The group made their way down to the hospital cafeteria slowly and leisurely, trading casual small talk as they went. Lorelai gave Rory an update about the inn while Luke did his best to keep his eyes pointed at the floor to avoid seeing any of the horrors a hospital could hold. A couple times, Lorelai or Rory had to grab him and pull him out of the way of a wheelchair or a column, but they eventually made it to their destination unharmed. Finding a table off to the side of things, Lorelai gestured for Luke and Rory to make themselves comfortable.

"Sit sit, I'll go get an assortment," Lorelai said with a wicked grin.

"I just want tea and toast!" Luke called after her, but to no avail as she'd already scampered away towards the food counter.

"She knows you, she won't get you anything you don't want," Rory said with a comforting smile.

Luke leveled her with a look.

"Okay, well, she will, but she'll also get you what you want."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Luke said with a soft laugh. "So…" he started, looking down at the table, literally twiddling his thumbs. "How you holdin' up, kid?"

Rory herself glanced down at the table in front of her, scratching at an imaginary spot on the surface. "Worried about Jess. But I'm okay. Better now that you and Mom are here."

"Whatever you need. Just say the word."

"Thanks Luke," Rory said with a watery smile. "Are you sure you can be here? With the diner and everything?"

Luke held up a hand to stop her. "Caeser has it handled. He's done it before, he'll do it again. I'm right where I need to be. Got it?"

Rory nodded firmly. "Got it."

"I called Liz."

Rory's eyes widened as she realized she hadn't even considered calling Jess's mother.

"I didn't know if he'd want me to, just…"

"No, she should know. Um…" Rory cleared her throat. "What'd she say?"

"She said she hoped he would feel better soon, but they were out of town for some off-season faire event, so she'd check in when they got home."

Rory gave a short nod, her lips pressed together in a tight line, wishing she had a cup of coffee to sip on to keep her mouth busy instead of having to manually stop herself from saying anything. She would never, ever understand Liz's apathetic approach to being Jess's parent. At least they wouldn't have to deal with her drama on top of everything else.

Lorelai returned to the table laden with trays of subpar breakfast food that she sat down on their table and the table next to them before pulling the adjacent table closer to them.

"Lorelai, don't…" Luke groaned.

"Shh, there's like no one else in here, it's one table. Now, I got pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit salad for the health conscious, a couple breakfast burritos, sausage, and toast. Good?"

Rory nodded. "Good."

The trio divvied up the food, taking portions of any and all food they felt like. Rory tore up little bits of egg and pancake for Ellie but just picked at her own food. She tried to eat some of the breakfast burrito she'd taken but in the end she only managed to eat a piece of bacon and a little bit of toast. Luke eventually finished his tea and toast and excused himself to go make a call to check in with Caeser at the diner.

"You okay, honey?" Lorelai asked, voice laden with concern.

Rory nodded and smiled feebly. "Just not feeling too hot."

Lorelai placed her hand on Rory's. "Jess will be fine."

"I know. It's just been a really stressful twenty-four hours," she said with a watery laugh. "Seeing him with the tubes and wires and hearing him cough like that…" Rory shook her head. "Not something I want to relive any time soon."

"Well, he's in good hands. And seriously, ask me and Luke for help. Food or coffee or supplies from the apartment or babysitting – anything. Okay?"

Rory squeezed her mother's hand. "I will." She inhaled deeply. "I already feel better than I did before you guys got here. I barely slept at all last night," she said, trying to swallow a yawn.

"Yeah, the raccoon eyes kind of gave that away. Take care of yourself too, okay? You're no good to Jess or Ellie or the Briefing if you run yourself into the ground."

Rory's stomach sank. "Oh my God, I have to call work!"

"Go, go, I've got Ellie!"

Rory rushed from the table, hoping and praying her phone hadn't died since she last looked at it. She got out into the hall and checked it, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw the battery was still high enough to make a few calls. She pressed the speed dial for her office and the extension for her boss. After a quick explanation, George thankfully understood and approved some sick leave, despite Rory not the one being sick. After promising to check in periodically and hanging up with a sigh of relief, Rory dialed Alex's number, wincing when she answered sounding harried.

"Alex, it's Rory."

"Thank God, where's Jess?"

"Listen, you know how Ellie was sick last week…"

Alex barked out a laugh. "I knew it! I told him he'd get sick."

"Yeah, but—"

"So, is he all sniffly and pathetic?"

"Not quite…" Rory said quietly.

Rory heard Alex's laughter fade.

"Uh, Alex, he got admitted to the hospital last night. Double pneumonia."

"What?" Alex breathed.

"He's gonna be fine, he's just not gonna be in the office for a while."

"Oh my God. Can… can I come visit?"

Rory smiled. "Yeah, I think that'd be good. Just no work, got it?"

Alex laughed lightly. "Promise."

After giving Alex the details and arranging a time for her to visit, Rory thought of another couple of people she needed to call.

"'lo?" came the groggy voice over the phone.

"Hey, Matt," Rory laughed.

"Rory? That really you?" he asked, excitement lacing his voice. "How long has it been?"

"Too long. And unfortunately, I'm not calling just to chat…"

Rory heard sheets shuffling on Matt's side of the line.

"What's up?"

"Is Chris around?"

"Nah, he's otherwise occupied," Matt said, his suggestive smirk audible.

Rory snorted. "Okay, well, can you make sure you tell him? In fact, have him call me after you tell him, that way we can talk and work things out. I don't even know if there's anything to work out, I don't really know what's going on right now—"

"Hey, neither do I since you haven't told me."

"Right, right, sorry…"

Rory relayed the information about Jess's pneumonia and hospitalization to Matt, explaining that he's going to have to take some time off work.

"Jeez…" Matt breathed. "How'd he get so sick so fast?"

"The doctor said it's probably the history of smoking. It weakened his lungs, made him more susceptible to infection."

"Well, today's the day I stop smoking then," Matt chuckled weakly.

"When did you start smoking?" Rory scolded through a laugh.

"Hey, I hear it from Chris all the time, I don't need it from you, too!"

The two laughed together for a moment before sobering.

"So, Alex I think has a handle on most everything at the New York office, but…"

"Hey, don't stress, k? And tell the idiot in the hospital bed not to stress either. We'll work it out."

Rory smiled softly, immensely grateful for how understanding and patient her circle of friends were. "Thank you. Seriously. You have no idea how much it means."

"I only require more pictures of my niece."

"Promise," Rory laughed. "Are you gonna make it to her birthday party?"

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss it for the world. Chris and I are already booked at the Dragonfly."

"Matt! We would've made room for you guys for free somewhere!"

"Yeah, well, I may be bringing someone, and I didn't want to impose…"

Rory gasped just as she heard Ellie crying in the cafeteria. "Okay, I have to go, but I need details!"

"Her name's Heather. Bye!"

Matt ended the call before Rory could say goodbye and she quickly tucked her phone back into her pocket with a smile and rushed back into the now busy dining area. Lorelai was bouncing Ellie on her lap in an attempt to calm her, but she was having none of it, immediately reaching for Rory with a whimper as soon as she laid eyes on her. Rory lifted Ellie out of Lorelai's grasp and rubbed her back soothingly.

"Hey, it's okay, Mama's here, Ellie girl."

Rory felt Ellie's face on her neck, warm and damp from crying, but once she held her close, Ellie let out a shuddering sigh, gripping Rory's shirt in her little fist as she settled.

"I think she senses the stress," Rory said with a frown.

"Babies are intuitive," Lorelai agreed.

"She misses Jess, too. He's normally so involved but she hasn't really even seen him in the past few days, and if she has it's been in passing. No hugs or kisses or story time with her Daddy lately."

Ellie sat up straight in Rory's arms. "Dada?"

"Oh my God, break my heart why don't you," Lorelai said, clutching at her chest.

"That's what I'm saying," Rory said sadly to Lorelai before returning her attention to Ellie. "Dada's upstairs, we'll go see him soon, okay?"

"Dada…" Ellie said with a sigh.

"She says so much with so few words. You did the same thing," Lorelai said fondly.

"Really?"

Lorelai nodded. "You weren't keen on using verbal language for the longest time, but you sure knew how to communicate. Everyone at the inn knew Rory Speak after a while, it was like this combination of single words with your own version of sign language. Then, one day, all the sudden, you started speaking in full sentences with perfect grammar," Lorelai laughed. "The first time it happened in front of Mia I thought she was going to pass out."

Rory laughed with her mother. "I miss Mia… she's never met Ellie."

"Well, maybe you should invite her to Ellie's birthday?"

"Huh, I never considered that. But it'd be nice to see her if she can come. Do you have her number?"

"If not in my phone I'm sure I do somewhere at home."

Rory grinned brightly. "Yeah, let's invite Mia."

Luke reappeared from the hallway at that moment and the group decided to head back upstairs to Jess's room, guessing his treatment was done by then. When they all filed in, Jess was sleeping peacefully, clutching his pillow like a teddy bear.

Lorelai gasped at the sight in front of her. "Please let me take a picture!"

"No, and hush, you'll wake him up!" Rory hissed. "He needs his rest."

"Ugh, fine…" Lorelai grumbled. "Cards?" she asked, pulling a deck out of her back pocket.

"Sure," Rory said, setting Ellie down in the crib with some toys and then pulling a rolling table over towards the chairs. "Luke, should we deal you in?"

Luke was sitting next to Jess's bed, watching him sleep with a worried expression. "Nah, I'm gonna hang here."

Rory nodded understandingly, turning her attention to her mother and their game, giving Luke privacy as he sat with his sick nephew.

"Poker?" Lorelai asked.

"Do you know how to play poker?" Rory asked.

"Oh. No. I guess that's kind of important, huh?"

"Yup. Go Fish?"

"Ugh, boring."

"Jeez, sorry."

"Blackjack?"

"Ooh, yeah!"


Jess mostly slept for the rest of the day, only waking occasionally, while the rest of the group played games and watched TV to pass the time and spoke in hushed tones to let Jess get as much rest as possible. By lunch, the girls were feeling restless and decided to take a walk, leaving Luke to hold down the house.

Jess woke abruptly, not even really sure what woke him up. That was one of the suckiest things about being so sick – you needed to sleep as much as possible, but thanks to the fever and the nurses, it seeed impossible to stay asleep without startling awake every few minutes. Thankfully, though, the antibiotics seemed to be doing something to aid in the healing process, because despite still feeling like hot garbage Jess could almost think clearly for the first time in days.

He slowly cast his gaze around the room. It was empty except for Luke in the chair to his left, attention focused on a baseball game playing on the tiny, wall-mounted TV on the wall opposite the bed. Jess shifted a little, reaching for the water cup on the table next to him.

"Hey, you're awake," Luke said softly. "You need somethin'?"

"Just water," Jess said hoarsely. The coughing had taken a serious toll on his voice, it seemed. His throat always felt raw and worn and anything his voice came out broken and rough.

"Looks like the ice melted, want some new?"

The thought of cool, refreshing ice water sounded downright heavenly to Jess and he nodded as enthusiastically as his spinning vision and dully aching head allowed. As Luke stepped out to fetch some fresh ice, Jess laid back against his pillows.

He was officially sick of being sick. He missed working and would try to read or write, but every time he tried the words swam in front of him. He was going stir crazy, wishing he had the energy to do anything but lay in one bed or another. It felt absurd that his biggest hope for the day was to be able to spend some time sitting up in a chair instead of lying in the hospital bed.

His pity party was interrupted by Luke coming back into the room with two cups full of ice chips. Jess snorted as Luke set the cups down on the table and sat back down in his chair.

"Is there a requirement for how many ice chips a hospital patient has to consume in a twenty-four-hour period?"

Luke laughed through his nose. "I just didn't know how much you wanted and thought too much is better than not enough."

"Fair enough. Thanks."

Jess grabbed one cup and spooned some ice into his mouth, eyes rolling back as the cool water soothed his throat. He never knew ice could taste so good.

"You have any lunch yet?" Luke asked.

Jess nodded. "They brough some soup in earlier. Wasn't great, but it wasn't the slop they make hospital food out to be," he said, garbled past the ice in his mouth.

"Good, good…"

"You?"

"Yeah, grabbed a sandwich in the cafeteria."

"Good."

The two lapsed into silence, the only noise in the room the tinny sound of the baseball commentators emanating from the TV. Jess felt himself dozing off and on but would wake with a start every couple of minutes. After a while, Luke started to watch him with concern.

"You alright kid?"

"Can't sleep," Jess grumbled.

"Want me to get a nurse?"

"They won't be able to help."

"Okay…" Luke said, unconvinced, still watching him out of the corner of his eye, like he was trying not to be obvious but in doing so was completely and totally obvious.

Jess exhaled a sigh through his nose, trying desperately not to snap at Luke for just watching out for his wellbeing. "Look, Luke, I'm fine. It's probably just the fever, y'know? I've felt like shit for days, I'll feel like shit a little while longer, but I'll survive." He flushed red when his voice cracked and his vision started to blur. "God—what the hell is wrong with me?" he asked no one in particular, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes and trying to steady his shaky breathing. He tried to pull away when he felt Luke's hand rest on the top of his head but Luke just laid his other hand on Jess's shoulder.

"Take a breath, you're alright," Luke said gently.

Jess just sighed, feeling humiliated to his core.

"Y'know, I had pneumonia once when I was a kid. Ignored a cold and stayed out in the snow too long one winter. Woke up the next morning with aches and chills and an awful cough. My mom thought I was faking it until I didn't argue when she told me I would have to stay in bed if I skipped school," Luke chuckled. "I remember feeling just absolutely miserable, coughing 'til I threw up and crying over nothing. And when I would start crying, my mom would come into my room and just sit with me. Wouldn't say a word, just perched on the bed next to me, petting my hair or rubbing my back. And it made me feel a little better."

Jess was surprised to realize that while Luke was talking, Luke was slowly running his hand back over Jess's head, stroking his hair in a way that unlocked a memory from somewhere deep in his mind. A moment from his childhood, one of the only times he remembered his mom taking care of him when he was sick. He could see himself laying on a dingy couch in an even dingier apartment, sweating his way through a fever. And he could feel Liz's fingers running through his hair as she hummed softly, some unrecognizable song that would lull him back to sleep every time he would startle awake.

"Liz did the same thing once or twice," he whispered, eyelids suddenly heavy.

He saw Luke smile softly out of the corner of his eye, could have even sworn he saw Luke's own eyes misting over.

As Jess drifted to sleep, Luke went to step away and let Jess rest until Jess spoke quietly.

"Don't stop?" he asked sheepishly.

Luke smiled, resuming his movements. "You got it, kid."


Time seemed to drag on in the hospital, not only for Jess but for the rest of the family. Luke and Lorelai ducked out eventually that day to head to a hotel, much to Rory's dismay. She'd tried to insist that they stay at the apartment, but the potential of remaining flu germs made them a little avoidant of staying there. Thus, they checked into a hotel and after visiting hours were over headed over there to crash while Rory remained at the hospital, only letting them go if they took a set of keys to the apartment in case they changed their minds. Graciously and under the guise of craving time with their granddaughter, Luke and Lorelai took Ellie with them to the hotel so Rory could try to get some actual rest that night.

It took a while for Rory's mind to settle, considering this was the first time she had ever spent the night apart from her daughter, but after many texts to Lorelai to check in and a call to say goodnight to Ellie, Rory actually fell asleep and stayed asleep apart from when nurses would come in to check on Jess. That being said, she was ecstatic when Luke and Lorelai returned the next morning with Ellie in tow, who also seemed in a much better mood after having a night in a quiet room with her Grandma and Grandpa.

Alex came to visit on their second day in the hospital and came with a bouncy, jokey attitude, swearing that she was destroying the business in an attempt to get Jess to laugh. She seemed slightly uneasy in the hospital environment, especially seeing Jess so weak and tired, but made sure to call him Dad at least three times which got a rise out of him. Rory made a mental note to let Alex know later that Jess fell asleep with a smile on his face after she left.

Jess continued to improve with time, his coughing and fever lessening and his energy returning a little more every day. By day three, they were promised that by the next morning Jess would be able to be discharged as long as his temperature remained within normal limits, and he promised to take it easy once he was home. The latter was only promised under glares from Rory and Luke, but it was promised.

Jess wasn't exactly happy about a slow return to work, however. The visit from Alex reminded him of how much he needed to be doing, how much he was slacking on his professional tasks, and after a week in bed, he was desperate to be productive. His bones were itching with boredom, his mind full of ideas for manuscripts – for clients' work and his own. He was mentally formulating a plan to get some writing done or to work on some editing without Rory finding out. So far, it was a pretty weak plan considering how much she was hounding him about resting even though they weren't even home yet.

But made it home they did, to a surprisingly spotless apartment. Rory's jaw dropped as they walked in closely followed by a widely smiling Luke and Lorelai, happy with how their surprise cleaning job was being received. Immediately after getting settled, Rory ushered Jess into bed but was met with objections.

"Rory, I've spent the last week in bed, let me sit on the couch for a while? Please?"

Rory huffed in frustration, crossing her arms across her chest.

"It'd probably be good for him to move around a little bit," Lorelai said with a shrug. "Get his blood flowing."

Rory sighed resolutely. "Alright, fine. But the second you start to feel gross, you're off to bed, got it?"

"Sure, Mom," Jess said with a smirk.

Rory rolled her eyes and went off to the kitchen, secretly over the moon to see that Jess was finally feeling up to being snarky again.

She'd missed his snark.


A/N: Seeee I told you he'd be fine. Thank you for reading and reviewing! Your reviews always warm my heart and bring a smile to my face :) Happy September!