Lucille in Stars Hollow

The birth

 When I arrived at the hospital, I was a frantic mess. I was in nothing but my nightgown, a thin cardigan, and slippers.

I went to the woman at the front desk, Lorelai and Rory quickly following behind.

"Hello, do you know where Lisa Marren's room is?"

The woman pointed me down the right direction.

When I got there, Lisa was being moved into the labor room. Apparently this baby was coming now. I offered to go help her through labor, got handed some some scrubs and gloves and I was off.

Lisa was in labor for seventeen hours, twenty minutes, and forty four seconds.

When all was done, she was holding a beautiful baby girl.

I could see it in her eyes as she looked down at her daughter: this child was everything she would ever need, and after looking at the baby, I had to agree. The girl's eyes were blue like her mom's, bright and full of happiness.

"She's perfect," Lisa whispered.

"She is," I agreed. This baby had my heart. If she ever needed to get away from her mom, I'd be there. If she needed help with homework, I'd be there. I would be there for everything. I would make sure that she grew up surrounded by love. "What's her name?"

Lisa looked up at me. "Well, I know that the parents are supposed to decide that together, but I don't even know if Leo will come so I'm going to decide on my own."

"So what's her name?" I repeated.

Lisa was silent for a moment, then softly whispered, "Lucille. Her name is Lucille."

A smile spread across my face as tears started to fall. "Are you sure?"

Lisa nodded, matching tears in her eyes. "You're are the best friend anyone could ever have and I couldn't have made it through without you."

I smiled and navigated around Little Lucy to hug Lisa.

That night, I was sleeping in a chair next to Lisa when someone shook my shoulders. It was Leo. He had come.

"Hi," I whispered.

"Hey," he replied. "How are they?"

"Good," I nodded. "Little Lucy is asleep, but you can see you in the morning."

His eyes went wide. "It's a girl?"

"She's a girl," I confirmed. "And Lisa made the interesting decision to name her after me."

"I'm not surprised," Leo laughed lightly.

Silence filled the space, gnawing at me until I broke it. "Leo, I forgive you."

His eyes went wide once again. "You do?"

I nodded. "But only because we're going to be seeing a lot of each other and I don't want this tension hanging around. I want Little Lucy to have her dad and godmother in the same place without the past haunting us. So can we put it all behind us and start over?"

Leo smiled as smile that might've broken me before, but not anymore. "Deal."

I nodded sharply and stood up. "Here take my seat. I'm gonna get some coffee."

And so I left putting past behind me and walking toward a new future.

                                                  Lucille Blaire Marren-McDowell

                                                                Born 02/ 07/ 2002