Fic: Homecoming (Veronica/Lamb, Ensemble) PG-13
Title: Homecoming
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Summary: Written for vmfic_gameon. Veronica is coming back to Neptune after several years and she isn’t alone. Only a select few had known her secret. Now everyone else is about to find out. From the prompt: “You’re NOT the father!”
Spoilers: 3x14
Characters/Pairings, Veronica/Lamb, Logan/Madison, references Veronica/Logan, Keith, Wallace, Sacks, OFC
Word Count: 4687
Disclaimer: Veronica Mars is not owned by me, but by Rob Thomas. I’m simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment. Well, aside from Dawn. She’s mine.
A/N: Goes AU as of 3x14.
~~
Logan had seen her first. The young blonde asking for an application at the Java Hut. She couldn’t be more than sixteen, he guessed. But aside from that she was almost identical to his ex-girlfriend. Part of him wanted to go right up and talk to her but in that moment even he was at a loss for words.
Veronica had taken off so quickly after being recruited by the FBI. She had dumped him, again, had Keith and Wallace take her to the airport and she had jetted out from there. She had barely even called him since. Christmases and birthdays, sure. She had even called to congratulate him when she heard from Wallace he had married Madison. But this made him wonder if this girl hadn’t been why she had left like she had. He had already done the math, Veronica had left seventeen years ago. This girl would be the right age.
“Is there a reason you’re staring at me?” the girl asked, not even looking up from the application.
Logan almost laughed. She was Veronica’s alright. Question was: Was she his? “It’s not every day I see a girl who looks like she just stepped out of a time machine.”
“Is there a joke I’m missing here? Or is that just some new lame pick-up line? Word of advice, I’m sixteen, you’ll want to move on.”
“Your mom’s Veronica Mars, isn’t she?”
Dawn set her pen down and sighed as she looked up at the 30-something, beach bum-looking man. “Who wants to know?”
“Logan Echolls,” he smiled. “She never mentioned me?”
“You’re implying that I know this, Veronica, was it?”
That time Logan flipped the chair facing him around and rested his arms on the back of it as he eyed the girl. “You’ve got her eyes -”
“I have my dad’s eyes,” she shot back. She hated it when people tried to compare her more and more to her mother. She loved her, but she was her own person and being semi-ogled like this by someone her mother had known was beginning to cut into her busy day. So far this Logan wasn’t winning points. No wonder Mom never talks about him.
“- Well you’ve definitely got her same fair hair and most definitely her sense of humor. I take it she’s rooming back at Casa de Keith?”
“Wouldn’t know,” Dawn stated as she stood. She had no idea what ‘this guy’s’ problem was but it was then she was thankful her mother had taught her how to protect herself. Her FBI agent mother letting her - scratch that - forcing her to take a taser with her everywhere she went, until today she had thought Veronica had been overprotective. Now she was realizing she had the right idea.
“Nice meeting you, Daughter of Veronica,” Logan nodded before he headed out. He felt like breaking something, he chuckled at the memory of bashing in Veronica’s headlight almost twenty years ago.
Her dad’s eyes, huh? Suddenly Logan felt like finding a mirror on his way to Keith’s place.
**
“Thanks for letting us stay here for a while, Dad, really,” Veronica smiled as she looked to her father in the kitchen.
“Least I can do for my little girl and her little girl,” he smiled back.
Veronica laughed. Her ‘little girl’ hated being considered such and while Keith always enjoyed sighting how she was as stubborn as Veronica had been when she was younger (and even still) Veronica was convinced her daughter had inherited her father’s stubbornness. No way had she been as difficult as him.
Speaking of said sperm donor, Veronica glanced back to Keith as he began to unpack another box of hers. She still couldn’t believe he hadn’t reacted worse when she told him. True she had been across the country when she gave him the baby news, but to that day she couldn’t believe he hadn’t forced her to tell the father of the girl who had decided to fill in applications all across town today.
**
“Hello?” Dawn called out when she walked into the Sheriff’s Department. Slow day from the look of it, but it was obvious why they were in need of a new receptionist.
“Can I help you?” the man with the gray moustache asked when he walked up.
“Deputy Sacks?” she asked him. Veronica had mentioned him, often. She tried not to think of what got her mother to talk about him most.
He nodded. “You are?”
“Dawn Mars. I hear you’re looking for a new receptionist,” she beamed.
Sacks laughed. She looked just like Veronica, well aside from a few subtle differences of course, but mostly there could be no denying who her mother was. And apparently she had her mother’s and her grandfather’s same interest in a career in law enforcement.
“Lemme guess, you just hired someone?” she asked, unsure why the man was laughing at her.
“Mars? Veronica Mars’ daughter?”
Okay, she knew her mother had been a bit of a local celebrity but this was getting ridiculous. Would no one take her seriously?! “I don’t see what my maternity has to do with this.”
Sacks leaned forward against the desk. “Your mother spent enough time here that she may as well have been working here herself. Plus, your grandfather had once been the sheriff -”
“I know, that’s why I thought this would be a perfect fit. So can I get an application or -”
“I can give you one. But I can’t promise the sheriff will look at it once he sees your name.”
Dawn had heard more than a few horror stories about the sheriff from her mother, but she wasn’t afraid. Much. He couldn’t really be that bad, could he? The town clearly trusted him. That said something good, right?
**
“Where’s my favorite niece?” Wallace called out as he walked into Keith’s apartment.
“She’s out,” Veronica pouted at the sight of her best friend. “But I’m here!” she beamed as she went jogging over to hug him.
“Hey, Wallace!” Keith called from another stack of boxes at the sound of his would-be son’s voice.
“Hey, Mr. Mars!” he grinned as he and Veronica parted. “So then I guess I’ll just have to leave this with you.”
Veronica took the picture. “She is gonna be sorry she missed this,” she laughed at the sight. It was an autographed 8x10 of her favorite basketball player - one that Wallace had been friends with since their college days.
“So where is she if she isn’t here? Don’t tell me she’s taking the kids’ lunch money for fake ID’s already.”
Veronica glared. “School hasn’t even started yet. She’s looking for a job, apparently the idea of hanging out with all of us grown-ups wasn’t appealing to her.”
“Kids,” Wallace sighed with a shake of his head. His eldest was almost ten and already he was having the same issue with his son claiming he was too old to be ‘seen’ with his parents.
“So let’s see, I’m here, Dawn’s mostly here, you’re here… When’s my party?”
“Same old Veronica,” Wallace laughed.
“You don’t get to say that like we don’t hang out anymore. We still hang, BFF’s - just ones who are always, kind of, working in different places at different times.”
“Well the party looks like it’s already here. Unless you want me to call Dick and Logan and -”
“Trust me, Logan is the last person who needs to see Dawn.”
**
“Is this a joke?” Lamb scoffed as he looked to the application on his desk. He had been out on a call when Dawn had been there but seeing her name - this had to be a joke. Veronica had a daughter? Since when? Well okay, the birth year she had filled in read 2008, so that answered his question but no one had ever mentioned it. Certainly not to him. Seventeen years and hardly a word. Looking at her name again he almost didn’t want to know why.
“Nope. Girl came in about an hour ago, said she heard we needed a new receptionist and was interested in the position,” Sacks answered.
He nodded and glanced back to the papers in his hand. He looked at her previous work experience and then to her notes. He hated it when his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to see her, he had to know she was real. It would be just like Veronica to pull this, sending her daughter in to work for him. Or maybe it was Veronica herself under another false name and she could have paid Sacks to claim it wasn’t her just to mess with him.
Sacks headed out of the office when Lamb dismissed him and already Lamb had his phone in his hand.
“Hello?”
“Dawn Mars?”
“Present!”
“You, uh, filled out an application today at the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department?”
“Sure did. Why? Who’s this?”
“Sheriff Lamb. You wouldn’t happen to have some time free today to come back in, would you? I’d like to go ahead and interview you. We could use the help, I just can only tell so much about an applicant from a piece of paper.”
Dawn smiled. So far she decided her mother was wrong. Lamb didn’t seem like the devil to her. “Sure. I can be there in about twenty minutes.”
**
Veronica answered when she heard the knock at the front door.
“Guess who I just met,” Logan stated coolly at the sight of his former flame.
“A shark who didn’t like your surfboard?”
“Cute. Your daughter.”
Veronica froze. She had just talked to her, Dawn had been heading back to the apartment when Lamb had called her. Of course Dawn had only said that one of the employers had wanted to meet with her already - casually leaving out which one and where. Was Logan one of the employers? Or had he just been at one of the places Dawn went to?
“Didn’t think I’d figure it out, huh? She only looks just like you did when you were her age. She’s got your attitude too.”
“What do you want me to say, Logan?” Veronica asked as she finally stepped out of the apartment with him, Keith and Wallace were still re-bonding while they unpacked, she didn’t want them to hear this.
“Oh, gee, how about: Sorry I never told you the reason I took off almost twenty years ago was because I was pregnant and too chicken shit to tell you, Logan! How’s that?”
“So you’re mad that I didn’t tell you that I was pregnant? Maybe I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t your business. Ever think of that?”
“That girl can’t be a day under sixteen. Something else you want to share? Because either she’s mine and you kept that from me for all these years or someone else was fucking my then-girlfriend and still didn’t bother to tell me!”
“Which answer do you want? Tell me, there’s no point in drawing this out. You said it yourself, it’s gone on seventeen years long enough”
“I want the truth. I want to know why you didn’t tell me, I want to know why you thought I was so horrible that you thought I couldn’t be trusted with our child.”
Veronica sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “You want the truth, Logan? Okay. I didn’t tell you because I thought you were horrible. I didn’t tell you because you’re not her father.”
He scoffed through the pain. “Then who else were you fucking? Who impregnated my girlfriend, huh?”
"Ex-girlfriend. We weren’t together when it happened. But okay, you want to play this game? Think back to how I found out about you and Madison in Aspen. Think about my state of mind then. Think about what happened over those next few weeks. You don’t think I wanted a little revenge? Maybe a revenge lay? Now think hard here, who could I have slept with that would have angered you and Madison both to find out about?”
“Dick?!” he cried.
Veronica laughed. “No. More like someone you hated and that Madison had gotten hold of one night back in senior year and that maybe I felt a little sorry for when there was a question as to if he would live and then if he would be able to get his job back.”
She knew Logan had the answer when his face fell in disgust.
**
“The sheriff’s expecting me, Dawn Mars,” she told a younger a deputy at the front desk.
“Right this way,” the man smiled.
“Yeah?” Lamb called out at the knock on his office door.
“Dawn Mars for you,” the man answered from the doorway.
“Send her in,” he stated as he took his long legs down from his desk and set the file he had been looking at down. In just a few seconds he would either see his worst fear or - No, it was his worst fear when she walked in. She really was a miniature Veronica. A miniature Veronica who had been born in 2008. A miniature Veronica who had been born in 2008 with a pair of blue eyes he saw every time he looked in a mirror.
Did she know? He guessed not and thanked whatever God there may be for that small favor as the girl took a seat in one of the chairs opposite his desk.
“Thanks for wanting to meet with me so soon, Sheriff -”
“Do you know why I didn’t hire your mother when she applied here?”
“I know you and she didn’t really get along.”
He had to repress a smile. She talked about him, she at least know something about their relationship. Save for their one night that had apparently resulted in this shock.
“True. I also couldn’t trust her. She had a habit of getting herself into trouble on a regular basis. The reason you’re sitting here now is because I called your last school and your vice principal spoke very highly of you. What I need to know now is did he leave anything out that perhaps your mother had wiped off your record for you? Or do you really not make fake ID’s or get involved in investigations that you have no business getting into?”
Dawn was more than a little stunned by what Lamb was asking, but she didn’t let it show. “You called my school but not the local precinct to see if I’d been in trouble with them?”
“I did. They know Veronica, which isn’t surprising but your name never came up. That’s why I’m asking you if there’s anything I should know about.”
“I seem to be saying this a lot today, but I’m not my mother. Her mistakes were her mistakes. I try to avoid trouble and I don’t go looking for it. If you don’t want to hire me because of who my mother is, fine, but don’t presume that I’m guilty of her past crimes just because of my relation to her.”
With that she was standing and Lamb couldn’t help but be proud. To her he was no more than the local sheriff and she still stood up to him. He guessed that Veronica had gone to see the wizard after all. Her backbone was right there about to head out of his office.
“Miss Mars,” he drawled, unable to keep from enjoying being able to say that again.
“Sheriff,” she stated as she looked back at him.
“Can you start tomorrow?”
**
“Well that was fun,” Veronica sighed as she sank onto the sofa.
“What?” Keith asked her.
“Logan just left. I told him.”
“Told him what?” Wallace asked as he took a seat beside her.
“About my moment of weakness after Lamb got out of the hospital.”
“Are you okay?” Keith asked as he moved to sit at her other side.
Veronica nodded. “Surprisingly, yeah. It felt good to finally admit it. Of course being back in Neptune, I may have to finally tell Dawn who Daddy Dearest is which will only get worse when Lamb finds out.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Wallace asked her.
“It was just a stupid one night thing, I just didn’t want to have to deal with his issues. And there’s no way he would have let me work for the FBI if he knew assuming he would’ve been the type to actually care and not just hand me $500 and tell me to ‘get rid of it.’ I just didn’t want to deal with either one of those scenarios so I moved on, took care of Dawn and -”
“Hey, everybody!” Dawn beamed as she walked in.
“Hey!” Veronica called back as she stood, thankful for the reprieve.
“Good news! I am now once again gainfully employed!”
“Congrats, girl!” Wallace beamed back at her.
“Uncle Wallace!” she nearly squeaked at the sight of him before she ran over to hug him, almost tackling him in the process. She hadn’t seen him in at least two years, it was only fair.
“Where at?” Keith asked.
Pulling back, Dawn grinned to her audience. “You are looking at the new receptionist for the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department.”
Keith glanced to his daughter who looked as though she had just had the wind knocked completely out of her. “Continuing the family tradition, sounds good,” he smiled.
Next came Wallace. “Congrats again! Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta get home. Don’t want Michelle to worry. I’ll see you all at the homecoming party.”
Veronica still couldn’t believe it, couldn’t even focus on Wallace mentioning the party. “You applied at the sheriff’s department? Didn’t I tell you -”
“Yeah, I know, but the sheriff wasn’t really so bad. He talked about you a lot, but despite your apparent past with him he still hired me and even asked if I could start tomorrow.”
“Well this calls for ice cream. Who wants? I’m buying,” Veronica jumped in.
“I do!” Dawn cheerily bounced.
“Done. Dad?”
“I’m good. Are you sure you really want to go now before dinner? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait until -”
“I’d rather do it while I’m thinking about it. I’ll be back soon.”
Keith walked her to the door and dropped his voice almost to a whisper as he told her, “Tell Lamb I say hi.”
Veronica only gave a nod as she headed out.
**
“Veronica Mars,” Sacks smiled at the sight of her.
“Is he in?” She knew that was all she would have to say.
“He hasn’t left the office in an hour.”
She nodded. She knew he had to know. Dawn Mars? It was a wonder anyone couldn’t figure it out in under five minutes. In retrospect she knew she should have gone with a less obvious name but she still hadn’t quite gotten over his whole nearly dying.
“Long time no see,” she stated as she let herself into his office.
“Though I might see you tonight. So, come to confess something that maybe you should’ve told me about, say, seventeen years ago?”
“From what I hear you two already met so that implies you already know so why would I need to confess it?”
“Maybe because I should have found out long before today. Fuck, Mars! I’ve been a father for all these years and -”
“Would you have wanted to know? It’s not like either of us were really in our right minds that night.”
“You never even told her, did you?”
Veronica shook her head.
“Keith?”
“He and Wallace are the only ones. Well, Logan know now. But until today my dad and Wallace were it. Now it’s them, us and Logan. I still haven’t told Dawn.”
That time he almost laughed. “And you don’t think she’ll find it just a little strange that you named her after me?”
“Why did you hire her? Because you’d already figured it out or just because you wanted to see me?”
“Both. So what happens when she figures out her boss is her father? When she finds out just how many years her mother has been keeping this from her? And I know you’ve told her about me, how do you think she’ll react when she finds out that the same man you’ve smeared the name of for years is the one who’s half responsible for her having been conceived in the first place?”
“I really doubt she’ll be surprised. I’ve told her enough that she’ll probably know by tomorrow night even if we say nothing. She knows her father’s still alive, she knows that we got together here. Maybe she’ll hate me, but given how our circumstances were I still think I did the right thing.”
“Of course you do. You’re not the one who walked in here today to find an application from a child you didn’t know you had.”
“You expect me to believe you wanted to be a real father? That you wanted to be up for the feedings and the changings and the scrapes and bruises and tears?”
Lamb hadn’t ever really considered it before, that much was true. But with Veronica, well, there had been several things he had done for and with her that he hadn’t considered himself capable of with anyone else.
“You could’ve at least given me the chance,” he answered finally.
**
When Saturday night came Veronica still wasn’t in a mood to party. Not when half of Neptune knew what she had fought for so long to keep to herself.
Lamb and Veronica had both decided to let Dawn find out for herself, she was clearly their daughter - she would pick up on it soon enough. Especially if she saw them together. Which admittedly she had yet to do.
Still Veronica walked into the party Wallace and the others had obviously gone through a lot of trouble to set up. For one night, she decided, she would try to relax and let loose and forget about he issues. Even with Keith, Dawn, Wallace, Dick, Mac, Parker, Madison, Logan, Weevil and even Cliff and Vinnie there.
Of course that was easier before she saw Lamb walk in. Out of uniform at least so she doubted anyone would be getting arrested tonight. She also took a bit of comfort in knowing she was the first to see him.
“Let me guess. Noise complaint?” she smirked when she walked up to him.
“I was invited,” he smirked back.
Wallace. “Of course you were.”
“It’s a homecoming, in more ways than one I guess. A chance to start over maybe? Who knows what could happen tonight.”
"We already went through the whole forgiveness thing once.”
“Yeah, for us having turned against each other. This time - well, now there’s a kid involved. Mommy and Daddy should be able to work it out and stay together for the kid, right?”
She wanted to laugh. “You’ve been drinking already, haven’t you?”
He moved closer to her. “No. I’m serious. I won’t get those years back and you’ll never know what you missed out on. But I’m not seeing a ring on that hand of yours and don’t think I didn’t see you checking out mine the other day. Only thing I can think is that you came back for a reason. So how about it, Veronica? Think you could handle a date with the father of, I’m guessing, your only child?”
Before she could answer she saw Dawn come up out of the corner of her eye.
“Mom? Everyone’s wanting to see you. Everything okay here?”
“Yeah,” Lamb answered. “Guess I got my answer.”
Dawn sighed heavily. Why do I have to be the adult? “We’re not at work right now, which means right now you’re not my boss so I can say this. It’s about time you finally asked her out given how much I’ve gotten to hear about your past - from both of you. Especially in this last week. And Mom? If Dad’s finally managed to ask you out, do us all a favor and say yes. It’s not like you haven’t missed him.”
Lamb and Veronica glanced to each other before chorusing, “Dad?”
“Oh my god! How stupid do you two think I am? Dawn Mars? Don Lamb? And I do own a mirror,” with that she moving to stand beside Lamb and pointed between them, “Resemblance much? The eyes at least?”
“Told ya she’d figure it out,” Lamb smirked.
Veronica didn’t want to ask what had given them away. She feared the answer.
“Right now, you’re going to mingle,” Dawn told her mother, then she turned to her father, “and you’re going to talk to anyone you won’t fight with and then you two can go back to whatever it was you were talking about before. Which, by the way, had better include first date plans because I’m tired of getting my paternal updates through Grandpa Keith, okay?”
Veronica turned back to Lamb when Dawn headed off towards Cliff’s eldest son.
“Well I think we know where she gets her stubbornness from,” Lamb sighed.
“Yeah. You.”
“Not a chance, Veronica. That’s all you there.”
**
“We had a deal,” Keith stated to his supposed loving granddaughter (he was having doubts at the moment) after the party had ended and they were back at the apartment.
“It got Mom to agree to a date with Dad, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, well you also outed me as the one who told you who your father is.”
She shrugged. “Somebody had to do it and it’s not like Mom or Dad were going to until they decided they were ready and I’m still convinced the original plan was to leave me wondering for life.”
“What was it that got your mother to decide to come back here?”
“I might have called in a favor from Uncle Wallace,” she stated as innocently as she could manage.
“What kind of favor?”
“I asked him to call Mom from the department a few weeks ago, just for the number to show up on her cell. I saw her face when it did. I knew who she thought it was. I don’t think I’d ever seen her answer the phone so fast. But then Uncle Wallace did what I asked him to, he hung up when she answered. Two weeks later she announced we were moving here.”
Keith could only smile. Some Mars family traditions would never die. Of course one he had hoped would was Veronica’s long make out sessions on his doorstep. He was glad she had made peace with Dawn’s father, but he was still Lamb and there were still some things he never wanted or needed to see.
“How much longer do you think they’ll be?”
"I don’t know. But then I always did want a little brother or sister, if they keep this up I just might get my wish,” she grinned.
“You’re really proud of yourself aren’t you?”
“Yep! And Uncle Wallace was right. It is a homecoming. In more ways than one. We’re all here, Mom and Dad are finally figuring out what the rest of us have known for years. I mean, really, Mom didn’t even really date back in New York. Didn’t even seem interested in anyone out there. The more I hinted at guys on the force who were interested in her she’d threaten to ground me if I even mentioned it. But when I asked about Dad, before she started ranting she’d always smile. Like she always had a good memory before the bad ones took over. I wanted to get her back to the good ones. Now here we are - where we’re supposed to be.”
Keith had to admit, the girl had a point. Veronica could do worse. And it was hard to hate Lamb when he had obviously missed her too and even more so when he thought of the second prettiest girl he knew who he knew Lamb had helped to give him.
The End
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Summary: Written for vmfic_gameon. Veronica is coming back to Neptune after several years and she isn’t alone. Only a select few had known her secret. Now everyone else is about to find out. From the prompt: “You’re NOT the father!”
Spoilers: 3x14
Characters/Pairings, Veronica/Lamb, Logan/Madison, references Veronica/Logan, Keith, Wallace, Sacks, OFC
Word Count: 4687
Disclaimer: Veronica Mars is not owned by me, but by Rob Thomas. I’m simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment. Well, aside from Dawn. She’s mine.
A/N: Goes AU as of 3x14.
~~
Logan had seen her first. The young blonde asking for an application at the Java Hut. She couldn’t be more than sixteen, he guessed. But aside from that she was almost identical to his ex-girlfriend. Part of him wanted to go right up and talk to her but in that moment even he was at a loss for words.
Veronica had taken off so quickly after being recruited by the FBI. She had dumped him, again, had Keith and Wallace take her to the airport and she had jetted out from there. She had barely even called him since. Christmases and birthdays, sure. She had even called to congratulate him when she heard from Wallace he had married Madison. But this made him wonder if this girl hadn’t been why she had left like she had. He had already done the math, Veronica had left seventeen years ago. This girl would be the right age.
“Is there a reason you’re staring at me?” the girl asked, not even looking up from the application.
Logan almost laughed. She was Veronica’s alright. Question was: Was she his? “It’s not every day I see a girl who looks like she just stepped out of a time machine.”
“Is there a joke I’m missing here? Or is that just some new lame pick-up line? Word of advice, I’m sixteen, you’ll want to move on.”
“Your mom’s Veronica Mars, isn’t she?”
Dawn set her pen down and sighed as she looked up at the 30-something, beach bum-looking man. “Who wants to know?”
“Logan Echolls,” he smiled. “She never mentioned me?”
“You’re implying that I know this, Veronica, was it?”
That time Logan flipped the chair facing him around and rested his arms on the back of it as he eyed the girl. “You’ve got her eyes -”
“I have my dad’s eyes,” she shot back. She hated it when people tried to compare her more and more to her mother. She loved her, but she was her own person and being semi-ogled like this by someone her mother had known was beginning to cut into her busy day. So far this Logan wasn’t winning points. No wonder Mom never talks about him.
“- Well you’ve definitely got her same fair hair and most definitely her sense of humor. I take it she’s rooming back at Casa de Keith?”
“Wouldn’t know,” Dawn stated as she stood. She had no idea what ‘this guy’s’ problem was but it was then she was thankful her mother had taught her how to protect herself. Her FBI agent mother letting her - scratch that - forcing her to take a taser with her everywhere she went, until today she had thought Veronica had been overprotective. Now she was realizing she had the right idea.
“Nice meeting you, Daughter of Veronica,” Logan nodded before he headed out. He felt like breaking something, he chuckled at the memory of bashing in Veronica’s headlight almost twenty years ago.
Her dad’s eyes, huh? Suddenly Logan felt like finding a mirror on his way to Keith’s place.
**
“Thanks for letting us stay here for a while, Dad, really,” Veronica smiled as she looked to her father in the kitchen.
“Least I can do for my little girl and her little girl,” he smiled back.
Veronica laughed. Her ‘little girl’ hated being considered such and while Keith always enjoyed sighting how she was as stubborn as Veronica had been when she was younger (and even still) Veronica was convinced her daughter had inherited her father’s stubbornness. No way had she been as difficult as him.
Speaking of said sperm donor, Veronica glanced back to Keith as he began to unpack another box of hers. She still couldn’t believe he hadn’t reacted worse when she told him. True she had been across the country when she gave him the baby news, but to that day she couldn’t believe he hadn’t forced her to tell the father of the girl who had decided to fill in applications all across town today.
**
“Hello?” Dawn called out when she walked into the Sheriff’s Department. Slow day from the look of it, but it was obvious why they were in need of a new receptionist.
“Can I help you?” the man with the gray moustache asked when he walked up.
“Deputy Sacks?” she asked him. Veronica had mentioned him, often. She tried not to think of what got her mother to talk about him most.
He nodded. “You are?”
“Dawn Mars. I hear you’re looking for a new receptionist,” she beamed.
Sacks laughed. She looked just like Veronica, well aside from a few subtle differences of course, but mostly there could be no denying who her mother was. And apparently she had her mother’s and her grandfather’s same interest in a career in law enforcement.
“Lemme guess, you just hired someone?” she asked, unsure why the man was laughing at her.
“Mars? Veronica Mars’ daughter?”
Okay, she knew her mother had been a bit of a local celebrity but this was getting ridiculous. Would no one take her seriously?! “I don’t see what my maternity has to do with this.”
Sacks leaned forward against the desk. “Your mother spent enough time here that she may as well have been working here herself. Plus, your grandfather had once been the sheriff -”
“I know, that’s why I thought this would be a perfect fit. So can I get an application or -”
“I can give you one. But I can’t promise the sheriff will look at it once he sees your name.”
Dawn had heard more than a few horror stories about the sheriff from her mother, but she wasn’t afraid. Much. He couldn’t really be that bad, could he? The town clearly trusted him. That said something good, right?
**
“Where’s my favorite niece?” Wallace called out as he walked into Keith’s apartment.
“She’s out,” Veronica pouted at the sight of her best friend. “But I’m here!” she beamed as she went jogging over to hug him.
“Hey, Wallace!” Keith called from another stack of boxes at the sound of his would-be son’s voice.
“Hey, Mr. Mars!” he grinned as he and Veronica parted. “So then I guess I’ll just have to leave this with you.”
Veronica took the picture. “She is gonna be sorry she missed this,” she laughed at the sight. It was an autographed 8x10 of her favorite basketball player - one that Wallace had been friends with since their college days.
“So where is she if she isn’t here? Don’t tell me she’s taking the kids’ lunch money for fake ID’s already.”
Veronica glared. “School hasn’t even started yet. She’s looking for a job, apparently the idea of hanging out with all of us grown-ups wasn’t appealing to her.”
“Kids,” Wallace sighed with a shake of his head. His eldest was almost ten and already he was having the same issue with his son claiming he was too old to be ‘seen’ with his parents.
“So let’s see, I’m here, Dawn’s mostly here, you’re here… When’s my party?”
“Same old Veronica,” Wallace laughed.
“You don’t get to say that like we don’t hang out anymore. We still hang, BFF’s - just ones who are always, kind of, working in different places at different times.”
“Well the party looks like it’s already here. Unless you want me to call Dick and Logan and -”
“Trust me, Logan is the last person who needs to see Dawn.”
**
“Is this a joke?” Lamb scoffed as he looked to the application on his desk. He had been out on a call when Dawn had been there but seeing her name - this had to be a joke. Veronica had a daughter? Since when? Well okay, the birth year she had filled in read 2008, so that answered his question but no one had ever mentioned it. Certainly not to him. Seventeen years and hardly a word. Looking at her name again he almost didn’t want to know why.
“Nope. Girl came in about an hour ago, said she heard we needed a new receptionist and was interested in the position,” Sacks answered.
He nodded and glanced back to the papers in his hand. He looked at her previous work experience and then to her notes. He hated it when his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to see her, he had to know she was real. It would be just like Veronica to pull this, sending her daughter in to work for him. Or maybe it was Veronica herself under another false name and she could have paid Sacks to claim it wasn’t her just to mess with him.
Sacks headed out of the office when Lamb dismissed him and already Lamb had his phone in his hand.
“Hello?”
“Dawn Mars?”
“Present!”
“You, uh, filled out an application today at the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department?”
“Sure did. Why? Who’s this?”
“Sheriff Lamb. You wouldn’t happen to have some time free today to come back in, would you? I’d like to go ahead and interview you. We could use the help, I just can only tell so much about an applicant from a piece of paper.”
Dawn smiled. So far she decided her mother was wrong. Lamb didn’t seem like the devil to her. “Sure. I can be there in about twenty minutes.”
**
Veronica answered when she heard the knock at the front door.
“Guess who I just met,” Logan stated coolly at the sight of his former flame.
“A shark who didn’t like your surfboard?”
“Cute. Your daughter.”
Veronica froze. She had just talked to her, Dawn had been heading back to the apartment when Lamb had called her. Of course Dawn had only said that one of the employers had wanted to meet with her already - casually leaving out which one and where. Was Logan one of the employers? Or had he just been at one of the places Dawn went to?
“Didn’t think I’d figure it out, huh? She only looks just like you did when you were her age. She’s got your attitude too.”
“What do you want me to say, Logan?” Veronica asked as she finally stepped out of the apartment with him, Keith and Wallace were still re-bonding while they unpacked, she didn’t want them to hear this.
“Oh, gee, how about: Sorry I never told you the reason I took off almost twenty years ago was because I was pregnant and too chicken shit to tell you, Logan! How’s that?”
“So you’re mad that I didn’t tell you that I was pregnant? Maybe I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t your business. Ever think of that?”
“That girl can’t be a day under sixteen. Something else you want to share? Because either she’s mine and you kept that from me for all these years or someone else was fucking my then-girlfriend and still didn’t bother to tell me!”
“Which answer do you want? Tell me, there’s no point in drawing this out. You said it yourself, it’s gone on seventeen years long enough”
“I want the truth. I want to know why you didn’t tell me, I want to know why you thought I was so horrible that you thought I couldn’t be trusted with our child.”
Veronica sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “You want the truth, Logan? Okay. I didn’t tell you because I thought you were horrible. I didn’t tell you because you’re not her father.”
He scoffed through the pain. “Then who else were you fucking? Who impregnated my girlfriend, huh?”
"Ex-girlfriend. We weren’t together when it happened. But okay, you want to play this game? Think back to how I found out about you and Madison in Aspen. Think about my state of mind then. Think about what happened over those next few weeks. You don’t think I wanted a little revenge? Maybe a revenge lay? Now think hard here, who could I have slept with that would have angered you and Madison both to find out about?”
“Dick?!” he cried.
Veronica laughed. “No. More like someone you hated and that Madison had gotten hold of one night back in senior year and that maybe I felt a little sorry for when there was a question as to if he would live and then if he would be able to get his job back.”
She knew Logan had the answer when his face fell in disgust.
**
“The sheriff’s expecting me, Dawn Mars,” she told a younger a deputy at the front desk.
“Right this way,” the man smiled.
“Yeah?” Lamb called out at the knock on his office door.
“Dawn Mars for you,” the man answered from the doorway.
“Send her in,” he stated as he took his long legs down from his desk and set the file he had been looking at down. In just a few seconds he would either see his worst fear or - No, it was his worst fear when she walked in. She really was a miniature Veronica. A miniature Veronica who had been born in 2008. A miniature Veronica who had been born in 2008 with a pair of blue eyes he saw every time he looked in a mirror.
Did she know? He guessed not and thanked whatever God there may be for that small favor as the girl took a seat in one of the chairs opposite his desk.
“Thanks for wanting to meet with me so soon, Sheriff -”
“Do you know why I didn’t hire your mother when she applied here?”
“I know you and she didn’t really get along.”
He had to repress a smile. She talked about him, she at least know something about their relationship. Save for their one night that had apparently resulted in this shock.
“True. I also couldn’t trust her. She had a habit of getting herself into trouble on a regular basis. The reason you’re sitting here now is because I called your last school and your vice principal spoke very highly of you. What I need to know now is did he leave anything out that perhaps your mother had wiped off your record for you? Or do you really not make fake ID’s or get involved in investigations that you have no business getting into?”
Dawn was more than a little stunned by what Lamb was asking, but she didn’t let it show. “You called my school but not the local precinct to see if I’d been in trouble with them?”
“I did. They know Veronica, which isn’t surprising but your name never came up. That’s why I’m asking you if there’s anything I should know about.”
“I seem to be saying this a lot today, but I’m not my mother. Her mistakes were her mistakes. I try to avoid trouble and I don’t go looking for it. If you don’t want to hire me because of who my mother is, fine, but don’t presume that I’m guilty of her past crimes just because of my relation to her.”
With that she was standing and Lamb couldn’t help but be proud. To her he was no more than the local sheriff and she still stood up to him. He guessed that Veronica had gone to see the wizard after all. Her backbone was right there about to head out of his office.
“Miss Mars,” he drawled, unable to keep from enjoying being able to say that again.
“Sheriff,” she stated as she looked back at him.
“Can you start tomorrow?”
**
“Well that was fun,” Veronica sighed as she sank onto the sofa.
“What?” Keith asked her.
“Logan just left. I told him.”
“Told him what?” Wallace asked as he took a seat beside her.
“About my moment of weakness after Lamb got out of the hospital.”
“Are you okay?” Keith asked as he moved to sit at her other side.
Veronica nodded. “Surprisingly, yeah. It felt good to finally admit it. Of course being back in Neptune, I may have to finally tell Dawn who Daddy Dearest is which will only get worse when Lamb finds out.”
“Why didn’t you tell him?” Wallace asked her.
“It was just a stupid one night thing, I just didn’t want to have to deal with his issues. And there’s no way he would have let me work for the FBI if he knew assuming he would’ve been the type to actually care and not just hand me $500 and tell me to ‘get rid of it.’ I just didn’t want to deal with either one of those scenarios so I moved on, took care of Dawn and -”
“Hey, everybody!” Dawn beamed as she walked in.
“Hey!” Veronica called back as she stood, thankful for the reprieve.
“Good news! I am now once again gainfully employed!”
“Congrats, girl!” Wallace beamed back at her.
“Uncle Wallace!” she nearly squeaked at the sight of him before she ran over to hug him, almost tackling him in the process. She hadn’t seen him in at least two years, it was only fair.
“Where at?” Keith asked.
Pulling back, Dawn grinned to her audience. “You are looking at the new receptionist for the Balboa County Sheriff’s Department.”
Keith glanced to his daughter who looked as though she had just had the wind knocked completely out of her. “Continuing the family tradition, sounds good,” he smiled.
Next came Wallace. “Congrats again! Sorry to cut this short, but I gotta get home. Don’t want Michelle to worry. I’ll see you all at the homecoming party.”
Veronica still couldn’t believe it, couldn’t even focus on Wallace mentioning the party. “You applied at the sheriff’s department? Didn’t I tell you -”
“Yeah, I know, but the sheriff wasn’t really so bad. He talked about you a lot, but despite your apparent past with him he still hired me and even asked if I could start tomorrow.”
“Well this calls for ice cream. Who wants? I’m buying,” Veronica jumped in.
“I do!” Dawn cheerily bounced.
“Done. Dad?”
“I’m good. Are you sure you really want to go now before dinner? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather wait until -”
“I’d rather do it while I’m thinking about it. I’ll be back soon.”
Keith walked her to the door and dropped his voice almost to a whisper as he told her, “Tell Lamb I say hi.”
Veronica only gave a nod as she headed out.
**
“Veronica Mars,” Sacks smiled at the sight of her.
“Is he in?” She knew that was all she would have to say.
“He hasn’t left the office in an hour.”
She nodded. She knew he had to know. Dawn Mars? It was a wonder anyone couldn’t figure it out in under five minutes. In retrospect she knew she should have gone with a less obvious name but she still hadn’t quite gotten over his whole nearly dying.
“Long time no see,” she stated as she let herself into his office.
“Though I might see you tonight. So, come to confess something that maybe you should’ve told me about, say, seventeen years ago?”
“From what I hear you two already met so that implies you already know so why would I need to confess it?”
“Maybe because I should have found out long before today. Fuck, Mars! I’ve been a father for all these years and -”
“Would you have wanted to know? It’s not like either of us were really in our right minds that night.”
“You never even told her, did you?”
Veronica shook her head.
“Keith?”
“He and Wallace are the only ones. Well, Logan know now. But until today my dad and Wallace were it. Now it’s them, us and Logan. I still haven’t told Dawn.”
That time he almost laughed. “And you don’t think she’ll find it just a little strange that you named her after me?”
“Why did you hire her? Because you’d already figured it out or just because you wanted to see me?”
“Both. So what happens when she figures out her boss is her father? When she finds out just how many years her mother has been keeping this from her? And I know you’ve told her about me, how do you think she’ll react when she finds out that the same man you’ve smeared the name of for years is the one who’s half responsible for her having been conceived in the first place?”
“I really doubt she’ll be surprised. I’ve told her enough that she’ll probably know by tomorrow night even if we say nothing. She knows her father’s still alive, she knows that we got together here. Maybe she’ll hate me, but given how our circumstances were I still think I did the right thing.”
“Of course you do. You’re not the one who walked in here today to find an application from a child you didn’t know you had.”
“You expect me to believe you wanted to be a real father? That you wanted to be up for the feedings and the changings and the scrapes and bruises and tears?”
Lamb hadn’t ever really considered it before, that much was true. But with Veronica, well, there had been several things he had done for and with her that he hadn’t considered himself capable of with anyone else.
“You could’ve at least given me the chance,” he answered finally.
**
When Saturday night came Veronica still wasn’t in a mood to party. Not when half of Neptune knew what she had fought for so long to keep to herself.
Lamb and Veronica had both decided to let Dawn find out for herself, she was clearly their daughter - she would pick up on it soon enough. Especially if she saw them together. Which admittedly she had yet to do.
Still Veronica walked into the party Wallace and the others had obviously gone through a lot of trouble to set up. For one night, she decided, she would try to relax and let loose and forget about he issues. Even with Keith, Dawn, Wallace, Dick, Mac, Parker, Madison, Logan, Weevil and even Cliff and Vinnie there.
Of course that was easier before she saw Lamb walk in. Out of uniform at least so she doubted anyone would be getting arrested tonight. She also took a bit of comfort in knowing she was the first to see him.
“Let me guess. Noise complaint?” she smirked when she walked up to him.
“I was invited,” he smirked back.
Wallace. “Of course you were.”
“It’s a homecoming, in more ways than one I guess. A chance to start over maybe? Who knows what could happen tonight.”
"We already went through the whole forgiveness thing once.”
“Yeah, for us having turned against each other. This time - well, now there’s a kid involved. Mommy and Daddy should be able to work it out and stay together for the kid, right?”
She wanted to laugh. “You’ve been drinking already, haven’t you?”
He moved closer to her. “No. I’m serious. I won’t get those years back and you’ll never know what you missed out on. But I’m not seeing a ring on that hand of yours and don’t think I didn’t see you checking out mine the other day. Only thing I can think is that you came back for a reason. So how about it, Veronica? Think you could handle a date with the father of, I’m guessing, your only child?”
Before she could answer she saw Dawn come up out of the corner of her eye.
“Mom? Everyone’s wanting to see you. Everything okay here?”
“Yeah,” Lamb answered. “Guess I got my answer.”
Dawn sighed heavily. Why do I have to be the adult? “We’re not at work right now, which means right now you’re not my boss so I can say this. It’s about time you finally asked her out given how much I’ve gotten to hear about your past - from both of you. Especially in this last week. And Mom? If Dad’s finally managed to ask you out, do us all a favor and say yes. It’s not like you haven’t missed him.”
Lamb and Veronica glanced to each other before chorusing, “Dad?”
“Oh my god! How stupid do you two think I am? Dawn Mars? Don Lamb? And I do own a mirror,” with that she moving to stand beside Lamb and pointed between them, “Resemblance much? The eyes at least?”
“Told ya she’d figure it out,” Lamb smirked.
Veronica didn’t want to ask what had given them away. She feared the answer.
“Right now, you’re going to mingle,” Dawn told her mother, then she turned to her father, “and you’re going to talk to anyone you won’t fight with and then you two can go back to whatever it was you were talking about before. Which, by the way, had better include first date plans because I’m tired of getting my paternal updates through Grandpa Keith, okay?”
Veronica turned back to Lamb when Dawn headed off towards Cliff’s eldest son.
“Well I think we know where she gets her stubbornness from,” Lamb sighed.
“Yeah. You.”
“Not a chance, Veronica. That’s all you there.”
**
“We had a deal,” Keith stated to his supposed loving granddaughter (he was having doubts at the moment) after the party had ended and they were back at the apartment.
“It got Mom to agree to a date with Dad, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, well you also outed me as the one who told you who your father is.”
She shrugged. “Somebody had to do it and it’s not like Mom or Dad were going to until they decided they were ready and I’m still convinced the original plan was to leave me wondering for life.”
“What was it that got your mother to decide to come back here?”
“I might have called in a favor from Uncle Wallace,” she stated as innocently as she could manage.
“What kind of favor?”
“I asked him to call Mom from the department a few weeks ago, just for the number to show up on her cell. I saw her face when it did. I knew who she thought it was. I don’t think I’d ever seen her answer the phone so fast. But then Uncle Wallace did what I asked him to, he hung up when she answered. Two weeks later she announced we were moving here.”
Keith could only smile. Some Mars family traditions would never die. Of course one he had hoped would was Veronica’s long make out sessions on his doorstep. He was glad she had made peace with Dawn’s father, but he was still Lamb and there were still some things he never wanted or needed to see.
“How much longer do you think they’ll be?”
"I don’t know. But then I always did want a little brother or sister, if they keep this up I just might get my wish,” she grinned.
“You’re really proud of yourself aren’t you?”
“Yep! And Uncle Wallace was right. It is a homecoming. In more ways than one. We’re all here, Mom and Dad are finally figuring out what the rest of us have known for years. I mean, really, Mom didn’t even really date back in New York. Didn’t even seem interested in anyone out there. The more I hinted at guys on the force who were interested in her she’d threaten to ground me if I even mentioned it. But when I asked about Dad, before she started ranting she’d always smile. Like she always had a good memory before the bad ones took over. I wanted to get her back to the good ones. Now here we are - where we’re supposed to be.”
Keith had to admit, the girl had a point. Veronica could do worse. And it was hard to hate Lamb when he had obviously missed her too and even more so when he thought of the second prettiest girl he knew who he knew Lamb had helped to give him.
The End