A/N: Anyone you might recognize does not belong to me. Mickey and Elizabeth belong to Lindsay, the girl who thought this story up. If you like it, let us know. If you hate it, constructive criticism is always welcome.

Mickey Stone descended the bus with one hand clutching the handle of her old suitcase and one hand supporting the bottom of the three-month old infant strapped to her belly. The shoulder straps were digging into her neck, but it was late afternoon and she didn't want to stop until she had a place to stay.

Elizabeth wriggled a little in her sleep but thankfully didn't awaken. Mickey waited for the bus to drive away before taking a closer look at the town she now found herself in.

The circles under her eyes masked her youth and the scared feeling in the pit of her stomach refused to go away. Both had been with her since she'd discovered that you could actually get pregnant the first time you had sex. That had been just a year ago.

She would never forget the day that she'd taken that stupid home pregnancy test. God, what a nightmare. At sixteen years old, she couldn't imagine telling her parents. Her mother worked two part-time jobs and her father was perpetually out of work. What little extra money there was her father wasted on beer, cigarettes and lottery tickets. They were always fighting and scraping by and if it weren't for school, Mickey wasn't sure how she'd deal.

And then, as if things weren't bad enough, she'd gotten pregnant. Idiot, she cursed herself. How could you be so stupid! Her life had less than great and when Tom Rollingford had asked her out, she thought it was a sign. Things would get better.

His family was of extremely good breeding, they owned several houses, yachts, horses, cars…Mickey absently thought that they probably owned several of everything. His life was the antithesis of hers. And she wanted in.

Of course, sleeping with him had seemed like the perfect in. If you sleep with him, he'll fall in love with you and then he'll take you away from all your problems. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The whole thing was like some ridiculous after-school special. She'd gotten pregnant the first time they'd done it and the next day at school he'd completely ignored her. Two months later it finally dawned on her that things were changing in her body and she'd gotten the test.

When the stick turned pink her stomach had sunk into her shoes. Completely unprepared to handle things, she'd decided that instead of telling her parents she'd see how long she could go before things became obvious.

For the next several months she'd attended school, done homework, was ignored by her parents and in general tried to maintain the status quo. In June when school let out she started spending a lot of time at the library and the park, anything to be out of the house.

At the end of June she'd gone into labor. Her parents had been not surprisingly furious over the pregnancy and over her lying about it and they were unwilling to help her. She spent a couple of months at a half-way house for unwed mothers, but there was a time limit on how long one could live there.

So, Mickey had packed her suitcase that morning taken the bus with Elizabeth out of Litchfield to this place called Stars Hollow.

Shifting her daughter's weight, she looked around for something, anything that looked like potential food and shelter. There seemed to be a diner down the block and she headed for it hoping they might need a waitress.

Elizabeth's bare feet kicked out at her legs as she lugged the suitcase along. The baby had slept the entire trip and Mickey knew she'd be waking up soon. With a grunt, she pushed open the diner door and grimaced at the cheerful bells. Now she'd done it. As if on cue, Elizabeth awoke and began fuss noisily.

Spotting an empty table, Mickey threw an apologetic glance at the impatient looking guy wearing flannel behind the counter and moved to sit. The sigh of relief she gave at being seated must have gotten her some pity-points because the guy came over with a glass of water and said, "Long day?"

Mickey gave a short, tense laugh and said, "Yeah, you could say that. Could you help me out here?"

She was unsuccessfully trying to take Elizabeth out of the carrier strapped to her stomach. When she pulled the baby up, the fabric of the carrier came up, too, making it impossible to detach them.

"Uh, I don't really know what I'm doing with this kinda thing," he said with raised hands and a frown.

"Just pull her out, okay? I'll hold the bottom." As she said this Mickey lifted Elizabeth's little arms and held them up to the guy.

Elizabeth was getting fussier by the second and probably to get her to shut up the man wrapped his hands around the baby's small chest and lifted. Mickey held onto the carrier at the bottom and they successfully separated the two. Quickly doffing the damn thing, Mickey threw it onto the chair beside hers and held her arms out for the baby.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," she told him as she took the baby back.

"Don't mention it," he replied grumpily. Elizabeth was settling down now that she was free of the carrier and seated on her mother's lap. "What can I get you?" the man asked, ordering pad poised.

"How 'bout a job?" she said with another nervous laugh.

The man took a hard look at her and then softened a little bit.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen next week," she told him glancing away in embarrassment. She'd come across more than one person who'd felt comfortable using words like "slut" and "whore". She hoped he'd just give her a break.

"Seventeen?" he repeated with an incredulous look.

"Yep, completely over the legal age for working," she pressed with another laugh that sounded desperate even to her.

"Are you in school?"

"I'm working on my G.E.D.," she lied, swinging her eyes back to Elizabeth.

"And this is your kid," it wasn't a question.

"You wanna see a blood test?" she asked.

The man paused, clearly unsure about how to proceed. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Mickey."

"Like the mouse?"

"Like the Jagger. My dad was a fan."

"Jagger as in Mick Jagger?"

"Yeah. He thought it was pretty hilarious. My mom didn't think it was so funny when she woke up from the drugs and saw the birth certificate."

"I can imagine," he said with wide eyes.

"Anyway, about that job," she said, trying to draw the conversation back.

The man regarded her thoughtfully for a second and Mickey felt like shrinking in her seat. Her hair was dirty, she knew, but it was an okay color. Deep red with some highlights, and long when it wasn't pulled back in a ponytail. Which was never since Elizabeth had come along. Her jeans were mess, she knew, and the t-shirt she wore was a throw back to the makeshift maternity clothes she'd been using toward the end of her secret pregnancy. Even Elizabeth looked bedraggled. Her downy blonde hair was matted from the travel, her onesy was two days passed needing to be cleaned and she desperately needed a diaper change.

"I'll be straight with you," he told her with a sigh. "I wish I had a job for you, but I don't. I just hired on someone for the tourist season."

Mickey's hopeful eyes fell and she nodded silently.

"But I might have a friend who could use some help. She just opened an inn and I think she might be looking for a maid."

Mickey's head snapped up again. "Really?"

"Yeah. Lemme buy you lunch and then I'll give you directions. You can leave the suitcase here if you like."

"Thanks," Mickey told him sincerely. "I really appreciate it."

"Wait'll you meet my friend before you decide to thank me," he said before sticking his hand out and announcing, "I'm Luke."