***WARNING***

Swearing, violence, and strong sexuality that may lead to semi-graphic sex. If you can not handle these subjects I urge you not to read.

CHARACTER DEATH

"I thought I told you to stay away from her, Mariano." Dean said emerging from the shadows where he had been all but lurking.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Jess moved to walk past him.

Dean grabbed his arm hard and jerked him back. "You were with her! Dammit Jess! That's why I couldn't find her."

Jess jerked himself out of Dean's grasp. "Don't fucking touch me!"

"What did she tell you?" He screamed it.

"She didn't tell me anything, I wasn't with her." He rolled his shoulders like a boxer preparing for a fight. 'Rory does not want you to do anything stupid. Remember that. Be calm for Rory." He told himself.

"Don't bullshit me! What did she tell you!"

"I told you! I wasn't with her!"

"What did she tell you." He whispered this with his teeth clenched.

Suddenly it donned on Jess. Dean had been following them. Hadn't he had a strange feeling as he was walking Rory to her house, like he was being watched. He had passed it off so easily as just paranoia and temper. He should have followed his gut and checked it out.

"She told me everything!" Jess screamed it. His skin was vibrating now, humming with a raw hatred. He could see clearly, all too clearly, Dean touching Rory, bruising her. He could see Rory's eyes, scared, confused, crying out for help that wasn't there. An icy chill ran down his spine followed by a flash of pure, searing heat flashed throughout his whole body. He led a silent struggle to not let himself go blind with his rage. If he could keep his senses no one would be hurt. The struggle was almost impossible.

"You don't understand. It wasn't anything at all like she told you....." Dean started, his voice pleading.

"What? So you mean you didn't try to rape her?" His voice was calm and collected. It sounded eerie and dangerous even to his own ears.

"It didn't happen like that. She agreed...."

"She didn't agree to shit. Dean just shut the fuck up I don't want to hear it." He started to walk past Dean again.

Dean grabbed his arm and something snapped. The world became a mass of black with a halo of red around the edges. All sound was muted by the sound of his blood roaring, fast, and strong, through his veins. He couldn't feel Dean's hand on him but he knew it was there. On a deep breath he turned around and hit Dean right in the face.

There was a warm, damp feeling on his hand that later he would account to Dean's nose bleeding. Dean let go and stumbled backwards, pale and shocked. He didn't even see the second blow coming. It was to his stomach this time and he bent over in agony. He managed to straighten out an get a good shot at Jess' temple which sent him reeling. Jess tripped over something and landed on his side on the ground.

Dean stared at Jess as he lay on the ground, trying to lift himself with one arm. This was very hard for him to do and obviously painful because when he fell his whole arm had become scraped. The abrasions were oozing blood, but Jess didn't feel anymore than a slight sting. As Jess made progress in getting up Dean kicked him in the stomach knocking him down again. He kicked him twice more until he lay on his back. Jess was panting hard and had laid there for a few seconds. Dean didn't think he'd be getting back up anytime soon. He was wrong.

Just as Dean had turned around to walk away, Jess started sitting up. It took a lot of effort and a lot of strength to do so but he did. Next, he went to get on his feet. This didn't seem so hard until he was actually on his feet. Then he got really dizzy. Who would've known Bag Boy knew to go for the temples. It was no secret Dean had size on his side, so Jess had to cheat. He grabbed the thing that he had tripped over. It was a piece of two-by-four left from the last time Luke had had his roof fixed.

Dean, stupidly, stopped in his tracks. He gave a small laugh. "Sad thing is, I got farther than you ever will." He shook his head lightly still laughing.

Jess, having lost the little bit of control he had maintained, swung the piece of board. It hit Dean in the back of the head with a loud crack. The board broke in half at the force of the blow and thousands of little cracking sounds could be heard as Dean's skull was literally crushed. It sounded vaguely of popping popcorn. A stream of red trickled down Dean's neck as he fell forward. Jess made a disgusted noise and threw the board on the ground. Almost in a daze, he walked in through the back way of the diner, through the kitchen, and upstairs in the apartment.

"Oh shit!" Jess came running down the stairs fifteen minutes later. He ran out the back door, looked at where Dean was laying in the alley.

"Fuck." He said. He closed the door and turned around.

"What's your problem?" Luke, who had followed him into the kitchen from where he was counting money at the counter, asked.

"He's fucking dead. My God. He's dead." Jess had turned an unnatural shade of white. He was pacing around the kitchen, obviously frantic.

"Who's dead? Jess what's going on?" Luke's voice held concern and slight panic.

"What?" Jess looked at him for a moment, not totally understanding the question. "Uh. Dean. Dean's dead. Fuck! Dean's dead!"

"Jess! What did you......" Luke trailed off, realizing that wasn't they way to find out anything. "What happened?" His voice was almost as frantic as Jess's.

"He's dead! He's dead! I fucking killed him! Shit! Fucking wonderful!"

"Jess! Calm down! What happened? Why did you kill him?"

"Does it matter? He's dead, I killed him! Who the hell cares why I killed him?" He was panting now, his chest heaving, eyes large. 'I'm going to retch.' He remembered thinking.

"I care! Now, what happened!" Luke could see the terror in his eyes. He stunk of fear.

"Fuck!"

"Jess, I can't help you if you don't tell me what happened!" Luke yelled. It seemed right to be yelling. Both were completely freaked and stalking the kitchen, one walking in one direction while the other was walking in the opposite direction. The only stopped to scream at each other.

"I can't! Rory will kill me! There's that word again: kill! Oh shit! I am so fucked. Oh shit, oh shit." He chanted 'oh shit' for a good thirty seconds.

"Rory? What does Rory have to do with this?" Luke stopped and stared blankly at him.

"Shit! The bastard tried to rape her! Okay! He tried to rape Rory!" Jess stopped in his tracks to stare at Luke. He hadn't just said that. He wasn't here, in the kitchen of his Uncle's diner, pacing back and forth, discussing why a man had died, at his hands. It was a nightmare. He fell asleep while reading to Rory. 'Wake up, Mariano. Lorelai will be home any minute.' He told himself. As an after thought he pinched his arm. "Ah fuck." He winced and pushed his sleeve up. His arm was skinned. He vaguely remembered falling, having Dean kick him. "Steel-toed boots." He said out loud.

"What? Dean tried to rape Rory? And what about steel-toed boots?" Luke looked totally confused.

"I might have broken ribs." Jess was staring absently at an industrial toaster that hadn't worked in months. "He was wearing steel-toed boots."

"Jess, snap out of it. Okay, Dean tried to rape Rory." He swallowed a big dose of rage. "But how did you get from there to killing him?"

Jess swallowed. He began to speak but not really to Luke, to himself, sorting things out in his head. "Rory called me. She sounded small and afraid, she wanted to meet me at the bridge. That's where I went. She told me how he....." He couldn't say it again. " She wanted me to walk her home and read to her until Lorelai was home. She didn't want to be alone. I went with her, and left when I heard Lorelai's car. I had felt him following us. I should have known. Dammit, I should have known. He was here when I got back. There was yelling." He shook his head. "I don't remember. Everything went black. I don't remember." He was still absently staring at the toaster. "He kicked me. I was down, and he kicked me." Jess shook his head.

"Okay, okay. What time did you leave Rory's?" Luke asked trying to be collective.

"Why?"

"We need to work out an alibi."

"An alibi?" Jess looked at him stupidly.

"Yeah. You know the thing you tell the cops so you don't get caught?" Luke said.

"But....nine-thirty. I left at nine-thirty." He sighed.

"So, you left at nine-thirty. Dean and you had a fight over Rory, Rory has to be the other part of your alibi. I broke it apart. You came in and helped me close up. We heard a thud and went outside, and Dean was dead." "Luke stumbled and spoke in broken sentences making up the alibi.

"Got it. Thanks Luke. Do you think it will work?" Jess looked a little relieved but still cautious.

"We can give it our best go. Collect yourself." He picked up the phone. "I can not believe I am about to become an accessory to murder." He mumbled to himself and dialed 911.

By morning everyone had heard about Dean's death. The police had believed Jess' alibi but most of the Stars Hollow residents thought he killed Dean. Of course, they were right but they didn't need to know that. Luke had gone outside and made it look like Dean had tripped and busted his head on a cinderblock. He didn't know how long it would fool people but he was hoping for a long time.

Due to the amount of speculation Luke made Jess work in the kitchen doing breakfast dishes before school. Another reason was so that he could keep him away from Rory. There was no need to involve Rory in this anymore than she already was. When she walked in Luke gave an inward sigh and set out to being as normal as possible.

"Hi." Rory said to Luke. "Two coffees."

She sounded tired, a little depressed, but not as much as he figured a girl would sound if her boyfriend had just been killed. Considering the circumstances though, he couldn't blame her altogether.

"Coming up." He went back to get the coffees.

"Oh Luke?" Rory stopped him. "Is Jess around?"

"Uh. Yeah. But he can't talk to right now, Ror." Luke said sadly.

"Oh. Okay. Can I..." She paused. "Can I use your bathroom upstairs?"

"Sure. Go ahead." He went back to getting the coffees.

Rory walked over to Lane who had come in with her and Lorelai. "While I'm upstairs tell Jess he has to bring the book from under his pillow, stress under his pillow, to school today. It's important. Please?"

"Yeah. Of course." Lane smiled shaking her head.

Rory got up and went upstairs. Lane got up and walked over to the counter.

"Luke?"

"Oh, hi Lane." He said trying to act nonchalant and failing.

"While Rory's upstairs....can I talk to Jess. It's about school."

"Okay. Jess out to the counter!" He yelled into the kitchen.

"I'm coming. I thought you told me to stay in the back." Jess said grumpily.

"I did. Lane wants to talk to you about school." Luke walks the coffees over to Lorelai, Lane, and Rory's table where he starts to have a discussion with Lorelai.

"What?" Jess asked.

"Rory's upstairs using Luke's bathroom." Lane said.

"Yeah. So?"

"So. She wanted me to remind you that you need that book, the one you keep under your pillow, for school today. It's very important."

"What......oh. The one under my pillow?" Jess asked finally understanding.

"Yes. Under your pillow." Lane said again.

"Okay, thanks." Jess said. "Luke, I need to go upstairs. I have to get something for school."

Luke looks around and sees that Rory hasn't come back down yet. "Wait a couple of minutes." He said.

When Rory came down and left for school Luke let Jess go upstairs and get what he needed. He lifted his pillow and found a piece of yellow legal paper folded in half. He picked it up and read it.

Jess-

Meet me at my house at ten. Come to my window and I'll let you in. We have to talk, but you already know that. Please Jess. I'll be waiting.

Love -- Rory

Jess folded the paper and stuck it in his pocket. He then grabbed a random book and walked downstairs with it.

Lane had been saving him a seat. She was almost all the way in the back by the window. Jess' favorite seat because the teacher hardly ever looked there. He walked in, spotted her, and headed over to her.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." She said back, taking her books from the desk behind her.

He sat down and leaned up in his desk. "You going to see Rory today after school?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, hold on." He rips out a piece of notebook paper and scribbles something on it.

Rory--

Okay. It may not be ten but I'll be there. Luke doesn't want me around you. He hasn't said so but he doesn't have to. I may have to sneak out. Leave the window cracked so if I'm late I can just push it open.

I'm sorry.

Jess

"Give this to her." He says folding the paper and handing it to Lane.

"Alright. Hey Jess I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Did you kill Dean?"

"Do you think I did?"

"I don't know."

"Does Rory?"

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