THE RETURN 38-Two 2/2 [Ensemble] R
Title: The Return 38-Two [Pt II]
Rating: R
Word Count: 11,626
Characters/Pairings: Veronica, Logan, Duncan, Mac, Parker, Lilly I, Veronica, Dick, Wallace, Piz, Weevil, OFC (mentions: Casey Gant, Lilly II and Keith Mars)
Spoilers: All episodes (from 1.01: Pilot to 3.20: The Bitch Is Back. Just to be sure) Although this is obviously AU and there are obviously going to be some alterations to events and especially some in the last couple of episodes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally, nothing. So don’t sue me over this, because you won’t get anything. It all belongs to Rob Thomas and if I had owned it when it was still on the last season would have been way different.
1: Awake/ 2: Homecoming/ 3: Forgive/ 4: Arrival/ 5: Reconnect/ 6: Belong/ 7: Bets/ 8: Fight/ 9: Battle/ 10: Retreat/ 11: Push/ 12: Sound/ 13: Potential/ 14: More/ 15: Storytime/ 16: Understanding/ 17: Piggyback/ 18: Sinners/ 19: Drama/ 20: Dinner/ 21: Armor/ 22:Mingle/ 23:Bubbly/ 24:Awkward/ 25:Closing/ 26: Drunks/ 27: Logan/ 28: Wallace/ 29: Mac/ 30: Parker/ 31: Duncan/ 32: Lilly/33: Piz/ 34: Weevil/ 35: Dick/ 36: Veronica/ 37: One/38: Two
The Return
38
Two
(Continued)
~Two Weeks~
~Dick~
He sat at the table without a single chip in his pile and watched as pile of chips transferred back and forth between Weevil and Logan, hand after hand. It was the same amount of money and this game was going to go on forever if they didn’t do something different soon.
“Could one of you just take a risk and end it? The suspense is killing me.” Duncan complained, leaning back in his chair and shoving oreos in his mouth. Duncan had lost all his money before Dick but after Piz and had been sitting there for over an hour, bored but still sitting there. Wallace had cashed out with sixty bucks to his pile and handed the cash to Logan before heading out. He said something about Tami not making it to girls night but he was going to swing by her place anyway and hang out for a bit. Dick had made a joke, asking if that’s what the kids call it nowadays but Wallace had either ignored him or didn’t hear it as he left the house. Piz had stayed to finish the movie from earlier before heading back to the ‘big house’ but he was now snoring on the couch and the television screen was playing the DVD menu over and over.
“I just learning his tells, figuring out his style and then I’ll strike.” Logan told Duncan, waving off his complaints.
“Piz! Wake up, your snoring is throwin off my game!” Weevil shouted and they all heard Piz let out a loud snort and then silence.
“I wasn’t sleepin.” Piz said in a scratchy voice and they all laughed at the absurdity.
“No man, everyone saws logs when they’re awake.” Duncan joked.
“So I’m going to ask Mac to move in with me tomorrow.” Dick stated. It was out of no where but there hadn’t been a good point to bring it up during the game and he needed advice.
“Finally.” Logan remarked as he threw a chip into the center of the table and then popped an actual chip into his mouth.
“What do you mean finally?” Dick asked, looking at his best friend in shock. He didn’t remember telling Logan about his plans but then again that didn’t mean all that much. He didn’t remember a lot of things half the time and then it would hit him in the middle of the night and he’d have this big ‘a-ha’ moment. Usually Mac told him to write it down so he wouldn’t forget again and then go back to sleep.
“I mean that you told Veronica you were going to ask her two weeks ago and she’s been annoying the hell out of me about when you were going to do it. She’s been having a particularly difficult time keeping it from Mac.” Logan told him as he flipped his cards over and the chips slid back to Weevil. Logan kept his focus on Dick as Duncan gathered the cards to shuffle and deal.
“I thought Veronica was good at keeping secrets.” Dick commented, leaning back in his chair and pick his cigar up from the ashtray and putting it back in his mouth. It was half gone, mostly because it had been sitting in the ashtray all night, but he needed something to do.
“No, Veronica is good at discovering secrets. Usually her habit is to ferret out the secret, do all her sleuthing and then a big reveal. She’s not used to having the secret handed to her and then being forced to keep it for any length of time.” Logan explained, making his bet without even looking at his cards. Dick hated when he did that.
“I thought she had to keep all kinds of secrets with the detective thing.” Duncan commented as he flipped cards over.
“Yeah, she does but that’s client confidentiality stuff, she always gets to tell someone the results of her sleuthing. Usually she gets to tell the person the secret is about and she always tells her friends whenever she discovers a secret about them. Do you know how long she waited to tell Mac about the baby switch thing after she found out? About an hour.” Logan lost another hand and his pile was now the smallest it had been all night, another hand and Weevil could win the $3,000 pot. “Damn.”
“Learning my tells were you? Learned my style did you?” Weevil gloated as he slid the chips into his pile, sounding rather gleeful as he chomped down on his second cigar.
“Whatever. So I need some advice on how to ask her. How did you do it?” Dick asked, his chin in his hands, elbows braced on the table.
“I didn’t really do a whole proposal thing really. We went out to dinner and I made a comment about the fact that her roommates never see her, she said something about paying a ridiculous amount of rent for a room she never sees and then I asked her to just officially move in. I told her I wanted her there all the time and I hated the nights she stayed at the big house. She moved in a week later.”
“So that was it?” Dick asked, still not feeling very at ease with the task at hand. It sounded easy but he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be so easy for him.
“Well, I asked Keith’s permission first, which was the hard part. I mean, I pretty much Veronica would want to move in because she was basically living with me already. All her stuff was already at my place and she hated paying rent at the big house when she was never there. The rent wasn’t that bad, and the other bills weren’t bad because they split it between the four of them, but it’s a lot to pay for someplace you only sleep about a week each month.” Logan glanced at his cards and placed a bet. Weevil called and Logan went all in before turning his gaze back on Dick.
“Do I have to ask her dad? Because I asked Veronica and she’s way scarier than Mac’s dad.” Dick squirmed in his seat at the thought of asking someone else for permission. He’d had to work up the nerve to talk to Veronica about it for nearly three weeks before he finally did it.
“It’s not like it’s traditional to ask a father’s permission before shacking up with his daughter. I mean, Emily Post didn’t really cover it but Keith has a shotgun and would know how to hide a body. Then again, you know how protective Veronica is of her friends and if anyone knew how to make a murder look like an accident it would be Veronica.” He lost the hand and the rest of the money slid over to Weevil’s side of the table. Weevil rubbed his hands together and started making stacks.
Logan grabbed the chip case and opened the lid, pulling the rolled wad of cash out and flipping it to Weevil.
“You know, no matter how many times we do these poker nights I still kind of expect for it to be like that first time and the money to be gone.” Weevil remarked as he pushed the money into his pocket and started separating the chips into piles.
“Yeah, well I’m glad stripping down to our boxers isn’t part of the poker night tradition,” Duncan commented as he piled the cards together and put them back into their box.
“So how are you planning on doing it?” Logan asked, getting up from the table to flop on the couch across from Piz. Dick followed him, dropping down next to Piz who looked to be on the verge of sleep again.
“I was thinking a nice dinner. Maybe the Americana place that just opened in town, I heard their steaks are really good. Mac practically inhaled my steak last week so I thought she might like it there. We’d get dessert and then I’d ask her. You know her stuff has slowly made it’s way over here since I got the place. I think she has more clothes in my closet than I do.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” Logan agreed before heaving himself off the couch. “Piz, why don’t I drop you off at the house? You don’t look like you’ll stay awake long enough to make the drive.”
“Sure.”
Then they were gone and Weevil left a few minutes later. Duncan stayed to help clean up, which Dick was grateful for because the maid wouldn’t be here again until Monday and Mac didn’t appreciate the mess. Always saying that she doesn’t clean and she doesn’t cook and she’s not some desperate housewife type. She makes the bed, that’s it, and only if he’s out of bed before her.
“I’ll see you later, Dick.” Duncan said as he made his way to the door. “And don’t worry, tomorrow will go great. She’ll say yes.”
God, he hoped so.
~Lilly~
Veronica was watching her and Parker was watching Mac and this evening of fun had quickly gotten way more serious than it was supposed to be.
“What?” She burst out, Veronica’s intense gaze finally getting to her. It was that look that she had come to call the ‘tell me stare’ and Lilly was powerless to resist. This time it had worked without the head tilt, which meant that Lilly was becoming more vulnerable to her tactics instead of building up some sort of tolerance. Crap.
“I just know you’re hiding something and the last time you had a secret it didn’t exactly turn out well.” Veronica told her and Lilly resisted rolling her eyes. How long was that going to be the go to joke?
“Alright, well, two weeks ago I kind of hooked up with someone.” Lilly hedged and she saw the timing click in her friends’ heads.
“Two weeks ago? Like during Duncan’s party?” Parker asked, her brows pinching together in thought as she mentally tried to go through all the guys that had been at the party. It wasn’t possible, there’d been tons of potential guys there, but she knew that Parker would try anyway.
“Hooked up as in a one time thing or is something that is ongoing? Or was ongoing?” Mac questioned sipping on a bottle of water.
“Who?” Of course it was Veronica that asked the most important question. She wasn’t about to reveal that she had broken down and slept with Weevil.
It hadn’t been on purpose, she hadn’t planned it at all. She’d been standing in the line for the bathroom, considering sneaking upstairs to use the one in Logan and Veronica’s bedroom, when she spotted him. He hadn’t picked up one of the striped shirts that were piled next to the door after she’d gotten tired of manning the door and handing them out. He didn’t see her watching him but he had moved in her direction nonetheless. She took that as a sign and stepped out of line to talk to him, it’s not like she actually had to pee. She just wanted to check her make up and make sure everything was holding up after six hours of partying and about five hours of set up before that.
The talking had been fine and the friendship they’d forced was finally easing into something comfortable. Why she had to mess it up, lead him somewhere deserted and kiss him, she didn’t know. She couldn’t tell if it was some destructive streak that she had - doing the things she shouldn’t just because she could - or if was some chemical thing and she would never be able to resist him. She could have stopped there, she knows that, but the spicy taste of him pushed her over the edge into that hazy place where she jumps into things without thinking but rationalizing that it would all work out. She’d done it every time she broke up with Logan in high school, every wild thing she did, when she hopped in bed with Aaron. She rationalized that it would work out and everything would be fine, that the look on her mother’s face was worth the scandal and everything she went through to get there. The latter was the reasoning she used for sleeping with Weevil in high school and the former was the reasoning she used now. It’d work out. They’ll be fine.
The sex had seemed more intense than it was in high school and she’d lain awake afterwards trying to rationalize that, to figure out why. She hadn’t come up with anything good. The only thing that kept coming up was the word love, but she’d kicked that last year when they’d gotten back from the cabin, but she kept coming back to it and she couldn’t ignore that. She’d gotten up early and drove home, crawling into bed for a couple hours before she and Parker had to head back over to Veronica’s to clean up from the party. She’d left a note though, because just sneaking out of his house, and bed, at five in the morning seemed too walk of shame. Too meaningless.
She waited a week for him to call, tethered to her phone every waking moment just in case he called. The first thing she did in the morning was check her voicemail, just in case he called after his shift at the school. By the following week she had decided that waiting by the phone was a little too pathetic for her so she called him. The first voicemail hadn’t been a big deal, just her asking him to call her whenever. She’d expected him to return it an hour or two later. Twenty-four hours later and she made another call, told him that proper protocol said that he should have called her by now. Sleeping together meant a phone call within seventy-two hours. He still didn’t call and the third voicemail she called him out on avoiding her, but she kept her anger out of it, just let him know that it was getting ridiculous and she wasn’t used to being ignored, especially after the night they’d had. He didn’t call back and it was his third strike, but she had enough anger to ignore the fact that she should ignore him and she called him once more. She hadn’t been able to contain her rage this time and she shouted into the phone about what a jerk move it was to ignore a girl after sleeping with her. She ended the call yelling at him, screaming at him, to not bother calling now. Three strikes and you’re out, buddy, so don’t call. It wouldn’t matter anyway because this was it, his last shot and he blew it.
“Just some guy. It wasn’t really during the party, it was more at the end of it, around one. We left and went to his place, so don’t worry Veronica, I didn’t defile one of your guest bedrooms.” Lilly answered each of their questions, taking a moment to think the answers through before to make sure it didn’t reveal who it was she’d slept with. “And it was only the one time, but not by my choice. He never called me and, after waiting a week, I called him a couple times but he still didn’t call me back.”
“Wait. You called him?” Veronica asked. “A couple times?”
“I know, pathetic right? Like a week’s worth of silence wasn’t enough I had to basically phone stalk him and still nothing. I practically begged him to call me in the first two voicemails.”
“The first two?” Parker asked, her eyes taking on that pitying look that Lilly had always hated. She’d never really deserved the look before but she’d always hated it. She had seen how everyone had given it to Veronica after her and the Donut’s non-breakup. How everyone had looked at Logan each and every time they’d had one of those über public breakup scenes in the quad, when she’d been as cruel as possible to see how far she could push him before he no longer came crawling back. The looks her mother’s friends gave her mother at the club every time Lilly did something to embarrass the family. God, she hated that look and the fact that it might make her like her mother in any way.
“Well, I called him a couple more times after that, but I wasn’t so pathetic then. I kind of raged a bit and told him not to bother calling me because he’d lost his chance. I mean, I really liked him so I was hoping we could relay it into some kind of relationship, but obviously that won’t be happening.” Lilly, fell back against the cushions behind her. “It was only the one night, but we’d had a little something before but it was just, kind of, a fling. I thought that we might be able to have something more than a fling or one night stand now, that maybe we were kind of ready for it, for each other. I guess not.”
She’d said too much. She could see that much in the narrowing of Veronica’s eyes, even though Parker and Mac both seemed oblivious to it. But she could see Veronica gearing up and their obliviousness wasn’t likely to last. “You had something before? A fling? When?” Veronica asked and, by her tone, Lilly recognized the interrogation of the questions.
“A while ago, and no we didn’t tell anyone because it was a fling.” She knew Veronica wouldn’t accept those answers at face value. Especially since she’d been so vague on the timing, but she’d never really been able to flat out lie to Veronica. She hadn’t been able to lie before, even when a lie might have been kinder, just put her off a little and then distract. This Veronica wasn’t like the one she’d left behind all those years ago, before comas and murders and cheating had changed her, this Veronica wasn’t easily distracted from a mystery. Although, by the look in her best friend’s eyes, this wasn’t really a mystery.
“A while ago? Couldn’t have been too long. You’ve only been awake for a year and, unless I’m mistaken, you’ve only been dating the last six or seven months. Unless you cheated on your vow of celibacy and snuck around without letting any of us know, even though we all lived in the same house.” Veronica prodded and Lilly cringed at the wording. She couldn’t say that she hadn’t cheated because she’d been cheating on Logan the when she had ‘dated’ Weevil. If she was more specific about the timing she’d tip off the others, at least Mac if not Parker, and they’d all long ago discussed how bad of an idea dating Weevil would be.
“It was a while ago okay? That’s not the point.” Lilly practically growled in frustration.
“Okay, then what is the point, Lilly?” Veronica asked and Lilly could see her backing off a little, but she could also see the look in her eyes. The look that said it this discussion wasn’t over, just postponed.
“The point is that I still kind of want him to call, but it would be kind of insulting at this point. And if he does call should I give him a shot? Or should I been even angrier because he obviously didn’t respect my wishes when I told him not to call that last time? Adult relationships are harder than high school when you have to see them every day and him not calling isn’t really a big deal because you have this class or something where you can corner each other. It sucks.” Lilly complained.
“I think that you should ignore him, if he wants you he’ll make the effort to get passed that and get you to forgive him. If not, then he’s not worth it and he should be ignored anyway.” Parker advised, her head nodding at the finality of it.
“Agreed.” Mac said, pressing her hand to her stomach before continuing. “And, if we’re done, I think I need to head home. I’m beyond exhausted and my stomach is still a little iffy. Probably from eating all the milk products and stuff.”
“Okay, I’m ready too. You came with Lilly didn’t you? You can ride home with me if you want.” Parker offered, standing and then helping Mac to her feet. Lilly wondered if Mac really thought it was the food or something else and didn’t want to admit it.
“Sure, you mind dropping me off at Dick’s though? I kind of promised I’d stay there tonight, and my car’s still there anyway.” Mac asked as she headed up the stairs. Lilly heard Parker’s muffled ‘sure’ and then a few minutes later the front door opened and shut.
“So, do you think she’s pregnant?” Lilly asked, hoping that it would distract Veronica from the earlier topic of exactly who she had slept with.
“Kind of. So you slept with Weevil?” Apparently Veronica was not going to let it go at all. She was like a tiny pit-bull, once she locked onto something she’d never let go until she was satisfied she had the answers. All the answers.
Lilly’s had drifted over the puppy and he snorted a little in his sleep. “Yeah. Exactly what was it that I said that tipped you off?”
“You said it was ‘just some guy’ but then you called him. He was important enough to call so you’d have to know his name and number. He was important enough to name, unless divulging that name would open up a whole bunch of different issues. Then the whole thing about you having a fling a while ago and then I knew.” Veronica explained, getting up to gather spoons, cartons of ice cream and half empty pizza boxes.
“I probably should have known I couldn’t fool you, not anymore at least. But, I didn’t really want to admit to everyone, and myself, that I had tried and failed with Eli Navarro. Again. It’s a little embarrassing.” Lilly stood to help her friend and tried not to disturb the sleeping puppy. He’d finally settled down and there’s was no need to wake him and unleash his terror upon them once more.
“Not really. Nobody here would have done anything, except maybe some good old fashioned man-bashing. And don’t think that I couldn’t participate in that too, because Logan does some things that just annoy the hell out of me.” Veronica set the pizza on the kitchen counter and stuck the ice cream in the freezer.
“Yeah, I know but it’s different. You’re guy bashing from a different place than me. You and Mac are in these deep, intense relationships. You and Logan are practically married these days and Mac is probably going to move in with Dick and have a baby and they’ll get married. Dick probably annoys Mac to no end with some things but, she still loves him and he loves her back and, ultimately, they’re happy. Then there’s Parker who, whether she admits it or not, is in that lovely new relationship place. She might talk a big game about not wanting the long distance thing, but when she actually is around Casey she just glows. You’re all happy and the only other people in the group that’s relationship-free are Piz and the Donut.” Lilly complained as she watched Veronica get out the plastic wrap and start to arrange the different kinds of pizza on plates.
Veronica nodded, looking up with sympathy in her eyes. Lilly couldn’t decide if sympathy was worse than pity or not.
“And Duncan doesn’t really care about the whole dating thing. He’s got the munchkin and he’s getting ready to start at Hearst in January. He’s been so busy taking his general courses online he’ll be almost a full year a head of me when he starts. And I can’t exactly commiserate with Piz. He doesn’t really seem to care all that much about not having a girlfriend. I think, since he moved into the house, he’s had one girl over and I’m not even sure if it was a romantic situation or if they really were studying.”
“Lilly…” Veronica said, her voice soft.
“And Tamsin practically lives with us too, she’s down in Wallace’s room so often. She even has her own kind of cereal in the cupboard and she helps him do all his grocery shopping. Last week, she did her laundry there.” Tamsin’s constant presence had been getting more and more annoying, but Lilly was pretty sure she was the only one that felt that way. Mac wasn’t home enough to care, Parker and her were yoga buddies and she sang with Piz’s band sometimes.
“I think you should try dating one of the hundreds of guys that hit on you at school. I mean, you’re always getting asked out by guys after class and stuff, you should take one of them up on it. Go out and have fun and maybe you’ll get over Weevil and fall for someone else. This whole thing with him, it’s not good for either of you if all you’re doing is hurting each other.” Veronica suggested, walking around the kitchen island to sit on the stool next to her.
“I just thought, that maybe, after everything that’s happened that maybe I could have one little thing. For a spoiled little rich girl I don’t seem to get what I want very often.” Lilly sighed as she leaned her head against Veronica’s shoulder. “I miss having you at the house.”
“I kind of miss being in the big house, with all my best girl friends right down the hall. The easy access to Mac and her computer genius. Parker’s insta-perk, guaranteed to help your bad mood. And you, right there, my best friend, basically back from the dead and there for me again. It was great that we got to live together for a little while, I was without you for so long it was great to just get to be around you.” Veronica leaned her own head against Lilly’s and they sat there for a moment, probably looking like a scene out of some old lifetime movie. Lilly didn’t care, she just relaxed into the comfort of a best friend that was more like a sister to her, and took comfort in the fact that Veronica would always be on her side. No matter how wrong she might be, Veronica would always be right there.
“Oh God, it’s almost one in the morning.” Veronica muttered as she pulled away and continued putting the food away. Lilly watched for a few moments more before sliding away from the breakfast bar and back onto her feet.
“I’m going to head out, head home.” She stood next to Veronica and the idea of leaving made it feel like a lead weight was pressing down on her stomach.
“Are you sure? You could stay the night here, in one of the guest rooms. Borrow some pjs and just crawl into one of those big beds. I’ll make pancakes in the morning and, depending how hung-over Logan is, we can blare music and watch him freak out while trying not to vomit, it’s kind of funny.” Veronica’s offer was just what she wanted, to stay in the fantasy world of Veronica’s house for a little while longer. If she could just stay here then Veronica would protect her and she wouldn’t have to deal with Weevil or the fact that she was all alone in a sea of friends in relationships.
“Thanks. You want any help with this stuff?” Lilly offered, suddenly exhausted and longing for a bed and blankets and the oblivion of sleep.
“No, you go up to bed. I’m just going to put this away and then leave the mess for tomorrow, maybe try and talk Logan into cleaning it up.” Veronica’s voice was soft and Lilly nodded as she turned to head upstairs. She’d grab some pajamas from Veronica’s room, change and crawl into bed.
~Logan~
He whistled as he came into the dark house. He’d lost a thousand dollars and had, somehow, gotten involved in some debate over Lilly’s potential love interest with Parker when he dropped Piz off, but somehow he still was in a good mood at two in the morning. He sniffed his shirt as he picked his way through his bedroom, trying desperately not to step on the dog. He wreaked of cigars, so it was a shower first and then bed.
Logan flipped on the bathroom light and saw Ares’ little eyes blinking up at him from near the bottom of the bed. He got up, stretched and then trotted out of the bedroom to go find somewhere else to sleep. Barely bigger than one of Logan’s shoes and he was protecting Veronica while she slept, until Logan got home. He continue his whistling as he undressed and hopped into the shower, not bothering to shut the bathroom door.
He washed his hair and body quickly before getting out and drying off as fast as possibly. His whistling fading out as he busied himself with rubbing at his head with one of the big fluffy white towels Veronica had insisted on. He didn’t bother with clothes and left his towels flung over the top of the shower door. Veronica would yell at him for that in the morning, but at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Lilly’s staying over so walking around nude probably isn’t the best idea.” Veronica’s voice came from a mass of blankets and pillows. Logan considered just jumping on the bed and dislodging her from her cocoon right away but he had to detour around the bed to shut the door anyway. He didn’t particularly want an audience while he put the moves on his girlfriend.
He shut the door as quietly as he could, cringing at the squeak the hinges gave about midway through. He’d have to figure out to oil those… or get Veronica to do it. He ran and jumped on his side of the bed and watched Veronica, and all of the bedding, bouce.
“I hate you.” She complained her back resolutely to him.
“Why are you still awake?” He asked as he slid und the covers and slid her closer to him. Unfortunately she had dressed for bed in a pair of shorts and a tank top so when her backside came into contact with his front he didn’t get that delightful feel of skin on skin. He’d have to fix that.
“Someone decided to bless me with an impromptu, off-key concert at two in the morning.” She complained, still stubbornly unmoved, even as he rotated his hips a little.
“I was not off-key.” He gasped in mock offense, his hands snaking around her middle and pulling her tighter against him. His fingers toyed with the hem of her tank top, threatening to lift it, and he pressed kisses to her bare shoulder.
“Whatever. How are things with the guys?” She was, apparently, going to make him work a little harder tonight.
“Good. Dick’s going to ask Mac to move in tomorrow night. He’s going to take her out for steak, which I thought was weird because I’ve never seen her eat so much as a pepperoni and apparently now she’s eating steak. Oh, and Parker told me that Lilly’s hooking up with someone, but she won’t say who.”
“Thank God. I was starting to think that he just told me he was going to ask her to torture me. Or to see exactly how long I can keep something like that a secret. Two weeks is stretching it by the way, do you know how many times I almost blurted it out tonight? Many times.” Veronica didn’t have to tell him how much keeping this secret from her friend had frustrated her, at least not again. He’d had to hear all about it every night for the last two weeks.
“And the Lilly thing?” Logan pressed, suddenly curious. If there was anyone that Lilly would have spilled to it was Veronica.
“Weevil. Don’t say anything to anyone though because she feels kind of ridiculous about it. They hooked up the night of Duncan’s party and he never called her back. She called him a couple of times, said she begged him to call her but I kind of think she’s making it worse than it really was. Either way, Weevil blew her off and she’s pretty upset about it.” Veronica squirmed a little and he let out a grown.
“Is this something where I need beat Weev’s ass or are you going to frame him for something. Granted he’d just call you to get him out anyway.” Logan slipped his fingers into her waistband and gave a little tug, lowering both shorts and panties a couple inches.
“What are you doing?” Veronica questioned, the annoyance not quite holding in her voice.
“Trying to get in your pants. Now, what do I do about this Weevil thing? Ass kicking or frame job?” He wrenched her top up a little as she turned in his arms. He lowered himself to kiss her stomach, positioning his body between her legs.
“Neither. She doesn’t want us to do anything. She probably doesn’t even want you to know and I shouldn’t have told you but…” She trailed off as he hitched her top higher, over her breasts and he kissed his way up to a nipple, letting his mouth close over it. He grinned at her low moan and the way her body arched slightly beneath him.
“Okay.” The word was muffled by her breast, causing him to smile again. Her legs rose up to wrap around his waist and her hands slid into his hair.
“We won’t do anything and you won’t say anything about it to her. And don’t encourage her on the Mac thing tomorrow at breakfast either.” Her hands left his hair for a moment to pull her tank top off and then slid back in.
He backed off a little to blow air on her nipple before moving over to her right breast. “What Mac thing? She doesn’t Mac to move in with Dick?” His voice was low and gruff as he asked and then his mouth closed over her breast.
“No,” she moaned out, arching into him. “Its not… not that… she thinks… thinks Mac is pregnant.”
Logan released her breast with a pop, leaning back to look his girlfriend in the face. She let out a groan of disappointment. “I’m sorry. What?”
“Why’d you stop?” The annoyance was creeping back into her voice.
“You just said one of our friends is pregnant.” He pointed out, reaching out to flip on the bedside lamp on her side. Veronica blinked at the sudden brightness and he squinted at her through the sudden glare.
“No, I said Lilly thinks one of our friends is pregnant.” Veronica clarified, sliding back on the bed to sit against the headboard.
“So she’s not pregnant.” Logan nodded with certainty and then pulled her shorts and underwear off. His relief was short lived however.
“No, she totally is.”
“She told you?” He readjusted himself until he was sitting between her legs, his own folded up underneath him.
“Not so much, but when she was throwing up in the bathroom tonight she said that she’d been getting sick off and on for the last couple weeks. Coupled with the fact that she’s craving meat and milk products… I think it’s a pretty safe bet that she is though.” Veronica explained.
“So she just thinks she is?”
“I don’t think she has even thought about it.”
“So just you and Lilly think she’s pregnant.” He thought it over and wondered how girls could know something like that about someone else before they did. Especially Veronica, she always seemed to know more about someone than they knew about themselves. It wasn’t always a bad thing, but it could get annoying sometimes.
“Yeah, basically.”
“So you guys could be wrong?” He was hopeful, but if they weren’t wrong it wasn’t quite as big a tragedy as it could be. Not like with Duncan and Meg.
“Maybe, but I don’t think we are. I just don’t want Lilly telling Mac, because if Mac hasn’t thought about the possibility yet then she’s not really ready to handle it yet.” Veronica reached for him and he let himself be pulled down on top of her.
“Do you think they’ll be able to handle it?” Logan wondered out loud as Veronica kissed her way down his neck.
“I don’t know, Logan.” She let out a huff of annoyance as she flopped back into her pillow. “Could we not talk about it anymore?” She pressed her mouth to his and he sank into the kiss for a moment before pulling back.
“It’s just that… you’re not shocked or surprised or anything?” He looked at her, confused about her reaction. He expected her to at least act surprised it. Annoyed. Worried, whatever.
“I’ve had a couple hours with it. I was surprised earlier, but right now I’m trying to finish what you started.” She reached down and gripped him, giving him a little tug just to make sure she had erased his mind of all else.
“Okay, but we’re using a condom tonight.” He choked out, but he was already sliding into her.
Veronica arched up against him, her legs and arms wrapping around him as she let out a long, low moan. “Whatever you say, baby.”
39: Three
Rating: R
Word Count: 11,626
Characters/Pairings: Veronica, Logan, Duncan, Mac, Parker, Lilly I, Veronica, Dick, Wallace, Piz, Weevil, OFC (mentions: Casey Gant, Lilly II and Keith Mars)
Spoilers: All episodes (from 1.01: Pilot to 3.20: The Bitch Is Back. Just to be sure) Although this is obviously AU and there are obviously going to be some alterations to events and especially some in the last couple of episodes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally, nothing. So don’t sue me over this, because you won’t get anything. It all belongs to Rob Thomas and if I had owned it when it was still on the last season would have been way different.
1: Awake/ 2: Homecoming/ 3: Forgive/ 4: Arrival/ 5: Reconnect/ 6: Belong/ 7: Bets/ 8: Fight/ 9: Battle/ 10: Retreat/ 11: Push/ 12: Sound/ 13: Potential/ 14: More/ 15: Storytime/ 16: Understanding/ 17: Piggyback/ 18: Sinners/ 19: Drama/ 20: Dinner/ 21: Armor/ 22:Mingle/ 23:Bubbly/ 24:Awkward/ 25:Closing/ 26: Drunks/ 27: Logan/ 28: Wallace/ 29: Mac/ 30: Parker/ 31: Duncan/ 32: Lilly/33: Piz/ 34: Weevil/ 35: Dick/ 36: Veronica/ 37: One/38: Two
The Return
38
Two
(Continued)
~Two Weeks~
~Dick~
He sat at the table without a single chip in his pile and watched as pile of chips transferred back and forth between Weevil and Logan, hand after hand. It was the same amount of money and this game was going to go on forever if they didn’t do something different soon.
“Could one of you just take a risk and end it? The suspense is killing me.” Duncan complained, leaning back in his chair and shoving oreos in his mouth. Duncan had lost all his money before Dick but after Piz and had been sitting there for over an hour, bored but still sitting there. Wallace had cashed out with sixty bucks to his pile and handed the cash to Logan before heading out. He said something about Tami not making it to girls night but he was going to swing by her place anyway and hang out for a bit. Dick had made a joke, asking if that’s what the kids call it nowadays but Wallace had either ignored him or didn’t hear it as he left the house. Piz had stayed to finish the movie from earlier before heading back to the ‘big house’ but he was now snoring on the couch and the television screen was playing the DVD menu over and over.
“I just learning his tells, figuring out his style and then I’ll strike.” Logan told Duncan, waving off his complaints.
“Piz! Wake up, your snoring is throwin off my game!” Weevil shouted and they all heard Piz let out a loud snort and then silence.
“I wasn’t sleepin.” Piz said in a scratchy voice and they all laughed at the absurdity.
“No man, everyone saws logs when they’re awake.” Duncan joked.
“So I’m going to ask Mac to move in with me tomorrow.” Dick stated. It was out of no where but there hadn’t been a good point to bring it up during the game and he needed advice.
“Finally.” Logan remarked as he threw a chip into the center of the table and then popped an actual chip into his mouth.
“What do you mean finally?” Dick asked, looking at his best friend in shock. He didn’t remember telling Logan about his plans but then again that didn’t mean all that much. He didn’t remember a lot of things half the time and then it would hit him in the middle of the night and he’d have this big ‘a-ha’ moment. Usually Mac told him to write it down so he wouldn’t forget again and then go back to sleep.
“I mean that you told Veronica you were going to ask her two weeks ago and she’s been annoying the hell out of me about when you were going to do it. She’s been having a particularly difficult time keeping it from Mac.” Logan told him as he flipped his cards over and the chips slid back to Weevil. Logan kept his focus on Dick as Duncan gathered the cards to shuffle and deal.
“I thought Veronica was good at keeping secrets.” Dick commented, leaning back in his chair and pick his cigar up from the ashtray and putting it back in his mouth. It was half gone, mostly because it had been sitting in the ashtray all night, but he needed something to do.
“No, Veronica is good at discovering secrets. Usually her habit is to ferret out the secret, do all her sleuthing and then a big reveal. She’s not used to having the secret handed to her and then being forced to keep it for any length of time.” Logan explained, making his bet without even looking at his cards. Dick hated when he did that.
“I thought she had to keep all kinds of secrets with the detective thing.” Duncan commented as he flipped cards over.
“Yeah, she does but that’s client confidentiality stuff, she always gets to tell someone the results of her sleuthing. Usually she gets to tell the person the secret is about and she always tells her friends whenever she discovers a secret about them. Do you know how long she waited to tell Mac about the baby switch thing after she found out? About an hour.” Logan lost another hand and his pile was now the smallest it had been all night, another hand and Weevil could win the $3,000 pot. “Damn.”
“Learning my tells were you? Learned my style did you?” Weevil gloated as he slid the chips into his pile, sounding rather gleeful as he chomped down on his second cigar.
“Whatever. So I need some advice on how to ask her. How did you do it?” Dick asked, his chin in his hands, elbows braced on the table.
“I didn’t really do a whole proposal thing really. We went out to dinner and I made a comment about the fact that her roommates never see her, she said something about paying a ridiculous amount of rent for a room she never sees and then I asked her to just officially move in. I told her I wanted her there all the time and I hated the nights she stayed at the big house. She moved in a week later.”
“So that was it?” Dick asked, still not feeling very at ease with the task at hand. It sounded easy but he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be so easy for him.
“Well, I asked Keith’s permission first, which was the hard part. I mean, I pretty much Veronica would want to move in because she was basically living with me already. All her stuff was already at my place and she hated paying rent at the big house when she was never there. The rent wasn’t that bad, and the other bills weren’t bad because they split it between the four of them, but it’s a lot to pay for someplace you only sleep about a week each month.” Logan glanced at his cards and placed a bet. Weevil called and Logan went all in before turning his gaze back on Dick.
“Do I have to ask her dad? Because I asked Veronica and she’s way scarier than Mac’s dad.” Dick squirmed in his seat at the thought of asking someone else for permission. He’d had to work up the nerve to talk to Veronica about it for nearly three weeks before he finally did it.
“It’s not like it’s traditional to ask a father’s permission before shacking up with his daughter. I mean, Emily Post didn’t really cover it but Keith has a shotgun and would know how to hide a body. Then again, you know how protective Veronica is of her friends and if anyone knew how to make a murder look like an accident it would be Veronica.” He lost the hand and the rest of the money slid over to Weevil’s side of the table. Weevil rubbed his hands together and started making stacks.
Logan grabbed the chip case and opened the lid, pulling the rolled wad of cash out and flipping it to Weevil.
“You know, no matter how many times we do these poker nights I still kind of expect for it to be like that first time and the money to be gone.” Weevil remarked as he pushed the money into his pocket and started separating the chips into piles.
“Yeah, well I’m glad stripping down to our boxers isn’t part of the poker night tradition,” Duncan commented as he piled the cards together and put them back into their box.
“So how are you planning on doing it?” Logan asked, getting up from the table to flop on the couch across from Piz. Dick followed him, dropping down next to Piz who looked to be on the verge of sleep again.
“I was thinking a nice dinner. Maybe the Americana place that just opened in town, I heard their steaks are really good. Mac practically inhaled my steak last week so I thought she might like it there. We’d get dessert and then I’d ask her. You know her stuff has slowly made it’s way over here since I got the place. I think she has more clothes in my closet than I do.”
“That sounds like a good plan.” Logan agreed before heaving himself off the couch. “Piz, why don’t I drop you off at the house? You don’t look like you’ll stay awake long enough to make the drive.”
“Sure.”
Then they were gone and Weevil left a few minutes later. Duncan stayed to help clean up, which Dick was grateful for because the maid wouldn’t be here again until Monday and Mac didn’t appreciate the mess. Always saying that she doesn’t clean and she doesn’t cook and she’s not some desperate housewife type. She makes the bed, that’s it, and only if he’s out of bed before her.
“I’ll see you later, Dick.” Duncan said as he made his way to the door. “And don’t worry, tomorrow will go great. She’ll say yes.”
God, he hoped so.
~Lilly~
Veronica was watching her and Parker was watching Mac and this evening of fun had quickly gotten way more serious than it was supposed to be.
“What?” She burst out, Veronica’s intense gaze finally getting to her. It was that look that she had come to call the ‘tell me stare’ and Lilly was powerless to resist. This time it had worked without the head tilt, which meant that Lilly was becoming more vulnerable to her tactics instead of building up some sort of tolerance. Crap.
“I just know you’re hiding something and the last time you had a secret it didn’t exactly turn out well.” Veronica told her and Lilly resisted rolling her eyes. How long was that going to be the go to joke?
“Alright, well, two weeks ago I kind of hooked up with someone.” Lilly hedged and she saw the timing click in her friends’ heads.
“Two weeks ago? Like during Duncan’s party?” Parker asked, her brows pinching together in thought as she mentally tried to go through all the guys that had been at the party. It wasn’t possible, there’d been tons of potential guys there, but she knew that Parker would try anyway.
“Hooked up as in a one time thing or is something that is ongoing? Or was ongoing?” Mac questioned sipping on a bottle of water.
“Who?” Of course it was Veronica that asked the most important question. She wasn’t about to reveal that she had broken down and slept with Weevil.
It hadn’t been on purpose, she hadn’t planned it at all. She’d been standing in the line for the bathroom, considering sneaking upstairs to use the one in Logan and Veronica’s bedroom, when she spotted him. He hadn’t picked up one of the striped shirts that were piled next to the door after she’d gotten tired of manning the door and handing them out. He didn’t see her watching him but he had moved in her direction nonetheless. She took that as a sign and stepped out of line to talk to him, it’s not like she actually had to pee. She just wanted to check her make up and make sure everything was holding up after six hours of partying and about five hours of set up before that.
The talking had been fine and the friendship they’d forced was finally easing into something comfortable. Why she had to mess it up, lead him somewhere deserted and kiss him, she didn’t know. She couldn’t tell if it was some destructive streak that she had - doing the things she shouldn’t just because she could - or if was some chemical thing and she would never be able to resist him. She could have stopped there, she knows that, but the spicy taste of him pushed her over the edge into that hazy place where she jumps into things without thinking but rationalizing that it would all work out. She’d done it every time she broke up with Logan in high school, every wild thing she did, when she hopped in bed with Aaron. She rationalized that it would work out and everything would be fine, that the look on her mother’s face was worth the scandal and everything she went through to get there. The latter was the reasoning she used for sleeping with Weevil in high school and the former was the reasoning she used now. It’d work out. They’ll be fine.
The sex had seemed more intense than it was in high school and she’d lain awake afterwards trying to rationalize that, to figure out why. She hadn’t come up with anything good. The only thing that kept coming up was the word love, but she’d kicked that last year when they’d gotten back from the cabin, but she kept coming back to it and she couldn’t ignore that. She’d gotten up early and drove home, crawling into bed for a couple hours before she and Parker had to head back over to Veronica’s to clean up from the party. She’d left a note though, because just sneaking out of his house, and bed, at five in the morning seemed too walk of shame. Too meaningless.
She waited a week for him to call, tethered to her phone every waking moment just in case he called. The first thing she did in the morning was check her voicemail, just in case he called after his shift at the school. By the following week she had decided that waiting by the phone was a little too pathetic for her so she called him. The first voicemail hadn’t been a big deal, just her asking him to call her whenever. She’d expected him to return it an hour or two later. Twenty-four hours later and she made another call, told him that proper protocol said that he should have called her by now. Sleeping together meant a phone call within seventy-two hours. He still didn’t call and the third voicemail she called him out on avoiding her, but she kept her anger out of it, just let him know that it was getting ridiculous and she wasn’t used to being ignored, especially after the night they’d had. He didn’t call back and it was his third strike, but she had enough anger to ignore the fact that she should ignore him and she called him once more. She hadn’t been able to contain her rage this time and she shouted into the phone about what a jerk move it was to ignore a girl after sleeping with her. She ended the call yelling at him, screaming at him, to not bother calling now. Three strikes and you’re out, buddy, so don’t call. It wouldn’t matter anyway because this was it, his last shot and he blew it.
“Just some guy. It wasn’t really during the party, it was more at the end of it, around one. We left and went to his place, so don’t worry Veronica, I didn’t defile one of your guest bedrooms.” Lilly answered each of their questions, taking a moment to think the answers through before to make sure it didn’t reveal who it was she’d slept with. “And it was only the one time, but not by my choice. He never called me and, after waiting a week, I called him a couple times but he still didn’t call me back.”
“Wait. You called him?” Veronica asked. “A couple times?”
“I know, pathetic right? Like a week’s worth of silence wasn’t enough I had to basically phone stalk him and still nothing. I practically begged him to call me in the first two voicemails.”
“The first two?” Parker asked, her eyes taking on that pitying look that Lilly had always hated. She’d never really deserved the look before but she’d always hated it. She had seen how everyone had given it to Veronica after her and the Donut’s non-breakup. How everyone had looked at Logan each and every time they’d had one of those über public breakup scenes in the quad, when she’d been as cruel as possible to see how far she could push him before he no longer came crawling back. The looks her mother’s friends gave her mother at the club every time Lilly did something to embarrass the family. God, she hated that look and the fact that it might make her like her mother in any way.
“Well, I called him a couple more times after that, but I wasn’t so pathetic then. I kind of raged a bit and told him not to bother calling me because he’d lost his chance. I mean, I really liked him so I was hoping we could relay it into some kind of relationship, but obviously that won’t be happening.” Lilly, fell back against the cushions behind her. “It was only the one night, but we’d had a little something before but it was just, kind of, a fling. I thought that we might be able to have something more than a fling or one night stand now, that maybe we were kind of ready for it, for each other. I guess not.”
She’d said too much. She could see that much in the narrowing of Veronica’s eyes, even though Parker and Mac both seemed oblivious to it. But she could see Veronica gearing up and their obliviousness wasn’t likely to last. “You had something before? A fling? When?” Veronica asked and, by her tone, Lilly recognized the interrogation of the questions.
“A while ago, and no we didn’t tell anyone because it was a fling.” She knew Veronica wouldn’t accept those answers at face value. Especially since she’d been so vague on the timing, but she’d never really been able to flat out lie to Veronica. She hadn’t been able to lie before, even when a lie might have been kinder, just put her off a little and then distract. This Veronica wasn’t like the one she’d left behind all those years ago, before comas and murders and cheating had changed her, this Veronica wasn’t easily distracted from a mystery. Although, by the look in her best friend’s eyes, this wasn’t really a mystery.
“A while ago? Couldn’t have been too long. You’ve only been awake for a year and, unless I’m mistaken, you’ve only been dating the last six or seven months. Unless you cheated on your vow of celibacy and snuck around without letting any of us know, even though we all lived in the same house.” Veronica prodded and Lilly cringed at the wording. She couldn’t say that she hadn’t cheated because she’d been cheating on Logan the when she had ‘dated’ Weevil. If she was more specific about the timing she’d tip off the others, at least Mac if not Parker, and they’d all long ago discussed how bad of an idea dating Weevil would be.
“It was a while ago okay? That’s not the point.” Lilly practically growled in frustration.
“Okay, then what is the point, Lilly?” Veronica asked and Lilly could see her backing off a little, but she could also see the look in her eyes. The look that said it this discussion wasn’t over, just postponed.
“The point is that I still kind of want him to call, but it would be kind of insulting at this point. And if he does call should I give him a shot? Or should I been even angrier because he obviously didn’t respect my wishes when I told him not to call that last time? Adult relationships are harder than high school when you have to see them every day and him not calling isn’t really a big deal because you have this class or something where you can corner each other. It sucks.” Lilly complained.
“I think that you should ignore him, if he wants you he’ll make the effort to get passed that and get you to forgive him. If not, then he’s not worth it and he should be ignored anyway.” Parker advised, her head nodding at the finality of it.
“Agreed.” Mac said, pressing her hand to her stomach before continuing. “And, if we’re done, I think I need to head home. I’m beyond exhausted and my stomach is still a little iffy. Probably from eating all the milk products and stuff.”
“Okay, I’m ready too. You came with Lilly didn’t you? You can ride home with me if you want.” Parker offered, standing and then helping Mac to her feet. Lilly wondered if Mac really thought it was the food or something else and didn’t want to admit it.
“Sure, you mind dropping me off at Dick’s though? I kind of promised I’d stay there tonight, and my car’s still there anyway.” Mac asked as she headed up the stairs. Lilly heard Parker’s muffled ‘sure’ and then a few minutes later the front door opened and shut.
“So, do you think she’s pregnant?” Lilly asked, hoping that it would distract Veronica from the earlier topic of exactly who she had slept with.
“Kind of. So you slept with Weevil?” Apparently Veronica was not going to let it go at all. She was like a tiny pit-bull, once she locked onto something she’d never let go until she was satisfied she had the answers. All the answers.
Lilly’s had drifted over the puppy and he snorted a little in his sleep. “Yeah. Exactly what was it that I said that tipped you off?”
“You said it was ‘just some guy’ but then you called him. He was important enough to call so you’d have to know his name and number. He was important enough to name, unless divulging that name would open up a whole bunch of different issues. Then the whole thing about you having a fling a while ago and then I knew.” Veronica explained, getting up to gather spoons, cartons of ice cream and half empty pizza boxes.
“I probably should have known I couldn’t fool you, not anymore at least. But, I didn’t really want to admit to everyone, and myself, that I had tried and failed with Eli Navarro. Again. It’s a little embarrassing.” Lilly stood to help her friend and tried not to disturb the sleeping puppy. He’d finally settled down and there’s was no need to wake him and unleash his terror upon them once more.
“Not really. Nobody here would have done anything, except maybe some good old fashioned man-bashing. And don’t think that I couldn’t participate in that too, because Logan does some things that just annoy the hell out of me.” Veronica set the pizza on the kitchen counter and stuck the ice cream in the freezer.
“Yeah, I know but it’s different. You’re guy bashing from a different place than me. You and Mac are in these deep, intense relationships. You and Logan are practically married these days and Mac is probably going to move in with Dick and have a baby and they’ll get married. Dick probably annoys Mac to no end with some things but, she still loves him and he loves her back and, ultimately, they’re happy. Then there’s Parker who, whether she admits it or not, is in that lovely new relationship place. She might talk a big game about not wanting the long distance thing, but when she actually is around Casey she just glows. You’re all happy and the only other people in the group that’s relationship-free are Piz and the Donut.” Lilly complained as she watched Veronica get out the plastic wrap and start to arrange the different kinds of pizza on plates.
Veronica nodded, looking up with sympathy in her eyes. Lilly couldn’t decide if sympathy was worse than pity or not.
“And Duncan doesn’t really care about the whole dating thing. He’s got the munchkin and he’s getting ready to start at Hearst in January. He’s been so busy taking his general courses online he’ll be almost a full year a head of me when he starts. And I can’t exactly commiserate with Piz. He doesn’t really seem to care all that much about not having a girlfriend. I think, since he moved into the house, he’s had one girl over and I’m not even sure if it was a romantic situation or if they really were studying.”
“Lilly…” Veronica said, her voice soft.
“And Tamsin practically lives with us too, she’s down in Wallace’s room so often. She even has her own kind of cereal in the cupboard and she helps him do all his grocery shopping. Last week, she did her laundry there.” Tamsin’s constant presence had been getting more and more annoying, but Lilly was pretty sure she was the only one that felt that way. Mac wasn’t home enough to care, Parker and her were yoga buddies and she sang with Piz’s band sometimes.
“I think you should try dating one of the hundreds of guys that hit on you at school. I mean, you’re always getting asked out by guys after class and stuff, you should take one of them up on it. Go out and have fun and maybe you’ll get over Weevil and fall for someone else. This whole thing with him, it’s not good for either of you if all you’re doing is hurting each other.” Veronica suggested, walking around the kitchen island to sit on the stool next to her.
“I just thought, that maybe, after everything that’s happened that maybe I could have one little thing. For a spoiled little rich girl I don’t seem to get what I want very often.” Lilly sighed as she leaned her head against Veronica’s shoulder. “I miss having you at the house.”
“I kind of miss being in the big house, with all my best girl friends right down the hall. The easy access to Mac and her computer genius. Parker’s insta-perk, guaranteed to help your bad mood. And you, right there, my best friend, basically back from the dead and there for me again. It was great that we got to live together for a little while, I was without you for so long it was great to just get to be around you.” Veronica leaned her own head against Lilly’s and they sat there for a moment, probably looking like a scene out of some old lifetime movie. Lilly didn’t care, she just relaxed into the comfort of a best friend that was more like a sister to her, and took comfort in the fact that Veronica would always be on her side. No matter how wrong she might be, Veronica would always be right there.
“Oh God, it’s almost one in the morning.” Veronica muttered as she pulled away and continued putting the food away. Lilly watched for a few moments more before sliding away from the breakfast bar and back onto her feet.
“I’m going to head out, head home.” She stood next to Veronica and the idea of leaving made it feel like a lead weight was pressing down on her stomach.
“Are you sure? You could stay the night here, in one of the guest rooms. Borrow some pjs and just crawl into one of those big beds. I’ll make pancakes in the morning and, depending how hung-over Logan is, we can blare music and watch him freak out while trying not to vomit, it’s kind of funny.” Veronica’s offer was just what she wanted, to stay in the fantasy world of Veronica’s house for a little while longer. If she could just stay here then Veronica would protect her and she wouldn’t have to deal with Weevil or the fact that she was all alone in a sea of friends in relationships.
“Thanks. You want any help with this stuff?” Lilly offered, suddenly exhausted and longing for a bed and blankets and the oblivion of sleep.
“No, you go up to bed. I’m just going to put this away and then leave the mess for tomorrow, maybe try and talk Logan into cleaning it up.” Veronica’s voice was soft and Lilly nodded as she turned to head upstairs. She’d grab some pajamas from Veronica’s room, change and crawl into bed.
~Logan~
He whistled as he came into the dark house. He’d lost a thousand dollars and had, somehow, gotten involved in some debate over Lilly’s potential love interest with Parker when he dropped Piz off, but somehow he still was in a good mood at two in the morning. He sniffed his shirt as he picked his way through his bedroom, trying desperately not to step on the dog. He wreaked of cigars, so it was a shower first and then bed.
Logan flipped on the bathroom light and saw Ares’ little eyes blinking up at him from near the bottom of the bed. He got up, stretched and then trotted out of the bedroom to go find somewhere else to sleep. Barely bigger than one of Logan’s shoes and he was protecting Veronica while she slept, until Logan got home. He continue his whistling as he undressed and hopped into the shower, not bothering to shut the bathroom door.
He washed his hair and body quickly before getting out and drying off as fast as possibly. His whistling fading out as he busied himself with rubbing at his head with one of the big fluffy white towels Veronica had insisted on. He didn’t bother with clothes and left his towels flung over the top of the shower door. Veronica would yell at him for that in the morning, but at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care.
“Lilly’s staying over so walking around nude probably isn’t the best idea.” Veronica’s voice came from a mass of blankets and pillows. Logan considered just jumping on the bed and dislodging her from her cocoon right away but he had to detour around the bed to shut the door anyway. He didn’t particularly want an audience while he put the moves on his girlfriend.
He shut the door as quietly as he could, cringing at the squeak the hinges gave about midway through. He’d have to figure out to oil those… or get Veronica to do it. He ran and jumped on his side of the bed and watched Veronica, and all of the bedding, bouce.
“I hate you.” She complained her back resolutely to him.
“Why are you still awake?” He asked as he slid und the covers and slid her closer to him. Unfortunately she had dressed for bed in a pair of shorts and a tank top so when her backside came into contact with his front he didn’t get that delightful feel of skin on skin. He’d have to fix that.
“Someone decided to bless me with an impromptu, off-key concert at two in the morning.” She complained, still stubbornly unmoved, even as he rotated his hips a little.
“I was not off-key.” He gasped in mock offense, his hands snaking around her middle and pulling her tighter against him. His fingers toyed with the hem of her tank top, threatening to lift it, and he pressed kisses to her bare shoulder.
“Whatever. How are things with the guys?” She was, apparently, going to make him work a little harder tonight.
“Good. Dick’s going to ask Mac to move in tomorrow night. He’s going to take her out for steak, which I thought was weird because I’ve never seen her eat so much as a pepperoni and apparently now she’s eating steak. Oh, and Parker told me that Lilly’s hooking up with someone, but she won’t say who.”
“Thank God. I was starting to think that he just told me he was going to ask her to torture me. Or to see exactly how long I can keep something like that a secret. Two weeks is stretching it by the way, do you know how many times I almost blurted it out tonight? Many times.” Veronica didn’t have to tell him how much keeping this secret from her friend had frustrated her, at least not again. He’d had to hear all about it every night for the last two weeks.
“And the Lilly thing?” Logan pressed, suddenly curious. If there was anyone that Lilly would have spilled to it was Veronica.
“Weevil. Don’t say anything to anyone though because she feels kind of ridiculous about it. They hooked up the night of Duncan’s party and he never called her back. She called him a couple of times, said she begged him to call her but I kind of think she’s making it worse than it really was. Either way, Weevil blew her off and she’s pretty upset about it.” Veronica squirmed a little and he let out a grown.
“Is this something where I need beat Weev’s ass or are you going to frame him for something. Granted he’d just call you to get him out anyway.” Logan slipped his fingers into her waistband and gave a little tug, lowering both shorts and panties a couple inches.
“What are you doing?” Veronica questioned, the annoyance not quite holding in her voice.
“Trying to get in your pants. Now, what do I do about this Weevil thing? Ass kicking or frame job?” He wrenched her top up a little as she turned in his arms. He lowered himself to kiss her stomach, positioning his body between her legs.
“Neither. She doesn’t want us to do anything. She probably doesn’t even want you to know and I shouldn’t have told you but…” She trailed off as he hitched her top higher, over her breasts and he kissed his way up to a nipple, letting his mouth close over it. He grinned at her low moan and the way her body arched slightly beneath him.
“Okay.” The word was muffled by her breast, causing him to smile again. Her legs rose up to wrap around his waist and her hands slid into his hair.
“We won’t do anything and you won’t say anything about it to her. And don’t encourage her on the Mac thing tomorrow at breakfast either.” Her hands left his hair for a moment to pull her tank top off and then slid back in.
He backed off a little to blow air on her nipple before moving over to her right breast. “What Mac thing? She doesn’t Mac to move in with Dick?” His voice was low and gruff as he asked and then his mouth closed over her breast.
“No,” she moaned out, arching into him. “Its not… not that… she thinks… thinks Mac is pregnant.”
Logan released her breast with a pop, leaning back to look his girlfriend in the face. She let out a groan of disappointment. “I’m sorry. What?”
“Why’d you stop?” The annoyance was creeping back into her voice.
“You just said one of our friends is pregnant.” He pointed out, reaching out to flip on the bedside lamp on her side. Veronica blinked at the sudden brightness and he squinted at her through the sudden glare.
“No, I said Lilly thinks one of our friends is pregnant.” Veronica clarified, sliding back on the bed to sit against the headboard.
“So she’s not pregnant.” Logan nodded with certainty and then pulled her shorts and underwear off. His relief was short lived however.
“No, she totally is.”
“She told you?” He readjusted himself until he was sitting between her legs, his own folded up underneath him.
“Not so much, but when she was throwing up in the bathroom tonight she said that she’d been getting sick off and on for the last couple weeks. Coupled with the fact that she’s craving meat and milk products… I think it’s a pretty safe bet that she is though.” Veronica explained.
“So she just thinks she is?”
“I don’t think she has even thought about it.”
“So just you and Lilly think she’s pregnant.” He thought it over and wondered how girls could know something like that about someone else before they did. Especially Veronica, she always seemed to know more about someone than they knew about themselves. It wasn’t always a bad thing, but it could get annoying sometimes.
“Yeah, basically.”
“So you guys could be wrong?” He was hopeful, but if they weren’t wrong it wasn’t quite as big a tragedy as it could be. Not like with Duncan and Meg.
“Maybe, but I don’t think we are. I just don’t want Lilly telling Mac, because if Mac hasn’t thought about the possibility yet then she’s not really ready to handle it yet.” Veronica reached for him and he let himself be pulled down on top of her.
“Do you think they’ll be able to handle it?” Logan wondered out loud as Veronica kissed her way down his neck.
“I don’t know, Logan.” She let out a huff of annoyance as she flopped back into her pillow. “Could we not talk about it anymore?” She pressed her mouth to his and he sank into the kiss for a moment before pulling back.
“It’s just that… you’re not shocked or surprised or anything?” He looked at her, confused about her reaction. He expected her to at least act surprised it. Annoyed. Worried, whatever.
“I’ve had a couple hours with it. I was surprised earlier, but right now I’m trying to finish what you started.” She reached down and gripped him, giving him a little tug just to make sure she had erased his mind of all else.
“Okay, but we’re using a condom tonight.” He choked out, but he was already sliding into her.
Veronica arched up against him, her legs and arms wrapping around him as she let out a long, low moan. “Whatever you say, baby.”
39: Three