Second last chapter... Those of you who are not interessted in LL, bear over with it. :-)

To care for each other

It was late evening. Rory was getting tired, and rested her head on her grandfather's bedside. Allthough he couldn'talk to her these days, she liked sitting by his bed like this, holding his hand. Emily was sitting by his other side. It warmed her heart to see Rory so peaceful for once, in this difficult time. Tonight, Emily and Rory were alone with Richard at the hospital, while Lorelai had brought Suzannah with her to Stars Hollow.

Just as Rory was about to doze off, Richard's hand started twisting out of hers. When she looked up, she saw that he was shaking, as if he was having an infarction.

"Grandma, look!" she called out, terrified, but there was no need. Emily had already pushed the emergency button on the wall. Two seconds later, hospital staff came storming through the door.

At the same time in Stars Hollow, Lorelai had put her sister down to sleep in Rory's bed, and was planning to go to the kitchen to get something to eat. Unfortunately, the fridge was empty and she remembered she hadn't had the time to go shopping for several days. Disappointed, she drank a glass of water before she got herself ready for bed . She was brushing her teeth when the phone rang.

"Complications... a deterioration in his state... your mother and your daughter asked us to call you... you must come as soon as possible..." the information was all blurry, it was being repeated over and over in her head, making her all dizzy. For a minute or two she was simply standing by the phone, being unable to move.

Then she pulled herself together, found her purse and a jacket, and a blanket to tuck Suzy in, so she wouldn't be cold in the car. She hated the thought of waking her sister up to drag her to the hospital yet another time. It was like waking her up to a nightmare. But then again she couldn't just leave her alone in the house either.

Just as she was about to go into the room where Suzannah was sleeping, she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it she was surprised to see Luke outside. "Hey...sorry to be dropping by so late, I just...I figured you hadn't had much time to shop lately so I brought you some food..." he said as he held up two big paper bags. She didn't know what to answer, she was so happy that he had thought of her and cared for her, right now she really needed someone to care for her, instead of her caring about everyone else.

"Thank you..." she managed to get out.

He noticed that everything wasn't the way it was supposed to be. "Did something happen?" he asked her. Then it all came pourring out, she told him everything, about the phone call from the hospital and Suzy who was in bed and how stressed she was... He placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her still. "Calm down!" he demanded."You get in the car and go to the hospital, I'll stay here and take care of Suzannah."

"Are you sure that's alright?" she asked as he helped her to put on her jacket.

"Yeah, yeah, she knows me, she likes me, it's going to be alright. Now, get going!" He nearly pushed her out the door, and waved at her as she drove away.

Emily couldn't understand what was taking Lorelai so long. She felt as if she had been waiting for hours when she finally saw her daugther coming towards her up the corridor. All alone.

"Where is Suzannah?" she asked as Lorelai got close enough to hear her.

"She's fine, Mum, I got her a great baby-sitter. She's been taken care of," Lorelaianswered. Emily wanted to ask more questions but decided they could wait. "Now, where's my kid?" Lorelai wondered. Emily answered by pointing towards one of the chairs that was lined up by the wall. Rory had curled up in one of them, and was fast asleep with Emily's coat covering her. "Poor thing, she was exhausted," Emily mumbled.

"So, what's the news with Dad?" Lorelai asked her mother. Emily started fumbling with her necklace as she answered.

"I don't know yet. He had some kind of paroxysm and they rolled him away, so I don't really know what is happening. Nobody wants to give me any information either. I've stopped every nurse that came by, but nothing!" Emily said with a gloomy hand gesture. "Or, well, they told me it wasn't life-threatening, that things like this are rather normal concerning his condition. That's something, I suppose."

"Yeah..." Lorelai agreed as they both sat down. "These lungs aren't going to last him long, are they?"

Emily shook her head as she wiped away a tear. "They told me to expect him to keep having these attacks until they find him a new set of lungs."

Lorelai looked at her mother. "How much longer can he wait? Did they say anything about that?" she asked in a very low voice. Emily hestiated before she answered.

"They didn't want to promise anything. But one of the doctors said he recons only a few weeks..."

Lorelai put her hand on her mother's shoulder as Emily hid her face in her hands. None of them said anything for a while.

There was a TV hanging on a rack up at the ceiling in the corner of the corridor. A news reporter was speaking of an accident at Bradley Airport. Appearantly a plane had rolled of the airstrip as it was about to take off, and a certain number of people were wounded. Five were dead.

Emily wiped off her face with a tissue from her purse, and concentrated on the TV-screen. "That's interessting..." she mumbled.

"You're thinking about how one of those people might be a perfect donor, aren't you?" Lorelai said in a dejected manner. "Mum, you're unbeliveable!"

"You never would have guessed it if you weren't thinking about it yourself..." Emily claimed, and Lorelai had to admit that she was right. She did, of course, not say that out loud.

Just then, the sound of a door being opened made them both turn. A doctor, a new one this time, came walking towards them while pulling off his latex gloves. "Are you Richard Gilmore's family?" he asked as he came closer.

Final chapter will be up soon