Fic: For the Sake of a Friend, (Logan/Veronica), PG-13, 10/?
Title: For the Sake of a Friend, (Logan/Veronica), PG-13, 10/?
Author: jacedesbff
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, ensemble
Word Count: 3700+
Rating: PG-13; mature themes
Summary: AU from the Pilot; the rest of “Meet John Smith”
Spoilers: If you’re familiar with Season 1, you’re golden.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns all.
A/N: What if Logan and Veronica were a couple all through Season 1, but had to hide it from everyone? I recommend reading the other chapters so you know the background. All episode dialogue is taken from Inigo Montoya’s online transcripts.
Btw, I did not intend to become emo!author, so just know that it was an accident. Thank you, THANK YOU to Merc4, who helped to save this chapter, which initially was NOT working. Chapter saver!
Xposted to veronicamarsfic, veronicalogan and fic_from_mars. Please comment and give feedback! I find it very helpful. Thanks all!
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9
Logan and Veronica sat tangled on the bathroom floor, foreheads touching.
Veronica broke the silence. “Don’t ever do that to me again.” Her voice wasn’t angry or hurt, it was just final. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she repeated as her hands gripped Logan’s arms.
She felt Logan’s head nod against hers. Veronica could handle Logan’s temper. She had a year’s worth of practice and his intensity was part of what made him who he was. Apathetic, defeated Logan, ready to give up on life? Not only was she not okay with that guy, she knew that Logan wasn’t okay with him, either.
They stayed entwined for several minutes before finally moving to get up. As they helped each other straighten out their clothing and fix their hair, they used every movement, every gesture, as an excuse to graze hands and elbows, to brush a piece of exposed skin. Each touch was a reminder that they were there for each other, they were together. They had survived the last year, the last hour, and they were still going. Every touch spoke an hour’s worth of words.
As she left the restaurant with Logan, Veronica called her dad, who was in Atlanta due to the tenacity of a particularly imaginative bail jumper. Unless the van was needed for surveillance or other clandestine P.I. work, Logan drove the McMansion (his latest nickname for the blue Ford van) while Veronica used the Mazda as her alternate ride of choice. As Logan had been going for discretion when keeping his girlfriend under surveillance, the McMansion in question was in the parking lot right next to Veronica’s LeBaron. As she climbed in on the passenger side of the van, Veronica promised Keith that she would call him if she needed anything.
She and Logan held hands and said little as Logan drove them north on the Pacific Coast Highway. An indeterminate amount of time later-it could have been an hour, it could have been three-Logan pulled over at a roadside overlook and parked. Wordlessly, they climbed into the luxury backend of the vehicle, lowered the bed and lay down together.
Cradled in Logan’s arms, Veronica said softly, “Talk to me,” and as though he had simply been waiting for the prompt, Logan began speaking.
When he was ten, Logan had accidentally chipped his father’s People’s Choice Award. Aaron had beaten him so badly that Logan had ended up in the hospital overnight with a concussion and four fractured fingers-two on each hand. When he returned to school covered in suspicious bruises, his teacher had taken him out of the classroom and kindly asked him what had happened. Logan liked Mrs. Nelson. He had trusted her. In her early 40’s and very maternal, Mrs. Nelson fit the picture that Logan had always had in his head of what a mother was supposed to look and act like. Responding to the compassion in her voice, Logan had taken a step into the darkness and answered simply, “My dad hit me.”
Logan had been terrified to go home that day. He waited on pins and needles for the police to bang on the door. He had seen his dad’s movies and he knew that the cops were going to come and handcuff his father, who would protest his innocence as he was dragged away. But nothing happened-no cops arrived, no doors were broken down. Nothing.
For two days Logan jumped at every unexpected sound, both at school and at work, and then on the third day, with no explanation, he was transferred to another teacher’s class. When he got home his father was waiting for him. Aaron informed Logan that if he ever again told anyone what went on in the privacy of their home, Aaron would put Lynn in the hospital. It was the only time that Logan’s father had ever threatened his mother and Logan knew that it was his fault. The lesson wasn’t lost on him.
A few days later, the cowed ten-year-old overheard his new teacher talking to another adult about Mrs. Nelson. Apparently Mr. Nelson had a serious heart condition and the medical bills had been piling up. Things were okay now, though, because a long-overdue insurance check had just come in and all of their bills had been paid. That lesson hadn’t been lost on Logan, either.
Logan hadn’t said a word about his abuse to anyone since. Until Veronica.
Veronica didn’t say anything as Logan shared himself with her. She just listened, aching along with him.
When they woke up the next morning, still on the side of the highway, Logan drove them back to her apartment, where the two of them stayed in all day Saturday, watching movies like South Park and Easy Rider. Keith called to say that the case was taking longer than expected and that he hoped to be back on Monday, so Logan stayed over Saturday night, making the day one of the most enjoyable that they had had since their return from Romania.
Logan wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy. Even after a year with Veronica he wasn’t used to someone knowing him this well and caring this much. It had never occurred to him that Lilly would allow it, so he had never bothered to try. But now he had it-that connection with someone, the kind that people write songs about, the kind that changes your life-he had it. And if you have it you can lose it. Which is why he had tried to walk away when he saw Veronica with Troy.
Deep down he had assumed that once he and Veronica got to that magical place there would be nowhere else to go. He was so damaged. How could anyone really love someone when they saw how cracked that person’s foundation was? He had seen Troy with Veronica and he had known that Troy couldn’t be like that-Troy couldn’t be broken like he was. The other boy deserved to have Veronica make that connection with him in a way that Logan never would.
So he tried to run, and Veronica had stopped him. She had figured out why he had run and by some miracle, she had loved him even more for it. Was there something wrong with her? Who loves someone as flawed as Logan Echolls?
Veronica Mars.
Veronica, who-once she came out from behind the shadow cast by Lilly Kane-was strong, opinionated, feisty, sassy and stunningly beautiful. As much as her words had meant to him, the need in Veronica’s voice had meant more. Veronica Mars, sleuthing super-chick, needed Logan Echolls, professional screw-up. She needed him. And if that was true, if she saw in him what could be instead of only what was, maybe what he saw wasn’t all that was there. Maybe there really was more. Maybe.
For her part, Veronica knew that Logan’s wounds weren’t scratches. They were deep, scary hurts and there was no quick fix for them. But time heals all wounds, right? With enough time and love, could Logan heal his wounds? She couldn’t do it for him, even though she desperately wished that she could. She could be there for him, though. She could hold his hand when it hurt, change the bandages, sit vigil at his bedside.
Veronica had read somewhere that love was a choice-that you couldn’t choose who you were attracted to or who came into your life, but you could choose how deeply you let yourself fall in love with someone. Veronica looked at Logan and she knew that she had made her choice. He was hers and she was his and the choice had been made. Heaven help them both.
*
Before he left late Sunday night, Logan told Veronica to fix things with Troy at school on Monday. Veronica simply stared at him, unsure of whether or not she wanted to go through with their earlier plan. Logan assured her that it was the right thing to do and that he would be okay. Wanting more than ever to end their public charade, Veronica agreed.
The next day after lunch, Veronica found a note from Logan in her locker informing her that he had arranged for Duncan and the rest of their friends to meet at the bleachers by the lacrosse field after school. Veronica took the hint and shortly after the final bell rang she caught up to Troy as he headed for the bleachers. As they neared the practice field she could see Logan, Duncan and several other 09er lackeys standing at the edge of the bleachers, Duncan’s sling clearly visible in the California sunshine.
She turned to Troy. “I think I might have given you the wrong impression. I had a really great time. I just-”
Troy interjected, “It’s just that you need more, and you know you get to fill in the blank here, a-time, b-space…”
With a barely discernable glance toward Logan and Duncan, Veronica stopped Troy’s explanation with a kiss. It wasn’t a showstopper, just a simple meeting of the lips, sweet and straightforward and it was interrupted by a loud crash.
Breaking off the kiss to see what had happened, Troy and Veronica saw Duncan lying in a heap half-on and half-off of the mats underneath the spot where he had been standing moments before. His head was bleeding and his hurt arm and sling were at odd angles. Logan raced down the stairs to join Veronica as she sped over to check Duncan’s condition.
As they did so, Dick called from above, “Hey, Duncan, open your mouth. This’ll help!” And the blond surfer emptied his hip flask in the general direction of the ground.
Rolling her eyes in irritation, Veronica looked to Troy and Logan to help her move their injured friend, who looked unsure as to whether his head or arm needed more attention.
She turned her attention to Logan.
“Do you have your truck with you?”
“Yeah,” he replied, accompanied by a questioning look.
“But you’re drunk. Fine. Duncan needs to lie down so we can take him to the emergency room. I’ll drive your car. It has more room than mine.” Logan looked appropriately displeased. As far as most of the world knew, no one drove his Xterra. No one. As it so happened, Veronica had driven it on a number of occasions, but since Troy and Duncan weren’t supposed to know that, Logan threw in some muttered comments as they made their way to the parking lot.
Troy spoke up. “Death defying stunts. Gushing head wound.” Duncan laughed as Logan raised an eyebrow and Veronica looked even more irritated. “You’re the man, brother.”
The three healthy teenagers moved Logan’s backseat so that Duncan would have more room to lie down as the injured boy pointed out that he had almost stuck the landing.
“Most people awaiting major surgery know better than to try,” said Veronica sternly as she settled Duncan into place. “Logan, sit back here with him so he doesn’t move around.” Troy looked amused by Veronica’s bossy tone and told her he’d call her later, sending her off with a quick kiss.
As Veronica pulled out of the parking lot, a tension-filled silence fell upon the car.
“Make sure you hold the towel tight,” she instructed as she navigated Neptune’s afternoon traffic.
“Hey, do you see me backseat driving?” complained Logan. “I’m not that drunk. I think I can handle putting pressure on a head wound.”
“If you guys hadn’t been drinking in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened at all.” Logan knew that Veronica was both putting on an act and irritated that he had gotten drunk in the middle of the afternoon. He rolled his eyes. Women.
Duncan spoke up from his prone position on the truck floor. “Remember how things used to be?”
There was a loaded pause. Then Logan and Veronica spoke at the same time.
“No.”
Logan called Jake and Celeste on the drive over and as Duncan got settled into an examination room, his father arrived, dismissing both Logan and Veronica. As they walked out, Veronica made sure that Duncan heard her say in a less-than-pleased tone that she needed a ride back to her car.
Once again, Veronica drove.
“He’s been different the last few days,” said Logan.
“Yeah, he’s seemed more…awake, almost,” she agreed.
There was a pause as they both avoided pointing out the obvious.
Logan sighed. “The kiss made him jump.”
“Yeah,” Veronica answered heavily as her hands tightened on the wheel. “Come over to my house?”
Logan nodded. He wasn’t drunk anymore. Just drained.
As they sat in her room doing homework that night, her dad knocked on her door to inform his daughter that she had a visitor. His description of the late night caller as being “white male, pint-sized, desperate and not having a good day” made both Logan and Veronica smile.
Logan waited in Veronica’s room while she went and talked to Justin on the front porch. Logan heard Veronica and her dad talking after she came back inside and then Veronica returned to her room. Closing up her books, she told him that the next afternoon she had to drive to San Diego to look for the kid’s deadbeat dad. After assessing that the situation was not inherently dangerous, Logan agreed that it was best that Veronica go alone while he stayed behind and spent some time with the sure-to-be-recovering Duncan.
The next day after Veronica got back and reported to Justin, her head again filled with thoughts of Logan. She had had time to think about it during her trip in San Diego and she finally acknowledged that she had enough evidence to give Logan the power to take back control of his life. She was nervous though-would he recognize why she had done it? Would he realize that she had done it without violating his trust? Would he be interested in using what she had found?
Her attention was redirected the next day, though, when she and Justin learned the truth about his long-absent father. In helping Justin come to terms with the situation he and his father faced, Veronica was reminded of the gaping hole in her own heart that was her mother. As soon as she dropped Justin off, she called Logan and asked if he would drive with her to Arizona the next day after school. Logan immediately agreed and they made the necessary plans to meet at a rest stop about thirty miles outside of Neptune.
The following afternoon, as Veronica parked her car and got into Logan’s Xterra, she knew that it was time.
As they pulled onto the highway, Veronica began with, “Logan, I didn’t look at the files.”
“What?”
“I didn’t read them. The files.”
Logan gave her a sharp look. “I’m not going to like where this is going, am I?”
Veronica returned his gaze honestly. “Probably not. But remember, I didn’t look at them. They’re not my business. They’re yours. I just wanted to-I had to-get them so that you could decide whether or not to use them.”
Logan looked at her expectantly and Veronica explained.
Over the past two weeks, she had made four clandestine trips to southern California hospitals. Given the populous nature of the state, those were only a few of the ones within an hour’s drive of Neptune, but she had started with what she felt were the obvious ones. Prior to each trip, she had gone online to find out their hours of operation and to look up pictures of recent hospital events and/or current staff pictures, from which she found out what style scrubs their nurses wore. For each hospital, she then took a trip to UniWorld, one of the largest medical outfitting warehouses on the west coast, which just happened to be located about half an hour outside of Neptune.
Visiting each hospital and conducting clandestine searches for medical records documenting Logan’s trips to emergency rooms had been ridiculously simple. As long as Veronica hung a stethoscope around her neck, had on the right color scrubs and wore either a lanyard or a backwards clipped-on badge (depending on what the staff in the online pictures had sported), no one took any notice of her. She was just another nurse going about her business. At two of the hospitals the doors to the Records Room had been unlocked and she had easily picked the lock at a third. Only the last one had had an electronic keycard entry that she couldn’t bypass.
Veronica had chosen this direct method because while it was more time consuming, it was in fact easier than breaking into a hospital’s online records. Aside from the fact that she didn’t have the technological know-how for that level of hacking, sleuthing in person left less of a trail. Perhaps surprisingly, it was also less-expected in today’s distanced computer era. The biggest problem Veronica had faced had been finding the consumable time in the first place. Between time spent with her dad, Logan, Wallace, homework, stakeouts and office work, Veronica’s schedule was packed tight. She had ended up making her trips when Logan was with friends and her dad was in town to answer the phones.
Each of the files that she had found had been extremely thin; Aaron and Lynn did not appear to have ever taken their son to the same emergency room twice. Having a child “accident prone” enough to require multiple trips to the same ER would lead most competent doctors to contact child services. And being who they were, Logan’s parents were going to be remembered for their trips to the hospital, making the risk of discovery even greater. Out of respect for Logan’s privacy and the trust which he had in her, Veronica had been scrupulous about not looking at anything she found. In fact, she was assuming that they held records of ER visits. She didn’t think it was a very big leap of faith, though.
At each location, Veronica had made a copy for herself, a copy for the hospital and had taken pains to replace the originals. She then misfiled the back-up copy under “L” instead of “E”. In this manner she was preparing for the likely possibility that if Logan ever chose to confront Aaron with evidence of his abuse, Logan’s father would be less able to eradicate the documents detailing his son’s injuries.
When Veronica finished, the car suddenly seemed unnaturally silent. She looked at Logan, who was staring straight ahead, his expression unreadable.
“Logan, I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t. You have almost two years left at home and I’m so afraid that one day he’ll go too far. That you’ll be-“ her voice cracked and she looked out the side window. “It’s your life and it’s your choice.” She looked back at him. “No matter what you decide, I want you to know that I will be there for you. If you don’t use this, if you do-it doesn’t matter. I don’t expect you to go to the press. I don’t want you to. I know what they’re like. I just-it’s just that-“ she struggled to find the words. “The public hates people who hurt children. They hate it. Adultery, homosexuality, drug abuse, abortion, alcoholism, shoplifting, even murder-America will forgive famous people for just about anything. Except for hurting children. Just think of Joan Crawford-I mean, the woman won an Oscar but all anyone remembers is Mommy Dearest.” Veronica was babbling now, but this had all been building up and she had to get it out. “If you threaten to go public with what he’s done, I think…I think he’ll stop.”
She stopped again and sat silently, working valiantly not to cry. This wasn’t about her. It was about the boy sitting next to her.
He finally spoke. “You didn’t read them?”
“Not one word.”
“What hospitals did you go to?”
The question surprised her and she listed all of the hospitals she had visited. Each was of average size relative to the rest of the state. She figured that if Aaron had any intelligence at all, he would have avoided both the very large and the very small, going instead for the medium and nondescript.
“Well, let’s see,” Logan said. “Tri-City Medical Center. I was twelve and didn’t come in fast enough when I was called. Six stitches on my calf. Scripps Memorial. I had my radio on too loud when he was trying to have a conversation with his publicist in L.A. He beat me so hard that I started peeing blood. I almost had to have surgery, but they cleared up the infection with antibiotics. Children's Hospital. Broken elbow because I broke my mom’s Lalique vase.” He paused and looked at the girl in the passenger seat. “I would have told you if you had asked.”
“I know,” she said, unable to hold back the tears anymore. “I wanted you to know that we could get proof. That even though you couldn’t speak for yourself then, these records can speak for you now. The people who should have helped didn’t-your teachers, the doctors, the nurses, your mom. They should have been there for you and they weren’t. Now it’s your choice.”
“And you didn’t read them.”
Veronica shook her head. “And if you want to destroy them, you can. If you don’t want me to find anymore, I won’t. But if you want to keep going, I will be with you every step of the way for that, too.”
“I’m…” he paused and started again. “I don’t think I’m ready to use these yet.” She nodded. “But-I know where else we would need to go. If we did.” His hands tightened on the wheel. Veronica could tell that he was going to give it some thought and she had the feeling that eventually he might tell her where those places were. She reached her hand out and trailed her fingers over his face, her touch feather light. Logan looked at her as she did so.
“Thank you for not reading them.”
As far as Lianne went, the trip to Arizona was useless, but once they got back to Neptune and Veronica closed her eyes to go to sleep in the early hours of the following morning, she did so with a peaceful heart.
To be continued.
Author: jacedesbff
Pairing/Character: Logan/Veronica, ensemble
Word Count: 3700+
Rating: PG-13; mature themes
Summary: AU from the Pilot; the rest of “Meet John Smith”
Spoilers: If you’re familiar with Season 1, you’re golden.
Disclaimer: Rob Thomas owns all.
A/N: What if Logan and Veronica were a couple all through Season 1, but had to hide it from everyone? I recommend reading the other chapters so you know the background. All episode dialogue is taken from Inigo Montoya’s online transcripts.
Btw, I did not intend to become emo!author, so just know that it was an accident. Thank you, THANK YOU to Merc4, who helped to save this chapter, which initially was NOT working. Chapter saver!
Xposted to veronicamarsfic, veronicalogan and fic_from_mars. Please comment and give feedback! I find it very helpful. Thanks all!
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9
Logan and Veronica sat tangled on the bathroom floor, foreheads touching.
Veronica broke the silence. “Don’t ever do that to me again.” Her voice wasn’t angry or hurt, it was just final. “Don’t ever do that to me again,” she repeated as her hands gripped Logan’s arms.
She felt Logan’s head nod against hers. Veronica could handle Logan’s temper. She had a year’s worth of practice and his intensity was part of what made him who he was. Apathetic, defeated Logan, ready to give up on life? Not only was she not okay with that guy, she knew that Logan wasn’t okay with him, either.
They stayed entwined for several minutes before finally moving to get up. As they helped each other straighten out their clothing and fix their hair, they used every movement, every gesture, as an excuse to graze hands and elbows, to brush a piece of exposed skin. Each touch was a reminder that they were there for each other, they were together. They had survived the last year, the last hour, and they were still going. Every touch spoke an hour’s worth of words.
As she left the restaurant with Logan, Veronica called her dad, who was in Atlanta due to the tenacity of a particularly imaginative bail jumper. Unless the van was needed for surveillance or other clandestine P.I. work, Logan drove the McMansion (his latest nickname for the blue Ford van) while Veronica used the Mazda as her alternate ride of choice. As Logan had been going for discretion when keeping his girlfriend under surveillance, the McMansion in question was in the parking lot right next to Veronica’s LeBaron. As she climbed in on the passenger side of the van, Veronica promised Keith that she would call him if she needed anything.
She and Logan held hands and said little as Logan drove them north on the Pacific Coast Highway. An indeterminate amount of time later-it could have been an hour, it could have been three-Logan pulled over at a roadside overlook and parked. Wordlessly, they climbed into the luxury backend of the vehicle, lowered the bed and lay down together.
Cradled in Logan’s arms, Veronica said softly, “Talk to me,” and as though he had simply been waiting for the prompt, Logan began speaking.
When he was ten, Logan had accidentally chipped his father’s People’s Choice Award. Aaron had beaten him so badly that Logan had ended up in the hospital overnight with a concussion and four fractured fingers-two on each hand. When he returned to school covered in suspicious bruises, his teacher had taken him out of the classroom and kindly asked him what had happened. Logan liked Mrs. Nelson. He had trusted her. In her early 40’s and very maternal, Mrs. Nelson fit the picture that Logan had always had in his head of what a mother was supposed to look and act like. Responding to the compassion in her voice, Logan had taken a step into the darkness and answered simply, “My dad hit me.”
Logan had been terrified to go home that day. He waited on pins and needles for the police to bang on the door. He had seen his dad’s movies and he knew that the cops were going to come and handcuff his father, who would protest his innocence as he was dragged away. But nothing happened-no cops arrived, no doors were broken down. Nothing.
For two days Logan jumped at every unexpected sound, both at school and at work, and then on the third day, with no explanation, he was transferred to another teacher’s class. When he got home his father was waiting for him. Aaron informed Logan that if he ever again told anyone what went on in the privacy of their home, Aaron would put Lynn in the hospital. It was the only time that Logan’s father had ever threatened his mother and Logan knew that it was his fault. The lesson wasn’t lost on him.
A few days later, the cowed ten-year-old overheard his new teacher talking to another adult about Mrs. Nelson. Apparently Mr. Nelson had a serious heart condition and the medical bills had been piling up. Things were okay now, though, because a long-overdue insurance check had just come in and all of their bills had been paid. That lesson hadn’t been lost on Logan, either.
Logan hadn’t said a word about his abuse to anyone since. Until Veronica.
Veronica didn’t say anything as Logan shared himself with her. She just listened, aching along with him.
When they woke up the next morning, still on the side of the highway, Logan drove them back to her apartment, where the two of them stayed in all day Saturday, watching movies like South Park and Easy Rider. Keith called to say that the case was taking longer than expected and that he hoped to be back on Monday, so Logan stayed over Saturday night, making the day one of the most enjoyable that they had had since their return from Romania.
Logan wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy. Even after a year with Veronica he wasn’t used to someone knowing him this well and caring this much. It had never occurred to him that Lilly would allow it, so he had never bothered to try. But now he had it-that connection with someone, the kind that people write songs about, the kind that changes your life-he had it. And if you have it you can lose it. Which is why he had tried to walk away when he saw Veronica with Troy.
Deep down he had assumed that once he and Veronica got to that magical place there would be nowhere else to go. He was so damaged. How could anyone really love someone when they saw how cracked that person’s foundation was? He had seen Troy with Veronica and he had known that Troy couldn’t be like that-Troy couldn’t be broken like he was. The other boy deserved to have Veronica make that connection with him in a way that Logan never would.
So he tried to run, and Veronica had stopped him. She had figured out why he had run and by some miracle, she had loved him even more for it. Was there something wrong with her? Who loves someone as flawed as Logan Echolls?
Veronica Mars.
Veronica, who-once she came out from behind the shadow cast by Lilly Kane-was strong, opinionated, feisty, sassy and stunningly beautiful. As much as her words had meant to him, the need in Veronica’s voice had meant more. Veronica Mars, sleuthing super-chick, needed Logan Echolls, professional screw-up. She needed him. And if that was true, if she saw in him what could be instead of only what was, maybe what he saw wasn’t all that was there. Maybe there really was more. Maybe.
For her part, Veronica knew that Logan’s wounds weren’t scratches. They were deep, scary hurts and there was no quick fix for them. But time heals all wounds, right? With enough time and love, could Logan heal his wounds? She couldn’t do it for him, even though she desperately wished that she could. She could be there for him, though. She could hold his hand when it hurt, change the bandages, sit vigil at his bedside.
Veronica had read somewhere that love was a choice-that you couldn’t choose who you were attracted to or who came into your life, but you could choose how deeply you let yourself fall in love with someone. Veronica looked at Logan and she knew that she had made her choice. He was hers and she was his and the choice had been made. Heaven help them both.
*
Before he left late Sunday night, Logan told Veronica to fix things with Troy at school on Monday. Veronica simply stared at him, unsure of whether or not she wanted to go through with their earlier plan. Logan assured her that it was the right thing to do and that he would be okay. Wanting more than ever to end their public charade, Veronica agreed.
The next day after lunch, Veronica found a note from Logan in her locker informing her that he had arranged for Duncan and the rest of their friends to meet at the bleachers by the lacrosse field after school. Veronica took the hint and shortly after the final bell rang she caught up to Troy as he headed for the bleachers. As they neared the practice field she could see Logan, Duncan and several other 09er lackeys standing at the edge of the bleachers, Duncan’s sling clearly visible in the California sunshine.
She turned to Troy. “I think I might have given you the wrong impression. I had a really great time. I just-”
Troy interjected, “It’s just that you need more, and you know you get to fill in the blank here, a-time, b-space…”
With a barely discernable glance toward Logan and Duncan, Veronica stopped Troy’s explanation with a kiss. It wasn’t a showstopper, just a simple meeting of the lips, sweet and straightforward and it was interrupted by a loud crash.
Breaking off the kiss to see what had happened, Troy and Veronica saw Duncan lying in a heap half-on and half-off of the mats underneath the spot where he had been standing moments before. His head was bleeding and his hurt arm and sling were at odd angles. Logan raced down the stairs to join Veronica as she sped over to check Duncan’s condition.
As they did so, Dick called from above, “Hey, Duncan, open your mouth. This’ll help!” And the blond surfer emptied his hip flask in the general direction of the ground.
Rolling her eyes in irritation, Veronica looked to Troy and Logan to help her move their injured friend, who looked unsure as to whether his head or arm needed more attention.
She turned her attention to Logan.
“Do you have your truck with you?”
“Yeah,” he replied, accompanied by a questioning look.
“But you’re drunk. Fine. Duncan needs to lie down so we can take him to the emergency room. I’ll drive your car. It has more room than mine.” Logan looked appropriately displeased. As far as most of the world knew, no one drove his Xterra. No one. As it so happened, Veronica had driven it on a number of occasions, but since Troy and Duncan weren’t supposed to know that, Logan threw in some muttered comments as they made their way to the parking lot.
Troy spoke up. “Death defying stunts. Gushing head wound.” Duncan laughed as Logan raised an eyebrow and Veronica looked even more irritated. “You’re the man, brother.”
The three healthy teenagers moved Logan’s backseat so that Duncan would have more room to lie down as the injured boy pointed out that he had almost stuck the landing.
“Most people awaiting major surgery know better than to try,” said Veronica sternly as she settled Duncan into place. “Logan, sit back here with him so he doesn’t move around.” Troy looked amused by Veronica’s bossy tone and told her he’d call her later, sending her off with a quick kiss.
As Veronica pulled out of the parking lot, a tension-filled silence fell upon the car.
“Make sure you hold the towel tight,” she instructed as she navigated Neptune’s afternoon traffic.
“Hey, do you see me backseat driving?” complained Logan. “I’m not that drunk. I think I can handle putting pressure on a head wound.”
“If you guys hadn’t been drinking in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened at all.” Logan knew that Veronica was both putting on an act and irritated that he had gotten drunk in the middle of the afternoon. He rolled his eyes. Women.
Duncan spoke up from his prone position on the truck floor. “Remember how things used to be?”
There was a loaded pause. Then Logan and Veronica spoke at the same time.
“No.”
Logan called Jake and Celeste on the drive over and as Duncan got settled into an examination room, his father arrived, dismissing both Logan and Veronica. As they walked out, Veronica made sure that Duncan heard her say in a less-than-pleased tone that she needed a ride back to her car.
Once again, Veronica drove.
“He’s been different the last few days,” said Logan.
“Yeah, he’s seemed more…awake, almost,” she agreed.
There was a pause as they both avoided pointing out the obvious.
Logan sighed. “The kiss made him jump.”
“Yeah,” Veronica answered heavily as her hands tightened on the wheel. “Come over to my house?”
Logan nodded. He wasn’t drunk anymore. Just drained.
As they sat in her room doing homework that night, her dad knocked on her door to inform his daughter that she had a visitor. His description of the late night caller as being “white male, pint-sized, desperate and not having a good day” made both Logan and Veronica smile.
Logan waited in Veronica’s room while she went and talked to Justin on the front porch. Logan heard Veronica and her dad talking after she came back inside and then Veronica returned to her room. Closing up her books, she told him that the next afternoon she had to drive to San Diego to look for the kid’s deadbeat dad. After assessing that the situation was not inherently dangerous, Logan agreed that it was best that Veronica go alone while he stayed behind and spent some time with the sure-to-be-recovering Duncan.
The next day after Veronica got back and reported to Justin, her head again filled with thoughts of Logan. She had had time to think about it during her trip in San Diego and she finally acknowledged that she had enough evidence to give Logan the power to take back control of his life. She was nervous though-would he recognize why she had done it? Would he realize that she had done it without violating his trust? Would he be interested in using what she had found?
Her attention was redirected the next day, though, when she and Justin learned the truth about his long-absent father. In helping Justin come to terms with the situation he and his father faced, Veronica was reminded of the gaping hole in her own heart that was her mother. As soon as she dropped Justin off, she called Logan and asked if he would drive with her to Arizona the next day after school. Logan immediately agreed and they made the necessary plans to meet at a rest stop about thirty miles outside of Neptune.
The following afternoon, as Veronica parked her car and got into Logan’s Xterra, she knew that it was time.
As they pulled onto the highway, Veronica began with, “Logan, I didn’t look at the files.”
“What?”
“I didn’t read them. The files.”
Logan gave her a sharp look. “I’m not going to like where this is going, am I?”
Veronica returned his gaze honestly. “Probably not. But remember, I didn’t look at them. They’re not my business. They’re yours. I just wanted to-I had to-get them so that you could decide whether or not to use them.”
Logan looked at her expectantly and Veronica explained.
Over the past two weeks, she had made four clandestine trips to southern California hospitals. Given the populous nature of the state, those were only a few of the ones within an hour’s drive of Neptune, but she had started with what she felt were the obvious ones. Prior to each trip, she had gone online to find out their hours of operation and to look up pictures of recent hospital events and/or current staff pictures, from which she found out what style scrubs their nurses wore. For each hospital, she then took a trip to UniWorld, one of the largest medical outfitting warehouses on the west coast, which just happened to be located about half an hour outside of Neptune.
Visiting each hospital and conducting clandestine searches for medical records documenting Logan’s trips to emergency rooms had been ridiculously simple. As long as Veronica hung a stethoscope around her neck, had on the right color scrubs and wore either a lanyard or a backwards clipped-on badge (depending on what the staff in the online pictures had sported), no one took any notice of her. She was just another nurse going about her business. At two of the hospitals the doors to the Records Room had been unlocked and she had easily picked the lock at a third. Only the last one had had an electronic keycard entry that she couldn’t bypass.
Veronica had chosen this direct method because while it was more time consuming, it was in fact easier than breaking into a hospital’s online records. Aside from the fact that she didn’t have the technological know-how for that level of hacking, sleuthing in person left less of a trail. Perhaps surprisingly, it was also less-expected in today’s distanced computer era. The biggest problem Veronica had faced had been finding the consumable time in the first place. Between time spent with her dad, Logan, Wallace, homework, stakeouts and office work, Veronica’s schedule was packed tight. She had ended up making her trips when Logan was with friends and her dad was in town to answer the phones.
Each of the files that she had found had been extremely thin; Aaron and Lynn did not appear to have ever taken their son to the same emergency room twice. Having a child “accident prone” enough to require multiple trips to the same ER would lead most competent doctors to contact child services. And being who they were, Logan’s parents were going to be remembered for their trips to the hospital, making the risk of discovery even greater. Out of respect for Logan’s privacy and the trust which he had in her, Veronica had been scrupulous about not looking at anything she found. In fact, she was assuming that they held records of ER visits. She didn’t think it was a very big leap of faith, though.
At each location, Veronica had made a copy for herself, a copy for the hospital and had taken pains to replace the originals. She then misfiled the back-up copy under “L” instead of “E”. In this manner she was preparing for the likely possibility that if Logan ever chose to confront Aaron with evidence of his abuse, Logan’s father would be less able to eradicate the documents detailing his son’s injuries.
When Veronica finished, the car suddenly seemed unnaturally silent. She looked at Logan, who was staring straight ahead, his expression unreadable.
“Logan, I couldn’t do nothing. I couldn’t. You have almost two years left at home and I’m so afraid that one day he’ll go too far. That you’ll be-“ her voice cracked and she looked out the side window. “It’s your life and it’s your choice.” She looked back at him. “No matter what you decide, I want you to know that I will be there for you. If you don’t use this, if you do-it doesn’t matter. I don’t expect you to go to the press. I don’t want you to. I know what they’re like. I just-it’s just that-“ she struggled to find the words. “The public hates people who hurt children. They hate it. Adultery, homosexuality, drug abuse, abortion, alcoholism, shoplifting, even murder-America will forgive famous people for just about anything. Except for hurting children. Just think of Joan Crawford-I mean, the woman won an Oscar but all anyone remembers is Mommy Dearest.” Veronica was babbling now, but this had all been building up and she had to get it out. “If you threaten to go public with what he’s done, I think…I think he’ll stop.”
She stopped again and sat silently, working valiantly not to cry. This wasn’t about her. It was about the boy sitting next to her.
He finally spoke. “You didn’t read them?”
“Not one word.”
“What hospitals did you go to?”
The question surprised her and she listed all of the hospitals she had visited. Each was of average size relative to the rest of the state. She figured that if Aaron had any intelligence at all, he would have avoided both the very large and the very small, going instead for the medium and nondescript.
“Well, let’s see,” Logan said. “Tri-City Medical Center. I was twelve and didn’t come in fast enough when I was called. Six stitches on my calf. Scripps Memorial. I had my radio on too loud when he was trying to have a conversation with his publicist in L.A. He beat me so hard that I started peeing blood. I almost had to have surgery, but they cleared up the infection with antibiotics. Children's Hospital. Broken elbow because I broke my mom’s Lalique vase.” He paused and looked at the girl in the passenger seat. “I would have told you if you had asked.”
“I know,” she said, unable to hold back the tears anymore. “I wanted you to know that we could get proof. That even though you couldn’t speak for yourself then, these records can speak for you now. The people who should have helped didn’t-your teachers, the doctors, the nurses, your mom. They should have been there for you and they weren’t. Now it’s your choice.”
“And you didn’t read them.”
Veronica shook her head. “And if you want to destroy them, you can. If you don’t want me to find anymore, I won’t. But if you want to keep going, I will be with you every step of the way for that, too.”
“I’m…” he paused and started again. “I don’t think I’m ready to use these yet.” She nodded. “But-I know where else we would need to go. If we did.” His hands tightened on the wheel. Veronica could tell that he was going to give it some thought and she had the feeling that eventually he might tell her where those places were. She reached her hand out and trailed her fingers over his face, her touch feather light. Logan looked at her as she did so.
“Thank you for not reading them.”
As far as Lianne went, the trip to Arizona was useless, but once they got back to Neptune and Veronica closed her eyes to go to sleep in the early hours of the following morning, she did so with a peaceful heart.
To be continued.