Call me Tori.

[Crystal]

9 months earlier:

---

Jason and Tori are in what resembled a bar on Alcatraz, it was more of an eatery, but it was the best available at that time. Siren had helped 'heal' Tori, with the use of her nanites. It had almost killed her, but sped up the recovery process considerably. Jason orders the two of them a drink, and a light meal, once it arrives, she takes a sip of the coffee. Watching a girl walk into the room, she looked unimpressed with what passed as a bar here. "I think that's Thing over there.." He takes another sip looking back to Tori. "we had a small talk before.."

"Right, just a talk" Tori asks slightly raising an eyebrow. Thing walks across past their table. Before she reaches the next table along from them she stops for a moment and turns around to look back at the two "Jason.... Hi." she thinks for a moment and says to Tori "Hi.. Uh, sorry, I'm useless with names.". Tori shrugged, she never remembered anyone to remember her. "Tori. Hi." She smiles and glances at Jason before taking a sip of her drink. Jason nods a hello. "I see your not hiding as much now Thing. How have you been?"

"Im on Padua, last I checked it was pretty safe here." She shrugs and takes a seat opposite the two. "I'm doing alright, you're keeping out of trouble?" Tori nods, vaguely remembering her from 'Traz. "Trouble?" He takes a sip of his drink again. "Define 'trouble'."

"You're not dead so thats a good start." She shrugs and starts to drink her drink. "Well Tori's not thank god..... Ow!" Tori elbows him and looks across at Thing wondering what he was playing at. Jason quickly tries to dismiss what he had just said. "Its nothing really that you'd be interested in though...." He says rubing his side a bit.Thing frowns slightly "Right...." She puts her coffee mug down on the table and looks across at Tori. "Almost dying is a part of the lifestyle here. Your a Rogue, Rogues get shot, right?" Tori shrugs and replies quietly. "For the most part."

"Rogues should also deal with their own issues and ask for help if needed..." He sips some more. "And not go through another Rogues pockets to get information." Thing adds bluntly. "Its a good thing i did." He puts the beer down on the table looking a bit serious. Thing raises an eyebrow and looks at him. "What exactly are you trying to say here, Jason. Don't try convince me to get help with it again, its not going to happen." Tori sits there looking lost. Deciding not to try to follow the conversation anymore she sips away at her coffee.

"Well. Too late for that. Its over with." He reaches for a Calamari, looking smug. "What do you mean -over with-" Thing asks sounding slightly concerned. "Lets just say he wont be a bother anymore....." He takes a piece and chews. "You and I both know there would only be two reasons for that, Jason. What have you gone and done this time?" She starts to sound slightly aggravated at this point, and Tori takes an interest to the conversation again having decided she had enough to eat. "Oh nothing. Hes just on my ship." He shrugs as if it was no big deal hiding him being a bit ticked Tori was in danger before because of this whole thing. Thing puts her coffee down and leans in slightly towards him, resting her arms on the table. "What do you mean, hes on your ship? Why the hell would he be there?"

"Cause I put him there. Why else?" He reaches for another piece of his food. Thing lowers her voice "So you went looking for him. After I told you to drop it?" He stops his hand over the food, retracts it and leans forward to her with a straight serious look. "I had no choice. Because you didn't say anything, Tori was gonna die because we didn't deal with this problem earlier. Its over now....... Oh right... and he owes me about 30 million too."

"How long have you had him on your bloody ship for then, she looks fine." She still sounded aggravated. "And you gave him money?!" Thing shakes her head. Tori looked like she was going to say something, but decided against it, shaking her head slightly. "Four days. And I gave him money so Tori wouldn't get a knife stuck up her throat! She already had her leg and ribs broken once I got to her!" Tori rubs the back of her head subconsciously as she thinks about what happened. Thing sits up and crosses her arms "Four days, those injuries.... She wouldn't have healed up that much already. Jason, your full of shit."

"Yea that's what Jackson said to Siren ... in a sense. She healed Tori..." He shrugs "Don't believe me then why not just see for yourself?" Thing shakes her head "Healed... Right... Ok." She picks up her coffee and takes a drink of it "Why the hell would you go out of your way to keep him alive here rather then just.... Actually, I don't want to know."

"Yea you don't... I'm not done with him yet." he finishes his beer. "Right....." She finishes her coffee and puts it down on the table, looking across at Tori who seemed to be lost in thought, running her finger around the rim of her mug. Thing sighs "You know, your borderline crazy Jason. How you haven't been killed yet, I don't know." He shrugs "A bit of training never hurt." he laughs. "Funny. I dont see why your not relieved by this news. Not my problem though." Tori looks across at Jason. "I'll be back in a moment...." She stands up and steps outside the door of the building trying to find anything to take her mind off what they were talking about.

Thing watches her stand up and looks back at Jason. "I'm relieved, Jason... And I'm trying to figure out how the hell you both got out of there alive. If he got to that point of messing her up...." Thing pauses for a moment trying to think how to word it. "He has a routine, I've seen it before, I was warned about it from other people before I even saw him initially. Broken bones will have been the nicer part of what hes done.... He.... Just hope that for her sake, she doesn't remember most of it."

"You think I don't have a routine?" He leans back now smirking but watching Tori leave with slight concern. "He'll regret every minute of his life when I'm done with him." Thing shrugs "I'm just warning you. since you don't listen to a bloody thing I say anyway I don't expect you to listen to this."

"Right. So in your point of view what COULD I have done?" She shakes her head and sighs slightly. "I don't know.... How did she get involved anyway?" Jason shrugs "She doesn't remember. Only that she got caught somehow and taken to the freeport on Bering." Thing nods "Right." She looks up at the door to see if she could see Tori. "Who is she anyway?" Jason raises an eyebrow. "I thought you knew her."

"I know shes some Rogue. Met her a few times on 'Traz. Didn't think she was anyone important." Jason leans back putting down his beer staring at it for a moment. "Shes important to me... Excuse me for a moment..." He gets up to leave. Thing thinks for a moment and nods "You like her, don't you?." She watches him stand up and sighs "I'm sorry, Jason. I didn't realize it would have gotten to this point." She watches him leave, wondering if they would be back.

Tori is sitting outside around the corner of the building hidden from most people. Shes sitting on the ground her back against the wall, hugging her knees, watching people walk past. Jason walks out looking around over peoples heads to see if he could spot Tori. He then notices her up against the wall sitting on the cold floor alone. he runs up to her but then walks when a few meters away form her. "Tori..." She looks up at him, a lost look in her eyes "Hey. Sorry... I just needed some air" She smiles slightly. "No... Im sorry. I shouldn't have done what i did." He sits next to her. "You alright?" She shrugs "Yeah"

"You must feel awful..." He reaches his hand around her and hugs her with one arm hulling her towards him. "Me and my big mouth..." He says quietly but Tori can hear him. "No... Its fine. Just remembering things I don't really want to remember is all." She looks across watching the people walk past again. "You want to talk about it?" he holds her hand rubbing the back of it with his thumb. She shrugs "Not really... I mean he just...." She pauses a moment. "I don't know."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to...." He hugs er a bit tighter not saying anything else. She nods quietly. "I don't know whats worse. Remembering what he did, or not knowing." He keeps quiet for a while and then talks softly. "It happened... you cant do anything now.... but your safe. That's what counts."

"Yeah.... I'm still here which has got to count for something." She smiles slightly "Is she waiting for you?" Jason had forgot about Thing or that they were still outside sitting on the floor, the look on his face showed he didn't know who she was talking about. All he was thinking of was of Tori at the moment. "That girl... Thing." She looks down at the ground biting her lip. "mm... She can wait..." Tori nods deciding whether to say what she was thinking or not. "Your more important to me than her anyway..." He gently kisses her cheek. "I'm not sure if...." She pauses for a moment "I heard you, when I was there with... him.. I don't know if I was going crazy or what was going on." She shrugs "Its frustrating. I can only remember parts, I keep trying to piece it together, but I just cant make sense of what I know." She looks at Jason "One moment hes breaking my ribs, the next thing I can remember he was moving my hair out of my face and being.... Nice. Too nice.... Like he thought I was his...." She shakes her head not wanting to finish what she was saying. Jason nods keeping quiet listening to her. "You must have been really confused...."

"I didn't know what he was going to do next" She cuddles into Jason some more, letting her hair fall across her face. "Before you came in... I was about to just give up.... It felt like it had been forever... I don't know how long it ended up being... From what Siren was saying, only a week or so... But I didn't think I was going to get out of there..." She moves her hand up to her face wiping a tear away. He moves her hair gently from her face. "Hey... Look at me... you got out... don't cry..." She looks at him "I was scared."

"You don't have to be scared anymore..." He forces a slight smile trying to make her feel at least a bit better. Tori looks at Jason "I.... I was talking to Siren. Kinda remembered some stuff." She frowns for a moment "Stuff you probably wont want to know about..." Jason stays silent for a moment. "Is it about what he did to you..?" She nods, not saying anything, not sure how to tell him. "He.. he did something else than break your bones... didn't he.." She nods again, cuddling into him a bit more still not sure what to say. "he did more than hurt you with his knife and metal pole.. didn't he..." Jason starts then to analyse and think of possibilities.... he couldn't stop thinking of one that was in the back of his mind that he kept trying to remove. She stays quiet for a moment "yeah." She says just loud enough for him to hear. He remembers what the man said. That if it was on different terms he'd marry her. He remembered the man's look. The fact that he wanted her dead so bad but hadn't killed her that quickly. The fact that she didn't want to tell him more and that she said if was more tan just pain dealt by an item....

He had seen this type of things done before by men who tortured and then did what they wanted before they finally killed their victim....

He remembers her says he was hurting her and then was... nice....

Jason inhales. "He had that look in his eye..." She looks at Jason, a lost look on her face, still silent. "Tori.... if you don't tell me... I'm gonna assume.... and I don't want to assume right now... because I don't want to think that what I'm thinking right now is true..." She looks away, hair falling across her face again "He....." She shakes her head and lowers her voice so he can just hear her again "He did stuff, Jason.... and...." She took a breath, trying to hide the fact she was crying "Why did he do it?" After hearing what Tori said his eyes opened wider and he lost some of is pull on Tori letting her go a bit without knowing. Tori feels him loosen her grip and covers her face with her hands, she had stopped trying to hide that she was crying.

Jason snaps out of it for a few moments noticing shes crying and hugs her tighter than before now. In his mind though he is still getting more and more angry at the hunter. She stays silent, wiping her eyes but keeping her hands over her face. After a few moments she shakes her head and murmurs "Why did he do it..." Jason trys to comfort Tori as best he can as his mind wanders off to whats hes gonna do. Tori starts to calm down, and stops crying. She wipes her eyes and looks at Jason, her face tear stained. "Don't let him hurt me again?" She says quietly almost sounded wounded. She knew Jason wouldn't be letting him go free again, but she needed the reassurance. ".... he wont. He will regret it too..." He says quietly. She nods and moved slightly so she was hugging him back. "My legs have gone to sleep..." She mumbles before realizing it was probably completely inappropriate considering the situation. She shakes her head. Jason just nods trying to control his emotions.

"I... I've got to... we need find Thing or someone to be with you will I get back..." She nods slightly, not sure what to say, or why he all of a sudden needs to go. She can't help but for a moment to think it was whats happened. "I'll.... I'll just go back to the ship... Siren is there." Jason shakes his head. "You probably don't want to do that now... go back to the bar. Find Thing. She'll keep you company." She nods, feeling emotionally numb. She pulls away from his hug and stands up "You'll be back...?" She asks quietly. He stands up after her. "I'll be back..." Tori nods and hesitates for a moment before walking back into the cafe taking a seat in the corner away from where Thing was sitting. Thing frowns as she sees Tori walk in without Jason. She stands up, ordering two coffees before walking across and taking a seat next to her, making sure she was alright. Tori didn't talk, and she let the coffee go cold.