Glimpses

Chapter 85

September 16th, 2022

Rory had barely managed to jnstruct Jess to call just Logan. It was definitely not a call he'd made willingly and it truly had been very much to the point. But Jess wasn't a vindictive guy, despite all the anger he might've felt in those moments. While speeding a little, he'd transported Rory to St. Francis, keeping his focus on the road the entire time, not saying a word.

Rory had been a mess, not really paying a lot of attention what he did or didn't - mostly just dealing with the self-blame, panic and worry for her baby. She feared the worst. At the same time even without really observing him she recognized that same action-oriented calm in Jess' presence she'd seen with him the last time he'd driven her to the hospital to give birth.

Logan was already there when Jess pulled up, waiting nervously.

"You okay?" Logan asked Rory urgently, not really getting a good response, as he opened the door to Jess' car and aided her out. He could her eyes were reddened. "Thanks for bringing her," Logan said to Jess hastily, putting all of his focus on her instead. Perhaps had he paid more attention, he would've noticed the grimness on Jess' face too.

Jess felt he should've just said 'no problem' or something along those lines but he just couldn't, inside he still felt like his blood was boiling because he'd been pulled into this thing he no longer wanted to be in. For all the love he had felt for Rory he was kind of relieved to have everything out in the open - but it still stung mercilessly. He just wanted to get out of there, wanting to focus on the relevant - Em. The rest was not his concern beyond being a decent human being and helping a person to the hospital.

"I should go," Jess said, as Rory was being aided to get into a wheelchair.

"Can you not tell Em yet...or tell her when mom isn't around?" Rory said, not really realizing how challenging this actually was, as they began to roll her away.

"Okay, though she'll ask why you aren't there to say goodbye...," Jess replied, knowing this was not a moment for such discussions as Rory was already being rolled towards admittance. So he didn't say anything else, deciding to think of what to do along the way.

Logan could tell Rory was all over the place, still trails of tears trailing down her cheeks, her shaking lip. He didn't know what this was about - what had triggered this or whether she was just crying because it hurt too much.

"So what do we have here?" an older midwife asked them, looking incredibly calm in the midst of all of this.

"Lorelai Leigh Huntzberger-Gilmore, 34 weeks pregnant, history of gestational hypertension," Logan began, and took out a card that had all of Rory's insurance details and the information on her private midwife and doctors. This was too early - even the great he'd bought this place wasn't even delivered yet - the oddest of all things coming to his mind when he felt he shouldn't be thinking about nothing beyond her and thier baby. He scolded himself for it, but it really was no wonder in this moment with so little control, he just wanted to feel some of it.

"Damn... I forgot. I don't have my bag!" Rory fretted, suddenly realizing the insignificant. Mentally she was already convinced that these were the real contractions, having never really had this many false labor contractions in a row before and never ones that had felt this sharp. Her mind rushed through all the horrible scenarios she'd read about - internal bleeding, placental abruption, all the problems that a premature baby could have - she was really not excelling at thinking positively right at that moment.

"It'll be fine, we have everything we need," the midwife assured. "Let's first see what we're dealing with, okay?" she suggested. Rry had never met this midwife in her life, yet she clung to whomever she could in that moment for help. "So you've felt these contractions for how long? Did you time them?" she continued.