to the hospital. She informed Babette that everything was okay and that word of April being sick didn't need to be spread around Stars Hollow before listing off instructions for Paul Anka and reminding her where the spare key was since she wasn't sure how long they would need to be gone. Before long, they were out the door and headed for the hospital.
Lorelai sat alone in the hospital waiting room, trying to drown out the sounds of the couple in the corner fighting over whether or not the meter needed to be fed or if they still had time. She was five seconds away from offering to go feed the damn meter herself just to get away from the inane conversation when Luke appeared back by her side snapping his cell-phone shut.
"You get a hold of Anna?" Lorelai asked, turning to look at him as he sat down in the empty spot next to her.
Luke nodded. "It rang a few times but she finally answered. She's on her way now."
"Good." Lorelai rolled her eyes as the couple in the corner started up again about the meter but neither one of them making a move to go check it even though the time had to have run out by now. "In the mood for mocking that couple over there?"
"The meter couple?" Luke inquired. "No thanks, don't even want to think that we could ever end up like them."
"We're not," Lorelai replied, a small grin creeping onto her face. "That's why we must mock. Mocking, it keeps us young. I hear it's the secret of all the biggest celebrities."
Luke arched an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Oh yeah, read People sometime babe, you'll be surprised at some of the beauty secrets. How outrageous some are while some are as simple as mocking." Lorelai poked him in the side, trying just a bit to lighten the mood since they both knew April was going to be okay. "Give into the mocking."
Just as Luke was about the mock, the older man from the couple in the corner stormed off while the presumed wife stayed behind in her seat yelling at him until she was finally quieted down by a nurse on duty. "He left, they're not fighting anymore."
"Thank God," Lorelai sighed, sinking into her seat. She reached out and place her hand over Luke's that rested on the arm rest. "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Luke finally replied after a few minutes. "It's a standard procedure, they said it wouldn't take long and then I can see her. I'm...okay."
She gave his hand a squeeze. "Okay. There's nothing worse than taking your kid to the emergency room. You know I remember Rory had food poisoning, and they had to hook her up to an I.V. And she just looked so little and scared. It made me feel like they were gonna have to hook me up to an I.V."
Luke blew out a low breath. "I was almost out of my mind, I was so scared and panicked."
"Like how you offered to give April your appendix until the doctor assured you that she would be fine without it?" Lorelai questioned, the hint of the grin on her face letting him know that she was only teasing.
"Okay, that was a little far," Luke relented. "But I was just so worried."
"It's only natural, you can't help but worry," Lorelai replied. She gave his hand another squeeze until he looked back at her. "Hey, I'm going to look for some coffee. You want anything?"
"No, I'm good. You go get your coffee."
"You sure? I might slip up and find that tea that you love so much."
Luke shook his head, "I'm fine, really. I don't need anything. I'll just stay here and wait for some news on April."
"Okay." Lorelai leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "Be back as soon as I can."
Luke watched her leave, only after stopping a nurse to ask her where she could find some coffee in this hospital. The nurse pointed her down a hallway that Luke was certain would lead to a cafeteria before she walked away and resumed her original task. He tried to relax as he waited for word from the doctor on the progress of April's surgery but he had no such luck. The chair was too hard, the man from earlier had come back and started arguing with his wife once again over a completely new topic, and his mind was going in a million different directions.
Most of his thoughts were consumed by his daughter and whether or not she would be okay. Despite reassurance from the doctor that this was a standard procedure and had a very high successful rate, he knew that complications could still arise from the simplest of surgeries. He tried to tell himself that she would be okay because she definitely would be okay and he knew that but the worry was still there and it didn't look like it was going anywhere.
In the back of his mind, he was also concerned with Lorelai and her notion from the night before that there was something that they needed to talk about. He had racked his brain the night before trying to think of what they needed to talk about since Lorelai gave him no hints other than it wasn't bad and it was just something they had to deal with. There was one thing that stuck out to him, one possibility of something that they would need to talk about. Though he wasn't entirely sure of his own idea and surely they would have talked about it sooner, unless it was a recent happening for which they hadn't had much alone time to actually talk. He was just worried that she was keeping something from him even though they promised not to keep anything from one another.
"Any news?"
Luke turned around to find the voice that jolted him out of his thoughts. He found Anna standing off to the side dressed in what to him looked like she had been out on a date when he called. He quickly shook his head. "Uh no. She's still in surgery, no news since I called you."
"Okay." Anna took a seat a few chairs down from Luke. "She didn't tell you she wasn't feeling well?"
"I kept asking her and she kept telling me that she was fine," Luke answered. "But she had a fever and was holding her side then when Lorelai went to the store, she talked to the pharmacist and he thought it was appendicitis so we brought her here."
"We?" Anna questioned, noting the absence of another brunette. "Lorelai didn't want to stick around?"
Luke blew out a low breath. "She's here, she just went to get coffee."
"Right."
Luke didn't want to push it any further and lucky for the both of them, a doctor emerged from behind the double doors and headed in their direction. After mistaking them for husband and wife, and Luke awkwardly explaining that they weren't together but they were both the parents of April and that his fiancée was actually off getting coffee, they received the news that the surgery went great and they would be able to see April in just a few minutes.
As soon as the doctor left the couple promising to send someone when they could see April, Lorelai walked up to the pair of them without her so desired cup of coffee. Instead of commenting on how she couldn't get a decent cup of coffee and whatever the machine spit out definitely wasn't coffee, she greeted Anna and then asked about April.
"The surgery went really great, they got it out, no problem. And she's gonna be fine. And I'm gonna be able to see her pretty soon," Luke answered.
Lorelai smiled, nodding her head. "That's great. I told you she would be fine, she's a trooper."
"You know Luke," Anna spoke up. "I'll stay here with April tonight. Of course you can check in on her but I'll stay here overnight with her."
"No Anna, I have no problem staying with her tonight," Luke replied, swiftly shutting down any idea that he wouldn't stay. "This is still technically my time with her so I'm going to stay tonight. I want to stay with her tonight."
Again, the doctor with impeccable timing came back through the doors announcing that April was now set up in her room and the could go see her if they liked. Since there could only be a couple of people in the room at the moment, as she was just out of surgery, Lorelai thought it best if she hung back allowing the mother and father to go in and check on April first.
Lorelai walked down the quiet hallway, her eyes drifting over the room numbers as she looked for the one the nurse informed her that April was in now. The nurse had also warned her that visiting hours were almost over so her visit would have to be very brief but she could always come back tomorrow. April's room was placed at the end of the hallway. The door was wide open indicating that Luke was expecting her to drop by since Anna had just left moments ago. Spotting April laid back on the bed sleeping away, she tip-toed into the room as to not make any more noise that she needed to so the young girl wouldn't wake up.
"Hey," Lorelai called quietly since Luke seemed entranced by whatever was on TV. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, she's good," Luke answered. "She was up for a few minutes but groggy, the doctor said that was normal though with the medicine that they gave her. But she's doing great."
"Good, good," Lorelai replied, she sat down in the chair beside Luke and smiled at the television that was attached to the wall when she noticed what had Luke so entranced. "I love this movie."
"Seems like your type of movie," Luke commented, giving her a smile.
"You seemed pretty into it when I walked in," Lorelai retorted, "Are you not a fan? I have the movie at home, we can watch it later. Get the full experience and not just a few minutes."
"We'll have a movie night."
Lorelai grinned. "We'll have a movie night." She intertwined their fingers, enjoying the few moments they had to spend together before she was inevitably kicked out due to visiting hours. "A little you and me time would be great."
"It would," Luke agreed. He knew that this wasn't necessarily the best time but with how things tended to work out for them, now was also as good a time as any. Turning in his chair to face her, he asked. "What was it that you wanted to talk about tonight?"
"Oh we don't have to discuss that tonight. It can't wait."
"No," Luke replied with a shake of his head. "Last night you said there was something we needed to talk about. And I thought about it but I'm not sure what we would need to discuss. What aren't you telling me?"
"It's not like that Luke," Lorelai insisted.
"Then what is it?"
"I want to set a wedding date."
Leaving you with sort of a cliffhanger there. But this time I promise there won't be a long wait in between chapters. Next chapter is pretty much done, just didn't want to post them too close together. Hope you enjoyed!
As always, reviews are appreciated.
