Lorelai called Rory multiple times, only to get the message that her number was disconnected. There were many horrible things a daughter could do to her mother, but cutting off all communication wasn't one of them. What if Rory was hurt?

A week after running away, Rory was still camped out at her Grandparents house. When she had appeared at their front door, they had apprehensively let her stay for a while. She had helped with some DAR stuff, and it was generally fairly fun. She read books from Richard, went to some parties. But she was really missing Lorelai. And Stars Hollow. And though she hated to admit it... she was missing Jess.

"Rory!" Emily yelled. "Get out of bed and have breakfast with us!" Rory slammed her hand on her bedside table to signal that she'd heard, and got out of bed for breakfast, walking downstairs. She felt trapped in this place, but it was better than Stars Hollow. "Young lady," Emily scolded. "You cannot come out of your room dressed like - well, like that!" She gestured to her granddaughters pyjamas, and Rory snapped. "Grandma, I'm 19! I'm perfectly capable of deciding what I'm wearing to breakfast, thank you very much." She sat down and buttered a scone. Emily tutted at her but kept drinking her tea.

Rory wasn't happy with the situation, but Richard and Emily had agreed not to tell Lorelai where to find her, so it was a pretty good deal.

"Lorelai," Luke said. "Are you okay?" His new partner (god, he loved calling Lorelai that, he had been waiting for it for years!) looked like she had been dragged backwards through a hedge.

"No," she choked out. "Rory's..."

"What?" Luke asked. "What happened to Rory?"

"You mean you didn't notice she wasn't here?" Lorelai yelled, tears falling through the already formed tracks on her face.

"I thought she went back to Yale or something, I don't know! What happened, Lorelai?" he had put down the cloth he was using to wipe the table and gave Lorelai his full attention.

"Rory's gone."

"Gone?!" Luke demanded. "What do you mean gone? Gone... like..."

"No!" Lorelai exclaimed. "God no, she's not dead. At least, I hope not... look, she disconnected her phone. We got into an argument, she drove off. I have no idea where she went or anything."

"Okay, Lorelai. You're not going to like this, but I'm going to call someone who really cares about her. I know you hate him, but Jess deserves to know."

"Oh," Lorelai looked down. "Well Luke... mine and Rory's fight was kind of about Jess. About whether Rory should go out with him again. I kind of said... that I would never let it happen."

"Ah, jeez," Luke sighed. "Okay look. I'm calling Jess, but I won't give him details, like why you and Rory were fighting. Okay?"

"Okay, I guess... I'll be at home, okay?"

"Okay," Luke nodded as she walked out the door. He dialled Jess' cell number, hoping he hadn't changed it again.

"Hello?" His voice filtered through the phone. "Who is this? I didn't pay for caller ID."

"Jess, it's Luke."

"Oh," Jess said. "What's up?"

"It's Rory," he sighed.

"Rory?" His voice was sounding more panicked now. "What happened?! Is she okay?"

"We don't know."

Jess raised his voice, "What do you mean, we don't know? Luke, what the hell is going on?"

"She ran away," Luke said. "Her and Lorelai had a fight or something, and Rory left, changed her phone number and everything."

"I'll be right there," Jess replied, hanging up and getting into his car. Rory was gone? She never ran away. Not from Lorelai. What the hell?

This was his fault. He knew Rory and Lorelai probably had a fight about him, that was the only thing he could think of that could drive such a wedge between them... but if they were arguing about him, Rory must have been on his side. Did she possibly still want to be with him?

He drove and drove, a drive that never used to feel that long was taking an eternity. Three hours finally ticked by, and he was almost in Stars Hollow.

"Jess!" Luke ran towards Jess' car when he saw him arrive. "We still haven't found anything. We've called everyone we can think of, and nothing. I'm really worried about her, Jess. We might never see her again." Jess had never seen Luke this stressed or upset. He loved Rory like she was his kid, and he had looked after her over the years (or so Jess had heard). But now she was gone. It would have been even harder for Luke than for Jess, which must have meant it was really horrible.

"We'll find her," He said, though he wasn't sure of that himself. "I promise. Now let's go inside, shall we?"

"Okay," Luke nodded slowly.

"Okay." Jess opened the door into the diner, only to see Lorelai holding a phone in one hand and running her finger down a phone book with the other. "Lorelai?" He asked.

She looked up. "Uh, Jess. Hey." Her eyes were red and unfocused, she had obviously not slept at all since Rory left.

He walked up to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Lorelai, I promise, we'll find her. I know you don't like me, but you know that I love Rory, and that I would never let her disappear. I care about her a lot. And I swear to god, she's not going to just fall off the face of the Earth and leave us all waiting for her to come back. I'm not going to wait fifty years until we're old and grey, I'll help you find her."

"Jess, I never liked you," she said. This caused Jess to immediately think that no matter what he did, he could never make Lorelai Gilmore realise that he was worth something. That she could trust him. "But recently, what with telling her you love her and coming back for her, coming back to help us find her... you're a good kid, Jess. Now it's not like I'm all for you and Rory getting back together, but if you guys think it's right, then it must be right. What I'm saying, is... I'm not going to stand in your way. Rory is capable of making her own choices, and she's a good judge of character. If she chooses you... I'll support her, no matter what."

"Thanks, Lorelai." They sat in silence for a while, before Jess decided to break the ice. "So, you've called everyone who could know anything, right?"

Lorelai smiled. "Yeah, of course!"

Jess could tell that she was lying, by her sudden change in tone. "Are you sure? Everyone?"

"Well," she said, and he raised his eyebrow. "Everyone of importance."

"Lorelai, who didn't you call?"

"Emily and Richard." Emily and Richard? Who were Emily and Richard? Oh, wait...

"Emily and Richard, your -"

"Parents," she finished. She didn't call her parents?

"Why didn't you call them, Lorelai?"

She shrugged. "I don't like them?"

"Lorelai." This wasn't the whole truth, he knew it.

"Look, my parents always call me out on things I do wrong, especially with Rory. Some things, they can deal with. You know, the junk food, the slow internet, and most of the time the boyfriends." She looked apologetic to Jess because she knew what happened last time he was there. "Anyway, they won't deal with this one. Letting your kid run away? No way. They'll bust me so hard, and they might not even have her."

"Rory told me a story once," he replied. "A story about when she was younger, you two got into a fight and she told you to meet at home but then she got in a cab and went to Hartford. I think you should check with her parents. As for the parenting thing, you ran away, so it falls back on them too."

"I guess you're right," she said, taking out her phone and dialling a number.

"Rory!" Emily yelled. Try on your dress for tomorrow!"

"But grandma, I already tried it, 6 times!"

"Not with Miss Celine watching, let her alter it for you."

"The party is tomorrow! She can't alter it in one day!"

"Rory, please just try on your dress?"

"Fine," Rory replied. The phone rang, and of course the maid answered it.

"It's for you," she handed the phone to Emily.

"Hello?" She held the receiver far from her ear, not used to the volume of the phone. "Lorelai?" That got Rory's attention. She went a little closer to hear what was on the other end of the line.

"Is Rory there?" She faintly heard her mothers voice through the phone, and it sounded very worried. Maybe it was time to give up on the fight, apologise and just go home?

She didn't hear the next thing Lorelai said, but she heard Emily's response loud and clear. "Well too bad, Lorelai. You couldn't look after her daughter she came here. She's going to end up like you, you know. She's not going back, no matter how hard I push her to. She made her choice, there's nothing you can do to stop it. I'm sorry, Lorelai."

Rory started to walk up the stairs to her room, when she heard Emily again. "There's a party tomorrow," she said in a stern voice. "I advise you don't crash it." She hung up the phone and walked upstairs, where Rory was crying. "Rory?" Emily knocked lightly on the door and walked into the room. "Come down for some tea."

"I don't want to, I'm tired." She turned her tear stained face to her grandmother, looking into her eyes.

"Rory, what's wrong?"

"I ran away. I know how much it hurt you when mom did the same thing. I hurt the only thing that was always supports me. I hurt my mother. She's going to hate me." She put her head in her hands, and Emily say down next to her. No words were exchanged, but it was a bittersweet moment none the less.

A/N: First of all, what do you think of this chapter? I'll write a part II later, I just didn't want like a 6k word chapter.

Secondly, I've started writing on Wattpad! One of the stories I've posted is the same as this one, but I'm writing another one called "The Face I Came to Know" which is post-revival Literati. Go follow my page!

Lastly, shoutout to my friend Lizina, she always reads my chapters before I post them so there aren't too many typos (of course there is some we overlook but overall pretty good.)

AJ Granger: I understand your confusion. The best way to read this is to imagine it as an alternate universe, and just roll with it. I kind of write chapters and post them, then realise something that happened before. I might reference some things that happened, without actually writing in detail about them... also Luke didn't guilt trip Jess into coming because it was an unexpected no show. Thanks for your review, anyway!