Glimpses

Chapter 86

October 3rd, 2022

Rory stretched out her back after heaving herself out of the passenger seat of her car a minute after Logan had pulled up by Dr. Mueller's office. It was a misty but warm October morning. It felt unbelievable that it was October already, and Rory couldn't quite grasp how quickly time had passed.

While the first few days stuck at home she'd lounged around, called her friends and family, watched TV and read, doing fairly little of what could be defined as work, as time went on - and Em got better and better acquainted with Lorraine, she began to see that she did feel capable of doing a lot more.

Some might have called it that last burst of energy before going into labor, but she didn't particularly like people reminding her of the daunting prospect of that actually happening, despite feeling ready for it to be over. So she spent her energy surge on everything that could distract her.

She'd hired a PR manager for her charity foundation so this meant her foundation actually had some presence now - social media being the keyword. Through HPG contacts she'd gotten one of her own articles on maternal mental health published in one of their magazines, giving people with just a glimpse of her own story, not needing to even go too deep into her experience to get her message across. She'd already gotten some requests for follow-up interviews but she wasn't doing them now, having the perfect excuse in her condition and would just refer them to interview a long list of people who'd agreed to talk or write on the topic instead - celebrities and doctors. Even if the beginning had happened through pulling the internal strings of the HPG - she was already seeing how the name and the message were gathering coverage way beyond it. Slowly she was coming to terms with both the name and the game of connections.

Her book was out as an e-book already and the paperback was due out in a month or so, and she'd agreed to do a handful of readings and signings, mostly after the baby was born, except for one online discussion that was happening next week. She wasn't quite sharing the enthusiasm of Rita, her editor, who was suggesting the handful wasn't going to be nearly enough. It was for that reason Rory hardly mentioned the book anymore around the house, focusing on things more graspable. She was almost thinking that if all she had was the name and the experience, knowing how the journalistic world went around, that too would help her get her ideas across. Whether it spoke about appreciating women who stayed home to care for their families, pro-maternity leave or better healthcare - it didn't even matter, the list she could potentially cover seemed endless.

"You ready?" Logan asked, having noticed Rory slip away for a second into her own thoughts, standing there and just breathing in the misty air.

"Uh-uh," Rory said, gladly accepting Logan's arm that he was offering to walk across the parking lot. Logan pushed the car door closed behind them.

"You feeling okay?" Logan asked worriedly.

"Yeah, just heavy... you know," Rory replied. "And it's nice to be outside..," Rory added, having mostly stuck to sitting in her back garden or coming for her doctor's appointment these past few weeks.

"Right this way, Mr. and Mrs. Huntzberger-Gilmore," the receptionist who already knew Rory very well thanks to her weekly visits, gestured them onwards into the examination room. The pace was quicker than Rory could manage though, as she waddled along the hallway towards Dr. Mueller's office.

"How are you feeling, Rory?" one of the nurses who was currently just passing by asked Rory. It was truly a very supported feeling she had in this clinic - everyone not just bowing for her because of the name and wealth but she at least liked to believe that it was because she genuinely remembered them, their names and was nice to them.

"Pretty good," Rory commented, knowing it was a relative term.

The nurse opened the door for her and gestured them into the examination room, where another nurse already waited for them. Also Rory's private midwife, Rosalie, was present, wanting to keep herself up to date straight from the source and Rory had no objections about that.