This can't be happening...

[renewedsoul_v]

Nothing feels real right now. It's like I'm trapped in this horrible nightmare that I can't get out of. What else could you possibly call the psycho mobster that wanted to use my face as his own personal canvas, and threatened to do to me what his goons did to my car tracking us all the way here and shooting Logan (and if not for my dad, me too)? I

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[__keithmars__]

I would have believed her if she had told me that she wanted to call me every half hour of every day. That's the way that I had felt with Veronica so far out of reach, inevitably the two of them stupidly running away to evade the Fitzpatricks and the law. Neither was smart considering that they could have gotten the protection they needed.

"I know. I know," I insist when she tells me that she's never been happier to see anyone in her entirely life. I kissed her forehead again, holding her closer. "I know this isn't even close to being the right time to tell you, but you're so grounded for life when we get back home." Grounded for life because I'd never been so worried over her before. I'd never expect Veronica to rush off and break the law like that without saying so much as leaving a letter that had told me next to nothing.

I ruffled her hair again, taking a better look at it. "It's different," I commented softly. As was Logan's. Even in the mess of everything that had happened, I noticed the hair. I noticed the life they had made for themselves.

"Oh my god, Keely!" I heard and my automatic reaction was to look up considering the voice was directed our way. An older woman with darker hair followed by what I assumed to be her husband and her child, or at least people close to her, neared Veronica. That's when I realized that hair color was definitely not the only thing that Veronica had faked.

I wasn't surprised by any means. She was my daughter.

"We heard the gunshots from downstairs. Are you alright? Is Nathan?" And this woman obviously cared for them considering how frantic she seemed at the idea of either being hurt.

[renewedsoul_v]

"I kinda figured, somehow." I nodded when he said I was grounded for life when I got home. "And see how much I'm not arguing even though I'm technically 18?" I pointed out. And at this point, as long as said grounding didn't result in zero contact with Logan, I really didn't have a problem with it. I think we're both in need of some serious Daddy/Daughter time anyway.

"That's exactly what Logan said." I couldn't help but smirk slightly at my dad's wording of his opinion of my hair, "After he got over acting like I'd killed his puppy for covering up his precious highlights."

I lifted my head slightly off my dad's shoulder when I heard Maribeth calling 'my' name. "I'm okay, Maribeth. Not a scratch on me, I promise." I insisted gently, "Nathaniel's still in with the doctors, though... he was hurt pretty bad." I said, trying desperately to keep my voice even. I didn't want them to panic. I couldn't deal with trying to calm them down. Or even them trying to comfort me right now. It just felt wrong considering how close to their little girl Liam Fitzpatrick was tonight.

I wasn't quite sure what my dad was going to do if he found out Logan and I had been pretending we were married for months. I knew he wasn't exactly shocked that we had fake names... after all, he's the one that taught me everything I know about disappearing, but the thought of me married to Logan in any way probably still gave him nightmares.

"Dad, this is Maribeth, Daniel and their daughter Shira. They own the restaurant." I told him simply, "This is my dad Keith."

Yeah, my two lives weren't ever supposed to be colliding, never mind under these circumstances.

[__keithmars__]

"I appreciate that, it makes me not look like I'm locking you up inside the house," I commented to Veronica. When this was all over and done with, we'd have a long chat about the other things she could have done, why I was so disappointed, how much she scared and how much I love her. We'd have that conversation.

I gave at least a small smile at her smirk about Logan and I using the same adjitives to describe her hair. I'm sure we both liked it more when she was her own natural blonde, but it was such a drastic change from usual that it couldn't be anything other than different.

I kept a poker face as Veronica introduced me to the family that by now I had figured out was the family that had been helping the two of them along the way. I heard about them only briefly over the phone, but the concern worn on their faces was more than brief - it was concern as if they were family. The emotion that splashed the moment she told them that Nathaniel (Logan, of course) was hurt pretty badly.

Maribeth reached out and squeezed Veronica's shoulder briefly.

Letting out a breath, I sent Veronica a look, almost questioning if I should inform them for her. The real thing right now was that they had questions and I was sure they would keep pressing if we didn't give them answers. It's not usual for someone to break in the top floor of a restaurant. Not for money, not for mostly anything.

Nodding, I went to stand up to talk to them for at the least a moment. Try to clear things up for them.

"It's good that we've all finally met."

[renewedsoul_v]

"Just let me see Wallace and Logan and you can keep me grounded from everything else until I go to Berkley, okay?" I promised him. Technically that wasn't a total grounding, but I was also old enough to just move out and he knew that. The grounding was basically voluntary at this point. He was mad at me for how I'd handled things. For just abandoning him the way I had, and I couldn't blame him one bit.

"I can't Daddy." I whispered when he sent me that questioning look, the one asking if I wanted him to tell them the truth or if I wanted to. After everything they'd done for us, I couldn't just break their hearts like that. Not right now. I didn't have it in me. Normally I was the strong one, the one that did what others couldn't. But the thought of the disappointment and betrayal painted on their faces made me feel sick. They had been our lifeline. Family. And when they found out the truth they were going to hate us.

Maribeth reaching to comfort me just made my stomach twist with guilt. There was no way they were going to understand how we could've lied to them for so long. They did nothing but love us, take care of us and support us, and we kept this huge secret from them...

"Your daughter's quite the amazing young woman." I heard Daniel tell my dad, and he almost sounded like a proud father himself. "She and Nathaniel have been an amazing help to my wife and I."

Yeah, as if I didn't feel bad enough?

"Do you happen to know what happened? Or has Keely been too worried about her husband to fill you in?" he questioned, and I really couldn't blame him. I mean, why break into the upstairs apartment when there's a cash register and a restaurant full of people downstairs? It just didn't make any logical kind of sense, and I knew that.

[__keithmars__]

"Yeah. Yeah, she really is." I said in soft agreement as I couldn't help but glance back to Veronica in the process of my words. It was no surprise that these strangers had even thought so. I lead them a small distance away from her before starting to talk again. "I guess I want to start by thanking you two for caring for her this last bit of time. The couple times she talked to me, she mentioned the two of you fondly. People she definitely cared about right back."

"No, no. You don't need to thank us. We didn't do much. We just kept an eye out for the two of them. We all just clicked. We needed the help and they gave." Maribeth insisted in almost a single anxious breath as she took a sleepy Shira in her arms.

Although I had faltered over the mentioning of Veronica and Logan acting as if they had been married these month, I continued on.

"You two might want to sit down for the whole story though," I mentioned cautiously, as a speculative look came over Maribeth's face. No, not speculative, critical.

"What do you mean?" She asked quickly.

"The girl over there, my daughter... her name isn't Keely. Her name is Veronica. And the boy in the emergence room who's getting help now? Nathaniel? He's her boyfriend. His name is Logan. I don't know what exactly they told you, but I'm sure that if you've been around them for the last few months you'll know that neither of them intended to hurt either of you or your daughter with these lies," I started as gently as I possibly could.

"There's no excuses for what they did, but I know that it was out of protection for themselves so something exactly like this wouldn't happen."

[renewedsoul_v]

Of course my dad led them away from me to talk... probably so I wouldn't be tempted to jump in and make things worse. I wasn't part of the conversation, and it was better that way, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to listen to it.

"Were they in some sort of trouble?" Daniel questioned, concern and confusion mixed in his voice. "They must've been... otherwise why make up such an elaborate story?"

He sounded hurt. Looked it, too. Like I could blame him? They made us a part of their lives and we kept a huge secret from them. One that potentially could have put their family in serious danger.

"They're good kids... what would possess them to lie like that?" I heard him ask. He wanted to believe that we weren't deceiving them on purpose, but the normally talkative Maribeth was being way too quiet. It was scary. Even in light of everything that had happened tonight, Maribeth being silent was scary. She'd been like the mother we both so desperately wanted ours to be. The last thing we'd wanted was to hurt her.

[__keithmars__]

"We don't live in the nicest town, to say the least. Logan? He's Aaron Echolls' son. I think you might have heard of him," I said. It was hard not to hear of him, especially when the newspapers and television were plastering his face everywhere with stories viewing him both guilty and innocent. "Of course, Logan is nothing like his father, but not everyone believes that way. He was wrongfully accused of murder, even framed for it."

I knew this was hard to hear with the ever increasing confusion and concern, even hurt, on their faces - expressing what their mouths could not.

"My daughter. She likes to help me with my job and I know she's probably helped more than quite a few others around her. I'm a private investigator. I think what happened is that they crossed some very bad people when she was trying to get him out of this mess. And those people have been trying to track them down. That's what went down today."

"I-... I don't understand," Maribeth started, hurt lacing her tone. "I know that they were trying to be safe and trying to help each other out, but... -but we have a daughter! And what happened today? One of them was shot. God, Daniel, we took them in!"

"I know this is hard..."

"No, you don't. You don't know what it's like for people to just not be what they seem."

"With all due respect, I believe I do. I see it every day at my job. Now, I'm truly sorry that you two are hurt by this and I know Veronica and Logan and I'm sure this was the last thing that they would every want to do. And I'm sure if you've spent the time with them that I think you have, you can accept that not everything they told you were lies." I lowered my voice quickly, "I know the two of them and they're just as amazing as they two of you thought before you knew that they changed their names and ran away to protect themselves."

[renewedsoul_v]

I couldn't just sit here and not say anything, listening to the pain in Maribeth's voice. The fear and the panic of what could have happened. I got up carefully wand walked over to where they were with my dad.

"Look, I don't blame you if you hate me right now, but my dad's telling the truth. Not everything we told you was a lie. Most of it was actually the truth. The only real lies? Our names, the fact that we aren't married, and we're originally from California." I told them, letting out a breath. "My dad really doesn't approve of me being with Logan. His parents really are completely out of the picture. His mom committed suicide early last year and his dad is in jail for murdering my best friend. And we really did come here for a chance at a fresh start and a chance to build our life together. It was just a little more complicated than that."

So she had pretty much no reason to believe a word I just told her, but I wanted her to know that were were basically exactly what we had seemed to them from the get go. "We are a young couple very much in love and willing to do anything to make the other happy." I added softly. "You know us better than you think you do right now."

"You were like family to us when we had no one, and I understand why you're hurt, okay? I get it. We're very grateful for everything you did for us, and I'm sorry for what happened, we never wanted to hurt you or for anything bad to happen to any of you, but if you'll excuse me, I'm just a little bit busy worrying about whether the man I love is going to survive the gunshot wound he got from saving my life tonight." I stated, turning on my heel and stalking back to the uncomfortable plastic chair I'd been stationed in for what seems like an eternity at this point.

It was possible that I was slightly bitchy, but with the way this day was going, I just didn't have it in me to be all light and perky and super polite right now.

[__keithmars__]

I looked towards Veronica as she stalked off back towards the plastic chair she had sat at before. I gave a nod towards the both of them. Veronica had said more than enough for the both of us combined. "Thank you again, for everything that you've done for them," I said in a soft breath. "I need to check up on my daughter."

I went back towards the chair beside her to settle near her. I gave her knee a light pat.

"I don't disapprove of you being with Logan. And I never did." I clarified. "I disapproved of how I found out. Of the way he's treated you at times. I never doubted that he could or would change, but you have to understand that with everything that's happened. ... It doesn't make me like him any better. He's a boy who loves my little girl. You are always going to be my little girl, Veronica."

I let out a soft breath her way. "I'm going to get some coffee from the vending machine. Do you want anything?"

[renewedsoul_v]

"I know that, Dad." I sighed tiredly when he said I was always going to be his little girl. I didn't really have a problem with that. I loved my dad and it had been basically the two of us against the world for a while now. "But you did." I informed him when he said he didn't disapprove of me being with Logan, "Why else would you literally forbid me to see him? I know you had your reasons, I just - please don't act like you were okay with us, because I know better." I added the last part in a near-whisper.

He might have adjusted to the idea now, but December? He was really so far from okay with my dating Logan.

"But you are right. He does love me. So much that he's in that room right now because he pushed me out of the way of the gun and got hit himself." He was willing to die to make sure I didn't... "I promise he's been taking good care of me... he even made a fancy dinner tonight...not that we got a chance to enjoy all his hard work." I said quietly, "We were so happy and everything was going so well..." And then Liam Fitzpatrick showed up and shot it all to hell, literally. Our perfect little 'newlywed' world was shattered completely in the blink of an eye.

I can't stop thinking about how much I can't deal with the idea of losing Logan. We've been so close for months that the idea of not falling asleep in his arms is hard enough to imagine, never mind the idea of his just not being here...

I shook my head at my dad's question of wanting anything from the vending machines... I was too sick to my stomach to think about eating or drinking anything right now.

[__keithmars__]

"You're right. I did have my reasons." I stated firmly. The truth was I was going to always have my reasons for why all these boys around her weren't the best. I was always going to find something and, as by evidence, she wasn't going to listen to me anymore. I had to wonder when they stopped looking up to us as if we were heroes who did know the best thing for them, but now objection and law to break.

Veronica sure had a lot more to learn than she thought she did. As grown up as she was, there were definitely things that she had to go through (probably even more that Logan had to go through). Hell, maybe I still had some learning left in me.

As hard of a time I have with Logan Echolls being in love with my daughter and her possessing the same feelings for him, I'm sure I had a much harder time seeing her like this. Worried that she was going to lose one more person so very close to her. Maybe I just have that boy thankful that Veronica not the one in that room right now with doctors working to save her life.

I put a few coins into the machine for coffee and a few more in the other for the little bag of cookies. I knew Veronica didn't want to eat, but she probably should anyway. She looked like she was turning just as pale as Logan had.

I couldn't help but notice Maribeth and Daniel waiting there with their daughter too.

"We just want to make sure that he's alright."

I gave a nod towards them before returning to Veronica's side. I sipped at the cheap hospital coffee that was so weak I wasn't even sure it was caffeinated. I put the cookies in her hands. "I know you said you didn't want anything, but you used to like these. You should have something."

[renewedsoul_v]

"I know you did. I get that you just want what's best for me. I just... Logan makes me so happy... I wish you could see that." Even though we ran to the other side of the country in what was apparently a futile attempt at staying safe, I was never doubting that it was the right thing, I was never scared. I knew we could make it work somehow. Keep each other grounded. He was probably the only person in the world who could distract me even a little from how much I was missing my dad the entire time we were here.

"And just, you know, for the record? I did try not to love him for pretty much the entire time we weren't together. It turns out that whole concept was flawed and impossible." I said, trying to tease. Thankfully Logan seems to have moved past the need to be constantly destructive or I don't know how we ever would have worked. He still has things he has to work through, but he knows he's got at least one person he can count on to help him deal with it all. This time he knows I'm not about to bail on him...or he'd better after the way I didn't back down about the nightmares... assuming he makes it through.

"Tell me some good news." I asked suddenly, "Things are still going okay with you and Mrs. Fennel, right?" It was my dad's turn to distract me, keep me from obsessing and making myself sicker than I already am with worry. He probably thinks I'm convinced I don't need him. Not true. I just wished he could see that I'm 18, not 8, and I need some room to make choices and a life of my own as much as I need him to be this safe place for me in the storm of real life.

"Not fair... you know I can't turn down cookies." I pouted to him as I snuggled into his shoulder again.

Okay, so I might not be 8, but I was going to keep acting like a clingy little daddy's girl for the foreseeable future. Not that I think he minds.