Femslash 07, Fic: Interlopers, Veronica Mars, Veronica/Jackie
Title: Interlopers
Author: Julie (Urban_Folk_Girl)
Recipient: ijemanja
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing: Veronica/Jackie
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3800
Disclaimer: Characters property of Rob Thomas. No infringement intended.
Summary: Veronica meets Jackie in New York while on her high school graduation trip. Mild spoilers through 2x22.
Lunch, Day One
***************
Veronica would be hard pressed to say if it was curiosity or cruelty motivating this pilgrimage. Brooklyn wasn’t exactly next door to her hotel. And this part of Brooklyn wasn’t exactly home to the safe, hipster crowd. She looked around, surveying her environment. The neighborhood was decidedly brown, and not in a historic brownstone kind of a way. Rather, the building in front of her, like all of the buildings on the block, was tan and boxy, rose a meager five stories high, probably didn’t have an elevator and was adorned with nothing but a large glass window and an ancient, fading sign reading Brooklyn Dan’s in cursive painted lettering. Somewhere down the block she could hear rap music pumping, and neighborhood residents fleeing the heat of their un-air conditioned apartments congregated on card tables all down the sidewalks, drinking cold soda and beer from coolers and wiping the sweat from their bodies with towels draped loosely around their necks. She paused to adjust the shoulder strap of her messenger bag, thinking that New York City heat was decidedly stickier than California. She squinted into the dim interior of the diner, taking a moment to decide if she really wanted to go through with this. If Wallace were here, he would laugh and bump her hip, shuffling her right inside the building, calling her a wus for her reluctance. Wallace would tell her it was convenience over cruelty or curiosity, and remind her that she was a marshmallow. Except, if Wallace were here, it wouldn’t be Veronica he would be paying attention to at this moment.
Veronica supposed, if she were in the mood for truth telling, that was something that had always bothered her about the girl inside.
She ran out of time for contemplating, however, as a bell rang with an opening door, cutting through her ever present inner monologue.
Shortly after, a voice. Steady. Purposefully cool.
“Of all the greasy spoons in all the cities in all the world, Veronica Mars, you walked up to mine.”
Brooklyn agreed with Jackie Cook.
Veronica took a moment to look at the other girl. Despite being decked out in a rather vintage looking waitress dress and the familiar white tights of the working class, Jackie looked....good. Her hair was down, and the humidity drew tight curls around her face. She looked more tired, Veronica could see tiny lines and the wan darkness of the sleep deprived ringing her eyes and giving her face, her expression, a gravity it never seemed to hold in Neptune. As if somehow she looked older, more real.
And the girl knew how to make an entrance.
Jackie leaned casually against the doorframe, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Rumors of my demise weren’t enough for you, you had to come to gloat in person?”
“Whoa,” Veronica said, stepping back with her hands up. “Did I miss something? Last I checked you and I had left the whole ‘catfight’ script behind somewhere between the entire school turning on you and me not ratting you out to Wallace.”
“Just stating the obvious before you had a chance.” Jackie shrugged. “Self-defense mechanism. You know all about that, if I recall.”
“Old habits die hard,” nodded Veronica.
“They do,” Jackie said, holding open the door. “Come on in.”
The booth was a bit uncomfortable, but the burgers weren’t half bad. Veronica found herself eating like a horse, and wasn’t too coy to admit it was because now, sitting across from the other girl, she had little to say. Chewing definately alleviated the need for constant conversation. Not to mention the discomfort she felt surrounding the angry stares directed at her from a person she could only guess was Jackie’s mother, a hard looking woman standing by the register cutting her eyes in their direction and passive aggressively plunking the keys harder and harder with every five minutes that passed.
Jackie, on the other hand, was much more to the point.
“So, Veronica, why are you here? I’m assuming if someone had died or been arrested, you would have told me in your first five minutes. You haven’t asked for any favors or tried to interrogate me. I’m out of ideas.”
Veronica smiled in spite of herself. Jackie had never really stepped beyond the velvet rope during her time at Neptune, had never overcome her outsider status, but Neptune had clearly gotten beneath her skin.
She paused for a moment to formulate a fair answer to the other girl’s question.
“Honestly, I-“
“Jackie,” her mother interjected, suddenly appearing at the side of their table. “Let me remind you that this is not the soda fountain where you hang out after school, there aren’t any sock hops in your future and your days hanging out with Malibu Barbie are done. You’ve got customers waiting, and I suggest you get back to work.” Jackie’s mother said sharply, nodding her head in Veronica’s direction without looking at her.
“Okay, ma.” Jackie said, standing up and beginning to clear away their plates. She looked down at Veronica when her mother walked away.
“Don’t be offended by her. She’s just...tired,” Jackie said, looking briefly back toward her mother at the counter and frowning. “I’ve got to work. So was there really anything you wanted? Or were you just...slumming it?”
“Wow,” Veronica said, standing as well. “I can’t decide if I should be touched that you think so highly of me or offended that you think I think so little of you.”
Jackie smiled.
“It doesn’t matter, Veronica, because it was nice seeing you but after you leave today I won’t think of you at all.”
Veronica gave her a hard stare. “Self defense again?”
“Always. Have a nice life, Veronica Mars. And tell Wallace..” She paused. Her face tightened, and for the first time Veronica saw more than detachment cross her features. “Tell Wallace...” she said again, her voice softening, wavering.
“I’ll tell him I loved the museums,” Veronica said, cutting her off. She wanted to leave Jackie her toughness, if she couldn’t leave her anything else.
She left a twenty on the table for a $6.50 tab and walked out the door, not letting herself look back.
*****************
Lunch, Day Two
“Don’t tell me you were just in the neighborhood,” Jackie said, looking up at the tiny blonde walking through the diner's door for the second time in two days.
“Only if the neighborhood is two trains and a bus ride away,” Veronica deadpanned, settling herself into the same booth she occupied the previous day.
“I’m actually glad to see you today,” Jackie started.
“Ah, so you DID think of me after I was gone,” Veronica said. “Never underestimate the power of the high school nostalgia. Even if it is only a week old.”
“No, actually you left yesterday before I could give you your change.” Jackie said, fishing in the pocket of her apron and counting out $13.50, placing it pointedly on the table in front of the smaller woman.
Veronica met her eyes, and didn’t look away. After a moment, she picked up two dollars from the pile and handed it back to Jackie.
“You assume I don’t tip?” She said lightly, arching an eyebrow. “I’m offended.”
“Then we’re even, Veronica. I’m not your charity case, and if I recall correctly, you’re not an 09er, so let’s neither of us reprise roles that don’t belong to us.”
“Fair enough,” Veronica conceded. “Vacation.”
“What?”
“Vacation. It’s what I’m doing here. My dad got me a vacation package to New York for graduation.”
Jackie blinked, and bit back a pang of jealousy. She wasn’t sure if it was the dad part or the graduation present part that did it, but just as fast she slid her features back to their cynical stare.
Apparently, though, not fast enough for Veronica.
“Don’t get too jealous. He was supposed to come with me, but I’ve been stood up. Some kind of emergency business situation. He’s meeting me here later in the week.”
“Sounds like he’s taking a page out of my dad’s book.”
“Well, I would have appreciated a phone call before I actually stood around feeling dejected waiting for him at the departure gate at the airport, but generally he does okay on the dad front so I’m willing to give him a pass. This time. Maybe I’ll use it to finally get that pony.”
Jackie laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.
“Be careful, Veronica. Sometimes the pony turns out to be vicious.”
Veronica’s face softened. “Jackie, I-“
Jackie stood up abruptly. “I can’t sit with you today, Veronica. I have to work, and my mom’s watching me like a hawk.”
Veronica shrugged, reached for her backpack. “That works out, then, because I actually want to scope out the floor plan of the Met and figure out my strategy.”
“Can I bring you a burger?” Jackie asked.
“Same as yesterday would be great,” Veronica nodded, opening up an obscenely large foldout map of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jackie smiled, watching her fumble with it. It was the first genuine smile to cross her face since the blonde had walked in the previous day.
*****************
Lunch, Day Three
Veronica was still easing out of her backpack and settling into what was quickly becoming her booth when Jackie placed the burger on the table in front of her.
“I know you’re good, but even you can’t put a burger together in 30 seconds. Am I getting that predictable?” Veronica asked, her voice mocking a pout.
“I had a feeling I’d see you today. You’re becoming a regular.”
“Well, just so you know, tomorrow I expect everyone in here to stop and sing the theme song to Cheers when I walk through the door.”
Jackie smiled, and sat down.
“You’re done with your shift?”
“I thought you’d be here. I switched my break, if you don’t mind the company.”
“I’d love the company, if you don’t mind the eating like a lunatic. I’ve been up since 7am and I’m famished.”
“Eat all you want, Veronica. I might even be able to score you a second round of fries if you play your cards right. Manny, the cook - he responds well to flattery.”
“Tell him I’m his biggest fan,” Veronica managed to retort around a mouthful of burger.
Jackie laughed, and leaned back against the booth.
“You know,” she said carefully, “you never did tell me what you were really doing here.”
Veronica cocked her eyebrow. “I told you. Vacation. Graduation. Being stood up. Pony. Ring any bells?”
Jackie shook her head, and looked directly at Veronica, meeting her eyes.
“No,” she said softly. “I want to know what you’re doing here. Why are you here,” she asked, her hand gesturing subtly to the surroundings of the diner.
“Did I tell you about the Met yesterday? You know, a funny thing happened on the way to the...”
“Veronica.”
“Did I mention that I just happened to be in the neighborhood?”
“Veronica.”
Veronica put her burger down and sighed.
“I thought we were doing just fine with the banter and the wordless understanding.”
“What can I say? I like it to be spelled out for me.”
“Were you always this direct when we were in Neptune?”
“No, I was more ‘let me be as bitchy as I can before you have the opportunity to be bitchy to me.”
“Self defense?”
“Always.”
Veronica smiled. “I wish you had been this direct when we were in Neptune.”
“I wish you had been this attentive. Now spill.”
Veronica sat back in the booth, her fingers drawing light circles in the condensation on her milkshake glass. She furrowed her brow, thinking how to explain herself. She knew she wanted to tell the truth. She could own the blooming seeds of respect she felt toward this girl, for the truth of her life beneath the lies. For the fact that she lied at all. If Veronica were in a truth telling mood, she would admit that she wanted to lie, too, sometimes.
“Honestly, Jackie, I don’t know if I know the answer myself,” she started, speaking carefully as she tried to articulate what she was feeling.
Jackie groaned. “Uh-uh, Veronica Mars. None of that ‘I’m finding myself on the road’ bullshit. You’re more real than that.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. What I mean is, I don’t know why I keep coming back. I think it was curiosity, initially. You - your life, my perverse desire to see an 09er fall.”
“I’m not really-“ Jackie interjected, but Veronica cut her off.
“-an 09er, I know. But that was the image you projected. And I-“
“And I think I fell pretty far during that whole ‘the entire school hates me because they think my dad killed a bus full of their own’ phase.”
“I know, but-“
“Or then there was the part where the entire school hated me because they thought I stole the senior trip money, even though most of them walked around carrying more than that in fucking pocket money. I particularly enjoyed being called trash by the school faculty on that one.”
“We took care of that, and-“
“Although my favorite might have been when my own father got tired of me and pretty much threw me out like the garbage everyone else thought I was...”
“HEY.” Veronica said loudly, cutting through Jackie’s increasingly angry monologue. “Do you want me to talk to you or do you want me to eat crow?” She said, her voice hard, and slightly more defensive than she really wanted it to sound.
Jackie looked hard at her for a minute, not saying anything.
“Both,” she spoke finally, her own voice softening slightly in concession to Veronica’s point.
Veronica reached across the table and took the other girl’s hand, getting and keeping her attention. “I’m sorry for the way things turned out, Jackie,” Veronica said softly, and realized she meant it.
“I know it wasn’t your fault, Veronica.” Jackie said back to her, her voice matching Veronica’s soft tone. “It was just...”
“Hard,” Veronica finished. “I know.”
Jackie looked down at Veronica’s hand, holding her own. It was warm, and smooth and kind, and reminded her of Wallace, of the promise Wallace had represented to her.
She pulled her hand back, abruptly.
Veronica straightened up and sucked thoughtfully on her milkshake.
“You know, it’s like, I’m here, and I don’t know anyone else here. My dad is late. Basically I know...you...and I suppose I wanted to see what your life was like. Your real life.” Veronica said. “Partly because a part of me wanted to see you humbled, yes, but partly because...”
Jackie looked at her, absently wringing her hands, half listening but also thinking that she hated the part of herself that suddenly missed being touched. She had worked hard in her first days back in Brooklyn to train herself not to miss being touched.
“...because I thought I would like you better like this.”
Jackie’s eyebrows shot up but Veronica rushed on before giving the other girl time to get angry all over again.
“What I mean is that, let’s face it, my life hasn’t been anybody’s bed of roses. All I’ve ever been was an interloper...even before...Lilly. And then you came along, and you were one of them. And I hated you. And then...you weren’t any more. And you never really were to begin with. You were always just an interloper, like me. That’s what I found out, when I looked you up. And don’t look at me like that, of course I looked you up. What kind of BFF would I be if I let Wallace just date whomever he pleased?”
Jackie’s mouth opened up but Veronica shushed her quickly, reaching across the table and putting a finger to her lips.
“You’re letting me tell it, remember? What I’m trying to tell you is that to me, your secret didn’t make you damaged goods. It made your goods more...valuable. More real. More substantial. It made you seem more relatable.”
Veronica pulled her finger away from Jackie’s mouth, missing for the tiniest second the soft possibilities of Jackie’s lips against her skin. It had been a long time since she had been touched. Really touched. Touched for pleasure, and not for saving her life or her sanity or her grip on reality. Jackie’s mouth felt nicer than she wanted to stop to consider.
“It would seem you’ve done an awful lot of thinking about my goods,” Jackie said airily, an obvious (and successful, Veronica noted) attempt to lighten the conversation.
“I’ve done an awful lot of thinking about how to know people,” Veronica admitted, closing her eyes briefly against a flash of memory, a roof, an explosion, a boy going over a ledge. “So now I’m here, and suddenly you’re this down to earth person, and the more lunches we have the more I’ve got this respect for your realness going, and the less I want to just walk away.”
“Sooooo, in other words, you like me because you think suffering makes me interesting?”
“In a nutshell.”
“Veronica, it’s wrong of you to assume you know me or anything about me just because my life is more complicated than your projection of who I am.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“But...I’m really glad you’re here.”
“I know. I’m awesome like that.”
Jackie laughed, tossed a wadded up napkin in her direction.
“Ego much?”
“Have you forgotten? I’m so much cooler than James Bond. And here I thought you knew me.”
“James Bond, eh? I guess that makes me Pussy Galore?”
Jackie laughed as Veronica flushed from her neck up to the roots of her hair.
“You’re going to have to work on that. James Bond never blushed.”
“I’m glad I’m here too,” Veronica whispered. And once again felt surprised to discover that she meant the words.
Jackie stood up, noting the beginning of another round of disapproving stares from her mother.
Veronica frowned, wanted to stop her, wanted to sit and talk and be one upped for the rest of the afternoon. She found that being one upped by Jackie was a surprisingly pleasant experience, and not one she was ready to give up for the day. Unfortunately, though, real life Jackie, though infinitely more pleasurable to spend time with, had to attend to real life business. Like her job. Veronica watched the other girl stand, furrowing her eyebrows slightly as Jackie spoke.
“Look, my break is pretty much up, but my shift is over at 6. If you wanted, we could...”
“YOU KNOW,” Veronica cut in loudly in a fake theater voice, not wanting to be one upped again. “I hear that this city has decent pizza. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”
“Pie, Veronica. First rule of New York pizza. It’s a pie. Or a slice, actually. Most people order by the slice. So yes, we could go out for a slice. I’d like that. Meet me back here at 6?”
“Don’t underestimate my stomach, and love of a good pizza. Pie.” Veronica grinned. “And, actually, I thought I might just stay. If that’s okay with you.”
Jackie looked at her, hard, a smile reluctantly spreading across her features.
“I’d like that Veronica. But you should know, my mom’s a tough cookie. She’ll make you pay for that table. Be prepared to drop the big bucks on five hours worth of appetizers and milkshakes.”
“What happened to flattering the cook?”
“In this town, Veronica, flattery will only get you so far.”
“Weeeellll, they don’t call me big spender for nothing,” Veronica grinned, pulling out her laptop.
****************
Lunch, Day Four
Jackie opened her eyes, but fought against the stretch her body was craving. She wasn’t ready to come back to her real life yet. Veronica’s body was warm and soft, and fit nicely inside the span of her arms. She wanted to stay there, in fantasy life, where she had spent her night making love to Veronica Mars and there was no 10 hour waitress shift waiting for her and no mother standing by to berate her for not taking good enough care of her son or coming home at night. Real life wouldn’t be denied, however, as moments later Veronica broke their embrace to indulge in a long stretch of her own.
But Veronica nestled back in.
Jackie smiled. The 09er in her brain supposed she should feel proud or smug, go home and put a notch on her bedpost or belt or wherever those notches were kept. She had bedded Veronica Mars. And it had been wonderful. Veronica was a generous lover in bed, and Jackie had needed the tenderness. More than she would have let herself admit, if she were in the mood for truth telling.
Veronica’s hand grazed down her bare stomach and Jackie shivered as light fingers descended across her sex, soft fingers twining in her hair.
“You were right about not underestimating your appetite,” Jackie teased her.
“There’s not much I won’t do for a good pizza. Pie.” Veronica teased back.
“Slice," Jackie laughed. "Or slices in your case. It would seem your Achilles heel is your stomach. Hmm. I don’t recall James Bond having such an exploitable weakness.”
“I would think James Bond’s weakness for pretty girls is WAY more exploitable than mine,” Veronica countered, propping herself up on one elbow and gazing down at Jackie’s face.
Jackie gave a mock pout. “Are you saying I’m not pretty?”
“I’m saying I’m not here because anybody exploited me,” Veronica said seriously, brushing a curl behind Jackie’s ear.
Jackie sat up slightly and glanced at the clock, groaning. She could just picture her mother’s pinched face glancing at the diner’s clock right about now, foot tapping.
“Train to catch?”
“More like shift to make.”
“That’s right. There would usually be a burger in my orbit right about now.”
“I’m sure we have room service. And here I thought you learned something from dating all those 09er boys.”
“Dial on, sister,” Veronica grinned, stretching to reach the phone and then pushing it toward Jackie. “I’m not ready to move my legs yet. Let’s just stay in bed all day. Only this time I’ll let you be Bond and I’ll be your dangerously seductive Bond girl.”
“Hmmm, I think I’ll call you Holly Goodhead,” Jackie panned.
Veronica laughed.
And then grew serious a moment.
“I’m really glad for this,” she said to the other girl softly, placing her hands on Jackie’s arms and meeting her eyes intently.
Jackie sighed.
“Here I thought we were doing fine with the banter and the wordless understanding.”
Veronica smiled.
“You know it can’t go anywhere. Your dad is flying in today, and my mom is going to give me hell for staying out all night.”
“I know. If I’m being honest, that’s probably why I let myself have it. Have you.”
“I’m really glad too. Even if you’ve gone and left me wanting more.”
“That’s how it should be, really,” Veronica replied lightly. “This way we can skip all the weirdness and the not calling and the jealousy and the falling out of love and messy breaking up.”
“We can end on a high note, just like the Beatles.” Jackie quipped.
“Does that make Logan or Wallace Yoko? Veronica asked, dissolving into giggles.
“Neither,” Jackie said quietly. “Just interlopers.”
****************
Author: Julie (Urban_Folk_Girl)
Recipient: ijemanja
Fandom: Veronica Mars
Pairing: Veronica/Jackie
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3800
Disclaimer: Characters property of Rob Thomas. No infringement intended.
Summary: Veronica meets Jackie in New York while on her high school graduation trip. Mild spoilers through 2x22.
Lunch, Day One
***************
Veronica would be hard pressed to say if it was curiosity or cruelty motivating this pilgrimage. Brooklyn wasn’t exactly next door to her hotel. And this part of Brooklyn wasn’t exactly home to the safe, hipster crowd. She looked around, surveying her environment. The neighborhood was decidedly brown, and not in a historic brownstone kind of a way. Rather, the building in front of her, like all of the buildings on the block, was tan and boxy, rose a meager five stories high, probably didn’t have an elevator and was adorned with nothing but a large glass window and an ancient, fading sign reading Brooklyn Dan’s in cursive painted lettering. Somewhere down the block she could hear rap music pumping, and neighborhood residents fleeing the heat of their un-air conditioned apartments congregated on card tables all down the sidewalks, drinking cold soda and beer from coolers and wiping the sweat from their bodies with towels draped loosely around their necks. She paused to adjust the shoulder strap of her messenger bag, thinking that New York City heat was decidedly stickier than California. She squinted into the dim interior of the diner, taking a moment to decide if she really wanted to go through with this. If Wallace were here, he would laugh and bump her hip, shuffling her right inside the building, calling her a wus for her reluctance. Wallace would tell her it was convenience over cruelty or curiosity, and remind her that she was a marshmallow. Except, if Wallace were here, it wouldn’t be Veronica he would be paying attention to at this moment.
Veronica supposed, if she were in the mood for truth telling, that was something that had always bothered her about the girl inside.
She ran out of time for contemplating, however, as a bell rang with an opening door, cutting through her ever present inner monologue.
Shortly after, a voice. Steady. Purposefully cool.
“Of all the greasy spoons in all the cities in all the world, Veronica Mars, you walked up to mine.”
Brooklyn agreed with Jackie Cook.
Veronica took a moment to look at the other girl. Despite being decked out in a rather vintage looking waitress dress and the familiar white tights of the working class, Jackie looked....good. Her hair was down, and the humidity drew tight curls around her face. She looked more tired, Veronica could see tiny lines and the wan darkness of the sleep deprived ringing her eyes and giving her face, her expression, a gravity it never seemed to hold in Neptune. As if somehow she looked older, more real.
And the girl knew how to make an entrance.
Jackie leaned casually against the doorframe, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Rumors of my demise weren’t enough for you, you had to come to gloat in person?”
“Whoa,” Veronica said, stepping back with her hands up. “Did I miss something? Last I checked you and I had left the whole ‘catfight’ script behind somewhere between the entire school turning on you and me not ratting you out to Wallace.”
“Just stating the obvious before you had a chance.” Jackie shrugged. “Self-defense mechanism. You know all about that, if I recall.”
“Old habits die hard,” nodded Veronica.
“They do,” Jackie said, holding open the door. “Come on in.”
The booth was a bit uncomfortable, but the burgers weren’t half bad. Veronica found herself eating like a horse, and wasn’t too coy to admit it was because now, sitting across from the other girl, she had little to say. Chewing definately alleviated the need for constant conversation. Not to mention the discomfort she felt surrounding the angry stares directed at her from a person she could only guess was Jackie’s mother, a hard looking woman standing by the register cutting her eyes in their direction and passive aggressively plunking the keys harder and harder with every five minutes that passed.
Jackie, on the other hand, was much more to the point.
“So, Veronica, why are you here? I’m assuming if someone had died or been arrested, you would have told me in your first five minutes. You haven’t asked for any favors or tried to interrogate me. I’m out of ideas.”
Veronica smiled in spite of herself. Jackie had never really stepped beyond the velvet rope during her time at Neptune, had never overcome her outsider status, but Neptune had clearly gotten beneath her skin.
She paused for a moment to formulate a fair answer to the other girl’s question.
“Honestly, I-“
“Jackie,” her mother interjected, suddenly appearing at the side of their table. “Let me remind you that this is not the soda fountain where you hang out after school, there aren’t any sock hops in your future and your days hanging out with Malibu Barbie are done. You’ve got customers waiting, and I suggest you get back to work.” Jackie’s mother said sharply, nodding her head in Veronica’s direction without looking at her.
“Okay, ma.” Jackie said, standing up and beginning to clear away their plates. She looked down at Veronica when her mother walked away.
“Don’t be offended by her. She’s just...tired,” Jackie said, looking briefly back toward her mother at the counter and frowning. “I’ve got to work. So was there really anything you wanted? Or were you just...slumming it?”
“Wow,” Veronica said, standing as well. “I can’t decide if I should be touched that you think so highly of me or offended that you think I think so little of you.”
Jackie smiled.
“It doesn’t matter, Veronica, because it was nice seeing you but after you leave today I won’t think of you at all.”
Veronica gave her a hard stare. “Self defense again?”
“Always. Have a nice life, Veronica Mars. And tell Wallace..” She paused. Her face tightened, and for the first time Veronica saw more than detachment cross her features. “Tell Wallace...” she said again, her voice softening, wavering.
“I’ll tell him I loved the museums,” Veronica said, cutting her off. She wanted to leave Jackie her toughness, if she couldn’t leave her anything else.
She left a twenty on the table for a $6.50 tab and walked out the door, not letting herself look back.
*****************
Lunch, Day Two
“Don’t tell me you were just in the neighborhood,” Jackie said, looking up at the tiny blonde walking through the diner's door for the second time in two days.
“Only if the neighborhood is two trains and a bus ride away,” Veronica deadpanned, settling herself into the same booth she occupied the previous day.
“I’m actually glad to see you today,” Jackie started.
“Ah, so you DID think of me after I was gone,” Veronica said. “Never underestimate the power of the high school nostalgia. Even if it is only a week old.”
“No, actually you left yesterday before I could give you your change.” Jackie said, fishing in the pocket of her apron and counting out $13.50, placing it pointedly on the table in front of the smaller woman.
Veronica met her eyes, and didn’t look away. After a moment, she picked up two dollars from the pile and handed it back to Jackie.
“You assume I don’t tip?” She said lightly, arching an eyebrow. “I’m offended.”
“Then we’re even, Veronica. I’m not your charity case, and if I recall correctly, you’re not an 09er, so let’s neither of us reprise roles that don’t belong to us.”
“Fair enough,” Veronica conceded. “Vacation.”
“What?”
“Vacation. It’s what I’m doing here. My dad got me a vacation package to New York for graduation.”
Jackie blinked, and bit back a pang of jealousy. She wasn’t sure if it was the dad part or the graduation present part that did it, but just as fast she slid her features back to their cynical stare.
Apparently, though, not fast enough for Veronica.
“Don’t get too jealous. He was supposed to come with me, but I’ve been stood up. Some kind of emergency business situation. He’s meeting me here later in the week.”
“Sounds like he’s taking a page out of my dad’s book.”
“Well, I would have appreciated a phone call before I actually stood around feeling dejected waiting for him at the departure gate at the airport, but generally he does okay on the dad front so I’m willing to give him a pass. This time. Maybe I’ll use it to finally get that pony.”
Jackie laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound.
“Be careful, Veronica. Sometimes the pony turns out to be vicious.”
Veronica’s face softened. “Jackie, I-“
Jackie stood up abruptly. “I can’t sit with you today, Veronica. I have to work, and my mom’s watching me like a hawk.”
Veronica shrugged, reached for her backpack. “That works out, then, because I actually want to scope out the floor plan of the Met and figure out my strategy.”
“Can I bring you a burger?” Jackie asked.
“Same as yesterday would be great,” Veronica nodded, opening up an obscenely large foldout map of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jackie smiled, watching her fumble with it. It was the first genuine smile to cross her face since the blonde had walked in the previous day.
*****************
Lunch, Day Three
Veronica was still easing out of her backpack and settling into what was quickly becoming her booth when Jackie placed the burger on the table in front of her.
“I know you’re good, but even you can’t put a burger together in 30 seconds. Am I getting that predictable?” Veronica asked, her voice mocking a pout.
“I had a feeling I’d see you today. You’re becoming a regular.”
“Well, just so you know, tomorrow I expect everyone in here to stop and sing the theme song to Cheers when I walk through the door.”
Jackie smiled, and sat down.
“You’re done with your shift?”
“I thought you’d be here. I switched my break, if you don’t mind the company.”
“I’d love the company, if you don’t mind the eating like a lunatic. I’ve been up since 7am and I’m famished.”
“Eat all you want, Veronica. I might even be able to score you a second round of fries if you play your cards right. Manny, the cook - he responds well to flattery.”
“Tell him I’m his biggest fan,” Veronica managed to retort around a mouthful of burger.
Jackie laughed, and leaned back against the booth.
“You know,” she said carefully, “you never did tell me what you were really doing here.”
Veronica cocked her eyebrow. “I told you. Vacation. Graduation. Being stood up. Pony. Ring any bells?”
Jackie shook her head, and looked directly at Veronica, meeting her eyes.
“No,” she said softly. “I want to know what you’re doing here. Why are you here,” she asked, her hand gesturing subtly to the surroundings of the diner.
“Did I tell you about the Met yesterday? You know, a funny thing happened on the way to the...”
“Veronica.”
“Did I mention that I just happened to be in the neighborhood?”
“Veronica.”
Veronica put her burger down and sighed.
“I thought we were doing just fine with the banter and the wordless understanding.”
“What can I say? I like it to be spelled out for me.”
“Were you always this direct when we were in Neptune?”
“No, I was more ‘let me be as bitchy as I can before you have the opportunity to be bitchy to me.”
“Self defense?”
“Always.”
Veronica smiled. “I wish you had been this direct when we were in Neptune.”
“I wish you had been this attentive. Now spill.”
Veronica sat back in the booth, her fingers drawing light circles in the condensation on her milkshake glass. She furrowed her brow, thinking how to explain herself. She knew she wanted to tell the truth. She could own the blooming seeds of respect she felt toward this girl, for the truth of her life beneath the lies. For the fact that she lied at all. If Veronica were in a truth telling mood, she would admit that she wanted to lie, too, sometimes.
“Honestly, Jackie, I don’t know if I know the answer myself,” she started, speaking carefully as she tried to articulate what she was feeling.
Jackie groaned. “Uh-uh, Veronica Mars. None of that ‘I’m finding myself on the road’ bullshit. You’re more real than that.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. What I mean is, I don’t know why I keep coming back. I think it was curiosity, initially. You - your life, my perverse desire to see an 09er fall.”
“I’m not really-“ Jackie interjected, but Veronica cut her off.
“-an 09er, I know. But that was the image you projected. And I-“
“And I think I fell pretty far during that whole ‘the entire school hates me because they think my dad killed a bus full of their own’ phase.”
“I know, but-“
“Or then there was the part where the entire school hated me because they thought I stole the senior trip money, even though most of them walked around carrying more than that in fucking pocket money. I particularly enjoyed being called trash by the school faculty on that one.”
“We took care of that, and-“
“Although my favorite might have been when my own father got tired of me and pretty much threw me out like the garbage everyone else thought I was...”
“HEY.” Veronica said loudly, cutting through Jackie’s increasingly angry monologue. “Do you want me to talk to you or do you want me to eat crow?” She said, her voice hard, and slightly more defensive than she really wanted it to sound.
Jackie looked hard at her for a minute, not saying anything.
“Both,” she spoke finally, her own voice softening slightly in concession to Veronica’s point.
Veronica reached across the table and took the other girl’s hand, getting and keeping her attention. “I’m sorry for the way things turned out, Jackie,” Veronica said softly, and realized she meant it.
“I know it wasn’t your fault, Veronica.” Jackie said back to her, her voice matching Veronica’s soft tone. “It was just...”
“Hard,” Veronica finished. “I know.”
Jackie looked down at Veronica’s hand, holding her own. It was warm, and smooth and kind, and reminded her of Wallace, of the promise Wallace had represented to her.
She pulled her hand back, abruptly.
Veronica straightened up and sucked thoughtfully on her milkshake.
“You know, it’s like, I’m here, and I don’t know anyone else here. My dad is late. Basically I know...you...and I suppose I wanted to see what your life was like. Your real life.” Veronica said. “Partly because a part of me wanted to see you humbled, yes, but partly because...”
Jackie looked at her, absently wringing her hands, half listening but also thinking that she hated the part of herself that suddenly missed being touched. She had worked hard in her first days back in Brooklyn to train herself not to miss being touched.
“...because I thought I would like you better like this.”
Jackie’s eyebrows shot up but Veronica rushed on before giving the other girl time to get angry all over again.
“What I mean is that, let’s face it, my life hasn’t been anybody’s bed of roses. All I’ve ever been was an interloper...even before...Lilly. And then you came along, and you were one of them. And I hated you. And then...you weren’t any more. And you never really were to begin with. You were always just an interloper, like me. That’s what I found out, when I looked you up. And don’t look at me like that, of course I looked you up. What kind of BFF would I be if I let Wallace just date whomever he pleased?”
Jackie’s mouth opened up but Veronica shushed her quickly, reaching across the table and putting a finger to her lips.
“You’re letting me tell it, remember? What I’m trying to tell you is that to me, your secret didn’t make you damaged goods. It made your goods more...valuable. More real. More substantial. It made you seem more relatable.”
Veronica pulled her finger away from Jackie’s mouth, missing for the tiniest second the soft possibilities of Jackie’s lips against her skin. It had been a long time since she had been touched. Really touched. Touched for pleasure, and not for saving her life or her sanity or her grip on reality. Jackie’s mouth felt nicer than she wanted to stop to consider.
“It would seem you’ve done an awful lot of thinking about my goods,” Jackie said airily, an obvious (and successful, Veronica noted) attempt to lighten the conversation.
“I’ve done an awful lot of thinking about how to know people,” Veronica admitted, closing her eyes briefly against a flash of memory, a roof, an explosion, a boy going over a ledge. “So now I’m here, and suddenly you’re this down to earth person, and the more lunches we have the more I’ve got this respect for your realness going, and the less I want to just walk away.”
“Sooooo, in other words, you like me because you think suffering makes me interesting?”
“In a nutshell.”
“Veronica, it’s wrong of you to assume you know me or anything about me just because my life is more complicated than your projection of who I am.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“But...I’m really glad you’re here.”
“I know. I’m awesome like that.”
Jackie laughed, tossed a wadded up napkin in her direction.
“Ego much?”
“Have you forgotten? I’m so much cooler than James Bond. And here I thought you knew me.”
“James Bond, eh? I guess that makes me Pussy Galore?”
Jackie laughed as Veronica flushed from her neck up to the roots of her hair.
“You’re going to have to work on that. James Bond never blushed.”
“I’m glad I’m here too,” Veronica whispered. And once again felt surprised to discover that she meant the words.
Jackie stood up, noting the beginning of another round of disapproving stares from her mother.
Veronica frowned, wanted to stop her, wanted to sit and talk and be one upped for the rest of the afternoon. She found that being one upped by Jackie was a surprisingly pleasant experience, and not one she was ready to give up for the day. Unfortunately, though, real life Jackie, though infinitely more pleasurable to spend time with, had to attend to real life business. Like her job. Veronica watched the other girl stand, furrowing her eyebrows slightly as Jackie spoke.
“Look, my break is pretty much up, but my shift is over at 6. If you wanted, we could...”
“YOU KNOW,” Veronica cut in loudly in a fake theater voice, not wanting to be one upped again. “I hear that this city has decent pizza. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”
“Pie, Veronica. First rule of New York pizza. It’s a pie. Or a slice, actually. Most people order by the slice. So yes, we could go out for a slice. I’d like that. Meet me back here at 6?”
“Don’t underestimate my stomach, and love of a good pizza. Pie.” Veronica grinned. “And, actually, I thought I might just stay. If that’s okay with you.”
Jackie looked at her, hard, a smile reluctantly spreading across her features.
“I’d like that Veronica. But you should know, my mom’s a tough cookie. She’ll make you pay for that table. Be prepared to drop the big bucks on five hours worth of appetizers and milkshakes.”
“What happened to flattering the cook?”
“In this town, Veronica, flattery will only get you so far.”
“Weeeellll, they don’t call me big spender for nothing,” Veronica grinned, pulling out her laptop.
****************
Lunch, Day Four
Jackie opened her eyes, but fought against the stretch her body was craving. She wasn’t ready to come back to her real life yet. Veronica’s body was warm and soft, and fit nicely inside the span of her arms. She wanted to stay there, in fantasy life, where she had spent her night making love to Veronica Mars and there was no 10 hour waitress shift waiting for her and no mother standing by to berate her for not taking good enough care of her son or coming home at night. Real life wouldn’t be denied, however, as moments later Veronica broke their embrace to indulge in a long stretch of her own.
But Veronica nestled back in.
Jackie smiled. The 09er in her brain supposed she should feel proud or smug, go home and put a notch on her bedpost or belt or wherever those notches were kept. She had bedded Veronica Mars. And it had been wonderful. Veronica was a generous lover in bed, and Jackie had needed the tenderness. More than she would have let herself admit, if she were in the mood for truth telling.
Veronica’s hand grazed down her bare stomach and Jackie shivered as light fingers descended across her sex, soft fingers twining in her hair.
“You were right about not underestimating your appetite,” Jackie teased her.
“There’s not much I won’t do for a good pizza. Pie.” Veronica teased back.
“Slice," Jackie laughed. "Or slices in your case. It would seem your Achilles heel is your stomach. Hmm. I don’t recall James Bond having such an exploitable weakness.”
“I would think James Bond’s weakness for pretty girls is WAY more exploitable than mine,” Veronica countered, propping herself up on one elbow and gazing down at Jackie’s face.
Jackie gave a mock pout. “Are you saying I’m not pretty?”
“I’m saying I’m not here because anybody exploited me,” Veronica said seriously, brushing a curl behind Jackie’s ear.
Jackie sat up slightly and glanced at the clock, groaning. She could just picture her mother’s pinched face glancing at the diner’s clock right about now, foot tapping.
“Train to catch?”
“More like shift to make.”
“That’s right. There would usually be a burger in my orbit right about now.”
“I’m sure we have room service. And here I thought you learned something from dating all those 09er boys.”
“Dial on, sister,” Veronica grinned, stretching to reach the phone and then pushing it toward Jackie. “I’m not ready to move my legs yet. Let’s just stay in bed all day. Only this time I’ll let you be Bond and I’ll be your dangerously seductive Bond girl.”
“Hmmm, I think I’ll call you Holly Goodhead,” Jackie panned.
Veronica laughed.
And then grew serious a moment.
“I’m really glad for this,” she said to the other girl softly, placing her hands on Jackie’s arms and meeting her eyes intently.
Jackie sighed.
“Here I thought we were doing fine with the banter and the wordless understanding.”
Veronica smiled.
“You know it can’t go anywhere. Your dad is flying in today, and my mom is going to give me hell for staying out all night.”
“I know. If I’m being honest, that’s probably why I let myself have it. Have you.”
“I’m really glad too. Even if you’ve gone and left me wanting more.”
“That’s how it should be, really,” Veronica replied lightly. “This way we can skip all the weirdness and the not calling and the jealousy and the falling out of love and messy breaking up.”
“We can end on a high note, just like the Beatles.” Jackie quipped.
“Does that make Logan or Wallace Yoko? Veronica asked, dissolving into giggles.
“Neither,” Jackie said quietly. “Just interlopers.”
****************