Fic: For the Sake of a Friend, (Logan/Veronica, Meg/Weevil), PG-13, 30/30 & Epilogue
Title: For the Sake of a Friend, (Logan/Veronica, Meg/Weevil), PG-13, 30/30 & Epilogue
Author: jacedesbff
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, Meg/Weevil, ensemble
Word Count: 8,500+
Rating: PG-13 for mild language and sexual situations
Summary: AU from the Pilot; this chapter takes place shortly after the time frame covered in Season 1
Spoilers: Familiarity with Season 1 required.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns all.
Previous chapters: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Interlude | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29
A/N: Wow. This entire process has been amazing. I’ve never done anything of this scope before and it has definitely been the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, and ultimately, I’m so glad I was crazy enough to try it. I cannot thank my beta and bff, candlewaxdreams, enough, as without her this simply would not exist. Thank you to each of you who has followed and commented. You are all emosewa and you kept me going. As a note, I do not currently have plans to take this any further, but never say never. *smile*
X-posted all over creation. I sincerely hope you all enjoy this, and PLEASE, PLEASE leave your feedback!
Veronica blinked when the blindfold was taken off. Late afternoon sunlight was coming through the window, shining directly into her face, and she had to turn her eyes away from it. Once her vision adjusted, she looked up to find Duncan sitting on the edge of a bed in what looked like a hotel suite. For a moment they just stared at each other-Duncan on the bed and Veronica duct-taped to a chair.
Her ex-boyfriend had walked up behind her on the beach. He showed her the gun that was in his pocket, and then he pointed it at Backup. Backup. Duncan had threatened to shoot her dog if Veronica cried out for help.
Duncan made Veronica give him her shoulder bag, and then he had taken Backup’s leash and led them both to a rental car, where he calmly told Veronica to get in. Then he let go of Backup’s leash and they drove off. Soon after they pulled out, Duncan had stopped behind a grocery store and blindfolded Veronica, telling her that he didn’t want her to be able to identify where they were going.
Veronica hadn’t said much-she was too incensed to form actual words. While she didn’t think that Duncan would shoot her, she did think he would have shot her dog, and right now she wanted to shoot him. She wanted to throw Duncan on the ground and kick him in the throat. In the meantime, she literally couldn’t seem to get any words out.
They had driven around in silence for what seemed like hours, but it might have been only thirty minutes. Hampered by the blindfold, time became relative, and by the time they finally stopped, Veronica had no idea where they were. Duncan had pulled a couple of u-turns, taken detours, crap like that. It meant that he was trying to make sure that Veronica couldn’t tell where they were going, and that was probably a good thing-it meant that Super Stalker was planning on letting her go after he was done doing…whatever it is he planned on doing.
Still, all she really wanted to do was kick Duncan’s ass.
After they parked, her kidnapper led her through what Veronica would have sworn were some woods. Not big ones, but still. In Neptune? They reached a building and went inside, where Duncan led her through a room and sat her down in a chair. Which is when they started to have a problem.
Duncan put Veronica’s right hand on the arm of a chair and she felt tape being placed on her wrist. She jumped up and shoved Duncan. As she reached up to take off her blindfold, Duncan slapped her hard across the face and Veronica froze.
Before she had time to process the fact that the boy who had once been sweet, kind, and innocent had just hit her, Duncan Kane leaned down to her ear and said in a calm, low tone, “I don’t want to hurt you, Veronica, but I will. Sit down.”
Realizing that Duncan had the advantage, Veronica sank down and allowed the stranger in front of her to tape her to a chair.
And here they were-staring at each other. Without warning, Duncan shot up off of the bed and started pacing. Then he completely lost it and started screaming at the top of his lungs.
“How could you do it?! How could you?”
Veronica blinked, stunned. There was a pause.
Oh, he really wanted her to answer.
“How could I what?”
“Cut me off, Veronica! You and Logan were all I had! You went and told my parents! It was just luck that no one caught us at the beach.” His tone was harsh and bitter. “I have to be able to watch, don’t you understand?! And now people are looking for me and I can’t-I can’t. How could you do that to me?”
Veronica stared at Duncan, completely taken aback by this bizarre monologue.
Honesty was the best policy?
“You’ve been following us, Duncan, listening in on our private conversations…on our lives. How could you have thought we’d be okay with that?”
“You weren’t supposed to know about it,” answered Duncan harshly. “I wasn’t hurting anyone. What difference did it make?!”
Veronica felt like she was talking to someone who rode the short bus. “You were invading our privacy. Our lives are not reality TV, here for your enjoyment.” She refrained from adding duh at the end. The boy was mentally unhinged.
“But I need you! I need to watch the two of you,” Duncan’s voice contained an intensity that Veronica didn’t understand.
“Why, Duncan? Why do you need us so much?”
The lost little boy looked her in the eye, an almost visible glaze having fallen over his own. “I don’t have anything else.”
-
As soon as they had found Backup and Veronica’s phone sans their owner on the beach, Keith had called the FBI. Kidnappings were federal and Lamb was an ass; Logan thought it was a stroke of brilliance.
The terrified teenager had been ready to run off unchecked to hunt down Duncan, but Keith put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and simply said, “Wait.” The strength in Keith’s voice caught Logan and held him in place, at least momentarily.
Upon hearing the circumstances, the FBI arrived at the Mars apartment much faster than Logan had expected. The prime suspects for Veronica’s disappearance were Aaron and Duncan. Logan knew that this wasn’t his father’s style, so he watched in barely disguised disdain as the two FBI agents-two middle-aged men not even close to being as good-looking as the actors on Without a Trace-called the Neptune police to verify that Aaron had been under surveillance at the time of the kidnapping and couldn’t have committed the crime.
While there was nothing solid saying that Aaron hadn’t at least orchestrated Veronica’s disappearance, the agents cautiously agreed with Keith and Logan’s assertion that Jake and Celeste Kane’s emotionally distraught son was the most likely suspect. Jake and Celeste were contacted, but having only conclusively learned the day before that their son was still alive, they had no useful information to provide the searchers. Jake wanted to come over, but the agent in charge convinced him that being at home in case Duncan called would be of greater help.
Logan couldn’t force himself to sit still any longer than he already had. With a quick goodbye to Keith, he grabbed his keys and started driving around Neptune, stopping at every place he could think of that Duncan might go.
-
A chill went up Veronica’s spine. “What do you mean you don’t have anything else?”
Duncan’s gaze was focused on something that only he could see. “I don’t feel anything, not anymore. I mean, I used to, like normal people... But ever since Lilly died, I haven’t…it’s like I’m empty. And then I found out about you and Logan, and I finally felt. I don’t even remember what I felt, just that…I was finally alive…” His voice trailed off.
“How long have you known?” Veronica prompted, trying to keep her kidnapper talking.
Duncan turned his head to her and Veronica realized that he had temporarily forgotten her presence.
What the hell was going on?
-
As he stared out his bedroom window, Cassidy contemplated the best course of action. Priority number one: no one else learn his secret. Priority number two: do not let a situation develop in which anyone would be likely to learn his secret.
Letting Duncan stay in the pool house hadn’t been that big of a deal. Apparently the guy had been going around listening in on the secrets of Neptune’s elite, and Cassidy talked in his sleep. It had been a straightforward arrangement-Casablancas the younger would help hide Duncan in the family pool house and Duncan wouldn’t tell anyone what demons haunted Cassidy in his sleep.
It had been a mutually beneficial set-up and Cassidy had let it go because it was obvious that Duncan wasn’t talking to anyone ever, let alone sharing secrets. He kept a close eye on things, of course, as it was also clear that Duncan was a mentally unstable moron, of which tonight was the ultimate proof.
Right before dusk that evening, Duncan Kane had led a blindfolded Veronica Mars through the landscaped trees at the back of the Casablancas’ property and into the pool house, leaving Cassidy to try and figure out how in the world to deal with the situation.
What a pain in the ass.
-
Logan had visited the Kane residence, the Camelot Motel, Lilly’s grave, the beach where the four of them had spent Homecoming, and the Neptune Grand. He had even stopped by the small Catholic church Veronica had told him about, but the priest had seen neither Duncan nor Veronica. Logan was running out of places to look, not that he was going to stop. He was frantic, and he could no more stop looking for Veronica than he could stop breathing.
He turned his truck in the direction of the Coronado Bridge.
-
“How long have you known?” Veronica repeated.
“Since Shelley Pomeroy’s party,” replied Duncan absently, still focused on being “alive”, apparently.
“Since when?!” Veronica’s mouth literally dropped open. He had known for a year and a half?!
Her razor sharp tone of voice almost pulled her ex-boyfriend back into reality. Duncan looked at Veronica and his eyes weren’t quite as glazed over as they had been a few minutes earlier. “I saw Logan go into the bedroom, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then Madison called everyone to come listen and for the first time since Lilly…I felt.” He knelt at her side and the gleam in Duncan’s eyes became frightening. “I had to have more of it-the only thing that made me feel anything-anything at all-was watching the two of you, so I had to watch you all the time. That’s why I started following you. I found out all about Romania, the Love Wagon, Meg and Weevil…and it made me feel.” He stared off into space once more. “I wish I could have followed you to Romania, but my parents wanted to stay in the States. I couldn’t convince them…” His head snapped back up and he looked at his ex.
The young man trailed his fingers down Veronica’s face, and the normally tough blonde had to choke down the intense urge to vomit. Duncan had shadowed them since six weeks after Lilly died. The boy she had thought of as a friend had long since lost his grip on reality. This wasn’t Duncan anymore, and this… person… whoever or whatever her friend had become… was no longer following the rules and morals that had been instilled in him by his parents and society.
Veronica wasn’t sure if that was the definition of clinically insane or sociopathic or something else entirely, but whatever it was, that’s what her and Logan’s former friend had become, and she realized now that there was literally no telling what this foreigner holding her captive might do.
-
It was possible that Duncan might kill his ex-girlfriend. It wasn’t the possibility of Veronica’s death that bothered Cassidy, although he didn’t particularly want her to die. No, his issue was with the inquiry that would follow. People would want to know why Duncan had been hiding in the Casablancas pool house; they would want to know how he had been able to come and go without being found out. Whatever. Cassidy didn’t want that level of intensity-the level that only a murder investigation would bring.
He was going to have to do something about this.
-
The FBI was calling up cell phone records, searching car rental databases and finding in minutes what might have taken Keith hours. What they didn’t know, of course, was that even though they were doing it faster, they were only repeating what Veronica had done weeks earlier. And it didn’t matter, anyway, because knowing Duncan’s aliases wasn’t going to tell them where he was now. Not that they knew that.
-
“Why couldn’t you feel? After Lilly died?” Veronica tried to distract Duncan.
She might as well not have said anything.
“How did you find out? About me following you?” he asked.
The question caught Veronica by surprise and she blinked before admitting, “The Camelot tape.”
“I knew it wouldn’t take long,” nodded Duncan. “It was you after all.”
Why had he ignored her question?
That was the real story-wasn’t it? Why he had stopped feeling.
-
Madison was in Dick’s bedroom, but she had left her purse in the living room. Cassidy went downstairs and got out his brother’s girlfriend’s cell phone. If he was going to keep Duncan from killing Veronica, he probably had to hurry.
-
Logan ended up pulling into the parking lot at Dog Beach. He was pacing angrily on the sand, feeling more powerless than ever before in his life, when his cell phone beeped.
“Veronica-“ he said out loud as he lunged for his cell phone.
He didn’t recognize the number, but that was irrelevant.
Dncn has V @ Dik’s pul hse
Logan took off running for his truck.
-
“Why did you stop feeling when Lilly died?” pushed Veronica.
Duncan didn’t answer and Veronica could see that scary film slipping back over his countenance, so she hastily redirected her questions.
“Why did you stay at the Catholic church for so long? After you shot the Camelot tape?”
Duncan shook his head and looked back at her. “What?”
“Father Perez said that you sat in the sanctuary for hours. Why? Why didn’t you go back to following us after you shot the tape?”
Duncan’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t sit in there for hours. I stopped in for a couple of minutes.”
Veronica stared at him. “You were there all night, Duncan. For hours. Don’t you remember?”
Dazed, Duncan shook his head.
“You really don’t remember?” Veronica paused. She and Logan had once cared for Duncan so much that they had arranged their lives around him for a year and a half. Had he completely undone that with his psychotic behavior? Had he?
She wasn’t sure.
“What happened to you, Duncan? How did you end up here?”
-
Why had he taken Veronica to Dick’s house, of all places? Logan had called his former lackey, but Dick wasn’t answering. He swore loudly as he raced down the streets of Neptune.
“PICK UP!!”
He didn’t have Beaver’s number-or Madison’s, who was probably the reason Dick wasn’t picking up his cell phone in the first place.
Logan’s yellow Xterra raced through the streets of Neptune, frantic to reach its goal.
-
Duncan shrugged. “I don’t know.” He blinked. “You two put all of that stuff for my parents-you know, the pictures of the bank and stuff-you put that together when you were in your room, didn’t you?” He looked intently at Veronica.
“What?” asked Veronica, trying desperately to keep up with the random threads of Duncan’s conversation. “Yeah, we figured out it was harder for you to hear us in there. My turn. Why did you try to kill yourself after you heard us together at Shelley’s party?”
Duncan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I didn’t. I just wanted to keep the two of you from going public.”
Veronica stared at her ex for a few moments, astounded. “You faked a suicide attempt to keep Logan and me in the closet?” Duncan giggled. Literally. He giggled. “And the first one? Was that faked, too?” She and Logan hadn’t been dating back then. What purpose would that have served?
Duncan’s giggles faded instantly. “No.”
“Why, then? Why did you try to kill yourself after Lilly died?”
For a moment, the only sound in the room was Duncan’s shallow breathing.
And then, “I don’t know.”
“Duncan!” The front door in the next room banged open as Logan yelled at his friend.
Duncan swung his gun up and shot in the direction of the door, which was in clear view of the bedroom.
“LOGAN!” the cry wrenched from the depths of Veronica’s soul and dragged across her throat like rocks over gravel. “What did you do?!” she screamed at Duncan as she struggled to get free of her bonds.
Logan had leapt to the right of the door. Only his legs could be seen through the doorway. They weren’t moving.
“I did it again,” murmured Duncan to himself, the gun slipping from his hand onto the floor.
“You have to see if he’s okay!” Veronica desperately urged the boy in front of her.
“I didn’t remember until just now. It was one of my rages. I didn’t mean…and I did it again…” his voice trailed off as he looked at Logan’s unmoving form in the doorway. “How could I-“
“Duncan,” Veronica struggled to keep her voice steady as she tried to reach the troubled boy. “We don’t know that Logan’s really hurt. You need to go see how he is. Duncan, please…” she pleaded.
“Why didn’t they let me die?”
“Duncan, please. Please-look! Duncan, look! He’s moving! You have to go help him!”
“I shouldn’t…they shouldn’t…”
Veronica’s attention was focused on Logan’s legs, which were trying to move into a position from which they could push him up.
“Logan?!” she called. “He dropped the gun! Are you okay?!”
Logan pulled himself up using the door frame. His left arm was dangling and his right arm was pressed to his chest. He seemed to have essentially reinjured everything that had healed up over the past few weeks.
“Veronica?” he called in a pain-soaked voice. It was obvious that he was moving against great physical odds.
“Logan! Come here! Duncan’s…” Veronica looked over at her first love, who was now staring into space silently. “Not a threat anymore. Are you okay?!”
Logan moved as quickly as he could through the living room and into the bedroom.
“You mean besides feeling incredibly stupid for not sneaking in the back way?” Veronica gave a short burst of semi-hysterical laughter at Logan’s self-deprecation. “It’s nothing I haven’t gotten used to.”
That comment pushed Veronica over the edge into tears. “I was so scared,” she sobbed as Logan finally reached her and began kissing every inch of her face. “I was so afraid that he had hit you.”
“No,” Logan murmured against her cheek as his hands started to work on removing her bindings. “He missed by a mile, but when I hit the ground I blacked out for a second. Seriously, Veronica, I’m sorry. It never occurred to me that he would have a gun. Stupid, I know…”
Her hands finally loose, Veronica grabbed her boyfriend and started checking him all over, assuring herself that he was okay.
“No, no, no, it’s okay. He wasn’t the same person anymore, Logan,” she rushed to explain. “He’s known about us since Shelley’s party!” she blurted out as she continued her thorough cataloguing of his wounds.
“What?” demanded Logan.
Since he had entered the room, all Logan had cared about was making sure that Veronica was okay, taking care of her, getting her bindings off. Now he turned his attention to his former best friend. Duncan hadn’t said a word since before Logan had entered the small bungalow. Now the troubled youth was standing in the middle of the bedroom, staring blankly at the wall.
Logan had been ready to ream out his friend, but he changed his tone upon sensing that something was deeply wrong.
Putting his hand on his friend’s arm, Logan said softly, “Duncan?” When there was no answer, he spoke the name again, louder this time. “Duncan.”
“Something’s wrong, Logan. This isn’t right.”
“I agree. We have to call your dad, the FBI-“
“Dad called the FBI? Oh, wait-of course he did. Lamb’s an ass.” Veronica shook herself, going into get-it-done mode. “All right, let’s get someone here to take care of both him and you.”
“Wait,” a voice said from the doorway.
Logan and Veronica turned to find Cassidy Casablancas standing on the threshold of the pool house bedroom.
Veronica turned to her boyfriend. “Where are we?” At Logan’s surprised look, she explained, “He made me wear a blindfold.”
“This is my pool house,” said Cassidy. “Well, my dad’s pool house, but still. Look, it’s my fault that Duncan was here, but I swear I had no idea that he was going to hurt anyone, honest.”
“Why did you let him stay here in the first place?” Veronica couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“You aren’t the only people he listened to,” explained Cassidy without rancor. “Duncan heard my mom hit me when she came by for visitation. He threatened to tell everyone if I didn’t let him stay here. Please, you of all people,” he nodded at Logan. “He told me about your dad. Please. I sent you the text message from Madison’s phone when I realized what was going on. I knew you’d believe an anonymous text message faster than you’d believe me.” He took a breath and Logan nodded. That was actually true. “I don’t want anyone to know about my mom. She doesn’t do it all the time. Please.”
Logan and Veronica looked at each other. It didn’t seem right that anyone else should suffer because of Duncan’s sociopathic behavior. The two of them came to an unspoken agreement and Logan nodded at Dick’s little brother.
“All right, man. We’ll make something up.”
Relief spread across Cassidy’s face.
“Thank you, really. I’ll tell them that the gunshot drew me out here.”
“Where’s Dick?” asked Veronica.
“He and Madison are up in his room. They have the music up pretty loud.” As Cassidy answered, the sound of a siren in the distance caught all of their attention. “Guess somebody else heard it, though.” Cassidy noticed the object of their troubles still staring at the wall. “What’s up with him?”
“Good question,” answered Veronica.
As cell phones were taken out and parents called and police arrived and the night became truly insane, all Cassidy could feel was relief and satisfaction. Logan and Veronica were such saps. They had believed his lie, and judging by Duncan’s condition, the only other person who knew the truth wasn’t going to be correcting anyone anytime soon.
Cassidy’s secret was safe and life was good.
Although not so much for Duncan.
-
If the Casablancas’ pool house had been a circus, the emergency room was a circus that had been set on fire.
People were running everywhere. The police set up a cordon between the entrance to the ER and the ever-growing crowd of paparazzi in the parking lot. The FBI agents were trying to interview Veronica while Keith told them to hold their questions until later. A loud team of doctors was working on Logan and a terrifyingly quiet team was working on Duncan. Then Jake and Celeste Kane raced in and things got interesting.
“Duncan!” Jake yelled, searching for his son.
“Duncan!” Celeste called, her voice shrill with worry.
No one immediately answered them and Celeste tried to raise her voice above the din of those already present, demanding for someone to tell her where her son was. Keith finally took over, calling Duncan’s frantic parents and pointing out the doctors surrounding their only remaining child.
Everyone except for the medical personnel working on Logan got suddenly quieter, as the majority of eyes in the ER turned to catch the power couple’s first look at their catatonic son. While a few people had prurient, envious looks, most of the faces held compassion and pity. There was nothing that could prepare either of these people for what they were about to see.
“Duncan?” Celeste said gently, pushing her way in-between two nurses.
“Son?” Jake asked as he did the same.
Duncan was lying on a gurney, staring at the ceiling.
“Duncan?” Jake prodded, more urgently this time. It was clear that something wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” Celeste grabbed the arm of the nurse standing next to her. “What’s wrong with our son?!”
It was the doctor standing across from her that answered. “We don’t know. I’m sorry. Apparently he became catatonic at the scene. We’re trying to ascertain the cause right now. If you’ll please step back, we’re doing the best that we can.”
Jake put his arms around his wife’s shoulders and worked to steer her away from the motionless figure on the gurney. As he did so, he brought both himself and his wife directly into Veronica’s line of sight.
“You did this,” said Celeste, the instant she saw her son’s ex-girlfriend. “You did this, didn’t you?! What did you do to him?!” She pulled out of her husband’s grasp and moved on the tiny teenager.
“What did I do?!” Veronica yelled right back, pushing aside her father, who had instantly stepped in to protect his little girl. “This is your fault! You knew that he killed Lilly and you hid it! You hid it from him. You hid it from the world, and when Duncan buried that memory, he lost himself along with it! You got him the help that you wanted instead of the help that he needed and this is what it did to him!” she pointed at the knot of people behind the angry woman.
Celeste opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
“He’s been following Logan and me for a year and a half. Did you know that? He’s been stalking us because it was the only way that he could feel. That’s what he told me. He said the only way he could feel real human emotions was to watch our every move.” Veronica took a deep breath as she unloaded on the woman in front of her.
Out of her line of sight, Logan had pushed away the doctors working on him and was watching his girlfriend, ready to jump in if she needed him. All eyes in the emergency room were now focused on Veronica and Celeste.
“He didn’t remember why he tried to kill himself the first time. And the second time? He didn’t. He wanted to keep me and Logan from going public, so he faked it. He did all of that because you made him bury the memory of an accident. An ACCIDENT!” Veronica yelled. “So don’t barge in here acting like this is my fault! You did this! You have no one but yourself to blame and we all have to live with it!”
The room went silent and there was a beat. Then a doctor near Logan called out that they needed to get him up to MRI and the moment was gone. Life returned to the ER as Celeste broke down in her husband’s arms and Veronica broke down in her father’s.
Logan pushed away his medical team and tried to get to Veronica, but Dr. Lake pushed him back down and said, “Stay down. I’ll get you over there.” Nodding to the nurses who unlocked the wheels, the doctor pushed Logan over to his girlfriend, who was now being held up almost completely by her father.
“Veronica,” Logan said, reaching up his good hand to stroke his love’s arm.
“Logan!” Veronica yelped, leaning down to wrap her arms around him. “What are you doing over here?! You were over there,” she said wildly.
“You needed me,” he whispered into her ear. “It’s okay, Veronica. They needed to know.”
Veronica’s tears wet the pillow under Logan’s head as her hands clutched at his shirt.
“I’m sorry, Veronica, we need to take him upstairs and get a look at that shoulder,” Dr. Lake said kindly but firmly.
Veronica leaned back up, tears still streaming from her eyes. She nodded as she stepped back to lean against Keith.
Taking control of Logan’s gurney once more, Dr. Lake kept up a running monologue as he pushed Logan away from his tearful girlfriend.
“I spent all that time patching you back together and you have to go and wreck it all by being the hero. Some thanks I get. Kids these days, I tell you…”
Veronica laughed, her tears finally staunched by Dr. Lake’s insightful misdirection.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” said Keith as he pulled her in close.
“For what?” asked Veronica with a hiccup.
“Not making the world a more perfect place for you.”
His daughter laughed into his chest as she hiccupped again.
“Couldn’t you have done that one little thing, Dad? I mean, really.”
Keith leaned back to look at his daughter, and he brushed her hair away from her face. “It’s okay, Veronica. You did good tonight. With all of it.”
Looking across the ER to Duncan’s gurney, which was also being transported to some other part of the hospital, the distraught Kanes trailing in its wake, Veronica asked her father, “What’s going to happen to them? To Duncan?”
“I don’t know, honey.” He blew out a breath. “Why don’t we find out what’s going on with Logan and give Wallace and Mac a call, let them know what’s going on.”
“They might already know,” noted Veronica, looking warily at the popping flashbulbs visible through the sliding entrance doors across the room.
“Then let’s call and tell them what really happened,” amended Keith and Veronica smiled at her dad.
Logan and Keith. They were all the family she needed.
-
Logan was admitted to the hospital for observation. The doctors were concerned that he had finally succeeded in puncturing his lung sac and they wanted to make sure that the young man’s actual lung wasn’t going to collapse.
Veronica stayed with Logan for several hours after he was moved up to his room, by which time all of their friends had stopped by to make sure both that Logan was okay and that he knew he had a support system there for him. Shortly after one in the morning, Keith insisted that Veronica leave a sleeping Logan and go back to their apartment to sleep in a bed. Grudgingly, his daughter agreed to do so, with the understanding that she would return first thing in the morning.
So it was that Logan was left alone in his hospital room, but when he woke up at around 4 a.m., it was to find Dr. Lake sitting at his bedside.
“Shouldn’t you be down in the ER?” he asked as he struggled to sit up.
“Don’t,” said the doctor, pushing Logan back down and he smiled. “I’m not arrogant enough to think that the ER can’t get along without me. Don’t worry-they’ll call me if they need anything.”
“Hey, man, I’m just giving you a hard time,” Logan grinned as much as he could through the pain and the sleep. “Actually, I have something I wanna talk to you about.”
“Go for it,” answered the doctor, settling back into his chair.
“When I first came in like this,” Logan gestured to his injuries with his mobile hand. “This happened because…” his voice trailed off and his eyes lost focus.
Dr. Lake sat quietly as the younger boy collected his thoughts.
“It was my fault.”
Instead of contradicting him, as many listeners might have, the young doctor asked, “What do you mean?”
“I blocked his shot. I had screwed up again and he went to hit me. And suddenly it seemed like such a stupid thing for him to do-you know, couldn’t he just ground me or something like most parents?” Logan took a deep breath. “My arm just came up. I don’t even remember thinking about it first-it just…” his voice trailed off again, and this time he seemed to have truly lost the rest of his words.
“He lost it, didn’t he?” filled in the man at his side.
“Dr. Lake-“
“Bobby.”
“Bobby,” Logan corrected. “It wasn’t like any time before. He didn’t stop. He…didn’t stop. After I made it to my room I fell down and he kicked me and stomped on my hand. All I could do was pray for it be over. And it was my fault, man. No one gets that. I broke the rules-I knew them and broke them. It was my fault.”
The doctor leaned forward.
“Just once, I wish I’d stood up to him. You know, that last time-when I walked out, that was closest I ever came. And I don’t regret it-I just wish…”
“That you’d done more?” Logan’s words were halfway between a question and a statement.
“Yeah.”
“Even if he’d put you in the hospital.”
Lake looked Logan in the eye. “Yeah, I know the rules. And I wish I’d broken ‘em. Just once.”
Logan sat for a minute before dashing the tears now visible on his face. “Thanks.”
“It’s a small club, Logan. We have to have each other’s backs.”
-
Duncan was standing in a white room that reminded him of that movie, The Matrix. He was surrounded by shards of broken glass. He knelt down and picked one of them up. The long, thin piece was like a window into a memory. He watched as he and Lilly played hide and seek-Lilly was eight and he was seven, and she kept rigging the game so that she always got to hide. Duncan smiled. His sister had been so much fun. He sat down and watched the memory a second time and when it was over, he set it down and picked up another shard.
In the new one, Celeste was introducing him to his life coach. Duncan threw it so that it was out of reach. In the next one he picked up, he watched himself at the championship basketball game. Logan and Veronica were up in the weight room and the Duncan in the memory was having a good time knowing that they were up there hiding their secret from him.
It took some time, but after a bit of trial and error, Duncan was able to arrange things so that all the shards around him were good memories. He got it to the point where as long as he stayed where he was and didn’t get up, his entire life was there for him to see. All the best parts-right there in front of him.
If he moved, though, if he tried to travel through the window shards to whatever lay beyond, he would have to face every memory in between-he would have to face them and he would have to deal with them. So Duncan got comfortable. And he walked through his memories-games with Lilly, time spent with his friends, spying on Logan and Veronica. He watched his memories, and then he watched them again.
Duncan lived in his good memories, the bad ones far away. Forever safe.
Forever lost to everyone else.
*
The next time Logan woke up, it was again to find a welcome visitor at his bedside.
“Peaches!” he greeted sleepily.
“I seem to recall recommending that you to stick to ‘baby’,” smiled Veronica as she leaned down to give her boyfriend a good-morning kiss.
“But ‘peaches’ is so much more fun,” Logan grinned up at her, using his right hand to pull his girl back down for a longer hello.
Coming up for air, Veronica laughed. “You’re in a good mood. Those must be some pretty fantastic drugs.”
Logan grinned-one of the genuine ones that had been so rare of late-and Veronica was struck by how truly happy her boyfriend looked.
Where had this come from?
As though he had heard her, Logan answered. “You’re safe, Duncan’s finally getting help, and morphine drips are fantastic.” Logan ran his three good fingers through Veronica’s hair as she maneuvered herself to sit next to him on the bed. “You’re here,” he looked at her with an almost wondrous expression on his face.
Veronica’s brow creased and Logan’s smile gentled.
“When we couldn’t find you…” Veronica nodded, suddenly understanding where his train of thought had gone off to. The kidnapping seemed so long ago. “All I could think of was what if I never got to hear your laugh again?”
“My laugh?” asked Veronica and without meaning to she did exactly that.
Logan’s smile went from ear to ear. “That’s the one.” He made a low sound in the back of his throat that rubbed against something deep in Veronica. “Your laugh, your smile. I just-I just want to look at you, that’s all.”
Veronica was suddenly reminded of how much she and Logan had been through, how much they had done together, and here they were, together-in public-so entwined in each other lives that it was hard to tell where one of them ended and the other one began.
“Wow. It really happens, doesn’t it?” she stroked Logan’s cheek.
Her boyfriend lightly ran his fingers over hers. “What’s that?”
Veronica smiled. “Someone can meet the love of their life at sixteen.”
Logan’s hand stilled. “I wouldn’t know.”
Veronica’s smile didn’t waiver, but she did raise an eyebrow at his response.
“I met the love of my life when I was 12,” the love in his eyes shone bright. “I didn’t realize she was the love of my life until I was 15, though.”
“And now?” Veronica heard her voice crack the teeniest little bit.
“Now I can’t imagine life without her.”
Tears shimmered on the edge of Veronica’s lashes. She reached down so that their eyes were only inches apart and a tear slipped off onto her boyfriend’s cheek.
“All the love in my heart,” she whispered.
“Hey,” the air from Logan’s lips brushed across hers. “That’s supposed to be my line.”
When Keith walked into the hospital room not much later, Veronica was asleep in Logan’s arms. Her original protector smiled gently and quietly backed out of the room.
The two of them would be safe together. They always were.
*********************************
EPILOGUE
The doctors let Logan go home the following morning under strict orders to take better care of himself.
That same morning, Jake and Celeste transferred Duncan to a hospital upstate where their son could be tested by specialists. There had been no change in Duncan’s condition and his parents were desperately hoping that they could find someone who could help them reach their lost child, hoping against hope that the doctors in Neptune were wrong and that his state was only temporary.
Everyone agreed that Logan was not going to return home. Long-term, though, it wasn’t feasible for Logan to live on his girlfriend’s couch. The solution came a week after he got out of the hospital in the form of Alicia and Wallace’s guest house. Alicia’s need for a tenant and Logan’s need for a positive home environment coincided perfectly.
Veronica went with Logan to the Echolls mansion to help him pack up his things. Seeing as how Aaron was under house arrest, it was inevitable that a father-son reunion would come to pass.
“Logan,” Aaron said from the hallway door.
“I was wondering when the welcome wagon was going to come by,” Logan quipped to his girlfriend, who stepped out of the closet holding a travel bag full of clothes.
“What, no muffins?” asked Veronica.
“I’ve missed you, son,” said Aaron, putting on a pitiful face.
Veronica snorted back a laugh and Logan shot a knowing smile her direction as he put t-shirts and pajamas into a suitcase.
He glanced back at his father. “The feeling has not been mutual.”
Aaron’s eyes flashed. “What are you doing?” He surveyed the packing going on. “It’s time for you to come home, Logan.”
“I don’t think so,” the teenager kept packing.
“Oh, really? And how do you think you’re going to pay for this little flight from the home fires? Are you gonna get a job?” The action star’s voice dripped with contempt.
“Hell, no,” Logan laughed. “You’re going to pay for it.”
Aaron scoffed. “And why would I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, we’ll make sure the entire world knows that you make Joan Crawford look like Mother of the Year,” answered Veronica.
“What?” asked Logan’s father in disbelief.
“We have copies of every emergency room visit that Logan ever made because of you over the past ten years,” Veronica explained. “And a doctor who’ll testify that Logan’s x-rays and MRI are proof of long-term abuse. Trust me, when we’re done, you’ll long for the day when this whole sex tape thing was all you had to deal with.”
Aaron’s face was hard. “Logan would never go public.”
“Yes, he would,” stated his son flatly. “I always knew that no one would believe me, but that’s not the case anymore, is it? I think the American public would believe just about anything about you, even the truth.”
His father took a menacing step towards Logan.
“Please,” said Logan. “Please hit me. I’m sure you could do some more damage.” He waved his sling. “Maybe kill another tooth? I mean, did you even know that teeth can die?”
“Apparently if your psychotic father hits you hard enough, they can,” inserted Veronica.
Aaron’s fists clenched.
“I’m waiting,” goaded Logan, and Aaron froze, suddenly looking around the room.
“There are two,” affirmed Veronica.
“Two cameras taping the two of you extorting money from me? I thought you were smarter than that, Veronica.”
“Like anyone would care,” replied Logan calmly. “I would trot out my many scars, show my full-body x-ray, subpoena some doctors, and the next thing you know, they’d be making a movie about you called “Daddie Dearest”.”
“No one remembers that Joan Crawford won an Oscar, do they?” Veronica asked Logan. “They just remember that she beat the hell out of her kids. Funny thing about America. I mean, people in this country can forgive R. Kelly for marrying a 14-year-old, but they do not forgive people who beat their kids.”
Aaron’s face was frozen in anger.
“Ten thousand dollars a month,” instructed Logan. “You pay, I’ll stay quiet about being your punching bag. Either way-you and I? We’re done.”
“You won’t live under my roof, but you’ll take my money.”
“Hell, yeah,” Logan stood up straight and faced his father. “Do you need anything else? Because we have a lot to do here,” he indicated himself and Veronica.
“This isn’t over,” growled Aaron.
“Yes, it is,” Veronica shot back, not in the least bit intimidated. “You’re gonna do jail time for all the teenage girls you violated, but the world might still forgive you. We go public with this? You’re done for good.” She stepped over to her boyfriend, who put his hand on her back.
“You want to go now,” Logan told his father, whose hands were clenched so tight his nails were cutting into his hands.
Without another word, the defeated action hero turned on his heel and left his son’s room.
Veronica waited until the door shut behind Aaron Echolls before turning to her boyfriend and throwing her arms around him.
Returning her embrace for all he was worth, Logan could hardly breathe for what they had just done. Who would have thought even a year ago that he would ever have been able to do this? Him?
He held tightly to the girl in his arms as she buried her face in his chest.
They were in this together.
*
“Eli!” The door to the small home banged open as Meg’s excitement made it into the door ahead of her ever-growing belly. “Eli!”
The Mazda was in the driveway, and Meg knew that her husband was most likely in the house.
“Yes, dear?” called Weevil, amused by his wife’s grand entrance.
“You have to see this!” yelled Meg as she raced into the kitchen waving a stack of papers.
“What?” Weevil tried not to laugh at the peppy blonde, knowing that there was only so far he could tease his pregnant wife.
“Look!” Meg pushed him into a kitchen chair and sat on his lap. She was so animated, though, that despite the fact she was holding the papers aloft, Weevil was no closer to knowing what they were than he had been when she had walked in the door.
“Hold still!” Weevil laughed as he kissed Meg and put his hands on her shoulders to calm her enough so that he could take the papers from her.
Finally able to take a close look at them, Weevil’s eyes widened in confusion. “Orange County Deputy Training Initiative? What is this?”
Meg jumped up to kneel in front of her husband, taking his hands in hers. “I know it’s probably something you’ve never thought of, but I think you would be so good at this, Eli, really. It’s a new program where Orange County takes young men with juvenile records, but strong leadership qualities, and trains them on how to be sheriff’s deputies. Please don’t dismiss it automatically, okay? Please, for me, just look it over.”
Any response that Weevil might automatically have had to this preposterous suggestion was buried under his wife’s torrential enthusiasm. Who was this girl and why in the world did she believe in him so much? Weevil had no idea what he thought of the whole him-as-a-cop thing, but he would rather die than dim the light in Meg’s eyes.
“Okay, okay!” he laughed, pulling his wife back into his lap. “Tell me about this program that you’re so excited about.”
Meg threw her arms around her husband and kissed him fiercely. “You won’t believe this!” she pulled away just as quickly and started enumerating the reasons that Orange County’s new program was perfect for her husband.
With someone who believed in him like Meg did, what choice did he have?
*
Mac had just e-mailed Logan several sites to help him with his hospital homebound assignments. Her friend’s doctors had ordered him to spend the rest of the school year completing his classes from home, stating that his body’s condition was too fragile to stand up to the rigors of daily high school life. Much to his teacher’s initial skepticism and eventual amusement, Logan’s grades had dramatically increased.
His scores and homework had improved so much that at first the teachers at Neptune High had suspected Logan of cheating, which suspicions Logan had put to rest by going in to school to take his tests and then acing them. Apparently sitting at home with nothing to do had led Logan to actually do his work. The faculty rolled their eyes at the fact that Logan was actually pretty smart when he chose to be.
Veronica had privately told Mac that Logan had been doing better on every level since he had severed ties with his father. Mac hadn’t asked how Logan was getting the money that he still seemed to have. It was her sincerest wish that he and Veronica had figured out a way to make Aaron give his son a fortune.
Mac continued to comb the Internet every day for updates on Aaron’s legal issues. The experts were saying that given the amount of evidence against him the actor was unlikely to get out of jail time completely. That being said, it wasn’t expected to be more than a year or two, after which the great Aaron Echolls would be out on bail.
In the meantime, the Hollywood community had been noticeably absent in defending their fallen comrade. Mac couldn’t help but wonder how quick they would be to forgive the proven money-maker when he got out of jail.
As long as he left Logan alone, she was willing to follow her friends’ lead. But Camille’s memory had long fingers, and Mac intended to make sure that Aaron never hurt anyone again. She considered it to be all the better that the man had no idea she existed.
Mac turned off her computer. She was taking Veronica shopping for a new DVD burner. Like she would ever let her friend make such an important purchase on her own.
Friends had to have each other’s backs.
*
“So Jake checked Duncan into a private care facility,” Veronica sighed.
Logan reached out to take her hand. “What else did Wallace have to say?” he changed the subject. The two of them had been working on helping each other deal with what had happened to Duncan. Not that it would be quick or easy, but they were committed to getting through it together.
Veronica had just gotten off the phone with her best friend, who was holding down the fort while the two of them, Keith, and Alicia were on vacation. It wasn’t hard for Logan to redirect the conversation.
“He gave me crap again for leaving him with his little brother while my boyfriend flew us all out to Hawaii.”
Logan smiled and reached over to kiss the girl he loved.
“What?” he laughed. “It was the only way I could get you out of Neptune again without having a warrant issued for my arrest.”
Putting on her best Southern accent, Veronica batted her eyes and asked, “Why, sir, are you trying to compromise my virtue?”
“I’d like to think I’m doing more than trying,” Logan laughed as he pulled his love out of her lounge chair to lie on top of him on his.
Veronica leaned above her randy boyfriend. “You do realize that we really did bring my dad with us on this trip, right? He could walk out any minute and any chance you have of compromising my virtue would forever be, you know-compromised.”
Logan smiled at the angel above him. “Right before I came out here, your dad was making the moves on Alicia-not a sight I am soon to forget, by the way-so I would hope that we have a little time to ourselves.”
Veronica laughed and started to lower herself. With a move that Veronica hadn’t known was within the realm of human capability, Logan flipped them over so that he was on top-without either of them ever being in danger of falling off the lounger.
“Impressive,” Veronica ran her fingers over Logan’s bare chest and arms.
“I miss Duncan and Lilly,” Logan brushed a hair out of her eyes. “I want you to know that.” Veronica nodded, wondering where this was going. “But I wouldn’t trade this-the life we’ve built-for anything. You-me-this is everything.”
The sun created a halo behind Logan’s head and Veronica ran her hand through his sun-kissed hair.
“Father Perez says that you and I complete each other.”
Logan laughed.
“I know,” smiled Veronica. “Who knew that priests watched Jerry Maguire? But he’s right. We do.”
“Who am I to argue with a priest?” Logan kissed her.
“I love you,” Veronica murmured against his lips as her arms snaked around him.
Logan responded in kind. “Every minute of every day.”
Fin
Author: jacedesbff
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, Meg/Weevil, ensemble
Word Count: 8,500+
Rating: PG-13 for mild language and sexual situations
Summary: AU from the Pilot; this chapter takes place shortly after the time frame covered in Season 1
Spoilers: Familiarity with Season 1 required.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns all.
Previous chapters: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Interlude | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 | Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | Chapter 28 | Chapter 29
A/N: Wow. This entire process has been amazing. I’ve never done anything of this scope before and it has definitely been the highest of the highs, the lowest of the lows, and ultimately, I’m so glad I was crazy enough to try it. I cannot thank my beta and bff, candlewaxdreams, enough, as without her this simply would not exist. Thank you to each of you who has followed and commented. You are all emosewa and you kept me going. As a note, I do not currently have plans to take this any further, but never say never. *smile*
X-posted all over creation. I sincerely hope you all enjoy this, and PLEASE, PLEASE leave your feedback!
Veronica blinked when the blindfold was taken off. Late afternoon sunlight was coming through the window, shining directly into her face, and she had to turn her eyes away from it. Once her vision adjusted, she looked up to find Duncan sitting on the edge of a bed in what looked like a hotel suite. For a moment they just stared at each other-Duncan on the bed and Veronica duct-taped to a chair.
Her ex-boyfriend had walked up behind her on the beach. He showed her the gun that was in his pocket, and then he pointed it at Backup. Backup. Duncan had threatened to shoot her dog if Veronica cried out for help.
Duncan made Veronica give him her shoulder bag, and then he had taken Backup’s leash and led them both to a rental car, where he calmly told Veronica to get in. Then he let go of Backup’s leash and they drove off. Soon after they pulled out, Duncan had stopped behind a grocery store and blindfolded Veronica, telling her that he didn’t want her to be able to identify where they were going.
Veronica hadn’t said much-she was too incensed to form actual words. While she didn’t think that Duncan would shoot her, she did think he would have shot her dog, and right now she wanted to shoot him. She wanted to throw Duncan on the ground and kick him in the throat. In the meantime, she literally couldn’t seem to get any words out.
They had driven around in silence for what seemed like hours, but it might have been only thirty minutes. Hampered by the blindfold, time became relative, and by the time they finally stopped, Veronica had no idea where they were. Duncan had pulled a couple of u-turns, taken detours, crap like that. It meant that he was trying to make sure that Veronica couldn’t tell where they were going, and that was probably a good thing-it meant that Super Stalker was planning on letting her go after he was done doing…whatever it is he planned on doing.
Still, all she really wanted to do was kick Duncan’s ass.
After they parked, her kidnapper led her through what Veronica would have sworn were some woods. Not big ones, but still. In Neptune? They reached a building and went inside, where Duncan led her through a room and sat her down in a chair. Which is when they started to have a problem.
Duncan put Veronica’s right hand on the arm of a chair and she felt tape being placed on her wrist. She jumped up and shoved Duncan. As she reached up to take off her blindfold, Duncan slapped her hard across the face and Veronica froze.
Before she had time to process the fact that the boy who had once been sweet, kind, and innocent had just hit her, Duncan Kane leaned down to her ear and said in a calm, low tone, “I don’t want to hurt you, Veronica, but I will. Sit down.”
Realizing that Duncan had the advantage, Veronica sank down and allowed the stranger in front of her to tape her to a chair.
And here they were-staring at each other. Without warning, Duncan shot up off of the bed and started pacing. Then he completely lost it and started screaming at the top of his lungs.
“How could you do it?! How could you?”
Veronica blinked, stunned. There was a pause.
Oh, he really wanted her to answer.
“How could I what?”
“Cut me off, Veronica! You and Logan were all I had! You went and told my parents! It was just luck that no one caught us at the beach.” His tone was harsh and bitter. “I have to be able to watch, don’t you understand?! And now people are looking for me and I can’t-I can’t. How could you do that to me?”
Veronica stared at Duncan, completely taken aback by this bizarre monologue.
Honesty was the best policy?
“You’ve been following us, Duncan, listening in on our private conversations…on our lives. How could you have thought we’d be okay with that?”
“You weren’t supposed to know about it,” answered Duncan harshly. “I wasn’t hurting anyone. What difference did it make?!”
Veronica felt like she was talking to someone who rode the short bus. “You were invading our privacy. Our lives are not reality TV, here for your enjoyment.” She refrained from adding duh at the end. The boy was mentally unhinged.
“But I need you! I need to watch the two of you,” Duncan’s voice contained an intensity that Veronica didn’t understand.
“Why, Duncan? Why do you need us so much?”
The lost little boy looked her in the eye, an almost visible glaze having fallen over his own. “I don’t have anything else.”
-
As soon as they had found Backup and Veronica’s phone sans their owner on the beach, Keith had called the FBI. Kidnappings were federal and Lamb was an ass; Logan thought it was a stroke of brilliance.
The terrified teenager had been ready to run off unchecked to hunt down Duncan, but Keith put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and simply said, “Wait.” The strength in Keith’s voice caught Logan and held him in place, at least momentarily.
Upon hearing the circumstances, the FBI arrived at the Mars apartment much faster than Logan had expected. The prime suspects for Veronica’s disappearance were Aaron and Duncan. Logan knew that this wasn’t his father’s style, so he watched in barely disguised disdain as the two FBI agents-two middle-aged men not even close to being as good-looking as the actors on Without a Trace-called the Neptune police to verify that Aaron had been under surveillance at the time of the kidnapping and couldn’t have committed the crime.
While there was nothing solid saying that Aaron hadn’t at least orchestrated Veronica’s disappearance, the agents cautiously agreed with Keith and Logan’s assertion that Jake and Celeste Kane’s emotionally distraught son was the most likely suspect. Jake and Celeste were contacted, but having only conclusively learned the day before that their son was still alive, they had no useful information to provide the searchers. Jake wanted to come over, but the agent in charge convinced him that being at home in case Duncan called would be of greater help.
Logan couldn’t force himself to sit still any longer than he already had. With a quick goodbye to Keith, he grabbed his keys and started driving around Neptune, stopping at every place he could think of that Duncan might go.
-
A chill went up Veronica’s spine. “What do you mean you don’t have anything else?”
Duncan’s gaze was focused on something that only he could see. “I don’t feel anything, not anymore. I mean, I used to, like normal people... But ever since Lilly died, I haven’t…it’s like I’m empty. And then I found out about you and Logan, and I finally felt. I don’t even remember what I felt, just that…I was finally alive…” His voice trailed off.
“How long have you known?” Veronica prompted, trying to keep her kidnapper talking.
Duncan turned his head to her and Veronica realized that he had temporarily forgotten her presence.
What the hell was going on?
-
As he stared out his bedroom window, Cassidy contemplated the best course of action. Priority number one: no one else learn his secret. Priority number two: do not let a situation develop in which anyone would be likely to learn his secret.
Letting Duncan stay in the pool house hadn’t been that big of a deal. Apparently the guy had been going around listening in on the secrets of Neptune’s elite, and Cassidy talked in his sleep. It had been a straightforward arrangement-Casablancas the younger would help hide Duncan in the family pool house and Duncan wouldn’t tell anyone what demons haunted Cassidy in his sleep.
It had been a mutually beneficial set-up and Cassidy had let it go because it was obvious that Duncan wasn’t talking to anyone ever, let alone sharing secrets. He kept a close eye on things, of course, as it was also clear that Duncan was a mentally unstable moron, of which tonight was the ultimate proof.
Right before dusk that evening, Duncan Kane had led a blindfolded Veronica Mars through the landscaped trees at the back of the Casablancas’ property and into the pool house, leaving Cassidy to try and figure out how in the world to deal with the situation.
What a pain in the ass.
-
Logan had visited the Kane residence, the Camelot Motel, Lilly’s grave, the beach where the four of them had spent Homecoming, and the Neptune Grand. He had even stopped by the small Catholic church Veronica had told him about, but the priest had seen neither Duncan nor Veronica. Logan was running out of places to look, not that he was going to stop. He was frantic, and he could no more stop looking for Veronica than he could stop breathing.
He turned his truck in the direction of the Coronado Bridge.
-
“How long have you known?” Veronica repeated.
“Since Shelley Pomeroy’s party,” replied Duncan absently, still focused on being “alive”, apparently.
“Since when?!” Veronica’s mouth literally dropped open. He had known for a year and a half?!
Her razor sharp tone of voice almost pulled her ex-boyfriend back into reality. Duncan looked at Veronica and his eyes weren’t quite as glazed over as they had been a few minutes earlier. “I saw Logan go into the bedroom, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then Madison called everyone to come listen and for the first time since Lilly…I felt.” He knelt at her side and the gleam in Duncan’s eyes became frightening. “I had to have more of it-the only thing that made me feel anything-anything at all-was watching the two of you, so I had to watch you all the time. That’s why I started following you. I found out all about Romania, the Love Wagon, Meg and Weevil…and it made me feel.” He stared off into space once more. “I wish I could have followed you to Romania, but my parents wanted to stay in the States. I couldn’t convince them…” His head snapped back up and he looked at his ex.
The young man trailed his fingers down Veronica’s face, and the normally tough blonde had to choke down the intense urge to vomit. Duncan had shadowed them since six weeks after Lilly died. The boy she had thought of as a friend had long since lost his grip on reality. This wasn’t Duncan anymore, and this… person… whoever or whatever her friend had become… was no longer following the rules and morals that had been instilled in him by his parents and society.
Veronica wasn’t sure if that was the definition of clinically insane or sociopathic or something else entirely, but whatever it was, that’s what her and Logan’s former friend had become, and she realized now that there was literally no telling what this foreigner holding her captive might do.
-
It was possible that Duncan might kill his ex-girlfriend. It wasn’t the possibility of Veronica’s death that bothered Cassidy, although he didn’t particularly want her to die. No, his issue was with the inquiry that would follow. People would want to know why Duncan had been hiding in the Casablancas pool house; they would want to know how he had been able to come and go without being found out. Whatever. Cassidy didn’t want that level of intensity-the level that only a murder investigation would bring.
He was going to have to do something about this.
-
The FBI was calling up cell phone records, searching car rental databases and finding in minutes what might have taken Keith hours. What they didn’t know, of course, was that even though they were doing it faster, they were only repeating what Veronica had done weeks earlier. And it didn’t matter, anyway, because knowing Duncan’s aliases wasn’t going to tell them where he was now. Not that they knew that.
-
“Why couldn’t you feel? After Lilly died?” Veronica tried to distract Duncan.
She might as well not have said anything.
“How did you find out? About me following you?” he asked.
The question caught Veronica by surprise and she blinked before admitting, “The Camelot tape.”
“I knew it wouldn’t take long,” nodded Duncan. “It was you after all.”
Why had he ignored her question?
That was the real story-wasn’t it? Why he had stopped feeling.
-
Madison was in Dick’s bedroom, but she had left her purse in the living room. Cassidy went downstairs and got out his brother’s girlfriend’s cell phone. If he was going to keep Duncan from killing Veronica, he probably had to hurry.
-
Logan ended up pulling into the parking lot at Dog Beach. He was pacing angrily on the sand, feeling more powerless than ever before in his life, when his cell phone beeped.
“Veronica-“ he said out loud as he lunged for his cell phone.
He didn’t recognize the number, but that was irrelevant.
Dncn has V @ Dik’s pul hse
Logan took off running for his truck.
-
“Why did you stop feeling when Lilly died?” pushed Veronica.
Duncan didn’t answer and Veronica could see that scary film slipping back over his countenance, so she hastily redirected her questions.
“Why did you stay at the Catholic church for so long? After you shot the Camelot tape?”
Duncan shook his head and looked back at her. “What?”
“Father Perez said that you sat in the sanctuary for hours. Why? Why didn’t you go back to following us after you shot the tape?”
Duncan’s brow furrowed. “I didn’t sit in there for hours. I stopped in for a couple of minutes.”
Veronica stared at him. “You were there all night, Duncan. For hours. Don’t you remember?”
Dazed, Duncan shook his head.
“You really don’t remember?” Veronica paused. She and Logan had once cared for Duncan so much that they had arranged their lives around him for a year and a half. Had he completely undone that with his psychotic behavior? Had he?
She wasn’t sure.
“What happened to you, Duncan? How did you end up here?”
-
Why had he taken Veronica to Dick’s house, of all places? Logan had called his former lackey, but Dick wasn’t answering. He swore loudly as he raced down the streets of Neptune.
“PICK UP!!”
He didn’t have Beaver’s number-or Madison’s, who was probably the reason Dick wasn’t picking up his cell phone in the first place.
Logan’s yellow Xterra raced through the streets of Neptune, frantic to reach its goal.
-
Duncan shrugged. “I don’t know.” He blinked. “You two put all of that stuff for my parents-you know, the pictures of the bank and stuff-you put that together when you were in your room, didn’t you?” He looked intently at Veronica.
“What?” asked Veronica, trying desperately to keep up with the random threads of Duncan’s conversation. “Yeah, we figured out it was harder for you to hear us in there. My turn. Why did you try to kill yourself after you heard us together at Shelley’s party?”
Duncan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I didn’t. I just wanted to keep the two of you from going public.”
Veronica stared at her ex for a few moments, astounded. “You faked a suicide attempt to keep Logan and me in the closet?” Duncan giggled. Literally. He giggled. “And the first one? Was that faked, too?” She and Logan hadn’t been dating back then. What purpose would that have served?
Duncan’s giggles faded instantly. “No.”
“Why, then? Why did you try to kill yourself after Lilly died?”
For a moment, the only sound in the room was Duncan’s shallow breathing.
And then, “I don’t know.”
“Duncan!” The front door in the next room banged open as Logan yelled at his friend.
Duncan swung his gun up and shot in the direction of the door, which was in clear view of the bedroom.
“LOGAN!” the cry wrenched from the depths of Veronica’s soul and dragged across her throat like rocks over gravel. “What did you do?!” she screamed at Duncan as she struggled to get free of her bonds.
Logan had leapt to the right of the door. Only his legs could be seen through the doorway. They weren’t moving.
“I did it again,” murmured Duncan to himself, the gun slipping from his hand onto the floor.
“You have to see if he’s okay!” Veronica desperately urged the boy in front of her.
“I didn’t remember until just now. It was one of my rages. I didn’t mean…and I did it again…” his voice trailed off as he looked at Logan’s unmoving form in the doorway. “How could I-“
“Duncan,” Veronica struggled to keep her voice steady as she tried to reach the troubled boy. “We don’t know that Logan’s really hurt. You need to go see how he is. Duncan, please…” she pleaded.
“Why didn’t they let me die?”
“Duncan, please. Please-look! Duncan, look! He’s moving! You have to go help him!”
“I shouldn’t…they shouldn’t…”
Veronica’s attention was focused on Logan’s legs, which were trying to move into a position from which they could push him up.
“Logan?!” she called. “He dropped the gun! Are you okay?!”
Logan pulled himself up using the door frame. His left arm was dangling and his right arm was pressed to his chest. He seemed to have essentially reinjured everything that had healed up over the past few weeks.
“Veronica?” he called in a pain-soaked voice. It was obvious that he was moving against great physical odds.
“Logan! Come here! Duncan’s…” Veronica looked over at her first love, who was now staring into space silently. “Not a threat anymore. Are you okay?!”
Logan moved as quickly as he could through the living room and into the bedroom.
“You mean besides feeling incredibly stupid for not sneaking in the back way?” Veronica gave a short burst of semi-hysterical laughter at Logan’s self-deprecation. “It’s nothing I haven’t gotten used to.”
That comment pushed Veronica over the edge into tears. “I was so scared,” she sobbed as Logan finally reached her and began kissing every inch of her face. “I was so afraid that he had hit you.”
“No,” Logan murmured against her cheek as his hands started to work on removing her bindings. “He missed by a mile, but when I hit the ground I blacked out for a second. Seriously, Veronica, I’m sorry. It never occurred to me that he would have a gun. Stupid, I know…”
Her hands finally loose, Veronica grabbed her boyfriend and started checking him all over, assuring herself that he was okay.
“No, no, no, it’s okay. He wasn’t the same person anymore, Logan,” she rushed to explain. “He’s known about us since Shelley’s party!” she blurted out as she continued her thorough cataloguing of his wounds.
“What?” demanded Logan.
Since he had entered the room, all Logan had cared about was making sure that Veronica was okay, taking care of her, getting her bindings off. Now he turned his attention to his former best friend. Duncan hadn’t said a word since before Logan had entered the small bungalow. Now the troubled youth was standing in the middle of the bedroom, staring blankly at the wall.
Logan had been ready to ream out his friend, but he changed his tone upon sensing that something was deeply wrong.
Putting his hand on his friend’s arm, Logan said softly, “Duncan?” When there was no answer, he spoke the name again, louder this time. “Duncan.”
“Something’s wrong, Logan. This isn’t right.”
“I agree. We have to call your dad, the FBI-“
“Dad called the FBI? Oh, wait-of course he did. Lamb’s an ass.” Veronica shook herself, going into get-it-done mode. “All right, let’s get someone here to take care of both him and you.”
“Wait,” a voice said from the doorway.
Logan and Veronica turned to find Cassidy Casablancas standing on the threshold of the pool house bedroom.
Veronica turned to her boyfriend. “Where are we?” At Logan’s surprised look, she explained, “He made me wear a blindfold.”
“This is my pool house,” said Cassidy. “Well, my dad’s pool house, but still. Look, it’s my fault that Duncan was here, but I swear I had no idea that he was going to hurt anyone, honest.”
“Why did you let him stay here in the first place?” Veronica couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice.
“You aren’t the only people he listened to,” explained Cassidy without rancor. “Duncan heard my mom hit me when she came by for visitation. He threatened to tell everyone if I didn’t let him stay here. Please, you of all people,” he nodded at Logan. “He told me about your dad. Please. I sent you the text message from Madison’s phone when I realized what was going on. I knew you’d believe an anonymous text message faster than you’d believe me.” He took a breath and Logan nodded. That was actually true. “I don’t want anyone to know about my mom. She doesn’t do it all the time. Please.”
Logan and Veronica looked at each other. It didn’t seem right that anyone else should suffer because of Duncan’s sociopathic behavior. The two of them came to an unspoken agreement and Logan nodded at Dick’s little brother.
“All right, man. We’ll make something up.”
Relief spread across Cassidy’s face.
“Thank you, really. I’ll tell them that the gunshot drew me out here.”
“Where’s Dick?” asked Veronica.
“He and Madison are up in his room. They have the music up pretty loud.” As Cassidy answered, the sound of a siren in the distance caught all of their attention. “Guess somebody else heard it, though.” Cassidy noticed the object of their troubles still staring at the wall. “What’s up with him?”
“Good question,” answered Veronica.
As cell phones were taken out and parents called and police arrived and the night became truly insane, all Cassidy could feel was relief and satisfaction. Logan and Veronica were such saps. They had believed his lie, and judging by Duncan’s condition, the only other person who knew the truth wasn’t going to be correcting anyone anytime soon.
Cassidy’s secret was safe and life was good.
Although not so much for Duncan.
-
If the Casablancas’ pool house had been a circus, the emergency room was a circus that had been set on fire.
People were running everywhere. The police set up a cordon between the entrance to the ER and the ever-growing crowd of paparazzi in the parking lot. The FBI agents were trying to interview Veronica while Keith told them to hold their questions until later. A loud team of doctors was working on Logan and a terrifyingly quiet team was working on Duncan. Then Jake and Celeste Kane raced in and things got interesting.
“Duncan!” Jake yelled, searching for his son.
“Duncan!” Celeste called, her voice shrill with worry.
No one immediately answered them and Celeste tried to raise her voice above the din of those already present, demanding for someone to tell her where her son was. Keith finally took over, calling Duncan’s frantic parents and pointing out the doctors surrounding their only remaining child.
Everyone except for the medical personnel working on Logan got suddenly quieter, as the majority of eyes in the ER turned to catch the power couple’s first look at their catatonic son. While a few people had prurient, envious looks, most of the faces held compassion and pity. There was nothing that could prepare either of these people for what they were about to see.
“Duncan?” Celeste said gently, pushing her way in-between two nurses.
“Son?” Jake asked as he did the same.
Duncan was lying on a gurney, staring at the ceiling.
“Duncan?” Jake prodded, more urgently this time. It was clear that something wasn’t right.
“What’s wrong?” Celeste grabbed the arm of the nurse standing next to her. “What’s wrong with our son?!”
It was the doctor standing across from her that answered. “We don’t know. I’m sorry. Apparently he became catatonic at the scene. We’re trying to ascertain the cause right now. If you’ll please step back, we’re doing the best that we can.”
Jake put his arms around his wife’s shoulders and worked to steer her away from the motionless figure on the gurney. As he did so, he brought both himself and his wife directly into Veronica’s line of sight.
“You did this,” said Celeste, the instant she saw her son’s ex-girlfriend. “You did this, didn’t you?! What did you do to him?!” She pulled out of her husband’s grasp and moved on the tiny teenager.
“What did I do?!” Veronica yelled right back, pushing aside her father, who had instantly stepped in to protect his little girl. “This is your fault! You knew that he killed Lilly and you hid it! You hid it from him. You hid it from the world, and when Duncan buried that memory, he lost himself along with it! You got him the help that you wanted instead of the help that he needed and this is what it did to him!” she pointed at the knot of people behind the angry woman.
Celeste opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
“He’s been following Logan and me for a year and a half. Did you know that? He’s been stalking us because it was the only way that he could feel. That’s what he told me. He said the only way he could feel real human emotions was to watch our every move.” Veronica took a deep breath as she unloaded on the woman in front of her.
Out of her line of sight, Logan had pushed away the doctors working on him and was watching his girlfriend, ready to jump in if she needed him. All eyes in the emergency room were now focused on Veronica and Celeste.
“He didn’t remember why he tried to kill himself the first time. And the second time? He didn’t. He wanted to keep me and Logan from going public, so he faked it. He did all of that because you made him bury the memory of an accident. An ACCIDENT!” Veronica yelled. “So don’t barge in here acting like this is my fault! You did this! You have no one but yourself to blame and we all have to live with it!”
The room went silent and there was a beat. Then a doctor near Logan called out that they needed to get him up to MRI and the moment was gone. Life returned to the ER as Celeste broke down in her husband’s arms and Veronica broke down in her father’s.
Logan pushed away his medical team and tried to get to Veronica, but Dr. Lake pushed him back down and said, “Stay down. I’ll get you over there.” Nodding to the nurses who unlocked the wheels, the doctor pushed Logan over to his girlfriend, who was now being held up almost completely by her father.
“Veronica,” Logan said, reaching up his good hand to stroke his love’s arm.
“Logan!” Veronica yelped, leaning down to wrap her arms around him. “What are you doing over here?! You were over there,” she said wildly.
“You needed me,” he whispered into her ear. “It’s okay, Veronica. They needed to know.”
Veronica’s tears wet the pillow under Logan’s head as her hands clutched at his shirt.
“I’m sorry, Veronica, we need to take him upstairs and get a look at that shoulder,” Dr. Lake said kindly but firmly.
Veronica leaned back up, tears still streaming from her eyes. She nodded as she stepped back to lean against Keith.
Taking control of Logan’s gurney once more, Dr. Lake kept up a running monologue as he pushed Logan away from his tearful girlfriend.
“I spent all that time patching you back together and you have to go and wreck it all by being the hero. Some thanks I get. Kids these days, I tell you…”
Veronica laughed, her tears finally staunched by Dr. Lake’s insightful misdirection.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” said Keith as he pulled her in close.
“For what?” asked Veronica with a hiccup.
“Not making the world a more perfect place for you.”
His daughter laughed into his chest as she hiccupped again.
“Couldn’t you have done that one little thing, Dad? I mean, really.”
Keith leaned back to look at his daughter, and he brushed her hair away from her face. “It’s okay, Veronica. You did good tonight. With all of it.”
Looking across the ER to Duncan’s gurney, which was also being transported to some other part of the hospital, the distraught Kanes trailing in its wake, Veronica asked her father, “What’s going to happen to them? To Duncan?”
“I don’t know, honey.” He blew out a breath. “Why don’t we find out what’s going on with Logan and give Wallace and Mac a call, let them know what’s going on.”
“They might already know,” noted Veronica, looking warily at the popping flashbulbs visible through the sliding entrance doors across the room.
“Then let’s call and tell them what really happened,” amended Keith and Veronica smiled at her dad.
Logan and Keith. They were all the family she needed.
-
Logan was admitted to the hospital for observation. The doctors were concerned that he had finally succeeded in puncturing his lung sac and they wanted to make sure that the young man’s actual lung wasn’t going to collapse.
Veronica stayed with Logan for several hours after he was moved up to his room, by which time all of their friends had stopped by to make sure both that Logan was okay and that he knew he had a support system there for him. Shortly after one in the morning, Keith insisted that Veronica leave a sleeping Logan and go back to their apartment to sleep in a bed. Grudgingly, his daughter agreed to do so, with the understanding that she would return first thing in the morning.
So it was that Logan was left alone in his hospital room, but when he woke up at around 4 a.m., it was to find Dr. Lake sitting at his bedside.
“Shouldn’t you be down in the ER?” he asked as he struggled to sit up.
“Don’t,” said the doctor, pushing Logan back down and he smiled. “I’m not arrogant enough to think that the ER can’t get along without me. Don’t worry-they’ll call me if they need anything.”
“Hey, man, I’m just giving you a hard time,” Logan grinned as much as he could through the pain and the sleep. “Actually, I have something I wanna talk to you about.”
“Go for it,” answered the doctor, settling back into his chair.
“When I first came in like this,” Logan gestured to his injuries with his mobile hand. “This happened because…” his voice trailed off and his eyes lost focus.
Dr. Lake sat quietly as the younger boy collected his thoughts.
“It was my fault.”
Instead of contradicting him, as many listeners might have, the young doctor asked, “What do you mean?”
“I blocked his shot. I had screwed up again and he went to hit me. And suddenly it seemed like such a stupid thing for him to do-you know, couldn’t he just ground me or something like most parents?” Logan took a deep breath. “My arm just came up. I don’t even remember thinking about it first-it just…” his voice trailed off again, and this time he seemed to have truly lost the rest of his words.
“He lost it, didn’t he?” filled in the man at his side.
“Dr. Lake-“
“Bobby.”
“Bobby,” Logan corrected. “It wasn’t like any time before. He didn’t stop. He…didn’t stop. After I made it to my room I fell down and he kicked me and stomped on my hand. All I could do was pray for it be over. And it was my fault, man. No one gets that. I broke the rules-I knew them and broke them. It was my fault.”
The doctor leaned forward.
“Just once, I wish I’d stood up to him. You know, that last time-when I walked out, that was closest I ever came. And I don’t regret it-I just wish…”
“That you’d done more?” Logan’s words were halfway between a question and a statement.
“Yeah.”
“Even if he’d put you in the hospital.”
Lake looked Logan in the eye. “Yeah, I know the rules. And I wish I’d broken ‘em. Just once.”
Logan sat for a minute before dashing the tears now visible on his face. “Thanks.”
“It’s a small club, Logan. We have to have each other’s backs.”
-
Duncan was standing in a white room that reminded him of that movie, The Matrix. He was surrounded by shards of broken glass. He knelt down and picked one of them up. The long, thin piece was like a window into a memory. He watched as he and Lilly played hide and seek-Lilly was eight and he was seven, and she kept rigging the game so that she always got to hide. Duncan smiled. His sister had been so much fun. He sat down and watched the memory a second time and when it was over, he set it down and picked up another shard.
In the new one, Celeste was introducing him to his life coach. Duncan threw it so that it was out of reach. In the next one he picked up, he watched himself at the championship basketball game. Logan and Veronica were up in the weight room and the Duncan in the memory was having a good time knowing that they were up there hiding their secret from him.
It took some time, but after a bit of trial and error, Duncan was able to arrange things so that all the shards around him were good memories. He got it to the point where as long as he stayed where he was and didn’t get up, his entire life was there for him to see. All the best parts-right there in front of him.
If he moved, though, if he tried to travel through the window shards to whatever lay beyond, he would have to face every memory in between-he would have to face them and he would have to deal with them. So Duncan got comfortable. And he walked through his memories-games with Lilly, time spent with his friends, spying on Logan and Veronica. He watched his memories, and then he watched them again.
Duncan lived in his good memories, the bad ones far away. Forever safe.
Forever lost to everyone else.
*
The next time Logan woke up, it was again to find a welcome visitor at his bedside.
“Peaches!” he greeted sleepily.
“I seem to recall recommending that you to stick to ‘baby’,” smiled Veronica as she leaned down to give her boyfriend a good-morning kiss.
“But ‘peaches’ is so much more fun,” Logan grinned up at her, using his right hand to pull his girl back down for a longer hello.
Coming up for air, Veronica laughed. “You’re in a good mood. Those must be some pretty fantastic drugs.”
Logan grinned-one of the genuine ones that had been so rare of late-and Veronica was struck by how truly happy her boyfriend looked.
Where had this come from?
As though he had heard her, Logan answered. “You’re safe, Duncan’s finally getting help, and morphine drips are fantastic.” Logan ran his three good fingers through Veronica’s hair as she maneuvered herself to sit next to him on the bed. “You’re here,” he looked at her with an almost wondrous expression on his face.
Veronica’s brow creased and Logan’s smile gentled.
“When we couldn’t find you…” Veronica nodded, suddenly understanding where his train of thought had gone off to. The kidnapping seemed so long ago. “All I could think of was what if I never got to hear your laugh again?”
“My laugh?” asked Veronica and without meaning to she did exactly that.
Logan’s smile went from ear to ear. “That’s the one.” He made a low sound in the back of his throat that rubbed against something deep in Veronica. “Your laugh, your smile. I just-I just want to look at you, that’s all.”
Veronica was suddenly reminded of how much she and Logan had been through, how much they had done together, and here they were, together-in public-so entwined in each other lives that it was hard to tell where one of them ended and the other one began.
“Wow. It really happens, doesn’t it?” she stroked Logan’s cheek.
Her boyfriend lightly ran his fingers over hers. “What’s that?”
Veronica smiled. “Someone can meet the love of their life at sixteen.”
Logan’s hand stilled. “I wouldn’t know.”
Veronica’s smile didn’t waiver, but she did raise an eyebrow at his response.
“I met the love of my life when I was 12,” the love in his eyes shone bright. “I didn’t realize she was the love of my life until I was 15, though.”
“And now?” Veronica heard her voice crack the teeniest little bit.
“Now I can’t imagine life without her.”
Tears shimmered on the edge of Veronica’s lashes. She reached down so that their eyes were only inches apart and a tear slipped off onto her boyfriend’s cheek.
“All the love in my heart,” she whispered.
“Hey,” the air from Logan’s lips brushed across hers. “That’s supposed to be my line.”
When Keith walked into the hospital room not much later, Veronica was asleep in Logan’s arms. Her original protector smiled gently and quietly backed out of the room.
The two of them would be safe together. They always were.
*********************************
EPILOGUE
The doctors let Logan go home the following morning under strict orders to take better care of himself.
That same morning, Jake and Celeste transferred Duncan to a hospital upstate where their son could be tested by specialists. There had been no change in Duncan’s condition and his parents were desperately hoping that they could find someone who could help them reach their lost child, hoping against hope that the doctors in Neptune were wrong and that his state was only temporary.
Everyone agreed that Logan was not going to return home. Long-term, though, it wasn’t feasible for Logan to live on his girlfriend’s couch. The solution came a week after he got out of the hospital in the form of Alicia and Wallace’s guest house. Alicia’s need for a tenant and Logan’s need for a positive home environment coincided perfectly.
Veronica went with Logan to the Echolls mansion to help him pack up his things. Seeing as how Aaron was under house arrest, it was inevitable that a father-son reunion would come to pass.
“Logan,” Aaron said from the hallway door.
“I was wondering when the welcome wagon was going to come by,” Logan quipped to his girlfriend, who stepped out of the closet holding a travel bag full of clothes.
“What, no muffins?” asked Veronica.
“I’ve missed you, son,” said Aaron, putting on a pitiful face.
Veronica snorted back a laugh and Logan shot a knowing smile her direction as he put t-shirts and pajamas into a suitcase.
He glanced back at his father. “The feeling has not been mutual.”
Aaron’s eyes flashed. “What are you doing?” He surveyed the packing going on. “It’s time for you to come home, Logan.”
“I don’t think so,” the teenager kept packing.
“Oh, really? And how do you think you’re going to pay for this little flight from the home fires? Are you gonna get a job?” The action star’s voice dripped with contempt.
“Hell, no,” Logan laughed. “You’re going to pay for it.”
Aaron scoffed. “And why would I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, we’ll make sure the entire world knows that you make Joan Crawford look like Mother of the Year,” answered Veronica.
“What?” asked Logan’s father in disbelief.
“We have copies of every emergency room visit that Logan ever made because of you over the past ten years,” Veronica explained. “And a doctor who’ll testify that Logan’s x-rays and MRI are proof of long-term abuse. Trust me, when we’re done, you’ll long for the day when this whole sex tape thing was all you had to deal with.”
Aaron’s face was hard. “Logan would never go public.”
“Yes, he would,” stated his son flatly. “I always knew that no one would believe me, but that’s not the case anymore, is it? I think the American public would believe just about anything about you, even the truth.”
His father took a menacing step towards Logan.
“Please,” said Logan. “Please hit me. I’m sure you could do some more damage.” He waved his sling. “Maybe kill another tooth? I mean, did you even know that teeth can die?”
“Apparently if your psychotic father hits you hard enough, they can,” inserted Veronica.
Aaron’s fists clenched.
“I’m waiting,” goaded Logan, and Aaron froze, suddenly looking around the room.
“There are two,” affirmed Veronica.
“Two cameras taping the two of you extorting money from me? I thought you were smarter than that, Veronica.”
“Like anyone would care,” replied Logan calmly. “I would trot out my many scars, show my full-body x-ray, subpoena some doctors, and the next thing you know, they’d be making a movie about you called “Daddie Dearest”.”
“No one remembers that Joan Crawford won an Oscar, do they?” Veronica asked Logan. “They just remember that she beat the hell out of her kids. Funny thing about America. I mean, people in this country can forgive R. Kelly for marrying a 14-year-old, but they do not forgive people who beat their kids.”
Aaron’s face was frozen in anger.
“Ten thousand dollars a month,” instructed Logan. “You pay, I’ll stay quiet about being your punching bag. Either way-you and I? We’re done.”
“You won’t live under my roof, but you’ll take my money.”
“Hell, yeah,” Logan stood up straight and faced his father. “Do you need anything else? Because we have a lot to do here,” he indicated himself and Veronica.
“This isn’t over,” growled Aaron.
“Yes, it is,” Veronica shot back, not in the least bit intimidated. “You’re gonna do jail time for all the teenage girls you violated, but the world might still forgive you. We go public with this? You’re done for good.” She stepped over to her boyfriend, who put his hand on her back.
“You want to go now,” Logan told his father, whose hands were clenched so tight his nails were cutting into his hands.
Without another word, the defeated action hero turned on his heel and left his son’s room.
Veronica waited until the door shut behind Aaron Echolls before turning to her boyfriend and throwing her arms around him.
Returning her embrace for all he was worth, Logan could hardly breathe for what they had just done. Who would have thought even a year ago that he would ever have been able to do this? Him?
He held tightly to the girl in his arms as she buried her face in his chest.
They were in this together.
*
“Eli!” The door to the small home banged open as Meg’s excitement made it into the door ahead of her ever-growing belly. “Eli!”
The Mazda was in the driveway, and Meg knew that her husband was most likely in the house.
“Yes, dear?” called Weevil, amused by his wife’s grand entrance.
“You have to see this!” yelled Meg as she raced into the kitchen waving a stack of papers.
“What?” Weevil tried not to laugh at the peppy blonde, knowing that there was only so far he could tease his pregnant wife.
“Look!” Meg pushed him into a kitchen chair and sat on his lap. She was so animated, though, that despite the fact she was holding the papers aloft, Weevil was no closer to knowing what they were than he had been when she had walked in the door.
“Hold still!” Weevil laughed as he kissed Meg and put his hands on her shoulders to calm her enough so that he could take the papers from her.
Finally able to take a close look at them, Weevil’s eyes widened in confusion. “Orange County Deputy Training Initiative? What is this?”
Meg jumped up to kneel in front of her husband, taking his hands in hers. “I know it’s probably something you’ve never thought of, but I think you would be so good at this, Eli, really. It’s a new program where Orange County takes young men with juvenile records, but strong leadership qualities, and trains them on how to be sheriff’s deputies. Please don’t dismiss it automatically, okay? Please, for me, just look it over.”
Any response that Weevil might automatically have had to this preposterous suggestion was buried under his wife’s torrential enthusiasm. Who was this girl and why in the world did she believe in him so much? Weevil had no idea what he thought of the whole him-as-a-cop thing, but he would rather die than dim the light in Meg’s eyes.
“Okay, okay!” he laughed, pulling his wife back into his lap. “Tell me about this program that you’re so excited about.”
Meg threw her arms around her husband and kissed him fiercely. “You won’t believe this!” she pulled away just as quickly and started enumerating the reasons that Orange County’s new program was perfect for her husband.
With someone who believed in him like Meg did, what choice did he have?
*
Mac had just e-mailed Logan several sites to help him with his hospital homebound assignments. Her friend’s doctors had ordered him to spend the rest of the school year completing his classes from home, stating that his body’s condition was too fragile to stand up to the rigors of daily high school life. Much to his teacher’s initial skepticism and eventual amusement, Logan’s grades had dramatically increased.
His scores and homework had improved so much that at first the teachers at Neptune High had suspected Logan of cheating, which suspicions Logan had put to rest by going in to school to take his tests and then acing them. Apparently sitting at home with nothing to do had led Logan to actually do his work. The faculty rolled their eyes at the fact that Logan was actually pretty smart when he chose to be.
Veronica had privately told Mac that Logan had been doing better on every level since he had severed ties with his father. Mac hadn’t asked how Logan was getting the money that he still seemed to have. It was her sincerest wish that he and Veronica had figured out a way to make Aaron give his son a fortune.
Mac continued to comb the Internet every day for updates on Aaron’s legal issues. The experts were saying that given the amount of evidence against him the actor was unlikely to get out of jail time completely. That being said, it wasn’t expected to be more than a year or two, after which the great Aaron Echolls would be out on bail.
In the meantime, the Hollywood community had been noticeably absent in defending their fallen comrade. Mac couldn’t help but wonder how quick they would be to forgive the proven money-maker when he got out of jail.
As long as he left Logan alone, she was willing to follow her friends’ lead. But Camille’s memory had long fingers, and Mac intended to make sure that Aaron never hurt anyone again. She considered it to be all the better that the man had no idea she existed.
Mac turned off her computer. She was taking Veronica shopping for a new DVD burner. Like she would ever let her friend make such an important purchase on her own.
Friends had to have each other’s backs.
*
“So Jake checked Duncan into a private care facility,” Veronica sighed.
Logan reached out to take her hand. “What else did Wallace have to say?” he changed the subject. The two of them had been working on helping each other deal with what had happened to Duncan. Not that it would be quick or easy, but they were committed to getting through it together.
Veronica had just gotten off the phone with her best friend, who was holding down the fort while the two of them, Keith, and Alicia were on vacation. It wasn’t hard for Logan to redirect the conversation.
“He gave me crap again for leaving him with his little brother while my boyfriend flew us all out to Hawaii.”
Logan smiled and reached over to kiss the girl he loved.
“What?” he laughed. “It was the only way I could get you out of Neptune again without having a warrant issued for my arrest.”
Putting on her best Southern accent, Veronica batted her eyes and asked, “Why, sir, are you trying to compromise my virtue?”
“I’d like to think I’m doing more than trying,” Logan laughed as he pulled his love out of her lounge chair to lie on top of him on his.
Veronica leaned above her randy boyfriend. “You do realize that we really did bring my dad with us on this trip, right? He could walk out any minute and any chance you have of compromising my virtue would forever be, you know-compromised.”
Logan smiled at the angel above him. “Right before I came out here, your dad was making the moves on Alicia-not a sight I am soon to forget, by the way-so I would hope that we have a little time to ourselves.”
Veronica laughed and started to lower herself. With a move that Veronica hadn’t known was within the realm of human capability, Logan flipped them over so that he was on top-without either of them ever being in danger of falling off the lounger.
“Impressive,” Veronica ran her fingers over Logan’s bare chest and arms.
“I miss Duncan and Lilly,” Logan brushed a hair out of her eyes. “I want you to know that.” Veronica nodded, wondering where this was going. “But I wouldn’t trade this-the life we’ve built-for anything. You-me-this is everything.”
The sun created a halo behind Logan’s head and Veronica ran her hand through his sun-kissed hair.
“Father Perez says that you and I complete each other.”
Logan laughed.
“I know,” smiled Veronica. “Who knew that priests watched Jerry Maguire? But he’s right. We do.”
“Who am I to argue with a priest?” Logan kissed her.
“I love you,” Veronica murmured against his lips as her arms snaked around him.
Logan responded in kind. “Every minute of every day.”
Fin