A/N- Thank you for all the reviews, keep them coming.

Broken Hearts and Shattered Lives

Chapter Four: One more for the road

A week had passed since the incident at Lane's house, Jess became more and more attentive of Rory each day, and Luke became more and more worried at their growing attachment, not understanding why Rory was pushing everyone away, but pulling Jess closer, and so in an attempt to lessen her withdrawal from the town, he'd invited Sookie, Jackson, Dean and Lane over to the house, only Lane had declined, after being grounded by Mrs Kim for coming home late.

Rory walked out of her room, Jess' baggy clash t-shirt over a pair of denim shorts, a book in one hand, she stopped short as she noticed Luke sitting with the guests.

'What's going on?' Rory asked faintly, colour draining from her features as she remained in the doorway between the kitchen and lounge.

'I thought you could do with some company.' Luke explains, patting the seat between himself and Dean, she edges forward slightly, looking around to see if she can spot Jess in the room, he's nowhere in sight.

'Where's Jess?' She asks, noticing the annoyance flash on her boyfriends face, but disregarding it.

'He's upstairs, looking for something in the closet.' Luke replies, Rory briefly wonders if Jess knew anything about this, but dismisses the thought, he would have warned her if he had known.

'Come sit down sweetie, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages, it's been….' Sookie trails off, knowing the last time they saw each other would have been at the funeral, she doesn't know where to look, Jackson takes her hand for support. Rory comes into the room and sits between Luke and Dean, edging slightly closer to Luke unconsciously. The words of her mothers letter repeat themselves, don't push Dean away, and she lets him take her hand.

'How you doing sweets?' It's Sookie who once again speaks, and it's that same question that she's heard a million times, the one she can only answer truthfully in front of Jess.

'I'm fine.' Rory lies, nobody notices.

'You look tired.' Jackson's voice filled the room this time, struggling for something to say to this shell of a girl, who once was so lively.

'Do I?' Rory looks at her shoes, the battered black and white trainers that she's bought just over a year ago with her mom, they'd been out shopping for things for Chilton, and they'd picked these out for PE, though Rory didn't have any notion of doing PE and usually got out of it with a note from her mom.

'Have you been sleeping?' Dean asked squeezing her hand gently, her eyes meet his but look away quickly.

'I suppose so.' She shrugs her shoulders, but in reality the nightmares have been getting worse, most nights she wakes up screaming and Jess comes down to comfort her, they sit up in the lounge watching movies, until gradually as he strokes her hair, she falls into a restless sleep.

'We've been thinking honey,' Sookie again, 'Maybe a change of scenery would do you good, just for a couple of weeks. We were thinking you might like to go on a vacation, somewhere nice, we could all go.'

'What?' She looks at each of them like they're stupid.

'Well it might be good to get away from here, just for a while.' Luke says gently, Rory stands up and back away from them.

'A vacation? Seriously, my mother just died and you want me to go on vacation!' She's yelling now, her voice shaking as tears threaten to fall, everyone is too stunned to get up and calm her down, they remain seated just staring at her. 'I don't need a vacation! That's not going to make anything better! The last trip I took was a road trip with my mom.'

'We're sorry sweetie, we didn't mean to upset you, come and sit down and we'll just forget the idea.' Sookie says desperately.

Rory shakes her head fiercely and picks up the car keys from the side table, ready to bolt for the door, but has second thoughts.

'Jess! Jess?' She yells loudly, gripping the keys so tightly that it's starting to hurt. Jess is down the stairs within seconds and one look at her tells him all he needs to know. He goes up to her, takes her arm and pulls her slightly.

'Let's go.' He says and she follows him outside, her whole body shaking. She gets into the drivers seat despite his protests, and he takes the passenger seat just as the door to the house is thrown open and Dean and Luke appear.

'Rory where are you going?' Dean asks, though it comes out like a demand and Rory starts the car, pulling away quickly before either of them can reach the car. She drives quickly to the highway, staring straight ahead as she goes faster and faster.

'Rory, slow down a bit.' His voice is so soft and kind that she relaxes slightly, and the car slows down, though her grip on the steering wheel doesn't let up, her knuckles are white with the strain. Eventually she pulls off the highway and winds her way round some small roads in the middle of nowhere, until she finds a bar and pulls the car over, getting out and walking inside. Jess sighs deeply and follows her. By the time he's inside she's already downed a shot of vodka and ordered another. He's seen her drink before, and if he's honest it's probably the safest way for her to deal with things, as long as she doesn't take it too far, which he always makes sure she doesn't. He sits next to her and looks over to her.

'You want to talk about it?' Jess asks.

'Nope, I want to drink.' She downs another shot and watches as the amused bartender refills it, obviously having no concern that she's clearly under aged.

'You won't find what you're looking for in the bottom of a bottle.' Jess says dryly.

'I'm not trying to, that's why I'm drinking out of shot glasses.' She downs another, and he sits back and watches as she orders a beer. 'Aren't you drinking?'

'I think you're drinking enough for two.'

'Don't judge me…you drink, I know you do, my mom busted you on it the night we met.' She drunk and slurring her words, and the mention of her mom brings a smile to her face. 'She hated you so much after that night, warned me off you…but I found you so interesting, so charming.' She laughs, 'I still do.'

'That's nice to know.' He watches her carefully, glad she's stopped drinking.

'It's odd because I hardly knew you, so I should have just listened to my mom right, there was no need for me to seek a friendship with you, but I couldn't help it, I couldn't stay away from you, she hated that.' Rory shakes her head and plays with her glass. 'I miss her.'

'I know you do.' he takes her hand and leads her to a booth in the back where it's quieter.

'I miss her so much that it hurts, so badly all the time.' Rory cries harder. 'I already grew up without a father who was ever around, I can't…deal with not having my mom as well, I can't deal with being alone.'

'Rory you'll never be alone, your dad may never have been around, but Luke has.' Jess stops to make sure he's not upsetting her further, she seems calm so he carries on 'He's always been like a father to you, I should know because he's been like a father to me as well.'

'So does that mean I'm like your sister?' Rory laughs, as if this is the funniest thing she's ever heard.

'Jeez, I hope not.' Jess replies and suddenly everything is more serious, she stops laughing and looks at him.

'I think my mom would have liked you now, how you are now, taking care of me.' Rory smiles slightly as she leans back in the booth. 'Do you know what the last thing I said to her was?'

'No, you never told me.'

'As she was leaving I called over to her to bring home some take-out from this new place we'd found, how stupid is that? The last memory of my mom is me asking for take-out and if she hadn't gone there, she'd never of had the accident…If I hadn't asked for it…' Rory broke down.

'Oh Rory you don't seriously blame yourself?' Jess was shocked, he'd never of imagined that Rory could have been carrying around all this weight, this guilt. He reached for her hand but she sprung from her seat and ran to the door. 'Rory?' Jess got up to follow her.

'Oi! You've got a bill to pay.' The bartender yelled, Jess reluctantly walked over and threw a handful of bills at him, overpaying but not waiting for change, he was out the door in seconds but the car was already moving, he ran up to it and jumped in the passenger side, just before she pulled away quickly, winding round the roads at a speed that wasn't safe, she swerved over the lanes, crying as she drove.

'Rory pull over and let me drive, you're drunk.' Jess said firmly.

'I never should have made her get the take-out!'

'It wasn't your fault Rory, you couldn't have known what would happen.' Jess reasoned. 'You guys were always going different places to find the best take-out, it's nothing unusual to ask her to bring some in with her. It wasn't your fault, it was the drunk driver who hit her…Rory?' Jess spoke quietly, realisation dawned on her face, a drunk driver had killed her mother and now she was driving drunk, she was just about to slow down and pull over when headlights blinded her, and the sound of a horn filled the air, she had been swerving across lanes and was currently on the wrong side of the road, she slammed on her breaks but the two cars collided.

'Rory? Rory are you ok?' Jess struggled out of his seatbelt and looked at her, she was awake, a cut on her forehead but other than that she seemed ok, he looked over to the other car, the driver was leaning against the steering wheel, there were other cars approaching in the distance, Rory's eyes widened in shock and panic.

'Oh my…what have I done…I'm so, so sorry…' She cried out the words and Jess felt his heart break for her.

'Switch seats with me.' Jess demanded already moving.

'Wh..what?'

'Switch seats with me before someone see's us.' Jess says firmly.

'Jess no…I can't let you…'

'It's not a request Rory.' He removes her seatbelt and pulls over across to his seat, taking her own just in time as a car pulls up.

Everything happens quickly, people arrive and check out the situation, ambulances are called and they arrive with the Police in tow, the man from the other car is worked on for a while, he sits up and Rory notices the large gash on his head, but is relieved to see him sitting and talking to one of the paramedics.

Jess and herself are checked over and taken to the hospital, the cars are removed from the road. Rory tries to take it all in as she sits in her hospital bed, this is all her fault.

Not long later both Rory and Jess are cleared, and told they can leave the hospital, but before they can leave a policeman comes over to them.

'Jess Mariano?' The policeman asks.

'Yes sir?'

'I've taken a statement from the driver of the other car, he says you were driving dangerously, swerving across lanes and the like, and the man who arrived on the scene and called us identified you as the driver, is this correct?' The man asks. Rory squeezes his hand, begging him not to admit to it but he doesn't look at her.

'Yes sir.' Jess looks down at the floor.

'Then I'm afraid you'll need to come with us.' The policeman handcuffs Jess.

'No! No you can't.' Rory screams grabbing hold of Jess, spotting a panicked Luke walking into the hospital.

'Please miss let go of him, you'll see your boyfriend soon enough.' The man takes Jess away, leading him to the police car outside.

'What's going on?' Luke demands.

'And who are you?' The policeman asks.

'I'm his uncle and her guardian.' Luke answers.

'Your nephew caused an accident due to dangerous driving.' The policeman replied. 'Feel free to follow us to the station where we can discuss this further.'

'Jess no.' Rory begs him, he looks at her with a reassuring glance.

'It's ok Rory, it'll be ok. Luke take her home.' Jess begs his uncle, then is taken to the police station.

'Rory are you ok? Are you hurt?' Luke looks at the bandaged cut on her head.

'It's fine, it looks worse than it is.' Rory replies. 'Come on we need to go and get Jess.'

'I think you ought to go home first.' Luke suggests.

'No! I can't just leave him there, we need to get him out.' Rory yells, tears streaming down her face.

A few hours later Rory, Jess and Luke return home all looking tired as they sit on the couch.

'I'm going out to get some food, can I trust the two of you not to get into anymore trouble?' Luke asks not knowing how to deal with this situation.

'Yes Luke, we're so sorry..' Rory stops talking as Jess sends her a warning gaze, Luke nods and walks out of the house. Rory is immediately at Jess' side, throwing her arms around him.

'Jess I can't let you take the blame, it was my fault I was driving!' Rory sobs. 'Let me tell them the truth.'

'No Rory, you're not going to face court, I won't let that happen. I'll go to this court date and get things straightened out, but you have to promise me you'll not tell anyone the truth.'

'But Jess…'

'No! If you want to make it up to me then stop acting out, just take care of yourself.' Jess says firmly.

'Why would you do this for me?' Rory asks after a few minutes of silence, he doesn't get a chance to answer because Luke returns.

The court date arrives and after much persuasion, Rory manages to persuade Luke and Jess into her going with them. They pull up outside the courthouse and Rory take's Jess's hand as they go inside. Over the past two weeks waiting for the trial, Rory and Jess had grown even closer, very rarely were they ever seen out of each others company, a fact that worried Luke and angered Dean.

'I've reviewed the case Mr Mariano, I have to say it is fortunate that both cars passengers were not seriously hurt, or we might be looking at a harsher sentence, however in light of your past history of shoplifting in New York, it's clear that something needs to be done, therefore I have determined that you will be required to serve 1 month in a juvenile offenders hall, and on completion of this time, you'll be expected to complete 300 hours of community service.' The judge ends the court session, and people fill out into the halls. Rory stands in shock beside Luke, but as Jess is led away she breaks away and throws her arms around him.

'No! No Jess you can't.' Rory holds him closely, he wraps his arms around her and is pleased the guards are letting him say goodbye.

'It's ok, it's just a month and you can come visit me. Promise me you'll visit.' Jess doesn't know what to do, he hadn't expected this, he was expecting community service, not a month in a offenders hall, but he was willing to do this if it meant protecting Rory, she wouldn't have coped with all this.

'I promise, I'll come everyday. Oh Jess I'm so sorry.' She hugs him tighter as the guards say it's time to go.

'It's ok, just don't do anything stupid while I'm away.' He kisses her forehead and then says goodbye to Luke and leaves.

Luke and Rory walk back into their house, Luke sits heavily down on the couch and holds his head in his hands.

'I can't believe he's not here.' Rory's voice shakes as she sits on an armchair.

'He's doing the time for what he did, he shouldn't have been driving dangerously. I should have known he'd do something like this, his mother warned me and after he hurt your arm in the car…he's just paying for what he's done.' Luke says gravely.

'No he's not!' Rory can't bare to hear Luke talk about Jess this way.

'What do you mean?'

'I was driving the car….'

A/N- review please J