A/N: Thank you to all of those who have reviewed. My smile is huge. Anyway, I hope that you like this chapter.
Disclaimer: I only own Rory's boyfriend and this fic, nothing else.
My Savior
She had been there for a week now. Her mother was worried that she wouldn't come home, but she had reluctantly let Rory stay. She was afraid, in all truth. She was afraid that if she went back, he would find her and make her pay for running away. She had argued with herself many times that she wasn't running away, that she had distanced herself from an obvious problem that she was having, but she knew that she was. She was running away from him. She didn't know what one was supposed to do in a situation of the sort and she had spent many hours questioning why she had to all of a sudden figure out how.
~Flashback~
"Rory? What are you doing here?"
"I need your help."
Tristan looked at the girl standing before him and a sickening feeling settled in his stomach. She looked so beaten up and like she could break at any minute. "What happened to you?" Tristan stepped forward and gently urged her into his house, away from the bitter cold.
"Can we not talk about that now, please?" She looked at him pleadingly, not wanting to open more wounds.
He looked a little frustrated, but gave in. "Fine. Let's get you washed up."
~End Flashback~
Rory looked up from the book she was reading to the man across the room. He looked very stressed, as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "Tristan?"
He looked away from the computer screen. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?" She didn't know why she felt afraid to ask him that.
He shut his eyes momentarily, seeming as though he were searching for the right answer to say. "I just have a lot on my plate right now." He continued to stare at her.
She suddenly looked down in shame. "I'm sorry." She shook her head, trying to will the tears away. "I just had no one else to go to." She closed her book and got up. "I'll leave." She went to his bed and gathered what she had brought with her and tried to pack up.
"Rory…" She drooped everything that she was holding and brought her hands up to her face, lowering her head and allowing her hair to shield her now tear-covered cheeks. "I didn't mean you." After he had made his way towards her, he put his arms around her, gently hugging her from behind. "Okay?"
She turned in his embrace and clung to him tightly. "I'm so scared."
It was silent for a few moments. Tristan seemed reluctant, almost fearful of asking, fearful of what she might say. "Tell me what happened."
~Flashback~
Tristan guided her up the stairs to his room then to the bathroom. As she stepped in, she caught sight of herself. Her hair was tangled and frizzy, she had rips in her clothing, and her face was red from crying and from the cold, but that's not what she was focused on. She saw the fresh cuts on her face and neck, the new bruises on her arms and exposed skin. He had gotten to her face this time.
Tristan tenderly lifted her up so that she was sitting on the counter next to the sink.
"Are you alright?" He grabbed a washcloth from a nearby cabinet and started to wash her wounds.
She winced slightly as the rough fabric touched her skin, but tried to remain calm; she didn't want to seem like the baby she felt like. She nodded slightly and swallowed. "Just peachy."
He gave her a weird look, disbelieving, if nothing else. "What happened? How did you get so many cuts?"
She tried to give a smile, but it was only filled with pain. "Haven't we established that we weren't going to talk about that?"
He stiffened slightly, forcing back the urge to just yell at her. "Yeah. Sorry." He wanted to scream at her, ask her how she allowed this to happen to her, why she couldn't tell him, if she had told anyone.
She noticed the change in his demeanor. "Tristan?" He looked into her eyes. "I'll tell you when I'm ready." He nodded and continued to work the blood off of her skin.
~End Flashback~
She stepped away from him and sat down on the bed, taking in long, deep breaths to try to calm her nerves. "Okay." He sat down next to her and began to rub her back, his own way of telling her that he was there for her, that he would listen. She leaned slightly towards him and began her story. "I met Jason a couple months ago. He was so nice and sweet to me and I was completely smitten with him." She looked up at him to make sure he still wanted to listen; he nodded slightly. "He asked me out a few days later and I said 'yes'. We started to go out after that and everything was perfect. But then, I noticed some things that I didn't notice before, things that I thought never happened. He started to check out other women in front of me, sometimes making comments to me as if I were one of his guy friends. And he started to get really possessive. He would always call my house to see what I was doing, and if I wasn't there, he'd call my grandparents or even other people he knew I knew."
She paused, considering what to say next. "Then what happened?" His voice was so soothing and caring, things that had never been apart of Jason's.
"I put up with it. I thought that he really liked me and that he cared for me. Then-" She started to sob uncontrollably. He pulled her closer. "Then on one of our dates, he accused me of flirting with another guy and he-he-" She lowered her head to her hands, slightly rocking back and forth in her position. She didn't know if she could continue.
"What did he do, Rory?" He was so angry now, even more than he was before. He knew what this Jason character did, what he had done to a girl, this girl, what he had probably done to other girls.
"He started to hit me and kick me and I couldn't stop him, Tristan. I couldn't even stop him!" She sobbed more and more with each word that escaped her lips. "Then before I came over here, he came to my house. He told me that he saw me talking to you and he accused me of wanting to sleep with you and then he hit me again. He hit me over and over. I was so afraid that he was going to kill-"
"Hey," he silenced her, not wanting her to think those thoughts. "You're fine now, okay? And I promise you that nothing is going to happen you anymore. You're safe with me." She looked up at him, finding comfort in his gaze. She believed him.
* * *
Every nerve in her body was jumping. She had called her mom earlier that day, telling her what had happened to her. Lorelai cried, she had allowed some guy to hurt her daughter, and what hurt the most, was that she couldn't so anything to stop it. Lorelai had affirmed both Rory and Tristan that Jason had not been at the house for days, that it was okay for her to come back to at least get some more clothes for herself. Rory had reluctantly accepted and now she was ready to shot herself for agreeing to do such a thing.
"Hey…you alright?"
She turned to look at Tristan and gave a half-hearted smile. "Good. I just want to get this over with."
He held out his hand for her. "Let's go."
* * *
The car ride to Stars Hollow did nothing for her nerves; she was just all the more aware of the fact that her boyfriend could appear anywhere when they got into city limits.
As they drove up to her house, her heart clenched at what she saw. Her mother being carried to an ambulance and her boyfriend being escorted to a police car, with the most sickening smile on his face. He had gotten to what she loved the most.
*~*~*~*Well, what do you think? I was going to work more flashbacks in, but I figured that they were better suited for the next chapter. And I was never going to have Rory's abusive boyfriend be Dean or Jess; neither of them would do that to her and even in AU pieces, it doesn't seem right, and I knew that if I had one of them play that part, I would have never been able to make that work. So, please review and tell me what you think. I'm starting to lose my touch, aren't I? Not as dark or good as I would have liked this chapter to be, but I wanted to put something up. Maybe I'll wait until I'm in a more…dark mood to write the next chapter… Sorry about my ramblings. Thank you all for reading. Your reviews have made me very happy and I appreciate it beyond words.*~*~*~*