Hi, welcome back. I'm sorry I can't update as often as I'd like, but I'm trying to keep both stories going at the same time. Bear with me, we'll get there eventually.

If I ever write another story, I promise it won't have all these cliffhangers and shenanigans in it, it'll be romance all the way.

Let me know if you like it, feel free to review, I always appreciate your comments.

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The room in the motel was clean and spacious, if you were a agoraphobic ant with personal hygiene issues. For two normal human beings, however, it was cramped and horrible, and made worse by the fact that it only had one bed in it. The girls sidled in, trying not to touch anything.

Jade took one look at the bed and dropped her rucksack. "I'll sleep on the floor," she said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Tori said. "We can share the bed." She prodded it and sniffed, doubtfully.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, Jade. There's plenty of space."

"I just thought that maybe-"

"I'm mad with you, Jade, but making you sleep on the floor isn't really going to solve things."

"Oh. Okay." Jade lifted one boot off the carpet with a sticky squeak. "Thanks."

They stood, unsure of what to do next. Storm clouds were gathering, but the lightning had yet to find a conductor.

"Look, I know you're pretty upset right now…"

"Why, whatever gives you that idea?" Tori's exasperation spilled over into sarcasm. "First you leave me without a word, and then, just when I'm getting over it, you turn up uninvited, sleep with me, make me think we might make a go of it, and run off back to your boyfriend. And then, just to top it off, you abduct me from my apartment in the middle of the night because it turns out your boyfriend is a dangerous maniac who's not at all happy with the fact you've been cheating on him. I can't imagine why you think I'd be upset."

"I'm really sorry."

"'Sorry' isn't going to fix it, Jade."

"I know." Jade shuffled her feet, dejectedly. "Maybe you should go to your mom's."

"And do what? Sit there waiting until Marcus gets bored? I should really talk to my dad, he might be able to-"

"No! I mean, no. Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Please, Tori, just give it a day. You'll be able to go home tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Tori said, surprised. "I thought I was on the run from some kind of green-eyed killing machine? Not a second to spare, you said. That's why you dragged me out of the apartment." Her eyes narrowed. "That was true, wasn't it? God, please tell me you didn't make all this up to lure me to this dump for a night of mouldy motel sex."

"It was true."

"Then what's going to be different about tomorrow? What are you going to do?"

Jade said nothing, and looked away.

"Jade?"

"He'll leave you alone."

It took a few seconds for Tori to realize what she meant.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no. That's not going to happen."

"It's the only way, Tori. "

"No!"

"I'll just... talk to him, sort things out."

"Bullshit."

"Tori!"

"If you could do that, we wouldn't be here. That's why you left tonight, isn't it?" Tori said. "To go back there so he could take it out on you and not come after me."

"I should never have got you involved."

"I'm already involved!" Tori exploded. "Even if he wasn't threatening me, do you really think I'd be happy to sit on my ass while it was happening to you?"

"You'd never have known!"

"I'd want to know!" she snapped. "Don't treat me like a child. How do you think I'd feel, five years down the line, if I found out about this? That this had happened and I'd done nothing? It's bad enough finding out six months too late. You are not going anywhere near him again. That's final."

Jade was about to protest, but Tori's resolute face shut her down. She slumped on the edge of the bed.

"So…" she said, after a while.

"So...?"

"So, what are we going to do?"

Jade had never asked her this question before, but Tori was unable to relish the moment because she didn't have the faintest idea what the answer was.

"I don't know," she said. "But we'll think of something."

Jade sighed. "Why are you doing this, Tori?"

"What?"

"Helping me."

"Well it's not just you, is it? I don't really have any choice. Well, I do," she said, "I could go to my dad and tell him I'm being stalked by a dangerous lunatic, but for some reason you don't want me to do that. So I guess I'm stuck with it. Anyway, what would you do?"

"Me?"

"If I'd left you, and you found out I was in trouble, what would you do?"

They both knew the answer to that. Even when they'd been at school, Jade had shown a weirdly protective attitude towards her, which Tori had always attributed to the other girl simply wanting a monopoly on terror.

"That's different."

"Why?"

"Because you'd never have left me."

"What, never?" Tori said, raising an eyebrow. "That's a pretty major assumption."

"I mean you'd never have just gone off with someone. You'd have wanted to talk it out, first. You know… feelings and stuff. You'd have talked for a bit, yadda, yadda, and then you'd have realized how fabulous I was, and you'd have…"

"I nearly did, once, you know."

"… stayed. What?"

"I nearly left you."

Jade was startled. "When?"

"After the whole college thing."

"Why?"

"Because we were a mess, Jade," Tori said. "I really thought it might be the best thing for both of us. You were so... miserable all the time, I could see you hated me for letting you down, but you wouldn't talk about it. You just moped around, making me feel like shit. It went on for months."

"Oh come on, Tori! I was under a lot of stress, I didn't mean to..."

"I know you didn't. And that just made it worse. It was like you were just tolerating me, like a child who doesn't know any better. I only stayed because it didn't seem fair to leave after what you'd done for me. And it did get better."

"Really?"

"Yes. But it would have got better a whole lot quicker if you'd talked to me."

"I guess."

"So go on."

"What?"

"Talk."

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Tori lay still, trying not think about how many people had lain festering in this bed before her, and stared at the ceiling. She shouldn't do it. It would be wrong. Beside her, Jade lay on her side, facing away, her breathing deep and even. She wondered if the girl really was sleeping, or just faking it to avoid any more talking. She listened carefully and detected, in the soft purr, a genuine oblivion.

But a temporary one. At least she could be thankful for that.

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"Why did you come back?"

"Because I thought he was going to hurt you."

"No, before that. When you came to stay."

"I don't know. I... didn't think he'd find out. I never meant it to go so far, I just..."

"Just what?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters."

"I just..." Jade's gaze moved unconsciously to her rucksack. "I wanted to see you again, that's all. Just once more."

"Once more before what?"

Jade was still staring at her bag. "Nothing."

"Once more before what, Jade?"

"I..."

"Jade!"

"Nothing!"

There was a tightness in her voice, and Tori had a terrible premonition. She sprang off the bed and grabbed the rucksack, pulling it open and upturning it over the bed.

"No!" Jade went belatedly for the bag, but Tori ignored her, shaking hard, as clothes and make-up and hairbrush tumbled out, followed finally by a clank, as two bottles hit the bed together. They both stared at them.

A quart bottle of liquor. And a small brown container.

Whiskey and sleeping pills.

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Jade shuffled slightly in her sleep, a small mewling noise escaping her lips as she curled up tighter.

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"I don't understand."

"Do you know what it feels like to be trapped, Tori? To let yourself be completed defeated by your own stupidity?"

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The temptation rose again, but she ignored it.

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"I think I hated him right from the start," she said. "He was obsessive. Controlling. Cruel. As soon as I'd unpacked my case I knew it was all wrong."

"Then why didn't you just come home? I'd have forgiven you. Eventually."

"Because I couldn't bring myself to admit I'd made a mistake. That I'd been mad enough to walk out on you, to break your heart for nothing. The thought of facing you again, knowing what I'd done, the thought of being rejected... I don't know, Tori. It seems insane now. But at the time, I thought maybe I could turn it around, you know? Make the best of things. Get him under the thumb like Beck, work some of the old Jade West magic. At least if there was a career in it, I'd get something, even if I couldn't stand the smug bastard. But it didn't work out that way. It didn't work out that way at all. That's when it started."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you really want to talk about this?"

Tori nodded, afraid to commit to it in words.

"He was… rough with me, Tori. Do you know what I mean?"

The look of revulsion on Tori's face said that she did.

"He liked it that way. That was his thing, that's what got him off. It wasn't all like that, not at the beginning, and at first I thought I could handle it. I mean, I'm an actress, right? If he wanted me to play the damsel in distress, I can do that.

"But that wasn't enough after a while. He wanted it to be real. He'd wanted me to really feel the pain, the humiliation. He wanted to break me. That was the whole point. That's what did it for him. That's what he'd wanted all along.

"Do you know what it was like to spend these last few weeks with you, knowing that I'd have to go back? Knowing what I was going back to? I tried to leave. But by then it was too late."

"Too late?"

"I couldn't leave."

"Why not? How could he stop you?"

"Please don't make me tell you, Tori."

"You promised to be honest with me."

"And if you force me to I will. But I'm begging you not to. Please, Tori. For the sake of what we were. One favor. It's the only one I'll ever ask."

"But why?"

"Because you're mad with me right now, and I understand that. You've got every right to be. But at least you can look me in the eye."

"What?"

" Please, just... give me this. Just let me have these last few days before it happens."

"Before what happens?"

" I'll lose you, Tori. I'll lose everything. That'll be the price," she said, "if I don't go back."

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One o'clock. There was something about this time of night, the first of the small hours. It marked the point between being up late, and staying up late. It was a threshold. A line to be crossed. A boundary between happenstance and choice.

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"No," Tori said, finally. "You won't."

"You don't know-"

"It doesn't matter what I know. If you can't tell me now, then I'll wait until you can. But you're not going back."

She picked up the bottle of pills. "And you're not doing this, either. Do you have any idea what this would have done to me? What it would have been like to wake up to this?"

"You wouldn't have. I was going to go somewhere else."

"Where? Somewhere like this?" She waved a hand at the surroundings. "That wouldn't have made it any better, Jade! How do you think I'd feel, to have my dad call and tell me that they've found my ex-girlfriend dead on the floor of some filthy little motel room?"

"I doubt your dad would care. He'd think I deserved it."

"Jade!"

"I'm sorry. It doesn't matter anyway. I couldn't do it in the end."

"…Why?"

"I just… I couldn't bring myself to leave a world that still had you in it."

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Decision made, she finally gave in to temptation and rolled over, drawing the sleeping girl into her arms.

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5:30am

Five minutes. It had been exactly five minutes since she'd left Tori asleep, sliding the other girl's arm from her waist, trying not to notice its slender protection offered without judgment, fighting back the urge to stay where she was and let her fate blow on the wind.

To stay with Tori. What she wouldn't give for that to be her future. But it was too late.

It was still dark when she reached the car. She'd left money on the table for a cab. It was only now she wondered how many times the room must have seen that little act, how many sad little stacks of cash had substituted for words.

She realized she'd left her jacket in the room. She entertained a brief fantasy that Tori would keep it, wear it once in a while to remind her. But she knew she wouldn't. This time tomorrow, it would be ashes.

Her key was still in the pocket, but she had a spare in her bag. She unlocked the door and threw her rucksack into the passenger seat, sliding in behind the wheel without a glance.

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She felt the cold steel on the back of her neck, and froze.

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