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

Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. I always find them so helpful. Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. I have a cold and wasn't feeling well. I hope you enjoy this next installment.

Detective Stevens was a tall man, thin and wiry. As he made his way over to us down the hall I wondered how someone so thin could ever take down someone in a fight if they needed to. Then I wondered why such a ridiculous thought was crossing my mind—exhaustion I guess.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore," he said, extending his hand towards us. Richard stood up and shook his hand.

"Are your daughter and your son-in-law on their way?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "We didn't see the need for all of us to come down. I called them and told them about George and I told them that I'd keep them posted. They are very tired."

He nodded and extended a hand towards his office.

"Well," he began as we sat down and he shut the door. "We interviewed Mr. Shetford thoroughly. He was very forthcoming and cooperative despite being nervous. He said that he and Mrs. Shetford were having marital problems when they were living in your neighborhood. He said the move was to be a change for them. He said they did indeed move to Boston like you said and had the baby about three months after that—a little girl, Rosalie. He said the marriage seemed to be going well. Then one day he was coming home from work and there was a note saying that she had left and had taken the kid with her. He said he tried to find her but she had disappeared. He moved to Chicago and has been living there ever since. He was served with divorce papers a few months after he moved. He was in Hartford this week visiting a cousin. We checked with the Chicago police and they checked him out. They found his divorce papers on record, checked with his employment. He checks out. He's telling the truth."

"Sorry—but I've heard that before," I spat out.

"Mrs. Gilmore, I understand your frustration. I firmly believe however that this man had nothing to do with your granddaughter's kidnapping. Now I understand that you do believe that this Lorraine Shetford had something to do with your daughter and your granddaughter's kidnapping but as far as we can tell, there is nothing to substantiate that evidence."

"Hold on..." I started.

"Mrs. Gilmore," he interrupted. "It doesn't mean that we are precluding the possibility that she could be involved. We just don't have any substantial evidence right now. Yes, she lied to you, but it could be that she was embarrassed about the divorce and made up a story."

"...that her child died?" I cut in incredulously.

"Mrs. Gilmore," he said again. "Again, we are going to keep Mrs. Shetford in the list of suspects. But all we have to go on right now is memories that may or may not be true. I have no reason to hold Mr. Shetford here."

We both nodded and stood up.

"We will continue to do everything we can," he said, placing a hand on my back and leading us out the doorway. We were crestfallen as we walked slowly out to the car. While I was relieved to know that George was telling the truth, relieved to know that he wasn't the monster I had pictured him, I needed answers. I was desperate for answers. We were a pair of heartbroken parents as we got into the car. We were sure that this was going to be a big lead, now how could we face our daughter and tell her that we were more confused now than before?

We just sat there in the car, staring straight ahead, unable to say anything. We were defeated completely defeated, and for the first time in our married lives we were defeated together. Richard had gone through his Gethsemane when Lorelai was kidnapped and I was in the hospital dying. Not being able to go through that much pain again he had shut down that Daddy part of him and become so good at burying pain that when Lorelai had left, the pain he had felt had gone into the hole he had dug in his heart. Then I was left to go through Gethsemane alone, going through my month of darkness, unable to get out of bed. Now here we were, reliving the Hell of the past, except we felt even more powerless and responsible. Our granddaughter was gone, possibly dead because of our life style. And both of us knew in our hearts that if it did turn out that she was dead, would we not be able to live with ourselves, but our daughter would always know that it was our way of life that had done this. For the rest of our lives, whenever we would look into our daughter's eyes we would see the blame. Richard seemed to sense my thoughts and reached over and took my hand. I squeezed it hard and tears started to flow from my eyes. Here we were, perhaps facing our darkest hour and now we were walking through Gethsemane together.

We held each other's hand for a few moments and then he reached up and started the car. On a whim I looked up at the sidewalk and saw a woman pushing her child in a stroller. I smiled sadly, remembering back to before the kidnapping attempt had happened when I was in the mall, so happy and proud to be there with my granddaughter.

"Richard..." I said suddenly, grabbing his arm and breathing heavily.

"What?" he asked.

"Why us, why you and I?" I whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"Richard, think about it...how many rich people are there in the area of Hartford alone? There have been forty-three cases over the entire country in the past forty years. Two of those cases have involved our daughter and our granddaughter. Think about it...why us?"

"What are you saying Emily?"

"Richard, remember what Detective Stevens said? The kidnapping attempt in the mall wasn't a random thing. They knew I was going to be there. They knew what kind of stroller Alicia had so they could have the duplicate in case something didn't work. This was planned. We were planned targets—for a second time."

"Yes..." he prodded.

"That's what I'm saying. Why us? They were following me, they were probably spying on Lorelai. Lorelai and Luke aren't rich. Think about it Richard, these people aren't just taking children away from rich parents. If that were the case, then Alicia's kidnapping makes no sense. For some reason we are a target. We were thirty-seven years ago and we are now. Someone out there wants to hurt us Richard...you and me."

"Lorraine," he breathed.

I nodded. "I know it's sounds crazy Richard but she was there. I know she was. I know it as certain as I've known anything in my life. She was there that day in the park. She's part of this whole thing. I know she is."

"I believe you," he said, squeezing my hand again. "The question is, what do we do?"

"I don't know," I replied. "Let's go back to Lorelai's" I said. It's getting dark and she'll be anxious to hear about what happened."

We simply told Lorelai that the lead had panned out. She had met us at the doorway, and her face had fallen as soon as she saw our faces. Richard put a hand on her shoulder and we told them what had happened.

"So...the policeman don't think it's Lorraine anymore?" Luke asked as we explained the whole story.

"Well, they are willing to keep her in the suspect list, but they don't have any evidence right now," I said, adding a mocking tone to the last part of my sentence. "I am sure she did however. Tomorrow I am going back over to the house and get anything I can about Lorraine, anything that can give us a clue to where she is. She did lie to me. We know that." I didn't want to get into the gravity of the situation that Richard and I had talked about in the car. For now, this was all I was going to say on the matter.

"Well, I think we should see about getting some dinner," I said standing up and walking towards the kitchen. I turned back when I passed Rory's empty room. "Where's Rory?" I asked.

"She went out to dinner with some friends."

"She what?" Richard and I both cried together.

"Relax guys," she said. "The policemen talked to us today and said that at this point they don't think there is a viable threat against all of us. He is still going to leave a guard here, but he said that you guys could go home and Rory could go back to Yale. She wants to stay here at night, but I told her to go out for awhile. She's been cooped up in here for days."

"Lorelai..." Richard and I cried simultaneously together. "How could you let her go?"

Lorelai stood up and in her "end of discussion face," said, "Do you honestly think I would have let her go if I thought it was dangerous? She needed a break. Marty and some other friends from Yale came to take her out to dinner. They'll be back in two hours at the most. So just relax okay?" her voice inflecting angrily at the end.

"No, I won't relax!" I said, my conversation in the car with Richard coming to haunt me. "That was irresponsible of you to let her go like that! What if something happens?" I yelled.

Lorelai's eyes suddenly became pure ice. She wasn't going to scream and yell with me, but this conversation was about to come to a cold end.

"Mom, Rory is my daughter...and in case you haven't noticed, it's my daughter that's missing right now so just back off," she said as she walked into the kitchen.

Ashamed as I am to admit this, there was a time when "I told you so," used to be one of my favorite phrases—especially with Lorelai. There was nothing I liked better than proving that I was right. Now—as we sat there in the living room, the clock ticking away each second adding onto the two hour long agony we had been going through. It was ten o'clock, two hours after Rory said she was going to be home and we hadn't heard a word from her. Now, the words "I told you so," were the furthest thing from my mind. Lorelai was curled up on the couch, tears spilling over her cheeks, her guilt being so overwhelming that she was unable to move. I sat there with her, my hand resting on top of her, my own tears overflowing on my cheeks. I needed to touch her, make sure she was still there—my girl, the only one I had now. Richard and Luke, unable to stand still for one more minute had gone out looking for Rory an hour ago. So, it was just us, sitting alone in the darkness.

"Mom," Lorelai whispered suddenly, her voice sounded far away

"Yes Baby?" I leaned forward towards her.

"What am I going to do?" she choked out. "My kids have been my whole life."

I closed my eyes and laid my head back against the couch. It was my fault, it was all my fault. I was certain of it now. There was someone out there who hated me so much that she was trying to destroy my family.

"Everything will be alright Lorelai," I said as I took one of the pillows from the couch and put it on my lap. I patted it like I always had when she was a little girl, letting her know that I had a lap that was ready and waiting. With fresh batch of tears pouring out of her, she laid down on the pillow and wrapped her arm around my legs. I kissed the top of her head and then kept my hand on her head caressing her hair, sensing that she needed to feel the physical connection to me as much as I needed to feel her.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and both of us jumped up as though the hand of the Almighty had reached down and threw us. We ran to open the door and it was a boy I didn't recognize but according to the look on Lorelai's face she did.

"Jace..." she cried, "Jace, where's Rory?"

My heard jumped, "Was this one of the boys that was with her?" I asked. Lorelai nodded.

"Lorelai, Rory sent me back here to get you. She's okay. But she says you have to hurry."

"Where is she?" we both cried together.

"We have to hurry," he said, and Lorelai and I both grabbed our coats and headed towards her car.

"I'll show you where she is," Jace said.

I got in the back of the car quickly while Jace sat in the front.

"Jace, tell me what is going on!" Lorelai said once we had started down the road.

"We were in Hartford, at a restaurant. There was this couple next to us with a little girl named Chloe and we started talking to them. They were moving to Texas. Rory had to go to the bathroom and when she was done she walked out of the stall and she said the little girl was there and she was crying. Rory asked her what was the matter and she said the little girl said she wanted to go home. She said the kid was terrified. Rory said she asked her what was the matter and the little girl said that she wasn't Chloe, she was Brittany, but if she told anybody that she was Brittany then someone was going to hurt her mom and dad."

"Lorelai!" I cried, "The girl that was kidnapped in Boston!"

"Go on," we both said.

Rory said a minute later the woman came in and took her out, saying she was very tired. They went out to the car. There was no time, we couldn't take a chance on the police taking too long. She couldn't call you because she knew that you wouldn't let her go. She came and got us, told us that those people might lead us to her sister. We got in the car, turned off the headlights and followed them. We followed them to a downtown fish place. Rory told me to come get you then as fast as I could.

Lorelai pushed all the way down on the pedal. "Can you get us there?" she asked.

He nodded.

Suddenly Lorelai's cell phone went off. She picked it up, "Rory?" she cried out. There was no answer.

"I can hear voices," she said. "I think I am on speaker phone," I leaned closer to hear.

"Children are a heritage of the Lord," a faraway voice said. "They must be raised with the righteous."

Both Lorelai and I took in a sharp breath of air.

"Rory, please tell me that you are out of sight," Lorelai whispered. The phone beeped slightly as Rory pushed a number on the other side—9

"9—for Y, she's out of sight,"

"Dear God Lorelai" I shuddered

"Mom, call the police," she said and I grabbed for my purse.

"Hang on kid," Lorelai whispered into the phone "We're on our way,"