A/N: I'm not American, so apologies if anything is off (college/age/location stuff really) – it's all down to my own vague research. This chapter is mainly just background story stuff, I'll try not to make it too boring! Thanks for the reviews – and keep on R&R-ing!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Whoop-de-do.

They didn't know. Jo McGuire hadn't realised. Through the endless days of police investigations, concerned phone calls and media knocking on her door, through the sleepless nights she had endured praying for her missing daughter, it had never entered her mind that they didn't know. And as she realised, sitting in the kitchen at 6 o'clock in the morning trying to revive herself over a gradually growing cold cup of coffee, she felt a bitter anger rising inside her.

Lizzie had been fifteen, and Matt eleven, when they had moved to Long Island. Jo remembered the devastated look on her daughter's face when they had told their children of Sam's job transfer. The thought of leaving Miranda and Gordo, her two fully-pledged best friends, the two people in the world that made her happiest, had struck Lizzie down.

Jo gave a wistful smile as she remembered how determined Lizzie had been to make the most of her last days with Miranda and Gordo. They were out every day 'til dark, continuous extended slumber parties for Lizzie and Miranda, constantly running up the phone bill for Jo and Sam spending hours talking to each other… but Jo didn't care, because she knew things were all soon about to change.

And she was right, only they changed a lot sooner than she had expected. Her mouth twisted into a bitter smile as her mind flickered back three years, to when her daughter had fallen…

"I broke up with Gordo." Lizzie told Jo matter-of-factly, brushing her long blonde hair out of her face into a ponytail. Jo looked up, startled, very nearly dropping the china plates she had been packing into a box. If there was one couple she had expected to last, it had been Lizzie and Gordo.

"Why?"

Lizzie shrugged, acting like she didn't care, but as she looked closer, Jo saw her daughter's eyes filled with unshed tears, her mouth quivering. Seeing her mother watching her, Lizzie turned away, biting on her lower lip hard to compose herself. "It wouldn't have worked." She said calmly. "We're moving – how ever many miles away it is, but still, it's a lot. Neither of us would be able to handle a long-distance relationship."

"Did Gordo feel the same?" Jo enquired, resisting the urge to hug her daughter tight and never let go. Lizzie shrugged again.

"It didn't matter. He couldn't force me to have a relationship with him."

Jo knew there was a lot more to it than Lizzie was saying, but knew better to pry. "Lizzie…" She said softly, and Lizzie dissolved at her mother's tone. Turning, the tears running down her cheeks, she let herself fall into Jo's arms.

"I think I did the wrong thing, Mom." She sobbed. "He said.. he said that if I was going to let a little thing like distance affect us, then maybe I wasn't worth it. But how could it have? Neither of us can drive. How can – how can we trust each other from so far away?"

Jo rocked her daughter gently, unable to say anything that would help, that would mend a broken heart.

"Hey, how about I live with Miranda." Lizzie suddenly said brightly, pulling away and wiping her wet cheeks. "Just 'til I'm eighteen. Then I can get a place of my own."

Jo closed her eyes briefly. Lizzie faltered. "Sorry. Sorry. I don't want to leave you, Dad… hell, even Matt… but I've never lived without Gordo before either. I don't know how to. And I'm scared."

Jo poured the rest of her coffee down the sink and rested her head in her hands, trying to fight back the familiar tears. The phone calls had continued, but they were different ones now. Sobs down the phone to Miranda. Fights down the phone to Gordo. It had scared Jo. Her daughter had never had a proper relationship before Gordo, and now that it was over, she wasn't eating, she had grown edgy and snapped at anything, and her bubbly personality had long gone.

And suddenly, Jo couldn't remember when she had seen Lizzie as happy as she had been with Gordo and Miranda.

It just wasn't the same.

She was aching all over. Her back was sore from the awkward position she had been half-lying, half-sitting in. Her legs had permanent cramps, and the irritating prickling sensation hadn't left her hands and feet for what felt like days. Wriggling around, trying to get rid of the cramp, she resorted to banging her legs against the floor, furious at him for leaving her like this.

"Shut the hell up!" He was glaring at her from the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"Cramp." She glared back at him. "And I'm not going to quit it until you take these bloody ropes off me and let me walk around."

He snorted. "Not likely."

"Like I'm going to do anything, anyway." She bit back at him. "I have no clue where I am. And we both know that I'm not exactly the strongest of people. So you have the upper-hand – I won't try anything, but I'll keep making a noise until you take these things off."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "You always were the most stubborn of people, Lizzie McGuire." He muttered as he bent down and undid the tightly knotted ropes on her wrists held behind her back. Cracking a faint smile, she arched her back as she climbed to her feet and stretched her arms high above her. Her bones ached and creaked in protest, but the cramp was already dissipating. And as she paced back and forth across the room, trying to get the blood flowing in her legs again, she noticed he was watching her with a broad smile across his face – the smile that had made her heart melt.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just… I've missed you." He said softly.

"There were other ways to tell me that aside from kidnapping me, you know." Lizzie retorted dryly. He shook his head.

"We were over, and you wouldn't have listened to what I had to say. This way – we can be together forever."

"You're crazy." She told him, sitting down on the bed and rubbing her sore head. He sat down next to her, and she slid away self-consciously. "You've – you've lost it, seriously. You need help."

"I don't need help!" He bellowed at her. "I need you." His eyes filled with sudden tears. "All I need is you."