One More Chance With Time

16.

One Month later

Jade sat in the waiting room of the therapist's office and flipped through the pages of a magazine as she waited for Tori to finish her session with the therapist she was seeing. They had managed to set up the appointment the Monday after the weekend Tori and Jade had spent together. Trina had been worried and had called when Tori hadn't been at the house Sunday and Tori had explained the situation to her sister. A few days later, the situation had been explained to Tori's parents by Jade herself. All parties involved had decided that therapy would be a good idea including Tori who was being plagued by increasingly bad dreams. There had been a few days where she had been afraid to leave the house even.

Jade continued flipping though the magazine and looked up as the door opened. She saw Tori's therapist looking at her. "Could you join us for a few minutes, Jade?" The therapist asked cautiously. Jade smiled slightly as she got to her feet and walked towards the office door. Apparently he reputation had proceeded her.

Jade entered the room and saw that Tori's face was a bit red, as if she had been crying. Jade sat down next to her and gently took her hand as the Therapist looked at the two of them. "Jade, Tori has told me quite a bit about you and as we've talked about her problems I've noticed a reoccurring pattern: You are always there for her. You saved her life, you've been a source of comfort and support for her, and for that I thank you. Tori wants to ask you something that Tori and I have been talking about in detail for the past few sessions."

"I want to confront Ryder." Tori said quietly as she looked over at Jade who's mouth dropped open for a moment from shock. "Y-You what?!" She asked in a shocked voice. "And you think this is a good idea?!" She asked with the same tone of shock as she looked at Tori's therapist. "He nearly killed her!"

The Therapist looked over at Jade and nodded. "Yes, he did. And I wasn't the one who came up with the idea of confronting the person who nearly killed her. It's Tori's decision. And I will be honest, it won't cure all of her problems overnight but it would most likely help with some of the nightmares."

Jade looked over at Tori, her expression one of cautious curiosity "Are you sure you want to do this? Do you think your ready?"

"Yes...and I want you to help me." Tori asked quietly. "I want you to be there with me when I confront him. My therapist said she'll talk to my dad to see if he can pull a few strings and let me see Ryder but I ...I need you there with me. I need to show him that he doesn't have power over me anymore."

Jade smiled a very small smile and gently pulled Tori into a comforting embrace. "If you hadn't asked me to be there when you confront him, I would have annoyed the hell out of you until you did. You don't even need to ask Tori."

Tears began to appear in Tori's eyes and she smiled as Jade rested her head on Tori's shoulders. "Thank you." Tori whispered simply.

Four Days later

California Correctional Institution

"Remember, if you need anything or any problems pop up just give us a shout." The guard said as he pulled two chairs into the room as Tori and Jade entered the room and sat down across from the thing that haunted Tori's dreams. Ryder looked as if he had seen better days. He had two scars on his face and one of his eyes was black and swollen. Ryder's expression was one of bitter anger. His hands were handcuffed together as were his legs.

"What the hell do you two dyke's want?" He snarled. "You want to rub in the fact that I'm most likely going to die in this hellhole? That I get the living hell beaten out of me nearly twice a week?"

Jade smiled darkly for a moment. "Tori wants to talk to you. She needs to tell you something. The fact that your life is going to hell is just an added bonus for me, after what you did to Tori I would have been happy to see you get worse. I personally would have been happier if I was the one beating you until you feel as bad as you made Tori feel."

Tori took a deep breath and stared Ryder right in the eyes. "You hurt me." She said softly. "You scared me so badly that I was afraid to go outside for awhile but not anymore." Tori got to her feet and stared down at him. "You don't have power over me anymore. I won't let my fear ruin my life! You won't ruin my life!"

Ryder sneered. "If the other dyke hadn't shown up I would have finished what I started. You ruined my life, Vega. I think it's only fair that I should be able to get payback."

Tori narrowed her eyes. "We're done here." She said quietly in a disgusted tone as she and Jade got to their feet. "I said what I needed to say." Tori said quietly as she and Jade headed for the door. Before they reached it however, Ryder was already moving faster then Jade and Tori remembered and slammed into Tori knocking her to the ground.

"You'll pay for what you did to my life!" He shouted as he prepared to bring his cuffed hands down on her neck. But as fast as Ryder was, Jade was faster. The second she saw Tori hit the ground it was as if a switch had been flipped. She slammed into Ryder and the impact knocked him away from Tori. Ryder let out a shout of pain as Jade's fist connected with his face even as he tried to get the handcuff chain around her neck.

"I'm going to enjoy this." He smirked.

"JADE!" Tori shouted as the handcuffs came down. Jade let out a snarl as she managed to lock her arm around Ryder and used her body to pin him to the table so that his arm was positioned against the table.

"And I'm going to enjoy this." Jade said with a smirk as she slammed her arm down on Ryder's arm. A sharp crack filled the room and Ryder let out a scream of pain as the door flew open and two guards rushed in.

"What happened?!"

Jade got to her feet and motioned to Ryder. "He tried going after Tori, I made sure he didn't hurt her." Jade said as she pointedly ignored the injured Ryder. "Tori can tell you the same. He tried to hurt her."

After a brief conversation, the guards looked at one another and then at the two girls and the taller one looked at the two before speaking. "You can leave. But the police might be getting into contact with you, I don't think you have anything to worry about though. Looks like he got what was coming to him.

Jade smiled. "Yes. Yes he did."

And with that, Jade gently took Tori's hand and led her out of the room.

"You broke his arm." Tori said incredulously as they left the correction institute.

"He was going to try and finish what he started." Jade said defensively. Tori couldn't help it, a small smiled appeared. "Remind me never to make you mad."

Jade smirked.