CHAPTER ELEVEN
Richard stood in the doorway of his wife's hospital room. Lorelai was asleep in the chair next to Emily's bed. Her head was slumped to the side and her hair fell in her face. She looked so peaceful and calm. In that moment it was hard to believe that she had been such a rebellious and wild child. She just looked like the beautiful little girl he'd fallen in love with from the first moment that he had laid eyes on her. The fact that somehow forty years had gone by seemed like it had all happened in the blink of an eye. Just yesterday she had been small enough to hold in his arms. Just yesterday. He could still remember that day like it had happened only moments ago …
Emily grasped her husband's hand. "Please don't leave me," she begged. "I can't do this alone." Her grasp was painful and his skin was quickly turning bright red.
"I'm just going to go tell your parents and mine that everything is fine," Richard soothed, his free hand brushing her wayward hair from her face.
"Our parents," she groaned. "Why did I have go into labor while our parents were visiting? I thought that I had two more weeks!" Emily tried to turn onto her side, but she couldn't make herself comfortable.
"It got us out of having to agree to anything," Richard joked. His face fell, however, as he looked at his wife. She wasn't smiling. They had been discussing the baby's christening. Everyone had a different opinion about how it should be planned. Their mothers had been in the midst of a very serious conversation over the appropriate flowers to use when Emily's water broke. Trix had actually shushed Emily as she tried to tell them what was going on. It was Charles who noticed that his daughter-in-law was suddenly quite pale. Emily's father had been too busy staring at the centerpiece, trying to stay out of the artful debate brewing between his wife and Richard's mother. And Richard was too busy trying to deflect the conversation onto a calmer subject to notice his wife's condition.
"I can't believe this had to happen tonight," Emily groaned.
"They've been waiting out there for a long time, Emily," Richard reasoned. It had actually only been a few hours, yet somehow it felt longer than that. "They're probably worried. And we don't have much time between your contractions, Emmy," he added.
"I can't believe that I agreed to this," she groaned. "They don't tell you about this part. No one tells you about labor and how horrible is it going to be." Emily tried to reposition herself, but nothing eased the pain that she felt. That damn doctor kept telling her she was doing "good" and that "soon" it would be time. He had been saying that for three hours now and it was starting to get annoying.
"I will be back in less than two minutes, I promise." Richard leaned over to kiss her forehead, but she turned her face away from him.
"Fine. Go. Tell them." Emily felt the sting of tears, but she absolutely refused to let herself shed them.
Richard debated with himself for a moment if he really should go. Yet he knew either way that he'd lose this one. She had been yelling at him and then crying for hours now. It was quite confusing. His wife had never acted this way before and he frankly didn't know what to think about it.
The doctor smiled at him. "You've got time, sir." Richard rushed to the door, taking one look back at his wife before exiting the room. She was gorgeous. Even in labor she was gorgeous.
"Mrs. Gilmore…" Emily opened her eyes, looking up at her doctor and the nurse next to him. "You're doing wonderfully. It shouldn't be much longer now. Your labor is progressing very nicely," he smiled. "Your baby will be here in no time."
"My daughter," she corrected the man. "It's a girl." Emily shrugged his hand away from her.
"We don't know the baby's sex yet, Mrs. Gilmore."
"I know it's a girl," she insisted. "I've known since the day I found out that I was pregnant."
The doctor smiled. He didn't want to upset her. If she thought it was a girl, then he wouldn't argue with her about it. They'd know soon. "Well, we'll find out soon enough. It's almost time."
"You've said that for hours now," she reminded him, trying to hold her annoyance in check and not to jump all over the man just for doing his job.
"Well, your daughter has not been as eager to come out as we thought she'd be," the nurse added with a smiled, turning away to write something on a chart. She knew not to argue with an expectant mother. If the woman thought she was having a girl, then it was best to leave it at that.
Emily groaned, wishing that they would both leave her alone. "She wanted out for months and now that it's time she's changed her mind." Emily closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath as the nurse informed her that she was about to experience another contraction. They were only getting worse and she frankly didn't know how much more she could take. She wished that Melinda were here with her yet she didn't want Melinda to see her like this. Melinda had just found out a few months ago that she, too, was expecting a child. Emily didn't want her to see how painful labor was and to frighten her. That's when it hit her. This is why no one knows how bad it is until it's time to deliver. Otherwise no woman would ever actually agree to go through with the horrid process. She was definitely going to have to reconsider her desire for five children. Definitely. Maybe two. That would be a decent number. Two or three. She could handle three children. Maybe.
Richard heard his wife's raised voice as he got closer to the door to her room. He smiled as she called the doctor or someone in the room an "incompetent airhead" and demanded to know where everyone in the room had gone to school. He even laughed as he listened to her ordering around the poor nurses.
Emily didn't notice her husband entering the room again. She was too consumed by the intensity of the contraction. They were only a few minutes apart now. The doctor had once again told her that soon it would be time. Finally the contraction faded and she felt her husband next to her. Richard touched the side of her face, smoothing down her disheveled hair. He bent down to kiss her forehead and she smiled at him. For a few moments, they shared a genuine connection until the next contraction began and she grasped her husband's hand, yelling a lot of four letter words that he'd never heard from her before. If he hadn't been so bothered by the obvious amount of pain she was in, he would have been further shocked by the words that were coming out of her mouth. Yet after it was all over, he wouldn't even remember the shocking things that she had said to both him and the nurses during her contractions. He would be too happy and too content to remember anything negative.
Emily grabbed Richard's shirt, "Go get my mother," she pleaded.
"Your mother?" Richard asked. Emily had forbidden him to allow anyone else in the room. Not even Hopie, which was good seeing as she hadn't arrived yet. She and her fiancé had left Paris as soon as Richard called. Their plane probably had not even crossed the Atlantic Ocean yet.
"Now!" Emily demanded, seeing that her husband was faltering. Richard seemed confused and it only annoyed her further. She sat up, a look of desperation in her eyes as she struggled to push herself up. "I want my mother to be here," she pleaded. "I can't do this with you here, Richard. I'm sorry. I just can't." She was about to start crying again. "I'm so sorry, Richard."
"It's OK," he soothed, holding her hand. He understood and part of him was a secretly relieved that he wouldn't be present for this part of the birth.
The look in Emily's eyes scared Richard and he turned to leave the room. Emily called after him as he reached the door. "Thank you, Richard," she smiled. He nodded, going to get her mother from the waiting room.
Emily was screaming again as he came back with her mother, standing outside the door to her room."Richard," the woman soothed. "Why don't you go sit with Trix and Charles for a bit? Give me some time with Emily." She knew that Richard wanted to be present for the birth of his child. Yet she also remembered her own experiences with Hope and Emily and knew that it was for the best that he was not present. "Trust me. You don't want to see what's going on in there."
Richard tried to smile. His mother-in-law had always been so wonderful to him. It was hard to believe sometimes that Emily disliked her so much. Yet he had heard her berating his wife on a few occasions and had heard some childhood stories from Hope. She put on a good front for others, but she was nothing like his own beloved Trix. "I promise I'll come get you as soon as the baby is here. Everything will be fine. I promise."
Richard was about to say something when they heard Emily cursing at a nurse or doctor. The sound of pain in her voice startled him. Vivian and Richard could hear both the doctor and nurse trying to placate her. He quickly agreed to let Vivian go be with her daughter.
Vivian pushed the door open, seeing her daughter across the room. It was the first time that she'd ever actually seen her daughter as an adult. Emily wasn't a child anymore. No, she was about to have a child of her own. This wasn't exactly the life that Vivian would have chosen for her daughter, but it was close. She had always assumed Emily would marry one of those Harvard or Princeton boys that she'd grown up with. Her father was a Princeton man.He was at the top of his graduating class when Vivian had met him. Yet it made sense that Emily didn't marry a Harvard or a Princeton man. She had never had any interest in the sons of her father's associates. And Harvard was too close to home. If she'd married a Harvard man, then she would have had to stay in Massachusetts. And Vivian knew that Emily had wanted be as far away from her parents as she could possibly manage.
"Mother," Emily smiled, looking over to see her mother entering the room. They were not close. Not at all. Yet she was glad that her mother was here. She was happy to have her mother with her. It was easier to let her mother be present for this than Richard. She didn't want him to see her in this state. Emily knew that she could take yelling and cursing at her mother and not be upset about it later. But she also knew that she would feel bad for yelling at Richard when all he wanted to do was help.
"It's all right, Emily," her mother soothed, taking her daughter's hand. She was well aware that her daughter was not very fond of her. Emily had done everything she could to get out of their house as soon as she turned eighteen. She had gone to the best out of state college that had accepted her and only come home over the holidays when the university was closed. Vivian had never been close to her daughter. She had never wanted to be close to her daughter. That was not proper. She was the parent. Emily was the child. There were strict, defined boundaries there. It was not proper to be your child's friend. Yet it meant the world to Vivian that her daughter was allowing her to be present for the birth of her first grandchild. Today was different and for one day the lines of their relationship would blur.
It was another two agonizing hours before Lorelai was born. Emily felt like her entire world was falling apart. Her legs ached and her entire body was sweaty and damp. She could feel her hair hanging limply at her shoulders. Yet none of that had mattered as she had looked over at her mother. She had seen the tears in her mother's eyes and it made all the pain and the discomfort disappear. But even that had only lasted a few seconds before she felt an all-consuming and horribly intense pain as the doctor told her that it was finally time. The moment finally arrived. Finally her child was born.
The doctor was saying something, but Emily heard nothing. The only sound she heard was that of a baby crying and Emily knew that she could relax. Her mother was behind her, holding her daughter's body. She had been there the entire time, holding Emily up and forcing her to be strong and brave. It was the closest contact they'd had in years and the closest they would ever have again.
Emily had wanted to see the baby after it was born, but she fell back against her mother, utterly exhausted. From the moment that the doctor said, "It's a girl," Emily had fallen back into her mother's arms. It was a girl. She knew it. It was a girl.
Vivian moved to let her daughter lie down so that she could go get Richard. Before she walked away she looked down at her daughter. Maybe Emily would understand now. It wasn't that she didn't love her daughter. She did. All the criticizing and harsh words that she said were for Emily's benefit. She knew that if she pushed her daughter, then Emily would achieve more and be determined to succeed. Emily had been the top of her class in high school because Vivian had told her that she could not stay at home if she didn't either get into college or get engaged. Emily had chosen college, as Vivian had hoped she would. Her daughter was far too smart to not go to college before getting married. It would almost be a waste of such a quick, witty intelligence. And Emily had graduated in the top of her class at Smith because Vivian had challenged her on that, too. She had pushed her daughter. And she had criticized her daughter. But it had all been for Emily's own good and to make her into the person that Vivian knew Emily was capable of becoming. It was all for Emily's benefit.
Richard and his parents rose as Vivian stepped out into the room. "She's beautiful, Richard," the new grandmother announced.
"It's a girl," Trix breathed.
"A girl," Charles huffed. He'd wanted a grandson, someone to carry on the Gilmore name. A girl would marry and the family line would be broken.
"And Emily?" Richard asked.
"She's fine," Vivian reassured him. "She did wonderfully." Vivian looked around, wondering where her husband had gone.
Even Trix and Charles looked elated. Charles' hand rested on his wife's shoulder as Richard rushed back into the delivery room to be with his wife.
By the time Richard returned to the delivery room, the nurses had attended to his wife and daughter. Dr. Smith greeted him as he came into the room. He had the baby in his arms, about to take her over to Emily.
"Would you like to?" he asked, nodding towards Emily.
Richard took the child from him, looking down at her. An uncommon twinge of fear shot through him for a second. This was new and unfamiliar. Yet it all disappeared as he looked down at his daughter. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Her eyes were closed and her face was red. And she had a full head of dark black hair. He didn't even have to see her open eyes to know that they were bright and full of life. He just knew they were. They would be just like her mother's eyes. All he could do was stare at his little girl. His daughter. His perfect daughter. The most perfect thing he'd ever seen. Richard had felt an instant connection the first moment he'd seen Emily, yet this was different than that. This was inexplicable. It was different from anything he'd ever felt before in his entire life.
He finally found the ability to move his legs and took their daughter over to Emily. She looked peaceful. Her eyes were closed but she opened them as Richard whispered her name.
Emily looked up, seeing her husband standing next to her. She smiled as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He moved their daughter into her arms and she had to bite her lip to keep herself from crying. Yet as she looked at her husband placing their little girl in her arms, she couldn't help the tears that escaped. Richard kissed the side of her head, feeling a well of emotion taking over himself too. Emily watched her sleeping daughter as she rested in her arms. The kind of love that she felt was so new and different. It was a feeling she'd never experienced before. She could never have imagined what it would be like. Even being pregnant wasn't preparation for this. She had loved the baby growing inside of her, yet this was different. This was the kind of love that was stronger than anything else. It was an all consuming love. She'd do anything for this little girl. She'd give her anything just to make her happy. She wanted to give her daughter the entire world. And she would. Until the end of time this little girl would be the most important person in her life.
This beautiful little girl that would break both of her parents' hearts one day, yet all either of them knew right then as they watched her sleep was that they'd love her anyways, no matter what happened in the future.
"Lorelai Victoria Gilmore," Richard smiled. "That's quite a big name for such a little girl."
Emily laughed through her tears. "I think she'll live up to it."
"She's perfect, isn't she?" he mused.
Emily nodded. "The most perfect thing I've ever seen. I can't believe that we did this, Richard."
"Thank you," he said, putting his arm around his wife as they watched their little girl sleep.
"For what?" she asked, touching the baby's face with her finger.
Richard smiled at his sleeping daughter, wondering what she could be dreaming about. She looked so content and happy. It was quite a change from the way things had been. He hadn't seen her this at ease and peaceful for many days now. Yet everything had changed two days ago. That was when she had hugged him. Or when they had hugged each other. It was the first significant physical contact that they'd had in many years. It was honestly something he had never expected to happen again. Their relationship was just not that type. Even as a little girl Lorelai had favored her mother. He had been at work and making a living. It was natural that Lorelai would be closer to her mother. It was normal that she would be more attached to Emily.
"Mommy…" Lorelai whispered, poking her mother's shoulder. When Emily didn't seem to be waking up, Lorelai reached out her little hand, pushing against her mother's shoulder. That woke her up. "Are you awake?" she asked as Emily wearily opened her eyes.
It took Emily a moment to figure out that it was still the middle of the night and that her daughter was standing next to her bed. "Lorelai," she mumbled, "is everything all right?"
Lorelai nodded.
"Then why are you out of bed?" Emily kept her voice a whisper, not wanting to wake Richard.
"It's loud outside," the little girl whispered, pointing to the window.
"That's because it's winter time and we're having a snow storm." She pushed the hair from her own face, trying to blink the sleep from her eyes.
Lorelai nodded. "It's loud."
"Are you scared?" Emily asked, reaching out to touch her little girl's arm.
Lorelai shook her head. "I like snow." Her eyes seemed to light up the moment she mentioned the snow. "Can we go play in the snow?"
"It is wet and cold outside. We cannot go play in the snow. Besides, it's late and you should be in bed."
"But it's loud outside," Lorelai stated again. Emily tucked a strand of hair behind her daughter's ear. "I can hear the snow."
"You have to go back to bed, Lorelai," she soothed.
"But I don't wanna!" She crossed her arms, raising her voice. Emily looked over at Richard who was still asleep.
"Lorelai Victoria…" The little girl's face turned to a frown as her mother used her full name. She only did that when she was mad.
"Fine," she pouted, reaching down to pick up the pillow she had brought with her. Emily watched as her little girl turned and left the room. She looked so adorable in her angry state. It made her smile. Her pajamas were pink and had little flowers on them. It was quite a look paired with her disheveled hair.
Emily tried to close her eyes and go back to sleep but something told her that her daughter had not gone back to bed. She tried to get up without waking her husband. He stirred a bit, asking where she was going.
"Go back to sleep, Richard," she whispered, bending down to kiss his cheek. Emily put her hand on his shoulder and he rolled back over, asleep again within seconds.
As she made her way down the hall Emily saw that Lorelai's bedroom was still dark. Poking her head in the room she didn't expect to see her daughter. Yet she was there, in bed, the covers pulled all the way over her body. Emily could only tell that her daughter was underneath the lump in the bed because her little hands stuck out, holding a pillow over her head.
"Lorelai …."
"What?" the little girl mumbled, not moving, her voice stifled by the pillow over her head.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked, pulling the pillow away.
Lorelai flattened her body, lying down again. "It's loud," she explained once again.
Emily sat down on the bed, putting her legs under the covers. "What if I stay in here with you tonight?" she suggested.
"It would still be loud," Lorelai informed her.
"I don't have to stay …"
"You can stay," she smiled. Lorelai turned over, moving to sit next to her mother. "Will you tell me a story?" she asked, a smile on her face as she moved to snuggle next to her mother.
Emily looked down at her daughter leaning against her. "It's past midnight."
"Does that mean no?" She looked a bit deflated and Emily couldn't bear to disappoint her.
"What kind of story do you want to hear?" She was not good in this area. This was Richard's area. He was the storyteller.
"Snow!" Lorelai smiled.
"You want me to tell you about the snow?"
Lorelai shook her head. "Not the snow," she laughed. "Did you have snow when you were a little girl like me?"
"Lots of it," she smiled. "It snowed very often where I lived."
"Did you like it?" Lorelai asked, moving closer to her mother. "Did you play outside and get dirty?"
"Sometimes my sister and I played outside, but I never got dirty."
"Didn't Grandma let you go outside and get dirty?"
"No, she didn't." Her mother had never let them actually play outside in the snow. They had been allowed to go outside and maybe build some sort of snow creation when they were young children. Yet they had never been allowed to actually play in the snow or to do anything that would require getting their clothes dirty.
"Why don't you like Grandma?" Lorelai asked. "Is it because she wouldn't let you play in the snow? Because I wouldn't like Grandma either if I couldn't play outside in the snow."
Emily looked down at her daughter, surprised by her question. "Why do you think I don't like Grandma?" She had barley ever even spoken to Lorelai about her mother or her own childhood.
The little girl shrugged. "We never visit her. Daddy says you don't want to go see her."
Emily put her arm around her daughter, making a note to remind her husband to watch what he says around their child. "Maybe we could go visit Grandma sometime this spring. Would you like that, Lorelai?"
"Does she have snow where she lives?" Lorelai asked.
Emily smiled at her daughter's persistent interest in snow. "Yes, she does. It snows a lot there. Maybe we will go see her before the snow melts. How does that sound?"
"Would she let us play in it?" Lorelai asked wearily. She didn't want to go if she wouldn't be allowed to play in the snow.
Emily laughed. If anything her daughter was persistent. Looking out the window across from Lorelai's bed she sighed. The storm had died down. Only a few snowflakes could be seen floating around outside the window. The wind wasn't blowing anymore either. This was against her better judgment, but she couldn't resist the little girl. "Go put your clothes on," Emily told her.
Lorelai's face broke out into a smile. "We can go outside?" she asked.
"Yes," Emily agreed.
"Even though it is wet outside?"
"Yes."
"And dark and late and cold?"
"Yes. Yes. And yes," Emily laughed. "No go before I change my mind. Go put your clothes."
Lorelai nearly threw herself out of bed.
"And you cannot lie down in the snow and get your hair wet either."
"Ok!" she called from inside her closet.
Emily got out of the bed. It was a challenge to get into her closet and not wake Richard. Yet she did it and as she closed the door to their bedroom behind her she found Lorelai waiting in the hallway, fully dressed. She looked so happy that it warmed Emily's heart to see her.
Grabbing her mother's arm, Lorelai led her downstairs.
"What is so funny?" Richard asked. It had been totally silent in the room and now his daughter's laughter was filling the room. He hadn't even realized that she was awake. He had been lost in his own thoughts.
Lorelai tried to stop laughing. "I just got this image in my head of throwing a snowball at mom in the backyard. I must have been like six years old. I thought she was going to be mad but then she started chasing me. I had forgotten all about that night."
Richard smiled. He was glad that his daughter's attitude was changing. Their lives together had not been entirely a nightmare. It hadn't really been that bad until she became a teenager. That was when it started going downhill. But before that they had been quite a happy family. Emily never spoke about that time, not wanting to relive the memories. The pain of Lorelai's actions had tainted everything for her. It had made even the good memories difficult to think about. And Lorelai seemed to have no memory of anything good ever happening. It was as if she had forgotten all together that they had once been a happy family. Yet Richard remembered it. He remembered it all. He remembered the good and the bad times.
"I can't believe she actually let me go outside in the middle of the night to play in the snow," Lorelai laughed. "We were soaking wet, too."
"Your mother can be very surprising at times." Richard smiled. There were many times in their marriage when his wife had surprised him with her spontaneous and playful behavior.
"You know what I thought of the other day?"
Richard shook his head, waiting for his daughter to continue.
"That time Gran visited and you couldn't find Mom and I for hours." Lorelai giggled, bringing her hand to her mouth. "And the whole time we were in the basement playing board games." She laughed even harder at the look on her father's face. "And you were so mad when you found us. The look on you face was priceless when you came downstairs and found us in the basement."
Even Richard couldn't stifle a laugh, now many years later. He had been quite upset that Emily did that. It was unacceptable to act that way to his mother, he had informed her. Yet Emily didn't seem to care. They had spent nearly an hour yelling at each other that evening. She was adamant and refused to call his mother and apologize. And she never did. In fact, he was the one who slept on the couch in their room that night. She had hidden herself and their child from his mother and somehow he had been the one to sleep on the couch. That was the charm of his wife. He could never stay mad at her for very long.
"I wish I could have seen Gran's face," Lorelai laughed. She shook her head. "I bet it was great. She didn't always have the nicest things to say about Mom." She laughed again before her mood turned somber. "I never understood it. Why was she always so hard on Mom?"
Richard sighed. "I don't think there really was a reason other than that I was her only son. When your mother came along there was suddenly another woman in my life. Your grandmother didn't like that there was someone more important in my life than her. I think it was jealousy more than anything else. She didn't have a reason to dislike your mother."
"She liked Pennilyn, though."
Richard huffed. "Pennilyn was a mouse." It was kind of funny, but his wife's description of her really was quite fitting. "Your grandmother could get that girl to do anything she wanted. Your mother, on the other hand, never once let Trix talk her into anything she didn't want to do. She always managed to stand up to her one way or another and I think that upset Trix, that she couldn't get what she wanted out of Emily."
"Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you hadn't met Mom? Or if you'd stayed with Pennilyn?" Lorelai didn't really know why she had asked that question. Or how she expected her father to honestly answer it. It had just seemed like such a natural thing to ask.
Richard shook his head. "The American Dream, I suppose. Pennilyn wanted a lot of kids." He leaned back in his chair. "Our life together was the perfect allusion. On the outside we were a beautiful couple. She was a very attractive woman. Yet the inside was all a lie. She met Stephen and I met your mother and we both saw what we were missing out on. It all seems so much simpler now than it did back then. I don't think either of us would have been happy had we stayed together. Maybe we would have been content with our lives, but not truly happy."
"How did you know that Mom was the one? I mean … how did you really know?"
Richard looked at his daughter. She wasn't actually talking about him and her mother anymore. She was talking about Luke. "Lorelai," he started, "I think we, as human beings, are blessed by our ability to have love in our lives. We have many different kinds of love. There's the love we feel for our parents, our siblings, our friends, our children … But there is another kind of love and it's very different from the familial type of love. You've dated a lot of men in your life."
Lorelai looked at him with a frown, uncertain of where he was going with this.
"Yet you've really only had two great loves. The first … you've always wanted it to work out between the two of you, but it never has. It has never been the right time or the right place. And then the second time that you felt that kind of love for someone else it didn't work out either."
"So, what, that proves I'm just unlucky in love?" She didn't like where this conversation seemed to be going.
"No, not at all. Love doesn't just exist out there somewhere separate from our beings. Happiness doesn't come find us. It is up to us to find it for ourselves. We have to make our own happiness, Lorelai. We have to put the effort forth to create a life that will satisfy us."
Lorelai sighed heavily, weighing her father's words.
"If you want to be with this man, Lorelai, then stop wasting your time. Maybe it is too late. Perhaps he is no longer in love with you. I don't know what your future holds. And neither do you. Just don't waste your chance to be happy. Both you and Chris waited too late. You lost your chance. Don't make the same mistake twice, Lorelai."
Lorelai blinked, looking at her father. "You are talking about, Luke, right?" she asked. "The guy you and Mom hate… you're actually telling me to go after Luke?"
Richard sighed. "We don't hate Luke." He shook his head. She really did only hear what she wanted to hear sometimes. "The day you were born I had big plans for you, Lorelai. Yet what I didn't realize is that you'd have a mind and a personality all your own. You wouldn't want anything to do with my plans." He looked directly at his daughter. "If this man makes you happy … well, your mother and I will just have to accept that. He loves you and he loves Rory. And I suppose that is all I've ever wanted for you and Rory, to find someone that will love you both."
"It's too late, Dad. Luke and I are over."
"Your mother once said the exact same thing to me, Lorelai. She told me that it was over and that she would never trust me again. And I was about to give up. I'd spent weeks trying to get her to take me back and yet she wouldn't give in. I didn't think there was anything else that I could do to convince her that I wouldn't break her heart again."
"So what changed?" Lorelai asked.
"Melinda," he smiled.
"Mom's best friend?"
Richard nodded. "She showed up at my office one day. She gave me a key to their apartment and told me to be there that evening when she and Emily came home. She stood in the doorway, refusing to let your mother leave until she would agree to at least talk to me. Your mother had no choice but to speak to me and to give me a chance to explain myself."
"It was that simple?" Lorelai asked, not quite believing him.
"Heavens no," Richard chuckled. "But it was a start. And if I had given up on your mother, then I would have missed out on my entire life." He leaned forward. "In spite of all the bad times we've had in this family, I still would not change a single thing about the life that I've led with your mother." He stood up, lingering in the doorway for a moment. "Don't waste your chance at happiness, Lorelai. Don't be a martyr. Let yourself be happy."
Lorelai watched her father exit the room, his words echoing in her mind.
Author's Note:
I hope that the chapter was decent. I didn't enter the world until the late 1970s so I don't know much about medical technology back in the 1960s. I did some research and hopefully the birth segment was as realistic as possible. It shouldn't be as long between the chapters now that I am in Atlanta and I'd imagine the story will be complete before I leave for New Orleans in a few months.