The heat was bearing down on the two women as they walked through the woods, Tori was slightly ahead and guiding Jade along the narrow path as it descended the hillside from her cabin. Luckily, the tall redwood trees provided ample enough shade for them and the pack as they journeyed in silence. The only sounds that met Jade's ears as she followed behind Tori were those of birds chirping, branches and leaves swaying and bending to the winds, and the annoying buzzing of insects that were too curious for her liking. Around them, the members of Tori's furry family scampered around and played with one another as they ran around the immediate path. Except for Duke who stayed close by and walked in front of Tori, ever vigilant for any danger that may lurk nearby unseen. Jade tried to break the silence as the path widened enough for her to step in tandem with Tori as she came around to her side and casually asked, "So none of them need collars or leashes or anything like that? What happens if they get lost or something?"

Tori gave Jade a small glance before looking back ahead and said, "No…they don't need any of that. I have them if I go to the city with them but I trained them well enough to know they won't get lost if we're just here at home. Plus, they watch out for each other."

"How did you even learn to train them like this? It must have taken forever," Jade said.

Tori shrugged her shoulders and said, "It was at first. I barely knew how to really care for Duke when he was a puppy so I learned as I went. I looked up videos online and did some reading on how to train animals and eventually," she waved her arm out towards the pack as they roamed around before them, "this was the result."

"Well, it's incredible either way, you've put in a lot of work with them," Jade said before lightly nudging Tori with her shoulder and said, "the smell I could do without but it could be worse."

The corner of Tori's lips curled up in a smirk as she glanced at Jade and said, "Jerk."

"Hey come on, you know I'm just kidding," Jade said.

"I know. I'm sorry…this is just a big change so I'm trying to keep calm," Tori said sadly.

"Vega…you know you don't have to apologize, especially to me," Jade said as she reached to rub Tori's back but stopped herself and let her hand fall back by her side. "So where are you taking me?"

"A special place. I think you'll enjoy it," Tori said as she pointed ahead towards a smaller overgrown path that diverged from the main trail, "Come on. It's not too much further."

Axel and Zippy were ahead of them all and were racing one another along the divergent path as Kona followed close behind while Nyx and Lola trotted along at their own pace enjoying the warmth and exercise. Tori followed them and pushed some hanging brush aside and let Jade go first as Duke stayed close by her side. From up ahead, Jade could see that some of the dogs had stopped and now sitting or lying around a small clearing that lined a small creek. The water was clear and reflected the sky above and was only about five or six feet wide and maybe a foot or two deep from Jade's estimation. To her left, were several large rocks that naturally emerged from the ground and lined the creek on either side and she watched as Tori walked past her and hopped onto one of the two rocks, and kicked off her shoes and socks before dipping her feet in the cool water. Duke followed her and jumped to her side before walking behind Tori and laid down, letting his front paws lazily dip into the water and yawned. Tori leaned over and kissed his head and leaned back, using his large body to cradle her head as she bathed in the sunlight. "Welcome to my little hideaway," Tori said as she motioned towards the clearing.

"It's nice," Jade said plainly. Yes, it was peaceful and serene, but nothing incredible like Jade was expecting, then again, she wasn't sure what to expect at this point. "So, you just found this place while getting lost in the woods one day?"

Tori scoffed at the first comment and shook her head as she leaned back, watching Jade mimic her actions, and sat cross-legged on the opposite rock with her shoes and socks off, "It'll grow on you, trust me. My grandparents would take us here when we were younger and visiting for the weekend. I didn't always like coming to visit them out here but this was the one thing I did enjoy about each visit. That was where my grandparents got engaged," she pointed ahead along the creek towards one small tree that resided along the bank, "Just over there under that tree. If you go further along, you can see into the valley of some of the hills and see the lights of the city in the distance. I don't know…but I guess this place just helps me forget and enjoy the moment."

Jade nodded and leaned back a little as well, enjoying the sunlight as it bore down upon them as it lowered in the late afternoon sky until she said, "Vega…why am I here?"

The two looked at each other and their eyes locked as Tori said, "I wanted to talk…about things and really…I need to apologize."

"What do you have to apologize for? Vega, I should be the one to apologize! I bailed for so long and—" Jade started to say.

"No," Tori said sternly, cutting her off, "I have to do this. I have to apologize for everything. I wasn't fair to you and I-I know I wasn't easy to be with but I want you to know why. I want you to know why I couldn't be as close as you wanted, why I ruined everything!"

"Tori! You didn't ruin anything, yeah, we made mistakes but I don't care about those now, for right now, I just want to know what happened!" Jade said as she turned her body so she was fully looking at Tori.

"I lied…about so much. I lied to you every day while we dated…" Tori said, not moving from her resting position, her eyes trained on the slowly rolling clouds above as she said, "I don't know why I want to tell you now…but I've been thinking a lot and Beck told me about what you've said and Cat has too…I want to be fair to you."

She looked over at Jade for a moment before sitting up and looking down at the water that ran in the creek and said, "Jade…I never told my family about our relationship. You know that already but I want you to know—I didn't tell them because I was scared. I was terrified because I didn't know how they'd react! But once you found out, I tried to make it right. I loved you too much and I wanted to prove to you I wasn't ashamed to be with you or anything like that so one night while you were out, I went to my parent's house and told them."

She could still remember that night vividly as she walked through the unlocked front door and found her family all sitting around the living room, watching tv. Her parents were sitting on the opposite couches but still close enough, a sign that they were working through the past issues that Holly had caused by being unfaithful. Tori recalled how they greeted her warmly, minus Trina who was too distracted by her phone, and she sat on the couch and asked if she could talk with them. Her heart still raced as she recalled working up the nerve to finally come out to them and the silence that filled the room afterward.

"My mother…she changed…or maybe I finally saw her for what she truly was at the moment. A bigoted, hypocritical monster. I-she stopped being my mother at that moment…and I still hate myself for even saying or thinking that" Tori said as she paused and took a breath, covering her face with her hands in an attempt to not cry again. "But she was just so mean! So evil and cruel! Saying I was doomed and going to be damned for being such a sinful whore! She jammed scripture down my throat and said I was no daughter to her and—and I just didn't know what to do!"

Shaking her head, Tori looked up at Jade who was watching her every move with empathetic eyes, as she continued, "When they died…I lied about some details. We were going to family therapy. After my mom's affair and me coming out…we were a fucking mess. I didn't talk to them for months until we finally agreed to try and fix things. B-but then the accident…"

"It's okay, Tori," Jade said as she leaned over to try and rub Tori's shoulder.

"No, Jade! It's not okay! It'll never be okay!" Tori shouted, knocked Jade's hand away from her. "You don't get it! We never made it to that first appointment! There was no mending! No healing! My mother died still thinking of me as her sinful whore of a daughter! My sister—Trina, I don't even know! She never said anything! She was always too absorbed by her image and never said a thing about all our issues! My dad wasn't much better! Jade, he never said anything about my sexuality! He protected me from my mother's rantings but-but it's not the same! I never got to hear him say, 'Tori, you're still my daughter, I don't care who you love' or anything like that! I tried but he was too closed off from everything my mother caused!"

She stood on her feet, kicking a small rock into the water as she yelled, "I've had to live for almost a decade now! Everyday! Questioning everything about my family! Seven years of constantly questioning if we could have worked things out! If my father actually loved me! It still eats away at me! I just wish some days I had just died with them so I wouldn't have to deal with this pain!"

Jade sprung up from her rock and leapt onto Tori's wrapping her in a fierce hug as she loudly said, "Never! You never say that! You have—"

Tori pushed back against Jade, breaking the hug and yelling, "Don't touch me! You—I'm still mad with you! You ran Jade! You ran and I needed you! You have no idea how badly I needed you here! Everyday! I called or prayed that you'd come back and just hold me and tell me it would be okay!"

She stormed off along the bank, Jade following close behind her as Tori said, "I—I needed you, I wanted you to be here to help me…"

"I wish that I had been! Believe me—there isn't a day that's gone by that I don't think about what I've done!"

"No…you did the right thing…I wanted you to go, I wanted you to have your shot at fame," Tori said, her demeanor changing entirely, her shoulders falling as the tears cascaded down her face but the raw intense emotions no longer fueling them. "You and the others…I wanted you all to be happy. You're all so talented and I—"

"What else aren't you telling me?" Jade said as she placed a hand on Tori's shoulder, to her surprise, the half-Latina did not back away as she kept her eyes on the water. "Who else hurt you? Please…please Tori, I want to fix things now! I want to try! We need to get it all out there—"

"They hurt me…they touched me…they did…so much," Tori said as she looked at Jade with hollow eyes. "I couldn't be with you like you wanted in the end and I couldn't wash away the filth."

"Baby, please—"

"Don't call me that," Tori said sadly as she sat back on the ground, her knees held close to her chest and her arms wrapped around them to keep her body closed off from everything around her. "Never call me that."

She looked up at Jade as she said, "My producer touched me. They touched me and forced me to do things, dirty, disgusting things that haunt me! They used me as a plaything and I couldn't do anything! I still feel so used! So dirty and tainted and I still can never do anything about it!"

"Why not?" Jade asked, the rage inside of her boiling with each word that passed from Tori's lips. Someone hurt her girl! Her Tori! Her love! Someone tainted and defiled her and they were still out there! "Why can't you do anything?!"

"Because they have power and pictures!" Tori yelled, "They took pictures when I wasn't looking and used them against me! They blackmailed me to stay quiet and they still do! I thought I was being helpful! I thought I was doing the right thing but they used me and played me!"

"What do you mean you were being helpful?!" Jade said as she knelt beside her.

Tori looked at her with the same dead and hollow eyes with tears streaming down her face, but this time a weak smile played at her lips as she said, "I helped the gang with their work. I thought I was being helpful by showing my producer their talents and asking if they could help them get a fair shot!"

She started to break down even more as she sobbed and said, "I was so fucking stupid! I gave them so much power over me without even realizing it and I still feel like such a fucking idiot for it! They kept their word and helped all of the gang find work b-but then came the price and I—I didn't see it coming!"

"Just tell me a name and I can fix this! I have money! I can get them put away and I will make them suffer! You don't have to be a martyr for them and stay silent!" Jade yelled, grabbing Tori's shoulder and forcing her to look at her. Tears were now rolling down Jade's pale skin as she became overwhelmed with rage and regret, sadness and pity for everything! All that she could have done and all that she saw but didn't question, now making sense in her mind. The weeks to months where Tori would come home late from recording and go straight to bed, the intimate moments that became fewer and far between, all of it made sense to Jade now and she didn't know what to do but she was brought out of her own head as Tori spoke again, this time it was so soft that she almost missed it.

"I'm not any better than them," she hid her face by looking down into her lap, her crossed arms blocking Jade from seeing the tears that continued to fall.

"How could you even say that?" Jade asked, her angry subsiding slightly as she knelt beside Tori and tried to reach for her again but stopped, and shook her head as she said, "Tori…you are, without a doubt, the sweetest and most genuine person that I've ever met. You are so selfless and you are one of the hardest workers I've ever known and you make everyone fall for you. You are so much more than what you give yourself credit for—"

"Jade," Tori said as she glanced towards the pale skinned woman with one eye peaking just over her crossed arms, "I used them…I used their deaths as my escape. I used my own family's deaths like a fucking bargaining chip to be released from my contract…I'm no better than them."

"No," Jade said as she leaned in and tugged Tori's arm aside and cupped Tori's chin and made her look directly at her with both eyes. "No. you are not like those monsters. It means you survived, in more ways than one."

Author's Notes:

I'll apologize, this is gonna be a longer segment compared to my usual ones.

First off, once again, thank you so much for reading and reviewing, it's been a lot of fun to read! Here we are and finally we are getting more direct confrontation between our leads and getting more pieces of the puzzle laid out so hopefully the two of them can learn to try and work through them...if they want to that is. This one was harder for me to write and I have the next story beats laid out so it's just a matter of fleshing them out and getting to the points I want to hit!

That's it, after the Song List, feel free to skip since it'll be more ranting and raving. Have a great day!

Songs Used for Inspiration:

1. ?

2. "She Got the Best of Me" by Luke Combs

3. "Miss Missing You" by Fall Out Boy

4. ?

Additional Author Notes:

SO! A while ago I mentioned the album Liz Gillies had with Seth MacFarlane and I finally listened to it and-JESUS CHRIST I LOVED IT! I am a huge sucker for jazz music and I have been listening to it on repeat for the last couple of days! I will also be using some of the songs for a short story so that'll be fun! I am also announcing that am working on another story that may be a bit longer like Unsaid and will be posting it tonight or tomorrow so look forward to that.

Anyway, the main reason I am doing this additional segment and wasting you time is because I just wanted to say thank you all for your reviews, I did not expect so many people to actually read this and I wanted to give you all a special spotlight and call out! So let's go!

ScottyBGood: Thank you so much for all of your reviews and feedback, I love your work so it made me so happy when I saw you following along with my story!

Invader Johnny: Always giving feedback and reviewing, thank you so much! Usually the first one too which makes me smile! Thank you and I love your stories!

MJ: I hope you have a good week too and thank you so much! Don't worry, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon!

LilDrgDlr: I'm glad you've found the story to be interesting and I hope you've been enjoying the mystery as it gets slowly unraveled!

Boris Yeltsin: Thank you so much! Not even lying, when you said a friend recommended this to you, it made me feel so happy! And I'm sorry for putting Tori through so much...I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the angst and drama if you couldn't tell already.

Guest: nnnb

Guest:

1. In my experience, if someone tells you a about a traumatic experience, the last thing you should do is ask about another one. Jade fully intended on doing so but tried to ease into it by asking about the tattoo, not realizing it was going to be related to something so painful to Tori. Hopefully, my logic makes sense and yes, she is not leaving that issue alone anytime soon.

2. You're not wrong, you're exactly right. They probably should have been switched but I felt that in that instance, they would default closer to their original characters with Jade being angry and Tori being more understanding. You can rationalize it several different ways but your point still stands.

3. Sorry, I'm a sucker for details and build up.

Aftermath Man: Thank you so much for your kind review! It made me so happy and I'm trying to go back and clear up all of those mistakes so it won't distract from the main story.

Lushcoltrane: Not gonna lie, I had a little bit of a fanboy moment when I saw that you were reading my story! And yes...the drama is far from over, my friend.

Quitting Time: When I first got back into reading fanfiction, yours were some of the first that I found so it was awesome to see you reading my work! Thank you! I'm so happy you read it all so far in one sitting! When I thought of the idea, I knew I wanted both of them to be damaged from outside sources and from their own actions since it makes a more complicated web to navigate!

There we go! Thank you again everyone and don't expect me to do this too often, I'll probably only do it every so often but just know I greatly appreciate your feedback and it keeps me going!