Disclaimer: The show, the characters etc. are not mine and unfortunately never will be. They belong to Amy Sherman- Palladino and the WB.

Summary: When Lorelai and Emily have a car accident, they are stuck with each other as they spent hours waiting for help. Luke and Richard in the meanwhile are forced to work together as they try to find the women they love.

Author's note: This story will focus on the Lorelai/ Emily relationship. It is set after the recent episodes. The plane scene between Emily and Lorelai happened, as did Luke's confession that he has a daughter. It's my story though and I didn't use everything from the recent episodes.

This story will focus on L/L and E/R as well. I am such a sucker for romance.

This is dedicated to Mareike, who sacrificed some of her precious time to beta this story. Thanks again for that! And now, enjoy the story:

Miracles happen when it snows

Emily was just finishing breakfast, when her husband walked down the stairs. She didn't even look at him, when she got up and started to put the newspaper away.

"Are you already finished?" Richard asked carefully as he watched his wife.

"Yes" was the only response he got.

Richard sighed quietly. He didn't know what he was supposed to do anymore. For weeks Emily's behaviour had been like this. Richard knew that he had hurt her badly with his attitude towards her in the last weeks. He shouldn't have criticised her life in the way he had, but his worry for Rory had controlled his thoughts.

Richard followed his wife into the living room: "Emily, I won't stay long at work today. I'll probably be back by four o'clock."

Emily only looked up shortly and nodded once, before she turned her attention back to sorting the mail. Richard hesitated for a moment. He had wanted to invite her out to dinner tonight, but now it didn't seem like his chances were very high that she would accept his invitation.

"Emily?" he tried carefully and wasn't surprised by the fact that she didn't look up. He waited for a few seconds and finally his wife lifted her head.

"Yes Richard?"

"Would you…. Uhm." He somehow didn't muster the courage to finish his question. "It's nothing. I will be back soon." He finished lamely and hated himself for it. Before Emily was able to avert her gaze he could see it again: the hidden look of sadness and disappointment on Emily's face. Tonight, he swore to himself, tonight he would sit down and apologize to her. With a last heavy sigh Richard turned around and left the house.

Emily listened to the sound of the front door closing and then resumed sorting through the mail. She knew that she didn't exactly make it easy for her husband, but she didn't intend to do that any time soon either.

He had hurt her too much during the last weeks. In a time where she would have needed him, because she had already felt like a complete failure, he had done nothing, but told her that her life was basically useless. Suddenly it had been her fault again that Rory was taking the wrong path in life and by now Emily was convinced that she really was a complete failure as a mother and grandmother. The only thing she had wanted to hear from her husband was that she wasn't a complete failure as a wife and woman as well.

Emily had just put on her coat to go out and run some errands, when the door bell rang. "I am going to get it, Sabina." She called out to the maid.

Whoever she had expected to find before her door, it certainly hadn't been her daughter.

"Lorelai?" Emily stared at her daughter with a surprised look on her face.

"Hey Mum, uhm can I use your phone?" Emily could tell that her daughter was insecure. She stepped aside to let her daughter in.

"Is there a problem?" Emily asked as she led Lorelai to the phone.

"Yes, I was in a store nearby, because I had to get something for the inn, and when I got out again to drive back home the car wouldn't start. It's simply dead, and then I noticed that I had forgotten my cell at the inn."

Emily was just about to say that her daughter should have gotten a new car years ago, but was able to stop herself in time.

"I am just going to call Luke, I am sure he'll be able to pick me up." Lorelai continued.

"Well, you don't need to call him. I can take you with me. I have to drive by Star's Hollow anyways, as I have to pick up the invitations for the next DAR function in Litchfield."

Lorelai could think of a thousand pleasant things to do, but being in a car with her mother in the next twenty minutes was definitely not on top of that list.

"Thanks mum, but uh it is snowing heavily and the roads aren't exactly free, so I don't want you to take a detour for me."

Lorelai knew right away that her mother was not giving her an option about driving with her, but she had had to try.

"That's nonsense Lorelai and you know it. I promise you won't have to talk with me during the drive. I am not your favourite person and vice versa. You own an inn, and have to get back to work. If you wait for Luke to come and get you, it will take another hour and a half at least. I won't beg you though, it's your choice." Emily walked to the front door and left Lorelai standing in the living room.

"Fine choice this is." Lorelai grumbled angrily, before she started to walk after her mother.

The younger Gilmore was surprised to find out that her mother actually kept her promise. They rode in silence until Emily suddenly left the main road and turned into a smaller road that was leading into the woods.

"Well, mum, what now? Are you trying to kidnap me? Luke knows that I was in Hartford, he'll come and look for me."

Emily rolled her eyes: "Lorelai, if you had listened to the traffic news, you'd know that there was an accident on the main road. We either end up in a traffic jam or people will crawl by with 5 mph. We'll take another road, that's all. Few people know it, so we should be able to get to Star's Hollow in no time."

Lorelai looked out of her window and took in her surroundings: "I had no idea this road existed."

"That's the reason why it is so scarcely frequented. I usually prefer the main road though, because there is less dear and it is better illuminated."

"Yeah, especially today it's a good thing to take a road in the middle of nowhere, with all the snow and the ice," Lorelai snorted.

"Is there anything I can do right, Lorelai? Anything at all?" Emily sighed in frustration.

Lorelai decided to ignore that question and continued to stare out of her window.

Emily was fuming. There she was, trying very hard to be nice to her daughter, but all the little Miss did was trying to provoke her.

Completely lost in her thoughts Emily didn't notice the dangerous glistering on the road, and when she finally saw it, it was too late.

The Mercedes lurched violently from one side of the road to the other and the more Emily tried to bring it back onto the road, the more it seemed to spin. With Lorelai's scared scream ringing in her ears the world turned black as the Mercedes crashed into a tree.

When Emily regained consciousness a few minutes later, it took her a moment to remember what had happened. She opened her eyes to find herself staring at a tree, the front mirror was shattered. She breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that she was still alive and then with unimaginable horror remembered her daughter.

Her head spun around and the sight that greeted her made her heart stop. Lorelai was still unconscious and blood was running down the right side of her face. It took Emily a moment to unbuckle her seatbelt. "Lorelai!" Emily pleadingly called her daughter's name. When she had freed herself of the seatbelt, Emily wanted to crawl over to her daughter, but a sharp pain that made breathing impossible stopped her.

The older Gilmore woman couldn't help the cry of pain that escaped her lips, but the worry for Lorelai made her ignore it.

She brought a shaking hand to her daughter's cheek and softly padded it. "Lorelai?" She kept calling her name, but when her daughter didn't react, her eyes started to tear up. "Lorelai, darling, please open your eyes. Lorelai, I am begging you. Please."

Tears were streaming down Emily's face, when her daughter's eyes finally started to flutter open.

"Lorelai!" Emily couldn't remember the last time she had been so happy in her life.

Lorelai looked at her mother for a few seconds, her eyes still unfocused: "Mum?"

Emily still had her hand on her daughter's cheek and caressed it gently: "We had an accident, dear. You're going to be fine."

Lorelai managed to lift her head a little, but groaned instantly: "Ugh, this makes a hangover seem like heaven."

She brought a hand up to her head, and was shocked to find blood there.

Emily had removed her hand and was now trying to open her door: "Stay calm, Lorelai, I am going to get the first aid kid out of the trunk. Don't move, we don't know how seriously injured you are."

Emily finally managed to push open her door, but then had to take a moment to catch her breath. Even though the sharp pain seemed to have become permanent now, Emily tried to will it away. She had to help her daughter.

Lorelai took a close look at her mother, she looked pale and battered, but otherwise seemed to be fine.

Eventually Emily found the strength to get out of the car, but as soon as she was standing, she had to hold onto the car for support. She tried to take deep breaths, but that turned out to be harder than it was supposed to be.

Lorelai had watched the scene from inside the car and was now fidgeting with her seatbelt: "Mum? Mum, wait, I am going to help you."

"No! Lorelai, you stay in the car, do you hear me!" Emily said shaking her head violently.

She took all her strength and managed to walk the few steps to the trunk. She got the first aid kid, and a blanket, before she returned to the car and allowed herself to fall back into her seat.

By now Lorelai was more than a little worried about her mother. Emily's face wasn't pale any more, it suddenly seemed to haven taken a bluish touch as well as Emily was visibly fighting for breath.

"What's wrong, mum? Are you having trouble breathing?"

Emily tried to smile at her daughter as breathing finally seemed to get easier again: "It's okay, I probably bruised my rib cage, that's all."

She opened the kid and took a bandage and the isolation blanket out. Lorelai kept still as her mother carefully wrapped the bandage around her head. When she was done Lorelai admired her mother's work:

"I didn't know you were such a perfect nurse."

"Well, I have many hidden talents. And now, wrap the blanket around you. It's going to prevent your body from cooling out", Emily said smiling a little.

Lorelai eyed the thin golden foil sceptically, but as she caught Emily's strict look she quickly obeyed and wrapped the blanket around herself. With some satisfaction she saw that her mother was doing the same thing with the other blanket she had gotten out of the trunk.

"So mum, maybe it's a good idea to call an ambulance now. Where's your cell?"

Emily's eyes widened in horror as she realized that she had left it at home. She had wanted to pack it into her purse, but when Lorelai had turned up at her door she had forgotten all about it.

"Oh mum, please don't tell me you forgot it…. Mum, what are we going to do now? We're stuck in the middle of nowhere. My head feels like I have drunken five bottles of vodka on my own and you don't look like life itself either! What are we going to do?"

"Lorelai!"

"We are going to freeze out here and no one is going to find us….."

"Lorelai!"

"…… and then I'll never marry Luke, and Rory is going to be on her own, and…"

"LORELAI!"

The younger Gilmore jumped at the sound of her mother screaming. Emily looked at her daughter with exasperation.

"We are going to be found. I am sure we're not the only ones using this road, and even if we are, your father and Luke will start worrying about us and they will go and search for us, and I am sure Richard will remember this road. You are going to be fine, and so will I, and now safe your strength!"

Emily wasn't exactly sure whether she was trying to convince Lorelai or herself that they were going to be saved, but she hoped that she hadn't lied to her daughter.

Lorelai opened her mouth to reply something, but thought better of it and kept silent.

Luke was rushing through his diner, the lunch crowd had just left and now he had to clean up before the coffee and cake crowd arrived.

When the phone rang, he threw his rag onto the counter and answered it.

"Luke, hey, this is Sookie. Tell your lovely fiancé to get her butt over here. We have some problems with the Snyders."

"Well Sookie, I'd love to, but she isn't here. She hasn't been here all day." Luke answered while he walked back to the counter and continued to clean it.

"That's strange. She wanted to drive to Hartford to get the new curtains, but that was hours ago. I thought she might have ended up in your diner on the way back."

Luke stopped the wiping and concentrated on the phone: "What do you mean with it was hours ago? Have you tried to call her cell?"

Sookie sighed heavily on the other end of the line: "Well, as she left it at the hotel, that wouldn't make much sense. She left at ten this morning, and now it's two pm. I was simply wondering. Uh, but don't worry, I am sure she is fine."

"Yeah, yeah… I am sure she is. Sookie, do me a favour and call me when she gets back. If she doesn't come back within the next hour, call me again as well."

"Alright, Luke, and you'll call me when she comes to the diner. See you later."

Luke put the phone back. He stood behind the counter and didn't really know what to do. It wasn't like Lorelai to simply disappear. He was sure that she would have found a way to call if there had been any delays. Luke couldn't help the nagging feeling that something was wrong.

"Mum?"

"Hm?"

"This is one of the most luxurious cars in the world and you want to tell me that you don't have a parking heater in here?" Lorelai said while turning her head towards her mother

Emily sighed; they had had the same discussion over and over again during the last hour.

"Yes Lorelai, I am very sure about that, and no, we can't try to start the car, because we tried that already and it didn't work!"

"So we just sit here, wait for someone to find us and in the meantime we'll freeze to death, or what!"

"I am sorry you have to go through this, Lorelai, but there's nothing I can do. I suggest you stop ranting or else you'll get a headache again." Emily said while fixing her stare at her daughter.

Lorelai wanted to give an angry reply, but at that moment she caught the look on her mothers' face. Emily had just averted her gaze to stare out of the front window again. There were deep lines of worry etched into her forehead, and from the way Emily moved with the outmost care Lorelai suspected that her mother was in pain. So instead of continuing to argue with her mother, Lorelai simply took her mother's hand, gave it a gentle squeeze and then fell silent again.

When Richard Gilmore returned home, he instantly called out for his wife. He had used the day to think about how he would ask Emily for forgiveness. He called out his wife's name again, but the only reply he got was the maid walking into the foyer.

"Good evening Mr. Gilmore."

She took his coat and executive case and put them away. Richard desperately tried to remember the new maid's name. Sarah maybe, or Kathryn…. or Lara, no Maria! Was it Maria? Maria was a good, solid name, he would go with that one.

"Uhm Maria?" He called out and was proud when the maid actually turned around.

"Yes Mr. Gilmore?"

"Have you seen my wife?"

"She left in the morning with your daughter. She hasn't returned yet." The maid answered shaking her head.

"My daughter, are you sure?" he asked surprised.

The maid nodded.

"How long has she been gone now?" Richard asked.

The maid thought about the question for a moment, before she answered.

"Since eleven o'clock I think. Is there anything else I can do for you Mr. Gilmore?"

Richard looked at his watch. It was half past three. What could Emily be doing that took so long? She hadn't mentioned any appointments or meetings. Where could she be? The maid was still standing in the foyer, unsure whether she was free to go or not.

"Oh Maria, you may go."

The maid turned around, but then stopped: "Uh Mr. Gilmore?"

Richard looked up. "My name is Sabina."

"Alright Sabina, I'll try to remember it", Richard chuckled.

The maid smiled and left the foyer. Richard was left to wonder where his wife could be.