**Mature Content. Violence, Swearing, and Sexual Content. You've been warned.**

"Why are you still with that guy?" Jess said angrily. He was walking around the apartment picking things up and putting them back down.

"Don't yell at me." Rory said.

He stopped and looked at her. He had been yelling at her and she looked so helpless. "Sorry. It pisses me off, that's all."

"That I'm still with him?" She said irritably.

"That he's an ass."

"Oh. He's not usually an ass. He's jealous. You bring out the worse in him." She looked at her hands that were still visibly shaking. Dean had never been like that until Jess had come to Stars Hollow. Well, other than with Tristan. Was this how he really was?

"You didn't answer my question." Jess watched her.

"What question?"

"Why are you still with him?" He huffed loudly.

"Because he's my boyfriend." She said it like it was so obvious that she was amazed he had even asked.

"Oh, good reason." He commented sarcastically.

"It is."

"He wouldn't be your boyfriend if you broke up with him. Then you wouldn't have that as an excuse to be with him."

"I can't break up with him!" She was mortified by the idea.

"And why not?"

"Because he's my boyfriend." She said again.

"Oh, Jesus Christ. Fuck me." He walked over the window and stared out of it angrily.

"I don't see what the big deal is. He was jealous that's all."

"Did you forget he's a stalker?"

"He's not. He was just worried. Maybe I was a little too hard on him."

"How could you say that, Rory?" He was exasperated now and sat down on the sofa next to her. She was trembling and he wasn't helping.

"It's true. And I did lie to him."

"How?"

"I didn't call him back because of you. I called you instead of him." She looked at her hands then.

"Dammit Rory! Do not blame this on yourself!" Jess stood up yelling.

"You're yelling at me again!" She looked him right in the eye.

"Yes I am! Dammit someone needs to! Shit. I never figured you as the type to be afraid of your boyfriend." He turned away from her trying to get his temper under control.

"I'm not afraid...." She began stubbornly.

"The hell you aren't! Dammit Rory, don't lie to me. I was down there today! I heard you last night."

"Last night. This is what all of this is about isn't it? Last night!" She was starting to really get angry.

"Why did you call me last night?"

"What?"

"You never told me why you called." He sat back down, calmer now.

"It doesn't matter anymore." She whispered.

"Oh."

"I shouldn't have called you last night. It was stupid. Everything I said was stupid. Just forget it ever happened."

"Oh. Alright." Something inside him died.

"I need to go talk to Dean. I need to work this out." Rory stood up.

"Rory! No, dammit Rory. You don't need to be with a guy like him." He walked over to where she was standing.

"A guy like him? What do you mean?"

He grabbed her shoulders a little too tightly. When she flinched he loosened his grip. "He's a wife-beater waiting to happen Rory. You don't see that, you've never had to be around that. You've been around people like Luke your whole life. You only see the good in people." He held her there just looking at her.

She quickly jerked away from him. "Stop treating me like I'm stupid. I know not every guy is like Luke. I know there are guys that deliberately hurt their girlfriends. But Dean isn't one of them."

"He sure as hell looks like it to me."

"You know, maybe the problem is that you are too cynical. Not everyone is bad, Jess."

"I know." His voice got soft.

"I'm going to apologize to Dean now." She turned around and practically ran out the door.

Jess ran down the stairs following her. "Rory! Wait! Rory. Come on! Wait. Rory!" He followed her out the door and onto the street where he stopped. Rory had run straight into the arms of Dean who had been waiting by Doose's. Dean seemed to be a lot calmer than he had been. He had a red mark on his face from when Jess hit him, but that was the only sign of what had happened. He was whispering something to Rory and she was nodding her head. Dean kissed her on the top of the head and sent a look at Jess.

Jess sent him a look back and walked into the diner. He stormed into the kitchen where Luke was trying to get his temper under control.

"For such a smart girl, she can be so stupid sometimes." He muttered.

Rory sat on her bed just staring. She had lost track of the amount of time she had been staring but it was a very long time. Lorelai was in at Luke's, she figured Luke would bring up the Dean incident. That was okay, she hadn't really told him not to. Things were under control now right? Lorelai would have to accept that.

But things weren't under control. She had agreed with Dean only to keep from having another argument. She hated arguing with Dean. So when told her she had to stay away from Jess, she agreed. When he told her he needed to know where she was, she agreed. When he told her a man had a right to be jealous when his girl was with another man, she agreed. But it wasn't because she was afraid of him. Was it?

"No. I am not afraid of Dean." She said out-loud.

Just then the phone rang and she jumped. 'Oh my God that scared me,' she thought. She reached over and grabbed the phone from where she had laid it beside her bed.

"Hello?" Her voice was pensive and trembled a little, she noticed neither. Inside she was saying 'please don't be Jess, please don't be Jess, please don't be Dean, please be Jess, no no, please don't be Jess."

"Rory? What's wrong?" Lane asked.

"Oh. Lane. Nothing." She had forgotten she had called Lane. Lane was probably just calling her back from last night.

"Well hi to you too."

"Sorry. Hi."

She made a decision she would regret for the rest of her life. She decided she wasn't going to tell Lane what had happened that morning. It wasn't a big deal, was it? No, it wasn't.

Several weeks had gone by without a problem. Dean was back to normal, he even let Rory go see Jess without getting angry. She was able to go to Luke's every morning, have coffee, and discuss good literature. She hung out with Lane everyday. At night she'd call Dean, or he would call her, and they'd have nice conversations. Everything was fine.

Or so she told herself.

The fact was everything was not fine. She hadn't spoken to Jess in what seemed like a lifetime, and the only time she went into Luke's was when she was with her mother. She never went before school when she knew Jess would be in there, and she stayed out during late evenings, since Luke was prone to make Jess close. She hadn't had a decent conversation about literature since she'd spoken to Jess on the bridge, so long ago. In fact, she hadn't read anything she didn't know from front to back already. She was afraid she'd run into him in the bookstore so she was reading her own selection. Currently she was reading Emma by Jane Austen. She rarely spoke to Lane. The weight of hiding her deepest, darkest feelings from her friend was too much.

And as for Dean, he changed. He had changed so much. He seemed to be very irritable around her anymore. And way too physical. For some reason Rory didn't like to have him touch her anymore. She couldn't remember when that had happened, but it seemed like it had always been there. He did call her every night, to check up on her. He would ask her about almost every minute of her day, telling her nothing about his. The first few times, she would be sarcastic, or silly, and say everything that happened since she had woke up, or make up something that could never had happened. She had learned quickly enough that that wasn't wise. He would have sudden bursts of anger, and start yelling at her for no reason.

He said I love you too much.

'Whoa, where did that come from?' She asked herself. She was sitting at a desk in the inn trying to do her homework. If she wasn't with Dean she tried to stay with her mother. Safer that way. When did she start caring what was safe? She shook her head. 'Thinking about my life is not making me understand Latin more. Why on Earth do I have to take Latin, Spanish, and French anyway?'

She needed to talk to her best friends. Lorelai, Lane, and Jess. Although in this case she had already talked to Lorelai. Her dad had a new, annoying girlfriend. Her name was Sherri. How could he even like anyone like that. Oh, and she had a strong interest in Rory. 'Great, that's exactly what I need right now.' She thought.

She looked at the clock. 6:30. She had to meet Dean at his house in half an hour. They were going to rent movies, order pizza, and have a night in, just the two of them. She shuddered. 'I wish we could just go out to a movie, I don't really want to be alone with him.' Dean had been getting more and more physical with her and then suddenly he had wanted to spend a night with her...alone. His parents and sister were gone, they would be back Monday, so it would be just the two of them in his house. She was afraid to think about what that might mean. This was the first time she had ever thought about sex with Dean, the thought made her sick to her stomach.

After sitting a few moments with her eyes closed to steel herself she put her books away. Luckily, she had dressed nicely to help Lorelai in the inn, which she didn't actually need, but it kept her away from Dean and Jess.

"Six-thirty," she called to her mom. Lorelai was driving her to Dean's on her way to Doose's. Sookie had run out of heavy cream in the middle of making desert. 'You can't have two deserts! It screams we ran out of ingredients for the other one so here, this is runner up!' Sookie had said. So Lorelai was picking up heavy cream for her.

"Okay. Coming!"

Ten minutes later Lorelai walked out of the kitchen, a steaming travel mug of coffee in her hands. "Ready to go sweets?"

"Yep." Rory got up and followed her mother out the door.

They arrived at Dean's at five minutes til seven. Rory had told Lorelai she really didn't want to be late. She left out the part where she was afraid that Dean would get mad were she late.

"Have fun. But not too much fun." Lorelai said.

"I won't." Rory said and got out of the Jeep.

She walked up the walk onto the porch and knocked on the door. Lorelai noticed the nervousness in her daughter and was concerned by it. Moments later, when Dean answered the door, the nervousness only increased. She made a silent vow to ask her about that later.

"Hi." Dean said opening the door wider.

'Hi." She walked through and looked around. Yep, really alone. Oh no.

Dean kissed her. It was a hard kiss, one she had gotten used to these past few weeks. His kisses anymore seemed mean, angry. This was slightly different somehow, this one seemed hungry. He pulled away and her mouth felt bruised.

"Hi." He leaned his forehead against hers.

"Hi." She faked a smile. "Movies?"

"Oh yeah, I got...." He picked up two movie cases. "The Godfather 3, you know for comic relief, and X-Men. I hear it's pretty good."

"Yeah, me too."

They sat down on the floor and began to watch.

About fifteen minutes into the movie Dean started kissing Rory. These were fast, hard kisses that were meant to take, not give. Rory didn't say anything, knowing that he liked doing it and that saying anything would make him mad. But when he started unbuttoning her blouse she knew she had to put her foot down.

'Dean. Dean, stop." She pushed at him trying to get him off her.

"What? What's wrong?" Dean asked.

"I don't want to do this. I'm not ready."

"We've been seeing each other almost two years."

"Yeah."

"You love me, I love you."

"Yeah."

"So what's the problem?"

"I'm just not ready. I'm sorry Dean." She scooted away from him a little, hoping he didn't notice. He did.

"And now you act like you're afraid of me!" He stood up. "Get up!"

She hurried to her feet. "What are you doing?"

"I'm showing you that there is nothing to be afraid of. I won't hurt you. Much."

"What do you mean? Dean!" He was pushing her into his room now. "Dean! I said no!"

"I know what you said. You didn't mean it. You're scared." He shut the door. "Lay down."

"No." She crossed her arms.

He pushed her on the bed. "Dammit Rory. It would be a lot easier if you weren't fighting me."

He laid down on top of her. She started fighting, squirming, hitting him, kicking. "Dean! No! I don't want to do this! Why are you doing this?" She was crying now. She should have just stopped, should have just let it happen, but she couldn't. She had to fight it.

"Rory, stop fighting me. Come on. You don't want to get hurt do you?" His voice was eerily calm now. It was almost gentle.

"Dean! Stop it!" She lifted her knee in an attempt to knee him in the balls but missed. "Dean!"

He had her top unbuttoned now and was working on her bra. She couldn't take it anymore. She began flailing and kicking randomly. She hit him in the face once and was rewarded by him hitting her.

"Don't do that. I didn't want to hit you, it was a reflex. Just calm down." He had gotten her bra open and was licking at her nipples. When he bit down on one of them her knee lifted in reflex. This time it connected with it's goal.

"Ah, God dammit." He said rolling off her.

Rory jumped up fastening her bra. She pulled her shirt around her and glared at Dean.

"That's it. Dean it's over. Just stay away from me! I don't want you anywhere near me." She ran out of the house crying.

She was still crying when she reached her house. Her mom was still at the inn and she didn't want to call there and have her worried. So she decided to call Lane. Sure she'd have to fess up to everything that had been happening, but surely Lane would understand. She picked up the phone and dialed Lane's number.

"Kim' Antiques." Mrs. Kim said.

"It's Rory. Is Lane there?" She asked.

"Lane busy. No talk. Call again later."

"Mrs. Kim I really need to talk to Lane."

"No talk. Call later. Good bye." Mrs. Kim hung up.

'Dammit!' She screamed it loud inside her head. Now what? She still had one option. She dialed a very familiar number.

"Hello?" Someone answered after the third ring.

"J...J..Jess." Her voice stammered.

"Rory what's wrong?" His voice was full of concern. He forgot about the sarcastic remark he had waiting for her.

"Can you meet me at the bridge. I need to talk to someone." She asked.

"Yeah, sure. Ten minutes." He said.

"Thanks." They hung up

They were sitting on the bridge, their feet dangling. Rory had just told Jess her whole story. She didn't feel as rattled up here, with him. She felt safe somehow.

"I'll take care of it." Jess said. His voice was low and dark.

"Don't do anything stupid, Jess. I mean it." Rory said.

"What should I do? Just let him go. Let nothing happen to him?"

"I don't know."

"Rory, he cannot be around to do this to you again. I won't let that happen."

"Jess, what are you saying?" Rory looked over at him worried.

"I really don't know what I'm saying. He needs to suffer. He hurt you Rory." He looked at her and made eye contact. She quickly dropped her gaze.

"He didn't hurt me, much."

"Rory, you won't even let me make eye contact. I can't stand this. It isn't right."

Rory sighed and looked out over the lake. "Walk me home."

"Okay."

They walked towards her house in a comfortable silence. Somewhere along the way one of them had taken the other's hand. Neither seemed to notice. They stopped at Rory's door and just stared. She pulled her hand from his and they both looked down at where they had been joined.

"Read to me until my mom gets home?" She asked.

"Of course."

They walked in and she went into her room. When she came back out she had a yellow book. She handed it to him and sat down on the sofa patting the spot next to her. He sat down allowing her curl into him. He smiled and opened the book.

"'The ladies here probably exchanged looks which meant, 'Men never know when things are dirty or not.'" He began on a random page in Emma.

He had read to her for almost an hour until Lorelai got home. When he heard her car pull up he snuck out the back door. Now he was just minutes away from Luke's, his anger steadily growing. He couldn't believe Dean would do something like that to someone like Rory. His pace quickened as his anger grew. He could have really hurt her. What if she hadn't stopped him? Then Dean would have died. Plain and simple. His thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

He couldn't make out what it had said but he could see clearly that it had come from Dean. 'Great' he thought.

"I though I told you to leave my girl alone Mariano."

To be continued..........................................