Thanks so much for all the reviews! It took me a long time to figure out where I was going with this fic; who knew creative writing was such work? I am not a writer; I make no pretenses there. The last thing I wrote was entitled "Self-assembly of peptide porphyry complexes: toward the development of smart biomaterials" which appeared in Journal of the American Chemical Society, so needless to say, my talents lie elsewhere. To give a bit more context here, this is season six post-VV, but there was no Mitchum/Logan show down, so Rory does not know about London yet.

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I Sang Holy, Holy

Chapter 2: Egypt

"You what?!" "You think?!" Colin and Finn shouted at Logan at the same time. Logan was still sitting there, mouth open, eyes staring off.

"What do you mean, you think?" Colin questioned again. "And throw on some clothes, man."

"I don't know!" shouted Logan, as he got up to put his boxers and a shirt on. "Oh geez." There was broken glass and plates throughout the kitchen, picture frames and his model ship knocked off the table next to the window, and more destruction of their things all around the apartment.

"And what the hell else happened here?" Finn added, noticing the damage as well.

"I don't know, okay? I don't know if we even had sex! All I remember is coming home from meeting with the Dark Lord and the cable was out and then…"

"And then what?" Colin prompted.

"And then…Rory…" he choked at her name, "Rory was naked, crying, face down in a pillow and I was trying to catch my breath." Logan felt incredibly frustrated at not being able to remember what happened in the what, 15 minutes, between when he got home and when Rory left. Something bad had obviously taken place, and it was probably what he thought it was, but…

Colin and Finn watched as realization flooded their friend's face. "You know what happened, Logan," Colin said gently.

"No…" Logan breathed.

"Egypt's not really a good vacation spot for this kind of situation, my friend."

"That hasn't happened to me in almost ten years. I thought I was over having those episodes."

"It's going to be okay," Colin assured him. He started picking up the broken things in an effort to straighten up the place, to maybe help Logan clear his mind. "We should get him out of here," he said in an aside to Finn.

"No it won't. She said it was unforgivable. I can't lose her, but I know, I now she's going to leave me."

"Nah, she won't," Finn interjected. "She loves you. And I think she gets you. She'll understand that this wasn't you, that you had no idea what you were doing."

"Hopefully."

"And, uh, do you maybe think that you should maybe talk to Dr. Holtzberg?"

"No! I'm over that! It was just this one time. I'm never going back to that. I'm better, I swear. It was just a slip up. You know dealing with my father has never been my strong point." Logan finished getting dressed and walked to the apartment door. "Rory's not coming back tonight, so what do you say we go out and get shitfaced." There was a skeptical look on both Colin and Finn's faces. "Guys, just let me deal with this my own way."

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Rory barely made it to her car before she collapsed against the door and slid to the ground. She could hardly register what had just happened—that was not her Logan. Her Logan, while reckless when it came to drinking, partying, and stupid LDB stunts, had never been violent, especially not towards her. The sight of him, eyes callous and black, body rigid and demanding, was petrifying, he was so overpowering. That was what had been so scary—how quietly he moved and how soft his voice was when he was threatening her.

Rory choked back another sob and finally noticed how on fire her body felt. Pushing herself off the ground was an extraordinarily difficult task. Taking another step sent not a little bit of pain shooting down her legs and swirling between her hips. Rory opened the door to her car and gingerly sat down in the driver's seat. She was about to start the ignition when she realized there was probably and external manifestation of all the injury Logan inflicted upon her—bruising around her neck and arms, and she didn't want to think what her lower half looked like.

I just want to sleep, Rory thought desperately. Go to sleep and forget this crappy day every happened. She was about to dial her mother to tell her she was coming home when she stopped, realizing with a start that Lorelai would take one look at her and start asking a million questions, none of which she wanted or even knew how to answer. How could she tell her that her own boyfriend has forced her to have sex with him, much less use the word "rape" in that conversation. If her mother had inherited one thing from Emily Gilmore it was the often-annoying capability to ask questions and press the issue until she just blurted out the truth just to get her to stop talking.

So home was out, as was Paris, considering they had yet to reconcile after the whole editorship debacle. Juliet and Rosemary were really Colin and Finn's friends, and therefore Logan's. She hadn't talked to Marty in forever, and, was it possible she didn't have any friends of her own at Yale?

Lane's! She thought happily. I should go to Lane's. Rory ran there after her other fight with Logan, when she wasn't speaking to her mother, and she was nice, understanding, and most importantly, didn't ask too many questions.

"Lane?" Rory asked when she answered the phone. "Can I crash with you tonight?"

"Yeah, sure, come on over. We're just finishing up band practice. Aren't you at school? Any reason why?"

"Oh, you know, we haven't hung out in a while, and I just need to get away from the apartment," Rory said evasively.

"Okay, you leaving now?"

"Yeah, see you in half an hour."

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Lane's apartment with the funny and relaxed duo of Zach and Brian had been just what she needed. Lane had, of course, taken one look at Rory's appearance and bloodshot eyes and raised her eyebrows, but luckily she seemed to accept the noncommittal "Logan and I got in a fight" that Rory offered as an explanation. Video games accompanied by girly bonding time seemed to lift her spirits enough that she was ready to drive back to Yale the next day, but the thought of the conversation that had to take place was enough to dampen them.

Rory opened the door to their apartment hoping against hope that Logan wasn't there so she could just quickly change and grab her books for her class. Unfortunately she was met with a quiet "hi" from the desk where he appeared to be studying.

"Hi," she repeated back to him.

"So, I guess we should…"

"No." Rory put up a hand to stop him. "I'm not ready yet. I need some time to think. I can't be around you right now, so I'm going to get my stuff tomorrow and hopefully go back to living with Paris."

"We're breaking up?"

"We'll talk when I'm ready."

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Tell me what you think! Suggestions, comments, etc. are always welcome.

margaret