Meet Again

October

"I still don't understand why they didn't come" Emily said

"Because they've been in a hospital for 3 weeks, with their extremely premature, and very sick baby" Lorelai said

"But I thought he was doing ok"

"He's doing ok, considering everything, but you probably won't see Rory and Logan at Friday night dinner anytime soon"

"Have you gone to see him?" Richard asked

"Yeah, but just through a window. I'm not allowed in the room" Lorelai told them

"What are they doing with the kids when they go to the hospital?" Emily asked

"Wow, I didn't realize it was question time" Lorelai joked "they've been dropping the kids off at school and then going straight to the hospital"

——

"He looks bigger than yesterday" Logan said "Is he bigger?"

"I don't know how much he's grown since yesterday" The nurse said "but we weighed him this morning and he gained weight. He weighs just over 14 ounces now"

"That's good!" Rory said, excitedly "Logan, that's good!"

"I know, Ace" Logan chuckled and rubbed her back

"Don't go anywhere" the nurse said "the doctor wants to talk to you guys"

"Which doctor?" Logan asked, a little worried

"The neonatologist" the nurse said "Dr Howard"

A little while later Dr. Howard came in to talk to Rory and Logan.

"What does that mean?" Logan asked

"While slower than we'd like, Samuel has continued to grow and develop, but his lungs haven't" Dr. Howard said "he has lungs like we'd expect to see in a fetus at 23 weeks. For now we'll keep him on the ventilator, but you need to be aware of the possibility that he may need to be on some form of oxygen for longer than we thought. He could also have some type of chronic lung disease in the future"

"But he's ok?" Rory asked

"For now, he's doing fine on the ventilator. If that changes we might have to explore other options, such as surgery or even a lung transplant, but we're nowhere near that point"

"Ok" Rory exhaled

"On a happier note...would you like to hold him?" Dr. Howard offered

"Are you serious?" Rory asked "we can hold him?"

Rory and Logan hadn't been able to hold Sammy yet since he needed to stay in the incubator

"He can't regulate his temperature so he can't be out of the incubator for too long, but if you'd each like to hold him for a couple of minutes, we can do that" 

A few minutes later Rory was sitting in a chair and a nurse was handing Sammy to her.

"Just watch the wires, we don't wanna bump anything" The nurse said as she put Sammy on Rory's chest.

"Hi baby!" Rory whispered "you're so tiny"

"He's beautiful, Ace"

——

A couple of days later, Christopher and Gigi were over at Rory and Logan's apartment.

"Where's Logan?" Chris asked

"The battery just died in Grace's processors, he's changing it" Rory said

"Ok... you doing ok?" Chris asked, quietly