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 the feedback on the last chapter. I hope you all had a happy holiday. I did, it was wonderful to be with family and friends. I hope you enjoy this next installment.

If the circumstances had been different, I would have been higher than a kite. I sat there on my daughter's couch, with one arm around her and the other arm around Rory. Both were asleep, resting their heads against my shoulders. If the circumstances had been different, it would have made me so happy. But the blue and red flashing lights that kept circling through the window and splashing color on the family photographs on the mantle reminded me that the circumstances weren't different. My other girl was gone. Alicia had been missing for over sixteen hours now. Lorelai had fallen asleep on my shoulder about an hour ago, the anguished exhaustion finally catching up with her. Rory had come into the living room seeking comfort she couldn't get from her agonized parents. I put my arm around her and whispered gentle assurances in her ear until just like she had that night when she was a baby she succumbed to sleep. I kept my arms tightly around them, feeling exhausted myself but I couldn't sleep. I had to stay strong for my girls.

The door opened and Luke and Richard came in, having gotten back from a walk around the block to try and calm Luke down. The door shut and Lorelai jumped up with a start.

"It's alright Dear," I said softly. "It's just Dad and Luke." She sat up and tried to smooth her hair to look presentable.

"Anything?" she said weakly.

Luke sadly shook his no and the two of them came and sat down opposite us.

"Lorelai..." Luke said. "Your dad has been talking to the policeman. He was right when he said there may be more to this than we think."

"What do you mean?" Lorelai asked.

"Lorelai..." Richard cut in, and I could tell that he was almost having as much trouble telling her as he had telling me.

He reached out and brushed a hand over her cheek. That brought the tears on for me. Richard was very rarely physically affectionate with Lorelai—another side effect again most likely brought on by the days he had lost her. In his mind he couldn't bear to go through that again and so he had distanced himself from her. Watching him now, tenderly touch her cheek, trying to give her reassurance against what he was about to tell her...it broke my heart and made me love him all the more at the same time. Rory stirred on my other shoulder and woke up as Richard continued to talk.

"Lorelai, the dreams that your mother was having," he continued. "They weren't just dreams. Your mother has been suffering from post traumatic syndrome." Lorelai sat up and looked at him curiously. He went on, "When you were two we went to France on a business trip. I had a day off and so we had lunch at a park—the same park your mother has dreamed of all these years. There was a thunderstorm and we all ran for the car. You were separated from her and ran away. You were scared of the storm. Your mother ran after you, but before she could get to you, someone took you away. You were kidnapped Lorelai."

"Are you serious?" she asked incredulously.

"Very," Richard responded without missing a beat. "We searched all over for you. Your mother got sick because we were out in the rain so long. She had to be admitted to the hospital. She was so worried about you and so sick that the next day she had a miscarriage. I didn't even know she was pregnant," he stopped for a minute to try and get a hold of his emotions. Lorelai was staring at him dumbfounded and I wasn't sure if it was more because of the revelation she had been kidnapped, that she had almost had a sibling, or because she had so very rarely seen her father cry. Richard continued, "You were missing for almost four days. Finally, the police found you in New York City. I went and got you and brought you back to your mother. After two days they finally let you see her. She got better and when she woke up she couldn't remember anything about your kidnapping. I thought it would be better that way. The dreams have been the only connection she's had to what happened."

"Oh Dad," Lorelai shuddered, and put a hand on my arm.

Richard smiled slightly at her display of affection and then went on, "Lorelai, part of the reason why I took your mother to France this time was because she needed to know the truth. I told her yesterday in the park. It was shortly after that that we got your page." He leaned in closer and took her hand in both of us. "Lorelai, the note that you found in Alicia's room, we got one with the exact same poem on it." At that, the blood seemed to drain from her face. Richard nodded as if he had read her thoughts. "I think someone had a vendetta against our family thirty-seven years ago, and still has it today. There has to be a connection. I've informed the police about your kidnapping and they are contacting officials in France for all police reports to see if they can find what that connection might be." Lorelai nodded slowly, trying to digest the information.

"Lori-Bug, I am not going to let this happen. We're going to get her back," he said and leaned in closer to her. "Do you hear me? I am not going to let this happen."

We ended up staying the night in the guest bedroom, but again we couldn't sleep. Richard wrapped his arms around me and we laid there in bed, our fear growing worse every minute. Someone out there had a thirty-seven year old vendetta against our family. Someone was trying to hurt our children and there was nothing we could do about it.

"Richard?" I said after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes?" he replied, tightening his grip on me.

"Do you believe in God?" I asked.

"What?"

I looked up at him and searched his face. "We both were brought up to go to church, we give to the church every year, we took our daughter to church when she was young, but I never really asked you this. Do you believe in God Richard? Do you believe that he is up there? That he knows what's happening to us right now?"

"Yes I do," he replied.

"Why?" I asked. "Why do you believe in God?"

"Because that night—the night in the hospital when I sat and watched you breathe, wondering if every breath you took would be your last, I prayed. I prayed really for the first time in my life. It was the only thing I could do. And I got you back, I got you and Lorelai back."

"Richard, that note...you don't think...were we bad parents Richard? Should we never have had a child? Was that note right? Maybe Lorelai would have been better off..."

Richard stuck a finger over my lips to quiet me and then brought his finger under my chin and lifted it a little to kiss me.

"We may have made a lot of mistakes Emily," he said after we had broken the kiss. "But we made a baby out of love and we've loved her for her whole life, even through the difficult times. We love her."

I snuggled into his protective embrace further and he ran his fingers through my hair.

"Try to sleep for awhile Emmy," he whispered and finally feeling safe enough to sleep, I drifted off for a few hours.

And once again, I was in the park. It was a lovely Spring day. I was spreading out a picnic lunch out on a blanket. Richard was pushing Lorelai on the swing. I called them to tell them lunch was ready. Richard put Lorelai on his shoulders and came walking over to me. I sat there watching them, laughing lightly at Lorelai hugging the top of Richard's head. Suddenly I saw it—something I had never seen in the dreams before. A shadow moved behind one of the old oak trees behind Richard and Lorelai. I focused in on it and then as the shadow moved again I saw a face,

an unmistakable face—Lorraine.

She was watching us.

Suddenly I sat up and was breathing heavily. Richard was sitting up in a flash. "What is it?" he asked, "The dream again?"

It had been the dream again but for the first time it held no terror over me. Suddenly Hope's words resounded again in my head, "Maybe someone or something is trying to tell you something."

"Richard call the police," I said quickly as I got out of bed and put my robe on.

"What?" he asked.

"Call the police and get them back over here," I said in a voice that brooked no questioning.

"What's this about?" he asked as he took his cell phone off the nightstand.

"She was there," I said, not knowing if I had really seen her that day and through the dreams I was remembering or perhaps the God I had just been asking Richard if he believed in had just given me a clue. There was only one thing I was positively certain about. "She was there," I said again as I hurried out the door.

I had called our neighbor Stella Reyborn, a lovely woman who had the key to our house in case of emergencies and asked her to go over to our house and get the big blue photo album in Richard's den. News of Alicia's kidnapping had gotten to our circle of friends and so it took fifteen minutes to get through her condolences. I didn't want to hear condolences. No one had died...yet. Finally she agreed to my request and said she would drive it over to Stars Hollow herself. Bless the woman's heart—it was three o'clock in the morning. I decided to let Luke and Lorelai sleep for a few more minutes until the police got here. I stood up and paced again, running my fingers through my hair. Lorraine had to be the connection. She was there at the mall that night and she was there at the park. Again I was thinking that the incident at the mall was more than a case of a mistaken stroller. There had to be a connection between what happened then and what was happening now. I knew that it hadn't been Lorraine that had walked out of the store, but what if she had hired the April Kelly woman to take Alicia? But that didn't make sense! Was there some connection between Alicia's mistaken stroller and the incident at FAO Schwartz?

I could hear the police coming and Lorelai came down the stairs with a start, "What is it Mom?" she asked. Rory came out of her room too, rubbing her eyes. The policemen walked in and I sat them down.

"What is this mom?" Lorelai asked.

"Officer, I may have an idea of who took Lorelai thirty-seven years ago and who took Alicia now. A woman named Lorraine Shetford,"

"Mom, what are you talking about?" Lorelai asked again. I turned back to face her. "She was our next door neighbor when you were a baby. She was pregnant when she moved. The baby died Lorelai. I saw her for the first time a few weeks ago and she said her baby died. She was there Lorelai...she was there the day in the park." I turned towards the policeman. "A few weeks ago I was with Alicia at a mall. I was babysitting her. I ran into Lorraine. It was the first time I'd seen her since she moved. Later that night Alicia was taken from me for a few minutes."

"What?" Lorelai cried from behind me. I ignored her.

"She was found after a few minutes, and they said it was another woman who had taken the wrong stroller. I watched the security tape. It wasn't Lorraine that took her, but she was there. She was there that night."

"Why didn't you tell me this?" Lorelai yelled. Again I ignored her.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and I hurried to answer it. "Thank you Stella, you're a lifesaver," I said quickly and took the book out of her hand and then shut the door before she had a chance to say any more condolences.

I hurried over to the couch and fanned through the photograph album before I found what I was looking for—a picture of George and Lorraine at our house for a barbeque. Lorraine was holding Lorelai.

"That's her," I said, taking out the picture and handing it to the police man.

Richard was walking down the stairs now, dressed and apparently had heard the conversation.

"Are you sure Emily?" he asked. "Are you sure she was there that day at the park?"

"Yes," I said. "She was there."

We were looking at each other and then we turned to the policeman. It was not the look in my eyes that convinced Richard, nor the policeman's, but Rory's. Rory had taken the picture out of the policeman's hand and was staring at it.

"What is it Sweetie?" I asked.

Rory swallowed hard. "I've seen her before," she said.

You could literally hear Richard, Lorelai and I stop breathing.

"Where?" Lorelai asked.

"She used to follow me home from school," she said, when I was in kindergarten. She always asked me if I wanted a ride home. I didn't know who she was. I never took it, but I remember her," she looked up at us.

Richard and I were already on our way out the door.