Chapter Two: Veronica

"Is there anyone in particular you'd like me to arrest or should I just round up the sons of the most important families in town?" Chief Lamb asks sarcastically, I look at him in disbelief. He's supposed to be the chief of police, he's supposed to fucking help me. He leans back in his chair and looks at me like I'm some kind of poisonous flea.

"I've got not a shred of evidence to work with here but that really doesn't matter to your family, now does it?"

At that Jess slams his fist on to the table. "You're the fucking chief of police and if you actually fucking looked you might find some evidence!"

Lamb just looks at him amused. "Would you like me to have you arrested? I'm sure there's some kind of vandalism or theft we can put your name on. Would you like that Jess?"

Jess backs off but he gives him a long glare. Rory's been sitting next to me, quietly, with her hands in her lap, the perfect model of what her grandmother Emily expects her to be in public, all through my explanation, but finally her soft voice chimes in.

"Isn't there something you could do? I mean at the very least aren't you required by law to investigate?"

Lamb just looks down on her condescendingly. "We would if she actually accused someone but from what's she's said it could be anyone and I don't have the time, the resources, or the man power to go around chasing down every guy in Hartford who might have been at that party. Now, I suggest you all drop this now, before you embarrass yourselves anymore. You especially Rory, considering your family and all that."

He goes to the door and opens it motioning us out. I know it's fruitless to keep fighting him so I walk out, Jess and Rory follow me as downcast as I am.

"You can stay at my house if you want." Rory tells me as we walk out to Jess's car. "I called my Mom earlier and she's still at the Inn working, there's some kind of party she's taking care of or something."

I nod slowly, "Okay, thank you." I'm so unsure of what to do, I'm angry and hurt and I feel so dirty and used and everything seems so confused. Dad's in New York all this week, hunting down some bail jumper, and Mom...she left not a month after Lilly died. She and Dad had already been fighting a lot but I think him getting fired...it just put her over the edge. I haven't heard from her all summer.

It starts to rain, big heavy drops as Jess turns off the highway and on to the exit for Star's Hollow. He's a good guy, Jess is, helping me this way, I think it's more for Rory than anything but still, it's...nice I guess. Other than my father there isn't a long list of people who have been at all kind to me since Lilly died and I sided with my Dad when he went after Jake Kane.

"Veronica?" I snap out of the trance I seem to have gone into.

"Huh?"

"We're here." I notice that we're in the driveway and Jess is already unlocking the front door to the house, I open the door and climb out of the backseat.

"Sorry."

I follow Jess and Rory out of the rain, which is starting to come down harder, and into the house. Rory bangs the front door shut behind me and flicks on a light, illuminating their living room, mostly unchanged from the way I remember it years ago. There's a worn couch, a TV, and magazines, books, and CD's stacked haphazardly everywhere.

"Do you want a shower or anything?" Rory asks. "Or do you just want to sleep, you can have my bed, or are you hungry, I think we might have something edible."

Jess makes a gesture behind her back making it clear they don't, at least not by the standards of a normal persons stomach, I hold back a snort. In the last eight years, little has changed in the Gilmore house.

"A shower would be great, if it's not too much trouble."

Rory laughs and leads me into her bathroom, "Of course not." She turns on the water for me, "It's tricky," she says fiddling with the tap, and grabs me some towels from the closet before she leaves, leaving me to myself, a thought that scares me more than anything.

I strip off my white dress, that I loved when I put it on hours ago, and step into the hot water. It's extremely warm, scalding almost, but even the hot water and huge amount of soap I use won't let me forget what's happened to me.