It's late in the evening now. The whole road trip idea seemed fun to Lorelai until they got about three hours out of Stars Hollow and she realised she had no clue where she was going and none of them had any clothes or toiletries. She'd stopped at a little town somewhere and picked up essentials for the three of them but as they drove around it was getting later and later and Lorelai was considering just giving up on looking for a place to stay and sleeping in the car.

She looked back at Victoria. No. That wasn't an option. The girl was only sixteen and her life was stressful enough at the moment. The last thing she needed was an uncomfortable night in the car.

Just as she was considering turning back, Rory points.

"Mom look, a hotel." she says. "Can we stay there?"

"Yes, yeah come on let's go there." says Lorelai, turning into the hotel.

The only room available is a double bed with a roll away on the floor. Victoria chooses to sleep on the floor, and Lorelai and Rory share the double.

Victoria crashes out almost instantly. Rory feels a pang of guilt that she kept her out so late and made her so tired. She really wasn't used to factoring a teenager into her life and she should have made Lorelai think this whole road trip through more carefully.

"Hey mom, you awake?" whispers Rory.

"Mm hm." says Lorelai, rolling over to face Rory.

"Mom, are we doing the right thing? Taking off like this?" Rory asks, though she knows the answer already.

"We're not taking off. We're getting out of town for a while. Just the three of us."

"Mom..."

Lorelai sighs. Rory knows this really isn't the best time for this conversation. "Rory honey, all of us have so much stuff going on, me included. And after the conversation with Jess about Vic..."

"Mom he doesn't know what he's talking about he hardly knows her. She's my daughter and..." Rory whispers, her voice fades out. And what? And nothing. She doesn't know Vic, and that's her own fault. And maybe Jess does have a point.

Lorelai doesn't say anything. Rory knows that her mother knows what she's thinking.

"My point is..." Lorelai continues carefully. "Don't you think right now that we just need to be with each other, get our heads straight?"

"I guess so."

"Come on, get some sleep, we've got a busy day tomorrow."

Rory lies down and closes her eyes but she can't stop thinking about what Jess said. Jess was many things but he wasn't stupid, and he wasn't a liar. As much as she didn't want to, she had to give some weight to his observations, as hard a pill as it might be swallow, because Victoria could need her help.

The next morning Victoria wakes up early and has one of those moments where you get confused because you're sleeping in a different room. It takes her a moment to remember the events of last night. There had been some mysterious phone call from Jess and then Lorelai took the three of them out to this hotel which, in the harsh light of day, was looking more and more like a prison. Victoria peered out the window, trying to work out where they were, but there was nothing around that gave any clues.

Victoria glances around the room, then spots Rory's phone on the bedside table. She freezes, knowing that what she's thinking about is wrong, but almost independently of her body, her hand reaches out and grabs it. She doesn't know the code, but the notifications show a text from Jess, just what she was looking for.

Rory when I said I saw myself in her I didn't mean that she is just like me at that age, just that she could be like me, if you don't pull it together. I'm worried that's all. Let's be honest, nobody wants their kid to be like me.

So the mysterious phone call explained. Jess thought she was going to be like him. Victoria hadn't known Jess in those days but it sounded like he was a tearaway, a near delinquent. Luke once mentioned that he ran away. Did he really think she was going to do all of that. Did Rory believe him? Was he right?

The thought of running away had occurred to Victoria more than once. And not just running away to visit Jess or Richard's grave but really running away. Going home to London to find George, her ex boyfriend. She could live with him. Or maybe just taking off and hitchhiking somewhere, anywhere, and relying on the kindness of strangers. She felt out of place in Stars Hollow, she was angry with Rory still for everything in the past, and angry with her dad for being the reason she had to live here in the first place. If she was honest, the only thing that kept her here was Lorelai. Lorelai couldn't handle losing her granddaughter again. And Victoria cared how Lorelai felt, only Lorelai.

Victoria is about to put Rory's phone down again when it buzzes with another notification. She reads it, wondering of it's from Jess again. It's not, it's from some app.

Today your baby is the size of a raspberry.

I miss this story! I thought I'd bring it back with a short and sweet chapter after all this time. Let me know if you want more!