VM Fic: Parental Perspective (Keith, Piz, Logan) PG
Title: Parental Perspective
Characters: Keith, Piz, Logan
Word Count: ~1,600
Rating: PG
Summary: Keith figures out when to get involved in his daughter’s relationships.
Spoilers: The whole series.
Disclaimer: If Rob Thomas lets me borrow them, they will be returned in their current pristine condition.
Note 1: This is for the Keith character challenge in Round 6 at vmfic_gameon.
Note 2: Thanks to zaftig_darling for the beta, and for helping with the title when I was stumped.
~*~*~*~
Working late at the office was relaxing. The lack of phone calls, emails, and visitors made it easier for Keith to focus and get a lot of work done. Even though he’d lost the election, it had still provided a lot of good publicity and clients were pouring in, so he needed to take advantage of the lull in activity to wrap up some cases. Many a Mars Investigations case had been solved late at night, since the quiet allowed him to concentrate and think of possibilities he hadn’t considered before.
When the silence was interrupted by a light tapping at the door, Keith grunted in annoyance. Who the hell was dropping by at this hour? He cursed under his breath as he shuffled to the door and opened it.
“Stosh?”
Piz fiddled with his car keys nervously. “Um, hey, Mr. Mars.”
Keith’s stomach clenched as he flashed back to the phone call he’d gotten from Veronica’s last boyfriend, after he’d found her on the floor of a dark parking garage. “Is Veronica OK?” he asked, panic rising.
“Oh! Yeah, she’s fine,” Piz said quickly. “Sorry, it’s nothing like that.”
Exhaling in relief, Keith stepped aside to let the boy in.
“I mean, I guess she’s fine. I… I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days,” Piz continued. “I was on my way to your place and, uh, I saw your light on and, y’know, figured maybe she was here.”
“You haven’t talked to her? Haven’t you seen her around campus?”
“Not really.” Piz shook his head and his bangs fell in his eyes. Keith never understood why he didn’t just cut them.
“Huh. Well, we passed each other briefly at home this morning and everything seemed normal, so maybe she’s just busy?” Keith suggested noncommittally, trying not to provoke a longer conversation. Whatever was going on between his daughter and her boyfriend, he really didn’t want to get involved.
Piz looked down at his shoes. “I don’t think so. She, um, she broke up with me the day before yesterday.”
Veronica wasn’t talking to him much lately; Keith figured she was embarrassed about her role in his losing the election, but he’d been too busy to approach the topic with her. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know,” he said.
Keith was disappointed, but not surprised. As much as he’d hoped his daughter would fall for a nice, normal guy from a stable family, he was starting to realize that wasn’t going to happen.
When Veronica dated Duncan in high school, Keith hadn’t given it much thought. The boy was her best friend’s brother, and he knew that made things fun-but teenage relationships come and go, so while he didn’t like seeing his daughter upset, he didn’t worry too much about the breakup.
His investigation of Lilly Kane’s murder, however, showed him that the Kanes were not the nice, stable family he thought they were. And when Veronica told him what she’d learned about Duncan’s violent seizures, he was relieved that she wasn’t with him anymore-even though she was dating Logan. Again, Keith figured that relationship was short-term, since the two kids were brought together by a traumatic experience.
He did eventually get involved, when he heard Logan yelling at his daughter. In retrospect, he thought he may have overreacted, but after he and Veronica had both nearly died at Aaron Echolls’ hands, Keith was feeling extra-protective of her.
Duncan’s subsequent return into Veronica’s life also fired up Keith’s protective instincts. Even after everything Duncan had been through, he still maintained a shiny, happy, no-worries exterior, and it creeped Keith out. But Veronica seemed to be putting up a façade too, so while he still had some concerns about the seizures, Keith decided to wait and let the relationship run its course rather than stick his nose in where his daughter certainly wouldn’t want it.
When Duncan took off with his baby for places unknown, Keith was enraged that the boy had risked Veronica’s safety to do so-he was supposed to help protect her, damn it!-but he was secretly glad Duncan was gone and not likely to return.
“Are you OK, Stosh?” Keith said, not quite sure what to say. He sat on one of the couches and gestured for Piz to do the same. “Does this have anything to do with that shiner you’ve got there?”
“Sort of, yeah.” Piz pointed to his bruises. “Compliments of Logan Echolls.”
“Why?” Keith eyed him suspiciously. Logan certainly had an aggressive side, but lately it only seemed to come out when he was defending Veronica. “Why did Logan hit you?”
“I didn’t do anything, I swear!” Piz said, sitting up straighter. “He just thought I did. None of it was any of his business, so I don’t know why he got involved at all.”
Because Logan is always involved, Keith thought. After Duncan vanished from their lives, Logan was soon back in the picture. What was that-the third time? The first time, Keith hadn’t even known about it, and the second time ended quickly, but on this go-around, he decided he should probably get to know the boy again. He’d barely spoken to Logan in three years, but he’d liked him well enough when the kids were younger.
The family dinner Keith had arranged was mostly unfruitful, since Veronica couldn’t stop interrupting the conversation. Before he got the chance to plan another, the kids broke up again, but it barely registered on Keith’s radar since Veronica didn’t seem too upset about it-and sure enough, a few weeks later, they were back on once more.
Of course, they broke up yet again a few weeks after that, and again, Keith didn’t push the issue with his daughter. But as he sat on his office couch across from another brokenhearted boy left in her wake, he wondered if perhaps he should have tried harder to get Veronica to talk to him about what happened.
“Tell me what happened,” Keith ordered.
“Well, um, there’s this guy at school who… he was causing some trouble for me and Veronica. And apparently Logan thought I was behind it, because he jumped me while I was at work and did this.” He waved his hand toward his face. “Then Veronica found the guy who really did it, and Logan jumped that guy! Beat the hell out of him in the middle of the food court.”
When Stosh Piznarski started hanging around, Keith had hoped that the fact that he was a musician/DJ/whatever would be enough to satisfy Veronica’s bad-boy criteria. He seemed like a nice enough kid, and he had Wallace’s stamp of approval.
Actually, Keith hoped at one time that Veronica would get involved with Wallace-although he’d never told her that. That boy was smart, kind, athletic, loyal to a fault, and he didn’t seem to mind playing second banana in Veronica’s latest scheme. However, their bond never seemed to go beyond friendship. Plus, Keith had to drop that idea entirely when he began dating Wallace’s mother. That would have been a little too much family togetherness, even for Neptune.
Really, Wallace was just not his daughter’s type, romantically. And neither was the boy sitting in front of him.
“I wanted to just leave well enough alone,” Piz explained. “Why stir up trouble?”
Keith smiled ruefully. “But for Veronica, the question is usually, ‘Why not?’ I don’t know what this guy did, but if it was anything more than pulling her pigtails, you have to know that she wasn’t going to let it go.”
“That’s kinda what she said,” Piz replied with a sad nod. “She said I don’t understand her.”
“Not many people understand my daughter,” Keith said. But a few do, he thought.
“I… I really like her, Mr. Mars,” the boy continued. “She…she’s… Should I try to talk to her about this? I mean, I don’t want…”
“I’m sorry, Stosh, but I really shouldn’t give you advice on this,” Keith said sympathetically. “If Veronica found out, I’d be at the top of that ‘trouble’ list.”
Piz managed a little chuckle. “Wallace said the same thing. She can really strike fear in people’s hearts, can’t she?”
“Ah, maybe you do understand her a little bit,” Keith said, standing up. “Listen, Stosh, I need to get back to my case files, and you should probably head on back to campus. It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Piz said, walking toward the exit, his head hung low. “Thanks anyway, Mr. Mars.”
“I’ll see you around,” Keith said, shaking the boy’s hand before letting him out the door and locking it behind him, knowing it was likely the last he’d see of him.
Keith returned to his desk and dialed his phone.
“Hello?” a familiar voice said.
“Hello, Logan,” Keith said in the most ominous tone he could muster.
He smiled at the stammering response on the other end of the line. He never grew tired of the fact that even though he was coming up on 50, he could still intimidate his daughter’s boyfriends.
“Logan, are you answering my home phone, or did my clever, clever daughter forward our phone to your suite again?”
“Um…”
Keith could hear Veronica whispering loudly in Logan’s other ear, although he couldn’t make out the words.
“Just tell Veronica that I can hear her, I’ll be home in about an hour, and I expect to find her home as well. And tell her that you’re coming over for dinner tomorrow.”
~FIN~
Characters: Keith, Piz, Logan
Word Count: ~1,600
Rating: PG
Summary: Keith figures out when to get involved in his daughter’s relationships.
Spoilers: The whole series.
Disclaimer: If Rob Thomas lets me borrow them, they will be returned in their current pristine condition.
Note 1: This is for the Keith character challenge in Round 6 at vmfic_gameon.
Note 2: Thanks to zaftig_darling for the beta, and for helping with the title when I was stumped.
~*~*~*~
Working late at the office was relaxing. The lack of phone calls, emails, and visitors made it easier for Keith to focus and get a lot of work done. Even though he’d lost the election, it had still provided a lot of good publicity and clients were pouring in, so he needed to take advantage of the lull in activity to wrap up some cases. Many a Mars Investigations case had been solved late at night, since the quiet allowed him to concentrate and think of possibilities he hadn’t considered before.
When the silence was interrupted by a light tapping at the door, Keith grunted in annoyance. Who the hell was dropping by at this hour? He cursed under his breath as he shuffled to the door and opened it.
“Stosh?”
Piz fiddled with his car keys nervously. “Um, hey, Mr. Mars.”
Keith’s stomach clenched as he flashed back to the phone call he’d gotten from Veronica’s last boyfriend, after he’d found her on the floor of a dark parking garage. “Is Veronica OK?” he asked, panic rising.
“Oh! Yeah, she’s fine,” Piz said quickly. “Sorry, it’s nothing like that.”
Exhaling in relief, Keith stepped aside to let the boy in.
“I mean, I guess she’s fine. I… I haven’t talked to her in a couple of days,” Piz continued. “I was on my way to your place and, uh, I saw your light on and, y’know, figured maybe she was here.”
“You haven’t talked to her? Haven’t you seen her around campus?”
“Not really.” Piz shook his head and his bangs fell in his eyes. Keith never understood why he didn’t just cut them.
“Huh. Well, we passed each other briefly at home this morning and everything seemed normal, so maybe she’s just busy?” Keith suggested noncommittally, trying not to provoke a longer conversation. Whatever was going on between his daughter and her boyfriend, he really didn’t want to get involved.
Piz looked down at his shoes. “I don’t think so. She, um, she broke up with me the day before yesterday.”
Veronica wasn’t talking to him much lately; Keith figured she was embarrassed about her role in his losing the election, but he’d been too busy to approach the topic with her. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t know,” he said.
Keith was disappointed, but not surprised. As much as he’d hoped his daughter would fall for a nice, normal guy from a stable family, he was starting to realize that wasn’t going to happen.
When Veronica dated Duncan in high school, Keith hadn’t given it much thought. The boy was her best friend’s brother, and he knew that made things fun-but teenage relationships come and go, so while he didn’t like seeing his daughter upset, he didn’t worry too much about the breakup.
His investigation of Lilly Kane’s murder, however, showed him that the Kanes were not the nice, stable family he thought they were. And when Veronica told him what she’d learned about Duncan’s violent seizures, he was relieved that she wasn’t with him anymore-even though she was dating Logan. Again, Keith figured that relationship was short-term, since the two kids were brought together by a traumatic experience.
He did eventually get involved, when he heard Logan yelling at his daughter. In retrospect, he thought he may have overreacted, but after he and Veronica had both nearly died at Aaron Echolls’ hands, Keith was feeling extra-protective of her.
Duncan’s subsequent return into Veronica’s life also fired up Keith’s protective instincts. Even after everything Duncan had been through, he still maintained a shiny, happy, no-worries exterior, and it creeped Keith out. But Veronica seemed to be putting up a façade too, so while he still had some concerns about the seizures, Keith decided to wait and let the relationship run its course rather than stick his nose in where his daughter certainly wouldn’t want it.
When Duncan took off with his baby for places unknown, Keith was enraged that the boy had risked Veronica’s safety to do so-he was supposed to help protect her, damn it!-but he was secretly glad Duncan was gone and not likely to return.
“Are you OK, Stosh?” Keith said, not quite sure what to say. He sat on one of the couches and gestured for Piz to do the same. “Does this have anything to do with that shiner you’ve got there?”
“Sort of, yeah.” Piz pointed to his bruises. “Compliments of Logan Echolls.”
“Why?” Keith eyed him suspiciously. Logan certainly had an aggressive side, but lately it only seemed to come out when he was defending Veronica. “Why did Logan hit you?”
“I didn’t do anything, I swear!” Piz said, sitting up straighter. “He just thought I did. None of it was any of his business, so I don’t know why he got involved at all.”
Because Logan is always involved, Keith thought. After Duncan vanished from their lives, Logan was soon back in the picture. What was that-the third time? The first time, Keith hadn’t even known about it, and the second time ended quickly, but on this go-around, he decided he should probably get to know the boy again. He’d barely spoken to Logan in three years, but he’d liked him well enough when the kids were younger.
The family dinner Keith had arranged was mostly unfruitful, since Veronica couldn’t stop interrupting the conversation. Before he got the chance to plan another, the kids broke up again, but it barely registered on Keith’s radar since Veronica didn’t seem too upset about it-and sure enough, a few weeks later, they were back on once more.
Of course, they broke up yet again a few weeks after that, and again, Keith didn’t push the issue with his daughter. But as he sat on his office couch across from another brokenhearted boy left in her wake, he wondered if perhaps he should have tried harder to get Veronica to talk to him about what happened.
“Tell me what happened,” Keith ordered.
“Well, um, there’s this guy at school who… he was causing some trouble for me and Veronica. And apparently Logan thought I was behind it, because he jumped me while I was at work and did this.” He waved his hand toward his face. “Then Veronica found the guy who really did it, and Logan jumped that guy! Beat the hell out of him in the middle of the food court.”
When Stosh Piznarski started hanging around, Keith had hoped that the fact that he was a musician/DJ/whatever would be enough to satisfy Veronica’s bad-boy criteria. He seemed like a nice enough kid, and he had Wallace’s stamp of approval.
Actually, Keith hoped at one time that Veronica would get involved with Wallace-although he’d never told her that. That boy was smart, kind, athletic, loyal to a fault, and he didn’t seem to mind playing second banana in Veronica’s latest scheme. However, their bond never seemed to go beyond friendship. Plus, Keith had to drop that idea entirely when he began dating Wallace’s mother. That would have been a little too much family togetherness, even for Neptune.
Really, Wallace was just not his daughter’s type, romantically. And neither was the boy sitting in front of him.
“I wanted to just leave well enough alone,” Piz explained. “Why stir up trouble?”
Keith smiled ruefully. “But for Veronica, the question is usually, ‘Why not?’ I don’t know what this guy did, but if it was anything more than pulling her pigtails, you have to know that she wasn’t going to let it go.”
“That’s kinda what she said,” Piz replied with a sad nod. “She said I don’t understand her.”
“Not many people understand my daughter,” Keith said. But a few do, he thought.
“I… I really like her, Mr. Mars,” the boy continued. “She…she’s… Should I try to talk to her about this? I mean, I don’t want…”
“I’m sorry, Stosh, but I really shouldn’t give you advice on this,” Keith said sympathetically. “If Veronica found out, I’d be at the top of that ‘trouble’ list.”
Piz managed a little chuckle. “Wallace said the same thing. She can really strike fear in people’s hearts, can’t she?”
“Ah, maybe you do understand her a little bit,” Keith said, standing up. “Listen, Stosh, I need to get back to my case files, and you should probably head on back to campus. It’s getting late.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Piz said, walking toward the exit, his head hung low. “Thanks anyway, Mr. Mars.”
“I’ll see you around,” Keith said, shaking the boy’s hand before letting him out the door and locking it behind him, knowing it was likely the last he’d see of him.
Keith returned to his desk and dialed his phone.
“Hello?” a familiar voice said.
“Hello, Logan,” Keith said in the most ominous tone he could muster.
He smiled at the stammering response on the other end of the line. He never grew tired of the fact that even though he was coming up on 50, he could still intimidate his daughter’s boyfriends.
“Logan, are you answering my home phone, or did my clever, clever daughter forward our phone to your suite again?”
“Um…”
Keith could hear Veronica whispering loudly in Logan’s other ear, although he couldn’t make out the words.
“Just tell Veronica that I can hear her, I’ll be home in about an hour, and I expect to find her home as well. And tell her that you’re coming over for dinner tomorrow.”
~FIN~