The Return 3: Forgive (Ensemble) PG-13
Title: The Return 3-Forgive
Rating: PG-13 (for mentioned sexual situations)
Characters/Pairings: Lilly Kane, Logan, Veronica, Weevil (mentions of: Parker, Piz, Wallace, Dick, Mac)
Word Count: 2,118
Spoilers: All episodes (from 1.01: Pilot to 3.20: The Bitch Is Back. Just to be sure) Although this is obviously AU and there are obviously going to be some alterations to events and especially some in the last couple of episodes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally, nothing. So don’t sue me over his, because you won’t get anything. It all belongs to Rob Thomas and if I had owned it when it was still on the last season would have been way different.
A/N: This story was also no originally mine, and I’d really like to stress that in the first two chapters. The original story can be found here) And this is my first attempt at anything AU, so… enjoy
Chapter 1: Awake/ Chapter 2: Homecoming
The Return
3
Forgive
~Logan~
Logan stood at the balcony door of the suite, gazing at Lilly. She looked the same, and so different. She was thinner, probably because she hadn’t eaten solid food in four year. Hadn’t eaten junk food in four years. She was paler too, from the lack of sunlight, or any light other than the florescent lighting of the hospital. The paleness brought out the dark circles under her eyes and the bruises that littered her arms, caused by IVs. She looked weak when he really looked at her. Weak and drained, like this whole evening had really taken a toll on her. Shaking his head, Logan gripped the handle and pushed the glass door open.
“Hey Lil, how’re you holding up?” Logan asked, taking a seat next to her and staring at the view. He didn’t look at her, let her have her own kind of privacy. They had all been staring at her through the windows, watching her every move. Logan knew what it was to be watched, he knew the importance of privacy and not being looked at.
“She has changed, so much,” Lilly answered, her voice so thick with tears it was barely audible. Logan looked at her now, shocked Lilly was showing so much emotion. So much weakness.
“Who?” Logan asked a moment before it clicked exactly who she was talking about. His clueless question got her to look at him, and she rolled her teary eyes.
“Ronnie? I guess so, not so much as it would seem though. She kind of had to change though, you know? She didn’t have any friends left, and it was just her for a while. It was a year before Wallace moved to town and then it was just the two of them.” Logan explained, not really thinking about the words falling out of his mouth. The words where he was admitting that he had abandoned her best friend to the cruelty of the school. And mostly to the people that had openly called her a friend and secretly despised her for her exalted position amongst them.
“Why didn’t she have any friends, Logan?” Lilly asked him, her voice hard and unforgiving, quite a jump from the emotional vulnerability she was showing moments ago. “What did you do?”
Logan’s head hung in shame. Lilly wanted an answer for his biggest regret. She wanted to know why Logan had decided she was the enemy. There was no easy way for him to answer this.
“What did you do, Lilly? We didn’t all get into this situation by ourselves, you know. We were all reacting to your situation, your death more or less. It was like you died and we had to learn to cope with it. Then she went on this quest, looking for who tried to kill you.” Logan took a deep breath, willing himself to go on. Ever since he’d learned the truth he’d wanted to ask her this question. “My father, Lilly? Why?”
~Lilly~
“I didn’t think much about how it would affect you. Or anyone else really. I just did it.” Lilly had been dreading explaining this to Logan ever since she woke up. Her parents had forced an explanation our of her three months ago. They knew, so Logan and Veronica knew too. She’d probably tell more of the story to Veronica, but Logan still needed to know.
“I was there, to get my stuff and drop off yours. Your dad was home early, raging about that party you’d had while they were away. I was in the pool house.” Lilly reached for the bottle of water, this was the most energy she’d had to exert since the end of her coma six months ago. “I was just about to get into the vent so I could get a drink, it’d been kind of draining. Packing up all your crap and hunting around your room and the pool house for mine. Thought I deserved a reward.”
“This is all great Lilly, but I know this part. I got home and he beat the crap out of me for that party and the missing liquor in the pool house. Then I got to go upstairs and find all my stuff all over my bed and my room thrashed from you rummaging. Score for me.” Logan looked impatient and annoyed, like he’d been holding this back since he first seen her at the door.
“When he came into the pool house I was already half drunk. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Such a great and drunken idea, to seduce your father. Prove that I had these great powers of seduction that no man could resist. And he didn’t, barely even hesitated and I’m sure he was just mentally going through where you and your mom were and if you’d be home soon.”
“Yeah, well that explains the first time. But there were several tapes in that vent, Veronica said there were three. And when I watched them, it didn’t-”
“You watched them?” Lilly interrupted, she was shocked and appalled that he had seen her doing that. She had prayed that no one would have ever seen those tapes. Sure she had threatened Aaron that she was going to go to the tabloids, but she had never intended to go through with that threat. “There’s no excuse for me continuing it, I can’t say anything to make you feel better about it or make it alright.”
~Veronica~
Veronica shifted nervously from one foot to the other, leaning her shoulder against the door frame to Dick’s bedroom door. Weevil was still in Logan’s bedroom and Dick had left to drive Parker and Mac back to Hearst on his way into the frat house. Wallace and Piz were still in the living room, amusing themselves with video games as they waited to see if she was alright.
Veronica had no doubt that Wallace had a genuine concern for her piece of mind, for her well being. Piz on the other hand had been following after her again. Suddenly it was as if their break-up wasn’t as big deal as it was before. That it was okay because he was going to do this panting and pining thing again and in six months maybe she’d go out with him again.
Veronica blocked out the beeping of the game and the television, and the yelling of the two boys. Narrowing her eyes she glared out the balcony doors from several feet away. With the distance between her and the window and the window and them she was nearly twenty feet away, and it was getting dark. She had never invested her time in learning how to read lips, which she was kicking herself for now, and the lighting was now hiding a good majority of their gesturing and facial expressions. She had no idea what was going on and being said out there. But Logan looked kind of pissed.
Logan had been out there with Lilly for almost forty-five minutes, and she had been watching them the entire time. The last thing she had seen him do was glare angrily at Lilly, and that’s when Veronica had to stop herself from going out there and refereeing the fight. It was odd how she seemed to want to slip back into her old position of peace keeper now that Lilly was back and fighting with Logan again.
She hadn’t thought she’d be this protective of Lilly. Actually, that was a lie. She knew she was going to be protective of her around everyone, she just hadn’t counted on her feelings to protect her from Logan and his anger.
Sure, Lilly was a big girl and technically she was older than me by a year. But Lilly hasn’t had the chance to fully grow up, she’s still seventeen in her head. Veronica thought to herself as she watched Logan grip the arms to his chair. Yeah, Lilly always seemed older, and more mature for her age. It’s the reason I idolized her for so long, but I know now that it was just a front. It’s fun to act older. Like she was grown and could do whatever she wanted. Like adults don’t have consequences too, like they go around sleeping with their boyfriends fathers all the time.
Veronica straightened when she saw Logan stand and start head towards the door. Lilly continued looking directly ahead of her, at the view of the balcony, and probably deep in thought.
She rushed back into Dick’s room and flung herself backwards onto the bed, wiggling a little to make it look like her body was settled into the mattress and she’d been there a while. It wouldn’t do for him to catch her spying on them. She’d be embarrassed and he’d make a comment about her jealousy steak. Or it’d go the opposite direction, he’d get embarrassed and she’d have to make jokes to ease them out of the situation.
“Hey,” Logan said, his voice low as he settled into the door frame, reassuming her position moments earlier. He crossed his arms in front of his chest briefly before dropping them down to fidget, then crossing them once more.
“Nice chat?” Veronica asked, not really wanting to know the truth. If they’d been fighting she would be angry that’s he’d upset her like that. If they’d been making up she’d be disappointed that he forgave her so easily, like he always had in high school.
“Some of it was, other parts not so much.” Taking a deep breath, Logan flopped back on the bed next to her before continuing. “I told her there were things I may never forgive her for and others that would take some time. But right now, I told her not to worry about making an effort to court said forgiveness. She’s too weak and it’ll just have to happen naturally, that it would have to take time.”
Propping herself up on her elbow and bringing her head down to rest comfortably in her hand, Veronica looked at Logan with a renewed sense of interest. Looking down at the boy she’d known about eight years now, she could see a clear outline of the man he was going to become. Forgiving and fair. Loyal.
“Eventually, you’ll put it behind you. You’ll get past it, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’ll ever happen. But at some point you actually end up leaving the past in the past.” Veronica told him, dropping back down to the mattress.
“Yeah…” Logan whispered, his voice fading off as his eyelids fell shut.
Stretching her hands over her head and tightening her body to the point where it bowed off the bed, Veronica stretched. Yawning, she rolled completely onto the side facing Logan and let herself drift off to sleep, followed by dreams of their once happy group as she tried desperately to accommodate all the sheets from Logan in their slumber.
~Weevil~
He’d come out of the room for a moment, just a second, to see what was happening. It had been quiet for a while, the loud Casablancas kid’s voice was no longer bellowing and flirty with the girls. In fact, it seemed almost as if everyone had left and simply forgotten that he Weevil was even there.
He was right.
Weevil poked his head out of the bedroom door, fully prepared to rejoin his ‘friends’. In fact, he was looking forward to reaming Veronica out, bitching at Logan and ignoring Lilly. The best laid plans, and all that, right?
With one glance he saw Veronica leaning against a door, staring intently at something and blocking the rest of the world out. Weevil recognized that look on her face. Protective. He’d seen it many a time, mostly when he was threatening Rich Boy or her sidekick. But he knew who this look was for, who she was watching, and with just a slight angling of his neck he had a clear view.
Lilly.
Lilly and Logan to be exact. They were sitting on the balcony, engaged in some intense conversation. Echolls was smiling and Lilly was looking at him in that way she had, the way that made him want to do anything she asked. The way that made him melt.
When Echolls leaned in to Lilly, whispering something to her, Weevil couldn’t stand it any longer. He couldn’t sit here and watch Lilly go running back to him, the way she always had.
And just like that, they were all instantly transported back to being sophomores in high school. It was four years later, and they were still all caught up in this same mess.
4:Arrival
Rating: PG-13 (for mentioned sexual situations)
Characters/Pairings: Lilly Kane, Logan, Veronica, Weevil (mentions of: Parker, Piz, Wallace, Dick, Mac)
Word Count: 2,118
Spoilers: All episodes (from 1.01: Pilot to 3.20: The Bitch Is Back. Just to be sure) Although this is obviously AU and there are obviously going to be some alterations to events and especially some in the last couple of episodes.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally, nothing. So don’t sue me over his, because you won’t get anything. It all belongs to Rob Thomas and if I had owned it when it was still on the last season would have been way different.
A/N: This story was also no originally mine, and I’d really like to stress that in the first two chapters. The original story can be found here) And this is my first attempt at anything AU, so… enjoy
Chapter 1: Awake/ Chapter 2: Homecoming
The Return
3
Forgive
~Logan~
Logan stood at the balcony door of the suite, gazing at Lilly. She looked the same, and so different. She was thinner, probably because she hadn’t eaten solid food in four year. Hadn’t eaten junk food in four years. She was paler too, from the lack of sunlight, or any light other than the florescent lighting of the hospital. The paleness brought out the dark circles under her eyes and the bruises that littered her arms, caused by IVs. She looked weak when he really looked at her. Weak and drained, like this whole evening had really taken a toll on her. Shaking his head, Logan gripped the handle and pushed the glass door open.
“Hey Lil, how’re you holding up?” Logan asked, taking a seat next to her and staring at the view. He didn’t look at her, let her have her own kind of privacy. They had all been staring at her through the windows, watching her every move. Logan knew what it was to be watched, he knew the importance of privacy and not being looked at.
“She has changed, so much,” Lilly answered, her voice so thick with tears it was barely audible. Logan looked at her now, shocked Lilly was showing so much emotion. So much weakness.
“Who?” Logan asked a moment before it clicked exactly who she was talking about. His clueless question got her to look at him, and she rolled her teary eyes.
“Ronnie? I guess so, not so much as it would seem though. She kind of had to change though, you know? She didn’t have any friends left, and it was just her for a while. It was a year before Wallace moved to town and then it was just the two of them.” Logan explained, not really thinking about the words falling out of his mouth. The words where he was admitting that he had abandoned her best friend to the cruelty of the school. And mostly to the people that had openly called her a friend and secretly despised her for her exalted position amongst them.
“Why didn’t she have any friends, Logan?” Lilly asked him, her voice hard and unforgiving, quite a jump from the emotional vulnerability she was showing moments ago. “What did you do?”
Logan’s head hung in shame. Lilly wanted an answer for his biggest regret. She wanted to know why Logan had decided she was the enemy. There was no easy way for him to answer this.
“What did you do, Lilly? We didn’t all get into this situation by ourselves, you know. We were all reacting to your situation, your death more or less. It was like you died and we had to learn to cope with it. Then she went on this quest, looking for who tried to kill you.” Logan took a deep breath, willing himself to go on. Ever since he’d learned the truth he’d wanted to ask her this question. “My father, Lilly? Why?”
~Lilly~
“I didn’t think much about how it would affect you. Or anyone else really. I just did it.” Lilly had been dreading explaining this to Logan ever since she woke up. Her parents had forced an explanation our of her three months ago. They knew, so Logan and Veronica knew too. She’d probably tell more of the story to Veronica, but Logan still needed to know.
“I was there, to get my stuff and drop off yours. Your dad was home early, raging about that party you’d had while they were away. I was in the pool house.” Lilly reached for the bottle of water, this was the most energy she’d had to exert since the end of her coma six months ago. “I was just about to get into the vent so I could get a drink, it’d been kind of draining. Packing up all your crap and hunting around your room and the pool house for mine. Thought I deserved a reward.”
“This is all great Lilly, but I know this part. I got home and he beat the crap out of me for that party and the missing liquor in the pool house. Then I got to go upstairs and find all my stuff all over my bed and my room thrashed from you rummaging. Score for me.” Logan looked impatient and annoyed, like he’d been holding this back since he first seen her at the door.
“When he came into the pool house I was already half drunk. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. Such a great and drunken idea, to seduce your father. Prove that I had these great powers of seduction that no man could resist. And he didn’t, barely even hesitated and I’m sure he was just mentally going through where you and your mom were and if you’d be home soon.”
“Yeah, well that explains the first time. But there were several tapes in that vent, Veronica said there were three. And when I watched them, it didn’t-”
“You watched them?” Lilly interrupted, she was shocked and appalled that he had seen her doing that. She had prayed that no one would have ever seen those tapes. Sure she had threatened Aaron that she was going to go to the tabloids, but she had never intended to go through with that threat. “There’s no excuse for me continuing it, I can’t say anything to make you feel better about it or make it alright.”
~Veronica~
Veronica shifted nervously from one foot to the other, leaning her shoulder against the door frame to Dick’s bedroom door. Weevil was still in Logan’s bedroom and Dick had left to drive Parker and Mac back to Hearst on his way into the frat house. Wallace and Piz were still in the living room, amusing themselves with video games as they waited to see if she was alright.
Veronica had no doubt that Wallace had a genuine concern for her piece of mind, for her well being. Piz on the other hand had been following after her again. Suddenly it was as if their break-up wasn’t as big deal as it was before. That it was okay because he was going to do this panting and pining thing again and in six months maybe she’d go out with him again.
Veronica blocked out the beeping of the game and the television, and the yelling of the two boys. Narrowing her eyes she glared out the balcony doors from several feet away. With the distance between her and the window and the window and them she was nearly twenty feet away, and it was getting dark. She had never invested her time in learning how to read lips, which she was kicking herself for now, and the lighting was now hiding a good majority of their gesturing and facial expressions. She had no idea what was going on and being said out there. But Logan looked kind of pissed.
Logan had been out there with Lilly for almost forty-five minutes, and she had been watching them the entire time. The last thing she had seen him do was glare angrily at Lilly, and that’s when Veronica had to stop herself from going out there and refereeing the fight. It was odd how she seemed to want to slip back into her old position of peace keeper now that Lilly was back and fighting with Logan again.
She hadn’t thought she’d be this protective of Lilly. Actually, that was a lie. She knew she was going to be protective of her around everyone, she just hadn’t counted on her feelings to protect her from Logan and his anger.
Sure, Lilly was a big girl and technically she was older than me by a year. But Lilly hasn’t had the chance to fully grow up, she’s still seventeen in her head. Veronica thought to herself as she watched Logan grip the arms to his chair. Yeah, Lilly always seemed older, and more mature for her age. It’s the reason I idolized her for so long, but I know now that it was just a front. It’s fun to act older. Like she was grown and could do whatever she wanted. Like adults don’t have consequences too, like they go around sleeping with their boyfriends fathers all the time.
Veronica straightened when she saw Logan stand and start head towards the door. Lilly continued looking directly ahead of her, at the view of the balcony, and probably deep in thought.
She rushed back into Dick’s room and flung herself backwards onto the bed, wiggling a little to make it look like her body was settled into the mattress and she’d been there a while. It wouldn’t do for him to catch her spying on them. She’d be embarrassed and he’d make a comment about her jealousy steak. Or it’d go the opposite direction, he’d get embarrassed and she’d have to make jokes to ease them out of the situation.
“Hey,” Logan said, his voice low as he settled into the door frame, reassuming her position moments earlier. He crossed his arms in front of his chest briefly before dropping them down to fidget, then crossing them once more.
“Nice chat?” Veronica asked, not really wanting to know the truth. If they’d been fighting she would be angry that’s he’d upset her like that. If they’d been making up she’d be disappointed that he forgave her so easily, like he always had in high school.
“Some of it was, other parts not so much.” Taking a deep breath, Logan flopped back on the bed next to her before continuing. “I told her there were things I may never forgive her for and others that would take some time. But right now, I told her not to worry about making an effort to court said forgiveness. She’s too weak and it’ll just have to happen naturally, that it would have to take time.”
Propping herself up on her elbow and bringing her head down to rest comfortably in her hand, Veronica looked at Logan with a renewed sense of interest. Looking down at the boy she’d known about eight years now, she could see a clear outline of the man he was going to become. Forgiving and fair. Loyal.
“Eventually, you’ll put it behind you. You’ll get past it, even though sometimes it doesn’t feel like it’ll ever happen. But at some point you actually end up leaving the past in the past.” Veronica told him, dropping back down to the mattress.
“Yeah…” Logan whispered, his voice fading off as his eyelids fell shut.
Stretching her hands over her head and tightening her body to the point where it bowed off the bed, Veronica stretched. Yawning, she rolled completely onto the side facing Logan and let herself drift off to sleep, followed by dreams of their once happy group as she tried desperately to accommodate all the sheets from Logan in their slumber.
~Weevil~
He’d come out of the room for a moment, just a second, to see what was happening. It had been quiet for a while, the loud Casablancas kid’s voice was no longer bellowing and flirty with the girls. In fact, it seemed almost as if everyone had left and simply forgotten that he Weevil was even there.
He was right.
Weevil poked his head out of the bedroom door, fully prepared to rejoin his ‘friends’. In fact, he was looking forward to reaming Veronica out, bitching at Logan and ignoring Lilly. The best laid plans, and all that, right?
With one glance he saw Veronica leaning against a door, staring intently at something and blocking the rest of the world out. Weevil recognized that look on her face. Protective. He’d seen it many a time, mostly when he was threatening Rich Boy or her sidekick. But he knew who this look was for, who she was watching, and with just a slight angling of his neck he had a clear view.
Lilly.
Lilly and Logan to be exact. They were sitting on the balcony, engaged in some intense conversation. Echolls was smiling and Lilly was looking at him in that way she had, the way that made him want to do anything she asked. The way that made him melt.
When Echolls leaned in to Lilly, whispering something to her, Weevil couldn’t stand it any longer. He couldn’t sit here and watch Lilly go running back to him, the way she always had.
And just like that, they were all instantly transported back to being sophomores in high school. It was four years later, and they were still all caught up in this same mess.
4:Arrival