The Legend - A Gilmore Girls Fan Fiction

Chapter 14

"Are you excited, Little Love?" Finn asked Emma as the driver pulled up in front of the zoo to drop them off.

"I'd be more excited if you'd tell me where we are" she said sweetly. 

"Well then, what are you waiting for?  Hurry up and get out of the car, silly girl!  What's taking you so long!?" I asked with a laugh.  She shot me a mean look, which only caused me to laugh more.

The driver opened up the car door, Finn got out, and held his hand out for Emma and me.  As soon as she stepped out of the car, her entire face lit up.  "THE ZOO!!!!" She exclaimed, even happier than when she sees Finn.

Finn and I both looked at her and smiled, and we each took a hand of hers, and together we walked inside of the Central Park Zoo, and headed straight to the Dancing Crane Café for lunch before we did anything else. 

"I'm so excited!!!" Emma exclaimed, as we all three sat down with our food. 

"This is her first trip to the zoo with me in a long time.  I'm not sure if she's been with Logan's family or not lately, but I haven't been able to take her because it's just such an expensive splurge" I explained to Finn. 

"It is?" he asked in concern, wondering if I was having money issues.

"Don't get me wrong, I get a VERY generous amount of money for child support on top of my salary, but after rent, and preschool, and the rest of my bills are paid, I don't have too terribly much money left over to go do as many fun things with her like I'd like to do.  In a way it's good, because it will be harder to spoil her that way, and I'm sure she gets enough of that from Logan, but it just sucks sometimes.  I just wish once, just ONCE, I could afford to take her somewhere phenomenal that she's never been to before.  Like Disneyworld.  I would cry so hard if I were able to save up enough money to take her, although, by the time I've done it, Logan will have taken her five times" I muttered.

"Love, I had no idea you were struggling!" he said in concern.

"Oh, we're definitely NOT struggling.  We have everything we need, and some of what we want.  We live in downtown New York, and living the dream, more or less.  But, New York is an expensive place to live and we just have to prioritize" I explained.

"Can I help you?" he asked, almost pleadingly.

"No, not at all!  Seriously, we don't need any help, we're good!  I promise!" I assured him.

"Would you tell me if you did?  Would you let me help you?"  he asked.

I shrugged.  "Sure, maybe, if it ever came to that, but we're fine" I promised him.

When we were finished eating and walked back into the zoo part, he turned to Emma.  "What do you want to see first?  Anything you want!" he promised.

"Sea lions!" she said, pointing, seeing them directly ahead.

He looked at his watch.  "Perfect timing, Little Love.  It's almost 130, they're about to get fed" he said.

We walked to the sea lions and the crowd had already started gathering.  "Mommy, I can't see" she pouted, even after I picked her up.

"Here, come sit on my shoulders, you should be able to see everything" he said, taking her from me and putting her up.

"I can see!" she said happily and wiggled a bit in excitement.

"You better stop being so squiggly or Uncle Finn could drop you" I said with a laugh.

"He won't drop me.  He's super strong.  Like a super hero!" she said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, just like a super hero" I said, looking at Finn with a wink.  He pulled me closer to his side, and rested his arm around my waist.  I laid my head on his shoulder and breathed in deeply.  He looked down at me and smiled, and then went back to watching the sea lions with Emma.

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A little while later, after we'd seen everything else, we made our way to the children's zoo.  There was a place inside with a playground, so we watched carefully as Emma played with the other kids.  "She doesn't get enough of this.  I mean, yeah, she plays with her cousins – you know, Honor's kids – but other than that, she doesn't really have anyone her own age other than at preschool" I said.

"She will, Love.  Especially when she starts kindergarten for sure" he said reassuringly.

I nodded, knowing he was probably right.  Suddenly we heard screaming, and I looked everywhere, but I couldn't find Emma, but the scream definitely belonged to her.  I jumped up quickly, and Finn did also.

"Here, she's over here!" he exclaimed and we both ran to her.  She was lying on the ground screaming and crying.  Leave it to my kid to get hurt in the only blind spot on the playground.

"Emma!?  Emma, what happened!?" I exclaimed.

She couldn't answer me, but just screamed and cried even more.  I noticed she was holding her arm, and when I took a closer look, and horrified, and suddenly tears came to my eyes now, too.

"Love, I think her wrist is broken" he warned me, scooping her up, and pulling me along with them.  I was in too much shock to snap out of it, so he kept a hold of my hand, and he led me to the entrance where the driver met us.

"Love, we need to call Logan..." he reminded me. 

I nodded, still in a daze, but sitting with Emma, and running my fingers through her hair.  "I'll call him in a bit, right now my main concern is trying to keep her as calm as possible...not to mention, he's going to be furious" I whispered.