Hello my loyal readers! so this was supposed to be the last chapter, but it was getting to long so there's going to be either another full chapter or an epilogue coming soon. So read, review, and stick around for more!

I would just like to say thanks to all my reviewers for helping me to break 200 reviews and 100 alerts! You guys are the reason I write fan fiction!

Disclaimer: don't own it, never will. Just the plot is mine...

(So basically Lorelai just fainted in the inn... just in case your memories are a little rusty)

Chapter 19

As Memories and Futures Hang in the Balance

The florescent lights contrasted Rory's blue sneakers against the sharp white floor of the hospital. Doctors and nurses rushed all around as their names were paged over the loudspeaker system. The chemical, disinfectant smell filled the waiting room. Rory gripped the armrests of the hard plastic chair. After the ambulance had arrived, they had loaded Lorelai, still unconscious, onto a stretcher. Rory climbed into the ambulance behind them, watching as they bent over her mom. Above their heads, the sirens and lights were warning all the cars to make room. It took seven long, interminable minutes to arrive at the hospital. She had run alongside the medics as they raced the stretcher through the halls, yelling phrases that were unintelligible to her ears. Then they had pushed through a door that she was not allowed through, and she was left with nothing to do but wait. Jess, Luke, and her dad were on their way, she knew and she waited anxiously for them to arrive. The feeling of not knowing, of complete helplessness, cut into her. She fidgeted in her seat, undid her ponytail and then put it up again. She just needed to be doing something besides sitting and waiting, with nothing to do except imagine the worst possible outcomes. She couldn't lose her mother. Not now, not after she had come so close to getting her back. Loosing her mother a second time would tear her apart, so far beyond repair, and her life would never be the same again.

There was a slight commotion as Luke, and Jesse entered. As soon as they spotted Rory they made their way straight towards her. She stood as they drew nearer.

"Hey, what's going on?" Luke asked urgently.

"I don't know!" Rory cried. "They took her behind the doors and the doctor hasn't come out yet!" She stopped, unable to continue.

"Shh," Luke soothed her. He pulled her into a soft embrace. "It's going to be all right," he promised. "Everything's going to be just fine." Rory closed her eyes, feeling safe in his arms again, they same way she had felt when she lived with him.

Chris ran up the hospital's stairs, having no patience to wait for the elevators. When he got to the right floor, he ran down the hallway to the waiting room. He paused, glancing about the crowded room for Rory. He couldn't find her at first. Then, finally, he spotted her in Luke's arms. He hesitated. He couldn't help the twisted feeling he got in his stomach every time he felt Luke was stealing the role of "father" from him. Slowly, he made his way over to them.

"Hey," he said softly. "What's going on with Lorelai?" Rory shook her head.

"I don't know yet," she said helplessly.

"Rory," Jess urged, tapping her shoulder. He pointed to a doctor making his way towards them.

"Um, Mr. Gilmore?" he asked Luke. Luke shook his head. "I'm her friend," he corrected. "This is her daughter." He pointed to Rory. The doctor focused on Rory. He was a handsome doctor in his mid forty's, with kind but sharp eyes.

"I'm Dr. Camden Jeth. Were you with your mother when she collapsed?" he asked. Rory nodded, wrapping her arms around herself.

"What happened? Is she going to be okay?" she asked, her voice hoarse against her dry throat.

"We found some damage from the accident that we had not seen before. There was some pressure, right above the memory part of her brain, and it seems to have caused some internal bleeding. You're mother is in surgery right now."

"What is the surgery for?" Christopher asked.

"They're trying to relieve the pressure and stop the bleeding," answered Doctor Jeth. "It may take a little while longer, but I will be out as soon as I know anything more."

"Thank you," Rory said as he turned to go. As soon as the hospital doors swung closed behind him, Rory felt a wave of exhaustion sweep through her. It was as if something had been holding her together this whole time, keeping her moving, and now she was left on her own. She felt her knees give way, and collapsed hard onto the plastic chair beneath her.

"Rory, are you okay?" Luke asked, noticing her pale complexion. Rory nodded, unable to speak. "You need a drink," he decided, and he hurried off. Chris's phone started to ring, piercing the somber silence of the emergency room. He looked down at the caller ID and flipped open his cell phone.

"Hello," he greeted, sauntering away slowly. Jess and Rory were left in the silence. Jess took a seat in the chair next to her. The tension from their earlier fight hung in the air between them.

"Rory, I'm sorry." Jess began. "I…"

"I know," Rory told him. He took her hand and she laid her head on his shoulder. They sat there for a while, Jess stroking her back, Rory savoring the comfort of the fleeting moment.

"Ms. Gilmore?"

Rory had been drifting in and out of consciousness on Jess's shoulder. As soon as Dr. Jeth spoke her name however, she whipped her head up.

"Yes?" she asked, standing up. She attempted to smooth out her matted hair. She looked at the clock. Two and a half endless hours had passed since they began the surgery. "What's going on?" Rory pressed the doctor.

"We finished the surgery," he informed her, taking a breath. "We were able to relieve the pressure, but we're not sure how much damage, if any, was done, if any. We won't be able to assess that until she wakes up."

Luke piped in. "What kind of damage could we be looking at?" he asked wearily. Dr. Jeth hesitated.

"It's hard to tell. We're dealing mostly with the memory center, so it could be anything from amnesia of the past few days, or complete loss of short-term memory." Rory leaned back into Luke for support. If her mother lost her memory again…. She didn't know if they would be able to recover from that.

"It'll be okay," her murmured once again.

"In a little while we'll let you in to see her. It's hard to tell when exactly she'll wake up."

"Thank you," Rory said meekly. Dr. Jeth left, and the four of them stood silently, at a loss for worlds. Rory swayed unsteadily, and Jess caught her in his arms. He pulled her towards him, and she buried her face in his coat. Jess wrapped his arms around her, and Rory allowed herself to feel safe in the tightness of his embrace, as if everything was okay as long as she was there.

Chris and Luke stood awkwardly, not quiet sure what to do with themselves. The two of them took seats. Chris leaned forward, gripping his head in between his hands. Luke sat back, bending his baseball cap in a nervous grip.

"She's going to be okay," Luke heard Chris murmur to himself. "She'll be okay." Hesitantly, he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She will be," Luke assured him. Chris moved away, as if Luke's hand had burned him.

"You don't know that!" he bit acidly. "You don't know anything!"

Luke blinked, taken aback. Chris continued.

"I'm not stupid Luke. No one is! Everyone knows how you feel about Lorelai. And you know what?" he spit. "Stop it already! It's pathetic! Stop trying to be part of our lives! We already have a family, and you're not in it!"

"I was more of a family to them then you ever were for a very long time!" Luke argued back, his face reddening.

"You son of a…"

"Dad, stop it!" Rory pushed herself between the two men, placing a hand on her Dad's chest to keep him back. "Come on, sit down." She pushed him into a chair and sat next to him.

"He needs to leave," Chris said, his breathing heavy with anger.

"What?" Rory asked, confused.

"I can't be in the same room as that man! He needs to leave now," he demanded.

"Don't be stupid Dad," Rory pleaded.

"Rory, if he doesn't leave, then I will," Christopher threatened. Rory looked at him, hurt and shock written across her face.

"Really? You would leave because of him? Dad, Luke has just as much of a right to be here as you do. Luke raised me for two years, and he's been there for me for a lot longer than that. Everyone who's here right now should be here, and no one is leaving."

Chris didn't respond, just sat back in his chair with a scowl on his face. Rory sat back also, but then she noticed Luke staring at her with an odd expression on his face, almost like pride.

"What?" Rory asked slyly. Luke shook his head softly.

"Nothing," he claimed. Rory would have pressed on, but just then a nurse in green scrubs came over to them.

"Are you Lorelai Gilmore's family?"

Rory nodded.

"You may go in to see her if you like," she offered.

"You guys go ahead," Jess told them. "We'll wait here." Luke nodded his consent, so Rory and Chris followed the nurse wordlessly down the hall. She led them through a door that had a sign that read "Recovery ICU." The smell of latex gloves and disinfectant got stronger as the moved down the hall. Finally the nurse stopped outside a room, checked something off on a clipboard she was holding, and they entered.

Lorelai lay on the bed; her eye's closed, in a position Rory had been used to seeing her until just a few months ago. A breathing tube ran from her nose to a machine next to her bed, and a heart monitor kept a steady beeping noise filling the silence. The nurse checked her vitals, and then left Rory, Chris and Lorelai alone in the room. Rory took a seat next to her mother's head. She smoothed out her hair and took her lifeless hand. Chris stood uncomfortably in the corner of the room, looking down at the motionless figure as if he was afraid of it.

"Dad, what's wrong?"

Chris shook his head.

"Nothing," he said, flashing his daughter a weak smile. But still he did not approach the bed. Rory did not push him any further. She turned back to the still figure of her mother. She looked so peaceful, blissfully unaware of the turmoil going on around her.

"Come back," she whispered. "We need you."

A day later, nothing had changed. Luke, Jess and Rory all sat around Lorelai. Rory's memory flashed back to when she was a little girl, and her mother read her the story of Sleeping Beauty. Her mother was just like that now, waiting for her handsome prince to kiss her so she would awake. But who was her handsome prince? Rory glanced at her father, in his sweater and designer Jeans, his hair cut short and neatly combed back. Then her gaze traveled to Luke, dressed in his predictable flannel shirt, messy hair hidden beneath his backward baseball cap. It was prince charming versus the beast, and Rory was no longer sure who she wanted to win.

Luke stared at the motionless figure on the bed. She looked so small, as though at any instant she would disappear beneath the hospital blankets. The secret of their last meeting and the passionate kiss made his heart speed up. The possibility of what could be, or what never should have been, chased around his mind in circles. He willed Lorelai to wake up, desperate for the confusion to clear.

Lorelai was floating. She floated through a kaleidoscope of color, her body light as air. Slowly, the different colors cleared and she was standing outside.

"Mom, look!" A little girl ran past her, dressed in a flowered dress. She threw her head back and laughed, her brown hair flying out behind her in the soft breeze. She skipped down the sidewalk, her small body bouncing up and down.

"Be careful!" Lorelai called, letting her go ahead as she strolled behind. She passed by Jackson, who was managing his vegetable stand.

"Hey Lorelai," he greeted her. "What are you doing in the neighborhood?"

Lorelai's faced glowed as she told him.

"I just bought a house!" she shared excitedly.

"Congratulations!" Jackson pulled her into a hug. "Welcome neighbor!" he added cheesely.

"Thank you!" Lorelai turned back to follow her daughter, and what she saw almost made her heart stop. The little girl was still skipping… right into the street.

"Rory!" she yelled. She felt fear rise up in her throat, constricting her chest, paralyzing her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a car rounding the corner. It would not see her until it was too late. She started running towards her daughter, knowing she couldn't make it in time. All of a sudden, an arm shot out, and pulled the little girl back, out of danger. The arms set her back onto the sidewalk just as Lorelai reached them. She bent down, hugging Rory, never wanting to let her go again.

She looked up at the man who saved her daughters life.

"Thank you," she gushed in gratitude. The man nodded, but she could not see his face. She felt a strange connection to the faceless man. As he towered over her, she strained to make out his features. But all she could see was a shimmering vagueness. He turned his face away, and all of a sudden his face was that of Chris. But then he turned back toward her and he looked like Luke. Lorelai stared, trying to decide who he was. Was he Luke? Was he Chris? Back and forth he turned his head, his face changing with every movement. Slowly, everything began to fade again, becoming a blurry pool of nothingness.

The first thing Lorelai was aware of was a steady beeping. Beep. Beep. Beep, keeping rhythm with her heart. Slowly she opened her eyes, the outline of other people in the room coming into focus. Four concerned faces gazed at her as she blinked, disoriented. She saw her daughter, by her side as she had always been. In front of her stood Luke and Chris three awkward feet apart. Leaning against the wall was Jess, but his eyes were not on Lorelai. They were on her daughter, watching for the slightest sign that she needed his support.

"Mom?" Rory prompted. Lorelai nodded, shifting slowly so that she was sitting up in the bed. She squeezed her eyes, trying to remember what happened. Something tugged in the back of her mind.

"Do you know where you are?" she prompted gently.

"In the hospital…" she told her slowly, the scene in the Inn coming back to her. "I… I was in the Inn… and then everything went black."

She recalled Rory's distressed expression, Luke's worry, and Chris's frantic appearance. But other things flooded her memory too. Things that hadn't been there before. She remembered lying in a similar position in the hospital, except that time she was cradling a baby in her arms…. She frantically threw things into the suitcase, picked up the small toddler, and placed the hastily scrawled note on the table. She headed towards the door, and hugging the child to her, disappeared into the night… She stared at the image in the mirror. With her freshly ironed apron, the maid uniform looked strange on the girl that had grown up in a large house in Hartford. She turned to the little girl that watched her from inside her PACK'N'PLAY. A laughed gurgled out of her throat, causing her young mother to smile…and a familiar scence, one she had just recalled in a dream. Her precious daughter skipping ahead, stepping into the street, and safe arms pulling her back. She smiled up at her daughter's savior. And this time she saw the face.

"I… I remember!" she said excitedly, grasping her daughter's hands. Rory looked distressed.

"I know, and it's a good sign that you remember what happened before you fell but…" Lorelai interrupted her.

"No! I remember!... Everything!" she insisted. Rory stared at her, too afraid to allow herself to understand.

"Everything?" she repeated quietly. Luke and Chris leaned for anxiously. Lorelai nodded, tears springing to her eyes.

"Everything. You, me…us." a wide smile broke across Rory's face, and she hugged her mother tightly.

"I love you," Rory whispered. Lorlelai squeezed her eyes tight, preventing the tears from escaping.

"I know," she said.

Okay, next step= REVIEW PLEASE! The more you review, the more encouraged and excited I am to put up the next chapter.

:] :] ;]