Thanks to everyone who read/reviewed/followed/favourited the last chapter and my story. Especially those who left a review - I appreciate your feedback immensely.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to post another chapter later this week, all going well, but I hope you enjoy this one for the time being.

CHAPTER 5: Gone

A couple of days after her hunt for information, Elleigh is finally ready to take the next step to pursue her lead.

This morning Lorelai is dropping her off at school before she heads to work at the Inn. Usually, Rory would walk with her and drop her off before walking to her own job at the Gazette. However, Rory had to go in an hour earlier today, so she teed up the drop-off with her mother.

"Bye honey-bun! Have a good day, Elle" Lorelai says, beginning to wave at the nine-year-old frantically, doing her best to embarrass her only grandchild as they part ways in front of her school.

"Bye..." Elle responds with gritted teeth, not even half as enthusiastic as the older woman is.

After giving the little blonde girl one last hug, Lorelai heads back to her Jeep as Elle waits patiently on the spot and discreetly waves her goodbye.

Once the car and her grandmother have driven off and are out of sight, Elle drops her school bag to the ground, pulling out a single piece of paper, changing course from where she is supposed to be headed for; the school ground and her classrooms. Elleigh knows that she only has one chance and the printed piece of paper that she is holding just reminds her that it is for one day only; those words sprawled out across the sheet in bold, capital letters.

She can't go back now and she can't give up her one and only chance to follow her lead and to follow the scoop. So, not only does she change course from her classroom where she is expected to be within ten minutes, but she heads straight for the bus stop instead.

Elle walks slowly, knowing that she is less likely to be caught out by walking through the town square than she is to be busted for standing and waiting at the bus stop. So, even though the bus stop is just on the other side of the town square she takes her time and walks slowly -but not slow enough to bring any suspicion on herself- until she finally reaches the bus stop and is only left waiting for two minutes before the next bus headed out of Stars Hollow arrives at the only stop in town.

As the bus pulls up, the doors open to reveal Kirk... Because, of course, he's started working as a bus driver recently. "Morning, Elle. It's a Thursday... Don't you have school?"

"Nope, student free day" Elle responds succinctly, not skipping a beat as she lies through her teeth.

"Right... I knew that. Jump in."

Elle gives the town workaholic a grin and climbs into the bus, finding a seat towards the back to settle into and get comfy for the long drive ahead of her.

As she shuffles around in her seat a little, Elle suddenly becomes aware of an awful, sinking feeling within her... fear.

Elle feels her penchant for adventure slipping away as the logical and scary side of her excursion suddenly becomes harder and harder to ignore. She suddenly worries about making the trip on her own. After all, she hadn't told her mom, or anyone else for that fact, where she is going or why. She didn't say a word to anyone because she knew she probably wouldn't be sitting on a bus at this very minute if she did.

However, even though she knows that this is her only chance and even though she knows that she has to take it, it's still just a little bit scary. After all, she is headed to an unfamiliar city, on her own. Not to mention, she's getting there in a bus that Kirk's driving.

With every stop that the bus passes and with every minute that the bus travels away from the small town, it becomes more and more apparent that the only way out now, is through... Through a bus headed out of and away from Stars Hollow...

#

Later that day, just after lunch, Lorelai returns inside to Dragonfly Inn from where she'd been out in the Inn's stables. Grooming the horses is supposed to someone else's job, but every now and then she will find excuses to go and pat Desdemona and Cletus. Today is one of those days.

"Oh, good, you're back. Your offspring is holding up the phone" Michel hisses as unpleasant as ever.

With a roll of her eyes, Lorelai heads straight for the phone, giving Michel a dirty look as she answers the phone to Rory.

"Hey hun."

"Mom? Mom! I've sent you nearly 20 messages! I, I've called the Inn seven times and Michel's been keeping count and tallying them in favours that I owe him and he didn't know where you were and he wouldn't go and look for you and I couldn't reach you and-"

Lorelai's face turns to a frown, being filled with worry from the second that Rory uttered the word 'mom' for the second time. She could hear the terror and fear in Rory's voice, not to mention she notes the way that she is rambling on rather than getting to the point of what is worrying her; not surprising seeing as she is her mother's daughter.

"Rory, honey, slow down. Take a deep breath and find another word than 'and'. What's wrong? What's going on?"

"It's Elleigh... Did you remember to take her to school today? Did you take her into her classroom?"

Lorelai's face scrunches up at the obscure question in relation to Rory's panic attack.

"Of course I did. I took her to school, I made sure that she was ten minutes early for her class and I made sure that I embarrassed her sufficiently before I left. But no, I didn't walk into her classroom with her. I thought you stopped walking her into class at the beginning of last year."

"Yeah... Yeah, you're right. I don't do that anymore either. I'm sorry, I'm just panicking."

"Rory, tell me what's going on."

Urgency is rising in Lorelai's voice as she feels the panic beginning to pulsate within her. She's getting a pretty good idea of what is going on, but she hopes her daughter will prove her wrong. She likes that idea much more than the other theory that is formulating itself within her mind.

"Mom... Elle's missing. I got a text from the school a half hour ago reminding me to give her a note to take in tomorrow about why she's absent. So, I rang her teacher who confirmed she hasn't been in class all day today. I phoned our house too in case you forgot to take her and she slept in. I called your house, just in case. I called Luke who's freaking out now too. I called Lane and Zach who are interrogating the twins about whether they know anything about where she is. I called dad. I called Grandma. I called Miss Patty. I called the police. She's just gone, mom, and I have no idea where she is."

I hope you enjoyed the chap. This one's a bit of a filler chapter, but it's leading into something bigger... We'll get to that with the next chapter.

Please let me know what you thought and if there's anything that you'd like to see. I've written 17 chapters for this story so far, but I have got some room to add if there's any requests or anything that you'd like to see, as long as I'm able to factor it in.

I can't wait for you all to read what else is ahead for Logan, Rory and Elle!

Next chapter: Where has Elleigh gone? Has she found Logan? Will the others find her?