This is a more thorough version of the story Holly told to Olivia. (Also the book choice is an anachronism, I know, but it's my favorite, too, so indulge me.) I messed with the timeline a bit and also that whole Nursery Rhyme Stalker deal never happened. (We're already pretending that anyway, right? I also ended up retconning Blake's kids and Meg.)

Holly Lindsey couldn't fully describe the way she felt as the plane took off, but "free" came very close. She had stayed in Springfield for far too long. She could say that it was to stay close to her daughter-and part of that was definitely true, but she had also done it to stay close to the past. And that was definitely the bigger reason, as embarrassing as it was to admit.

But now of the loves of her life, the great possibilities that she spent years refusing to ever fully let go of? Ed and Fletcher were gone and, if she were being honest, she didn't want them to come back. And Roger was dead. Theoretically for real this time, although she'd believed that before and been proven wrong. She could admit to herself if to no one else that she'd been waiting for him to return to her, but she was tired of postponing her life.

And so she was finally off to Europe. She'd told people it was to find Fletcher, but that wasn't entirely true. (Okay, it wasn't true at all.)

She didn't have a real plan or set itinerary. She was going to start in Italy, and then…? Everywhere else. She wanted to go to Germany and the UK and obviously France and Spain, but first Italy. Rome was her first stop and she had every intention of doing her own version of Roman Holiday. Holly didn't want to do the cheesy tourist thing in every city, but she decided that if she was only going to do it once, she could do far worse than emulating Audrey Hepburn.

Once she landed, she went to her hotel and checked in. She'd decided to try and keep going to adjust to the local time and hopefully avoid the worst of the jet lag but the allure of sleep was too great. She set an alarm and practically face-planted on the bed.

Two hours later, she felt much better and set out to rent a scooter. She counted 14 other single women of about her age in line and rolled her eyes at herself. She guessed it was probably better than re-enacting Breakfast at Tiffany's, so at least she had that going for her. Even so, she didn't want to be That Person. Of COURSE this would be a popular thing to do in Rome.

Her days in Rome were spent eating, going to museums and walking around, looking at everything. The day before she was planning to head to Venice, she decided to stop at a cafe. She'd initially planned to get gelato but chose to get an actual lunch instead. Holly was walking to an open table when she saw a woman reading. As she was also a reader, she subtly tried to see the cover. She stopped dead when she realized it was her favorite book (Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed).

"That's the best book!" she said, changing directions and walking over. "It's my favorite. You don't know me, obviously, but that's saying something."

The woman looked up. "Mine, too. This is my fourth or fifth time reading it. I wasn't going to bring it on this trip but I changed my mind last minute; it felt like a good idea to bring a friend, you know?"

"I do. My copy's back in my hotel room."

"I'm Victoria. Want to join me?"

"Holly. Are you sure?"

"I don't issue invitations I don't mean, Holly." She smiled.

"Okay, thanks," Holly said, sitting down.

"So I guess you're on vacation too?"

"I'm sort of…on sabbatical from my life. This is my first stop but I'm planning to travel all over before I decide where to stay."

"Intriguing! I'm on an extended holiday, too. I just reached a point where I couldn't stay where I was for another second."

"That's exactly how I felt," Holly said, smiling. "I was staying in my hometown—that's where my daughter lives—but I realized I don't really like it there. And it just felt…"

"Stifling?" Victoria said.

"YES. So where else have you been?"

"I started in Italy too; I've been here a few weeks now. I started in Sicily and went to Naples and then here."

"I'm planning to go to Venice tomorrow. After that, I'm not sure."

"Small world," Victoria said. "I am, too! It's sinking, you know; I decided it wasn't a good idea to put it off much longer."

Holly laughed. "I probably should've started there, then. With my luck, it'll happen while I'm there."

A waiter walked over. "Are you ready to order?" They did, and then Victoria turned back to Holly.

"So you said you have a daughter. Are you close?"

"Our relationship was…fraught for a long time, but we're close now. But mothers and daughters are always complicated, right?"

"Mine was, yes," Victoria said. "I don't have kids, but things with my mother were always tense. It never improved, and she died a few years ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Holly said. "My mom also died a few years ago. We never got particularly close, either. She enjoyed discussing all of my mistakes and so she was a very happy woman."

"Our mothers would've been best friends," Victoria said.

"I don't know if we should toast to that or to the fact that we survived them."

"To the fact we survived them, obviously. But we can't toast with water; it's bad luck."

The waiter dropped off food, which was ignored, and then an hour later, a check, which was also ignored. Their conversation continued, veering from light topics to heavy ones and back again.

Finally, the staff's angry stares couldn't be ignored any longer.

"We've been here for three hours!" Victoria said, laughing. "I'm surprised they didn't actually kick us out."

"I'm so sorry; I've wasted your whole afternoon!" Holly said.

"Don't apologize. I've had a wonderful afternoon." She paused and tucked a piece of her brown hair behind an ear. "Do you want to go do something?"

"Yes."

"So what do you want to do?"

"Anything," Holly said.

Victoria laughed. "So easygoing," she said and touched Holly's hand. "C'mon, let's go find something fun."

They spent the rest of the day and most of the night out wandering Rome. They shared pizza and gelato and both spent far too much money in a bookstore. Holly impulsively asked if Victoria wanted to spend more time together since both were going to Venice and was happy when the answer was an immediate yes.

"Here's the thing, though," she said, and Holly stopped walking at the seriousness in Victoria's tone. "I'm fairly recently out of a long-term relationship. Lucy and I got divorced a couple of years ago, but I'm still not completely over it; it ended really badly. I like you and I want to see where this goes, but I'm not up for anything very serious at this point in my life."

"Um," Holly said, biting her lip. "I'm not…I'm straight."

Victoria studied Holly. "Well, this is awkward," she said. "I guess I'm out of practice. I'll definitely understand if you don't want to hang out in Venice."

"Of course not," she said. "Today's been great and I'm taking it as a compliment that I'm considered a fun distraction. And I definitely understand about complicated relationships that don't end in a timely fashion."

"Oooh, tell me that story," she said.

"We don't have time for it tonight," Holly said. "It's a very long, very involved story."

"It takes eight hours to go from Rome to Venice by train."

"I could cover most of it in eight hours, I think."

But they didn't discuss it at all on that train ride. Instead, they made plans for Venice. And then they talked about other places they wanted to go. They got rooms at the same hotel and made a cautious list of things they wanted to do each day. Holly sent Blake a postcard and didn't mention the fact that she was now traveling with someone. Hanging out with a stranger wasn't something she would generally do and she wasn't necessarily eager for a lecture and she knew that if Blake found out, there would be an angry and worried phone call two seconds after she read that postcard.

It was the third night in Venice when the dreams started. They were doing various touristy things—the first part of the dream didn't matter—and then they were kissing. And touching. Holly had those dreams every night. (Not an exaggeration.)

She buried her face in her pillow and sighed. This was very inconvenient. Vic hadn't given her any indication that she still liked her, and Holly definitely didn't want to make a fool of herself.

She tried to give herself the "dreams don't mean anything" pep talk but it didn't work. And clearly having the same dream every night FOR WEEKS meant something.

The next morning, they met up for breakfast. Holly was trying to be her lightest, funniest self and Victoria wasn't reacting the way people generally did.

"What's going on with you?" she finally asked, putting her fork down. "You're acting like we're in a screwball comedy."

Holly started laughing, then covered her face with her hands. "You're right. I'm doing my best Rosalind Russell and I'm not particularly good at that, am I? I hadn't put that together before."

"So let's start this again but this time, just tell me what's happening here."

"What do you think is happening here?" Holly asked, seizing that opening.

"I'm not going to be wrong again, thanks."

"I think…I think I may have been wrong before when I said that I was straight. I've never had feelings for a woman before but I do now. And I don't know what to do with any of this. I don't know how to feel or what this means or…"

Victoria laughed. "You having feelings for me doesn't necessarily mean anything else. Although most of the other gay people I know tend to overthink things, so you'll fit right in. Anyway. Wanna get out of here?"

"Yes."

They left the restaurant and Victoria reached out and took Holly's hand. Once they were outside, she turned to Holly. "We're taking this slowly, don't worry. But…" she leaned over and they kissed.

Holly had had a lot of first kisses but this was the most electric kiss she'd ever had. There was also a weird sense of recognition, a feeling of "Oh, there you are."

Victoria had already told her about Lucy and Holly had reciprocated by sharing some of the stories of her own past. (Specifically Ed and Fletcher, and a very, VERY shortened version of her history with Roger. She'd also left Ross off the list because there was no good way to get into all of that.)

"We should probably have a long discussion," Holly said later that night. "There's a lot you should know and there's a very good chance you're going to want to run away after you find out."

"How bad could it be?" Victoria said, with a laugh.

"Remember that reaction," Holly replied. "So, I told you a little of my life with Roger."

"I have a little bit of a confession," Victoria said. "I Googled you after you told me the Cliffs Notes version."

"Oh God." Holly covered her face with her hands. "The goddamn internet."

"Indeed."

"So how much do you know?"

"I'm not sure. There was a very detailed blog but most of the posts didn't have sources listed."

"OK, here we go." Holly cracked her knuckles. "So you know about Ed and Fletcher. Roger. It's…messy."

"We don't need to do this," Victoria said. "The blog said he died. Whatever happened—and if even a tenth of that blog is right, it's a lot—it doesn't have to be part of your story now."

"Says the person who Googled me."

"That was more to make sure you weren't a serial killer."

"Are you so sure I'm not?" Holly said with a smirk.

Victoria paused, considering. "Well, if you are, I'm not worried. At this point, we're close enough where you wouldn't kill me. This is how people get caught. And you'd be smart enough not to do it."

"I'm surprisingly into this dark side of yours," Holly said, laughing. "Let me guess, you have theories about the best way to hide a body?"

"You know it. And you're right: it's theories, plural."

They headed to Paris not long after; from that point on, they got one hotel room. They stayed there for a couple of months and then decided to stay in Ireland. It was Holly's favorite place they'd traveled thus far, and only partially because the accents made everything feel like magic.

Their life was a happy one. Holly started working at a newspaper and Victoria started writing columns and reviews. They only had one recurring argument, and it had to do with Blake and, more specifically, the fact that she didn't know Victoria existed. It started up again when Blake called and asked Holly to come visit.

"I want to go with you," Victoria said. "I'd like to meet your daughter. You know all of my friends."

"It's complicated. And you know all of my friends, too."

"We've been together for three years, Holly. We live together; we love each other. And I don't think she even knows about me to think of me as your roommate. And I know all of your friends HERE, but that's not the same as knowing all of your friends."

"I know. I understand why you're upset."

"I read her book. She doesn't seem like a conservative jerk."

"I'll tell her in person, Vic. I can't tell her over the phone and I can't bring her here and surprise her with you. But I also don't want to go visit because Springfield has a lot of horrible memories for me."

"What if I go with you?"

Holly sighed. "Not the first trip. Let me just go see what's going on and tell her and then I'll get her to come visit us. And then every other time I go back, you'll come with me. Or, even better, she can come here. Who wouldn't rather come to Dublin?"

"I can't help but feel like you're ashamed of us," Victoria said.

"I'm not," Holly protested. "I love you; I love our life together. This is not about you."

"I know," she said. "I didn't say you were ashamed of me; I'm fabulous. I said you were ashamed of US."

"I'm not ashamed of us either," Holly protested. "I will tell her while I'm there. I promise. And I'll call you right after I do so you two can talk. But I have to go. My taxi's here."

"I love you," Victoria said. "Safe travels. Call me when you land."

"I will. I love you too."

Holly stared out the window the whole drive to the airport. She was excited to see Blake but was already more than ready to return home.