Charlie's 5

Lorelai shrugged Charlie a little higher up on her shoulder. Satisfied that Richard was okay, the 5 year old was finally beginning to drop off.

"Tired?" Lorelai asked her quietly as the Doctor prattled on to Emily.

"He's gonna be ok," Charlie muttered with a yawn. Lorelai smiled.

"He's gonna be ok," she agreed as they came back into the main waiting room. Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, Lorelai turned and glanced at the nurses station. Seeing that Luke had returned, she excused herself from Rory and Logan and headed over. The two fell into a conversation about the food Luke had brought over before she mentioned that Richard was going to be ok.

"What about her?" he asked when he saw Charlie, now asleep, on Lorelai's shoulder.

"She's relieved," was all Lorelai could say. "And heavy," she added with a smile.

"Do you want me to. . . uh. . . " he muttered, gesturing to Charlie.

"Do I want you to what?" she asked.

"Take her home with me? I mean, I'm sure you could do without lugging her around, or worrying about her." A sad smile fell over Lorelai's face.

"You really don't have to do that," she said. "Chris should be here any . . ." she trailed off and fell silent for a moment.
"He should be here any moment?" Luke prompted. He frowned a little as he watched her face.

"Honestly? I don't know where he is," she said with a bit of a sigh.

"Lorelai . . ." he started. He didn't really need to hear this and wished he hadn't even offered to look after the little girl for her. "He'll be here," he said, trying to sound as confident as he could. She gave a little bit of a snort before she shifted Charlie slightly again. "Give her to me," he said as he finally reached over and plucked the little girl from Lorelai's arms. He refrained from commenting on how big she'd gotten since he had last seen her. "Tell him. . . tell him your mother insisted," Luke said. Lorelai offered a small smile before a blur caught her eye.

"Christopher," Lorelai said some what excitedly when she saw him come around the corner. He greeted her coolly as he took in the picture of Luke with Charlie.

"Here," Luke said quickly, offering Charlie to Christopher. "Emily shoved her at me before I could say no. She was insisting I take her home and wouldn't listen to me when I tried to tell her I didn't have a seat for her anymore." Chris accepted Charlie from Luke but the pair continued to give each other dirty looks.

"Dad!" Rory said excitedly as she and Logan came back around the corner. Lorelai and Luke listened as Rory invited Chris back to see Richard and the pair watched them wander back. Lorelai frowned as Chris sent them one more dirty look before they went.

"I guess I'll just head out," he said after a moment. "Call me if you need anything," he said. Lorelai wrapped her arms around her waist and nodded. He offered one last waive before he turned and slowly left the hospital.

Emily frowned a little as she watched the scene between her daughter, Son-in-law and the Diner Owner unfold. She knew that Christopher and Lorelai were having trouble, she'd had a feeling about that since the fight they'd had while party planning. Eventually, when Christopher had headed off with Rory and Luke had left the building, she wandered over to Lorelai, offering a few words of advice.

"Oh well, blood is thicker than water," she finished as she looked down the hallway Christopher had walked down while Lorelai cast a longing glance at the bags Luke had dropped off.

Charlie's just about 5. Second part of the scene about Rory dropping out of Yale.

Charlie watched as Luke placed two of her favourite donuts on a plate and handed it to her. She took the plate and glanced down at the pastries before she turned and slowly headed towards the stairs. She started up them, but paused when she heard her mother start to talk. She left the plate on the stairs and crept back to the door way. She pulled the curtain aside a little and listened to Lorelai spill out the night's events to Luke. The little girl fought the want to run to her mother, she was supposed to be upstairs, not hearing this right now so she settled for gripping the curtain a little tighter and biting her lip. She couldn't help but smile a little when she heard Luke start in on his plan to kidnap Rory and convince her to go back to school. When she heard the couple get quiet, she slowly trudged up the stairs to the apartment, leaving the plate of donuts forgotten and alone on the stairs.
Lorelai reluctantly pulled herself out of Luke's arms. He cast a long, concerned glance over her, brushing a few stray tears away from her face as she finally pulled completely away from him and headed for the stairs. She paused as she saw the donuts on the stairs. She picked the plate up with a sigh and slowly slogged up the stairs. Charlie had listened in on the conversation. She began to mentally prepare herself for the onslaught of questions she was going to be met with.

"Charlie?" she asked as she came into the apartment. There was no answer, but she could hear the television on in the back ground. Lorelai left the plate on the table and wandered a little further into the apartment, finally finding the almost 4 year old huddled in the middle of the bed she and Luke shared. "Charlie?" she asked again as she came to the edge of the bed. "You gotta talk to me babe," she said as she seated herself on the edge of the bed. Lorelai studied the little girl as she remained silent, mulling over things.

"Rory's not coming home, is she?" she finally asked, still staring at the TV.

"Not right now," she said after a moment. "She and I. . . " Lorelai trailed off, trying to find the words. "We're not seeing eye to eye on a few things."

"Because Rory got arrested?" she asked, piecing together the events of the last week.

"That's part of it," Lorelai admitted as she began to coax Charlie into her arms.

"She promised to play with me this summer," Charlie said quietly, resisting Lorelai's attempts to comfort her. "She said we'd play and read and everything when ever she wasn't working."

"I know," she replied, not really sure what else to say. The pair fell into a silence that was only broken by the ramblings of cartoon characters from the TV. "Can't you just go and pick her up? Tell her hasta go back to school and make her go?" Charlie asked, finally looking up at her mother.

"I can't do that."

"But. . . " Charlie started, not believing that her mother didn't have the same power over Rory as she had over her.

"Rory is 20 years old Sweets, she's a grown up, she's old enough to be your mother." Charlie frowned a little at this. "When I was Rory's age, she was yours," Lorelai explained. "I can't make her do anything she doesn't want to. I can only tell her what she can't do in my house."

"Then tell her she can move home!" Charlie pleaded. "Tell her as long as she gets a job she can move home!" Lorelai sighed as she felt her heart break a little more. She knew this was going to be hard on her, she hadn't really imagined how hard this was going to be on Charlie.

"I can't," she said again, finally wrangling the little girl into her arms. "Rory has to decide to go back to school first. I don't care if she decides to start taking dance classes at Yale, as long as she's back at Yale."
"Rory can't dance, she'll fail if she takes dance classes," the little girl muttered. Lorelai couldn't help but smile a little.

"Well, maybe not dance classes then," Lorelai conceded. The pair fell into a long silence again. "Do you want to stay here, or go home tonight?" Lorelai finally asked. Charlie thought about this for a long moment before she finally said she wanted to stay at the apartment, the though of having to sleep in her room, knowing that Rory wouldn't be there was not something she wanted to do. "Ok," Lorelai said. "We'll make a list and send Luke to the house after close."

"Momma?" Charlie said quietly.

"Yeah baby?"

"I miss Rory already."

"Me too," Lorelai said softly. "Me too."