CHAPTER THREE
Richard rode with her to the hospital. He had hoped that she might awaken and he wanted her to see him there and not some stranger. Yet she didn't awaken during the entire ten-minute ride. The only voices were those of the paramedics giving each other orders and talking to their dispatcher about Emily's condition.
A doctor met them as they rounded a corner into the arrivals area, asking Richard to wait down the hall while he examined Emily. As the man and his crew of nurses whisked Emily away, Lorelai and Rory came rushing down the hall towards Richard. The three of them remained in the hallway, uncertain about what to do next. Rory suggested that they go sit down. It was the only thing she could think of to do.
The girls guided Richard to the waiting area. The hospital was fairly calm for a Friday evening. There were only a few other people sitting there too. They mostly sat in silence. It felt like an eternity before someone finally came out to speak to them.
When the doctor did finally come, Richard was afraid to hear what he had to say. He was afraid of what the man was going to say to him, of what was wrong with his wife. The man didn't look to be at ease or as if he had good news. He had that look that doctors have on their faces when they are about to tell you bad news.
The three Gilmores stood in front of the doctor. Finally Lorelai asked how her mother was doing.
"She's stable, but we are concerned about her condition." There was the "but" that Richard was expecting. "She hasn't regained consciousness yet. She has a concussion, which is from the trauma that she suffered to her head during her fall. Her right arm is broken. The nurse is resetting it now. She seems to have good bones, but it may take a while to heal. She broke her arm in several places. She also broke her ankle. I've asked for a consult from our orthopedic surgeon. The bone in her ankle twisted and nearly broke the skin. We've reset it for now, but I think she's going to need further treatment."
"Can we see her? Richard asked.
"In just a few minutes," he promised them. "There are a few more things that we should discuss. She's badly bruised. It may be disturbing to see her in this condition. She's going to be in pain for quite a while, but all indications say that she's going to be fine. We're a little worried that she hasn't woken up yet; however, we're going to give her more time before we try to wake her up with some medications. Hopefully we won't need to do so, but we do have a neurologist on call should we need a consult. I don't want you to worry too much, but we are going to be keeping a close eye on her for the next few hours at least."
"Can we see her?" Richard asked again. He just wanted to see his wife. He'd worry about the details of her condition afterwards.
"I think that would be a good idea. If you talk to her, it might bring her back." They followed the doctor to where Emily was being treated. The nurse had just finished setting her right arm and was positioning the sling. The doctor opened the door for the Gilmore family.
Richard tried to compose himself at the sight of his wife. Both Lorelai and Rory audibly gasped. Emily had a large dark blue and deep purple patch on the right side of her head. It literally looked like someone had painted her skin. The exposed skin of her arm and shoulder were the same colors. You could barely see her normally pale skin color. She looked so petite and helpless, quite unlike Emily Gilmore. The left side of her body looked to be in perfect condition.
The doctor continued to explain as the three of them looked at Emily in silence. "She fell on her right side, so it took all the impact. The bruising should go down in a few days. She shattered some bones in her wrist. We can't really tell the extent of the damage just by looking at it. For now, we'll have to wait until she wakes up to determine if she'll need surgery. It will depend on how well she can move the wrist and how the bones turn when she moves her hand. Right now, it's the least of our concerns. She really should be awake by now. Yes, she lost a good bit of blood, but not enough to really merit any concern. She has no reason to still be unconscious."
"Do you think she can hear us?" Lorelai asked. Rory stood next to her silently. She couldn't take her eyes off of her grandmother. None of them could.
"Well, we don't know for certain, but I don't think talking to her could hurt. Maybe subconsciously she will recognize your voice."
"Thank you, doctor," Richard reached out to shake the man's hand. It actually felt difficult to take his gaze away from his wife, as if something might happen while he was looking away. The doctor promised to come back soon and check on them again when they had more information.
"So, what do we say to her?" Rory asked. The three of them stood around her bed.
Lorelai couldn't take her eyes off her mother. She had always been such a domineering woman and had such a presence. Lorelai had never seen her mother so powerless and vulnerable. It was odd to see her mother so…. so human.
"I think we should tell her that we love her and that we hope she will wake up soon," Richard suggested. He stood to the right of her bed, reaching his hand out to brush her hair away from her face. His other hand was atop her own, squeezing it gently. Lorelai and Rory stood on the other side of the bed. Lorelai had her arms crossed over her chest and Rory stood rather still. No one knew what to do.
It was now nearly midnight and Lorelai and Rory were in the cafeteria. Richard was still in Emily's room. The girls had tried to convince him to go get something to eat with them, but he refused to leave until his wife woke-up.
"Why do you think Grandma's not awake yet?" Rory asked, poking at her food. It looked like mashed potatoes, but it didn't taste quite right.
"I don't know, kid. I don't know. Maybe she's just tired."
"We don't know how long she was unconscious. What if something is wrong with her and the doctors just don't know it?"
Lorelai reached across the table and put her hand atop Rory's. "We can't think about that right now. All we can do is wait and hope for the best. My mother is a strong woman. Besides, she still has a lot of reasons left to criticize me. That should be enough to wake her up any time now."
"Mom…"
"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood." Rory tried to smile. "She'll be fine. And even if she isn't, Dad can buy her the best doctors in the world to make her better."
"I hope so." Rory pushed her tray away. "Come on, let's go back and find Grandpa."
"You go on. I'm going to just make a quick call to Sookie and tell her that I probably won't be at work tomorrow."
"Ok, see you in a few." Lorelai watched as Rory left the table, taking both of their empty trays with her. She took her cell phone out of her purse to call Sookie.
"Talk fast. Davey is taking his bath with Jackson and I only have like two minutes before Jackson pawns the kids off on me to put them to bed."
Lorelai laughed at the craziness that she could hear in the background at Sookie's house. Jackson was yelling something about splashing and she could hear a little boy laughing. "My Mom is in the hospital," she announced.
Sookie was about to yell something to her husband and son when Lorelai spoke. "Honey … is she all right?"
"I don't know. She broke her arm and her ankle and all kinds of stuff."
"What happened?"
"We don't know. Dad and Rory found her."
"Poor Rory. Is she OK?"
"Yeah," Lorelai commented, "she's just worried about my mom."
"What about you?" Sookie asked. She knew that Lorelai's relationship with her mother was not the best, but it had been quite a while since Lorelai had really complained about her mother. They seemed to be doing better lately.
"That's the thing, Sook. I don't know. I don't know what I feel right now. She hasn't woken up yet."
"You do want her to wake up, don't you?" Sookie asked.
"Of course I do," Lorelai answered quickly. "I just … I don't know how I feel about seeing her like that. She's always been so domineering and in control of everything. I guess I just don't know what to think seeing her like that."
Sookie smiled. "That's what people feel when they're worried, Lor. You're just not used to worrying about your mother."
"I guess so," Lorelai conceded.
"Go be with your family," Sookie instructed her. "I've gotta go put the kids to bed anyways. Call me back, OK?" Lorelai promised her that she would.
She snapped her phone shut and dropped it into her purse. Walking back into the ER, she wandered around the corner to her mother's room. She could hear Richard and Rory talking as she approached the door. They both sounded so worried, yet she could tell that they were trying to comfort each other. It made her happy to know that they had such a special relationship. Lorelai was glad that at least Rory could have the relationship with her father that she had never been able to have.
As Lorelai was about to turn the corner into the room, it hit her. Something that she hadn't thought about in a long time. She literally stopped in her tracks.
"I want to see Mommy!" she protested. Richard tried to calm her down, but nothing he tried had worked. The nanny had finally left for the day. She had spent all day long trying to get Lorelai to stop yelling and crying, but she could do nothing to get the girl to stop.
The nanny had apologized profusely to Richard for not being able to keep the child under control, but Richard knew that there was nothing she could do. Lorelai would not be content until she had seen her mother. She was only three years old and Emily was still the most important person in her life. They spent every day together. Emily would be in Lorelai's room when she woke up and she would spend the whole day playing with her and taking her around town while she did her errands. Then Richard would come home from work, but Lorelai had little interest in him. She wanted her mother all to herself. Richard knew that this phase wouldn't last and so he didn't let it bother him. He instead watched in silence as his wife spent most of her attention on their child.
Until now, Lorelai had never been away from Emily for more than a day. He thus knew deep down that nothing was going to calm her down except seeing her mother. Emily had forbid him to bring Lorelai to see her. She didn't want her child to see her in the hospital. Lorelai wouldn't understand and it would only upset her more, Emily had reasoned. Yet Richard had no clue what else to do. It was surely upsetting her more not to see her mother and not to know why her mother was gone. He was afraid that seeing the little girl might upset his wife, but he hoped that perhaps it might be just what they both needed.
So he took her to the hospital, even though it was well past visiting hours. He had tried to explain to Lorelai in the car that Mommy was very sick and that if she was asleep they couldn't wake her up. They would have to be very quiet and they couldn't stay for long. The little girl had readily agreed, willing to do anything to be with her mother. Yet the moment that she saw her mother, she dropped her father's hand and ran to her mother's side. Emily awakened with a jolt, looking from Lorelai to Richard.
"I'm sorry," he tried to explain, "she hasn't stopped crying all day. The nanny couldn't do a thing with her and neither could I. She only stopped when I promised to bring her to see you."
Emily looked at her child who had climbed into the bed next to her mother and was now lying against Emily. "It's all right, Richard." She patted her daughter's head, stroking her long, dark brown hair. "What is this I hear about crying all day and not being good for Cecilia?"
Lorelai looked up at her mother, bleary-eyed. "Why are you here? Why can't you come home with me and Daddy?"
"You know when you have a tummy ache and you feel really bad?" Lorelai nodded. "That is almost like what Mommy feels, but it is worse. I have to stay here so that they can take care of me like I take care of you when you're sick."
"Can't Daddy do that at home?"
"No, he can't." Lorelai pouted. "How old are you?" Emily asked.
"Three, but I'll be four soon!"
"Well, four is a very big number. It also means you have a lot of responsibilities. Like, it's your job to take care of your Dad when I'm not home. Now, I know that you aren't four yet, but maybe we can use this as a test …"
"I can take care of Dad. It's not hard. He just sits in his study all night."
Emily looked up at Richard. She hadn't thought about how this was affecting him. She had been so overcome by her own grief that she hadn't yet thought about him and his pain. He had suffered the same loss. It wasn't a physical loss for him, yet it was still an emotional one.
"Can I kiss you and make it better?" Lorelai asked. Emily looked back at her child and smiled. Lorelai leaned forward and kissed her mother on the forehead. "Ok, we can go now," she announced. Emily laughed at her daughter's sudden change of mood as she slid off the bed and her feet hit the floor. Without looking back, Lorelai walked towards her father at the door. Taking his hand, she cheerily said good-bye to her mother and pulled Richard out the door.
Lorelai stood still. She had forgotten about that night. In fact, she remembered very little about her life when she was that young. Why had she been visiting her mother in the hospital? It was surely normal for a child that age to be so dependent on her mother, but why didn't she remember that time at all? All she knew was that she had spent most of her time with the nanny. If that was true, then why was she so attached to her mother?
She had no time to try and understand her memory before Rory saw her standing in the doorway and called after her to come into the room. She had somehow expected Emily to look different – like her old self maybe – yet her mother still looked the same as she had before.