THE RETURN 39-Three 1/3 [Ensemble] R
Title: The Return 39-Three [Pt I]
Rating: R
Word Count: 20,797 (Pt I: 5,150)
Characters/Pairings: Mac, Veronica, Logan, Lilly I, Duncan, Dick, Wallace, Piz, Parker, Casey Gant, Lilly II, Alicia Fennel, Trina Echolls, Mrs. Lee, Celeste Kane, Jake Kane, OFCs, Carrie Bishop, Susan Knight (mentions: Darrel Fennel, OFC, Weevil, Aaron Echolls 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
39
Three
November 2008
~Mac~
Mac paced as the phone rang and she waited, impatiently, for Veronica to pick up. What the hell was going on over there in that house? This was the third time she’d tried the landline and she’d already called Veronica’s cell three times and Logan’s twice. What was going on that neither Veronica or Logan were answering their phones? They didn’t have a class, Veronica wasn’t working, unless they were in the hospital or, more likely, in jail…
“Hello?” Veronica’s voice came through loud and clear and… out of breath. Oh God, she interrupted sex and now Veronica was probably going to take ten million years to get here.
“Where were you? I’ve called a thousand times.” Okay, she didn’t really need the answer to that question. “I called Logan’s phone a bunch of times, too.”
“I was blow drying my hair, couldn’t hear the phones. Logan is down on the beach with Ares though, do you want me to get him?” Veronica’s voice took on that concerned tone she got whenever she suspected bad news. Mac thought it through and realized her panic might come off that something was wrong. Well, something was wrong but nothing as dramatic as what was more typical of their group.
“No, I was trying to get a hold of you. I need you to come over.” Mac tried to slow her breathing, calm herself down a little.
“Okay, I just have to put on my shoes and a sweater and I’ll be there. Like, twenty minutes okay?” Now she was coddling.
“I also need you to pick something up for me.” Mac took a deep breath.
“What do you need Mac?”
“Pregnancy tests. Get a couple, just in case.”
“Okay.”
That was too easy. “I’m at Dick’s.”
“Mac, I helped move you in there last weekend, I know where you are. And since you’re officially living…” Mac heard the rustle of fabric, like she was putting on a shirt, “with your boyfriend you should start calling it home or something to that effect.”
“How hard was it for you to not say ‘living in sin’?” Mac asked, her panic easing off enough to appreciate Veronica’s humor.
There was the jangle of keys and then a burst of static as the outside wind hit the mouthpiece of Veronica’s phone. “So hard, but I thought it might upset you… under the circumstances.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And Veronica?”
Mac heard the wind stop with the slamming of a car door. A sudden burst of music, silence and then “Yeah?”
“Speed.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll break all the laws. Good thing my daddy’s sheriff.” Veronica joked. “Hey, do you want me to bring Logan?”
“Why would you bring Logan?” Mac asked, suddenly panicked.
“Dick distraction.” Veronica said simply.
“No that’s okay. He’ s gone to see his dad so he should be gone for quite a while.”
“Alrighty then, I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.”
~*~
Mac paced the bedroom restlessly, her hands twisting together with nervous tension. “What does that one say?”
“It’s positive.” Veronica told her, setting another pregnancy test down in the line on the bathroom counter.
“Maybe we should try another one.” She suggested, her head whipping back and forth, scanning the counters and floor for another box.
“Mac, that was the last one.”
“So we should go get another one. Maybe wait a couple days and see if maybe it’s just-”
“See if today you’re peeing pregnant and you won’t be tomorrow? It doesn’t work like that.” Veronica interrupted. “You’ve tried six different brands, two in each box. So that’s, what? Twelve tests, all positive. I think now you need to call and make an appointment with health services on campus. Then you need to figure out how exactly how you’re going to tell Dick.”
“Will you do it for me?” Mac asked, cringing at her own cowardice.
“No. But I will help you decide when and how to do it.” Her best friend offered, sympathy in her eyes even though she was smirking.
“Okay. When and how?”
“Tonight, and I think a straightforward announcement would be better than hinting at it. Dick doesn’t always get the hint and you don’t want to have one of those conversations where he thinks you’re talking about something else and you think he understands without actually coming out and saying it. I mean, you don’t want it to be a couple days later and you’re at the doctor’s and he’s giving you your due date and Dick’s like ‘due for what?’, right?”
“Right. Are you sure you don’t want to do it for me? He always takes you seriously.” Mac tried again, not looking forward to having this conversation.
“No. That’s a conversation I’ve never wanted to have, least of all with Dick Casablancas.” Veronica adamantly shook her head in refusal.
“Please?” Mac tried once again.
“No.”
~Duncan~
He doesn’t know how he managed to get all his closest friends here, with no extras, for his birthday. One minute Lilly was talking blowout and the next she had inexplicably given in to the quiet barbeque with just their closest friends in the backyard of the old Kane Estate.
“Come on, Munchkin, swim to me. Forget about Aunt Veronica and come to me.” Logan coaxed, treading water in the pool and holding his arms out for little Lilly. Veronica called out from the other side of the pool and little Lilly hesitated between them, trying to decide. According to her namesake, this was how Logan and Veronica had taught little Lilly how to swim last summer.
“You know, she was almost scared of the water at the beginning of last summer. Logan nearly had a heart attack when they took her to the beach and she wouldn’t go near the water.” Parker told him as she watched, with him, as his two best friends in the whole world confused the hell out of his little girl.
“Probably something Celeste said to her. We used to go to the beach all the time in Mollymook. Sometimes I really kind of miss Australia, but then I look at Logan and Veronica, Lilly and you and all our friends and I think about how I’d never want to miss this.” He felt sullen and depressing in this bizarre sentimental state he found himself in suddenly.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Parker announced to him, grinning wildly even though she was checking her watch for close to the millionth time in the last thirty minutes. Apparently Casey was late. “Not that freshman year with everybody was great, because it was, for about two minutes. Then everything happened and snowballed until we were ending the year with all this drama.”
“I hate to tell you but that’s more the norm in Neptune than the way it’s been lately. Having an eventless year, especially with Veronica and Logan around, isn’t really likely. With Lilly out and about it’s plain impossible. You can’t tell me that you went all last year drama-free.” Duncan raised an eyebrow skeptically, practically daring Parker to make the assertion that his sister hadn’t gotten into some kind of trouble last year.
“Okay, no it wasn’t drama free last year, but it wasn’t non-stop insanity either.” Parker told him making a small concession.
“Well, I think we always knew that their first year at college was going to be crazy. After all, there’s new enemies to make.” He was joking, he really was, but he also knew that while his friends hadn’t gone into the situation thinking like this he also knew that, on some level, that had expected it. After all, no one made enemies quite like Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars.
“You have no idea. I mean, Veronica got herself involved in some really scary stuff. A murder, rapes and a gang.” Parker said it with such shock and such awe that it forced Duncan to remember that she hadn’t always been around, that this was all still pretty new to her. Murder and mystery wasn’t an everyday occurrence in other places, in other high schools and there probably wasn’t another tiny blonde solving mysteries anywhere else in the world.
“Here.” Lilly came a stop in front of him and shoved a beer into his hands. “It’s your twenty-first birthday and you haven’t had a single beer. I mean, you won’t even go out and buy alcohol, what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m not that into it. It’s not like I party all that often, once you have a child it’s kind of difficult to really get into the whole turning twenty-one thing.” Duncan explained, but took the beer anyway. Lilly continued to stand before him, hands on hips and eyebrows raised in questioning annoyance, so he twisted off the top and took a swig.
“You’re such a freak.” His sister informed him before turning on her heel and flouncing away to the opposite side of the pool and plopping down next to Mac on a lounge chair. Mac raised her head slightly to look at the blonde before laying back and down. He’d thought Mac was sleeping but she seemed to be talking to his sister because Lilly was sitting up, nodding as if agreeing with Mac and whatever conversation they were having. Lilly handed Mac a water bottle but she stood silently and rushed into the house. Lilly got up and followed Mac inside, grabbing Mac’s pool tote as she went.
“Huh, I hope Mac’s not sick.” Duncan wondered out loud. Parker shrugged her shoulders and then got up to go after Mac and Lilly. She entered the house just behind Veronica who was dripping wet but quickly wrapping one of the large white pool towels around herself.
“So, now that you’re a dad you don’t party?” Dick asked as he sat down in Parker’s vacated chair. “That sucks, I always liked parties, but I guess if you have a kid one of you would have to stay home, right?”
“I don’t know Dick. It’s not like Meg’s around so I can go out while she stays with the baby.” Duncan told him, taking another swig of the beer Lilly had given him. He couldn’t do a lot of drinking but he could at least have a beer or two on his twenty-first birthday.
“Well, it’s not like parties are that fun without Mac anyway. I mean, what’s the point of going to a party solo if you’re not going to pick up chicks?” Dick continued as if Duncan hadn’t even spoken.
“What are you talking about?” Duncan asked, his brow furrowing in confusion as he watched Logan and his daughter play alone in the pool. It was starting to get a little chilly, he should probably take her in to get dressed. They’d have to start up the grill soon anyway.
“Mac’s knocked up. They found out last week.” Logan called from the pool, holding Lilly close as he walked them both towards the steps at the end of the pool.
“Mac’s pregnant?” Duncan asked, still confused. It seemed like such a foreign concept, that Dick was going to be a father, that he couldn’t seem to grasp it.
“Yeah, she’s about ten weeks along, which I guess is about a quarter of the way through. We’re 25% of the way to having a little munchkin of our own.” Dick explained, snagging one of the beers that Logan offered out as he wrapped both himself and Little Lilly in towels. Dick reached forward and tousled Lilly’s wet hair. “A munchkin just like you.”
This caused her to scowl, “I not kin, Uncle Dick. Imma Lilly.”
“I know that.” Dick assured her. She nodded and went back to letting Logan pat her dry. Logan rubbed a bit at her hair before sending her off to the house to find Aunt Veronica. He scooped up his beer and took a long pull before he joined Duncan and Dick at the table. “How’d you know that Mac was pregnant? We haven’t really told anyone since she’s still trying to figure out how to tell her parents. All four of them.”
“Veronica told me when she got back from your place. She went to give Mac moral support while she took the test.” Logan smiled at Dick with a conciliatory smile before adding, “Sorry man, I kinda knew before you.”
“Yeah, well… When she told me I didn’t really get what she was saying because she didn’t come right out and say it. It wasn’t until a couple days later when Parker made a comment about it that it really sunk in what she had been talking about.” Dick explained in that incredibly laid back way of his. Duncan had always kind of admired that about Dick. He had every right to be as complicated and messed up and bitter as the rest of them but he never let anything get to him, never let it get him down. Dick was simple because he chose to be and Duncan suddenly understood the appeal of having Dick around. He wasn’t real complicated, but he was fun and understanding and he seemed to get a lot more than people gave him credit for.
“You’re taking it well.” Duncan commented, tipping his beer in Dick’s direction. Logan and Dick both raised their beers in a mock toast and the all tipped back at the same time.
“Well, I figure I could get upset and freak out about it and all that or I could just deal. Mac’s going to have it, there wasn’t really a question about that because I love her and she loves me and why not? I mean, there’s not going to be someone out there that’s better than Mac. She’s it because, it turns out, that she’s all I’m ever going to want or need. So we have a baby now instead of sometime down the line, it’ll all be okay.” Dick explained, shrugging his shoulders at the end and finishing off his beer. “I’m going to go see if she’s okay. She doesn’t like me in there when she throws up, and I can’t say that I really want to be there for that, but I want to make sure she’s okay.”
Dick passed Wallace and Piz on his way into the house. They were still dressed and Wallace had a Hearst basketball duffel bag slung over his shoulder and Piz had a bright yellow bowl cradled in his hands.
“Hey, man. Sorry we’re late but I had to stop by my mom’s and pick up this,” Wallace gestured to the bowl, reminding Duncan of Vanna White from Wheel-of-Fortune. Piz gently sat the bowl down on the table and backed away, pulling a case of beer out of his own duffel bag and setting them in front of Duncan.
“Happy Birthday, man. I present to you Quarry Brewing Microbrew Beer from my cousin in Montana. It’s awesome. I had him send with his mom when she went to visit my mom and she sent it with my dad when he brought down the last of my stuff last week.” Piz explained, grinning madly, obviously proud of his gift.
“And I give you my mom’s homemade potato salad, but you have to share with the group because if you don’t Veronica’s likely to kill you. It’s that good.” Wallace told him. “That’s potatoey gold right there.”
Duncan nodded and promised that he would wield the power of the potato salad well. “I will be a kind and benevolent dictator on this day of celebration.” Duncan lifted a bottle of the microbrew that Piz had given him, used the bottle opener key chain that Logan offered him, and took a quick drink of the beer. “Wow, that’s really good. Way better than the crap Logan keeps pushing on me.”
“Dude, that comes from the finest microbrewery in So Cal.” Logan was indignant, reaching for a bottle of the Quarry stuff.
“Hey! My present!” Duncan shouted, slapping Logan’s hand away. “Wait for your own birthday.” Duncan took another pull from the bottle. “Damn, I think I’m going to order some of this stuff.”
“And in that case.” Logan snatched a bottle before Duncan could stop him. Duncan shrugged and threw him back his keys so he could open it.
“That’s all you’re getting.”
“Whatever, I’m going to go start the grill.” With that Logan stood and sauntered off towards the grilling station that Duncan’s dad had built into the patio last summer.
~Parker~
“I know I should be home, mom. I know you wanted me home to do the whole family dinner thing, but I’ve got to be back on the radio tomorrow morning and it just wouldn’t work out anyway.” Parker told her mother for approximately the three hundredth time.
“I don’t understand why you’re letting this little radio hobby take you away from your family on such an important holiday. You’ve never skipped a holiday with us before and now you’re passing on Thanksgiving and I hear from Anna’s mother that you’re not sure you’ll be able to make it for Christmas.” Parker grit her teeth in annoyance at both her mother’s insinuation that the radio show was a hobby and that her best friend from high school had let it slip to her mother that Parker was thinking about not making the trip back for Christmas either and then she had called her mother and told her. Probably not even five minutes later. She was going to have to have a little chat with Anna the next time she got a minute to call her.
She understood where Anna was coming from, kind of. Parker hadn’t really been back to Denver since the summer after freshman year and the more she spoke to her old friends from high school the more she realized that her college experience might not be typical. A friend - and former roommate - who moonlighted as a private investigator, solving mysteries and kidnappings and murders when she wasn’t busy with classes. An ex-boyfriend who was almost as famous as his murdered father who also happened to be murderer himself. A billionaire heir for a best friend, his heiress sister as her radio show co-host. Her ex-roommate and good friend was a computer hacker that could pretty much rule the world someday and her millionaire boyfriend. One of the best college basketball players in the country and a future rockstar for friends and roommates. It all sounded glamorous and far fetched even to her and she was living it. God, her boyfriend was the CEO and president of his family publishing company and multi-millionaire several times over, and he was only twenty-two. Parker had a sneaking suspicion that none of her friends really believed her when she told them this stuff.
“Mom, I told you that I’d probably be spending Christmas with Casey. He invited me to spend it at his family house here in Neptune and I think I’m going to take him up on it. I’ll probably have to be back for work pretty soon after the holiday and it wouldn’t really be worth it to fly up there just for a day or two.” Parker explained, fidgeting with the strap of the purse that lie across her lap. She didn’t get paid that much to be on the radio and she had actually volunteered to cover for another deejay while he was in Florida visiting his own family, but her mother didn’t need to know that. She also didn’t know that Parker actually invited Anna to come and stay with her over winter break either, after Christmas.
“Anna’s mother tells me that Anna will be flying down to California to stay with you for a week before she flies back to Indiana for school. You have time to visit with friends, but you don’t have time for your own family?” Not exactly a new angle, but her mother wasn’t exactly creative with her guilt trips either. Not like Lilly and Duncan’s mother. Mrs. Kane seemed to be pretty skilled at it even though it never got her anywhere with her own children. And the withering stare, she could teach Parker’s mother a thing or two about staring someone down.
“I just don’t have time for a trip right now mother. The decision has already been made, I don’t know why you keep harping on it. I’ll try to make it back for Easter or maybe during Spring Break, but I can’t make it before then, I’m sorry.” Lies. All lies. She wasn’t sorry. She was already planning to head down to some resort in Mexico with everyone for Spring Break and she, Lilly and Veronica were planning Mac’s baby shower for sometime around Easter. And Casey did this whole Easter fundraiser for underprivileged children that she had already volunteer to help him with. Her mother didn’t need to know any of this either.
“I don’t understand you anymore, Parker.” Her mother said that like she had ever understood her at all. “You used to love being with your family.” Correction, she used to have to endure her family because she was a minor and couldn’t escape the holiday craziness. She never enjoyed being at the kids table while her little cousins kicked her under the table and her mother’s alcoholic brother made a passes at her father’s sister in front of both their spouses and everyone else. “Now you seem to have written us all off. Nobody has seen you since you started college. We’ve barely seen you, we don’t see you unless we visit, except for that short stay after freshman year you haven’t been back.” Not true, she was home for Christmas and Thanksgiving last year, everyone saw her then.
“I’m sure the holidays will be fine without me, mother.” She needed to get dressed, finish her make up and her hair and get over to Logan and Veronica’s. Veronica had specifically said that dinner would be at six and if she was late then she’d have to deal with Veronica and the fact that she was taking this hostess gig way too seriously. Lilly had already left without her, Wallace was picking up his mom and little brother on the way to dinner. Mac had offered to swing by and pick her up but she’d been planning on riding with Lilly before her mother had called. Now it was four-thirty and she still had to get ready and drive across town in holiday traffic and this conversation was showing no signs of ending.
“Holidays are for family, Parker Lee.” Abandoning the guilt trip for a scolding. Parker wondered when that had ever worked out and why her mother kept using the same old tactics when they didn’t work.
“Well, my friends are like a family so you can rest assured. I have to get ready mother or I’ll be late to dinner.” Parker got off the bed, determined to end the conversation. “If I’m late Veronica will be upset and I’ll be delaying dinner for fifteen other people.”
“You should be here, with you actual family.” Her mother tried again and Parker rolled her eyes in frustration.
“Well, it’s too late for me to catch a flight so you’re just going to have to get over it. Now, please tell daddy I said Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a wonderful dinner, but I have to go mother. Goodbye.” Parker ended the call and then stood there for a moment staring at her phone, a little shocked at what she’d done. She’d never hung up on her mother before, it was a liberating feeling.
She shot a quick text to Casey and another to Veronica, letting them know she might be a little late because of a phone call with her mother and then she went into the bathroom to finish her make up. She was quite proud of herself, feeling rather smug until her phone began trilling out her mother’s ringtone. Parker cringed and reached for her phone, hesitating a moment before she resolutely hit the silence button and continued applying her red lipstick.
Her mother called again while she was sliding into her chocolate brown dress. Once more while she was slipping on her nude patent leather platform stilettos that she had picked up on a shopping trip with Lilly. She slid the buzzing phone into her matching purse, checked her reflection once more, snagged her keys off the small table next to her bedroom door, flipped off her light switch and made her way out of the house. She heard it buzz pretty continuously on the drive to Echolls-Mars house and, after parking her car in the open space between Lilly’s BMW and Dick’s Escalade, she pulled her phone out again.
“Parker Jane Lee. How dare you hang up on me!” her mother started in the moment she answered.
“I have dinner plans mother, I told you that several times. You cannot command me back to Denver. I can’t teleport so I wouldn’t make your dinner even if you could. I’m a twenty years old and I do not have to check in with before I make plans. Now, if I’m not mistaken, you are actually missing the dinner you are so insistent that I intend so you can be on the phone yelling at me. I have to go before I’m late, I’ll try to call you tomorrow.” Parker hung her phone up again before her mother could get another word in and, after some deliberation, she threw the phone onto the front passenger seat before getting out and locking her car.
Parker walked quickly up the front walk and entered the house without knocking. Logan thought it was funny that none of their friends knocked before entering but Veronica always said that she thought it was kind of nice. It was sweet how peaceful Veronica and Logan both seemed these days, living together with their maniac puppy. “Hello!” She called out to everyone.
“Hello.” A small redhead in a designer dress with the shoes and bag to match greeted her as she passed through the living room towards the dining room that was decorated in browns and oranges with a table set for sixteen. “Trina Echolls, and you are?” The woman looked at her expectantly, head tilted in the same curious way that Logan had.
“Parker. Lee.” Trina raised her eyebrows slightly in an insinuated shrug before she continued on her way. Parker was reminded very much of Logan, and though he was always so adamant about the fact that Trina was adopted, Parker could see the similarities between them in mannerisms and posture. Chalk one up to nurture.
“Parker, sweetie, don’t you look lovely.” Mrs. Fennel called from the living room where she was seated with Little Lilly on her lap as she chatted with Tamsin, Casey and Wallace. Casey immediately stood up to give her a kiss on the cheek before leading her further into the room.
“Thank you Mrs. Fennel, you look very nice too.” She smiled at Wallace’s mom who had become sort of a surrogate mother for everyone currently living at the Big House with her son. Why can’t my mother be like that? “I’m going to pop into the kitchen to see if Veronica needs any help.” She left the room to the sound of Alicia finishing her story.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Parker called as she entered the kitchen where Veronica, Mac, Lilly and Logan were congregated. Logan sat on the island counter to the left of the stove, popping snap peas into his mouth as he watched his girlfriend cook. Lilly and Mac sat at the breakfast bar directly across from Veronica at the stove. The counters were messy, piled with pots and pans that Veronica had used to cook. Lilly was transferring mashed potatoes into a serving bowl while Mac did the same with the stuffing. Parker spotted a large turkey in the top oven and a pie of some sort in the bottom one.
“Hey, you look great.” Veronica greeted, giving her a quick once over before turning back to the stove. Parker hugged Lilly and then Mac before sliding into an empty stool at the end of the bar.
“Thanks. The food looks amazing.” Parker told her, taking a handful of the snap peas that were sitting out on the counter for snacking.
“Thank you.” Veronica said as she struck a quick pose before she went back to stirring whatever it was in the pot. Logan picked up his phone again and stared at it. “Although you might take that back if this gravy doesn’t thicken.”
“I think you should stop stirring it and just let it come to a boil, then remove it from the heat. It should thicken up.” Logan told her, showing her the screen on his phone.
“I tried that. I think it might be time to call in the big guns.” Veronica sighed and looked up at the three girls lined up in front of her. “Mac, will you go get Alicia?”
“Did you try stirring a little cornstarch into it?” Parker offered.
“No. Logan grab the cornstarch, it’s in the pantry in a yellow plastic jar.” Veronica sent him off.
“So what were you guys talking about?” Parker asked.
“Logan was complaining about Trina being here and Lilly was whining about Weevil. All of Veronica’s problems seem to be food related though.” Mac told her.
“Oh. I met Trina when I came in, can’t say I’m all that impressed, but I didn’t see Weevil.”
“Dad, Dick, Duncan and Weevil are all downstairs watching football on the big screen. I think Casey and Wallace were on their way down before Alicia waylaid them in the living room. Darrel is in Logan’s game room, playing with the Wii and I think Trina just went into the office to check her email before dinner. Apparently she’s expecting something from her agent about some role on one of the CBS sitcoms.” Veronica rattled off, sprinkling some of the cornstarch into the pot as she stirred.
“Sounds like it’s going to be a fun Thanksgiving.” Parker said excitedly, leaning forward to look into the pot. A timer went off and Logan turned towards the oven as he slipped on a pair of oven mits and pulled the turkey out of the oven.
“I think interesting might be a more accurate description.” Veronica corrected as they all four girls watched in amazement as Logan basted the turkey a bit before checking the temperature.
“It’s done.” He announced finally looking up. “What?”
Lilly, Mac and Parker turned, simultaneously, back to Veronica, who just shrugged and said, “Yeah, well you should’ve been here when he stuck his hand up it’s ass in order to stuff it.”
39: Three Pt II
Rating: R
Word Count: 20,797 (Pt I: 5,150)
Characters/Pairings: Mac, Veronica, Logan, Lilly I, Duncan, Dick, Wallace, Piz, Parker, Casey Gant, Lilly II, Alicia Fennel, Trina Echolls, Mrs. Lee, Celeste Kane, Jake Kane, OFCs, Carrie Bishop, Susan Knight (mentions: Darrel Fennel, OFC, Weevil, Aaron Echolls 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
39
Three
November 2008
~Mac~
Mac paced as the phone rang and she waited, impatiently, for Veronica to pick up. What the hell was going on over there in that house? This was the third time she’d tried the landline and she’d already called Veronica’s cell three times and Logan’s twice. What was going on that neither Veronica or Logan were answering their phones? They didn’t have a class, Veronica wasn’t working, unless they were in the hospital or, more likely, in jail…
“Hello?” Veronica’s voice came through loud and clear and… out of breath. Oh God, she interrupted sex and now Veronica was probably going to take ten million years to get here.
“Where were you? I’ve called a thousand times.” Okay, she didn’t really need the answer to that question. “I called Logan’s phone a bunch of times, too.”
“I was blow drying my hair, couldn’t hear the phones. Logan is down on the beach with Ares though, do you want me to get him?” Veronica’s voice took on that concerned tone she got whenever she suspected bad news. Mac thought it through and realized her panic might come off that something was wrong. Well, something was wrong but nothing as dramatic as what was more typical of their group.
“No, I was trying to get a hold of you. I need you to come over.” Mac tried to slow her breathing, calm herself down a little.
“Okay, I just have to put on my shoes and a sweater and I’ll be there. Like, twenty minutes okay?” Now she was coddling.
“I also need you to pick something up for me.” Mac took a deep breath.
“What do you need Mac?”
“Pregnancy tests. Get a couple, just in case.”
“Okay.”
That was too easy. “I’m at Dick’s.”
“Mac, I helped move you in there last weekend, I know where you are. And since you’re officially living…” Mac heard the rustle of fabric, like she was putting on a shirt, “with your boyfriend you should start calling it home or something to that effect.”
“How hard was it for you to not say ‘living in sin’?” Mac asked, her panic easing off enough to appreciate Veronica’s humor.
There was the jangle of keys and then a burst of static as the outside wind hit the mouthpiece of Veronica’s phone. “So hard, but I thought it might upset you… under the circumstances.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And Veronica?”
Mac heard the wind stop with the slamming of a car door. A sudden burst of music, silence and then “Yeah?”
“Speed.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll break all the laws. Good thing my daddy’s sheriff.” Veronica joked. “Hey, do you want me to bring Logan?”
“Why would you bring Logan?” Mac asked, suddenly panicked.
“Dick distraction.” Veronica said simply.
“No that’s okay. He’ s gone to see his dad so he should be gone for quite a while.”
“Alrighty then, I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.”
~*~
Mac paced the bedroom restlessly, her hands twisting together with nervous tension. “What does that one say?”
“It’s positive.” Veronica told her, setting another pregnancy test down in the line on the bathroom counter.
“Maybe we should try another one.” She suggested, her head whipping back and forth, scanning the counters and floor for another box.
“Mac, that was the last one.”
“So we should go get another one. Maybe wait a couple days and see if maybe it’s just-”
“See if today you’re peeing pregnant and you won’t be tomorrow? It doesn’t work like that.” Veronica interrupted. “You’ve tried six different brands, two in each box. So that’s, what? Twelve tests, all positive. I think now you need to call and make an appointment with health services on campus. Then you need to figure out how exactly how you’re going to tell Dick.”
“Will you do it for me?” Mac asked, cringing at her own cowardice.
“No. But I will help you decide when and how to do it.” Her best friend offered, sympathy in her eyes even though she was smirking.
“Okay. When and how?”
“Tonight, and I think a straightforward announcement would be better than hinting at it. Dick doesn’t always get the hint and you don’t want to have one of those conversations where he thinks you’re talking about something else and you think he understands without actually coming out and saying it. I mean, you don’t want it to be a couple days later and you’re at the doctor’s and he’s giving you your due date and Dick’s like ‘due for what?’, right?”
“Right. Are you sure you don’t want to do it for me? He always takes you seriously.” Mac tried again, not looking forward to having this conversation.
“No. That’s a conversation I’ve never wanted to have, least of all with Dick Casablancas.” Veronica adamantly shook her head in refusal.
“Please?” Mac tried once again.
“No.”
~Duncan~
He doesn’t know how he managed to get all his closest friends here, with no extras, for his birthday. One minute Lilly was talking blowout and the next she had inexplicably given in to the quiet barbeque with just their closest friends in the backyard of the old Kane Estate.
“Come on, Munchkin, swim to me. Forget about Aunt Veronica and come to me.” Logan coaxed, treading water in the pool and holding his arms out for little Lilly. Veronica called out from the other side of the pool and little Lilly hesitated between them, trying to decide. According to her namesake, this was how Logan and Veronica had taught little Lilly how to swim last summer.
“You know, she was almost scared of the water at the beginning of last summer. Logan nearly had a heart attack when they took her to the beach and she wouldn’t go near the water.” Parker told him as she watched, with him, as his two best friends in the whole world confused the hell out of his little girl.
“Probably something Celeste said to her. We used to go to the beach all the time in Mollymook. Sometimes I really kind of miss Australia, but then I look at Logan and Veronica, Lilly and you and all our friends and I think about how I’d never want to miss this.” He felt sullen and depressing in this bizarre sentimental state he found himself in suddenly.
“I’m glad you’re here.” Parker announced to him, grinning wildly even though she was checking her watch for close to the millionth time in the last thirty minutes. Apparently Casey was late. “Not that freshman year with everybody was great, because it was, for about two minutes. Then everything happened and snowballed until we were ending the year with all this drama.”
“I hate to tell you but that’s more the norm in Neptune than the way it’s been lately. Having an eventless year, especially with Veronica and Logan around, isn’t really likely. With Lilly out and about it’s plain impossible. You can’t tell me that you went all last year drama-free.” Duncan raised an eyebrow skeptically, practically daring Parker to make the assertion that his sister hadn’t gotten into some kind of trouble last year.
“Okay, no it wasn’t drama free last year, but it wasn’t non-stop insanity either.” Parker told him making a small concession.
“Well, I think we always knew that their first year at college was going to be crazy. After all, there’s new enemies to make.” He was joking, he really was, but he also knew that while his friends hadn’t gone into the situation thinking like this he also knew that, on some level, that had expected it. After all, no one made enemies quite like Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars.
“You have no idea. I mean, Veronica got herself involved in some really scary stuff. A murder, rapes and a gang.” Parker said it with such shock and such awe that it forced Duncan to remember that she hadn’t always been around, that this was all still pretty new to her. Murder and mystery wasn’t an everyday occurrence in other places, in other high schools and there probably wasn’t another tiny blonde solving mysteries anywhere else in the world.
“Here.” Lilly came a stop in front of him and shoved a beer into his hands. “It’s your twenty-first birthday and you haven’t had a single beer. I mean, you won’t even go out and buy alcohol, what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m not that into it. It’s not like I party all that often, once you have a child it’s kind of difficult to really get into the whole turning twenty-one thing.” Duncan explained, but took the beer anyway. Lilly continued to stand before him, hands on hips and eyebrows raised in questioning annoyance, so he twisted off the top and took a swig.
“You’re such a freak.” His sister informed him before turning on her heel and flouncing away to the opposite side of the pool and plopping down next to Mac on a lounge chair. Mac raised her head slightly to look at the blonde before laying back and down. He’d thought Mac was sleeping but she seemed to be talking to his sister because Lilly was sitting up, nodding as if agreeing with Mac and whatever conversation they were having. Lilly handed Mac a water bottle but she stood silently and rushed into the house. Lilly got up and followed Mac inside, grabbing Mac’s pool tote as she went.
“Huh, I hope Mac’s not sick.” Duncan wondered out loud. Parker shrugged her shoulders and then got up to go after Mac and Lilly. She entered the house just behind Veronica who was dripping wet but quickly wrapping one of the large white pool towels around herself.
“So, now that you’re a dad you don’t party?” Dick asked as he sat down in Parker’s vacated chair. “That sucks, I always liked parties, but I guess if you have a kid one of you would have to stay home, right?”
“I don’t know Dick. It’s not like Meg’s around so I can go out while she stays with the baby.” Duncan told him, taking another swig of the beer Lilly had given him. He couldn’t do a lot of drinking but he could at least have a beer or two on his twenty-first birthday.
“Well, it’s not like parties are that fun without Mac anyway. I mean, what’s the point of going to a party solo if you’re not going to pick up chicks?” Dick continued as if Duncan hadn’t even spoken.
“What are you talking about?” Duncan asked, his brow furrowing in confusion as he watched Logan and his daughter play alone in the pool. It was starting to get a little chilly, he should probably take her in to get dressed. They’d have to start up the grill soon anyway.
“Mac’s knocked up. They found out last week.” Logan called from the pool, holding Lilly close as he walked them both towards the steps at the end of the pool.
“Mac’s pregnant?” Duncan asked, still confused. It seemed like such a foreign concept, that Dick was going to be a father, that he couldn’t seem to grasp it.
“Yeah, she’s about ten weeks along, which I guess is about a quarter of the way through. We’re 25% of the way to having a little munchkin of our own.” Dick explained, snagging one of the beers that Logan offered out as he wrapped both himself and Little Lilly in towels. Dick reached forward and tousled Lilly’s wet hair. “A munchkin just like you.”
This caused her to scowl, “I not kin, Uncle Dick. Imma Lilly.”
“I know that.” Dick assured her. She nodded and went back to letting Logan pat her dry. Logan rubbed a bit at her hair before sending her off to the house to find Aunt Veronica. He scooped up his beer and took a long pull before he joined Duncan and Dick at the table. “How’d you know that Mac was pregnant? We haven’t really told anyone since she’s still trying to figure out how to tell her parents. All four of them.”
“Veronica told me when she got back from your place. She went to give Mac moral support while she took the test.” Logan smiled at Dick with a conciliatory smile before adding, “Sorry man, I kinda knew before you.”
“Yeah, well… When she told me I didn’t really get what she was saying because she didn’t come right out and say it. It wasn’t until a couple days later when Parker made a comment about it that it really sunk in what she had been talking about.” Dick explained in that incredibly laid back way of his. Duncan had always kind of admired that about Dick. He had every right to be as complicated and messed up and bitter as the rest of them but he never let anything get to him, never let it get him down. Dick was simple because he chose to be and Duncan suddenly understood the appeal of having Dick around. He wasn’t real complicated, but he was fun and understanding and he seemed to get a lot more than people gave him credit for.
“You’re taking it well.” Duncan commented, tipping his beer in Dick’s direction. Logan and Dick both raised their beers in a mock toast and the all tipped back at the same time.
“Well, I figure I could get upset and freak out about it and all that or I could just deal. Mac’s going to have it, there wasn’t really a question about that because I love her and she loves me and why not? I mean, there’s not going to be someone out there that’s better than Mac. She’s it because, it turns out, that she’s all I’m ever going to want or need. So we have a baby now instead of sometime down the line, it’ll all be okay.” Dick explained, shrugging his shoulders at the end and finishing off his beer. “I’m going to go see if she’s okay. She doesn’t like me in there when she throws up, and I can’t say that I really want to be there for that, but I want to make sure she’s okay.”
Dick passed Wallace and Piz on his way into the house. They were still dressed and Wallace had a Hearst basketball duffel bag slung over his shoulder and Piz had a bright yellow bowl cradled in his hands.
“Hey, man. Sorry we’re late but I had to stop by my mom’s and pick up this,” Wallace gestured to the bowl, reminding Duncan of Vanna White from Wheel-of-Fortune. Piz gently sat the bowl down on the table and backed away, pulling a case of beer out of his own duffel bag and setting them in front of Duncan.
“Happy Birthday, man. I present to you Quarry Brewing Microbrew Beer from my cousin in Montana. It’s awesome. I had him send with his mom when she went to visit my mom and she sent it with my dad when he brought down the last of my stuff last week.” Piz explained, grinning madly, obviously proud of his gift.
“And I give you my mom’s homemade potato salad, but you have to share with the group because if you don’t Veronica’s likely to kill you. It’s that good.” Wallace told him. “That’s potatoey gold right there.”
Duncan nodded and promised that he would wield the power of the potato salad well. “I will be a kind and benevolent dictator on this day of celebration.” Duncan lifted a bottle of the microbrew that Piz had given him, used the bottle opener key chain that Logan offered him, and took a quick drink of the beer. “Wow, that’s really good. Way better than the crap Logan keeps pushing on me.”
“Dude, that comes from the finest microbrewery in So Cal.” Logan was indignant, reaching for a bottle of the Quarry stuff.
“Hey! My present!” Duncan shouted, slapping Logan’s hand away. “Wait for your own birthday.” Duncan took another pull from the bottle. “Damn, I think I’m going to order some of this stuff.”
“And in that case.” Logan snatched a bottle before Duncan could stop him. Duncan shrugged and threw him back his keys so he could open it.
“That’s all you’re getting.”
“Whatever, I’m going to go start the grill.” With that Logan stood and sauntered off towards the grilling station that Duncan’s dad had built into the patio last summer.
~Parker~
“I know I should be home, mom. I know you wanted me home to do the whole family dinner thing, but I’ve got to be back on the radio tomorrow morning and it just wouldn’t work out anyway.” Parker told her mother for approximately the three hundredth time.
“I don’t understand why you’re letting this little radio hobby take you away from your family on such an important holiday. You’ve never skipped a holiday with us before and now you’re passing on Thanksgiving and I hear from Anna’s mother that you’re not sure you’ll be able to make it for Christmas.” Parker grit her teeth in annoyance at both her mother’s insinuation that the radio show was a hobby and that her best friend from high school had let it slip to her mother that Parker was thinking about not making the trip back for Christmas either and then she had called her mother and told her. Probably not even five minutes later. She was going to have to have a little chat with Anna the next time she got a minute to call her.
She understood where Anna was coming from, kind of. Parker hadn’t really been back to Denver since the summer after freshman year and the more she spoke to her old friends from high school the more she realized that her college experience might not be typical. A friend - and former roommate - who moonlighted as a private investigator, solving mysteries and kidnappings and murders when she wasn’t busy with classes. An ex-boyfriend who was almost as famous as his murdered father who also happened to be murderer himself. A billionaire heir for a best friend, his heiress sister as her radio show co-host. Her ex-roommate and good friend was a computer hacker that could pretty much rule the world someday and her millionaire boyfriend. One of the best college basketball players in the country and a future rockstar for friends and roommates. It all sounded glamorous and far fetched even to her and she was living it. God, her boyfriend was the CEO and president of his family publishing company and multi-millionaire several times over, and he was only twenty-two. Parker had a sneaking suspicion that none of her friends really believed her when she told them this stuff.
“Mom, I told you that I’d probably be spending Christmas with Casey. He invited me to spend it at his family house here in Neptune and I think I’m going to take him up on it. I’ll probably have to be back for work pretty soon after the holiday and it wouldn’t really be worth it to fly up there just for a day or two.” Parker explained, fidgeting with the strap of the purse that lie across her lap. She didn’t get paid that much to be on the radio and she had actually volunteered to cover for another deejay while he was in Florida visiting his own family, but her mother didn’t need to know that. She also didn’t know that Parker actually invited Anna to come and stay with her over winter break either, after Christmas.
“Anna’s mother tells me that Anna will be flying down to California to stay with you for a week before she flies back to Indiana for school. You have time to visit with friends, but you don’t have time for your own family?” Not exactly a new angle, but her mother wasn’t exactly creative with her guilt trips either. Not like Lilly and Duncan’s mother. Mrs. Kane seemed to be pretty skilled at it even though it never got her anywhere with her own children. And the withering stare, she could teach Parker’s mother a thing or two about staring someone down.
“I just don’t have time for a trip right now mother. The decision has already been made, I don’t know why you keep harping on it. I’ll try to make it back for Easter or maybe during Spring Break, but I can’t make it before then, I’m sorry.” Lies. All lies. She wasn’t sorry. She was already planning to head down to some resort in Mexico with everyone for Spring Break and she, Lilly and Veronica were planning Mac’s baby shower for sometime around Easter. And Casey did this whole Easter fundraiser for underprivileged children that she had already volunteer to help him with. Her mother didn’t need to know any of this either.
“I don’t understand you anymore, Parker.” Her mother said that like she had ever understood her at all. “You used to love being with your family.” Correction, she used to have to endure her family because she was a minor and couldn’t escape the holiday craziness. She never enjoyed being at the kids table while her little cousins kicked her under the table and her mother’s alcoholic brother made a passes at her father’s sister in front of both their spouses and everyone else. “Now you seem to have written us all off. Nobody has seen you since you started college. We’ve barely seen you, we don’t see you unless we visit, except for that short stay after freshman year you haven’t been back.” Not true, she was home for Christmas and Thanksgiving last year, everyone saw her then.
“I’m sure the holidays will be fine without me, mother.” She needed to get dressed, finish her make up and her hair and get over to Logan and Veronica’s. Veronica had specifically said that dinner would be at six and if she was late then she’d have to deal with Veronica and the fact that she was taking this hostess gig way too seriously. Lilly had already left without her, Wallace was picking up his mom and little brother on the way to dinner. Mac had offered to swing by and pick her up but she’d been planning on riding with Lilly before her mother had called. Now it was four-thirty and she still had to get ready and drive across town in holiday traffic and this conversation was showing no signs of ending.
“Holidays are for family, Parker Lee.” Abandoning the guilt trip for a scolding. Parker wondered when that had ever worked out and why her mother kept using the same old tactics when they didn’t work.
“Well, my friends are like a family so you can rest assured. I have to get ready mother or I’ll be late to dinner.” Parker got off the bed, determined to end the conversation. “If I’m late Veronica will be upset and I’ll be delaying dinner for fifteen other people.”
“You should be here, with you actual family.” Her mother tried again and Parker rolled her eyes in frustration.
“Well, it’s too late for me to catch a flight so you’re just going to have to get over it. Now, please tell daddy I said Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a wonderful dinner, but I have to go mother. Goodbye.” Parker ended the call and then stood there for a moment staring at her phone, a little shocked at what she’d done. She’d never hung up on her mother before, it was a liberating feeling.
She shot a quick text to Casey and another to Veronica, letting them know she might be a little late because of a phone call with her mother and then she went into the bathroom to finish her make up. She was quite proud of herself, feeling rather smug until her phone began trilling out her mother’s ringtone. Parker cringed and reached for her phone, hesitating a moment before she resolutely hit the silence button and continued applying her red lipstick.
Her mother called again while she was sliding into her chocolate brown dress. Once more while she was slipping on her nude patent leather platform stilettos that she had picked up on a shopping trip with Lilly. She slid the buzzing phone into her matching purse, checked her reflection once more, snagged her keys off the small table next to her bedroom door, flipped off her light switch and made her way out of the house. She heard it buzz pretty continuously on the drive to Echolls-Mars house and, after parking her car in the open space between Lilly’s BMW and Dick’s Escalade, she pulled her phone out again.
“Parker Jane Lee. How dare you hang up on me!” her mother started in the moment she answered.
“I have dinner plans mother, I told you that several times. You cannot command me back to Denver. I can’t teleport so I wouldn’t make your dinner even if you could. I’m a twenty years old and I do not have to check in with before I make plans. Now, if I’m not mistaken, you are actually missing the dinner you are so insistent that I intend so you can be on the phone yelling at me. I have to go before I’m late, I’ll try to call you tomorrow.” Parker hung her phone up again before her mother could get another word in and, after some deliberation, she threw the phone onto the front passenger seat before getting out and locking her car.
Parker walked quickly up the front walk and entered the house without knocking. Logan thought it was funny that none of their friends knocked before entering but Veronica always said that she thought it was kind of nice. It was sweet how peaceful Veronica and Logan both seemed these days, living together with their maniac puppy. “Hello!” She called out to everyone.
“Hello.” A small redhead in a designer dress with the shoes and bag to match greeted her as she passed through the living room towards the dining room that was decorated in browns and oranges with a table set for sixteen. “Trina Echolls, and you are?” The woman looked at her expectantly, head tilted in the same curious way that Logan had.
“Parker. Lee.” Trina raised her eyebrows slightly in an insinuated shrug before she continued on her way. Parker was reminded very much of Logan, and though he was always so adamant about the fact that Trina was adopted, Parker could see the similarities between them in mannerisms and posture. Chalk one up to nurture.
“Parker, sweetie, don’t you look lovely.” Mrs. Fennel called from the living room where she was seated with Little Lilly on her lap as she chatted with Tamsin, Casey and Wallace. Casey immediately stood up to give her a kiss on the cheek before leading her further into the room.
“Thank you Mrs. Fennel, you look very nice too.” She smiled at Wallace’s mom who had become sort of a surrogate mother for everyone currently living at the Big House with her son. Why can’t my mother be like that? “I’m going to pop into the kitchen to see if Veronica needs any help.” She left the room to the sound of Alicia finishing her story.
“Happy Thanksgiving!” Parker called as she entered the kitchen where Veronica, Mac, Lilly and Logan were congregated. Logan sat on the island counter to the left of the stove, popping snap peas into his mouth as he watched his girlfriend cook. Lilly and Mac sat at the breakfast bar directly across from Veronica at the stove. The counters were messy, piled with pots and pans that Veronica had used to cook. Lilly was transferring mashed potatoes into a serving bowl while Mac did the same with the stuffing. Parker spotted a large turkey in the top oven and a pie of some sort in the bottom one.
“Hey, you look great.” Veronica greeted, giving her a quick once over before turning back to the stove. Parker hugged Lilly and then Mac before sliding into an empty stool at the end of the bar.
“Thanks. The food looks amazing.” Parker told her, taking a handful of the snap peas that were sitting out on the counter for snacking.
“Thank you.” Veronica said as she struck a quick pose before she went back to stirring whatever it was in the pot. Logan picked up his phone again and stared at it. “Although you might take that back if this gravy doesn’t thicken.”
“I think you should stop stirring it and just let it come to a boil, then remove it from the heat. It should thicken up.” Logan told her, showing her the screen on his phone.
“I tried that. I think it might be time to call in the big guns.” Veronica sighed and looked up at the three girls lined up in front of her. “Mac, will you go get Alicia?”
“Did you try stirring a little cornstarch into it?” Parker offered.
“No. Logan grab the cornstarch, it’s in the pantry in a yellow plastic jar.” Veronica sent him off.
“So what were you guys talking about?” Parker asked.
“Logan was complaining about Trina being here and Lilly was whining about Weevil. All of Veronica’s problems seem to be food related though.” Mac told her.
“Oh. I met Trina when I came in, can’t say I’m all that impressed, but I didn’t see Weevil.”
“Dad, Dick, Duncan and Weevil are all downstairs watching football on the big screen. I think Casey and Wallace were on their way down before Alicia waylaid them in the living room. Darrel is in Logan’s game room, playing with the Wii and I think Trina just went into the office to check her email before dinner. Apparently she’s expecting something from her agent about some role on one of the CBS sitcoms.” Veronica rattled off, sprinkling some of the cornstarch into the pot as she stirred.
“Sounds like it’s going to be a fun Thanksgiving.” Parker said excitedly, leaning forward to look into the pot. A timer went off and Logan turned towards the oven as he slipped on a pair of oven mits and pulled the turkey out of the oven.
“I think interesting might be a more accurate description.” Veronica corrected as they all four girls watched in amazement as Logan basted the turkey a bit before checking the temperature.
“It’s done.” He announced finally looking up. “What?”
Lilly, Mac and Parker turned, simultaneously, back to Veronica, who just shrugged and said, “Yeah, well you should’ve been here when he stuck his hand up it’s ass in order to stuff it.”
39: Three Pt II