When Rory and Clark had finished cleaning all of the paint off they decided to head to town to catch a movie. When they came downstairs Martha was going through the mail. "Hey mom, Rory and I are going to a movie, can I take the truck?" he asked.

"Yea, sure, just don't be home too late." She said handing him the keys. One of the advantages, he had already realized, of living on a farm was that he'd gotten his hardship license at 15, and his parents had finally let him start using the car or truck.

"Thanks." He said as he grabbed the keys and headed for the door.

"Wait, Clark, can you give this to Rory, it came for her today." She said handing him a white envelope with her name and the Kent's address on it.

"Sure." He said grabbing it as well and heading for the door where Rory was waiting. "You ready?" He asked.

"Yea, lets go." She said, and so the two set off. Just after they left the driveway Clark remembered the mail.

"Oh, yea, mom said this came for you today." He told her handing her the envelope.

"Oh, thanks." she said taking it. She didn't see a return address, but expected that it was another letter from Dean. But when she opened it all the fear that had drove her to Kansas came flooding back. In the envelope was a plain white piece of notebook paper. When she pulled it out she could feel her chest tighten and se almost couldn't breathe. Her hands started to shake as she unfolded the paper. I know where you are. Was written in the middle of the page. She couldn't believe it had started again. She couldn't breath she was gasping for air. To her left she heard Clark talking but couldn't hear what he was saying all she could do was stare at that paper. Suddenly she felt the truck pull over and Clark began to shake her.

"RORY! CAN YOU HEAR ME." He shouted "What's wrong?" he said and I finally looked up. The look in his eyes showed how worried he was.

"It's happening again." Was all she said before tears started roll down her face. Clark moved over in the seat and wrapped his arms around her. After a minute she stopped crying and he pulled away.

"What's happening again?" he asked.

Rory took a deep breath and began to tell him. "About a year ago Luke's nephew Jess moved to Star's Hollow. Luke took him in as a favor to his sister, because he was getting into too much trouble in New York. But when he got there he kept getting in trouble. He did everything he could to make people mad. He faked a murder scene, stole lawn gnomes, he outbid Dean for my basket." she began until the befuddled look on Clark's face concerning the basket comment made her laugh. "Sorry, every year they have a fund raiser where women put together picnic baskets and men get to bid on them and then they get to have a picnic with the basket maker." Once Clark's confusion disappeared she continued. "So he did everything possible to cause trouble, especially when it came to making Dean mad. But when he was alone with me he was different. He was smart and well read and funny. So I tried to convince every one to give him a chance. And everyone said I was crazy. And then Dean moved. At first when I told Jess I only wanted to be friends he seemed ok with it, but then he started to be more persistent. He kept asking me out and I kept turning him down by saying that I didn't want to ruin our friendship. And he kind of went crazy, he started harassing me and stalking me. So Luke sent him back to New York. But he kept calling and sending me letters. He started threatening that if I didn't give him a chance I'd be sorry. And I got scared. So my mom and I got a restraining order, that was supposed to keep him from any kind of contact. But he kept calling and sending stuff. So then they tried to arrest him for violating the order and he disappeared. No one knew where he went or what happened to him. The letters stopped so did the phone calls. And we thought that it was over, until two weeks before I came here. I was coming home from working late on the newspaper at school when the car behind me started speeding up and slowing and flashing their brights, so I sped up and tried to get away. But they sped up too. So I tried to pull over and let them pass me and they did, but I guess they pulled over and waited for me because after a few miles they were behind me again. And they started speeding up and slowing down again. So I sped up and tried to call the police. When they sped up and slammed into my car and sent me off the road. It was listed as a hit and run. And since no one saw anything and I didn't get the plate numbers the police couldn't do anything. They never found out who did it but mom and I knew. She was really scared for me so she decided to get me away for the summer and now here I am." She finished looking as if she were on the verge of tears. Clark didn't know what to say so he took the letter and envelope and go out of the truck. "What are you doing" Rory asked as she too got out of the truck.

Clark found a lighter in the glove box and lit the letter on fire. "This." He said as it started to burn. He dropped it on the road and turned to Rory. "Your safe here. No matter what that piece of paper says, I won't let anyone hurt you." He said as he pulled Rory to him. At that moment in his arms she felt safe. Safer than she'd felt in a long time.