Fic: The Yellow Brick Road, Chapter 14
OH GOD HELLO FROM 4 MONTHS IN THE FUTURE! Sorry about that, I promise it won't be another 4 months without an update. I got into grad school and have been busy trying to get everything settled with that (Plus I went to Europe for 3 weeks). BUT I SHOULD BE BACK TO WRITING RELATIVELY PROMPTLY AGAIN SOON!
Here's the Rest of this story:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Fic: The Yellow Brick Road, Chapter 14
Pairings/Characters: Veronica/Lamb
Rating: Whole Fic: NC-17, This Chapter: PG-13
Spoilers: Until the end of the show, except that Lamb didn't die, obviously.
Disclaimer: Not mine
Chapter 14
As Lamb watched Veronica leave his room he smirked to himself and started mentally writing a letter Dear Penthouse…before promptly falling back into a well-deserved slumber.
Veronica left the hospital with her dad, she concentrated way too hard on driving, deliberately ignoring the stare Keith had been giving her since she sat him in the car.
“Veronica.”
She ignored him and turned on the radio extra loud and miming that she couldn’t hear him because of the music.
“I’M GOING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS! I’LL CORNER YOU IN THE APARTMENT IF I HAVE TO!” he yelled over the sound of the stereo.
Veronica weighed the options to herself… have this conversation with her dad now… or stuck in that tiny little apartment where she’d be guilted not to leave… now…later? Now. Definitely now. She sighed heavily and reached over to turn off the radio… Hell, at least this way I’ll be too concentrated on driving to see his disappointed dad face.
Seconds of silence ticked by while Veronica tried to figure out how to explain what happened between her and Lamb. Well you see Dad, your former deputy (current arch-nemesis) bedded me this weekend… thoroughly…oh yeah, this was going to go over REALLY well.
“So you and Lamb…”
“It’s not what you think, Dad…”
“Really, because I think you’ve fallen back in on the crush you had when you were 13, honestly Veronica I thought you had better taste than that.”
“You say that about all my boyfriends.”
“BOYFRIEND?!” she heard her father choke on himself.
Oops, thought Veronica. I didn’t mean to say that…
“Would you rather have it been a one night stand?”
“BOYFRIEND?!” Her father was stammering at her, apparently overlooking the ‘one night stand’ comment… if she’d looked over to her right she probably would have seen that vein throbbing. You know the one, every dad has it, his was just more prominent thanks too his little bald head.
“Not that we’ve discussed it or anything” Veronica frowned, realizing what she said was true.
“BOYFRIEND?!” His pitch was getting progressively higher. “Veronica, have you lost your mind?!”
“Even you said he seemed like a better man lately. You said you were starting to trust him.”
“Yeah, starting to trust him to arrest the right people, maybe! Not starting to trust him with my daughter.” At that point Keith started mumbling under his breath. But Veronica winced at the number of times he said kill him, gun, and dead man.
They arrived at the apartment and before Veronica turned off the car she looked at her father, “Calm down, Papa Bear. I’m a big girl after all.”
He looked at her very seriously and said “You’ll always be my little girl.”
She smiled and said “And you’ll always be the number one guy in my life… well, besides Back-Up, of course.”
“Of Course.” He smiled at her, albeit tensely, but what did she expect. In his eyes she’d pretty much told him she’d sold her soul to the blue-eyed devil.
Veronica helped her dad out of the car and up the stairs to their apartment where she proceeded to pretend to feel bad about her little tête-à-tête with Don Lamb, though she couldn’t really justify feeling bad about something that made her feel so good. Okay, so maybe she was waiting for the other shoe to drop… but not really. Because with them, both shoes had dropped long ago, how were they going to hurt each other worse than they already had?
Regardless she got her dad everything he asked for, except a beer since that was prohibited by his doctor as the nurse who had already called twice since he’d been home (hmmm, how suspect) had reminded him.
“So, Father Dearest… Speaking of nefarious love affairs, what do you want to tell me about this nurse, Gloria? She could see her father blush under the scrutiny of her raised eyebrows.” (She could always tell when he was really embarrassed because the tips of his ears got red.) “Unless it’s now the SOP of hospitals to have their nurses call ALL their handsome and dashing patients...” He didn’t answer and a few seconds later the doorbell rang, Veronica went to answer it. Standing at the door was a pretty little middle-aged nurse with dark red hair. Veronica smacked a smile on her lips and said “Well speak of the devil!”
She walked over to give her father a kiss on the head and turned to the nurse. She said “You two play nice now, and don’t keep him up too late he’s had a trying couple of days.” Of course her tone of voice was that of a soccer mom giving instructions for a play date.
“Hey, where are you going?” Keith called after her.
“Headed to Logan’s, I want to make sure he knows everything turned out all right.”
Keith furrowed his brow in confusion, “Wait… Logan Echolls is actually worried about the well-being of this city’s thin line of blue?”
“Logan concern extends to anything and everything I’m concerned about. You should follow suit Daddy-O.”
Keith mouthed to say more but Veronica shut the door and cut him off. She smiled to herself as she walked down to her car. Okay so, he hadn’t taken the news well, per se, but he also hadn’t forbade her from seeing Lamb. Not that at twenty-one he had much authority over her… but he still would have tried to tell her what to do if he’d really been that upset. So that was good news, right?
Maybe that nurse was having a good effect on him. She’d been bringing him extra ice chips for his water since he got there and had been to check on him atleast 4 times every visit Veronica had. The fact that they both had a crush was obvious… also, the minute she’d gotten her laptop back, she’d run a background check. The woman was divorced, no children, excellent credit.
She stopped midstride… had she really run a background check on her dad’s love interest? She laughed out loud, Well, I guess I can’t blame him for being overbearing… or maybe he can’t blame me… Where the hell does he think I learned it from?
“Veronica?!” Logan answered the door and pulled her into a big hug. “My God, we were so worried!”
She felt herself get passed off to Hannah for a hug and then to… what the hell “Dick?”
“What, is it not just Hug Ronnie Day? Okay, sorry, sorry, I’ll go back to my room.” And he did and left the other three slightly giggling over his sudden appearance.
“Okay, so I’ll take the fact that you’re here and laughing to be a good sign?” asked Logan.
“Lamb is fine, surgery took longer than I would have liked, but it went well. AND my dad got discharged from the hospital.”
“You left him home alone?”
“Ah, no. That pretty little red haired nurse I told you about is there taking care of him.”
Logan waggled his eyebrows in a ridiculous and lewd way that had Hannah elbowing him in the ribs.
They all moved over to the couch and Logan looked at her seriously “Be careful with him, Veronica, I don’t want him to hurt you?”
She feigned stupidity, “Pops? I think he’s done pretty well so far.”
“You know just who I’m talking about.”
“I know Logan, but it actually feels… I don’t know… right. It’s so easy it’s almost ridiculous. Well, barring the him getting shot protecting me bit… that wasn’t so good.”
“And you’re sure you don’t have… I don’t know… Stockholm syndrome or something.”
Hannah smacked him playfully on the arm and said to her, “I’m really happy you found someone Veronica.”
She looked at them both and said, “Guys, its new… it’s just… I don’t know yet”
“Oh come on Veronica, we both know that you and our fine Sherriff have always played for keeps. There’s no going half way with you two. You’ve started and now it’s going to continue. And from what I can tell from my last two encounters with him, you’ve already got him wrapped around your little finger.”
Veronica smiled at that and sat back down to watch TV.
Lamb woke up as the door to his hospital room opened. He was expecting Sacks… or maybe Veronica again. Okay he was hoping for Veronica. What he was neither hoping for nor expecting was Keith Mars limping in to the room supported by one of the nursing staff.
“Uh… Hi Keith.”
“How are you feeling, Don?” he asked a little too coolly for the look on his face.
The exchange was already starting to creep Lamb out. “I’ve had better days… but a bullet to the shoulder is no baseball bat to the head… so I’m doing all right.” He swallowed hard, “How are you?”
“Oh you know, I’d be better if I knew EXACTLY WHAT YOUR INTENTIONS WITH MY DAUGHTER WERE!”
Well shit. Lamb supposed he was lucky Keith hadn’t pulled a gun on him.
“Keith, I…”
“You don’t have anything to say for yourself, do you?! SHE’S TEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN YOU!”
“I care about Veronica a lot, Keith. You two are the only family I ever had…” Don had never felt more like a young boy being scolded. Specifically since as a young boy he’d only been beaten, never scolded.
“Oh and that worked out so well for us last time, look I don’t know how you managed to get her to trust you again but if you screw this up, If you screw her up, so help me God I will kill you and make it look like an accident. No one will miss you. Hell, they’ll probably even give me your job.”
“She’ll miss me.” And as soon as Lamb said the words he realized he meant them. Veronica had told him he wasn’t allowed to leave. Whatever she was playing at with him really was more than just a game.
Lamb met Keith’s eyes and assured him “I’m not going to screw this up, Keith. She’s the only one that’s ever really mattered.”
Keith Mars could always read him like a God Damned book and apparently he still could. The older man just stared at him for a good minute before nodding like he was resigning himself to something and turning to walk back out of his room.
Shit, thought Lamb. What did I just get myself into? And why the hell don’t I want to run away from it?