Chapter 22: Ashes, Ashes
Title: All Fall Down
Pairing / Character: Veronica/Logan, Keith
Rating: PG-13 to R
Words: 159,939
Summary: In Neptune, the brighter the summer sun, the deeper the shadows.
Spoilers / Warnings: Seasons 1 and 2 / Language and adult situations
Chapter 22: Ashes, Ashes
Author: keepaofthecheez and txtequilanights (formerly rachel_shanz)
Additional Characters: Agent Morris
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2,689
Author’s Note: All Fall Down is a collaborative effort by 20 writers. You can learn more about this project here.
Thanks so much to truemyth, mutinousmuse, kantayra, and sarah_p for all of their help and suggestions.
We're so grateful for all of the people who have stuck with us through this project, all of your comments mean so much. We've all enjoyed writing it and we hope you've enjoyed reading it!
X-posted to veronicamarsfic, and fic_from_mars.
All Fall Down
Chapter 22
Ashes, Ashes
thump…thump…thump
A slow but definitely strong beat pulsed against Veronica’s fingers and she broke into sobs of relief as she gathered her father in her arms. “Dad? Daddy? Wake up. Please.”
Keith’s eyelashes fluttered when Veronica’s spoke and his voice, though groggy and slurred, was the best thing she had ever heard. “Veronica?”
“Yeah,” she said, bending down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Dina…” Keith struggled to sit up, wincing as he probed gingerly at the side of his head. When he pulled his hand away, Veronica was giddy with relief; the cut wasn’t nearly deep enough to warrant the amount of blood smearing his fingers. It couldn’t all be her father’s.
Keith continued, “She wanted to escape. She had one of the girls in her arms and I tried to stop her, but…” He trailed off with a frustrated gesture.
Logan knelt on Keith’s other side and, between he and Veronica, they managed to get her father to his feet. He swayed unsteadily for a moment and Veronica wrapped her arm through his, holding him still. “We have to get you to a hospital.”
“I’m fine,” Keith insisted firmly. As if to prove himself, he slipped his arm free of Veronica and took a step away from her. “We have to find Dina.”
“Do you have any idea where she went?” Veronica asked. At Keith’s hesitant headshake, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips into a thin line. “She could be anywhere! There’s nothing else we can do without help.”
Keith stepped back to her and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her tight against his chest. “We’ll find her, honey. We have to.”
“Look at this place,” Veronica said, pulling slightly back to wave a hand helplessly at the building around them. “I never…How can people do this?”
Before Keith could respond, Logan held up a hand, silencing them both. “Do you hear that?”
Veronica frowned at him and cocked her head to the side, listening. A soft sound reached her ears, quiet, almost undetectable crying, and her eyes widened in surprise. “Someone is still here.”
Keith flinched, a dazed and slightly confused look on his face. “She’s still here?” His voice was ragged with pain, yet hopeful.
Logan nodded and slipped silently from the room. Veronica and Keith followed, watching as he slowly opened every door he came to. Finally, at the end of the hall, in a small, hidden closet, he found her. She didn’t look more than nine, a skinny, terrified little girl who shrieked at the sight of Logan and scrambled deeper into her hiding place.
Veronica hurried forward and pushed past Logan to kneel in front of the closet. “Hi, I’m Veronica. This is Logan. We’re not going to hurt you, I promise.”
“They left,” the little girl said, her voice thin and shaky. “They all left and I…I hid. Where he told me.” Her gaze traveled to Keith, and as one Veronica and Logan turned around to stare. The girl’s voice raised in pitch, nearly hysterical as she spoke. “They’re going to come back for me.”
“No, they aren’t.” Logan knelt beside Veronica and held his hand out to the little girl. She hesitated for a long second, but then took it and let him pull her out of the closet. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
Veronica spotted an old blanket stuffed in the depths of the closet and dug it out to wrap around the girl’s shoulders. “What’s your name?”
“Camilla,” the girl answered. “Are you going to take me home? I miss my mommy.”
“Where’s home, sweetie?” Veronica asked. Camilla wasn’t one of the girls who disappeared from Neptune, Veronica had their faces memorized.
Camilla looked at her with wide eyes. “El Paso. There’s a desert there.”
“Yeah, we’re going to make sure you get home.” Logan said. He turned her around to face him and pushed her hair back out of her face. A dark bruise was blossoming beneath the scraggly strands, and Logan went still before he lifted his head. Veronica saw the burning in his eyes and felt an answering clench in her chest when he turned back to the girl, softening his voice. “But first we need you to tell us what you heard. Do you know where they were going?”
Camilla nodded. “To the plane. They kept talking about getting everyone to the plane. But I didn’t want to go. Last time I was on the plane they brought me here.”
“There’s a small airport nearby,” Keith spoke up from behind Veronica. He was leaning against the wall, his skin pale and grey next to the dark red blood drying on the side of his head. “Dina is probably using it to escape.”
Logan stood, Camilla still wrapped in his arms, and Veronica followed, her face set in grim lines of determination.
“Let’s get this bitch.”
Veronica could add the ten minute ride to the airport to the short list of the most helpless times in her life. She felt the furtive glances Logan kept sending in her direction, anxious and concerned, but she couldn’t even pretend to put up a front, to meet his gaze and let him know that the possibility of her losing her sanity was one less thing they had to worry about. The simple truth was, neither of them knew what they were going to find when they reached the airport. Whether they’d make it in time to find Dina and the other girls.
“Hey,” Logan’s quiet voice pierced the silence, too loud, and Veronica winced. His hand came down heavy on her thigh, just a reassuring squeeze that he was there. “This is almost over,” he said, thumb rolling over her knee, and Veronica shifted closer to the window. “Don’t do that.”
The tired snap in his voice was like an axe slamming through a tree branch, and Veronica blinked back tears of disgust and what she’d never name as fear. When it came, her voice was ripe with feeble anger. “What if it’s not over? What if she gets away again, and this time I could’ve done something to stop it.”
“What the hell haven’t you done, Veronica?” Logan’s fingers tightened as Keith made a sharp left turn. “What the hell haven’t you done?”
“Weevil was right,” she answered tonelessly, hands tangled together in her lap as she stared at the passing highway.
“Oh, Christ.” Logan let out an exhausted laugh.
“This could have been so much easier,” Veronica said, frustrated. “We did so much wrong!”
“It’s not your fault.” Keith spoke sharply and Veronica looked up, meeting his eyes briefly in the rearview mirror before he looked back at the road. “I should have told you about what happened in Fresno as soon as Frank turned up dead.”
Veronica sighed heavily. “And I should have told you about the missing girls. We could have connected the dots so much more easily. But you should not have gone after Tallulah! She already tried to have you killed you once!”
“I’m glad we’re sharing and caring,” Logan broke in. “But maybe we could do this after the catching criminals portion of the evening?”
“If I’d just-” Veronica began, but Keith cut her off before she could finish.
“Logan’s right. We can’t change what’s done.”
Veronica pressed her lips into a flat line, swallowing whatever bitter words were flavoring her tongue. The silence grew between them, punctuated by the steady roll of tires along asphalt. Keith made another turn and she saw the first bright flashes of lights.
“Logan.” Veronica’s fingers were already working at her seatbelt, and she glanced over to see Logan’s answering grim expression. “Something’s happening,” she said, needlessly.
Engine and chopper noises filled the air as they grew closer, and the sick dread in Veronica’s belly twisted and knotted as Keith slammed into park, sending gravel and dirt kicking into the air. Veronica was out of the car and running before the passenger door had closed.
“Veronica!”
She ignored her father’s call, feet slapping pavement, eyes stinging with frustration and determination as the scene came into full view. A small, private jet coasted along, gathering speed as a brigade of Federal marshals huddled together near the end of the runway, weapons drawn and faces grim.
The human wall seemed to have no effect on the pilot of the jet, and Veronica stared in fascinated horror as one of the Feds yelled something out, and warning shots were fired at the wheels of the plane. She felt Logan come up behind her, breathless and worried as he muttered, “Oh, shit.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” a masculine voice intoned, and Veronica turned around to find herself staring into the barrel of a serious looking rifle. Before she could speak, Logan had shoved her out of the way and was yelling at the marshal in question, “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
Veronica edged away during the argument that followed, catching sight of another Fed pointing what looked like a damn rocket-launcher at the plane, and she swallowed back a scream, running at him with a hazy fantasy of knocking him to the ground.
“Wait!” She grabbed his shoulder, fingers slipping on slick leather. “There are children, are you insane?” Her voice got lost in the cacophonous roar of wind and combustion turbine. She caught sight of Logan over the man’s shoulder, still arguing with the uniformed official and looking ready to knock him on his ass.
“Veronica Mars!”
She spun around, coming face to face with a dirt-and-sweat-streaked Agent Morris, who looked none to happy to find her there. Agent Morris fired a few terse phrases into a radio walkie, gesturing to someone over Veronica’s shoulder. Veronica opened her mouth, but was rolled right over.
“Disappear, now.” Morris’ left no room for debate, expression dark and serious as she reached for Veronica.
“You’re going to shoot down a plane with kids on it!” Veronica shouted, jerking away from the female Fed’s grip. Her throat felt on fire. “You care more about catching that bitch than you do saving the children she’s taken.”
Morris’ lips compressed. “This isn’t the time for-”
A loud boom erupted from the airfield, sending sparks and flames into the air, and Veronica found herself flying through the air along with other assorted pieces of debris. She scrambled to her knees quickly and caught Logan’s gaze several feet away, saw the terror coloring his eyes as he shoved past Feds and skidded to a halt at her side.
“Jesus Christ, Veronica.” His hands cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up to his. “You okay?” He was shouting to be heard, but Veronica’s heart was beating so loudly that she had to struggle to make it out. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, and she spun around, swallowing a scream as her father’s face swam into view.
“If you ever do something that stupid again…” Keith trailed off, voice shaking, and Veronica fell against his chest, gasping, and let her father bury his face in her hair before pulling back and looking around in a daze.
“What happened?” She let Logan pull her to her feet as she blinked through the haze of ash raining down on them, and turned to find the plane smoking and the Feds rushing to circle it as the emergency hatch opened and they began pulling children out and down the ladder. Tears finally broke from her eyes as she registered the small, ragged bodies. “Oh, God.”
Morris and some others were already on top of Dina before Veronica could move, and she watched in a sort of detached sense as the woman snarled and fought, shouting obscenities and threats against anyone and everyone. When that didn’t work, she melted into a weeping mess, swearing she was innocent, had been duped. Bile rose, bitter and sharp, on the back of Veronica’s tongue, and Logan wrapped his arms around her and shook his head.
“Don’t do that,” he said, mirroring his words in the car, and Veronica choked on a silent sob.
“Do you see them?” she managed on a rough whisper, watching the children being transferred from the plane, a seemingly never-ending line. “God, Logan. What kind of person…”
“Don’t try to understand her,” Logan said, almost fiercely, and Veronica slowly raised her head to find him staring at her with glittering eyes that almost showed too much. But instead of being scared away by the emotion, she clung to it, fingers pressing deep into his back as he sighed against her hair and stroked with gentle hands.
Logan pulled her closer as Dina passed by, burying Veronica’s head into his shoulder with the palm of his hand, but Veronica turned her face outward and met the icy stare head-on. She lifted her chin and refusing to succumb to the shudder threatening to course down her spine. Dina paused, fighting against the hold of the Feds, features a cold mask and lips curved.
“You couldn’t save them all, Veronica. You can never save them all.”
Those words lingered in her mind long after the police cars had left.
Logan was categorically not a patient person. He never had been. Anyone who had ever talked to him for more than five seconds could tell you that. But Veronica had to admit that she was a little impressed that he gave her a whole week to brood before he talked her dad into ignoring Veronica’s pleas to be left alone and letting Logan in the house.
When the knock on her bedroom door came, Veronica looked away from her halfhearted attempt at organizing her closet long enough to say, “Dad, I’m not hungry. Unless you’ve hired a world-renowned Italian chef to cook us three meals a day, in which case I’m famished.”
The person who stepped through the opened door was definitely not her father. But he was also holding a bag that smelled suspiciously like meatball subs. “Why does everyone always try to ply me with food?” she asked. It was supposed to be light and carefree, but it came out weak and fell flat. With a sigh, she turned back to her closet. Where, exactly, did a pink and green argyle sweater go? In the pinks? In the greens?
“Put it with the greens,” Logan said from behind her. “You have too much pink.”
Veronica very deliberately hung the sweater at the end of the green section. “You’re right. I should be less girly.”
Logan laughed softly and Veronica heard the crinkling of the paper bag as he set it down on her desk. “I didn’t say that. I like you girly, it’s cute. Actually, I just like you period.”
“Logan,” Veronica turned to face him, trying her best to paste a smile on her face. “I know what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it, I do. But I just…I need time, okay?”
Taking her hand, Logan tugged her gently across the room to the bed, pulling her down to join him. “What happened was terrible,” he said. “But you can’t stay in here and avoid the world forever. You did your best, Veronica. You saved God only knows how many children from having to go through that in the future.”
Veronica closed her eyes, forcing back the hot pinpricks of tears. “I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see their bodies. Why couldn’t I save them?”
“It’s okay.” Logan’s arms came around her, holding her tight against him as the first wave of sobs wracked her body. “Shhh, hey, it’s okay.”
He slid further back on the bed, pulling her with him until they were lying flat, with her head resting against his chest. His fingers stroked through her head and, for the first time in a week, Veronica didn’t feel like she was about to crawl out of her skin, didn't smell the lingering acidity of ash when she inhaled. When she drifted off, it was to the steady, strong sound of his heart beating.
thump…thump…thump
The End
Click here for Chapter 21
Click here for previous chapters.
Pairing / Character: Veronica/Logan, Keith
Rating: PG-13 to R
Words: 159,939
Summary: In Neptune, the brighter the summer sun, the deeper the shadows.
Spoilers / Warnings: Seasons 1 and 2 / Language and adult situations
Chapter 22: Ashes, Ashes
Author: keepaofthecheez and txtequilanights (formerly rachel_shanz)
Additional Characters: Agent Morris
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2,689
Author’s Note: All Fall Down is a collaborative effort by 20 writers. You can learn more about this project here.
Thanks so much to truemyth, mutinousmuse, kantayra, and sarah_p for all of their help and suggestions.
We're so grateful for all of the people who have stuck with us through this project, all of your comments mean so much. We've all enjoyed writing it and we hope you've enjoyed reading it!
X-posted to veronicamarsfic, and fic_from_mars.
All Fall Down
Chapter 22
Ashes, Ashes
thump…thump…thump
A slow but definitely strong beat pulsed against Veronica’s fingers and she broke into sobs of relief as she gathered her father in her arms. “Dad? Daddy? Wake up. Please.”
Keith’s eyelashes fluttered when Veronica’s spoke and his voice, though groggy and slurred, was the best thing she had ever heard. “Veronica?”
“Yeah,” she said, bending down to press a kiss to his forehead. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Dina…” Keith struggled to sit up, wincing as he probed gingerly at the side of his head. When he pulled his hand away, Veronica was giddy with relief; the cut wasn’t nearly deep enough to warrant the amount of blood smearing his fingers. It couldn’t all be her father’s.
Keith continued, “She wanted to escape. She had one of the girls in her arms and I tried to stop her, but…” He trailed off with a frustrated gesture.
Logan knelt on Keith’s other side and, between he and Veronica, they managed to get her father to his feet. He swayed unsteadily for a moment and Veronica wrapped her arm through his, holding him still. “We have to get you to a hospital.”
“I’m fine,” Keith insisted firmly. As if to prove himself, he slipped his arm free of Veronica and took a step away from her. “We have to find Dina.”
“Do you have any idea where she went?” Veronica asked. At Keith’s hesitant headshake, she closed her eyes and pressed her lips into a thin line. “She could be anywhere! There’s nothing else we can do without help.”
Keith stepped back to her and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her tight against his chest. “We’ll find her, honey. We have to.”
“Look at this place,” Veronica said, pulling slightly back to wave a hand helplessly at the building around them. “I never…How can people do this?”
Before Keith could respond, Logan held up a hand, silencing them both. “Do you hear that?”
Veronica frowned at him and cocked her head to the side, listening. A soft sound reached her ears, quiet, almost undetectable crying, and her eyes widened in surprise. “Someone is still here.”
Keith flinched, a dazed and slightly confused look on his face. “She’s still here?” His voice was ragged with pain, yet hopeful.
Logan nodded and slipped silently from the room. Veronica and Keith followed, watching as he slowly opened every door he came to. Finally, at the end of the hall, in a small, hidden closet, he found her. She didn’t look more than nine, a skinny, terrified little girl who shrieked at the sight of Logan and scrambled deeper into her hiding place.
Veronica hurried forward and pushed past Logan to kneel in front of the closet. “Hi, I’m Veronica. This is Logan. We’re not going to hurt you, I promise.”
“They left,” the little girl said, her voice thin and shaky. “They all left and I…I hid. Where he told me.” Her gaze traveled to Keith, and as one Veronica and Logan turned around to stare. The girl’s voice raised in pitch, nearly hysterical as she spoke. “They’re going to come back for me.”
“No, they aren’t.” Logan knelt beside Veronica and held his hand out to the little girl. She hesitated for a long second, but then took it and let him pull her out of the closet. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
Veronica spotted an old blanket stuffed in the depths of the closet and dug it out to wrap around the girl’s shoulders. “What’s your name?”
“Camilla,” the girl answered. “Are you going to take me home? I miss my mommy.”
“Where’s home, sweetie?” Veronica asked. Camilla wasn’t one of the girls who disappeared from Neptune, Veronica had their faces memorized.
Camilla looked at her with wide eyes. “El Paso. There’s a desert there.”
“Yeah, we’re going to make sure you get home.” Logan said. He turned her around to face him and pushed her hair back out of her face. A dark bruise was blossoming beneath the scraggly strands, and Logan went still before he lifted his head. Veronica saw the burning in his eyes and felt an answering clench in her chest when he turned back to the girl, softening his voice. “But first we need you to tell us what you heard. Do you know where they were going?”
Camilla nodded. “To the plane. They kept talking about getting everyone to the plane. But I didn’t want to go. Last time I was on the plane they brought me here.”
“There’s a small airport nearby,” Keith spoke up from behind Veronica. He was leaning against the wall, his skin pale and grey next to the dark red blood drying on the side of his head. “Dina is probably using it to escape.”
Logan stood, Camilla still wrapped in his arms, and Veronica followed, her face set in grim lines of determination.
“Let’s get this bitch.”
Veronica could add the ten minute ride to the airport to the short list of the most helpless times in her life. She felt the furtive glances Logan kept sending in her direction, anxious and concerned, but she couldn’t even pretend to put up a front, to meet his gaze and let him know that the possibility of her losing her sanity was one less thing they had to worry about. The simple truth was, neither of them knew what they were going to find when they reached the airport. Whether they’d make it in time to find Dina and the other girls.
“Hey,” Logan’s quiet voice pierced the silence, too loud, and Veronica winced. His hand came down heavy on her thigh, just a reassuring squeeze that he was there. “This is almost over,” he said, thumb rolling over her knee, and Veronica shifted closer to the window. “Don’t do that.”
The tired snap in his voice was like an axe slamming through a tree branch, and Veronica blinked back tears of disgust and what she’d never name as fear. When it came, her voice was ripe with feeble anger. “What if it’s not over? What if she gets away again, and this time I could’ve done something to stop it.”
“What the hell haven’t you done, Veronica?” Logan’s fingers tightened as Keith made a sharp left turn. “What the hell haven’t you done?”
“Weevil was right,” she answered tonelessly, hands tangled together in her lap as she stared at the passing highway.
“Oh, Christ.” Logan let out an exhausted laugh.
“This could have been so much easier,” Veronica said, frustrated. “We did so much wrong!”
“It’s not your fault.” Keith spoke sharply and Veronica looked up, meeting his eyes briefly in the rearview mirror before he looked back at the road. “I should have told you about what happened in Fresno as soon as Frank turned up dead.”
Veronica sighed heavily. “And I should have told you about the missing girls. We could have connected the dots so much more easily. But you should not have gone after Tallulah! She already tried to have you killed you once!”
“I’m glad we’re sharing and caring,” Logan broke in. “But maybe we could do this after the catching criminals portion of the evening?”
“If I’d just-” Veronica began, but Keith cut her off before she could finish.
“Logan’s right. We can’t change what’s done.”
Veronica pressed her lips into a flat line, swallowing whatever bitter words were flavoring her tongue. The silence grew between them, punctuated by the steady roll of tires along asphalt. Keith made another turn and she saw the first bright flashes of lights.
“Logan.” Veronica’s fingers were already working at her seatbelt, and she glanced over to see Logan’s answering grim expression. “Something’s happening,” she said, needlessly.
Engine and chopper noises filled the air as they grew closer, and the sick dread in Veronica’s belly twisted and knotted as Keith slammed into park, sending gravel and dirt kicking into the air. Veronica was out of the car and running before the passenger door had closed.
“Veronica!”
She ignored her father’s call, feet slapping pavement, eyes stinging with frustration and determination as the scene came into full view. A small, private jet coasted along, gathering speed as a brigade of Federal marshals huddled together near the end of the runway, weapons drawn and faces grim.
The human wall seemed to have no effect on the pilot of the jet, and Veronica stared in fascinated horror as one of the Feds yelled something out, and warning shots were fired at the wheels of the plane. She felt Logan come up behind her, breathless and worried as he muttered, “Oh, shit.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” a masculine voice intoned, and Veronica turned around to find herself staring into the barrel of a serious looking rifle. Before she could speak, Logan had shoved her out of the way and was yelling at the marshal in question, “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
Veronica edged away during the argument that followed, catching sight of another Fed pointing what looked like a damn rocket-launcher at the plane, and she swallowed back a scream, running at him with a hazy fantasy of knocking him to the ground.
“Wait!” She grabbed his shoulder, fingers slipping on slick leather. “There are children, are you insane?” Her voice got lost in the cacophonous roar of wind and combustion turbine. She caught sight of Logan over the man’s shoulder, still arguing with the uniformed official and looking ready to knock him on his ass.
“Veronica Mars!”
She spun around, coming face to face with a dirt-and-sweat-streaked Agent Morris, who looked none to happy to find her there. Agent Morris fired a few terse phrases into a radio walkie, gesturing to someone over Veronica’s shoulder. Veronica opened her mouth, but was rolled right over.
“Disappear, now.” Morris’ left no room for debate, expression dark and serious as she reached for Veronica.
“You’re going to shoot down a plane with kids on it!” Veronica shouted, jerking away from the female Fed’s grip. Her throat felt on fire. “You care more about catching that bitch than you do saving the children she’s taken.”
Morris’ lips compressed. “This isn’t the time for-”
A loud boom erupted from the airfield, sending sparks and flames into the air, and Veronica found herself flying through the air along with other assorted pieces of debris. She scrambled to her knees quickly and caught Logan’s gaze several feet away, saw the terror coloring his eyes as he shoved past Feds and skidded to a halt at her side.
“Jesus Christ, Veronica.” His hands cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up to his. “You okay?” He was shouting to be heard, but Veronica’s heart was beating so loudly that she had to struggle to make it out. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, and she spun around, swallowing a scream as her father’s face swam into view.
“If you ever do something that stupid again…” Keith trailed off, voice shaking, and Veronica fell against his chest, gasping, and let her father bury his face in her hair before pulling back and looking around in a daze.
“What happened?” She let Logan pull her to her feet as she blinked through the haze of ash raining down on them, and turned to find the plane smoking and the Feds rushing to circle it as the emergency hatch opened and they began pulling children out and down the ladder. Tears finally broke from her eyes as she registered the small, ragged bodies. “Oh, God.”
Morris and some others were already on top of Dina before Veronica could move, and she watched in a sort of detached sense as the woman snarled and fought, shouting obscenities and threats against anyone and everyone. When that didn’t work, she melted into a weeping mess, swearing she was innocent, had been duped. Bile rose, bitter and sharp, on the back of Veronica’s tongue, and Logan wrapped his arms around her and shook his head.
“Don’t do that,” he said, mirroring his words in the car, and Veronica choked on a silent sob.
“Do you see them?” she managed on a rough whisper, watching the children being transferred from the plane, a seemingly never-ending line. “God, Logan. What kind of person…”
“Don’t try to understand her,” Logan said, almost fiercely, and Veronica slowly raised her head to find him staring at her with glittering eyes that almost showed too much. But instead of being scared away by the emotion, she clung to it, fingers pressing deep into his back as he sighed against her hair and stroked with gentle hands.
Logan pulled her closer as Dina passed by, burying Veronica’s head into his shoulder with the palm of his hand, but Veronica turned her face outward and met the icy stare head-on. She lifted her chin and refusing to succumb to the shudder threatening to course down her spine. Dina paused, fighting against the hold of the Feds, features a cold mask and lips curved.
“You couldn’t save them all, Veronica. You can never save them all.”
Those words lingered in her mind long after the police cars had left.
Logan was categorically not a patient person. He never had been. Anyone who had ever talked to him for more than five seconds could tell you that. But Veronica had to admit that she was a little impressed that he gave her a whole week to brood before he talked her dad into ignoring Veronica’s pleas to be left alone and letting Logan in the house.
When the knock on her bedroom door came, Veronica looked away from her halfhearted attempt at organizing her closet long enough to say, “Dad, I’m not hungry. Unless you’ve hired a world-renowned Italian chef to cook us three meals a day, in which case I’m famished.”
The person who stepped through the opened door was definitely not her father. But he was also holding a bag that smelled suspiciously like meatball subs. “Why does everyone always try to ply me with food?” she asked. It was supposed to be light and carefree, but it came out weak and fell flat. With a sigh, she turned back to her closet. Where, exactly, did a pink and green argyle sweater go? In the pinks? In the greens?
“Put it with the greens,” Logan said from behind her. “You have too much pink.”
Veronica very deliberately hung the sweater at the end of the green section. “You’re right. I should be less girly.”
Logan laughed softly and Veronica heard the crinkling of the paper bag as he set it down on her desk. “I didn’t say that. I like you girly, it’s cute. Actually, I just like you period.”
“Logan,” Veronica turned to face him, trying her best to paste a smile on her face. “I know what you’re trying to do, and I appreciate it, I do. But I just…I need time, okay?”
Taking her hand, Logan tugged her gently across the room to the bed, pulling her down to join him. “What happened was terrible,” he said. “But you can’t stay in here and avoid the world forever. You did your best, Veronica. You saved God only knows how many children from having to go through that in the future.”
Veronica closed her eyes, forcing back the hot pinpricks of tears. “I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see their bodies. Why couldn’t I save them?”
“It’s okay.” Logan’s arms came around her, holding her tight against him as the first wave of sobs wracked her body. “Shhh, hey, it’s okay.”
He slid further back on the bed, pulling her with him until they were lying flat, with her head resting against his chest. His fingers stroked through her head and, for the first time in a week, Veronica didn’t feel like she was about to crawl out of her skin, didn't smell the lingering acidity of ash when she inhaled. When she drifted off, it was to the steady, strong sound of his heart beating.
thump…thump…thump
The End
Click here for Chapter 21
Click here for previous chapters.