What came next was small, blond, and leaning in the doorway of the bathroom.
"Sorry, didn't you read the rules?" Veronica asked, looking at him wryly. "Clown noses are supposed to be red. With your height, we could, though, put you in the petting zoo with the giraffes." She wanted to know what had happened, but she'd learned that if she hung around long enough, she could get in her cracks and find out.
Sam could have frozen in headlights for all that he looked like a stunned deer at that moment, gaping at her with worry and a flash of panic. "Ve...Veronica, hi!" he nervously greeted, voice an octave higher than it really should have been. "Uh, yeah. It's...it's broken, yeah."
"I guessed," she said, walking in, arms folded. She looked him over critically, noting that he seemed in all other ways to be in one piece. "What I don't know is what happened to get it that way. Did you get into a fight?" He didn't look like he had, though. She'd seen Logan and even Duncan after they'd been in fights, and many other men since, and they generally didn't look this alright.
Sam shook his head and cleared his throat, knowing that an explanation was definitely coming soon. "No. Actually. It was an accident." It still resulted in him having a broken nose and being in a lot of pain, but none of it was on purpose or anything. "It was just someone new. It was Jess, actually. She uh, ... from off the ceiling."
"Jess?" Veronica stared at him, startled enough to let it show. She'd never expected that, even after Lilly had been and gone. "That's... Sam, wow," she said, blinking as she pulled a smile onto her face, "that's amazing, that's... your Jess? From - Wow. Uh, that's wonderful. I'm so glad for you."
He was still smiling, but there was something lurking around his eyes that said that this was hard for him, absolutely so hard. "Yeah," he agreed quietly. "Yeah, Jess. She fell on me, sort of smacked a hand to my nose. It was a weird reunion," he said, awkwardly. "She...doesn't remember dying."
"Well, that's - that's a good thing," Veronica said, nodding, her smile thin. "It's... This whole place is traumatic enough without bringing that into the equation. She's - she is much better off here in your care. That's so great." She knew she was gonna start sounding like a broken record any minute now, but she couldn't help it. Saying anything more insightful would have involved actually thinking about the situation.
Sam couldn't take his eyes off of her and he felt like he was simultaneously overjoyed and heartbroken at once as he offered a shaky little smile. "Though, I think it means that we're never going to be together again, doesn't it?" he said quietly, trying not to let his disappointment show because Jess was there. Jess was alive. He was supposed to be happy.
"What, because she doesn't know she died?" Veronica asked breezily, shrugging a shoulder. She couldn't care less. It was impossible to care less than Veronica Mars did. "Oh, I wouldn't worry. I'm sure the two of you will figure it out in no time. I mean, you love her and she loves you. What could go wrong now?" She smiled, willful, intent on not letting this conversation touch her. He hadn't meant Jess, but she didn't give a damn what he'd really meant. She wouldn't discuss it and she wouldn't stop smiling either. "I just can't wait to meet her."
Sam hadn't budged, hadn't blinked, hadn't breathed. He just kept staring at her and he wished for one second that she would be...he didn't know, maybe honest about it all? "Veronica," he exhaled, giving her a reproachful look. "Can we please talk about this like adults?"
Only Sam wanted to have heart to hearts in a public bathroom. Only Sam wanted to be honest about feelings that no one could do anything about. Only he'd be earnest enough to ask for trust he'd long since forfeited and she didn't want to give.
"And what isn't adult enough about me being happy for you, Sam?" Veronica asked, sharp-tongued despite all her early efforts. What did he want, a breakdown? She'd never give anyone the pleasure of that.
Sam felt a bit stunned, actually, but he didn't want to say it aloud. His shoulders did tense, though. "I just figured we would talk longer or something. Acknowledge that it wasn't an easy thing to happen to me," he muttered, but apparently, he was wrong about that.
"Oh, it's not an easy - yes, I see, it's not an easy thing for you, Sam, that the woman you loved has returned from the dead. I'm so sorry if you were inconvenienced by her suddenly being alive." Veronica stared at him, shaking her head. She would have given anything to have Lilly back again, even knowing how awkward it could have been with five years between them, knowing how dull she'd still be in Lilly's eyes. She'd had her chance once and she was grateful for it, but that had never stopped her from wanting things to have been different. "I mean, poor you, a broken nose. Let no one ever say you didn't sacrifice for love."
"I didn't mean that," he snapped back at her, his eyes wild and his voice wild with a kind of helpless fury. "I meant you. You and me and how I still love you and I love her and she was the woman I wanted to marry and now you're both here at once and that means that any chance of you and I are done. And...and sorry if you don't want to hear about how hard that is for me."
"No, Sam, I don't. I don't want to hear it," Veronica said, frenetic now with desperation. She pushed her hair back from her face, glancing around, helpless in the face of anything like honesty. "You wanted to marry her, so marry her, and stop - stop looking at me. Stop telling me you love me. If you're moving on, move on. Why can't any of you just move on with trying to pull me behind you? You had your chance." She couldn't understand why men kept doing this to her, why they all seemed to want it both ways when they could barely manage to hold onto what they had.
Sam just took a long look at her, trying to determine if she'd always been like this or if, at one point, things were different before he'd gone and screwed it all up. "Fine," he said quietly, not bothering to tell her anything more than that, even though there was more to be said. "I will. And it's great to know you never really cared anyway," he offered, the bitterness seeping through heavily. "Thanks, Veronica, really," the sarcasm wasn't stopping.
"Sorry, didn't you read the rules?" Veronica asked, looking at him wryly. "Clown noses are supposed to be red. With your height, we could, though, put you in the petting zoo with the giraffes." She wanted to know what had happened, but she'd learned that if she hung around long enough, she could get in her cracks and find out.
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"And what isn't adult enough about me being happy for you, Sam?" Veronica asked, sharp-tongued despite all her early efforts. What did he want, a breakdown? She'd never give anyone the pleasure of that.
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