Chapter Eleven: My Babies Baby

Lorelai flew through the halls of the hospital after yelling at a receptionist to tell her where she could find her granddaughter, she wasn't aware of the people she knocked into, so Luke was following behind her apologising to anyone she ran past. Suddenly without warning Lorelai stopped in her tracks, almost causing Luke to collide with her, but he managed to stop himself in time, looking at his wife with a confused gaze.

'What is it?' Luke asked, resting his hand on her arm gently, tears were shining in her eyes as she bit down on her lower lip worriedly.

'I don't know how to do this? My babies baby is sick and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, this is all still pretty new to me. Rory's going to be a wreck and I'm not sure I'll be able to stay strong for her, if I see Anna so ill and my little girl falling apart then I'm going to fall apart.' Lorelai said.

'No you won't.' Luke shook his head. 'You're the strongest person I know especially when it comes to Rory, when she needs you, that's it you're there.'

'You're sure?'

'Yeah, now come on I think this is the room.' Luke said gently guiding her along the corridor till they reached the right door, looking in through the window they saw Rory sat on a chair looking over the cot that held her daughter, Jess sat beside her holding her hand.

'They look like parents.' Lorelai commented lightly before opening the door quietly.

'Mommy!' Rory exclaimed, tears falling down her face as she stood and wrapped her arms around her mother.

'Shh, it's ok I'm here.' Lorelai soothed, holding her daughter closely.

'She's really ill, it's serious mum and I don't know what to do, I looked this up on my phone, she could die from this, or have brain damage or hearing problems or…' Rory broke down against Lorelai's shoulder.

'You looked up statistics?' Lorelai shook her head, it was just the type of thing she should have expected from her daughter.

'I took her phone away.' Jess said looking away from Anna for the first time since Luke and Lorelai had arrived.

'Good idea.' Lorelai smiled at him, then looked back at Rory. 'She's strong Rory, she's a Gilmore after all.'

'Yeah I know.' Rory sighed heavily. 'I need to stop thinking the worst, it's just that if I lose her.'

'You won't.' Lorelai said firmly. 'She's going to be fine, everything is going to be fine, what you need is some coffee.'

'I don't want to leave her.' Rory shook her head.

'Me and Jess can go.' Luke offered looking pointedly at Jess who looked back at Luke, reluctantly standing, he put his finger into Anna's hand leaning down and kissing her head.

'Hang in there.' He whispered before straitening up and going over to Rory, holding her arm lightly. 'I won't be long.'

'Ok.' Rory replied as Luke and Jess left the room together.

'How are you holding up?' Luke asked.

'I'm fine, I'm just trying to be there for Rory you know.' Jess replied tiredly, walking down the magnolia painted halls, following the blue stripe on the wall with his eyes.

'Tell me something, are you still in love with her?' Luke asked, Jess stopped in his tracks.

'That was a million years ago.' Jess replied. 'We're friends.'

'That wasn't exactly an answer.' Luke said raising his eyebrows.

'Well I'm not exactly in the mood.' Jess snapped back. 'Sorry, it's just this is hard, I'm worried about Anna.'

'I know, you know you're a really good friend to Rory, she really needs one right now, and I don't just mean now Anna's sick, I mean since that guy left her.' Luke replied not able to bring himself to say his name.

'I know and I'm there for her, I'm not going anywhere.' Jess replied.

'Yet, you're not going anywhere yet, but you will be.'

'Eventually yes I will but that won't effect our friendship, we'll still be friends.' Jess answered him, moving on towards the cafeteria.

'I'm just saying, when you leave it'll be easier on her if you're just friends.' Luke replied.

'And that's all we are.' Jess replied. 'We have history but that doesn't mean it's going to repeat itself, things are different we're not in high school anymore, she has a kid.'

'Yeah she does so things have to be different now, I don't want to see her get hurt.' Luke replied.

'I'm not going to hurt her.' Jess replied. 'But right now I'm just concerned about Rory's daughter.'

'Yeah Rory's daughter, she's not your daughter.'

'I know that! You think I don't know that?' Jess shouted.

'I think you know that, I'm just not sure how happy you are about it.' Luke replied, Jess didn't answer just walked off and bought the coffee.

(***)

Two days passed in the neonatal intensive care unit before they saw any improvement in Anna, but on the second day there was improvement, the antibiotics were working and Rory started to hope for the best. She stayed there every day and night, the hospital had a rule that only two people could stay over night and so reluctantly Jess went home, and let Lorelai stay with Rory. Though Rory would phone him several times a day to give him updates on her condition, or just to talk to him, and he'd visit usually once a day.

After a week of Anna being hospitalized the Doctor came in to talk to her, a smile on his face.

'Miss Gilmore, we've run more tests and I can tell you that your daughter has made a full recovery, she responded to the medication well and she's going to be fine, we caught it early enough, thanks to you and her father bringing her in as soon as you did.' The doctor said smiling at Rory.

'Really? She's going to be ok?' Rory asks, holding onto her mothers arm, not really believing that it was true,

'Yes, she's s strong one.' The doctor laughed, looking over at the baby who was now awake and looking much better.

'When can I take her home?' Rory asks.

'Today, just as soon as we've finished her paperwork.' The doctor replied. Rory smiled brightly going over to the cot and picking Anna up.

'Here that sweetheart, we're going home.' Rory smiled.

'Now I'll go check up on that paperwork, I'm sure you want to call Anna's father and tell him the good news.' The doctor said going toward the door.

'Yeah.' Rory looked at the floor blushing slightly under her mothers gaze, once the doctor had left Lorelai turned to Rory.

'Her father?'

'Uh-huh.' Rory said putting Anna down and busying herself packing up all of Anna's things that had been brought in.

'Rory?'

'What?'

'I'm guessing that the doctor wasn't talking about Martin considering you haven't spoken to him since he left.' Lorelai said crossing her arms over her chest.

'He was talking about Jess.' Rory looked away from her mothers gaze though she could feel it on her.

'What are you doing Rory?'

'I'm getting Anna ready to leave.' Rory feigned innocence.

'Rory! You know what I'm talking about, Jess is not Anna's father.' Lorelai said sternly.

'I know that, but it was early in the morning when we arrived and he was there with me and we were both panicked and they wouldn't have let him in the room if he wasn't family, so we just…I don't know we just said it, it doesn't mean anything.' Rory replied.

'Whatever you say.'

'Would it be so bad?' Rory snapped. 'I'm not saying that me and Jess are going to get together and raise Anna because we're not, we're friends but if we were then what would be the big deal, he'd make an excellent father.'

'That might be true but that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea, he is not the right guy for you and I know that it may be hard to see at the moment but he's not.' Lorelai said loudly.

'Well it's not an issue because we're friends.' Rory replied throwing things into a bag. Lorelai stood and watched her daughter, the thought going round and round in her head that Rory was getting in too deep with Jess and there was something that she really didn't like about that.

An hour later Rory was putting Anna into her car seat, Jess had arrived soon after Rory called to say they were releasing Anna from the hospital and was now driving them home. The relief he'd felt when he'd received the phone call was stronger than anything he'd ever felt before, it was so strong that he'd almost cried, managing to keep it together he'd told Luke the news and they'd both driven to the hospital to pick them up.

The ride home had very little conversation, the atmosphere being slightly awkward, with Luke and Lorelai watching Jess and Rory from the front of the car, but Rory refused to let it effect her because she was bringing her daughter home.

A/N- Hope you like, I love hearing your feedback so please review.