Cynthia saw the knife glinting on Lorelai's throat as she approached from behind and didn't think twice before leaping with a yell onto Jackson's back. He bellowed as Lorelai screamed and moved away. Jackson thundered to the wet dirt, Cynthia straddling him and beating him as hard as she could in the face with her flashlight.

Lorelai moaned and clutched her face, where a shallow one-inch cut bled from her hairline to her nose. Her eyes had been barely spared by Jackson's flying knife blade.

Jackson easily overpowered the small, angry woman on top of him and slammed his head into hers, rendering her unconscious. Lorelai grabbed the scuttling knife and pointed it at him.

Lisa and Joe clung to each other nearby, Lisa watching horrified as the man who'd just an hour ago been so tender grew vicious and bloodthirsty.

Jackson turned to Lorelai, then back to Cynthia as if for confirmation she was out. When his gaze returned once more to Lorelai, he had a gun in his hands. He didn't think twice before firing it into Lorelai's uninjured leg. It hit her knee. She screamed and moaned in agony before crumpling to the ground. The knife fell and Jackson scooped it up, tucking it back into his beltloop.

"What next, Lore?" he shouted. "Your other knee? Your ankles? I've got all fucking day. Maybe I'll shoot out every single ligament in your body before mercifully putting you out of your misery."

"Jackson, please, stop," Lisa sobbed.

"Get out of here!" he bellowed to Joe. Cynthia was waking up. "All of you! Before I kill you!"

Cynthia, rubbing her head, hobbled to Joe and helped him lift the now unconscious Lorelai up. Joe had her arms and Cynthia her legs as they sidestepped up the hill.

"What happened?" Max demanded to know once they had gotten inside. He had wanted so badly to help them but was afraid to get out and endanger himself. "We heard the gunshot and all but couldn't see that well or hear what everyone was saying."

Lorelai had thick tears streaming down her face and she oozed blood everywhere. Her face was contorted grotesquely and she was in so much pain her words had turned into gibberish-ridden moans.

"Oh, God," Max shut his eyes, starting the car. "We've got to get her to the hospital. Cynthia, are you ok? It looked like something happened to you down there, too."

"He just hit me in the head," she groaned. "I'm fine. But since we're going to the hospital anyway…."

"Got it." Max hit his foot on the pedal and they were off. But he couldn't help but steal a glance back at his beloved collapsing on the sand, knowing it would be the last time he ever saw her.

Rory had a difficult time looking at Dean's face, with the charred skin still continuing to involuntarily peel off. Most of it was bandaged, but nevertheless there were parts she could still see through to. It hurt her, a lot, to see that she was kind of the cause of it.

Jess. It all boiled down to Jess. Luke had called her to tell her the news, and Rory blamed herself for ever getting involved with the scumbag. It was apparent that Dean's parents did, too, though they never actually vocalized it.

Rory had tried to sit in the waiting room with them for a while, but all she'd received was stony glares, all except for his little sister, who'd always been infatuated with Rory. But even she must have felt some begrudgement against Rory.

She felt another sob bubble in her throat as she looked at his comatose form. The door behind her suddenly opened and she turned. It was his mother.

"Hi," Rory said quietly, turning back to her boyfriend, cheeks burning.

"Hi, Ror," she murmured, pulling up a chair next to her. "How are you doing?"

"As good as can be expected, I suppose," Rory sighed. "You?"

"Not so great," his mother shut her eyes painfully. "Praying. A lot."

"Me too."

There was a long silence, and then his mother took a deep breath.

"You can't blame yourself for this, you know, Rory."

"Why not?"

"Because it wasn't your fault. Sure, you may have dated that piece of garbage but still…you didn't ask for this. I'm sorry if we made it seem otherwise. We're just hurting a lot too, you know."

"Of course you are. And thanks for that. But I'll never, ever, be able to forgive myself."

Her phone went off suddenly, and she stood to take it to the waiting room. Once there, she was harangued by a nurse who pointed vividly at the NO PHONES sign. Rory grumbled and ran down a flight of stairs outside.

She was out of breath when she answered it. "H-hello?"
There was no answer. Rory moaned, figuring they must have hung up. She put it back in her purse and began to walk back inside by the light of the moon.

She didn't anticipate being asphyxiated with a soaked cloth or thrown into the backseat of Jess Mariano's car, however.