Why Me? - Chapter 29
"Behind Closed Doors Part II"
A/N - Alright people, I'm not going to lie. Two things. First - the reviews I got for last chapter were AMAZING and I love you guys so much for them. They made me all giddy :-) And secondly, the next chapter will be the last. I figured a whole 30 chapters sounded about right, because 29 wasn't enough and 31 just seemed to... much. Hehe, I know, I'm weird. After this, I might do a sequel but I think I want to explore other types of fanfic. Afterall, this is my first one... ok ill continue my ramblings at the bottom A/N. Enjoy!!
PS. - There are parts in this story (partically the end) that get REALLY graphic and intense, It should be rated R but I couldn't figure out a way to move it to R and inform everyone I had done that. Anyways, discretion is advised. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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They walked in, and the sight that meet their eyes was the most horrible thing the three of them had ever witnessed. It was Rory. Beaten, sprawled out on the floor, and seemingly unconscious.
Lorelai immediately ran up to Rory and began yelling her name, in desperate attempts to wake her up. "Dont do this to me again!" she screamed, "Please God... I need you to wake up baby, just wake up..."
Luke ran to Rory as well, stroking her hair and clinging on to Lorelai telling her everything would be Ok.
Jess, however, couldn't move. He was stunned into place by the horrible sight that his mind simply couldn't register. That wasn't the love of his life, on the floor, bloody and hurt. That wasn't the one person he'd actually made love to unconscious, and not responsive on the floor. Jess began to breath heavily as he surveyed they room searching for Brad. Any sadness, hurt, and confused feelings Jess had quickly turned to anger and the need for revenge. He looked over at the window, which was open.
"Ill be back later." Jess grunted, walking quickly and angrily toward the window. The coward had escaped, and now he was going to pay.
"Jess... Jess!" Luke tried to get Jess to come back, knowing that if caught up with Brad - he would kill him on the spot. But Jess couldn't hear anything, his pure uncontrollable rage had blocked out any sounds, any movements, and anything that didn't have to do directly with Brad. He climbed out the window and stepped out onto the fire escape, scanning the area for any sign of Brad. But it was dark out, and it was hard to see much of anything even if it was right in front of your face. So Jess used his instincts and figured that Brad, being the coward he was, would go home.
He quickly descended down the ladder and began his hunt. There was no way Brad was going to make it home.
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"Rory please..." Lorelai pleaded between sobs and rocked Rory back and fourth, like she used to do when Rory was just a child.
"Luke, go get me some wet towels or something... she's so... bloody..."
Luke quickly got up and entered the bathroom, taking as many towels as he could grab and rushing them back out to Lorelai. Lorelai grabbed one and began gently dabbing the towel against Rory's face, cleaning off all the blood. Luke looked away, he couldn't bare the sight before his eyes.
"The police should be here soon..." Luke said, hoping Lorelai would find some relief in that. She simply nodded and continued staring at Rory. Her face was all clean now, the blood all gone, but the bruises remained. They would always remain, emotionally atleast, and Lorelai knew that. They had a long journey ahead of them, that is, if Rory would just wake up...
Then it happened. She twitched, only slightly, but Lorelai noticed.
"Ror? Baby?" Lorelai's voice was filled with hope and happiness, just waiting for her daughter to open her eyes or somehow respond. She twitched again, and squinted her eyes then slowly opened them, blinking furiously trying to adjust to her surroundings. Her eyes scanned the room and then rested on her mothers face.
"Mom!" Rory's voice was drenched with relief and she hugged her mother as tightly as she possibly could. "Mom, I'm so sorry..." Rory kept repeating while clinging on to Lorelai for dear life.
"Don't appolgize baby, don't appoligize..." they held on together and then Lorelai pulled back to look at Rory, as if to make sure this all wasn't a dream and this was really happening. She smiled at her daughter, just happy that she was alive and motioned for them to sit on the bed. Lorelai got up and sat down, but Rory wouldn't move. She just stared at the bed, and remembered what had happened in the past few hours.
"Rory?"
"I don't want to... I can't... can we sit somewhere else? Can we leave here, please?" The memories were to much for Rory to handle, and she made her escape towards the doorway. On her way out Luke grabbed hold of her shoulders, just to slow her down, and she yelped in pain. He quickly threw his hands in the air as if to show he had done nothing.
"What! What'd I do!?"
"Sorry Luke, it's not you, its just..." Rory pulled her neckline down to her shoulder and saw the bruises, then showed them to Luke and Lorelai.
Lorelai gasped in horror and brought her hands to her mouth. She thought about her daughters face, her daughters shoulders... and she began to wonder what else Brad had done to her.
"Luke," she said solemnly, never taking her eyes off Rory, "can Rory and I have a few minutes alone? Please?"
Luke nodded and hugged Rory before leaving the room and making his way downstairs to the diner. He pulled out a random chair and sat down, trying to digest everything that had just happened. He put his elbows on the table and head in his hands, and began to - for the first time in all the while Rory has been misisng - cry. Not just because he was upset, or because Rory had been hurt so badly, but because he was so incredibly happy that she was finally home and safe.
Lorelai walked over to Rory and began running her fingers through her hair, marveling at her daughters courage and the fact that she had still yet to see Rory cry.
"Rory, what happened?"
"It's my fault," Rory started.
"Hey! It's not your fault, whatever happened tonight wasn't your fault no matter what you say. You understand me?"
Rory nodded and continued, "Well, to make a long story short - I invited him over after you left. I wanted to know more about my past... more about what I went through and what happened. I had read it all in my diary and found his... Brads... number in there and I just called him. Apparently I forgot to write about what a liar he was because I hadn't exactly planned on inviting him over but, he said he had been going to counseling or something. So before I knew what I was saying I asked him to come over. He did, and then he tried to kiss me and stuff. I told him no, and he eventually lost it. He threw the chair against the wall and stuff and I mean I felt so bad for him Mom! He even started to cry and I just... at the time, sympathized for him. I knew you were going to come home soon so I told him we could go for a walk. We did and everything was going great, we were talking and communicating and everything. Then you called, and I snuck him in..." Rory stopped and looked at Lorelai, "... I think you pretty much heard what happened after that."
Lorelai nodded and motioned for Rory to sit on Luke's couch, remembering how Rory wouldn't sit on Jess's bed and the look in her eyes when she had asked her to earlier. They sat down and Rory grabbed on to her side, "Damn..." she whispered to herself.
"Rory, obviously there's more your not telling me..." she said, pointing to how Rory was holding on to her side. Rory took a deep breath and began.
"He snuck me out the window, and he held my mouth shut. I saw you, running around to my bedroom window. You were only a few feet away Mom... you were so close!" Rory began to cry as she relived the situation in her mind. Lorelai hugged her and appoligized, over and over.
"Mom you couldn't have known, don't be sorry..."
"I know baby, keep going."
"Well, then he started taking me away. I was so confused, so angry, and he kept saying how we could be together and be happy! It just got to a point that I couldn't take it anymore, and I screamed at him and told him we'd never be together. Then he just, shoved me and... then he punched me. And then after that he had the audacity to appoligize. God, it's just like all the other times!"
Lorelai's eyes opened wide with anticipation, "The other times? You remember?"
Rory nodded, "Yea. It came back in bits and pieces but, now I remember everything..."
Lorelai wasn't sure whether or not to be estatic that she finally remembered her past, or sorry because Rory now remembered all the horrible things she'd been put through. Rory saw the conflict in her mothers eyes and quickly reassured her.
"Its a good thing Mom, it's a really good thing." Rory smiled her first smile since Lorelai had found her. Lorelai sighed heavily and then motioned her hands as to ask Rory to continue her story.
"Ok, well, like I said he appoligized then we kept walking. I had no idea where we were going then we ended up at the school of all places. He took me inside and told me that thats where we were going to be staying. I shook my head because, well obviously, he was crazy. He noticed and I just told him I did that because I was hungry or something, he believed me and said that it was good because now we could go to the diner and kill two birds with one stone, I didn't know what that meant and I still kinda dont. Anyway, we went out, and while he was locking the door I figured that would be my only chance to go and just ran. I screamed the whole way to. Then he caught me again, and just... tossed me on the ground and kicked me so hard, in my side." Rory motioned toward her side, as if to explain why she was holding onto it. "I couldn't breath. I thought he was going to kill me, he said he was going to. He kept saying if he couldn't have me then nobody could. He basically told me he was going to bring me up here to kill me, and leave my body for everyone to find and I just... God I didn't even care anymore."
"Rory..." Lorelai said, showing her sympathy.
"So, we came up here and he sat me on Jess's bed. Then I heard Jess's voice and I got hope, because before I had lost it all. I knew Jess would figure it out that we were up here, so I tried everything to delay whatever Brad was going to do to me. He yelled at me, saying stuff like 'Oh, I bet you had sex there to...' and just, really crude things. Then he got real calm and sat down and we talked a little. I thought of everything that would waste the most time before Jess came up here, and I figured only one of them would work." Rory took in a deep breath and tried to regain herself before finishing.
"So I kissed him, and prayed Jess would come before it got taken to far..." Rorys voice drifted off and her eyes fell to the ground. Lorelai placed her fingers under Rory's chin and brought her face up to hers.
"Then what?" she asked softly.
"I couldn't do it. Even when I was thinking of Jess the whole time, I screamed for him to get off me. He got so angry... and he wouldn't get off me. He just pinned me down."
Lorelai held her breath, she didn't want to hear the rest of the story. She didn't want to hear that her only daughter had been brutally assaulted, and raped. But she listened. She figured it was the only thing she could do for Rory.
"Then we heard Luke and Jess yell your name, and he got off me and locked the door before anything else happened."
Lorelai finally breathed, thank God, he didn't rape her. She felt a little more relieved as Rory continued.
"But then, he just slapped me. He threw me off the bed and kicked me again... as hard as he could. I couldn't even remember where I was after that. He knocked all the wind out of me and the last thing I remembered was seeing your face, then, black."
Lorelai hugged Rory again tightly, "Lets go home."
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Jess had taken every short cut in the book, and was at Brad's house in mere minutes. There was no way Brad could have gotten there faster, even if he had gone by car. Jess waitied patiently for him as he sorted through the ways of pumpling him to the ground. Jess had stayed on the side of the house, where he was invisible so Brad couldn't see him before he could see Brad.
There he was. Why was he smiling? Did he think he got away with it? Any doubts Jess about kicking Brad's ass quickly faded away when he saw Brad's smirk. Brad walked up to his door, which Jess had rigged so it couldn't be opened, and Jess stepped out from the shadows.
"Hey Brad."
Brad jumped a foot and almost tripped over himself, "Uh, Jess, hey... what are you doing here?"
"Hmm, I'll give you three guesses." Jess said, slowly making his way toward Brad.
"Listen... It's not what you think. She went to your house and invited me there!" Brad said, trying to get his front door open.
Jess didn't say anything, he just kept walking slowly towards Brad who kept moving backwards and making excuses.
"She wanted me there, I swear it! Ask her!" Jess just stared him down. "Ok ok, so she didn't invite me there but she did kiss me first, that is NOT a lie!"
Jess couldn't take it anymore, any rage he had inside he was going to take out on Brad full force. He thought about his Dad, his old life, how he had caused Rory's accident, and most importantly - how Brad beat Rory, and how right now she could be dead. He charged towards Brad, and tackled him.
They fell off Brad's porch and onto the ground, Jess had gotten on top of Brad and punched him as hard as he possibly could. Brad punched Jess in the stomach and he doubled over in pain, ultimatly falling off Brad. Brad rolled over and quickly got up, "Don't do this Jess, you do NOT want to fight me!" Brad said, starting to get mad.
Jess jumped up and looked at Brad, "Like hell I don't." Jess, with a right hook, punched Brad in the mouth, sending him crashing the ground. When he was there, Jess grabbed Brad's hair and pulled his head back, so he could see his face. He smirked at him, then, as hard as he could, Jess slammed Brad's face down on the side of his porch, causing Brad to scream in pain.
Brad rolled over on his back, blood pouring out of his nose and mouth. "Jesus... fucking Christ Jess!" Brad had finally gotten angry and slowly brought himself back up to his feet.
"You wanna fight? Then lets roll." Brad charged Jess, and right before he hit him, Jess moved to the side and used Brad's momentum to send him charging into the side of Brad's car. Brad bounced off and again, fell to the ground.
"C'mon!" Jess screamed, "Get up and fight like a man!"
Brad got up and again charged Jess, who swung hard and hit him in the eye. Brad stumbled back, but did not fall, and Jess swung again with his left hand and knocked him flat on his stomach. While on the ground, Jess rolled him over and sat on top of him. Brad was to out of it to do anything to Jess and he knew it.
Blood was pouring out of every hole in Brad's face, his eye already swelled up to the point where he couldn't open it, and it couldn't have remind Jess anymore of the way he had found Rory had it been Rory herself laying there on the ground in front of him.
Jess looked in Brad's eyes, and Brad returned the gaze, knowing full well Jess could be the last person he'd ever see again.
"I warned you," Jess whispered in an eery voice, " that if you ever touched her again..." he paused, staring at Brad long and hard before finishing. "That I would kill you."
With that, he picked up Brad's head and slammed it into the concrete, and watched Brad's eyes roll backward as his eyelids fluttered shut. Jess stepped off of Brad, sweaty and tired. He backed away from him as the police pulled up, and couldn't believe what he had just done.
"Excuse me, sir?" The policeman said, "Whats your name kid?"
"Jess..." Jess breathed, unable to take his eyes off Brad.
"So, is that Brad?" The police officer asked, but Jess didn't respond. "Hey, kid! Is that Bradley Stanlen or not?" The officer was getting impatient as Jess slowly nodded his head. He backed up and sat down on Brad's porch, unable to hold himself up any longer and listened to the officers conversation.
"Jesus Chirst, Rick, look at this kid! What the hell happened to him?" The officer said to his partner.
"Looks like someone beat the shit out of him. This is the guy that beat on that girl. Roren? Rorly?"
"Rory." Jess corrected him.
Rick eyed him weirdly then looked back at his parter, "Yea, Rory."
Jess watched quietly as more officers surrounded the Stanlen home, and the ambulance showed up. It was like a scene in a movie, the kind where no matter how horrible and disturbing it is - you just can't take your eyes off of it. Jess watched the two paramedics rush over to Brad, as one placed two fingers under Brad's chin checking for a pulse. He waitied a couple seconds, then looked up at his partner and shook his head.
"This kid's dead."
After that Jess heard nothing, as he was flooded with emotions and could barely sit up straight. He began to breath heavily and almost passed out when an officer approached him, "Hey, um, Jess was it?"
He nodded. The officer flashed his flashlight on Jess and saw the blood on his shirt and the skin torn open on his knuckles.
"Your going to have to come with us."
Jess stood up and the officer handcuffed him, but Jess had kept his eye's on Brad the whole time in disbelief. The officer walked him over to the cruiser and opened the door.
"Watch your head," he said, just about to place him in the backseat. Then Jess finally tore his eyes away from Brad and looked in front of him. It was Rory, Luke and Lorelai, about 20 feet away.
Their eyes locked. 'She's alive...' he thought, and he couldn't have been happier. They stared at eachother for a few seconds before she finally spoke.
"I remember now," she yelled, "I love you Jess!"
He began to tear up as he saw her alive, awake, and Ok. And best of all, she remembered. He stared at her, and sighed heavily.
"Im sorry," he yelled back, "and I love you to! Im sorry!"
She began to cry as she nodded to show she understood, and the officer shoved him into the backseat and slammed the door. Jess waited for the officer to climb in the front seat, and then asked him, no, begged him if he would be allowed to say goodbye to Rory before they took him away.
"Sorry kid, can't do it. Chief's orders." The officer started the car and began to drive away, Jess turned around as far as he could and watched Rory get smaller and smaller out of the back window. Once she was out of sight he turned back around and leaned his head against the back seat. "Dammit!" he yelled.
"Whoa calm down kid," the officer instucted him, "whats your problem?"
"Nothing..." Jess mumbled.
"You know," the officer piped in, "I know it's none of my buisness but... your so young and... well, was this girl really all the trouble?"
Jess looked at the officer through the rearview mirror and at first said nothing.
"Well," he repeated, "was she?"
Jess nodded and stared out the window as he whispered barely loud enough for the officer to hear him,
"Absolutely."
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A/N - Wow. By far. The longest chapter I have ever written. To be honest, I hadn't even planned this chapter for it to turn out the way it did, but I know how I'm going to end my story and I think you'll all like it. As I said, next chapter will be my last. Please R&R, bc the more reviews, the quicker I try to post! Love u guys! R&R!
"Behind Closed Doors Part II"
A/N - Alright people, I'm not going to lie. Two things. First - the reviews I got for last chapter were AMAZING and I love you guys so much for them. They made me all giddy :-) And secondly, the next chapter will be the last. I figured a whole 30 chapters sounded about right, because 29 wasn't enough and 31 just seemed to... much. Hehe, I know, I'm weird. After this, I might do a sequel but I think I want to explore other types of fanfic. Afterall, this is my first one... ok ill continue my ramblings at the bottom A/N. Enjoy!!
PS. - There are parts in this story (partically the end) that get REALLY graphic and intense, It should be rated R but I couldn't figure out a way to move it to R and inform everyone I had done that. Anyways, discretion is advised. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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They walked in, and the sight that meet their eyes was the most horrible thing the three of them had ever witnessed. It was Rory. Beaten, sprawled out on the floor, and seemingly unconscious.
Lorelai immediately ran up to Rory and began yelling her name, in desperate attempts to wake her up. "Dont do this to me again!" she screamed, "Please God... I need you to wake up baby, just wake up..."
Luke ran to Rory as well, stroking her hair and clinging on to Lorelai telling her everything would be Ok.
Jess, however, couldn't move. He was stunned into place by the horrible sight that his mind simply couldn't register. That wasn't the love of his life, on the floor, bloody and hurt. That wasn't the one person he'd actually made love to unconscious, and not responsive on the floor. Jess began to breath heavily as he surveyed they room searching for Brad. Any sadness, hurt, and confused feelings Jess had quickly turned to anger and the need for revenge. He looked over at the window, which was open.
"Ill be back later." Jess grunted, walking quickly and angrily toward the window. The coward had escaped, and now he was going to pay.
"Jess... Jess!" Luke tried to get Jess to come back, knowing that if caught up with Brad - he would kill him on the spot. But Jess couldn't hear anything, his pure uncontrollable rage had blocked out any sounds, any movements, and anything that didn't have to do directly with Brad. He climbed out the window and stepped out onto the fire escape, scanning the area for any sign of Brad. But it was dark out, and it was hard to see much of anything even if it was right in front of your face. So Jess used his instincts and figured that Brad, being the coward he was, would go home.
He quickly descended down the ladder and began his hunt. There was no way Brad was going to make it home.
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"Rory please..." Lorelai pleaded between sobs and rocked Rory back and fourth, like she used to do when Rory was just a child.
"Luke, go get me some wet towels or something... she's so... bloody..."
Luke quickly got up and entered the bathroom, taking as many towels as he could grab and rushing them back out to Lorelai. Lorelai grabbed one and began gently dabbing the towel against Rory's face, cleaning off all the blood. Luke looked away, he couldn't bare the sight before his eyes.
"The police should be here soon..." Luke said, hoping Lorelai would find some relief in that. She simply nodded and continued staring at Rory. Her face was all clean now, the blood all gone, but the bruises remained. They would always remain, emotionally atleast, and Lorelai knew that. They had a long journey ahead of them, that is, if Rory would just wake up...
Then it happened. She twitched, only slightly, but Lorelai noticed.
"Ror? Baby?" Lorelai's voice was filled with hope and happiness, just waiting for her daughter to open her eyes or somehow respond. She twitched again, and squinted her eyes then slowly opened them, blinking furiously trying to adjust to her surroundings. Her eyes scanned the room and then rested on her mothers face.
"Mom!" Rory's voice was drenched with relief and she hugged her mother as tightly as she possibly could. "Mom, I'm so sorry..." Rory kept repeating while clinging on to Lorelai for dear life.
"Don't appolgize baby, don't appoligize..." they held on together and then Lorelai pulled back to look at Rory, as if to make sure this all wasn't a dream and this was really happening. She smiled at her daughter, just happy that she was alive and motioned for them to sit on the bed. Lorelai got up and sat down, but Rory wouldn't move. She just stared at the bed, and remembered what had happened in the past few hours.
"Rory?"
"I don't want to... I can't... can we sit somewhere else? Can we leave here, please?" The memories were to much for Rory to handle, and she made her escape towards the doorway. On her way out Luke grabbed hold of her shoulders, just to slow her down, and she yelped in pain. He quickly threw his hands in the air as if to show he had done nothing.
"What! What'd I do!?"
"Sorry Luke, it's not you, its just..." Rory pulled her neckline down to her shoulder and saw the bruises, then showed them to Luke and Lorelai.
Lorelai gasped in horror and brought her hands to her mouth. She thought about her daughters face, her daughters shoulders... and she began to wonder what else Brad had done to her.
"Luke," she said solemnly, never taking her eyes off Rory, "can Rory and I have a few minutes alone? Please?"
Luke nodded and hugged Rory before leaving the room and making his way downstairs to the diner. He pulled out a random chair and sat down, trying to digest everything that had just happened. He put his elbows on the table and head in his hands, and began to - for the first time in all the while Rory has been misisng - cry. Not just because he was upset, or because Rory had been hurt so badly, but because he was so incredibly happy that she was finally home and safe.
Lorelai walked over to Rory and began running her fingers through her hair, marveling at her daughters courage and the fact that she had still yet to see Rory cry.
"Rory, what happened?"
"It's my fault," Rory started.
"Hey! It's not your fault, whatever happened tonight wasn't your fault no matter what you say. You understand me?"
Rory nodded and continued, "Well, to make a long story short - I invited him over after you left. I wanted to know more about my past... more about what I went through and what happened. I had read it all in my diary and found his... Brads... number in there and I just called him. Apparently I forgot to write about what a liar he was because I hadn't exactly planned on inviting him over but, he said he had been going to counseling or something. So before I knew what I was saying I asked him to come over. He did, and then he tried to kiss me and stuff. I told him no, and he eventually lost it. He threw the chair against the wall and stuff and I mean I felt so bad for him Mom! He even started to cry and I just... at the time, sympathized for him. I knew you were going to come home soon so I told him we could go for a walk. We did and everything was going great, we were talking and communicating and everything. Then you called, and I snuck him in..." Rory stopped and looked at Lorelai, "... I think you pretty much heard what happened after that."
Lorelai nodded and motioned for Rory to sit on Luke's couch, remembering how Rory wouldn't sit on Jess's bed and the look in her eyes when she had asked her to earlier. They sat down and Rory grabbed on to her side, "Damn..." she whispered to herself.
"Rory, obviously there's more your not telling me..." she said, pointing to how Rory was holding on to her side. Rory took a deep breath and began.
"He snuck me out the window, and he held my mouth shut. I saw you, running around to my bedroom window. You were only a few feet away Mom... you were so close!" Rory began to cry as she relived the situation in her mind. Lorelai hugged her and appoligized, over and over.
"Mom you couldn't have known, don't be sorry..."
"I know baby, keep going."
"Well, then he started taking me away. I was so confused, so angry, and he kept saying how we could be together and be happy! It just got to a point that I couldn't take it anymore, and I screamed at him and told him we'd never be together. Then he just, shoved me and... then he punched me. And then after that he had the audacity to appoligize. God, it's just like all the other times!"
Lorelai's eyes opened wide with anticipation, "The other times? You remember?"
Rory nodded, "Yea. It came back in bits and pieces but, now I remember everything..."
Lorelai wasn't sure whether or not to be estatic that she finally remembered her past, or sorry because Rory now remembered all the horrible things she'd been put through. Rory saw the conflict in her mothers eyes and quickly reassured her.
"Its a good thing Mom, it's a really good thing." Rory smiled her first smile since Lorelai had found her. Lorelai sighed heavily and then motioned her hands as to ask Rory to continue her story.
"Ok, well, like I said he appoligized then we kept walking. I had no idea where we were going then we ended up at the school of all places. He took me inside and told me that thats where we were going to be staying. I shook my head because, well obviously, he was crazy. He noticed and I just told him I did that because I was hungry or something, he believed me and said that it was good because now we could go to the diner and kill two birds with one stone, I didn't know what that meant and I still kinda dont. Anyway, we went out, and while he was locking the door I figured that would be my only chance to go and just ran. I screamed the whole way to. Then he caught me again, and just... tossed me on the ground and kicked me so hard, in my side." Rory motioned toward her side, as if to explain why she was holding onto it. "I couldn't breath. I thought he was going to kill me, he said he was going to. He kept saying if he couldn't have me then nobody could. He basically told me he was going to bring me up here to kill me, and leave my body for everyone to find and I just... God I didn't even care anymore."
"Rory..." Lorelai said, showing her sympathy.
"So, we came up here and he sat me on Jess's bed. Then I heard Jess's voice and I got hope, because before I had lost it all. I knew Jess would figure it out that we were up here, so I tried everything to delay whatever Brad was going to do to me. He yelled at me, saying stuff like 'Oh, I bet you had sex there to...' and just, really crude things. Then he got real calm and sat down and we talked a little. I thought of everything that would waste the most time before Jess came up here, and I figured only one of them would work." Rory took in a deep breath and tried to regain herself before finishing.
"So I kissed him, and prayed Jess would come before it got taken to far..." Rorys voice drifted off and her eyes fell to the ground. Lorelai placed her fingers under Rory's chin and brought her face up to hers.
"Then what?" she asked softly.
"I couldn't do it. Even when I was thinking of Jess the whole time, I screamed for him to get off me. He got so angry... and he wouldn't get off me. He just pinned me down."
Lorelai held her breath, she didn't want to hear the rest of the story. She didn't want to hear that her only daughter had been brutally assaulted, and raped. But she listened. She figured it was the only thing she could do for Rory.
"Then we heard Luke and Jess yell your name, and he got off me and locked the door before anything else happened."
Lorelai finally breathed, thank God, he didn't rape her. She felt a little more relieved as Rory continued.
"But then, he just slapped me. He threw me off the bed and kicked me again... as hard as he could. I couldn't even remember where I was after that. He knocked all the wind out of me and the last thing I remembered was seeing your face, then, black."
Lorelai hugged Rory again tightly, "Lets go home."
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Jess had taken every short cut in the book, and was at Brad's house in mere minutes. There was no way Brad could have gotten there faster, even if he had gone by car. Jess waitied patiently for him as he sorted through the ways of pumpling him to the ground. Jess had stayed on the side of the house, where he was invisible so Brad couldn't see him before he could see Brad.
There he was. Why was he smiling? Did he think he got away with it? Any doubts Jess about kicking Brad's ass quickly faded away when he saw Brad's smirk. Brad walked up to his door, which Jess had rigged so it couldn't be opened, and Jess stepped out from the shadows.
"Hey Brad."
Brad jumped a foot and almost tripped over himself, "Uh, Jess, hey... what are you doing here?"
"Hmm, I'll give you three guesses." Jess said, slowly making his way toward Brad.
"Listen... It's not what you think. She went to your house and invited me there!" Brad said, trying to get his front door open.
Jess didn't say anything, he just kept walking slowly towards Brad who kept moving backwards and making excuses.
"She wanted me there, I swear it! Ask her!" Jess just stared him down. "Ok ok, so she didn't invite me there but she did kiss me first, that is NOT a lie!"
Jess couldn't take it anymore, any rage he had inside he was going to take out on Brad full force. He thought about his Dad, his old life, how he had caused Rory's accident, and most importantly - how Brad beat Rory, and how right now she could be dead. He charged towards Brad, and tackled him.
They fell off Brad's porch and onto the ground, Jess had gotten on top of Brad and punched him as hard as he possibly could. Brad punched Jess in the stomach and he doubled over in pain, ultimatly falling off Brad. Brad rolled over and quickly got up, "Don't do this Jess, you do NOT want to fight me!" Brad said, starting to get mad.
Jess jumped up and looked at Brad, "Like hell I don't." Jess, with a right hook, punched Brad in the mouth, sending him crashing the ground. When he was there, Jess grabbed Brad's hair and pulled his head back, so he could see his face. He smirked at him, then, as hard as he could, Jess slammed Brad's face down on the side of his porch, causing Brad to scream in pain.
Brad rolled over on his back, blood pouring out of his nose and mouth. "Jesus... fucking Christ Jess!" Brad had finally gotten angry and slowly brought himself back up to his feet.
"You wanna fight? Then lets roll." Brad charged Jess, and right before he hit him, Jess moved to the side and used Brad's momentum to send him charging into the side of Brad's car. Brad bounced off and again, fell to the ground.
"C'mon!" Jess screamed, "Get up and fight like a man!"
Brad got up and again charged Jess, who swung hard and hit him in the eye. Brad stumbled back, but did not fall, and Jess swung again with his left hand and knocked him flat on his stomach. While on the ground, Jess rolled him over and sat on top of him. Brad was to out of it to do anything to Jess and he knew it.
Blood was pouring out of every hole in Brad's face, his eye already swelled up to the point where he couldn't open it, and it couldn't have remind Jess anymore of the way he had found Rory had it been Rory herself laying there on the ground in front of him.
Jess looked in Brad's eyes, and Brad returned the gaze, knowing full well Jess could be the last person he'd ever see again.
"I warned you," Jess whispered in an eery voice, " that if you ever touched her again..." he paused, staring at Brad long and hard before finishing. "That I would kill you."
With that, he picked up Brad's head and slammed it into the concrete, and watched Brad's eyes roll backward as his eyelids fluttered shut. Jess stepped off of Brad, sweaty and tired. He backed away from him as the police pulled up, and couldn't believe what he had just done.
"Excuse me, sir?" The policeman said, "Whats your name kid?"
"Jess..." Jess breathed, unable to take his eyes off Brad.
"So, is that Brad?" The police officer asked, but Jess didn't respond. "Hey, kid! Is that Bradley Stanlen or not?" The officer was getting impatient as Jess slowly nodded his head. He backed up and sat down on Brad's porch, unable to hold himself up any longer and listened to the officers conversation.
"Jesus Chirst, Rick, look at this kid! What the hell happened to him?" The officer said to his partner.
"Looks like someone beat the shit out of him. This is the guy that beat on that girl. Roren? Rorly?"
"Rory." Jess corrected him.
Rick eyed him weirdly then looked back at his parter, "Yea, Rory."
Jess watched quietly as more officers surrounded the Stanlen home, and the ambulance showed up. It was like a scene in a movie, the kind where no matter how horrible and disturbing it is - you just can't take your eyes off of it. Jess watched the two paramedics rush over to Brad, as one placed two fingers under Brad's chin checking for a pulse. He waitied a couple seconds, then looked up at his partner and shook his head.
"This kid's dead."
After that Jess heard nothing, as he was flooded with emotions and could barely sit up straight. He began to breath heavily and almost passed out when an officer approached him, "Hey, um, Jess was it?"
He nodded. The officer flashed his flashlight on Jess and saw the blood on his shirt and the skin torn open on his knuckles.
"Your going to have to come with us."
Jess stood up and the officer handcuffed him, but Jess had kept his eye's on Brad the whole time in disbelief. The officer walked him over to the cruiser and opened the door.
"Watch your head," he said, just about to place him in the backseat. Then Jess finally tore his eyes away from Brad and looked in front of him. It was Rory, Luke and Lorelai, about 20 feet away.
Their eyes locked. 'She's alive...' he thought, and he couldn't have been happier. They stared at eachother for a few seconds before she finally spoke.
"I remember now," she yelled, "I love you Jess!"
He began to tear up as he saw her alive, awake, and Ok. And best of all, she remembered. He stared at her, and sighed heavily.
"Im sorry," he yelled back, "and I love you to! Im sorry!"
She began to cry as she nodded to show she understood, and the officer shoved him into the backseat and slammed the door. Jess waited for the officer to climb in the front seat, and then asked him, no, begged him if he would be allowed to say goodbye to Rory before they took him away.
"Sorry kid, can't do it. Chief's orders." The officer started the car and began to drive away, Jess turned around as far as he could and watched Rory get smaller and smaller out of the back window. Once she was out of sight he turned back around and leaned his head against the back seat. "Dammit!" he yelled.
"Whoa calm down kid," the officer instucted him, "whats your problem?"
"Nothing..." Jess mumbled.
"You know," the officer piped in, "I know it's none of my buisness but... your so young and... well, was this girl really all the trouble?"
Jess looked at the officer through the rearview mirror and at first said nothing.
"Well," he repeated, "was she?"
Jess nodded and stared out the window as he whispered barely loud enough for the officer to hear him,
"Absolutely."
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A/N - Wow. By far. The longest chapter I have ever written. To be honest, I hadn't even planned this chapter for it to turn out the way it did, but I know how I'm going to end my story and I think you'll all like it. As I said, next chapter will be my last. Please R&R, bc the more reviews, the quicker I try to post! Love u guys! R&R!