Disclaimer: This is an original story based upon the characters of Gilmore Girls. No profit will be made from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Note: Thank you for all your feedback. I really appreciate it! This will most likely be the last update before Christmas. I don't know if I'll have time to update again before then. So—I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Thank you for your friendship!

Time seemed to stop as we sped back to Hope's house. Neither of us spoke—neither of us could breathe. What was wrong? Hope's words resounded in my head, "Maybe someone or something is trying to tell you something." Was that it? Had the dreams been a warning that this would happen? We only hoped that when we got to Hope's house there would be some answers. Finally we pulled in and Richard jumped out of the car before it had even come to a complete stop. I was right behind him. Hope met us at the door. I could see by the fear in her eyes that Lorelai had called there looking for us.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Richard said as he hurried towards her.

"Lorelai called." Hope whispered, her voice shaking. "She went into Alicia's bedroom this morning and she was gone."

"Richard!" I cried out.

"She said they called the police and they are scouring the town but there is no sign of her," Hope went on.

Richard started towards the stairs.

"Richard wait!" Hope called

"The cell's upstairs," he barked. "I'm going to call Lorelai...Emily, you book us a flight home."

"Richard wait!" Hope said again, more fiercely. That stopped us both in our tracks.

"What is it?" I asked.

She suddenly looked even more afraid and helpless.

"What is it?" I prodded

She turned and faced Richard, "Richard, Lorelai said there was a note in Alicia's crib..." she paused for a minute and bit her lower lip.

"The note said...The bible doth condemn the rich and so we must do the same. This child must grow up to the right and so it cannot have your name. This child must stay where the righteous trod, and so I take it in the name of God."

"What kind of ridiculous thing..." I started and then I looked at Richard's face. He was completely ashen. He turned and vaulted up the stairs three at a time.

"Emily..." Hope said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "How much did he tell you?" she asked.

"Everything," I said, trying to take deep breaths. She took my hand and led me into the living room. On the couch was the box from up in the attic—the one the newspaper article was in. "Richard wanted me to keep some things, just in case we ever found the kidnapper," she said. She opened the box and pulled out a note. "This was on my doorstep, the day after Lorelai was kidnapped."

I took the note and to my horror read the same words.

Suddenly, for the second time I felt like I was going to faint. Hope caught me and I held onto her for strength.

"Hopie," I whispered. "What am I going to do?"

She put her forehead against mine, and whispered, "You're going to go home to your girl," she said. "You are going to find Alicia and you are going to end this once and for all."

"Emily," Richard called. "I have her on the phone!" I turned and hurried up the stairs. I hurried into the room and took the phone in my shaking hands.

"Mom...Mom?" she started to sob.

"It's alright Sweetheart," I said, starting to cry myself. "We're coming. We're on the next flight out. Do the police know anything yet?"

"No," she cried. I had never heard my daughter so unglued.

Richard made a motion that he wanted me to hand him the phone.

"Dad needs to talk to you Lorelai. We'll be there as soon as we can. We love you. Tell Rory we love her and...Luke. We love you all." I handed Richard back the phone.

"Lorelai," Richard said firmly. "I need to talk to Luke. Put Luke on the phone."

"Luke, it's Richard," he said after a minute. "Luke—I need you to listen to me very carefully. Have the police checked that note you got for fingerprints?" I could hear Luke's voice rising on the other end, saying of course they had. Richard was far from being angry. He knew better than anyone what Luke was going through. Suddenly, even in the midst of his fear, Richard took on a tenderness that I had never seen him show anyone besides me, Lorelai and Rory.

"Son..."he started and swallowed hard. "I know you're scared. I know the Hell you're going through right now—believe me. You need to listen to me. Did the police find any fingerprints?"

He shook his head at me as Luke told him about the finger print search that didn't turn up anything.

"Okay, we are taking the next flight out. I will need to talk to the policeman as soon as he gets there. There is more to this than you might think. I'll call you again as soon as we are in the air."

He hung up the phone and we both grabbed our bags I had thrown together while he was talking. We hurried down the stairs and kissed George and Hope on the cheek as we ran out the door.

"We'll be praying for you!" Hope called as we got in the car and sped to the airport.

Once inside the car, I buried my head on Richard's shoulder. Was it just this morning that I was so happy? It seemed like a life time ago. Now it seemed like I had never known anything but fear.

"Richard," I whispered. "There has to be a connection. There has to be—but what?"

"I don't know," he said, putting his arm around me. "Lorelai's kidnapping happened over thirty-five years ago."

"Is there anything else...anything at all you're not telling me?" I asked, searching for any clues.

"No," he said shaking his head. "I told you everything I know."

"Richard," I started, an idea coming into my head. "A few weeks ago, when I was babysitting Alicia, I took her to the mall. I lost her for a few minutes and I panicked, thinking she had been kidnapped. It turned out that some lady had simply taken the wrong stroller. I was scared, but trusted the woman's story. Perhaps that was merely a foiled attempt. Richard, the woman's name was April Kelly. Does that name ring a bell at all?"

"No Emily, it doesn't," he said and I fully expected him to be angry with me for not telling anyone about the mall incident. "Maybe there is a connection," he said. "We'll tell the policemen everything."

I was grateful that he wasn't angry. Somehow, in the past few hours as the secret was shared and we were thrown into another nightmare, we had been fused tighter together. We pulled up to the airport and grabbing each other's hands we ran into the airport.

There was nothing—no flights anywhere even close to Hartford. I had to stop Richard from hitting the clerk when he said there was nothing he could do. For a maddening hour we waited on stand-by for a seat to open up. Finally, we resorted to begging, talking to anyone we could see was headed anywhere in the states. We were desperate. Finally, we ran into a younger couple who were headed to Hartford. At that moment, I was sure there was a God. Richard offered them a thousand dollars and we boarded the plane.

The ride on the plane was the longest time of my life. Richard and I could hardly hold still. What could be happening? Alicia was so much younger than Lorelai was when she was kidnapped. Was she hurt? Was she sick? Lorelai had ended up in New York City. Could Alicia end up somewhere half way across the world? The fear was terrible. I couldn't stop shaking.

The stewardess came and asked me if there was anything she could do. Richard asked if there was a flight doctor on board and if he could give me something to sleep.

"No," Richard I whispered hoarsely. "I won't leave you alone again. I am going through this with you."

We held each other's hands tightly as the plane flew towards New York. Again, I was sure of the reality of God when I found out that we had no time between our connecting flight. When we landed, the stewardess told us that we'd have to hurry to catch our next flight. She didn't need to prompt us at all. We must have broken some sort of speeding violation in airports as we hurried to our next gate and boarded the plane.

"We're almost home," Richard said as he put his arm around me and took my hand in his other hand.

As soon as the plane landed we hurried off the plane and Richard rented a car. At this point we hadn't slept in 24 hours and we were running on sheer adrenaline. Richard—the man who had called his daughter "the speeding wonder" when he was teaching her how to drive, put his foot full on the gas as he sped to Stars Hollow. There were no policeman on the highway at all—yeah, there is a God. As we got closer to Lorelai's house we saw the crowd gathered, it seemed like the whole town was gathered to support Lorelai and Luke. We could see the blue and red of the police cars shining all around us. Richard pulled up to the street and we hurried out. "Have they found her yet?" we both asked wildly and the townspeople shook their heads. Suddenly the screen door crashed and there was Lorelai—my almost forty year old daughter and for the first time in more years than I could count, she bore the look of someone that wanted, needed her mommy. I ran towards her and caught her in my arms. She laid her head on my shoulder and cried for a few minutes. We broke the hug and I reached up and wiped away her tears. It was then that we turned and saw Richard and Luke.

Richard, bearing the face of a man who was reliving Hell had hugged Luke to him and Luke—who under normal circumstances would have wondered if the sky was falling down if Richard had hugged him before—was crying.