1Rory's eyes begrudgingly opened as she heard a car door slam. She watched as Lisa followed Jackson into a dingy 7-11 set between three small hills and a large forest. She sat up and wearily looked up front to Jess.

Jess. Her muscles stiffened to snapping point at the memory. Her eyes blurred. He was awake, but not yet aware that she was as well.

Her lips fought to avoid speaking the question at her vocal chords, but it popped out anyway. "Why?"

Jess jumped. "Good morning, glory."

"Why?" she repeated, grinding her teeth.

"Why what?"

"Why...why did you change? What happened to you?" Rory rubbed her eyes.

"I'm not sure what you mean. I'm right here."

Rory sighed. "No. You changed as soon as you met Jackson. You used to be a little rough around the edges, sure, but never...so...mean...so...cold and, well, evil."

"Its my job."

"Don't feed me that line, Jess Mariano. Why did you even pick the job? Its horrible. I knew you were low, but I thought that you had morals at least."

"I did it for you."

Rory snorted. "Yeah. What the hell are you talking about?"

Jess sighed and ruffled his hair. "I chose the job because...well, because Jackson promised me you."

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Jackson leaned against the bathroom door and checked his watch. Jesus, how long had she been in there? What could she possibly be doing?

He hoped she wasn't sick or anything. She was pregnant, after all. But maybe she'd escaped...no. She was too weak right now, too vulnerable and besides; Rory. Unless she'd suddenly lost her mind or something, he felt secure.

An elderly woman came out and he moved. She smiled dazedly up at him, slight worry lining her ancient face. "Is your wife in there?"

Jackson considered. "Uh...yeah. Why? Is she sick?"

The old lady shrugged. "Sounded it. She was walking all funny and banging around for a while, but when I came out she was climbing out the window."

Damn her. "Oh. I see. Thank you, ma'am."

She flashed him a smile, and he fought to wait until she had rounded the corner before he pushed angrily inside and ran to the window.

Sure enough, Lisa, in her black sweatshirt and jeans, was running down the rocky slope below the window. He regarded her lividly as she looked back once, and, seeing him there, flipped him off. That did it. He flipped himself up onto the sill and propelled out of the window.

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Lane was scared beyond belief, but not for herself. For Rory. The small Korean girl curled up against her warm blonde boyfriend Zach in the rickety old Camarro, leaking tears into his black and white jacket.

"Sh, Lane," he whispered into her hair. "Its ok."

The few short words meant more to her than anything. Zach was not the most intelligent person in the world. He was a talented musician, and sweet as anything, but not so great at vocalizing his feelings. He'd grown better at it during his year or so dating her, but words of consolation still weren't his strong point. He hadn't said much when Lane had told him of her huge fight with her strict Korean mother, Mrs. Kim.

Lane tenderly touched the cell phone bulging in the pockets of her jeans. Her fingers ached to dial her mother up, tell her about Rory, and be consoled. But she couldn't. She couldn't be the one to break the angry silence between her and her mom.

Mrs. Kim would only pray. Lane had very little faith in God. Her mother had forced religion on her too young, too much. Lane believed that a God who would send her to hell for loving the Ramones wasn't any sort of God to be worshiped at all.

Lane felt awkward in the car. She didn't know Joe at all, and Janice very little. She'd stayed at Rory's dorm for a month or so last year, when Lane had had the initial blowup with her mom. She had the feeling that the blonde athletic girl driving wasn't at all fond of the small Korean drummer slouching in the back.

Lane took her comfort to Jack. He was crammed in the back with Lane and Zach, with Janice, Max, and Joe squeezed in up front. She knew Jack well, having lived with him in Stars Hollow her entire life. He was the produce man, her buddy. "What exactly happened with Jackson? How is he here, how...how do we know him?"

Jack pursed his lips and finally spoke. "You know Lisa?"

"I met her once, yes."

"She knew him before she moved up here. He threatened her on a plane to make a phone call. His goal was to have her change a hotel reservation so he could kill Charles Keefe."

All blood drained from Lane's face. "That was her? I never knew that."

"She hates talking about it. It was very tramautizing. Anyway, she moved back up here when he broke out of jail the first time, in worry that he would come after her for revenge. Funny thing was, he was recruiting up here."

"Jess."

"Exactly. So Luke met the guy first, as he was looking for a job. Pissy little guy. Luke gave him the job. Lisa met Lorelai first, at dinner one night and they were instantly friends. The two arranged to spend time together, which one night broke Luke and Lorelai's date. Luke asked Jackson if he wanted to go on a blind date, so that Lorelai and Lisa could still spend time together. Jackson said yes."

"Oh, God," Lane shook her head. This sure was complicated.

"Yeah. Lisa freaked out on the date and ran out, but Jackson followed and managed to threaten/blackmail her into pretending to be his girlfriend so he wouldn't get arrested. They went back in and Jackson fed them all some story about how they'd broken up once but now where back together."

Lane hated to admit it. "He's pretty smart."

"Don't I know it. After a while, Lisa couldn't take it anymore and blurted Jackson's secret. He got angry and threatened them all with a gun and left. They thought it was over. Wrong. Lisa met Max, and, to her surprise, Jackson was still watching her. He kidnapped her and Jess got Rory and they headed to Nice in France on a plane. Long story short, Leese and Rory thwarted them and got away but Jackson and Jess came back to Lore's house in Stars Hollow."

Zach shifted. "What kind of a guy are we dealing with here?"

"You really don't want to know. Anyway, they held Lorelai hostage and when everybody else got back, there was a huge fight. Jackson ended up with a hole in his chest and both he and Jess landed in jail."

"Let me say this next part," Max cut in dryly up front. "I-I need to."

"Okay."

"Leese and I had a fight. She told me she was pregnant but then went on to say that she'd visited Jackson in jail. It angered me, it really did. I thought...I don't know what I thought. But I was mad. There was yelling and Lisa went off with Lorelai. They went to the fireworks or something, and Lisa got kidnapped. Again. This is the situation we're in now. We went to go rescue her, but found out that Jackson was holding her on the bargain that he wouldn't kill her and the baby. She wouldn't leave and I found out..." his voice cracked and he lay his head in his arms.

"Take your time," Jack murmured. Max cleared his throat and pressed on.

"They'd slept together. He didn't rape her. Lisa slept with him."

It was Joe who spoke next. "I know my daughter, Max. He must have done something. She is loyal and caring, and wouldn't do that to you. She wholeheartedly hates the man. I don't know if it was drugs or alcohol or hell, if she came up with Stockholm's, but Max, she would never do that on her own account."

Max nodded and smiled at his father-in-law. "I'm trying to feel that. I am."

"What then?" Janice pressed.

"There was another huge fight and Lorelai got hurt. We came back to Stars Hollow, Rory got kidnapped as well, and, well, here we are."

Lane began to cry. "He's going to do something to her, Zach, I'm so scared!"

"Jackson won't," Joe put in dryly. "He believes that what is his is his and that's all he needs. He thinks Lisa is his. He won't hurt Rory. But Jess might."

"Jess is just a fucking little wimp," Jack shot out, shocking everyone with his language. "He'd need Jackson's help to try anything."

"Unless Jackson taught him his trade in prison," Max put in. "Which is very likely."

"Don't even think about it," Joe patted Lane's arm. She took strange comfort in the stranger's words. "We can't do anything at the moment, but we'll save her. When we find them, Jess and Jackson are as good as dead."