Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue. You'll make me cry.

Broken

"Damnit Jess!

Rory pulled at her dark curls, completely frustrated with the man standing in front of her.

"You asked me for forgiveness, and I gave you all I had to give. You asked me for friendship and I have been here for you unconditionally. What more do you want from me?"

Jess stepped towards Rory, reaching out his hand to run it through her curls. His calloused palm brushed roughly against her ear and Rory jumped at the sharp jab in her abdomen.

"I want to see that fire in your eyes that used to be there when you were angry. I want hope that it will someday be there again. I just want Rory back! This isn't you. You're not the girl I knew."

As Jess turned his back to her, stepping away, Rory felt the sting of his words as potently as a slap. Her voice was angry and petty when she spoke.

"So what, now that I'm fucked up you don't want to be my friend? You think you're too good to spend time with me? Screw you, Jess! We both know that I've always been better than you, not the other way around."

There was only a second between the flash of hurt in his eyes and the stab of regret in her heart. But she stood tall, full of regret but looking proud. Jess smiled bitterly.

"I'm not gonna walk away again Rory. Say all you want. I know I deserve it. But this isn't you, and I'm gonna help you whether you like it or not."

Rory clenched her jaw for a second, ready for another round of screaming, but she just couldn't. She let out a sharp breath and felt herself start to get dizzy. She was so tired. Tired of pretending; tired of lying; and tired of being her grandmother's sick little mannequin.

Once the tears started, they wouldn't stop. Sobs were forcing themselves out of her as she tried to hold on to her composure, her body shaking rigidly.

She didn't feel him take her into his arms. She didn't feel it as her knees went out and he lowered them slowly to the concrete. She didn't feel it as he pulled her into his lap.

She knew it was happening; saw herself being moved, but she didn't feel a thing.

She couldn't feel a thing.

For forty-five minutes she laid in Jess's lap and tried her best to feel. But she just couldn't.

But he felt. He felt her sobs, their sheer force nearly bringing tears to his eyes. He felt all her energy, as it drained. He felt it when that little piece of her inside finally broke, and he felt all the emptiness she couldn't fill within herself.

But most of all, he felt her pain. He'd never seen someone so hollow.

There was movement, and Jess looked up to see Logan's approaching figure. He wanted to ignore him, as he had the entire 4 months since he met him, regardless of the fact that he saw him nearly every weekend when he visited Rory.

But the figure stopped a few feet away and just watched, with clear pain in his eyes, as his girlfriend fell apart in her best friend's arms.

Jess's eyes locked with his, and as much as he was hurting, he knew Logan was hurting the same. The blonde just stood for a moment, and then bowed his head in defeat.

There was sudden silence. Rory had stopped shaking, and seemed to be asleep.

"She doesn't need me anymore, does she?"

Jess just stared.

"She needs you now."

The blonde turned to walk away, knowing he was giving up a huge part of himself. Facing the possibility that he was walking away forever.

"Hey."

He turned back.

"She'll need you. Maybe not now, but she will. She loves you."

Logan smiled a bitter sweetly and turned away again, he shook his head but didn't face Jess when he spoke.

"It's you she loves. It's always been you."

As he watched Logan walk away, Jess knew that Rory wasn't the only person broken that night.

But he still hoped the blonde dick was right.