FIC: Damn, Damn the Circumstance (12/?)
Jun. 23rd, 2007 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
invida_ficTitle: Damn, Damn the Circumstance (12/?)
Author: invida
Characters: Veronica, Logan, Ensemble
Word Count: 6066
Rating: R
Spoilers: knowledge up to 2x22
Timeline: goes AU from the Pomroy party, and a few liberties are taken with the timing of certain events. See Author's Notes for more details.
Disclaimer: I know the law, and the law would win.
Summary: if Logan hadn't left with the easy freshman that night.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aud_woman_in and to afrocurl for the helpful suggestions.
Previous Parts
This is Logan with today’s inspirational greeting: I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. Walt Whitman. Leave a message.
Veronica hung up before the beep. She'd already left a message letting him know that she was livid and prepared to give him absolute hell when she saw him. But the fact that she'd called two times before leaving that message and a few more times after did not mean that she was worried about him. That's what she told herself.
And this latest call - the seventh or eighth now, and, yes, losing track of how many times she'd called also meant nothing - was to let him know that she was storming over to the pool house where Mrs Navarro told her he'd ensconced himself after he got home that afternoon, and that he'd better be dressed. But again he didn't answer.
She steeled herself as she slid open the patio door of the dimly lit pool house, suddenly nervous about what state she was going to find him in, almost forgetting that she was the one who was angry. The room was a mess. She could tell, even in the faint light.
"Logan?"
She heard a sigh, and saw a movement on the other side of the bed. She walked over to him and found him sitting on the floor, propped up against the bed, his hand around the neck of a liquor bottle. Perfect.
He didn't look up at her. "I thought you weren't allowed to come over." His voice was raspy. "Wouldn't Daddy Mars have a conniption fit if he knew you were here?"
In her fury, she'd forgotten her father's warning, and in her concern for Logan, she'd forgotten to be mad. Ignoring his question, she crossed her arms, trying to recapture her earlier ire. "You wanna tell me why a Mexican biker gang has been following me around for the last few days?"
That earned her a glance. He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Of course..." he trailed off.
"And you wanna tell me why, when I stopped at the Sac 'N' Pac and a guy came up to me to ask for directions, they pinned him to the wall and threatened him? And maybe you wanna tell me why, when I asked what they were doing, they said I should talk to you?"
Logan peered up at her through bleary eyes. "Nope."
Frustrated, Veronica turned to snap on the overhead lights. Logan scrambled up and tried to stop her, but Veronica was quicker and Logan was drunker. When he stumbled, she caught him, and he sagged against her, nearly causing her to lose her own balance.
Veronica tried to help him stand upright, but Logan misinterpreted her intentions and wrapped his arms around her. When he nuzzled her ear, deeply inhaling, she froze. Over the last few days, other than hand-holding and the occasional peck on the cheek, he hadn't tried to anything as daring as the kiss he'd initiated in the parking lot on Monday morning. He didn't seem to notice her stiffen, and pulled her closer. A breath escaped him somewhere between a sigh and a shudder.
Realizing something was very wrong, Veronica softened. She brought her arms up around him and said, "Hey, it's okay."
The sound of her voice seemed to snap him back to reality and he pulled away from her, turned, picked up the bottle and sat on the bed, never meeting her eyes.
She stood in front of him, but he still wouldn't raise his head to meet her gaze, just looked intently at the bottle he held in his lap. She reached out, and with both hands, tilted his face up to look at her.
She gasped, taking in his bloodshot eyes, the tiny red spots that marked his skin, and the angry bruises that darkened his neck.
"You're fucking nosy, you know that?" he said hoarsely.
She ignored him. "Who did this? Was it your --?"
Logan wrenched away from her. "No. I told you, he's shooting on location. Won't be home for months if we're lucky."
Logan had indeed told her about Aaron being gone on another big budget stinker. She really should have remembered since Keith had let it slip when she was booking his travel arrangements to follow him around for a few days. "Then who?" she demanded.
"You knew where I was going today." He took a swig from the bottle.
She blinked. "Duncan did this?!" Logan just nodded and took another pull from the bottle.
When Logan had told her he was going to the Kanes' after school, he'd said that Duncan should know what was really going on. Veronica hadn't really understood why since Duncan had been avoiding them both. And when he couldn't avoid them, Duncan didn't even bother to hide his contempt. But Logan had an unconditional loyalty to Duncan that she had to admit she understood better than anyone. She had the same loyalty for Lilly, even after everything she'd learned.
She really did want to know how Duncan had taken it. Not that there was anything to really take since she and Logan were merely pretending albeit a little more vigorously than before. But Duncan just hadn't been making any sense to her. If he was really her brother - and that usually where her thought process with Duncan would stop. If she didn't stop it, then she'd have to think about what they were, what they almost were, and what they could never be. Regret, mortification, and nausea were an awful combination.
Veronica dropped down beside Logan, still shocked. "I can't believe this."
"Right. 'Cause there's just no way the angelic Duncan Kane could do something bad. And certainly not at the mere mention of your name. I must've wrapped my own hands around my throat and throttled myself."
"Shut up!" she snapped with more irritation than she'd intended. "I meant I can't get my head around this."
"What would you like to get your head around? The fact that Duncan tried to kill me? Or that Duncan's a complete fucking freak when it comes to you? And how fucked up is that? You could be his sister and he still acts like you're his untouchable treasure."
Veronica blushed deeply. "What did you say to him?"
"I tried to tell him that you knew about maybe being Jake's daughter and that you knew what he almost did at Shelly's party --"
"Why the hell would you tell him that?!" she yelled incredulously. "You said you were just going to talk to him about --"
"And what would be the point in not telling him you knew? Fuck! The way you two - Christ, I know, Veronica, that he was the one who started the whole 'ignoring you' thing. But you guys are gonna have to learn to deal with each other somehow. Especially when all of this crap is over and you and I are still together, 'cause I'm not choosing sides. Brother, sister, exes, I don't care. Just pick something and go with it."
Veronica's eyes widened at Logan's declaration. He must have realized how it had sounded because he began to stammer. "Together, like friends. We're friends. We're staying friends after all this is done. Right?"
"Yeah," she replied, with uncertainty. "Please, just tell me what happened," she added quickly, trying not to let the moment get too awkward.
Logan shrugged and took another sip from the bottle. "I was starting to explain to him about Shelly's party and he just attacked me. Knocked me over and I tried to fight back, but he already had his hands around my throat. I almost blacked out when Jake pulled him off me."
She'd known Logan and his fighting instinct well enough to know how hard it would be to get the upper hand with him, especially physically. And Duncan was not a fighter.
"This doesn't make any sense," she said quietly.
Logan barked out a laugh. "You know what doesn't make any sense? The way they treat you. Him and his whole fucking family. You might be Jake's daughter too and they all just cut you out and run your entire life into ground and let you live like you're worthless. And it kills me, you know, because I bought into it all. And I believed it. I wanted to."
"Logan --" she started with caution in her voice.
But he went on. "And you're his fucking sister! And he still says he loves you! And he doesn't get that he's not allowed to any more and that other people are allowed to like you, that you can't be a fucking nun just because he can't have what he wants."
"Please stop. You're going to say something --"
Logan jumped up, with wild gestures towards her. "I'm saying the things you should be saying, Veronica!"
She stood up. "You think that I don't think about all of this? That I just sit back and accept it all? It's on continuous playback in my head. But what am I supposed to do? Let it just cripple me? Roll up into a little ball in my closet because the Kanes don't like me? I'm getting my revenge, Logan, by living my life. Even if it's not as charmed as it used to be, it's still my life. Okay?"
"Yeah? Well, you could find out for sure who your father really is and give the rest of us a fucking break."
Veronica glared at him. "I'm so sorry my problems are such an inconvenience for you."
"You've got no idea, sweetheart," he said wryly, taking another drink.
"Maybe you should just stop worrying about my problems, then, and I'll stop worrying about yours and then we can be on our merry ways. Deal?"
"You know it's not that fucking simple."
"Sure it is. Watch me." She turned on her heel and started to walk away.
"You know, you're just as bad as Duncan!" Logan called to her before she reached the door.
"Worse even," he added when she froze, caught between wanting to know where he was going with this and knowing it was nowhere good. She turned back to him, arms crossed, waiting expectantly.
He didn't disappoint. "You can cry to me all you want that Duncan ignored you and pretended that you didn't exist, but what was he supposed to do? You tell me. He couldn't tell you, and he can't even find out for sure. You, on the other hand, now you know, and you can end of all of this guessing. And you won't. You don't even want to talk about it. You're ignoring the entire situation when you can do something about it!"
Veronica walked back towards him, eyes narrowing. "You have some god-damned nerve to say that to me. What was the first thing I thought when I saw those marks on your neck, huh? You tell me who's not doing something about their situation."
Logan stepped right into her space and towered over her. "Fuck you. Don't you fucking dare compare that to what you're doing." He pointed to himself. "My circumstances aren't hurting anybody. Do you ever stop to think about how many people you're hurting?"
"You are getting hurt, you fucking idiot!" She shoved him in the chest, trying to push him back as much as emphasize her point.
He grabbed her hands as she made contact and held them against his chest. "Careful, Veronica, I might think you actually care. And for future reference, Aaron Echolls never leaves a mark on his son that he'll let you see."
She twisted her hands out of his grasp. "You are such a jackass."
"And you're a stubborn bitch," he retorted. He didn't give her time for a glaring match though. He turned away and reached into the open air vent on the wall. "Here," he said, tossing something to her.
She caught it and held it up to inspect it. "What the hell is this?"
"Jake Kane's hairbrush. Don't say I never get you anything."
"Wow. You really shouldn't have. Seriously. What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
"Aren't you supposed to be like the smartest girl in school or something? What do you think, Veronica? I mean, you just helped your friend get a DNA test done. And you don't even have to do the legwork to get a sample."
She gaped alternatively at him and the hairbrush. "Do you think you can just force me to do this?"
"I think somebody has to make you see that you have to. And why the hell aren't you? You've known for weeks --"
"Because I'm thinking of the one person who will get hurt if I do. My dad. I'm all he has. And he's all I've got. If I'm - if I'm not - how are we supposed to get past that after everything else?"
Logan closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, and slightly swayed. "He loves you, Veronica, like to an irrational degree. He'll get over it."
"Well, he doesn't have to," she said, tossing the hairbrush on the bedside table.
Logan screamed, "For fuck's sake, Veronica! Do you not get it?! Duncan just tried to fucking kill me today! I've lost my best friend. And all because I can't stay away from you!"
He hurled the bottle and it hit the bookshelves, knocking over candles and figurines. It landed on the bed. A beat passed before Veronica's shock wore off. She jumped to the side of the bed to snatch up the bottle that was emptying its contents into the bedding. There was no way she was going to let him trash the pool house and get himself in even more trouble than being drunk on a school night. And there was no way she was going to let him drag her into that kind of trouble.
Logan lunged at the end bed to make a grab for it as well, but was slightly slower and still drunk. He half lay across the bed. She tried to stand back up, but his hands closed around hers where she held the bottle.
"Give it here!" He tried to tug it away from her.
"No!" She clutched the bottle, trying to pull it to her and hopefully make him back off.
Logan was having none of it and yanked the bottle towards him, pulling Veronica down to the bed. He climbed up on the bed, kneeling, trying to use his height to twist and pull the bottle away. As he began to pull, Veronica let go, sending Logan flying back onto the bed. She launched herself at him, grasping at him and the bottle, catching it between them as they rolled and struggled to wrench it from each other.
He managed to pry it from her grasp and held it over his head. She reached for it, but stopped when she thought she felt him trembling. She looked down at him to find his face red with attempts to suppress his laughter.
"What?" she asked impatiently when he began to laugh out loud.
"We're --" He couldn't get the words out while he was giggling, so he held up the bottle and pointed at his shirt. She sat back and saw the large wet blotch splashed across the front of his T-shirt as he propped himself up on his elbows.
He showed her the bottle again. "It's empty now. We've been rolling around on the bed, wrestling over an empty bottle," he said between giggles. When he could breathe again, he pointed to her torso and said, "We match."
She glanced down at herself to find a similar splotch spreading across her shirt. She hastily peeled off her jacket and the top layer of T-shirt before it could soak through to the tank top underneath, silently thanking God her father was out of town and would miss her coming home smelling like a distillery.
Veronica realized that Logan had stopped laughing and was now watching her intently. She also suddenly became aware of how compromising her position was - on a bed, straddling Logan Echolls, starting to undress.
She should move, she thought, get off him, get off this bed, and let the awkwardness pass so that she could walk out and remain angry. But it was so hard to do while he watched her with bloodshot wonder. When did he start looking at her like that?
She wondered if this was the reason that Lilly kept taking Logan back - looking at her like he'd kill the next person who dared to interrupt them. It was when he swallowed and her eyes followed his adam's apple up and down that she realized that she must be staring at him with as much intensity. He pressed his lips together as though he were putting some serious thought to saying something coherent.
He began, "You know --"
No, no, no, were her only articulate, panicked thoughts. He was going to say something - something ridiculous, something humiliating. He was going to ruin this. Cutting him off, she leaned forward, and took him by surprise by pressing a kiss to his mouth.
If he'd been staring at her with wonder before, he was fixated on her with complete awe now. "Veronica," he said softly, "nobody's here. We don't have to pretend."
Well, now she'd done it. There had been a lot of things she'd avoided thinking about in the last few days - Duncan, the Kanes, her mom - but at the top of that list were thoughts about Logan and just how much she'd become used to his near constant presence and how much that confused the hell out of her. And now she'd gone and forced the issue and had to face up to all of those thoughts right here in front of him.
She knew there was really no reason for Logan to be around her all the time. Dick had made it apparent, now that he was back at school, that he was more concerned with getting laid than getting even. And everyone else had gone back to simply ignoring her when she was in the vicinity and making up ridiculous gossip when she wasn't. But Logan had been insistent that he wasn't going to give anyone any opportunities. She knew she could have argued with him. Instead, she continued with their act during the school day. Now she was realizing that maybe he wasn't as indifferent to her as she'd forced herself to believe, especially when she reflected on his outburst about defying Duncan to be with her.
She felt him nudge her leg, trying to coax her off him. Obviously, he'd misinterpreted her hesitation and thought she was just trying to find a way to let him down easily. And even though she reasoned that was probably what she ought to do, she bit her lip, closed her eyes, and began, "Maybe --" She surprised herself by how sure her voice sounded. "Maybe I'm not pretending," she continued, parroting back what he'd said to her earlier in the week when he teased her about his intentions.
When she opened her eyes again, Logan was already closing the distance between them, his hands on her back, pressing her to him as he rose to sit up. His hands moved up, fingers tangling in her hair, pulling her closer as his mouth closed over hers.
Even drunk, Logan managed to be a good kisser, she mused, recalling their Monday morning encounter. She pushed him back down on the bed, and he let her, bringing her down with him with a pull on her hips. She gasped against his mouth as his fingers tentatively grazing the exposed skin between her tank top and the waistband of her jeans. He grinned up at her, and he more confidently explored further under her shirt, skimming the underside of her bra. She continued to kiss him, encouraging him, but from the corner of her eye, she could see a blue light flashing on the bookcases where Logan had flung the whiskey bottle. What the hell was that?
"Wait, Lo --" The rest of her words were swallowed by another kiss, as he surprised her by rolling them over. He pressed her down into the mattress, letting her know just how quickly things could get out of hand. She pushed him up, trying to get her thoughts back on track. "No, really."
He lifted himself off, and flopped onto his back beside her, sighing. "This totally makes you a tease, you know."
"Like anyone would believe that I'm not putting out for you and then some." She slapped his hands as he tried to sneak them back under her tank top. "Seriously, stop. There's something - Look, the bookshelves. They've moved."
Logan stretched, hanging his head over the bed to look where she was pointing. "Holy shit," he uttered in confusion. One of the bookshelves had shifted over about a half foot, and the blinking light Veronica had noticed earlier was coming from behind.
Veronica got up from the bed and went over to the shelves. She grabbed each shelf and pushed, and they slid apart easily. A cabinet with two monitors was revealed behind the shelves and some recording equipment. Veronica pressed the power button on.
"Oh my God," she blurted out when the monitors lit up showing Logan on the bed watching her with widening eyes.
"What the fuck--?" Logan leapt up. "What the hell is this?"
"You tell me!" She gave him a shove.
"I don't know!" He rubbed the spot where her hands connected with his chest. "I've never seen this before. I didn't even know this was here!"
Veronica went to the bed and looked up. She spotted the camera lens in the ceiling fan. "You're telling me you didn't know there were cameras there --" She pointed to the fan, "and there." She pointed towards the cabinets behind the bed.
"No and no! What the hell is going on, Veronica?"
She knew Logan was telling the truth. If this had been a ploy, he'd have admitted it by now and humiliated her completely.
"My mother," Logan said, "she's been coming down here and --" He trailed off deep in thought as he turned to press the play button on the device. Veronica couldn't see the monitors with Logan standing right in front of them. The sound of static filled the room, then very loud moaning and panting and cries of "yes", "right there", "don't stop".
Logan backed up until he dropped down on the bed in shock. As he stepped back, Veronica was able to see what he'd been watching. On the screens were images of his father rolling around on the bed with a woman who was obviously not his mother.
Veronica got up and stopped the recorder from playing and sat back down with him.
"Well, now I know why we really fired the new housekeeper," he muttered, still staring at the blank monitors.
"Logan --" She really didn't know what to say, so she put her hand over his and squeezed.
He turned to Veronica. "You knew, didn't you?"
"What? No. I --" She shook her head. "How could I --"
He snatched his hand back from hers. "Your dad didn't want you in the pool house. He knew about this. How did he know?"
She was caught. She had to tell him now. "It was for a case. He searched the entire house. This must've been what he found. Your mom - she hired my dad," she blurted out.
It took a moment for it all to sink in. "And you didn't tell me?" he asked incredulously.
"I couldn't. My dad wouldn't let me. I wasn't supposed to even know --"
"But you did, and you still didn't tell me."
"Logan, it wasn't like that. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't even know anything other than the fact that your mom hired him. He wouldn't tell me anything else and he wouldn't let me do any of the paperwork--"
He stood, shaking his head. "You people are unbelievable. So what was it? You were so satisfied with the job you did on the Kanes that you just had to ruin another family from the 09 zip code?"
Veronica stood up too. "Your mom was the one who hired my dad. The ruining had already been done by that point. It was business, Logan."
He pointed at her with a flourish. "Ah. Well, good to know where we stand finally. I'll be sure to remember that when I'm sent off to boarding school while my parents rip each other to shreds over every last asset they can think of. At least Veronica managed to keep her business ethics."
"Okay. I should have said something, but how was I supposed to do that? Can you at least see why --?"
"No! I don't fucking see why! I thought --" Logan turned away from her before continuing, "I thought you were starting to trust me. That we were trusting each other. I thought maybe you might even like me. You know, for real. What a sucker I was, huh?"
He sniffled and it almost broke her heart until he turned back to her with a look of cold disdain. "So what was the deal here? Spending all this time with me, making out with me -" He pointed to the bed. "Just gathering more dirt for your dad?"
She scowled at him, knowing that he was just stabbing blindly because he'd been hurt, but unable to stop her own hurt feelings. "I'm not even going to dignify that."
"You've got no right to be self-righteous here, Veronica! All this time, you were hiding this huge fucking thing about my family from me!"
"And you don't get to be all sanctimonious about hiding things, okay? Because I know you're hiding a god-damn shitload from me. All right? But you already knew how tenuous your parents' relationship was. You knew it was a matter of time. How can you stand there and defend your family with everything that goes on in your own house?"
"You think I'm defending my father? I will fucking kill him for what he's done to my mom. But I'm the one who's supposed to be mad here. You think you can turn this around and make it all my fault?"
"I didn't say that! But you're just as much in the wrong as I am and don't even pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! Or should I point out how much more in the dark I am than you are?" She held up her hand and started counting on her fingers. "Your alibi, your blackmailer, the PCHers, Shelly's party --"
Logan threw his hands up in frustration. "You ever think that I have really awesome reasons and that maybe you are just better off not knowing? You don't even know how much protection you need!"
Veronica glared at him. "Who the hell are you to make that decision for me?"
"I'm the only friend you've got!"
"Some friend! God, you're not even going to try denying it, are you?"
"What would be the point? You're just gonna do your pathetic little detective thing and snoop around behind my back until you find out everything anyway. By the way, have you found Cindy yet?"
She gaped at him and he nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I know."
Veronica couldn't look at him any more. She picked up her things and walked out the door without a glance back. It wasn't until she shut her car door that she thought she heard him yelling, "Veronica, wait!" But she just started her car and drove away, making good on her promise not to let him see her cry again.
----------
"Hey," Veronica said timidly as she approached Logan in the school parking.
"Hey," he replied, closing his door. They stood before one another. He'd had the good sense to wear a turtleneck to cover his bruises. All she needed was to be accused of giving him hickeys. He shoved his hands in his pockets and she fiddled with the strap of her bag.
This was just a bad idea. If she'd had her way, she would have just stayed away from him and dodged him if he came near her until she'd be forced to sit with him in Chemistry. But by three that morning, she still wasn't asleep, still torturing herself with thoughts of how bad things had become in just a few hours when her phone rang.
Logan was already talking when she answered. "Just listen, okay? We both said a lot of stuff tonight. And I'm pissed and you're pissed. But we've gotta talk because this isn't ending here, not like this. So please just don't avoid me tomorrow. All right?"
Her breath hitched in her chest. He'd said please. "Yeah okay." The call disconnected and within five minutes she fell asleep.
Now they stood avoiding each other's line of sight and she wondered why she'd felt any relief at all from his phone call when she could have predicted this awkwardness. This is getting ridiculous, she thought. Veronica took a step closer. "So, are you still mad?"
Logan raised his head to look at her and nodded. "Yeah. You?"
Veronica nodded glumly. "Yeah."
She heard him sigh like he was about to say something he knew she wasn't going to want to hear. She took another step closer to distract him. There were only a few inches between them now.
"How mad?"
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Like, are you too mad for me to do this?" She reached out and took his hand in hers, tangling their fingers together loosely so that he could release hers easily if he wanted to.
He glanced down at their entwined hands. He looked a little surprised, but also a little amused. "I guess not."
"What about this?" She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, pressing against him. Instinctively, his other hand came to rest at her waist, before she lost her balance.
She dropped her heels back to the ground and looked up at him expectantly. Now he couldn't hide his cocky smirk. "Gosh, I dunno. You might have to try that again."
"Are you sure I should? I wouldn't want you to think I was just using you to get more dirt on you." Veronica said with some apprehension. She couldn't let it lie, she had to test their limits and know where neutral ground was.
Logan narrowed his eyes at her slightly, but didn't let go of her. "Only one way to find out."
She rocked up on her toes again to kiss his other cheek when he turned his face and caught her lips with his own, wrapping his arms around her.
They came up for air again when a passerby whistled. "Get a room!" someone else called out from the a crowd of kids getting off the school bus.
Logan held her close, resting his forehead against hers. "What are we doing here, Veronica?"
"Well, I am trying to apologize. You, I suspect, are trying to cop a feel."
He chuckled. "You know me so well."
She smiled back. "Yeah, I'm beginning to think I do." He smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead.
"Hey," he started, as he was pulling away. "We still have to talk, right?"
"Yeah, I know. Sit with me at lunch, and we'll see how far we get." She held out her hand to him and he grasped it tightly as they started walking towards the school.
"What about tonight? Are you working?"
"I don't have to. Why? What did you have in mind?"
"We could talk some more. Maybe get dinner and talk some more. Can't talk during a movie, but maybe a walk on the beach afterwards and, you know, talk some more."
"Huh. Except for all the talking, that sounds like a date. Like a date for real."
"Well, I guess we'll see how our talk goes."
"I think it had better go well because I like your plan."
"Yeah, me too. Maybe with less talking though."
They had walked all the way to her homeroom and stood behind the door so that the view of them was obstructed. She leaned into him to kiss his cheek again. At the same time, she felt him surreptitiously grab a handful of her ass and squeeze.
She yelped and smacked his chest. "What was that for?"
"Just proving you right about copping that feel." Her mouth fell open in mock indignation and Logan let go of her, backing down the hallway with a goofy grin on his face.
----------
Veronica was at her locker grabbing her lunch when she heard a sheepish voice call her name. She closed her locker and turned around to find Dick's little brother. "Hey, Cassidy, right?"
"Yeah," he replied. "Can I talk to you?"
Veronica shrugged and started walking towards the quad. "Sure, but I'm having lunch with --"
"Logan, right? Well, it's about him." Cassidy stopped walking, and opened the door to an empty classroom.
"Um, okay." Veronica stepped into the room. "So what's this about?" she asked when the door closed behind them.
"There's something that you should know. It's for your own good."
She pointed to herself. "Full and undivided attention here."
"Logan's not who you think he is, you know." Cassidy stepped in closer and softly added, "It's about the day Lilly died."
----------
Veronica dropped her lunch bag beside Logan's box of pizza.
"It's kinda cute that you still bring a lunch when all week you've ended up eating more than half of whatever I've ordered." He looked up and his face fell when he saw Cassidy pass their table, glaring back at Logan.
When he was far enough away, Veronica whispered to Logan, "Cassidy and I just had an interesting chat. I think know who your blackmailer is now. So you ready to have that talk?"
----------
Veronica had been sitting on the couch watching the minutes tick off the clock on the microwave. She was getting dangerously close to being stood up when she finally heard from Logan.
She answered her phone curtly without greeting. "You know this is not a good way to start off this evening, considering the talk we had this afternoon."
"Veronica, just listen --" He sounded scared.
"Logan? What happened?" Immediately thoughts of Aaron Echolls standing menacingly over his son popped in her head even though her father was still following the actor around in another city.
"I need you to come get me."
"Where are you?"
"I - I don't know."
"Okay. It doesn't matter." She ran to her room and rummaged around her desk. "Just don't turn your cell off, okay? I'm gonna trace your phone. Tell me what happened."
"He - He blew it up."
"Blew what up? Logan? Who?"
"Just get here, Veronica."
An hour later she found him walking along the side of the road. He got in her car and she took in his dishevelled appearance. His face was dirty. There were scrapes on his palms, and scrapes on his knees where his cargo pants had new holes. He offered her no explanations, and just asked her to get them home.
It was a few minutes down the road before he said, "You look nice. I'm sorry about tonight."
"Don't worry about that right now. What the hell happened to you?"
Logan started to babble almost incoherently. "He said he just wanted to talk and work it out. So I met him but he was lying. He told me nothing mattered because he can still fuck me up and that he can always get to me and then he blew it up. There was a bomb - it must have been there the whole time. My car, Veronica, he blew up my fucking car!"
Veronica had already pulled over again when Logan began to sob. She pulled him into her arms, trying to calm him down, but she couldn't decide who was shaking more.
Part 13
Author: invida
Characters: Veronica, Logan, Ensemble
Word Count: 6066
Rating: R
Spoilers: knowledge up to 2x22
Timeline: goes AU from the Pomroy party, and a few liberties are taken with the timing of certain events. See Author's Notes for more details.
Disclaimer: I know the law, and the law would win.
Summary: if Logan hadn't left with the easy freshman that night.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to
aud_woman_in and to afrocurl for the helpful suggestions. Previous Parts
This is Logan with today’s inspirational greeting: I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don't believe I deserved my friends. Walt Whitman. Leave a message.
Veronica hung up before the beep. She'd already left a message letting him know that she was livid and prepared to give him absolute hell when she saw him. But the fact that she'd called two times before leaving that message and a few more times after did not mean that she was worried about him. That's what she told herself.
And this latest call - the seventh or eighth now, and, yes, losing track of how many times she'd called also meant nothing - was to let him know that she was storming over to the pool house where Mrs Navarro told her he'd ensconced himself after he got home that afternoon, and that he'd better be dressed. But again he didn't answer.
She steeled herself as she slid open the patio door of the dimly lit pool house, suddenly nervous about what state she was going to find him in, almost forgetting that she was the one who was angry. The room was a mess. She could tell, even in the faint light.
"Logan?"
She heard a sigh, and saw a movement on the other side of the bed. She walked over to him and found him sitting on the floor, propped up against the bed, his hand around the neck of a liquor bottle. Perfect.
He didn't look up at her. "I thought you weren't allowed to come over." His voice was raspy. "Wouldn't Daddy Mars have a conniption fit if he knew you were here?"
In her fury, she'd forgotten her father's warning, and in her concern for Logan, she'd forgotten to be mad. Ignoring his question, she crossed her arms, trying to recapture her earlier ire. "You wanna tell me why a Mexican biker gang has been following me around for the last few days?"
That earned her a glance. He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Of course..." he trailed off.
"And you wanna tell me why, when I stopped at the Sac 'N' Pac and a guy came up to me to ask for directions, they pinned him to the wall and threatened him? And maybe you wanna tell me why, when I asked what they were doing, they said I should talk to you?"
Logan peered up at her through bleary eyes. "Nope."
Frustrated, Veronica turned to snap on the overhead lights. Logan scrambled up and tried to stop her, but Veronica was quicker and Logan was drunker. When he stumbled, she caught him, and he sagged against her, nearly causing her to lose her own balance.
Veronica tried to help him stand upright, but Logan misinterpreted her intentions and wrapped his arms around her. When he nuzzled her ear, deeply inhaling, she froze. Over the last few days, other than hand-holding and the occasional peck on the cheek, he hadn't tried to anything as daring as the kiss he'd initiated in the parking lot on Monday morning. He didn't seem to notice her stiffen, and pulled her closer. A breath escaped him somewhere between a sigh and a shudder.
Realizing something was very wrong, Veronica softened. She brought her arms up around him and said, "Hey, it's okay."
The sound of her voice seemed to snap him back to reality and he pulled away from her, turned, picked up the bottle and sat on the bed, never meeting her eyes.
She stood in front of him, but he still wouldn't raise his head to meet her gaze, just looked intently at the bottle he held in his lap. She reached out, and with both hands, tilted his face up to look at her.
She gasped, taking in his bloodshot eyes, the tiny red spots that marked his skin, and the angry bruises that darkened his neck.
"You're fucking nosy, you know that?" he said hoarsely.
She ignored him. "Who did this? Was it your --?"
Logan wrenched away from her. "No. I told you, he's shooting on location. Won't be home for months if we're lucky."
Logan had indeed told her about Aaron being gone on another big budget stinker. She really should have remembered since Keith had let it slip when she was booking his travel arrangements to follow him around for a few days. "Then who?" she demanded.
"You knew where I was going today." He took a swig from the bottle.
She blinked. "Duncan did this?!" Logan just nodded and took another pull from the bottle.
When Logan had told her he was going to the Kanes' after school, he'd said that Duncan should know what was really going on. Veronica hadn't really understood why since Duncan had been avoiding them both. And when he couldn't avoid them, Duncan didn't even bother to hide his contempt. But Logan had an unconditional loyalty to Duncan that she had to admit she understood better than anyone. She had the same loyalty for Lilly, even after everything she'd learned.
She really did want to know how Duncan had taken it. Not that there was anything to really take since she and Logan were merely pretending albeit a little more vigorously than before. But Duncan just hadn't been making any sense to her. If he was really her brother - and that usually where her thought process with Duncan would stop. If she didn't stop it, then she'd have to think about what they were, what they almost were, and what they could never be. Regret, mortification, and nausea were an awful combination.
Veronica dropped down beside Logan, still shocked. "I can't believe this."
"Right. 'Cause there's just no way the angelic Duncan Kane could do something bad. And certainly not at the mere mention of your name. I must've wrapped my own hands around my throat and throttled myself."
"Shut up!" she snapped with more irritation than she'd intended. "I meant I can't get my head around this."
"What would you like to get your head around? The fact that Duncan tried to kill me? Or that Duncan's a complete fucking freak when it comes to you? And how fucked up is that? You could be his sister and he still acts like you're his untouchable treasure."
Veronica blushed deeply. "What did you say to him?"
"I tried to tell him that you knew about maybe being Jake's daughter and that you knew what he almost did at Shelly's party --"
"Why the hell would you tell him that?!" she yelled incredulously. "You said you were just going to talk to him about --"
"And what would be the point in not telling him you knew? Fuck! The way you two - Christ, I know, Veronica, that he was the one who started the whole 'ignoring you' thing. But you guys are gonna have to learn to deal with each other somehow. Especially when all of this crap is over and you and I are still together, 'cause I'm not choosing sides. Brother, sister, exes, I don't care. Just pick something and go with it."
Veronica's eyes widened at Logan's declaration. He must have realized how it had sounded because he began to stammer. "Together, like friends. We're friends. We're staying friends after all this is done. Right?"
"Yeah," she replied, with uncertainty. "Please, just tell me what happened," she added quickly, trying not to let the moment get too awkward.
Logan shrugged and took another sip from the bottle. "I was starting to explain to him about Shelly's party and he just attacked me. Knocked me over and I tried to fight back, but he already had his hands around my throat. I almost blacked out when Jake pulled him off me."
She'd known Logan and his fighting instinct well enough to know how hard it would be to get the upper hand with him, especially physically. And Duncan was not a fighter.
"This doesn't make any sense," she said quietly.
Logan barked out a laugh. "You know what doesn't make any sense? The way they treat you. Him and his whole fucking family. You might be Jake's daughter too and they all just cut you out and run your entire life into ground and let you live like you're worthless. And it kills me, you know, because I bought into it all. And I believed it. I wanted to."
"Logan --" she started with caution in her voice.
But he went on. "And you're his fucking sister! And he still says he loves you! And he doesn't get that he's not allowed to any more and that other people are allowed to like you, that you can't be a fucking nun just because he can't have what he wants."
"Please stop. You're going to say something --"
Logan jumped up, with wild gestures towards her. "I'm saying the things you should be saying, Veronica!"
She stood up. "You think that I don't think about all of this? That I just sit back and accept it all? It's on continuous playback in my head. But what am I supposed to do? Let it just cripple me? Roll up into a little ball in my closet because the Kanes don't like me? I'm getting my revenge, Logan, by living my life. Even if it's not as charmed as it used to be, it's still my life. Okay?"
"Yeah? Well, you could find out for sure who your father really is and give the rest of us a fucking break."
Veronica glared at him. "I'm so sorry my problems are such an inconvenience for you."
"You've got no idea, sweetheart," he said wryly, taking another drink.
"Maybe you should just stop worrying about my problems, then, and I'll stop worrying about yours and then we can be on our merry ways. Deal?"
"You know it's not that fucking simple."
"Sure it is. Watch me." She turned on her heel and started to walk away.
"You know, you're just as bad as Duncan!" Logan called to her before she reached the door.
"Worse even," he added when she froze, caught between wanting to know where he was going with this and knowing it was nowhere good. She turned back to him, arms crossed, waiting expectantly.
He didn't disappoint. "You can cry to me all you want that Duncan ignored you and pretended that you didn't exist, but what was he supposed to do? You tell me. He couldn't tell you, and he can't even find out for sure. You, on the other hand, now you know, and you can end of all of this guessing. And you won't. You don't even want to talk about it. You're ignoring the entire situation when you can do something about it!"
Veronica walked back towards him, eyes narrowing. "You have some god-damned nerve to say that to me. What was the first thing I thought when I saw those marks on your neck, huh? You tell me who's not doing something about their situation."
Logan stepped right into her space and towered over her. "Fuck you. Don't you fucking dare compare that to what you're doing." He pointed to himself. "My circumstances aren't hurting anybody. Do you ever stop to think about how many people you're hurting?"
"You are getting hurt, you fucking idiot!" She shoved him in the chest, trying to push him back as much as emphasize her point.
He grabbed her hands as she made contact and held them against his chest. "Careful, Veronica, I might think you actually care. And for future reference, Aaron Echolls never leaves a mark on his son that he'll let you see."
She twisted her hands out of his grasp. "You are such a jackass."
"And you're a stubborn bitch," he retorted. He didn't give her time for a glaring match though. He turned away and reached into the open air vent on the wall. "Here," he said, tossing something to her.
She caught it and held it up to inspect it. "What the hell is this?"
"Jake Kane's hairbrush. Don't say I never get you anything."
"Wow. You really shouldn't have. Seriously. What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"
"Aren't you supposed to be like the smartest girl in school or something? What do you think, Veronica? I mean, you just helped your friend get a DNA test done. And you don't even have to do the legwork to get a sample."
She gaped alternatively at him and the hairbrush. "Do you think you can just force me to do this?"
"I think somebody has to make you see that you have to. And why the hell aren't you? You've known for weeks --"
"Because I'm thinking of the one person who will get hurt if I do. My dad. I'm all he has. And he's all I've got. If I'm - if I'm not - how are we supposed to get past that after everything else?"
Logan closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, and slightly swayed. "He loves you, Veronica, like to an irrational degree. He'll get over it."
"Well, he doesn't have to," she said, tossing the hairbrush on the bedside table.
Logan screamed, "For fuck's sake, Veronica! Do you not get it?! Duncan just tried to fucking kill me today! I've lost my best friend. And all because I can't stay away from you!"
He hurled the bottle and it hit the bookshelves, knocking over candles and figurines. It landed on the bed. A beat passed before Veronica's shock wore off. She jumped to the side of the bed to snatch up the bottle that was emptying its contents into the bedding. There was no way she was going to let him trash the pool house and get himself in even more trouble than being drunk on a school night. And there was no way she was going to let him drag her into that kind of trouble.
Logan lunged at the end bed to make a grab for it as well, but was slightly slower and still drunk. He half lay across the bed. She tried to stand back up, but his hands closed around hers where she held the bottle.
"Give it here!" He tried to tug it away from her.
"No!" She clutched the bottle, trying to pull it to her and hopefully make him back off.
Logan was having none of it and yanked the bottle towards him, pulling Veronica down to the bed. He climbed up on the bed, kneeling, trying to use his height to twist and pull the bottle away. As he began to pull, Veronica let go, sending Logan flying back onto the bed. She launched herself at him, grasping at him and the bottle, catching it between them as they rolled and struggled to wrench it from each other.
He managed to pry it from her grasp and held it over his head. She reached for it, but stopped when she thought she felt him trembling. She looked down at him to find his face red with attempts to suppress his laughter.
"What?" she asked impatiently when he began to laugh out loud.
"We're --" He couldn't get the words out while he was giggling, so he held up the bottle and pointed at his shirt. She sat back and saw the large wet blotch splashed across the front of his T-shirt as he propped himself up on his elbows.
He showed her the bottle again. "It's empty now. We've been rolling around on the bed, wrestling over an empty bottle," he said between giggles. When he could breathe again, he pointed to her torso and said, "We match."
She glanced down at herself to find a similar splotch spreading across her shirt. She hastily peeled off her jacket and the top layer of T-shirt before it could soak through to the tank top underneath, silently thanking God her father was out of town and would miss her coming home smelling like a distillery.
Veronica realized that Logan had stopped laughing and was now watching her intently. She also suddenly became aware of how compromising her position was - on a bed, straddling Logan Echolls, starting to undress.
She should move, she thought, get off him, get off this bed, and let the awkwardness pass so that she could walk out and remain angry. But it was so hard to do while he watched her with bloodshot wonder. When did he start looking at her like that?
She wondered if this was the reason that Lilly kept taking Logan back - looking at her like he'd kill the next person who dared to interrupt them. It was when he swallowed and her eyes followed his adam's apple up and down that she realized that she must be staring at him with as much intensity. He pressed his lips together as though he were putting some serious thought to saying something coherent.
He began, "You know --"
No, no, no, were her only articulate, panicked thoughts. He was going to say something - something ridiculous, something humiliating. He was going to ruin this. Cutting him off, she leaned forward, and took him by surprise by pressing a kiss to his mouth.
If he'd been staring at her with wonder before, he was fixated on her with complete awe now. "Veronica," he said softly, "nobody's here. We don't have to pretend."
Well, now she'd done it. There had been a lot of things she'd avoided thinking about in the last few days - Duncan, the Kanes, her mom - but at the top of that list were thoughts about Logan and just how much she'd become used to his near constant presence and how much that confused the hell out of her. And now she'd gone and forced the issue and had to face up to all of those thoughts right here in front of him.
She knew there was really no reason for Logan to be around her all the time. Dick had made it apparent, now that he was back at school, that he was more concerned with getting laid than getting even. And everyone else had gone back to simply ignoring her when she was in the vicinity and making up ridiculous gossip when she wasn't. But Logan had been insistent that he wasn't going to give anyone any opportunities. She knew she could have argued with him. Instead, she continued with their act during the school day. Now she was realizing that maybe he wasn't as indifferent to her as she'd forced herself to believe, especially when she reflected on his outburst about defying Duncan to be with her.
She felt him nudge her leg, trying to coax her off him. Obviously, he'd misinterpreted her hesitation and thought she was just trying to find a way to let him down easily. And even though she reasoned that was probably what she ought to do, she bit her lip, closed her eyes, and began, "Maybe --" She surprised herself by how sure her voice sounded. "Maybe I'm not pretending," she continued, parroting back what he'd said to her earlier in the week when he teased her about his intentions.
When she opened her eyes again, Logan was already closing the distance between them, his hands on her back, pressing her to him as he rose to sit up. His hands moved up, fingers tangling in her hair, pulling her closer as his mouth closed over hers.
Even drunk, Logan managed to be a good kisser, she mused, recalling their Monday morning encounter. She pushed him back down on the bed, and he let her, bringing her down with him with a pull on her hips. She gasped against his mouth as his fingers tentatively grazing the exposed skin between her tank top and the waistband of her jeans. He grinned up at her, and he more confidently explored further under her shirt, skimming the underside of her bra. She continued to kiss him, encouraging him, but from the corner of her eye, she could see a blue light flashing on the bookcases where Logan had flung the whiskey bottle. What the hell was that?
"Wait, Lo --" The rest of her words were swallowed by another kiss, as he surprised her by rolling them over. He pressed her down into the mattress, letting her know just how quickly things could get out of hand. She pushed him up, trying to get her thoughts back on track. "No, really."
He lifted himself off, and flopped onto his back beside her, sighing. "This totally makes you a tease, you know."
"Like anyone would believe that I'm not putting out for you and then some." She slapped his hands as he tried to sneak them back under her tank top. "Seriously, stop. There's something - Look, the bookshelves. They've moved."
Logan stretched, hanging his head over the bed to look where she was pointing. "Holy shit," he uttered in confusion. One of the bookshelves had shifted over about a half foot, and the blinking light Veronica had noticed earlier was coming from behind.
Veronica got up from the bed and went over to the shelves. She grabbed each shelf and pushed, and they slid apart easily. A cabinet with two monitors was revealed behind the shelves and some recording equipment. Veronica pressed the power button on.
"Oh my God," she blurted out when the monitors lit up showing Logan on the bed watching her with widening eyes.
"What the fuck--?" Logan leapt up. "What the hell is this?"
"You tell me!" She gave him a shove.
"I don't know!" He rubbed the spot where her hands connected with his chest. "I've never seen this before. I didn't even know this was here!"
Veronica went to the bed and looked up. She spotted the camera lens in the ceiling fan. "You're telling me you didn't know there were cameras there --" She pointed to the fan, "and there." She pointed towards the cabinets behind the bed.
"No and no! What the hell is going on, Veronica?"
She knew Logan was telling the truth. If this had been a ploy, he'd have admitted it by now and humiliated her completely.
"My mother," Logan said, "she's been coming down here and --" He trailed off deep in thought as he turned to press the play button on the device. Veronica couldn't see the monitors with Logan standing right in front of them. The sound of static filled the room, then very loud moaning and panting and cries of "yes", "right there", "don't stop".
Logan backed up until he dropped down on the bed in shock. As he stepped back, Veronica was able to see what he'd been watching. On the screens were images of his father rolling around on the bed with a woman who was obviously not his mother.
Veronica got up and stopped the recorder from playing and sat back down with him.
"Well, now I know why we really fired the new housekeeper," he muttered, still staring at the blank monitors.
"Logan --" She really didn't know what to say, so she put her hand over his and squeezed.
He turned to Veronica. "You knew, didn't you?"
"What? No. I --" She shook her head. "How could I --"
He snatched his hand back from hers. "Your dad didn't want you in the pool house. He knew about this. How did he know?"
She was caught. She had to tell him now. "It was for a case. He searched the entire house. This must've been what he found. Your mom - she hired my dad," she blurted out.
It took a moment for it all to sink in. "And you didn't tell me?" he asked incredulously.
"I couldn't. My dad wouldn't let me. I wasn't supposed to even know --"
"But you did, and you still didn't tell me."
"Logan, it wasn't like that. I wanted to tell you, but I didn't even know anything other than the fact that your mom hired him. He wouldn't tell me anything else and he wouldn't let me do any of the paperwork--"
He stood, shaking his head. "You people are unbelievable. So what was it? You were so satisfied with the job you did on the Kanes that you just had to ruin another family from the 09 zip code?"
Veronica stood up too. "Your mom was the one who hired my dad. The ruining had already been done by that point. It was business, Logan."
He pointed at her with a flourish. "Ah. Well, good to know where we stand finally. I'll be sure to remember that when I'm sent off to boarding school while my parents rip each other to shreds over every last asset they can think of. At least Veronica managed to keep her business ethics."
"Okay. I should have said something, but how was I supposed to do that? Can you at least see why --?"
"No! I don't fucking see why! I thought --" Logan turned away from her before continuing, "I thought you were starting to trust me. That we were trusting each other. I thought maybe you might even like me. You know, for real. What a sucker I was, huh?"
He sniffled and it almost broke her heart until he turned back to her with a look of cold disdain. "So what was the deal here? Spending all this time with me, making out with me -" He pointed to the bed. "Just gathering more dirt for your dad?"
She scowled at him, knowing that he was just stabbing blindly because he'd been hurt, but unable to stop her own hurt feelings. "I'm not even going to dignify that."
"You've got no right to be self-righteous here, Veronica! All this time, you were hiding this huge fucking thing about my family from me!"
"And you don't get to be all sanctimonious about hiding things, okay? Because I know you're hiding a god-damn shitload from me. All right? But you already knew how tenuous your parents' relationship was. You knew it was a matter of time. How can you stand there and defend your family with everything that goes on in your own house?"
"You think I'm defending my father? I will fucking kill him for what he's done to my mom. But I'm the one who's supposed to be mad here. You think you can turn this around and make it all my fault?"
"I didn't say that! But you're just as much in the wrong as I am and don't even pretend you don't know what I'm talking about! Or should I point out how much more in the dark I am than you are?" She held up her hand and started counting on her fingers. "Your alibi, your blackmailer, the PCHers, Shelly's party --"
Logan threw his hands up in frustration. "You ever think that I have really awesome reasons and that maybe you are just better off not knowing? You don't even know how much protection you need!"
Veronica glared at him. "Who the hell are you to make that decision for me?"
"I'm the only friend you've got!"
"Some friend! God, you're not even going to try denying it, are you?"
"What would be the point? You're just gonna do your pathetic little detective thing and snoop around behind my back until you find out everything anyway. By the way, have you found Cindy yet?"
She gaped at him and he nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I know."
Veronica couldn't look at him any more. She picked up her things and walked out the door without a glance back. It wasn't until she shut her car door that she thought she heard him yelling, "Veronica, wait!" But she just started her car and drove away, making good on her promise not to let him see her cry again.
----------
"Hey," Veronica said timidly as she approached Logan in the school parking.
"Hey," he replied, closing his door. They stood before one another. He'd had the good sense to wear a turtleneck to cover his bruises. All she needed was to be accused of giving him hickeys. He shoved his hands in his pockets and she fiddled with the strap of her bag.
This was just a bad idea. If she'd had her way, she would have just stayed away from him and dodged him if he came near her until she'd be forced to sit with him in Chemistry. But by three that morning, she still wasn't asleep, still torturing herself with thoughts of how bad things had become in just a few hours when her phone rang.
Logan was already talking when she answered. "Just listen, okay? We both said a lot of stuff tonight. And I'm pissed and you're pissed. But we've gotta talk because this isn't ending here, not like this. So please just don't avoid me tomorrow. All right?"
Her breath hitched in her chest. He'd said please. "Yeah okay." The call disconnected and within five minutes she fell asleep.
Now they stood avoiding each other's line of sight and she wondered why she'd felt any relief at all from his phone call when she could have predicted this awkwardness. This is getting ridiculous, she thought. Veronica took a step closer. "So, are you still mad?"
Logan raised his head to look at her and nodded. "Yeah. You?"
Veronica nodded glumly. "Yeah."
She heard him sigh like he was about to say something he knew she wasn't going to want to hear. She took another step closer to distract him. There were only a few inches between them now.
"How mad?"
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Like, are you too mad for me to do this?" She reached out and took his hand in hers, tangling their fingers together loosely so that he could release hers easily if he wanted to.
He glanced down at their entwined hands. He looked a little surprised, but also a little amused. "I guess not."
"What about this?" She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, pressing against him. Instinctively, his other hand came to rest at her waist, before she lost her balance.
She dropped her heels back to the ground and looked up at him expectantly. Now he couldn't hide his cocky smirk. "Gosh, I dunno. You might have to try that again."
"Are you sure I should? I wouldn't want you to think I was just using you to get more dirt on you." Veronica said with some apprehension. She couldn't let it lie, she had to test their limits and know where neutral ground was.
Logan narrowed his eyes at her slightly, but didn't let go of her. "Only one way to find out."
She rocked up on her toes again to kiss his other cheek when he turned his face and caught her lips with his own, wrapping his arms around her.
They came up for air again when a passerby whistled. "Get a room!" someone else called out from the a crowd of kids getting off the school bus.
Logan held her close, resting his forehead against hers. "What are we doing here, Veronica?"
"Well, I am trying to apologize. You, I suspect, are trying to cop a feel."
He chuckled. "You know me so well."
She smiled back. "Yeah, I'm beginning to think I do." He smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead.
"Hey," he started, as he was pulling away. "We still have to talk, right?"
"Yeah, I know. Sit with me at lunch, and we'll see how far we get." She held out her hand to him and he grasped it tightly as they started walking towards the school.
"What about tonight? Are you working?"
"I don't have to. Why? What did you have in mind?"
"We could talk some more. Maybe get dinner and talk some more. Can't talk during a movie, but maybe a walk on the beach afterwards and, you know, talk some more."
"Huh. Except for all the talking, that sounds like a date. Like a date for real."
"Well, I guess we'll see how our talk goes."
"I think it had better go well because I like your plan."
"Yeah, me too. Maybe with less talking though."
They had walked all the way to her homeroom and stood behind the door so that the view of them was obstructed. She leaned into him to kiss his cheek again. At the same time, she felt him surreptitiously grab a handful of her ass and squeeze.
She yelped and smacked his chest. "What was that for?"
"Just proving you right about copping that feel." Her mouth fell open in mock indignation and Logan let go of her, backing down the hallway with a goofy grin on his face.
----------
Veronica was at her locker grabbing her lunch when she heard a sheepish voice call her name. She closed her locker and turned around to find Dick's little brother. "Hey, Cassidy, right?"
"Yeah," he replied. "Can I talk to you?"
Veronica shrugged and started walking towards the quad. "Sure, but I'm having lunch with --"
"Logan, right? Well, it's about him." Cassidy stopped walking, and opened the door to an empty classroom.
"Um, okay." Veronica stepped into the room. "So what's this about?" she asked when the door closed behind them.
"There's something that you should know. It's for your own good."
She pointed to herself. "Full and undivided attention here."
"Logan's not who you think he is, you know." Cassidy stepped in closer and softly added, "It's about the day Lilly died."
----------
Veronica dropped her lunch bag beside Logan's box of pizza.
"It's kinda cute that you still bring a lunch when all week you've ended up eating more than half of whatever I've ordered." He looked up and his face fell when he saw Cassidy pass their table, glaring back at Logan.
When he was far enough away, Veronica whispered to Logan, "Cassidy and I just had an interesting chat. I think know who your blackmailer is now. So you ready to have that talk?"
----------
Veronica had been sitting on the couch watching the minutes tick off the clock on the microwave. She was getting dangerously close to being stood up when she finally heard from Logan.
She answered her phone curtly without greeting. "You know this is not a good way to start off this evening, considering the talk we had this afternoon."
"Veronica, just listen --" He sounded scared.
"Logan? What happened?" Immediately thoughts of Aaron Echolls standing menacingly over his son popped in her head even though her father was still following the actor around in another city.
"I need you to come get me."
"Where are you?"
"I - I don't know."
"Okay. It doesn't matter." She ran to her room and rummaged around her desk. "Just don't turn your cell off, okay? I'm gonna trace your phone. Tell me what happened."
"He - He blew it up."
"Blew what up? Logan? Who?"
"Just get here, Veronica."
An hour later she found him walking along the side of the road. He got in her car and she took in his dishevelled appearance. His face was dirty. There were scrapes on his palms, and scrapes on his knees where his cargo pants had new holes. He offered her no explanations, and just asked her to get them home.
It was a few minutes down the road before he said, "You look nice. I'm sorry about tonight."
"Don't worry about that right now. What the hell happened to you?"
Logan started to babble almost incoherently. "He said he just wanted to talk and work it out. So I met him but he was lying. He told me nothing mattered because he can still fuck me up and that he can always get to me and then he blew it up. There was a bomb - it must have been there the whole time. My car, Veronica, he blew up my fucking car!"
Veronica had already pulled over again when Logan began to sob. She pulled him into her arms, trying to calm him down, but she couldn't decide who was shaking more.
Part 13
no subject
Date: 2007-06-24 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-25 11:49 pm (UTC)