By the way, for future reference, the use of illustrates a character's thoughts. Hope that the formatting of this is ok. Happy reading!

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Her dark brown eyes widened in surprise as she struggled to make sense of the surprising revelation. Likewise, Jess was reeling from the shock of it all but a smile was slowly spreading its way across his face.

"Jacee!"

With a wide grin now plastered on his face, a rare sight for the continually sullen teen, Jess reached over and hugged his friend. The girl was stunned and couldn't speak for a moment, memories flooding her mind. Finally, she returned his embrace and broke out into a smile of her own.

"Jess, it's been too long."

"Yes, it has. Poor lil' old me gets stuck here, in the middle of nowhere might I add, without even my best friend to entertain me."

She laughed as they began their traditional banter. "Your best friend. And who would that be exactly? Have I met her before?"

"You know full well who I am talking about, Jacelyn Heung."

"Ooohhh . . . you're calling me by my full name. I'm sooo scared," she retorted while rolling her eyes.

"You better be, because according to the townspeople of this very pleasant town, I am a teenager with incredibly sadistic tendencies. Not to mention criminal tendencies, as well."

"Hey, Mariano! You forget that I'm from the city, just like you. Don't think that I don't meet people who would genuinely qualify as mental patients while making Hannibal Lecter look like a sweet child. I think you pale in comparison with them."

"Ok, ok. Point taken."

"Besides, I'm not sure that I would be considered your best friend."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

She nodded in mock-seriousness. "Of course. There's your brother, a criminal not unlike yourself . . ."

"Ah, fair maiden, you wound me. Truly you do. My feelings as well as my heart have been permanently scarred," interrupted a sarcastic voice from behind her.

Though it seemed impossible, Jess' smile widened even further. Upon seeing this, his companion turned around. A pair of dark blue eyes immediately met her gaze, the owner of which merely smirked at her.

"Jacee."

"Chris," she whispered.

She stood up and walked over to him, giving him a tentative hug.

"Haven't seen you for a while."

"Yeah."

Jacee pulled away from him and pushed a few strands of hair from her face. The whole encounter was somewhat unsettling. She was glad to see her old friends, of course she was. But considering her current situation . . .

A voice gently pulled her away from her worries.

"Jacee, what happened?"

Jacee looked up to find Jess looking at her, all traces of merriment gone from his face, while gesturing towards her thigh.

Crap. How am I going to explain this?!

In her haste to greet Chris, Jacee had forgotten that she was wearing shorts. It was after all, summer. While this would normally be an insignificant detail, it suddenly became very important as it revealed a fairly large purple bruise. And Jacee didn't exactly feel like going into the details on how she got it.

"Well, you see . . . the other day . . . I was rushing around at home and I banged into . . . a coffee table. So, yeah."

"Jacee . . . please just tell us what's going on," Chris pleaded.

Jess gently steered Jacee towards the table, so that they could sit down.

"Well, it's kind of part of the reason why I'm here. It started just after you (tilts her head towards Jess) left. I couldn't handle living with my parents anymore so I moved out a few months ago. And well, I got involved with this guy . . ."

"Who?" Jess asked sharply.

Jacee avoided his gaze. "Chris, you've met him. He's the guy who I brought when we met up at the café. Remember, Nina was there?"

Chris nodded in confirmation, and Jacee continued.

"Well, it turns out that he . . . was being too possessive. Yup, possessive. So, I left."

Chris glanced at her suspiciously while reaching up to run his hand through his hair. Noticing his hand, Jacee instinctively winced. This did not go unnoticed by the two brothers.

Reaching across the table, Jess held her hand. "Jacee, please don't lie to me. Please." Jacee just nodded.

"Did he hit you?"

She swallowed before attempting to answer. Discovering that she was at a loss for words, she finally settled on nodding. Chris, meanwhile, looked away with a trace of guilt in his eyes. There was a certain anger in Jess' eyes but he continued to gently question his friend.

"Very often? Or was this the first time?"

"Very often," she whispered.

Jess took a deep breath before continuing.

"So, you ran?"

"Yeah."

"Did you mean to come here?"

"My main aim was to get as far away from him as possible. I just drove where I liked, and tried to choose places where my parents wouldn't go looking for me. It just so happened that the car I rented broke down late last night. And what do you know? I'm just outside this town and of course, there's no way that I'm going to stay in a rental car by the side of the road. So, here I am."

The brothers both nodded.

"Got any stuff?" Chris asked.

"It's in the car."

Jess posed the final but most important question.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

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Author's note: Hey everyone. Thanks for the reviews. I was quite surprised that I got so many, just for that short measly chapter. It was really encouraging.

Dreamer4ever-77 :

Thank you so much. Frankly, I'm both a Lit and a Trory fan. But, more of a Lit. And unfortunately, I don't know how Rory's lovelife is going to factor into this. It's going to be more focused on the mysterious stranger who you now know is called Jacee. And I hope you guys will eventually get to like her enough to ignore the fact that the story won't revolve that much on Rory and Lorelai. This is pretty much going to be about Jacee's arrival, her relationships with everyone and how her arrival affects their lives. I agree that Dean is an ass but Rory and Jess will only be cousins if Luke and Lorelai get married. But then again, they would be step-cousins, not really cousins. And Tristan is going to appear (don't worry), but I'm not sure if it's really in his character to like the things Rory does. For example, reading. But would you be happy if Rory didn't end up with either one? Or would you come and hunt me down?

klm111a :

Thanks. Hope you keep reading.

Tiz-nd-Az :

Hope this chap met your standards. :)

otownroxx:

Hey. Thanks for helping out. Thanks very much. Sorry to disappoint but as I said earlier, I really am not sure. Perhaps Rory will end up with someone different? I seriously hope you guys will eventually come to like Jacee. Cos this story revolves around her so. Btw, sorry about the paragraphing. I'm a new author so I'm not sure how to control the formatting. Everything was fine in Word. But then when I put it up on ff.net and then, everything got screwed up. If you have any advice about this, please tell me. Hope this chap is easier to read. And I hope you like this longer chap. Oh, and I never said that I only wanted signed reviews. I don't mind anonymous ones. Not at all. Don't worry about it. I appreciate the help.

Thanks again for the reviews everyone. Please keep reading and commenting.