Better in cones

Chapter Fourteen

Both girls stood frozen on the spot, Richard was lying on the floor looking pale, Emily was panicked. Lorelai was shocked but was first to recover.

'Mum what happened?' Lorelai asked dropping to her knees beside her father and checking his pulse. Emily couldn't answer just paced the room yelling at the maid, asking why the ambulance hadn't arrived yet. 'Mum!' Lorelai yelled again.

'I don't know, he came out of his office and he was complaining about the heat, so I went to turn it down and I came back and he was on the floor.' Emily said her face creased with worry.

'Grandma you should come and sit down.' Rory said shaking slightly, she'd always seen her Grandfather as a strong man, and now he was laying so still on the floor. There was another knock at the door and Rory ran to answer it, it was the ambulance.

'Hello, we were called out to this address.' They said as soon as Rory pulled the door open, she ushered them through.

'It's my grandfather, he collapsed.' Rory said trying to hold things together. Lorelai moved aside so they could get to him, everything moved so fast and before they knew it they were at the hospital. Waiting in the waiting room for news. The doctor came out to speak to them looking very grave, all three of them sat up to pay attention to him.

'Mrs Gilmore, your husband has suffered from a heart attack. I'm afraid it was quite serious, we had to take him into surgery, he's stable now but he's not out of the woods. I can take you too see him now, but he's very weak so I want to keep it to just one at a time for the moment.' The doctor explained. 'So if you'll follow me Mrs Gilmore.'

Emily stood up and started following the doctor. Leaving the two younger Gilmore's on their own in the waiting room.

'Hey hun what's that look for?' Lorelai asked her daughter who was staring off into space, an odd look on her face.

'I was so happy this evening on the drive over here, and after talking to Jess and finally getting close to things being...well perfect and now I feel so terrible about feeling happy about Jess, because this has happened and my Grandfather is lying in the hospital after having a heart attack, and I keep thinking about Jess. I feel so guilty, I should be focussing on...' Lorelai stopped her here because Rory was getting really upset, tears trickling down her face.

'Oh babes, you deserve to feel happy about Jess, and yeah this is terrible but you can feel bad about that and good about Jess at the same time. You don't have to feel guilty.' Lorelai said. 'Why don't you go call Jess, let him know what's going on.'

'I can't.' Rory shook her head, her voice filled with sadness. 'I don't want to drag Jess into this, it isn't fair if we start our relationship when I can't be all in because I'm thinking about grandpa and worrying about him.'

Lorelai was about to say something but knew that Rory was serious about this, so instead she went to the vending machines and stocked up on junk food, lying it out on the table before them.

An hour later Emily returned, the food was mostly untouched on the table, and Rory was resting her head on her mum's lap.

'How's dad?' Lorelai asked the minute she saw Emily.

'He looks so small, but the doctors say he's going to be fine, they've run more tests and he's going to have to take it easy, eat healthier and do more exercise, but he'll be ok.' Emily breathed out a sigh of relief and sat in the chair next to Rory. Who was now sat upright paying full attention to her grandmother.

'Well that's good, that he's going to be ok.' Lorelai breathed out, looking over at Rory who seemed a little less worried now. Rory smiled back at her mother and they both went down to see Richard, going into the room one at a time as per the doctors instructions. Both girls stayed overnight, wanting to make sure he was ok, and be there for moral support for Emily.

The next morning it was the sound of her phone that woke Rory, she was lying across a couple of chairs in the waiting room, her head on her mothers lap, she move and felt the aches of sleeping in a bad position. Groggily she picked up her phone, from her bag on the floor, and walked away from the still sleeping Lorelai, who had her head against the wall, and Emily who was sleeping in an arm chair to one side. The display flashed up Jess, and she sighed a little, she'd wanted the next time she spoke to him, to be her telling him that they could be together, but now it just didn't feel right. Still she answered, walking a little further away just in case either of the older Gilmore's woke up.

'Hey, I was starting to wonder where you were, you didn't make your usual trip to Luke's after your dinner last night, and you didn't come in for breakfast.' Jess said, relief in his voice that he'd got hold of her. Rory checked her watch, had she slept through breakfast? It was coming up for eleven, but then she had been awake until four in the morning.

'Hey Jess, things didn't go according to plan, urm we got to my Grandparents house and my Grandfather was unconscious, he had a heart attack, so we came to the hospital.' Rory said a little shakily, from exhaustion, lack of food and the strange quickening of her heart as she heard is voice.

'Jeez. I'm sorry Rory, is he ok?' Jess asked, not really knowing what else to say, he hadn't expected that answer as to why she hadn't been around.

'Yeah, they performed surgery and they said he's stable and he'll be fine, so it's just waiting to see when he can come home, but we were talking last night and I think me and mum are going to come home tonight, there isn't much we can do here.' Rory said leaning against the wall, it felt so good to talk to Jess about this, like a weight was being lifted.

'That's good, so how are you? Have you eaten?' Jess asked, Rory smiled at his concern and wondered why it had taken her so long to realise that they should be together, to admit to herself that it might just work, that Jess would always understand what she needed, and be there for her.

'I'm fine, tired and a little shocked still but I'll be fine, and no I haven't eaten yet, but I can see my mum and Grandma have just woken up so I should probably go and see if they want to get something.' Rory said reluctant to end the call but could see her mum looking for her, since from where she was standing she could see them, but they couldn't see her.

'Ok, just make sure you eat and call me if you need anything.' Jess said before they ended the call.

'Oh there you are hun, we were wondering where you'd gone.' Lorelai said hugging her daughter.

'I just had a call to take.' Rory said holding up the phone as proof, she felt like she had no energy, probably because of the lack of food, she hadn't eaten anything since a Twinkie she'd had on the car ride to her grandparents the night before, and Gilmore girls didn't do well without food.

'Who was it?' Lorelai asked curiously, Rory blushed a little as she replied.

'Jess was just checking I was ok, because we didn't make it there last night or this morning.' Rory replied, tucking her phone back in her bag.

'Jess? Isn't he that boy that you said was a bad influence on Rory?' Emily asked. Lorelai reluctantly nodded her head.

'I thought you were going to keep him away from her.' Emily shot back, blaming Lorelai as usual.

'I don't control who Rory is friends with, besides I think I may have been a little harsh in judging him, he's not as bad as I first thought.' Lorelai replied, turning to Rory. 'You hungry?'

'Starved, and I promised Jess I would eat.' Rory said hooking her bag over her shoulder.

'Then eat we shall, we'll go see dad then head back home because I didn't call the inn to tell them I wouldn't be in so Michel has probably burnt the place to the ground by now.' Lorelai laughed.

*

Rory walked along the bridge with Jess, a week after her grandfather's heart attack, he was now back at home and doing well. As they reached the centre of the bridge Rory complained about going back to school in two days.

'Rory Gilmore complaining about school, I never though I would see the day.' Jess said mock shocked.

'It's not going back so much, but I'll miss hanging out with you everyday, I got used to going on trips and stuff and this last week hasn't been great because I've been so preoccupied visiting my grandpa and everything, so I feel like we've missed out.' Rory said sadly. He smiled at her and put an arm round her shoulder, it had been a week since they'd spoken in his apartment, and she'd agreed to take the week to decide if she was ready to be an item, but Jess didn't feel right bringing it up now, after everything she'd had going on she probably didn't have the time to think about things to do with their relationship. Little did he know that she'd been thinking about little else, ever since she found out that her grandpa would be ok, she had been thinking about it a lot and wondering how and when would be the best time to tell him.

They both stood in the middle of the bridge, the sunshine beating down on them, and Rory felt happy, happier than she'd been in a long time, and Jess was the reason for that, so taking a deep breath she looked into his eyes.

'Jess...'

A/N-Review and tell me what you think. Do you hate me for leaving it there?