A/N: Hi all, this is a story I thought of one day and my muse has been begging me to write it. I haven't seen any stories like it before so it'll be a new and interesting twist. If you're following my other story "Say You Won't Let Go," I'm hoping to update it soon so keep an eye out. As always, read & review. Reviews always inspire me to keep writing when I know its being read. Thank you!

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As the stars twinkled in the thick black sky on a cold winter's night a young woman was quickly packing her bags. Anything she could see she began to stuff into three different duffel bags as her child sat quietly on a chair in the sitting room. The woman could feel her child's big blue eyes staring at her in fear wondering why her Mommy was acting so erratically but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was leaving and she had to do it now. Every so often she would glance at the clock and let out a groan when she felt it was going by too fast. Why couldn't time just slow down? Once she had thrown all of her belongings into the duffel bags she zipped them shut. She checked her purse to ensure she had enough money to last the mother and child duo until she could sort herself out and she laid the tear stained note that had many scribbles and crossing outs on the dresser and ran down the stairs as quickly as possible. She bundled her baby into the car and swung the duffel bags beside her and she immediately drove off without looking back. As she began to drive out of the city of Hartford, she let out a breath of relief. Finally, she had done it. She had escaped the clutches of her parents and she was free. She had been planning this day for months, making sure the timing was correct, ensuring her parents would be out of the house long enough to sort her and her baby out. Suddenly, her child let out a cry causing the woman to sigh "its okay my love, we'll be okay," she soothed "We'll be okay now,"

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Twelve years later.

It was a bright day, the wind was blowing gently in the breeze and the sun was just starting to emerge from behind the clouds, it was the perfect weather for a baseball game. A young teenager was stood on the pitch scanning the bleachers for her mother, she let out a sigh, and of course she hadn't made it. She was grabbed from her thoughts when her friend approached her.

"Come on," her friend urged "Coach Bear wants a quick team meeting before the game starts," she pulled her hand dragged her over to the team. A few minutes later the game began and the young teenager forgot about her mother not being there.

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After the game had finished, the young teenager was dropped home by her friend's mother, she was unhappy that the team had lost but she knew she had played well and she couldn't wait to tell her mother all about it. She bounced into the house and called out for her mother. She searched the sitting room, she checked her bedroom and eventually she went into the kitchen. She noticed a handwritten note propped up on the kitchen table and she let out a sigh. She had seen that one too many a time. She picked it up and scanned it "Delayed at work, lasagne in the fridge, don't wait up, Love you, Mom XO," the young girl crumbled up the note in frustration and threw it in the bin and let out a sob. However she soon felt guilty as she knew her mother wasn't trying to be malicious or to hurt her intentionally she just didn't have her priorities in the right place. The teenager couldn't remember the last time her and her mom had spent the whole day together, just the two of them, sure they saw each other in the evenings, maybe a quick chat over dinner but then they would go their separate ways, she had to complete her homework and her mother had to finish her work. It mustn't be easy doing it all by herself, raising a child, bringing in the income with absolutely no help.

It hadn't always been this way, Holly had a great childhood, she could remember her mother taking her for walks in the park, feeding the ducks, they always had mother – daughter days together but three years previous her mother had gotten a promotion, their rent had increased and Holly had to start thinking about her future, what college she wanted to go and her mother had to start thinking of how to finance it all therefore her only option was to work. Holly took the plastic off of her lasagne and began to heat it up, she began to think of what she would do for the remainder of the day. It was a Saturday afternoon, she had to do something. Anything at all that wasn't school related or homework – anything but homework. Homework was to be done on a Sunday evening, rushing her written work and cramming in all of her study work. Holly hated school and she wasn't going to pretend otherwise, she was an average student, usually B's maybe an A but she wasn't pushed, she didn't care that much. She contemplated ringing a few of her friends to hang out but she remembered they were busy. Sophie, her best friend, was at a wedding. Molly and Mia the twins were at their grandfather's 90th birthday party and Belinda's cousins from Ireland had come on a holiday. Cousins, grandparents, a wedding. Holly sighed, she had none of them. She knew absolutely nothing about her extended family, all of her life it had just been her and her mother, them against the world. Her father had died when she was 2, she couldn't remember him but her mother told her stories all of the time.

She had a picture of him beside her bed side locker. When she was younger she used to talk to him all of the time, tell him stories of her day, tell him about all of her friends, whenever she had an argument with her mom, how much she missed him and wished that she could remember him. Her mother had never talked about her family, she knew nothing about her parents, if she had any sisters or brothers, and all she knew about her father's family was that he was an only child and his father had died when he was young, his mother had died shortly after Holly's birth. She could tell her mother was fond of them, she would often mention them in stories and how they use to act and the nice things they did for Holly's parent's and Holly herself. However, there was never a mention of her maternal family. One day she had accidently stumbled upon a photo of Holly's grandmother – well she presumed it was her grandmother, it was a lady with red hair holding a baby – whom Holly presumed was her. She mentioned it to her mother and got given out to – Holly realised it was safer never to ask again. She often wondered why they never got in contact, it was clear they liked her at some point, so why not now? Perhaps it was because Holly's mother had her at a young age? 20 was young but that young and plus, Holly's parents were married so it shouldn't' have been that big of an issue, Holly began to eat her dinner, life was very strange.

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6 o clock had come and Holly was slouched on the sofa in front of the television. She had been in the same position for 4 hours. 4 freaking hours in a row bar the exception of getting up to get a chocolate bar. She sighed, she needed a hobby or even something to do. Suddenly the doorbell rang, she contemplated leaving it ring out but then she realised she needed an excuse to actually get up and stop being a couch potatoes. She opened the door to a tall man in a suit, he had a frantic expression on his face and a piece of paper in front of him.

The man smiled as she opened it "Hi?" questioned Holly "May I help you?" she wasn't to open the doors to strangers but this man looked harmless, sweet almost.

"Do you know of any Gilmore's in this area?" he asked, she could see the hope in his eyes "I know it's this town but I lost the street address, I've been knocking on doors all day,"

Holly shook her head "No, I'm sorry," she replied.

His face fell "This is the 82nd house I've knocked on. The 82nd," he let out a sigh "I counted. I counted how many houses I knocked on,"

Holly wasn't sure what to say "Sorry,"

The man shook his head "It's alright,"

"What do they look like? Have you a picture, I could keep an eye out?"

The man's face lit up "You would? I do somewhere, mind it's very old," he began to fumble in his wallet "I must clean this thing out," he pulled out a business card "That's my number if you need to contact me, I have one somewhere,"

Holly took the card and put it in her pocket "Perfect, what do they look like?"

"Oh right well it's a woman and a teenager I'm looking for. The woman is a brunette, blue eyes, relatively tall," he pulled out a picture of a woman "That's her sister, she would probably look like her," Holly smiled at the picture of the mother and daughter on the picture, for a moment she felt she recognised them but quickly shook off the feeling.

"Ah here we go," he said with a smile "My daughter and grand daughter," he handed her the photo and her heart nearly stopped with the shock. She stared at the man and then back to the photo. She couldn't find the words to speak. That was her. That was her and her mother, Holly had that exact photo framed in her bedroom. She couldn't form a sentence, she couldn't even think clearly, she just didn't know what to do.

"Um, wh-what are their names?" she stammered quietly.

The man sighed "Victoria and Holly Gilmore," he paused "My daughter Victoria fled one night twelve years ago and took her daughter – my grand daughter with her and we haven't been able to find them ever since, please if you find out anything let me know,"

A tear formed in Holly's eye "Yeah," she said quietly "I will do,"

The man extended his hand "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Richard Gilmore," he began to walk to his car "What age are you?" he asked.

"I'm-I'm nearly 15,"

"Same age she would be now," he noted "You might see her in school, Holly Gilmore,"

Holly nodded "May-Maybe," she stammered again and she watched as the grandfather she never got to know drove away. She began to feel a boiling rage towards her mother, how dare she flee from her family with Holly, how dare she deprive Holly of a family. And that picture of her mother's sister? She had auntie for crying out loud, and a cousin. She had a cousin. She could barely believe it. She decided she was going to confront her mother about this and go find her family. She needed to do this, she walked into the house and began to plan out how she was going to tackle this issue with her mother, she wasn't going to give her a choice about going to go meet them, she was going to demand it, she would make sure of that.

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A/N: Thoughts? I have a lot planned for this story so I hope I get a bit of feedback. Thanks!